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The clutch of walkers in San Pedro stood and gawked with disbelief. They watched as a man got out of his car, played for a bit with his beautiful, muscular pit bull, and then got back in the vehicle and drove off – without his dog. A suddenly slap-happy canine – left behind by his despicable owner – discovered a new found joy in his freedom as a rover. For a few moments in his life, there was no leash, no owner, no Alpha boss -- and a Los Angeles park right beneath his paws to explore. The jolly canine...

NEW ALBANY, Miss. -- The 16-month-old victim of a pit bull attack has been identified as Destiny Marie Knox from Union County. Her identity was released Friday by Coroner Mark Golding. Her body was taken to Jackson for an autopsy while sheriff's deputies investigated the killing, which occurred Thursday night when the child was attacked by a pit bull at her baby sitter's mobile home.

Saturday, November 07, 2009 Mother Says Pit Bull Owners Want Child's Memorial Removed LEVERITT'S CHAPEL -- The owners of two pit bulls that mauled to death a 10-year-old Leveritt's Chapel boy demanded a memorial to the child be removed, according to his mother. Serenia Clinton will attend a brief ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the spot of her son's death across from his school on County Road 133 to witness removal of the memorial. The memorial started out as a cross made of poster board with Justin Clinton's name on it and signed by his fifth-grade classmates at Leveritt's...

SHERIDAN, Wyo. – Retired orthopedic surgeon Chris Smith thought his hunt was over when he bagged a white tail deer with a bow and arrow near Sheridan. Because the light was fading, he decided to return the next day to recover the deer. But when he returned Wednesday morning, the carcass had been covered by grass and bush — which is what mountain lions typically do. Smith, who was unarmed, then saw the big cat about 25 yards away.....

> A new report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates sea lions ate 4,960 salmon and steelhead during the spring of 2009 — 2.4 percent of the fish passing the dam located near Cascade Locks, Ore. That compares to an adjusted estimate of 4,927, or 2.9 percent of the run, in 2008. And while the number of California sea lions was down — 54 this year compared to 82 in 2008 — the average number of salmon eaten by each one was up, along with the number of Stellar sea lions — 26 this year compared to 17...

Here's how to pitch this (true) story to Hollywood: Ordinary guy named John, ordinary Sunday, cycling home into a setting sun. Monster roars out of the bushes! John abandons his bike, flees in terror. The creature smashes the bicycle, catches him in a few short strides, grabs him by the shirt. But he slides out of his shirt and falls to the ground. It picks him up again and he slips out of his trousers. Naked, too afraid to even to scream, he scrambles away. But he doesn't get far. The shrieking monster smashes him against a tree. Camera pans...

November 06, 2009 7:19 PM Corey Friedman STANLEY — An 11-year-old boy playing backyard football was tackled not by another child, but by a snarling pit bull whose deep bites required hospital treatment. Austin Breedlove tripped over a horseshoe post and the dog leaped on him, biting his arm, shoulder, side, leg and ankle, said mother Wendy Creighton. The incident happened Sunday at Travis McSwain’s 3000 Drake Drive home, according to a Gaston County Animal Control report. An ambulance rushed Breedlove to Gaston Memorial Hospital, where he received stitches and about six hours of treatment. Breedlove missed a week of...

NewsOn6.com TULSA, OK -- A 1-year-old Tulsa girl was injured in an pit bull dog attack Friday at about 5 p.m. Emergency personnel rushed the child to St. Francis in critical condition, according to Tina Wells of EMSA. Tulsa Police report that the child got between a pit bull and its food dish while the dog was eating. She received injuries to the head and face. The incident happened in the 3400 block of East 149th St. A neighbor said she and her children were outside when she heard a woman screaming repeatedly. The family initially tried to transport their...

It’s been more than a year since Rosemary Amadeo’s silky Yorkshire terrier, Susieq, was stolen from her home. On Aug. 5, 2008, somebody broke into Amadeo’s Perry Avenue house in Stoughton and snatched her 2-year-old Yorkie, while ignoring her four other dogs. “I miss her something terrible,” said Amadeo. Despite the amount of time that’s passed, she’s still offering a $1,000 reward for the return of her dog, for which she originally paid $3,000. Yorkshire terriers are rated as the nation’s second most popular dog — after Labrador retrievers — because of their tiny size and loving disposition. But all...

