Dog walkers who don’t clean up after their pets on one Brooklyn street could find themselves in for a surprise nastier than the messes their pooches leave behind, thanks to a group of fed-up residents.
The South Oxford Street Block Association said on its Facebook page that it is setting up an online “wall of shame” of photos and videos of dog owners who don’t pick up after their pets on walks.
The group's president, Abby Weissman, already posted surveillance footage of a woman walking off after her dog stopped to do its business by a tree box on a sidewalk.
Weissman encouraged other members of the group to be on the lookout for more scofflaw dog walkers and to send in similar photos and videos.
“There is no excuse for this behavior,” Weissman said in a Facebook post. “If you can’t clean up after your dog you shouldn’t have one.”
Some residents in the neighborhood said they supported the idea.
“I am with y’all all the way (about) catching dog-walkers leaving their poop on the ground,” one longtime Fort Greene resident said in a post to the group’s Facebook page. “Oh does that drive me nuts.”
Under city law, dog owners who don’t pick up after their pets could face a $250 fine.
Rockville, Maryland - A longtime scientist from the National Institutes of Health http://www.nih.gov/ is behind bars, accused of trying to kill his female roommate with a hammer. Police say the attack started because of a fight over a dog.
Timothy Oliver, a longtime scientist from the National Institutes of Health is behind bars, accused of trying to kill his female roommate.
On Aug. 4, Timothy Oliver, 68, of Rockville, left his dog, a 3-year-old Maltese, in his roommate’s care while he was at work. Around 9:30 that evening, Oliver received a blitz of frantic phone calls; it was his roommate reporting a car had run over his beloved pet in the condo parking lot.
According to charging documents filed in Montgomery County District Court, that roommate, whom ABC 7 News is not identifying, told bystanders, "He [Oliver] is going to kill me."
Oliver raced to the Metropolitan Emergency Animal Clinic in Rockville, where his roommate had taken the dog. Staff there attempted CPR, but the animal's injuries were too severe for resuscitation. The Maltese died shortly after arriving. Oliver placed the dog's body in a cardboard box and took it back to his condo along 6000 block of California Circle.
Feelings inside the first-floor unit quickly became tense. Oliver's roommate reportedly attempted to explain what had happened, prompting Oliver to start pacing around the condo. Oliver then allegedly retrieved a hammer from the kitchen, stormed toward his roommate, and hit her repeatedly in the head with the blunt-force object, cracking her skull.
"Are you serious? Oh my God! I didn't know that," neighbor Leila Neza said.
Following the attack, Oliver allegedly kicked his roommate out of his unit, leaving her unconscious on the sidewalk with a depressed skull fracture.
"It’s hard for me to believe,” said Mary Krause, who lives directly next door. "His action went from bad to worse. You don't attack somebody over something like that."
Corpus Christi, Texas - An 809-pound tiger shark caught in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this month has been cooked and served to more than 90 poor and homeless Texans.
Timon's Ministries in Corpus Christi set up the donation of about 75 pounds of shark meat. Executive director Kae Berry tells the San Antonio Express-News that the 12-foot, 7-inch shark was the biggest fish ever donated to the center. A volunteer chef breaded and baked the meat.
Fisherman Ryan Spring, of San Antonio, had said he caught the shark after reeling it in for more than seven hours.
"It was like playing tug-of-war with a giant," Springs told KSAT-TV. "He’s pulling us and the water is just slapping against the back of boat. It was like a scene from the movie 'Jaws.'"
He said reeling in the giant predator marked the end of an epic battle.
"It’s hard to explain this thing about a fisherman fighting a fish," Springs told the TV station. "You’re probably just talking to yourself but you feel like you’re talking to the fish and saying things you probably can’t say on TV."
Berry says the volunteer chef did a great job preparing the food and "most people really enjoyed it." And the center says there are enough leftovers to serve up some shark stew next week.
The newspaper said Spring's giant catch did not beat the Texas record for a tiger shark, which is 1,129 pounds caught in 1992 by Chap Cain, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife.
