Additional information is being released in connection with a fatal bear attack which happened near Yellowstone Park on Wednesday morning.

State wildlife officials say that two people were injured and one person was killed in separate bear attacks that occurred at the Soda Butte Campground.

Park County Sheriff’s Department dispatch records show that a Park County Sheriff’s deputy and a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game warden were dispatched to the area at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and Investigators found a man dead at the campground about two hours later.

Two other people, a male and a female, were reportedly bitten and later treated at a hospital in Cody, Wyoming. The identities of the victims have not been released.

FWP officials, in cooperation with the Gallatin National Forest, the National Park Service and the Park County Sherriff’s Office spent much of the day at the site collecting forensic evidence of the attacks.

Officials from the agencies plan to hold a community meeting at the Cooke City Chamber of Commerce on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the incident.

“The camp sites are being combed for evidence,” said FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim “We’re not certain if it was one bear or more than one, and we haven’t determined if it was a grizzly or black bear. We’ve extracted DNA samples from evidence found on site. This will help us identify the bear or bears involved, once captured.”

Officials say that tents were ripped or damaged during the attacks but no food was found in the tent of the dead man or in the tents of the two injured victims. “Everyone appeared to have followed all food storage regulations,” Aasheim said.

The Soda Butte Campground, the nearby Chief Joseph and Colter campgrounds, also in the Gallatin National Forest, are closed.

“This is not typical bear behavior. It’s odd. It’s not normal,” Aasheim said.

FWP officials have set a number of traps in anticipation of the animal’s return on Wednesday night.

via KPAX – Missoula, Montana – News, Weather, Sports – - KPAX Home Missoula News, Missoula Weather, Missoula Sports, Montana News, Montana Weather, Montana Sports | Separate bear attacks blamed for fatality, injuries.

Authorities continue piecing together details about an overnight bear attack near Cooke City that killed one person and injured two others.

MT FWP officials say that it appears the victims were attacked separately and were not camped in the same location of the Soda Butte Campground.

The attacks are believed to have occurred sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m., and authorities believe that only one bear is responsible for the attacks.

Aasheim says the man who died had been dragged from his tent and was found at the western edge of the campground.

A woman suffered severe lacerations from bites on her arms, while another man was bitten on his calf. Both are being treated for their injures at a Cody, Wyoming hospital. Their injuries are not life threatening. Officials say the man was able to drive himself to Cody, while the woman was transported by ambulance.

Authorities have not yet released the names of the people involved.

Wildlife officials are investigating a deadly bear attack in the Cooke City area that left one man dead and two people injured.

The incident happened at the Soda Butte Campground late Tuesday night or into early Wednesday morning.

The name of the man who was killed has not yet been released.

Ron Aasheim of MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks says that another man was bitten on the leg and taken to a hospital in Cody, Wyoming, and a woman suffered injuries to her arms. Their conditions are not yet known.

FWP spokeswoman Andrea Jones has confirmed one attack and says there might have been multiple attacks; FWP officials and the Park County Sheriff’s Office are at the site of the attack and investigating what happened.

A Cooke City resident who chose to remain anonymous informed Montana’s News Station early Wednesday morning that there were two separate attacks, both causing severe injuries.  The source says there may have been a third attack.

We will have more information as it becomes available.

via KXLH | Helena, Montana – News, Weather, Sports | UPDATED: Bear attack kills one, injures two at Cooke City campground.

Isle of Palms, SC — A teenager is recovering from a shark attack in the waters off South Carolina.

Alex Stamm, 16, went to the Isle of Palms on vacation from Indiana. He said he was in waist-deep water when he felt something biting his leg.

“At first, I was kind of like bewildered, like what was going on. And then I saw the bite itself and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s definitely a shark bite,’” Stamm described.

He has more than 40 stitches on his right leg.

Stamm said he believes his past shark tales are catching up to him. Last year he was in a bicycle crash and told people he was bit by a shark to sound cooler.

The state Department of Natural Resources says on average, there are four to five shark bites a year in South Carolina.

Last week, a 10-year-old boy from Pennsylvania was bitten by what an expert calls a shark at Myrtle Beach. In North Carolina waters, two 13-year-old girls have had stitches after bites at Wrightsville Beach and Topsail Island.

To avoid any problems, experts say you should not wear flashy jewelry in the water, especially around your ankles, and it’s best to avoid areas where people are fishing.

via Teen Bitten By Shark Off SC Coastdigtriad.com | Triad, NC | National and World News Article.

After someone was bitten by what is believed to be a shark off Jacksonville’s coast for the second time in six weeks, lifeguards and surfers are blaming it on more people in the water, not more sharks.

Clayton Schulz, a 20-year-old pitcher for the University of North Florida Ospreys, was surfing about 4:30 p.m. Friday when something snatched and shook his left foot.

He didn’t see what bit him, but Schulz said he could feel teeth and believed it was a shark. He was in stable condition this week at Shands Jacksonville hospital, where he got about 300 stitches to close the wounds.

“He’s doing well,” his father, Peter Schulz, said on Monday. He said he expects his son will be released from the hospital this week. Doctors have said they expect a nearly full recovery.

The attack is at least the second bite injury reported in Jacksonville Beach since June 10, when a woman was bitten in waist-deep water a few feet from shore. She was treated for a minor wound, which was described as an outline of a small mouth with teeth.

Officials aren’t sure it was a shark that bit Schulz. Barracudas, bluefish and stingrays can also bite, said Capt. Thomas Wright of Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue. Before June 10, it had been about four years since a shark attack was reported in Jacksonville Beach.

“It’s kind of unusual to have two bites that close together,” Wright said.

Likely, it’s because of the number of people in the water, he said.

There have been no official reports of shark bites in the Ponte Vedra Beach area. The last reported shark bite occurred there last year in the Vilano Beach area, said Jeremy Robshaw, spokesman for St. Johns County Fire Rescue.

Swimmers and surfers must use their judgment about entering the water. Beaches lifeguards post purple warning flags for dangerous marine life. But that’s usually when scores of jellyfish arrive and dozens of stings are reported, not when sharks are swimming around.

Sharks are always out there, Wright said.

“That’s where the sharks live,” he said. “You’re in their house. If you’re concerned about that, you shouldn’t be out there.”

When Schulz was bitten, a waist-to-chest-high swell had brought out more surfers than usual, said Mitch Kaufmann, director of the North Florida district of the Eastern Surfing Association. When the surf is decent, few places between Jacksonville Beach and Atlantic Beach aren’t crowded, increasing the chance of a shark attack, he said.

“Shark attacks are still so rare that you really don’t need to worry about it,” Kaufmann said. “You do need to be aware of sharks and keep your eye out, but there are more people in the water than ever, it seems like.”

Sharks are so common that some bites aren’t even reported, said Tim Ellis, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident and member of the First Coast Wavemasters Society.

In June, Matt Searcy, another surfer in his 20s, was attacked in the Ponte Vedra Beach area and received 30 stitches, but that received no media attention, Ellis said.

He was dismayed by the severity of Schulz’s wound. “That’s a major deal when it requires 300 stitches,” Ellis said. “Anytime you have a shark attack, people who don’t regularly go in the ocean hear about it and it makes them fearful.”

Jim Dunlop, who owns Mystic Surfboards custom board manufacturing in Jacksonville Beach, said he’s had plenty of brushes with sharks along the First Coast over the decades.

He has seen shark fins in the water, one that measured 8 feet from the dorsal to the tail fin, meaning the shark could have been up to 12 feet long.

“I’ve seen big sharks. They’re here,” Dunlop said. “You look at the beach any weekend with all the people wading around, I’m surprised there’s not more [attacks.]”