November 06, 2009 5:47 PM DAILY NEWS STAFF Two Maysville residents have been charged with killing a dog, according to authorities. Michael Gibson, 23, and Jessica Spillane Magdalenski, 22, both of Michelle Lane in Maysville, was charged by the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department with two counts of felony conspiracy and two counts of cruelty to animals. Onslow County Animal Control received a call about possible animal abuse in mid-October, according to the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department. The caller said a dog was beaten to death with a baseball bat and burned on a trash pile. According to warrants, the dog...

It has long been the law in Massachusetts, and in many other states, that if your dog causes injury, you are liable regardless of whether or not you were negligent. This is called "strict liability" and imposes automatic liability on the dog "owner". However, if you were suing a landlord that was not the dog owner, you had to show that the dog had "vicious propensities" prior to the attack and that the landlord knew or had reason to know of those propensities. In the case of Nutt v. Florio, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled that where the dog...

The four passengers in the jeep must feel a whisker away from death as a lion jumps up on to their bonnet for lunch. But that's all part of the attraction. The jeep is a new zoo exhibit which allows visitors to get incredibly close to the lions. The back part of the vehicle, up to where the windscreen should be, is actually on the outside of the reinforced glass cage. The bonnet is on the inside, and covered with meat to entice the big cats closer. It makes for an exhilarating experience, according to Robyn and Davin Price, both...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is issuing this health alert to warn consumers not to use Pig Ears and Beef Hooves pet treats manufactured by Pet Carousel because the products may be contaminated with Salmonella. The products were distributed nationwide in both bulk and retail packaging for sale in pet food and retail chain stores. Pet Carousel is based in Sanger, Calif. The products were manufactured under conditions that facilitate cross-contamination within batches or lots. Although no illnesses associated with these products have been reported, the FDA is advising consumers in possession of these products to not handle or...

Hi all, I've been interested in dog training for quite some time now, and am wondering what the industry standard is (if there is one)....such as - which books to read, training methodology, etc. I'm also wondering if that it's a profession where you get licensed? Any info would help - thanks in advance. Scott

DURHAM, N.C. -- Despite their fearsome fangs, male sabertoothed cats may have been less aggressive than many of their feline cousins, says a new study of male-female size differences in extinct big cats. Commonly called the sabertoothed tiger, Smilodon fatalis was a large predatory cat that roamed North and South America about 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago, when there was also a prehistoric cat called the American lion. A study appearing in the November 5 issue of the Journal of Zoology examined size differences between sexes of these fearsome felines using subtle clues from bones and teeth. The researchers...

Police reports are often rich with jargon — phrases like "victim succumbed to his injuries," or "victim advised that defendant did knowingly and willingly enter his home without permission." Not so for a report filed by Tampa police Officer Terry Ashe, who wrote a colorful narrative about an alligator that attacked his city-owned Ford Taurus in Pasco County on Oct. 27. "As I was driving down the single lane, dirt road, adjacent to an old cemetery, I observed a large, menacing, dark object lying in the road obstructing my right of way," Ashe wrote. "With rain pouring down, mist and...

See what happens when you betray your girl friend and get her mad!

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysian wildlife authorities rescued 59 pythons from being skinned and sold to restaurants and leather dealers, an official said Thursday.

TODOS SANTOS CUCHUMATAN, Guatemala (Reuters) – Despite a drinking ban mayhem erupted at a traditional Mayan horse race on Sunday with riders falling off their horses and drunken spectators stumbling through the mountain village. Hundreds of tourists and locals gathered for the annual spectacle in Todo Santos Cuchumatan on Sunday to cheer the dozens of riders charging back and forth along a 330-foot (100-meter) length of road for up to seven hours. But the macho test of stamina was marred, as it has been in the past, by the copious amount of homemade spirits the riders consume, sometimes for days...

