So yaay everybody, happy Earth Day! In the last year I have been fortunate enough to see the majestic Amazon in Peru, the natural wonder of Ngorongoro Crater, and the jaw dropping Mahale Mountains in Tanzania. And living in California, well, I can’t complain about our natural beauty here as well. We have an amazing, beautiful, really mind-blowing planet to hang out on. And mess up.
I think it’s a fairly natural fit for people who love animals, who are fascinated by wildlife, to also be sensitive to conservation efforts. When burgeoning populations expand ever further into previously uninhabited areas, when forests are razed to make way for agriculture, well, this affects us all. And I’m actually going to see if my colleague who is now at CDC and was once a researcher with the local mountain lion organization will do an interview with me about the concept of human encroachment, because I find it fascinating. But since I don’t know enough on my own to say anything insightful, I want to limit this day’s Earth Day celebration to something I know much more about: suggestions about ways to spend your money if you’re in the market for some pet products that are good for the planet: (more…)
I read a great article yesterday on msnbc about the incredible work being done by World Vets under the leadership of one of the most amazing vets I have ever met, Cathy King. Then I read the comments.
Comments on news articles are a funny thing. People who like to comment on news sites are very odd, aren’t they? It’s like they have alienated every human they have come across in the real world so they need to go online in order to find somewhere they can moan and groan. On many blogs and message boards, there is an air of civilized discourse that carries over from our expectations of how one might carry themselves in polite company. But on sites like CNN, FoxNews, and MSNBC, there’s no such expectation. It’s internet missile-lobbing at its finest.
Because I have come to expect this, and because any article about pet health or animal welfare published on a general interest website generates a predictable wave of irate people-centric responses, I can’t say I was surprised to see the comments. It’s a phenomenon one can reliably count on.
“Why are these weirdos wasting their time on DOGS when so many people are suffering?”
“ This is an asinine waste of resources that should be used for people in need, not some stupid animal. No wonder the planet is so hosed up.”
“People first. Millions of people sick, staving in desperate need.”
People make this argument as though most people choose between caring about animals or caring about humans. As if you have to pick one or the other. That just isn’t the case. In fact, the opposite tends to be true: people who care about animals tend to care even MORE about humans than those who don’t care about animals. That is because people who care in general, care about lots of things. Compassion is a universal trait.
People who identify as animal lovers are actually more likely to be involved in their children’s schools and in other philanthropic activities. They are probably giving more to charities that help people than those very same people who are criticizing them for helping animals. Funny how that works.
So let’s review a few misconceptions about animal lovers I think we need to work on:
1. We love animals, but we hate people.
Hey, even if it’s true, try not to respond to every dopey news troll with “Well, I love dogs more than any human I’ve ever met, so no wonder I’d rather help them.” Be that as it may, I know you all. I have seen you come together to help a friend in need time and time again, and it’s not just because you feel badly for their pet.
Sure, you get frustrated with stupid people who do stupid things, and horrible people who do horrible things, especially to the defenseless. But that is because you have a huge squishy compassionate heart, and for all your irritation with the bad people in the world, you all are the first to pull off your coat to give to someone who is shivering. You can’t hide that from me. I’ve seen it.
2. We have no sense of humor.
It’s hard for someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about animal welfare issues to understand why people were upset about the Doritos commercial at the Super Bowl. And you know, lots of people thought it was funny and I’m sure they’re not all cat murderers. You know, I liked Pulp Fiction and I’m not a hit man and I don’t condone shooting people in the face.
I think this is a ‘pick your battles’ sort of thing. If we raise a fuss every time someone puts a picture online of a dog in a dumb hat looking dejected, eventually people are going to think we’re missing a funny bone. And I know for a fact this is not the case. Exhibit A:
Yes, I made a Snooki out of Apollo’s fur and a kumquat for National Hairball Awareness Day. 29 other bloggers took on Conan, Lady Gaga, and Ellen, to name a few.
