Thursday, January 31, 2019
Putting Excess Horse Meat in Cans for Dogs
With an explosion of farm tractors and trucks in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, a glut of old farm horses and mules appeared on the market. The horse and the mule, once an essential means of production, was now a nearly-useless vestige of another area consuming too much pasture, money, and time.
The solution? Canned dog food.
Canned dog food was heavily promoted in newspapers and magazines, and the television sets now cropping up in upper-middle class living rooms.
Horse and mule meat was touted as a pure and obviously good food or dogs -- real meat for real dogs. If people were now eating everything out of cans, surely dogs should too?
Baby It's Cold Outside
Dirt dens are a sensible way for animals to tuck in and get out of the cold, the heat, and the wet.
The list of animals that hibernate in underground burrows, live in burrows or nest in burrows is astounding: fox, badger, turtles, some owls and parrots, ground squirrels and marmots, some penguins and puffins, European rabbits, bears, wolves and dogs, otter, some wild pigs, some wild cats, many snakes and lizards, possums, raccoons, wombats, frogs and toads, moles, mice and rats, nutria, crayfish, armadillos, skunks, muskrats, meerkats, some large spiders, and several types of bees.
The Tree That Owns Itself
From Wikipedia comes this story:
The Tree That Owns Itself is a white oak tree that, according to legend, has legal ownership of itself and of all land within eight feet (2.4 m) of its base. The tree, also called the Jackson Oak, is located at the corner of South Finley and Dearing Streets in Athens, Georgia, United States. The original tree, thought to have started life between the mid-16th and late 18th century, fell in 1942, but a new tree was grown from one of its acorns, and planted in the same location. The current tree is sometimes referred to as the Son of The Tree That Owns Itself.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Revolution in a Coffee Cup
February 1 marks the anniversary of the day in 1960 when four black students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College entered a Woolworth’s department store in Greensboro, South Carolina and sat at the counter to order a cup of coffee. Staff refused them service, noting it was a “Whites Only” counter, and the store manager asked them to leave. Instead, the four men – Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Ezell Blair, Jr. – stayed at the counter until the store closed.
The next morning, the Greensboro Four were joined by 20 more students from North Carolina A & T College who were again refused service, and who again stayed all day. On February 3, over 60 people came to the Woolworth’s, and by the fifth day the number had reached over 300.
Faced with a public relations nightmare, Woolworth’s said it would "discuss" changes to the store's segregation policies, but no substantive revisions were made. Instead, the city passed new and more stringent segregation laws that allowed the police to arrest the protesters as trespassers.
Within a week, however, similar lunch counter protests were going on all over the south.
Facing an over 33% drop in sales, Woolworth’s dropped it’s segregation policies and, six months after the first sit-in, the Greensboro Four returned to the same Woolworth lunch counter to be served.
Fixing It With the Flip Test?
I posted the above meme to Facebook and was quickly barraged by ladies telling me that women build this country because... reasons.
OK. Maybe I am wrong.
If the ladies want to ignore 450 years of sexism that denied women the right to credit, capital, contract, vote, or even their own last name, who am I to argue?
If women want to forget that women were kept out of the paid workforce, could not be architects, could not open a bank account in their own name, and could not serve in the military or become priests or presidents, that is their right.
Conceding that I might be wrong, I decided to embrace the Stanley Crouch "flip test" and fix this appropriated meme by making a new one by simply changing the gender, substituting one cloth for another, and adding a picture.
All better now?
In truth, I am not sure this is an improvement. It seems to take the meme in another direction.
The original meme was about corporate bankers in New York and Washington boning out our farms and factories in order to leverage a tenth of a share more this fiscal quarter.
Is that what the second meme is about?
Apparently women in general, and women in suits in particular, have never turned a wrong corner.
Right.
I think that was generally true when women had no power to build or destroy.
But today? Not so much.
If you don't believe me, ask anyone who ever worked at Hewlett Packard while Carly Fiorina was sitting in the big chair.
