September 18, 2025 • 37 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
September is National Suicide Prevention Month – Raising awareness about suicide and how to help.
Guest: Christi Taylor Jones – Psychotherapist & suicide survivor - MA author of "Touched by Suicide: A Personal and Psychological Perspective on the Longing for Death and Rebirth"
The unique story of how MA based Jefferson Rubber Works, a 50-year-old supplier of custom-molded rubber products found success in the pet products industry, thus Ruff Dawg was created! Came up with the popular dog toy – the K-9 flyer!
Guest: Carrie Quinn – Marketing Director of Ruff Dawg
Bill sponsors say public restrooms need to be changed - Universal changing stations for adults with disabilities or health conditions, plus diaper changing stations for babies, would be required in certain public buildings.
Guest: Alison Kuznitz – State House News Reporter
MSPCA-Angell Warns of Parvovirus Dangers Following Hospitalization of Abandoned Golden Retriever Puppies. What parvovirus is, what dog owners need to know and how to prevent it. Guest: Alyssa Krieger - director of the MSPCA-Angell’s Community Outreach program
September is National Suicide Prevention Month – Raising awareness about suicide and how to help.
Guest: Christi Taylor Jones – Psychotherapist & suicide survivor - MA author of "Touched by Suicide: A Personal and Psychological Perspective on the Longing for Death and Rebirth"
The unique story of how MA based Jefferson Rubber Works, a 50-year-old supplier of custom-molded rubber products found success in the pet products industry, thus Ruff Dawg was created! Came up with the popular dog toy – the K-9 flyer!
Guest: Carrie Quinn – Marketing Director of Ruff Dawg
Bill sponsors say public restrooms need to be changed - Universal changing stations for adults with disabilities or health conditions, plus diaper changing stations for babies, would be required in certain public buildings.
Guest: Alison Kuznitz – State House News Reporter
MSPCA-Angell Warns of Parvovirus Dangers Following Hospitalization of Abandoned Golden Retriever Puppies. What parvovirus is, what dog owners need to know and how to prevent it. Guest: Alyssa Krieger - director of the MSPCA-Angell’s Community Outreach program
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm going razy Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, if you stick with us tonight, I promise you
a good show on Nightside, that is for sure. We
have lots to talk about tonight. My name is Dan Ray,
the host of Nightside. Rob Brooks, producer of this program,
is back in the control room, all set to take
your calls. Beginning after the nine o'clock news and this
first hour, we'll talk with four interesting guests on disparate topics,
(00:27):
some of which might be relatively newsworthy, some might be
really newsworthy, so we will. We'll get to those guests
at a moment. Let me just tell you that coming
up tonight, we are going to spend a little bit
of time talking about in the nine o'clock hour about
a really interesting story in the Boston Globe today, written
(00:48):
by Sean Murphy. It's about a family that took a
vacation to Paris and on their way back, a very
important piece of luggage was long and ironically, the luggage
had an air tag in it, and despite all of
their efforts, the airline didn't seem to be particularly concerned.
(01:09):
According to our guests, we're going to be talking with
Josh Bitcker of Cambridge. He's a scientist and he his
wife and four kids had sort of a downer as
an ending to a little vacation in Paris, France. We'll
talk about that, and then at ten o'clock the latest
on Jimmy Kimmel tonight. We will get you all of
(01:29):
that information as that story continues to unfold. It's I've
come up with some information that I think you'll find interesting.
But before we get to those topics, when people are
encouraged to call in and participate, whatever your point of view,
it doesn't matter to me. I just want to hear
from you, and we'll have a conversation and you can
be passionate, but I'd like to listen to you, and
(01:52):
I hope you'll like to listen to me. This month is,
amongst other things, National Suicide Prevention Month. Course all of
us want to raise concern and awareness about suicide and
how to help. Looked at some statistics today. According to
the CDC's latest data, three point seven million Americans plan
(02:13):
planned suicide or did plan suicide in the year twenty
twenty three. About one point five million of them acted
on those plans, and too many were successful with us
is Christy Taylor Jones. She's a psychotherapist and a suicide
survivor of the author I've Touched by Suicide, A personal
(02:34):
and psychological perspective on the longing for death and rebirth.
That's a really interesting title, Christy Taylor Jones, Welcome to
Night's Side.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yes, it is so a personal and psychological perspective on
the longing for death and rebirth. Now, what type of rebirth?
Who are contemplating suicide longing for? And how do we know?
I guess is my first question.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Yeah, And that's a great question because what I'm saying
in the book is that suicide is archetypal. It's universal,
It's existed all through time. There have been different ideas
about whether it's okay, not okay, encouraged, whatever, but nevertheless
(03:30):
it's there. And what I say in the book is
that there's a tension between the will to live and
the desire to die, and that anyone can make the
choice to commit suicide to die, and it's not always
an irrational act. It's not always the you know, culmination
(03:55):
of some kind of mental illness. There are heroic suicides
or assisted suicide. You know suicide is multi varied, and
you know anyone under the right circumstances can commit suicide.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay, so you are a suicide survivor, it says, yeah,
I am. So I assume what that means is you
at some point either contemplated or perhaps even attempted. Obviously
you didn't succeed to commit suicide. Can you just give
us again, I know it's a very personal question, but
since we do ask personal questions here on Nightside, can
(04:34):
you give us some idea of your circumstances where you
were in life at that point. And and Sharon, how
come you, thank God didn't didn't succeed.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Well, ironically, I was listening to the broadcast before talking
about the traffic in Boston and everything in Boston was
was a big part of it, as it turns out,
in my life. But what happened for me, and by
the way, suicide, my own attempt was also in addition
(05:06):
to several suicides in my life and family members in
my life. So when I say touched, I've been touched
in many ways by it. But what happened for me
was and I think, and I spent a whole chapter
on the issue of shame, deep chronic shame, which I
(05:29):
think is probably more important than depression and is one
of the sources of suicide that was sort of cultivated
over the years in my family. And then there were
a number of losses and failures, and the last of
(05:52):
which was that I moved from la to Boston with somebody,
and I had all these ideas of becoming, you know,
a writer in Boston, and it didn't turn out exactly
that way, nor did the relationship. It was very painful.
(06:13):
I came back to the same small town and same
dysfunctional family, and I was stuck there. I had no
job and nowhere to go when I was thirty years old,
and I would never have thought that that would be
something that I would attempt, but it was.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Wow. Wow, that's that's quite a story. Where was the
small town? If you'd like to share with.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Us, I'd rather not, except to say that it's in
central California.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Okay, Well, that's fine, that's fine. It's funny. It's not funny,
it's ironic. Just a couple of nights ago, I spoke
with a couple who were two of the most extraordinary
guests I ever had it on. I had them on
for an hour. Tim and Timia Woods. They live in Ohio.
Their parents, their son was a victim of what's called
(07:06):
sex tortion, sex torsion, sex extortion. He made the horrible
mistake of being on the Internet in one of those
dark rooms of dark areas, and he exchanged personal videos
with a young girl. I guess we thought it was
a young girl. And this was a group of scamsters
(07:28):
out of the Ivory Coast, a nation and a small
nation in Africa, and they drove this kid crazy. Because
of his shame and embarrassment, he never went to his
parents and talked about it, and eventually, at the age
of seventeen, their only child, he committed suicide. They are
now on a mission and have spoken to I think
(07:50):
about sixty schools in thirteen states to kids. You know,
at that age, you know a lot of stuff going
on in your body and in your mind in your
late teens and trying to figure out who am I
and why am I here and what am I doing here?
