Stray dogs

I must be more naive than I thought.

nanaej how do you know the 'news' is manufactured. In fact what does that mean?

According to the DM article the dog rescue involved an already established charity called K-9.

These were not just strays, they were dogs being kept in cruel conditions, more so than you would be likely to find in British dog rescue establishment.

I am ready and willing to lose my innocence so please enlighten me.

How does cutting a triangle in their ear "do the business? " Isn't it a different bit that needs to be cut?

They are neutered, and a nick in the ear done afterwards to show clearly which cat has been 'done' so there is no need to trap them again to check!

They do the same in Tenerife where my daughter lives.

D'you think they get embarrassed when their pals see they've been 'done'. I mean, they could always cross their legs and keep their tails down when socialising but you can't miss a ruddy great chunk cut out of your ear. It's as bad as 'the cone of shame' ...

Struuf. And yes, a huge problem with neutering in countries like France and Mediterranean countries - refuges in Southern France rarely neuter cats and dogs, because they say French people won't give them homes!

Tegan!

Dear me, granjura. Perhaps they could devise some kind of chemical castration that won't show! Some kind of canine or feline vasectomy?

On the expat forums in France and Spain, this issue comes up times and times again. Neutering is accepted in Northern France, but not the South. I've argued the case with many of the refuges (all private, nothing like the RSPCA there) and they just say a/ they can't afford it b/ they can't re-home if they are 'done'. Which is madness of course, and the majority of cats and dogs re-homed go on to produce litter after litter of too often homeless cats and dogs

Petallus It is manufactured in the sense that a newspaper paid for a specific, contraversial columnist to go and rescue the dogs. I do not think for one minute the DM editor cares particularly about dogs but knew the story would sell copy!

If they had sent a staff journalist to investigate and write about the very real problem of far too many stray and maltreated animals across the world that would not have been manufactured and been a straightforward fact finding report.

Interesting item on Fake Britain tonight about puppies being brought in from Eastern Europe with fake documentation. One was so tiny it should still have been with its mother and couldn't possibly be the age the passport said it was. Several had to be quarantined until the vets could be sure they were free of rabies. A dachshund that was supposed to have come from Northern Ireland was found to be from Lithuania. It's good to know that these were detected but how many may be slipping through the net?

Poor little beggars.

I thought the same, anno and I agree with nanaej, Liz Jones' somewhat naive attitude to being an animal lover sells copies.

I'm not sure a straightforward, fact finding report would provoke much discussion though.

nanaej how do you know that is what happened? LJ went along with people from an animal charity. We know LJ is an animal lover so an alternative explanation could just as well be that she approached her editor to fund the dog rescuing expedition because she was concerned about the dogs and, yes, they may very well have agreed because it was going to sell copies but that's the real world isn't it?

But in the overall scheme of things, it's hardly international news is it?

You're probably right, petallus but going back to Greatnan's OP, why doesn't the DM get Liz Jones to campaign for re-homing dogs in this country? Too easy? Not enought drama?

I don't think it was meant to be 'breaking news', more a story'.

I read the article and the dogs over whereveritwas are very badly treated. Some were kept in complete darkness for two years for instance, the vet picked up one little dog by it's back leg, and so on.

The charity LJ was attached to also campaigns for the welfare of dogs in countries where they eat dog meat.

Maybe there's the same principle behind it as giving to charities for people abroad, say Africa, rather than to say the NSPCC.

I really don't quite understand people getting so upset about Liz Jones; if you don't like the woman, don't read what she writes then all will be peace and harmony. I do enjoy reading what she writes, it often makes a lot of sense and often is tongue in cheek and very funny.

One thing that isn't in dispute is her commitment to animal welfare - she's rescued numerous animals, not just dogs and spent a fortune caring for them. I don't see any evidence that she dislikes children; by her own account, she was anorexic in her youth which rendered her infertile. Possibly her animals are child substitutes, who would condemn her for that?

Was she tongue-in-cheek about liking to park her Land Rover in disabled bays, I wonder? She seems to think that as she has not met seven paraplegics in a cimema, there is no need for seven disabled parking bays outside, and she confuses disabled slots with parent-and-child bays.

Suspect she needs to break a leg and be in a plaster cast so that she can see how difficult life is without a pass to a disabled bay - or with the bays all filled with agile journalists leaping gazelle-like from their SUVs.

As in www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2305113/Liz-Jones-Disabled-parking-bays-perfect--Land-Rover.html

Ok Elegran indefensible misuse of disabled parking bays I will admit.

I've had similar thoughts about disabled parking bays.

There is a local beauty spot near me with lovely views. All the parking spaces with the best views, about seven of them, are for disabled drivers. The car park is always crowded, often spaces are not available. I don't think I've ever seen more than one car parked in the disabled spaces, the rest stay empty.

Yes, I get annoyed with the situation.

I do have problems walking very far sometimes but do not have a disabled badge.

Oh, and yes, I get fed up when I go to local swimming pool, again often no spaces, to see a row of empty spaces I cannot park in because they are for parents with pushchairs. I parked in one of them once.

I suppose I am being hideously unpolically correct.

But I am being honest at least.

Musing on disabled parking. When my father was alive we used to take him to the local large Tesco. He could hardly walk and had a disabled badge. Often, all the spaces were taken, more than half by non disabled people.

On the other hand, I know quite a few disabled people lend their badges out to able body relatives now and then.

Such is human nature!

Liz Jones doesn't upset me and I didn't pretend it was a huge international story. I like to read her column because it is amusing to see what desperate lengths she will go to in order to attract attention.
I thought it was quite interesting - anybody who didn't could just not read it!
Crikey, is there any subject I can raise without having it parsed and analysed.

My sister has a disabled parking badge, even though she doesn't drive, because she can walk only a short distance and sometimes gets lifts from friends (or me, when I visit her). Her photo is on it, so I don't know how it could be used by anybody else.