Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Posts Tagged ‘blood lust’

Echoes of Hitchcock and owl-as-alien-guide-to-liminal-experiences, Strange Owl Groups & CWD Found In MO Deer Short-Eared Owls By The Hundreds,
by Larry Dablemont on Rense.com reports strange owl sightings in Greenfield, Mo. Dablemont hosts a local nature radio program and writes he’s never heard of owls congregating in large numbers, and in daylight. Very weird. Dablemont writes:

A couple of weeks ago a gentleman from Greenfield, Mo. called in, and identified himself as Faren Fite. I thought for a moment it was some kind of hoax call, because he said he had seen around 200 owls the day before in one small area between Greenfield and Lockwood. He said that on one corral fence there were more than thirty in a group!

Photos of the owls here.

It was a huge group of short-eared owls, a species a little bit like the barred owl in size and appearance. But in habit, they are much different than most of the owls we are accustomed to hearing and seeing in the Ozarks. They have a mean look to them, with ornery-looking bright yellow eyes rather than the brown eyes the barred owl has. And the face is much different, with a pronounced circle of feathers, contrasting white and dark brown, and two little feather patches referred to as “ears”, which are much like the horns on a horned owl.

Dablemort also reports on cases of Chronic Wasting Disease, which, sadly and spookily, is being found in deer and other wildlife in the U.S:

Finally, mad-deer disease, or Chronic Wasting Disease, has come to Missouri, right where I predicted it would first be found, in one of those deer pens where they try to raise giant antlers by feeding an herbivorous creature a diet that includes meat by-products

Authorities deny there is anything harmful in CWD (well, to humans anyway, apparently the animals don’t count.)

Strange Planet has a good post about the recent earthquakes, including yesterday’s 8.8 earthquake in Chile. As Strange Planet points out:

 An 8.8 compared to Japan’s 7.0 is not a quake 1.8 times the intensity, as many of you know. It’s exponentially horrific. A 7.1 is ten times the power of a 7.0, a 7.2 is ten times a 7.1, and so on.

When the sea lions left the San Fransico area, I posted that they left for a reason, and I said that they left because of soon to be witnesses earthquakes. Strange Planet also wonders, as I did last night when I heard the news, if the OCR attack on his trainer wasn’t in some ways due to the earthquakes. Giant squid washing up on beaches all up and down the coast, and other unusual marine life behaviors — we’ve been witnessing this recently. A combination of factors, including global warming/climate changes, which the earthquakes are a part of.

As to the orca Tilkumat and the death of his trainer Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld and that tragedy, part of that tragedy is that whales and other creatures (big cats, elephants, etc.) are kept in captivity in the first place. Strange Planet comments:

 Several days ago, there’s the sad incident at Sea World in Orlando, Florida, where a trainer was killed by a 12,000lb. OCR. Reps for the park called it a deadly misstep on the trainer’s part, leaving her ponytail wagging in the water, signaling the animal to seize it as a ‘toy’. Could be. Could also be that he wants out of this bathtub and back into the wild, and that he also sensed something out there. Because if you remember, in the interviews that followed with the staff, they said all of the animals were behaving strangely, were agitated, and just weren’t performing as they know how. There’s something deeper there. [italics mine]

There certainly is “something deeper there.”

The tragic end of Keiko (the orca known as “Free Willy” and kept at the Newport, Oregon aquarium until his release into the ocean) is not something I want to see happen again. I don’t know if releasing Tilikum the orca (I will not use the exploitive and titillating term “killer whale”) back to the ocean is the right thing to do. Maybe it is, I honestly don’t know. A start to prevent these tragedies, and, to simply prevent the imprisonment of sentient beings like orcas in the first place, is to make it illegal to keep these creatures in captivity.

As to the events occurring now, local news (Eugene, Oregon, about 50 miles inland) tells us of tsunami warnings on the Oregon coast because of the earthquakes in Chile and Japan. According to the KEZI news website:

The National Weather Service has issued a tsunami advisory for the Oregon coastal area.  Coastal residents are advised to stay out of the water, off the beach, and away from harbors and marinas.

