The Dog Chicks

I’m not supposed to put smiley faces in this text but it’s hard not to add one when I’m talking about Lisa. I met her in 2001 when she was looking for a dog. The story about how she got her Divet is one of the best dog stories ever so I’m saving that for later but suffice it to say that Lisa is a lifelong Dogger and she got the perfect dog who neither she nor her family ever forgets to hug, kiss and value.So the subject of Vick came up and after we got past the obvious part about how incomprehensible the actions in the indictment were she told me that her son, *Huge Dogger*, had heard about it from his friends and that he asked her if she knew what actions were involved and then he asked her to explain how someone could do that.

What do you tell a 9 year old about the motivation behind the hanging and killing and fighting of dogs? So as Lisa and I were talking about this I asked her if she understood what kind of force would be required to beat a dog to death she sad “They didn’t cover that in my puppy classes!” Later we were talking about the sweetness of Miss. Div, a Kelpie mix, and I said that if she’d gone to fighting classes that Miss. Div would have been the bait and Lisa agreed that she wouldn’t have made it through the introduction.

I just thought the conversation pointed out the education that people have gotten from the Vick case and that there are some people who would never get involved in dog fighting regardless of where they were born or who their friends were. I go back to the *intent to do harm to animals and be excited by the harm you are doing* and I really do think that while horrifying, that talking about it’s own form of education.

Clearly this “cough” woman is not a Dogger or she would have shown some glimmer of understanding about the suffering dog and cock fighting causes to the animals who are ‘viewed as a sport’. Her much discussed comments were not that extensive but her delivery was as if she were talking about inanimate objects. Again, this egocentric “woman” is not a Dogger. The reactions of the others on the View were also interesting. Elizabeth was next to the Whoopster and looked like a deer in the headlights. The ever vapid Babs was not on screen but could be heard cooing to Whoop in the background. Barbara has a dog, I think, but you wouldn’t have known it if you’d heard her lack of understanding or reaction. My hero was Joy She said ‘what about dog torture and dog murder?’ and I cheered for her and for her alone.

See, this is what happens when people who don’t have to think in their career are given an open forum. What Whoopie said about the geographic demographics of dog fighting made no sense at all. Yes, there is a lot of dog fighting in the south but there was a fighting ring ‘busted’ in New Hampshire a few years ago. It happens all over the country in both rural and urban settings. Additionally, all over the country I have rescue friends who work like hell to save these animals. I have a friend in Virginia who has bought dogs from fighters just to get them out of that life so maybe Whoopi should have to do some actual, factual research before talking,,,,,,,and she will never do that which is why I’m not wasting my time on her.

If I sound crabby about this it’s because I didn’t appreciate being reminded of the Vick case in such an ignorant way. It gave me flashbacks to the actual details of the ‘murder and torture’ of those dogs and accomplished nothing.

Ethiopian Government officials are preparing for a mass murder of street dogs by poisoning meat with strychnine causing them to die a terrified and painful death. Apparently, the end of the millennium is coming for them, different calendar than ours, and they are tired of the overpopulation and want to get rid of rabies. They have used shooting and poison to ‘control’ the animal overpopulation for a long time as well as throwing dogs into a pit where they cannot escape and eventually starve to death. This effort will just be more widely implemented as it will be the intentional homicide of thousands of animals.

The Homeless Animal Protection Society has a clinic in Ethiopia and works to trap/spay or neuter and release the street dogs as well as running a vaccination clinic. They are the one, tiny ray of light and hope for those poor animals. I cannot even imagine the dogs they have to let go of ever being able to save but they work to save the ones they can.

It was volunteers from the HAPS who discovered the old mine where ‘locals’ would throw their dogs and it was those volunteers who fed four dogs who’d been thrown into the mine until they figured out how to save them, which they did (Yay!!!!!!!!) and it was those same people who got the authorities to seal up that mine forever. I think I’ve found my new hero’s.

For more information about HAPS check out their web site http://www.haps-eth.org.et/