Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Yet another dog found
As we set off to take our dogs for a walk down the Highline Canal this morning, we ran into this hound dog coming towards us in the opposite direction. He has a collar, but no tags. He's friendly and well-fed, and (surprisingly for this neighborhood) a neutered male. We've put him in our front yard and given him water, and put his photo up on Pets911.com. With any luck, his owners are somewhere nearby. (If they're close enough, they should be hearing his distinctive hound bark...)
UPDATE (1:30 p.m.): His owner put a "lost dog" ad on azcentral.com that we just found, and came and got him. He normally has tags, but they came off when he got out about a week ago.
Posted by Lippard at 10/20/2007 11:48:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, Arizona, dogs
Monday, October 15, 2007
Yet another puppy found
Posted by Lippard at 10/15/2007 07:27:00 PM 2 comments
Labels: animal rescue, dogs
Thursday, October 04, 2007
How much animal euthanization is unnecessary?
Tuesday's San Francisco Chronicle reports on the content of Nathan Winograd's Redemption: The Myth of Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America, a book which claims that there isn't a dog and cat overpopulation problem or lack of demand for them as pets, but that most animal control and animal shelter operations are simply not taking the most effective steps to care for their animals. Winograd's book and his organization, the No Kill Advocacy Center, argues that by using effective volunteer animal fostering programs and behavior rehabilitation programs, and partnering with local animal rescue groups, there should be no need to euthanize any healthy, adoptable animals. He's not just talking about it, he's successfully done it as director of operations for the San Francisco SPCA and for a rural animal shelter in upstate New York.
The No Kill Advocacy Center promotes the "No Kill Equation," a set of ten programs that it identifies as mandatory for any animal control or shelter operation to reduce euthanasia to a minimum:
I recommend reading the SF Chronicle's coverage of Winograd's book. If you're a supporter of your local animal shelters and animal control operations and they engage in euthanasia to make space for new animals, they deserve to be asked pointed questions about what they're doing along the lines of Winograd's recommendations.II. High-Volume, Low-Cost Spay/Neuter
III. Rescue Groups
IV. Foster Care
V. Comprehensive Adoption Programs
VI. Pet Retention
VII. Medical and Behavior Rehabilitation
VIII. Public Relations/Community Involvement
IX. Volunteers
RESCUE, an organization that we volunteer for, is an organization committed to reducing euthanasia of dogs and cats by taking animals from the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control euthanasia lists and keeping them in foster homes or boarding until they can be adopted out to someone who's a good match for the pet based on the pet's behavior and adopter's lifestyle.
(Hat tip to Jack Kolb on the SKEPTIC list for posting the article about Winograd's book. Thanks, Jack.)
Posted by Lippard at 10/04/2007 06:43:00 AM 3 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, Arizona, dogs
Monday, September 10, 2007
Our dogs featured on RESCUE's new website
Kat previously blogged about Ollie almost a year ago.
Also check out RESCUE's donation page...
Posted by Lippard at 9/10/2007 07:19:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, charitable giving, dogs, Otto
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Adopt Bully!
We tried to adopt him about 1 ½ years ago, but after two perfect months in our house, he began to attack one of our dogs. Neither dog was ever injured, but we could not trust Bully around our dogs. Other than that, he is a great dog. He loves attention and belly rubs, will come when called, won’t chew inappropriately, and never had an accident in the house. Despite his rather tough life, Bully always has a smile on his face and is happy to see you.
Bully is: affectionate, lap dog, house broken, neutered, eager to please, unknown behavior with children, extremely intelligent, unpredictable aggression towards other dogs.
Posted by Kat Lippard at 7/15/2007 12:10:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, dogs
Friday, June 15, 2007
Atheists weak on charitable giving
Most atheists and agnostics (56 percent) agree with the idea that radical Christianity is just as threatening in America as is radical Islam. Two-thirds of active-faith Americans (63 percent) perceive that the nation is becoming more hostile and negative toward Christianity.The results about "convinced they are right about things in life" is not surprising--that strikes me as the difference between arrogant dogmatism and open-mindedness and humility, and brings to mind studies which have shown that the highly competent believe themselves to be less competent than the incompetent believe themselves to be.
