by Laredo, golden retriever dog

A weird story appeared on my Facebook page today.  It was written by somebody named “AP.”  The headline read: “Alpha introduces mine search-rescue dog in Va.”   I like working dogs just as much as the next canine, so I read the article.  Says that “Ginny” is a two-year old dutch-shepherd dog who weighs 48 pounds.

Get this, Mr. AP’s article says Ginny is:

“…the newest member of coal producer Alpha Natural Resources Inc.’s search-and-rescue team, trained to perform searches in both underground and surface mines.  Equipped with an infrared camera and atmospheric gas detector — along with her extraordinary sense of smell and unmatched agility — the Bristol-based company’s first four-legged employee has been trained since she was three days old to search for missing, trapped, injured or unresponsive humans in unstable conditions or confined areas.”

Mr. AP’s story includes a photo of Ginny.  Wow! she’s definitely my type with her exotic brindle coat.  Says she can catch a scent from a mile away.  (My old nose isn’t that good.)

But here’s the rub (something different from a belly rub):  All this publicity about Ginny is coming from a PR company called APCO Worldwide.  I’ve read about them and their long list of clients who needed help cleaning-up their image.  That would be polluters and manufacturers of dangerous products like tobacco.  In my house, we call fiction like that green-washing.  It looks like Mr. AP borrowed generously from APCO’s publicity materials about Ginny to write his “news” story.  One PR document said reporters could get

“b-roll of Ginny in action” and also “arrange for an interview with Ginny.”

She also has her own website and a blog.

Like green-washing, this smells like fur-washing to me…and wet dogs smell bad.

As Alpha Natural Resources’ parades Ginny around in-person and on its website—and probably pays big money for the publicity—the coal mine company isn’t fixing deadly hazards in its mines.  Mr. Ken Ward, Jr. at Coal Tattoo (who likes cats, but I won’t hold that against him) has been reporting on terrible safety problems at some of Alpha’s coal mines. Today Mr. Ward writes about a burning coal conveyor belt at the company’s Road Fork No. 51 Mine in Wyoming County, WV.   Some of MSHA’s coal inspectors went to the mine to investigate and they issued an imminent danger order.  The inspectors had discovered that the mine managers had kept the workers underground mining coal while thick black fire-smoke was coming off the rubber conveyor belt.  The managers didn’t follow their evacuation plan and didn’t follow their fire fighting plan.  This is really bad.   Shouldn’t Alpha be putting more effort into making its mines safe?  Seems like showing off their new mine rescue dog might be  a plan to distract us from wondering what they’re doing to actually prevent miners needing rescue in the first place.  I’m not sure Ginny the dutch shepherd is old enough to understand fur-washing, but this sounds like a bad, bad case of it.

This really makes me scratch myself.  How could a company take such risk with dogs’ best friend?  The CEO Mr. Kevin Crutchfield has to remember what happened to Mr. Ellery Hatfield, 47 and Mr. Don Bragg, 33, at the Massey Energy Aracoma Alma mine, right?  Those two coal-mine workers died because the Massey mine management didn’t evacuate the mine during a conveyor belt fire.

Now I read via my Charleston Gazette Twitter feed about the disaster that could have happened at this Road Fork 51 mine.  Did Alpha Natural Resources management not learn from the Upper Big Branch disaster?  At this Road Fork 51 mine, inspectors found:

Accumulations of explosive coal dust of 16 to 18 inches high around and under at least two different conveyor belts in the mine.   (I’m a big canine, but even I’d be dragging my belly through 18 inches of coal dust.)

Inoperable carbon monoxide detectors and fire suppression systems that mine managers had not been properly inspected to ensure they were in working order.