The world record for a tiger shark catch is 1,785 pounds, which was caught in 2004 off the coast of Australia, according to the International Game Fish Association.
Atlantic City, NJ - A huge leatherback turtle got a second chance at life thanks to the Coast Guard and some animal experts in New Jersey.
Crew members from Coast Guard Station Cape May and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine rescued the approximately 800-pound turtle Saturday.
It had become tangled up in fishing gear 30 miles off South Jersey.
A good Samaritan aboard a recreational fishing boat spotted the distressed turtle and notified watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay.
A boat crew from Coast Guard Station Atlantic City took a Marine Mammal Stranding Center crew member to the Station Cape May boat crew located near Corson's Inlet.
They traveled to the GPS coordinates provided by the Good Samaritan and located the entangled turtle.
Once on scene, the Station Cape May boat crew and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center crew member assessed the situation and worked to free the turtle from the fishing gear.
"Everybody was excited," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Nick Giannaris, the crewman who physically removed the entanglement from the turtle. "It was one of my better experiences being in the Coast Guard, just seeing the animal so close and helping marine life. Everyone was pretty energized about the whole experience."
A Charleston doctor has been charged with animal cruelty after police said he was found with nine dead dogs.
His bond was set at $90,000, but Bickerstaff bonded out sometime Wednesday evening.
According to a Mt. Pleasant police report, officers were called to the Mt. Pleasant Emergency Hospital for a report of animal cruelty.
Staff members told police that a man had come in with six dead Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, crated in the back of his Ford Explorer. Staff members told police the man said he thought the dogs had passed out.
“This is a medical doctor. This is not acceptable,” said the woman who called 911 from Mount Pleasant Emergency Vet. “He had asked, ‘So, leaving the windows open is not adequate?' No. Not when they're in kennels and they have full coats, and you have them two by two in each kennel.”
According to the report, staff members saw that the dogs were deceased and rigor mortis had set in. They also told officers that the dogs showed signs of disseminated intravascular coogulosathy (DIC).
According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, DIC is a "condition in which blood clots form throughout the body's small blood vessels" that can block blood flow to organs.
Police were given a description of the man and were told that he claimed to be a doctor at East Cooper Hospital. Investigators identified the suspect as 64-year-old Charles Allen Bickerstaff.
The 911 caller at Mount Pleasant Emergency Vet said Bickerstaff told her he had to stop by the hospital to check on a patient.
According to an affidavit, investigators met with him on Monday and he confessed to putting his 8- or 9-year-old spaniel, Butler, along with eight other dogs into five crates in the back of his SUV.
Court documents identified the other dogs as Money, Lucinda, Drayton, Madeline, Shelby, Katie, Freddie, and Willis. Their ages ranged from 5 months to 9 years, documents show.
Bickerstaff told police he left the dogs in the vehicle while he performed his duties at East Cooper Hospital. The affidavit notes that temperatures that day ranged from 73.4 degrees to 82.4 degrees with a heat index of 90.9 degrees.
The affidavit also states the air conditioner was not on and the windows of the Explorer were not open. Another release from police notes that the dogs did not have food or water and that they were caged for over three hours.
Bickerstaff was charged Wednesday with nine counts of ill treatment to animals.
According to the U.S. News and World Report, Dr. Charles Bickerstaff is a gastroenterologist and is affiliated with several hospitals including Bon Secours St. Francis Xavier Hospital and East Cooper Medical Center.
The Charleston Animal Society released a statement Wednesday afternoon, highlighting the dangers of leaving pets in cars for any amount of time.
“The temperature inside of a car during spring and summer and early fall in South Carolina will rise so much, that for a dog, seconds can cost them their life,” said Dr. Sarah Boyd, director of shelter health and wellness at the Charleston Animal Society.
Boyd says it's a deadly misconception that dogs can handle heat. In fact, some are more sensitive than others.
“It doesn't take very long, minutes, for their internal temperature to rise enough that they don't just begin to pant but, their body will start having organ failure and their brain reaches such a high temperature that they will have a heat stroke,” said Dr. Boyd.
Dr. Boyd says the lesson in this tragedy is simple: if you decide to allow your pet to travel with you, they must be with you at all times.
