Showing posts with label AR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AR. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
New Coursing Book
To See Them Run: Great Plains Coyote Coursing, with text by Utah folklorist Eric Elaison, splendid photos by Scott Squire, and a long introductory essay by me, is finally out from the University Press of Mississipi... and about time! Our efforts have seen us, for about five years (more?) right through a couple of academic presses and out the other side, as Plains coyote coursing was seen as too retrograde for modern audiences, or, even sillier, presses demanded material on non- existent "Native American Coursing". (A quote: "I was leading my greyhound and whippet. As I passed two Native Americans, my wife, who was following, saw them pointing at the dogs and saying 'there goes dinner'."
It is a really beautiful "Coffee Table Book" AND a thoughtful text-- a great gift for hunters and students of dogs and the Old Ways, for Christmas or birthdays. I can truthfully say we are all proud of it as well as relieved that it is finally a book. I will add more photos later but wanted to get this post out. One complaint: Amazon will not let me list it under my name, on my page, although those who have introduced my books routinely list them on their Amazon pages. Perhaps a word to the publisher?
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Links 1
I have many I have been saving, some worth your time, some that just caught my eye An example of the second is this horrifying skeletal "bird", aptly titled "Epic Bird Anatomy FAIL":
Love those feather bones..
On the serious front, we have more dispatches from the front lines of the AR fascists' attempts to make us cease all contact with our animals, from the invaluable and necessary Bedlam Farm blog. "We", ie the side of sanity, won the first battle for the continuing existence of the New York Carriage horses, but can we be complacent? Jonathan Katz says no.
He also revisits the larger issue here; whether it is possible to have a traditional relation with an animal, say WORKING, in our society. I would have thought he was being paranoid, but after belatedly reading Ted Kerasote's latest, Pukka (review TK) I learn that a large majority of urban Americans think that ALL dogs must be spayed and neutered. Where do these mooncalves think that dogs COME FROM?
A quote from Bedlam Farm:
" The truth is that American dogs live the best lives of any animals in the world, very few of them suffer and die at the hands of abusive and uncaring owners...
" We are moving towards a kind of quarantine for dogs, increasingly sealed off from the opportunity to socialize them, to give them varied and stimulating lives, to accompany us in our travels, be appreciated by other people. Dogs deserve better than to be isolated only in homes and backyards because society does not permit us to take any risks with them."
Eleanora's falcons have always been thought strange. Island - nesting relatives of the European Hobby, they resemble little Peregrines with big wings. They live on Medterranean islands, and breed during the FALL passerine migration to Africa, using that bounty to fuel their reproduction.
Now it appears that they keep "prisoners" in a larder as well. Please forgive format-- it came out this way:
"...the falcons keep or ‘imprison’ some preys in a relatively deep cavity or in a fissure of rocks from where they can’t escape as their flight feathers (both tail and wings feathers) were already pulled out ... Or by keeping them trapped in a tight and deep hole which makes them unable to move neither their wings nor their hanging legs...
"The authors reported also that this behaviour can occur even before the eggs hatch, and was already well known to a local fisherman who is staying in the archipelago in a more or less regular basis for decades..."
Read, as they say, the whole thing.
Last before dinner: a relative, a wild Eurasian Hobby, flies down a Swift . That we have not yet mastered such flights, apparently done easily in the Old Days, should suggest we don't know everything yet...
On the serious front, we have more dispatches from the front lines of the AR fascists' attempts to make us cease all contact with our animals, from the invaluable and necessary Bedlam Farm blog. "We", ie the side of sanity, won the first battle for the continuing existence of the New York Carriage horses, but can we be complacent? Jonathan Katz says no.
He also revisits the larger issue here; whether it is possible to have a traditional relation with an animal, say WORKING, in our society. I would have thought he was being paranoid, but after belatedly reading Ted Kerasote's latest, Pukka (review TK) I learn that a large majority of urban Americans think that ALL dogs must be spayed and neutered. Where do these mooncalves think that dogs COME FROM?
A quote from Bedlam Farm:
" The truth is that American dogs live the best lives of any animals in the world, very few of them suffer and die at the hands of abusive and uncaring owners...
" We are moving towards a kind of quarantine for dogs, increasingly sealed off from the opportunity to socialize them, to give them varied and stimulating lives, to accompany us in our travels, be appreciated by other people. Dogs deserve better than to be isolated only in homes and backyards because society does not permit us to take any risks with them."
Eleanora's falcons have always been thought strange. Island - nesting relatives of the European Hobby, they resemble little Peregrines with big wings. They live on Medterranean islands, and breed during the FALL passerine migration to Africa, using that bounty to fuel their reproduction.
Now it appears that they keep "prisoners" in a larder as well. Please forgive format-- it came out this way:
"...the falcons keep or ‘imprison’ some preys in a relatively deep cavity or in a fissure of rocks from where they can’t escape as their flight feathers (both tail and wings feathers) were already pulled out ... Or by keeping them trapped in a tight and deep hole which makes them unable to move neither their wings nor their hanging legs...
"The authors reported also that this behaviour can occur even before the eggs hatch, and was already well known to a local fisherman who is staying in the archipelago in a more or less regular basis for decades..."
Read, as they say, the whole thing.
Last before dinner: a relative, a wild Eurasian Hobby, flies down a Swift . That we have not yet mastered such flights, apparently done easily in the Old Days, should suggest we don't know everything yet...
Friday, June 26, 2015
Carriage Horses Redux, and a Win...
Another essential dispatch from Jon Katz at Bedlam Farm.
"No one really knows how many millions of dollars NY Class, PETA, and a coalition of animal rights groups have spent trying to mobilize public support for the carriage horse ban and bullying the members of the City Council to pass the mayor's carriage horse ban...
"In the last week alone, these groups have mailed out hundreds of thousands of glossy color posted sized pieces showing dead horses (some of them from New York, some from elsewhere) to people for days in a row. They are organizing expensive phone channeling telephone calls from all over the country. They are following carriage drivers with video cameras, trying to catch them violating city regulations, they have hired private detectives to follow them, they have released a series of videos on you tube, and enlisted various naive and poorly informed Hollywood stars who think they are being hip and progressive.
"They have established a network of blogs and fund-raising websites using photographs of dead and injured horses, most from unknown places outside of New York to raise tens of millions of dollars from people who believe they are saving or rescuing animals, rather than sending them off to languish or die..
"The animal rights groups have organized hundreds of demonstrators – some paid – to gather at the carriage horse lines in Central Park, hand out thousands of pamphlets, intimidate children, tourists and horse lovers, to shout insults at the carriage drivers and call them murderers, to secretly tape them in the hopes of catching them saying something controversial or angry.
"... The next chapter in this disturbing drama will be – should be – to stop the intimidation, harassment and abuse of the carriage trade, it is unconscionable that is occurring, and that the city government appears to be supporting it... The animal rights ethos has become in some ways a fascistic, not a progressive one. Its targets are the poor and the working class. It despises the democratic process, and it dehumanizes it's targets and treats them in ways that are beyond the pale of a democratic and civil society."
The carriage trade is considering lawsuit. I would not be optimistic about this but for a strangely parallel suit won by environmentally conscious ranchers against the so- called Center for Biodiversity (do NOT confuse with the scholarly Berry Center for Biodiversity at U Wy Laramie, run by my friend Carlos Martinez del Rio-- I mean the one down here run by the former grad student in literature from Long Island, the one that seems to harass good ranchers as though it were a personal feud). A rancher named Jim Chilton has a 25,000 acre lease in Arizona where his environmental practices have been praised by a team of independent researchers who studied the land for six years, among others.
Unimpressed, the CDB stepped up their campaign of "psychological warfare" to drive him off the land, one that included outright lies and photographs of stripped ground that turned out to be a Forest Service parking lot. The result, according to Ted Williams of Fly Rod and Reel (not online yet I think) was that "... Chilton then took CBD to court, winning $100,000 for harm to his reputation and $500,000 in punitive damages... this is the only time an NGO has been successfully sued for libel."
Go get 'em!
"No one really knows how many millions of dollars NY Class, PETA, and a coalition of animal rights groups have spent trying to mobilize public support for the carriage horse ban and bullying the members of the City Council to pass the mayor's carriage horse ban...
"In the last week alone, these groups have mailed out hundreds of thousands of glossy color posted sized pieces showing dead horses (some of them from New York, some from elsewhere) to people for days in a row. They are organizing expensive phone channeling telephone calls from all over the country. They are following carriage drivers with video cameras, trying to catch them violating city regulations, they have hired private detectives to follow them, they have released a series of videos on you tube, and enlisted various naive and poorly informed Hollywood stars who think they are being hip and progressive.
"They have established a network of blogs and fund-raising websites using photographs of dead and injured horses, most from unknown places outside of New York to raise tens of millions of dollars from people who believe they are saving or rescuing animals, rather than sending them off to languish or die..
"The animal rights groups have organized hundreds of demonstrators – some paid – to gather at the carriage horse lines in Central Park, hand out thousands of pamphlets, intimidate children, tourists and horse lovers, to shout insults at the carriage drivers and call them murderers, to secretly tape them in the hopes of catching them saying something controversial or angry.
"... The next chapter in this disturbing drama will be – should be – to stop the intimidation, harassment and abuse of the carriage trade, it is unconscionable that is occurring, and that the city government appears to be supporting it... The animal rights ethos has become in some ways a fascistic, not a progressive one. Its targets are the poor and the working class. It despises the democratic process, and it dehumanizes it's targets and treats them in ways that are beyond the pale of a democratic and civil society."
