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Man Jailed for Caring for Orphaned Bear
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, AP
Posted: 2008-06-24
NEW DELHI (June 24) - It was supposed to be a heartwarming tale of a man who brought an orphaned bear cub home from the forests of India to console his 6-year-old daughter, who had just lost her mother.
But when wildlife officials saw the story in the local media, it turned to tragedy. Ram Singh Munda was arrested and jailed for violating wildlife laws, the bear was sent to a zoo where it refuses to eat and his daughter was sent to a state-run boarding school. Now animal rights activists are trying to win the 35-year-old laborer's freedom and reunite him with his daughter and the bear. "We strongly condemn the manner in which the forest department officials arrested the poor and illiterate man, who was not aware of the government's rules and regulations," Jiban Ballav Das, of People for Animals in India's Orissa state, told The Associated Press Tuesday. Munda, a member of the indigenous tribes who live in the forests of eastern India, said he found the sloth bear cub last year while gathering firewood near his village of Gahatagaon, about 125 miles north of the state capital, Bhubaneswar. He brought the animal home, named her Rani, or Queen, and she became a cherished companion for the family, which was still struggling to overcome the death of Munda's wife the previous year.Television footage taken at a happier time shows the bear frolicking with his daughter, Dulki, the two of them clumsily trying to climb up on the back of Munda's bicycle. Wildlife officials saw the news stories and arrested Munda last week for breaking the county's wildlife act, which prohibits keeping wild animals. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison."They have sent me to jail. How will my daughter survive?" Munda told the CNN-IBN news channel as he was taken into custody. "I cannot understand why I was punished for taking good care of a bear that was deserted in the forest and would have died had I not brought her home," he said. Munda said that when wildlife officials first approached him he tried to return the bear to the forest but she found her way home. A local government official, Biranchi Nayak, said Munda's daughter was being sent to a boarding school until her father is released. Ajit Kumar Patnaik, a senior wildlife officer and director of the Nandan Kanan Zoo, where the bear was taken, defended the decision. "Munda was arrested according to the provision of the law meant for protection of wildlife," he told the Press Trust of India, adding that sloth bears, native to the lowland forests of India, are a protected species. But animal rights activists say that while they condemn taking wild animals out of the forest, the government was being too harsh on Mandu. "He never tortured the animal. Neither was he using the bear for any commercial purposes. Therefore, we feel he should not have been arrested," said Das. Animal rights activists warned the bear could be harmed and might even die if the sudden separation from her adopted human family was not managed properly.The bear was being kept in an isolated cage at the zoo and was refusing to eat, said Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of the Wildlife Society of Orissa."Bears are known for the strong bonding they develop with human beings and therefore they are highly attached to their keepers," he told Press Trust of India.Das said animal welfare organizations were getting legal help for Munda and trying to make better arrangements for his daughter."We have decided to give him a job in our animal rehabilitation center in Bhubaneswar as a caretaker" once he is released from jail, Das said.
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, AP
Posted: 2008-06-24
NEW DELHI (June 24) - It was supposed to be a heartwarming tale of a man who brought an orphaned bear cub home from the forests of India to console his 6-year-old daughter, who had just lost her mother.
