Stray Cat Strut

A cat was euthanized Tuesday after it viciously attacked a City of Tonawanda woman in her home.

The woman, 47, of East Avenue, sustained multiple bites, deep cuts and scratches to both legs in the attack by an animal that was being kept as a pet but is thought to have been a stray.

The cat began scratching and biting the woman while was helping a different feline in the home — a 5-week-old kitten — get its paw free from a closet door.

“The cat took numerous lunges at the victim, whose screams were heard by her boyfriend outside,” a police report states. “The cat was cornered ... and barricaded underneath a dresser prior to my arrival,” the officer’s report continues.

Police responded along with Tonawanda Fire Department personnel around 6 p.m., where first aid was administered to the woman, who was later driven to DeGraff Memorial Hospital with injuries. An agent from the Erie County SPCA was later called to contain the animal, a 4-year-old black shorthair.

SPCA Agent Lisa Hall responded to the residence, capturing the animal, which was later deemed to be seriously injured and afflicted with a pre-existing medical condition.

SPCA spokesperson Gina Browning could not confirm what exactly the medical condition was, but said the animal was euthanized shortly after with consent from its owner and sent to Albany for rabies testing. Browning said the cat had no vaccination history and it appears the animal may have been a stray being kept as a pet, she said.

“The cat was a stray but they named it Boo — so they named it and were probably trying to keep it,” Browning said. “The reason it was euthanized was because it needed to be tested for rabies.”

Ahhh Yes ... Once again, the rabies theory ...

Couldn't be that the cat was just pissed that this lady thought she could make it a pet ... nooooo ... there is noooo possibility whatsoever that an animal wanted to attack a human ... or that it entrapped a poor defenseless kitten as bait to ensnare the human ... or even worse, it was working with the kitten to bring the pain upon the human ... nooo ... nooo chance whatsoever that any of these possibilities could be real at all ...

Watch What We Can Do Humans ...

KELSEYVILLE A large male mountain lion killed an adult buck deer in the backyard of a Clear Lake Riviera residence on Tuesday morning. The killing took place within a few feet of a landscaping crew that was working in the area.

After killing the deer, the lion fed on the carcass for more than two hours.

According to Jose Juarez, who operates a landscaping business, he and his two sons, Jackson and Jose Jr., were clearing brush from a backyard on Terrace Way when they observed two buck deer watching them. After a few minutes, one of the deer took off running and disappeared over a hill, while the other deer stayed in the backyard. That's when the mountain lion leaped from the brush onto the deer's back. Jose Jr. said the lion grabbed the deer by the throat and killed it in less than two minutes. The lion then started to feed on the carcass, which was only a few yards away from the men.

"He wasn't even scared of us and, in fact, ignored us as he fed on the dead deer. This went on for about two hours until he finally moved off into the brush," Jose Jr. said.

According to wildlife experts, this behavior is extremely unusual because most mountain lions are very shy and wary of humans.

'Extremely Unusual' eh?

Let me break this down for you ... you know in movies, when bad guys execute innocent bystanders to prove a point? Thats about like this. It's essentially the Animal Uprising's destruction of Alderaan ... sans giant Death Star ... remember when the empire totally destroyed that planet for no reason other than to prove how freakin awesome they were?

Yeah, thats this right here.

Animal Uprising 2012 just said "hey, watch what I can do ... Are you watching? **BAM** ... Ahh, I just killed this deer ... poor deer ... hey, but I'm hungry, so this is convenient ... 'Munch, Chomp' ... By The Way (Mouth Full Talking) ... This is gonna be your entire race ... 'Chew, Slurp, Munch' ... **BBUUURRRPPP** "

Of course, they haven't built a giant space station with a huge freakin laser on it yet, but its probably in the works ...

Kangaroos, Wallabies, Oh My!

Quantifying the Uprising ... Some Disturbing and Expensive figures ...

Wildlife and stray animals are causing thousands of accidents and leading to high insurance costs, a new academic study has found.

The University of NSW says vehicle and animal collisions and attempts to avoid them caused more than 5,000 accidents between 1996 and 2005, resulting in more than 1,700 people being injured and another 22 killed.

The study, carried out by Dr Daniel Ramp and doctoral student Erin Roger, found kangaroos and wallabies were the most likely animals to be involved in collisions, which the NRMA estimates cost $3000 in 2003.

Ramp identifies a number of “hotspots”, which include major road freight routes such as the Hume, Barton and Federal highways.

After kangaroos and wallabies, the study found straying stock, dogs, riderless horses and other large animals were next most involved in collisions.

