Hoof & Paw

What about the roadkill?

2012-01-24T21:50:00.000-08:00

It's an interesting thing: eating roadkill is almost taboo in our culture, yet, whenever I seem to bring it up in conversation (it happens more often than you'd think), I get plenty of people who admit either doing it themselves, or what a good idea it is. My parents ate road kill when they were poor, (they suggest cutting away the bruised meat as it has a bad flavor and texture). Seems like common sense to me.

January brought two tidbits to my RSS stream:

1) This cute, understated stop motion video about factory farming, and, 2) An essay about the environmental impact of where we (as in North Americans mostly) get our protein. It's one of the better blogs that I've read recently on the subject, but it still has too much of the hand-waving "oh what are we to do!" mentality. And really, I don't blame them; all the empirical work on the carbon-footprint of food is being done on industrial-style food systems. There's very little attention on anything remotely "outside the box" (including, apparently, hunting, which is almost always left out of these discussions even though it's a significant source of animal protein in the US).

I want to hear more about farmed tilapia. I want statistics on animals grazed on marginal land that couldn't be used for crops. I want to hear more about grass-fed cows. I want studies about backyard chickens and fish ponds and goats. About pigs fed on restuarant waste and slaughtered at home 100 feet from where they they were bred and raised. About hunting/fishing/trapping wild game for food. About urban roof-top farms. About targeting invasive species for consumption.

The Ominvore's Dilema is a good book, but most people seem to come away with only one message: eat more plants. So few people seemed to pay attention to all the interesting little details the discusses.

I live 5 miles from several CAFO feed lots, I've helped drag dead calves into their kill pits; 10 miles from one of the largest rivers in North America and one of the richest salmon runs outside of Alaska; 30 miles from 50,000 acres that used to grow wheat, but now the government is paying the landowners to lie fallow for the sake of wheat prices; 100 miles from the Tillamook cheese factory's co-op of dairy farmers; 250 miles from where I grew up, where the bulk of my animal meat was wild-killed deer and elk or pork and lamb raised by neighbors

I'm glad that it's becoming more mainstream to think about where our food comes from, and the quality of life of the animals we eat. But I want more. More attention to nuance and to thinking outside the box, more consideration on how complicated these issues are, and more research studies on food systems that already are thinking outside the box, and have been for years, thank you very much. Less of the black and white. Less of the blame being slung at farmers who are barely breaking even, even with government subsidies. Less finger-wagging at middle class families who dare to buy non-organic eggs. Less of the continuous, simplistic chanting message from certain quarters repeating over and over: "plants good, meat bad".

It's all well and good to get wide-spread attention on CAFO-type animal husbandry, but not if no one sees (or utilizes) the myriad possible alternatives.

Skyrim-inspired mural

2012-01-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Dogs piss on fences to show ownership. I paint on them. The design is from an inn sign from Skyrim.

Merry Ice Storm Day!

2012-01-19T14:36:00.000-08:00

I fell down five times while taking the dogs for a walk. In a field, not even pavement! That's why I'm now inside at my computer.

Anecdotal Pit Bull #24 - #30

2012-01-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

Been awhile since I did one of these, but I assure you its not because I haven't been running into any "pit bull types". While anti-breed people like to say "pit bulls" are relatively rare (and then only owned by thugs, of course). They're certainly not rare around here. We see at least four or five (non-repeating) BSL-eligible dogs per week, usually more. I just don't get a chance to photograph many of them. Plus I've been busier than usual the last couple months.

Below you'll see the usual; these are normal, beloved, family pets that would be targeted by BSL should it ever come to my area. Each and every one represents a potential drain on the city budget and local law enforcement if such asinine legislation were passed.

We don't even have the budget for animal control here, and we're the second-largest city in the region. As it stands, police can't even respond to all the dog-at-large complaints (one of the top calls the city police receives, btw). I'm told by my friend at the department that they usually ask the caller if they feel comfortable catching the dog themselves and bringing it to the station or directly to the shelter (a private shelter that has a contract with the city to hold strays). They already have to prioritize their time.

I'm not sure where BSL-advocates think that cities like mine would find the resources to go around confiscating dogs that have done nothing wrong while still continuing to enforce the dangerous-animal laws they do already. I'm serious. I really would like to know exactly what pro-BSL people think it would look like on a day-to-day basis if police had to enforce BSL. I mean, its not like anyone is going to call in complaints about dogs that aren't doing anything wrong. Oh, sure, if a new BSL ordinance was advertised enough, there would probably be some pit-bull haters in the community who would be more than happy to report their neighbors. But then again, if it were advertised widely, then owners of the persecuted "breeds" would have a heads up to hide their pets.

So, IN ADDITION to the calls they ALREADY don't have time for, would the police also have to also go door-to-door, like they do in some places that passed BSL? Would they stake an officer out at the three vet clinics in town? Or just require us to make daily breed-sighting reports? Would they pull people over while they're driving? All of the above?

#24 in my series is Holly, my current foster dog. She is not a pit bull, but she could easily be targeted by BSL. She likely has some boxer in her recent ancestery, but other than that she's a certified mutt. But she has short hair and a somewhat blocky head and the coloration from her boxer genes; from the right angle, she definitely looks "pitty-ish". In fact she looks quite a bit like this dog. Certainly enough for a vindictive AC officer to haul her away if she lived in the wrong city.

#25 is the dog from this earlier post. He's one of many dogs owned by a local rancher. He's friendly and mellow and gets along with the other dogs. He's unneutered. Maybe he's a boxer mix, maybe "pit bull". I keep forgetting to ask the owner.

#26 is a 3 year old unneutered male. Owned by a family with children. We hospitilized him, I think for pancreantitis. He was scared of everything, but never aggressive.

#27 is a "mastiff mix" according to his owner, and that seems likely. However, he would likely be targeted as a "pit bull type" by BSL. We hospitalized him, I don't remember what for. Caring for him was not a memorable experience.

#28 is a "lab/pit mix" according to the owner. Another hospitalized case that I don't remember very well (I need to keep better notes). I obviously felt confident enough to walk him to the potty yard without a muzzle and an armed guard, so there's that.

#29 is a young female dog, maybe 2 years old, who was found wandering the countryside. A kind person took her in, and when her original owners couldn't be found, decided to keep her. We were treating her for a vaginal prolapse and spaying her. She was very submissive and friendly.

#30 is a husky/pit mix. He went missing and came home that afternoon riddled with buckshot. The police were never called, so we may never know why someone felt compelled to shoot him from short range - once from the front, and once from the back presumably as he was running away. It's possible he acted aggressively. But it's also very possible he wandered into the yard of someone who just doesn't like dogs, or "pit bulls". He was perfectly friendly while at the clinic. Even while in considerable pain, he was never aggressive.

An anti-horse-slaughter screed

2011-12-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

Hey, c'mere. I want to show you something.

See this piece of paper, here? It's an export health certificate. There are a million different types of these. This particular one is for exporting multiple horses from the US to Canada for slaughter.

There's a horse-trader in town. What you'd call the kill buyer. They ship 30 horses to Canada, every week without fail. Each shipment must be inspected by a veternarian, and the health certificate must be typed up by that vet's office. Guess who gets to type them up.

There's not a lot that goes into it. There is an ID number and brief description of each horse (provided by the shipper). All we do is have a vet inspect the horses and then put his signiture on a list of requirements that each animal must pass before they are able to cross the border. Here are the requirements and my comments:

1) Be 6 months of age or older. (Most kill buyers only want larger, therefore fully adult, horses so this usually isn't an issue - I believe this statement is on there so that mares aren't sent with nursing foals. But in theory, a robust 4 month old could easily be mistaken for a 6 month old. It's not like anyone's checking papers, here.)
2) Be able to stand and walk.
3) Not be pregnant enough to give birth during transport or on the slaughterhouse floor (This is difficult, even for a vet, to judge from simply glancing at a mare. How many people have bought a mare and had a "surprise" foal show up a week later because no one noticed she was pregnant? It's not like the vet is doing an ultrasound, here.)
4) Show no evidence of "communicable disease" (which translates to: "no obvious runny nose or cough"; the vet is not required to take temperatures, or test fecal samples, or anything else besides look for snot.)
5) Not be blind in both eyes. (This could easily be missed unless there is extreme cloudyiness in both eyes or both eyes are atrophied or missing)
6) Have resided in the US or Canada since birth. (I have no idea how the trader or the vet would know this, since the vast majority of these horses are purchased at auction days or weeks before being shipped with potentially zero known history)
7) The horses must not have set hoof in Texas or New Mexico in the last 21 days. Again, see my point at number 5.
8) Must not have any condition that could be made worse by shipping that would cause the animal to suffer. This is quite vague, and open to a lot of interpretation.

Basically, except for the "being able to walk" part, these are all either unenforceable with the current record-keeping requirements (basically none), inspection requirements (small), or very vague. I suspect, what the USDA's being all, "sheesh, calm down about those isolated incidents, guyz, here we'll put in some language that will magically make transportation of slaughter-bound horses humane."

Now, before I go any further, let me just get a couple things out of the way. Being a veterinary technician at a large animal vet in a rural, mostly conservative, town means I've had the privelege of standing quietly in the background while horse owners chat or rant with each other or the doctors about all kinds of subjects, including horses slaughter. Each and every person with a pro-slaughter slant seems to think those of us who are against it are stupid, sentimental blubber-heads who don't know what it's like in "the real (horse) world".

"Stupid" is too subjective to quantify. But I am not, by any measure, sentimental. I have nothing against killing horses per se. I have nothing against the consumption of horse meat per se. Under the right circumstances, I'd be happy to eat horse meat myself. I'm a big-game hunter. I have no problem shooting large animals, cleaning the carcuss, butchering and eating the meat.

So anyone who'd like to dismiss my opinions on that basis, let us just move on to the facts.

(I fully admit that many who are anti-slaughter are very sentimental. That doesn't mean they're wrong.)

Horse slaughter advocates are only in it for the money. They try to distract from their main motivation by talking about "high quality meat" that could "feed the hungry", but it's all really about making a few bucks. They even admit it, to a certain degree: The United Organizations of the Horse, a political organization primarily focused on lobbying to make horse slaughter easier, says they support "the right of others to market their horses in a way that provides financial return, and a valuable commodity, high quality meat, that is welcomed by a worldwide market." (emphasis mine)

Financial return is really the only benefit for the current model of horse slaughter. A horse owner can make a few bucks from their horse instead of having to spend money to train; or market; or feed for a few more years; or humanely euthanize and ship to a zoo or large cat sanctuary; or send to a rendering plant; or rent a bulldozer to dig a hole in the back pasture, etc.

Of course, there are many "unwanted" (or just unmarketed or unlucky) horses that can't be sold for slaughter, either legally, or because even the kill buyer doesn't want them. If the horse is too old, too lame, sick, injured, too pregnant, too skinny, etc, then the owner still has to find an alternative to slaughter. Kill buyers are looking for fat, healthy horses because they bring more money per shipment. Any argument about how slaughter helps people dispose of "Old Lame Nessy" is pure BS.

The "environmental cost" of not being able to slaughter horses is BS, too. Something between 90%-99% of the total population of horses that die every year in the US do so without going through a slaughter plant. Why not the other 10%? Not to mention that pro-slaughter people regularly forget that rendering plants are still alive and well and plentiful and LEGAL in in the US. They probably forget about them because, you just don't make much money, if any, from sending your horses remains there.

Horse slaughter is not humane in its current form. Now, the CAFO's (beef, pork, and poultry industries) have their own humane issues to deal with, but that's an issue for another day. Because horse slaughter is very different from other types of meat production, and you can, in fact, deal with them separately. (For the record, I'm not a fan of farmed elk, either).

Horse slaughter is most closely modeled after cattle, but they're two very different creatures. Horses are naturally more flighty, nervous, and prone to panic than any of the popular meat animals. They have a long, upright neck and longer legs. No one would dream of putting a horse in a head-catch, yet somehow it's ok to put them through slaughter plants designed for cattle? In theory, it's probably possible to build a slaughter facility that is humane for mass slaughter of horses, but I doubt anyone will bother building it.

Speaking of cattle, let me show you something else from work:

The first is a label from a cattle drug. It has been extensively tested and you know exactly how long to wait before the animal can safely be slaughtered for human consumption. The second is a relatively common drug used in horses. It's just one of many equine products not meant for meat animals.

I think I've seen one or two drugs that have actual withdrawl times for horses, and if I remember what they are I'll photograph them, but the majority don't. Think of phenylbutazone, which every horse owner knows affectionately as "bute". Most horse owners keep a few tubs of powder or tubes of paste on hand and give it out like candy. Who even keeps track of who got some 'bute, anyway? It doesn't matter, since no one is keeping track of drug or other contamination in horse meat. In the cattle, pork, poultry industry, it's much more tightly controlled. There are records on every animal. The meat, milk, and eggs are tested periodically by the USDA.

Much of it comes down to this: Some animals are bred and raised to be eaten. Horses are not (at least not in the US or Canada).

And as far as us anti-slaughter advocates not "living in the real world": that's rich coming from people who are basically freaking out that they can't make a living breeding horses in the 21st century. To them I say: cry me a river. Things change, time marches on, technology moves on. Horses are a luxury item now. Start treating them as such instead of cheap, throw-away items to be slaughtered by the thousands. Maybe you'd get better prices for them.

Also check out the recent discussion on this topic at Fugly Horse of the Day:
http://fuglyblog.com/2011/12/27/halter-horses-yummy/
http://fuglyblog.com/2011/12/22/the-slaughter-debate/
http://fuglyblog.com/2011/12/23/the-slaughter-debate-rages-on/

Solstice

2011-12-19T21:09:00.000-08:00

I've noticed something interesting since I started fostering Holly; black dogs are easy to see in the dark, but tan dogs are invisible after dusk. It seems counter intuitive (a lighter color should reflect more light, right?), until you go on a night walk (a necessity right now since it's dark long before I get out of work). If you're anywhere near a town, there is more than enough light pollution to see just fine after a few minutes without a flashlight. Once your eyes have adjusted, you can see that the night isn't that dark. The coal-black of a border collie's coat stands out against everything except the deepest shadow. Holly is impossible to spot until she's about 20 feet away. Sometimes you can see her white chest and tail tip moving, eerily independent of any other obvious form.

