Manly Cemetery Doubles Up as a Dog Loo

There are few cultures in the world where a public space such as a cemetery doubles up as a dog loo.

There appears to be no land-use conflict between the "sleeping place" of dead people and pet owners liberating their canines off leash into the Manly Cemetery Heritage.

Mourners probably do not want to linger amongst the tree-less and unkept burial grounds full of dog poop.

Maybe it is a new cultural convention of pet society where dog deities as protectors of the deceased fertilise the public green space with their feces and urine. Once locals have emptied their pets they get chauffeured back into the manicured back gardens with the help of a lot of fossil fuel.

On the connection of the living and the dead

Egyptian dog-headed god Anubis attending the deceased.

Mutilated Green Sea Turtle and Fishing Debris

Green sea turtle, O8R051 was found mutilated by fishing gear debris. It took zoo staff four months to rehabilitate the creature.:

"A fishing line had cut a flipper to the bone and X-rays showed she also had a fish hook lodged in her throat. Her face had been badly bruised when she thrashed out in panic with her flippers in vain attempts to escape the fishing line. The bruising triggered an eye discharge, leaving her almost blind....We see a lot of turtles here... estimating half have swallowed fishing lines or hooks, or have become entangled in lines. Many others have ingested garbage. Still others have been attacked by cats or dogs on beaches." SMH

Once a marine park is established, it would be desirable to prohibit this mutilation, by-kill and mindless sharing of marine debris. 'Recreational Taking & Chucking' is a threat to biodiversity. "We can't expect to have over 93 per cent of our waters open to fishing and be aware of the fact that our marine life is declining and our habitats are being degraded and not expect that trend to continue." (abc) The control of introduced canines assaulting Australian fauna would require a mind-set change.

More Salmonella 'mysteries' on the Northern Beaches

'Mystery' has struck again. Sand contaminated with Samonella paratyphi B var java was found again on the Northern Beaches playgrounds. "Hitchcock Park at Avalon and Winnererremy Bay at Mona Vale on the Northern Beaches have been fenced off for the second time this year, while a third South Avalon playground has not re-opened since May". Replacing (some) of the sand did not work. The bug, linked to exotic fish/pets can cause serious illness.

In pet-fanatic Manly off leash dogs mingle in playgrounds and on the beaches with toddlers. Apart from community hygiene standards and enforcements, it does not instill confidence that possible bio hazards could also turn out to be 'mysteries' for half a year or more...
More:
Salmonella paratyphi bio var java contaminated grounds May 2008

Channel-billed Cuckoos and Fig Trees of Manly

A couple of Channel-billed cuckoos ( Scythrops novaehollandiae) are back in town again, seeking to outsource their child-rearing to the local Crows, Pied Currawongs, Butcherbirds and Australian Magpies. The up to 65 cm long bird with a large (horn-like) bill and a red eye can be heard (audio) at different times of the day. Its call is much louder than that of the Common Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea) (audio). They love eating native figs and fruit. Around Feb./March they fly back to a rapidly cleared PNG.

Here too in lawny bland-burbia intolerance to trees fills the air with the sound of daily chainsaws and other petrol powered machines. The Fig trees Manly has to offer the visiting bats and birds, such as in Darley Rd and Wenthworth St have no protective devices (cages) to prevent vehicles constantly crunching into them. They are very scarred, most of the bottom branches had to make way to the 'wheels of industry'.

Many large, old trees/figs are mysteriously dying at the moment, revealing a 'view'.

At the library plaza of Market Place a pet fanatic even brings in an unleashed cat and locals get amused how it chases the local native birds.


Trees and birds are one of the big assets of Manly -let's look after them..
Trees on Council Land, Manly Council
Images: Figs in Darley Rd. Manly, dead old Fig, Marine Pde
More and image here 0109

Banksy's "Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill"

“New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets." One could paraphrase it as: Manly-siders also don't care about art or wildlife, they care about pets. Mass hysteria about submissive, privately owned 'pets' and captive creatures in shops, cages and tanks is good business in times of Black Friday, Halloween and Mega Extinction Rates. Something one CAN control.

Banksy's animatronics installation in NYC "Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill" grasps attention on " our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing." News about " the implications of animal cloning on food safety, animal health and welfare and the environment" seem to be sparse. Human cloning. au. pops up occasionally.

