Government and animals – not the best combo!
May 09 2010
I am busy getting ready to head off to the Homes for Horses Coalition conference in Nashville, so I’m just going to share something funny that was sent to me today — animal related, of course! This has been making the rounds for years but if you haven’t seen it yet, it is hilarious and a perfect example of bureaucracy in action.Â
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Love it. Who didn’t realize those were beaver dams? Idiots.Â
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All right, so you guys have the floor - tell me your dumbest government bureaucracy story today!  It can be horse/farm related or not, but the dumber, the better! 
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I want to give a little update today. Do you remember when Chocolate Truffles from Angel Acres was being advertised here on the blog? I still have her ad.
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Truffles, now renamed Mya, got adopted, and yesterday she was Champion at her jumper show!How awesome is that? Â
Check out Angel Acres if you’re looking for a show quality rescue – they have quite a few that could still get you into the ring this summer!Â
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130 comments to “Government and animals – not the best combo!”
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LOL This is golden!! Never seen it before. Thanks for sharing.
The complete and true story of the dam beavers..
http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/dammed.asp
The true beaver dam story is a bit different:
http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/dammed.asp
happy mothers’ day to all the moms and the moms of the four-footies!
we lived on an air force base in california where there was a huge population of rattlesnakes. some brilliant higher-up heard that wild hogs will kill and eat rattlers. so, a breeding group of wild hogs were imorted to the area. as it turned out, the snakes preferred the high ground, the hogs liked the low. now this area has both a rattlesnake and a hog problem.
That’s my favorite dam guv’ment letter! It’s actually been around a lot longer than 8/09 and it’s from a different state.
http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/dammed.asp
It doesn’t defang the subject at all, and the letters from both sides are actual. But this happened in my home state of Michigan under Gov. Engler, in 1997.
http://www.absolutemichigan.com/dig/michigan/weird-wednesday-the-pierson-beavers-a-dam-shame/
Fugly, I’m amazed that you didn’t check this out at SNOPES.com first. First off the dates and location has been changed (why, I don’t know) and yes, it’s true that they were originally beaver dams, but they were ABANDONED, and the owner of that property had gone out himself and built them up further (probably weakening them in the process) Of course he later claims he didn’t touch them, so who knows the truth of the situation? It was silly of them to post a letter like that without being clear on just why the dams were dangerous (because they were abandoned and messed with).
I did check it out and the story is true. I actually found a link where a blog owner had this entire correspondence with the owner of the property and he continued to have drama with the government over it. Where did you find that the property owner had touched the dams? I didn’t see that anywhere and honestly, I doubt he did that. The problem throughout the whole thing was the neighbor whose property was being flooded who sounds like a real nut case.
If you read the snopes page, it says that the original complaint from the guy downstream was that the owner of the land was building up the dams after they had long ago been abandoned by the beavers. That guy came back and said that they weren’t ABANDONED, the other guy SHOT the beavers, and he was only building them up to keep them as they were so as not to mess up his property. Then he changed his story and said he didn’t touch them.
I hate to say it, but if there’s a web page with the names you provided, it’s a hoax. The originals are older with a different name in a different state.
The snopes account (linked various places above) indicates that the particular variant of the story you linked is not true (and frankly, it can’t be entirely true – Pennsylvania has never had a “Department of Environmental Quality”), and as far as I can tell, has never had an employee named David L. Price.
There was a similar and entirely true story that took place in Michigan. The former MI Director of Environmental Quality refers to it here:
https://www.mackinac.org/12635
In the snopes account, the Department advises that everyone was aware that the dams were built by beavers. The problem was that they had evidence that the property owner was building up the dams, long after the beavers had split. So what we have here, IMO, is two people using taxpayer resources to annoy each other. Nothing new, I’m sorry to say. For a more generous retelling of what bureaucracy has done for animals (and humankind), see the National Park Service’s website, or Ken Burns’ highly entertaining documentary replaying on PBS right now.
I live right next to the 90 freeway, my property borders on the freeway. There is a local little food mart in the tiny town of Tyler. I received a big packet sent certified mail from this government agency in Olympia. It had a letter stating that this sign, (included a picture of the sign on the property), that it was an illegial sign. It had copies of all the RCW’s that stated it was illegial other documentation. I had 10 days from receiving the letter to take the sign down or they were going to prosecute.
That was all well and good but one small problem, that was not my property. My property is on the eastbound side and the propery in question was on the westbound side. I had no sign. So my letter to him started; You did not do well in map reading in school did you? I also said that I would not tell him who had the property because obviously he needed the practice to read a map correctly. My letter continued to let him know that he did not have the correct property but with them being a government agency and how they work, then they can certainly talk to my attorney. I looked up all the people he had CC’d and got their address and sent them all a copy of the letter. I never heard back from them.
When I got my student loans consolidated, I got a couple of bills from one bank saying I owed $0.00. I kept throwing the bills away until I got the one where they threatened to take it to collections. I sent the bank a check for Zero dollars and no bloody sense. They deposited it.
Fifth Wheel, you win!
I got that when I paid of and canceled my credit card. It took over a year to get them to acknowledge that I was not a customer any more.
Part of the conversation ended up like the Dead Parrot Sketch from Monty Python.
Me: “…no, the card is no more. I cut it up. It has ceased to be.”
Credit Card phone lackey: “…So do you want us to send you a new card?”
When my mother passed away, I cancelled her credit cards (after paying off any balances, of course). Every one of them “got it” except Sears — so far, I’ve received 2 “new cards” as the previous one (destroyed upon receipt) expired. I do not know what part of “dead” they cannot understand …
Slightly off topic… When a family member passes away with outstanding credit card debt, the heirs do not legally have to pay it. This came straight from my moms attorney when my uncle passed away, write deceased on the bill and return it, if they ask for a copy of the death certificate, provide it, but do not pay the bill.
You personally don’t pay the bill; the Personal Representative pays out of the estate moneys. Debts don’t go away just because you croak.
I work in probate in WA state. The estate is obligated to pay claims (under most circumstances) filed with the court after the Personal Representative has published a Notice to Creditors. If the estate is insolvent (the debts are greater than the house, car, bank accounts, furniture, etc are worth, that has to be proven to the court and only then the creditors are left with the bag.
I hear ya. When my grandmother passed away, pretty much every company, except for one got it. We even sent the death certificate with the bills asking for service to be cancelled. Except for one, who apparently must have wanted to examine the body by means of UPS overnight. Hello? Dead as in put in the ground, this person didn’t fake their death. Oh well if they just keep sending that one bill, we’re not paying it. Not our fault you sent the letter back unopened. Also to avoid trouble, if your husband dies switch everything to your name. If your wife dies do the same thing because than it takes twice as long explaining why one died 10 years ago and everything still has his name on it, and now the only person living in their also is no longer alive either. It’s like they have an iron grip on you and like a two year old throwing a hissy fit, refuse to let you go.
*sniggers* This is where people are superior to computers. That just has computer error written all over it.
It’s not just government (although they are bad – see story below)… when I moved from Calgary to Ottawa, I cancelled all my services (power, water, etc.), and payed all the outstanding bills. I also left my forwarding address, just in case anything came up. Well, they kept sending me bills. For the power in the house. That I no longer lived in. Of course each month I was getting “new” bills and the total was adding up… I called them every month, explained that I no longer lived in, or owned the house, and that maybe they might want to bill the NEW people? Each time they’d say “oh, ok, I’ve fixed it” and the next month I’d get another bill. They started threatening to go to collections, at which point I got really angry (thinking this is going to go on MY credit rating) – and finally went all the way up the chain to fix it. This had gone on for SIX months!!
