ANIMAL INSTINCT THE REVOLUTIONISTS
Ham the Chimp
Dolly
Ham the chimp was also a space animal that happily survived the trip. Named after the Holloman Aerospace Medical Centre, he launched into space on January 31, 1961. The flight was cut short after 155 miles and 16.5 minutes due to a problem with the oxygen supply. Ham was recovered around three hours later and went to live in Washington DC’s National Zoo. At age 27, Ham passed away and his skeleton is held of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
Dolly, named after singer Dolly Parton, was the world's first cloned mammal. Born on July 5, 1996 she was created from adult cells at the Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh. Dolly paved the way to future animal cloning and advances in stem cell research. She produced six lambs and lived for 7 years after being euthanized due to progressive lung disease in 2003. Four other sheep were cloned from Dolly and as of 2016 they were still alive and healthy.
Peritas
Owney
Laddie Boy
At age 11, Alexander the Great was given a dog he named Peritas after the Macedonian word for January. Unsure of the breed, many speculate he was a Molossian, Bulldog or Greyhound. He was Alexander the Great’s favorite dog and he ruled his empires with Peritas by his side. According to legend, Peritas defended the king when he was trapped by his enemies and his soldiers couldn’t rescue him. Peritas ran to him and lurched at the enemies who had wounded his master with a javelin. In the fight, Peritas was wounded by a javelin and was said to have died in the great king’s lap. To honor him, Alexander the Great founded Peritas, India. The dog’s tomb and statue still exist at the entrance to the city.
In 1888, Owney was a stray Border Terrier puppy in Albany, New York. One rainy night, he snuck into the a postal office by the back door that was accidently left open . He loved to sleep on the mailbags and continued to hang around the post office. The pup quickly won over the hearts of the postal employees by keeping guard of the postage bags. When the supervisor asked the employees about him, they said it was Owen's dog. Owen was one of the postal workers and he who soon officially adopted the puppy. Even though it was against the post office rules, he was allowed to stay and ended up becoming the unofficial U.S. Postal Service mascot. In 1987, Owney passed and was put on display at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.
Laddie Boy was the first presidential "celebrity" pet. At seven months old, the airedale terrier was given to President Harding. He was the first "first dog" to be regularly covered in the national press including mock interviews with the dog. He had his own hand carved chair to sit in during cabinet meetings and became a poster dog for animal rights issues. It’s been said that Laddie Boy knew of Harding’s imminent demise and howled constantly the three days prior to the President's death. Newsboys collected 19,134 pennies to honor Harding (he was a former newsboy). These pennies were melted and sculpted into a statue of Laddie Boy that resides in the Smithsonian Institution. In 1929 when Laddie Boy passed, his death was proclaimed in newspaper headlines across the country.
Laika Saved from the streets in Moscow, Laika was a threeyear-old pup that became the first Soviet space dog and living creature to orbit the Earth in 1957. On November 3rd she boarded Sputnik 2 and headed into outer space. Sadly, she didn’t survive the journey, dying within the first 5 hours due to stress and increased temperature. Her memory, however, lives on. A statue of Laika stands in her honor in Star City, Russia.
THE ICONS
people & pet issue
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