00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Mediator's World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Kel's we Can review with Ryan kel Kell in now Here's kel And, Oklahoma man was recently stopped for expired vehicle tags. During the routine stop, officers discovered that the vehicle had been reported stolen, contained a live rattlesnake, a felon in possession of a firearm, and an open bottle of Kentucky Deluxe, which is a real common blended whiskey, and last, but certainly not least, a canister of uranium. The live timber rattlesnake would have been illegal, but the driver, who again was in possession of the improperly licensed and stolen vehicle, who was operating said vehicle with a suspended license, had an open liquor bottle and a felon in possession of a firearm writing shot, and did in fact have a valid lifetime hunting and fishing license, which apparently covers transport of live wildlife in Oklahoma. Just to stop and clarify things briefly, I tracked down a representative of the State of Oklahoma Department of Fish and Wildlife on this last fact. If you have a hunting license, and it is within the established rattlesnakes season, you can possess live or dead rattlesnakes for consumption or even sail in the state of Oklahoma. Additionally, I learned from my phone call that due to three good seasons of rain, the bull frog population is big and healthy and it's gigging season. So if you're so inclined, go get some bull frogs in Oklahoma. Now back to the incident in question, the arresting officer said, quote, the uranium was the real wild card here. This entire scenario is funny enough on its own, but allow me to continue think on this. Us uranium is an into just anyone on the market, but it trades for only forty five dollars a pound, or two dollars and cents and ounce. Kentucky Deluxe Bourbon whiskey will set you back about thirteen bucks per one point seven five liter bottle or two cents per ounce. A lifetime hunting and fishing license in the state of Oklahoma seven hundred and seventy five dollars. That's called priorities. People, shame on you for breaking the law, but thanks for supporting conservation. This week, we've got why you shouldn't met with gators, joy rides, more rabid cats, and so much more. But first, I'm gonna tell you about my week. I went out and hit the river again. Ran into some folks at the river access who thought that a fisherman should cater to the fish, as in, you throw with the fish really want to eat, which sounds, you know, very logical. I, on the other hand, often take the other approach of telling the fish what I think they should eat. After all, it's my time off. One of these fellas lie and said, yeah, a trout has never been to the moon, why should it tell us what to do? Just another anecdote for you folks, courtesy a Cal's Weekend review. Needless to say, it was a beautiful float with very few fish in the boat. Next, I'm gonna knock out a listener email you may or may not find interesting since I keep talking about cats. A long time listener to the Meat Eater Network wrote in This guy explained that he had come to a live Meat Eater event in Sacramento, California, where he actually won in pre show trivia a stone glacier backpack and a bench made knife, which sounds great. However, at the time of the live podcast, this guy was fighting what he thought was lymphoma, But after further blood detective work by an infectious disease doctor, it turns out our listener actually had Barton Ella hensel or cat scratch fever, which led to a lot of ribbing by his buddies about that old catch scratch fever song and a bacterial and action in his heart. He came in contact with Barton Ella hensel via the rescue of a feral kitten, which was covered in fleas real bummer. But what I find interesting in a coincidental sort of way, is that this cat scratch fever victim won his backpack and knife at the show by answering correctly the trivia question name six cats native to North America. You know a cat question, Strange world out there kittens. The answer to that question is Jaguar, Jaggarundy, Bobcat, Canada, Lynx, Owes Lot, and Mountain Lion. If you were looking for a quick tidbit to impress your friends, you can stop now, but I wouldn't because we're just warming up now. We're gonna dig into some quick hitters. Then I'm gonna talk about this thing called the Recovering America's Wildlife Act for a bit specifically, why you should get off your hind ends and call your congressional representatives and support anyway. Jumping over to vani Ango County, Pennsylvania and backed cats with rabies out on frozen tow Road, a man was attempting to rescue what he thought was a trapped domestic cat from under his deck. In order to get that yowling critter freed, the man began removing decking boards, when, to his surprise, the trapped animal leapt onto his chest and in doing so, revealed itself as not a domestic cat and a jam but a bobcat with a face full of porcupine quills and wicked piste. According to the responding game warden, the attempted freeing of the trap bobcat resulted in scratches to the upper torso and bites from the shoulder down to the elbow, and the cat's voluntary returned to its spot under the deck. The responding warden was not left with any other option than to kill the bobcat. Upon testing the cat, it was confirmed that the bobcat was in fact rabbid and the homeowner was off to the hospital for treatment. Early response to rabies is key, and treatment before sims