A Tale Of Two Heiresses

Compare and contrast. These two well known American Hotel Heiresses died within week of each other.

One made the news for a day, being a well known Philanthropist and clothes horse.

The other, well even dead she is still the Queen of Mean. And she gets more posthumous press than her more liberal counterpart.

One suffered at the hands of her son while her grandson exposed how badly his father had treated her. The other is making her grandchildren suffer.

Brooke Astor, 105, aristocrat of the people, dies

Astor's image as a benevolent society matron was overshadowed last year by that of a victimized dowager at the center of a very public family battle over her care and fortune. Yet for decades she had been known as the city's unofficial first lady, one who moved effortlessly from the sumptuous apartments of Fifth Avenue to the ragged barrios of East Harlem, deploying her inherited millions to help the poor help themselves.

Among the rich of New York, she was perhaps the last bridge to the Gilded Age, when "society" was a closed world of old-money families, the so-called Four Hundred, who were ruled over by a grandmother of Astor's by marriage, Mrs. William Backhouse Astor.

Helmsley's dog gets $12 million, but leaves 2 grandchildren zilch

Leona Helmsley's dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate.

Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.

She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer - so long as they visit their father's grave site once each calendar year.

Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each.

Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other children - Craig and Meegan Panzirer - for "reasons that are known to them," she wrote.

But regardless of their personal peccadilloes they both represent inherited wealth. One from the Robber Barons of 19th Century American Capitalism the other from the modern day Robber Barons of Property Speculation.

THE concept of richesse oblige has various dimensions. The bottom line is that those who have come into oodles of money should give some of it back; the second-to-bottom line is that they should cut a certain style while doing so. Both Brooke Astor and Leona Helmsley, who died within a few days of each other, gave millions of dollars away. And their similarities ended there.

The Astor money, more than $120m by the time it was Brooke's to disburse, was old, from New York land and the fur trade. The Helmsley money, $5 billion by the time Leona got her hands on it, was pretty new, from property speculation. Both fortunes came from late third marriages to cunning husbands. But whereas Mrs Astor, aside from writing features for House & Garden, merely let the markets increase her pile and relished spending the capital (something, she admitted, that John Jacob Astor would have thought as outrageous as dancing naked in the street), Mrs Helmsley worked like a dragon to build up and expand her husband Harry's hotel empire. As a Manhattan hatter's daughter with several competitive siblings, she was used to graft and struggle. Mrs Astor, a solitary and dreamy child who had come by money almost magically, treated it like fairy dust to the end of her days.

The arrogance of big money, Mrs Astor wrote once, “is one of the most unappealing of characteristics”. Mrs Helmsley, though fun to her friends, was arrogance personified: “Rhymes with rich”, was Newsweek's caption for her portrait on its cover. “We don't pay taxes,” she was said to have told a housekeeper once; “only the little people pay taxes.” Mrs Astor, a gentle soul, was upset when her first father-in-law, a colonel, yelled at his secretaries. Mrs Helmsley believed staff existed to be barked at, slapped and called fags if appropriate; two of them sued her for firing them because they were gay. On visits to underprivileged areas Mrs Astor, gloved and immaculate because this was what the ordinary person expected of the rich, would happily sip from a paper cup and praise the hot-dog mustard on her paper plate. At the sight of a paper-cup-carrier in any of her reception areas, Mrs Helmsley would get her doormen to throw the offender out.

SEE:

Rich Getting Richer

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Robber Baron, Leona Helmsley, Brooke Astor, hotels, fat cats, rich, super rich,

Stelmach's Rats Desert

Alberta is the only rat free province in Canada. And we intend to keep it that way, thanks to the unelected and unpopular Eddie Stelmach.

The rats are deserting the sinking ship of state.

Clint Dunford Decides to Pack it In

Red Deer's Victor Doerksen Packs it In!

The only rat-free zones in the world are the Arctic, the Antarctic, some especially isolated islands, the province of Alberta in Canada, and certain conservation areas in New Zealand.

Alberta is unusual in that rat infestation was prevented by deliberate government action.

Although it is a major agricultural area and has a fairly high human population density, it is far from any seaport and only a portion of its eastern boundary with Saskatchewan provides a favorable entry route for rats. They cannot survive in the boreal forest to the north, the Rocky Mountains to the west, nor the semi-arid High Plains of Montana to the south.

The first rat did not reach Alberta until 1950, and in 1951 the province launched an extremely aggressive rat-control program that included shooting and poisoning rats, and bulldozing, burning down, and blowing up rat-infested buildings. In the first year of the program 64 tonnes of arsenic trioxide was spread in 8,000 buildings (8 kg/building) on 2,700 farms along the Saskatchewan border. Fortunately, in 1953 the much less toxic and more effective poison Warfarin was introduced, and since then the control program has consumed between 5 and 13 tonnes of Warfarin annually.

