Free Republic

It is not uncommon for people to use guns to defend against aggressive dogs.  In this case, it was the owner who shot the dog, so there are few legal complications.   What is interesting is that only a little over a year ago, the possession of the gun in Chicago would likely have been illegal.   From cbslocal : The 26-year-old man was in lawful possession of the weapon and will not face charges, according to police. All handguns had to be registered in Chicago, and if the registration lapsed on handguns, you were not allowed to re-register them.   A...

In the past week, four bears were shot in claimed bear attacks in Montana.   There are few details at this time.  The black bear shooting has been ruled self defense, while the three grizzly shootings are still under investigation.  It does not appear that any of the shooters were hurt, so all four gun uses appear to have been effective.  No bear spray was reported used at this time.   In this article, the grizzly shooting is still under investigation, while the black bear shooting has been ruled self defense. The grizzly was shot and killed in a remote area...

Every time you hear the haunting honking of the geese overhead, think of the one chant Obama has never been able to throw away: “USA!” “USA!” As usual, the Creator will look after the rest. If, like me, you are blessed enough to live in the Great North East, every day now you can see and hear the geese making their exuberant annual trek south for the winter. There’s something ineffably haunting in the sound of their honking. For me their V-formation flights and haunting honks kept me spellbound before even discovering the inspiration that comes from the science that...

A jury in Ashville, North Carolina has found a man not guilty of taking a bear out of season, and of discharging a firearm in city limits, by reason of self defense.   Ernest James Page had always  claimed that he shot the 150-175 pound bear in self defense.  The jury discussed the issue for over two hours, but unanimously agree with Page.  It is significant that Page went to a jury trial, using a court appointed public defender, and won.  The District Attorney justified charging Page with these remarks: Moore said he has dismissed some cases in the past...

Dogs and guns have been an effective crime stopping combination for as long as people have possessed them.   They were proven effective once again in Butler County, Ohio.   The suspect broke out a basement window to gain access to the rural home of Brian Hiner.    Brian woke to the alarmed barks of his dogs, which appear to black and golden Labradors.  He then heard the intruder coming up the basement stairs, called the sheriff, and held Michael Roberts, pictured above, at gunpoint for the responding deputies. The deputies arrived, and took Roberts into custody.    Somehow, Roberts managed to escape...

Black bears are large, potentially dangerous animals.  A retired wildlife officer was forced to shoot one in his Florida home on 22 October, in Lake County. The bear broke though a window and entered the home.   When the man yelled at it, it turned and came toward him.  That is when he fired, at a distance that he estimated at 10 feet. From wftv.com: “I was very scared. I figured when I yelled it would take off, but it didn’t. It just looked right at me and started coming toward the window, where I was at, so that’s when...

You can watch a BBC video of this dogs event in Malaysia by clicking on the "Enza Ferreri Blog" link above. Malay Muslims have discovered dogs: KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 — A group of Muslims get acquainted with a dog at the ‘I want to touch a dog’ event at 1Utama’s central park earlier this morning. Around 200 dogs and their owners volunteered for the event, which sought to break cultural norms against dogs among Malaysia’s majority Malays. The video on the Malay Mail Online website quoted above is a mixture of people who surround a dog as if they'd...

My daughter was walking her precious teacup Pomeranian Sushi on her leash yesterday afternoon near her boyfriend's house in L.A. when an unrestrained husky was let out its front door. The husky charged little 5 lb. Sushi, picked her up biting and shaking and slamming her into the side of a car. My daughter jumped on top of the husky and pried her little pup out of its jaws and suffered bite wounds in the process. She rushed Sushi to the emergency vet where she died from internal injuries about 8 hours later. Needless to say, my daughter is absolutely...

Who would have thought that it would be illegal to defend children from a poisonous snake?  This is where the insanity of extreme gun restrictions have brought us.   In Florida, a mother was at a school event during a football practice session.  A water moccasin was discovered on the practice field, but attempts to kill it with sticks were not successful.  From newsherald.com: April Dawn DeMarco, 30, was arrested for discharging a .380-caliber handgun on the practice football field of Bay High School, 300 E. 15th St., during practice last week for the local Pop Warner football team. Demarco...

Tail-wagging love really does conquer all: James Wathen, a terminally-ill patient at Baptist Health Corbin in Corbin, Kentucky, had stopped eating and had become weak and frail. His condition kept deteriorating, and he was barely able to talk. Wathen managed to whisper to a nurse his wish to see his dog, Bubba, just one more time. The 73-year-old hadn’t seen his one-eyed Chihuahua with no bottom teeth since he arrived by ambulance at the Whitley County hospital six weeks earlier. “One of our social workers realized it was mourning the loss of the dog that was making our patient even...

