We all love simplicity. Who doesn’t want a firm good vs evil argument, reducible to a memorable sound bite, to buttress our firmly held opinions in ways that are convincing to others? You know, like pet stores that sell puppies are evil because they support puppy mills, whereas animal shelters are good because they try…
Blog the Change: Puppy Mills, Petland USA & Public Awareness
Often I think I live in a bubble, one where animal welfare is part of the conversation. In the “real” world, issues that are crucial to me are simply off the radar. The other night I had dinner with a couple who seemed very enlightened — into organic food, meditation, and general save-the-world concerns. In…
Animal Welfare Videos That Don’t Make Me Want to Kill Myself: Puppy Mill Edition
Puppy mill operators subject baby dogs to horrendous conditions before tidying them up to sell them to pet stores or showcase them on the internet. You’ve probably seen plenty of those graphic, disgusting images; I’m never going to show them here. The avoidance of suffering porn — as I think of it — is also…
If Puppies Had Second Amendment Remedies
If there were two topics that I didn’t think could turn up — much less together — in a cartoon that would make me smile, it would be the Second Amendment and puppy mills. I love being pleasantly surprised. I particularly like the expressions on the faces of the hostage-taker pups. I’m very glad the…
Friday Focus: Making Rescue Less Necessary (or How to Avoid Internet Puppy Mills)
The question this week was How do you define rescue? Plenty of people provided excellent definitions in the comments section. And others admitted to having fallen short of the ideal. So the more I thought about it, the more I thought about how defining the term isn’t useful. This site is about education, not recrimination.…
Friday Focus: Dog Rescuers, Defined
This week’s question was inspired by my friend Clare — well, actually, more or less demanded by her. It started when an acquaintance of Clare’s who had initially expressed interest in rescuing a dog ended up buying one from a Pomeranian breeder with this over -the-top website. Clare joked, “I usually don’t approve of buying…
About My New Book: Am I Boring My Dog?
I met my friend Michael for dinner the other night, and excitedly hauled out my advance copy of Am I Boring My Dog. After browsing through it for the requisite time to indicate interest, he said: “I thought it was just going to be a bunch of funny anecdotes. This looks very informative.” Perhaps I…
The Dog Food Debate: Opening Up a Can of Worms
I don’t mean the title of this post literally, though fresh worms would be an improvement over the ingredients contained in some dog food. But a discussion on Twitter — if you can call a series of 140-character bursts a discussion — spurred me to venture into the arena. When it comes to dog food,…
Puppy Mills, Twitter & Not Minding Your Own Business
It all started with a casual request from a fellow dog Twitterer for me to submit a photo of my pup for her site. I’m always happy to share Frankie’s cute mug with others, and it looked like she ran a nice, small dog supply business. Sure, I said. After submitting the photo, I clicked…