Pet Ownership is not your right.

This is a P.S.A. First and foremost, buying or adopting an animal is not your right. It is a privilege. Period.

139469.ME.0717.pitbull.09.RED OAKLAND, CA – JULY 17, 2008: A pit bull waits for adoption at the Alameda County Animal Shelter in Oakland, California, July 17, 2008. A large percentage of the population of the shelter is pit bulls.(Robert Durell/Los Angeles)¹

Covid had an unfortunate side effect regarding pet ownership. Bored people adopted or bought cats/dogs, small rodents etc. And where are they ending up now that people have returned to normalized, post-Covid life? Shelters, Kijiji, Craig’s List, local newspapers. Its too late for those idiots now but here’s a “heads-up” for anyone considering pet adoption, particularly dogs and cats.

First – it is a commitment. A long term commitment. Let’s do this as a list:

1. Vet bills. You are looking at a minumum of 10K or more, depending on the breed and potential health issues – over say a 10 year period. Innoculations, yearly exams, illness.
2. Pet food – if your pet has health issues, allergies/kidney problems etc. You can expect to spend between $150 – $200 per month, minimum.
3. Vacations – few hotels permit pets, air travel is not pet-friendly, each country has their own regulations regarding animals coming into their country. So you will have to arrange for a kennel or an in-house pet sitter (comes with a whole bunch of issues – get references, valid references.) So, let’s say, in addition to your vacation expense? $500 for 2 weeks and that’s a low estimate.
4. Training – not hard as a general rule but each breed has its own behaviours. Training is not a 2 week session, that’s your foundation. Training, POSITIVE TRAINING, is a life long endeavour. POSITIVE TRAINING. Never – ever – ever, strike your animal. NEVER.
5. Children – never leave your young kids alone with your animal. Just don’t – it is irresponsible and inviting problems. Little kids will poke and prod, climb on and generally ignore your animal’s space. They can’t express how they feel – say your animal is developing an early ear infection and your crotch goblin sticks their fingers in the ear. Its painful and the first response may well be to snap. Not the dog’s fault, not the cat’s fault, YOUR FAULT.
6. Shelter animals have been abandoned, they may have been abused or neglected. It may take anywhere from, minimum a month’s time to 6 months or more for them to acclimatize to your home. They will require their own “quiet” place and constant monitoring, positive reinforcement. It is not easy but well worth the time and effort required. It will require a LOT of effort.
7. Allergies – NO ANIMAL – fur bearing or feathered is HYPO-ALLERGENIC. Hypo-allergenic pets are straight up bullshit. People with allergies are not allergic to the fur, it is the dander and saliva. Dander is the skin cells sloughing off. Animals and birds are all potential allergy sources. If you have kids, take them for a skin test at an allergist, FIRST, and save heartbreak for both your kids/potential pets.
8. Most dogs, shorthair or not, cats, birds will shed/moult. So if you like a pristine house? Get a stuffed animal or fish. You will be vacuuming, dusting a lot. We had a short haired sweetheart and vacuuming was 2 or 3 times a week.
9. All dogs have their own exercise needs, don’t get a large breed and lock it in an apartment or house while you are away 8-10 hours a day. Its just freaking cruel and that makes you the worst kind of asshat.
10. Your choice of animal companion is no more of a responsibility than having a child; would you chain your kid up outside? Don’t do it to your dog. Would you deny your kid medical attention because you don’t have the money? Don’t do it to your dog/cat. Would you allow your kid to be free-range? Don’t do it to your dog/cat. Would you not train your children and help them to adapt their behaviour? Your dog/cat deserves the same care you give a child, (OK, the care MOST of us would give a child,)

Welcoming an animal/bird into your home is a privilege, not your right. Its expensive, it is hard work, very hard work but is totally worth it for the right people, those who understand their responsibilities – emotional and financial.

Rage Against the Machine? Pointless…

Synchronicity never fails to amaze and fascinate me. Lately, it appears many folks are looking about and seeing the world as a sad, brutal and all around miserable place. Without a single doubt, it certainly can and appears that way. The problems seem insurmountable and as a lumped mountain of human evil? The problems are insurmountable. No one person, nor even a group of people can make a discernable dent in that mountain of suffering. As people we need to get over ourselves, first. We simply cannot stop war. We cannot stop the abuse of the vulnerable or diffuse a suicide bomber with a hug.  

