Griffith Park Blog » Important Stuff

Earthquake feels like seasickness. (Updated)

Donna Barstow — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 23:32:36 +0000

In my place the floor rolled long enough for me to find my shoes, get ready to grab the bird cage, and decide it wasn’t worth turning off the computer, my LIFEBLOOD.

From the LA Times:

A 6.9 earthquake struck Baja Calfornia this afternoon, rattling a large swath of Los Angeles and Southern California.

The temblor struck about 3:40 p.m. about 108 miles east of Tijuana. In Los Angeles, the shaking persisted for several seconds. It was felt across Southern California, with skyscrapers shaking in San Diego. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

My friend Geri Mars, in Redondo Beach (45 min south of LA) tweeted:

No wonder such great rolling motion. My large aquarium was sloshing. That woke up the turtles!

There was an interesting link to a place called USGS – don’t know what it means – called Did you feel it? (Since the LA Times hates to link to any place other than themselves (Internal Narcissism) you know it must be a good link.) As of this moment over 4300 people have said yes. You have to answer a lot of questions. Nothing I like better than filling out a 6 page form in the middle of a possible emergency!

* LA Times reports:

No major damage reported in Los Angeles.

How does the saying go? When there’s no news, they still turn it into news. I’m going to add important info to this report by saying,” The sun is out in Los Angeles.”

My earthquake cartoon for Slate today is in my editorial cartoons blog.

Or were you looking for one of these?

Random coyotes tortured and killed in Griffith Park.

Donna Barstow — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:56:57 +0000

Today I saw visitors come here looking for “coyotes killed in Griffith Park” and I knew my day was ruined, even with the start of Dancing with the Stars tonight.

From LA Unleashed, an LA Times blog:

Two recent incidents in which people were bitten by coyotes in Griffith Park have caused wardens to take an unfortunate step: dispatching U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife services trappers to kill some of the park’s coyotes.

The second bite happened Wednesday, when a man apparently napping near the park’s Travel Town section said he awoke to find a coyote biting his foot. He was not seriously injured, wildlife biologist Kevin Brennan of the Fish and Game department told The Times.

In response to the incidents, USDA trappers shot and killed seven of the park’s coyotes, owing to a policy that coyotes should be captured and killed only in the instance of an imminent threat to public safety.

(So if someone got a bug bite, they would kill all the bugs in the park?)

But, our colleague Tony Barboza notes in his article on the subject, authorities do not know if the coyote or coyotes that bit the two park visitors were among the seven killed.

LAist has some more details, or not:

Details regarding either incident, for example why a man was asleep in the park at night, or under what circumstances the August bite occurred, have been scant.

LA Now, yet another LA Times blog – I mean how can there be too many blogs – like, 30 and counting, for one paper? – says I’m not the only totally pissed off person at this news:

The howls echoing through Griffith Park today are coming from joggers, parents and nannies — not coyotes. Park visitors are angry with wildlife officials’ decision to trap and shoot coyotes in the 4,210-acre mountain park.

Last week an editor that I highly respect said that he had read my last post, about our lack of essential fire engines for wildfires in LA and LA County, and said he was so impressed by my research, that he thought it read like something in the New York Times! Wellll….! I know when I’m being flattered, because someone wants me at a good price! But you know, he’s right about the research. I do a ton of research on things I write about, and before I started my gig as cartoonist for Slate this year, I did a lot of work for this blog.

In May of 2008 I investigated the coyote shootings in Lake Arrowhead. Two small children got bitten, and one got “stalked.” In response to this, California Fish & Game killed 26 random, pointless coyotes. I know, because I talked to some of the killers.

Henry Morse, of Calif Fish & Game said that CF&G doesn’t have enough officers – only 200 in the state – to go after all the animals that “need” to be killed, so they make requests of the USDA Wildlife Services to get specialists to do the job. Even though state law requires killers to use padded leg-hold traps, and they’re usually not allowed to be used in any way, Mr. Morse said “we try.” Later he said, “the law doesn’t require that the trap has to be padded. An iron snare is okay, too.”

