Animal rights

My dogs have collars but not tags because they keep finding ways to fall off. But it's ok, my one dog is too old to wander off and she just likes to take naps in the sun and my other dog actually listens to me and comes back when called.

And my cat doesn't go outside because he's too tiny.

I've found a few dogs without tags wandering around though. They're always very friendly and then we just go on a little walk to find their house. It's usually close by.

Oh and banana spiders are also called gold orb weavers or something like that. They make the prettiest webs.

edited 5th Feb '15 9:26:05 AM by LeGarcon

Spiders creep me out at times, especially Golden Orbs and Huntsmans, but I love their work and keep them around.

Dad and I used to catch Sydney Funnelwebs to donate to The Australian Reptile Park, where they "milk" the spiders to make the antivenin, but we don't get them anymore really.

Snakes are quite deadly here even in the metropolitan areas. Though mostly the worst you get here are Red Bellies and Yellow Bellies, very dangerous but docile and seldom deadly. Slightly further or in more rural coast towns out and you get the really nasty fellows like the Tiger Browns, Common Browns, Small-Eyes, Mulgas, Taipans and Death Adders. It's required knowledge even for us city slickers to know where each of these snakes live, when you might encounter them and what to do if your bitten by one.

I adore snakes, but I would kill one of the above if they posed a threat. Most are fortunately docile though. 'Cept Common Browns, they're mean and aggressive fuckers.

I feel bad for Tiger Snakes though, they're lovely ratters. But they tend to be night dwellers that get get a little too close for comfort and thus get stepped on.

Outside of Tigers and Commons though, it's generally considered bad to attack these animals unless they encroach on your property and cause immediate danger to you or your family. We Aussies are quite particular about or wildlife.

What about chips? Are microchips cheap and wildly available in you area?

edited 5th Feb '15 9:55:39 AM by PippingFool

Those are available but expensive where we are.

In fact you're more likely to get rabies from a dog than an opossum since their body temperatures are too low for the rabies virus to do well in. That said, I certainly wouldn't recommend picking one up even if they are generally nonagressive since they rarely do carry diseases despite their resistances.

(Armadillos do however have the dubious honor of being one of the only animals that can transmit leprosy, but that's the Europeans fault since it came to the New World with them and an actual infection is very rare. They can also carry chagas disease.)

Hey! Remember that poor toucan that was savaged by some idiotic children?

Well, thanks to 3d printing technology, its succesful kickstarter campaign and the efforts of many an expert, the Toucan nearing 1 year of age is likely having his prosthetic beak be the third prosthetic beak done in the Americas, and first in the region, a penguin and an eagle having received prosthetic beaks before this colorful lil' guy.

That one law about animal rights? Yeah still not passed the government is busy because one of the legislators faked cancer to hide the fact he had a penal accusation of sexual abuse and now he is playing the victim, so it is ok to stop caring for animals so long as there is derishoos bread and circus to be found elsewhere, guys.

Today my wonderful furry daughter is 1 year old! Whoot!

In celebration of Vasquez' birthday, I'm looking into making her a puppy friendly treat.

What do you think of the pet parents who throw their dog's parties or dress them up?

I think that's fine within reason, such as accommodations for weather and digestion friendly occasional treats. But I do agree that some people take it too far. I don't know if it would constitute abuse though. I just think in all, I rather people see their pets as their children instead of animals. Those animals normally have a great quality of life both in actual, tangible care and the attention and interaction.

The photo journalism winners from the contest of journalism worldwide of this year have appeared.

In the category of "Nature", the winner was a picture by Yongzhu Chu, a documentary photographer for Zhejiang Daily press group.

His picture depicts a monkey being trained in a circus, cowering against a corner as his trainer Qi Defang approaches him with a small rope whip clutched in his hands. The monkey cannot escape for he is chained to a bycicle by a chained leash around his neck.