Ask anyone in America the essential question of the day: who LOST to the pathological liar, multiple-bankrupt, Russia-loving, porn start raw-dogging, serial adulterating, pussy-grabbing, orange blow-hard who married an illegal alien?
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
No Dogs, Thanks
What kills sheep?
Dogs kill sheep.
Cold kills sheep.
Fox? They kill sheep so rarely that a fox killing a sheep has never been filmed.
As I noted in an earlier post, dependency dog trainers, in league with the folks that need a "cause" to make a profit in direct mail and magazine sales, have worked to ban e-collars in Scotland -- an extremely reliable tool to train dogs to stop sheep worrying. The results will be more shot dogs and more wounded sheep.
Is that success? Only if you don't give a damn about dogs or sheep.
Coffee and Provocation
This Entire Planet is a Seed Vault for Life
Soil and rock that is millions of years old, and thousands of feet deep, spring back to to microbial life in just days when subjected to nothing more than water. In short, life is immortal and everywhere.
Will Severe Cold Save Minnesota Ash Trees?
Extreme cold may wipe out a high percentage of emerald ash borer larvae.
GMO Chickens to Cure Cancer?
Try to Remember Your Teeth
The long-elusive cause of Alzheimer’s disease may be Porphyromonas gingivalis, a key bacteria in chronic gum disease.
Legally Order Pizza and Weed at the Same Time?
Marijuana delivery is now officially legal in Californnia. Marijuana tax revenues are exceeding projections in most states. With almost every US state operating a massive deficit, look for more states to legalize personal use marijuana.
Mulching With Grandpa
A bill before the Washington State Legislature would make it the first state to explicitly allow human remains to be disposed of and reduced to soil through composting. Death certificates in many states include a box that must be checked for burial or cremation, with no other options.
Hunting Numbers Decline Some More
Hunting has been in decline for a long time. The reason: it’s cold out, it’s hot out, there are bugs, there’s poison ivy, meat is cheap in the store, the neighbors aren’t cool with dressing a deer in the back yard, video games are pretty good now, there are 120 channels on TV, and ... Facebook. The latest report is from The Chicago Tribune where, “as hunting licenses go unsold in Indiana, officials and advocates are looking for answers.”
Evolved to Exercise?
Humans require high levels of physical activity to be healthy. "Our taking fewer than 10,000 daily steps is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. U.S. adults typically clock about 5,000 steps, which contributes to the alarming rates of type 2 diabetes, affecting one in 10 Americans, and heart disease, which accounts for a quarter of all deaths in the U.S..... Then there is all the sitting and resting. In humans, sitting at a desk or in front of the television for protracted periods is associated with increased risk of disease and a shorter life span, even among people who exercise. Worldwide, physical inactivity is arguably on par with smoking as a health risk, killing more than five million people annually. Among Scottish adults, those watching more than two hours of television a day had a 125 percent increase in cardiac events such as heart attack or stroke. A study in Australian adults reported that every hour accumulated watching television shortened life expectancy by 22 minutes. I will save you the math: bingeing all 63½ hours of Game of Thrones in its entirety will cost you one day on this planet."
Our Guys in Salisbury?
The Russian company Igroland has made a board game, on sale in Moscow, in which players retrace the route of Russian spy assassins who killed Russian residents of Salisbury, England.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Miracles in the Grocery Aisle
I just came from the grocery store where eggs are selling at 80 cents a dozen.... in WINTER when egg laying is seasonally low (and demand is not).
The American farm is an amazing production unit.
Thanks to unnatural selection (no hormones are used) today's meat chickens are more than twice as big, in half the time, at a cost of less than half the feed per pound, and with one fifth the mortality of their brethren 65 years ago.
And what about egg production? Here too unnatural selection has resulted in tremendous gains in production, with hens moving from 150 eggs a year in the 1930s, and a mortality rate of about 40 percent, to 250 eggs per year, and a mortality rate of just 5 percent.
And it isn't just chickens that has seen astounding gains due to selective breeding at the hand of man.
