State of ethology in the state of Texas

A day after the 2006 shooting of a cat that lived under the San Luis Pass toll bridge in Galveston, Tex., another cat could be seen. The prosecution and defense wrangled repeatedly about whether witnesses could accurately assess the cat’s state of mind. “He’s not qualified to know what the cat was feeling,” said Mr. Nelson, when a police officer, John P. Bertolino Sr., testified that the cat was in terrible pain when he arrived at the crime scene. The cat died en route to a Humane Society facility.

NYTimes

Clearly, the man & his wife ate the baby owls

An old man in Hunan Province said an owl has taken a special liking to attacking his head. When he leaves home, the owl often starts pecking his head, forcing the man to wear a special hat, Changsha Evening News reported today.

"The owl began attacking me in March, when I was working in an orange grove," the 79-year-old Yang Decai said."I don't remember how many times it has attacked me, but the day before yesterday, it pecked me 20 times," Yang said. "It doesn't hurt but it is really annoying."

Yang wears a hat with nails sticking out of a piece of wood to protect himself from the owl. The owl sometimes cooperates with another owl – one hooting in a tree and the other swooping in to attack, the report said.

Yang's wife has also been attacked several times. Other family members have been left alone, the report said.

Yang said the owl may be seeking revenge because he removed a nest with two baby owls from his roof. "They must be the baby owls' parents and want revenge," Yang said. However, an expert from the forestry bureau in Huaihua City, Hunan, said the owl's strange behavior may be because it feels threatened or that Yang carries a special scent.

The expert suggested Yang ask local forestry officials to catch the owl or scare it away.

--Shanghaidaily.com

Scholars of depravity

One victim who is not seeking restitution, David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale, said in a letter to the court that he hoped “the criminal’s property will be destroyed, or (if need be) sealed for a century at least and then made available at no charge to scholars of depravity.”

nyt jan 22, 2007