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Archive for the ‘Dogs’ Category

A Response to “Dogs = Emotional Slavery”

Sunday, November 8th, 2015

Thank you for your blog on dogs.  I didn’t think anyone would have the guts to say what many of us are thinking and afraid to say because all around us are people who are so totally into their dogs it is pathetic, while the rest of the world just shakes its head in disbelief.

My pet peeve is the filth that dogs bring.  We are afraid of rats and talk about the diseases they bring.  It takes over 500 rats to make the kind of ‘shit’ that dogs make with one bowel movement and the smell is awful.  Does the real difference in the way we think about these mammals comes from the fact that we control dogs, but can’t control rats?  It is clearly not cleanliness or the spread of disease.  Dogs are, hands down, able to spread disease much faster and more lethally than can rats.

I’ve also noticed how dogs walk all over the place and when they get home they walk into the house bringing whatever is on their feet and the first thing they do is to shake themselves to get rid of all the ‘stuff’ their hair has collected during their walk.  Dogs themselves aren’t so filthy, they know what to do to keep themselves clean, it is their interaction with owners who either don’t know or don’t care about the negative reaction of their dogs with the rest of society.  What comes off when they shake is amazing.  Check it out and see if some of your diseases haven’t come from your home collecting all of this stuff.

I am so tired to taking other people’s dog shit out of my garden that I would like to outlaw dogs in my neighborhood.

What is most amazing to me is the fact that dog owners take their dogs for a ‘walk’ twice a day – at least.  Actually, they are taking their dogs to the bathroom to pee and shit in another area – at least several blocks away from their own homes and gardens because they don’t want that mess, germs, bacteria and smell close to them.

I’ve seen dog owners take their dogs to other peoples gardens and hold the dogs to pee on the flowers and recent plantings that others have paid for and are taking care of to beautify their homes and neighborhoods. Why do the dog owners do this?  So they don’t have to pick up the filthy shit.  I’ve seen people walking their dogs with bags in their hands to pick up the dog excrement.  Do they use the bags?  Many don’t.  It is mostly for show.  If the dogs have a bowel movement in your garden, the owners can walk away from it and leave it there.  The same thing with the small garden areas around trees, especially if there are plantings around the trees which cover the dogs shit so it isn’t found until they have moved away from what they have turned from a lovely garden into a dog toilet which does not flush.

It is time for this to stop.

I love dogs – but the dog owners are making life impossible.  I read your blog when I had just come in from picking up dog shit off my lawn.

How do we get this to stop?  It is time to stop romanticizing dogs and look at the reality of their lives amongst us.  Particularly,  their owners need to be trained and to understand this is not playtime or snuggle time, but reality time.  The reality here is its not the dogs who are the problem, but their owners.

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Dogs = Emotional Slavery

Wednesday, October 28th, 2015

copyright 2015 Bettina Network, inc.

We are and have been for hundreds of years a society/world of slaves.  Either you are a slave or a slave master.  Many have tried to break free, but in some part or parts of life, that historical connection gets us and changes us from a free people to a people enslaved to each other and to the things which bind us.  What is that new word that has entered our vocabulary in a terrifying way, and growing fast, intruding on life in many cities, suburban areas, country towns – human trafficking?

We enslaved Africans.  However, long before the enslavement of Africans we enslaved the Hebrews and we can go back to many other peoples and animals who we enslaved.  Is there something wrong with the human spirit, that we cannot be whole and a people functioning on their own two feet and even reaching out to help others?

Our history seems to say that we have to destroy and desecrate others so that our needs can be met without our putting forth too much energy and effort in the process.  We must make sure those who serve are categorized and marked so that their role in our society is clear and definitely defined as subservient and never even close to being equal!  Do our security needs demand such?

Enslavement  is a necessity because we need to make sure our needs  are never left unfulfilled even for a little while.  We need to make sure that whatever – whoever – we have designated and oppressed and labeled to make their purpose and use only  the fulfillment of our needs is close by and unable to function except at our bidding.  The slave’s food, shelter and even their ability to take another breath depends upon our continuous need for them and our willingness to fulfill their basic needs because their enslavement becomes a part of our identity!

For some time now, it has become more and more noticeable that we have emotionally enslaved dogs.  They are a group, which in the wild run in pacts with a pact leader.  We have taken advantage of that and become the pact leader to our dogs – even if that is only one dog.

What we demand in return is total unadulterated worship.

We are becoming more and more isolated from one another – almost a reflection of what is happening in space as the planets and all the otherworldly objects are moving further and further away from one another.  So to are we as humans doing the same thing.

