pet connection

I don’t have a problem with PETA advocating for animal rights, although I do not agree with their agenda which, if followed to its simple, logical conclusion, would mean the eventual end of all domestic animals, including pets.

This is America, after all, and you can advocate for any point of view you want. What I have long had a problem with is PETA jumping into every animal-related issue and neglecting to mention that agenda, which is, in PETA’s words, that “animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment.”

That’s why, like Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly, I have a problem with PETA demanding the reform of horse-racing, when in fact what they surely want is abolition. I felt the same way when PETA showed up in support for the Michael Vick dogs, even though PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk has written in favor of pit bull bans. Again, she’s entitled to her opinion, but her organization needs to be consistently open about these views in their outreach to animal lovers, especially the majority of us who don’t share them. This is even more important when fund-raising is involved.

As it stands, what PETA has put out regarding horse-racing is disingenuous.

On Dolittler, Dr. Khuly writes in response to a PETA e-mail (which she reproduces in her post):

1-How does sanctioning the jockey fit into this? Since Sunday when this news broke (sans e-mail), I’ve been marveling at PETA’s dumbfoudingly ridiculous jab at the jockey. What’s that all about? Almost all those jockeys whipped their horses. Why not call for a uniform suspension of all jockeys?

2-And the trainer? Show me one that bests Big Brown’s for his well-documented, disgusting, horse-doping behavior. After examining this guy’s pedigree, you’ll never convince me that Eight Belles’ trainer deserves a special sanction over all the other guys in his field—just because his horse was the one to go down.

3-And finally, am I really to believe that PETA seeks to reform the sport? If their approach to pets is any measure, it’s clear to me they’d love nothing better than to see the entire shebang shut down overnight and its animals summarily dispatched by a bevy of vets wielding pink juice.

But they don’t say so. Nope—they won’t. They’d rather have you believe their aims are to make the sport safer. Their target? The average animal lover who wants to believe they’re helping animals wherever they can…even if it takes sending PETA a few bucks to help make it happen.

Look, horse-racing has had years — decades, really — to work on its downward spiral, and it hasn’t. Let’s take it all the way back to the first time it lost lots of fans: The day Ruffian died. And then … Go For Wand in the Breeders Cup (worst catatrophic breakdown I’ve ever seen) … more fans gone, unable to stomach the carnage. Barbaro, of course, and now Eight Belles. Plus thousands and thousands of cheap claimers no one ever paid attention to, dying on the days when you could count track attendance in the hundreds, not the hundreds of thousands as on Derby Day.

Instead of reforming, American horse-racing chose to look the other way on rampant drug use that keeps horses who shouldn’t be running on the track. It chose to embrace and accelerate the “quick return on investment” trends by concentrating faster, more fragile breeding lines, and by pushing young horses to the breaking point, literally. It stuck to its BS traditions instead of actively seeking changes that would make the sport safer for horses and jockeys alike, such as moving away from fast, hard dirt tracks towards more racing on turf and synthetic tracks.

Instead of working to keep or even grow a base of fans, racing decided to double-down on a losing bet, chasing a smaller and smaller pool of dying off horse-racing gamblers (younger gamblers play online poker or go to casinos) and demanding of state legislatures that racetracks be allowed to put in slot machines to prop up the falling profits.

Much as I loathe PETA’s opportunistic concern for race horses — where were they the day before the Derby, when I was writing about these issues? — horse-racing brought this on itself. They had a chance to make changes after Barbaro, but they haven’t done much. (Especially with regard to drug use … nada.)

Horse-racing is not getting it even yet, but they’d damn well better, and soon.

Unlike PETA, Dr. Khuly and I truly are calling for reform, not secretly hoping for an end to horse-racing. You can start by refusing to watch any more Triple Crown races. And letting the tracks, the networks and the sponsors know why.

This week for our syndicated pet-care column, Dr. Becker and I wrote a level-headed, sensible piece about how most dog bites are the result not of rampaging urban hell-hounds, but rather of people who either don’t recognize or are idiots about signs of aggression in their own family pets (or the pets of friends or relatives).

To go with this piece, we offered a level-headed, sensible picture which one of our client newspapers — I’m not sure which one yet, and it really doesn’t matter — chose to replace with a more dramatic picture.

That image? A pit bull.