By 1960 the number of rat infestations in Alberta had dropped below 200 per year and has remained low ever since Any wild rat population is eliminated by the government Rat Patrol immediately after it is detected. The effort is aided by hundreds of pest control officers and thousands of local citizens, who will not tolerate the introduction of rats.

The laws regarding rats are draconian and firmly enforced. Only zoos, universities, and research institutes are allowed to own caged rats, and possession of an unlicensed rat (including pet rats) is punishable by a $5,000 fine or 60 days in jail. The adjacent and similarly landlocked province of Saskatchewan initiated a rat control program in 1963, and has managed to reduce the number of rats in the province substantially.

We are also facing the extinction of Ord's Kangaroo Rat, but it is not a rat, nor a kangaroo, nor is it a Tory.

But like other Albertans it too is suffering at the hands of the Tories and their Big Oil Pals.

Kangaroo rats feared hopping toward oblivion

The kangaroo rats of southern Saskatchewan and Alberta are disappearing along with the sand dunes they call home, researcher Darren Bender says.

The Ord's kangaroo rat, as the furry rodent is more formally known, most resembles a gerbil, but with larger hind legs and a longer tail. It hops around like a tiny kangaroo.

With fewer than 1,000 kangaroo rats left, it is a prime candidate for the country's endangered species list, said Bender, a biologist with the University of Calgary.

The sand dunes the animal needs to live are threatened by human development, such as resource exploration, as well as natural erosion, he told CBC News Wednesday.

Ord's Kangaroo Rat

Recovery Team Update (94.0K, PDF format)
Alberta Ord's Kangaroo Rat Recovery Plan 2005 (447 KB PDF format)

Like the poor Kangaroo Rat, Stelmach's Tories have become an endangered species.

g posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Premier,
Alberta Cabinet, Harry Strom, Ed Stelmach,
Social Credit,Socreds, PC, Calgary, Party of Calgary, politics, leadership, Conservatives, Edmonton, One Party State,History, Politics, Economics,leadership, politics, PC,
Alberta, MLA,

Croc Tales

Stupid human tricks.

A Vietnamese teenager had his left hand bitten off by a crocodile in a tourist area Saturday after he jumped over a safety barrier and approached the animal kept in an enclosure.

Nguyen Van Thuan, 15, of Duong To commune in Phu Quoc island in southern Vietnam visited the Suoi Tranh tourist center which raises 20 crocodiles and dipped his left hand in the crocodile pond. A two-meter-long, 100kg animal instantly bit off his arm up to the elbow.

Hearing shouts, employees rushed to the scene and took him to a local hospital where he is recovering.

No indication if the boy was wearing a watch. Or if the croc now tocks.



Crikey!

My six nights up a tree, by Crocodile George

An Australian cattle rancher has told how he spent seven days up a tree looking down into the jaws of two hungry crocodiles after stumbling into a swamp crawling with the reptiles.

David George, 53, was knocked unconscious after falling from his horse during a bush-burning operation in north Queensland. Dazed and bleeding after coming round, he remounted his horse hoping it would take him home. Instead it took him to a swamp criss-crossed by crocodile tracks. Surrounded by "salties" - saltwater crocodiles - Mr George realised his only chance was to climb.

The rancher said: "There were some monstrous tracks and the big ones are never far from the nest," he said.

"I couldn't go back. It was too far and too dangerous. So I headed to the nearest high ground and stayed there, hoping someone would come and find me before the crocs did.

"Every night I was stalked by two crocs who would sit at the bottom of the tree staring up at me. All I could see was two sets of red eyes below me, and all night I had to listen to a big bull croc bellowing a bit further out.

He was lucky he could have ended up like this shark.
Look for this to eventually show up on Ultimate Fight TV.

While it looks small against a full-grown crocodile or beside the great white shark, one of the other killers of the ocean, the bull shark is responsible for numerous fatal attacks on humans around the world.

In fact, the great white has often been blamed for a deadly attack on a swimmer when the real culprit is a bull shark.

Which is why even feared salt-water crocodiles, which share river estuary waters with bull sharks in the Northern Territory, tend to keep their distance from them.

Three bull sharks were caught in a lake on the popular Queensland Gold Coast in 2003 after a swimmer was attacked and killed. And just last year a 21-year-old university student was killed by a bull shark on Queensland's Stradbroke Island.

But on this occasion, the 18ft crocodile decided to take on the shark, a creature reported by the respected National Geographical Society as being potentially more dangerous than even the notorious great white.

