Coffee and Provocation

That's a Really Good Dog Trainer!
Some dog trainers are so good they can even train their dogs to get a university degree. 

Pit Bull Owner Faces Murder Charges
A Pit Bull owner is finally charged with murder.  The bail is over $1 million.

PeTA -- Animal Kevorkians Running a Direct Mail Mill
PETA is reported to be asking a court to give it the personal information, email addresses, phone numbers, and other data for three bloggers who reacted to an April 2 posting by a no-kill shelter advocate. It seems one of the bloggers called PETA “animal Kevorkians.” So?  And what is untrue about that?  Nothing!  Apparently PeTA is upset that articles in the press have accused the organization of killing over 90 percent of the dogs and cats at their Virginia "shelter".  But so what?  That's true! As for PeTA's lawyers, they are a bunch of fools. No one fears them; they are a joke.  

I  💩  New York
Sam Penix’s right fist has a knuckle tattoo which reads:  “I [coffee cup] N Y.”  The bold red coffee cup looks nothing like a heart, and the rest is common English, but that has not stopped the over-lawyered, stupid-on-a-stick troglodytes at the New York State Department of Economic Development from suing Mr. Penix for advertising his Everyman's Expresso coffee shop.  They say Mr. Penix's slogan, "I [coffee cup] NY" is an infringement of the "I ♥ NY" logo.   Right.  Time to rebrand the state then:  I  💩  New York.   The Unicode for a pile of dog poo is:  Alt +1F4A9.  And, for the record, the New York State Department of Economic Development is supposed to be HELPING small businesses, like Mr. Penix's coffee shop, not trying to shut them down.

Isle Royal Wolves Have No Pups
The wolves of Isle Royal may have finally tumbled down the genetic bottleneck to oblivion, as this year they had no pups, likely due to infecundity due to inbreeding.

Channel Island Fox are Roaring Back
The Channel Island Fox, an island dwarf species related to the Gray Fox, has roared back from just 85-130 individuals in 1999.  Today, the species is on the verge of a dramatic recovery — one of the fastest population growth curves in the history of the Endangered Species Act — with nearly 2,500 of them now on the Channel Islands.  The resurgence of the Channel Island Fox is due to the shooting and extirpation of feral pigs that drew Golden Eagles to the island, the trapping and removal of Golden Eagles to the interior mainland, and the return of Bald Eagles which have traditionally called the Island home and kept it free of Golden Eagles.  Note that while 8 deeply inbred wolves on Isle Royal (see previous squib) with only one alpha male and one alpha female mating each year is probably a program for extinction of that species on that island, a population of 88 genetically heterogeneous Channel Fox, in which every male and female can pair off like rabbits, results in a very different situation. 
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Smart Meets Stupid and Hilarity Ensues

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Away in the Manger

The Stocks

I was reading a bit about Colonial law and punishment. 

Over on the history web site of Colonial Williamsburg, they tell of the fellow who was commissioned to make a new set of wooden stocks for the City of Boston.  The fellow who was commissioned for the job, however, dramatically over-charged for it (it seems that ripping off the Government is a very old game), and the local magistrates hit him with treble damages and they also... wait for it... put him in the stocks he had just built as punishment.

Beautiful.

That was a good story, but the tale that raised an eyebrow and made it into water-cooler conversation at work was this little gem:

Sex was of particular concern. Outlawed were masturbation, fornication, adultery, sodomy, buggery, and every other sexual practice that inched off the line of straight sex as approved by the Bible. The term "sodomy" was applied to homosexual behavior; "buggery" to bestiality.

Punishment for such serious sexual crimes could be severe. Thomas Granger of Plymouth, a boy of seventeen or so, was indicted in 1642 for buggery "with a mare, a cow, two goats, five sheep, two calves and a turkey." Granger was hanged; the animals, for their part in the affair, were executed according to the law, Leviticus 20.15, and "cast into a great and large pit that was digged for the purpose for them, and no use was made of any part of them."

After reading this to a co-worker, his response was classic: "A Turkey?!"

Yep, a cow, two goats, five sheep and two calves barely stopped the brain. It took a turkey to break the deal!

As for punishing animals for the crimes of their masters, think nothing of it. It still goes on, as anyone who has ever walked the cold-hard floors of a kill kennel can tell you.
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Dogs on the Railroads: Then and Now

George Earl is famous for his paintings of sporting events and animals, particularly dogs.  The picture shown above (click to enlarge) is entitled "Going North, Kings Cross Station," and was done in 1893.  It shows a shooting party waiting for the 10 am train to Scotland. The scene takes place in the East Hall of Kings Cross Station, and the travelers are upper class passengers and servants with hunting and sporting equipment, including dogs.



"Going South, Perth Station," was painted in 1895, and shows the same party returning home via the Perth railroad station, complete with pelts, grouse, and even a set of antlers. Look carefully, and you will see some of the same people (and perhaps dogs) in both paintings.

