Dogged Blog

Forced spay/neuter law dead in California

AB 1634, California's controversial proposed legislation to mandate sterilization of dogs and cats by 16 weeks of age, is dead.



Or at least, it lives on in name only; the actual language of the bill has been completely rewritten by Senator Negrete McLeod, Chairman of the Local Government Committee. From Concerned Dog Owners of California :

Under this version mandatory spay and neuter is no longer discussed except as a remedy for dogs about whom complaints, which cannot be barking dog complaints, have been made to animal control. Presumably this would include loose and roaming dogs but would be more inclusive. At the third complaint for dogs, the owner would be required to have the dog altered at his expense. Further the fines for complaints are increased.

Even Judie Mancuso, AB 1634 "campaign director" and the legislation's most ardent proponent, couldn't do much to spin this as other than a massive defeat. In an email to supporters, she wrote:

Earlier this week Assembly Member Lloyd Levine met with Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod to discuss AB 1634. Senator Negrete McLeod chairs the Senate Local Government Committee where AB 1634 has been held since mid-2007. The Senator presented amendments that remove all the current language of the bill and replace it with new language her office developed. The new bill targets only dogs and cats who are the subject of repeated complaints to animal control or repeated shelter impoundments. Assemblyman Levine agreed to adopt these amendments, which also adds Senator Negrete McLeod as a principal co-author.



[....]



I know many of you will not be happy with this proposal, and I am personally deeply disappointed that AB 1634 has been rewritten by Senator Negrete McLeod. But, please take a careful look at the new bill and the committee's analysis, and come to your own conclusion about whether it might help decrease California's pet overpopulation.

The original author of the bill, State Assembly Member Lloyd Levine, was term-limited out of his house seat, and was defeated in his recent bid for the State Senate.



The amended version of the bill, which will be heard by the Local Government Committee on June 25, can be read here; CDOC has promised to update with new developments throughout the day; that link also includes contact information for faxes of support and opposition to the new language, as all previously-submitted letters are out of date.



Now, time to direct our energy to supporting programs and policies in California -- and the nation -- that actually reduce animal shelter deaths, instead of "sound bite" legislation that does nothing to achieve that goal, and pits animal lover against animal lover in a battle over things that should be decided by pet owners and their veterinarians, not lawmakers.



Update: This from Capitol Weekly:

Judie Mancuso, the campaign director behind the effort to pass AB 1634, was less positive about the changes. For one thing, she said, the home foreclosure crisis is worsening the overpopulation problem at shelters as people give up pets when they move out of owned houses into rented apartments. For all of 2006, she said, California shelters took in 375,000 dogs, euthanizing 146,000. For 2007, shelters took in 419,000 dogs-but 10 counties have not yet reported all their numbers for last year, compared to only one that hasn't reported 2006 numbers. The 2008 numbers, she said, are looking even worse.

Oh please. This is exactly the kind of thing that drives me crazy. In what way is people being forced to surrender their family pets because they have lost their homes due to the foreclosure crisis "pet overpopulation"? Get a grip on reality, Judie.



Update 2, the next day: The legislative analysis of the changes to the bill are here.

Another Vick pit bull success story

Oh conventional wisdom, how wrong you usually are. And never more so than about pit bulls.



Not only are most family pits friendly and wonderful companions, apparently even the "worst of the worst," those dogs not only owned by dogfighters and bred for dogfighting but actually used in the pit, keep turning out to be not just good dogs, not just safe dogs, but wonderful dogs.



Take Leo, one of 50 pitbulls rescued from Michael Vick's Bad Newz Kennels. After spending five weeks being trained and rehabbed by California trainer Marthina McClay, Leo has found a new purpose in life. From a feature, with video, over on MSNBC.com:

He now happily frolics in a clown collar as he makes the rounds at the Camino Infusion Center, where he brings comfort to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.



Despite his training as a killer, Leo is a sweetheart as he visits his friends on the ward.



“He is wonderful, and all the patients love Leo,” said Paula Reed, the facility’s oncology director. “They really love his eyes and gentleness.”

Nor is that Leo's only job.

Leo also touches young people on probation at the Alternative Placement Academy in San Jose, where the young men seem to identify with the former tough guy.



“I think they saw this dog’s awful background, and it communicates to the kids that you can end up being what you want to be,” McClay said.



