Cayr Ariel Wulff's Blog, page 17

Are you a type 2d vegetarian? Because if you are, I might be picking on you today.

I've been thinking about vegetarians lately. I have nothing against this lifestyle choice, and was, myself, a vegetarian for thirteen years. There are a number of reasons for becoming a vegetarian, and just for the sake of argument, I am narrowing them down to four for the purposes of this blog post.

People who do it for health reasons. (Type 1)
People who do it for ethical reasons. (Type 2)
People who do it for spiritual reasons. (Type 3)
People who do it for ecological reasons. (Type 4)

I was a type 2 vegetarian:  One of those people who believe that animals are sentient and developed beings with rich emotional lives. I still believe that, and spend a great deal of my waking hours as an animal advocate, trying to affect positive change for animals. The fact that I eat meat, makes me a hypocrite, and I admit it.

But while I'm confessing my hypocrisy, I'd like you type 2 vegetarians to consider whether or not you have an hypocrisy of your own to confess as well. I'm talking to the vegetarian folks with dogs, who also force their dogs to eat a vegetarian diet. The Type 2d folks.

If you are a type 2d vegetarian: eating no meat because you love animals and find it unethical, then I ask you to objectively consider your dog. You profess to love animals, but you are imposing your will on your pet because of your own moral compunction. I think it is safe to say that your dog does not share your ethical dilemma.

If you were to set your dog loose today in the wild, I can assure you that when it got hungry, your dog would not be nibbling grass and looking for nuts and berries to eat. Your dog would pounce on the first living creature it felt it could kill. And that would be perfectly natural, because it's natural for dogs to eat meat.  So natural, in fact, that there's become a huge movement in the dog world to feed raw, thereby providing the most natural diet available to a dog. (I'm not going to turn this into a blog post about the pros and cons of feeding raw. There's plenty of information about that elsewhere on the Internet.)

I am just asking you to think logically about whether or not you are being fair to your dog, and loving him or her in the best possible way.

Are you a type 2X vegetarian? Because if you are, I might be picking on you today.

I've been thinking about vegetarians lately. I have nothing against this lifestyle choice, and was, myself, a vegetarian for thirteen years. There are a number of reasons for becoming a vegetarian, and just for the sake of argument, I am narrowing them down to four for the purposes of this blog post.

People who do it for health reasons. (Type 1)
People who do it for ethical reasons. (Type 2)
People who do it for spiritual reasons. (Type 3)
People who do it for ecological reasons. (Type 4)

I was a type 2 vegetarian:  One of those people who believe that animals are sentient and developed beings with rich emotional lives. I still believe that, and spend a great deal of my waking hours as an animal advocate, trying to affect positive change for animals. The fact that I eat meat, makes me a hypocrite, and I admit it.

But while I'm confessing my hypocrisy, I'd like you type 2 vegetarians to consider whether or not you have an hypocrisy of your own to confess as well. I'm talking to the vegetarian folks with dogs, who also force their dogs to eat a vegetarian diet. The Type 2X folks.

If you are a type 2X vegetarian: eating no meat because you love animals and find it unethical, then I ask you to objectively consider your dog. You profess to love animals, but you are imposing your will on your pet because of your own moral compunction. I think it is safe to say that your dog does not share your ethical dilemma.

If you were to set your dog loose today in the wild, I can assure you that when it got hungry, your dog would not be nibbling grass and looking for nuts and berries to eat. Your dog would pounce on the first living creature it felt it could kill. And that would be perfectly natural, because it's natural for dogs to eat meat.  So natural, in fact, that there's become a huge movement in the dog world to feed raw, thereby providing the most natural diet available to a dog. (I'm not going to turn this into a blog post about the pros and cons of feeding raw. There's plenty of information about that elsewhere on the Internet.)

I am just asking you to think logically about whether or not you are being fair to your dog, and loving him or her in the best possible way.

A Voice For Ohio Dogs

Back when I lived in Bedford, in an actual 'neighborhood', there was a Bassett hound that lived on the next street. He belonged to the family of the little boy who mowed our lawn. I met the dog one day when I stopped over to pay the kid. As I bent down to pass out a few good-natured pats, I noticed that the Bassett was a very sweet dog, but kept opening and closing his mouth while he wagged his tail and bumped his handsome head against my hands. I finally asked why the dog kept opening and closing his mouth, and I was informed that he had been "debarked"

This information gave me pause.

