Talk Story
Sea dog’s saga provides
lessons for all involvedI SHOULD have learned. Trying to stay ahead of this fast-breaking dog-rescue story on a columnist's deadlines is futile.
When I filed my column for last Tuesday's edition, I'd written that Forgea, the famous sea dog, would greet rescuers with tail wagging. Silly me. Before the ink was dry, the ingrate went into hiding and the rescue was on hold.
By the time this sees print, the Insiko 1907 might be on the bottom and Forgea en route to a quarantine station cage, or she might still be hiding below decks as the fire-ravaged tanker bears down on Johnston Island's pristine reefs. I'm making no predictions.
In the interest of full disclosure, as columnists like to say, I'm a dog lover. I've spent many happy hours with dogs, sharing their joy, companionship and willingness to please.
EXPECTING ANIMALS to act like humans is called anthropomorphism. The dictionary definition is "the attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena."
There's a lot of "anthropomorphitis" going around these days. I had my own mild case, but I think I'm cured. Can't say the same for some decision makers involved in this project. A dose of reality is prescribed.
The price tag on recovering Chung Chen-po's pooch is mounting. The Hawaiian Humane Society blew $48,000 to rent a tugboat, which never found the crippled tanker. The Coast Guard could spend $250,000 more.
Then there's the bill for the trap, baited with an implausible mechanical dog, which is supposed to lure the terrier into safe captivity -- and don't forget the check for the pizza and granola bars a Coast Guard C-130 crew dropped for the pup.
THE GOOD NEWS is that efforts to find Forgea might avoid a grounding and 60,000 gallon diesel fuel spill. Having found the tanker, the Coast Guard likely will tow it clear of Johnston Island and sink it out of harm's way. The bad is that humans have proved again how poorly we communicate and how gullible we are.
The Norwegian Star's captain's story is that he didn't know there was a dog aboard the Insiko when he rescued her crew. He's sticking to it, despite eyewitness reports of loud barking during the rescue.
News reports said Forgea belonged to the Insiko's captain but, as it turns out, she was crew member Chung's dog. "Captain" is just his nickname.
The humane society thought the Coast Guard was determined to sink the Insiko without rescuing Forgea and mounted an e-mail and telephone protest blitz. "They assumed the worst," a Coast Guard spokesperson said of this all-too-rational idea.
The eight-month, $60 million salvage effort to recover the bodies from the sunken Ehime Maru ended just last October, but today's buzz is about saving a dog, not recovering the body of the Insiko crewman still aboard the crippled the ship.
OUR LOVE for dogs is cultural. Much of the world considers canines edible. Meriwether Lewis chronicled a welcome and tasty meal of dog served up to his expedition by Native Americans. If Forgea were beef, pork or chicken, would our attention be so misplaced?
A story in Thursday's Wall Street Journal said chimpanzees should have legal standing to have suits filed in their names and to petition courts to protect their interests. We should stretch the legal definition of "persons" to include the species that has DNA 98.7 percent identical to ours, they say.
Maybe so, but Forgea's not the chimp in this saga.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.