Idiots Abound

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A post over on YesBiscuit has left me completely flabbergasted.

Shirley writes:

In July, two males – aged 17 and 18 – made friends with a neighbor’s cat by feeding him. Once the cat, named Tigger, trusted the two, they lured him into an apartment and threw a sheet over him:

They hit and kicked the cat, bashed it with a fire extinguisher, then drowned it in a toilet and threw it into a trash bin.

They bragged about the killing to a relative and laughed as they recounted their actions. Both were later charged with aggravated animal abuse. The 17 year old was committed to the Oregon Youth Authority until Jan. 17, 2012.

The baffling part of all this? As part of the 18 year old’s community service, he must do volunteer work.

At an animal shelter.

The kind that has cats in it.

In other news, convicted child molesters will now complete their community service hours volunteering at daycare centers.

Idiots.

2000 Miles

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I admit it – I’m not a huge fan of Christmas music.

Most of it is just not very good, musically speaking, and I am one of those grinch-y people who change the station as soon as they hear it start to play. That’s why it came as such a shock to me the other day to realize that, not only did I know all of the words to the Christmas song playing on the radio, but I was also singing along – and it wasn’t even a remotely GOOD Christmas song, either – it was one of the worst, most schmaltzy, most cartoony Christmas songs ever written – “Snoopy’s Christmas Song”, as performed by a justly long forgotten 1960’s band called “The Royal Guardsmen”.

Think you don’t know it? If you’re over a certain age, I promise you do – and if you think you don’t, just click this link. Warning – you will NEVER get this song out of your head, unless you are willing to voluntarily undergo a lobotomy.

In direct comparison, check out this live version of Chrissy Hynde’s “2000 Miles”.  It will always be one of my favorite songs, Christmas or not.

New Rules for UK Breeders

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French Bulldog mother with puppies

Tula and Teddy

The Kennel Club of England has announced new rules for UK breeders, starting in 2012.

From a November 22cnd news release on their website:

The Kennel Club has announced that from 2012 it will normally register no more than four litters from any one bitch because of concerns that the current legal limit of six litters can potentially be detrimental to a bitch’s welfare.

The decision was made by the Kennel Club General Committee after receiving a recommendation from its Dog Health Group and will be effective for litters born on or after 1st January 2012.

Six litters per bitch is the current legal limit enshrined in the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999.

Bill Lambert, the Kennel Club’s Health and Breeder Services Manager, said: “The Kennel Club wants to ensure that all breeders put the health and welfare of their puppies and breeding bitches first and foremost, and this decision underlines our commitment to this issue.

“Whilst the law allows bitches to have six litters in a lifetime and our registration system has previously fallen in line with this, the vast majority of responsible breeders feel that this is too high and that there is potential for this to have a negative impact on the welfare of the bitch.

“Very serious consideration has to be given to the matter if a breeder wishes a bitch to have more than four litters but the Kennel Club may grant permission for this to happen if it believes that there is good and justifiable reason for doing so on a case by case basis.”

There are also new restrictions on Caesarian Sections for bitches in the UK.

Excerpt from the news release:

The Kennel Club has had discussions with the major veterinary organisations over restrictions on the number of litters born by caesarean section which may be registered from an individual bitch from 2012.

The Kennel Club has confirmed that it will no longer register any puppies born by caesarean section from any bitch which has previously had two such operations, except for scientifically proven welfare reasons and in such cases normally provided that the application is made prior to mating. Refusal to register a third or subsequent litters of puppies born by caesarean section would occur irrespective of whether the progeny from either of the first two operations had been registered with the Club.

Following discussions with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the British Veterinary Association and the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, the organisations have agreed to advise their members that any caesarean sections which they perform on a Kennel Club registered bitch should be reported to the Kennel Club.

To allow the reporting of such operations by veterinary surgeons, an additional section will be incorporated into the form which is presently completed to notify the Kennel Club of any operation which alters the natural conformation of a registered pedigree dog.

This policy will become effective for all litters born on or after 1st January 2012.  Further details relating to the timing of reporting by veterinary surgeons will be announced in due course.

In essence, bitches may have no more than 2 c section deliveries “except for scientifically proven welfare reasons and in such cases normally provided that the application is made prior to mating.”

No one seems to have any idea what defines a “scientifically proven welfare reason” is, or if it will be allowed to be applied to French Bulldogs.

As more and more countries move towards restrictions on routine c sections, it behooves us as breeders to begin breeding intentionally for dogs with the ability to free whelp. I believe that many of our North American bitches could, if allowed, actually free whelp, but fear of complications or uterine inertia causes many of us to consider c sections to be an unavoidable reality.

As someone who has lost a puppy due to uterine inertia, and has also had several successfully free whelped litters, I agree that it’s a hard call to make. C sections are horribly invasive procedures, with copious risks to both bitch and puppies, and yet it’s also true that many puppies have died due to a bitch’s inability to deliver them naturally.

As I said, tough call.

Labradoodle Lamentations

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The original creator of the Labradoodle now says that he regrets ever having created one of the world’s first “designer cross breed dogs”.

From The Guardian Newspaper:

If Wally Conron had known what was going to become of the labradoodle, he wouldn’t have bred the dog in the first place. It was 22 years ago and Conron, now 81, was working as the breeding and puppy-walking manager for the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia when his boss set him a tough task. A blind woman from Hawaii had written asking if it they could provide a guide dog that would not shed hair, because her husband was allergic to it. “I said, ‘Oh yes, this will be a piece of cake. The standard poodle is a working dog, it doesn’t shed hair, it’ll be great.’ I tried 33 in the course of three years and they all failed. They just didn’t make a guide dog. Meanwhile, the woman in Hawaii was getting older and the boss was getting on my back.”

Conron decided there was one possibility left – take his best labrador bitch and mate it with a standard poodle. They created three crossbreed puppies that needed to be boarded out to be trained and socialised, but nobody would take them – everyone wanted a purebred. And that’s when Conron came up with the name labradoodle. “I went to our PR team and said, ‘Go to the press and tell them we’ve invented a new dog, the labradoodle.’ It was a gimmick, and it went worldwide. No one wanted a crossbreed, but the following day we had hundreds of calls from people wanting these master dogs.”

The labradoodle proved to be a brilliant dog for the blind, and the woman in Hawaii was happy. Job done. So what was the problem? Ah, says Conron, it’s how the dog has been used and abused, and sold under false pretences. “This is what gets up my nose, if you’ll pardon the expression. When the pups were five months old, we sent clippings and saliva over to Hawaii to be tested with this woman’s husband. Of the three pups, he was not allergic to one of them. In the next litter I had there were 10 pups, but only three had non-allergenic coats. Now, people are breeding these dogs and selling them as non-allergenic, and they’re not even testing them.”

Friday Fun – Taking Your Medicine

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I’m traveling for work, so I’m rather behind on my blogging, and on a ton of other projects I need to get finished (cough:calendar:cough).

In the meantime, here’s a Boxer puppy who is unthrilled with taking his medicine. Funny, I think I make that same face when I take Buckley’s.