headlines

• Off-duty Wis. deputy sheriff kills 6
• Official: Iran opens 5 border crossings
• Chopper escorting Musharraf crashes
• S.Korea sure of early nuclear settlement
• Trio shares Nobel Prize in medicine for stem cell research
• Study: Police use of Tasers inflicts few serious injuries
• Officer uses pellet gun to save skunk stuck in jar

and so guess which headline i chose to read...

Officer's shots save skunk stuck in jar Sun Oct 7, 8:36 AM ET

CARROLLTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Officer James Kellett knows it's job to serve and protect — even when it comes to nature's stinky black and white creatures.

When a skunk with its head stuck in a salad dressing jar wandered into the Carrollton Township police station's parking lot, he grabbed a pellet gun and shot at the jar from about 40 feet away.

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. But there is one bonus — the makers of T. Marzetti's salad dressing are sending the officer coupons good for free dressing as a reward.

the part that i find most disturbing is that T. Marzetti "rewarded" him with yet another bottle of salad dressing that will probably wind up stuck around another animal's head... :(