The 19 News Pawcast shares the stories you want to hear about our friends with fur, feathers, tails, or scales! Episode 8's theme will blow your mind: animal stories about cocaine and bomb threats.
CLEVELAND , Ohio - The 19 News Pawcast shares the stories you want to hear about our friends with fur, feathers, tails, or scales! From Pawesome News to Ruff Stuff , tips to Protect Your Pet , keeping up with the latest animal cruelty cases, and featuring the animals that have been waiting in Northeast Ohio shelters the longest, and much more, I’m Rachel Vadaj, and I’ll “tail” you about it each week.
Pablo Escobar died a year before I was born, so for me, it took research to learn which stories about the Columbian drug lord were historical facts, or Hollywood fiction. One of those fantastical reports was that he brought hippopotamuses to South America. But why am I talking about these “cocaine hippos” on the Pawcast? Well Columbia plans to euthanize the entire invasive population... but they may be saved by a billionaire heir.
Pablo Escobar brought four hippos to Columbia in the 1980s for the his large private zoo at Hacienda Nápoles, the sprawling estate that served as the drug lord’s secluded fortress. Eventually, those four hippos grew the population to about 160, which is endangering native species. Colombia’s Environment Ministry said that, if left unchecked, the hippo population will exceed 500 by 2030. To prevent this, Colombian officials recently announced that they plan to euthanize 80 of the hippos.
The decision has sparked a large debate. Some scientists in favor of the euthanasia have reported receiving death threats, while animal advocates call the plan “murder. ” Locals are divided on the matter. Some say the tourism the hippos attract is essential to the town economy, others say they endanger the fishing industry, including one fisherman who claims two hippos capsized his boat.
While putting the hippos down is seen as the last resort to control the population, Indian magnate Anant Ambani is asking the Colombian government to reconsider its plan to euthanize 80 hippos and has offered to house them at his rescue center in India, which houses 150,000 animals from more than 2,000 species. Colombia’s Environment Ministry said that no country has committed to a transfer of the hippos, citing high costs and legal matters have deterred potential partners.
I’ll be sure to keep you updated on what the Columbian government decides to do with the hippopotamuses, since giving them to Santa as Christmas presents doesn’t seem like an option. A new study shows cocaine contamination in waterways could impact the movement of Atlantic salmon and lead them to swim farther.
This recent study by Australia’s Griffith University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences focused on three groups of 2-year-old hatchery fish that were given tiny implants. One group was given a tiny implant of cocaine, the second was given an implant of cocaine’s main byproduct, benzoylecgonine, and the third group was the control group and given no added chemicals. The researchers then tracked the fish’s movements in a large natural lake in Sweden over eight weeks.
The study revealed the group exposed to benzoylecgonine swam almost twice as far per week as the control group. The researchers also noted the fish exposed to benzoylecgonine dispersed about 7.6 miles farther than the control group. The study concluded that cocaine-related pollution in waterways could affect salmon’s spatial ecology and influence their habitat use and dispersal patterns.
FILE - An Atlantic salmon leaps out of the water at a Cooke Aquaculture farm pen on Oct. 11, 2008, near Eastport, Maine. I have a third animal story involving cocaine, and this could hit closer to home. A routine walk nearly turned deadly for a family’s dog, who ingested cocaine left behind in a public park. Thankfully, their precious pup survived.
I’m sharing their experience to help you Protect Your Pet. I can’t have a Pawcast episode with half of the theme is about animal stories involving cocaine without mentioning perhaps the most famous of all: the Cocaine Bear. 19 News’ sister station WAVE has an Emmy-winning documentary called BLOW: The True Story of Cocaine, a Bear, and a Crooked Kentucky Cop.
It’s about a Lexington, Ky. cop who threw out millions in cocaine from a plane in 1985; a bear in Georgia who found it, ate some, then died; and the story that hit Hollywood about 40 years later. While the fact is that the bear did not go on a drug-infused killing spree, WAVE said they “made so many discoveries that’s flipping what people think they know upside down. ”Now to the second part of these crazy animal stories...
It happened to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Akron Zoo on the same day! The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium also evacuated after a bomb threat, and had to clear everyone out again because of a potential active shooter threat just three days later. The day before the initial threat to the Columbus zoo, the Toledo Zoo had to evacuate due to a bomb threat.
Thankfully, these alleged bomb threats and claims of active shooters were hoax calls, so no explosives or real dangers have been found in the latest string of what authorities are describing as swatting incidents. However, these incidents that prompted evacuations and closures at several zoos around the U.S. disrupt family plans, field trips, cause panic, and tax public safety resources. The FBI considers swatting to be an increasing problem around the country.
Besides diverting resources, these hoax calls can cost thousands of dollars per incident, endanger first responders and the public, and can lead to federal charges. I’ll let you know if the callers are ever caught in future episodes of the Pawcast in our Paw & Order segment.1 dead, 1 injured in I-480 motorcycle crashCleveland VA transitioning to new electronic health records system in October
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