A CROC show presenter from Cairns could be the next Steve Irwin. With the launch of his new wildlife adventure series on DVD, his good looks and his Irwinesque charm, Cairns conservationist Corey Wild is being touted as the new wildlife warrior. "Steve and I share similar interests and passions and he was a great inspiration to me," said Mr Wild, who works as a presenter for a crocodile attack show at the Johnstone River Crocodile Park and as a snake catcher. While Mr Wild has received what he calls "love bites" from crocodiles over the years, he said he...

Story Created: Nov 3, 2009 at 11:08 PM CST Story Updated: Nov 4, 2009 at 1:27 AM CST A pit bull terrorized a Greene County neighborhood Tuesday afternoon, killing at least one dog and possibly two more. A pitbull on the loose made homeowners on Village Lane feel like hostages. The residential neighborhood sits just outside Springfield city limits. "She was playing by the door, and it was pounding on the glass," recalls Laura Macarthur who says she witnessed a pitbull's rampage. "I could hear the glass cracking." Her daughter, six-year-old Kylen was safe, but three neighborhood dogs were not,...

SCIENTISTS have found that - just like some people - fiddler crabs will exchange favours for sex. Male crabs will protect a female neighbour but do so partly in exchange for sex. Australian National University researchers Richard Milner, Michael Jennions and Patricia Blackwell in a study published in Biology Letters looked at how female crabs - those without the large claw - go about protecting their territories, The Courier-Mail reports. They found sexual offerings lead to neighbourhood coalitions, where a male crab protected females from homeless males seeking territory. The males' giant claw is the largest weapon relative to body...

Dogs, especially their noses, have been an important law enforcement tool for ages, whether its scent tracking or sniffing out drugs or explosives. But one use has come under harsh criticism recently: the dog-scent lineup, reports The New York Times. In a dog-scent lineup, a dog smells contaminated items from the crime scene thought to hold the suspect's scent and then sniffs at scents swabbed from the suspect and other innocent people that match the suspect's description. The point is to have the dog signal his handler when it recognizes the scent from the crime scene during the scent lineup....

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Whitney Isleib has inadvertently stepped into a Halloween controversy by reportedly dressing up as soon-to-be incarcerated rapper Lil' Wayne in black-face. Photos of the blonde-haired cheerleader turned hip-hop impresario were posted to Facebook and eventually made their way to sports blog Deadspin.com. Offensive or just plain fun? Dallas fans are split. (CBS/KTVT) Photo: Dallas Cheerleader Whitney Isleib. "If she wasn't a Dallas cheerleader would it really matter? It's Halloween, you know. You get to go how you want to go" Cowboys fan Laura Pyhrr told CBS 11 Dallas at Sunday's game. Another fan was less sure. "I'm...

Sea lions and other ocean-going animals are proving to the Navy that they’re worth their salt. The Navy has enlisted the natural talents of sea lions, seals and dolphins to help in the recovery of underwater objects and provide security in the water, much as military working dogs do on land. Outfitted with a special harness, sea lions carry cameras that help researchers get a better view of the ocean floor or perhaps catch divers attempting to gain unauthorized access to ports or vessels. The animals also can carry tools such as tow lines to attach to underwater objects. Four...

A bank robber put the cat amongst the prison yard pigeons by demanding visitation rights for a pet moggie - who he claimed was the reincarnation of his dead mother! With her green eyes and soft fur, Gisela the cat is much more than a pet to jailbird Peter K. - and she has caused a prison farce in Werl, Germany. The 46-year-old bank robber was sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2007. Behind bars, it's his cat Gisela that the devout Buddhist misses most. And the reason is that he believes the feline is the reincarnation of his dead...

For every female, making sure your barnet is perfectly preened is of the utmost importance. Unfortunately for a bear in Germany this may be a bit of a problem. Dolores, a spectacled bear at a zoo in Leipzig, has gone bald. Not just on her head but all over her body. Vets are baffled about what has caused the sudden hair loss which has affected all female bears at the zoo. It could be due to a genetic defect but the animals don't seem to be suffering any other afflictions. The normally fluffy dark brown bears should be now growing...

