PETA and the Lobster: A Story of FAIL

Stupid-on-a-Stick Meets PeTA, and hillarity ensues:

A company in the United Kingdom is about to lift the lid on a device that zaps lobster with electricity to kill them, and the inventor said Wednesday his humane alternative to boiling is about to give the entire industry a jolt.

. . . . The animal rights group PETA bought two of the lobster devices and paid for Mr. Buckhaven and his wife to fly to the Arizona event last Saturday to demonstrate the technology.

Unfortunately, the courier service lost the two machines and the animal rights people had to look the other way as volunteers killed hundreds of lobster in boiling water for hungry supporters of the resource centre.

The whole story is here, but you will have to supply your own laugh track.


This jumbo 25 lb. lobster was destined for the President's table in 1933.
.

How Much Land is Protected?

This post is recycled from 2005.

There are many different ways to look at how much land is protected in each county. I will start with the technical, but if you read to the end I promise you some pretty impressive data!

The technical: The World Conservation Union (IUCN) defines six management categories of protected areas in two groups.

Group One Lands are totally protected areas that are maintained in a natural state and are closed to extractive uses. They comprise Category I, Strict Nature Reserves/Wilderness Area; Category II, National Park; and Category III, National Monuments.

Group Two Lands are partially protected areas managed for specific uses such as recreation, or to provide optimum conditions for certain species or ecological communities. They comprise Category IV, Habitat/Species Management Areas; Category V, Protected Landscape/Seascapes; and Category VI, Managed resource Protected Areas.

The very easy-to-use "Nation Master" web site at www.NationMaster.com ranks countries by the percentage of land in "protected areas" and by the percentage of land that is still "wild" ("wildness").

On this web site "protected areas" seems to combine both Group One and Group Two IUCN land protection definitions -- a pretty good index of aesthetically, culturally or environmental important lands afforded a significant level of government protection.

The "Wildness" index on the Nation Master site, uses the percent of land in a given country with a "very low anthropogenic impact". In other words, this is land with very, very low population densities and not much evidence of human disturbance (often because it is desert or tundra). The "wildness" data is largely from Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network, with an overlay for human population densities (see footnote on the Nation Master web site).

Now for the really impressive numbers.

The growth in the acreage of formally protected lands in the U.S, Canada, and Mexico is very impressive.

Since 1970, North American acreage off limits to development rose from 247 million to 741 million acres — about 15 percent of the continent's land surface. Almost all of this is due to the naming of new wilderness, near-wilderness, and biological reserves.

On the international front, the same tremendous growth in protected lands we see in North America is also occurring overseas.

In 2004, the United Nations reported that there are now over 102,000 environmentally protected areas around the world totaling over 17 million square kilometers of land (another 1.8 million square kilometers is underwater).

To put it another way, about 11.5 per cent of the Earth's land surface - an area the size of South America - is now protected. For scale, and in comparison, the area of the world's protected areas is now far bigger than the land surface of India and China combined. It is also larger than all land in the world under permanent, arable, crops.

For North American bird lovers, the good news is that Central and South America have the highest percentage of land under protection at more than 25 percent each.

Is all of the protected land in impoverished parts of the world fully protected to eliminate all illegal logging and poaching? Of course not. But as countries climb the economic ladder, and as political and civil service systems in the developing world become more robust, things are likely to improve along this front. The good news is not that the job is done (we are pretty far from that!), but that the direct and velocity are far better than most of us have been lead to believe.
.

"The World Is Really, Really Dirty"

We Can't Afford Health Care Legislation?

"According to the preliminary CBO analysis, the legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $127 billion over the first decade and by $650 billion over the second decade."

If someone tells you we can't afford health care legislation, ask if they got out of grade school, because they sure can't read and they sure can't add.
.

When Pit Bulls (with or without lipstick) Go Rogue

First Sarah Palin was a "pit Bull with lipstick. Then she "went rogue."


A couple of days ago, I noted that it's just possible a "Pit Bull might go Pit Bull."

I thought that was a fairly innocuous observation, considering that I provided a link to the dictionary definition of Pit Bull which, along with "American Staffordshire terrier," notes that it is also slang for "One who behaves in a markedly aggressive or ruthless manner."



It's not like we have not heard this definition of Pit Bull before, is it?

It's as current as this morning's orange juice.

But, of course, I got an email from a very nice person who wanted me to remove the reference. A tiger might "go tiger", and a chimpanzee might "go chimpanzee," but it was beyond thought that a Pit Bull might "go Pit Bull," and never mind the daily new stories.

Would I remove the reference? I was told it was absurd to "lump people like me" together with "people who aren't just idiots, but idiots who do incredibly stupid things to wild animals."

Eh?

I had not mentioned this person. I had not mentioned ANY person. I was talking about animals.

In fact, what I was talking about was something elementary: Every animal has a code within it. This code cannot be eliminated, and must be paid homage to.

I wrote back:

I find it very amusing that Pit Bull owners deny the genetic code in their breed. You do not see houndsmen going nuts when someone says "he stayed on the trail like a hound," or a greyhound man going nuts when someone says he "ran like a greyhound," or a terrierman expressing outrage when someone says he is as "tenacious as a terrier," or a bird dog man getting anxious because someone notes they were "bird-dogged to good information."

But Pit Bulls? You cannot say a Pit Bull is likely to go Pit Bull? Nonsense!

Here's a thought -- maybe that sentiment needs to be said more often.

If it was, perhaps nearly a million Pit Bulls a year would not be killed in shelters in this nation, most of then turned over to those shelters by owners who did not know or understand that a "Pit Bull can go Pit Bull."

But those are a minority of dogs, you may say.

Well yes, that's right.

"Only" about a third of all the Pit Bulls in America are killed every year BECAUSE THEY ARE PIT BULLS.

Read that line again.

Those deaths are not caused because someone is "calling" the dog a Pit Bull. Those dogs are dying because they ARE Pit Bulls, and it turns out that when "a Pit Bull goes Pit Bull" most people do not want them in their house. And that sentiment is shared by people who actually owned all those Pit Bulls! Are the folks who acquired Pit Bull all Pit Bull haters? I don't think so!

Now here's the interesting part: Most tigers in this country do not "go tiger" and most chimps do not "go chimp" either. And, as you might point out, neither do most Pit Bulls, in the sense that "only" a third of all Pit Bulls in the U.S. are being killed every year, which leaves 2/3 still "coloring between the lines."

Now here's the funny thing. You know what the lady who owned that Chimp said? She said it was just like a baby. It was her child. The folks who own tigers say the same thing -- go back and look at the Siegfried and Roy tapes of them bottle-feeding their cats, even as adults.

And you know what? Most of the time it works out. Tigers and Chimps kill or maul very few people in America -- far fewer than (well, you know) despite the fact that there are a LOT of private tigers and lions (about 30,000 big cats) and chimps (about 3,000 great apes) in America.

As to the notion that Siegfried and Roy's Tiger or that Chimpanzee were "wild" animals, or that the owners were "idiots who did incredibly stupid things" to their charges, you might want to go back and read about these animals and their owners.

None of these animals were wild -- they were all born and raised in captivity, bottle-raised, and well-trained. They were not abused in the slightest.

But does a Tiger have a genetic code? Yes it does. Does a Chimpanzee? Yes it does. Does a dog -- especially a Pit Bill? Yes it does.

And so we come to the point: A tiger just *might* go tiger someday, and a chimpanzee just *might* go chimpanzee someday, and a Pit Bull just *might* go Pit Bull someday. It's the genetic potential of the beast -- the reason "Pit Bull" is in the dictionary as an adjective that means: "One who behaves in a markedly aggressive or ruthless manner."

And NO, I do not think you are an idiot, or your dogs are a problem in the slightest. Surely you do not think the post was directed to you?

But do I think most "Pet Bull" owners have thought very much about the genetic code that exists in game bred animals? No, I do not. Too many folks believe that all animals can be "loved into being wonderful all the time." Siegfried and Roy thought that and still think that. So too does that woman who owned that mauling Chimp. And you know what? They are right most of the time. But the code can explode, can't it? And the code is not the same for all animals, is it? A "Tiger going Tiger" is well within the bounds of normal. So too is a "Pit Bull going Pit Bull."

And admitting that is Step One to saving the Pit Bull; accepting the Pit Bull for what it is, which is too often a serious problem for its owner.

I had barely fired off this little missive when Retrieverman sent me a link to this page from the Villalobos Pit Bull Rescue Center, the largest Pit Bull Rescue Center in the country, which is working hard to rehome Pit Bulls that have been dumped in shelters, even as they try to educate prospective owners of these dogs that a Pit Bull is not a Poodle or a Pug. The folks at Villalobos write:

You will learn here that while Pit Bulls make great family companions while in the right hands and living situation, they require intelligent, responsible and dedicated ownership.

Unfortunately too many people obtain these dogs for the wrong reasons or have little understanding on the inherent traits this breed possesses. It is unfortunate that one of the original purposes of the APBT was (and still is for many) dog-to-dog combat, but it’s a fact that can’t be denied or ignored. It’s very important that every potential Pit Bull owner, understands the selective breeding that took place to make these dogs of today and the inherited characteristics that are potentially within this wonderful breed.

. . . . We can’t blame specialized breeds for behaving like they were bred to do what they do. Certain specific traits were selectively bred into the dogs and are now a part of the breed’s character. It’s like the digging instinct of many Terriers, the herding behavior in Shelties, the compulsion to run in a Greyhound, etc. Your Pointer may have never spent a day on a real “hunt”, but he may still point and flush out a bird as his ancestors were bred to do so. We don’t have to condone or glorify it, but dog aggression is not uncommon with Pit Bull type dogs. Owners must recognize and accept this fact or they won’t be able to provide competent ownership and have fun with their dogs. It’s a mistake to think the fighting gene can be easily trained or loved out of a dog. Or that early socialization will guarantee your Pit Bull will always get along with other animals. Even though PBRC does not in anyway condone animal fighting, it does acknowledge the importance of understanding the special traits of this breed and advocates education about proper and responsible Pit Bull ownership. You can have all the dog experience in the world, but it’s also essential to understand the distinctive features of the type of dog you own or work with. In this case, a dog with an important fighting background who requires extra vigilance around other pets.

There are precautions to take when owning a Pit Bull, especially in a multiple-dog environment. Unfortunately these precautions are often viewed as an acceptance for the sport of dog fighting when nothing could be further from the truth. PBRC believes that knowing how to avoid a fight, as well as how to break up a fight, can be a matter of life or death for your dog and the “other” dog.

Take note that a fight can strike suddenly and for no apparent reason. Warning signs can be very subtle with Pit Bulls and even completely absent in certain cases. Two dogs may be best friends for years, sleep together, cuddle, play and even eat from the same bowl. Then one day something triggers one of them and BOOM! Often the dogs act like best friends as soon as the fight is over. They might even lick each other’s wounds. You have been warned though. They will do it again and get better at it every time.

. . . . It is not necessarily a hate of other dogs that will cause Pit Bulls to fight, but rather an “urge” to do so that has been bred into the breed for many generations. Pit Bulls may fight over hierarchic status, but external stimulus or excitement can also trigger a fight. Remember that any canine can fight, but Pit Bulls were bred specifically for it and will therefore do it with more drive and intensity than most other breeds.

Pit Bull owners must also be aware of the remarkable fighting abilities of this breed and always keep in mind that they have the potential to inflict serious injuries to other animals.

Bingo.

This is Step One: Admission that even the nicest "PET Bulls" come with a certain amount of Pit Bull genetic code pulsing through their system. Though it may be invisible, it should always be assumed to be there.

Remember the cost of denial: Nearly a million dead Pit Bulls a year, most of them acquired in haste and abandoned in leisure by people who did not understand the prolems and responsibilities that come with all dogs, with big dogs in particular, and with Pit Bulls most of all.

What has happened to the Pit Bull is a breed specific problem.

No other breed is so over-bred.

No other dog is more likely to be bred by a fool, and acquired and abandoned by an ignorant.

No other breed is more likely to die in a shelter, abandoned by its owner.

Talking about the problems that come with Pit Bull ownership is not a violence to the dog; it is salvation for the dog.

What this dog does not NOT need is more "surprised" owners who blame the dog for the genetic code coursing through its veins -- the genetic code they never bothered to learn about, or may have once denied existed.

Yes, let's place all the rescue Pit Bulls we can in loving homes.

And let's turn to shutting down the Pit Bull breeders who are the real problem for both dog and community alike.

And, above all, let's learn to appreciate and understand each dog breed for what it is -- not for what we want them to be.



Want to see how many Pit Bulls are killed every day in America? Click here.

