Bee~ Journal of then...

[Beekissed]

I agree! Can you imagine just how painful a de-beaking would have to be? That would be like cutting the snout off a dog or a cat and saying it will keep them healthier....and then someone yells animal cruelty over every little whipstitch on the BYC. Weird!

These chickens don't have a bad a debeaking as I've seen before...I've actually seen almost the whole beak removed.

I've also seen a dairy that removes the tails of their cows. Saddest thing ever to see these cows standing miserably in a wet, sloppy feed lot with little stumps sticking out of their tail end, unable to swat the flies that cover their bodies. And people drink the MILK from these medicated, mutilated, filthy, dirty, corn sickened cows!!!!

The world has turned upside down and people are so confused. Weak, witless and weird is what I call them...it's no wonder there are folks who go back to the land and become militant about their privacy.

Aly, the farm thingy would be going out on a limb....but often the best fruits are found there!

 

[FarmerDenise]

People are sheep. They follow what some idiot tells them and don't think for themselves.
I believe Hitler is the one who said: If you repeat a lie often enough, the people will believe it!

 

[Farmfresh]

Interestingly enough I just got through watching an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they were tasting cheese. The expert was telling how the European cheeses ALWAYS win the awards. He went on to say that European cheeses always start with RAW milk and often the cows have been grass fed (actually he said "grazing in Alpine meadows") where as American cheeses start with pasteurized milk. He also made the statement that pasteurized milk has "all of the flavor cooked out of it".

Hmm.... imagine that.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Aly, the farm thingy would be going out on a limb....but often the best fruits are found there!

Well, first I'd need to pray about it and see if that was something God wants for us.

Second, you'd have to convince Ernie to move to WVA.

When we first moved here, where we are now, I didn't see this as being our permanent home, but felt a real sense that this was where God was putting us for a time. I don't know if it's we're here until the kids are grown, or if it's we're here until something better comes a long. Given our current circumstances, I believe God knew we needed to be here so we would have a way to survive.

 

[lorihadams]

I have 3 hens that are debeaked ( I hate it and looked on it as animal rescue) and I couldn't make the man understand when I got them why debeaking was not okay. When I explained that all my chickens free range 95% of the time he said, oh, well I always thought they did just fine. My debeaked hens are always the scruffiest ones too. I vowed I'd never get any more that are debeaked, it's just cruel.

 

[Henrietta23]

Interestingly enough I just got through watching an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they were tasting cheese. The expert was telling how the European cheeses ALWAYS win the awards. He went on to say that European cheeses always start with RAW milk and often the cows have been grass fed (actually he said "grazing in Alpine meadows") where as American cheeses start with pasteurized milk. He also made the statement that pasteurized milk has "all of the flavor cooked out of it".

Hmm.... imagine that.

I saw that one too! We're lucky here that our food co-op sells locally (New England) made cheeses, including raw milk cheeses. Not cheap, but worth it!
My very first two hens were rescued and had been debeaked. They were Red Sex links and the sweetest girls. Rosy and Ruby were snugglers and loved people. They lived quite a few years with us, free ranging in the yard. Great layers. I was so happy to get them out of their very unhappy first home.

 

[Beekissed]

These girls are sweet also and I feel so sorry for them! I just had to go put them all into the coop as they don't enough to go inside with the others when it gets dark. I daren't train them by a lockdown, as they cannot defend themselves in an enclosed space with real chickens. It will just take time, I guess. Meanwhile, they crouch at the fence line in the rain, soaked and puzzled by their new world.

I'm not much into animal activism but there are some things that just don't set right with me.

Caged birds. How sad that God gave them wings that they will not be able to use to soar to the highest and loft about on breezes in the bright sunshine.

Tropical fish in a tank. Again, the same little space and no chance for fresh ocean waters, a normal fish life, normal fish food, a normal fish death.

Dogs chained to a box....for years. I can see the occasional chaining for a short time as a desparate measure. But years upon years, chained to a box, drinking out of an old pan. Why do people even keep them? It's quite obvious they serve no purpose, not even for companionship. Can you imagine never getting to run, never NOT having this weight around your neck, never getting to play, chase a rabbit, roll in green grass? Horrible.

Cats that stay in a house, especially de-clawed. How sad to never get to slink through a night, intent upon live prey, sharpen one's claws on a tree, smell the morning air and loll in the sun on the porch. To lose one's keen sense of smell and all the cat nature by being confined to an unnatural environment....forever. At least house dogs may get out for a walk once in awhile. Not cats. They become less like cats and more like people....which is the saddest thing.

