In the Interests of the Animals
The Law
Many people are not aware that in South Africa, the Animal Health Act places responsibility on the owners of animals to protect their animals from parasites or any pathogens likely to cause disease: Continue reading “Companion Protection: The Law and the Science”
A recent announcement by the Department of Trade and Industry was greeted with some enthusiasm by animal lovers in South Africa, particularly those who signed a petition to oppose the legalisation of Greyhound racing.
Department spokesperson Sidwell Medupe said: “The Department of Trade and Industry has noted continuing media reports indicating that the department has introduced a Bill to legalise and regulate Greyhound Racing.
“The department would like to dismiss these untrue reports and put the matter into perspective. Greyhound Racing remains illegal in South Africa and there is no Bill that has been proposed by the dti”.
Medupe said the policy framework in South Africa prohibits Greyhound Racing and there is no proposal on any table to change the position.
Those who wish to see Greyhound racing made legal present an argument that has been used in defence of everything from drugs Continue reading “Prohibition: Sometimes it’s the only way”
The Damage of ‘Dog Whispering’
Rachel Garner
If you care about animal welfare, please read this.
I’ve now been training dogs for a decade. I find Cesar Millan’s training theory and advice appalling. As a scientist, its obvious that his factual statements and derived conclusions are entirely wrong. As a trainer, I can tell how stressed and unhappy – not cured – the dogs portrayed on his show are. It’s covered up by rhetoric, the soundtrack and a voiceover. Tens of scientists, trainers and behavioral science organizations have spoken out against his theories. I’ve seen dogs mistreated by well-meaning owners who took his advice unquestioningly. Whether you’re an owner, a trainer or just someone who likes dogs, please read this. It’s important to be educated in the science behind training theories before espousing or applying them.
This paper has been written as a cumulative work for an intensive independent study last year on canine cognition and applied training theory. It aims only to represent logical conclusions as drawn from scientific sources and professionals in the field. You’ll notice the sources cited are credible books and web-sites – this is intentional. The goal was to write a paper with information taken from sources directly available to the common layperson. I’m happy to suggest scientific sources for more reading. Continue reading “The Damage of ‘Dog Whispering’”
(Jeff Young understands the ‘macro’ picture better than most, and he makes some points I have been making for a reasonably long time, the key one being that we cannot solve the crisis by rescuing and rehoming…)
Humane Societies, Animal Rescue Groups and Veterinarians May Cause More Pain and Suffering Than They Alleviate
My name is Jeff Young, and I have been a veterinarian for over twenty years. I have been on numerous humane society boards, have been an animal control officer, and I speak and consult on companion animal overpopulation issues all over the world. I have done over 165,000 surgeries in the last twenty years, and have established full service training hospitals in Bratislava (Slovakia), and Merida (Mexico).
I have trained over 300 veterinarians in more efficient, safe surgical techniques.
From the time I graduated veterinary school, I have had one simple goal: to reduce the population of unwanted dogs and cats around the world. As a veterinarian, I can reduce companion animal over-population by simply providing and promoting low cost spay/neuter. Over the last two decades, we have seen some difference in overpopulation with the rise of educational groups like Spay USA, mobile spay/neuter clinics like the Montana Spay Neuter Task Force, and the construction of mega sterilization clinics like the Las Vegas spay/neuter clinic.
Each year, we will kill over a billion dogs and countless more cats all over the world, simply because Continue reading “Jeff Young on the overpopulation crisis”
I have been a member for over 15 years and I am sorry to tell you the efficacy and image of KUSA is severely tarnished in the public eye.
You have breeders who are “puppy farming ” to the nth degree, breeders selling dogs to pet shops and puppy brokers and yet as the national governing body you do nothing?
I have personally sent you 2 names of abovementioned examples and they are still carrying on – bragging the dogs are registered with papers and they are! Open the junkmail gumtree, olx and see for yourself…
If KUSA wishes for the dog world to increase in value and stature you need to stop being a toothless tiger and do something. Disbarr them, they will not be able to show (not that they are) nor charge the exorbitant prices they are for the puppies! (Which fyi is the reason they breed!!)
You also can control the number of litters registered per breeder per year that way you will see who is in it for the breed or greed. its the breed lovers that you need not the money makers!!