The carriage trade is considering lawsuit. I would not be optimistic about this but for a strangely parallel suit won by environmentally conscious ranchers against the so- called Center for Biodiversity (do NOT confuse with the scholarly Berry Center for Biodiversity at U Wy Laramie, run by my friend Carlos Martinez del Rio-- I mean the one down here run by the former grad student in literature from Long Island, the one that seems to harass good ranchers as though it were a personal feud). A rancher named Jim Chilton has a 25,000 acre lease in Arizona where his environmental practices have been praised by a team of independent researchers who studied the land for six years, among others.
Unimpressed, the CDB stepped up their campaign of "psychological warfare" to drive him off the land, one that included outright lies and photographs of stripped ground that turned out to be a Forest Service parking lot. The result, according to Ted Williams of Fly Rod and Reel (not online yet I think) was that "... Chilton then took CBD to court, winning $100,000 for harm to his reputation and $500,000 in punitive damages... this is the only time an NGO has been successfully sued for libel."
Go get 'em!
Monday, June 22, 2015
Links I: Feathers and Carriage Horses
...which I have been neglecting. With a book deadline and one for a big article not too far away, the impending operation, and things like four- hour "Neurological Psychology" tests, these more than one hundred miles away-- I won't burden you further, but I can be distracted.
But: FEATHERS.
I an a bit disappointed that not one "Mainstream" reviewer of the new "Jurassic" film has remarked on its featherless lizards. Not even my favorite and most erudite reviewer, Anthony Lane at the New Yorker- he is no scientist, and DID write the funniest one, but I unfairly expect him to know everything.
You all know what I am going to say next: FEATHERS. As Brian Switek blogged, " A Velociraptor without feathers isn't a Velociraptor!" Perhaps the paradigm has not shifted yet. Continue to spread the meme with such portraits as John Conway's, above...
Don't forget the New York Carriage horses either; their struggle against Animal Rights activists and New York's remarkably obtuse (stupid?) mayor deBlasio is symbolic of the one everywhere that pits owners of working animals against those who want to end all human- animal work and relations. Jon Katz at Bedlam Farm does a good job on this and much else, but I am surprised this isn't a constant national story. The statistics are revealing; all the city's papers are in favor of keeping the horses, as are 70% of the people. I don't know why this ridiculous and heartbreaking controversy wasn't settled in favor of the horse drivers long ago.
Jon: "I have assembled some quotes from just a handful of the people who have, unlike the mayor and a single member of any animal rights group in New York City, come to New York to see the horses and examine them and their lives. The mayor has never talked to any of these highly regarded and experienced people, never considered a word they have said, never called them up or invited them to visit. Every week, animal rights activists and real estate developers seeking to ban the carriage trade hold their press conferences, march in the streets, shout at the carriage drives, taunt the horses, parade into City Hall to meet with the mayor and his aides to plan their campaign to banish the horses....
"The Central Park Conservancy, credited with restoring the park after decades of neglect, opposes the mayor's plan to replace the carriage horses with electric cars, saying the plan is "unsafe" and will increase congestion in the park, already struggling to accommodate 40 million visitors a year. The horses, says the conservancy, are a natural part of the park's history.
"Buck Brannaman, one of the world's most respected horses trainers, author of "The Faraway Horses" and the inspiration for the movie "The Horse Whisperer":
"Pulling carriages on rubber-rimmed wheels on paved streets is a low-stress job, and the horses are calm and relaxed, not anxiously laying their ears back or wringing their tails. Plus, these horses get lots of attention and affection from passersby. And horses love attention and affection as much as we do.
"Famed biologist Jared Diamond:
"Draft horses are "the most domesticable animals in the world for life in urban areas." They tolerate noise and disruption, other species they are gentle, they stay close to one another, they attach to people, they are genetically extraordinarily well suited to work with people in urban environments.
Katz:
"None of these people or organizations have been questioned by the mayor, or been invited to participate in the discussion on the future of the carriage horses. The debate there is harsh, dishonest and unknowing, shaped by unfounded accusations and unsupported prejudices. The leaders of our greatest city – and many journalists there – have lost any understanding of the real world of real animals, the debate over the carriage horses could not possible be lower, more corrupt or unknowing.
"Virtually none of the people seeking to ban the horses – garage builder Steven Nislick, head of NYClass, the animal rights group spearheading the ban effort; mayor deBlasio, who has never owned a dog; the president of the New York City Council, who has two rescue cats; or the leaders of any of the animal rights organizations involved has any training or qualifications in equine medicine, training or behavior. Yet they have dominated the discussion in the city, and shaped the media coverage of the issue, so important to the future of animals in our world.
"We owe it to the earth to keep animals in our every day lives, especially when they are fortunate enough to be needed, loved, and so well cared for. We have a shared responsibility for the people and the animals in the world. If you are so moved, please write the mayor and tell him so: Mayor Bill deBlasio, New York City Hall, City Hall Park, N.Y., N.Y., 10007.
But: FEATHERS.
You all know what I am going to say next: FEATHERS. As Brian Switek blogged, " A Velociraptor without feathers isn't a Velociraptor!" Perhaps the paradigm has not shifted yet. Continue to spread the meme with such portraits as John Conway's, above...
Don't forget the New York Carriage horses either; their struggle against Animal Rights activists and New York's remarkably obtuse (stupid?) mayor deBlasio is symbolic of the one everywhere that pits owners of working animals against those who want to end all human- animal work and relations. Jon Katz at Bedlam Farm does a good job on this and much else, but I am surprised this isn't a constant national story. The statistics are revealing; all the city's papers are in favor of keeping the horses, as are 70% of the people. I don't know why this ridiculous and heartbreaking controversy wasn't settled in favor of the horse drivers long ago.
Jon: "I have assembled some quotes from just a handful of the people who have, unlike the mayor and a single member of any animal rights group in New York City, come to New York to see the horses and examine them and their lives. The mayor has never talked to any of these highly regarded and experienced people, never considered a word they have said, never called them up or invited them to visit. Every week, animal rights activists and real estate developers seeking to ban the carriage trade hold their press conferences, march in the streets, shout at the carriage drives, taunt the horses, parade into City Hall to meet with the mayor and his aides to plan their campaign to banish the horses....
"The Central Park Conservancy, credited with restoring the park after decades of neglect, opposes the mayor's plan to replace the carriage horses with electric cars, saying the plan is "unsafe" and will increase congestion in the park, already struggling to accommodate 40 million visitors a year. The horses, says the conservancy, are a natural part of the park's history.
"Buck Brannaman, one of the world's most respected horses trainers, author of "The Faraway Horses" and the inspiration for the movie "The Horse Whisperer":
"Pulling carriages on rubber-rimmed wheels on paved streets is a low-stress job, and the horses are calm and relaxed, not anxiously laying their ears back or wringing their tails. Plus, these horses get lots of attention and affection from passersby. And horses love attention and affection as much as we do.
"Famed biologist Jared Diamond:
"Draft horses are "the most domesticable animals in the world for life in urban areas." They tolerate noise and disruption, other species they are gentle, they stay close to one another, they attach to people, they are genetically extraordinarily well suited to work with people in urban environments.
Katz:
"None of these people or organizations have been questioned by the mayor, or been invited to participate in the discussion on the future of the carriage horses. The debate there is harsh, dishonest and unknowing, shaped by unfounded accusations and unsupported prejudices. The leaders of our greatest city – and many journalists there – have lost any understanding of the real world of real animals, the debate over the carriage horses could not possible be lower, more corrupt or unknowing.
"Virtually none of the people seeking to ban the horses – garage builder Steven Nislick, head of NYClass, the animal rights group spearheading the ban effort; mayor deBlasio, who has never owned a dog; the president of the New York City Council, who has two rescue cats; or the leaders of any of the animal rights organizations involved has any training or qualifications in equine medicine, training or behavior. Yet they have dominated the discussion in the city, and shaped the media coverage of the issue, so important to the future of animals in our world.
"We owe it to the earth to keep animals in our every day lives, especially when they are fortunate enough to be needed, loved, and so well cared for. We have a shared responsibility for the people and the animals in the world. If you are so moved, please write the mayor and tell him so: Mayor Bill deBlasio, New York City Hall, City Hall Park, N.Y., N.Y., 10007.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Links...
Serious stuff, really.
Jonathan Katz at Bedlam Farm Journal has been carrying a pretty heavy load by being the point man on the controversy, almost entirely fabricated by those who know nothing about animals, over banning the Central Park carriage horses. (If animals needed psychologists, those horses would be happy; as Freud knew, love and work are the necessities for a sane life). In the last month, he lost two of his animals to old age and decrepitude. Only others who love animals (most Animal "Rights" people don't know or love them, as has been obvious in this debate) will understand his grief. But, I am happy to report, he continues to think.
First, from one of his recent essays, "A Simonless World" (links aren't working but you can find it on his blog) , a passage where he paused in his sorrow to contemplate the peculiar attitude that the culture seems to be making about animals these days:
"Last week, five or six people came up to me at different times and told me about their dogs – this happens to me daily – and each one told me their dogs were abused. I always ask why they say that, and they give me reasons like this: the dog is afraid of moving lights, the dog is afraid of men with big sticks, the dog is shy around loud noises, the dog is afraid of trucks and buses.
"There are so many reasons why dogs might behave that way – breeding, litter experience, issues with the mother, encounters with dogs and the outside world. Abuse is actually the least likely for most dogs.
