Our Take On Seven Days Of Animal-related News.

[April 8th, 2009]

• MACAQUE ATTACK: Nine monkeys—from a species prone to herpes—escaped April 3 from the Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU. All were eventually recaptured, though one did make it past the facility’s fence.

  

• COHO NO-NO: Wildlife officials last week trapped and killed a California sea lion that had been gorging itself on salmon near Bonneville Dam. The sea lion was refused by Texas’ Gladys Porter Zoo, because it had a cancerous lesion.

  

• HIM AGAIN? White Bird Dance announced the hiring of its first general manager. With state unemployment above 10 percent, it’s a great time to be hiring. And the best candidate was? Phil Busse, former editor of The Portland Mercury and confessed campaign-sign stealer.

  

• PURRIFIC: The Catalyst Council (get it?) ranked Portland the fourth most cat-friendly city in the nation, after Tampa, Fla., Phoenix and San Francisco.

  

• INFURIATING QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “When I took over as commissioner in July 2005, I said safety—saving lives and reducing injuries—would be my first priority. I meant it.” Mayor Sam Adams, in a press release Thursday, taking credit for the city’s low traffic fatalities in 2008.