Time to Eat the Dog

New Zealand’s Dominion Post published an ‘interesting’ opinion piece today on the supposedly dire environmental impacts posed by pet keeping.

Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, say pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits, in their provocative new book Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living.

The couple have assessed the carbon emissions created by popular pets, taking into account the ingredients of pet food and the land needed to create them.

“If you have a German shepherd or similar-sized dog, for example, its impact every year is exactly the same as driving a large car around,” Brenda Vale said.

“A lot of people worry about having SUVs but they don’t worry about having Alsatians and what we are saying is, well, maybe you should be because the environmental impact … is comparable.”

Do you suppose that the Vales took into account the fact that most of the “meat” that goes into commercial dog food is byproducts that might otherwise go to waste?  Did they also take into account the fact that most pet owners (present company included) don’t buy a new set of dog beds, crates, bowls, leashes and kennels every time they get a new dog.

What next, a book on the merits of cannibalizing children?

It looks to me like these folks took a page from PeTA’s playbook, using shock tactics to promote themselves.  This is one dog-related book I won’t be buying.  In fact, I’m not even going to post a link to it.

Dog Tagging

We heard about a disturbing new trend in gang violence from a story published on BakersfieldNow earlier this month:

OILDALE, Calif. — A puppy was recently found tagged with red spray paint in an alley off Chester Avenue.

The puppy was found across from Sam Lynn Ballpark with the letters “O-A-E” sprayed on her side and a red strip sprayed down her back.

Michelle Lyon met the puppy Tuesday night when her neighbor brought her home.

“It’s appalling,” Lyon said. “We have so many animals dumped all the time, and we have so many graffiti problems in this area, and now we have them both in the same thing.”

Some people who live in the area where the puppy was found said this is the new trend in gang tagging. They said they see dogs and cats walking around with spray paint on them all the time.

Those residents spoke on condition of anonymity, because they said they fear the gang members responsible for the graffiti. They said the gang members tag animals to mark their territory.

Officials with the Bakersfield Police Department and the Kern County sheriff’s and animal control departments said they’re unaware of the problem. They said, however, that they wouldn’t expect to hear about it because of the fear of gangs.

Graffiti is as old as the written word and it’s a common sight in cities all over the world.  And dealing with problems like graffiti is a part of life for people that live in neighborhoods plagued by gang activity.  But until recently -  living creatures weren’t targets for these assaults defacement.

According to Alex Alonso (Gang Graffiti on the City Landscape), gang graffiti functions as a way to communicate sentiments, express group identity, and to dictate rules of their socially constructed places.  Alonso states:

Those who understand these spatial conquests of the landscape are able to identify the social and spatial order of a community. This even applies to non-gang youths of an area, who take it upon their own initiative to understand and respect these socially claimed places in an effort to safeguard themselves and to stay clear of gang conflict.

Imagine having gang members tag your pet with the signs they use to mark their territory.  Claiming a living member of your family as part of their turf.   The unfortunate people – and animals – who live in areas afflicted by gang activity live in a constant state of fear.  Threats and violence are a regular part of their daily existence.  It’s like living in a war zone.  And the problem is just getting worse…

The US Department of Justice reports:

Twenty years ago, fewer than half our cities reported gang activity. A generation later, 95 percent of our largest cities and 88 percent of smaller cities suffer gang-related crime. Eighty-nine percent of all cities recently reported that their gang problem was the same or getting worse. In one recent year, gangs committed more than 580,000 serious crimes.

These crimes exact a toll of tremendous physical and emotional pain from individuals, families, and entire communities. We are learning more about gangs and their activities, but know little about the individuals whose lives they so quickly and tragically change–the victims and survivors of gang violence. These victims face additional, special problems not confronted by most other crime victims.

There is one bit of good news in this story.  The tagged puppy, who was a stray, has found a new home.  But, like many other cities, Bakersfield’s gang problems continue to escalate.

Shut Up – Or Die?

