Buzz-out. Greetings from Cyber Purgatory
Hi to friends, and regular readers! (We keep getting a steady, if teeny, number of hits throughout this blacked-out period, so I figure an update's in order, because even though I cuss readily, my cuss ratio is situational, and being a cusser doesn't mean I forget my manners.)
To state the obvious, we've been out of commission. Before we go on, a very very brief update on the gangs: there's been more abandonments, sterilisations, a death, and some illnesses... this is not a great month for the moggies. And as you will see from the following, neither is it for us minions.
We've been languishing because the main blogprint machine aka my home pc is suffering terrrrrrrrrribly, and I'm in a dilemma. Let me be the bitchin ingrate for a moment: after 3 years of placid, resigned slogging, the damn thing had to start zonking out right AFTER the pc expo ended last last weekend. Imagine choosing to expire after all the nice deals are expired! I suspect, highly so, the thing's been planning this custer's last stand just to spike me.
Actually, the dying pc was act 2 of this blog's ongoing cylence. Act 1 is my entire fault: we've been, or rather I've been looking for an alternative home for our cyberanting. The reason? Simple, I'm getting mightily disturbed at the lack of categories in blogspot, and the workarounds are just too much pain to do.
So what could I do but migrate this blog to another blog service that does provide genuine categorisation function, and in the process, reformat and otherwise ensure the entries look ok?
And what's a blog moving house without a few Jupiter-sized spanners wrenching up the works? I've endeavoured to make it as painful on the self as possible by deciding to split purrsNswipes into 3 in its new home:
Tipped Ear Clan: Cats in Singapore: the Homeless, the Homeseeking, and the Homeslackers of the 2 kitty mojo robbing siblings who serve the Clan
- The gangs, home seekers, mojo stealing insights, slacker cameos, all's here... some of the links' still flaky though.
Casefile: Animal Cruelty in Singapore: Singapore Animal Cruelty Cases: a disturbing reflection of a nation’s morality, and grace deficiency
- For easy ref, all the cruelty stuff's going to parked here. This is really where the categorising's gonna help a ton. But of course, work's not started at all.
rain in calsifer’s firepit: Cat minion. Enviro, non-human advocate. ‘Prentice herbivore. Cynical eye on Singapore and the world. And yeah, junky!
- The rest of it, the non-tipped ear clan specific stuff, are deposited here. The links need some serious work, though not as great an effort as the casefiles
Yeah, I'm trading one pain for another set... anal retentiveness is my personal sadist joy after all.
See you over at the new hidey holes, just don't expect house-warming party favours anytime soon - and excuse the messes, everything's still WIP after all.
TNRM: Grab that mojo!
Simple is as simple does, and what could easier to understand than this: Take away cat mating = cat boom stop = piggy bank safe from being broken by cat food bill (protection against other causes not covered).
Here it is in pictorial form, courtesy of Dawn:
Scenario A
Scenario B
Highly recommended companion piece:
Misty, the One in a Million Cat by Debbie Lewis(How to tell human kids about Kitty's "thang" with the birds and the bees business?)
So what are you waiting for?
Grab that mojo!
- Go to
Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to
SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to
HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to
Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes
Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our
homeseekers
- Go to
Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to
SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
The Body Shop has L'Oreal-ed. Where do we go from here?
The Body Shop, in the general public's eye, has represented a commitment to promoting community trade, non-animal testing and environmental friendliness.
The Body Shop was, in short, a godsend to women who were aware and sickened by the horrors of animal testing in the beauty trade, and didn't want the guilt of needless deaths on their vanity. In short, they did not want to have blood in their lipsticks or eyeshadow anymore.
But is it, really? Since I started hearing about stuff behind the company's modus operandi (THE BODY SHOP FILE: Beyond "Shattered Image"), I've been looking around for alternatives.
But I've been half-hearted in my replacement campaign, because Body Shop products were kind to both my pockets and my conscience. They work well for me too, and besides, rumours were easy to start, and you can't believe everything you hear... or so I kept telling myself. This is despite the extensive use of SLS - Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, a common but harmful foaming agent in what are promoted as pesonal care products made with natural ingredient (more).
But something else happened, and now I'm even more determined to get through with my replacement regime. On Mar 17, this year, the Body Shop agreed to a L'Oreal takeover!
Now any self-respecting anti-animal testing girl will tell you, L'Oreal is the P&G of the cosmetics world. Worse, L'Oreal is 26% owned by Nestlé.
You do the money-trail following yourself.