Choosing such a picture in fact advances stereotypes about these dogs that we at the Pet Connection do not at all agree with. Choosing such a picture also misses the point of the column entirely, which is:

All dogs can bite. The important thing is to recognize that fact, along with what may make a dog more likely to bite (social isolation, lack of training and socialization, chaining, illness, not neutering young males, etc.) and take steps to minimize those risks, along with getting professional help when you do have a problem.

But no, instead, there’s that picture of a pit bull. And now, we’re getting hate mail. Lots and lots of hate mail, which suggests that people on e-mail lists are telling every else on e-mail lists to vent their spleens at us, for something we didn’t do, and wouldn’t have done.

Enough already. Don’t write to us. Write to the newspaper. Educate them.

And if I may make a suggestion before you do so: Please wipe the spittle off your e-mail, check your spelling, drop the four-letter words and the threats. They don’t help make your case, believe me. In fact, they have the effect of making you and your dogs seem quite dangerous indeed. And I’m sure that’s not the message you’re trying to get across.

Last night I dreamed that Drew was herding cats while I directed him to drive them into a pen. The scene was lifted entirely from “Babe,*” with Drew playing Babe and two large brown tabbies and one calico in the role of sheep. The cats walked eagerly forward, tails happily aloft, talking to Drew and gossiping to each other as they went.

I woke up to find Drew licking my face and the other pets looking at me in bemusement and concern. This is why I suspect my “That’ll do, Drew” was spoken not only in the dream, but to the bedroom at large.

That’ll do, indeed. It’s always like this in the Red Zone of a book project. …

***

Been meaning to point to Luisa’s post over on Lassie Get Help (speaking of herding dogs!) about Toronto’s pit bull ban. Does it ever seem that common sense has never been more lacking in legislation than it is today? (Asked and answered … yes!) Personally, I would rather my government act against real risks to public safety, like imported food and food ingredients. But that would buck some big money, and it’s far easier to take people’s pets away and pretend you’ve done something good.

Luisa’s post:

Dogs aren’t people. Toronto’s city animal shelters aren’t Guantánamo. But dogs aren’t refrigerators or cars, either, so forgive me for comparing Toronto’s shelter system to a prison system, a place of isolation and suffering, when the wardens issue chilling statements like this:

A sign of just how controversial the [pit bull] issue can be, animal services officials refuse to allow the media to photograph or have contact with the condemned dogs in their shelters.

“All it would do is make the public very upset about that particular one dog and whoever might own that dog — it would potentially cause them further upset,” says animal services manager Eletta Purdy.

“Make the public very upset”? And why on earth shouldn’t we be “very upset” that a good dog — a dog that has never harmed nor threatened to harm anyone — may be scheduled to die because of a brindle coat or a broad head? Why on earth shouldn’t a family rage that a beloved, trustworthy companion was taken from them on the basis of a law rooted in ignorance and hysteria?

Why, indeed.

Perhaps Christie or Kim will blog today. Me? The 15th is the elephant in the room here, and he’s stamping his feet. You got more? Put it in the comments. I’m going to write, and then I’m going to the river with the dogs.

* I love “Babe.” I love when the mice sing “Blue Moon.” Yes, I’ve seen it lots. My brother was on jury duty once, and in the jury room they had “Babe” on an endless loop. My brother’s story: “So I’m sitting there in the jury room, and this cranky old man walks in. He looks up at the monitor, shouts, “NOT THE GODDAMN PIG MOVIE AGAIN!” and stomps out of the room.”

Don’t care. I love the goddamn pig movie. Which reminds me: Factory farm discussion over at Dr. Khuly’s, with a post from a “Swine Consultant” point of view.

(Why, yes, I have switched to decaf. Why do you ask?)

I feel bad slipping this in here among all the Westminster reporting from Kim, which I’m otherwise enjoying very much, but it broke my heart and I don’t want to suffer alone tonight.

From K9, a British dog magazine, one of the best arguments against breed-specific legislation I’ve ever read, in the form of one animal control officer’s life-changing experience with Britain’s pit bull ban. Her name is Celine Jacobs, and she told this story:

The other day I had to do something that went against everything I have ever strived for, I took a lovely, young, healthy dog to the vets and I had it put to sleep, the reason for this was that he had been identified by an expert as being a Pit Bull type.

