Sad New's from the Knoxville Zoo--Update

The Knoxville Zoo African elephant that fatally injured one of her keepers will not be punished as multiple agencies begin to investigate what zoo officials call a tragic accident.

Elephant keeper Stephanie Elaine James, 33, died from internal injuries she suffered Friday afternoon when a zoo elephant named Edie pushed her into the heavy metal bars of a stall inside the pachyderms’ barn. At the time James and another keeper had been attending to the elephants for the evening.

In the incident’s aftermath, visibly shocked zoo officials are working to determine what happened, to remember their co-worker and to provide solace to others on the park staff. Knoxville Zoo Executive Director Jim Vlna, in a press conference this afternoon, expressed deep sorrow at James’ death as he detailed plans to review the incident.

“This is a very difficult day for all friends and colleagues of Stephanie, who was a respected and admired member of the Knoxville Zoo family,” Vlna said.

More than 30 zoo keepers and staff members, having heard about the 2 p.m. conference, came to listen. The zoo provided a chaplain Saturday to offer counseling for staff members.

A number of agencies and the zoo are investigating what happened. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health are investigating as well as the United States Department of Agriculture and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), which oversees the accreditation of zoos. Vlna said that currently all the organizations are conducting independent looks into the incident.

The zoo is establishing an independent review panel that will include an AZA representative as well as a representative from the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. The zoo is contacting an elephant expert to serve on that panel.

The zoo immediately changed the way its other four elephant keepers care for Edie, 26, and the other female elephant, Jana. Now both will be managed in what’s called “protected contact.” That means the keepers will tend the animals through protective barriers such as bars. Before elephant keepers cared directly for Jana and Edie in “free contact” without any barriers.

The findings of the zoo-established panel will decide if and when that protected contact is lifted and how the pachyderms will be handled in the future.

Edie will not be punished or disciplined, Vlna said. The zoo elephant training program “is based on positive reinforcement,” he said.

A fund for James’ family has been set up at Clayton Bank and Trust. Clayton Bank and the Clayton Family Foundation made the first contribution of $2,500 to the fund. Vlna said the zoo is also donating. Contributions may be made at any Clayton Bank. James, 33, is the daughter of Ron and Kris James of Indianapolis, Ind.

While details of exactly how James was injured remain sketchy today, Vlna said she and a male keeper working with her followed all the park’s standard protocol in dealing with the 8,500-pound animal. James was standing at the elephant’s head when Edie pushed her.

The other keeper immediately commanded Edie to move away. The elephant obeyed that command and was placed in another stall. The zoo’s security staff and First Responders were called; James was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. “Stephanie was given the best care we could possibly give her,” said Vlna.

James, who had worked with the zoo’s elephants for two years, died at the medical center.

Zoo officials declined to identify the other keeper working with Edie, saying other keepers are devastated by the loss of their co-worker. “We want to protect their privacy and emotions as much as we can at this point in time,” Vlna said.

The park’s elephants were not on outdoor exhibit because of the cold weather, but the public indoor viewing area in the barn at the Stokely African Elephant Preserve was closed due to the accident. The elephants, Vlna said, “know something has happened.”

Vlna said this is the first serious injury to a keeper at the park. “We have a very clean record.”

Courtesy of Wayne Jackson

I don't note any statements from the Knoxville "spokeswomen", which might be a good idea, given the bonehead statement quoted yesterday.

Model of Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza's Cagano

Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus

April, who was born in April and weighs about 900 pounds, plays with a circus ball at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk City on Wednesday. Pictured at rear is her mother, Alana.

FOR ELEPHANTS THAT MISS THE CIRCUS CUT, FLORIDA BECOMES HOME("Frankly, I think the title for this article is a bit misleading. It alludes to something being wrong with the elephants used for breeding")

Angelica, the pregnant one, is grabbing the lock of her paddock with her trunk. Fortysomething Sid, the diva, is hanging with Aree, the young one who can't concentrate. A few pens over, Mala is ready to make babies, so she's been put together with Romeo.

These are the Asian elephants who were left behind. The ones who didn't make the Greatest Show on Earth, which concludes its stop in Tampa today.

Thirty-three of Ringling Bros.' Asian elephants live here, off a two-lane road in Polk County, at the Center for Elephant Conservation. The oldest is 66. The youngest, 9 months.

At the circus inside the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa this weekend, the chosen ones will parade trunk-to-tail amidst the splash of lights, the loud music, the glittery costumed performers.

But here, in the winter-drab fields of middle Florida, are those that didn't quite make it — they're too old, too young or too distracted. They are the largest herd of Asian elephants in the Western Hemisphere.

• • •

About 15 years ago, Feld Entertainment, owner of Ringling Bros., bought 200 acres west of Orlando, 4 miles from Interstate 4. It carved the grasslands into shady outdoor paddocks and built concrete barns with pens.

Today, the facility has become a place where older elephants with arthritic feet retire, where fertile elephants breed, where not-suitable-for-the-circus elephants live out their lives.

The Center for Elephant Conservation is not open to the public. In fact, anyone passing the facility on the road would never know it's there.

It has also been the subject of lawsuits by animal rights groups, which claim Ringling abuses its elephants. Some of the elephants at the center have been the subject of these cruelty complaints. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture that Ringling was using arthritic elephants in its shows.

Janice Aria, director of animal stewardship training at the Center for Elephant Conservation, calls the accusations blatant misinformation.

