She's only a broken down angel

[lizblackdog]

Just spent twenty minutes chatting with one of my dog walking acquaintances. She's a sweet elderly lady with an even sweeter elderly Cocker Spaniel called Daisy. Daisy's owner is one of my favourite local dog owners. She's never without poo bags, she's ready to slap down anyone she sees failing to use them, she identified Squish's breed accurately at first sight, and I once heard her comment on a revolting squelchy heap of dog turd some mannerless barbarian had left - "If my dog produced something looking like that she'd be at the vet's." I love this lady and her immaculately cared-for rescue dog.

Today I learned something about Daisy's history prior to her rescue:

• She's been debarked.


• She's had surgery to remove the loose skin round her jowls and it's left her with difficuties drinking. This was done to prevent her then owners having to clean her food off her face as one has to do sometimes with jowly long haired dogs.
  


• One of her hind legs is distorted and twisted from spending six years of her life tethered by it.


• When her owner adopted her she didn't know what grass was.
  

Yep, Daisy spent her first six years as a puppy farm brood bitch.  I know that with my own friends list I'm mostly preaching to the converted, but not all of you are dog people.  Not all of you know the whole story behind cute puppies in pet shops. I knew it in theory, myself, but this was the first time I've actually seen one of the victims, because the creatures responsible tend to go to a lot of trouble to prevent them being seen or heard.



Read about it: http://www.bordercollierescue.org/puppyfarm/introduction.html

P.S. if you saw this in the first fifteen minutes after posting, please excuse delete/edit rich text b0rkage. My bad. I should know Rich Text Mode is evil, I was just too lazy to learn how to make bullet points in HTML.

Comments

Preach on, sister!!

[revolution-grrl.livejournal.com]

Hey, where did you get the images in this icon?

Wednesday, I did my presentation in Portuguese, and I did it on the pet population situation in Brazil (anything can be about dogs, if you look at it right!). This friend of mine wanted to earn extra credit by asking a question (all was in Port.), so he asked what I thought about sterilization of dogs. I said it was very important. He evinced surprise (how little ye know me..), so I laid out some facts, and we argued about it, in our odd Portuguese, dancing around words we didn't know.

I should like to email him these images.

Re: Preach on, sister!!

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

The icon was made by illucian and I believe she's happy for people to take it and spread it as widely as possible. I've actually got a JPG of that shelter garbage photograph: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/Lizblackdog/unspeakable.jpg

but I don't recall, now, where I found it. Probably someone in one the pet communities posted it.

[bulletslc.livejournal.com]

Don't need to talk to ME about puppy mills/backyard breeders...I deal with backyard breeders every night on the phone....(fucking idiots who yell at ME if their little money making bitch has a difficult pregnancy and needs a $2,000 c-section.....idiots should have researched breeding before they did it!!!!) You would NOT believe the amount of stupid questions and comments I get from breeders who don't give a shit to research what breeding entails...(pardon my bitchiness....I've had a rough week and we're heading into breeding season so I'm getting more than the usual stupid first time backyard breeder phone calls in the middle of the night.)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I know, honey! and sending you wishes for as little of that crap as possible this year. But there are a lot of people on my f-list and they're not all vet techs or rescuers or dog obsessives, you know?

It's not like it can ever be said too often.

[bulletslc.livejournal.com]

Spread the word and spread it far! The more people who get the picture the better!!!!!

[beebarf.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it's not just dogs and cats ... small animals are treated like breeding machines too, and can come off worse, as people seem to think small mammals are somehow lacking in intelligence, feelings, and pain receptors.

I refuse to purchase items from the large pet chains - luckily, I have a small independent pet shop near me, who doesn't sell livestock.

As for Daisy - give her a cuddle from me when you see her. we had a cocker spaniel, and they are super dogs, I almost cried when I read your post. One of the distinct joys of the creatures are their lovely saggy dewlaps, and to have them cropped for convenience - all I can say is what f*cker of a vet did that and de-barked her!?! Or even worse - was it a DIY job?