Kaufmann predicted the latest attack won’t harm enthusiasm for surfing.

On Saturday, the day after Schulz’s attack, 150 youths showed up for the Super Grom Clinic on the south side of the fishing pier to learn how to surf.

via More people in ocean in Jacksonville Beach area means greater shark attack risk, lifeguards and surfers say | jacksonville.com.

CONCORD, Calif. (CBS/AP) A California man was arrested Thursday afternoon on suspicion of felony child endangerment and possession of mischievous animals after three of his pit bulls attacked and killed his step grandson.

The 2-year-old victim, Jacob Busbee, was at home Thursday morning with his grandmother, uncle, and 4-year-old brother, when he walked into the garage and was attacked by the family dogs, reports CBS affiliate KPIX. The boy died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Authorities say that the three dogs involved, as well as the family’s two other dogs, were all euthanized hours after the boy’s attack.

The Step-grandfather, Steven Hayashi, 52, was being held on $250,000 bail.

via Pit Bull Owner Arrested for Fatal Dog Attack on 2-Year-Old Step-Grandson – Crimesider – CBS News.

Charleston, S.C. – A Hamilton County teen is recovering after his summer vacation started with a shark attack.

Alex Stamm, 16, has 40 stitches and quite a survival story from his trip to Isle of Palms, South Carolina, near Charleston. He and his friend’s family had originally planned to vacation in Florida, but because of the Gulf oil spill, went to South Carolina instead.

On his first day at the beach, the Westfield junior was attacked by a shark.

“We were, like, tossing the football around. It didn’t bump into me. It just bit me straight on. I yelled,” Stamm said. “My first reaction, I tried to hit it with my right hand and I saw the tail swim away. I just told my friend Christian to get out of the water and we all ran out. At first, I was kind of like bewildered, like what was going on and I saw the bite itself and I said, ‘That’s definitely a shark bite’.”

Alex believes it was a sandbar shark, about four feet long, that left its mark on his leg. Right after the attack, his friend’s family jumped into action.

“My friend’s mom, she’s a nurse, and she saw all the blood. Blood was gushing out of my leg. She got me on my back so I didn’t go into shock,” he said.

As Alex was loaded into an ambulance, his mom, hundreds of miles away in Indiana, got a phone call.

“He did tell my best friend when they were in the ambulance, be gentle with my mother. She’s going to freak,” Susan Stamm said. “So they were just very nonchalant. ‘Susan, it was a beautiful day. We had a little glitch. Alex got bit by a shark. He’s going to need a few stitches.’ Forty stitches. That’s not a few. It was 40 stitches.”

Alex spent more than six hours at the hospital. He’s now on pain medications and antibiotics, but Susan says he’s in good spirits and plans to finish his vacation.

As a mom, though, Susan says being so far away from her son is tough.

“It was one millimeter away from his artery. That was hard. Last night, not being there, I couldn’t sleep last night just wondering how this was all going to pan out,” she said.

Now that she knows he’s going to be okay, Susan can find some humor in what happened. She says it seems Alex’s shark tales from the past are coming back to bite him now.

After a bike accident in Carmel last year, he told friends he got hurt wrestling a shark.

“Then this year he really did wrestle with a shark. He had to hit it to get it off his leg! I think he needs to be careful what he says,” Stamm said.

And maybe, she says, where he swims.

“They were supposed to go deep sea fishing, but I think this was close enough,” she said.

via Hamilton Co. teen bitten by shark in South Carolina – 13 WTHR.

JACKSONVILLE — A 20-year-old baseball player from the University of North Florida is recovering with a foot wound after being bitten by a shark.

Clayton Shulz of Stuart says the shark grabbed his foot before letting go.

Shulz needed 400 stitches on his foot Sunday night.

via Man gets 400 stitches after shark attack near Jacksonville | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY.

MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. (WPRI) – A man made an unusual discovery in a Middleborough river last week.

He says he fished a two-foot long alligator from the Nemansket River Friday.

The man took the reptile to the Massachusetts State Police barracks in Middleborough.

It was held there until Massachusetts Environmental Police could come to pick it up.

Police are not sure where the alligator came from.

It is illegal to keep them as pets in Massachusetts.

via Alligator fished from Mass. river | WPRI.com.

STUART, Fla. – A Stuart man is recovering after being bitten by a shark in Jacksonville.

“The shark grabbed me and shook his head a little bit, and I think he kind of realized that he was biting the wrong thing, so he let go,” said Clayton Shulz.

The 20-year-old needed 400 stitches to repair the injury to his foot.

Shulz is a baseball player at the University of North Florida. He still has several more surgeries and months of rehab ahead of him.

via Stuart man survives shark attack in Jacksonville.

Shocked Dan Muldowney was left in agony, bleeding and feeling dizzy for ten days after the attack.

The 4ft creature sank its fangs into his bare shin while he was bodyboarding on holiday with his family – leaving a double puncture wound.

It also bit him on the thigh but failed to penetrate his knee-length wetsuit.

Dan, 27, who believes he was the victim of a tropical species normally found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, said: “I felt something like a clump of seaweed against my leg, then a bang.

“When I looked in front of me I saw a snake with a black head shaped like a cobra – I clearly remember seeing its wide neck. No sooner had I seen it than it was gone.”

The attack at the popular resort of Newquay came just weeks after a fisherman saw a sea snake swimming at Whitsands in south-east Cornwall.

Dan, a surveyor, was enjoying a break with girlfriend Kenize Akhtar and their four children when he was bitten.

At the time he was in chest-deep surf trying out a new wetsuit he had just bought.

To begin with he thought he had hit his leg on a sharp rock and seen a huge eel.

But his wound began bleeding heavily and within ten minutes he was out of breath.

The following day blood started oozing from his mouth and he felt so unwell he was on the verge of collapse.

Then lumps like bubbles appeared on his leg and his fingertips began to tingle.

He consulted a GP, who was baffled by his symptoms, before a second doctor sent him to hospital where he was given allergy tablets.

By the time he returned home to Oldham, Gtr Manchester, he had headaches and twitching muscles.

Dan said: “My nerves were an absolute mess. I was irritable and unable to cope. Some days I just stayed in bed.”

Hospital tests failed to show anything conclusive but 12 days after his ordeal Dan started to recover.

After doing research he is sure he was attacked by a yellow-bellied sea snake. The creature’s venom, used to kill fish, is ten times more lethal than an Egyptian cobra’s.

Dan dismissed suggestions that he might have been bitten by an adder which had fallen off cliffs into the water.

He said: “There is a report of a Chinese man attacked by a sea snake who took 77 hours to die and his symptoms were the same as mine. I just want to warn other people.”

Experts said British coastal waters were too cold for sea snakes to occur naturally but that Dan might have been bitten by one which was DUMPED.

A Marine Conservation Society spokeswoman said: “If someone had kept a sea snake and let it go, potentially it could survive.”

via Tourist believes he was bitten by a tropical sea snake off the coast of Cornwall | The Sun |News.

ANTHEM, AZ – A Valley man almost lost his life this week after a rattlesnake sunk its fangs into his right thumb Sunday evening.

Bill Johnson of Anthem was taking out the trash after his daughter’s birthday party when he heard a “hissing sound.”

“I thought I might have either a gas line or water line that had come loose,” Johnson said.

It was 10 p.m. when he said he reached down into the darkness and was struck.

Johnson didn’t see his attacker, but said he knew from the power of the “bee-like sting” that it was a snake.

He rushed inside and said within five minutes, he passed out.

His wife called 911. The first hospital he went to did not have enough anti-venin to treat his severe condition, so he was airlifted to Good Samaritan hospital in Phoenix.

Johnson is the 14th rattlesnake case this month alone to receive treatment there.

