Crazy man charged with animal cruelty after massacring 81 pets in California community

This photo provided by the Monterey County Sheriff's Office on Sept. 6, 2024, shows the scene in the home of Vicente Arroyo, suspected of killing dozens of animals. (Monterey County Sheriff's Office via AP)
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Updated 07 September 2024
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Crazy man charged with animal cruelty after massacring 81 pets in California community

  • Vicente Arroyo faces animal cruelty and other charges for massacring 81 animals, including miniature horses, goats and birds in a California neighborhood
  • Police confiscated 15 firearms, including high-powered assault rifles, and 2,000 rounds of various calibers of ammunition from the 39-year-old suspect

SAN FRANCISCO, California: A man suspected of going on a three-hour shooting rampage in northern California and killing 81 animals, including miniature horses, goats and chickens, pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty and other charges.
Vicente Arroyo, 39, made his first court appearance Thursday after Monterey County Sheriff deputies arrested him earlier in the week for allegedly using several weapons to shoot the animals being housed in pens and cages on a lot in the small community of Prunedale.
The animal owners do not want to be identified or speak with the media, Monterey County Sheriff Commander Andres Rosas told The Associated Press Friday.
“I went out there, and it was a pretty traumatic scene. These were people’s pets,” he said.
One of the miniature horses belonged to the owner of the lot where the animals were housed, the other 80 belonged to someone who rented the land to house their pets, Rosas said.
According to court records, Arroyo was charged with killing 14 goats, nine chickens, seven ducks, five rabbits, a guinea pig and 33 parakeets and cockatiels. Arroyo is also charged with killing a pony named Lucky and two miniature horses named Estrella and Princessa, KSBW-TV reported.




This photo provided by the Monterey County Sheriff's Office on Sept. 6, 2024, shows some of the weapons confiscated from the home of Vicente Arroyo, suspected of killing dozens of animals. (Monterey County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Some animals survived the shooting that lasted several hours but had to be euthanized because of the severity of their injuries, Rosas said.
Rosas said Arroyo lived in a camper in a vineyard next to the lot where the animals were kept and that a motive is not yet known.
His attorney, William Pernik, did not immediately respond to a telephone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Pernik raised doubts about his mental competency during Thursday’s trial, KSVW-TV reported. The judge ordered Arroyo, who is being held on a $1 million bail, to undergo a mental evaluation.
The court will get an update on Arroyo’s mental status in two weeks, the television station reported.
Authorities received multiple 911 calls around 3:25 a.m. Tuesday reporting shots being fired in Prunedale, an incorporated community about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the city of Salinas, he said.




This photo provided by the Monterey County Sheriff's Office on Sept. 6, 2024, shows some of the items confiscated from the home of Vicente Arroyo, suspected of killing dozens of animals. (Monterey County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Deputies who arrived on the scene could hear shots being fired, and a shelter-in-place was ordered for a five-mile radius.
Monterey County S.W.A.T. members were sent in, and the sheriff’s office also requested drone assistance from the nearby Seaside Fire Department and Gonzales Police Department, Rosas said.
Officers in an armored vehicle arrested Arroyo without incident, he said.
Deputies found a crashed pickup truck and recovered eight firearms, including long rifles, shotguns and handguns, at the scene. After executing a search warrant on his camper, they found another seven firearms, including an illegal AK-47 assault rifle, two ghost guns, and about 2,000 rounds of various calibers of ammunition, Rosas said.
Prosecutors charged Arroyo with dozens of charges involving animal cruelty, willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, illegal possession of an assault weapon, vandalism, drug possession and making criminal threats and terrorizing while being in possession of a firearm as a felon.
“This is obviously the most horrific animal cruelty case we’ve ever seen in this county, I’m sure,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon told KSBW-TV after the Thursday hearing.


Thai baby hippo Internet star draws thousands to her zoo

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Thai baby hippo Internet star draws thousands to her zoo

  • Moo Deng, whose name means “bouncing pig” in Thai, has millions of fans on social media following her clumsily charming adventures, including trying to nibble her handler despite still lacking teeth
CHONBURI: Thailand’s latest Internet celebrity, baby hippo “Moo Deng,” is challenging her keepers with the unexpectedly big crowds she is drawing to her zoo, two hours south of the capital Bangkok.
Moo Deng, whose name means “bouncing pig” in Thai, has millions of fans on social media following her clumsily charming adventures, including trying to nibble her handler despite still lacking teeth.
“Normally on weekdays and in the rainy season — which is a low season — we’d be getting around 800 visitors each day,” said Narungwit Chodchoy, director of the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province.
But the zoo is now getting 3,000 to 4,000 people on weekdays, and welcomed 20,000 visitors over the weekend, he said — most of them lining up to see Moo Deng.
“Moo Deng fever means we will have organize better so all visitors can see her,” Narungwit said.
On Monday morning, the pink-cheeked hippo, whose siblings are called Pork Stew and Sweet Pork, was sitting happily in a bowl of vegetables and other snacks.
“I left home in Bangkok from 6:30 this morning just to come and see Moo Deng,” said 45-year-old Ekaphak Mahasawad. “I’m only here to see her.”
Moo Deng’s grandmother, Malee, recently celebrated her 59th birthday as Thailand’s oldest hippo.

