Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Alligator hunters pose with giant 'once in a lifetime' beast weighing over 50 stone
dailystar.co.ukUS earlier this month, found no average reptileThe Texas Parks and Wildlife Department monitored gator poachers at James E. Daughtrey Wildlife Management Area between between September 12 and 16. READ MORE Zookeeper mauled by 16-foot monster crocodile in front of panicked crowdSeveral other alligators killed during the same hunt were around 13 feet long, and photos displayed by the hunters on Facebook show the huge reptiles – some weighing over 50 stone – being lifted with fork-lift trucks.
The animals are supposedly culled for population control purposes but also for commercial reasons as their skins are prized by handbag and shoes manufacturers.Some say that the hunting of these creatures, whose lineage dates back over 30 million years, is cruel and unnecessary.After being harpooned or hooked, alligator is commonly dragged behind a boat until it is exhausted – the suffering animal often fights to escape for more than an hour.Hunters describe how, upon firing this device “blood colours the water a cloudy red.”“Regulations state that alligators must be killed before being dragged into a boat,” says the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, “but the improper placement and discharge of the bangstick frequently renders the alligator only temporarily unconscious.The organisation adds that “Without having the spinal cord severed and the brain destroyed, the alligator is left to suffer long after being pulled from the water”.Because of the difficulty of humanely killing an alligator, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission advises hunters, “Never assume an alligator is dead.”One alligator trapper said he had seen hunters showing up at processing facilities after a hunt with alligators who were severely injured.
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