Toxicologist Michael Levine said most rattlesnake bites aren’t life threatening, but Johnson’s was.

He was put on life support for 24 hours.

“This gentleman was critically ill,” said Levine. “I think he very well would have died if he didn’t get therapy.”

Good Samaritan sees an average of 60-80 rattlesnake bites a year, with monsoon season being the busiest time for the deadly desert dwellers to attack, according to Levine.

Not only did Johnson spend his daughter’s “Sweet 16″ hooked to IVs, he also celebrated his 18th wedding anniversary in a hospital gown.

“It was kind of odd because it was like I’d do anything to upstage those events,” said Johnson.

He was discharged from the hospital on Friday.

via Anthem man almost dies from snake bite.

A feisty 2-year-old Olinda boy who was bitten on the shin by a baby rattlesnake on Sunday is expected to make a full recovery and should soon be released from the hospital.

“He’s already trying to crawl out of his crib,” said the boy’s foster sister, 18-year-old Hannah Blue.

Blue said her baby foster brother, who she declined to name because he’s a foster child, was transferred to U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento after being rushed by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Redding.

Alex Bostick, a captain with the Happy Valley Fire Protection District, has said the boy was in the front yard of his Willett Way home when his foster mother heard him yell “snake!”

She ran out side, saw the foot-long snake, killed it and called 911.

Bostick said the boy was fearless, saying ‘Bad snake! Mean snake!’ to the firefighters when they arrived.

“He’s just a fun kid,” Blue said.

Paramedics were especially concerned given the boy’s age and the small size of the snake, since they’d heard that young rattlesnakes are generally considered to be more venomous, Bostick said.

But that’s not the case, said Bob Hassel, the owner of Animal Nuisance Control of Cottonwood.

“If you’re going to get bit, get bitten by a little one,” Hassel said. “That’s an old wives’ tale.”

Hassel, who has to frequently handle rattlesnakes, said small snakes have smaller fangs and less venom than their adult counterparts, making them less likely to inject as much venom, which is no more potent than an adult snake’s.

Mercy Medical Center’s emergency room chief Dr. Rob Hamilton said 10 or 12 people are bitten by rattlesnakes in the north state each year.

He has never heard of anyone local dying from a bite. He said as many as 25 percent of the bites are harmless, since the snakes often don’t inject venom in what are known as “dry bites.”

Rattlesnake venom is a hemotoxin, meaning it attacks the muscles and bloodstream rather than the body’s nervous system.

The venom starts breaking down muscle tissue to help a snake not only incapacitate its prey but also to aid in the snake’s digestion.

“It’s more like a really nasty digestive juice,” he said.

Even so, unless the venom is injected directly into a major blood vessel which pumps directly to the heart and the brain, the venom only attacks the area around a bite.

Hamilton said most bites are easily treated with anti-venom, and there’s little risk of allergic reactions any more since most hospitals use synthetic versions of the drugs.

Anti-venom is expensive, however, running around $1,000 for a small vial, he said.

Hamilton said that if someone gets bitten by a rattlesnake they should not panic and should head to their nearest hospital.

He said not to use tourniquets, snake bite kits or attempt to suck the poison out, all of which are likely to do more harm than the actual snakebite.

Hamilton said studies have shown that the age group most likely to be bitten by a rattler are 18- to 25-year-old men, most of whom are bitten on the upper body as they try to drunkenly play with or pickup a snake.

via Olinda toddler bitten by rattlesnake expected to recover » Redding Record Searchlight.

A TOURIST told yesterday how he was bitten by a poisonous sea snake – in Cornwall, UK.

Shocked Dan Muldowney was left in agony, bleeding and feeling dizzy for ten days after the attack.

The 4ft creature sank its fangs into his bare shin while he was bodyboarding on holiday with his family – leaving a double puncture wound.

It also bit him on the thigh but failed to penetrate his knee-length wetsuit.

Dan, 27, who believes he was the victim of a tropical species normally found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, said: “I felt something like a clump of seaweed against my leg, then a bang.

“When I looked in front of me I saw a snake with a black head shaped like a cobra – I clearly remember seeing its wide neck. No sooner had I seen it than it was gone.”

The attack at the popular resort of Newquay came just weeks after a fisherman saw a sea snake swimming at Whitsands in south-east Cornwall.

Dan, a surveyor, was enjoying a break with girlfriend Kenize Akhtar and their four children when he was bitten.

via Man’s 10-day agony in poisonous sea snake attack | The Daily Telegraph.

Police were on the lookout for a mountain lion today in a residential neighborhood off Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.

Someone called police at 11:43 p.m. Wednesday and said to report a big cat weighing about 150 pounds near Temescal Canyon Boulevard and Sunset, Los Angeles police at the West L.A. Station said.

Two police officers thought they had the big cat cornered near Palisades Charter High School between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m., a video crew at the scene reported.

Animal control workers were requested, police Sgt. David Craig said. The locale is considered a residential area, Craig said.

As of 4 a.m., police remained assigned to the area as a precaution, police Lt. Martha Moran said.

A police officer at the scene told RMG News the mountain lion appeared to be 250 pounds. Mountain lions rarely grow that large.

Regardless of the cat’s size, the area of the sighting has been mountain lion habitat for thousands of years.

Other active wildlife in the area early today included coyotes and at least one skunk, according to RMG News.

via Mountain lion hunted in Pacific Palisades – Press-Telegram.

A trip to Yellowstone National Park turned into a nightmare for a group of tourists.

Cathy Hayes, a teacher from Utah, was catching a bison on video, joking with her husband, Jeff, and his brother, Donald, about getting a shot of Donald being gored by the animal — when Donald got too close – and it attacked.

The bison, clearly agitated, charged Donald and then Cathy, sending her into a panic. She ran for cover behind a tree, but the bison kept coming.

The car horn honking is clearly audible as Jeff tries to deter the bison. So is his yells of “Back,” and screams – with the video rolling all the while.

“I could hear him over me stomping and snorting,” Cathy said later, “and I just knew. I knew at that second that was it. You know, I thought, “This is going to be my last moment. It’s going to be in Yellowstone Park getting tromped by a buffalo.” ”

On The Early Show” Friday, Cathy told co-anchor Chris Wragge the bison “flipped me end-over-end like a rag doll, in the air.”

It turned out she didn’t suffer life-threatening injuries, but was pretty badly banged up. Her knee was the size of a football and she has big brusies ans scrapes on her leg. Donald broke his shoulder when he tripped and fell.

And the incident may not have been the bison’s fault.

A second look at Cathy’s video shows the animal was apparently provoked. It seems the bison was hit it in the back with a stick — a vivid reminder of the park’s policy to keep your distance from wildlife.

via Caught On Tape: Bison Attacks Tourists at Yellowstone – The Feed – CBS News.

CONCORD — A man whose pit bulls fatally mauled his 2-year-old stepgrandson expressed deep regret Friday about keeping the animals despite past violent behavior that included the killing of a family Chihuahua a year ago.

Steven Hayashi, 52, of Concord, spoke from jail about the death of Jacob Bisbee, who ambled into the family’s garage on Trailcreek Court on Thursday morning and was attacked by three of the family’s five pit bulls. Jacob died that morning at a hospital.

Hayashi was booked on suspicion of child endangerment and possession of a mischievous animal that causes a death and is being held on $120,000 bail. Prosecutors are expected to review the case early next week. All five of the dogs have been euthanized.

Hayashi’s wife, his 19-year-old son, and Jacob’s brother were at the house during the attack. Jacob’s father, Hayashi’s stepson, was at work.

Hayashi, who said he is not currently employed, was out with his 13-year-old son before coming home to the sight of police cars.