This is not a watch or warning. No significant coastal flooding is expected to  be produced by this wave.  However, some areas of the coast could experience dangerous currents and surges in harbors and bays due to this tsunami. [a href=”http://kezi.com/news/local/164262”> Massive Quake Prompts Tsunami Advisory For Oregon Coast

I heard about the earthquake in Chile from Ian Punnett on C2C. He said there weren’t any details but that the news was, an 8.5 (at the time, that’s what was reported; today’s paper said it was 8.8) earthquake in Chile. So I turned on the TV, with our roughly 250 channels, and I couldn’t find one news program. 11:30ish pm, and not one news program. I mean news, like the old CNN, where you had simple, straight forward information coming in about what was going on in the world. What I found were “news” shows having to do with entertainment, news shows, of a sort, with a host or two but clearly the show was about them, and what they wanted to focus on, which seemed mostly to be the tragedy at SeaWorld. The most news I got was from the Weather Channel.

In an odd bit of juxtapositioning, the following item was in today’s local news about Oregon’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport: State OKs money for Oregon marine mammal center:

Assuming Gov. Ted Kulongoski signs the bill, researchers at Hatfield hope that amount will be enough to win $16 million in federal funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also called NIST. Combined, that would be $25 million, enough to build the new center.

“This would establish a unique center, a university-based center for the study of marine mammals,” said Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute. “It would be the largest in the U.S.

“It will give us the unique capacity to advance technology for the study of and protection of marine mammals, including satellite tagging, advanced studies of life history and analyses of genetics diversity.”

As with the people of Haiti, my prayers and thoughts go to those in Chile as well.

Bob Welch is a columnist for the Register-Guard, Eugene-Springfield area’s local newspaper. It’s a mainstream column; Welch likes sports a whole lot, and writes about so-called human interest type stories in the area. He isn’t out there at all, (I remember a column he wrote some years ago where he made insipid fun of Bigfoot witnesses, yuck yuck) so it’s that kind of thing.

He had an little moment of synchronicty the other day which inspired him to ask readers to share their interesting odd moments involving synchronicty.(Mysterious, magical or just weird? ) In his recent column Mysterious, eerie events remembered
he shares some of those responses. My favorites: the story about feral cats in Hawaii, and the coach in Harrisburg who had a ghostly encounter with his mother.

Not to pick on Welch (though I’m not a fan particularly) but in another column, as well as a very different kind of column, he writes about a wild game feast in Potluck’s food is, well, a little wild At no point during the article does he address the ethical issues; it’s simply a golly gee kind of piece about, in a surreal juxtaposition, a local country church’s annual game meat fest:

The setting is beautiful, quintessential Americana, a white church steeple rising into the sky amid trees, fields and rolling hills about five miles northwest of Monroe.

The dress is primarily, well, camouflage.

And the décor is what I’d call country fish & game: guns, pelts, poles, antlers, traps, duck decoys and two giant elk mounts, including emcee Scott Ballard’s world-record “8 by 9” Roosevelt elk — eight points on one side of the rack, nine on the other.

After the prayer, we head through the kitchen to go through the potluck line.

The whole scene is bizarre; prayer, camouflage, dead animals on the walls as well as on plates, and the contrast between the country and the gun toting hunters.

Among the food offered: bear, bison, wild cow soup, Nutria, elk, and lemon pepper cougar. And among the door prizes for the event: waterproof Bibles.

Kym Pokorny, for the Oregonian, makes it clear in her article Mix of gardens and guns is, well, just wrong she isn’t against guns, exactly, but finds the combination of guns and gardens bizarre. I concur.

It feels surreal to peruse the magazine’s Web site. The “About Us” section says, “Garden & Gun” is a Southern lifestyle magazine that’s all about the magic of the new South – the sporting culture, the food, the music, the art, the literature, the people, and the ideas. It espouses a strong conservation ethic that grows out of its connection to the land, and it reveals the beauty of the South.”


Well, hmmm. I guess the gun part comes with the sporting culture. I can’t really see bloody carcasses as part of the beauty of anything, but, then, that’s me. And I don’t really think they run photos of any dead things.

The mix of stories is weird: a guy in Atlanta who grows 43 different varieties of boxwood; letting your wife choose your “hard-core gun dog” (that’s wrong on so many levels); farmers and environmentalists joining forces to bring back the bison; a company that rebuilds shotguns.

