A Chihuahua died Sunday afternoon in the jaws of two pit bulls after they entered its south Richmond home and approached its owner’s newborn child, police say.

“The pit bulls apparently entered the residence through an open front door and approached a 22-day-old infant, whom the mom had been feeding,” said Dan Barrett, deputy director of the Contra Costa Animal Services department. “The family has a Chihuahua that confronted them. Of course, they focused their attention on the small dog.”

The larger animals seized the Chihuahua in their jaws and carried it out of the house, on the 300 block of South 7th Street. Authorities later found it dead nearby.

Richmond police officers responding to several 911 calls about the attack beginning at 4:35 p.m., and tracked the pit bulls to a home on the 300 block of South 4th Street, Sgt. Bisa French said. No people were hurt.

The owner did not surrender the dogs for euthanization, meaning Animal Services will conduct an investigation and may hold a hearing in a future to decide what to do with them.

County ordinance allows owners of animals accused of violent behavior an administrative hearing before the agency imposes fines, monitoring requirement or euthanization.

The family of the Chihuahua could not be reached for comment.

via Chihuahua died defending newborn from pit bulls in Richmond – San Jose Mercury News.

Thousands of scientists are protesting over a decision to prosecute italian seismologists for manslaughter – by failing to accurately predict the L'Aquila earthquake.

Six days before the magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit last April, there was a meeting of the Commissione Grandi Rischi – the Commission for High Risks – at which it was decided that there was not sufficient risk of a major quake to justify a serious alarm.

And because of this decision, two weeks ago the L’Aquila Prosecutor’s office decided to charge seven members of the Commission, other scientists and and civil protection officials with manslaughter through gross negligence.

Nearly four thousand scientists have now signed an open letter to Italian president Giorgio Napolitano protesting about the decision to prosecute.

“The allegations against the scientists are completely unfounded,” it reads. “Years of research worldwide have shown that there is currently no scientifically accepted method for short-term earthquake prediction that can reliably be used by Civil Protection authorities for rapid and effective emergency actions.”

Over 300 people were killed in the earthquake, and the case has been launched in response to claims that people would have fled the area if they'd been warned.

“Those involved were highly qualified individuals who should have provided the public with different answers,” L'Aquila's chief prosecutor, Alfredo Rossini, told La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. “People died and we could not just ignore this line of investigation.”

Richard C Aster, president of the Seismological Society of America, says the decision to prosecute shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what science can and cannot do.

“There is currently no scientifically validated method for short term earthquake prediction, much less one that could reliably be used by government authorities for rapid and effective warnings in Italy or elsewhere,” he says.

“Pursuing legal action against members of the seismological community after an earthquake is unprecedented and reflects a misunderstanding of the science of earthquakes.”

via Seismologists charged with manslaughter – Death by earthquake | TechEye.

BEIJING — Tigers mauled a man to death after he entered their enclosure with his son at a northern Chinese wildlife park, police and a park spokesman said Monday.

Staff at the Qingling Wildlife Park in the city of Xi'an rescued the son Sunday afternoon after discovering his father lying on the ground as several tigers stood nearby, said the park's spokesman, Jiao Congling.

The man suffered neck injuries and was declared dead after being taken to a hospital, Jiao said.

A preliminary investigation showed a park worker had failed to properly close the gates leading to the enclosure and the unidentified pair simply walked right in, Xi'an police spokesman Li Yanrong said.

The park staff member responsible for controlling the gates was detained for questioning, Li said.

The father, 45, had taken his 17-year-old son to the park as a reward for completing a grueling university entrance exam. The teenager suffered minor injuries, the official Xinhua News agency said.

Jiao said the park has 50 tigers, only five of which were in the enclosure at the time of the attack. Staff members drove vehicles in to scare off the tigers before attending to the pair, he said.

via The Associated Press: Tigers maul man to death at China wildlife park.

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STUART, Fla. —  Employees of a Stuart hospital are being investigated for photos taken of a patient being treated for a shark bite who later died.

In a statement released Friday, officials said Martin Memorial Health Systems has launched an internal investigation regarding photos taken while Stephen Schafer was being treated in the emergency center on Feb. 3. The Stuart man was later pronounced dead.

Hospital spokesman Miguel Coty said “it appears photographs were taken of the patient’s injuries.” The investigation will focus on whether employees e-mailed those photos to other people.

The investigation was launched immediately after the hospital learned that employees may have violated patient privacy laws.

Coty said Schafer

s family was notified of the investigation.