• Related Links:
  ** Doing Right by Pit Bulls
  ** Wanted: Responsible and Educated Dog Owners
  ** What the Hell is an American Staffordshire Terrier?
  ** Responsibility
  ** Enabling Responsibility & Discouraging Stupidity
  ** The "R" Word No One Wants to Talk About
  ** Dog Fight: Rights vs. Responsibilities
  ** PETA's Slaughterhouse for Dogs and Cats
  ** Two Hundred Dead Pit Bulls a Day in Los Angeles?
  ** Denver, Dog Bites and Pit Bulls
  ** Hump and Dump Dog Breeders
  ** Who Speaks for the Dogs?
  ** An International Pit Bull Conspiracy?
  ** What Type of Dog?
  .

Dogs Made by the Hand of Man

A repost from August 2005.

The morphological variation within dogs is pretty extreme.

The picture, above, is of an English Bulldog, a breed with such an overlarge head that almost 100% of all dogs are born caesarian.

This is a breed that would be extinct in 10 years were it not for the regular intervention of veterinarians.

Most people do not realize that almost all dog species, as we know them today, are very recent creations.

In the last 1790s, a farmer by the name of Robert Bakewell realized that by separating males from females -- made easy by the rising number of enclosed fields -- a farmer could choose which stock was allowed to breed. By deliberately inbreeding livestock, and selecting for desirable traits, Bakewell rapidly created new and "improved" breeds of sheep and transformed modern agriculture forever. Bakewell's experiments with sheep quickly spilled over into other farm stock, such as cattle, pigs, and chickens, and eventually into pet stock such as dogs and pigeons.

In 1800, there were only 15 designated breeds of dogs, but by 1865 that number had grown to more than 50 and it exploded fantastically over the course of the next 60 years as Victorian-era dog breeders produced a dizzying array of dogs, most with invented histories and elaborate (and entirely fictional) rationales for their taxonomic differences. To see how rapidly the shape of the Bull Terrier was changed by the Kennel Club show ring >> click here.

Border Collie Skull (above)


Dachshund Skull (above)


Pug Skull (above)



Poodle Skull (above)



Saint Bernard Skull (above)



Schnauzer Skull

.

Rats and Extinctions

A repost from this blog circa August 2004.

Believe it or not, rats have been responsible for more species extinctions than anything else. The reason for this is that so many of the animals that have been pushed into extinction have been indigenous ground-nesting birds living on small islands. Once rats are introduced in these locations, eggs and hatchlings are predated upon, bird populations plummet, and extinction often follows.

Rats have been eradicated from islands only a few times, and in all occasions, it has involved a tremendous amount of poison bait used for a long time.

It's worth remembering that the rat is a survivor -- they survived the nuclear blasts on Pacific atolls and actually prospered under those conditions, living on dead creatures and plant life that washed up on the beach.

One of the few examples of successful rat eradication on an island is Campbell Island, south of New Zealand. Rats got to the island via whaling ships, and destroyed the nesting grounds of the flightless teal and wading duck.

In 2002 the government of New Zealand used 120 TONS of rat poison on the island (over 240,000 pounds), delivered by boat and helicopter. About 200,000 rats died, but not without some mishap. A tanker carrying 18 tons of rat poison sank in a whale breeding ground, and there was some mild (and probably temporary) contamination of the local mussel population.

In any case, the rats are now gone, the whales are OK, and so too are the mussels. The teal and ducks are set to be re-introduced from captive populations. This is a very rare example of success in the war against rats.
.

Visualizing Empire

Visualizing empires decline from Pedro M Cruz on Vimeo. He explains:

"The data refers to the evolution of the top 4 maritime empires of the XIX and XX centuries by extent. The visual emphasis is on their decline."

.

Dogs and Other Pets on Bicycles and Motorcycles

Miss Almira Gulch in the Wizard of Oz had a pretty nice rig!

• My bicycle has been collecting dust for too long. Maybe what I need to do is add a decent terrier box off of the back. Of course, if you have money or can weld, you can carry a lot more than a terrier on a bike -- I think a Great Dane is well within the bounds of possible! Check out these extended- frame bicycles. For those with terriers, the options are simpler, from jury-rigged plastic milk crates to fancier rigs like this, or this, or a well-mounted wicker basket like that in the Wizard of Oz.
  
  
• For those who motorcycle, check out these options, from dogs to cats, and from monkey to sheep. Back when rocks were soft (and so was my head), I occasionally commuted to work at a Maryland boat yard (we built big cruising sailboats) with another fellow and his massive Labrador-cross named Kilgore. Rich would drive, I would sit behind Rich, and Kilgore would lay cross-wise between us, with his front paws on the right and his back paws on the left. We never had a problem.

Photo out of China. Amazing!
.

Digging on the Dogs

Doug and his dog Gordon came up for a short day of digging, and after taping up the collars we hit a nearby farm.

Gordon found first -- a nest of mice in a tree tube!

Mountain was second, locating something in a nice sette at the top of a tall creek bank. Pearl pinged on it too, but neither dog could get to it from either end of the pipe.

We dropped a hole where it appeared they were stuck, and bingo -- there was the pipe and the dog too, but it appeared to be a dead-end of solid earth. This den went nowhere.

The dogs continued to dig, however, and I poked the solid wall looking for a soft spot, but there was none. This was not backfill.

Mountain and Pearl were both quite adamant that it was there, however, and so out come the scrapper and the long-handled trowel. After three inches of scrapping and digging through hard soil, I was pretty sure nothing was there, but I have learned to trust the dogs and after six inches of excavation, I suddenly broke through. Amazing!

I slipped in Pearl and she bayed it up for a while, and then Doug dropped a hole behind the groundhog and I tailed it out, and we quickly dispatched it and repaired the sette. Job done.

We crossed the creek and watched a couple of warring belted kingfishers go at it. I had never heard a kingfisher vocalize before, and neither had Doug who, it must be said, has much better eyes than I do. Three deer ran up off onto another farm, three turkey vultures flew directly over our heads, and at least three red tails and a red shouldered hawk were spotted. This country is thick with wildlife.

The dogs half-pinged on a spot on the other side of the creek, but they did not give a strong mark, and so I suggested we walk up to towards a tree about 200 yard away, as I thought we might find up that way.

Sure enough, we were half-way there when Mountain pinged on another hole. Once again, it became pretty clear that while there was something underground, it was pretty well dug in.

That's the way it is this time of year -- the groundhogs are starting to lay up for the winter, and are closing in their holes and building water barriers inside their pipes so as to make comfortable hibernation possible.

Mountain entered and stayed underground. I boxed her and Doug dropped a hole right on top of her nose. The pipe made a hard and unexpected turn right at this point, and the groundhog had pushed dirt behind him as well.

After clearing a little dirt with the scraper and widening the hole to give Mountain a little more room, she was straight up the pipe and face to face with the groundhog. Nice!

We dropped a second hole right behind the groundhog, and snared it out and dispatched it for Mr. Fox to recycle.

With two down, we decided to call it a day, as Doug had a long drive back down to North Carolina.

A Defender of Free-Dumb

If we don't defend Free-Dumb, they will begin making us pay for it.

Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be

So close to the truth it almost hurts when I laugh.
.

From Bassetts to Auschwitz in 50 Years: What the Eugenics Movement Learned from Dog Breeders, and Vice Versa

There is nothing quite as amusing as the Kennel Club saying it has had nothing to do with Eugenics.

Really?

Let us look at their own history.

The year is 1897, some 14 years after Sir Francis Galton first coined the term "Eugenics," and just 11 years before Galton founded the British Eugenics Society in 1907.

What's going on at the Kennel Club?

Well, for starters they are firmly closing the registry for all dogs except new breeds just being enrolled for the first time.

In the 1905 publication The Kennel Club: Its History and Record of Its Work, Edward William Jaquet, secretary of the Kennel Club writes about the 1897 debate over what to do about the declining health of Scottish Deerhounds.


Click to enlarge


And so there it is: The question of health versus purity is raised, and put front and center.

And what is the Kennel Club's answer? Simple: Quash all questions of health in favor of maintaining breed "purity."

And what about health? The Kennel Club had a solution for that: euthanasia of the unfit, and sterilization of all but the most exemplary as decided by appearance alone.

It is important to understand that the Kennel Club's decision to close its registry did not occur in isolation. The core ideas underpinning the eugenics movement were already more than 30 years old, and these values, in turn, had been shaped and reinforced by those who pointed to the "progress" being made by the "scientfic" breeding of dogs, pigeons, and livestock for the show ring. One idea fed off another, and rationalized and excused the other.

A time line shows the progress:

• Plato was the first to propose state-sponsored eugencis, suggesting that in his ideal Republic "The best men must have intercourse with the best women as frequently as possible, and the opposite is true of the very inferior." In Plato's scheme, the fittest and best would be determined by a points systems.
  
  
• In the late 1770s, Robert Bakewell began to rapidly improve farm stock through sire selection and control, a feat made possible by the rise of the Enclosure System. Bakewell's fame and fortune spread rapidly and soon countless farmers had embraced his animal husbandry techniques.
  
  
• Stock shows grew up out of a desire of farmers to show off and sell their new and improved "scientifically bred" animals. At some of these early stock shows, dogs were also featured, but more as an afterthought than anything else.
  
  
• It was at the new farm stock shows that Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's father, first began to get an inkling of the power of the selection process -- an idea he expounded on in a book entitled Zoonomia.
  
  
• Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859, noting that while un-natural selection worked very quickly to improve farm stock, natural selection did much the same thing in the wild, albeit more slowly.
  
  
• The same year that The Origin of Species was published, the first formal dog show was held. John Henry Walsh (aka "Stonehenge") was a judge.
  
  
• In 1865, the first modern work on eugenics was written by Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's cousin. In a long essay entitled "Hereditary Talent and Character," Galton said human intelligence was a product of breeding, and suggested that through selective breeding humans could be bred to be be more (or less) intelligent. Galton specifically noted that dogs seemed to have been bred for stupidity and obsequiousness, as man wanted a "slave."
  
  
• In his 1869 book Hereditary Genius, Galton expanded on his earlier essay, noting:
  
  

  "I propose to show in this book that a man's natural abilities are derived by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form and physical features of the whole organic world. Consequently, as it is easy, notwithstanding those limitations, to obtain by careful selection a permanent breed of dogs or horses gifted with peculiar powers of running, or of doing anything else, so it would be quite practicable to produce a highly-gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive generations."

  
  
• In 1867, John Henry Walsh (aka Stonehenge) and his friends adopted Plato's "point sytem" for grading breeding stock, and used it for grading dogs at shows. When the The Kennel Club was created in 1873, it adopted this points system as its own.
  
  
• In 1880, the Kennel Club put into place the first formal rules governing the naming of dogs so as to avoid double registrations and confusion. This was the start of the Kennel Club's registry system.
  
  
• In 1897, the Kennel Club formally closed its registry, disallowing cross breeds and outcrosses to other breeds.
  
  
• That same year Francis Galton began using Kennel Club breed records to support his genetic theories, noting in his Memoir (chapter XX):
  

  " had thought of experimenting with mice, as cheap to rear and very prolific,and had taken some steps to that end, when I became aware of the large collections of Basset Hounds belonging to the late Sir Everard Millais. He offered me every facility. The Basset Hound records referring to his own and other breeds had been carefully kept, and the Stud Book he lent me contained accounts of nearly 1,000 animals, of which I was able to utilise 817. All were descended from parents of known colours; in 567 of them the colours of all four grandparents were also known. Wherever the printed Stud Book was deficient, Sir Everard Millals supplied the want in MS from the original records. My inquiry was into the heredity of two alternative colours, one containing no black, the other containing it; their technical names were lemon-white and tri-colour (black, lemon, white) respectively. I was assured that no difficulty was felt in determining the category to which each individual belonged. These data were fully discussed in a memoir, published (1897) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, on what is now termed the "Ancestral Law," namely, that the average contribution of each parent is ¼, of each grandparent, and so on. Or, in other words, that of the two parents taken together is ½, of the four grandparents together ¼, and so on. My data were not as numerous as is desirable, still the results were closely congruous, and seem to be a near approximation to the truth. The conclusions have been much discussed and criticised, and they have been modified by Professor Karl Pearson; but they have not been seriously shaken, so far as I know.

Of course, as new dog breeds came into the fold, individual dog registries were not always closed on Day One. That said, as a general rule they do not seem to have stayed open for very long, with the Kennel Club door generally being slammed shut within a year or two, and often with just two or three dozen dogs listed on the roles.

In 1907, Galton created the Eugenics Education Society and that same year Indiana passed a State Sterilization Law.

