I just found out about a great site, Pet Defense.  Thanks to S. Kennedy for the link.

http://petdefense.wordpress.com/

Be sure to read the entries on AB 1634, California's horrendous enlistment into the AR extinction plan.  It's been the talk of the 'sphere this week, since the original piece of garbage was rewritten - but not for the better.  We'll have to keep tabs on this one - California is easy meat for militant animal rightists and other fad-carrying propagandists - it's all about stroking the egos of the manipulees.  My links go to the Pet Connection and the marvellous Lassie Get Help.

Brent over at KC Dog Blog has an interesting post regarding Kansas City's failed mandatory sterilization law.  Despite the numbers, the City is trumpeting the success of the program and appears to have also brainwashed local media - who have access to the same figures that KC has.

This reminds me of a passage in a book I'm reading.  The thesis of the book is that emotion plays a major role in decision-making, overriding logic and facts, which is why arguing dispassionately and rationally aren't working for us:

"What [Lyndon] Johnson and [Dr Martin Luther] King both intuitively understood is what colleagues and I demonstrated with brain imaging forty years later:  that arguing about the rationality of rationalizations is attacking the wrong target.  Rationalizations are the post hoc smoke that billows from emotional fires.  In our study, only after partisans had come to emotionally biased judgements did we see any activation in circuits usually associated with reasoning, suggesting that they had begun to develop rationalizations for their emotional biases.  You can systematically debate the fine points of these realizations, but you're wasting your time.

You don't put out a fire by waving at the smoke.  You put out the fires.  And if someone keeps starting those fires, you put out the arsonist."

--Drew Westen, The Political Brain, p. 351

Words to live by.

More later, have to get on with my big project.

Associated Press is suing the Drudge Retort, naming a few bloggers and one commenter on a blog, in a lawsuit which alleges that excerpting phrases and linking to AP articles is not Fair Use.

Good luck with that.

In the meantime, let's all boycott AP - it's not as though they're the only newswire out there after all.  I won't be linking to their stories or pictures from now on.

If you want to comment, there's a petition going over at Unassociated Press, along with the details.  You can also hit the Boycott AP banner shown on my upper left sidebar to visit the site.  Banner styles are available for copying at the bottom of the page.

Here's some interesting info about how AP operates from The Impolitic.

Incidentally, deeplinking is not a copyright violation in Canada - yet.  Keep your eye on the Feds though, they're monkeying with our copyright legislation right now.

Michael Geist (left sidebar under Mixed Bag) has lots of good info about copyright issues in Canada.

Help spread the word about the AP boycott!

Via Dependable Renegade

Here's a disturbing (but not graphic) report from John Stewart of the Mississauga News.  Someone is hobbling birds in Mississauga.

For an award of some sort.

I just finished reading a public health dog bite study which I hadn't seen before.

The information is quite comprehensive and presented in a way I found both clear and useful.

Here's a link.

Oh well, that's alright then.

Canine 'Land Shark' Takes Bite out of Deputy

"He does that all the time"

Mother Nearly (whew!) Loses Eye in Dog Attack

Not that the owners are responsible or anything, it's the dogs themselves, right?

My buddy over at KC Dog Blog has a great Weekly Roundup today.

Check it out here.

KC Dog Blog has a great Weekly Roundup this week.

I notice more stories about non 'pit bulls' are being run.  Dare we hope that the media outlets have finally got it?

I still think Vick did us an unintentional favour by being such a high-living lowlife and thanks to the work by BadRap and Best Friends, those little pups got a lot of positive press coverage.

Am I dreaming, or is there really some hope on the horizon for the return of reason?  I mean, aside from the disquieting spread of extinction programs mandatory sterilization for pet dogs.

This story is no laughing matter. 

I can't help wondering if they were thinking of banning 'pit bulls' and got on this guy's last nerve.

UPDATE AT CTV Jan 25:  http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080124/Rabies_alert_080124/20080124/?hub=TorontoHome

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This is a horrid story.  An infant pup purchased at a fleamarket at Hwy 27 and Dixon (near Toronto airport) died in its cage after the new owners dumped it at the Toronto Humane Society when they couldn't afford treatment.

I wonder if this is the same fleamarket where Rambo (the dog on death row in Mississauga) was purchased?

Millers from near Owen Sound sold the poor tyke to an obviously well screened home.

Anyway, rabies has been virtually eradicated in domestic animals around here but the good old millers are keeping it alive.

Here's the story from City TV, please pass it on.  I sure hope they nail this miller because it can spread quickly.  Pup plays with other animals, goes to dog park - you get the picture.

Catch that miller and lock him up!  And stop selling puppies at fleamarkets and in pet shops, will you?

According to an interesting report, Alaska led the US in dog bite-related fatalities, with 9 deaths over the 11-year period of 1991 - 2002.

That's an average of just under one fatality per year throughout the state.

Eight of the nine deaths were Native Alaskans and more study is needed to find out why.  I suspect that, as with some of our First Nations reserves, the dogs tend to run loose, form packs and entertain themselves, which, when combined with small children, can be dangerous.

This news report is informative and non-hysterical.

In other words, it's well worth reading.