Not only was my first reaction to be horrified, but I was also confused. Isn't one of the reason dogs were domesticated is so they can warn us of intruders? Isn't communication vital to dogs? Don't they have a wide range of sounds that they voice for various reasons? Don't some breeds use their voices to herd animals? Don't police dogs vocalize in alarm and in defense?

"Debarking", also known as Devocalization, bark softening, ventriculocordectomy and vocal cordectomy, is a surgical procedure where tissue is removed from a dog's vocal chords to permanently reduce the volume of their vocalizations. It is often referred to as a 'convenience' surgery, because it is used by breeders and owners who don't want to have to deal with complaints over barking dogs.

In 2009, a grassroots organization led by a fifteen-year-old, managed to get a devocalization ban passed in Massachusetts. So far, it is the only state with an enforceable ban. Vocal cordectomy is legal in 49 of the United States. In 2000, Ohio passed Ohio Revised Code 955.22, but inexplicably, it only outlaws debarking of dogs considered "vicious". New Jersey has a vocalization ban, but there are so many exceptions that the law is unenforceable as written.

Opponents to debarking bans fear that banning devocalization will open up the possibility that other surgeries like ear cropping and tail docking also will be banned. Devocalization, ear cropping and tail docking surgeries are banned in several European countries where they are considered mutilation.

Medical complications associated with devocalization surgery include the formation of scar tissue in the larynx, which can cause difficulties breathing and swallowing.

Multiple veterinary medicine and animal welfare organizations discourage the use of convenience devocalization, and recommend that it only be used as a last resort. If a dog is a problem barker, there is an underlying reason leading to the behavior.

Although no dog – regardless of breed – can be trained to stop barking completely, most dogs can be trained to offer more acceptable behaviors in lieu of barking and other noisy behaviors. If you know someone who is considering devocalizing their dog, please urge them to consult with a veterinarian or to attend sessions with a reputable trainer to address the underlying reason for the dog's behavior.

If you would like to be part of a grassroots movement to ban dog devocalization in Ohio, please email me at: yelodoggie@yahoo.com with 'a voice for Ohio dogs' in the subject header.

Wildlife Encounter: Coyote Ballet

When I took Waldo out this morning, we were both surprised to see a coyote nonchalantly walking across our meadow. Although we've seen a number of coyotes since we've moved to the National Park, today's encounter was special.

Ohio coyotes are different from the Southwestern variety. They are larger, for one thing, and their coloring ranges from black to tan. There's been some speculation as to whether or not they share wolf blood, like the coyotes of New England and Canada. The one we saw today was gorgeous. It was gray, tan and white; long and graceful with a wolfish face mask and a full brush tail. Waldo couldn't contain his excitement more than a few moments, and he barked sharply at the intruder, drawing the coyote's attention to us.

The coyote set out immediately for the high grass of the meadow and soon disappeared from our line of sight, but then we were treated to an extraordinary display. As the coyote traversed the high grass of our meadow from west to east, it leapt straight up into the air at approximately fifteen foot intervals to espy us. While Waldo tipped his head to one side and boggled at this odd behavior, I watched, astonished by the coyote's athleticism. It leapt straight up into the air as though it were weightless. As though it had springs in its rear paws.

Soon it had reached the edge of the forest and smiling about what I'd just seen, I turned back to the task at hand, of getting Waldo to take care of his morning business. But Waldo was quickly distracted by movement to our east, which was the coyote, that had turned north in the woods and reappeared just behind our shed, much closer to our yard and intently focused on the two of us, no more than 25 yards away.  The coyote continued to move north, leaping over brush and fallen logs in an agile display, glancing back at us as it made its journey. It was graceful and light on its feet, as if performing a wild coyote ballet, but it's closer reappearance had unnerved me, and I found myself scanning the trees worriedly on each side of us until I could shepherd Waldo safely back inside.

I wonder how things would have played out if I'd been out with the four little dogs, instead of our massive boy.

What makes you human?

Because I have so many acquaintances in dog rescue, I hear a lot of stories about animal abuse. You'd think that after years of such horrible stories that a person would get kind of numb to it. Believe me, we hear it all in rescue. Then, once in awhile, a case comes along that you think has got to be the worst case of abuse that you have ever heard of…but then a little time passes and some poor-excuse-for-a-human-being finds a new and even more heinous way to torture an animal.  Like THIS ONE, that came to my attention yesterday.  It makes me feel like my head is going to explode.

