Animals

Why Do Dogs Look So Sad? – The Atlantic

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Why Do Dogs Look So Sad? – The Atlantic

Dogs, more so than almost any other domesticated species, are desperate for human eye contact. When raised around people, they begin fighting for our attention when they’re as young as four weeks old. It’s hard for most people to resist a petulant flash of puppy-dog eyes—and according to a new study, that pull on the heartstrings might be exactly why dogs can give us those looks at all.

A paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that dogs’ faces are structured for complex expression in a way that wolves’ aren’t, thanks to a special pair of muscles framing their eyes. These muscles are responsible for that “adopt me” look that dogs can pull by raising their inner eyebrows. It’s the first biological evidence scientists have found that domesticated dogs might have evolved a specialized ability used expressly to communicate better with humans.

NPR

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Assange’s Cat Has Left The Ecuadorian Embassy : NPR

But what about the asylum of Assange's cat?

The WikiLeaks founder, who was arrested Thursday, has been charged with conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network. Presumably, Assange's alleged illegal interactions with former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning are the main interest of law enforcement.

Then there is the matter of paw enforcement. (Sorry.)

While holed up, Assange famously acquired a cat. The cat, named Michi, is more well known by its social media moniker, Embassy Cat. More than 30,000 Twitter followers, and 6,000 on Instagram, followed the self-described master of "counter-purrveillance."

Animal Evictions

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I was reading the other day that the legislature passed a new law that mandates that law enforcement serving eviction orders must now check to see if any pets are being evicted with their owners and find suitable shelter for the pets so they are not abandoned like an “old couch” as the author of the law argues.

I’m not opposed to that. Animals shouldn’t be left to starve and rot on the floor just because they have no place to go. But at the same time, I have little problem with the authorities putting down such animals by bullet or other means and discarding them, preferably recovering some of their value by composting or anaerobic digestion.

For too long we’ve been humanizing animals rather than caring for them by meeting their biological needs so they can thrive in their human dictated purposes.

September 3, 2018 9:55 am Update

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Millions of Americans are celebrating the new holiday on the first Monday of September known as Labrador Day. This new holiday honors the Labrador Retriever, the most loyal of human companions. Businesses across the country are giving their employees and clients free dog cookies and sample size bags of dog food. Some employers have worked with local rescue facilities to even offer their employees discounts on the purchase of a rescue dog of their choice, including non Labrador breeds.

The replacement of Labor Day with Labrador Day has raised a few heckles from dog hating legacy organizations known as Labor Unions. But faced with being associated with those who eat dog meat and animal abusers, criticism of the Labrador Holiday has been muted. Indeed, the Labrador Day holiday has been one of the most popular acts by congress in the past twenty years, especially as it made it possible for the first time to take a tax deduction for pet ownership.

Labrador Day has saved businesses millions in overtime and paid compensation costs by eliminating the paid holiday. Many employees came out ahead too as legacy employers like the federal government not only give their employees free dog treats, they got a new floating holiday that they could take off any day they wanted to take off.

Businesses also celebrated Labrador Day by highlighting their products available for sale to the dog owner, often offering special discounts to customers during the Labrador Day Weekend. Communities throughout the nation celebrate and honored dog owners with great parades of people walking their dogs while children on the sidewalk hand the passing dogs treats. Many pool complexes closing for the end of summer offer dogs a chance to swim.

Labrador Day Weekend throughout the nation is viewed as one of the greatest accomplishments of Congress, maybe the greatest in 50 years. Dogs are honored, children are having a tag wagging good time as the unofficial last weekend of summer comes to a close.

Abbie