Earlier this month ABC Australia reported a story about a man who was stabbed to death after complaining about his neighbor’s barking dog:

Joseph Durrant, 47, was fatally stabbed at Mount Pritchard in Sydney’s west after returning home from Australia Day celebrations in 2007.

He was attacked after making a comment about his neighbour Katrina Whitmore’s barking dog.

Whitmore has been sentenced to at least 10 years in jail after a jury found her guilty of murder.

Today the Milwauke Journal-Sentinal reports on an even more bizarre case of misplaced rage over barking:

Police say they believe a Madison woman stabbed her puppy because it wouldn’t stop barking, then she tried to stop the puppy from bleeding with super glue.

Madison Police left the 3-month-old German shepherd at a local emergency animal clinic. They arrested the 46-year-old woman.

Officers were called Sunday night to an apartment in the 1500 block of Trailsway St. According to an incident report, the woman officers eventually arrested claimed a male friend had stabbed the puppy, “Shep.”

The woman later told investigators that she was responsible, according to the report. She said “Shep” had been barking and yelping.

Officers found the bleeding puppy running in a hallway.

I don’t even know what to say about this. While the bitter, vindictive bitch in my can – at least in some way – understand taking out my rage on a chronically whiney neighbor.  There is no part of me that understands how a person – no matter how frustrated – could stab an innocent puppy because it barked too much.

Hello people – puppies bark.  They whine. If they’re like Audie they also moan, groan, chirp and sometimes speak in entire rambling paragraphs.  German shepherd puppies are prone to whining.  Especially when they’re kept cooped up in apartment buildings and not given enough supervision, training and EXERCISE.

The puppy is expected to recover.  Hopefully he’ll be rehomed with someone who understands that a knife isn’t the right tool to deal with excess barking.

Animal “Husbandry”

Hat tip to BluntObject who pointed me to a atort in today’s Miami Herald.    Apparently Florida is one of the few states where bestiality is not yet illegal.  In a laudable effort to change this and make it a third-degree felony to engage in sex with animals the state senate has drafted a new piece of legislation.  The authors of the legislation felt they needed to specify that conventional dog-judging contests and animal-husbandry practices are still permissible and the Herald reports:

That last provision tripped up Miami Democratic Sen. Larcenia Bullard.

”People are taking these animals as their husbands? What’s husbandry?” she asked. Some senators stifled their laughter as Sen. Charlie Dean, an Inverness Republican, explained that husbandry is raising and caring for animals. Bullard didn’t get it.

”So that maybe was the reason the lady was so upset about that monkey?” Bullard asked, referring to a Connecticut case where a woman’s suburban chimpanzee went mad and was shot.

While I’m certainly not above a bit of snickering at Sen. Bullard’s expense, I have to say that I find this little anecdote far more disturbing than amusing.  At first glance I thought that the FL senate was engaging in pointless nit-picking when they granted exceptions for conformation and husbandry practices.  But viewed in the dim light of a state senator’s staggering ignorance of very basic animal welfare issues, their disambiguation makes perfect sense.  In fact, now I’m left wondering if they went far enough.

Has modern urban society become so disconnected with the realities of the natural world that we need to worry that conformation judges will be arrested for checking testicles on long-coated dogs or that collecting semen for artificial insemination could lead to years in prison?  Inconceivable!

Heart-Warming Hype

The folks at Topps are cashing in on the inaugural feeding frenzy by issuing a first dog redemption card.  The limited edition card entitles the lucky holder to send it in for a card featuring the first dog.

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In another headline from the “this really wasn’t news to dog people” files.   The Telegraph reported this week that:

Researchers have found that when dog owners play with their pets they experience a burst in a hormone linked to infant care.

The hormone, called oxytocin, is also known as the “bonding” and “social” hormone and is involved in romantic love and friendship as well as child care.

Oxytocin also dampens stress, combats depression and breeds trust in humans.

[...]

The biologists Miho Nagasawa and Takefumi Kikusui, of Azuba University in Japan, carried out the research.

