Govmt. Waste. Chimps, Donkeys Deserve Better. 'Drug' Pets. Paul Newman and Daniel Boone.

For "Mammal Monday:

This is how the government is spending our money the wrong way on animals:

"As the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction works to achieve massive cuts in federal spending, there are a number of wasteful programs that harm animals and should be in their sights.
By reforming these programs, we can reduce the federal deficit by more than a billion dollars, making government run better and finding a new way forward for wildlife management and 21st century science.

1. Chimpanzees in Labs: $300 million
About 1,000 chimpanzees--80-90% of whom aren't even used in research, as they've proved poor models for human illness--are warehoused in expensive lab cages.

2. Wild Horses and Burros: $172 million
The Bureau of Land Management currently keeps approximately 46,000 mustangs in costly holding pens and continues to round up many thousands more each year.

3. Animal Testing: $500 million
The National Toxicology Program remains stuck on extravagant and unnecessary animal testing that often yields unusable results.
 
4. Lethal Predator Control: $110 million
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services division provides taxpayer-subsidized wildlife extermination services to private ranchers.

It's time to make government run better, and adopt long-overdue reforms that will ease taxpayer burdens while helping protect animals."
From: https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=5201
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Help End Invasive Chimpanzee Research

 "Over 1000 chimpanzees are kept in nine labs across the US. The HSUS is working to end their use in invasive research and retire all of them to suitable sanctuaries to live out their lives."

You Can Help

"Tell the government to give captive chimpanzees the same protections as wild chimpanzees under the Endangered Species Act. TAKE ACTION »
Ask your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which would phase out harmful research on chimpanzees in laboratories and retire the approximately 500 federally owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuary. TAKE ACTION »
Rescue the chimps featured in the video from life in a research lab—urge decision-makers to send a group of five adult chimpanzees and their four babies to a sanctuary rather than use them in potentially harmful research. TAKE ACTION »"
From: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/chimpanzee_research/
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 Chimps first sight of daylight:

"The chimpanzees were taken from their mothers shortly after their births and brought to a research facility in Austria.
Scientists kept the animals in isolation and gave them HIV and hepatitis. Their ordeal finally ended in 1997 when the pharmaceutical company behind the research was sold.
The chimps were moved to a farm where keepers tried to reintroduce them to life outside — but the process was not easy.
The animals had spent so much time inside they were confused when shown patches of grass — and repeatedly threw them away. "

From: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3797606/Lab-chimps-see-daylight-br-for-first-time-in-30-years.html
and: http://www.humanesociety.org/news/blog/2011/09/chimpanzee_endangered_petition_090111.html
"The Humane Society of the United States, along with other conservation and animal protection organizations, filed a legal petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking the agency to list all chimpanzees as "endangered," which would help protect captive chimpanzees in the U.S.
The agency is soliciting public comment on this issue. It's very important that they hear from you! Click here to take action»"
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Talk Back: Working to Protect Chimpanzees and Exotic Animals

"Although chimps are so similar to us genetically, many experiments conducted on them such as HIV studies have been unproductive in yielding any medical advance for people.
Yet the United States continues to warehouse hundreds of these animals in laboratories at an enormous financial cost to taxpayers and a moral cost to our entire society."
Full article at: http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2011/09/talkback-chimps-snakes.html
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My thoughts on lab experiments:
The animals have done no wrong. 
But those on death row have, so let them experiment on them.
"Cruel and Unusual Punishment", well, what about the victims and innocent chimps, rabbits, rats, cats and dogs?


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Donkeys deserve better than just being abandoned, too.

Donkey dumping is on the rise as the drought continues:

"Underappreciated by the public and the source of hard feelings when their name, in its shortened form, finds its way into an argument, donkeys never have had it easy.
And with a record-breaking drought showing few signs of ending, donkeys in Texas are facing an additional challenge: finding a place to call home.

Sheriffs departments and animal rescue operations say donkeys, like horses, are being turned loose in growing numbers because the drought has made them too costly to keep, and buyers are not lining up to acquire them.
Donkeys, smaller than horses and with fewer uses, typically have less value than horses. Many auction barns aren't interested in putting donkeys on the block any more, officials said.

A round bale of hay can cost $125 this year, more than twice the price last year, she said. When donkeys can't draw enough at auction to cover the cost of the blood test the animals need before sale, owners see letting the animal go as a way to cut losses. 

"As in many states, when an animal is taken to auction it must have a blood test performed to ensure that it is negative Coggins. This test costs between $15 and $25. Jacks and Geldings seldom fetch even $5 at most auctions thereby costing the owner more money to take the animal to auction than the animal is worth."

Texas alone has brought 500 donkeys into Peaceful Valley's care since March, Meyers said. That's 100 more donkeys than the organization rescued nationally last year.

While not routinely used as riding animals, donkeys gained popularity as companion animals for sheep and other livestock because they ward off predators such as coyotes or wild dogs, officials said."

Rescuers come to aid of abandoned animals.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Donkey-dumping-is-on-the-rise-as-the-drought-2163307.php#ixzz1XsAIanzN
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Jesus 'The King' Zambada's Pets Strain Mexico's Zoos

"In this photo taken Aug. 17, 2011, a lion cub approaches a person's hand from behind a gate at a public zoo that houses animals captured from drug traffickers, pets smugglers and circuses without permits for their animals in Zacango, Mexico. "

"Authorities have discovered drug cartel private zoos that housed tigers, panthers and lions among other animals of exotic breeds.   Though the federal Attorney General's Office, which supervises all seizures from drug gangs, couldn't provide an exact count of the number of animals seized.  Whatever the number, officials have been challenged to house the armies of confiscated drug cartel animals.
Their previous home was a very big enclosure made of good quality material," said Manlio Nucamendi, the zoo's coordinator.  "But they didn't have the right diet and medical attention." "

TOLUCA, Mexico — "The three tiny squirrel monkeys led a life of luxury on a 16-acre ranch, surrounded by extravagant gardens and barns built for purebred horses.