"Something in the life of contemporary Americans calls them to need to see animals as abused and piteous and dependent creatures. I think it makes us feel valued, worthy, even superior to other people. We are a fragmented, tense and disconnected people in many ways, animals give us something to feel better about. Abuse is real, it is a crime, but I sometimes think it seems that every dog in America was abused, and I am always drawn to wonder why it is that people need to take ordinary animal behavior and transform it into narratives of human cruelty and mistreatment... We no longer see them as partners, but as pathetic wards and helpless beings. I don't think it is good for animals to view them through such a narrow prism."
The late philosopher and dog trainer (and poet) Vicki Hearne used to say that Animal Rights activists could only envision two roles for animals: cute and abused. In the intervening years I can see a second: dead. GRATEFUL dead, and I don't mean the band. There is a little philosophical movement lurking about that scares the crap out of me, that says with Jeremy Bentham and certain odd Buddhists that absence of suffering is paramount, that things like carnivory must be remedied, and if it isn't then everything from re- engineering carnivores' genomes to ending our species to ending life is justified. I do suspect they are a small group, but I hope they never get hold of a weaponized virus...
Again, my old post defending coursing dogs, or any dog with a job, might be worth a look. As is this surprisingly sympathetic portrait of coursing coyotes in Oklahoma from the NYT. Of course, people are trying to shut that down too, as they did the legal wolf hunt with hounds in Wisconsin. Look at the contrast the clever NYT writer made between the solicitous hunters, who like most of us sustain large vet bills every year, and the AR activist who claims we leave wounded dogs in the field to die (yeah, I know that is unbelievable...)
And a slight swerve: an essay by an anti --gunner who admits without condescension that there are enormous divisions between people of good will over guns, even in Sandy Hook families that lost members to that crazed shooter, and castigates the familiar anti- gun tropes that insist all Americans want gun control or, worse, that those of us who oppose it are ignorant, bigoted, etc-- name your cliche, and see that ass Liam Neeson, who has probably made more money off at least the image of guns than I have. I do not agree with her, but I get the sense we could have a conversation...
Ancient coursing dog photo:
Jonathan Katz at Bedlam Farm Journal has been carrying a pretty heavy load by being the point man on the controversy, almost entirely fabricated by those who know nothing about animals, over banning the Central Park carriage horses. (If animals needed psychologists, those horses would be happy; as Freud knew, love and work are the necessities for a sane life). In the last month, he lost two of his animals to old age and decrepitude. Only others who love animals (most Animal "Rights" people don't know or love them, as has been obvious in this debate) will understand his grief. But, I am happy to report, he continues to think.
First, from one of his recent essays, "A Simonless World" (links aren't working but you can find it on his blog) , a passage where he paused in his sorrow to contemplate the peculiar attitude that the culture seems to be making about animals these days:
"Last week, five or six people came up to me at different times and told me about their dogs – this happens to me daily – and each one told me their dogs were abused. I always ask why they say that, and they give me reasons like this: the dog is afraid of moving lights, the dog is afraid of men with big sticks, the dog is shy around loud noises, the dog is afraid of trucks and buses.
"There are so many reasons why dogs might behave that way – breeding, litter experience, issues with the mother, encounters with dogs and the outside world. Abuse is actually the least likely for most dogs.
"Something in the life of contemporary Americans calls them to need to see animals as abused and piteous and dependent creatures. I think it makes us feel valued, worthy, even superior to other people. We are a fragmented, tense and disconnected people in many ways, animals give us something to feel better about. Abuse is real, it is a crime, but I sometimes think it seems that every dog in America was abused, and I am always drawn to wonder why it is that people need to take ordinary animal behavior and transform it into narratives of human cruelty and mistreatment... We no longer see them as partners, but as pathetic wards and helpless beings. I don't think it is good for animals to view them through such a narrow prism."
The late philosopher and dog trainer (and poet) Vicki Hearne used to say that Animal Rights activists could only envision two roles for animals: cute and abused. In the intervening years I can see a second: dead. GRATEFUL dead, and I don't mean the band. There is a little philosophical movement lurking about that scares the crap out of me, that says with Jeremy Bentham and certain odd Buddhists that absence of suffering is paramount, that things like carnivory must be remedied, and if it isn't then everything from re- engineering carnivores' genomes to ending our species to ending life is justified. I do suspect they are a small group, but I hope they never get hold of a weaponized virus...
Again, my old post defending coursing dogs, or any dog with a job, might be worth a look. As is this surprisingly sympathetic portrait of coursing coyotes in Oklahoma from the NYT. Of course, people are trying to shut that down too, as they did the legal wolf hunt with hounds in Wisconsin. Look at the contrast the clever NYT writer made between the solicitous hunters, who like most of us sustain large vet bills every year, and the AR activist who claims we leave wounded dogs in the field to die (yeah, I know that is unbelievable...)
And a slight swerve: an essay by an anti --gunner who admits without condescension that there are enormous divisions between people of good will over guns, even in Sandy Hook families that lost members to that crazed shooter, and castigates the familiar anti- gun tropes that insist all Americans want gun control or, worse, that those of us who oppose it are ignorant, bigoted, etc-- name your cliche, and see that ass Liam Neeson, who has probably made more money off at least the image of guns than I have. I do not agree with her, but I get the sense we could have a conversation...
Ancient coursing dog photo:
Wednesday, December 03, 2014
Carriage horses: the battle begins
I should have said-- and will now-- to check in just in case something that is actually important comes up. I would not brag that most of what is reported here is important in the grand sense-- but my defense of animal- human bonds, the "Old Ways": partnerships, "jobs", memes-- IS. I helped push back the AR tide when they tried to ban coursing in California. The good guys won that one, however temporarily.
But now, a more visible and symbolic fight has commenced for real in New York. A blinkered urbanite might be forgiven for misunderstanding dogs that chase jacks and their human partners. But more than sixty percent of New Yorkers, three newspapers, an actor (Liam Neeson), a horse trainer (Buck Brannaman), and just about everybody but the most self righteous and resentful Animal Rightsers and a few dubious real estate developers--oh, and the silly playpen Marxist mayor who won his office when only 26 percent of the electorate voted, who did so with the money of said developers (the stables are prime real estate), and who is a "strong Animal Rights activist" who has never owned an animal of any kind, but who tells the little kid of one of the horse drivers that his father is "immoral", while refusing to meet the drivers; a "man of the people" who says that his administration's highest goal and priority is to take away the livings of working people who have never been accused of a single act of cruelty...
The battle is joined: Read Jonathan Katz here for a good summary;if you subscribe to him he will keep you up to date. Then join us in sending some funds to the drivers here.
If the screaming fanatics of AR win this one, no city animal will be safe. A lot of country friends forget that, a few years ago, Albuquerque animal activists tried to enforce draconian dog regs that slipped by in Albuquerque to the rest of our very rural and western state (ban on more than two dogs, rigorous permits including no in- house litters, on- site inspections, and huge fees to breed, and apparently only AKC purebreds). They want a war, they have a big war chest-- check out HSUS-- and believe they can win it, while the carriage drivers only want to live in peace. If they want to play ISIS to our border fortress, our Kobani, let us be as brave as the Kurds. Stop them in New York before they knock on your door.
OK, a little humor. Mayor DiBlasio claims he is a "Marxist". He says so; I am not red-baiting him. If we must have Marxists, let them be like this iconic one. Here he is shooting birds in exile in the Caucasus in 1926 (next stop Kazakhstan, where he mostly hunted birds with his dog for two years); with his rabbits, in lonelier exile in Mexico; and big- game fishing a la Hemingway off Mexico, shortly before the traitorous "Ramon Mercader", who had insinuated himself into Trotsky's trust, sneaked up behind him and put an icepick in his head (if you think I am comparing that sleazy Stalinist hit man to "the coward Robert Ford", of course I am!).
But now, a more visible and symbolic fight has commenced for real in New York. A blinkered urbanite might be forgiven for misunderstanding dogs that chase jacks and their human partners. But more than sixty percent of New Yorkers, three newspapers, an actor (Liam Neeson), a horse trainer (Buck Brannaman), and just about everybody but the most self righteous and resentful Animal Rightsers and a few dubious real estate developers--oh, and the silly playpen Marxist mayor who won his office when only 26 percent of the electorate voted, who did so with the money of said developers (the stables are prime real estate), and who is a "strong Animal Rights activist" who has never owned an animal of any kind, but who tells the little kid of one of the horse drivers that his father is "immoral", while refusing to meet the drivers; a "man of the people" who says that his administration's highest goal and priority is to take away the livings of working people who have never been accused of a single act of cruelty...
The battle is joined: Read Jonathan Katz here for a good summary;if you subscribe to him he will keep you up to date. Then join us in sending some funds to the drivers here.
If the screaming fanatics of AR win this one, no city animal will be safe. A lot of country friends forget that, a few years ago, Albuquerque animal activists tried to enforce draconian dog regs that slipped by in Albuquerque to the rest of our very rural and western state (ban on more than two dogs, rigorous permits including no in- house litters, on- site inspections, and huge fees to breed, and apparently only AKC purebreds). They want a war, they have a big war chest-- check out HSUS-- and believe they can win it, while the carriage drivers only want to live in peace. If they want to play ISIS to our border fortress, our Kobani, let us be as brave as the Kurds. Stop them in New York before they knock on your door.