Mr Kikusui said that an increase in the hormone level could explain why playing with dogs can lift moods and even improve symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Not news flash!  Petting and other positive interaction with dogs makes us feel good!  But… do these things feel good to your dog too? 

Apparently they do.  Back in May 2003, J.S.J. Odendaal and R.A. Meintjes of Pretoria’s Life Sciences Institute pubished the results of a study on the neurochemicals of relaxation, pleasure and stress  in people and dogs before and after they behaved affectionately with each other.

Levels of  neurochemicals that indicate pleasure increased in both species after five to 24 minutes of petting.  Human cortisol levels dropped as interaction continued but canine cortisol remained the same, possibly indicating that dogs find us more exciting than we do them.

So – for those who need it, we now have scientific evidence that we love dogs and they love us back.

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We love dogs — but if you don’t want to take our word for it you can find out more next month on a new episode of PBS’s Nature series. From the PBS pressroom:

Nature: Why We Love Cats and Dogs premieres nationally Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).

“This is a different kind of Nature film,” says Fred Kaufman, THIRTEEN’s Executive Producer of Nature. “We combine a more verite style of film-making and in-studio pet owner interviews, and the result is a gamut of stories that are insightful, heartwarming and funny.”

If we translate that from marketing hype into common parlance it means that they’ll use lots of sensational editing and camerawork to distract us from the lack of real content and put a provocative spin on any sensational bits they manage to turn up.

The show will feature a made for TV mix of real experts and the media mouthpieces including Sarah Wilson, Marc Bekoff, Nicholas Dodman and Emily Weiss.

Why We Love Cats and Dogs premieres Sunday, February 15 on PBS (check local listings).

 

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Is it love, or just shallow physical attraction?   The Telegraph reports that we may be turning our canine companions into furry parodies of vapid supermodels:

Scientists in Sweden have found strong evidence that breeding for appearance has led to a decline in intelligence.

Report author Kenth Svartberg, an ethologist from Stockholm University, said the changes had happened over the course of just a few generations.

“Modern breeding practices are affecting the behaviour and mental abilities of pedigree breeds as well as their physical features,” he said.

Dogs are now selected for breeding because they have the silkiest coat rather than the keenest sense of smell or quickest reactions.

Concentrating on these outward aspects has been dictated by the requirements set by dog shows, and the needs of modern pet owners.

[...]

Dr Svartberg tested 13,000 dogs on characteristics such as sociability and curiosity to help him rate 31 different breeds.

He found that those bred for appearance, and especially for shows, displayed reduced levels of all these qualities. He also found that attractive appearance was often linked with introversion and a boring personality.

The rift between fanciers of bench- and show-bred dogs has existed since conformation dog shows became popular in the mid-nineteenth century.  The rift has caused many breeds to be divided into distinct working and show types.  And as those of us who ‘fancy’ working dogs have long suspected, we now have evidence that these rifts have not benefited our dogs. 

An article by David Hancock  titled The Way Breeding Standards Used to Be first appeared in the The Countryman’s Weekly back in July 14, 200o.  Our friend Pat the Terrierman posted excerpts from the article on his blog including this apropos bit:

Dog breeders have a huge moral responsibility, magnified by the increasing loss of role for breeds which once worked. Function once decided design. Now the whim of man all too often distorts a design originally drawn up by knowledgeable people who worked their dogs.

Pastoral breeds were never intended to possess coats, which would hamper them at work. Working Bloodhounds do not display the degree of wrinkle seen in the breed in the show rings of today. Working Bassets, or English Bassets as they have now become known, do not display the over-long backs and under-length legs found in their show ring counterparts.

I’d love to get my hands on a copy of Svartberg’s paper to see how it may have been twisted by the media.  If anyone out there has better luck finding it than I did, drop me a line.

House of Horrors

Wm Blake's Cerberus at the Gates of Hell

The charges filed against Linda Kapsa by Yellowstone County were published in the Billings Gazette online Monday.  The information presented in the charges paints a horrific picture of neglect and mental illness. 

