Puerto Rico Pet Massacre

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them from a bridge to their deaths, authorities and witnesses said Friday. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter. "This is an irresponsible, inhumane and shameful act," he told The Associated Press. Fontanez said the city hired Animal Control Solution to clear three housing projects of pets after warning residents about a no-pet policy. He said the city paid $60 for every animal recovered and another $100 for each trip to a shelter in the San Juan suburb of Carolina.

Raids were conducted on Monday and Wednesday, and the boricua residents told TV reporters they saw the animal control workers inject the animals. When they asked what they were giving them, they said they were told it was a sedative for the drive to the shelter. "They came as if it were a drug raid," said Alma Febus, an animal welfare activist. "They took away dogs, cats and whatever animal they could find. Some pets were taken away in front of children." But instead of being taken to a shelter, the pets and strays were thrown 50 feet from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja, according to Fontanez, witnesses and activists, apparently before dawn Tuesday. "Many were already dead when they threw them, but others were alive," said Jose Manuel Rivera, who lives next to the bridge. "Some of the animals managed to climb to the highway even though they were all battered, but about 50 animals remained there, dead."

Rivera said he alerted officials, who spread lime over the animals' corpses to control the stench. Animal Control Solution owner Julio Diaz said he went to the bridge when he heard of the allegations, but remains unconvinced that the dead animals are the same ones his company collected. "We have never thrown animals off any place. We always take them to our local shelter and euthanize them," he said. "They can't prove that they are the same dogs that we picked up." Fontanez said he would cancel the city's contract with Animal Control Solution and said city lawyers were considering a lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a rule allowing locally owned and operated housing authorities to set pet rules, but it does not grant authority for a blanket ban or mass confiscation, said Brian Sullivan, an HUD spokesman in Washington. Asked to comment on the reported pet massacre, Sullivan said: "This sickens me if true." Animal rights activists have long criticized the treatment of pets in Puerto Rico, where there is no pet registration law and little spaying or neutering. Animal shelters are overwhelmed and must kill many of the dogs they receive, according to Victor Collazo, president of the island's Association of Medical Veterinarians. One organization recruits volunteers to take dogs home with them on commercial flights, and sends between 1,500 and 2,000 dogs a year from Puerto Rico to American shelters. At least 175 dogs have been rescued in the last couple of years from Yabucoa Beach, which activists nicknamed "Dead Dog Beach" because of the strays that roam the coast and are sometimes found dead of disease, starvation or gunshots. Similar rescue efforts have been undertaken in the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Commentary? What can anyone say? I guess the poor people that live in apartment projects have no rights, and the pets have even less rights. What a horrible way to treat man's best friend. What an inhuman way to treat the children whose beloved pets were taken from them to be murdered.

Gator Bites Snorkeler

South Carolina Snorkeler's Arm Re-attached After It Was Ripped Off By Monster Alligator!
The beast with the snorkeler's arm. Photo: Jerome Bien

Bill Hedden being attended to after the alligator attack. Photo: Jerome Bien

The alligator was shot several times before Hedden's arm was removed from inside.

Charleston, South Carolina -- A man is hospitalized in Charleston after an alligator bit off one of his arms at a Lake Moultrie recreation area. Bill Hedden, 59, is being treated at the Medical University of South Carolina hospital. Hedden's family has told the hospital not to release any information about his condition. Hedden was snorkeling in a Lake Moultrie recreation area when the gator attacked him about 3:45 p.m. Sunday.

Baby Snapping Turtles

JAMESTOWN, N.D. -- Earlier this summer, Betty Kratzke noticed that something was disturbing the ground near the flowers that line her driveway. Solving the mystery this week proved to be a snap - when baby snapping turtles started crawling around her yard. "They just keep popping up out of the hole," said Cliff Hanson, Kratzke's brother-in-law. The turtles had recently hatched and were no bigger than a half dollar coin, said Darrell Perry, another brother-in-law. Family members scooped up 44 turtles in all. They were put in a cardboard box and taken to the nearby James River. "They went swimming away like crazy," Kratzke said.
Snapping turtles live to be decades old and can grow up to 40 pounds, said Gene Van Eeckhout, a biologist with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. They do not make nice pets, he said. "They're not very friendly to play with," Van Eeckhout said. Kratzke said she thought some sort of animal was disturbing her flowers. "But it was a long ways from being a muskrat or a raccoon," she said. "They are the cutest little things." Perry said the experience was one to remember. "While they were coming out, we just stood there and watched them in amazement," he said.

Observation: Those snapping turtles are sold for $25.-$30. each at the local pet store. I would love to have one. I had one a while back but it died after a couple of years. Turtles need a lot of attention to their water filtration, nutrition, and sunlight or UV lighting. It takes a lot of commitment and responsibility.

Rare Turtle Born in Tennessee

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The newest addition to the Tennessee Aquarium is a recently hatched rare turtle of an endangered species displayed in only a few places in North America. A rare Beal's four-eyed turtle, named for two white spots on the back of its head that look like another pair of eyes, hatched from a clutch of three eggs, aquarium officials announced Friday. "This little turtle in Chattanooga may represent the first successful reproduction of Sacalia bealei in a North American institution," aquarium herpetologist Enrico Walder said. The baby turtle weighed only 6 grams and was 38 millimeters long when it hatched June 9. There are only 18 known Beal's four-eyed turtles in the United States and Europe. The Dallas Zoo and the Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero, Calif., are the other two places in the U.S. with the turtles, aquarium officials said.

The turtles were once common in southern China, butd researchers believe their numbers will not grow large again because of their low reproductive rates. "As with many Asian species the Beal's four-eyed turtle has been over collected for use in the Chinese food and traditional medicine trade," Walder said. A male Beal's four-eyed turtle is currently on display at the aquarium, but the baby will not be exhibited until it is older.