Let’s see… was that No. 3 in the 5th or No. 5 in the 3rd?

Sporting news courtesy of Reuters…

LONDON (Reuters) – A gambler who threatened to kill a racehorse in a bid to stop it taking part in a race after he forgot to place his syndicate’s bet was given a suspended jail term on Monday.

Andrew Rodgerson, 26, warned a stud manager not to run 2008 St Leger winner Conduit in a valuable race at Ascot after he forgot to place the accumulator bet, the Press Association reported.

He panicked when he realized that victory for Conduit in last July’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes would lead to the syndicate expecting winnings of 50,000 pounds ($80,500), Bolton Crown Court heard.

Rodgerson, of Balderstone, near Rochdale, sent a series of text messages and emails to Peter Reynolds, the general manager for the Ballymacoll Stud Farm in Ireland which owned Conduit.

Ten days before the race he texted Mr Reynolds: “Dear Peter, we would just like to warn you should Conduit run in the King George then the horse will be killed.”

Five days later he followed up with an email to the general manager, which read: “Dear Peter, I don’t believe you are taking the threat of death to Conduit very seriously.

“We want the horse removed from the King George this weekend. If you co-operate the horse will live.

“There are people living in and around Newmarket who are ready and willing. There will also be people around at Ascot on Saturday.”

Police were informed and Rodgerson was arrested at his home address just two days before the race.

He had pleaded guilty to threatening to commit damage at an earlier hearing after a charge of blackmail was dropped.

Sentencing him to 34 weeks in jail, suspended for two years, Judge Angela Nield said he had embarked on a “foolish escapade.”

She accepted his actions had no practical consequences in that Conduit lined up for the King George and actually went on to claim victory, but she said a message of deterrence had to go out.

Joseph Hart, defending, said Rodgerson worked at a travel agency and would place bets for a syndicate, some of whose members he knew, while others were more shadowy.

“The syndicate would tell him when and where to put money on and get the best odds,” he said.

“This was a clever series of bets and it required quite precise timing because the odds changed so rapidly.2

Rodgerson mistimed the Conduit bet though, when he had a busy day at work.

Hart said: “He forgot and did not put it on at the right time and with the right company and he realized if Conduit won he would owe this syndicate more than 50,000 pounds.

He was “utterly terrified” with the consequences of not paying the money back.

“These were powerful men, he thought these were shadowy men. He thought perhaps they would be people who would hurt him.

“So initially he lied to them that someone had taken the betting slip but then the syndicate said they would find him.

“The panic continued and he committed this frankly unsophisticated and deeply stupid crime.”

Chinese man jailed for eating rare tiger

This comes to us from Reuters…

BEIJING (Reuters) – A man who killed and ate what may have been the last wild Indochinese tiger in China was sentenced to 12 years in jail, local media reported on Tuesday.

Kang Wannian, a villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, met the tiger in February while gathering freshwater clams in a nature reserve near China’s border with Laos. He claimed to have killed it in self-defense.

The only known wild Indochinese tiger in China, photographed in 2007 at the same reserve, has not been seen since Kang’s meal, the Yunnan-based newspaper Life News reported earlier this month.

The paper quoted the provincial Forestry Bureau as saying there was no evidence the tiger was the last one in China.

A local court sentenced Kang to 10 years for killing a rare animal plus two years for illegal possession of firearms, the local web portal Yunnan.cn reported. Prosecutors said Kang did not need a gun to gather clams.

Four villagers who helped Kang dismember the tiger and ate its meat were also sentenced from three to four years for “covering up and concealing criminal gains,” the report said.

Kang was also fined 480,000 yuan ($70,000).

The Indochinese tiger is on the brink of extinction, with fewer than 1,000 left in the forests of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.

Who ratted them out?

Entertainment news brought to us by Reuters…

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian police have charged two stars of British reality TV show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here” with animal cruelty after an RSPCA complaint over an episode that involved killing and cooking a rat.

Italian chef Gino D’Acampo and British actor Stuart Manning were charged at the weekend in relation to the British TV show that was filmed in northern New South Wales in Australia.

A police spokeswoman said sealed court attendance notices were delivered to the two men, aged 30 and 33, as they were about to leave Australia for England.

She said they were charged with animal cruelty for acts in connection to the program after complaints from the RSPCA, but did not give names or other details.

The two men are scheduled to appear in court on February 3.

“The killing of a rat for a performance is not acceptable. The concern is this was done purely for the cameras,” David O’Shannessy of the New South Wales RSPCA told the BBC.

TV network ITV was not immediately available for comment.

“I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here,” which is now in its ninth series, pits contestants against each other in a knock-out contest which involves a series of scary and stomach-churning tasks in a remote setting.

D’Acampo was the winner of the latest series.