For further entertainment, here's some online stuff precipitated by the takoever announcement:
For more issues that consumers ought to be aware of, check out
Is that blood in your lipstick?
- Go to
Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to
SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to
HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to
Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes
Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our
homeseekers
- Go to
Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to
SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Homeseeker: Cassie
[photo pending]
Cassie is a slender 6-8 month old female black and white kitten, with a perfect tail. She is gentle and quiet, but very affectionate.
Cassie has been sterilised-she turned up with a tipped ear. Her vaccination and litter-box training status unknown.
If you or anyone you know is interested to take away Cassie's bewilderment, and give this affectionate young girl a home, please write to sephycat at gmail dot com.
Her Story
Cassie has been in the carpark of the Street Gangs' Area 1 since yesterday, May 31.
A friend found her, and so we do not know much about this lovely young cat.
Now an honorary member of the Gangs (we hope to get her off the streets and into a home soon), Cassie is getting used to life there. But with her very clean and healthy physical condition, her fearlessness around humans, and the way she seem to be waiting for someone or something, it is obvious that she's very likely a newly abandoned pet.
Hungry baby
Seeking solace
Wondering which way is home?
Hoping for an answer
- Meet our homeseekers
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Cari - MIA today
So Cari didn't show today.
If she continue to be a no-show, we'll see if we can find her over the weekend.
- Meet the Street Gangs
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Angel - updated Adoption notice
ANGEL is a friendly female, about 1 yr-old, with classic black and white patch patterns and a perfect full-length tail. She is sterilised, vaccinated, and litter-box trained. At an age where she's more sedate than kittens, but still young enough to adapt quickly to new situations, she will make a great house-pet. She is suitable for single or multi-cat families. Will you consider giving this lovely young girl a permanent home?
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
CWS Adoption Board Parade of Kittens
In the last few weeks, going to the CWS adoption board could have you think it was a kitten nursery. There were postings of kittens, kittens, and more kittens.
In the best of situations, even tweenagers stood little chance against the boisterious, irresistable, littel furries, what more mature and older cats against a whole horde?
Our lot's adoption notices were pushed off rapidly. And since, we've been laying low, and waiting for things to calm down before hazarding a repost.
Now seem like a good time to revive the postings. So we're starting with Angel.
- Meet our homeseekers
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Never crash diet the moggie either
Though Roly poly isn't cute, unless you're a whale stocking up for summer, never allow your cat to starve/fast, unless under a vet's instructions, for example in cases of diarrhea, soft stools or in preparation for surgery.
Why?
Because of the risks, like hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease), where the liver starts to function abnormally. This might result even after just a day or two of not eating, and can be life-threatening.
So how do you help your rotund one to lose weight? Patiently.
You could
- change to reduced calories formulas
- reduce food portions gradually
- leave less out for all-day grazing
- engage in longer playtime
Frankly though, it is not as easy to get cats to lose weight as dogs. Because it's habitual of them to sleep 16 hours a day.
Monitor your cat's health, and consult the vet. We did all the above, and Joey and Philly are still overweight, though it did hel pthem shed a wee bit.
At least, with the vet's certification, they've got their clean bills of health.
Now we do still control food intake, for the sake of helping them maintain their current weight, and to prevent the others from ballooning.
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Cari
Just now, a new kitten popped up at the Street Gangs' Areas 1 and 2 buffer zone as btmao was getting around to dinner service for Area 1.
She was probably about 4-5months old, wearing a white coat accented by grey tabby patches, and a short clubby tail. We've named her Cari.
Cari is very friendly and loving. btmao lured her to Area 1 proper and served dinner to her, and the resident Wunder Duo, Samia and Izzy.
Perhaps it's because they're all friendly, humanised kittens: only Cari, understandably, puffed and hissed for a while when Samia approached, but in no time at all they were rubbing noses and sniffing each other out!
Izzy, ever the guile-less (and slightly spaced-out too), decided to puff up only when the action was over. No harm done.
Anyway, dinner decided them, and all soon were settled down and munching happily. After dinner, they just lounged around for a while.
I took a few pictures with the phone cam, but can't upload them yet as I don't have the cable here.
Anyway, hopefully Cari sticks around, at least for a few days. We'll try to arrange for her mojo-removal tomorrow.
Cari Gossip
- Go to
Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to
SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to
HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to
Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes
Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our
homeseekers
- Go to
Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to
SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Salvi (free-ranging pet)
Salvi - 17 May 2006, PM (Phone Cam)
First sighted in the night of 8 Jan 06, in the Street Gangs' buffer zone between Areas 1 and 2, Salvi was estimated to be between 6 mths to less than 1 yr old at that time.