In the U.S., for unexplained reasons, pet and hunting dogs are not allowed on trains, not even in travel carriers. A new bill to correct that has recently been introduced. The "Pets on Trains Act of 2013" would allow small dogs on passenger trains as carry-on luggage, with larger dogs allowed to ride in the cargo hold in larger travel crates.
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Purebred Dogs Far Sicker Than Crossbreeds

A new study from UC Davis has found that pure bred dogs are far more likely to suffer from serious genetic-related illness than crossbred dogs.

The researchers evaluated records for more than 90,000 purebred and mixed-breed dogs that were examined at UC Davis’ veterinary medical teaching hospital between 1995 and 2010. From this group, 27,254 dogs were identified as having one or more of 24 genetic disorders, including various types of cancers, heart diseases, endocrine-system ailments and orthopedic problems, as well as allergies, bloat, cataracts, epilepsy, an eye lens problem and a liver condition. The 24 disorders were selected for the study because they can be diagnosed accurately, are highly prevalent in the overall dog population and are debilitating to the extent that owners would seek veterinary care for the animal. In addition, the selected disorders represent a variety of different locations and physiologic systems in the dog’s body. The researchers found that the prevalence of 13 of the 24 genetic disorders was approximately the same in purebred dogs as in their mixed-breed counterparts. Ten were found more frequently among purebred dogs, and one such disorder was more common in mixed-breeds.

The UC Davis study screened out all lesser-known breed-specific diseases, greatly skewing health data in favor of purebred dogs, but still the research shows that purebred dogs are much more likely to suffer from serious and costly genetic problems than crossbred dogs.

This, of course, is nothing new as insurance records have proven the case for years and years,which is perhaps why the UC Davis press department tossed out the study's actual data in favor of a headline which is demonstrably not supported by the work itself.
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A Meeting of Like Minds

 

This is a cropped version of a painting entitled, "Meeting of the Gun Dogs Society" painted in 1904 by George Earl.

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Coffee and Provocation

 

Samoans Suggest Exporting Canned Dog As Solution for Stray Dogs: 

The Pacific island state of Samoa is considering solving its stray dog problem by exporting canned dog meat to Asia. Samoa currently has about 200,000 people and reportedly has more stray dogs than tourists. The country's associate minister, Tole'afoa Apulu Fa'afisi, has proposed in parliament that stray dogs be rounded up, canned, and exported to to Asia, and his suggestion has received strong support from fellow MPs. "Rather than spending money on dogs, how about we use their meat to get money?" he said. "Put them in cans and export them. Looking after other farm animals is also expensive maybe we can grind their meat to feed farm animals?"  Samoan finance minister, Faumuina Tiatia Liuga, embraced the idea, noting that "There is no difference between the meat of a pig and that of a dog. When it gets cold in Asia, the moment you eat dog meat, you feel warm afterwards."

Whales Turned Into Japanese Dog Food?

Whales are being killed in Iceland and turned into dog treats for the luxury pet market in Japan. Read all about it. 

The Continuing Coffee Crisis
Coffee is being sold as having been run through a Civet's rectum when it has not.  Fraud!

 

Who You Calling a Loser, Loser? 

Remember Mitt Romney?  He said the government's loan to boot the development of the Tesla electric car was a "loser" but Tesla is paying back it's $465 million loan from the Department of Energy 9 years ahead of schedule. 

 

Will Your Next Car Get 100 MPG? 

The Ford Fusion Energi has an EPA-rated fuel economy of 100 MPGe combined, 108 MPGe city, and 92 MPGe on the highway and it has a 5-star safety rating from the NHTSA. The 2013 Ford Fusion Energi Titanium starts at $40,200, a price tag that can be offset by a Federal tax credit of $3,751.  Still too rich for me, but prices are likely to keep coming down.  In 10 years, gasoline cars will not make sense for most people.

 

Fake Security Cameras for Less

On Amazon for just $9. Get two or three to keep tension in the system.

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Are You Sheep, Sheepdog or Wolf?

Over at The Art of the Manliness they look at the options and even recommend ways to cultivate your "inner sheepdog."
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Mutton Chops for All

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Classic Beauties. The Woman Too.

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News From Wales

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Groucho and Harpo

 

Behind every great man is a great dog.

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Catch and Release Groundhog

Today's first was a catch and release. That's my $5 DIY pole snare still going strong.

Bird Trap

Found this sparrow trap at Luckett’s.  This is 2-bay, and the middle bay is where a bait bird or live decoy is placed to attract others birds to the open compartments.

The way this trap works is that there is a small thimble of seed at the bottom, and when the sparrow lands on the triangle-shaped perch, the bird's weight triggers the trap door to close. A nice little set-up.

Best Trailer Porn Ever

Big Barn

Went with my son to his first Industrial League baseball team double header near Hagerstown. This massive barn was behind the baseball field.  One of the largest I have seen.

Best Sign Evah

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About Last Night

Shot this out the window of the car with the Iphone on the way home last night. 

