Animals
S


Wolf

70-year-old woman mauled by her son's dogs for 30 minutes in Alexander City, Alabama

Mitch Sneed
The Outlook
Sat, 10 Jun 2017 11:23 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
A 70-year-old Alexander City woman remains hospitalized following surgery after she was brutally attacked for almost 30 minutes by two bulldogs that belonged to her son.

Alexander City Police Department Animal Control Officer Scott Wright was the first officer on the scene at 5:40 p.m. Thursday evening and encountered the dogs still actively mauling the woman and threating fire department personnel who responded to the Old Kellyton Road home.
"It was the worst dog attack situation that I have ever encountered," Wright said. "It appears to be a totally unprovoked attack on a woman who was known to the animals. For almost 30 minutes they continued to bite and maul her despite her attempts to fight them off.

"She used her hands, legs, a brick and two-by-fours to try to keep them away but they just kept coming."
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Wolf

1-year-old boy dies following mauling by Rottweiler in Phoenix, Arizona

Trisha Hendricks
12news.com
Sat, 10 Jun 2017 13:07 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
A 1-year-old boy died after a dog attack in a South Phoenix home.

A fire official said a grandmother was watching the child at the time of the incident. Police said she was at home doing laundry when she put down the baby boy. The woman opened a house door and the dog got inside the room the boy was in, according to police.

Officers said the dog grabbed the baby and dragged him outside.

A Phoenix police officer shot the Rottweiler dog to make it stop attacking the boy. The boy, identified as Marcos Raya Junior, was taken to a local trauma center in extremely critical condition, and later pronounced dead.

Marcos Raya Junior's family is devastated. His mom told 12 News he was their miracle baby and that she prayed for him for 11 years. They called him MJ.


Comment: A couple of days earlier than the above incident 2 Rottweilers savagely attacked a 7-year-old boy in Niagara Falls, New York:
A 7-year-old boy, brutally attacked by two rottweilers in Niagara Falls, is fighting for his life. Kaeden Mitchell's mother says her son was at his babysitter's house on 70th Street where the two dogs are normally locked up when kids are around.

Vikki Avino says she got a call at work Wednesday afternoon that the dogs broke out of their cage as Kaeden and a 4-year-old girl were outside and attacked. Avino says the little girl managed to climb over a fence and get away, and the dogs' owner tried to intervene and shield Mitchell, but the dogs were relentless.

"He had had his ears ripped off, his eyelids, he's got big holes in his neck. He has lacerations everywhere. Legs, arms, stomach, neck head," she said by phone.

Avino says her son has already had several surgeries at a Buffalo hospital, with more expected.


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Attention

First shark attack on surfer recorded in the UK


Surfer Today
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 18:00 UTC
handcut
A 30-year-old surfer survived a shark attack in Bantham Beach, near Devon, in England.

Rich Thomson was grabbed by the leg and bitten by a three-foot smooth-hound shark. As a result, he suffered cuts to his hands and a bruised leg.

According to researchers, it is the first time in the UK that the ocean's predator attacks a surfer. And the strike would have caused worse injuries if he had not worn a thick wetsuit.

"I turned around and saw this little shark was on my thigh and wriggling its head side to side. I hit it on the head, and it swam off. My hand was cut to pieces. I had a quite a sizeable bruise about three inches across," explained Thomson.
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Wolf

Horror movie-watching dog tries to warn characters of danger

Ben Hooper
UPI
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 12:33 UTC
DOG WATCHING TV
A pet owner shared video of a cinephile bulldog showing her protective nature by trying to warn characters in a horror movie of impending danger.

A video posted Monday to YouTube by user Elvis and Khaleesi shows Khaleesi the bulldog intently watching an intense scene from 2013 film The Conjuring.

The dog silently stares at the screen for several seconds, but becomes vocal and animated when a child onscreen appears to be in danger. The dog hops and barks at the screen as if trying to warn the child.

"Khaleesi the bulldog loves watching horror movies and always tries to protect any potential victims from harm! She is especially vocal when children are in danger as seen in this clip," the uploader wrote.

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Cow

Hiker gored to death by cow in Austrian Alps


The Guardian
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 20:02 UTC
austrian cow
© Johannes Simon/Getty Images The Tyrol region has now seen two deaths caused by cows in three years.
A hiker in the Austrian Alps was fatally gored when a cow charged at her, local police and media have said. The victim and a friend were walking their dogs in pasture land in the Tyrol region when the attack happened on Wednesday, the daily Tiroler Tageszeitung reported.

"One or several cows" charged, a police source told the Austria Press Agency (APA), and killed the hiker, a local. Her companion was unharmed.

