Articles about Animals
Randy Travis: Common Bat or Buffy Vampire?
Randy Travis is the guy in the middle, in case you didn't know.
Reuse Jeans sent out an email today to share pictures from the Jan. 21 grand opening of its new store at the Shops at Park Lane. In the email, they were sure to note how grateful they were that country singer Randy Travis had been able to stop by (see photo above.)
This new photo, and Mr. Travis’ recent Denton County Sheriff’s Department mugshot, have sparked an intra-office disagreement.
Settle the argument: Does he look more like a vampire bat or a vampire from the TV shows Buffy and Angel?
Another Stray Dog-Related Problem in Dallas
Yes, South Dallas has a lot of stray dogs. A few months ago, I proposed a potential solution to the problem. (My fingers remain crossed.) This week the Dallas Observer’s Anna Merlan brings attention to another stray dog-related problem: the thin line between animal “rescuers” and animal “hoarders.” I’m generally inclined to say that, barring disastrous circumstances, people should be held to the legal limit of pets. But I’m also not inclined to say people like should be forced to put their dogs back in the streets either.
Leading Off (2/6/12)
DART Light Rail Ridership High, But Bus Numbers Falter: Last year was the busiest year ever for Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail, but ridership on bus lines as well as the oldest light rail lines decreased by a combined 5 million trips (paywall). Why the drop? Officials say it is due to 1) DART bus passengers switching to new light rail service, and 2) the reduction in the frequency of blue and red line trains during rush hour. Both claims I believe, point again to how simple public transit really is. People will take public transit if it is fast and convenient. That’s why DART’s bus system needs an overhaul.
Horse Thieves Hit Camp For Disabled Kids: In the latest installment of crooks who are worse than crooks, two horses have been stolen form Camp El Har, a camp that offers therapy for kids with various disabilities, like autism. Now owners of two other horses on loan to the camp have removed their animals out of fear of further thefts, which has forced the camp to postpone its classes indefinitely.
Will ‘Black Atheist’ Billboard Ruffle Feathers? A group called African Americans for Humanism and the DFW Coalition of Reason will unveil a billboard today which voices support for atheists during African American history month. But while the billboard has already prompted some push-back from South Oak Cliff pastors, pre-event controversy also led to an unexpected act of community service: members of the DFW Coalition of Reason turned out at Pastor Kyev Tatum’s church garden Sunday to help harvest their greens, which will be donated to local food banks. Tatum reconciled the art of charity like this: “the devil might have picked it, but the good lord sent it.”
If You See This Pig …
Apparently there are now (or always have been, I don’t know) feral hogs roaming White Rock Lake. One was actually sighted near Lawther and Northwest Highway recently.
Fact: Feral hogs are hairy. Another fact: I once copy edited a story where the writer kept referring to Farrell Hogs. It took me most of the article to figure out it wasn’t a person. Context is your friend.
And another fact, just because I adore linking to this because of the last paragraph: If a feral hog and a coyote faced off, don’t necessarily put your money on the coyote.
Dallas Police Pass ‘Mankind’s True Moral Test,’ But Did They Get Carried Away Over Trapped Dogs?
The Czech novelist Milan Kundera, in his masterpiece The Unbearable Lightness of Being, writes:
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
Me, I find ridiculous what the Dallas Police did to retrieve two dogs from inside a locked car (paywalled story):
Danika Shipman said she checked the outside temperature on her phone. Because the day was mild, she and her husband felt comfortable leaving Copper, 2, and Penny, 6 months, in the car with the windows cracked. The pets had just been fed, she said.
They had heard that some dogs have been stolen from cars after the animals accidentally hit the electronic door lock. So they propped the back folding seats down slightly so Copper and Penny would be confined to the back of the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.
The dogs could still pop their heads out from behind the seats, Danika Shipman said.
Dallas police officer called John Shipman and told him to come outside, his wife said.
When he went to the parking lot, “it looked like a murder scene,” he said. Four police cars, a Dallas Fire-Rescue vehicle and an animal services truck were clustered around their car.
Someone had heard the dogs barking, Hill said, and, “after not seeing anything in the car, they decided that it must be coming from the trunk.”
Beware the Coyote on the Katy Trail
I know there’s wildlife along Katy Trail. It’s not a new thing. I saw a fox there the other day. But last night was definitely a first for me.
My husband and I like to take our dog for late-night walks on Katy. He enjoys the smells and chasing the occasional squirrel (the dog that is, not my husband). But I was a little on edge when we went for our walk around 9:30 last night. I’d heard about a coyote sighting. And Miko, our very fluffy Samoyed, looks like an easy target for a hungry coyote. So I kept looking behind us as we walked. We got to just a little more than a quarter mile north of the American Airlines Center, when I turned around and saw him. He was very close, and he was obviously stalking us. He wasn’t bothered when we turned around to look at him, but he did stop, look at us, look at our dog who hadn’t turned around and had no idea what was going on, and then sauntered into the wooded area next to him. The only way back to the car was to pass by where he was. So we carefully made our way and then turned around. We saw him cross the trail and go to the other side. Then he sat and watched us for a while before taking off.
So be careful out there. Keep your dogs close. And surround yourself with people slower than you.
