Mickeys

Dude the cockerel is suspected of leading the rebellion against the fox

A group of plucky chickens got their revenge on a sneaky fox after it crept into their coop – by knocking it out and pecking it to death.

Michelle Cordell, 43, went to collect eggs from the pen at the bottom of her garden in Basildon, Essex, on Saturday morning and found a dead fox lying amongst the birds.

The animal seemed to have been pecked to death and was covered in blood marks from its legs to its head.

Dude the cockerel is suspected to have led the rebellion assisted by his female friends Izzy, Pongo and Pecky.

“The little table in the corner of the coop which the chickens perch on had been kicked over and was lying next to the fox’s head,” Ms Cordell said.

The victim fox was found in the coop the following morning

“It seems they kicked over the table, knocked the fox out and pecked it to death.

“It was not a cub, but it was only young and Dude and Izzy are big birds.”

Ms Cordell lives with her partner Gary Howell and daughters Maddi and Ruby, who had hand-reared Dude from a chick.

Foxes have broken into the coop before but previous battles have always resulted in bird casualties.

story from SkyNews

The skulls of a previously undiscovered species of dinosaur have been found by palaeontologists.

Abydosaurus is thought to have lived 105 million years ago

Abydosaurus was a type of sauropod, a group of huge plant-eating dinosaurs which had light skulls because their head was at the end of a long neck.

Complete dinosaur skulls are rare so researchers were thrilled when they found four Abydosaurus skulls – including two intact – in a quarry at the Dinosaur National Monument in eastern Utah in America.

“Their heads are built lighter than mammal skulls because they sit way out at the end of very long necks,” said Dr Brooks Britt, a palaeontologist who worked on the project.

“Instead of thick bones fused together, sauropod skulls are made of thin bones bound together by soft tissue. Usually it falls apart quickly after death and disintegrates.”

Most of what scientists know about sauropods is from the neck down but the newly-discovered skulls provide new clues about how the largest land animals to roam the Earth ate their food.

Dr Brooks Britt with the Abydosaurus skull

Dr Britt said: “They didn’t chew their food; they just grabbed it and swallowed it. The skulls are only one two-hundredth of total body volume and don’t have an elaborate chewing system.”

It is thought to have lived 105 million years ago as crystals of the mineral zircon within the surrounding rock have been dated to that period.

Bone analysis suggests Brachiosaurus, which grew to around 25 metres long and lived 45 million years earlier than Abydosaurus, is thought to have been its closest relative.

Dr Britt said the skulls were from juveniles which were estimated to be around 25 feet (7.6 metres) long but other bones, including vertebrae, suggest the mature Abydosaurus were “substantially larger”.

story from SkyNews

The life-saving skills of a black Labrador have earned him a top military honour.

Nine-year-old Treo’s job is to sniff out roadside bombs in Afghanistan for the British Army – and he has proved rather good at it.

Treo: Saved platoon

In August, 2008, while working as a forward detection dog in Sangin, Treo found a “daisy chain” improvised explosive device (IED) that had been carefully modified and concealed by the Taliban at the side of a path.

A month later, his actions saved another platoon from guaranteed casualties, again by finding a ‘daisy chain’ – made of two or more explosives wired together.

Now he is being rewarded with the Dickin Medal – the animal equivalent of a Victoria Cross – the highest accolade a military animal can expect.

Treo is now retired and enjoying life with handler Sergeant Dave Heyhoe back at 104 Military Working Dogs Support Unit, in North Luffenham, Rutland.

Sgt Heyhoe said: “Treo’s work involves searching for arms and explosives out on the ground to the forefront of the troops.

“It’s very important. We are part and parcel of the search element. We’re not the ultimate answer but we are an aid to search.

“Another aid would be the metal detector – but Treo is a four-legged variety.”

Treo's handler Sgt David Heyhoe

Sgt Heyhoe says their relationship is now far more than a working partnership.

“Basically, me and the dog have got to understand each other and without that we can’t be effective on the ground. He must know when I want him to go somewhere to search.

“Everyone will say that he is just a military working dog – yes, he is, but he is also a very good friend of mine. We look after each other.”

Treo is the 63rd animal to receive the Dickin Medal – introduced by PDSA founder Maria Dickin in 1943 to honour the work of animals in war – and the 27th dog to receive the honour.

Since its introduction it has also been presented to 32 Second World War messenger pigeons, three horses and one cat.

story from SkyNews

Hartbeespoort – A “crazy” man destroyed a young woman’s “life’s dream” on Monday when he shot her Siberian husky in the head.

Twenty-year-old Allecia Eastes’ fiancé, David Alkers, gave her the ten-month-old husky about eight months ago.

“All my life I’ve dreamed of having a husky.”

The couple moved into a flat on a smallholding at Bokfontein, between Mooinooi and Hartbeespoort, about three weeks ago. There are also six cottages and the owner’s house on the smallholding.

Eastes, who is 11 weeks pregnant, was sleeping when the man started shooting at her dogs with a revolver at about 11:30.

“Workers had put up a fence around the property. There’s a small fenced-off area behind the flat where Montego [the husky] and Kiara, a pit bull cross, were enclosed and from which they escaped. Mini-Me [the Daschund] was inside the house.”

“According to the workers the man first started shooting at the dogs near one of the cottages.”

“They [the dogs] ran home and apparently he walked over here, called Montego to the fence and shot him in the head. I was woken up by the shot.”