That same year the Germans created their own Eugenics Society, the "Internationale Gessellschaft fuer Rassenhygiene."

To give a little flavor to the intellectual debate taking place at this time, it's worth reading this little piece from the September 1914 issue of Atlantic magazine entitled "Eugenics and Common Sense":

There seems no objection to Eugenicists classing themselves with cabbages and dogs and cats, but does the rest of the world accept this for itself? Are you content to be described and treated as a beast, and a beast only? Each reader will answer that for himself no doubt, and I need not elaborate the point. It is the cheerful and veracious foundation of Eugenics.

Let us continue. The Eugenist takes man purely as a plant or as an animal; he wants to breed him just as animals are bred, so let us consider how plants and animals are bred and what the result has been. He says: 'Surely the human product is superior to poultry,'—the very foundation of his whole argument is that it is not; however, let us go on,—'and as we may now predict with precision the characters of the offspring of a particular pair of pedigreed poultry so it may be some time with man.'

Still, let us go on. Let us assume with the Eugenists that we really are no different from cabbages and roses, or horses and dogs,—that every rule which applies to them applies to us, and let us see what the scientific breeding of plants and animals has effected. What has been the result?

Well, the result has been astonishing. The simple little wild Persian rose, for instance, has been improved into the gorgeous blooms of our gardens: the small, rather sour apple has become the Albemarle Pippin; the wild dog has become the great Dane, the mastiff, the bull-dog, the pug; and the barb mixed with the Frisian horse has become the thoroughbred. In size, in beauty, in variety, in qualities useful to mankind, plants and animals have been improved out of recognition.

That is quite true. But what of the other qualities? What, for instance, of health and intelligence? Have these also increased pari passu with the increase in size? Go to a nursery gardener, to a racing stable, to a dog-fancier, and inquire. You will learn this: the extraordinary improvement In size and shape has been gained at the cost of all other qualities. Thoroughbred plants and animals are very tender, they require most assiduous attention, they have to be nursed like babies. They have no stamina, and they have no brains. They are so delicate that unless they are continually protected and doctored they are devoured by disease. A rose-grower's outfit now includes innumerable medicines without which his blooms would be destroyed. If you abandon a garden of any cultivated flowers for a few years, the vigorous and hardy wild plants will choke all your improved stock; nothing will be left save perhaps a few lucky plants which have managed to evolve as it were backwards and regain some of their virility by abandoning their acquired splendor. In free competition the improved plant does not stand the ghost of a chance with its unimproved brothers. The struggle ends inevitably and tragically.

It is exactly the same with improved birds and animals. In open competition for a livelihood thoroughbred stock would be doomed. It has no constitution, it cannot get a living for itself, cannot bear exposure, must be cared for like an invalid. Read for instance the history of the cavalry and mounted infantry horses in the Boer War. The fine-bred stock from England was useless. It died in heaps. It was only horses from places where they are brought up semi-wild, as in the Argentine and Australian runs, that were of any use. Even they did not compare with the Boer ponies.

A further fact, and one still more important to remark, is that all tame is incomparably inferior in intellect to wild stock. There is so little opportunity for people of civilized nations nowadays to observe wild animals that this fact is often overlooked. But the difference is startling. Look at a pack of wild dogs, as I often have. They hunt with a science and precision that tame fox-hounds have no idea of, even when directed by huntsmen and whips. A pack of wild dogs will mark down a stag—they always select stags with big heads if possible—in a piece of forest surrounded by grass. They will post sentries at the exits and the rest of the pack will go to the end and beat the jungle through. When the stag breaks, the sentries at the exit give tongue and warn the rest who immediately run to their call.

There is no one who like myself has kept both wild and domesticated animals as pets who has not noticed that the latter are fools to the former. It is a commonplace of knowledge. Here is a story in illustration, from the life of the elder Dumas.

He had a dog and a fox both chained up near the house. One day he gave a bone to each, putting it just out of reach, to see what would happen. Well, at first, both acted in the same way, they strained at the chain. The fox, however, soon found out the uselessness of this and sat down to consider. Then he got up, turned round so as to add the length of his body to that of the chain, reached the bone with his hind leg, and having scraped it within reach, sat down to eat it. But the dog not only could not think of this himself, but even when he saw the fox do it, he could not imitate it.

The more scientifically bred animals are, the less brain they have. If you want a dog who will be an intelligent and sympathetic companion, which do you choose, the dog bred by 'science' or the dog bred by the natural selection of mutual love, the thoroughbred or the mongrel? All experience says the latter. Therefore, suppose the Eugenists had their way and established a state, what would the inhabitants of that state be like in a few generations? They would be tall, broad, muscular, beautiful, delicate to a degree, useless save for athletic contests or beauty shows, always in the doctor's hands—Eugenic doctor of course,—brainless, incapable of affection, almost wanting in courage, to a great extent sterile; and in the end, if the state did not die of inanition first, some more virile and intelligent race, say the Hottentots or Andamese, would come and eat its inhabitants. The Eugenic Utopia would end in the digestive apparatus of a savage. Sic transit gloria Eugeniae. Nothing could be more certain than that.

And where did it go from here? Well, not to common sense!

Galton died in 1911, but his ideas did not die with him.

The American Eugenics Society was formally started in 1923, and veterinarian and celebrated dog man Leon F. Whitney was put in as its secretary.

As I have noted in a previous post entitled "The Eugenics Man and the Kennel Club", Whitney was a very prolific author of popular dog books, many of which are still available and in print to this day.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Leon Whitney was also a famous popularizer of eugenics thought.

In Whitney's mind -- and in the minds of many of this contemporaries -- eugenics thought and dog breeding were very compatible ideas and comparable pastimes.

In fact, they were self-reinforcing to the point that Whitney and others in the American eugenics movement decided to create a "dog show for people" which they called "Fitter Family" contests.

In these contests, which were held at State Fairs all across the U.S., four generations of families would be paraded out and put into competition with each other to win a prize.


"Fitter Family" contest winners in Topeka, Kansaa.


In 1931, Leon F. Whitney began writing The Case for Sterilization a book designed to encourage the passage of more state-based sterilization laws in the U.S. and around the world.

The Case for Sterilization was finally published in 1934 and noted, with some approval, that Adloph Hitler had already sterilized one percent of the population of Germany. Whitney saw this as a good start.

In his own book, Whitney advocated the sterlization of 10 million Americans!

One of Hitler's staff wrote Whitney, asking him for an autographed copy of his new book so that the Fuhrer himself might read it.

Whitney, of course, complied immediately, and shortly thereafter he received back a personal letter of thanks from Hitler who, records show, was fascinated by the American and British eugenics movements to the point that in 1935 he modeled some of his own Lebensborn program after their ideas.

In 1935 Alexis Carrell, the French scientist who had won the 1912 Nobel Prize for medicine, published a best-selling book entitled L'Homme, Cet Inconnu (Man, The Unknown) which took Whitney's ideas one step further, advocating a forced eugenics system to be controlled by the statem and facilitated by gas chambers.

"A euthanasia establishment, equipped with a suitable gas, would allow the humanitarian and economic disposal of those who have killed, committed armed robbery, kidnapped children, robbed the poor or seriously betrayed public confidence.... Would the same system not be appropriate for lunatics who have committed criminal acts?"

In the 1936 edition of the same book, Carrel praised the Third Reich's eugenics policies, and noted that more could be achieved if they used gas chambers. Later, when questioned by a magazine interviewer about his theories, Carrel explained in a rather matter-of-fact way:

"Perhaps it would be effective to kill off the worst and keep the best, as we do in the breeding of dogs."

And so there it is -- from Bassetts to Auschwitz in 50 years.

Did the Kennel Club invade the Sudetenland? No, of course not.

But did the Kennel Club walk arm in arm and shoulder to shoulder with the eugenics movement right from the beginning? Absolutely. One could not have happened without the other. They are as intertwined as the grape vine and the trellis.

And, of course, the Kennel Club still warmly embraces eugenics theories based on a closed registry system that elevates to prime importance such useless attributes as coat and nose color, while kicking to the curb such vital issues as health and working ability.

Of course, even as the Kennel Club holds tight to "racial purity" breeding, the farm world has moved forward, discovering the benefits of hybridization and outcrosses.

Today, most beef cattle, dairy cattle, chickens, corn, and soy are hybrid animals and plants.

Only in the show ring, where there is no true axis of production, is racial purity still valued.

• Note: The title for this piece is stolen from a line by Andrew Marr in his BBC program entitled "The Making of Modern Britain," in which he notes that the eugenics movement went "from the Bassett Hound stud book to Auschwitz in not many bounds."

• Related Links:
  ** Inbred Thinking
  ** Stonehenge: The Root of the Inbreeding Problem
  ** The Eugenics Man and the Kennel Club
  ** No Tolerance for Diversity
  ** Howard Galton's Bloodhounds
  ** Charles Galton Darwin
  ** The Francis Galton Dog Show
  ** Standards and Stonehenge
  ** The Kennel Club Stud Book - 1884
  ** Non-Extinct Terriers & Other Mysteries
  ** Counterfeit Collies and Transvestite Terriers
  ** Rawdon Lee :: The Fox Terrier, 1902
  ** A Pictorial History of Terriers; Their Politics & Their Place
  ** Before the Era of Dog Shows....
  ** Does the Breed Standard Require a Rape Rack?
  ** Handsome Is as Handsome Does
  ** Dogs Made by the Hand of Man
  ** Robert Bakewell's Apartment
  ** The AKC's Long Love Affair With Puppy Mills
  ** Science Remakes the Dog
  .

Mountain Excavates an Entrance

Mountain tosses out soil as she opens up a partially blocked groundhog pipe in a stream bank. The groundhogs on this farm are taking down the stream bank, which is normally five or six feet above the creek bed.

It's mid-November, and though there are still a few weeks left to the season, some of the groundhogs are starting to lay up. Though groundhogs never true hibernate (I have dug them in the first week of January, through ice and snow), they do start moving out of their dens less and less as the days start to get shorter.
.

Life and Death, One Sheet Thin

A mouse runs up a sapling as the dog bangs on the tube.

Sometimes the slimmest distance is what separates life from death.

While digging on the dogs today with Doug, Gordon, one of the last of the Kill Devil Terriers, found a nest of three mice inside a tree-protection tube.
.

Blind, Deaf, and Epileptic by Design

This dog is blind, deaf, epileptic, and in joint pain at age 4.

In the July issue of Dog's Today, I give "Terrierman's Top Ten Tips for Avoiding Expense & Misery," pinging off of the story of the tallest dog in the world (a harlequin Great Dane) and the oldest (a 26-year old cross-bred Jack Russell Terrier).

As I noted in that piece, the Great Dane in question died at age seven, euthanized after coming down with cancer -- a very common outcome for this breed.

So who is the "tallest dog in the world now?

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is a 4-year old Great Dane named Titan who is "blind, deaf, epileptic and undergoes acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments every three weeks."

Great. A total genetic mess. The only good thing here is that the dog was adopted by its current owner from a Tennessee Great Dane Rescue.

Let's be clear here: Breeding defective dogs that live in pain is a type of systematic animal abuse.

We know how to breed healthier dogs. To not do it is a violence.

Thinking about getting a dog? Think and research before you adopt or buy.
..

Coffee and Provocation

Jack Russell chasing its own tail. Not the dog for everyone.

1. This retro Enfield motorcycle looks awesome, gets 75 miles to the gallon, is affordable, and may be how I get to work next year. Plus it's the right engine size. I think I might save enough on gas alone to justify the expense. Hmmmm.
   
   
2. Thanks to $25 million in recovery money, America's poorest city now has hippos.
   
   


3. Every Friday, I get "house porn" in the mail. You can too by signing up for this free e-newsletter.
   
   


4. Right up there with "that "Tiger went Tiger" and "that Pit Bull went Pit Bull" is "that Chimpanzee went Chimpanzee." The last link is very graphic and sad. The first link is very funny.
   
   


5. In my continuing study of evolution, I take a short side-tour to look at the evolution of "Jesus Fish." Be sure to check out all the links!
   
   


6. "Hung like a gorilla" is not a compliment and hung like a duck is, but if you claim to be hung like a barnicle, you are just a damn liar.
   
   


7. I coined the term for it: a "vulgarity of starlings". Here's what that looks like when it's 300,000 birds deep.
   
   


8. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's political career ended when he gut-shot a deer and left it to die slowly in the woods. The buck stops where?
   
   


9. Michigan has cougar in the Upper Peninsula. Confirmed by good trail cam pictures.
   
   


10. Levi-Strauss has died. I sure will miss his jeans.
    
    
    

Your Moment of Zen:


Watch the whole thing.
.