And for government… this is what I ALSO went through with the move. To get health care here, I had to prove that I lived here (Ontario). I needed either a bill or drivers license (DL) in my name. Well, all the bills are in hubby’s name, so I went to get my DL (which I needed anyway). I brought my “old” DL, plus my birth certificate (showing born in Canada – which I’ve had since I was a kid). Well, the government run licensing office told me that my birth certificate wasn’t legal, and to bring in my passport (which I didn’t have on me at the time – who would??). So, I got a bit irate with them (we live in the country, and it’s a 45 minute drive each way to this office), but there was no budging. She even called the office manager over, and HE agreed with her! I even stated, um, hello? I used THIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE to GET the damn passport…. are you telling me the PASSPORT office in Calgary gave me a passport using a fake birth certificate??? Still no budging.
So, I even called the province of my birth, described my BC, and they said “yup, it’s legit” (there’s registration number on the back). So I took my passport (not that I was going to use it), along with my DL and BC, and went back to the office again the next day. Different people were working there, and they didn’t look TWICE at the BC, and were about to give me a new DL. So I told them what had happened the day before, and so they photocopied and faxed my BC to a number for this specific purpose, and heard back in under five minutes that it WAS legit. So, I guess my question is… why didn’t they do that the day before???
OMG, I hate dealing with the government, and also banks, insurance people, and many more. They are stupid and insane. It must be a requirement.
The EXACT same thing happened to me here in the states with the electric company. What a scam. In the dead of summer with no AC, they were sending me $100.00 invoices for an empty house that I had thought I cancelled service on several times. They claim that the refrigerator was what cost $100.00 per month. They never did explain how every phone operator that I spoke with said the service had been shut off, yet the refrigerator was running up these bills that I ended up having to pay.
I’ve had the exact same thing happen a couple times from varous companies. The dept. of education, though, who has my student loans… I paid my next-to-last loan payment and my remaining blalnce was like $3 and some change. I got a bill the next month saying that my minimum payment on my $3 and some change blance was $72. WTF???
I sent them the entire $3 or so balance and fortunately they closed out the account and bothered me no more, but I was wondering if I would get a fee or something for not paying the entire minimum payment…
When I bought my land that we built our farm on, it was part of an old hog farm, complete with various old buildings and debris. We had a company come in and bulldoze it all down and clean it up, but we missed the fact that there was an old septic tank on the property. When we got to final inspection, someone at the county discovered the existence of the old septic tank (which we had no idea was even there) and stopped our final inspection approval until we removed the old septic tank. The woman wouldn’t just allow us to cave it in and fill it with dirt, she insisted that we have it pumped, have the old tank and the entire accompanying drain field, dug up and removed. Now, this tank had been unused since the 1980′s!! Anything left in it had long since decomposed. She even went so far as to accuse us of planning to use it… Of course, we’d rather use a 1970′s era septic tank of unknown design instead of our brand new one we just spent thousands of dollars installing. Sure we would.
So anyway, the house was finished, so we just moved in anyway. About 3 months later we got a letter approving our final inspection! We ignored her and she forgot about us.
This really happened, in Michigan, in 97.
http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/dammed.asp
“I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam project any time and/or any place you choose. I believe I can safely state there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic”
That was a treasure! I was on the floor for real.
And dumbest government bureaucracy story?
I work for the Post Office, so I wouldn’t know where to start.
I just wanted to say yay for Truffles! That’s why you should never count out a rescue horse!
Just a little update on my rescued arabian mare that I posted pictures a couple blogs ago. We went to a dressage show two weekends ago & she did great! Got a 59% on Intro A & also placed 2nd! Not bad for her first dressage show!
That’s a great chuckle. There’s a local town here that had a beaver bru-ha-ha in the downtown area. The critters got to keep their dam, modified to keep the area from flooding too badly. But they had a lot of support from the locals. You could watch them from the bridge. Urban beavers!
Happy Mothers Day!
Way to go Mya and new owner!
I wish more people would realize that “rescued” or “adopted” does not equate in ANY way with “damaged.” My two BEST-tempered dogs, by far, were both rescues…. one a stray, one from a MO puppy mill that was shut down in a raid. (That dog went on to become state stockdog champion, besides having the most perfect temperament of any dog I’ve ever known). With dogs I’ve bought from show breeders and raised under perfect circumstances, I’ve had a mixed bag, from fearful to bullying, as well as nice tempered. As I’ve brought up before, I think temperament is almost all genetic.
There are forums like “Baggage Agility” for rescue dogs doing agility. Why assume a rescued dog (or horse) must have baggage? My rescued dogs were super at agility from day 1. A friend with another dog from the same puppy mill raid is competing at very high levels of agility. He’s the best dog she’s ever owned. Meanwhile, my super well-bred show champion I socialized under “perfect” conditions was genetically terrified of beeping noises, the sound of fabric rubbing together, plastic bags, etc…. and took years to desensitize. It sure as heck wasn’t my adopted dogs that had issues…
Mya was able to show and win right out of rescue. Similar, my rescued stray started working professionally for Hallmark Cards 3 weeks after I got her from the Humane Society. During that time, I taught her basic obedience, targeting, good stays, and groomed her. She wore a tutu and posed for Christmas cards–did great! (The puppy mill rescue also worked as a Hallmark model, as did my two show champions.)
LOL this picture says it all.
It was in a town called Plettenberg Bay in South Africa where I used to live.
The municipality tried to repaint “No Entry” on a one-way road. They failed. Miserably.
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs139.snc3/18672_283808285791_578690791_5106076_6112766_n.jpg
You should sent that to: failblog.org !
I rented an aparment in Payette ID when I attended TVCC in Ontario,Oregon in 1977- it was about 12 miles away ( gas was cheap then) and a good rental deal. I was entitled to a small 121.00 a month check from VA since my deceased dad was a WWII vet. The VA dependent benefits people could not comprehend that I was going to college in OR and living in ID. I asked if they had every looked at a map and told them I could send them one. It didn’t help matters any when my mom kept confusing them by saying I was in Iowa everytime they called her to check- real long story there but she didn’t like not getting “her” money.
Then there is the rounding up of more mustangs when they can’t adopt the ones being held hostage now- ps I love mustangs I have one
Yeah, again, does it make any sense to round thm up and put them in pens? Uh, no. No sense at all.
Craft a decent training program and capture an amount you can train. Adopt out. Repeat the process. Or geld and release like we do with feral cats.
About 12+/- years ago, I read a story where then-President Bill Clinton and Rep. Patricia Schroeder wanted a bill to retrain ‘cattle guards’ of Colorado. For those of you of a non-ranching background, a cattle guard is a metal grate/pole contraption you put in your gates to keep cattle from leaving your property without actually putting up a gate. http://www.bing.com/search?q=picture%2C+cattle+guard%2C+metal&form=OSDSRC
Are you really that lacking in critical thinking skills that you think that is true or are you making a sad little stab at promoting some political agenda?
http://www.snopes.com/politics/humor/cattleguards.asp
“It is the bears.”
LMAO
Our Federal government recently announced that they were going to support increased offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Pretty dumb, huh.
Petco is using the hair from the dogs and cats they grrom to send to an organization to help clean up the spill. They are making oil-absorbing booms from the hair.
…umm. Well, in my memory, the US has suffered ONE major spill from a rig compared to HOW MANY from tankers. The recent accident or no, if we’re going to use oil, it IS best to ship it the shortest distance possible. Tankers are the largest source of oil pollution.
Stupid guvment cocksuckers.
Does a bear shit in the woods???
YOU BETCHA!
Bears wipe their asses on tree trunks after they shit in the woods.
IT BURRRRRNS!
