|
Border Collie Foils
Deadly Knife Attack
EAST LONDON (South Africa) — When
a knife-wielding assailant has you by the shirt and is repeatedly
stabbing your neck, your best hope for survival might come on four
legs, as demonstrated by a heroic Border Collie named
"Lassie".
Independent Online
reports that Peta-Jayne Smith, of Gonubie, was ambushed by two
would-be robbers in her home on Nov. 1. Ms. Smith says that
her husband John was away on a fishing trip, and she was busy at the
computer when the lights went out suddenly around midnight.
She lit a candle and went to the kitchen to investigate, and that's
when she saw a blade coming at her.1
Ms. Smith received a deep wound to the neck which narrowly missed
her jugular vein. The assailant was about to stab her again
when a flash of fur intervened.
"The intruder had me by the jersey and was coming at me with
his knife when Lassie jumped between us, pushing him away and
setting me free from his grip," says Ms. Smith.
"It appears as though the intruders were so taken aback by
Lassie's actions that they fled the house immediately."
Ms. Smith ran to the neighbors for assistance and was taken to a
hospital where she received 13 stitches to close her neck wound.
"It would be safe to say that Lassie saved me from further
injury and possibly death," she says. "What more
proof do you need to prove that man's best friend is his dog?"
Dog Stands Trial for
Sniffing Man's Crotch
CANBERRA (Australia) — There
are certain minor breaches of etiquette a dog can get away with that
a human should never attempt:
- Licking ice cream from people's cones when they're not
looking.
- Eating "tootsie rolls" out of the kitty box.
- Dropping a soggy tennis ball in the underwear of someone who
is sitting on the toilet.
And finally...
- Sniffing the crotch of a total stranger at a nightclub.
...Well, hold on a minute. There's a lawyer in Sydney who
thinks even dogs shouldn't be allowed to do that.
Hey, watch where you're pointing that thing! (Photo:
Jordan / dognoses.com)
Attorney Clive Steirn, representing 22-year-old Glen Darby, of
Sydney, claimed that his client was assaulted by police dog
"Rocky" when Rocky put his nose on Darby's pants outside
an Oxford Street nightclub, the Sydney
Morning Herald reports.
Rocky, a drug-detection dog with the New
South Wales Police Department, detected quantities of cannabis
and amphetamines on Mr. Darby on February 25, 2001, bringing two
counts of drug possession charges against the man.
On the grounds that a "crotch nuzzle" constituted an
intrusion on individual rights, the drug charges were dismissed by
Deputy Chief Magistrate Mary Jerram last year. But on
Thursday, a Supreme Court judge reversed the decision, recognizing
that a crotch nuzzle could be interpreted in the animal kingdom as a
friendly gesture and not an assault.2
Justice Barry O'Keefe listened patiently to Mr. Steirn's
argument, "If your honor were to do as this dog did and nuzzle
the defendant's genitals, it would be an indecent assault."
The judge, while struggling to keep a straight face, replied,
"It is unnecessary for the purposes of this decision to resolve
that question."
Judge O'Keefe went on to clarify: "Acts that might
constitute an indecent assault if perpetrated by one human being on
another, may well be characterized quite differently if performed by
one dog on an other, or by a dog on a human.
"When a 'crotch nuzzle' ... is performed by a dog in
relation to a human being, it may be no more than a conventional,
friendly, social gesture with no hostile intent, and unlikely to
constitute an assault."
|
Why Labradors Shouldn't Be Left Unsupervised in the
Kitchen
TAUPO (New Zealand) — The New
Zealand Herald describes a scene of carnage: "The top story
of the home was awash and all the ceiling tiles on the floor below had
fallen off. Water had also seeped down the inside walls, and carpets
on the lower story were saturated."
But despite the extensive damage to the Pearson family's vacation home
at Wharewaka Point, no criminal charges will be brought against the stray
dog who caused it all. As a matter of fact, the Pearsons have
decided to reward the little vandal with a new life.
On Nov. 20, neighbors noticed a "painfully thin dog sitting at a
window" of the empty Pearson house. Realizing that the house
had been vacated since Labour Weekend (in New Zealand, Oct. 26-27), they
rushed next door to rescue the dog and found the entire house in soggy
shambles.
"They were most surprised," says Taupo District
Council's
senior dog control officer, Cherry Hewitt. "They had heard a
dog whimpering earlier in the week but they thought it was farther down
the road."
Ms. Hewitt reports that the dog, a 2 or 3-year-old female Yellow
Labrador Retriever mix, had apparently turned on a ceramic tap in the
upstairs kitchen to get water. She then knocked a box of  tissues
into the sink, blocking the drain and causing the substantial flooding.
Taupo's Animal Hospital veterinarian Luke Stevens said
the Lab would not
have survived had she not been able to turn on the tap, since "after
three to four days without any water whatsoever, the hydration status of a
dog would get to a point where it actually damaged the kidneys and liver
so they'd go into renal failure."
The Pearson family has no idea how the unidentified dog got inside
their vacation house. Andrew Pearson says, "We think ... that
as we were going out of the bach to have a final look around it has either
snuck in under a bed somewhere or it's got upstairs into the kitchen.
"We certainly didn't notice the dog when we were exiting."
But he adds that his three daughters, aged 9, 8 and 5, were now
"dead keen" to take the mutt home to Napier. "We've
got three cats, we've got budgies, aquariums, rabbits, you name it, but
not a dog.
"If no one claims this one, we might have inherited the dog seeing
it's made itself so comfortable in our home."
|
The Clumsiest Dog in
the World |
| In 2001, Tesco
Pet Insurance conducted a study to determine what breed of dog
was most prone to accidents around the home. The winner was
the Chocolate Labrador Retriever.
However, a more recent study this year shows that the Rottweiler
has bumped into first place. Also receiving honorable
mentions are Bull Terriers, Springer Spaniels and German
Shepherds.
We'd just like to know: where was the cat when all of
this was taking place? |
§§§
Headlines
Prev  Next
|
Welcome once again to our monthly feature
celebrating crime-fighting canines and criticizing crooks who
are dumb enough to tangle with the dogs of the world. We now
present the Canine Crime Blotter!