OK, a little humor. Mayor DiBlasio claims he is a "Marxist". He says so; I am not red-baiting him. If we must have Marxists, let them be like this iconic one. Here he is shooting birds in exile in the Caucasus in 1926 (next stop Kazakhstan, where he mostly hunted birds with his dog for two years); with his rabbits, in lonelier exile in Mexico; and big- game fishing a la Hemingway off Mexico, shortly before the traitorous "Ramon Mercader", who had insinuated himself into Trotsky's trust, sneaked up behind him and put an icepick in his head (if you think I am comparing that sleazy Stalinist hit man to "the coward Robert Ford", of course I am!).
Friday, October 17, 2014
The New York Carriage Horses
Jon Katz is doing such a serious, informed, and fundamental service in documenting what may turn out to be the landmark Animal Rights case of our time* that anyone who breeds, trains, or otherwise is involved with all our ancient ways and "memes" of human- animal interaction should subscribe to Bedlam Farm Journal and get it in their box every morning (and there is a lot of beauty, humor, and poignancy as well, not just his continuing defense of the horses and their owners-- Jon's animals, his recovery from open- heart surgery, his photos, and more).
My own battles so far were helping the California coursers, and I think my best column helped (though meanwhile we lost an important fight in Albuquerque, our own back yard, on breeding dogs). Those interested in the coursing column, which I think contains enough material of more than local interest that I plan to recycle it in my dog book, can find it here.
But the most important public battle over us and our animals is going on now. One group of people has the whole of history, of human and domestic animal evolution, training, learning, adaptation, work, and even love on its side (though like many "animal people" or country folk they may not be able to articulate it like members of the chattering classes). The other side consists of a Marxist, uninformed, callous mayor (and I feel bad about insulting Marxists here-- photos of Trotsky and his dogs suggest that even Marxists usually know more about dogs than DiBlasio-- all right, he is Italian too, and I hang my head in shame); a billionaire real estate developer; and, because Manhattan is just MORE than other places, some of the most unhinged, hysterical, fanatical, and near- violent Animal Rightsers in the United States. They have lied outright; DiBlasio sounds positively Aspergian every time he opens his mouth (he told a child of one of the carriage drivers that his father was "immoral"). They seem to think that killing the horses would be better for them than letting them work; the mayor seems to think that a godawfully expensive electric vehicle would be a more "environmental" solution; can you see tourists, maybe a couple coming to the city for their honeymoon, stepping into a romantic scaled- up golfcart to drive through central Park?! As somebody said (who? -- and Magdalenians please refrain from saying "Tom Kelly"!), only an educated fool could possibly believe something like that.
Against that, we have the thoughtful essays of Jon Katz, who has written a couple of them every week on the subject, full of old- style wisdom and kindness. Read him if you care about the Old Ways, as I suspect most of the readers here do. Here are a couple of thoughts from October 11 "What are People For?":
"In New York City, hundreds of people live in fear and uncertainty as the future of the carriage trade is suddenly in doubt because a millionaire real estate developer decided it is abuse for horses to work.The carriage drivers have been the victims of almost continuous and slanderous assault and cruel condemnation and abuse for years while the mayor who seeks to end their work and way of life refuses to even speak to them in the name of being humane to animals...
"Countless animals suffer every week in America as the movement that calls itself a protector of animal rights claims that people are not fit to live with animals, care for them, or deserving of help in keeping them. Everywhere – in farmer's markets, on pony rides, in carriage horses, circuses, movie sets, agricultural schools, small farms, private homes – it is becoming too complex, controversial, expensive or complicated to own and keep and work with an animal, especially those that are not pets. Animals are disappearing everywhere, just as the carriage horses will disappear if they are banned from New York City...
"Is there dignity and compassion in losing one's livelihood, in being publicly and cruelly dehumanized. Is our goal to remove animals from the lives and consciousness of human beings? The horses are awakening us to understand that there is much work to be done, those of us who love animals have abandoned them to the awful fate of having their fates decided by people who hate people. When we dehumanize people, we dehumanize ourselves, when we dehumanize ourselves, we cannot possible build a world that is humane to animals. Compassion is not selective, we don't get to choose who deserves it, we either offer it or we do not...
"Animals can only thrive in partnership with people, without animals people are broken and disconnected from their lives, their past and the world. We cannot be compassionate for animals as we become increasingly cruel to people.
"If you want to be happy," says the Dalai Lama, "practice compassion." Do we really wish for the unhappiest people in our world to decide the fate of animals?"
My own battles so far were helping the California coursers, and I think my best column helped (though meanwhile we lost an important fight in Albuquerque, our own back yard, on breeding dogs). Those interested in the coursing column, which I think contains enough material of more than local interest that I plan to recycle it in my dog book, can find it here.
But the most important public battle over us and our animals is going on now. One group of people has the whole of history, of human and domestic animal evolution, training, learning, adaptation, work, and even love on its side (though like many "animal people" or country folk they may not be able to articulate it like members of the chattering classes). The other side consists of a Marxist, uninformed, callous mayor (and I feel bad about insulting Marxists here-- photos of Trotsky and his dogs suggest that even Marxists usually know more about dogs than DiBlasio-- all right, he is Italian too, and I hang my head in shame); a billionaire real estate developer; and, because Manhattan is just MORE than other places, some of the most unhinged, hysterical, fanatical, and near- violent Animal Rightsers in the United States. They have lied outright; DiBlasio sounds positively Aspergian every time he opens his mouth (he told a child of one of the carriage drivers that his father was "immoral"). They seem to think that killing the horses would be better for them than letting them work; the mayor seems to think that a godawfully expensive electric vehicle would be a more "environmental" solution; can you see tourists, maybe a couple coming to the city for their honeymoon, stepping into a romantic scaled- up golfcart to drive through central Park?! As somebody said (who? -- and Magdalenians please refrain from saying "Tom Kelly"!), only an educated fool could possibly believe something like that.
Against that, we have the thoughtful essays of Jon Katz, who has written a couple of them every week on the subject, full of old- style wisdom and kindness. Read him if you care about the Old Ways, as I suspect most of the readers here do. Here are a couple of thoughts from October 11 "What are People For?":
"In New York City, hundreds of people live in fear and uncertainty as the future of the carriage trade is suddenly in doubt because a millionaire real estate developer decided it is abuse for horses to work.The carriage drivers have been the victims of almost continuous and slanderous assault and cruel condemnation and abuse for years while the mayor who seeks to end their work and way of life refuses to even speak to them in the name of being humane to animals...
"Countless animals suffer every week in America as the movement that calls itself a protector of animal rights claims that people are not fit to live with animals, care for them, or deserving of help in keeping them. Everywhere – in farmer's markets, on pony rides, in carriage horses, circuses, movie sets, agricultural schools, small farms, private homes – it is becoming too complex, controversial, expensive or complicated to own and keep and work with an animal, especially those that are not pets. Animals are disappearing everywhere, just as the carriage horses will disappear if they are banned from New York City...
"Is there dignity and compassion in losing one's livelihood, in being publicly and cruelly dehumanized. Is our goal to remove animals from the lives and consciousness of human beings? The horses are awakening us to understand that there is much work to be done, those of us who love animals have abandoned them to the awful fate of having their fates decided by people who hate people. When we dehumanize people, we dehumanize ourselves, when we dehumanize ourselves, we cannot possible build a world that is humane to animals. Compassion is not selective, we don't get to choose who deserves it, we either offer it or we do not...
"Animals can only thrive in partnership with people, without animals people are broken and disconnected from their lives, their past and the world. We cannot be compassionate for animals as we become increasingly cruel to people.
"If you want to be happy," says the Dalai Lama, "practice compassion." Do we really wish for the unhappiest people in our world to decide the fate of animals?"
Friday, September 19, 2014
New York Carriage horses and their enemies
Like Joel Katz of Bedlam Farm Journal, I think that the case of these horses, well- kept but attracting the attention and money of -- I can't soften it, deranged animal "Rights" activists, possibly backed by the money of cynical real estate interests-- is emblematic of our "rather stupid time" (Ortega), and a preview of what every one of us who lives with ancient human- animal memes-- dog breeders, houndsmen, pigeon racers, falconers, sheep herders, ranchers, dog trainers-- faces. Name it-- there is some fanatic in a city near you who has never kept, never mind bred or worked with, any animal, and that person is determined to take your animal away and "rescue" (or kill) it, to at best, a puzzled life behind bars with no work.
Some recent Jon Katz; first from September 16
"Have you ever been absolutely hated by an animal rights activist? I mean HATED so much that they wish to obliterate your very existence. HATED so much that they vow to destroy you and your kind no matter what it costs, monetarily or in decency? HATED so much that your very humaneness and your families identity and legacy and traditions and whatever else you hold sacred and dear are threatened with a campaign to destroy any trace of your existence? What is it about this kind of activism done in the name of loving animals, that loathes humankind to the point of what appears to be utter insanity?"
And this, from yesterday
"The next thing that surprised was learn that the campaign against the carriage horses was not a debate about the horses, or an argument about animal welfare or the future of animals in the urban world. It was an ideological assault – personal, brutal and relentlessly cruel – against the people who owned and drove the horse carriages. To understand this unnecessary controversy, it is first essential to understand that. It has always been about attacking and dehumanizing the drivers, who have been called thieves, torturers, abusers, immoral, callous, greedy, liars and inhuman or less than human beings.
