Foot-Loose & Fur-Free

I lived in Germany for much of the 80's working as a freelance photographer. When you live in a country that is not your own that long you tend to notice things the locals perhaps miss. One of the things I noticed was that come winter time the middle-class Germans would show their wealth literally by the coats they wore. Men woould often wear black leather coats and women would more than likely wear some kind or fur. Fur coats for women were all the rage back then. I suppose that's why this article caught my attention, enough so, to want ot share it with you:

Authorities in Germany are trying to re-capture thousands of mink who have escaped from a fur farm. The mink stole away after unknown criminals opened a large number of cages and destroyed fences at a fur farm in the early hours of Friday morning, Oct. 26th, police reported Friday.

The authorities first suspected that up to 17,000 mink had escaped from the farm, which is near the village of Grabow in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. However authorities had revised the figure down to 7,500 by Friday afternoon.

Dozens of helpers, including some 20 soldiers with the German Army, were trying to capture the runaway mustelids on Friday with the help of nets, while local hunters had the escapees in their sights.

There is speculation that animal rights activists, who have repeatedly criticized fur farms as cruel, may be behind the incident. However, police admit they have little evidence to go on and are making no statements as to possible perpetrators.

Local authorities have told car drivers to watch out for runaway mink crossing the road and warned residents to keep an eye on their pets. Experts caution that the minks may be hungry and aggressive as the domesticated animals are not able to fend for themselves in the wild.

"Farm minks are used to being around people and appear to be friendly, particularly when they are hungry," read a statement on the local authority's Web site Friday. "But they still have their defensive instincts and will bite if they are touched." The statement adds, however, that the animals are healthy and "do not have rabies."

In a similar and possibly related incident, around 5,000 mink were released from a fur farm in Denmark in the early hours of Monday morning.

My guess is that some animal rights people set the fur free. To find out more about anti-fur campaigns go to: www.friendsofanimals.org/pragrams/fur/index/html

Research info gathered at: www.spiegel.de/international

Now, here's a couple of poems that requires nothing fuzzy.


Pattymelt.Dingleberry.Woonsocket.

Better than words & you can get your hands dirty.
Then later, we drive to the boarded-up Dairy Queen and
park in back. A chestnut with its broad green leaves.

Ivy running up one side of a brick wall. White

oleander dividing two vacant lots. There's

a harsh gray sky between the rains.

Maybe Syracuse looms over the

meadows. "Ever notice how

you never hear birdsong

at night when its

really cold",

she remarks to

no one in particular

after blowing the bayonet.

A bank of floodlights highoverhead.

Or there could be a cinder in the right

fielder's eye. "Yeah, and this is the kind of

weather where history just sits waiting", I reply,

recalling the role a cannon plays in a long siege. Or there

could be hills in the distance with queer angles and a narrow
ditch that smells faintly of fish. What's left us or tin soul

inside. And so for the next few minutes, we talk about

the different ways we could chew our yucca, while

the car radio produces an exact copy of events

in papier-mache.


Monocultural Kiosk

Nobody in the entire town speaks

Russian but they'll point out the

emergency fire exits for a one-drink

minimum as long as its ladies night &

if not than that's a fabulous miniature

train set in the basement or the attic

who lounges around in pajamas all day

with a girl on both arms must mean

more than the cheap thrill of being

misquoted or a continuation of bridge

art all the way across the mouth of

the Amazon built brick by brick to the

delight of tourists learning from Los

Alamos or even viewed from high

above while flying over the handlebar.


First published online at: http://www.outsiderink.com/
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