The place I go walking now adays is on some vacant land near a dry canal. Mostly we walk on the old, weed-infested service road that follows along the banks of the canal. I haven't lived here long enough to know if it will run with water come summer. Every year there are more and more abandoned canals; they're being replaced with underground pipes. Less leakage. Suits me fine. I like to walk down in the middle of the canal sometimes. It's darker and harder to see. The risk from a twisted angle is greater as there are a lot of loose rocks. But it provide amazing protection from the wind, which this time of year feels like someone pressing handfuls of ice cubes against the sides of my face even when I'm wearing a hat.

I use to do a lot of night hikes as a teenager. Sometimes with a friend, but usually by myself and the dog. I grew up was in the middle of the Oregon coastal rain forest and had miles of logging road at my disposal. I'd bring a flashlight but rarely turn it on. Even out there, with no light pollution and a heavy canopy of 40 year old Douglas fir overhead, there was usually enough light to hike with as long as you stayed on a road. Gravel actually reflects quite a bit of light and is a smooth enough surface to allow you to see obstacles, even if they are little more than dark blobs. If the path went through an area of particular blackness, I'd grab onto the dog's collar and and let him lead me.

I've never felt afraid of the dark. The opposite, in fact. When you're out in the night, and you stay quiet and don't shine a light, you become part of it. If there is any other person out there, you can hear and see them coming long before they'd see you. Darkness is camouflage and anonymity. For a shy, instinctively reclusive person like me, these are qualities you crave, deep down.

There's also the mystery that night lends to every-day objects. Two nights ago, halfway through our walk, I called the dogs over for a periotic check-in and Sammy had something dark and baseball-sized in her mouth. She refused to drop it, even for a treat. Without thinking, I reached in and pulled it from her mouth and discovered it was a half-rotted cat head.

I have a trick when I want to distract the dogs from something disgusting on the trail. In this case, I gently set the head on the ground (silently congratulating myself for suppressing the urge to throw it. I do not want to get into a game of fetch with a rotting head), grabbed two dogs by the scruffs, and run in the opposite direction. Zelda is very easy to convince to run with you, and once she's started the two younger dogs will usually follow. Thus was a cat head forgotten and neither rolled on nor eaten.

Updates are sometimes boring

2011-11-26T17:15:00.001-08:00

Hello out there!

Things:

1) Kozmo was adopted! He now lives with two little girls and they love him. He has been renamed Jean Ralfeo Buster. Which I think is what happens when a 6 and an 8 year old are forced to come up with, and agree on, a name.

2) I picked up another foster cat, an adult this time. Mr. Whiskers was apparently abandoned in a neighborhood here in town. He showed up one day about three months ago at someone's house and there have been no responses to ads in the local classifieds, CL, or the local shelter. The Good Samaritan brought him in to the clinic to treat a small facial abcess and we got to talking and, well, one thing led to another. He loves people and was already neutered, and uses a litter box like a pro. All I have is this video because, damn, black cats are difficult to photograph! Especially ones that try to cuddle with you every time you try to get at their level with a camera. I already have a family interested. Thank doG, because Tom and I like him so much we talked about keeping him.

3) Today Tom and I went and helped with some chores at my favorite local dog rescue, and accidentally came home with a foster dog.

Holly is one of those dogs that is so extremely adoptable everyone is scratching their heads as to why we still have her. She has it all: good with adults, kids, dogs, cats. Crate trained, house trained, playful without being crazy, quiet but not shy, not too big or too small, very cute with striking markings. She looks like an over sized Basenji.

You are sad that you don't have her. Get in line to adopt her now before the list gets too long.

Look what I bought

2011-10-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

It's a house!

(This is the reason I've been MIA for a month, in case you were curious)

It has a patio.

And a porch.

And a backyard.

A very large backyard. I could fit an entire freakin' agility course back here.

Zelda says this is better than being a condo collie.

It occurred to me just now that the master bedroom is larger than the studio apartment Tom and I shared when we first got engaged.

I guess this means I'm stuck in this damn desert for a while longer. I long for the temperate rainforest of my youth. Though I am enjoying the significantly lower cost of living out here in the land of dust and Russian thistle.

The Latest Project

2011-09-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

Found on a nature trail and brought into the clinic by a good Samaritan.

I think he's a male, but not positive; tiny kittens are difficult to sex. His eyes should open any day now.

Judging by the area he was found, his mother is probably a feral. She may have been startled and dropped him, or was planning to return to get him later. So we'll never know if he was truely 'abandoned'. But you never know. We had another 'orphaned' kitten brought in a few months ago where the mother (a feral, though apparently healthy) left one of her kittens in a bush near an apartment and didn't come back for over 24 hours. A person couldn't stand looking at it anymore and took it in and started bottle feeding. Three days later the mother returned to the bush and sniffed around like, "huh, didn't I leave something here?"

Maternal instinct is a variable thing. At worse, he was saved from being a feral cat. I told him, on his first night here, as he spat out the rubber bottle nipple over and over and cried for the real thing, that life is tough sometimes and he would just have to get used to it and things would work out. Maybe he understands this, because now, two days later, he thinks formula and rubber nipple are just fine and dandy.

He'll be ready to go to a new home in five to six weeks.

Me: "Will you hold him while I make up his bottle?"
Tom: "Will he poop on me?"
Me: "He can't poop on his own yet. So unless you plan to lick his genitals to stimulate that, you should be fine."
Tom: "Wasn't planning on it."

This dog intrigues me

2011-09-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

I went out with a doctor to a rancher's house to check a horse with an injured foot. He'd called us ahead of time to let us know no one would be home but that the mare was easy to catch. We drove up and parked near the house and two dogs trotted out to greet us.

Terrible guard dogs, both of them. They each let out a few cursory barks, then came over to sniff us, tails wagging in a friendly manner. Then they both flopped down to supervise as we took a look at the mare.

They have the confident, laid-back demeanor of true farm dogs. They have a hundred acres to run on, yet even though they're both unaltered they stay near the house. They rarely see a kennel or a leash. They're both fit and trim. They've been well-socialized to people and other dogs and animals by the constant stream of workers that come through to work with the cows.

I don't know what mix of breeds created this guy, but those eyes catch your attention, don't they? I don't know where the rancher got him, or what he uses him for or if he's just a pet.

He looks like he could be a street dog from just about anywhere in the world.

An Epic Battle

2011-09-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

Mantids are scary. If they were the size of cats, I think we'd be screwed.
I was already a little freaked out by them, with their too-intelligent eyes that follow you when you walk by. Then I had to go and witness this:

I was cleaning the large animal area at work the other day when I noticed three praying mantis sitting together on a fence post. Two larger ones which I assumed were females, and a smaller one, probably male. I admired them for a moment, then continued on with my work. A few minutes later, I glanced over at them just in time to see one of the females take a few steps and leap onto the other female, grasping her thorax. Soon it was a fight to the death. They grappled, biting at each other's faces and arms.

A few minutes after that, I watched the male tiptoe closer and closer to the fight, then finally hop onto the back of the attacking female and start to mate with her as she was killing (and eventually decapitating and eating) the other female. I don't know his fate, because I had to go back inside. But when I came out an hour later, only the (now engorged) victorious female remained on the fence, with a pathetic pile of shredded wings on the ground below her feet.

Nature, red in tooth and claw, indeed.

Guess the mixed breed - Answer

2011-08-29T07:01:00.000-07:00

According to the owners, who witnessed the illicit love affair, this dog is a cross between a Boston terrier (bitch) and Mexican hairless/Xolo (dog).

I'm suspicious. I'd be curious to know if one of their neighbors had an unneutered dachshund, but that's just speculation. What do you think?

Peekaboo

2011-08-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

This is the reason I got this lens. This beetle is about an inch long. Look at those gorgeous mouthparts.

Whee!

Nom nom

2011-08-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

On a recent walk in the field near the apartments, I spotted a flash of iridescent green amid the dead cheatgrass.

It was a chunk of what used to be a bird, feathers with a bit of skin and bone attached. I bent down and took a few photographs, planning on picking it up to try to identify the species. Within seconds, Sammie swooped in centimeters from my lens and snatched the delicious morsel and ran a few yards away. She crunched it down like it was the best thing she'd ever tasted, all the while giving me the paranoid "OMG-mom's-gonna-take-it-away-any-second" glances that dogs are so good at.

So. Can anyone use these two photographs to identify the species of bird my dog just ate?

Season of the Mantis

2011-08-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

Every day for the past week at least two of these guys greet me on the stairs in the morning.

(Note the black dog hair stuck to her wing).

Guess the mixed breed

2011-08-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

Two can play at this game.

According to her owners, who also own the mother, this girl is the result of the "oops" mating of two very different, AKC-registered parents.

What do you think the breeds are?

The trouble with being a three-legged dog

2011-08-21T13:25:00.001-07:00

When you've worn through your only front pad due to an over-abundance of hiking, river-splashing, and general romping in the forest, you can't really limp. All you can manage is an incredibly pathetic hop-stumble that makes everyone in camp feel sorry for you.

Luckily, some three-legged dogs have help when this occurs.

Highway 14: the lesser-used side of the Columbia Gorge

2011-08-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

On a recent sojourn to Portland we decided to skip the interstate and take the narrower, windier, generally higher-in-elevation road on the Washington side of the River.

If you're traveling through the area (and if you are, you really only have two choices), consider taking this route. There are many places to easily pull off to enjoy the sweeping vistas, several cute little towns with cute little fruit stands and cafes and you get better close up views of the windmills.

Oh, did I mention there's a life-sized replica of Stonehenge?

What the heck?

2011-08-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

They were hanging out on this cheatgrass stem one evening last week. The next morning there were three, and by that afternoon they were gone.

Update on Flipper

2011-08-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

His new name is Trip. He is excited about his first vaccination!

Why You Wouldn't Adopt To Me

2011-08-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

July was a stupid-busy month for me, which is why I haven't been around the blog-o-world much lately. I'm a bit late to the party in the talking about the No-Kill Conference that so many awesome people are talking about.

I get jazzed talking/reading about animal rescue. I have a lot to say on the subject, but tonight my eye was caught by one subject in particular. Adopting (or not) to "imperfect" homes.

Yesbiscuit has the best commentary on it, I think. You should go read her blog post. And the comments. Although, I had to stop when I got to this comment:

"But I will be damned if I will knowingly see any of our dogs go to live on a chain. No way ... And perhaps the “adopter” will just go get another dog someplace else. But the “education” that keeps being mentioned here starts with letting the public know that we don’t feel that every situation is OK."

This attitude, this zero-tolerance policy for this thing, or that thing that some (many!) pet owners practice, is a large reason why "backyard breeders"/Walmart puppies/Craigslist rescues are so popular. There are quite a few blogs/forums I've quit reading because of this attitude.

Why You Wouldn't Adopt To Me:
1) I live in an apartment.
2) My husband and I both work full time.
3) I feed my dogs Science Diet Adult dry kibble.

Somehow I manage two border collies (at least one of which of pure working cowdog breeding), two cats, usually a foster dog of some kind, and sometimes some rats. By any measure that any reasonable person could use, my pets are healthy and happy. Furthermore, the cowdog for sure, and probably the other dog and both cats, and some of the rats, would be dead if I hadn't taken them in.

My home isn't good enough to adopt YOUR animals, though.

Why You Wouldn't Adopt To My Parents:
1) They both work full time.
2) They chain their dog in the yard while they're gone.
3) They allow their cat outdoors.

When I was growing up, pets used to only be allowed indoors if they were recovering from injury, or during lightning storms. As we grew, and got more educated as pet owners (from the vet, from friends, from the media) our dogs and cats were then allowed into the kitchen, and now have the run of the house. When I was a kid, the dog was lucky to go to the vet every few years to get shots, and the cat probably not at all; now my parents take their current pets in for all kinds of things that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago (for them): teeth cleanings, cruciate ligament surgery, arthritis evaluations, treatment for skin conditions.

But my parents keep their dog chained in the yard during the day while they're at work. So their home isn't good enough. The end. Many rescuers would tear up their adoption application right then. It's ridiculous. My parents live in the country, on a long private drive away from busy roads or harassing children. All the arguments against chaining don't apply to him. Context? Matters.

Why You Wouldn't Adopt To Most Of My Friends, Co-workers, Bosses, Clients, and Acquaintances:
1) They keep their dogs chained/penned during the day; or they work full time; or they don't allow dogs indoors at all; or they feed cheap food; or they previously gave up a dog for adoption for one reason or another; or they don't have a fenced yard; or they're over 60 years old; or they have small children; or ...

When even Nathan Winograd is rejected from adopting a dog because he didn't have a frickin' doggy door, you know it's bad.

Perspective. Get some.

It cannot be stated enough: the alternative for these pets is DEATH.

If my parents can make chaining their dog during the day work, then others can, too.

If I can make having two high-energy, high-drive dogs in an apartment work, others can, too.

If my friend's dog lives a happy, loved life even though she's never allowed indoors, others can, too.

If another friend can have two small children and two large dogs in the same house, others can, too.

There are a few black and white issues in animal rescue. These are not. And I get more and more peeved when those in the rescue community treat them as such.

Condo Collies out in the wild

Flipper got adopted!

2011-08-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

A bit earlier than expected, but he went to a friend who doesn't mind weaning him and potty-training. They live just down the road and used to work at the clinic, so I'll get visits and photos and cuddles without having to do any more work. Which is exactly the way I like my puppy interactions. Everyone wins! Yay, fostering!

