Animal Training

Friends and colleagues of an animal trainer killed by a performing bear called it a "freak accident" Wednesday and said the 700-pound grizzly should not be euthanized. The animal, they said, did not intend to kill the bear expert. "The same thing he was doing I have done a hundred times.

Ten, a 23-year-old bottlenosed dolphin, jumped out of the water and was greeted by her naval colleague with a pat on the snout. "I love this animal," Petty Officer 3rd Class Shawn McDonald said. The brass likes her too. She was part of a contingent of dolphins and sea lions that deployed to the Persian Gulf from 2003 to 2005 to detect mines and underwater saboteurs.

BY now, you've likely heard that "Evan Almighty," with its estimated $175-million price tag, has earned the unofficial title of "most expensive comedy ever made." But consider this: If you're Universal Pictures and you've got the money, that designation has a lot more appeal than, say, "most cruel and unusual animal deaths in a movie ever made."

The Los Angeles City Council may soon be employing an unlikely set of partners -- parolees and pit bulls -- in its efforts to reduce euthanized killings of unwanted pets, and a demonstration Saturday offered a glimpse of how such a program would work. The council postponed approval of the Pit Bull Training Academy at a Friday hearing in Van Nuys until issues of liability and public safety could be sorted out.

A dog involved in a fatal accident with a 6-year-old girl in New York is coming to Helen Woodward Animal Center to receive obedience training before being adopted. The dog, a 70-pound, 18-month-old female golden retriever named Jessy, was playing tug of war when a scarf tightened around the girl's neck, suffocating her. One of the trainer's goals will be to teach the dog not to play tug of war, said center spokesman John Van Zante.

Neighbors in this Kern County community are rallying against a neighbor who wants to house show-business orangutans at his house. Abe Karajerjian is seeking a conditional use permit to allow seven orangutans used in the film industry to be kept in Ridgecrest. He is a zoologist and biological anthropologist and has worked as an animal trainer for 14 years. Neighbors fear a repeat of an attack last year, when two chimpanzees got out of their cage at a Havilah, Calif., ranch and mauled a man.

JOURNALIST Amy Sutherland spent a year following a group of Southern California college students immersed in their education. But theirs is no ordinary school, as her book's title suggests: "Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched." Graduates of the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College go on to work for the world's animal sanctuaries, circuses, zoos and aquariums, and some even train animals for Hollywood.

Steve Martin Wild animal trainer Current project: The family film "Racing Stripes," about a plucky zebra (voiced by Frankie Muniz) that becomes a racehorse. (Hayden Panettiere and Bruce Greenwood are the two-legged stars.) Challenge: Training a group of wild zebras to play the zebra called Stripes. Credits: The 1960s TV series "Daktari," "Dances With Wolves," "The Bear." "We have an exotic animal ranch here in California, Working Wildlife.

Two acres and a mule. That's all Will Green thought he would need to lead a life of packing and hunting in California's backcountry. He bought the two acres on a windblown patch of the western Mojave. And he bought a doe-eyed mule initially so sweet that he named her Sugar, only to discover that she had a personality that grazed in sour pastures. Quickly showing who was boss, Sugar bit the 43-year-old warehouseman, kicked him and dragged him around his corral.