Animal News

The mother bear and her two cubs vacated their tree on Uni Hill soon after dark last night, and ambled west, back into the Foothills and Open Space of Boulder County.  That's a big relief to me, because the Denver news stations kept on broadcasting that the bears would be killed if they weren't out of the tree by midnight...

Bear cub in tree on University Hill in Boulder, Colorado

Irish horse-racing star St. Nicholas Abbey is progressing well, now, after yet another set back.  The handsome bay colt broke the pastern of his right fore during a gallop, and had surgery to place a weight-bearing pin in the bone.  Two days later, he had emergency colic surgery, and his status was "guarded."  A week ago, he appeared to be in pain, and his pastern was X-rayed; the pin and screws had separated, so he had to have surgery on the leg yet again.  He is currently on his feet, with a cast on his broken pastern, and a cast covering his opposite hoof, in order to keep his legs and feet at the same height, to fight laminitis.

St Nicholas Abbey at the equine hospital in Ireland

Back to Boulder for another chapter in the story of Edward, the Mapleton Elk, who was killed by an on-duty police officer, without cause.  Samuel Carter, the ex-officer, who killed the trophy elk out of season in a residential yard had asked, several weeks ago, for a change of venue, stating he wouldn't get a fair trial in Boulder.  A judge today denied the change of venue request.  Two ex-officers were involved in the conspiracy to kill Edward; the other was Brent Curnow, who ran a taxidermist business from his home. Curnow had called in sick for his work shift the night Edward was killed, but arrived soon after Carter telephoned him, to load Edward's body into his covered pickup truck, to start the taxidermy work on the big elk.  The Boulder Prosecutor's office offered Curnow a plea deal last week, which he accepted yesterday. He will be under house arrest for 60 days, must perform 120 hours of community service and will be on probation for one year, but will serve no jail time.  This was because he pled guilty to the felony charge of tampering with evidence, and four misdemeanors involving the death of the trophy elk.  I'm afraid his plea deal is a slap in the face to Sam Carter (hee-hee!)...

Edward the Elk, in a yard on Mapleton Avenue, 3 days before being gunned down by a policeman