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Day Of The Animals: Tales Of Man Vs Beast (And Man Suffers)

New US alligator killings feared

Alligators are becoming more active as the weather heats up
The bodies of two more women have been retrieved in Florida having suffered apparent attacks by alligators.
The finds follow a fatal attack last week, only the 18th confirmed alligator killing in Florida since 1948.

In the latest cases, a 23-year-old woman was pronounced dead after being pulled from the jaws of an alligator in the Lake George area.

The body of another woman who had apparently suffered alligator bites was found in a canal near St Petersburg.

Residents have been warned not to swim in vegetated areas or walk pets near water, particularly at night.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said increasing temperatures meant alligators were more active in searching for food and mates.

"As the weather heats up, the alligators' metabolism increases and they have to eat more. They might be moving more, but that just shouldn't mean increased alligator attacks."

Autopsy

At Lake George, 50 miles (80km) south-east of Gainesville, the 23-year-old woman was attacked while snorkelling.

Marion County Fire-Rescue Captain Joe Amigliore told the Associated Press news agency: "The people she was staying with came around and found her inside the gator's mouth

"They jumped into the water and somehow pulled her out."

However, the so-far unidentified woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

In the other new case, the body of Judy W Cooper, 43, was found in a canal north of St Petersburg with bites consistent with those of an alligator.

A preliminary autopsy said the bites did play some part in her death.

Neither of the new attacks is yet confirmed as an alligator fatality.

Traps have been set for both alligators involved in the attacks.

Arms found

Last Wednesday, the dismembered body of Yovy Suarez Jimenez, 28, was found in the town of Sunrise, a day after she vanished while jogging near the canal.

No-one is believed to have seen the attack, but some people saw a woman matching Ms Jimenez's description dangling her feet over the canal's edge.

Florida wildlife officials said a 2.9m (9ft 6in) alligator had been trapped under the bridge where Ms Jimenez was last seen. Two human arms were found inside its stomach.

In addition to the 18 confirmed fatalities in 58 years, there have been nine other suspected alligator killings.




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4771435.stm
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Dead Bear In A Tree... How Did It Get There?
Treed Bear Shot Dead by Police
Reported By: Jennifer Leslie

A black bear sighting in a Clayton County neighborhood took a dramatic turn Sunday morning. Police shot the bear when they determined it was a threat. But they had to turn to a tree expert to remove the bear's body since it was stuck near the top of a pine tree.

Coleman Tatum, who runs a tree removal service in Griffin, was called in to climb up the tree and lower the bear down using a rope. "When you're about 95 feet up on a pine and you're with a 250 pound bear, it's a little nerve-wracking at first," Tatum said. "Then you get your job done."

The bear ended up at the top of the tree after fighting with one of Christina Halm's pitbulls. "It was very scary, very scary," Halm said. "We haven't slept in this house all night. We've been up all night." Halm first spotted the bear in the backyard of her home on Excalibur Drive near Riverdale on Saturday night. A neighbor called Clayton County Police.

Officers responded and considered the bear a threat to the dogs, so they shot him."After they shot the bear, they thought it was dead, but it wasn't," said neighbor Tony Kwakyi. "It climbed back up the tree."

The bear was severely wounded and stuck in the tree, so state wildlife biologists shot him one more time to end his life humanely. They believe he was part of a group of bears who live in middle Georgia.

"It's possible the bear wandered this far north in search of food," said Ben Johnson, Senior Public Relations Specialist with the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. "He was probably trying to establish its own territory. It was a young adult male."

Neighbors who initially feared the bear felt sorry for him as his body was taken away. "That's when my heart started beating fast," said neighbor Alicia Anderson. "It really got to me. I understand they did what they had to do in case he hurt anybody else, but it touched me."

State experts believe the bear was traveling alone. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has a 24-hour hotline you can use if you spot a bear.
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I'm not a pleasant pheasant

A postman has used his mobile phone's video to prove that he came under attack from a wild pheasant.

Steve Dykes became a target for the bad-tempered bird when he began making deliveries in Llechwedd, near Conwy.

A colleague also tried to video the fowl's foul behaviour - but it behaved decently until he was alone.

Mr Dykes, 47, of Mochdre, says the bird has a "Jekyll and Hyde" character. He said: "I thought if I tell anyone, they are just not going to believe me."

