Minneapolis woman charged with animal cruelty after attempting to mail a puppy in a sealed box

A Minneapolis woman has been charged with animal cruelty after postal workers say she tried to mail a puppy to Atlanta in a sealed box with no air holes.

Postal Service spokesman Pete Nowacki says employees became suspicious when the box suddenly fell off the counter after the woman left the post office Jan. 25. Postal inspectors opened the priority mail parcel and found a 4-month-old poodle mix, heavily panting.

Police Sgt. William Palmer says that without the postal workers' intervention, the puppy would certainly have died in the airplane's unheated and non-pressurized cargo hold. It also had no food or water.

The Star Tribune says 39-year-old Stacey Champion has been charged with animal cruelty. The dog was taken to the city's animal control facility.

RELATED ANIMAL CRUELTY NEWS:
• San Diego County groups to offer rewards for information in animal cruelty cases
• U.K. 'Cat Bin Lady' pleads guilty to animal cruelty charge for dumping cat in trash bin

-- Associated Press

San Diego County groups to offer rewards for information in animal cruelty cases

The San Diego County Department of Animal Services has announced a partnership with the San Diego County Crime Stoppers program through which it will offer rewards of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest in felony animal cruelty cases.

"We hope that this unique partnership will help reduce animal cruelty cases in our county," Lt. Daniel DeSousa of the animal services department said in a statement. "We encourage everyone in our community to be our eyes and ears in the fight against animal cruelty."

The group San Diego Animal Advocates will donate a portion of the money used to fund the rewards.

According to the department, members of its staff typically spend hundreds of hours each month investigating animal cruelty and neglect cases. One case the department hopes members of the public can help to solve: the poisoning of a La Mesa dog named Oreo this month. Oreo, who remains at a veterinary hospital where he is receiving treatment, was apparently fed tainted meat by an unknown person or persons.

Tipsters can report suspected animal cruelty by phone at (888) 580-8477, via text message or through San Diego County Crime Stoppers' website.

RELATED NEWS ABOUT ANIMAL CRUELTY: 
• L.A. County's new dogfighting tip line is unveiled
• Pennsylvania authorities try a new tactic to stop dogfighting: Cash for tips

-- Lindsay Barnett

Hawaii attorney scoffs at animal cruelty charge for client who beat peacock with baseball bat

HONOLULU — The attorney for a Hawaii woman who bludgeoned a peacock to death says his client shouldn't be on trial on animal cruelty charges because peafowl are pests and the state doesn't require a permit to kill them.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports Earle Partington told jurors in opening statements Wednesday that the case against Susan Maloney is "ridiculous."

Maloney has said she killed the bird on May 17, 2009, because she was tired of its constant squawking outside her condominium complex.

Maloney is charged with second-degree cruelty to animals. The crime is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

RELATED NEWS ABOUT ANIMALS AND THE LAW:
• Long sentence for Puerto Rico man convicted of horse-dragging spurs debate
• U.K. 'Cat Bin Lady' pleads guilty to animal cruelty charge for dumping cat in trash bin

-- Associated Press

South Korea culls animals on huge scale in response to foot-and-mouth disease, avian flu outbreaks

South Korea's ongoing epidemics of foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu have led the country's government to call for the culling of animals -- pigs and cows because of foot-and-mouth, chickens and ducks because of avian flu, as well as smaller numbers of other animals like goats -- on an enormous scale.

Reports list the number of slaughtered pigs at well over a million; the total number of all animals killed seems to be several million and growing. Worse still, a large percentage of those -- representing virtually all the culled pigs, according to the group Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA) -- were buried alive, in part because the country doesn't have enough euthanasia drugs to go around and a large dose is required to kill a pig.

The situation has also led to nightmarish reports about water quality in the affected regions.

According to the Guardian, nearly 70,000 soldiers have been tasked with helping regional forces conduct the livestock culls. Many of the killed animals appeared to be healthy, but came from farms in close proximity to confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth.

One bright spot is that the country, which began to vaccinate large numbers of cows against the disease last month, has recently begun to vaccinate pigs as well. But, KARA cautioned in a statement on its website, "mass vaccination does not include piglets. It is likely that pigs will remain the least protected animals" from the dangers of foot-and-mouth.

Spain's state broadcasting network announces it will no longer show bullfights

MADRID — Spain's leading broadcaster said Saturday it will no longer show the country's centuries-old tradition of bullfighting in order to protect children from viewing violence.

Spain's state network, RTVE, lists its new ban on transmitting bullfighting programs under a chapter called "Violence with animals" in its latest stylebook and says it "will not broadcast bullfighting."

One of the reasons given by RTVE is that bullfights "generally coincide with hours protected or specially protected for young viewers."

"Children can view violence exerted over animals with anxiety and we must therefore avoid it by all means," the stylebook says.

Spain has seen a fierce debate over the blood-soaked pageant that has fascinated artists and writers such as Goya, Hemingway and Pablo Picasso.

In July, the influential northeastern region of Catalonia became the second Spanish region to ban bullfighting, joining the Canary Islands, which outlawed the practice in 1991.

Tucker Carlson thinks Michael Vick should have been executed

Tucker Carlson is on TV this week, as a substitute. Tucker Carlson does not have his own TV show, in part because Jon Stewart famously schooled him when Carlson was co-hosting CNN's "Crossfire."

Carlson never recovered.

What has happened to Carlson's career in the six years that Stewart knocked the bow tie right off the smug host? Carlson has three things going for him. He has a relatively new website, The Daily Caller, which launched earlier this year. He regularly calls into the Bubba the Love Sponge's radio show. And to pay the bills, he is under contract with Fox News, where he pops up on various political shows to punch up their panels and occasionally fill in for vacationing hosts.