Petitions to despotic governments are not worth the time it takes to write or type our names. Sending money to huge charitable corporations are great for easing our own conscience but when you really take a look at their spreadsheets? Most of the money is used to ensconce many of them in cushy offices, pays for first class plane tickets to yet another swanky fundraising affair.

As a species, as members of a society, we all need to stop and look around. Find a way to spread a little caring near to us; where we can actually make a difference. Imagine if everyone did just one small good deed per day – imagine the impact this could have. The real and tangible impact. Not simply filling out a cheque, mailing it off and hoping that the charity of our choice knows what to do with it. Few do.

The SPCA for example, in my hometown, would send my mother all sorts of gifts in order to secure another donation. She kept returning them with a note to stop sending the gifts, that the money spent on these items would be far better spent feeding and housing an unwanted animal. To no avail…the gifts kept coming until she finally decided that this was a very ill-managed charity and decided to send her donation elsewhere, to shelters that manage to subsist without CEO’s and ill-conceived fundraising campaigns. She told me, I told my family, they told people and as a result, I imagine the SPCA lost a number of donations which were re-directed to other charities, also involved with animals but without the obviously, over inflated budget of the SPCA.

A co-worker of mine has decided that she will celebrate her birthday by working at a homeless shelter kitchen, providing food to the homeless. This action makes a difference. It isn’t a monumental, media grabbing charitable work but it has far more meaning than huge media campaigns, glossy envelopes or yet another colour of ribbon.

I ceased donating money to a particularly large Breast Cancer charity; they keep sending me large, embossed envelopes stuffed with highly glossed newsletters. I know how much this would cost to send out. I know the impact of the chemicals used to create those glossy pages. I know the impact of the decimation of the trees required to manufacture the paper. This represents money that could be put to far better use than to provide yet another photo op for the directors of the charity. I donate money to a local hospital. I donate money to no-kill shelters that operate locally. I donate to local homeless and women’s shelters. I refuse to donate to any charity that resorts to heavy duty mail-outs. I watch their expenses through a variety of different web sites that help to interpret who is and who is not spending my money wisely.

Making the world a better place requires an examination of our ego. Letting the light shine in on our own lives as we are bombarded virtually every minute of every day, with death, destruction, rape and torture is a Herculean task. Wandering about, sad and disheartened will only serve to create an apathy, a dangerous apathy; one that says to us, “Why bother? There’s nothing I can do!” Sure there is.

Lower your opinion of yourself and look around you. There is suffering in your own neighbourhood, in your own city. If you are religious? Every single religion teaches that charity begins at home; Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and even the various Neo-Pagan paths teach this simply message. Share yourself with those that have-not.

Charitable corporations are not the “have-nots” – they “have”, by and large, more than any of us could ever dream of acquiring. Do what you can to lighten the burden of someone else. If you don’t have money? Do what my co-worker is doing – take a few hours out of a day and bring a little sunshine, a little hope for the human condition to a shelter – homeless if that’s what you want, an animal shelter if that is where your heart leans. Help an elderly person carry their groceries. Do a kindness of some sort every day and it becomes a part of your personality. It becomes who you are and lightens your own burden. The way to change the world, is through our own actions. Through grassroots. Not through the corporate structure of larger-than-life “charities”. Take a look at this article, the act of one man, granted, one incredible man and how he has brought hope to so many through HIS personal actions. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-73-year-old-tamil-nadu-librarian-donated-rs-30-crore-to-the-uneducated-poor-1928555

We can all make a difference when we learn the meaning of altruism. Do a kindness with no expectation of recognition or pat on the back; that isn’t what kindness or charity is about. Make your own little corner of this reality a little brighter; if we all do this? Then the light will shine on more and more of us. We’ll never rid ourselves of those who create the dark, the evil but we can offer a place of refuge to those who seek to escape it.

My Dog Bit My Child!!!

I’m on Facebook. I get annoyed. A lot. I am very annoyed by pictures of children treating dogs and cats like stuffies. Being a responsible pet “owner” is paramount but particularly so when children are in the vicinity. I trust my dog with my life, however, I do NOT trust an interaction with a child. Children do not understand how to read a dog’s body language; well, actually, nor do many adults.

The pictures of little kids kissing dogs gives me cold chills. Most dogs do not feel secure when someone is up in their faces. It makes them nervous and speaks to their most base instincts – fight or flee. Also one must consider the natural habits of dogs; they sniff everything, including poop – dog poop, cat poop, rodent poop… and you want your child kissing poop residue or perhaps even inhaling a parasite of some sort? The mouth/salivas of a dog are NOT more hygienic than human saliva/mouths.

