Dogged Blog

Wisconsin, are you people out of your freaking minds?

Really, Wisconsin? Every idiot who voted for Walker and who isn't a bazillionaire needs to read this book. Ignore the publication date (2004) and the name of the state in the title; nothing has changed, and middle America is middle America, it seems.

From the LA Times review:

Why do so many of us vote against our economic interests? Where’s the outrage at corporate manipulators? And whatever happened to middle-American progressivism? The questions are urgent as well as provocative.

[...]

A brilliant analysis—and funny to boot—What’s the Matter with Kansas? presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People.

D

Talking about pet food at Chez Panisse

Sometimes being a pet writer kind of sucks, because when a girl's out with a bunch of other journalists, well... we don't get no respect.



But sometimes we get to eat at Chez Panisse. That's what happened to me when I interviewed Marion Nestle and Mal Nesheim about their new book -- "Feed Your Pet Right" (Simon and Schuster Free Press, May 2010) -- over one of the best lunches I've ever had -- goat cheese salad and a beautiful Moroccan chicken from Soul Food Farms.



And cherries and cappuccino for dessert. I mean, this is why I went to journalism school.



The fact that we had a fantastic free-range discussion of "Feed Your Pet Right," their experience researching it, and some of the aftermath of its publication was just  the (totally organic) icing on the (sustainably produced) cake.



Marion told me this book was originally supposed to be a chapter in her book "What to Eat," which took shoppers on a tour of a supermarket's aisles and helped them understand food labels, health claims and, well... what to eat.



But the book was already getting too long, so the chapter didn't make it. And it was a good thing, too, because when Marion looked at the labels on the pet food in the grocery store, her Ph.D. in human nutrition was absolutely no help to her in understanding them. For that, she turned to her partner, Mal Nesheim, who has a Ph.D. in animal nutrition. From my column today in the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com:

If it strikes anyone as odd that even a Ph.D. human nutritionist had to consult a Ph.D. animal nutritionist to understand a pet food label, there's a reason for that. "Compared to the human food industry, the pet food industry is is much, much less transparent," Nestle says. "They are awash in secrecy."



She adds, "It's an enormously profitable business with no organized consumer base in the way that you have with human food. After all, their food is fed to dogs and cats, who can't pick up the telephone and call the companies."



Most pet owners, Nestle says, are no more able than she was to understand a pet food label.



"They don't know what the whole 'complete and balanced" thing means, or what most of the information on the label means," she says. "It's all inexplicable to them."



That's not all, Nesheim says. "There are all these products out there, and pet owners don't realize just how many of them are being made by the same companies, but sold under different brand names. Nestle, Purina, Mars -- these companies make dozens and dozens of brands, and the lists of ingredients are just not that different from each other -- although the prices, and the marketing campaigns, often are."



The lack of transparency made "Feed Your Pet Right" a much harder book to research than its human counterpart. For instance, many pet food manufacturers refused to let them into their facilities.



"Although the ones that let us in were all right," says Nesheim. "Hills, Bravo -- they impressed us. The Waltham plant in England (owned by Mars) was wonderful. The dogs spend their days interacting with the staff, and there are people on the payroll whose entire job is to play with and walk the dogs."



I ask if he assumed the companies that wouldn't let them in -- which included Purina and Procter and Gamble -- had something to hide. "Either that, or they were afraid of animal rights groups," he says. "There are lots of questions being asked about animal testing, including on pet food, and I think a lot of them are frightened of that."

Read it here -- including what they think about home-prepared and raw diets.



Photo: Marion Nestle and Mal Nesheim at Chez Panisse.

Liveblogging Marion Nestle and Mal Nesheim in San Francisco

I'm at Omnivore Books in San Francisco, liveblogging Marion Nestle and Mal Nesheim's reading of their new book, "Feed Your Pet Right."



Reminder about liveblogging: This is really live, so there will be typos. Only things in quotation marks are direct quotes; everything else is a paraphrase or close approximation. I'll come back later and add links.



