Latest news with #RiversidePark
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bag of kittens found dumped in park as city cat abuse runs rife
A bag of kittens was found dumped in a park in Southampton, as the director of a charity said that cat abuse is "absolutely on the increase" in the city. One kitten has been left with an ulcerated eye, as the bag of four "could have easily died" if not for a chance encounter with a member of the public in Riverside Park on July 23. Tracy Howe, managing director of The Cat Welfare Group, explained that this is just one of several abuse incidents that she has had to dealt with over the past two months. She explained that a member of the public was walking in Riverside Park and happened to see a "gentlemen just drop a bag and walk away". READ MORE: New bin collection scheme sparks fresh wave of anger "People walking past by chance are saving lives," she explained. One of the kittens which was dumped in a bag in Riverside Park. (Image: The Cat Welfare Group) The member of the public opened the bag to find four kittens abandoned in the park. This is just one of several abuse incidents that Tracy's charity has dealt with over the past two months. On July 3, Hampshire police attended reports of a strong smell coming from a house on Thirlmere Road. A group of Sphynx cats were left boarded up in a house with a mound of dry food. (Image: The Cat Welfare Group) Upon arrival, they discovered seven Sphynx cats had been left alone for weeks, left with a mound of dry food and no water. Tracy described the conditions as "shocking" and "filthy", as cat faeces were all over the floor, pieces of carpet had been eaten away and flies were covering the walls. Hampshire officers called staff from The Cat Welfare Group who attended and helped to rehome the cats. READ MORE: Community rallies together to clean 'disgusting' mess left by travellers Tracy explained that officers "ring at all hours" to ask for the charity's help during visits like that. This cat was found taped up in a bag in a skip on Greenacres Road. (Image: The Cat Welfare Group) Another cat was found on June 21 taped up in a bag inside a skip on Greenacres Road. "That's the tip of the iceberg," Tracy explained. "I wish I could say it's a rare incident but it's really not. It's absolutely on the increase." Another of the kittens dumped in a bag in Riverside Park. (Image: The Cat Welfare Group) Tracy believes that during the coronavirus lockdown, people bought cats and dogs and did not neuter them, leading to a "population boom" a few years later. "People get kittens who are very, very cute but they then have kittens, and it just keeps spiralling," she explained. She believes it then becomes "too much" for some people, who decide to just dump or abandon their pets somewhere else. "I appreciate rescue centres and maxed out and full, but we want people to reach out and let us help," she said. "If we can't take them, we will try and find someone that can, and we will help with the transport for that as well. "These cats die. That's ultimately what we're trying to save."
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
It's been 10 years since the 'Milwaukee lion' mystery. Social media says there was a big cat sighting this week
"Don't tell me there's another lion running around." That's what Karen Sparapani, executive director of the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission, had to say when informed that a user on the Nextdoor app reported seeing a big cat at Milwaukee's Riverside Park on July 25. Sparapani worked for MADACC when reports of a lion in Milwaukee in 2015, 10 years to the week, prompted a feline-hunt with officials using long guns, setting meat traps, and even utilizing a helicopter after former Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn said he reviewed cellphone video of a "lion-ish creature" in the city. Numerous callers reported seeing the creature. Every time, police would respond, investigate and turn up nothing, until a Milwaukee police officer said he spotted a "lion-like animal" near North 30th Street and West Fairmount Avenue. Authorities believed they had the big cat cornered on the city's north side and in came the TV cameras, national media outlets and photographers. Of course, the lion slipped away and forever lives in our thoughts. The first report of the "Milwaukee lion" came on July 20, 2015, when a woman said she saw the big cat in the 200 block of East Garfield Avenue, in Brewer's Hill. Others reported sightings near Washington Park. Former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett joked at the time maybe the lion wanted to return to the location of the city's first zoo at Washington Park. The Milwaukee County Zoo maintained that no lions had escaped. The search took a sinister turn when a stray pit bull was shot by a man who believed the dog was the lion, officials said. That dog survived the shooting and was eventually adopted by MADACC staff. "It's very dangerous to think you're a big game hunter in the city of Milwaukee," Sparapani said. "Go back