Though there is no blood or gore, it is truly a shocking image

China is a country well known for its...lax...attention to animal rights to say the least. It is sad that so little can be done to influence such a gigantic country.

... Why is Beijing so dismissive of animal rights?

Because China thinks all animals is food and (unproven) medicine.

China is a massive country.

They have to administrate a LOT of people and it becomes VERY hard for them to regularize such practices when the culprits are so many. Take it with the example I mentioned, in a smaller country we still have problems getting people to realize cockfighting is a douchebag thing for the animals and not an "important cultural legacy".

And they have a lot of things to worry about other than animal's issues. Documentaries on the treatment of animals there is honest to god nightmarish. It is like Blackfish but it is actually fucking true, and taken Up To Eleven.

It is very, very, very difficult for China to control such things, and they really don't care because they do not challenge those cultural thoughts. China uh. Has a few problems doing that, and last time that happened there was this guy named Mao and stuff. That was hard enough.

Animal Rights tend to be a hard subject, specially with things like this.

About 700 Koalas were culled to save them from slow death.

Koalas are not an endangered species, and as you may know they reside in Australia.

The "culling" happened in Cape Otway, in Western Victoria. The death happened in secret and it was done to stop the suffering of the animals. Desley Whisson, and Earthwatch researcher, mentioned that it was possible the overpopulation of Koalas happened because ever since the relocation of Koalas from French Island to Cape Otway, the Koalas thrived thanks to the lack of predators of Koalas in the region.

The overpopulation led the Koalas to eat all the food available. They were, according to Frank Fotinas who runs the Bimbi Park Caravan, leaving acres of dead wood. This left the animals only one source of food available: the eukaliptus trees themselves. It does not provide enough nutrition though so they were dying slowly and painfully, malnourished and dehydrated. "The whole cape smelled of dead koalas. It smelled of death", he mentions.

The outrage of Australian citizens however is not lacking calls of foul play and lack of humane treatment on this decision.

Here is a baby koala being silly.◊ So now you are not reminded of all the dead carcasses and helped stave depression. Phew. Great save there Aszur.

edited 4th Mar '15 9:49:08 AM by Aszur

We had a similar problem here, but with white tailed deer.

(You can come pick up all the dumbass, god forsaken animals you like my Costa Rican friend.)

People bitched that there were not enough deer. They kept killing the bears, mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes that would eat them. So deer hunting and what not was heavily restricted. What happened?

DEER EVERYWHERE!

Not kidding. They began invading neighborhoods. They can kill you if you hit them with your car and that was rampant.Image of what a full grown doe can do to a car: no worries, it's just the car, doe is gone.◊

So hunting season was put back into place, people ate well, the food pantries magically had fresh meat, and all was happy again. Bambi went back into the woods where he belonged and now we don't have that problem.

Same thing happening here in NC (though hunting has had less of an effect due to the trophy hunters). Larger predators are legally classified as vermin and thus open to killing whenever one feels like it, so long as you have your general permit.

edited 4th Mar '15 10:26:24 AM by carbon-mantis

In here, all sorts of sports hunting have been banned since 2012. The criminalizing law that has still not been passed is being modified by the legislative assembly too.

But yeah, the not hunting the predators nad letting the deer thrive was just incredibly stupid.

The Koala thing I think is a bit different. If it REALLY was a case of them dying due to starvation it was merciful to kill them. Sad, but merciful.

Fishing for sport is still a thing here, also for subsistence, specially for the natives who live here and have that as part of their rituals.

If you don't eat your own deer, then you 're supposed to either be having it stuffed or donating the meat. Many butchers offer their services for free if you're donating it. This is an Arkansas only law though, I don't know how other states fare outside of you need a permit to hunt regardless of where you are. The state issues it. You have to pass a safety course and that's reasonable.

There are ways around this of course, like if you're on private land. Someone has to catch you before you can be in trouble.

It is also not uncommon to see people beginning to field dress any deer that they may hit. It's already dead. Why waste it? And if it isn't dead, you need to put it down and be merciful.