Shy penguin wins New Zealand’s bird election after campaign filled with memes and tattoos

Updated 16 September 2024
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Shy penguin wins New Zealand’s bird election after campaign filled with memes and tattoos

  • The hoiho — a noisy, smelly and shy bird believed to be the world’s rarest penguin — was propelled to its second victory by a star-studded campaign

WELLINGTON: It’s noisy, smelly, shy — and New Zealand’s bird of the year.
The hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, won the country’s fiercely fought avian election on Monday, offering hope to supporters of the endangered bird that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the species.
It followed a campaign for the annual Bird of the Year vote that was absent the foreign interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls. Instead, campaigners in the long-running contest sought votes in the usual ways — launching meme wars, seeking celebrity endorsements and even getting tattoos to prove their loyalty.
More than 50,000 people voted in the poll, 300,000 fewer than last year, when British late night host John Oliver drove a humorous campaign for the pūteketeke — a “deeply weird bird” which eats and vomits its own feathers – securing a landslide win.
This year, the number of votes cast represented 10 percent of the population of New Zealand — a country where nature is never far away and where a love of native birds is instilled in citizens from childhood.
“Birds are our heart and soul,” said Emma Rawson, who campaigned for the fourth-placed ruru, a small brown owl with a melancholic call. New Zealand’s only native mammals are bats and marine species, putting the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved — and often rare.
This year’s victor, the hoiho — its name means “noise shouter” in the Māori language — is a shy bird thought to be the world’s rarest penguin. Only found on New Zealand’s South and Chatham islands — and on subantarctic islands south of the country — numbers have dropped perilously by 78 percent in the past 15 years.
“This spotlight couldn’t have come at a better time. This iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa before our eyes,” Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird — the organization that runs the poll — said in a press release, using the Māori name for New Zealand. Despite intensive conservation efforts on land, she said, the birds drown in nets and sea and can’t find enough food.
“The campaign has raised awareness, but what we really hope is that it brings tangible support,” said Charlie Buchan, campaign manager for the hoiho. But while the bird is struggling, it attracted a star billing in the poll: celebrity endorsements flew in from English zoologist Jane Goodall, host of the Amazing Race Phil Keoghan, and two former New Zealand prime ministers.
Aspiring bird campaign managers — this year ranging from power companies to high school students — submit applications to Forest & Bird for the posts. The hoiho bid was run by a collective of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, where the bird is found on mainland New Zealand, making it the highest-powered campaign of the 2024 vote.
“I do feel like we were the scrappy underdog,” said Emily Bull, a spokesperson for the runner-up campaign, for the karure — a small, “goth” black robin only found on New Zealand’s Chatham Island.
The karure’s bid was directed by the students’ association at Victoria University of Wellington, prompting a fierce skirmish on the college campus when the student magazine staged an opposing campaign for the kororā, or little blue penguin.
The rivalry provoked a meme war and students in bird costumes. Several people got tattoos. When the magazine’s campaign secured endorsements of the city council and local zoo, Bull despaired for the black robin’s bid.
But the karure — which has performed a real-life comeback since the 1980s, with conservation efforts increasing the species from five birds to 250 — took second place overall.
This weekend as Rawson wrapped up her campaign for the ruru, she took her efforts directly to the people, courting votes at a local dog park. The veteran campaign manager who has directed the bids for other birds in past years was rewarded by the ruru placing fourth in the poll, her best ever result.
“I have not been in human political campaigning before,” said Rawson, who is drawn to the competition because of the funds and awareness it generates. The campaign struck a more sedate tone this year, she added.
“There’s been no international interference, even though that was actually a lot of fun,” she said, referring to Oliver’s high-profile campaign.
It was not the only controversy the election has seen. While anyone in the world can vote, Forest & Bird now requires electors to verify their ballots after foreign interference plagued the contest before. In 2018, Australian pranksters cast hundreds of fraudulent votes in favor of the shag.
The following year, Forest & Bird was forced to clarify that a flurry of votes from Russia appeared to be from legitimate bird-lovers.
While campaigns are fiercely competitive, managers described tactics more akin to pro wrestling — in which fights are scripted — than divisive political contests.
“Sometimes people want to make posts that are kind of like beefy with you and they’ll always message you and be like, hey, is it okay if I post this?” Bull said. “There is a really sweet community. It’s really wholesome.”


