This Week In the News

[Woman, dog both sick after eating recalled pet food] [Group finds toad the size of a small dog] [Complex cut off from mail delivery over dog droppings] [Chicago's solution to geese population: Steal their eggs] [Cats break into home, attack residents] [Man saves dog with mouth-to-snout] [Farmer catches a calf eating chickens] [Man battles bobcat that jumped in golf cart]

Woman, dog both sick after eating recalled pet food

Canadian Press
Mar. 26, 2007 10:31 AM
OTTAWA - An woman says she became violently ill after eating some of her dog's food.

It's a case that could be related to the tainted pet food that has killed several dogs and cat's and sickened dozens more across in Canada and the United States.

Elaine Larabie tells the Ottawa Citizen that for three days she suffered symptoms that included loss of appetite, vomiting, foaming at the mouth and trouble urinating. She went to an emergency room on Tuesday and is now awaiting test results from blood work.
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After noticing her dog, Missy, wasn't eating, Larabie said she took bites of Iams pet food in order to trick the terrier into thinking it was people food.

The ploy worked and the mealtime routine continued for about two weeks until both dog and master became sick on March 17.

It wasn't until she saw a TV news story about the Menu Foods recall that she became aware of a possible connection.

Last week, the Toronto-area company recalled 60 million cans and pouches of food made under 95 different brand names.

On Sunday, Menu Foods asked retailers to immediately remove all affected varieties of the company's wet pet food regardless of the date code.

The company said the request was made amid concerns that some recalled lots of "Cuts and Gravy" style wet pet food were still on store shelves.

The company said in a release Sunday there is no known risk from items not on the recall list, but an "abundance of caution" was called for.
 

Group finds toad the size of a small dog

Tue Mar 27, 7:37 AM ET

DARWIN, Australia - An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a "monster" toad the size of a small dog.

With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer.

"It's huge, to put it mildly," he said. "The biggest toads are usually females but this one was a rampant male ... I would hate to meet his big sister."

Frogwatch, which is dedicated to wiping out a toxic toad species that has killed countless Australian animals, picked up the 15-inch-long cane toad during a raid on a pond outside the northern city of Darwin late Monday.

Cane toads were imported from South America during the 1930s in a failed attempt to control beetles on Australia's northern sugar cane plantations. The poisonous toads have proven fatal to Australia's delicate ecosystems, killing millions of native animals from snakes to the small crocodiles that eat them.

As part of its so-called "Toad Buster" project, Frogwatch conducts regular raids on local water holes, blinding the toads with bright lights then scooping them up by the dozen.

"We kill them with carbon dioxide gas, stockpile them in a big freezer and then put them through a liquid fertilizer process" that renders the toads nontoxic, Sawyer said.

"It turns out to be sensational fertilizer," he added. 

Complex cut off from mail delivery over dog droppings

Canadian Press
Mar. 22, 2007 10:34 AM
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Little can stop Canada Post letter carriers from delivering the mail.

Except, it seems, for a smelly mess of doggie droppings that have been littering the lawn and walkways of a housing unit in St. John's.

Canada Post says it has suspended mail service to a 13-apartment residential complex until the area is cleaned up.

Spokeswoman Genevieve Latour says residents were asked to pick up the mess because of concerns for the letter carrier's safety as they tried to manoeuvre around the dog droppings.

The service was cut this week when it wasn't picked up.

Some residents say they're upset with the move.

One woman says she lets her dog out on the front lawn, but always cleans up after him.

But others say they sympathize with the Canada Post workers, who claim the dog matter can be as dangerous as snow and ice. 

Chicago's solution to geese population: Steal their eggs

Associated Press
Mar. 21, 2007 08:24 AM
CHICAGO - The city needs a flock of volunteers - for goose egg patrol.

Park District officials are enlisting people to help locate nests of goose eggs as part of an expanded program aimed at downsizing the population of the aggressive park-fouling birds.

The patrols will search 11 city parks for goose eggs during the birds' nesting season, which begins at the end of the month and lasts through April.

The volunteers will be taught about geese habitats and life cycles, but they won't be allowed to handle the eggs. That task will be reserved for employees of La Grange-based Wild Goose Chase, who will shake the eggs to destroy the embryo or coat them with corn oil to suffocate the developing chick.

"I can't stress enough, this is not an Easter egg hunt," said Susan Hagberg, president of Wild Goose Chase. "This is very regulated. If people think they can do this on their own, they can't."