"This is always the language of hate, the precursor to persecution, the ugly advance work necessary to demonize people to the point that their freedom and property can be taken away by the so-called moral community around them. Earlier this year, one of the gentlest and most beloved of the carriage drivers approached the mayor at a public event with his young son. He asked the mayor why he was do determined to ban the horses, and the mayor said "because your work is immoral." He said this right in front of his son, and then turned away. He did not speak of the horses, he spoke of the character of the people who drive them.
"There it was, from the mayor's mouth to our ears. It is about the people, not the animals. The story has never been about the welfare of animals, not one animal on the earth will lead a better or safer life if the carriage horses are banished to rescue farms and slaughterhouses."
This not young photographer, recovering from open heart surgery and for no reason but that he understands working and domestic animals and can see and think and feel, is the most eloquent defender of our Old Ways on the web. I check him every morning, and you should too. Thanks, Jon, and keep up the good fight.
UPDATE in progress. I am writing this out of saved material. Libby informs me that Jon is apparently putting his farm up for sale, as his health is shaky. I hope he continues writing and making beautiful photos, but our hearts are with him whatever he does. His eloquent defense of working animals is something we can mine as long as deracinated urbanites try to deny us contact with (CS Lewis phrase) "other bloods".
Some recent Jon Katz; first from September 16
"Have you ever been absolutely hated by an animal rights activist? I mean HATED so much that they wish to obliterate your very existence. HATED so much that they vow to destroy you and your kind no matter what it costs, monetarily or in decency? HATED so much that your very humaneness and your families identity and legacy and traditions and whatever else you hold sacred and dear are threatened with a campaign to destroy any trace of your existence? What is it about this kind of activism done in the name of loving animals, that loathes humankind to the point of what appears to be utter insanity?"
And this, from yesterday
"The next thing that surprised was learn that the campaign against the carriage horses was not a debate about the horses, or an argument about animal welfare or the future of animals in the urban world. It was an ideological assault – personal, brutal and relentlessly cruel – against the people who owned and drove the horse carriages. To understand this unnecessary controversy, it is first essential to understand that. It has always been about attacking and dehumanizing the drivers, who have been called thieves, torturers, abusers, immoral, callous, greedy, liars and inhuman or less than human beings.
"This is always the language of hate, the precursor to persecution, the ugly advance work necessary to demonize people to the point that their freedom and property can be taken away by the so-called moral community around them. Earlier this year, one of the gentlest and most beloved of the carriage drivers approached the mayor at a public event with his young son. He asked the mayor why he was do determined to ban the horses, and the mayor said "because your work is immoral." He said this right in front of his son, and then turned away. He did not speak of the horses, he spoke of the character of the people who drive them.
"There it was, from the mayor's mouth to our ears. It is about the people, not the animals. The story has never been about the welfare of animals, not one animal on the earth will lead a better or safer life if the carriage horses are banished to rescue farms and slaughterhouses."
This not young photographer, recovering from open heart surgery and for no reason but that he understands working and domestic animals and can see and think and feel, is the most eloquent defender of our Old Ways on the web. I check him every morning, and you should too. Thanks, Jon, and keep up the good fight.
UPDATE in progress. I am writing this out of saved material. Libby informs me that Jon is apparently putting his farm up for sale, as his health is shaky. I hope he continues writing and making beautiful photos, but our hearts are with him whatever he does. His eloquent defense of working animals is something we can mine as long as deracinated urbanites try to deny us contact with (CS Lewis phrase) "other bloods".
Friday, August 08, 2014
The New York Horses
Jon Katz, despite his recent open heart surgery, is still fighting the good fight for the Carriage horses of Central Park and against the combined forces of AR supporters and the City's incredibly clueless mayor:
"They are coming for the horses, and they are coming for the ponies and elephants and working dogs and chickens on farms and so many other animals who used to live and exist among us. Soon enough, they will be coming for you, for the animals in your world, for the way in which you live with them and love them. Soon enough, they will be entering your world, your life and telling you how to live and taking the animals you love a way from you and removing them from our lives. It is not a paranoid fantasy, it is here. It is the life of every carriage horse owner and driver and every horse today in New York. It is happening right now."
I think he is right, and it is that serious. The mayor, who has steadfastly refused to even MEET the horse owners, says he may move this week. Add your voice and whatever else you can...
"They are coming for the horses, and they are coming for the ponies and elephants and working dogs and chickens on farms and so many other animals who used to live and exist among us. Soon enough, they will be coming for you, for the animals in your world, for the way in which you live with them and love them. Soon enough, they will be entering your world, your life and telling you how to live and taking the animals you love a way from you and removing them from our lives. It is not a paranoid fantasy, it is here. It is the life of every carriage horse owner and driver and every horse today in New York. It is happening right now."
I think he is right, and it is that serious. The mayor, who has steadfastly refused to even MEET the horse owners, says he may move this week. Add your voice and whatever else you can...
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Quote
"If the people who own pets do not come to understand the natural world and the true lives of animals, there will be no animals but pets. I share this so that others might learn from it and benefit from our experiences, not to be lectured by people without boundaries. All animals are not pets, they are not furbabies and child surrogates, some live in a different world, they are a different nation. They get sick, are eaten, they fall and die.
"Farms are not rescue facilities, nursing homes or assisted care housing."
Jon Katz, Bedlam Farm Journal.
"Farms are not rescue facilities, nursing homes or assisted care housing."
Jon Katz, Bedlam Farm Journal.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Trouble coming: APHIS
A few weeks ago the Sportsman's andAnimal Owners Alliance warned us that, despite the efforts and concerns expressed, literally for years, by small breeders, APHIS was coming. They listed these points of concern:
"Can hunting dog kennel owners sell pets?
Can breeders ship sight-unseen where relationships have been well established ?
Can litters be whelped inside the house?
Are rescues still exempt if they ship sight-unseen?
Can animals, other than rabbits, be shipped for preservation of the species?
Do the APHIS regulations take precedence over state license regulations?
How can we believe the answers from APHIS staff who do not understand the questions?
Does APHIS plan to offer any protection for newly licensed breeders so that kennel photos are not added to the ASPCA “puppy mill” data base and other sensationalized uses?
If you are reported to APHIS as needing a license, are investigators required to have a warrant to enter your premises?
Is everyone on the same premise required to be licensed if one person must be licensed?
"The rule is overly complicated, inconsistent, and certainly not easy to understand. The internet and chat groups are full of conversation about this rule with a number of interpretations and a wide variety of opinions being circulated. APHIS also posted another Question and Answer Fact Sheet with their explanations to some of the major concerns submitted during the rule making process. Again as last year, the Q&A contains many half, incomplete, or misleading answers. The reality is that the final interpretation of the rule and its definitions will be at the discretion of APHIS inspectors and staff."
Here are (a few of many) examples:
"The AWA Standards of Care for housing, facilities, exercise, cleaning, sanitization, employees, housekeeping, and pest control will not be revised.
"Living under USDA licensing is NOT an option for the average home-based retail seller. The average house cannot be converted to a USDA compliant facility. Federal standards for licensed facilities dictate sanitation measures not feasible in a normal home, surfaces that are impervious to moisture, ventilation, bio-hazard control, veterinary care, exercise, temperature controls, waste disposal systems, diurnal lighting, drainage systems, washrooms, perimeter fencing, as well as transportation standards for regulated animals.
"... IF you can give up a room in your house and convert it to be the moisture proof, sterile environment described above, AND gain approval from an APHIS inspector, you may be able to crate or pen animals in that room. This room would then be for either adults or puppies/kittens but not both. Under the USDA standards puppies and kittens under 4 months of age cannot be housed in the same primary enclosure with adults, other than the dam/queen or foster dam/queen. Since the remainder of your house does not meet the above requirements, allowing animals to roam freely would cause you to be in violation of the AWA. And unless your bedroom is coated in epoxy and has a floor drain, you won’t be doing any whelping there.
"A separate facility will be needed for females by two weeks prior to whelping. Even if you make one room in your house compliant with the AWA standards, females cannot be whelped in that room. That means an additional room will be required, plus one for each additional litter within the next 3.5 months.
"Any room in your home used for whelping or birthing must meet USDA standards – impervious to moisture – meaning tile floor and vinyl-coated walls.
"All surfaces touched by animals must be waterproof and sterilized every two weeks with your choice of live steam under pressure, 180 degree water and detergent with disinfectant, or a combination detergent/disinfectant product."
It has passed, without most of this being clarified. Lane Batot's friend Jill Porter, who has been fighting the act for a long time, wrote:
"It goes into effect in 60 days. It's 91 pages of convoluted and hard to understand new regulations for anyone breeding pet animals (dogs, cats, pocket pets, reptiles and much more.) The short of it is that even smaller home based breeders like me can no longer ship puppies without being USDA licensed. The requirements to be licensed will force us to not be able to raise dogs the way we do, as family members in our homes. Because of many other changes, it also has a horrible impact on our ability to make good genetic decisions for our breeding programs, and so much more. I am still in shock about this as is everyone who knows about it and understands what it is going to do. The reasoning was to control the huge volume breeders that sell sick puppies sight unseen over the internet, but in reality it will hurt the small, quality dog breeders who show and preserve the valuable genetics in each breed. Some of my friends have already announced they are closing down their breeding programs, since they have rare or less common breeds and can't function with the new regulations. (These are the good breeders who raise dogs in the home, do all health testing, are very active in their breed clubs and more.) It is going to be such a loss to see those breeds and bloodlines disappear. But hey, it's the government and animal rights groups in action. At least the big puppy mills will stay in business (and THAT is said with a HUGE amount of sarcasm) since they don't care if they have to keep dogs in cages to comply with regulations.