The trouble began in April when the pheasant started taking exception to Mr Dykes' deliveries in the rural community.

As he was chatting to a customer, he noticed the unpleasant pheasant giving him the evil eye, but initially dismissed the idea that it would actually carry out an attack.

But he was quickly proved wrong. As the walked back to his van, the bird began lunging at him, pecking him on his legs and ankles.

Despite kicking the bird away, the attacks have continued whenever the pair's paths have crossed.

Mr Dykes said: "I had loads of holes in my legs where he had been biting me. He had drawn blood.

"At the time I thought he must have thought I was a threat. After then, it became a game for him, but not for me.

"I filmed it because I thought if I tell anyone, they are just not going to believe me. Seeing is believing."

Since then, however, the two seem to have entered into an uneasy truce, after Mr Dykes began bribing the bird with the dog biscuits he keeps handy for the many farmyard dogs on his round.

The bird even allows Mr Dykes to pick him up on occasions, although this is not always the case.

"He is like a Jekyll and Hyde, this one. I don't see him every day now. Other times he will be there all day."

The Royal Mail said most attacks were by dogs, but some involved other animals, and postmen and women were advised to be extremely careful when they visited an address which might be a risk.

A spokesman said that after an incident, the pet owner would be asked to keep their animals under control or risk losing deliveries. In more serious cases, the authorities would be asked to take action.
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Nice picture of Postie and Phez if you follow the link.
 
Killer birds raid Cyclone Larry town


From:
By Ian Gerard

May 29, 2006



THEY have borne Cyclone Larry and weeks of torrential rain, but now the luckless residents of Innisfail face a new dilemma, a posse of hungry marauding cassowaries.

The critically endangered and famously testy flightless bird, known for its ability to disembowel humans with its razor-sharp claws, is running amok through the backyards and suburban streets of north Queensland in search of food.

The birds are believed to have left rainforest areas after much of the fruit-bearing plants they depend on were knocked down by Larry's 260km/h winds.

It is expected to be months before the birds' food sources begin to replenish.

Meanwhile, roaming cassowaries are reported to have chased several residents through town. One recently fell into a backyard swimming pool and had to be rescued.

The people of Innisfail and surrounds have now been warned not to feed the birds.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers have set up food stations throughout the cyclone-affected region to entice cassowaries back into the forests and save them from being hit by cars or chased by dogs. At least six cassowaries have died in the Mission Beach region, south of Innisfail, since the cyclone, all struck by cars.

The birds are vital to the survival of the World Heritage-listed wet tropics rainforest because they are the only animals capable of distributing the seeds of more than 70 species of trees whose fruit is too large for any other forest-dwelling animal to eat and thus relocate.

There are less than 1200 cassowaries left in Australia.

Rangers had to remove roadside feeding stations in the weeks after Larry because too many of the endangered birds were being drawn to traffic.

Smaller birds found in suburban streets are being relocated into rainforest areas.

While the hungry birds are causing problems in Innisfail, Jan Shang is used to having them march through her backyard. Ms Shang and husband Percy have for years been visited by Faith, a female cassowary.

"They don't bother me at all," she said. "They just walk through and I leave water for them, they take a sip of the water and continue on.

"I was a bit put out they were being taken away but when you saw their droppings they had no food in it, so they must have been starving."

While the rainforest around her home was denuded in the recent storm, Ms Shang said forest fruits were slowly beginning to grow back.

During the evening, hundreds of flying foxes can also be seen hovering over Gordonvale, south of Cairns. The loss of their regular food sources has led them to raid backyard trees in search of fruit.
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www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19286636-421,00.html
 
Mr Stabby.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/5039896.stm


Dog attack woman, 20, recovering

Chris Davis was forced to stab the dog several times
A woman attacked by a dog is in a stable condition following emergency surgery.
Kayleigh Thornton, 20, from Plymouth suffered severe arm and leg injuries and was taken to Derriford Hospital for surgery. A second woman was also hurt.

Neighbour Chris Davis, 23, was forced to kill the crossbreed animal by stabbing it several times.

The incident happened in Manifold Gardens in the Efford area of Plymouth on Thursday morning.

