Arizona high school put on lockdown
as 4 bobcats are rescued
Anthem, Ariz. (AP) – A high school north of Phoenix was put on lockdown for several hours as authorities rescued four bobcats from a drainage pipe. Deer Valley Unified School District officials say a mother bobcat and her three babies apparently fell into the pipe on campus near the cafeteria. Students at Boulder Creek High School in Anthem were kept in their classrooms Monday morning as Arizona Game and Fish tranquilized the mother bobcat and got the four safely out of the pipe. School officials say the lockdown ended before noon.
Butcher trapped in freezer – “Black pudding saved my life”
London (AP) – A British butcher who got locked in a freezer says he was saved by a frozen sausage that he used as a battering ram. Chris McCabe says he became trapped in the walk-in freezer at his shop in Totnes, southwest England, last month when wind blew the door shut. The safety button to open the door had frozen in the -20 C (-4 F) chill. McCabe said he tried unsuccessfully to kick the button free before picking up a 1.5 kilogram (3.3 pound) black pudding, a form of blood sausage. McCabe told website Devon Live that he used the meaty tube “like a battering ram” and managed to unstick the button after several blows. The grateful butcher told the Daily Mirror: “Black pudding saved my life, without a doubt.”
Half-ton butter sculpture unveiled
at Pennsylvania Farm Show
Harrisburg, Pa. (AP) – A half-ton (0.45 metric tons) of butter has been transformed into a sculpture celebrating Pennsylvania’s dairy industry and heralding the start of the state’s 102nd Farm Show. Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding says the sculpture unveiled Thursday highlights the careers and roles the dairy industry plays in the state. The sculpture features renderings of a cow and a farmer, an agronomist, a milk processor and a shopper with a basket full of products. The butter came from waste scrap butter unsuitable for human consumption. After the show the sculpture will be taken to a farm and turned into energy in a methane digester. The Pennsylvania Farm Show is the nation’s largest indoor agricultural event, featuring 12,000 competitive exhibits, more than 5,200 of which are animal competitions. It finished on Saturday Jan. 13.
Outdoor center warns skiers
of dive-bombing owl
New Gloucester, Maine (AP) – Officials at a Maine outdoor center are warning skiers to watch out for an “aggressive dive-bombing” owl that recently struck a man. Pineland Farms says in a Facebook post the owl cut the man’s head when it attacked, and neither skiers nor trail groomers have seen the bird since. Pineland says the owl is protecting a nest near a cross-country ski trail. They believe the bird is either a barred owl or a great horned owl. The center has posted warning signs around the trail. They recommend people wave their arms overhead or wear a hat if they must pass by the area. Pineland says “owls are silent when they strike, so you will not hear it coming.”
Good Samaritans rescue moose
calf trapped in snow
Crouseville, Maine (AP) – A group of concerned citizens in Maine saved a young moose trapped in the snow. WLBT-TV reports that the group dug the calf out of 40 inches (101.6 centimeters) of snow in Crouseville on Monday. Lauren Allen’s husband was among the small crowd of helpers. Allen says Maine game wardens responded to help load the distressed animal onto a flat sled and move her to stable ground. Allen says the moose got stranded last week too and needed help. Community members think the calf lost its mother. But a Warden Service spokesman said there’s no happy ending. Cpl. John MacDonald said the baby moose’s labored breathing pointed toward an illness called lungworm. In consultation with wildlife biologists, Wardens determined the moose had to be put down.
