Friday, June 29, 2007

Les Etangs d'Ixelles

A 10 minute walk gets us to a the Etangs d'Ixelles, an urban wooded pond complete with ducks and geese. These days it is more foul than fowl. Some lunatic sprayed the surrounding area with fox poison. The unexplained death of a dog who'd been walked in the area a few days prior led a vet to investigate. An autopsy revealed the presence of the contaminant. Since then, a dozen or so dogs have also died. The pond has been corded off by police tape. The sad irony is that signs informing passers-by of a biohazard threat had been posted since Spring. The pond was contaminated by cyanobacteria (blue algae). Its toxin can make you violently ill and cause death. Access to its banks is forbidden. The warning is rarely heeded, I regularly see small children and university students wading in...which gets my civic-minded panties into a bunch. Hubby says not to worry so much about things that I cannot control; especially intervening with stupid. Nature always has a way of restoring balance. It is called natural selection.

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