Here is a complete report on California laws and the Fish & Game approach to taking care of coyotes in Southern California, written by John Turman and 3 other USDA people. (I had a call in to Mr. Turman that he never returned.) Notice that it is called Wildlife Damage Management Conferences; I found out from Carol Bannerman, PR for the USDA in Maryland, that their title is Wildlife Services now, but 10 years ago it was Animal Damage Control. That is because the USDA was started not to PROTECT any wildlife, but to protect farmers and their precious crops from animals; the UDSA Mission Statement was, “to protect the American livestock industry.” Just in case you wonder exactly how powerful the meaty beef lobbyists are in this country.

In the report, it lists important laws in California regarding wildlife. The first one is a BAN ON LEGHOLD TRAPS. This is because these traps are horribly torturous for the animal, and trappers obviously don’t sit and watch the traps – they return when they feel like it. The animals suffer for hours or days, thirsty, starving, in unbearable pain. And for coyotes, it’s emotional fear and agony. This is why you occasionally see coyotes with 3 legs; in their fear and grief, they gnaw their own legs off to get away. I have personally seen several coyotes like this, both in Los Feliz and here in Silver Lake (both times within a mile or nearer to Griffith Park.)

Once I saw a coyote with only 2 legs. This was before I saw the Oprah show, where she loves to parade weirdos and freaks, and had a 2-legged dog on. The dog had 2 hind legs. The coyote I saw had one on either side, kitty-corner. I was so shocked and distressed that my heart started to pound, and I saw red spots – I had to fight not to faint. I just couldn’t believe he could live like that. He was in a group of 3 other coyotes; obviously his pack took care to share food with him, as he couldn’t have hunted well on his own.

Yet in spite of the law AGAINST leghold traps, that is exactly what they did to kill our 7 coyotes!!!! What happened after they suffered in the traps? Well, then they shoot them. Sometimes they use cyanide bullets. It takes the animals over 2 minutes to die. Cyanide is not allowed in prison executions because it is cruel and painful. Well, no one ever said USDA killers were good sports.

Other laws listed in the report say it’s illegal to feed coyotes, and or to relocate them. I have heard there are signs in Griffith Park not to feed them, but I have not seen them. I talked with one USDA killer, Ryan, who was killing in Lake Arrowhead, and he explained that coyotes would “starve or go nuts ” relocated into a forest, without sidewalks, or garbage, or digging in flower beds. So there’s your reason, right there, Ryan.

This is the 4th law:

Legal Status of Coyotes:
Chapter 6, Section 472 (a) in Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR) describes
coyotes as nongame mammals. As such, coyotes may be taken at any time of the year and in any
number, except as prohibited in Chapter 6.

No protection at all. Note the word, “taken.” Everyone I talked with used this word, instead of killed.

If you want to really make yourself sick, read this USDA report on how many animals were “taken” KILLED in California in 2007. These reports are hard to find on the website, but there is one for every state. It explains exactly how each animal was killed, because, after all, it’s a by the number government agency. Who knew 8000 red-winged blackbirds were that dangerous to the people of this state? 500 beavers were killed, over 2000 raccoons. Over 100 bears were bad bears. Even a parakeet was killed in a trap. I have a parakeet.

In total, the USDA and Fish & Game killed over 64,293 animals and birds in California in 2007. This brings tears to my eyes.

How come the LA Times or national magazines never report this? How much power is one government agency allowed to have?? Obviously, they have to kill, to justify even having an agency. The animals in California pay the price.

The asinine thing, of course, is that they don’t know which coyotes did what. Did someone really get bitten? Obviously it was a homeless man sleeping in the park, but it sounds like the coyote sniffed his filthy feet – they said no damage done! So…is this some “lesson” to the coyotes? I’ll tell you this – it lessens my respect for this city and its leaders, that anyone in their right mind thinks that killing 7 random coyotes is going to make ANYONE feel safer, when we hear about random vagrants sleeping in the grass of the park all night.

And I plan to find out who ordered these killings.

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You mean I have to get political, and write about cruel farmers?

Donna Barstow — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:17:07 +0000

I wrote in my cartoon blog, Why I Did It, about how I take my canary for a walk these days. He’s near enough to a window to get fresh air, but for him to go outside is nirvana. Can you imagine how the breeze feels against his feathers, ruffling them, tickling his skin?

I’ve had him for 4 years, and now, for the first time ever, he is trying to sing!!

From East Bay Animal Advocates.

