Update, Dec. 18, from Gina Spadafori at Pet Connection: I just talked to Chambers Williams of The Tennessean. If your dog or cat ate the recalled food and got sick or died, he wants to talk to you, especially if you’re in Tennessee:. 615-259-8076.
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I’m interrupting Mongolia Monday because this is an emergency. This was posted on the Pet Connection blog on Dec. 18. Kroger’s did what is called a Friday night “dump and run” recall. Companies do this knowing that the news media is winding down for the weekend. Obviously, their priority is NOT to get the word out to people whose pets might be affected.
Reports of dead dogs, cats and ferrets have been posted in the comment thread. Here’s the start of the post:
This weekend it’s the grocery store mega-chain, Kroger, recalling dog and cat food sold in Kroger, Dillons, Gerbes, Baker’s, Food 4 Less, Jay C, Hilander, Owen’s, Pay Less, and Scott’s stores. From their release:
The Kroger Co. said today it is recalling select packages of pet food sold in some of its retail stores because the products may contain aflatoxin, which poses a health risk to pets.
Kroger stores in the following states are included in this recall: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
The recall also includes Dillons and Gerbes stores in Kansas and Missouri; Baker’s stores in Nebraska; Food 4 Less stores in Nebraska, Illinois and Indiana (Chicago area); and Jay C, Hilander, Owen’s, Pay Less and Scott’s stores in Illinois and Indiana.
Stores the company operates under the following names are not included in this recall: Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, Smith’s, QFC, City Market, Foods Co., and Food 4 Less stores in California and Nevada.
Here are other sites you can go to for information:
Veterinary News Service site. (VNS)
American Veterinary Medical Association
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
From Wikipedia, this information about what aflatoxin is:
“Aflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins that are produced by many species of Aspergillus, a fungus, most notably Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxins are toxic and among the most carcinogenic substances known.”
And the result of exposure is:
“High-level aflatoxin exposure produces an acute hepatic necrosis, resulting later in cirrhosis, and/or carcinoma of the liver. Acute hepatic failure is made manifest by hemorrhage, edema, alteration in digestion, and absorption and/or metabolism of nutrients and mental changes and/or coma.
“No animal species is immune to the acute toxic effects of aflatoxins including humans”
Essentially, some ingredient in the food, possibly corn, is contaminated with high levels of this toxic fungus, which causes severe to fatal liver damamge.
Please pass the word to anyone you know in the the affected states who has pets.
One last word– some people think that somehow the attention given to pets is wrong and should go to people instead. But this country only has one food supply, so faulty practices that kill dogs and cats can potentially affect people too.
Well, I’m back in the saddle after a great vacation in Hawaii with my husband. First order of business in the studio is to finish some drawings that I have promised to do for the people at the Sierra Endangered Cat Haven to thank them for their warm welcome (and fixing my broken van). I did this study of their clouded leopard yesterday, truly one of the most beautiful of the cats.
It’s been fun to get back to this kind of finished graphite drawing. If you like good drawing and good commentary, check out Terry Miller’s blog, Pencil Shavings. Very inspirational.
I’ve admired Ron Kingswood’s work for years, since I first saw it and met him at the Southeastern Wildlife Exhibition. His work has changed since then and he has gone far beyond what is conventionally considered representational art, much less what most people think of as wildlife art. And that’s ok. Too many artists reach a certain developmental point and stop learning or they gain a satisfying level of success in the marketplace and are then trapped by the expectations of their galleries and collectors.
Now, he’s contributed an essay, “Is Animal Painting Dead?” to the online publication Wildlife Art Journal. Not too many comments there yet, but it’s buzzing on the magazine’s Facebook page. Here are links to the editor’s introduction, the essay itself and the Journal’s Facebook page.
If The Conversation About Art Isn’t Real, What Good Is It? And by the way, Wildlife Art Journal is the only source for what’s happening in the animal are world. They deserve support and currently have a special subscription offer going of $8 a year.
Unfortunately, most of the birds one will see in Hawaii are not native. It’s a long story, but the introduction of rats, cats and dwarf mongooses, along with habitat loss, have wreaked havoc with the native birds, many of whom are, or were, ground-nesters. Thirty-one species have gone extinct since 1800. The ‘Alala, or Hawaiian crow, went extinct in the wild in 2002. As of July 2010, 78 individuals were in captivity.