Park officials have tried to control the flocks by planting grasses less attractive to the birds along lagoons, spraying digestive irritants on grass in Grant Park, and using border collies to drive migrating geese away in the fall.

The Humane Society of the United States supports the egg hunting method, said spokeswoman Diane Webber.

"It's much more humane than rounding up the geese and gassing them," she said. 

Cats break into home, attack residents

Associated Press
Mar. 15, 2007 10:19 AM
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - Two stray cats got into a house and attacked three people inside, then were euthanized and checked for rabies, authorities said.

The cats entered Melissa Breva's house through an open front door on Monday, and attacked two women visitors and a boy, authorities said.

“I thought I had seen it all, but I have never seen anything like this,” Chief of Police Martin Gutschenritter said.

Animal control officer John Pettit responded to a call for help, Gutschenritter said.

One woman was scratched and bitten on her legs; the other woman was bitten on her right calf, authorities said.

After talking to them, Pettit went to his truck for snares, then heard screaming from inside the house. “When he ran back, he saw a young male with blood over his face,” Gutschenritter said. “He was bitten on his forehead, nose, left ear and right cheek.”

After some first aid from Pettit, the three were taken to Great Plains Regional Medical Center.

When investigator John Stadler arrived and opened the bedroom door, “he saw a gray and white cat baring its teeth in attack mode,” Gutschenritter said. “He shut the bedroom door and returned to his car for a dart gun.”

Both cats were shot, tranquilized and taken to the animal shelter, where they were euthanized. The bodies were sent to Lincoln for rabies checks, Gutschenritter said.

Authorities want to find out who owned the cats. Under a city ordinance, cats may run free if they don't become nuisances.

Man saves dog with mouth-to-snout

Associated Press
Mar. 12, 2007 10:14 AM
OMAHA, Neb. - Lucy was drowning and turning blue, so Randy Gurchin recalled his Air Force training on mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

It didn't matter that Lucy is a 10-month-old English bulldog, because he and Lucy are "best buddies."

"Once you get a pet, it's truly part of your family," he said. "You just tend to do whatever it takes to save their life."

Lucy had jumped into a partly frozen lake in pursuit of ducks and geese, but the water was too cold for her.

When Gurchin edged onto the ice and pulled Lucy out of the water, she was unresponsive and her face and paws were blue.

He closed her mouth, put his mouth over her nose, breathed air into her lungs and pushed on her chest, and after about a minute she began shallow breaths.

He drove her to a veterinary clinic, where she was immersed in warm water, given injections and placed in an oxygen tent.

By Friday, a week after her ordeal, Lucy was back to normal, said Gurchin, a pilot who retired from the Air Force two years ago.

Farmer catches a calf eating chickens

Associated Press
Mar. 9, 2007 10:36 AM
CALCUTTA, India - When his chickens started disappearing a few weeks ago, a farmer in eastern India figured dogs or jackals were to blame - until he discovered his calf making a meal of his poultry.

The farmer and his 1-year-old calf have since become local celebrities, with the carnivorous cow appearing on television in India's West Bengal state and hundreds of people flocking to see them in Chandipur, a village 145 miles southwest of Calcutta, the state capital.

The farmer got up early to catch the culprit "and to his disbelief found that it was his calf which came out from the cow shed and was eating the chickens alive," Debjyoti Chatterjee, a local resident who filmed the calf eating a chicken, said Thursday.

The local veterinarian was at a loss for an explanation.

"I've never read or heard about cows turning carnivorous," said Mihir Tripathy. "They eat grass and other vegetarian food but not fish or other non-vegetarian stuff."

Man battles bobcat that jumped in golf cart

Associated Press
Mar. 9, 2007 07:36 AM
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - It's best not to get between a predator and its prey - especially when they're in the passenger seat of your golf cart.

Water plant worker Mitch Walter would offer that bit of advice and bears the scratches of one who speaks from experience.

As Walter was inspecting the Cape Rock Water Treatment Plant property Tuesday night, a rabbit leaped into his golf cart - followed by a 25-pound bobcat. The rabbit then jumped back out, leaving Walter alone with a large, frightened feline.

"The cat went from a sleek predator after fast food to a ball of fur trying to jump through the windshield of the golf cart," Walter said.

Walter received scratches on his neck while shoving the bobcat out, necessitating a round of rabies shots, but was otherwise unhurt. 

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