I'm sure that you can identify with that. So will
what is the message of your book? Because this is
(08:12):
called Touched by Suicide a personal and psychological perspective on
the longing for death and rebirth. I still want to
come back. I always figured if you commit suicide, you
know that's it. Parties over. Are there people who commit
suicide or contemplate suicide thinking that there would be something
for them after suicide.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Well, I think there's an unconscious underlying belief because it
is archetypal, and we know that death leads to rebirth
and that I've used the chrystalis as an example that
the butterfly dies literally every stage until it becomes who
(08:56):
it is, So there are in every stage of our life.
In fact, James Paullus, who's a well known Youngian analyst,
has written that nature evolved by death, that in all
life passages, something must die. The problem is that when
(09:18):
that's taken literally and concretely in that I feel like
the only way that I can in this suffering and
have some kind of reverse on the other end is
to literally kill myself. Rather than that it's a symbolic
thing that is about something that needs to die in
(09:41):
my cage. One of the things, a couple of the things,
is the shame was one of the things that had
to be transformed in me, and you know, to not
be living with the kind of shame.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That I did.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And I also had a very romantic, naive view of
of life and love. Yeah, and that definitely sure be reassessed.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Well, it sounds like it sounds like a fascinating book.
I'd just like to, unfortunately, have to wrap it up.
I could talk to you all long on this, and
maybe some night we'll bring you back and we'll do
a longer version an hour with phone callers, because as
you know, I don't know if any religion that that
advocates or or tolerates suicide, and there are maybe there are, Okay,
(10:32):
but in terms of the major Western religions that I'm
familiar with, right, and I would think that most people
who would commit suicide would say, hey, this is it.
I want to get it over with and uh and
not think about the concept of rebirth and focus. But
your book will explain it. And I hope people when
did the book come out? Is it just out or
oftentimes we get authors in the books have just been published.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Okay, Well it came out actually in October, so it's
coming up on a year.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's okay, we still want our listeners to be aware
of it. It's written by Christy Taylor Jones. The book
is Touched by Suicide, a personal and psychological perspective on
the longing for death and rebirth. I don't know if
you're familiar with the organization here in Boston called the Samaritans,
which is an anti suicide organization founded by the granddaughter
(11:23):
of Charles Dickens, Monica Dickens, and I served on the
board of that organization for fifteen years in my thirties
and early forties and learned a lot about suicide as
it was understood back then. I'm sure it's changed a
great deal. I'm going to try to get a copy
of the book and read the book, and I hope
some of my listeners will as well. Christy Taylor Jones,
(11:45):
don't be surprised that I might if I have my
producer get back to you and maybe we can do
an hour on this some night and take phone calls
from listeners.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Fair enough, Sure, Okay, thank you very much, appreciate your
time tonight when we get back on to talk about
a very interesting company called Rough Dog Dawg.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
It's a Massachusetts based company which has sort of reinvented itself.
I will explain with the marketing director of Rough Dog,
Carrie Quinn after this right after this break here on
a Thursday.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Night night side with Dan Ray on Boston's News radio.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Well, this is an interesting story and it deals with
the Massachusetts company. It's a company called Jefferson Rubber Works.
And is your company happened to be based in Jefferson, Massachusetts,
carry Quinn.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
It used to be in Jefferson. Yep, we moved through
Wister in the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Okay, that's good. I just know I happened to be
one of those people that know that there is a Jefferson, Massachusetts,
and I just kind of put it together there. Okay,
so so, yeah, exactly. Jefferson Rubber Works, a fifty year
old supplier of custom molded rubber products, have now found
success in the pet products industry. Can you unravel this
(13:07):
mystery for us?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Absolutely, So. We had a contract many years ago in
the mid nineteen nineties that was a diaphragm for a
water treatment company. Then it looked very much like a
frisbee and the employees would you know, you always have
scrap when you're working with rubber, and the employees would
play with them when they were throwing them in the
(13:30):
trash or whatever on their lunch break. And at some
point we lost that contract. The company was bought up
by their competitor and we lost the contract. So doing
a little research, delving into giving the frisbees if you
want to call them to the employees, letting them play
(13:51):
with them, we found out that they loved playing with
them with their dogs. So we started looking into possibilities
for a dog toy.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, this is this is like looking at a gift
dog in the mouth. Literally there is the dogs did
it for you? So you come up with, I guess
a couple of a line of pet products, a canine flyer.
How is that different from a frisbee or is it
(14:20):
different from a frisbee?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Well, doing research back when we first came out with them,
we found out that in the industry there was not
a real soft rubber, yeah, frisbee type things for dogs.
They were always the hard plastic you know, those that
will hurt the dog eventually or it could hurt the dog.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
Sure, So we.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Came up with that and then you know they're made
with all natural rubbers and they're super soft, they fly
really cool, and we had a competition at work many
years ago, and you got We let the employees pick
a name, and Canine Flyer was the winner.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Well that's that makes a lot of sense. And rough Dog,
I guess is is the rubber company still in business
and now rough Dog is sort of an extension on
that or has the company morphed into rough Dog?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
No, Jefferson Rubber is still probably seventy five to eighty
percent of our business, and the other percentage is the
rough dog industry. So yeah, we're still very strong in
the molded diaphragms, roof boots, medical products, that type of thing.
And then the other portion of our business is the
rough Dog toys, which we have currently about fifty skews
(15:32):
of toys.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
When you say skews, does that mean lines of toys,
all different types.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, we have three different types of balls, two different
sizes of queues.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Start of the word scus. Normally, when I think about skews,
if something went offside, out of control or something it's
skewed off the road. So okay. So I don't think
we're going to sell a lot of the custom molded
rubber products to my listeners, but I have a lot
of listeners who have dogs. So therefore, I want to
(16:04):
give you a good opportunity to give the website. I'm
going to be visiting the website myself because I don't
have a dog, but I have two grand dogs. My
son has a Shorky, which is a part Shitsu and
part Yorky hence shortca the hyphenated sort of name. And
my daughter has a Corky. He currently lives in New York,
(16:27):
but I get him up here whenever I can. Mustard
the Corky and Willie the Shorky, and so I have
to always find Birthday presents, Thanksgiving, President Presidence, Christmas presents,
Easter presidents, Fourth of July presents, presence for everything for
those dogs. So what I assume it's roughdog dot com.
(16:48):
But let's be certain of that. What's the website.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It is roughdog dot com. We do not sell direct
from that site. However, products can be found on well,
they can be found on chewy Amazon. Local stores have them,
but we don't sell them directly from our website.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Oh okay, I was trying to I was trying to
sell some products for you tonight. So so you have
to go to the websites of like Chewie, did they
identify are your products? They are isolated, so we know
we're supporting a Massachusetts company.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Or oh yeah, absolutely, Yeah. You searched rough Dog Toys
on Chewi, they will come up. Same thing with Amazon.
We have our own Amazon store and then again you
know a lot of local stores carry them as well.
But yes, on those two websites, you'll definitely find rough
Dog toys.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Okay, that is great, That is great. Again. We love dogs.