in your house or stay in your car and call the police." Nowadays, some people turn to social media before authorities. On July 25, a user of reported a "big cat" at Riverside Park, on Milwaukee's east side. "Potential big cat sighting," the post said. "Ran off before i could really get a good look at it. Tawny colored relatively long tail compared to its body. It was about 2.5 feet in height at the shoulder. It definitely wasn't a dog of any sort." The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, which handles public safety of county parks, hasn't responded to a request for comment. Sparapani said MADACC hasn't received any calls of a big cat in Milwaukee, but cougar sightings have happened in the area and will likely continue to grow. In 2018, a cougar was spotted peering through the front window of a Brookfield home. Reports of sightings of a lion – or "lion-like creature" – in Milwaukee aren't new. Big cat sightings were also front-page news in The Milwaukee Journal in 1961 following sightings in Mequon and Fox Point. The Department of Natural Resources said 37 cougars sightings were reported across the state in 2024. DNR officials have said cougars are sometimes confused with other animals, including house cats, fishers, bobcats, dogs, red foxes, coyotes and wolves. The cougar, also known as a puma, mountain lion or panther, used to roam Wisconsin. Not as prevalent in the state now, they sometimes travel to the state in search of a new mate or new territory and quickly keep traveling out of urban areas after not finding a suitable situation. The DNR said bobcats are the only big cat known to breed in Wisconsin. A bobcat was spotted in Whitefish Bay along Lake Michigan in 2018 and ended up traveling to Illinois. "I mean, these animals do exist in the wild," Sparapani said. "They travel down rivers and train tracks and that's how they get here." Wild animals, like big cats, bears and wolves, will continue to be spotted, Sparapani said. In 2022, a black bear was spotted in Franklin and in 2005, a bear that had been frequenting backyards and a commercial area in Wauwatosa was tranquilized and relocated. Sparapani added exotic animals will continue to get loose from owners who possess them illegally. Big cats continue to travel through urban areas "These things are going to keep happening," Sparapani said because wild animals lose natural space to humans throughout time. For instance, if more national forests get cut down, then that will affect where wild animals go, she said. "Believe me, they won't like it down here, they have to keep going right through," Sparapani said. "But it's also happening all over the country," she added, pointing to Rochester, New York, earlier this month, where a large animal was spotted on Ring doorbell camera, prompting a shelter-in-place order. Some wild animals pose a threat to humans, some don't for the most part, but nearly all are a threat to a human's pet. "Don't leave your pet outside alone," Sparapani said. Sparapani said too many times have occurred where owners have left their pet in the yard, even within a fenced in area or with a leash, only to return and see that a wild animal took their pet. 'Milwaukee lion' remains a mystery Although nothing ever came of the "Milwaukee lion" in 2015, Sparapani said she still remembers needing to leave the annual Brady Street Festival after receiving a call to go help police capture the big cat on the city's north side. She said there's a few possible reasons the lion was never captured. It could have been a lost large dog all along, or it could have been a pet big cat, or it was a wild animal that quickly left the area. "One theory is someone bought a mountain lion, because you can buy a mountain lion," Sparapani said. "They're not as common as bobcats, but you can buy them, and the animal escaped. And then whoever owned it was able to track it down ... because they'll find their way home. They know where they're fed. They want to get back to resources." Sparapani said there was never an increase in domestic pets being injured or killed by a wild animal throughout that summer. "So it wasn't preying on people's pets," she said. But the sighting of a cougar in Brookfield, a Milwaukee area suburb, in 2018, could be a sign that maybe the "Milwaukee lion" was not just an urban tale, Sparapani said. "It hard to say, but anything is possible," she said. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: It's been 10 years since the 'Milwaukee lion' mystery Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump's border czar to target sanctuary cities in US: ‘We're gonna flood the zone'
