Photo by Krisha Williams Turbeville

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

About 100 people stood sweaty and eager to see a streak of black fur leap out of a concrete building Saturday morning. When the small metal door finally rattled open – nothing happened.

Then, just as some in the crowd started to lose hope, a black 2-year-old leopard named Spyke strode out of his den, pausing to stretch and scratch on the deck of his new home at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.

Founded in 1991, the refuge is home to lions, tigers, leopards and bears, most of which would have otherwise been euthanized. Its staff travels the country rescuing exotic animals that were not meant to be pets, according to its website. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Witnesses say a reptile wrangler used his bare hands to capture a 4-foot alligator that an alert dog noticed outside an Ohio business.

Employee Jeff Colucy was with his Weimaraner in the parking lot of a Columbus company that makes office fixtures when the dog went on alert Wednesday morning, focused on the alligator hunkered down in a puddle.

Police brought in reptile wrangler Chris Law, who captured the gator by grabbing it at the tail with his bare hands. He says he didn’t have his usual reptile rescue gear because he was about to leave on vacation. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DANIEL ISLAND, S.C. — On a quiet island that sits between the Cooper and Wando rivers in South Carolina, a growing problem is on the verge of becoming a nuisance.

An alligator has lived here at least since 2008, resident Angela Boscoe told The Post and Courier of Charleston. But at seven feet long, the gator is now a danger to neighborhood children and pets.

And that worries Boscoe, who thinks the gator is a part of the island and the environment and should be allowed to stay. But the gator’s fate could depend on how many close calls it has with the locals. A state wildlife official says it’s up to the neighborhood’s homeowners association to decide whether to call in a trapper to dispatch the creature. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OCALA, Fla. — Hundreds of dead animals have been found at an Ocala-area home.

An official at the Marion County Animal Center says 348 dead animals, mostly just skeletal remains, were found across the property, as well as in cages, in feed bags and in plastic bags stuffed in the owner’s freezer. Another 375 animals were found alive but malnourished.

The live animals included 151 dogs and 156 birds as well as cattle, tortoises, cats, hamsters, sheep, horses, rabbits and lizards. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLUMBIA, S.C. — An Ohio-based watchdog group has called on the federal government to investigate a South Carolina company it says is abusing research monkeys.

Stop Animal Exploitation Now executive director Michael Budkie said on Monday internal records from the Alpha Genesis Inc. lab near Charleston show the company is breaking federal law.

Budkie says documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show at least 170 primates are missing body parts, from fingers to limbs. Budkie says at least one primate was cut across the abdomen and its internal organs were spilling out. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

Arkansas offers a bevy of spring festivities, many of which benefit and some of which welcome the state’s furry friends.

Here are several:

SATURDAY: The 18th Annual Kite Festival, “Art with an Attitude,” will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, 7 miles outside Eureka Springs on Arkansas 23. Admission to fly kites is free, but regular rates apply for those wishing to tour the big-cat habitat. Kaleidokites has donated a Japanese fighting “Rokkaku” kite and a tiger kite to be raffled off. For help building kites, a donation to the rescue is suggested. Proceeds go to the nonprofit. For more information, please call (479) 253-6596 or (888) 836-6251, or visit the Turpentine Creek Events Page. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — In Ashley Mutch’s view, Almost Heaven was anything but.

As she inspected the huge kennel outside Allentown, the SPCA police officer was hit with an “immensely strong” odor of urine and feces. Mutch said she saw dogs living in their own waste, suffering from matted fur and skin ailments, and lacking access to food and water. Her inspection report described a filthy, neglected compound bursting with 779 animals, primarily dogs but also cats, guinea pigs, horses, ponies, fowl, monkeys and a pig.

The 2008 raid at Almost Heaven Kennel resulted in criminal charges against its owner, Derbe “Skip” Eckhart, who goes on trial Monday on animal cruelty and other counts in a case that state dog-law officials are using to illustrate their get-tough approach to unscrupulous breeders. (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

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

DETROIT — The Detroit Zoo is serving as a sanctuary to more than 1,000 mammals, reptiles and spiders seized from a Texas exotic animal dealer.

