Three months ago, prince Laurent of Belgium had the dead body of his favourite dog frozen. The prince was upset by the death of the Berner Senner and wanted to wait until an appropriate time, to say goodbye to the dog.

click on image to see photo at nieuwslog.nl

The Swiss dog was his favourite for seven years, and died of cancer. After his death the prince took the body to the veterinary medicine faculty of the university of Gent. At the university they froze the body, until the prince found the time ripe to say goodbye to his dog. On thursday, a few days before all saints, the prince thought that the time was ripe, the prince told public channel VRT through the telephone.

According to professor Chiers, of the university of Gent, several limbs of the dog were deformed because the body was frozen on the flat floor.  When the prince announced that he wanted to collect the dog, the staff had to hurry to dry the hairs and bend the body in the original shape.  When the prince arrived, the staff had to leave as the prince was quite emotional and wanted to be left alone with his dog.

In a reaction on the VRT the prince said that there is too little attention for the role that pets play in our daily lives. ‘People are very attached to their pets, when they die it hurts’, says Laurent. ‘All Saints is a day to pay attention to that’.

Marengo Belgian Royals Animals, Pets, Prince Laurent

 Prince William showed enthusiasm today as he opened the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum.

Click here to see more pics at Daylife

He did, however, seem less than enthusiastic when asked to hold a large, hairy tarantula just before the official opening.

The arachnid, an eight-inch wide Mexican Red Kneed named Sarah, was being shown to children at the Attenborough Studio when its minders politely asked the Prince if he would like to hold her.

“Ooh, I would love to,” William said, though he certainly didn’t sound like it. But he did hold the tarantula calmly for about a minute.

The Prince later joked about his experience when he opened the Darwin Centre.

“Just to warn you,” he told the audience, “that there is a spider loose somewhere in the Cocoon. It was given to me, and I seem to have lost it. If you see it, it goes by the name of Sarah.”

William admitted he was “petrified” as he held Sarah.

The Natural History Museum’s Darwin Centre is a new 78 million pound section dedicated to the work of Charles Darwin. Both Prince William and naturalist Sir David Attenborough officially opened it.

“I remember coming here first as a child with my mother,” the Prince said in his speech. “Millions of others will have shared with me that same sense of awe and wonder and just a shiver of something more as you step off the street, through the doors, to stare into the beady eye of the blue whale or the terrifying eye socket of a T. Rex. A moment never to be forgotten — especially when everything is a lot bigger than you.”

At one point during the centre’s opening, William stopped by the laboratory, put on a white coat and gloves and was given a demonstration on how scientists work with mosquitoes in order to fight diseases such as malaria.

Sonjapearl British Royals Animals, Charles Darwin, Prince William

 Yesterday Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Seigneur of the Swans, observed for the first time the Swan Upping from a launch on the River Thames.

Click to see the gallery at royal.gov.uk

The Queen owns all unmarked mute swans in the United Kingdom, but today Her Majesty only exercises this right in the area of the Thames. Each year, in the third week of July, the annual swan census is carried out by Her Majesty’s Swan Marker and members of the Worshipful Company of Vintners and the Worshipful Company of Dyers.

The Swans are weighed, measured and marked in a bid to conserve the swan population and ensure the welfare of the swans. This ancient ceremony has taken on a new “green” role and is one of the many ways the Royal Household takes part in green and environmental initiatives.

Swan Upping is a colourful sight, with flags, uniforms and banners. This year it can be viewed on the following days:

Monday, 20 July 2009: Eton Bridge to Cookham

Tuesday, 21 July 2009: Cookham to Marlow Lock

Wednesday, 22 July 2009: Marlow Bridge to Sonning Bridge

Thursday, 23 July 2009: Sonning-on-Thames to Moulsford

Friday, 24 July 2009: Moulsford to Abingdon Bridge

The Queen’s Swan Marker and his team wear distinctive uniforms and his cap contains a large swan feather. Each day the markers stand and toast The Queen and as they sail past Windsor Castle they stand in salute to “Her Majesty The Queen, Seigneur of the Swans”. Click here to view a video of this year’s event.

RoyalProtocol British Royals Animals, Elizabeth II, Swan Upping

Today 13 new pictures of the Crown Princely family were published at kongehuset.no.
It shows Prince Haakon, his wife Mette-Marit , the three children Marius, Ingrid Alexandra and Sverre Magnus and family’s new puppy.

You can find a gallery at kongehuset.no

The pictures for this year’s summer session were taken on Saturday, June 27th at Bygdøy, the royal summer residence of King Harald.
The family’s new dog, a 4 months old labradoodle, is named Milly Kakao.

You can find HQ pictures of the summer session in the press photo album at kongehuset.no.

Picture from TRF Avatar Gallery

More links to articles and pictures can be found in this thread: Summer Photosession 2009.

You can find a thread about the Norwegian Royals’ summer vacations here: Summer Vacations 2009.

The King and Queen spend their vacations in Mågerø; their summer residence.
Family Behn spend their vacations in Hankø.

The Royals will return to duty on 7th of August.

Her_Majesty Norwegian Royals Animals, Marius Borg Høiby, Pets, Prince Haakon, Prince Sverre Magnus, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Princess Mette-Marit

click here to see the photos from the Observer

 King Mswati III of Swaziland was given a present of six camels by Libyan president Muammar al Gaddafi as a token of friendship yesterday. The camels were flown to Swaziland via cargo plane, where they were greeted by the royal veterinarians and the King’s private secretary, according to an article in The Swazi Observer.

