We're spitting mad at people who have been lashing out at animals, but we've saved up some wet, sloppy puppy-dog kisses for those whose compassion is the cat's pajamas.

Chadh | cc by 2.0

• Kisses to Canadian national pet store chain PJ's Pets, which has stopped selling puppies and started promoting adoption. Are you listening, Petland? 
• Hisses to Scripps Research Institute for torturing rats for almost 40 years to develop a vaccine for heroin. Apparently, these experimenters just couldn't say "No."
• Hisses to MMA fighter Brock Lesnar for going on a prairie-dog killing spree. Hey, Brock, why don't you stick with picking on someone your own size?
• Kisses to the Iowa State Fair for including a vegetarian booth, the Veggie Table, in this year's festivities. Yes, they really do have veggie corn dogs on a stick.
• Hisses to South Korean scientists for genetically modifying a dog to glow in the dark, giving new meaning to the term "barking mad."
• Kisses to Food Network for helping to keep sharks in the ocean waves by taking shark meat off the airwaves.
• Hisses to students at New York's Cooper Union High School for using electric currents to make roaches "dance." Why not stick with iPods and leave the arthropods alone?
• Hisses to actor Andrew McCarthy for participating in a bull run. Taunting and harassing bulls isn't pretty, no matter how you color it.

For up-to-the-minute info on what PETA is doing, follow us on Twitter.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

kabacchi/cc by 2.0

For your Friday enjoyment, here are some of the sweetest and most gosh-darn amazing animals we could find.  

• These brainy crows owe their intelligence to a legacy of nurturing parenting. Are crow nannies in our future, perhaps? 
• Like humans, chimpanzees and penguins grieve the loss of a child or family member. 
• Prairie dogs have a language so advanced that they can describe humans down to the colors of their clothes. What Not to Wear: Prairie Dog Edition. 
• This cat prefers strawberries to mice. Has she been reading PETA's website?

Written by Michelle Sherrow

nps.gov / CC

Take a sound bite out of this recently discovered linguistic marvel: The barking language of prairie dogs may just be the most complicated language of any animal. Con Slobodchikoff—a biology professor at Northern Arizona University—studied their sounds very closely and found that the animals have different "words" to describe each of their many predators and that a single bark can convey information about the size, type, color, and location of an attacker. Slobodchikoff also discovered that, just as we all have distinct voices, every prairie dog has a unique tonal identity.

Um, first we found out that insects are tiny geniuses, then we learned that monkeys are sticklers for grammar, and now we've got these vocal powerhouses (on the prairie)—does Mensa admit animals?

Written by Logan Scherer