She was very thin, and wore a worn red collar with a bell. Bt she was not interested in food - dry only, wet only, dry and wet... nothing interested her.
We assumed she was a free-roaming pet, as she wasn't panicky like most abandoned pets and yet had no fear of strangers. It was almost too easy to pop into the carrier for her appointment with mojo-removal the next day, 9 Jan 06.
Lucky we caught her, Ivan the Terrible, then still brimming with mojo, was stalking her, a shadow in the dark.
Salvi was released on 11 Jan.
Since then, we've seen her at the same place most nights for about 2 weeks or so. She was still not interested to eat our dinner offerings - though she was cetainly hungry. She just takes a few eager sniffs and wander off.
By this time, we suspected her to be a free-ranging pet who was abandoned. She had the air of a kid waiting for mum and dad to come fetch her. It was heartbreaking, and we worried for her health, seeing her condition and her lack of appetite.
After that first fortnight, she disappeared. We could only comfort ourselves with the fact that her mojo has been removed.
But we needn't have worried. A month or so later, we spotted her again. She had become somebody else's free roaming pet in Area 1! The boy who claimed to be her owner, said she just appeared one day about a month ago, and he had never seen her before then. His family decided to feed her, and so that was how she became his pet.
We couldn't get him to understand the importance of keeping her indoors though. Or anything else that mattered.
But we've not given up hope. We're waiting for help with translating a flyer we intend to use into Malay. Then we're going to try again.
Salvi's not so skinny anymore of course, I just hope to get the message across to her family before she got into trouble. She's been abandoned before, and she deserves some stability and happiness.
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
This is positively the final installment in the Animal Rights/Animal Welfare debate of the day.
I managed to hear a recording of the segment. It was... interesting, and of course showed that there's still work to be done to make people AWARE of what's wrong with the current situation.
Dawn has also, once again, put into succinct words, her thoughts in the aftermath of the radio segment:
Extremes
That was an interesting discussion on Yakety Yak about animal rights. I missed the first 5 minutes or so because I was fiddling with my RealPlayer and wondering why it wouldn't tune in. Thanks Calsifer for sending in my blog entry. It was strange that they read it just before I went on air.
It was quite interesting that people were saying that animal rights activists if left to go to the extreme would change the world and not allow other people to eat meat, or have pets, or a whole range of other things. In every realm of human activity, there will be extremists. There are people who believe that to protect an unborn baby, it's permissible to kill other people or blow up a clinic. There are people who believe that to protect the purity of one race, it is fine to exterminate another. Some others think that in the name of religion, it's acceptable to kill. There are people who have subverted every human activity to extreme ends, including religion, ethnicity and just about anything you can think of.
It also predisposes that people would impose their beliefs on others and not take into account what they feel at all.
So why judge people by the worst? We can always look into the abyss of the soul and see the worst that humans are capable of - or we can try and find the positive and try to be more like that. The same best impulses that drive what is purest about humans are the same that we should extend towards animals - compassion, empathy and an awareness of another's suffering. If we can find it in ourselves to extend it to those who are most helpless, whether they be human or animal, then it speaks volumes of our humanity.
"Do not be so eager to deal out death and judgement. Many who live deserve death, and many who die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?" - Gandalf
Chronology
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Roly poly isn't cute, unless you're a whale stocking up for summer
Really, only marine mammals, like whales and walruses own the bragging rights to blubber-bulked physiques.
Otherwise, like humans, overweight animals are prone to health risks.
Some interesting reads about the situation elsewhere:
Porky pets warning for British
"Feeding your pet full English breakfasts, chocolate, chips, burgers and too much pet food may make you feel like a kind and loving owner," said David Grant, a veterinarian working for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).
"But it could give your pet fatty tumours, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, liver failure, skin problems -- and, even worse, an early death."
Of 143 veterinarians questioned by the RSPCA for the report 80 percent reported a steep rise in the number of cases of overweight and obesity they had seen.
One man used to feed his dog a breakfast of egg, sausage and bacon until it became so fat it could not move and had to be put down.
He was banned for life from keeping animals, the RSPCA said.
"People who let their pets starve are labelled cruel and callous, but what people don't realise is that overfeeding your pet can cause just as much suffering as starving it, " Grant said.
"A fat dog may look cute and cuddly but in reality you are killing it with kindness. "
An animal only needs to be slightly over its ideal body weight for health problems to begin.