That's the moon behind a cloud, not the sun. 

Nice to always have a camera with you that also has a lot of photo-massaging aps on it.

Enhanced reality is better with aps than it is with beer or drugs.
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Where Will We Pasture the Horses?

 

Massive picture of the greatest shot of horses evah!  Source.

 

All Those "Big Cat" Flaps are Nonsense

From The Guardian comes this little missive about the nonsense claim that that there are "Big Cats" rolling around the manicured, plowed and hound-besotted English countryside:

There is scarcely a self-respecting borough in Britain which does not now possess a Beast. Even the London suburbs claim to be infested with big cats: there is a Beast of Barnet, Beast of Cricklewood, a Crystal Palace Puma,a Sydenham Panther. There have been occasional reports of mysterious British cats throughout history, but over the past few years the sightings have boomed.

In her book Mystery Big Cats, Merrily Harpur finds that "cat-flaps", as she calls them, are occurring at the rate of 2,000 to 4,000 a year. Harpur notes that around three-quarters of all the cats reported are black, and they are commonly described as glossy and muscular. She also makes the fascinating observation that while the most likely candidate is a melanistic leopard (the leopard is the species in which the black form, though rare, occurs most often) she has not been able to find a single account of an ordinary, spotted leopard seen in the wild in Britain.

....Yet, despite camera traps deployed in likely places throughout Britain, despite the best efforts of hundreds of enthusiasts armed with long lenses and thermal imaging equipment, we have yet to see a single unequivocal image captured in this country. Of the photographs and fragments of footage I have seen, around half are evidently domestic cats. Roughly a quarter are cardboard cut-outs, cuddly toys, the result of crude Photoshopping or – as the surrounding vegetation reveals – pictures taken in the tropics. The remainder are so distant and indistinct that they could be anything: dogs, deer, foxes, bin liners, yetis on all fours.

Nor have the tireless efforts to catch or kill these animals yielded anything more convincing. The hundreds of traps set for big cats in Britain have caught only two large predators. One, in 1980, was a tame puma, which had been released by a man about to be sent to prison. The other was a cryptozoologist called Pete Bailey, who had spent 15 years hunting the Beast of Exmoor, entered one of his traps to change the bait and accidentally tripped the mechanism. He was stuck there for two nights, eating the raw meat he had set for the cat, before he was rescued. We hunt the Beast, but the Beast is us....

...In 1995 the government sent investigators to Bodmin moor in Cornwall, where the evidence for big cats was said to be strongest. They spent six months in the field. There is something of the 19th-century royal commission about this investigation. The report contains photos of a strapping fellow with a large moustache and a measuring pole, demonstrating the heights of the natural features on which the creatures were photographed. The text reads in places like the final chapters of The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is thorough, exhaustive, and devastating to those who argued that, while other reputed big cats might not exist, the Beast of Bodmin was real.

They examined the famous video sequence, broadcast widely on television, which shows a cat leaping cleanly over a drystone wall. It looks impressive, until you see the man from the ministry standing beside the wall with his pole, and realise that the barrier is knee-high. A monstrous cat sitting on a gatepost shrinks, when the pole arrives, from a yard at the shoulder to a foot. In one case, where the Beast was filmed crossing a field, the investigators brought a black domestic cat to the scene, set it down in the same spot and photographed it from where the video had been taken. The moggie looks slightly bigger than the monster.

The investigators compared a chilling nocturnal close-up of the Beast with a picture of a real black leopard, and spotted an obvious but hitherto-unnoticed problem. The panther in the cage, like all big cats, has round pupils, while the creature in the photograph has vertical slits, a feature confined to smaller species, such as the domestic cat....

Could it be that illusory big cats also answer an unmet need? As our lives have become tamer and more predictable, as the abundance and diversity of nature has declined, could these imaginary creatures have brought us something we miss?

Perhaps the beasts many people now believe are lurking in the dark corners of the land inject into our lives a thrill that can otherwise be delivered only by artificial means. Perhaps they reawaken vestigial evolutionary memories of conflict and survival, memories that must incorporate encounters – possibly the most challenging encounters our ancestors faced – with large predatory cats. They hint at an unexpressed wish for lives wilder and fiercer than those we now lead. Our desires stare back at us, yellow-eyed and snarling, from the thickets of the mind.

If all of this sounds a bit like something you have read on this blog in the past, that might because you remember a 2005 post entitled The Beast of Exmoor and Other Nonsense.  And, as the links below suggest, it's a topic I have revisited a few time since then. 

The bottom line is that America has vast tracts of forest and a large number of true big predators that are breaking out of the InterMountain West with extraordinary rapidity, while the UK is an island will small woods that shot out its last large predator around 1750.  There are very few Scottish Wildcats left in the U.K. (most are in captivity on an island in the Hebrides), and this animal is only a big larger than the average house cat. A few feral imported pet Savannah cats from Africa may be occasionally released by tired pet owners in the U.K., but again this is an animal that is only a big larger than the average house cat, and most are soon dead from dogs and gun; there are no long-term breeding populations. 

