How the Evolution of the Show Ring Ends

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A Dog With Problems

"When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem."
-- Edward Abbey, author of Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang

Rabies Cases Close to Home

News reports are that two northern Virginia women are undergoing rabies treatment after being bitten by rabid foxes this month.

One woman was mowing her lawn in Fredericksburg when a fox latched onto her ankle. The second woman was in Arlington, where I live, when she was bitten while taking out the trash.

Both of the fox bites were from Gray Fox, and both fox were captured and confirmed as having rabies.

There were 438 confirmed cases of animal rabies in Virginia and eight confirmed cases in Arlington between January and July of last year, state records show.
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Cursed Poodles

From a web site that attempts to explain speciation and evolution from a literal-reading of the Bible:

"[C]reationists do not believe that God made the animals and plants just as we see them today. For instance, when God made dogs, He didn’t make a poodle! After all, dogs like poodles are in fact degenerate mutants, suffering the effects of 6,000 years of the Curse."

Hummingbird Nest and Babies

A couple of great pictures of a hummingbird nest and babies from Scott K. in California (i.e. "Gangster Jack Russells and a couple of patterdales").

Scott thinks it's a Calliope Hummingbird (Stellula calliope).

Two Calliope Humminbirds weigh the same as one U.S. nickel (5 grams), and they make solo migrations in winter to south and south-central Mexico, making this the smallest breeding bird in North America, and the smallest long-distance avian migrant in the world!

The nest of most hummingbirds are made from spider webs with little bits of moss and lichen tossed in for bulk. Click on the pictures to enlarge. Isn't Scott a great photographer?

The smallest hummingbird egg is the Bee Bummingbird of Cuba, and you can fit 4,700 Bee Hummingbird eggs inside one Ostrich egg. Another way to think of it, is that 2 dozen chicken eggs are equivalent to one Ostrich egg, which means about 195 Bee Hummingbird eggs are equivalent to one chicken egg.
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Basketcase: The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

It's often been said that Kennel Club breeders are trying to "breed to a picture."

Nowhere is that more true than in the case of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a breed cobbled up in the 1920s and 30s to "recreate" the type of lap dog seen in the oil paintings of aristocrats painted by Titian, van Dyck, Stubbs, and Gainsborough.

While owners of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels like to wrap themselves up in the pretension of having an ancient breed related to British royalty, this particular dog was in fact created in the late 1920s and 30s at the Crufts Dog Show.

This is not to say that small spaniels did not exist back in Tudor times and even before. They certainly did.

In fact, lap dogs are among the oldest canine breeds, and the crossing of small terriers and spaniels to make laps dogs has probably been going on right from the beginning.

What is incontestable is that by the early 20th century, the so-called "King Charles Spaniel" (now known as the English Toy Spaniel in both the U.S. and Canada) no longer resembled the dogs seen in 16th and 17th Century paintings.

The modern dogs had a shorter face and domed heads.

Where did these domed heads and flat faces come from? The flat face, it is conjectured, came from mating King Charles Spaniels' with Pugs and Japanese Chins. The domed head, no doubt, is caused by simply breeding the dogs too small, forcing the brain of the dog to push up the skull -- a common feature found in many toy breeds.

Though most Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breed histories claim an old uncorrupted line of the original dog never died out and "was kept at Blenheim Palace, home to the Dukes of Marlborough," this is nonsense. By the turn of the 20th Century, the original-looking dog was so extinct that not a single example of a proper-looking long-faced and flat-skulled "old type" King Charles Spaniel could be found!

In the 1920s, an American by the name of Roswell Eldridge decided to recreate the dog he saw in the old paintings, and he went so far as to print up a flyer and offer a cash award at Crufts for any King Charles Spaniel "of the old-fashioned type" which had a longer muzzle, a flatter skull, and a spot in the middle of the crown of its head.

No dog was forthcoming, and the award remained unclaimed for five years before either a "throwback" or an incorrect King Charles Spaniel (depending on who is telling the story) was presented in 1928 to claim the prize.

This dog was "Ann's Son," a dog owned by Miss Mostyn Walker. Unfortunately Roswell Eldridge had died three months earlier, and so he never saw the object of his desire.

Nonetheless, energized by the prize and the romance of a dog that "looked like those in the van Dyck paintings," a breed name, standard and a club were formed on the spot.

The goal was to "preserve" the breed. Of course, the "breed" consisted of just one dog!

No matter. A course was set, and Ann's Son was soon cross-bred with King Charles Spaniels which, while not perfect examples of the hope-for breed, had faces too long and heads that were too flat to do well in the ring.

By simply breeding "rejects with the right features" to each other, a back breeding program was created and the gene pool of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was expanded from one to some.

Slowly, things moved forward, and over several decades the dog's general form was stabilized.

In 1945 the Kennel Club (UK) granted separate registration for Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (the "cavalier" monicker was added to differentiate the dogs from the shorter-faced King Charles Spaniel), and in 1952 the first dogs came to the U.S.

In 1954, Mrs. W. L. (Sally) Lyons Brown of Kentucky formed the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA with the idea of keeping a stud book and eventually getting the dog into the American Kennel Club.

The AKC admitted the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel into its "Miscellaneous" class in 1962, and accepted the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA as the official breed club and registering body at that time.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA applied several times for full Kennel Club recognition, but was rejected each time, and after a number of years the CKCSC-USA simply decided to move forward without the AKC, creating its own stud book, establishing its own show system, and adopting its own code of ethics. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel remained in the "miscellaneous" class of the AKC, but this was mostly done to allow those interested in obedience trials to compete in that venue.

Members of the the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA developed their own culture outside of that of the American Kennel Club, and that culture put a significant premium on their own lengthy code of ethics, which members had to agree to in order to join the club and register their dogs.

This code of ethics stated that "the welfare of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breed is of paramount importance. It supersedes any other commitment to Cavaliers, whether that be personal, competitive, or financial."

The code of ethics went on to say that members of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA agreed to not sell dogs to pet shops, agreed not TO breed bitches before 12 months of age or after age eight, and agreed to never allow a bitch to carry to term and rear more than six litters in her lifetime.

Finally, the breed club's code of ethics noted that "These exists a constant danger that ignorant or disreputable breeders may, by improper practices, produce physically, mentally or temperamentally unsound specimen to the detriment of the breed" and requested that members of the Club consult with other breeders in the club before a mating and to never breed "from or to any Cavalier known to me to have a disqualifying, or disabling health defect."