“I come home, my grandson is dead, and my dogs were responsible. I’m in jail, and my family might be persecuted or looked upon different than before,” he said, pausing and then adding, “I love children, especially my own grandkids.”

When he talked about Jacob, Hayashi’s eyes welled up and he started sobbing.

“He was a fun-loving boy. He liked playing with cars. That last (time) I saw him he came up to me and gave me a hug when I was cooking,” he said.

Hayashi said he and his wife looked after Jacob and his 4-year-old brother because the children’s father worked long days.

Although Hayashi said he made a tragic mistake keeping the animals around the two young boys, he doesn’t believe he should be jailed.

“I made a bad decision about keeping the dogs,” Hayashi said from an interview room at County Jail in Martinez. “I don’t take responsibility for Jacob’s death. However, I am responsible for not getting rid of those dogs when I should have.”

Hayashi said one or more of the dogs had killed his Chihuahua, Ruby, last year when he lived in Antioch.

“The reason I kept them is I didn’t have the heart to euthanize them” after Ruby’s death, he said.

A short time later, he relocated to Concord with his wife and two sons. About the same time, his stepson moved in, bringing along Jacob and his brother. The stepson is separated from the boys’ mother.

Until Thursday, Hayashi said he did not see anything wrong with having the animals — 1-year-old pups Max and C.J.; Kiwi and Jake, both 18 months old; and their mother, 3-year-old Sadie — living in the same house with small children.

He said all of the dogs except Kiwi, which he described as the aggressive one, were friendly around Jacob and his brother.

“Kiwi, that’s the one I didn’t trust,” Hayashi said, adding that he kept the children away from that dog.

Only Sadie, the dogs’ mother, was spayed. Hayashi said that he did not intend to own five pit bulls but that when he got Sadie from a pound in Lake County, neither he nor the staff knew she was pregnant.

Hayashi said he kept Sadie, Kiwi and Jake in the garage and let Max and C. J. roam free in the backyard. He let each dog free, one at a time, in the front yard, saying he was able to control them one-on-one without a leash.

He acknowledged neighbors’ claims Thursday that some of the dogs approached them aggressively, saying he did allow the animals to “explore” for a few minutes at a time when they were outside the house.

Hayashi said he is still trying to sort out exactly how Jacob got into the garage, which was usually locked with a deadbolt out of the boy’s reach.”Both me and my wife do not understand how he ended up in the garage,” Hayashi said. “This is the first time ever in the one year they stayed with us that Jacob has ever, ever gone inside the garage.”

The experience has left him with no affection for dogs of any kind. He said he once thought that owning the pit bulls, as long as he was careful, would not be a danger to his family. He has abandoned that thought.

“I used to think that way, too,” Hayashi said. “That’s what got me into this mess. Thinking they’re like regular dogs.

“I can understand a dog biting or nipping, but to maul somebody until he is dead, to tear out somebody’s face” shows pit bulls are particularly dangerous.

He said that is why he did not try to reclaim the animals after they were taken by animal services, effectively assuring that they would be euthanized.

via Stepgrandfather of mauled 2-year-old Concord boy: ‘I made a bad decision about keeping the dogs’ – San Jose Mercury News.

MEMPHIS, TN— Police still have not charged anyone connected to a deadly pit bull attack. William Parker, 71, died after two pit bulls attacked him while he was walking home from the store. His wife, Bessie, says her husband had a heart attack while being attacked by the dogs.

Memphis police have confirmed an officer was called to the apartment complex where the attack happened on July 18, 2010. The officer responded to a “dogs on the loose” call. Police say the viscous dogs had a person trapped inside a car. A spokesperson for the Memphis Police Department said animal control was never called to pick up the dogs because the owner was able to get the dogs back in the apartment.

The dogs belong to Bernard Humphrey. When police responded to the dog call, they discovered Humphrey was a sex offender who failed to register his new address. Humphrey was arrested for violating the sex offender registry law and the dogs were left at the apartment.

In addition to Parker, four others were injured. One was Gardenia Parker. She was attacked trying to save her father. “These little cuts and bruises is nothing. I can get over that part. I can’t get over losing my daddy,” said Parker. “I ain’t ever going to get my daddy back. I think justice needs to be done.”

Bessie Parker thinks Humphrey needs to be criminally charged. “The way I feel right now, they could give him the death penalty because he killed my husband,” said Parker, “I miss my husband. I can’t bring him back.”

The dogs are now at the animal shelter under quarantine.

The Parker’s had been together for more than fifty years. Bessie Parker now has to come up with the money needed to bury her husband. The couple had no insurance. Parker said, “I try to be strong for my daughter and my grand baby, this is all I got left now.”

via Wife Talks About Pit Bull Attack That Killed Her Husband|myEyewitnessNews.com, Memphis News, Entertainment, Videos, Business Search and Shopping.

A Southern California sport fisherman had an amazing catch on Sunday. Eric Downs of Northridge was sport fishing, about 30 miles off the coast of Malibu on Sunday when he spotted an 11-foot shark.

Downs went out to sea to track down and catch an often elusive, and always dangerous, prey. He found it just after 2 p.m.

Using tuna as bait, he soon drew the attention of a shortfin mako shark. As an avid sport fisherman, Downs wanted to claim his catch under the rules of the International Game Fishing Association. That meant he could only use the rod and reel to catch it. Using a 100-pound line, Downs battled the shark for more than an hour. It finally came close enough to be brought on board the boat.

The shark proved to be a formidable and hefty adversary. When the shark was finally hauled in to the Marina Del Rey harbor, it weighed in at 736 pounds. That’s far from a record, but Downs managed a very impressive catch as he prepares for an upcoming mako shark fishing tournament in Oxnard.

Attacks on humans by shortfin mako sharks are rare, but by all accounts a mako shark is a pretty serious fish. It can swim at speeds of up to 46 miles per hour and leap 30 feet in the air.

via California Angler Reels in 736-pound Mako Shark Off Malibu | Field & Stream.

Wilmington-area resident Steve Studer said he made an interesting find off Wrightsville Beach’s north end Thursday evening—a 5 foot shark gliding through Mason’s Inlet.

It was about 6:10 p.m. when Studer spotted the creature. He said he was flying up above the water in a powered paraglider. He captured an image of it as it moved parallel across the shorelines between Wrightsville Beach and Figure 8 Island.

“He was . . . in fairly shallow water and scampered off when I dropped down low on him,” Studer said in an email.

The Lumina News sent Studer’s photo to George Burgess, director of Florida’s Program for Shark Research and curator of the International Shark Attack File. Burgess said a photo wouldn’t be enough to identify the species. But the animal, he said, came from the family Carcharhinidae, which, in North Carolina, includes the blacktip, spinner, sandbar, blacknose, sharpnose, bull and tiger sharks.

Paul Barrington, director of husbandry and operations at the North Carolina Aquarium in Fort Fisher, said inlets are a major feeding ground for predatory animals, mainly because their dynamics tend to aggregate bait, thereby offering these creatures an aquatic smorgasbord of prey.

“High tide, low tide—it doesn’t seem to matter,” he said. “Where the food is, the apex predators are going to follow.”

Shark bites on humans are rare and are usually a case of mistaken identity, where the shark misinterprets human movement for that of its prey.

“They move quickly whenever they sense movement, but unfortunately sometimes what they’re grabbing turns out to be an arm or a leg,” Burgess said.

North Carolina has seen four documented shark bites so far this year, more than double its annual average. None of those were fatal.

The latest encounter, between 13-year-old Kendall Parker and an unknown species, occurred just south of Mason’s Inlet, where Studer reportedly captured his image.

