Katie Holmes Takes Suri To Zoo, Then Hits The Town For Dinner With Pal

On Wednesday, the newly-single actress took daughter Suri to New York City's Central Park Zoo.

The 33-year-old star and her 6-year-old daughter were accompanied by her mother Kathy, who has been spotted with them numerous times since her split from Tom Cruise.

PLAY IT NOW: How Did Katie Holmes Tell Tom Cruise She Wanted A Divorce?

Suri appeared excited to visit the zoo's residents, especially when she got to feed the alpacas and the goats. She was seen sharing the animal food with other children at the zoo.

Later on Wednesday night, Katie turned up her new single lady style hitting the town in tight black leather pants, heels and a matching white blouse and jacket.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Katie Holmes Steps Out After Leaving Tom Cruise

According to Us Weekly, the actress - who was seen flanked by bodyguards while walking the NYC streets - had dinner with a friend.

Check out Katie's stylish evening look HERE!

And for more on how Katie pulled off her own 'Mission: Impossible,' blindsiding Tom Cruise with her divorce filing - which included staff firings and secret cell phones - CLICK HERE!

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Stars Who Split In 2012

-- Jesse Spero

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VIEW THE PHOTOS: Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes: A Look Back

Missouri town hopes to have first U.S. horse slaughter plant

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A town in Missouri is trying to be the first of several in the United States to get a new plant to slaughter horses now that Congress has overruled animal rights groups to allow the killing for the first time in five years.

U.S. slaughter of horses ended in 2007 when Congress, at the urging of animal rights groups, halted funding to inspect processing plants. The unintended result was thousands of horses abandoned or neglected, and even more enduring hundreds of miles of travel to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

After a government report last year detailed the abuses of horses, Congress restored inspection money to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for this year.

'People are giving away horses every day because they can't sell them,' said Wayne White, president of the Missouri Equine Council. 'All the rescue places are over-populated.'

Horse meat is sold for human consumption in China, Russia, Mexico and other foreign countries, according to Unified Equine, a Wyoming company proposing to open a horse-slaughter plant in Rockville, Missouri. Horse meat is also used for zoo animals.

The proposed plant, at a facility previously used for cattle processing in Rockville, has strong support in the community. But animal rights advocates have not given up the fight.

'Americans are revolted by horse slaughter, it's cruelty they just don't want to support,' said Lindsay Rajt of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

In a report last year, the Government Accountability Office documented an increase in horse neglect and abuse since slaughtering ended and found that by 2010 nearly 138,000 horses were being sent annually to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

Unified Equine hopes to open its slaughtering plant in Rockville in September, followed by one in Hermiston, Oregon. Another company, Valley Meats, intends to open a plant in Roswell, New Mexico.

The Missouri and New Mexico plants both requested U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections, according to the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service. But 'a significant amount of time' will be required to update inspection procedures, the service said in a statement on Wednesday.

Even though Congress restored funding, the appropriations committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, which allocates how money is spent, again withdrew money for horse slaughter inspections in the fiscal 2013 budget. The proposal still would have to be approved by the full House and Senate.

Equine chief executive Sue Wallis said she has heard of people in 18 states and several Native American tribal areas exploring horse slaughter plants.

Residents of Rockville, a town of about 150 people 100 miles south of Kansas City, turned out in force at a meeting last month to support the new plant, said Mayor Dave Moore.

'I don't know of anyone (in town) who is not for it,' said Dennis Heiman operator of a grain elevator that has been Rockville's largest employer since 60 jobs were lost with the closing of the beef plant two years ago. The horse plant is expected to create 50 jobs.

Owners of rescue ranches see the problem of neglected and abused horses first-hand. The Changing Leads Equine Rescue ranch just outside Kansas City, Missouri, is at its capacity of eight unwanted horses, said Tina Weidmaier, president of the all-volunteer organization.

Joe Black, a draft horse, was 700 pounds underweight by the time it was rescued from a pasture last August, Weidmaier said. Its owners moved to Florida and left it alone to graze for nearly a year, she said. He is back to his healthy weight but has a chewing disorder, she said.

Many people abandon or seek to give away their horses because of the cost, said Ericka Caslin, director of the Unwanted Horse Coalition. A horse costs an average of about $2,600 annually to feed and board, not counting veterinary bills, she said.