What the British are looking for is something they lost with over-population and poor game management:  a last bit of the wild, something a little wilder, something approaching true wilderness. 

That is gone, and it's not coming back. 

Let that be a warning to all of us in America.  Rising human population numbers serve no one who loves the land, the woods, the forests and the streams.  If we do not want wolves and wilderness to be but a memory, we have to  have a national discussion about population numbers.  We cannot grow on like this forever.

• Related Posts:
  ** Connecticut Mountain Lion Was a Wild Animal
  ** Wild Cougar Shot in Chicago 
  ** P.T. Barnum and the Beastiaries of the Imagination
  ** The Beast of Exmoor and Other Nonsense
  ** The Lion of Dartmoor
  ** Kentucky Big Cat Claims are Bogus
  ** Hear Hooves? Don't Assume Zebra!
  ** The U.S. Now Has More Lions Than Africa
  ** Big Cat Sighting in the UK Proves REAL
  ** Central Park Coyote - New York City 

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American Bird Feeder

Our bird feeders routinely feature all the colors of the American flag.  Is this a great country, or what?

America: Fat, Sick, Broke and in Denial

New York City Bought 2.5 Million Dog Tags

It seems that back when we were being told to "duck and cover" in case of nuclear attack, our fearless leaders were preparing to identity the dead, burnt and twisted bodies of millions of school children.

The entire scheme, notes the PaleoFuture blog, depended on a lot of dog tags. 

In February of 1952 the city of New York bought 2.5 million dog tags. By April of that year, just about every kid in the city from kindergarten to fourth grade had a tag with their name on it. Kids in many other cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas and Philadelphia also got dog tags, allowing for easy identification should the unthinkable occur.

But educators weren't considering just dog tags to identify the scores of dead and injured children that would result if the cold war suddenly turned hot. They also considered tattoos.

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Blah, Blah Blah. Walkies!

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Good News: Dog Homes Swarm With Bacteria

The kid is healthy, the Dogues not so much.

A new study published in PLoS ONE says homes with dogs in them are swarming with bacteria, and that's a good thing.  Notes a summary article on the Discovery web site:

Bacteria would seem to be the last thing we’d need, but that’s not the case. This phenomenon, however gross sounding, seems to be healthy for most people.

Women who have a dog in the home when pregnant, for example, are less likely to have children with allergies. Researchers suspect the mom-to-be and her unborn child are exposed to a wider variety of microbes. They then become accustomed to them.

Previous research has shown that dog bacteria in a house also reduces the chance of childhood asthma.
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Last Birthday

My mother and father on his last Birthday, December 1st, 2012.

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Giant American Dinosaurs

Texas alligator, 14 feet, 3 inches, 800 pounds, shot this week by Braxton Bielski.

Florida python, 18 foot 8 inches, 128 pounds, taken by hand and knife this week by Jason Leon.

Not to worry:  There are plenty more giants out there.  Florida, Louisiana, Texas and several other states have alligator hunting under permit, while Florida actually pays a bounty for Pythons.

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And Then a Miracle: Best Tornado Video Ever

Best tornado moment since Dorothy and Toto landed on the Wicked Witch of the East.
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The White House Puppy No One Wanted

Dog breeders crank out puppies and, despite what they tell each other and what they tell themselves, most never bother to actually find out what happened to their dogs after that first exchange of money.

Nor does anyone else, it seems. 

We have over 75 million dogs in this country, but finding solid statistics on where puppies come from -- and where they go to over the course of their lives-- is very difficult. 

I know of no research that tracks puppies by "source stream" (pet shop, newspaper, hobby breeder, UKC, AKC, working dog kennel, friend, pound puppy) over a life time. 
 

Even being in the public eye does not necessarily guarantee a stable life.  Take the case of "Feller," a Cocker Spaniel puppy that arrived unsolicited at the White House in December of 1947. 

Though Harry Truman rather famously said that "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog,” he apparently was not much of a dog man himself. 

President Truman named the un-asked for pup “Feller," and though Harry Truman's daughter wanted to keep the dog, Bess Truman over-ruled her as she knew the real job of taking care of the dog was to fall on her shoulders, and she wanted no part of it.

With neither Harry nor Bess Truman eager to keep the dog, the puppy was quietly placed with Brigadier General Wallace Graham who was the White House physician and who was stationed at quarters in Walter Reed Army Hospital.

The fact that Truman did not immediately embrace a dog he never asked for did not sit well with the newspaper-reading public who attacked Truman as “anti-dog” and denounced Dr. Graham for having had the temerity to accept it. 

Do you think this little tempest in a teacup might have had more to do with politics than concern about canine welfare?  Count on it!

Graham, perhaps realizing that the hospital was not the best place to raise a dog, or perhaps under direct orders from the White House, which may have been trying to manage this contrived crisis, decided to move the dog on to Admiral James K. Foskett who took the young dog to Camp David where it was given to Quartermaster Chief George A. Poplin to manage.   

