[News]

News:

[Mustang Sally]

In Hope

[MLG]

I am not watching it...all I had to see was "An Animal Shelter Story".  I don't want to see any sad animal shelter stories.

[jaffe]

I spayed all three of my dogs because I didn't want dogblood and mange issues brought on by hormonal imbalance. In retrospect, that was an insanely small minded reason to do so.

Albert was right. Thanks for the reminder, Sally.

An aside: I get very angry when the topic of shelters comes up. I have been to the Seminole County adoption center thrice to adopt an animal. Once for a puppy (I was rejected because I lived alone in an apt.) Once for a two year old aussie mix, (He was "quarantined" for two to three weeks, and she would not place a "hold" on the animal. Perfectly healthy, I just had to sleep in front of the fucking kennels for three weeks if I wanted to "buy" him), and once for some incredimutt with sad eyes and a big nose.

The lady working there said "I'm taking him home".

I went to Lake County, and was informed that the LC Sheriff likes to stop by "often" to check on "his" dogs. Okay, whatever... I can handle some overprotective thick necked pig swinging by; let's see them pooches! I select one, she has me fill out forms, "Oh. You don't like in Lake County?"

No, I live in fucking Lake Mary. A decent ballplayer could throw a rock down SR 46 from this building and almost hit my apt.

"Well then I cannot let you take the animal."

And they wonder why puppy mills stay in business...

The point is not that shelters suck. My experiences with them HAVE sucked, but I still want to believe they are good people doing man's most honorable work.

When you think about it, God really only gave us one job. Name the animals, and be with them. Everything else we do is circumstantial to that, I think. Study life, and care for its cultivation.

Course... me spaying the dogs kinda fucked that up.

I think the first step to responsible pet ownership should be the outlawing of breeding and the AKC. Imagine if I told you that there was an organization dead-set on "maintaining the pure blooded characteristics of the northern Italian blood pool", to the point where people born with a certain sized earlobe were neutered. Madness? Business as usual in puppy world. And that is just weird. An animal is undesirable because it does not match the original standard? Retarded. I am always amazed and simultaneously horrified when I think of the amount of effort that went into the hundreds of dog breeds that exist. Generations of weeding, and culling, as necessary, simply to develop an animal that grows more hair than it needs and suffers severe breathing restrictions due to its incredible shortened snout. Weird, but incredible dedication.

I also find breeders to be horrible people. Their prices are outlandish, they are singlehandedly responsible for this market we have where "mutts" are not wanted and aberrations are abandoned. After having seen a close friend "raise" 10 animals in her house as a rescuer, I refuse to believe that the majority of these breeders are providing a good starting point for these animals. Without this stupid demand, more people would be willing to take on pets that are "different". You don't hear of many perfectly formed Jack Russells and English Bulldogs sitting at the pound, awaiting their sodium laced sentence. No. It's labs, and rott-lab mixes, and huskies with mange, and unidentifiable mottled mutts that have been hurt for their ugliness, or their lack of pedigree, or their behavioral issues that were BRED into them in the first place.

"Well, he digs too much"

THEN WHY DID YOU BUY A FUCKING RATTER?

"Well, he barks all the time"

HE'S A FUCKING COON HOUND

"Well, he may bite my kids"

God. I don't know how to answer that.

It's just an awful situation. I pray that Gary stays away from this thread.

[MLG]

National Geographic Explorer is great TV...I am watching "The Science of Dogs" right now.   The show is talking about how humans have pushed around the dogs genes and stuff.  Overall very interesting stuff.

On thing they pointed out that ties into what you said...the "standards" for pure bred dogs...all that shit started with those fucking Victorians.  They are the ones who decided that dogs should be "perfect".  Not only did they create sexual repression, they are also responsible for your Labrador's hip dysplasia...perfection indeed.

I love my imperfect muts...of course I think one of them might be a pure bred, but he was a stray so he has street cred or something.