Loving your pets to death
"It's a big problem, and quite reflective of what's happening in the human situation," said Mark Lawrie, the RSPCA's chief vet.
Australia is a nation of 20 million people, almost 4 million dogs, 2.5 million cats, 8.7 million pet birds and more than 12 million pet fish.
It has one of the world's highest rates of pet ownership at 64 percent of households, compared to 62 percent in the United States and 44 percent in Britain.
The RSPCA said de-sexing and lower levels of exercise had an impact on pet obesity, but the key issue was over-eating.
"It's really the calorie intake and food that makes the big difference," Lawrie said, adding that many pet owners could not resist giving their animals food when they asked for it.
And here's an example of what might bother your roly-poly one:
anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears
Sounds painful, doesn't it? Cats
and dogs are prone to it.
Written by Kevin Helliker, the article reports that the high rate of ACL tears is mystifying to veterinarians. Could it be the prevalence of obesity in dogs? A fat dog jumping on and off the sofa is putting a lot of pressure on his joints. And active dogs, unless they're well conditioned, are just as much at risk, especially if they're jumping and twisting to catch a flying disc. Cats are prone to ACL tears as well, especially if they're overweight.
-> more on dogma and cattitude's Weak in the Knees
So don't think you're being a good companion animal guardian if you succumb to every begging whine or meow for food. It's not your guilty conscience that needs defending, it's your cat/dog's health.
This applies to the homeless animals you care for too. So don't underestimate the impact of hauling extra weight around.
- Go to
Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to
Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to
SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to
HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to
Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes
Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our
homeseekers
- Go to
SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Veg OUT!
I figured some things deserve trumping... so here's the day's trumping:
VeggerBLOG aka blogs by vegans/about veganism. Just added them to our BLOGwatch on the sidebar (scroll down, and down a bit more).
Filched them from Cat, so Kam Siah, Girl! Saved us some work.
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Can you fathom people like this?
Dawn blogged that Some people are more offended by this ... Then by this
Where else would a cat, a sterilised one too, minding its own business be deemed more offensive than the other thing?
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Buddhism - we likes
The more I think about it, the more I like how Buddhism is non-judgmental nor exclusive, as A 'meeting of two religious streams' shows.
As I've said in Transcendence, or maybe not, I'm a agnosatheist, but I do find myself leaning very much toward Buddhism.
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
A 'meeting of two religious streams'
After that bout of meta/science kitty thoughts Schröedinger's cat evocated, I find it apt/coincidental/providential to find this on vegancat's blog:
And with that understanding can come contentment, even joy.
Extract from A 'meeting of two religious streams'
By LOUIS SAHAGUN, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2006
As the world's leading Buddhist, the Dalai Lama, likes to say: If there is a problem and there is nothing you can do about it, there's no use worrying. If there is something that can be done, there's no use worrying. And with that understanding can come contentment, even joy.
I especially like these parts:
"Most people don't go very far into Buddhism; they just want to feel a little better," said Michael Shiffman, founder of L.A. Dharma, a nonsectarian Buddhist organization in Los Angeles. "But can you be Jewish and not believe in God? Good question."
Others, however, would say it all depends on an individual's definition of God.
Essentially, Buddhism creates a solitary and quiet path away from suffering and toward a moral life based on an all-inclusive vision of interconnectedness, wisdom and compassion. A method for achieving that awareness is daily meditation.
Being nondogmatic, Buddhism does not require that adherents join anything or reject anything — even the notion of God.
So in this regard it differs vastly from Judaism, a community-based tradition that relies on observances, laws and prayers such as the mourner's kaddish — the prayer for the dead — to connect adherents with a personal god."
"Suffering is at the heart of the matter," suggested David Gottlieb, whose autobiographical book Letters to a Buddhist Jew examines the life of a "Zen Jew" struggling to resolve his two identities. "Judaism, at its best, embraces suffering and, at its worst, enshrines it. Buddhism explicitly seeks to end suffering and doesn't look to the past."
Lee Rosenthal, 59, of San Diego found that powerfully appealing. He'd just returned from the Vietnam War and was facing the deaths of his two children shortly after they were born, and then his wife's cancer.
"I couldn't buy into the spiritual answers I was getting from people for why my little babies passed away," he recalled. "But I picked up a book on Buddhism and it spoke to me, streetwise and honest."
"Instead of sugarcoating things, it gave me a plain explanation for why I was suffering: Life is painful and difficult," he said. "It said also you can't run away from it. Deal with it."
"I'm a healthy mosaic of Judaism and Buddhism," Lieberman said. "Is that fair to either religion? Fair schmair! It's what I am.
