Avoid Private Equity Veterinarians

See the searchable map and database. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://privateequityvet.org

“Private equity is an ever increasing presence in US veterinary care. In 2024, it was reported that over 30% of general veterinary practices are under corporate ownership up from 8% just over 10 years earlier. When it comes to specialty care which includes vets that provide 24/7 emergency care it is estimated that over 75% of practices are now under corporate ownership.

“Our disastrous experience with a recently acquired private equity owned practice in Berkeley, California where our beloved dog ended up paying the ultimate price led us to researching more about this growing trend. We built this site to help draw further attention to this growing industry trend….”

The Circle Unbroken

“Of course Black Lives Matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter?” — Dolly Parton

 Dolly Parton was that rarest of things. I mourn her passing, and yet the baton has been passed. We lost John Prine, but gained Jesse Welles. We lost Tony Rice, but gained Billy Strings. And now we have lost Dolly Parton, but we have gained Taylor Swift. May the circle be unbroken. ❤️

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Over on Facebook, this missive resulted in a host of know-nothings riding in to bash Taylor Swift.  Here’s what they missed, and why the comparison is poignant:

▪️Taylor, age 36, has won 14 Grammy Awards (out of 58 nominations), and is the only artist in history to have won Album of the Year four times.  

▪️Taylor has won 12 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards out of 28 total nominations, and has won the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award twice.  

▪️Taylor has also earned at least 70 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, which is the second-most of any artist in chart history.

▪️Taylor Swift's Eras Tour shattered global entertainment milestones, becoming the first music tour in history to surpass $2 billion in ticket sales, drawing over 10.1 million attendees across 149 shows, and setting the all-time record for the highest-grossing concert film.

▪️ Taylor Swift has donated over $100 million to charity.  See >> https://www.billboard.com/lists/taylor-swifts-charity-donations-gifts-timeline/

▪️Taylor Swift has refused to allow Trump to use her music in any form, and her lawyers are all teeth.  As Wikipedia notes, “Swift is pro-choice, an advocate of gender equality, LGBTQIA+ rights and gun control, and a vocal critic of racism, white supremacy, sexism, homophobia, and police brutality. She condemned Trump's presidency, accusing it of racism and fostering violence during the George Floyd protests, criticized the policies of the Republican senator Marsha Blackburn and the overruling of Roe v. Wade, and supported the Equality Act, the creation of Juneteenth as a national holiday and the removal of Confederate statues. She endorsed the Democratic tickets of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 United States presidential election, and Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 election.”  See >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_impact_of_Taylor_Swift

The Big Grift

Illegal to Help: The Veterinary Lobby’s Invisible Hand

“A pharmacy technician can give your child a flu shot in all fifty states. In Texas, a trained animal shelter worker who gives your dog a rabies shot is breaking the law unless a veterinarian is standing on the premises. Rules like that were not an accident. NAVEC’s fifth research report reads fifty years of bills, campaign filings, court records, and the associations’ own publications, and names the machine that wrote them.”

Read the whole report from the North American Veterinary Ethics Council.

August Shadow

Keeping Mice Out of the Tractor

The Grandkids Are Getting Big!

The Enemy Within

"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." ~ H. L. Mencken 

The Struggle Is Real

 

Waterlilies Along Carroll Creek

Downtown Frederick, Maryland.

Willie Nelson :: Grave Digger

Gravedigger

When you dig my grave 

Could you make it shallow

So that I can feel the rain…

Law and Odor

Donald Trump is a 34-count convicted felon, a self-confessed sexual predator, an adjudicated rapist, a serial fraudster, and a pathological liar.

Here he is being cheered by an all-white cadre of Nassau County, Long Island police academy cadets earlier this week.

They are cheering for racism, because that’s one of the core organizing values of American law enforcement.

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Trump: And we've essentially killed DEI. Isn't that nice? No more DEI.

(APPLAUSE)

Trump: I don't see the people behind me big on DEI. Were you big on DEI, anybody?

Crowd: No!

Trump: That's not a DEI group, I can tell.

(LAUGHTER)

Trump: It never was, by the way.

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If you think law enforcement can be reformed, you’re not reading this room.

These police cadets are cheering for a RAPIST.  

They are cheering for a PEDOPHILE.  

They are cheering for a repeat FELON.

They are cheering for a FRAUDSTER

They are cheering for RACISM.

They see themselves in Donald Trump:  unrepentant liars and racist bullies who are immune from all accountability.

New Clothes, No Callouses

This one is dedicated to all the folks in their new camo and new boots.

We see you.

How ironic.

Learning Through Consequences

Operant conditioning (i.e., learning through consequences) is found in nature. The apple tree provides a reward to returning deer, the porcupine walks around with punishment on his back, and the rock is almost always practicing extinction.

The First Red

Wee Wolf happy with a Black Gum leaf. Black Gums are the first leaves to turn bright red in late summer.

Fogerty & Seeger :: Who Will Stop the Rain?

Graham Nash & David Crosby :: Lee Shore

This song was written on, and inspired by, David’s sailboat, Mayan.  

Mayan was a 59-foot (LOD) wooden schooner designed by the great John Alden, and built in Belize in 1947. 

Crosby, who was broke, bought the boat with a $25,000 loan from Peter Tork of The Monkees in 1969, and sailed it from the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, to California.

The Monkees are an interesting intersecting node on rock history. 

David Bowie, for example, was born David Jones, but had to adopt a stage name to avoid confusion with Davey Jones of The Monkee's.

Jimi Hendrix and The Jimi Hendrix Experience were the opening act for The Monkees in July of 1967.

Michael Nesmith of The Monkees wrote a number of great songs, including "Different Drum" which propelled Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys to fame.

The great Carole King, in turn, wrote several songs for The Monkees, including "Pleasant Valley Sunday," which peaked at No. 3 in 1967.

Stinky Squid

A “Stinky Squid” (Pseudocolus fusiformis) stinkhorn mushroom near where I was stacking firewood this morning.

Thylacine?

I think someone over-paid. I suspect this is a South American Bush Dog with glass eyes pulled from a taxidermy bits box (they don’t make commercial Bush Dog eyes).

Most Women Are Better Than Most Men

Stacking Yesterday’s Oak and Pine Sections

The bar is two meters tall.