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA prospered as an independent registry, with slow but steady growth in it membership. In 1992, however, the American Kennel Club decided that it wanted to clear out breeds that had been in the "miscellaneous" class for many years, and they asked the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA to become the breed club.

There was one caveat, however: The Cavalier King Charles Club Spaniel Club of the USA could NOT make acceptance of a ban on selling dogs to pet stores a prerequisite for dog registration. Nor could they require that breeders avoid knowingly crossing dogs with inheritable disqualifying or disabling defects. If the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA wanted to be the AKC's breed club, they would have to jettison their code of ethics and conform to the AKC's rules which said any dog could and would be registered provided it paid a fee to the AKC and could claim descent from a previously registered AKC dog and dam.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club USA declined to join the AKC as the parent club of their breed, and so the AKC reached out to a small set of breeders who were a little less ethical and a little more rosette- and cash-hungry. These breeders formed the American Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club, and this club was waved into the AKC in 1995.

What happened next?

The short story is that Cavalier King Charles Spaniel registrations shot through the roof.

As the AKC's own web site notes, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels were "among the biggest movers" in the last 10 years with a 406% increase in registrations. In fact, Cavalier King Charles spaniel registrations are up 800 percent from what they were 14 years ago, and the Cavalier is now the 25th most popular breed in the AKC (up from 70th 1997) out of a list of 157 breeds in all.

And what has happened to the quality of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel?

As could be predicted, it has fallen through the floor.

A breed with an already bottle-necked gene pool due to its peculiar history and recent origin, was further choked down in 1995 when the AKC recruited a small subset of Cavalier King Charles Spaniel owners to serve as the foundation stock of their new breed club.

The small number of dogs owned by these breeders is as wide as the gene pool of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is ever going to get in the AKC.

And because so many small AKC dogs come from puppy mill situations where sires may be used hundreds of time, and dams may be pregnant nearly all their lives, the gene pool of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (never strong to begin with) has contracted very rapidly.

In fact, a close reading of the excellent web site www.cavalierhealth.org leaves one concluding that the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels has been reduced to a genetic basket case, with every Cavalier bloodline infected with at least one of the following genetic defects:

• Heart mitral valve disease (MVD) is a terminal illness which afflicts over half of all Cavalier King Charles spaniels by the age of 5 years and nearly all Cavaliers by age 10 years. It is CKCSs' leading cause of death, killing over 50% of all Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. >> To read more
  
  
• Syringomyelia (SM) is reported to be "very widespread" in the Cavalier King Charles spaniel breed. Syringomyelia is a disorder of the brain and spinal cord, which may cause severe head and neck pain and possible paralysis. >> To read more
  
  
• Hip dysplasia is reported in a significant percentage of Cavalier King Charles spaniels. It is a genetic disease which can cause the dog pain and debilitation, and be expensive to remedy. >> To read more
  


• Brachycephalic Airway Obstruction Syndrome (BAOS) -- Because the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel has a short muzzle and a small head, it often has serious breathing problems. Elongated soft palates, stenotic nares, everted laryngeal saccules, and laryngeal collapse are other inherited developmental defects in the breed. >> To read more
  


• Luxating Patellas (slipping knees) are are a genetic condition believed to affect 20% to 30% of Cavalier King Charles spaniels. If the condition is not corrected, it can degenerate, with the dog becoming progressively more lame. >> To read more
  
  
• Hereditary eye disease has become widespread in the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. A study of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels conducted by the Canine Eye Registration Foundation in 1989 showed that an average of 30% of all Cavaliers evaluated had eye problems. >> To read more
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Beijing Fast Food at the Olympics

Check out the whole scene here (PDF).

So which of these delightul appetizers would you try first? Silk worms? Vulture Schnizel? Grilled Snake? Dog liver with vegetables? Goat lung with red peppers? Dug beetles? Scorpions? Cicadas? Lizard legs? Seahorses?

I think I'd try the goat lungs with red peppers and the snake; I'm just not a sea food kind of guy.

Bugs? Well I used to ride a motorcycle, so I guess I've had a few.
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Obama in Oregon

Barack Obama speaks to a record-breaking crowd of 75,000 on the banks of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. Click on the picture to enlarge.
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Vultures Poisoned by Common Veterinary Drug

A while back, I wrote about how an electronic transmitter attached to a single Swainson's hawk in 1994 was instrumental in discovering that massive numbers of "our" raptors were being accidentally poisoned by farmers in Venezuela after they migrated south for the winter.

Now, it turns out that a 97% decline in Oriental white-backed (Gyps bengalensis), long-billed (Gyps indicus), and slender-billed (Gyps tenuirostris) vultures In India can be traced to a another accidental poisoning, this time from a livestock anti-inflammatory drug called diclofenac, which is consumed by vultures when they eat a carcass.

The good news is that diclofenac has now been banned in India.

The bad news it that the vulture population in India is now so low, that it will take a long time to recover (and a captive breeding program) to bring them back. In the interim, the population of wild dogs -- which can carry rabies -- is on the rise.

The worst news is that diclofenac is now a generic drug, and is being marketed in Africa where it may quickly push the Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) into extinction and further threaten Rueppell's Griffon vulture (Gyps rueppellii) the African white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus) and and Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus).

For the record, American vultures are not closely related to their African and Asian counterparts; out vultures and condors (family Cathartidae) may be more closely related to the stork, heron or ibis. In any case, they do not seem to be impacted by diclofenac; a small blessing.
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Homeland Security and Joseph Goebbels

Chris Mathews has fun with a screaming right-wing talking parrot.

Kevin James is typical of the genre you find on Fox News and right-wing talk radio these days: bubble-gum airheads who can repeat the GOP talking points that were faxed or emailed to them that morning, but God help them if they actually have to know what happened in the Sudetenland in 1938 and 1939, or why the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and got into World War II.

They have no idea.

What happened to the Dust Bowl? They have no idea.

Where did the money go during the Great Depression? They have no idea.

What started World War I? They have no idea.

How did we get into the war in Vietnam? They have no idea.

Korea? They have no idea.

The first Iraq War? They have no idea.

And, as Chris Mathews notes, the White House press secretary did not even know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was all about.

This is what comes from "truth-i-ness" -- which is always pretty darn far from the truth.

Truth-i-ness is what you get when folks do no research on anything, but simply spout off and say whatever "sounds right" to the audience they seek to cultivate at that moment. Never mind if it actually is right!

Listen to Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Kevin James, or Joe Scarborough, and you will hear the calliope organ of authoritarian regimes everywhere fanning the flames of ignorance and hate.

