Getting a jump on Halloween

A Middletown, Ohio, court has sentenced a woman to a month in jail after she admitted to chasing children and blocking traffic while dressed as a cow.

Michele Allen, 32, pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly conduct after police said she dressed as a cow Saturday night and chased children after urinating on a neighbor's porch.

Allen was ordered by an officer to go home and remain there for the evening, but later in the evening authorities received a call that a woman in a cow costume was blocking traffic. Police said she had alcohol on her breath when an officer arrived and she shouted and swore at the officer.

She was sentenced to one month in the Middletown Jail.

Source: 700wlw

(via Boing Boing)

Texas death row inmate wants to feed the fish

Texas death row inmate Gene Hathorn, who was convicted of killing his father, step-mother and half brother in 1984, has agreed to give his body to Danish based artist Marco Evaristti, for use in an art installation. Mr. Evaristti plans to freeze Mr. Hathorn's body and then turn it into fish food.

Visitors to the as yet unnamed venue would then be able to feed Mr. Hathorn's remains to hundreds of goldfish in a giant aquarium.

This isn't the first somewhat unusual project for Mr. Evaristti. In 2000 he placed goldfish in an electric blender at a Danish art museum, giving visitors the option of turning the machine on and killing the fish. Last year, he also held a dinner party where the main course consisted of meatballs partly made with fat removed from his own body by liposuction.

Source: Dallas News

Monkeying around in Tokyo train station

Dozens of policemen with nets took two hours trying to catch a rogue monkey that played an excited game of chase through rush hour crowds in a Tokyo train station this morning.

The animal was first noticed at 9.40am hopping around near the electronic ticket gates in the Shibuya Station in the middle of the Japanese capital.

Not content with its place by the gates, however, it darted downstairs towards the entrance to another train line before scaling a pillar and flitting between the ticket machines with officials in hot pursuit.

Bored with the game, it climbed onto an information board and dozed for a couple of hours while commuters and railway staff looked on.

Police cleared the area and surrounded the information board with green netting, they hoped to pounce on the animal as soon as it leapt from its perch.

But when it finally jumped down, it slipped through the police cordon, darted into the crowd and disappeared - apparently out of the station.

Source: Telegraph

Here's the ultimate fish story

When Peter Hodge learned he had terminal motor neurone disease, he requested his remains be mixed in with the special groundbait he used to catch fish in his local river.

The 61-year-old, from Puriton, near Bridgewater in Somerset said he wanted to swim with his favorite fish in the spot where he spent 40 happy years angling.

After his death last month he was cremated in a wicker fishing basket coffin, and his ashes were mingled with 30lb of fish food.

"He wanted the fish to gobble him up so he could swim up and down the river after his death."

Source: Telegraph

A fishy story

Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months. John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said 5,000 people have taken the plunge so far.

The fish are called garra rufa but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries.

Source: Boston.com

Tough Duck

(via)

Alligator found in Chicago River

An alligator was found in the Chicago River on the South Side Friday afternoon, police said.

The alligator, which is about 5 1/2 to 6 feet long, was found near 37th Street and the Chicago River about 2:15 p.m. by a citizen who called police.

The city’s department of Animal Care & Control, 2741 S. Western Ave., took the alligator, which was alive, and no injuries were reported.

Source: Chicago SunTimes

Air travel is really starting to stink

MIAMI (AP) — An uninvited passenger created a smelly situation on a plane in Miami. American Airlines Flight 915 from Miami to Bogota, Colombia, was delayed Wednesday night after a skunk was found in the back of the cargo hold.

When crews tried to remove the skunk, the animal released its notorious rotten smell. No one was injured, but the odor filtered through the cabin and passengers were taken off the plane.

The skunk was removed from the plane, but it was unclear where it was taken or how it got on the aircraft.

Animal management by morons

The animal shelter in the town of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, was so run down a regional humane society worker cut the locks last winter and released all the dogs.

The city then moved the operation to a temporary fenced-in area outdoors at the city sanitation department.

