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PALM SPRINGS — Now swimming in a pond near you: ferocious, razor-toothed predators direct from the Amazon River basin.

A boy fishing last month in a pond near his condo complex, at Arabian Road and Lake Arbor Drive, pulled from the water not the bass or catfish he was used to — but a writhing, red-bellied piranha.

Ten days later, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials combed the same pond and discovered a second piranha lurking beneath the surface.

In response, wildlife officers on Tuesday morning plied the roughly 4-acre pond with rotenone fish poison, an “extreme measure” meant to kill off any piranha still hiding there, said wildlife commission spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro.

As of Tuesday evening, a third piranha, killed by the poison, had floated to the surface. Wildlife officials scooped the adult-sized fish up for measurement, Ferraro said. The fish poison is designed to kill fish, then break down into nontoxic substances in three or four days.

Investigators said the toothy predators probably were kept as pets, a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine in Florida, before their owners turned them loose in the pond. Officials still were sorting through dead fish Tuesday night, in search of still more piranha.

It was no small task, because, as a side effect, the poison also killed every other fish living in the pond.

That ruined Darrin Duchene’s day. The Palm Springs man said his 14-year-old son, Jake, who angled the piranha on Oct. 13, grew up fishing the pond.

“He’s come back with every strange fish there is,” said Duchene, remembering times Jake turned up with peacock bass and a jaguar guapote, a fish native to Central America.

He recalled the day a month ago Jake caught the piranha.

“I was sitting in my chair and he came running in. He said he saw a bunch of minnows getting torn up.

“He cast his line in there and, boom, kind of snagged it in the top of the head,” Duchene said. “He ran over and said, ‘Dad! Dad! I caught a piranha!’”

“I said, ‘No way.’ “

But, peering down at the fish, Duchene had to admit it looked exactly like the ones he had seen on the Discovery Channel.

“We had him in a Zip-loc bag, and he was flipping around for probably 20 minutes. He was a big, tough one,” Duchene said.

They called the wildlife commission, and an officer came and “seized the piranha for further investigation,” the officer’s report said.

The Duchenes gave up the fish reluctantly.

“I wanted to keep it so I could get it mounted for him because nobody has a piranha,” Duchene said. “He said they might give it back to us.”

As wildlife officers poisoned his pond Tuesday, Duchene said he regretted ever calling them.

“All the years of enjoyment, for them to come wipe out that place, that’s freakin’ tragedy,” he said. “That is terrible. That’ll break my son’s heart.”

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SEATTLE – A Seattle woman says she’s too traumatized to stay in her own home after a raccoon attack sent her and her dog to the ER.

Kelly Gilliam says she was taking her dog Winky out for a walk in Queen Anne at about 10 p.m. Monday when it happened.

“We got right about around here. All of a sudden, the raccoon, jumped out of this bush here,” she said. “It had kind of cornered me, and it jumped on me one more time really hard and I fell back and I just tumbled.”

Gilliam said she, the raccoon and the dog tumbled down the hill.

“It would not get off of me, I could not get away from it. I could not get away from it,” she said.

Gilliam was hospitalized for four days with 12 gashes on her body.

She had to get more than a dozen rabies shots because doctors assumed the raccoon was infected.

Winky, now sporting a cone, got five staples near his tail.

And Gilliam’s attacker got away.

“The police officer had the raccoon trapped in this tree right here, and was shining a light on it. I was bleeding and pretty much in hysterics and I was like, ‘can you just shoot it?’ and he said ‘there’s nothing I can do,’” she said.

State law says you cannot hunt or trap a raccoon without a permit unless it’s attacking crops or domestic animals.

And even then, each city has its own wildlife restrictions.

Gilliam says she’s just worried for the rest of her neighborhood.

“With all of the people, the kids, the elderly people, I’m just concerned someone was going to get way more hurt than I did,” she said.

Wildlife experts say about your only option in an urban setting is to get a pest professional to catch the raccoon for you.

Washington Fish and Wildlife also warns residents to keep pet food inside, as raccoons are opportunistic scavengers.

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ALEXANDRIA, MINN. - Jason Raasch was driving home from a trip to Missouri when he looked down and saw a rattlesnake in his car.

