Exploiting a Wild Animal - Disgusting!

What the fuck is this??

What kind of reptile keeper is this guy? It's one thing to have an attraction where people can come and observe a reptile such as an alligator in it's habitat, or even get to see it eat, but this is revolting.

Wild animals are not here for our entertainment. Education, yes. Entertainment, no. That puts zoos and marine parks such as Sea World on a fine line of course - some would call a zoo entertainment and there is no doubt that Sea World's shows *are* entertainment, but Sea World and most zoos also play a huge part in education and conservation of those species.

This on the other hand, is infuriating. Let's tape closed the mouth of a prehistoric predator and dump it into a chemical filled swimming pool, to be harassed by humans who know no better. The keeper *should* know better! Why not bring some animals to a party - let the children see them, perhaps even pet them, and *learn* about the animals.

Not play Marco Polo with it.

Disgusting.

One Of Our Own?

Those of us who spend a large amount of time online - forums, chat rooms, Facebook, often grow to "know" other people even though we have never met them.

We read their posts, see pictures of their animals, learn about them.

That's why it can come as a massive shock when we hear that one of our "own" has had their animals seized for cruelty or neglect.


This has happened recently. While I did not "know" this person except by her posts, it came as quite a surprise to suddenly be informed that her entire herd of breeding cow ponies were seized due to neglect.

As it often happens in this situation, those of us who heard about it first immediately jumped to her defense. Surely this was not true - there is some excuse for whatever reason the county and sheriff came up with the seize the animals. We'd seen pictures of her happy healthy horses many times. How could it have fallen apart so quickly?

Then the evidence began to surface. Horses with bad feet, a horse that had to be euthanized, among others. I will say that in this case, most of the offender's horses were in okay shape. But there was enough neglect to justify the seizure. Should the county wait until all of the horses are lame from overgrown hooves and thin before taking action?

What I find more concerning though, to be honest, is the rescue that has taken the horses. Pictures from their Facebook wall show large dirty dry lots, where hay is thrown onto the ground and buried in manure and mud. Adoption pictures of one mare show her ribby and rough looking despite being there for a month - plenty of time to put on healthy weight and a shiny coat with a *good* health regimen.

The rescue has already approached people begging for donations of hay and posts. How can they possibly handle taking on over 30 more horses?

To me, this entire situation smells like rotten fish.

It's interesting how quickly things can roll out of control, especially when you have such a large herd of animals. And it's interesting that sometimes animals seized by the county end up "out of the frying pan and into the fire."

A sad situation all around.

Dominant Traits in Goats

A lot of people know some goats are born polled (hornless) and some are born with blue eyes. But SO many people don't quite understand how this works!

I'm going to use "X" to denote both polled and blue eyes, because they are both a dominant trait, and interchangeable for the sake of this bit of a genetics lesson.

Let's say you have a doe who exhibits X and a buck who doesn't. You breed them.

Xx stands for the doe. This means she exhibits the trait (ie blue eyes). xx stands for the buck. He does not exhibit the trait.

If you breed Xx with xx, because it is a DOMINANT trait, and not recessive, you stand to get:

50% Xx
50% xx

In clearer terms, each kid has half a chance of exhibiting the blue eyes. Each kid also has half a chance of having plain eyes.

Now, you breed a Xx with a Xx. Two blue eyed goats.

This means you get 100% blue eyes right?

Wrong.

Because this is a dominant trait, both goats most LIKELY carry the brown eyed/horned gene as well. This means you get:

50% Xx
25% XX
25% xx

But wait, what does this mean? There's three results.

Xx is obviously a blue eyed kid. xx is a brown eyed kid. So what is XX?

XX is a homozygous blue eyed kid. The homozygous means that it carries two copies of the blue eyed gene. This means if you breed a homozygous goat, all of its offspring will have blue eyes.

Now, I am not 100% certain homozygous blue eyed/polled goats exist. They should. Doesn't mean they do.

Confused yet? It's okay, it just takes some practice.

But let me get some things straight.

Your goat cannot CARRY the polled or blue eyed gene without exhibiting it. There is NO non-visual heterozygous for these traits, because they are dominant.

If you breed a blue eyed/polled goat to a blue eyed goat/polled goat, you can STILL get brown eyed/horned kids. You're more likely to get what you're seeking, but each kid still has that chance of the draw.

Hope this helps. I've seen one too many comments about "carrying" such and such gene or "guaranteed to have such and such gene kids."

Hero Pig Saves Goat

"Things do not look good for the baby goat at the start of this clip. It's stuck in deep water at a petting zoo, bleating and kicking to no avail as human onlookers stand by and watch without thinking to dive to its aid. Just when all hope seems lost — is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's a pig, who saves the stricken goat's bacon by nudging it to shallower waters, where it finds its footing and escapes to dry land. "

 Link

Is that cool or what?  Just had to share with you guys. 

Guest Blog: The Deaf, the Blind, and the Goats

You can read more like this here.

 Bringing in the Herd

Summers in Texas are hot. Dreadfully hot. Often times so hot that you're lucky if your sweat can even make it down your face before it evaporates.