When the expert identified the dog yesterday I thought my heart would break, without an owner to fight the dog’s case the law says we have to destroy them. For seven years I have been a dog warden and for seven years I have never put a dog to sleep that wasn’t on the advice of a vet due to illness or injury.

Red was a stray. He couldn’t help the fact that his genetics and appearance categorised him as dangerous. He was young, healthy and apparently very friendly.

Red showed no signs of aggression with people or other dogs, and yet England’s breed specific laws against pit bull-type dogs meant he had to die. The morning of his death, Celine took him out of his kennel, took him for a five mile walk, and let him run and chase a ball in a secure field until he was exhausted, after which she took him out for a junk food meal. Then she held him in her arms while he was killed.

When we went in to the vets his tail was still wagging and he sat there licking my face and licking the tears of my face, he didn’t know I was going to have him killed. I held him all the time and he slipped away in my arms quietly, I held him even when he was dead and sobbed my heart out.

Now I feel empty, I feel like I have finally been beaten and that all I have ever tried to do has been broken, I wanted to dedicate my life to saving dogs and now I have killed a fit, healthy, happy dog and I don’t think I can live with it or continue to work as a Dog Warden.

I know a lot of people think dog wardens enjoy killing dogs, I have never been so miserable or felt that what I was doing so wrong. Now I feel that I hate people, I hate the law and I hate my job. The only small thing that has kept me from falling completely apart over this is the fact that at least I know no one can hurt him now, he will never be thrown in a pit and ripped to pieces and no one will ever abuse him or beat him. I hope he enjoyed his morning with me before he went. I know that I had to do this as it is the law and it is what my job entails, as a dog lover however it is heart breaking.

Read the story. Fight BSL.

Since the “new parvo scare” fire is still raging on the lists, blogs, and forums, I wanted to link to the post I made about it yesterday, explaining why everyone needs to take a deep breath and stop freaking out because this “new” strain of parvo is 8 years old, the current vaccines cover it, and oh yeah, the sky is not falling. Please check it out and help spread the word.

In other news, Gina asked me to do the weekly roundup today, because she’s busy making “Bad Girlz Club” badges for her dogs working on her books.

Now, I, too, have a life. Well, no, I don’t. I have deadlines, which is not the same thing at all. But we’ll pretend that’s remotely like a life, and that this was thus a huge sacrifice on my part, and that therefore Gina owes me something, and so I’m going to steal a bit of Pet Connection bandwidth to remind everyone to come chat with author Karen Delise tonight, Sunday, February 10 at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT on DogHobbyist.com.

Karen Delise is the author of “The Pit Bull Placebo: The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression” and “Fatal Dog Attacks: The Stories Behind the Statistics, as well as the founder and lead researcher for the National Canine Research Council.

In her words:

“The Pit Bull Placebo: The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression” explores and reveals how our views and beliefs about canine aggression have changed over the last 150 years and how our perceptions about the nature and behavior of dogs has been influenced and shaped by persons and organizations who often times disseminate information about dog attacks which is tailored to further an agenda unrelated to the improvement of the human/dog bond.

We have come to be in the midst of a social hysteria about Pit bulls because we have abandoned centuries-old common sense and reasoning and have been duped by inaccurate reporting from a media that thrives on sensationalism and by politicians who traffic in rumors, myths and pseudoscience in their efforts to pass legislation that demonizes dogs while exonerating criminal and abusive owners.

Despite the intense media, political and public interest in dog attacks, there is a disturbing scarcity of accurate information and investigation done on the real causes and reasons for these incidents.

If we truly believe that the extremely rare cases of fatal dog attacks merit extreme measures in the management of dogs — if our concern and shock is genuine — then we must be equally genuine and sincere in seeking out and addressing the real causes for these incidents.

Whether our goal is community safety, understanding canine behavior, furtherance of humane treatment towards dogs, or the advancement of the human-dog bond, it is critical that we examine all the details available about dog attacks.

I hope some of you will drop by!

And not about pit bulls specifically, but from the “save the pit bull, save the world” blog, a few words on Prozac for pups:

I’ve come across a number of people on the internet who think that the use of Prozac (including the doggy version Reconcile) is an absolute Laff Riot. They see it as another symptom of our excessively medicated society. And maybe they’re right, but here’s the thing– it’s not so funny when you’ve seen dogs tear up their feet and break off teeth trying to escape a crate during a thunderstorm. It’s not much fun when you have a dog come in all broken and bleeding because she’s jumped out of a second story window when the low battery warning for the smoke detector started beeping. It’s no fun to have your dog hurt himself, destroy your house, and be a complete disaster because he’s got fears that are out of control and neither he nor you know how to handle them.