Exhibit B: Everything on Icanhazcheezburger or Reddit. It’s OK to laugh at animals every once in a while. That’s because they are funny. We shouldn’t be afraid to laugh, no more than we should fear to cry. We are the types of people who feel emotions very deeply. It defines us.
So for the record, I’d like to remind the universe that animal lovers are well-socialized, compassionate human beings with some of the most amazing hearts, endless drives to better the world, and an ironic self-awareness that is quite cognizant of the perception that other people may have of them. Which brings me to my last point:
3. We’re creepy, gross, and/or antisocial.
People who are not into animals seem to think that people who are live bizarre lives of antisocial activity in their smelly basements surrounded by cats because those are the only living beings they can tolerate. You know, this lady:
Or Tamar from I Have Cat, a modern woman with impeccable style, and also cats.
Let me also remind you that Evan the surf instructor likes dogs:
(You’re welcome.)
And the list goes on and on. So no, being an animal lover is not a default place that sad and sorry humans regress to when the rest of humanity has rejected them. In fact, animal lovers make some of the best leaders (FDR), advocates (Jane Goodall), and humanists (Gandhi) the world has ever seen.
So to those who read about people helping animals and have the nerve to complain, I pity you. I pity that you do not see these people for what they are and what they have to give. And I feel sorry for you that you will will never be as great as they are.
Any other misconceptions I forgot to mention? I feel like I need a Top 10 List of Why Animal Lovers Rock to come out of this.
As some of you know, because I haven’t shut up about it for the last few weeks, we have our house on the market. It’s rough, not only because the market is rough, but because trying to pretend a house full of kids and animals is a pristine model home is an exercise in futility.
The furniture has some vestigial bite marks left over from Brody’s youth; the grass has some brown spots despite my best efforts; the walls have some stickers I haven’t managed to completely remove yet. However, those are things we can work with. These are workable.
The skunk, however, is not.
We’ve had a resident skunk for as long as I can remember living here. I believe it resides under the deck. Most of the time it’s not a big deal; he can’t be that bad if he’s never pegged Brody, because you know Brody would be all up in his business if he could be. I just get an occasional whiff in the evenings when I let the dogs out. No biggie.
However, the last few months he went nuts and sprayed all over the side of the house. It was bad. I wasn’t sure what to do. Over time, it’s lessened, and I thought we were in the clear. We had a realtor come by last week and he didn’t say anything, so I thought, well, maybe it’s not as bad as I thought.
“We have a skunk,” I told him. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“Don’t worry,” he responded.
Then the realtor came back over the weekend. I guess the skunk had made an epic return, because the realtor did an about-face and said, you need to do something about the skunk. He said, I can’t open the windows. And really, no matter how nice and clean your house is, a big noseful of skunk is enough to deep six any sale, unfortunately.
We made some calls. We were bounced around from animal control to exterminators before finally finding a licensed wildlife trapping service that is licensed through the state to carry out wildlife relocation services.
“We have two options,” the guy said. “We are only allowed by law to relocate within 50 yards of the place he was trapped,” which ruined my initial plan to relocate him to the yard of the person who complained about my Valentine’s Day matchboxes. “And if you put them down within 50 yards, they always come back.”
“What’s the other option?” I asked.
“Humane euthanasia.”
And you know, I just couldn’t. I mean, it is what it is, and we have this yard, and he lives in it, and barring the occasional whiff he hasn’t been a terrible roommate. And I just can’t bring myself to kill him in order to help us move.
So I told the realtor, who by now is probably beginning to regret his decision to work with a nutter like me, that he just has to keep the windows closed and hope the skunk is sleeping on the days we need to show. And that’s all I can think of to do.
Maybe this rattlesnake aversion stuff does pay off.
To the left is a shed skin just hanging out on the side of the road. Brody sniffed every single bush in that park but refused to show the slightest interest in the skin. NOT that I’m complaining!
