MISHAP: Elderly motorist, who told police he confused the gas and brake pedals, drives vehicle into a window.

5 hurt in RB accident

MISHAP: Elderly motorist, who told police he confused the gas and brake pedals, drives vehicle into a window.

By Larry Altman, Staff Writer
Posted: 03/29/2009 07:18:29 PM PDT

An 88-year-old motorist mistook his accelerator for the brake, struck several sidewalk diners and drove his car halfway into a Redondo Beach restaurant Sunday.

Five people went to hospitals for treatment of minor injuries, Redondo Beach police Sgt. Peter Grimm said. More photos

Workers clear debris after a car went over the sidewalk and through the front window of the Ham Supreme Shops restaurant in Redondo Beach on Sunday. Five people were injured. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)

The accident occurred just after 2 p.m. as the elderly Redondo Beach resident tried to park his Jaguar outside Ham Supreme in a shopping center at Pacific Coast Highway and Carnelian Street.

"There were a lot of people there," Grimm said. "The potential for a serious accident was huge. It was hot. It was sunny out. People were strolling in the area. It could have been a lot worse."

The driver told police he was attempting to park his car when he mistook the gas pedal for the brake and lurched forward.

His car struck several people eating at tables on the sidewalk outside Ham Supreme and smashed through a window of the restaurant.

Inside, the car struck several diners and shoved them through a stucco wall into a neighboring tutoring business called Score, trapping them inside.

After the vehicle hit Ham Supreme, it pushed diners through a wall into a nearby business. Officers had to break through a window to free the patrons. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)

Responding police officers, including one who witnessed the crash while patrolling in the parking lot at the time, had to smash the front window of the tutoring business to free the restaurant patrons.

Despite the destructive crash, no one was seriously hurt, Grimm said.

The elderly driver, whose name was not released, was not hurt.

Police confiscated his keys and towed his car, which will be examined to determine if the vehicle had any mechanical problems. The driver told officers the crash was his fault, police said.

The driver was not arrested. Police will file a report with the California Department of Motor Vehicles for his license to be reviewed.

"The Redondo Beach Police Department drove him home," Grimm said.

Pig escapes from truck on highway, but is shot

March 30, 2009

A pig on its way to a slaughterhouse managed to break free on the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension on Sunday, but paid a painful and deadly price for its brief moments of freedom.

State police at Pocono say a trooper shot and killed the pig on the side of the road, near mile marker 80 in Penn Forrest Township, because the pig was injured and bleeding. Troopers said the pig could have also created havoc on the highway by running back into traffic.

The pig was one of many in a truck headed to a slaughterhouse. One or more of the pigs managed to push a gate away from the truck's body and the one that escaped slipped out and onto the road shortly after 11 a.m. Police said it's unusual for a pig to get out of such a truck.

Police say the truck driver, who will not be cited or charged with any violation, took the dead pig with him.

Source

450,000 Shekel Fine to Pig Farm Owners for Water Pollution

Updated: 03/02/2009

On February 22, 2009, the Acre Magistrate's Court convicted the owners of a pig farm to the east of the Mi'ilya local council in northern Israel of operating a pig sty without a business license and of polluting water sources. The defendants were convicted of allowing pig farm wastes to flow untreated into unsealed earth pools, from where they overflowed to open space, littering the public domain and endangering water sources with pollution. In addition, wastewater was discharged from the pools to open space, using leaking pipes, and pig carcasses were discarded on the ground. The defendants were convicted of violations under the Water Law, 1959, the Water Regulations (Prevention of Water Pollution) (Evaporation and Collection Ponds), 1977, the Licensing of Businesses Law, 1968 and the Maintenance of Cleanliness Law, 1984. Court Sentence Defendant 1 was given a suspended imprisonment sentence of three months for a three year period on condition he does not contravene provisions of the Business Licensing Law and the Water Law. He was fined 350,000 shekels or 30 months of imprisonment in lieu of the fine. He was also required to sign a financial obligation in the sum of 300,000 or 30 months of imprisonment to refrain from a similar offense under the Water Law for three years. Defendant 2 was fined 100,000 shekels or 12 months imprisonment in lieu of the fine. He signed a financial obligation of 100,000 shekels or 12 months imprisonment to refrain from a similar offense under the Water Law for three years. The total fine, in the sum of 450,000 shekels, will be paid to the Cleanliness Maintenance Fund. The court also issued a judicial shutdown order against the pig farm, requiring the defendants to immediately shut down operations in the farm, in light of the fact that the business operates without a license and causes environmental hazards, as well as due to the fact that a temporary shutdown order was issued against the farm within the framework of interim procedures. In his sentence, the judge emphasized that "offenses that damage the environment are not to be belittled and damage to the landscape, to land and to water sources, is, at times, irreversible. Therefore, significant penalties should be imposed on anyone who continuously harms our life sources - air and water." The judge went on to state that "the offenses in the case should also be viewed in terms of their economic-profit aspects since the defendants were able to draw real profits from operating the business in this way, and therefore it is only right that high fines should be imposed on the defendants...in order to deter continued offenses."  Source

Arizona needs to put an end to barbaric sport

15 commentsMar. 2, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Most people have never heard of something called "hog-dogging."

Once you know about it, we think you'll support banning it.

It's an event in which a trained attack dog is set on a pig. Much like dog fighting, people bet on the outcome. Some even take their children to see animals painfully injured.

Kathleen Mayer, legislative liaison for the Pima County Attorney's Office, says the dogs, usually pit bulls, are trained to go after the ears, groin and thighs of the more-or-less defenseless pigs.

The pigs don't always die. Injured animals are used over and over. In one event, she says, there were 95 dogs and 19 pigs.

Law enforcement has known about hog-dog fighting for two or three years, but little can be done to stop it. Statutes specifically ban dog fighting, not dog-hog fighting.

Sen. Jonathan Paton and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema want to change that. They have bills that would expand current statutes that make dog fighting a class 5 felony to include all animals. Basically, that means replacing the word "dog" in statute with the word "animal."

Then law enforcement could go after the organizers of these barbaric events.

Sinema's bill, House Bill 2150, passed the House Judiciary Committee unanimously. Paton's bill, Senate Bill 1115, is being held along with all other Senate bills until the budget is done.

Arizona needs to update its laws to ban this nasty form of animal cruelty.

Source

Blue-ear pig epidemic hits three Vietnamese provinces

www.chinaview.cn  2009-03-02 13:23:53

HANOI, March 2 (Xinhua) -- A blue-ear epidemic in pigs is developing in three Vietnamese provinces, resulting in nearly a thousand of pigs being infected with the blue-ear virus, said the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Monday.     In northern province Quang Ninh, the disease infected about 50 pigs raised on two local farms, said the department.     In central province Quang Nam, the virus is plaguing pig farms in 20 communes of four districts, causing the culling of nearly 700 pigs, said the department.     Meanwhile the disease broke out recently in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu, infecting 13 pigs with the blue-ear virus, said the department.     The ministry vows to speed up measures to prevent diseases in livestock this year.

Editor: Xiong Tong

Source