WLOSer news in Asheville on Friday: Dog fighting, teeth in a salad and Pottermania

Here’s what WLOSers had on Friday:

Dog fighting can happen here
Cherub Charu picked up on a big national story, the one about Atlanta Falcons football player Michael Vick getting charged with dog fighting. Charu talked to local animal lovers who said it can happen here. Charu told us the story from the animal shelter, all the while petting a dog. Why?

Charu said it’s hard to say how much dog fighting actually goes on in the mountains. She didn’t offer any stats, or cite any past cases of dog fighting. She quoted an animal control officer who said that dog fighting almost always happens in conjunction with other crimes, such as illegal gambling. She talked to Shelly Moore of the Asheville Humane Society, who said there are some big dog fighters in North Carolina, but apparently not in the mountains.

Charu went on to say that dog fighting is growing in popularity because it’s macho cool in the hip-hop culture, but she offered no evidence to back this up. She said that sure signs that dogs are “bred to brawl” include a yard with a ring in it and dogs wearing heavy chains designed to help them build muscle mass.

Julie Wunder on Pottermania
Julie Blunder, looking lovely in a purple satin blouse and black skirt, took us around Books-a-Million to tell us that there’s going to be a Harry Potter party there tonight with the release of the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Julie said there’s “magic surrounding its release.” And at the end of her report, she donned the big Sorting Hat that the store had on display. Russ “Beefcake” Bowen nearly went into a tizzy of delight at the sight.

Waiter, there’s teeth in my salad
Kassandra “Special K” Pride delivered one of her dumbest stories yet on Friday night – this one about an elderly employee of Ryan’s Steakhouse who lost her dentures in a little boy’s salad.

Here’s how she teased her story: “A Buncombe County boy said it was a meal he could sink his teeth into. Instead, he found somebody else’s.”

How dumb is that? Well, it gets worse. Diva Darcel Grimes started off the report by saying that the boy got some “bite fright” when he started eating his salad and found three teeth.

Eleven-year-old Justin Woods was 10 bites into his house salad, “with lettuce and ham,” when he bit into something hard, spit it out and realized it was somebody’s fake teeth. He used his grandma’s camera phone to take a picture. Then he returned the teeth.

See it turns out that Justin had an acquaintance at the restaurant, an older lady employee whom he hugged when he saw her. He was apparently hugging her when her teeth fell into the salad he was holding. He said he gave her her teeth back and watched her put them back in. Ryan’s said it won’t happen again and gave the family a free meal.

Why is this even a frackin’ story? This story should have started and ended with the family at the table. Seriously. Why is this even a story? Somebody, please explain.

More on the drowning
WLOSer Holly Headache said a 14-year-old South Carolina teen drowned in the Howard Johnson pool down in Biltmore Village. There was a group of six or seven kids in the pool and a counselor was watching them, but the kid couldn’t swim, got in deep water and when the counselor noticed, the boy was floating face down. He died at Mission Hospitals.

Holly quoted a woman from WNC Safe Kids who said children should be cautious around water. Adults should be watching them and they should use the buddy system so they’re never swimming alone.

In other news…
An Asheville man is accused of sexually abusing a child between the ages of 13 and 16 and giving her illegal drugs… Duke Energy has permission to remove the Dillsboro dam. Duke says it’s best for the river environment, but some people don’t want the dam to be taken out… There’s a new bill in Raleigh that will again affect building heights in downtown Hendersonville. The current height restriction is 64 feet tall, and it’s citywide. The new bill reduces the area in town where the height restriction is in effect… Buncombe County Commissioner David Young says he’s running for state treasurer, news you read here first on Ashvegas… The deadline to file for local elections as noon Friday and WLOSers said you have to go to their web site to see who filed. Just scroll down and you’ll see the list here… And Sheraldo jumped on a stale story, about a week old, about the nonprofit Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree not getting about $150,000 in taxpayers’ money.