Most farm animals will never feel fresh air on their skin, let alone a breeze. That’s farming for you! Yes on Prop 2 would fix this, at least for a few animals. (I wrote about this issue earlier when I criticized the faulty logic of yet another piece in the Times.)

Wayne Pacelle, President of the Humane Society, has been very public about this proposition – I never knew what he looked like until now, handsome fellow!

The greatest nation in the world, with the most innovative farmers, can do better than immobilize animals in severe confinement systems for their entire lives. Family farmers know food quality is enhanced by more humane farming methods, and they know there is a balance between animal care and economics.

…These modest reforms of farm practices won’t be costly to implement. The egg industry’s own California-based economist reports that producing cage-free eggs costs less than one penny per egg more.

The Times doesn’t like this – says it would outsource egg farmers. Well, yeah, if they were little helpless children, and don’t know how to run a business or change the simplest thing, like move one side of a cage. And you knew that George Skelton at the Times was going to be an asshole about this when he starts off in a demeaning way:

The right for egg-laying hens “to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely” in their little cages, to quote from Proposition 2. [My emphasis - DB.]

(And I rarely swear here, so you know I mean it.)

Photo from the excellent and professional Farm Sanctuary.

I couldn’t find anything new in his article worth quoting, but here’s his ending:

The issue of hen confinement should be worked out between farmers, animal rights activists and consumers through the marketplace.

I’m going to ask my wife to buy only eggs from cage-free chickens. Then I’ll probably vote against Proposition 2.

Well, no George, the farmers , animal rights people and consumers have already come up with something: this. LA Animal Watch shows how another Times opinion fails:

A Times editorial today starts by talking about the terrible conditions at current California egg farms, says the animals deserve better, then opines we should vote no on Prop 2.

However, the Times has an excellent article here:

Since there are few veal farmers in California and the state’s largest pork producer has already said it would eliminate small crates, the initiative would mostly affect 19 million laying hens and the egg industry that farms them…The space per bird is slightly smaller than a sheet of letter paper.

When one more farmer whined (and lied) that this would put him out of business,

Paul Shapiro, the Humane Society’s factory farm expert, responded, “Even if such a synchronized ballet of wing-spreading were possible, it’s not required by Proposition 2.”

Hee!

Oprah had a whole program devoted to this, and my favorite part was when a chicken farmer said that if this law passes, all chicken farmers will go out of business, and California will have to import all its eggs from Mexico and China! Boat or plane? I can’t wait to see the packaging on them. I can feel some new cartoons coming on…

The part that I hate the most: this won’t go into effect until 2015. This is TOTAL pandering to those wimpy farmers. Also, I wrote about this issue earlier when I criticized the faulty logic of yet another piece in the Times.

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We don’t have any moose in Griffith Park, but we have middle America.

Donna Barstow — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:46:22 +0000

Do you feel a little bit skeevy this week, having spent way too much time analyzing Dancing with the Stars, and worrying if there is any money left in the market for ME from the market collapse, or wondering how many more Sarah Palin – moose cartoons will pop up this week – and my sympathy is with the mooses? Or is this just me? ;) If this is you, do something good this weekend.

I’ve written before about the proposal to designate all of Griffith Park a City Historic-Cultural Monument. Who would actually OBJECT to such a proposal, to protect our park? Duh. I’ll give you one try: 2 1/2 words.

If you guessed Tom La Bonge, you’re right! It’s really Councilman Tom LaBonge. (I disagree with much of his actions, but I respect his position.) But the strangeness continues, because apparently the Cultural Heritage Commissioners just don’t bother to SHOW UP when there is an important resolution like this. I guess they get a little anxious when there’s confrontation. Especially from a Councilman. And if not enough of them show up, no meeting. So the next meeting is October 30, and everyone is invited, costumed or un.

George Grace, who organized the badly needed only animal website about Griffith Park (besides this blog!), has put together an online petition for you to express yourself and tell the city you want the park protected. We only have 53 people signed up so far, and we’re trying for at least 1000. It’s short and sweet, so do it.

Great historic photo of Griffith Park from the 1930s. By permission of Chuck and Bernadette Soter.

