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[las68]

About 5 months ago, I picked up what I thought was a black Lab mix puppy off the interstate. Turns out he is a full Lab. I named him Dodge because he was dodging traffic on a busy Monday morning. Lol! I hadn't planned to keep him, but fell for his big brown eyes. I have never had a Lab. Is it common for them to chew on everything? Yesterday, while he was in his pool, he decided to chew on it and almost "ate" one side. He pulls rocks out of the flower beds to chew as well as solar lights.Silly pooch even chewed a small tree in half and was carrying it proudly around the backyard. He has a plethora of chew toys and I give him rawhide dental chews every day. He's about 8 months old now, will this ever end?

[Semantics]

With Hollywood once again glorifying horse racing I wanted to bring attention to what a cruel and inhumane sport it can be.




PETA on horse racing:

Horse Racing

They weigh more than 1,000 pounds, are supported by ankles the size of a human's, and are whipped and forced to run around tracks that are often made of hard-packed dirt at speeds of more than 30 miles per hour while carrying people on their backs. Racehorses are the victims of a multibillion-dollar industry that is rife with drug abuse, injuries, and race fixing, and many horses' careers end at the slaughterhouse.

Racing to the Grave
Horses begin training or are already racing when their skeletal systems are still growing and are unprepared to handle the pressures of competition racing on a hard track at high speeds. One study on injuries at racetracks concluded that one horse in every 22 races suffered an injury that prevented him or her from finishing a race, while another estimated that 3 thoroughbreds die every day in North America because of catastrophic injuries during races.

Strained tendons or hairline fractures can be tough for veterinarians to diagnose, and the damage may go from minor to irreversible at the next race or workout. Horses do not handle surgery well, and many are euthanized or sold at auction to save the owners further veterinary fees and other expenses for horses who can’t race again.

When popular racehorse Barbaro suffered a shattered ankle at the beginning of the 2006 Preakness, his owners spared no expense for his medical needs, but as The New York Times reported, "[M]any in the business have noted that had Barbaro not been the winner of the Kentucky Derby, he might have been destroyed after being injured."

Drugs and Deception
Trainers and veterinarians keep injured horses racing when they should be recovering by giving them a variety of legal drugs to mask pain and control inflammation. This leads to breakdowns because horses are able to run when, without the drugs, the pain would otherwise prevent them from trying.

Illegal drugs are also widely used. "There are trainers pumping horses full of illegal drugs every day," says a former Churchill Downs public relations director. "With so much money on the line, people will do anything to make their horses run faster." One trainer was suspended for using a drug similar to Ecstasy in five horses, and another has been kicked off racetracks for using clenbuterol and, in one case, for having the leg of a euthanized horse cut off "for research." A New York veterinarian and a trainer faced felony charges when the body of a missing racehorse turned up at a farm and authorities determined that her death had been caused by the injection of a "performance-enhancing drug."

Even the 'Winners' Lose
When they stop winning races or become injured, few racehorses are retired to pastures, because owners don't want to pay for a horse who doesn't bring in any money. Many end up in slaughterhouses in Canada, Mexico, or Japan, where they are turned into dog food and glue. Their flesh is also exported to countries such as France and Japan, where it is considered a delicacy.
Most horses who are sent to those facilities endure days of transport in cramped trailers where there is no access to water or food and injuries are common. Horses are subject to the same slaughter method as cows, but since horses are generally not accustomed to being herded, once together, they tend to thrash about in order to avoid being shot by the captive-bolt gun, which is supposed to render them unconscious before their throats are cut.

What You Can Do
Help phase out this exploitative "sport":

Refuse to patronize existing tracks and lobby against the construction of new tracks.

Support PETA's efforts to ensure that racing regulations are reformed and enforced. While horse racing should be eliminated entirely, the horses would benefit from a zero-tolerance drug policy, turf (grass) tracks only, a ban on whipping, and competitive racing only after their third birthdays.

Educate your friends and family about the tragic lives that racehorses lead.

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-i...se-racing.aspx

[diamondrose]

I firmly believe animals have the short end of the stick in life. There should be more laws protecting animals. It amazes me how animals can go through hell and back , yet they are the true example of unconditional love.

