Honolulu Lite
The arguments for and against moving the Honolulu Zoo to the Ewa plain from Waikiki so far have centered on the comfort of the animals and the relocation's financial costs. We’re not lion: Zoos n’
tourists don't mixAllow me to introduce one other consideration: Is it smart to keep so many angry, man-eating animals next to a constant supply of nourishment, i.e. tourists?
I bring this up because of an incident in Portugal in which a man, wanting to commit suicide, jumped into the Lisbon Zoo lion pit and "began bothering the lions" until one of them killed him.
Could something like this happen in Honolulu? What if, say, a depressed man jumped into the monkey cage to be cheered up? The press attention would be brutal.
In other animal news:
Cat in a hot tin hovel
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) >> More than 400 Cambodians were left homeless when a roasted cat caught fire, sending flames shooting through a village of wooden shacks.Witnesses said a young man killed the cat and put it on a fire in his house to roast. A few minutes later, a blaze erupted.
Police said the man "liked to eat cat while drinking wine with his friends."
(Mothers Against Drunk Cat Roasting issued the following warning: If you drink, don't roast cats. Assign a designated cat roaster.)
Get your Turbo-Rat X-10
WASHINGTON (Reuters) >> Where do you go to get the hottest new model of rat? That's the problem scientific researchers used to face.Rats are the backbone of research, but only a few off-the-shelf models were available. Now, the University of Missouri has set up a kind of rat boutique where researchers can browse for the latest rare breeds and genetically engineered rats.
"Although private companies distribute rats, their activities are generally limited to the most commonly used strains," according to the National Institute of Health.
The Rat Resource and Research Center also is a place where scientists can bring new models, the NIH said.
(Current available models include the DeLorean Gull-Winged Rat; Fatty the Obese Rat; the Gnashy 2002 Angry Rat Series and, of course, an entire fleet of "Hacker 500s," a selection of cigarette-addicted rats, complete with pre-cancerous lesions and driver's-side airbags.)
'Honolulu Lite' on Sunday: Stick a turban on my head and call me Miss Cleo, but darned if we didn't predict the furious back-pedaling by politicians once the speeding-camera program went from financial windfall to fiasco. We also predicted the public backlash, which didn't take a crystal ball, just an understanding of how offensive it is to use Mussolini-like tactics in the Land of Aloha to make the traffic run on time.
Quote me on this: "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it." -- Oscar Wilde
Alo-Ha! Friday compiles odd bits of news from Hawaii
and the world to get your weekend off to an entertaining start.
Charles Memminger also writes Honolulu Lite Mondays,
Wednesdays and Sundays. Send ideas to him at the
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210,
Honolulu 96813, phone 235-6490 or e-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com.
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