It’s the age-old story of second chances. By living his, Leo helps tear down entrenched stereotypes that pit bulls are irredeemable killers.



“Leo is definitely an ambassador to the breed,” McClay said. “The staff at various facilities will say, ‘I will never see pit bulls the same again.’”

Out of the 50 dogs rescued from Bad Newz, only one had to be put down for aggressive behavior.



One.



So the next time someone says all pit bulls are dangerous and deadly and can't be trusted, the next time PETA or anyone else calls them "time bombs" and says that all fighting dogs should be put down, tell them about Leo.



Video under the jump.

Adopting our way out of pet overpopulation: Yes, we can

It was an article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, about a media conference held at the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley in Southern California, in support of AB 1634, a law that would require all puppies and kittens in the state to be spayed or neutered by the time they are four months old.



Sharing the spotlight with the speakers were 482 stuffed garbage bags piled high next to the podium:

Emotions weren't evoked until it was announced that each garbage bag represented the number of dogs and cats euthanized each week at the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley, the San Bernardino City Animal Shelter and the San Bernardino County-Devore Animal Shelter.



"That translates into 22,900 cats and dogs each year," said Susan Dawson, president of the Humane Society's board of directors.

Representatives from the area shelters laid out the cost in dollars and lives of their animal control system: 22,900 animals killed in the last year. Costs spiraling up towards $8 million for next year's animal control bill.



Ken Childress, director of San Bernardino City Animal Control (where a mandatory spay/neuter law has been in place for more than a year) said "the facilities can't keep up with the number of animals that are being dropped off by pet owners or picked up by animal-control officers."



Then something struck me. I was reminded of a much more gruesome media conference held 18 years ago in San Mateo County, CA, when then-Peninsula Humane Society director Kim Sturla decided to teach pet owners a lesson -- or in her words, “take a 2-by-4 and hit them over the head” -- by killing four kittens, a cat, and three dogs on the evening news.



"Body Bag Mountain" certainly didn't go that far. In fact, the mound of trash bags made a very good visual for the story. I applaud whoever came up with the idea. And it made me curious, so I went to the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley's website, to see if they applied that same PR savvy to marketing animals for adoption.



I was confused, at first, because there is no mention of adoption anywhere on their landing page. I looked and looked, and couldn't find a link anywhere, not even clicking down deep on the site, to adoption information.



Well, I figured, it's just bad web design. That happens. I can understand how it is. So I used Google to do a site-wide search for the word "adoption." I got only two returns, one to a donation form, and one to an article informing readers that it is not possible to adopt our way out of pet overpopulation.



"That's true enough," I thought, "when you don't even try."



In fact, in that article, which outlines steps people can take to help animals, while they find the time to tell people to "teach peace" to children, discourage the wearing of fur, and urge people to become vegetarians, they don't even once suggest that people adopt a pet from the shelter. They actually say not to bother, because "Adoption alone will not solve the problem of pet overpopulation."



And then you wonder why Allan Drusys, chief of veterinary services for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, told the audience that he "hasn't seen a backlog of people wanting to adopt pets."



Well, I have a suggestion.



Instead of telling people that what they can do to help animals is support mandatory spay/neuter programs, which have never worked to end animal population control killing in any community, why don't you get whoever came up with "Body Bag Mountain" to design a PR campaign just as powerful convincing people to adopt shelter animals?



Every community that has reached the No-Kill goal or come very close has done it with a set of programs and policies that include creative, aggressive, continuous adoption outreach. Richard Avanzino of Maddie's Fund has shown that only a very small percentage increase in shelter adoptions will completely eliminate all animal population control killing, not just in one year but on a sustainable basis. And Maddie's Fund puts their money where their mouth is; they awarded 85 grants totalling $10 million last year to help communities in 16 states reach that goal. Did San Bernardino apply for any of those funds?



I wonder if the person who came up with "Body Bag Mountain" writes grant applications, too?

Change your dogs and cats can believe in

It's not really news that former Democratic Vice-president Al Gore has endorsed the Democratic candidate for President, Barack Obama.



What's news to me, however, is one of the reasons he's supporting change in the upcoming election. From his endorsement speech in Detroit last night:

If you care about a clean environment, if you want a government that protects you instead of special interests, you know that elections matter.



If you care about food safety, if you like a "T" on your BLT, you know that elections matter.



If you bought poison lead-filled toys from China, or adulterated medicine made in China, if you bought tainted pet food made in China, you know that elections matter.



