Some Knuckle Dragging Humor

On one of the chat lists I am on, there were comments made about the recent passing of a federal law prohibiting the interstate commerce of primates. Why oh why, when our economy is in the crapper, are our federal legislators making monkeys of themselves? Why should they care about this type of issue at this time?!

Another person on that list expressed the sentiment that I will expand upon here...with the passage of this one, it's going to be mighty difficult for politicians to get to their DC offices if chimps can't travel across state lines!!

Your tax $$ at work (not!)

Gosh - I can't wait to see what federal (or state, or local) travesty our politicians will come up with next to control dog breeders while the economy keeps making that great sucking sound.

Wonders Never Cease

And not the good kind of wonderment either! The last week or so's news headlines have left me shaking my head.

First off was the Google alert I received which sent me along to an online news article regarding two Borzoi that escaped their yard and attacked and killed a small dog belonging to a neighbor. This is a nightmare for Borzoi owners - and containment is key for our dogs. They were bred to chase and catch game - so yes, one needs to be careful around small, furry pets and one needs to watch one's fences for any repair needs. Unfortunately, upon further inspection of the story one can find events which could have precluded this unfortunate event...

(1) The dogs had escaped before and killed a dog earlier in the year. So were extra steps taken to try and prevent further escapes after the original? If not, why? I am terrified of my dogs getting out of the yard, not only for the safety of smaller animals (although the dogs running loose in our neighborhood tend to be of the large variety) but for the safety of my own dogs. We live close to busy roads - the last thing I want my dog to be is a road pie.
(2) The dog that was killed in the latest attack was also loose. Its owners left it in the yard as they ran away screaming. Hello - let's just add to the hysteria in the air. Screaming just upsets all involved and sets everyone, including animals, on edge. That's not going to help. Why did they not pick up their dog? Peek-a-poos aren't that heavy.
(3) The Borzoi were obviously not bloodthirsty threats to people. A stranger had caught the pair and put them in his backyard and called a number he had gotten from the dog's collar tag. They sound like a controllable couple to me.

Because of these events, it is likely that the dogs could be declared dangerous - and rightly so in this case. But it's sad for the Borzoi breed - these are quite charming and funny, as well as beautiful, dogs. But irresponsibility in keeping them properly (or any dog, for that matter) can bring trouble for all, not just one's neighbor. In today's heated climate against dogs and dog ownership, to have my breed placed on a "dangerous dog" list because of people's irresponsibility, causing them to fall victim to obscene insurance rates and BSL legislation is unacceptable.

I have always stood behind the phrase "punish the deed and not the breed" when it comes to fighting BSL legislation. This event brings that motto even closer to home.

The next headline comes courtesy of Tulsa, Oklahoma. A 2 month old infant was left in a swing chair unattended (mother and grandmother were too busy to attend him because they were....sleeping). Unattended, that is, except for a 2 month old lab puppy and an elderly Pug. (Latest news article HERE) This is such a sad situation resulting in not only a dead child, but the puppy as well as it was put down. The poor thing was just a-waggin' its tail as the AC officer loaded him into the truck - it wasn't a vicious puppy....it was just a baby itself, with super-sharp puppy teeth and claws. Lord knows I've been left with marks from playing with rowdy puppies - they don't have to be mean to mark you up at that age! If it hadn't been this incident, the poor child would have likely died from another common parenting "skill" - that of being left alone in a vehicle in the heat of summer - yet another common headline that has been all over the news as of late.

What confounds me is that local and state (and then we had the federal PAWS legislation) governments are wanting to pass all sorts of restrictions on animal breeding and husbandry for an activity that the IRS insists is just a hobby, yet they want to legislate it out the wazoo, if not make it illegal to have a pet with all the body parts it was born with...but yet any yahoo can contribute to the human gene pool, no licensing (or apparently knowledge or responsibility) required.

Also...can some explain why the AR nuts claim how cruel and unusual it is to dock a tail, crop ears or even remove dewclaws on a puppy - yet preach and lobby for the more intrusive and risky surgeries required to spay and neuter pets!? They're all about ripping out uterus's and tearing off testicles (and the younger the better) but don't dare crop that tail at 3 days!

