Animal Roundup

An elderly Novato animal lover was sent to jail after getting in a fight with a trapper over a skunk. (Skunk pictured at right, from CBS 5). The 82-year-old man and his wife were trying to release a skunk that the property owner had trapped. Unfortunately, a county trapper was also there. The trapper, there with his son, shouted, "Do not release the skunk, sir!", at which point, the trapper claims, the activist charged him. The trapper's son admits to tackling the activist in a bearhug, but says he only did it after the activist tried to take his father's gun. The trapper says after they let the activist up, the activist then tried to run him and his son over with his car. The activist says he was attacked and is looking to press charges against the trapper. Does this seem vaguely like a Pepe LePew plot to anyone else?

ABC 7, meanwhile, is proudly touting its coverage of cruelty to chickens through the use of "battery cages," in which up to 10 hens are squeezed into a single cage. After they aired footage taped by the East Bay Animal Advocates, Trader Joe's has agreed to stop selling battery-cage eggs under its own name (though it'll continue to sell battery-cage eggs from other producers), and the Humane Society has filed a lawsuit against the State of California, claiming that public funds were illegally used to promote battery-caging in general.

....and someone in Pleasanton saw two great horned owls going at it. Birds do it, bees do it: owlets should emerge in about a month.