The Macomb Daily reports that the 1,100 animals now at the Detroit Zoo home were among nearly 27,000 animals seized Dec. 15 in the nation’s largest exotic animal rescue effort.

After a judge ruled the animals will not be returned to U.S. Global Exotics, Detroit Zoo employees spent seven weeks helping care for the animals at a temporary site in Dallas. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ARLINGTON, Texas — The operators of an exotic animals won’t get back the 27,000 or so creatures seized by the city of Arlington.

A judge on Saturday affirmed a previous ruling against the company, U.S. Global Exotics.

The animals were taken in a Dec. 15 raid, but the company has disputed animal cruelty allegations. Arlington officials have said the raid turned up starving snakes, reptiles packed in shipping crates and rodents in cramped quarters that ate each other to survive. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE — Alone, in the middle of Sylvia Lake, swims a prince without his princess.

For 25 years, Prince, a mute swan, has called Sylvia Lake home, and up until December 2007 he shared his days and nights with Princess. The two did everything together in this Gig Harbor community, including entertaining the locals, scaring away obnoxious Canada geese and hobnobbing with their duck friends.

Gordon Golob, who lives on the lake, remembers how Princess used to knock on his back door every morning to let him know she was ready for breakfast, while Prince would hang back and wait for his share. (more…)

SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — A man in an astronaut suit stood outside the National Air and Space Museum.

Normal enough, given the contents of the building before him. But he was not promoting an exhibit Thursday, nor was he affiliated with the museum. He and other People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals activists were brandishing signs and distributing pamphlets protesting a NASA program.

NASA is planning to radiate squirrel monkeys. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona — Police in a small northern Arizona city are investigating the deaths of two giraffes from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, and two others likely will have to find new homes.

Freddie and Tom Hancock of Page acquired the giraffes as part of a plan to build a wildlife preserve on city property they leased in 2008 that also would house exotic birds, reptiles and a camel. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEENAH, Wis. — A year ago, Jake the rooster confounded Neenah officials. Now a household of exotic birds has city officials scratching for answers.

At issue is the Roseberry Bird Rescue, a nonprofit organization that cares for as many as 125 abandoned, abused or neglected birds until they can be rehabilitated and adopted.

The business has operated for 15 years from the home of MaryKay Rosenow and Randy Berryman, but it has been in violation of city zoning codes from the start. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALT LAKE CITY — Overstock.com Inc. has stopped selling watchbands, shoes and luggage made from the skins of exotic animals.

The Salt Lake City, Utah-based Internet retailer announced Monday that it pulled listings involving items with alligator, lizard, ostrich, stingray, eel, shark and kangaroo skin from its Web site. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ARLINGTON, Texas — A judge has granted custody of more than 27,000 animals to the city of Arlington after they were seized last month from an exotic animal dealer.

Municipal Judge Michael Smith ruled Tuesday that U.S. Global Exotics owners Jasen and Vanessa Shaw cruelly treated hundreds of species of exotic animals at their Internet-based wholesale business. (more…)

THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Wednesday sided with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in a legal fight in which animal rights activists accused the circus of abusing its Asian elephants.

In a 57-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said a former Ringling employee, Tom Rider, and the Animal Protection Institute (API) did not have legal standing to sue the circus under the Endangered Species Act. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Eight circus tigers and a lioness died during a 20-hour journey in an enclosed and heated truck across Siberia, and Russian police are investigating whether they might have been suffocated by exhaust fumes or sickened with food poisoning.

The animals were dead when they arrived early Tuesday in the city of Yakutsk, where they had been due to perform in holiday shows, police spokesman Nikolai Sizykh said. (more…)

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Those interested in casting a vote in the Little Rock Zoo’s Name Our Baby Chimp contest have until 4 p.m. Monday to visit the zoo’s Web site, www.littlerockzoo.com, and choose from four names.

The great-ape keepers at the zoo culled the names from more than 400 submissions made since the male chimp was born in late August to Mahale, a 15-year-old also born at the zoo. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s not unusual to see a deer or a cow crossing Oklahoma’s rural highways. But an elephant?

A couple driving home from church nearly slammed into a giant pachyderm that had escaped from a nearby circus late Wednesday. (more…)