I once stayed at a game reserve in South Africa, and they had three cheetahs – two males and one female. The boys stuck together (they were brothers), but female cheetahs are solitary, save for when they are raising cubs. Which is hard work for cheetahs, because they don’t/can’t den, she’s working constantly to protect/move her cubs, as well as feeding both them and herself.
Now, these cheetahs ARE in a private reserve, but they’re still essentially wild. But they are more or less accustomed to the presence of people. And this cheetah, Ketswiri, got very badly injured in her leg one time, which usually would be fatal to a cheetah. The staff at the reserve helped her. Another time, she was starving, and they provided her a fresh antelope carcass. And she remembered this, because the science officer was telling us how one time he was watching Ketswiri and her cubs, and she wandered over and dumped all her cubs at his feet, and walked off. Like “watch my kids, I need some me time.” And he was panicking like COME BACK I CAN’T BABYSIT YOUR KIDS WTF
When pursued by a predator, kangaroos will jettison their pouch young behind them to be eaten instead. After all, they usually have a replacement embryo in diapause.
White tail deer will aggressively chase away nursing fawns if conditions aren’t ideal. They’re often hesitant to defend fawns from predators, resulting in high fawn mortality.
Many, many species will kill and eat their young under stress. It’s been reported in everything from rodents to dogs.
Foxes will kill cubs with the cross fox color morph.
20-30% of Merino ewes will give birth and walk away. The breed is notoriously neglectful with their lambs.
Which brings us to dairy cows. Dairy cows were not selected with maternal instincts in mind. Even beef cows reject their calves from time to time, especially in the case of twins or weak calves.
I’ve seen cows lick their calves and walk away without looking back. I’ve seen /many/ cows kick calves that tried to nurse away. Some cows don’t even look at their calves at all. Every single cow I’ve seen calves immediately returns to their food bunk, eating and ruminating as if nothing happened.
In on case, I went to go get some vaccines for a newborn heifer, just to turn around and see that her mother was kicking the snot out of her and stomping on her. I was able to get her away safely (but terrified), and I’m just thankful her loving mom missed her head.
The “separating mothers from their calves is abuse” nonsense is purely based in emotion, not logic based on knowledge of cattle behavior. While raising calves on their mothers has its benefits, there are damn good reasons for separating the two from a welfare standpoint. Dairy cow maternal instinct is not as reliable as the humans who take over for the cow, and people need to understand that.
Even if you somehow manage to avoid all pain associated with ear cropping, a procedure which has absolutely zero benefit for the dog, you have affected its ability to communicate with body language for the rest of its life. Those ears that are desired to make the dog look more alert and aggressive do make the dog look more alert and aggressive.
Tail docking hinders body language even more, but also has a risk of developing a neuroma. A neuroma is a growth consisting of nerves where they have been severed, in this case the end of the spine in the tail, and they are associated with dogs that don’t like to have their stumps touched, don’t like to sit down, or actively self traumatise themselves. Humans describe neuromas as sharp, stabbing or catching pain. It doesn’t matter what age the amputation is done. It was historically done at 3-5 days of age because it was thought that such young pups don’t feel pain – they do – and it was acceptable in many jurisdictions.
I am obviously not a fan of unnecessary surgery or amputation of a limb.
From @justmangobrown: “Trying to get chores done with a determined cat . Spoiler alert: his persistence always pays off” #catsofinstagram #twitterweek [source: https://ift.tt/2ryvxxt ]
When I stopped at a crosswalk today this guy pulled up next to me, rolled his window down, and stuck his head out, and at first I was like ‘Oh no street harassment here it comes.’ but then the guy was like “DUDE! LOOK AT THAT HUGE RAINBOW BEHIND YOU.“
The only appropriate thing for a dude to shout at me out a car window.
Is anyone in the UK able to take on two fancy goldfish? I’m looking to rehome them urgently, they are free to whoever can care for and provide them a proper tank.
For those wondering why they need a new home, they was a surprise gift to us and we don’t have the correct set up for them nor can we provide one. The stress of being in such a small tank is killing them, they are fighting and becoming sick, so sadly us keeping them is not in the best interests of these fish and im now trying my best to find them a suitable home.
Rubbermaid tubs are suitable for keeping fish. I’d suggest filling a tub with declorinated water and moving everything in the aquarium (gravel, decor, etc) into the tub to transfer over any beneficial bacteria that have grown. Should help as a temporary measure.
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 