Spring is springing, and with it comes the urge to get outside ... just as soon as it stops raining. But be sure to keep your dog leashed up--or you'll be fined $65.
Three Rivers Park District, which runs several fabulous parks in the suburbs, is now ticketing people who either don't have their dogs on a leash, or who have a leash that is too long (more than six feet). Last year, the parks district opened more trails to doggies, but required that they stay on paved trails only. Tickets will also be issued to people who take their dogs on turf trails rather than paved ones, according to the Strib.
Batman the dog, whose 2008 brain cancer treatment at the University of Minnesota is credited with improving our understanding of how to treat the disease, has died. Pneumonia likely took the a 10-year-old German shepherd mix, researchers told KARE. His treatment has already been made available to other dogs. In the long run, it may also help humans.
Batman certainly would have died sooner had it not been for the treatment. And in a 2008 Strib story, his owners, Anna and Eric Baker, said there was an added benefit:
Because it's part of a federally funded cancer research trial, the Bakers are spared a $6,000 to $9,000 vet bill for surgery and painful radiation that might have done their dog as much harm as good.
"He was always the most popular member of our family," said Eric Baker, 45. "Now he's the most popular and the most famous."
The newborn was in his car seat in a bedroom when the bite occurred. Police received a call around 12:30 p.m. Thursday about a dog bite to a newborn and authorities arrived to find the boy not breathing.
After trying all live-saving measures, the infant was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and the medical examiner's office are investigating the death.
The Rochester Post-Bulletin is reporting that Johnson has been cited by police for abandoning a male pit bull after he moved out of a house in an Austin neighborhood. Police found the dog locked in a cage on Johnson's front porch, surround by its own feces, with no food or water.
Not surprisingly, the dog appeared vicious when approached and had to be subdued with a tranquilizer before being moved to the city pound.
Lily the black bear is melting down the bear.org Internet connection, but her big moment was broadcast live online this morning -- after days of speculation, she gave birth. Tens of thousands of viewers logged onto the site's bear cam over the past few days to try and catch a glimpse of such a normally hidden natural moment.
North American Bear Center biologist Lynn Rogers installed a webcam in Lily's den near Ely earlier this month. This morning more than 50,000 viewers tried to access the Web site hosting the video, making it difficult to log on.
MPR reported Lily's cub came into the world at 11:38 a.m.
"We're just on edge because we want to see everything, and I mean every bout of labor and time it, and how long between labor sessions. This is an opportunity I've not had in my 43 years of research," Rodgers told the station.
Troy Alan Reinke, the 32-year-old Cannon Falls man who says he didn't poach a massive 8-pointer, officially entered a not-guilty plea on 16 charges yesterday in Goodhue County court.
Reinke is accused of unlawfully killing what would have been a world-record buck. He originally trumpeted the kill, but when it came out that the animal had been gunned down - not shot with a bow-and-arrow, as initially reported - Reinke told authorities it was like that when he got there.
Turns out the story of Timothy the tabby cat maybe got a little out of hand. Glued to an Interstate? News to me, says the woman who scooped the cat off the pavement on Dec. 13 and brought it to a Sioux Falls animal shelter.
Timothy's supposed sticky demise generated headlines all over the country. And last week, we told you that actor Ken Wahl was donating his 1990 "Wiseguy" Golden Globe trophy to the $12,000 cash reward being offered to figure out who might have put the cat in harm's way.
But Joyce Borgen tells the Argus Leader that the cat, which has since died, wasn't stuck to the road when she found it on Highway 60 near Mankato. And the vet at Second Chance Rescue Center who examined the cat says she found some goop on the animal that only later was identified as glue by the Dale Animal Hospital.
Actor Ken Wahl says he's so appalled by the cruelty visited on a cat found glued to Interstate 90 in South Dakota that he's making a unique donation to the reward being offered to catch the culprit: The Golden Globe award he won for his work as Vinny Terranova in the 1980s TV series, "Wiseguy."
