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Saturday December 19, 2015

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Saturday December 19, 2015 Province trying to prevent raccoon rabies epidemic Ministry of Natural Resources officials are awaiting test results from dozens of dead and sick raccoons picked up over the past couple of weeks, to try to get a handle on the severity of a rabies outbreak in the Hamilton area. There are five confirmed cases. One in the lower city of Stoney Creek, three on the Mountain and one in Cayuga. But the results from more than 35 samples more recently acquired Ñ and undergoing testing Ñ will help determine whether a raccoon rabies epidemic in New York state has gained a foothold into Ontario. The samples come mostly from Animal Services in Hamilton, which routinely picks up dead, injured and sick animals, including raccoons. We're all hopeful the outbreak in the Hamilton area will extinguish itself over the next several months. Chris Davies Ministry of Natural Resources "We are in the exploratory stage right now," said Chris Davies, the Ministry of Natural Resources' manager of wildlife research. "We are trying to figure out how large the geographic extent of the current cases is," he said. The samples, from brain tissue in the deceased animals, go through two testing regiments. There's a quick test that creates a short list of potential positive results. And then there is a more costly and elaborate procedure by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that roots out the false positive results of the first test. While the testing is being done, the ministry has been blitzing the Hamilton area with tens of thousands of raccoon rabies vaccine baits in hopes of containing a spread of the disease. The rabies strain known as the South Atlantic/Florida strain has been moving northward from Florida over the past several decades. It hit New York state 25 years ago, leading to an epidemic there. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) http://www.thespec.com/news-story/6197963-province-trying-to-preve

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 19, 2015

Province trying to prevent raccoon rabies epidemic

Ministry of Natural Resources officials are awaiting test results from dozens of dead and sick raccoons picked up over the past couple of weeks, to try to get a handle on the severity of a rabies outbreak in the Hamilton area.

There are five confirmed cases. One in the lower city of Stoney Creek, three on the Mountain and one in Cayuga.

But the results from more than 35 samples more recently acquired — and undergoing testing — will help determine whether a raccoon rabies epidemic in New York state has gained a foothold into Ontario.

The samples come mostly from Animal Services in Hamilton, which routinely picks up dead, injured and sick animals, including raccoons.

We’re all hopeful the outbreak in the Hamilton area will extinguish itself over the next several months.

“We are in the exploratory stage right now,” said Chris Davies, the Ministry of Natural Resources’ manager of wildlife research.

“We are trying to figure out how large the geographic extent of the current cases is,” he said.

The samples, from brain tissue in the deceased animals, go through two testing regiments. There’s a quick test that creates a short list of potential positive results. And then there is a more costly and elaborate procedure by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that roots out the false positive results of the first test. While the testing is being done, the ministry has been blitzing the Hamilton area with tens of thousands of raccoon rabies vaccine baits in hopes of containing a spread of the disease.

The rabies strain known as the South Atlantic/Florida strain has been moving northward from Florida over the past several decades.

It hit New York state 25 years ago, leading to an epidemic there. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Saturday May 25, 2013

By popular demand this cartoon has been made available for purchase in the form of greeting cards, posters, prints, sitckers and even t-shirts and hoodies!

Saturday May 25, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 25, 2013

A week of monumental scandal

The most shocking thing about the latest Rob Ford scandal is that it’s not shocking.

Though he is clearly unsuited for the job, by now Torontonians have grown almost blasé about the mayor. He and his regime are as disastrous as they are embarrassing. Another day, another outrage. And while Ford turns Toronto upside down, the news from Ottawa, if anything, is even more mind-boggling. Last week we learned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s now-departed chief of staff, Nigel Wright, casually paid off Senator Mike Duffy’s “inappropriate” expenses, all $90,000 worth. Then Harper and his acolytes tried to pass off this unbelievable ethical lapse as an effort to save Canadian taxpayers’ hard-earned money.

Ford can be excused to some extent because he seemingly simply doesn’t know any better. Whether or not he smokes crack cocaine, he lacks the ability to function as mayor of Canada’s largest city.

Harper, Wright and Duffy, on the other hand, are not stupid men. Their actions may be dumb, but they are smart enough to know better. Except that their time in power has made them lazy. But they, too, have been done in by the belief they can do as they please and that Canadians either don’t care or can be easily hoodwinked.

Through it all we remain so polite, deferential and glad to be of use, that a good many Torontonians lined up to denounce the media that did them the favour of revealing the mayor for what he is, an overgrown man-child who does what he wants, the city be damned.

Harper, by contrast, knows what he’s doing. He knows his actions are reckless, but to him ethics are a nicety leaders can’t afford. (Source: Toronto Star)

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