Many horses are needin' help

by @winecountrydog Tilin Corgi

Soon cold weathers and big rains and winds will come, and the horses will still be standing out there in the fields ... with no shelter or blankets ... with no feed, just acres of mud. They are the thousands of neglected, abused, and unwanted horses in today's American West.

Mywoofself has always loved tall neighing furriends. Since puppyhood, myself has met many rescued horses in California and Oregon.

It is good to be gettin' to know some of da most needy horses. It is comfortin' to learn about caring humans who rescue the horses or collect hay bank money to feed them.

Pawleeze document and report horse neglect, abuse, or starvation when you see it! You can contact a rescue organization for advice on how to do this properly. Also ask county sheriff's department and animal control the best way to get help for the horse who's in trouble.

Here are some good folks to know about:

Colorado Horsecare Foodbank
provides feed grants + emergency hay

Oregon Hay Bank
helps horses in Oregon + Northern California

Safe Haven Horse Rescue
horse rescue in Northern California

California Coastal Horse Rescue
horse rescue in Central California

Neigh Savers
California’s Thoroughbred Rehab/Rehoming

Equamore Horse Sanctuary
horse rescue + sanctuary in Oregon

Mustang Meg
Wild Mustang advocacy in SE Oregon

Buck Brannaman
natural horsemanship training
("starting" colts, not breaking them.)

Disaster preparedness is 4 everybuddy

by winecountrydog Tilin Corgi

Every September is "National Preparedness Month" in the U.S.

This is definition of basic preparedness: Being able to be on your own for at least 72 hours during/after a disaster.

Being prepared requires that each of us four-legged and two-legged family members, including finned and feathered friends, has enough supplies to either shelter-in-place or evacuate and survive for three days. And being prepared requires having a realistic evacuation plan.

In September, Mum gives our disaster Go-Bags the annual makeover and Go-Packs the semi-annual makeover. "Go-Packs" are our small packs, often just a Ziploc bag containing pet or people supplies like supplements, meds, and frozen foods. They are stored in different locations like fridge, freezer, Go-Bag, or car. 

Mum does also review evacuation scenarios and make us do practice drills. Herself marked up some new maps covering Pacific coast, mountains, and valleys where we often travel these days.

Meezer did enjoy sticking her nose in Go-Bags and doing drills, taking rides in the car in her carrier.

Meezer meows that everybuddy should have a prawpurr evac carrier.

This is a prawpurr kitteh evac carrier? BOL!

Certainly not. But it makes as much sense as some of the crazzy pet preparedness info we read.

Disaster preparedness is for everybuddy -- people and pets, horses and farm animals, big cats and other wild animals who live in captivity. Yet much of the pet preparedness info is mediocre at best and sometimes even dead WRONG. 

Consider this advice: A certain Southern Cal NGO tells pet owners "Know which hotels and motels along your evacuation route will accept you and your pets in an emergency. If you learn that you may need to evacuate, you should call ahead for reservations." Know ahead of time where a disaster will strike and what your evacuation route will be? Good advice for psychic pet owners eh.

Do not expect to get through on the phone to hotels or motels during a disaster, and do not count on them to hold a room. Depending on the type of disaster, a better plan could be to drive like howl out of the disaster region and then see what kind of pet accommodations are around. But if the disaster is an earthquake, you likely not going anywhere, not even leaving da house for a while. By the woof, we believe that concierges should waive no-pet policies in times of disaster.

One resource for help in making grrreat Pet Go-Bags and pet evacuation plans is your veterinarian! Remember to ask your vet for help in customizing your pet first aid kit.

Paw-notes: Mum sez, "At the very least, keep maps, cash, contact phone numbers, and cell phone chargers handy at home, in your car, and in your workplace. Encourage pet rescue organizations and animal shelters to do the same. Find time to learn local, county, and state geography, and to become familiar with main highways. As you learn more, mark-up your maps with information such as alternate evacuation routes, hospitals, county fairgrounds, veterinary ER clinics, and pet-friendly places such as Motel 6 locations. The more thought you give to preparation, the better off you'll be in an actual disaster."

Thanx woofs to @hollygomadly for tweeting the great cat pic. Someday ourselves will offer our own pet checklists and other disaster prep tips we have been compiling.

RIP Lennox dog

by winecountrydog Tilin and family

Today, 11 July 2012, Lennox dog was destroyed by Belfast City Council.

Lennox was not a 'dangerous dog.' He was a victim of humans who had the power to apply BSL in the cruelest way possible.

We hope that Lennox's legacy will be to galvanize solidarity for BSL repeal. May there be a new era of dog laws that focus on curtailing 'dangerous owners' rather than on banning dog breeds.

