Animal Uprising Thread

[82_28]

Flock of seagulls mystifies Byrd, Cubs

Chicago Cubs manager Mike Quade spent a few minutes before and after Tuesday’s news briefing discussing the flock of the seagulls that descended on Wrigley Field during Monday’s game.

Typically, the gulls arrive near the end of Cubs’ games to eat the leftover peanuts, popcorn and nachos in the empty seats. But Monday they arrived during the third inning and distracted Marlon Byrd while he was making the game-ending catch in center.

“It looked like it was going hit a bird,” Byrd said afterward. “Got to play the elements.”

Asked what he’d like the Cubs to do about the birds, Byrd replied that there’s nothing you can do about it and it didn’t bother him that much, though he did crouch to make the catch.

“I was trying to get as low as possible, just in case (the ball hit a bird),” he said. “When you have stuff flying in front of you and you’re trying to catch a little ball, it is (distracting).”

Quade asked if anyone knew someone at the National Audubon Society that could explain the birds' behavior. Coach Bob Dernier told him he never saw any birds on the field when he played for the Cubs in the 1980s.

“It makes me laugh,” Quade said. “But I would like some signs, or someone to tell me what triggers these animals.”

One theory is that the seeding of the new sod to make the grass grow is attracting the seagulls.

“That’s good,” Quade said. “But you’ll see them, they’ll come in on a day like (Monday) and then you’ll go three days without seeing them. They’re not here every single day. Look, I’m on the water all day long, I love fishing. I watch ‘Animal Planet’ and wildlife shows, and so now this is my (question): ‘What is making them do this?’

“The other question is have we seen any contact with (a bird and) a ball. I don’t remember it in my five years. I haven’t seen it, but it’s coming. It’s coming.”

So what’s the ruling?

“If it hits a bird and you catch it, he’s out,” he said with a laugh. “If you hit a bird and it deflects over it, then the ball is in play.”

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/sp ... 8282.story

[beeline]

“The other question is have we seen any contact with (a bird and) a ball. I don’t remember it in my five years. I haven’t seen it, but it’s coming. It’s coming.”

Didn't Randy Johnson hit a bird with one of his pitches during a game around 2000 or so? I seem to remember seeing a bird explode over home plate.

[norton ash]

Teh google with various videos of Randy Johnson hitting the bird is here, they're all sort of bells-and-whistles-attached, so pick one.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&sourc ... dy+Johnson

And Dave Winfield killed a gull at Exhibition Stadium.

Wiki:

On August 4, 1983, Winfield accidentally killed a seagull by throwing a ball while warming up before the fifth inning of a game at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium. Fans responded by hurling obscenities and improvised missiles. After the game, he was brought to the Ontario Provincial Police station and charged with cruelty to animals. He was released after posting a $500 bond. Yankee manager Billy Martin quipped, "It's the first time he's hit the cutoff man all season." Charges were dropped the following day.[8] In the off-season, Winfield returned to Toronto and donated two paintings for an Easter Seals auction, which raised over $60,000.[2][9] For years afterward, Winfield's appearances in Toronto were greeted by fans standing and flapping their arms—until he became a fan favorite when he joined the Blue Jays in 1992.

Baseball bad news for birds.

[82_28]

Crows attacking cops in Everett

EVERETT — Crows have been attacking cops in the parking lot of the Everett Police Department's north precinct station.

Birds have been swooping down on officers walking from their cars.

The Daily Herald reports one officer tried to use his siren to scare the crows away. They responded by decorating his car with droppings.

State Fish and Wildlife Department biologist Ruth Milner says the crows are protecting immature birds that are helpless on the ground.

City spokeswoman Kate Reardon says police and other employees who have been attacked have agreed to give way to the crows and wait out the aggression. People may use umbrellas for defense.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ws11m.html

[Perelandra]

Washington Dog Pack Kills 100 Animals, Terrorizes Town
NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS 06/ 9/11 08:19 PM ET

SPOKANE, Wash. — A "bloodthirsty" pack of dogs has killed about 100 animals in the past few months while eluding law enforcement and volunteers in northeastern Washington state, residents and authorities said.

The killings started in late March and have occurred in a wide area of mountains and valleys west of Deer Park, a small town about 40 miles north of Spokane.

"Trying to figure out where they are going to hit is next to impossible," Stevens County Undersheriff Lavonne Webb said Thursday. "Nobody is claiming ownership of any animals involved in the pack."

Most recently, the dogs killed a 350-pound llama Tuesday night. They've also killed goats and other farm animals.

So far, no humans have been attacked. But authorities are warning residents to take whatever steps are necessary to protect their families and animals because the dogs appear to be killing for fun rather than food.

"We have this pack that is out there killing for the sake of killing," Webb said in a telephone interview from Colville. "What is going to happen if they come across a small child?"

Officers and volunteers have searched for the pack but had little success because the dogs seem to hunker down during the day and move only at night, she said. "We've only had one or two sightings during daytime hours."

One resident managed to take some photographs of the pack, and it seemed to include four or five large dogs. It's not clear if the dogs are wild or if some or all go home to owners during the day, Webb said. Their breeds also are unknown.

Webb added she has worked for the sheriff's office since the 1970s and never encountered a similar problem. The number of kills alone makes the attacks a "major issue," she said. "They're bloodthirsty," she said of the dogs.