We love all animals, but dogs have a special place
in our heart because, as you probably know, I end
my show every night by informing people all dogs, all cats,
all pets go to.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Heaven they do well.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I do believe that, okay, because that's where my Cavali King,
Charles Spaniel, Charlie the Wonder Dog, and fifteen years ago
in February, that's where all the pets owned by nightside
listeners have gone. Because nightside listeners love those pets, and
their pets love the nightside listeners, and I do believe
that we'll see them again. That's howly in the show
(18:13):
every night.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Oh I believe that too. Yeah, And we love we
obviously you know, being a pet company, we obviously love
our dogs. We all have them, and we all love
them so and we make sure that the toys that
we make are you know, one hundred percent FDA approved material,
like you know, all healthy natural rubbers perfect, so you
know they're great for any dog, any size.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
And all those pets are on the other side of
the rainbow bridge waiting for all of us to join
them at some point. So I'm delighted to have talked
with you, Carrie Quinn, the marketing director of Rough Dog,
and I think you're going to see a little bit
of an uptick in some purchases for Rough Dog products.
Thanks so much for joining us tonight.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Okay, yeah, no, we appreciate you. Thank you very much
for reaching out to us, and we appreciate joining you
on your show.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
All right, feel free if you're out and mister, we're
all over New England, all over the US. Give a
listen to any night and you also can pull this
down if you want our interview, which will be posted
at nightside on demand. You hang on the line and
Rob will tell you how to do that. You can
put it up on your website and let folks know
(19:16):
about our interview tonight. Okay, thanks, carry don't hang uproll
can tell you how to do that. Okay, thanks very much.
We got the news coming up because it was a
dog issue. Any I went a little longer. We're going
to be talked with Alison Kuznitz, she's a state House
news reporter about the need for public restrooms to be changed.
(19:37):
There's some legislation up on Beacon Hill that she will
explain to us which would mandate universal changing stations for
adults with disabilities or health conditions, plus diaper changing stations
for babies. So we'll get all of that coming up
on Nightside right after the news.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
We're joined by Alison Kousnin's state House news reporter. Alison,
welcome back to Night's Side. I admire your work, admired
your writing, and I remember we've had you on this
program before.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Welcome back, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So we're going to talk about a bill that the
sponsors say public restrooms in Massachusetts need to be changed.
This does not have anything to do with, as I
understand that transgender issues. It has to do with universal
changing stations for adults with disabilities or health conditions, plus
(20:36):
diaper changing stations for babies. Is that an accurate description
of the bill? And who would be if this passed?
What type of literally every public restroom in public buildings,
but also you know, in buildings that are private buildings
but the public utilizes the buildings. I have a million questions.
(20:59):
I want to listen. I guess I'm sure you have
a lot of answers to my first broad general question,
which is the hell's this bill all about?
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Sure, there's actually two sets of bills.
Speaker 7 (21:08):
So one set of bills would actually deal with the
universal changing stations, and then another set of bills would
deal with diaper changing stations within bathrooms. But as far
as they're very similar. So both of the bills really
say that in places of in public buildings, especially buildings
that are newly constructed or newly renovated, they must have
(21:31):
at least one universal changing station, and that also goes
for places of public accommodation. And so basically, as far
as the universal changing stations, as you said, these changing
stations are really for adults with health issues, with mobility
issues that they cannot use like a typical handicapped bathroom,
saw that they need this universal changing station to enable
(21:53):
their caregivers to also help them out when they're in
the restroom. So these changing tables would actually be able
to have, at a minimum, be able to carry somebody
who weighs three hundred and fifty pounds. The changing service
would need to be seventy inches long and thirty inches wide.
So these are really to give adults with disabilities who
need help in the bathroom and meet help of caregivers
(22:16):
to give them more dignity out in public spaces.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Now, would these be sort of cordoned off? I mean
I would hope that they would be cordoned off in
private rooms. You know, with a with a private with
a private entries is not going to be out in
the middle of the men's room, in the middle of
the ladies room, I assume. I.
Speaker 7 (22:38):
So they're definitely within the diaper changing legislation. And going
back to the legislation talking about babies, it does talk
about those changing stations need to be those changing stations
need to be in a private or a semi private space.
And as far as for the universal changing stations, I
think the idea is that again you would have the privacy.
(22:58):
I don't believe that legislation that specific about where they are.
But I think if you think about like the bathrooms
that are now have gender neutral, larger bathrooms that are
maybe handicapped accessible, that those bigger spaces would now be
retrofitted or new buildings would have single stalls and they
would have the bigger space to accommodate the changing station.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Okay, so let's so new buildings, I get. So let's
assume you pick a hotel in downtown Boston, which may
be a high end hotel or more middle range hotel.
Bathrooms now there, you know, there might be a couple
of stalls, three stalls maybe in a men's room, a
couple of urinals sync where they're going to get the
(23:40):
room to to to retrofit those spaces because those spaces are,
you know, by their existence, pretty limited.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
I think the bill starts off it does actually give
the protection. I think the bill actually, as you're talking
it through, it doesn't necessarily apply to some of the
older building It does talk about, you know, in public buildings,
places of accombination like hotels. It would apply to buildings
that are places that are newly constructed or reconstructed or remodeled.
(24:13):
So it's not necessarily that every every building would need
to have this if this law work to make it
over the line.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Okay, what about let's say restrooms at the State House
at City Hall truly public? You know, buildings with the
four public restrooms. I'm familiar with the restrooms at the
State House and you are as well. They don't have
as much I mean, there's somewhat constricted in size. Did
they get accepted? Did they get exempted? And I was
(24:42):
just really focused on new construction. Do you think I'm
just I'm sort of asking questions that I'm sure my
audience is thinking in their mind right now, and I
know that we don't script questions, So I apologize if
I'm throwing something at you that you don't have a
quick answer for sure.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
No, I've I think, based on the idea that the
building needs to be newly built or renovated, I imagine
there will be an exemption. But I think also you know,
of course, I think the State House would maybe want
to be a model for this type of block. And
as I was doing the reporting for the story, I
actually checked the bathrooms on the first floor of the
State House that are public, and my colleague as well
(25:22):
checked to the men's restroom, and we did find that
there are baby changing stations. I can speak for the
women's space that it's not that it actually is by
the sinks the baby changing station, so it's not as
private and there really isn't a lot of space to
maneuver around.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Okay, So my last question is normally when I used
to see pieces of legislation like this floated at the
state House, generally the legislator who involved will say, well,
in the Great State of North Dakota or the Great
State of Maine or wherever, this is the standard practice,
and that's what. Is there a state that has what
(25:59):
we're talking about out that we're going to pattern, that
they would pattern this this piece of legislation after or
is this a case of true first impression.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
One of the bill sponsors, reb Garbile, when he testified
on the bill, said about thirty states already have laws
and blaze, so Massachusetts in this frontier would actually be
lagging other states that have already taken this on.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
That's that. As a as a talk show host, I'm
pretty much in on the air of the night, so
I'm not traveling as much as I used to. But
that would surprise me that there would be thirty states
that would be ahead of Massachusetts. Such a bastion of progressivism.