Warning - this post is NOT for the squamish…

When Yellowstone County Sheriff Deputies, Animal Control Officers and Veterinarian Robert Bruner arrived at the site on December 11, 2008 they were overwhelmed by the smell of urine and feces at the property.  The conditions inside the residence were horrific.  The floor “was covered in animal feces which were ground into the floor so that he [Officer Weston] could not distinguish the floor covering.”  Dr. Bruner reported that the stench of ammonia was so strong in the house that it burned his eyes and throat.  Trash was stacked to a height of up to five feet throughout the house leaving only a narrow path for one to squeeze from the back room to the kitchen.  As many as twenty-five live dogs and puppies — and at least two dead ones, were crowded into the house.  The only place they had to move — and eliminate, was that narrow pathway.

“Although it was December, there were flies throughout the kitchen”

Five of the puppies seized from the home were found to be suffering from Parvovirus.  Two of them later died.  The dead bodies of six other puppies were found in an empty dog food bad in another trash-filled trailer at the site.  The bodies of several dead dogs were also found in this trailer.  According to Dr. Bruner, some were nearly mummified.  One had been partially consumed.

Conditions were no better outdoors.  Sixty or more dogs were running at large.  Trash and dead animals were spread across the property and dogs were feeding on both.

“The ground inside the pens appeared to be covered in a black slop that ranged from a quarter of an inch deep to an inch deep and in one pen, approximately four inches deep.  Dr. Bruner noted that there was no mud on the ground in the areas outside of the pens and the slop did not appear to be normal “mud”, particularly the smell of it.”

It was a mass of urine and feces.  Dogs had matted, urine and feces encrusted coats and open sores on their bodies.  On a canine body conditioning scaleof one to nine (with one being emaciated and nine being morbidly obese), Dr. Bruner noted that all the dogs he saw were underweight, having body condition scores of 1 to 4.  Rat bait was laying out in a junk vehicle and one of the dogs seized on the 11th was suffering from the effects of having ingested it. 

Two kittens were found locked in a trash-filled barn with no water.  They had eye and ear infections that required veterinary treatment.

“In another set of pens on the Defendant’s property, the officers and Dr. Bruner observed a dog that appeared to be sleeping while standing up in two inches of  feces/urine slop.  His head was resting on the fence, his eyes were closed, and he appeared to be quivering.  He initially appeared to Dr. Brunerto be extremely ill and elderly.  When they inquired of the Defendant as to what was wrong with the dog and how old he was, she stated that he was harassed by the other dogs and was 8 months old.  This dog, Kapsa Dog #6, upon closer inspection by Dr. Brunerwas determined to be emaciated and his coat was extremely matted and clumped and a bath was necessary to get an overview of his skin and what wounds were present.”

Kapsa Dog #5 had an open, granulated leg wound that appeared to be over a month old.  The leg was swollen to four times its normal size… and the dog was found chewing on the exposed end of its broken leg.  Xrays indicated a severe, chronic bone infection and the leg was amputated.  “Dr. Bruner stated that his eight years of practice he had not seen a worse case of abuse and neglect than that of Kapsa Dog #5.”

Ten dogs and the  two kittens were seized on the 11th.  The bodies of 13 dead dogs were also removed from the property.

Deputies, animal control staff, veterinary personnel and special assistance officers returned on December 30th.  The pugs and several of the English Shepherds had been removed from the site.  The Defendant stated she had given the pugs to her daughter and the English Shepherds to ranchers.  This was a significant concern as several animals infected with Parvovirus had been removed from the site on the 11th.

Conditions at the property were as disgusting as they had been on the 11th.  Food and water bowls were filled with urine and feces –  none of them were contained food or water.  Staff conducting the seizure reported that the dogs appeared to be “ravenously hungry,” with several trying to eat bait food right through the cans.

The house was still filled with trash and feces.  The smells of urine, feces and rotting food were overwhelming.  Litters of puppies were found in a rotted hole in the floor and under the trailer.  A dead dog was lying by the bed.