A bear and a rabbit are in the woods, and they were both going poop at the same time. The bear looked over at the rabbit and asked “Do you ever have a problem with poop sticking to your fur?” The rabbit replied “well, no.” SO the bear grabs the rabbit and wipes his bear butt with it! LOL
Well, that would be like wiping your butt with wax paper! Stupid bear.
My neighbors (now moved out) were chicken fighters. After I managed to run them off their property by calling Animal Control numerous times, they left most of their chickens behind. On a cold November day just before Thanksgiving I called Dept of Ag to tell them there were starving, freezing, sick and dying chickens at this abandoned property. This was when Avian Influenza was in full outbreak, and us veterinarians had recieved a Dept of Ag letter telling us we were the “frontline in homeland security” and to report any “suspicious avian behavior” immediately. (Still not sure what suspicious avian behavior is, but it conjures great images). Anyway, I told DoA I was being a good citizen, that I had suspiciously behaving avians in my front yard, and they needed to come out right away. They arrived 5 days later. Needed me to direct them to find the dead chickens (which were in a pile right next to the garage). When I pointed out a dying chicken and suggested they take it into their lab and run tests, they asked “Hmm, what tests should we run?” Then they suggested I just set the chicken on the porch so the residents would find it when they came home (did I mention the house had been abandoned for weeks?). Your tax dollars at work.
Most of you may not be aware of this, but I (Cyg) was born in Berlin, Germany. My parents were in the US Army, stationed there. The field hospital is considered American soil. So I am not only a citizen of the US, but a natural-born citizen.
When I went to community college, I applied for a work-study job, using my passport as ID. Two weeks passed, and I’d still heard nothing about whether or not I’d been approved. Then I got a letter stating that ALL my financial aid had been rejected. So I headed down to the financial aid office to ask why.
The woman at the counter took one look at my file, and sneered, “You filled out the WRONG paperwork. We need your green card and school visa to give YOU any financial aid.”
“But I’m a US citizen. See?” I showed her my passport again.
She pointed to my birth city. “This is a GERMAN passport!”
… I might mention that the front of said passport has UNITED STATES OF AMERICA in big bold letters on the cover.
Long story short, *I* chewed her out, my adviser chewed her out, her BOSS chewed her out, and I got not only ALL my financial aid, but a prime Work-Study job in the library, watching the computer lab. And that girl avoided the HELL out of me for the next while.
I’m also olive-skinned and dark-haired. I fully admit, I look anything BUT pure European (which really is what I am). After 9/11, I gt stopped at McCarran Airport while trying to get on a flight back to Pennsy. I had to go through the entire strip and baggage search. Afterwards, one of the TSA guards tried to *refuse* to let me board the plane, even though everything checked out. “We know you’re hiding something, Paki!”
The other guards just plain went pale. Not supposed to let on they were profiling, after all! I’ll just say the scene created thereafter was NOT pretty, but I got to board the next flight. >:)
Ok, when I was adding a new run in to the west side of my barn, the building department rejected the plan. When I went in, the guy told me the support columns were too far apart–6X6′s set ten feet apart to hold up the roof. He said I needed studs set at 14″ to meet code.
I sat there and just stared at him for a minute. Then I said, “And just how are my horses supposed to fit through there to get under the roof?”
“Uhm, I didn’t think of that,” he said.
Then I patiently explained to him that the rest of the barn was standing up just fine with the support poles set at ten feet, according to the plan they had approved before.
He finally signed off. Good thing. I was beginning to be afraid my three rather large horses were going to have to do some serious dieting. *G*
If anyone has a hundred bucks or so and a heart filled with compassion, please show up at the Missoula livestock auction this Tuesday and rescue my mother in laws poor old lady. Cowgirl (http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/cowboy+jacks+girl) is a very sweet, very well mannered 18 year old broodmare that is absolutely destined for slaughter on Tueday if she isn’t rescued. As a 2/3 year old she won money on the track, then won money on barrels for many years. She is 16 + hands and throws OUTSTANDING babies no matter who you breed her to. She’s a crippled old lady with bad knees and a swayback, but she doesn’t deserve to go to kill after a lifetime of hard work. She just needs somebody to love and a bit of joint supplement to keep her feeling good. Put little kids on her out in the yard and she’ll babysit them for hours, or breed her for a really nice baby. She WILL go for kill this Tuesday, so please rescue her if you can!! Please!!
For more information, please call or e-mail me. 509-999-4890/littleladybug917@yahoo.com
You’re right, she shouldn’t go to kill after a lifetime of hard work. So why is she?
I do so hate emotional blackmail.
I second that notion–I would also add that it sounds as if the mare’s condition (bad knees, possibly severe swayback) and her age would suggest that she would benefit from being retired from her breeding career. Her uterus isn’t her only shining attribute.
I’ll just copy my reply from the other post:
Did you guys try rehoming this horse? Why dump her at auction if you fear she’ll go to the KB?? I’m not trying to “attack†or anything… just wondering why no background like ‘we tried to sell her but with no luck’ or whatever? And if she’s that bad off (swayback, etc.), why not euth? Just questions, mind you, not accusations…
I’m assuming your MIL is the one sending this mare to auction — does your husband have NO influence over his own mother? Can you not look her in the eye and tell her what a filthy, low-class, despicable act she is performing? Point out the damage to her soul/karma/whatever she believes in.
For heaven’s sake, SHAME HER. Yes, even if she cannot afford to keep the horse — she can CALL THE VET. Offer to pay for euthanasia if you can’t keep the horse yourself. Don’t just wring your hands online. If your husband won’t back you up, shame him, too.
Oh, and all of you with your compassion-filled hearts and extra hundred dollars, I’ve got a 6 month old daughter, and boy is she a handful! She eats A LOT and keeps outgrowing all of her clothes! I just can’t afford it anymore. If anyone out there has a kind heart and a hundred dollars, please buy my baby some food and bigger clothes. She really is a good baby and deserves these things. If you don’t, I will be forced to sell her to a south American sex slave trade THIS TUESDAY, so please give me money or it will be on YOUR conscience!
(In case anyone has trouble sensing sarcasm, I have no children. I only have highly pampered pets and a serious condition called “uncontrollable smartassery”)
Sorry darlin,’ can’t help you or your children. When I was a teenager, I read an estimate of what it costs to raise a child. At the time, roughly $250k. My shocked response: “Do you know what kind of HORSES you can get for that?” Thus sealing my lifelong happy decision to not reproduce ;-D
I get your point, though. We’re supposed to rush to the rescue of someone who is too lame ass to assert herself with her MIL and husband. I hate stories like that. I’ve heard so many of them regarding both animals AND children. Why doesn’t she just take the horse out of MIL’s barn and hide it somewhere for a while, until MIL and hubby do right? It’s warm out; she could arrange cheap pasture board easily. She probably doesn’t even have any of her own money. Still, she could snag the horse and get it to a rescue.
Breed it. Crazy.
Why is it her responsibility to clean up her mother in law’s mess? And if she can’t afford to take in a horse, good for her for not doing it! Not everyone has access to a trailer to get the horse to a rescue either. I’m all for euthing rather than auctioning but really, some of you act as though everyone has a trailer and extra cash sitting around and has the resources to save all the horses that might meet nasty ends. Get real. Maybe she has children that she’s busy taking care of. You never know. It’s not as though she is personally taking the horse to slaughter. At least she is doing SOMETHING by posting here. Judgemental much?
Are you seriously suggesting that someone go rescue this poor old crippled care and BREED HER??? Why is she being sent to slaughter in the first place? She should have been humanely euthanized instead. I realize that this is not your horse, and you are trying to get her out of the slaughter pen, but to suggest she be bred is ridiculous! If she is arthritic, cripple and swayback, there is no reason to create more stress on those poor legs, not to mention that she’s 18 freaking years old!