A little close for comfort

2011-07-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

We had a wee prairie fire sweep by our apartment last week. Missed us by at least 50 yards. The temperture outside was around 100 degrees F, the winds were around 40 miles and hour, and the humidity was somewhere between 'very low' and 'surface of the moon'. I say 'wee' because it only burned one house and several dozen acres, many of those acres being the field where I take the dogs on their walk every day. It could have been very much worse.

Tip for homeowners: if you're going to mow your dry lawn on a summer afternoon in the desert, clean debris from around your mower's muffler periodically.

I took a walk through the area a few days later. The fire did exactly what a wildfire is supposed to do: burn hot and fast, turning the dried annual plants into fertilizer dust and allowing woody shrubs and hardier plants and roots to survive.

Note the ant hill activity in the middle of the burn area. It was too soon for them to have migrated from an unaffected area. I'm assuming they survived under the soil while the fire burned over their little heads.

The middle of this cactus (prickly pear?) will probably live to put spines into the feet of dogs for years to come.

I found several roasted grasshoppers, but couldn't bring myself to eat any of them.

This is the cutest video I've ever made

2011-07-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

29 days old. We have taken to calling him Spud, because, well...

More small things

2011-07-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

Did I mention a learning experience?

2011-06-30T13:47:00.001-07:00

I don't think Flipper is two weeks old. "Two weeks", in my mind, means 14 days. His eyes aren't even open yet. I guess what the former owner meant by two weeks was "in week two of development".

So, I think what I really have is an eight-to ten-day-old puppy. But who knows; he was the runt and apparently his siblings are twice his size, maybe he's a bit delayed in development.

A pattern emerges

2011-06-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

Gimpy puppy + seconds from euthanasia = goes home with me.

Meet Flipper. Yes I named him that because of his leg. Yes I may be a bad person. He's orphaned and two weeks old and I have no idea what he'll look like as his mother was described as "medium sized mixed breed". I've never bottle raised a puppy. It'll be a good learning experience.

Anecdotal Pit Bull #21, 22, 23

2011-06-21T17:49:00.000-07:00

A 4 year old, neutered male "pit bull mix". He stayed over night after a lump removal surgery and I was the one who took him out in the morning to potty and get medicated. Completely unremarkable experience. Mellow, not terribly cuddly. That's about all I remember. Didn't do anything remotely aggressive when I shoved pills down his throat.

From this angle, this 3 year old "pit bull mix" looks like a black Labrador retriever. Her face is more pit-ish, though.

She cuddles, she leans into legs, she DOES NOT WANT to go into kennel runs, thank you very much. But other than STRONGLY DISAGREEING with us on that subject, she wasn't too difficult to treat. She certainly wasn't aggressive.

She's a family pet. She had a kid at home, and she's perfect for it.

This 5 year old female boxer/pit bull mix's ears really do stand up like that all the time. They are ridiculous. In this photos she's waking up from sedation after removing embedded cheat grass from between her toes, but she was pretty mellow the whole time, anyway. Her feet were extremely painful when she came in, and though she cried out and struggled during the initial exam, she never showed aggression. Like the black dog above, she also has a kid to go home to.

unexpected road trip

2011-06-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

A family member became suddenly and seriously ill last week, so we drove to Billings, Montana in a bit of a hurry. I wasn't even going to bring the camera, but my husband insisted. "We can't spend the whole time at the hospital," he said. "If you leave it you'll complain the whole time."

I'm glad he knows me so well.

Item #1: Urban wildlife around Billings.

A group of Richardson's ground squirrels in an empty lot between hotels and the freeway. I'm not sure where they're going to go when they're ready to move colony because there isn't another patch of grass this size for probably a mile in every direction.

Bunny rabbit, I'm assuming a desert cottontail, outside a restaurant also near the freeway.

Item #2: Pictograph Cave State Park. There are rock paintings. They are old. Also natural sandstone sculptures, nature's abstract art.

Item #3: Plant sexual organs, and them that sexes 'em up.

another unreported dog bite

2011-06-10T07:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was mauled by a pit bull.

OK, not really, but that's probably what a news article would say.

What really happened was a family brought in their 8 month old mixed breed dog. He had kind of a big head, so the shelter they adopted him from called him a 'pit bull mix'. I see a lot more lab, personally; his body shape and coat are pure labrador retriever, but that's hardly matters: most people would indeed call him a pit mix.

As is common, I came around the counter and, after asking permission, squished his big face for a minute, then went back to work. He was very friendly and lick-y and completely untrained and unruly. A few minutes later, another dog and their person entered the waiting room, and both large dogs immediately started barking at each other.

As is often the case with dogs bites, it was my fault. The 'pit' mix was lunging against his leash and the kid holding him looked like he was about to fall down, so I ran over and reached out to grab his collar. My fingers ended up in the dog's mouth instead, and teeth closed down on them, but then quickly released, I assume because my fingers were getting in the way of his barking. It didn't hurt, it certainly didn't pierce skin, it barely counts as a "nip". Life immediately continued on. We separated the dogs into different rooms, things quieted down, I washed the slobber off my hands. I don't think anyone except me noticed I'd been bitten.

But there you have it. In the interests of full disclosure, I've been bitten by a "pit bull".

unreported dog bites

2011-05-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

My husband works for a power company. This is the giant tub of dog treats kept in the back of the office. Servicemen, meter readers, and linemen (anyone who may need to enter customers' yards with no notice) fill their pockets before heading out for the day. Those with experience say it helps a lot in avoiding dog bites, but not in eliminating them. Apparently the meter readers still get bitten "a lot".

But, my husband says, you have to understand that most of my co-workers have a rural upbringing. They have certain views on dogs and dog ownership. One of the meter readers would probably be disappointed if she entered someone's yard uninvited and their dog didn't try to bite her. That's what a dog's supposed to do in that situation.

the cave

2011-05-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

a new lens

2011-05-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

I got a new lens. It is for photographing small things.

Double Dew Claws

2011-05-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

Male Great Pyrenees.

my story from today in which no one died

2011-05-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

You know that nonchalant way a loose dog has of walking along the side of a busy road, sniffing here and there, unconcerned as a few feet away cars whiz by at 50 miles an hour?

Perhaps the only time the image of a happy, relaxed dog can send spikes of cortisol and adrenaline through the blood.

The front office window has a lovely view of the four lane highway located right outside. Interesting fact: it only takes about 5 seconds to run from the office to the center lane of the highway if you're properly motivated.

Another interesting fact: the highway that is usually full of speeding, swerving, tailgating assholes (especially during the lunch rush) will suddenly be occupied by conscientious drivers totally willing to stop for a arm-waving mad woman and confused dog. Go humanity?

Buddy got adopted!

2011-05-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hooray! His new family will driving four hours (!) to come here and pick him up next week (even though we offered to arrange transport).

I'll miss the big galoot.

...but I'm definitely taking a fostering break after this. Three dogs in this apartment is too much. If I had a yard to throw them in once in a while it would be much more manageable.

It's funny how quickly your perspective can change. It'll be such a relief to only have two medium-sized high energy dogs in this apartment.

Part 4: dog training applies to non-pit bulls, too

2011-04-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

In post 4, Skeptifem attacks Bad Rap for having information on their blog about socializing and training foster dogs. She implies that only pit bulls require this kind of socialization, therefore these posts are proof that Bad Rap is hypocritical about their stance that pit bulls should be treated like any other dog.

If you actually read the posts from Bad Rap, all you find is the same general advice you'd find on any dog trainer's website regarding any type of dog.

The biggest and most embarrassing mistake in Skeptifem's multi-post series on pit bulls is this idea that certain breeds of dogs are "safe" and others are "unsafe". Period, end of story, any counter-examples are rare flukes.

All dogs need socialization and training. Many types of dogs needs special socialization or training to overcome issues and go on to become fine pets. Temperament isn't a black and white issue. Aggression isn't a black and white issue. Context matters.

Dog trainers (of all types) know this. Animal behaviorists (you know, the scientists?) know this. People who foster or adopt rescue dogs know this. The dog-bloggers I read know this. Heck, even the lawyers seem to understand. It may be complicated and nuanced and not everyone agrees on everything, but it's not a secret, and it's not at all limited to the "pit bull nutters".

Even professional dog trainers can get frustrated with their pets.

Dog-dog socialization is important from a very young age. Unless you've bottle raised an orphan, we tend to take this for granted.

A perfectly good pet in a home situation may act terrified and anti-social while in a shelter situation.

The idea that you can go to a shelter/breeder/pet store and pick out a "safe" dog based solely on breed is not just ignorant, but dangerous.

[Edited to add] It has been brought to my attention that I haven't linked to the blog post I'm reacting to and therefore the numerous readers of my blog can't make up their own minds about it and are helpless slaves to my opinion. I apologize for the oversight and have corrected it with a link in my first sentence above.

Music!

2011-04-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV

In about 20 minutes, my super awesome brother-in-law Tim Karplus will be performing an original song at a concert in Los Angeles. It's put on by the makers of The Machine of Death, and if you don't know about them, you should because they are wonderful in so many ways. I've embedded the live stream, so if you need some entertainment for the night you can thank me later.

An unfortunate conversation

2011-04-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

Client: "So there's no other steroid therapy that's less harsh."

Doctor: "I'm afraid not. We could dial down the dose even more, or even try stopping thearpy until he gets over this bout of side effects, but we'd have to start up again."

Client: "Is there an herb we could use? Something natural that wouldn't have the side effects?"

Doctor (after a pause to carefully consider his words): "Not that I'm aware of."

Me (inside my head): "We have a special name for 'natural herbs' that are effective and have fewer side effects than your current therapy. We call them 'drugs' and we would have already dispensed it to you."

Fossils, fossils everywhere

2011-04-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

Remember that trip I mentioned a while ago? It was to Fossil, Oregon. A wee little town near the John Day Fossil Beds. On a hillside behind their high school, members of the public can dig up fossils to take home.

I've collected fossils from private land before, but this is the only public fossil bed in the entire US. I've wanted to visit for a long time. So on a lark we set off one cold, rainy Saturday.

Once you get to the town, just drive around for a few minutes and you'll spot the high school. It has an informational sign that talks a little about the fossils found there. Anyone can walk up to the hill and start digging, year round. They ask for a $5 donation per person, that each person only take two handfuls of fossils and that everyone dig gently with small tools.

I didn't even bring any tools. I spent about 45 minutes sorting through the pieces of rock already on the surface of the dig site, and doing a little bit of digging with my fingers to pry new rocks out of the clay. Here's what I came home with:

Bagged me some metasequoia and alder leaves. I'm sure if I'd brought tools and dug down I would have found some even better.

If you ever get the chance to visit, do it! If you visit while it's raining, though, learn from our mistakes: wear boots. The soil is that special sticky clay that clings in giant clumps to shoes and dog fur like dinglehoppers on steroids.

Anecdotal Pit Bull #16, 17, 18, 19, 20

2011-04-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

More examples of dogs that would be targeted by breed specific legislation simply because of the way they look, not the way they act.

If we used BSL-type logic at the clinic, we'd waste a lot of time "protecting" ourselves from friendly/neutral/nondangerous dogs. And not enough time looking for behavioral signs that a dog (any dog) might injure us.

Lacey is a 6-year-old spayed female rescue dog. She's possibly a catahoula mix, but who knows. With her smooth coat and head shape, she would definitly be targeted by BSL as a "pit bull type" dog. She is owned by a co-worker who also has three young children that Lacy loves and gets along wonderfully with. Lacey has killed cats in the past, and can be cranky with the other two dogs that live in the same house. She recently came into the clinic to be treated for a broken toe. She hates being held down to have it bandaged, but never shows aggression.

This pathetic face belongs to a 6-month-old neutered male pit bull terrier. His family (husband, wife, toddler) doesn't speak very much English, and my Spanish is too rusty for me to ask many other questions about him. All I can tell you is that he is incredibly friendly to all people he meets.

This is a 7-year-old spayed female American Staffordshire Terrier. In this photo she's in considerable pain from arthritis in her neck. She's a well-loved family dog. She never acted aggressive as we handled her to examine and take x-rays.

This ridiculous, neutered male dog is, according to owner, an Alapaha Blue Bulldog. At nearly 90 lbs, he's certainly much larger than any pit bulls I've seen, but because of his short hair and head shape, he would without a doubt be targeted as a "pit bull type" dog by BSL. He was in for a minor lump removal surgery and aside from being a leash puller, acted very nicely for everyone. He has the kind of face I want to smoosh.

When you first see Toby, the first thing you think is "rottweiler mix of some kind". His huge blocky head, short hair, wide set front legs and deep chest would easily fool anyone who didn't know his ancestry. He is actually half boxer, half black lab. He is one of the goofiest dogs I've ever met, and that's saying something. He's been at the clinic for almost a week now, and we have to shove pills down his throat twice daily, and hold him in the sink to flush his wound once daily. It sometimes takes 2-3 people to hold him, but he's never aggressive. I've personally had my hand up to the wrist in his giant gullet several times and at no point did I fear losing it.

A Springtime Miracle

2011-04-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Zelda actually shares a toy with another dog.

Still not quite done: Part 3!

2011-04-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

Photo: Tango (pictured playing with puppy-Zelda), is a mixed breed dog who, because of his blocky head and short hair, would likely be targeted by any type of BSL. Despite being one of the most mellow, friendly, wonderful family pets I've ever met.

Here's part 1 and part 2 of my take down of Skeptifem's un-skeptical essay supporting BSL.

(Paragraph 1): Teaser line

(Paragraph 2): Ad hominem argument involving unethical actions of a pit bull owner.

(Paragraph 3): Same, continued.

(Paragraph 4): Criminals use code words and do other sneaky things to hide their illegal activities.

(Paragraph 5 - 9): Ad hominem argument involving unethical actions of a pit bull breeder.

(Paragraph 10): At last, the point:

"This isn't to say that everyone who is anti-bsl or a protester is okay with or involved in dog fighting, most will express that they hate dog fighting and people who abuse pit bulls. I believe them. What I am trying to say is that they are helping dog fighters and are doing nothing to flush them out of their own ranks"

She has a tiny bit of a point: if you defend all pit bulls and their owners, you run the risk of defending a dog fighter unknowingly. There's no escaping the fact that pit bulls are the current breed(s) of choice for dog fighters in North America. How this helps dog fighters continue their already illegal activities, I'm not really sure, and Skeptifem hasn't really made a good case.