We did an aversion training session when he was eight months old, but we are due for a refresher. With spring in full bloom, the snake babies are everywhere and ERs are gearing up for what is looking to be a brisk bite season.
If you live in an area where your dog is at risk for a rattlesnake bite, and you have an inquisitive dog, it’s something I recommend. Has anyone else done rattlesnake aversion training?
You all know I am irrationally petrified of getting eaten by a mountain lion. Every time I start to get close to being OK with the risk, someone comes around and says, “Oh yes, some woman DOWN IN SAN DIEGO had her scalp eaten by a mountain lion, I remember reading that in the papers, and she only lived because some guy rode by on a mountain bike and threw the bike at the mountain lion” and then I get all freaked out again. (Thanks, Susi.)
Yesterday Brody and I checked out a new-to-us area called Mission Trails. We went before the abovementioned lion-scalping conversation, when I was still feeling confident. Yes, they are out in the area, but sightings are rare, and to my knowledge no one has ever been attacked in this particular park. (They very habituated aggressive cougars featured in Cat Attacks live in Cuyamaca, a bit further east, and no I won’t go hiking there.)
Not to say the park officials don’t give you sufficient warning all the same. (more…)
I am a dog person. I think most of you probably know that. I like dogs, a whole lot. I am into them. I can hang with them. That being said, I understand that not everyone else on the planet feels the same way. Dog owners who refuse to act with some basic courtesies grate on me as badly as parents who let their kids kick the back of my airplane seat. With the advent of spring, lots of people are venturing outside again with their pets- and this is a great thing, usually, but it also marks the high season of Bad Dog Owner Behavior.
There is some basic level of consideration that one should accord their fellow man for several reasons: one, it’s the right thing to do, and two, we have a responsibility to be good owners so people who are maybe not dog people will at least tolerate their presence a little better. We want more businesses and public areas to be dog-friendly, right? And as long as dog owners keep doing some of these things I’m about to list, it’s probably not going to happen.
1. Letting your dog go off-leash in a leash-required area. (more…)
I have a finely tuned ability to talk myself out of anything remotely interesting. It’s very easy to stay with what is comfortable. Making a change, well, that is hard. And I’ve found personally speaking, trying the whole “make little changes every day” with no goal in mind doesn’t ever really cut it. I need to make a big dramatic decision, commit to it, and then figure out what small series of changes need to take place in order to make it happen.
Case in point: I like hiking. I’d like to do it more, especially since we live in such a great area for it. The dogs would love it too. But do I do it? No, because that takes planning and I never get around to it.
And yet I decided, when I’m in Tanzania again in June for a World Vets trip, to tag along with our team leader Dr. Teri as she- and now I- tackle Mt. Meru, Tanzania’s second-highest mountain after Kilimanjaro. (more…)
I love this recent post from Mel Freer where she longs for the good old days before we were overinundated with information about pet food recalls, puppy mill abuses, and terrible people who do awful things to animals. I agree. On the one hand, the internet has made the dissemination of information so much easier, and that is a very good thing in a lot of ways. On the other hand, it kind of makes information hard to escape. There is a constant barrage of it, and unless you just flat out disengage, it’s always there. Maybe that is why I keep making plans to go to Africa.
Don’t get me wrong- I’m glad we have access to information and news in a way we never have before. It’s amazing to me that breaking news takes place on Twitter, of all places, and Facebook. Do you remember having to look things up in your family’s Encyclopedia Britannica? Or go to the library and look up subjects on those little cards? It’s nuts. Now I can research stuff while standing in line at Starbucks, or look up a recipe while my kids are at tae kwon do. It’s fantastic.
But all of this comes with a price. With the world at our fingertips, the bar’s been raised for everyone. On every topic. There’s no excuse for not knowing everything, at every time, and acting accordingly, because Google is here and we are expected to use it.
Ever had a conversation with a know it all? They’re just insufferable.
“So I was having breakfast the other day with Mom-”
“Well, you told me you met up at 10:30, technically that’s brunch.”
