This is a story I read in the news today. A man turned in a dog to a shelter. I guess because he's homophobic, and believes his dog might be gay. The dog was scheduled to be euthanized today if he didn't find a good home. A Facebook campaign began: It sounds like the shelter was absolutely overwhelmed by calls. Happy ending - dog found a great new home! You can read the whole story here: Examiner I wish all homeless dogs and cats would spur that kind of activism and support. Hopefully, some of those people that realized there is room in their home and heart will adopt another dog that needs help.
Gay dog has happy ending. Not sure what to say to that..... What a moron that guy. I imagine most male dogs exhibit behavior that could be construed as gay. I know mine does. Its usually an effort to assert dominance. I've got a video (I wont share) of my 100lb shepherd mounting a male mini-pin while growling aggressively. It was the funniest damn thing I've ever seen. My dog mounts pretty much everything that moves. When the kids were a bit smaller, I worried about them falling down in front of him. He also eats his own crap, another endearing trait I've seen in many other dogs. I found myself wondering how many times he could cycle his own turds through before I had to feed him or clean up after him.
@Obamanation - lol. I think you're right about it often being a way to assert dominance. It talks about it in Psychology Today, @Grpaul - And the point of your asking the point of this is...?
In fairness to my dog, most dogs eat their own crap. Not sure what it is but its pretty disturbing when he wants to come up and lick you afterward. He used to have acres to roam in Central America and is now confined to a yard in California. Perhaps he eats his own shit in protest. I look at drinking your own urine to survive in the same way I look at putting a few rounds into the head of an assailant or intruder. I hope I never have to do it, but if and when the time comes, better to be equipped with that knowledge (or firearm) than die as a victim of circumstance.
My dog has never eaten his own poop. However, he is a little fascinated with cat poop. Sometimes he'll run around with a kitty litter covered "treat" he finds in their box. Eeew, it grosses me out. But, I can usually get him to drop it by giving him a real treat. He has me trained well.
Eww. You just reminded me of something I was trying to forget. My last two dogs used to treat the cat's litter box as a snack cart (when I had a cat). I used to think cats were cleaner, less filthy animals, but I noticed my cat would sit on the window sill and lick his genitals for hours on end, leaving behind a pile of disgusting, hard to clean up cat hair (to which I am mildly allergic). It turns out cats are no less filthy, they just groom themselves a bit more.
o-nation: my old dog used to get strangely excited by some visitors. He'd not only jump up on them, he'd pee on their feet. I have this feeling you woulda been in that group. If he were still and around and we were meeting I'd suggest winter boots.
Agreed. One of my cats is named Bob. The way he came into my life is I literally found him outside by my car. He's huge (big boned and obese). It's like having 2 cats in 1. Anyway, he was laying on his side panting. And on the pavement. It was hot. I think he had heat exhaustion. I knew something was really wrong. So, I took him in. He was fine after awhile. He just needed to cool down. I did try to find his owner. Put up signs everywhere, and talked to all my neighbors. No one had ever seen him before. Mystery cat. He's very comfortable here. I could actually leave the door wide open. He has no desire to go outside. Anyway, he's one that loves to groom himself all the time. He vomits up big hairballs on my couch. On WebMD they suggest if it's an adult dog doing that, they may need to build more confidence. Source: http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/submissive-urination
Rebecca: He was still doing that as an adult dog. Unfortunately he is now a "late dog" and I miss him. If only I had known he had a "confidence issue" Would have brought him to a dog shrink. Would have given him more encouragement and love (can't imagine loving him anymore though) And yet, just thinking out loud: He was pretty smart. Though he never met O-nation he might have connected o-nation and urine. He was pretty smart, after all. Just guessing. We'll never know though.
Had he me met and failed to urinate on my shoes as a sign of submission, I might have been forced to dry hump him while growling aggressively, just so he knew his place. I'm in agreement with you though. As a smart dog, had he met me, he would have pissed on my shoes right out of the gate. @Rebecca: I'm not really a cat person, but I've inherited a few from previous relationships. My last cat disappeared into the jungle at age 18 and turned up again three months later with a huge hole in his skin on his torso under his left forepaw. He had a maggot filled abscess under the skin that went from the hole all the way down to his hind quarters. The vet told me the maggots feeding on the infection may have been the only thing that kept him alive. Anyway, he healed up and lived another two years after that, but never really put back on any weight, and was bone skinny when he finally quit eating altogether and died. Its rather curious to watch the difference between dogs and cats in a rural environment. My dog was basically purchased to be a menacing killing machine that protected my property(Named him the spanish word for "Satan" to strike fear in the hearts of locals, and made a practice of calling him by name regularly when there were workers on the property). The cat turned out to be a far deadlier animal to practically everything else in the environment around me, save human beings. I know the dog could never survive in the jungle for three month straight. I'll add the caveat that my neighbor had 8 dogs, some big some small. They would hunt in a pack and drag down some fairly large game. I've never really been afraid of dogs but it made me think about the risks of entering a property with more than one dog in a whole new way.
The best humane solution would be mandatory neutering for all pets. This will greatly reduce the number of pets euthanized because no one wants them - numbers reaching 4 million a year in the US alone.
And mandatory neutering for all humans who accept more than one years worth of welfare. Tell you what. I'll cut my dogs balls off if you'll cut yours off.