The two predators became locked in a deadly battle, watched by an astonished fisherman, Mr Indrek Urvet, who was fishing on the banks of the Northern Territory's Daly River.

And speaking of 18 foot Croc's here is one that has gotten away with murder.

Tourists at Bhitarkanika warned against crocodile

Kendrapara, Aug 18: A giant 18-feet crocodile, which had killed five persons in the past, has been exhibiting signs of hostility again at a national park in Orissa, leading authorities to issue a warning to tourists. The amphibious reptile, the largest in the Bhitarkanika national park and a prime tourist attraction, of late has ensconced itself in the Khola water body, the entry point to the national park, official sources said today. "There is every possibility that it may attack humans," the sources said. "Recently we received reports of the reptile attacking fishermen who had a close call," the officials said. It has also devoured three to four heads of cattle in the past few months, they added. The crocodile, a male, has developed a strong dislike for any form of human interference in its habitat, wildlife officials said. Though it attacked and killed five persons, it has not turned on humans in the last 10 years, the sources said.

And it appears that the war between the crocs and the residents in the park continues.

Kendrapara: In the latest outbreak of man-wildlife conflict in the Bhitarkanika National Park, five persons, including two minor children, were injured following attack by violent salt-water crocodiles since past three days while there are reports of agitated locals in Rajnagar tehsil launching assault on the violent species.

India is not the only country with crocs which are protected as an endangered species. And one that has an attitude.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Wildlife rangers want to catch an endangered crocodile that has sparked a rare scare in a coastal Malaysian city after it attacked a man bathing in a river, an official said Wednesday.

Residents have been warned not to swim or fish in northeastern Kelantan state's main river until the 3-meter (10-feet)-long saltwater crocodile is found, said Zaharil Dzulkafly, assistant director of Kelantan's wildlife department.

The reptile has been spotted repeatedly in the river in Kelantan's capital city of Kota Baru over the past two months, but authorities left it alone until it attacked a 60-year-old carpenter Monday. The man struggled free but suffered cuts and bruises.

"Since this accident, of course, we have to catch it," Zaharil said. "We are monitoring it very closely."

Ibrahim Yaakub, the man who was attacked, said he was bitten on his hands and left leg.

"The crocodile, which had a yellowish streak on its tail, began to swim away quickly after I struggled free," he told The Star newspaper.

The saltwater or estuarine crocodile is protected in Malaysia under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

The species can be found in brackish and freshwater regions of Southeast Asia, eastern India and northern Australia.

Croc stew, a dish that bites back.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have caught a smuggler trying to bring 70 crocodiles into the country, state media reported on Monday.

The haul of crocs, each about 70 centimetres (28 inches) and weighing 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), along with baby turtles was made in Guangdong province in the country's far south, a part of the world where locals have famously adventurous eating habits.

But the report by Xinhua news agency said the crocodiles were "ornamental" and were caught with 3,000 baby turtles in the port city of Zhuhai. It did not say where they came from or what happened to the smuggler.

I have heard of watching for falling rocks but falling crocs?!

Crocodile falls 12 floors in escape bid

A CROCODILE survived a fall from the 12th floor of a block of flats in Russia after trying to escape through a window.

Diving out of the window has become a habit for the crocodile, called Khenar, with concerned neighbours saying it was the third time the animal had used that method to flee.

It lost a tooth in the latest fall but was otherwise unscathed. "It seems the owner was not at home when the crocodile came out of the window," a spokesman for the emergencies ministry in Nizhny Novgorod said.

The crocodile was put in a local aquarium to recover from its fall. Within a few hours, its concerned owner came to pick it up and the reptile was last seen being driven away, lying on the back seat of its owner's car.

In Egypt the folks in Cairo are upset that amongst the flotsam and jetsam of debris in the Nile may be a log that is not a log. A log with teeth.

Floating down the Nile's muddy waters on any given day are soda cans, plastic bags, swimming boys, tourists on felucca boats and patches of marsh grasses with birds hitching a ride.

This summer, a crocodile joined the flotsam and jetsam. Or so it seems.

No photos have confirmed the rumor in the two weeks since reports of sightings surfaced, but the Egyptian media have been abuzz. All that's clear is that an animal from the crocodilian family — perhaps a native Nile croc or a foreign alligator — has made its way to the urban waters of the northern Nile, something Cairenes say hasn't happened in living memory.

The officer in charge of the police patrolling the waterways in central Cairo confirms there is, in fact, a reptile in the river.

Nile crocodiles have made a recovery in other parts of Africa since being hunted to the edge of extinction by the 1950s. But they are rare in northern Egypt, and especially in settled areas where people often kill them for their prized hides — and out of fear.

