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On July 13, those asking for Oliver back were notified that he had been euthanized. |
In the days leading up to Oliver's death, Susan Coleman, director of the Community Cat Coalition, had struggled to retake the cat and return him to his outdoor colony. |
"He's still alive, but he's scheduled to be killed, let's just call it what it is, in 10 days," Coleman said on July 8. "They won't give us our cat, just in case it came in contact with a rabid cat, which it hasn't. This happens all the time." |
Coleman believes stringent euthanasia policies are taken by Worcester County Animal Control in order to preserve a clean atmosphere in a county with such a high tourist population. |
"They don't recognize trap and return in Worcester County," Coleman said. "Wicomico does, but here they feel like it's too densely populated of an area and tourists are going to come out and pet the cat. But a true feral cat will run from you, it will not let you touch it. The only reason that lady could've been bitten... |
Coleman was referring to a case on July 7, when three people required rabies treatment following contact with a rabid cat in West Ocean City, the Worcester County Health Department reported. |
Karlene Morrison of Westside Community Cats in Nanticoke said the exposure to rabies was the fault of the residents, not the cat. |
"I know that if a cat is lying in the street or acting strangely, to never try to pick it up without gloves," Morrison said. "I would've known something was wrong, because they don't just lay in the street for no reason." |
Despite Coleman's concerns, the magnitude of cat populations in Worcester County and the surrounding area often overburden no-kill shelters. |
At the Worcester County Humane Society, a small building in West Ocean City lined with cages holding kittens, adoption director Jessica Summers explained the depth of the problem faced in the area. |
"We've taken in 75 kittens already this season," Summers said. "We're at the point where we have upwards of 200 cats here. We have people coming from Delaware and Virginia to give us cats, because they don't want to send them to a kill shelter." |
While the humane society has taken a non-kill approach to animal control, they struggle with a lack of funding, having no financial support from Worcester County, and an overcrowding burden that encapsulates the area's problem. However, Summers said animal control may not be following proper measures for dealing with t... |
"With the cat that was found to be rabid in Ocean City, and the fact that there are so many cats in the area, I can understand how euthanasia can sometimes be required," Summers said. "I can't speak for the policies of animal control, but euthanasia should be used as a last resort, not a first response measure. Their k... |
Summers described a system in which people allow cats to breed that they cannot care for, and thus perpetuate a population problem, which in the end, creates a place for euthanasia. |
"I'll never understand how people can just give up animals, but we take in all that we can," Summers said. "We always find room for another cat, but there's only so much we can do if people don't adopt." |
Coleman's and Morrison's approach toward cat population control differs from animal control by not promoting euthanasia, but rather by quarantining and controlling populations. |
Coleman said after capturing the cat, they're driven to Annapolis where they're spayed or neutered and receive vaccinations. For friendly cats, they are held in a colony or transferred to PetSmart, where they are able to be adopted. For feral cats, they are returned to the population, now disease free and unable to rep... |
Animal control policies differ drastically due to the number of cats. |
"Domestic animals are required to be under control of the owner at all times," Lt. Ed Schrier of the Worcester County Sheriff's Office said. "The owner will be subject to fines if their pet wanders. Owners have 10 days to claim their pet once taken by animal control (before being euthanized)." |
However, both Coleman and Morrison said the 10-day rule is abused, and animal control works to prevent people from reclaiming their pets. |
Worcester County Animal Control declined to comment on the recent situations. |
"They told her that they needed to bring it in and impound it, and then she could come and claim and be charged $100 for letting it free roam. ... They took it down to animal control and she rushed down to claim the cat, and they had already put it down." |
Morrison further explained that animal control often required a large amount of information before a person is allowed to claim their cat. She said that in one of her cases, she needed to provide a certificate and all the cat's records. Morrison also said animal control wouldn't allow an owner to see the cat during tha... |
"How is a person supposed to identify their cat without seeing it?" Coleman said. "At this point, we don't even know if the cat that they have is ours, it could be someone's pet cat." |