There are an estimated 170,000 unwanted horses in the United States, Caslin said, yet her group has no position on slaughtering plants. Neither does its parent group, the American Horse Council in Washington nor do some rescue ranches, such as Changing Leads.

'We'd rather focus on the problem than on everyone else's solution,' Weidmaier said.

Animal rights advocate Rajt said the number of unwanted horses going to slaughter is fueled by racehorse or rodeo breeders who dispose of dozens of animals not deemed 'the next big winner.' Horse slaughter and the shipping of horses to Mexico and Canada should be banned because it is cruel, she said.

But Wallis of Unified Equity said banning horse slaughter or shipment for slaughter would put well over 100,000 more horses per year at risk of abandonment, abuse and a slow death.

'It's hard to imagine the magnitude of that,' Wallis of Equine said. 'It would be an unmitigated disaster.'

(Editing by Greg McCune and Jackie Frank)

Missouri town hopes to have first horse slaughter plant

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A town in Missouri is trying to be the first of several in the United States to get a new plant to slaughter horses now that Congress has overruled animal rights groups to allow the killing for the first time in five years.

U.S. slaughter of horses ended in 2007 when Congress, at the urging of animal rights groups, halted funding to inspect processing plants. The unintended result was thousands of horses abandoned or neglected, and even more enduring hundreds of miles of travel to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

After a government report last year detailed the abuses of horses, Congress restored inspection money to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for this year.

'People are giving away horses every day because they can't sell them,' said Wayne White, president of the Missouri Equine Council. 'All the rescue places are over-populated.'

Horse meat is sold for human consumption in China, Russia, Mexico and other foreign countries, according to Unified Equine, a Wyoming company proposing to open a horse-slaughter plant in Rockville, Missouri. Horse meat is also used for zoo animals.

The proposed plant, at a facility previously used for cattle processing in Rockville, has strong support in the community. But animal rights advocates have not given up the fight.

'Americans are revolted by horse slaughter, it's cruelty they just don't want to support,' said Lindsay Rajt of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

In a report last year, the Government Accountability Office documented an increase in horse neglect and abuse since slaughtering ended and found that by 2010 nearly 138,000 horses were being sent annually to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

Unified Equine hopes to open its slaughtering plant in Rockville in September, followed by one in Hermiston, Oregon. Another company, Valley Meats, intends to open a plant in Roswell, New Mexico.

The Missouri and New Mexico plants both requested U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections, according to the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service. But 'a significant amount of time' will be required to update inspection procedures, the service said in a statement on Wednesday.

Even though Congress restored funding, the appropriations committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, which allocates how money is spent, again withdrew money for horse slaughter inspections in the fiscal 2013 budget. The proposal still would have to be approved by the full House and Senate.

Equine chief executive Sue Wallis said she has heard of people in 18 states and several Native American tribal areas exploring horse slaughter plants.

Residents of Rockville, a town of about 150 people 100 miles south of Kansas City, turned out in force at a meeting last month to support the new plant, said Mayor Dave Moore.

'I don't know of anyone (in town) who is not for it,' said Dennis Heiman operator of a grain elevator that has been Rockville's largest employer since 60 jobs were lost with the closing of the beef plant two years ago. The horse plant is expected to create 50 jobs.

Owners of rescue ranches see the problem of neglected and abused horses first-hand. The Changing Leads Equine Rescue ranch just outside Kansas City, Missouri, is at its capacity of eight unwanted horses, said Tina Weidmaier, president of the all-volunteer organization.

Joe Black, a draft horse, was 700 pounds underweight by the time it was rescued from a pasture last August, Weidmaier said. Its owners moved to Florida and left it alone to graze for nearly a year, she said. He is back to his healthy weight but has a chewing disorder, she said.

Many people abandon or seek to give away their horses because of the cost, said Ericka Caslin, director of the Unwanted Horse Coalition. A horse costs an average of about $2,600 annually to feed and board, not counting veterinary bills, she said.

There are an estimated 170,000 unwanted horses in the United States, Caslin said, yet her group has no position on slaughtering plants. Neither does its parent group, the American Horse Council in Washington nor do some rescue ranches, such as Changing Leads.