And what exactly does she expect pit bull advocates to do to "flush dog fighters from our ranks"? Do a background check and home inspection of everyone who makes an anti-BSL blog or joins a pit bull forum? Shouldn't we bend over backwards to flush out other types of criminals as well? There are a lot of pit bull owners out there representing a wide swath of humanity. I'm positive some of them are also shoplifters or car thieves or embezzlers or partake of illegal substances. Why are we responsible for criminals who happen to agree with our anti-BSL stance? I thought that was the job of law enforcement to, you know, enforce laws?

The one thing that all pit bull advocates agree on (treating dogs with short hair and big heads the same you would any dog), doesn't have anything to do with dog fighting. It's already just as illegal to fight German shepherds as it is pit bulls.

"BSL can include things that make it difficult for dog fighting to continue, like limits on how many can be owned and standards for containment."

Yes, because people who are already breaking the law are going to take one look at these new laws and go, "oh, well, these ones I'll follow, by golly!" Especially when there's barely enough funding to enforce the animal control laws we already have.

She does acknowledge that it's impossible for a law to distinguish between "good" pit bull owners and the "bad" ones it's trying to target. But that's as far as she goes in the discussion of the drawbacks and difficulties in enforcing BSL.

(Paragraph 11): Best Friends Animal Shelter did some possibly unethical things with high profile rescue pit bulls. I don't know how this argues in favor of BSL.

(Paragraph 12): A bunch of ipso factso stuff with no references:

"Most of the problems involved with pit bulls and shelters stem from the fact that there are too damn many of them being bred"

I suppose this is possible, though I quibble that there's a "problem" with pet overpopulation in the first place, let alone it being the fault of breeders. But that's a different discussion.

"[breeding] is where dog fighters really make their money"

It is? I'd love to see evidence of that, but she provide none. I thought it was all the illegal gambling. I'm also confused. Just a second ago she said the dog market is flush with "too damn many" pit bulls. How can anyone make money from a breeding a type of dog that's overflowing at the shelters?

"The advocates ... are supporting breeding groups like kennel clubs and breed associations."

I'm confused again. Is she saying all breeders of pit bulls are dog fighters? And/or that all breed clubs are bad? It could just as easily be argued that breed clubs provide the type of scrutiny that dog fighters tend to scuttle away from.

"people with an ounce of curiosity can see that the massive amount of information about being a Responsible Owner is just a bunch of disingenuous bullshit."

When in doubt, label the people who disagree with you as "disingenuous". There's no way to argue against it!

Um, also, I'm pretty sure every dog trainer on the planet would tell you being a responsible dog owner is important to prevent dog bites. It's not just pit bull advocates who say this.

Sigh. Looks like she has a Part 4 in the works. I'll be there.

I'm not done: Part 2!

2011-04-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

Photo: This intact male Pit Bull Terrier was in great pain after being hit by a car, yet he never showed signs of aggression toward us humans as we handled him.

Here's Part 1 of my take down.

And in case you need it, here's an explanation of why I bother to defend pit bulls from poorly researched and overtly biased rants such as this.

Skeptifem, you can do better than this.

In Part 2, Skeptifem now focuses on pit bull advocates and how crazy they are to defend dogs that, in her mind, have definitively been proven to be SUPER SPECIAL DANGEROUS than any other type of dog.

(Part 2: Paragraph 1)

One of the main things she takes exception to is the fact that pit bull advocates often compare breedism to racism. This is something I've struggled with myself. From the perspective of a dog-lover, the parallels are impossible to ignore. But to a lot of people, such a comparison is insulting. I understand this. I know perfectly well that dogs aren't humans, and so do plenty of other pit bull advocates.

Again, just because some people are hyperbolic in their defense of pit bulls, doesn't actually mean pit bulls shouldn't be defended.

What I don't understand, especially from a feminist, is why she ignores the links between BSL and racism. This is a related but seperate discussion, (although Skeptifem has already proven she doesn't understand nuance when it comes to this subject). A big part of breed specific legislation is the this idea that only gang-bangers or similar undesirables own them. (I mean, pit bulls aren't owned by nice families are they?) Specifically attacking the pets of people of color sounds like racism to me.

(Paragraph 2)

"Being worried that someone else will be mangled by a dog isn't considered a legitimate reason [to discriminate]."

Well, yeah. Since there's no reason to treat any individual pit bull type dog differently than any other dog in any given situation.

Also, this constant theme that pit bull advocates hate dog bite victims gets old real fast.

It's not logical to discriminate against friendly, family dogs because someone, somewhere, was injured by other, different dogs. Making this observation also doesn't mean that I hate or blame the victims of dog attacks. Also, observing that there were ways to prevent dog bites independent of breed is not "blaming the victim". Unless, of course, the victim was an idiot. Then they actually deserved to be blamed for their actions.

Any dog can cause harm. If breed discrimination actually worked to deter dog bites, then I and most other dog people would be totally for it. Fewer dog bites is good for dog owners, too. But it doesn't. Even if all "pit bull type" dogs vanished from the face of the earth tomorrow, people would still be attacked and injured and maimed and sometimes killed by dogs.

She links to two studies that list risk factors for dog bites. They both include "certain breeds", but for now I'll ignore the inherent problems with compiling these types of breed-specific statistics. What I want to know is: why do anti-pit bull people always ignore the other risk factors?

Children left unsupervised with dogs. Seasonality. Age of the victim. Unneutered male dogs. This is my favorite: households with any dogs at all.

"If advocates admitted that there is a genuine concern about public health ... they would have to address it as such, but the refrain of "my dog is perfectly safe" is all that can be heard"

Perhaps that's all that Skeptifem hears, but she obviously isn't reading the same blogs I am. Dog people all over the web are very concerned about dog bites, and are doing their best to address them as a public health issue. We're just doing things other than BSL.

"Safe" is also a very relative term. I would call my border collie very "safe", yet I would never leave her unattended around young children because she could easily injure them unintentionally. I've known many pit bull type dogs (and many other dogs!) that I would say the exact same thing about.

"Advocates ... flood youtube with videos of their pit bulls being friendly with their kids, titling them things like "pit bull attacks child" or "vicious pit bull" so that it is difficult to find videos about actual attacks that occurred."

Titles like that are meant to be sarcastic or ironic, not a part of a vast conspiracy to hide negative images of pit bulls. And why are anecdotal videos and photos that show pit bulls in a positive or neutral way somehow less trustworthy than negative ones?

She can't even imagine that anyone would let their child interact with a pit bull at all, and says, "Animals that can kill babies shouldn't be put anywhere near babies." Human babies are pretty fragile; I guess by this logic no one should allow any animal over the size of a baby garter snake near a baby? I'm being factitious of course. It's completely ridiculous to think no one can safely take pictures of a child with a family pet.

Shen then misquotes BadRap and says they say to never leave children unsupervised with pit bulls. What they (and everyone who knows anything about dogs) actually recommend is to never leave children unsupervised with any dog.

Then, in the span of a few jaw dropping sentances, Skeptifem brings up three pit bull myths as if they were facts:

"I don't know what this is supposed to prove exactly, considering that many families could have taken years of pictures of this sort before their pit bull killed one of the children. I would say that keeping these dogs away from children is important because of how difficult it is to dislodge the dogs once they bite. A special breed specific tool for bites called a "break stick" exists to try and dislodge pit bulls who bite, but if you really believe your dog is "perfectly safe" it is hard to imagine why you would be compelled to buy one or supervise your children around the dog."

Ticking time bomb? Check. Superdog bite strength/locking jaw? Check. Break sticks required?Check. A few paragraphs later she likens owning pit bulls to owning tigers or birds of prey. We're well on our way to filling in a bingo card, here.

Paragraphs 3 through 5 are dedicated to completely misrepresenting a recent incident with a pit bull being banned from a library reading program. In Skeptifem's version, the current owner of Jonny Justice the former Vick dog muscled his way into a library and forced children to read to his dog so he could get photos of the act. The children were terrified, and he and his dog were kicked out of the library. Pit bull advocates went nuts and pulled the whole program in a fit of pique.

Uh huh. What really happened was that Jonny, a trained, experienced and well-behaved reading assistant dog, was banned from a library's dog reading program by one librarian. There were no reports of "terrified children". When mediation with the librarian was ignored, and the city attorney confirmed that that breed discrimination was actually illegal in the state. Instead of follow the law, it was the librarian that canned the whole program rather than allow a well-behaved, trained dog in her library.

Skeptifem says, "The safety and comfort of everyone else is at the bottom of the list of what these folks care about."

Fearing something for ignorant or illogical reasons doesn't mean the rest of society has to bend over backwards to accomadate you. There are some people who fear vaccines for ignorant or illogical reasons; that doesn't mean the rest of us should change childhood vaccination requirements for them.

The rest of Part 2 is more ad hominem arguments about how some pit bull owners/advocates are silly or stupid or callus or whatever. Yawn.

And, oh yes, I will finish this thing with a Part 3.

I'm not done

2011-04-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

Photo: Gracie the Pit Bull Terrier remains docile even while her infected anal glands are examined.

A blogger I respected (up until now), recently posted (in a three-part series no less) on pit bulls and how strange it was that there are people who like them and hate BSL.

After hundreds of words, her posts boil down to this: "What? Some people keep pit bulls as pets? That's weird and outside my experience! My ten minutes of internet research confirms what I already suspected that pit bulls are different and dangerous. Stupid pit bull lovers! BSL for everyone!"

Yeah. That alone would have been enough, but she also compares pit bull advocates (which I guess I am) to vaccination deniers and fans of homeopathic medicine. Please, just slap me in the face, why don't you? This is supposed to be a skeptic's blog, and it's just. So. Wrong. I left a too-long comment there already, but as we all know I'm a fan of GYOFB philosophy, so here we go.

(Part 1: Paragraph 1)

She states that woo groups have shared characteristics, and one is that they do not "outright state their real purpose... and only nerds who like to dig deep into things (skeptics) will find the truth."

Very true. And it would have been great if she had actually "dug deeply" or found any "truth" or any evidence of a hidden agenda from people who advocate for pit bulls. Or really, anything but the same tired arguments for BSL that have been circulating for the last couple decades.

"There was an internal woo alarm that lit up for me upon researching pro-pit bull activism."

Judging by the rest of the posts, that "internal alarm" was her preconceived ideas (aka "bias") against pit bulls.

(Part 1:Paragraph 2)

She gives a history of what she calls the "pit bull debate".

"Pit bulls are a few breeds of dogs that are commonly lumped together... bred for blood sports and fighting long ago."

No reference for these statements, so I don't know exactly which "few breeds" she's referring to. Because breeds commonly affected by BSL include hunting dogs like the catahoula (unless 'hunting' is a type of blood sport? In which case all hunting dogs should also be persecuted, or lumped together with pit bulls?)

She also doesn't state what she means by "long ago". Decades? Centuries? Millenia? Because, "long ago", all dog ancestors were wolves, and wolves are undisputedly dangerous to keep as pets. "Long ago" English bull dogs, boxers, all the different mastiff breeds, and many other breeds NOT commonly lumped with pit bulls were also bred for blood sports.

She then lists a handful of examples of pit bull type dogs causing major injury to people, saying: "This is not typically something dogs in general are capable of." Another statement based on unresearched gut feeling. Like all thoughtless anti-pit bull people, she doesn't have any science that shows a locking jaw, or extra jaw strength, or any other genetic behavior that makes them SUPER CRAZY SPECIAL DOGS. Physically, what is it exactly that makes a pit bull type dog so very different than a lab mix?

I've said it before, others have said it, and I'll say it again: for each and every anecdote pro-BSL people cite where a "pit bull" has done something negative, I can cite an equally bad, equally reliable example involving a lab mix, or a golden retriever, or a boxer, or whatever, or unidentifiable mix breed.

It would be difficult to link to all the reported examples of non-pit bulls causing grievous harm to people, property, and other animals, so I'll just reference the two most active blogs who collect such reports: KC Dog Blog and For the Pit Bulls.

She states: "Multiple studies... found that pit bulls and rottweilers are responsible for the majority of fatal dog attacks."

By "multiple studies" she means Dogbites.org and that famous CDC study. Both of which, she admits, are based on media reports and rely journalists to idenify dogs breeds. But, she says, "The use of media is not necessarily inaccurate automatically- the support of other studies makes me think that the media is giving proportional attention to fatal dog attacks from different breeds." Handily dismissing, without much fanfare or research (and only one reference to one study on Dogbites.org), any possibility of media bias against pit bulls.

Oh yes, certainly no evidence of that.

And worse, I wonder if she actually read the entire CDC study, since the researchers say in their conclusion: "Although fatal attacks on humans appear to be a breed-specific problem ... other breeds may bite and cause fatalities at higher rates. Because of difficulties inherent in determining a dog's breed with certainty, enforcement of breed-specific ordinances raises constitutional and practical issues. Fatal attacks represent a small proportion of dog bite injuries to humans and, therefore, should not be the primary factor driving public policy concerning dangerous dogs. Many practical alternatives to breed-specific ordinances exist and hold promise for prevention of dog bites." (Emphasis bolding mine)

(Part 1:Paragraphs 3)

"The [pit bull] advocates are generally against any breed specific laws and for everyone treating their dog exactly like they would any other breed of dog."

100% correct and a very reasonable thing to want since there's no reasonable justification for not treating a pit bull type dog just like other dogs.

"[Pit bull advocates] often characterize people who oppose them as hating all pit bulls or thinking that they all bit (sic) or kill. I haven't seen anyone on dog bite victim advocacy websites pushing that view at all."

Then you aren't reading very many anti-pit bull writers, then. Or the commenters on your own blog, apparently, many of whom responded to this post with variations of "Yeah! Make the pit bulls go extinct! There's no reason for 'em!"

