Australia horse flu snags security & racing
Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 10:26 AM
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On Assignment
By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
SYDNEY, Australia –
The cartoon showed two policemen trying to ride on a pair of kangaroos, grimly holding on as the animals tossed them around. "Hang in there constable," said one. "We've got to have all 36 of them battle ready by next Tuesday."
The caption beneath the cartoon read: "APEC security - plan B."
Next Tuesday is the start of APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation’s annual get-together, which this year takes place here in Sydney, and culminates in a weekend summit of 21 regional leaders – including President Bush – on Sept. 8 and 9. It will also attract the usual and varied crowd of protestors, whose often-violent antics have become a routine sideshow at these international gatherings.
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| Reuters |
| A mounted police officer exercises her horse at the New South Wales Mounted Police stables in Sydney on Aug. 27. |
As a key plank of crowd control, the Sydney police were planning to deploy three dozen horses, but confirmed today that the animals have been quarantined following an outbreak of horse flu. Six of them have been confirmed sick with a virus that is sweeping Australia. Horses from elsewhere in the country can't replace them because all interstate horse movements have been banned.
Hence the cartoonist poking fun, while the police try and figure out how to replace the horses. "It will impact on our security plan, but we have to work around that," the deputy police commissioner told the Telegraph newspaper. "Security will be up to scratch, but it means we will have to go to another plan."
Wait, you mean no horse racing?
The horse flu has been headline news here – not so much because of APEC, but because racing has been temporally suspended, and for many Australians that is a huge blow. The flu rarely kills, but life without the races is unbearable for many. Some are flocking to bet on dog races as an alternative way to lose money, while newspaper columnists speculate about the blow to the Aussie spirit if there is a lengthy period without horse racing.
"Crab racing could have been a better substitute," one wrote in the Telegraph today, only half joking. "But the field wandered into a buffet lunch and was never seen again."
Some 4,000 delegates are expected here, and as they arrive, Sydney residents are getting out – trying to escape the upheaval and the intense security. They've already had a taste of what's to come, with trial convoys, escorted by motorcycle outriders, their sirens blaring, cutting through the city streets. Today a fighter jet screamed overhead – another trial for when Bush arrives.
The New South Wales tourist authority said there has been a big increase in hotel bookings in areas outside the city as residents respond by heading to the countryside.
When not considering how a horseless police force will cope, the newspapers here have been speculating as to whether Bush's decision to leave early – he’s only stay for one day of the two-day summit – is a snub.
There's a lot of skepticism about the Australian wish to concentrate on climate change. Neither Bush nor John Howard, the Australian prime minister, are convincing advocates of climate change action. And those emerging polluters, China and India, are unlikely to commit to anything that limits their dash to growth.
My own theory is that Bush rightly decided not to stay for the traditional and excruciatingly embarrassingly group photo. This usually takes place on the last day, and features all the leaders dressed in some sort of traditional dress, looking very embarrassed and very silly.
If that is the reason, though, it hasn't worked. The Australian organizers say they have decided to take the fancy-dress group photo on the first day of the summit!
