Panda Accused of Faking Pregnancy To Get Better Food, Air Conditioning

Expectant pandas are moved to air-conditioned rooms and showered with more buns, fruit and bamboo.

By Dominique Mosbergen – News Editor, The Huffington Post – Posted: 07/30/2015 12:57 AM EDT | Edited: 07/31/2015 02:07 PM EDT

Pandas Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, names together mean "reunion", eat bamboo at a panda base in Ya’an, southwest China’s Sichuan province, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008. A few weeks after this photo was taken, the duo were moved to Taiwan. (Associated Press)

Keepers at the Taipei Zoo were excited. Resident giant panda Yuan Yuan was exhibiting signs of pregnancy — an all-too-elusive event among captive pandas.

There were tell-tale symptoms, like a loss of appetite and a thickening of the uterus. Yuan Yuan’s fecal progesterone concentration was also on the rise.

Yet despite these promising signs, the panda’s pregnancy was a false alarm.

According to China’s Southern Metropolis Daily, ultrasound scans determined that Yuan Yuan, who was artificially inseminated earlier this year, was not pregnant. Now the panda is being accused of faking the pregnancy as a way of getting her caretakers to shower her with better food and care.

Pregnant pandas are typically treated like queens. As China Daily notes, the expectant bears are moved into “single rooms with air conditioning” and given “round-the-clock care.” They receive more buns, fruit and bamboo as well.

Panda experts have speculated that Yuan Yuan, who gave birth to a cub in 2013, may have been feigning pregnancy to reap these added benefits.

Taiwan’s panda cub Yuan Zai, right, and her mother Yuan Yuan enjoy Yuan Zai’s first birthday cake at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, July 6, 2014. (Associated Press)

Last year, another female panda named Ai Hin was accused of trying to pull the same trick. The panda, who lives at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, exhibited pregnancy symptoms for two months before experts determined that she didn’t actually have a cub in the oven.

“After showing prenatal signs, the [panda] ‘mothers-to-be’ are [pampered],” Wu Kongju, an expert at the Chengdu Research Base, told CNN last year. “So some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life.”

Other panda experts disagree with these accusations.

Zhang Heming, director of the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda, told the Guardian last year that pseudo-pregnancies are actually fairly common in the panda world. He attributed the pandas’ behavior to "more of a hormonal issue than a deliberate ruse."

"This phenomenon occurs in 10 to 20 percent of pandas," he said. "After the mother panda is inseminated, if her health isn’t so good, the pregnancy will terminate, but she’ll still behave as if she’s pregnant."

According to a 2010 LiveScience report, scientists "don’t know why pseudo-pregnancies happen, or if they have evolved for an evolutionary purpose."

"In a sense there’s no answer, but there is speculation that perhaps pandas’ bodies just rehearse pregnancy all the time," Lisa Stevens, curator of primates and pandas at Smithsonian’s National Zoo, told the news outlet.

Also on HuffPost:

Alamy AK58HY Giant Panda Cub  Kin Cheung/AP One of the one month old Panda triples receives a body check at the Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou in south China’s Guangdong province Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. China announced the birth of extremely rare panda triplets in a further success for the country’s artificial breeding program. The three cubs were born July 29 in the southern city of Guangzhou. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Panda cub Bao Bao hangs from a tree in her habitat at the National Zoo in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014. Today marks her first birthday and the zoo is marking the event with a traditional ‘Zhuazhou’ ceremony, a Chinese birthday tradition symbolizing long life to mark the event. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Getty Images

YA’AN, CHINA – JUNE 29: A giant panda climbs onto a platform at the panda research base on June 29, 2015 in Ya’an, China. China’s Sichuan province is home to the majority of the the world’s nearly 1,900 endangered giant pandas. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

leungchopan panda eating bamboo

  Alamy AJC9T9  -  ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

A woman poses for photographers with the part of the 1,600 paper pandas, created by French artist Paulo Grangeon, in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building during the month-long "1600 Pandas World Tour" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin) ABA PREFECTURE, CHINA – JULY 05: (CHINA OUT) Aerial view of people, wearing panda costumes with mahjong tiles, playing mahjong during a mahjong competition at a theme park in Jiuzhai Village on July 5, 2015 in Aba Perfecture, Sichuan Province of China. Over one hundred people wearing panda costumes with mahjong tiles played on a one hundred-square-meter mahjong table during a mahjong competition. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)  

Getty Images

CHENGDU, CHINA – JUNE 30: Giants pandas pause from eating bamboo in an enclosure at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on June 30, 2015 in Chengdu, China. Twin female cubs were born by artificial insemination to seven-year-old Kelin at the center on June 22. China’s Sichuan province is home to the majority of the the world’s nearly 1,900 endangered giant pandas. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

‘Dogs Have The Intelligence of a Human Toddler’

Smartest Dog In the World, Chaser – 60 Minutes With Anderson Cooper

Quebec bill changes animals from "property" to sentient beings and includes jail time for cruelty

Spanish town gives pets equal rights as citizens

China, Korea, South East Asia: Stop Cooking Dogs, Any Animals, Alive 

Our Weasel Of The Week Nominees!–06.02.15

Smartest Dog In the World, Chaser – 60 Minutes With Anderson Cooper

By Marion Algier – Just One More Pet (JOMP)  –  Cross-Posted at AskMarion

Anderson Cooper met Chaser, a dog who can identify over a thousand toys, and because of whom, scientists are now studying the brain of man’s best friend.  Chaser is also the subject of a book:  Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words.

