Astoria's Queensview Co-op is up against some wildlife advocates after hiring a nuisance wildlife control operator (NWCO) to trap and kill squirrels. The Empty Cages Collective is volunteer-run grassroots animal advocacy organization, and they want to put an end to what they deem an "ineffective attempt to manage the squirrel population." In one corner you have the Queensview Co-Op, who are claiming that the pesky squirrels are chewing wires on their vehicles and getting into......

Photo via Gowanus Lounge Curbed is reporting on the latest victim of luxury condos: Myrtle the Turtle. Who's behind the act of animal cruelty? All fingers are pointing to the construction workers, who have the same shade of red paint on site at 5 Roebling Street. A neighbor, and friend of Myrtle the Turtle, wrote in:It is obviously intentional because she got such a sustained spray that it has drip marks. The face and......

Even though Tom Otterness, who just installed his newest creation in DUMBO, cheers up commuting New Yorkers underground...he has a dark past that wouldn't make anyone smile. The artist, in short, shot a dog (that he adopted) for the sake of "art" -- something he did, and filmed, 20 years ago. He's apologized for the unforgivable act, but with each new piece he creates or installs -- it seems his past will always come back......

What is it about people who abuse their significant others' pets? A 24-year-old construction worker David Wrigley was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals after crushing and squeezing the cats. The cats, tabby Madeline and black cat Jynx, belonged to his girlfriend Sara Sabol, whose Selden, Long Island home Wrigley moved into at the beginning of the month. According to police lieutenant Michael Murphy, "The cats didn't take to him. They didn't like him, wouldn't......

The California based Westland/Hallmark Meat Company is recalling all its raw and frozen beef products distributed since Feb. 1, 2006 – a total of 143 million pounds of ground beef. The largest beef recall in history was announced after an undercover Humane Society video showed workers kicking sick cows, jabbing them in the eyes and using forklifts to force them to walk to slaughter. (See the video here.) Federal regulations require meat companies to keep......

It may have looked like simple joyriding on a Friday afternoon, but the Parks Dept. employee careening around Battery Park near Whitehall St. yesterday afternoon was actually a man on a mission, i.e. to kill as many birds in the park as possible. Martin Hightower has been a Parks Dept. employee since 2005, but was arrested after 911 started receiving calls about a man driving recklessly on a golf cart at the southern tip of......

A 23-year-old animal groomer in Brooklyn is facing charges of animal cruelty and could spend up to a year in jail if convicted. The charges stem from an experience Igor Kisil and his Burmese cat Nusha had with groomer Bechir Bejaoui of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Kisil says that when he went to pick up his small cat, who weighs only three pounds, she was returned to him in a carrying case covered with blood. Kisil......

Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez, as well as the Mets organization, made statements about the video of Martinez appearing at a cockfighting event in the Dominican Republic.From Pedro Martinez: "I understand that people are upset, but this is part of our Dominican culture and is legal in the Dominican Republic. I was invited by my idol Juan Marichal to attend the event as a spectator, not as a participant." From the Mets: "We do not......

Staten Island Ferry, by General Erin at Flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: missing children on 12th Ave. in Brooklyn, an overturned tractor trailer on the eastbound BQE in Queens, and an armed robbery on West 42nd St. in Manhattan. The contraband room at JFK International: it's like a freegan's vision of heaven. The clock atop the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower (now One Hanson Place) started ticking today at noon. A man was......

There's been a lot of noise lately about the horse-drawn carriage industry in New York. In early September it was announced that the city comptroller audited how well the city polices the carriage horse industry (surprise: not well!). This was almost immediately followed by the death of a horse who was apparently spooked by the drums of a nearby street musician. Now all eyes are the industry, and PETA is bringing the message to a......

On this very day 105 years ago Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant meant to give rides and carry heavy items on Coney Island...all in the name of science! His science. He came to Coney to prove George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla's alternating current (AC) was dangerous, whereas his competing direct current was completely safe. In fact, Edison was the one who convinced New York to use the dangerous and deadly AC for their electric chair.Edison......

In recent weeks both a man and a woman have been charged with senseless violence against small defenseless animals - the woman for beating her boyfriend's cat to death, the man seriously injuring a girlfriend's dog. Sarah Favorite is a 25-year-old woman who allegedly became angry at her boyfriend's Siamese cat Yoda. Annoyed by the animal, the young woman allegedly throttled the 17-year-old cat and repeatedly bashed it against the floor on November 29 and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens. An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was......

The AP has this great photograph of a dog named Rocky at the Atlanta Humane Society. The Humane Society explained that Rocky had a #7 Michael Vick t-shirt because the society has been taking donated Vick clothing and using them as rags and bedding. Vick, the star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges related to running a dogfighting ring at his Virginia home. Vick will appear in court on......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck at Richmond Terrace and Federal Place on Staten Island, a water rescue at Chambers St. and River Terrace off Manhattan, and a homicide at Bruner and Barnes Aves. in the Bronx. A Connecticut doctor lost his family yesterday after two men broke into his home and held them hostage, while one family member was taken to a nearby bank to withdraw money. After killing the man's......

The ASPCA is investigating a strange case in Staten Island: Someone shot a Port Richmond Yorkshire Terrier, who was sitting on the front porch, with an air rifle on Tuesday. The dog died in surgery the next day. Owners Michael and Marie Buckley told WCBS 2 they moved to Staten Island from Manhattan with Eddie the terrier after Marie's mother died so they could take care of her pets. The Buckleys say that Eddie would......