These are the book-burners of 1933. These are the thugs that brought the world Kristallnacht in 1939. These are the folks who think nothing of justifying a war on the basis of lies. These are the folks who tell us, in the Newspeak of Orwell, that we can only be free if we give up our liberty. These are the folks who think they are being clever and amusing by suggesting our national problems can be solved with concertina wire and detention without trial.

In the deepest trenches of Hell, Joseph Goebbels is smiling. This is the kind of propaganda machine he only dreamed about.

And isn't it just delicious that these American right-wing liars for hire ignore the fact that Neville Chamberlain was a conservative, while the FDR and Truman were liberals.

"Wonderful. Must tell the Führer," says Goebbels.

"And he will love that phrase 'Heimatland Sicherheit' -- Homeland Security.

"Nice. Very nice."



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The Blind Leading the Deaf to PetSmart and Back

This post from April, 2005

The following verbiage comes from the the web site of the Parson Russell Terrier Association of America (PRTAA) whose membership can best be described as having learned all they know about working terriers by talking to each other at ring side -- a kind of "blind leading the deaf" to PetSmart and back.

"The PRTAA is the Parent Club for the Parson Russell Terrier in America. Members of the club maintain the breed standard and in doing so protect the future of their terrier. Membership in the Association is open to those who support its goals and its ideal for the breed, and who honor the important height disqualifications incorporated in the Breed Standard to preserve the working abilities of the Parson. Those who feel that the Parson is primarily a small terrier suitable for hunting woodchuck in the United States should seek membership elsewhere. The PRTAA operates in full acknowledgment of the original purpose of the traditional Parson Russell Terrier as it was in Rev. Russell's day: to hunt red fox above and below ground; and to promote the distinctive type terrier bred by Rev. Russell."

Ah! So the AKC folks must be real fox hunters, eh? Well no, actually. No one in the AKC Club seems to have actually worked a red fox last winter.

So much for theory!

What makes the nonsense on the AKC web site particularly funny is that anyone who have ever worked fox, raccoon or groundhog in the United States can tell you that an adult groundhog is likely to have a larger chest than a fox. The table below is from Ken James' excellent book on working terriers in North America.

Anyone who had ever dug on red fox in the Eastern U.S. or Midwest knows that most fox dens are old groundhog burrows. It is almost impossible to find a sette that is not a groundhog burrow, and many burrows are entirely unimproved, leading to occasional accidental digs on fox settes in late March, April and into May.

To not know that groundhog settes and fox settes are interchangeable is to "out" yourself as having never done much -- if any -- work in the field.

Welcome to the AKC! If you want to know about pet toys and ribbons, retractable string leashes, circus-like agility courses, and doggie costumes, the AKC is the Club for you.

If you're interested in the type of dog the Reverend Jack Russell worked, you will find that dog in the field and not in the show ring. Since no in the AKC hunts groundhogs (according to the Parson Russell Terrier Association of America's own web site), and since no one actually hunts fox either, you are sh*t out of luck if you are looking for a genuine Jack Russell Terrier in that forum.


This fellow was released unharmed.

• Related Posts:
  ** The Real Jack Russell Terrier: A Complete History
  ** A Pictorial History of Terriers; Their Politics & Their Place
  ** A Wrench That Doesn't Fit
  ** If John Russell Were Alive Today
  ** The Transvestite Terriers of Westminster
  ** Heinemann and Russell: A Chronology

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McCain on Guns: He Would Rather Cut Bait

From today's NYT:

"Senator John McCain and a clutch of camera crews dropped by a gun shop here on Friday, but the presumptive Republican nominee completely avoided the guns.

Instead, Mr. McCain and his wife, Cindy, looked for a scale to weigh catfish – the St. Albans Gun & Archery shop didn’t have one – and bought a $40 fishing rod, plus bobbers, hooks, sinkers and bait.

The trip was an aperitif to Mr. McCain’s appearance before the annual convention of the National Rifle Association in Louisville, Ky., later today. Mr. McCain, who favors background checks for firearm sales at gun shows and pushed through campaign finance regulations that restricted political advertising by groups like the N.R.A., was once branded by the gun lobby as “one of the premier flag-carriers for enemies of the Second Amendment.’’

Meanwhile, at the NRA convention, the Reverend Mike Huckabee thought it would be a laugh-riot to joke about NRA members pointing a gun at Barack Obama. Don't believe it? Check out the video tape ... and listen to the laughter. Sorry, but the audience did not "fall silent," as some right-wing Fox News apologists have reported.

Here's a heads up: If anything happens to Obama, this is guaranteed to be the most-seen video in the history of television, and it will come with the NRA-branded logo in the back and Christian minister and former GOP Presidential candidate giving the soundbite. Nice.

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Annals of the Law

From: The New Yorker, August 28, 1954, p. 30, "DOGGY" by E. J. Kahn

Out in Kalamazoo, there has existed since 1898 the United Kennel Club, which registers some 15,000 dogs annually & with which, over the years the A.K.C.s relations have been less than cordial.

In 1927 the U.K.C., a privately run concern, tried to get an injunction in a federal court to restrain the A.K.C. from taking disciplinary action against individuals who participated in U.K.C.-sponsored shows. While this squabble was in progress the A.K.C., which had had reservations about the reliability of the pedigrees issued by U.K.C., asked the National Better Business Bureau to look into the matter. The Bureau prankishly invented two terriers, gave them spurious ancestors, and submitted them to U.K.C. for registration. The U.K.C. fell into the trap and certified both without question, whereupon the A. K. C. triumphantly made the deception public.

The U. K. C. dropped its suit soon afterward.

This post is perhaps a little too "inside baseball" for anyone not boiled in the oil of the politics of the terrier world (something I try to stay clear of myself), but suffice it to say that in October of 2002, the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America was sued over its policy of excluding folks who attempted to register their dogs with the American Kennel Club.

The JRTCA's position was that a closed registry system, such as that embraced by the American Kennel Club, is antithetical to the long term best interests of working terriers. The suit was defeated in October of 2002, and in May of 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed.

Today, the Jack Russell Terrier remains a working terrier, while the American Kennel Club dog (which decided to change the name of its dog to the "Parson Russell Terrier") is almost never found working in the field.

As for registration standards, the JRTCA will only register adult dogs as individuals (entire litters of puppies cannot be registered), and color pictures of the dog from the front and sides must be submitted with each application, along with a four-generation pedigree, a veterinary certificate (the vet must sign the photos), and precise measurements of the adult dog (height, length, and chest size).

In contrast, the American Kennel Club now allows folks to register entire litters of dogs on line, no photos required, no veterinary checks required, and no measurements required. So long as the check clear, your litter will probably be registered!