The Trump administration is targeting sanctuary cities in the next phase of its deportation drive after labelling them 'sanctuaries for criminals' following the shooting of an off-duty law enforcement officer in New York City, allegedly by an undocumented person with a criminal record. Tom Homan, Donald Trump's hardline border czar, vowed to 'flood the zone' with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents in an all-out bid to overcome the lack of cooperation he said the government faced from Democrat-run municipalities in its quest to arrest and detain undocumented people. His pledge followed the arrest of two undocumented men from the Dominican Republic after a Customs and Border Protection officer suffered gunshot wounds to the arm and face in an apparent robbery attempt in New York's Riverside park on Saturday night. New York is one of several self-designated 'sanctuary cities' across the US, called so because the mayors and local councils have prevented law officers under their control from collaborating with federal immigration officers working on Trump's mass deportation scheme. Homan – who has previously threatened to arrest mayors if they impede Ice's arrest efforts – said: 'Every sanctuary city is unsafe. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and President Trump's not going to tolerate it. 'I'm going to work very hard … to keep President Trump's promise and his commitment several weeks ago that sanctuary cities are now our priority. We're going to flood the zone. 'What we're going to do [is deploy] more agents in New York City to look for that bad guy so sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want – more agents in the community and more agents in the worksite. 'If we can't arrest that bad guy in the safety and security of the county jail, we'll arrest him in the community. And when we arrest him in the community, if he's with others that are in the country illegally, they are coming too.' Homan's comments came at a news conference fronted by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, focusing on the incident in New York, which left the unnamed customs and border protection officer in hospital. The 42-year-old agent was off duty and sitting with a female companion when he was reportedly approached by two men on a scooter shortly before midnight. The officer was not in uniform and police said there was no indication that he was targeted because of his occupation. An exchange of gunfire ensued when the officer withdrew his service weapon, apparently in self-defense. A suspect, Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, was later taken in to custody after turning up at a hospital in the Bronx with gunshot wounds to the leg and groin. Noem said the episode was a direct result of the sanctuary city policy adopted by New York's mayor, Eric Adams, as well as the approach to border security adopted during Joe Biden's presidency. 'Make no mistake, this officer is in the hospital today, fighting for his life, because of the policies of the mayor of the city and the city council and the people that were in charge of keeping the public safe, they refused to do so,' she said. The criticism of Adams came despite widespread reports of a deal made between him and the Trump administration that involved New York giving greater cooperation than before on immigration. The agreement was reached as the justice department moved to dismiss federal corruption charges against Adams, although the mayor has insisted there was no quid pro quo. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles have also suffered crime waves through sanctuary city policies, according to Noem. 'We look at Mayor [Michelle] Wu in Boston and what has happened there under her watch,' she said. 'What's happened in LA with the riots and the violence and the protest that have gone on because of Mayor [Karen] Bass and what she has perpetuated. 'When you look at Mayor [Brandon] Johnson in Chicago, and how devastating it is to live in that city and some of those poorest communities, how they suffer every single day with the violence that's in front of them. Just because these individuals are protecting criminals.' She also highlighted Nunez – who she said had been arrested four times since entering the US illegally in 2023 – as well as his accomplice, Christhian Aybar-Berroa, saying he had 'entered the country illegally in 2022 under the Biden administration and was ordered for final removal in 2023 by an immigration judge. 'There's absolutely zero reason that someone who is scum of the earth like this should be running loose on the streets of New York City,' Noem said, referring to Nunez. 'Arrested four different times in New York City and because of the mayor's policies and was released back to do harm to people and to individuals living in the city.' Homan criticised media reports suggesting that the majority of those detained were not criminals. 'I look at the numbers every day,' he said. 'The numbers I looked at [are] 130,000 arrests and 90,000 criminals. Do the math. That's 70%. Others are those who have final orders, who had due process at great taxpayer expense. A federal judge ordered them removed. Ice's job is to remove them.' Others were national security threats, he said. 'Under Secretary Noem's leadership, they've arrested several hundred Iranian nationals, national security threats. They may not have a criminal conviction, but they need to be detained. They need to be arrested and taken off the streets of this country.'