This is a horrible, horrible story: Allegedly jealous over the attention his girlfriend was giving her cat, Joe Petcka brutally beat up and killed an 8 pound cat. And Petcka, former Mets pitching prospect and now an actor, is 205 pounds, and from the looks of these photos, he's a built guy. Which makes us hope that when Petcka goes into the clink, someone 25 times his size messes him up. Petcka allegedly yelled, "You......

Oh, Fred the Cat, how we miss stories about you! The legacy of Fred is mentioned as the NY Times updates what's happening with the fake vet the undercover kitty cat helped bust. Last year, after a dog owner was suspicious of supposed vet Steven Vassall's treatment (the dog had an open wound and was not given meds post-op), the Brooklyn DA's office called in Fred for a sting that led to Vassall being charged......

On the Gothamist Newsmap today: A naked EDP on East 14th Street in Manhattan, a van into a building on Cromwell Avenue in Staten Island, and an illegal factory in Brooklyn Stupid China! A stock sell-off in the most populous country caused the Dow to drop 416 points The Brooklyn Record looks at Con Ed's green power option Bottle rockets + turkeys = animal cruelty and disturbing wildlife charges for a Staten Island man......

A 5 month old puppy was dropped in a trash chute by his owner during an argument. The Daily News reported that ex-con Anthony Blow had been arguing with Robin Hines and threatened, "You don't think I will do it?" before dropping the pit bull terrier mix through the chute seven stories. Hines called the police, who managed to rescue the dog after breaking into the compactor room. Sergeant Rick Khalaf said, "The trash was......

People Who Make Us Sick - This past weekend, a Queens man was arrested for animal cruelty. Oswald Joudan faces up to a year in a prison and a $2,000 fine for a number of terrible things he did to his Chow Chow "Lumpy" (pictured). A neighbor called the ASPCA, which found the dog so badly beaten that its face is distorted. The dog was also starved to the point of being 30 pounds (!!)......

There was a funny story about deer in Staten Island in The Advance earlier this week. Deer have been grazing on the green at the Staten Island Golf Practice Center, and apparently they are not afraid of golf balls or humans! The Advance has tips for deer-and-human safety (like what to do when they run in front of the car), but the best factoid was this: "The state Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that......

There's supposed to be a connection between animal cruelty and violence to humans, and there's a pretty sick case of that in Queens. Based on a complaint, the ASPCA went to the Queens Health Care Facility in Rockaway to ask security guard Dustin Gill about a girlfriend's dog. But the ASPCA agents found much more. From the NY Sun: An ASPCA special agent, Richard Ryan, was investigating a complaint phoned into the agency's hotline on......

Last month, a woman walking on Blake Avenue in Brooklyn was almost hit by a cat that fell out of the air. The owner, Don Carter, who the woman saw looking at his third floor apartment window, took a limping Midnight the cat back inside. An anonymous tip was called into the ASPCA, and when a special agent interviewed him, Carter said the cat fell out of the window. Then he confessed that he threw......

There's a possibility that the meat full of 3-inch pins, found in Central Park and eaten by a dog, was actually a Santeria hoo doo ritual. A hoodoo supply shop owner tells the Daily News that putting pins in a cut of tongue is "a very old and popular spell used to silence people. It can be used in any case where there's a witness that's going to speak against you." So you put it......

An update to an animal death case from last year: Thomas Fong, the neighbor and former boyfriend of a dog owner, was cleared of animal cruelty and burglary charges in court yesterday. Last year, Fong had been charged with breaking into Christine Zorbas' apartment and killing her dog, and the tabloids...okay, the Post, had a field day with reporting that Fong was perhaps a little too interested in the Shetland collie, culminating in a comment......

My boyfriend and I live in a studio apartment with all our windows facing the backyard, where our landlord keeps his two big and very, very loud dogs. The backyard is pretty small and the dogs are left there for days at a time, whatever the weather, so it seems that the barking is more of a cry for help than anything else. They go at it for 10 to 20 minutes at a time,......

Last year, Gothamist reported on a Bay Ridge bike messenger who was arrested for animal cruelty, after beating and torturing his fiancee's cat to death. Yesterday, James Whalen was sentenced to five years probation, plus continued treatment in alcohol abuse and anger management programs, instead of going to jail. Gothamist hopes that Whalen is truly sorry, and we hope that people realize that abusing animals is a punishable crime. Whalen also said that his relationship......

The discovery of many "skinned and eviscerated cats" on a Queens rooftop is alarming the ASPCA and the local police. Construction workers found various cat body organs and carcasses near a construction site and then called the police. ASPCA Special Agent Joseph Pentangelo told the media, "It's macabre, horrible. We don't know yet whether they were beaten to death or euthanized - whether it was ritualistic or if this was somebody's ideas of a biology......

Bay Ridge resident James Whalen, a 35 year-old bike messenger, was arrested after he had tortured and beat his girlfriend's tabby cat to death while she was gone. He was charged with aggravated animal cruelty, which is a felony and the most severe animal abuse charge in the state. His girlfriend's mother found the cat, Darwin, who "had been repeatedly beaten about the face, and had bloody eyes, a broken jaw and a broken tail"......