But the second AKC/ABCA or any other political issue like rescue, breeding ethics, DNA testing, diet, etc. is mentioned, the fangs come out. That’s why there are so many BC related lists and why even lists with hundreds of members only have 4 or 5 people who post regularly, when one group is exiled from the old list because of the moderator’s bias, they start a new group and most people lurk lest they be censored or kicked off. I suspect that’s the reason you left the list. The same old mantra and bias gets old after a short while.

I’m sure plenty of PetConnetion readers can sympathize with their own experiences on breed lists and breeder vs. rescue vs. no-kill or raw-food lists. The yahoo lists are highly charged and political to the extreme and few of them are open for debate. They prefer mutual admiration.

Really now, you try talking dog politics on a listserv and see how long you last if you’re not the a friend of the moderator or of like mind.

I don’t recall being trounced by anyone on the BC-L list, especially not anyone who “really” knows about Border Collies. Reading over the e-mails, I fail see what you’re referring to. Frankly I was impressed by how little most of the people knew about basic things like genetics.

There are several posts from partisans that say nasty things about me after I left, but the crux of them was that I must be a liar because they mistakenly claim that I registered my current dog with the (no defunct) AIBC. Not surprisingly, all of those posts failed to read clearly, since I was obviously discussing a dog that was born two decades ago, NOT my current dogs.

I stopped with the yahoo lists after an anonymous person started sending hate mail to my breeders along with falsified things I supposedly wrote. It took too much trouble to get my breeders to read the actual posts to see that I said no such things; too much trouble to bother with people who had already made up their minds. When they have to resort to lies and nasty tangential attacks, they obviously can’t deal with the real arguments in an honest way.

But the whole reason I started my own blog was because of the positive response I got from people on the listservs who were tired of hearing only one side vs. the other. I think my neutral position, skeptical of both groups is novel and balanced compared to the herding-only vs. conformation-only tone of the listservs.

You’re welcome to actually read what I have to write and comment on my blog instead of posting vague insults here.

PetConnection is a nice place to read because of the diversity of their viewpoints. I can read about purebred dogs being shown in field trials and conformation and then read an informative piece about pet rescue in the next post. Such diversity of opinion is not welcome on the listserv, and isn’t that really why you and I are here and not there?

Happy Thanksgiving.

About Congo……..Who KNOWS what was said and how it was understood. If nothing else, it points to the necessity of EVERYONE in this country speaking fluently the English language.

Too, as I understand it, Congo wasn’t hauled into doggie prison until the day after Rivera’s surgery and decision to hire a lawyer.

That said, I’m still pulling for Congo.

It must be what it’s like to be a turtle on your back, except any attempt to move an arm or a leg or your head brings the sharp shooting pain. It’s also a blow to the ego to go from able adult to incapacitated infant in a flash.

Anyway, thanks for the link and I hope the chicken soup and hot showers are doing the trick. You’ll need it to survive Thanksgiving at less than 100% capacity. (You can always tell them that Pip ate the bird and the dressing and so you’ll have to demure this year, see you next year!)

Will stick my neck out yet again and defend Congo. No one is saying that this man wasn’t attacked and deserves to have his medical expenses paid - however, do we really know that this guy didn’t provoke the dog in some way? All we have is his word which may or may not be credible. I say this because I know of an elderly chow in his own yard attacked by the meter reader. The dog was just sitting there, and the guy decided to take some “preventive measures.”

Have a good Thanksgiving. Looking forward to the pet food info.