Though nominally back in the orbit of the White House at Camp David, Feller had actually passed through five hands in short order and was, in fact, owned by no one, a situation that continued for a number of years.  Poplin was eventually transferred, and Feller's care was then handed off to Camp David's Damage Control Chief Ralph Loften who, in turn, eventually passed the dog on to Chief Boatswain Robert W. Lyle (Camp David is under the command of the U.S. Navy and Marines despite being located in the Maryland mountains).

When Lyle was transferred to Italy in 1953, he asked if he could take Feller with him. Permission was granted under one condition:  No mention could ever be made of the fact that the dog had once been given to Harry Truman!

In the end, Feller never actually went to Italy with Robert Lyle.  Instead, the dog was given by Robert to his father, Archie Otis Lyle, who owned a farm near Greenfield, Ohio.  There Feller finally lived out the remainder of his life, owned at last. 

Feller is said to have died happy and in old age, but I can find no mention of his actual age at passing.

While the story of Feller is exceptional in that this was a dog given to a President, it is unexceptional in the sense that this dog was jettisoned by a breeder who gave very little thought  to what might happen to the dog, and who never bothered to follow up. 

Like so many dogs, Feller was dumped/acquired in haste and without too much planning, and it subsequently passed through many hands before it disappeared off the radar.

Did Feller really die happy in old age?  Perhaps.  We would all like to think so.  But the fact that this story does not have a clear terminal date suggests this might be wishful thinking.

If anyone turns up a documented end-date for Feller, I would like to hear it! 

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Your Dog is Sick or Dead Because It's Big

Click to enlarge.

Dogs have the widest range of body sizes among mammals.

The size differential between the largest dog, the Great Dane, and the smallest, the Chihuahua, appears to be due to a single gene which suppresses IGF-1, an "insulin-like growth factor 1" hormone. 

This single-gene hormone-suppression appears only in domestic dogs, and only in the smaller dogs such as the Jack Russell Terrier.

Suppression of the IGF-1 appears to be associated with a longer life span.  Conversely, animals across a wide variety of species have been shown to have an increased risk of death from age-related diseases such as cancer and heart disease if higher levels of IGF-1 are present.
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This is What 80 Looks Like Now.

Well, not quite 80.   This is Mom and Pearl at Great Falls at Carderrock on Saturday.
 
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Goose Mom and Chicks

 

This shot was taken with my IPhone at C&O canal, so you know I was pretty close.  

 

This pair of Canada Geese actually had six chicks, spread out in two groups of three, perhaps nature's way of reducing the chance of mortality from a single-event run-in with a stray cat, dog or fox.

 

Baby geese, fox kits, and fawns are likely to be dead within three months of being born -- such is the natural mortality of most wildlife. 

 

If two geese have six chicks every year, at least six of the eight have to die every year (including the parents) to maintain population stability.  The only question in such matters is how the death occurs, and in what season. 

 

Though most hunting takes place in the fall and in the winter, it's actually Spring that is the cruel season.

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Potomac Palisades

Picture taken yesterday just below Great Falls at Carderrock. 
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Fox and Feral Cat Abatement in Australia

This picture is almost certainly from Australia, where there is a state-paid bounty on fox in order to help protect native marsupials that are being decimated and pushed into extinction by these foreign predatory invaders.

And what is that smaller, darker-pelted animal three-fourths of the way down the line? Almost certainly a cat. Feral cats and fox are poisoned and shot on sight in Australia.  

You have to kill the snakes if you want to keep things right in the Garden of Eden.  In Australia, you have to kill the fox and feral cats, and they make no apologies about it.

• Related Links:
  ** Terrier Work Down Under
  ** Australia and the End of the Game
  ** Australian Mad Scientists Lose Funding for Fox Extinction
  ** Red Tasmanian Devils
  ** The Last Thylacine
  ** Poisoning Lord Howe Island
  ** Kiwi Killers
  ** There's No Such Thing as a Pack of Wild Dogs
  ** Time to Eat More Kangaroo and Camel
  ** Rat Poison and Wildlife Conservation
  ** Steve Irwin Was a Big Fat Liar
  ** The "Show of the Week" in Australia
  ** Australians Gearing Up for Kennel Club Change  

I'm Ugly?

Compared to what?

And You Should See How They Hunt!

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Happy Dog

A fully self-actualized working terrier goes to the hole.

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Blonde and Bear

From the Shorpy web site this morning comes this little gem which is captioned: "Marilyn Monroe and friend in Alberta, Canada, in 1953 for the filming of River of No Return. Photo by John Vachon for Look magazine. View full size." 

Marilyn looks very life-like.
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The Impact of Hollywood on Dog Breeds

This guest post comes from Roger Kethcart who writes at Cabel.tv and the proud owner of an enormous, black lab-husky mix.  Enjoy!