Improved efficiency in milk production has enabled the U.S. dairy industry to produce 186 billion pounds of milk from 9.2 million cows in 2007, as compared to only 117 billion pounds of milk from 25.6 million cows in 1944.
What about beef cattle? Here too selective breeding is at work, with steers and heifers adding 150-170 lbs in size as compared to their brethren just 20 years ago.
The Future Is Female
We have three great women running. No great men so far....
This 1940s poster salutes prejudice and sexism.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Hybrid Ducks Are Common and Good
A few duck pictures from yesterday.
At top is a male "Bibbed Mallard," which is a Mallard hybrid created by crossing a wild Mallard with a feral domestic farm duck of some type. Mallards hybridize a lot. This fellow was hanging out with a mixed flock of geese and ducks at a local park.
At bottom is a male "Bibbed Black Duck," another natural hybrid made from crossing a Black Duck with a feral domestic farm duck of some other, unknown, breed.
Some time back I noted that hybrids in nature are actually quite common.
A question arises, in correspondence: Do different species really interbreed in the wild? And if they do interbreed on occasion, aren't they all sterile like the mules made by crossing donkeys to horses ?
The short answer is: Yes they do, and No they are are not all sterile. And, for the record, not all horses crossed with donkeys are sterile. Most are, but not all!
First, let me say that this point is basic to understanding biology: fertile hybrids occur, and they are critical to evolution.
This was a basic point of Darwin's Origin of Species and in subsequent works, such as the truly excellent The Beak of the Finch, whose authors spent 20 years on the Galapagos studying Darwin's finches.
The basic point here is that in the Galapagos the finches have not completely speciated, and the same is true for some of the Giant Tortoise and Iguana types on the Galapagos.
Even in those animals where we can say speciation has occurred under any definition, fertile crosses within genera are fairly commonplace.
On the Galapagos, each species of finch fills a distinct ecological niche for plant species, but the finches also cross-breed with some frequency which creates intermediate hybrids. Each type of bill (and there are more than a dozen types) is slightly more or less advantageous on each island, but due to the vagaries of weather (several years of drought in the Galapagos may be followed by several years of higher-than-average rainfall), no one beak is always right all the time, on some islands.
What this means is that while booming populations sometimes ride on the wave of the more extreme beaks and weather patterns, the core gene pool on which all variety on the Galapagos depends are the intermediates, which includes the crossbreeds or hybrids.
Because most hybrids are not genetically stable (i.e. a hybrid mated to a hybrid may produce offspring which look very different from their parents and each other), these hybrid birds are often the evolutionary watch spring which helps kick forward the next "population boom" of variety when weather patterns change for years on end.
What Darwin saw in the Galapagos was a perfect example of a common phenomenon.
In fact, hybrid animals are generally the fastest form of evolutionary advance and, as a consequence, hybrids occur all the time for the simple reason that a little "wobble" in the gene pool is always a good thing in a rapidly changing world beset, since the very beginning, by fire, flood, drought, tsunami, hurricane, global warming, global cooling, freak weather conditions, epidemics of disease, and wave after wave of invading "foreign" species.
Another point is that evolution is not something that happened "a long time ago" -- it is happening right now outside your door, and if you are really observant, you can even see it with your own eyes.
Look at your bird feeder, for example.
What the hell is that "little brown job" over there in the corner?
Yes, yes, it is a sparrow or finch of some type, but what type?
If you are really confused (and if you watch bird feeders long enough, you eventually will be), don't get too worried. You see, the bird you are looking at may be a bit confused too. It turns out that there are a lot of hybrid sparrows and finches out there, and most of them are fertile and quite a few breed.
There are hybrid Brewer’s × Black-chinned sparrows and hybrid Grasshopper X Savannah sparrows, and hybrid House X Tree sparrows, and ... the list is quite long.
Birds hybridize all the time. Ducks and geese are particularly proficient at it. Go to any major lake during duck migrations, and if you glass the water carefully, and for a long enough time, you will eventually see a free-ranging duck hybrid.
