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Weekly Update: Tiger, leopard cubs recovered
LOS ANGELES: Eleven tiger and two leopard cubs, found barely alive in a California home last week among nearly 100 that had not survived, were being nursed back to health on Tuesday, animal rescue officials said.
“We found 58 cubs stuffed into freezers; another agency counted 30 dead tigers and big cats dead in the ground, mostly immature,” Mike McBride, assistant chief of the Riverside Department of Fish and Game, told AFP.
In addition to the almost 90 dead tiger and leopard cubs, the wardens also found the 13 live cubs, and two young alligators wallowing in a bathtub, McBride said.
“We arrested the husband and wife, Weinhart and Smith, for child endangerment (they have an eight-year-old son). And the veterinarian, Wendelin Rae Ringel, who worked for Weinhart, was arrested for cruelty to animals,” said Shelly Kennedy-Smith of the Riverside County Sheriff’s office. — AFP
Scientist’s bid to use Panda dung for power
TOKYO: A Japanese scientist could soon become stinking rich with an invention to be ready by 2005 that would use Panda dung to create electricity.
Fumiaki Taguchi, emeritus professor of Kitasato University in Tokyo, embarked on the project five years ago when he asked Ueno Zoo for a bucketful of one of their most popular residents’ faeces.
Bacteria inside the panda’s belly must be pretty special to be able to digest tough bamboo leaves and shoots, he reasoned. Taguchi said his company, H2Japan, hopes to create a hydrogen fuel cell and waste disposal unit in one to sell to food processing companies across Japan.
He aims to showcase his invention at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi prefecture, some 250 kilometres west of Tokyo, which starts that March. — AFP
Man jumps off Eiffel Tower
PARIS: A man killed himself on Tuesday by leaping off the Eiffel Tower in Paris, a rare occurrence since protection barriers were installed to discourage suicides, police said.
The man climbed over the railing on the first level of the striking iron structure, 57 metres above the ground, and jumped to his death, avoiding the protection barriers.
Police said it was the first suicide jump off the Eiffel Tower this year. They said it was not clear why the man, whose identity was not known, took the action.
In January last year, a man in his thirties killed himself in similar circumstances. Since 1980, all parts of the tower accessible to the public have been equipped with anti-suicide barriers. — AFP
Animal rights group urges Asians to stop eating meat
SINGAPORE: An animal rights advocacy group urged Asians on Monday to go vegetarian amid fears that the SARS epidemic ravaging the region may have originated from livestock in southern China.
“Stop eating meat,” the US-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a statement.
PETA, which advocates a vegetarian diet as the answer to many human ailments, said “intensively confining animals create filth that allows diseases to spread like wildfire”.
Scientists are looking into the possibility that livestock in southern China may have been the source of the SARS virus, noting that in some rural parts of Guangdong province people live in close proximity to animals.— AFP
Seven killed by lightning
CALCUTTA: Seven people were killed and 12 seriously injured when lightning struck a house during a marriage ceremony in east India, officials said on Sunday.
The incident took place overnight when a thunderstorm hit the town of Malbazar in the northern district of Jalpaiguri, about 600 kilometres from Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state.
“The marriage ceremony was cancelled after the tragedy,” said resident Dinesh Kurmu.—APP/AFP
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