We will remember Lennox always.

Condolences to Caroline and Brooke Barnes.
RIP Lennox.

"Fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth"

by winecountrydog Tilin Corgi

Someone said 58 billion animals are killed in factory farms and slaughterhouses every year. Whether or not tis accurate number, following are real numbers from NASS for just one month of commercial U.S. "livestock" slaughter. And only for red meat, as the number of hogs slaughtered is not included ere:

"Commercial red meat production for the United States [in August 2011] totaled 4.30 billion pounds  ... Cattle slaughter totaled 3.10 million head ... Calf slaughter totaled 79,900 head. ... Sheep slaughter totaled 198,200 head. ..."

Did any of these millions of animal furriends live pleasant pastoral lives or die a peaceful death?

Here is extreme pawsitive contrast: the practices of farmer and Border Collie lover Elissa Thau, an artisanal meat producer in Umpqua Valley who raises and slaughters sheep humanely. You will see in this video howl carefully and lovingly tended are all the animals on her farm.

Wot a grrreat video. Ms Thau first introduces you to her beloved Border Collie working dogs. Then she talks about her philosophy of raising and respecting animals.



We must paw-point to some highlights of wot Elissa Thau has said:

"The [Border Collie] is bred as a working dog. ... They're an incredible working partner. It's a real privilege to work with a dog. ... And our dogs all live in the house. ... My mum used to say 'They'll never work if you spoil them like that' 'cause she was from an old farming family in England. ... In the UK ... it's really an art ... among the old shepherd and farmers.

"The dogs don't need to bite to move sheep. ... They move sheep with the power of their eye and their presence ... and the fact they have quiet power.

"... And the whole point of raising sheep the way that we raise them it is to raise them quietly and humanely. . . .

"It's a hard thing to kill a lamb or a cow. ... We actually take ours down to the butcher, and then they're killed there quickly and humanely. . . .

"It's a very serious thing to kill an animal. ... People should take it very seriously. They shouldn't be expecting to eat meat seven days a week, two times a day. ... It just becomes agribusiness, greed, and suffering. . . .

"Who wants to eat an animal that's been standing in a feedlot ... through the winter with no shelter . . .? . . . I don't eat any meat that I don't know where it's come from. . . .

"Have you ever read Henry Beston? He wrote [The Outermost House] ... 'Animals are not brethren, they're not underlings, they are other nations, caught with ourselves in this net of life and time, [fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.]' And hopefully we treat them that way too."

High paw for Elissa Thau! A gentle, wise, and caring human.

Paw-notes: Thanx woofs to Daniel Klein of The Perennial Plate -- "online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially responsible and adventurous eating" -- for sharing this inspirational interview.

Magnolia Farm is a small family farm in the rolling hills near Riddle, Oregon, in the Umpqua Valley (also known as a wine region), where Elissa Thau, her husband, Mel Thau, and their family of Border Collies have been raising sheep for a couple of decades.

Ms Thau also does Border Collie herding trials. If you are thinking bout getting a BC dog, we doo recommend that you consider the decision carefully and talk to an expert like Ms Thau. Pawleeze note that there are many BCs and other herding dogs in rescue. Humans doo surrender us cuz they find us hard to handle. (Ask furbro Jackie Nippers to tell you bout his own experience.)

Ere is website where you can read bout naturalist and author Henry Beston.

"Missing" San Francisco sea lions interviewed in Oregon

by winecountrydog

By early December 2009, the world-renowned barkers of San Francisco's Pier 39 had disappeared.

Back in October 2009, humans at The Marine Mammal Center in nearby Sausalito had noticed that S.F. sea lion numbers were dwindling. Before long, almost everybuddy in the 1,700-member sea lion colony had gone missing.

It's not true that the sea lions left 'cuz of a dog named Rez who frightened them during an encounter at Hyde Street Pier in Fisherman's Wharf.


By the way, dog furriends, we hope you know that chasing sea lions is not in keeping with the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The sea lions' sudden depawture must've taken a bite out of tourism along San Francisco's docks. Pawsonally, though, we love howl these flippy furriends baffled humans with their disappearance.

Finally, weeks after the disappearance, humans on the southern Oregon coast repawt that they're hosting many of S.F.'s finest.

Sea lion interviews are being conducted.



Mystery solved! You've heard the answer right from a San Francisco sea lion's mouth: "We're not missing. We're just on vacation."

Apparently they're finding good grub in Oregon's colder waters.

Paw-note: If you talk with any S.F. sea lions, the humans at @TravelCoosBay on twitter would love to get a tweet from you about it.

