So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[tonyb]

^^^^^
I have a friend who gets quite exercised over some annual dog meat festival somewhere in China.

I love dogs. I don't like the thought of dogs being raised for humans to consume. And I really don't like that people would treat dogs cruelly.

But I am certain that people of other cultures find certain of our habits as morally repugnant as my friend finds the Chinese dog-meat festival. I just wish she would refrain from posting photos allegedly taken at that event.

 

[Stearmen]

^^^^^
I have a friend who gets quite exercised over some annual dog meat festival somewhere in China.

I love dogs. I don't like the thought of dogs being raised for humans to consume. And I really don't like that people would treat dogs cruelly.

But I am certain that people of other cultures find certain of our habits as morally repugnant as my friend finds the Chinese dog-meat festival. I just wish she would refrain from posting photos allegedly taken at that event.

I was informed years ago, that if people from different parts of the world saw me talking to a dog, they would be sure that I am quite insane!

 

[sheeplady]

I am a hoof to snout advocate. That means I believe we should use 100% of any slaughtered or killed animal that is possible to be used. I also have 0% problem with cultures that eat dog or cat meat, as long as it is is humanely killed.

I do have a tremendous problem with two two things:
1. Waste, which I consider most of the fur industry to be.
2. Lying, and particularly lying to make a profit while knowingly violating someone else's (likely) deeply held morals.

So I'd have zero problem with real fur items sold as such that come from humanely killed dogs and cats that also served as a food source. They wouldn't even have to say they came from dogs... as long as they werent marketed as anything but "fur" or "real fur."

 

[Trenchfriend]

I changed my jeans, a couple of days ago and I was astonished (probably a further time) about the close fit of this one Paddock's jeans, which I was not wearing, the last time, because I got four jeans in rotation.
Today, I thought to look, if it's really a regular-fit, but I didn't saw any evidence on the lables in and outside.

A couple of minutes ago, I was looking at the Paddock's homepage, which product-lines they got actual and then I looked a further times at the jeans, if there's any evidence on the jeans, which product line-up it is. And suddenly, I saw the more or less weak print on the inner backside: "Ranger"
So, it's really one of their slim fit-ones!

I'm really walking around in a slim-fit jeans??

But, to be fair!
It's a very well fitting "light" slim-fit, not one of the really tight "ultra-slim fit ones with more than 2% elastan, which would press your heini. But, to go secure, just wear a usual slim-fit retroshort (boxer-brief), like I do.

PS:
Luckily, this jeans is worn, soon. And I will get another regular-fit one, like my others, hooray.

 

[MisterCairo]

I was informed years ago, that if people from different parts of the world saw me talking to a dog, they would be sure that I am quite insane!

My favourite line from the film "The Man Who Would be King" is this one, by Billy Fish (played by the late great Saeed Jaffrey):

"I oft times tell Ootah about Englishmens. How they give names to dogs and take off hats to womans, and march into battle, left - right, left -right with rifles on their shoulders."

 

[LizzieMaine]

If a person from 1937 was told that in the future, it would be common for dogs to be taken along to the office by their masters, that person would gasp with incredulity.

 

[sheeplady]

If a person from 1937 was told that in the future, it would be common for dogs to be taken along to the office by their masters, that person would gasp with incredulity.

I have to admit, this seems odd to me. I remember one professor who brought his lab into class (it was barely not-a-puppy-anymore). It spent the entire class running between the desks and (accidentally) scaring the living daylights out of my friend who was afraid of dogs. I wouldn't dream of bringinger a non-service dog to work.

Right now I have someone who has a service dog in one of my classes. Unlike a seeing eye dog this dog that tends to be non-interactive this dog appears to work to keep the person calm, and therefore does things like bark and get between their human and other people when it's a threatening situation. It's been a very different sort of interaction than with the other service dogs I knew, which were mostly in-training or for the blind.

 

[Zombie_61]

If a person from 1937 was told that in the future, it would be common for dogs to be taken along to the office by their masters, that person would gasp with incredulity.

Surely their reaction would be even more severe if they were told that some hare-brained female "celebrities" would carry small dogs in their purses everywhere they went.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the Era, the stereotype was that haughty high-society dowager types were always accompanied by yappy little inbred dogs, usually named "Fifi" or "Cuddles" or some such. These were as much a part of that stereotype as lorgnettes, "broad-A" accents, and gigantic shelf-like bosoms.

 

[Stearmen]

Surely their reaction would be even more severe if they were told that some hare-brained female "celebrities" would carry small dogs in their purses everywhere they went.

Actually, staff on the Titanic complained about Socialites caring their little yapping dogs in their purse! The more things change........

 

[Zombie_61]

In the Era, the stereotype was that haughty high-society dowager types were always accompanied by yappy little inbred dogs, usually named "Fifi" or "Cuddles" or some such. These were as much a part of that stereotype as lorgnettes, "broad-A" accents, and gigantic shelf-like bosoms.

Actually, staff on the Titanic complained about Socialites caring their little yapping dogs in their purse! The more things change........