Has stringent recording criteria and a broader conformation standard hurt the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America? Not apparently: the JRTCA remains the largest Jack Russell registry in the world, while the Parson Russell Terrier has fallen from the 65th ranking (2002) to the 75th ranking (2007) in the AKC. What's the 75th ranking in the AKC mean? It means fewer Parson Russell Terriers were registered last year than Silky Terriers, Japanese Chins, or Brussels Griffons.
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Selecting a Dog: Rules of Thumb

A predictive chart of America's purebred dogs would give any consumer pause, as 40% of the dogs carrying AKC papers today have genetic defects of one kind or another -- hip dysplasia, heart murmurs, deafness, cataracts, spinal problems, glaucoma, Cushings disease, autoimmune disorders, hypothyroidism, epilepsy, congenital skin conditions, polyarthritis, and progressive renal atrophy, and genetic predispositions to cancer, to name a few

Yet, when most people decide on what dog to get, they seldom give any thought to the long-term financial and emotional cost of buying into an expensive and hear-wrenching canine health care problem.

Some basic rules of thumb:

• Go With GOD (Good Orderly Design):
  As a general rule, God doesn't make too much junk (man does that), and so one of the rules of thumb is to stay within the size world we see among natural dogs in the real world, and to stay away from any canine gene pool that has become too "evolved" through human intervention.
  
  Yes, what I am saying is think about adopting a small to mid-sized mutt. First of all, you may get real hybrid vigor. You may not too. That said, a dog from a pound is as likely to be as healthy or healthier than any raised in a closed-registry system. Second, a dog that weighs more than 15 pounds is going to be tough enough to "take it" at the dog park and in the back yard for a half hour on a cold day, while a dog under 40 pounds is far less likely to have expensive hip and ligament issues, and will also be cheaper to raise in terms of crates, travel, and food. Hotels and apartments generally green-light dogs under 40 pounds. When God made the Pye dog, He knew what He was doing!
  
  
• Avoid Really Massive Dogs:
  Dogs at the extreme end of the size scale generally have more expensive health issues and generally do not live long, to say nothing of the costs of fencing, crates, food, and boarding.
  
  Massive dogs tend to have serious joint and heart problems, as well as gastro-torsion issues.
  
  In addition to hip and heart problems, dogs with massive heads and overly long necks tends to get "the wobbles" -- a kind of neck problem in which the spinal vertebrae compresses on the spinal cord.
  
  Some massive breeds such as St. Bernards and Great Danes are also prone to bone cancer, perhaps due to too much pressure being put on their weight-stressed frames.
  
  Finally, massive dogs tend to over-heat in summer, and as a consequence you may find your massive dog spending a large huge portion of the year panting in the shade.

• Avoid Really Tiny Dogs:
  The rising popularity of super-small toy breeds is particularly unfortunate, as these dogs tend to be genetic wrecks with jaws that are over-crowded with teeth and bones so small and brittle than they may break if the dog so much as jumps off the couch.
  
  Some tiny breeds, such as toy poodles, may haves badly luxating patellas (slipping knees) which leave the dog three-legged much of the time.
  
  A common problem among some very small dogs is hydrocephaly (water on the brain)caused by too much cerebellum crammed into too-tiny skulls, leading to domed-shaped head and skull plates that may not completely close over, leaving a soft gap at the top called a "molera." And far from being rare, these bulging heads and molera are actually being bred for!! The AKC breed club for the the Chihuahua calls a molera a "mark of purity," sniffing that not all dogs with molera actually have hydrocephaly, which is true. That said, when your dog does have hydrocephally, you have a dog that is mentally retarded. And hydrocephally and the molera are being caused by the exact same thing: breeding dogs too small.
  
  
• Avoid Dogs That are Really Out of Proportion:
  Dogs that are really out of proportion tend to have higher-than-normal healthy case issues, whether these dogs have massive heads (like English Bulldogs), or tiny legs (like Dachshunds and Basset Hounds). A lot of the dogs that are out of proportion suffer from a kind of dwarfism called "achondroplasia" which not only stresses joints, but also tends to be associated with serious back and heart problems.
  
  
• Avoid Dogs With Very Flat Faces:
  Dogs that are bred to be very flat-faced (brachycephalic) typically have a hard time breathing, get winded easily, and often have soft palate issues which further complicate air intake. In addition, due to the flatness of the face, dogs such as English Bulldogs, Pugs, and Pekingese are also prone to eye injuries.
  
  
• Avoid Dogs With Any Seriously Exaggerated Feature:
  Dogs with deep wrinkles, such as Shar Peis, and long pendulous ears such as Bloodhounds and Bassets, tend to have a lot of smaller problems, ranging from cherry eye (Bloodhounds and Bassets) to skin and ear infections (Shar Peis and Bassets). I would also avoid any dog with incredibly long coats. "Hair dresser breeds" may seem fine while flipping through an all-breed dog book, but living with them for 10-15 years is not for everyone.
  
  
• Avoid Any Dog Breed With a Disease Named After It:
  Almost all breeds carry a genetic load of some kind, but some loads are heavier than others. At the very least go into any dog acquisition with your eyes wide open, and research the health issues that are most likely to come up with your breed or type of dog. The last thing you want to discover is that your breed is "really prone to cancer" ... or hip dysplasia .... or heart conditions ... or "eye anomaly" ... or congenital skin conditions ... or epilepsy or .... and the list goes on and on.
  
  

Baby Groundhogs Resemble Squirrels for a Reason

Very young groundhogs are commonly found on April and May digs. On some farms I hunt, they are dispatched at the request of the farmer, and others they are let go because the farmer does not particularly care if they are about (a corn crop is not much affected by groundhogs, while soybeans can be chewed up, especially on the edge of fields).

What's the difference between a groundhog and a woodchuck? Not a thing; just different names for the same animal.

Baby groundhogs remind us that the adult animals are actually members of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) of the genus Marmota.

The Eastern chipmunk is the groundhog's closest relative. Woodchucks are the largest members of the squirrel family and the only solitary-living marmot.
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Good Leash Design With Low-Cost Materials

Over at the Regal Vizsla blog, Andrew talks about liking his new European-style hunting leash available from Hogan Leather.

I too like Euro-leads, but I do not think I will ever shell out $42 for a leash -- I am simply too cheap, and too disorganized. And yes, I have lost leashes in the field while hunting, and done it more than once.

