Society's ChildS


Question

Tails and manes cut from ponies in latest attack targeting horses in Ipswich

Craig Robinson
Ipswich Star
Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:00 UTC
Horse
© Ipswich StarA horse in Beck Row had its tail hacked - similar to a recent incident in Hoo, near Wickham Market, when two ponies were targeted.
It is the latest in a number of similar incidents in which animals have been targeted.

The most recent happened at a farm in Hoo, near Wickham Market, between 9pm on Saturday, August 17 and 7am the following day.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk police said because horses were left in open fields it was sometimes difficult to catch offenders in the act.

However she urged anyone who spotted any suspicious activity to report it immediately.

"It is quite likely that in most cases a vehicle may have been used to get to more rural locations," she said. "In this incident it looks like someone had their headlights on.
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Donut

Human rights watch says this Thai Dunkin Doughnuts ad is 'bizarre and racist'

Aaron Taube
Business Insider, Australia
Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:00 UTC
Human Rights Watch demanded that Dunkin' Doughnuts remove an ad running in Thailand that the organisation is calling "bizarre and racist."

The ad, for a chocolate "Charcoal Doughnut," features a woman in blackface makeup with bright pink lips, evoking memories of the minstrel shows that once mocked black Americans in the United States.

Here's the ad:
Donut Ad
© Business Insider, AustraliaDunkin' Doughnuts Charcoal Ad.
"It's both bizarre and racist that Dunkin' Doughnuts thinks that it must colour a woman's skin black and accentuate her lips with bright pink lipstick to sell a chocolate doughnut," Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told the Associated Press.
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Bomb

Military practice bomb lands in Maryland parking lot


El Paso Inc
Fri, 30 Aug 2013 14:04 UTC
An electronic failure may be to blame for a practice bomb that was dropped from a jet onto a tavern's parking lot, a Maryland National Guard official said Friday.

An A-10 Warthog jet from the 104th Fighter Squadron in the 175th Wing was returning from a training mission Thursday night to Warfield Air National Guard Base in Middle River when the inert device was dropped, guard spokesman Lt. Col. Charles Kohler said. The guard has grounded the aircraft while it investigates.

Kohler didn't yet know exactly what device it was, but said it is made to fly like a 500-pund bomb, but weighs much less.

"This is an unfortunate incident and we're very lucky that no one was hurt. Safety is a top priority in all operations," Kohler said.

A customer at Darlene's Tavern in Sudlersville came in from outside saying he thought a car in the parking lot was on fire, said owner Darlene Hurley. The car was covered in dust and stones and a few feet away was a 3-foot deep hole, she said. They called 911.

Police officers dug in the hole and when they spotted the fins of the device, they called in the fire marshal's bomb squad, Hurley said. Bomb technicians determined that it was a practice aerial bomb and the device was turned over to the National Guard, the fire marshal's office said.

"It could have been a whole lot worse. It landed about 100 feet from the building," Hurley said noting that there are propane tanks nearby. "It could have been really, really bad. Thank God everyone was OK."

Source: Associated Press
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Arrow Down

'Bizarre' case of animal cruelty discovered in Missouri town


FOX 4 Newsroom
Fri, 30 Aug 2013 14:56 UTC
Rabbits
© Fox4 Newsroom
Chillicothe - Police in Chillicothe, Missouri, said they are investigating one of the most usual cases of animal cruelty they have ever seen.

Police received an anonymous tip that sent them to a home where a number of rabbits were being abused. Police described what they found as bizarre.

"They had rabbit cages that weren't being kept up, feces wasn't being cleaned up or removed from the cages," said Captain Tony Kirkendoll. "Animals were laying in their own urine and feces. They were left out in the sun, no shade."

Police found 17 neglected animals and two decomposed rabbits. The rabbits that were found alive are being treated at an area shelter.

James Venneman, 29, of Chillicothe, faces 18 counts of animal cruelty and neglect charges.

Chillicothe is about 90 miles northeast of Kansas City, Mo.
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Arrow Down

Hunter shoots the first endangered wolf seen in Kentucky in 150 years

Holly Richmond
Grist Org
Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:30 UTC
Dead Wolf_2
© KentuckyHunting.net
When you see something rare - Lady Gaga; the blue-footed booby - it's customary not to shoot it. Unless you're the dickish hunter who shot the first endangered gray wolf to appear in Kentucky in 150 years:
The first documented free-ranging wolf in Kentucky's modern history was shot and killed by an unsuspecting hunter, state wildlife officials have announced.
The hunter, 31-year-old James Troyer, killed the wolf back in March, but the Department of Agriculture only recently confirmed it was indeed a federally endangered gray wolf, not a German Shepherd like officials originally thought.
"I was like - wow - that thing was big!" [Troyer] recalled. "It looked like a wolf, but who is going to believe I shot a wolf?"
Gee, I don't know. How odd that something that looked like a wolf turned out to be a wolf. </Daria voice>
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Heart - Black