In Florida bullying in the wildlife park is an evictable offense. But sheesh its just a croc's nature.Though I never thought I would see an alligator referred to as a couch potato.

The staff at Gatorland was busy on Wednesday trying to force a crocodile to move, WESH 2 News reported.The crocodile was hiding in a swamp at the park. The reptile apparently wasn't aware it was moving day.Mike Hileman and two others were trying to move the 7-foot saltwater crocodile from its pen because of an attitude problem."The reason we're moving her ... is she's being a bully to some of the animals," Hileman said.Gatorland officials said bullying equals eviction, so the handlers came armed with the help of calf rope, electrical tape and towels.With

"Alligators are like couch potatoes. Crocodiless are more springy, aglile, like athletes -- more aggressive,"

Baby Boomers the Croc Generation?

This Crocodile Nation

Earlier this week, I was talking to a young student who works in my local pub. I was telling him about a bizarre nature documentary I'd seen in which an adult male crocodile began eating its own young shortly after they were born. At the time, I turned to my son and said, "Don't worry; I'm not going to eat you!"

While relating this tale, it suddenly struck me that the UK has become something of a 'crocodile country' because, in financial terms at least, we are also eating our own young. What I mean is that the younger generation is losing out big-time to their parents and grandparents in the wealth stakes.

Indeed, as I explained in The Golden Generation, although people aged over fifty account for a third of the UK population (or twenty million people), these adults own three-quarters (75%) of the UK's entire net wealth. In fact, this age group owns £5.16 trillion of the UK's total wealth of £6.89 trillion, making them WOOPies, or Well Off Older Persons.

With all that wealth they can afford a Chanel Croc bag or shoes.

Italian luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo has a fashionable musuem collection in Florence. The shoes in the museum speak the style of famous Hollywood celebrities from the 40s era. In fact, every season Ferragamo re-invents the shoe styles of a Hollywood star in a new avatar, but without altering its classic style. And it’s not just shoes which are re-visited by the luxury maker. Bag models have been reinterpreted too.

There is the top-handle crocodile bag with the ‘Gancino’ ornament, in golden brown, yellow, red and bright green hues. Made of gold kid, multi-coloured suede and crocodile, the collection is further enriched by a small bag with a chain that can also be used as a belt.

My Other Handbag’s in the Shop Clockwise from far left: Azzedine Alaïa shoe, about $1,500. Call 011-331-42-72-19-19. Etro cuff, $480. At Etro, 720 Madison Avenue. Givenchy clutch, $1,630. At Barneys New York and Blake, Chicago. Burberry patent-leather crocodile sandal, $665. At select Burberry stores. Giorgio Armani ring on Plexiglas base, price on request. At Giorgio Armani stores. Versace crocodile bag, $2,640. At Versace stores. Taher Chemirik silver choker with flower, $10,300, and gold ribbon cuff (bottom left), $13,200. Choker at Jeffrey, 449 West 14th Street. Cuff at Susan, Burlingame, Calif. Mark Davis prystal Bakelite and peridot bangle, $1,910. At Barneys New York.

Photo: Dan Tobin Smith

With prices for gator bags and shoes that high is it any wonder this happened?

OREM, Utah (ABC 4 News) - A taxidermist called police early in the morning on August 12 to report that someone had broken into his business.

Police say taxidermist Kenneth Kirkham arrived at his Orem shop to find the door had been kicked in. Kirkham said a large quantity of exotic hides and materials valued at more than $40,000 were missing.

Kirkham said the missing items include leopard skins, a crocodile skull, a replica crocodile head, an alligator skin, ring-tailed cat skins, bobcat skins, and several deer skins.

Is Esperanto the origin of the phrase;" See ya later alligator, in a while crocodile." Nope it was Bill Halley and the Comets.

A few weeks ago, on a sultry day in the western reaches of Hanoi, I crocodiled with an Australian. I also alligatored with a Nepalese and, with a charming young woman from Madagascar, I caymaned — in French.

Most of the time, however, I was trying hard to speak Esperanto, the most enduring and widely used of the international auxiliary languages, tongues invented to foster communication between people from different nations. Esperantists pride themselves on seeing beyond nationality, class, ethnicity and gender, but when it comes to language, they are given to fine distinctions. Krokodili — “to crocodile” — means to speak one’s native language at an Esperanto gathering. It’s one of several no-nos in Esperantujo, the imaginary country conjured into existence whenever Esperantists congregate, as they did in force in Hanoi at the 63rd annual International Youth Congress of Esperanto.