Who's the big sponsor of the bill, by the way,
(26:43):
On the.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
House side, it's repped John Long and Sean Garbie and
Sean garbily Is who testified at the hearing the other week,
and Senator Mike barrett Is On the Senate side.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Lawn was the guy that just had a little bit
of a problem driving one night at near the State House.
If I'm not mistake he was.
Speaker 7 (27:01):
Yes, he's the care of healthcare financing.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah, he may take a lower profile on this. Okay,
Thank you very much. As always, Allison, you explained it
so well. You're a great reporter. I rely upon State
House News a lot. I read it every day and
read your stuff every day. Thank you very much for
what you do. It's a real public service. And I
hope we have a little state House News and people
(27:24):
can get I keep publicizing they can get a state
House News newsletter every morning free of charge. What do
they have to do to do that?
Speaker 7 (27:33):
Sign up on master List and you can get a
great new insights from our new master List editor and
you'll get a collection of stories that you should be
aware of and to keep you updated.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And give me the website slowly so that those who
might have a pin and they're ready to write it down.
I give him a couple of seconds.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
And ask you to sure, just go to masterlist with
two s's m a ssper list dot com and you'll
be able to subscribe from there.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Wow. Okay A S S T e er list dot com.
Probably all lowercase, I'm getting I'm guessing. All right, Allison,
thank you so much, really enjoy talking with you.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Thanks for talking, appreciated, very welcome.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
When we get back, we're going to talk about a
very serious issue, particularly if you happen to own dogs
and puppies. There is a breakout apparently, the MSPCA is
warning of parvel virus followings the hospitalization of some abandoned
Golden Retriever puppies. Okay, get the handkerchiefs out on this one.
Let's find out what we can find out. On the
(28:35):
other side. From Alison Krieger, director of the MSPCA Angels
Community Outreach Program.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
All Right, everyone knows we love all sorts of animals.
Here on Nightside, And of course my favorite type of
animal is a dog, because they are truly man's best friends.
I think it was Harry Truman who said, if you
want a friend in Washington, get a dog. And good
advice with us is Alyssa Kreeger. She's the director of
(29:09):
the MSPCA Angels Community Outreach Program. Alison Kreeger. Welcome to Nightside.
How are you.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
I'm great, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Well, I'm delighted you're here. Although I guess you folks
are in the process of issuing a warning about parvo virus.
I must admit to you although I've owned a dog,
and my son and daughter both have dogs, which makes
me a grandfather of two dogs.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
An important role, critical role, critical.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Trust me on that, Okay, trust me. Parvo virus. I've
heard about it, but I must admit to you without
having looked it up, I wouldn't know what it is.
But this sounds like something that is a great concern
for dogs, particularly correct.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
Yeah, that's correct. Tarbo is a virus just so, like
you said, and it's spread through steekl matter, so anywhere
where dogs are going to the bathroom. If a dog
is infected with carva virus. They can thread it, so
it's really scary. That good news is if you've ever
(30:19):
been to your vet with your dog, they've probably vaccinated
your dog for it.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
But there was this incident here. There was a group
of abandoned Golden Retriever puppies who now, please tell me
that didn't happen in Massachusetts, because when we think about
abandoning puppies, it's normally, you know, down way down south.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
Yeah, it is actually really uncommon up here to see
like a litter of gray puppies. But yeah, it was
right here in the Boston area. There was just this
whole group of puppies running around and cute as they are,
they were really really sick and so they did all
(31:06):
need to be hospitalized and then they went into foster
care and it has taken a lot to get them
to get them right, and they are all doing great,
which we're so grateful for because carvo is often fatal
without without appropriate treatment, so we.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Are If I could ask again, you guys do such great,
great work. Where were these they when they when you
say you abandoned, Were they like found like on the
side of the road somewhere or something.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
Yeah, they were just running around in Boston. So I
think they and our friends at Animal Control did such
a great job and they heard about them and went
picked them up and brought them to our hospital and
and Boston Animal Control that did an amazing job of
collecting them and providing care for them and providing foster
(31:56):
for for several of them as well. So yeah, they're
are just kind of spread out because they were they
were not tiny, tiny puppies. They were four I think
months old form.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
How did they even survive outside? I mean I assume
it was hopefully.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Thinks they were out for too long. I would guess
that they you know, where where we are. When we
see a Golden Retriever puppy running down the street, when
we see any puppy running down the street, that's not
common in Boston. And so I would imagine these guys
were not living out, you know, sending for themselves for
too long. And un fortunately the weather was pretty mild.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
But they got they got good treatment and they're now
in foster care. And have they been adopted? Are they
still in foster care?
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Last one that we had just got, we just found
an adopter for that puppy, So I believe they are
all spoken for at this time, which is great news.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Okay, for quite a while.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
So they all now are in forever home, which is
which is a great phrase. Uh, and I'm sure they're
going to provide a lot of happiness. So this instance
of these abandoned Golden Retriever puppies, what are the implications
for other members of the canine community. Is this a
(33:19):
warning sign that we now have parvo virus amongst us,
amongst our dog population or are we pretty sure this
was limited to this group of pups.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
Oh, no, Parvo's out there. It is living among us.
It was among us before these guys, and it will
be among us after these guys. So, you know, the
most vulnerable dogs for parvo are puppies that have never
had a vaccine. Most dogs when they go to the
that they get what's called a d HPP vaccine, and
that's kind of like, you know, it's like your teedapp
for a little you know, it's like a bunch of
(33:52):
vaccines that protects against a bunch of things. So most
adult dogs have a pretty good immunity to parvo if
they've been vaccinated a couple of times through their life.
But it's those puppies that are really at risk. And
so if you have a little puppy who hasn't been
vaccinated or maybe hasn't been boostered, you would be really
careful about where you're taking them. These puppies were just
running around on the sidewalk, and so what that tells
(34:13):
you is any dog who's just running around on the
sidewalk could be picking up parvo, could be spreading parvo.
So if you have a young puppy who hasn't been vaccinated,
being really careful about where you let them walk around
until they've got that full immunity is important. But once
your dog has been vaccinated a few times, then this
becomes much less scary of an issue because those vaccines
(34:36):
are really effective. So the important things are, if your
puppies too young for all their vaccines, be really terreful
where you put them. And for your dogs, make sure
they're vaccinated and make sure those vaccinations are up to
date because they are so effective. So it is both
really really scary and also really really preventable.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
And I will also add that if you adopt a dog,
or if you if you're gifted a dog and you
accept that dog, that dog is that puppy is a
member of your family, and you need to treat that
little puppy and that as it grows bigger as a
member of your family, get the dog to the proper
(35:17):
medical care, dental care, everything, or don't even take on
the responsibility.
Speaker 6 (35:22):
Because yeah, and I will I'll put in a I'll
put in a plug that all of our dogs at
the MCCA are coming with those part of A vaccines
already on board, so our shelpings are all super full
right now. Even though these golden puppies have been adopted,
we have lots and lots and lots and lots and
lots of well vaccinated dogs who are looking for great homes.
(35:43):
So it's my little plug there comes Well, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
And if folks want board, we have one minute left,
so I want you to put a big plug in. Now.
Where can people go? What's the website? I know there's
what like five or six locations around the great Boston area.
There's just not the one. Uh make a plane, right,
you have other.