Ms Thornton is thought to have been looking after the dog at a house in the area.

It is believed she was attacked after trying to intervene when the animal bit a 31-year-old woman who had come to the front door.

Mr Davis described the dog as "huge and angry" and said it had "gone berserk".

He described how he stabbed the animal about 20 times before it started to stagger and released the woman's arm.

Although he was not bitten by the dog, Mr Davis suffered scratches on both arms and will be given a tetanus injection.

The dog's body was taken away by Plymouth City Council.

Sgt Alan Mobbs of Devon and Cornwall Police said the dog - a bull mastiff-type - was not classed as a dangerous breed.

Its owner has now been traced.
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Run For Your Lives! Unkillable Headlice!!

The Times, June 14, 2006

How lice are becoming invincible

By Nigel Hawkes

Scientists scratch their heads for a new solution as 80 per cent of nits are now drug-resistant

THEY are the unwanted visitors that every mother dreads. As a nation, we spend £30 million every year on lotions and potions to rid our children of head lice.

But the little critters must be mocking our efforts for they have defeated most of what the chemist can throw at them.

Public health doctors in Wales, who had the unenviable task of combing 4,000 lice from the hair of primary schoolchildren, discovered that 80 per cent were resistant to the insecticides commonly used to eradicate them.

Tomorrow is National Bug Busting Day, an event organised by the charity Community Hygiene Concern. But anyone wanting to do some bug busting of their own may have little success with common over-the-counter treatments based on the chemicals permethrin and phenothrin.

A team led by Daniel Thomas, of the National Public Health Service for Wales Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, found that four out of five lice were resistant to these chemicals, found in well-known brands such as Lyclear and Full Marks.

Eliminating them has become big business. Yet the number of diagnosed cases has continued to rise, largely because the creatures have become increasingly immune to common treatments.

Eight per cent of the Welsh children tested had lice, and the researchers said this was probably typical of Britain.

The traditional comfort, that lice like clean hair, may not even be true. Some experts suggest that this is simply something that nurses have told parents to comfort them, and that the bugs are as likely to set up home in a dirty mop.

There is no escaping the strength of the new enemy. Where insects are exposed to poisons, as lice have been for many years, resistance follows. Insects either evolve methods for detoxifying the poison before it reaches its target in their bodies, or they become less sensitive to the poison even if it does hit the target.

The process is natural selection in action. Where random variation in the insect genes confers resistance on a single creature, that creature increases its chance of survival and of having offspring sharing the same gene.

Pretty soon, a resistant population emerges, as seems to be the case in Dr Thomas’s study. He and his team report in Archives of Disease in Childhood that relatively few lice, only about 5 per cent, had a double copy of the resistance gene for the pyrethroids. Each gene comes in two copies, but having both copies — though it makes the insect impervious to the poison — seems to disadvantage it in other ways. So relatively few insects carry both copies.

This hardly matters, since a single copy makes them to all intents and purposes resistant, and fully 77 per cent of the lice had one copy. This means that more than 80 per cent of the lice tested were resistant to pyrethroid insecticides.

All this has Dr Thomas and his team scratching their heads. Permethrin and phenothrin are the most popular chemical treatments for lice, primarily because they require relatively little contact time with the hair and smell less unpleasant than the alternatives.

Other solutions include the organophosphate malathion, found in the brand Prioderm, or a new product, dimeticone lotion, which has recently been licensed and has proved as effective and as safe as phenothrin.

Where resistance rates are as high as in Wales, one or other of these may be a suitable alternative, the researchers say. There are no data yet to show which works best. But a study published in the British Medical Journal last year suggests that the traditional approach might be more effective than all-out chemical warfare.

Scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine studied 126 young people, and found that Community Hygiene Concern’s “bug buster kit”, containing nothing more high-tech than four specially designed combs, was more effective than chemical treatments.