Coleman believes that animal control refused to let her see the cat in question because it had already been euthanized, within the 10-day grace period to be claimed. This is not the first time such allegations were made against Worcester County animal control. |
In 2012, Alley Cat Allies, a Bethesda-based nonprofit, condemned Worcester County animal control for not abiding by the 10-day rule, and euthanizing five pet cats within the grace period. |
The 10-day rule follows the guidelines of the CDC for an animal to be quarantined for 10 days for rabies observation. While the only sure way to prove rabies in an animal is dissection of the brain, no person in the United States has ever contracted rabies from a pet dog, cat or other animal following a 10-day quaranti... |
For Coleman and Morrison the fear of what could happen to cats in Worcester County has come to a head. |
"If they really were worried about it being a human health hazard, if you're really worried about this cat being exposed, why don't you give it to me or give it to Susan so we can quarantine it and watch it so we know?" Morrison said. "Why is putting to sleep the only option that there is? It's a choice; they've chosen... |
Warning: a man with a gun has entered the plant. |
OK, maybe this is an extreme example. But what if this happened? What if someone dangerous entered your company and everyone needed to be immediately alerted? Hopefully this situation never occurs. But here’s one that occurs a lot: a waitress calls out sick and someone is needed to cover. Or a customer cancels an appoi... |
Who is sending these messages? Management...at their desks. Who’s receiving these messages? Employees who are in the field, waiting tables, making lattes, ringing up sales, walking around a warehouse, driving in trucks, mowing lawns, fixing roofs, replacing pipes. How do people communicate? |
The managers at their desks have email. Everyone else...does not. Do baristas at Starbucks even have Starbucks email addresses? Phone calls? Way too time consuming. There’s really only one way to get information out to the field that makes any sense, and that’s via text messaging. It makes sense because nowadays everyo... |
Sounds like WhatsApp, right? It’s not. WhatsApp was bought by Facebook because it allows people to easily send their texts, photos, voices and videos to each other over the Internet without paying data charges. That’s fun. But now businesses are starting to notice. And they want something they can use too. That’s the o... |
Other companies are playing here too. Slack offers more advanced team communication. Internal messaging startup Zulip was just acquired by DropBox. There’s Box.net and of course Yammer, which is now owned by Microsoft . These applications provide powerful tools for company employees to collaborate, share files, and exc... |
With an enterprise messaging application like Cotap you can not only message specific groups and individuals but better manage users, data and activities from a central place, customize your alerts based on user profiles and integrate the messaging with your users’ calendars. The company promises better management tool... |
E-mail will never die. But ultimately it will become integrated with an overall messaging application that takes into account texts, voice, videos, photos, file attachments. And while consumer applications like WhatsApp will always make for a fun toy, corporate tools like Cotap will evolve to provide a more secure, eff... |
On the eve of a $$ praise for Summerland council, it's interesting to note that a population of less than 12K people pays almost 7 million dollars currently for wages and benefits. Not sure really where $2084.00 annually per capita for operational spending fits into that scenario but it sure isn't road repair. Looking ... |
Municipal politics is serious business, you have to tread very carefully so as not to offend anyone. Take the new rainbow sidewalks for example, you need a committee for each of the six colours, plus an investigative team to insure that potential bidders are appropriately sexually diversified, not to mention a clinical... |
Their spending is comical, and they really have not accomplished anything. Only paid our some high wages for positions that were completely unnecessary. Why??? What have they accomplished? |
This Mayor and his Council have spent close to $500,000 on just the Arts council. Why? |
One example of many, Council Woman Erin Carlson has committees and sub committees for her environmental issues and the cost and wages spent on this were atrocious. Again nothing accomplished. |
Summerland residents don't question the spending? Why? Taxes keep going up. |
fluffy wrote: Municipal politics is serious business, you have to tread very carefully so as not to offend anyone. Take the new rainbow sidewalks for example, you need a committee for each of the six colours, plus an investigative team to insure that potential bidders are appropriately sexually diversified, not to ment... |