Speaker 6 (36:01):
Areas, right, Yeah, we have four shelters. We have a
shelter in Mistewing, Salem, Jamaica. Plane and on Cape Cod
Dedam's Animal Rescue League love them to go there as well,
same same mission. Great work. You can see all of
our dogs that are available at MSPCA dot org slash adoptions.
(36:22):
There are so many we are literally overflowing at the moment,
so your dogs, you're.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Literally overflowing with litters. Okay, that sounds great. Okay, good
play on words, Alison Krieger, Thank you so much. You
guys do great work. Remember all dogs, on cats, all
pets go to heaven.
Speaker 6 (36:40):
Okay, absolutely, all.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Right, all right now that people that take care of pets,
all dogs, all cats, all pets, they go to heaven too.
We'll be back on Nightside and we're going to talk
about a hellish experience that a family in Cambridge experienced.
Sean Murphy, a great writer at the Boston I'm basically
talked to Sean today and we're going to talk about
(37:04):
his piece with this family that was victimized by a
big airline. We will explain. Stay with us, and then
at ten o'clock tonight, the latest. Don Jimmy Kimmel got
some late breaking news for you.
It's with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm going razy Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, if you stick with us tonight, I promise you
a good show on Nightside, that is for sure. We
have lots to talk about tonight. My name is Dan Ray,
the host of Nightside. Rob Brooks, producer of this program,
is back in the control room, all set to take
your calls. Beginning after the nine o'clock news and this
first hour, we'll talk with four interesting guests on disparate topics,
(00:27):
some of which might be relatively newsworthy, some might be
really newsworthy, so we will. We'll get to those guests
at a moment. Let me just tell you that coming
up tonight, we are going to spend a little bit
of time talking about in the nine o'clock hour about
a really interesting story in the Boston Globe today, written
(00:48):
by Sean Murphy. It's about a family that took a
vacation to Paris and on their way back, a very
important piece of luggage was long and ironically, the luggage
had an air tag in it, and despite all of
their efforts, the airline didn't seem to be particularly concerned.
(01:09):
According to our guests, we're going to be talking with
Josh Bitcker of Cambridge. He's a scientist and he his
wife and four kids had sort of a downer as
an ending to a little vacation in Paris, France. We'll
talk about that, and then at ten o'clock the latest
on Jimmy Kimmel tonight. We will get you all of
(01:29):
that information as that story continues to unfold. It's I've
come up with some information that I think you'll find interesting.
But before we get to those topics, when people are
encouraged to call in and participate, whatever your point of view,
it doesn't matter to me. I just want to hear
from you, and we'll have a conversation and you can
be passionate, but I'd like to listen to you, and
(01:52):
I hope you'll like to listen to me. This month is,
amongst other things, National Suicide Prevention Month. Course all of
us want to raise concern and awareness about suicide and
how to help. Looked at some statistics today. According to
the CDC's latest data, three point seven million Americans plan
(02:13):
planned suicide or did plan suicide in the year twenty
twenty three. About one point five million of them acted
on those plans, and too many were successful with us
is Christy Taylor Jones. She's a psychotherapist and a suicide
survivor of the author I've Touched by Suicide, A personal
(02:34):
and psychological perspective on the longing for death and rebirth.
That's a really interesting title, Christy Taylor Jones, Welcome to
Night's Side.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yes, it is so a personal and psychological perspective on
the longing for death and rebirth. Now, what type of rebirth?
Who are contemplating suicide longing for? And how do we know?
I guess is my first question.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Yeah, And that's a great question because what I'm saying
in the book is that suicide is archetypal. It's universal,
It's existed all through time. There have been different ideas
about whether it's okay, not okay, encouraged, whatever, but nevertheless
(03:30):
it's there. And what I say in the book is
that there's a tension between the will to live and
the desire to die, and that anyone can make the
choice to commit suicide to die, and it's not always
an irrational act. It's not always the you know, culmination
(03:55):
of some kind of mental illness. There are heroic suicides
or assisted suicide. You know suicide is multi varied, and
you know anyone under the right circumstances can commit suicide.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay, so you are a suicide survivor, it says, yeah,
I am. So I assume what that means is you
at some point either contemplated or perhaps even attempted. Obviously
you didn't succeed to commit suicide. Can you just give
us again, I know it's a very personal question, but
since we do ask personal questions here on Nightside, can
(04:34):
you give us some idea of your circumstances where you
were in life at that point. And and Sharon, how
come you, thank God didn't didn't succeed.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Well, ironically, I was listening to the broadcast before talking
about the traffic in Boston and everything in Boston was
was a big part of it, as it turns out,
in my life. But what happened for me, and by
the way, suicide, my own attempt was also in addition
(05:06):
to several suicides in my life and family members in
my life. So when I say touched, I've been touched
in many ways by it. But what happened for me
was and I think, and I spent a whole chapter
on the issue of shame, deep chronic shame, which I
(05:29):
think is probably more important than depression and is one
of the sources of suicide that was sort of cultivated
over the years in my family. And then there were
a number of losses and failures, and the last of
(05:52):
which was that I moved from la to Boston with somebody,
and I had all these ideas of becoming, you know,
a writer in Boston, and it didn't turn out exactly
that way, nor did the relationship. It was very painful.
(06:13):
I came back to the same small town and same
dysfunctional family, and I was stuck there. I had no
job and nowhere to go when I was thirty years old,
and I would never have thought that that would be
something that I would attempt, but it was.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Wow. Wow, that's that's quite a story. Where was the
small town? If you'd like to share with.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Us, I'd rather not, except to say that it's in
central California.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Okay, Well, that's fine, that's fine. It's funny. It's not funny,
it's ironic. Just a couple of nights ago, I spoke
with a couple who were two of the most extraordinary
guests I ever had it on. I had them on
for an hour. Tim and Timia Woods. They live in Ohio.
Their parents, their son was a victim of what's called
(07:06):
sex tortion, sex torsion, sex extortion. He made the horrible
mistake of being on the Internet in one of those
dark rooms of dark areas, and he exchanged personal videos
with a young girl. I guess we thought it was
a young girl. And this was a group of scamsters
(07:28):
out of the Ivory Coast, a nation and a small
nation in Africa, and they drove this kid crazy. Because
of his shame and embarrassment, he never went to his
parents and talked about it, and eventually, at the age
of seventeen, their only child, he committed suicide. They are
now on a mission and have spoken to I think
(07:50):
about sixty schools in thirteen states to kids. You know,
at that age, you know a lot of stuff going
on in your body and in your mind in your
late teens and trying to figure out who am I
and why am I here and what am I doing here?
I'm sure that you can identify with that. So will
what is the message of your book? Because this is
(08:12):
called Touched by Suicide a personal and psychological perspective on
the longing for death and rebirth. I still want to
come back. I always figured if you commit suicide, you
know that's it. Parties over. Are there people who commit
suicide or contemplate suicide thinking that there would be something
for them after suicide.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Well, I think there's an unconscious underlying belief because it
is archetypal, and we know that death leads to rebirth
and that I've used the chrystalis as an example that
the butterfly dies literally every stage until it becomes who
(08:56):
it is, So there are in every stage of our life.