Travelers found the cat glued to I-90 in December, just over the Minnesota border in South Dakota; during the rescue, they accidentally ripped off some of its claws and paw pads. Injured and starving, the cat died five days later.
Wahl has been out of the public eye and down on his luck in recent years. An accident left him too injured to act, and he disappeared into a battle with booze. Last year he began a court battle to recoup millions of dollars he claims an ex-wife swindled from him.
So much for cow tipping. Just go on a stabbing spree instead.
Two men in Poweshiek County Iowa are accused of stabbing 17 cows at a sale barn. Robert Edward Fults, 20, and Jamey Leroy Christofferson, 22, have been charged with 17 counts of livestock abuse.
When the sales barn workers found the cattle the next morning, they sent all 17 animals in for veterinary treatment. Three of them had to be euthanized because of the severity of their injuries.
Good news: This wasn't cult activity or insurance fraud. Cults are always our first suspicion after all. Getting stabby for the fun of it is usually our first hunch though.
Remember the heartwarming story out of Pine City about an alert dog saving an unconscious and freezing 94-year-old man's life? It's taken a sad turn. William Lepsch, the man who was found by Brett Grinde's dog, has died.
Grinde was walking his German Short Hair dog, Effie, Monday morning when the 15-year-old canine led her owner to driveway where Lepsch lay face-down unconscious on the concrete.
Grinde, an investigator with the Pine County Sheriffs Department, called for an ambulance and began administering CPR. The man regained consciousness before paramedics arrived. He was taken to North Memorial Medical Center, and the AP reported that he died on Wednesday.
Police in Pine City, Minn. are crediting a dog with saving a man's life.
Pine City resident Brett Grinde was walking his German short hair dog, Effie, Monday morning when the 15-year-old canine began tugging at the leash, insisting on going a different route. After Grinde relinquished his grip, Effie ran off. She led her owner to driveway where an elderly man lay face-down unconscious on the concrete.
Effie trotted up to the knocked-out man began licking his face, Grinde told KARE 11. Grinde, an investigator with the Pine County Sheriffs Department, called for an ambulance and began administering CPR. The man regained consciousness before paramedics arrived. He remains in serious condition at North Memorial Medical Center. Police think he may have slipped on the ice while retrieving the mail and had been out cold, literally and figuratively, for hours.
When a Fridley woman let her daughter's 6-month-old puppy out into her backyard last week, she didn't expect the neighbor's pit bulls had plans to attack and kill it.
When the pit bull spotted Sophie, a West Highland Terrier, it tore across its lawn, jumped the fence and grabbed the puppy. The dog shook the puppy until it was dead and dragged it over to the fence so the neighbor's other pit bull could get in on the attack.
"Oh, it was awful," Marilyn Lambert said on WCCO. "I don't ever want to see anything like that again."
Via the folks at the Catster blog, we bring you the sad and twisted tale of a tabby cat named Timothy, who was rescued after being found glued by its paws to a local highway.
Apparently, the couple who rescued the cat accidentally ripped off some of its claws and paw pads. After recovering at Second Chance Animal Rescue in White Bear Lake, the cat is now with a foster family. Meowww.
First a cougar was sighted in Champlin, then in Vadnais Heights, and later in Stillwater. One DNR expert thinks all the sightings involve the same big cat, and the service has been collecting DNA samples to test that theory. Now it appears the beast may have made its way into Wisconsin. According to a report in the Star Tribune, a farmer photographed cougar tracks on his land about 35 miles east of the St. Croix River.
There's a cougar making its way around the northern and eastern St. Paul suburbs. At least that what a DNR expert says he thinks after one of the big cats was spotted in Stillwater on Friday.
"It would be an awful coincidence if there were more than one cougar wandering around the metro," Dan Stark told the Stillwater Gazette.
Stillwater police said they found cougar tracks in different places around town on Friday after taking two separate calls from residents. A cougar was also spotted on Highway 61 and I-694 on Monday evening.