Atheists and agnostics were found to be largely more disengaged in many areas of life than believers. They are less likely to be registered to vote (78 percent) than active-faith Americans (89 percent); to volunteer to help a non-church-related non-profit (20 percent vs. 30 percent); to describe themselves as "active in the community" (41 percent vs. 68 percent); and to personally help or serve a homeless or poor person (41 percent vs. 61 percent).
Additionally, when the no-faith group does donate to charitable causes, their donation amount pales in comparison to those active in faith. In 2006, atheists and agnostics donated just $200 while believers contributed $1,500. The amount is still two times higher among believers when subtracting church-based giving.
The no-faith group is also more likely to be focused on living a comfortable, balanced lifestyle (12 percent) while only 4 percent of Christians say the same. And no-faith adults are also more focused on acquiring wealth (10 percent) than believers (2 percent). One-quarter of Christians identified their faith as the primary focus of their life.
Still, one-quarter of atheists and agnostics said "deeply spiritual" accurately describes them and three-quarters of them said they are clear about the meaning and purpose of their life.
When it came to being "at peace," however, researchers saw a significant gap with 67 percent of no-faith adults saying they felt "at peace" compared to 90 percent of believers. Atheists and agnostics are also less likely to say they are convinced they are right about things in life (38 percent vs. 55 percent) and more likely to feel stressed out (37 percent vs. 26 percent).
The lack of voter registration could also be a sign that atheists and agnostics don't think their vote makes a difference.
What I find contrary to my own personal experience are the results regarding charitable giving and assistance to the homeless. From my perspective, all of the charitable donation dollar amounts ($200/year for atheists/agnostics, $400/year for believers not counting church giving, $1500/year for believers including church giving) seem quite low.
I'd like to see more of the data, and see how income level and political affiliations are correlated with charitable contributions. (I previously commented on another study that found that conservatives were more generous than liberals, which also said that the religious were more generous than the secular.) I've found significant differences within secular groups when raising funds for RESCUE's Bowl-a-Rama two years ago (which Kat was a bowler for last year)--my requests for donations to groups of skeptics yielded absolutely nothing from people who have known me (at least online) for years, while my request to the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix yielded well over $1,000 in donations, many from people who didn't know me at all. (My target was to raise $3,500 for the event, which I surpassed.) I've heard, similarly, that more donations to the Center for Inquiry come from humanists than from skeptics, even though there are more skeptics subscribing to Skeptical Inquirer than there are humanists subscribing to Free Inquiry. HSGP, by the way, is a regular contributor to HomeBase Youth Services, a group that helps homeless youth in Arizona.
Another comparison from my own experience that is inconsistent with these results is that Kat and I know a couple of homeless people by name who we periodically help out in various ways (typically not by just giving them money), yet we're unaware of any similar activities by our extended families (who are all born-again Christians on my side). But perhaps the survey answerers were counting giving cash to panhandlers at freeway ramps or on the street, which is something I make a point of not doing, and don't consider to be an effective way of helping the truly needy (though I have, in the past, fallen for the occasional well-told sob story from a con artist about a lost wallet, dead battery, need for bus fare to a job, etc.).
Posted by Lippard at 6/15/2007 07:28:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: animal rescue, atheism, charitable giving, finance, religion
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Microsoft's new Turing Test
Posted by Lippard at 6/12/2007 08:12:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, dogs, security, technology
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Ahwatukee Pet Idol
The Ahwatukee Foothills News is sponsoring an "Ahwatukee Pet Idol" contest, all proceeds of which will go to the animal rescue group that Kat and I volunteer for, Arizona R.E.S.C.U.E.
Our dog Otto is a contestant and could use your vote...
UPDATE (June 23, 2007): Otto has made it through the first two rounds of cuts and is one of the 25 finalists in the last round of voting.
Posted by Lippard at 5/23/2007 08:17:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: animal rescue, dogs, Otto
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Animal rescue awards and recognition events
Next Saturday, we'll be attending the Arizona Humane Society's annual donor recognition brunch. We're looking forward to hearing what AHS has planned for the coming year. Where R.E.S.C.U.E. has been around for twelve years and operates on a tiny budget and emphasizes quality adoptions over quantity, AHS turns 50 this year, has a multi-million dollar annual budget, two impressive large facilities in Phoenix, and is able to perform a wide variety of services including mobile emergency animal medical services (which can be seen on television on Animal Planet's "Animal Planet Heroes Phoenix" series).