In my defense, I think terrier work may be a little more chaotic that bird-shooting -- we have hedgerows to machete, anywhere from two to four dogs to cope with, ten or more tools to keep up with (shovel, bar, machete, posthole digger, root saw, yoho trowel, den scraper, critter snare, two packs, dog tie-outs), the physical work of digging, live quarry that can take a finger off, and the mound of dirt that has been taken out of the hole, which has to go back into the hole. In the ballet of it all, it's easy to overlook a single leash tethered to a small tree 15 feet from the dig.

The good news is that a pretty nice 6-foot "Eurolead" leash can be had for $18 plus shipping. These are made by Hamilton, and are pretty-fair quality as I recall (my folks still use the one that I gave them some years back).

A couple of years ago, however, I decided to experiment, and I came up with a very simple $7 do-it-yourself leash that has worked well for me. And though my leashes are ugly, they are also useful, simple, and cheap.

As a consequence, if a visiting dog chews through one, or if I leave one dangling from a tree in the forest, or if they are ground into the dirt during a dig, I do not feel too bad about it

Here's how I make them:

• Start with a 30-foot long black cotton training lead, and nine brass trigger snaps. If you prefer stainless or some another kind of snap, use that.



• Cut the lead into three nine-foot sections.



• Slip a brass clip into the bite in the middle (see far right, at picture below).



• Dip each of the slightly frayed ends of the cotton leash into a bit of black plasti-dip which is sold at most hardware stores for covering tool handles. The plasti-dip effectively seals the cotton ends so they do not unravel.



• When the ends are dry, use a single overhand hitch to tie a brass clip on to each end of the two leash ends (see the two clips on the left).

Believe it or not, that's all there is to it -- no real knots or sewing is needed.

The cotton is soft enough that it crushes on itself and holds well. I have never had a dog come off a leash (granted my dogs are small working terriers and not wolfhounds), and I can adjust the clip length any time I want.

The elegance here is not in the materials or the manufacturing, but in the simple design and its myriad uses in the field.

The finished leash should look very much like a brace couple with each side from the center clip approximately 4.5 feet long.

In fact, that's one way to use this leash -- to tie out two dogs at once at a dig, or to walk two dogs at once when the center clip is affixed to a belt or a rucksack's shoulder strap ring.

You can also affix the center clip to a low-hanging shrub or tree branch and tie out two dogs in the shade -- the branch will give some spring, and if you pick the right shrub, they cannot get entangled.

Perhaps the best way to use this leash is to simply take one side of the leash and hook it to the center strap, and then slip that over your shoulder and across your chest. The loose end, of course, is clipped to a dog (or dogs if a very short brace-couple is used there). Now you can walk hands-free, no matter how hard the dog lunges.

This same set up can be used to tie a dog to a fat tree, or to clip two dogs to a cyclone fence.

Put two of these leashes together, and you have a no-hands, over-the-shoulder leash with 4.5 feet of leash that you can affix to the middle section of the second leash which you used as a kind of long brace-hitch. Now you can walk two dogs hands-free, with the dogs free to roam as far as 10 feet in front of you. Or, if you prefer, you can hook the second leash to where the first leash is hooked at the shoulder, and now you can walk three dogs at once, hands-free.

Other than price, why do I think my do-it-yourself version is a little bit better than the off-the-shelf design commonly sold?

The short answer is length. A 9 foot-long leash is simply a lot more useful than a 6-foot long leash, especially if you are walking two dogs at once, or if you are looping a 4.5 foot section of the leash around your shoulder in order to walk one dog hands-free. In the field, I am more than willing to trade a little ugliness for a little utility.

Of course, these 9-foot leashes could be from leather by simply cutting down a really long long set of reins and putting in some rivets, or they could be made from nylon webbing. However, if I used either of these materials, cost would go up and loss and replacement of a leash would then be a bigger deal than I ever want it to be. So I race to the basement, sacrificing looks for utility, and the dogs do not really seem to mind.
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Gratuitous Mushroom Picture

Anyone want to take an identification guess on this one?

Maryland, spring, on standing dead wood, the size of my palm. Not a pleurotus. I assume this is gilled, though I did not really look. These were a bit blown, and were holding water in their caps.
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Digging on the Dogs

A few pictures from yesterday.

The day started off fine right out of the box with Garvey locating. Yes sir, Garvey the Green dog located, and when we found him he was in the earth baying it up! Yahoo!

This was a pretty straightforward pop-hole dig of about two feet, and we accounted for a mid-sized groundhog out of it. Garvey and Bean are still a bit tentative, but they clearly are getting the hang of it.

Mountain of course, had buggered off again at the end of this dig in order to locate something new. And she did. When I found her about 40 minutes later, she had clearly been deep in black earth. Thinking I knew where she might have been (based on her location when found) I went to check a rocky den located on a down slope in a jumble of downed trees, but the soil there was the wrong color, and the dogs were not interested. We moved on .

We checked a lot of empty settes along the forest line and in a couple of hedgerows, but found nothing. The weather was beginning to look a little dodgy.

Mountain wandered off again, looking for what she knows is out there. When we caught up with her, she was in the ground and baying it up. She was clearly hard on it, and we downed tools, cut away some multi-flora rose and vine, and popped in on another groundhog. I snared this one, holding it and Mountain for a quick picture before letting it go.

A bit farther on Mountain found again, this time under an enormous boulder that butted up against a tree. The groundhog was in this fortress, but we managed to bang a hole into the side of it anyway. Right about this time the rain started to come down for real, and we decided to give this groundhog good leave and call it a day.

The dogs leashed up we headed back to the vehicles, arriving back not totally soaked, but pretty shy of dry. All the dogs were in fine shape, and before we were too far down the road, the rain began to come down hard, dropping 3 inches overnight.
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Warbler Politics: How Birds Made Two Presidents

Prothonotary warbler

• A recycled post from a year ago, triggered in large part by the large number of warblers drive north by storm over the last few days. The trees are full of them!

The weather seems to change every day now, with cold and warm fronts crashing into each other, and the resulting squalls bringing flocks of small birds north on the winds.

The warblers are now beginning to return in droves. They are more visible now than they will be later on when the foliage will obscure them high up in the trees. You have to look carefully among the mixed flocks of returning chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches to find the warblers, but they are there.

Warblers are very important birds, as they are the primary insect eaters in North America's woods. The bad news is that most warblers are in rapid decline over vast portions of the U.S. due to forest fragmentation which is occuring both in the U.S. and overseas where "our" warblers spend the winter. I have written a bit about that in the past.

Something I have not written about before is how warblers have shaped presidential politics. In fact, it is not too much to say that "warbler controversies" have led directly to two presidents being elected to office.

