Articles about Animals
Banning Dogs (And Their Droppings) Won’t Fix What Ails Downtown Dallas’ Thanks-Giving Square
A shady spot in downtown Dallas. Too shady? Photo by Elizabeth Lavin
Yesterday on the DMN Opinion Blog, Rodger Jones wrote about taking a morning walk through Thanks-Giving Square.
Half the place looks like a kennel’s exercise yard — which is to say, pity the landscape crew that’s trying to grow grass under the dog droppings — and the other half is dominated by signs trying to keep the animals away.
Even though the park is half off-limits to dogs, that doesn’t prevent the kennel smell from lingering.
He proposes making the space a dog-free zone. I doubt that Patrick Kennedy, who wrote about Thanks-Giving Square’s problems last year in D Magazine, would agree with that proposal.
While Kennedy also was troubled by the amount of feces side-stepping necessary when navigating the area, he pointed to a couple of larger challenges. For one, the buildings that have gone up since the space was dedicated in 1976 have resulted in far more shade on the spot, which has led to erosion problems. And secondly, the walls that border the square have a way of detaching it from the surrounding area:
The Mystery of the Missing Oak Cliff Peacocks
My apologies to Oak Cliff People for missing this yesterday, but Georgia Fisher is all over the case of the missing neighborhood peacocks in the Beckley Club Estates area of Oak Cliff.
Most of the birds are missing for the first time in more than 20 years, as Lakeview Drive residents tell me, and they’re convinced police and animal-control officers rounded them up in answer to a complaint on March 30. That’s when officers from both departments paid a joint visit to the home of Kay and Melvin Anderson, who aren’t the only folks on their block to feed the peacocks on a regular basis.
Animal Services staff seem certain they left with a lone duck that evening, and only then because he was waddling around loose, with no one claiming ownership. Meanwhile, police say the group took various birds, but returned them to their owner. (What owner? Odd, right?) Problem is, no one I’ve spoken with actually saw the vans leave.
A petition to Save the Peacocks has been started.
South African Photographer Captures the Trophy Rooms of the Dallas Safari Club
“Untitled hunter #1, trophy room, Dallas, Texas” Photo: David Chancellor
Slate has a short piece today on David Chancellor, a South Africa-based photographer who recently published Hunters, a book about exactly what it sounds like. In it, the photos follow big-game hunters across southern Africa, but also to Dallas:
To complete the cycle, Chancellor wanted to photograph the trophy rooms of the more seasoned hunters and spent time in Dallas with members of the Dallas Safari Club.
“I found myself documenting these guys who say they’ve hunted for 25 years and want to hunt a leopard or lion, and I photographed them … but at best what I’ll produce from that hunt is an individual with a lion … the only way (to complete the book) was to go back to where he actually has all of his trophies and produce a portrait that would complete the task, to show his entire career in one portrait,” Chancellor said.
Chancellor worked with the most decorated members of the Dallas Safari Club—the recipients of the “Outstanding Hunting Achievement Award.” Their achievements are based on both quantity and quality of animals killed both by animal groupings—such as the big five (elephant, cape buffalo, rhino, lion, and leopard)—and also by animal species.
“Harvesting is how they refer to hunting” Chancellor said. “They’ve already gone for the big five, and now they want every spiral horned antelope … and they spend a considerable amount of time and money going after that.”
“The flip side of the trophy rooms in Dallas—but in some ways essentially the same side of the same coin—are the African communities who benefit by taking the meat from the killed animals as well as a large percentage of the high fees the hunters pay to go on the hunts” Chancellor said.
More photos on Chancellor’s website.
Leading Off (2/25/13)
Sequester Cuts Would Burn in Texas: If automatic cuts to federal spending kick in Friday, Texas stands to lose millions in funding to military bases, ports, pre-school services, tuition assistance, teachers, environmental programs, law enforcement, and more according to state-by-state cut details released by the White House Sunday.
Mayor’s Education Fix a Bore: The Dallas Morning News’ Tod Robberson has been tracking the progress of the education component of Mayor Rawlings’ GrowSouth initiative, and, as it turns out, students get bored and don’t pay attention during large assemblies hosted by local celebs high school kids have never heard of. Who would have thought?
Visitors Stranded on Zoo Monorail: Okay, forget those images of children dangling helplessly while a tiger paces below licking his chops. Sure, firefighters had to rescue about 100 people who were stuck on the Dallas Zoo’s monorail Saturday, but the monorail did not stall over any animal exhibits.
Four-Alarm Fire Takes Down Shooting Range: As it turns out, the reason why it is illegal to fire tracer rounds in a shooting range is a pretty good one.
Here Are Two Bobcats Screaming at Each Other in A Carrollton Neighborhood
If I’ve learned anything from this video, it’s that bobcats make the worst noise known to man, after every Supertramp song ever recorded. That and I’d probably keep the kids locked inside for a few weeks if I lived in Carrollton.
Survival of the Cutest: While Nemo and Cooper Battle for the Crown, 30 Other Dog Owners Are Disappointed. Some of Them Extremely So.
