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Maria Hernandez's face brightened up when Chaplain Robert Gibbs walked into her room with his pit bull, Jake, by his side. This dog is beautiful, the 77-year-old nursing home resident at Trisun Healthcare said in Spanish. Man's best friend, she assured with a convinced smile and nod. But she hesitated in petting him. A pit bull bit her hand several years ago when she tried to pet it, she said. Now she's wary. Pit bulls are dangerous, she said. It's like having a gun in your hand, she compared. If so, then perhaps Jake is the cuddliest, most lovable metaphoric...

EVERY diplomat is taught that in their business, words are bullets. But no-one mentioned the role of fangs and fur. That is until Amanda Vanstone arrived in Italy as Australia's Ambassador. Along with her dog Gus. Diplomatic circles have been abuzz about Gus, Ambassador Vanstone's beloved Weimaraner and the dog's attack on Pakistan's envoy, Tasnim Aslam. But only now has it been confirmed officially. Why? Because Gus has struck again. In his first diplomatic foray, Gus bit Ms Aslam at an Australian reception in Rome hosted by Ms Vanstone, a former Howard government minister acknowledged for her own savage demeanour...

Italy is to scrap its blacklist of dangerous dogs, replacing it with a law making owners more responsible for their pet`s training and behaviour, Health Undersecretary Francesca Martini said Tuesday. The new law, which will come into effect in April, will wipe clean the current list of 17 breeds which are considered potentially dangerous, including Rottweilers, pit bull terriers, bull mastiffs and American bulldogs. Under the current law, owners of these breeds are required to keep them muzzled in public places and ensure that they pose no danger to others, while failure to respect the law can result in the...

TAMPA, FL -- Angel the pit bull received quit a bit of attention recently after her story exposed many people to her plight. She was tossed from a moving car and managed to move her malnourished body to a home while she waited to be rescued. She is making a tremendous recovery so she was able to lead Saturday's Pit Bulls Pounding the Pavement Parade at the corner of Bayshore and Bay To Bay Boulevard. She joined at least 40 other so called bully breeds and their owners for a 4 mile walk to promote a positive image for a...

Walking softly in bear territory may not be a good idea, but carrying a big stick certainly is -- when you're as brave as Jim West, that is. West was out walking alone with his dogs in the forest behind the gymkhana grounds near Green Lake early Saturday afternoon when he was attacked by a black bear. "I was looking for moose signs because my stepson has a limited entry tag," he said in an interview shortly after the incident. As they strolled along facing into the wind, West was calling out to his black labs, Shadow and Chopper, who...

SIOUX CITY -- It's a safe bet the passengers flying out of Sioux Gateway Airport this weekend didn't realize they were in the presence of what scientists hope will be the world's first commercially cloned dog. That's probably because the future canine -- set to be cloned from a pit bull named Booger -- was only four vials of skin cells carefully packaged inside an innocuous looking beige canister. The canister should be in Korea by now, but the journey started Friday in Siouxland when Jin Han Hong, Ph.D., of RNL Biostar Inc., picked up the vials from storage at...

<p>A plucky Rottweiler and a mother who made raucous noise by banging pots and pans are being credited with helping scare away a black bear who trapped four children in their tree house in a West Vancouver backyard.</p> <p>The unnamed pet, taking up a position between the tree and the bear, wouldn't budge during the incident earlier this week that prompted a tide of calls to West Vancouver police.</p>

She's a lucky dog indeed. The female pit bull brought to the Atlanta Humane Society on Wednesday with a hunting knife lodged in her skull is improving nicely from surgery and may soon be adopted into a new home. The 28-pound dog required three stitches on her head after the knife was removed, along with a couple on her side, the AHS said. She'll be spayed and kept for observation for a few days, but could be heading home next week, AHS president Carl E. Leveridge said. He has tried without luck to contact the dog's owner, and suspects that...

It was just before dawn on Friday, November 17, and Thurman Hensley's life was about to change. Making his way over the rocky terrain and thick patches of mountain laurel of his 250-acre property bordering the Shenandoah National Park, the seasoned hunter and expert marksman tracked his prey. Then, at 8:30am, with the sun shining brightly on the cool fall day, Hensley finally spotted his mark. He raised his muzzle loader, took aim, and fired the gun's single round. Through the cloud of smoke, the 60-year-old saw the animal lurch as his bullet penetrated its torso behind the shoulder. It...

DAYTON, Ohio - Local, state and federal authorities simultaneously raided seven kennels and a warehouse where they said dogfights were about to be staged, seizing 64 dogs and arresting two dozen suspects following a yearlong investigation. All of the dogs seized Saturday night in southwest Ohio will be euthanized because they were bred to fight, even if they appear friendly to people, said John Goodwin, deputy manager of animal fighting issues of Humane Society of the United States. He called it one of the largest dogfighting investigations in Ohio history. "It's heartbreaking. You have a female pit bull and she's...

