My Crazy Life

93 horses, this year. 

93 horses with a bullet in their face, their last moments at the hands of a seemingly psychotic trigger happy con (wo)man pulling in 10k a week for horses she has little intention of saving, rehabing or rehoming. 

93 horses under blue tarps who ended up with the wrong “rescue” because the village poured in money to bid up prices on animals they just as quickly forget about the following Tuesday when another invented sob story hits Facebook Live. 

Let’s be clear: I am not anti-euthanasia. I’m not even anti-slaughter, I’m a realist at heart and I know the reality of our current industry is bleak: too many horses, not enough good homes. Too many skinny, injured, thrown away horses… not enough GOOD rescues. 

So, I’m not anti-euthanasia, I’m not anti-slaughter… why am I anti Hicaliber Horse Rescue - a group more akin to a feed lot than a rescue, that pulls and euthanizes horses that didn’t have much of a chance to begin with? 

Because pulling horses, accepting donations for their care, vetting and gentle landing followed by a quick bullet to the brain isn’t what a rescue should EVER do. No ethical person, never mind rescue should do this. 

Because evasive tactics that line their own personal pockets is not how an ethical rescue operates. 

Because a rescue that adopts out horses KILLING more than they rehome is NOT an ethical rescue. 

Because refusing to adopt out horses to “haters” in favor of shooting them in the face - despite the ONLY reason for denying the adoption is not liking someone - is NOT the behavior of someone with the horses best intentions at heart. 

Because begging volunteers to come shovel knee high shit while heading back to auction today AFTER BEGGING FOR HALTERS and basic vetting supplies three days ago… to bring home more horses with money you begged for… IS NOT ETHICAL RESCUE. 

Because a horses failure to thrive in an overcrowded, understaffed, manure filled environment with NO qualified trainer, a visually impaired horse, manageable foundered horses, old horses and on and on and on SHOULD NOT BE A DEATH SENTENCE at an ETHICAL rescue. 

Honestly, I think my reasons are pretty straight forward, don’t you? 

use tools

Can be taught to speak (like parrots)

Have huge brains for birds

like seriously their brain-to-body size ratio is equal to that of a chimpanzee

They vocalize anger, sadness, or happiness in response to things

they are scary smart at solving puzzles

some crows stay with their mates until one of them dies

they can remember faces

SIDENOTE HERE BECAUSE HOLY SHIT.  They did an experiment where these guys wore masks and some of them fucked with crows.  Pretty soon the crows recognized the masks = douchebag.  But the nice guys with masks they left alone.  THEN, OH WE’RE NOT DONE, NO SIR crows that WEREN’T EVEN IN THE EXPERIMENT AND NEVER SAW THE MASK BEFORE knew about mask-dudes and attacked them on sight.  THEY PASSED ON THE FUCKING INFORMATION TO THEIR CROW BUDDIES.

They remember places where crows were killed by farmers and change their migration patterns.

Every day, I would watch Buck from my window until one day I opened it and started talking to him. He was small and gangly and he couldn’t caw right. His feathers were all over the place and I felt a kinship. So I made a deal with him. I told him that if he could do it, if he could fly, then I could find the strength to get up. Well… near the end of the season, after talking with him every day, I finally saw him get out of the nest. He went to the edge of his branch, braced himself, and jumped… and just before he hit the ground, he soared back up into the sky. I cheered harder than I ever had before.

That winter, Buck left the area. I was crestfallen. I felt like I’d lost a friend. But I was so damn proud of him. 

Cut to the next spring? I’m walking up the driveway one day when suddenly I hear a sound… a broken caw. I look up, and Buck is sitting in a tree above my head. He stared at me and puffed his feathers, then hopped down in front of me and cawed again. I was so damn thrilled, and I told him how proud I was of him. He ruffled his feathers and then soared off into his old tree. 

That summer? I heard two broken caws. One from Buck… and one from his chick.

i tried to get close and take a better look and one of them dived super low and tried to attack me. so i went back in the house and chopped some sliced raw meat and tossed it at him from a distance.

a few more times later, very soon after, they could tell i was trying to help, and did not attack me. i was “allowed” to walk up close and pick him up, he couldn’t drink water properly so i had to dip my finger in a bowl and stick it in his mouth.

i did this few times a day and it went on for about a week before he disappeared, i thought he recovered and left, but he came back the next day and lands on me, and i see him around the block quite often, and he would come sit on my shoulder for a few minutes and then fly away again. i feel like i’ve adopted a son.

As a side note, I volunteered at a rehab (Hope for Wildlife), where they were rehabbing a crow with a broken wing–who was named Russell Crow. He kept pulling his bandage off so a sleeve was cut off some old clothing and put on him like a little sweater. 