I'd love to see a new council who would rather save a buck than spend it. $600K for a skateboard park is, to me, an insult to the taxpayers of this town. It matters not that the money came from the "other" pocket...grants are funded from taxes, pure and simple. Giants head trail refurbishment, complete with new signage... |
RandyDandy wrote: I'd love to see a new council who would rather save a buck than spend it. $600K for a skateboard park is, to me, an insult to the taxpayers of this town. It matters not that the money came from the "other" pocket...grants are funded from taxes, pure and simple. Giants head trail refurbishment, complet... |
I would like to see completely new faces with fresh new ideas. And keep Waterman away from this position Waterman needs to just play golf and stay out of things. |
Chewie1969 wrote: Waterman needs to just play golf and stay out of things. |
Waterman plays golf?? On land that could potentially grow a Siberian kumquat with proper gov't funding and research? I doubt it. |
I thought Toni Boot was the one that wanted to grow the Kumquats and Erin Carlson was going to be the one to organize hire 7 committees and 3 sub committees of that committee to oversee the project. |
When a tree falls on a mime in the forest, does it make a sound? |
RandyDandy wrote: When a tree falls on a mime in the forest, does it make a sound? |
Only if it is seeking re election. |
Judge him on his policy. He’s smart and hard working and focusing on the basics of government. |
WKovacs wrote: Judge him on his policy. He’s smart and hard working and focusing on the basics of government. |
I would sooner have a smart hardworking booze farmer than a one issue cherry farmer!!! |
I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. |
Swap out Carlson, Boot,Trainer and Holmes and bring in some actual people who are going to work on council instead of being tapestry in the council office. And fire that CAO, who the hell made her boss? who the heck elected her? it's embarrassing to see the councilman and Mayor in Chambers and have this CAO -who does n... |
A Florida man is receiving national attention for all the wrong reasons. |
The latest dangerous Internet trend shows people filming themselves getting out of cars and dancing to Drake's "In My Feelings." |
Police agencies have warned people that the stunt is dangerous, which Jaylen Norwood, 22, of Boynton Beach, Fla., quickly discovered. |
Video uploaded to Instagram shows Norwood showing off his best dance moves for the so-called #InMyFeelings Challenge. |
However, instead of jumping on the hood of a moving car that enters the video, Norwood was hit head on. |
His Instagram post says, "Sooo I was originally suppose to jump on the hood of the car, but I slipped. ... Keke never loved me." |
Fortunately, he only suffered a few minor scrapes. |
The now viral video resulted in Norwood being interviewed by late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel Monday night. |
Norwood told Kimmel that the car, driven by his best friend, wasn't supposed to be traveling that fast. Also, he also slipped on oil in the street, compounding the situation. |
Despite the infamous video, the Boynton Beach man said he is proud of the notoriety the video has brought him. |
"I'm the most famous guy in Florida," Norwood told Kimmel. |
NEW YORK (AP) — Investors agonizing over a faltering economy sent the stock market plunging all over again today after a stream of disheartening data convinced Wall Street that a recession, if not already here, is inevitable. The market’s despair propelled the Dow Jones industrials down 733 points to their second-large... |
The slide meant that the Dow, which fell 76 points on Tuesday, has given back all but 127 points of its record 936-point gain of Monday, which came on optimism about the banking system in response to the government’s plans to invest up to $250 billion in financial institutions. |
Today’s sell-off began after the government’s report that retail sales plunged in September by 1.2 percent — almost double the 0.7 percent analysts expected — made it clear that consumers are reluctant to spend amid a shaky economy and a punishing stock market. |
The Commerce Department report was sobering because consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. The reading came as Wall Street was refocusing its attention on the faltering economy following stepped up government efforts to revive the stagnant lending markets. |
Then, during the afternoon, the release of the Beige Book, the assessment of business conditions from the Federal Reserve, added to investors’ angst. The report found that the economy continued to slow in the early fall as financial and credit market problems took a turn for the worse. The central bank’s report support... |
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a similar opinion, warning in a speech today that patching up the credit markets won’t provide an instantaneous jolt to the economy. |
