Dog Abuse #5

One of the most infamous cases of animal cruelty is the case of  Michael Vick who played for the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL. On April 25th, 2007 there was a search warrant on Vick’s cousin that was staying at one of his houses in Virginia, which they soon found signs of  dog fighting at a property Vick owned. When the investigations furthered, it attracted the media and soon after federal authorities  were brought in. While investigating, more information came to light about an interstate dog fighting rings that involved drugs and other illegal activities.When the media caught wind of the details of the torture and executions of the animals, animal rights activists like PETA and mostly everyone else were outraged. Vick and other law breakers of his were brought up on federal and state felony charges. During investigations, even more information came out and found that Vick was paying for  most of the fights and was involved in killing of dogs. Vick decided to do a plea bargain and admitted that he was involved in the fighting  and was involved in the hanging and drowning of the dogs. During trial, he was out on bail and when a random drug test happened, he failed it, he was positive for weed. he was sent back to the courts and the judge wanted to put Vick away. In the end Vick got little jail time for the heinous acts he committed against these creatures, and after that he was under house arrest.  I think Vick should  have gotten a harsher punishment. I think he should have got a year in jail for every dog he killed. I think the court should have made an example out of him, but they didn’t.  It shows that his money was the thing that saved him. It really shows how messed up the court system is when someone like Vick tortures and executes dogs only spent 2 years in prison, but if someone illegally downloads  media, they get five years.Maybe one the good things to come out if this is that he had huge public hate on him, everyone bashed him. A lot of celebrities called him out and also some clothing companies too, they made clothing bashing Vick. Later on, it came out that the dogs that were rescued from Vick, are already making a great comeback and are ready to be adopted. I hope to see these kind of crime punishments change in the future, I strongly urge everyone to be on the lookout for any signs of dog fighting rings or anything like that, to report it immediately. If we the people don’t take a stand on this,it will never get recognized  for how serious these crimes are. Dogs have feelings too, it shows how good dogs are because they can take a lot of abuse and still  forgive and forget and start over with a family that truly loves them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZYk91q0Tyk    <—– Michael Vick Case details

Dog Abuse #4

Even though there are horrible things done to animals everyday they somehow find the strength to recover with the help of caring individuals whoever they are either workers at the shelter or people who choose to adopt them. In the case of a dog named Apollo, a German shepherd mix that the San Antonio animal shelter found, when they found him he was so terrified that he would not lift this head. After a long time of abuse, the shelter found him and a couple took a chance on him. When they got him he was really bad and had no trust , they soon started to gain the dogs trust and bring his confidence in people up. Soon Apollo made a full recovery and now is a healthy happy very playful dog that has a loving family. Apollo’s new owners shared the story with  the National Dog News Examiner.  They said,”That they would never know how  his life was before with his first owner and on the streets, but they do know that someone tried to tattoo his stomach.” What kind of sick bastard, does that to an innocent dog,especially a puppy. When they took him to the vet he had tested positive for distemper, which is a virus that affects the body. It causes  havoc on different systems of the body,presently there is no cure. The vet wanted Apollo to stay overnight and told them he would not be a good family dog,which I think is wrong. The couple didn’t care and decided to take Apollo home,because they knew he didn’t like cages and treated him themselves. They fixed him all up and helped the dog trough the illness, and now Apollo is a great family dog and the owners said that they just had a baby and Apollo already loves him. This story shows that dogs can be rehabilitated to be a great family dogs as long as someone takes the time to help and care for them. For my readers to know, I believe that everyone, if possible should adopt a dog because it  will impact the dog’s life greatly.I say that if anyone has any information on the abuse or neglect of an animal, you should report. I also urge everyone to donate to an animal shelter or agency to help an animal in need, every penny counts.

