Weird news - Keeping a crocodile in the basement

People have a fascination with wild animals, especially those who can pose a risk to the life of human beings, there is a certain kind of fatalistic attraction to such kind of animals. So you find people rearing snakes (even large ones such as Burmese pythons which can be incredibly powerful), or even large cats such lions or tigers or leopards (although the number of these have reduced significantly with more laws against domestic possession of such animals). However, once in a while you find stories of people who keep dangerous animals at home, even though it is totally prohibited in most countries.
In this case, when police officers were looking for a person who was suspected of illegal arms trafficking and searched his home, they found, surprisingly a large crocodile in the basement. Such a crocodile can be very unpredictable and dangerous, not only for the owner but for others in the vicinity as well (link to article):

Pictures released by police showed the animal sitting in the dark, in a shallow muddy pool. Daytime temperatures in Saint Petersburg hovered around minus seven degrees Celsius (19 Fahrenheit), far below the preferred climate for the species. Pictures released by police showed the animal sitting in the dark, in a shallow muddy pool. Daytime temperatures in Saint Petersburg hovered around minus seven degrees Celsius (19 Fahrenheit), far below the preferred climate for the species.

Online auctions to clone dogs

Cloning has always been a controversial subject, and the concept of human cloing has always raised the hackles of a large number of people, including politicians. As a result, most countries have shied away from approving of human cloning; further, the news that a South Korean scientist had faked his results in the area of cloning led to a further backlash against the subject. On the other hand, cloning of animals has not provoked the same kind of reaction. Cloning of pets specially, the animals who are almost part of a family has started becoming an acceptable field (or at least does not provoke politicians and conservative campaigners to take up arms against this).
A company now plans to take this up on a commercial basis, offering to do cloning of dogs, and offering this facility at an auction. It is also doing a partnership with the discredited South Korean researcher, Hwang Woo Suk:

A California company is planning a string of online auctions next month to clone five dogs, with the bidding to start at $100,000. Scientists consider dogs among the most difficult animals to clone because they have an unusual reproductive biology, more so than humans.
"I know the association with Dr Hwang is going to be controversial," Lou Hawthorne, the chief executive of BioArts, said. "One of the contradictions of Dr Hwang is that he made mistakes on his human stem-cell research, and he's the first to admit that."
But he said Hwang's dog-cloning work had been independently verified. "Our main concern is simply he's the best when it comes to dog cloning," Hawthorne said, "and for that reason it behooves us to work with him."

People get so attached to pets that those having money are willing to spend heavily to try and obtain a clone of their dogs; however, this whole business of cloning involves ethical issues and needs to be relooked.

Killing dog by putting in washing machine

Imagine being so drunk that you know not what you are doing, and being so drunk that you lose your basic humanity, the concept of right and wrong. A pet is a good friend, especially dogs, who tend to be very faithful; after all, there are many cases of pets having saved the lives of their owners. You can see this happening regularly, when you can see guide dogs leading blind or visually challenged people to safety. So, what do you say to a person who put their pet dog into a washing machine, and then made sure that the dog died inside the washing machine:

Drunken dog owner Andrew Glazzard killed his pet by putting it into a washing machine “to teach it a lesson” after it made a mess, a court heard. The dog Maisie had survived an earlier ordeal in the machine but Glazzard put her back in when he noticed her tail was still wagging. The dog died when Glazzard fell asleep before switching off the machine. He then put the animal’s body in a bag and threw it into the River Stour, the court heard.

There are many laws that apply to people behaving in such a way; and even if we treat pets at not the same level as humans, such behavior is unacceptable.

Pythom stalks family dog and eats it

Australia is famous for its dangerous animals, and this was proved in an example that you will read below. The python is a non-poisonous but dangerous snake that kills by squeezing its prey to death. In an attack hitting a family in Queensland state, a 16 foot scrub python stalked the pet dog of a family for days before attacking, killing and eating the pet dog in front of the horrified members of the family:

Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas. "It actively stalked the dog for a number of days," Douglas said.
"The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog's bed, which was a sign it was out to get it," he added. The zoo manager, Todd Rose, said pythons squeeze their prey to death before swallowing it whole. The 5-year-old dog would have been suffocated within minutes.

Squirrel on rampage

One is afraid of big animals such as wild dogs, lions, tigers, snakes, etc. It is far easier to live in a city as such dangerous animals are not present in the city, and the only thing you need to be afraid in the city are other humans, whether the are muggers, careless drivers or junkies. You do find very cute animals in the city, such as small birds, puppies, cute cats, and even wilder animals such as squirrels and racoons. However, even such a small animal such as a squirrel can become dangerous:

An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.
The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

It takes a lot for a small animal such as this one to become agitated; doubtless there must have been some of irritation caused to the squirrel for it to become violent like this one did.

Cow that relishes chicken

In a rural chicken farm, suddenly chickens started vanishing. Such an occurrence is bound to pinch, although initially the neighbouring dogs were suspected. It was only when a watch was kept that a most incredible sight was seen. A calf was found to be the chicken eater, having devoured 48 chickens.
The family watched at night as the calf went over to the coop and grabbed a chicken with amazing precaution. This is very strange behaviour. In India, Hinduism considers a cow to be holy, and such a behaviour is most unusual.
The local vet thinks that this could be caused by a lack of vitamins in the body, and has asked for further investigation. Read the story here.

Cat injures its owner over jealousy

A cat sent its owner to a hospital for treatment, when threatened by the introduction of another cat in the house. When a neighbour showed up at the door with another cat (thinking it was the house cat), the house cat severly attacked its owner, a lady in her 60's. The injuries were pretty serious, and the lady had to be taken to the hospital with over 20 injuries.
Now, it appears that the cat is going to be sent to a shelter since this was not the first time that such an incident happened. Read the CNN story.