The first lion is asking for comfort because she was given a big spook!!! and she needs mommy to tell her it’s safe and ok!!!! (What’s cuter is that mommy clearly reassures her, and goes on to take the parent role of ‘deal with the scream rat in order to protect my large and easily frightened daughter’)

Three apex predators

OR

To be honest, you’re probably not going to have a ‘long lived’ obligate carnivore on a herbivorous diet.

The ‘obligate’ part doesn’t just mean that the creature is adapted to eating mean, it must eat meat, there are components in the meat that it cannot gain from another food source. They might be able to consume (and utilize, which can be an entirely different issue) enough calories, but it is the micronutrients that typically screw them over.

You don’t seem to be talking specifically about cats, but in general the sort of symptoms we’d expect in an obligate carnivore on a herbivorous diet include:

Blindness from retinal degeneration

Heart failure from dilated cardiomyopathy (usually carnitine or taurine associated)

Protein deficiency, as plant proteins are only around 40-50% digestible for a carnivore, compared to 80-90% of meat proteins

Osteoporosis, osteopenia or metabolic bone disease from activated vitamin D deficiency.

Poor appetite and growth, particularly associated with B vitamin deficiency, but also the protein deficiency

Anaemia, associated with low bioavailable iron and B vitamins

Rickets, from low calcium and phosphorus, especially in a young, growing animal

IF YOU ARE READING THIS, CHANCES ARE YOU GO ON THE INTERNET EVERYDAY. THE FCC IS NOW PLANNING ON REPEALING NET NEUTRALITY. THIS MEANS THAT POPULAR WEBSITES WILL RUN SLOWLY UNTIL YOU PAY AN EXTRA FEE. WE WOULD NO LONGER HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF USING WEBSITES AND RESEARCHING FOR FREE. 

today is Nov. 15. the FCC, under chairman Ajit Pai, will not listen to the public despite millions of comments in support of net neutrality. They are going to try their hardest to kill net neutrality, which in turn will kill the internet, which in turn will help eradicate democracy. it won’t just affect Americans, it has the potential to affect the entire internet, something we ALL use daily. you can bet your ass other countries will see america doing this, and use it as an excuse to do it in their own countries.

this is what buying a plan without net neutrality looks like there:

you have to pay MORE for features you’re already guaranteed to have under net neutrality. and in america, you already know how expensive everything is.

democrats AND republicans both want net neutrality. advocacy groups in touch with congress have said that if your members of congress receive calls from you, they are more encouraged and more likely to take action to stop Pai’s plan to gut net neutrality. after Nov. 22, it will be MUCH HARDER to convince your member of congress.

please, call them. call them daily.

he he he he he he

Euthanasia.

Every few days I get asked the same question, “Am I making the right decision?”

The asker is always distraught, on the verge of saying goodbye to their beloved pet.

I usually just answer ‘yes’ or something similar. Sometimes i quote the statistics of survival for such a condition, because numbers are solid and devoid of emotion when your world is crumbling, numbers you can hold onto.

But what I want to answer is this.

“I wouldn’t let you make the wrong decision.”

As a veterinarian i routinely perform euthanasia to give pets a peaceful, compassionate death. It may be a pet I’ve known and treated for years, or it may be a pet I’ve never seen before who “Didn’t need to go to the vet because he’s healthy, but he’s on his way out now.” (Here’s a tip- most of the time those pets did need a vet, and that’s why they’re in the situation they’re in now.) But the past doesn’t matter. The fact is, the animal is lying before me now, on the brink of making a decision, and you have a choice to make.

A few days ago a lady brought her cat into see me. The cat was elderly, and had disappeared for a few days before coming home. The lady had thought her cat had crawled off to die, and was so relieved that she’d come home.

Her relief rapidly changed to concern when she saw my face drop. This happy, purring little cat was very thin, and I could feel a tumor the size of my fist in her abdomen. A tumor about as big as her head.

It was more than likely intestinal lymphoma. Now surgery was an option to remove the segment of intestine, but lymphomas often spread rapidly and any surgery should be followed up by chemo. Statistically, about a 30% chance of the cat being alive and well in three years time, after both  surgery and chemo. But in an old cat who’s lost a lot of weight, well, I was dubious that she’d be one of the 30%, and so was the owner. Palliation is also an option, but effective for about 8 weeks at most.

Things like this are of course extremely personal decisions. She asked me if she was making the right choice.

I wont let you make the wrong decision.

After than consult I had a phone call from a lady i had seen earlier in the day. Her old dog had been coughing a lot, and I had diagnosed it with moderate to severe heart failure.

She called because she was concerned that she was doing the wrong thing by her dog in keeping her alive.

I told her; your dog is happy. She eats. She walks. She sleeps. She has no difficulty going to the toilet with dignity. She recognizes you and her tail didn’t stop wagging the entire time she was here. I can’t give her a new heart. I can try to stop her heart getting worse, but there will come a day when the medication is not enough and she will no longer be wagging her tail. On that day that she is no longer a happy dog, rest assured I will tell you.

But that day is not today. While she’s happy, she’s happy. When she’s not…