THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Frankie had no idea how close he came to the needle last week.

The black lab mix was one of three dogs on death row, who were given a second chance by the Wood County Humane Society.

Approximately once a month, staff from the humane society visits the Wood County Dog Shelter to see if they can save some canines. They time their visits on Thursday mornings — hours before the weekly euthanasias at the shelter.

So far, all that have been rescued have been adopted out to new homes.

“We come for the ones that are going to be euthanized,” explained Jamie Fairbanks, director of the humane society shelter. “We’ve been coming out as much as we can.”

“We like to come out here and save a life,” said Erin McKibben, a humane society staff member.

But the humane society cannot save them all. The members can only take as many as they have space for in their kennels.

So last week, they could only take three of the 13 dogs eagerly wagging their tails for attention.

The society members agonized over the decision of which to save.

“It’s not hard to pick because you know you are helping those. It’s hard to leave others behind,” McKibben said.

The dogs are selected due to their planned euthanasia date and their adoptability. For ultimately, the humane society’s goal is to find suitable homes for the dogs.

“We kind of try to see their behavior in the kennel,” Fairbanks said.

Wood County Dog Warden Rodney Cook helps out by sharing the dogs’ personalities.

“He’s a sweetheart,” Cook said, pointing to the black lab.

The county dog shelter has a very strong record of returning lost dogs to their old homes and finding new homes for others. So Cook sees the humane society’s rescues as another tool to help the canines.

“If they can find homes for them better than we can, that’s great,” he said.

Because of the numbers of dogs picked up by or deserted at the dog shelter, the canines are kept just an average of two weeks before they are euthanized. Some, that the staff members think are highly adoptable, are kept longer in hopes of finding homes for them.

But dogs like Frankie, no matter how sweet, don’t stand much of a chance.

“There are black labs all over the place,” Cook said, noting four in the kennels that morning.

While docile Frankie was an easy choice, the next two selections were tougher. The German Shepherd mix had a nice temperament, but was older than most people want to adopt. The dog did her best to convince McKibben, by licking her as she scratched behind the dog’s ear.

“She is friendly,” McKibben said, but noticeably smelly like a skunk.

“I think she needs a bath and good brush,” Fairbanks said.

Then came the toughest part, choosing the last dog to be rescued.

“You pick the last one, it’s too hard for me,” Fairbanks said.

The hound mix was a possibility. But its graying hair and bad teeth would make it hard to find an adopting family.

Then there was another hound mix that was wonderful with adults, but not with children. Again, hard to adopt out.

The weight of her decision was heavy on McKibben, who teared up at leaving some of the dogs behind.

Finally, the humane society workers settled on a wiggling hound mix.

“You’re coming with us. Are you excited?” McKibben asked the dog, which responded by wagging its entire body.

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.

Woodson faces up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine if convicted of the misdemeanor charge.

A hearing is scheduled for March 23.

It was not immediately clear Thursday whether Woodson has secured an attorney.

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.

Detective Rudy Ramirez told KCAL-TV that the operation appeared to be “very well organized.”

Police say no arrests were made.

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.

The zoo disputes the allegations, saying that the colony is experimental, that this sub-species of bat has never been held in captivity before and that many of Singleton’s assertions are inaccurate.

Zoo scientists say there have been bruises, eating problems and fatal skin infections among the bats — caused, essentially, by captivity, not from mishandling.

There have been no broken bones or capture myopathy, a dangerous malady that can come after a wild animal is caught, the zoo scientists said.

The zoo admits that the effort has been distressing. Another bat died this week. Others are under treatment. And officials say that the surviving 10 — of the original 40 — may also succumb.

“We could lose the last 10 bats,” said David E. Wildt, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., where the colony is housed.

The controversy is being played out against the backdrop of the “white-nose syndrome,” a fungus that has killed more than a million bats of various kinds in recent years throughout the Northeast. It does not infect humans.

The bats in the colony do not have the fungus, the zoo says. They are mainly dying of blood infections that stem from skin abrasions and inflammations.

On Monday, the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility blamed the situation on the zoo’s “ignorance and incompetence,” and asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revoke the zoo’s permit for the colony and transfer the surviving bats elsewhere.

Diana Weaver, a spokeswoman for the wildlife service’s northeast region, said in an e-mail Thursday that the agency is investigating.

“All information we have received from the Smithsonian so far leads us to believe they are doing everything they can to care for the remaining bats,” she wrote. “At this time, we do not feel it is appropriate to move the remaining bats. Moving them would cause additional stress…. ”

The trouble stems from the wildlife service’s discussions last year with numerous agencies about a possible sanctuary colony to spare some of the big-eared bats from catching the devastating disease. Though the illness had not then killed any of them — and still, apparently, has not — experts feared it would eventually.

They are homely little creatures — smaller than a sparrow — with furry bodies and big, pointed ears.

Bats are major consumers of mosquitoes and other pests, and any threat to them is worrisome, experts said. The wildlife service has said there are only about 15,000 Virginia big-eared bats in existence and if the disease strikes them, “this bat subspecies could likely become extinct.”

