All Hail The Barbaro Haters

From the big profile of Barbaro doctor Dean Richardson in today’s Daily News:

“Now, having said that, did I get crazy letters in the mail telling me I was inhumane, I should have put the horse down?” Richardson said. “Yeah, I got those. Did I get the phone calls telling me I was an awful person for spending money on a horse when there are starving people in Philadelphia? The answer is yeah, I got those. Cursing me out for wasting my time and rich people’s money on dumb farm animals. All those kind of hate mail and voice mail.

Yes! There are people who hate Barbaro more than I do! (I don’t hate Barbaro enough to send a hate mail to his seemingly nice doctor.)

Anyway, I also wanted to point out this line from Richardson, which is kind of the creepiest quote I’ve ever read:

“People ask me, ‘Well, how come you haven’t checked his semen to see if he’s fertile?’”

Erhm. What people?

Barbaro’s steady doc [Daily News]

Leftovers: The Place That Loves You Back (Unless You Overdosed On Heroin)

• If you read PW regularly, you probably already know about the state of the city’s ambulances. (Hint: Not good.) But now, an Inquirer investigation has revealed that not only is the city failing to revive heroin victims with the drug Narcan, but the city’s chief paramedic didn’t know it worked as a treatment for fentanyl, which has been tainting heroin up and down the East Coast. Sigh. [Inquirer]

• The Divine Tracy Hotel in West Philly has been sold. But where will we go to dress modestly? The story doesn’t say who the buyer is, but I think we all know what’s being done with it: Condos. [KYW 1060]

• Dr. Dean Richardson, who last operated on Barbaro, is now going to perform surgery on a polar bear with a broken leg. But of course. [AP/CNN.com]

• Matt Ciotto, Chad B. Archer and Wilbert S. Kollie. Name three people not likely to win their fantasy football league this year. [Metro]

• Geeze. We need to get a union job. [Blinq]