Give ‘em laptops and they can bang out Hamlet

Animal news brought to you by USA Today…

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Visitors to South Africa’s premier holiday destination who are worried about becoming victims of the country’s high crime rate could find themselves instead robbed by a more furry kind of felon: baboons.

The cheeky primates have learned how to open car doors and jump through windows in pursuit of tasty sandwiches and snacks.

City officials are battling to control the increasingly aggressive troupes and there are fears the problem will only worsen with the influx of visitors to Cape Town during the World Cup next year.

On Tuesday, a troupe of 29 baboons raided four cars outside Simon’s Town, a small coastal neighborhood. A baboon dubbed “Fred,” the leader of the group, opened unlocked doors and jumped through windows to search for food.

He ransacked a bag in the back seat of a red car as a couple panicked about their passports. A girl screamed nearby as a baboon hopped into her car through a back window. Others climbed on car roofs and hoods, looking for ways inside.

Many of those who stopped to watch the raid had their own cars broken into by other baboons.

“We spend the whole day basically rescuing tourists,” said Mark Duffels, a volunteer who monitors the baboons in an effort to keep them at bay.

There are about 420 baboons in 17 troupes that roam the city’s outskirts, especially the popular scenic sites along the coast. Baboons are a protected species under South African legislation but their persistent pursuit of food has led to conflict with residents.

The baboons associate humans and cars with food although people are strongly discouraged from feeding the animals.

But Justin O’ Riain, head of the baboon research unit at the University of Cape Town, fears that the influx of visitors next year will only feed the primates’ taste for human foods even more.

“Tourism is going to go through the roof, and this equals exposure to naive people and rich pickings,” he said. “People who stop the car, they’re going to get raided.”

Concerned Simon’s Town residents asked Monday for a crossing gate to be put up on the road that leads to the nearby Cape of Good Hope nature reserve.

Cars would be stopped before they enter baboon territory and given a brochure in their native language explaining why they should stay in their cars, lock their doors and close their windows if they see baboons.

“We’re so anxious about tourists who can’t read or understand English. It puts them at risk,” said Liz Hardman, who is leading the campaign. “The perception is that the baboons are harmless and they’re not. They’re wild animals.”

Moonshine mars Mayan derby

Here’s Reuters with news from the world of sport…

TODOS SANTOS CUCHUMATAN, Guatemala (Reuters) – Despite a drinking ban mayhem erupted at a traditional Mayan horse race on Sunday with riders falling off their horses and drunken spectators stumbling through the mountain village.

Hundreds of tourists and locals gathered for the annual spectacle in Todo Santos Cuchumatan on Sunday to cheer the dozens of riders charging back and forth along a 330-foot (100-meter) length of road for up to seven hours.

But the macho test of stamina was marred, as it has been in the past, by the copious amount of homemade spirits the riders consume, sometimes for days before the race.

At least two Mayan riders fell off their horses during this year’s race, and one was carried away by bystanders after being trampled in the mud. Another man walked away from the track with a bloody face.

“People here aren’t able to hold their drink, if they have one drink, they just continue until they’re so drunk they want to hit someone,” said Modesto Mendez, the mayor of the village.

Mendez banned the selling of hard alcohol in the village in May of last year to cut down on accidents, deaths and fighting.

But 18 months later, on the Day of the Dead celebrated throughout Mexico and Central America, drunken people were seen staggering through the village.

Sometimes the dead body of a drunken villager would show up the next morning, the victim of sub-zero temperatures in the cloud-covered mountain ranges.

Mendez admitted that the ban had not curbed the heavy drinking before and during this year’s race.

“You need to have a couple of drinks beforehand to calm your nerves,” said 21-year-old Isabel Calmo, wearing the traditional costume of red and white stripped cotton trousers, an embroidered white shirt and straw hat stuffed with brightly colored feathers and ribbons.

“If we’re drunk we can fall off the horse,” he added.

The race, which is hundreds of years old, traces its roots to before the Spanish Conquest in the early 1500s. Local lore says the tradition began when 13 Mayan riders galloped for more than 60 miles to a nearby town arriving November 1, for the funeral of a local holy man.

After colonization, the race survived as a show of indigenous strength to the Spanish conquerors.

The narrow streets are decorated with colorful flags and bands playing marimba music for the weeklong party, the most important day of the year for the town and surrounding area.

Mendez admitted it’s difficult to curtail the drinking.

Aussie police use leech to nab robber

Courtesy of Reuters…

SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian man faces jail for armed robbery after police used blood from a leech to make a DNA match from a 2001 crime scene, a court spokeswoman said on Monday.

Peter Alec Cannon, 54, pleaded guilty to aggravated armed robbery in the Supreme Court in Launceston on the island state of Tasmania on Monday.