Good write-up at the Wooster Collective
Check out the videos on sausages and the sedated wild captive cats, the 'shop',
Good Flickr images
Image: Banksy? Berlin
Video via banscopetstore

Manly's Bandicoot & Wildlife Code

Replacing the unique with the ever-same
The unique Manly treasures, such as bandicoots (little penguins etc) and the sprawl of human urbanisation make for a predictable outcome. Wildlife habitat and sprawling sub-urbia are incompatible. Attempts to limit the negative impacts by "best practice" recommendations and "awareness education" are dubious. We are assured that the owners of the St Patrick's Estate townhouses were given their bandicoot awareness education. "The houses themselves also had to be bandicoot-friendly.."
Manly's surging dog (cat etc) population is making a practical statement to replace the unique Australian biodiversity with a monoculture of foreign animals. The interface between wildlife refuge and human infrastructure and their destructive packs is the killer-zone.

Effective protection of threatened Australian wildlife
Manly’s North Head developments are said to be contingent on " keeping their dog in at night and never letting their cat outdoors unless it is in a sealed cat run." But there are dogs ON the beach (illegally) every morning and night, sometimes even defecating ON the beach on a busy Sunday. They are un-leashed most of the time, hunting little penguins or hunting bandicoots at night in Shelly Beach bushland. With a lack of enforcement and a population wanting to expand the ever-same, the diverse uniqueness of the Manly ecology is sacrificed.
via Pets curfew in building code, Manly Daily 100908

See also:
Bandicoot Habitat I
More on Bandicoots in MNLY
Images: 0808 all via Google Maps
1. - 3. National Park, St Patrick's Estate townhouses developments
4. End of Osborne Rd
5. Montpelier Pl./ Bower St. development

Sand - Salmonella, E. coli and that cute pet

With reported salmonella infections surging in NSW and gastroenteritis reaching epidemic proportions again, it is time to look at the local 'mystery' disease.
The latest outbreak has hit the Northern Beaches' sandy playgrounds. 23 children are suffering from Salmonella paratyphi bio var java, a bug associated with exotics in aquariums.Suburbs cleansed of Australian 'wildlife' only allow interaction-starved young humans to relate to animals as pets, held in captivity. Under the guise of education & child-care living creatures become the objects to form the attention skills of little ones.

After dogs & cats, exotic pets fuel rampant animal traffic and pet shops. Lifted out of their habitats, and/or raised in unsanitary crowded conditions, these exotic beings are then brought (mostly illegally) into the child's space. The exotic bugs come gratis. Reptiles and amphibians became fashionable recently due to their perceived low maintenance and cost effectiveness. ” During 2001--2006, the number of turtles kept as pets in the United States increased 86% to nearly 2 million turtles.” Both turtles and other reptiles are a cause of human Salmonella infection. In the US children in 33 states have become infected with this new emerging disease. “...Salmonella carried by small pet turtles has sickened more than 100 people and hospitalized at least 24 nationwide in the largest recorded outbreak of its kind...” Salmonella Paratyphi B var. Java has been found in most of the cases, “an exposure to turtles, other reptiles, or aquariums containing tropical fish.” was prevalent. In some instances the children were even sharing the unchlorinated pool with the turtle, for some it resulted in renal failure.

The Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) is one such popular pet turtle from the wet-lands of the United States. Popular with the animal trafficking industry, later as another costly invasive pest they are finding their way illegally into Australia, from Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Hobart and Melbourne. “The CDC has found that potentially fatal diseases such as monkeypox, salmonellosis, tularemia, and plague have been transmitted to people via imported animals such as squirrels, mice, lizards, snakes, and turtles.”

It would be sustainable to learn to share the world with the Australian animals,that still exist and interact by providing a long-term habitat for them and healthy young human beings, learning about ecology and interacting with peers in an intact environment. No invasive pests and no hurled alien bugsAnd more on beach sand...and E. coli
It has been found that bacteria from sewage ( Escherichia coli, fecal coliforms, and enterococci) accumulates in the golden beach sand of Florida's shores. ” Results showed that wet sand (in the intertidal zone) and dry sand above the intertidal zone had significantly more fecal bacteria than near-shore seawater ”. Feces-derived bacteria actually continue to reproduce on the beach sand, wave action washes some back into the blue surf. Rolling on beach sand could harbour health risks.

Let's not think about the untreated mess illegal dog-walkers leave behind on unsupervised beaches. Lucky, that Manly is girth by a vigilant water quality management.
More:
On Salmonella, CDC
Turtle-Associated Salmonellosis in Humans—United States, 2006–2007, CDC
Stop kissing that turtle, Barf 0908
Update: 
280709 Beach sand fecal contamination and salmonella
260212 Salmonella in Sydney playgrounds, Mona Vale, Winnererremy Bay,  S. Paratyphi B biovar Java exotic pets reptiles aquarium hygiene Multidrug-resistant Salmonella Java
06012015 Finally, the 'feel good solution' of blaming Australian native animals is here. Blame the last endemic bandicoots and turn a blind eye to pet feces and contaminated sand in which minors aggregate in large numbers (with their pets).