More than 200 animals, ranging from mules to peacocks and ostriches, lived on the ranch in central Mexico and hundreds more stayed on two related properties, many in opulent enclosures.

Also kept on the grounds were less furry fare: AK-47 assault rifles, Berrettas, hundreds of other weapons and cocaine.

The ranch's owner was Jesus "The King" Zambada, a leader of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. He had developed a love for exotic species shared with other kingpins. Just two days before Zambada's arrest, police confiscated two tigers and two lions from a drug gang hideout on the forested outskirts of Mexico City.

As federal authorities capture a growing number of gang leaders, many of their pets are being driven from their gilded cages into more modest housing in the country's zoos.
That's proved overwhelming for some institutions, which are struggling to cope with the influx. But it's also giving Mexican animal lovers a bounty of new creatures to admire."
More at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/16/jesus-zambadas-pets-mexico-zoo_n_966319.html
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The Bible says that the day of one's death is more important than the day of one's birth:
Ecclesiastes 7:1 KJV   A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
Proverbs 22:1 A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, Favor is better than silver and gold.
"The day you are born you have not made a name for your self. But by the time you have died you have hopefully done things which have been good to people. Hopefully you have achieved things in life so when some one hears your name they have something to think about, rather than just hearing a name."

These two did achieve good names in their lifetimes:

"On this day, 26th. Sept. in 2008, Paul Newman, one of the leading movie stars of the 20th century, dies at the age of 83 from cancer at his home in Westport, Connecticut. In a career spanning more than five decades, Newman made over 65 movies, including the classics “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting” and “The Verdict.” As reported in The New York Times, Newman’s talent as an actor was drawn from his “physical grace, unassuming intelligence and good humor that made it all seem effortless.”"

and:

"On this day in 1820 the great pioneering frontiersman Daniel Boone died quietly in his sleep at his son's home near present-day Defiance, Missouri. The indefatigable voyager was 86.

Boone was born in 1734 to Quaker parents living in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Following a squabble with the Pennsylvania Quakers, Boone's family decided to head south and west for less crowded regions, and they eventually settled in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. There the young Daniel Boone began his life-long love for wilderness, spending long days exploring the still relatively unspoiled forests and mountains of the region. An indifferent student who never learned to write more than a crude sentence or two, Boone's passion was for the outdoors, and he quickly became a superb marksman, hunter and woodsman."
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Yesterday:


Call came in that a young lady is interested in adopting Pebbles. 
She wants to see Precious, too, but Pebbles seems to be her favorite. 

This will be great for me, as long as it is a great home, as Pebbles is the one that gets into everything, when she isn't right where I am, and needs a younger caretaker.























Pebbles wears me out, must have some Siamese in her!

Even though it was Sunday, the cable company was sending someone out between 8 AM and noon to find out why I keep on losing internet.  Not very often, maybe two or three times a day.

I had to re-adjust my schedule and do things in a different order to be dressed, animals fed and out of the way, boxes all cleaned, etc., in case he arrived at 8.00 AM.  I work on the internet between 6.00AM and 8.00 AM, so everything had to be done before then.  Usually I do all that afterwards, as I am enjoying my coffee in my night clothes when I start work at 6.00 AM.

The tech was supposed to call me when he was on the way, so I couldn't vacuum, as I can't hear the phone over the noise.  With my HMO rep coming to see me today, I really wanted to get that done.
 
Misty and I couldn't go for her walk-about, as they don't have my cell number, as I didn't give it to them.  Companies have a habit of calling you back for a survey on how they did, or other follow ups, or sales pitches.   I just have a $20 a month cell phone with not very many weekday minutes, so just family and close friends have the number.  I don't come anywhere near to using up those minutes!  It's is mostly for me to be able to call if I am meeting someone, or they need to call me, or if I were to break down or something.
 
When I called at 11.00 AM, after 22 minutes on hold I was assured that the man, (I assume it was a man) was on his way and had not notified them otherwise.

Noon came and went.  I called again, and after another 23 minutes on hold, their rep said they would check on it, and put me on hold again!  Later, when he came back on the line he said that they were coming today, but didn't know when.

About 1.15 PM the man shows up, without calling first, but he couldn't get the new cable modem to work right.   He ascertained that the old modem was a very old model, and wasn't working right.


Finally, after about an hour he got it all straightened out.   He also got my laptop to work on WiFi through my router, but with a very weak signal.  I had been hoping to be able to use it in another room.  So that will have to be investigated by me, as it that is not the cable company's department.

There was no reason for the cable office to have made my appointment for a Sunday, when they only have two techs doing this whole lake area on the weekends.  I was getting internet, it just went out for a few minutes every now and then.   The poor guy hadn't even had his lunch, and still had six calls to make.  During the week there are a bunch of techs on duty. 
Here was I, griping about my inconveniences, when this poor guy was overworked, hungry and dragging around in the unusually hot weather.

Another time, I will put up with my problem, and tell them to come on a weekday.