I've also created a Twitter hashtag for the event, #feedyourpet. You can watch that for my Tweets and probably other people's, too.



This is being done in real-time, so hit refresh to see the newest material. When I'm done I'll go back and tuck this all behind a jump, so as not to mess up the blog.



Here we go!







Marion starts out talking about her book on what humans eat, "What to Eat," and how it wasn't really about what to eat, but how to think about what to eat. She said she did a lot her research in supermarkets, going aisle by aisle, trying to answer any question she could think of about the products.



As she'd walk through the store she'd see the pet food aisle, 120 feet long, dog food on one side, cat food on the other, shelves 6-7 feet high. Astonishing amount of real estate in the stores.



Foods are not in markets by accident -- manufacturers pay to be in stores. And she was astounded at how much money must be represented by that amount of real estate.



Said she'd pick up bags and cans and pouches and couldn't understand the labels. What are these ingredients? What is the guaranteed analysis?



Her partner Mal Nesheim had taught animal nutrition at Cornell and he understood them and explained them, and she decided to do a chapter on pet food in "What to Eat." But the book was already extremely long so that didn't happen.



She said she asked Mal to write a book on pet food with her, and they figured out it wouldn't destroy their relationship. (Laughter.)



Signed book deal in Feb of 2007 -- then came the pet food recall.



That shocked them. They had no idea one company in Canada was making 70+ brands of pet food. Said the pet food recall opened up lines of research they would never have thought about without the recall.



It's very hard to study food in an academic way -- even human food. NYU, where she teaches, is one of the few places. But writing about pet food takes even more explaining, but the pet food recall somewhat changed that. "If pet food was suffering from a gap in our food safety system like this, then the food safety system in our country was in real trouble.... and this was even before the spinach recalls."



Said it turned out pet food manufacturers didn't even know what was in their products. And pet food, human food and animal feed are tightly linked, as pet and animal foods "soak up" the leftovers of human food production.



They ended up writing about things that interested them. A real curiosity about pet food.



Their first question was, "Is commercial pet food any good and can it be trusted?" Which is basically what the book is about. What do the labels mean, how do you decode them? What do premium, natural, organic mean for pet food? What about health claims? How do you tell how much your pet should be eating? Vegetarian, vegan, grains, raw, cooked? Should I believe my vet's advice about what foods to buy?



Set out to answer those questions.



Using Google Books and libraries, looked at what pets ate before commercial pet food.



Reading from that section:



"Mice are an excellent source of nutrition for cats." Dogs did well on varied diets of leftovers of human food. Plus, dog owners and breeders understood that their animals' diets needed to follow basic principles.



1858 guide to dog care pointed out that while wolves ate meat, and natural food of the dog is flesh, but said most dogs should eat oatmeal with offal, leftovers, and milk. Also, liver and horsemeat.



1850 book recommended veggies like carrots and cabbage. Kennels fed a lot of oatmeal and horsemeat.



In 1900 a how-to book about dog health recommended sheep heads, meat and "coarse scotch oatmeal." Also bones, which are "of great value to him." "One should always be allowed at least once or twice a week."



Great relationship with a butcher assumed.



She reads recipe for puppy diet with sheep's head. She said it would be very nutritious but "seems rather inconvenient for the modern kitchen."



Pet food industry as we now know it began early 20th century.



Mal takes over reading. "Marion didn't exactly have to twist my arm to write this book." PhD in animal nutrition at Cornell. Taught courses in nutrition to veterinary students. Is not a veterinarian.



Then he got into human nutrition which is how he got to know Marion. "But that's another story altogether." (laughter)



Went to many meetings, including Global Pet Expo in San Diego, 11 football fields of pet products. And went to Pet Food Forum. Tried to visit as many pet food manufacturers as possible.



Hills allowed him to go to Topeka plant and research facilities. They were very helpful.



Purina "wouldn't let us near the place." "We did go to an open cat nutrition meeting they had that honored Quinton Rogers, who I've known for many years."



Proctor and Gamble also "wouldn't let us near the place."  A testing facility near Ithaca wouldn't let them in, either.



Were able to go to Mars' Waltham facilities in England. Marvelous, modern, pets well taken care of, people whose job is just to play with the pets.



Began to write and talked about, as Marion said, all these issues about what they need, what's in the food. And about veterinarians, their relationship to the pet food industry, and how pet food companies try to influence veterinarians, and how there is little research and much of it is not made public.



He's reading "Conclusion" chapter:



Had not known pets formed corner of US economy that accounted for 17-18 billion dollars. Until melamine recalls, had not realized how tightly pet food and people food industries were linked. Believe that, coupled with how people treasure our pets, make this an area deserving of research.



"No one method is best for feeding dogs and cats."  Like people, they can flourish on a wide variety of diets. "It's extremely difficult to induce a nutritional deficiency in an animal or person eating a sufficient variety of foods."



"The way you feed your pets should match the kind of dietary preferences and beliefs you have. If this surprises you, it's because no one would ever know it from surveying books on this subject." Most believe only in commercial pet food or only raw or only home cooked or only some alternative. People don't eat that way and pets don't need to, either. "Any of these methods, singly or together, are good ways to feed pets."



Someone asked how to deal with feeding variety causing diarrhea or throwing up.



(Note from Christie: I have something to say about that, LOL.)



Mal said: Find what works for your pet. Talked about how how different foods affect stool.



Question about pet food recall. What regulatory changes occurred, and is there consumer group overseeing the pet food industry?



Marion said, "Significant reform is an oxymoron." There were some reforms right after, "but there has been backsliding." FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine oversees pet food, a little known and under-funded branch of FDA. They mean well but their hands are tied. FDA has no budget. Pass the Food Act!



Congress passed a law but it was all voluntary. (Rolled her eyes.)



"Industry is fond of saying pet food is better regulated than human food, but we don't believe it. Or as we say, we have our doubts."



Thinks animal, human and pet food should be regulated together. And FDA is looking at that, also changing labels on pet foods.



Question about cancer in pets.



Marion said they wanted to know if pet health is better now than in past, or pets being fed all different kinds of diets... "There is no comparative data at all. These studies simply do not exist."



They can't find data on longevity, either.



Question: Where did the grain-free "fad" come from?



Mal: Melamine was in wheat gluten, so that's part of it. Corn has gotten a bad name -- Michael Pollan gave corn a bad name. (Laughter.)



Look at the foods that are "grain-free," they have other starches. There is no evidence that these forms of starches are any better or even different than starches from grains.



Question about "prescription diets." And if you ask the vet for a home cooked diet that can do the same thing, they say no. Can you talk about that?



Marion: Talked about how similar the ingredient lists of all these foods really are, and then said that they read "Small Animal Clinical Nutrition," which goes on and on and on about how you must never feed a homemade diet and it's so hard no one could do it, and then they give these recipes that are so simple anyone could do it.



"They either think dog and cat owners are stupid, or that no one knows how to cook. But it couldn't be easier."



Mal said that Mark Morris of Hills did do good research on kidney diets, and "there is some research that dogs that are fed these diets may live a little longer." (Dogs with kidney disease.) One problem, he says, is that dogs don't like it and won't eat it.



But he says there is not necessarily research behind all the prescription foods. "You go to a doctor and they give you a sugar pill, and you go to a veterinarian and they give you a prescription diet."



Audience member asked, "Are you having problems with raw food people who are like scientologists?"



Marion laughed and said, "I don't want to go there." Talked about how a lot of raw food people are not happy with them, even though they say it's fine to feed raw. Says that she was honestly surprised that raw diet people think they are against them, and says they are not.



Question: Are we still using ingredients from China?



Marion: Vitamin mixes.



Mal: Some pet food are imported from China. And lots and lots of treats.



Marion: "Pet Food Politics" came out in spring of 2008, and six months later, melamine turned up in infant formula. "So beyond the pale." And they're still doing it. Subtitle of book was "Chihuahua in the Coal Mine," so looks like I was right.



Marion: "The nutrients in minimally processed foods are always best. With pet foods, that means you're cooking -- or NOT cooking -- for your pet." Or buying some of the minimally processed raw or cooked foods that are a specialty market.



Mal: A lot of people just want to tear open a bag of kibble and pour it in a bowl, but others have different things that are important to them.



Audience member: Not all raw feeders have a problem with you. They were talking about this event on the SF Raw list today and saying really nice things.



Marion: Tell them thank you!



Audience member: Advice on buying commercial foods:



Mal: We prefer foods that have been fed in feeding trials, not just meeting AAFCO nutrient profiles. "The melamine problem was discovered because a manufacturer fed it to an animal." "Feeding trials are not perfect but they're better."



After a discussion of the ethics of feeding trials, which is handled extensively in the book, it was a wrap.

Fantasy ’s best pets, familiars, and animal companions

When you were little, did you imagine having a mysterious animal who would love and protect and understand you? A horse to carry you away from your problems, a dog to guide you through the forest, a cat who was really a familiar?



In the world of fantasy books, films, and television shows, that's very often exactly what animals turn out to be -- magical beings, or at least those with mysterious powers to help and shield us.



Brent Hartinger at TheTorchOnline.com takes a look at some of fantasy's most memorable pets, familiars and animal companions, including one of my favorites, Xena's horse, Argo, from the television series Xena: Warrior Princess:

Xena is no ordinary warrior — so why should she have an ordinary horse? Sure enough, hers is extraordinarily intelligent, sensing danger, responding to a number of different commands, being able to command other horses, and even once enduring having been turned into a miniature version of herself. Speaking of which, is Argo male or female? While referred to as “boy” in earlier seasons, she is eventually identified as female (and was usually portrayed by a mare). The horse died during Xena and Gabrielle’s Ares-induced 25-year sleep in the ice-cave, but gave birth to a daughter, Argo II, who, remarkably, had all of Argo’s abilities.

Incidentally, did you ever wonder why Gabrielle had no horse? According to the producers speaking at a fan convention, it took three horses to make it look like Xena had one horse. For Gabrielle to have had a horse, that would have meant having six horses on hand — something that was financially impossible.

He also takes a look at Scabbers the rat and Hedwig the owl in the Harry Potter series (although of course, I prefer Padfoot the dog, played by a Scottish Deerhound), and a host of others.



Check it out here, and then tell us: Did you have a favorite fantasy character from films, television, or books who isn't mentioned in the article? For me, it was Preciosa the hawk from Marion Zimmer Bradley's young adult novel Hawkmistress.

Great animal reads for 2009?

Last year, I put together a list of classic and wonderful new books about animals -- fiction as well as non-fiction -- and this year, I'd like to know what Pet Connection readers think should be added to the list for 2009.



What great books about animals have you read this year? It doesn't matter if they're nature books or novels, children's books or adults, about companions animals, farm animals, or wildlife.



I get deluged every year with pet books, and thre are few I read beyond the first few sentences. Only a couple this year have really jumped out at me. Have you had better luck? What treasures am I missing?



And one more question, since I'm sure none of you has anything better to do than answer me... what animal book would you like to read, but it seems no one has written yet?

Must-read -- and timely -- books for pet lovers

It's some weird synchronicity thing, I guess.



First,  a new administration takes the reins of governance from one that oversaw the final stages of the dismantling of what little public health and consumer protection remained in this country.



Then another recall pulls both pet and human foods off the shelves -- the first recall of pet treats containing peanut butter suspected of being tainted with salmonella was announced last night.



All this during the very week the Pet Connection newspaper feature leads with a look at Marion Nestle's “Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine” (University of California Press, $19), her detailed account of the historic 2007 pet food recall and its implications for our entire food safety system.



We're scary good sometimes, aren't we?

The Pet Connection team realized early during the 2007 pet-food recall that the numbers of sick and dead pets were in the thousands and that the problem of tainted Chinese ingredients went far beyond pet-food safety. And in fact, the pet-food deaths were the first of many problems with Chinese products—toys, milk products, toothpaste and more.







Dr. Nestle was also among the first to see a large problem, and she turned her attention to the “canary in the coal mine” aspect of the pet-food industry. Her “Pet Food Politics,” written for an academic press, is a little dry at times, but the information and its implications are eye-opening. It’s a call to action that we can all hope the new Obama administration hears before there’s a repeat of the tragedy, perhaps next time with American children as the victims.

There's also a profile of Dr. Nestle and a link to the transcript of the interview I did with her late last year.



Want more? We also take a look at a few other great pet books from the previous year, including Dr. Irene Pepperberg's “Alex & Me” (Collins, $24) and “Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World” (Grand Central, $20) by Bret Witter and librarian Vicki Myron.



Plus: Gina takes a look at how new technology has changed the way we envision fish tanks -- or hasn't; get a tip on preventing pet odors in fabric; learn what to do about a matted cat -- and speaking of cats, is it really possible to walk them on leashes?

Many indoor cats can learn to enjoy an outdoor outing on leash. Choose a light leash and a harness designed for cats, not for dogs, since a cat will easily give a dog harness the slip.



Walking a cat isn’t about heading out as with a dog, but rather consists of encouraging your pet to explore, with you following. Treats and praise can make a kitty more tolerant of the restrictions of harness and leash.

All this and more, in our Pet Connection newspaper feature, which you can read right here.



You can also see it exactly the way we send it to our client newspapers here. (PDF)



(Top image: Dr. Marion Nestle, photo taken by Pet Connection Director of Photography Morgan Ong. And then ... Gina's Clara, taken by Gina.)

Nominate great animal books of 2008

So we've gotten how we feel about "Marley and Me" off our chests. And we shared our favorite (and not-so-favorite) great and classic kids' books about animals. Now Gina and I want to know: what good, great, entertaining, educational, and otherwise worthwhile animal books came out in 2008?



Two on our lists were Marion Nestle's "Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine," about the 2007 pet food recall, and Irene Pepperberg's "Alex and Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process."



We'll be writing about those books, and some others, and we'd like to know which books were "great animal books of the year" for you! As long as they have a 2008 copyright, they're eligible, so please... share!

From ' Black Beauty ' to ' The Underneath ' : 132 years of great children ' s books about animals

There are books I read as a child that I'll never forget, and most of those books were about animals. For my SFGate.com column this week, I got together with children's librarian Carla Kozak at the San Francisco Public Library, and came up with two long readings lists of some of the best classic and not-yet-classic animal books for children.



What most struck me as I researched this piece is how much my view of the world had been influenced by reading those books when young -- and not just because I grew up to be an animal writer myself:

That's the potential great children's books have: to influence how we see the world as adults. The best children's books about animals also make us think about science and nature, and our place in the natural world. They teach us compassion for other living creatures, including other people, by making us care about both realistic and anthropomorphic animals in the stories we read. Books about animals and nature expose children, most of whom grow up in cities, to ways of life they will only ever know in the pages of a book - to farmlands and countryside, fields and forests. Even children who never ride anything more exciting than the school bus can race the Piebald horse with Velvet Brown, struggle to survive with young Alec Ramsey and the Black Stallion, or believe they, too, could tame a half-wild horse like Flicka.

I admit I'm a wimp -- books like "Old Yeller" and "Where the Red Fern Grows" traumatized me when I was young, and helped form my current policy of "I don't read books where the dog dies." Fortunately, Carla isn't quite as weak as I am, and helped me include a number of books old and new that I wouldn't willingly have read. "The Underneath" is one of those:

It's been a long time since a children's book got the kind of attention Kathi Appelt's novel The Underneath is receiving. It's a 2008 National Book Award finalist, and is being read as much by adults as by children. And it's dark - so dark I won't read it. (Given that I'm 49 years old and still have never knowingly killed a spider because I was so affected by Charlotte's Web, I may not be the best authority on whether or not a book is too upsetting for a child.)



Fortunately, although Kozak, too, finds it hard to read books in which animals die, she's far braver than I am. "This book is stunning," she said. "It's about an abused hound dog who forges a relationship with two orphaned kittens. The animals save each other in this book, which is loaded with magical realism. There's a shape-shifting serpent who has been letting her anger feed her evil side, and an alligator who is her old friend. There's a human who abuses the dog. And it works, it works on every level. Is it about animals? Is it about humans? It's certainly about human nature, and it's a wonderful tribute to love and devotion. Not one word rang false to me in the entire book."

As for the classics, I'd have probably picked a different book when I was little, but without a doubt, the book that I loved most as I re-read these titles was Eric Knight's "Lassie Come-Home." That book is not quite about what I thought it was when I first read it:

Forget the television shows, the films, and the marketing hype. It's in the pages of this book, and only there, that you'll find the real Lassie.



It's also there that you'll find the most iconic story ever told about the loyalty and love between child and dog. Lassie belongs to a family struggling with poverty on a Yorkshire farm in Depression-era England. They're forced to sell their beautiful Collie to a wealthy nobleman when the father loses his job, but she keeps coming back to her boy, Joe. After the third time, the lord ships the dog to his estate in Scotland, but Lassie… well, you know the rest. She comes home.



I picked this book up at my local library a few days before I wrote this article, and read it for the first time in many years. I discovered two things: One, there are a number of abridgements and re-tellings of this story in print and on the shelves of bookstores and libraries; be very, very sure you're getting Knight's 1940 classic and not one of the imposters.



Two, you can take my hip cynic's card away forever, but this story deserves its lasting fame. When Lassie makes her last terrible journey home, and Joe realizes that it's not just that he wants Lassie back but that Lassie wants him back, it takes every bit of sentiment in this undeniably sentimental tale and turns it into something altogether different, and more authentic: one boy's sudden understanding of the power of the bond between human and dog, and the fact that the bond goes both ways. Every obstacle falls away before that simple power.



You'll cry until you get to it, but this story has a happy ending. If your child has never read it, or you haven't, or you've forgotten it, find it.

The main article is here, and it links on to the reading lists. And after you read it, please tell us, which childhood animal books stand out in your memory? Which would be on your list?

The unexpected beauty of snakes

I was waiting for Gina to post this, as I hate to be all "go read this" about my own stuff, but she's swamped with work today, so here I am.

I'm particularly proud of my column in SFGate.com this morning, even though it probably won't be the most popular of my articles there. It's about snakes, but it's not about how to care for them, or what species make good pets, or about their diets or health or anything like that.

It's about what happens to kids, especially little girls, who get directed away from the creepy crawly things and towards kittens, bunnies, and puppies. It's about parents who shudder in horror when their child shows up with a tiny snake clutched in their hands.

And it's about how I learned to see the world in a whole new way when I first started doing editorial work for kingsnake.com, the oldest and largest reptile web site in the world, and got to know people to whom that never happened, or if it did, it didn't work:

Many of the people I met never lost that childhood wonder at the natural world. They would devote endless hours to creating habitats for animals that evolved in environments ranging from the driest deserts to tropical rainforests, sometimes having to learn by trial and error what even the experts didn't know about their snakes. They became obsessive observers of their animals, noting the slightest deviation in activity levels or appetites, their interest and their patience apparently endless.

I also became aware of how much prejudice exists against snakes and the people who keep them. Snakes in our culture have often been relegated to roles as scary monsters in horror flicks and the "ewww gross" segment on nature shows.

I spoke to a couple of local people I found through kingsnake.com: Rolf, an easy-going guy who owned boas and pythons, and defied every stereotype of the anti-social, slightly weird snake owner, and Natalie, a woman not much out of her teens who had been wandering the hills of Marin since she was a little girl, looking for snakes:

Rolf told me that he grew up all over the Northern California coast, mostly in rural areas, where, from the time he was four or five years old, he remembers always being in the middle of a forest, field, or a stream or a creek. "All children look and see things that are interesting, and I always had been involved with these little animals," he said, "You see them. They see you. They go and hide. I can see the rocks and the trees and the water, but I can't see these little bits of life that I know are there. Where are they going? What are they doing?"

[....]

Marin County's Natalie McNear fits the snake-owner stereotype a bit more. In a phone interview, she described herself as a loner, happiest when by herself in the fields and forests. But simply by being a woman who loves snakes she challenges stereotypes, too.

"I've been going outside and looking for snakes ever since I was a little kid," said the twenty-year-old, who worked at a North Bay reptile store during high school. "I would catch bugs and snakes and everything else that other girls thought were gross."

[....]

McNear's quiet observations haven't just been of her snakes; she's noticed a thing or two about how people feel about the animals as well. "(Snakes are) probably one of the most misunderstood animals that people keep as pets," she said "A lot of people are afraid of them."

I got to talk about two of the best books I've ever read about snakes and nature, and raise the larger question about why even those of us who seriously, really don't like snakes should re-consider our prejudices against those who do.

Much of what we know about snakes and other small and elusive species comes from the hard work of field biologists like Kate Jackson, the author of "Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo." Jackson, just like Natalie McNear, was once a little girl lying on her belly in the grass, looking for snakes. Today, she's a biology professor and one of the first herpetologists to slog through the swampy forests of the Northern Congo, studying and cataloguing the reptiles and amphibians she found there.

[....]

(Cornell University Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) Harry Greene opens the final section of (his book) "Snakes" with this quotation from Sengalese conservationist Baba Dioum:

 

In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.

 

My purpose here is not to convince you to love snakes. I still don't, and even Rolf and McNear say what they feel for their snakes is more respect and fascination than love. But I think Dioum is right, that we only save what we care about, and we only care about what we learn to understand.

Every day, hundreds of parents, older sisters and babysitters respond with a shudder and "get that thing out of this house!" when a child shows up with a harmless garden snake in his or her hands. What if instead we taught ourselves to understand and respect people's interest in snakes and those other "mean and lowly" creatures? Wouldn't doing that not only help kids to retain, but us to reclaim, some of that sense of wonder at the natural world and the desire to preserve it for the future?

I hope you'll read the article, even if you don't like snakes -- in fact, especially if you don't. And let me know if it worked or not; did I get you to think about them, and the people who love them, in a new way?

The stealth approach to dog training

A little book came in for review yesterday, and I flipped through it last night. The book is Carol Lea Benjamin's See Spot Sit (Skyhorse Publishing, $10.95), and it's subtitled "101 Illustrated Tips for Training the Dog You Love." It should probably be instead subtitled, "101 really sneaky ways to get people to train their dogs without realizing it."



"Wow," I thought as I read, "I bet [name redacted to protect the guilty] wouldn't even know I was sending her a dog training book if I gave her this, and it might finally make her get why her dogs have so many behavior problems."



And then it struck me. Everyone should read this little book of dog cartoons, because it slips its sensible, humane, effective message in with such gentle humor that before they know it, they'll find themselves nodding and smiling and reaching for a dog cookie to see if their dog, too, will do that.



It's funny, it's cheerful, it's neither rooted in outdated training concepts nor so firmly allied with any single school of training that it will get anyone's resistance up or lead owners astray (no choke chains, no "alpha rolls," but also, no clickers), just a subtle enticement down the path of teaching you how to communicate with your dog so that the two of you don't get into trouble.



And all wrapped up in a little stacked-by-the-cash-register paperback package that means anyone you give it to will just think it's a witty little book of dog doodles. That's so devious smart!