It’s the final day of our Survival of the Cutest tournament. The contest between finalists Nemo “Don’t Blame Me For the Winter Storm of the Same Name Headed For New York” the Beagle and Cooper “I Resemble a Black-and-White Cookie” the Border Collie is shaping up to be a clash for the ages. There have been several lead changes in the vote totals already, and there will likely be several more before our competition turns into a pumpkin tonight at midnight.
Of course, we began this search for the cutest dog in Dallas a few weeks ago with 32 competitors. With 30 disappointed dogs no longer in the running comes 30 disappointed owners. Some of these owners have taken the news more in stride than have others.
One person sent me this email after hearing about his pet’s elimination. It translates as “Thanks for nothing”:
It would be nice if we could have seen the votes that came in for us… to know how much we were ahead.
Thanks anyways for the short lived hype and experience.
Another fellow took issue with the way one of our editors campaigned for a dog his pet competed against directly .
Well, it’s good to know we lost to a dog an editor at D Magazine endorsed (in an not so subtle way).
Not that the endorsement did anything; people seem to think those slobbering, flesh-fold piles of pig vomit are cute. Baffles me, but whatever.
Survival of the Cutest: It’s Nemo vs. Cooper For All the Marbles (Do Dogs Play With Marbles?)
And so we’ve come to this. A few weeks ago, 32 hopeful canines entered our Survival of the Cutest tournament. They knew full well that only one of them could remain at the end to claim the prize (getting to appear in the pages of D Magazine) and the crown as the cutest dog in Dallas.
Thirty have been cut from the competition. Only two remain, and you can vote for them today and tomorrow (cast a ballot once each day).
They are Nemo the beagle and Cooper the border collie. They are both fearsome competitors who racked up impressive vote totals through the first four rounds.
But which of them is cutest? Vote now.
Survival of the Cutest: The Dogs of D, Round #4
Rhonda Reinhart’s Oliver
It’s the last week to vote in the Survival of the Cutest dog contest, and the race is tight. Every vote counts. Only four furries remain.
But before you cast your vote, look at this last round of the Dogs of D and pet our egos by telling us how adorable our own dogs are.
Survival of the Cutest: Meet the Furry Four
(Clockwise from top left) Nemo, Juno, Bruiser, and Cooper need your help.
After three weeks of voting, we’ve reached the semifinals in our Survival of the Cutest tournament.
The remaining competitors are:
Bruiser, a 4-year-old Black Lab
Cooper, a 5-year-old Border Collie
Juno, a 2-year-old Mixed Breed
Nemo, an 8-year-old Beagle
Bruiser and Cooper have reached the top of the larger dog bracket, while Juno and Nemo are seeking the championship of the smaller dog bracket. Only one dog from each of these two match-ups will advance to the finals later this week.
You have two days only to vote for the Furry 4, but you can cast a ballot once each day. Then the final contest will begin Thursday.
And Here’s the Original “So God Made a Farmer” Ad, Made For Farms.com in 2011
Posted on June 1, 2011. In the video’s “About” section: “Farms.com is pleased to be working with Ram Trucks and support the ‘Farmer’ Super Bowl commercial.” Still a great commercial, but come on folks.
Survival of the Cutest: Choose the Furry Four
Today is the last day for voting in the Adorable 8 round of our Survival of the Cutest tournament. Only four of these dogs will advance to the semifinals.
Vote now for the cutest canines in the city.
Survival of the Cutest: Juno vs. Bear in a Contest Between Small Dogs. Vote Now.
Bear (left) and Juno are giving you that look. You know the one. How can you resist that look?
Only two days of voting left in our Survival of the Cutest round of the Adorable 8.
Both Juno, a energetic (watch her video) creature, is facing off against the older Bear, the dachshund who likes to go to work with his owners.
They need your votes, today and tomorrow. Only one of them will reach the Furry 4.
Survival of the Cutest: Cooper the Border Collie Meets Hamilton the Yellow Labrador
Now that Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton has left for the Angels, do you think Hamilton’s (left) owner regrets the dog’s resemblance to the baseball player? Cooper, meanwhile, looks kind of like a black-and-white cookie.
The votes continue to pour in for our Survival of the Cutest contest as we head towards the end of the week where the Adorable 8 will be out and the Furry 4 will continue.
Hamilton, who works part-time as a sous chef, hopes to advance past Cooper, whose owner admits has a bit of a toy-hoarding problem. Only your ballot can help determine who moves on.
Survival of the Cutest: Will Cayden the Vizsla or Bruiser the Black Labrador Prevail?
Would you rather see Cayden (left) or Bruiser in the Furry 4?
Among the four match-ups under way in our Survival of the Cutest tournament is Cayden vs. Bruiser. Both of these dogs narrowly advanced over their opponents in the second round.
Bruiser is a black Labrador retriever, a breed I’ve heard of many times before. Cayden is a Vizsla, a breed I’d never heard of before this contest. According to my thorough research, Vizsla originated in Hungary. I studied abroad in Budapest and have great affection for the place after my time there, so I’m afraid I’m slightly biased towards Cayden as a result.
But go make up your own mind about this and the other three contests in our Adorable 8. Then vote here.
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