After the last eight years, even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter.

You can find the video under the jump, and the passage I quoted starts right around the 7 minute mark.

More tales of an urban dog mom: Things I don ' t miss about living in the country

I lived in the country for 16 years. It's a great place to have dogs, especially big dogs. I do miss having safe, fenced acreage where my dogs could run. I miss having a dog door they could go out of to access a secure potty yard at night. I miss the wide open spaces.



But Gina's post earlier today about finding a tick on herself reminds me of the many things I definitely do not miss about living in the country.



Some of them have nothing to do with having dogs. Like the fact that when the power goes out, it might be out for days or even weeks. Or that when it rains, it floods, and you can end up stuck at your place until the waters go down. Or the fact that it takes 45 minutes to get to the market or, well... anywhere.



But living in San Francisco means never having to miss the following: Ticks. Heartworm. Rattlesnakes.



All those things bit my dogs and made them ill during the years I lived in the country. And in order to protect them from the first, I also had to use topical pesticides and oral preventive medications every month. As for the last, there wasn't much I could do to protect my pets -- one of my cats was horribly killed by a rattlesnake that slithered in my dog door, a story that upset me so much when it happened that this is the first time I've ever told it publicly. It was like a horror movie.



So while I loved my years in the country, I'm glad to be here in the city where there are simply no ticks, thus no tick diseases, no rattlesnakes, and no heartworm.



Is it perfect? No. And I'll scream that at the top of my lungs in the middle of the night when one of the dogs suddenly needs to go to the bathroom and I have to hit the park at 3 AM. Also, searching out safe areas to let them run where there are no little dogs who Kyrie might mistake for an hors d'oeuvre. It has its challenges.



But no ticks. So it balances out, right, Gina?

Just me on the pity pot

I just realized that I'm never going to have a true day off, ever. I will never have a paid vacation, and I'll never have a day off that isn't really just a few hours "borrowed" from another day.

I haven't got the words to express how exhausted I am.

Oh the carefree life of the freelancer.

What's going on with the San Francisco SPCA?

I've been working on a story about the abrupt closing of the San Francisco SPCA's Hearing Dog Program, and the more I dig into it, the less I understand what's happening at what was once the best and brightest shelter in the country.

SF Weekly is reporting that the SF SPCA, which is a private shelter that does not do animal control, has all but abandoned its "no kill" mission -- the same mission that once made it one of the richest shelters in the country, due to huge donor support -- and has implemented new guidelines making it easier for its staff to kill pets with borderline and treatable health and behavior problems. The described two animals recently killed at the shelter, a six-month-old puppy named Isaac, and a feral kitten named Tulane, who started out his life at the SF SPCA and was adopted into a home:

Tulane appeared to be a good adoption candidate, according to his medical log. Volunteers reported he enjoyed having his head petted, and purred contentedly when sitting in their laps.

The person who adopted Tulane already had a domesticated cat the kitten got along with. But Tulane never formed a bond with his adopter. On May 2, more than a year after the adoption, that person returned a very different cat to the SF/SPCA. Now 18 months old, Tulane demonstrated fearful and aggressive behavior and was categorized as "completely feral," according to the log. He was put in a cage where he ran in tight circles, knocking over his food bowl. Veterinary staff assumed the spilled food meant Tulane wasn't eating, even though at least two employees say there was fresh crap in his litter box.

The SF/SPCA's feral team was making plans to return Tulane to a managed feral colony where they thought he would be happier and would likely eat better. But before arrangements were made, veterinary staff decided, without a full medical examination, that the cat's failure to eat was a symptom of a serious condition. Tulane was euthanized.

Why the big rush, that the paper says cost Isaac, Tulane, and other animals their lives?

The reason for the new euthanasia policies is, in part, money. The SF/SPCA is scrambling to find funding to complete its controversial $30 million, for-profit animal hospital, the Leanne B. Roberts Animal Care Center. The project is only half complete, and with the looming specter of hiring staff, new equipment costs, and opening expenses, there has been an emphasis on saving money around the shelter, where it costs an estimated $43 a day to house a healthy cat. Since president Jan McHugh-Smith was hired a year ago, she has scaled back or eliminated internationally known behavior and medical services that had saved thousands of animals over the years.