The camels will stay in quarantine for 30 days, where they will be regularly monitored by veterinarians. They will be moved to a new habitat, which is rumored to be a game reserve. Sam Mkhombe, the King’s private secretary, stated that the King would have the final say in where the camels would live. Dr. Robert Thwala, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture said that “it is a great pleasure for the country to be blessed with these rare beasts, especially because most people here are not familiar with these animals”. There is no known record of camels having lived in Swaziland before.

To read about, and to discuss King Mswati III, please visit this thread.

sgl Swazi Royals Animals, Libya, Mswati III, President Gaddafi

 Evita, the 11-year-old dauchshund of Prince Henrik, has biten a royal bodyguard, leaving the man in hospital needing stitches and a tetanus shot.

Click to read the article from Berlingske

The incident occured on Saturday May 30th, when the guard was walking Evita around the gardens of the Danish royal summer residence, Fredensborg Palace.

This latest occurance has caused Danish opposition members to call for Evita to be euthanised. “There is no difference between a royal dog and any other,” Bjarne Laustsen – the Social Democrats animal welfare spokesman – told BT.

The issue that arises with this call is that the Danish royal family, and its pets, are above the law. “We can not just roar out and interrogate Prince Henrik, or for that matter, prosecute him. But we got a notification, and we will obviously look at it,” political advocate Helle Just said when interviewed by BT. She said that it might be possible that it is requested for Evita to be examined by a dog psychologist.

In February 2008, another of Prince Henrik’s dauchshunds bit Nikolaj Fogh, a palace gardener. Fogh had to take three weeks off, on doctor’s orders, to recover from his injuries.

Click here to follow the case in Henrik’s current events thread.

JessRulz Danish Royals Animals, Pets, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort

From the TRF avatar collection

Click for the article at the Daily Mail

 It is a little difficult for many to reconcile the picture of Prince Charles the “Conservationist” with Prince Charles the “Dalek” . . . . . . Exterminate . . . . . . exterminate, well you get the picture.  Yet we live in a world where the delicate balance of our eco-systems are at war with man, and man’s strokes of sheer genius in pursuit of greater excellence often leaves us just plain gasping for air.

Grey Squirrels, that “cute” factor is right up there with all and every animated Disney animal character ever lucky enough to make it on screen but, and this is a biggie, Grey Squirrels aren’t.  Cute that is.  They are in fact vermin and the reason they are disease carrying deafforestation  ambassadors is because they just plain don’t belong there!  Some budding mensa candidate decided they would look just loveryly in the garden and imported them to populate said garden, now known as Desolation Downs.

Much the same thing happened with Possums in New Zealand, where the only good one is road-kill, and in Australia they are cute and protected and they belong !

 Charles is telling us a few home truths.  and it seems he is more than ready to front the unpalatable truth.  Being a tree-hugger means making some hard choices,  and if we don’t try and redress the balance there really wont be an awful lot of trees left to hug!

To read more about Prince Charles’s opinion about the environment in general and grey squirrels in particular, see this thread.

MARG British Royals Animals, Environment, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales

Click for the article at the Independent

From the TRF avatar collection

 A well-known animal lover, Spain’s Queen Sofia has recently received global media attention for her involvement in the case of a lonely elephant. Susi, of Barcelona Zoo, has been showing symptoms of loneliness since the death of Alicia (her companion) last year. Queen Sofia has written a letter to the zoo’s operator (Barcelona City Hall) to request that Susi is moved to a bigger enclosure, from her current concrete pen.

The African-born elephant is expected to have a grim, and possibly shortened, life if things continue as they are. So in February, the Foundation for the Adoption, Sponsorship and Defence of Animals wrote to the royal palace, securing the support of the Queen to help the bored and depressed Susi.

One newspaper reported the zoo as saying that the elephant is in good health.
Reports suggest that Susi is now to be moved to a new home with several other elephants for company.

marmi Spanish Royals Animals, Queen Sofia

Click here to read the article at royalblog

 Last weekend, on a trip to the imperial ranch outside Tokyo, Princess Aiko, only daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako of Japan, happily showed her new puppy, Yuri, to the public. Princess Aiko entered the second grade at Gakushuin Primary School this April.
Sometime this year, Mari, one of the two dogs of the crown prince´s family, died. The dogs Mari and Pippi had already been living for many years with the crown couple, before Aiko was even born. In 1995, a stray dog had been found on the grounds of the Togu Palace where the family lives: the mother of Pippi and Mari. The childless crown couple took care of the little puppies, as soon as they were born, and grew very fond of them. In summer 2003, when the crown princess was already fighting against a looming depression (at that time still unbeknownst to the public) she said that “living with our two dogs Pippi and Mari … has always calmed and rejuvenated my spirit.” The two dogs were treated just like beloved family members. Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Animals, Pets, Prince Naruhito, Princess Aiko, Princess Masako

 Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum visited this evening Art Dubai 2009. Sheikh Mohammed toured the different galleries that featured almost 2000 artworks by over 450 artists from the UAE and other countries. Sheikh Mohammed also viewed hand-made Persian rugs displayed at the exhibition.

After the art exhibition, Sheikh Mohammed attended the final day of the 2009 Dubai International Horse Fair at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. He also attended the finals of the Dubai International Arabian Horse Championship. A three-day competition for purebred Arabian horses showcasing their beauty, agility & heritage and culminating in the Championship classes for the most exquisite horses.

dazzling UAE Royals Animals, Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid