In Which Nell DOESN'T Move to London
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, it’s always disconcerting to run into photos of our dogs on other websites.
In a few cases, the site owners have given us semi plausible reasons – site designers who have used photos they found via image searches, relatives who did the sites for free and used pictures from wherever. None of these excuses really excuse using the images of another persons dogs to promote your own kennel, but they’re at least not intentionally misleading.
In the most recent case I’ve been informed of (thanks to Rumble’s mom Jennifer), the same can’t be said. There’s really no way to fob off claiming that a full grown, adult bitch you’ve never met ‘accidentally’ ended up listed as a dog you’ve sold to another home. The only possible excuse I can think of goes something like “Hey, I think that dog is pretty. If I put a picture of her on our website, people will think we breed pretty dogs, too”.
In this case, the photo was stolen from this set on Flickr, specifically this photo in particular. Here’s the entire set in slideshow form, so you can see the photo in context with the other ones in the series.
The nice people over at Aurora French Bulldogs, however, are claiming that Penelope is actually Parsha, and that she was sold to “Lisa in London”. This would come as a great surprise to Penelope, since she’s currently sitting on top of the puppy’s head while she yoinks the nylabone Heart had been peacefully chewing.
Here’s a screen cap of “Parsha”, on their “In New Homes” page. Click to view full sized, or see it in real time here.
Again, I can’t really imagine what the marketing strategy is behind these sorts of rash decisions. Aurora isn’t really at that far away from Mount Forest, meaning that there’s a good chance that anyone who stumbles onto the web site for Aurora will also stumble onto mine. Once there, ten seconds clicking brings you to Penelope’s page, where sits the same photo, front and center. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at this kind of stupidity, from a kennel that proudly announces ‘Christmas Puppies Available’.
I’ve emailed Aurora, asking them if they can put me in touch with “Lisa and Parsha”, but I haven’t received an answer yet. Heart, in the meantime, has suggested that perhaps a change of scenery would do her Auntie Nell a world of good.
A French Bulldog Video Interlude
And now, a video interlude. First off, let me say that I fully understand that the pop dance track accompanying this vid is something of a deviation from my normal musical choice, but let me say that it is not my fault, because this music is the devil.
Listen to it once, and it will sink tiny little barbs into your cerebral cortex, thereby lodging itself there forever. I fully expect to sit drooling in a nursing home one day, all coherent thought long gone other than the lyrics of this song.
Oh, and Ting Ting also did that song from the iPod commercial. Sean threatened to hit me in the head with a hammer if I used that one in this video, muttering something about my being a ‘tool of Satan’.
So, ignore the music and just look at the pretty puppy, and all will be well.
Over in New York City, Carol Rowbo’s French Bullog Jacques is poised for total world dominance via his new Doritos Commercial. Check it out at this link, and watch this spot for news on when voting will begin.
Oh, and the crusty nose contest winners will be announced this week!
Man Who Hacked Puppy's Ears Gets Lesson in Karma
In 2007, Ontario residents and dog lovers world wide were shocked and appalled at the story of AK, a mixed breed puppy found mutilated and whimpering on a Windsor apartment balcony. AK’s ‘owner’ had hacked off the puppy’s ears off in an attempt to make him look more ‘menacing’.
A loop hole in Ontario’s notoriously lax animal cruelty laws would have allowed the owner to get his dog back during the investigation had he not willingly surrendered it to the Windsor Humane Society, leading a province wide outcry for reforms to the laws and maximum allowable sentences.
Rony Salman was ultimately sentenced to three months in jail for the mutilation of AK, but just learned that karma can sometimes quite literally bite us on the ass (or other body part).
As reported in today’s news:
Rony Salman, the Windsor man who earned media attention and jail time for cutting off the ears of A.K. the dog, has had some of his ear chewed off at Windsor Jail — and has been transferred out of town. “He was involved in an altercation at the jail and he had part of his ear bitten off by another inmate,” said Windsor police Insp. Cliff Lovell, noting that the report does not list any further detail on the injury. “I can’t give you the other inmate’s name because there are no charges being laid. There’s no complainant. “But the jail is required to make a report because there was an altercation between a couple of inmates.”
Salman served a paltry portion of his sentence for cruelty, after the judge in the original case, Ontario Court Justice Guy DeMarco, gave Salman two-for-one credit — two days for every one served so far — because he had been in the county jail for more than 45 days awaiting trial. Salman was back in jail this time for charges related to a south Windsor burglary, proving that stupid really is bred in the bone in some people.
The ear-biting incident happened on Remembrance Day, according to the jail report. Salman has since been transferred to Chatham Jail — an old, grey-stone structure topped with razor wire — where he declined on Tuesday to meet with a Star reporter. Salman is serving time for a burglary earlier this year in South Windsor. Previously, Salman was sentenced May 26 to three months after pleading guilty to three counts of animal cruelty, wilfully causing pain to an animal, causing unnecessary pain to a dog by not seeking veterinary attention and failure to provide care for — and wilful neglect of — a domestic animal.
Scot Wortley, a Toronto area criminology professor, speculates that the attack was an example of ‘jail house justice’.
“I don’t know the details of this case. Maybe this guy’s just a Mike Tyson fan,” Wortley said. “But it sounds eerily similar to what was done to the dog, so you would have to explore that possibility. “There’s a code of honour among criminals and they rank people who prey on children, who prey on women, who prey on the defenceless — and maybe a dog, I don’t know — as worse.”
Justice, karma, or simply the divine comedy of retribution – who can say? I do admit to finding it rather ironic that Salman will likely qualify for reconstructive surgery after his attack, while AK will bear the scars of his for life – and yet AK’s sweetness is still intact. Animals really do prove themselves our betters, over and over again. Read the whole story here.