In fact, James Paullus, who's a well known Youngian analyst,
has written that nature evolved by death, that in all
life passages, something must die. The problem is that when
(09:18):
that's taken literally and concretely in that I feel like
the only way that I can in this suffering and
have some kind of reverse on the other end is
to literally kill myself. Rather than that it's a symbolic
thing that is about something that needs to die in
(09:41):
my cage. One of the things, a couple of the things,
is the shame was one of the things that had
to be transformed in me, and you know, to not
be living with the kind of shame.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That I did.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And I also had a very romantic, naive view of
of life and love. Yeah, and that definitely sure be reassessed.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Well, it sounds like it sounds like a fascinating book.
I'd just like to, unfortunately, have to wrap it up.
I could talk to you all long on this, and
maybe some night we'll bring you back and we'll do
a longer version an hour with phone callers, because as
you know, I don't know if any religion that that
advocates or or tolerates suicide, and there are maybe there are, Okay,
(10:32):
but in terms of the major Western religions that I'm
familiar with, right, and I would think that most people
who would commit suicide would say, hey, this is it.
I want to get it over with and uh and
not think about the concept of rebirth and focus. But
your book will explain it. And I hope people when
did the book come out? Is it just out or
oftentimes we get authors in the books have just been published.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Okay, Well it came out actually in October, so it's
coming up on a year.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's okay, we still want our listeners to be aware
of it. It's written by Christy Taylor Jones. The book
is Touched by Suicide, a personal and psychological perspective on
the longing for death and rebirth. I don't know if
you're familiar with the organization here in Boston called the Samaritans,
which is an anti suicide organization founded by the granddaughter
(11:23):
of Charles Dickens, Monica Dickens, and I served on the
board of that organization for fifteen years in my thirties
and early forties and learned a lot about suicide as
it was understood back then. I'm sure it's changed a
great deal. I'm going to try to get a copy
of the book and read the book, and I hope
some of my listeners will as well. Christy Taylor Jones,
(11:45):
don't be surprised that I might if I have my
producer get back to you and maybe we can do
an hour on this some night and take phone calls
from listeners.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Fair enough, Sure, Okay, thank you very much, appreciate your
time tonight when we get back on to talk about
a very interesting company called Rough Dog Dawg.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
It's a Massachusetts based company which has sort of reinvented itself.
I will explain with the marketing director of Rough Dog,
Carrie Quinn after this right after this break here on
a Thursday.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Night night side with Dan Ray on Boston's News radio.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Well, this is an interesting story and it deals with
the Massachusetts company. It's a company called Jefferson Rubber Works.
And is your company happened to be based in Jefferson, Massachusetts,
carry Quinn.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
It used to be in Jefferson. Yep, we moved through
Wister in the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Okay, that's good. I just know I happened to be
one of those people that know that there is a Jefferson, Massachusetts,
and I just kind of put it together there. Okay,
so so, yeah, exactly. Jefferson Rubber Works, a fifty year
old supplier of custom molded rubber products, have now found
success in the pet products industry. Can you unravel this
(13:07):
mystery for us?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Absolutely, So. We had a contract many years ago in
the mid nineteen nineties that was a diaphragm for a
water treatment company. Then it looked very much like a
frisbee and the employees would you know, you always have
scrap when you're working with rubber, and the employees would
play with them when they were throwing them in the
(13:30):
trash or whatever on their lunch break. And at some
point we lost that contract. The company was bought up
by their competitor and we lost the contract. So doing
a little research, delving into giving the frisbees if you
want to call them to the employees, letting them play
(13:51):
with them, we found out that they loved playing with
them with their dogs. So we started looking into possibilities
for a dog toy.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, this is this is like looking at a gift
dog in the mouth. Literally there is the dogs did
it for you? So you come up with, I guess
a couple of a line of pet products, a canine flyer.
How is that different from a frisbee or is it
(14:20):
different from a frisbee?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Well, doing research back when we first came out with them,
we found out that in the industry there was not
a real soft rubber, yeah, frisbee type things for dogs.
They were always the hard plastic you know, those that
will hurt the dog eventually or it could hurt the dog.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
Sure, So we.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Came up with that and then you know they're made
with all natural rubbers and they're super soft, they fly
really cool, and we had a competition at work many
years ago, and you got We let the employees pick
a name, and Canine Flyer was the winner.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Well that's that makes a lot of sense. And rough Dog,
I guess is is the rubber company still in business
and now rough Dog is sort of an extension on
that or has the company morphed into rough Dog?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
No, Jefferson Rubber is still probably seventy five to eighty
percent of our business, and the other percentage is the
rough dog industry. So yeah, we're still very strong in
the molded diaphragms, roof boots, medical products, that type of thing.
And then the other portion of our business is the
rough Dog toys, which we have currently about fifty skews
(15:32):
of toys.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
When you say skews, does that mean lines of toys,
all different types.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, we have three different types of balls, two different
sizes of queues.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Start of the word scus. Normally, when I think about skews,
if something went offside, out of control or something it's
skewed off the road. So okay. So I don't think
we're going to sell a lot of the custom molded
rubber products to my listeners, but I have a lot
of listeners who have dogs. So therefore, I want to
(16:04):
give you a good opportunity to give the website. I'm
going to be visiting the website myself because I don't
have a dog, but I have two grand dogs. My
son has a Shorky, which is a part Shitsu and
part Yorky hence shortca the hyphenated sort of name. And
my daughter has a Corky. He currently lives in New York,
(16:27):
but I get him up here whenever I can. Mustard
the Corky and Willie the Shorky, and so I have
to always find Birthday presents, Thanksgiving, President Presidence, Christmas presents,
Easter presidents, Fourth of July presents, presence for everything for
those dogs. So what I assume it's roughdog dot com.
(16:48):
But let's be certain of that. What's the website.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It is roughdog dot com. We do not sell direct
from that site. However, products can be found on well,
they can be found on chewy Amazon. Local stores have them,
but we don't sell them directly from our website.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Oh okay, I was trying to I was trying to
sell some products for you tonight. So so you have
to go to the websites of like Chewie, did they
identify are your products? They are isolated, so we know
we're supporting a Massachusetts company.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Or oh yeah, absolutely, Yeah. You searched rough Dog Toys
on Chewi, they will come up. Same thing with Amazon.
We have our own Amazon store and then again you
know a lot of local stores carry them as well.
But yes, on those two websites, you'll definitely find rough
Dog toys.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Okay, that is great, That is great. Again. We love dogs.
We love all animals, but dogs have a special place
in our heart because, as you probably know, I end
my show every night by informing people all dogs, all cats,
all pets go to.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Heaven they do well.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I do believe that, okay, because that's where my Cavali King,
Charles Spaniel, Charlie the Wonder Dog, and fifteen years ago
in February, that's where all the pets owned by nightside
listeners have gone. Because nightside listeners love those pets, and
their pets love the nightside listeners, and I do believe
that we'll see them again. That's howly in the show
(18:13):
every night.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Oh I believe that too. Yeah, And we love we
obviously you know, being a pet company, we obviously love
our dogs. We all have them, and we all love
them so and we make sure that the toys that
we make are you know, one hundred percent FDA approved material,
like you know, all healthy natural rubbers perfect, so you
know they're great for any dog, any size.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
And all those pets are on the other side of
the rainbow bridge waiting for all of us to join
them at some point. So I'm delighted to have talked
with you, Carrie Quinn, the marketing director of Rough Dog,
and I think you're going to see a little bit
of an uptick in some purchases for Rough Dog products.
