An American woman received five puppies Tuesday that were cloned from her beloved late pit bull, becoming the inaugural customer of a South Korean company that says it is the world's first successful commercial canine cloning service. The Associated Press reports:

Seoul-based RNL Bio said the clones of Bernann McKinney's dog Booger were born last week after being cloned in cooperation with a team of Seoul National University scientists who created the world's first cloned dog in 2005.

"It's a miracle!" McKinney repeatedly shouted Tuesday when she saw the cloned Boogers at a Seoul National University laboratory.

"Yes, I know you! You know me too!" McKinney said joyfully, hugging the puppies, which were sleeping with one of their two surrogate mothers, both Korean mixed-breed dogs.

The team of scientists working for RNL Bio is headed by Lee Byeong-chun, a former colleague of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who scandalized the international scientific community when his purported breakthroughs in cloned stem cells were revealed as fake in 2005.

Independent tests confirmed the 2005 dog cloning was genuine, and Lee's team has since cloned more than 20 canines.

But RNL Bio said that its cloning was the first successful commercial cloning of a canine.

Photo: Associated Press

U.S. swimmer Amanda Beard wasn't going to let anything -- Chinese authorities, the Pacific Ocean or clothes -- get in the way of her making a statement against wearing fur.

On Wednesday, Beard, who will try to repeat her gold-medal 200-meter breaststroke feat of four years ago, unveiled a nude photograph of herself in a PETA campaign urging that women "Don't wear fur." She was just outside the athletes' village in China at the Olympic Games.

She had to move the conference from a nearby Beijing hotel after plainclothes police banned her scheduled news conference there "for our safety," authorities said, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

While holding a poster of a PETA ad that showed her slyly covering the issues in question, Beard denied trying to provoke the Chinese.

"You have concerns," she said. "I'm not out here taking my clothes off. We're doing it in a very positive way.

"I'm not trying to be in everybody's face and be harsh or negative. I want to be calm and yet get my voice out there. I'm doing it for all those animals who don't have a voice."

It isn't Beard's first controversial rendezvous with the naked camera -- she posed for Playboy last year.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Jewel Samad / AFP

In case you're looking for an alternative to the Olympics bonanza kicking off this weekend, animal lovers can tune into Animal Planet on Friday evening to see 15 kinds of dogs representing different countries compete in the inaugural "Puppy Games."

Rob Burk, Discovery Studios executive producer, said 15 nationalities are represented, including the pug and Shih Tzu for China, the dachshund for Germany, the Dalmatian for Croatia and the English bulldog. The Washington Post reports:

Like the network's popular "Puppy Bowl," the games feature both privately owned and animal-shelter pups (all of which have been adopted) at play in a setting resembling a stadium.

The games were taped in April at a production studio in the District, with staging for puppy gymnastics, boxing, swimming and soccer.

Using five cameras simultaneously to capture multiple angles, the production team recorded 75 hours of tape, edited to three hours. The broadcast airs opposite NBC's Summer Olympics opening ceremonies and will be rebroadcast Aug. 23, the night of the closing ceremonies.

But cat lovers shouldn't feel left out, Animal Planet Media executive producer Melinda Toporoff tells the Post:

"The kitties are in the opening and closing ceremonies with all their dance routines," Toporoff said.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: David S. Holloway / Discovery Channel

With the temperature hovering around 100 degrees, two dogs discover a water sprinkler Tuesday in a neighborhood park in El Dorado, Arkansas.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Larry Singer/The El Dorado News-Times

Wildlife experts in Colorado expressed surprise at news this week from a community outside Denver: A mountain lion crept into a house to snatch a Labrador retriever from a bedroom where two people were sleeping.

Meanwhile, authorities in Southern California were expressing skepticism Wednesday about another unusual report: An Orange County man says a mountain lion attacked him after he tried to pet one of the cougar's cubs. Times staffers have details on the alleged mountain lion attack.

The Associated Press, in a report from Tuesday, has the details on what occurred in Idledale, about 14 miles southwest of Denver. The mountain lion left the dog's dead body outside the house it had entered through an open door. The AP goes on:

      Wildlife officials later trapped the 130-pound male cat using the dog’s body as bait and fatally shot it. Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Tyler Baskfield said the cat entered the house through open French doors early Monday and fled with the Labrador after the owners woke up.

      “The people got up and looked around and saw the mountain lion’s tail leaving the house,” Baskfield said. He declined to release the homeowners’ names. The owners agreed to use the dog’s body for bait.

      Baskfield said mountain lions often stash their kills and return for them later. Although wild animals ranging from raccoons to bears might amble in through open doors and windows, “it is kind of strange for a large predator like that to come that close to the house,” Baskfield said. Colorado has an estimated 3,000 to 7,000 mountain lions.

The Los Angeles Department of Animal Services on Wednesday evening is holding the first of 11 scheduled workshops to look at how the city shelters can achieve a "no kill" policy. All meetings are open to the public. (Locations and times are below.)

Every municipal animal shelter wants to arrive at a "no-kill" policy.  Essentially, that means that no healthy animals -- like the young pooches pictured above in the city's South L.A. shelter in January -- will be euthanized for lack of space. Being able to do that is a challenge.

The Humane L.A. Workshops will look at what is being done and what could be done better. "We want to get input from stakeholders in our community," says Animal Services general manager Ed Boks, who will attend the Wednesday workshop.

