Pet ownership

21 August

A friend of ours has organised another barbi, and guess what, the forecast is for rain and high winds. This seems to happen whenever Roger and Pam decide to host one, so much so that it became a standing joke at once in our church. And now he they have done it again. Jan will be heading off to it later taking Kile with her. From there they are heading for the local wild life centre to see an injured badger they have there. Kile hasn’t seen a badger yet, and I haven’t either but I’ll wait to try to see one out in the wild.

I’m rather pleased that I hadn’t made any plans for going out today anyway, even if I’d like to just to look and shoot the market again, err … with my camera, not a gun I should say. After Thursday I’m still feeling a bit tired so hopefully I should make it on Wednesday. But even if I had made plans, they would be ignored because of the weather forecast, what with rain and possible gale force winds. Thanks, but no thanks; I’ll stay here in home.

While I’m writing this I’m also watching Animal Cops – Huston. I find it really hard to understand the mentality of some of the people it features in its cruelty cases. This show, and others like it, get to film in some of the roughest areas of the US. In feature films we usually see only the more affluent areas and that gives a false impression of the country. Of course, there’s also shows on UK telly with the same problem. There’s one similarity in the animal rescue shows, and that is the issue of pride, and possibly even some shame.

People get their pets and then found out they don’t have a lot of knowledge about caring for them. Eventually, the animal suffers. The pride comes in at that point because of the shame of having to admit they have made a mistake. It seems to be the same thing with animal hoarders too. Sadly, there may be a mental illness problem in that case as well. And so we have proud pet owners who are not willing to accept that there’s a problem. Toes dig in on their side of the line and the more they are pushed, the more the toes dig in. The only loser in this is of course, the poor animal. So sad …

There’s another issue that is doing the rounds here in the UK right now. Large numbers of dogs are being stolen, mainly pedigree dogs. The attraction is obvious of course, but you can’t really tell if a dog has been fixed unless you get your hands on it. With a bitch, even then you can’t tell unless you make a careful examination to see any scars where she has been spayed. So if these dogs are being stolen as breeding animals, what happens to those who don’t make the grade?

Do they just get thrown out and if lucky, get picked up as strays, hopefully being returned to their owners? Or do they end up on someone’s plate? And I’m not just being negative or funny here either, oh no, there are people here in the UK who come from parts of the world where eating dogs is a normal practice. Most Brits would find that idea appalling, I know I do.

Where does that leave me when I say that if it was available I would be willing to eat horse meat. How many folks would be appalled at that one I wonder? And yet I have eaten it before when I was in Germany, and I have to say that it was rather nice, if a little chewy. I also find myself in agreement with the Princess Royal on this one. We know of her love of horses and yet she has said that with the huge number of surplus horses here in the UK, eating them would be more beneficial than keeping them alive for sake of it. I was surprised that wasn’t all that much of a fuss over it though.

We carnivores eat all sorts of meat don’t we. Butcher shops throughout the country sell all the normal farmed animals and occasionally we find whole rabbits and hares hanging inside. I actually like both, but the one I haven’t tried yet is venison, mainly because it’s so expensive. I have tried grouse but wasn’t impressed with it, mainly because it was flambéed with scotch, I don’t like scotch (but do like a single malt). Pheasant sounds good but pigeon would be a big no-no for me. But let’s get back to pet neglect …

Pride and shame leads the front one side of the animal neglect story; on the other is the number of rescue organisations worldwide. We have the RSPCA, Dog Trust and locally the Warwickshire Wildlife Rescue group. At times they must feel dejected when they see so many neglected and abandoned animals. Yet they continue their work on a daily basis no matter they come across. It’s a job I couldn’t do, I get angry and upset when I see what happens on these telly shows, seeing it real life, I’m not sure I could handle it at all. So all power to the rescue groups, wherever they are working.

Today’s photo then …

A one horned rhino.

Today’s funny …

A father took his young son to the opera for the first time. The conductor started waving the baton, and the soprano began her aria. The boy watched everything intently and finally asked: ''Why is he hitting her with his stick?''
''He's not hitting her,'' answered the father with a chuckle.
''Well, then,'' asked the boy, ''why is she screaming?''