The white fungus is so-called because it collects on the bat’s muzzle, in addition to other areas, experts said. It depletes fat reserves and causes bats to starve. It was first found in Upstate New York in 2006 and has spread as far as Virginia and Tennessee.

The Conservation Biology Institute was the only organization to respond to the colony idea, zoo and wildlife officials said. “We knew it was high-risk,” said Wildt, the institute scientist. “We knew that there was the possibility of mortality ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent.”

Last fall, the zoo hired Singleton, a Texas-based expert, for a three-week stint as a consultant.

Singleton said Tuesday that her stay was fraught with tension. In her report, she criticized the way the bat holding cage was constructed, the way the bats were fed, and how they were being cared for. She said that poor injection techniques caused bats to “cry out,” and that twice, needles entered the gloves of the person holding the bat during injections.

“I was outwardly saying, ‘You’re making wrong decisions. This is going to cause a bat to die,’ ” she said.

The zoo said it was unaware of most of Singleton’s allegations until the day she left, and has sought to refute them.

Staff veterinarian Luis R. Padilla said the cages were built with a plastic mesh size that was approved for such use, though it has now been replaced by mesh with smaller holes. And, he said, bats often “vocalize” when they are held.

He said he was unaware that workers’ gloves were pricked by needles. He said workers are supposed to report such things, but might not have. He said zoo experts did often disagree with Singleton’s observations and advice. “There was always a reason,” Padilla said.

Both sides seemed to have the bats’ welfare at heart. “In no way would I say the Smithsonian wanted to kill these bats,” Singleton said. “What should have been done wasn’t done.”

Padilla said: “We take it very seriously that they get sick. We take it very seriously that they die. We put in incredible numbers of hours. … We take every individual bat very seriously.”

LOS ANGELES — Bob Barker has donated $2.5 million to help the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals open a new location in Los Angeles.

The retired game show host and spay and neuter champion will cut the ribbon Wednesday at the Bob Barker Building on Sunset Boulevard and Alvarado Street.

PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk says Barker could have just given the group a refrigerator but instead he paid for an entire building to be renovated.

The building will be home to the group’s media, marketing, youth outreach and campaign departments.

The 86-year-old Barker delivered his spay and neuter message on The Price Is Right for a quarter century. Since he retired in June of 2008, he has taken his activism on the road, promoting freedom for whales, an end to the fur trade and other causes.

NEW YORK (AP) — An animal protection agency that gave its officers badges and guns, but never investigated a single incident of pet abuse has agreed to dissolve under pressure from state officials.

On paper, the Yonkers Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals looked like one of New York’s most formidable anti-abuse agencies.

Last year it had 16 officers authorized by the state to conduct searches and make arrests — a roster of lawmen almost as large as the one at the better-known American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in neighboring New York City.

Yet in half a century, the Yonkers group hasn’t conducted a single operation.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the original Yonkers SPCA, founded in 1912, has been dormant since 1955. Its law enforcement functions were taken over decades ago by the SPCA of Westchester.

About a dozen men reconstituted the group in 2007 and began appointing themselves as peace officers, but Cuomo said they had no authority to do so.

The attorney general’s office said it began investigating the society after getting a tip from a disgruntled member about an incident involving a peace officer who brandished a firearm “in a reckless manner while under the influence of alcohol” at a training session.

The state sued last summer. On Tuesday, Cuomo announced that a judge had approved its closure.

“The individuals behind the Yonkers SPCA took advantage of a nationally renowned nonprofit to masquerade as a law enforcement entity with no responsibilities or oversight,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Since this organization provides no service to the community, we have shut it down.”

The closure order requires the group’s members to surrender any unlicensed firearms, shields and identification cards.

John Mahoney, the group’s lawyer and former president, bristled at the suggestion that its members joined simply because they liked the idea of carrying a badge and a gun.

“They got together because they wanted to do something for animals … This is not a bunch of guys that needed gun permits,” he said. A majority of the group’s members were already licensed to carry a handgun when they joined, he said.

Mahoney said the group’s original idea was to form a task force that would infiltrate criminal dogfighting gangs.

He acknowledged that the society hadn’t conducted any law enforcement operations, but he said that was due to bureaucratic and legal problems that would have been resolved over time.

Under New York law, animal protection societies are given the power to appoint peace officers who have many of the same authorities as municipal police.

They may carry concealed weapons without going through the normal licensing process, use deadly physical force when making an arrest, seize weapons and conduct searches.

All peace officers must be registered with the state’s Department of Criminal Justice Services.

The department is looking into why it had approved registrations for so many members of an organization that had apparently been inactive for decades, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo)

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A Judsonia man is challenging the constitutionality of a year-old animal-cruelty law that makes the ownership of fighting chickens a felony.

Jerry Myers is worried that his hobby will get him arrested, his attorney, John Ogles, said. Myers raises chickens that are typically used in cockfighting, Ogles said, although the attorney wasn’t immediately able to describe the particular breedMyers favors.

“These aren’t Tyson chickens,” the attorney said.