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Uh oh. The LADWP bird balls aren’t good enough to drink.*

Donna Barstow — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:24:14 +0000

The bird balls dwp dropped into Ivanhoe with much fanfare this week were tested by NSF for one condition only: whether or not they leach chemicals into water that is exactly 73.4 degrees Fahrenheit. These bird balls passed that test, but have not been tested (or they failed) for everything else!

Numbers, please. Photo from Oldphoneworks.com.

And before I start, let me say that I am a capitalist, love Ayn Rand, and wish all entrepreneurs much success! The fact that Orange Products is so small that we are its only client for months is touching. Still, this is bad news I must share.

I called them today, (thanks to LA Now and Curbed LA for the company name) feeling a little sheepish that I had been calling ECC instead, for a couple of weeks now. Well, it turns out that my previous phone calls were right. Orange manufactures the bird balls, (which they call “vapor balls”, since they said the name “bird balls” is registered), but they said they couldn’t answer any questions, and told me to call ECC. (Who hasn’t returned any of my 6 calls yet.) However, Ken at Orange did say the plastic they use isn’t graded. (This is not true. All HDPE plastic is graded.) He also said they passed NSF testing, and that I should call them. (Important phone call after jump.)

I never heard of NSF, which some people might recognize is one of the top labs in the country, similar to the UL (which I did recognize, thanks.) They’re not a government agency, and are non-profit (as if I believe that – about any “non-profit”.) They’ve been around since 1944, and started out by testing food equipment. They test every single product that might come in contact with water, using NSF/ansi Standard 61, including pipes, pumps, filters, bottles, etc.

Cheryl Luptowski of NSF was very friendly and informative about these scientific tests and guidelines, and told me that they only did one test on these bird balls. This standard follows the EPA guidelines; NSF tests a product at 73.4 degrees cold water for hours or days, to make sure the product doesn’t leach impurities into the water. However…they allow products to go over the EPA standards by 10%. Hmm. *Cheryl comments below that this number is not correct, although I don’t quite understand what she means. Read it.

Even better – NSF tests only the qualities the manufacturer asks them to! Does this astonish anyone else? Also: if the product fails any test, it’s completely confidential, and only the manufacturer knows the results of those tests! There’s free enterprise for you!

Cheryl said NSF did not test these Orange Product bird balls for UV ray damage (the sun.) Nor for heat from the sun. Nor test them for rubbing or bumping other balls. Nor for any kind of heat box effect that a layer of black balls might create on the water surface, including possible bacteria or algae growth. Nor for longevity of the ball itself nor chemical long-term leaching. (OR, the balls were tested for these qualities and failed, but one can’t assume this.)

Best of luck to Orange Products, ECC, the dwp, and anyone who drinks water in LA!

*edited to clarify that as Cheryl writes in the comment below, it’s not that the NSF forgot to test for these: This standard does not currently contain any provisions to address issues related to a product’s exposure to UV light or friction.

So, do you think we’ll have any sunny days this year in Los Angeles?

Or were you looking for one of these?

“Some kind of scientist” talks about the Silver Lake draining.

Donna Barstow — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:45:51 +0000

Julian Harris-Calvin, Councilman Tom LaBonge’s assistant, a cheerful girl with a very busy schedule, said Marty Adams, “some kind of scientist” for the LADWP, would call me. He didn’t. I finally got him the next week.

We talked for a good 40 minutes. Surprise -he’s not a scientist! He said he is an engineer. He’s also a PR spokesman for LADWP, and I see him quoted a lot in the media. So just keep this in mind.

He was very informed and helpful in explaining the difference between chlorine and chloramines, both of which can be added to water to purify it. I knew some of this already, but he went into great detail anyway. Basically, the DWP was using chlorine up until now to disinfect the water. No other reservoirs in the country had ever noticed that it can combine with sunlight to form bromate. (Bromide itself is safe, and is in salt. Our water from the aquifers up north do get some bromide from the delta. We’re talking prehistoric here, folks! It’s all okay! It’s when sunlight and chlorine hit bromide that it turns funny.)

“It’s a small, small, small, small world.”

So, since we have open reservoirs we get very strict instructions from the state (Surface Water Treatment Regulations) on how to treat it. (Thus most cities have put their reservoirs underground so as not to go through all of this. As we were supposed to do starting in 2005, if you read the Report. But DWP hasn’t even begun to design the new underground reservoirs in Headworks they are SUPPOSED to be using!!)

