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Power To The People

I’m a hippy at heart and love the old expression, power to the people. We often forget that we do actually have the power to change things that we don’t believe are good, or ethical, or fair. If we see an injustice, we can take very simple steps to stop it.

We have proven that we have the power to change things that involve animal cruelty. Over the past few years, for instance, we became more aware of the intolerable lifestyle of chickens, and our consumer demand made free range chicken products much more accessible. This demand has become so profound that a major supermarket chain has acknowledged this demand and met it. They are also addressing the absolute need for free range pork, a wonderful animal treated even worse than chickens.

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with dogs. Because for some reason we are still allowing dogs and cats caught up in the pet industry to be bred and sold in conditions no better than that of a battery chicken or pen bound pig. If we can make incredible changes to the way animals in our food supply are allowed to live and breed, then why can’t we make changes to the way our companion animals are abused throughout the pet industry.

The answer is, we can. The consumer can. We, the people, have the power to change any market practice we disapprove of. So why aren’t we? Why are we waiting for Legislation to pass, or Senate inquiries to tell us what we already know? I believe it is because the vast majority of the pet buying public is ignorant as to how animals for the pet industry are bred and sold. I can’t tell you how many people respond with “I didn’t know” when I tell them about what goes on.

So how do we address this problem, make more people aware of it, and use our consumer power to change what is blatantly wrong with our pet industry?

To start with, speak up, be heard, inform others. Let your consumer power work for you. Go into a pet selling store and pile up a whole lot of product you would like to buy, then tell them that you will now go to an ethical pet store and buy it all there. Money talks. If pet selling stores don’t know you disapprove of what they do, how will they know to change it?

It is up to us to change what we disapprove of. It is just not good enough to wait around for someone else to solve the cruelty that we are, or should, all be aware of.
It is our responsibility and our prerogative to change what we believe to be wrong within our society, especially when it involves cruelty to those who don’t have this right.

Power to the people.

It Shouldn't Be This Hard

It’s been a long time since I posted my last so called ‘Thought Of The Month’. I must say that my brain has become a little addled over the past few months with the ongoing debate about the merits of Clover Moores Bill and/or a Parliamentary enquiry into the pet industry. And I truly wish that the Bill or an enquiry would go forward as I would love my mind to be occupied with more pleasant things. I mean really, Blind Freddie could work this one out.

Many people and groups who are against the proposed Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill suggest that it is based on misinformation and that not enough facts are known to support such a bill. This would logically suggest that a full enquiry would be a necessary thing as it would lay the facts down for all to see about how and where puppies and kittens are breed and supplied to the pet shop industry, and from where and in what numbers animals are surrendered to the multitude of pounds and welfare agencies who try in vain to re-home these abandoned pets before they are euthanased.
But it appears that the people who disparage the Bill are also opposed to and enquiry. One must ask why, even though the answer is obvious. If the Bill is to be opposed as unsubstantiated then surely there can be no logical opposition to an open and unbiased collection of facts that can be used by those on both sides of the debate.

And this is where I get very frustrated and confused, and why I must believe that vested interest parties are running the game and also have the ear of those in power who can put an end to, or at least dramatically reduce, the abuse of animals in the pet industry supply chain and, in turn, the death of an estimated 250,000 companion animals a year Australia wide.

Those opposed to an enquiry and the Bill usually ignore the conversation about where pet shop puppies are breed and in what condition the breeding dogs are kept. This is an argument they cannot win, as there is too much documented proof of how barbaric the puppy mill and backyard breeding industry is, so it’s best to avoid this topic. They instead tend to skip straight to the argument that we have no right to suggest that the general public is irresponsible when it comes to the purchase and care of a family pet. But are they irresponsible or just fooled by the very well marketed hoopla surrounding the pet industry.