The researchers used figures from the NSW accident database, which also revealed wombats, emu, stock being driven or led, cats and rabbits as other animals frequently colliding with vehicles.

According to the study, crashes are more likely to happen on the weekends and twice as likely to occur in the winter months from April to August.

The majority of collisions occurred on dry roads in fine weather between dusk and dawn, with the peak period being between 6pm and 7pm.

While study points out the worst accident involved seven people, Ramp says the real toll of collisions with animals is probably higher.

"Often, drivers swerve to miss animals only to hit roadside obstacles, such as trees and poles or oncoming vehicles,” he says.

Besides major highways, the study found there were a number of accidents near Dubbo, Newcastle and Byron Bay.

By identifying the “hotspots”, Ramp hopes engineers will focus their efforts on those locations.

"It is likely that the solutions will come from a combination of behavioural and vehicle design approaches. There is a particular need to understand driver reactions to animals on roads and their attitudes to the risk of collisions with them,” he says.

"Previous studies investigating driver behaviour and attitudes to animal-vehicle crashes have been minimal. Nonetheless, it is known that drivers can effectively reduce the likelihood of animal-vehicle crashes by reducing their driving speed and remaining alert while driving through areas where animals are more abundant. "


... And, is there any coincidence that we have been witness to a global recession in the recent months? Could it be that not only has the Animal Uprising begun overall, but their attempt to endanger our financial infrastructure has also been slowly bleeding out our global economic welfare?

Australian figures be damned ... watch out for Kangaroos and wallabies no matter where you go ... It is their clear intent to devastate our insurance rates, and keep us on the brink of poverty.

You have been warned ...

Squid Invasion Part Deaux

Large Humboldt squid have re-invaded the waters off Oregon and Washington. The squid are 4 to 6 feet long. They used to be rare this far north, but are becoming more common. Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

Humboldt squid are native to the deep waters off Mexico and Southern California.

Down there the efficient predators are nicknamed "red devils" or flying jumbo squid.

Humboldt SquidWashington Department of Fish & Wildlife scientist Greg Bargmann says the arrival of the jumbo squid is a new phenomenon that “looks to become a regular event off our coast.”

Greg Bargmann: “It could be the currents are changing. I'm not sure it's the water temperature or what's driving them. It might be a changing ocean.”

Last October, thousands of dead squid washed up on Oregon and Washington beaches around the time the surface waters turned cold.

The jumbo squid are edible, but fishermen who accidently catch them more commonly use the big calamari as crab bait.


... Or Could it be that the Squid just feel like surrounding the human population wherever they damn well please, with their giant eyes, and multiple tentacle legs ...

These squid are killers. They invade our oceans, then try to attack anything that vaguely resembles a human. Global warming be damned ... Animal Uprising 2012 is upon us ...

Bear Burglary (s)

So this looked all sorts of awesome on its own ...

ASPEN, Colo. — Authorities say a bear forced its way into an Aspen home and attacked the homeowner, leaving her with cuts on her back and chest.

The state Division of Wildlife says the bear forced open a pair of unlocked doors on Saturday and attacked the woman, who fled upstairs and called 911. Her name and condition weren't released.

The bear left as police arrived. Wildlife officers are trying to find and kill the animal.

Officers say they found nothing around the property to attract the bear. They suspect the same animal was responsible for other break-ins and attempted break-ins.

They say that if bears climb through open doors or windows and find food, it's easy for them to force their way into other homes in search of something to eat.

And then I re-read that ending part ...

"They suspect the same animal was responsible for other break ins and attempted break-ins."

Then, we found this ... And pay attention to the ending parts ...

Officials believe that the same bear that attacked an Aspen woman in her home Monday broke into another person's house about 24 hours later in the same neighborhood, using the same method — tearing into locked French doors.

John Case, who lives on Mountain View Drive in the Cemetery Lane neighborhood, said a large bear broke into his house shortly after midnight Wednesday. He called 911, and Aspen police and officers from the Division of Wildlife arrived within minutes.

Case said he was sleeping when he awoke to sounds of something or someone in the house. He walked out of his bedroom and saw the bear standing on all fours in his dining room about 30 feet away.

“He was looking at me, and I was looking at him,” he said. “He's a big ... bear.”

After about 30 seconds, the bear backed up and left the house, Case said.

His house is located just a few properties away from where DOW officials set a trap in an attempt to capture and kill the bruin. His house also is located a short distance downstream from Maureen Hirsch's home, who lives on Power Plant Road in the Castle Creek drainage, where another trap has been set.