We herd, we work ... or we get bored and sad

by pawlitico

Look at our furriend Emma Corgi herding! She knows how to communicate to give each individual sheep safe directions. It's in her body language and her special Corgi communication ability.


Herding and droving is what we Welsh Corgis do well and have always done well. Like other working dogs who herd, and like cutting horses, we see the world in terms of keeping individual animals and flocks organized and safe.

Emma is a happy Corgi. She gets to do what she loves.


We Corgis are not lap dogs. We are not toy dogs. Not a play thing or a puppet or a toy.

We don't want to be kept in little crates in apartments and brought out just for show and cuddles.

As Emma paw-elegantly stated, "Working/herding/water dog breeds are great, just as long as they can live the lifestyle they were bred for (by humans). Otherwise, they are frustrated, develop behavioral problems, and end up in shelters being destroyed."

There's been so much controversy lately over dog breeding. I feel that I must bark about maintaining the strength and vitality and health of traditional breeds, especially working and herding breeds.

My Corgi feelings are hurt that humans mix up overbreeding with breeding, as if it's bad or elitist to be a working dog.

We want us dogs to be healthy and happy. What we don't want is to reduce the dog population at the expense of breed integrity.

Pawleeze reduce dog overpopulation: Reduce breeding as a source of human income!

And pawleeze help humans understand us better. If they did, very few of us would end up abandoned in shelters!

Paw-note: You can rescue a wonderful Pembroke or Cardigan Welsh Corgi through CorgiAid and Golden Gate PWCF and other organizations.

The price of wildfires

by pawlitico

We're overjoyed to see furriends like Gerdy Burro get to go home. Gerdy had been evacuated to the Santa Barbara Earl Warren Showgrounds along with other animal furriends who had to move out of the path of the Jesusita wildfire.


Gerdy was joined at the fairgrounds by 120 horses, 20 rabbits, 22 chickens, 3 roosters, 27 goats, 10 opossums, 5 parakeets, 4 pigs, 2 mules, 1 cat, 1 cockatiel, 1 llama, and 1,200 human firefighters too. That's according to the CDFA Public Affairs office.

As with all fairgrounds in California, during an emergency, Earl Warren is used as a staging area for fire and law enforcement officials, and for the OES & Caltrans Operational Area Satellite Information System (OASIS) portable communications hub.

We live well north of Santa Barbara — out of fire's reach this time. Last summer, we were on the edge of devastating fires in Mendocino and Napa counties. For days we lived in a surreal world of smoke and particulate-filled air. It made both Tilin Corgi (aka winecountrydog) and dog-ma sick to their stomachs.

Something that makes me sick is what I infer from the photo of a burned tree silhouetted against the barren background of the burn area in Santa Ynez Mountains.


How many wild birds have no home to go to after the Jesusita fire? . . . How many perished in the flames and smoke? . . . How many wild animals, burned and injured, are slowly dying out there somewhere?

The price of wildfires isn't measurable in dollars.


My buddy Tilin @winecountrydog decided on May 7th that he had to help somehow. He started sending twitter updates to help direct humans transporting companion and farm animals as they were being evacuated. He also tweeted to connect Santa Barbara tweeps with each other. He used a hashtag strategy that enabled his tweets to be seen by the maximum number of peeps in the target area.

Tilin got help tweeting from dog-ma, who took over for him on and off. You'll have to ask them how it felt to watch the evacuation unfold on twitter. A helpless feeling, I 'spoze, especially when they were exchanging tweets with a Santa Barbara fellow who didn't have long to pack and leave.

Dog-ma helped Tilin a lot by finding reports and making phone calls to clarify what alerts needed to be tweeted. They also followed twitter updates by the few tireless agencies, media, and individuals who were tweeting fire and evac news.

If their tweets helped even one human to get furriends to the fairgrounds shelter, or to find the addresses and phone numbers of small-animal and wildlife shelters, it was worth their effort. If they helped someone avoid a closed road or evac area, or to find the food bank, a human shelter, or the Red Cross, it was worth it.

Pawbably those tweets did help the animal shelters get more supplies and equipment sent their way. The shelters urgently needed kennel crates, exercise pens, cleaning supplies, and food for dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, opossums, raccoons, and other furriends.

Fortunately, Santa Barbara humans are wildfire-evac-savvy. I think they responded about as well as humans can do when a natural disaster strikes.

All around Santa Barbara, from Santa Maria to Carpinteria and beyond, humans at animal shelters, pet and wildlife rescue orgs, humane societies (including the SMVHS), and pet resorts/daycare facilities pitched in to help transport, shelter, feed, and foster. A huge amount of supplies and equipment were herded into place to provide prawper care.

If only one could believe that devastating wildfires like this won't happen again.