Or is KUSA enjoying their name dragged through the mud and the breeds destroyed by indiscriminate continuous litters? Continue reading “Letter to KUSA: A member tells it like it is…”
Why is there a certain group of people who are let off the hook, because they are “registered” show breeders, who breed for only one purpose “breeding the perfect animal for the show bench” (which is a total nonsense, because judging is subjective and the breed standard is a bunch of crap based only on somebody’s desired view of what the outside of the animal should look like – and which ignores 99.75% of the genome – and which breed standard can be changed whenever it suits the show scene).
The other group of people are those who do not register or show their animals, but who do exactly the same thing – they mix and match, crossbreeding or not, but they are known as “backyard breeders” and people say they must be stopped. Why must they be stopped?
Very often the difference between a “registered breeder” and a “backyard breeder” is merely that the registered breeder is driven by competition and ambition to breed to excess (sometimes 30-40 females and several studs) in pursuit of the “perfect specimen”, while the other breeder has one or 2 females and breeds a couple of litters a year.
What makes registered show breeders special? A look at the state of pedigreed animals reveals that they certainly cannot be “improving the breed”, because many of the breeds are physically and genetically in a mess and have deteriorated over the 130 years that the breeding game has been played. Why is it OK for them to breed and nobody else? What are their qualifications, and are any required before joining the “registered breeder club”? Why the double standard? Continue reading “Will the ‘Ethical Breeder’ please stand up?”
“The time has come where we’ve just got to give up this kind of “master race” mentality that we have about dogs. Our system of breeding dogs, of isolating small populations called breeds and then practicing eugenics, generation after generation after generation, all of those dogs are inbred beyond belief. It’s not good genetics and it’s not good dog breeding.” ~ Ray Coppinger (author of Dogs – A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behaviour and Evolution) in Dogs and More Dogs (Nova, 2004)
There is a common call, among animal welfare workers, for breeding of companion animals to be regulated, because there are too many animals and not enough homes, and that this should be achieved through legislation prohibiting breeding unless done so by ‘registered breeders’, and by this they mean breeders who are registered with one of the breed associations or ‘kennel clubs’. The intention is that breeding should be the province of experts who have the necessary expertise to do the job in a manner that is beneficial to the animals and the community. In principle, I agree with this ethic.
Download the full PDF version here (31 pages, 700Kb): Just_for_Show
The difficulty I have with linking ‘ethical breeding’ with the breed associations and the pedigreed breeding community is that there are significant problems with the mindset and practices of the ‘purebred’ syndrome.
Watch this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Hfqv0uCrg (Pedigreed Dogs Exposed)
And this one on cats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YUksJvEcsY (The Insanity of Show Breeding)
Note: The issues highlighted in this article apply equally in breed-specific terms to cats as well as dogs.
Early dog breeding mimicked natural selection, in that dogs were bred to work; the dogs that could herd sheep or cattle, or that could defend against intruders, etc., were the ones that were bred to produce the next generation. This process over time produced the modern breeds. However, with the advent of dog showing in the middle of the nineteenth century, the focus shifted away from function to aesthetics.
The Show Ring has also been largely responsible for the decline of breed purpose, working ability and temperament in a great many breeds, notably sporting breeds, herding breeds and sled dog breeds. The quick and easy gratification of blue ribbons and gilt trophies all too readily supplants the hard work necessary to preserve and advance canine working abilities. Continue reading “Just for SHOW”
“We are not going to deal with the violence in our communities, our homes, and our nation, until we learn to deal with the basic ethic of how we resolve our disputes and to place an emphasis on peace in the way we relate to one another.” ~ Marian Wright Edelman
The South African Animal Welfare sector, and more specifically the companion animal sector, is characterised by conflict.
Conflict is a disagreement in which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns, and it is unavoidable in a world where such needs, interests or concerns are mutually exclusive. Conflict can be resolved without confrontation when the parties choose to engage in a rational manner.
It is the nature of the companion animal sector, however, that these differences are not dealt with amicably. Instead the manner in which conflicts are handled include malicious gossip more often than not based on rumour or fabrication, character assassinations, disinvestment which often includes influencing others to disinvest and in most cases without due justification, condemnation based on a single or a few instances, and various other typically unethical and somewhat adolescent practices. People who do these things need to grow up, and the fact that many also do these things ‘behind the backs’ of those they seek to discredit means they also need to grow a backbone…
What I found most disconcerting was that it seemed to me that the parties Continue reading “Identifying the Enemy”