Category: News

Fearless Florida Woman Grabs Alligator, Saving Her Dog

It was the worst screaming Lori Beiswenger said she’d ever heard. To her horror, she realized it was coming from Hope, her 9-year-old Terrier mix. A 7-and-a-half foot alligator had Hope in its jaws and was dragging her into a pond at the Point O’ Woods Golf Course in Inverness, Fla., which Beiswenger owns.

“I said, ‘God, no, this can’t be happening,’ and it was the scariest feeling in the world,” Beiswenger told WTSP.

She may have been feeling scared, but when no one immediately responded to her cries for help, the 52-year-old potential Dog Mom of the Year winner fearlessly jumped into the pond and grabbed the gator’s tail.

“I pulled him back and he started thrashing and rolling her some more,” Beiswenger told WFTS.

But she wasn’t about to give up Hope. “I just kept pulling it, saying, ‘You’re not getting her, you’re not going out there,’ because I knew what he had in mind,” she told WTSP.

After three good pulls on its tail, the alligator released Hope. Beiswenger could see her dog’s nose poking out of the water, but the gator disappeared.

Beiswenger continued screaming for help. Jody Daniels, a golf course volunteer, showed up and, using a shovel, removed Hope from the pond.

“I thought it was dead because all I could see was the whites of its eyes,” Daniels told WFTS.

But Hope was alive and, after that ordeal, she was even able to take off running.

“When he pulled her out, she started running up the bank, and the gator did, too,” Beiswenger told WTSP.

Daniels hit the alligator’s head with the shovel. Beiswenger told WFTS the alligator was later trapped and killed by a private company. (Too bad it couldn’t have been relocated to a safer location.)

As for Hope, she suffered a severed artery and other injuries, but is recuperating after three hours of surgery. “It’s really a miracle that she survived it,” Beiswenger told WTSP.

Like a cat, Hope seems to have multiple lives. Beiswenger rescued her just before she was to be euthanized. Hope also survived being struck by a car.

Beiswenger told WTSP rescuing Hope was the “dumbest, bravest” thing she’s ever done.

“I love this dog. I wasn’t going to lose her,” Beiswenger said.

Photo via Facebook

Rabbit-Chasing Jack Russell Terrier Falls off Cliff into Sea (He’s Okay)

As he walked, leashless, alongside his pet parents Saturday afternoon on Anvil Point, a cliff overlooking the English Channel, a Jack Russell Terrier named Spott spotted a rabbit.

As terriers tend to do, Spott bolted after it. His pet parents watched in horror as Spott ran off the cliff, plunging into the sea below. (He fell 90 feet, according to the Swanage – Coastguard Rescue Team blog; the Daily Mail reports it was 120 feet, while the Dorset Echo says it was 30 feet. At any rate, it was a big fall for a small dog.)

Spott’s pet parents immediately notified the Coastguard.

“The patrol searched the area then someone shouted up that they could see Spott at the bottom of the cliff,” Ian Brown, a Coastguard officer, told the Daily Mail. “Amazingly, it turned out that Spott had survived the fall and was alive and well.”

Brown said Spott likely survived by landing in the sea instead of on the rocky shore. Spott even managed to swim to a ledge, where he was found by a recreational climber who had descended the cliff. The climber stayed with the lucky dog and comforted him until help arrived from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

“Spott was a bit shaken and had a few scratches, but otherwise seemed to be okay,” Becky Mack, a crew member on the RNLI lifeboat, told the Dorset Echo.

Spott was taken to the RNLI station in Swanage, where he was reunited with his very relieved pet parents.

“Our little dog Spott fell over a cliff and we thought we had lost him,” they wrote in a thank-you note posted on the Swanage – Coastguard Rescue Team blog yesterday. “We would like to send our heartfelt thanks to the Coastguard who were brilliant and to the RNLI who rescued Spott.”

This near tragedy illustrates just how important it is to keep your dog on a leash, no matter where you’re going for a walk.

“Always keep your dog on a lead while walking on the cliffs, as most dogs, especially smaller ones, cannot see the cliff edge,” the Coastguard advised in May 2014, when a Black Lab named Pippa also miraculously survived a 90-foot plunge off Anvil Point.

Photo via Facebook

RIP Buster, Bomb-Sniffing Dog Who Saved a Thousand Lives

During his five tours of duty in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq, a Royal Air Force (RAF) dog named Buster sniffed out hundreds of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), saving more than 1,000 lives in the process.

The Springer Spaniel reportedly completed more tours than any other military dog, according to the BBC. Buster was bestowed with many awards for his service, including the Dickin medal (considered the Victoria Cross for animals, it’s the U.K. military’s top award for war dogs) and the Crufts Friends for Life Award. He was the first dog to become the official lifetime mascot of the RAF police.

The 13-year-old hero, who retired in 2011, crossed the Rainbow Bridge this week at the Lincolnshire home of his longtime handler, Flight Sgt. Will Barrow.

“Buster saved my life every day we were together,” Barrow writes in his book about their partnership, “Buster: The Military Dog Who Saved a Thousand Lives.” [This is an affiliate link.]  “I owe him so much that I can never repay the debt, even if we lived forever.”