“Even if you think you can just run in and run out, it happens and it could be you and it could be your dog,” Boyd said.
A doctor in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina left nine dogs in a hot car while he made rounds at the hospital on Monday. The 64-year-old is charged with animal cruelty and is set on $90,000 bond.
Dr. Charles Allen Bickerstaff was making rounds at one of the hospitals he works for when his dogs died. All nine were crammed into five crates altogether in the back of Bickerstaff’s Ford Explorer. When he returned to his SUV, he noticed the dogs were unresponsive so he took them to Mt. Pleasant Emergency Hospital.
A staff member at the vet’s office called 911 after she saw the animals.
She said:
“This is a medical doctor. This is not acceptable. He had asked, ‘So, leaving the windows open is not adequate?’ No. Not when they’re in kennels and they have full coats, and you have them two by two in each kennel.”
The nine dogs left in the hot vehicle were Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. According to court documents, the dogs are identified as Money, Lucinda, Drayton, Madeline, Shelby, Katie, Freddie, and Willis. Their ages ranged from 5 months to 9 years, the document reveals. The doctor left the dogs inside the vehicle for three hours.
Police used records from the vet’s office to get information on Dr. Bickeroff. He’s a gastroenterologist and is a physician for several hospitals that include Bon Secours St. Francis Xavier Hospital and East Cooper Medical Center, according to ABC 4 Charleston. The allegedly negligent doctor was questioned by police Monday night and arrested on Wednesday.
When Dr. Sarah Boyd, director of shelter health and wellness at Charleston Animal Society, learned of the animals’ terrible fate, she explained how hard it is for dogs to be inside hot cars.
Dr. Boyd said:
“The temperature inside of a car during spring and summer and early fall in South Carolina will rise so much, that for a dog, seconds can cost them their life.”
News 2 mentions that the affidavit says during the time Dr. Bickeroff was at the hospital, the temperatures outside went from 73 degrees to 82 degrees; the heat index was around 91 degrees.
Another tragedy of multiple dogs in a hot car occurred when four pit bulls were left in the back of a man’s car in Sacramento. As reported on The Inquisitr, all four dogs died from heat exposure. One pit bull was rescued alive, but died the next day due to severe injuries to her internal organs.
HuffPost Green is launching a week-long, community-driven effort to bust the myths and raise awareness about pit bulls, a maligned "breed" that often bears the brunt of dated, discriminatory legislation that can make it near impossible for these dogs to find a forever home. You can follow along with HuffPost Pit Bull Week here, or on Facebook and Twitter where we'll be using the hashtag #PitBullWeek.
The dog stayed with Karina Chikitova, keeping her warm, after she and her pet wandered away from her home in a remote village in diamond-rich Sakha Republic, the largest region in Russia. The area where she lives has large populations of bears and wolves.
Eventually, after nine days in which the girl survived on river water and berries, the dog left her in a protective hole amid long grass and found its way home to summon help. The loyal and loving mongrel is known as Kyrachaan to locals, meaning 'little one' in the Yakutian language.
Remarkably, Karina, aged three years and seven months, suffered minimal injuries - but as our picture shows, she was badly bitten by mosquitoes.
There are more pictures of Karina's dramatic rescue but also the revelation that her family is under investigation for neglect in letting her disappear into the wild.
The truth emerged yesterday of a nightmare confusion between the parents and the child's grandmother over her whereabouts, which meant that long days passed before anyone realised little Karina was missing from her home in Olom village in Olyokminsky district.
The parents were haymaking in a distant field and were absent for a few days while Karina was being looked after by her grandmother.
Huge wild fires in Siberia meant that her father Rodion was summoned on July 29th to work in a volunteer team to combat the flames engulfing the region.
The grandmother saw the father leave the family home - and, she claims, thought Karina was going with him. The father says he had no idea that the grandmother thought he had taken the child. When mother Aitalina returned from the fields, she was surprised to learn that her husband had taken Karina.
It took several days for him to reach her by phone - and all the time little Karina was cuddling up to the dog out in the open, some six kilometres from home, but unable to get back.
