Capital Animals

First, I suggest reading an article about horse racing over on Slate. I can wait.

Now, I’m going to explain why I find this article thought-provoking yet deeply problematic.

First, I do give the writer credit for acknowledging his prior brutal nature in regards to horse racing where he saw them as no more “beings” than playing cards. I do think it’s good that he points out how many horses die each year from racing.

I don’t like his comparison at the end to hockey or football, wherin he claims that those opposed to modern horse racing find it acceptable “to treat a jock like an animal, if you pay him millions of dollars. But it’s no longer OK to treat an animal like an animal.” It seems to me that McClelland is equating “treating like an animal” to mean brutality and acceptable early death. To me, that’s how you treat cheap electronics, not animals, not if you’re a decent human being.

I have an odd take on the issue of horse racing. I’m not 100% opposed. I think there need to be a lot of changes and a lot more regulation.

I used to go to the track as a kid. I loved horses and loved watching them run. I begged my parents for lessons until they finally indulged me for several years. I even took up lessons again as an adult.

However, as an adult I was truly bothered by how many “horse lovers” were unquestionably on the side of race tracks, even when it endangered horses. That seemed bizarre to me, and honestly, still does.

First, I think that we need to have better surfaces on racetracks across the country. As McClelland notes, changing to a more forgiving surface dramatically decreases injuries and deaths.

Second, I think that the age for racing needs to be raised. Currently horses race before their bones have fully grown and their bodies matured. It’s far easier for a young, undeveloped horse to break an ankle than one with stable, fully developed bones.

Third, I think that we need to regulate how often a particular horse can run as well as what drugs can and cannot be given.

I do agree with the author that horses do love to run. I just want them to be allowed to do so safely.

Recently the Maryland Court of Appeals issued a ruling that upset a great many people, myself included.

I suggest reading the ruling in full. Essentially the ruling changes the status of pit bulls in Maryland. Previously, if a dog of any breed bit someone, that dog needed to be proven to have been previously known to be dangerous for there to be liability. Now, if the dog in question is known to be a pit bull or pit bull mix, there is no need to prove the dog was known to be dangerous. That dog is now expected to be dangerous simply because he is a pit. To make a bad ruling even worse, it’s not just the owners that are held liable, but landlords as well if they knowingly allow a pit bull or pit bull mix to reside on their property.

To wit, pit bulls are now considered dangerous across the board for liability purposes across the entire state of Maryland. This court’s ruling is essentially back door breed specific legislation, based on misinformation and old ideas. It’s awful.

When I first heard about the decision, I was livid. Many blogs and organizations have already spoken in outrage about this decision. When I posted it on facebook, a friend of mine responded. This is a woman who has worked for years in animal shelters and convinced me to leave a relatively cushy career to move into the advocacy field. She has cried like anyone else when confronted with the difficulties inherent to the work but has never seemed to feel or express defeat.

This friend commented that this ruling made her “want to cry and yell and give up, despairing of the stupidity of humanity all at the same time.”

Her response hit me because we can’t give up. No matter how hopeless the situation, we cannot give up trying.

I’m a big fan of Joss Whedon’s Buffy and Firefly–two shows that are both about fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds. In Firefly, the hero states that he’s okay fighting a war he’s already lost. I think animal advocacy requires that, too. We need to be okay with the fact that we’re fighting against human stupidity, idiocy, and selfishness–i.e. seemingly insurmountable odds. I’m a natural optimist, I like to believe that things will get better, that the impossible can be made to happen by determined individuals. However, even if I weren’t, I would believe that fighting for animals was worthwhile. Regardless of the chance for victory, we have to help the animals we can.  We can’t give up.

http://mdcourts.gov/opinions/coa/2012/53a11.pdf

So I was talking with a friend the other day who asked why I haven’t blogged in a long while and I said, honestly “fear.” See, when you’re job hunting, it’s incredibly easy to listen to well-meaning friends who say that a blog should be this perfect, polished, inoffensive version of you with absolutely perfect grammar and genius expression. Because, obviously, if a potential employer reads it and finds something with which they disagree, or a typo, or something slightly inappropriate they will conclude that you have not even a passing acquaintance with correct English expression, professional standards, or empathy with their position on an issue.

Thus, instead of writing funny, sometimes alright, sometimes boring, sometimes brilliant posts, I found myself reluctant to write anything for fear of it not being as good as the professional work I’ve done.

To use a British expression from watching too many BBC comedies when I was feeling ill the other day “That’s utter rubbish.”  Also, “that’s complete bullocks!”

(If you don’t also watch British comedies when sick, I strongly suggest looking up Coupling, Vicar of Dibley, and Are You Being Served?)

Yes, there might be employers who will decide horrible things about me based on a typo or two, an off-color joke, or even a political position with which they personally disagree. But, this is my personal blog not my interview. Yes, it’s a first impression but someone who expects a personal blog to be the same as an interview (lacking anything inappropriate or offensive) might not be someone with whom I’d be a good fit.

