Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Beef: It's what's for landscaping PURVIS, Miss., Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A new kind of landscaping ornament is beginning to catch on in suburban and rural communities across the United States: livestock. Advertisement Horses, bulls, sheep, chickens, goats, ducks and other live animals are the new lawn jockey for many trend-setting homeowners looking for that new, unique look to set them apart on the block, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Why do people have horses? You never see them ride them," Don King, president of Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America, told the paper. The point is, "You can have something that no one else has." "People ask, 'Why buy a llama? What does it do?' But I say, 'What does a Picasso do?' It doesn't do anything but look pretty," reasoned Dennis Abreu, a llama breeder in Mount Shasta, Calif. To give his home more of a "Western" feel, Bill Hudson spent $12,000 so nine Texas Longhorns could roam the 1,000 acres surrounding his Purvis, Miss., home. "I wanted pretty ornaments ... and needed cows to decorate my pastures," said Hudson, who later added six horses and three donkeys to keep the Longhorns company. Advertisement Temper gets best of anger management youth ATLANTA, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A Georgia youth missed his anger management class because he was arrested for trying to throttle his brother, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Wednesday. The incident began Tuesday morning when an unidentified 17-year-old youth woke up and realized he would be late for his temper management class. Enraged, he began screaming at his mother. His older brother tried to intervene, and was not only screamed at, but punched in the face. As the mother called the police, the angry young man got his brother in a headlock and was trying to choke him when officers arrived. He was unable to attend his anger management class, as he was arrested on several charges, including assault. Fired zookeeper defends his personal zoo LONDON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A British zookeeper fired for selling off his zoo's animals has been accused of keeping a zoo of his own in his apartment. Steve Riley, 48, has taken his former employers, Tropiquaria, to a labor hearing claiming he was unfairly dismissed. The small zoo retaliated, however, charging Riley had taken home two wallabies and 14 tortoises. The zoo also claimed Riley sold off its marmosets in a bid to raise cash and animals to open his own zoo in Spain, The Times of London said Wednesday. Advertisement The tribunal heard many larger zoos donated animals to the smaller zoo, which claims Riley often took home to his zoo-owned apartment and sold. After being fired, Riley barricaded himself in the apartment for 23 days before moving out in the middle of the night. Zoo management said it was obvious he had kept animals in the flat, as "there was straw on the floor and wallaby feces on the carpet." The hearing continues this week.
