Blogosphere to the rescue of two wild horses

Social media — or “new” media as they’re now called — can start revolutions and bring down governments, as they recently did in Tunisia and Egypt.

 

Twitter, Facebook and blogs are credited with rallying the masses in those two countries, which, in turn, has encouraged democracy minded dissidents throughout the Middle East.

 

The power of these new tools for the disaffected is confirmed by Hosni Mubarak’s attempt to stop the protests by shutting down the Internet. He failed, and gave up his palace and his power.

 

But anti-government movements aren’t the only beneficiaries of the blogosphere. Barack Obama used it to get elected, as one example.

 

Here at home, a pair of wild horses destined for slaughter have found new homes thanks to the power of the social media.

 

After Daily News reporter Cam Fortems wrote a story about a band of wild — some call them feral, some call them “abandoned” — horses a couple of weeks ago, the social media took over.

 

His story, and the accompanying pictures, started showing up on blogs all over North America — it went viral, as they say.

 

It was too late to save the main group of horses from the auction, but a mare and stud didn’t receive clean bills of health in time and are still out at the Campbell Creek stockyards. They were scheduled for auction on Tuesday.

 

If they’d been sold to so-called “kill buyers” they’d have ended up as meat on somebody’s table. But that won’t be allowed to happen, and the kill buyers probably won’t be happy about it, but a lot of other people will be.

 

Assisted by a couple of residents “on the ground” here in Kamloops, three rescue groups got involved in the effort to keep the last two horses from being sold off for market.

 

Critteraid of Summerland, with the support of Kelowna-based TRACS (The Responsible Animal Care Society), offered to take the horses and train them for adoption. A third group, J&M Acres Horse Rescue, said it could take one of the horses if needed.

 

Ministry of Natural Resource Operations staff pondered the offer over the past few days but it was initially unclear whether existing regulations would allow it.

 

The Forest and Range Practices Act says seized livestock must either be auctioned or sold “by other means” if no bids are received. Did that allow animals to be handed over to someone before such an auction? If so, did they have to “bought and paid for” by the rescuer?

 

Those who worked on saving these horses argue that they aren’t livestock at all — since they’re ownerless, unbranded, and living on their own — but wildlife, a designation that would protect them from auction and slaughter.

 

As such things usually do, the issue landed in the laps of the politicians, and they aren’t blind to the influence of social media either. MLA Terry Lake got the message, loud and clear. So did Steve Thomson, the Kelowna-Mission MLA and Minister of Natural Resource Operations.

 

Friday afternoon, he revealed that the two horses will be turned over to Critteraid, at no charge, instead of being auctioned off. Not only that, but his ministry will undertake a review of existing regulations and policies with a view to finding a long-term solution.

 

So, using social media, horse lovers successfully challenged the status quo in a very short period of time — about the same as it took the crowds in Liberation Square to force the Egyptian president out of office.

 

What’s next? They’ll use social media again, to create a network of horse rescue groups ready and willing to assure that — until they realize their ultimate goal of actually outlawing slaughter — horses seized in future roundups go to good homes instead of to their death.

 

Budget-meeting turnout a pleasant surprise

Boy, was I wrong. About 75 people showed up to last night’s City budget meeting in the Sports Action Lounge, totally blowing my prediction, which was based on turnouts in previous years.

though some of the concerns expressed weren’t totally on topic, it’s a good sign.

By the way, the winning number in the City staff-council betting pool on how many would attend was 40.

Here’s what I wrote the day of the meeting:

There won’t be a big crowd tonight when City council meets with the public at 7 o’clock in the Interior Savings Centre.

Each year, members of council chip in a few dollars each and run a little pool on how many will show up. If you were to guess somewhere between a dozen and 15, you’d have a pretty good chance of collecting the winnings.

As entertainment goes, the annual budget consultation isn’t a ratings booster. It’s about as gripping as waiting for the phone to ring, or watching someone else check text messages on his IPhone.

Most people go into the meeting with little clue of what council has in mind for taxpayers. They watch staff make their presentations and try to react, or they ask questions about pet peeves vaguely related to the budget.