Hirsch was attacked Monday night at about 10 by the bear, estimated to weight about 500 pounds. As she walked in her home toward the kitchen, Hirsch was confronted by the bruin, who swiped her back and chest as she turned to open the front door to create an exit for him. She sustained minor injuries and was treated at Aspen Valley Hospital. The bear had gained access through locked French doors, which are rarely used, according to Hirsch.

Case said the bear split the door jam and tore it open from the top. He said he woke up when he heard a loud “kaboom” of the bear gaining access to his home.

“I guess French doors are his thing,” Case said. “It was exactly the same.”

There was a large plastic triceratops toy statue between the bear and Case, which may have acted as a deterrent for the bruin, who never made it to the kitchen.

“I credit the triceratops ... I don't know if it scared him,” Case laughed.

His wife and four children are out of town, and there is zero food in the house, Case noted, and the barbecue grill was clean.

“There was nothing to draw it other than previous experience,” Case said of the bear's learned behavior of seeking out human food.

DOW officials are patrolling the neighborhood in search of the bear, who, if caught, will be euthanized because of its aggressive behavior. The bear remained at large as of Wednesday afternoon, said DOW spokesman Randy Hampton.

That makes many residents in the neighborhood nervous, especially since many families with children live on Mountain View Drive.

“It makes my wife very concerned because we have four small children under 10,” Case said. “What worries us is a kid-bear encounter at dusk.”

It might take a while to capture the bear and stop it from terrorizing the neighborhood.

When a bear attacked a woman in Castle Ridge Apartments last year, it took five days to capture it, Hampton said, adding traps will only produce so much.

“Just like open doors, they get educated about traps,” he said.

Hampton said many people in the Aspen community won't call police or the DOW when they see evidence of a bear trying to break into a property because they think the animal will be harmed.

“People are not telling the DOW because they know we're going to kill it,” Hampton said. “All they are doing is putting their neighbors and themselves at risk.”

He urges people to keep their trash secured and report sightings because the bears may end up being relocated.

In other bear news:

On Tuesday, the Aspen Police Department received dozens of calls regarding bears. Most notable were:

• A bear made a run through the courtyard restaurant of the Little Nell.

• A bear in a garage on Sierra Vista Drive.

• A bear trying to break into a home on Mountain Laurel Drive.

• A bear broke into a vehicle on Gillespie Street.



Bears have decided they don't like french doors, they can break in whenever they want; they can try to jack cars as evidenced by the vehicle on gillespie street and the bear in the garage report, and they can walk into anybody's house they want to.

Essentially, Aspen, CO is doomed.

Georgia Bulldogs

ATLANTA (Aug. 17) – A former college professor and his wife were apparently attacked and killed by nearly a dozen dogs along a rural northeast Georgia road where their bodies were found mutilated, authorities said Monday.

Preliminary autopsy results from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation showed Sherry Schweder, 65, likely died of injuries suffered in a dog attack, Oglethorpe County Sheriff Mike Smith said. Autopsy results for her husband, Lothar Karl Schweder, 77, were not yet available, but Smith said it's likely he was also attacked by dogs because the scene was so grisly.

Smith said officials were going to round up at least 11 dogs seen in the area where the couple's mutilated bodies were found Saturday morning by five passers-by.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the mixed-breed dogs, which are to be captured by animal control officers from neighboring Madison County, were feral or someone's pets. There had been no recent complaints about vicious dogs in the area, Smith said.

The bodies were found along a dirt road near the couple's home in Lexington and had been there for at least 24 hours before they were found, said county coroner James Mathews.

A family friend told the Athens Banner-Herald that Lothar Karl Schweder was a retired professor who had taught German at the University of Georgia, which is about 20 miles away in Athens.

UGA German Department head Martin Kagel said he didn't know Lothar Karl Schweder and that no one currently with the department knew him. However, he said it might be possible Schweder worked there part time at some point or worked there more than 20 years ago.

Wow ... a dozen dogs decided to attack a couple who were out walking ... I mean, c'mon ... What the hell is that business if not ridiculously odd, unexplainable, and flat out freaky.

Sometimes we have a laugh here at Animal Uprising 2012 ... unfortnately, this isn't one of those times. Georgia Bulldogs; not just a college mascot any longer ...

You've been warned.

No Photographs Please ...

A retired schoolteacher from France has been trampled to death by wild elephants in southern India, forest officials say.

