Thanks, fm - yeah, he does wag his whole body - and he gets a sorta "Stevie Wonder" thing goin' on with his head at the same time. Winter is his favorite time of year. He'll actually lay out in the yard durin' a snowfall and get entirely covered up - just another mound in the snow. If called, or if he hears some other commotion goin' on, one of the mounds of snow will quiver a bit, fall away some, and his head will pop up and peer about. If he determines there's no call for further action, he'll just settle back into a comfortable ball, tail wrapped around his snout, and continue placidly to enjoy the weather. Rain doesn't bother him much either - he likes to stand out in it, barkin' and howlin' at it. Thunder, on the other hand, propells him through the doggie door like a rocket.
And yeah, I'm disgusted by irresponsible pet owners. Somehow, you can readily tell the difference between actual farm dogs and pups owned by city folks recently moved to the boonies. The real farm dogs seem to be part of the environment, while the city dogs want to rule it.
There are some feral dogs around here, and plenty of coyotes, along with a small population of wolves. Many of the real farm dogs hereabouts have jobs - they watch over the other critters, more or less sorta just hangin' out with the herds and flocks to keep the undesireables at bay. The arrangement seems to work pretty well; canine predation of domestic critters ain't much known locally.
Timber-Thats a great picture youve described. I love it when a dog has a certain "hobby" that they love to engage in.
Our border collie, when shes working hard and its hot, will climb into a big rubber tub of water and just sit there with this goofy smile and one paw draped outside the tub. The Ahhhhhh, is totally understood.
The catahoula is always running, total hyper, never quits nomatter what the temp. Its all a game with him. If the sheep are clumped up in the corner of a paddock area. Hell dive over the fence and run across their backs barking, just to get em moving. Hes always figuring things out.He could be dangerous if in another dimension.
It strikes me funny the way many leftists will bitch and moan over rednecks and assorted trash wanting to own pit bulls and other dangerous dogs in urban and suburban areas, and then they all want to release Canadian wolves into the south 48 to kill all the livestock, deer, elk, and children in those areas:
http://www.natureswolves.com/
What its about is balance - and neither the avid pro-wolf nor the avid anti-wolf camps have any. There's room for wild critters, and there's room for humans and their critters. Since critters ain't real prone to thinkin', thats up to the humans.
One thing I noted readin' through the articles on the website gunga provided was that a large portion of the wolf and wolf-hybrid attacks recounted there involved youngsters - mostly toddlers - left unattended to play in the vicinity of the attackin' - likewise unattended - critter. Now, get real here - I wouldn't let a kid play unattendended in close proximity to my chickens.
There's a Boyscout camp not far from here. We've got bears. The Boyscout camp has strict rules, both issued verbally as part of the campers' introduction to the place and clearly posted at various places around the camp area, concernin' the proper storage of foodstuffs in bear territory. One evenin', a bear drug a tent , screamin' Boyscout inside, toward the woods, but was run off before any real hurt was done to the boy. The bear later was tracked down by officials, and killed. The boy had in his tent at the time of the incident an open box of Little Debbie Chocolate Peanutbutter Squares and a quart of Rocky Road ice cream.
timberlandko wrote:What its about is balance - .
Wolves destroy balance. They basically kill out elk and deer herds driving the populations of prey animals to near collapse, after which their own populations collapse, and then both rebound and then do it all over again in a yoyo cycle which loses genetic diversity and fitness in the prey animals.
Wolves kill for fun (the pictures of whole herds slaughtered and uneaten which you might have noticed on the site.
Then again...
Quote:
...Continued up the road, appalled by the amount of running elk tracks everywhere. (They have been conditioned for years to stay on the feed grounds) Stopped at the Goose Wing feed grounds. Pile of about 20 to 30 dead elk (cows and calves) by the road pulled there by elk feeders. Some had small amounts of flesh eaten (10 to 15) pounds from hind quarters, left to die. Others caught by nose. Nose, lips and tongue eaten off and left to die. Wounded and stressed elk laying away from herd, unable to get up. (4 or more)
Threw up---went home---haven't slept since. ...
Again, the asshole leftists responsible for this **** are the same ones who go totally berserk over ordinary trash owning pit bulldogs in urban areas.
I've got no problem with city dewllin' ordinary trash ownin'pit bulls (technically, Anerican Staffordshire Terriers) ... as long as the pups are well trained, well disciplined, well socialized, and have a few hours of vigorous, unrestrained excersize on a daily basis. On the otherhand, ordinary trash, city or country, ain't real likely to properly train, discipline, socialize, and excersize itself and its own offspring, let alone a dog.
And I have no problem with natural predator-prey cycles.
I do have a problem with folks who grasp neither concept.
Quote:
Wolves destroy balance. They basically kill out elk and deer herds driving the populations of prey animals to near collapse, after which their own populations collapse, and then both rebound and then do it all over again in a yoyo cycle which loses genetic diversity and fitness in the prey animals.
Ever hear of "The Red Queen" argument in sympatric evolution gunga?
Gunga - there is no known case of a healthy wolf attacking a child. Rabid animals - as well as people - will bite others.
Farmerman - is this the Red Queen from Alice?
Guys,
I view this one as a pure and simple problem of leftists being out of control. My advice to the people in Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas etc. would be to round up about 20 of these things in the back of a truck and turn em loose in Central Park.