She points out that researchers come from all over the world to study these elephants, to learn more about what ails them, to figure out how to keep them going.

Asian elephants are endangered. About 40,000 remain in the wilds of Asia, where their tusks are prized and their habitat is threatened.

The last elephant imported from Asia was in 1999. The aging stock in the United States has declined — down from 340 in 1990 to 269 today. This is despite more than 117 births in the same time frame, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Ringling's Center for Elephant Conservation now boasts 23 births. It is a large number, all things considered.

Elephant breeding is complicated, time consuming and largely unsuccessful. At times the center resembles a bustling infertility clinic. There are weekly blood tests on the child-bearing females to determine if they are ready. Once they are, they are matched with appropriate males. Sometimes artificial insemination is used. If a pregnancy does take place, there's a long wait ahead: female elephants carry their babies for 22 months.

Once they are born, there is the threat of herpes, which kills many young elephants. The center has two who have survived it.

One is a miracle baby of sorts. Named Barack after the president, the elephant is a product of artificial insemination.

• • •

On a recent day, Trudy Williams, manager of animal stewardship, gave a golf cart tour of the property along a winding dirt road that skirted the elephant yards and structures.

Elephants are social animals, but here they were separated so they couldn't hurt each other. Compatible elephants hung out in small groups: friends, lovers, mothers with babies.

The males stood mostly inside smaller cages made of pipes 10 feet tall and 5 inches in diameter, placed far enough apart for a human to slip through. The females lounged outside in pairs or by themselves, many surrounded by skinny hot wire.

Williams pointed out 4-year-old Mable, who's so far too high strung for the show. And Sid and Aree, who love to hang out together and are not suitable for the touring circus because of their dispositions. And Karen, who was touring recently but needed a break.

There was Charlie, standing tall in his cage inside a concrete building, swaying back and forth on either foot, the king of the place if there was one. He's sired 13 of the babies here, mostly because he's docile with the females and doesn't hurt them.

In the wild, a single male elephant defends the herd. If there is a challenger, the loser is banished to the outskirts. Here at the Center for Elephant Conservation, the nine males have dominion only over their own pens.

"We're not willing to throw them all together and let them hash that all out," Williams said. "There are a couple males that are very, very aggressive with the females … to us, they're in our care and it's our responsibility to make sure they're not hurt."

This is where Ringling will find its next generation of performers. Measuring the worth of the babies begins almost immediately as they are taught to balance on a ball, step up on an upside-down tub. Do they have the attention span? Can they focus on a handler amidst distractions?

A month ago, Sundara, the 2-year-old, joined one of the touring units.

"Every one is a crapshoot," says Aria, the director of animal stewardship. "We don't know if they will end up performing. If they don't show the disposition for it, they stay here."

• • •

Over at a small yard next to a muddy barn, Ringling's next prospect, 9-month-old April, rolled around next to her mother, Alana.

Williams rolled her a 70-pound plastic ball. "There," Williams said, "go for it."

She watched the baby run after the ball.

"She's showing all the qualities of a showman," she said.

The 900-pound elephant nudged the ball around in a circle with her shoulder. Then she climbed on top of it, balancing precariously and falling on the ground. Then April pulled herself up and climbed on the ball again.

Courtesy of John Goodall

Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza--To be a Centaur, you have to be lucky enough to have a horse as macho as you are. An amazing horse.

Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza

Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza

As a number of folks enjoyed the video of Jana Mandana and the Krone Stables, I thought I would share these clips of Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza and his stable. I am like a Circus Fan, when it comes to the world of the Rejoneador, on the outside looking in. That said, in my humble opinion Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza--The Centaur(what a "stage" name), is the greatest Rejoneador since Carlos Arruza. Even if you don't speak Spanish, you can see clearly that this is a man proud of being the best at what he does, who respects his horses deeply. Type Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza in the search bar at the top left of this blog.

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Interesting history.

The credit for photographing a human for the first time is generally given to Louis Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype process. In an 1838 photo he took in Paris, Daguerre caught an image of a man who appears to be getting his shoes or boots shined at a street corner. You can see the figure, together with that of the shoeshiner, in the bottom left of the image above.

Daguerre's process involved exposing a chemically treated metal plate for several minutes. If someone or something was moving within the frame, it wouldn't show up in a daguerreotype photo. But since this person remained relatively stationary as the image was captured, he showed up in the picture. The anonymous Parisian thus gets credit for being the first person ever to have his picture taken. Which begs the question, "I wonder what Louis Daguerre would think of facebook?"

Paradise--Where men are men, and the timid don't stand a chance.

1/29/11

Minot Daily News

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern part of North Dakota we just recovered from a Historic event --- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 25’ of snow and winds to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10 ' s of thousands.

In reference to America's new "Entitlement mentality:"

FYI:

Obama did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor ' s did not blame Obama or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Obama or anyone else either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or even report on this category 5 snow storm.


Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything either.
No Larry King, No Bill O ' Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Brad Pitts, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV 's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn’t ' t ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food, and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families..
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for ' sittin at home ' checks.

Even though a Category 5 blizzard of this scale is not usual, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

America, Wake up!!!!! THE WORLD DOES NOT OWE YOU A LIVING. A special thank you to Al Gore for the "tip off" about global warming. Thanks Pal, I'll have my dear family keep a sharp look out for it.


Courtesy of the greatest Mother in the world, after Mary of Nazareth. Way to go Mom, now you have made me double homesick.