This Week In the News

Agitated dog bites suspect in face, ending police pursuit

Associated Press
Jun. 14, 2006 07:25 AM

CEDAR CITY, Utah - A police pursuit ended when the suspect's dog - not happy about being bounced around in the car - bit its owner on the face.

Sheriff's officers said they approached Nicholas T. Galanis of Salt Lake City to talk to him about some stolen property, but he got in his car and fled with his dog.

The chase Monday went through a winding, bumpy dirt road about 5 miles northwest of Modena, said sheriff's detective Jody Edwards.

"Deputies could see the dog in the passenger seat getting slammed into the window," he said.

The dog, which is part pit bull, became so agitated "he bit his owner in the face," removing part of Galanis' nose, Edwards said. "And this is what ended the chase."

Galanis was taken to Valley View Medical Center before being booked into Iron County Jail. His dog was taken to a local animal shelter.

Galanis was held for investigation of supplying false information to police, receiving-possession of stolen property and theft.

Woman catches piranha at N.D. reservoir

Associated Press
Jun. 27, 2006 08:25 AM

JAMESTOWN, N.D. - State wildlife officials have a fish story with some teeth to it. Game officials responded to a call over the weekend of a woman catching what she thought was a piranha at the Casselton Reservoir.

Game warden supervisor Dick Knapp said the catch was confirmed by biologists. The state Game and Fish Department believes the four-inch-long red-bellied piranha probably came from someone's aquarium.

"It had to have been somebody's pet," said Greg Power, the state fisheries chief.

The small fish with big, sharp teeth is native to the Amazon River in South America.

Introducing a foreign species to North Dakota waterways is illegal, but officials said they have no idea who put the piranha in the reservoir. Knapp said the warm-water fish would not have survived the winter, anyway.

Power said the piranha likely was too small to have done any damage to other fish in the reservoir, which has trout, panfish and other species.

He said he has heard of piranha being caught in other states, but that this might be a first for North Dakota.

"We have had goldfish that were put in ... but never a piranha," Power said.

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