Sorry to ruin your Disney Romance with Nature

Humane is a human concept. This is a wolf doing as a wolf does.

It's just a point of View

Someone brought up the idea of a chicken rescue drive. All I could think of that there is nothing in an overpopulation of chickens that I couldn't personally solve with enough charcoal and barbecue rub. Bring on to me all the homeless chickens, they will find a place in this world right next to the salad and potatoes.

This also reminds me of a class I was in where we were examining a giant old growth tree. The two teachers of this class were from very polar fields. One had run a lumber mill in Forks Washington. The other was a conservation and recreation officer with Olympic National park. The one teacher gazed upon this tree in all it's splendor and said I look at this tree and think to myself of the board feet of clear quality wood contained. The other told of the people from far and wide who would come to visit and appreciate this tree and in that effect there was value.

The debate between ecotourism, commercial harvest, and armchair interests begins.  All interested parties, all with money to gain from the exploitation of a tree. It's no wonder the national forests are in such crappy shape.

So to that effect I admit - I see a chicken and I see meat. Just as I see a cow and see steaks and burgers. It doesn't mean I don't like those animals, I appreciate them greatly both as creatures, but it also means that I understand what they are to my society. It's just one man's pet is another man's dinner.

Building an emergency kit for the car

I never have a specific list for every pack because emergency situations where one must abandon their vehicle and pack out to safety are pretty environmentally specific to both the seasons and needs of the evacuee. I live in the Pacific Northwest where we don't have a ton of heat but we do have a ton of water. We also have raised aging roadways and a shit ton of under built bridges so it's pretty well very likely that roads will be impassible and bridges will be down in the case of a major earthquake. Therefore to get home in the very likely event an earthquake strikes while I am at work 35 miles from home it will very likely be a 2 -5 day mostly urban journey on foot. Keep in mind I am also single - emergency survival and bug outs with kids is a different ball of wax. This kit is designed to get me from away to back to home base.

So for the dryer season here are my major components of my bug out bag.

A change of comfortable clothes, a belt, 3 pairs of woolsocks stored in a zip lock, a hat, and a change of decent broke in shoes because I can nearly be guaranteed to be wearing the most uncomfortable POS pair of shoes I own, cotton socks, and wearing something business casual when the big one hits.

Rain gear that's packable

light gloves
small flashlight or headlamp

Some kind of ultra light tent
a thermal bivvy

something I can light a fire with even if everything is wet

A decent quality fixed blade knife w built in sharpener.

a water bottle with a filter

a jet boil system like the mini mo

a eat n tool

mini bottle of dawn soap.

With just the above I can shelter in place and move around for a long time. However a good thought is to also have the following:

backpackers lantern (assume there will be no power)

bug spray
a backpackers towel
paracord fob
roll of TP

sun screen

5-7 days worth of medications

A good first aid kit meant for hiking

a good current road map (assume cel lines and data will be down)

a head net

small bag of wet wipes
My personal defense kit which includes bear spray and a collapsible baton.
A small amount of money (like $30 - $50) in small bills

Finally a backpack to put all this stuff in and a tub to store everything in - inside the car.

Food - what's good and what's worthless will be another post.

The Poisoning of Crufts Part 3 Answers and Questions

The kennel club released a statement after the release of the toxicology report. Seems as expected the poisoned setter was very likely poisoned very close to home.
The named toxins are:
Aldicarb - A once common pesticide for aphids called Temik. Banned in the EU. It is also an ingredient in rat poison common to some to latin america.
Carbofuran- Again a pesticide marketed for control of pests in soybeans under the name Furadan. Banned in the EU. Ingredient common in off label use as a poison to kill predators in some of the 3rd world.

So what does this mean? It means that certainly this dog was not poisoned in the UK. It was very likely poisoned in it's own yard - or in the neighborhood.

Now as for the story being told as I mentioned we are unlikely to ever find out the full story. It takes very little of this stuff to kill a dog and it's more than likely would have killed all their dogs if there were deliberate bait piles in the yard. We will probably never know if this was a dog targeted event or not but I am more apt to think that this was an incidental poisoning that was intended for wildlife. Probably in less than a kilometer of where the dog lived. You see often baits are moved by wildlife - birds if you're not careful. It's part of the reason you have to be so very careful trapping to make sure traps are not easily seen by birds.

Even the jackass that poisoned my sister's dog with antifreeze put out way more poison than what was needed to do the job. This again to me points to incidental poisoning as the most likely story. Sad day for a dog but certainly not something easily prevented - sometimes despite your best intentions and preventions - shit happens.

carbofuran

Purebred failures

I was surfing the web looking at pictures from Crufts when I came across this poor creature which probably in a visual encompasses everything wrong with purebred dogs.

