Monday, June 7, 2010

A chance to teach indirectly


My sister is taking a couple of online classes to finish up the dreaded general education credits for her degree in animal science. She consistently tells me- I don't like these classes what do they have to do with my degree or what I want to do with my life. She still has romantic notions about cowboying out on the sagebrush seas roping young calves from their death at the jaws of sickness. I have told her several times- use these classes as a platform to further others education about what we do. Raise food for the American Public. I just helped her edit a response to the question of- Explain a microculture that you are annoyed with. She was going to choose skateboarders. Though annoying they seem relatively harmless. I gently steered the response to animal rights activists.

She had to explain what it was she found annoying in their mannerisms, dialoge, and communication skills. Again, with a little prompting the answer addressed the use of words that should be banned from vocabulary like- factory farming and puppy mills. What exactly is a puppy mill? I mean Wayne Pacelle- Mr. H$U$ defines it as a household with more than 7 dogs. OOPS. We are almost there. We have two border collies, one kelpie+border collie+red heeler mix (see above as a puppy), then you add in my sisters two rat terriers and red heeler+ bird dog (don't ask) mix. That makes 6. Some weeks our 3 are not enough for my husband to do his job on a lava plain that has more rocks than grass but the grass is hard enough to raise some great cattle.

Factory Farms? Another misnomer that should be stricken from English. What is it? Animal Rights people state it is a facility where animals are treated like machines. Well if they were machines we would throw some gas instead of grass to them. Oil the parts instead of giving them water. Just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

4 comments:

  1. I have dogs.
    6 at the moment
    7 a few weeks ago
    and have had up to 8 at one time.

    I live in a small city.

    I also have bred dogs. AKC dogs at that.

    it just keeps getting worse doesn't it?

    and guess what, I don't believe in blanket spay/neuter either. Which is not to be confused with NO spay/neuter.

    I am sure I am bound for hell having written this down in a public forum.

    *looks aroud for the prye, rope and oil to start burning the heretic*

    so does this qualify me as a puppy mill (youngest puppy is now 4 years old? Unfortunately I can't be considered a factory farm as we don't have a farm (though I'd like one verymuchkthanx).

    Animal right activists use trigger terms to get the response they want, often without much critical thinking on the part of the ears they fall on.

    sorry about the rant.....they just *really* get under my skin.

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  2. Nope Holly that is great! That goes to show how ridiculous these accusations are. The blanket spay or neuter policies are just another regulation that needs to be fought against. We had a chance at a ranch job once but they required ALL animals be fixed. At the time, we had a good stud horse- grandson of Secretariat and couldn't think about castrating him without a few more colt crops. So we passed.

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