Dog Abuse #3

 

  Besides dog fighting rings there are other kinds of cruelty that animals are put through. A lot of cruelty cases come from just having  bad owners, even though they do not fight these animals, they do abuse them a lot, for some mediocre problems. Some animals get beaten for digging up a yard or being at wrong place in the wrong  time. Some people just have their dogs for protection, they just tie them up in the yard and feed them when they have to, sometimes they may just feed them once, and don’t check their water. It may not seem as bad compared to the other things, but it’s still  bad for them. It is called neglect, when dogs are tied up all day by themselves or in a cage, they get desocialized and they get something called kennel rage. which Means they get aggressive towards people or animals they don’t know. That could be a problem, because how about one day that dog gets loose and bites a little kid. Then you have a lawsuit and either have to pay a fine or put the dog down. Usually when dogs are tied up or locked away they tend to be severely  malnourished and have health problems. Which if the ASPCA catches you, they will file a case on you and take the animals away. Don’t get me wrong, because you can have dogs in a kennel, if they have sufficient space to run around, and have shade, and have enough food or water. That is including giving them proper exercise daily. What I say to my readers is to try to be on the lookout and if you see a dog being neglected and malnourished, you should contact the proper authorities immediately,every second counts. If some of my readers notice that they have been neglecting their dogs, then I hope they see what they are doing is wrong and put a change to it. Even if you think that reporting a neglected animal wont help very much, it does very much so, because the proper authorities  can help the animal get a better home and will make sure the past owners of the pet deserve whats coming to them.

Dog abuse #2

 

   When  dogs are rescued from these dog fighting rings, Most have issues, whether they are anti social, scared, or just sometimes too aggressive. which they try to rehabilitate but sometimes it doesn’t work. That’s when you hear about cases where pit bulls get out and they maul an old lady. That is not their fault, it was how they were brought up since they were puppies. Then they end up getting put down for being too mean, and people start to fear them and don’t want to adopt any. That’s when they get that stigma. Even now I have an aunt that when asked by their children that they want a pit bull, she says no because they are too mean. How does she know that, she doesn’t even have a specific dog in mind, I don’t know how some people can say that for a whole breed. I can easily recount several times where I heard that someone doesn’t want a pit bull because sooner or later, they will attack. That is complete nonsense, no one can predict that a dog will attack, without being provoked. People are shaming a whole classification of dogs for the actions of  some dogs, that were bred to be fighters by people who wanted them that way. When the animal shelters bring dogs in they only have a certain amount of days that they keep them and they end up putting them down, to make more space. Also when they bring the dogs in from the fighting rings, a lot of them have really bad illnesses that sometimes are fatal. What I think should change is the stigma that people have about pit bulls because they are not bad, I suggest that if you are looking for a new pooch and are up to the task, you should adopt a pit bull. Notice I said, “adopt.” I suggest instead of buying a little puppy, you should adopt one from your local shelter, but hey I’m not going to force anyone, but I do highly suggest it because you are saving life. Adopting  a traumatized dog can have its difficulties but if you are willing to put in the effort and love of caring and rehabilitating a dog, it will be worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD6DnuQo0-o   <– – really good video  of the stigma of pit bulls

Dog abuse #1

Somewhere in the United States there is a dog being abused by someone or a group of people, a lot of people don’t know that. There is no reporting system for animal abuse, but local news channels reports record them and say that it they rings usually are put up anywhere private. The amount of cruelty cases reported on a everyday basis by the media is huge, but that is only the beginning. Most of these cases are not reported, so the animals just keep on suffering. Although animals are not as advanced as humans, they are still living, feeling beings, that’s why they should not be exposed to this kind of torture.

   The most common victim in animal cruelty cases are dogs, more common victim are pit bulls or any mix of that breed. Pit bulls especially have got it bad because they are the main target because of their physical attributes. People fight them against each other, some use them as bait to rile other dogs up and put them up against more bigger dogs.In these underground dog fighting rings they just breed these dogs up to fight and if they win they live another day to fight and when they lose they die. If by some chance the dog loses and is badly injured, the “owners” won’t care for them. They will just kill them off, so there would be no fuss. They also breed them way too much, a female dog should only have up to 3 litters of puppies, after that its bad for the mother’s health. All the fighting messes up the dogs, they become anti social and scared of everyone and when they are scared, they tend to defend themselves, which gives them a bad image, which is not their fault. I believe we should try to stop dog fighting rings, but there is no actual way of putting a stop to them because most of them are under the radar. The certain few that get caught are helping but there are so much more out there that we don’t know about. I really don’t think that we can stop this completely but if we impose harsher punishments to the offenders, I think that will send a message to the others. Which would help greatly, which maybe later on  there will be fewer and fewer fighting rings. Every dog counts