Posted by Lippard at 2/04/2007 05:09:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Meet Ollie
Ollie is our foster dog. Check him out on the RESCUE site. He's great fun and very loving. And available for adoption in the Phoenix area.
UPDATE (December 10, 2006): Ollie was adopted last night by a family with another bassett hound and a shar pei.
Posted by Kat Lippard at 10/03/2006 07:46:00 PM 2 comments
Labels: animal rescue, dogs
Friday, July 28, 2006
Dogs and the Bible
(Hat tip to Ed Babinski.)
Posted by Lippard at 7/28/2006 08:03:00 PM 6 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, dogs
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Help me help dogs and cats
All pledges raised by RESCUE will go directly to their mission of providing a second chance at life for dogs and cats who, through no fault of their own, are spending their final days at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control. Thes money goes toward medical treatment, boarding, etc. while the animals are in RESCUE's care. The passion that began RESCUE has resulted in a volunteer-driven non-profit corporation with over 300 dedicated volunteers who have helped care for and place over 8,000 wonderful cats and dogs.
If you can spare $10, $20 or more, please go to http://bowl.azrescue.org and make a pledge to Team Tango.
Posted by Kat Lippard at 6/22/2006 07:31:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, dogs, Otto
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Find the Pit Bull
I believe any dog breed can be aggressive and a danger to society at large. Breed-specific legislation targets the dogs, not the people who are really the problem.
Posted by Kat Lippard at 3/04/2006 06:14:00 PM 2 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, dogs
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Nellie adopted
Nellie was an owner turn-in to Maricopa County Animal Care & Control. She's a very shy dog who did not do well in the noisy kennel environment and was on her way to euthanization. While in our care she did not fully overcome her shyness and skittishness, but she got much better and was very happy in our house. Our house is quieter without her and we miss her, but she found a great home.
Posted by Kat Lippard at 2/23/2006 06:45:00 PM 2 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, dogs
Monday, January 16, 2006
Animal Planet Heroes Phoenix
The show airs at 8 p.m. MST in the Phoenix market on the Animal Planet channel.
UPDATE: Kat and I attended the Arizona Humane Society's premiere event last night at Harkins Cine Capri. Many of the production crew (from Anglia Television), all of the EAMTs, and many AHS staff and volunteers were present, and available to chat after the show.
The show (an episode titled "Trapped Underground") was alternately heartwarming and saddening. A 14-year-old Spaniel was trapped 20 feet underground in a sinkhole in the owner's yard, a kitten was trapped in the piping of an apartment sprinkler system, a dog and her puppies were stung repeatedly by bees, and a large number of Brussels griffons were being kept in horrific conditions by a hoarder.
The upcoming schedule is a new episode each night this week: "Wandering Beagle" tonight (Jan. 17), "The Dog House" (Jan. 18), "Promise to Mother" (Jan. 19), and "Desert Rescue" (Jan. 20). Information on air dates and times may be found at Animal Planet's site.
Posted by Lippard at 1/16/2006 11:09:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: animal rescue, Arizona, dogs
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Another stray puppy
In our neighborhood, we frequently see stray dogs, usually without collars or identifying information. We catch them when we can, and turn them into the pound. The puppies tend to get quickly adopted. Others, we point out to RESCUE, an animal rescue group we volunteer with, so that if they get put on the euthanasia lists they may have another opportunity for survival. Unfortunately, RESCUE can't save all of them.
This puppy had been given to a homeless man we know, who in turn gave him to us to take care of. Kat removed numerous ticks and gave her a bath (the first photo is pre-bath, the second is post-bath). We estimated her age at less than three months, and the breed could be some kind of Chow mix. I think this is the fifth stray we've turned in this year; last year we turned in about the same number, including at least three puppies.
Posted by Lippard at 12/18/2005 07:22:00 PM 2 comments
Labels: animal rescue, animals, dogs