Home, Home on the Range ...

A young elk is filmed playing in a puddle.

"Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day."
.

Thoreau on Hunting

" AS I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw; not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented...

".... The wildness and adventure that are in fishing still recommended it to me. I like sometimes to take rank hold on life and spend my day more as the animals do. Perhaps I have owed to this employment and to hunting, when quite young, my closest acquaintance with Nature. They early introduce us to and detain us in scenery with which otherwise, at that age, we should have little acquaintance. Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and others, spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves, are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation. She is not afraid to exhibit herself to them. The traveller on the prairie is naturally a hunter, on the head waters of the Missouri and Columbia a trapper, and at the Falls of St. Mary a fisherman. He who is only a traveller learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority.

".... When some of my friends have asked me anxiously about their boys, whether they should let them hunt, I have answered 'yes,' — remembering that it was one of the best parts of my education — make them hunters…"

. . . . . . - Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

.

The Crufts Logo Now Features a Sofa

I could not make this up. The new logo for Crufts is now branded as "DFS Crufts" and features a couch in the middle of a dog show ribbon.

Yes, a couch.

DFS is a discount furniture store, which is just as about perfect as last year's winner, an enormously fat Sealyham terrier, looked more like a couch cushion than any sort of dog that was ever supposed to go down a hole after a fox.

As noted in an earlier post entitled The Kennel Club Couch Potato Club

The dog show circuit that was started by a shotgun maker looking to attract hunters by holding a competition for Pointers and Setters has now devolved to a couch company seeking to attract couch potato matrons and their pampered pooches who are led around on string leads.

Of course, The Daily Telegraph asked the real question, in the headline below:



Why not, indeed?
.

Fearing Foreign Blood at the Kennel Club?

The BNP's Nick Griffin is seen wearing a Kennel Club BNP rosette.

I was at coffee some weeks back, editing a magazine piece I have tentatively entitled The Kennel Club Fears Foreign Blood.

You will have to wait until that piece comes out, but suffice it to say that the blood in question is CANINE blood.

That said, the article in question does detail the connection between Adolph Hitler's Lebensborn plan, created in 1935, and a book published in 1934 and written by celebrated dog man Leon F. Whitney, who was head of the American Eugenics Society.

In his book, Whitney suggested that the sterilization of 10 million "defective" Americans would be a good start, and he praised the work of Adolph Hitler who was already headed down that road in Germany.

Hitler not only read Whitney's book -- he sent him a fan letter!

Whitney liked dog shows, and he thought the idea had great promise for people too, going so far as to hold "Fitter Family" contests at state fairs across the U.S. as a way of showcasing eugenics theories.

I was writing down this little story when I remembered that a while back a list of British National Party members had been leaked to the press. Hmmm.... I wondered if anyone from the Kennel Club was on the list?

Now, for those wondering, the British National Party is a far-right, whites-only political party in the United Kingdom. The constitution of the group says the organization is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948."

In short, this is not an organization that simply wants to restore "order at the border" and put an end to illegal immigration. This is an affirmatively racist organization that puts skin color front and center.

No big deal, I suppose.

Skinheads, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, biggots and haters of one stripe or another exist from one end of the world to another. BNP members are simply a variation on a theme.

That said, I got to wondering: Was anyone associated with the Kennel Club on the British National Party membership list?

A quick Google search found the list over at WikiLeaks, and a quick scan found that Ronnie Irving, the Kennel Club's Chairman is not listed (very good), nor is Lord Graham Kirkham, the owner of DFS furniture and the sponsor of DFS Crufts (also very good).

What about Caroline Kisko? She's the Kennel Club's spokesperson, and the only other name I knew off the top of my head without doing a Google search.

Nope, she's not in there either.

But her husband is.



Click to enlarge.


What did that mean?

I had no idea.

Perhaps Chris Kisko simply signed up to get on the information list, and is actually an underscover agent infiltrating the British National Party on behalf of MI5.

Perhaps Chris Kisko abhors the most extreme parts of the British National Party, but thinks having an organization on the far right helps counter those on the far left.

Hard to know.

For the record, I do not think anyone can seriously argue that the U.S. and the U.K. do not need immigration reform. We cannot afford to take in all the world's displeased and dispossesed, and we really ought to stop trying.

But voicing support for "order at the border" is a far cry from signing up for a far-right whites-only political party, isn't it?

I would hope so!

Now, to be fair, the Kennel Club is not Caroline Kisko, and Caroline Kisko is not Chris Kisko. And to be equally fair, Chris Kisko has the right to free thought, free speech, and free association.

That said, it's odd that out of a U.K. population of 60 million people, and a British National Party list of 10,000, I could check just three names associated with the Kennel Club and find a hit.

What are the odds of that? By my rough calculation, about one in 2,000.

So what did I do with my information?

Nothing. Not a thing.

I sat on it, and it went nowhere. Then, this morning, I discover that this same information has turned up in The London Times. It seems Kennel Club Chairman Ronnie Irving has been asked about the politics of The Kennel Club's chief spokesperson and he assures us that:

“Mrs Kisko is not and has never been a member of the BNP and does not share its views.”

Excellent.

Caroline Kisko is not a member of the British National Party. Hear that! Anyone who was wondering about such a thing, can now rest assured.

Her husband? A booming silence there, but let's overlook that. There is a right to free speech and free association. The Kennel Club is not Caroline Kisko, and Caroline Kisko is not Chris Kisko. And Chris Kisko, just to set it straight, has every right to be a member of the racist British National Party if he wants.

And we, of course, have every right to loathe every part of that, and to see the clear historical connections at play in the Kennel Club, where selection for coat color is prime, where sterilization of the imperfect is still the watchword, and where a fear of "foreign" blood requires the breeding of dogs in a closed registry.


It's all about messaging.


So how did Chris Kisko's membership in the BNP come up in the press? It seems that Ofcom -- an "oh you got your feelings hurt" emotional salve unique to Britain -- decided to hold back their review of Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

What seems to be the problem? Hard to know exactly, but from what I can gather, it seems that Ofcom reviewer Kath Worrall is a former Kennel Club show judge.

What?!!

The Ofcom reviewer is a former Kennel Club show judge?! How the hell did that happen?

Surely the management of Ofcom could see a problem there? Did the BBC know? Did the BBC and Ofcom not understand how far up the backside of the Kennel Club you have to be to be a Kennel Club judge?

Of course, there is more.

It seems this former Kennel Club judge was not willing to give weight to all the evidence submitted by the BBC. She rather imperiously decided that it was "too late for the truth" and never mind getting all the facts.

Of course the BBC went supernova at that, and on the eve of a ruling in which 17 of the 20 complaints were tossed out, the BBC sent some sort of barnburner of a letter to Ofcom about the last three.

The result? Ofcom decided to pull back and take a second look at how the game was being played within their own organization.

Broadcast Now reports that:

BBC sources claimed Ofcom asked “odd” questions in its call for evidence, and then would not allow the corporation to submit any additional material which would have supported its argument. They also raised concerns that Ofcom’s Kath Worrall oversaw both the initial complaint and the appeals process as a member of the media regulator’s content board as well as chair of its fairness committee.

“They got the same person to be judge and jury. It took a record time for Ofcom to rule on and there was an unprecedented level of protest to Ofcom, right up until the last minute,” a source said.

According to Broadcast Now, things are now sufficiently wrapped around the axle that "It is understood has Ofcom restructured its appeals process following the complaints."

And what has the Kennel Club said to all this?

Well, they are none too happy! In fact, Kennel Club Chairman Ronnie Irving has said that he and the Kennel Club have "have to admit a loss of confidence in the Ofcom complaints process."

Right.

I would have to agree that the whole thing is a shambles.

But you know what is not a shamble?

Simple: Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

Go ahead and watch the whole thing at this link, and judge for yourself.

And know this: From everything I read in the newspapers, no one has suggested a single thing was gotten wrong in this documentary. The core charges are that that two dog breeders got their feelings hurt.

What? Two dog breeders got their feelings hurt? Poor things!

And the third charge?

Well, believe it or not, the third charge is that a comparison between dog breeding and Nazi eugenics might be over-wrought.

Hmmmm . . . . Really?

Considering the history here -- old and new -- perhaps the Kennel Club might not want to open up that can of worms?

Just a suggestion. A word to the wise is generally sufficient.

Now to be clear, no one is bashing the Kennel Club about what they did in 1873 or 1880 or 1910, or even 1930.

The Kennel Club is being bashed for what it continues to do today, which is warmly embrace eugenics theories based on a closed registry system that elevates to prime importance such useless attributes as coat and nose color, while kicking to the curb such vital issues as health and working ability.

That is the indictment.

And on that charge, the Kennel Club stands 100 percent guilty.

• Related Links
  ** The Eugenics Man and the Kennel Club
  ** Leon F Whitney's many dog books on Amazon.com
  ** Leon F. Whitney's book on human sterilization (complete text)
  ** The "human shows" modeled on dog and stock shows
  ** Bonus video: Hitler learns the BNP list was leaked (NSFW, profanity)
  .

Looking for Jack's Collar

This post recycled from 2007.

The area in which I live, hunt, and go to work is steeped in history. I live about a mile from the Pentagon, on part of what used to be the old Lord Fairfax estate (Fairfax started the first fox hunt in the U.S.), and just a 15-minute drive down the river from Mr. Vernon, George Washington's old home.

Arlington Cemetery, the former estate of Civil War General Robert E. Lee, is a congenial walk down the bike path, while at lunch I can walk to the White House or the Vietnam Veteran's memorial.

The sign, pictured above, is near Frederick, Maryland on the edge of one of the locations I hunt -- an 1,800 acre tract bound by farm fields. The sign notes that this immediate area was part of the Antietam Campaign of the Civil War -- the most vicious campaign of a very violent and bloody period in American history.

The sign does not mention Jack at all.

Jack was a brown and white Pit Bull terrier that learned to understand the bugle calls of his regiment, the 102nd Pennsylvania Infantry, which was largely composed of volunteer firemen from Pittsburgh.

After every Civil War battle of his regiment, Jack would search out the dead and wounded -- a trick he repeated across Virginia and Maryland.

Jack was wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill, but recovered and was captured by Confederates at Savage's Station.

The dog managed to escape and he survived the battle of Antietam on Sept 17, 1862, in which over 23,000 were killed, missing or wounded.

Jack's was severely wounded at Fredericksburg three months later, but was nursed him back to health. Then, at Salem Church, he was again taken prisoner by the Confederates. The value of the dog was such, however, that he was exchanged for a prisoner at Belle Isle six months later.

Jack stayed with his regiment through the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Campaigns and the Siege of Petersburg.

On the evening of Dec. 23, 1864, Jack disappeared from his regiment, which was on furlough at Frederick, Maryland just four miles from where this sign (top picture) is located.

Though an entire regiment looked for the dog, and even offered a substantial award, he simply vanished, and was never seen or heard from again.

It could be that Jack was stolen or murdered for his new collar, which was emblazed with silver and which cost (at the time) the astounding price of $75.

Or perhaps Jack succumbed to a bullet, poison, trap, or some other wayward thing, and simply expired ignonimously on hallowed ground -- his silver collar waiting to be dug up by a lucky groundhog hunter.


The original "Jack" circa 1863 or 1864. This dog looks very much like today's Pit Bull Terrier.
.

World War I Rat Hunters in the Trenches

World War I Trench Hunters: Photo from a German newsmagazine with a not too-subtle remark on sanitary conditions: "The result of 15 minute's rat-hunting in a British trench." Note the Jack Russell Terrier in the gentleman's arms at left. Click on picture to enlarge. Photo from Great War in a Different Light.

Another photo from the same site, below, shows French rat hunters in the French trenches. Again, note the terriers.

The illustration, below, comes from the British Magazine, The War Budget. Again, note the Jack Russell Terrier in full pursuit.
.


For other stories about terriers in World War I, see:

• Hilter's Stolen Jack Russell Terrier
  

Yorkie Doodle Dandie

Various types of terriers have had cameo roles in war. This is another one of those tales.

The dog in question is a 4-pound Yorkshire terrier by the name of "Smoky" whose famous feat is that she carried a line through a 70-foot-long drainpipe beneath an airplane runway in the South Pacific in World War II. Why this was important is not entirely clear.

In any case, "Smoky" also flew 12 combat missions with former Cleveland Plain Dealer photographer Bill Wynne, was one of the first therapy dogs in the U.S., and starred in a postwar television show as well as a book on her exploits.

Believe it or not, this little dog already has monuments erected to it in Eastlake and Columbus, Ohio as well as Tennessee, Missouri and Hawaii. Now a sixth monument is to be erected in Cleveland, this one a bronze statue of the dog wearing a helmet.

