zaterdag 03 december 2005
zaterdag 03 december 2005 Dear everyone,
I know it has been a very long time since I have written something here, and I am really ashamed that my first post in two months is actually about a favour I want from you all.
A small community of dog loving people have started a petition against puppy mills in Belgium. Dogs are often still bred under awful conditions here and presented behind glass walls in pet shops. Needless to say that this is horrible for the bitches that have to produce litter after litter and for the puppies and their new owners who take home an often ill and badly socialized pup.
Please help us and sign the petition at http://www.gopetition.com/online/7635.html
I promise my next post will be about Sun Cluster...
maandag 11 juli 2005
Well, I must admit I do not have much inspiration today to write on my blog. Moreover, work is piling up.
However, you should check this one out: http://www.attackchi.org.au/kits.htm
(It is kind of funny although I am not really sure whether the dog agrees).
However, you should check this one out: http://www.attackchi.org.au/kits.htm
(It is kind of funny although I am not really sure whether the dog agrees).
donderdag 16 juni 2005
There is a guy called Paul Jamber who is rather famous in Belgium as he
makes 'documentaries' about all kinds of people: older farmers without
a wife, people who like SM, people who used to be born a different
gender....
Yesterday the show was about people who like animals. Paul Jambers surely is not one of them.
I only saw the last woman interviewed. She was an older lady living in a big house in a big park. This house had belonged to her parents, who were now long dead. Her father was a lawyer and they were very mundane people: having cocktail parties and playing tennis in the garden. She never really liked that kind of life, hated all the fuzz and that was why she lived a totally different life now: she had 15 dogs, quite a few horses and donkeys, chickens and some cats. Most of these animals were rescue animals. Needless to say that the house was not quite as posh as before the 15 dogs, but the lady didn't really mind. In fact I thought she was a quite clever person, who deliberately chosen the way she lived now, unmarried and with lots of animals to care for...
But Paul Jambers didn't understand. He kept going on an on asking her wouldn't she not rather be married, showing pictures and films made of the house as it was when her parents was still alive (admittedly very chique), repeating sentences like 'This woman, who used to be so pretty, prefers to live with 15 dogs ...' Nothing really about the animals themselves and how her day was with them.
When she told him were her dogs slept, you could sense his disgust through the screen: "are they actually sleeping in your bedroom??? Isn't that unhygienic???" Well Paul, MY dog is sleeping in my bedroom too! Many other dog owners have their dogs sleeping in their bedrooms. Come and make a freak show of all of us!
The animals looked very well taken care of, and the woman looked happy with who she was now.
I think TV shows about people who love animals should not be made by people who obviously don't.
Yesterday the show was about people who like animals. Paul Jambers surely is not one of them.
I only saw the last woman interviewed. She was an older lady living in a big house in a big park. This house had belonged to her parents, who were now long dead. Her father was a lawyer and they were very mundane people: having cocktail parties and playing tennis in the garden. She never really liked that kind of life, hated all the fuzz and that was why she lived a totally different life now: she had 15 dogs, quite a few horses and donkeys, chickens and some cats. Most of these animals were rescue animals. Needless to say that the house was not quite as posh as before the 15 dogs, but the lady didn't really mind. In fact I thought she was a quite clever person, who deliberately chosen the way she lived now, unmarried and with lots of animals to care for...
But Paul Jambers didn't understand. He kept going on an on asking her wouldn't she not rather be married, showing pictures and films made of the house as it was when her parents was still alive (admittedly very chique), repeating sentences like 'This woman, who used to be so pretty, prefers to live with 15 dogs ...' Nothing really about the animals themselves and how her day was with them.
When she told him were her dogs slept, you could sense his disgust through the screen: "are they actually sleeping in your bedroom??? Isn't that unhygienic???" Well Paul, MY dog is sleeping in my bedroom too! Many other dog owners have their dogs sleeping in their bedrooms. Come and make a freak show of all of us!
The animals looked very well taken care of, and the woman looked happy with who she was now.
I think TV shows about people who love animals should not be made by people who obviously don't.
maandag 13 juni 2005 
One of the most famous walks in Europe is the Sentier Martel through the Gorges du Verdon. It is a 14 kilometer walk: you typically leave your car at the end point (the 'Couloir Samson') and take a cab up to the starting point. Since it is a must-do when you are in the region we had it on our to-do list for our last vacation. One problem: can you take a dog? In the middle of the walk you have to descend the Breche Imbert, steep stairs of 150 steps. Officially dogs are forbidden to take the stairs, unless you carry them. I could not find anything on the internet whether it was faisible to carry a 15kg dog and whether it was advisable to do the walk altogether. So we decided to do the following 12 kilometer alternative:
-Park your car at the official end point: the 'Couloir Samson'.