'We'd rather focus on the problem than on everyone else's solution,' Weidmaier said.

Animal rights advocate Rajt said the number of unwanted horses going to slaughter is fueled by racehorse or rodeo breeders who dispose of dozens of animals not deemed 'the next big winner.' Horse slaughter and the shipping of horses to Mexico and Canada should be banned because it is cruel, she said.

But Wallis of Unified Equity said banning horse slaughter or shipment for slaughter would put well over 100,000 more horses per year at risk of abandonment, abuse and a slow death.

'It's hard to imagine the magnitude of that,' Wallis of Equine said. 'It would be an unmitigated disaster.'

(Editing by Greg McCune and Jackie Frank)

Rare baby panda dies at Tokyo Zoo

TOKYO (Reuters) - A panda born at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo died on Wednesday of pneumonia, less than a week after its much-awaited birth was greeted with widespread excitement.

The cub was found motionless and without a heartbeat on his mother's belly and moved to an incubator, but efforts to revive the baby panda failed, zoo officials said.

'It appears that when the baby was being breast-fed, it may have inhaled some milk, which caused pneumonia,' zoo director Toshimitsu Doi told a hastily-called news conference before choking up and wiping his face with a handkerchief.

The panda's mother, Shin Shin, arrived from China in February 2011 with her partner, Ri Ri. The two went on view to the public soon after a devastating earthquake and tsunami the following month, providing Japan with some welcome good news.

Hopes for a baby began after the two pandas were recorded on camera mating earlier this year, and the 7-year-old Shin Shin gave birth on July 5. It was the first panda birth at Ueno Zoo in 24 years.

The baby's growth was followed by the media on a daily basis, with television footage showing the tiny, white-haired cub wriggling in an incubator or being cradled to its mother's chest. Visitors flocked to the zoo.

'We're really saddened by this. That's all we can say,' said Yutaka Fukuda, the zoo's deputy director.

(Reporting by Teppei Kasai, writing by Elaine Lies, editing by Jeremy Laurence)



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Pets May Lower Babies' Infection Rates

Kids who grow up with cats or dogs tend to get fewer respiratory infections during their first year of life, according to a new study from Finland.

Researchers followed 397 children from pregnancy through their first year of life, and found that those living with dogs developed 31 percent fewer respiratory tract symptoms or infections, 44 percent fewer ear infections and received 29 percent fewer antibiotic prescriptions.

Contact with cats was also linked with fewer infections, but the effect was not as drastic as contact with dogs - for example, infants living with cats were 2 percent less likely to need antibiotics.

'We speculated that maybe the dogs somehow can bring dirt or soil inside the house, and then the immune system is strengthened, or maybe it's something about the animals themselves,' said study researcher Dr. Eija Bergroth, a pediatrician at the Kuopio University Hospital in Finland.

The link between pets and fewer infections held even when researchers took into account factors known to affect infants' infection rates, such as breast-feeding and number of siblings. Still, the researchers acknowledged that couldn't account for all such factors, and noted that they found a correlation, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

Of the children in the study, 35 percent lived in homes with dogs, and 24 percent lived in homes with cats, though the researchers also accounted for pet contact outside the home.

'According to our results, there's no reason to be afraid of animal contact, or to avoid them,' Bergroth said. While many people preparing to have a child attempt to create an extremely hygienic environment, Bergroth said, the results show this may not be the best choice, because the immune system is not challenged.

The new findings are 'incredibly novel,' said Dr. Roya Samuels, a pediatrician at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., who was not involved with the study.

The research builds on the 'hygiene hypothesis,' a widely accepted theory that posits that children exposed to too-clean environments are more likely to develop allergies and asthma. The findings imply that the benefits of living in an environment that is more challenging to the immune system extend to lower rates of infectious diseases as well, Samuels said, which had not been previously shown.

'We associate exposure to dog and cat dander with lower allergy and asthma rates. But this paper is saying that, for reasons unknown, there is a protective mechanism at work lowering rates of infectious diseases,' Samuels said.

However, exactly how this protection might work isn't clear, she said. While the researchers speculated that dirt in the home was behind the link, Samuels said there may be more to the story. Future studies to confirm the findings should further investigate the mechanisms at work, she said.