HOW TO KEEP A CLEAR HEAD

* Electric comb When the buzzing stops during combing a louse has been trapped in the metal-coated teeth. A small electrical charge passes between the teeth and kills the insect, which can then be removed

* Home remedy Equal amounts of cooking oil and white vinegar, adding 20 drops of tea-tree oil. The mixture is massaged into the scalp and combed through to the ends of the hair. The hair is wrapped in a plastic bag (young children should not be left unattended) for three hours or more. Lice and nits are said to slide off easily and be suffocated

* Neem oil Products using neem oil are increasingly popular in beating headlice. Many parts of the neem tree have antimicrobial properties, which provide ingredients for traditional and modern toothpastes, medicines, cosmetics and insect repellents in South Asia

Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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Bear visit mirrors nursery tale
Life mirrored art - or at least a nursery tale - when a West Vancouver woman came home to find a bear munching oatmeal in her kitchen.
The bear was said to have entered the house through an open sliding door, the Vancouver Province newspaper reported.

"It sounds like a nursery rhyme," Sgt Paul Skelton told the paper.

But unlike Goldilocks - caught stealing food in the Three Bears' house in the popular children's story - this bear did not flee when found.

"It appeared to be a one to two-year-old bear - a juvenile - within the kitchen enjoying some oatmeal it had obtained by breaking a ceramic food container," Sgt Skelton said.

"When she saw it, she did the right thing. She vacated the area and called us."

Not aggressive

But the bear paid scant attention as police arrived on the scene, and continued tucking in with little sign of fear or remorse.

"The bear didn't appear to be aggressive and wasn't destroying the house, so they just let it do what it was doing.

"Eventually the bear decided to make its way out of the residence and down toward a forested gully," Sgt Skelton said.

Intrusions are common in the area as bears come out of hibernation, the paper reported, and are happening later than usual this year because of heavy winter snows, according to police.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ... 097124.stm

Published: 2006/06/20 06:00:56 GMT

© BBC MMVI
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Bruno the bear dodges German hunt

The search for Bruno
An elusive brown bear called Bruno has slipped away from trackers in the Bavarian Alps after a close encounter in the lakeside resort of Kochel.
A fifth hunter from Finland has now joined the search, with what is said to be the best Finnish bear-tracking dog.

Bavarian officials said the bear, also known as JJ1, was last spotted in Kochel late on Friday. It was even seen sitting outside the police station.

It is the first brown bear to appear in southern Germany for some 100 years.

Fearless predator

Bavaria's Environment Ministry warns on its website that the bear does not fear humans and poses a serious danger to the public. The authorities want to shoot Bruno with a narcotic.


The bear has killed about 25 sheep and four goats in the Bavarian Alps since crossing the border from Austria a few weeks ago.
In Kochel it also raided a beehive and a rabbit hutch, German media report.

Bavaria's Environment Ministry is keeping a daily progress report on the hunt for Bruno.

It says that on Friday night a man walking his dog in Kochel saw the bear in a street, about 20 metres (66ft) away, and ran behind a house to avoid it. But the bear did the same - and this time man and bear were 70m apart.

Then the bear ran off, climbed a wall and reappeared later outside the Kochel police station, before heading off for the woods again.

Bruno's escapade has inspired an internet hunting game, with the website www.brunoderbaer.de offering readers the chance to fire narcotic darts at the bear when he pops up from various hiding places.

Meanwhile, Bruno's brother JJ2 is at large in the Italian Alps. Bruno's mother - who is blamed for his savage behaviour - has another three cubs.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/e ... 094310.stm

Published: 2006/06/19 12:15:14 GMT

© BBC MMVI
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Escaped porcupine found in stable

The public were warned not to approach Twinkle
A porcupine who sparked an alert after escaping from a farm visitors' centre in Cumbria has been found.
Twinkle, a three-feet long female, escaped on Friday night after burrowing under a fence at Eden Ostrich World in Langwathby, near Penrith.

Cumbria Police had warned the public not to approach Twinkle because of her detachable, poison-filled quills.

She was found early on Monday at nearby Bank House Equestrian cenre, none the worse for her burst of freedom.

Her owners at Ostrich World say a new, more secure pen is being built to make sure she does not escape again.

Jim Peet, the founder of the farm visitors' centre, said: "Twinkle is pretty cool and about the size of a sheep dog, but porcupines are classed as dangerous wild animals because of their quills."




http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 116330.stm
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Bruno the bear shot dead in Alps

Wild bears once roamed widely across much of Europe
Hunters in the Bavarian Alps have shot dead a brown bear called Bruno after spending weeks trying to find it.
Earlier the German authorities had said the bear could be shot because it posed a danger to humans.