The Impact of Hollywood on Dog Breeds

Some of the most beloved Hollywood stars in history have been dogs, not people. Since the early days of Lassie, the entertainment industry has capitalized on animal loving viewers by creating loveable dog characters and it's paid off at the box off and in TV ratings.

But while the public seems to love animal centric entertainment, the animals don't always benefit from box office success. In fact, the entertainment industry has overly sensationalized dog breeds in some instances, leading to more harm than good.

It's a topic that has been debated at length, but looking back through the recent history of dogs in TV and film, it's hard to deny that there is a vicious cycle that stems from dogs featured in entertainment.

1. The public falls in love with the dog they see on screen.
2. The public purchases a dog of the same breed, using the movie or TV dog as a standard for the entire breed.
3. Demand for the breed increases, sometimes leading to puppy milling and overproduction.
4. Uninformed owners become dissatisfied with issues they may have known about had they conducted more research prior to purchasing the dog.
5. Animal rescue organizations see an increase in breed abandons.

It's a chain reaction that has been set off time and time again throughout recent history.

For example, Dalmatians had classically been portrayed as firehouse dogs in pop culture. But when 101 Dalmatians debuted in 1996, the public started considering the breed for family pets. In the year of the film's release, the demand for Dalmatian puppies sharply increased. But in the months immediately proceeding, animal rescue organizations saw as much as a 25% increase in the inventory of Dalamatian orphans. Why? The breed appears different on screen than it does in real life.

Perhaps selected for attractiveness, Dalmatians come with a bit more complexity than impulse shoppers are prepared to handle. Proper research of the breed reveals a different picture than what is shown in the Walt Disney film. Dalmatians are typically high energy and demand ample attention and regular exercise. As mentioned in an older post, Dalmatians also are genetically predisposed to a variety of medical problems like deafness and urinary problems. A thin frame makes them intolerant to cold weather. All issues overlooked by dog buyers motivated by pop culture as opposed to diligent dog breed research.

Nearly the same thing happened with the premier of Beethoven in the early 1900s. The larger than life dog featured in the family movie appears to be a protective yet loveable addition to the modern American family. The chain reaction was the same. There was an increased public interest in the breed that caused breeders to take extreme measures to catch up. Overproduction and puppy milling results.

Breeders with ulterior motives will capitalize on recent popularity of a specific breed and begin producing them in mass quantities. St. Bernard backyard breeders set up shop for the duration of the Beethoven movie series. The result? Generations and generations of poorly bred dogs host to health problems and more.

So what is the solution for this seemingly inevitable problem? It's unlikely that Hollywood will stop producing TV shows and movies about dogs – and we wouldn't want them to! Although dog actors may not make the list of the highest paid actors and actresses, they are certainly the most fun to watch.

It all goes back to diligently researching a breed before purchasing a dog, a topic discussed numerous times on this blog and others. A TV or movie dog truly can't be used as litmus for the entire breed. That combined with more stringent breeding regulations are the only defense we have against the next instance of a Hollywood dog sensation.
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I Develop a Hole in My Life

My 84-year old father, who had been struggling with hydrocephalus for a few years, took a very serious fall last Wednesday morning at about 2 am and hit his head.  

What followed was massive inner-cranial bleeding, a coma, a do-not resuscitate order, and hospice.

He died on Monday morning.

David M. Burns was born to the town drunk in the poorest town in Kentucky, never graduated from high school, and yet he got his GED in the Air Force, graduated from Princeton, married the love of his life, Sandra Dunlop, toured the world as a representative of the U.S. Government (living in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Zimbabwe, Mali, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria), learned both Arabic and French, bought and gave to the State of Kentucky a square mile of land to protect an old growth forest forever.  He started the first climate program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, wrote the first editorial on climate change in The New York Times, built a custom house on Dupont Circle just a few blocks from my office, and toured the world with the Buck Clayton Quintet playing upright bass and trombone.

He married well and stayed married for 58 years. He was the straightest and most honest man I ever met. 

He saw the world with my Mom, who came from a small town in Kansas. They went everywhere, from Petra to the Kyber Pass, from Paris to Machu Pichu, from Alaska to the Amazon, from Mexico to Vietnam. I was very lucky to have him as a father, and I am very lucky to still have my mother just five or six blocks from where I sit most days.

I am proud to be my parent's son. 

Now I have a hole in my life, but there is some comfort, as my father knew that Nothing Loved Is Ever Lost, and he even made an album with that title.

I was playing that CD in the car one day, and a track came on called "Lulu's Back in Town," written in 1935.  It's a great tune, and my favorite on the album, as it's a very upbeat and amusing number that recounts a fellow getting decked out for his girl.

Gotta get my old Tuxedo pressed
I gotta sew a button on my vest
'Cause tonight, I've gotta look my best
Lulu's back in town

Gotta find a half a buck somewhere
I gotta shine my shoes and slick my hair
I gotta get myself a boutonniere
'Cause Lulu's back in town

The song had just about ended when a small voice came from the back seat. It was my son, age 6 or 7. 

"Dad?"

