Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement agents cited two men for alleged migratory game bird violations on Jan. 24 in Assumption Parish.
Agents cited Terry W. Lee, 55, of Bayou L’Ourse, and Tobbie R. Lacoste, 38, of Bayou Vista, for hunting migratory game birds over a baited area. Lee was also cited for placing bait to take migratory game birds and gross littering. Lacoste was also cited for hunting ducks without a federal stamp, harvest information program (HIP) certification and state duck license.
Agents set up surveillance on the area after observing it was baited with cracked corn. On Jan. 24, agents heard gunshots coming from the baited area. Agents also observed Lee and Lacoste leaving the baited area in possession of shotguns.
Agents made contact with the men and found them in possession of two wood ducks. Upon further investigation, agents…
Dementia patients had a significantly increased risk for COVID-19 and that risk was even higher for African Americans with dementia, a retrospective analysis of U.S. electronic health record (EHR) data showed.
After adjusting for age, sex, race, and COVID-19 risk factors including comorbidities and nursing home stay, people with dementia had twice the risk of developing COVID-19 as other adults (adjusted OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.94-2.06,P<0.001), according to Rong Xu, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, and co-authors.
Among people with dementia, African-American patients were nearly three times as likely to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 as white patients (adjusted OR 2.86, 95% CI 2.67-3.06,P<0.001), they reported…
The tectonic plates that cover Earth like a jigsaw puzzle move about as fast as our fingernails grow, but over the course of a billion years that’s enough to travel across the entire planet – as a fascinating new video shows.
In one of the most complete models of tectonic plate movements ever put together, scientists have condensed a billion years of movement into a 40-second video clip, so we can see how these giant slabs of rock have interacted over time.
As they move, the plates affect climate, tidal patterns, animal movements and their evolution, volcanic activity, the production of metals and more: they’re more than just a covering for the planet, they’re a life support system that affects everything that lives on the surface.https://www.youtube.com/embed/gQqQhZp4uG8
“For the first time a complete model of tectonics has been built, including all…
Coun. Scott Anderson says he’s been asked why the program costs so much.
“We know why it costs so much, but I don’t think the public does,” he said at Monday’s council meeting.
A memo included in the council agenda package does break down the spending somewhat:
$7,000 covers planning and permits
$27,000 covers catching the birds
$4,000 covers killing and disposing of the birds
The cull will take about three to four weeks to complete. About 10 people in kayaks will cover beaches including Paddlewheel, Lakeshore and Kin to roundup the birds.
Once killed, the federal government doesn’t allow for the donation of the meat, which means the bird carcasses will either end up in an animal compost or the landfill.
Anderson says they were allowed to offer the meat to the Okanagan Indian Band, but the OKIB turned it down. One group has requested the goose cull meat be donated to hunters as bait, and city staff have been asked to investigate that use.
City staff believe Vernon is the first city in the Okanagan to actually kill Canada Geese, rather than addling eggs or scaring them away. Municipalities on Vancouver Island have used lethal force.
The geese are considered a nuisance because of their prolific amounts of poop and their potential to destroy habitat.
Two petitions have been launched to stop the Vernon cull.
Devon Alloloo hangs a tundra wolf from the door frame of his dining room.
It’s from one of his three traps set near the small community of Dettah, a 10-minute drive by ice road from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (N.W.T.).
“I feel pretty pumped just knowing that I was able to harvest. It’s a lot of work. It’s very time consuming and meticulous – on where the wolf is. It’s not playing by your rules,” Alloloo said.
Alloloo, is Inuk and grew up hunting, but considers himself new to trapping, starting three seasons ago in 2018.
But already he’s sharing his knowledge of trapping wolves by hosting workshops to groups of hunting hopefuls.
“The ethics of trapping is respecting the wildlife and making sure you aren’t causing more harm to…
Akey congressional panel launched an investigation this week into the wave of COVID-19 infections that killed hundreds of workers at meatpacking plants nationwide last year and highlighted longstanding hazards in the industry.
Since the start of the pandemic, the meat industry has struggled to contain the virus in its facilities, and plants in Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas have endured some of the biggest workplace outbreaks in the country.
The meat companies’ employees, many of them immigrants and refugees, slice pig bellies or cut up chicken carcasses in close quarters. Many of them don’t speak English and aren’t granted paid sick leave. To date, more than 50,000 meatpacking workers have been infected and at least 250 have died, according to a ProPublica tally.
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The congressional investigation, opened by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, will examine the role of JBS, Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods, three of the nation’s largest meat companies, which, the subcommittee said, had “refused to take basic precautions to protect their workers” and had “shown a callous disregard for workers’ health.”
The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House.
In response to the subcommittee’s announcement, officials for JBS and Tyson said that the companies had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to implement coronavirus protections and to temporarily increase pay and benefits, and they looked forward to discussing their pandemic safety efforts with the panel. Smithfield said in a statement that it had also taken “extraordinary measures” to protect employees from the virus, spending more than $700 million on workplace modifications, testing and equipment.