Man and dog have lived together for 15,000 years and there are now more than 80 million dogs in the United States, more dogs than children, yet we know very little about man’s best friend.

Did you know that when your dog(s) stare at you, they are hugging you with their eyes?!?

Video: 60 Minutes October 5, 2014 – Anderson Cooper- Chaser – Smart Dog Segment

Video: The Dog Who Knows 1,000 Words | CUTE ANIMALS (Episode 5)

And, there’s even more to smart dogs than what ’60 Minutes’ and Chaser showed you says Arlene Weintraub, author of – Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer Cures.

The hit CBS CBS -0.48% newsmagazine 60 Minutes just re-ran what was no doubt one of its most popular segments of recent years, “The Smartest Dog in the World,” featuring Chaser, the border collie who learned more than 1,000 words and names. As shown in the segment, Chaser accomplished that incredible feat because her owner, retired psychology professor John Pilley, spent five hours a day, five days a week training the white-and-black spotted pooch to associate certain words with objects such as toys.

As a result, Chaser ended up with a vocabulary three times greater than that of the average toddler. It’s impressive, to be sure, especially since very little was known about the power of the canine brain until quite recently, as correspondent Anderson Cooper pointed out at the top of the piece.

Over the last two decades, however, the scientific community has started to delve more deeply into canine intelligence, unlocking the clues to what’s happening in their brains that makes dogs so seemingly human. Here are some of the latest insights:

Dogs aren’t just learning tricks when you train them—they’re actually getting smarter.

Not everyone can spare the time that Pilley took to train his dog to recognize so many words, but science has proven that, in fact, dogs that stay mentally engaged do get smarter.

For example, researchers at the University of Milan recently took a group of 110 dogs, half of whom had little or no training in obedience or any other skill, and the other half who had extremely sophisticated levels of schooling, in agility, search-and-rescue, and the like. All of the dogs were then challenged to find food that had been hidden—but only after they were shown how the treats would be hidden and what they would have to do to uncover them.

As dog psychology expert and author Stanley Coren reported on the Psychology Today blog, it was clear that the dogs in the trial who had spent a lot of time training to do challenging tasks had gained a leg up on the intelligence scale: Only 30% of the untrained dogs found the hidden food, while 61% of the trained dogs successfully completed the task—even though their previous training didn’t prepare them for this particular test.

The scientists concluded that the trained dogs had acquired a “’learning to learn’ ability” that is otherwise absent in the average dog.

Studies show that dogs trained in complex tasks like agility gain intelligence (Credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

That insight jives with what one of the scientists featured in the 60 Minutes piece, Brian Hare, pointed out. “What’s special is that [Pilley] spent so much time playing these games to help her learn words, but are there lots of Chasers out there?” said Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University during the piece. “Absolutely.”

In other words, any mutt can probably be as good as Chaser—if his or her owner is willing to put in the hours.

Dogs can smell cancer and other things we can’t because of how their brains are structured.

It’s long been known that dogs’ noses are extremely sensitive—a virtue that has made them indispensable as search-and-rescue aides for centuries. But only recently have scientists begun to unlock the mysteries behind how dogs can pick up and follow scents that no one else can.

What they’ve learned is that dogs have 200 million olfactory receptors (ORs), or proteins on the neurons inside their snouts that send signals to their brains, allowing them to process smells. We human have only five million ORs. Dogs’ nostrils are structured so intricately that they can detect odors at such miniscule levels as parts per trillion, and many experts believe the proportion of the dog’s brain that’s dedicated to analyzing those scents is 40 times larger than that of humans. That makes the dog’s ability to recognize particular odors one million times better than that of people.

Dogs’ noses are now being put to use beyond the realm of search-and-rescue. In the medical world, service dogs are being trained to help people with diabetes recognize when their blood sugar is dropping to dangerous levels. And much attention has been paid recently to reports that dogs can sniff cancer.

The notion that dogs might be able to detect cancer first emerged about 25 years ago, when the British medical journal The Lancet published a five-paragraph letter in which two doctors in London described the case of a forty-four-year-old woman, who came into their clinic with a lesion on her left thigh. She told them her Doberman–border collie mix was constantly sniffing a mole on her leg, and one day when she was wearing shorts, her dog tried to bite the mole off entirely. Turned out that mole was a malignant melanoma—and the dog saved his owner’s life, because the tumor was so small at that point the cancer could be cured.