Alligatori means to speak one’s first language to someone speaking it as a second language; kaymani means to carry on a conversation in a language that is neither speaker’s mother tongue. In fact, the only time I heard “Ne krokodilu!” (“Don’t crocodile!”) was from the lips of someone unable to do so: a denasko, or Esperantist “from birth,” the offspring of two love-struck enthusiasts who met, coupled and raised children in their only common tongue. For the vast majority of Esperantists, though, the language is a motherless tongue — something they have chosen to adopt, often using “teach-yourself” guides or online tutorials.

In Australia generations of Australian Aborigines still wait for justice.
And like the crocs they face extinction.

Tears of crocodile man fall in grief for his people

Mandawuy Yunupingu (left) is embraced by dancers from Maningrida at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land.
Photo: Glenn Campbell

SIXTEEN years ago, Mandawuy Yunupingu sang his way into the heart of the nation with the anthem of his people, Treaty, a plea for understanding between black and white Australia.

In every sense, the lead singer of Yothu Yindi, the crocodile man, became the face of reconciliation. The song was an international hit. Yunupingu was named Australian of the Year.

Since then, the 50-year-old has watched the momentum for reconciliation peter out and his hopes for a treaty dissipate.

As the Federal Government pushes through legislation that he believes will further undermine the rights and welfare of indigenous Australians, the man who once held so much hope for a more equitable Australia fears not only for the future of his people but for his own.

In January Yunupingu entered a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre. The man so many thought would never fall was fighting for his life.

"As the saying goes with rock and roll, alcohol and drugs can take you to the road of no return, the road of despair," he said from his home in north-east Arnhem Land. "I now know how much damage excessive consumption of alcohol can do."

Winning the battle for sobriety is just one of Yunupingu's health challenges. He is also diabetic and will soon have dialysis treatment for renal failure. He is a long way from the optimistic voice that spoke from his warrior's heart, a heart that carried the hopes of so many Australians, black and white.

But Yunupingu's story is more than that of another rock music casualty. It is intrinsically tied to the struggle of his people.

His family (the name means "rock that stands against time") is synonymous with the struggle for Aboriginal land rights.

The famous 1963 bark petition from the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land marks the first Aboriginal land claim and hangs in the national Parliament. Elder brother Galarrwuy, a senior elder of north-east Arnhem Land, was Australian of the Year in 1978 and remains a force in Australian politics.

And finally a happy ending, though the croc in this tale turned out to be a dragon.

Escaped 'crocodile' picked up by owners

Turtle the bearded dragon was reunited yesterday with his delighted owners.

Hannah Huynh and Calvin Cam showed up at the Vancouver animal shelter to take their "baby" home.

"We were sure he was dead by now because he can't survive in cold conditions and it rained all [last] weekend," said Huynh, 18.

Hannah Huynh, 18, reunited with her pet lizard, Turtle, at the city pound. Turtle escaped on Sunday and police were called by a man who claimed it was a large crocodile on the loose. The lizard is only 30 centimetres long.

My fascination with crocodiles? Well blame Walt Disney's Peter Pan. I thought the Crocodile was the best character in the movie.

aptain Hook is a pirate with a grudge. Although he fancies himself too clever for an impudent imp like Peter Pan, in their last bout the boy fed Hook's hand to a crocodile. Now Hook wants revenge, and his ship and all its men will stay anchored in Never Land's waters until he gets it. If only he could find Pan's hideout, he'd trap him in his lair. The deed will take diabolical planning and a treacherous streak of charm, and no one takes greater pleasure in both than Hook. If only that dreaded crocodile would stop circling his ship, licking its chops for the rest of him, he might be able to concentrate on the matter at hand ... er ... hook.

The Crocodile: A crocodile who swallowed an alarm clock and is after the remains of Hook; Pan had cut off Hook's hand and threw it to the Crocodile who enjoyed the little appetizer so much, he's been following him ever since. In comics published later on, the character was known as Tick-Tock the Croc. In the books Peter and the Starcatchers/Peter and the Shadow Thieves, he was called Mr. Grin.

SEE:

Godzilla Croc

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
animals, biology, science, Vancouver, croc, crocodile, alligator, bearded lizard, iguana, B.C., bearded dragon lizard, India, Australia,Viet Nam legends,cryptozoology,
living dinosaur, rare, animals, biology,living fossil

Coren Is An Idiot

The evidence is in. In black and white. Michael Coren is an idiot.

And why he has a TV and Radio Talk Show let alone a column in the Sun newspapers shows the shallow depths of the social conservative right wing will dredge to find someone, anyone, who will say anything to cause a controversy.

His opinion on matters is usually outrageous, but the ultimate off the wall comment is his latest column. All 'opinion' and reaction, and being a reactionary of course he will excuse himself, with no factual basis to back up his assertions.