Employees and volunteers were alarmed at the recent closure of the 30-year-old Hearing Dog Program, along with major changes to adoption policies, cutbacks to the Cat Behavior Program, and the loss of the volunteer Affection Eaters program, which might have been able to help Tulane.

The cutbacks and new policies have caused at least seven staffers to quit, as well as an uncertain number of volunteers. Some of them have organized into two groups who are vowing to expose the new policies even if it means that donors, the lifeblood of the nonprofit, stop cutting checks.

And it's not only the legendary Hearing Dog Program that's been shut down:

McHugh-Smith has also made controversial changes to the Cat Behavior Program. Longtime SF/SPCA cat behaviorists Dilara Parry and Mikel Delgado, who were the most prominent standard-bearers of the now-defunct no-kill policies, gave their notice in April, claiming management had been continually undermining them. And, Delgado says, there had been a shift in the policy that every treatable animal should be given a chance at adoption.

"The cat behavior staff had to struggle to keep this program together, especially over the last year," says Delgado, who is a certified cat behavior consultant. "This was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting."

Management made it clear that less time and money would be spent on marginal animals, Delgado says, and services were vanishing. The volunteer-run Affection Eaters program, which helped traumatized cats regain their appetites in the shelter, quietly disappeared.

The SF Weekly piece is painful reading for someone, like me, who was involved with the shelter in the early days of its no-kill transition under the guidance of then-director Richard Avanzino, now the head of Maddie's Fund, a national organization dedicated to funding community efforts to become no-kill.

I have a series of interviews with people involved with the story set up over the next few days, and am not really sure where this will go, but the SF Weekly report clearly lays the blame at the feet of the SPCA staff who are hellbent on pushing through the hospital project, now careening widly over-budget.

Read the full story here.

Ten pet care questions I won ' t answer

I've been using holistic methods to care for my animals for 22 and a half years. In that time I've become what I guess I'd call a bit of a curmudgeon, impatient with the gullible hordes who keep the snake oil salespeople in business, and spending perhaps too much of my time ranting about that instead of talking about the things that work.



Back in 2006, I wrote a set of articles, one a snarky little rant called "Ten Things I Won't Tell You," and the other a much nicer and more helpful article, "Ten Things I WILL Tell You."



I updated the second piece and published it, in an extended version, as my column for the San Francisco Chronicle's website, SFGate.com, yesterday. But I thought I'd go ahead and update the cranky article, too, and share it with all of you here.



If you prefer the sugar before the medicine, start here.

1. I know you don't feed kibble, but I was wondering, what do you think is the best kibble for me to feed my dog?



Since you know I don't feed kibble, and I haven't fed kibble in over 22 years, and most of the kibbles available now weren't even available 22 years ago, and the ones that were have surely been re-formulated a thousand times since then, and I didn't like them then anyway, let me ask you a question: Why do you care what I think?



All I can do is send you to the wonderful page kept my friend Mary Straus at www.dogaware.com, where you will find some really excellent information on commercial foods.



My favorite part of your inquiry is that most of the people who ask me not only admit they know I don't feed kibble, but say they found me through Mary's site. To them I have to add: If you were already there, you don't need me. It's that simple. Because I got nuthin'.



2. Please tell me what to feed my dog. Please give me types of food, amounts, feeding schedule, a complete list of supplements and where to obtain them, and how much each meal will cost. Attached is a list of my dogs' health problems.



I'm not in the business of designing dog diets, and am not qualified to design them. There are some good books out there, some wonderful email lists, and a few good websites, and I list and link to them on my own website (you know, the place where you found me?).



3. My dog has a certain health condition, and the vet wanted a huge amount of money to treat it. Can you suggest a way to treat my dog's [heart disease, hip dysplasia, tick disease, cystinuria, kidney failure] with holistic remedies?



Although I have a definite feeling of sympathy for those of us faced with the financial realities of life, and especially life with pets, I'm even less in the business of giving financial advice than that of giving pet care advice, as the state of my own bank account and credit cards would prove upon even the most cursory of examinations.



"Holistic" means taking the big picture into account and looking at the animal and his environment, lifestyle, genetics, diet, emotional wellbeing, and other factors as a whole. It doesn't mean using herbs instead of antibiotics. Being truly holistic in your approach may or may not save you money over the long run, depending on a wide variety of factors, most of which are entirely out of your control.