Since then, dog-loving scientists all over the world have trained and then tested hundreds of dogs to prove they can smell cancer. The results are sometimes astounding: In a 2012 trial, sniffer dogs were able to identify the scent of lung cancer about 90% of the time, even when the scientists tried to confuse them with samples from patients with non-cancerous conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). Dogs have also been successfully trained to detect ovarian, breast, bladder, and colorectal cancer. Multiple efforts are now underway to translate the dog’s nose into automated breathalyzer-like devices that may be able to detect cancer early.

Dogs are wired for empathy in ways that many other species are not.

During the 60 Minutes story we heard a lot about oxytocin, commonly called “the love hormone.” This is a hormone, made in the brains of both dogs and people, that promotes the bonding between mothers and their babies, for example, and makes us feel good when we hug a loved one. Turns out when dogs make eye contact with their people or jump in their laps, both dogs and the recipients of their affection get more of an oxytocin rush.

But are dogs empathetic? Do they feel our emotional pain and joy? Several studies suggest they do. For example, in 2013, a group of Japanese researchers showed that the phenomenon of contagious yawning—long believed to be a sign of empathy—does not just happen among people. The scientists observed 25 dogs yawning in response to the yawns of both their owners and those of people they did not know. They measured the dogs’ heart rate to show that their yawning was not caused by stress (as many dog trainers believe it is).

Dogs may also be empathetic because in addition to sharing the love hormone with their humans, they share the stress hormone, called cortisol. Last fall, researchers in New Zealand took 75 dogs and 74 people and played the same sounds for both groups: a baby crying, a baby babbling and white noise. When they heard the crying baby, both people and dogs showed an increase in cortisol. The dogs’ behavior changed, too, as they became more submissive and alert. The researchers concluded that the dogs were showing “emotional contagion,” a basic form of empathy. What’s more, the empathy crossed species—a rare occurrence, they suggested.

‘Dogs Have The Intelligence of a Human Toddler’ and bottom line, your dog is probably just as smart as Chaser, both intellectually and emotionally.  I know mine are! You just might need to do a bit of work to uncover that intelligence.  Age, breed and owner or trainer involvement are all factors.

A Quebec bill has changed animals from “property” to sentient beings and includes jail time for cruelty in Canada.  Let us hope that the United States and the rest of the world will not be far behind.  Especially with daily headlines like these: China, Korea, South East Asia: Stop Cooking Dogs, Any Animals, Alive;  Weasel of the Weak –> The Monster Who Tortured And Abused This Dog, Teen Who Killed Kitten Only Had to Serve One Year in Prison, Buried Alive Because She Was A Nuisance This Stray Dog Has Become An Inspiration and Copycat Dog Muzzle Duct Taping Crime?.  Even livestock who are ultimately slated to end up on our dinner tables deserve human treatment throughout their lives!

Hopefully, WE, human animals are finally realizing that all animals have value and deserve fair and better treatment, beginning with domesticated animals that we share our lives with. To whom much is given, much is expected! And because we are the most intelligent animals with the largest brain, at least on our planet, we must be much better than we are!

China, Korea, South East Asia: Stop Cooking Dogs, Any Animals, Alive

There is not justification for this… NONE! Not culture, not hunger, not anything!!

No animal should be cooked alive!

By Marion Algier – JOMP

Lisa Mason  -  Lima, OH

I love dogs. I hate any animal abuse. I just saw a picture of a dog being boiled alive. The fear and pain in his eyes was the worst thing I have ever seen. It made me cry and feel sick. I do not think dogs should be eaten, and they must not suffer such a slow painful death! I have been unable to get the picture of this poor dog out of my mind. I was told by the person who sent this picture they also saw a video. I have since googled Chinese and Koreans eating dogs and lots of pictures came up I did not look at. We must not buy  things for our dogs from any country that does these things to its own dogs, maybe that will make them change their practices. Also when they care so little for dogs do they make a safe product? I see many postings on recalls or products that should have recalls because dogs got ill or died from products made in China.

Letter to:  

Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in the United States Chinese Ambasador to the United States Mr. Zhang Yesui

South Korean Embassy South Korean Ambasador to the United States Choi Young-jin

Stop cooking dogs alive! I understand this is a different culture. And you may choose to eat things others would not, even our country has people that eat animals. But they must be treated humanely when raised and killed quickly. I would prefer a law banning eating dogs, but if this cannot be changed it MUST be illegal to skin or cook them alive. Our country of course does not make your laws, but we do import your products, and if people are aware of this issue, they can refuse to buy your products. It is my hope this petition will raise awareness that this occurs, and put economic pressure on your government to stop this. In a country where dogs are considered members of our families, how can we trust dog treats and other products made in a country with such disregard for canine suffering, to have enough quality control, that they are safe for us to spend our money on and give to our canine family members and friends, who help society in many ways by working with police, armed forces, handicapped, the ill, and dying? I will be sending a copy of this petition to companies that put theses products on our shelves.

