Trouble for Parks & West Nile Reports

Trouble for Parks & West Nile Reports plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell asked National Parks Service Director, Jonathan Jarvis how sequestration was affecting U.S. parks.

JARVIS: The 5 percent cut that we took in March of this fiscal year resulted in a $130 million cut to the operations and responsibilities of the National Park Service, half-way through the fiscal year. And just as the summer season was beginning in most of our national parks. So the net result of that on the ground is we had a hiring freeze. We withheld the hiring of 900 permanent positions and 1000 seasonals. So there was a direct effect.

The Idaho State Department of Agriculture reports two horses, one near Parma, Idaho, and one near Meridian, Idaho, tested positive for West Nile virus. The discovery of a WNV-positive-horses means WNV-carrying mosquitoes were in the area. This serves as a reminder to the public that they are also at risk, and to protect themselves and their animals from mosquitoes and the diseases they can carry. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, ISDA, and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game developed the “Fight the Bite” campaign to inform the public, horse owners, and hunters on what they can do to prevent mosquito bites and the transmission of WNV.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

I’ve heard and seen some “doofy” things in my time but the request by PETA to erect a statue more than five foot tall in Salem, Oregon in honor of chickens that were killed, maimed, or just plain missing after a truck accident there earlier this month has to be one of the doofiest. The statue was to depict a bloodied chicken on crutches with a In Memory Of epitaph ending with a “Go Vegan”. I know, DOOFY! The city of Salem and the Oregon Department of Transportation have denied PETA’s request. Thank heaven for small favors and a refreshing dose of common sense prevailing. PETA’s non-stop attention getting antics seem to just be getting sillier and sillier. They more than likely didn’t expect to be given the okay to erect such a statue. I have to wonder though how many “donation dollars” were wasted in paying cartoonist Harry Bliss to design the statue. The fact that they hired a cartoonist to design it kind of says it all. Personally, I don’ think the statue would have stopped very many people from wanting to eat meat. It would however prove once again that whoever makes PETA’s marketing decisions is just a few nuggets shy of a “Happy Meal”.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.