If you go "past the feathers" into the DNA of the birds, however, you will find that there are even more hybrids than at first meets the eye. A lot of duck species are not entirely "pure." Most Mallards, for example, seem to have a little Black Duck coursing through their veins, while in Europe the Ruddy Duck and the Whiteheaded Duck hybridize so frequently, that there is some danger pure Whiteheaded Ducks may be pushed into extinction.
Geese too will naturally hybridize, of course. Canadian geese, for starters, will naturally hybridize with Greylag geese and Barnacle geese and White-fronted geese and ... well, you get the idea.
Here in the U.S and Canada, Dusky or Blue Grouse very occasionally hybridize with Ring-necked Pheasant, and Sharp-tailed Grouse very occasionally cross with Prairie Chickens, while Willow Ptarmigan will occasionally cross with Spruce Grouse.
In the bird-watching world, naturally occurring (and quite fertile) hybrids occur all the time between Spotted owls and Barred owls, as do crosses between Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted Flickers, and the various species of Amazon parrots.
Mammals hybridize less frequently than birds, but they too are not too hard to find.
Object lesson one is the Red Wolf, found right here in the eastern Unites States. Not only is this animal nothing more than a stable hybrid between the Gray Wolf and the Coyote, it is a very fertile animal.
Coyotes and domestic dogs will, of course interbreed, as will Wolves and domestic dogs, and Jackals and domestic dogs, and Dingos and domestic dogs, and this progeny too is quiet fertile, though the estrus cycles may be a bit off from the natural version found among the wild animal population.
What about other animals? They too hybridize on occasion. Lynx and Bobcat will naturally interbreed in the wild where their ranges overlap and the population of Lynx is low (as it always is in the U.S.). These Lynx X Bobcat hybrids are fertile, and have been found from Maine to Minnesota, and confirmed by DNA analysis.
In Europe, hybrids between feral cats and European Wild Cats are so common that it is now very hard to find a pure European Wild Cat at all outside of an island sanctuary in the Outer Hebrides.
Even larger animals will hybridize on rare occasions. In 2006, for example, an American hunter in Canada shot what he thought was a Polar Bear, but upon close examination it was found to have brown splotches on its coat and a hump on its back, suggesting it was a Grizzly. DNA tests, however, confirmed that the animal was a naturally occurring Grizzly Bear-Polar Bear hybrid. Pairings of these animals have been done at zoos, and they have all been quite fertile.
Buffalo will naturally hybridize with cattle, and in fact they have done so for such a long time that there are not too many 100% pure buffalo around anymore.
Mule deer and Whitetail deer will naturally hybridize on occasion, though apparently the animals that come about from this union have erratic escape behavior patterns, which make them susceptible to predation.
What about fish? There are too many hybrid fish types to mention, but suffice it to say that trout, salmon and many other types of fish will naturally hybridize, as will some insects (such as butterflies and fruit flies).
In the world of reptiles, we find naturally occurring hybrids occurring between American Alligators and Cuban Caymans to the point that pure Cuban Caymans are getting harder to find.
And, of course, in the plant world hybrids are a dime a dozen, and include not only most of the plants we eat, and a very large number in the garden, but increasing numbers of plants found in our forests and fields as well (many are escapees from the garden, it should be said).
You will note that I have not even mentioned "prison romance marriages" where animals are kept in cages for long periods of time. If this is done, all kinds of hybrids are possible, and though most are sterile, fertile offspring between many types seems to be possible, and between some types it is the rule. For example, a hybrid cross between a male leopard and a female jaguar is called a Jagulep or Lepjag and they are always fertile. This hybrid animal, for the record, was once crossed with a male lion, and the progeny was displayed as a "Congolese Spotted Lion." The mind reels.
The bottom line: YES, hybrids DO occur in wild nature, and YES many of those hybrids are quite fertile.
So what happens to these fertile hybrids? Not all of them mate. It turns out (surprise!) that the ability to mate is not the same as actually doing so, and that many hybrids have inappropriate or awkward courtship displays.