Bergroth said she hopes the research will stop people from thinking that if 'they're having children, they should get rid of animals.'

Bergroth emphasized that the children studied lived in rural or suburban areas, so the study results may not translate to urban children. But she also said that urban pets may not track in the same dirt.

Pass it on: Having a pet may bolster an infant's immune system, leading to fewer infections.

Karen Rowan contributed reporting to this story.

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• 10 Ways to Promote Kids' Healthy Eating Habits
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Dogs may protect babies from some infections: study

Babies who spend time around pet dogs have fewer ear infections and respiratory ailments than those whose homes are animal-free, said a study released on Monday.

The study, published in the US journal Pediatrics, did not say why but suggested that being around a dog that spends at least part of its day outdoors may boost a child's immune system in the first year of life.

Cats, too, seemed to convey some protection to babies, though the effect observed was weaker than with dogs.

The research was based on 397 children in Finland whose parents made diary entries each week recording the state of their child's health during the infant's first year, from nine weeks to 52 weeks of age.

Overall, babies in homes with cats or dogs were about 30 percent less likely to have respiratory infectious symptoms -- which included cough, wheezing, rhinitis (stuffy or runny nose) and fever -- and about half as likely to get ear infections.

'If children had dog or cat contacts at home, they were significantly healthier during the study period,' said the study led by experts at Kuopio University Hospital in Finland.

The most protective association was seen in children who had a dog inside at home for up to six hours a day, compared to children who did not have any dogs or who had dogs that were always outside.

'We offer preliminary evidence that dog ownership may be protective against respiratory tract infections during the first year of life,' said the study.

'We speculate that animal contacts could help to mature the immunologic system, leading to more composed immunologic response and shorter duration of infections.'

The improvement was significant, even after researchers ruled out other factors that could boost infection risk, such as not having been breastfed, attending daycare, being raised by smokers or parents with asthma, or having older siblings in the household.

In addition to having less frequent ear infections and respiratory infections, babies near dogs tended to need fewer courses of antibiotics compared to those who were reared in pet-free households, it said.

Previous research has shown conflicting results, with some studies finding no benefit for young children being around furry pets and others finding that animal contact appears to offer some protection against colds and stomach ailments.

The study authors said their research differs from previous analyses because it focuses solely on the first postnatal year and does not include older children.



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New World Heritage Site a Haven for African Wildlife

A massive swath of lush forest that straddles the borders of three African nations and is home to crowds of elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees and other wildlife has been declared a World Heritage Site.

The 9,700-square-mile (25,000-square-kilometer) site, known as the Sangha Tri-National Protected Area, or TNS, covers territory in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Cameroon and the Central African Republic.

The announcement of the designation came during the annual meeting of the United Nations World Heritage Committee, held in St. Petersburg, Russia, this year.

The site is the first to span three countries, and stitches together previously established national parks.

The protected area encompasses one of the most pristine regions of equatorial Africa. The park is home to tropical forests, wetlands and natural clearings - known as 'bais' - that draw enormous gatherings of some of the region's most iconic animals.

Elephant crowds of more than 100 strong congregate in the bais, alongside forest buffalo and giant forest hogs.

Some of the bais attract huge groups of gorillas, while others attract flurries of parrots.

The heart of the TNS is an area nearly 3,000 square miles (7,700 square km) across, which follows the course of the Sangha River, a tributary of the far larger Congo River.

Surrounding the core of the park is a vast buffer zone, home to groups of indigenous peoples, and regions where some controlled logging is permitted.

Conservation groups have lauded the designation.

'The TNS is the wild heart of the Congo Basin Rainforest. It contains some of the last great populations of African forest elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, and other endangered species,' James Deutsch, the Wildlife Conservation Society's director of Africa Programs, said in a statement.

'As everywhere in Central Africa, this global treasure is under threat from unsustainable resource extraction, including the illegal ivory trade, and we hope that the TNS's listing will re-energize global efforts to save it,' Deutsch said.

The World Heritage Committee announced the establishment of 26 new sites around the globe during their meeting this year.

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• The 10 Most Pristine Places on Earth
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