Earth Changes

Police record huge increase in dangerous dog offences in Kent, UK; from 16 in 2011 to 745 in 2016

Ellis Stephenson
Kent Online
Wed, 16 Aug 2017 19:06 UTC

Police recorded more than 700 offences involving dangerous dogs.

There has been a huge rise in the number of dog attacks in Kent, with action taken against almost 750 owners last year alone.

Figures given to KentOnline following a Freedom of Information request reveal 745 offences were recorded of an owner or person in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury in 2016 - a massive 46-fold increase in five years.

Two more offences were logged involving a person owning or being in charge of a dangerous dog that injured an assistance dog last year - one less than in 2015.

In contrast the total number of offences involving dangerous dogs logged in 2010 stood at 19, dropped to 16 in 2011, rose to 97 in 2012, jumped to 321 in 2013, reached 455 in 2014 and then 597 in 2015.

The statistics come as the owner of a dog who attacked nine-year-old Reggi Jarvis faces sentencing this week.

The youngster was bit by a Japanese Akita.

His mum Lecretia Barnes said: "The impact on our family was massive.

Millions of animals dead as floods, algae blooms and disease takes it toll around the globe

Gary Walton
The Big Wobble
Tue, 15 Aug 2017 18:37 UTC

10th August 2017 - 90 TONS of fish have died in fish farms in Vung Tau, Vietnam.

Nearly 90 metric tons of farm-raised fish in the southern province of Ba Ria- Vung Tau have been killed once again, leaving local residents with the heavy burden of loss and debt.

9th August 2017 - Hundreds dead Shearwater birds found washed up on Long Island beaches in New York, America.

Hundreds of great shearwaters have turned up dead on beaches on Long Island and southern New England this summer, and no one seems to know why. In addition to the birds on Block Island, birders and biologists have reported dead shearwaters on Rhode Island beaches in Tiverton and Charlestown.

Alligator found taking a dip in Atlantic City hotel pool

Jeff Goldman
NJ.com
Tue, 15 Aug 2017 14:10 UTC

Atlantic City police are investigating how an alligator wound up in a motel pool at the Bayview Inn and Suites in New Jersey on August 15, 2017.

Animal control workers removed a 3-foot alligator found in the outdoor swimming pool of the Bayview Inn & Suites in Atlantic City on Tuesday morning.

The alligator was discovered taking a dip in the pool at the motel on North Albany Avenue, Atlantic City police said in a statement.

It has been safely lifted from the pool around 10 a.m.

Are the lakes of Oklahoma being terrorized by a freshwater octopus?

Katherine Harmon Courage
Scientific American
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC

As the rate of unexplained drowning deaths has reportedly crept up in Oklahoma's placid lakes, some observers have turned to an unusual explanation: a freshwater octopus.

The legend of a killer cephalopod lurking in the murky waters of the state's Lake Thunderbird, Lake Tenkiller or Lake Oolagah has been surfacing for at least the past several years. Animal Planet's Lost Tapes even aired an investigation of this crypto-creature. This beast (or beasts), dubbed the "Oklahoma Octopus," reportedly drags swimmers down with its many strong arms.

How could a sea creature have found its way to lakes in the Heartland?

This unlikely animal, people have explained, might be a rare living fossil, left over from the time (tens of millions of years ago) when this part of the country was, indeed, a shallow sea-and a perfect octopus habitat. Over the millennia, this particular line of octopuses has adapted to freshwater, these proponents suggest.

30 by 40 foot sinkhole opens in west Bakersfield, California

The Bakersfield Californian
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:21 UTC

A large sinkhole in west Bakersfield closed traffic Monday on a section of Coffee Road.

The roughly 30 by 40-foot sinkhole occurred just off the roadway shortly after 8 a.m. in the 200 block of Coffee Road, near Westfield Road and north of Stockdale Highway. authorities said.

Bakersfield firefighters said they closed lanes in both directions on Coffee at Westfield Road after arriving at the area, where it's believed a "compromised" 20-inch water main led to the sinkhole.

Construction has been going on nearby, and it's believed workers were trying to tie in the water main for a storm drain system, said Mike Mares, Cal Water's Bakersfield district manager. Water poured out of the main before being shut off before 10 a.m.

Nepal floods update: Death toll touches 91

Hindustan Times
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 16:03 UTC

A Nepalese man guides his pigs through floodwaters in Janakpur, 300 km southeast of the capital Kathmandu, on August 14, 2017.