TORONTO — The bulk of the Ontario government’s controversial ban on pit bulls has survived a constitutional challenge. But two key elements were struck down in a ruling issued today by Superior Court Justice Thea Herman. Herman declared the definition of a pit bull terrier unconstitutional, and also struck down a provision that allows the province to use certificates from veterinarians to prove a dog is in fact a pit bull. Attorney General Michael Bryant says the province got “99 per cent” of what it wanted out of today’s decision. Lawyer Clayton Ruby, who led the challenge, said in a...

Four Tulip 15cm Bamboo 2.75 needles were tragically dismembered today leaving the sole survivor speechless.The departed are believed to be victim to a vicious attack perpetrated by an innocent and cute looking dog that goes by the name "Pierre". Pierre, aka "The Yarn Snob", is well known for his ability to destroy natural and luxury yarns, has now apparently progressed to the more evil crime of needle-torturing. The below image shows the wreckage he can cause to both needles and yarn in a mere hour.... The spotty ladybug sock is currently in a stable condition, after being taken to intensive...

On a late December day Tobie Hansen was running his 12-dog team on a trail in the Kasilof area when he met with an unexpected attacker. A moose, spooked by Hansen’s team, reared up on her hind legs and then weaved through his dog team as she tried to stomp on his dogs. Hansen ran his team as fast as he could, but no matter how fast the team ran they couldn’t escape the moose. “She’d totally spank me in a dog race,” Hansen said. After running through his dog team two or three times, the moose turned its attention...

TORONTO — Time Magazine has chosen Prime Minister Stephen Harper its 2006 Canadian Newsmaker of the Year. Contributing editor Stephen Handelman writes that the prime minister who was "once dismissed as a doctrinaire backroom tactician with no experience in government has emerged as a warrior in power." The magazine says Mr. Harper defied conventional wisdom about how to lead a minority government. It says he slashed more than $1-billion worth of federal programs, reshuffled the federal bureaucracy, and reopened the wounds of the national unity debate by supporting Quebec's right to declare itself a “nation.” At the same time, Time...

Waterloo man held in Tamil Tiger missile plot DIANNE WOOD, BRIAN CALDWELL AND BRIAN WHITWHAM BRENT DAVIS, RECORD STAFF Suresh Sriskandarajah is led from Superior Court in Kitchener yesterday. He is among 4 Canadians arrested in connection with an attempt to buy arms from an undercover agent. KITCHENER (Aug 23, 2006) A man from Waterloo is one of nine suspects accused of conspiring to help a terrorist group in an escalating conflict in Sri Lanka. Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, made an unexpected appearance in Superior Court in Kitchener yesterday and was remanded in custody until Friday morning. The former University of...

A Waterloo man and his dog made a harrowing escape from the clutches of a vicious black bear Thursday while portaging near Wawa, Ont. Tom Tilley, 55, killed the nearly 200-pound bear by jumping on its back and stabbing the aggressive animal with a six-inch hunting knife after his dog alerted him and distracted the bear. "Love is a very powerful emotion and my thought right away was, 'You're not going to kill my dog,' " Tilley said yesterday. "I really consider my dog a hero. Without that first warning I would have had the bear clamping down on my...

Court Report May 15 1:15pm Here is my summary of the morning of May 15. The courtroom holds about 40 people. Packed. Wish it was bigger. Clayton Ruby is great. Much drier in this environment than in front of the cameras. Much more of a quiet and respectful environment. Still manages to get in a dig at the government occasionally. Refers a lot to case law related to his three arguments. He uses cases that have nothing to do with dogs to illustrate the concepts. He started by reviewing the pit bull definition, the restrictions and regulations, the penalties, and...

When the family and friends of Sgt. Rick Herrema, who died last week in Iraq, gather for his funeral in a Hudsonville church Friday, protesters from a Kansas church plan to march outside, claiming God is punishing the nation for condoning homosexuality. The state Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved bills restricting such demonstrations at funerals, but they cannot be enacted into law in time to regulate Friday's planned protest or a demonstration the group plans Saturday at the funeral of a soldier from Mecosta County. ~snip~ Rebekah Phelps-Davis, an attorney and daughter of the Rev. Fred Phelps, who has organized...

Lot of Folks Can’t Tell Left From Right By: Rachel Marsden If Liberal leader, Paul Martin, ends up shopping around his resume after Monday’s election, it will be mainly because the one thing all Canadians have in common is that we’re fed up with endless Liberal scandal. But a Harper victory might also indicate that a lot of Canadians have held those “scary conservative values” all along, but just didn’t know it until now. I’m serious. In fact, a 2002 Compas poll found that over half of Canadians are oblivious to the differences between the political “left” and “right”. Some...

A little Christmas story. It is, to my mind, as outrageously sad as it is joyous. It is about a dog. His name is Sherman, and he turned 1 on Dec. 16. He spent his birthday on death row in the Denver dog pound. Sherman, of course, is a pit bull. Year's end, I think, is a good time to reflect on what has transpired the previous 350-odd days. And we ought to revisit, if only for a second, the ban on pit bulls in Denver. Everyone is moved with each story of a pit bull mauling. There is hue...