appear are almost always successful in preventing the typically fatal disease. Cat attacks, rabies, porcupines, and game wardens make me compelled to say something like, you know, good luck out there on frozen tow road. Speaking of luck in this case bad. A twenty one year old British Columbia man died recently from rabies. The young man was outside recreating on Vancouver Island when a bat flying during the day randomly bumped into his hand. The incident apparently didn't seem like an incident at all. Nine species of bats live on Vancouver Island, most of which are very small and have very small teeth. There were no noticeable cuts on the man's hand. Contact with the bat occurred in mid May, and raby symptoms did not start showing until six weeks later. Raby symptoms can be exhibited in many ways, weakness, increasing saliva, and aversion to water, pain and nerve pain. The symptoms fall into two classes of rabies, dumb rabies and furious rabies. Dumb rabies is characterized by a general loss of coordination and paralysis. Coma and death can result within ten days of the first sign of symptoms. The other form of rabies is known as furious rabies. The infected may show signs of aggression, lack of fear, excitability, and abnormal behavior. The lesson to learn here is if you come into contact with an animal that is exhibiting strange behavior, such as a bat flying during daylight hours, get yourself in for raby shots. The bite that you sustained may not look like it will kill you, but the virus and the saliva eventually will. Moving on to our Australia desk, a group of kids, three boys and a girl ranging from ten to fourteen, stole a parent's suv, loaded it with fishing gear, left a note, and took off for adventure. The gas station employee spotted the group as they refueled, then took off without paying. Aside from the gas and go technique, the fact that the driver was noticeable short got the man's attention. Minimum driving age in Queensland is seventeen and according to the gas station attendant, the driver was shorter than the vehicle's window. The fishing trips started in grace Mere Queensland and ended in Grafton, New South Wales, a distance of about five eighty two miles. When the authorities caught up to the kids, they apparently refused to step out of the vehicle, forcing the cops to break a window in order to apprehend the kids. No word on how the phishing was or why in the hell these kids folks can't spare the time to take them. They've obviously got a bit of the fishing bug all right. Time to get focused for the big ask the cow's weekend review. Call to action or c t A as we call it in the bills. Get your phones, keyboards, writing instruments, envelopes and stamps at the ready. Right now, we have a chance to help out America's wildlife by making sure that our congressional representatives know that we truly value America's wildlife. How do we do that in the short term. We do this by telling our duly elected to vote in favor of the Recovering America's Wildlife Act. The Recovering America's Wildlife Act will provide funding for critical habitat, wildlife and science based conservation plans in America. Right now, we have twelve thousand animals and plant species of concern identified by individual state action plans in need of assistance. The Recovering America's Wildlife Act will provide roughly one point four billion in dedicated funding annually to the Wildlife Conservation Restoration Program. The Wildlife Conservation Restoration Program provides funds in the form of grants to state fish and wildlife agencies to restore, conserve, manage, and enhance wild birds, mammals, and habitat. Think of this as humping extra cash into the wildlife habitat and access piggy bank. Timing is critical and all you have to do is call right and email your damn congressman or woman. How critical is critical. One third of our bird species, of freshwater fish species of amphibian species, thirty three percent of reptile species, sevent of butterflies, one quarter of bumblebeest, one percent of bat species, and a shipload of our freshwater muscles in North America need immediate help. This crisis is so real. The Recovering America's Wildlife Act is bipartisan, as in, folks representing all sorts of competing interests are coming together and saying a collective holy crap. America's wildlife needs our immediate help. Wildlife like the swift fox, sage grouse, ozark, cave fish, eastern hellbender, salamander's ornate, box turtles, frosted elfin butterflies, yellow banded bumble bees or bombas terra cola hard to pass up a great scientific name. Hawaiian hoary bats and snuff box muscles need help now. North American freshwater muscles, by the way, are seventy endangered or extinct already. Freshwater muscles are the most endangered animal group in the world. In addition to cleaning our waters and being a high protein food source for lots of animals like otters, muskrats, and raccoons, they also have really fantastic names like orange foot, pimple back, purple bean, higgins eye, pearly muscle, pink mucket, and the aforementioned snuff box. I bring up that last point because it's probably harder to ignore to death something with a great sounding name. Current levels of funding are less than five percent of what is needed to help these species out. The passing of the Recovering America's Wildlife Act or HR three seven four two will provide much needed help one point four billion annually and dedicated funding point five million annually