"The shooting has happened. The bear is dead," said Bavaria's government bear expert Manfred Woelfl. Hunters found it early on Monday near Spitzingsee.

The bear had been blamed for killing dozens of sheep. It had crossed into Germany from Italy in May.

In the German town of Kochel it had also raided a beehive and a rabbit hutch.

A pack of Finnish tracking dogs was brought in to capture Bruno alive, but they failed to corner it. The plan was to shoot the bear with a narcotic dart.

Bruno was the first wild bear to be sighted in Germany since 1835.

The animal was part of an Italian programme to reintroduce bears to the Alps.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5116316.stm
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Boo BEar Escapes The Neutering Threat

Grizzly bear sought after double escape from B.C. resort

GOLDEN, British Columbia -- A freedom-loving grizzly bear named Boo smashed a heavy steel door and barreled through two electric fences to escape a second time from a resort near this southcentral British Columbia town.

Boo was recaptured Friday, two weeks after breaking out of an artificial den at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, but escaped from tighter confinement within a day, resort spokesman Michael Dalzell said Tuesday.

“It’s unbelievable,” Dalzell said. “We thought there was no way, it was absolutely impossible, but he found a way. It was basically like breaking out of Fort Knox.” He said the bear bashed a nearly 400-pound steel door off its four bolts, destroyed an electrical box while tearing through two electric fences and scrambled over a 12-foot fence anchored with two feet of steel below ground.

“I think he just kept charging it (the door) and charging it until it broke off its bolts,” Dalzell said. “Everything was completely trashed. We are dealing with a pretty smart and determined bear.” The search team that caught Boo on Friday went back to work Sunday morning but saw no sign of the grizzly after logging more than 50 hours in a helicopter.

Resort staff had planned to neuter Boo, but he got away first. Once he’s located, authorities will decide whether to try to recapture him again, Dalzell said. “Right now we are in the process of looking for him . . . we are not out to try to trap or tranquilize him,” he said. “We are looking at all options. Obviously, we need to just really look at our program and figure this one out.”

The bear has lived inside a 22-acre enclosure since his mother was illegally shot by a hunter in 2002. It’s unclear if he could fend for himself and, being used to humans, would likely be a problem in the wild, experts said. Boo is now in a “lose-lose situation,” said Tracey Henderson of the Grizzly Bear Alliance in Canmore, Alberta.

“The poor guy has now tasted freedom and he is going to be more motivated to keep getting out,” she said. “There is a side of me that’s saying, ‘Way to go Boo,’ but there is another side of me that’s really worried about this bear being in the wild near humans.”

Boo’s first escape was blamed on hormones, June being the prime mating season for grizzlies, but Henderson said the second escape might indicate the bear no longer would tolerate confinement. “It’s just a sad situation,” she said. “He is clearly a bear that wants to be free, yet we’ve created a situation where it’s not really safe for him to be free.”
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LINK
 
Help! There's a bear in my car

A bear cub climbed into a convertible car and proceeded to guzzle pizza and beer that had been left inside by the owner.

“The bear was loping along in the parking lot and then decides to get inside the car,” said Jerry Patterson, a resident of Stateline, Nevada.

The car’s owner, David Ziello, of South Lake Tahoe, said that the bear did not cause any damage, but slopped cheese and chillies around the vehicle’s interior. Up to two dozen bears live near the south shore of the lake. (AP)
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The accompanying picture is very cute. :D
 
LINK
States Ban Hunting of Live Animals over the Internet

Louisiana has joined 21 other states in banning Internet hunting, the practice of using a mouse click to kill animals on a distant game farm.

The cyber-shooting idea was the brainchild of Texan John Lockwood, who started the web site Live-Shot.com.

The idea was this: Hunters sign up on the web site and pay some $1,500 or more. They schedule a session, then log on at their appointed time to watch a feeding station on the computer screen. The animal that was ordered—from wild hogs to antelope—is in the area, and when it approaches the food, the hunter moves on-screen crosshairs into place. A click of the mouse fires a rifle to kill the animal.

The armchair hunter's trophy animal would then be mounted and shipped for display. Texas outlawed the practice last year. Humane Society executive vice president Michael Markarian was pleased with the decision in Louisiana.