When an uninformed person looks in a pet shop window full of frolicking puppies do they believe that all care is given to the breeding of these beautiful creatures or do they see the pain, filth and stench that the breeding mother is living in.
Do they believe that the information they are given in the shop is informed and welfare-centric or do they understand that a product needs to be sold and sales targets need to be met.
When a person surrenders a pet to a local pound, do they imagine it will be re-homed to a caring family or do they understand that it is more likely to be lead to it’s death in about a weeks time and given a lethal injection.

I truly believe that it is the former of all of these scenarios that the unsuspecting public believe to be true. Do I believe this makes them irresponsible or are they just ignorant of the very ugly and cruel side of an industry that spends substantial amounts of money marketing themselves as warm and fuzzy and, of late, socially and civically minded.

There can be no possible objection to pushing for a full and open Parliamentary enquiry into the pet industries practices in regard to the supply, care, and sale of pets. The only objections can be from those who don’t want us all to know what the results of an enquiry will be. Money is a powerful thing.

Money Wins Again

To say I’m disappointed at the moment with the way our society is responding to matters of animal welfare is at the very least a complete understatement. Pet industry organizations are publicly gloating at their success in defeating Clover Moore’s bill to put a stop to pet shop sales of dogs and cats. They fought a well-orchestrated battle heavily funded and full of false information and propaganda, and have now put into position a few flippant amendments to the Animal Welfare Code of Practice for Pet Shops. Don’t get me wrong, any improvements are good, but these will just be added to the list of unpoliced and ignored standards for keeping animals in stores. They do not address the main point of cruelty we were all trying to stop – Puppy Mills. The Pet Industry avoided this part of the discussion, as there was no possible way to put a positive spin on it.

Puppy Mills are cruel; animals are housed in appalling conditions, they are set to breed from the second they are physically capable of doing so, and destroyed round about four years later when their bodies are riddled with tumours and disease and are of no further use. We who were fighting for this bill to succeed tried pointing out these facts in as polite a manner as we could as we were afraid that ramming this information down the throats of the general public would make them switch off and avoid the subject. We were wrong. We should have shouted it from the rooftops, and offended as many people as we possibly could, as this is apparently the only way to get the point across.

For some time now people have debated the path of groups such as PETA – People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals, and Green Peace, suggesting that their methods are too aggressive and anti- establishment, and I probably agreed with them, but now I’m not so sure. I may not agree with all of their campaigns and policies, but at least they get the word out and make the “oh, I had no idea that happened” response a little less easy to live with.

We, and I don’t mean industry, business or any institution that has a financial gain to be made off animal cruelty, I mean us, you and me, have no excuse to remain ignorant or uninformed about the plight of endless animals in numerous facets of trade and industry.
We all have access to computers; the world is at our fingertips. Make yourself aware of how animals are treated in anything that you utilise, be it the meat you buy; is it from intensive farming, the entertainment you seek; are animals being abused for your amusement, the cosmetics you wear; are they needlessly tested on animals, the pets you buy; how are they breed, the list is endless. Log on to www.peta.org and have a quick look at some of the battles they are waging and why. I have no doubt that you will be offended by what you see, I am constantly, but I can assure you you won’t be as offended and distressed as the animals caught up in these abusive situations.

How Green Is Your Doggie

Us humans are only just getting used to the idea of leading an ‘eco-friendly’ lifestyle, but our dogs have been trying to show us how to do this for years. How many times have they tried to recycle your shoes into a new and interesting chew toy? They’ve been demonstrating waste renewal for years whether it be cracking open the garbage bin to get at all that tasty smelly stuff, utilising the backyard and exploring the wonders of gardening or even just checking out the nutrient value of their own poo. We just haven’t been paying enough attention. But it’s time to follow their lead and help them continue their good work.

You can start by adopting your pet from an animal shelter of which, unfortunately, there are way too many. Pet shops are supplied by puppy mills and backyard breeders, which I won’t go into now, but please go to our We Support page for more info.