Because we need to feel a closeness to something or to someone, we have chosen to make that the dog.  We don’t have to return to the dog what the dog gives to us.  When we make an attempt to respond to what we are given,  it doesn’t have to be fully and  when we have other things to do, we can go our way and ignore that animal which has been so faithful to us. We have even justified killing the dog when it has outlived its usefulness.

Of course, not everyone reacts in this way, some are the exception.   The role of the exception – which is meant to disprove the rule – only proves, to those watching closely enough – that the rule is rigid.  Kind of like what is happening at this tail end of racism.

We are moving to formalize this emotional slavery of dogs by naming an increasing number of them “therapy dogs”.  Dogs, whose mission it is, in this society, to be to others what normal human beings no longer are capable of being.  Our own lives have become so “busy” that we don’t have time anymore to reach out to those in need.  We no longer get any satisfaction out of giving to others in need.  We are delegating those jobs more and more either to society’s underclass or – even better – we have discovered the “therapy dog.”  Society’s underclass were the people to whom we entrusted the care of our elderly, sick, mentally challenged, seriously handicapped.  They also served to be there and help the dysfunctional.  But, they are getting to be a nuisance, expecting equality, beginning to be unhappy with their lot, being ‘undocumented’ but needing and beginning to demand more; no longer being able to quietly serve the rest of society making do with less than humans need to survive.

That elderly person whose family has left them to be cared for by others will buy them a dog.  Or that person, in serious emotional need will find their own dog to replace their human family and friends.  Or, someone else buys that “therapy dog” so that deserted person has love and affection and does not have to depend upon another human being and does not have to be beholden or give to another human being in return for any affection given to them.  What a new form of “freedom”.

What kind of society is that creating?

Dogs have been trained to pee and shit wherever they feel like taking care of their bodily functions.  They can do this with impunity as long it is away from the area where their owners live.  On someone else’s property?  Around the trees in the city – which can then get sick and infect all of the other trees? Dogs have been trained to leave their bowel movement wherever it falls, which means, wherever they decided to drop it, and if it affects the health of children who come along and come into contact with the dogs feces, the dogs owner walks away doing nothing and with very little to no responsibility for what their dogs have done.  The more upscale the area, the more infected with dog feces it becomes.  The more upscale the area the more enslaved dogs one finds.

At the end of winter and the snow melts, one sees enormous amounts of dog feces on the ground, where the dog owners have allowed their dogs to drop their “business” and walk away leaving it.  The snow covers everything so why not?  The small gardens all over a lovely area with flowers and others kinds of growth where the dog is encouraged to hop in, do their ‘business’ and hop out with the owners walking away leaving the dog feces to infect whoever and whatever comes along – including other dogs when the feces is diarrhea feces and another dog sniffs, eats or otherwise interacts with that diarrhea laden feces.  Many dogs are infected with disease in this way.  One dropping of diarrhea feces – given a couple days – generates many more droppings of diarrhea feces from other dogs who inhabit the area.  When the leaves fall, the same phenomena happens and just before the snow falls to continue the process.

Parks, which once belonged to children, who could run, jump, fall down, now belong to dogs who run, jump, drop their feces and play with their owners since this is their one time of ‘freedom’ during the day.  The other part of the day they are locked in a room; kept in a basement; confined to a dog cage; or etc.  The more privileged dogs are kept behind a fence in a small yard.

Slavery of any kind breaks down a society in the most desperate ways and this emotional slavery of dogs is no exception.  The most dangerous part of this slavery is our refusal to see and/or name it for what it is.  We call them “pets”.  Animals were not made to be the “pets” of humans. They have their own lives and go their own ways except when they are kept enslaved and begin to understand their well being – their food supply – their shelter are all dependent upon that human slave owner who demands that they wag their tails vigorously when that human owner approaches, who demands that they jump for ‘joy’ all over the human to show excitement that they have not been abandoned to a cruel and unresponsive world that treats dogs without owners viciously.  Need I describe more…………………?

And here come the denials!

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

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Dog Post Response

Thursday, May 28th, 2015

A response from a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community to the post on “Dogs, Dogs and more Dogs!

“Thank you for that post.  I was overjoyed to see someone pointing out how much we spend on our pets in view of some desperate human beings who have to fight to get a meal each and every day.

I also watch the dogs outside my window.  There is a park and we have a leash law.  I see dogs playing off their leashes every morning with their owners watching.  They run, chase what their owners throw and have a general good time.  Which is great for them!  However, I also watch in the afternoons when parents come with their toddlers and let the toddlers run around the park – right where the dogs relieved themselves.  Your intro about the disease may have been in fun, however, shortly, there is going to be a serious outbreak when a mother’s child comes down with a disease from playing where the dogs crapped.  The city does nothing about stopping the people from letting their dogs run without leashes.  That law was passed for a reason – basically to protect people and dogs.  If anything serious happened in that park – even a loud noise – there is no way to control the dogs who then react in fear.

