Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Wild Heart Ranch

By

Blog the Change is an event, where bloggers from all over the globe focus on animal causes that are near and dear to our hearts.

Blog the Change

 

Today I’d like to shine the light on someone who works tirelessly in the field of animal rescue.  I’ve been following her efforts on my facebook page for the last few months.

Annette King Tucker is the owner and operator of a 10-acre ranch located in Claremore, Oklahoma.  Wild Heart Ranch is an animal sanctuary that rescues, and rehabilitates wild animals, who are injured by either natural causes or the cruelty of man.

Picture copied from Wild Heart Ranch Website.

Picture copied from Wild Heart Ranch Website.

 

I copied her mission statement from her website:

  • Provide medical or infant support to any indigenous wild animal in need of assistance and release it into suitable wild habitat once care is completed.
  • Refrain from imprinting the animal to its human caretakers during its stay in captivity
  • Educate the public about wild animals in our area and teach a genuine appreciation and respect of their needs and characteristics
  • Educate ourselves in the care and needs of each species that we experience so that all animals receive complete, professional and individual care
  • Maintain our facility in the most stringent of cleaning and organizational standards to prevent errors, disease, infection and hazards to both humans and animals
  • ALWAYS respond with patience when faced with ignorance and remember that not all the world has seen through our eyes or cared with our hands
  • Lend assistance, instruction or advice to anyone trying to assist a wild animal in need of care
  • NEVER cage a wild animal a day longer than necessary, and always euthanize if release will never come

On her facebook page she shares pictures of wild babies that have been brought to the ranch along with the circumstances surrounding their injury or illness.  The photos show staff tenderly caring for the delicate lives they’ve been intrusted with.

When she can’t save them, she will help them find peace and freedom from pain in the only way she knows how. That’s when you see her mad, especially if the injury has resulted from something evil, like a leg trap.

What I love about this woman is her passion.  Not only will she take in, help and rehabilitate any form of wildlife, but she works hard at educating the public. Her posts will explain to you why the cute orphaned deer should NOT be brought into your home and made into a family pet.

Wild Heart Ranch doesn’t normally take in cats and dogs, but they will assist them in other ways, or provide another resource to assist the animal.

Annette King Tucker talks the talk and walks the walk.

But she’s got a little problem, her wonderful ranch is quickly outgrowing the small ten acres that surround it. Recently 40 acres across the street from the ranch went on the market, Annette is working hard to raise the needed funds to purchase the land in order to expand the ranch.

She has a chip in widget on her website, and through her website you can connect with her on her social media sites.

I’m not asking you to donate money to WHR, I’m asking you to take a moment and check out Annette King Tucker and if you (like I) think she’s making a difference, can you please share her story.

Together we can be the change.

(Author’s note, the ‘cat’ you see in the left side of the picture is Kira, a cougar that had her claws removed by a man with a pair of wire snippers.   Annette rescued her and Kira lived her life at Wild Heart Ranch, until a few months ago when she passed away.)
(I did send a message to Annette asking her to contribute to this post, but she did not respond.  If she would like the picture to be removed I will do that. )

 

I Believe The Children Are Our Future – Blog The Change

By

I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.  So sang Whitney Houston in The Greatest Love of all.

Whitney was on to something.

If there is any hope at all to change the condition of animal welfare in this country, we have to educate the children.

When I was a kid we got smacked when we needed it, I rarely if ever heard of family services being called.  That began changing toward the end of my high school years.

It was definitely enforced with my own children through the school system and I know it worked, because many times in the heat of an argument if they felt threatened in any way, my children would remind me, “If you hit me, I’m calling the police.”

Trust me, my children were never beaten and the police were never called.  My point is, they were educated about child abuse and understood they had the right to be protected.

I believe it’s possible to teach children the proper way to treat animals.  I see it with my own grandchildren.  They are taught how to behave around and be respectful to my dogs.

My daughter was telling me a story about Tara Costa who was on Biggest Loser a few seasons ago.

Tara was in Atlanta for a speaking engagement.  Somewhere near the airport she saw two dogs running on the highway.  She stopped and managed to grab one, a pit bull mix.  She started driving around looking for an owner, when she came across a group of kids.  The kids said, Hey that’s Bishop and then one kid looked at her and said, Don’t give him back, they fight him.

The long and short of the story is, the dog’s owners came out to the car and Tara noticed Bishop cowering.  She made a split second decision and high-tailed it out of there.  The last I knew Bishop was recovering at a facility in New York and would be up for adoption soon.*

Shortly after I heard this story I saw a blog post on Pittieful Love Lovebug Goes to School.

I knew the two would tie together perfectly for Blog The Change.