“OK, well, anyway, she said she wanted poached eggs-”
“You can’t eat eggs! Didn’t you hear about the massive Salmonella outbreak last week?” etc etc.
Sometimes I feel like the internet is like this grand sinkhole of knowitallness. There is just so much information out there, as in vast quantities of unlimited data, that it’s almost impossible to have a conversation without someone, somewhere interjecting some fact that may or may not be relevant, helpful, or even correct.
Adopting a cat? Well, you better not adopt from that place, because they had an FIP spike in 2006, so maybe adopt from this place. But don’t get one from THAT rescue, because they had a bad review on Yelp. Have a baby? Oh, don’t even bother then, you’ll get Toxo.
Running to the store for some dog food? Did you know that X brand is poison/ raw food is the only way to go/ raw food will kill your dog/ you must home cook/ you must never home cook?
Thinking of getting a new dog? Well, I hope you’re planning on adopting a senior dog or some sort of mutt from a reputable rescue, because anything else is totally irresponsible. Here’s a Sarah Mclachlan video to really drive it home.
Posting a picture of a dog with some stuff on his head? OFF WITH YOUR HEAD! Your dog must spend their waking hours at your feet, attending approved positive-reinforcement classes, eating internet approved high end food, or hiking (on lead, of course). Any superfluous activities meant solely for our own amusement, like dressing your dog up in humiliating costumes, is abusive.
There are so many things to remember, so much we expect of each other, that trying to just kind of muddle along and do the best you can isn’t good enough anymore. That is the downside of the internet. At some point, the information overload overwhelms your brain’s ability to assimilate it, and you just kind of shut down. For the record, I do about as well with the animals as I do with my kids, which is to say, there’s plenty to be desired, and I’m OK with that. Keep expectations low, I say.
And that is why I avoid internet message boards, which are like little crucibles of arguments just waiting to explode. People suffering from Internet Knowitallitis gravitate to those boards like a moth to flame. I’ve determined what’s important in my life and my family’s life, do my best to keep on top of important news that affects their health, and if every once in a while the dependents need to suffer through the indignity of a stupid costume in order to keep me happy, well, there’s worse things that can happen to a dog or a kid.
I don’t want to know the latest study about the long term effects of putting a wig on my dog. He’ll live. And so will all those dogs on YouTube whose owners are using their muzzles for Jenga practice.
And with that, I have to go look for more pictures of tortured dogs wearing Death Star e-collars.
I’ve mentioned before that it was spending time in a lab that was conducting research on chimpanzees that convinced me I could not pursue a career in lab animal or primate medicine. It felt wrong, deep in my bones.
I was not the only one who felt this way.
In the past ten years, the scientific community has refined protocols, developed alternatives, and made a concerted effort to eliminate the use of man’s closest genetic relative for research purposes. A 2010 study commissioned by the National Institute of Health on the topic of chimpanzee research questioned the necessity of the use of chimps and recommended more stringent oversight, resulting in a temporary ban on new federal funding for chimpanzee research.
The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act of 2011, a newly introduced bill in Congress, aims to ban all invasive research on great apes- which would cover private companies as well as facilities using federal grants. As of now, only the US and Gabon have active research projects involving chimpanzees.
So we are heading in the right direction- and thank goodness for that. I know with a sense of certainty that sits on me like a second skin that banning this research is the correct thing to do.
But the question so few people are asking, while they bask in the glory of their victory, is what happens to those chimpanzees when they are no longer needed? They are awfully long-lived primates, after all, and a life in a cage exposed to pathogens is not exactly conducive to an easy transition back into the wild.
It’s hard to find information as to these animals’ fates. A 2002 Discovery Magazine article details the haphazard way these chimps find their ways into sanctuaries if they are lucky; if they’re not, well, who knows.