Thanks so much for joining us tonight.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Okay, yeah, no, we appreciate you. Thank you very much
for reaching out to us, and we appreciate joining you
on your show.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
All right, feel free if you're out and mister, we're
all over New England, all over the US. Give a
listen to any night and you also can pull this
down if you want our interview, which will be posted
at nightside on demand. You hang on the line and
Rob will tell you how to do that. You can
put it up on your website and let folks know
(19:16):
about our interview tonight. Okay, thanks, carry don't hang uproll
can tell you how to do that. Okay, thanks very much.
We got the news coming up because it was a
dog issue. Any I went a little longer. We're going
to be talked with Alison Kuznitz, she's a state House
news reporter about the need for public restrooms to be changed.
(19:37):
There's some legislation up on Beacon Hill that she will
explain to us which would mandate universal changing stations for
adults with disabilities or health conditions, plus diaper changing stations
for babies. So we'll get all of that coming up
on Nightside right after the news.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
We're joined by Alison Kousnin's state House news reporter. Alison,
welcome back to Night's Side. I admire your work, admired
your writing, and I remember we've had you on this
program before.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Welcome back, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So we're going to talk about a bill that the
sponsors say public restrooms in Massachusetts need to be changed.
This does not have anything to do with, as I
understand that transgender issues. It has to do with universal
changing stations for adults with disabilities or health conditions, plus
(20:36):
diaper changing stations for babies. Is that an accurate description
of the bill? And who would be if this passed?
What type of literally every public restroom in public buildings,
but also you know, in buildings that are private buildings
but the public utilizes the buildings. I have a million questions.
(20:59):
I want to listen. I guess I'm sure you have
a lot of answers to my first broad general question,
which is the hell's this bill all about?
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Sure, there's actually two sets of bills.
Speaker 7 (21:08):
So one set of bills would actually deal with the
universal changing stations, and then another set of bills would
deal with diaper changing stations within bathrooms. But as far
as they're very similar. So both of the bills really
say that in places of in public buildings, especially buildings
that are newly constructed or newly renovated, they must have
(21:31):
at least one universal changing station, and that also goes
for places of public accommodation. And so basically, as far
as the universal changing stations, as you said, these changing
stations are really for adults with health issues, with mobility
issues that they cannot use like a typical handicapped bathroom,
saw that they need this universal changing station to enable
(21:53):
their caregivers to also help them out when they're in
the restroom. So these changing tables would actually be able
to have, at a minimum, be able to carry somebody
who weighs three hundred and fifty pounds. The changing service
would need to be seventy inches long and thirty inches wide.
So these are really to give adults with disabilities who
need help in the bathroom and meet help of caregivers
(22:16):
to give them more dignity out in public spaces.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Now, would these be sort of cordoned off? I mean
I would hope that they would be cordoned off in
private rooms. You know, with a with a private with
a private entries is not going to be out in
the middle of the men's room, in the middle of
the ladies room, I assume. I.
Speaker 7 (22:38):
So they're definitely within the diaper changing legislation. And going
back to the legislation talking about babies, it does talk
about those changing stations need to be those changing stations
need to be in a private or a semi private space.
And as far as for the universal changing stations, I
think the idea is that again you would have the privacy.
(22:58):
I don't believe that legislation that specific about where they are.
But I think if you think about like the bathrooms
that are now have gender neutral, larger bathrooms that are
maybe handicapped accessible, that those bigger spaces would now be
retrofitted or new buildings would have single stalls and they
would have the bigger space to accommodate the changing station.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Okay, so let's so new buildings, I get. So let's
assume you pick a hotel in downtown Boston, which may
be a high end hotel or more middle range hotel.
Bathrooms now there, you know, there might be a couple
of stalls, three stalls maybe in a men's room, a
couple of urinals sync where they're going to get the
(23:40):
room to to to retrofit those spaces because those spaces are,
you know, by their existence, pretty limited.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
I think the bill starts off it does actually give
the protection. I think the bill actually, as you're talking
it through, it doesn't necessarily apply to some of the
older building It does talk about, you know, in public buildings,
places of accombination like hotels. It would apply to buildings
that are places that are newly constructed or reconstructed or remodeled.
(24:13):
So it's not necessarily that every every building would need
to have this if this law work to make it
over the line.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Okay, what about let's say restrooms at the State House
at City Hall truly public? You know, buildings with the
four public restrooms. I'm familiar with the restrooms at the
State House and you are as well. They don't have
as much I mean, there's somewhat constricted in size. Did
they get accepted? Did they get exempted? And I was
(24:42):
just really focused on new construction. Do you think I'm
just I'm sort of asking questions that I'm sure my
audience is thinking in their mind right now, and I
know that we don't script questions, So I apologize if
I'm throwing something at you that you don't have a
quick answer for sure.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
No, I've I think, based on the idea that the
building needs to be newly built or renovated, I imagine
there will be an exemption. But I think also you know,
of course, I think the State House would maybe want
to be a model for this type of block. And
as I was doing the reporting for the story, I
actually checked the bathrooms on the first floor of the
State House that are public, and my colleague as well
(25:22):
checked to the men's restroom, and we did find that
there are baby changing stations. I can speak for the
women's space that it's not that it actually is by
the sinks the baby changing station, so it's not as
private and there really isn't a lot of space to
maneuver around.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Okay, So my last question is normally when I used
to see pieces of legislation like this floated at the
state House, generally the legislator who involved will say, well,
in the Great State of North Dakota or the Great
State of Maine or wherever, this is the standard practice,
and that's what. Is there a state that has what
(25:59):
we're talking about out that we're going to pattern, that
they would pattern this this piece of legislation after or
is this a case of true first impression.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
One of the bill sponsors, reb Garbile, when he testified
on the bill, said about thirty states already have laws
and blaze, so Massachusetts in this frontier would actually be
lagging other states that have already taken this on.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
That's that. As a as a talk show host, I'm
pretty much in on the air of the night, so
I'm not traveling as much as I used to. But
that would surprise me that there would be thirty states
that would be ahead of Massachusetts. Such a bastion of progressivism.
Who's the big sponsor of the bill, by the way,
(26:43):
On the.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
House side, it's repped John Long and Sean Garbie and
Sean garbily Is who testified at the hearing the other week,
and Senator Mike barrett Is On the Senate side.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Lawn was the guy that just had a little bit
of a problem driving one night at near the State House.
If I'm not mistake he was.
Speaker 7 (27:01):
Yes, he's the care of healthcare financing.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah, he may take a lower profile on this. Okay,
Thank you very much. As always, Allison, you explained it
so well. You're a great reporter. I rely upon State
House News a lot. I read it every day and
read your stuff every day. Thank you very much for
what you do. It's a real public service. And I
hope we have a little state House News and people
(27:24):
can get I keep publicizing they can get a state
House News newsletter every morning free of charge. What do
they have to do to do that?
Speaker 7 (27:33):
Sign up on master List and you can get a
great new insights from our new master List editor and
you'll get a collection of stories that you should be
aware of and to keep you updated.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And give me the website slowly so that those who
might have a pin and they're ready to write it down.
I give him a couple of seconds.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
And ask you to sure, just go to masterlist with
two s's m a ssper list dot com and you'll
be able to subscribe from there.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Wow. Okay A S S T e er list dot com.