"This is a huge victory for the radical animal rights group the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) who pushed for it To them all breeders are puppy mills and they want to see all breeding stopped forever. Their president said he wants to see domestic animals become extinct... They don't help shelter pets, they use their money for lawyers, pensions and lobbbying but their commercials make you THINK you are giving to save puppies and kittens in shelters. Check out www.humanewatch.org for more."
Text of the act, or most of it, should be here.
"Can hunting dog kennel owners sell pets?
Can breeders ship sight-unseen where relationships have been well established ?
Can litters be whelped inside the house?
Are rescues still exempt if they ship sight-unseen?
Can animals, other than rabbits, be shipped for preservation of the species?
Do the APHIS regulations take precedence over state license regulations?
How can we believe the answers from APHIS staff who do not understand the questions?
Does APHIS plan to offer any protection for newly licensed breeders so that kennel photos are not added to the ASPCA “puppy mill” data base and other sensationalized uses?
If you are reported to APHIS as needing a license, are investigators required to have a warrant to enter your premises?
Is everyone on the same premise required to be licensed if one person must be licensed?
"The rule is overly complicated, inconsistent, and certainly not easy to understand. The internet and chat groups are full of conversation about this rule with a number of interpretations and a wide variety of opinions being circulated. APHIS also posted another Question and Answer Fact Sheet with their explanations to some of the major concerns submitted during the rule making process. Again as last year, the Q&A contains many half, incomplete, or misleading answers. The reality is that the final interpretation of the rule and its definitions will be at the discretion of APHIS inspectors and staff."
Here are (a few of many) examples:
"The AWA Standards of Care for housing, facilities, exercise, cleaning, sanitization, employees, housekeeping, and pest control will not be revised.
"Living under USDA licensing is NOT an option for the average home-based retail seller. The average house cannot be converted to a USDA compliant facility. Federal standards for licensed facilities dictate sanitation measures not feasible in a normal home, surfaces that are impervious to moisture, ventilation, bio-hazard control, veterinary care, exercise, temperature controls, waste disposal systems, diurnal lighting, drainage systems, washrooms, perimeter fencing, as well as transportation standards for regulated animals.
"... IF you can give up a room in your house and convert it to be the moisture proof, sterile environment described above, AND gain approval from an APHIS inspector, you may be able to crate or pen animals in that room. This room would then be for either adults or puppies/kittens but not both. Under the USDA standards puppies and kittens under 4 months of age cannot be housed in the same primary enclosure with adults, other than the dam/queen or foster dam/queen. Since the remainder of your house does not meet the above requirements, allowing animals to roam freely would cause you to be in violation of the AWA. And unless your bedroom is coated in epoxy and has a floor drain, you won’t be doing any whelping there.
"A separate facility will be needed for females by two weeks prior to whelping. Even if you make one room in your house compliant with the AWA standards, females cannot be whelped in that room. That means an additional room will be required, plus one for each additional litter within the next 3.5 months.
"Any room in your home used for whelping or birthing must meet USDA standards – impervious to moisture – meaning tile floor and vinyl-coated walls.
"All surfaces touched by animals must be waterproof and sterilized every two weeks with your choice of live steam under pressure, 180 degree water and detergent with disinfectant, or a combination detergent/disinfectant product."
It has passed, without most of this being clarified. Lane Batot's friend Jill Porter, who has been fighting the act for a long time, wrote:
"It goes into effect in 60 days. It's 91 pages of convoluted and hard to understand new regulations for anyone breeding pet animals (dogs, cats, pocket pets, reptiles and much more.) The short of it is that even smaller home based breeders like me can no longer ship puppies without being USDA licensed. The requirements to be licensed will force us to not be able to raise dogs the way we do, as family members in our homes. Because of many other changes, it also has a horrible impact on our ability to make good genetic decisions for our breeding programs, and so much more. I am still in shock about this as is everyone who knows about it and understands what it is going to do. The reasoning was to control the huge volume breeders that sell sick puppies sight unseen over the internet, but in reality it will hurt the small, quality dog breeders who show and preserve the valuable genetics in each breed. Some of my friends have already announced they are closing down their breeding programs, since they have rare or less common breeds and can't function with the new regulations. (These are the good breeders who raise dogs in the home, do all health testing, are very active in their breed clubs and more.) It is going to be such a loss to see those breeds and bloodlines disappear. But hey, it's the government and animal rights groups in action. At least the big puppy mills will stay in business (and THAT is said with a HUGE amount of sarcasm) since they don't care if they have to keep dogs in cages to comply with regulations.
"This is a huge victory for the radical animal rights group the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) who pushed for it To them all breeders are puppy mills and they want to see all breeding stopped forever. Their president said he wants to see domestic animals become extinct... They don't help shelter pets, they use their money for lawyers, pensions and lobbbying but their commercials make you THINK you are giving to save puppies and kittens in shelters. Check out www.humanewatch.org for more."
Text of the act, or most of it, should be here.
Sunday, May 05, 2013
Good concept
Thoughts on AR from the letter column of the Wall St Journal by one George Price. It will never happen of course.
"If the animal rights who attack laboratories to "liberate" the animals... had the courage of their convictions, they would each carry a little card (like an organ- donor card) reading 'If I am found sick or injured, do not give me any treatment developed or tested by animal experimentation. My life is worth no more than an animal's, and I refuse to live at the cost of animal's life. Just let me die.' "
"If the animal rights who attack laboratories to "liberate" the animals... had the courage of their convictions, they would each carry a little card (like an organ- donor card) reading 'If I am found sick or injured, do not give me any treatment developed or tested by animal experimentation. My life is worth no more than an animal's, and I refuse to live at the cost of animal's life. Just let me die.' "
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Pigeons vs Humaniacs
Chris Landauer of Border Wars sent me a note a couple of weeks ago on the ARista's war on pigeon racing. Since then I have been roaming the Internet, too busy and too pissed off to to write a calm essay on the kind of people who would persecute old men, some of them who have made real connections to youngsters of different cultures, for being "racketeers" for betting on races. They claim it is cruel because some don't make it home (they don't know most ferals are more homer than not), and that some substandard birds are "culled" (and eaten), a practice and term that they seem to think unique to pigeon keepers....
It would of course be easy to sue the sport out of existence, of course; though the Queen of England and some wealthy Belgians fly birds, the old working class cartoon character Andy Capp on the other side of the channel and ancient ethnics like my late grandfather in the US are more typical, as are young blacks and city Hispanos. And given its nature as a HOMING sport, its targets are stationary, unable to go underground. Add irrational fears of diseases that pigeons don't even carry, the latest being bird flu...
And then I thought, to hell with reasoned arguments; better to go with my initial reaction. So here are some of the calmer parts of my reaction to Chris...
"God, Chris, I get so sick of it all.
" 'It's so crooool, but they are all old and they're going to die soon so we'll LET them'...
"And another human- animal hybrid culture, another meme, another selected association of unique genes goes back into the undifferentiated pond; another joy is taken from us, there is one less thing to distract the young from the all- flattening difference- ending locale- killing biophobic Almighty Screen. How many youths in how many places once took baskets of pigeons miles to 'toss' and raced them home, as I did? No more pigeons, hunting dogs, ferrets, horses but for the rich, ratting, snake catching. Oddly my grandson probably WILL do many of these, but will he be a social outcast for it? And WHERE will he do it?
"And me- my salukimorphs are wanted, and my hawks. But who will pick up my unique genetic stream and crosses when I am gone, my wild hawk- evading homers, my crossbred and reconstructed old Spanish pouter breeds? Eli is too young, and his parents still live in the city; US cities are banning them outright by name (Chicago, Bozeman) or just making it virtually impossible to keep or God help us FLY them.
"No answers but... Pigeon racing CRUEL? What absolute bullshit. The only beings that never suffer are-- DEAD."
A last thought: vegetarian and fine writer Sy Montgomery, who wrote beautifully about them in Birdology, knows better, and has more wise biophilia in her little finger than all of HSUS...
Photos from Scotland and Turkey, where pigeon culture still not only exists but thrives. The last pix including the cupboard loft are in the restaurant in Urfa where I used to eat lunch.
It would of course be easy to sue the sport out of existence, of course; though the Queen of England and some wealthy Belgians fly birds, the old working class cartoon character Andy Capp on the other side of the channel and ancient ethnics like my late grandfather in the US are more typical, as are young blacks and city Hispanos. And given its nature as a HOMING sport, its targets are stationary, unable to go underground. Add irrational fears of diseases that pigeons don't even carry, the latest being bird flu...
And then I thought, to hell with reasoned arguments; better to go with my initial reaction. So here are some of the calmer parts of my reaction to Chris...
"God, Chris, I get so sick of it all.
" 'It's so crooool, but they are all old and they're going to die soon so we'll LET them'...
"And another human- animal hybrid culture, another meme, another selected association of unique genes goes back into the undifferentiated pond; another joy is taken from us, there is one less thing to distract the young from the all- flattening difference- ending locale- killing biophobic Almighty Screen. How many youths in how many places once took baskets of pigeons miles to 'toss' and raced them home, as I did? No more pigeons, hunting dogs, ferrets, horses but for the rich, ratting, snake catching. Oddly my grandson probably WILL do many of these, but will he be a social outcast for it? And WHERE will he do it?