Yesterday we told you about the two Champlin cops who caught a cougar on tape as they were coming off the night shift on Saturday. That's about 30 miles from downtown St. Paul.
Now, if a witness's eyes are right, there's been another sighting in a Twin Cities suburb, this time in Vadnais Heights, near the Interstate 35E/694 junction. That's about 10 miles from downtown St. Paul.
A six-feet-long cougar was spotted in the Minneapolis suburbs on Saturday by two Champlin cops coming off the night shift. News reports say the big cat was about 6 feet long, crossing Highway 169 in Champlin.
A dashboard camera in the officers' car captured the cougar as it appeared in their squad car's headlights before wandering down into the woods along the Mississippi River.
A man and a woman were charged with burglary, but not with harming the K-9.
Chase the K-9 was injured Nov. 30 when Minneapolis police responded to a burglary call at 222 Hennepin Avenue South. His handler, Eric Lukes, took him to the roof. Chase fell or jumped off the roof of the four-story building and was seriously injured. Veterinarians could not save him.
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office charged Tina Marie Gerber and Jesse Luna III with burglary. The pair had sold scrap metal in the past, according to the criminal complaint, and appeared to be removing scrap metal from the vacant commercial building on Nov. 30. They could not be charged with any crime related to the death of the police canine because state law specifies that there must be intent to injure the animal for charging.
Joyce Kitsemble spent years working for a change in Wisconsin law that would ban abusive dog-breeding kennels called puppy mills. She and her husband, Ed, gathered 5,000 signatures in a petition drive to get the law passed. And the couple were on hand in Madison when Gov. Jim Doyle signed the bill into law. A few hours later, she was dead.
Chase, the police dog. Photo courtesy of Minneapolis Police
Early this morning, police answered a burglary call. They found the suspects, but they lost the police dog.
The 911 call came in at around 7 a.m. Chase, a Minneapolis canine, went to the third story of a former car dealership at 222 Hennepin Avenue South with his handler, Officer Eric Lukes. At around 8:15 a.m., Chase fell off the roof.
He was gravely injured, and taken to the University of Minnesota for treatment, but veterinarians couldn't save him. Officer Lukes was not injured, and three burglary suspects were arrested. Chief Tim Dolan took the time to pass on his condolences:
After breaking out of a kennel, being taken in by a stranger, and getting picked up by a dog catcher, Felony, a 10-year-old black Labrador with the Howard Lake Police Department, was euthanized. The Humane Society said the dog had no tags or other identification, and was held for the required five-day waiting period. When nobody came to claim him, he was put down. But owing to some crossed communications, the police didn't know Felony was there, KARE-TV reported.
A Maple Grove man beat his girlfriend's cat so badly that it had to be euthanized. And three other cats in the home mysteriously disappeared. Now he's going to spend 30 days in jail to think about the poor kitten who is probably still crying after he put pepper spray in its eyes. Crying kittens! For the love!
A 23-year-old St. Paul man will serve two years of probation after he hurled his girlfriend's pit bull puppy off a second-story balcony. The dog's injuries were so bad that it had to be euthanized.
Quincy Lee Morrow pleaded guilty to the felony mistreatment of an animal last month. According to the charges, he threw the 5-month-old puppy off the balcony last November.
The judge ordered Morrow to not live in any home with pets or possess any pets.
To make matters worse, Morrow is now a father. The judge ordered him to start a parenting program ASAP, to avoid any baby throwing in the future.
Quincy Lee Morrow said he dropped a 5-month-old pit pull off a second-story Maplewood balcony by mistake after the dog bit his hand.
But police said they couldn't any bite marks on the 23-year-old man, and a vet who examined the ill-fated dog said it didn't look to him like the dog had bitten anyone.
Upshot: A felony animal cruelty conviction and five months of probation.
According to WCCO, "The dog sustained multiple fractures and had to be put to sleep."