Think computer geeks at a Star Trek convention, and you get the right idea.
So far as I can tell, however, most fertile hybrids do eventually mate with one side of their gene pool or another. For example, a Lynx-Bobcat hybrid is very like to mate with a Bobcat, further diluting the Lynx infusion and reverting the progeny, very quickly, back to type. No doubt this "infusion-pollution-dilution" of genes has been going on with birds and fish since the beginning.
Hybrids are, of course, statistically rare. When animals are in abundance, most species mate with their own kind.
That said, there are a lot of duck hybrids if for no other reason than than there are a hundreds of millions of ducks flying all over the world.
There are fewer Grizzlies and Polar Bear hybrids because there are fewer Grizzlies and Polar Bears, and both animals do not normally travel distances of thousands of miles several times a year as a duck naturally will.
And what about Mules? Well almost all mules (Donkey X Horse) and Hinnies (Horse X Donkey) are sterile, but at least a very, very few females are not. So even here, where the number of chromosomes between species is not even the same, we find the "rules of nature" being broken, and the wobble of genetic possibilities being preserved.
Dead Rats and Deer Ass
Some time back a reader wrote to tell me that:
First of all I don't believe a carnivore - and dogs ARE classed as carnivores -- do not do well on a diet high in cereal and grains. Many humans in fact do not with 1 in 4 in N America being allergic to wheat and dairy. Secondly, with the Melamine poisoning and NUMEROUS recalls, more and more ingredients being sourced in China... I choose to make my dogs food so I know what they are being fed.
This morning, a bit pressed for time, I am posting my response as a stand-alone.
M - As I read your comment I am tossing sugar peas to a Pit Bull that loves them.
I just spent the day in the field with working terriers that spent the first thirty minutes not doing too much work, such was their delight in eating grass because they like the taste so much.
Surely you know that dogs are omnivores?
Surely you have seen this yourself in forest and field?
Dogs will eat anything that tastes good to them, and that includes dog shit, I assure you.
Most canids are, in fact, omnivores as anyone who sets out food for them will attest. My wild yard fox love old bread, baked potatoes and, of course, dog food above all.
You know what they feed the wolves at the zoo? Dog food! Purina even!
And do you know what the single greatest food allergy dogs have is? Beef! It's why so many dogs with allergies are told to switch to lamb and rice. I am not sure what your mumble about wheat allergies in humans is about. One quarter of humans have wheat allergies? Nonsense!
No reason not to make your own dog food if you want to and have actually read a bit and followed a recipe developed by someone with at least a year in nutrition classes, but be advised that in fact you have no idea what you are feeding your dogs. In fact, you have no idea what you are feeding yourself most of the time. Almost all grain in the U.S. is GMO at the moment, your vegetables come from all over the world where they have been sprayed with who-knows-what, and the prescription medications you put in yourself and your dogs are made in China, India, Puerto Rico and God Knows Where.
You may like to make your own food, and it probably does the dog no harm, but you are not likely to have any idea how much fat, protein or carbohydrates are actually in the food, what micro-nutrients might be missing, or even if you have the proper amount of roughage.
The good news is that the gut of the dog is a marvelous thing and it generally sorts it out, with only a little strain on the liver and kidneys if you get it wrong.
Dog food fetishes by pet owners are mostly about themselves and not about the dog.
I am always amused at how many fat people who do not exercise at all are concerned that their dog eat only "natural" food.
These same people drive in cars with Chinese brake pads in them, but have decided everything in China is to be avoided because of the melamine incident.
Did they miss the almost daily toxic food and drugs stories coming out of U.S. factories?
Or how about the people that poison their kids with bad cooking and "homeopathic" medicines? Happens every day!
Now M-, if you REALLY want to feed your dog a natural diet, I recommend catching wild rats and squirrels and tossing them to your dog, guts, bones, fur and all. Throw in a little dead deer ass too.
That's what wild carnivores really eat.