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

this is, of course, true. Dogs just happen to be my thing so I was focussed on dogs, but suffering is suffering and there's plenty of it to go round.

- yeah, I wondered about who might have done the surgery, but the lady didn't know - just that it had been done. Poor Daisy has trouble opening her mouth properly.

[crusherdisciple.livejournal.com]

With debarking, what do they do? Cut the vocal cords?

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I don't know in detail, but that's pretty much it, yes.

[hellfire82.livejournal.com]

"as people seem to think small mammals are somehow lacking in intelligence, feelings, and pain receptors."

it's not just small mammals that get treated so harshly; hermit crabs and aquatic critters get treated that way too.

makes me want to do whatever they're doing to torment the critter to them, and see how they like it.

[entorien.livejournal.com]

If there's one thing I will never do anymore, it's buy a pet from a pet shop. There are far too many needing homes already.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

excellent! thank you!

[hellfire82.livejournal.com]

poor daisy. i'm glad she's got a good home now with someone who isn't a reject from the special hell.

[ghost07.livejournal.com]

Years ago, I met a collie who had been debarked. His former owners had done it so they wouldn't have to hear him. I hadn't known that could be done, and was shocked.

He couldn't speak above a whisper, and it just somehow seemed wrong. His then owner had found him in a garbage dumpster and taken him in. He said the then puppy had been TIED up and was in a grain sack! He'd found him near the reservation...no idea who had done that to him. Shepper was the friendliest dog you'd ever want to know, and very gentle.

With his history, it's a wonder he even trusted any human, but he and Mo got along fine...Mo was an alcoholic and that dog used to get him home after one of his drinking binges...he was a very loyal dog. When Mo passed away about twelve years ago (in a back alley, by the way) Sheppers stayed right with him trying to keep him warm. When we found out about it, it just broke my heart.

He never got over it either, and died about two weeks later...I say from a broken heart for the only human who ever cared for him.

Sorry, I just had to tell someone that story...I've never since seen a dog who had been debarked...I can't understand why a vet would do something like that.

If I get a pet, I always go to the dog Wardens around here or the Humane Society.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

i'm glad you told it to me, that's a lovely story. a bittersweet happy ending.

most vets won't do debarking. not sure why it's even still legal. same like declawing cats; althought that isn't legal in this country it's still done in the US.

[curefreak.livejournal.com]

Little in life would give more pleasure than being left alone in a room with these people for 10 minutes!

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Now I feel guilty for enjoying watching a group of Yorkshire Terrier puppies (two months old) playing in a pet store window this afternoon while I waited for gurudata.

I'd like to hope that not all dog breeders are inhumane.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

not all, no. there are ethical breeders out there, breeding to improve their chosen breed, but they are few and far between and you can be quite sure no decent breeder's pups will ever be offered for sale in a pet shop. they choose the future homes of their pups with great care, there's usually a waiting list for puppies and there will be home visits and interviews and a contract to sign.

decent breeders are also unlikely to make a profit, because it's not cheap to produce a good, healthy, well-socialised puppy. Puppy millers don't care about health or socialisiation or the pup's future. It only has to look cute and stay alive long enough to put the purchase price in their pocket.

[neeka-keet.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of how terrible these things are. It really breaks me to see animals treated in that fashion. :-( My first dog when I was a kid was a pure bred German Shepher my parents bought from a breeder out in the country who had a huge farm with horses and other farm animals. My second was a Cocker Spaniel that was a gift from my grandparents when their two Cocker's had pups. Right now I have a mutt Jack Russell Terrier/Shih Tzuh and she was given to my sister by a friend who didn't have enough space to care for all the puppies his Shih Tzuh just had.

[captain-ice.livejournal.com]

I've known about these types of places for a while, but did not know that they were as prevalent as they seem to be.

It is unfortunate, and I will not purchase a puppy or cat from a pet store. There are way to many absolutely loveable dogs and cats out there in pounds across the country that are being wuthanized every day.