Bill Wynne, Smoky's owner, taugh Smoky to play dead, run between his legs as he walked along, walk on a drum, peddle a small scooter, walk on a tight wire blindfolded, and spell out her own name using letters cut out of cardboard.

After the War, Smoky and Bill were in show business for 10 years doing tricks, and Bill spent some time training and handling dogs in major studios.

This post is recycled from March 2005.

.

Rags: Hero of World War I

Some years back, I worked a short distance from Aspen Hill Memorial Park and Pet Cemetery at 13630 Georgia Ave., in Silver Spring, Maryland. It's a peculiar place, but a notable one.

With rows of small tombstones and a few statues, Aspen Hill Memorial Park is, as far as I know, the first graveyard for pets in the United States. Opened in 1920, it is the final resting place of many dogs and cats, but a few other creatures as well -- parrots, horses, and a few exotic animals. A few of the graves are the final resting spot of some fairly famous animals.

One famous Aspen Hill resident is "General Grant Forbush of RKO," better known as Jiggs, the ring-eyed Pit Bull terrier in the "Our Gang" comedies. It's not clear how this Hollywood star came to rest at Aspen Hill.

The most notable grave at Aspen Hill is that of "Rags," a mixed-breed terrier whose simple gravestone reads "War Hero, First Division Mascot." That simple inscription hardly begins to tell the tale, however.

Rags' story begins on July 14, 1918, when a battalion of the American 1st Infantry Division took part in Bastille Day ceremonies in Paris. One of the participants was Private James Donovan, a Signal Corps specialist, who got drunk and over-stayed his time in the city.

While lost in a cul-de-sac in the dark streets of Montmartre, Donovan stumbled over what appeared to be a pile of rags, but one that emitted a whimper and small bark. When Donovan examined the bundle, he found a small dog inside. Just as he was trying to figure out what to do with the pup, three MP's arrived on the scene, and they quickly figured out that Donovan was A.W.O.L.

Thinking quickly, Donovan convinced the MP's that the little terrier he had just found was the missing mascot of the 1st Division, and that he was part of a search party that had been sent to look for it. The gambit paid off, and "Rags" and Donovan were sent back to the 1st Division.

Back at their unit, Donovan's commanding officer allowed him to keep the little dog. Within just two weeks Donovan and Rags were sent off to the 2nd Battle of the Marne that was waged from July 18th to August 6th, 1918. During this time they were active in the sector from Ville-En-Tardenois to Soissons. Donovan's job was to string communications wire between the advancing infantry units of the 26th Infantry Regiment and the supporting 7th Field Artillery Brigade, and repair the lines when they were damaged by shellfire. When the wires were ripped and shellfire was still incoming, the only way to get messages through the lines was by runner, but the runners had difficulty getting through the miles of barbed wire strung along the trenches, and were frequently killed or wounded while trying to do so.

Donovan began training Rags to carry written notes back to the 7th Field Artillery. Rags was a quick study and soon learned to take messages towards the sound of the American guns.

In late July of 1918, during a counterattack driving towards the Paris-Soissons road, Rags and Donovan found themselves with a group of advancing infantry that had been cut off and surrounded. The only officer surviving was a young lieutenant, and he sent the following message out attached to Rags' collar:

"I have forty-two men, mixed, healthy and wounded. We have advanced to the road but can go no farther. Most of the men are from the 26th Infantry. I am the only officer. Machine guns at our rear, front, right and left. Send infantry officer to take command. I need machine gun ammunition."

Rags was able to slip under the barbed wire, avoid the Germans, and make his way through the shell holes back to the 7th Field Artillery. The message was passed on to headquarters, and a supporting artillery barrage was layed down, and reinforcements sent in, and the cut-off group rescued.

During this same campaign Rags came under enemy shell fire for the first time, and he quickly learned to drop to the ground upon hearing the sound of an incoming shell. The soldiers quickly figured out that Rags could hear the incoming rounds long before they could, and they began to use him as an early warning system.

The soldiers and Rags spent a lot of time together in the trenches, and the young men began to teach Rags a few parlour tricks. One of the first was how to "salute" by sitting up and holding a front paws up close to his head. Rags got very good at this trick, and was soon exchanging "salutes" with important military personnel up and down the line, including Major General Charles P. Summerall, commanding officer of the First Division.

From the 12th of September until the 16th of September Rags and Donovan participated in the first all-American offensive of the war, which was the drive on St. Michel which routed the Germans. Over the course of four days 15,000 Germans soldiers were captured, and during this period Rags learned to greet any grey-uniformed figure with a low growl and a snarl.

The final American campaign of W.W. I , the Meuse-Argonne, lasted from September 26th until November 1918, and during this period Rags was used to take messages across the misty and rugged terrain.

October 9, 1918, Donovan and Rags were in the Argonne Forest and bound in by a thick fog. Since it was impossible to see where the communications lines were cut, Rags was sent back with a message.

Rags had just set off when the Germans began firing mustard gas shells. Rags was was mildly gassed and was also hit in the paw with a splinter from a concussion shell. Rag's right ear was badly mangled by this same shell, and a needle-like sliver of shrapnel was embedded under his right eye. Dazed and confused, Rags was found by an American infantryman who delivered both the dog and the message to the 7th Field Artillery.

Donovan was also severely gassed during this battle, and he too was wounded by shell fire. Like Rags, he was carried back to the rear where dog and owner were reunited. Rags was placed on Donovan's stretcher, and both were given prompt medical attention "on orders from the Division."

Rags had the shell splinters removed from his paw, but he would remain blind in his right eye and deaf in his right ear for the rest of his life. Donovan was not as well off, as his lungs were severely damaged from the mustard gas. Donovan was labeled a priority case, to be shipped home as soon as possible, and Rags was sent home with him.

Donovan and Rags were sent to Fort Sheridan in Chicago, where Rags visited Donovan in his hospital room every day. Soldiers at Fort Sheridan made a special collar tag for Rags identifying him as "1st Division Rags," and he frequently joined the troops at the end of the day as they stood at attention as the flag was lowered.

Donovan showed no improvement, however, and in 1919 he died from the lingering effects of the mustard gas he received in the Argonne Forest.

In the year following Donovan's death, Rags remained at Fort Sheridan as a "post dog." In early 1920, however, Major Raymond W. Hardenberg was transferred to Fort Sheridan along with his wife and two daughters.

Rags was adopted by the Hardenberg daughters, and the 1st Division allowed Rags to move with them to Fort Benning, Georgia. Rags and the Hardenbergs were eventually posted to the Army War College in Washington, D.C., and then to Fort Hamilton in New York.

While in New York, Rags became a small celebrity. In October of 1926 he was a special guest at the Long Island Kennel Club dog show at the 23rd Regiment Armory in Brooklyn. He was awarded a special ribbon recognizing his wartime achievements. A book and a number of newspaper and magazine articles were written about him. A ceremony was held at which Rags "signed" a copy of his biography with an inked paw print, and this "autographed" copy was sent to the British Imperial War Museum in London, to take its place along other official records of the Great War.

In 1928, the 10th Anniversary of the end of the Great War, Rags was a participant at the 1st Division's reunion in New York, taking part in a parade down Broadway, appearing at receptions, and taking part in a battle re-enactment on the parade grounds at Fort Hamilton. The high ranking brass were especially fond of having their photo taken with Rags, including former 1st Division commander Summerall, who was now a four-star general.

Early in 1934 Major Hardenberg was transferred back to Washington, D.C. to serve at the office of the Chief of Infantry at the War Department. Rags went with the Hardenberg family back to Washington and, now in extreme old age, a quiet life.

On March 22, 1936 Rags died in Washington, D.C. at the age of 20. The little dog's death received considerable news coverage, and Rag's obituary was featured in The New York Times.

Rags's final resting place was in the Aspen Hill pet cemetery in Silver Spring, though perhaps Arlington Cemetery or the grounds of the War College might have been more fitting. In any case, he was a remarkable dog with a remarkable life.

This post recycled from Veterans Day 2005.

.

Stubby: Terrier Hero of Georgetown

Georgetown University features a bulldog mascot on their hats and other memorabilia, but in fact the original dog, Stubby, was not a bulldog, but a cross between a boston terrier and a bull terrier.

Stubby, the mixed terrier, was one of the more famous dogs of World War I. He is reported to have trotted onto Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut when a bunch of soldiers were drilling in preparation for the War. He may, in fact, have been a plant -- a companion dog brought by Corporal Robert Conroy, with whom he quickly became fast friends.

When the troops shipped out, Stubby was hidden on board by Conroy and went to France with the rest of the boys. At Chemin des Dames the soldiers noticed that the artillery fire didn't faze Stubby, but they taught the dog to duck down just the same. In a very little while they noticed the dog ducking before they did -- it turned out that the dog could hear the shells coming long before the men!

One dark night in the trenches, Stubby woke up while the men were sleeping, crept down the trench line and around a corner and found a German spy prowling the trenches in the dark. The soldier let out a howl when the dog bit him hard in the back thigh, and the dog did not let go even after the soldier had been disarmed by Stubby's friends -- they had to pry his jaws off the enemy soldier.

After this bit of service Stubby became famous, and honors were heaped on him by soldiers looking for a bit of humor and story to alleviate the boredom and carnage of trench warfare. At Mandres en Bassigny, Stubby was introduced to President Woodrow Wilson who "shook hands" with him. Stubby received a wound stripe for a grenade splinter he received, and the Marines even made him an honorary Sargent.

After the Armistice was signed, Stubby returned home with Conroy and his popularity seemed to grow. He became a nationally acclaimed hero, and eventually was received by presidents Harding and Coolidge. General John "Black Jack" Pershing, who commanded the American Expeditionary Forces during the war, presented Stubby with a gold medal made by the Humane Society and declared him to be a "hero of the highest caliber." Stubby toured the country leading war parades, and was made an honorary member of the American Red Cross and the American Legion. The YMCA issued him a lifetime membership card good for "three bones a day and a place to sleep."

In 1921, Robert Conroy headed to Georgetown law school and took Stubby along with him.

While at Georgetown Stubby served several terms as mascot to the football team where, between the halves, Stubby would nudge a football around the field, much to the delight of the crowd. Stubby was Georgetown's first canine mascot, and it is his ugly countenance that has somehow been morphed into the English Bulldog emblem of the Hoyas.

Old age finally caught up with Stubby on April 4th, 1926, and he died in Conroy's arms.
Stubby's stuffed body is one of the many artifacts kept by the Smithsonian museum in their vast collection.

This post is recycled from Veterans Day 2004.

Uncle Sam Needs a Sled Dog Musher

Sled dogs with Denali in background.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

In the world of dog mushing, there aren't many jobs with a steady paycheck. Professional mushers live off the bounty of their race earnings, dog breeding skills and marketing savvy.

And within a federal government that employs 19.7 million people, there is one -- exactly one -- dog mushing job.

And it's open.

The National Park Service is looking for a new kennels manager at Denali National Park and Preserve, a job that in addition to running Denali's 31-animal dog kennel includes mushing into one of America's great swaths of wilderness.

And the pay range of $33,477 to $66,542 -- plus a healthy 25 percent cost of living adjustment -- is more than what many mushers earn in a race season.

Read the rest here.

Tattoo'd Pets (Not Tattoos of Pets)

Three hairless cats and a hairless dog. It's sad when I have to tell you the species.
.

Zenyatta is Dead Last

.

Eat the Dog? Using Fake Data to Sell a Bad Book

Over at The Daily Signline, Clark Williams-Derry smashes the nonsense put out by a New Zealand couple that has promulgated a lie in order to sell their crappy book.

Promulgated a lie?

Yes a lie.

You are a liar when you know the truth, and run away from that.

A lie is not a mistake, a mis-statement, or a bit of clumsy sentence construction. A lie is served up calculated and cold, and in this case, it was designed to sell books.

And what was the lie? Simple: that owning a dog is as environmentally destructive as owning a Sports Utility Vehicle.

So what does Clark Williams-Derry say about this lie? Nothing but the truth. He writes:

You may have seen the meme circulating around the internet: some researchers from New Zealand are claiming that owning a dog has as much impact on the planet as owning an SUV. I'll let New Scientist summarize their case:

"[A] medium-sized dog...consume[s] 90 grams of meat and 156 grams of cereals daily in its recommended 300-gram portion of dried dog food...So that gives him a footprint of 0.84 hectares...

"Meanwhile, an SUV...driven a modest 10,000 kilometres a year, uses 55.1 gigajoules, which includes the energy required both to fuel and to build it. One hectare of land can produce approximately 135 gigajoules of energy per year, so the Land Cruiser's eco-footprint is about 0.41 hectares - less than half that of a medium-sized dog."