Once you have your wonderful new family member, get him or her de-sexed. This will not only reduce the number of abandoned and homeless dogs being killed at a shocking rate, it will also help them live longer and healthier lives by eliminating the possibility of uterine, ovarian, and testicular cancer, and decreasing the incidence of prostate disease.

Don’t feed your dog junk, and this includes a lot of so called ‘premium dog foods’ on the market, which consist of reconstituted animal by-products, otherwise known as low-grade wastes from the beef and poultry industries. Animals used to make many pet foods are classified as “4-D,” which is really a polite way of saying “Dead, Dying, Diseased, or Down (Disabled)” when they line up at the slaughterhouse. Natural and organic pet foods use sustainable and human grade meat free from added antibiotics, hormones and artificial preservatives. Organic pet foods go one step further and eliminate the use of pesticides and genetically engineered ingredients.

Biodegradable poo bags are essential. I personally would prefer to see mounds of poo on my nature strip than permanently embalmed poo in old plastic bags. Why take a perfectly decomposable substance and encase it in something that is not? Or go one step further and compost your pet poo - just don’t use it with your vegetable garden, because the compost doesn’t heat up enough to kill pathogens such as E. coli. which could contaminate your homegrown produce and land up in your (very unhappy) belly.

So don’t ignore your dogs’ requests for a greener lifestyle, start small and work from there. More and more products are becoming available which allow you and your dog to join in the campaign to reduce your carbon footprint, and also lead a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle. They may cost a bit more, but if someone told you that saving the planet was going to be cheap they were telling itty-bitty lies.

Lisa Wolfenden © 2008

When is a Dog Just a Dog?

It mystifies me that I am still reading articles and being asked by journalists about the ‘Paris Hilton’ pooch or the anthropomorphising of our pets. At first I used to think of logical and profound statements to appease the minds of those who asked the questions, but then just recently it finally dawned on me, these people just simply don’t have dogs. The need to understand why we are treating our dogs more as family members, spending more on their comfort and needs than we used to, or dressing them for warmth or even just for the fun of it, seems to come from the perspective of someone who has never looked into the loving eyes of a dog.

So the real and more important questions should be; Why do we love our dogs so much and do they love us in return?

The first question can be answered fairly easily. This week alone two separate customers came in to my shop and gave perfect examples of why we love our dogs. The first was a lovely lady who I think felt a little embarrassed about how much she was spending on her dog, probably from reading so many articles questioning this habit, She was in her 60’s and explained to me that she had been recently widowed and that if it wasn’t for her dog she probably couldn’t have coped.

The second was a gentleman in his 70’s who adopted a little Maltese. He is a fairly regular visitor to my store, I think more for a chat than anything else, and as he was leaving the other day he mentioned to me how disappointed he was at never hearing from his kids or grandkids and that if he didn’t hear from them this Xmas, as he hadn’t the last, he would just have to accept the loss. He then went on to explain what a blessing his little dog had been, and what warmth and companionship he had received when he needed it the most.

Now to those of us who love our dogs we can fully understand how they could help us through these types of situations by just leaning against us and asking for nothing more from us than our company.

The second question is a little more complex. What is ‘love’, and can our dogs love us?

If you consider love inclusive of the modern human accoutrements of sentiment, jealousy, compromise, manipulation, impatience, then no our dogs do not love us. But when you consider that the emotion of ‘love’ originates from the evolutionary necessity of bonding, a psychological-biological state, involving warmth, joy, comfort, dependence, support, trust, security, then yes quite clearly they do.

Does this answer the question of why we love our dogs so much and do they really love us in return? I believe so. In psychological terms a healthy basis for a loving relationship with family, friends, partners, children, etc., is considered to be the giving and receiving of ‘unconditional positive regard’, the granting of love and approval regardless of an individual's behavior. This is something that doesn’t always come easily from our human companions but, as any dog lover would attest to, is what we get from our dogs in spades. Unconditional love.

So for those who are still wondering about when is a dog really just a dog?  When you’ve never had one.