More here.

Local columnist Bob Welch, who writes for the Eugene, Oregon paper The Register-Guard has an article in today’s paper about “Lawrence of Florence,” actually two camels,  in the coastal town of Florence, Oregon. (Florence is roughly fifty miles from where I live in Eugene.)

Welch often answers queries from people in the area about local history; recently someone  asked about camel rides on the coast back in the 1970s though Welch writes that there were two camels  there from 1983 to 1985.

A California couple bought over a hundred acres on the coast, some of it just sand, and that was their inspiration for the camel.  Welch reports that there were camel rides hired for entertainment from a California animal for hire entity: Movieland Animals, complete with “caretakers.”  For under $2.00 people could ride a camel on the beach.The following comment by a woman who remembers the camel rides captures the whole flavor of the coastal side show:

The size of the space was a bit disappointing; it was rather small and just off the highway. The camel looked exhausted. A guide walked the camel with a child on top around maybe a 30-foot-wide circle. I recall feeling the experience was anti-climactic.”

What ended the camel rides didn’t seem to be concern for the exploitive  nature of the coastal offering, but a neighbor who was upset with the amount of traffic caused by the camel attraction.

I wonder what happened to those camels. . .

About two weeks ago news items appeared about mysterious cattle and chicken killings in Virginiashowed up in the on-line Fortean realm.

Out west, in the remote area of eastern Oregon, cattle rustling is a major problem for ranchers and law enforcement. These cattle rustlers know what they’re doing; really quite an endevour given the remote and inhospitable area. See
Modern-day cattle rustlers hit ranches in southeast Oregon for article. Really something to know that the area they’re talking about is the size of Conneticut and Rhode Island combined, with a human population of 600. The article says that the rustlers know the area well; outsiders could never navigate, and so quickly.

Cattle mutilations have made the mainstream news the other day: Creepy string of calf mutilations mystify Colorado rancher, police This item seems to be making all the rounds; it appeared in our local paper, Eugene’s Register Guard, Friday.

The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.

But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion. Usually predators leave pools or blood or drag marks from carrying away the livestock.

“There’s nothing really to go by,” said Sanchez, who’s ranched for nearly 50 years. “I can’t figure it out.”

Colorado’s San Luis Valley has been the home of supreme high strangeness for literally hundreds of years. Cattle mutilations, UFOs, even Bigfoot, and a whole lot of other Fortean and weird events. Paranormal researcher Chris O’Brien has written three books on the strange happenings in the area in his “Haunted Valley” series: Secrets of the Mysterious Valley, Mysterious Valley, and Enter the Valley. (O’Brien’s Stalking the Tricksters: Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, Dark Adepts and 2012 is his recent work, released about a month or so back.)

O’Brien isn’t mentioned in the news item but Chuck Zukowski of UFOnut.com is. On Zukowski’s site there is a report, along with graphic photos, of the Colorado mutilations.

In the news item references are made to UFOs and aliens and the odd history of the place:

When something like this happens, there’s always talk of UFO’s and alien visits. Neither believe in that, either.

But some may look upward for an explanation. The San Luis Valley is a place where an unexplained horse mutilation maintains celebrity status 40 years after its death because of mysterious circumstances. It also has a UFO watchtower sitting on the roadside near Hooper.

Interesting this item made it into the national news stream, along with references to UFOs.

The following item in today’s local paper (Register Guard) echoed the Bison post that appeared here the other day. Today’s item is about a proposed mobile slaughter house in Eastern Oregon with Dan Forsea, the president of Baker County’s Livestock Association, explaining the the need for a mobile slaughter house:

“Right now, the closest place for us to haul our cattle (for slaughtering) is in the Boise area,” he said.

Some of the processed meat gets hauled right back to Baker County for a “beef to schools” program.

I have no idea what “beef to schools” program means, I assume it’s selling off beef to the school districts.

There are independent slaughter people for hire who will go out and slaughter your animals; but a mobile slaughter house is a new idea:

Financial and environmental considerations have weighed against building a meat processing plant in Oregon. But Forsea said Joel Huesby, a rancher near Walla Walla, Wash., has built one of the first mobile slaughtering plants the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved.