Though you will find his opinion of animals, animal rights and the glorious animal husbandry of farmers shared by members of the Federal Conservative Government as well as rural MLA's and right wingers in the West.

I will excerpt the stupidest and most moronic of his statements. They are not suitable for young children, people with weak hearts, or folks with any heart.

They are the ramblings of mental case who would not matter if he did not have access to the media because they are desperate for right wing commentators to offset the supposed dominance of liberal left news bias.

OK, the evidence is in.

People who are obsessed with the welfare of animals and become hysterical when they hear about a dog or cat being abused are mentally ill.

No need here for compromise or silliness. Animal rights types are mentally ill.

Good God, get a grip! People matter more than animals.

Even bad people matter more than animals.

No relativism please, no soppy arguments about cute puppies compared to mass murderers.

The human spirit and soul is unique and deserves respect, dignity and reverence.

FOR US TO USE

Animals, on the other hand, are there to be used. Not abused, but used. So we can eat them, wear their skins, experiment on them if we can thus improve the human condition.

A million kittens do not one human life make. So if by testing medication on a million kittens we can find a cure for cancer, we should have not a second's pause.

Animals have no rights, but we have responsibilities. To treat them properly.

Farmers do this best because they treat them precisely as animals. Keep them fed and warm, show them affection and care, make them better when sick, but kill them if need be.

But not little Rover or cuddly Whiskers. Because they are dumb they must be special and because they give us pleasure they must be kind. Nonsense. Animals can be cruel, are invariably selfish and exist for us and not us for them.

And right wing columnists who claim to speak for the unborn can be cruel, dumb but must be given special privileges because they speak for those who have yet to exist. And like their fantasy worlds of the before life and after life, they condemn those who live in the here and now to their medieval ideal of hierarchy, man above animals, the King above human rights, and God above Man.

I would be remiss if I did not correct Coren's misleading allegations, assertions, and distortions

Not that he reads my blog, but rather because a letter to the editor while short and pithy does little to refute his over the top column.

First what got Coren's goat was the incident in Toronto this past week. Or more correctly not the incident itself but the reactions to it.

An idiot left his dog in his car with the windows rolled up on a very hot day. The car became a hotbox and the dog's brain was boiling. A Humane Society officer rescued the dog and in the process was confronted by the dogs owner, who interfered in the rescue.

The Humane Officer handcuffed him to his car and took the dog to the emergency vet clinic. The idiot who was broiling his dogs brain seems to have attracted some attention to his blight, and got beat up. As a result the Humane Society officer was suspended from his job. A protest in support of him ensued and Coren considers this an indication animal advocates mental illness.

This image taken from cell phone video shows Cyrus after being rescued.

The real sufferers of mental illness are those who would leave animals in a hot car with the windows closed. And contrary to Coren's relativist assertion that animals are less relevant than humans, these same brain dead types are also the folks who leave children in their cars.

Animal abusers often become human abusers, in fact they often become serial killers, as forensic psychologists will tell you.

And clearly this is the case in Edmonton currently.

Edmonton task force seeking serial cat-killer

Of course using Coren's illogic the police are wasting their time, since;" A million kittens do not one human life make."

Coren's illogic is frighteningly similar to the Nazi's belief that untermenschen were not humans. Once you have determined that there is a difference between humans and the 'other'; animals or humans, you are on that slippery slope to mass species genocide.

Animals have sentience, intelligence through learning, calculative thought processes, communication abilities, etc. But for Coren this matters not they are just dumb animals. It has recently been documented that dogs have the ability to remember hundreds of words, and that in human terms they have the intelligence of a three year old.

Elephants, dolphins, monkeys and apes all cogitate, that is have the capacity to learn, and now we are finding they use tools. Humans domesticated animals in a symbiotic relationship, horses, oxen, dogs, cats, etc. Not by force but through mutual aid to meet each others needs.

It was with development of capitalist agriculture that animals were seen as beasts of burden, not unlike the indentured servant, the serf and slave, those who were disposed of their land due to the English encroachment acts.

When Coren praises farmers as having a sympathetic understanding of the animals in their care, one must be forgiven for LOL. Farmers, ranchers and the like view their animals as property just as their fore bearers did. One can see the sympathetic treatment of animals at the rodeo, where horses who 'would be sold for horse meat" are sacrificed in the horror show that is chuckwagon races.

Coren's over the top rant is not much different from the arguments put forward by Reform/Alliance/Conservative MP Myron Thompson who has opposed strengthening Canada's woefully inadeuate animal protection laws, in order to protect rodeos. The laws concerning animal cruelty date back to 1892.