Earlier this week, Burgess suggested northern predatory grounds had opened early due to above-average water temperatures, causing an unseasonable abundance of sharks along the North Carolina seaboard, he said.

via Lumina News – Wrightsville’s Newspaper Since May 2002.

Two men camping in the woods at the west end of Sproat Lake near Port Alberni have suffered extensive wounds after being attacked by a bear, Port Alberni RCMP said Wednesday.

A 57-year-old man sleeping in a lean-to shelter was attacked first, and his 47-year-old friend sleeping in a tent nearby was able to fight off the bear, police said in a press release.

The older man sustained injury to his skull and has been transported to Nanaimo for surgery, while both men received extensive claw mark wounds in the attack, police said. It is unknown what, if anything, provoked the attack, police said.

“Police and conservation want to remind people visiting the back country to be extra vigilant in protecting themselves and their camp from wildlife encounters,” said Sgt. Kevin Murray of the Port Alberni RCMP in the release.

via Bear attacks men on Vancouver Island.

WILMINGTON—The Sand Tiger shark may be the culprit behind a recent shark bite in Wrightsville Beach.

Experts at the Fort Fisher Aquarium said attacks by sand tiger sharks are rare. Paul Barrington said it’s very similar to a dog barking and biting an intruder for being in their environment. Barrington said there are about 75 unprovoked shark encounters around the world every year, 5 to 10 of those are confirmed deaths. The cause is usually a case of mistaken identity.

Barington said the windy weather conditions and cloudy water could have played a role in the encounter.

“These are hit and run attacks, this is not an animal that typically seeks humans for food,” said Barrington.

To help keep safe while swimming Barrington offers this advice:

• Swim with a group of people.

• Don’t venture far away from shore where you can’t get immediate assistance.

• Avoid swimming at dusk and dawn. Those are prime feeding times.

• Avoid areas where birds are feeding on fish.

Experts said there are about 10 different species of large coastal sharks that inhabit the North Carolina Coast. This Includes the Sand Tiger Shark, Sand Bar Shark, and Lemon Shark among others.

via Despite recent attack, experts call rarity on sand tiger shark – News14.com.

The last time Kendall Parker visited Wrightsville Beach she had a typical vacation, filled with sandcastles and swimming.

This weekend was different, filled with a shark bite and trip to the hospital.

Kendall, 13, of Davidson, was bitten by a shark Saturday while swimming near the Shell Island Resort.

“I was in the water … and I felt pressure on my arm,” Kendall said, now recovering at home. “It didn’t even hurt because it happened so fast.”

Kendall said she didn’t see the shark, which is good because if she had she would have “freaked out and screamed.”

But she did see a lot of blood in the water, and the bite was serious enough to require 40 stitches on her right hand and arm and possible tendon surgery.

Kendall said her arm and hand occasionally throb, and she can’t move her index finger because of a severed tendon. She’ll have to take a break from her summer softball team, but she hasn’t let the bite slow her down.

When asked if her family served her breakfast in bed, Kendall laughed: “Oh no, I’ve got to get up.” Kendall did get a free dessert “for being a trooper” when her family went to dinner after she was released from the hospital.

“The manager couldn’t believe it,” she said of the bite.

Neither could Kendall’s best friend, Karly Adams, 12, of Huntersville, whom she called immediately when she got back to her hotel.

“At first … I thought she was playing a joke on me,” Karly said.

But shark attacks off the Carolina coast are no joke. Only two days after Kendall’s incident, a 10-year-old boy was bitten on the leg in Myrtle Beach on Monday.

This year there have been seven confirmed shark attacks off the Carolinas, said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, which tracks attacks worldwide.

The yearly S.C. average number of shark attacks between 2003 and 2009 was three, he said. North Carolina had an average of 1.5 during the same period.

Summer is the prime time for shark attacks because warmer temperatures attract both more people and more sharks, which migrate seasonally, said Paul Barrington with the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

This summer’s heat wave might have led to a greater number of sharks earlier than usual, said Dr. Frank Schwartz, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences.

“This year we’re ahead of schedule,” he said. “This (heat) usually occurs around August and September.”

Even in warm waters, the chances of a shark attack are slim, Burgess said.

“There are more people injured by stepping on seashells or getting severe sunburn,” he said. “That said, one should always remember when one enters the sea that it is a wilderness experience.”

Burgess advised beachgoers to avoid swimming between dusk and dawn and to stay in groups.

via Davidson girl recovering from shark’s bite – CharlotteObserver.com.

A 10-year-old boy was reportedly bitten by a shark in Myrtle Beach on Monday morning.

Shark bite has not been confirmed as the source of the injury to the boy’s leg, but witnesses told TheSunNews.com that they saw a shark fin in the water just prior to the boy’s injury.

The report from Myrtle Beach comes just two days after a 13-year-old girl was bitten by a shark at Wrightsville Beach on Saturday. Her wounds required 40 stitches.

A Greensboro girl needed 60 stitches after she was bitten by a shark at Topsail Beach in June, and a Georgia girl was bitten by a shark in June in the water off Fripp Island, S.C.

The International Shark Attack File lists 35 attacks in North Carolina from 1935-2009. Eight of those attacks were in New Hanover County and eight were in Onslow County. There were none listed for Pender County, although that will change when the 2010 statistics are added. The site lists 64 attacks in South Carolina from 1837-2009. Eighteen of those attacks were in Horry County.

via Boy, 10, reportedly bitten by shark at Myrtle Beach – Captain StarNews – Wilmington Star News – Wilmington, NC – Archive.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — A 55-year-old surfer was bitten by a shark over the weekend off New Smyrna Beach.The man said a school of bait fish swam into the area where he was surfing on Saturday and a shark bit his lower leg.The man was not seriously injured.

via Surfer, 55, Injured In Shark Attack – Orlando News Story – WKMG Orlando.

HOUSTON — A local news agency reported on Thursday that a second person has been bitten by a shark on 8 Mile beach in Galveston. The victim was identified as Charlie Gauzer, an avid fisherman for over 50 years. Gauzer said the shark’s head was about two to three feet wide and it felt like he was hit by a tree trunk. He then started to feel pain and found he had blood coming out of his leg. Gauzer added that the shark clamped its teeth into his leg as he kicked and paddled to try to escape. The bite gashed all the way to Gauzer’s bone and cut his Achilles tendon. The incident was the second time in less than a month that someone was attacked by a shark at 8 Mile beach. Last June 27, a surfer was bitten and suffered a gash that required 60 stitches.

via Fisherman Bitten By Shark in Texas – Animal attack – ubAlert.

Depending on where you are in the Rockies this year, the annual summer bear season could mean black-bear sightings in your front yard or a near-death experience while looking through the jaws of a hungry bear.

Already, the list of bear attacks across the Rockies this summer is beginning to mount.

On Saturday morning, a bear attacked a homeless man sleeping in Durango near the Animas River. The man survived, but the bear didn’t after Colorado Division of Wildlife officials turned their guns on it after the attack. A necropsy of the bear’s carcass was completed at CSU.

Last Thursday, a bear broke into a home in Bailey, southwest of Denver, biting a man.

Other bears have been sighted plundering porches and backyards in Livermore and Rist Canyon.

In the past month, bears have turned outright hostile in New Mexico, where they’ve developed an affinity for tents and a taste for the people sleeping in them.

“They’re coming down and acting kind of aggressive right now,” said Dan Williams, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

New Mexico wildlife officials killed a bear at the end of June after it jumped on a tent and took a swipe at the man sleeping in it at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, a 137,000-acre camping and backpacking ranch just south of the Colorado state line west of Raton.

There were two more incidents there: The same day, another bear was found with a goat in its mouth, and a Philmont staffer killed it. On Wednesday, a bear bit a 14-year-old Boy Scout through his tent, leaving a deep gash in his head.