"Responsible hunters know there's no sport in shooting an animal remotely while lying in bed and wearing camouflage pajamas," Markarian said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, the game farm's web site now says hunters must come to the farm, where they "can now offer a unique hunting opportunity for disabled and handicapped hunters, as well as others, who may need the assistance of our system while hunting."
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My deer-hunting friend told me about Internet hunting. He finds it gross and pointless. Hunting, when it's not about making meat, is about getting outside with your dad, brothers, and nephews. He's gone hunting on weekends when he said he didn't want to get a deer because it was too warm. This crap would be like getting a robot to walk your dog.
 
What about people that can't walk or get out of their wheelchairs or beds? I'm sure the guy can send the meat if the disabled person wants it. We have a thread on this somewhere.
 
Police dog blamed for running over pedestrian
German shepherd left in truck, apparently put vehicle in gear
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OGDEN, Utah - A police dog that was left in a pickup with the engine running apparently knocked the vehicle into gear and ran down a woman who was walking to her mailbox.

Mary F. Stone, 41, was expected to remain hospitalized with a fractured pelvis and tailbone until at least Friday, said her husband, Paul Stone.

The dog, a German shepherd named Ranger, had been left in the truck while its handler responded to a domestic disturbance call Tuesday, police Lt. Loring Draper said. The truck’s engine was on so Ranger would have air conditioning.

Draper said Ranger must have hit the shift on the steering column, putting the automatic transmission into gear. As the truck slowly rolled forward, police officers yelled to Stone, but she couldn’t get out of the way in time, he said.

A front and rear tire ran over her. “She had tire marks on her clothes,” her husband said.

The truck then went through the Stones’ yard and struck a vehicle in the driveway.

Draper said police were trying to determine if there might have been some malfunction that would have allowed the gear shift to be moved easily.

© 2006 The Associated Press.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13841261/

:splat:

(There's no Emoticon showing me spewing coffee out of my nose while trying not to laugh at this woman's misfortune.)
 
Everyone knows English sheepdogs are much better drivers.
 
Re: re

jonnygoodtimes said:
it should be relatively easy to train a dog
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Then they should train him to use the rear view mirror before putting the vehicle into gear!

:rofl:


Sorry, I can't help myself.
 
Snakes In A Car!
Astoria woman 'freaks out' after finding snakes in car

ASTORIA, Ore. -- A slithery surprise found in a car at a grocery store parking lot may have been a prank rather than the work of Mother Nature -- and if it was, it turned into a prank that kept on surprising.

Sherry Hart found a pair of garter snakes in the back seat of her car on a recent shopping trip, only to find more under a floor mat. "This lady was freaking out next to her car," says Will Brinkerhoff, 17, an employee at the North Coast Fred Meyer.

Eventually more than 20 of the harmless snakes were found inside the car, some pencil-thin and one the diameter of a quarter and 3 feet long. Brinkerhoff recognized Hart's granddaughter, Paige Hart, as a classmate from Warrenton High School when he offered to help last week, along with another Fred Meyer employee, Taylor Hageman, 17, and several customers.

One man dumped out his groceries and gave Hart the plastic carrying bags she could fill them with snakes. When Warrenton police Officer Jim Gaebel arrived he guessed that one snake must have gotten into the car and had babies. Gaebel later told Hart that in all his years in police work, this was his first snake call.

But Hart believes it was a prank. "Who did it? We don't know," she said. But she believes her car was chosen because a window stuck in the open position made it an easy target in the big parking lot.

Hart said her son, Jim Hart, a former Warrenton police officer, agreed and an Oregon State University extension agent later dismissed the theory that the little snakes could have been born inside her car.

But the story did not end there.

When Hart and her granddaughter drove home, "two snakes fell out of the dashboard right where my feet were," Hart said. She and her granddaughter put the snakes in a bucket and dumped them in a vacant lot across the street from Hart's home in downtown Warrenton, just a block from City Hall.

The next day, after a friend pulled off some paneling inside the car, they found yet another big snake. The day after that, three more snakes emerged from her car's innards. One of them bit her as she was pulling it out of the dashboard.