He says that could be a model for one in Oregon. He had Huesby in Baker County recently to talk to ranchers.

According to the article, one of the goals of the mobile slaughter house is to “increase the value of his cattle and cattle raised by other ranchers around Walla Walla County and other areas.”

When writing the Bison post, (Fortean Bison: Sacrifice in South Dakota) it brought back memories of a disgusting episode experienced by friends of mine who had just bought several acres in Western Oregon, and the above news item falls into the same category. Continuing the theme of slaughter and mobility, I was reminded of a trailer left on the newly brought property friends of mine bought a few years ago. A lot of things were left behind by the previous owners, including a horse, who was sadly neglected; fortunately he now has a very happy life, thanks to my friends. One of the things they left on the property was a small trailer. I was curious about the interior of the trailer; but my friend warned me it was pretty disgusting. She said the trailer was full of Mason jars full of meat. I opened the door; the inside of the trailer was dim. There were shelves and shelves of mason jars full of greasy, white-ish gray, sometimes dark, meat type liquid stuff. Some of this stuff was oozing out around the top of the jars, there were flies buzzing around… like a scene from a horror movie. Adding to the weirdness was that the meat filled jars had been put up in the 1980s. It wasn’t that there was any smell, surprisingly, although there was a thick hint of dust and grease. It was the vibe; just a strong WHAP! of wasted life energy, of sadness and decay. And that was all just standing on the step leading to the inside of the trailer; I couldn’t bring myself to go further.
All this made me remeber a letter I found written by my grandfather, William H. Galvani (his assumed name when he left Russia and entered the U.S.) My grandfather, who died when my mother was eighteen so of course I never knew him, was an interesting man. He was a Russian Jew, having left the Ukraine in his twenties; a Buddhist, wrote a book on Theosophy and other topics, and a vegetarian. Oh, and a 32nd degree Mason. I found the following annual report on line he wrote when he president of the Oregon Vegetarian society in 1897. In this letter he mentions the Society’s success at stopping a beef killing contest (a beef killing contest!):

We prevented the two packing companies in this city and state from carrying out a most brutalizing exhibit in form of a beef killing contest for which they made all necessary arrangements, after having obtained from the constituted authorities special permission to proceed with so monstruous a show. It was a Vegetarian who first entered a protest in the columns of the local press, who interviewed the leading ministers of the principal religious denominations, obtaining a promise for a sermon on this monstrosity on the Sunday evening immediately following first protest, and who convinced the municipal authorities of the justice of his claims, so that notice was given to the packing companies. ordering them to give up the project of exhibiting butchering skill in the killing of animals more useful than themselves. Thus the hog and beef-eating heirs of immortality where given a lesson which must have set them to thinking, at least some few of them, since the vast majority, seldom, if ever, thinks. It also gave rise to a newspaper controversy on the merits of Vegetarianism, which resulted in silencing the carnivorous portion of the community, who prefer the morgue to the fields and gardens for their food supply.

The entire letter is below:

Vegetarian Federal Union 1889-1911
ANNUAL REPORT 1897
OREGON VEGETARIAN SOCIETY

The past year’s work of the Oregon Vegetarian Society has been a year of of marked progress. On January 18th, we shall celebrate the beginning of the seventh year of continuous activity. During all this time we managed to hold up high the banner of Vegetarianism by monthly meetings, press reports, controversies, and by every other method that was best calculated to advance the claims of a bloodless diet on every thinking mind. At present we can number among us eminent professional men and women skilled in arts and sciences, as well as mechanics and labourers, all of whom unite in bearing the best kind of testimony to the superiority of the products of the plant world as the source of Nature’s food supply for the human species.

My own experience, as well as that of many others whose opinion is fully deserving of serious consideration, is still on the side of maintaining at all times the principle of the sacredness of all life, including all animals, other than man, as the basic principle for our claims. Of this too we are reminded by the Son of David and King of Israel in his declaration: “A man hath no preeminence above a beast ” – Eccles. iii. 19. This ought ot be sufficient for all such as justify the slaughter of animals for food upon theological interpretations of man’s supposed right to claim special privileges above all other organized representatives throughout creation’s domains. As to those whose reasoning faculties do not always accept the interpretations of theology, this will also do, since they cannot upon any logical grounds reject the declaration just quoted.