See updates and comments HERE

Related:

Dog Meat in Chinese Restaurants

Voiceless Friends… Stop the Dog Meat Trade

Dogs slaughtered for meat in Vietnam… Stop the Dog Meat Trade

STOP KILLING DOGS! 2 million dogs killed in Horrible ways every Year in South Korea

Olympic Clean-up Chinese Style: Beijings Shocking Cat Death Camps

Dog found hanging from meat hook

Dog Meat In Beijing Ordered Off Menu For Olympics

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. -Mahatma Gandhi

When you look at our shelter system, we don’t do a very good job ourselves… but China (Asia)’s record is abhorrent!

‘Dogs Have The Intelligence of a Human Toddler’

American Pharoah Ends Triple Crown Drought

By Marion Algier – Just One More Pet

The Sport of Kings has its day after a 37 year drought.  As with most debates involving sports, there are varying reasons for the absence of a Triple Crown champion over the past 37 years. It has as much to do with bank accounts as bloodlines, yet trying to pinpoint the main reason is as elusive as the achievement itself.

NEW YORK (AP) — By mid-stretch, Bob Baffert said he knew it. American Pharoah was going to win the Triple Crown.

He took his eyes off the horse to soak in the crazed scene of the packed grandstand. Fans jumped up and down, hugged, and tossed drinks in the air.

The race wasn’t even over yet, but the crowd knew it, too. Thirty-seven years of waiting to see one of the rarest feats in sports was almost over.

"The crowd was just thundering and I was just enjoying the crowd and the noise and everything happening," the white-haired trainer said. "What a feeling."

Finally, a Triple Crown winner. And this one was never in doubt.

American Pharoah led all the way to win the Belmont Stakes by 5 lengths on Saturday, becoming the first horse since 1978 to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes — one of the sporting world’s rarest feats.

"Wow! Wow!" jockey Victor Espinoza (age 43) said moments after crossing the finish line. "I can only tell you it is just an amazing thing."

The bay colt with the unusually short tail, chewed of by another horse, easily defeated seven rivals in the grueling 1 1/2-mile race, covering the distance in 2:26.65 — sixth-fastest in Belmont history — to end the longest stretch without a Triple Crown champion in history.

"That little horse, he deserved it," said Baffert, who at 62 is the second-oldest trainer of a Triple Crown winner. "He’s the one that did it. We were basically just passengers."

American Pharoah is the 12th horse and first since Affirmed in 1978 to win three races on different tracks at varying distances over a five-week span. He won the Derby by one length on May 2 and then romped to a seven-length victory in the rainy Preakness two weeks later before demolishing his rivals Saturday.

Baffert and Espinoza ended their own frustrating histories in the Triple Crown. Baffert finally won on his record fourth Triple try, having lost in 1997, 1998 (by a nose) and in 2002. Espinoza got it done with his record third shot after failing to win in 2002 and last year on California Chrome.

"I was prepared for somebody coming because I’ve been through this so many times," Baffert said.

Nobody did.

Espinoza hustled American Pharoah to the lead leaving the No. 5 post and quickly got him over to the rail. Materiality was on his outside in second, but never applied any serious pressure traveling along the backstretch before falling away on the second turn.

American Pharoah started kicking away heading into the final turn. He opened up on the field as he powered through the 1,097-yard stretch, displaying his fluid, springloaded stride in which he appears to float over the ground.

"It’s just an amazing feeling that you have when you’re 20 yards from the wire," Espinoza said. "And then at the wire I was like, `I cannot believe I did it.’"

American Pharoah ran the final quarter-mile — a stretch that has dashed numerous Triple Crown dreams — in 24.32 seconds, faster than Secretariat’s time of 25 seconds in winning the 1973 Belmont.

"That’s a hell of a horse," said jockey Gary Stevens (age 52), who finished seventh aboard Tale of Verve. "The race was over in the third jump from the gate."

After making his way back to the crowd, Espinoza took American Pharoah nearly the length of the sprawling grandstand so fans could pay their respects to the champion.

As the horses were heading to the starting gate, owner Ahmed Zayat was overflowing with confidence and turned to his wife.

"I told her, `Get ready to be the owner of the 12th Triple Crown winner,’" he said.

Baffert felt equally good, sensing American Pharoah was on the verge of a winning performance when he saddled the horse in the shady paddock.

American Pharoah is the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, but his biggest payday won’t be on a race track.  It will be in stud fees.

Prior to the Belmont, when he just had Kentucky Derby and Preakness wins, it was estimated that he would collect $60,000 to $75,000 per foal, so that kind of stud money means most successful racing careers are short.

California Chrome, who won the Derby and Preakness last year, hasn’t been put out to stud yet since his blood lines aren’t as prestigious. His stud fee is probably in the the neighborhood of $25,000.

So his owners decided to race him for another year. He went to the Dubai World Cup where he placed second, scoring another $2 million in winnings.

It’s amazing to think that Secretariat’s Belmont time would’ve beaten American Pharoah by 15 lengths.

There Will Never Be Another Secretariat: Thank you, Miss Penny

American Pharoah’s jockey earns peanuts compared to other sports

Our Weasel Of The Week Nominees!–06.02.15

It’s time once again for the Watcher’s Council’s ‘Weasel Of The Week’ nominations, where we pick our choices to compete for the award of the famed Golden Weasel to a public figure who particularly deserves to be slimed and mocked for his or her dastardly deeds during the week. Every Tuesday morning, tune in for the Weasel of the Week nominations!