The first meeting is the High Volume/Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Workshop, focusing on that topic and its effect on the goal of no-kill. It is scheduled to be hosted by Councilman Bernard Parks.  Also expected, in addition to Boks, are Teri Austin of the Amanda Foundation and Judie Mancuso, the director of California Healthy Pets, the campaign to get the California spay/neuter bill, A.B. 1634, passed.

The location is the Constituent Service Center, 8475 S. Vermont Ave. (near Manchester), Los Angeles. Time: 6:30 p.m. 

"At each one, we want to identify the gap between where we are now and where we want to be -- and then develop a plan for getting us from here to there," says Boks.  All voices -- including those of the critics of L.A.'s shelter system -- are welcome, he says.

-- Carla Hall

Photo: Los Angeles Times

WARRENTON, Mo. — Three tigers attacked a worker at an exotic animal park in Missouri — the second tiger attack in the state in as many days.

Stone County Sheriff Richard Hill says the tigers attacked a 16-year-old worker at Predator World in Branson West on Monday after the worker entered their cage to photograph the tigers. The teenager was in critical condition.

The attack comes a day after a tiger attacked a volunteer at the Wesa-A-Geh-Ya (WAY’-suh ah GEE’-yah) animal farm in Warrenton, Mo. Authorities believe an 800-pound tiger jumped a gate and mauled the volunteer. The 26-year-old victim had surgery on his leg and was expected to recover. The tiger was euthanized after the attack.

From The Associated Press

Perhaps you've heard reports on the "Montauk Monster"? Seen the photos of a dead creature that resembles a fighting dog/raccoon/turtle/raptor? It all started last month when someone took a photo of "something" that had washed onshore in Long island’s East Hamptons. Gawker.com posted the image and the Internet went nuts. Experts were called in to comment. Was it a real creature? A hoax? Newsday updates the situation:

Fifty years from now, when the history of Montauk is recalled -- maybe over drinks at a pub -- the summer of 2008 will belong to the Montauk Monster. (Here's a link to a video.)

And while said Monster -- part pig, turtle, possum, dog, you name it and have at it -- could not be located yesterday, rest assured, the search continues for this Ditch Plains beast that can now be added to the pantheon of the mythical.

And residents are proud of it.

Many locals think it was all very "Montauk" and just another weird thing to add to the lore of what weather and ships and storms and boats can bring to shore....

It was THE story at the surf shops and at Colleoden Hotel, said Trish O'Gara. "It's pretty cool and everybody is talking about it," she said. "Every year it's something. Last year it was the weird clouds that were forming and this year they have the monster."

Despite the local pride, there still was much debate over just what the monster was.

Was the Montauk Monster a hoax along the lines of the short-lived legend of the sea serpent living in a local Montauk pond circa 2003?

Or a real, dead thingamabob?...

A local who wanted to remain anonymous (we are dealing with monsters here) and who was seen in the vicinity of Mr. John's Pancake House said she has seen the monster on people's phones. And she knows people who saw it on Ditch Plains [Beach] and other people who saw it at the person's house that they took it to.

"It's only about the size of a cat," she said, taking the monster right out of this Montauk mystery.

Can you take us to it so we can gaze upon its beaked visage, no matter that it is a stinking corpse? Maybe take a few DNA tests?

"Now it's decomposed and it's just skull and bones.

"Hopefully we don't find another one," she said.

Officials are saying the firebombs that struck the home and car of two UC Santa Cruz scientists this weekend were part of an increasingly aggressive campaign by animal rights activists against animal researchers at University of California campuses. Richard C. Paddock and Maria L. LaGanga have an update on the situation in Santa Cruz:

"Acts of violence and intimidation such as these are unacceptable, and they continue a troubling pattern seen at UCLA and other UC campuses that should be repugnant to us all," UC President Mark G. Yudof said Monday. "These acts threaten not only our academic researchers and their families, but the safety and security of neighbors in our communities as well."

City officials joined in harshly condemning the bombings and urged members of the public who might have evidence in the case to contact authorities. They announced a $30,000 reward, including $2,500 donated by the Humane Society of the United States....

Nationwide, incidents of violence by self-described animal rights activists have been on the rise, according to the Foundation for Biomedical Research, which has tracked such attacks since 1981, when there was one.

In 2000 there were 10 such episodes against biomedical research facilities, and in 2006 that figure had grown to 77, according to the group's website. In addition, the type of attacks has changed in recent years.

There's good news and bad news on the primate front, as reported today by Greenwire:

A survey of vast tracts of forest and swamp wilderness in Congo has revealed a population of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas, an encouraging sign for the subspecies, which was listed as critically endangered earlier this year after its population was ravaged by hunting and outbreaks of the Ebola virus.

The Wildlife Conservation Society's survey findings were to be presented today at a meeting of the International Primatological Society in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The government of Congo Republic has designated one of the studied regions as a national park, but conservation groups warn the government has insufficient funds for protecting the park, especially as the threat of illegal logging looms as demand for tropical hardwood grows....

"Separately, a report released today finds that 48 percent of the world's primates -- a group of humankind's closest relatives that includes chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs -- face extinction.

Photo credit: Associated Press / Thomas Breuer / Wildlife Conservation Society