[TallPine]

Article about "dog haters" - too long to copypaste:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster81.html

First guns, then dogs, then ... ?

Not gun related, but the arguments are almost exactly the same: a few bad incidents overwhelms millions of benefits.

I just don't understand - what is it with some people who want to meddle in everyone else's life?

[Pilgrim]

My two whippets are my exercise coaches. Here they are relaxing after a lengthy walk to keep me in good condition.

[444]

I went to a meeting of the city council where they wanted to label certain breeds of dogs, "dangerous" . Of course you could still have those breeds as long as you paid a special fee to them. Note that this was the breed of dog and not anything the individual dog actually did.

Yes, the arguments are the same for guns and dogs, but how about racial prejudice ? The same people who would see you ruined for racial profiling, or racial predjudice have no problem saying breed X is dangerous or breed X acts a certain way all the time regardless of it's upbringing and training, breed X should be banned etc.

[Pilgrim]

Years ago I explained to my insurance agent that my wife and I had a kennel. We bred, raised, and exhibited purebred dogs.

The insurance agent asked nervously, "What kind of dogs?"

"Whippets and longhaired dachshunds."

"Oh, those are Ok."

[Black Dragon]

When insurance companies and Alarm companies call wanting me to increase my insurance or put in a better alarm system or some garabe like that. I just tell them I have the best alarm in the world, I have 145 lbs of fur and fangs. Most of the time all they say is "Oh, sorry about the call" and hang up!

The more I meet people the better I like my dogs!

[Jim March]

I miss my ferrets, which ARE banned in California :(.

They're like puppies that never grow up...

[TallPine]

So, Jim ... do you CCW (Carry Concealed Weasel) ...?

[Ebbtide]

I miss my ferrets, which ARE banned in California .

Are you serious that they are banned like many firearms. What is so dangerous about farrets?

[Jim March]

Yes, I used to have skinnykitties. They were stolen some years ago, long sad story.

Yes, they're banned in California. The California Department of Fish&Game screwed up ages ago and classed them as wild animals :rolleyes:.

Yes, I used to carry 'em concealed. All over, in fact :D. On a couple of occasions I managed to convince the SFPD that a curled-up-asleep albino ferret was a rat :). I don't think Felix forgave me.

You want REALLY funny?

There's currently a bill in to give them "amnesty" instead of full legalization. That means all ferrets in-state at a certain date will be legal.

Get the joke yet?

We'll have PRE-BAN AND POST-BAN FERRETS!

:scrutiny:

[Kobun]

We'll have PRE-BAN AND POST-BAN FERRETS!
Too bad guns don't reproduce by them selves like ferrets do... :(
We could even get a bunch of new models by cross breading.
Oh, wait. That is what a 1911 is these days. :p

[Pilgrim]

I miss my ferrets, which ARE banned in California .

Jim,

I know where a few of them live in the wild. I see them all the time when I take the whippets for a walk.

Bruce

[Ladybug]

First of all, don't get me wrong - I think it's TOTALLY ridiculous when people think that the solution for any problem is just to outlaw guns/dogs/baseball bats, whatever.

That having been said, I think that with pets a lot of blame should go to irresponsible pet-owners. As with gun ownership, keeping animals comes with responsibility. It is because of people who train dogs to fight, or who get dogs that have a higher potential for temperment problems and then don't train or socialize them properly, you get problems. Sadly, the animals get blamed, just like guns get blamed when irresponsible gun owners are really to blame. Most National Forests don't allow dogs anymore, because stupid people bring their dogs and let them run loose and don't clean up after them, and many rental properties don't allow pets because irresponsible people let their cats pee all over the place or let their puppies chew everything up. As a pet owner, it really makes me mad! :cuss:

[Azrael256]

A friend and I were driving to a party one night, and we stopped at a gas station for beer, and I grabbed a couple of those little meat... thingies... you know, they're not quite meat, but they're not quite sawdust. Well, I handed one to him, and he laid it across his lap as he shifted gears to pull out of the parking lot.

"Brian, you'd better eat that, it'll go stale... heh... wouldn't that be funny? It must take a million years for one of these things to go bad."
"Actually, it's easier than you think."
"Really? How?"
"Well... first, you gotta own a ferret..." I almost fell out of the truck.

As for dogs, I read a statistic somewhere that you are 30-ish percent more likely to be approached and spoken to by another person if you're walking a dog. They really do make great conversation starters. They also make very intimidating jogging partners for single women who live alone. I'm buying my mom a shepherd or somesuch when I get home. They also have this tendency (particularly the females) to think that your kids are their puppies, and NOBODY touches their puppies without permission.

We domesticated those animals for a reason. Actually, it's a whole list of reasons. They're warm and fuzzy, which is nice when it's cold, they're great hunting partners, and they're just so darn friendly. It's one of those attractions that we can't fully understand because it's so deep in us that we can't imagine being without it.

Edited to add: Anybody else notice what's around the necks of the two dogs in the picture? :)

[Pilgrim]

Edited to add: Anybody else notice what's around the necks of the two dogs in the picture?

"Face" and Dottie are wearing both a nylon collar and a chain collar. On their nylon collar is a Lucky Pet (http://www.luckypet.com/) ID tag that gives my phone number and the phone number of Lucky Pet. Lucky Pet keeps four other phone numbers on file of friends and the dogs' veterinarian in case I can't be located.

The chain collar has their county license.

I guess I am paranoid in having two collars and two ID tags, but the Lucky Pet ID tag paid off when Dottie ran away from the veterinarian's office when I was out of town. She ran up to a nice gentleman about a mile from the veterinarian's office and he called me and Lucky Pet. Dottie was lost no more than an hour before she was repatriated to the doctor and a family friend.

Bruce