Lisa Wolfenden © 2007

Dogs Are Not A Commodity

Apparently an American company has come up with yet another new and unbelievably cruel way of treating animals. A dog rental business, and it’s opening in a suburb near you. The company is planning on bringing this uniquely troubled concept to Sydney in the near future. To simply suggest that the idea of renting out dogs is fraught with problems is an understatement in the least.

Animal welfare is stated to be a primary motivation behind this business as the dogs being rented out have been abandoned or re-homed. This is very questionable rationale as it is a well documented fact that re-homed dogs are prone to suffer from separation anxiety and socialisation problems, so suggesting that handing them back and forth between total strangers on a regular basis is going to provide them with a stress free existence is a far cry from reality.

There will no doubt be many arguments for and against this ridiculous business venture, and make no mistake - it is a business, but none of them can possibly compensate for the psychological and quite possibly physical suffering that can quite easily occur through such an ill conceived concept.

Their other supposed reason for renting out these dogs is to provide a warm and fuzzy service for those of us whose lifestyle cannot accommodate a full time pet. There is unfortunately only one solution to this problem; if a pet does not fit into your working and social life then you just don’t have one. End of discussion. Dogs are not a commodity to be taken advantage of for our own entertainment (actually that is an incorrect statement, as the laws governing animal protection now stand, dogs are a commodity but this does not make it right). As the RSPCA has long campaigned, ‘a pet is for life’, not for a short term social fix.

Anyone who knows me, my shop or my website will know that I am ethically opposed to the indiscriminate sale of pets through shops, and this could possibly be an even worse method of taking advantage of a defenceless animal. Make no bones about it; any argument put forward in support of this venture is primarily and unashamedly motivated by the possibility of financial gain and, as usual, the welfare of the animals involved comes in a very poor last.

The Friendly Language

A Canadian gentleman came into my shop the other day and asked if it was O.K. to have a look around. His daughter publishes a dog magazine back home in Canada and he just wanted to see what the Australian market was up to. We chatted for a while about his dogs and as he was leaving he thanked me for taking the time to talk dog with him. I said that I spend most of my day talking dog and that it was my pleasure. To this he replied, “yes it’is a friendly language’ and left. Well I just fell in love with that term, a friendly language. It describes it perfectly.

Many people pass through my store, some regulars and some visiting from interstate or overseas, and no matter who they are or what type of dog they have; when they talk about them it’is always a warm and loving conversation, full of expressions of joy, giving, personal enrichment, happy memories, and more. I know this all sounds a bit cheesy but it’is true, when we speak ‘dog’ there are no agist, sexist, or socio-economical restrictions to the conversation, we talk freely about our feelings and are, if only for a few moments, less egocentric. When you walk down the street with your dog strangers come up and smile, people just become brighter and want to connect when they see a dog. And the conversation is always friendly.

And this ‘language’ has a wonderful way of pulling people out of a dull mood. A perfect example of this happened recently when an electrician, silently fighting with the wiring in my old flat, was clearly reluctant to strike up any conversation until he found out I was a dog trainer. Well after that you couldn't stop him. I was told about all his dogs and their various adventures, he had had quite a menagerie over the years and loved them all dearly. I know for me personally when I've been having a long stint in the shop and business is slow, it can be a struggle to inspire yourself to prattle on about product, but if some poor unsuspecting person comes in with a puppy, I help myself to a cuddle, with the puppy of course, and the conversation flows.

So if you’are having a bad day and need cheering up come in for a visit or seek out a like-minded person and have a conversation in ‘dog, the internationally recognized friendly language.

Are You Listening

Science has at long last caught up with what us dog loving people have known all along, that we can understand what our dogs are saying to us, if we listen of course. The scientific community has finally come to the conclusion that a dog appears to have the ability to communicate basic emotions.