Crown prosecutor John Ransom told the court that a policeman had picked up a leech from near a safe at the scene of the crime from which forensic scientists extracted blood and a DNA sample, according to a report in local newspaper The Mercury.

Seven years later, when Cannon was arrested and charged with a drugs crime, police took a DNA sample from him and it matched the sample from the robbery.

The court heard that Cannon and another man had robbed and assaulted a 71-year-old woman at her bushland home, stealing $500 from her.

The court spokeswoman said Cannon was remanded in custody for sentencing on Friday this week.

Is that a ferret in your pants, or are you just glad to see me?

Let’s give it up for the Houston Chronicle for animal news…

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Police say a homeless man stole a live ferret by stuffing it in his pants.

Thirty-eight-year-old Rodney Bolton is charged with theft over the $129 animal that police say he took from a pet store in Jacksonville Beach, the Florida Times-Union reported.

A 17-year-old witness confronted Bolton in the parking lot and was bitten by the animal after the man allegedly shoved it in the teen’s face.

That confrontation makes the ferret a “special weapon” under Florida law. So Bolton also faces battery charges for dangerously wielding the animal.

Calls to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department to see if Bolton has a lawyer were not answered early Thursday.

You don’t need to make a federal case out of it…

USA Today and the Palm Springs (CA) Desert Sun drove this one…

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — A La Quinta man is scheduled to face a federal magistrate this month on accusations he threw thousands of golf balls into Joshua Tree National Park for more than a year.

Park rangers cited and released Douglas Jones, 57, on Aug. 17 with abandoning property, littering and feeding wildlife.

“Since (some time in) 2007, he had been coming into the park and just throwing golf balls across the landscape just tossing them out of a vehicle,” park spokesman Joe Zarki said Wednesday. “Apparently, there’s some tennis balls involved, as well.”

Jones also left cans of fruit and vegetables along the side of park roads and scattered park literature and permit forms, Zarki said.

“It wasn’t daily, but frequent enough that rangers were aware of it and keying into looking for this individual,” he said. “It was a time-consuming and fairly expensive issue for us.”

Zarki said park rangers spent more than 370 hours looking for and cleaning up after Jones, who is believed to have scattered as many as 3,000 golf balls at different locations in the national park.

“We had $9,000 of staff time tied up into that,” Zarki said.

Eventually, rangers found Jones in the park, confronted him and he confessed to what he had been doing, Zarki said.

Zarki said Jones told rangers he threw the golf balls because he wanted to leave his mark and also to honor deceased golfers. He left the food for stranded hikers.

Jones is scheduled to face a magistrate from the U.S. District Court at the end of the month.

Zarki said judges have some latitude when assessing penalties for violations of park rules. If found guilty, Jones could face fines or jail time, be barred from entering the park or be assigned another form of restitution.

Attempts to contact Jones were unsuccessful Wednesday.

I’m sensing a plea of not guilty by reason of mad cow disease

Thanks, Reuters…

LONDON (Reuters) – The deaths of no fewer than four people after being trampled by cowsin the past two months has prompted Britain’s main farming union to issue a warning about the dangers of provoking the normally docile animals.

Cows can become aggressive and charge, especially when calves are present and walkers are accompanied by dogs, said the National Farmers Union (NFU).

The union and the Ramblers’ Association both advise that walkers release dogs from their leads when passing through a field of cows.

“The cattle are interested in the dog, not the walker,” said Robert Sheasby, Rural Surveyor at the NFU.

“As the cattle try to get the dog, there’s a high chance they will get the walker too.”

Britain has 7.5 million cows but in the past eight years there have only been 18 deaths involving cattle, including bulls whose dangers are well-known.

The current spate of attacks by cows began on the Pennine Hills on June 21, when Liz Crowsley, a veterinary surgeon from Warrington, was crushed against a wall and then trampled underfoot while out walking with her two dogs.

On July 15, another attack took place in Derbyshire, when Barry Pilgrim, a 65-year old from the area, was trampled to death by a cow as his wife looked on.

Three days later, Anita Hinchey, a 63-year-old, was walking her dog near Cardiff when a cow attacked her and trampled her to death.

The fourth fatal attack claimed the life of Harold Lee, a 75-year-old farmer from Burtle in the West Country. He was killed by his own herd, which may have been made nervous by the siren of a passing ambulance.

The risk is especially high in the spring when many of the calves are only a month or two old and the mothers are therefore especially protective, the NFU said.

“It’s to do with spring and autumn calving,” said Sheasby.

“In the autumn, cattle will be coming into winter housing but in spring you want them out grazing the grass.”

Cow-charging incidents received extended coverage when former Home Secretary David Blunkett was attacked by one in June as his guide dog led him across a field in England’s Peak District.

Blunkett broke a rib and was heavily bruised but survived.