Davis compared the experience to the 1980s Stephen King book and movie about a vicious killer dog. "It's like `Cujo,'" she said.

I won't link to the site whence it came, since it seems I now need to run antivirus. This fits into the schadenfreude category, IMO, due to the numerous ridiculous statements.

[barracuda]

[82_28]

Two injured at Emerald Downs when racehorses break loose

Two racehorses threw their riders and ran loose at Emerald Downs just before a race Saturday, injuring a jockey and a horse owner.

One of the horses, Wiley Witch, was euthanized, said Emerald Downs spokesman Vince Bruun.

Bruun said Wiley Witch and the other horse, Cahill's Ride, were being led out of the paddock just before Saturday's third race at about 3:15 p.m.

After tossing their jockeys, they both ran about an eighth of a mile down the horse pathway toward the stable area, where Wiley Witch collided with a horse owner. The owner, Tony Schiro, 70, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with a broken femur and a possible head injury, Bruun said.

Leonel Camacho-Flores, a jockey, was treated at Auburn Regional Hospital for cuts and scrapes.

Neither of the horses was ever loose in a public area, Bruun said, although the public might have seen them run loose if they were sitting near the paddock area.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... se26m.html

Euthanized? EUTHANIZED? She wanted to be free of you and teamed up with her buddy to say "fuck you". She should have been let free. She doesn't like you motherfuckers telling her what to do. Then you killed her. Awesome.

[Perelandra]

^I'm guessing you haven't spent much time around ungulates.

I think b's second vid is total BS.

[82_28]

No, no I have not. But every time I watch those races that have been on the past month (triple crown) and in life, I always feel so awful for the horses and I always make it known. Then people tell me, "horses love to run". Sure, I suppose they do. But watching them try so hard to do something for human purposes makes me want to cry.

A few times as a "kid" (like 21ish) we would go to this place that had off track greyhound betting. They would trot them out on the screen and I would always go with the most forlorn looking one, just because it looked so sad. Poor things. . .

[barracuda]

[Jeff]

Mother bear kills cub and then itself

Friday, Aug 05, 2011

The Chinese media has reported on an extraordinary account of a mother bear saving her cub from a life of torture by strangling it and then killing itself.

The bears were kept in a farm located in a remote area in the North-West of China. The bears on the farm had their gall bladders milked daily for 'bear bile,' which is used as a remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

It was reported that the bears are kept in tiny cages known as 'crush cages', as the bears have no room to manoeuvre and are literally crushed.

The bile is harvested by making a permanent hole or fistula in the bears' abdomen and gall bladder.

As the hole is never closed, the animals are suspect to various infections and diseases including tumours, cancers and death from peritonitis.

The bears are fitted with an iron vest, as they often try to kill themselves by hitting their stomach as they are unable to bear the pain.

A person who was on the farm in place of a friend witnessed the procedures and told Reminbao.com that they were inhumane.

The witness also claimed that a mother bear broke out its cage when it heard its cub howl in fear before a worker punctured its stomach to milk the bile.

The workers ran away in fear when they saw the mother bear rushing to its cub's side.

Unable to free the cub from its restraints, the mother hugged the cub and eventually strangled it.

It then dropped the cub and ran head-first into a wall, killing itself.

...

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BN ... 92947.html

[elfismiles]

Mother bear kills cub and then itself
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BN ... 92947.html

This is perhaps one of the most tragic and horrific stories I've ever read.

[Laodicean]

Bull Breaks Out of NYC Slaughterhouse, Runs for Freedom

On Wednesday, a bull scheduled for slaughter in a halal butcher's shop in Queens, New York decided that it wasn't on board with its fate. So it broke out and didn't look back, sprinting down Liberty Avenue (how appropriate!), sending stunned New Yorkers- who suddenly found themselves in an impromptu running of the bulls- scattering for safety.

In the bull's wake were the butcher and a dozen police officers, who eventually cornered the 500 lb animal, shot it with a tranquilizer gun, and lassoed it on CUNY's York College Campus . But not before he did some damage, including ramming a police horse trailer and knocking into some construction scaffolding.

This isn't the first time a bovine has broken loose- in January, a 900 lb bull escaped a transport truck on the way to a slaughterhouse in Virginia. He ran through three counties before authorities caught up, and shot him.

Two years ago, a cow named Molly similarly escaped from a Queens slaughterhouse and was rewarded with a new life on a farm in Long Island.

Update:

Sadly, no news has come announcing that this bull has been 'pardoned,' so it seems likely that he was sent back to the butcher. But if you're feeling sad for his fate and aren't a vegetarian already, maybe it's time to think about dropping the meat- and saving more than one animal's life.

[stefano]

[dqueue]

Maybe this doesn't completely fit here, because it seems more a human retaliation against escaped animals...

But, I heard on the radio this morning the city of Zanesville, Ohio, was on "virtual lockdown". The entire population from a wild animal preserve escaped. The exterior fence was left open, and all cage doors were wide open. The second iteration of the story, the reporter indicated, "And the preserve's owner was found dead." I quickly searched online. USA Today reported, "Authorities wouldn't say how the farm's owner Terry Thompson died, but said it wasn't suspicious. The animals' cages had been opened and the farm's fences had been left unsecured, police said."

It's unclear to me how it's unsuspicious, this man's death, at or around the time the property gates are open along with the animal's cages. Sadly, local police are in the process of literally hunting down and killing the animals. Sigh.