Little Gifts

The problem is does anyone actually know of a puppy farmer that breeds companion animals that are sound of body and mind? Or one that offers health and genetic history and a guarantee? I've never seen an example of farming techniques used in relation to companion animals that replicated a home environment. I am also yet to even hear about a companion animal farm where the staff to animal ratio ensures socialisation. There is plenty of evidence of the opposite. I don't think dogs and cats will be lost from the public eye if we remove puppy farmers or BYB's. In fact I think there will be plenty of oops litters, animals needing rehoming (for a variety of reasons) and increased registered breeder options perfectly fine for the size of our population and its capacity to own animals. Remember not all the population can or should own a pet (non-pet friendly rentals are increasing, as is the number of abuse and hoarding cases we are hearing about). We need to radically reduce the creation of badly bred animals by people simply wanting to make money and we need to do that for the animals themselves who didn't ask us greedy humans to breed them in the first place. Do we want access to dogs just because we want them or do we actually care about their wellbeing and breed longevity? When I was a kid bitsa's got given away, not sold for thousands of dollars like a must have designer item. Well bred animals had to be sourced from a breeder and were much anticipated and cared for. They had value because we used our money more wisely. I now own a breed that was nearly extinct a couple of decades ago (a shar pei) and this one was surrendered into rescue as a puppy (with 2 siblings and the old mum) because the BYB had another litter due and my girl was getting a bit old to sell easily. That's how much things have changed and will continue to change - from extinction to surplus abandonment in one generation. It is very wrong to me that a person making money from living things can get away with neglecting or dumping them if they decide they no longer have value. Do you think a puppy farmer rehomes old breeding bitches so they can live out their years peacefully? Nope. They don't want anyone to see the condition they have put them in and they are pts. Everything about their approach is wrong for animals.

Asal, the reason I am not keen on selling animals at markets is the same reason I don't want animals sold in pet shops. I want to see the end of puppy farmers and backyard breeders. I also want people to put some thought into buying a pet rather than doing it on impulse because they saw a cute puppy while they were out.

He went missing from Holmview (near Beenleigh) in late July last year. We door knocked and put posters up in both suburbs (in case he was making his way home) several times. Pamphlets in letter boxes. Ads in the community paper. Kept bumping his lost ad on social media. There was not one sighting of him. I then paid a psychic to see what she could see (yes, we were that desperate) and strangely at the same time as she pin pointed a street we got several calls from an older lady in that street about him but she just kept saying she'd seen a poster and was curious but had not seen him. We all think she was lying but had no other details to pursue it. We've all dreamed about him being alive and ok where he is now. I looked on all the lost and founds and pound sites every day for at least four months but nothing. Kept visiting my local pound every week just in case. It was hard to lose him after losing mum, particularly when we thought we'd found him the perfect new home. He's just a tabby cat so nothing special to anyone but mum. His only real identifying feature was a bullseye ring on his side.

Mum's cat is still missing and we all feel he is still alive. If he is happy where he is now then fine but I'm hoping his microchip connects us back to him again at some point in the future so we can get closure on what happened.

Aside from banning animals at markets I hope the RSPCA were immediately called to remove all those animals and treat them for heat stress.

I used to believe this kind of study. Until I got a shar-pei (number 51 on the list!). So intelligent they choose to ignore you because they see no point in what you are asking them to do! I had so many fosters come here and learn our routines by simply watching my dogs that I poo-poo these kinds of studies now. Initially I couldn't get near them to train them but they learnt the important stuff anyway! Free thinking dogs are always a step ahead of their humans and when you have to think like your dog to work out how to work with them I think that shows a high level intelligence of a problem solving/survival/instinctual nature that can't be improved with treats.

I too hope the dust and heat made the tape loosen its stickiness so the dog was able to get it off itself. Otherwise what a terrible way to die for any living thing.

I will watch it again, The image of the dog trying to claw its way back out was very powerful for me so that is what I remember most. There was real fear there. From what I read it was TMZ who released it and of course they did it for maximum impact at the time of the movie's release. Whoever shared it with TMZ probably got paid for it too (which sucks). You are right, they should've gone straight to animal welfare the same day with their evidence, particularly if the film was still underway and more animals were still being used. Hopefully the correct authorities will investigate this and determine if any wrongdoing happened and if it is required, hopefully they will take a more stringent animal welfare approach to the filming of movies of this nature in the future.

The delay in releasing the film could be nothing to do with this issue though. They give new movies to test public audiences and will often go back and re-edit based on the feedback. They've been known to change whole endings because of this feedback and to even go back and reshoot new scenes. Given the use of animals there would need to be a lot of editing for continuity too as the dogs probably just did a couple of tasks at a time rather than a whole continuous scene. So this means you have a longer editing period after shooting has finished. They also hold over films if other films being released at a similar time by different companies might take away their box office impact or if there is some big world event happening that might distract people from hitting the cinema. It is all about money. Asal you are right that we made assumptions about what we saw but I never saw the trainer pull the dog back up - I saw the dog clawing its way back up and the trainer still giving it commands to go in and rearranging its body so it could do so. As I said in a previous post I would assume the dog was trained for this purpose but something on the day was clearly terrifying it. That's the trainer's job to manage (ie protect the dog) because the dog can't talk and call cut or for a break. Maybe it was the wind machine noise or something we are not privvy too but for that particular section of filming that dog was clearly terrified and actively avoiding getting into the water.