Fourteen people were killed in a landslide in Nepal on Monday, taking the death toll in rain-related incidents across the country to 91 even as a group of stranded Indian nationals were rescued from a national park by using elephants.

Incessant rains over the past few days have resulted in massive flooding and landslides at several places, displacing tens of thousands of people. The monsoon rains have wreaked havoc since Friday in districts spanning the eastern, central and western regions of the country.

According to the home ministry, 91 people were killed and 25 more injured.

Another 38 have been reported missing following landslides and floods over the past three days and the death toll is likely to rise, the ministry said.

The bodies of two Indian nationals were found in Parsa district of Nepal, according to police. Their identities have been established, officials said.

A group of 35 Indians stranded at Sauraha, part of Chitawan national park, were rescued by using elephants, an Indian embassy spokesperson told the media. Earlier reports had quoted authorities as saying that 200 Indian tourists were among some 700 stranded people but the Indian mission said only 35 of them were Indians.

Heavy rains kill 41 across the Indian state of Bihar

Hindustan Times
Tue, 15 Aug 2017 14:17 UTC

Forty-one people have died in floods in Bihar

Heavy rains in the last three days triggered flash floods in parts of Bihar, where 41 people have died so far, and inundated large areas in Assam and North Bengal, paralysing normal life and snapping rail link to the northeast from the rest of the country.

In Arunachal Pradesh too, the flood situation continued to be grim in several districts with recurring landslides disrupting road traffic.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who conducted an aerial survey of flood-hit areas, said Araria was the worst effected district and water has entered the district headquarters.

Flood waters have engulfed areas in Kisanganj, three blocks of Purnea and one block of Katihar damaging roads.

He said heavy rains in Nepal and Bihar in last three days have led to the situation and the state government is carrying out relief operations in flooded areas on a war-footing.

Forty-one people have died in floods in Bihar so far, said the principal secretary, disaster management department, Pratyay Amrit.

Seal bites man in Friday Harbor, Washington

Lynsi Burton
Seattle PI
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 14:05 UTC

Popeye has been a local fixture for more than 20 years

Visitors come from far and wide to see the Friday Harbor mascot, harbor seal Popeye.

But on Thursday, Gerald Balmer got an unwelcome greeting from the marina mainstay.

The 71-year-old Smokey Point resident had just finished fishing with friends and was sitting in a 24-foot boat at the Friday Harbor marina in the San Juan Islands, his arm across the top of the boat's wall.

Popeye, recognized by her blind, milky white left eye, emerged from the water and tore into Balmer's arm, about three feet above the sea.

"She just jumped up there and grabbed my arm," Balmer said.

Luckily, a registered nurse was aboard the neighboring boat and cleaned and bandaged Balmer's arm, which suffered a few deep cuts.

Hunter in Namibia trampled to death by elephant he was trying to kill

New York Post
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 13:59 UTC

Namibian media say an elephant trampled and killed an Argentine who was in a group of hunters tracking a herd of elephants.

The Namibia Press Agency said the hunter, identified as 46-year-old Jose Monzalvez, was killed on Saturday afternoon in a private wildlife area 43 miles northwest of the small town of Kalkfeld.

The agency said Monzalvez, who worked for an oil company, was with another Argentine and three Namibians when he was killed. It says one of the elephants charged before the group was able to find a spot to aim and shoot.

The report says Monzalvez had a hunting permit with him and that relatives have been informed of his death.

Source: Associated Press

Firefighters battle wildfires across Greece

Phoebe Fronista and Alkis Konstantinidis
Reuters
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 08:57 UTC

© Getty Images
Members of the fire department battled to try and extinguish a forest fire in the Kalamos region of Athens, Greece, on Monday

Firefighters battled more than 90 forest fires across Greece on Monday, an outbreak fed by dry winds and hot weather that saw blazes burning near Athens, in the Peloponnese, and on the Ionian islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia.

The fire near Athens was burning unchecked for a second day, damaging dozens of homes. It had started in Kalamos, a coastal holiday spot some 45 km (30 miles) northeast of the capital, and spread overnight to three more towns. A state of emergency was declared in the area.

On Zakynthos, an island popular with foreign tourists, several fires continued to burn for a fourth day and authorities declared a state of emergency. One minister said those fires had been set deliberately.

"It's arson according to an organized plan," Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis, who is the MP for Zakythnos, told state TV when asked to comment on the dozen fires burning on the island. "There is no doubt about it."

It is not clear what caused the fires, and no investigation has begun into possible arson. Late July and August often see a outbreaks of forest and brush fires in Greece, where high temperatures help create tinder-box conditions.