Man Feeds Three Week Old Puppy To Snake

Man jailed and ordered to undergo psychological testing.

Phoenix, Az. -- An Arizona man is in jail after admitting that he fed a three week old puppy to a pet boa constrictor as two teenage boys watched.

Joseph Beadle has been ordered to undergo drug and psychological testing before he's sentenced for felony animal cruelty.




Police say he poured cooking oil on the pup so it would be easier for the snake to swallow it. Investigators also found the snake to be a victim of neglect and put it in the care of animal handlers.

Beadle pleaded guilty to the animal cruelty charge last month, but was jailed after failing to show up for sentencing. The hearing has been rescheduled for next month. Beadle could get up to a year in jail and be fined 150-thousand dollars.

Reference:wfmynews2

Rabid cat bites people, police have to shoot it

Bellingham, MA - Local residents are in disbelief after a rabid cat attacked two residents and a family cat before being put down by animal control.
At one point, Dave Alexander got a call during dinner to bring his three children inside because a stray cat was attacking people, he said.

"I come outside and there he was fighting with my cat," said Alexander. "They were rolling around in the bushes."

When animal control and the police showed up, the stray had moved to the backyard.

"They had a crate and the cat just wouldn't go in the box. The officer had to shoot it like five times before it stopped struggling," said Alexander.

"It's certainly something you don't expect to happen in your own backyard," said Winona Chamberlin, the neighbor of the man attacked on Rose Avenue Extension.

The large orange short-haired domestic stray cat with yellow eyes was wreaking havoc earlier this week in Bellingham.

The first attack happened Monday at 6 Northeast Drive where a woman was bit on her ankles before the cat scurried away, said Cindy Souza, the animal control department head.

A woman at 6 Northeast Drive, who did not want to be identified, reported the incident Monday evening and animal control put a trap in her backyard to catch the cat, Souza said.

While Souza said the woman had been feeding the cat, the woman said she hadn't and that she had never seen the cat before.

"It came over the stone wall and I didn't know where it was coming from," said the woman.

The next day (Tuesday) the stray cat showed up in the Rose Avenue Extension neighborhood where it grabbed onto Colin Osborne's leg and wrestled with the Alexander family's cat.

Neighbor Gail Wiebers had called the police after seeing a strange cat in the community, she said.

"It was running between the houses and even chased a little girl into her house before going under the (Osbornes') porch," said Wiebers.

"We just came back from vacation in Ireland and my son lost his shoe, so he and my husband went out in the backyard to look for it," said Siobhan Osborne, who's husband, Colin, was attacked.

"The next thing I know I hear my husband shouting, 'Get the kids,' " said Osborne.

The cat locked onto Colin Osborne's lower left leg and he had to strike it several times before it ran away, said Osborne.

Four-year-old Caragh was outside with her father and her brother Aodhgan, 3, when he was attacked. She is still terrified from the incident, said Osborne.

"She thinks all cats are out to kill her daddy," said Osborne.

The cat tested positive for rabies at the Department of Public Health lab, said Souza.

The two residents have already started a series of post-rabies shots.

The Alexander family cat, Ellwod, was up to date on his shots, but is on antibiotics and being quarantined inside for 45 days, said Alexander.

Animal control officers and the Board of Health want to get the word out in case any other animals or people were scratched or bitten by the stray.

Step one was putting a notice in everyone's mailbox on North East Drive and Rose Avenue Extension, said Chamberlin.



"The rabid animal that infected the cat could still be out there, so everybody should be aware that pets, a child or anyone outside can be bitten," said Chamberlin.

If any pets could have come in contact with a this or any rabid animal they should be taken to a veterinarian. Residents concerned about contact should visit their physician, said Souza.

"They had a sighting of the cat half-a-mile away toward the Mendon line," said Health Agent Michael Graft. "It could have happened anywhere."

Rabies is transmitted through saliva from a scratch or bite and is 100 percent treatable, said Souza.

"If untreated it's always fatal, so it's important to treat it as promptly as possible," said Graf.

In the end, health agents and officials hope this serves as a reminder to not play with or feed strays.

"We want to advise people not to approach strays. Even though it may resemble the neighbor's cat, don't approach any animal you're not familiar with," said Graf.

Reference:milforddailynews

St. Paul dog ordinance goes after bad owners

Associated Press

ST. PAUL -- After several recent vicious dog attacks in the Twin Cities, including one this week in St. Paul, the city is going after what many experts say is the real problem: bad owners.

Under the measure the St. Paul City Council passed Wednesday, owners who have a dog taken away because of abuse or neglect more than once in five years would lose the right to own a dog.