"Yes, Austin?"

"Is Grandma, Lulu?"

Yes Austin, Grandma is Lulu. Grandma was Lulu every damn day since the moment he met her. And she still is.

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Angelina Jolie's Tits and Your Dog

The actress Angelina Jolie just got a double mastectomy...

The actress Angelina Jolie just got a double mastectomy because DNA testing shows she carries a genetic mutation which suggests she has an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent chance of developing ovarian cancer in her lifetime.

A double mastectomy and a salpingo-oophorevtomy (removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries) greatly reduces the chance of cancer in the same way that a clear-cut of a forest lessens the chance of forest fire. Jolie wrote an op-ed about all this in The New York Times yesterday.  Read it.

This morning, I got notice that a Finnish web site called mydogdna went live yesterday.  The web site purports to be a virtual one-stop shop for genetic health testing for dogs.

Let me stretch a bit, and say what I believe will be true:  this company will have no impact at all on the health of dogs in general or on the health of specific breeds. 

The reason for this is simple:  the folks who really work dogs are breeding for work first, and nothing else second.  The folks who are really breeding for show are breeding for ribbons first and nothing else second. 

As for the vast majority of dog dealers and hobby breeders, they have no idea what they are doing, and neither do their customers.  If they did, they would be adopting perfectly healthy and low-cost dogs directly from the local pound. 

Angelina Jolie and her husband, Brad Pitt, are case examples:  They acquired the most obviously and famously unhealthy dog in the world -- an English Bulldog.  Adopt kids?  Sure.  Angelina was all in, as she no doubt knew the genetic load she carried.  But a dog?  No research needed there!

Nor would it have mattered to most people.  After all, it's not the breeder or even the owner of an English Bulldog that has to struggle with breathing in air every moment of their life. 

In that way, dog owners are a bit like teenage boys looking at lumps of well-placed fat on Jolie's sleek frame.  Sure those tits might kill her, but she sure is cute now, and besides by the time breast or ovarian cancer gets her, she will have wrinkles and a bit more weight and carnal desires will have moved on.  She will be last season's dog.  Who cares what happened to her or how she died.  Old actress, free to good home.  She will no longer be "winning ribbons."

As for the genetic testing of dogs for disease, an increasing number of tests are available, but the dog show culture is such that no one makes the results of "bad" tests available.  To do so not only implicates your own dog and your own judgment (you paid money for that diseased dog?), but also the breeder's entire line, as well as all those he or she sold to in the past. 

Scores, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars, are in the swing and wrecked reputations and bad blood are assured, and the chance of litigation related to defamation is not zero.  Better (and cheaper) not to know!

With that said, and because we all learn more from story than from lecture, or even example, let me offer this:

A Parable About Canine Genetic Testing

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The Man Who Bought A House

by Richard Packham
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In this town there lived a man who had been able to save enough money from his hard work that he decided that he was now able to afford a very nice house for his family. In one of the nicer parts of town was a beautiful old house that appeared to be vacant, and he often went by and looked at it from the street. The more he looked at it, the more he fell in love with this old house.

One day as he was standing admiring this house, he was approached by a very nice-looking gentleman who said to him: "I have noticed you frequently admiring this fine old house. I happen to be the agent for the owner, and I am authorized to sell it, if I can find a buyer." This was, of course, good news to the man, since the more he had looked at the house, the more he wanted it for himself and his family.

The agent took the man into the house and showed him through it, and everything the man saw made him want the house even more. The house was beautifully designed and built, with skill and imagination, in a style which was no longer very popular among most people, but which he and his family had always found attractive. He could picture in his mind how happy and comfortable his family would be there. It seemed that his fondest dream was about to come true. The man bought the house.

Before the man moved his family into the house, he asked the agent about the usual inspections, for termites, dry rot and other possible structural problems. The agent told him that everything had been inspected thoroughly by his staff. "You can take my word for it: this house is sound and solid. It is the finest house in the city!" The man thought for a moment that he should ask to see the inspection reports, but the agent was the kind of person that inspired trust and confidence, and the man had a strong feeling deep in his heart that the agent would not try to deceive him about something so important.

The man and his family moved into their home, and it was even more lovely and comfortable than he had imagined. They invited their friends and relatives to visit them, and they were able to entertain them graciously and hear their guests' praises of their beautiful home.

One evening his brother was visiting. The brother was a meddlesome and sometimes unpleasant person, but the man tried to be gracious to him because he was his brother.

"This is a very lovely old house you have," said the brother.

"Thank you for the compliment," replied the man.

"How is the foundation? Sometimes these old houses have structural problems."

"Don't worry about that," responded the man. "Everything has been inspected and is in good order."

"Who inspected it?"

The man began to get irritated with his brother. "It's really none of your business, but I'll be happy to tell you. The seller's agent had it inspected."

"Did you examine the report yourself?

This was really going too far, the man felt. But he answered anyway, "I didn't have to. The agent read the reports and told me that they were in order."

