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Sniffer pups bust £1.3m cannabis farm on visit to Leicester school

A group of trainee sniffer dogs showed off their sharp-nosed prowess when they uncovered a huge cannabis factory worth £1.3million during a workshop with young children. 

Leicestershire police were stunned after a security company specialising in the training of drug sniffer dogs informed them their pooches had turned up a major haul at a factory in Thames Street, Leicester. 

The trainee dogs had been conducting a sensory workshop for children with special education needs at the time when they repeatedly approached one wall near to an adjoining unit.

Their handlers raised the alarm after they displayed the unusual behaviour, which led to the tip off to police. 

Officers found the entire top floor of the building covered in cannabis plants with a street value of £1.3million once the workshop had ended.

Police found three men, Renald Dema, 21, Ali Hoxha, 29, and Juljan Jaku, 29, hiding in a storage cupboard during a sweep of the building. The trio were later jailed after being charged with cultivating cannabis. 

A force spokesperson said the private firm, which trains drug search and private protection dogs, had been working with youngsters to aid their sensory learning.

'During the workshop, the dogs have repeatedly gone to the wall of the adjoining unit where the cannabis was later found after the workshop had ended,' the spokesperson said

Provided by Daily Mail The trainee sniffer dogs turned up a major haul when they found a cannabis farm worth £1.3m at a factory in Thames Street, Leicester

'When officers attended the unit they found cannabis plants of various sizes with a street value of £1.3 million.'

In December, Dema, Hoxha and Jaku all admitted to illegally cultivating cannabis and were sentenced at Leicester Crown Court.

Dema, 21, of no fixed address, was jailed for two years and three months.

Hoxha, 29, of no fixed address, was given a sentence of two years and nine months, while Jaku, 24, also of no fixed address, was jailed for two-and-a-half years. 

Speaking at the conclusion of the case, Detective Inspector Ross Dimmock, of the Central Leicester neighbourhood policing area, said: 'This was a significant discovery which not only led to three people being arrested but also stopped more than a £1 million worth of drugs hitting our streets.

Provided by Daily Mail Police found three men, (left to right) Ali Hoxha, 29, Juljan Jaku, 21, and Renald Dema, 21, hiding in a storage cupboard during a sweep of the building. The trio were later jailed at Leicester Crown Court after being charged with illegally cultivating cannabis

'Those responsible for this cannabis factory thought their actions would go unnoticed and undiscovered but they were wrong.

'We would like to thank the person reporting the discovery for their assistance.

'Drugs are a blight on society and lead to criminality and the breakdown of relationships and families. We take these offences extremely seriously.' 

Kurt Zouma fined £250,000 and has cats taken away by RSPCA after kick shame

Kurt Zouma has been fined £250,000 and has had his cats taken away from him by the RSPCA after he was filmed kicking and slapping them.

A statement from the animal welfare charity on Wednesday read: "Two cats are now in RSPCA care. Our priority is and has always been the well-being of these cats.

"The cats have been taken for a check-up at the vets and will remain in our care while the investigation continues.

"We're grateful to everyone who expressed their concern for these cats.

"We were dealing with this issue before the video went viral online and are leading the investigation. We continue to investigate so we cannot comment further at this time."

PA Kurt Zouma has been fined £250,000 and has had his cats taken away from him

Former Chelsea defender Zouma issued an apology after the video, obtained by The Sun, was shared by his brother Yoan on Snapchat and went viral.

Zouma has now been fined £250,000 by West Ham, which equates to two weeks wages for the centre-back. The money will be paid to animal welfare charities.

Essex Police confirmed it was looking into the video on Tuesday before the RSPCA intervened and confiscated the animals.

West Ham, meanwhile, carried out their own internal investigation into the incident, which they strongly condemned in a statement on Monday evening.

The club released a second statement on Wednesday, reading: "West Ham United can confirm that the club is supporting an RSPCA investigation into the actions of Kurt Zouma in the video circulated online this week.

"Kurt and the club are cooperating fully with the investigation and the player has willingly complied with the steps taken in the initial stage of the process, including delivering his family's two cats to the RSPCA for assessment.

"Kurt is extremely remorseful and, like everyone at the club, fully understands the depth of feeling surrounding the incident and the need for action to be taken.

"Separate to the RSPCA's investigation and pending further sanction once the outcome of that process is determined, West Ham United can confirm that Kurt Zouma has been fined the maximum amount possible following his actions in the video that circulated.

"The player has immediately accepted the fine, which will be donated to animal welfare charities. West Ham United would like to reiterate our condemnation of Kurt's actions and make it clear that the matter continues to be handled with the utmost seriousness.

"However, we believe it is now important to allow the RSPCA to conduct their investigation in a fair and thorough manner and will be making no further comment at this stage."

West Ham boss David Moyes came under fire for naming Zouma in his starting XI for his side's 1-0 win over Watford in the aftermath of the incident.

He said: "The club will sort the other side of it out and I will look after the football side.

"My feeling was Kurt has apologised and I understand that a lot of people will not just accept an apology I understand that.

"But to me, he came out and he said that very honestly and as I said before I had to do my job then and that was to pick the best team I possibly could."

Reference: Jake Polden: Mirror: 

'I prayed not to be killed': sled driver recalls hour-long attack as moose trampled dogs

Reference: Sky News

Are any animals other than us aware of their own mortality?

Do any animals, other than us, have an awareness of their own mortality?

Gerry Cannon, via Facebook

Why else would they flee from a predator? 

Chris Bailey, via Facebook

They instinctively avoid threats because of learned and passed-on behaviour, but have no conception of mortality. 

@gws_al, via Twitter

All animals have an innate sense of mortality. Fight or flight, they all want to live another day.

Whether they are actually aware why, I can't answer. 

@ariyanmalik409, via Twitter

For any living system to be aware of complex thoughts such as their own mortality, they must exhibit a level of conscious complexity that allows for awareness of such thoughts. 

Susana MonsÓ

National Distance Education University, Madrid, Spain

What does it mean to have an awareness of one's own mortality?

We could take it to mean understanding that you will inevitably die, that this is an unavoidable consequence of being alive. Understood like this, it is unlikely that non-linguistic animals can be aware of their mortality, because the notion of the inevitability of death seems to require knowledge accumulated and passed down through generations.

None of us has direct proof that everyone dies. We only know this because we have been told. Without language, it is difficult to see how this idea could be reached.

There is, however, a second, less-demanding sense in which, say, a monkey might have an awareness of its own mortality. This is the notion, not that it will die, but that it can die. That is, the idea that this is something that could happen to it, but not inevitably so. The notion of potential mortality could in principle fall within the reach of non-linguistic animals, because it can be acquired solely on the basis of personal experiences.

How might our monkey reach this notion? It is implausible that it would spontaneously conclude anything about its own potential mortality; instead, an animal could only come to grasp this idea by first understanding something about the mortality of others. For instance, it might gather that sometimes its fellow creatures stop moving and doing the things they usually do, in a way that is different from when they fall asleep. It may come to associate this change of state with certain preceding events, such as falling from a tree or encountering a leopard, to the extent that it comes to expect that result when one of its kin falls from a tree or encounters a leopard.

With enough of these experiences, coupled with a degree of self-awareness, the monkey may start to comprehend that the same thing could happen to it, if it were involved in those events. This might not engender existential angst, because the monkey could feel safe so long as it stays away from big cats and takes care when sitting on branches, but it still implies some understanding of death. 

@carlmateta, via Twitter

Where I live, if you slaughter a cow, other cattle bellow at the sight and sometimes resist moving away. 

@HeXiang125, via Twitter

You are asking the wrong animals this question. 

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