I have been diagnosed with clinical depression. Depression seems to be a pretty common thread among animal rescuers. I have sometimes wondered about that, and find it to be a chicken-or–the-egg conundrum. Are we sensitive and depressed people because we witness so much abuse? Or do we gravitate to animal rescue because we are sensitive and depressed people and helping animals makes us feel better?

My partner knows that my depressive nature makes me hyper-sensitive to stories of abuse. She tells me not to read the stories, watch the videos, or listen to the news reports. Like so many people, I could close my eyes and my ears – but the more people do that, the harder it is to affect real change; the harder it gets to pass any meaningful animal welfare legislation.

So I refuse to close my eyes.

I refuse to plug my ears.

Even though each story cuts me to my core, and the next and the next and the next.

Artwork by Wendy Pini & John Byrne (c) Warp Graphics 1993, all rights reserved. used by permission.

I am astounded by the duality of the human species: the capacity for cruelty vs the capacity for compassion.

What makes YOU really human?

Believing in a Cause & Walking the Walk

A lot of people who believe in a cause "talk the talk", but not very many people "walk the walk". Recently, I've followed the story of a woman in dog rescue who is on a mission, and who is one of those extraordinary people who has the resolve and conviction and guts to truly walk the walk.

I'd never heard of Tamira Thayne until I got a facebook account and she ended up in my friends list via a mutual friend in animal rescue. Tami is the founder of a 501(c)3 non-profit group called Dogs Deserve Better, which I've already profiled here on Up On The Woof. (archives, August 2010. "Rescue Group: Dogs Deserve Better".) It's a group devoted to getting dogs off of chains where they live lonely and miserable lives and into houses where they get the love, attention and care that they deserve.  DDB advocates for these dogs that are often ignored and forgotten; sometimes dying of starvation and sickness on the end of a chain. They work tirelessly to promote anti-tethering laws across the country.

Tamira lives in Pennsylvania, where she's waited six years for anti-tethering legislation to be passed. First it was HB1911, HB1065, HB1254, the Casorio/Caltigirone bill, and most recently SB1435. Tami believes so strongly that there should be a law limiting the amount of time that a dog should spend on a chain each day, that on August 2, 2010, she chained herself to a doghouse on the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg, and she stayed there for 52 days. She took this bold and extreme step to show the legislators who have been sitting on these bills for six years, what it is like for a dog that is chained to a doghouse day in and day out, in all kinds of weather, year after year after year. She stood on the steps of the Capitol building every day to remind the politicians that the bill was still unsigned.  This was the hottest summer on record, but Tami stood out there every day, no matter how hot it was, to demonstrate the way tethered dogs bake in the hot sun of summer with inadequate shade or water.  She fasted to remind people how many chained dogs starve because their owners forget to feed them. She stood in the pouring rain to remind the lawmakers that seldom does a tethered dog have adequate shelter from inclement weather. And she talked to passersby, and did her best to spread her message and educate people.

Tamira Thayne, chained to a doghouse outside the PA State Capitol Building in Harrisburg.

On October 12, the Pennsylvania house and senate closed for recess until January 2011. The anti-tethering legislation was still not signed into law.

During the 52 days that Tamira spent chained on the Capitol steps, three children in Pennsylvania made the papers from chained dog attacks. Dog attacks are not uncommon from chained dogs, who are unsocialized and neglected. Every state should move to do something to protect the dogs and the children from the dangerous impacts of 24-7, 365 days a year tethering. Speak out!

For more information about Tamira or Dogs Deserve Better, visit http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/.  There are steps outlined there for how you can introduce an anti-tethering bill in your own state.

 

Humane Group: Feeding Pets of the Homeless

Feeding Pets of the Homeless

Established: 2007

Address: 2255 Waterford,  Carson City, NV 89703

Phone: 877-636-1408

Website: http://www.petsofthehomeless.org

 

Mission: Pets of the Homeless also known as Feeding Pets of the Homeless, do their part in helping to reduce hunger in pets belonging to the homeless and the less fortunate and provide veterinary care for those pets in communities across the country.

They believe in the healing power of companion pets and of the human/animal bond which is very important to life.

FEEDING PETS OF THE HOMELESS is a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to feeding and vetting companion animals of the homeless and disadvantaged throughout the United States. They are an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff. They operate under the direction of an executive director and a board of directors.

