THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BROOKFIELD, Ohio — An Ohio woman who had her 97-year-old mother and 200 animals taken from her filthy home has been prohibited from having pets for five years.

Fifty-nine-year-old Kathy Witzman of Gustavus Township in northeast Ohio’s Trumbull County was put on probation Thursday on her guilty plea to misdemeanor animal cruelty.

She says her pet ban will mean unwanted animals will go to a shelter that will kill them because it lacks room. The animal shelter in her area says it has no intention of doing that. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRONT ROYAL, Va. — A Virginia man is facing an animal cruelty charge after police say he skinned a guinea pig and made a head ornament out of it.

Animal control officer Gerald L. Cubbage says 40-year-old Charles Woodson of Front Royal bought the guinea pig at a pet store in February. Neighbors later saw him wearing its hide on his head.

Warren County Deputy Laura L. Gomez said police seized a guinea pig hide including its head from Woodson’s home. They also have a photograph of Woodson wearing the hide. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Authorities say nearly 2,000 hens and roosters have been confiscated from a two-block area in Los Angeles as part of an ongoing cockfighting investigation.

Los Angeles police Officer Cleon Joseph says officers and animal services workers spent ten hours Wednesday removing the birds from the rural area of residential trailers and ranch-style homes in the Sylmar area.

Items used for cockfighting were also seized. (more…)

THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — The idea was for the National Zoo to establish a captive colony of endangered Virginia big-eared bats, to shield them from a deadly epidemic and ensure that there would be survivors should the wild population be destroyed.

But five months after the project began, most of the bats in the colony are dead, and a consultant hired by the zoo says it mishandled the animals and disregarded advice she gave that might have saved them.

“Mishandling of the bats resulted in broken fingers, soiled fur, skin infections … bruised legs … anorexia, capture myopathy and death,” the consultant, Missy Singleton, wrote in a report last December. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON — The Massachusetts House has voted overwhelmingly to ban the surgical “debarking” or silencing of dogs or cats.

By a 150-1 vote, the House on Wednesday approved the bill with prohibits the devocalization of dogs and cats unless a licensed veterinarian certifies that the procedure is medically necessary to relieve an illness, disease or injury.

Animal rights groups pushed for the bill, saying the practice amounts to animal cruelty and poses only risks to the pets.

Some dog owners opt for the procedure as a last ditch effort to try to quiet chronically barking dogs.

The bill now heads to the Senate.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CANTON, Texas — A judge has granted custody of more than 60 starving longhorn cattle to the SPCA in McKinney.

An attorney for the owner of the cattle said Tuesday’s decision will be appealed.

Van Zandt County Justice of the Peace Ronnie Daniell says the animals were “unreasonably deprived of food.” (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston’s Municipal Beautification Commission says it won’t oppose a request from People for the Ethical Treatment Animals to display a statue of a shackled, weeping elephant in the city.

But there are conditions.

The animal rights group has put the 4 1/2-foot fiberglass statue in cities around the country to protest what it calls animal cruelty in circuses. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana SPCA says a 16-year-old has been booked with aggravated animal cruelty for allegedly kicking a cat to death.

Spokeswoman Katherine LeBlanc said Friday that the youth’s family was staying with a relative who called the SPCA Feb. 3. LeBlanc says the woman told investigators the teen repeatedly kicked her cat Tigger into the air like a ball on Jan. 10, ignoring her attempts to stop him.

She took Tigger to a veterinarian Jan. 13. After two weeks of outpatient treatment, the cat died during surgery Jan. 27. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN DIEGO — A man who allegedly choked his Labrador retriever puppy as punishment for biting has pleaded not guilty to one count of felony animal cruelty.

The 10-week-old dog, named Coco, died several hours before 50-year-old David Hale Warner appeared in court on Friday.

Warner’s bail was set at $35,000 and his next hearing was scheduled March 9. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

POWELL, Wyo. — Abandoning two dogs in rural Powell has resulted in financial penalties for a 42-year-old woman.

Lisa Manweiler of Powell was ordered to pay $180 in fees and costs to the court and $145 of restitution to the Powell animal shelter after she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor animal cruelty in Circuit Court on Feb. 16.

Manweiler had pleaded guilty to the charge as part of part of a plea agreement in which another count of cruelty was dismissed. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MIDDLE TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Police say a southern New Jersey man who posed as a female veterinarian tried to kill himself with a thread from his sweater.

Middle Township police say a dispatcher revived Daniel Tyce after finding the thread wrapped around the 27-year-old’s neck.

Tyce is held on $25,000 bail in the Cape May County Jail on charges of trying to pass bad checks. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. CLAIR, Mo. — Nearly 125 animals living in filthy conditions have been rescued from an eastern Missouri property.

The Humane Society of Missouri said Thursday it and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department rescued 102 domestic rabbits, three dogs, five cats, a guinea pig, three baby goats, four hens, two roosters, two pigeons, and two ducks.