But I know that's not true.

My comfort is in knowing that Tilin "twitter paws" and dog-ma will help with disaster response, and they'll teach me how to help too.


Pawleeze visit Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network online to see how you can help with the rescue and rehabilitation of orphaned or injured wild birds and small mammals.

Many animal furriends will be very grateful that you care.

Paw-note: Nosetaps to Parsons, Saxon, and Nicholson.

Billy Elephant shouldn't have to be alone

by pawlitico

Billy Elephant is 23 years old and he lives alone at the Los Angeles Zoo.


I'd like to ask Billy whether the zoo's claim is true that he receives good care from the staff. He pawbably does. Who wouldn't fall in love with Billy and want to take care of him?

Billy has been the focus recently of a raging argument over his living arrangements. The argument is whether the zoo should build a Pachyderm Forest for Billy or retire Billy to an elephant sanctuary.

You'll find thoughtful comments on both sides of the issue, that's fur sure.

It's not my intention to add to the debate. I know how I feel about zoos and cages. But as a corgi, my area of knowledge doesn't extend to habitat issues and why zoos can't be transformed into humane habitats.

So I paw-write about Billy for one reason, the thing I doo know: Elephants are social creatures and it's a sin to make them live alone.


While humans are busy arguing about Billy's future, they should be finding him a furriend right now! He's got decades of life ahead of him, and he needs a buddy.

To see how social elephants are, watch the youtube about elephant furriends at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. It features Tarra, a 30-plus-year-old Burmese elephant who's best furriends with a dog named Bella.



Paw-note: To read some of the debate over Billy, click here to see blog and comments.

Heifer Houdini's final escape

by pawlitico

The April 2002 news headlines said things like "Escaped Cow on the Loose!", "Mad cow? Ha! She's furious.", "The World's Fastest Cow!", "Cow Becomes Local Hero!", and "Cow to Get Key to the City!"

The heifer Houdini on the lam was a snow white Charolais later called Cinci Freedom.

Cinci did what any cow would hope to do to escape slaughter: She jumped a big fence and ran for freedom. For 11 days, she eluded capture, all the while garnering sympathy from the public.


The citizens of Cincinnati pled for her life. Farm Sanctuary wrote:

As she resisted capture time and again, staying hidden in a park where she foraged and rested when she could, the courageous cow demonstrated an unbendable will, and her tremendous fight for survival resonated with the public. By the time of her capture, she had won the hearts of so many that calls for mercy poured into the city from all over the country. In the end, it was a plea from renowned artist Peter Max that brought the brave bovine safely to our New York Shelter, where she was named Cincinnati Freedom and given the liberty she always deserved.

. . . Freedom received a warm reception. When they saw her arrive, the other Farm Sanctuary cows ran to the barn to greet Freedom. The cows mooed hellos to their famous new herd-mate, and gave her cow kisses. Freedom was quickly adopted by the shelter cattle herd. . . .

Since her arrival in April 2002, Cincinnati Freedom has enjoyed all the comforts and joys that every cow deserves. She has made friends with many of the cows in the herd, and is especially close to two other daring escape artists named Annie Dodge and Queenie.

Another famous escapee and good friend of Cinci's is Maxine from Queens (pictured below).


If Maxine were talking to you, I'm afraid she'd have to tell you a sad story. You see, Cinci got sick recently. It was a cancer that spread fast. Everybuddy said their last goodbyes to Cinci this week.

Dear Cinncinati Freedom, we've never had a cow or a steer furriend, but now we sure wish we did. When we read about your final escape, it touched our corgi hearts. We hope the grass is greenest in your new pasture.

Paw-note: You can see Cinci's eulogy & slide show "In Loving Memory: Cinncinati Freedom" at FarmSanctuary.org.

MUTTS farm animals ask for compassion

by winecountrydog

Our friend and neighbor, Ms. Mutts Hen, has an impawtant question fur humans, and she's taking it to the streets.


Patrick McDonnell, the artist who draws the MUTTS comic strip, created this and other cartoons to raise awareness for farm animal protection. The cartoons carrying the anti-cruelty message are running this week in 700 newspapers where the strip appears.

If you live in California, you pawbably already know why Mr. McDonnell's on the farm: He suppawts State ballot initiative Proposition 2 to create humane standards for housing farm animals.

I hope you get to see the cartoons in this eight-day series that shows laying hens, calves, and pigs campaigning on the streets and going door-to-door.

To read about Patrick McDonnell's pawsition on the issues, see the interview by Michael Markarian, prez of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.

Hey, MUTTS is givin' new meaning to the term "chicken strip"!