"And me- my salukimorphs are wanted, and my hawks. But who will pick up my unique genetic stream and crosses when I am gone, my wild hawk- evading homers, my crossbred and reconstructed old Spanish pouter breeds? Eli is too young, and his parents still live in the city; US cities are banning them outright by name (Chicago, Bozeman) or just making it virtually impossible to keep or God help us FLY them.
"No answers but... Pigeon racing CRUEL? What absolute bullshit. The only beings that never suffer are-- DEAD."
A last thought: vegetarian and fine writer Sy Montgomery, who wrote beautifully about them in Birdology, knows better, and has more wise biophilia in her little finger than all of HSUS...
Photos from Scotland and Turkey, where pigeon culture still not only exists but thrives. The last pix including the cupboard loft are in the restaurant in Urfa where I used to eat lunch.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
"In our time..."
"... which is a rather stupid time.." (Jose Ortega y Gasset): the latest on the California bill to ban hunting with hounds; and the possible loss of the historical and economically important Remington factory in Ilion New York.
On the hound bill, the concern of the antis is touching. ""It's typically a high-tech hunt that results in an animal being shot out of a tree, which is unsporting", says Wayne Pacelle of the HSUS-- because, of course, he would be cheering on the hunters if it were "sporting". Another backer worries about the hounds, who would be much better off neutered in urban dog parks: hunting with dogs "could also result in dogs being hurt or lost."
They did quote a sensible voice or two: ""We do not want the challenge to be in the shot," Brones added. "We want the challenge to be putting yourself in a position for the shot... We don't want the animal to suffer." I somehow doubt it will make any difference, though.
Money quote in the Remington article is priceless: "“Look, frankly, if we really want to keep jobs in New York, let’s invest more money in yogurt..." IF??
Two quotes from Dr John Burchard, in a recent letter: "Modern humans are in great danger of becoming totally disconnected from the natural world - with dire results for us as well as for "wildlife"."
And: "There is a tendency in the modern world to want to eliminate all risks, even to the most inattentive, uncaring and irresponsible individuals. A certain measure of risk management is indispensable for the maintenance of an orderly society - but the complete elimination of risk is first of all impossible, and secondly not even desirable. "
On the hound bill, the concern of the antis is touching. ""It's typically a high-tech hunt that results in an animal being shot out of a tree, which is unsporting", says Wayne Pacelle of the HSUS-- because, of course, he would be cheering on the hunters if it were "sporting". Another backer worries about the hounds, who would be much better off neutered in urban dog parks: hunting with dogs "could also result in dogs being hurt or lost."
They did quote a sensible voice or two: ""We do not want the challenge to be in the shot," Brones added. "We want the challenge to be putting yourself in a position for the shot... We don't want the animal to suffer." I somehow doubt it will make any difference, though.
Money quote in the Remington article is priceless: "“Look, frankly, if we really want to keep jobs in New York, let’s invest more money in yogurt..." IF??
Two quotes from Dr John Burchard, in a recent letter: "Modern humans are in great danger of becoming totally disconnected from the natural world - with dire results for us as well as for "wildlife"."
And: "There is a tendency in the modern world to want to eliminate all risks, even to the most inattentive, uncaring and irresponsible individuals. A certain measure of risk management is indispensable for the maintenance of an orderly society - but the complete elimination of risk is first of all impossible, and secondly not even desirable. "
Thursday, August 09, 2012
Bad news for houndsmen...
.. and all hunters. David Zincavage reports, furiously, here.
From an unremarkable story, earlier:
"California Fish and Game commissioner Dan W. Richards travelled deep into the wicked terrain of Idaho’s Flying B Ranch to fulfill a long-held goal. “It was the most physically exhausting hunt of my lifetime. Eight hours of cold weather hiking in very difficult terrain. I told the guides I appreciated the hard work. They were unbelievably professional, first class all the way,” he said. Richards said he took the big cat over iron sights using a Winchester Centennial lever action .45 carbine. Asked about California’s mountain lion moratorium, Richards didn’t hesitate. “I’m glad it’s legal in Idaho.”
And now he is ousted from office:
"Although the kill was legal in Idaho, California has outlawed the hunting of mountain lions for decades. More than 40 state legislators called for Richards to resign in March, saying he showed poor judgment in killing the cougar when the practice is opposed by most Californians...[Michael] Sutton, an executive with the Audubon Society [who was at the same time elected Vice President of the Fish and Game Commission], said later that the killing of the lion and Richards’ comments defending it were factors in his decision to vote to replace Richards."
Zincavage: "The president of the State Fish & Game Commission is supposed, in California, to be out of line when he uses his office to speak in favor of hunting."
LA Weekly, though reporting that some comments against Richards were "pretty terroristy", is flat- out exultant:
"Needless to say, he was immediately attacked by every shade of the left -- from animal-rights crazies to some of the Legislature's most mainstream Democrats... [really?!]... although Fish and Game commissioners haven't explained specifically why they decided to vote Richards down from his throne today, it was clearly a symbolic move to kill the human who killed the beast... Let this be a lesson for all trigger-happy Republicans who dare to dream of swimming against California's blue tide: We'll eat your grin for dinner."
Several churning thoughts: is hunting in Cal really that partisan an issue, or just in a few big cities? What do some of my friends who are Democrats and hunters say, in and out of Cal? What does this bode for the politics of hunting, and the nation?
For certain, it is a black day for the hounds. I wonder who they will call when a lion next stalks, or eats, a runner. Will they let them use hounds?... even end up begging for them, when nothing else works? I wouldn't let my dogs step foot in California, where a coursing ban is on the agenda, and mandatory spay- neuter waits in the wings...
From an unremarkable story, earlier:
"California Fish and Game commissioner Dan W. Richards travelled deep into the wicked terrain of Idaho’s Flying B Ranch to fulfill a long-held goal. “It was the most physically exhausting hunt of my lifetime. Eight hours of cold weather hiking in very difficult terrain. I told the guides I appreciated the hard work. They were unbelievably professional, first class all the way,” he said. Richards said he took the big cat over iron sights using a Winchester Centennial lever action .45 carbine. Asked about California’s mountain lion moratorium, Richards didn’t hesitate. “I’m glad it’s legal in Idaho.”
And now he is ousted from office:
"Although the kill was legal in Idaho, California has outlawed the hunting of mountain lions for decades. More than 40 state legislators called for Richards to resign in March, saying he showed poor judgment in killing the cougar when the practice is opposed by most Californians...[Michael] Sutton, an executive with the Audubon Society [who was at the same time elected Vice President of the Fish and Game Commission], said later that the killing of the lion and Richards’ comments defending it were factors in his decision to vote to replace Richards."
Zincavage: "The president of the State Fish & Game Commission is supposed, in California, to be out of line when he uses his office to speak in favor of hunting."
LA Weekly, though reporting that some comments against Richards were "pretty terroristy", is flat- out exultant:
"Needless to say, he was immediately attacked by every shade of the left -- from animal-rights crazies to some of the Legislature's most mainstream Democrats... [really?!]... although Fish and Game commissioners haven't explained specifically why they decided to vote Richards down from his throne today, it was clearly a symbolic move to kill the human who killed the beast... Let this be a lesson for all trigger-happy Republicans who dare to dream of swimming against California's blue tide: We'll eat your grin for dinner."
Several churning thoughts: is hunting in Cal really that partisan an issue, or just in a few big cities? What do some of my friends who are Democrats and hunters say, in and out of Cal? What does this bode for the politics of hunting, and the nation?
For certain, it is a black day for the hounds. I wonder who they will call when a lion next stalks, or eats, a runner. Will they let them use hounds?... even end up begging for them, when nothing else works? I wouldn't let my dogs step foot in California, where a coursing ban is on the agenda, and mandatory spay- neuter waits in the wings...
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Important Reminder
... for anyone who breeds dogs or cares about the Old Ways: please write to oppose the new federal APHIS regs! Jess sums it up well:
"The comment period is to let APHIS know that there are problems with this new rule. It should be abandoned completely. Tell them. Do you plan to purchase a puppy that will be shipped to you? Tell them. Do you have a rare breed that depends on easy shipping to maintain genetic diversity? Tell them. Do you want to be able to buy from the breeder of your choice, whether that breeder is local or across the country? Tell them. Do you know breeders that will not be able to comply with the AWA regulations? Tell them."
This post is an essential example of the blog category "Read The Whole Thing". If these regs had been in place when I brought my three breeders back from Asia, the whole Querencia tazi family and strain would be nothing but imaginary, unfulfilled potential in Asia. Jess, who has a few more dogs than we do, would not be legally able to let her dogs sleep in her bed any more (seriously), by sudden and utterly arbitrary federal fiat.
Whether driven by a sinister conspiracy or "merely" invincible ignorance (I think chance determines more disasters than conspiracy but also that well- organized fanatics can move faster than the complacent majority), these regs must be stopped. Someone on another blog thought my use of the challenge or outright dare "Molon labe!" ("Come and take them...") was over the top. How would you feel if the government planned to casually destroy over a decade of your work and love, your intentional and careful breeding of a unique domestic animal in a tradition thousands of years old? Now multiply throughout the nation...
"The comment period is to let APHIS know that there are problems with this new rule. It should be abandoned completely. Tell them. Do you plan to purchase a puppy that will be shipped to you? Tell them. Do you have a rare breed that depends on easy shipping to maintain genetic diversity? Tell them. Do you want to be able to buy from the breeder of your choice, whether that breeder is local or across the country? Tell them. Do you know breeders that will not be able to comply with the AWA regulations? Tell them."