We have to stop treating our pets like, well…pets. They are living beings with a history of their own and it doesn’t include being mauled by little children. How many of us would tolerate our ears being pulled or fingers jabbed up our noses or in our mouths? I would get pretty testy after a while, if I am to be honest.

Or having a stranger run up to us and throw their arms around us, or stick their hands in our hair? After the initial punch in the nose for protection, I’d call the cops – if the damage I inflicted wouldn’t land me in jail, of course. And just try to take my Crunchie bar out of my mouth…you’d be missing a few fingers, I can guarantee you that, yet? People permit this to happen every day, in millions of homes and then stand there, in stupid amazement, when someone, usually a kid, is bitten. And the dog is either given away or put down for something that is not their fault but the fault of the adult humans around them.

You cannot trust the interaction between a dog and a child. Neither of them is totally cognizant of the other.

We share our homes, lives and love with an American Standard Pitbull Terrier (he’s probably a mix). I, ABSOLUTELY, insist that my granddaughter and my furry buddy be kept separated. Chico, our four legged prince, is not used to children. He’s a great dog, one of the best. Terrific temperament and loving but he is a dog. My granddaughter is a child. The two should NEVER be permitted to get up close and personal. Children need to be taught, along with potty training, how to interact, properly, respectfully and above all, safely with a dog. Any dog. Even a Yorkshire terrier can bite…hard.

Human arrogance is always behind every bitten child. Every dog who ends up being kicked out of his home or in the very tragic and all too common scenario, destroyed, is the victim of an irresponsible pet owner and an arrogant human being.

Your dog “loves” you, is it so much to ask that you return that love with a little respect for him/her? Don’t allow a child to interact with a dog on a child’s level. Don’t allow them to be used as a pillow or a toy. They are living beings, with reactions conditioned by millennia of evolution and survival. They are not human. They don’t think they are human. They know who they are, if you love them? Acknowledge them and don’t put them at risk of losing their lives due to your ignorance of their species. (Click on the image for some essential education.) 

Darwin Was Wrong

After witnessing an unfortunate exchange between two individuals; it was made, rather glaringly, obvious that Charles Darwin has some s’plainin’ to do. The discussion centered on spaying and neutering our animal companions; someone managed to get their little tidy whities in a knot over a post to spay and neuter pets. Person took it personally, as well he should have done. Survival of the fittest gone wrong; too much protection for the weaker of the human species has allowed the population of ijits to balloon.

The problem of pet over-population lies within the boundaries of the less-than fully lit human light bulbs out there. These dull bulbs are under the ridiculous assumption that possessing an animal is a right. Let me, therefore, enlighten this concept for those unable to grasp this situation to its full and tragic end; owning an animal is not a right. Sharing your domain with an animal is a privilege and one that bears tremendous responsibility, both financial and personal. If humanity could simply understand the term “personal responsibility” millions of innocent companions would not be put to death for no other reason than the aforementioned “PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.”

If you live in an apartment? Understand that leases end but your responsibility toward this trusting animal does not. Some landlords refuse to entertain the thought of pets in their buildings. What will you do if you have to move and the only place available doesn’t permit animals? Unpleasant reality that must be faced, not shelved in the back of the mind until it happens and another pet dies in a shelter.

Can’t afford to spay or neuter? What, the hell, are you doing with the animal then? If you can’t afford to spay or neuter, what about standard vet check-ups? What about future vaccines and medication to prevent illness? What happens if you pet gets sick? The operation is nothing compared to the long term cost involved with an animal. Get a pet rock instead, you selfish bonehead. I’ll bet you can afford smokes, fast food, internet hook-up and movies though because these things are so much more important than the life of an animal.

Let your cat out to roam free, because – “Gee whiz, that’s their nature!” Bullshit. It’s a dog’s nature as well but luckily, there are laws forcing people to use their heads. Cat owners seem to need the same help with common sense. The real truth is that it is easier than cleaning a litter box. Less of a bother having to show affection to the feline when you are on computer and their life expectancy is drastically reduced so less of a long term bother when the cat is allowed to roam.

There is only one reason animals are still being euthanized in shelters. There is only one reason the domestic animal population is out of control. There is only one reason for this:

And this – stupid, stupid humans and their irresponsibility.