"I'm not afraid of snakes. But when they just keep coming and coming, you kind of get a little paranoid," Hart said.
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Ban for man with cat in freezer
A pet owner who put one of his cats in a freezer has been called "idiotic" by the RSPCA.
Tobias Thomas, 28, of Walsall in the West Midlands, was fined £50 and ordered to pay £300 costs after he admitted causing unnecessary suffering.

He was banned from keeping animals for five years after magistrates heard he put the cat in the freezer to stop it fighting with another cat.

The cat was unharmed but an RSPCA spokesman said his actions were cruel.

'Extreme cruelty'

Insp Simon Davies said: "It is idiotic of anyone to think it is acceptable behaviour to treat an animal in such a way.

"If Mr Thomas had a problem with a new cat fighting his other cat, then he should have sought advice on how to deal with this problem.

"Shutting an animal in a freezer is cruelty in the extreme and I am pleased Mr Thomas has now been banned from keeping animals for five years."

Police discovered the cat in the freezer when they called at Thomas's flat, in Wednesbury Road, about an unrelated matter.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 190946.stm
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Parrot's bite helps shop burglar
A burglar who stole a parrot with a "vicious temper" was traced after it bit him and he left a trail of blood.
Frome magistrates heard how detectives traced Tristan Maidment, 23, of Greenhills in Edington, Wiltshire, from DNA recovered from the shop in Frome.

The court heard how the bird was taken to Maidment's home and kept in a "very cramped" cage in his bedroom, "squawking as if distressed".

Magistrates adjourned sentence until 3 August and remanded him in custody.

In his police interview Maidment said he could not remember being bitten by the bird but admitted drinking before the break-in.

Maidment said his accomplice must have taken the bird to his house and he believed the bird was later sold in Bristol.

'Warning signs'

He admitted burglary and animal cruelty offences, and also pleaded guilty to theft from a Homebase store in Portishead and failing to surrender to bail.

Angus Hart, 45, who had owned Micky the macaw for the past 10 years, had put up signs in the shop warning the bird may bite.

He said the bird was a popular attraction in the town.

Mr Hart and his wife Jayne, 47, were given Micky - thought to be aged about 50 - by a friend.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 199068.stm
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Elephant 'self-portrait' on show

One of the pictures said to have been painted by an elephant
Pictures said to have been painted by elephants have gone on display at an Edinburgh gallery.
Art graduate Victoria Khunapramot, 26, has brought the paintings from Thailand to the Dundas Gallery on Dundas Street.

They include "self-portraits" by Paya, who is said to be the only elephant to have mastered his own likeness.

Paya is one of six elephants whose keepers have taught them how to hold a paintbrush in their trunks. They drop the brush when they want a new colour.

Mrs Khunapramot, from Newington, said: "Many people cannot believe that an elephant is capable of producing any kind of artwork, never mind a self-portrait.

"But they are very intelligent animals and create the entire paintings with great gusto and concentration within just five or 10 minutes - the only thing they cannot do on their own is pick up a paintbrush, so it gets handed to them.

"They are trained by artists who fine-tune their skills, and they paint in front of an audience in their conservation village, leaving no one in any doubt that they are authentic elephant creations."

Elephant painting

Mrs Khunapramot, who set up the Thai Fine Art company after studying the history of art in St Andrews and business management at Edinburgh's Napier University, said it took about a month to train the animals to paint.

Elephant expert Dr Joyce Poole, who has studied the animals for 30 years, said she owned an elephant painting but had not come across animals painting their own images.

The Oslo-based scientist said: "I have seen elephants painting, but it was very free-flow.

"It's certainly capable of drawing an elephant, and could be trained, but might not really understand what it was doing."



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scot ... 203120.stm
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Imagine seeing this draped around your curtain pole in the middle of the night...

7ft python turns up at neighbours

A 7ft python has been found wrapped around a neighbour's curtain pole after it went missing from home.

Sid, a jungle carpet python, escaped from owner Dean Seddon's tank in Mountbatten Road, Great Malvern, Worcs.

The snake was missing for nearly a week before being found in the middle of the night in his neighbour's front room.

Dean's sister, Carly, said: "We had a knock on the door at 4.30am from a neighbour who said it was round their curtain pole. They were quite scared."

Ms Seddon, 20, said her mother Kim went to the neighbour's home to collect the python, which is described as not being a danger to the public.

