InCity Feature

(Southwick’s Zoo urged to publicly release Dondi the elephant’s veterinary records)

editor’s note: For years Southwick’s has been nothing but an exotic animal death camp PRETENDING to care for animals. 15 or 20 years ago, they made the news (they have made the news several times) for their shitty wild animal housing. I went down there and saw: a chimp in a fake circus train car sitting on a bale of hay! That was it! That was its home! Their lion? In a fenced in bit of concrete sitting in the middle of the dump - all ribs, all hip joints. No shade - no “habitat.”

- Rosalie Tirella

now the article:

San Rafael, Calif. – In Defense of Animals (IDA) today filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), urging an investigation into the death of Dondi, an Asian elephant held at the Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts. Dondi died on Wednesday, after suffering an unidentified illness.

“Dondi’s unexpected death raises a red flag because at age 36 she should have been in the prime of life,” said Catherine Doyle, IDA Elephant Campaign director. “We are asking the USDA to investigate the circumstances surrounding Dondi’s death as a matter of public interest and public safety.”

In a separate letter sent to Southwick’s Zoo president Justine Brewer, IDA urged the zoo to publicly release Dondi’s veterinary records and necropsy reports, saying, “The public has a right to know the cause of Dondi’s death.”

Dondi was in direct contact with the public at the Southwick’s Zoo, where she gave rides during the summer months; she performed circus tricks and gave rides during the winter at various locations in Florida. Elephants can harbor diseases transmissible to humans, including tuberculosis, which can be difficult to detect. Release of the records would hopefully allay any public health concerns.

IDA further appealed to the zoo to not replace Dondi with another elephant as the zoo’s tiny exhibit fails to meet elephants’ needs. “Though the zoo may have been well-intentioned, Dondi led a sad and unnatural life for an elephant,” wrote Doyle. “She was trucked across the country, confined in cramped pens, forced to perform circus tricks and give rides, and lived without the companionship of another elephant.”

Elephants are highly social animals who, in the wild, live in large family groups in which females remain with their mothers for life. Asian elephants have a natural lifespan of 60-70 years. Recent scientific studies show that elephants in zoos die decades earlier than those in relatively protected wild populations.

Intensive confinement in small zoo pens often leads to serious physical and psychological problems, including painful foot disease and arthritis that cripple elephants and lead to premature death, infertility, high stillbirth rates, and repetitive rocking and swaying, signs of psychological distress.

Copies of IDA’s letters to the USDA and the Southwick’s Zoo are available upon request. For more information, visit www.HelpElephants.com.

By Sue Moynagh

I have very few memories of my father, Donald Moynagh. He died in January 1957 at the age of 28 from complications following what should have been a routine operation. I was 4 years old at the time, but I remember saying goodbye as he packed to leave for the hospital. I also remember walking up Harrison Street with my Aunt Helen, heading towards Dirsa’s Funeral Parlor on Providence Street. She asked if I would like to give my father a flower and I said yes. I took the carnation she had plucked from a wreath and placed it in my father’s hand, alongside his rosary. A flag was draped over the coffin. At some level, I understood he would not be coming home again.

Other memories vary in length and clarity, like clips from a video or the grainy black and white snapshots in a photo album. I remember visiting his parents in East Brookfield. Their home was on Lake Lashaway where he loved to swim. I was playing in the shallow water while he swam further out. My mother and grandmother sat nearby, but I decided I wanted to “swim” to him. The next thing I remember was being under the water Click to continue »

By Hannah Payne

The Regional Environmental Council is an environmental justice organization working in Worcester since 1971. This year we are excited to launch a second farmer’s market location as part of our Food Justice Program. The first market has been running since 2008 and is located in the parking lot of the YMCA (766 Main St.) and runs from 10 am - 2 pm every Saturday. The new market is located in Great Brook Valley at the Great Brook Valley Health Center (19 Tacoma St.) and runs from 9 am - 1 pm on Saturdays. This is the first year for the Great Brook Valley market, which had its grand opening June 19. The REC hopes to spread the success of the Main South market to Great Brook Valley. Through the farmer’s markets the REC aims to provide fresh and local produce and food at affordable prices to the Main South and Great Brook Valley communities. With this mission in mind the farmer’s markets accept WIC and senior coupons as well as SNAP (food stamp) benefits.

One of the best things about the REC’s farmer’s markets is that you don’t need cash to shop at the market, credit, debit and EBT cards are all accepted in addition to cash and WIC and senior coupons. One of the most exciting elements is that if you make purchases with your SNAP (food stamp) card all purchases are half price! Local, organic produce is typically expensive in grocery stores but at these farmer’s markets it is accessible to all, thanks to the already reasonable prices and the SNAP deal. Click to continue »

By André du Broc

I’ve spent much of my life in careers centered around making others happy. As an actor, I believed that my first responsibility was to the audience. They needed to be engaged by everything that I did on stage. This was particularly true of my time as a circus clown. If an audience’s joy depended on my dropping my pants, I dropped my pants. If it meant taking a pie in the face, so be it.