Marty said they did their own private tests on chlorine and chloramines, and placed little bottles at different depths in a test pool. They didn’t hire any outside agencies or scientists. They decided no one in the whole country knew anything about this, so they’d just try stuff themselves! (Who here thinks chemistry experiments like this are a good idea for 3 million people, raise your hand?) Chlorine can form bromate. Chloramines won’t form bromate, but it’s not as strong as chlorine, and it breaks down into ammonia, and algae can form; it’s a poor disinfectant. Since algae is described as “Nature’s Perfect Food,” with tons of nutrients, what’s the problem? Marty said, it’s taste and odor. He said:

Don’t you remember the bathtubs with green water a few years ago?

No, I don’t. He explained that is because those of us who live near Silver Lake actually get our water from a different source. Ivanhoe feeds East LA and Chinatown, and Silver Lake feeds SouthCentral LA and Downtown. Silver Lake water isn’t for us, he said, it’s for “those” people.

Oh. Well that’s okay, then. If anyone gets green bathwater, it should be them.

Marty Adams, “some kind of scientist” for the LADWP, is the main decision maker on this project he said, so he has decided to buy 3 million bird balls to stop the sun from making possible bromate in the water. He didn’t know bird balls were made from HDPE. He didn’t know HDPE is only made by Exxon and Chevron, so we are really giving our $2 million to the big oil companies. He didn’t know the plastic he’s buying is not recycled. He said:

I did consider using basketballs instead of bird balls to shade the water, as we could have recycled them by giving them to Rec & Parks. But they would leach into the water and give it a funny taste.

As Harris-Calvin said earlier, there aren’t enough bird balls in the country to fill Ivanhoe for months to come, let alone the much bigger Silver Lake. So Ivanhoe will feed the community, and Silver Lake will be used only in emergencies. Or, you know, all summer long. But who will know which water they’re drinking? ;)

Finally he got around to replying to the question I’ve been asking everyone in the state of California: why the delay in refilling Silver Lake, and why set the completely arbitrary date of June 1? (If you’re waiting for a LOGICAL answer to this, go pound sand. You’ll never get an answer except maybe: The answer is NO! And don’t ask me again!) Marty said:

Well, we had to pick up all those golf balls in the bottom. And there was a little mixer down there. It doesn’t look like much, but it clears the drain valves. We had to order a part, a banana blade, and it took a long long long long long long long long long long long time to come in, but that’s all done. It’s all done. So we’re on target with our goal date of June 1.

Thanks, Marty! Good to know the DWP still believes in deadlines, even though they don’t keep them. And thanks for talking with me, “some kind of scientist.”

Or were you looking for one of these?

What the LA DWP PROMISED to do with Silver Lake. Which they haven’t done.

Donna Barstow — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:37:19 +0000

Remember how I told you the LA DWP didn’t have email? Now they do! And I’ll give it to you at the end, along with a phone number, if you want to skip down there with your own important questions. Or complaints.

I called Joseph Ramallo, the person who signed the DWP public letter on their website, to find out why DWP had not even begun to clean up and refill the reservoirs, as they had promised. No return call in over a week. Called again, and a lady wouldn’t give me his email, nor H David Nahai’s, but gave me hers. No reply from her.

Silver Lake, just about dry as a bone. Groundwater seeps up each day. Aren’t you glad we don’t have any earthquake or fire right now where we might need an easy source of WATER?

(Yes, the lake beds still stink, thanks for asking.) So since I had to WAIT so long for this city utility to respond and be accountable, I did my own independent investigation. (Now, stop it! You knew I would!)

One of the places I emailed while WAITING for the LADWP to reply was the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. I’m not a member, haven’t been to any of their community meetings, but I wanted to get their take on why the DWP was being so incredibly stubborn and slow, driving property values down as they go. I guess I wasn’t shocked, but I was surprised to find they knew far less than me. Someone in the council wrote a snotty response:

If you attended the DWP Silverlake meeting regarding all these issues last Feb. at Micheltorena School you would know all !

Then she added:

P.S. I know what they found in the bottom of the lake after it was drained ! Why worry about your property values just be happy you have a home.

