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[Babette]

So I'm in my office right now listening to the radio and on indie 103.1 they have a couple of animal right's groups on talking about Puppy Mills. I'm horrified. Having rescued three cats (one found in the trash, one at the pound and one on my front porch) I'm horrified at the thought of a puppy mill and the death stats at a shelter. It's depressing.

So, to bring us all down.. here's a link to the humane society - stop puppy mills.

http://www.humanesociety.org/stoppuppymills

[coldhitz]

Hello everyone.
Yes , Babette , I stand firm against animal abuse . I have also rescued many animals from the streets or those in rough home situations . Growing up , we had everything from a turtle tank in the backyard to ferrets and salt water aquariums. And if anyone doubts that animals are aware that they are abused , witness the look in a beaten dog's eyes....you'll see that animals are self aware. The puppy mill epidemic is rampant in the neighborhoods , in both rural and urban , in this country , and the department of animal control is illequipped and greatly understaffed and underfunded to handle it. In the 90's , these deathmills came under great scrutiny by the The Texas Attorney General's Office. The mall pet stores disappered overnite ....however , they are making a return and the Dallas and Ft. Worth classifieds are several hundred listings deep with no sign of any downtime at all. It's sad...very sad.
Larry

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[joybowes]

So true and so sad! Dog fighting is a big issue here in Richmond. I've heard of many shelter's lately popping up that are "humane" in that they will never euthanize. It always tugs at my heart when I see the poor little dogs and cats just waiting for a good home. I wish I could take them all home with me

Oh - one of the best bumper stickers I've seen lately was in a traffic jam outside of DC - it said "Honk if your dog hates Michael Vick!"
_________________
-Joy

"You have brains in your head/You have feet in your shoes/ You can steer yourself/any direction you choose." - Dr. Seuss
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[Babette]

Joy.. that is the best bumper sticker I ever heard of!!!! HAHAHAH

[coldhitz]

Hi Joy. I hope you're doing well
You bring up two very good , and often overlooked points. Animal fighting , of all species , is very large here in Texas as well. It takes multiple agency task force efforts to coral these monsters and never seems to end. There is nightly news of a dog fighting ring or chickens discovered at a raid for even something totally unrelated. On the other topic you mentioned , rescuing them all. Allot of animal hoarding has cropped up in recent days. It is just as inhumane to hord and neglect , as it is to physically abuse. A heavy foot is put down either way and the soul of an innocent animal is still crushed. These crazy cat ladies and germs , it has been reported , live in filth with as many as 300 animals all in a residential neighborehood. They suck too. .....

Larry
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[Babette]

Larry.. this is the second time in 2 days I've heard the term "animal hording". We recently had a guy in Lancaster who was caught with 200 animals I think. I fear I have this problem too.. but with only three cats. My place is at it's max. animal level or things will get out of hand.

BUT, I fear that if I ever had a lot of property.. I would just take them all in as I found them.

There is a good friend of mine who owns a turtle sanctuary in Malibu and they have had over 3000 turtles housed on their property and they do a lovely job creating separate spaced for the various species. Supposedly, different turtles need different living conditions.

If you want to check it out - http://www.tortoise.com/

The worst thing Susan says is to buy a turtle in a small box on the site of the street. It's a practice that is so overlooked and should be illegal. Here in downtown LA, those images are on every corner. The real issue with turtles is that a lot of them live longer than their owners. People literally have to put them in their wills to tell their family members who will take care of them when they die. It's a real problem.

I also talked to another man today who said there's a real issue in South Central LA with people who leave their animals behind when they leave a home. That I find really disturbing.

[coldhitz]

Hey Babette,
Yeah , that's what it's all about. These kind people have taken on quite a load of helmeted buddies. I rescued our first when a pond and creek were destroyed to make room for a developement , when my hometown began to enter life as a suburb. We brought it home and cleaned it up , gave it some T.L.C. A week later , the road crew was showing up and really pushing through to destroy our crawfishing playground. Hey , what can I say , I was a badass commando in those woods, and some of these creatures were my best grunts. We started bringing them home and love happened ....so we began re-homing them. My Dad brought home a large alluminium tub and we dug a hole , put in a pump and they were free to do whatever they wanted. We saved about 20 and ended up with about 200 coming through our habitat over about 2 years. The apartments they built are now run down and notoriously smelly....bad plumbing , or bad kharma Every turtle has it's day

Larry
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