Almost every native Hawaiian bird is endangered, some critically. So it is ironic that one can stay at almost any resort and see lots of birds: saffron finches, common mynas, java sparrows, cardinals, house sparrows and others, but all have been introduced from other continents.
There are also migratory birds that can be easily seen along the coasts and beaches, mostly pelagic and shorebirds. However, they generally nest elsewhere.
If you’d like to learn more, check out this Wikipedia entry.
I’m on the Big Island and have been able to do some bird watching. In a week, I have yet to see a native bird. But I have gotten good photos of some of the other species that are here.
I’m currently about 60 pages into what is already one of the best travel books on Mongolia that I’ve read. Henning Haslund went to Mongolia with a number of fellow Danes in the early 1920s to establish a farming and mining colony in the north not far from Khosvol Nuur. “Tents In Mongolia” is his account of that journey. It was re-printed by Adventures Unlimited Press in 1995 and retitled “Secret Mongolia”.
Henning has already demonstrated a flair for observation, so I thought that I would share this wonderful description of his and the party’s first personal contact with a Mongol in Mongolia. I really wish I had been there.
“Suddenly the caravan dogs gave tongue….Down a long slope to the eastward, a billowing cloud of dust was rolling towards us…..One, two, three, four, five riders galloped out of the dust and- we were completely disarmed.
“A sunburnt girl with a smile as fresh as a steppe morning reined in her fiery steed before our shamefacedly lowered rifle barrels. Her teeth were pearly white, her eyes as clear as day, her smile disarming, her grip on the reins strong and her movements in the saddle full of grace. She was a daughter of Mongolia, she was herself the free, wild, captivating steppe.
“She was dressed in bright-colored silks, and when she moved there was a ringing of silver and a rattling of precious stones. She shone with the joy of living, and her demeanor bore witness to pride and noble birth. Over her forehead she wore a wide, massive silver band in which were set five large pale red corals. From this diadem half a dozen small chains of coral hung down to the boldly curved and sharply drawn black eyebrows that marked her race. From the sides of the diadem and from her ears hung chains of silver ornaments and strings of corals, pearls and turquoises which fell jingling over her small strong shoulders. Her hair was kept in check by a coral-studded black veil, fastened behind by a jewelled sliver diadem.
“Her long robe was of pale blue silk, and over it she wore a short, sleeveless waistcoat of crimson brocade in which were interwoven dim symbols of fortune and long life. The waistcoat was fastened in front with golden laces attached to buttons of chased silver.
“Her cloak reached to her knees where it met her long black velvet riding boots. Her small, neat feet were shod in boots whose elegance was enhanced by the sharply unturned toes. Her hands were strong, but small and shapely. Her fingers were studded with coral ornaments and heavy silver rings, and thick bracelets clashed upon her wrists.”
We’re having a lovely weekend with family. This is Niki, our rough collie dog, after a day of running around and playing with six cousins, all of whom are ten and under. He was one tired pupski by sundown.
It’s been too long since I’ve presented any Mongol poetry. It’s another aspect of their culture that is almost unknown to westerners, even though examples survive from over 800 years ago.
If you would like to learn about and read more poetry, visit previous posts here and here and here.
This one has a subject dear to the heart of pretty much every Mongol…horses:
The stories of my people soar with horses,
With wings they reach the golden sun.
The wind riffs through their untrimmed manes,
And, down the skyroad of Khormast,
They return to the lake like migrating birds,
According to the customs of the golden earth.
The poems of the elders soar with horses,
With wings they reach the vibrant stars.
From the herds of letters formed within the month,
We have taken these migrating steeds.
And, from the hitching posts of our poets’ horses,
We have taken off for distant roads.
My horse, fly high, oh my horse,
Fly high, into the worlds of my desire.
From our wise elders’ heights of brilliance,
I offer my song to the spacious earth.
My horse, fly high, oh my horse,
Fly high, into the worlds of my desire.
By Ochirkhuu (1943-2001), translated by Simon Wickham-Smith
As is obvious to anyone who follows this blog, I travel, often by air. I support any and all effective measures that will reasonably (there are no guarantees in life) ensure that I will get safely to and from my destination. So I have been following with interest the news about the new TSA screening methods: the backscatter x-ray scanners and the “enhanced pat downs” people are getting if they refuse to go through the scanners.