Horses who stand alone in a small lot. For years. No grass to roll in, no companion to stand tail to nose with, no space to run, to roll, to kick and just be a horse. No one rides them or loves them. They just KEEP them until they realize one morning the horse is getting old and then they get rid of them.

People who just do not SEE. The saddest thing of all are people who live life completely and totally for themselves. They don't really SEE other people, nor do they care to do so. After all, the world is all about them, their feelings, their emotions, their drama. They wouldn't even understand what I would be talking about if they read this paragraph because they do not even SEE themselves for what they are. There are none so blind as those who will not SEE.

I guess this is my list of the opposite of Some of My Favorite Things.....

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

.

Dogs chained to a box....for years. I can see the occasional chaining for a short time as a desparate measure. But years upon years, chained to a box, drinking out of an old pan. Why do people even keep them? It's quite obvious they serve no purpose, not even for companionship. Can you imagine never getting to run, never NOT having this weight around your neck, never getting to play, chase a rabbit, role in green grass? Horrible.

Ahem

If you came to visit my house, and my dog Earnhardt wasn't chained, you'd be leaving my house minus one leg. Even on a chain, he serves a purpose. He alerts us to someone coming up the driveway, as his area is positioned so that he has a view of anyone coming/going out of the drive. He is also in a position that while he can see the driveway, he has full view of the pasture and chicken coops. He can alert us to any danger in the yard.

He does get let off his chain periodically, but he doesn't get to run with wild free abandon. I have to keep him UTD on rabies shots because we know he'll bite anyone who trespasses.

We love Earnhardt more than any other dog we own. He is our family protector, and he takes his job of family protector very seriously. When Ernie commented the other day to a friend of ours that we were looking for a home for the neighbors puppy she told us we should look to rehome Earnhardt. Everyone hates Earnhardt because he barks at them when they come in. Hey, he knows you don't belong, so heck yea, he's going to BARK like mad at you.

No one likes him or understands him or loves him like we do. If we ever tried to rehome him, we know he'd be put down because he'd be viewed as aggressive.

We tried to put him in a kennel. He dug under it and escaped. Chaining him is the only way to keep trespassers (and friends) safe. We can trust him in our yard if it's our family ONLY. And by our family I mean the kids, Ernie, and me. That's it. Anyone else he views as fair game.

ETA: and yes, he drinks from an old pan because I can't validate spending $10+ dollars on a dog dish when an old clean pan will work just fine! It's recycling.

Rant done.

 

[Blackbird]

What happens if he gets off and hurts someone though? Exessive agression like that can't be good.

I don't think Bee meant dogs like those anyway Quail.

And I used to be guilty of the first two, but then they died!

Now I have water bottles with feathers glued on in my bird cage, and our fish tank has a single water plant that we don't want to kill. LOL

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

What happens if he gets off and hurts someone though? Exessive agression like that can't be good.

He's not ever slipped off. We have turned him loose on our own accord, and when someone comes up the drive, we tell them to just stay in their car until we get him tied up. He stops when we tell him to. He's trained to listen to us.

He's not aggressive to us. I wouldn't call it exessive aggression, either. We trained him to be a watch dog, and that's what he is. He's bit 4 people, and only one time was he off chain when he bit someone. The first person he bit was my step brother. He'd just got out of prison, and was trying to force his way in my front door. Earnhardt was running loose at the time. This was before we started chaining him. He bit my step brother for trying to force his way into the house uninvited. Once I scolded Earnhardt and told him to back down, he was Ok. He listened and went off to do his own thing.

The next three people he bit, he wouldn't have bit them if they had stayed away from him like we told them to.

On the flip side, though, I watched my brother, who's with K9 in the army, walk right up to Earnhardt, scratch him behind the ears and pet him all over, and Earnhardt submitted to him like a puppy. That was 2 years ago. Earnhardt was 6 years at the time.

Last fall, a guy from Akron was down to go hunting with a mutual friend of ours. He also walked right up to Earnhardt and was able to pet him and make all over him. Again, Earnhardt showed total submission to this person. Other than us and our kids, that's the only two people I've ever seen Earnhardt show total submission to.

I have this dog, and he can sense the kind of person someone is. We can tell by his behavior on who he likes and who he doesn't trust.

Earnhardt is a blue heeler.