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Schröedinger's cat
Cat's compilation of the Laws of Physics awoken a strange little kitty that's been having a permanent siesta in the back of my mind.
Schröedinger's cat.
A famous little moggie, in the human physics/quantum physics realm anyway. He/She is probably the most famous modern day feline nobody has ever seen.
The beauty of his/her existence?
View him/her as you will: heavy, in-depth, light, lay, whimsical. Take your pick.
And what about Schröedinger, the man who made the cat's fame? Infamy... well according to this article: Why does the SPCA Hate Schröedinger?
Now, if you're ready for a Schröedinger's something else, come meet Schröedinger's dog!
Have fun!
PS if you wonder how I knew Schröedinger's cat was just having a siesta and not crossed over the rainbow bridge, simple: the atom did not decay in the box I opened.
PPS and no, I don't quite get it either - ain't academia nor literati after all. Just a statistic in the good old labour force.
more Caterati
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
vegancat made a vid of Tiger, who is one lucky cat, in spite of his disability. Kudos to his family for rescuing and caring for him.
He reminds me very much of Debbie, who is under Foster Mum's meticulous care. I just saw her on Saturday... no pics as the cam batt flatlined. *ARGH* Debbie's loving and as friendly as ever. I just wish she could get her wheels soon.
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Animal Rights/Welfare - do we know the difference?
Okaaaay, so I couldn't resist sending this email last night to the hosts of the 93.8 program that's running the radio segment at 12.20om today: Is Animal Rights Activism a waste of time and resources?
I did get carried away.. just a little.
Hi Melanie, Eugene,
This is going to be an interesting topic, but I just wonder how many people do appreciate the real meaning of Animal Rights, or are even aware that it is quite separate from Animal Welfare?
It seems quite impossible to engage in meaningful discussion unless participants
are able to recognise the two as separate in the first place.
For example, I've known of animal-work volunteers who get asked the question: why do you bother with animals? It is more important to help people!
Even my relatives have asked the same of me.
My usual reply is: animals cannot speak, but that does not mean they don't feel anything, nor does this 'disability' of theirs give us the right to exploit and abuse them. Besides, I am being guided by my beliefs. You think it's more important to help people - may I know what have you done in support of your beliefs?
Personally, I do believe both Animal Rights and Animal Welfare are important, and you can work for either or both at the same time. Time and resources channelled to these two causes are never a waste.
As a friend say, the true waste is when you have a ginomous casino, and it's attendant ills, around - it takes time and resoures to build it, and it also takes time and resoures to alleviate the ills it brings. I say alleviate because realistically, nothing can resolve these ills while the source is open. It is like opening a floodgate, and then trying to repair the damage, while keeping the floodgate open.
Another problem with being concerned for animal rights/welfare is the word activism or activists. It is actually a unwelcome brand those who don't 'get it' impose
on the people working for these causes. These are viewed as dirty words within this context - along the lines of terrorists or crazed fanatics.
Most people assume anyone who works on non-human causes are rabid extremists. That is just as condescending and discriminatory as painting all Muslims with the same brush because of 911 and Al-Queda!
Most people assume too that animal activism is to the detriment of humanity. But is it?
Ethics is, I believe, at the heart of the argument.
"Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind." ~Albert Schweitzer, humanitarian theologian, missonary, organist, medical doctor, 1875-1965
Note that this gentleman is a humanitarian, theologian and medical doctor. And yet he believes Ethics and Compassion cannot be exclusive to mankind.
Ethics is founded on compassion. And compassion is neither selective nor discriminatory.
So you see, you don't have to be an animal-lover to understand or appreciate why Animal Rights and Animal Welfare movements have their relevance. The true
pre-requisites are compassion and ethics.
I'd like to quote a few more enlightened persons to illustrate:
Saint Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226quoted in Life by St. Bonaventura
If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't.... The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. ~Mark Twain, writer
(1835-1910)
Remember: The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?" ~Jeremy Bentham, philosopher and jurist (1748-1832)
Exclusivity of any kind leads to discrimination. Today, the view may be non-humans do not deserve to live without pain and fear. Anything that a person doesn't like or agree with can be excluded. Btu what happens tomorrow? It is not a pretty proposition.
It doesn't take much to extend this exclusion and discrimation to other humans whom the person view as different. I do believe this is one of the causes of human violence. With people, or animals, exclusion leads to an indifference to the excluded person or animal's ability to feel, and may spawn an urge on the excluder's part to get rid of the excluded object. I do think it's why FBI studies show a link between animal cruelty and violent crimes in 78% of convicted murderers and other serious cirme offenders.