Bend Over, Dallas Dog Owners

Received today from the RPOA (Responsible Pet Owners' Alliance):

Martin Kralik has given RPOA permission to forward his message below to our subscribers. Dallas Democracy in action -- NOT! Those of you who've experienced the same treatment elsewhere can empathize. Permission to crosspost.
_____________________________________

What was supposed to happen:

* 144 speakers - some for and some opposed - were supposed to be given 3 minutes each to speak to the city council before the vote on the new animal ordinances. Also, a majority of 19 more speakers, listed regarding the animal ordinance, were supposed to be given 3 minutes each to speak after the vote. I have the lists.

What actually happened:

* Upon seeing the council chambers full of passionate people, Mayor Leppert
decided to limit each side to 15 minutes total (that's five 3-minute speeches) and said those 'against' should go first. He gave us 2 minutes to organize since the agenda-sequence-of-speakers, at that point, was thrown out. This gave the other side 'for the ordinances' 15+ minutes to organize. Speakers who had worked long and hard to shoehorn their speeches into 2-3 minutes in reality only got 30 seconds to one minute to make their point. Then, any others who had not spoken were given 30 seconds to say something limited to one point. Those speaking for the ordinance were routinely given more time before they were cut off.

* Then each council member spoke:

1. Elba Garcia, of course nattered on the longest about how all were in agreement that they had to do something now and they must pass the ordinances.

2. Rasansky -he's totally for the ordinances - saying the 'Breeders' had to step up and pay.

3. Leppert blindly followed Elba

4. Neumann said he was for it but asked the city Secretary to define the plan of implementation i.e., pass the ordinance and then define the plan. yeah that makes sense???

5. Kadane pointed out they had no plan and didn't know the cost - they should continue the nite raids and get the loose dogs off the street but hold off and re-analyze/define a better set of ordinances after more research.

6. Caraway and his constituents want the loose dogs off the streets now.

7. Ron Natinsky - Questioned Forest Turner (Animal Control) at length about how did they arrive at 360,000+/- dogs in Dallas, 50,000+/- of which are licensed now, leaving how many of the roughly 310,000 are loose roaming dogs?, and how many are pets? They have no idea. Specifically if Dallas covers roughly 385 square miles, distributing the 310,000 across 385 square miles would be roughly 800 - almost 1000 dogs per square mile (simple math). He asked Forest whether he saw anything close to 800 animals when they recently went on their nite raid to catch loose dogs. They caught 22 and 40 or so got away - No where near 800 seen. GOOD ARGUMENT! Ron suggested since they don't know what they are doing, that they pass the 'tether/vicious' dog amendments and throw out the mandatory sterilization/limits/breeder registration till later. After Ron passed out an adjusted ordinance to the members with these changes made, Elba complained about being given only 3 minutes to consider the changes and refused to even look at it - so much for working together as a real council.

8. The adjusted ordinance from Natinsky was quickly rejected by a majority vote.

9. Back to the new ordinances(whatever version they had today) - final vote was Kadane, Natinsky and Angela Hunt voted against, and the rest voted to pass the new ordinances.

I am outraged at how easily the mayor, knowing full well how passionate people were about this, threw us under the bus and went on with his agenda.

My speech - 2 minutes long - which I did not get a chance to make, follows -
* My name is Martin Kralik and I've lived in Preston Hollow in north Dallas for 23 years. I'm a law abiding citizen. I have been a responsible pet owner all my life, and I'm involved in rescue.

* I'm trying to stay in Dallas but you will drive me out with these new ordinances, for which I was given NO representation on the Shelter Committee.

* Why have there been NO REAL public hearings on this? Why are there NO responsible pet owners on the animal commission? The entire Dallas community of some of the most reputable breeders in the nation, and very knowledgeable fanciers and members of dog owners' organizations who call Dallas home, has been shut out and ignored by your animal commission.

* The proposed ordinances ignore the main problems (as stated by several council members) of roaming aggressive loose animals, and an underfunded Animal Control Department i.e. 8 trucks to cover 385 square miles and many unfilled staff vacancies???

* Beside ignoring the main problem of loose animals, the new ordinances mandate that I be subjected to UNCONSTITUTIONAL SEARCHES AND SEIZURES in my home.

* I think it is outrageous that Dallas wants to TAX/PUNISH me with fees/taxes/fines/procedures because the city is not willing to enforce existing laws on the relatively few irresponsible people who actually cause the loose dog problems.

* Many City Council members and your animal committee chairman admit all these mandatory sterilization/limits/registration/micro chipping procedures will NOT correct the Dallas loose animal problem.