The outdoor enclosures were filled with feces and urine and sharp wires were sticking out in many places.  Dogs were licking feces-covered snow to get water.  Their coats were matted and filled with feces.  Some were described as having “deadlocks.”  Many had sore, swollen pads because they had little or no protection from the cold, ice and filth.  Most of them were described as “feral.”

The bodies of several more dead dogs were removed from the site. Some had to be left behind – some were frozen to a manure pile and others were frozen to the ground under the trailers.

Injuries in the dogs that were removed included:

• A litter of puppies with raw, infected umbilical regions
• A matted, dirt-covered dog with a nose laceration
• An emaciated dog (body condition  one) covered in bite wounds
• A vomiting, feces-covered dog
• A dehydrated, emaciated 10-week old puppy
• An 8-week old puppy that was infested with lice and had it’s eyes matted shut
• An emaciated dog with multiple head wounds
• A dog with diarrhea, a fever and what appeared to be multiple fight wounds
• A dog with a wounded carpal joint who was missing part of his upper lip

Two bitches with litters and at least ten pregnant bitches were also among the seized dogs.  Only 10 bags of food were found at the property.  The 150 dogs currently being housed at Metra Park are eating over 200 pounds of food a day. 

This is one of the most disturbing and disgusting cases of neglect and hoarding I’ve heard of.  Conditions at the site were like something out of third circle of hell in the Divine Comedy:

With pity for the kindred shades, whence grief
O’ercame me wholly, straight around I see
New torments, new tormented souls, which way
Soe’er I move, or turn, or bend my sight
In the third circle I arrive, of show’rs
Ceaseless, accursed, heavy and cold, unchang’d
For ever, in both kind and in degree
Large hail, discouler’d water, sleety flaw
Through the dun midnight air stream’d down amain:
Stank all the land whereupon that tempst fell.

Our friend – trainer and NESR representative Heather Houlahan, is working full time with the seized dogs.  Check out her blog for updates.  Excellent reporting on the case is also coming from the Billings Gazette.

The Horror of Hoarding

Animal hoarders used to be referred to as animal collectors. The typical stereotype is the crazy cat lady — probably because cats are the most common animal involved. Animal hoarding is a problem that places families and communities, not just animals, at risk.

The problem of animal hoarding is poorly understood. It has been compared to delusional disorders, early-onset dementia, and obsessive-compulsive disorders but none of these adequately explain the disorder.

Hoarding is comprised of three intertwined groups of problem behaviors; acquisition, saving and disorganization. Much like people who hoard possessions, animal hoarders often don’t recognize that they have a problem. Animal hoarders commonly have a persistent and very powerful belief that they provide proper care for their animals, despite strong evidence to the contrary.

The Tufts Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium has an excellent website with detailed information on recognizing animal hoarders and providing interventions in animal hoarding cases. According to Tufts, animal hoarding is defined by four characteristics:

·      failure to provide minimal standards of sanitation, space, nutrition, and veterinary care for the animals;

·      inability to recognize the effects of this failure on the welfare of the animals, human members of the household, and the environment;

·      obsessive attempts to accumulate or maintain a collection of animals in the face of progressively deteriorating conditions, and

·      denial or minimization of problems and living conditions

There are three general types of animal hoarders:

The Overwhelmed Caregiver  has some awareness of their problem and has typically acquired their animal passively. Their problem is typically triggered by a change in circumstances. While they are initially able to provide proper care for their animals, as more are acquired they become overwhelmed and lose the ability to provide even minimal care for the growing population. They lack problem-solving skills, see their animals as family members and usually live socially isolated lives. Their sense of self-esteem is strongly linked to their perceived role as caretakers. Being passive and cooperative, they are generally the easiest group to work with as they don’t usually have problems with authority.

The Rescue Hoarder  is a person who on a mission that has turned into a compulsion. They start out planning to rescue animals so they can be adopted but end up hoarding. These individuals actively acquire animals and believe that they are the only ones who can adequately care for them. They may have an extensive network of enablers and may not live with their animals. Because they perceive of themselves as superior care-givers and believe they hold the animals for their own good, they are typically more difficult to intervene with than the overwhelmed caregiver.

