Category: Welfare

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Beware, Corporate Body Bullies!

(Download the pdf version of this here: Beware_Corp_Bullies)

In recent times, there has been a development in policies of residential complexes and retirement homes that has had a significant effect on many people’s relationships with their companion animals. In many cases the tactics employed by Corporate Body Bullies are underhanded, illogical and prejudicial.

This document will give people a cleat understanding of the variables involved and some strategies for dealing with these dubious tactics.

The Law.

Firstly one needs to establish whether the scheme within which one resides is a sectional title scheme, a homeowners association or possibly even, the now outdated, shareblock scheme, as each of these have specific laws, rules and regulations.

In most cases, residential complexes are bound by the Sectional Titles Act. In addition, Municipal By-Laws will apply, and it’s a good idea to have an understanding of both before deciding to buy or rent in a given complex.

Sectional title schemes are established under the Sectional Titles Act of 1986, as amended, and within this Act are prescribed management and conduct rules, the latter of which [annexure 9 of the Act] deals with pets.

The Sectional Titles Act (ST) includes the following clauses relevant to this discussion:

35 (3) Any management or conduct rule made by a developer or a body corporate shall be reasonable, and shall apply equally to all owners of units put to substantially the same purpose.

35 (5) (a) If the rules… …are substituted, added to, amended or repealed, the body corporate shall lodge Continue reading “Beware, Corporate Body Bullies!”

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Bad Argument: Ten common errors of logic made by animal workers and activists (and others)

Critical Thinking is a relatively new discipline to humans and it’s formalisation and development is still in progress. It has been a subject in schools in the UK since 2008. In South Africa, I am not aware of such a course at school level, although UCT offers one for first-year students and most Universities only deal with the subject under Law and Philosophy.. It is a discipline sorely lacking among the general populace, and refers to the process by which we determine logically what is or isn’t so. I think it should be a mandatory subject for everyone, starting at around age 12, providing the student with a process that they can use throughout their lives and apply to almost any subject or scenario.

In many cases, it is not the ‘content’ or ‘data’ in a statement that renders it untrue; it is the manner in which the argument is constructed that does so. People are often infuriated when I point out that their argument is invalid, irrespective of the fact that the information they have presented is correct. Below are the ten ‘bad’ arguments I come across most frequently in animal welfare and rights circles: . Continue reading “Bad Argument: Ten common errors of logic made by animal workers and activists (and others)”

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BREAKING the CYCLE: The Animal Welfare Imperative

‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ – Benjamin Franklin

As a strategist and problem solver in the Corporate world, I was always somewhat dumbfounded by the degree to which problem-solving was directed rather simplistically at symptoms rather than root causes, effectively only solving part of the problem, or solving it only for a short time, or causing other problems that negated the solution anyway.

Animal Welfare SA suffers the same malaise. Many organisations and individuals focus on rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming, and of course there is a necessity that somebody do this, since there are so many homeless animals. This is an attempt at finding, for each animal, a ‘cure’ – a home in which they can live happy lives.  If we recruited more people to welfare, could we home more animals? That very much depends Continue reading “BREAKING the CYCLE: The Animal Welfare Imperative”

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PYOMETRA and the benefit of spaying your female dog

The word pyometra can be divided into two root words

  • Pyo means pus
  • Metra refers to the uterus

Pyometra starts after a dog goes through a heat cycle, usually within about 3 to 5 weeks

Spaying is the treatment of choice

Prognosis is usually favorable, providing that the patient is not profoundly ill

Anatomy

  • The uterus is a Y-shaped organ that has two horns
  • An ovary is located at the end of each horn of the uterus

Pathophysiology

  • The word pyometra can be divided into two root words

o        Pyo means pus

o        Metra refers to the uterus

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All about PARVO…

WHAT IS CANINE PARVO VIRUS?

EVERYTHING IS CONTAMINATED – WHAT NOW?

CHOICE OF PRODUCTS

Parvovirus is a HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS virus that attacks the intestines and causes sloughing of the inner layers of the intestine. The virus is minute but extremely hardy and can survive in the environment for months or even years.

WHO IS AT RISK?

Parvovirus is contagious to dogs only — not to cats or people. This potentially deadly disease is usually more severe in young dogs less than 6 months of age, old dogs and breeds such as Rottweilers and Continue reading “All about PARVO…”

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THE GRAVE OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

(People who work in animal rescue and welfare speak of the ‘war’ – it is a war against incredible odds with scarce resources and a never-ending time-frame. I’m not sure we’re winning it. – animalman)

Today I put down a dog. I don’t know if she had an owner and I don’t know if she had a name.

She was just an old dog, probably not nearly as old as she looked, who had spent her whole sad life in a bad place. She was very thin and had bad mange of most of her body, and ticks and fleas and worms. Her hindquarter had collapsed, partly from malnutrition and partly from bad arthritis from old untreated injuries. Her ears had been cut short and were eaten away by flies. Her teeth were stumps, Continue reading “THE GRAVE OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER”

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THE TRUE UNSUNG HEROES

I would like to dedicate a short piece to those incredible people who take in our battered and abused dogs, and treat them with such dignity and love that they learn to trust humans again, and learn to accept a kind human touch.  Once every two or three years, we bring in a soul that had been destroyed by human abuse to such an extent that, in such a case, the dog cannot be networked to be homed, due to his/her extreme fear and accompanying behavioural problems.

In each instance, a human angel has come forward, willing to mend the broken spirit with unending and absolute love and commitment.

The most recent of these adoptions happened this weekend, to everyone’s delight.

I was called out to remove a Chow from a property earlier this year.  The so-called caregivers of Teddy, as we came to call her, had left her behind on a rental property when they moved. She had been on her own Continue reading “THE TRUE UNSUNG HEROES”

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Spaying: Why it’s better…

(This is an excerpt for an excellent article I found on the subject of spaying – please refer people to this when they give the classic ignorant arguments for keeping their female unspayed – animalman)

The following significant medical benefits can be gained from spaying your dog:

* Mammary (breast) cancer: Females spayed prior to their first oestrus cycle have a significantly reduced risk of developing mammary cancer, a common cancer in unspayed females. The chances of developing this cancer increase if a female isn’t spayed until after her second heat cycle, but they still remain lower than the risk for unspayed females. So if your dog has already gone through her first heat cycle, it’s not too late. Spaying her will still reduce her risk of developing cancerous

Continue reading “Spaying: Why it’s better…”