In 2006, Founder Genevieve Frederick and her husband were visiting NY City, when she noticed a homeless man on the street, and the dog that was with him. When she returned home she began researching homelessness and pets, wondering why someone who could barely feed themselves would have a pet. The answer, of course, was comfort, companionship and loyalty. It is estimated by the National Coalition for the Homeless that 3.5 million people are homeless. Between 5% to 10% of homeless people have dogs and/or cats. In some areas of the country the rate is as high as 24%. Genevieve saw a need, and set out to fulfill it. In 2007, she began collecting pet food for the homeless and disadvantaged in her own town. Local media picked up the story immediately. By 2008, FPH received their non-profit status, and began giving grants to veterinarians.

FPH has collection sites and distribution centers all over the country, where people can donate pet supplies and pet food. Volunteers deliver the food to distribution centers such as food banks, homeless shelters and soup kitchens that participate in the program. FPH also awards grants to veterinarians who will go into areas where the homeless gather and provide health care such as spaying/neutering and vaccines to the pets. They also award grants to homeless shelters that allow pets sanctuary with their owners.

Your Donations: FPH accepts monetary and pet food & pet supplies donations. For a list of collection sites, visit their website at: http://www.petsofthehomeless.org .

Collars
Leashes
Blankets
Treats
Flea/tick treatments


Pet food (Can or dry-even food your pet can't eat or won't eat anymore.  Opened, tape-closed bags will be accepted.)

It's especially helpful if you put the food in Ziploc storage backs and label it.  Smaller packs are easier for most homeless people to deal with than big bags.

If you want a tax receipt let the collection site know so they will forward your mailing information as well as a description of the donated item(s).

Monetary donations can be made online at: at PayPal, Network for Good,  and FaceBook,

Non-designated cash gifts are used for their grant programs. Designated cash gifts include:

Pet Food: purchased wholesale through one of the organization's partners.  The purchased pet food is shipped to the community organization that you specify (food pantry, homeless shelter, soup kitchen, so be sure to let them know.)  If you cannot locate one or one is not listed on their Collection Sites page, they will ship it to the organization that they deem the neediest.
Operational Expenses such as website hosting and management, postage, office supplies, printing, accounting, etc.

 

 

Pets in Danger on Craigslist

Every once in a while on Facebook, one of my many dog rescue friends will suggest that I join the cause "Stop People from Selling Animals on Craigslist".  Selling pets on Craigslist is actually against that website's Terms of Service, so this seems like a pointless exercise to me. The situation that seems far more urgent to me, is to stop people from giving away pets on Craigslist for free.

I know my last blog post was about my reaction at seeing a "Free Kittens" sign, and the dangers of offering pets for free. This post probably seems like overkill if you've been paying attention; but a little switch went off in my brain last week. I became so consumed by the thought that people need to be educated about this issue, that I made a commitment to myself, and I'd like to challenge you to do the same.

I'm just one person, and there are only so many hours in a day. Craigslist reaches practically every major city in the United States. I got this idea that if I went to the Cleveland Craigslist pet ads every day and skimmed every dog and cat ad, I might be able to save some animals right from my couch, armed with only my laptop and some carefully chosen words. It takes about twenty minutes a day for me to do both Akron and Cleveland. You can do the same in your city. How many times have you felt like you wanted to do something to help dogs and cats that can't speak for themselves, but had no idea where to start?

I realize that many of these people love their pets and don't even want to get rid of them, but are in desperate situations and feel like they have no other choice. They honestly do not know the danger they are putting their beloved pets in. So I composed a short letter to the person who is advertising their pet on Craigslist for free. Every evening, I skim the ads, and when I come across one that doesn't ask a rehoming fee, (which Craigslist allows) or says outright that the animal is "free", I send them my form letter. If the ads are about purebred dogs that need to be rehomed, I also suggest to the advertiser that they try a rescue group for their specific breed, and when possible, I give them a link to a breed rescue group to get them started.

I fully expected to get a lot of hate mail in return. I expected to hear "Mind your own business", and "screw you", and any number of other similar comments. Instead, much to my surprise, I began getting thank you notes from these people, because they really had no idea how their ads were endangering their animals.

If you want to take my challenge and take on the Craigslist pet ads in your city, email me and I'll send you a word document of my form letter that you can copy and paste.