"When she reach him by phone on August 2nd, he said Karina was not with him and should be with the grandmother," said Stanislav Platonov, head of the press service of the republics Interior Ministry.
Aitalina called to police. The first team of police and rescuers appeared on the scene on August 3rd and immediately began the search. Later they got more equipment and specialists and luckily found the girl in the end'.
The dog came home after nine days evidently seeking help to rescue Karina.
Here accounts differ: TV reports say that the dog led the rescuers to the girl. Another version is that by returning home, the dog let the rescuers know that Karina was not far away. The republican Investigative Committee, said it was considering whether the family had been negligent and should face legal action.
Investigators are still working on this case. "We need to decide whether to close the criminal case, or was some crime committed, like negligence for example," said spokeswoman Nadezhda Dvoretskaya.
"Why did they let child go to the forest alone? Why she was without adult supervision?"
The mother explained that she did not know that the young child was missing because she was at the hayfield with her husband, before he then left to help with fire-fighting.
Later she came home and asked, "where is the child?" The granny told her that she lay down to sleep and when she woke up, there was no Karina. The granny was sure that Karina was with her father, that he took the girl with him. The mother talked to the father, as soon as she could, due to the bad phone connection and it turned out that girl was not with him.
It is a very remote region, with very difficult phone connections, so there is the possibility that mother really could not connect with her mother, and with her husband in time and learn that Karina is missing.
They only look like baby pandas. These little bundles of joy are actually chow chow dogs that have been dyed black-and-white to look like pandas.
Dyeing pets has been a trend in pet pampering for quite some time. At last summer's Pets Show Taipei, there was a fierce dog-dyeing competition. Check out photos.
But dyeing your pets to look like other wild animals is a more recent development.
The trend demonstrates how quickly and dramatically attitudes toward pets — particularly dogs — have changed in many parts of Asia.
In Taiwan, for example, just 10 years ago, dogs were still eaten in public restaurants and raised on farms for that purpose. Traditional Chinese medicine held that so-called "fragrant meat" from dogs could fortify one's health. Now, eating dog is viewed by many as an embarrassing reminder of a poorer time.
Elsewhere, in mainland China, dog meat is still very much on the menu. In fact, it's more expensive than pork or beef.
So, while more people may be eating dog as the country gets richer, newly wealthy Chinese have embraced dog-owning culture with a vengeance.
Dogs are brought into restaurants, fussed over in public, dressed up in ridiculous outfits and dyed to look like ferocious tigers.
Panda or chow chow? Tiger or retriever? You be the judge:
These dogs were put on show after being transferred to Zhenghou from southwest China's Sichuan province
Click image to enlarge.
These chow chow dogs have been styled to look like pandas in Xi’an, Shaanxi province on June 18, 2011.
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And here's another bizarre transformation, courtesy of the Daily Mail: a pet retriever in China has been dyed to look like tiger.
Bangkok, China - They slink through Chinese streets dropping poop like “land mines.” They are a blight on “social peace and harmony.”
Pet dogs, in the eyes of China’s Communist Party, are a modern-day menace. And the Chinese urbanites who’ve grown infatuated with Spot and Rover are acting out a “crude and ludicrous imitation ... of a Western lifestyle.”
So goes a recent op-ed in the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official news outlet.
The op-ed decries a “dog infestation” in China’s cities. Its urgent message to selfish dog owners: scoop those land mines - or else.
And yet the writer concedes that pet ownership is proof of China’s economic ascent. After all, starving peasants can’t afford to pamper Shih Tzus.
The ranks of people who can afford dog chow is rising fast. By 2030, according to the United Nations, China’s middle class will be four times the size of America’s middle class. Many Chinese can now seek out what Western consumers have long enjoyed: cars, flat-screen TVs and, yes, pet poodles. In Beijing, the number of registered dogs hit 1 million in 2012.
The doggie denouncement coincides with a revived effort to stamp out certain Western beliefs and behaviors taking root in 21st-century China. Officials are taking aim at bigger perils to social harmony, including democracy, an obsession with “individual rights” and the “free flow of information on the internet.”
