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Animal stories are worth retelling
(by Dave Lange - August 25, 2011)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Animal stories are worth retelling
Just about any week after our newspapers roll off the press, especially during the warm months, there are reminders of how much animals, wild and domestic, are part of life, for better or worse, in Geauga County and the Chagrin Valley.
Like most summers, this one had reports of a black bear, or perhaps more than one, roaming around the area. Mostly, this one was spotted in the vicinity of Bainbridge's Lake Lucerne and Millbrook subdivisions. The good news is that black bears seldom eat people, or even kill or maim us. The bad news is that they don't eat deer either.
Sadly, even though they don't mean it, deer sometimes do kill people, most often when they're riding motorcycles. Fortunately, that hasn't happened here this summer, but a woman from Stow was injured May 31, when her car struck a deer on the Route 422 freeway in Bainbridge.
As usual, elected officials in Solon are wringing their hands over the exploding deer population. Unless voters there approve a referendum in the November election to prohibit lethal methods for culling the herd, the city hopes to spend $128,000 at last count to kill 400 or 500 of the animals. Contrary to some rumors, the election issue would not prevent the animal warden from knocking off rabid raccoons.
But the biggest animal story of the summer, in my humble opinion, was the approval by Burton Village Council for residents to keep chickens and ducks as pets, but not turkeys. Actually, the council was evenly divided on the matter, voting 3-3, but Mayor Thomas Blair Sr. broke the tie, clucking, "I truly cannot see any harm in it."
One resident was most convincing in arguing for the fowl friends, saying he routinely encounters dog and horse hooey on village sidewalks, and besides, "coyotes may come and eat your children." I say, let them eat chickens instead, although I wish they'd eat more deer in Solon.
Speaking of dog excrement, though, a couple neighbors in Chagrin Falls had it out over that. According to the June 9 police report, one resident asked a dog walker to pick up after his animal, but he didn't have a bag, so he gave him one, so he picked it up and threw it in the driveway, so he picked it up and threw it on his back and then found it hanging in his tree the following day. They might be better off with chickens in Chagrin Falls.
Freshman journalism students are taught, when dog bites man, it's not news, but when man bites dog, print the story. Dogs, however, do not file complaints with their local police departments.
Apparently, they do not make good witnesses either. When the Geauga County Sheriff's Department was called to a home in Claridon July 25 on a reported domestic dispute, deputies were asked to confer with the horse and dog there, because they "know what happened." A deputy told a woman he did not speak the animals' language, and she was charged with domestic violence. I don't know who posted bail.
At 3:30 a.m. June 26, deputies were called to the campground at Punderson State Park in Newbury, where campers reported that raccoons were eating the food they left out on a picnic table. Imagine that. They were called back to the campground the next night regarding a coyote prowling around a tent. The coyote was gone when deputies arrived, but they caught the raccoons red handed.
On Aug. 9, Burton police helped a resident search for his missing 7-foot-long boa constrictor, and sheriff's deputies responded to a report that a man was bitten by his domesticated groundhog. These two pet owners should get together.
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