Welfare is a stepping stone for people who live around poverty lines to improve their lives. You probably led a middle class live who does not understand how welfare helps people like a mother trying to raise two kids after their father passed away. If millions of born children around the world are getting euthanized because no one wants them, then I would agree with you. I just don't see the logic in your comment.
Welfare does not improve lives. It breeds crime, poverty, and low self esteem, and this is coming from a guy who realizes the necessity of a safety net. Some of the more educated black leaders are not only aware, but open about the disastrous effect Welfare has had on their communities, even if dimwits like Martin Bashir don't get it. Setting aside the infant mortality rate in third world countries for a moment, the fact you don't get the logic of my comment is no surprise. Let me phrase it differently. There is NOTHING humane about castration or genital mutilation. There is NOTHING humane or civil about MANDATORY castration or genital mutilation. If you think it is a good idea because of euthanized animals, you should try it out on poor people who can't afford to raise children yet breed like rabbits, and then raise those children in crime filled ghettos with the help of government assistance, perpetuating a cycle of poverty that is a burden on our entire society. If you really think mandatory castration is a humane practice, I think we should start with you.
It does not. Lack of proper education, security and inequality in these places are the cause. Go to your local black neighborhood and compare it's public service to that of a white one then lie to me and tell me there is no difference. There are millions of people who work and still rely on Welfare to support their families. Not everyone has it as good as you. My discussion was in regards to the US, not the rest of the world. Let me ask you again, are those kids getting euthanized because their parent's are poor? You really think that euthanization of millions of animals is far better off than Mandatory neutering? Again with poor people turning to life of crime because of welfare. Do you really think if we were to cut the welfare for poor people their lie would suddenly turn out all peaches. This last economic glitch that happened opened the eyes of thousands of White Americans who had to go to welfare because they didn't have an alternative, you try telling them that it's their fault. Unlike you I don't think that killing of millions of animals is more humane than mandatory castration. Then again you'r logic is invalid, until babies get killed in orphanages if no one claims them, these two situations are not the same.
The amount of money thrown at schools and public services (police) in poverty filled neighborhoods is actually much higher than wealthier neighborhoods. Simply claiming welfare is not to blame is no defense. If you won't watch the video I linked, perhaps you should go watch the Oscar winning movie Precious. Perhaps you should watch the award winning documentary Waiting for Superman. There have been plenty of studies on the issue and most of them come to the same conclusion. I forget the source of the quote, but every time you give a person money for nothing, what you actually take is a portion of their self esteem. First, you don't know the first thing about me. Second your statement does not make any claim as to the impact of Welfare on communities. Of course there are millions of people on Welfare and government assistance of all sorts. The food assistance program in California actively advertises on popular radio stations, telling people they may qualify for food assistance even if they think they might not. These programs are actively seeking to create more government dependency and it is horrible for our society and culture. My answer was equally applicable to the US, and I noticed you are avoiding answering the international aspects. If 25% of African children die before age 5, would you feel justified campaigning for mandatory castration in Africa? So far, it sounds like you would be. Depends on how bad you consider the life of a child born to poverty with little or no hope of social mobility to be. Depends on whether you find the incarceration of our nations poor to be ethical or not. Nice false dichotomy. Tell you what. I'm for it, as long as we start with you. All peaches... another false dichotomy. Is this the only way you know how to argue? I'll answer your question with a question. Do you think adding more welfare will improve the plight of the poor? I think you should familiarize yourself with the underlying social issues, as many of the people on the videos I have linked have, before weighing in uninformed. Strawman. I stated the need for a social safety net earlier. That said, welfare, government assistance, or free money of any kind works a lot like pain killers after a painful operation. Very necessary to deal with the pain, but if you are not VERY VERY careful, you can walk away an addict. Of course! Someone dies from a gunshot? Abolish firearm ownership! Animals in the street? Kill them. Killing Animals? Mutilate their genitals! Global temperature going up? Tax carbon. I haven't seen surveys on it, but I would guess liberals are one dimensional thinkers across the board. Everything that can be idealistically construed as a problem can be fixed by addition of rules, laws, taxes, and elimination of personal liberties. The myriad of unintended consequences of those rules, laws, and taxes can be fixed by, you guessed it, more rules, laws, taxes, and elimination of personal liberties. Comedy to think that prison cells and genital mutilation are the results of the Utopian liberal dream.
I'm sorry for your loss. It's difficult to lose a loved one. Do you remember my cat Alex with cancer? I was so happy, he was reaching his six month cancer free. He passed away the last week of December. It felt so sudden. He was doing great. I thought. He started having a difficult time breathing. I took him to the vet. They ran tests. The cancer had metastasized to his lungs. That day I put him down. I miss him so much. I tried to not think about him. I started working every single day, 10 hrs a day. Trying to keep myself busy. But in mid-January I had an incident that made me realize I needed to get back balance in my life. I hope you don't think I'm too crazy. Anyway, so I was even thinking about getting counseling. I couldn't bring myself to go to anything traditional. I kind of like being anonymous. So, I bought it on Fiverr. Only $5. Very nice lady gave me some great advice. Honestly, she was a big help. May all sound strange, but I am feeling better. Barney was awesome. I remember on Whitehouse.gov they used to have the Barney cam. If they were effective at doing that, it would make cats and dogs extinct. Eventually. Or, perhaps their would just be ones that live in the wild. The end of having a dog or cat live in the household. I think that's PETA's ultimate goal.