“Stabilization of the financial markets is a critical first step, but even if they stabilize as we hope they will, broader economic recovery will not happen right away,” he told the Economic Club of New York. |
Analysts have warned that the market will see continued volatility as it tries to recover from the devastating losses of the last month, including the nearly 2,400-point plunge in the Dow over the eight sessions that ended Friday. Such turbulence is typical after a huge decline, but the market’s anxiety about the econo... |
Selling accelerated in the last hour of trading, a common occurrence during the eight days of heavy declines. One reason for the heavy selling: Mutual funds need to unload stock to pay investors who are bailing out of the market. |
Investors apparently have come to believe that Monday’s big rebound over the banking sector was overdone given the problems elsewhere in the economy. |
“It really doesn’t come as a shock after Monday’s gains were, I think, a little bit excessive,” said Charles Norton, principal and portfolio manager at GNICapital, referring to the market’s pullback. |
He contends that the government has taken so many steps to help the financial system that investors must now wait for some of the actions to help steady the economy. |
Doubts about the economy were already surfacing in Tuesday’s session, when investors halted an early rally and began collecting profits from stocks’ big Monday advance. Today’s data confirmed the market’s fears that the economy is likely to remain weak for some time, and that corporate profits are likely to suffer. |
Mark Coffelt, portfolio manager at Empiric Funds, said moves by European and U.S. government officials to begin investing directly in banks are easing worries about credit. But the steep pullback in stocks that began last month after the credit markets lurched to a near standstill has now created worries that consumers... |
“We’re definitely going to get a slowdown from the terror of going through that,” Coffelt said. |
The Dow ended down 733.08, or 7.87 percent, at 8,577.91. On Monday, Sept. 29, the Dow had its largest point drop 777.68. Today’s percentage drop was the biggest since the 8.04 percent of Oct. 26, 1987, which followed Black Monday, the Oct. 19 crash that sent the blue chips down 22.6 percent in a single session. |
The Dow’s massive decline today marks its 20th triple-digit move in 23 sessions. |
Broader stock indicators also skidded. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 90.17, or 9.03 percent, to 907.84, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 150.68, or 8.47 percent, to 1,628.33. |
It was the lowest close for the Nasdaq since June 30, 2003, when the index finished at 1,622.80. The Dow and the S&P 500 are also at mid-2003 levels. |
The Dow is down 39.4 percent from its Oct. 9, 2007 closing high of 14,164.53. The S&P is down 42 percent from its high at the same time of 1,565.15. The Nasdaq’s record high was 5,048.62, during the dot-com boom that swelled the index to levels it has not come close to regaining after the high-tech bubble burst. |
U.S. stock market paper losses came to $1.1 trillion today, according to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, which represents nearly all stocks traded in America. |
Today’s losses came as investors were hoping the market would recover from last week’s terrible run, which erased about $2.4 trillion in shareholder wealth and brought the Dow to its lowest level since April 2003. The tumble occurred amid a seize-up in lending stemming from a lack of trust among institutions in respons... |
The credit markets have been showing tentative signs of recovery, though they remain strained, and demand for safe assets remains high. The three-month Treasury bill today was yielding 0.21 percent, down from 0.22 percent on Tuesday. Overall yields remain low, showing that demand is so high that investors are willing t... |
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.98 percent from 4.03 percent late Tuesday. |
About 350 stocks advanced at the New York Stock Exchange, while about 2,800 declined. Volume came to 1.68 billion shares. |
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 52.54, or 9.47 percent, to 502.11. |
Light, sweet crude fell $4.09 to settle at $74.54 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. |
In Asian trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost nearly 5 percent after rising more than 13 percent the previous two days. Markets in Australia, South Korea, China, India and Singapore also sank. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, however, ended up 1.1 percent after soaring 14 percent in the previous session. |
In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 7.08 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 6.49 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 6.82 percent. |
Published: Dec. 16, 2018 at 04:11 p.m. |
Published: Dec. 9, 2018 at 10:07 p.m. |
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