Pets

Sad news in the dog world -- the top pit bull from Michael Vick's dogfighting ring has been euthanized.

The dog -- named Lucas -- was humanely euthanized Wednesday at the Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah because of accumulating health problems. He was around 13 years old.

Lucas -- who was Vick's grand champion -- was one of nearly 2 dozen dogs that were rehabilitated at BFAS after they were rescued from the ring in 2007. Unfortunately, Lucas was not allowed to be adopted because of his vicious fighting history -- and therefore had to remain a lifetime-care dog at the animal sanctuary.

We're told Lucas was one of the friendliest dogs at the sanctuary -- and never stopped grinning.

And they say women lose 90% of their eggs by age 30 ... Jennifer Aniston's newly refurbished, $21 million Bel Air mansion is a grazing site for chickens.

44-year-old Aniston and her fiance Justin Theroux just completed renovations on the sprawling 3.5-acre property -- which the couple purchased last year -- and Aniston decided to maintain the chicken coop.

FYI, Bel Air is one of the most exclusive neighborhoods on the planet ... and here's a fun fact -- the house featured on "The Beverly Hillbillies" is also in Bel Air.

Who's no spring chicken now?

Brandi Glanville is blaming the whole stolen dog thing on her assistant -- TMZ has learned, the "Real Housewives" star has FIRED her right-hand woman for not taking better care of the pooch.

The 23-year-old ex-assistant -- who didn't want to be named -- tells TMZ, "I no longer work for Brandi. She texted me [Saturday] saying that I didn’t do my job by losing the dog."

As we reported, Brandi's Encino home was burglarized last Wednesday while she was in Palm Springs -- or so the assistant claims -- and someone made off with her beloved Chihuahua Chica.

After the alleged burglary, Brandi said she did NOT want to blame her assistant -- the last person to be with the dog before it vanished -- but something must have changed ... because the asst. tells us, that's exactly what Brandi did by giving her the chop.

Now the assistant's upset -- telling us she did everything in her power to make sure Chica was safe (double checking the doors, closing all windows, locking everything) and firing her just isn't fair.

Oh yeah, she also says Brandi still owes her for two weeks' work ... more than $1,000. Chica's still missing.

Taylor Armstrong does not believe a word Brandi Glanville says about her missing dog, calling the idea that the pooch was stolen just "a publicity stunt."

It didn't sound like a publicity stunt when Glanville called in to "TMZ Live" yesterday and began bawling hysterically as she talked about how someone broke into her home and stole one of her dogs.

Brandi's story is a little off (or at least, her assistant's version of the events is) and Taylor was in full agreement as she slammed her "RHOBH" co-star on her way into Aventine in Hollywood last night.

Whatever happened, let's just hope little Chica gets home safe.

Brandi Glanville broke down in tears on "TMZ Live" Friday while talking about her dog that may have been "stolen" from her house ... a theft that has some very strange markers.

TMZ broke the story ... Glanville returned home from Palm Springs after her assistant informed her someone had broken into Glanville's home and made off with her chihuahua Chica ... but nothing else -- nothing.

Glanville said it seemed odd that the dog was the only thing taken, but told us, "I don't wanna blame my assistant. I don't know if she lost them and is making up the story and only found one … But I have to believe what she tells me because I don't know."

Brandi Glanville claims someone BROKE INTO HER HOME AND STOLE HER DOG ... and now the "Real Housewives" star is on a mission to get her back.

TMZ spoke with Brandi ... she was in Palm Springs with Lisa Vanderpump and Yolanda Foster earlier this week, when she received a call that someone had busted in to her home in Encino, CA and made off with her dog Chica ...her precious chihuahua.

Brandi tells us ... she immediately drove home from Palm Springs and began searching everywhere for her pet.

Brandi says ...when she searched the home, she found a screen on a bathroom window had been ripped open -- the obvious point of entry for the bad guy.

We're told NOTHING else was missing from the home.

Brandi says she filed a report with the LAPD.

Brandi says she's received calls from people claiming to have the dog -- but they've all turned out to be hoaxes.

“Twilight” star Kristen Stewart’s mom says she has a crazy neighbor on her hands ... a neighbor who is allegedly harassing her and claiming that she's harboring wolves.

Jules Stewart says the beef began April 21, when the neighbor walked up her driveway. Stewart says she ordered the 61-year-old woman off her property … and according to legal docs the two exchanged heated, vulgar words.

The neighbor, Sue Bemi, allegedly claimed Stewart's dogs were actually WOLVES. Bemi supposedly screamed her wolves "belong in the mountains of Montana" and should be set free and she was ready to take care of business.

Stewart’s filing says after their blowup, Bemi started a campaign of harassment, regularly making “howling sounds, growls, chirps and other weird noises” ... which riled up the animals.

Bemi claims in her own handwritten legal docs Stewart herself confessed the animals were really wolves.

Stewart, a longtime Hollywood script supervisor who recently directed her first feature film “K-11,” got a restraining order this AM, ordering Bemi to say 100 yards clear of her property for 1 year.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the "Anchorman" franchise ...

Check out Will Ferrell -- aka Ron Burgundy -- battling a mechanical Great White last week off the coast of Georgia, where "Anchorman: The Legend Continues" is shooting.

If it were a man, he'd punch it. Punch it right in the mouth.

Burgundy had a stand-in on the film ... but judging by the pics, he went ahead and performed his own stunts for the shark attack scene.

This may be the most disturbing thing you see in the month of May ... a deadly snake bit a TV producer in the foot ... and the damage is bone-chilling -- literally and figuratively.