Since he claims to be a convert to Catholicism I would remind Coren of the venerable Saint Francis of Assisi who saw all creatures as part of Gods Creation, and not dumb animals to be processed, mutilated, tortured, abused, etc. Of course Saint Francis is not Coren's kind of Catholic, since he also was a pacifist as well as animal rights activist.

And speaking of St. Francis of Assisi, and dumb animals, this coyote proves Coren wrong.

Chicago City Animal Care and Control workers unsuccessfully tried Monday afternoon to catch a coyote that has been running wild in the Lincoln Park neighborhood for several days.

For two hours, three workers in three trucks couldn't grab the coyote that ran near children, dog walkers and eventually Cardinal Francis George's residence in the nearby Gold Coast neighborhood. At one point, the animal rested near a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment.

Workers finally gave up their hunt when the coyote slipped away again into a backyard area of George's home.

Dumb animal indeed. Gave dem workers da slip. And knowing Chicago is a Sanctuary City, this illegal alien sought sanctuary from Saint Francis and on Catholic Church property. Indeed Chicago has the largest urban coyote population in North America. That is one Wiley E. Coyote.

SEE:

Animal Crimes

Katrina: It's a Dog-Gone Crime

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

We Love Animals

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
extinction, humans, industrialization, environment, mass-extinction, rodeo, species, biology, ecology,
elephants, cognition, sentience, conciousness, animals, biology, mammals, cats, Canada, animals, serial killers, dogs, pets,
science, biology, Toronto Sun, Michael Coren, dogs, animal abuse, mutual-aid, humans, domestication,

Another Croc

Another crocodile tale, except this monster turned out to be a bearded lizard. And proving once again that so called eye witness testimony is the flimsiest form of evidence, for science or justice.

Of course while relatively small the bearded lizard is commonly called a 'dragon'.

And as usual you can find out more about dragons, sea monsters and die vurm.
on my blog.

Sometimes a crocodile is just a lizard

IAN BAILEY

August 14, 2007

Vancouver -- A reported "15-foot crocodile" that drew a half-dozen police cars to a Vancouver backyard on Sunday night after panicked 911 calls from a resident turned out to fit easily into a shoe-box-sized enclosure when brought before the media yesterday.

Animal-shelter staff were looking after the bearded lizard thought to have wandered away from his owners' home.

"Sometimes they can be hard to handle, and will bite, but this guy's pretty gentle," said Paul Teichroeb, chief licence inspector for the City of Vancouver, holding up the sandy-coloured creature yesterday during a police news conference.

Police say they got a 911 call from a panicky homeowner who claimed there was a five-metre-long crocodile in his back yard.

Six officers were sent in, only to discover a 30-centimetre-long reptile called a bearded lizard.

Chief licence inspector Paul Teichroeb displays Bud a bearded dragon lizard found in a backyard on 14th Avenue.
Photograph by : Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun

SEE:

Strange Sea Creatures

I Thought I Saw A Putty Cat

Congo's Ghosts

The Fountain Of Youth

Turning Off The Nile

I Don't Do Mornings

Nessie was an Elephant?

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Monsters, myths, legends,cryptozoology, dinosaur, fossil fish, living dinosaur, prehistoric shark, rare, animals, biology, marine biology, fish, living fossil
fish, animals, biology, science, Vancouver, croc, crocodilet, alligator, bearded lizard, iguana, B.C., bearded dragon lizard, python, ophites, ophidian, gnostics, serpent worship, totems, primitive peoples, religion, rituals, magick, rites, cave paintings,archaeology, archaeologist, H.P. Lovecraft, lambton worm, Lair of the White Worm, Bram Stoker, Ken Russell, Die Vermis Mysteries, serpent, worm, myths, legends,cryptozoology,
living dinosaur, rare, animals, biology,living fossil

Godzilla Croc

You know that urban myth about gators in the New York City sewer system....well it ain't New York and it ain't in a sewer and it's a croc not a gator.

A small crocodile called Godzik, or Little Godzilla, which escaped from its cage in southern Ukraine at the end of May, is still at large and apparently enjoying itself, an official said Friday.

The 70-centimetre (two-foot, four-inch) long Nile crocodile, which swam away during a publicity show on a beach on the Sea of Azov, is defying attempts to recapture it.

Dariel Adjiba, of the local office of the emergencies ministry, said the reptile had apparently made its home on an abandoned barge which ran aground in the shallow sea, where it could often be seen sunning itself.

AFP Photo: Close up of a nile crocodile in captivity. A small Nile crocodile called Godzik, or...

Godzik had been with a travelling circus for about a year when it escaped at Maryupol on the northern shore of the inland sea.