I’m sorry your mother in law is a nasty bag, but your suggestions make me cringe. BREED a crippled, 18 year old mare? That’s very cruel and stupid.
And dear, if your husband won’t rescue this horse despite your distress, you need to send HIM to auction.
PS God, I HATE stories like this. I went to see about a horse, and got invited into the house. A cat with a leg that looked as if it was put on backwards and a paralyzed, limp paw came to me. I asked what happened to it. This crazy bitch—who turned out to be a horse hoarder—said it had been hit by a car months before, and her husband “wouldn’t let her” take it to the vet.
Crazy bitch kept buying horses with this guy. And having kids—including fostering disabled kids! I can’t even wrap my mind around it. If some man did this to one of my pets, I’d step over his dead body to get to the vet.
Of course I called the SPCA and they went in. I’ve never heard about cruelty charges being filed, though the horses were better fed and sheltered afterwards.
Ladies, if you want to risk your neck and sanity with an abusive man, go for it. But stop involving animals and children. And stop trying to drag sane people in to rescue your incredibly sorry asses.
“If anyone has a big heart and a love of overbred Halter horses, please come and take my horse and keep her forever and love her and feed her and give her the $2,000 in vet care she will need to even have a prayer of being sound!!! She’s a very sweet 8 year old mare with ringbone, a hip issue, a headshaking issue, and a 16.2 hand 1,500 lb. body on double ot feet. If you wanted to perpetuate big beautiful horses with a lack of bone and brains, then you could breed her. Otherwise, your kids can safely pet her over the fence, but can’t ride her because she isn’t capable of thinking for herself, let alone for a child rider.
But she’s pretty!! and friendly and kind and trained to ride! Did I mention she is unsound? I really need to have her gone because I have four horses and I’m losing my job, and can’t afford to feed that many. If you don’t come and get her soon, I’m going to have to donate her to a rescue or a university!!! Hurry, please!!!”
I wish I were making this up, but this is exactly the situation I’m in. Why do people always decide to rescue skinny or abused horses? I swear, if I starved my mare, and beat her daily, I could place her somewhere in a heartbeat. Too bad I actually take care of her, and will continue to do so until I can no longer afford to, at which time I will probably put her down instead of letting her go to some wannabe rescuer who gets bored and ships her to the auction a week later. On that morose note, does anyone have any opinion on donating a horse to a university? I’ve never done it, but I know people who have.
Saw this and had to reply.
Do some very, very serious checking before you donate to a university. If you do at all. I loved (loved) the college I went to, but I was on the equestrian team my sophomore year and I felt sorry for every single horse under their care. The horses we used were a mixture of donated horses and summer camp rent-string horses (they literally left during the summer for a kid’s camp) and they got worked until they dropped. If they had four legs, they jumped– despite conformation. Horses were rarely separated between English and Western, the poor things just got thrown into whatever lesson they got signed up for and they got ridden by a different rider every time. They were so confused that I learned a lot less about riding “right” and a lot more about rapid-fire troubleshooting. I do now know what to do with a draft cross who has had beginner students bouncing all over his mechanical hackamore. Hint: no rein pressure unless you want to go over backwards. Students taught large group lessons to other (very beginner) students on these horses which was often painful to watch because they never had enough control. I’ve had friends who had to ride the crazy buck out of horses that were given to them to put a little kid on.
On top of it all, in my state university horse shows are done popcorn-style, where you draw a number and the host school just provides a horse. It’s supposed to keep things fair, but what it means is that random students from other universities that have never met your horse before could easily be showing her in a discipline she was never trained for. Things like a hot horse bolting on a timid beginner/intermediate rider in the middle of a show happen all the time.
Also, don’t think that sending your horse to a university with a vet school will be great because they will be able to afford your horse’s problems. My university had a prestigious vet school, and the vet students regularly came out and practiced on the horses. Like, for instance, there was one horse missing a bunch of teeth because they needed an animal to practice on.
Like I said, I loved my university to bits and pieces, but I was only on the team for one year. My horse and I left shortly after. I would never donate my horse after what I’ve seen, but if you do decide to, BE CAREFUL. If you do decide to to it, make sure you have a clear way of getting her back and check up on her often because her condition could rapidly deteriorate. Hope that helps …
Are you referring to donating her to a veterinary university? I would never donate a living horse to that sort of hell on Earth. Colic research isn’t pretty. Neither is founder research, or any of the myriad of sick things they come up with to induce in those poor horses. Here is what will happen to your mare if you give her to a veterinary hospital: They will induce colic or founder, or whatever in her. They will then either treat her or not depending on what part of the study she is. When the study is over, they will kill her.
Some people fall for “my horse will be used as a blood donor, not for medical research”, which means that they will use her as a blood donor who participates in non-terminal studies. When she is no longer useful to them or she just happens to pin her ears at the wrong person they will then kill her for a rectal lab or pathology lab.
This is why I left college. In first year in the faculty of Agriculture, we were permitted only to observe. What I saw made me vomit and realize I couldn’t hack the rest of veterinary school. No wonder some vets end up so hardhearted. You just have to go numb.
I’m in a college equine program and if it weren’t for people donating well bred horses we would have nothing but crap!!!!!! Just make sure you do your research on the university because some WILL let them get skinny in the winter and use that as an excuse. Some WILL take them to auction when they are done with them. Morehead State University in Morehead, KY is one of these that I know of. (I have SEEN the auction report, so don’t even try convincing me otherwise!) There are many that are wonderfully run and find nice trail riding or 4H retirement homes afterwards and will pay to keep them fat and happy until they have done so (Midway College in Midway, KY).
I find it quite cruel that you’re willing to send a horse like that to an auction if you know she’ll end up with a kill buyer. Why not just put her up for sale? You’d get more money out of her anyway…
Apparently, just asking for help isn’t enough these days, you have to divuldge your entire life, your families life, and the horses life for anyone to take you seriously. I whole-heartedly disagree with my MIL’s decision to put her in the auction. I lost a lot of respect because of this. I did not know she was even in the auction until Saturday. Apparently, she was put in a catalog/breed sale and didn’t meet the minimum bid required to sell, so they rolled her over to the general auction. Had I known she was even considering putting her in the auction I would have talked her into giving her away to a retirement home. I agree that she should have given her away or put her down, but she didn’t. So I took it upon myself to try to save her. Never thought I would get bashed for having a heart. If I had the means to have bought her myself I would have. But, I just had a baby in March and haven’t gone back to work yet, so it would have been impossible for me to have outbid the KB. Fortunately, the people of the Montana Craigslist saw the point in what I was trying to do and a wonderful family got in touch with me and we arranged for me to meet them at the sale today and try to save her. Which we did!!!!! The auctioneer realized what I was trying to do and ignored the KB’s overbid, and sold Cowgirl to this family for $175. She will now spend the rest of her days carting around a tiny little tot who loves horses and wants to learn about them. She’ll live in a big green pasture with hay, grain, and joint supplement until the day comes to put her down, which I know this family will do for her. So, whether you hate my story or not..she was saved, and that’s all I wanted to do. Save Cowgirl.
It’s lovely that this one horse was saved. And you just had a baby, with no money of your own. With the same man who doesn’t have the balls to stand up to his mother, or protect you? As Fugs would say, “Awesome.”
This is what I’m talking about. Please please PLEASE don’t breed any more. Horses or yourself. Women fought many years for the pill. And unlike a mare in heat, we have the brains to say “no.”
