Just some news on 3/30/2012

Eight starving animals found among the rotting bodies of two others in 'deplorable' Miami ranch

A 65-year-old Florida woman has been arrested after eight starving animals, a dead horse and a decaying cow, were found in her care.

Migdalia Ameller was arrested on Wednesday on charges of animal cruelty, confinement of animals, and illegal disposal of dead animal bodies, after an officer on a routine patrol spotted several emaciated horses outside her southwest Miami-Dade property.

Upon closer inspection, the policeman discovered the bodies of a decaying cow covered with blue tarp and a deceased horse surrounded by the eight neglected animals, with little food in sight.

Five horses, two cows, and an emu that appeared to be severely malnourished with bones protruding through their skin were seized by police and the South Florida SPCA.

‘A check of the property revealed illegal structures, deplorable conditions, [and] decaying animals,’ the police report said. Read More

Dramatic decline of bees 'caused by modern pesticides damaging their ability to home in on hives'

Bees are in dramatic decline, and scientists believe the answer may be in their homing instinct.

They have found the latest generation of pesticides is stopping the foragers finding their way back to the hive.

French researchers tagged 650 honeybees with tiny microchips attached to their necks which tracked all their movements.

Half the bees were exposed to low doses of insecticide similar to what they would find in the wild, and when released, these ones were found to be two or three times more likely to die away from their hive. Read More

Marauding polar bear shot by Newfoundland wildlife officers

A polar bear that was going house to house in the Northern Peninsula town of Goose Cove overnight was killed by provincial conservation officials who feared it might harm someone.

The bear broke into one house and tried to get into three others before it lumbered onto a nearby sheep farm, where it killed a sheep, a lamb and two ducks.

Damien Reardon came face to face with the large animal in his Goose Cove home at 4:30 a.m.

"I turned on the kitchen light and the polar bear was halfway in through the kitchen door, the patio door. Pretty scared — I bawled out to Father and he came out and we made noises and [the bear] took off,” he said.

Provincial conservation officials estimate the bear weighed more than 150 kilograms. Read More