The book, a No. 1 bestseller in the U.K., will be released in the U.S. this fall.

In addition to sniffing out IEDs and tracking Taliban insurgents, Buster provided emotional support to Barrow and his fellow troops.

“Many’s the time I’d find some of the soldiers on the cot beds with him, just chatting away,” Barrow writes. “They felt they could confide in him and it wouldn’t be going anywhere else.”

Buster also had a knack for enchanting the children in war-torn areas. “Like a canine Pied Piper, Buster drew in his crowd and entertained them,” Barrow writes. “Anyone looking on would have wondered how on earth a spaniel from the U.K. could do so much for the ‘hearts and minds’ operation.”

Even after he retired, Buster was still enchanting children. Just days before he died, he and Barrow handed out report cards to students at a local school, according to a statement yesterday from the Royal Air Force.

An event is being arranged by RAF police to celebrate Buster and other military working dogs. It “will give the force an opportunity to remember those special companions that have saved thousands of lives and served so admirably,” the RAF stated.

Photo via Facebook

Dog Vision App Shows You the World through Your Dog’s Eyes

Ever wonder what the world looks like to your dog? There’s a web app for that.

The Dog Vision app, created by András Péter, has actually been around for two years but has recently been in the news. The purpose of this web-based image processing tool is to provide a look at the differences in color perception, brightness discrimination and visual acuity between dogs and humans.

It’s easy to use: Simply upload an image and select the perceptual differences you want to view. (I selected all the differences for these photos of my dogs.)

So, are dogs really completely color blind? Nope. They have a dichromatic color perception, meaning they can see two colors.

“Unlike humans who have three different color-sensitive cone cells in their retina (red, green and blue), dogs have only two (yellow and blue),” the Dog Vision website explains.

“This does not mean dogs can’t see green or red objects! It only means that they can’t distinguish green, yellow or red objects based on their color. However, they can still distinguish a red ball from a green one if there is a difference in the perceived brightness of the two.”

The Dog Vision app can’t show us exactly what dogs perceive, but it does provide an interesting look at the differences between what humans and dogs see. For technical details about how Dog Vision was programmed, visit the website.

While it’s a little sad to realize just how blurry and dull the world apparently appears to our dogs, vision isn’t really their strong suit anyway. Dogs have a sense of smell that is up to 100,000 stronger than ours. So there’s that.

Amber Heard, Not Johnny Depp, Charged with Smuggling Dogs into Australia

APRIL 17, 2016 UPDATE: The dog smuggling charges against Amber Heard were dropped today.

Back in May, Johnny Depp, who was filming another sequel to “Pirates of the Caribbean” on the Gold Coast, apparently thought he and his wife, actress Amber Heard, could get around Australia’s pet quarantine laws by flying their Yorkies into the country on a private jet and hiding them in a handbag at the airport.

But the contraband canines, Boo and Pistol, were discovered not long after they arrived. An assistant took them to a groomer, who posted their photos on social media.

Like many countries (and Hawaii), Australia has strict quarantine laws for imported pets in order to prevent the spread of diseases like rabies. People traveling with their dogs must first apply for a permit. The length of the quarantine period varies; in Australia, it’s a minimum of 10 days.

When Australia’s Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce announced that Boo and Pearl would both be euthanized if they weren’t “buggered off back to the U.S.,” as he put it, it drew international ire. The social media campaign #WarOnTerrier was launched. More than 22,000 people signed a Change.org petition urging Joyce to spare the dogs’ lives.

On May 15, Heard flew back to California with Boo and Pistol on the private jet.

During a senate hearing 10 days later at the Parliament House in Canberra, government officials decided that if the case went to court, Depp could face up to 10 years in prison or a maximum fine of $250,000 (USD). The pilot of his private jet could also face up to two years in prison for not declaring the dogs.

“I have a feeling we’re going to avoid the land down under from now on, just as much as we can, thanks to certain politicians there,” Heard told Sunrise during a press junket in June for her movie, “Magic Mike XXL.”

“I guess everyone tries to go for their 15 minutes (of fame) … including some government officials.”

Interestingly, it turns out it’s not Depp who will be facing charges — it’s Heard. The Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions announced yesterday it was charging Heard with two counts of illegally importing dogs into Australia and one count of producing a false document.

According to The Australian, Heard is facing up to 10 years in prison and a maximum $75,000 (USD) fine for the illegal importation charge, and up to a year in prison and a maximum $8,000 (USD) fine for the false document charge.

Joyce insists the charges against Heard are not “mean.”

“The law is the same for everybody. There is no preferential treatment here,” he told The Australian yesterday. “You come into our nation, you have to abide (by) biosecurity protocols.”

Joyce said the possibility of a rabies outbreak would be catastrophic to Australia. “It’s not just the people on the streets that would be affected,” he said. “If that got out into the general wild dog population in Australia, which is massive, it would have devastating effects.”

Heard, who has not yet commented on the charges, was summoned to appear in a Queensland court Sept. 7.

Photo credit: GabboT

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