I have to agree with you.
Ladies, stop having babies with bad men. You know they are bad men. We all know that when we are dating them. We are not REALLY being fooled or misled. We are choosing NOT to listen to our instincts because we are having fun at the time or getting some emotional need met. Which is fine if you’re just having fun but keep them away from your checkbooks and take your birth control so that you don’t drag someone else into your moment of poor decision-making!
Who in the hell decided my husband is some “bad guy”, he wasn’t even part of the original discussion yet you feel you can condemn him to a title he by no means earned?? My husband is a very kind, gentle, and good man with a heart of gold! He didn’t stand up to his mother, because he didn’t know anything! I (ME, MYSELF, & I) went behind my mother-in-laws back to try to save this mare. My husband didn’t know a thing about what I was doing until Monday night when I asked him if he could come to the auction and help me with our 2 young children while I walked Cowgirl through the sale ring. I didn’t tell him what I was planning because I knew he would chew out his mom and I didn’t want to cause a rift between them. Call me cowardice, but I thoroughly thought my decision through and did what I thought would be best, and it worked out fantastically. Furthermore, I never said we were so poor we couldn’t afford to take care of the children we have, or that they were some kind of accident that could have been avoided with birth control. We have money, we get by just fine, but it has been tight without me working for two months and we have responsibly budgeted my husbands income so that we stayed ahead on our bills and responsibilities. It would have been kind, but financially irresponsible for us to have tried to buy her, or paid for euthanization, as we just hadn’t budgeted those kinds of expenses. As for being our baby being a mistake, you should be slapped for having the audacity to say that. Our son is a miracle for which we had been planning for 2+ years. Due to severe uterine scarring we were given only a 5% chance of even conceiving another child, and we did, at the perfect time in our lives. So shame on you. I was only trying to save a little old mare who I thought deserve better than she was getting and in turn I get criticized, bashed for my decision, my husband is unjustly criticized, and my child deemed a mistake! You women may have a heart when it comes to horses, but you may have completely lost, or never had any compassion for the human race. Shameful.
Furthermore, when my husband and I got back to his mom’s ranch, he walked straight up to her and told her “Next time you want to sell a horse, just let Lexi take care of it, she knows what she’s doing.”
what from that post makes you think that she doesn’t have money of her own to support a child? I don’t know about you, but I persoanlly have no control over my future MIL, nor does my fiance . I know very few peole who actually have control over other people. Who says the husband is bad? He may feel exactly the same way she does! Good God, I guess some people are just dead set on finding reason to hate people! I certainly don’t have enough income to support my own horse, a child, AND other animals who happen to pull at my heartstrings. Hence, why I chose not to take in more animals! Would you like those of us with shitty family members who do things we don’t like with animals to take in animals we can’t afford? I know I would LOVE to take in my stepdaughters’ horses and give them a hell of a better situation than they’ve got but I won’t cuz I can’t afford to! Why? Because I’ve got a horse and a child that I need to support first and I’d like to avoid becoming a hoarder and making a situation that I can’t handle, thank you very much. I would like to support what I’ve got, not run around fixing everyone else’s problems, thank you very much!
I love the Fugly blog, and I’m a long-time reader. There is a wonderful amount of knowledge and support to be found on this site for horses and people who love them, and I know that Fugs and the other commenters do a great deal of good work. And when omokseemama told you that she was attempting to help her MIL’s horse, ya’ll rightly criticized her suggestion to breed the horse and questioned why the horse was going to auction at all.
But the later comments were way out line. Making nasty comments about how other women should use birth control and stop marrying “bad men” is classist and totally inappropriate.
More importantly, I think that those of you who made these comments should consider very carefully the underlying beliefs you have about this woman you’ve never met. Given information about her economic status, you made instant and extremely negative assumptions about her marriage, her decision-making, and her family planning. Because she doesn’t have money to pay for her MIL’s horse, you told her that she herself shouldn’t be “breeding.” This is INCREDIBLY OFFENSIVE. I suppose we’re all in favor of sterilizing the poor over at Fugly blog?
Sorry, but I don’t know where you get “classist” from. Lots of wealthy, well educated women marry and have babies with bad men. Shall I make a list of well known examples?
I wasn’t actually commenting on any one individual. I was commenting on women IN GENERAL. Lots of women marry and/or have babies with bad men and it is often a very bad decision that screws up life for themselves, their children and their animals.
Well I’m glad it all ended well for her. And I commend you for trying to do something about saving her.
But I still find it cruel that whoever her owner was would let her fall into this situation.
When we purchased a boarding facility in 2002, we had a nice 28 stall barn and a separate 60 x 120 indoor arena. I had contacted both the county and town officials before we purchased it, to make sure everything was in compliance. I was told that as long as we continued operating it the way it was, we were fine. Well, 1 month after moving onto the property, a sheriff showed up at our door, and handed us a ticket for illegal use of a building! The indoor arena was 14 feet to close to the property line, to “house” animals. Now my understanding of “housing” animals, is a confined area, such as a stall, with water, and some sort of floor, but not a building with sand that is 60 x 120! A county official came out, an explained to me, that an animal walking through a building, is considered “housing” and animal! So, I asked him, does that mean every time a mouse might run through here, I’m housing an animal??? Of course, the answer was YES!!! Well, we tried everything to change the zoning, and that didn’t work. We sold the property, but made it right for the new owners, because a neighbor died, left his land in trust, and we were able to purchase a 30′ strip of land, so the indoor met the set back requirements…I “love” government at work….
The University where I work is not known for having brilliant people in a lot of offices. There is a small area outside my building for those with handicapped parking. I’m still having problems understanding how several of the janitorial staff have mobility problems, but that’s another story. Every time they have construction projects on campus, they let the construction people ignore the handicapped signs (and fines!) and park there. When those of us who use the spaces legitimately ask why, it’s because it’s too far for the construction workers to walk from the parking garage, and not convenient for them to park on the street and have to feed meters. So where are the employees with handicapped permits supposed to park? In the parking garage…half a mile away!
That’s actually a violation of federal law — and if the university in question accepts *any* federal grants, they can LOSE THEM.
I work at a high school and I can guess why the University is letting this happen- construction workers get paid more then some professors ( our head janitor makes more than most teachers public info source) if our guys don’t drive the truck from building to bulding and park close they walk so ssssslllllllooooooowwww that little real work gets done. It stinks but it helps with efficiency and saving tax $.
I”m sure you’re right, guesswho, and alphamare, yep, it is illegal. But this place also limits the number of handicapped places available, and if you need one and there aren’t any passes available, tough. Sure, some days I can easily walk that distance, but my doctors don’t want me to *have* to walk it, especially if the weather is bad. But the big construction workers with their big trucks — heck, we don’t want them to have to walk slowly from the garage. Sigh, it’s insane. And we gets LOTS of federal grant money, so they really should be more careful. Hmmm, maybe I’ll point that out to our bean counter sponsored program people!
Thing is, the university doesn’t get to decide who parks in those spaces. It’s against the law for people who don’t have a handicapped license to park there, whether the university says they can or not. A store owner can’t tell his employees it’s fine for them to park in the handicapped spaces either. Don’t mess with the university, call the police and have them ticketed.
I really should, Alliecat04 — but because the parking lot is on private property, I don’t think the police/parking attendants for the city can come on the lot and ticket. I do know that the ONE parking enforcer on campus tickets and tows cars from the handicapped places almost every day, but he’s one person on a big campus and he can’t always be there. When I came in this morning, there were 5 of the 6 handicapped places were filled — 3 didn’t have tags to be there. That’s one of the reasons I come to work early — I can get a place to park!
