Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

The willow is too close to the house.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Consistently wrong since 2002

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

I really should read my own blog.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Pet Rescue / Today in the Politics of Pets

Today in the Politics of Pets

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Mary Shannon Johnstone is a talented photographer who is working on a documentary series called Breeding Ignorance, which is a four-part piece about where unwanted pets come from, how they are euthanized, life in a shelter, and the practice of spaying and neutering. Fair warning: some of the images are quite disturbing, and others are pretty graphic depictions of surgical procedures on cats and dogs. One thing I learned from the series is that some shelters have a spaying program for feral cats, which is awesome.

ED Kain has the story of Steven Seagal, who accompanied Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s excursion into a Phoenix neighborhood with an armored vehicle, all to arrest a suspected cockfighter. During that arrest, a puppy was killed after the tank Segal was riding in crashed into the house. Seagal is being sued for $100,000 and is being asked for a written apology.

Update: In unrelated news, a regular commenter reminds me that EDK also has a good post on climate change at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen that’s well worth a read.

Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    We’re pretty sure our Lil Bit was a puppy mill reject. Two eye operations, anemic, bladder stones and dumped in a box on our vets door step. One the upside she is such a sweetie.

  4. 4.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    We work in a shelter. We live in Misery, the Puppy Mill Capital of (un)Real ‘Murka.

    Look up Alley Cat Allies. They do great work helping deal with feral cats.

    In PA along the turnpike outside of Philly heading east, some purchased some billboard space that is brutal on the PA puppy mill industry.

    In a previous life, I worked as a vet tech. We did euthanasia “services” for a shelter in WV. It wasn’t pretty. The current shelter we volunteer for has a fairly high kill rate. We always haz a sad.

    This documentary is important and hopefully will get seen.

  5. 5.

    Samara Morgan

    you link your glibertarian rent boi at forbes, i’ll link what he really thinks at LoOG.
    bring it mistermix.

    Beyond Unions

    Recently we had the Labor Roundtable and much interesting discussion on the nature and necessity of organized labor in America ensued. I’ve cooled on the idea of unions lately, at least in their current form, and have had a number of really good conversations in the past couple of days after writing this post, about unions and particularly teachers unions.
    __
    Certainly teachers unions represent a major obstacle to reform of our education system.

    mistermix NEVER links Kain at the LoOG, even tho that is Kain’s blog.
    Wonder why, juicers?
    Kain only gets PAID for pageclicks at Forbes.
    WTF does the Kain story have to do with puppymill documentaries?
    NOTHING.

  6. 6.

    WereBear

    I probably got my Smokepuff kitty from a “backyard breeder” somewhere, when he was brought to me with one of those “it’s you or the shelter” ultimatums; because he wouldn’t cuddle.

    A lovely example of the rare Chantilly/Tiffany breed, who was a total sweetheart once he bonded. Lifelong difficulties with understanding how the world worked, emergency dental surgery when renegade canine teeth caused a life-threatening infection, and had to be euthanized at 13 because of uncontrollable seizures.

    And he is one of the lucky ones. In another kind of home (the kind of home that buys bargain purebreds) he might have been thrown out into the cruel world when the kittenhood ended or lurked behind sofas until his undetected difficulties led to his demise.

  8. 8.

    schlemizel - was Alwhite

    In a useless dick competition Seagal would finish just behind Sheriff Joe so thats a race I’d avoid watching.

    When I lived in FLA I worked with a woman that picked up every feral cat she found, took it to the vet for cleaning, shots & neutering. She sometimes tried to find homes for them but often they were just not social so she turned them loose again. I guess it was better than nothing.

    I have a friend in MN that works at a shelter & he gets quite irate about people who carelessly let their pets breed. He got fired from one place because he asked a guy why he let his cat breed when he didn’t want the litter. The guys said “I wanted my kids to see the miracle of life” to which my friend replied “Have them come in back and they can witness the miracle of death!”

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    The first thing that jumped out at me on the Seagal/Arpaio story was the photograph. Specifically, the 4-star insignia that Arpaio was wearing on his shoulder. What, does he think he’s Patton or something?

  11. 11.

    woodrowfan

    another vote for “Alley Cat Allies”!!!!! Cat, Neuter, & Release for ferals. The colony I look after is now at 5 (it’s pretty small) but all seem to be doing well and are healthy.

  12. 12.

    blackfrancis

    I found out two days ago that one of our three cats has cancer. The older, wise one who is the queen of the house. They estimate she has a few weeks left, and is not in any pain yet. I am not looking forward to how this is going to all play out, but in the end I’ll be holding her at the very end. So very tired of crying.

  13. 13.

    schlemizel - was Alwhite

    @blackfrancis:

    I am so sorry for your pain & your poor kitties. losing one this way is awful, I hope the other two can ease the ordeal a bit.

  16. 16.

    keestadoll

    Any man who sports a greased-back ponytail, graduates from the School of Somnambulist Kung-Fu, and cannot make any kind of facial expression is bound to one day end up crashing into someone’s house with a tank. Am I the only one who knows this?

  17. 17.

    jron

    Tanks to confiscate someone’s rooster. Obviously an appropriate use of equipment. I know they’re hard to catch, but it seems some simple body armor to protect against the expected flogging might have made more sense.

    Cops protect the citizenry. The military fights our foreign enemies. It’s a simple fact that if the two are combined, the citizenry will be attacked like an enemy.

  18. 18.

    Rosalita

    I’m proud of the shelter where I volunteer. We have people monitoring at least three feral cat colonies and TNR as many cats as possible. Some of the kittens, if we get them young enough, are able to get adopted.

  20. 20.

    PurpleGirl

    A friend who lives in Florida had found a family of feral cats behind a warehouse. She spoke to her vet about them and the vet told her that if she could bring in the babies, she (the vet) would fix the kittens, gratis. Over several years my friend brought in many litters but never was able to catch the mother cat. My friend also put out food for them, not just as a way to catch them.

  25. 25.

    Joe Bauers

    @dmsilev: Me too! I’ve never seen a sheriff appoint himself General before. He’s a tool for many better reasons than this, but this alone would make him a giant tool.

  26. 26.

    Mart

    Watching my daughter trying to get started in the dying profession of teaching, I too am concerned with cheap shot attacks at teachers unions. The current reform program is to strip funding, increase class size, and re-direct teacher salaries and benefits to the management of privatized reform firms. That’s a big win for our kids.

    The man with the crushed puppy should be suing for $25 million. Get more press that way.

  27. 27.

    slippy

    Wow. I think I lost the last miniscule bit of respect I had for Segal when I read he was palling around with white rage nutjob “Sherrif” Joe Arapio.

    Man, fuck everything about him.

  28. 28.

    BruceJ

    @dmsilev: Yeah, he’s been flaunting the bananna dictator brass for a while, among his many nicknames here in AZ is ‘4-Star Joe’. Another is ‘Attention Whore Joe’.

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @blackfrancis: So very tired of crying. That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it. I am so sorry.

    Edit: I was unable to see the photo because I am not on Facebook. I am imagining a beautiful kitty who is well loved.

  31. 31.

    Chet

    ED Kain has the story of Steven Seagal, who accompanied Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s excursion into a Phoenix neighborhood with an armored vehicle, all to arrest a suspected brown person.

    FTFY.

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