Still, people complained that the animals were not properly cared for at the temporary quarters, so the mayor decided the dogs would be better off fending for themselves in the St. Francis National Forest.

Mayor James Valley authorized the city street director to release about 10 dogs into the forest after the animals were fed and watered.

"They are better off free," the mayor said Thursday in a telephone interview.

The mayor said if animal control officers get a call now, "they're going to pick the dog up and probably just take them to the other side of town. And it's going to be someone else's problem. ... or maybe they will take them to the forest."

Source: The Daily World

Mayor Valley's email: mayorjfvalley@gmail.com

Bear spotted taking a dip at the Hard Rock pool in Orlando

Orlando police are at Universal Studios, looking for a bear seen taking a dip in the pool at the Hard Rock Hotel.

abcNews reports that officers believe the young black bear is hiding out or sleeping in a wooded area on the Hard Rock Hotel property. Florida Fish and Wildlife is asking anyone who sees the bear to stay away and they're begging people not to go out looking for him.

Photo: HotelChatter

No kidding!

Police thought they had a goat surrounded after it was spotted going the wrong way on the Cross Island Parkway. An ambulance and fire engine blocked traffic Monday while sheriff's deputies tried to corral the animal on the Charles E. Fraser Bridge, but she jumped.

Fire Battalion Chief Cliff Steedley told The Island Packet of Hilton Head Island the frightened goat plunged as much as 50 feet into Broad Creek.

Rescuers borrowed a boat to get the 70-pound nanny out of the waist-deep pluff mud as it worked its way through the marsh. One firefighter got stuck in the mud and had to be rescued.

Veterinarian Frank Murphy said the goat was fine after the smelly mud was washed off and there has been at least one offer to adopt it.

Why you should always wash your fruit before eating it

Kevin Hudson of Suffolk, got a rude surprise as he was washing grapes to give to his four-year-old son. He spotted a tarantula lurking in the bunch of grapes.

"I was a little bit shocked," he said.

"Spiders don't bother me too much, although it would have been a different story if my wife had been washing them."

Source: BBC News

First it was dogs; now . . . turkeys?

While rain and snow may not deter the postal service, wild turkeys are a bird of a different feather.

Between five and 10 large male turkeys, or toms -- apparently a little giddy with the onset of turkey breeding season -- have been bullying postal workers as they make their rounds, pecking at them and even trying to rough them up with the sharp spurs on their legs. One of the birds launched itself through the open door of a mail truck and scratched the driver.

Eric Lobner, regional wildlife program supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, is on the case, investigating the turkey gang.

Source: Wisconsin State Journal

Couldn't find any rocks

A New Zealand man could face five years in prison if convicted after being accused of using a hedgehog as a weapon.

According to police, the man threw the hedgehog to hit a 15-year-old boy last month. Police say the hedgehog "hit the victim in the leg, causing a large red welt and several puncture marks."

It's not known if the hedgehog was dead or alive when it was thrown, but it was dead when police collected it as evidence.

Source: abc2news

Yes, it's news: Woman bites dog!

A Minneapolis woman bit a pit bull that was attacking her dog.

Amy Rice says she bit the pit bull on the nose while trying to separate the pit bull from her Labrador retriever, Ella.

The dog had jumped a fence to get into Rice's yard, and she feared the pit bull would kill Ella.

Source: AP

The Dog Did It: Woman Gets $300K Deal

A police dog in Ogden, UT, put a pickup truck into gear, injuring a woman on her way to the mailbox in an incident that has ended with a $300,000 settlement.

Mary Frances Stone, 43, was walking to her mailbox in July 2006 when she was hit by a 1990 Ford pickup truck assigned to Officer Taylor Finder.

Ranger, a German shepherd, was in the bed of the idling truck but jumped into the front seat through a sliding door and somehow knocked the automatic transmission into gear, police said.

Stone, who had a broken pelvis, had asked for $580,000 but settled with the city's insurer for $300,000.

Source: AP