If the coyote population in the suburbs were simply content with grabbing a toasty sub once in a while, the western suburb of Wheaton might not have decided to hire a trapper to catch and kill -- er, "euthanize" -- the coyotes wandering around their village. Citing safety concerns, Wheaton officials want to cull the number of coyotes, despite the fact that the only victims so far are pets, not humans. Councilman John Prendiville was a dissenter, telling the Daily Herald that if "a particular animal attacks or actively threatens humans, [he] would take action against that animal... Revenge for the death of a pet is not sufficient reason for killing coyotes." more ›

Sometimes it pays to subscribe to a restaurant's Twitter feed. Case in point: the hyper-seasonal and snout-to-tail experts at mado. Co-owner Rob Levitt occasionally posts updates to his feed letting fans know, among other things, what he and wife Allie are making in the kitchen and the not-uncommon complaint from a new customer regarding their commitment to using every bit of what they buy. Today Rob Levitt posted what the restaurant's "first piece of hate mail" to the restaurant's website It's a scan of highlighted capsule review of mado with the following written in green ink next to it: more ›

Many Wicker Park commuters are feeling a little less caffeinated these days since Half & Half (under the Damen Blue Line stop) closed up shop. Owner Debbie Sharpe told Metromix that the quality of the building is to blame. The good news is Sharpe also owns the Goddess and Grocer down the street, and Half & Half's delicious commuter sandwiches and pastries will be available for purchase there. LTH commentors prophecy its space may become... more ›

Since splitting from the Ghetto Gourmet, Efrain Cuevas has fashioned a cottage industry for himself. Between "Cook the Vote", a "singles only" underground supper club, private catering and cooking classes, and his own "Ghetto Gourmet"-style undergorund dining club 24 Below, Cuevas has become increasingly busy on the local dining scene. A dinner Cuevas planned two weeks ago brought about some backlash. Cuevas planned a birria dinner involving a goat he would personally slaughter and butcher.... more ›

You'll remember the story of Dave Warwak, the middle school art instructor in Fox River Grove who put down the paints, chalks and paste to passionately talk to his students about the virtues of the vegan lifestyle. If by "passionately" we meant "beat the kids over the head about how all hot dogs are sketchy-assed." When he was busted for doing that, he took the concept of "keeping it real" to Chappellian levels, demanding that... more ›

Dave Warwak was just another mild-mannered middle school art teacher in Anywhere, USA (actually Fox River Grove Middle School in McHenry County). Then, in January, he switched to a vegan diet, sold his boat and fishing tackle from his side job as a fishing guide, and became politicized on the issue of animal rights. Last week Warwak handed his students a book by John Robbins titled The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save... more ›

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA... more ›

Can the Lincoln Park Zoo finally catch a break? The last two years haven't been kind to the zoo, despite the opening of the fantastic new Regenstein Center for Apes and the African Journey habitat. Three of the zoo's elephants died, ultimately causing them to give up trying to keep the pachyderms in Chicago. Two gorillas and a camel also died, then another small monkey had to have an arm amputated after an accident. These incidents, especially the elephant deaths, led to widespread criticism from animal rights groups. Then if that weren't bad enough, three langur monkeys died in May 2005 after eating leaves from a yew tree that shouldn't have been near their habitat in the first place, and then a gorilla bit a zookeeper the following July. more ›

Chicagoist is only going to give this a modicum of space because just thinking about this gives us such incredible, mind-numbing, back-breaking cramps and there isn't enough Vicodin and Wild Turkey in the world to put us out of our misery. Look. This whole foie gras thing is getting way out of hand. Seriously, people, we cannot believe that there is a possibility that the city council will ban it. And all of you animal... more ›

What an awful year for the Lincoln Park Zoo. In their quest to spread free animal love throughout Chicagoland, they've become a target of animal rights activits and - at the end of the day - won't even have any elephants to show for it. more ›

• Answer the question we were too skeeved to ask: what do you do with a dead elephant? "Tatima [the 35-year-old elephant] will be disposed of as 'medical waste' via incineration," according to the Sun-Times. Geaahh. Poor Tatima died Saturday after a battle with tuberculosis, which, who knew, elephants can totally get. Tatima, and two other female African elephants at the Lincoln Park Zoo, came to Chicago from the San Diego Zoo in spring 2003. Some animal rights activists tried to get Tatima et. al. moved to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, and claim that living conditions at the zoo contributed to her disease and eventual death. For some reason, the Sun-Times puts in the lede that Gillian Anderson wrote a letter supporting the move. Gillian Anderson? Yeah, we bet she has time to write lots of letters now that her career is dead. Whatever. RIP, Tatima. more ›