It's just the sort of counter-intuitive claim that gets lots of attention on the brave new internet era. So interesting! So science-y! So Twitter-able!

And yet, so false! Once you sniff around the numbers, it quickly becomes apparent that those researchers are barking up the wrong tree.

Let's get one thing out of the way: I'm not a dog owner. Much to my kids' dismay, I don't even want a pet. Nor do I own an SUV. So, in theory, I...er...don't have a dog in this fight. Still, this claim struck me as so wrong that it made the hair on my neck stand up. And I'd hate to have someone catch scent of this meme and conclude that buying an SUV is no big deal -- "It's not like I'm buying a dog or anything" -- if the real numbers don't support that conclusion. (That's the risk of bad information: it can lead us to make choices that are in stark conflict with our values.)

So let's paws for a moment, and see if this sleeping dog is actually a lie.

First, let's look at that SUV. The calculations behind the internet meme say that it's driven about 6,200 miles per year (10,000 km). And yet, according to the US Department of Energy, a real SUV in the US is driven an average of 13,700 miles annually. Already, the internet meme is off by a factor of roughly 2.2. I haven't checked whether the 10,000 km figure is reasonable for Australia New Zealand -- but it for the US, their mileage assumptions certainly skews the numbers in favor of SUVs, and against dogs.

And then there's the total energy estimates. The pet-pessimists estimate that an SUV (in their calculations, a 4.6 liter Toyota Land Cruiser driven about 6,200 miles) consumes 55.1 gigajoules of energy in both fuel and amortized manufacturing energy every year. That, too, is low. A Land Cruiser gets about 15.25 mpg in combined city/highway driving -- meaning that if it's driven 10,000 km, it consumes about 407 gallons of gas, or 53.6 gigajoules worth of energy. But once I add in the energy used to produce that gas, along with what's likely a low-ball estimate of the "embodied" energy from vehicle manufacturing, I get get about 74.9 gigajoules -- 44 percent more than the authors estimate. Yet again, they've low-balled the impacts of the SUV in a way that makes dogs look worse by comparison. (Here, I'm drawing from the data collection and calculations I did for our CO2-by-transportation-mode charts. And I'm looking only at energy, not at the additional climate and pollution impacts of emissions from tailpipes and smokestacks.)

So even before you start to look at dogs, the authors have underestimated the environmental impacts of SUVs by a factor of at least 3. And that's not including the indirect impacts of SUVs -- the parking spaces we build for them; the roads and bridges they drive on; the impacts of insurance and licensing operations; etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Then there's flip side: the authors' claims about the impact of feeding pets. The anti-doggists estimate it takes .84 hectares -- or about 2.1 acres of cropland -- to meet a a pooch's food needs for a year. There are a little over 70 million dogs in the US (the Humane Society says 74.8 million, the veterinarians say 72.1 million, and the pet food industry says 66.3 million, for an average of 71.1 dogs). So by the authors' estimates it must take about 150 million acres of US farmland to feed our dogs. In all, there are 440 million acres of cropland in the US -- suggesting that the equivalent of one-third of all US cropland is devoted to producing dog food.

We use the equivalent of a third of all US cropland to feed dogs? That's barking mad!

To see why it's wrong, you can look from the bottom up, at the foods that dogs eat. Or you can look from the top down, at the aggregate sales of dog food vs. the entire agricultural economy. I'll do both.

First from the bottom up: what, exactly, do dogs eat? The anti-pet-ites seem do a good job of calculating dogs' calorie requirements. Canines wolf down a lot of food: a mid-sized dog consumes roughly 30 calories per pound of body weight per day. (Smaller dogs eat as many as 40 calories per pound of body weight, while larger dogs eat as few as 20 calories per pound. Call it the yapping-to-napping spread.) I couldn't find the average weight of dogs in the US, but the median dog breed listed here has an adult weight of 47 pounds. If that's representative of US dogs, then the average dog will eat 1,410 calories today, give or take -- which, as I read it, is roughly what the authors' figures imply.

So the real problem with the authors' calculations isn't with their estimates of how much each pet eats. It's with this statement:
[A] medium-sized dog...consume[s] 90 grams of meat and 156 grams of cereals daily

Strike that: most dogs DO NOT eat meat and cereals. With a few exceptions, they eat "meat" and "cereals." The "meat," in particular, tends to be byproducts -- things that people in the US simply won't eat, even in hot dogs. Here's one description of the ingredients in pet food:

The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources. When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption. However, about 50% of every food-producing animal does not get used in human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass -- bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans -- is used in pet food, animal feed, and other products. These "other parts" are known as "by-products," "meat-and-bone-meal," or similar names on pet food labels.

Even the cereals dogs eat are often deemed unfit for human consumption. I'm not trying to gross you out here, or encourage you to feed choice cuts to your pooch. Instead, I think it's probably a good thing that dogs eat things that humans won't -- since otherwise they really would be eating people food, which really would increase their environmental impact. But since most dogs get their calories and protein from the waste products of people food, the idea that the environmental impact of dog food is additional to the impact of human food is simply wrong.

Read the whole thing here, but let it be said that I said it first (albeit without quite as much specificity)!

• Related Post:
  ** "Eat the Dog" Nonsense from New Zealand

Digging on the Dogs

The weather was fine yesterday, but the dogs and I both know that will change soon.

The groundhogs are not yet in hibernation, but the leaves are swirling off the trees, and the tall weeds are starting to die back. Large flocks of blackbirds are forming for their migrations south, and the deer are in rut and starting to go crazy from the hormones surging through their system. I counted four dead deer and a red fox on the highway this morning.

The owner of this land wants fewer groundhog on the farm because they break down the creek bank. I have reduced the population considerably, but there are still a few about.

Pearl bolted a small groundhog into the creek, where the dogs grabbed it just before I tailed it out and dispatched it very quickly and with a minimum of fuss. I placed it on the edge of the field where the red fox patrol.

Everything in nature is recycled.
.

Deer v. Lion at National Zoo in D.C.

A wild deer from Rock Creek Park jumped into the lion exhibit at the National Zoo on Sunday afternoon.

One word: maladaptive.

A female lion went after the deer, mashed it to the ground, and then let it go. The deer dived into the moat and got got away. Zoo officials cleared visitors from the area and rescued the deer, but its injuries were too serious and it was euthanized.

• Related Posts
  ** The Missing Birds of Rock Creek Park
  ** The U.S. Now Has More Lions Than Africa
  ** Deer are Designing Forests
  .

A Short Guide to Movement

One of the unending discussions among the show dog set is about "movement."

Movement you say? All right, let's talk movement.

The most important movement is .... wait for it .... an owner that will MOVE off the couch and MOVE out of the car and MOVE into a hedgerow, and MOVE a lot of dirt while digging down to a dog that is in full voice and at full throttle.

THAT's the only important part of "movement" that matters.

After you have done that a few dozen times you will know a lot more about movement, and you will know a lot more about what to look for when you are judging a terrier or looking to buy one.

Bottom line: You can never know very much about working terriers if you do not dig to your dogs.

The show ring has never created a working terrier breed, it has only destroyed them.

If you are not interested in working your terrier, and are only interested in showing dogs, breeding dogs, selling dogs and training dogs, I suggest a breed of terrier that cannot be harmed by those endeavors alone -- a Fox Terrier, a Welsh Terrier or a Cairn Terrier, for example.

Please leave the Jack Russell Terrier and the Border Terrier alone.

And, for God's sake, if you have never dug a hole in your life, stop talking about the kind of "movement" needed in a working terrier, because you are simply prattling on in stultifying ignorance.
.

EarthDogs in Spain

This post is recycled from April 2005.

The picture, above, is from Alberto Silvosa Ruiz's web site in Spain, and shows one of the more elaborate earth dog setups they employ.

Mr. Ruiz owns Jagd terriers, imported from the Czech Republic, and hunts fox, boar and rabbits.
.

Muslim Insurgents Mauled to Death by Bear

Picture of hunter from the 1930s. Himalayan Black Bears average 250-300 lbs.


This Daily Mail article is full of good news on several fronts:

Two armed Muslim insurgents picked the wrong cave to hide out in after they were both killed by a bear.

The men were carrying AK-47 assault rifles as they sought refuge in Indian administered Kashmir, but were taken by surprise by the giant carnivore.

Two other militants were also injured by the Himalayan black bear, but managed to escape and make their way to a village near Srinagar.

The attack is thought to be the first such incident since Muslim separatists launched its campaign against Indian rule in 1989.

Police even found the remains of pudding the men had prepared before the bear attacked the group.

Farooq Ahmed, a police officer, said the militants had made their hideout in the bear's den.

The insurgency in Kashmir has led to an increase in the number of attacks by bears and leopards on humans

The two dead, members of Hizbul Mujahedin, have been identified as Mohammad Amin - known as Qaiser - and district commander Bashir Ahmed, alias Saifullah.

Colonel Brar, Srinagar defence spokesman, said: 'Both bodies were mauled badly by some wild animal, and apparently by a bear, as the area is inhabited by Himalayan black bear.

'The attack seems to have been so violent that both the militants got no chance to fire back at the wild animal.'

A joint team of police and soldiers recovered the two bodies, as well as Kalashnikov assault rifles and some ammunition.

Wildlife experts say the conflict in Kashmir has resulted in an increase in the population of bears and leopards.

Locals were told to hand in weapons to police after the outbreak of insurgent violence which has halted poaching.

As a result, there has been an increase in the number of incidents of man-animal conflict.

There have been several reports of bears and leopards killing or mauling humans in parts of the Kashmir valley in recent years.

As I have noted in the past, economic collapse and guerilla warfare in the countryside is not always bad for wildlife, provided the area is large and the guerillas are not too numerous.

The simple act of "depopulating" the countryside for a few years is often enough to give wildlife a chance to bounce back.

For more on this idea, see The Upside of Disaster and Decline.
.

Bi-Partisan Criticism for Airing Dog Show

American Cocker Spaniel at Crufts. This was once a working bird dog. No more!

Broadcast Now magazine in the U.K. notes that Members of Parliament are criticising cable channel "More4" for showing the Crufts dog show on television:

A cross-party group of MPs has criticised More4 for picking up next year’s Crufts in a report prompted by BBC1 documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare found there was a “serious welfare problem” in pedigree dogs and said it was “disappointed” More4 was airing the event.

“Until the problems of health and welfare are dealt with, the showing of certain dogs with problems associated with inappropriate breed standards is wrong,” the report said.

However a Channel 4 spokesman said: “More 4’s coverage will place a particular emphasis on health and welfare issues, providing a high profile platform to keep these issues in the public eye – something that has been welcomed by the British Veterinary Association.”

I am a little unclear as to how More4's coverage will "keep these issues in the public eye."

The only way that could be done is if a very serious dog show critic was allowed to provide color commentary on the breeds.

In fact, I have suggested just this sort of thing be done in the past. In a post entitled "A Dog Show We Need to See," I imagine what a proper voice-over might sound like:

What a breath of fresh air it would be to hear:

"The German Shepherd was never much of a herding dog and is never found herding today. A herding German Shepherd -- ha - what a notion! In fact this dog is a relatively new breed, created around 1900. Today the genetic stock of this dog is so racked by chronic hip dysplasia that many lines of German shepherds can barely walk. Anyone with an ounce of sense stays away from show lines today, and imports their dogs from working stock overseas."

The Bull Dog would be properly introduced as:

"A game dog once used to catch stock for altering or slaughter, the bull dog was reduced in stature and mutated by intentionally breeding in achondroplastic dwarfism, which is why the legs on these dogs are so bent they can barely walk. The pressed-in-face means the dogs have chronic breathing problems, while the digestive tract is so wrecked that these dogs pass more gas than a Mexican restaurant. You will learn to light matches with a bull dog!

"The heads on these dogs are so enormous that all the dogs are born Cesarean, and in fact this dog would be extinct within 10 years if it were not for veterinarians helping these little mutants into the world.

"Notice that nice little pig tail? That is a source of chronic skin infection, and most of the dogs in the ring today will have their tails completely cut off after they are retired from performance -- a way of making it easier to keep this breed after a show ring career."

But of course I am dreaming to think television cares about dogs.

TV dog shows, after all, are simply the "filler" around the real product which pays all the bills on TV. I am, of course, referring to advertisements for cars, feminine products, dog food, and prescription medications.

Advertising is the real business of television, and that's true whether it's the nightly news or a soap opera, a sitcom or a documentary. Money makes the world go around.

