Category Archives: horses
It’s Hot for Pets, Too
Wouldn't it be nice if we could just lie in a pond like this during the worst heat?
There is hot, there is July Mid Western United States hot and then there is just extreme heat and that is what we all seem to be suffering under right now.
We all know to slow down and drink plenty of liquids and to not do strenuous exercise in the heat. If you are like me, it is all you can do to just get the minimal things accomplished you have to do to live. However, don’t forget about your pets. After all, it’s hot for pets too.
We have to remember to make sure our pets have an ample and easily reached source of water. We have to remember animals need at least a patch of shade to get under to get out of the direct sun. We have to remember to bring them inside into air conditioning or fans if we have them.
All of these things should seem like a given, because if you are like me you will make sure your dog, cat or other animal friend has the things they need just like you do to get through the hottest days on record. I put ice cubes in the water bowl and make sure it is always filled with fresh water. I put water in the bathroom sink so they can jump up on the vanity and put their paws in or just play in it when they want. I also make sure there is a cat perch that gets the cooling breeze of a fan or air conditioning vent. When I had a pet dog, I made sure never, ever to leave him in a parked car and I also made sure not to let him run or play a lot in the heat of the day.
I know most animal guardians do the same or similar things for their pets. But do you remember your pet’s feet?
That is right, their feet. Think about it. When you take your pet for a walk, are they walking on a cement or stone sidewalk? While you are wearing shoes are their paw pads hitting concrete that is well over one hundred degrees?
If you can’t keep your pet in the grass then you need to get them protective shoes or boots for their feet. I know the shoes or boots can be a little pricey. However, they don’t cost as much as a trip to the vet to treat burned paws.
Try to walk your pet in the early morning or late evening and keep them off pavement if possible. Just use this rule of thumb, if it is too hot for you to walk barefoot on the pavement, then it is too hot for your pet to do it. If it is hot for you it ‘s hot for pets too.
Below is a video of a horse who has the right idea when it comes to hot days. His horse guardians put a sprinkler out just to see what the horses would do. One particular horse named King Joseph took full advantage of the surprise source of cooling water.
Would anyone out there like to tell me once more why you call animals dumb?
Keep cool, keep your pets cool and enjoy your summer without injury. Just remember it’s hot for pets too.
Horses Seized in Maryland
People have really suffered due to the poor economy in the United States and around the world. At this time, many are still suffering from adverse economic conditions. When people suffer hardship, animals and pets they are responsible for naturally suffer too.
When economic stress hit Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Canterbury Farms was home to over one hundred Polish Arabian horses. By the time animal welfare authorities were called in, many of the horses were in very bad shape. In fact, some were as much as three hundred pounds underweight.
From The Humane Society Press Release;
CENTREVILLE, Md.— The Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), Days End Farm Horse Rescue and Summer Winds Stables assisted Queen Anne County Animal Control enforcement in the rescue of 133 horses from a Centreville property. The animals were removed from the property by Queen Anne County Animal Control after the County witnessed poor conditions during an inspection of the property. This is one of the largest equine rescues in the state.
When rescuers arrived on the 200-acre property, they found 133 Polish Arabian horses. Many were in poor health and showing signs of neglect. Many of the animals were extremely emaciated and suffering from a variety of medical ailments including overgrown, infected hooves and parasite infestation. Queen Anne County Animal Control initiated this case and reached out to the rescue groups for assistance.
I have difficulty understanding this kind of cruelty and abuse. Certainly this horse breeder could have reached out to animal or specifically horse organisations for help. But the fact is she kept breeding the horses for colts to sell while she was not providing food for them. The horses were starving. I am really trying not to be judgemental, but I truthfully can’t see any reason for this kind of treatment and neglect of animals.
The video below will allow you to see some of the horses.
No animals deserve this. Please, if you know of a situation in which an animal needs help or you yourself need help with your animal, contact the proper people to get assistance. Email fluffy feet and we will also try to find someone to help you.
Animals cannot email, text or make phone calls. It is up to us to be their voices when they need help.
This is what a well cared for Arabian horse should look like.
Hoof Power Returning to Farms
My father and grandfather would be very surprised to hear bringing oxen back to do a lot of work tractors usually do in the US is big news. When they were farming they used both oxen and draft horses to pull plows, clear fields and do any number of other things.
I personally have seen these animals hooked up to different pieces of equipment and working the farm. But that was in Amish country where the farmers don’t usually use tractors at all. However, unless they have gone to a fair or special show, many people under 50 may not have seen these huge and strong animals do their stuff.
