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Show Wacky Wildlife Makes Headlines Donkeys and elephants may have dominated the nation's headlines in the election year of 1980, but they got a lot of competition from some wacky wildlife and domestic animals, according to the National Wildlife Federation's annual report on animals in the news. A dandy lion that charmed its captors in New York City, a squadron of seagulls that dive-bombe- d a parking lot in Maryland, and an English bull whose remantic antics fathered a 352,000 lawsuit were among the their number. Several bull stories made news. In one of them an English Holstein named Arab was placed on a regimen of total ab-stinence after over-exerting himself while servicing 29 heifers from wales. But the plan went awry. When several cows from a neighboring farm wandered into his pasture and Arab again turned romantic, he destroyed his usefulness as a stud, his owner charged in a $352.00 lawsuit against the neighboring farmer. A judge ruled that the fish. So did man. Oil spills in Maryland killed 40,000 fish and a sewage discharge from a Virginia coal plant destroyed 43,000 more. Five million honey bees suffocated in the baggage compartment of a 727 jet on a flight from Arizona to Canada. But the worst stories involving wildlife and humans came from Glacier National Park, where three people were clawed to death by grizzly bears, bringing to six the number killed by grizzlies in the park's 71 year history; from Perth, Australia, where a long saltwater crocodile killed a late night swimmer; and from Dallas, where an eight-foot-lon- g pet python escaped from its aquarium, slithered into the crib of a sleeping baby girl and crushed her to death. In a grim coun-terpoint to that story, an baby girl in Melbourne, Australia, killed a venemous snake by biting its head off. Wild animals tangled with the U.S. Postal Service in two areas, National Wildlife's third annual survey found. A peeved 'possum was found in a Front Royal, Va., mailbox, where someone had dropped him, apparently as a joke. Not amused, the 'possum chewed or otherwise defaced about 40 letters. Another joker in November, put a tiny warbler in a mailbag headed south from New York. It got only as far as Philadelphia, but a Kennebunk, Me., woman talked Delta Air Lines into flying a shivering robin all the way to Florida. In Tempe, Ariz., the jogging craze got some new participants, a herd of pigs, when the Arizona State , University researchers decided to test the ef-- j forts of that sport and , high fat diets on heart problems. Prodded along by the resear-chers, the porkers were ordered to jog about two miles a day. They showed some striking j similarities to humans. i "They burn up the I track for about the first lap, said Ross Consaul, j one of the researcher, j "After that, most of them need some en- - . couragement." birds and beast that vied with the political critters for public at-tention. Most of the news made by animals was amusing, but a few deaths occured where humans exposed to wildlife failed to take adequate safety preacutions, the NWF roundup showed. The year's top story, appropriately, involved the king of beasts. It began when Albert Sima and two friends returning from a pigeon race encountered a d lion outside a graveyard in Queens, a borough of New York City. When Sima, a meat distributor, gingerly approached the big cat, it greeted him by rubbing its body against his leg. Then, when Sima opened a door of his pick-u- p truck, the lion hopped in. Predictably, the police refused to believe Sima after he drove ' home and called to report his find. When, after several calls, the :! police finally came, the lion climbed onto the front seat of their patrol jj car for a ride to the Bronx Zoo. But there was no den at the zoo for Henry, as he was now known to a growing circle of friends. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had to step in and find a place for him in a private zoo at Scotch Plains, N.J., where he now entertains visitors and plays an J occasional . charity ii benefit. The police never !ij located Henry's owner. ASPCA Director John Kullberg called him "just about the frien-dliest wild animal Tver ever met." Considerably less friendly were the seagulls at Cambridge, Md., who, apparently in protest against a parking lot in the midst of their habitat, bom-barded the lot with oyster shells. Several car roofs were dented, In another apparent protest, 4,000 dolphins massed around the Japanese island of Iki and forced fishing boats back into port.Ob- - servers speculated that the dolphins were angered by the fact that Iki fishermen had just netted and killed 200 of damage was done during Arab's first orgy and awarded his owner only $347.24. A shocking story came from Tokyo, where a cow got tangled in a power cable net-work, causing a short circuit which halted 20 high speed trains for more than an hour. The cow was electrocuted. In Bangladesh, wildlife got the upper hand when nearly a thousand hissing, poisonous snakes took over a town, diverting traffic and sending people scurrying for cover. The viper's nest had been disturbed by a road repair crew. In Buena Vista, Cal., a burro named Billy Carter won $1,200 and the second Annual Triple Crown Burro Race by covering 25 rugged miles in three hours and 20 minutes. In Huron, S.D. a slithery creature named Billy Carter won a "book" worm race at the local library. His triumph proved short lived when a judge accidentally stepped on him. Does a cockatoo have the right to remain silent? A judge in Norfolk, Mass., ruled affirmatively when Jane Messina sued Debby's Pet Land for triple damages because a $1,200 white sulfur-creste- d cockatoo named Sheba that she bought from the store refused to talk. A veterinarian testified that some birds, "no matter how much time you spend with them, won't talk." Dismissing the case, Judge Vincent Brogna agreed: "They're like humans." Convinced that cockroaches are also like people, a team of scientists at Emory University in Atlanta trained some roaches to run on a treadmill with weights attached to their legs. The purpose wasn't to lose weight, but to learn more about failure of the metabolic process in ailments such as muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis. Nature dealt some terrible blows to wildlife, as when the eruption of Mt. 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DAILY THRUSAT ' I U I $2 M "old Any Boat 'Til J Delivery on April 1st J Former Hostages Will Be Eligible For Vet Benefits The Veterans A-dministration is providing the same ,. level of education benefits for eligible former Iran hostages or their spouses and children that is pro-vided for survivors or dependents of veterans who died or were completely disabled as the result of military service. Elmer J. Smith, director of the Salt Lake City VA Regional Of-fice, said that under the Hostage Relief Act of last October. The Secretary of State for Administration of the U.S. Department of State determines the eligibility of the hostages held in captive, state and their spouses and children. The Department of State then forwards the approved applications to the VA for regional payment of the hostages educational benefits, Cordova added. Section 101 of the Hostage Relief Act of 1980 notes that term 'American Hostage' means any individual who, while in civil service or the unifor-med services of the United States, or a citizen or resident alien of the United States rendering personal service to the United States abroad, similar to the service of a civil officer or employee of the United States (as determined by the Secretary of State), is placed in a captive status during the hostage period. |