I Need Coffee

05.08.16 throwback to my last study session before exams - post-exam freedom is the best feeling ever ~

The Dog Psychology center was visited by Animal Control as a response to the Simon & The Pigs clip wherein a dog with known small-animal aggression had been let off-leash around pigs and allowed to attack them. CM was away on a business trip (he’s scheduled in Vegas) and is now required to contact authorities within 24 hours. 

National Geographic’s PR machine is on overdrive and it’s still spouting bullshit that protects this ass. 

“A representative from Nat Geo WILD, which airs Millan’s show, issued this statement:

“Cesar Millan has dedicated his life to helping dogs and to showing how even the most difficult “problem dog” can be rescued and rehabilitated. In a recent episode of the Nat Geo WILD series “Cesar 911,” Cesar works with an aggressive French bulldog/terrier mix named Simon, who has a history of attacking other animals, including his owner’s pet potbellied pigs. A short clip from the episode was shared online and showed Simon chasing a pig and nipping its ear, causing the ear to bleed. The clip caused some concern for viewers who did not see or understand the full context of the encounter.“We have included an additional clip from the same episode to provide missing context. Cesar has created a safe and controlled environment at his Dog Psychology Center (DPC) in California in which to rehabilitate some of the most extreme — or “red zone” — cases of dog aggression, such as Simon’s. It is important to clarify that Cesar took precautions, such as putting Simon on a long lead to assess his behavior, before making initial corrections and removing the leash. The pig that was nipped by Simon was tended to immediately afterward, healed quickly and showed no lasting signs of distress. As the additional clip reveals, Cesar and his animal pack effectively helped Simon to overcome his aggressive behavior toward other animals; as a result, Simon did not have to be separated from his owner or euthanized.“”

Let’s look at this, shall we?

“A short clip from the episode was shared online and showed Simon chasing a pig and nipping its ear, causing the ear to bleed. The clip caused some concern for viewers who did not see or understand the full context of the encounter.”

Y’know how I always say that a good trainer shouldn’t ever be getting bit because they should know how to prevent it? That applies to animals in the area, not just the trainer. Simon should have never gotten to bite the pig because he shouldn’t have been set up to fail.

“Cesar has created a safe and controlled environment at his Dog Psychology Center (DPC) in California in which to rehabilitate some of the most extreme — or “red zone” — cases of dog aggression, such as Simon’s.”

Prey drive isn’t aggression. Killing a pig is not red-zone aggression. Way to misrepresent this. 

“It is important to clarify that Cesar took precautions, such as putting Simon on a long lead to assess his behavior, before making initial corrections and removing the leash.”

Hello yes we’re clarifying that he took entirely inappropriate precautions that we’re still touting to protect our golden boy nyah nyah nyah. Let’s see. He put the dog on a long line around animals he’s already proven interest in and ability to kill. (He also referred to a long-line as a muzzle. Speaking of, this dog has already killed a pig and he didn’t think a reasonable precaution around them involved a muzzle). Then, when that didn’t prove interesting enough, he took off the device that allowed him to control the dog around the things it likes to kill. That’s not a reasonable precaution, that’s stupid and setting the dog up to fail. 

Reasonable precautions would involve working on desensitization from a distance, with the dog on a short leash and on a muzzle to protect the pigs, and not letting the dog actually interact with the pigs it likes to kill. 

“The pig that was nipped by Simon was tended to immediately afterward, healed quickly and showed no lasting signs of distress.” 

It doesn’t matter that the animal still got hurt under his purview, because it healed and was fine and showed no lasting signs of trauma! Exactly like how it didn’t matter that negligence at daycare let your kid get burned while playing with the kitchen stove, because there’s not even a scar and she doesn’t seem to be scared of fire! 

He let an animal he was responsible for get hurt because he chose to let another animal he was responsible for out of his range of control, knowing that second animal was inclined to hurt the first. That’s irresponsible and abominably unprofessional. 