Here are this weeks’ nominees….

The Monster Who Tortured And Abused This Dog

Don Surber: The known-only-to-God-and-the-Devil expletive who did this. The bastard.

Live 5 News: NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) -The 41-year-old man accused of taping a 15-month-old dog’s muzzle shut last week was issued a $50,000 bond Tuesday morning, and told he must surrender another dog at his home. 
William Leonard Dodson was arrested Monday night in the abuse case of Caitlyn, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix who was found last week with electrical tape wrapped around her muzzle, according to North Charleston Police spokesman Spencer Pryor.
Dodson, who has been charged with animal cruelty, was issued a $50,000 surety bond Tuesday by Magistrate Priscilla Baldwin.

He also must surrender a second dog he has at his residence, Baldwin ordered. 

*This guy, as always with animal abusers, got off way to light. In cases like these, I’m and eye for an eye kinda gal!  And let us remember that Domestic and Animal Abuse are related!!

As a WC friend pointed out today…    “As I suspected, a career criminal from a certain background, whom likely grew up fatherless. I doubt this bastard Dodson has $5,000, and sending him to jail means little at this point. He’ll probably get get some kind of plea bargain    involving community service.”  Another said, “Just horrific. I can’t print what I would do to this asshat given a chance. Dogs are the most innocent of souls. He’s getting off way too light.”  And still others said, “I can’t even look at that. I hugged both of my dogs after seeing that”; “That is a stomach-churning photograph”; and  “There are more pics at the Blaze. What kind of scumbag would do something like  that? Gawd”.

Racialist Cop Hater and Baltimore City Attorney Marilyn Mosby!!

The Noisy Room: I nominate for Weasel of the Week, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for pulling an Anthony Weiner and claiming her Twitter account was hacked after two controversial tweets were “favorited” by a personal Twitter account belonging to her. The first tweet referred to the officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray as “those 6 THUG cops” and the other praised Mosby and claimed she “INFURIATES a certain kind of white person.” Her office is now claiming that these acts were conducted by some shadowy hacker. It’s amazing to me that these politicians can’t behave on social media and when they get caught, they always blame some nefarious nerd for their bad behavior.

From The Blaze:

“Both Mosby’s official Twitter account and her personal account were hacked,” the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office reportedly told “The Kelly File” on Wednesday. “We do not know how long it’s been going on, we are working with Twitter.”
Mosby revealed on May 23 that her official government Twitter account had been hacked, but did not mention her personal account being compromised. Further, the tweets in question were favorited by her personal account weeks before her government account was reportedly hacked.

How convenient that only two Tweets were hacked on a Twitter account that wasn’t reported hacked at all – I’m sure it’s just a massive coincidence that the two Tweets are highly racist, offensive and just so happen to paint her as the cop-hater and grand-stander she really is. She’s just the kind of weasel Progressive that Obama hearts.

Secretary Of State John Kerry – Did You know He Served In Vietnam?

Virginia Right!: John Kerry took a break from negotiations with Iran on a nuclear deal to have a little fun in the world of competitive cycling. The rigors of the Tour de France circuit are pretty daunting. And Kerry is 71 years old. et he decided to risk his health and limb on a bicycle.

And he broke his hip or leg. Apparently the hip replacement surgery he had a while back is pretty close to the break.

So first and foremost, he is an idiot.

But more importantly, Iran now miraculously has more time to refine nuclear material while the talks are on hold.

So, did John Kerry break his hip on purpose to help Iran develop the bomb? Of course not! His leg isn’t really broken. He is faking it. (Ok. That is for my conspiracy theory friends.)

I am sure he broke his leg. And it was nothing more than complete stupidity. But it does throw a monkey wrench in the Iran talks and gives them what they need most – more time.

And as if that were not enough, Kerry had his doctor flown to Europe and accompany him on his return flight to the US for treatment. In a military transport jet that usually carries 100 soldiers.

Kerry probably added 2 degrees to global warming on his trip back home.

The Daily Mail reports:

“A US military C-17 transport aircraft that usually carries at least 100 troops flew to Geneva Airport to pick up Secretary of State John Kerry and fly him to Boston where he’ll be treated for a broken leg.

The Air Force plane touched down in Switzerland on Monday after taking off from a US base in Ramstein, Germany, and then heading to Massachusetts after collecting the 71-year-old politician.

Kerry tweeted out ‘big thanks’ to his well-wishers and said he looked forward to getting his leg set and getting back to work at the State Department. “

Noo Yawk Dummy-crat, 2nd Amendment Hater  and Insurance Company Prostitute   Carolyn B. Maloney!!