Dog shows are popular fodder for television because they cost almost nothing to produce and have a ready audience of romantics, dog lovers, and freak-show voyeurs who do not have to give 100% of their attention to the show. Need to cook, do some ironing, or make a grocery list? A TV dog show is a perfect background for that; a little white noise and a few interesting pictures that do not tax the mind too much.

Of course every dog show is exactly the same as every other dog show, so maybe the time has come for someone to try something different.

And why not? It's not like telling the truth about dogs would be any more expensive than mindlessly repeating puppy-peddler puffery.

And surely a differently voiced dog show would attract a different kind of audience and generate its own "buzz" on the Internet and in the dog world. Hmmmmm. Maybe, if done right, a dog show with a little controversy around it could be "must-see TV" for a year or two or three.

Quick -- someone call a television producer!

• Related Links
  ** A Terrible Beauty: The Ugly Side of Show Dogs
  ** The Kennel Club Protects and Preserves Failure
  ** All at Sea at the AKC
  ** So You Want a Dog?
  ** Who Speaks for the Dogs?
  ** Bull Dogs in Rape Racks & Canaries In Coal Mines
  ** The Mathematics and Symbolism of Misery Puppies
  ** Swedish Kennel Club Lists 54 Breeds in Trouble
  ** Breed Clubs Do Not Run the AKC: Money Does
  ** The Beam in the Eye of Kennel Club Breeders
  ** The Comedy of Dog Shows
  ** The Internet May Yet Save the Dog
  ** Bulldogs: How Did We Come to Select for Defect?
  ** AKC Loves Puppy Mills ... and the Naïve
  ** The AKC, Facing Extinction, Banks on Misery Pups
  ** The AKC Skates on Thin Ice to the Apocalypse
  ** We Want Our Mutant Dogs, Never Mind Their Pain
  ** Counterfeit Collies and Transvestite Terriers
  .

Key Ring Survival Tools

A small idea and a useful tool.

• The small idea is to order an extra dog tag, and to slip the extra tag on to your key ring. That way, when you lose your keys (and we will all lose them some day) they can be returned to you. Most people are honest and will go to real lengths to return lost keys. If you are a paranoid, you can put only your email address on the tag; that way when someone finds your keys, can can be sure they will not rob your home or steal your car. Since I do not have such fears, my address, phone number, and web address are engraved right on the tag.
  
  
• The useful tool is the small item at top that looks like a key. It's actually a small knife blade, coupled to a small Phillips-head screw driver, a serrated edge (for cutting cord or rope) two small flat-edge screw drivers, and a bottle-opener. The Swiss+Tech "Utili-Key" is not the right tool to skin a Grizzly Bear, but it it's useful to open boxes, cut tape, clean your nails, and tighten a loose screw. The ingenious closing mechanism clasps tight on to your key ring, never falls off, and is easily released in less than a second or two. And yes, this small knife blade easily passes through airport, court house and office security. And why not? This little item is harmless as a weapon, but still useful as a tool.
  
  
• Final tip: Christmas is only six weeks away. Order both items for family and friends. Everyone needs this survival kit, and very few actually have it!
  .

Google Tools to Keep Up in the Info Age

How do I keep up on everything? I lean a lot on computers.

A few simple tips:

• Use Google Reader:
  Google is such a great service, that in my opinion the founders should get a Nobel Prize.
  
  Three things Google does for you beyond providing the world's best free search engine:
  
  1) Google gives anyone who wants it a FREE lifetime, email address with nearly limitless email storage space. Never delete an email again! Just sign up here for Gmail. With GMail comes Google Documents which provides a FREE word processing program and nearly limitless document storage for your writing.
  
  2) Google created Blogger which hosts this blog, and countless others, for FREE! With Blogger comes a FREE photo- and graphics-storage system (Picassa)
  
  3) Google created Google Reader (it requires a free Gmail account). Google Reader will allow you to read new content on any blog or web site; just strip in the URL, and it will search and pull up all the new stuff on a daily basis. No more "web surfing" back to sites you would like to read evry day (such as Terrierman's Daily Dose). Quickly scan through all the stories and "dump out " the stuff you are not interested in, while giving a "star" to any stuff you are interested in coming back to and reading later. In Google Readers, nothing disappears -- you can search for it all later -- even the dumped stuff! -- and find it again. Perfect! Over 200 articles a day come to me via Google Reader. A small point: Be sure to include other points of view in your Google Reader! Working against opposing forces is how you strengthen muscles, and that includes your brain!
  
  
• Google News Alerts:
  If you are trying to stay up in your field, very few tools are more helpful than Google Email News Alerts which will send you an email alert every time your issue or issues pops up in the news. I get about 40 Google Alerts a day.
  
  
• Make Sure You Actually Talk to People.
  Not all information is digital, and not all relationships are cyber. Turn off the phone once in a while, make eye contact in the elevator, smile, stand in a few doorways drinking coffee, and pick up the phone sometimes instead of sending an email. At least once a week take the dogs and go walking in forest and field.

Click to enlarge.
.

Coming to America: Pedigree Dogs Exposed

Pedigree Dogs Exposed is coming to America!
on December 10th, at 8 pm, on BBC America.

Pedigree Dogs Exposed is finally going to be shown in the U.S.A.

Mark your calendar: December 10th, on BBC America at 8 PM.

Then read the post entitled Inbred Thinking, for a little background information on how so many breeds got into the mess they are in today.

Then watch the whole show at the links below:

• Pedigree Dogs Exposed Part 1 of 6
  


• Pedigree Dogs Exposed Part 2 of 6
  


• Pedigree Dogs Exposed Part 3 of 6
  


• Pedigree Dogs Exposed Part 4 of 6
  


• Pedigree Dogs Exposed Part 5 of 6
  
  
• Pedigree Dogs Exposed Part 6 of 6

Remember ...

• If it looks ugly, it is because it is ugly.
  
  
• If it looks immoral, it's because it is immoral.
  
  

Two things need to be done if we are ever going to get on the road to right:

1. Stop intentionally breeding dogs for deformities, oddities, defects and exaggerations.
   


2. End the breeding of dogs in closed registries, and ban the Kennel Club registration of any dog with a four-generation coefficent of inbreeding of higher than 16%.

• Related Links:
  ** Making and Breaking Dogs In the Show Ring
  .

Bird in Hand

Hand art by Mario Mariotti, an Italian artist (1939-1997) and Guido Daniele, another Italian body-painting artist.
.
..

The Internet Fuels Extremists and Fools

John Cleese explains why people gravitate to extremism.

Over the years, I have written a number of times about the bizarre nature of the Internet, where stupidity and extremism seem to be king, and where research and fact-finding seem to be treated as an afterthought. In a post written earlier this year, I noted that:

Back when we were kids, it was easier to tell what was true and what was a lie.

Back then, news was fact-checked and veracity was prized. News was a bit slower, and there was not quite as much of it, but by-and-large it was accurate and we could sort it out and make sense of it.

No more.

Now the news is fast and furious, chaotic and full of lies, misinformation, and partial truths wrapped in bias, conjecture and carefully crafted to fit a story board someone is anxious for us to hear.

After doing an autopsy on a post put out by one more fear-monger on the Internet, I went over the rules for at least trying to get it right:

1. Never run on rumor. If people really need a beating, they can be beaten twice as hard tomorrow (when all the facts are in).

2. Google is your friend. In this day and age, there is no excuse for not doing at least a little bit of research. Look for credible sources, and look for more than one source.

3. Remember that not everything on an Internet list-serv or bulletin board is true, and almost nothing sent to you in a forwarded email is true. Blogs are not newspapers.

4. Be especially wary of those on the far end of either political spectrum. Ideologues, paranoids, and hysterics operate by throwing out every fact that does not fit a pre-conceived frame.

5. The absence of credible sources is a silence that roars. Even when sources are given, be sure to actually check those sources. Many of the emails being circulated now have fake sources appended to them. Again, use the Google.

6. Use your brain. All of it. If you hear hoof beats, suspect horses, not zebras. Go with the probable (and boring) rather than the improbable (even if exciting). Is it more likely that a government-funded SPCA is violating the civil rights of someone, or is it more likely that some lady is mentally ill or has fallen down on the job when it comes to taking care of her dogs? One is as common as rain water, the other as rare as hen's teeth.

7. Never embrace conspiracy when good old-fashioned stupidity, negligence and sloth will get you the same results. Stupidity, negligence and sloth are common, but conspiracies of evil are actually quite rare. Except, maybe, in the health care arena.

Now comes a wonderful piece in The New Yorker which attempts to tackle the question of why we are seeing more and more political polarization and extremism in American political discourse.

And who is cited as the leading rational light on this question? None other than Cass Sunstein, who himself has seen quite a lot of invective heaped on his head.

Oddly enough, I have written two previous posts about Sunstein on this blog. The first was entitled "Cass Sunstein is OK With Me", and the second was entitled "Liars, Fear Mongers and Murder".

The New Yorker piece stands on its own, however. Read the whole thing, but since most people will not, here is an excerpt:

One of the country’s most prolific legal scholars - “He seems to write a book about as often as most people run the dishwasher” is how Esquire once put it - Sunstein has long been preoccupied with what might be called “virtual civics.” He has written four books on this topic — “Republic.com” (2001), “Infotopia” (2006), “Republic.com 2.0” (2007), and, now, “On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $18) — all, to varying degrees, dystopic.

Sunstein begins with the relatively uncontroversial premise that a vigorous exchange of information is critical to the democratic process. As he acknowledges, the Web makes virtually unlimited amounts of information available; it is now possible to sit in a coffee shop in New York and read not just the newspapers from Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles but also those from Cairo, Beijing, and London, while simultaneously receiving e-mail alerts on the latest movie openings and corporate mergers. From this, it is often argued that the Internet is a boon to democracy—if information is good, then more information must be better. But, in Sunstein’s view, the Web has a feature that is even more salient: at the same time that it makes more news available, it also makes more news avoidable.

“The most striking power provided by emerging technologies,” he has written, is the “growing power of consumers to ‘filter’ what they see.” Many of the most popular Web sites are still those belonging to the major news channels and papers — CNN, the BBC, the New York Times. Increasingly, though, people are getting information from these sites in a customized form, by subscribing to e-mails and RSS feeds on their favorite topics and skipping subjects they find less congenial. Meanwhile, some of the fastest-growing sites are those which explicitly cater to their users’ ideologies. Left-leaning readers know, for example, that if they go to the Huffington Post or to AlterNet they will find stories that support their view of the world. Right-leaning readers know to go to the Drudge Report or to Newsmax to find stories that fit their preconceptions.

And what holds true for the news sites is even more so for the blogosphere, where it’s possible to spend hours surfing without ever entering new waters. Conservative blogs like Power Line almost always direct visitors to other conservative blogs, like No Left Turns, while liberal blogs like Daily Kos guide them to others that are also liberal, like Firedoglake....

.... People’s tendency to become more extreme after speaking with like-minded others has become known as “group polarization,” and it has been documented in dozens of other experiments. In one, feminists who spoke with other feminists became more adamant in their feminism. In a second, opponents of same-sex marriage became even more opposed to the idea, while proponents shifted further in favor. In a third, doves who were grouped with other doves became more dovish still. (Interestingly, in this last experiment hawks, after talking to other hawks, became less hawkish, though they remained more hawkish than the doves.) Even judges have been shown to exhibit “group polarization.” Democratic appointees who sit with other Democrats are, it’s been found, more likely to cast liberal votes than Democratic appointees who sit with Republicans, while Republican appointees on all-Republican panels are more likely to take conservative positions.

Read the whole article, and then ask yourself to what degree are you only reading what is comfortable?

If you pride yourself on being "another right-wing aggregator" or "loony left conspiracy theorist," could it be that you are simply another mindless person who has checked his brain at the door?

Instead of wearing blinders for your cause as if they are a badge of honor, perhaps it's time to accept that blinders are what you put on a horse that is too easily distracted or terrified.

Blinders are a sign of mental defect, not mental acuity.

They are a sign of fear, not of confidence.

They are a sign of sloth, laziness, and boredom, not of genuine interest and discipline.

They are part of what's wrong with America today, not part of what's right.
.

Minimum Standards for Puppy Peddlers?

If you decide to start a ketchup company, you will quickly discover you cannot just put just anything you want into a bottle and sell it; there are labeling requirements, health requirements, and licensing requirements.

The same is true for vehicles. If you decide to start a car or motorcycle company, you will soon find there are safety requirements, inspection requirements, manufacturing standards, and licensing requirements.

If you want to claim to be able do a job, be advised that whether you are a bartender or a barber, a carpenter or a cake-maker, a plumber or a roofer, you will face educational requirements, skills tests, licensing requirements, site inspections, and mandatory insurance requirements. Also, your clients will have real consumer protections, should you screw up or demonstrate total incompetence.