“During Mao’s cultural revolution, dog ownership was condemned as elitist.”
Click on image to enlarge.
A Chinese man who supplements his income by walking dogs around the Houhai Lake area of Beijing on December 11, 2012. Dog ownership is popular amongst China?s elderly and the growing middle class but Beijing owners cannot keep dogs taller than 36 centimeters.
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This picture taken on March 18, 2014 shows an unidentified man posing for a photo with two Tibetan mastiffs after they were sold at a "luxury pet" fair in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. One of the Tibetan mastiff puppies (L) was sold in China for almost two million USD, a report said on March 19, in what could be the most expensive dog sale ever.
Click on image to enlarge.
An old man and his Pekingese dog in an ancient street of Beijing, China.
Officials in Shanghai have experimented with an even stricter edict: If dog owners can’t convince neighbors to approve of their dogs, the animal is confiscated by the state.
Dogs who aren’t up to code can be yanked out of owners’ arms. That was the fate of one white pooch, confiscated by cops in this cell phone video that went viral in China.
All of these rules on dog ownership, however, are increasingly flouted.
A documentary titled “Oversized Dogs” focuses entirely on Chinese citizens defying dog laws. Its director calls this trend “an important part of Chinese dissent.”
Meanwhile, the Communist Party’s media arm keeps cranking out editorials about dogs.
Just one month ago, the People’s Daily published another piece urging animal rights activists to stop berating fellow Chinese who view dogs as a culinary delicacy.
The op-ed first revives the elitist legacy of pet dogs in China: “Over China’s long history, they have only recently become pets except in the imperial court where Pekingese were kept exclusively for the royals.”
Another group suspiciously fond of canines? That’s right — foreigners. Though Westerners call dogs “man’s best friend,” the People’s Daily states, “Chinese people have only ever kept watchdogs or hunting dogs — along with those to be eaten.”
Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland has discovered that hundreds more pet deaths are now blamed on a popular dog medicine.
Since Strickland first reported data collected by the Food and Drug Administration eight months ago, the number of death complaints is up nearly 40 percent, now coming in at a rate greater than one dog per day.
The FDA cautions there is no solid evidence linking Trifexis to any dog's death. The reports are simply complaints from owners and vets in which the pill is suspected.
"It's just horrendous to watch an animal die such a horrible, painful, excruciating death," said Acworth resident Anita Bergen.
Bergen's case is included in the FDA data.
Her Scottie named Fergus was 10 years old when she tried Trifexis.
"The initial reaction from taking that one pill was horrible," Bergen said.
"One pill?" asked Strickland.
"One Trifexis pill was all he ever had."
Bergen says the dog lost all muscle control, lost his thirst and suffered liver failure. She euthanized him two months after giving him the pill.
"I do feel deceived. I do not feel there was full disclosure," Bergen said.
Trifexis is a once-a-month pill to kill fleas, control parasites and prevent heartworm. TV commercials list side effects like vomiting and lethargy, but not death.
Strickland learned through the Freedom of Information Act that the FDA lists 965 complaints of dog deaths blamed on Trifexis.
That's an increase of 38 percent in the last eight months, and close to the total of 1,000 deaths linked to Chinese-made chicken jerky pet treats.
Drug maker Elanco maintains it can find no link between the pill and any dog fatalities.
"I see that as a cause for investigation, and as they're looking at those causes. I feel confident the FDA will follow through, but from our experience, we haven't seen it," said Cobb County veterinarian Toby Carmichael.
Carmichael says he and his partners have prescribed 75,000 doses of Trifexis with no adverse complications.
"My dogs have been on Trifexis since it came out and haven't had an issue once,” Carmichael said.
Physician Rochelle LePor has given her 7-year-old rescue dog Cooper nearly 40 pills over three years.
"I can only speak of my experience. For me, it’s like a wonder drug," she said.
"The FDA is not going to allow a product on the market that's going to hurt animals," added Carmichael.
Reports to Elanco's customer hotline have had an impact. There are now nearly 1,500 complaints of lost muscle control; a condition called ataxia.
