Help Keep Bilbo The Lifesaving Newfoundland On The Beach

Following up on our last entry, it turns out that Bilbo the Lifesaving Newfoundland has been granted a paltry four hours a week on the beach, and is at risk of losing that sad amount of time next year. Accordingly, a petition is being circulated for the purpose of convincing the bureaucrats that a Newfoundland with such significant water rescue abilities be given full and complete access to the beach, and hence the ability to save those who cannot save themselves.
We therefore ask that you sign the petition found at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BilboOnTheBeach so that Bilbo can be granted full time access to the beach for the very purpose of saving lives.

When he is not saving lives, Bilbo is educating children. As stated in This is Cornwall, "Germoe children had a visit by the famous lifesaving dog Bilbo, well known to users of Sennen beach, last Friday, writes Marquitta Hawkins.
With safety always being first priority, the event was aimed to raise the children's awareness when visiting the beach and swimming in the sea.
Jean Rowe of Germoe School said: 'The children learned a lot about beach safety.'
Steve Jamieson, one of the lifeguards who also works at Sennen beach, gave a talk with Bilbo to the children on things such as the dangers of rip tides and swimming outside the red and yellow flags. He explained to the children about how Bilbo helped the lifeguards carry out their rescues.
The visit was a great success and Bilbo the dog just made it that bit more exciting for the children."

It appears that the authorities at Sennen beach, much like those right here in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, have not read their Byron lately, if at all. Thus, we offer Byron's "Eulogy" to his beloved Boatswain in the hope that the authorities in Sennen will gain some perspective on the situation at hand:

"When some proud son of Man returns to earth,
Unknown by glory, but upheld by birth,
The sculptor’s art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rests below.
When all is done, upon the Tomb is seen,
Not what he was, but what he should have been.
But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his Master’s own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
Unhonoured falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in heaven the Soul he held on earth –
While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven.

"Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power –
Who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy tongue hypocrisy, thy words deceit!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name,
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.
Ye, who perchance behold this simple urn,
Pass on – it honors none you wish to mourn.
To mark a friend’s remains these stones arise;
I never knew but one – and here he lies."


Yes, Byron was quite likely speaking to the very type of self-anointed autocrats who act before thinking and think, if at all, only after it is too late - upheld by birth or appointment and never being what they should have been. A sad legacy indeed.


Satchel & Andrew