Fox News
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Noem visits CBP agent shot in New York City as manhunt continues for alleged accomplice
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday visited the Customs and Border Protection officer who was shot in New York City over the weekend during an attempted robbery involving a previously-deported illegal immigrant. The off-duty officer was allegedly struck in the face and forearm in Manhattan's Riverside Park on Saturday night. Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, a Dominican national who was caught by Border Patrol in April 2023, was taken into custody following the shooting while his alleged accomplice remained on the loose Monday. "A witness of the attack — believed to be an attempted robbery — states that she and the victim were sitting on the rocks by the water when 2 subjects on a scooter drove up to them and the passenger got off the back and approached them with a firearm drawn. The off-duty CBP officer responded by withdrawing his own firearm in self-defense," Homeland Security said in a statement. "The CBP officer was shot in his right arm and left cheek. Thankfully, the officer is in stable condition at the hospital," it added. Nunez was also injured during the shootout and was shot in the leg and groin. He was dropped off at a hospital in the Bronx, according to authorities. "Suspect Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez is a national and citizen of the Dominican Republic. RE ENTERED and RELEASED under Biden— on April 4, 2023 the United States Border Patrol apprehended him at/near San Luis, AZ," Noem wrote on X prior to the hospital visit. "This criminal has a criminal warrant in Massachusetts for kidnapping and had been charged with a series of offenses," she added. After being apprehended at the Arizona border, Nunez was released into the U.S., though he still has an active deportation order. New York City Mayor Eric Adams described Nunez as a "21-year-old male has prior arrests for assault and violating an order protection." At the time of this shooting, he had an active bench warrant from the Bronx, was wanted for a robbery from last December, and [a] stabbing from January," Adams also said. "He has inflicted violence in our city and once he is charged for last night's crimes, we will be able to add attempted murder to his rap sheet," the mayor added. President Donald Trump weighed in on the shooting Sunday afternoon, writing that "an incredible CBP Officer was shot in the face by an Illegal Alien Monster freed into the Country under Joe Biden." "The CBP Officer bravely fought off his attacker, despite his wounds, demonstrating enormous Skill and Courage," Trump wrote.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE Is So Out of Control, They Tried to Raid a Kids' Baseball Practice
Then they came for the children: even in self-designated sanctuary cities such as Manhattan, apparently no one is safe from the ire of federal immigration agents under the Trump administration. Youman Wilder, a baseball coach for middle and high school students, was leading a group of 11 kids through batting cage practice near 72nd Street in Riverside Park last month when he caught ICE agents interrogating some of the minors. 'I go over quickly and the agents are asking the kids inappropriate things like where they are from, their country of origin, so I say, 'Whoa, whoa,' and I tell the officers that their questions are inappropriate, and that I'm going to tell my kids not to answer them,' Wilder told the West Side Rag. Wilder said the officers identified themselves as ICE agents, were armed with guns and tasers, and had 'ICE' printed across the front of their tactical vests. The coach—who received his master's degree in law—told the kids that they didn't need to answer the agents' questions, instructing them to instead line up on the opposite side of the batting cages. But ICE didn't like that: Wilder said that's when one of the agents raised their voice at him, accusing him of being a 'YouTube lawyer.' 'I said no, I just know how the Constitution works,' Wilder told Eyewitness News. But the agents continued to threaten him, per Wilder, talking about cuffing the coach and openly questioning what the kids would 'have to lose by answering' if they were in the U.S. legally. 'I told them that they still have their Fifth and Fourth Amendment rights, and that they don't have to speak to you or help with any investigation,' Wilder told the Rag. All the kids, according to Wilder, were born in the U.S. and are U.S. citizens, born to parents from Africa, South America, and Mexico. 'It's all about civics. If you don't know your rights, they will trample on them,' Wilder told the Rag. The coach also expressed his shock and dismay at the amount of people who watched the interaction but failed to intervene. 'There were people watching and the agents were telling them to move back, that they would be arrested for interfering, and not to take pictures,' Wilder told the Rag. 'The worst thing is that the six or seven people who were watching, followed their orders!' 'I never in my life thought this was going to happen in the Upper West Side in New York City,' Wilder told Eyewitness News. 'That whole thing, until it happens to you, you're not aware? It happened to us.' Wilder has since changed the location and practice times for his team, but some kids and their parents have been so rattled by the event that they haven't returned to practice. 'I knew that they could arrest me, but I knew that they couldn't keep me,' he said. 'My whole thing is that I'm African American, and most of my kids are Latino and Black, so it was all about how do I get these kids home. I never raised my voice. I just talked about the law. And I was just focused on how can I get these kids to where they need to go, when they are in my care.' Wilder was 'the only thing that stood between those kids in Riverside Park and a Florida detention center buried deep in the Everglades,' Upper West Side Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal wrote in a newsletter earlier this month. Rosenthal told Eyewitness News that Wilder was right to intervene and had the legal authority to do so. Although President Donald Trump has heaped endless praise on the federal deportation agency, ICE agents have reportedly never been so miserable, forced to primarily detain noncriminal immigrants in order to meet their quota: 3,000 arrests per day, per Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller's demands.
