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SKUNK IN A JAR STORY

Oct 5, 8:30 PM (ET)
 
CARROLLTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - These are the salad days for one lucky skunk. Officer James Kellett said a skunk whose head was stuck in an empty salad dressing jar wandered into the police station's parking lot Thursday in Carrollton Township, near Saginaw and about 80 miles north of Detroit.

Kellett wanted to serve and protect the white-striped weasel, but wasn't interested in any resistance - spray or otherwise. So he grabbed a BB gun used in hunters' safety courses and shot at the jar from about 40 feet.

The shots cracked and shattered the jar, leaving a glass collar around the skunk's neck. With its head free, the skunk ran off.

"I didn't want to use deadly force, and it is a residential area," Kellett told The Saginaw News. "The way he was when he took off, he was able to eat, breathe and spray - and do anything else skunks like to do."

Kellett didn't get much in the way of gratitude, but he's grateful the skunk didn't spray. And the makers of T. Marzetti's salad dressing are sending the officer coupons good for free dressing as a reward.

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Poachers fined $28,000; some lose fishing privileges

OHIO: Eight men from Ohio and Michigan who faced 257 charges centering on taking hundreds of excess walleye from the Maumee River during the last two spring runs have been fined and ordered to make restitution totaling more than $28,000 from Maumee and Perrysburg municipal courts.

Ron Ollis, special operations supervisor for the division, said at least 570 walleye were involved in the charges linked to 20 days of spring fishing in 2006 and 2007.

"As we find in all our cases, greed and egos took over and they overbagged excessively. No commercialization was uncovered in this group; they kept the fish for personal use. The Division of Wildlife also learned a great deal in this case about violation types and issues on the spring walleye run. We will work internally to tailor enforcement to the needs on the run."

Those arrested included Thomas E. Crotinger, 51, of Dayton, who was described by wildlife authorities as the central figure and who faced 80 charges in Perrysburg and 30 more in Maumee.

A state record summarizing his case dispositions shows he was sentenced after a plea deal on a total of 44 charges and was fined $11,000 and ordered to pay $1,100 in restitution.

His Ohio fishing privileges were suspended for 10 years, and he was given a one-year suspended jail sentence in Maumee. Crotinger also was forced to forfeit an array of fishing equipment.