to fund conservation on more than a hundred and forty million acres of tribal land. The best part is this funding will go to proactive measures that will keep these creators off of the endangered species list. By following through with congressionally mandated state wildlife action plans the states, the boots on the ground will be able to use federal funds to protect, preserve, restore, and generally get healthy the wildlife they already manage. This is an incredible opportunity for all of us who like clean air and water, folks who spend tons of time outside, and folks who don't get proactive. Get off your butts and make sure your congressional representatives know that you, the constituent, the voter, and the taxpayer, demand the passing of Hr. Three seven four two, known as the Recovering America's Wildlife Act. If you don't know your congressional representative, go to www Dot House dot gov, type in your zip code and find out be a part of the pro cess. This is your job, your end of the bargain. If you can't be hassled, you can't bitch. I promise you if we let these animals die, the digital replacements of these critters will not be nearly as fulfilling to watch or listen to. They won't filter our water or help clean the air we breathe, and they most certainly will not be anywhere near as tasty. Moving on to the fisheries deaths, fish fraud has been around forever, I imagine. Fish fraud is typically when a low price fish is substituted for a high dollar fish, with the consumer obviously paying the high dollar amount back. In two thousand thirteen, Oceana, a nonprofit group that focuses on oceans and fisheries, released a seafood fraud study that included one thousand, two hundred fifteen samples of fish from six d seventy four retail outlets in twenty one states. That study found, through DNA testing that thirty three percent of the twelve hundred plus samples were mislabeled. In two thousand fifteen, a similar consumer study found that thirty eight percent of the iconic Maryland blue crab cakes in the chest Peak Bay We're not in fact, all Maryland blue crab big salmon fan are you. I don't doubt it, but you may not know what salmon you actually like. The most Oceania found forty eight percent of salmon sampled were misrepresented in the same study in two thousand fifteen. Now, to bring us up to current, the most recent study released this year shows that seafood fraud is still prevalent. Sea bass is a common example of this type of fish fraud. In this most recent study, sea bass was mislabeled fifty percent of the time, often being substituted for telapia. That's a twelve dollar a pound fish being substituted for a dollar a pound fish. That's just the base example of fish fraud. You can imagine thinking, if the customer loves the cheap fish at a high price, what's the harm Outside of the dingdier pocket books. The harm and fish fraud can come when a responsible shopper attempts to purchase a fish species that is currently sustainable, but unknowingly ends up with the fish that isn't doing well on the population level at all. A good example of this type of fish fraud would be East coast halibt versus West coast halibt. These fish are damn near indistinguishable and look and taste, but the Eastern halibit is in trouble and well below sustainable levels. The third type of fish fraud is masking a potential health risk. If you're a big time fish eater, it's better to consume faster growing and smaller fish that collect less mercury in their systems. The health risk glies if you're looking for a small, short lived fish with less mercury and given long live fish that potentially have a lot more mercury in their systems. If you're just the occasional fish eater, this isn't much of a concern, but regardless, it's nice to get what you pay for, So beware at the fish counter or the restaurant and go ahead and buy a fish license. If you use the license and actually go fishing, you'll know exactly what you're eating. If not, at least the cash you're spending is going to the resource. And the last, but not least, don't meth with gators. Law enforcement in Loretto, Tennessee issued a statement warning residents to not flush drugs down the toilet. They issued this statement not because it would likely be helpful during a search and seizure type scenario, but because the drugs could potentially create quote meth gators and hyped up ducks. The warning came after Loretto police arrested a man while he attempted to flush meth amphetamine down the toilet. This week's drugs in the water warning from just one guy flushing meth down the toilet followed by last week's spill of forty five thousand barrels of Jim Beam Bourbon and Tennessee waters certainly lets you know what the police in Bourbon Country take more seriously. That's all I got for you this week, and as a special treat, I'm not going to tell you to be sure and subscribe. I will absolutely not tell you to rate the podcast by hitting that furthest right hand star. And I will not tell you to tell me where I got things wrong or how I'm doing by writing in at a s k C A l ask cal at the meat eater dot com. Instead, I'm just gonna ask you to go and buy my special addition T shirt, the infamous Smell Me Now, Lady t Go to the meat eater dot com pick up a good looking shirt that also happens to be possibly the greatest conversation starter T shirt on the planet that tells folks you are hip on all things conservation and you listen to Cal's week in Review. Thanks, and talk to you next week.