JoshuaPundit: The thing about weasels is that they love to disguise their self-serving evil as virtue, as something ‘everybody knows’ and ‘every decent person supports.’  When you hear that coming out of someone’s mouth, it’s a dead giveaway you’re talking to a totalitarian lovin’ prog fascist.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney has a bill she’s submitting in the House that would require Americans who choose to avail themselves of the freedoms given to them by the 2nd Amendment to  purchase mandatory liability insurance.

“We require insurance to own a car, but no such requirement exists for guns,” Maloney said in a statement. “The results are clear: car fatalities have declined by 25 percent in the last decade, but gun fatalities continue to rise.”

Maloney said auto insurance carriers incentivize drivers to take precautions to reduce accidents, but no such incentives exist for firearm owners

Of course, aside from being unconstitutional, there are two outright lies in that statement. First, there’s no insurance requirement to own and drive a car. While most people buy it, especially if they have a vehicle of some value,  Every state in the union allows a cash bond to be  posted by a prospective car owner  in lieu of insurance. And there is no requirement to obtain insurance when you buy a vehicle. That’s why most policies include uninsured motorist coverage.

And gun fatalities aren’t rising. They’ve been falling for some time, and are down 49% from 1993.

Ah, but here’s where the real weasel touch comes in. Guess who Ms. Maloney’s biggest campaign contributors are?

Why yes! It’s the insurance companies, who stand to make a nice chunk o’ change if this idiocy went through.

The bill is almost certainly headed nowhere, but this way, Ms. Maloney can say she tried to her donors. And may I add that this legislation, like most gun control  merda taurorum is racist and  elitest as well, since it discriminates against minorities and the poor whom need to defend themselves? Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it, from a privileged congress weasel with the best security money can buy – courtesy of the U.S, tax payers she wants to disarm so badly.

Well, there it is. What a despicable group of  Weasels…ANY OF THEM COULD WIN! Check back Thursday to see which Weasel walks off with the statuette of shame!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know!

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Father Arrested for Allegedly Killing Family Dog in Front of Children

Unusual Rescue, Dog Found In a Tree

In the midst of the tons of debris and rubble, strewn across the landscape, a rescuer spotted an unusual sight: a dog in a tree. Certainly not something you see everyday!

The Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team sprang into action, saving Maggie, a yellow Labrador belonging to the McComb family, in the Sunday rescue operation on the banks of the Blanco River.  Maggie is now staying with relatives as the fate of the rest of the family is still uncertain.

Unusual Friends

By Marion Algier – JOMP

Big Dog and Calf are virtually same size and new best friends

Good Dog: Small Dog, Big Heart

Illustration by John Cuneo

by Wells Tower – June/July 2014  –  Garden &  Gun  –  Cross-Posted at Just One More Pet

The nervous work of owning—and finally loving—a Chihuahua

For many years, I thought that owners of small dogs harbored stunted souls. Parents of infant beauty queens. Weird bachelors with pet stairs by their beds. Adult hoarders of dolls and teddy bears. People deranged by an obsession with the adorable.

Then, in my late twenties, when I was living in  New Orleans, a good friend of mine found a bedraggled Chihuahua in a ditch and brought her home. It was a comical, toothless animal with a bullfrog’s tongue that would slap her in the eye on the recoil. That dog had a lot of ditch trauma to work through. She needed to sit on somebody at all times or she got the shakes. I was home most days, so I let the dog make use of my lap during business hours. When I moved back to North Carolina, I was surprised to discover a Chihuahua-size hole in my life.

So I started looking for a dog. I knew I wanted a pound animal, though not for any lofty moral reasons. I wanted a desperate dog, one without high expectations of whoever took it in. My family had dogs when I was a kid. The bunch of us should be arrested for how we let those animals down. They were outdoor dogs too disgusting to pet. We let ticks get on them and grow as big as minié balls. When the family went out of town, we’d leave the dog on the porch with a bag of cheap food. Eventually, they’d get sick of us and wander off. So my track record with dogs wasn’t the greatest, but I figured one otherwise bound for the gas chamber couldn’t really gripe about winding up in my care.

I spent long hours at the keyboard, browsing head shots at an online clearinghouse for discarded dogs. A Chihuahua was what I was after, but I didn’t want it to be too grotesque: too bug-eyed or hog-snouted or bat-eared or obviously rodentlike. Looking for an ungrotesque Chihuahua is like trying to find a dignified clown. It took a good bit of time.

At last, I found a candidate. The head shot showed a creature with a long, aristocratic nose and smart, Dobermanly ears. Her eyes were large but not hyperthyroidal. They seemed to reflect intelligence but also the right measure of desperation. She was waiting on death row at the dog pound in Winston-Salem, ninety minutes from my home. I gave them a call to see if the dog had yet been gassed. “Nope, she’s still here!” an exhaustingly jolly Southern voice exclaimed.

“Oh, you will just love this crazy little creature. We call her Tinsy, but you could call her Teensy-Meensy-Weensy-Eensy! She is that small! She’s one of them little reindeer dogs, you know. She’s just always bouncing all around on them little teensy reindeer legs. She is kinda licky and kinda barky but she’s a funny little ball of fun.”