It’s not that these sessions are a waste of time but nobody has yet figured out a way to entice people into giving up an evening in front of the tube to go watch a Powerpoint with numbers.

The entire budget process is a mixed bag of smoke, mirrors, grueling numbers crunching, and genuine soul searching. It’s a process that’s evolved over the years to one that is relatively efficient but still subject to hope, prayer and political whim.

Few councilors are courageous enough to delve into the actual budget document itself, a tome that would make War and Peace seem like a mere pamphlet, but with a balance sheet.

It’s the result of weeks and months of work by staff during which each department head proposes a spending plan and then defends it during a collective grilling by other managers led by CAO Randy Diehl.

They start with the essentials, the unchangeables, and work from there. Things like staff salary increases and inflationary costs of supplies are regarded as must-do’s. Up for grabs are services and equipment that aren’t immediately pressing.

Ideally, the City would use zero-based budgeting, a system that tosses out all previous budgets and starts from scratch, so that each and every line is subject to examination. But no one at City Hall has ever been willing to tackle it, so daunting and complex is this budget.

Staff then presents a tentative budget to council that includes so-called “supplemental” budget expenditures. This is a relatively short list that council spends most of its time debating, saving it the trouble of going through the entire document.

It’s where a bit of smoke and mirrors comes in. For entirely political reasons, mayor and council have annually settled on roughly two per cent as an acceptable increase from the previous year’s numbers.

This takes care of inflation and a few other additions, but seems to keep taxpayers relatively happy. There are years when two per cent is ridiculously low given the needs of the community, but council doggedly sticks to it.

Two per cent sounds not bad (1.99 is even better), and few ever calculate the compounding effect of that over the years.

To get there, council looks at a four- or five-per cent budget as presented by staff that includes the “supplementals.” By whittling away at that list they pare things down to the targeted two per cent.

It reads pretty well in the headlines — it’s basic psychology, like making bad news sound even worse than it is, then softening it a little.

Council could just as easily tell staff up front that it wants a two-per-cent budget increase and save a lot of time, but then council members would have nothing to do at all, and we wouldn’t get to watch them agonize over where to cut in order to protect the ol’ taxpayer.

Does anyone take responsibility for anything?

This sled-dog mess has me troubled, not just for the obvious reasons but for our own hypocrisy and refusal to take responsibility for our actions.

Obviously, the manner in which some 100 dogs were killed is repugnant, but our overall record on the treatment of animals isn’t particularly stellar.

We would condemn a man who beats a cow to make it go through a cattle gate, but we think nothing of slaughtering that same animal in the most abhorrent manner.

We demand that Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep be protected from highway traffic with an expensive fence, but each year the guns of autumn ring out as we hunt down wildlife in the name of “sport.”

We lock up a woman for not providing proper conditions in a dog kennel, yet would have a faithful family pet “put down” if it becomes a nuisance.

Wild horses are rounded up and shot, but a rancher is prosecuted for allowing his horses to starve in winter.

I’m as offended as anyone that the Whistler dog killer had the nerve to claim compensation for the stress of shooting those Huskies.

Does no one take responsibility anymore? “Following orders” went out 65 years ago as an excuse for doing bad things.

Right-thinking people have trouble figuring how anyone could agree to do such a horrible thing, yet right-thinking people make bad calls all the time.

And when they do, the preferred strategy is to blame somebody else.

We took a load of garbage to the community dumpster last weekend and were impressed with the sturdy new iron-pipe railings over and through which we must now squeeze our garbage cans to empty them.

The reason for such elaborate barriers, of course, is litigation — people who fall into dumpsters would rather blame local government than themselves.

You may wonder why there’s a pile of rocks surrounded by concrete at the plaza in front of Interior Savings Centre. It’s because somebody backed into the fountain that used to be there and didn’t want to take responsibility for her own lack of attention.

Trip and fall on a city sidewalk? Not your responsibility. Demand compensation.

If you gamble away your money in a casino, you can ask to be put on a list and be refused access. If you sneak in anyway, and lose more money, sue the casino operator.

