07.02.2011
Cow that escaped slaughterhouse has new adventure
BILLINGS, Mont. – Five years after a cow dubbed the "Unsinkable Molly B" leapt a slaughterhouse gate and swam across the Missouri River in an escape that drew international attention, the heifer has again eluded fate, surviving the collapse of the animal sanctuary where she was meant to retire.
Molly B was among an estimated 1,200 animals removed from the Montana Large Animal Sanctuary and Rescue in recent weeks as part of a massive effort to bail out its overwhelmed owners.
Animal welfare groups said they were forced to euthanize dozens of starving and ill cattle, horses and llamas found on the 400-acre sanctuary in rural Sanders County.
The bovine celebrity herself - an overweight black Angus breed said to be sore in the hoof but otherwise relatively healthy - was removed to a nearby ranch and is headed this week to a smaller farm sanctuary.
"Molly B made it OK. She's a tough old broad," said Jerry Finch with Habitat for Horses of Hitchcock, Texas, who participated in the rescue effort. "She had bad feet, but she was not anywhere near as bad as some of the others."
Molly B's relocation to a 20-acre ranchette known as the New Dawn MT Sanctuary has proven an adventure in its own right. Local media stories had trumpeted her arrival at the Stevensville facility last week, including photos said to be of Molly B and new friend "Misty."
Yet when New Dawn owner Susan Eakins watched one of the reports on the nightly news, video of the cow climbing a hill revealed the sanctuary had gotten the wrong animal - a male steer named "Big Mike." A mix-up left Molly B behind on another ranch.
Her home since 2006, near the small town of Hot Springs, in recent years had grown into a sort of Noah's Ark-gone-wild - more than 600 llamas; at least 100 horses, donkeys and cattle; and a motley assortment of bison, camels, exotic rodents and other furry and feathered beasts.
Many of the animals were breeding. Rescuers said that allowed the sanctuary population to multiply unchecked, setting the stage for conditions to deteriorate rapidly after one of the facility's two full-time employees fell ill last year. As the situation worsened, word circulated among animal rescue groups across the country.
Patty Finch with the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries said by the time she called the Montana facility in late November to offer help, many of its animals were sick, dying or struggling to survive in increasingly cramped quarters.
"Molly is a good representative of what a betrayal it was to each of these animals. The sanctuary should be a line in the sand that means never again should you suffer," said Patty Finch, who said she has no relation to Jerry Finch.
Molly B's second retirement will start another chapter in an unlikely story that began January 2006, when a yet-to-be-named 1,200 pound heifer skipped her date with doom by leaping a 5-foot-5-inch fence at Mickey's Packing Plant in Great Falls.
The cow raced through town with police and animal control on her heels, reportedly running into a conflict with a German Shepherd, dodging an SUV and negotiating through a rail yard. She swam across the Missouri River and later took three tranquilizer darts before eventually getting corralled.
Mickey's Packing Plant employees christened the spirited cow Molly B and voted 10-1 to spare her from slaughter.
A less formal vote on Molly B's fate came out in her favor this weekend. New Dawn owner Eakins said after a heart-to-heart with her husband over whether they could afford to take another cow into their 50-animal operation, the couple decided to make it work. "We made a commitment to her," Eakins said.
___
Online:
New Dawn MT Sanctuary:The Ballad of Molly B:
07:18 | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Envoyer cette note | Tags : 78690, urbain, enquete, turquie, enfance
OReilly: My Obama interview will be the most watched interview in history
Fox’s Bill O’Reilly says his upcoming pre-Super Bowl interview with President Barack Obama is going to make history,The Huffington Post.
During an episode of “Happening Now” that aired Friday morning, O’Reilly said that his much-hyped interview, “will be the most watched interview in history. More people will see this interview than any other interview that’s ever been done in the history of mankind.”
TVNewser, which firston O’Reilly’s ambitious prediction, added that Barbara Walters holds the current interview record for her 1999 sit-down with Monica Lewinsky. The interview had 70 million viewers.
This will be O’Reilly’s first sit-down with Obama since he has assumed presidency. O’Reilly did interview then-candidate Obama during the 2008 presidential election.
The interview will air at 4:45 ET on Superbowl Sunday.
Read more stories from The Daily Caller
05:47 | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Envoyer cette note | Tags : 78790, 78955, 92120, gras, performance
T-Mobile tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction study - again
J.D. Power and Associates have , which attempts to measure customer satisfaction with mobile operators based on responses from over 9,700 mobile users who contacted their providers customer service departments from July through December 2010. And, for the second year running, number-four mobile operator T-Mobile earned the top ranking, with an overall score of 758 on a 1,000-point scale. Verizon Wireless came in second with a score of 743; the industry average was 739.
J.D. Power also found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that customers are generally more satisfied with their support queries if they interact with a human beingwhether over a phone or in-person at a storeas opposed to dealing with automated response systems via phone or the Web.
As more companies encourage customers to contact them on the Web to save operating costs, they run the risk of increased customer churn if the number of contacts needed to resolve a complaint or issue rises, said J.D. Power and Associates senior director for wireless services Kirk Parsons, in a statement. Switching intent is four times as high among those who rate their wireless carrier below average in customer care, so the challenge for wireless carriers is to offer an easy and efficient customer care transaction experience.
The study, currently in its ninth year, found that just over half (51 percent) of telephone contacts in the industry are resolved primarily by a service representative, rather than via automated systems. Where the industry average satisfaction level was 739, the satisfaction level for Web-based contact was just 684 out of 1,000, and automated response systems only did a little better, averaging 704. Reaching a live human being, however, had an overall satisfaction rate of 774.
The study also found customers are most satisfied with their customer service experience if they spend only a short time using automated systems, and quickly move on to a live representative. The study found T-Mobile did a particularly good job at handling calls that move through automated systems to live representatives, as well as direct calls to customer service, although T-Mobile also lead all wireless carriers amongst users seeking help online.
04:57 | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Envoyer cette note | Tags : jordan, wissous, ouverture, tablette, international