Most parking lots are private property, but that doesn’t mean the cops don’t have jurisdiction. My mom had foot surgery a few years ago and got a temporary permit while she was wearing a cast, she also got a new car at the time and forgot to update the license plate info on her permit! The cops were writing her up a ticket just as she left the grocery store with her crutches and cast, lol. They tore it up because it was obvious that she was disabled (even though they could have still written her up for using the wrong car). The grocery store parking lot is on private property as well, but that certainly didn’t stop them. The next time you see those guys park there call the cops on them, although I’m sure they’ll appreciate you using the non-emergency line. Talk to the University security as well and make sure that they know you NEED your spot, get their number too and call them as well. The squeaky wheel is the one that get’s greased after all.
The construction workers have a high rate of injury and death; the professor doesn’t. Don’t be so high-minded about how they should be paid, eh? Them walking slow… well, the job they do is quite physically taxing (and some of those jobs are mentally taxing – try lifting a bucket of iron workers up in a crane – guess what happens if you make a mistake? they die. Lucky for the professor he doesn’t have those pressures)… You’d walk slow too if you were shoveling gravel or laying brick all day, m’dear.
The complaint I always like is how many breaks construction and road workers take. A) I actually don’t see them taking more breaks then most workers, it’s just that there’s no break room at their worksites so you can actually see them on break, and b) ever do hard physical work? Only a fool does that kind of work for eight hours non-stop, they’ll ruin their backs and joints if they don’t take breaks and move slow. Driving a dozer is not like driving a car.
As to why they get paid more, depending on the work they’re doing they may be apprenticed for four years or more, working under a journeyman for a much lower wage while they go to a trade school. Any job that requires years of education beyond high school is going to pay more, period, because you’re paying for their education. I certainly don’t want to live in a house that was built by someone who didn’t know how to apply geometry and structural engineering to wood!
I’m not sure if you’ve already heard about this, but I’ll mention it anyway.
There is a big dispute going on with a Calico range mustangs and the BLM. Apparently they were unlawfully rounded up by the BLM. And then the BLM was taken to court over it. The judge requested the BLM do nothing to these horses until a lawful desicion could be reached about whether or not the mustangs should be released or adoped out. Well the BLM ignored the judge and gelded all the males horses 4 years and younger.
I am certainly not suggesting that we necessarily need them to stay intact if they were released. I tihnk the bigger issue here is that the BLM is once again going behind people’s backs and doing shady things.
I haven’t done enough credible research on the subject, so I don’t know for sure what exactly is happening. But i know it’s not good when the ones who are put in charge of protecting a species start to do shady, illegal things with said species. Again, I don’t know for sure, but it’s worth looking into if you’re interested.
I’m sorry, I don’t usually join in on the snarking, but omokseemama…. wow. First off, what, did someone steal her away to the auction? Nothing like threatening slaughter on a primarily anti-slaughter board… Why can’t you just keep the horse at your place until you find a suitable adoptive home. Secondly, if they do rescue this mare, she deserves to retire! An 18 year old mare with a bad back and bad knees should have to have more babies? Let try making a 70 yr old woman using a cane have babies and see how she feels. And I just can’t wait to see the children left unattended, no helmets, no shoes, sitting on this old horse featured here on Fudly’s blog. She has apid her dues in life, if you can’t support her, don’t send her to slaughter or bank on some kind soul baling her out… do the right thing and euth her. If there is nothing else Fugly has taught us, it is each of these things. Don’t get me wrong, I hope there is someone who can help this mare, and if I lived in the area I’d try to… but don’t put this old sweetheart through the torture of auction and slaughter.
First of all, let me say I live in California. (‘Nuff said, right? ;o)
My driver’s license expires on my birthday in a couple of weeks. I cannot just get a renewal in the mail. Every 10 years I have to show up for a new picture, thumbprint, and vision test. This is “my year.” The notice I received from DMV said to make an appointment, either by phone (an 888 number that is always busy) OR online.
For THREE WEEKS after I received the paper (end of March), I went online. I would negotiate through the various links and get to the point where I was about to get my appointment, and the computer screen would show this message: “We are sorry we cannot complete your request at this time. Please try again.”
I also had to pay for the tags for my SUV, so I paid them online (they have gone up $40 in two years. The fee is based on two percent of the value of the vehicle, which has NOT increased in value over the past two years, but as I said, this is California). I paid my license online — that transaction went through just fine — and then clicked to make my appointment. This was two weeks ago.
THIS time, the FIRST AVAILABLE APPOINTMENT is exactly two weeks to the day AFTER my driver’s license expires on my birthday — at 8:50 a.m. This was for the DMV in my city. So I checked at other cities. Barstow: Same date and time. LAKEPORT (which is WAY north of where I live) Same date and time. I checked four other cities: Same thing.
Now, I KNOW what is going to happen: I will show up at DMV at dawn one weekday morning between now and two weeks from now, and there will already be a line of people waiting (it’s called the “Shut Up And Wait Your Turn” line). We will get inside and the line for “Appointments only” line will have no one standing in it — because no one has been able to get an appointment. And those of us in the SUAWYT line will be treated like we’re BOTHERING the clerks behind the counter.
I plan to take pictures with my cell phone and then write a snail mail letter to the head of DMV (who doesn’t have email access on his Web site — neither does our “governator”) to let him know what a pisspoor organization he is running and that if he wants to keep his job, he needs to run the DMV like STARBUCK’S, where you are treated well when you walk in. Even though DMV doesn’t HAVE competition, we drivers pay their salary and they should treat their employers with more respect.
That’s okay. My unlicensed daughter drove her friend’s car (because the friend was impaired and couldn’t drive himself). She got stopped for rolling through a stop sign and got ticketed for that and driving without a license. Let’s all agree that what she did was stupid and I do not condone her behavior in anyway. But our DMV at work – she got a notice in the mail stating that since she hadn’t paid the fine, they were suspending her license. Uh, you mean the one she was ticketed for not having?
A number of years ago, our family had a dog adopted from the local humane society, She was mostly a house pet, but had a large enclosed yard with a doghouse for when we were going to be gone for more than a few hours. Being good pet-owners, she was duly vaccinated & licensed every year. As she got older, she began to have “accidents” more frequently and seemed to not quite be all there mentally. The decision was made to euthanize her.
A few months later, a notice from the town arrived saying we had 10 days to renew the license for our dog. Mom stopped by townhall to say we no longer had a dog. A week or so later, animal control showed up to deliver a fine for not licensing our dog. Officer was told we no longer had a dog. I believe they actually staked out the house for a few days to watch for our non-existant dog being taken out to the still-existing pen & doghouse.
They continued to drop by looking for a dog for the next couple years.
Some small towns obviously have way too much time & money on their hands!
OT, but you gott love the BOGO on in foal mares as a selling gimmic!!
http://norfolk.craigslist.org/grd/1727363137.html
Its like buying one car with no engine and getting a second car with no engine for free!!!
Awesome.
.. and what’s up with the pig? Is it part of the package, too….
OH WAIT! Maybe that little piebald thing is a MINI!
HEY… that’s too ugly for a mini >:-} lol
I bet if you showed up with cash they would send the piebald fugly mini pig pony thing too! Of coarse then you will have five mouths to feed and really who needs that?!
Go Mya!
She is adorable!
All I am going to say is that I immigrated to the US.
Legally.
NO other government department has ANYTHING on the INS.
Got that right!
A friend had a green card. He has a good job, many friends, and a wife and family. The time came to renew, and he sent in his renewal application. Long story short, because they – the agency – did not get his papers processed in time, he was forced to return to his native country, where he waited for another 10 months before getting his card.
