By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In an interesting reversal, a young Chinese child unseated the predominating meme of hungry birds stealing food from humans.
The setup played into the hands of the girl, who took charge of the unsuspecting avian and snatched a morsel directly from the victim dove’s beak. All while her unwitting accomplice–her mother–attracted the bird under the guise of feeding pigeons.
United Airlines is under fire after a flight attendant ordered a pet dog to be placed in a passenger’s overhead bin on a flight from Houston. When United Flight 1284 arrived in New York, the French Bulldog “Kokito” was found dead. The horrific scene could well result in a tort action for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and other claims. As a common carrier, United is subject to a high standard of care in the treatment of passengers.
We have often discussed the relatively low sentences handed out for animal abuse in the United States. A major exception to that pattern occurred this week in Plano, Texas where Judge Mark Rusch sentenced Andrew Callaway to 12 years in prison for animal cruelty and a probation violation. Callaway stomped on a boxer puppy named Diesel and threw it against a wall. The puppy later had to be put down due to the devastating injuries caused by Callaway, who told police he was upset at the time and regretted taking it out against the dog. Most of the sentence was for the probation violation.
I have previously expressed my surprise that people enjoy shooting animals in the wild. As an avid hiker and animal lover, I go to great lengths to see animals in nature but I fail to see why it is exciting or fulfilling to shoot some animal with high-powered rifle. These trophy hunters seem to want to collect these animals. Australian businessman, Nick Haridemos, appears to go further and pose with dead animals. A series of photos like this Twitter image were posted on social media and led to Haridemos being hounded out of Hellenic Club.
Continue reading “Australian Hunter Under Fire For Photos With Dead Animals”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that a prominent lawyer and an animal shelter volunteer has been arrested in a bizarre bestiality case involving his Labrador Snoopy. Ivan DeVoren, 61, is charged with 10 felony counts of animal cruelty, 10 counts of sexual intercourse with an animal in addition to drug charges. After police found crack cocaine and other drugs in his home, they added possession charges.
DeVoren represents energy companies on regulatory challenges and compliance. He has described himself as a “lawyer and philanthropist” according to Heavy.com.
Continue reading “Prominent Pennsylvania Lawyer Charged With Bestiality”
We have been discussing recent publications by academics arguing that math is a form of white privilege and male domination — often citing the relatively low numbers of women in the field. Colleges and high schools have made a concerted effort to get women to join the field, though a recent poster at Brigham Young University (BYU) caused a degree of confusion and an even greater degree of mirth.
Continue reading “BYU Poster Sends Mixed Math Message . . .”
Sergio Palomares-Guzman, 28, is accused of a truly bizarre crime of force feeing a goat a combination of whisky and cocaine. The abuse was captured on a videotape as Palomares-Guzman and another man can be heard laughing. He is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and also faced deportation.
Scandal has rocked Saudi beauty competition with allegations of prohibited use of Botox and face “work” done of the contestants. What is a bit different is that this pageant is for camels and the annual Saudi “camel beauty contest” where owners have been accused of giving Botox to the dromedary.
Continue reading “Saudi Camel Beauty Contest Rocked By Botox Allegations”
As the proud owner of a goldendoodle (Luna), I could not resist posting this story about two hero labradoodles named Adam and Eva. While St. Bernards get all of the rescue press, these two canine superheroes just saved an elderly woman from freezing to death in Michigan.
Continue reading “Meet Adam and Eva: America’s New Canine Heroes”
Taylor Hendricks, 22, is charged with assault after he was ejected from the Philadelphia Eagle playoff. For anyone who has been to a Philly game, that is hardly a surprise. However, Hendricks is charged with assaulting a police horse named Nicky by repeatedly punching the horse in the face.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Man Arrested For Assaulting Police Horse After Eagles Playoff Game”
Just in case your New Year’s resolution has not already put you on the defensive . . . now we are being judged by the chickens. There is an interesting article in National Geographic with some surprising facts about chickens including that chickens favor good looking people over not good looking people. While it is unlikely that the the idea of fat-shaming poultry will get vegans to change their dietary preferences, it does raise the rather provocative idea of looks being a bona fide occupational criteria. Could Perdue join Hooters in looking for good-looking employees? Ok, probably not.
Continue reading “Chickens Prefer Foxes: Scientists Find Poultry Favor Good-Looking People”
We have often discussed how felons guilty of cruelty to animals are often given light sentences. An exception is Hykeem Dontavious Jabar Golson, who will rightfully spend years in jail for burning his girlfriend’s dog alive in a church parking lot. Golson was was sentenced to five years in prison for the 2016 crime (in addition to a $5000 fine). He received the maximum sentence under South Carolina law — only the second person to ever receive the maximum sentence.
We just discussed the tragedy in New York where a man hunting deer after sunset with a high-powered handgun shot and killed a woman walking her dogs. If you wonder how a hunter could fire at a woman walking her dogs, you might want to consider the arrest of Marvin C. Miller, 26. The Ohio hunter is charged with bagging a brown pick up truck that he mistook for a deer. Just for a point of reference, these are representations of the two different targets for any future hunters.
Continue reading “Ohio Hunter Mistakes Brown Pickup For Deer and Disables Vehicle”
Credit: Facebook
Earliest this year, we discussed the fate of Gavel, a German shepherd flunked out of police canine academy in Queensland, Australia, for being too friendly. For those of us who are ardent dog lovers, Gavel became an instant icon. He rejection occurred despite his “family bloodline” of top German Shepard police dogs. The problem is that Gavel just wanted to be friends . . . with everyone. Now Gavel has finally landed a job for which he is uniquely qualified: greeter.
Continue reading “German Shepherd Rejected As Police Dog For Being Too Friendly Is Hired As Greeter”
We have hit another milestone today with over 33,000,000 views. We are also expected to reach 35,000 followers on Twitter. That hardly makes us competition for the largest sites but it is still an impressive collection of people seeking a place for civil but passionate discourse on legal and policy issues of our time (and perhaps a few wacky stories). We often use these milestones to look at the current profile of the blog and its supporters around the world.
As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors: Mike Appleton, Larry Rafferty, Darren Smith, Kimberly Dienes, and Cara Gallagher (particularly Darren who continues help up with periodic technical problems etc).
I particularly want to thank our regular commentators and readers. We try to keep this blog as an open forum with as little interference or monitoring of the comments as possible. Given our free speech orientation, we try not to delete comments and, for that reason, we are deeply appreciative of how most people avoid personal or offensive comments in debating these issues. We have had to delete a handful of comments with personal attacks or profanity but the number remains quite low for a blog of this size. The success of this blog is due to the fact that we offer something more than the all-too-common troll-driven, angry, and insulting commentary of the Internet. Thank you for voluntarily assuming restraint over the tenor and content of your comments. Continue reading “RES IPSA HITS 33,000,000”