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BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A 22-year-old man who police say killed a monkey after breaking into the Boise zoo has encountered run-ins with the law in the last three years that include a pair of drug arrests and a conviction for driving drunk.

A day after Michael J. Watkins' arrest, authorities attempted to answer what may have prompted the once-promising wrestler from western Idaho to enter the facility early Saturday and what he planned to do with the animal, officials said.

Members of the community and Watkins' family also were trying to determine what could have led to the attack and why someone would do such a thing. His mother, Susan Watkins, said in a brief interview Tuesday from her home in McCall that as much as the public is perplexed by what happened, "I am too. That's all I can say."

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ALONG THE GULF COAST (AP) - Over the past several months, dolphins have washed ashore along the northern Gulf Coast with bullet wounds, missing jaws and hacked off fins, and federal officials said they are looking into the mysterious deaths.

The most recent case was of a dolphin found dead off the coast of Mississippi, its lower jaw missing.

Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday they're asking everyone from beachgoers to fishermen to wildlife agents to be on the lookout for injured or dead dolphins _ and any unusual interaction between the mammals and people.

"It's very sad to think that anyone could do that to any animal," said Erin Fougeres, a marine mammal scientist for NOAA's southeast office in St. Petersburg, Fla. "There have been some obviously intentional cases."

Fougeres said five dolphins have been found shot. In Louisiana, two were shot in 2011 and one in 2012. And in Mississippi, three were found shot this year, the most recent one last week, which was first reported by the Sun-Herald newspaper.

Besides the shootings, a dolphin in Alabama was found with a screwdriver stuck in its head over the summer. Another in Alabama had its tail cut off, and that animal survived. Still others were missing fins or had cuts to their bodies.

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Police Chief George Bruneio, who arrived after Mr Lasso requested assistance, instructed him to 'shoot the dogs' and that's when the homeowner pulled out a shotgun and fired, authorities said.

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The reliability of drug dogs and their handlers is at the heart of a lawsuit filed in state district court by two Nevada Highway Patrol K-9 troopers and a consultant, who claim that the Metropolitan Police Department's police dogs, and eventually NHP's own dogs, were "trick ponies" that responded to their handlers' cues, and therefore routinely violated citizens' rights to lawful search under the Fourth Amendment.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Neal Boortz, dog lover himself, says that almost all, if not entirely, every one of the cop shootings of family dogs is done by a black cop. Says most blacks are fearful of dogs , and a majority of their interaction w/ them are the violent types, like Pit Bulls and such. So, when they come upon a barking dog, like a Lab or Retriever, they just figure ' Must be ready to bite , so I'd better shoot it'.

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Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat:

How does that second sentence, " most blacks are fearful of dogs." correspond with all the black "tough guys" or gangbangers I see around here, each with his own monster, ill-mannered pit bull on a big chain. Proof how bad-ass they are? For scaring the other "bad dudes" away? As an unlicensed weapon? For intimidating victims? For keeping the cops and K-9 cops in their cars?

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