Generally I don't mind the heat. Texas born and raised, I'm used to it. It's the cold I detest, to be honest.

Today the goats needed to have their hooves trimmed. Since it was the middle of the day, the entire herd was out - out somewhere on about 38 acres total, stuffing their little faces with whatever green that looked tasty at that moment in time.

Frank motioned me over and pantomimed, (since I have proven to be quite slow at picking up ASL, especially when he signs so quickly my poor vision simply cannot keep up), that I needed to go out and find the goats. He described a fallen down barn on the far end where they liked to congregate.

Okay, I can do that. I went out the small gate and trooped off to look for them. This was the first time I'd gone out on the big pasture. I found their trail quick enough - when eighty or so goats pass a certain way multiple times, it leaves plenty of evidence, even for me to see.

I followed the trail until I found the fallen barn. No goats.

Frowning, I looked around, then walked in a large circle and called the goats, listening for a response.

Nothing.

Even I'm not so blind as to miss an entire herd of goats. Annoyed, I headed out to circle the pasture, feet aching a bit in my work boots.

I eventually came back around to where I began, now seriously ticked off. Not a single goat in sight. Frank appeared, apparently concerned I hadn't appeared at the head of a flood of goats yet. He motioned to me and we walked the entire circuit again. 

Not one goat popped out to say hi to us.

Feet now throbbing and my temper shortened by a considerable deal, we returned to find the goats laying around in front of the barn, chewing their cud.

Sigh.

Stop it stop it STOP IT

Click to view larger.

Oh god, how my blood pressure rose when a friend linked me this add. No, just...no. 

Stop this! Why on earth would anyone want to do this? Why does it still happen?

Look people. Some of you may or may not know that I have extensive experience with exotic mammals. Wolves first and foremost. I have lived with them, handled them, raised them. I have studied their behavior for an immense multitude of years. I have even been part of games where we play as wolf characters.

Wolves are not PETS. They are NOT DOGS. They do NOT belong in a home. 

Meet Princess Winterhawk. 

Princess was the best friend I ever had. She was born when I was ten years old and stayed with my a short six years until her untimely death. She slept in my bed and we logged many many miles together. She was *only* 32% percent Canis lupus.

And she was NOT A DOG. And could not be contained or handled like one. 

Let me break it down for you. Even with this low percentage wolf mix, I needed eight foot fencing to keep her contained. Hot wire at top and bottom or she WOULD go over or under it. She could not be chained - she broke several. 

She had a prey drive - no prey type animal was *ever* safe around her. She mistrusted strangers and could have bitten someone if I was not as careful and experienced as I was. She was very smart, but the kind of smart that makes it harder to train her to exhibit behaviors that many dogs will fall over themselves to learn and preform for you. 

Never again will I raise or keep a wolf or wolf mix. In fact the list of exotic mammals I would keep again is very short, and I am an *experienced* keeper. 

The people breeding these are disgusting. Any fool off the street could walk up and buy one of these wolf mix puppies for $200. How long until there is another story in the news about a "vicious" wolf "hybrid" attacking a child or person or the neighbor's pets. 

You will never hear me lobby for laws *against* the keeping of exotic animals, but you can be damned sure I think there should be far stricter regulations on who gets to keep them and there should be regulations even stronger on who is allowed to breed them, and why. 

Please excuse me while I go have a breather, before I pop a vein in my poor overtaxed brain.

So You Want To Breed Goats?

First off you have to realize, there is almost NO research done on goats. 99% of what you will be using is NOT marketed towards goats. And vets have no earthly idea what they are talking about. Goats are NOT cattle!

To remain healthy, ALIVE, and productive, a breeding doe needs a great amount of supportive care. Deworming, proper diet, supplements, minerals. The bucks put a LOT of effort into breeding and need the same.

Here is a BASIC run down of things on my end.

Dry (open does not in milk) does are being fed grass hay and a bit of grain every day. A month before breeding season, grain begins to increase! I begin pouring it into them - this helps them to ovulate and release more eggs. A single kid birth is a troublesome birth.

ALL does come in to get their feet trimmed, supplemented with Bo-Se (prescription) for selenium, and dewormed pre-breeding twice. They've already received a copper bolus in June.

Breeding rolls around. I have the buck - he is stinking himself and everything else up. I hand breed everyone if I can and then he lives with the herd to catch any who might come back into estrus.

Grain feed increases slowly. Come December everyone gets copper bolused again and I begin adding alfalfa to the diet - the calcium is a MUST. They also begin to get yeast and powdered calcium in their feed.

February rolls around - time for the buck to leave if he hasn't already. All this time between then and now you've been working on getting him back in shape. He'll have lost weight and could possibly have urine scald on his legs. You'll have been separating him to feed as he is not supposed to get an unproportionate amount of calcium vs phosphorous but still needs a good diet to get his weight back. He needs to be bolused just like the does, as well as given Bo-Se before and after breeding to keep fertility up. Dewormed before and after as well, and his feet trimmed no matter how badly he was stinking.