Ruthie
http://www.equine.com/horses-for-sale/horse-ad-915524.html
Omg, the first pic looks like this mare has barbed wire around her neck and why do they feel it necessary to post pics of her peeing?? Whole ad just tees me off.
The buckskin is just a poorly conformed horse … and apparently they couldn’t get close enough to the bay to even take a good picture. A ridiculous ad, but at least the horses are well fed and taken care of. $500 each seems about right.
nope, it is the branch from that weedy tree… but ya, the other tail up and over picture… wtf?
Thats funny I posted a BOGO ad too. What is that about? Are people that desperate to get rid of horses they feel like they need to sink to car dealership and mall tactics to sell them? I have the feeling that the bay mare may be the mother of the buckskin…..They dont give her name just the registry number, is there a way to look that up? Cause the ad is screaming BYB to me
Im not sure if they thought she was “parking out” with the peeing pic or what but seriuosly, WTF?
Ok, not to try to “one up” you, but I saw this ad this morning… then read these posts… and just HAD to post it.
You want to talk about an ad with a peeing horse??? Well, they loved this pic so much, they posted it TWICE. And really, the first thing that caught my eye was the beyond ugly horse for sale, then I saw the rest of the pictures.
Unbelievable!!!
Be sure to check all the pics, the peeing pic is second AND fifth.
http://ottawa.kijiji.ca/c-pets-livestock-for-sale-black-white-filly-W0QQAdIdZ192026504
Plus they’re on crack asking for $700, when I could pick this pretty gelded guy for $300!!
http://ottawa.en.craigslist.ca/grd/1735204269.html
OK so to sell a horse now you need to run a BOGO special and have pics of them peeing to prove their urinary health….Got it!
Here’s my true story that happened back in 1998, in California. I had to spar with CA DMV when I tried to register a horse trailer I had bought there. It was an older two-horse bumper pull trailer and I had all the paperwork ready. It’s been years, but here’s the gist of the conversation:
Me: “Hi, I’d like to register this horse trailer.”
DMV Princess (type, type, tippity type): “You’ll need a smog certificate for it first”
Me: “Oh, there’s no engine. It’s pulled by a truck.”
DMV Princess (peering at me over her glasses): “You can’t haul a horse without an engine!”
Me: Yes, Ma’am, you’re right. That’s why my truck has an engine.”
DMV Princess (after more typing and peering): “I can’t register this vehicle. The computer says it needs a smog certificate in order to be registered.”
Me: “Your computer must think it’s a horse van, not a horse trailer. It’s really just like a boat trailer, but with a box. Or a utility trailer.”
DMV Princess: “Please come back with that smog certificate.”
Me: “I can bring you the trailer and you can see for yourself that it doesn’t have an engine, but I’ll need some type of permit to be able to drive it here.”
DMV Princess (in a full huff now): “Just get that smog certificate and come back.”
Me: “Ma’am, how exactly should I test the exhaust system of a horse trailer? I suppose I could test my horse’s exhaust but I’m afraid she’s not that cooperative!”
Her manager was amused when I explained the situation and I eventually got it registered. Best of all, my horse was spared the indignity of a smog test, LOL!
LOL, you should have taken a 5-gallon bucket, attached a label to it stating “official results of horse trailer smog test,” filled it with your horse’s most recent poop, and set it on Miss Tippy-Typey Princess’s desk.
Hey, Fugly, here’s a good one for ya:
http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-268617
Looks to me like someone tried to do a good deed, then a few weeks in, realized that it was more work then they were interested in and are now “cleaning up” their little problem.
Poor sad, skinny, cute boy. At least they got his dental and vaccinations done, it’s a start. But what makes them think he has potential to be a gentle children’s horse before he’s healthy enough to even be tested under saddle? And WHY OH WHY are they charging $200 for him???!
This horse is headed to auction of somebody wants to upgrade him…
http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/grd/1732411792.html
Lovely ribbon, Mya!
Fugly, it’s not quite a beaurocratic tangle, but I do have a related concern: I think there is a sinister government plot at work here in Wickersham. Someone has installed Evil Yellow Lines on all of my favorite byroads!
Every mule with any sense knows that lines will kill you. The dept. of public works has turned my little lane into a deathtrap. The details are all here: http://www.braysofourlives.com/2010/01/creeping-threat.html
Fenway
*passes Fenway a carrot*
You are cute
Lip-smackingly good. Many thanks!
Two, no three, no FOUR govt. stories from me:
First, I was also born in an Army Field Hospital only for some reason I had a dual citizenship for quite some time (I’m ancient). When I got married 25 years ago, I went to change things on my SSN card – hooo boy – sarcasm was rampant and they kept insisting on me showing my Naturalization papers AND, get this, my BAPTISMAL certificate (which was in German).
Second, I had to report my neighbors’ running dogs more than once when I lived in Bastrop County, TX, on the east side of Austin. They were bothering my sheep. Also had to report their horses. I came home one day, to a violation notice on MY gate because I’d been letting my dogs run loose. We didn’t have dogs. They were ticketing me for the neighbors’ violation and this happened TWICE.
Third – same county: Starving bobcat trapped in my duck pen standing over my dead ducks. Called animal control. They wouldn’t come. Called Park & Wildlife – they told me I was trapping illegally. Called the Sheriff’s Dept – they let the bobcat loose. A neighbor finally did SSS when the same starving bobcat started taking her kittens.
Fourth: While we were also living in Bastrop County, we started getting Pipeline Notices of petroleum pipelines running through our property, from several pipeline companies. We were not to dig on our property or we were in violation, yadda, yadda, yadda. ONLY there were NO pipelines anywhere within miles of us. NONE of our neighbors were getting notices. And we only had 15 acres. These things kept coming. I would tell them, but they’d keep coming. FINALLY I said that unless the line started in our front yard and stopped in our backyard, I was going to dig anywhere I dang well wanted to and they could come and get me! Never heard from them again after that.
I once boarded at a barn that had a large, separate indoor that had SIX PEOPLE DOORS, two on each side and one on each end. This is not counting the three horse size doors. When I asked the barn manager why, she told me that was the only way the township peeps would let the owner build an indoor arena. For purposes of fire safety.
Oops forgot the best part. Each people door had to have a lit EXIT sign above it.
Oh, I can believe that — the State of Illinois did a similar thing years ago at a summer camp where I worked. Campers stayed in *very* rustic cabins — half doors, windows had slats and no screens or other coverings — tons of fun. State came along and said that all of the cabins had to have EXIT signs at the doors. Uh, there was no electricity to the cabins, each cabin was maybe 10′ x 10′… Ah, but they had 4 walls, which made them true buildings, hence they needed the signs. Easy way around that was to work on rebuilding all the cabins into 3 walled cabins with overhangs — didn’t need exit signs then!
SOMEONE HELP THE HORSES THIS GIRL AND HER FRIEND HAVE, HER ADS ARE UP ALL THE TIME
http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-284532 LINK TO AD AND WORDING OF AD BEFORE DELETED
Free Hay Need
- Bay Paint Filly
No Price Listed
Fredericksburg, Iowa
Breed: Paint Sex: Filly
Color: Bay Birth Date: Unknown
Height: 0.0 hh Weight: 0.0 lbs
Registry: N/A Reg. #: N/A
Temperament: 1 / 10
Additional Comments:
I am in need of hay for mine and some friends horses,I am short of money right now and cant afford horse hay…. I am looking for grass hay and/or grass/alafla mix bales. Please email me with info,we can pick up the hay. We are located in fredricksburg, Iowa. Thank You for your Time, Jessie
Shipping Notes:
None
Call Jessie at:
319-429-6339
Suggested new ad for them, might get better results:
“Will trade work for horse hay, esp. alfalfa/grass mix. We will help you cut, bale, buck, load and stack your hay, in exchange for enough hay to feed our horses, as our budget is limited right now. We are energetic workers who will work according to your deadline, and we have a truck to help you transport hay from the field to your barn. Terms negotiable, please call Jessie, etc.
