pet connection

Good stuff from elsewhere:

On the Tales and Tails of New York blog, the question is asked: Are no-kill shelters really possible, when the cages are full of animals few people want, like pit bulls, chows, Rottweilers (and all their mixes) and lots and lots of cats?

One woman told me her husband was a police officer who often (as part of the job) picks up stray dogs. Usually, the cops bring stray dogs to the AC&C, but the woman’s apparently, tender-hearted husband brought two of the dogs home.

The two dogs were confined to the couple’s yard, supposedly because one of the kids was allergic. The caller was concerned that the dogs couldn’t stay there because the weather would soon be getting cold.

I told the woman that I could not immediately take the dogs. But, I would be willing to help her if she could give me information on the animals, was willing to get the dogs medically checked out and could send us pictures.

She hung up on me before I could complete the sentence.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about calls like these is that the people are almost never willing to make an effort or try and work with you. They just want a place to immediately drop the animals off to.

But, they don’t want the animals “put to sleep.”

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t revolve around what any of us “want.”

It is what it is, and we have to deal with it.

I got a call just like this a few hours ago. A friend of a friend picked up a collarless stray, and wanted to know what to do with the animals. I said, “Keep him while you try to find the owner.” Of course, that wasn’t the answer the person wanted. Instead, they wanted a medal for pulling the dog off the street, and then for the Magic Pet Fairy to take responsibility from here on out. Don’t know what happened, since the conversation ended shortly after I made it clear I wasn’t the Magic Pet Fairy today.

And speaking of suggesting a route of responsibility, Christie gets all truthie over on Dogged:

While it’s certainly true that scientific research and drug development are tainted by non-scientific interests, and non-patentable remedies don’t get anywhere near as much research as patentable ones do, it’s equally true that if something really works, and it’s been around for a while, we’d know. We’d know how it works, we’d know what it does, and we’d have at least some suggestive evidence in support of it.

And it wouldn’t be sold via multi-level marketing.

I also want to point out that being holistic doesn’t mean being gullible. It just often looks that way.

Here’s the rest.

Finally, Dr. Patty over on Dolittler … well, drat, her blog’s down at the moment. I’ll have to point over there in the morning.