Friday, November 28, 2008

You have got to be kidding!



Early leader in Man o' Law's First Annual Scrooge of the Year award.

This boy's unidentified neighbor.

Send in your favorite Scrooge of the Year story. It must be from this year and the winner will be posted by December 25th. e mail is posted at the head of the blog.

No prize except informing the world of who you think deserves this award and my thanks. maybe next year we'll ask for a prize bail-out package.


Town wants to take away pony from sick boy, 3
Cigdem Iltan, Canwest News Service

CALEDON, Ont. - A small Ontario town may force a three-year-old boy with cerebral palsy to give up his miniature pony after a neighbour complained about the smell.

Sam Spiteri's grandfather gave him the pony, Emily, after the child was diagnosed with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy shortly after birth. The boy can't walk or crawl, and Emily is part of his therapy regime.

Sam Spiteri, 3, has cerebral palsy and uses his pony as therapy. 'When we take him off the pony he cries,' his mother, Antonia Spiteri, says.

But at the end of July, the town of Caledon -- about 50 kilometres northwest of Toronto -- notified the Spiteris the pony had to be removed.

Ms. Spiteri said her family and the complaining neighbour border on a cattle farm, and can't understand how the smell was traced to Emily.

"The cows go right up to their property, too. We thought, 'You're kidding -- seven cows to one miniature pony?' We were quite shocked by what we thought was a joke, at first."

Caledon bylaw enforcement manager Glenn Blakely said the Spiteris' one-acre property is zoned as rural residential and is too small to house a miniature pony.