Elanco added ataxia to its list of side effects two years ago.
Elanco also added seizures, the malady that hit a prize bulldog named Foxy, owned by 50-year veteran breeder Nancy Harrison.
The dog developed additional symptoms beyond her veterinarian's control.
"So you were forced to euthanize her?" Strickland asked.
"Yeah, if you saw it, you wouldn't want to live with it either. And never in 52 years had I had one before,” Harrison said.
Harrison stopped using the drug, even though her other dogs handled it without issue.
"It's hard to lose a dog. They're my children," said Harrison.
The mystery of their dogs’ deaths eats at her and Bergen.
"All the tests that are done, they're all inconclusive. No one can ever say this death is absolutely the result of administering this particular medication. But all the owners, all the pet caregivers know," said Bergen.
The FDA says it's continuing to monitor reports, and considers the product label a living document. To date, there are no plans to list death as even a rare but potential side effect.
Among the millions mourning the death of Robin Williams on Monday was Koko, a gorilla who communicates in sign language. Williams met Koko in 2001 at The Gorilla Foundation in Northern California, where the great ape managed to upstage the great comedic actor.
“Years later (on Aug. 11, 2014), Koko overheard Penny (Dr. Penny Patterson, Koko’s mentor and surrogate mother) talking on the phone about Robin, who had just passed away,” The Gorilla Foundation stated on its website. “She became extremely sad.”
“When you remember Robin Williams, remember that he is not only one of the world’s most beloved entertainers, he is also one of the world’s most powerful ambassadors for great ape conservation,” the organization said.
For his part, Williams called his conversations with Koko a “mind-altering experience.”
The encounter with Koko was just one of many efforts Williams made over the years on behalf of wildlife. In 2011, the actor appeared with other celebrities in a TakePart video to call attention to the annual slaughter of dolphins at the cove in Taiji, Japan, where the few survivors are sold to zoos and water parks.
“My friend doesn’t belong in captivity,” Williams says in the video. “The others are brutally killed.”
“Years later (on Aug. 11, 2014), Koko overheard Penny (Dr. Penny Patterson, Koko’s mentor and surrogate mother) talking on the phone about Robin, who had just passed away,” The Gorilla Foundation stated on its website. “She became extremely sad.”
“When you remember Robin Williams, remember that he is not only one of the world’s most beloved entertainers, he is also one of the world’s most powerful ambassadors for great ape conservation,” the organization said.
For his part, Williams called his conversations with Koko a “mind-altering experience.”
The encounter with Koko was just one of many efforts Williams made over the years on behalf of wildlife. In 2011, the actor appeared with other celebrities in a TakePart video to call attention to the annual slaughter of dolphins at the cove in Taiji, Japan, where the few survivors are sold to zoos and water parks.
“My friend doesn’t belong in captivity,” Williams says in the video. “The others are brutally killed.”
In 1995, the comedian narrated and starred in the PBS documentary In the Wild—Dolphins With Robin Williams. He followed the work of marine biologists and swam with Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Caribbean.
In the Wake of Robin Williams' Death, Will We Finally Start Taking Depression Seriously?
As with Koko, he attempted to communicate with his newfound dolphin friends.
“What’s up, my main mammal?” he asked a spotted dolphin.
Closer to his Marin County, Calif., home, Williams once made an impromptu appearance at a fund-raiser for the local humane society, jumping onstage to riff with another comedian.
“The Marin Humane Society is very sad to hear about the passing of Robin Williams,” the group said on its Facebook page on Monday. “In 2009, we were honored when he gave a surprise performance at our Woofstock benefit concert.”
Many THANKS to a group of very special kids who raised $223.75 for WHS from their lemonade stand!
Kyle, Ella, Ally, Leah, Sylvia, Eleanor and Frances stopped by to visit us to personally deliver their donation. Eleanor and Frances (8 and 10 years old) are world class travelers who host bake sales and lemonade stands wherever they dock their family boat, and always find the local animal shelter and help wherever they are. We are thrilled that they chose to help DC animals during their three week visit.
Will you help us thank these amazing animal advocates?