But when wildlife officials saw the story in the local media, it turned to tragedy. Ram Singh Munda was arrested and jailed for violating wildlife laws, the bear was sent to a zoo where it refuses to eat and his daughter was sent to a state-run boarding school. Now animal rights activists are trying to win the 35-year-old laborer's freedom and reunite him with his daughter and the bear. "We strongly condemn the manner in which the forest department officials arrested the poor and illiterate man, who was not aware of the government's rules and regulations," Jiban Ballav Das, of People for Animals in India's Orissa state, told The Associated Press Tuesday. Munda, a member of the indigenous tribes who live in the forests of eastern India, said he found the sloth bear cub last year while gathering firewood near his village of Gahatagaon, about 125 miles north of the state capital, Bhubaneswar. He brought the animal home, named her Rani, or Queen, and she became a cherished companion for the family, which was still struggling to overcome the death of Munda's wife the previous year.Television footage taken at a happier time shows the bear frolicking with his daughter, Dulki, the two of them clumsily trying to climb up on the back of Munda's bicycle. Wildlife officials saw the news stories and arrested Munda last week for breaking the county's wildlife act, which prohibits keeping wild animals. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison."They have sent me to jail. How will my daughter survive?" Munda told the CNN-IBN news channel as he was taken into custody. "I cannot understand why I was punished for taking good care of a bear that was deserted in the forest and would have died had I not brought her home," he said. Munda said that when wildlife officials first approached him he tried to return the bear to the forest but she found her way home. A local government official, Biranchi Nayak, said Munda's daughter was being sent to a boarding school until her father is released. Ajit Kumar Patnaik, a senior wildlife officer and director of the Nandan Kanan Zoo, where the bear was taken, defended the decision. "Munda was arrested according to the provision of the law meant for protection of wildlife," he told the Press Trust of India, adding that sloth bears, native to the lowland forests of India, are a protected species. But animal rights activists say that while they condemn taking wild animals out of the forest, the government was being too harsh on Mandu. "He never tortured the animal. Neither was he using the bear for any commercial purposes. Therefore, we feel he should not have been arrested," said Das. Animal rights activists warned the bear could be harmed and might even die if the sudden separation from her adopted human family was not managed properly.The bear was being kept in an isolated cage at the zoo and was refusing to eat, said Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of the Wildlife Society of Orissa."Bears are known for the strong bonding they develop with human beings and therefore they are highly attached to their keepers," he told Press Trust of India.Das said animal welfare organizations were getting legal help for Munda and trying to make better arrangements for his daughter."We have decided to give him a job in our animal rehabilitation center in Bhubaneswar as a caretaker" once he is released from jail, Das said.
Wildlife Catch
Catching Critters for 30 Years!
727-455-8850
FREE ESTIMATES ~ CALL TODAY
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727-455-8850
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Animals in the News
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International Institute for Species Exploration's (IISE's) top ten new species of 2007
Released in May 2008. Some come by land some by sea. A pretty interesting collection of wild 'things.' A "Nat-Geo" story, follow the link for more and photos. National Geographic News.
Released in May 2008. Some come by land some by sea. A pretty interesting collection of wild 'things.' A "Nat-Geo" story, follow the link for more and photos. National Geographic News.
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World's Largest Marine Sanctuary
Dozens of tiny islands, atolls and shoals, spanning more than 1,200 miles of the world's largest ocean, are slowly, quietly slipping into the sea, destined to become seamounts. Hundreds of miles north of Kaua'i, places like Nihoa, Laysan, Pearl and Hermes and Kure comprise the little known, rarely visited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Dozens of tiny islands, atolls and shoals, spanning more than 1,200 miles of the world's largest ocean, are slowly, quietly slipping into the sea, destined to become seamounts. Hundreds of miles north of Kaua'i, places like Nihoa, Laysan, Pearl and Hermes and Kure comprise the little known, rarely visited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
A foul-mouthed Cockatoo
ALBION, Ind. - Workers at an animal sanctuary on notice to watch what they say. Staffers at Black Pine Animal Park say Peaches, an 8-year-old Moluccan cockatoo, spent the first several years of her life as a house pet, where she picked up a vocabulary that can be as colorful as her feathers. That was on display recently when a volunteer construction worker pouring concrete outside a chimpanzee enclosure yelled out began cussing after the chimp threw some feces at him, said Jessica Price, senior zookeeper at the sanctuary about 30 miles north of Fort Wayne. The commotion caught the attention of Peaches in a nearby cage. "She started laughing and carrying on," Price said. Peaches then strayed from her normal vocabulary of "Hi, Peaches" and "Hi, pretty girl," reverting to a few of her old favorites. "Go away, shut up, shut your blankety-blank mouth," Price said. "She says a lot of very bad words. "It is difficult to get birds to stop using words they have learned, she said.