The CNN video I embedded discusses an island in Liberia that is the home to a group of former research chimps. The New York Blood Center established a facility in Liberia in the 80s; when they were no longer needed, the directors realized the chimps could no sooner be “set free” in the wild any more than any other animal who has lived in captivity with no survival skills and a propensity to associate humans with food. So here they are, and sadly, their future is uncertain. Aside from the CNN article I’ve had a hard time finding information about the situation, but it’s disheartening to think that there’s no substantive plan in place while the “whose responsibility is this?” game plays out in the courts.
Proponents of animal use in research have always taken the line that it must be done with the utmost concern for ethical conduct. The undeniable benefits in the human medical field we have reaped from primate research come with them the burden of looking into the eyes of those unwilling subjects we have decided, as a society, that it was OK to destroy in the process.
How we treat test subjects during the experiments is only half the equation- discarding them when their usefulness has expired is no way to end this chapter in medical research. As glad as I am to see chimpanzee research headed towards extinction, I can only hope we do more than simply say “no more research and aren’t we grand!” We need to ensure that, during this transition, those hundreds of chimpanzees still part of research facilities are taken care of for the extent of their natural lives. This is our obligation as a society.
Thoughts? What should a company or institution’s obligation be to an animal it has used for research?
1. Brody helped me prepare for my upcoming Mt. Meru hike by dragging me up Cowles Mountain here in San Diego. It’s like preparing for a triathlon by dipping your toes in a wading pool, but it’s a start. The highest point in San Diego is still 12,000 feet lower than Mt. Meru.
2. Apollo, who has never hiked a day in his life, mocks Brody’s expression in the above picture.
3. I took my son to a birthday party I almost forgot to RSVP to and they had a wildlife show! I don’t know who was more excited, the kids or the adults. The educator brought along a wallaby, a chinchilla, an iguana, an alligator, a few other things I don’t remember and then- this porcupine.
I had no idea porcupines could be so cute. He sat there munching his corn like a rock star, holding onto that cob for dear life like Eddie Van Halen about to unleash a 20 minute guitar solo, completely unaffected all by the attention. Ohnomnomnom I have corn and nothing else matters nomnomnom.
Have a wonderful Passover, Easter, or simple spring weekend! Hope it’s a great one!
It may not rival Thanksgiving or Halloween in terms of numbers of ER vet visits generated, but Easter still has its share of pet related dangers, especially when you have a dog or cat who is prone to the occasional counter surfing. If you have a pet who never does this, pat yourself on the back. Good work. Now for the rest of you, the best way to manage the weekend is to make a few simple substitutions so that if Fluffy does manage to grab a bite of something when you’re not looking, the worst you have to deal with is an upset tummy.
Flowers to Avoid: Lilies
Easter Lily by carriejeberhardt on Flickr
Bright and happy lilies are synonymous with Easter. Used as a filler in almost every springtime bouquet out there, lilies are undeniably beautiful. Unfortunately, they are also undeniably toxic- in fact, one of the absolute worst plants a cat can eat. Every part is toxic- the flower, the leaves, the pollen- and it takes only a small amount to induce renal failure in a cat. It’s one of the rare instances in which I’m comfortable making a blanket statement: if you have a cat, you shouldn’t have lilies in the house. (more…)
Ah, the humble egg. Rarely does it figure so prominently in our culinary lexicon as it does at Eastertime. And as I’m working on a post about ways to fit the pets into your Sunday celebration, I decided it was only fitting that we do a little egg recipe in today’s Cooking with Koa segment.
If you’re going to have a bunch of people around who are going to try to be feeding your dog any one of a number of wildly inappropriate traditional Easter foods, it’s always wise to have a super special dog-only treat on hand to convince those wayward guests that you aren’t neglecting your pets and it really is OK to leave the Vienna sausages on the table. So in that vein, today we’re taking on devilled eggs, Koa style.
First, you need to boil your eggs. There are lots of ways to achieve this, some involving voodoo and pressure cookers and complicated heating algorithms, but I try to keep it simple. I do the ‘cover in cool water, bring to boil, and leave for 10 minutes’ approach. (more…)