-Do the Sentier Martel backwards up till the Breche Imbert and then go back to Couloir Samson. 
This was still a very nice and beautiful walk and you get to do the 'fun part' of the Sentier Martel (the pitch black 1 km long tunnels) twice. When we got to the Breche Imbert we saw that this was indeed nearly impossible to do with dog: you need your hands to descend safely yourself so only a dog that can be carried in a rucksack would be OK. Still, even the alternative walk that we did is not advisable for very big dogs as you will have to help them and carry them over a couple of steps; Also your dog has to have some experience doing walks in stony and mountainy environment. For humans it is a fairly easy walk, except for the last 1 kilometer before the Breche Imbert, which is very steep. Also, take good hiking shoes as there are lots of loose stones on the trail.
woensdag 18 mei 2005 
Discoverd a blackbird's nest in the bamboo bush. As you can see in the picture the chicks are already quite big. Also saw daddy bringing tasty worms to his wife and children. I think it is very smart of the blackbirds to choose the bamboo, which is not native to Belgium: it is very thick and the nest is virtually invisible. Also, cats cannot climb the bamboo so it is a safe house.
maandag 25 april 2005 
Each spring we anxiously await our frog. Frogs hibernate and I am
always worried he or she may not return. But as you can see in the
picture it is back and spends its day sunbathing along the little pond.He or she is a Green Frog. There is another type of frog in Belgium, the Brown Frog. Curiously, the Brown Frog may be green and the Green Frog may be brown, the difference lies in the stripes on the back of the Green one.
The other creature that is still hibernating is the Banana Tree. They do grow in Belgium but the part that sticks above the soil dies in the winter. In spring they start to grow again until they reach almost 3 metres by the end of autumn. I have seen no sign of life yet in my banana tree, I hope the roots weren't frozen during winter. And no, Belgian Banana Trees do not typically bear fruit...
woensdag 20 april 2005 
Sunday was my dog's day out. She is a Pyrenean Shepherd who has had
some problems with her knee. Therefore it is not adviseable for her to
take the high jumps in agility class and we are looking for something else to
do. So Sunday morning we took her to a herding class to see if that
would be something. Unfortunately the other dogs were all Border
Collies who are the Einsteins amongst dogs. Also, my dog will not run
far away from me to go get sheep as she prefers to stay close to me. We
got an explanation from the teacher and tips about how to train her if
we wanted to continue but I realized this would be a long and difficult
track. And all my dog and me want is to have fun :o) So we are now
thinking about taking on FLYBALL.In the afternoon David and Lukka contributed to a run-with-your-dog contest, aka Canicross. Canicross is a very democratic sport: also non-border collies stand a chance and the human competitors are a mixture of one-time runners and amateurs and semi-professionals. This time was a 5.8 kilometers run around a lake. They both had fun as you see on the pictures. I must admit I wanted to run with her too (in these contests there is always a second run which is half of the 5 km run), but we am still practising and for the moment I am just so sloooowww....
vrijdag 15 april 2005 
In Belgium there is a traditional 'sport' with finches. The rules are as follows:-You take a male finch and you put it in a box.
-You sit next to other people each having their finch-in-a-box
-Each time the finch makes a specific sequence of sounds (tututuuuuut, but it depends on which part of Belgium you are in) you gain a point. The finch owner with most points at the end of the game is the winner.
It used to be so that those finch people would burn out the eyes of the finches because if they are blind they sing better. That is forbidden now. Still, the finches spend most of their lives in dark boxes which is not nice either.
European and Belgian laws forbid catching wild birds. So the finches that are used for this so-called sport are bred for the purpose. However, story goes that wild finches make more tututuuut sounds so the finch owners want to play with wild finches or at least catch some wild finches to cross breed with the domesticated finches.
Some parties in Belgium have now discovered that they would like to have the votes from these 'sportsmen'. They are proposing a law to allow the catching of wild finches. Let alone that it is against European laws, I think this is a regression to prerational times and it makes me sad that some politicians would even consider this. Tradition can never be an excuse for animal abuse...