The first president to have his early career shaped by a warbler was Richard Nixon.

Back in 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a senior editor at Time magazine, and a former Communist spy turned government informer, accused Alger Hiss of being a spy for the communists in the mid-1930s.

Chambers was not exactly a credible witness; he had very little documentation to back up his charges and he admitted at the Hiss trial that he had repeatedly committed perjury on other occasions. Inititially it was not clear he had even met Hiss, much less knew him well.

Chambers claimed he did know Hiss, and backed it up by noting that Hiss was a bird-watcher who was very proud that he had seen a prothonotary warbler near Glenn Echo Park just outside of Washington, D.C.

In cross examination of Hiss before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), a young Congressman by the name of Richard Nixon asked a seemingly innocent question: "What hobbies, if any, do you have, Mr. Hiss?"

Hiss answered that his hobbies were "tennis and amateur ornithology." Congressman John McDowell then jumped in an asked Hiss whether he had ever seen a prothonotary warbler?

Hiss walked right into the trap, responding that he had -- "right here on the Potomac."

Slam -- the trap had been tripped. Committee members were now convinced it was Hiss who was lying, not Chambers. After a series of trials, Hiss was sentenced to prison for 5 years based on very sketchy (and still controversial) evidence.

As for Nixon, he managed to use the Hiss affair to propel himself from the U.S. House of Representatives into the Senate, and from the Senate into the Vice Presidency under President Dwight Eisenhower.

The rest, as they say, is history.

The saga was was not quite over, however. In 1952, not quite content to let his 15 minutes of fame pass him by, Whittaker Chambers published his autobiography, which was entitled Witness. Ronald Reagan later credited this book with transforming him from a New Deal Democrat into a conservative Republican.

While shilling for General Electric in the 1950s and early 60s, Reagan made frequent references to Whittaker Chambers in his speeches, and on March 26, 1984 -- 23 years after Chambers had died -- Reagan posthumously gave Whittaker Chambers the nation's highest honor, the Medal of Freedom.

Probably no one has ever deserved it less.




Golden-cheeked warbler.



Another President propelled into office on the wings of a warbler was the current President -- George W. Bush.

In June of 1994, a memo from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service was leaked. The memo outlined a tentative plan to declare hundreds of thousands of acres across 33 counties in Texas hill country as being "critical habitat" for the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler.

It was feared that, if implemented, "the plan" would have made it virtually impossible to bulldoze Ashe juniper off of the surrounding hills -- a necessity if those hills were to be turned into nice new housing developments with grass lawns and underground sprinkler systems.

Massive opposition to the informal Fish & Wildlife Service proposal sprang up overnight, with school auditoriums quickly filled to capacity by ranchers, developers, and property owners who were led to believe that the draft proposal was soon going to be made into law overnight, and that it would impact almost all private property.

In fact, the proposal was a mere internal memo within the agency (no rules or regulations had been written or circulated, and no draft Environmental Impact Statement had been initiated), and the designation of critical habitat directly affected only actions that were to be federally funded or authorized, not privately-held lands.

George W. Bush was not a stickler for the facts (then or now) and he jumped on the wave of misinformation circulating through Texas in order to fan the flames of discontent. Positioning himself as a champion of the property rights movement, Bush hammered on the "federal land grab" even after Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had disavowed the leaked memo and Texas Governor Ann Richards also voiced her strong opposition.

Richards, of course, was too late. Bush campaign operatives -- including Karl Rove -- had already framed the issue and associated Ann Richards with it -- never mind the facts or her true position.

Texas being Texas, and modern political discourse being what it is, people believed the Bush Campaign's spin.

In the end, due in no small part to the warbler controversy, George W. Bush was elected Governor of Texas, which he later used as a stepping-stone to the White House.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

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The Full Monty

Click to enlarge. Hat tip to Kelly H. for this one!

Poison Ivy Prevention & Treatment

Poison Ivy is one of the burdens of American terrier work -- it's out there and you will get it if you work enough hedgerows.

Poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac are all in the Rhus family of plants, and these plants produce more cases of contact dermatitis than all other substances combined. Plant-caused rashes can affect any part of the body, but commonly affect the forearms, face and back of the hands.

Poison ivy skin rashes are not contagious -- only the toxic oil of the plant (urushiol) causes the poison ivy reaction, and generally it has to be on your skin for an hour or more before it takes effect.

You can reduce or eliminate your chance of getting poison ivy in the field by wiping off your arms with soap and water if they have been dragging around in poison ivy during a dig. A very easy way to do this is with a packet of "handywipes" designed to clean off oils, such as Kimberly-Clark's Professional Heavy-Duty Hand Cleaning Wipes.

Tecnu is a special outdoor skin cleanser that removes Poison Oak and Ivy Oils from your skin. This product stops the irritant from spreading and can also decontaminate pets and tools. Small bottles are at many camping stores and pharmacies, such as Walgrens -- just apply with a small hankerchief.

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Inbred to Death?

Pedigree dogs face extinction due to inbreeding
The Telegraph By Jasper Copping May 11, 2008

Many of Britain's most popular dog breeds could be extinct within 50 years because they are so inbred, vets have warned.

Some pedigrees are suffering from a range of worsening health problems because they are being bred from a shrinking gene pool in an effort to create the most sought-after physical characteristics.

Many breeds will die out as a result of hereditary diseases, the vets warn.

Emma Milne, the television vet who will address the British Veterinary Association on the subject next week, said: "If things carry on as they are, within 50 years many breeds will not survive. There are breeds with massive welfare problems that are in dire need of action.

"The constant refinements made by this kind of breeding mean they have become cartoon caricatures of what dogs used to be."

Ms Milne, who starred in the long-running series Vets in Practice, said animals were now having to be put down because of hereditary diseases, which had become widespread.

"This isn't natural. They are not really viable breeds but are being artificially maintained. A lot would die if they were not treated. If it carries on like this, veterinary intervention will not be able to save some of them."

Of the more than 200 pedigree breeds in Britain, most now have problems with hereditary diseases.

Among those most at risk are breeds such as the bulldog, which suffers from breathing problems, and shar peis, which are bred with twice as much skin as necessary, and suffer from chronic infections.

Both breeds cost about £1,000 a puppy. The average price for pedigrees is £600.

Dachshunds are increasingly prone to arthritis, because they are bred to have longer bodies and shorter legs, while Yorkshire terriers often need orthopaedic surgery to fix dislocated knees.

Deafness is now common in dalmatians, because the deafness gene is linked to the shape of the spots, for which they are bred.