Thats kinda what I thought, but hey a 24 yr old begging for help to feed her horses and friends horses is how they want to state it. “I want free stuff cuz I don’t wanna work for it” mentaility.
The government sucks, I know I work for them. As for the gal with the old mare going to auction, don’t be too hard on her, she sounds like she doesn’t know any better, admit it, we have all probably changed our belief system as we have learned.
I have to give her credit, at least she tried something to save the mare.
I know tons of people that sit back and watch animals starve, get abused, abandoned, everything you can imagine and they never say a word, just let it happen.
Mmm. From the list of the mares accomplishments it sounds like they’ve ridden the hell out of her and made her pop out plenty of babies. Want to bet they figure she won’t be having anymore? Heaven forbid they fund her retirement! And just to add the icing to the shit cake, there’s the ‘the truck is coming’ threat.
While I admit she’s better than an actual animal abuser, it’s like she’s trying to make this blog… as a subject.
God Bless Indiana, but God save us from animal ID programs.
Goats:
First it was a scrapie ID. Mind you, the two cases of scrapie found in goats in the U.S ever were in goats kept with heavily infested sheep, but meh– they both chew cuds, make a baaaaing sound. So Scrapie ID it is. Then a year later, I give my lifetime scrapie ID and find out… nope. Wrong one. There is a NEW way of using that ID, so… old ID is wrong, call and get a new one. Okay, fine. I do that. (nice people btw.). Two years later, go to enter my ID, and… you guessed it. New numbers, and we call it something else, not a scrapie ID. Why didn’t we just use the old ID? Oh well, because now you have to put the ID in the goat’s ears.
Except ADGA (American Dairy Goat Assoc.) has already established a tattoo system and a set of rules that conflict with the new requirements, so….. you guessed it. The Following year, New number, new way of doing it, and…. we have come full circle, back where we started.
I don’t miss showing and raising goats.
What is Scrapie?
Obviously a disease, but the ever-changing requirements make it sound like the sheep and goats are in a conspiracy to build bombs!
Its the sheep version of mad cow disease, I believe. (So, yes, a VERY serious disease).
Thank you for the Beaver letters. We have all been in tears laughing! Thank you
I’ve been a fan of this website for awhile. My family and myself are looking for a new family companion come October of this year. We’re interested in adopting a horse. If any one knows a trust worthy horse adoption program near Chesapeake, VA please feel free to write me at applegatehunt@aol.com
One time years ago me and my mom got stopped at walmart and given the third degree, like we stole somthing. Oh yes we’re stealing a bag of shavings and kitty litter. Oh yes, we’re so going to sell these on ebay. Mean while everyone else was walking passed us with ink carterages, printers, computers, and a small big screen. My mom lost it and yelled at the girl demanding why we got stopped when everyone else was walking passed us with expensive electronics, even though we clearly had the receat. Well said girl was taken aback that someone had the guts to yell at her for being an idiot. My mom than demanded the manager and snapped at her and asked for what reason we were pulled aside. Manager said to make sure we had paid for our items. *head desk* Shouldn’t you stop people that actually have good crap that they could sell on ebay, or is that just to much work? Everyone passed by looking at us. My mom was making a scene, a good one at that. My mom didn’t care, she was calling the girl on it. Oh did I mention everytime she went to walmart (that particular one) she got stopped? I’d be irate to if I felt targeted as well. This happened every single time. We walked away, I told my mom we should have broken out in an accent and see how long it would take them to let us leave alone, and mention we would sue them for discrimination of white immigrants from what ever country, would we sue? No. Just something to make them think about profiling people >:). It be to much trouble actually sueing them, plus we didn’t actually have proof anyways, but even the thought of a lawsuit would make the higher ups lose sleep. We stopped going to that one. I hate walmart, I really do.
Another California story, with a bit of ADA mixed in: Somewhere (I believe it’s in Joshua Tree National Monument, but not absolutely certain) there is a hiking “trail,” which is really not a TRAIL or path but a place with signs pointing the way to the top of this mountain where there is a spectacular view. Involves a lot of rock climbing.
At the top is a bathroom, which is handicap-accessible. HAD to be built wide enough for a wheelchair, with a huge stall to permit someone IN a wheelchair to get on the commode.
Only problem is, someone in a wheelchair could not get TO the bathroom IN the wheelchair because of its location.
However, the law is the law and if you have a one-holer, you HAVE to make it accessible to wheelchairs.
Strict interpretations of the law and all that.
ADA-approved “facilities” are much more expensive than regular facilities, too.
Our tax dollar at work.
Good ol’ ADA. I used to work in Air Traffic. They have a medical requirement, and it doesn’t include disabilities.
That’s stupid enough in and of itself, since most controller jobs require only sitting at a computer/radar screen.
But the workplaces all have to be handicapped-accessible. I guess they could come on tour, to see people doing the jobs they weren’t “qualified” for…
And I was forced to take a “disability” retirement because of having to take meds: antidepressants that restored me to normal function. Why? It would look bad if the media found out. Sheesh.
I think my best story is the DMV in an eastern state. My last name being nearly as common as “Smith,” I always went by first, middle, and last. (Yes, there’s a story behind it.) But when I moved to that state, their system didn’t accept middle names, just initials. I had already found out, from getting a library card, that there was someone with my first and last name and the same middle initial, so I by golly wanted my license to have my full name.
The best they could do was to hyphenate it. Instead of being “Ruth Echo Lima,’ I was “Ruth Echo-Lima” – meaning that I was filed under E instead of L. I had to explain that any time I had any legal business (like registering my car). “We don’t have a driver’s license record for you.”
Bureaucracies!
Ruthie
Surprised you did not wind up as Ruth Echo Llama.
I’m sure I’ve posted on this thread waaaaay past the limit, but this “help me” woman with the old mare who nearly went to slaughter, makes me feel like the top of my head is going to blow off.
Yes sweetie, when you post on an anti-slaughter board acting helpless, and demanding the rest of us should rescue FOR you, you do have to give some personal details. This is harsh but the truth: Without details, it’s one anonymous horse out of over 100,000 going for slaughter this year.
Why am I so bitchy about that fact? Here are some of MY personal details: I live by a Canadian race track, and have to deal with the kill truck rolling by. Using my local outdoor pool means I smell and hear the TBs suffering in their 23/7 stalls—the pool is across from the backstretch. Because I worked with track horses, I sense the suffering of all those fillies with their repeatedly sewn and ripped vaginas. The cruelty campaign on that one hasn’t even started.
So lovely to relax in the sun—then pass the kill truck on the way home. As well, I have directly risked arrest and been threatened with death for rescuing, and for educating about cruelty. I’ve had a gun waved in my face, as well as threatening communications from the criminals who run race tracks. That’s organized crime. Because racing is not “a horse sport,” it’s gambling.
So dear, with your new baby you can’t afford, a monster for an MIL and a eunuch for a husband, I see all your problems to be of your own making. When you post on an anti-slaughter forum, you’re going to get a hit of reality.
Good night. Off to a pool well out of range of the race track.
Somewhat OT, but they found a beaver dam about twice the size of the Hoover Dam, yes you read that right. The Great Beaver Dam. They found it on Google Earth, meaning that it’s visible from freaking space. It was way out in the boonies in Alberta and the only way to get to it is via plane… just amazing. Sattilite Image.