Delaware Point of View

From 3 November 2003:

An alert for American voters and humane educators everywhere appeared on May 21 in the 61st through 64th paragraphs of a 76-paragraph NEW YORK TIMES feature on the childhood of Republican candidate for U.S. president George W. Bush -- if anyone noticed.

"One of the local rituals for children," reported Nicholas D. Kristof of life in Midland, Texas, when George W. was a boy, "were meetings with cookies and milk at the home of a nice old lady who represented the SPCA. The cookies were digested more thoroughly than the teachings."

"We were terrible to animals," recalled [Bush pal Terry] Throckmorton, laughing. A dip behind the Bush borne turned into a small lake after a good rain, and thousands of frogs would come out. "Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them," Throckmorton said. "Or we'd put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up."

Kristof made plain that "we" explicitly included George W. Bush, and that George W., the Safari Club International "Governor of the Year" in 1999 for his support of trophy hunting, was the leader among the boys who did it.

Read the full article at the Maine Animal Coalition

There is a connection between animal cruelty and human violence: Children and Animal Cruelty: What Parents Should Know

I dropped Annie off at the Dog Park using the dog sitting service since she will not be able to chase birds or play with her friends this evening or tomorrow. The dog park is temporarily closed until Thursday so that the fence can be moved. This is the second time in her five years on earth that she will be away from me. Since I am a little over-protective, I wonder if she will get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Just Kidding!). The first time that I left her with the sitter, she played with Mallory a little, swam a little, and patroled the perimeter of the park (as usual), but kept coming back to the fence to look for me. When I picked her up the first time, she looked so forlorn and abandoned just sitting there by the fence staring into the parking lot looking for our car, waiting. She jumped for joy when she realized that I had come back to get her.

So, today I picked her up. She was laying by the fence, waiting! She saw me coming and ran to the door. She put her paws on my chest and we gave each other hugs and kisses. I love my Annie! Missi told me that she went for a walk, played with her best friend, Mallory, and she initiated playing with new friends, Thai and Sammy. I was happy. She had had fun. But I could tell that she was afraid that I would leave her again. She was so excited when we went home together!!

Annie became a member of the Bark Till Dark Dog Park on June 11 when it opened. When I first read about the park in March, I just could not wait. I was so excited! I was appalled that they still had to plant grass. "Hey! Just open, already: plant grass later!!! What! They have no fence yet!" So, I waited and I updated her shots.

When I went to see the park, grass was growing and they were putting up the fence. It was only four feet high (sigh)! I know that Annie is a dog, but sometimes she is species-confused! Like a cat, she can climb fences and she tries to climb trees, too! So, we got a free day-pass to see if she would stay in the park. When I took off her leash, she just ran around the six-acre park about eight times. Four hours later, my Brittany, Annie, was not ready to go home. Although she knows the basic obedience commands, she ignored me entirely. This is going to be a problem. For the first couple of weeks after we joined the park, Missi, the owner, had to help me catch Annie. Eventually, Annie learned that we could come back again and again. Her four-hour bird hunts at the park are now down to two hours and she remembered her training and she comes when I call her. YEA-A-A!

Here's a picture of Annie before she got skinny chasing birds at the Dog Park.