"The injuries (and sometimes deaths) are completely preventable."

Indeed, most dog bites are preventable. But not by BSL, which (if you would know if you researched and used critical thinking) doesn't prevent dog bites.

(Part 1: Paragraph 5)

She states that pit bull advocates "try to state that pit bulls are equally likely to bite/equally as dangerous as any other kind of dog."

100% correct, though of course due to the difficulties in identifying pit bulls and reporting their good or neutral behavior, there's no good empirical statistics to prove this. It being the null hypothesis, however, it's up to the anti-pit bull people to prove it wrong. As I laid out above, there's no evidence, but, unfortunately, from this point on, the blogger acts as if the case against pit bulls has already been proven conclusively.

Here's her first strawman argument: pit bull advocates claim that their dogs can be trained out of their inherent aggression and that's ridiculous because "The exact amount of nature and nurture involved with animal behavior is difficult to calculate, but it certainly cannot be none."

Right. Since there's no evidence that pit bull type dogs are especially aggressive, there's no trait to "train out" of them that other dog breeds don't also have. Being a pit bull advocate, I think I can speak for us: when we say "it's all in how you raise them", this is a reminder that pit bulls are just dogs. Training and socialization is important for ALL dogs. A poorly socialized or abused lab is the same risk as a pit bull in the same situation. Just as a well socialized pit bull is just as reliable as a nice lab. Note I say "risk". An abused dog is not guaranteed to be aggressive, just as a well trained dog is not guaranteed to behave perfectly or to never bite. Dog trainers know this; most of the bloggers I read know this; heck, even dog fighters know this since they kill dogs from their breeding program who, despite all their efforts, still aren't aggressive enough.

Speaking of aggressive, the blogger next tries her hand at judging dog behavior. Without, apparently, doing any research into dog behavior. She says that we say that pit bulls "were bred to be aggressive towards other animals only, but not babies and children... The principle that "dog aggression" and "human aggression" are different from plain old "aggression" has never been demonstrated by advocates or scientists."

Really? Because most dog breeds are (or were "long ago") indeed bred to do exactly that. Hounds course and kill rabbits and coyotes and deer and boar and fox and whatever else; terriers live for tearing small animals to pieces; the intensity of a herding dog chasing sheep is merely modified hunting behavior; and they all come home and sleep at their owner's side all night. What dog owner hasn't seen the different ways their pet interacts with them versus the cat versus other dogs at the park? Humans may just be another animal in the grand scheme of things, but we're an animal that dogs can easily distinguish from other dogs and other animals. This is a big reason that dogs are such popular pets.

True, it's debated in the dog community how dog fighting training affects the dogs' relationship with people. It's also true that some pit bull advocates are in denial about the ability to rehabilitate all former abused/fighting dogs. Not to even mention all the guard and police dogs are trained specifically to be aggressive towards other humans. This is an interesting topic that deserves more nuanced discussion, but to claim that dogs can't tell the difference between a human and another dog is just ignorant. And apparently this study on dog aggression either slipped under her radar or didn't count as a scientific study?

"This doesn't stop advocates from being angry when their dogs are asked to leave dog parks, either."

Yes, well, if I was kicked out of a dog park because of the way my dog looked, not the way he acted, I'd be pissed. Just as I'd pissed if someone else refused to leave if their dog (of ANY breed) was acting badly. Being from pit-bull friendly Corvallis, Oregon, I've only witnessed the latter situation, and trust me, at the dog park, breed doesn't matter nearly as much as the idiocy of the owner.

(Part 1: Paragraph 7)

She says pit bull advocates say conflicting and often inaccurate things about dog behavior, genetics, and aggression. Yeah, I guess that kind of thing happens when there's a huge, diverse group of people that really only agree on one thing (despite the label that's been slapped on them): pit bull type dogs deserve the consideration as any other dog. I have indeed seen pit bull advocates with their heads in the clouds, who couldn't be persuaded to admit that a pit bull could hurt someone even if it was latched onto their arm. To characterize ALL pit bull owners and advocates as the same is as bad as making a strawman to knock down.

(Part 1: Paragraph 8)

After recently dismissing any possible media bias against pit bulls, the author now states that in fact it's the opposite: pit bull advocates, being biased for pit bulls, never admit that pit bulls could ever do wrong. This is inaccurate (see above about strawmen), and she obviously didn't look very hard; I read many pit bull friendly blogs, and many owners/lovers/neutrals on the subject are perfectly open to reporting pit bull attacks. Because pit bulls are just like any other dog and any dog could hurt a person.

Her ignorance shows yet again when she complains when a pit bull advocate says that a 110lb dog that maimed someone probably wasn't a pit bull. Even though that's a perfectly reasonable conclusion.

The motivations for her bias becomes more clear in the comment section of Part 1. In response to someone who sticks up for pit bulls, she says: "...you haven't mentioned what the victims went through at all. ... The statistics aren't just numbers, they are people who have needlessly been injured or killed... I work in a hospital, what I don't like is seeing horrific injuries and deaths that are preventable. When you see the real consequences of things like loss of skin and amputations you tend to take it a bit more seriously."

So, apparently sticking up for the right for normal pet dogs to be treated like normal pet dogs is insulting to people who have been maimed by other, different dogs. Right. That sounds familiar.

There are so many resources that this blogger ignored it's actually a little embarrassing. Aside from the links I've already provided, the most obvious are:

a) The list of dog experts that don't support BSL (including the CDC and AVMA)

b) The Netherlands' dog bites study.

c) And, most noticeably, the American Temperament Test Society statistics.

Stay tuned as I go after Part 2.

Hey, lookit that

2011-04-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

Buddy:

Driver the foxhound: http://houndwelfare.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/dsc01447.jpg

Flickr Sunday: Street Dogs

2011-04-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

"Pack of street dogs" by anandamoy

~Guandgong province, China (WARNING: dead dog pictured)

~Saint Petersburg, Russia

~Santa Catalina, Peru

~Bulgaria

~Arica, Chile

Stair Steps

2011-04-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

4:45am: Down the stairs (with the youngest puppy for her first pee of the day)

4:50am: Up the stairs (back to bed for a little longer)

6:05am: Down the stairs (with all the dogs for more pee breaks)

6:10am: Up the stairs (doggy breakfast time)

6:15am: Down the stairs (with all the dogs for the poo walk)

6:25am: Up the stairs (drop off two of the dogs, who did their business like pros)

6:26am: Down the stairs (with the one dog who was too distracted to poo earlier)

6:30am: Up the stairs (now I get breakfast and a shower)

7:10am: Down the stairs (with all the dogs and a Chuckit for some dumbball exercise)

7:40am: Up the stairs (fill Kongs, put dogs away)

7:45am: Down the stairs (off to work I go)

5:30pm: Up the stairs (so tired from work)

5:31pm: Down the stairs (all the dogs get a potty-and-run-around break)

5:45pm: Up the stairs (puppy dinner time)

5:50pm: Down the stairs (puppy poo walk and run around in the sage brush time)

6:45pm: Up the stairs (I get dinner now)

8:00pm: Down the stairs (pee break for all the dogs)

8:05pm: Up the stairs

9:00pm: Down the stairs (last pee break of the day for the older dogs)

9:05pm: Up the stairs

9:30pm: Down the stairs (last pee break for the youngest dog)

9:35pm: Up the stairs (I'm going to bed now)

I can haz house with yard nao plz??

2011-04-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

It's Zelda's self-assigned mission to make sure no one but her plays with any toys, ever. Poor Sammy won't even look at a toy if Zelda is nearby. If you try to give one to her, she'll actually run away from it.

But it's exhausting being the Fun Police. And when the Fun Police put themselves to bed, the puppies can finally do this:

(PS, my living room isn't usually that messy. We were in the process of rearranging furniture)

Food sovereignty only really works in fantasyland

2011-03-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well, fantasyland or on extremely small scale. As in, literal trading between friends and neighbors. Which is what people do already.

Things like this are all well and good and fluffy clouds and rainbows until there's a food-borne illness outbreak.

"Food sovereignty" sounds a lot like "I want those other companies to follow the rules, but not me!"

Yes, yes, Big Business is evil and all that: buy small, buy local. I got it. I'm totally onboard with that. Really, I am, and there are certain laws and regulations that really do stifle small, local business unnecessarily and I believe that should be changed. I'm just not sure why anyone thinks small farmers/businesses are immune from greed, safety shortcuts, and unsanitary food preparation. And if they really do believe that, I'd like to know what they think the threshold is for regulation. Because I'm sure the same people who want the right to sell raw milk and unlabled food would pitch a fit if a large corporation started doing the same.

Snake oil salesmen are the very epitome of small business entrepreneurs. It was those selling un-or-mis-labled "tonics" on the street that lead to the passage of the 1906 Pure Foods and Drugs acts - an act meant to protect consumers and increase consumer choice and confidence in the food and drugs they purchased. A hundred years later, now that we have one of the safest food supplies in the world, many consumers sneer at all food regulations. (That apply to them, anyway, now that they're trying to start up that goat farm they always dreamed about and discovered how complicated and expensive it is to follow all the rules).

If someone is trying to sell you something, how can you be anything but wary if when say, 'We don't need to be regulated. Just trust us.'

Well, do I know what I'm doing?

2011-03-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

The ever-vigilant Yesbiscuit recently linked to an article which contained some comments from the ASPCA about transport rescues:

“The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals plans to have standards and guidelines on transports by the end of the year, covering issues from veterinary care to making sure animals aren’t being driven hundreds of miles when adoptive homes can be found nearby.

“A single dog in a car is probably manageable, but anything more than that you need to know what you’re doing,” President Ed Sayres said.” (Emphasis mine).

Here's a photo from a seven hour long for-fun road trip my husband and I took last weekend:

We didn't crate them for travel. I only have one crate right now. One and a half if you count the broken one that sits in the corner of the bedroom. It works to contain my well-behaved adult dog at night for sleepy times, but would fall apart if subjected to the stresses of car travel. Plus, it's more fun for them to look out the window. Doggy seatbelts would the best, and one day I will buy them for my dogs. One day.

We left them in the car alone while we ate lunch at a restaurant. This is a big no-no for many people, but I see no harm in it on a cool day.

The two puppies made an attempt about once an hour to climb into the front seats (easily fixed with judicious use of elbows); we had two instances of car-sickness; and towards the end of the day some bouts of crankiness that resolved themselves. They also got to spend their whole day with people (which they seem to, for some reason, enjoy), run around in four different parks (during which we lost 0 dogs, even though Buddy's recall is only about 50%); track approximately 8 tons of mud into the car, and boy did they all sleep well that night.

So, do I 'know what I'm doing'? Would I be given permission from the ASPCA to save the lives of dogs by driving them somewhere?

I mean, is this seriously rocket science? Maybe the ASPCA is unclear on the concept. Here, let me clear it up:

STEP 1: Put dogs in vehicle.
STEP 2: Drive the vehicle somewhere.
STEP 3: Give the dogs to someone who isn't going to kill them.

It still bothers me

2011-03-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

I think Nathan Winograd should read this.

It continues to blow my mind that an otherwise apparently compassionate, intelligent person thinks invasive species are just hunky-dory.

From a hike we took last month

2011-03-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Juvenile bald eagle:

Pouncy dog:

Another Foster Dog

2011-03-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

It turns out I'm a sucker for that whole, "don't want this puppy anymore, you take him or I'll have him euthanized" method of becoming a foster home.

Buddy is about 7 months old. He gets along with adults, children, other dogs, and cats. He walks nicely on leash, is crate trained, and mostly house trained. His favorite pastimes include cuddling on the couch, playing with other doggy friends, and making goofy faces. He'll be up for adoption from Mikey's Chance very soon. Get in line now, folks.

On a different note, this was the place where I was going to complain about having three medium to large sized dogs in an apartment. How crowded it was. Then my co-worker told me about a conversation she had recently with a homeless person she met at a gas station in town. He cares for two dogs, one of which just gave birth to a litter of puppies. They all live in a tent by the river.

Yeah. No more complaining about my spacious, central air-equipped, 2-bedroom living space.

Updates on Sammy

2011-03-06T19:40:00.001-08:00

1) House training is going slowly. It's my fault. The last time I house trained a puppy, we had a sliding glass door to a fenced yard. Contrast the second it takes to slide open a door, with being in a second story apartment where going out to potty involves putting on shoes, coat and leash. I don't know how permanent city-dwellers do it. It doesn't help that I'm spoiled by Zelda the Perfect Angel.

2) I keep doing this thing where I forget that Sammy is missing a limb. I mean, I always know intellectually. But sometimes I'll be watching her play or run or just stand still and I'll be almost startled, 'Whoa, this dog of mine only has three legs! Weird.'

3) I called her former owner and got a little more information about where she came from. She is a bona fide ranch dog of the type that I keep running into around here (and that I plan to do more writing about later). They're working dogs, mostly used with cattle. When asked what breed they are, the owners say "border collie". When asked what they are, the owners say "cowdog". They don't go to trials or shows, so they are never registered with any breed registry. In fact when I asked the rancher if Sammy's parents or grandparents were registered anywhere, he laughed a little and said, "oh no, I don't have show dogs. She's a homegrown working dog".

This is what I know of her pedigree: both parents and at least all four grandparents were working cowdogs. Her dam lives on a neighboring ranch and Sammy's previous owner has owned Sammy's sire since he was a puppy. He apparently is an aggressive, hard-eyed dog who is especially good at heading the cattle and holding them away from the timber when they're at open-range summer pasture in the mountains.

It's really too bad Sammy won't be a real working dog like her relatives. Though I'm sure if she had to choose between being a dead collie and being a condo* collie, she'd choose the latter.

*though if all goes well, we'll only be in this apartment for another year or two.

Anecdotal Pit Bull #15

2011-03-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

I forget her name. She is a 2 year old pit bull/heeler mix who came in to be spayed. She's a family pet, and has a child to play with at home. In the clinic she was nervous and kept tail tucked. Until I took her outside for a potty walk, then she relaxed and started bouncing up and wanting to play.