The 66-year-old woman and her son, a 39-year-old computer engineer, were walking in the Ooty hill ranges in Tamil Nadu state on Friday when the accident occurred.

The pair, accompanied on their trek by two local guides, came across a herd of wild elephants grazing and moved closer to take photographs when an elephant and her calf apparently charged them, officials said.

The pair ran in panic but could not escape, the officials said.

The woman died en route to hospital while her son suffered leg injuries, according to the officials.

Their identities could not immediately be confirmed and French embassy officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

"Local officers are investigating the incident," district forest officer K Soundarapandian said.

The pair were staying at a jungle resort known as Bokkapuram adjoining the well-known Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Udhagamandalam, some 500 kilometres from Chennai.

WWF coordinator N Mohanraj called the accident an "avoidable tragedy".

He told the Hindu newspaper that there was a need to regulate tourism in wildlife areas and that elephant corridors should be left alone by tourists.

- AFP

With all due respect ... when are people going to learn to leave big giant wildlife alone? Apparently never. If you came across a herd of grazing, flesh eating dinosaurs of like sizes to an elephant, would you move closer to take a picture of them as well? Of course you wouldn't, because flesh eating dinosaurs would not be grazing, they would be jumping on you, eating your flesh. Point is, you don't move close to wild animals that can trample you.

All that aside, and I'm sorry to the family, people have got to respect ...

Alabama Snails

Coming soon to a port and backyard near you! Yuck ...

(AP) — MOBILE, Ala. -When wildlife officials realized that baseball-sized Amazonian snails had colonized the main pond in Mobile's Langan Park last year, their worst-case scenario involved the giant gastropods escaping into Three Mile Creek.

Now, a year later, that's exactly what's happened.

Distinctive, bubble-gum pink wads of snail eggs have been found downstream of the pond's dam, indicating that the snails are there as well.

The only thing keeping the apple snails out of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, according to biologists, is the time it will take them to move down the creek.

"Anything downstream of the lake is pretty much fair game at this point," said Dave Armstrong with the local office of Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, who discovered that the snails had escaped from the pond. "I'm really concerned. We're going to have to hustle to get something done before the winter."

Biologists fear the nonnative snails because they have been shown to eat 95 percent of the aquatic vegetation in some natural systems, leaving behind murky, algae-filled water. The list of the snail's preferred food items include all of Alabama's most common and important wetland plants: coontail, widgeongrass, spiderlillies, pickerelweed and bulltongue.

State officials believe that a few of the Amazonian snails were likely dumped into the pond after they had grown too large for a home aquarium. Pet stores sold the snails for years, but that practice is now illegal.

A year ago, egg masses were evident at Langan pond, but the snails themselves were hard to find. Last week, a walk to the pond's edge revealed 12 snails within 10 feet of each other, and egg cases caking every surface at the edge of the lake, from cypress knees to cattails to concrete culverts.

There is concern that the minor flooding associated with summer rains could be enough to wash young snails-which often attach themselves to pieces of wood floating in the water-all the way to the Mobile River.

"If this occurs, apple snails could invade more than 20,000 acres" of the delta, according to a report prepared by Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries biologists. Snails could lay eggs on ships and barges, and "the port of Mobile could become a source of apple snails to the Tombigbee River, Alabama River and ports outside of Alabama."

State biologists considered the invasive snails a pressing threat and had hoped to poison the pond and exterminate the invaders last summer.

Instead, those involved said last week, various debates took precedence, including who should pay for the extermination effort, who should be in charge of it, and how exactly to go about killing the notoriously hardy creatures.

In the end, no action was taken before the first cold snap of winter sent the big snails burrowing into the mud at the bottom of the pond to hibernate. Once buried, they cannot be poisoned.

Nobody dropped the ball, it just hasn't happened as quickly as we all wanted," Armstrong said. "We have been talking all along about the need to deal with them. It took awhile to figure out what to do. They are very hard to eradicate."

State officials now have a blueprint for wiping out the snails at a cost approaching $50,000. Any further delay reduces the chance of success, according to state biologist Ben Ricks, who drafted the plan.

"I think the only hang-up at this point are questions of manpower, funding, equipment and such," said Dan Otto, Mobile's parks superintendent. "To my mind, the problem is bigger than just the city. But I'm sure the city can help."

Step one involves killing all of the cattails and other emergent vegetation around and in the pond to help reduce places the snails can lay their eggs.

Then all of the pink egg masses will be scraped from the pond's banks and frozen, which kills the eggs.