ALBION, Ind. - Workers at an animal sanctuary on notice to watch what they say. Staffers at Black Pine Animal Park say Peaches, an 8-year-old Moluccan cockatoo, spent the first several years of her life as a house pet, where she picked up a vocabulary that can be as colorful as her feathers. That was on display recently when a volunteer construction worker pouring concrete outside a chimpanzee enclosure yelled out began cussing after the chimp threw some feces at him, said Jessica Price, senior zookeeper at the sanctuary about 30 miles north of Fort Wayne. The commotion caught the attention of Peaches in a nearby cage. "She started laughing and carrying on," Price said. Peaches then strayed from her normal vocabulary of "Hi, Peaches" and "Hi, pretty girl," reverting to a few of her old favorites. "Go away, shut up, shut your blankety-blank mouth," Price said. "She says a lot of very bad words. "It is difficult to get birds to stop using words they have learned, she said.
Oh, sure, they're stories, but unlike fairy tales, they don't all have happy endings. These are REAL news stories.
Uninvited guest crawls into kitchen for a bite
By Eileen Schulte Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
EAST LAKE — The whole thing apparently started when Poe the cat was prowling outside and the big alligator followed it home. When Poe slipped onto the back porch Monday night, the 220-pound gator came along, crashing through a screen and passing a potted ficus tree and litter box. Tailing Poe, the 8-foot, 8-inch reptile crawled over the blue carpeting, through an open sliding glass door and past the green suede sofa in the living room. Poe ended up someplace safe. The gator ended up in Sandra Frosti's kitchen. After hearing strange noises about 10:30 p.m., Frosti, 69, discovered the gator and called 911. "What's going on?" a dispatcher asked. "There's an alligator in my kitchen!" Frosti said. "How long do you think the alligator is ma'am?" "It's huge!" Frosti said. "… I only saw the first half of it, and that had to be at least 3 feet. … Because it was behind the freezer, and I just disappeared." "Are you sure it couldn't be like, a, uh, iguana or a really large. …" "Oh, no, no, no, no!" Frosti said. "All right," the dispatcher told her, "we'll get deputies out that way." Once there, deputies called trapper Charles Carpenter. Carpenter put a rope around the gator's neck. It hissed. Then he tried to throw a blanket over its head. It lunged and thrashed, sending a plate crashing to the floor. "The interesting part was trying to get him out without destroying" Frosti's condo, said Carpenter, an agent for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "He did make a dent in the wall with his head.'' The gator likely emerged from one of the many ponds, lakes and creeks in Eastlake Woodlands in north Pinellas, where they are a common sight. "I was feeding the birds one late afternoon and I saw something not very birdlike,'' said Fred Egre, 78. "He approached. He was lying there, jaws open, and I came in and got a broom and shooed him into the water. He wanted me to throw food in his jaws.'' He also said his neighbors once had guests who fed the baby gators. When gators end up in swimming pools, lift stations and in the middle of highways this time of year, people often say it's because it's mating season. But when a reporter asked wildlife commission spokesman Gary Morse if the home invader sneaked into Frosti's condo because it was crazed by reptilian lust, he sighed. "I don't think a gator wants to mate with a cat. Let's be clear on that,'' he said. "Yes, gators mate this time of year, but they are cold-blooded creatures. As the weather warms up, their metabolism increases and they become more active. They move around more, they're looking for new territories. It's an all-around increase in activity.'' This gator, he said, was simply not afraid of humans. "If you've got an alligator going into a house, you've got a problem,'' Morse said. "That alligator is going to repeat that behavior.'' That's why instead of being relocated to a pond somewhere, the gator is going to Dade City. There, at a processing plant — animal lovers, you may want to stop reading at this point — its spine will be severed using either a knife or gun. Probably today or Thursday. It's not clear who will eat the gator steaks, but the hide will go to Europe to be made into shoes, belts and bags, Carpenter said. It was about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday when Carpenter finally dragged the gator out of the condo. He bent down and duct-taped its snout. A Pinellas County sheriff's deputy stood nearby shooting video of the capture. "You have the right to remain silent,'' the deputy told the gator. During the capture, the gator was slightly injured when the plate broke and cut the beast. No other injuries were reported. When she went back inside, Frosti found dirt and blood on the kitchen floor, blood spattered on the wall and a claw mark on the hallway wall. "The house was a mess," she said. "It did a good amount of damage in the kitchen." Tuesday morning, Frosti said she had no hard feelings that the gator stalked her cat and trashed her home. She even worried about the gator's fate. But mostly, she was amused. "I can't wait to tell my grandkids," she said, "because they probably won't believe me."