Recent studies have suggested that the sounds made by a dog covered five emotional states; aggressiveness, fear, despair, playfulness and happiness, and also that the changes in the basic sound qualities of tone, pitch, and the time between barks determined how listeners perceived these barks. The general finding being that high-pitched barks with longer intervals between each bark were perceived as less aggressive than lower-pitched barks heard in frequent succession. The human test subjects also linked barks to despair, happiness and playfulness, leading the researchers to suspect that dogs and humans share a unique ability to communicate with each other.

Scientists have also come to the conclusion that a dog’s ability to communicate emotion isn’t limited to vocalizations, that dogs and humans share some basic non-verbal communications such as visual signals that play an important role. Again not too surprising.

Psychological research has long shown the difference between left and right hemispheres of the human brain in regard to the control of emotions, the left hemisphere (which controls the right side of the body) is associated with positive emotions, while the right hemisphere (which controls the left side of the body) is associated with negative emotions and retreat. This association has recently been found to exist in dogs, which is a very interesting finding in regard to our ability to understand our canine companions.

A study has shown that the direction in which your dogs tail wags is also an indication of emotion. Tails wag to the right when dogs are happy and see something they want to approach, and to the left when they are frightened and confronted with something they want to run away from, The study showed that when dogs saw their owner, they exhibited more right-sided tail wagging, as opposed to tail wagging towards the left when shown a large unfamiliar, and intimidating dog. Another interesting finding was that dogs also wagged their tails to the left when they were on their own, suggesting (what us dog lovers have long known) that they prefer company to being alone.

These findings should not be taken by the layman as an easy way to assume the safety in approaching an unknown dog in the street, but it does appear to validate what us ‘crazy dog people’ have long believed; that our dogs do feel emotion, that we can, through a better understanding of their vocalization and body language, recognise what they are trying to communicate, and in turn have a much greater appreciation of this wonderful and intelligent animal that is an integral part of our lives and our society.

As I said, these findings will come as no great revelation to those of us who have lived with and loved our dogs. We have long been accused of anthropomorphizing our dog’s behaviours, so in all fairness these scientific studies will at least alleviate our need to defend ourselves. I’m not for a second suggesting that dogs feel or express the same emotions that we do, we wouldn’t want them to, but as all of our human emotions are primal in origin, we can at least now draw on scientific research as proof that our dogs do also have the ability to emote.

Yes, It’s A Dog!

I love my dog Chewy; I want her to be safe, happy, fed the best nutritional diet, washed with chemical free shampoo. I want her bed to provide her with the best possible comfort while enhancing my décor as opposed to clashing with it. I want her to be kept warm when it’s cold. I want her food and water bowls to look nice as well as be functional. I want to regularly provide her with new and interesting toys to keep her amused and stimulated. I’m not alone in wishing for these things, but I do constantly hear the comment, “but it’s just a dog” in reference to the product available for our pets. What does this mean? Yes, it’s a dog. Does this mean we should feed them sub standard food, provide rudimentary bedding, let them feel the cold, dry out their coat and skin, let their minds atrophy through boredom, constantly hide their bowls and bedding before guests arrive because they look so bloody awful?

Why should we expect our pets to live and be treated as if they were out in the wilds in their original state? Do we impose these same standards upon ourselves? Where do I begin to argue this strange ethic of how our pets should be treated? I could start with the fact that through many years of genetic manipulation there isn’t much of our dog’s ‘natural state’ left. I could suggest that if our dogs are to live with the bare essentials, as this is ‘natural’, then we should surely be doing the same.

We all started out naked and without a local supermarket. To all intents and purposes we could still be running around the bush clubbing our food source over the head and eating it raw. But for various reasons we changed this habit, we worked out that our lives could be somewhat more comfortable if we did a few things about our living arrangements. For one, we discovered that food tasted a hell of a lot better when it was cooked. Is it essential, however, that we douse it in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, shaved garlic, various herbs and spices, and a splash of Merlot in order to achieve a soupcon of sophistication? Our taste buds, be we human or canine, are designed to do one thing, discern edible food from that which is putrid or poisonous, not to appreciate the delicate distinction between a traditional Crème Brulee and one with a hint of Native Wattle seed.

