I asked for Racehorses...and this is what I got!

I'll admit that I sometimes get a little "far afield" when it comes to being a pure freightdawg. I'm simply fascinated by transportation of all kinds of things. Such was the case when I recently posted an article/request for an expert to come forward to discuss and write about transportation of racehorses. So far, nobody has done this, which is to my disappointment. But perhaps I can guilt somebody into it.

However, readers here are an eclectic bunch so periodically I get egged on by an editor or two from a larger trade journal to cover something a little wacky that perhaps they themselves wouldn't touch (perhaps because of better judgment or a more talented writing staff...)

Such is the case this week, when one of my favorite readers from the big boys read my request/article on racehorse transportation.   Figuring he can get me to publish ANYTHING... he referred me to the article below which covers "how not to ship a whale".  It's an interesting excerpt from the book "Operation Orca" on the early days of studying and collecting  "Killer Whales" from the Pacific Northwest and the shipment thereof to various places such as southern France for exhibition.   Nowadays, such practices would be considered politically incorrect, and probably (definitely?) illegal without a bunch of licenses.  In the late 1960's none of that was required.  (In fact, in the Northwest, I believe the locals thought of Orcas as varmints and shot at them.)

UPS once made a big deal of shipping the whale sharks that were to be displayed in the Georgia Aquarium from Taiwan to Atlanta.  Now that I think about it, there may be a tie in to racehorses yet since Big Brown was named after that other Brown company that plays a big role in the economic success of Louisville Ky.

Now one of you lazy experts who truly knows about moving animals give me an email.

clipped from thetyee.ca TheTyee.ca [Editor's note: The book Operation Orca (Harbour) recounts human efforts to save Springer in Puget Sound and Luna near Gold River from a lost whale's slow death. In this third of four excerpts on B.C.'s history of whale wrangling, Francis and Hewlett explore more wacky tales of fishermen, showmen, and a pair of unlikely teenagers trying to acquire orcas for public display.] Pender Harbour is a complex jumble of islands, coves and lagoons on the Sunshine Coast about 75 kilometers northwest of Vancouver. The whales first appeared in Gunboat Bay at the head of the harbour, where they were discovered by local fisherman Sonny Reid. The pod exited the bay despite Reid's attempts to contain them but they returned the next day to Garden Bay, another arm of the harbour. Reid and some other fishermen managed to drop a net across the entrance to the bay and trap one of the whales, an adult male almost five metres long...

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