After all, it couldn’t possibly be your own responsibility.

If you’re young, and kill somebody, you are apparently incapable of understanding it’s wrong, and are protected by law from the same consequences you’d face as an adult.

The courts are crowded every day of the week with unfortunates who break the law through no fault of their own. It’s the booze, the drugs, a sickness, bad parenting or just bad luck, but under no circumstances is it their own responsibility.

If your pit bulls, or whatever you’d prefer to call them this week, get loose from their yard and attack a man walking his dog, well it’s not their fault. They must have been provoked, or the victim must be exaggerating.

It sure isn’t the responsibility of the owners for keeping three killing machines in their yard.

Are you a screwup at work? No worries — you are not responsible. You’re stressed, under-trained, under-appreciated, a scapegoat. The real culprit is the boss, the company or life at home.

Certainly, in Whistler, nobody seems to be responsible. Not the guy who fired the gun, not even the SPCA who didn’t get around to answering a complaint about the situation. Short-staffed — not their fault.

Life is so much easier when everybody else is wrong and everybody else is to blame.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

Coun. O’Fee leaves a big chair to fill

There will be at least two open seats when voters pick a new City council in November. It’s been known for months that Jim Harker plans a move to Victoria at the end of this term.

And, yesterday, John O’Fee revealed he’s accepted a job as CEO of the Tk’umloops Indian Band as of the first of next month and will resign from council.

While the vacancies provide some hope for anyone with designs on taking a shot at a council seat, the two empty spots are half the number being talked up over the past few months.

Since that time, most other members of council, including Mayor Peter Milobar, have confirmed their intentions to run again. John DeCicco hasn’t said what his plans are yet but he’s sounding less and less like someone who’s looking to retire.

O’Fee’s chair seems likely to remain vacant until November. Council could call a by-election (it’s happened a time or two before) but with the relatively short time remaining, it would be a waste of money.

It will take a highly qualified candidate to fill his positioon. O’Fee comes off as a little arrogant to some, and has rare flashes of temper, but he’s been one of the most articulate, reasoned councillors at the table.

He’s the guy, when council has flailed around with an issue for an hour and has no clue what to do with it, who makes a motion that provides some kind of next step and extricates everyone from the glue.

I first met O’Fee in 1989, when he represented the school board on a trip to Uji, Japan. I was there on behalf of this newspaper. Over the years, I came to appreciate his brains, his wit, and his high ethical standards. Especially the latter.

Politics is a dirty game, and it’s easy to succumb to the temptation of perks big and small. It might be a more expensive hotel room, creative arithmetic on meal expenses, or going AWOL from a convention paid for by the taxpayers.

I’ve seen O’Fee work himself into an indignant lather on those kinds of issues, and respected him for it.

And, oh, that temper. One Saturday morning, he decided to enjoy a walk at McArthur Island. To his considerable annoyance, this dog-free park was full of dogs. It did not dampen his vexation to discover it was the SPCA’s annual dog walk.

Astonished, I watched as he marched up to the registration desk and demanded to know if the organization had a permit to be there.  An affirmative reply still didn’t do the trick, and O’Fee was probably still frothing when he got home.

But such occasions have been rare; almost all the time he’s the cool customer with the amusing remark that cuts to the quick of the matter.

Lately, though, his ardour for the job has diminished. He acknowledges he probably wouldn’t have run again in the last election if it hadn’t been for wanting to see the lengthening of the Kamloops Airport runway through to completion.

As the mayor-appointed president of the Kamloops Airport Society, he’s spent more than a half-dozen years intimately involved in making the airport better and bringing in more business for it.

Recently, though, his demeanor at council meetings has been one of a man who needs to move on to other challenges. He spends much of those meetings texting from his Blackberry, multi-tasking quite effectively, raising his hand when a vote is called or landing briefly from cyberspace to offer one of his patented ways out of the political quagmire in which council typically becomes stuck.

Working for the TIB won’t be an easy thing — the Band has gone through several CEOs in a few short years. It’s a different kind of politics from what O’Fee is used to.

Just the kind of challenge he’ll likely thrive on.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com