Morrow will also have to attend mental health counseling and take a parenting class.
A Scott County father who insists that his 13-year-old autistic son "loves animals"
has taken the boy's .22-caliber rifle away after a neighbor's horses suffered gunshot wounds..
Tim Duffrin, of New Market Township, told KARE 11 that one of his horses, Hope, was shot in the face, shoulder and back, and Duchess, Hope's mother, was shot in the face. Blood was evidently "just gushing" from the horses' noses, but the two animals are expected to be OK.
Northwest Airlines was probably hoping for a smooth transition into Delta Air Lines, but that won't be happening if distracted pilots and pigeons have any say in it.
After Northwest had a flurry of bad press in the last two weeks when two pilots missed the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by 150 miles while using personal computers in the cockpit, the airline has more unfortunate news. At least this time you can't blame the airline for the mishap.
NWA Flight 195 took off from MSP Saturday afternoon heading for Las Vegas when a flock of pigeons allegedly attacked the plane. The pilot announced the bird strike about 15 minutes into the flight and decided to return to MSP because of suspected engine damage. The plane landed safely and there were no injuries in the incident. The passengers experienced a two-hour delay due to the attack.
Well, if there's any flock of birds worth sucking into an engine and spitting out into little shreds, we vote pigeons. Good job, NWA. You're making the Twin Cities a better place to live.
Jim Stewart, 53, is still hospitalized after multiple surgeries to repair his severed ear and repair his face. Stewart has adopted the bulldog, Igor, from a rescue group in Texas about five months ago. He had lost his American bulldog of eight years in May and was looking for a new companion.
Amy Klinefelter is the owner of the town home that she shares with Stewart. She said the dog was sweet and happily coexisted with her, her dog and their two cats.
The story of the attack is horrific, but you can read about it below.
Are you one of thousands of pet owners out there that love to dress up dogs for entertainment? Tonight is your chance to do it in public, and possibly even win prizes for that hand-made Halloween costume you lovingly made for Mister Wags. Even better? Proceeds benefit dogs in need at the Animal Humane Society.
You'd think that when your partner in crime got off pretty easy for a crime, you'd do everything in your power to also get an easy sentencing. Apparently skipping court dates is more exciting. The man charged with animal cruelty in relation to the Favre goat found in a car trunk failed to show up to court Monday and now officials say they have issued a warrant.
Sonny Yang, 24, and Janelle Riopel, 21, were driving through Winona on their way to the Twin Cities for the first home preseason game with Brett Favre when they stopped at a Tires Plus to get their car fixed.
Riopel casually mentioned the goat in the trunk. The mechanics eventually heard the goat crying and opened the drunk to find the Favre goat, with a No. 4 shaved in its side and its feet tied together. Police came to the scene and the goat was taken by animal control.
Riopel pleaded guilty in the case earlier this month. She was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation and paid $280 in fines. They both claimed they planned to kill the goat for meat.
Favre the goat is doing well and was adopted by a Wisconsin couple.
It's a sign of the times. People that used to be more likely just to be crazy cat or dog ladies in their old age now try to make a profit off their problem. Minneapolis animal control investigators found 30 Shih Tzus living in terrible conditions inside a 74-year-old woman's home. The woman was allegedly trying to sell them illegally online, but when people didn't buy them, the population in her home continued to grow to horrific levels. That's a whole lot of ewoks to be afraid of.
The 1,000-square-foot house smelled so terrible that neighbors complained. The dogs had a slew of medical problems including skin diseases, missing teeth, and one broken jaw.
According to the Star Tribune report, the woman gave them all wonderful old-lady pet names (Honey, Gizzy, Itsy, Bitsy, Trinket, Tippy Toe) and cared too much about them to bother getting them medical care.
"A lot of them are going to need extensive veterinary care for the rest of their lives," an animal control official said in the Strib.
Watch the TV news report below to see the condition of the 30 dogs currently housed at the animal shelter.
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