It said the rabbits were housed in feces-filled, wire-bottom cages without shelter. The dogs and fowl had no shelter or water. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CATSKILL, N.Y. — A trial is starting for a prominent thoroughbred breeder who was banned from racing after more than 170 malnourished horses were seized from his upstate New York farm.

Ernie Paragallo’s non-jury trial is beginning Tuesday in Greene County Court in Catskill, 20 miles south of Albany.

The Long Island resident was charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty after state police and welfare investigators raided his Center Brook Farm last April. He could face jail time and fines if convicted. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT ARTHUR, Texas — Three rescued puppies are recovering after being thrown over a seawall and on to some rocks in Port Arthur.

Firefighters rescued the crying pups and placed the creatures with animal control.

KFDM-TV reports the man who tossed the animals on Sunday was heard saying he was “turning them into soldiers.” A bystander noticed the abandoned puppies and summoned help. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BETHEL, Alaska — Police in this southwest Alaska city will seek authority to shoot dogs on the spot unless residents do a better job of keeping their pets from running wild.

Fed up with reports of dogs biting people, police have already started giving tickets to those with roaming dogs. If that doesn’t convince citizens to keep their dogs on leashes, Chief Larry Elarton said he will ask city council to impose an emergency law allowing officers to shoot to kill.

“We’re going to zero tolerance, unless the owner is actively looking for a dog, or they call it to us and report it, or there’s some other extenuating reason,” Elarton said. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO, Nev. — Animal rights activists are calling on U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to investigate the high number of deaths of animals in research laboratories due to negligence over the past two years, including dozens of research monkeys in Nevada.

Leaders of the Ohio-based Stop Animal Exploitation Now say at least 64 animals have been killed in at least 18 different U.S. facilities since the beginning of 2008.

That includes at 43 monkeys — 32 of which died at a Charles River Lab in Sparks in 2008 due to a heating system malfunction. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WOODSTOCK, Ill. — An Algonquin man has pleaded not guilty to allegations he ordered his trained guard dog to attack his wife during a domestic dispute at the couple’s home late last year.

At his arraignment Wednesday in McHenry County Circuit Court, 29-year-old Jonathon Richard also asked for a jury trial on charges of aggravated battery, unlawful restraint, domestic battery and obstructing justice.

Police say the charges stem from the early December incident that police said left his wife hospitalized briefly with superficial bite wounds. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Sixteen snakes, 26 lizards, five turtles, 10 red-spotted toads and 69 hamsters seized from an exotic animal dealer in Texas in December have arrived in Colorado.

They were delivered to the Larimer Humane Society on Wednesday.

The creatures were among about 27,000 that animal services workers took during a raid of U.S. Global Exotics in Arlington, Texas, in December. The animals had been housed in a 5,000-square-foot building where city officials say hundreds of animals were found dead or dying. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE — At least five sea lions, including one listed as endangered, were shot to death near Seattle, authorities said Friday.

One was a Steller sea lion protected by the federal Endangered Species Act. The remainder were smaller, more common California sea lions listed under the Marine Mammals Protection Act.

National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman said an investigation was under way because it’s illegal in most cases to shoot any kind of sea lion. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT CLINTON, Ohio — Rescue groups have agreed to end their legal battle over the fate of dozens of emaciated Arabian horses taken from an Ohio woman who has pleaded not guilty to multiple animal cruelty counts.

A tentative agreement between the Humane Society of Ottawa County, which rescued the animals last month in northern Ohio, and the Sussex, N.J.-based Arabian Rescue Mission will send the horses to foster homes in Ohio within 40 miles of fairgrounds where they are currently being cared for.

The two groups had been fighting in court for custody of 36 horses after their previous owner signed them over to Arabian Rescue on Feb. 3. That was a few days after the humane society said it acted on a tip and found them severely malnourished on a farm near Oak Harbor, about 25 miles southeast of Toledo. (more…)

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

A south Arkansas breeder surrendered 143 dogs to the Humane Society of Pulaski County on Saturday, leaving the shelter past capacity and low on supplies, said Director Kay Simpson.

All the dogs suffered from mange; many from eye infections, which in some cases will result in eye removal; and many had hair matted to the bone.

“One dog was so matted it was like concrete on both legs,” Simpson said. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS — Federal land managers said Monday they’ll delay a roundup of most of the nearly 600 wild horses in a range in eastern Nevada, at least until after the herd’s spring foaling season.

Advocates fighting to stop mustang roundups in the West said they think their threat to file a lawsuit stopped the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from beginning a roundup next week of almost 500 wild horses in the Eagle Herd Management Area.

“We’re pleased that the BLM has postponed another ill-conceived, illegal and inhumane wild horse roundup,” said William Spriggs, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer for In Defense of Animals based in San Rafael, Calif. (more…)