Among our most successful efforts in Vegetarianism are:

(1) We prevented the two packing companies in this city and state from carrying out a most brutalizing exhibit in form of a beef killing contest for which they made all necessary arrangements, after having obtained from the constituted authorities special permission to proceed with so monstruous a show. It was a Vegetarian who first entered a protest in the columns of the local press, who interviewed the leading ministers of the principal religious denominations, obtaining a promise for a sermon on this monstrosity on the Sunday evening immediately following first protest, and who convinced the municipal authorities of the justice of his claims, so that notice was given to the packing companies. ordering them to give up the project of exhibiting butchering skill in the killing of animals more useful than themselves. Thus the hog and beef-eating heirs of immortality where given a lesson which must have set them to thinking, at least some few of them, since the vast majority, seldom, if ever, thinks. It also gave rise to a newspaper controversy on the merits of Vegetarianism, which resulted in silencing the carnivorous portion of the community, who prefer the morgue to the fields and gardens for their food supply.

(2) Another cause for congratulation is the establishment in this city of a medical mission under the management of Dr. W. F. Hubbard, where medical advice and medicines if necessary, will be furnished free to the poor, and where they will be provided with lodgings, baths night garments, etc., for, ten cents per night, and with meals at ONE CENT per per dish. This establishment is on absolutely Vegetarian principles, all animal foods being most positively excluded, and so stated in all advertising matter of the institution. All credit for this excellent enterprise is due to the Vegetarians from among the Seventh Day Adventist denomination who have taken upon themselves the establishment and maintenance of this institution.

I cannot bring this report to a close without expressing the grateful acknowledgment of the O.V.S. to Dr. D. W. Reed, formerly head physician of the Portland Sanitarium, and now of Colorado, and to Dr. W. F. Hubbard, his successor, for their active cooperation in maintaining our public meetings, and to Mrs. Lucy A. Mallory, at whose house the O.V.S. has had its home ever since its organization.

With greetings to all Vegetarians, wherever found, and especially to the Men and Women of England, whose Spirit of Justice and Love of Freedom – the source of all that is truly great and noble among humankind – have ever been their chief traits, I beg to close this report of our efforts for the year 1897.

WILLIAM H. GALVANI,
President, Oregon Vegetarian Society.
Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
January 1, 1898.

Register Guard Newspaper

Image: Good Stuff!

A gruesome and sad story, with Fortean elements, from South Dakota. Bridge water South Dakota became overwhelmed by the stench of over 44 tons of rotting bison meat. The owner of the meat processing plant abandoned his business, leaving behind tons of frozen bison meat. Electricity was shut off for nonpayment, though the meat stayed frozen through the severe Dakota winters. When spring and summer arrived, the meat thawed. It didn’t just thaw; it literally “liquified.” The stink of decomposing bison flesh was worse than “rotten [human] bodies” commented mayor Barattini:

Some said the scent was like road kill. The mayor said he spent two tours of duty in Vietnam and could not recall smelling anything as bad.

“This is worse than rotten bodies,” Barattini said.

Going in a Fortean, slightly esoteric direction, we can say all those bison were sacrificed for nothing; the symbolism of the bison as an animal of strength, abundance and nurturing gift to indigenous peoples is contrasted with the legacy of man’s greed and disrespect for both non-human and human beings. Ilan Parente, the man responsible for leaving behind the rotting bison meat in Bridge water started another meat business in Minnesota called Noah’s Ark Processors. A strange name for a meat processing place. Another little Fortean item is the fact the bison meat was Kosher — and to be sold as pet food.

Days of clean-up, expenses, faulty meat processing plant with taxes owed, as well as a house, and lawsuits in the past for violations — with little word from the owner, who only had this to say:

“I feel bad for the people of Bridgewater who had to live with the smell. But that’s really where the extent of my feeling bad goes. It wasn’t ever a health hazard to anyone,” he told The Daily Republic of Mitchell in July.