Everyone by now should be showing their udders and I will know who settled and who didn't. Hopefully everyone did. They receive their CD/T booster, Bo-Se, and I now begin to pay far more attention to their moods and actions.

March! KIDDING TIME! Five months after they are bred, I now face multiple sleepless nights. Every doe is checked multiple times during the day. I pay special attention to several points - udder, hind legs, tail ligaments, behavior. All of these can tell me when they are due to kid. If I feel they are close, they go into the kidding stall and I watch them on camera.

Kidding! If all goes well, the most I need to do is wipe off noses and make sure the babies nurse. Or more likely, I'm sorting out tangled kids in utero and helping them into the world. I hold scared first fresheners until they understand what their babies are. I pray that no kid is so large I cannot pull it on my own. I pray no doe tears inside and needs to be put down.

Mama gets dewormed again, babies get umbilicals dipped and get a vit e and selenium supplement. They are kept stalled for a couple days if I don't need the stall immediately, then out with the herd. Babies MUST have access to safe warm dry shelter. A wet and cold baby goat is a DEAD baby goat, period.

Kids now need to be disbudded. Nothing like the smell of burnt hair and flesh and horn bud. Kids need their CD/T booster. Kids need to be pulled from mama and taught to nurse from a bottle before going to new homes.

Now mamas need to be milked. Their grain and alfalfa ration is huge. They eat it all and demand more. They lick up every bit of the expensive minerals and demand more. The newbie moms have to be hobbled and taught what milking is all about. The pros kick the bucket over from time to time to remind you who is really in charge.

Any kids you kept are either nursing mama and need to be separated at night once they are old enough so you can milk in the morning, or you are bottle feeding up to 3-4 times a day. They need to be carefully managed - coccidosis and worms are a massive killer of baby goats, and what they don't kill, they stunt.

So kids are on some kind of preventive program. If you can get Baycox, you can get away with one dose at 21 days. If not, you are using Corid or Albon or Sulmet and treating orally every 21 days for five days in a row. You are also carefully deworming with the proper dosages and dewormer every 21 days. PREVENTION in kids is key if you want them to grow robust. They also eat an amazing amount of high protein for their size.

Now you are milking every day, usually twice a day. NO excuse - you must get up and milk. You must be home to milk. Each udder must be wiped down, the teats stripped of that first squirt and checked for mastitis. Then you milk. You dip the teats and shoo the doe back out. Then the milk must be QUICKLY strained and chilled and you bring in the next doe to milk.

So forth until you decide to dry the doe up which means careful watching that she doesn't become too full in her udder which is painful and could cause issues. Finally, she's dry!

And breeding season looms ahead of you again. Time to decide who is ready to be bred, who to breed to, and start all over again.


And remember...these are just the BASICS of breeding goats. I didn't even begin to touch on all the BAD things that can happen.

Forbidden Pets

Every year I come across stories about someone who has gotten a pet, be is chickens, a goat, a miniature horse, so forth and so on, only to "discover" that these animals are not allowed in their neighborhood/city.

Cue the news reporters swooping in, the forum posts, the Facebook pages, all based on fighting the "man" in an effort to keep their pets.

You know what I don't get?

Why not do the research BEFORE you get the animals?

I just do not understand. So many people will rally around the "unfortunate" owners and sign petitions and write letters in an effort to help the owners. They will blast the city/neighborhood and yell at the top of their lungs about how unfair it is.

All the while I'm sitting there with a frown, wondering why the responsibility of double checking your local ordinances is not even considered.

Look people. If you want to get a new pet, make sure you're allowed to keep it before you run out and bring it home. Don't bring it home and then kick up a stink when you get reported for BREAKING THE LAW.

You damn idiots. Personal responsibility - where has it gone?

A Moment in Time - of Stupid

So! I've been so terribly busy I haven't had a ton of time to blog, but never fear my friends. I hope to get at least a post a week in now. So sorry for my hiatus.

Look at this picture.

Awww...it's so cute!!


Yeah...maybe not.

I'm not a terribly callous person, I can see why this picture appeals to those who are a bit ignorant about horses and the dangers of being around a creature that outweighs you by so much. To some, this is certainly a very sweet and loving picture.

To me, I see a dreadfully risky scenario that could so easily end with a serious injury.

First off, it is simply never a good idea to stand in front of your horse, in my opinion. If a horse becomes frightened, which way is it going to go? Forward.

Add in the fact that this child has the horse's leg WRAPPED around her waist - good lord! All that horse has to do is pull his leg back suddenly and that child is underneath that horse and potentially hurt.

Sure, lots of people like their horses to be in their space, nuzzling, putting his head over your shoulder. Mine are not allowed to do such a thing. As a very small person, I am only TOO away of how it only takes a second for an accident to happen, and in that event, it's far more likely that *I* will get hurt instead of the horse. Is that REALLY worth it?

Please people. Use a little sense. This is not a cute picture, it is a disaster waiting to happen.

And for heaven's sake, put some real shorts on that girl.