diff --git a/r.html.markdown b/r.html.markdown
index 7a94ba05..e7486e60 100644
--- a/r.html.markdown
+++ b/r.html.markdown
@@ -663,7 +663,8 @@ require(plyr)
 
 # "pets.csv" is a file on the internet
 # (but it could just as easily be a file on your own computer)
-pets <- read.csv("http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/pets.csv")
+require(RCurl)
+pets <- read.csv(textConnection(getURL("http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/pets.csv")))
 pets
 head(pets, 2) # first two rows
 tail(pets, 1) # last row