Source
AOL News: 44 Tons of Rotting Meat Caused Big Stink

Image (public domain): Wildlife North America

A few years ago, it was good news among Oregon media, environmentalists, animal welfare activists, etc. that the wolf was making a comeback in Eastern Oregon. Pretty much, most people thought it neat. Not surprisingly, most ranchers didn’t think the news was neat; they quickly got on the defensive.

Well, the wolf has been making a slow comeback, and, as quickly as the wolf arrived, it’s been with equal quickness that the wolf has been assassinated.

About a year ago a wolf was found wounded on the Oregon/Idaho border. Reports of wolves being shot have been coming in; and here, sadly, is the latest story of two wolves killed.

What makes this news even sadder is that the killing of the wolves was approved by the “U.S.D.A. Wildlife Services with approval from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.” The killing of the wolves was met with both frustration and sadness:

“It saddens us that with so few wolves in the state, we lost these two animals,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.”

The wolves were killing sheep and attempts to drive the wolves away with non-lethal methods were tried first, like hazing.

Wolves are not a protected species, and it’s open season on wolves in Montana and Idaho. This is tragic not only for the wolves of course but the environment, says Noah Greenwald:

“Wolves are an incredibly important part of our environment, with research in Yellowstone National Park showing that reintroduction of wolves keeps elk and other ungulates on the move, leading to increased streamside vegetation, which in turn benefits numerous other species, such as beavers and songbirds.”

source:
Killing of Wolf Pair a Serious Setback to Wolf Recovery in Oregon

An article in the Oregonian by Richard Cooke (The New Survivalists: Oregon “preppers” stockpile guns and food in fear of calamity) discusses the survivalist movement in Oregon, which, according to the article, is mostly comprised in:

As in earlier movements, survivalists are centered in conservative, rural areas such as eastern Oregon

People who are putting aside emergency rations, equipment and even guns, are considred “fearful” and that fear is stoked by many things, including Obama!:

driven by fears, stoked by Barack Obama’s presidency, that economic catastrophe, sweeping technological failure and societal upheaval are just around the corner.

And though the movement intersects with a wave of weapon and ammunition hoarding among some who fear that Obama will clamp down on gun rights, there’s little talk of forming militias as in past survivalist movements.

Oh, there’s no arguing the fact there are a plethora of good old boys in this state; paranoid, bigoted, trophy hunting, right wing, bible thumping men and women who don’t trust anyone.

The article takes a bit of a smug tone, referring to these survivalists as “scared” and why are they “scared?” Because they don’t “understand.”

“People fear change; people get angry when they don’t understand something,” said La Grande City Councilman Steve Clements, 52, who teaches finance and information systems at Eastern Oregon University. “I think there is a lot of fear associated with having the first black president.”

There’s always been fear, and mistrust, and I agree that there are many — like the gun toting crazy ass anti-health care morons — who are, simply, bigots. They’re not afraid, they’re mightily pissed that we have president who is part African American. That aside, anyone who thinks things aren’t very damn shaky right now, regardless of who is president, isn’t paying attention.

The article highlights a lot of gun loving, stock piling dudes with generators hidden away in remote locations, that kind of thing. Okay. And maybe these types are reading too much of the Rense.com variety type stuff. But the following is the other side of the gun gripping survialist fear:

All the fuss perplexes Eastern Oregon University math professor John Knudson-Martin, who said the world is probably safer than ever. He suspects people are watching too much TV news.

“If a bomb goes off in Malaysia or halfway around the world, we hear about it, and it makes us think bombs are going off all the time,” he said.

“The world is probably safer than ever???!!!”

A presentation of the strongest of contrasts: the fundamentalist bible rancher with guns, ammo and food stored away, with the naive academic who thinks the world is “safer than ever.” Bringing out the most extreme of the “preppies” makes it all seem to damn kooky. Just nut jobs in the country chewing tobacco while gripping their guns.

Oh, those types exist all right. I’ve met plenty of them. Still, things are shaky and you don’t have to be a religious right wing gun loving bigot to see the signs. Being prepared isn’t about that. But as long as the idea of “being prepared” is presented as More From Kookville in Farmland, the mainstream remains satisfied all is well, when it isn’t of course, after all, no one wants to be considered a nut.