Ooh, snap! Well!!! And now I will never be satisfied until I find out WHAT they found down there! But really, it was sad to find out the NC didn’t know anything at all about the draining except for the dwp company line. Hey, do Neighborhood Councils get paid? Just asking…

Well, no help there. So I dug deep, and eventually found a report buried in the DWP website, here, called the Silver Lake Reservoir Complex Storage Replacement Project Draft Environmental Impact Report. (well, it IS a city report!)

Report is dated 2005, pdf, 421 pages. Certainly worth reviewing, I’m just sayin’, take time while it downloads. And since it’s a pdf, I can’t cut and paste quotations, ugh. Apparently DWP knew way back then that there were potential problems with carcinogens forming. Yet they did nothing. (I read earlier that bromide forms from adding too much chlorine. Yet I found an article from the LA Times dated 1999, that said dwp was using LESS chlorine, and “Ivanhoe Reservoir, which adjoins Silver Lake, does not have algae problems because its water is constantly moving.” So no answer to the more or less chlorine question; perhaps it was just the luck of the draw.)

This big expensive study was done to meet new stringent state and federal regulations for open reservoirs, so it was done right. I’ll give you some of the highlights here, in case you have better things to do than read 421 pages of a utility report. (Actually I found it interesting, and fairly substantial. The report was done by the CH2M HILL company, an engineering consultant, including more than a dozen scientists, and 10 pages of references. So I’ll give it a thumbs up.)

Silver Lake will be moved.

The point of the plan is simply to divert drinking water from the open slk reservoir to a new, underground one at the Headworks area, near Forest Lawn/Burbank/Griffith Park. Headworks is undeveloped (wild, baby!) now, and is already owned by the dwp. This is the exact plan presented to us at the PROS cm meeting 2 years ago. I think it’s great.

After this, Ivanhoe and Silver Lake would be “non-operating”, meaning no drinking water, and they can be turned into beautiful natural lakes. (They are zoned as Open Space anyway, so no building!!) The report predicts the Silver Lake Reservoir could become a sorely needed little spot of emerging wetlands for Los Angeles, as it gets a little wilder!! And I freely admit that I got tears in my eyes at this part, although it might have been because I was so happy to have read most of the report by then.

All kinds of interesting info emerged:

The flow-through for water (how much is used by consumers) now is amazing: one or 2 weeks for slk, and just one day for new water to come into Ivanhoe!
The entrophic (natural accumulation of nutrient rich nitrogen and phosphorous in the water: ie, algae and aquatic insects) level is moderate in slk. Not gross, but also not like a clear mountain stream. High flow-through rates and chlorine really helped!
This report included reports from biologists, chemists, anthropologists!, engineers, geologists, and more. Pretty impressive. They included plans for everything: to mitigate any traffic or noise problems, to look for possible old civilizations, to be sure the ground was earthquake safe, etc.
The plan was based on Best Management Practices. This same phrase came up at a meeting of the gp Master Plan this week, and so I looked up what it meant. According to the Bureau of Land Management: “BMPs protect wildlife and landscapes as we work to develop vitally needed domestic energy sources.”
They did a study on wildlife currently in slk and also in the Headlands area. slk IS part of a Migratory Corridor. They didn’t list all of the animals I’ve seen in there, but listed a lot more in Headlands.
I thought their bird report was cursory, and the poorest section of the report: they only found 5 or so kinds of birds. They said the invertebrates in the water (again, don’t look at me! I drink bottled water!) supported a few water fowl, as I suggested last month. And they found several healthy bat colonies, in the tunnels! And they said mosquito fish would appear when they stopped the chlorine. Like magic!
They promised the workers would have environmental awareness training, with ongoing environmental monitoring (although it would be monitored by dp itself, so…). Also it wouldn’t be during bird breeding season (Feb 1 to Aug 31).
While this work was being done, “Reservoirs would remain in place, and water levels would be maintained.” They would be lower, but kept at 18′ minimum.
Work is to start in 2009.

Let me make it clear that although this report was APPROVED, NONE of this is happening now. The dp hasn’t even started, if they even plan to. NO Best Management Practices are being followed. Water is NOT being replaced, animals and birds are dying, and the heat has started. LA dwp, you SUCK.

Next up: Q & A as the dwp feebly answers my questions.