“I was pretty scared, because I’d never even seen a rattlesnake except for at the zoo, so for it to be in the car and to bite me to top it off was pretty scary,” Raasch said.

It happened at the intersection of I-94 and Highway 27 in Alexandria. Raasch said he didn’t know the snake was there until it bit him. Raasch’s friend rushed him to Douglas County Hospital where an ambulance took him to HCMC.  A few days later, Raasch developed pancreatitis, which was the start of his insurance problems.

“My health insurance would only cover so many days of my stay, and it just so happens that on that amount of days I was discharged,” Raasch explained.

The CT scans of Raasch’s stomach show a large mass by his pancreas.  Dr. Shawn Lanman with Alexandria Clinic found the mass and send Raasch to the University of Minnesota; however, they told him there was no mass.  Even though Raasch has proof there is in fact a mass in his stomach, the UofM won’t help him.

Raasch experiences intense stomach pain on a daily basis.  The pain is so great; his doctor isn’t allowing him to work at all.  Now Raasch can’t pay his bills.

“I’ve got bills.  I’ve got rent.  I mean I have all kinds of bills that need to be paid, and I can’t pay any of them,” Raasch said.

Those bills include his health insurance.  His insurance doesn’t cover most of his medical care, or some of his prescriptions.  The insurance won’t cover the 12 hour surgery Raasch needs to remove the mass.  He thinks that’s the reason Mayo and the UofM won’t help him.

“My insurance won’t cover it, and they won’t even see me without health insurance,” Raasch explained.

If he doesn’t pay his bills, Raasch might lose his insurance altogether.

“If they drop my health insurance, I’m like a fish out of water,” Raasch said.

He hopes the health care reform bill working its way through WashingtonD.C. will help his situation.  Until then, he’ll have to wait.

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Bob Schenck waded through the leech-filled swamp, creeping closer to the alligator.

“It was waiting, aggressive and ready to attack,” Schenck said today. When the moment was right, he pounced, maneuvering around the 5-foot reptile’s open jaws as he subdued it on Sunday.

Schenck with alligator

Schenk wasn’t in Africa, or even Florida. He was tangling with the stray 50-pound reptile in a dirty drainage ditch behind a Fall River mall.The gator was spotted several times Sunday near Route 24 in Fall River, according to authorities. Animal control officers and Schenck, who owns a pet store in the city, responded about 4:30 p.m. after a police officer reported a sighting, said Cynthia Berard, Fall River’s animal control supervisor.

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FLORISSANT – A woman called a deer and tried to pet it, but the deer lowered its head and charged her instead, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

The 63-year-old woman was at her sister’s house Monday evening when the attack happened. The sister’s family had seen the deer at their home several times.

The attacked happened at the home on Colorado Road 31 near Florissant on Monday. A driver on the road saw the attack and tried to stop the deer. The person was able to scare the animal away.

The Teller County Sheriff‘s Office responded and while medical workers were helping the woman the animal kept coming back to the area.

One of them said, “We had to constantly harass it away from us.”

The woman, Joan Nutt, was transported to Pikes Peak Regional Medical Center in Woodland Park where she was treated for cuts and bruises.

Nutt says she had grabbed hold of an antler of the animal and tried to fend it off, but it knocked her down.

Wildlife Officer Aarno Flohrs says the animal walked right up to him when he arrived at the scene. The animal was tranquilized and later euthanized because it was “deemed a threat to human safety.”

“There was no direct evidence Nutt was feeding the animal, but this deer’s behavior was a clear indication that someone in the area had tried to domesticate a wild deer and treat it as a pet,” Flohrs said.

Nutt’s brother-in-law, Ervin Stohl, told the DOW this particular buck came to their house every afternoon. He says there is usually a bunch of females nearby.

Stohl said, “There were no does today and the buck was angry.”

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A family photo of Caleigh Cunning, 5, who survived an attack by a seal.

Photograph by: Handout, …

METRO VANCOUVER — Minutes after she escaped from a harbour seal that had pulled her into the water off West Vancouver’s Thunderbird Marina, Caleigh Cunning had a few questions for her father.