An Exploiter Hoarder  tends to have some sociopathic characteristics. They lack empathy for people and animals and are indifferent to the harm they cause. These individuals actively reject outsiders’ concerns, lack senses guilt and remorse, are manipulative and cunning and are often superficially charming and charismatic. They see themselves as experts who need to control the situation and resist attempts to intervene in an aggressive way. These hoarders sometimes make plans to evade the law or “beat the system”, by doing things like hiding their animals with other hoarders or friends when threatened.

Sadly recidivism in animal hoarding cases is nearly 100%.

According to Tufts:

Hoarders may struggle with self-esteem and with finding their identity and purpose in life. They attach themselves to an image. Therefore, the hoarded animals may play a central role in their lives, which makes the resulting conditions that much more problematic. 

Behavioral changes are difficult for everyone but, as a group, animal hoarders are particularly resistant to change. Compounding the problem is the fact that there is no established psychotherapeutic intervention proven to be effective in these cases.  Some hoarders will resume their activities even after being prosecuted and jailed. And unfortunately determined hoarders can rarely be prevented from resuming their compulsive, controlling behavior.

Controversial Common Sense

In our Proof That The world Is Going Crazy category the Springfield, MO News Leader reports:

State Rep. Jim Viebrock plans to resurrect a controversial bill requiring a veterinarian to inspect farm animals suspected of being abused before authorities can impound the animal.

Let me get this straight, it’s a controversial idea to have someone who is an expert in assessing the health of animals inspect them before they are seized, impounded and then killed or sold?

Well, I suppose in a world where hundreds of dogs are killed in the name of “rescue” it might make sense. I mean, after all, if we can justify killing nearly 200 seized dogs without giving them even basic veterinary and behavior assessments — and do it before the owners they were seized from had been convicted of any charges — it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to require that an impartial, expert third party evaluate the condition of an animal before it’s seized from its home.

Who cares that some  many of the folks conducting these search and seizure operations are armed volunteers with personal agendas who operate outside government control? That they weren’t hired (and can’t be fired) by the public or local municipalities, that they are often hired by radical animal rights groups who seek to end all use of animals, or that they don’t seem to think that they need to preserve our civil rights.

‘Cause after all, when we seize and impound animals based on nothing more than the opinion of one everyday citizen (even if he is a man with a great big political axe to grind), we might save one more animal. Well we may save it – if it isn’t killed by its saviors after it’s seized.

Regardless, one crazy Missouri State Representative keeps fighting the good fight:

By bringing in an impartial state veterinarian from the Department of Agriculture to inspect an animal, Viebrock’s bill aims to curtail abuse of the system by some animal rescue groups that reportedly inject themselves into alleged abuse cases for the chance to sell and profit from the animals.

“People believe that the animal rights activists are all good-natured, big-hearted people,” he said.

In some cases in Missouri and across the country, Viebrock said, owners have been acquitted of animal abuse charges, but their herds have already been sold off by the government or given away to animal sanctuaries.

“There are some of those folks who really are stealing from people who aren’t guilty,” Viebrock said.

He added that in some cases, alleged abuse is overblown by animal rights groups to get law enforcement agencies to obtain a search warrant.

“If you have nine healthy horses and one skinny old mare standing there … you can take pictures of that mare and excite an animal rights group beyond imagination,” Viebrock said.

While Viebrock acknowledges the bill faces a tough uphill climb against well-funded and well-organized animal rights activists, “we need to keep that conversation alive.”

Amen brother. We need to keep this conversation alive.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m most certainly not in favor of animal abuse and I think that animals who are truly in peril should be seized and impounded (but, please – not killed); but instigating search, seizure and impoundment operations to prove a political point is wrong.  And doing it to get publicity and make money reselling the animals you stole illegally seized from an innocent person is reprehensible. And — it voilates our civil rights.

If thats a controversial position – plant me right in the middle of it.