The first 'YES on Prop 2' TV ad

by pawlitico

I watched the first TV advertisement for California Proposition 2, which is about the treatment of farm animals. This TV ad launched just today.

As a humane dog, I cringed as I watched. I think humans might have a similar reaction. This ad contains graphic images of inhumanely treated animals.

I heard that the results of a recent poll show Californians favor the passage of Proposition 2. The poll sez voters are 72 to 10 percent in favor of Prop 2. The article about the poll is at California Progress Report.

I sure hope humans are making progress.

Pawnote: I'm worrying that the TV ad is too graphic and shocking. I mean, it's gruesome! But dog-ma and Tilin Corgi said maybe we better show it so humans know what's going on. Oh howl, I hope this was the right decision.

Polar bear Knut loses foster father

by winecountrydog

Celebrity polar bear Knut of Zoo Berlin has lost his foster father, zookeeper Thomas Dörflein.


The 44-year old zookeeper, who became known worldwide as Knut's surrogate father after the baby cub's own mother, Tosca, rejected him, was found dead in his Berlin apartment.


It's hard to imagine what confusion and grief Knut will feel about the disappearance of his human "dad." Knut was so bonded to Dörflein — as you can see in "Knut goes exploring" ("auf Entdeckungstour") from ballynow.


When Knut's mother rejected him after his December 2006 birth, Dörflein stayed with der kleine Eisbär, baby Knut, around the clock for 150 straight days. Daddy Dörflein handfed him milk and porridge throughout the nights and days, and played with and cared for him.

Mourners visiting Zoo Berlin have left a white rose and a letter of condolence on the fence of Knut's enclosure.


Knut looks pensive now. He has certainly gone through a lot in his short life.


As a tiny cub, Knut's life was almost cut short by humans who protested the idea of the zoo handraising him. There were some who said that Knut should have been euthanized rather than being raised "as a domestic pet." Some protestors accused Zoo Berlin of violating animal protection legislation by keeping Knut alive.

I don't think there was any perfect solution. My response is to bark the slogan on the German stamp that bears beautiful Knut's image:

Natur weltweit bewahren. Preserve nature worldwide!

California 'Prop 2' egg battle

by pawlitico

Here in California we're having an egg battle. We're not throwing eggs: We're throwing comments back and forth between factory farmers and humane-farming advocates.

In the middle is the future of millions of hens and the California egg industry.


When humane Californians vote YES! on Proposition 2 in November, they'll be ensuring that California eggs will be cage-free eggs.

In other words, 'Yes on Prop 2' voters will be casting a vote in favor of enforcing the cage-free ethic for all egg farming.

Opponents of Prop 2 say this'll kill the California egg industry. No way! We believe those who say this'll convert it to a more profitable industry. We say this knowing that many of us in California — both we pets and our humans — already consume only regionally-produced cage-free eggs.

Here's an egg-cerpt about the egg battle from a piece by The CA Majority Report's Donald Lathbury. It's entitled "No on Prop 2 Campaign Funded by the Same Out-of-State Egg Producers that the Campaign Claims would Benefit if Prop 2 Passes?"

Surely out-of-state egg producers are chomping at the bits to see Prop 2 passed then, since they anticipate a flood of new business as California's egg producers are put out of business, right? Curiously, no:

"Thirteen Iowa companies have made nearly a quarter of a million dollars in donations to 'Californians for SAFE Food - No on Prop 2,' a coalition organized to fight a ballot measure amending the state's health and safety code in relation to the confinement of livestock."

Ok, I'm confused. Riddle me this, factory farmers: why would 13 Iowa egg producers dump a quarter million dollars into an opposition campaign to a California proposition that would increase Iowa egg producers' market share? If the No campaign's talking points were true, Iowa egg producers (along with donors from factory farms in Nebraska, Maine, Colorado, Utah, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, and well, every state in the country with battery cage egg production), if anything, would be giving money to the Yes side. That's business, right? Make your profits where you can by digging into the markets of your competitors.

Something doesn't fit here. Maybe, just maybe, the outside egg producers that have dominated the finances of the No campaign are afraid that the old adage, 'as California goes, so goes the nation,' applies in this situation.

And if that's the case, then far from exporting our egg production to other states, Prop 2 actually exports our more humane farming practices to other states, hence the fervent opposition from folks who love to squeeze as much profit as they can from stuffing six-to-eight hens in cages so small that they cannot turn around or expand their wings. . . .

Howl, we want California to export humane business ethics, thereby promoting humane farming practices everywhere.

Under the Prevention of Farm Cruelty Act, pigs and veal calves will be humanely treated too.

Now's the time for conversion to cage-free production.