We also worked out that if we wrapped ourselves in skins and eventually cloth we weren’t so damn cold and open to the elements. Do we now consider the wearing of the latest trends to be a luxury or a necessity? We could still wrap our feet and bodies in whatever was around to protect ourselves, but instead we have a habit of picking and choosing according to what will bring out the colour of our eyes or enhance our curvaceous figures. A prerequisite of survival, I don’t think so. And please if anyone can explain the necessary or functional attributes of a pair of Manolo Blahnik stilettos I’d be more than willing to listen.

Yes. It’s a dog, but as very few of us live our lives using the rudimentary over the comfortable, the basic over the flattering, the bland over the flavoursome, why on earth should they.

Please, Say No To Animals In Pet Shops

I am sitting here writing my third attempt at this ‘Thought’ page as I have been told my first two versions needed toning down. The problem with this is that to ‘tone it down’ is equal to smoothing it over, covering it up, not causing offence. I can’t do this, I’m afraid, as there is nothing warm and fuzzy about the subject matter. There is no way of putting a ‘smiley face’ on the subject of animals in pet shops. It’s black and white, you’re either for it or against it and I am most definitely against it.

This is not a new topic for my ‘Thought’ page as I have voiced my opinion about this before, but having visited some pet shops recently and seeing fish and birds dead or dying and living in distressed conditions, and most recently having seen dogs and cats left in their display window boxes in shops shut for extended public holiday breaks, I feel the need to bring the subject up again.

I am not lambasting any one particular store, all stores that trade in livestock, be it dog, cat, fish or bird appal me. Those of you who support these stores must ask yourselves from where these animals come, are they kept in a manner that enables their physiological and psychological growth while in the store, and what happens to those animals who do not find a home. Unfortunately where money is concerned, profit comes first, and when this involves the livelihood of defenceless creatures we must be outspoken in their defence. The RSPCA is only able to intervene with pet shop practises if it is shown that the animals are being ill-treated. If isolation and containment for long periods of time in unattended stores is not ill treatment then I don’t know what is.

Puppy mills and backyard breeders are just one unfortunate example of an off-shoot industry caused by the upsurge of ‘designer dogs’ sold through pet stores, with the breeding dogs often being housed in unsatisfactory conditions resulting in poor health for both the adult dogs and the puppies. Please look over the following web site for more information on this insidious trade. www.saynotoanimalsinpetshops.com

Many people tell me that they also dislike seeing puppies in stores but that they bought one out of pity as the salesperson had told them that a puppy couldn’t find a home. Please don’t kid yourself that this is not one of their most successful sales pitches. I am not suggesting for a moment that all shops that sell livestock are irresponsible or put profit before animal welfare, but unfortunately for every good shop you will find many that are not and because of this the only way to eradicate the problem is to stop the trade all together.

Adopting a pet into your family should not result from a spur of the moment decision made whilst looking through a pet store window; it should result from carefully considering whether your lifestyle and household can provide an animal with the security and attention that it deserves. You should also learn about breed specific differences in behaviour, temperament, energy levels and grooming requirements. There are many animal sites on the web that offer information on pets, their needs and all the ins and outs you need to know about owning one. And finding a pet most definitely does not require a shop, registered dog breeders are easily found through the Australian Canine Association or through web searches, and there are, unfortunately, many animal welfare shelters begging you to adopt from the endless number of homeless animals that they care for (some of which can be found on my Links page).

I belong to an industry that has a cruel and unethical side and as such I have a responsibility to be vocal and try to affect change. The argument for not knowing what goes on behind the scenes does not hold, as common sense should surely make us question the morality involved in keeping animals in confined conditions for any length of time, displayed in boxes like so much fresh produce.