As someone who has done mercy kills, it's not fun. You don't want to have to do it. But I love animals. I can't bear them hurting in that kind of pain. I see the koala situation a lot like finishing off a deer you hit. You can't fix it. You can't just give them more food because it's not sustaining. It'll only repeat itself.

Better to gently and painlessly take out a sickly amount than to let them or the entire population suffer.

I do question why they had to do it in secret instead of announcing it. Dunno if that would have sparked too much of an outrage.

Probably. If something like that happened here, PETA or other crazies would have done something dangerous or whatnot to stop them.

There are reasonable environmentalists. I prefer the Sierra Club myself.

I'm kind of surpised that koalas are not listed as endangered. I mean, I recall doing some research on the situation for an assignment, and if I remember right, conservationists are predicting they'll be extinct in like 20 years.

My understanding of the situation in my state (where they are 'vulnerable') is that they're endangered because there is no habitat for them. There are too many koalas for the habitat, but that's a matter of 'not enough habitat' not 'too many koalas'. If that makes sense.

I tend to get a bit exasperated when the general public gets upset about mercy killings. If you gave me the choice between being shot and slowly dying of starvation and disease, I know which I'd pick.

I understand the mercy killings. But, you know, those goddamn red hippies or whatever. I still think transparency is important in administration, however, and the necesity was clear enough to be understandable.

As for the Koala not being endangered, it is estimated (from what I remember on the news source) that its initial numbers were about 10 million, whereas they now round up the hundreds of thousands.

They are officially not listed as endangered but if expansion in population continues unchecked they will be easily endangered soon. With cuts on fur trade and meat consumption of them though their extinction is not something foreseeable in the near future tho.

And as the culling, as you can see they are sufficiently numerous that their numbers do not seem to be unrecoverable. Their habitats are more endangered than them.

Er... they aren't going to go extinct because of the fur and meat trade, because that's not the real problem. They're vulnerable because of habitat loss. I mean, I'm not a koala expert, but I'm pretty sure that poaching for fur and meat is a very minor problem compared to the fact that they have nowhere to live.

If their habitat is endangered then they are endangered. It's one and the same thing, really.

Thing is the sudden dropout at first was BECAUSE of the fur and meat trade, more than the habitat loss.

Looks like a show dog was intentionally poisoned to death after winning a prize at a major event.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/08/europe/crufts-dog-poisoned/index.html

This is just sickening, but if other sports are any indication some people are just that competitive. Problem is that it will be nearly impossible to find the person who did it after this much time.

Though apparently the owner doesn't think the attack was related to the competition itself: http://m.bbc.com/news/uk-england-31792152

edited 9th Mar '15 12:05:46 PM by Rationalinsanity

Crufts is also open to the public, and is Britain's biggest and première Dog Show. The local Police^note  West Midlands, since Crufts takes place at the NEC in Birmingham are also helping with enquiries, and if investigate if requested.

edited 9th Mar '15 12:08:17 PM by Greenmantle

Have any Aussie tropers been following the live baiting scandal with greyhound racing over here?

For non-Aussies, a TV program presented a sort of expose of inhumane practices in the training of racing greyhounds - the illegal use of live piglets, possums and rabbits as bait in order to make greyhounds run faster. Turns out it goes pretty much right up to the top.

In all honesty, if the greyhound racing industry was destroyed by this, I would consider it a victory for animal rights. Nobody who loves animals should ever give money to any sort of racing industry.

Animals racing? I do not think that is a problem by itself.

Problem is that the fierce competitiveness along with the unrestricted betting makes for prime breeding grounds for people to use and abuse methods of winning, at the cost of animals' health. If it was fair and square it would...just be animals trained to race which is no biggie at all.

Problem is that the way it is handled now, and how people can see those animals as nothing more than a goddamn vehicle to make money, just settles up for shit like this.