The veneer of the circus was everything I desired in a career. It was a chance to make masses of people happy, a chance to travel, and an opportunity to take my silliness very seriously. What I found backstage, however, was very different.

Audiences come to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth primarily to see two things—clowns and elephants.

I spent most of my time with the elephants. Click to continue »

By Matt Wexler

In the search for a good place to eat, it is rare to find a restaurant as warm and inviting as Jan’s Kitchen. Located on West Bolyston Street, this small diner serves breakfast and lunch throughout the week to hungry customers from all over the area.

A family business, Jan’s Kitchen is run by Amanda Pineiro, the restaurant’s manager. Previously, it was owned and operated by Jan Dubeau, Amanda’s mother, who founded the restaurant back in 1991. A professionally trained cook, Jan handled nearly everything in the kitchen herself, building its reputation for good food and service over the years.

Sadly, Jan passed away several years ago, leaving her husband as the restaurant’s owner. He and Amanda have handled the kitchen since then, and while Jan’s famous spritz cookies may not be on the menu anymore, they continue to do her memory justice.

The environment that Jan’s Kitchen has established is truly unique. The first thing you’ll notice upon entering the restaurant is that there are no tables. Instead, customers sit around several square counter tops built into the floor. It feels like a classic fifties malt shop, complete with an open grill behind the counter, where you can view Amanda and the rest of the staff bustling about, preparing orders. Click to continue »

By Jeffrey Turgeon

Summer is here, and many young boys in Worcester are lacing up their cleats and dusting off their baseball gloves and bat. That’s not the case for Rob Vigeant and his players from the Worcester Stars Lacrosse. They are headed onto another field to start their fifth lacrosse season.

Vigeant was raised in Worcester and still resides there with his wife Alison and three young boys, Tim age 9, Trevor 7and Tyler 6. He attended Worcester Public Schools for grammar and middle school and St. John’s for high school. He then went to Providence College where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in History and Education. Upon graduation, he returned to Worcester. He was hired to teach social studies at Forest Grove and coach basketball at South High under the legendary Jack “the Shot” Foley. Click to continue »

By Matt Wexler

Improving our community is a noble goal, one that every citizen should aspire to. In particular, the Worcester area’s churches and congregations believe helping the community is of the utmost importance. Nothing demonstrates this better than the Community Ministries Fund, which has been supporting local social improvement efforts for the past several years.

The Community Ministries Fund was established in 2006 by the Worcester Area Mission Society and the Worcester Area United Methodists. For years, these groups had funded seed grants to local neighborhood programs, hoping to improve the lives of those living there. Yet a more united effort was needed to effect the big lasting changes these churches hoped were hoping for. Click to continue »

Everybody Knows

Song by Leonard Cohen

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows Click to continue »

By Jim May

POINT ONE: EMBRACE THE BLACKSTONE.

To a geographer, the most compelling aspect of greater Worcester is the Blackstone River. It’s our river. We ain’t got much else, really. Farming was so bad here that Worcester County was the last county populated, and even then, the town of Sutton surpassed Worcester’s own population until the mid 1840s.

But people aren’t farming here anymore. Still, the Blackstone River remains the dominant landscape feature no matter how many Walmarts surround it. The Blackstone River is the thing that singularly most identifies our place in the terra firma, our place on Mother Earth.
And because it’s a river, it’s water. And water represents Life. And Life is what we want in our downtown.

We have long stopped embracing the River. To be blunt, we shit on it. We have almost polluted it beyond recognition. The intense industrial usage of the Blackstone left a legacy of pollution. Click to continue »

editor’s note: Check out “The Big Read” at the Worcester Public Library and REC’s cool spring programs - some for Earth Day - others just for any day!

Worcester joins the “The Big Read”

By Worcester School Committee member John Monfredo

A great event will take place at the Worcester Public Library during the month of April and it merits the support of everyone in our community. It’s a kind of national month-long celebration of reading called “The Big Read.”

The Big Read is an initiative of the N.E.A. (National Endowment for the Arts) designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. It brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. The Big Read’s aim is to address this issue by providing citizens with the opportunity to read and to discuss a single book within their communities
Worcester is one of 400 communities participating in the Big Read and Umass Memorial Health is the lead organization for it in this area. They have partnered with the Worcester Public Library and with Worcester: The City that Reads. This year the book picked by local youth groups in Worcester is the works of the nineteenth century gothic writer, Edgar Allan Poe.

Throughout April, Worcester will be reading the short stories and poems of the master of the macabre. We are encouraging schools in the Worcester County area to participate Click to continue »