By Eileen Schulte Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
EAST LAKE — The whole thing apparently started when Poe the cat was prowling outside and the big alligator followed it home. When Poe slipped onto the back porch Monday night, the 220-pound gator came along, crashing through a screen and passing a potted ficus tree and litter box. Tailing Poe, the 8-foot, 8-inch reptile crawled over the blue carpeting, through an open sliding glass door and past the green suede sofa in the living room. Poe ended up someplace safe. The gator ended up in Sandra Frosti's kitchen. After hearing strange noises about 10:30 p.m., Frosti, 69, discovered the gator and called 911. "What's going on?" a dispatcher asked. "There's an alligator in my kitchen!" Frosti said. "How long do you think the alligator is ma'am?" "It's huge!" Frosti said. "… I only saw the first half of it, and that had to be at least 3 feet. … Because it was behind the freezer, and I just disappeared." "Are you sure it couldn't be like, a, uh, iguana or a really large. …" "Oh, no, no, no, no!" Frosti said. "All right," the dispatcher told her, "we'll get deputies out that way." Once there, deputies called trapper Charles Carpenter. Carpenter put a rope around the gator's neck. It hissed. Then he tried to throw a blanket over its head. It lunged and thrashed, sending a plate crashing to the floor. "The interesting part was trying to get him out without destroying" Frosti's condo, said Carpenter, an agent for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "He did make a dent in the wall with his head.'' The gator likely emerged from one of the many ponds, lakes and creeks in Eastlake Woodlands in north Pinellas, where they are a common sight. "I was feeding the birds one late afternoon and I saw something not very birdlike,'' said Fred Egre, 78. "He approached. He was lying there, jaws open, and I came in and got a broom and shooed him into the water. He wanted me to throw food in his jaws.'' He also said his neighbors once had guests who fed the baby gators. When gators end up in swimming pools, lift stations and in the middle of highways this time of year, people often say it's because it's mating season. But when a reporter asked wildlife commission spokesman Gary Morse if the home invader sneaked into Frosti's condo because it was crazed by reptilian lust, he sighed. "I don't think a gator wants to mate with a cat. Let's be clear on that,'' he said. "Yes, gators mate this time of year, but they are cold-blooded creatures. As the weather warms up, their metabolism increases and they become more active. They move around more, they're looking for new territories. It's an all-around increase in activity.'' This gator, he said, was simply not afraid of humans. "If you've got an alligator going into a house, you've got a problem,'' Morse said. "That alligator is going to repeat that behavior.'' That's why instead of being relocated to a pond somewhere, the gator is going to Dade City. There, at a processing plant — animal lovers, you may want to stop reading at this point — its spine will be severed using either a knife or gun. Probably today or Thursday. It's not clear who will eat the gator steaks, but the hide will go to Europe to be made into shoes, belts and bags, Carpenter said. It was about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday when Carpenter finally dragged the gator out of the condo. He bent down and duct-taped its snout. A Pinellas County sheriff's deputy stood nearby shooting video of the capture. "You have the right to remain silent,'' the deputy told the gator. During the capture, the gator was slightly injured when the plate broke and cut the beast. No other injuries were reported. When she went back inside, Frosti found dirt and blood on the kitchen floor, blood spattered on the wall and a claw mark on the hallway wall. "The house was a mess," she said. "It did a good amount of damage in the kitchen." Tuesday morning, Frosti said she had no hard feelings that the gator stalked her cat and trashed her home. She even worried about the gator's fate. But mostly, she was amused. "I can't wait to tell my grandkids," she said, "because they probably won't believe me."
Rabies vaccine supply current Situation
Posted: June 17th, 2008 by CDC, Atlanta, GA
Posted: June 17th, 2008 by CDC, Atlanta, GA
Priority use of rabies vaccine will be for post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) following ACIP recommendations Where possible, consultation with local or state health authorities is encouraged before administering PEP. As of June 17th, 2008, Novartis Vaccines, maker of RabAvert, will temporarily cease to provide rabies vaccine (for pre-exposure vaccination and PEP).
