Dog Day Afternoon in Phoenix
There is apparently no limit to the amount of cruelty and stupidity which Phoenix, Arizona Sherrif Joe Arpaio is going to be allowed to get away with. In an unbelievable story from the Phoenix News, we learn that during a bungled weapons raid:
(A) SWAT team member drove a dog trying to flee the home back into the inferno, where it met an agonizing death.
Deputies then reportedly laughed as the dog’s owners came unglued as it perished in the blaze.
“I was crying hysterically,” Andrea Barker, one of the dog’s owners, tells me. “I was so upset. They [deputies] were laughing at me.” Read more →
Defining 'Puppy Mills'
I’ve been thinking about the phrase ‘puppy mills’ for the last few days – what it means, really means, when we refer to someone as a ‘puppy mill’.
Some definitions are simple – places like the ones shown on Prisoners of Greed, for example, or the ones Kim Townsend exposes through No Puppy Mills. Sad, abused, neglected dogs, stacked in filthy crates or wire cages, and denied the very basic necessities of a humane life. No clean water, no veterinary care, no human interaction, no quality food. Breeding machines, used time and time again to produce a product that can be sold. This is what I think of when I hear ‘Puppy Mill’. I think it’s what we are meant to think of. Read more →
Waiting and Waiting… on mother nature
It is an ironic fact that, no matter how high tech dog breeding may have become, it’s mother nature who still calls the shots. I’ve been hauling Sailor to the vet office for daily blood draws and smears and Draminskis, but it all comes down to timing – when she’s ready, she’s ready. And, like all things related to dog breeding, she’ll take her own sweet time getting there.
I shouldn’t be surprised, either. Sailor has always danced to the beat of her own drummer. She cycles when she wants, whelps when she’s good and ready, and makes veterinarians toss their hands up in despair when it comes to evaluating her progesterone results. She’s a rebel, yes she is. Read more →