In the old days this kind of thing would give rise to the myth of dragons, sea monsters and die vurm.


SEE:

Strange Sea Creatures

I Thought I Saw A Putty Cat

Congo's Ghosts

The Fountain Of Youth

Turning Off The Nile

I Don't Do Mornings

Nessie was an Elephant?

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Monsters, Lake monsters, Loch Ness, Ness, Nessie, sea serpent, Scotland, myths, legends,cryptozoology,
frilled, shark, dinosaur, fossil fish, living dinosaur, prehistoric shark, Japan, video, rare, animals, biology, marine biology, fish, living fossil
fish, animals, biology, science, Ukraine, croc, crocodilet, python, ophites, ophidian, gnostics, serpent worship, India, Christianity, Abrahamic, Judeaism, Islam, totems, primitive peoples, religion, rituals, magick, rites, cave paintings,archeology, archeologist, San, 70,000yearsago,
San people, South Africa, Kalahari, Sheila Coulson, Norway, University of Oslo, python, ophites, ophidian, gnostics, serpent worship, totems, primitive peoples, religion, rituals, magick, rites, cave paintings,archaeology, archaeologist, H.P. Lovecraft, lambton worm, Lair of the White Worm, Bram Stoker, Ken Russell, Die Vermis Mysteries, serpent, worm, myths, legends,cryptozoology,
frilled, shark, dinosaur, fossil fish, living dinosaur, prehistoric shark, Japan, video, rare, animals, biology, marine biology, fish, living fossil

I Thought I Saw A Putty Cat

Move over Dr. Kervorkian make room for Oscar the Cat. A truly American creature ala Edgar Allen Poe.
Of course being raised amongst the demented and dying, how Poe-tic, a cat would 'sense' death it's a component of its sentience. Making it not such a strange animal.

The July 26 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine—ultra-respectable bastion of medical research—has an article about a cat, Oscar, who can (it says) tell when patients on a ward for severely demented individuals are about to die.

Oscar barely tolerates anyone on the ward who's not hours away from death, says the article. Even if they're barely conscious, brains barely registering the world anymore. But if someone's about to go?

Oscar arrives at Room 313. The door is open, and he proceeds inside. Mrs. K. is resting peacefully in her bed, her breathing steady but shallow. She is surrounded by photographs of her grandchildren and one from her wedding day. Despite these keepsakes, she is alone. Oscar jumps onto her bed and again sniffs the air. He pauses to consider the situation, and then turns around twice before curling up beside Mrs. K.

One hour passes. Oscar waits. A nurse walks into the room to check on her patient. She pauses to note Oscar's presence. Concerned, she hurriedly leaves the room and returns to her desk. She grabs Mrs. K.'s chart off the medical-records rack and begins to make phone calls.

Within a half hour the family starts to arrive. Chairs are brought into the room, where the relatives begin their vigil. The priest is called to deliver last rites. And still, Oscar has not budged, instead purring and gently nuzzling Mrs. K. A young grandson asks his mother, "What is the cat doing here?" The mother, fighting back tears, tells him, "He is here to help Grandma get to heaven." Thirty minutes later, Mrs. K. takes her last earthly breath. With this, Oscar sits up, looks around, then departs the room so quietly that the grieving family barely notices.

- Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He‘d sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill

Oscar wouldn‘t stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor‘s prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient‘s final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

No one‘s certain if Oscar‘s behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

The Black Cat

1841

by Edgar Allan Poe
(1809-1849)

I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own. Observing my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. We had birds, gold fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat. This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point --and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.

Pluto --this was the cat's name --was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.

Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years, during which my general temperament and character --through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance --had (I blush to confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected, but ill-used them. For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog, when by accident, or through affection, they came in my way. But my disease grew upon me --for what disease is like Alcohol! --and at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish --even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper.

One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity.

When reason returned with the morning --when I had slept off the fumes of the night's debauch --I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.

In the meantime the cat slowly recovered. The socket of the lost eye presented, it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no longer appeared to suffer any pain. He went about the house as usual, but, as might be expected, fled in extreme terror at my approach. I had so much of my old heart left, as to be at first grieved by this evident dislike on the part of a creature which had once so loved me. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart --one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself --to offer violence to its own nature --to do wrong for the wrong's sake only --that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute. One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; --hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; --hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense; --hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin --a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it --if such a thing were possible --even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.

Of course I would suggest you read the rest of the story as the protagonist gets his just comeuppance as I suggested here; Animal Crimes.


SEE:

Cat Carol

Chinese Fat Cat

PETA Kills Cats & Dogs

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Oscar, death, Edgar Allen Poe, cat, cats, black cat