It's also possible there is a less expensive way to treat your pet's condition, but for any serious health problem, it's unlikely that advice given over the Internet or at the dog park is going to uncover it. Working with a qualified holistic veterinarian is your best bet.



4. How do I find a qualified holistic veterinarian near me?



Beats the hell out of me. I've become shockingly cynical in the last couple of decades, and currently believe there are maybe a thousand really good vets in the country, and only a handful of them are holistic. And some of the vets I think are great, other people think suck. Add to that the qualifier "near me," and you multiply the problem. It's gotten so I dread this question, and yet, I keep giving the advice to find one. I should probably stop doing that.



5. I read your article on puppy vaccinations. My puppy has had all his vaccinations, and his breeder wants me to get him vaccinated again next week. I talked to his vet and he said he's fine until next year. You say he probably doesn't need any more. Who should I listen to?



You already know what I think, and I've given the scientific and philisophical basis for my opinions. In addition, I change my beliefs if new research warrants it, because I'm interested in reality, not in a dogmatic attachment to "one eternal truth" about pet health. So my advice when reading my opinions or listening to those of your puppy's breeder or your veterinarian is: Ask what we believe, ask the basis of our beliefs, evaluate the evidence, and decide for yourself.



If all someone has is "because I said so," vague conspiracy theories, habit, and scare tactics, keep looking.



6. My dog has itchy ears/a skin rash/constant diarrhea/coughs all the time/keeps snapping at me when I try to look in his mouth/hasn't moved in a week. What's wrong with him?

Me: I don't know, what did your vet say?



Them: I didn't go to the vet.



Me: You need to go to the vet.



Them: Well, I really don't have the money.



Me: There are organizations such as imom.org that will help with vet bills, but no one can diagnose your dog over the Internet, not even a vet, and I'm not a vet, and no one can treat your dog without a diagnosis, either. And while I know finances can be a problem, your dog is in your care and cannot get care on his own, you are responsible for him.



Them: We live ten hours from the nearest vet.



Me: This somewhat falls into the category of things I find hard to believe, but if it's true, why do you keep companion animals?



Them: Well, there is a vet in our town, but our oldest child needs new shoes piano lessons, and our newborn infant needs surgery to cure her congenital heart defect and basically, we can't take care of our dog and were hoping you could tell us that we could just put her down without feeling guilty, or maybe there was a cheap, easily available herb, say, something we could grab at the convenience store next time we were buying gas?



Me: No.

7. My dog itches all the time. I thought it was fleas, but she's on a topical flea preventative, I don't see any flea dirt, and none of my other pets itches. The vet wants to test her for allergies. What do you think?



This is another question that gets my deepest sympathy, since I've lived through the hell of a dog with allergies. And I wish I could tell you that there's a nice blood test that can reliably tell us every substance to which our itching dog is allergic, but there's not. Blood testing has gotten somewhat more precise in recent years, but the gold standard for food allergies remains the complete elimination diet (I have info on this here) and for atopic dermatitis, skin testing, also known as "intradermal testing" (IDT).



Those tests, along with one or two of the more reliable blood tests and a comprehensive medical history of your pet, will together allow a good veterinary dermatologist to design an allergen-reduction and, if you choose that path, desensitization plan for your pet.



I also wish I could give you a list of herbs and alternative treatments that can knock allergies down in one round, but I can't. Certainly many holistic techniques, including herbs, nutrition, topical washes and baths and more, can be used to treat the symptoms, but there are no magic bullets in alternative or conventional medicine for this difficult condition.



Or, as I like to put it, allergies suck.



8. You know, you'd make a lot more converts if you weren't so bitchy all the time. You catch a lot more flies with honey than vinegar.



This isn't a religion, and I am not looking for converts. People need to find the methods of caring for their animals that work for them. There is no "one true way" to care for our pets.



9. Why are you always going on and on about science and evidence? I thought you were supposed to be holistic! Don't you know that [fill in your favorite unproven remedy] would be more widely used and accepted if it weren't for the stranglehold of the pharmaceutical companies on medical research and marketing? You're a pawn of the medical industrial complex!



While it's certainly true that scientific research and drug development are tainted by non-scientific interests, and non-patentable remedies don't get anywhere near as much research as patentable ones do, it's equally true that if something really works, and it's been around for a while, we'd know. We'd know how it works, we'd know what it does, and we'd have at least some suggestive evidence in support of it.



And it wouldn't be sold via multi-level marketing.



