Lip Kee/cc by 2.0

Working together, showing off, winning awards … it's not a new reality show—it's more amazing animals:

• It isn't just human teenage boys who show off when girls are around, as proved by zebra finches. 
• We know that elephants never forget, but they also have such great teamwork skills that they could host your office's next Dale Carnegie seminar. 
• Maybe protective parents should go back to calling themselves "mother hens"  in lieu of "mama grizzlies."
• Which "throwaway" thoroughbred racehorse is now a Guinness World Record holder for intelligence? (Hint: It's not Mr. Ed.) 
• Maybe the appropriately named bird "Wisdom" should get a Guinness record as well.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

richmondoktoberfest / CC

I have flipped through Guinness World Records more than once, searching for a record that I could break. Longest fingernails? No thanks. Longest bout of hiccups? Whoa, 68 years!

Turns out, I'm not the only one looking. KFC is hoping to make a name for itself—other than Kentucky Fried Cruelty … or the company with the most people who've resigned from its animal welfare committee … or the company that's most resistant to taking any effort to stop chickens from being scalded alive in its de-feathering tanks—by attempting to break the world record for (wait for it) most people doing the chicken dance at once.

The Guinness World Records folks have already shown that they are a sensible and decent bunch by stating, "We do not accept records based on the killing or harming of animals." So we've now approached them to ask them to refuse to accept record attempts from companies that have yet to adopt even modest humane reforms to reduce the needless suffering of animals. After all, the chicken dance is what people do at weddings and bat mitzvahs. Who wants it associated with the pain of billions of chickens, many of whose throats were cut while they were still conscious?

Here's hoping you'll be seeing my name in Guinness World Records before anyone shakes their tail feathers for KFC.

Written by Shawna Flavell

mirror.co / CC

Lots of people are still hopping mad and flat-out disappointed that the first dog, Bo, came from a breeder—and who can blame them? After all, people working in animal shelters (the ones who are experts in the overpopulation crisis) know that buying from breeders spells certain death to an estimated 4 million dogs and cats each year—dogs and cats who didn't need competition from litters that were produced simply for a profit. These hardworking people are the ones who personally have to say goodbye to the dogs they come to know, love, and care for—because there aren't anywhere near enough decent homes for them all.

So, here's an idea that we and others such as Jana Kohl have proposed to the Obama family: Keep Bo company by adopting a second non-allergenic dog, this time from a breed rescue, a pound, an animal shelter, or from the lists of homeless animals on the Internet. There's no doubt that the Obamas mean well, or they wouldn't have given a donation to the humane society, got Bo fixed, or arranged that complicated "He's a reject from someone, no one bought him" deal. So, hopefully, they'll learn from their missteps.

Please, offer words of encouragement on this topic by writing very polite letters to President Obama. His family is just like yours: They just didn't "get" that a rescue means a rescue.

Written by Shawna Flavell

For the next five days, we are going to present you with fun stuff: environmentally friendly blog posts that we hope will leave compassion as your only dietary option.

As you may have heard, raising animals for food is the number one cause of climate change and its frightening side effects. And that's not just meat production—the waste from which contaminates land, air, and waterways. Egg and dairy farms (which often rely on feeding animals to other farmed animals—bleh!) also contribute to the destruction of our ecosystem. With deforestation, desertification, and loss of potable water—and with 800 million people affected by famine—I'd say that a little restructuring is in order. And the most powerful tool we have is our very own fork.

Want to know how your diet is affecting the planet? It's as easy as punching your information into our carbon calculator. Then, if you've heard all you needed to hear—or if you just want to get a jump on things—click here and take the Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days.

Written by Missy Lane

nytimes / CC

Recently, an 11-year-old Mexican "bullfighter," goaded on by parents who make Brooke Shields' mom look overprotective, tried to establish a Guinness world record by killing six bull calves in one day in Merida, Mexico—despite attempts by the courts and animal protection groups to cancel the event.

Bullfighting is always cruel—the bulls are often beaten in the kidneys, have Vaseline smeared into their eyes, and are given laxatives to slow them down before they are released into the ring to be stabbed to death—but this was calf-killing. Like the child "bullfighter," Michelito Lagravere Peniche, these animals were still youngsters, but, unlike him, they didn't choose to be there and they didn't want to hurt anyone. They just wanted to prance and play. To make matters worse, hundreds of other kids were brought by their parents to watch the carnage and be encouraged to emulate the little matador (literally, "murderer").

The good news is that Guinness World Records takes animal abuse seriously and has refused to publish this new "record," saying, "We do not accept records based on the killing or harming of animals." Olé to Guinness!

Written by Jeff Mackey