Dressing to impress The amazing mating display of the marvellous spatuletail hummingbird has been filmed in full for the first time. The spatuletail hummingbird is among the most rare and striking of birds. By using a high speed camera, a BBC natural history film crew was the first to capture the mating sequence in super slow motion. The crew also filmed a male advertising in front of a female, and solved a mystery of how the male birds make a snapping sound during the display. The mating display of the marvellous spatuletail hummingbird (Loddigesia mirabilis) is captured for the BBC...

<p>Janet Torren sensed something was wrong when the animal control officer didn’t return her calls. When she reached the officer, it seemed peculiar that her story changed with each question, she said.</p> <p>It was not until Torren threatened to call police last month that she learned the Stoughton official in charge of finding stray dogs had given away her “little princess,’’ a 4-year-old Yorkshire terrier that Torren calls Shai.</p>

By SAMARA KALK DERBY | skalk@madison.com | 608-252-6439 | Posted: Sunday, November 1, 2009 8:10 pm | (16) Comments A town of Vermont man killed a pit bull that was attacking his 14-year-old German shepherd Sunday morning. Mary McMurray, 53, first tried to pull the pit bull off the couple's "furry kid," Dexter, who was attacked at their home around 10:20 a.m. McMurray's husband, Robert Johnson, 64, heard her screams, and the couple used a baseball bat and a 40-pound iron rod to try to stop the attack. Finally, Johnson went to a shed and got a shotgun. He shot...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: How about Dede Scozzafava? You know what? Dede Scozzafava has just screwed every RINO in the country by showing everybody who they are. It's what I say about radio, people say, "Rush, does it matter AM, FM?" No, no. Content, content, content, content. Content determines what people will listen to, and in politics, principle, principle, principle. Moderates by definition have no principles. They're wishy washy. A typical moderate is Lindsey Grahamnesty. A typical moderate. They're all over the place. They go with the flow. They think of themselves first. They are not guided by principle at all,...

BUTCHER Pan Xueping must have the world's strangest hobby. He collects hairballs from the stomachs of slaughtered pigs - just for fun. Pan, of Xiyangpan, eastern China, said: "They are very rare - I probably only find about one every three months when I'm cleaning the animals intestines. "I then wash them carefully to remove all the dirt and then I dry them with a hairdryer to make them nice and fluffy." The 42-year-old, who works in an abattoir, has amassed hundreds of furry balls over the nine years since starting his job, as reported in the Austrian Times. He...

The nightly attacks by two man-eating lions terrified railway workers and brought construction to a halt in one of east Africa's most notorious onslaughts more than a hundred years ago. But the death toll, scientists now say, wasn't as high as previously thought. > Delay of the railroad was even subject to debate in Britain's House of Commons. >

Carrying the remains of a roughly 30-foot (9-meter) giant squid in her jaws, a female sperm whale, with a calf at her side, swims near the surface off Japan's Bonin Islands (map)in the northwestern Pacific. Taken on October 15, this and other "absolutely sensational" new pictures offer rare proof of the sperm whale's taste for giant squid, said giant squid expert Steve O'Shea of the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. The pictures may also reveal that adult sperm whales, which grow up to 59 feet (18 meters) long, use pieces of their prizes to teach youngsters how to...

But I have a problem with pit bulls. And it has more to do with the two-legged creatures holding their leashes (if there is a leash).Because of their sheer numbers—estimates show that there are anywhere from 5 million to 10 million pit-bull-type dogs in the U.S. today, out of about 61 million total dogs—pits have become the dog du jour for a lot of people, not just gangbangers and wannabe thugs who use a pit as proxy for toughness. About 20 percent of dogs in ASPCA shelters are pit mixes. I've seen those who adopt these dogs for all the...

This is just too funny. Putting the joke-subtitles asside, what kind of cat behavior is this??? ...and I thought Hitler Obama-Hitler-You-Tube paradies were funny :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnY6k1ybTHg&feature=player_embedded

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Man and dog reunite for the first time in a decade. Gary Rowley greeted his Boxer-lab mix "Brindle" Sunday morning with a smile and a leash. "His coloring hasn't changed except his gray snout. [It] used to be black. But my god! I didn't realize he was so thin! He's definitely taller!"

