LONDON: A British zoo yesterday said it has banned visitors from wearing leopard or zebra print clothes because they are confusing the animals.
“We have announced an animal-print ban. This follows confusion amongst our ‘Zufari: Ride Into Africa!’ animals,” Chessington World of Adventures said in a statement.
The park-wide prohibition was introduced after the launch of a new ride, Zufari, in which visitors come face to face with giraffes, rhinos and other animals as they drive around in off-road trucks. When the animals encountered a visitor wearing a print similar to their own they acted a little “overfriendly”, said a spokesman for the zoo.
Top Romania court backs dog cull
BUCHAREST: Romanian President Traian Basescu yesterday promulgated a law allowing stray dogs to be put down, despite fierce criticism from animal lovers.
The law was drafted earlier this month in response to public outrage after a pack of strays mauled a four-year-old boy to death in the capital Bucharest.
The country’s constitutional court earlier yesterday rejected a complaint lodged by 30 lawmakers who had argued that “less traumatic” methods such as sterilisation should be used to solve the problem of stray dogs. Some 150 dog lovers who had rallied outside the court called the ruling a crime, chanting: “Judges are criminals” and “Resign”.
UK lawmaker faces rap over protest
LONDON: A prominent Green Party lawmaker was charged yesterday following her arrest last month at a British anti-fracking protest.
Caroline Lucas — the party’s first and only lawmaker voted into parliament — has been charged with a public order offence and wilful obstruction of a highway, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Lucas was with protesters outside energy firm Cuadrilla’s test drilling site at rural Balcombe in Sussex, southeast England, when she was arrested along with around 30 others, as hundreds demonstrated against the controversial hydraulic fracturing gas extraction method.
Marikana panel to probe police clues
CENTURION: Lawyers for a South African commission investigating last year’s shooting deaths of 34 Marikana miners vowed yesterday to probe police evidence after alleging that officers lied and doctored submissions.
“We have very serious concerns,” said senior evidence leader Geoff Budlender as the investigations into the police killings resumed. Last week, commission lawyers issued a statement saying police had falsified and hidden documents, concealed evidence and given a false account of events. Agencies
