Skeeter Jones graduated from Baylor Law School but will never take the state bar exam or address a jury.
He doesn’t seem to care, however, and is content with just being scratched behind the ears or playing with an empty, plastic Coke bottle.
Skeeter, a playful service dog, received his honorary Juris “Dog”tor, making him the first nonhuman to be conferred a degree from the institution.
Actually, Skeeter is a service dog, who assists Amy Jones. A skiing accident in 2002 left Jones a quadriplegic, and she uses a wheelchair. In 2004, Jones was paired with Skeeter, a black Labrador retriever, whom she describes as a “wonderful help.”
Source:
Baylor University(via
Legal Blog Watch)
Thanks,
Leslie!
Anthony Franz had started to eat healthy, but the salmon salad he ordered for lunch from Shaw's Crab House in August 2006 wasn't the best choice, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
Franz says he became violently ill for several days after eating that salad and later "passed a 9-foot tapeworm."
A pathologist determined the giant tapeworm only has one source -- "undercooked fish, such as salmon," according to court papers.
The lawsuit against Shaw's Crab House, 21 E. Hubbard, and its parent company, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, claims the restaurant's staff was negligent in serving him undercooked fish.
Franz, who was not available for comment, wants more than a refund. He's seeking $100,000 for his pain, suffering, lost time from work and "lost enjoyment of life."
Carrol Symank, vice president of food safety for Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, said he is confident the tapeworm did not come from the restaurant.
"We have done a thorough investigation and we're confident the restaurant is not the source," he said.
Source:
Chicago Sun-Times
There's money to be made in Randolph, Iowa, which is offering a $5 bounty for each feral feline turned in.
Mayor Vance Trively says that the southwest Iowa town of 200 people is being overrun by dozens of feral cats and needed to do something.
"You can't just let them keep multiplying in town," Trively said.
Town officials approved the bounty after receiving numerous complaints, ranging from a cat attacking a small dog to a dozen cats showing up at the bowl when a resident tried to feed his own cat.
Under the new policy, stray cats without collars will be taken to a veterinarian in the nearby town of Sidney - Randolph has no vet clinic - where they'll be kept "for a time for people to claim them," the mayor said.
If no one does, they'll be euthanized and buried.
Pink it´s my new obsession
Pink it´s not even a question
Pink on the lips of your lover, ´cause
Pink is the love you discover
Pink as the bing on your cherry
Pink ´cause you are so very
Pink it´s the color of passion
`Cause today it just goes with the fashion
Pink it was love at first sight, yea
Pink when I turn out the light, and
Pink gets me high as a kite
And I think everything is going to be all right . . .
But not,
if you live in DenverLyrics: Aerosmith
Source:
Denver Post
According to estimates from the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, about 500,000 people own some 2 million ferrets. Ferret folks claim the real numbers are much higher.
But ferrets, those slinky, mink-y cousins of weasels, badgers, skunks and polecats, are outlawed in New York , Salt Lake City and numerous other municipalities, and the states of California and Hawaii and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
"It's because they believe they're wild animals and they believe they'll decimate the wildlife. These are neutered and spayed animals," said an exasperated Norine Barnes, president of the Greater Chicago Ferret Association, which has about 275 members and runs a shelter for ferrets, which are legal in Illinois.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals agrees. It opposed the 1999 ban on ferrets in New York.
Source:
Chicago Tribune
Austria's Supreme Court ruled that a chimpanzee named Matthew Hiasl Pan cannot be declared a person.
The shelter where Matthew has lived for 25 years is going bankrupt, threatening to leave him homeless. Matthew and another chimp at the shelter, Rosi, were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter.
Donors have offered to help support Matthew, but under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal gifts.
Source:
AP
New York city’s health code and state law forbid animals in places where food or beverages are sold for human consumption. Fines range from $300 for a first offense to $2,000 or higher for subsequent offenses.
But many deli and Bodega owners in New York City are defending their right to keep cats in their stores. The cats keep the rat and mice under control - city inspectors contend the cats pose a health hazard.
Many store owners keep cats despite the law, mainly because other options have failed and the fine for rodent feces is also $300.
“It’s hard for bodega owners because they’re not supposed to have a cat, but they’re also not supposed to have rats,” said José Fernández, the president of the Bodega Association of the United States.
Source:
New York Times(
via)
The Baltimore City Health Department finalized regulations regarding which exotic pets and farm animals are permitted in homes. No bears, bats, ostriches, kangaroos, monkeys or mongooses as city pets. And Baltimore's avid pigeon racers will be able to keep up to only 125 pigeons each.
In addition to the limit on volume, the new regulations restrict pigeon exercise to three daily sessions, and bird owners will have to pay a one-time $80 fee.
Green iguanas smaller than 30 inches and larger than 5 feet are out. Vietnamese potbellied pigs are OK, as long as they don't grow to more than 150 pounds.
All even-toed ungulates - deer, goats, sheep and the like - are banned as pets.
A BAKER has been forced to rename her novelty pig tarts - because they don't contain any pork.
Val Temple, who runs Sgt Bun Bakery, Weymouth, says officers from Dorset's trading standards department also told her she must swap the name of robin tarts as they are not made from robins.
And she claims she was instructed to rename her paradise slice because ... it's not from paradise.
Mrs Temple has made the novelty cakes in the shape of pigs and robins as a treat for her customers for years.
She said: "It's a joke.
"The officers came in and said they had had a complaint and I must change the names because they didn't contain pork, robin or paradise.
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"It's an insult to the public. Of course they don't contain pig, robin or paradise.
(
via)
An Alabama police chief says DUI charges can apply even when the vehicle has four legs instead of wheels.
A woman has been charged with driving under the influence and drug offenses after a ride on a horse.
Police say the woman went for a midnight horseback ride Sunday in Sylvania and used the horse to ram a police car.
She's also charged with animal cruelty and second-degree assault.