Both are an outrageous abuse of authority and, even worse, won’t stop a determined terrorist. But they have created a situation in which every air traveler (around 20 million a day) is guilty until proven innocent, which goes against one of the most fundamental tenets of our legal system.
Our civil rights are being violated and this must be stopped. We need real security in our airports and on our planes, not “security theater”.
The x-ray scanners strip you absolutely naked. The images are not supposed to be recorded and saved, but how can you be sure? Do you trust the TSA that much? I don’t. This isn’t about prudery, I assure you. Are you ok with the image in this great post by James Fallows? I’m not.
And it turns out to be completely unnecessary. Equipment exists that will do the job without the privacy violation. But I suspect their lobbyists didn’t get the fix in with the TSA, which defied the will of Congress and spent $25 million of federal stimulus funds for the current machines. One must ALWAYS follow the money.
The “pat-downs” are actually strip searches which include groping of genital areas. We tell kids to never let anyone touch them without their permission. The new caveat is “unless it’s a government employee”. Think they aren’t messing with kids? Guess again. Women and children in Afghanistan are not subjected to this. And it really crosses the threshold to become a sexual assault. Rape and domestic violence victims have had meltdowns when faced with either screening and who can blame them? How’d you like to start your honeymoon this way?
Apparently the purpose of the intrusive searches is to make everyone choose to go through the machines. Which is problematical for people with implanted medical devices, so they are stuck being molested. Here’s one person’s experience: “These clowns are NOT doing anything to prevent terrorists on our planes. If someone puts an explosive in a peach, TSA will ban all fruit on all flights. That works, huh? BTW, because of my ICD, I can’t go through the new (or old) scanners. Last trip out of ——- I had a very, very invasive and, shall I say, intimate pat down. I insisted on a private room and they made it worth my while!”
I have been told by someone else that they went through the scanner and then got the invasive search, too. WTF?
There are other accounts of how lines split at random and some must go through the back-scatter machines and some go through the old metal detectors. There seems to be no consistency in application, so, as usual, the devil is in the details.
There is no threshold of “Probable cause” being applied here, another violation of our rights.
But if you have enough money for a private plane, you get to skip all of the above.
If you are a pilot, as one pointed out, they can put you through the scanners till the cows come home, but you will still be flying the plane. And, I might point out, secure in a locked cockpit. Hello?
I’ve read snarky comments about how if you don’t want to go through the security, then don’t fly. Or they say, “use an alternative way to get there”. And I will get to Mongolia….how? But these kinds of idiot remarks completely miss the point.
Here is the relevant part of the Constitution:
Seems pretty straightforward to me. THIS is the point. The Constitution trumps the TSA. It must.
Here’s what you can do to help. Visit the Fly With Dignity website. Sign the petition. If you are flying on the 24th, consider participating in the national Opt-Out Day. Details on the Fly With Dignity site. Look up the contact information for your Congressional representatives. Call or write to them. I’ve read that their rule-of-thumb is that one constituent communication equals 100 other people who feel the same way. So what you say will count!
Updates:
Kathleen Parker’s column in the Washington Post-
Editorial in the New York Times-
Opinionater, in the New York Times-
* The Washington Post printed an article on January 1, 2010, calling Chertoff out for using his government credentials to promote a product that benefits his clients. It was revealed that Rapiscan Systems, the manufacturer of the naked body scanner Chertoff was recommending, was a client of Chertoff’s security consulting agency.
* Rapiscan has since received over $250 million in scanner orders.
Lead article on the Washington Post site (punchline: the problem of virtually strip-searching people can be solved if the TSA will simply make some easy software changes)-
“Wattenburg said that when news reached Livermore in 2006 that the TSA planned to buy the new generation of “backscatter” full-body scanners, the problem seemed clear. “We knew what was going to happen,” he said. “People are immediately going to scream like hell because they’re taking the clothes off everybody.”
From the New York Times front page (the push-back is working, apparently)-
“John S. Pistole said on the “Today” show on NBC Monday morning that his agency was willing to rethink its policy on the physical screenings that have become a flashpoint of anger among travelers. “We’re going to look at how can we do the most effective screening in the least invasive way, knowing that there’s always a trade-off” between security and privacy, he said.”
From The Atlantic, Dec. 8, 2010- an interview with John Pistole by James Fallows and Jeffrey Goldberg
Susan Fox, American Artist 