December Adoption Specials At Dallas Animal Services
I just got word that Dallas Animal Services is kicking off an adoption special for the month of December. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this month, you’ll be able to adopt any dog or any cat for just $30. It’s a good deal. (I paid about $200 to adopt my dog a few years ago.) If you want to add a pet to the family, you should most certainly do it through a shelter and not a breeder. Because, as I talk about in a column in this month’s print product, Dallas has enough dogs and cats already. They just need homes.
Domesticated Quail Are Bad Prey
Got a note from reader Joe Adams about my story recounting my husband’s first Christmas at Nightengale Farms, which you can read here. He enjoyed the piece (though he’s worried I may get some negative response to it). Seems pen-raised quail don’t make the best prey for multiple reasons.
The piece brought back similar memories from one of my hunting episodes. We shot pen-raised birds on a bitterly cold day along the Red River. A temperature in the teens and strong north wind caused continual eye tearing, but the pheasants and chukars flushed reasonably well during the initial session. Later in the morning, our attention turned to the quail which had also been released in the pre-dawn hours. Walking one field, I could see a quail standing like a lone sentinel on a rock still quite a distance away. I was surprised when it failed to fly as I moved within shooting range, and then even as I walked alongside. Upon nudging it with my boot, the frozen quail fell over stiffly on the rock–apparently pen-raised birds do not possess the cold weather survival skills of their wild brethren.—Joe Adams
Target Stops Using Egg Supplier Accused of Animal Cruelty
If you tried and failed to get eggs at Target recently, as I did when I encountered the oddly redundant sign pictured here, here is why you couldn’t.
Meet Ruby, a Diabetic Alert Dog
Ruby is alerting Faith that her blood sugar is not within the 100-180 range. Photo by Type 1 Diabetes Foundation
Often, while in the middle of a deep sleep, I start dreaming about food—sandwiches, doughnuts, steak, peanut butter cups, gnocchi. It doesn’t matter what it is, I dream about it all. Slowly, I start to wake up. And that’s when I realize my blood sugar is low. I stumble into the kitchen, and in a half-conscious state, dig through the pantry and eat. The next morning, I go back to the kitchen and am ashamed of what happened during my “midnight feeding.” It’s amazing what combinations of food seem like a good idea when I’m half-awake. (Apparently, peanut butter goes with everything.)
This is just what life’s like for me, a type 1 diabetic. I was diagnosed when I was 3. Two-year-old Faith Wilson was diagnosed when she was 9-months-old. She doesn’t dream about food when she’s low. She doesn’t wake up. Life for her, her siblings, and her parents has been a nightmare. But things got just a bit easier a year ago when the Wilsons got Ruby, a British Lab.
Ex-Animal Shelter Manager Found Not Guilty
The Dallas jury in that animal-cruelty trial has spoken, the Dallas Observer reports, and its verdict on Tyrone McGill, the former shelter manager accused of letting a cat die in a wall, is: not guilty.
Money for Nothing: Ex-Manager’s Defense Points to Others in DAS Animal-Cruelty Trial
In the felony trial that began yesterday of Tyrone McGill — the former manager of Dallas’ city animal shelter, where a cat was allowed to die trapped inside a wall last year — the defense is taking this tack with prosecution witnesses who worked at the shelter under McGill: So, why didn’t you do something about the cat? The strategy if successful would tend to shift blame for the animal’s death from McGill, who ran the place, to the subordinates who pleaded with him to take care of the situation. Which is, well, an interesting theory of management accountability.
Tuesday’s testimony also revealed that when the cat was finally pulled out of the wall, dead and badly decomposing after being trapped for 15 days, its nails were worn down completely from clawing to escape.
While details like that are heartbreaking, what also continues to rile animal-activist observers like Jonnie England is that McGill has been on “paid administrative leave” — in other words, drawing his $66,122 annual city paycheck for doing nothing — ever since being indicted on the animal-cruelty charge 15 months ago. “If a police officer is indicted on a felony, he’s put on unpaid leave,” England says. She adds that McGill’s treatment, by contrast, is “unbelievably outrageous,” and an insult to Dallas taxpayers.
More like one of a series of insults coming out of this wretched incident.
Texas Rangers’ New Hand Signal Explained
My wife and I have assumed all season that the Rangers were trying to make their hands and forearms resemble a snake. As it turns out, they were going for a duck, as in “ducks on the pond,” the baseball terminology for runners on base.
How do I know? You can’t get a much more official source than this.
Eric Nadel Sends Photos From Comerica Park in Detroit
"Getting ready for game. It's 2:00 EST. Psyched."
UPDATE, 2:33 pm: It’s raining in Detroit. We could be in for another delay.
Texas Rangers’ radio play-by-play announcer Eric Nadel is at Comerica Park in Detroit where the Rangers are getting ready to embarrass the Detroit Tigers. He sent a few pictures he took as he walked into the park. I urge you to turn off the sound on your TV and tune in to 103.3 ESPN Radio and listen to Nadel and (Tim’s buddy) Steve Busby call the game. First pitch at 3:19 PM CST. GO RANGERS!
Jump for more pictures.
Photographer Helps Dogs Find Homes
CBS Sunday Morning aired a heartwarming piece yesterday about Dallas photographer Teresa Berg, who donates her time and skills to creating beautiful photos of dogs that are up for adoption.
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