While great danes and Irish wolfhounds, selectively bred for their massive sizes, have been left susceptible to heart disease and bone cancer and are lucky to live to seven.

Of the two most popular breeds, labrador retrievers suffer from three different hereditary joint problems, six eye and two heart conditions, while English cocker spaniels have five eye and four heart conditions, as well as kidney disease.

A new association has been set up to push for reform of the pedigree dog system.

The Pets Parliament has been established to secure ratification of the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals, which has already been signed by more than 20 countries.

The convention highlights a list of breed characteristics that need to be modified for the dogs' best interests and also bans breeding if the two animals share a grandparent.

The move could see some breeds disappear, and alter significantly in appearance, and the move is being resisted by the Kennel Club, which currently registers pedigrees.

Holly Lee, from the Kennel Club, said: "We're aware of the inherited health problems but we're the best placed to deal with them."

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Obama Pulls Ahead of Clinton in Superdelegates

"Senator Barack Obama surged ahead of his rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the count of superdelegates on Friday, the first time since the outset of the race that Mrs. Clinton has lost the lead in one of her few remaining trump cards." From the Gray Lady herself
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Casa Terrierman

I saw this slid show widget on another blog, and figured I would try it out. Since I had nothing else to shoot, here are some random pictures of the house and yard.
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Gallows Pole :: Led Zepplin

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Flea Powder for Less and Canine "Dry Shampoo"

I'm old fashioned, and believe that flea powder still has its place.

I use 5% carbaryl powder (such as Sevin) which you can get at the hardware store. It's used on tomato plants and is very cheap as a consequence, but it's also approved for use on dogs and cats -- see the label.

Sevin is a very good product for a dry space under a dog house or kennel bench where fleas might jungle up.

Sevin is required inside a vacuum cleaner bag, where flea larvae and adults are likely to end up after you vacuum.

Click here for a nice two-page sheet on dogs and fleas, and the various insecticides that can be safely used to battle them.

Along with flea powder, I also believe in flea and tick shampoo in season -- the cheapest stuff possible.

My dogs get washed after every hunt -- about three times a month. I have never had a problem with dry or itchy skin.

In the winter months, I simply use human shampoo on the dogs -- the same low-rent stuff I use on myself, and which get at the grocery store for $1.25 a bottle. The label, without a hint of irony, says it is called "Suave." All I know is that it works fine, and all shampoo is the same.

The notion that dog shampoo should be expensive or is "special" is pure marketing bunk. If a product is gentle enough and effective enough to be used on humans every day (twice a day some days in the summer), then it's perfectly fine for the dogs.

That said, a quick "dry dog bath" can also given if you are on the road hunting, and washing the dog inside a hotel room might be problematic

The trick here is to use a simple home-made powder or "dry shampoo," and to comb it in -- and out --thoroughly.

My recipe is to knock two-thirds of the baby powder out of one of the really small shaker cans they sell at the Dollar Store or in the "sample" aisle of the grocery store. Fill the now-empty shaker can with one third baby powder, one-third flea powder, and one-third corn starch or baking powder. Sprinkle the powder on the dog liberally, work it well, and then comb it out well after a few minutes (finish up with a flea comb).

This powder deodorizes (the corn starch or baking powder), kills fleas and ticks (the Sevin powder) , and leaves the dogs smelling fresh (the baby powder).

Make enough at one time to fill the small shaker can several times (store your extra powder in an old coffee can or jar with a label on it), and put the shaker inside your vet box where it can be accessed when you are on the road. Refill as needed.
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Nice Magazine Art, If You Can Get It

I was about to pull out from work, when I did a last-minute check of my email box and found a note from someone "Re: Your article on inbreeding."

My article on inbreeding? I popped open the email and was reminded that I had green lighted a dog publication in the U.K. to reprint a 2006 post from this blog entitled "Inbred Thinking."

I had offered to rewrite it a bit if they wanted, but they said they were fine with it as it was, and so I gave them permission to go ahead. Since no new work was involved, and the original blog post had been written in 2006, the whole thing barely registered on the radar. I had forgotten about it.

So, imagine my surprise to pop open the link and see the art!

Nice stuff, eh? At least I think so. I was pretty pleased.

As I told the fellow from the magazine in an email back, "It's like dog porn, and I mean that in the nicest, most complimentary way possible."

And I really do.

Anyone who is nice enough (and brave enough!) to use anything I write about dogs in a popular magazine gets a plug from me, so here goes: K-9 Magazine is "the UK's leading lifestyle magazine for dog lovers," and the annual online subscription is only £10.00.

A quick glance through the online issue found a very interesting-looking article on the origins of working dogs, with an emphasis on coursing breeds (I'm gonna read that tomorrow!), and a glance at the collected covers suggests a simple, commercial concept: Very pretty women holding their dogs. Brilliant!

Which reminds me of a story -- sadly, a true one.

Some years back, I was working a "fun day" function with the dogs, and I saw a woman walking by with a Border Terrier and a Scottish Deerhound in tow.

Ah! That must be G____ I thought -- an online friend whom I had never actually met, as we live in different parts of this vast and cluttered country. I would try to introduce myself a bit later on if I could remember.

But of course I never did, as the time escaped from me (again).

Anyway, the next week, I zapped the woman a short email, noting I had just missed her at the Border Terrier fun day.

I had? Not a chance, she said, as she was still in Wisconsin. What did the woman look like that I had seen in Virginia?

And, to tell the truth, I could not remember! I could, however, describe the Border Terrier and the Deerhound perfectly.

And no, I am not gay. But thanks for asking.

It's just that I am pretty sure the woman in question did not look like these.

I think I would have noticed.


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Hillary Hopes on Hate and Rush is Happy to Oblige

• Limbaugh issues orders for Indiana
  
  
• Exit polls indicate Limbaugh's minions turning out for Clinton

Standards and Stonehenge

John Henry Walsh invented the Kennel Club "standard" -- cookie cutter judging based on a series of arbitrary points compiled by folks who may not have even owned any of the dogs they were writing a "standard" for.

Walsh was editor of The Field magazine, and wrote for that publication under the pseudonym of ‘Stonehenge.’

In 1867, a scant eight years after the first formal dog show, Walsh published The Dogs of the British Islands, in which he and several friends set out to to detail the physical attributes of various breeds, and to assign various "points" to these features so that the dogs could be judged in a systematic way from show to show.

Walsh's point system (along wih the eugenics theories of Francis Galton) served as the backbone and architectural model of the Kennel Club point system which is used to judge dogs in the ring, and on the bench, to this day.

