Ocearch's Facebook page for Mary Lee shows her checking in Near Martha's Vineyard.

Her name is Mary Lee, she weighs 3,500 pounds, she's swimming around near the Hamptons, and she's writing about her adventures on Twitter. (She's even invented her own shark smiley face, fin and all.)

The social media-saavy shark sure gets around fast. Only two weeks ago, she was chilling 200 yards off the coast of Florida, scaring swimmers out of the surf. But now she's cruising through local waters, visiting important shark landmarks like the Martha's Vineyard coastline where the 1975 blockbuster Jaws was filmed and house-shopping near East Hampton and Montauk Point.

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www.hotmexchili.com

As we've chronicled, there is a war going on between the labor union that represents Central Park horse-carriage drivers and animal rights activists who think keeping horses in midtown Manhattan is dangerous and inhumane.

Now the activists are using illegal immigrants as PR ammo against the union.

The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages sent us an e-mail this morning with the subject line "Illegals in Horse Carriage Trade." In the e-mail, the group outlines how the union employs illegal immigrants, one of whom "foolishly lied about an animal activist, Roxanne Delgado, attacking him at the hack line."

The group says another "illegal" was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers about six weeks prior. 

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www.imgfave.com

Today is World Rabies Day, and to celebrate we're going to hit you with a pretty alarming statistic: Rabies, a disease for which there has been a vaccine since 1885, kills 55,000 people every year.

Granted, only two of those deaths happen in the United States, but that's still two too many, veterinary officials say.

Dr. Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says rabies is 100 percent preventable, noting that "your local veterinarian plays a key role in controlling rabies."

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This isn't Bashuta but this is what Bashuta looks like.

We all love the Bronx Zoo. Who doesn't? The mini-jungle of Morris County provides fun for all age groups and houses a few animals that you wouldn't ever think of seeing in the Big City. One of which is a tiger (actually, that's not always true) and, sometimes, people get a little too excited about going to the Zoo.
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NYPD

In 2003, police officers received a tip from an anonymous caller for a "large animal" that was biting people in Harlem. The NYPD narrowed down the search to Antoine Yates's apartment and, when they arrived on the scene, the "large animal" turned out to be a 400-pound Bengali tiger. Oh, and an alligator, too. More »

We recently got word that Unique Product Enterprises -- a Rego Park, Queens-based biz -- advertised and sold "numerous" items containing DOG fur, according to an investigation conducted by the Humane Society of the United States.

Of course, selling fur from man's best friend is kinda illegal, as per the The Dog and Cat Protection Act of 2000. That law bars the import, interstate advertisement, and sale of items with dog or cat fur, according to the Society. (And, to be perfectly clear, dog fur is different than dog hair -- it requires the removal of the animal's pelt, meaning they were skinned.)

So what exactly went down with Unique? And is the company still hawking these items?

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Denise Ginley

W...T...Fuck!

If anyone's missing a gigantic, bloated pig/rat-monster, it's been found on the bank of the East River -- and it's disgusting.

The above photo -- and others you can see after the jump -- were taken under the esplanade along the East River by a woman named Denise Ginley.

It's unclear what this thing actually is -- there's some chatter that it's the second-coming of the "Montauk Monster," which was found washed up on the shore near Montauk in 2008 and determined to probably be a bloated raccoon. This monster, however, looks more like a bloated pig or rat -- if you ask us, anyway.

We're no experts in disgusting, bloated water vermin, though, so we've contacted experts at the Bronx Zoo to see if they can tell us what this thing actually is. We'll let you know what they have say -- meantime, see some more photos of this monster below.

UPDATE: An animal expert tells Gothamist -- which first reported on this bloated mess -- that it likely is a dog. That said, those ears look awfully swine-y -- or pit bull-y (we don't know what the F to think).



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Cedar waxwing, via Rob Jett.

A recent post on the Environmental Protection Agency's Greening the Apple blog about seasonal birdwatching in Sandy Hook, New Jersey got us thinking: Do you have to go all the way to a neighboring state to check out the summer's cool birds?

So we hit up two area birders -- Dr. Robert "Birding Bob" DeCandido and "City Birder" Rob Jett -- to find out.

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Around fifty people gathered on the steps of City Hall this afternoon to demand the City Council test out a prototype electric car that they hope can replace horse-drawn carriages. That proposal, Intro. 86A, is sponsored in the City Council by Member Melissa Mark-Viverito.

New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets(NYCLASS) -- joined by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Mark-Viverito, and animal welfare advocates -- lead the rally, calling on Council Speaker Christine Quinn to support the pilot program.

The vintage-replica vehicle initiative would not cost the city any money, the group says, as it would be funded entirely by NYCLASS donations.

NYCLASS also delivered a petition to the Council -- signed by 85,000 New Yorkers -- supporting the replacement of horse-drawn carriages with these cars.

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