I think this is irony

2011-03-06T17:08:00.001-08:00

My pet cat knocked my National Geographic off the table, and then scratched and pissed on the (excellent) article about animal domestication.

Another Sunrise

2011-02-24T11:50:00.000-08:00

I know this can get old. But hey, it's not my fault this place has so many beautiful sunrises.

A Trip to Gramma's

2011-02-22T21:15:00.000-08:00

It's not every day your gramma celebrates her 90th birthday. It's an event we couldn't miss. We traveled on the west side of the Cascades on the way down, and on the east side on the way up. Tom, amazingly, drove the entire way, even after the gagillionth time I had him pull over for a photo op.

The scenery:

Somewhere in the Siskiyou Mountains, CA

Windmills near Wasco, OR

Near Butte Valley, CA

Lone shack near Shaniko, OR

The wildlife:

Great egret, near Woodland, CA

Whitetail deer, Hidden Valley Lake, CA

Abscessed(?) deer, Hidden Valley Lake, CA. Ouchy.

Wild turkeys, Hidden Valley Lake, CA

Pronghorn near Culver, OR

Hawk which I'm not going to try to identify right now, near Kent, OR

Pair of bald eagles chillin' near Klamath Falls, OR

Elk near Clearlake, CA

OK, this isn't wildlife. But this photo was taken while we were going 70 MPH down the freeway, so I get some kind of credit for timing, right?

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #12, 13, 14, and Bonus

2011-02-22T19:21:00.000-08:00

I forget her name. She's a 8 month old American pit bull terrier, brought in by her owner to treat some skin issues. She was very friendly, and pretty mellow. I had to hold her down while the vet painfully scraped her skin in muliple places. She struggled a little but otherwise didn't complain.

Number 13 has no photo because I was too busy to take one. I'll include it in this little series of mine because he was very clearly a "pit bull type" dog and I spent some time handling him. Teko is a white, 7 year old female spayed "pit bull mix" brought in for an annual exam and vaccines. Her owner, a local rancher, has owned her since she was a puppy. She was quite nervous, and when I came out to the waiting room and made brief eye contact with her, she ducked under the bench. When we lifted her onto the examine table, she started shaking slightly and didn't stop until we were done. Despite that, she never acted aggressive or attempted to bite.

Number 14 also has no photo for the same reasons. His owner brought him in to treat a persistent cough. He's a 6 year old, unaltered male American pit bull terrier with a ridiculously and disproportional large head. White with brindle spots. He was very happy and friendly to everyone. He obviously was untrained and not used to being forced to hold still, (and and 65 lbs of pure muscle, difficult to hold as well) but at no point did I feel unsafe holding him.

And here's the Bonus! This is a list of all the patients at this clinic that are listed in our computer records as "American pit bull terrier". The total number: 268. This does not include "American Staffordshire terrier", "Staffordshire bull terrier", "pit bull mix", any dogs whose owners didn't bother giving us a breed, nor any of the boxer, lab, and bull dog mixes that would be targeted by breed specific legislation under the right circumstances. The search program isn't used very often and seems to be buggy, also I don't have time (or permission) to do some really good digging into breed numbers. But I'd like to. But in the meantime, this should give some pretty compelling preliminary (and anecdotal) evidence that "pit bull type" dogs are popular pets.

Gotta run

2011-02-16T21:43:00.000-08:00

I've been even quieter than usual around here lately. I just got back from a radiology class in Portland. I now have 100% more training than a TSA agent in how to use an x-ray machine. Whoo! Now I'm off to California for my gramma's 90th birthday party. Try not to miss me too much.

Also, another sunrise

2011-02-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

The Saga of the Nummy Feather

2011-02-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

Why can't we just let 'em be?

2011-02-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

Image: English ivy devours a forest in Portland, Oregon

I have a treat for you tonight, dear readers. An internet exclusive. I am happy to share this original song written, composed, performed, and recorded by Tim Karplus. My brother-in-law is a talented musician with a background in science and a quirky sense of humor. It's hard to beat that combination.

I could rant 'til I'm red in the face about the horrors of invasive species. Funny how putting it into simple song has so much more impact.

May it move closed minds and hearts where facts and logic have not.

Click here to listen.

(If you're using Internet Explorer, it will probably ask you to download. I'm sorry that you use a browser that sucks eggs).

Lyrics:

Invasive species
Why won't we let 'em be?
Invasive species
Don't seem so bad to me

If they can outcompete and beat our native plants
Then I won't miss them
But what about that delicate balance
Our ecosystem?

Invasive species
Why won't we let 'em be?
'Cause they're a threat to
Biodiversity

English holly and Scotch broom
Tree Ivy leaves no room
For all the native plants
Thank you in advance
For making their home their home again

Invasive species
Why won't we let 'em be?
'Cause they're a threat to
Biodiversity

Invasive species
Why won't we let 'em be?
'Cause they're a threat to
Biodiversity

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #11

2011-01-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

Four-month-old intact male "pit bull type" dog. Came in for vaccinations. Acted like a friendly puppy. The end.

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #10

2011-01-27T07:58:00.000-08:00

Being only 8 weeks old, Tiga (a "pit bull" according to his owner) hasn't had time to eat any faces yet. He's more into licking them. Owners brought him in to get vaccinated and to x-ray his front paws, which are growing funky.

That's it. Ho hum.

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #9

2011-01-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

Gracie is owned by one of the vet techs here at work. Her breeding is unknown, but she is obviously a "pit bull type" dog. She has the most woeful looks. In this photo, she is having her anal glands expressed, so the look is justified. She seems to like all people, even after they poke their fingers in her bottom. She is always happy to come to the clinic and say hi to everyone. She shares her home with another dog, and they get along alright, despite Gracie being food and toy aggressive.

Somehow, she's managed to never kill or maul anyone, despite being a "pit bull" under adverse conditions such as those pictured above.

You might be a cowdog if...

2011-01-25T07:34:00.000-08:00

Your collar is made from twine and a cow ear tag.

Blog Meme Sunday

2011-01-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I just feel like it.

Ten Things I've Done That You (probably) Haven't:

1) Went to Disneyland during the LA riots. The lines for rides were very short.

2) Held both of Linus Pauling's Nobel Prizes in my hands (solid gold is very heavy, btw).

3) Made authentic Scottish haggis from scratch, starting with a live sheep.

4) Shook hands with an 800-year-old mummy (at the suggestion of the crypt's curator).

5)Visited the same English castle 5 times in a 6 month period.

6) Lived in a university dorm originally built in the 1930's to house a mental hospital.

7) Discovered one of only a handful of known specimens of rare conk (while helping a botanist. search for a different rare species of conk in a remote wilderness).

8) Chopped off 18 inches of my hair in one sitting.

9) Drove through the middle of a forest fire to pick up a paratrooper firefighter and bring him to the Forest Service basecamp.

10) Flew over my university campus in a 1920's biplane.

Sunrise and Cloud Shadow

2011-01-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is straight from the camera, no editing except to crop. ISO is too high, but whatcha gonna do. Try better next time.

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #8: blast from the past

2011-01-18T09:02:00.000-08:00

I met Sissy a couple years ago. She was a 2ish-year-old, 35 lb, spayed female "pit bull type" dog (her cage card read "lab/pit bull mix") that I walked several times at the shelter. She liked people. Not very cuddly, but definitely friendly with everyone she met. She had a lot of energy and liked to play fetch. Pulled on the leash pretty bad. She got out twice a day, but being in a kennel most of the time probably didn't help.

All in all, a very average dog. She was adopted by a family. Kind of a boring story, huh? Guess that's why these sorts of stories about pit bulls don't make it to the media.

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #5, 6, and 7: My old neighborhood

2011-01-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

The neighborhood I lived in for several years while I worked at OSU had a lot of dogs. First and foremost, was Tango, who I always think of when I picture the ideal family dog. He is around 5 years old, neutered, and about 70 lbs. He is one of those mellow, well-behaved dogs that sort of becomes a background fixture; part of the soul of a neighborhood. He is often found lounging off-leash in his family's front yard, yet he never runs loose or causes any trouble. He just likes to survey his kingdom. He's good with all people, children, and other animals. He adored Zelda. He was one of the many reasons I was sad to move away from that neighborhood.

He is unequivocally a "mixed breed", yet in may cities with BSL, he would be labeled a "pit bull type". Other dogs with similar looks have been targeted before.

Number 6 is Baby. She and Tango are a study in contrasts. When I knew her, she was about a year old, maybe 40 lbs, unspayed, and completely untrained. Her owners lived several houses down, and for some reason thought that she'd stay in the yard, even though she was a untrained puppy and there was no fence. She used to run all over town, and learned quickly to run from people because they'd catch her and spoil her fun. I was one of those people, but I used Zelda as bait and lured her into the house and caught her multiple times. Once caught, Baby was very friendly and loved attention from people. She wasn't great with other dogs, and she and Zelda had words more than once, but nothing serious. I don't know what happened to her.

Number 7 I have no photo, nor did I ever learn her name. She was a muscular "pit bull type" dog that a family got as a young puppy. Maybe once a week the kids would play with her, which she absolutely loved. But she spent most of her time chained to a tree in the backyard barking at everything. She once got out of the yard and ran at me and Zelda as we were walking by. She didn't seem to know what to do; she barked, growled, cowered, play bowed, rolled on her back, sniffed noses and butts with Zelda, and otherwise acted unsocialized and under stimulated. She mostly ignored me except for a sniff of the hand and a brief wag of the tail. Then the owners came out of the house and hauled her back to her tree. That was my only interaction with that particular dog.

Sammy 10 days post surgery

2011-01-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

She's healing up well. No trouble adjusting to three legs.

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #4

2011-01-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

My friend's dog, Emma, is a 3ish spayed female pit bull/cattle dog mix adopted from a shelter. She hasn't come into the clinic I work at. She's just one of the many "pit bull type" dogs that I know that just act like... dogs. She's a joy to be around, very goofy and cuddly. An excellent pet.

She loves all people. Dogs, she's not so great with. Not too bad, but not great. She has her favorites that she likes to play with, but she and Zelda just sort of tolerate each other when we go on walks together. Things can get tense when both dogs are in one or the other's house, but there have been no serious scraps.

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #3

2011-01-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

This is a 3-year-old, spayed female American Pit Bull Terrier. Her family brought her to the clinic for annual exam and vaccinations. Nothing remarkable. She acted very outgoing and happy. She didn't complain about being stuck with needles.

(An explanation).

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #2

2011-01-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

This 70 lb, 2-year-old intact male "pit bull type" dog (we later learned he's a lab/pit bull mix) escaped his fenced yard, was hit by a car and brought into the clinic by a good Samaritan. Though luckily no bones were broken, he had a concussion and road rash all over his body. Despite acting confused, fearful, and painful, he never showed any aggression as we poked, prodded, and manhandled him. Luckily, he and his owner were reunited the same day and he went back home with his family. The owner says he's a great, mellow, family dog and loves his young daughter. He said he was so worried when he came home to an empty yard and was very grateful to have his pet back.

For an explanation of what I'm doing here, read this.

The Anecdotal Pit Bull #1

2011-01-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

Inspired by my recent discovery of the assinine policies of my neighbors to the north, I've decided to start a new series on this here blog. I think I'll call it "The Anecdotal Pit Bull". I'll snap a cameraphone picture of a "pit bull type" dog, and describe its behavior while in the clinic.

I've encountered so many pits and pit mixes in the dog park, while volunteering at the shelter, and now at work, that I keep forgetting how bad their reputation is out there, even among people who ought to know better.

Pit bulls are just dogs. Not monsters. Not angels. Dogs. Despite the diversity in dogs as a species, (and despite the face that we all have our favorite breeds that we like to convince ourselves are unique), they are all of them, as individuals, more alike than they are different. If breed looks and behavior were drafted on a ven diagram, it would be a haze of overlapping circles, no clear definitions anywhere.

Lazy thinking, media bias, and reactionary, self-serving politics lead to some breeds being characterized as practically another species. Super Dog, or something. For various reasons, "pit bull type" dogs are the most popular to hate-on currently. This angers me. I don't even particularly LIKE pit bull terriers or Safforshires. They're fine dogs, they're just not in my top ten favorite breeds. Though I certainly wouldn't mind having a pit or mix as a pet someday.

No, I feel the need to defend them because I like all dogs in general. I also dislike busy-bodies, sloppy thinking, poor science, politicians, and racism. Which are, of course, all the things that breed specific legislation is all about.

Stories like Sadie's piss me off. A lot.

In that light, here's my first post on pit bulls that I encounter. Sadie.

Sadie is a purebred American Staffordshire terrier. One of the breeds often included in breed specific legislation. She's a "pit bull type" dog.

Sadie was raised in a family environment, but somehow ended up living with a scumbag the last couple years. He abused and neglected her until recently when my friend took her away from all that. Despite that, she still greets strangers happily, even eagerly. She was brought into the clinic to treat her skin allergy and dirty ears. This involved strangers manhandling her onto her side and holding her there for over 10 minutes while her ears were cleaned. She showed obvious signs of discomfort and resisted being laid down (as most dogs do). At no point did she act aggressive, or even fearful. The best description is probably "annoyed but resigned".

Sadie's just a dog, one of many I encounter on a daily basis. She was easier than average to work with. And she's a pit bull. Whoop-dee-do.

I really hope this series doesn't overwhelm my blog. I deal with so many pit-looking dogs I probably have enough fodder for every day of the week. (They're popular pets in this area). I may have to start doubling up.

Another resounding success from breed specific legislation

2011-01-13T18:03:00.001-08:00

My friend and coworker recently rescued Sadie from abuse and neglect. Like many dogs in her situation, she'd had a good start in life, but had fallen into ignorant and non-dog-savvy hands the last couple years. Hands that hit her and threw her against walls when she acted too "hyper".