“She said, ‘Daddy, why did the seal drag me in the water?’” her father, North Vancouver resident Mike Cunning, said Wednesday.

“I said, ‘I think the seal wanted you to go for a swim.’

“She said, ‘Well, the seal wasn’t very nice.’”

At about 6 p.m. Tuesday, Cunning, Caleigh and some friends were standing at a dockside fish-cleaning table, washing the day’s catch.

Cunning turned from his daughter for a moment and heard a splash.

“I looked over and couldn’t see my daughter anywhere.”

Caleigh, who’d been wearing a life jacket, popped up about two metres away.

“I said, ‘Caleigh, swim to me, swim to me Caleigh!’”

Cunning said his friend, who had seen the incident, told him the seal had jumped four feet out of the water, took Caleigh by the arm and dragged her into the water.

The incident — from the moment the seal grabbed Caleigh to her recovery back on the dock — took about 10 to 15 seconds, he said.

“It just happened so quickly. It was instantaneous.”

Caleigh treaded water back to the dock. When Cunning pulled his crying, shocked daughter out of the water, he saw her hand was swollen and covered in blood.

Caleigh was treated at Lions Gate Hospital for five puncture wounds to her wrist and placed on antibiotics to ward off infection.

Conflicts between humans and harbour seals are rare, said Paul Cottrell, marine mammal coordinator for the federal department of fisheries and oceans’ Pacific region.

Seals are most likely to appear where they have easy access to food, and that includes marinas, he said.

He said Caleigh had been throwing fish guts and bits to seals earlier that evening, a common but discouraged practice, which may have left fish slime on her hands.

The slime’s scent most likely attracted the seal because it was accustomed to eating thrown fish scraps.

“This is a case of a harbour seal misinterpreting this girl’s hand, thinking that it was a piece of fish.”

Cottrell said the DFO encourages marinas to supply containers for fish remnants near cleaning tables.

Though the incident was a harrowing one, it could have been worse, Cunning said.

Caleigh is taking swimming lessons and she’s confident around the water, said Cunning, an avid fisherman.

“She loves fishing and reeling in fish. She’s been around the ocean all her life.”

Many years ago, a member of Cunning’s extended family drowned when she was five years old, so he is very sensitive and safety-conscious around water, he said.

“Her life jacket gets on in the parking lot, and it doesn’t come off until we get back to the car.”

Thunderbird Marina manager Fred McDonald said though seals are a common sight at the marina, this is the first incident he’s heard of involving an aggressive seal.

Cunning said he was concerned low fish stocks have resulted in an abundance of seals gathering around marinas, which could pose a threat to humans.

But Cottrell said the seal population “has flattened out and stabilized. It’s hit a natural balance.”

About 40,000 seals populate the Strait of Georgia, and about 110,000 seals live along the B.C. coast, Cottrell said.

He said interaction with seals could be pursued as a violation of the Fisheries Act. The regulations apply to people who initiate feeding, touching or swimming with a marine mammal.

Cottrell knew of one similar incident: a B.C. sport fisherman was bitten by a harbour seal as he tried to release a juvenile salmon into the water.

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ST. AUGUSTINE, FL — A local Walmart had an unwelcome guest Tuesday, and it left a customer in the hospital.

According to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, a man was looking at some plants in the garden center Tuesday afternoon, and dropped a baby bottle.

The bottle rolled under the plastic shelves that were holding the plants.

When he reached under the shelf to get the bottle, he felt a bite.

He pulled his hand out, and a baby pigmy rattlesnake was holding on to his finger.

He knocked the snake off and a Walmart associate killed the snake.

Rescue personnel took the man to Flagler Hospital for treatment. He was in critical condition, but was stabilized. He was then taken to Shands in Jacksonville, where he is in serious condition as of Wednesday afternoon.

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Officials advise caution in wake of rattlesnake bites

Health authorities in the sun-baked Interior are advising caution after three incidents of rattlesnake bites near Penticton in the last month.

Last week an Okanagan man was bitten on the ankle after stepping on a rattler in his backyard. After four days in intensive care and 40 vials of anti-venom, costing $1,000 each, his condition has stabilized.

Another person was bitten on the hand while out on a trail, and the other was bitten on the finger in a backyard.