But not in the world of dogs.

In the world of dogs, any person can throw any two dogs together for a quick breeding, claim the progeny is anything they want, do no health testing at all, and sell the puppies off to an unsuspecting and poorly informed public.

And what is the result? Simple: A glut of inbred and poorly bred dogs, and dogs with serious health defects that will cause their new owners a lifetime of expense, and the dogs a lifetime of pain and discomfort.

That may soon come to an end in the U.K., however. The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare has just put out a new report entitled A Healthier Future for Pedigree Dogs. As The London Times reports:

Puppies should be sold with a full family medical history to alert new owners to the risk of genetic disorders, an inquiry will recommend today.

All future sales must be accompanied by a contract stating that the dog’s parents have undergone health checks before breeding to ensure puppies are born free from genetic disorders, MPs and peers will say.

The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare recommends that breeders provide a veterinary certificate confirming that the dog’s parents have been screened for health defects prior to mating.

Other recommendations include:

• a statutory limit on the number of times a dog can sire puppies, to prevent inbreeding;

• random checks on breeders;

• that all pedigree dogs be microchipped;

• that champion showdogs undergo health screening before prizes are awarded;

• guidelines to inform owners about what to look for in a healthy dog.

The new rules should apply to all puppies sold as pets, whether from a breeder registered with the Kennel Club, a licensed puppy farmer or someone breeding dogs as a hobby at home.

The safeguards come after a year-long review into pedigree breeding after the controversial BBC documentary, Pedigree Dogs Exposed, was aired in August last year.

Interested in reading the whole report? Here it is (PDF).

Will this new APGAW report gain traction in the U.K.?

Quite possibly; it follows hard on the heels of an earlier critical report on dog breeding by the RSPCA, and comes just a few months before a report by Professor Patrick Bateson, commission by the Kennel Club itself, is due to be released.

The Bateson report is supposed to be independent, but the rule is "he who pays the band gets to call the tune," so we shall see.

One thing is certain: as more and more people look into the world of dogs and ask common-sense questions, both consumers and dogs are likely to benefit..

.

The Last of the Pigeon Mail

The Daily Mail in the U.K. notes that some of the very last "pigeon mail" being used anywhere in the world is flying between top of the Cache La Poudre River near Fort Collins, Colorado, down to a base at the bottom of the river where thrill-seekers can collect digital images.

The pigeons carry digital camera memory cards. A total of 19 pigeons fly five times every day, usually travelling a distance of between 20 and 40 miles.
.

The Forest Ozymandias

Recycled from August 2006

Scouting new land on Sunday, Sailor and I came across an old stone farmhouse falling over in ruin. The stones were large and no doubt levered into place without benefit of a crane. Building a stone house is a lot of work.

The farmer, mason or stone cutter putting this house together had thought he was building a house for the ages, but now it was already covered over in forest and drifting leaves, a folly for a small dog and an odd man on a hot day.

I could not help but think of the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

In some strange way I am always comforted by ruins. A road, if left unmaintained, will begin to crack up in a few years under the rising pressure of ailanthus roots.

Ailanthus will be followed by larger trees, until at last massive chunks of tarmac are left tilting in the air and the disintegrating road is shaded over in summer and covered by leaves and snow in winter.

After 30 years you can walk across an old blacktop road and barely notice it was once there. After 40 years, the once glorious road to some important destination is reduced to little more than a collection of asphalt concretions lying under soil and leaf litter.

Asphalt is not forever. There is comfort in that.

Perhaps someday the slate will be wiped clean, and humans will get another chance to do it right. The Hindus believe in reincarnation -- that we come back, again and again, until we achieve perfection. Who is to say they are wrong?

Humans have been hammered down before. The Black Plague is but one example. Is the Great Flood of the Bible a myth? Not according to archaeologists at the edge of the Black Sea. Crawl over Anasazi ruins, walk Easter Island, climb up the buried ruins of Tikal, and gaze at the ancient building stones of Zimbabwe, Angkor Watt, Leptis Magna or Pompeii. These people too thought they were building forever.

Perhaps everything we now think is so important will be wiped flat by bombs or pestilence, genetic defect or computer virus. How many hackers would it take to bring down the electrical grid of the U.S.? How many bombs in the oil fields and terminals of Saudi Arabia would it take for cars to grind to a standstill? How many bombs on the subways of New York City, Tokyo, Washington, Mexico City, Seoul, and Paris would have to go off for those transportation grids to come tumbling down -- and with it the world economy?

Crush a few connecting nodes, and I suspect the thin patina we call civilization will wash away like chalk on a sidewalk after a heavy summer rain. People grown soft and dependent will wither like hothouse roses in the real world.

Mother nature always bats last, and she swings a mighty stick. "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
.

The Sex Question That Freaked Out the System

Apparently even asking the question freaked out the school system!

High school teacher suspended after assigning an article on homosexuality in animals

The good news is that we have the answers for anyone who really wants to know:

• Can Wild Animals Be Gay?
  
  
• Why All Those Lesbian Lizards Look Alike
  
  
• Transsexual and Transgender Wildlife
  
  
• Great Moments in Duck Sex Science
  
  
• Hung Like A Duck
  
  
• No Viagra Needed
  
  
• Museum Seeks Penis Donor
  
  
• Group Sex and Porn (No, It's Not What You Think)

What did we leave out?

Porcupine sex.

Octopus sex.

Bee sex.

I know about such things, but I am too much of a prude to write about it.

Seriously.. I may have low standards, but I have standards.
.

Paul Simon :: An American Tune

.

How Virginia Got Stupid-on-a-Stick for Governor

The next Governor of Virginia is going to be Bob McDonnell, a right-wing, knuckle-dragging, born again chauvinist pig, who thinks women should shut up and go back to the kitchen.

How did this happen? The short answer is that Creigh Deeds has run one of the worst campaigns in memory that has not otherwise been plagued by major scandal.

Who is Creigh Deeds? I have do idea.

What does Creigh Deeds stand for? I have no idea.

It's not that Bob McDonnell is winning -- it's that no one knows who Creigh Deeds is or why they should vote for him.

Creigh Deeds says he's not Obama ... BUT VIRGINIA VOTED FOR OBAMA!

The CBC describes what is going on:

In Virginia, former state senator Creigh Deeds decided to hold his candidacy aloof from the White House.

When asked by a reporter on the trail whether he was an Obama Democrat, he famously replied, "No, I'm a Deeds Democrat."

At the time, Deeds was neck-and-neck with his Republican opponent Bob McDonnell.

Deeds campaign refused any help from the White House, which meant there would be no visits from the president despite the fact that Obama had won the state handily in November, the first Democratic victory there in generations for a presidential candidate. (Late last week, Deeds relented, however, and Obama showed up for one-day rally in Norfolk.)

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Democratic Governor Jon Corzine was trailing his Republican opponent Chris Christie.

Corzine's first term as governor had not been successful. In fact, it was ordinary at best and he was heading for a loss.

Obama, too, was on a downward track at the time but that didn't stop Corzine from taking up his president's offer of help.

He invited Obama to show up at three mammoth campaign events. His television ads featured Corzine and Obama together.

These ads talked of the partnership between the state and the president. In New Jersey, it was all Obama, all the time.

So what's the result?
Obama recovered from his summertime malaise.

His health-care plan looks on track to pass before the end of the year, as he had called for. And that is even with the public-option plank — government-run health insurance — which Republicans had used as a weapon to bludgeon him.

Also, the Dow Jones index passed the 10,000 mark, a key psychological barrier, and there were several very successful addresses to the nation.

In short, Obama's approval ratings strengthened.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, Deeds now trails by 11 points.

It looks like young voters and African-Americans, who turned the tide for Obama in Virginia a year ago, have chosen to sit this one out.

In New Jersey, Corzine has righted his ship and currently has a seven-point lead.

The governor has been making it clear at every stop that he owes his turnaround to the "leadership and brilliance" of the president.

So what's the upside?

The upside is that Virginia has had two Democratic Governors back-to-back (Mark Warner and Tim Kaine), and I predict that Bob McDonnell is going to be such a disaster that we may never have another Republican Governor in Virginia again in my lifetime.

Fantasy Creatures and Halloween

This post is recycled from 2004.

People seem to have a need for fantasy. I have written in the past about "fantasty diggers" but perhaps something should be said about fantasy creatures as well.

There is the fellow who claims to be an expert in wildlife who says he hunts blue fox, which he describes as a cross between a red fox and a Gray fox. That would be a fascinating cross (!) as these two animals are not remotely related to each other and cannot mate (nor do they wish to).

The same fellow chimed in that American rabbits den underground and that there are rabbit warrens in America. In fact no American rabbit dens underground. All of our native rabbits are cottontails (which is a genus, not a species) or hares and they nest in the shallowest of scrapes in the dirt. The pygmy rabbit, which lived in a small section of the West and was no bigger than a rat, was the one exception, but it is now believed to be extinct in the wild.

America runs rife with fantasy animals. There is Big Foot and Sasquatch, but also the Chupacabra, the Mothmen of Ohio, the Ozark Howler, various types of vampire dogs and Werewoves, and "Chessie" the Lake Champlain version of the Loch Ness Monster.

The U.K. has the same phenomenon, where loose, sem-feral lurchers and sheep-worrying dogs are described as the "Beast of Bonndwyyn" or some other interesting-sounding place.

Tracks are carefully photographed, and the brave locals point to the big claw marks as proof that a large feral cat (a black panther or jaguar or American cougar) is running loose in the allotmments.

In fact, the claw marks are proof that it is not a big cat -- all cats except cheetahs retract their claws when walking or running. If you see claw marks in a track, you have a dog. A dog that looks a lot like a large wild cat is most probably a lurcher. There may be a few feral swamp cats in the UK (as well as Scottish wild cats) but if you have ever seen one of either species, you will not worry about much livestock being lost -- both are hardly bigger than a large house cat.

Tonight, when you see monsters running through your streets, try to remember it's Halloween, and not Chupacabra hunting season. Fantasy is a fine thing -- so long as it's not confused with reality.

• Related Posts
  ** Chupacabra Hunting With Terriers
  ** The Beast of Exmoor and Other Nonsense
  ** Beast of Dartmoor is Caught
  ** The "Beast of Basra" Is Blamed on the British
  ** The Lion of Dartmoor
  ** P.T. Barnum and the Beastiaries of the Imagination
  ** The Mystery Beast of North Carolina
  ** Nonsense With Trail Cams
  .

Best Fox Hunting Video You Will Ever See

This is the Best Fox Hunting Video You Will Ever See

Meghan Burns Kicks Butt

My niece, at left.

This is my niece, kicking some serious butt and helping propel her school to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association championship in tennis.

In case anyone is wondering, full credit goes to Meaghan and her mother as there are no athletes on her Dad's side (my side) of the family though, to be fair, my brother can run very well and hold his own in a canoe. As The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

After scoring the winning point in a match that took more than three hours to complete, Meghan Burns didn't have the strength to do much more than drop to her knees and cry.

Her winning point in the third set of a match with Westfield's Tara Criscuolo yesterday gave Haddonfield a 3-2 win over Westfield in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions, earning Haddonfield its first TOC title in 29 years.

Burns' performance "was the most heroic thing I've ever seen on a tennis court," said an emotional Jeff Holman, who has been coaching at Haddonfield since 1976, including Haddonfield's first TOC title in 1980.

Burns dropped the first set, 7-5, after an hour and a half of play. But she charged back to win the second set, 6-1. And, after overcoming leg cramps that caused play to be stopped twice, Burns won the third set, 6-4.
.

I Always Wondered If That Happened

From some Los Angeles TV Station:

A drug-sniffing dog was recovering in a veterinary hospital -- with his human partner at his side -- after accidentally ingesting methamphetamine, KCAL in Los Angeles reported. :: source
.

Halloween Jack O'Lantern

This post recyled from October 1455.

If you are artistically-minded, get a large pumpkin and carve a nice "Jack O' Lantern" this Halloween (yes, all puns are intended).

Click >> here for a pretty large pattern to fit a good-sized pumpkin. You can enlarge the picture you see by going to the bottom right of the picture and clicking on the expanding arrows that should appear. This pattern is 800 pixels wide.

Transfer the pattern with pin pricks through the paper into the pumpkin.

Carve the yellow parts of the jack very deeply, but not so deeply as to go through the entire pumpkin. The goal is to leave a thin bit of yellow pumpkin flesh which the light will radiate through. Again, use the needle to ascertain pumpkin thickness.

If you need a larger or small pattern, simply increase or decrease the pattern size on a Xerox machine.
.