Not able to keep her herself, my friend put up an ad in Craigslist. Like many dogs in her situation, Sadie still, for some reason, loved all people she met, especially children. Within a few hours, she had an email from a family that sounded perfect. Big fenced yard, kids to play with, a mom who had grown up with pit bulls and loved the breed (who had, in fact, been searching Petfinder and Craigslist for months looking for just the right pit bull for her family). My friend arranged a meeting and it went wonderfully. Sadie loved the kids, the kids loved her; the mom said this was exactly the dog they were looking for.

A perfect, happy ending for a nice family dog, right?

Two days later the new owner, being a responsible pet owner, took Sadie in to get licensed by the city. It was then she was informed by an animal control officer that the city she lived in has special rules for dogs with short hair and big heads. The family was required to post a "dangerous dog" sign in front of their house. Sadie would have to be muzzled at all times when outside the home. Including in their own, fenced, yard. They are also never allowed off-leash; even in her own yard, she'd have to be muzzled and leashed or in a kennel not to exceed 6'x6'.

"And yes," the ACO told her, "we do keep tabs on them."

"Maybe," he added, "you shouldn't keep a face-biter around your kids anyway."

The mom called up my friend in tears and asked her to take Sadie back and find her a different home.

"I just can't stand the thought of confining her all the time like that. She can't even play in the backyard with my kids."

Good work, breed specific legislation. I'll sleep better tonight knowing I'm safe safe from a friendly family dog.

Certain things are inevitable

2011-01-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

It was fifteen minutes to closing time. Dr. M had been in the surgery room for 2 hours trying to set pins in the puppy's leg. It wasn't going well. An external fixator is difficult enough to set when the dog is an adult with a clean break. This was neither. Really, the owner should have taken the slightly more expensive option and taken her to a specialist to have the bones plated, but it was too late for that now.

He tried one more time to screw a pin in the tiny space of unbroken bone below the elbow joint. There was a soft but ominous crunching sound. Dr. M set down his tools, took off his gloves and left the room. I glanced at S, who had been monitoring the puppy throughout the surgery. I had just come into the room a few minutes ago to check out the surgery. All the end-of-day chores were finished a few minutes ahead of schedule and I was curious. "He going to call the owner?" I asked.

"Yep."

Dr. M returned in a few moments. "They want to euthanize."

S nodded and left to draw up the Euthasol.

"Why don't they just amputate?" I asked. "I've met quite a few perfectly happy three-legged dogs."

"So have I." He said, "in fact I even knew a three-legged working ranch dog. But this owner said he couldn't bear the sight of a crippled dog. He also said he's afraid the other dogs will pick on it."

S returned with a syringe filled with pink death, and a small body bag. She went to the end of the table and lifted the surgery drape to find the puppy's IV line. A soft, black nose appeared. Spotted around the edges, rounded in that way that 3-month-old puppy features are. Eyes shut, slow breaths fogging the tube. S started to insert the needle into the port. "Wait." I said, and turned to Dr. M. "How much would it cost to amputate?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Probably around a thousand, all told. Why? You thinking of buying yourself a dog?"

I bit my lip and looked at the spotted nose. "Yeah. Let's do it. Tom said he wanted a puppy anyway."

Dr. M grinned, "I'll call up the owner again."

An hour, eleven hundred dollars, and a bottle of Rimadyl later, and I've got myself a puppy.

I've known for a while that Tom and I would end up with another border collie. They're the kind of breed that becomes addictive. I never imagined the circumstances, though.

I gave Tom the honor of naming her. He chose "Samus", named for star character of the Metroid video game series (third most popular Nintendo franchise after Zelda, btw). In Metroid, Samus has a bionic laser canon instead instead of one of her arms.

We'll wait until Sammy is full grown before we fit her with her own laser canon. Those things are expensive. For now, she'll have to make do with her Border Collie Puppy Control Stare Of Cuteness(tm).

A new year's visitor

2011-01-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

Realizing that I've lived here nearly 5 months now without even so much as visiting the local shelter, I made it my 2011 goal to start volunteering again. So, I trolled Petfinder and sent out a few feeler emails to local rescues that looked promising. You know, variations of, 'hey, I'm new in town, I work full time and can't do much, but I can do x, just let me know, etc'.

Thirty minutes later, I got a reply from one that was basically: "Funny you should ask: we have urgent need for temporary foster home."

And I was all, "Sure, when?"

Them: "Tonight."

Me: "Um... OK, why not?"

So, the day before New Years Eve, Tuffy showed up at my door.

All I know about her history is that she's a 6-month-old Yorkie mix who's been in foster for 3-4 months. She's a very nice little dog. Quiet, sweet, cuddly but not too clingy, bold enough to play with Zelda, who tends to intimidate other dogs, but doesn't try to kill the cats.

We had a rough first night; Tuffy cowered under the couch and growled when we approached. We kept the dog and cats away and let her sit there for awhile, occasionally tossing treats which she ate eagarly enough. Eventually, I forced the issue and we had a gentle but firm discussion about how growling and nipping were not acceptable (during which she realized that these new people were not, in fact, going to eat her), and since then we've gotten on great. She is supposedly more shy of men, but has taken to Tom (it may have something to do with the bacon he keeps slipping her). I've been feeding her rice, ground beef and cottage cheese which she gobbles down. No stomach issues so far.

Not surprisingly, Tuffy already has several applications in to adopt her. The rescue is just waiting for her to get spayed and a few days to recover.

The rescue, by the way, is called Mikey's Chance. I really like what I see so far, even though they go in for the pet "overpopulation" rhetoric. I hope to foster for them again in the future.

The eighth wonder of the world

2010-12-28T21:01:00.000-08:00

Today I met an eighteen-year-old pug.

I know. It's the internet, you have no reason to believe me. I don't even have photo evidence. But I swear by the head of Horus it's true.

Interestingly, and possibly related to his longevity, he appeared to be poorly bred. And by 'poorly', I mean he has a waist, an incredibly long (for a pug) nose with an actual, distinguishable muzzle-like shape, and a lowish-set, barely-curled tail.

Other items of possible interest: he's had the same owners since he was a puppy, who have fed him various brands of kibble with occasional table scraps.

He is deaf and mostly blind, but what else do you expect from a creature who, according to our "age estimate" charts at work is, like, 500 in human years.

Winter Fun Times

2010-12-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

I'm just biased because I like cats

2010-12-12T00:13:00.000-08:00

When I was little, my dad came home with two female kittens he'd picked up from a neighbor's barn litter. I got to name them and, being two years old at the time, named one "Deedah" and the other "Neenah". They would be just about the only ones of our many, many cats for the next few years who would ever get names.

This would've been around 1986. Back then it never even occurred to my parents to allow cats in the house, let alone to take them to the veterinarian. The dogs got their yearly rabies shot and got to sleep in the the kitchen during a thunder storm, but even that was pushing it. Neenah and Deedah were never spayed, of course. By the time I was six or seven, we'd lost count of the exact number of their descendants cats we were feeding every night. It had to be at least thirty. We went through a lot of cat food, but it was the cheapest you could buy so we didn't mind.

It was common activity for me to dress up in long sleeves and heaving ski gloves and try to catch the kittens that always seemed to be in perpetual supply. Sometimes I'd catch one that didn't immediately try to rip my face off and I'd be delighted and would sneak it inside for a few hours to play. Later I realized these were probably the kittens that were so wormy and diseased they were too lethargic to fight.

If a cat got hit by a car, or got too sick from whatever disease was running through the population that week, dad would wait until my sister and I were distracted inside by a cartoon or something and then he'd shoot them with his .22 revolver and bury them next to the creek if they'd had a name or drop them in the trash if they didn't.

We didn't, you see, put much value on a cat. And most of our friends and neighbors in my small, rural town felt the same way.

Then, one day, my fourth grade class had a visit from a nice lady from a place called the "humane society". She brought in a dog that we got to pet, and handed out brochures for us to bring home to our parents, and told us about such strange things as "spaying" and "vaccinations" and "adopting pets". She didn't scold, she just... educated. I loved animals (what kid doesn't, really?). I couldn't have articulated it at the time, but I loved being shown a better way to care for them. I wanted to do the right thing for the creatures under my stewardship.

Coincidentally, this eye-opening lesson occurred about the same time that, through a combination of coyotes, horned owls, disease, and old age, we suddenly found ourselves with no more cats to feed. It took about a year of begging and wrangling, but my sister and I finally convinced dad to let us get some more cats. This time from the humane society.

When we adopted our kittens, we got even more pamphlets and brochures. We not only payed money to get the kittens (unheard of!), we spent more money to get them neutered and vaccinated. Suddenly, these animals had value. We worried about them getting sick, or running off, or getting eaten by a coyote. After more begging, they were allowed indoors whenever they wanted. They slept in our beds at night. They got a monthly flea treatment. And canned food. They had carefully-chosen names, and a file at the veterinarian with their picture on it. We started to take photos of them. (Seriously, I can count on one hand the number of photographs of Neenah and Deedah. Of Trouble and Henry, there are dozens).

They were valued members of the family. There were no more barn cats, and visiting strays became rare. Just a few years prior we'd had what could have been classified as a feral cat colony. A Problem with a capital P. Although we never seemed to have a shortage of songbirds, lizards, frogs, snakes or any of the other wildlife that feral cats are supposed to decimate, but that's just the layman's observation of a kid. (Albeit one who spent a lot of time around the property chasing and sometimes catching these critters). And it was directly a result of putting so little value on our pet cats. It wasn't because we didn't like them, it was plain old-fashioned ignorance.

I think I've made it clear that I'm a fan of the No-Kill movement. Some people dislike that it promotes Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) of feral cats. There are various arguments against TNR, some of them valid. I don't think it will work in all areas, but few people who promote TNR actually think that anyway. I think it would have worked well on my family's little colony, had we known about it back then. Some of the kittens could have made fine pets with a little socializing, the rest could have continued living their lives after being sterilized and died of natural causes (which is what they did anyway). Was it the best life a cat could have had? Heck no. Do I think they'd have preferred to live it than be dead? Yes. Did they kill wildlife? Yes. Did they decimate local wildlife populations? No.

TNR isn't perfect, but unfortunately, for most areas, it's the best we have. I think there are a few things that anti-TNR people still don't get:

1) No one (except maybe a few crazy cat people) want there to be any feral cats. Really. We all agree: ultimate goal for everyone = zero feral cats. But we have some now, so we have to deal with them. There aren't that many choices: it's pretty much TNR or death.

Which leads me to misconception 2) killing them isn't going to solve the feral cat problem. Period. Sorry, it just won't. Sure, it might work in some places in the short term (and based on the comments from frustrated bird-lovers, killing them is also satisfying in schadenfreude-like way), but long-term we are only going to stop producing feral cats if we as a society put more value on the cat in general (feral or not).

The anti-TNR stance has a common thread: there is an attitude that killing cats is "down to earth" and "realistic" versus the "rainbows and butterflies" of the crazy, fluffy-headed cat people who support TNR. Bullshit. You want to talk "realistic"? I forced my way through my husband's textbooks when he was getting his business degree. You don't get more "realistic" (or dry) than freaking economics. After all, it's become pretty clear by now that healthy, adoptable shelter animals in general are being killed because of no more than a marketing problem. Cats are no different. And if your ultimate goal is to increase customer perceived market value, it seems pretty stupid to publicly devalue your commodity to the point that you're trying to get taxpayers to pay to destroy it.

Realistic means you don't take the sort-term, momentarily satisfying action. It means taking the less-satisfying, more frustrating and difficult long view. That, to one degree or another, is going to involve a whole lot of TNR.

What could possibly go wrong?

2010-12-11T23:17:00.001-08:00

I really, really need to break my Craigslist habit. It's a scary place.

The Thanksgiving post I never wrote

2010-12-02T11:03:00.001-08:00

If you'd like to know why I disappeared for a week, I was in California visiting family. Lots and lots of family.

My sister writes about it all on her blog.

Celebrate Shelter Pets Day

2010-11-30T22:00:00.000-08:00

A man came into the clinic today with his dog Rex. There's a note at the bottom of Rex's chart. "Muzzle!!" (with two exclamation marks and highlighted in orange).

The warning was hardly necessary; Rex walked in the door growling and didn't stop until his owner carried him out 15 minutes later. Eyes bugging out of his head, he shook, he cowered, he tried to climb inside his owner's jacket, he lunged when we got too close.

The owner was very patient with Rex, holding him gently but firmly so we could work on him. He told us Rex is a wonderful dog at home. He just suffered abuse when younger and is now very wary of strangers. When with those he trusts, he's a normal, happy dog.

"I wouldn't trade him for the world," he said.

I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if Rex had ended up in a typical animal shelter instead of with this family. He probably wouldn't even have been given a chance to fail a "temperament test"; he'd have been killed after the first, fearful growl. Assuming that he'd take too much time and effort to rehab, he'd have probably been killed to make room for something considered more easily adoptable.

Luckily, Rex never had to go through the shelter system. A family gave him a chance, and that's all he needed.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except it seemed a good occasion for yet another endorsement of the No-Kill Movement. It's perfectly understandable why a shelter worker used to working under the old system would write off a dog like Rex, or spend time focusing on the abusers of his past instead of his prospects for the future. What I like about No-Kill is he would have a better chance to become that pet that someone wouldn't trade for the world.

The Omnivore's Dilema

2010-11-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

I finished this book awhile ago. Here are some things that have been percolating in my mind. (Yes, I'm the type that highlights and puts tabs in my books.)

Page 7: "...linking us, through what we eat, to the fertility of the earth and the energy of the sun."

One of the more memorable learning moments I had when I was little was my dad explaining that everything we eat and use ultimately was either dug out of the earth or grown on top of it. It's obvious when you think about it, but it was a profound moment for my little brain.

Page 23: "...indeed, there is every reason to believe that corn has succeeded in domesticating us."

Hah hah, yes.

