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The Glowing Kittens of Los Alamos

Los Alamos New Mexico - Federal authorities were quick to point out that a fire at the Los Alamos Laboratories in May did not cause any hazardous materials to contaminate the environment. Of course that was before White Springs resident Thomas Mallory found three kittens by the side of the road last week. Kittens that were glowing in the dark!

The story starts in early May of this year when Park Service workers at the Bandelier National Monument, just south of Los Alamos set a fire to help clear bush. Low humidity and high winds quickly caused the fire to jump out of control. When it was all over 100 houses had been burned and hundreds more damaged. Several buildings including the weapons engineering tritium building burned, but officials told residents that all hazardous materials (including chemical, nuclear, and explosive) were contained in steel vaults and were never at risk of being introduced to the environment.

But Thomas Mallory isn't so sure the government is telling the truth.

"Glowing cats ain't normal," Mallory stated. "Anyone with a lick of sense in his head knows that."

Mallory was driving to a friend's house on West Jemez Road in Los Alamos on August 10th when he spotted something glowing on the side of the road. "At first I thought it was a pack of those glow sticks that the kids use on Halloween," stated Mallory. But a closer look revealed that the glow was coming from three small kittens that begin meowing for attention when they saw Mallory.

"To be honest, I didn't know what to do," Mallory continued. "I immediately thought they might be radioactive cause of where I was. But I couldn't just leave 'em on the side of the road to get killed. So I got an old towel out of the trunk of my car, picked them up and put them in the back seat. I then drove over the White Rock Animal Shelter and dropped them off. At first they thought I was playing some prank but I explained what happened and they took them in."

Lisa Wheeler, works at the animal shelter and was on duty when Mallory brought the glowing animals in. "I didn't know what to think," she said. "I've seen some abused animals before but I never saw any that were glowing green." I called our vet, Dr. Richards to take a look at them and he pronounced them in perfect health other than being a little underfed and having fleas."

Doctor Kent Richards examined the kittens and is at a loss to explain their glow. "It's not something they teach at veterinary school," said Richards. "But I gave them a check up and they were fine. I was a little worried that they may have been radioactive but my wife works at the Labs and she brought over a dosimeter to check them out and it registered nothing. We gave them a bath and that softened the glow a little but it was still there. It appeared to me that the light is emanating from the fur itself and not from something put on them. It (the glow) is fading now but you can still see it, especially in the dark. It's a mighty odd thing."

Thomas Mallory still thinks that the laboratories are somehow involved. "It's too much of a coincidence. We had those fires out here and weeks later they had squads of guys checking out the air and ground with all kinds of equipment to make sure none of that toxic crap escaped. I bet those cats wandered into some of it and that's why they're glowing. Hell, back in '89 they swore up and down that they didn't have a nuclear plant on the grounds but my friend has been back in some of those restricted areas and he's seen those cooling towers with his own eyes. Those cats are proof there's more going on out here than the government wants us to know."

Several local news stations picked up the story and carried it along with statements from the Los Alamos public relations department that the cats were not connected with the laboratories. They then offered the theory that the glow was being caused by fluorescence bacteria that are capable of emitting light. Several calls I made to the PR office were not returned. The cats have since been adopted by a local family and are said to be doing fine although the White Rock Animal Shelter would not give out information on the adoptive family for an interview.

Have factories at Los Alamos sent hazardous waste into the environment?

sources

News report by KAQT, White Springs New Mexico

Phone interview with Thomas Mallory - August 23rd, 2000

Phone interview with Kent Richards and Lisa Wheeler - August 23rd, 2000

Picture of kittens courtesy of Kent Richards

Picture of Los Alamos factory by Derek Barnes



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