“It kind of peeled back the scalp there,” Williams said.

Both campers who were attacked were carefully following strict bear-safety protocols in place at Philmont, he said.

Those incidents followed another in June when a bear swatted a man tent-camping in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque.

But all the ursine nastiness in some parts of the West doesn’t mean there’s anything unusual going on this year, particularly in Colorado and Wyoming.

Bear activity is quite normal throughout Colorado, DOW spokesman Tyler Baskfield said.

The bears’ habitat is normal and healthy, he said, and there is no sign of increased bear sightings or attacks in any localized area, he said.

“We haven’t noticed anything that is different than we’ve seen in years when there’s decent, natural food,” said Ken Wilson, a professor of wildlife and conservation biology at Colorado State University.

“A bear has been into some trash cans in Rist Canyon,” he said. “One bear can decide it’s going to get into something, (but) it’s not all of them.”

Few bears have been seen at all in southern Wyoming, where wildlife officials consider black-bear habitat and natural food supply excellent, said Al Langston, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish.

In New Mexico, dry weather hurt the bears’ food supply and dried out the forbs and grass that usually get black bears through the spring.

The lack of food there is so dire that this year’s number of bear attacks hasn’t been seen in New Mexico for almost a decade, Williams said.

There are plenty of things homeowners and backcountry adventurers can do to keep bears away.

For people camping in the mountains, store food in bear-resistant containers away from your sleeping area, Wilson said.

The best way to keep plundering bears away from homes is to keep birdseed, trash and other potential food sources inside where bears can’t have easy access to them, Baskfield said.

“There’s no reason to feed birds this time of year” because natural bird food is plentiful, he said.

And, he warned city dwellers, just because you might live in Fort Collins doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your home bear resistant.

“We get bears who wander into Fort Collins on a regular basis,” he said.

via List of bear attacks this summer grows | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan.

SAN DIEGO — While people become sicker and sicker from rattlesnake bites, researchers at the University of California, San Diego are working to combat that trend by developing more potent anti-venom.

Several weeks ago, a bite killed a 5-year-old Schnauzer in Bonita, but it’s not just dogs that have been bit that have raised the most alarms.

“It’s a definite concern,” said Dr. Richard Clark, the director of toxicology at UCSD.

Clark said although a few dozen human bites are reported locally every year, a puzzling trend has emerged.

“We continue to see very bad snake bites, probably worse than last several years previously,” he said.

More severe reactions, including breathing problems, low blood pressure, and uncontrollable bleeding have led many to wonder if rattlesnake venom is becoming more potent.

One theory proposes rodents, the rattlesnake’s food source, are developing resistance to venom, causing snakes to develop more potent venom by natural selection.

Another theory suggests the rattlesnake has evolved to have more potent venom because of a shrinking habitat and a tougher time finding food over the years.

None of these theories have been proven.

Whatever the cause, UCSD is researching a possible response in the form of more potent anti-venom. A clinical trial began a year and a half ago.

Unlike the conventional anti-venom, the molecules of the new anti-venom are bigger, which means a bigger potential impact on severe and recurring symptoms. The bigger molecules remain in the body long, making the anti-venom more effective.

Clinical trials should be complete by the end of the year. If proven effective, the anti-venom would be a much-needed weapon against venom that may be turning more potent.

Dr. Clark said that every year, there are several rattlesnake-related deaths in California. He said he fears the number could climb, because people with more severe reactions are more at risk for fatal complications.

via Local Rattlesnake Bites Becoming More Severe – San Diego News Story – KGTV San Diego.

FORT MYERS: The teen who lost his hand in an alligator attack spoke publicly Friday for the first time since Sunday night’s accident.

Tim Delano spoke about the attack that left him without his left hand, even joking a bit and being thankful that he is right-handed.

Delano was swimming in a canal in Golden Gate Estates when an 11-foot alligator pulled him underwater.

Delano was able to free himself from the gator’s “death roll” by punching the reptile with his right hand.

“I shortly realized that this is for real, I opened my eyes, I saw the gator’s face doing the death roll. I could see the bottom of his mouth,” he said. “I just took my hand and screamed. You could see my muscle, bone moving around.”

He says immediate shock took over. Delano and his friends jumped in his truck. They called 9-1-1, and then he made one more important phone call.

“I said, ‘Hey mom, my hand got taken off by an alligator. I’m on my way to the hospital. I love you, goodbye, hope to see you again,’” Delano said.

He was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, where attempts to reattach his severed hand were unsuccessful because doctors feared his hand was infected.

Delano says the constant reminders – even from his parents – make it hard for him to cope with what happened.

“They were sitting across from me and all I could look at was their left hand and just started breaking down,” he said.

But Delano says he still has something to look forward to. His doctor is working to get him a prosthetic hand.

“That’s what is giving me hope and I can move on with my life a little bit, but just one step at a time,” he said.

Saturday, the Palmetto Ridge Marching Pride – the band Delano was in – is holding a fundraiser car wash for him.

It’s from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at “E’s Country Store” at Immokalee and Oil Well Roads in Golden Gate Estates.

via Gator attack victim speaks publicly for first time – ABC-7.com WZVN News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida.

A Texas fisherman is recovering Friday from injuries he sustained after he was bitten by a shark in the Texas coastal waters off Galveston, KPRC-TV reported.

Charlie Gauzer was fishing off Galveston Island when he said the shark approached his boat and bit down on his leg.

“I started to feel pain…I looked down and I had blood coming out of my leg,” Gauzer said. The shark bit deeper into Gauzer’s leg as the fisherman tried to escape.

“It was gashed pretty good, down to the bone,” Gauzer said. The shark missed the artery but did severe Gauzer’s Achilles tendon.

The attack on Gauzer is the second shark attack near Galveston’s 8 Mile Road Beach in less than a month.

A surfer, injured by a shark bite at the end of June, required 60 stitches to repair the gash made by the shark.

“The problem with Galveston is, especially right now, is that the water is all stirred up and brown and it’s hard to see,” Gauzer said.

Galveston is located more than 50 miles southeast of Houston.

via Texas fisherman bitten by shark off Galveston coast – NYPOST.com.

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) – Several people have left comments on our Facebook page, saying they’ve seen more snakes on the South Plains since the July 4th weekend floods. One Tahoka woman is just glad her father is alive after being bitten by a rattlesnake multiple times.

Penny Redman said she always knew her dad was a fighter. “He’s been a real trooper, he’s a tough man,” said Redman.

A couple of weeks ago, 87-year-old Pug Parker of Tahoka went outside to get something out of a toolbox. “He’s diabetic so his vision is very poor, he reached in with his left hand because he can’t see, feeling for a screw and evidently there was a mom and some babies,” said Redman.

Parker was bitten ten times. Baby rattlesnake bites are more venomous than adult rattlesnakes. “They don’t know how to stop releasing the venom. They release all they have. Adults can judge how much they want to release,” said Redman. Parker was rushed by AeroCare to Covenant Hospital, and on the way to the hospital, the flight nurse administered anti-venom in the helicopter.

A few years ago, this immediate medical attention may not have been possible. AeroCare started carrying the anti-venom in 2008. “When AeroCare made the decision to carry the anti-venom, it was something that we could deliver to the rural communities that might not have the resources locally,” says flight nurse Bobby Sanchez.

Medical experts say after you are bitten, you have a four-hour window to seek medical attention, but the sooner you can get doses of the anti-venom, the better, and Redman believes that is why her father is alive today. “He’s a miracle… he is.”

Parker was checked into Covenant Specialty Hospital on June 24th. Doctors say he could be ready to go back to Tahoka as early as next week. His daughter tells us that he is healing like no diabetic should heal.

via 87-year-old Tahoka man recovering from multiple rattlesnake bites – KCBD, NewsChannel 11 Lubbock |.