If you want to feed your dog like a wolf, it's whole rats and deer ass all the way.
Coffee and Provocation
Alligator as Emotional Support Animal?
This circus has just about run its course. For one thing, just about no one needs an emotional support animal; they need therapy and medication. If you need an ESA you are mentally ill and are self-treating in a way that is not going to make you better. Want to argue the point? Go away; I am not your emotional support animal.
You Gave Them DNA So They Can Deny You Insurance?
If you're paying companies like "23andMe" to look at your DNA, it may cost you a heck of a lot in the long term.
DNA Nationality Tests Are Mostly Scam
Most of the "results" from these DNA nationality tests are complete nonsense. Look at the conflicting answers that came when two identical twins who sent their DNA samples to five for-profit labs.
Kill Social Security for Powerball?
We are constantly being told we will make better use of our money than the government. Really? Have you SEEN how people spend their money? Here's a little fact: Slot machines make more money in the United States than baseball, movies, and theme parks combined.
Pass It On
Chadwick Boseman says Denzel Washington was partly responsible for his acting education. It seems Denzel paid part of his tuition through a scholarship program while he took a summer class studying drama at Oxford University. Nice. Pass it on.
Lord of the Rings' Time Architecture
In the Lord of the Rings, we go backwards in architectural time. We begin in the Shire with the tea-kettles and cozy fireplaces of rural England in the 1800s. When we leave Hobbiton, we go backwards, first to Bree (1600s English architecture), and then to Rohan (Anglo-Saxon architecture of 400-700 AD), and then to Gondor (classical Greek and Roman architecture), and finally to Mordor's tents and huts of prehistoric, primitive, and primeval times. At the heart of Mordor is a barren lifeless hellscape of volcanic rock; the world still being formed and representing time before life existed. And Mount Doom? It is the pyroclastic place where creation of all things began.
Ancient Architecture Gaffs
A stone circle in northeast Scotland that archaeologists thought was built thousands of years ago has turned out to be just a few decades old. The farmer who made the stone circle was not trying to trick people into thinking it was ancient; in fact, he told no one about it, which is why it didn't appear on any records.
But Who's Counting?
Obama: 8 years in office. Number of indictments: 0.
Trump: 2 years in office. Number of indictments: 90 (as of today).
He Doth Protested Too Much
Famed 'conversion therapist' David Matheson now plans to 'pursue life as a gay man'.
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Cycle for the King; Bad Teeth No Bar
The above World War I-era English recruitment poster was for the South Midland Divisional Cyclist Company.
Cycle for the King! Bad teeth no bar!
American Kestrel
Our smallest falcon. I took this picture with the camera still set on "moon shot dark" from a few days ago, so this picture had to be lightened up a lot. I'm learning!
A Herd of Deer
This herd of approximately 20 deer are just one mile from my very urban house. Is this a great country, or what?
Friday, January 25, 2019
And What Do You DO About It?
I picked up this book for a few bucks in a local antique shop.
What drew me to it was the title (about right!) the age (1946) and a quick flick through the pages where the author talks about getting a dog to stop barking.
I doubt if I shall ever forget the first night of the series of training classes sponsored by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which I conduct in New York City. The class was held in the gymnasium and could comfortably accommodate 25 to 30 dogs. But there were 50 dogs present. The bedlam caused by the 51 untrained dogs, handled by untrained owner, was something I can’t even describe. No introductions were heard and no speakers understood. I don’t remember saying it, but I was told later that when the class was turned over to my care, I made the statement that I had no intention of competing with 50 dogs and ordered everyone present to place his hands around his dog's muzzle and hold his mouth shut. The owners were amazed when they realized how easy it was to keep the dogs quiet. This simple act had not occurred to one of them.
I smiled reading this paragraph and put down my $2. I have not yet read the book (the table of contents is almost 100 percent devoted to simple trick training) but this paragraph alone was worth the $2 as it so perfectly illustrates a phenomenon everyone in the world of dog training has observed.