WARNING: If you have a weak stomach ... DO NOT CLICK HERE.

The zombie foot belongs to Steve Rankin ... a producer on the upcoming Discovery show "Naked and Afraid," which drops 2 nude survivalists in remote locations and films their struggle to stay alive.

Rankin tells TMZ ... "I was scouting locations in Costa Rica ... As I was traversing through some deep jungle I was bitten on the foot by a Fer-de-Lance. It's one of the deadliest snakes in the world and the fangs went right through my boot."

Rankin says his team hustled him for 2 miles on a makeshift stretcher, drove to a helipad and had him airlifted to a San Jose hospital ... where he got antivenom and antibiotics. But things went horribly wrong ...

Sylvester Stallone's family is mourning the loss of a loved one ... their adorable pet poochie Phoebe ... who was found dead after a coyote attack earlier this month, TMZ has learned.

It's a heart-breaking story ... Phoebe went missing a couple of weeks ago -- and immediately the family scoured their Bel Air community in a desperate attempt to find their beloved 4-legged friend.

They even put up posters in their community offering a $10,000 reward for Phoebe's safe return.

But the story took a tragic turn when someone discovered Phoebe's body on the Stallone property ... the victim of a coyote attack.

Stallone's rep tells TMZ ... Phoebe's death has been very difficult for the family.

She can't pee in a toilet ... and you probably can't milk her nipples ... but Internet cat sensation Lil Bub is still BFFs with Robert De Niro.

"The World's Cutest Cat" and De Niro hit it off earlier today at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC ... Mr. Jinx be damned.

De Niro's been dying to meet Bub ever since he heard she'd be featured at the festival -- telling the Hollywood Reporter, he REALLY wanted to take a picture with the deformed feline ... and De Niro always gets what he wants.

(FYI, Bub suffers from several genetic mutations including dwarfism, polydactylism, and a deformed lower jaw.)

Now, a word from Jack Byrnes on why cats are better than dogs...

Hugh Jackman brought a little extra protection with him to the gym today ... and we do mean little ... in the form of his adorable French bulldog, Peaches.

Jackman told photogs yesterday he was still a little shaken up from the incident Saturday ... when an unstable fan broke into his gym, screaming and crying, and threw an electric razor filled with her pubic hair at him.

Clearly he's hoping that if she tries it again ... Peaches will wake up in time to stop her.

Sam Ronson is paying for the (alleged) crimes of her bulldog in cold hard cash after she finally settled with the woman who sued her for the death of her pooch ... TMZ has learned.

As we first reported, Sam's bulldog Cadillac allegedly mauled her neighbor's maltese Tiger back in 2010 ... and the pup later died. So Tiger's owner, Farnouche Kamran, sued Sam for $750,000. She also blamed the apartment complex and Sam's landlord in her suit.

Every dog has its day -- and sources tell us the parties reached a settlement outside of court. We're told Kamran isn't walking away with the $750k ... but she did score in the low five figures.

Kamran's lawyer, Ronald Richards, tells TMZ it wasn't about the money, saying, "It was all about vindicating the death of Tiger, my client's beloved companion and nothing more."

R.I.P. Tiger.

TIME magazine is offering a limp excuse for its new Grumpy Cat photo spread -- telling TMZ the fact that it appears to be a flagrant and shameless rip-off of some lesser known feline photos is a total coincidence.

The other spread -- featuring an Internet celeb cat named Lil Bub -- first appeared in Bullett Magazine back in October. The TIME piece ran last week.

And the similarities are glaring -- down to the actual poses and the matching pink backgrounds.

The people at Bullett are understandably pissed, telling us, "Inspiration is one thing, but some of these photos are nearly identical. If it was indeed a copycat, it shouldn't have happened in the first place."

The art director behind the Bullett piece adds, "It's not about the money. It's more the lack of journalistic integrity and general laziness, the mere audacity that they thought no one would notice.”

For TIME's part, the mag's rep would only call the similarities "a complete coincidence."

All that monkeying around has finally caught up with Justin Bieber (literally) after officials in Germany confiscated his monkey because Biebs didn't have the proper paperwork.

Bieber arrived at the Munich airport on Thursday and was confronted about the monkey when he went through customs. Since Bieber didn't have the proper documentation for the monkey (and you know how Germans about having your papers in order) they took the monkey into quarantine.

It appears the monkey was a recent gift from record producer Mally Mall, who tweeted the above photo earlier in the week with a caption, "OG MALLY FIRST PIC WITH HIS POPS @JUSTINBIEBER."

Scott Disick should have his legs sliced open, blood gushing, and then be fed to the gators ... that's what a Reptile Rescue Org wants ... after Scott shot an alligator in the face on a recent episode of "Kourtney and Kim Take Miami."

Mary Hart from International Reptile Rescue -- a world renowned nonprofit that's been rescuing reptiles for decades -- tells TMZ, Scott's hunting trip which aired this weekend on E! was a cruel, insensitive act.

She says, "He didn’t kill that alligator, he murdered that alligator." And she goes on: "Fairness would be to cut both his thighs so he bleeds and then toss him in a gator pond with gators small enough to rip him apart slowly and painfully."

FYI ... in the episode Scott hunted the gator (legally) in Florida ... shot at point-blank range in the head and later skinned and gutted it -- all while cameras rolled.

PETA, Tori Spelling, Shannon Elizabeth, and a slew of celebs have already slammed Scott and E! for the gator-cide ... calling it upsetting, horrible, pathetic and f****d up.