On a larger scale, it may become war. Actually, this has already happened throughout history, and we even don't need to look that far back: Hitler, the various discrimination-inspired wars that have happened on the last 100 years, or are taking place right this minute. Do we really need deja vu, redux 1000?
Ultimately, it comes back to what we are and how we treat each other too. Us all, homo sapiens.
Singapore is not too bad, really. But the problem is, neither are we fantastic in
terms of our treatment and attitude towards animals.
Anything that does not contribute directly to the economy seem to be neglected. We're definitely not 'there' yet either - far from it.
Some excuse our indifference and apathy with the age of our nation. But is it valid? True, the places where people like to compare Singapore unfavourably to, are nations one, if not two hundred years old. But consider, ethics and compassion was given the room to develop and grow organically as these nations progressed.
Singapore, on the other hand, simply neglected anything not contributing directly towards a productive economy. Singapore will be 41 soon. That is a long time to neglect such essential foundations of nation-building. We hothoused our economy, I hope it has not killed our soul.
Whether animal welfare or animal rights, homo sapiens, Singaporeans or whatever, cannot continue to sweep the issues under the rug.
First though, the question is still: Do Singaporeans even know the difference?
But instead of continuing on a long-winded rant, allow me to, once again, quote Ms Dawn Kua of the Cat Welfare Society, because she puts the salient points across most succinctly.
Thak you for your attention,
http://catwelfare.blogspot.com/2006/05/animal-rights-versus-animal-welfarism.html
Monday,
May 29, 2006
Animal rights versus animal welfarism
Calsifer sent an email to say that tomorrow at 12:20 pm on 93.8 FM they are discussing the issue of whether animal rights activism is a waste of time and resources. Thanks for the heads up Calsifer!
People often lump the two together - and often in doing so, they try and point out that people who are interested in animal welfare are not for example interested in the welfare of people, which is patently ridiculous. It also allows some to say that they aren't interested in animal welfare by painting anyone interested in animal welfare as being a crazy activist who hurts anyone and anything in the process of saving animals.
Here's the thing - someone may be concerned in animal welfare without necessarily being an animal rights activist. The question of whether you're interested in welfare is a simple one - do you believe that animals should not be ill treated and made to suffer? If you do, then tada! you believe in animal welfare.
This does not touch at all on the fact whether the animal has inalienable 'rights' in the sense of the word. Let's give an analogy. For example you may believe that a chicken can be eaten as meat - this does not mean that you believe that you can do anything to that chicken in the process of it being killed, including mutilating, torturing and letting it die a slow, horrible death where it suffers horribly.
At the end of the day, I would argue that someone who has no interest in animal welfare at all is someone I would view with suspicion. To knowingly partake of, enjoy or condone the suffering of an animal does suggest a rather alarming state of mind - and the repercussions are not 'just' about animals.
"Animals cannot speak, but can you and I not speak for them and represent them? Let us all feel their silent cry of agony and let us all help that cry to be heard in the world."~Rukmini Devi Arundale
Blog: purrsNswipes
(Powered by mental-brainjuice of 2 two whacked-out sibs)
(Our awareness is the hope of voiceless animals and the underpriviledged among us.)
- Go to
Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to
SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to
HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to
Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes
Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our
homeseekers
- Go to
Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to
SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Animal Rights is not the same as Animal Welfarism?
There IS a difference between the two. Just that most people lump them as one. That's why I didn't go on about it in my "Radio segment on Tue, 30 May: Is Animal Rights Activism a waste of time and resources? " No point crowding the issue.
But Dawn's thoughts on Animal rights versus animal welfarism, after receiving my email alert, is short, sharp and to the point. Very worth a read or 3.
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Radio segment on Tue, 30 May: Is Animal Rights Activism a waste of time and resources?
Just got to know about this, and wanted to let everybody concerned know. Whether you rescue wildlife, or do TNRM, or is aware and gives support in other ways, we're all doing our bit in different aspects of Animal Rights activism.
Please consider calling or writing an email to weigh in on this topic, Otherwise, the public might get to hear only from those who don't get the importance of Animal Rights.
Please tell your friends too!
Details
Radio station: 938Live (frequency: 93.8FM)
Program: F-CUBE
Hosts: Melanie Oliverio (melanie@mediacorpradio.com), Eugene Loh (eugene@mediacorpradio.com)
Segment and call in details:
12:20pm Yakety Yak A call-in segment where you can have your say about the latest issues - both international and local - affecting you and your loved ones. We pick the topic, you tell us how you feel. Fiery!
