MULCH

Whether or not anyone noticed my absence from GimmeDanger, I'll explain it. I've been working on a zine for a good while and I'm finally looking at a short stack of the finished product. After all the writing, laying out, photo-hunting and laboring over different designs and color palettes, I realized that it'd cost me nearly $7 to reproduce a full color copy. With that, I've decided to issue it in black and white. The content is what you may have come to expect, "a collection of moot musings and mumbo-jumbo, MULCH is just that: a mixed blend of matter."

You can find MULCH in Portland at the downtown Powell's on Burnside while supplies last. Or you can get in touch with me and I'll mail you one. And yes, that is my cat on the cover.

on animal farm

In a move guaranteed to rile wannabe zookeepers, the Oregon Senate has approved a measure banning private possession of certain exotic animals as pets.

The measure would prohibit ownership of lions, tigers and bears (oh my) as well as monkeys, apes, and alligators. Lawmakers contend that it would protect both human safety and animal welfare.

I couldn’t agree more.

Under current law, people get permits from the state Department of Agriculture to keep exotic pets. The Senate bill would not force people to give up those pets but it would prevent people from obtaining new ones.

Sponsors of the bill said that often the exotic pets grow too large and too difficult to handle and they either escape or are let loose by their owners.

Even though the Oregon legislature is poised to dash my hopes of stocking a menagerie with animals that are better suited to lives in the wild than in my backyard, I suppose I’ll get by with a little Beezer cat.

The bill, which now advances to the House, would not affect wildlife rehabilitators, wildlife sanctuaries, zoos, circuses or research or educational facilities.