Sanofi Pasteur, maker of IMOVAX Rabies (Rabies Vaccine), will continue to supply vaccine for PEP. Vaccine available for pre-exposure vaccination is limited, and will be distributed on approval from state and federal public health authorities for those with a critical need and in consideration of available rabies vaccine supplies. These measures will allow responsible management of currently limited supplies of this vaccine. It is expected that additional RabAvert will be available to the market by approximately July 2008. It is hoped that the demand for pre-exposure vaccine supplies will be met at this time. Both companies remain in close contact with public health authorities to ensure that appropriate usage of vaccine for PEP is communicated to medical providers. Discussions among federal, state, and local public health personnel are ongoing to review additional strategies to handle this situation.
READ THE COMPLETE STORY HERE
More on rabies in Pinellas County at the bottom of the page.
Wildlife Catch
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FREE ESTIMATES ~ CALL TODAY
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Catching Critters for 30 Years!
727-455-8850
FREE ESTIMATES ~ CALL TODAY
Serving residential and commercial structures
Rabid Raccoon in Pinellas
Largo, Florida - Pinellas County Animal Services needs help figuring out where a rabid raccoon was found in Pinellas County. They are also looking for the person who dropped the raccoon off at Animal Control's drop-off cage.
The raccoon was left in the Animal Services drop-off cage sometime in the late morning of Sunday, March 23. Animal Services received the report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday, June 16 that the animal was positive for rabies.
"The last reported rabies case in Pinellas County was in 2005," said Dr. Welch Agnew, director of Animal Services. "We have a rabies baiting program that very successfully controls rabies in our county, but we don't assume that it has been eradicated. When we have a case such as this one, we respond by aggressively treating the area where the raccoon was found. We need more information in order to do this, and must interview the person who dropped it off."
Animal Services usually tests for rabies if a human or pet has been bitten or scratched. Those results are returned in one day. This case was done by the USDA as a part of its field testing program.
Pinellas County aggressively combats the disease with oral rabies bait drops that distribute the vaccine to raccoons in areas of possible contact. These are grouped in the northeast and northern borders of the county, where most cases occur.
Citizens are urged not to feed or interact with wildlife and to keep their pets' rabies vaccinations current. If they do trap a raccoon, they are asked to bring it to Animal Services, or call them for pickup. Relocating a raccoon is illegal and leads to fighting and spread of disease.
Animal Services is located at 12450 Ulmerton Road, Largo. The rabies line is (727) 582-2608.
For information about pet licenses and vaccinations, call Pinellas County Animal Services at (727) 582-2600.
Largo, Florida - Pinellas County Animal Services needs help figuring out where a rabid raccoon was found in Pinellas County. They are also looking for the person who dropped the raccoon off at Animal Control's drop-off cage.
The raccoon was left in the Animal Services drop-off cage sometime in the late morning of Sunday, March 23. Animal Services received the report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday, June 16 that the animal was positive for rabies.
"The last reported rabies case in Pinellas County was in 2005," said Dr. Welch Agnew, director of Animal Services. "We have a rabies baiting program that very successfully controls rabies in our county, but we don't assume that it has been eradicated. When we have a case such as this one, we respond by aggressively treating the area where the raccoon was found. We need more information in order to do this, and must interview the person who dropped it off."
Animal Services usually tests for rabies if a human or pet has been bitten or scratched. Those results are returned in one day. This case was done by the USDA as a part of its field testing program.
Pinellas County aggressively combats the disease with oral rabies bait drops that distribute the vaccine to raccoons in areas of possible contact. These are grouped in the northeast and northern borders of the county, where most cases occur.
Citizens are urged not to feed or interact with wildlife and to keep their pets' rabies vaccinations current. If they do trap a raccoon, they are asked to bring it to Animal Services, or call them for pickup. Relocating a raccoon is illegal and leads to fighting and spread of disease.
Animal Services is located at 12450 Ulmerton Road, Largo. The rabies line is (727) 582-2608.
For information about pet licenses and vaccinations, call Pinellas County Animal Services at (727) 582-2600.
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Please Don't Feed the Pelicans People who toss dead baitfish and fish carcasses to pelicans are not doing the birds or themselves any favors. As of last Tuesday, they could also be breaking the law. A new rule by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that took effect July 1 prohibits "the intentional feeding or the placement of food that attracts pelicans so as to be detrimental to the survival or health of a local population."
Read more here
Read more here
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