I also want to point out that being holistic doesn't mean being gullible. It just often looks that way.



10. Is Heartgard/anesthetizing my dog for a dentistry/rabies vaccination/Baytril safe?



There really is no such thing as "safe." What is safe for one dog, or in the hands of a skilled practitioner, might be very dangerous for another dog or another vet. You have to ask many very specific questions, define "safe," understand that "safe" is a relative term, and compare the risks of the treatment or substance in question to the alternatives - including doing nothing. Only than can you make an informed decision about that animal and that treatment. There are no shortcuts. And yeah, you'll probably piss your vet off. There are ways to minimize that, but no way to avoid it 100 percent of the time.



There, hopefully I'll be sweeter now that I got that out of my system. And don't forget, my "Ten Holistic Pet Care Tips You Can Trust" are here!

1. I know you don't feed kibble, but I was wondering, what do you think is the best kibble for me to feed my dog?



Since you know I don't feed kibble, and I haven't fed kibble in over 22 years, and most of the kibbles available now weren't even available 22 years ago, and the ones that were have surely been re-formulated a thousand times since then, and I didn't like them then anyway, let me ask you a question: Why do you care what I think?



All I can do is send you to the wonderful page kept my friend Mary Straus at www.dogaware.com, where you will find some really excellent information on commercial foods.



My favorite part of your inquiry is that most of the people who ask me not only admit they know I don't feed kibble, but say they found me through Mary's site. To them I have to add: If you were already there, you don't need me. It's that simple. Because I got nuthin'.



2. Please tell me what to feed my dog. Please give me types of food, amounts, feeding schedule, a complete list of supplements and where to obtain them, and how much each meal will cost. Attached is a list of my dogs' health problems.



I'm not in the business of designing dog diets, and am not qualified to design them. There are some good books out there, some wonderful email lists, and a few good websites, and I list and link to them on my own website (you know, the place where you found me?).



3. My dog has a certain health condition, and the vet wanted a huge amount of money to treat it. Can you suggest a way to treat my dog's [heart disease, hip dysplasia, tick disease, cystinuria, kidney failure] with holistic remedies?



Although I have a definite feeling of sympathy for those of us faced with the financial realities of life, and especially life with pets, I'm even less in the business of giving financial advice than that of giving pet care advice, as the state of my own bank account and credit cards would prove upon even the most cursory of examinations.



"Holistic" means taking the big picture into account and looking at the animal and his environment, lifestyle, genetics, diet, emotional wellbeing, and other factors as a whole. It doesn't mean using herbs instead of antibiotics. Being truly holistic in your approach may or may not save you money over the long run, depending on a wide variety of factors, most of which are entirely out of your control.



It's also possible there is a less expensive way to treat your pet's condition, but for any serious health problem, it's unlikely that advice given over the Internet or at the dog park is going to uncover it. Working with a qualified holistic veterinarian is your best bet.



4. How do I find a qualified holistic veterinarian near me?



Beats the hell out of me. I've become shockingly cynical in the last couple of decades, and currently believe there are maybe a thousand really good vets in the country, and only a handful of them are holistic. And some of the vets I think are great, other people think suck. Add to that the qualifier "near me," and you multiply the problem. It's gotten so I dread this question, and yet, I keep giving the advice to find one. I should probably stop doing that.



5. I read your article on puppy vaccinations. My puppy has had all his vaccinations, and his breeder wants me to get him vaccinated again next week. I talked to his vet and he said he's fine until next year. You say he probably doesn't need any more. Who should I listen to?



You already know what I think, and I've given the scientific and philisophical basis for my opinions. In addition, I change my beliefs if new research warrants it, because I'm interested in reality, not in a dogmatic attachment to "one eternal truth" about pet health. So my advice when reading my opinions or listening to those of your puppy's breeder or your veterinarian is: Ask what we believe, ask the basis of our beliefs, evaluate the evidence, and decide for yourself.



If all someone has is "because I said so," vague conspiracy theories, habit, and scare tactics, keep looking.



6. My dog has itchy ears/a skin rash/constant diarrhea/coughs all the time/keeps snapping at me when I try to look in his mouth/hasn't moved in a week. What's wrong with him?

Me: I don't know, what did your vet say?



Them: I didn't go to the vet.



Me: You need to go to the vet.



Them: Well, I really don't have the money.