How to reach the LA dp:

(213) 367-1361 No busy signal! Real person answers.
email: joseph.ramallo@ladwp.com

Or were you looking for one of these?

Neigh.

Donna Barstow — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:11:41 +0000

The last time I rode a horse I got thrown off.

It was up in the Beachwood Canyon Stables, on a very beautiful trail in gp, with the steepest drops on either side you can imagine (which looked much higher sitting 4 feet up, on 4 feet). It was almost (his) dinnertime, I found out later, and Brownie was in no mood for me. From the very beginning he wouldn’t trot, kept walking underneath very low hanging tree branches so I almost got swept off the saddle, and kept stopping to eat grass. When he actually bucked and threw me off I was so shocked I can still remember the few seconds of flying in the air. Fortunately, it was on flat land, or else I would have landed several hundred feet down a canyon. I was humiliated, and in pain, and really grieving that an animal would deliberately hurt me. My friend said that it was obvious he felt guilty, as he just stood there afterwards, waiting for me to mount again, but I think he just wanted to head home. I didn’t want to get back on, but I hurt a lot, and it was way too far to walk, so I did.

Warning: graphic pic. Brave Warrior was happily adopted here, and is now fine.

But, just like the cliche, I’ve never gotten on a horse again since then. Probably my loss, but I lost a lot of trust that day. (One of my best friends said I shouldn’t feel bad that he didn’t like me, “because a horse you rent is like a prostitute, and will never have feelings for you.”) And then, there’s poor Christopher Reeve…

Still, I love to watch them, and pretend I might get to know one and ride again someday. This article in the LA Times was heartstopping, saying that because of the drought, the price of hay has doubled, so horseowners are just letting their horses die! Or sell them for $10, or give them away. Perhaps they just pretend the animal waiting patiently to be fed is a fence post, or will disappear if they close their eyes. It is so horrifying.

With many rescue centers full, fewer options are available for unwanted horses. Some are sold at stockyards — to good Samaritans, or “killer buyers” who truck them to slaughterhouses in Mexico or Canada. Others are euthanized, or left to perish in barren fields. [snip]

The overpopulation of horses stems from the large number of people who have become horse owners in recent years. The industry flourished as baby boomers enjoyed disposable incomes, and breeders took advantage of scientific innovations such as frozen semen and embryo transfers.

Stellar and her mother were found inside a stall that had been nailed shut. They were living in over a foot of manure, and the mare was several hundred pounds underweight. Stellar is at the US Equine Rescue, hoping to be adopted.

Apparently horse breeders are the new puppy farms. And although the owners know it’s more humane to have a vet put them down, that might cost a whole $200 or so, so…why not let the animal starve to death?

I know how much vets cost. For me to have a vet look at my small bird costs me $100 right off the top. Then it’s $75 for a one inch x-ray. Medicine, $35 more. I made up my mind a while ago that I wouldn’t buy a bird again (to BUY a parakeet is about $10) until I had money put away to take care of any vet bills. Because once you are the owner, your animal is innocent, and at your mercy.

Some argue that the problem was fueled by the closure of the nation’s slaughterhouses.

Oh right, they really want skin and bones dying animals. Write me another one.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Kathy Grant, who runs a rescue center in drought-stricken eastern Tennessee and takes as many as five calls a day from desperate horse owners. “The back roads are where you find them — all skin and bone, just hanging their heads in the pastures, dying.”

I found a book at a yard sale that is so wonderful. I can’t wait to read more from this author, who moved into an abbey in France to recover from a long illness, and started to write there. She was still living with the nuns when this book was published in 1947. I’m not into poetry, but since the esteemed lao introduced poetry the other day, why stop there? This poem from the book is called The Prayer of the Old Horse, but it could also be called The Prayer of the Starving Horse.

The Prayer of the Old Horse, by Carmen Bernos de Gasztold

See, Lord,
my coat hangs in tatters,
like homespun, old, threadbare.
All that I had of zest,
all my strength,
I have given in hard work
and kept nothing back for myself.
Now
my poor head swings
to offer up all the loneliness of my heart.
Dear God,
stiff on my thickened legs
I stand here before You:
Your unprofitable servant.
Oh! of Your goodness,
give me a gentle death.

Or were you looking for one of these?