I always adopt from animal shelters and always older animals. I adopted a pair of senior chihuahuas. The boy of the two sadly passed away janurary 2009. I had him 3 short years, yet I wouldn't have done a thing differently. He left knowing he was loved. I still have his companion.

For all those out there who help shelters in some way or another.. thank you. Animals can't speak for themselves, but we can speak for them . They have feelings just like any living thing!

[betenoire]

Originally Posted by las68

I have never had a Lab. Is it common for them to chew on everything?

I'm not an expert on Labs or anything...but. My parents have had three labs (one yellow lab when I was in highschool, and currently they have two chocolates) and all three of them were big-time chewers up until somewhere between a year and a half and two years. And even after they stopped chewing stuff they never stopped stealing stuff. Shoes, whatever is in your purse, the socks right off of your feet, dish towels, rocks from the garden. I don't know what that is all about.

I am pretty tempted to think it's a breed thing, because none of my parents non-lab dogs have been chewers (so it can't be something that my parents were or were not doing). They've had German Shepherds, Dalmatians, Rotties, and a Doberman and none of those dogs chewed up everything on the planet.

Despite the chewing - the labs are my favourites out of all of the dogs my parents have had. Such lovers!

[violaine]

he was six, and had been battling a recent medical condition, but grew fatigued; i was there with him during his transition, and know that he'll be busy for a while [chewing, bossing, popcorning, designing, et c]. thank goodness the other two pigs have bonded. star, made of mohawk and boar ways, always the love and light in my world. you're the best pig in the whole wide universe.

[Corkey]

Oh Belle, we will send Corkey and Socks to meet Star at the rainbow bridge.

[Semantics]

Originally Posted by Semantics

With Hollywood once again glorifying horse racing I wanted to bring attention to what a cruel and inhumane sport it can be.




PETA on horse racing:



http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-i...se-racing.aspx

The season is well underway and the cruelty continues.

BREAKDOWN: Death and disarray at America’s racetracks


At 2:11 p.m., as two ambulances waited with motors running, 10 horses burst from the starting gate at Ruidoso Downs Race Track 6,900 feet up in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains.

Nineteen seconds later, under a brilliant blue sky, a national champion jockey named Jacky Martin lay sprawled in the furrowed dirt just past the finish line, paralyzed, his neck broken in three places. On the ground next to him, his frightened horse, leg broken and chest heaving, was minutes away from being euthanized on the track.

For finishing fourth on this early September day last year, Jacky Martin got about $60 and possibly a lifetime tethered to a respirator.

The next day, it nearly happened again. At virtually the same spot, another horse broke a front leg, pitching his rider headfirst into the ground. The jockey escaped serious injury, but not the 2-year-old horse, Teller All Gone. He was euthanized, and then dumped near an old toilet in a junkyard a short walk from where he had been sold at auction the previous year.

In the next 24 hours, two fearful jockeys refused their assigned mounts. The track honored two other riders who had died racing. As doctors fought to save Mr. Martin’s life, a sign went up next to the track tote board: “Hang in there, Jacky. We love you.”

On average, 24 horses die each week at racetracks across America. Many are inexpensive horses racing with little regulatory protection in pursuit of bigger and bigger prizes. These deaths often go unexamined, the bodies shipped to rendering plants and landfills rather than to pathologists who might have discovered why the horses broke down.

In 2008, after a Kentucky Derby horse, Eight Belles, broke two ankles on national television and was euthanized, Congress extracted promises from the racing industry to make its sport safer. While safety measures like bans on anabolic steroids have been enacted, assessing their impact has been difficult because many tracks do not keep accurate accident figures or will not release them.

But an investigation by The New York Times has found that industry practices continue to put animal and rider at risk. A computer analysis of data from more than 150,000 races, along with injury reports, drug test results and interviews, shows an industry still mired in a culture of drugs and lax regulation and a fatal breakdown rate that remains far worse than in most of the world.

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us...anted=all&_r=0

[Hollylane]

Originally Posted by Semantics

The season is well underway and the cruelty continues.

#@$@#$(*)_()*(*@#$@#@!!!!!! I can't fucking believe this shit happens, it brings out my potty mouth, and a deep loathing for human beings who find these events entertaining, or who choose to turn a blind eye to the horrors of what is happening. In my opinion, it is all about human greed, and that is just evil.