And then on Wednesday I got published in the Sydney Morning Herald...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/a-devil-of-a-time-saving-a-species/2008/07/22/1216492444185.html

Fiona Grubb
July 23, 2008

HECKLER

LAST week I got a letter from Taronga Zoo asking for donations towards research on Tasmanian devils. Devil facial tumour disease is threatening the population, as well as giving the animals a really negative body image. I don't understand why the devils can't get the funding they need.

Tasmanian devils, after all, are good TV. They are stumpy-legged and cute, with a tendency to tear one another's faces off. Dip them in sequins and they are the animal equivalent of Dancing With The Stars.

They are also a national icon. Australians love a national icon. Every time someone suggests farming kangaroos for their meat we freak out and carry on like we're being asked to eat Dawn Fraser. Moreover, the tenacious little devils like nothing more than a night of fighting followed by a few mouthfuls of lamb at 3am.

But there is another, even more important reason Tasmanian devils should get better funding. They are suffering from a contagious cancer.

Cancer is generally not contagious. There are contagious viruses which lead to cancer, such as the human papilloma virus, which can develop into cervical cancer.

However, unless you are a large European government in possession of small atolls in the middle of the South Pacific, it remains almost impossible to "give" someone cancer. Catching cancer is so rare that only two examples are known: one in dogs, called canine transmissible venereal tumour and the other in Tasmanian devils.

The Tasmanian devil population is so genetically homogenous that one devil's furry little immune system can't distinguish another's furry little cancer cells from his own. This means they are seriously threatened. The devil's status changed from "vulnerable" to "endangered" last year.

It infuriates me that the State Government just paid millions in public funding so Catholics from all over the world could come to Sydney and "peace and goodwill" the city to a standstill, while Taronga Zoo has to beg to save an iconic Australian mammal.

This is not to suggest the Government is completely holding out on the devils: they will match each donation by triple the amount, a little trick they learnt with tax.

But surely we could do just a bit better.

Most importantly for me, they generously posted a link to another story about the Devils' plight, which I thought was really nice of them. This article talks about the breeding program....(lots of sticky wine and some dead things).

http://www.smh.com.au/news/conservation/devils-breed-younger-to-combat-deadly-disease/2008/07/15/1215887584732.html

And even MORE importantly, the front page carried a story about the breeding program this morning. I doubt my article prompted a quick bought of article-writing on the Tassie Devils but if it did, then I am quadrupally stoked. So stoked I will make up words!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/little-devils-may-be-saviours-yet/2008/07/22/1216492455094.html

Here's the thing about editing. They kept my article exactly as I wrote it, except one thing. They removed my smartypants comment about Newcastle. I talked about Tasmanian Devils being a national icon. I said "the tenacious little Devils like nothing more than a night of fighting followed by a few mouthfuls of lamb at 3am, and if we can't get funding for that then the future of Newcastle is looking shakey". They changed it to this;

Moreover, the tenacious little devils like nothing more than a night of fighting followed by a few mouthfuls of lamb at 3am.

And yet I note I still got to keep my jibe in about French nuclear testing in the Pacific. So, you can hassle the French, but for Chrissake leave the Novocastrians alone. Having lived in Newcastle, I think I can reassure the SMH that no-one is reading the paper.

What a good good day! I'm going up to see the Devils shortly. They called me this morning and told me they are are so happy they are taking me out for carrion (stinky with a side of gravel).