Call us at 669 11 938 to share your thoughts! If you think there's something we should yak about, tell us at eugene@mediacorpradio.com
(source)
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Sara/Mocha is mending and rounding out
Sara aka Mocha, who got sick and had to see the vet a number of times soon after going home with her parents, is now well!
YH, Mocha's mum's response to my email on Thu, 25 May:
Hi calsifer,
_Mocha is fully recovered and doing very well
now. She's even put on a bit of weight!
Cheers,
YH
My reply sent today:
Hi YH,
That's wonderful to know! Thanks.
YH, we also want to thank you and your husband for sticking it out with Mocha despite her getting sick so soon after going home with you. We really appreciate it a
lot. So thank you again for your TLC for Mocha.
We really hope to visit some time... but keep having trouble finding a free weekend these days!
Meantime, if you've more photos of her, and if it isn't too inconvenient, could you send them along? I'd like to see a weighter Mocha ;-)
Thanks!
I had left off asking frequently for updates on Sara because I'm sure YH didn't need Sara's ex-guardians making like buzzards while she tried to tend to Sara and help her get well.
Am glad for the good news.
Sara has good, committed parents - they could have thrown her back when she got sick, since they've only been with her a few days and the emotional attachment was still raw/new, their time together being so short. It's really really admirable that they stuck it out with her.
Also, during the initial stage of Sara's bout of sickness, though there were emails back and forth, it was more trying to understand where and how she might have gotten sick, and not blame pinning. We appreciate YH's maturity and understanding in this very very much.
Hopefully, more people like YH and hubby will adopt - our wards, even though they can't speak, don't walk on 2 legs, and will never vote nor contribute meaningfully to the economy (except maybe as
hapless pawns of the pet trade and
animal based research), still deserve the best care and TLC, just as much as every human child is expected to receive.
MUST try to visit soon!
- Meet our
homeseekers
- Check out the purrsNswipes
Adoption Guidebook
- Go to
Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to
SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Orli Snuggles
Orli's homecoming - Day Two.
SMS update from his mum:
Hi Orli is getting 2 know me... he snuggless n sleeps w me on bed. But he goes 2 his cage/house 4 the nite. Will keep u informed.
Good progress, don't you think? btmao and I are WooHoo-ing.
- Meet our
homeseekers
- Check out the purrsNswipes
Adoption Guidebook
- Go to
Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to
SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
Orli Euphoria
Orli, current record-holder of lengthy-stay at Foster-Mum's has a home!!!
At last!
Is there such a thing as quiet euphoria? Because it seems like we're overwhelmed, happy, relieved, anxious all at once. And tired - it's a high-strung business to be chaperoning potential adopters - due to our low success rate.
Now, after waiting for nearly 16 months, Orli has finally gone home with Theresa today, just after noon on ---- well yesterday now.
Unlike other visitors - he had a grand total of about 8 enquiries and 3 visits, Orli got himself acquainted with Theresa's shoes immediately - he usually needs a bit of warming up. A good sign, I thought then, but then the previous Sunday, he had good rapport with his potential little lady too, but the family, a good one I might add, went home with a tabby girl.
I had no idea how good that sign really was. But given that it's not unusual for potential visitors to leave with another cat instead, btmao and I maintained our usual cautious optimism.
Theresa hung out with him, and the other cats in the cattery. And she decided on Orli!
Being the good boy that he is, he walked into the carrier himself and settled down - no panic, no histrionics, and certainly no drama-queenness.
As of evening, he has decided under Theresa's bed is a great place to be. Hopefully, he will overcome his shyness soon.
Orli's adoption gives us MUCH hope for Booties, Timmy and Frankie, who've also been waiting for more than a year, and Angel, who's still missing a home after 4 months, unlike her babies.
I need sleep now, but before that, it'll be a great pleasure to move Orli from the "In The Market For a Home" section on the homeseekers' page to the "NO LONGER SEARCHING - HOME IS WHERE THE KNEADING IS" section.
After the little death, we shall think about adoption notices for Booties, Timmy, Frankie, Angel, and the Wunder Duo: Izzy and Samia
- Meet our homeseekers
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
Think someone's flaming you? Careful you're not self-immolating
So, I got a response to the repartee I left on Cat's Reality TV for the Meowies blog entry... and got really amused and bemused all at once.
