More weird animal-related news

[Lady Vulpix]

Taken from:
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories...706&ran=165655

Pet lovers who think their animal companions have hidden musical talents should check out a German school that offers dogs, cats and even chickens a shot at fame.

The Wittlich Fame Academy gives talented animals a chance to sing, dance and play musical instruments.

Viviane Theby, a teacher at the Wittlich Fame Academy, says she taught a chicken to play the xylophone and a cat to play the piano.

"I use the same principles as other animal trainers," Theby said. "If the pet hits the right note it gets a reward."

That's how Katie the hen and Gackeline the chicken learned to play the xylophone.

"If she hits the right note with her beak she gets some chicken feed," Theby said, adding that Gackeline can now play the first few bars of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

But wait, there's more.

Theby also taught Fuchs the cat to play the piano.

"He's even given concerts and we have sold some of his CDs," Theby said. "Occasionally we play a duet together."

There's also an article about this in Spanish, here:
http://ar.news.yahoo.com/060110/14/nryk.html

[Dark-San]

[b][size=3] Lolz~ Thats certainly weird plus it is a wastage of public funds. I rather they used the funds to donate to either GreenPeace or WWF.

Heh, would they be opening Animal Idol next?

[Starry Might]

Heh, that's pretty wild. :biggrin:

Shouldn't that school be called the "Brenham(sp?) Fame Academy", though, after that old story about the animals who were gonna go to that town to sing or something?

[Magmar]

I read the Spanish one.

That's... pretty amazing.

[Drago]

Nothing wrong with teaching an animal a good trick, or a talent, even. Especially if you can make money off a cat playing piano. Who knows, perhaps soon Fuchs will start composing his own music. That'd be a lark.

Of course, there's a bad side to this, as well. In my case, a chicken is a better musician than I am. A chicken, man.

[Chieng Vui Leng]

A chicken is a better musician than I am. A chicken, man.

Agree... I just don't have the time or patience with musical instruments.

[RedStarWarrior]

You can always kill the chicken and eat it though. That will show it who is boss.

[phaedrus]

of course, if i wanted to teach my cat to play the piano, i'd have to have no life as a prerequisite.

[Agent Elrond]

Well, none of my pets can play a musical instrument, but one of our dogs loves to sing along with my mom when she plays the trumpet.

It's really funny, because sometimes our dog will actually hit the right notes, and it sounds great... and sometimes.... not. It was really funny to watch though, if rather loud.

[mr_pikachu]

Well, it seemed kind of awkward to create a third animal-related news topic in Misc., so I'll post this here:

Feds Endorse Jackson's Animal Love

...That's the title of the article! I swear!

Anyway, it looks like Jacko's complying with regulations on the treatment of his pets, but he may lose a few of his furry creatures soon. If only this was the weirdest story we've heard about the Neverland Ranch.