A school crossing guard in Swampscott, Mass. was bitten and attacked by a raccoon yesterday, and students at Clarke Elementary School remained inside the building until authorities tracked down the animal and shot it. "It leapt on my thigh and grabbed hold and started biting, and I started screaming: 'Somebody help! Can somebody help me?!'" said Judith Hapgood, who is undergoing rabies treatment. In The Salem News.
Citing declines in sea ice over the last three decades and projections of continued losses, US Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne today officially declared the polar bear a threatened species under the ESA. AP reports.
In an effort to halt the spread of bovine tuberculosis, federal and private sharpshooters killed 962 deer in a 164-square-mile area of northwestern Minnesota between February and last Friday. The total deer killed since September, including those shot by sharpshooters, hunters and landowners is 2,656, the DNR said Tuesday. Doug Smith reports in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Martin County, Florida Fire Rescue Hazmat team responded to a fuel clean-up Tuesday morning after a boater at Finest Kind Marina fuel dock pumped 100 gallons of gasoline into his fishing rod holder instead of his gas tank. No word on the price per gallon of the marina gas. Reported in the Palm Beach Post.
A 726-pound male black bear, the heaviest ever handled by New Jersey wildlife officials, was captured in the northern Passaic County township of West Milford and transported to another location. The bear was trapped and tranquilized, along with another bear, on Saturday. A third male bear was trapped in the same area Monday. In The Star-Ledger.
Michael Popowski, a former member of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board, pleaded no contest Tuesday to shooting at a deer "in an area where various fruits and vegetables had been placed." He is the third F&W board member to resign in four years after being cited for a hunting violation. In the Times Argus.
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland enjoyed a day in the field on Saturday, May 10, during the first-ever Governor's Annual Turkey Hunt. The event included current and former NFL players who partnered with nationally known hunting guides on an outing with 11 area youths. In the Huntington (WV) Herald Dispatch.
Jorge Espinal, 44, was drinking beer and playing poker around 3 a.m. Sunday at his Ft. Worth, TX home when he used a revolver of an unknown caliber to scratch his back and accidentally shot himself, police said. “He told officers he had an itch on his back and grabbed the first thing he could get a hold of which was a revolver,” said Fort Worth police Lt. Kenneth Dean. He was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at an area hospital. In The Dallas Morning News.
Authorities captured and euthanized a mange-infested coyote a day after the animal was seen stalking a toddler in a Redlands, Calif. neighborhood. The incident follows several coyote attacks on California children in recent weeks, with four in Chino Hills and one in Lake Arrowhead. Last week, a coyote entered a Temecula home and was standing over a sleeping child before a nanny threw household objects at the animal and it ran away. The AP reports.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials say 16 wolves have been legally killed since the animals were removed from ESA protection. The 16 killed since late March include four wolves shot by the U.S. Agriculture Department after they were seen preying on cattle. Jackson Hole Daily News.
In an agreement with prosecutors, a former Ohio wildlife officer assigned to Miami County pleaded guilty yesterday to tampering with records and falsification in a dove-field baiting case. Sentencing for Jason M. Snyder, 35, of Tipp City is scheduled for June 23. The Dayton Daily News reports.
In 2007, more than 180,000 pheasant hunters spent $219 million in South Dakota, taking in excess of 2 million birds. According to SD Game, Fish and Parks, about 78,000 residents and 103,000 nonresidents hunted during the season. In the Argus Leader.
A teenager and 20-year-old companion were cited for misdemeanor possession of an alligator when authorities in Port St. Lucie, Fla. found a 7-foot gator bound with rope and tape in their pickup bed yesterday. Apparently, youthful indiscretion--and alcohol--contributed to their actions. In The Palm Beach Post.
Across Arizona there have been a higher-than-normal 54 cases of rabies reported in 2008. As of late April, 19 people and 64 domestic animals were exposed to animals with confirmed cases of rabies, including attacks by six animals on nine people. AP reports.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has reversed a public statement appearing in a recent press release recommending that unwanted exotic frogs, fish and salamanders should be euthanized by placing them in freezers as an alternative to releasing them into the environment. Responding to the press release, the American Veterinarian Medical Association announced it does not consider freezing reptiles and amphibians to be humane, prompting the agency to apologize for "suggesting an inappropriate method of euthanasia."