Someone says their dog does something irritating. Yes, and what do you DO to try stop it?
Almost every time, the dog owner grows silent. They are confused.
Do?
They have to DO something?
The idea has never occurred to them!
For the record, the instruction that follows in this book is the old "throw something at the dog" admonition.
And does that work? It sure can!
Trainers have been throwing knotted ropes, choke chains, and rolled up magazines at dogs since the dawn of time.
The latest variation on the theme is a rolled up bit of towel with rubber bands around it; what dog trainer Gary Wilkes calls a "bonk'.
No, it's not new.
But does it work? Quite well, actually.
The Last Rat Pit in New York City
Today is Robert Burns Day, which is as good a time as any for telling a bit of true history....
The last rat pit in New York City was owned by Christopher "Kit" Burns, and operated as "Sportsman's Hall" at 273 Water Street. The building still stands.
Burns was supposedly a tavern keeper, but in actuality, he was one of the last of the "Dead Rabbit" gang made famous in the Martin Scorcese movie, "The Gangs of New York."
The Sportsman's Club was ostensibly a bar, but it derived a large portion of its revenue from rat killing spectacles, and the occasional dog fight.
As James Dabney McCabe, writes in "Secrets of the Great City" (1868):
Rats are plentiful along the East River, and Burns has no difficulty in procuring as many as he desires. These and his dogs furnish the entertainment, in which he delights. The principal room of the house is arranged as an amphitheatre. The seats are rough wooden benches, and in the centre is a ring or pit, enclosed by a circular wooden fence, several feet high. A number of rats are turned into this pit, and a dog of the best feral stock is thrown in amongst them. The little creature at once falls to work to kill the rats, bets being made that she will destroy so many rats in a given time. The time is generally 'made' by the little animal. . . .
Kit Burns had two of his favorite dogs stuffed and hanging over the bar. One was called Jack, and was a black and tan terrier that had killed 100 rats in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, an American record. The other dog was Hunky, a dog fighting dog that expired after his last "victory".
Kit Burns's last rat pit fight occurred on November 21, 1870 according to Robert Sullivan's book, Rats, on an occasion when 300 rats were "given away, free of charge, for gentlemen to try their dogs with." Henry Bergh, who founded the SPCA, raided the establishment that night, and Kit Burns was rounded up. Though everyone involved was acquitted, Kit Burns caught cold and died before trial, and the Sportsman's Club was permanently closed.
Kit Burns's widow told a reporter from The Sun newspaper that Mr. Bergh, the SPCA man, was invited to visit her at her new home in Brooklyn "provided the gentleman will have the kindness to bring his coffin with him."
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| 273 Water Street today. |
Wee Rabbit Dog
Teddy Moritz's Harris Hawk and miniature dachshund, Hedge, pushed a rabbit into a hollow tree, where it scrambled up to safety. It takes a small dog to follow a rabbit into a tight hole like this! And what a face!
Annual Fox Mortality is 70 Percent
One of my backyard fox from a year ago.
Mange is killing this fox, but it’s a teachable moment if for no other reason than we can see how long and whip-like a fox tail is under the fur.
Fox mortality is about 70 percent per year due to mange, distemper, infection, roundworms, heartworm, starvation, flooding, vehicle impact, poisoning, etc.
Mange is difficult to successfully treat in wild free-range fox, as the proper dosage of Ivermectin needs to be given twice a week for a month to succeed.
Mange mostly occurs in the winter, when lack of food resources and increased stress from mating and hormonal changes reduces natural mite resistance. Improved diet can help, as can a single dose of Ivermectin to rid an animal of round worm infestation, but death from mange is part of the natural life cycle of fox and should be accepted as such. Nothing in the hedge dies on a morphine drip and while listening to classical music.
Below is another fox picture, taken at the same location on the same night, showing what a full tail looks like.
Walk Your Haggis the Modern Way
Man walking a haggis (tame) on Burns Night, 1967.
This is how it used to be done. Thanks to e-collar training, more and more folks are now walking their haggis leash-free