* Regarding the problem of Dallas' overcrowded animal shelters, many states including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and Connecticut have a huge pet shortage and are importing thousands of dogs from many states to supply adoptable pets. You could empty the Dallas shelter and start over! Has anyone even checked this out??? The answer is no, and it reflects the mismanagement of the shelter program.

* I urge you to reject these ordinances and give representation to the vast community of responsible pet owners in creating equitable solutions to Dallas' animal problems.

I still go back to there have been NO REAL public hearings on this.

I think a large part of the Dallas dog/cat community has no idea that now if they want an intact animal for any reason, the registration/breeders license they are required by law to buy, authorizes the city to conduct unannounced unconstitutional searches and seizures IN YOUR HOME. (How will this work with the Castle Doctrine?)

Where can we go from here?
I'm ready to fight.
Martin Kralik
Dallas resident

Time to Follow That Thought

Hmmmmm....taking the advice from the post just previous to this, I guess it's time to lift a leg on the Dallas City Council. Three of them would be exempt from the yellow stream - those being Sheffie Kadane, Ron Natinsky (who even offered an alternative ordinance that contained some common sense!), and Angela Hunt. The rest of the council can drown in it - accepting the propaganda of the whacked-out animal rights movement (whose goal is to eliminate pets from the earth) which was spewed forth from the opposition, including those that had been appointed to the Animal Shelter Committee. Yes...you heard right, they have put card-carrying PeTA members on the shelter committee as opposed to folks with animal husbandry experience who really do care about animals. We all know what the PeTA faction preaches..."better dead than fed"...witnessed by their 97% euthanization rate. This is their first step towards the elimination of animal ownership in Dallas. They've already managed to criminalize it. What a sad, sad day.

Link to Dallas Morning News article

Gettin' It Out of My System

A dog can show you more honest affection with a flick of his tail than a man can gather through a lifetime of handshakes.
~ Gene Hill

I've always told folks that there is a reason that my degree is in Animal Science...I just don't understand people at all. There are times when I beat my tired head against the wall because of some of the folks I have to deal with during my all-too-intensive participation in the dog fancy. How fun is it for anyone to have people ask one for their assistance and guidance based on experience and then poo-poo, ignore, and/or fuss about the advice given with the best of intentions. It's about as fun as a yearly visit to the physician; or having teeth pulled; surgery? It's such a wonderful thing to be treated flippantly by the instant experts one tends to run into constantly, be it at work or in one's hobby. You can almost see and/or understand how postal workers go postal. Yes...I've had it up to the gills and have felt the need to somehow vent publicly.

I am so lucky that I do have dog people that are a source of joy for me, be it folks that I have learned from, or people who have joined our extended family by bringing one of our pups into their lives, or folks that I've met along the way. Thank goodness for them to make up for the other, less pleasant experiences along the way.

No animal I know of can consistently be more of a friend and companion than a dog.
~ Stanley Leinwoll

So the heedless ingrates can just get stuffed . Now that I've vented, I will go and have another play in the online shooter game I found - and when I get home, I am going to play and interact with those that truly appreciate what I can do for them...my dogs (and perhaps a cat).

A Learning Tangle

My brain is in such a knot. Such a knot that would make Celtic knotwork look simple and easy.

I've had an idea for a re-design of my web site for Gryffyn's Aeyrie. I've kinda got it mapped out and kinda not. There are some more things I need to learn in addition to more CSS techniques. I need to learn Photoshop and its brush tools (I currently work in Paint Shop Pro since it was easier for me to learn way back when) and I need to learn how to work with vectorizing pictures. My head hurts. I feel way to old to learn this stuff and my memory seems like a sieve as of late. I have plenty else to do - so why do I bind myself up in these things. I was once told, while on a date, that I have a "curious mind". Not sure if they meant I was a perpetual student of sorts who was always looking for a learning experience...or if they just meant my mind was curious in that I was impossible to figure out where I was coming from and that I myself was a curiosity. Possibly both.

To add to the mangled mess, I was looking into digital scrapbooking as well in terms of styles and layout techniques. Now I can't concentrate on anything for more than a minute without wandering off into another tangent - the ADD has kicked in full throttle. Sometimes it's quite the asset for multi-tasking - but right now it's a huge barrier to getting anything done!

We may have some hellacious weather for the next 12 hours or so beginning this evening. The university posted its inclement weather policy and if the roads are iced tomorrow morning I may be wandering through my learning fog at home. But actually, I don't have time for that. We have a mess of dogs to groom for a special supported entry event on Saturday at the Abilene dog show.