I’m still naive/optimistic enough to believe that a job hunt really is a two-way street. It’s not just an employer seeing if they like me, but me seeing if I like an employer. I have not applied for any jobs with Peta because frankly, I don’t support their mission and cannot stand their tactics. I find them offensive rather than off-color, and degrading rather than slightly inappropriate. I’ve chosen not to apply for them because of their personality as an organization. Why would I deny that option to learn about my personality for an employer? I understand that what Peta puts out as an organization isn’t 100% of the whole story and I’m sure any employer reading a personal blog to learn about a candidate knows that views expressed within are likely not going to be strongly brought up in a professional environment.

Anyway, all that to pave the way for sharing an old joke that was popular with some of the animal welfare folk I knew…

So I was talking with my mom today (lovely woman, where I get some of my odder sense of humor as well as my certainty that I can overcome any blockade in the path to my dreams) and thought of an old joke I wanted to share.

Apologies in advance.

So a twenty-some cat owner asked her boyfriend to move in with her. He did and things were great for a few weeks. Over dinner at their two month living-versary, he asked her why she had asked him to move in. She told him how much she loved him and saw a future with him, and then blushed and continued “well, also, to be honest, I kept hearing those urban legends about cat owners dying and no one finding the body until it had been gnawed to the bone. With you around, I don’t have to worry about that!”

“But, honey,” he said, “Don’t you know my mother’s maiden name is Donner?”

Although some of my friends laugh at me for it, I believe that we can find important lessons in the lives of animals and our interactions with them. Maybe it goes back to adoring Philosophy classes in college and vehmently defending them whenever someone would claim they were somehow less useful than nebulous “business” classes. I firmly believe that the search for the good life is useful and will contribute more to my lasting happiness and peace, which in turn will help me be efficient and contribute more to society, than taking an entire class on how to manage employees. I’ll use what I’ve learned from Machiavelli and Arendt to manage people, thank you very much. Half joking there, I’ll also use what I learned about Aristotle and positive-based animal training.

Back to learning from animals and our interactions with them.

Failure and perseverance have been on my mind a lot. I think that most people, except those naturally blessed with massive amounts of intense ambition (which can cause its own set of problems), need reminders that failure is okay and simply an invitation from the universe to try again. You might simply fail differently when you try again, but even that is worthwhile and does not negate the positive aspects of the attempt.

I took riding lessons from about age 9 to age 15 and then again for a few years in my 20s (while shelter work is emotionally rewarding, it’s not financially rewarding enough to enable one to afford riding lessons in the DC area). When I started, I remember my instructor having us practice falling. She told us that we couldn’t be great riders until we had fallen 100 times so we were going to get 20 of those falls out of the way. Admittedly, a slightly arbitrary number but it helped all of the students get past our fear of falling. When we were no longer concerned with falling,everything was easier. Cantering for the first time was fun and exhilarating, jumping was a joy, and new horses were exciting. Plus, it helped our riding! A horse knows when his rider is scared. Most, especially lesson horses, will take advantage of that and test a new rider. It isn’t until you’re confident and know that you can handle whatever the large animal throws at you, that you’re able to be firm and gentle at the same time, in the right proportions that calm a horse and encourage him to work with, rather than against you.

When I started again in my 20s, much more conscious of “holy crap, I’m really high up and falling hurts!” I asked my instructor to let me practice falling again. Even though I was afraid, I needed to get past my fear so I could ride confidently.Because I wanted to succeed, I needed to fall.

I think life is like that. In my eyes, I failed at something recently. It didn’t turn out the way I wanted despite my absolute best back-breaking efforts (no, seriously, my lower back hasn’t been the same since). I don’t normally fail. I’m not always the best, but I usually do well. I can name the times I’ve just utterly failed on one hand. In some ways, I think that makes it more difficult to dust myself off and get back on that proverbial (and I know, completely and utterly cliched) horse.

When I was literally riding horses, I practiced falling and getting back on the horse immediately. Even when I hit my head and tailbone (yup, at the same time, not ashamed to say I cried), my instructor helped me mount and then held my leg while we walked in a circle with me raised up in the stirrups so I didn’t hurt my tailbone anymore than I had.

We never had those snazzy vests when we fell.

I guess that in “real” life I just haven’t practiced falling enough. I’m dusting myself off this time and trying again in a slightly different way. I’ve learned something about what I need as well as what the world needs. I’m also trying to get more comfortable with the idea of falling again. Because I will. But that’s okay. As Google told us, “If you’re not failing, you’re not taking big enough risks.”

And a life without risk doesn’t seem too rewarding.

Basics:

Roll Over and Play Dead, Joan Hess, 1991

Rereading this at the age of 27 was quite a different experience from when I first read it–probably age 9 or so and while I liked animals, definitely not aware of what I was reading about. Also, 9 was not the target audience but I suspect stealing my mom’s Joan Hess and Elizabeth Peters novels made more sense than declaring at my 8th birthday party that Murder She Wrote was my favorite television show. Certainly it wasn’t any less weird than also stealing her Silhouette romance novels.