Animal education could easily be incorporated into our nations school curriculum.

Just as we have educated children about the dangers of drugs, and abuse, we need to educate them about the proper care and treatment of animals.  When we do that, and start at a young age you will begin to see changes in society.

I think this could be accomplished very easily, by engaging rescue groups in each state to provide local schools with the following:

  • Printing up inexpensive flyers with important phone numbers in the area that provide low-cost spaying and neutering programs.
  • A toll-free hotline where people can report cases of suspected abuse or neglect.
  • Animal welfare programs in our schools where children are educated in the proper treatment of animals.

It may be hard to change adult minds, but children are little sponges, they soak up information.  We just need to make sure they get the right information and they in turn will help to bring about real change.

Big beef’s got nothing on the kids of this nation.  We can ensure our farming is humane.

Dog fighting can become history.  Granted an ugly part of history, but sadly many aspects of history are ugly.

BSL? Won’t know what hit it.  Kids know, it’s not how you look that matters, it’s what in your heart.

Granted, it may take some time, but time and money well spent if we are headed in the right direction.

We’ve seen the proof with so many issues.

I’ve contacted my state representative and have a meeting set-up to discuss this issue.

I’m ready for real change, how about you?  Will you join me?

Just imagine the possibilities.

* (Note, this story took place in June.  At the time I contacted Tara Costa, but she did not respond to my e-mail.  The details of this story are based upon what my daughter told me and what I discovered on Tara’s facebook page.)
Blog the Change


 

WTF Wednesday

By

Please note this post is not meant to make light of the deeds described here, only to make fun of, ridicule, bully and just plain beat the shit out of the idiots who commit these stupid acts.

The entire post was going to be devoted to my Canadian friends.   Montreal to be exact.

Wicca the Pit Bull

If you’re on facebook you probably heard about Wicca, another Pit Bull euthanized for a incident where the owner states the dog did not bite, only grazed.  It is a similar case to Lennox where the owner appealed but was rejected.  Sadly Wicca was euthanized last Thursday.

What makes this case even worse, is the city is trying to pass a new law where a dog involved in a bite incident can be euthanized within 24 hours, leaving very little time for the dog’s owner to take any legal action.

To this I say, Montreal, WTF?

When did people lose all common sense?  I know the old saying if common sense was common…. but come on!  Pull your heads out of your asses and think about it.  What causes a dog to bite?  Why are the circumstances not taken into consideration?

Is there nothing more pressing going on in your community that you cannot focus on?

What if you were to spend your money say on fixing the economy? Instead of persecuting dogs because they look a certain way.

I thought Montreal’s stupidity was more than enough for a W.T.F. Wednesday post and then I saw this.

Rep. Steve King defends the right to watch dog fighting and this GOP Rep. Steve King Defends Dog Fighting, IOWA – Warning if you click on one of these links you will see the results of dog fighting.

Apparently Iowa’s representative King opposes an amendment to the farm bill, which he verbalized at a tele-townhall last week.

I could go on a rant right here and call Mr. King every name under the sun, but if I cannot articulate my words and be concise in my criticism than I am just as ignorant as he is.

I’m just going to quote Mr. King  here, “It’s wrong to rate animals above human beings,” he told the questioner. To make his point, King argued that “there’s something wrong” for society to make it a “federal crime to watch animals fight” but “it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting.”

Let me explain the difference to you assbag. (Ok, sometimes articulation is over-rated.)

People who CHOOSE to fight do so of THEIR OWN FREE WILL.  They know full well the risks involved in fighting and take those risks willingly.

Unlike dogs, bears and roosters who are starved, tortured and tormented oh and did I forget, EXECUTED when they lose.

It really makes me wonder where we are headed as a society when our elected officials have this kind of mentality.

Complaining doesn’t work.

You can write as many letters and e-mails as you want, you can call every day, every five minutes even, sign as many petitions as you can but unless you have your representative’s cell phone number or can schedule a face to face, the reality is your representative won’t hear your words.  An admin in his office is writing down your comments and generalizing them with her weekly reports.

Yes Mr. King you had 52 people call and complain about your comment regarding dog fighting.

Thank you Susan, duly noted.

Real change.

Just because your congressman/representative isn’t reading your e-mails doesn’t mean you CAN’T make a difference.

We   live in the world of social media.  You can blog it, tweet it, facebook, google+, pin it, the possibilities are endless.  The point is to keep these critical animal issues in the spotlight.  Send information to your local news networks, ask them to cover the stories.

Shine the light on the ignorance associated with BSL and dog fighting.

Oh and if you live in Iowa, your voice is heard at the polls.

It’s the only way.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...