November 2006 Archives

When is a pig part of the family? According to the Alabama Supreme Court, when the animal is a “potbellied porcine pet” which the owner loves. The pig lover was brought to trial by neighbors claiming the pig, Taylor, violated neighborhood prohibitions against livestock. The court cited precedent that held that Vietnamese potbellied pigs are clearly not meant to be eaten like livestock, and all doubts and ambiguities in a restrictive covenant must be resolved against the party seeking enforcement. According to the court, this was not a case in which a family is treating a farm animal like a pet, such as Arnold, the pig of television’s Green Acres fame.

Consumer Product Safety Council (CPSC) has reports of 20 toy-related deaths involving children under age 15 that occurred in 2005. Nine of these deaths occurred when a child choked or aspirated on a small ball or other toy parts. Also, in 2005 an estimated 152,400 children under 15 years old were treated for toy-related injuries in U.S. hospital emergency rooms. The majority of these injuries were not the result of a recalled or dangerous product. Instead, injuries from riding toys such as falls, made up a significant number of the injuries. To avoid such tragedies this holiday season, CPSC and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) are working together to make this holiday season a safe one by warning all gift givers about the five toy hazards that can take all the fun out of any celebration.

A new national study reveals that school bus-related accidents send 17,000 U.S. children to emergency rooms each year, more than double the number in previous estimates that only included crashes.