World’s Most Famous Animals: Where Are They Now?

Where Are They Now: 12 World Famous Animals

Ever wonder what happened to Bubbles the Chimp, or even the Taco Bell dog? Check out our roundup of the world’s best-known celebrity animals.

Bo Obama

One of the first questions U.S. President Obama was asked during his first press conference had to do with the breed of dog the family would choose for the new presidential pet. Even CNN devoted hours of coverage to the Obama family’s search for their newest addition. After much hemming and hawing Senator Ted Kennedy broke the stalemate and presented the family with a Portuguese Water Dog. Bo, like all of the Obamas, has garnered much attention and even has his own baseball card complete with his official portrait and stats. The picture here shows a police officer coralling the pooch after it escaped the White House and roamed the south lawn in April 2009!

Bubbles the Chimp

To say that Michael Jackson’s last days and dramatic demise got a lot of media attention would be an understatement-the man shut down the Internet. But in the flurry of exposés and exposés of exposés, did anyone stop and ask themselves, “What happened to Bubbles?” For a time Bubbles the Chimp, Jackson’s often identically-dressed pet, was one of the most famous pets in the world.

Though there are multiple stories for just how Michael adopted Bubbles, the most common is that he got the ape when it was three from a cancer research clinic. Jackson brought Bubbles back to his home in Encino, California and from that point on the two were inseparable.

Bubbles slept in a crib in Jackson’s bedroom, followed him on tour and learned how to moonwalk. The monkey even came to the set when Jackson filmed the Bad video. Tragically, the glory days were not to last. As Jackson’s star began to fade in the ’90s, so too did Bubbles’.  In 2003 Michael admitted to the media that after a violent episode the chimp had been moved to an animal sanctuary. Some say it was because Bubbles was getting physical out of jealousy for Jackson’s first born son, Prince Michael. Steven Davis, who ghostwrote Jackson’s autobiography, says the monkey was exiled after throwing feces at a group of Japanese school children.

However it happened, Bubbles was thrown out of Neverland and never returned. While it was rumored Bubbles attempted to commit suicide in 2003, the chimp is still alive and well in the sanctuary.

Tinkerbell Hilton

Not many dogs can claim to have “written” their own memoir, but Tinkerbell Hilton is special. This little Chihuahua tripped the life fantastic at the side of her socialite owner Paris Hilton and held a regular cameo on Hilton’s A Simple Life reality TV show. Tinkerbell is said to have set off the trend in “accessory dogs”-tiny dogs that can be carried around as though they were a handbag. In fact, she was often found in an oversized purse of some sort hanging off Hilton’s arm. Like her owner, Tinkerbell was completely spoiled. The little dog lived in a $325,000 house on the Beverly Hills property of Nikki Hilton.

The Taco Bell Dog

Everyone knew his catchphrase but few took the time to learn the name of the Taco Bell dog. Gidget the Chihuahua rocketed to fame shortly after the launch of a Chihuahua-centric ad campaign in 1997 by the Mexican-styled fast food giant. The tiny dynamo was actually a replacement for Dinky, the dog that appeared in the initial commercial, but who quickly dropped out of the limelight (perhaps due to his inability to handle stardom).

Gidget quickly became a part of late-’90s culture. His handsome mug not only graced television screens across the world, but T-shirts, stuffed animals and billboards too.

His hook “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!” (I love Taco Bell) quickly spawned two spin-offs– “Viva Gorditas” (Long live Gorditas) and “Drop the Chulpa”-which were picked up just as quickly by the media. Gidget even co-starred briefly with mega-star Godzilla in a series of commercials in which he tried to lure the enormous lizard into a tiny box.

However, no flame can burn so brightly forever. Gidget’s commercials were cancelled in 2000 after a Hispanic lobby group declared that the dog represented a racist stereotype and he quickly fell out of the public consciousness.

On July 21, 2009 the dog was euthanized after suffering a debilitating stroke. He lives on in our memories, Youtube videos and animated .gifs. Yo quiero Gidget.

Mr. Ed

Most of us talk to our pets, but Mr. Ed captured the imagination of a nation when he opened those giant lips of his and finally spoke back. Granted, the talking was all camera tricks and the voice belonged to Allan Lane, but North American’s loved him nonetheless. Bamboo Harvester, the horse who played Mr. Ed, enjoyed six seasons of limelight before the show’s eventual finish, but those seasons of fame wouldn’t translate into a long-term career.

The stories of Mr. Ed’s eventual demise vary depending who you talk to. Some say the horse was euthanized in 1968 after suffering from an array of health problems and buried without ceremony in Oklahoma. Bamboo Harvester’s co-star Alan Young claims that that the horse was accidentally given too much tranquilizer while in his retirement “home” and died a few short hours later.

Spuds MacKenzie

Spuds MacKenzie was the original party animal. In the mid ’80s you couldn’t spit without hitting a magazine, billboard or television showing an ad of that wild and crazy Budweiser front man living it up with beers and babes. But all was not fun, games and lurid Hawaiian shirts for this Bull Terrier.

Scandal hit when it was discovered that he was in fact a she. Spuds was actually a female dog by the name of Honey Tree Evil Eye. This was not to be the only scandal Spuds would have to face.