Yet, here's a question: Do these show-ring standards actually tell us anything about the dogs in question?

For example, without resorting to a search engine, can you even tell what breed of dog this is?

And how, exactly, are the attributes of this breed different from other breeds of a similar type?

Other than guessing, how do you know that this dog is definitively a "This" rather than dedinitively a "That?"

And if standards are so damn important and immutable, why has every canine standard been changed at least once?

Head
Long and narrow, fairly wide between the ears, scarcely perceptible stop, little or no development of nasal sinuses, good length of muzzle, which should be powerful without coarseness. Teeth very strong and even in front.

Ears
Small and fine in texture, thrown back and folded, except when excited, when they are semi-pricked.

Eyes
Dark, bright, intelligent, indicating spirit.

Neck
Long, muscular, without throatiness, slightly arched, and widening gradually into the shoulder.

Shoulders
Placed as obliquely as possible, muscular without being loaded.

Forelegs
Perfectly straight, set well into the shoulders, neither turned in nor out, pasterns strong.

Chest
Deep, and as wide as consistent with speed, fairly well-sprung ribs.

Back
Muscular and broad.

Loins
Good depth of muscle, well arched, well cut up in the flanks.

Hindquarters
Long, very muscular and powerful, wide and well let down, well-bent stifles. Hocks well bent and rather close to ground, wide but straight fore and aft.

Feet
Hard and close, rather more hare than catfeet, well knuckled up with good strong claws.

Tail
Long, fine and tapering with a slight upward curve.

Coat
Short, smooth and firm in texture.

Color
Immaterial.

Weight
Dogs, 65 to 70 pounds; bitches 60 to 65 pounds

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Beyond the Border of Reason

Nothing hurts America's environmental movement more than nonsense, and the same can be said for America's immigration reform movement.

What piques my ire today? The latest bit of silliness is a post from CNN entitled "Border-fence dispute snares rare jaguars."

Of course, it's all an absurdity. Jaguars are fairly common in large parts of South America, and have never existed, as a resident population, north of the border, though there has always been a small population of about 100-150 animal in Northern Mexico.

So what's the big deal?

The issue, it seems, is that two environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, have filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court claiming the new border fence under construction is "unconstitutional." And their rationale is (wait for it) that the fence would prevent the migration of non-existent and not-endangered jaguars!

To which I can only reply: Nonsense.

Pardon me if I do not fall down over this make-weight legal argument. This is not environmentalism; this is left-wing political pandering, and it undermines credibility which, once lost, is not easily repaired.

What is particularly unconscionable here is that the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife have done nothing to help address America's open-border immigration policy which has fueled rapid U.S. population growth over the last 20 years.

And have no illusion as to why our environment is under siege. America's forests, fields, beaches, lakes, rivers and estuaries are not committing suicide; they are being cut down, drained, paved over and poisoned by population growth. As Jim Motavalli notes in E Magazine (Jan-Feb. - 2004):

"With U.S. population growing by three million a year, we lose two acres of farmland every minute, according to the American Farmland Trust. Traffic congestion costs drivers $78 billion a year, says the Road Information Project. A serious water shortage is developing nationwide, with aquifers once considered inexhaustible drying up."

And what is the Sierra Club's answer to rapid U.S. population growth?

Silence.

This is a group that thinks it's fine to talk about population growth overseas, but God forbid that anyone point out that legal and illegal immigration is now fueling more than 90 percent of U.S. population growth at home.

God forbid that anyone note that the U.S. has the fastest population growth rate of any industrialized country in the world today.

God forbid that anyone note the recent USA Today headline: "Expert: U.S. population to hit 1 billion by 2100."

Andy Kerr of the Oregon Natural Resources Conservancy (one of Oregon's foremost environmental activists, and a true warrior for the environment), got it right in 2002 when he called the big "green" groups to task for being silent apologists for runaway U.S. population growth:

Immigration is a very divisive and sensitive issue that nonetheless must be discussed. To those who support generous immigration, I ask you this: Why are you on the same side as Microsoft and the other huge computer corporations, and of Archer Daniels Midland and the rest of the agribusiness lobby? How can you support a policy that helps ensure that our existing poor will never be adequately valued for their labor?

To those who oppose immigration because of racist and/or xenophobic reasons, I say to you: Go to hell. The issue is immigration, not immigrants.

I come to my support of immigration reform from an ecological carrying-capacity perspective. Be it a house, a block, a city, a watershed, a state, a bioregion, a nation, a continent, or a planet; all have a carrying capacity. . . .

The only smart growth is no growth.

Remember Isaiah 5:8: "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the Earth."

.... [T]he Oregon we love is like a car speeding toward a cliff. While may disagree on the rate of speed, or the distance left to the cliff, those are details that in the end don't matter.

To which I would add only applause and an "Amen."

Meanwhile our politicians continue to pander as hard and fast as the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife do.

John McCain wants a huge amnesty, and if he's put in office with a Democratic House and Senate (as seems likely), it will be the only thing the two sides can agree on, and it will sail through Congress with the speed of a War Powers Act after Pearl Harbor. Besides, at the advanced age of 71, John McCain is not going to run for President again, so what does he care that an amnesty is unpopular with the American people? He's "Maverick" by God, and he will do what he wants. Besides, he figures, jamming an illegal alien amnesty for 12 million will get in the history books. And, no doubt, he is right on that!

As for Hillary Clinton, if she becomes the Democrat nominee, John McCain will win the presidency. It really is that just that simple.

Which leaves us with Obama.

He too gives a nod to amnesty (all three candidates do), but in reality, I think he will have too many other big agenda items on his plate to ever get this one done.

If elected, Barack is going to be up to his ass ending the war in Iraq, stabilizing and reducing gas prices, fixing our broken trade policy, putting the housing crisis in order, repairing our roads and bridges, and regaining control of our borders. Though he mumbles a little about an amnesty, Barack has consistently said that we need to put immigration law enforcement first and he supports a fence at the border and tough, and enforced, employer sanctions). With Barack, an illegal alien amnesty may be on the agenda (same as with McCain and Hillary), but unlike McCain, it is part of his agenda I do not think he will ever catch up to because bigger, more important, issues will always get in the way.

• Related Posts:
  ** Drawing the Line at the Border for Wildlife's Sake
  ** The Real Threat to Hunting in America
  ** Immigration Control Ideas Ahead of Their Time
  ** Locking Back Doors to Keep Front Doors Open
  ** Immigration: Winning the Battle & Losing the War
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