I was in the market for a lap sleeper, a hot-water bottle in canine form. From the sound of it, this reindeer dog embodied much that is dislikable in the miniature breeds. But I had committed to paying the dog a visit, and I make it a point never to betray a promise to the incarcerated. I went and had a look. The lady I talked to on the phone dragged Tinsy out from where she’d been hiding behind a file cabinet. Tinsy, who was maybe a year old, had been found walking the streets of Winston-Salem naked. Like most women found in this condition, she was not in the greatest shape. She resembled a dog the way those caiman-head back scratchers resemble an alligator. Her face was okay, but the rest of her body was a bony rod upholstered in bald gray skin. I had seen rats with prettier tails. Hers was without a whisker and looked as though it had been set afire and extinguished under the needle of a sewing machine.

“You wanna hold her?” the shelter lady asked me, wagging Tinsy at me like a dishrag. I did not want to hold Tinsy. I wanted to leave the room. But Tinsy was thrust into my arms. This dog had long, scraggly talons, and she clung to my sweater like a bat to a screen door. I grimaced. The dog grimaced. “That’s a wrap!” cried the shelter lady. “That is your dog. She is absolutely your dog.”

I wanted to tell this woman that I wanted Tinsy like I wanted a case of shingles, but courage failed me. I wrote a check for the adoption fee. Then I carried the dog to my car and began calling every softhearted person I knew to see if they would take this creature off my hands.

At home, I took to my couch and fretted. What business did I have with a dog? I traveled for work eight months out of the year. And this dog? I didn’t want to look at her much less look after her for the twenty years Chihuahuas can expect to live. (The oldest living Chihuahua is 32+). Then the dog, who had been busy peeing on my bedroom floor, wandered over. She tilted her head at a sympathetic angle, then she jumped onto the sofa and clambered onto my shoulder, where she pulled herself into a sphere and went snortingly to sleep.

How easily we are gentled. The plan to ditch her got ditched. I started calling her Edie, whose vowel sounds she hearkened to as she had her prison name. I loaded her up on ludicrously expensive foods: Alaskan salmon, mutton jerky from New Zealand. She doubled her weight, from two pounds to four. I put her through expensive mange treatments, fed her fish oil, greased her in vitamin E to regrow her hair. After a couple of seasons, she fluffed out and the knobs of her spine receded. She began to look less like a back scratcher and more, as a friend described her, “like a cross between a wolf and a flea.”

“No man should have a dog like that,” my cousin once said to me. “We’re not careful enough. You could drop the Sunday paper on her and break her back. It’s like getting a crystal set. No guy should have a thing that fragile in the house.”

And it’s true. Owning Edie is nervous work. A few years back, I nearly lost her. Summoned from the house by the sound of raving crows, I went out to check on Edie in the yard. She was absent from her usual sunbathing spot. In the lower corner of the lawn, I saw a barred owl, spreading its wings over a small, still gray form. Edie was too heavy a piece of live cargo for the owl, so the bird was patiently trying to murder her. I nearly had to kick the bird off of her. A talon had made three bloody divots in Edie’s head, but no lasting damage was done.

At nearly twelve, Edie is deep in middle age and, repairwise, is not much less expensive than a ’55 Studebaker. I’ve put far more money into her mouth than I’ve put into my own. Before I got Edie, I’d have said that a fair definition of an insane person is somebody who takes out a thirty-three-hundred-dollar cash advance to pay for exploratory liver surgery for a dog. I did that three years ago. But when you get accustomed, every night, to a warm gentle presence stretching herself across your clavicle and easing you into sleep, it becomes as dire a habit as barbiturate abuse. Addicts do crazy things to keep withdrawal at bay.

It’s weird. One day, you’re a twenty-eight-year-old man of traditional tastes and accoutrements and the next, you’re a forty-year-old bachelor with a four-pound, big-eyed, molting pussy willow of a dog.

Still, I do what I can to keep the grotesquerie contained. When people ask what kind of dog I have, I tell them, “I don’t know, I got her from the pound.” I do not carry Edie around in a Snugli. I have never bought the dog shoes or a hat. I would like to tell you that my home contains no doggie sweaters, and that there are not dog stairs by my bed, but this would not be true.

For those of us who love small dogs… Chihuahuas, Chihuahua Mixes, and miniatures of any type, we know that they are great pets and are always happy when just one more person discovers how special they are or another person or family adopts must one more small dog… just one more pet of any kind.  Every pet deserves a good home! (JOMP)

“For the Love of a Pet”

Our gang of Chihuahuas and Chiweenies (JOMP)

Photo by The UCLA Shutterbug

Dog Mourns The Heart-Breaking Loss Of His Brother

 

Brutus Cries for Brother Hank

By Marion Algier – Just One More Pet

The message… animals have feelings too.

This shows one dog’s reaction to finding out his twin brother had passed during the night.

Brutus, does not want to leave his brother Hanks side even after he’s passed away. Brutus stays close, and lays his head on top of Hank’s.

The look in his eyes tells you everything you need to know about how Brutus feels without his lifelong friend.

The dog was crying showing that animals feel love and pain just like people.

