Any guesss where they will end up?  In FRANCE.  The ASPCA (secure link) sent an action memo about an amendment added to the omnibus budget bill by Senator Conrad Burns of Montana that would allow the rounding up and sale of wild horses and burros for slaughter.

Please write, email, or call your congressperson and voice your disapproval of this measure.

 

Instapundit links to a story about guy calling himself "Jude Finisterra" who hoaxed the BBC into running a report saying that Dow Chemical had accepted responsibility for the accident in Bhopal.  Like other news organizations (See BS), BBC ran this false report without getting bona fides. 

I mean, the guy was calling himself "Jude (the Apostle who invoked prayer when all seemed hopeless), the end of the earth".  Uh, right.  Probably some radical greenie or a college student.  Because it fit in with the BBC's worldview, they ran with it.

The BBC needs to gets its collective head out of its butt.

Dumb*sses.

In Vineland, New Jersey, someone baited seagulls and then ran them down with their car.  Ten seagulls were killed immediately, and six had to be put down later due to their injuries. 

A person has to wonder what goes through the head of a person who does something like this to wildlife, with no reason other than to terrorize and kill.  This isn't hunting, this isn't for food, this isn't anything but despicable. 

 

Via Crimenews2000.com:

At least Vinnie didn't die, and his previous caretaker and abuser has admitted to his horrible behavior.  William Essex pled guilty to felony animal cruelty, was given probation, has to pay for Vinnie's vet bills, pay child support for a child of his living in Dinosaur (what a name for a town!--and people make jokes about Cut And Shoot), get anger management counseling, and do 200 hours of community service.  Vinnie is in a new home.

In Bellmead, firefighters and a vet had to extract a Boston Terrier from a tire.  The 10 month old puppy stuck her head through the center of a tire rim that was in her back yard. 

The firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life to cut the center of rim from the tire, and the vet used lots of lubricant and muscle relaxants to get the dog out of the remaining metal.

Wonder what the dog was after when she stuck her head through....

Like a lot of other people, I wrote an email to Target about their decision to stop allowing Salvation Army bell ringers in front of their stores.  Like a lot of other people, I got back a really sucky form letter that didn't address a damn thing I said in my email.

Apparently, a lot of other people have decided that Target isn't where they want to do their Christmas shopping either.  Bell ringers are part of Christmas shopping.  It is a chance to get kids into the spirit of helping others--that was some of the first charity my kids learned, was to put money in the kettle.  My girls would actually argue over who got to put the money in the kettle.  I made them take turns, and they always knew whose turn it was next.

They don't like bell ringers?  Fine, I can spend my money at lots of other places (like Wal-Mart) that do. 

I think it is cool that the Downtown Aquarium has white tigers.  This may not be PC, but I like white tigers.  We used to be members of the Houston Zoo when they still had white tigers, and I have always wondered what happened to them.  It turns out, because they don't often show up in the wild, zoos don't want them anymore.  (I gave up going to the Houston Zoo when it became impossible to get a parking place close, and I can't walk very far without resting.  No, I don't want a handicap sticker--I don't need to be hassled by people who think I am not disabled because I can walk.)

That's sort of sad.  It also seems to be a form of discrimination against something just because it is beautiful--and different.  I have a great deal of love of animals just the way they are, but I really like seeing the differences that nature can come up with on its own.  And that is what white tigers are--a natural mutation.  True, it was perpetuated by humans, but the mutation took place on its own, without human interference.  Apparently zoo administrators have decided that since humans bred the wild white that was found, to continue to breed whites is like exploiting the animals. 

When I was a kid, we bred Australian shepherds (now called Australian Cattle Dogs) and would get a white every once in awhile (and then we would stop breeding the parents).  They usually could see, but not hear. (No, we didn't automatically put them down.  They were great dogs. Even as an adult, one of the great danes we had was a white--and Baron was brilliant, though deaf.) This isn't a problem with the white tigers; they don't have that kind of damaging trait--at least, not yet. 

The biggest problems for white tigers is that people who should know better have turned their backs on the breeding of these beautiful animals.  The zoos have left the breeding to for-profit wild cat breeders who often don't care what the bloodlines are, as long as they can pump out more cats.  (Think of the horrible problems dogs from puppy mills have). Without a good, standardized, carefully selected studbook, unfortunate inbreeding problems will occur. 

The owner of the white tigers at the Downtown Aquarium says that these animals will never be bred, they are not siblings, and they are from good stock.  Good for him; too bad places like the Houston Zoo can't see the white tigers for the animals they are, and not as a symbol of exploitation of wild animals.

THIS IS A BUMPED MESSAGE: PLEASE SEE UPDATE 3:

Sir George has posted on the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler that Kyle, who is the brother of a regular commenter Spence, was hit with mortar fire while instant messaging.  His post is as follows:

One of our regular chatters, Spence, has informed us that his brother Kyle has had some bad IM luck. Worse than the usual AIM or Yahoo bugs, his brother had chat rudely interrupted by a mortar in Fallujah.

No word on if the computer survived, but apparently Kyle will have a splitting headache from the shell and bone fragments in his brain; and worse, it's the optical part in the back that Marines use to look at breasts. I pray he makes a full recovery so he won't have to image breasts entirely by feel, but then again that might be an upside. However, it's a good thing he wasn't going head-to-head with his webcam on or there'd be Cleveland gamer shitting himself, pounding out "Suck 1337 rocket's ass! Doom 3 ain't got nothing on Real Life, Bitch!"

Since the Marines don't have a medal expressly for shielding an install of XP Service Pack 2 with your body, we'll all have to make one up, and after he recovers and calls tech support about his bizarre disk fragmentation problem he'll undoubtedly end up talking to some out-sourced Pakistani guy.

"Dude! Your shitsucking jihadi brother blew up my fucking Dell! You bastard!"

Payback will be hell.

LC & IB Beth has more. Keep him in your prayers.

Please keep Kyle (and all of the young women and men over there) in your prayers.

UPDATE: Please go to Beth's site.  There is more information about the situation there.

UPDATE 2: Please go to Spence's site directly and make a donation (if you can) to help Spence's and Kyle's parents see Kyle in Germany.  Kyle has bone fragments in his brain, he may lose one of his legs (both are broken), and other serious injuries.

UPDATE 3: Following an email from Spence directly, he does not want donations, and I have disabled the link.  His email is as follows:

There’s been a massive amount of confusion about the situation.  Someone had, with good intentions, modified my donation page with information about what was going on and was under false impressions that I was in need of money for the trip.  We’re being well taken care of by both the military and the rest of our family.  As grateful as me and my family is for your generosity, I can not in good conscious take this money. 

 If you’d like me to send what I’ve received back, I’ll do that, or if you’d like to name a good cause for me to forward it to, I will graciously do that. 

 I’m sorry for all confusion, and I’m very sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

 Sincerely,

Spencer

I asked him to forward the donation I made to Let's Bring 'Em Home to benefit other military families.

The Let's Bring 'Em Home fourth annual fund raiser is starting.  It's a way for all of those military guys and gals to come home for the holidays from overseas.  This year, they are also taking donations to possibly send family members overseas to see injured armed services personnel.