This mystery novel is one of Joan Hess’s early books in her Claire Malloy series. Claire, who runs an independent bookshop in a college town in Arkansas (Do you remember those things? The shops, not college towns. In addition to “Beth’s Best” a diner with awesome burgers, I also daydreamed about owning/running my own bookstore as a kid), is the heroine of our story.  When the beloved pooches she and her daughter are dog-sitting go missing, Claire finds herself investigating theft and murder.

Animal Pros:

1. Class B dealers are an integral part of this story!I remember a friend getting quite irate at me when I expressed surprise that she planned to leave her dog outside all day in her suburban DC-area yard while she was at work. When I explained about theft, she claimed that no one would ever want to steal her mixed-breed dog. I wasn’t worried just about thieves wanting a new pet (though that does happen), but Class B dealers who sell animals to labs for testing (yes, there will be an upcoming post on animal testing, but not right now).There are thankfully only 8 active Class B dealers left in the United States. Class B dealers find dogs and cats from flea markets, “free to good home” ads, and even some shelters. In addition, some have had serious charges of “unlawful procurement” lobbied and proven against them (see the HSUS and Slate links below). Class B dealers then sell these pets to laboratories for experiments to be performed on them. Yes, like Legally Blonde 2 reminded us, testing is still performed on animals we otherwise consider pets.I have to give Hess props for writing about Class B dealers and bringing the issue to the attention of her readers. There’s a wonderful explanation of Class B dealers in chapter 2 from a dedicated though sorely underfunded animal shelter director.
2. Community responsibility for animals, even from confessed non animal lovers. Rereading this book made me feel like I understood my mom a little better. My mom sewed gorgeous colorful bandannas for the dogs at my shelter after I told her about shelters finding that those helped get dogs (especially large dark dogs) adopted. She once came to a dead stop in the middle of a neighborhood street and waited minutes for a cat to leave the street for fear of hitting the cat. She also helped my girl scout troop call Animal Control when we found an injured but still alive and suffering squirrel across the street. However, my mom does not want a dog licking her, or a cat flank rubbing her. She’s highly allergic to cats and not the most comfortable around dogs. So while I genuinely appreciated her kindness toward animals and her support of my vocation, I wasn’t always sure I understood how it made sense to her. Part of me saw my mother in Claire Malloy’s determination to find and save the animals (in addition to solving the crime) despite mentioning clearly and vividly that she’s not a big fan of slobber or fur. You don’t have to be an animal lover to know that you have to do right by them.

Animal Cons:

1. Poor presentation of pit bulls. While I know that people did use pit bulls as guard dogs and that yes, resident dogs (which is how the guard dogs in this book are described), can become aggressive and are more likely to bite, I didn’t like how this book described pit bulls. I had to keep reminding myself that this was in the early 90s and Hess’s description was no worse than how other media at the time described pit bulls. She does at least mention that the guard dogs were likely mistreated and abused which made it a bit easier for me.

Overall:

This book is a little dated, but still great reading. The story moves along with compelling and humorous characters. As for the animal issues, the good completely outweighs the negative. Find a copy, then grab some treats and convince your animals to cuddle with you while you read it tonight!

For more reading
On Class B dealers:
Humane Society of the United States
U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
Slate.com’s multi-part story on the theft of Pepper, a family dog
On Pit Bulls:
Bad Rap
Best Friends

Toby and I would like to welcome you to the new home of Capital Animals! We hope you enjoy it and are patient during our growing pains and find what I’m sure are at least a few broken links that cropped up during the move from Blogspot. He’s very excited for you to read my review of Roll Over and Play Dead. This novel not only has a delightful plot, but exemplifies why so many warn against keeping your animals outside while unsupervised!

Hello! While I was at the shelter I wasn’t blogging due to some in-house rules about conflict of interest, but I’m not there anymore. The upshot–I’m back at Capital Animals!

I know, I know, you all have missed me oh so much.

Anyway, I hope that you all have had some great months saving animals, spreading good news, fighting tyranny, and celebrating your furry friends (although I have nothing against celebrating friends who are furries, let me clarify that I do in fact mean friends with actual fur here).

So I have some topics in my head for upcoming blog posts–animal books, cruelty-free product reviews, animal events around town, etc etc, but I’m curious. For anyone who still has this in their blog roll–what would you like to see?

For now, I’ll leave you with a photo of Toby being adorable (he’s so happy I’m blogging again that he tried to walk across the keyboard multiple times to say hello to you all).

On second thought, he looks a little possessed there, like he’d fit in well with the demons of Wild Ride below him.

Due to changing jobs and now working for an animal shelter to coordinate adoptions outreach there, I no longer feel that it is ethical for me to keep up this blog.  I will keep it up for awhile because I may return to it in the future after more thought and after I become more comfortable with the ethical interplay between being a private blogger and an employee of a public shelter.

Thank you for reading.  I do miss writing here.