“Cesar and his animal pack effectively helped Simon to overcome his aggressive behavior toward other animals”

Y’know what I see? I see a clip that focuses almost entirely on the dog that is not Simon and his stellar behavior, a clip that often cuts Simon out of the frame, that barely focuses on Simon when he’s in frame. I see a dog whose body language is still and awkward, not the loose movements of a comfortable dog. That’s not a dog whose behavior is ‘fixed’ - that’s a dog who is shut down. Just like every other ‘fixed’ dog who comes out of CM’s facility, he’s uncomfortable and unwilling to move or interact for fear of the reaction he’ll get. Who knows what else happened to this pup off camera that’s causing him to act that way? I don’t think we’ll ever know, but this is not the body language of a dog who has gone through a successful and humane behavioral modification program.

Family sues PETA for $9 Million for stealing, killing their dog

Maya was a family-owned, healthy Chihuaua. PETA members were filmed stealing Maya from private property, which they denied until they were told they were filmed. After the family called asking about where their pet was, PETA delivered them a gift basket and told them that Maya was dead. 

The family is now suing PETA for trespassing and emotional distress. Wilber Zarate, Maya’s owner, writes in the lawsuit that after learning of Maya’s death, his daughter cried for weeks and lost sleep and weight. 

It is illegal in the state of Virginia for a shelter to kill an animal that comes to them without waiting five days, and PETA was fined $500 for doing so. The day of the incident, PETA also took in other animals from the same park that may or may not have been stolen, including kittens, a lab mix, a puppy, and another chihuahua. These animals were also killed the same day, without effort to find homes for them. Multiple accounts of current and former PETA workers describe that the organization routinely kills healthy animals, including 97.5% of the animals they take in. Sometimes animals are killed in the back of PETA vans, before even making it to the shelter. “Euthanasia is the kindest gift to a dog or cat unwanted and unloved,” PETA CEO Ingrid Newkirk said at a press conference.

Don’t ever give anything to PETA, HSUS, or any organization that describes themselves as “animal rights” or works with those organizations.

They are for no human-animal contact in anyway. To them, killing animals is “kinder” than letting them live with humans.

This is what they want to do to your reptiles.  The USGS is working with these ignorant disgusting excuses for living beings to pass national legislation against many exotic animal species.

Upworthy carried a story summarizing an experiment demonstrating that rats exhibit empathy. Why do I care about this? Because the graphics showing the experiment on Upworthy made me smile, and smiling is good. Here’s the link in case you want to watch the video embedded in the story.

Some scientists ran an experiment to demonstrate that. Here’s how it worked:

The scientists put a rat in water (which rats hate). Not enough to hurt the rat, but enough to annoy it.

Then they put another rat in a safer, dry area with a door it could open to save the first rat.

When the dry rat heard the damp, miserable rat get upset, she came to the rescue.

Still not satisfied with the result, the scientists ran a more complex test.

What if you bribe the dry rat with food? Will she ignore it to rescue the wet rat in the next chamber?

Scientists presumed it would be easier for the not-in-peril rat to take the obvious selfless route when it was given only one choice. But what if they gave her a delicious bribe (chocolate cereal) and then let her choose between saving her friend and a buffet?

The rats, by a significant margin, still usually saved their friend before getting their delicious bribe. What does that mean?

Rats might care more about each other than things like food, and that prioritization might be encoded in their DNA.

Why should we care about super-thoughtful rats?

It is often argued that humans are inherently selfish — that without guidance, we would all default to killing and stealing and an “every person for themselves” mentality. That we only help others if it helps us. That evolution can’t make us selfless; it’s something we have to force ourselves to do.

But if rats show human-like qualities (they laugh like us, they dream like us, they like to have selfless lovers) like altruism, that means it isn’t a human-learned behavior. It could be encoded in our DNA. It means humans could be empathetic and kind by default.

It also means that rats and humans have more in common than we think.