ELK, Wash. - The owner of a miniature horse says he was forced to shoot and kill three pit bulls that were mauling his animal. Thursday, the horse's owner told the Pend Oreille County Sheriff's Office the three dogs had come onto this property, off Juanita Lane and started attacking his horse. The man fired several warning shots to try and scare the dogs and when the warning shots did not work, the man turned his aim to the dogs, shooting all three. Two of the dogs died on the scene and the third ran off only to die later...

There was a fire early this morning in Killeen at the shelter, and many of the animals were killed. They need any help you could offer. There is a link on their page for a contest to win $20,000 just by voting for them. Even if you can't donate, this would help. So sad to have them head into the holidays after this kind of tragedy. This is a no-kill shelter run by volunteers and donations. http://www.centexhumanesociety.com/

Beloved cartoonist Berkeley Breathed had an unusual inspiration for his latest children's book, "Flawed Dogs." No it wasn't one of the Santa Barbaran's many rescued pit bulls, but it was one of Michael Vick's infamous dogs who was set to be put down. "The book happened because I came across both a picture and a quote at about the same time -- a picture of one of Michael Vick's fight dogs. It was set to be put down, but a shelter in Utah decided to take the dog and a few others at the same time and try to rehabilitate...

NBC's "Today" show Halloween decorating segment with Better Homes & Gardens and the news team dressed as "Star Wars" characters went increasingly awry due to a pair of scene stealing (and reportedly intoxicated) Ewoks. ...

Vilano Beach begins North of St. Augustine Inlet and runs to South Ponte Vedra. There are large deposits of Coquina clam shells, the main ingredient in Coquina rock, the material used for the Spanish forts here. On the white sand areas there are black streaks of Titanium ore. Ponte Vedra was once home to a Titanium mining operation. The "red shell" has been a traditional place to test beach buggies and 4WD vehicles, it is easy to bury your wheels up to the hubs if you get off the hard pack.

A North Carolina cat lover leaves his entire estate to local feline charities.

Animated red-shoulder hawk singing the chorus of the hymn, Until Then, written by; Stuart Hamblen! Home going song!

This article is on dog packs and dogs that run with coyotes. Is the economy adding to the numbers? I think so. Instead of feeding the dogs or turning the dogs over to the humane shelter, people are just "dumping" the dogs. Not only is this not the "right" thing to do, it's a dangerous thing to do.

FISHERMEN are asking if this is the massive great white shark that has been stealing their catch, breaching repeatedly within metres of one terrified man's surf ski. These photographs of the 4.3m monster have been circulating on the internet, but reports from the South African fishing town of Mossel Bay confirm they are no hoax. Frighteningly, scientists who dissected the female shark say it was adolescent and not yet fully grown

Our 7-month-old kitten was hit by a car today behind our house. She was killed instantly. She was my 12-year-old son's precious baby. He is inconsolable. We are so utterly sad tonight. I thought I would share photos of this most beautiful, intelligent, adorable little one whom we shall miss so much every single day.

(Cordova 10/29/2009) The owner of three pit bulls says his dogs aren't vicious even though they mauled a 62-year-old woman and her dog during a stroll through their Cordova neighborhood Thursday morning. The victim and her pet suffered dozens of bite wounds. So many, in fact, doctors lost count.. The attack happened at the 8600 block of Oak Trail Lane. The 62-year-old victim spent the day in the trauma unit at The Med and was released about 9:00 p.m. Thursday night. Witnesses say the pack of pit bulls attacked her husky, Skye, first. As she tried to protect her pet.,...

Posted: 10/29/2009 04:49:10 PM PDT A pregnant Hesperia woman was seriously injured today when her pit bull bit and fractured her arm, officials said. Paramedics responded to her home in the 7300 block of Braceo Street, near Ranchero Road, about 1:40 p.m. and found the 20-year-old woman bleeding profusely. The woman, who is nine months pregnant, was airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center. Sheriff's officials said the fetus appears to be unharmed. Animal control was called to take custody of the pit bull. It is unknown what caused the dog to attack.