"How can you trust the agent that much?" the brother asked, shaking his head.

"I pity you if you have to go through life without trust, without belief, without relying on the goodness of others! Sometimes you just know in your heart that you can trust someone."

The brother said nothing, but got up to leave. "I'll maybe poke around a little outside and look over your foundation. I'm not an expert, but I do have some experience with these things."

"I do not give you permission to go nosing about my house or grounds. You are just looking for something that will give you an excuse to find fault with my home and to spoil my enjoyment of it!"

"I assure you that I am only motivated by my concern for you as my brother. I will not cause any damage." And with that, he left the house.

As he looked around the grounds and examined the house, he had to admit that it was beautiful. But he also knew that paint could hide many problems. Near a corner, in the back, he found a small, almost invisible door that appeared to lead into the basement. It had been sealed shut with a half-dozen screws.

He went back inside and asked the man: "Are you aware of the door into the basement which has been sealed shut?"

"Of course I am aware of it!"

"Why is it sealed shut?"

"Because there is absolutely no need for anyone to go into the basement. There is nothing there."

"Have you ever been there?"

"No, of course not! Why would I want to go down there? I'm sure that it's just dank and musty, and there's nothing there."

"I think it would pay to take a look, to check the foundation."

"Absolutely not!" shouted the man. "This is MY house! It is MY basement! I have no interest in going there, and I forbid you to do so! I told you that the foundation has already been inspected. Now please leave me in peace!"

Rather than argue with the man, the brother left. But the sealed door continued to bother him, and the basement which it concealed. A few weeks later, when the brother knew that the man and his family were going to be away for a day or two, the brother took a screwdriver and a flashlight to the man's house and carefully opened the sealed door.

He had to stoop to enter the dark basement. The man had been right: there was nothing down there, except the posts and beams and braces that held up the house. As he crept among them, lighting his way with the flashlight, he noticed that the beams and posts had thick coats of paint. Everything was covered with paint. He took his pocket knife and scraped away the paint in a few spots, and where he had removed the paint, instead of solid wood he found a lacy, delicate framework of worm holes. He scraped away paint from some of the other structural members, in all parts of the basement, and found that the wood fiber was missing in all of them, either having been eaten by worms or termites, or having crumbled with dry rot. He was horrified. Not a single beam or post or brace could be relied on. He wondered what could be holding up the great weight of the house. It seemed to be only the paint which was covering up the rot. He almost imagined he could feel the house settling, having removed the little bit of paint, and he urgently wanted to escape. He found his way to the door, and closed it carefully after he was again in the sunshine. But his mind was troubled.

As soon as the man and his family returned, the brother came to see him. "I have some terrible news for you," he said. He confessed that he had entered the basement, contrary to the man's order. "But I know you will forgive me when I tell you what I found." He then told the man that his entire house was in danger of falling down because of the worms, termites and rot in the structural members in the basement.

But instead of thanking his brother, the man flew into a rage. "You are telling me this only to rob me of the pleasure I have in living in this beautiful house! How can you attack me like this? How can you say such terrible things about a house that is so beautiful? You obviously are my enemy. You are jealous of me because of my house. You have made up these lies with the sole purpose of trying to destroy my happiness and to cast aspersions upon my house, the agent who sold it to me and the people who inspected it and pronounced it sound. Get out! And because you have become my enemy, I never wish to see you again!"

The brother tried to calm the man. "I assure you that I am not your enemy. I am acting only with your good at heart. Why would I want otherwise?"

The man would not be calmed. "You are trying to destroy my love for this house. Therefore you must have an evil motive."

"Please," said the brother. "Come down with me to your basement, and I will let you see with your own eyes what I have found."

"I am not interested in seeing anything that you have to show me. You are obviously such an evil person that you would stoop to any level to deceive me into believing your lies. You have probably planted phony evidence in my basement. You would twist and misinterpret anything I found so that it would appear to support your filthy lies about my house. No! I will not go into the basement with you! I don't care about your delusions, and I don't have the time to humor you."

The brother was puzzled by the man's obstinacy. He couldn't understand why he wouldn't at least look in the basement himself. Perhaps, by replacing the beams, or by taking other measures in time, the house could be saved. But if nothing was done, the house would surely collapse, sooner or later, perhaps injuring someone.

Seeing that he could not help, the brother left, sad that he had been unjustly labeled an "enemy."

In spite of the man's confidence in the soundness of his house, his brother's words did trouble him for a few days. Finally, he could no longer resist the temptation, and he took a flashlight and crept through the small door into the basement. He looked around and saw where his brother had scraped the paint away to expose the fragile, rotten timbers.

He was furious! Why had his brother done this? He went upstairs to a cabinet and got a bucket of paint and a brush, and carefully repainted all the places that his brother had scraped away. "There!" he said, as he screwed the door back into place.

He decided that he would not tell his wife and family what had happened, because it would only disturb them and spoil the love and pleasure they enjoyed, living in such a beautiful house. n

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