A mild little rant about animals

Yesterday I spoke to one of my nodding acquaintances around the village. This a gentleman I know as Mike. Another friend calls him Patrick. Yesterday I heard someone call him Bill. Goodness knows what his name really is.

He was accompanied by his latest rescue dog. The previous one grew old and died. This one he has only had a few weeks and has already spent large amounts of money at the vet’s to help it. He thinks it’s coming along nicely. This is a man who goes out of his way to be good to animals. Credit where it’s due!

He told me about someone whose house was broken into recently. They stole nothing but a French bulldog, one of those squashed-face dogs that are all the rage at the moment. One of the householders was stabbed during the robbery. Mike/Patrick/Bill said he would have defended his dog too. We decided the dog was probably stolen to order and has quite possibly been sold on now for £1,000 or so.

Last week I heard a vet talking about the cruelty of the selective breeding that has produced these oddly popular dogs. She was saying that these dogs now need specialist breeding to unwind some of the genetic manipulation that has taken place to give them their squashed faces and their breathing difficulties. We do strange things to animals in the name of fashion. Not me personally but as a race! 

Someone else I know drew my attention to a report of a hunt - hounds, men in red coats, hunting horns, the lot - charging through a cat sanctuary in pursuit of a fox AND a deer. As if one quarry were not sufficient for them! The people who ran the cat sanctuary said their cats were traumatised and many fled and may have been permanently lost. Volunteers and police had to fight the hounds off the cats! I am not a cat lover by any means but I don’t see that huntsmen have the right to ride rough shod over somebody else’s land causing frightening havoc.

Today I read about someone out running in the Peak District and coming across a group of people hare coursing:- pursuing hares with dogs, often grey hounds, or rather letting the dogs chase, catch and eventually kill the hares. It is a “sport” which is illegal in England.

Now, I am aware that people grow nostalgic for things past and try to turn the clock back. But there are limits.

 Maybe they would like to reintroduce bear baiting while they are at it!