Tech billionaire returns to Earth after first private spacewalk

Updated 15 September 2024
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Tech billionaire returns to Earth after first private spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers.
SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.
They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles (740 kilometers) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles (1,408 kilometers) following Tuesday’s liftoff.
Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th. Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.
During Thursday’s commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open barely a half-hour. Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand new spacesuit followed by Gillis, who was knee high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes. Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week.
The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of that time was needed to depressurize the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air. Even SpaceX’s Anna Menon and Scott “Kidd” Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits.
SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars.
This was Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more still ahead under his personally financed space exploration program named Polaris after the North Star. He paid an undisclosed sum for his first spaceflight in 2021, taking along contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
For the just completed so-called Polaris Dawn mission, the founder and CEO of the Shift4 credit card-processing company shared the cost with SpaceX. Isaacman won’t divulge how much he spent.


A river otter attacks a child at a Seattle-area marina

Updated 15 September 2024
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A river otter attacks a child at a Seattle-area marina

  • River otters can be territorial and “like any wildlife, are inherently unpredictable,” officials said

BREMERTON, Washington: A river otter attacked a child at a Seattle-area marina, dragging the youngster from a dock and into the water before the mother rescued her child, wildlife officials said.
The child was pulled underwater and resurfaced after a few moments during the encounter Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at the Bremerton Marina in Kitsap County, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers said in a press release.
The otter continued to bite and scratch as the mother pulled the child out of the water. The animal chased them as they left the dock, wildlife officials said. The child was treated at a hospital.
“We are grateful the victim only sustained minor injuries, due to the mother’s quick actions and child’s resiliency,” said Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Ken Balazs. “We would also like to thank the Port of Bremerton for their quick coordination and communication to their marina tenants.”
Officers trapped the otter and took it to a disease diagnostic lab for testing, including for rabies, the release said. The agency did not respond to questions Saturday about test results.
River otters are common throughout Washington and can be found in fresh and saltwater habitats, officials said. Encounters with humans are rare, with six occurring in the past decade, they said. River otters can be territorial and “like any wildlife, are inherently unpredictable,” officials said.


Vessel rescued in English Channel after emergency call to Dover, Delaware, instead of Dover, England

Updated 13 September 2024
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Vessel rescued in English Channel after emergency call to Dover, Delaware, instead of Dover, England

  • Dispatchers for the city of Dover found themselves at the center of an international rescue effort last month after receiving a call from an Albanian man
  • “The caller had conducted an Internet search for the ‘Dover Police Department’ and the first search result on the screen proved to be the Dover, Delaware Police Department,” police said

DELAWARE, USA: Police dispatchers in Delaware’s capital city are being lauded for helping direct rescuers to a boat foundering in the English Channel thousands of miles away.
Dispatchers for the city of Dover found themselves at the center of an international rescue effort last month after receiving a call from an Albanian man who thought he was calling emergency personnel in Dover, England.
The mix-up happened Aug. 27, when the man learned that his brother’s boat was sinking in the English Channel, according to Delaware authorities.
“The caller had conducted an Internet search for the ‘Dover Police Department’ and the first search result on the screen proved to be the Dover, Delaware Police Department,” police officials said in a news release Thursday. “The family member thought they were calling Dover, England but was connected with our agency here in the United States.”
Recognizing that trying to refer the frantic caller to authorities in England could cost valuable time, Communications Operator MacKenzie Atkinson kept the man on the line and began collecting critical information. The caller provided the coordinates of the vessel, and Atkinson, who had recently acquired certification from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, followed protocols for a vessel in distress, officials said.
Meanwhile, Communications Officer Connor Logan began making international notifications. Within four minutes, he established contact with the several agencies, including the US Coast Guard, French Coast Guard, His Majesty’s Coast Guard in England, the United Kingdom’s Maritime and Coast Guard Agency’s Coordination Center, and police stations in Dover, England, officials said.
Dover police said that 15 minutes and 48 seconds after the initial call, the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency confirmed that rescuers were on their way to the vessel. Dover police said they received confirmation on Sept. 5 that the vessel and everyone on board were safely returned to the Port of Dover, England.
Dover police officials have nominated Atkinson, Logan and two other communications officers on duty during the emergency for a Distinguished Unit Commendation.