California humans, paw-leeze end the inhumane-ity and the egg battle: Cast your YES vote on PROP 2!

Katrina pet 'lessons learned worked'

By pawlitico

We're relieved to hear that Gustav evacuation policy has been much more "pet-owner friendly" and pet friendly than in past disasters.

Did Hurricane Katrina and other disasters teach authorities to care for animal friends during emergencies?

"Yes, in fact, lessons learned worked," said Scotlund Haisley, Senior Director of Emergency Services for the Humane Society of the United States.

Mr. Haisley was interviewed in "Animal Evacuations" today by FOX & friends. He said there were two "massive" animal evacuations over 4 days: The evacuation of owned animals to temporary "co-located" shelters and the evacuation of existing shelter animals to other animal shelters.

At the New Orleans Evacuation Center, puppies like our buddy here were cooled down with water while waiting to be loaded on refrigerated trucks headed fur safety.

©The HSUS/Kathy Milani

Pets were able to get on animal transport vehicles while their humans boarded buses so they could evacuate together and stay together, or right near each other -- this is co-located sheltering.

During Katrina, many humans didn't leave their homes because they didn't want to leave their pets behind. But this time, the co-location policy made the difference.

"There's no doubt that this step saved both human and animal lives, because many lives were taken during Katrina, because they were unwilling to evacuate without their animals, and as you know, they were told they had to."

The HSUS helped evacuate hundreds of Louisiana shelter animals, and is also assisting in the operation of a huge evacuation shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana. Pet owner/guardians are staying at the human shelter across the road and are able to provide care for their own pets.

See HSUS Emergency Services for more information.

You want to do the funky chicken?

By pawlitico

I want to do the funky chicken. Look, I can do it without moving my legs or turning around!

I don't want to be free — I don't want to have to cross the road and then put up with humans asking me why I did it. I want to party like a battery-caged factory-farm chicken.

Doggoneit, I was looking furward to shackin' up with some cute local chickens in a claustrophobic yet cozy cage. But in November 2008, Californians will vote on Prop 2, the ballot initiative for the Prevention of Farm Cruelty Act (see PDF).

The Act requires that "an enclosure or tether confining specified farm animals allow the animals for the majority of every day to fully extend their limbs or wings, lie down, stand up, and turn around."

When the Act becomes law, it will, among other things, require CA egg farmers to move their 19 million caged chickens into cage-free facilities by 2015.

Egg and poultry farmer Arnie Riebli is a smart human. He saw this cage-free day coming. His family's been in the egg business in Sonoma County for 100 years. They're Sunrise Farms, the county's largest egg farm, producing one million eggs a day. Mr. Riebli's prepared whether or not the new law passes: Some of his chickens are cage free and some are not.

You can see egg farmer Riebli, and also Hope Bohanec, coordinator for 'YES! on Prop 2' for Sonoma County. The video makers labeled this a "debate" and "a look inside the egg industry." Woof? In reality, it's a look inside Sunrise Farms, with some sensible commentary from the two interviewees.

Palweeze learn more and join in supporting the initiative at the official 'YES on Prop 2' website.

Pawnote: You want to "Do The Funky Chicken"? Download this hit song by the late R&B/soul legend Rufus Thomas, who also did "Walking The Dog." Let's get funky for freeing the chickens!

'Your Car Is Your Cage'

By pawlitico

"Your Car Is Your Cage" is a sign at the entrance of Great Bear Adventure near Glacier National Park, Montana.


The thought of automobiles as human cages gives me a strange feeling. I don't like cages. You know that I, as a Humane California dog, growl at the fact that factory farms keep "food animals" caged. "Factory" chickens, veal calves, and pigs live all their lives in cruel confinement.

When I saw the "Your Car Is Your Cage" sign, it made me wonder whether humans have gotten used to cages. A lot of humans talk about feeling like caged animals, and about being caged up in work cubicles. It seems that, when humans aren't in one cage, they're in another. Is this why not enough humans realize that animals feel awful about being trapped in tiny spaces? I don't know. I'm just a corgi.

I think bears are pretty exciting. They sure have a hard time nowadays finding places to live safely 'cuz they freak people out.


Dog-ma told me about bears in the Trinity Alps wilderness that she ran into. She said she wouldn't have been afraid of them if other humans hadn't been tormenting them with buckshot.

What happens is that many humans who live or camp in remote areas shoot at the bears, or at least scare them badly, to try to make them go away. Humans get especially aggressive when they're trying to keep bears away from their food. But once bears get a taste for "leftovers," they keep coming back. So humans shoot more. The bears end up feeling angry — not to mention hurt and in pain. Then the bears start hating humans.

What a "great bear adventure" this is, right?

