IT AIN'T JUST EIGHT BELLES AND BARBARO

An astonishing three horses per day are being sacrificed on the altar of horse-race gambling. And that is low-balling it: "Thoroughbred race tracks in the U.S. reported more than three horse deaths a day last year and 5,000 since 2003, and the vast majority of horses were put down after suffering devastating injuries on the track," reports a wire service, which adds, "Countless other deaths went unreported because of lax recordkeeping."

UPDATE 6/17: I guess this could be categorized as good news for horses. Gotta be thankful for whatever you can get.

POL: TURN SF ZOO INTO RESCUE CENTER

This is pretty big, if only because the standard "As if! That'll never happen!" reply from the zoo, about this radical proposal, is absent in this case. "The San Francisco Zoo would transform to a center that primarily houses rescued domestic and exotic animals and those confiscated by law enforcement under legislation proposed at City Hall Tuesday by Supervisor Chris Daly." Daly also noted that the notorious tiger attack on Christmas was "rooted in fundamental animal welfare deficiencies at the zoo."

THE WHOLE WORLD ISN'T WATCHING

Or maybe much of it is, but there doesn't seem to be much of a peep here in the US over the fact that South Korea's previously wildly popular president is now on the brink of being forced from office due to his acquiescing and accepting potentially BSE-tainted US beef. (Many analysts have quibbled that South Koreans are inflating concerns about how dangerous the beef is - but those who have followed the Keystone Kop antics of the USDA in monitoring and testing US beef know there's plenty to worry about.)

Protests have numbered in the tens of thousands and have turned violent, at least one farmer has committed suicide in protest, and the entire cabinet has offered to resign over the matter. This is because the US refuses to back down and accept continuing restrictions, and the populace look on their leader now as a patsy to the globally greedy US beef industry, which, well, he is.