She said: "I'm not sure how it escaped. I think my brother left the tank a little bit open but he would never admit that.

"He has bought a new lock for the tank now."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/here ... 775809.stm

:shock:
 
Hawk attacks jogger and kills pet

A hawk is terrorising residents in a Staffordshire town.
In two separate attacks, the bird of prey flew from woods and plunged its talons into its victims as they were out jogging in Lichfield.

It was later seen in a back garden where it killed a cat. Jogger Dianne Jackson-Bond said the Harris Hawk swooped on her twice and cut her head.

Expert John Akerman said it had escaped from captivity and was not deliberately attacking, but looking for food.


I heard a 'whoosh' behind me and never thought much of it and as I continued running it came right down on my head
Dianne Jackson-Bond
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Mr Akerman, who is going to attempt to capture the bird, said they were easy to acquire in the UK as no laws existed about keeping them. They cost between £150 and £250.

He told BBC News: "What it is doing is flying to them for food, not attacking them, and then going back up to a tree.

"They are pack hunters and very sociable birds so we will bring a few hawks and hopefully it will join them."

Bleeding head

Victim Ms Jackson-Bond said she heard the bird before it swooped on her.

"I looked up to the sky and saw a bird of prey and it was so close.

"I heard a 'whoosh' behind me and never thought much of it and as I continued running it came right down on my head.

"It made my head bleed and as I carried on running again it came down on me a second time."

In June, a buzzard injured a jogger in a country lane in Shropshire.

Harris Hawks are native to central areas in South America and have been flown in Britain since the 1960s.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/e ... 262078.stm

Published: 2006/08/18 10:11:59 GMT

© BBC MMVI
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Pigeon takes 5,000km wrong turn

Mr Stewart has raced pigeons for many years
Judy the racing pigeon has ditched her chilly Northumberland home for a tropical paradise 5,000km away.
Her owner, John Stewart, got into a flap when the veteran racer failed to return to her coop in Hadston, after being released from Bourges in France.

Mr Stewart assumed Judy perished during the 600 mile cross-Channel trip.

But he was astonished to discover the bird had somehow managed to make it 5,000km (3,106 miles) to the island of St. Eustatius in the West Indies.

Mr Stewart believes Judy hitched a ride on a ship, ending up on the other side of the Atlantic.

He had given up on his prized racing bird after she disappeared in July.



But the North of England Homing Union contacted Mr Stewart to say Judy had been found in the back yard of an expatriate British couple in St Eustatius.

The bird was traced after the couple emailed the identification number on a leg ring.

Mr Stewart said: "I didn't know what to think when they told me. I don't even know where the West Indies are.

"I think she probably took a wrong turn and dropped on a boat.

"I know I'll never get her back now, so I've written a letter to the people over there telling them to pass her on to fancier, if there is one.

"I'll miss her, but you just have to get on with life."




http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 283894.stm
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I don't even know where the West Indies are.
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I'd have expected someone who races pigeons to have a better knowledge of geography than that! :shock:

At least he knows France is across the Channel! :D
 
Woman trying to teach dog how to drive crashes

Woman trying to teach dog how to drive crashes

Associated Press
Aug. 28, 2006 10:18 AM

BEIJING - A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday.

No injuries were reported although both vehicles were slightly damaged, it said.

The woman, identified only be her surname, Li, said her dog "was fond of crouching on the steering wheel and often watched her drive," according to Xinhua. "She thought she would let the dog 'have a try' while she operated the accelerator and brake," the report said. "They did not make it far before crashing into an oncoming car."

Xinhua did not say what kind of dog or vehicles were involved but Li paid for repairs.
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http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articl ... sh-CR.html


:?
 
Girl attacked by pet monkey in critical condition

The Associated Press
Published August 30, 2006, 6:16 AM CDT

A 15-year-old girl was in critical condition after being attacked by a pet monkey on Chicago's Northwest Side this week.

Fire officials said the girl was attacked Monday afternoon and was taken to an area hospital.

The monkey's species has not been determined. The animal has been taken into custody and quarantined by the city's Animal Care and Control office.

There was no other information available.

The city's Health Department and the Lincoln Park Zoo are investigating the incident.

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to own a monkey in Chicago.
 
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