Without Conscience: Pennsylvania woman gives birth in bar, suffocates newborn, returns to watching wrestling match

Nina Golgowski and Ginger Adams Otis
New York Daily News
Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:18 UTC
Amanda Catherine Hein
© Amanda Catherine Hein via FacebookAmanda Catherine Hein has been accused of killing her newborn son — and she could face the death penalty if she is guilty as charged.
Amanda Catherine Hein, 26, of Allentown, allegedly delivered the healthy baby boy at Starters Pub and then continued watching a pay-per-view wrestling match with three male friends.

A Pennsylvania woman gave birth in the bathroom of a sports bar, smothered the baby boy in a trash bag and then left him to die in a toilet tank - a crime punishable by death.

Amanda Hein, 26, of Allentown, has been ordered held without bail. She was charged with criminal homicide. In Pennsylvania, the intentional murder of a child under 12 is a capital offense.

The baby boy was alive and healthy - carried from 33 to 36 weeks - when Hein delivered him at Starters Pub in Bethlehem, Pa., on Aug. 18, the coroner said.
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Cult

Archbishop of Canterbury: Christians must repent for their homophobia

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Thu, 29 Aug 2013 05:56 UTC
The
Archbishop of Canterbury
© Screenshot Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, has warned Christians that their views on sexual orientation were beginning to look like an "atrocious injustice".

Justin Welby spoke at the opening of the Evangelical Alliance on Wednesday. During a question and answer session after his speech, the archbishop was asked why he voted against same-sex marriage legislation.

"What I voted against was what seemed to me to be the rewriting the nature of marriage in a way that I have to say within the Christian tradition and within scripture and within our understanding is not the right way to deal with the very important issues that were attempted to be dealt with in that bill," he replied.
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Syringe

Medical treatment trumps religious beliefs, courts say

David Templeton
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thu, 29 Aug 2013 14:27 UTC
Image
When the religious beliefs of parents conflict with the medical needs of the child, medical care trumps religion.

In Pennsylvania, and most other states, the law allows health and government officials to get court approval to provide medical care to save a child's life over the parents' religious objections.

But in Akron, Ohio, where Amish parents removed their 10-year-old daughter from the hospital to avoid further chemotherapy, the issue enters a legal gray area.

"I think this is a more heartrending question," said Wes Oliver, associate professor of law and director of the Criminal Justice Program at the Duquesne Law School. "Do you require parents to take extraordinary measures to give a child a percentage chance of survival, or do you leave that decision for the parents?"

In the Amish case, the parents took their daughter to the hospital in May for chemotherapy before removing her from treatment in June.
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Dollars

Atheists, government square off over clergy tax break

Bob Smietana
The Tennessean
Thu, 29 Aug 2013 14:23 UTC
Image
© Todd Richmond / File / Associated PressAnnie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation
The federal government wants to give Annie Laurie Gaylor a clergy tax break for leading an atheist group.

Gaylor, head of the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, wants to stop it - and she's asking a federal judge for help.

The standoff is the latest twist in a court battle over the parsonage exemption for clergy, a tax break that allows "ministers of the gospel" to claim part of their salary as a tax-free housing allowance. Gaylor's organization says the exemption gives religious groups an unfair advantage. That makes it unconstitutional, the foundation's lawsuit contends.

But government lawyers say atheist leaders can still be ministers, because atheism can function as a religion. So leaders of an atheist organization may qualify for the exemption after all.

No thanks, says Gaylor.
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Bizarro Earth

Montana judge defends handing down 30-day sentence to teacher in rape of student

Erin Donaghue
CBS News
Wed, 28 Aug 2013 14:15 UTC
Image
© Billings Police DepartmentStacey Dean Rambold is shown in this booking photo.
A Montana judge who sentenced former teacher Stacey Rambold to 30 days in the rape case of a 14-year-old student is defending his decision as outrage grows over his comments that the girl was "older than her chronological age."

In 2010, the girl killed herself at age 16 as the case was pending, and her mother told District Judge G. Todd Baugh Monday her relationship with Rambold was a "major factor" in her suicide.

Baugh handed down the sentence Monday after former Billings Senior High School teacher Rambold, 54, was terminated from a sexual offender treatment program that was part of a deal to have his prosecution deferred. The judge said he wasn't convinced that the reasons for Rambold's termination from the program were serious enough to warrant a 10-year prison term recommended by prosecutors.

In handing down the sentence, Baugh also said the 14-year-old victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control of the situation" as the teacher. The girl's mother, Auleia Hanlon, stormed out of the courtroom yelling, "You people suck!," the Billings-Gazette reported.
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