Of bad breeding, vet checks & harmless cicadas

Most of us who are into animals are probably aware of the health issues some dogs confront because of their “squished-in” faces.  It’s hard to look at some of those animals -- including college mascots! -- whose lives may be shortened or at least very uncomfortable.

That’s what happens when people “style” dogs for their own purposes, changing their looks and often their health.  

Play back the pictures you saw of canine contestants at the recent Westminster dog show: Afghan hounds, with long, narrow snouts and impractical coats; bulldogs and others with relatively flat faces; teeny-tiny short-haired dogs with spindly legs and high-pitched barks.  All of them and many others: “designer dogs” -- far from the gray wolves they all descended from.

A welcome relief from canine modifications and their mixed results is Alexandra Horowitz’s succinct answer to the question, “Has Dog Breeding Gone Too Far?”  (Answer: Yes!)

A cognitive scientist who studies dogs (and whose work was cited earlier here for her compassionate take on President Biden’s dogs who bit people), Horowitz has nothing good to say about either inbreeding (at its worst, the equivalent of human incest) or selective breeding (“designing” dog breeds – from 4-pounders to dogs of 170 pounds).

Her wonderfully illustrated opinion piece took up a full page of the Sunday, May 19 NYTimes – with most space devoted to images of dog breeds and their related problems.  Some anatomical changes humans have caused in dogs are so “drastic” that they affect reproduction, respiration and recreation.

“We are a species that is willfully damaging dogs,” Horowitz writes, and shows.  Unarguably.   https://tinyurl.com/4bhusx6s

Saluting Savannah

She was so much more than a beloved pet.  Savannah, an 8-year old retriever, spent 7 years walking around the world with her dad, a New Jersey man who adopted her in Texas, early in his 25,000 miles over 6 continents.  

As she grew from a 4-month-old puppy, Savannah moved from being pushed in a cart to walking 30 miles a day, experiencing and enjoying wildly different places and adventures.  Unable to rally from health issues, Savannah died earlier this month.  https://tinyurl.com/y96ffra7  

Pet consumer report

People who want to buy a “pre-owned” car often ask their mechanic to check it out first.  I did that myself. 

But how about adopting a pet?  Should would-be parents ask their vet to take a close look first, to assure the animal’s good health?   I didn’t do that myself.  >sigh!<

That omission helps explain why my dear rescue cat Jersey needed major dental surgery soon after moving in with Billy and me.  He had no teeth (from an unknown life outdoors before then), yet he still needed to have tooth shards and debris extracted, to assure his future good health. 

Soon after he got here, I realized Jersey is deaf.  While a recent MRI showed no tumor or massive trauma, the specialist said a microscopic inner-ear infection could be behind the problem.  At which point I remembered that a really bad ear infection had caused a long delay before I could adopt him.  ("Just sayin’!")

Jersey’s my smart and fun little lovebug for as long as he and I may live.  Even so, readers, I still recommend having a vet go over any could-be pet you hope to adopt into your family!  

Cicadas are safe -- just noisy!  

From her Tennessee home, essayist Margaret Renkl has written appreciatively about the cicadas making their presence heard in her state this summer.  Their numbers and noise may suggest otherwise, but cicadas are wholly harmless. 

They don’t bite or sting, and they have no means of self-protection.  Nor do they hurt the trees they’re intimately related to.  That coexistence is so strong that if the tree dies, the cicada nymphs attached to its roots will too.  

Once up and out from under the trees where they waited for years, cicadas star on countless animals’ menus, their great numbers providing a feast. https://tinyurl.com/3ywahfxk  

                   Start thinking about this now! 

Annie

June is “adopt a shelter cat month,” so please seriously consider doing just that!  The cat and you will both be better off. 

. . . & start protesting this now!  

Canada geese continue to be slaughtered all over in New Jersey.  They are cruelly trapped when they can’t fly and gassed to death: a horribly inhumane fate!  Watch for or request APLNJ (www.aplnj.org) specs about a protest on Saturday, June 1.   

 

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