Keep writing – I will keep reading.”

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

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Dogs! Dogs! and more Dogs!

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2015

Oh! Isn't that cute! I can leave it where it drops, the leaves will cover it up.

Oh! Isn’t that cute! Such a thoughtful dog, we can leave it where it drops, the leaves will cover it up.

 

NEWS FLASH!  New terminal disease discovered which is killing the population.  It is fatal within two hours of a human becoming infected.  Scientists have found the cause – the huge amount of animal fecal matter spreading rapidly and piling up across the world.  The main spread agent – dogs whose fecal matter turns into this rare form of disease when expelled.  No cure found!  Babies under one year are the most susceptible.  Humans on earth are confounded.  Hospitals are not overcrowded because people infected with this new dog caused disease die before reaching the hospital or a doctor!

 

Everywhere you go there are people with their dogs.  Some on leashes, some running free, all peeing and dropping their fecal matter on the sidewalk – in the gardens around the trees – everyplace except where it is supposed to be dropped.  Some people pick up their dog’s crap.  Some don’t.  Some pick it up and drop it on top of their neighbors garbage cans or in another neighbor’s garden.  Most humans are pretty thoughtless about other people and are only concerned about their own comfort and convenience.

This was a pretty emotional breakfast.  So many feelings about all the dogs multiplying, increasing exponentially in a society which still has homeless and young children without enough to eat – no one to care for them – needing clothes, education, comfort and love.  None for you, my lovely and needy children, it is all going to the dogs.

WHY?

Our little band of temporary friends decided it is because dogs worship humans.  A self-absorbed society adds to its self-absorption by bringing in an animal that gets happy when it sees its “master”; wags its tails strongly to show how happy it is to see this human being who feeds them, etc;  gives companionship in a master/servant kind of way and will never try to become an equal; and the biggy – isn’t going to stage a revolution for its freedom.

What would this world look like if all the money and other resources being spent and lavished upon dogs were spent and lavished upon those who are in need.  Is that enough to end poverty? To end homelessness? to end children on the street selling their bodies for a meal and a roof over their head?Buy a dog or adopt a child!!!  Take care of a dog or help a family take care of its children!!!  Spend tons of love and care on dogs or spend tons of love and care on humans in need.  We have clearly made our choice – the dogs win.  The humans think, care, act! Dogs just worship!

It is much harder to deal with your own kind than to deal with a group you have designated as less than.  That master/servant relationship isn’t going anyplace.  It is firmly in control of most of us and we seem to not be able to stand on our ethics, our principles, our own two feet and we especially don’t want to be inconvenienced or put out in any way.  We won’t even pick up our own servant/dogs poop – or dispose of it properly.  For every one person who does, there are at least 10 who don’t.

His new teeth cost a fortune, but it was worth every penny!

His new teeth cost a fortune, but it was worth every penny!

So what is the answer?  We couldn’t find any.  Get this dog problem under control and we will probably only be able to do so by putting another situation in its path that will turn into something worse than what we are now experiencing.  Everybody at the table, including those with dogs had a horrible dog story to tell about a neighbor, a friend, a relative and that persons dog.

While we talked at breakfast about the incredible number of dogs every place you turned, doing damage to human life and health, we were in a dining room with a window which looked out on the street and we counted twelve (12) dogs going by with their owners – and this in less than an hour.  The dog owners stopped in front of the tree which was surrounded by lovely flowers.  That was a clear signal to the dog – pee and crap now and in this spot.  The dogs simply walked into the flower bed, encouraged by its “master” and peed.  We were sure that flower bed would soon be barren.   As it is, the flower bed was bedraggled from the dog traffic and our host didn’t want to go out to continue to cultivate it after watching all the dog pee going into the ground.

Contrary to dog owners claims – dog pee and dog fecal matter are not garden fertilizers.  They are garden destroyer.

They can't be talking about me! But I am so cute, anyone would be proud to have me lick their face!

They can’t be talking about me! But I am so cute, anyone would be proud to have me lick their face!

What does it do to the human spirit and the human soul to lavish all of the resources now being spent on animals and ignore the need of humans who are going hungry – are without basic shelter – have no way to get out of their current tragic existence.  How would you feel in those circumstances sitting on the sidelines watching pampered pets go by?  We have more compassion for “rescue” dogs than we do for another human being.  We talked – finally – about seeing friends getting all misty-eyed when they see a dog in need and turn hostile when they see a human in need.  There is something basically wrong here and we are clearly not dealing with what is missing in the human spirit which allows this and blind-sides us to our part in this tragedy.

When you die will it be your dog who greets you with its tail wagging or will it be the humans you denied because of your inability to face your own mortality and morality?

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

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