These pictures come from the JNM
donderdag 27 januari 2005 This URL contains a flash animation about the way Foie Gras is made:
http://stream.2003.02.garnierprojects.com/geenstijl/foiedocu.wmv
If you can't stand to watch it all but do want to sign the petition, it is here:
http://www.stopgavage.com/en
http://stream.2003.02.garnierprojects.com/geenstijl/foiedocu.wmv
If you can't stand to watch it all but do want to sign the petition, it is here:
http://www.stopgavage.com/en
The cow gives milk: language and animal rights.
The cow gives milk: language and animal rights.
Who has not seen the picture in animal books for little children. What does the cow?
The cow gives milk. What does the chicken? The chicken lays eggs.
If you were to ask the cow and the chicken though, they would not define the essence of their being as 'giving milk' or 'laying eggs'. We humans however, reduce in our language animals to what they are to us, thus implying a way of looking at animals that many of us have long given up on other domains.
I think this way of seeing reality as 'what it means to us'is very old. In fact I believe it is the primary way of seeing things of non-human animals. They do not think about essences of other beings or of materials around them, everything is wat it is to them. I do not deny that many of the more advanced non-human animals do have other ways of perception: such as seeing other creatures with a certain degree of friendship. That is not my point here. We, human beings, as we can reflect on things in a meta-sense, we have other ways of seeing things than their mere use for us. And in this ability to do so we can define ourselfs as moral beings. A cat cannot be expected to behave morally towards the mouse: the mouse is a means to an end: fun or food. Moral behaviour of the cat towards the mouse is not to be expected as it involves a degree of reflexion on the mouse the cat is not able to.
Ok, now that we have discussed the origin of the means-to-end way of seeing things, let us see how this evolved through history. Let us first look at Aristotle. Aristotle had a'teleological' view on physics: A stone falls down on the earth because it belongs there. A man has a duty to perfect himself, to 'become his aim'. This was later taken up by Christianity in their belief that God created the world for mankind to live in, the cow to give us milk. Descartes, with his strict belief in rationality and in God was of the same belief: animals are there for us to use.
Many of us will these days no longer take this teleological view on life for granted. Most visible is that in changed ethics for sexuality: most people, also religious people, do not hold the aristotelian view that reproductive organs are for reproduction only and should only be used in that context. We also do not as such accept that the world and the universe is there for us to live in and to cultivate at leisure. However, we do not seem to give up this view with regard to animals: a cow still gives us milk and a chicken lays eggs.
My point is here that if we consider ourselves truely moral beings we must also recognise that what we assume about animals is often not correct. We tend to agree that chickens should not be kept in too small cages and that cows should have big enough meadows. However, the cow still gives milk, and therefore humans are allowed to take her calf away from her too early and raise it separately until it is ready to be eaten at too young an age. The cow as 'mother' (that being a characteristics most animals have in common) is neglected for what she is to us 'a being giving milk'. I think that is what is the essence of animal rights: seeing the animal as a full being and drawing the right conclusions from that. If we take this literally it means giving up keeping live stock altogether. I am aware that this will probably not be a realistic goal in the near future. Let us just hope that more and more people will become aware that the way we treat animals is not the only plausible way and certainly not the most morally correct.
Who has not seen the picture in animal books for little children. What does the cow?
The cow gives milk. What does the chicken? The chicken lays eggs.
If you were to ask the cow and the chicken though, they would not define the essence of their being as 'giving milk' or 'laying eggs'. We humans however, reduce in our language animals to what they are to us, thus implying a way of looking at animals that many of us have long given up on other domains.
I think this way of seeing reality as 'what it means to us'is very old. In fact I believe it is the primary way of seeing things of non-human animals. They do not think about essences of other beings or of materials around them, everything is wat it is to them. I do not deny that many of the more advanced non-human animals do have other ways of perception: such as seeing other creatures with a certain degree of friendship. That is not my point here. We, human beings, as we can reflect on things in a meta-sense, we have other ways of seeing things than their mere use for us. And in this ability to do so we can define ourselfs as moral beings. A cat cannot be expected to behave morally towards the mouse: the mouse is a means to an end: fun or food. Moral behaviour of the cat towards the mouse is not to be expected as it involves a degree of reflexion on the mouse the cat is not able to.
Ok, now that we have discussed the origin of the means-to-end way of seeing things, let us see how this evolved through history. Let us first look at Aristotle. Aristotle had a'teleological' view on physics: A stone falls down on the earth because it belongs there. A man has a duty to perfect himself, to 'become his aim'. This was later taken up by Christianity in their belief that God created the world for mankind to live in, the cow to give us milk. Descartes, with his strict belief in rationality and in God was of the same belief: animals are there for us to use.