While I had thought there was a debate going on, the other party was, apparently getting hot and bothered, framing the idea that she was being flamed. It is interesting to to note there's been two mentions of flaming at this point, and both by the other party.
What's even more interesting is how sensitive the other party appeared to be about flames... it seems like the only level playing field is where this person gets to state her views, and... period.
Huh? That's it? Yup... imagine this sequence of events:
- You read a blog, and give your comments
- Someone weighs in after you and say the situation is not as bad as you think
- Since the Someone didn't seem to get your drift, you weigh in again, and explain further why you said what you did
- the Someone respond with the statement that she believes in balance, and tell you not to be one-sided in your view, at which point you're going DUH
- You take a deep breath, and reply and give even MORE details to show your views are not formed in a vacuum. And also your opinion that balance is cool, but balance can only happen in a situation where all things are equal. In this particular case, there is IMbalance
- the Someone respond again with the balance thingy again
- You take a really deep breath, reply and give another example, with in-depth details where you feel there's a lack of balance
- the Someone respond and says you read too much into her views, is saying she doesn't support the situation in this particular case, she never intended to criticise your views, just want offer her views, and says she's stopping because you're flaming her.
- You go WTF first, and then WTF again for the almost petulance in the accusation. You then take a really really deep breath, count to ten, just for good measure, and compose a response like this:
- Views are open to interpretation... esp online views
- Views that almost belittle/negate the concerns you raise means supporting the situation, however implicitly
- Views being open to interpretation, are therefore open to responses ... esp online views She can air her views on your views, so can you air your views on her views on your views
- Flaming is defined as nasty responses, and is an accusation that's not taken lightly. You point out, almost with a spotlight that discussions and debates involve saying things in a way you feel strongly for... like it or not, just because a sentence rubs the Soomeone the wrong way doesn't mean she's getting flamed. You also invite the Someone to point out instances in your replies to her where she feels the heat
- What you didn't mention is how the Someone skipped over your latest response, and instead used a retro-quote (a quote from your previous previous previous post) in her accusation of your flaming her, which seems strange since that quote was already dealt with, or so you thought, in the relevant previous posts. And yeah, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen... in a moment of benevolence (the counting and deep-breathing does help!), you decide to save the over-sensitive one more agitation, in case self-immolation occurs and you get pinned with another WTF accusation.
Funky, isn't it? IMO, freaking convoluted too. Ok, so what's the point of all this?
Are you ready???
Don't take things so personally, an opposition to YOUR view is NOT a personal insult. Relax lah! And yeah, everybody else has as much right to view-airing, not to mention responding, as you do.
I kid you not, read this article if you need evidence.. now, don't ASSume you're being flamed if you happen to be the sensitive type. Take 3 DEEP breaths, and then think it over. If it doesn't work, repeat.
Trust me, life will be more endurable... especially if you do like to air your views, more so you're active in online view-airing. At least you reduce the chance of self-immolation and bringing down an innocent party or three with you.
If the deep breathing/stop to think just doesn't work, hey, just remember flames are better used for barbeques, as someone with a sensible mind said. Just be careful playing with that fire, yah?
The Secret Cause of Flame Wars
By
Stephen Leahy .
Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Feb, 13, 2006 EST
"Don't work too hard," wrote a colleague in an e-mail today. Was she sincere or sarcastic? I think I know (sarcastic), but I'm probably wrong.
According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I've only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.
"That's how flame wars get started," says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University. "People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance," says Epley.
The researchers took 30 pairs of undergraduate students and gave each one a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers.
Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time.
"People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write," Epley explains.
At the same time, those reading messages unconsciously interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations. Despite this, the research subjects thought they accurately interpreted the messages nine out of 10 times.
The reason for this is egocentrism, or the difficulty some people have detaching themselves from their own perspective, says Epley. In other words, people aren't that good at imagining how a message might be understood from another person's perspective.
"E-mail is very easy to misinterpret, which not only triggers flame wars but lots of litigation," says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the e-Policy Institute and author of guidebooks E-Mail Rules and Instant Messaging Rules. Many companies battle workplace lawsuits triggered by employee e-mail, according to Flynn.
People write absolutely, incredibly stupid things in company e-mails," said Flynn.
- Go to Pawprints: TNRM
- Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore.
- Go to HDB bans cats - government body chronically misconceived
- Go to Singapore's Love-Hate Relationship with Trap-Neuter-Release Management
- Check out the purrsNswipes Adoption Guidebook
- Meet our homeseekers
- Go to Pawprints: TLC for cat minon requisite education
- Go to SOS and see how you help some Singapore animals in need