This confuses me a little. We are talking about a movie which is full of dogs doing a range of extreme and normal tasks - sourcing skilled trainers with suitable dogs would've been far harder than finding the human cast. Maybe this poor dog was ok with jumping into still water and it was the noise of fans and the choppy water that frightened it? I find it hard to imagine they employed a dodgy trainer and a dog not trained in this kind of work on a big budget flick. I actually blame this trainer for forcing his dog to do something it was clearly terrified about. Either it was the wrong dog for the scene or he should've told production that something wasn't right for the dog - he should've been the dog's voice. Forcing the dog to get into the water at that point was abusive. Unless the trainer stood up and said nup, it aint going to happen I can imagine the production crew would just keep the cameras rolling. I thought there were supposed to be animal welfare checks done on films like this so they could use that phrase at the end? Means that the trainer and production team all lied to an inspector on whether there had been any issues on set. Maybe that is why someone on the crew leaked the footage? Serves them all right. They've ruined a potentially beautiful movie by being negligent. It is a book I also loved but I refuse to see the film now. I don't even want to see it in 10 years time on FTA TV.

Asal, how did their lawyers even think that was ok? I'm gobsmacked!

This is off their main organisation page. I wouldn't mind seeing their KPIs on 'actively promoting care and protection'. I have never heard of them being the go to organisation in relation to farming practices either and I suspect the national events they talk of are fundraising activities rather than educational. If some states are better fundraisers than others you would also expect more programs to be offered in those states, resulting reduction in abuse/abandonment/euth/rehoming stats. Not sure I noticed anything of that nature in the last annual report but maybe I missed it? It's a grand money making business plan - we should all buy shares! What We Do The RSPCA is a community based charity that works to prevent cruelty to animals by actively promoting their care and protection. RSPCA Australia is a Federation of eight independent State and Territory RSPCA bodies called member Societies. RSPCA member Societies do much of the hands on work traditionally associated with the RSPCA such as the operation of shelters and the Inspectorate plus community education and fundraising. RSPCA Australia’s National Office is home to a strong science and campaigns team, with a particular focus on farm animal issues. RSPCA Australia is responsible for facilitating many of the national events and campaigns, and promoting the interests of animal welfare with Government and industry.

If the RSPCA was doing what people thought it was supposed to do there would be no need for all these small rescue groups - the RSPCA would already be on top of it! Instead rescue groups for every type of animal you can imagine have popped up to do the work the RSPCA wont or dont. The majority do it without millions of dollars in public and government funds. How they keep getting away with it I don't know because they are legislated to do a job they clearly aren't doing. And SG - they might be separate entities but they have the same or very similar legislated expectations otherwise they couldn't come under the RSPCA bannerhead. It's not like a franchise where anyone can decide to open up a service arm using the same name. It's their core functioning that I disagree with - Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Where is the prevention part?

Saw this on FB this morning as well as a hoarder situation in Adelaide (90 animals from a range of species inside a house). Both these situations make me so angry. Where is the RSPCA? Why do animals need to be dead and dying before they step in? Where is their prevention work? And what about council - they have a responsibility to ensure properties are safe for purpose and hygenic and to monitor animal ownership in their jurisdiction. Why do they allow these people to continue to create harmful environments and have excess numbers of animals? It's not like it happens overnight! Perhaps if they stopped with all the pissy little fines and actually stomped on these people so they had nowhere to hide things might change. If sending them to prison breaks their habit of ownership and abuse then so be it. It's also time for pet shops to accept the role they play in puppy farming and the rescue continuum. It's always the animals that suffer and as usual all the excuses are benefiting the humans.

Gretel where are you located?

I want to try Nosework with Tempeh too. And I need to start taking more regular photos of Stussy. She is 9 now and has white sunglasses to prove it. When did my baby get so old?

I love action shots of Jonah! You have done such an amazing job with him!

This is all kinds of weird for me. Some years ago I was part of a Christmas fundraising activity for AWDRI. I met the people who established it and spent half a day side by side with them. They were lovely. I continued being a financial supporter. Then I emailed them for assistance/advice. No response so I sent a second apologetic email and the response I got then was very rude. Even if they didn't remember me there was no need to type what they did. I was really sad. I've avoided them since and no longer suggest them as a rescue option to anyone looking.

Oh honey that sounds terrible! I hope things keep improving and if you need to lie down and rest then that is what you have to do. The dogs will be fine. I'm sure they can sense mummy isn't well. Thank you to IM for being such a good friend to you.

Not reincarnation as such but definately a message from the rainbow bridge - I had a rescue SBT who lived to almost 17. I could no longer foster because of the strain it would put on her. Our last foster, an SBT puppy arrived when she was about 14 years old and she took on a mother role but she still had all her faculties then. After she passed away I wanted to start fostering again but wasn't sure if the time was right and if we were all ready as she had been a major player in our household. One night she was my dream. It was a cruise ship that was sinking and she kept guiding me to safety on the different levels until we were safely back on dry land, then she just dissappeared into the crowd. I took it to say she was giving me her blessing to move forward without her. In the 16 years I'd had her and the months since she passed I had never had her in any of my dreams yet there she was that night. It helped me put to rest my concerns and we applied and got our first pei foster boy. And in another coincidence, the SBT puppy she'd nurtured turned into the most nurturing dog herself, helping the most terrified and shut down of our fosters come out of their shells and learn to trust again.

Oh dear Kirislin! I didn't know either! I second a visit from IM and Secret. I would be a good cheerer upperer. Are you getting closer to being back on top of your health?

Well I hope you keep the oldie too given the pics you and it are capable of taking together!

Were these new or old camera? You can't beat nature for raw beauty, colour, texture, movement, you name it!

Bet he said a few curse words when he realised someone had let the goats loose!

Loved the story about the Boss and the dogs!