No-one doubts that there will be people who hate Jews. The most obvious example is devout and observant Muslims, who are commanded by their religion to do so. They are also ordered to hate Christians, but for some reason the latter injunction doesn't evoke even a fraction of the emotion inspired by the former, despite the fact that an infinitely higher number of Christians than Jews suffer the consequences of this today. Incidentally - this is not relevant to the rest of the article -, I've found what I consider a better way to distinguish between Muslims of various...

On 26 July, 2014, 57-year-old Brian D. Murphy defended himself against a charging grizzly in Glacier National Park.  The case is interesting for a number of reasons.  Two months after the attack, Murphy was charged with discharging a firearm in Glacier Park, a misdemeanor that carries a $500 fine.   On 9 October, a motion to dismiss the charge was put forward by the U.S. Attorney's Office after Murphy's attorney said that they would raise the  defense of self-defense.    Judge Keith Strong granted the motion last Thursday.  From missoulian.com: The U.S. Attorney’s Office has dismissed the charge against 57-year-old Brian...

TUSTIN – A quiet, residential Old Towne street was greeted with an unfamiliar sight Tuesday morning after an emu escaped its home and ran into traffic before returning safely. Police officials responded to a call of a loose ostrich or emu around 11:25 a.m. in the 300 block of 6th Street.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Madrid health authorities have put down Ebola patient Teresa Romero Ramos' dog, Excalibur, despite protests. The animal was sedated prior to euthanasia to avoid its suffering, the Health Ministry of Madrid said in a statement. More than 330,000 people had signed a petition on Change.org to save Excalibur. Ramos, a nurse's assistant, is in isolation after testing positive for the deadly Ebola virus earlier this week. Health authorities worried her dog may have also become infected. Which warrants the questions: Can dogs really get Ebola and spread it to humans? What about other animals? In Africa, Ebola infection "has been...

I spent nearly five years in Panama, working for the Army.   It was a formative experience that forever shaped my life.   I intend to visit Panama again someday.  While there, I met and became friends with Dr. Nickolas D. Smythe.   We had a number of conversations about science, biology, and research.   I always have appreciated being around exceptionally smart people, and Dr. Smythe was one.   I have lost track of him, and I hope that he is doing well. His research was centered around the domestication of the agouti.   It was a very ambitious project, as the number of...

There were no wild turkeys in Wisconsin when I was growing up.   They had been wiped out by the 1920s.   The common wisdom was that they could not handle the winters in Northern Wisconsin, but they might be re-introduced into the Southern half of the State. The "common wisdom" was wrong.   I took the above picture this morning, on the way to my parents former property, which now belongs to my Brother.   He had stalked a trophy tom turkey there just 3 days before.   Even though turkeys have become plentiful in Wisconsin, you are still required to apply for...

Three recent cases of bear attack in Wyoming illustrate the flaws in studies purporting to show that bear spray is superior to firearms as a defense against bears.    On September 20th, 2014 the following incident occurred.  From county10.com: (Dubois, Wyo.) – The Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service both confirmed today that a third bear incident occurred this past weekend, on Saturday in northwestern Fremont County. In this incident, Lander Large Carnivore Specialist Brian DeBolt said a Grizzly bear was shot and killed “in an act of self defense” in the East...

Reporter Nelufar Hedayat looks at the terrible conditions dogs are forced to live in just to keep the black market in dog meat supplied A shocking new TV documentary will reveal how hundreds pet dogs are being stolen every day in Vietnam for the lucrative dog meat trade. Unreported World shows disturbing evidence of how dogs are stolen, force-fed, kept in cramped cages and slaughtered for meals. Here, reporter Nelufar Hedayat exclusively reveals the horrors she witnessed. The smell of dog and filth permeated the whole room along with frantic, high-pitched barking from the hundreds of dogs crammed into the...

In a dramatic video from Maine, a neighbor uses his shotgun as a club to drive off Pitt bulls attacking a neighbors Basset hound.   It is a bad idea to use your firearm as a club.   The firearm may be damaged, and not operable when you need it.   In the video, the man in the blue shirt (MIBS) is showing clubbing the attacking dogs with the shotgun, then shooting one of them. Link to video That is what is shown, until you look at the time stamps.   When you check those, it is clear that the man in the...

ETOWAH, N.C. -- A 79-year-old woman is in the hospital after she says she was attacked by three dogs as she worked in her yard. According to deputies, the attack happened Friday morning, after the dogs' shock collars for their invisible fence failed.