And one council member wants to take it even further. Dan Bostrom is calling for a state law that would allow the city to prohibit entire breeds of dog, singling out pit bulls.

"There are dog bites all the time where you get a nip here and a nip there," Bostrom said. "But if you research this thing I think you'll probably find that the major bites are from pit bulls. There's a feeling that we've got to protect our citizens."

Council Member Dave Thune objected to singling out particular dogs.

"There's absolutely no reason to single out American Staffordshire terriers as more dangerous than other breeds," he said of the dogs more commonly known as pit bulls. "... It's the owners. It's not the breed of dog."

The St. Paul ordinance was in the works before Monday's attack on 59-year-old Joann Jungmann. It's meant to address complaints from some that when the city removes an abused dog, or one that's been trained to fight, the owner simply buys a new one.



The two pit bulls involved in Monday's attack were euthanized Wednesday and will be tested for rabies. Jungmann was up and walking Wednesday, but still has several skin grafts ahead of her.

St. Paul animal control chief Bill Stephenson said the dogs' owner, Jerry Lorenzo Morgan, would likely get a citation. Morgan had been cited for a previous dog-bite incident.

Morgan said Wednesday his "deepest sympathy" goes to Jungmann.

"We really, really feel bad for the woman," Morgan said. "It's just a sad, sad thing."

Jungmann was just the latest victim in a string of Twin Cities dog attacks. The first three were in Minneapolis, some involving pit bulls and some other breeds.

Linda Peterson, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club, was wary of St. Paul's new ordinance. She said they take away a pet owner's property rights.

But Mike Fry, executive director of the Animal Ark No-Kill Shelter in Hastings, said it was the right move.

"Pet ownership is a privilege, not a right," Fry said. "The way we handle them and care for them has impacts throughout our culture."

Patrick Bettendorf, a local radio host and owner of a 3-year-old pit bull, said it was fair to go after the owners but not the dogs. "If you chain them out in the backyard, you are absolutely going to have an antisocial dog," he said.

Reference:postbulletin

Wheat Gluten Company In Pet Food Recall Raided

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration conducted a search of the Las Vegas offices of ChemNutra, supplier of the ingredient suspected in the contamination of millions of cans of recalled dog and cat food, the company said Friday.
ChemNutra said it had been informed the company could be held accountable because it imported the melamine-adulterated wheat gluten used in the tainted pet food even though the company had no knowledge its supplier in China had introduced melamine into the product.

"We have cooperated and complied fully with FDA investigators both prior to and since being served with today's search warrant, and will continue to do so," Steve Miller, chief executive officer of ChemNutra Inc., said in a statement. "We keep very good records, which has made it relatively easy for the investigators to retrieve what they needed."

A spokeswoman for the FDA, Julie Zawisza, would neither confirm nor deny a search warrant was executed.



A ChemNutra spokesman said he would be available later Friday to answer questions about this latest development in the ongoing case.

Menu Foods Midwest, an affiliate of Menu Foods Ltd., the company that recalled 60 million cans of pet food, earlier this week filed a lawsuit that seeks to have ChemNutra pay the costs of the recall plus damages.

ChemNutra maintains Menu Foods waited several weeks before notifying it about the problem. ChemNutra also says Menu Foods had other suppliers of wheat gluten.

Menu Foods Ltd., based in Streetsville, Ontario, recalled its products after 16 pets, mostly cats, died from eating contaminated food. Other manufacturers also recalled animal food.

The lawsuit, which lists Menu Foods Midwest, Menu Foods Ltd., Menu Foods Holdings Inc. and Menu Foods Inc. as plaintiffs, accuses ChemNutra of breach of contract and breach of implied warranties about the safety of the wheat gluten and its fitness for use in pet food. It said each shipment of wheat gluten came with a certificate saying it met Menu Foods' requirements.

"ChemNutra knew that Menu Foods was relying on ChemNutra's skill and judgment to supply high-quality wheat gluten," the lawsuit said.

Menu Foods said it faces more than 50 lawsuits.

Reference:myfoxny

Dog Attack Bill Could Mean Felony For Owners

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

A bill before legislators in Austin could put more bite in the penalties assessed on pet owners whose dogs attack humans.

Natalie Smith, animal control officer under Smith County Constable Frank Creath, said the new bill would "shore up" current laws if made into law.

"I think these bills give us more teeth," she said. "I really do. And I believe it shores up the criminal law making it a serious crime for pet owners who fail to prevent their dogs from attacking."

The proposed laws could land a person in jail for 20 years under legislation tentatively adopted Tuesday by the House.

