A team of researches from the Princeton University have discovered that lack of sleep could lead to memory loss and they suggest that people take a nap to reverse the effect of sleep deprivation. British scientists studied rats which were deprived of sleep for up to 72 hours. According to the New Scientists, sleep deprivation in rats causes stress hormones to accumulate in a part f the brain called the hippocampus, which stops the growth of cells that lay down new memories.

A menagerie numbering to 86 animals was discovered by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals officials in a Fort Ord home. The owner had been trying to find homes for the 56 fish, six cats, six rats, five frogs, four geckos, three ferrets, two lovebirds, two lizards, one guinea pig and one dog. "We took our van. We really didn't know what we were getting into," said Judi Adams, humane investigation supervisor for the SPCA of Monterey County.

A man in California has kept over 1,000 rats as pets in his home until recently, when he admitted the rodents 'had gotten a bit out of control' after they had began breeding uncontrollably. Roger Dier, 67, says that despite the reputation of the rodents, they were good creatures and that they loved him the same way he loved them. Despite all the love, Dier had been charged with animal cruelty and had all 1,000 rats taken away from his home.

A woman charged with 118 counts of animal cruelty was taken into custody Monday night. Donna Lee Bell, 59, of Whiteford, was arrested at her ex-husband's house in Essex in Baltimore County, where more than 40 dogs and cats were found dead at two houses.