It is great really when you think about it. You don’t have to waste fossil fuel and pollute the air when you use oxen and you get a whole lot of fertilizer for the compost heap and eventually the garden.
From The New York Times;
Standing just inside the paddock at Moon in the Pond Farm, where he works, he put a rope around Lucas and Larson, his pair of Brown Swiss steer. He led them to the 20-pound maple yoke he had bought secondhand from another ox farmer, hoisted it over their necks and led them trundling through the fence so they could begin hauling fallen logs.
Mr. Ciotola, 32, is one of a number of small farmers who are turning — or rather returning — to animal labor to help with farming. Before the humble ox was relegated to the role of historical re-enactor, driven by men in period garb for child-friendly festivals like pioneer days, it was a central beast of burden. After the Civil War, many farms switched from oxen to horses. Although Amish and Mennonite communities continue to use horses, by World War II most draft animals had been supplanted by machines that allowed for ever-faster production on bigger fields.
I am all for working and draft animals helping on the farm. They don’t pollute, are quieter, nicer to look at and they smell a whole lot better, too….really.
Taking Your Pet to a Shelter
Sad homeless dog.
It is a terrible thing to have to part with a beloved pet. A dog, cat, rabbit, bird, horse or other animal you may have raised, definitely trained to the rules they need to follow and spent untold amounts of time with becomes for most people almost an extension of themselves.
I have known people who have managed to hold on to their animals through deaths in the family, earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides (when I lived in SoCal) floods and tornadoes (when I lived in the MidWest), divorces, moving, career change,pregnancy and any number of other things. In fact, most of these people said losing or being forced to leave their pet would have been the final straw. They just couldn’t have coped if they had to give up their pet on top of the other things that had happened to, or changed in their lives.
Putting those things aside,I have also known people who would change pets like trading in automobiles, without a second thought of how they hurt the animal they claimed to love so much.In their minds, I am certain they thought their reason for surrendering their animal at a shelter was a sound one and they were doing the humane thing. But the truth is they had probably sentenced an animal they claimed to care about to death.
If you take your pet to a shelter that routinely puts animals down, the chances, especially for an older pet, are not good they will be adopted or rescued. So, if you think you need a different pet because the dog, cat or other animal is no longer the current rage, they are too hard to groom and maintain or because your current girl or boy friend doesn’t like them, think again.
You made a commitment to the animal when you purchased or rescued them and that commitment was for their entire life. The deal wasn’t unless your tastes changed, or you decided their coat texture, color or maintenance requirements were too much for you. The deal wasn’t you keep the Chihuahua until the latest celebrity decides to dump that breed and carry around a Yorkshire Terrier instead. The deal wasn’t until you quit jogging and took up skiing so you need a breed appropriate to your new sports hobby. The deal wasn’t unless you found a romantic interest who happened not to like your particular breed of cat or dog.
The deal was for the entire life of the pet. You adopted or purchased this animal thinking you just had to have it. Because your idea of what you couldn’t do without changed doesn’t mean the animals did. In their eyes you are the center of their lives and being separated from you is very painful.
So please, do everyone who tries to save animals from certain death at pounds or slaughter houses a big favor. If you are really that immature and don’t take the responsibility of pet guardianship seriously, don’t adopt, purchase or rescue an animal. It just means there will be one more we probably won’t be able to save. While you go on merrily thinking you did the humane thing, we are the people who have to try to save them or, if we cannot, know they have been killed, no matter how good they were.
Please consider the woman in the picture below. I am quite sure she was one of the people who realized losing her pet on top of everything else was just too much to bear and has determined she will stay by the animals side, come what may.
For all those people who can’t keep their pet because they are getting a divorce, moving to a place that “doesn’t allow pets”, and so are going to “have” to take your pet to a pound, this woman has been through a 9.0 earthquake, has nowhere to live, is hungry and cold…she STILL HAS HER DOG!
Prison Cats Help Inmates Change
I have heard about both dogs and horses working to help men and women in prison. However, I wasn’t aware of the large number of prisons that have cats as therapy animals for their prisoners.
From Cat Fancy by way of tellingtont touch.
Nestled in the foothills of the picturesque, vineyard-clad Constantiaberg Mountains in Cape Town, South Africa, in Pollsmoor Prison. The maximum security facility once housed Nelson Mandela, the country’s most famous political prisoner from the apartheid era who later became the country’s first black president. Today it houses murderers, rapists, notorious gangsters and a unique feral cat colony that impacts the lives of those around them.
Read the rest of this great article at tellingtont touch.
Animals do so much for us. I often wonder do we rescue them or do they rescue is? Truthfully it is both.