Heroes

 In class we  read one of Dr. Kings letters, one that I haven’t read. The struggles Dr. King had to go trough were tough, he was a prominent role in the civil rights movement, he rose up and said what had to be said. He went to trough great ordeals which later on would lead to his assassination. When I heard his speech on  Tuesday, it resonated with me, the way he got his point across was amazing. He was a great orator, it was a shock when I heard he didn’t want to be the face of the civil rights movement. He didn’t even want to give his speech most of the time, but was later obligated to because of the turn out. When I was told he was an avid smoker and drinker and also an adulterer, I was shocked. It didn’t really distort my image  of him because of what he did for the movement. When we were asked if we had any heroes in class like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, nobody came to mind. I sat there for what I want to say was five minutes just thinking if there is any modern day heroes and I could not think of one. I cant believe there is no one out there trying to make a difference that is actually doing something and getting the public’s attention. For me, I don’t really have  heroes besides comic heroes like Will Ferrell and Eddie Murphy and George Carlin. They are just comedians that believe in that changed the face of comedy. So one of my goals is to find someone who I share similar values to and wants to reform something that I believe should change. So I could have a hero that is worth looking up to.

Importance of college

In class we had a debate about technology in the classroom. It really made me see both sides of the issue about bringing technology in to the classroom. and the other topic was about how college is conforming to the students, the consumer.  I think that bringing education into the classroom is a good but to a certain extent. Most students would follow along but probably half way through get side tracked and go off on a tangent. The obvious solution would be to block certain websites, but its college the students are adults so we can’t tell them what to do. So that wouldn’t work, but I think the serious students would pay attention. I like that professors can post all their tests online so the students can do them whenever they want.  It really helped me to get ahead of my workload, and saved me all the stress of doing it in a week.

  The other topic that college is conforming to the students to become easier to the students because they are the ones paying the college and they just want to go in and get a degree. I would agree with that because I think college is a huge learning experience because you meet a ton load of people from all over. It’s a time to expand your mind and your ideals, to learn different ways of viewing the world. Your professors come from different places and they have lots of things they have learned from their education to pass on to us. They want us to take away something from their course something  that is important to you. I don’t think college should be just go in  get out kind of  system, it  should be a huge learning experience not just in the education part but from the a personal point of view. I have uncles that say they met their best friends  and wives from college. That’s why I think we shouldn’t rush trough  the college life, we should enjoy it, because to some people college was  a huge part of their life to get where they are now.

animal abuse/negligence

One of my passions is animals, I love animals especially dogs. Until recently I had three German Shepherds, until I had to move and not keep.One of the most things I hate in the world is animal abuse,especially in dogs.  I cant even watch the commercials that say to donate to help an abused animal because I hate seeing the abused animals they show. Its not just abuse that I don’t like, its also negligence, when owners don’t have any patience or understanding of the dog breed. When I used to go to Pet-smart I would see owners with their dogs and they would yanking on the chain like there is no tomorrow. I assuming what they don’t know is that every dog is different and this particular breed he had was an especially hard to train dog. I really don’t like when people are uneducated about the dog they are getting.  A lot of people get dogs for their children when they are puppies when they are cute and small, but when they get older and not so cute the little kids don’t really pay attention to them, just going out to feed them and keeping them locked up in the yard, That is no way to treat any animal.