“Then he came into the fenced-off area, threw Montego over the fence so that it would look as if he’d been shot outside the yard, and with the revolver still in his hand, he started rattling at our flat’s doors.”

According to him, the dog had caught and eaten one of his parrots, but apparently there’s no sign of that.

Eastes had never met the man, so it was quite traumatic for her when a strange man with a revolver started rattling their doors.

Captain Aafje Botma, police spokesperson in the North West, confirmed that a docket was opened in terms of the Animal Protection Act. Further charges could possibly be added.

Apparently the man hasn’t been back to his cottage, so the police haven’t been able to take a statement or inspect his firearm.

taken from News24

A Witbank man was arrested on Saturday afternoon after allegedly beating his dog to death with a spade before burying the carcass in a shallow grave in his front yard.

Jakkie Opperman, 17, lives diagonally across the man’s house in Jackaroo Park, and saw the entire incident.

“It was barbaric,” he said.

“We were sitting in the garden when I heard a loud bang. Then I heard a girl screaming ’stop it’ over and over.

“I jumped up and walked closer.

“The man was busy beating the dog with a spade. Another man just stood there and watched.”

According to Jakkie, the arrested man said: “I should chop his (the dog’s) head off too.”

Jakkie ran home and asked his parents to phone the Witbank branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Members of the Witbank SPCA called Ian Lombaard, chief inspector at the Middelburg SPCA.

“On my way to the premises I called the police, since I don’t have authorisation to enter someone’s property and act against the accused,” said Lombard.

“When I arrived at the house the police were there.”

The dog (a Boerbull cross) was dug up and the owner was arrested.

The owner is expected to appear in the Witbank Magistrate’s Court on Monday. Charges relating to the Animal Protection Act are being investigation against him.

The reason why the man beat the dog (to death) is reportedly because the animal wanted to bite him.

A post-mortem will be performed on the dog on Monday.

“We ask that people should please not act on their own when a dog behaves aggressively,” said Lombard.

“The SPCA is there to handle such cases.”

taken from News24

ITV has been fined after pleading guilty to animal cruelty during the making of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

TV Show

Two contestants, including last year’s winner Gino D’Acampo, killed and ate a rat on camera while the programme was being filmed in Australia.

A court in Sydney heard that although the rat was initially stabbed with a knife, it took a minute and a half for the animal to die.

Magistrate Mark Buscombe said that unnecessary pain had been inflicted, and the company should have taken greater care.

In documents presented to the court the RSPCA said that initially D’Acampo stabbed the rat, then Manning picked up a second knife and attempted to kill it with three separate cutting motions, while D’Acampo used his knife to restrain it.

Mr Buscombe asked ITV’s solicitor Chris Lawson whether the men had any experience in using knives, and was told that D’Acampo was a celebrity chef. He and fellow contestant Stuart Manning had originally been charged with animal cruelty.

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A five-year-old girl mauled along with two siblings by a pack of escaped dogs remains unable to breathe on her own, police have said.

A pit bull terrier, similar to the dogs that attacked the children

The girl, whose name has not been released, had been walking with her mother and three siblings along train tracks in California when they were attacked on Monday.

The five dogs had escaped from a nearby garden by digging under a fence, Fontana police Sergeant Jeff Decker said.

One dog, a mastiff, pulled the girl from her mother’s hand “and tossed the child around like a rag doll”, the officer said.

The girl suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and numerous bites.

She remained in a critical condition and was breathing with the help of a ventilator, Sgt Decker said.

Her brother, aged about seven, also needed 237 staples to close a leg wound, he said.

The girl’s sister, thought to be eight, was treated for leg and arm injuries.

Police found the dogs near their home shortly after the attack.

One was shot when it attacked an officer and the other four – the mastiff and what appeared to be pit bull mixes – were taken to an animal shelter, Sgt Decker said.

They have been quarantined until rabies tests are completed and a decision on whether they should be destroyed is made.

The owners could be accused of failing to properly confine their pets, but they were not immediately charged.

“My understanding is they are very sorry about what happened,” Sgt Decker said.

Fontana is in San Bernardino County, about 55 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

taken from SkyNews

Former Springbok rugby coach, Jake White, rushed to the rescue of two “retired” race horses to save them from a life of misery in Philippi last week.

White, who coached South Africa to World Cup victory in 2007, was at an event where he heard of the terrible conditions in which the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) had found the two purebred horses.

He immediately responded with an offer to put up the animals, said Allan Perrins, executive head of the Cape of Good Hope SPCA.

White’s wife, Lindy Taberer, breeds with show horses on the horse farm Avontuur on the R44 between Stellenbosch and Somerset West.

The stallion New Horizon and the mare London Tabloid had in their day been famous race horses that could have been sold for thousands of rands.

A foal and an Arab, both potentially purebred race horses, were found with the other two and also confiscated.

London Tabloid was bred from the world-famous champion stallion London News.

Perrins said the problem with purebred horses which no longer had any use, was in establishing who their owners were.

In both cases, there were fortunately clauses in the purchasing contracts which enabled the former owners to immediately sign over the horses to the SPCA once news of their plight came to light.

Perrins said they had twice issued warnings to Irene Steyn from Ottery before a court order was procured. Steyn was allegedly the owner of the four horses.

“Charges against the owner would be made as soon as the veterinarians completed their reports. We are here dealing with a real Cruella de Ville.

“We know her well, the SPCA has made court cases against her since 2006,” said Perrins.

Steyn appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges relating to a separate issue.

She was accused of breeding pit bull terriers for dogfights.

taken from News24