Me: There are organizations such as imom.org that will help with vet bills, but no one can diagnose your dog over the Internet, not even a vet, and I'm not a vet, and no one can treat your dog without a diagnosis, either. And while I know finances can be a problem, your dog is in your care and cannot get care on his own, you are responsible for him.



Them: We live ten hours from the nearest vet.



Me: This somewhat falls into the category of things I find hard to believe, but if it's true, why do you keep companion animals?



Them: Well, there is a vet in our town, but our oldest child needs new shoes piano lessons, and our newborn infant needs surgery to cure her congenital heart defect and basically, we can't take care of our dog and were hoping you could tell us that we could just put her down without feeling guilty, or maybe there was a cheap, easily available herb, say, something we could grab at the convenience store next time we were buying gas?



Me: No.

7. My dog itches all the time. I thought it was fleas, but she's on a topical flea preventative, I don't see any flea dirt, and none of my other pets itches. The vet wants to test her for allergies. What do you think?



This is another question that gets my deepest sympathy, since I've lived through the hell of a dog with allergies. And I wish I could tell you that there's a nice blood test that can reliably tell us every substance to which our itching dog is allergic, but there's not. Blood testing has gotten somewhat more precise in recent years, but the gold standard for food allergies remains the complete elimination diet (I have info on this here) and for atopic dermatitis, skin testing, also known as "intradermal testing" (IDT).



Those tests, along with one or two of the more reliable blood tests and a comprehensive medical history of your pet, will together allow a good veterinary dermatologist to design an allergen-reduction and, if you choose that path, desensitization plan for your pet.



I also wish I could give you a list of herbs and alternative treatments that can knock allergies down in one round, but I can't. Certainly many holistic techniques, including herbs, nutrition, topical washes and baths and more, can be used to treat the symptoms, but there are no magic bullets in alternative or conventional medicine for this difficult condition.



Or, as I like to put it, allergies suck.



8. You know, you'd make a lot more converts if you weren't so bitchy all the time. You catch a lot more flies with honey than vinegar.



This isn't a religion, and I am not looking for converts. People need to find the methods of caring for their animals that work for them. There is no "one true way" to care for our pets.



9. Why are you always going on and on about science and evidence? I thought you were supposed to be holistic! Don't you know that [fill in your favorite unproven remedy] would be more widely used and accepted if it weren't for the stranglehold of the pharmaceutical companies on medical research and marketing? You're a pawn of the medical industrial complex!



While it's certainly true that scientific research and drug development are tainted by non-scientific interests, and non-patentable remedies don't get anywhere near as much research as patentable ones do, it's equally true that if something really works, and it's been around for a while, we'd know. We'd know how it works, we'd know what it does, and we'd have at least some suggestive evidence in support of it.



And it wouldn't be sold via multi-level marketing.



I also want to point out that being holistic doesn't mean being gullible. It just often looks that way.



10. Is Heartgard/anesthetizing my dog for a dentistry/rabies vaccination/Baytril safe?



There really is no such thing as "safe." What is safe for one dog, or in the hands of a skilled practitioner, might be very dangerous for another dog or another vet. You have to ask many very specific questions, define "safe," understand that "safe" is a relative term, and compare the risks of the treatment or substance in question to the alternatives - including doing nothing. Only than can you make an informed decision about that animal and that treatment. There are no shortcuts. And yeah, you'll probably piss your vet off. There are ways to minimize that, but no way to avoid it 100 percent of the time.



There, hopefully I'll be sweeter now that I got that out of my system. And don't forget, my "Ten Holistic Pet Care Tips You Can Trust" are here!

That loathsome twerp Joe Lieberman

Today, it's being reported that Senator Hillary Clinton, after a long and bruising contest for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, has been asking her pledged delegates to throw their vote to the nominee, Senator Barack Obama.

That's because, no matter what, first and last, Hillary Clinton is a Democrat.

And while all that's going on, Senator Joe Lieberman  is spewing bilge and bile all over the Democratic candidate, not just supporting the Republican but actively attacking Obama and the Democrats, all the while caucusing with the Democrats and holding committee positions courtesy of the Democrats. And what the hell is Harry Reid doing about it?

Nothing. Way to go, Dems.

Flesh shapes the day

It doesn't matter who you are
It does not matter what you say
Flesh shapes the day
--Tom Morello

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn't matter who you are
It does not matter what the fuck you say
Flesh shapes the day
-- Tom Morello