The Odd Truth, Feb. 5, 2004

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum. A new collection of stories is published each weekday. On weekends, you can read a week's worth of The Odd Truth.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Three livestock exhibitors at last year's Ohio State Fair have been disqualified for allegedly outfitting their Holstein cows with hairpieces.

State Fair inspectors said the three glued or painted hair from another part of the animal or from another animal to create straighter backs on the cows and enhance their appearance in the show ring.

Kreg Krebs and his brother Kenneth of Fredericksburg, and Scott Long of Clayton, Mich., could be required to forfeit all winnings, said Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Melanie Wilt. The winnings had been withheld by fair officials.

Wilt said state inspectors at the fair discovered the fake hair when the cows were leaving the show ring on Aug. 10.

The men have 30 days to request a hearing in which they could present their cases to an independent hearing officer.

Dead Quiet

LONDON - British police say an elderly man lived 18 months with his brother's corpse - apparently without noticing the death.

Officials say Herbert Silver called police in early December to report what he called the "sudden death" of his 75-year-old brother.

Authorities found a decomposing body when they visited the mobile home the brothers shared in southern England.

Police say there will be an inquest about how the 72-year-old could not have noticed his brother's death for a year and a-half.

An autopsy couldn't establish the cause of death, but police have ruled out foul play.

Buick Fails In Bid To Jump Pond

SHERIDAN, Wyo. - A man who drove an old car into a pond in a failed attempt to jump over it - Evel Knievel-style - has been sentenced to 270 days in jail.

Wayland Justin Williams, 24, pleaded guilty Tuesday to property destruction, dispensing an offensive matter in a pond and abandoning a motor vehicle on state land.

Circuit Judge John Sampson fined him $690. For driving through a fence, Williams must also pay $200 to a rancher who holds a state permit to graze livestock on the land.

According to court documents, Williams polluted the bass pond with oil and gasoline when he drove the old Buick into it.

The Sheridan County sheriff's report notes: "Wayland claimed he had tried to jump the pond with the green Buick, and that he would have made it had he built a ramp."

Sheriff Dave Hofmeier was pleased with the sentence.

"It's also nice to see a severe punishment for damaging our state lands. This will be a message to the rest of the public, and hopefully we can get better care of our state lands," he said.

7-Year-Old Suspended For Saying 'Hell'

PITTSBURGH - A second-grader was suspended for one day for telling a classmate he would go to hell for saying "I swear to God" and it's left her parents wondering just what the heck the school was thinking.

The girl's father said 7-year-old Brandy McKenith wasn't telling anyone to go to hell, but instead was describing the biblical place of fire and brimstone.

"She came at it with a religious context because that's what her mother says to her older sister," who is a teenager and speaks like one, said Wayne McKenith, a police detective.

While he said the family aren't "religious fanatics," they have a healthy respect for the Lord, so he accepts his daughter's explanation.

"She's under the assumption that good people go to heaven and bad people go to, bad people go to hell," he said Wednesday.

When he learned his daughter was being suspended he thought perhaps she said something worse. He said he called the teacher, who told him that another student overheard his daughter say the word.

"I said, 'Hell?' She got suspended for that?" McKenith said.

"Hell is like the least of the words in school today," McKenith said. "You go home and turn on the TV tonight and tell me how many times you hear the word 'Hell.' And I mean network TV, not even cable."

He said he tried to talk to the principal, who explained only that it was school policy.

McKenith said he'd like an apology to his daughter. With kids bringing weapons and drugs to schools nowadays, he said, "Somebody needs to use some common sense."

Man Sentenced For Teaching Dog Nazi Salute

BERLIN - A man who taught his dog the stiff-arm Nazi salute was given a 13-month suspended sentence Thursday for shouting "Sieg Heil" in public and wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Adolf Hitler on it.

A Berlin administrative court found the 54-year-old man, who was only identified as Ronald T., guilty of displaying Nazi symbols and insulting a policeman last March.

Police had stopped the man after he was heard shouting the Nazi slogan. While the police watched, the man also commanded his dog, named Adolf, to raise its right paw upon hearing the command "Do the salute." Authorities initially pressed charges for training the dog to perform the salute, but they were later dropped.

Frat Boy Charged In Raccoon Slaying

ATHENS, Ga. - A University of Georgia fraternity member turned himself in to authorities Thursday after a judge issued an arrest warrant for killing a raccoon that was then skinned, burned and eaten by other members of his fraternity.

After a hearing, Judge Patricia Barron ruled there was enough evidence to arrest Erik Robert Zimmerman on misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty. Bond was set at $1,000.

Late on the night of Dec. 12, Zimmerman saw an erratically behaving raccoon near a Dumpster and hit it with a traffic cone, according to a police report. When it did not run away, Zimmerman shot it with a pellet gun, the report said. A fellow fraternity brother skinned it and another ate some of it after it was burned.

Erratic behavior is a symptom of rabies in an animal.

In court Thursday, Zimmerman testified that when he first threw the cone, he was only trying to scare the raccoon away and did not mean to hit it. He said he used a pellet gun when the raccoon fell on the ground and began convulsing.

"I went to a friend's car and got his pellet gun because it was the best weapon I could find to kill it without making it suffer," Zimmerman said.

Robert Elkins, Zimmerman's attorney, said the animal could have harmed someone else if Zimmerman had not killed it.

"There are things he could have done differently but it doesn't mean (the killing) is a criminal act," Elkins said.

Zimmerman is the only member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity charged because he is the one who actually killed the animal.

Father Bites Two Referees After Losing Game

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The father of a high school basketball player has been cited for misdemeanor assault for allegedly biting two referees after his son's team lost a game.

Police said Kevin Powers, 48, bit the men during a struggle after La Junta defeated St. Mary's High School last Friday. His son plays for St. Mary's.

"I've worked every gym in this town and never had a problem," said referee Scott Stanec, who was bit on the head. John Carricato was bit on the hand.

A third referee said the men got in a fight after exchanging words following the game. Powers, however, said the confrontation began after the referees ran into him as they left the court.

"(The officials) were running off the court, not watching where they were going, and I wasn't watching where I was going," Powers said Wednesday. "I was wrestled to the ground and dragged across the gym. Somebody reached in and was gouging at my eyes. They had their hands in my mouth, and they were trying to turn me like a bowling ball. Whoever it was, I bit."

Tom Robinson, an official with the Colorado High School Activities Association, said Powers has been banned from high school athletic events in the state for the rest of the year.

St. Mary's Principal Patty Beckert said officials will now be escorted from the court to the locker room by school administrators.