*shit maybe i should saved this for the blog

[Howey]

I went as far as MLG. Can't watch it.

After the experience I've had with Gumdrop, I have to advise people to be wary of animal shelters. There are many, many good ones (ARNI here in Volusia County is the best. The Halifax Humane Society and the Southeast Volusia Animal Shelter are great, too.)

I've found the one he came from, the Putnam County Animal Shelter, is poorly managed, filthy, provides inhumane treatment to their animals, inadequate care, and most of all, lies to prospective adoptees in order to get an animal out the door.

I'm so torn on this issue I don't know what to say! Sure, some shelters are in deplorable condition. Should we avoid them as a result? Or, should we help rescue the animals within them who have already lived a terrible life and now are faced with more misery and lack of care? Should we donate more to the shelters? If we do, will the money be spent wisely? Should we demand more regulation of shelters?

I think I'm going to leave it at that for right now. I have to go hug a little fella napping on the couch...

[starla]

I went to Lake County, and was informed that the LC Sheriff likes to stop by "often" to check on "his" dogs. Okay, whatever... I can handle some overprotective thick necked pig swinging by; let's see them pooches! I select one, she has me fill out forms, "Oh. You don't like in Lake County?"

No, I live in fucking Lake Mary. A decent ballplayer could throw a rock down SR 46 from this building and almost hit my apt.

"Well then I cannot let you take the animal."

And they wonder why puppy mills stay in business...

That sucks they wouldn't let you take the dog home. We got the cats at the Seminole one by the flea market. The lady did question us about living in Volusia county, but let us take them anyways.

To be honest our fluffy cat had been sitting in a cage for a month and was about to be put down because they have a policy to get rid of them after a month and a half. We took him home and invested a few hundred in vet bills and grooming (shaved) and he is the sweetest cat ever. I can't believe people passed him up for a month because they couldn't look past his fur. All he needed was a shave.

I found out from the vet though that most animal shelters will lie to you about how old the animals there really are. They told us Frosty was 4 but he was really about 9. Gucci though was only there for a week before we grabbed him. He was very 'LOOK AT ME' and Mike liked that about him.

[lilbit]

THIS ... is the bestest mutt ever!!!

He's a rescue dog - and I couldn't have a bred a pooch to match my personality better if I had tried.



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[shiva]

I worked for a Vet for a while and one of my jobs was to euthanize. People would bring in perfectly healthy dogs and say they were moving or they were just tired of having the dog and ask for it to be put down. We'd say ok and just move the dog to the kennel and adopt it out. If they wanted a carcase we'd give them one about the same size and weight in a black bag.

[FaFa]

Those workers at the shelters that jaffe went to should have done whatever they had to do to get the animal out the door in my opinion. Definitely not the time to be going by the book. I almost got  teary eyed during the video. 

It's definitely a shame, the atrocities that have gone on in breeding and continue to go on. But we can't wash our hands of the whole matter because it seems hopeless. I don't think there is anyway that the shelter would always know how old an animal is. 
 
The one I have dealt with here has always seemed to be well run and decent. What really pisses me off is people that I have known who kind of roll their eyes and say my cat/my dog is pregnant again...do you want one? For Christ's sake, how much trouble is it to get your pet fixed? Not much.

[Howey]

Those workers at the shelters that jaffe went to should have done whatever they had to do to get the animal out the door

They probably thought he was shopping for dinner.

[e]

I've adopted three cats from the Orange County SPCA.  The first was a giant Maine Coon, who drooled when you petted him, and was 30 furry pounds of sweetness.  The second was a kitten, who snored and grew up into a happy old cat.  The third was our Siamese cat, Sydney, who came home with pneumonia.  Hundreds of dollars later, she was healthy and talkative and bitchy, and now she sleeps at my feet on the end of the bed every night.

The SPCA is having a fundraiser on Tuesday:  Heineken with a Heart