   What I want to address is the problem of people abusing their dogs like in dog fighting and in general. I Want to explore the world of dog fighting and what effects they have on a dog. I’m absolutely against  people that abuse animals especially when  fight dogs, they turn them into fighting machines and it scars them for life, only the dogs that are rescued from dog fighting rings are the ones that can go in to rehabilitation and try to help the dogs so they could be adopted out, but that doesn’t necessarily happen all the time. For most of the time it doesn’t work and these dogs are sooner or later put to sleep,the other question is what about all the other dogs that they didn’t save a lot of them didn’t make it. When animals are abused by their owners it is also bad because they would abuse the dog for no good reason. They will kick him or  tie him up outside in the sun, I think the  people who do this are scum. why would you hurt an animal that loves unconditionally and CAN  fight back but don’t, They could easily bite back with Depending on the size of the dog they could easily maul a person if they wanted to. Rottweilers have 328 lbs of force when they bite, German Shepherds have  238 lbs of force, Pitt bulls have  235 lbs of force, and dobermans have  228 lbs  of force per square inch of force. Compared to an average humans bite which has 170 lbs of force per inch, its  extremely lower. I think the audience that I’m gonna try to go for are animals lovers or anyone who has a heart does not like seeing animals mistreated or killed. For my medium I think I’m gonna go for blogs because I believe they are easier to convey a message. If I find a better way to get my message across I might just change it up. Most likely blogs.

Is Google making us stupid

In class we discussed  if Google is making us stupid because for every little problem, we just go to the internet and find a solution. Cutting out the actual process of thinking of a solution  of our own. I am kind of in the middle in this because I think there is  good and bad things about it.  Some of the good things about being on the internet is that we can find solutions to things that really hard and that nobody else around you knows, some things are just not common knowledge and the few that do know can put it out on the internet for others to learn. Another good reason for it is for educational reason like in math, if we don’t know how to solve a problem, we just go and search it up on YouTube and see a tutorial to refresh our memory. Looking for information has gotten a lot easier, before you would have to go to the library and spend hours looking in books, now we can just find it in minutes. Looking for places has gotten a lot easier also because before you would have to read a map and ask for directions, now we can just get a GPS system.

On the other hand we can look at the bad side of the internet. Most of the arguments are the just the opposite of thew pros. For example the part of getting a GPS, some people might say that back in  the older days it was better because we had to interact with each other and make new friends and go on adventures not knowing where you are going, but I think that is complete bullshit, why would someone want to get lost  and waste gas. some of the other reasons are really good like instead of going online and learning how to tie a tie, we can go to our fathers and they will teach us and from then on we can teach our future sons. another reason is that our attention spans have gotten shorter, we can no longer get into a good book because we are checking twitter or on Facebook in between paragraphs. I think that is true I can not read for long periods of time like I use to. But I don’t think we can change much because technology has become a huge part of our lives, the only way we could probably go back to how it used to be is if there is a huge natural disaster and it knocks us in the old ages and we would have to start over.

Alone Together

  When We read that passage from Sherry Turkle’s book about being alone together,it  really stayed with me throughout the  rest of my day. she wrote about how most people in this day and age are immersed in technology. Every where you go you see people texting or surfing the web on their smart phones. completely unaware of whats going on around them. She goes on to say that people are used to just pulling out their phone every five minutes to check their email or refresh twitter or to  update Facebook. I’m not gonna lie she is right everywhere you go people are on their phone to check important notices or to just pass time. When I walk around campus and glance at people’s phone screens about  50 percent of their time they are on social networking sites, Its normal. When you go out to a restaurant and see a group of people most of them are just on their phone, not laughing or catching up, they are just glued to their phones. The other day I went out with some friends to a restaurant and we tried this game that we each put our phones upside down in the middle of the table and we have to leave them there for the whole time we’re there. Who ever picks up their phone first has to pay for everyone’s dinner, within the first ten minutes most of us caved.Proving the point that Turkle was talking about. I was so Interested in this topic  I wanted to know what other people thought, I summarized Turkle’s passage and showed the new earth video I saw in class to my brothers and sisters and asked them what they thought. For the most part they argued about it, but in the end they agreed that technology is taking up a big part of our everyday lives but it’s not going to change because technology is evolving so quickly that  we are getting dazzled by it. For example Google is coming up with great ideas with their Google glass which is technically a phone inside a pair of glasses. Another product is the smart car they are producing which will be able to drive itself. It sounds cool in the beginning but once you think about it, what will happen in the next generation when everyone has self driving car, will everyone who had known to drive a car die.  Just like that it would be a forgotten skill. That’s why I think We should slow down with most of the technological advances, mostly with the media and social networking kind, I still think we should be moving forward with medical technology.