An animal attacking a person usually makes the headlines… but you might have missed this story of a man who used a pet as a weapon. A New Zealand man has been charged with assault with a weapon. The weapon he used? A hedgehog. Earlier this year, the man allegedly threw a hedgehog at a fifteen year old boy. The hedgehog hit the boy in the leg, leaving a good sized welt and several puncture marks behind. According to police, the boy did not need medical treatment for his hedgehog-induced injury. The man was arrested for assault with a weapon, … Continue reading →

Exotic pets have been in the news lately. I define exotic pets as wild or barely domesticated animals that you’d sooner expect to see in a zoo than someone’s home. They’re often illegal to own. Even then the classification gets tricky; I’ve previously written about potbelly pigs and hedgehogs, two uncommon pets, that are sometimes illegal in certain states or counties. In these cases, however, the illegality issue has to do with invasive species; certain types of hedgehogs and pigs are not native to the country and officials want to keep out the non-native breeds. When I’m talking about exotic … Continue reading →