Myers is asking Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza to strike down the state law. Myers doesn’t use the chickens for cockfighting, which is illegal, Ogles said.

But Myers is concerned that authorities will arrest him under Arkansas Code Annotated 5-62-120, which bans all animal fighting, according to the three-pagelawsuit filed Wednesday. The law makes it a crime to sell, buy, possess or train an animal for the purposes of fighting. A conviction carries a maximum six years in prison.

However, Prosecuting Attorney Chris Raff of White County, which comprises Judsonia, said he doesn’t have any animal-cruelty cases pending and hasn’t prosecuted any since the General Assembly expanded the animal-cruelty laws last year. He said he doesn’t know Myers.

While the law, passed in 2009, maintained misdemeanor animal-cruelty charges for abuse involving most animals, it also created a first-offense felony penalty for the torture of dogs, cats and horses, and outlawed all animal fighting, including cockfighting. It also carries a five-year sentenceenhancement for abusing an animal in the presence of a child.

Animal fighting and aggravated cruelty are each Class D felonies, carrying penalties of up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

In his suit, Myers claims the law violates his right to privacy under the Arkansas Constitution and is too vague to be enforced. He denies training the chickens to fight, saying their aggressiveness is genetic.

“Plaintiff does not train the chickens because it would be like herding cats. It would be impossible,” the lawsuit states. “The chickens are genetically born to fight and there is nothing plaintiff can do to preventthe chickens from fighting.”

In a response, the Arkansas attorney general’s office disputes that Myers has grounds to sue, countering that he hasn’t been affected by the law, despite his claims that “litigation [against him] is pending or threatened.” Myers also has not claimed to be doing anything wrong, according to a 14-page brief by Assistant Attorney General Mark Ohrenberger.

“[Myers’ lawsuit] leads the reader to conclude that Myers condemns animal fighting and would like nothing better than for his chickens to behave peacefully, but he is simply incapable of exerting that level of control over his poultry,” the filing states. “In other words, Myers has merely alleged that he owns aggressive chickens, nothing more.”

No hearings have been set. Ogles said he is redrafting the lawsuit to address other arguments made by the state for the suit’s dismissal.

ROMANCE, Ark. — White County authorities say a man apparently killed himself after firefighters battling a grass blaze stumbled across an illegal dog-fighting ring and investigators found an indoor marijuana-growing operation on property where he lived.

William R. Stewart, 62, was seen outside his rural home by volunteer firefighters as they fought the flames Thursday. But he was later found inside the home, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to White County Detective Phillip Miller.

Also found in the home after investigators broke through a locked door, Miller said, were 38 firearms — 22 rifles and 16 handguns. Many of the weapons were strategically placed, Miller said, with one by each window and exterior door of the house, including a bathroom window.

Miller said Stewart had lived in White County for some time and had no criminal history.

Found were 124 live marijuana plants ranging in size from three feet to seedlings, each worth $1,000, and 5.5 pounds of processed marijuana worth $1,000 per pound for a total street value of $129,500. Officers found 38 weapons: 22 assault rifles including an SKS, AK-47 and M-1 and 16 pistols including automatics and revolvers.

Firefighters from the Floyd-Romance and Joy volunteer fire departments were called to the remote location in the early afternoon, Miller said. Aside from the fire, the first thing they noticed was evidence of illegal dogfighting, Miller said.

“They saw what appeared to be a ring … and some of the animals were mangled as if they had been fighting,” Miller said. The firefighters reported their discovery to the sheriff’s office, and patrol deputies were sent to the scene, he said.

The deputies discovered the marijuana, Miller said.

“When our officers were investigating the animal cruelty complaint they observed in plain view marijuana being grown in the same area,” Miller said. “The plants were in a building but the doors to the building were open.”

The outbuilding that housed the marijuana-growing operation was well-equipped, according to Miller.

“He had solar panels to operate the growing lights to stimulate the plants to grow,” Miller said. Jeff Langley, head of the sheriff’s criminal investigation division, said motorized track lighting was set up to move throughout the day so the plants would be evenly illuminated.

Firefighters told police they had seen Stewart walking around the farm, Miller said, and narcotics detectives were called.

“The officers were not able to contact him but were able to observe in the residence a deceased male that turned out to be Mr. Stewart,” Miller said.

No gunshot had been heard, but the door to Stewart’s residence was found to be locked and a search warrant was obtained, Miller said.

Crime scene investigators concluded that Stewart had died by his own hand when he placed a .45-caliber pistol to his temple and shot himself, Miller said. An empty holster was found on Stewart’s body.

All of the other weapons found inside the home were fully loaded, Miller said.

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.

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.”

The longhorns were seized Friday by deputies who found dozens of dead animals on the property about 60 miles east of Dallas.

Sheriff Pat Burnett (BER’-net) Jr. says the investigation continues.

The judge ordered owner Jim Claire to pay court costs, including boarding the animals.

Claire attorney says Prater Monning says the owner had entrusted care of the cattle to another man, believing the livestock were being properly fed. Cody Carter said he had been feeding the cattle at his own expense and that it had been a rough winter.