This week Carlson is keeping Sean Hannity's seat warm. Tuesday he chose to punch up "Hannity" using the trifecta of any controversial conversation: religion, politics, and extreme stances on death. While setting up a segment on President Obama's recent telephone call to Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles (wherein the president praised the Eagles for giving ex-con quarterback Michael Vick a second chance after being incarcerated), Carlson casually stated that even though he is a Christian, he thinks Vick should be killed for the crime that the courts thought was only worthy of 19 months in the clink.

"I'm a Christian," Carlson quipped mere days after the celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace. "I've made mistakes myself, I believe fervently in second chances, but Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did in a heartless and cruel way. And I think, personally, he should've been executed for that. He wasn't, but the idea that the president of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs? Kind of beyond the pale."

Job well done, Tucker. If there's three things popular on the "Hannity" show it's God, guns, and Obama-bashing. Carlson hit his quota in less than 16 seconds. And like a cherry on top, the Internet is buzzing with people typing out "Tucker..."

Some of the reaction after the jump.

Investigators recommend changes at Virginia factory farm where Humane Society alleges abuse against pigs

RICHMOND, Va. — An independent investigative team is recommending changes aftermistreatment of breeding pigs at a Virginia farm operated by a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's largest pork producer.

The recommendations include reviewing training programs and euthanasia procedures, initiating unannounced inspections by third parties, and increasing the number of site visits by corporate management of the Smithfield, Va.-based company.

Smithfield released the independent investigators' recommendations late Wednesday and said each will immediately be addressed, although the statement did not say if or when they would implemented.

The Humane Society of the United States last week released results from an undercover investigation that showed breeding pigs abused and crammed into small gestation crates at the Waverly farm of livestock production subsidiary Murphy-Brown.

Photos and video from the Humane Society's investigation showed about 1,000 large female pigs crammed into metal crates that severely limited their ability to move. The pigs stay in the crates, also called sow stalls, during their four-month pregnancies. Afterward, they are moved for about three weeks to a crate large enough to nurse their piglets before being artificially inseminated and placed back into the gestation crates.

Michael Vick says he wants to have another dog

Football star and former dogfighter Michael Vick's statements that he would like to own a dog as a pet have incited intense debate among animal lovers, football fans and water-cooler gossipers.

Vick told TheGrio.com that he "would love to get another dog in the future. I think it would be a big step for me in the rehabilitation process."

That comment didn't surprise us much, since Vick said pretty much the same thing -- that he wished he could have a dog again "more than anything in the world" -- at one of his anti-dogfighting speaking engagements more than a year ago. What did surprise us was the wording of a comment he made later in the same interview with TheGrio:

"I think just to have a pet in my household and to show people that I genuinely care, and my love and my passion for animals; I think it would be outstanding. If I ever have the opportunity again I will never take it for granted. I miss having a dog right now. I wish I could. My daughters miss having one, and that's the hardest thing: telling them that we can’t have one because of my actions."

Wait, what? Did Vick really refer to himself as having "love and ... passion for animals"? We're pretty sure we weren't dreaming. He explains the comment in the video above -- saying he's a big fan of animals including birds and, ahem, dogs -- and mentions that his experience getting caught for dogfighting has helped him grow, both as a regular-old person and as a football player.

Pigs subject to abuse at Virginia factory farm, Humane Society of the United States says

RICHMOND, Va. — The Humane Society of the United States said Wednesday that an undercover worker at a farm owned by the world's largest pork producer saw breeding pigs abused and crammed into small gestation crates.

The animal welfare organization released the results of a monthlong undercover investigation at a Waverly, Va., factory farm owned by Murphy-Brown, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods Inc. Murphy-Brown is Smithfield's livestock production subsidiary and is the world's largest producer of pigs for slaughter. The Humane Society called on Smithfield to renew its commitment to phasing out the crates.

Photos and video from the investigation showed about 1,000 large female pigs crammed into metal crates that severely limited their ability to move. The pigs stay in the crates, also called sow stalls, during their four-month pregnancies. Afterward, they are moved for about three weeks to a crate large enough to nurse their piglets before being artificially inseminated and placed back into the gestation crates.

Seven states have passed laws banning gestation crates, and the European Union is phasing out their use by 2013. However, the crates are legal in Virginia.

Cat bound in duct tape and placed in clothes dryer in Riverside is reunited with her kittens

A mother cat that was discovered in the communal clothes dryer of a Riverside apartment building last week, bound in duct tape and bearing injuries that suggested her abuser had turned the dryer on with her inside it, has been reunited with her six kittens.

A resident of the apartment building, in the 3000 block of Watkins Drive near UC Riverside, called police after finding the cat in the dryer. Riverside County animal services officers responded to the scene and brought the cat, whom they named Snuggles, to the Western Riverside City/County animal shelter. There, the duct tape was removed and Snuggles was found to be in relatively good shape, emerging from her ordeal with only a broken tooth and bleeding in one eye that was expected to heal.

It was quickly determined that Snuggles was a nursing mother, and an effort was made to locate her kittens. One was found Friday at the apartment complex, and animal services staff expressed concern that the other kittens could die if they weren't located quickly. Fortunately, another resident of the building found five additional kittens in a garage Monday night and brought them to the shelter the following morning. All are currently in a volunteer foster home.

Three previous instances of animal cruelty toward cats have been reported at the same apartment complex, according to KTLA. Residents told KTLA that fur and blood were found in the dryer.