Dog Mourns The Heart-Breaking Loss Of His Brother

Brettvett1 included the following message with the video:

Video:  Crying Rottweiler Grieves For Dead Brother. Animals Do Have Emotions

"I’m so sorry you guys…I wasn’t strong enough and had a breakdown in front of the dogs. Hank was right by my side with his Therapy Dog service and grieved with me as I was so upset. He looked so sad. I noticed Hank never came out of his grievance and stopped eating. He was still drinking and nibbling on food so I thought he was okay. A week later Brutus and I awoke to his peaceful body next to us as he passed in the night in his sleep. This is about 30 minutes after we woke up and were missing our baby. I normally don’t video record my real life catastrophes or share but decided I needed to send a message to the world and show how much pain my dog was in as he loved his Twin so much."

Published on Jan 24, 2015

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/he… Rottweiler wakes up to find that his twin Hank had passed during the night and gone to heaven. Brutus does not want to leave him and will not budge, laying on top of his head. Brutus has never whined or cried out in pain the two years I have had him…But clearly you can see in his eyes, he is crying for his brother who had passed as his world around him just crumbled. We both grieve and cry for our brother…This is proof that animals DO have emotions and feel pain just like we do 😥 Let the world know animals feel love and pain just like us. Don’t let Hanks passing die in vein with him… Please share our story.

I’m so sorry you guys…I wasn’t strong enough and had a breakdown in front of the dogs. Hank was right by my side with his Therapy Dog service and grieved with me as I was so upset. He looked so sad. I noticed Hank never came out of his grievance and stopped eating. He was still drinking and nibbling on food so I thought he was okay. A week later Brutus and I awoke to his peaceful body next to us as he passed in the night in his sleep. This is about 30 minutes after we woke up and were missing our baby. I normally don’t video record my real life catastrophes or share but decided I needed to send a message to the world and show how much pain my dog was in as he loved his Twin so much 😥
RIP Hank the Rottweiler Unknown–01-20-15

To help Brutus and his family buy a new home we have started a fundraiser in Hanks honor. Please donate here to put a smile on his face…https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/he…
This video is being managed exclusively by Newsflare. To use this video for broadcast or in a commercial player go to: http://www.newsflare.com/video/39136/… or email: newsdesk@newsflare.com or call: +44 (0) 8432 895 191

There’s Just One Thing That All Dogs Want To Know

By Harrison’s Natural Dog Training

There’s just one thing that all dogs want to know, and they need you to answer it.

Between raising the kids and making meals, working a shift, going to soccer games, swimming lessons, making time for your better half, going to the gym walking the dog..well.. the list could go on and on, but there is no doubt about one thing..at the end of the day your energy is spent, taking off your shoes seems to be a chore that might require some assistance.

With all the things we do daily that drain our energy, the very act of doing them causes stress to our bodies and our minds, and stress as we all know can have very negative effect on us if we don’t deal with it.

So..we have learned that in order to alleviate some of this stress so that we don’t explode..(emotionally speaking,) there are certain activities that help to keep us in balance so we can get up the next day and do it all again.

You might enjoy listening to music, yoga class, reading a good book, massage, sitting on the porch watching the sun go down, smoking a pipe., the possibilities are endless, and individual to you..what works for you might not work for others.

Now let’s consider the daily life of most dogs..not all dogs but most.

A dogs day starts the same time your’s does, if not before..and they have even more energy that you have to start their day..but, instead of getting ready to go to work …they will be lucky to get out for 5 minutes to use the bathroom, come inside and have 10 minutes to eat…a quick pat on the head from you, and a be a good boy till I get back..and then they are sequestered in their assigned areas until you come back.

For most dogs their day is spent either tied in the yard, behind a fence, in a crate, locked in the house.

One thing  is for sure their range of movement is restricted to some degree.

Still he is constantly bombarded by energy coming from life going on around him.

Someone repeatedly knocks on the door because no one there to answer it, a squirrel runs across the yard, the dog next door is in heat, the boom of a passing thunderstorm, needs to relieve himself but it will be two hours before anyone comes to let him outside.

Over the span of the 6-8 hours most people are away from the house the dog has absorbed vast quantities of stress, but has burned very little energy..so when you finally get home, your dog is a quivering emotional stressed out mess..as soon as you open the door or let him out of the crate he jumps up on you, runs around the house maybe knocking over plants and what not.

He paws at you for attention, barks non stop at you or someone passing on the street, surfs the counters, chases the cats, and if you do talk him for a walk he pull you down the street with your feet practically off the ground, and stops only when another dog approaches him and he starts to growl and lunge dragging you toward the strange dog.

The reason a dog does all these different and sometimes annoying behaviors is due to the fact that he is stressed out and is searching for something, anything to satisfy his emotional state of mind, which brings me to the main point of my article..there’s just one thing all dogs want to know.. and what natural dog training strives to help you discover, the answer to this fundamental question…

What do I do with all my energy?

In my next post we will discuss one technique that will help you to answer that question.

All the best,

Harley