In Montana, Great Bear Adventure is a place for humans to see grizzly bears, also known as brown bears, from the safety of their car cages.

There's great bear info at Great Bear Foundation. You can learn about grizzlies and the seven other bear species of the world at their Bear Species link.

Bears are wonderful animals. As the Great Bear Foundation people say, "It is possible for bears and humans to successfully coexist, but now it is the responsibility of humans to adapt and learn about ways to live with bears."

I just want to acknowledge this, and to remind humans to be kind to wild animals, not only to us companion animals.

Compassion Day August 8th

By pawlitico

When a young dog like myself reads the news, it can make me howl in a way that isn't funny. I need to be pawsitive, so I am declaring August 8, 2008, the first annual Compassion Day for Humane and Human rights.

I came up with the idea after reflecting on the need for stronger protection of human rights and humane rights in the world. I'm having a moment of compassion meditation with my family to remember everybuddy who suffers.

Today is opening day of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This makes me remember the May '08 earthquake in China that killed almost 70,000 people and countless animals.

This Beichuan pig survived in the rubble of her home.


Today is also the day after the world's attention was drawn to a statement made by a U.S. mayor whose two Labrador dogs were slain by police.

Below you can see the Labrador retrievers walking with Berwyn Heights, Maryland, Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, in an old photo. That's Chase, on the left. He was a four-year-old Lab. Payton, on the right, was a seven-year-old. They were shot and killed by a sheriff's SWAT team during a "drug raid" of their home on July 29, 2008. No one in the home was involved in drugs; all were innocent victims.


According to a Washington Post interview with Mayor Calvo, when the police went in, they shot Payton near the front door and followed Chase as he ran into a back room.

In the Mayor's August 7th statement, he gave further detail: "Payton was shot some distance from the front door. He was shot where his body was found, near the entrance to the kitchen. After Payton was shot, Chase reacted to the gunfire and ran away from the deputies. He was hunted down and shot in the back while he fled. His body was found in the rear of the house."

Such inhumane-ity. Such a violation of human civil rights.

Turning to the Olympics, everybuddy knows that China's hosting of the Olympics has been controversial. Controversy is fine with this dog. But I don't want humans to forget why there's controversy: Criticism stems from China's policies on Tibet, its lack of human rights for its citizens, and its lack of humane protection for animals.

The photo below says it all. A Beijing human is mimicking the Statue of Liberty at Miniature Manhattan in World Park, one of the three Beijing parks where Olympics protests have been permitted by Chinese authorities.


Chinese authorities have probably nixed many protests. One was Amanda Beard's event at Athlete's Village. But cancelation didn't stop Beard, the Olympic 200-meter breaststroke champion, from protesting outside the hotel: She unveiled a poster of herself naked in support of the anti-fur movement.

Pawnote: Our hearts go out to Mayor Cheye Calvo and Ms. Trinity Tomsic.

Walking the turtles

By pawlitico

I was kinda dog-napping when I looked up and saw an irresistible image on the 'puter screen. I had to put my paws up on dog-ma's lap to get a close look at tiny turtles on a table, with a sign saying "Healthy hatchlings $1 ea."


The turtles turned out not to be real animals. No, they were tasty vegan cookies being sold at Little Cakes "Turtle Club" bake-sale benefit at a July NADA County Affair (that's the New Art Dealers Association in NYC).

Little Cakes' sales went to help with veterinary expenses for two turtles named Ichigo and Pan-kun.

You have to see their blog, called Ichigo the Turtle. Hanna Fushihara Aron, their rescuer, maintains the blog and takes care of the turtles. She's the nice NY artist who created the "Turtle Club" bake sale.

Ichigo came to Hanna and her husband, artist and musician David Aron, as a rescue. Ichigo has been through a lot, including surgery. And Hanna has been through a lot with Ichigo, including tube-syringe feeding.


Hanna says that Ichigo's "a large female, around 10 inches long. She came to us with pneumonia and possible septicemia. We had to use our bathtub for her habitat as she is aquatic. . . . She still isn't basking in the tub, so I make sure she gets a good 45 minutes or so outside in the late morning so she fully dries out and gets her UV light. I keep saying I have to or I am 'walking the turtles,' which is pretty funny."

When Hanna isn't turtle-walking, she's doing her art and also running the Little Cakes Little Gallery.

Hanna has been working on a 'humane wool' project with Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. She hopes to do more projects with nonprofit groups.

Woofin awesome! You know we like hearing about animal sanctuary projects 'cuz we're Humane California dogs.

If you're in New York, please call Hanna (646-342-1056) and get over to Little Cakes Little Gallery for a turtle walk!