A mental health worker has attacked some sections of the commercial media over the reporting of a crocodile attack on a man in the West Australian town of Broome.

Michael Newman survived an attack after breaking into a wildlife park while drunk and trying to sit on the back of a five metre crocodile.

The former chair of the state forensic mental health advisory council, Ken Steel, says he has been appalled by the reporting of the story.

“He’s been named called, he’s had various derogatory terms ascribed to him because of some of his appearance and sometimes because of the action he took,” he said.

“If you go beyond that it is obvious that the man has some sort of problem, he’s not in full control of his faculties.”

Mr Steel says the media should have backed off once the man’s state became clear.

“I’ve been totally appalled by some of the ways this has been done. This is a man with a problem and unfortunately it’s far too easy just to purely and simply put some, what they believe, are comical terms to the issue and it just leaves me cold, quite frankly.”

via Advocate upset at croc reporting – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

A southern Colorado man is in critical condition after getting bitten by a rattlesnake several times.

He was bitten around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night outside his home in Hanover, near mile marker 119 on I-25, south of Fountain.

The 45-year-old man had to be airlifted to the hospital.

Hanover Fire Chief Carl Tatum tells 11 News the man had reached off his deck to pick up his dog when the snake bit him. When Tatum arrived seven minutes later, the man’s hand was already swollen.

“It looks like he got struck about four or five times,” said Hanover Fire Chief Carl Tatum.

Tina Jackson, Reptile and Amphibian Coordinator with the Colorado Division of Wildlife says she doesn’t hear of multiple bites very often and says the snake probably felt very threatened.

“Alot of times it’s just one bite whether it’s the person or the dog or other animal being bite,” said Jackson.

Jackson says dogs usually get bitten more often than humans do because they don’t interpret the rattle sound as a warning. But, the victim in this case told Fire Chief Tatum he didn’t hear any suspicious noise before he reached for his dog.

“The best thing to do if you have an idea there might be a rattlesnake in the area is to watch where you put your hands and feet. If we’re getting too close with our hands and our feet, that’s when they’ll try to protect themselves and potentially bite,” said Jackson.

Rattlesnakes can be found almost anywhere in Colorado. They are attracted to shelter and food.

via Man In Critical Condition After Rattlesnake Bite.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: A man who survived a crocodile attack in Broome says he was curious about the animals because they came to him in his dreams.

Michael Newman nearly had his right leg taken off after he climbed into a crocodile enclosure at a wildlife park on Monday night.

The 36-year-old said he wanted to experience something he’d never done before.

David Weber reports.

DAVID WEBER: Michael Newman says that over the past few weeks he’s been having a lot of dreams about crocodiles.

MICHAEL NEWMAN: And the last dream I had was about a crocodile in the water, inside of my dream and he was in the water. He would’ve been like a two-and-a-half metre crocodile in my dream. And I picked up a big stone and a sound come out of the water and said ‘Where do you come from?’ and I threw the stone in the water and the crocodile swum off.

And ever since then I’ve had, um… I’ve had a way of trying to see a real crocodile because I hadn’t ever seen a real crocodile in my lifetime.

DAVID WEBER: Mr Newman says he decided on Monday night after he’d had a few beers that he might go into the wildlife park.

He says he was looking for two crocodiles he’d seen before.

MICHAEL NEWMAN: So I kept on walking around and I seen this really big alligator – the five metre one -over the fence, and he wasn’t far from the fence and I tried putting my hand through the fence to just feel it, the skin, what the skin feels like. So I couldn’t reach it and I thought to myself ‘Well, I’ll jump the fence and go from behind its tail and pat it and sit on its back’.

DAVID WEBER: That decision nearly cost him his life.

Fatso the Crocodile weighs about 800 kilograms.

He did not react well to having a strange man in his pen, as Mr Newman explains.

MICHAEL NEWMAN: Before I even just slightly touched its back, it already had me. It grabbed my leg here. Yeah I got a bandage on and it’s really like severe bites – all the skin here was ripped off and um, put a big hole through the sides of my leg here and I think they stitched it up.

DAVID WEBER: Michael Newman says the crocodile lost interest in him and went for his torch, and this gave him time to climb out of the enclosure.

MICHAEL NEWMAN: Then I’ve jumped the fence, and I kept on walking around in circles trying to get out.

Then I went to another fence and as I grabbed onto the other fence I’m thinking ‘If I climb this one, I’m out of here’, another croc’s come out and gone “ROAR” and I thought ‘Shit, that’s the wrong way out of here’.

And I’m walking and walking and I went past this incubating place, where they’re incubating the crocodile eggs. It was all lit up and they’re making babies in the eggs there. Then I looked over to my left and I seen the city, the lights, and then I remembered the way I got in.

So that way I went out and I climbed out that way and I felt the blood splurting out of my leg and as I’m putting pressure on my leg, I can feel on the side of all my kneecap that it’s all cracked and shattered.

DAVID WEBER: Now he’s been through several drips of antibiotics to combat any potential disease.

Malcolm Douglas, who runs the park, says the man’s lucky to be alive.

MALCOLM DOUGLAS: What can you do?

If someone wants to break into something, wouldn’t matter whether you had, we had triple… Well, we had three lots of fencing, he basically got through, it wouldn’t matter what you did. If you were that sort of person, there’s not a lot you can do about it is there?

They want to do something brave, they want to do something stupid, they want to do something to tell their mates. It would’ve been a shocking way to die and it would’ve been incredibly upsetting for me and our staff and family, and especially the whole of Broome. We don’t want things like this to happen.

DAVID WEBER: Fatso the crocodile is seemingly oblivious to his new-found fame.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: David Weber.

via PM – Man narrowly escapes drunken spree in croc pen 14/07/2010.

By the luck of the draw, or rather the lack thereof, a fisherman survived an attack by a grizzly bear last weekend.

Conditions conspired against two brothers out fishing as they hiked along the south fork of Fish Creek near Union Pass last Saturday, said Mark Gocke, Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman. For one, they were hiking up-wind, so their scent was trailing behind them. When they saw bear tracks on the trail, the men started making noise to alert any bears that might be around.  But the sound of the rushing river drowned their noise, and all of sudden there was a startled grizzly in the middle of the trail.

“It was a classic surprise [bear] encounter,” Gocke said.

The bear charged one of the men, who tried to pull a can of bear spray from his pants, but everything happened so quickly he was unable to use it. The bear knocked him down and bit him on the inside of the thigh. The bear also bit into the can of bear spray, which started spraying and scared the animal off. The man escaped the encounter with a couple of puncture wounds on his leg. He was treated and released from the Dubois Clinic the same day.

Gocke noted that reports of bear activity appear to be proliferating in southeastern Bridger-Teton National Forest and into Shoshone National Forest. Bears have been troubling livestock and getting into trash in the area. A troublesome bear was removed from Yellowstone National Park and sent to a zoo last week after rummaging through some tents and gnawing on a generator.

Meanwhile, the bears seem to be steering clear of Jackson, according to Gocke. He said that there were a number of bear sightings in and around town a month ago, but since then they’ve been absent. Gocke attributes the bears’ absence to the use of bear-resistant garbage bins and other bear deterrent efforts.

via Planet News Article, Jackson Hole Wy | Fisherman escapes grizz attack | 7/14/2010.

Lincoln Park — A 5-year-old boy was found dead this morning in his home in the 1500 block of Empire, believed to have been mauled to death by a dog or dogs in the home.

