Man’s “˜great’ pumpkin wins
weigh-off
HALF MOON BAY ““ The owner of the gargantuan pumpkin that
won first place and $5,900 at the local weigh-off championship
Monday is an Oregon commercial pilot who said his hobby has
provided him with many rewards.
So far this season Steve Daletas, 43, of Pleasant Hill, Ore.,
has had at least three victories in different competitions.
On Monday his 1,180-pound pumpkin broke the 30th Annual Safeway
World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off’s previous record of
1,173 pounds set last year. Daletas received $5 per pound. The
gigantic gourd recorded a height of 3 feet, 2 inches, and a
circumference of 14 feet, 4 inches.
On Oct. 7, he entered a 1,385-pound pumpkin in an Oregon
festival and won. About 12,000 square feet of Daletas’
three-acre ranch are devoted to growing competitively huge
pumpkins.
“I really don’t have any secrets. There are some
great books out there and lots of information on the Internet. What
I do is what everyone is doing, lots of hard work, and seed
selection is important, genetics is important,” Daletas, who
has been competing for six years, said Monday in a telephone
interview.
As for the unusual gourd, it will be on display during the Half
Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival that takes place Oct. 18-19.
After that, Daletas plans to transport it covered in the back of a
pickup truck and display it on his ranch.
A total of 80 pumpkins from California, Oregon and Washington
were forklifted onto a calibrated 5-ton capacity digital scale for
this year’s competition.
Hunters blamed for bears’ candy
addiction
NAGS HEAD, N.C. ““ Hunters who bait bears with large blocks
of candy are creating addicts with health problems ranging from
tooth decay to lethargy, wildlife officials say.
Now the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission says
wildlife officers will cite hunters who use salt, sugar, grain or
other products to attract and shoot black bears. Especially under
scrutiny are those who use large candy blocks.
The commission says bears become addicted to the blocks,
returning to the area even after the sugar is gone.
Biologists found that addicted bears suffer from tooth decay,
hair loss, weight loss and lethargy, said David Cobb, chief of the
Wildlife Management Division of the Wildlife Resources
Commission.
Though the North Carolina Bear Hunters Association opposes the
use of candy blocks, the bait remains popular because of its
cost-effectiveness. The association’s secretary, Richard
Martin, said a $15 block can be up to four feet square and five
feet deep and made of bubble gum, chocolate, licorice and hard
candy. Some weigh more than 2,000 pounds.
Cobb once found a bear lying down in the middle of the road,
moaning and unwilling to move out of the vehicle’s way. He
compared the image to that of humans addicted to cocaine.
A legal and accepted alternative is baiting with corn or peanut
butter before the season, Martin said.
“It’s good for them, and it works,” he
said.
Wayward deer enters N.J. clothing store
LINDEN, N.J. ““ A wayward deer entered a clothing store
through the front door and wandered around for more than an hour
Monday, knocking down shelves and trampling clothes, before it was
shot with tranquilizer darts by a New York City Police Department
team.
The full-grown, antlered buck walked into the Planet Kidz store
between noon and 1 p.m. A few customers were inside, but they
quickly left, and no one was hurt, said head manager Joseph
Velelis.
He said he tried to calm the deer down by talking to it, but the
animal panicked and charged toward the back of the store.
At one point, the deer, which weighed between 160 and 180
pounds, approached a full-length mirror and, apparently thinking
its reflection was another deer, jumped into the mirror front
hooves first.
Linden authorities contacted the closest emergency unit with a
tranquilizer gun, a Staten Island-based NYPD team. Team members
fired three tranquilizer darts, and the officers were able to
subdue the animal and carry it out.
The deer was taken to the Linden animal shelter and was expected
to be returned to the woods once the tranquilizers wore off.
The 10,000-square-foot Planet Kidz store is in a shopping center
near a 26-acre forest. A Union County wildlife official said deer
often get confused during this time of year, which is the height of
mating season.
Singapore man pleads guilty in reptile smuggling
case
ORLANDO, Fla. ““ A Singapore man who had faced 15 years in
prison on charges he smuggled more than 225 protected reptiles into
the United States pleaded guilty in a plea bargain.
Lawrence Wee Soon Chye pleaded guilty Sept. 25 under an
agreement that could give him up to three years in prison when he
is sentenced Dec. 12. He also had faced $750,000 in fines.
Chye, 38, was arrested in June and indicted on charges that he
conspired to ship a package containing 198 fly river turtles, 25
Indian Star tortoises and three monitor lizards from Singapore to
Orlando.
The package, labeled magazines and book samples, was shipped
last January. It would have been worth $155,000 on the black market
for exotic pets, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Tom
MacKenzie.
Chye’s public defender, Stephen J. Langs, refused to
comment as sentencing is still pending. Under federal law,
protected animals can be imported only with a permit.
Reports from Daily Bruin wire services.