Here's another fun story about the joy and happiness these policies are causing:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1073500/posts
Quote:
Montana resident Geri Ball stood with her fists on her hips and a knot in the pit of her stomach. At her feet were the remains of her prize female llama, entrails and unborn baby scattered across the animal's pen. This 850-pound pregnant pet had been eaten alive by wolves from northwestern Montana's Nine-Mile Pack. The mother llama's screams of pain and fear had sliced through the nightÂ…but too late to save the mortally wounded animal.
Hunting outfitter Bill Hoppe glassed a sweeping vista just north of Yellowstone National Park, his expert eyes searching for elk that have traditionally thrived in Montana Hunting Districts 313 and 317. The only tracks in the fresh snow were those of gray wolves. Hoppe also had a knot in his gut. Nonresident hunting clients were due to arrive tomorrow, and there were no elk to be found.
On the Little North Fork of Idaho's Clearwater River, Bror Borjesson watched helplessly in his flashlight beam as members of the Marble Mountain wolf pack attacked four horses in his hunting camp at 1:30 a.m. Sheena, his pregnant Appaloosa mare, panicked and flipped on the tether rope securely knotted to his horse trailer. Her spine snapped with a sickening crunch.
Bullet, a three-year-old gelding, broke his tether rope and galloped away with Syringa, another pregnant mare. The wolves were close behind, slashing at the horses' heels. The man never saw his prize pair again, and Sheena had to be put down.
< br>
A cowboy on the Diamond G Cattle Ranch in Wyoming's Dunoir Valley climbed off his horse and crouched beside a mutilated beef calf. Big, doglike tracks littered the area around the carcass. The young animal's entrails were scattered, the anus ripped out, the hips partly gnawed away. It was a classic wolf kill.
All of these incidents and hundreds more like them have occurred in the West's Tri-State area during the past two years alone. Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are under siege by terroristsÂ…and these terrorists are not from the Middle East. Instead, they were deliberately introduced to central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996 with the blessing of the Clinton Administration.
HofT wrote:Gunga - there is no known case of a healthy wolf attacking a child. ...
That comes from centuries of being hunted down and killed every time one of them even thought about it. These days, the legal penalties for killing a left-wing government wolf are worse than for killing humans. How long do you think it'll be before the instinct to leave humans alone becomes vestigial?
LOL Gunga - this is the first time that political views of wolves have come to my attention; left-wing, you say?!
I have impeccable right-wing Republican credentials and I'm one of the original people who sent considerable sums to bring back wolves to Yellowstone.
Rest assured we told the Canadians (where we had to get the wolves, since we murdered all of ours) to only send us wolves able to get security clearances <G>
gunga
This topic is in the pets and garden forum, so why not lay off the left wing bullshit. I stay away from the political threads because of the left and right wing crap, so could you kindly save your discriminating comments for political forum.
This subject has nothing to do with either the left or the right and I can't fathom why you would even throw that in there.
gungas a sweetheart. He should write a kiddies book about "Wolves can vote too"
ehbeth, the redqueen argument has been a favorite for "evolution in place".
Lions get fast, so their prey evolve faster because the slow ones get eaten, so the average speeds of impalas have improved over the last few hundred yeARS. sO THE LIONS GET FASTER AND THEN THE IMPALA get even faster, and so on. The examle you used bespeaks the condition of dual benefits for resisstance and something else added..
The point is that it(culling) doesnt necessarily degrade the gene stock itactually causes it to drift in a statistically predictable direction to a seemingly IMPROVED CONDITION (until the environment crashes AND THEN NOTHING MATTERS ANY MORE)
Black Bears have supposedly been shot up into a placid non violent species, yet there are more people mauled and killed by black bear each decade than by grizzlies.
A Black Bera will gnaw on you while youre still alive
HofT wrote:LOL Gunga - this is the first time that political views of wolves have come to my attention; left-wing, you say?!
I have impeccable right-wing Republican credentials and I'm one of the original people who sent considerable sums to bring back wolves to Yellowstone.
And you don't feel any sense of guilt over that? I mean, given what all has actually happened on account of it?
Montana wrote:gunga
This topic is in the pets and garden forum, so why not lay off the left wing bullshit. I stay away from the political threads because of the left and right wing crap, so could you kindly save your discriminating comments for political forum.
This subject has nothing to do with either the left or the right and I can't fathom why you would even throw that in there.
It's been my experience that almost all of the people who want wolves back in thesouth forty are green types, i.e. leftists. We seem to have one person here claiming to be a conservative wolf lover but, again from my experience, that's rare.
farmerman wrote:Black Bears have supposedly been shot up into a placid non violent species, yet there are more people mauled and killed by black bear each decade than by grizzlies.
Wouldn't that be because there are a lot more black bears in places where people normally go? I mean, wouldn't rather take your chances dealing with a black bear than a grizzly?
gungasnake wrote:Montana wrote:gunga
This topic is in the pets and garden forum, so why not lay off the left wing bullshit. I stay away from the political threads because of the left and right wing crap, so could you kindly save your discriminating comments for political forum.
This subject has nothing to do with either the left or the right and I can't fathom why you would even throw that in there.
It's been my experience that almost all of the people who want wolves back in thesouth forty are green types, i.e. leftists. We seem to have one person here claiming to be a conservative wolf lover but, again from my experience, that's rare.
Left or right simply has nothing to do with this issue. We are individuals regardless of what political side we are on.
I would rather take my chances with a grizzly than a black bear any day. Black bear are the ones who commonly attack humans.