Page 55: the author describes BT corn as "corn genetically engineered to produces its own pesticide"

A technically correct but loaded description. He must know well that 99% of his audience considers 'pesticide' a bad, scary word. Inserting BT genes into corn should be at the bottom of our list or worries about risks from chemicals or industrial agriculture, and it doesn't deserve all the bad press it gets. The BT toxin is practically non-toxic for humans. Which can't be said for most other pesticides used on food crops. It doesn't deserve to be lumped together with the other pesticides we use. It can even be used in organic agriculture.

Page 63: "Cargill is the biggest privately held company in the world."

holy shit, didn't know that.

Page 69: Pollan drily describes the begining life of a beef steer. Although his description is dry, his disapproval of the impersonal nature (not just the pain) is implied.

Some things bother me about farming animals, some don't: AI doesn't bother me (heck, some cows would probably prefer it, given a choice), not giving animals true names doesn't bother me; you could argue that it's the first step on a slipperly slope of thinking of living, breathing, thinking creatures as objects that can't feel pain, but I knew plenty of 4H kids growing up who named their steers "Burger" and "T-bone" and names didn't seem to make a difference in the (excellent) quality of care.

Page 71: the cattle rancher in South Dakota tells the author that in his grandfather's day, slaughter age for a cow was 4 or 5 years old, in the '50's it was 2-3, and now it's 14-16 months.

Page 126: Reading the description of Polyface farm - 100 acres that produces an abunadance of food (both plant and animal) in harmony with nature.

A good place to start with revamping our food system is to have more farms like this. Now, please.

Page 132: "If I said I was organic, people would fuss at me for getting feed corn from a neighbor who might be using atrazine...There are a whole lot more variables in making the right decision than does the chicken feed have chemicals or not."

I love Polyface farm. I have a rant on "organic" standards.

Page 139: he describes ultrapasteurization as "a high-heat process that damages [milk's] nutritional quality"

I quibble, sir. Where is your data on that, exactly?

Page 144: this 'brown foods' movement at the begining of the organic movement I've never heard of before. Intriguing.

Page 148: "...so that when the synthetic nitrogen fed to plants makes them more attractive to insects and vulnerable to disease... the farmer turns to chemical pesticides to fix his broken machine." and "on a healthy farm pests would be no more prevalent than in a healthy wood or pasture".

Um, no. Farmers have been using pesticides to reduce crop loses for thousands of years. We've always been (and always will be) in competition with bugs and weeds for our food, and will always need some kind of pest control. Industrial agriculture may be worse, (and as much as I support the idea of holistic farming) but I don't buy it that 'nature' will take care of all things. Nature is a bitch, and her only goal is to keep balance. Trying to grow any kind of crop represents an unbalance of delicious food, which will always bring the pests to eat it. No matter how healthy your soil and robust your micro ecosystem.

Page 156: Pollan sums up Kahn's philosophy about industrial organic: "If the consumer wants an organic Twinkie, then we should give it to him."

Page 157: the description of Horizon Organic milk's dairy farm in Idaho: thousands of dairy cows milling around a dry lot eating 'organic' feed shipped in from thousands of miles away and collecting manure in ponds.

Yep. The public asked for an organic twinkie, and they got it, didn't they.

Also, the excuses of Horizon's execs about why they must farm dairy cows this way just makes me roll my eyes. Tillimook Cheese Factory milks thousands of cows every day, and they do it with pastures and grazing cows and without an organic label. Tillamook easily falls under the definition of 'industrial' farming yet they keep a small farm feel. If they can do it, so can others.

Page 164: He has a point about industrial organic. It's not perfect, and there are far too many compromises, but if nothing else it's better than before. Just that one large company in California has 25,000 organic acres, probably eliminating 270,000 lbs of pesticide and 8,000,000 lbs of petrochemical fertilizer.

Illustration of the Day

2010-11-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

(by: Jonathon Bartlett via: illustrationmundo)

Because it's Saturday

2010-11-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

For no particular reason, here's a list of my favorite blogs.

I have over 300 feeds in my RSS reader. But since I do, in fact, have a life away from the internets, I'm always way behind on reading them all. The blogs listed below are the ones which, when I see there is a new post up, I click on it immediately instead of saving for later or skimming.

In no particular order:

SmartDog's Weblog

I go there for the animal welfare talk, and the fascinating observations about dog behavior. Also: working dogs.

Raised by Wolves

Dogs. Nature. Etc. Yay! Also, she has a small farm that I'm totally jealous of. One day, I'll get out of this apartment...

Desert Wind Hounds

Quirky artists living in the middle of nowhere with a huge pack of dogs. Quick with the snark, and we all know I love the snark, especially when it's directed at anti-science.

Retrieverman's Weblog

Dogs, breed history, dog training snark, weird animals, etc.

Borderwars

I go there for the breed history and to learn about the weird clashes between the different types of Border Collie owners/breeders.

Tea with the Squash God

A quirky and funny artist and writer. She is my inspiration.

The SkeptVet Blog

The description sums it up well: "A vet takes a science-based look at complementary and alternative medicine". I have no idea why this blog isn't more popular. She writes well, her posts are detailed, and she cites sources!

3 Woofs and a Woo

Because sometimes this blog makes me laugh until tears stream down my face.

Fugly Horse of the Day

She does it all, puts her money where her mouth is, and doesn't take shit from nobody.

YesBiscuit!

In my head, I think of her as the Queen of Shelter Reform Writing.

For the Pitbulls

Speaking of walkin' the walk, this blogger is a vegan who actually works for a farm animal sanctuary. She writes cognizantly about animal welfare, shelter reform, and the stupidity of dog breed bias. I don't agree with everything she says, but where would we be if we only read things we agreed with?

The Big Picture

Photo essays of world events. Consistently jaw-dropping photography.

Whatever

Because Scalzi is a good writer. I own most of his novels.

ERV

Most of her posts about her virus research goes over my head, but I don't care. When she gets her snark on for anti-science, (and occasionally dog breed bias, too!) it is a wonder to behold.

Thus Spake Zuska

You'll notice a trend of no-nonsense, humorous woman writers on my fave list. Here's another. She brings us wisdom from the land of science, the Ivory Tower(tm), and feminism.

On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess

See above. She's a Big Scientist at a Big University and she rocks.

Stonekettle Station

A retired Navy Chief Warrant Officer living in Alaska snarks about politics.

And of course, my sister's blog about her medical school experience

I took a class on that in college

2010-11-18T22:26:00.000-08:00

Of all the memorable quotes from my flamboyantly gay college evolutionary biology professor one sticks out in my memory. The first day of class, he told us that giant pandas are going extinct. There's no way to save them now. It's too late, their genetic diversity has, and I quote, "gone to shitte" (he was British). They're not only being coddled in captivity away from natural selection, but we've imposed a genetic bottleneck that will be impossible for them to live through as a species. It might make us feel good to breed a few pandas every year to gawk at in zoos, but as a viable, wild species they est kaput.

In case you weren't aware, there's currently a bit of a kerfluffle happening in an internet microme about genetic diversity in dogs, lack thereof, and the consequences (or denial of consequences) of inbreeding. It's interesting on many levels, not the least of which is the social aspect of the relationships among and between dog breeders and breed-lovers.

What facinates me about this current 'debate' is the tendancy for the "pro-inbreeding" crowd to treat dogs as if they are a special case in nature.

"Inbreeding depression" is a thing. It is a well-studied phenomenon. It has the name it does for a reason. Why are breeders trying to deny that it can effect dogs, too?

Others have already said this, but it bears repeating: You can't inbreed your way to a healthier population. You can't even maintain a species if it's genetic diversity becomes too compromised, even if you have enough individual animals to breed with. That's why the pandas are screwed.

It's apparently a common belief among dog breeders that you can somehow improve the breed by removing diversity. This doesn't make sense. If you fart in a sealed room, you can't make the smell go away by farting more. You open a window for new air.

Likewise, the fear of outcrossing confuses me. Why is this even a debate? The dalmatian outcross project is the most obvious example of the potential of this time-honored breeding technique. And yet even that raving success story, instead of inspiring other breeders to follow suit, is met with fear and revulsion.

If a new, untouched wild population of pandas or condors, or whatever, was discovered, conservation biologists would be peeing themselves in glee to have new genes to add to their captive breeding program. And here we are with domestic dogs, throwing away genetic diversity left and right, even when there are proven alternatives. All my science-loving brain can say is, "WTF?"

help me out, o internets

2010-11-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

I swear I've seen out there, a term for a person who enters into any internet disagreement and all they have to add to the discussion is "well, both sides of this debate are stubborn and won't compromise". As if there were two, equal sides, as if there were a rational debate going on, or as if it was all a matter of opinion. Subtlety, gray area, and so forth are too much for this type of person so they throw up their hands and go for a simplistic view of the issue that also allows them to feel superior to everyone else involved in the discussion.

See also, "you all are just playing the blame game, while the (whatever) are suffering!" and then refuse to provide concrete solutions that will help (whatever).

Can you remind me of this term? It's something humorous, something you might find on a skeptic's bingo card.

I'd appreciate it.

the lost files of summer

2010-11-03T18:38:00.001-07:00

We got Zelda a life vest. Because, while she is an earnest swimmer, she has little body fat and a very short coat. A labrador she is not, and her hind end sinks alarmingly far under the surface when she swims. Also, a life vest means I didn't feel bad about coaxing her to jump off a dock for my amusement.

Vintage photographs of working dogs

2010-11-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of the Flickr Commons.

(Click on a photo to go learn more)

Huskies pulling sledge in the first Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914

Tracker dogs and handlers, 1967. Used to sniff out Viet Cong fighters during the Vietnam war.

The caption reads, in part:
"Informal portrait of 3133 Corporal James Coull with dogs of No. 3 Messenger Dog Section. Left to right: War Dog 103 Nell, a Cross Setter; 102 Trick, a Collie; 101 Buller (sometimes referred to as Bullet), an Airedale. All three dogs were very efficient in message carrying and saw service with the 2nd, 4th and 5th Australian Divisions, also with Divisions of the British 8th Corps (Imperial). 102 Trick was particularly efficient and was well known by all Brigades of abovenamed Divisions. He was specially mentioned by Signal Officer of 2nd Division for good work at Rubimont, near Heilly"

Remember how last post I was saying how Brave Dog stories choked me up? Yeah. The description of the duties of messenger dogs in WWI does that to me.

Here's another photo of a trio of dogs with their handler, with another interesting description.

"A British soldier holds three dogs which were trained to carry messages between the lines and command during World War I. Usually the dogs had been strays, so one particular breed of dog could be not preferred. Generally, however, traditional working breeds, such as collies, retrievers, or large terriers, were chosen for messenger work. Messenger dogs were based in sectional kennels near the front lines. On average each sectional kennel had 48 dogs and 16 handlers, a ratio that indicates how important the dogs' work was at the front. Before being shipped to France the dogs were trained at the War Dog Training school in Shoeburyness."

some confusing links for a confusing week

2010-11-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

"Meat... you're right in liking it"

How to naturally sweeten your milk

Goat bagpipe

How to pet a kitty

I can't believe I missed this earlier

2010-11-02T20:21:00.001-07:00

Dogs in science fiction. Two of my favorite things, better together.

Well, OK, it rarely is good together. Animals in general, and dogs in particular, tend to get short shrift in fiction. Especially movies. They're usually used as cheap plot/character development (where human character develops by the dog's death), and/or nothing but symbols for something that doesn't involve them being real animals. I wish they would make more Dean Koontz books into movies. He reliably has the dog not only play an important role in the plot, but live at the end.

On a side note, when we went to see I Am Legend in the theater, I started crying at least ten minutes before the dog actually died. I could see it coming a mile away. And nothing chokes me up faster than a Brave Dog story, true or not.

that's unexpected

2010-11-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I gave Zelda her monthly heartworm pill. It was the last of the supply I brought with me from our last vet before we moved. Like the dutiful pet owner I am, I went to my new vet (now also my employer) and asked to buy some more.

"We don't sell anything for heartworm. We could special order it for you, though."

What?! Heartworm preventative is one of those things, y'know? Everyone who's a good pet owner keeps up on preventative, right? It's almost as basic as food and water. It doesn't make sense that a vet won't sell it.

Except here it does, it turns out. There is no heartworm. Google "heartworm map" and this is what you get:

I live in a white zone. I didn't even know there were white zones. Anywhere. It never occurred to me to look or ask. It's freakin' heartworm.

I'm still having trouble wrapping my brain around it.

Oh, and I will be special ordering some. We travel to some of those pink and orange areas often enough. All it takes is one mosquito bite.

maybe it's just your 'culture'

2010-10-31T22:36:00.000-07:00

Look, while it's all well and good to make a clear statement like, "If you think that everyone who is Mexican sucks, you're an asshat", it loses all meaning if you then go on to basically say "Mexicans suck because..." and then go and allow and even somewhat encourage others to say similar things in your comment thread.

See also: "I knew a Mexican once who did (something bad). It's therefore logical and totally non-racist that I now don't trust any Mexicans and feel the need to share this story anytime anything Mexican-related is brought up."

I'm sure it's fun to pick on the Amish and Native Americans, too, but can we maybe not do that anymore? Thanks. Glad we cleared that up.

Agility trial results

2010-10-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

We qualified for three out of seven runs and ended up with 1st in Novice Regular, 3rd in Novice Weavers, and 4th in Novice Jumpers. This without practicing at all in three months. Yay, ribbons!

We would have had a 1st in the other Jumpers course, but we went off-course and didn't Q. Even taking an extra jump, Zelda had the fastest time of the entire Novice group for that course.

And, even better than ribbons, Zelda had a perfect down stay the whole weekend.

And this is a blurry but humorous photo of my dog in action. She loves the jumps almost as much as the tunnels.

The Halloween Hat: A Photo Essay in Three Parts

2010-10-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

Part I: Paranoia

Part II: Irritation

Part III: Resignation

Sweet banjo riff + iguana

2010-10-22T10:48:00.001-07:00

My favorite song this week:

I'm off to an agility trial. Wish us luck.