Sixty-five-year-old Alice Via was arrested Wednesday for investigation of animal cruelty and neglect. She ran what she called the San Diego Boxer Rescue, and kept mostly boxers and Chihuahuas.

San Diego County spokesman Dan DeSousa says the dogs were confined in cages stacked two high throughout the two-bedroom 750-square-foot home. He says most of the dogs had injuries to their feet and noses from trying to escape, and some also had skin and respiratory problems.

DeSousa says officers were alerted by someone who went to look at a dog and observed the conditions.

The dogs will be taken to county shelters.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969346,00.html

During the first couple of days, Pamela Holt, her husband Keith, and their daughter Brooklyn, 3, weren't terribly worried because they figured their nearly 2-year-old pet was running in the fields behind their home.

"We have a lot of land and thought Deacon might be enjoying the outdoors," Holt, who works as a teller for SunTrust bank, tells PEOPLEPets.com. "But we soon got worried and called the area dog warden, the pound and the sheriff's office. After two weeks, we gave up, fearing he had died or was stolen."

Deacon, a gift from Holt to her husband Keith, a teacher and football coach, had become a beloved family member, and everyone was upset. But a curious call in late February from a man in Deland, Fla., changed everything.

"A male voice on the other end said he thought he may have Deacon," Holt tells PEOPLEPets.com. "I was angry at first and thought he was a prankster trying to play a joke on us … I nearly hung up on him."

The man, who said he was from Animal Control in Deland, told Holt he was looking at her dog. Holt said she thought Deacon was dead. But when he asked her if the dog's name was Bruno, Holt went crazy with joy.

"I was speechless," she says. "The dog was originally called Bruno when he was micro chipped, so I knew this was not a hoax. When the man emailed me a picture, and I knew it was Deacon, I called my husband. We were so thrilled that we drove 10 hours to Florida to pick him up."

The Holts believe Deacon was stolen by people who had hoped to breed him, but they were unaware that he had been fixed so it was a waste of time. And somehow, the dog ended up in the Sunshine State for the holidays.

"Deacon was in a pen with another dog when he saw us," Holt recalls. "He trampled the poor thing to get to us. He ran to my husband and jumped on him. He was so excited."

The following day, when they got back to Virginia after the 600 mile drive, Deacon ran directly over to the outside window of Brooklyn's bedroom, hoping to see her.

"He cried and cried until she got home," Holt says. "Once he saw her, he was so happy!"

Even though there is no leash law in their area, the family has vowed to tie their dog in the yard so nothing ever happens again.

"We are blessed to have Deacon back," Holt says. "And will do what we must to keep him safe and sound."

Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin says Ashlynn Anderson's mother found her badly injured on their lawn in Astoria on Sunday. Ashlynn is the daughter of Jesse Browning, who stars with his father on The History Channel's show about the logging industry called "Ax Men."

She was flown to a Portland hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

The attack happened four years to the day after officers had taken a Rottweiler from the same home after it bit an adult family member. The two Rottweilers at the Browning home have been quarantined.
 

Ricky Weinhold was attacked Saturday by a one-ton bull on a farm where he leased barn space in Wernersville, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Berks County Deputy Coroner Terri Straka said. The son of the farm's owner found his body Sunday in an outdoor pen.

The property owners had encouraged Weinhold to get rid of the bull, Straka said. She said the same animal believed responsible for the weekend attack rammed Weinhold last summer, breaking several of his ribs.

"He's been known to be temperamental," Straka said. "The property owners just didn't trust him. They told Ricky, 'This bull has got a bad disposition.'"

Weinhold kept about 10 head of cattle at the farm, all of them as pets. Straka said it's not clear what precipitated Saturday's attack. The bull recently fathered a calf, but Straka said bulls are not as protective of their offspring as cows.

"We don't know if this is a playful thing, or a nasty, agitated, angry thing," she said.

No one witnessed the attack. All of Weinhold's injuries appear to have been inflicted by a bull's head and hooves.

"The poor man, he loved his animals," Straka said. "They were his pets."

The company has pleaded not guilty to charges under provincial and federal laws. Two months have been set aside for the trial, being held in St. Albert, Alta.

Syncrude has apologized for the incident and says it has stepped up measures to scare birds away from their operations.

The company doesn't dispute that the ducks perished in their tailings pond, but a lawyer for Syncrude said the charges won't accomplish anything.

Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner said the prosecution will proceed.

"We believe that a law has been contravened and we believe it's our responsibility to enforce our regulations."

Environmentalists like Greenpeace Canada spokesperson Mike Hudema will be watching the trial closely.

Hudema said he is not impressed with Syncrude's attitude, saying the company is acting as if it is above the law.

"Syncrude needs to stop ducking its responsibility," he said.

"It's one thing to take out full-page apology ads in a [public relations] attempt. It's another to actually step up say you're guilty of this crime and start taking responsibility for it," he said.

If found guilty, Syncrude could face fines of up to $1 million.

In late April 2008, migrating ducks landed in a tailings pond on the company's Aurora oilsands site north of Fort McMurray.

The ducks landed on the water and sank to the bottom after being coated in oily toxic sludge.

Air cannons used to scare migratory birds away from the tailings pond were not in place.

Dubai’s Gulf News reported that witnesses saw water leaking from the mall’s massive fish tank, which holds more than 2 million gallons of water and 33,000 captive sea creatures. According to the Dubai newspaper, “It is believed that a leak occurred in the 270-degree acrylic walk-through tunnel, but it was sealed quickly.”

A spokesman for the country’s civil defense force told The National, another Emirates newspaper, that “the situation is under control and a team is working on fixing the problem.” The National also reported that “as many as 300 cleaners were deployed to mop the water off the floors.”

Click here for a video of the leak.

Also, privileged visitors who occasionally were invited to pet the killer whales will no longer be allowed to do so.

"We're going to make any changes we have to to make sure this doesn't happen again," Chuck Tompkins, chief of animal training at SeaWorld parks, said a day after a 5,445-kilogram killer whale named Tilikum dragged a trainer into its pool and thrashed the woman to death as audience members watched in horror.

Talk-radio callers, bloggers and animal activists said Tilikum — which was involved in the deaths of two other people over the past two decades — should be released into the ocean or put to death.

Tompkins said that Tilikum would not survive in the wild because it has been captive for so long, and that destroying the animal is not an option either, because it is an important part of the breeding program at SeaWorld and a companion to the seven other whales there.

Read more at Australian Geographic…

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/koala-aids-virus.htm

Officials say the whale, called Tillikum, grabbed Dawn Brancheau, 40, in its jaw and thrashed her around underwater as the horrified Florida crowd looked on. It's not clear if Brancheau, an experienced trainer, drowned or died from the physical attack.

Spectator Victoria Biniak told WKMG-TV that the veteran trainer had just finished explaining to audience members a show they were about to see when the whale grabbed her. Police said Brancheau slipped, or fell, into the tank, but several witnesses said the animal leaped out of the water and dragged her in.

A former SeaWorld contractor told the Orlando Sentinel that Tillikum is typically kept isolated from other whales because of the animal's history of danger. Trainers are also not allowed to get into the tank with it.

SeaWorld spokesman Fred Jacobs said that in 1991, Tillikum was one of three whales involved in the death of trainer Keltie Byrne, who had fallen into the pool at Sealand in Victoria and was dragged under water by the whales.

In 1999, after Tillikum was moved to Orlando SeaWorld because he was considered a threat to a calf, the body of a naked man was found scratched, bruised and draped over the whale.

The man, 27-year-old Daniel Dukes, had reportedly made his way past security at SeaWorld, remaining in the park after it had closed. Wearing only his underwear, Dukes either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water of Tillikum's huge tank.

An autopsy ruled Dukes died of hypothermia, but it also appeared Tillikum bit the man and tore off his swimming trunks, likely believing he was a toy.

Brancheau drawn to career at age 9

According to a profile of Brancheau in the Sentinel published in 2006, she was drawn to her career after she visited SeaWorld when she was just 9.

"I remember walking down the aisle [of the stadium] and telling my mom, 'This is what I want to do,"' she said in the article.

Brancheau, who worked as a trainer for 12 years, knew the dangers of the job.

"You can't put yourself in the water unless you trust them and they trust you," she said.

Steve McCulloch, founder and program manager at the marine mammal research and conservation program at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch, said the whale may have been playing when it attacked Brancheau, but it is too early to tell.

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions," he said. "These are very large, powerful marine mammals. They exhibit this type of behaviour in the wild.

"Nobody cares more about the animal than the trainer. It's just hard to fathom that this has happened."