After that, the lake itself will be poisoned with copper sulfate, killing the snails and some of the fish in the pond, which is a popular fishing spot supporting healthy populations of bass and bream. State officials said the pond would be restocked if needed.

Press-Register reporters have documented the presence of tilapia in the pond, another invasive species that threatens the integrity of the delta. Biologists said getting rid of the breeding population of that fish in the pond would also be beneficial.

After the pond is poisoned, inspections will be performed at regular intervals. A follow-up application of copper sulfate will likely be required, according to the biologists.

Great ... From the state that brought us slavery, missing front teeth, 'Roll Tide', inbreeding, and the KKK, we now get, Giant Invading Snails ...

Absolutely LOVE the fact that they've known about this problem for awhile, but that now it could just be a wee bit too late, as once the snails get out, they'll be on board shipments, in rivers, laying gross pink eggs everywhere, eating puppies, kittens, and babies ...

Of course, Alabama totally has a plan to poison the snails, thereby eliminating the problem ... except for its not funded, and the flooding is apparently washing the snails out of Alabama presently as is ...

Gee, Thanks Alabama!

Otters ... Yes, You Read That Correctly ... This Post is About Otters ...

An Austrian woman visiting a Wisconsin lake got quite a surprise when she saw several otters swimming near her. Before she knew it, the cute and seemingly innocent animals were attacking her.

Brigitte France, 51, was swimming in Lake Owen when she heard some hissing behind her. That's when she spotted a cute otter peeking out of the water.

"I thought it was really cool," she told the Duluth News Tribune. "I'd never seen an otter before. Then, all of a sudden, there were three of them."

When the otter gang got a little too close, France said they made her uncomfortable and she tried to escape.

"I decided to get out of the water," she told DNT. "I swam right to the bank, about 3 or 4 meters away from me."

When she made it to shore and was trying to get out of the water, she says one otter was on her right leg and another on her left. She says the otters bit her eight or nine times before she was able to shake her legs and get away. Luckily the bites "never really hurt that much," she said.

France's family took her to the hospital where she began a series of rabies shots.

A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife manager in Duluth says otters don't usually munch on humans and attacks are extremely unusual. Good to know.

France, 51, lives in Altach, Austria, with her husband who is a former Duluthian. They visit the family cabin in Wisconsin each summer.

France won't be seeking any revenge on the evil otters. She says she "hasn't been haunted by the experience" and isn't upset at them. The otters live to attack once more.

So, we have a hissing, attacking Otter. Seems to me that the Austrian invader stumbled upon some sort of secret Otter Den, or Animal Uprising 2012 planning center, and of course, the Otters had to attack ...

Once again, we see the appearance of the rabies theory ... happy otters at play, in a peaceful, serene lake where humans like to relax, and of course, an Otter attack MUST be rabies ... couldn't be that they just don't like humans.

Y'all have been warned.

Angry Rooster

EAST NAPLES: A 20-month-old was taken to the emergency room following an attack by a rooster on Monday. But we found out the animal shouldn't have been there in the first place.

The wounds from Issac Ashley's battle with a bird run all the way up his cheek and nearly into his eye.

"I'm thankful that he's not blinded or maimed in that eye," said his mother Amey.

Amey says she and her young son were playing outside their apartment off Pine Street Monday morning when the rooster attacked.

She says it was enough to send him to the emergency room for hours.

"We weren't sure how bad it was because his face was just covered in dirt, I guess from the chicken's feet," Amey explained.

She said the roosters are her neighbor's and that they run free all the time. She just didn't expect them to fight.

"It happened within three seconds, five seconds flat. It happened before I could even get to him," Amey described.

The neighbor didn't want to go on camera. But she said even though there is a cage in her backyard, the roosters actually belong to a former resident who left the birds there when they went to Mexico two years ago.

Animal Control officers say the rooster wasn't groomed for fighting and was probably just protecting its territory.

"I've been working here for 11 years, and it was the first one that I've heard of," said Dana Alger, a Collier County Animal Control supervisor.

But officers also said roosters shouldn't be there anyway, because the neighborhood is not zoned to allow it. That's why the birds have since been removed.

"That way I don't have to worry about him being out in the yard again," Amey said.

She says it was an unlikely animal attack that she will be reminded of each time she looks at her son's face.

WTF ... Angry Mexican Rooster's protecting their territory?!? And by territory, they mean 'Apartment'?!?

Please ... Animal Uprising 2012 if I've ever seen it. Love how the article ends as well ... 'Every time she looks at her son's face, she'll be reminded of an angry cock pecking at it ... '