Police Chief Thomas Karnes said the mother of Kyle Holland called police around 9:30 a.m. today when she found her son dead in an upstairs bedroom. The mother, Karnes said, told police she put her son to bed around 10:30-11 p.m. Sunday. He is believed to have been deceased for several hours before police arrived. Authorities described his wounds as “significant.”

“It was sometime during the night that this had taken place,” Karnes said. “It appears the child was attacked by an animal.”

Authorities took two dogs from the home — a 35-pound Labrador mix and the other, a 90-pound male dog described by the owner as a husky/German shepherd mix. The dogs belong to the live-in boyfriend of the boy’s mother.

“It’s been described as a wolf hybrid, but the owner denies that,” Karnes said.

Police have ruled the death a homicide. An autopsy will be performed Tuesday. Anyone with information is asked to call police at (313) 381-1800.

via Dog attack suspected in 5-year-old boy’s death | detnews.com | The Detroit News.

NAPLES — Beside Alligator Alley in Golden Gate, there is a canal that locals have named “the Crystal.”

Tracy Cusick, 39, and Chris Kight, 49, parked their van and set their white plastic chairs underneath a shade tree beside the Crystal, their favorite swimming hole, to enjoy some “tranquility.”

Cars repeatedly swoosh by on the interstate, but the trees act as a buffer between the couple and civilization.

“Normally when they drive past they, blow their horn at us,” Kight said.

In some places of the canal, the clear water makes it easy to see the bottom. Fish dash by and the surface of the water sometimes ripples as they go. In other parts, which Kight thinks can be as deep as 40 feet, the water is mysterious and dark.

Cusick and Kight have visited the Crystal to swim, fish and meet with friends for about 20 years, but they are worried they may have to fight to keep the swimming hole open after a gruesome alligator attack on Sunday left a young man without a hand.

Tim Delano, 18, was attacked by a 10-foot alligator while swimming in the canal with friends Sunday evening. The gator clamped its mouth around Delano’s left hand and then severed it when the teen got away.

Friends drove Delano a couple of miles to get help. Delano was airlifted to Lee Memorial Hospital, where he is recovering. A tracker, sent by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, later trapped and killed the gator.

Delano wants people to stop swimming at the Crystal. “I hope they shut it down, so no accidents like this will happen again,” he said.

Kight said what happened to Delano was a first.

“It was a freak accident,” Kight said.

Although Cusick and Kight were the only mid-afternoon swimmers at the Crystal Monday, Kight said there were about 75 people there Sunday.

People were listening to music, barbecuing and swimming in the canal, according to the couple.

“It’s just a hangout,” Kight said.

Parents bring their children to swim and fish.

“The kids are never unattended,” Cusick said.

The day of the accident, Kight and Cusick left before it got dark, around 7 p.m., because they won’t swim in the Crystal past sunset.

“A gator feeds at night like a shark does,” Kight said.

Unlike Delano, they have seen gators in the waters before. “Any canal you go in there’s a chance,” Kight said.

Kight learned what happened to Delano from a television news report later that night. He knew it was the Crystal right away.

“I recognized a tree,” Kight said.

There’s still a dried pool of blood where Delano stood after he got out of the water. Kight pointed it out on the dirt road. He said they are glad Delano survived, but they’re worried their favorite swimming hole won’t.

“It would really bother me if they shut it down. There aren’t places to swim,” Cusick said.

She thinks it might be a good idea to post signs warning people about the potential dangers or to let them know what to do to stay safe.

“Everyone knows anyway, but to refresh their memories,” Cusick said.

But if there is a push to ban people from swimming in the Crystal, Kight said he’d start a petition to fight it.

“There will be a lot of people to sign it,” he said. “It’s the last swimming hole we have in Naples.”

via PHOTOS: Alligator attack doesn’t deter locals from swimming in the Crystal » Naples Daily News.

The victim of an alligator attack could have his hand sewn back on after police retrieved it from the animal’s stomach.

Timothy Delano, 18, was attacked by the 10ft beast while swimming with two friends yesterday evening in a canal at Naples, Florida.

He was today recovering in hospital after being airlifted there and doctors are hopeful that they may be able reattach his hand.

Vicious: An American alligator like the one that attacked Timothy Delano in Florida

His attacker was tracked down, killed and his stomach was ‘harvested’, said Gabriella Ferraro, a spokesman for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

She said of the mission to retrieve Mr Delano’s hand: ‘Our goal is always to make a person whole again.’

However, she warned that people should recognize that any fresh water body in Florida could have alligators.

She said those animals are most active at dawn and dusk.

via Alligator victim could get back hand after police retrieve it from 10ft beast’s stomach | Mail Online.

GOLDEN GATE ESTATES — An 18-year-old Golden Gate Estates man, who lost his hand after an alligator attack in the Estates on Sunday night, may be getting back what he lost.

Timothy J. Delano, 18, was swimming in a drainage canal called “The Chrystal” near the intersection of Everglades Boulevard and 42nd Avenue when a 10-foot alligator bit his left hand off, said FWC spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro.

Delano and two companions fled the canal and went to a gas station at Wilson and Golden Gate boulevards to call 911 at approximately 9:30 p.m., said Collier Emergency Medical Services spokeswoman Cherie Wilson-Watson.

Delano was airlifted to the Lee Memorial Hospital trauma center in Fort Myers by Collier EMS, officials said.

Ferraro said a trapper was able to find the attacking alligator last night. The gator was “harvested” and the victim’s hand was found in its stomach.

Attempts could be made to reattach the Delano’s hand, Ferraro said.

“Our goal is always to make a person whole again,” she said.

Delano is in good condition, reported Lee Memorial spokeswoman Pat Dolce.

Ferraro said people should recognize that any fresh water body in Florida could have alligators. She said those animals are most active at dawn and dusk.

via Alligator bites 18-year-old’s hand off; gator caught and hand recovered » Naples Daily News.

NAPLES, Fla. — A man is hospitalized in southwest Florida after an alligator bit off his left hand.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro said the man was swimming with three friends in a Collier County canal around 9:30 p.m. Sunday when the alligator attacked.

The men swam to shore and drove to a gas station, where they called 911.

A helicopter flew the victim to a Fort Myers hospital. His name was not released and his condition early Monday was not known.

Ferraro said the 10 foot 2 inch alligator was captured. The hand was retrieved from its stomach and flown to the hospital.

Wildlife officials advise people to stay out of freshwater canals and lakes this time of year because alligators are more active, especially around dawn and dusk.

via Man Loses Hand In Alligator Attack – Orlando News Story – WKMG Orlando.

DURANGO, Colo. – Colorado Division of Wildlife officers shot and killed a bear early Saturday morning that bit a man near the Animas River in Durango.

The victim said he was sleeping outside when he was bitten by a bear through his blanket at about 2:30 a.m.

He received a minor wound during the attack and was able to escape the bear by entering into a nearby building.

Officers from the DOW and the U.S. Department of Agriculture responded immediately with tracking dogs, which led officers directly to a male bear approximately three blocks from where the incident took place.

DOW officers shot and killed the animal.

The bear carcass was identified by several people who witnessed the incident as the bear that bit the man.

“A bear that bites a person – or loses its fear of people may be a serious threat to public safety,” said Patt Dorsey, area wildlife manager for the DOW in Durango.

“In the interest of public safety, we chose to remove this animal as quickly as possible.”

The carcass of the bear underwent a necropsy at Colorado State University. The stomach contents of the bear showed that the bear was using human-provided food sources.

A package of hamburger and an ice cream-container were found in the bear’s stomach.

People living in or visiting bear country are urged to eliminate access to all food sources.

The DOW says most bears sighted in residential areas within bear habitat do not cause damage. If a bear does not find food, it usually moves on.

via Bear that bit man sleeping outside killed – KDVR.