As I was typing my previous post something in the back of my brain was trying to tell me the whole "dog in a purse" phenomenon wasn't a new thing. I should have listened and done the research.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I can remember when I was a kid, old people being aghast that people would actually buy food for a cat. Cats were supposed to earn their keep by hunting their own food. Dogs were supposed to subsist on table scraps and butchers' leavings. You fed your horse, and it was supposed to work for it.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

If a person from 1937 was told that in the future, it would be common for dogs to be taken along to the office by their masters, that person would gasp with incredulity.

If a person in 2016 was told that in the future, it would be common for someone to have an office to go to, that person would laugh in your face.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I can remember when I was a kid, old people being aghast that people would actually buy food for a cat.

Some people still criticize those that feed their pets, usually with the nonsensical argument of equating it to the high number of starving children in the world.....neeedless to say, buying pet food doesn't take food from those poor kiddies' mouths (at least not directly ) since the majority of industrial pet foods are made from food factory left overs unusable in human alimentation, nor that these high minded individuals ever lift a finger to help others less fortunate than themselves.

 

[Fading Fast]

I can remember when I was a kid, old people being aghast that people would actually buy food for a cat. Cats were supposed to earn their keep by hunting their own food. Dogs were supposed to subsist on table scraps and butchers' leavings. You fed your horse, and it was supposed to work for it.

I used to think of dogs eating that way to, but what surprises me today is how sensitive some dogs have become - or maybe they always were, we just care more now - to food. We have a dog that can only eat certain dog foods (or his stomach reacts badly) who, despite this, still gets an upset stomach a few times a year and we have to make him boiled chicken and rice. Laugh all you want, I did initially, but the poor guy suffers and this settles his stomach down. And other than a very, very small amount, table scraps and other human foods crush his stomach. And we know many other rational dog owners with these issues.

You can say, oh, you're babying them, etc., but when the dog is in clear discomfort and exhibiting stomach related symptoms, that just doesn't cut it. Maybe they've been bred too selectively or have been too coddle so some of the toughness is being selected out of their gene pool - they turn over generations much faster than we do - but for whatever reason, the days of house-pet dogs surviving on table scraps seems over - at least for the dog and dog owners in my orbit.

 

[Trenchfriend]

The most famous european pet food-factory is located in Belgium. Known as "the stinker".

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

My favourite line from the film "The Man Who Would be King" is this one, by Billy Fish (played by the late great Saeed Jaffrey):

"I oft times tell Ootah about Englishmens. How they give names to dogs and take off hats to womans, and march into battle, left - right, left -right with rifles on their shoulders."

That movie is pure gold! It's an unsung classic, and one the first DVDs I bought when I got my first DVD player. I saw it in its theatrical release forty years ago. (Forty years ago! I can't be that old, can I? Maybe this should go in the "You know you're getting old when ..." thread.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

I can remember when I was a kid, old people being aghast that people would actually buy food for a cat. Cats were supposed to earn their keep by hunting their own food. Dogs were supposed to subsist on table scraps and butchers' leavings. You fed your horse, and it was supposed to work for it.

Commercial pet food became widely popular in the US in the 1920s as a way of processing surplus horses, with the idea of differentiated "dog food" and "cat food" catching on in the thirties as more became known about the nutritional needs of pets. Cat food became a common sideline for fish canneries, and remains so to this day.

Cat advocate Ida M. Mellen, in her "Practical Cat Book," issued in 1939, strongly recommends *against* leaving a cat to fend for its own food, stressing that a well-fed, healthy cat is actually a better and more reliable mouser than one forced to hunt for sustenance. She recommends a diet including half a pound a day of any combination of beef, lamb, mutton, rabbit, ham, kidney, veal, or "any fowl" with bones removed. "Fish pudding" made by boiling fresh boneless fish with barley or brown rice is also recommended.

She also adds that "a cat can be trained to eat at the table, and its manners are charming."

 

[tonyb]

Our dogs subsist largely on leftover people food. (The food is leftover, not the people.) The vet advises against this, but she acknowledges that there is little sign that their health is any the worse on account of it. They aren't overweight, which, as the vet tells me, is common among dogs routinely fed on table scraps.

I took both the mutts in for dental care a few months back -- teeth cleaning for both, an extraction for one. Had you told my grandparents that dogs would get routine dental care, they'd shake their heads (the grandparents, not the dogs).

 

[Fading Fast]

...I took both the mutts in for dental care a few months back -- teeth cleaning for both, an extraction for one. Had you told my grandparents that dogs would get routine dental care they'd shake their heads.

Regular checkups, shots, anti-tick medicine, dental care, food, the one-off vet visit when they step on this or swallow that and something goes terribly wrong - and then the subsequent medicine or special diet: Owning a dog is not an inexpensive undertaking.

I grew up where every dollar was measured twice before being spent and I try to apply that philosophy to the dog and everything listed above passes:

Annual check up - yup, can catch things early
Dental work - not going to let them suffer in pain or have chronic gum issues
One-off vet visits - we treat them ourselves until it is clear professional help is needed, then withholding that would be cruel
Medicine / special food - watch a dog with Lyme disease struggle to walk down the hallway and tell me another option than buying them medicine (and the little food balls to hide the pill in so they will swallow it) or watch your dog who always eats not eat because of a stomach issue and tell me you won't buy special food or medicine to make him better