The measure, passed on a voice vote, is one of several dog-control measures being considered by the Legislature this year.

The bill by Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, would make it a third degree felony - punishable by two to 10 years in prison and an optional $10,000 fine - if the owner failed to secure a dog that makes an unprovoked attack.

If the victim dies, the crime would be a second degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

For a dog owner to be charged with a crime under current law, the dog must have been classified as dangerous from a previous incident - a provision critics call "one free bite."

The Gattis bill eliminates the dangerous dog requirement.

Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, questioned whether the measure would make it too easy to penalize less serious dog attacks.

Gattis said the law would only apply to "ripping the flesh, tearing the muscle" and the type of injury that could cause death.

"We don't want to criminalize every dog ... just the most serious," Gattis said.

Current law classifies an unprovoked attack by a dangerous dog as a class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to $500. The penalty increases if the attack causes serious bodily injury or death.

Officer Smith said the dog attacks in Smith County are on the rise because of the population explosion in the southern portion of the county.

"We had 14 complaints this past weekend of dog attacks, and five of those were on people," she said.

One of those people was a man riding his bicycle, who Smith said was able to outrun the dog.

Earlier this month, a Flint girl was attacked by a 170-pound Bullmastiff everyone in the neighborhood considered docile.

The young girl required multiple stitches and survived the attack because her friend fought the dog off.

Two Flint women were attacked by pit bulls last April, and one woman underwent major surgery to repair several broken bones in her leg.

"We see this on a daily basis and it is dangerous for people and other animals," Officer Smith said. "The other attacks this weekend left other animals dead."

The recent flurry of legislation related to dog attacks largely stems from the 2005 death of an elderly woman who was mauled by a neighbor's six dogs while she mowed her front lawn.



Jose Hernandez, the dogs' owner, last month was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the November 2005 death of 76-year-old Lillian Stiles.

The legislation has become known as "Lillian's Law."

Investigators have said Stiles was walking back to her house after getting off her riding lawn mower when the dogs attacked.

The legislation is House Bill 1355. Similar bills still pending in the Senate are Senate Bill 411 and Senate Bill 405.

While Officer Smith said she wanted the bill to pass, she questioned how it would be enforced.

"Where are they going to find the people to enforce all of these complaints? I mean if we are getting 14 calls a day, then that's more than one person can handle," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Reference:tylerpaper

Ban on Ivory Proposed in Africa

African states have called for a 20-year ban on trade in ivory to protect the continent's elephants from poachers and possible extinction in the wild.
Kenya and Mali, which spearheaded the moratorium along with Togo and Ghana, are seeking to have the measure adopted at the June meeting of the 169-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), their representatives said at a meeting in Paris on Tuesday.

A delegation representing some 20 African nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger, will tour Europe this week to secure backing from the European Union for the ban, they said.

"The elephants are dramatically becoming depleted," said Patrick Omondi, head of species conservation and management at the Kenya Wildlife Service. "A 20-year moratorium is necessary to allow the population to recover, and to refine the mechanisms of law enforcement."



The African representatives lashed out at partial bans and quotas that have been implemented in the past.

"Every time CITES authorizes the sale of limited quantities of ivory, we witness an increase in poaching and illegal trade," said Bourama Niagate, head of the delegation and of nature conservation in Mali.

"We are confronted with men who are very organized and better armed than our standing armies, and at the same time we are in charge of protecting hundreds of thousands of hectares (acres) of parks and preserves without even basic communication tools," he said.

Threatened by Poachers
According to a report submitted by the African nations, the continent's elephant population has plummeted approximately ten-fold from up to five million in the 1940s to 400,000 to 600,000 today. The decline is largely due to poaching for the animals' tusks.


According to a report submitted by the African nations to CITES, the continent's elephant population has plummeted approximately ten-fold from up to five million in the 1940s to 400,000 to 600,000 today.

Some 20,000 elephants are killed by poachers every year, according to the document.

Illegal hunting has devastated elephant populations in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo, the DRC, as well as in Niger, Mali, Malawi and Chad, where poachers recently killed three park officials.

"At 850 dollars a kilo for ivory in Japan, a poacher will go to any lengths to obtain 10 or 20 kilos," said the DRC's representative, Cosma Wilungula Balongelwa. "We have already lost our rhinoceros because of the trade in their horns."

In Sub-Saharan Africa, only a handful of countries — South Africa, Namibia and Botswana — do not support the moratorium. These nations are authorised by CITES to export limited quantities of ivory on the condition that they maintain elephant populations at certain levels through conservation.


Reference:discovery