This is a dog who made it to Crufts after earning his way there through showing. This creature who serves no purpose than human companionship who is wall eyed, cannot breathe properly, has misaligned teeth, and is losing hair around his eye rims is the best the Japanese chin has to offer the world. This dog will undoubtedly die younger and in worse health than a "normal" faced dog of similar size and background and will live life plagued by discomfort denied even the ability to see and breathe normally as a result of breeding for a standard that is a description based in nothing biological.

Again, I ask the question of why do we do this and tell the world it's for the dogs? Dogs care not a whit for ribbons nor titles nor do they hold a standard sacred. That is a human trait.

The Poisoning of Crufts Part II - the story unravels

So it seems that people who own watches and do a little thinking are seeing holes in the reasoning behind the alleged poisoning at Crufts by animal rights activists.This is of course probability nonsense - as I noted in a previous post.

However we do have clues about what most likely happened to Jagger. He ate cubes of beef and he had poison still in solid form in his stomach. His symptoms were sudden onset and massive - the dog died before ever seeing the vet.

The most likely suspect is in my opinion slug bait. It fits all the reported symptoms, timeline, and released post mort information. The toxicology report will be the real story.

Now the real question to me is why his owners are clinging to the story about Crufts being the source of this poison rather than accidental poisoning which seems to be the most likely story. I think I have come up with the two most likely answers - sometimes what you want to believe is more important than reality. Accidents happen. Dogs die every day. It can be a great comfort to place blame elsewhere.
My second theory is more financial. This dog is owned by what appears to be three families. If one person's negligence costs an investment there may be financial repercussions to consider.

Because of this I believe that even if the evidence shows irrefutably that this dog was poisoned at home that this is the story about being poisoning at Crufts will be what they cling to. It's good business sense to do so and it's good PR to do so. So my guess is that is what the story will be. 

Now comes forward other dog owners who want to camp on the attention by spreading allegations that their little pooch also suddenly came down with the case of the poisonings. No other dogs have been confirmed at this stage of the game which makes me think that any dog with a case of the sniffles will be deemed "poisoned" by their owners and handlers. It's easier to think that rather than stress, disease, and simple bad luck could be the cause of their dog's case of the runs. Odds are good when nearly 22,000 dogs enter a building a few will get sick, and a couple will die within short order of the show.

The Poison of Crufts

So it appears a dog at Crufts has died of some mystery ailment which his owners are describing as a poisoning. 

The reporting right now is as follows:
~The dog died in Belgium 26 hrs after Crufts
~Cubes of beef were found in the dog's stomach
~ We are being told up to three poisons are involved that were enough to "kill a horse."
~ We are being told that this is by some AR nutjob.
~ We are being told two or three other dogs may have also been poisoned but no one is coming forward yet.

I seem to be in a  minority that is raising my hand and questioning the validity of this story.

It seems unlikely to me that a dog would die of a poisoning 26 hrs after a show. It seems odder yet to me that the dog's other stomach contents could be identified. It also seems odd to me that they said they could identify three poisons that were enough to "kill a horse" without the dog dropping prior to that point.

To me it seems far more likely the dog got into something on the way home or upon arriving home. Either way if a dog is dead this is a sad event - but we need to wait for more information and not leap to hysterical conclusions or point fingers.

Picking Partners - Co ownership Realities

A popular method of selling show dogs these days is via co-ownership. Basically in exchange for money one party gains physical control of a dog while the breeder or previous owner of a dog keeps their name on the registration paperwork.

There are a fair number of reasons breeders like this:

• It gives the illusion of control of genes.
• It gives the illusion of control from further transfers
• It allows the breeder or co owner to gain points when showing
• It prevents further transfers of registration papers.

The reason I use the word illusions is that by itself a co ownership does none of these things. Nothing prevents a co owner from giving the dog away, breeding it, concealing it entirely, taking it out and shooting it, or hanging papers on it and selling it anyways. What it does do effectively is prevent further transfers of registration papers and allows the other co owner to accumulate points and credit to their name. Most of the real power still remains with the party who actually possesses the dog however that said there is a bit of dishonesty with owning half a dog. 

I am generally speaking not a fan of co ownerships on dogs.  A co ownership is often used as a crutch to replace a good binding contract and does little to actually protect the dog, or the new owner. When the dog doesn't turn out as promised often time the breeder/co-owner is no where to be found and the new share owner is left holding the bag/dog.