Probably all lowercase, I'm getting I'm guessing. All right, Allison,
thank you so much, really enjoy talking with you.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Thanks for talking, appreciated, very welcome.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
When we get back, we're going to talk about a
very serious issue, particularly if you happen to own dogs
and puppies. There is a breakout apparently, the MSPCA is
warning of parvel virus followings the hospitalization of some abandoned
Golden Retriever puppies. Okay, get the handkerchiefs out on this one.
Let's find out what we can find out. On the
(28:35):
other side. From Alison Krieger, director of the MSPCA Angels
Community Outreach Program.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
All Right, everyone knows we love all sorts of animals.
Here on Nightside, And of course my favorite type of
animal is a dog, because they are truly man's best friends.
I think it was Harry Truman who said, if you
want a friend in Washington, get a dog. And good
advice with us is Alyssa Kreeger. She's the director of
(29:09):
the MSPCA Angels Community Outreach Program. Alison Kreeger. Welcome to Nightside.
How are you.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
I'm great, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Well, I'm delighted you're here. Although I guess you folks
are in the process of issuing a warning about parvo virus.
I must admit to you although I've owned a dog,
and my son and daughter both have dogs, which makes
me a grandfather of two dogs.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
An important role, critical role, critical.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Trust me on that, Okay, trust me. Parvo virus. I've
heard about it, but I must admit to you without
having looked it up, I wouldn't know what it is.
But this sounds like something that is a great concern
for dogs, particularly correct.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
Yeah, that's correct. Tarbo is a virus just so, like
you said, and it's spread through steekl matter, so anywhere
where dogs are going to the bathroom. If a dog
is infected with carva virus. They can thread it, so
it's really scary. That good news is if you've ever
(30:19):
been to your vet with your dog, they've probably vaccinated
your dog for it.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
But there was this incident here. There was a group
of abandoned Golden Retriever puppies who now, please tell me
that didn't happen in Massachusetts, because when we think about
abandoning puppies, it's normally, you know, down way down south.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
Yeah, it is actually really uncommon up here to see
like a litter of gray puppies. But yeah, it was
right here in the Boston area. There was just this
whole group of puppies running around and cute as they are,
they were really really sick and so they did all
(31:06):
need to be hospitalized and then they went into foster
care and it has taken a lot to get them
to get them right, and they are all doing great,
which we're so grateful for because carvo is often fatal
without without appropriate treatment, so we.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Are If I could ask again, you guys do such great,
great work. Where were these they when they when you
say you abandoned, Were they like found like on the
side of the road somewhere or something.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
Yeah, they were just running around in Boston. So I
think they and our friends at Animal Control did such
a great job and they heard about them and went
picked them up and brought them to our hospital and
and Boston Animal Control that did an amazing job of
collecting them and providing care for them and providing foster
(31:56):
for for several of them as well. So yeah, they're
are just kind of spread out because they were they
were not tiny, tiny puppies. They were four I think
months old form.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
How did they even survive outside? I mean I assume
it was hopefully.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Thinks they were out for too long. I would guess
that they you know, where where we are. When we
see a Golden Retriever puppy running down the street, when
we see any puppy running down the street, that's not
common in Boston. And so I would imagine these guys
were not living out, you know, sending for themselves for
too long. And un fortunately the weather was pretty mild.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
But they got they got good treatment and they're now
in foster care. And have they been adopted? Are they
still in foster care?
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Last one that we had just got, we just found
an adopter for that puppy, So I believe they are
all spoken for at this time, which is great news.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Okay, for quite a while.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
So they all now are in forever home, which is
which is a great phrase. Uh, and I'm sure they're
going to provide a lot of happiness. So this instance
of these abandoned Golden Retriever puppies, what are the implications
for other members of the canine community. Is this a
(33:19):
warning sign that we now have parvo virus amongst us,
amongst our dog population or are we pretty sure this
was limited to this group of pups.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
Oh, no, Parvo's out there. It is living among us.
It was among us before these guys, and it will
be among us after these guys. So, you know, the
most vulnerable dogs for parvo are puppies that have never
had a vaccine. Most dogs when they go to the
that they get what's called a d HPP vaccine, and
that's kind of like, you know, it's like your teedapp
for a little you know, it's like a bunch of
(33:52):
vaccines that protects against a bunch of things. So most
adult dogs have a pretty good immunity to parvo if
they've been vaccinated a couple of times through their life.
But it's those puppies that are really at risk. And
so if you have a little puppy who hasn't been
vaccinated or maybe hasn't been boostered, you would be really
careful about where you're taking them. These puppies were just
running around on the sidewalk, and so what that tells
(34:13):
you is any dog who's just running around on the
sidewalk could be picking up parvo, could be spreading parvo.
So if you have a young puppy who hasn't been vaccinated,
being really careful about where you let them walk around
until they've got that full immunity is important. But once
your dog has been vaccinated a few times, then this
becomes much less scary of an issue because those vaccines
(34:36):
are really effective. So the important things are, if your
puppies too young for all their vaccines, be really terreful
where you put them. And for your dogs, make sure
they're vaccinated and make sure those vaccinations are up to
date because they are so effective. So it is both
really really scary and also really really preventable.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
And I will also add that if you adopt a dog,
or if you if you're gifted a dog and you
accept that dog, that dog is that puppy is a
member of your family, and you need to treat that
little puppy and that as it grows bigger as a
member of your family, get the dog to the proper
(35:17):
medical care, dental care, everything, or don't even take on
the responsibility.
Speaker 6 (35:22):
Because yeah, and I will I'll put in a I'll
put in a plug that all of our dogs at
the MCCA are coming with those part of A vaccines
already on board, so our shelpings are all super full
right now. Even though these golden puppies have been adopted,
we have lots and lots and lots and lots and
lots of well vaccinated dogs who are looking for great homes.
(35:43):
So it's my little plug there comes Well, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
And if folks want board, we have one minute left,
so I want you to put a big plug in. Now.
Where can people go? What's the website? I know there's
what like five or six locations around the great Boston area.
There's just not the one. Uh make a plane, right,
you have other.
Speaker 6 (36:01):
Areas, right, Yeah, we have four shelters. We have a
shelter in Mistewing, Salem, Jamaica. Plane and on Cape Cod
Dedam's Animal Rescue League love them to go there as well,
same same mission. Great work. You can see all of
our dogs that are available at MSPCA dot org slash adoptions.
(36:22):
There are so many we are literally overflowing at the moment,
so your dogs, you're.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Literally overflowing with litters. Okay, that sounds great. Okay, good
play on words, Alison Krieger, Thank you so much. You
guys do great work. Remember all dogs, on cats, all
pets go to heaven.
Speaker 6 (36:40):
Okay, absolutely, all.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Right, all right now that people that take care of pets,
all dogs, all cats, all pets, they go to heaven too.
We'll be back on Nightside and we're going to talk
about a hellish experience that a family in Cambridge experienced.
Sean Murphy, a great writer at the Boston I'm basically
talked to Sean today and we're going to talk about
(37:04):
his piece with this family that was victimized by a
big airline. We will explain. Stay with us, and then
at ten o'clock tonight, the latest. Don Jimmy Kimmel got
some late breaking news for you.
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