I know there are cases where psychiatric medications are prescribed inappropriately. But that’s true of many medications, from steroids to antibiotics to Prozac. That doesn’t make the medication bad or ridiculous. And there are many cases where psych meds could be extremely helpful, but the owners are unwilling. They scoff about it “just being a dog” or laugh about it being Prozac, and allow their dogs to suffer just the same.

Phobias like this are very real medical issues. Thunderstorm and sound phobias can claim lives. And yet, there’s help available. Karen Overall, a well-respected veterinary behaviorist, wrote an excellent article about thunderstorm phobia for DVM magazine, in which she talks about the benefit– the importance– of medication, specifically with alprazolam (Xanax), and the absolute necessity of treating these dogs.

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To me, sound phobia is just another medical issue, and one that there is help available for. Watching him suffer and stress through storms, through fireworks, was heartwrenching, and knowing that by doing anything to comfort him, I’d be making him worse, was incredibly hard for me. So being able to pop him some pills and make him not need that comfort was just wonderful for me. Call me lazy if you will. Call me just another brainwashed victim of the drug industry. But if a couple of pills can improve both of our lives so dramatically, sign me up.

I didn’t mean this to be a pit bull-theme post, and it’s really not… but Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly is scaring the crap out of me with her post about a nasty infection at her local shelter that’s killing dogs:

The tawny pit bull mix was clearly dead, lying in a pool of his own blood. In the run next door, a shepherd mix was laying on his side, panting heavily and staring at the wall with a glazed expression on his face. Omigod, is this what it’s always like at these places?

I made my first visit to Miami-Dade Animal Services (our County-funded animal shelter) last Monday night. In an overabundance of guilt I decided to get a little more active in my local VMA (veterinary medical association). Truth be told, it was because the South Florida Veterinary Medical Association (SFVMA) held its first board meeting of the year at this venue that I felt compelled to attend. (Killing two birds with one stone, as it were.)

For a while now, I’ve been hoping to get a bird’s-eye view of the shelter with a behind-the-scenes tour. Last Monday’s meeting offered a double-bonus: A full-facility tour presented by Miami-Dade’s top dog in Animal Services, Dr. Sara Pizano.

I also got to see the first two cases of a devastating disease now sweeping through the facility: a fulminating respiratory infection that looks like kennel cough but progresses quickly to what looked to me like canine Ebola. Blood everywhere. Within 24 hours of the first symptoms. I can’t imagine anything scarier.

Me either, Dr. Patty! She goes on to describe a scene out of any animal lover’s hell, and tells of efforts being made to identify, treat, and prevent the spread of the infection. She goes on:

Dr.Pizano has been at the shelter since its management structure was overhauled by the County three years ago. Instead of law enforcement managers (yes, the police department), the County recruited a vet who had cut her teeth at a neighboring county’s shelter.

It’s clear that Dr. Pizano is a political animal of the take-no-prisoners variety, which I’m hoping will serve her well in our cutthroat county government. Since she arrived at this dilapidated, egregiously mismanaged shelter, she’s doubled adoption rates and can recite chapter and verse of Winograd’s treatise. When I questioned her, she claimed that, “there’s nothing [he advocates ] we’re not doing here.”

To that end, she’s lobbying hard for a private foundation to funnel money into building a new facility where infectious disease can be better managed and the citizens of our County can be better enticed to meet their new loved ones.

But every day brings new disasters. Over a hundred new animals come in every day. Over 30,000 a year. And she’s only one person.

As I left the facility on Monday night I couldn’t help asking the security guard on duty at the gate one last thing: “How many employees work here at night?” It was a trick question. I already knew the answer: “Just me, Miss.”

Read the whole sad, scary thing here.

Other good stuff out there: Our friend the Terrierman has some rants on about the AKC and puppy mills (with which I agree) and dog shows (on which I both do and don’t; a lot of what he says about their impact on working dogs is inarguable, but dog shows and the clubs that put them on can do a lot of good, too).

Hope to see you at Karen Delise’s chat, and enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!