The House subcommittee noted that reports from a variety of news organizations had illuminated problems with how the meatpacking companies handled the pandemic, and with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s enforcement efforts. The subcommittee cited ProPublica’s reporting on how meat companies blindsided local public health departments, and on Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts’ efforts to intervene when local health officials tried to temporarily shutter a JBS plant amid an outbreak.
ProPublica has also documented how meat companies ignored years of warnings from the federal government about how a pandemic could tear through a food processing facility, and chronicled the role that meatpacking plants like a Tyson pork facility in Waterloo, Iowa, have played in spreading the virus to the surrounding community.
The subcommittee’s inquiry will also scrutinize the federal government’s shortcomings in protecting meatpacking workers. “Public reports indicate that under the Trump Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) failed to adequately carry out its responsibility for enforcing worker safety laws at meatpacking plants across the country, resulting in preventable infections and deaths,” according to the subcommittee’s letter to OSHA.
The subcommittee also said that the agency had issued only a “few meager fines” and “failed to show urgency in addressing safety hazards at the meatpacking facilities it inspected.” The letter noted that OSHA had received complaints about JBS and Smithfield plants months before the agency conducted inspections.
David Seligman, a lawyer who helped meatpacking workers in Pennsylvania file a lawsuit against OSHA during the pandemic, said he hopes the subcommittee’s efforts are “just one of the initial steps” to holding companies accountable and ensuring workers are safe. “The harm inflicted on meat-processing workers during this pandemic, in service of the profits of corporate meat-packing companies and under a government that seemed happy to turn a blind eye, is a grave scandal,” Seligman wrote in an email.
In a statement, a Department of Labor spokesperson said that the subcommittee’s inquiry is “focused on the Trump administration’s actions surrounding the protection of workers from COVID-19 related risks,” and the agency is committed to protecting workers, and that new guidance on coronavirus enforcement that was issued in late January will serve as a “first step.”
In its Feb. 1 letters to OSHA, JBS, Tyson and Smithfield, the subcommittee has requested documents related to government inspections at meatpacking plants and COVID-19 complaints lodged with the companies. OSHA was asked to brief the subcommittee by Feb. 15.
(Līhue) –As the response to COVID-19 continues, so will the additional hunting days enjoyed by hunters on Kaua‘i. The additional hunting days were added in May 2020 by the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) Kaua‘i Branch, and has resulted in a sustainable supply of both hunting recreation and animals harvested. Building on this success, Kaua‘i hunters are again invited to apply for Special Use Permits that allow for some additional days of the week to hunt goats, pigs and deer in all existing hunting UnitsEXCEPTUnits A, B, D, F and L, which will be involved in other Lottery or Special hunts in the near future.
Under this extended Special Use Permit, licensed hunters may hunt more days of the week by submitting an online one month application.“Extending the ability for hunters to hunt more days…
A man accused of mutilating a hamster admits to buying the pet store animal just to kill it. At least eight hamsters are dead.
Collier County Sheriff’s Office originally arrested suspect Christian Hunter in Golden Gate Estates, and he faces new charges in Lee County Friday.
According to brand-new court documents, Hunter told investigators he did it to relieve stress and anger.
Investigators say receipts and surveillance video is what they were able to gather as evidence to connect Hunter to crimes in Lee County that were similar to crimes he was already arrested for in Collier County.
Hunter was first investigated in 2020 when a mutilated hamster was found in the parking lot of a Petco at Gulf Coast Town Center.
Collier County deputies arrested Hunter Tuesday, accusing him of killing and beheading a hamster he bought from a different pet store.
When Hunter was arrested for torturing and killing a hamster in Collier County, deputies relayed the information to the Lee County animal abuse unit and realized the cases were connected.
“It’s become habitual behavior, and as time goes on, a hamster isn’t going to be enough,” said Dr. Laura Streyffeler, a licensed mental health counselor. “And he may move up to a rabbit and then a dog, and who knows what else?”
Streyffeler says this is a major red flag.
Court documents also show Hunter admitted to buying and killing at least eight hamsters in the last year. He said he’d squeeze them to death and used scissors to cut them up.
“You can’t just put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,” Streyffeler said. “This kind of behavior doesn’t happen from somebody who made a decision overnight. This is very deep-seated, emotionally disturbed behavior.”
Hunter told deputies killing these creatures relieved his own personal stress and anger.
“I got chills immediately when you explained the whole process of that,” FGCU student Sal Dietrick said. “That’s just disgusting.”
Employees at a pet store in Lee County told us it was extremely upsetting finding the hamster brutally killed in the parking lot of their business.
Others worry about the mental health of the people finding what is being left behind by Christian Hunter.
“Especially if he’s doing it in like the parking lot and stuff,” FGCU student Grant Steinke said. “I mean, there are people that are going to see that as well. I mean, could be a child walking by, wanting to get a hamster himself or herself.”
The employee of the Lee County pet store chatted with us but did not want to talk on camera. He told us, after they realized what Hunter did in the parking lot, they called all their other stores in the area and told them not to sell any animals to him.
They told us Hunter tried purchasing hamsters at two other Lee County Petco stores, but was turned down.
Hunter is no longer in law enforcement custody after bonding out of Collier County jail this week.
File photo
Exposing the Big Game 