This post is an essential example of the blog category "Read The Whole Thing". If these regs had been in place when I brought my three breeders back from Asia, the whole Querencia tazi family and strain would be nothing but imaginary, unfulfilled potential in Asia. Jess, who has a few more dogs than we do, would not be legally able to let her dogs sleep in her bed any more (seriously), by sudden and utterly arbitrary federal fiat.
Whether driven by a sinister conspiracy or "merely" invincible ignorance (I think chance determines more disasters than conspiracy but also that well- organized fanatics can move faster than the complacent majority), these regs must be stopped. Someone on another blog thought my use of the challenge or outright dare "Molon labe!" ("Come and take them...") was over the top. How would you feel if the government planned to casually destroy over a decade of your work and love, your intentional and careful breeding of a unique domestic animal in a tradition thousands of years old? Now multiply throughout the nation...
Friday, June 15, 2012
Weekend Links
... good, bad, & strange. Bear with my light blogging for a couple more weeks please! First, good:
Tazi pix! Right from the source, Almaty & environs-- the bearded ethnic Russian guy is Konstantin Plakhov, who bred our Ataika, seen here as a pup at Kostya's there and as a matron, here, below.
Libby with Kostya and Zhendet the tobet, in 2004:
Very Bad: you are not paranoid when they are after you. I particularly like this quote: "“They can get rid of hounding and deal with a segment of their community that is not well respected. Or they can potentially lose all bear and bobcat hunting.” Us. The oldest Paleolithic partnership. "First they came.." Fill in your favorite. Are you listening David Peterson? Think they'll keep bowhunting?
Weird but probably true paleo- science. A bad time for megafauna! HT Walter H.
Tazi pix! Right from the source, Almaty & environs-- the bearded ethnic Russian guy is Konstantin Plakhov, who bred our Ataika, seen here as a pup at Kostya's there and as a matron, here, below.
Libby with Kostya and Zhendet the tobet, in 2004:
Very Bad: you are not paranoid when they are after you. I particularly like this quote: "“They can get rid of hounding and deal with a segment of their community that is not well respected. Or they can potentially lose all bear and bobcat hunting.” Us. The oldest Paleolithic partnership. "First they came.." Fill in your favorite. Are you listening David Peterson? Think they'll keep bowhunting?
Weird but probably true paleo- science. A bad time for megafauna! HT Walter H.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
In support of Daniel Richards
I hate to see the pressure that California Game & Fish Commission President Daniel W. Richards is under for participating in a hunt he had every right to undertake. Although hunting mountain lions is illegal in California, Richards traveled to Idaho for a successful lion hunt. Richards is not only a hunter, but reportedly is a life member of the National Rifle Association – two things that gall animal rights activists (led by the Humane Society of the United States) who are now seeking his removal. A report in California media quoted a California assemblyman who may seek a legislative resolution that would remove Richards from the commission. It’s my hope that Richards will prevail, because state wildlife commissions need to be filled with people like Richards, and by that I mean hunters and those who view hunting as a wildlife management tool.
Disregarding how it enrages me that agenda-driven activists are seeking to penalize an American for something he has every right to do – in Richards’ s case, traveling to the Northern Rockies to participate in a legal activity, and supporting local economies in doing so – my main concern is the need to retain hunting options for managing wildlife. Mountain lions are not endangered – they are a common, widespread large predator. They must be managed, and Richards gets that.
Why should I, a Wyoming rancher, be concerned about the California game commission? I don’t know Daniel Richards, but I am firmly in his corner. I am terrified about the spread of anti-hunting agenda and how that endangers human life when predators are involved, and keeping people like Richards in positions with decision-making authority for wildlife management is critical to stopping this nonsense.
Changing social attitudes towards predators appear to be one of the factors leading to the increase in predator attacks on humans. Wildlife conservation and preservation campaigns emphasize the need to conserve or save species, but provide little support for actual management and control of predator populations. Increased tolerance for wild animals near humans can cause a chain reaction of a wild animal losing its fear of humans, eventually leading to attacks on their human neighbors.
Animal advocates often promote legislation or ballot initiatives that result in bans or severe restrictions on predator hunting – that’s what’s happened with California’s Proposition 117, which banned lion hunts in California. Regardless of where ballot-box wildlife management is initiated, the result is often the same: a predator population that has lost its fear of humans, and eventually becomes a threat to humans. The areas where most of the fatal predator attacks on humans occur are within or near areas where hunting of predators is not allowed.
California has certainly had its share of mountain lion attacks on humans. Researchers have discovered a pattern of lion behavior that indicates such attacks may be imminent. High mountain lion populations close to urban areas, increases in lion sightings, lions showing little or no fear of humans, lion attacks on pets, and any other pattern of close encounters with humans indicate that there is an increased risk of an attack on humans. Mountain lion experts have determined that most mountain lion attacks on humans are predatory in nature.
Researchers in Canada point out that it is most likely that hunting of mountain lions has helped to significantly reduce interactions between mountain lions and people, but restrictive mountain lion hunting regulations, combined with increasing mountain lion populations, and increases in prey populations, have come with an increase in attacks on humans.
Voters in some states have banned the sport of hunting mountain lions with hounds in attempt to protect the big predators. But such efforts can come with unintended consequences, such as that experienced in Washington after the hound-hunting ban was passed in 1996. State officials found that instead of the selected lion harvest practiced by hunters who used hounds to tree their lions, hunter harvest was much more indiscriminate. Hound-hunters tended to take trophy-sized adult male lions, but hunters harvesting lions on their big-game package tags tended to take any lion they were lucky enough to encounter, so the number of female, reproductive-aged cats increased in the harvest.
Walter Howard of the University of California, Davis, has advocated that mountain lions must be hunted to be managed properly: “Mountain lions are normally quite shy, wary, solitary animals not commonly seen by hikers, hunters, or other people in the mountains. The absolute number of lions present is not very important, for when lions suddenly become very visible … and livestock, dogs, and other domesticated animals are attacked, the lion population has become too abundant.” Howard suggests that in order to show true compassion for lions, wildlife agencies should use licensed hunters as predators to maintain healthy populations of lions in suitable habitat.
Delwin Benson of Colorado State University notes that the historic pursuit and persecution of mountain lions by humans and dogs has helped to reinforce the cat’s secretive and elusive behavior, thus encouraging their desire to keep their distance from humans. Mountain lions that encounter humans with no negative consequences learn to tolerate people, and the lion’s desire to retreat is dulled. Benson suggests mountain lions should be subject to “aversive behavioral conditioning” such as being pursued with hounds to the extent the lion flees, in order to reinforce the lesson that humans are threats and should be avoided. Lions would thereby learn that humans are not intruders, and neither are they prey species.
That’s the kind of lion management I support. And I encourage hunters to come to Wyoming and other states that allow for such lion harvest (and bear harvest, and wolf harvest, etc).
And to Daniel Richards: Hang in there, sir. Some of us really appreciate your efforts.
Added note: The photo I used with this post is of a captive lion. He’s appeared in numerous nature shows. The snowy tundra he’s often filmed in is an Idaho potato field.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
If this model were law...
None of my dogs could breed (or have been bred); nor could virtually any dog I have had in New Mexico, nor my friends' dogs, all working hunters, all sound. EVERY DOG YOU HAVE EVER SEEN IN Q BLOG.*
Think about that when somebody says such "guidelines" are no threat...
Click on diagram to enlarge:
(Thanks to Jess)
*(No "titled" ancestors in Asia; no saluki registration so no "standard" to adhere to; and the longdogs and lurchers are not "purebred". The so- called "crosses" of Asian tazis and salukis are not considered so by the SCOA either although they are no more, or less, crosses than ones of Arab X Kurdish blood).
Think about that when somebody says such "guidelines" are no threat...
Click on diagram to enlarge:
(Thanks to Jess)
*(No "titled" ancestors in Asia; no saluki registration so no "standard" to adhere to; and the longdogs and lurchers are not "purebred". The so- called "crosses" of Asian tazis and salukis are not considered so by the SCOA either although they are no more, or less, crosses than ones of Arab X Kurdish blood).
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Why we won't shut up
Jess has taken down the post explaining why we fight against arbitrary breeding regs and requested I remove the link. I will let my own words stand for now.
Virtually EVERY DOG THAT APPEARS HERE REGULARLY, or that I have ever bred, is ineligible to breed under Los Angeles and fer Chrissake EL PASO rules, and arguably or at least practically speaking by Albuquerque ones, be they rare breeds, salukis blocked by SCOA factions because they come from improper countries or have "bad" colors, lurchers, or longdogs. I am tired of hearing (A) it won't affect me (B) I'll just ignore it (C) I live in a rural place. You know my favorite Trotsky paraphrase: You may not be interested in "X", but "X" IS interested in you.
More cheerful programming to resume soon. Below, useless forbidden mutts here and in Kyrgizstan.
Virtually EVERY DOG THAT APPEARS HERE REGULARLY, or that I have ever bred, is ineligible to breed under Los Angeles and fer Chrissake EL PASO rules, and arguably or at least practically speaking by Albuquerque ones, be they rare breeds, salukis blocked by SCOA factions because they come from improper countries or have "bad" colors, lurchers, or longdogs. I am tired of hearing (A) it won't affect me (B) I'll just ignore it (C) I live in a rural place. You know my favorite Trotsky paraphrase: You may not be interested in "X", but "X" IS interested in you.
More cheerful programming to resume soon. Below, useless forbidden mutts here and in Kyrgizstan.
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