On average there are five rattlesnake bites a year in B.C., and there have been two deaths in the province’s recorded history.

Rattlers reside on grassy hillsides in territory ranging from the southern Okanagan to the northern outskirts of Kamloops, and have come into increasing contact with humans owing to residential development.

Here are some tips from Interior doctors familiar with rattlesnake bites:

Keep in mind that the striking distance of a snake is about two-thirds its length. Do not pick up or handle snakes. Even a dead snake can bite and release venom through reflexes for 90 minutes after it dies.

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Bear attacks Sudbury woman

Posted By The Canadian Press

Posted 2 days ago

SUDBURY — Police in the Sudbury, Ont., area are warning about the possibility of bear attacks.

A 30-year-old woman was on her driveway in the community of Conniston Wednesday just before 2 a.m. when she was attacked.

She didn’t actually see the animal, but the lacerations on the back of her left leg look like a single swipe from a bear.

The animal was scared off by the woman’s dog.

The woman was taken to hospital, treated for her injuries and released.

Police have gone door to door in the area warning residents to be on the look out for bears and passing on tips that could help keep the animals out of the area.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is also trying to track down the bear.

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Girl bitten by rattler on school playground

By BECKY SHAY – Billings Gazette – 05/31/09

BILLINGS — A student at Eagle Cliffs Elementary was hospitalized Friday after being bitten by a rattlesnake.

Billings School District 2 Superintendent Jack Copps said the unidentified girl is in the lower grades. She was on the playground shortly before 11 a.m. and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Steve Wilson, a captain with the Billings Fire Department, was one of the first emergency responders on the scene, along with engineer Bret Thormahlen and firefighter Craig Riske. He said the girl, who is 6 or 7 years old, told the firefighters she was running on the playground when “she ran into what felt like a couple of sharp sticks” on her foot, which turned out to be the snakebite

“She was a little scared but still in good spirits,” Wilson said.

The snake was caught and killed by somebody at the school before emergency crews arrived. It was a small rattlesnake, about a foot long, with just one rattle on its tail.

At about 6 p.m., Copps said he was told the girl would stay overnight at the hospital for treatment and evaluation, but did not know her condition. 

Children are being advised not to pick up snakes and to report seeing snakes immediately to adults. School officials will inspect the playground and aren’t sure yet whether they will close the area to students.

“It may have been a small snake, and that means there may be a den up there we need to look for,” said Copps.

Two Billings health care providers said snakes like to avoid people and people should try to avoid them, including not reaching under rocks or into other places where snakes may hide to avoid the heat.

“It’s a dangerous time for snakes,” said Dr. Peter Light at Billings Clinic. “They are usually very active at this time of year.”

Someone bitten by a snake should go to the nearest emergency department. It is important to avoid significant activity and exertion, Light said. Venom starts in the soft tissue and will eventually go into the bloodstream and circulate, he said.

“Then it causes problems,” Light said. “If it’s not systemic, it’s better for the patient.”

Dean Angell is a registered nurse at St. Vincent Healthcare emergency department who has an interest in rattlesnakes. The most common variety in this part of Montana are prairie rattlers. Research suggests about 40 percent of their bites are “dry” and do not release significant amounts of venom, he said, but people should not make assumptions.

“Things are drying out and the snakes are starting to come out,” Wilson said. He has been a firefighter for 25 years and said this is the first rattlesnake bite to which he’s responded, but that the possibility of a bite is always there.

If enough venom is injected, there will be immediate swelling and pain. But, it can also take hours for other venom complications, such as neurological or clotting abnormalities, to become obvious.

“We want anyone who has been bitten by a snake, whether they think it is a rattlesnake or not, to come in,” he said.

Antivenin counteracts the effects of the venom. Both Billings hospitals have adequate supplies of the drug, which is called Cro-Fab. Antivenin is expensive, Angell said, and how much is needed depends on the bite and the reaction. He’s seen people who require two to three doses and those who require more than 20 vials.

Both Angell and Light also said snakes have their place in the world, including helping to control rodent populations.

“They are part of the food chain,” Angell said. “If you see a rattlesnake, they don’t want to bother you if you don’t bother them.”