For instance unlike horse co ownerships typically a selling co owner share does not take any responsibility for the care, training, vetting, showing, health testing or expenses associated with this animal but wants a say in the breeding partners, show schedule, vetting decisions, sale decisions, and successes of that animal.Basically all the monetary glory with none of the poop scooping work beyond 8 to 12 weeks.

More often than not the buying party wants a champion family pet with a hobby on the side and all too often the selling party is looking at an investment opportunity with having another party take on all the expense and risk for all of their gain which is a fairly unreasonable proposition by most contract standards as all the risk and expense is carried by a single party with another party gaining the most benefit.

That said there is a third party in this which is the dog itself. A co ownership does nothing to protect the dog from being used like a bouncing commodity rather than a family member which most people professing to love dogs would agree is the ideal. On the flip side of that a co ownership does plenty to deter doing right by the dog for the dog's sake because it puts real decisions in the hands of someone who isn't totally vested in those decisions. There in lies the rub - do right by the dog above all else should be the mantra in this club - yet somehow it always seems to fall to the side in favor of human vanity and egos.

 That said - these breeder folks will quickly remind you that you don't have to sign a contract with them or you can buy a dog on a spay/neuter contract. Which is true - you don't and increasingly people don't and throw up their hands and the stupidity and greed that goes in these contracts. Registered dogs account for less than 10% of all dogs in this country and more and more people are deciding a non registered non show dog will do the job.

Dreaming of summer

Being an odd year it means another year of pinks is upon us. I find myself making plans for warmer weather, preparing the freezer, and gathering alder for smoking. Bring out the jigs and buzz bombs and let the protein hit the shores.

Dog recyclers

I am in contact in a fair number of dog breeders and there always seems to be a segment of the dog rearing and breeding population that always seems to be cycling through dogs while professing their commitment to those dogs.

There is one person I know of who was giving away a dog because she had no time and then a literal next week got a working dog puppy. Really?

On the flips side of this you will find folks always swapping animals - either on craigslist, facebook, or some other list. They claim that they are looking for a pet that they will love forever - which they promptly flip for double the adoption fee to cover the work they put in. These are the same folks who post sob stories about rescuing Fluffy from a fate worse than death but can't afford to give him the care he needs. Send money now or Fluffy may die.

A pet is a commitment folks. You can't espouse responsibility and commitment when you have never assumed any yourself.

Signs that you are dealing with a pet cycler or pet flipper:
~ They have dogs younger than the one your are looking at but are claiming no time.
~ Didn't they just get this dog? Are they scanning always for more?
~ They get cagey about where the dog actually came from. They also get very upset if you ask about  contacting the dog's previous owner.
~ They are a breeder for twenty years but don't own a dog over six.
~ They are always posting photos of dogs available or dogs they just adopted.
~ They take on pets they cannot afford.
~ They invest very little time or money in the animals they have before they decide to move on the dog to it's "forever" home.
~ They ask for money based on what they put into a dog. 
~ They keep more pets in a greater variety than any sane person should.

Picking Associations

I have been a member of three dog clubs. I currently belong to none and will likely never be a member of one again. My interests and theirs rarely align and the backstabbing reads like a roman political meeting.

I am currently a member of three specialty associations related to trapping, hunting, and farming. None of which is the NRA.

I am an active member of two web boards and am pretty active on facebook.

How does one decide what clubs and trade associations to be a member of? First off to me it is a question of value. A club that is little more than a logo is worthless. A club that is nothing but a gossip circle is equally worthless. Sadly this encompasses 80% or more of dog clubs where they are little more than a trade association for dealing puppies and spending money on judges and ribbons.
They also tend to be more about exclusion than inclusion. Typically their publications are private - and typically you need two or more members to vouch for you to join. This leads to a constant cycle of backstabbing and snarky behavior that should make an awesome experience into something completely dominated by the ability to navigate petty club politics.

In contrast joining a rabbit club with a quarterly publication with topics about rearing and research and a specialty show costs about $20 a year. It has open enrollment.

My trapping association sends out publications every other month. It contains information about sales, education seminars, and specific how to articles. They also present information on protecting trapping from special interest groups. Open enrollment and only $35 a year. A good value for supplies that are sometimes difficult to find.

Second to me is a question of what my dollars are truly supporting. If you donate to the NRA
one only needs to look at their financial statements to realize how little my membership matters and how much money the big gun manufacturers and retailers are willing to spend to buy congress.

So before you join a club I would suggest anyone consider the following
~ What do I really get out of joining?
~ Is the club accountable to it's membership?
~ Is what they say they are about actually what they do in action?
~ Are they transparent in finances?

If the answers are 100% acceptable to you - join. If not - spend your money elsewhere for better information based in reality.