Many of us will these days no longer take this teleological view on life for granted. Most visible is that in changed ethics for sexuality: most people, also religious people, do not hold the aristotelian view that reproductive organs are for reproduction only and should only be used in that context. We also do not as such accept that the world and the universe is there for us to live in and to cultivate at leisure. However, we do not seem to give up this view with regard to animals: a cow still gives us milk and a chicken lays eggs.
My point is here that if we consider ourselves truely moral beings we must also recognise that what we assume about animals is often not correct. We tend to agree that chickens should not be kept in too small cages and that cows should have big enough meadows. However, the cow still gives milk, and therefore humans are allowed to take her calf away from her too early and raise it separately until it is ready to be eaten at too young an age. The cow as 'mother' (that being a characteristics most animals have in common) is neglected for what she is to us 'a being giving milk'. I think that is what is the essence of animal rights: seeing the animal as a full being and drawing the right conclusions from that. If we take this literally it means giving up keeping live stock altogether. I am aware that this will probably not be a realistic goal in the near future. Let us just hope that more and more people will become aware that the way we treat animals is not the only plausible way and certainly not the most morally correct.
maandag 17 januari 2005 Sad Dog
Last Friday my dog Lukka was operated on her knee. She had patella
luxation on this knee which made it increasingly difficult for her to
jump.
The operation went well but the downside is there is a 6 weeks revalidation period. She is not allowed to climb stairs or run or jump, so we are carrying her around the house.
Just look how sad she looks:
The operation went well but the downside is there is a 6 weeks revalidation period. She is not allowed to climb stairs or run or jump, so we are carrying her around the house.
Just look how sad she looks:
dinsdag 28 december 2004
I just found this link on the Web, it is a flash animation about "The Pit Bull Problem". Makes you think..
Not for the faint at heart though!
http://www.deviantart.com/view/11454716/
Not for the faint at heart though!
http://www.deviantart.com/view/11454716/
dinsdag 21 december 2004
So this is my first step in the strange world of blogging. But do I
have anything interesting to say? Shall I say something about my pet
subject Sun Cluster? Does it have to be about computers?
After
having thought this over and over again, I decided my first entry would
be about a kitten.
One week ago I found a kitten in our street, picked her up and put it
back immediately: stuff was coming from its eyes and nose, and it
reeked of infection, yuk! However, at that same moment I couldn't do
anything but pîck it up again and take it to the vet, who diagnosed it
with 'cat flu', a potentially lethal cat disease. So now we are one
week and 3 visits to the vet later, the cat is slightly better (took
her almost a week before she could eat without assistance -- try
force-feed a cat, it is NOT easy!).
She is still blind because of the eye infection. but that should go away in another week or so. We also found 8 (!!!) ticks on her head and ear mites in one ear. Her treatment consists of special drops in her eyes 2 times a day, eye balm 4 times a day, other kind of eye balm 2 times a day, ear balm 2 times a day and antibiotics 2 times a day. But she will probably fully recover in a couple of weeks, is 6 months old and already starts to show the sweet naugtiness cats of that age have. Our other,grumpy, 8 year old cat is still hoping the intruder will go away if she ignores it. Our dog is gradually making friends....
After
having thought this over and over again, I decided my first entry would
be about a kitten.
One week ago I found a kitten in our street, picked her up and put it
back immediately: stuff was coming from its eyes and nose, and it
reeked of infection, yuk! However, at that same moment I couldn't do
anything but pîck it up again and take it to the vet, who diagnosed it
with 'cat flu', a potentially lethal cat disease. So now we are one
week and 3 visits to the vet later, the cat is slightly better (took
her almost a week before she could eat without assistance -- try
force-feed a cat, it is NOT easy!). She is still blind because of the eye infection. but that should go away in another week or so. We also found 8 (!!!) ticks on her head and ear mites in one ear. Her treatment consists of special drops in her eyes 2 times a day, eye balm 4 times a day, other kind of eye balm 2 times a day, ear balm 2 times a day and antibiotics 2 times a day. But she will probably fully recover in a couple of weeks, is 6 months old and already starts to show the sweet naugtiness cats of that age have. Our other,grumpy, 8 year old cat is still hoping the intruder will go away if she ignores it. Our dog is gradually making friends....