In 1992, this Budweiser mascot became the target of temperance campaigns across North America. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the Centre for Science in Public Interest launched an attack against the lovable dog. MADD was furious saying the Spuds’ ad campaign was meant to appeal to children.

Not long after this last scandal Honey Tree Evil Eye succumbed to kidney failure. Her death was not alcohol related.

Eddie the Dog

So often the animals in television shows are treated like just another bit of scenery. But Eddie the Dog was too big to be pushed into the background. This little Jack Russell Terrier stole so much spotlight that he became a star in his own right on the hit TV sitcom Frasier. Eddie, named Moose in real life, was famous for his head tilts and quizzical looks.

No animal, however, can work forever. After seven years in the biz (42 dog years), Moose retired leaving the family business to his son Enzo, who finished off the show. He passed away from old age in June of 2006. Upon his death John Mahoney-Marty Crane-released a statement to the press calling Moose a “consummate professional.”

Dolly the Sheep

Dolly’s entrance into the world was probably the first and only time the world at large will care about the birth of one sheep. She was the first ever animal cloned from the cell of another adult animal, through a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. She got the name Dolly because the cell she was cloned from came from the mammary gland of another sheep. Ahem. 

During her life, Dolly stayed at the Roslin Institute where she was born, constantly surrounded by a flurry of scientists eager to see how she developed. Her life was one plagued with health issues. The Roslin scientists discovered that she was aging at an accelerated rate, developing arthritis at the age of five and finally a case of progressive lung disease. Dolly was euthanized on February 14, 2003.

She is survived by her six children, Sally, Rosie, Bonnie, Lucy, Cotton, and Darcy. If you’d like to visit her, Dolly is stuffed and on display at the Royal Museum of Scotland.

Socks the Cat

Yes, presidents are famous for their dogs, but Socks the Cat was not a man to be denied. He was adopted by the Clintons as the official presidential pet in 1991 after braving the secret service and audaciously jumping into the arms of Chelsea Clinton as she was leaving a piano lesson. He enjoyed six beautiful years as the official White House pet. A cartoon avatar of Socks even guided visitors through the White House website.

Socks’ glory days, however, were not to last. In 1997 an interloper, a Labrador Retriever by the name of Buddy, moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and quickly displaced Socks.

Socks and Buddy despised each other. Hilary Clinton said the two “hated each other on first sight.” Bill Clinton joked that he had better luck mediating between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

When the Clintons moved out of the White House in 2001 they took Buddy with them and gave Socks to Clinton’s secretary Betty Currie. Ouch.

Punxsatawny Phil

Like all weather men, Punxsutawny Phil makes mistakes, but despite that fact this groundhog’s yearly prediction on the nearness of spring remains law to some. Every February 2nd, Phil is abducted from his home in Punxsutawny, Pennsylvania, held up in front of an awestruck crowd and forced to tell the masses how much longer they’re going to have to bear the winter. In the off season, a group called the Inner Circle cares for Phil and his wife Phyllis.

Despite the fact that a groundhog has an average life span or 10 years and Punxsutawny Phil has been around for 120 years, the Inner Circle insists that the Phil that predicted spring this year is the same one that predicted spring over a century ago. When asked why Phil has survived 12 times longer than any other groundhog in history, the Inner Circle said that they have a beverage called “Groundhog Punch” that extends Phil’s life span. They also claim that they are able to understand Phil’s predictions because the club President speaks “groundhogese.”

Shamu the Killer Whale

Shamu was the second female orca ever captured and only the third ever orca put on display for the public. Since she was captured from the wild, we don’t know exactly how old Shamu was but by best guesses she was born in 1961. Though Shamu was originally meant to be a companion for an orca named Namu in a Seattle aquarium, the two didn’t hit it off and she was moved to Sea World in San Diego in 1965. Shamu starred in a number of Sea World Shows but was forced into retirement. Contrary to what we’ve seen in movies and cartoons, wild orcas don’t enjoy being ridden and someone caught Shamu on tape attacking a trainer, Annette Eckis, who kept trying to do just that.

The real Shamu died from a blood infection in 1971 at the estimated age of 10-much earlier than the average female orca which lives to about 50. Sea World has since turned the name Shamu into a stage name for a number of the killer whales that perform in the parks. Those with a yen for whales can watch “Shamu” swimming in her tank on the Shamu Cam.

Montecore the Tiger

Montecore the Tiger isn’t so much famous as infamous. The seven-year-old tiger was hit by the media’s glare after mauling Roy Horn, half of the famous duo Siegfried and Roy, during a 2003 show at The Mirage.

Initial stories claimed a woman with a large hairdo tried to reach out and touch the tiger during the show. The tiger lunged and Horn just got in the way. Show footage later revealed that the tiger snapped when one of his testicles got trapped in a stage door. Media sources claims that as he was being dragged away by paramedics Horn shouted out to witnesses not to “shoot the cat.” Due to his injuries Horn suffered a stroke and partial paralysis. Montecore was quarantined for 10 days but was not harmed. He appeared briefly in the 2009 Siegfried and Roy Comeback/Farewell show.

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