The incident recalls the 2014 death of a 45-year-old German holidaymaker, gored by a cow in another Tyrolean valley while walking in a group that included children. The woman's husband and son sought €360,000 (£310,000) compensation from the cow's owner in a civil case that has not yet been decided.
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Eye 2

Woman killed by crocodile while taking part in a Hindu river bathing ceremony in Uttar Pradesh, India

Jay Akbar
Daily Mail
Thu, 08 Jun 2017 19:28 UTC
Gharial
Gharial
A young Indian woman was killed by a crocodile in front of her family while taking part in a bathing ceremony in India's Uttar Pradesh state.

The woman, known only as Neeraj, was washing herself on the banks of a river in the National Chambal Sanctuary when the beast attacked her.

Her terrified family raised an alarm but the crocodile had vanished into the water with her body within minutes.

Officers and divers are now trying to recover the girl's body, the Times of India reported.

The family said the girl was taking a dip as part of a ritual on the spiritual day of Ekadashi, when Hindus abstain from certain food during daylight hours.

It is claimed the crocodile may have attacked her because it is their nesting season when females are more aggressive.

'Crocodiles lay eggs in this season,' Anil Patel, a local forest officer, told the Times of India.
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Attention

Mysterious illness hits at least 100 gannets on Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Sarah Betancourt
necn.com
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 12:02 UTC
Volunteer finds Gannet
© New England Wildlife CenterVolunteer finds Gannet
Wildlife veterinarians have been responding to an unexplained "die-off" of Northern Gannets on Massachusetts' South Shore and Cape Cod.

Gannets are washing up on local beaches, seriously ill, or already dead.

Scientists are stumped over what can be causing the illness. A wildlife technician with the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates about 100 northern gannets have been affected overall.

The New England Wildlife Center (NEWC) has been scrambling to figure out the mystery. NEWC trying to quickly pinpoint the cause because it "is critical to protecting the fragile eco-system on Cape Cod," explained Dr. Greg Mertz, veterinarian and CEO of NEWC on the NEWC website.
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Attention

Two farmers killed by elephants as herd storms through village in Tanzania


Coastweek.com
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 19:13 UTC
charging elephants
Two people were killed in a wild elephant attack in the Tanzania central region of Singida on Monday, police said.

Debora Magiligimba, Singida Regional Police Commander, said that a group of 32 elephants stormed the remote village of Musimi in Ikungi District, killing two farmers.

She said the incident occurred on Monday morning around 10 a.m.

The situation caused mayhem in the village as most people were puzzled to learn that the largest mammals were in the village, the regional police chief said.

Magiligimba further said the elephants might have strayed from either Maswa Game Reserve or Kigosi and Kizigo Game Reserves.
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Attention

Shark attacks spearfisherman off Boca Chica Key, Florida; captured on video

David Strege
Grind TV
Tue, 06 Jun 2017 13:52 UTC
Shark attacks
A spearfisherman wearing a head camera captured the intense moment an 8-foot reef shark attacked him and took a bite out of his leg Sunday near Middle Samo Reef off Boca Chica in the Florida Keys.

The unidentified spearfisherman posted video of the incident on his YouTube Channel called Over the Edge on Tuesday and wrote, "this clearly could have been much worse." Warning for a couple of expletives at the end and the wound itself:

The spearfisherman said the shark came out of nowhere. While holding a black grouper he had speared, the spearfisherman appeared to point at the shark at the 14-second mark. Fifteen seconds later the shark was near the surface and in clear view in the video.

"He first went at my dive buddy Justyn but immediately turned toward me," the victim wrote. "He first bit my left fin then took a chunk out of the right one before biting my leg and cutting the speargun line.

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Cheese

Thousands of rats invade villages in Myanmar (Burma)


Phys Org
Tue, 06 Jun 2017 09:58 UTC
Dead rats are piling up in Irrawaddy Division’s Ngapudaw Township as locals try to control infestations in a handful of villages
© Ministry of InformationDead rats are piling up in Irrawaddy Division’s Ngapudaw Township as locals try to control infestations in a handful of villages
Thousands of rats have descended on villages on an island in southern Myanmar, a local official said on Tuesday, in what some have taken to be an ill omen of impending disaster.

Residents of Haingyi island, one of the larger islands in the Irrawaddy Delta, have been battling the plague of rodents since the critters scurried into their villages over the weekend.

Short of pied pipers, desperate authorities have resorted to paying residents 50 kyat (four US cents) for each dead animal in a bid to contain the outbreak.

"More than 4,000 rats have been killed since they tried to enter the villages," regional MP Phyo Zaw Shwe told AFP.

"According to traditional beliefs, these animals can predict bad weather. So people here are also worried about floods or earthquakes."

Studies by Japanese scientists have shown mice and rats are sensitive to electromagnetic waves similar to what often occurs before a major earthquake—although there has been no notable seismic activity in Myanmar the last few days.
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