Paw note: Learn more about rescuing and caring for turtles at the nationwide Turtle Homes Alliance and the Northern California Herpetological Society (NCHS).

Photo credits: Hanna Fushihara Aron

'Unsafe at Any Speed'

By winecountrydog

The little hedgehog that Sam and Zoe named "Ralph" doesn't travel very fast.


But I'm a dog who does travel fast, in a vehicle, with dog-ma as driver. That's why I waited outside Copperfield's Books in Healdsburg with other dogs while dog-ma went inside to hear Ralph Nader.

Mr. Nader is the consumer advocate who took the US auto industry to task for safety defects in his 1965 book, titled Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile. Mr. Nader documented how resistant car manufacturers were to spending money on safety features like seat belts.

Humans — both the kind that praise Nader and the kind that don't — tell me that 'Nader' became a household name 'cuz of his consumer advocacy work. Mr. Nader, with former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez as his running mate, is campaigning in the 2008 presidential race.

If you read about Mr. Nader's research and lobbying on auto safety, you see he helped push Congress to pass the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

Among his many other efforts, he lobbied for passage of the 1967 Wholesome Meat Act, which called for federal inspections of beef and poultry, and imposed standards on slaughterhouses.

Dog-ma and I aren't partisan — I'm a Humane voter without a party. We are consumer advocates for safe car travel, especially for pets. I wear a canine seat belt harness when I travel.

You've heard me bark about my Ruff Rider seatbelt? You'll hear me bark about it again. Dog-ma chose this canine vehicle restraint system for me some years back after researching canine and human seatbelt mechanics.

A lot of human guardian/owners don't like the idea of seatbelts 'cuz they seem to represent a constraint on purrsonal freedom. Well, sometimes we have to think about freedom on other levels. For example, there's the civic freedom that Mr. Nader talks about.

And there's the freedom to choose to protect ourselves from being smushed in a speeding car that has to hit the brakes!

I sound pawlitical on the subject of seatbelts. Oh howl, then I am. What else can a concerned dog do? As Mr. Nader says, "if you don't turn on to politics, politics is going to turn on you." He's right about that.

You've got to get involved and vote for what you care about, even if you're a dog who doesn't get an official ballot.

Practice the rule of fair prey!

By winecountrydog and pawlitico

It's great that Humane California is building a big ark of animal-protection supporters for the 'Yes on Prop 2' initiative. We see names of new supporters all the time.

Proposition 2 is the November 2008 ballot initiative for the Prevention of Farm Cruelty Act. The Act will phase out cruel and inhumane factory farming practices in California.

Hey, not that Californians practice more inhumane-ity than anybuddy else, but this is where we live and eat — and where we must have an ethical food supply.

Can you imagine how many pigs, calves, and hens around the globe have to spend their lives in tiny cages, where they can't turn around or stretch their limbs? Even one would be one too many. As dogs, we're freaked out at the very thought of being caged up all our lives.

We and our dog and cat buddies will not eat any "food animal" who didn't live a good life of freedom. We're not only healthier: We digest a lot better knowing that we practice the rule of fair prey!

Humans who raise animals for food should stop unfair practices without being asked to by the government. But it seems that not all humans volunteer to be nice.

Many veterinarians are nice Prop 2 supporters. We're happy that one of our purrsonal vets, Jona Sun Jordan, DVM, is among them. Another pro-Prop 2 vet is Eric Barchas, DVM (who writes Dogster & Catster Vetblog). Paw-leeze ask your veterinarians about their Prop 2 support.

We're also happy when mayors endorse Prop 2. In northern California, we see these mayors who are pro-Prop 2: Sebastopol Mayor Craig Litwin, Novato Mayor Pat Eklund, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo.

Mayor Fargo (seen in photo with Sac SPCA director behind her) was spotted at a 'Yes on Prop 2' event sponsored by the Sacramento SPCA and Sacramento for Humane Farms, held July 27 at the Sacramento SPCA on Florin-Perkins Road.

Dale Howard, campaign manager for Mayor Fargo, attended the event with the Mayor.

Mr. Howard tells us that Mayor Fargo is a longtime supporter of animal welfare issues and also cat-ma to a handful of happy cats. He adds, "The Mayor will be very active in supporting the measure as it moves forward. Animal issues are kind of a favorite subject. . . . The Mayor and I almost left the SPCA event with a carload of animals."

Wow. Animal shelters should host more events at the shelters, then the humans who could would take the shelter animals home with them.

Atlas the Labrador is another 'Yes on Prop 2' supporter. He wonders What kind of human wouldn't vote in favor of Proposition 2?


Photo credits: Dale Howard (Atlas's 'pro-Prop 2' human)