Katheleen Parham

Recent Activity

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  Katheleen commented on the article | over 3 years ago

  Before Obama Had His Warren, Biden Had His Shepherd

  An ethical breeder would be one who chooses not to breed most of his/her animals, only breeding those who would improve the health and hardiness of the breed.  The integrity of certain breeds for certain purposes would be lost without some control of breeding.  For example, working dogs, whether they be drug sniffing or bomb sniffing or seeing eye dogs or livestock guardian dogs.  They all serve specific purposes and certain traits are more desireable.  Sometimes mixed breeds work well and are often hardier, but nevertheless, certain breed traits are desired, so perhaps a cross of labrador or shepherd is preferred for a certain purpose, while a cross of terrier and hound might be useful for a different purpose.  Not every skill can be trained, some are purely instinct and through careful observation & breeding any instinct can be eventually bred to be stronger or weaker.  The diversity of animal breeds is one thing that makes them wonderful, if we allowed them all to become a mixed up melting pot, we'd loose so many wonderful animals.  Unfortunately, a dog won't care about the breed of the animal it is chooing to mate with -- if we left it all up to them, there'd be no more Golden Retrievers, or Collies, or Terriers..... just medium sized mixed breed dogs.  (I have adopted 6 of them, so I do adore them..... but one of the things I love most about them is their differences). 

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  Katheleen commented on the article | over 3 years ago

  A Right to Breed? What Are You Smoking?

  We have to be careful when talking about "rights."  For example how can the same people believe that women have the "right" to kill their unborn and unwanted children, believe that no one has the right to kill an animal to feed their family?  There is a GIANT disconnect there.  I think that animal cruelty should be prosecuted fully, and that we should have more law enforcement officers working to stop animal cruelty, stiffer penalties, etc....  But I also think that abortion is murder, birth control and prevention is a responsibility that comes with being a human, as is caring for the animals around us.  How can one outrank the other?

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  Katheleen commented on the article | over 3 years ago

  A Right to Breed? What Are You Smoking?

  We live in a rural area without an animal shelter, we do have an volunteer network that temporarily houses shelter animals to send North Shore Animal League.  Thankfully this system of sharing works quite well, especially for younger animals. 
  
  We all need to remember though, circumstances that exist in one part of the country don't exist for the whole country, and just because some people choose to eat only plants, doesn't make it wrong for someone else to choose to drink milk or eat eggs. 
  
  Plants are alive too, don't they have rights?  Do they have the right not to be decimated by an unchecked animal population & to grow without pesticides?  Wild deer in our area are destroying increasing percentages of the farmers food crop.  If someone doesn't do something to reduce the deer population the vegans around here aren't going to have much to eat that we don't grow ourselves behind a 6' fence. 
  
  Of course the meat eating neighbors consider that fence unsightly in that it blocks their pristine view, they feel like they have the "right" to enjoy that view just the way they did before the vegans moved in.   See, folks! there is always more than one valid side to an argument.  Maybe what we need is less laws and more getting to know and understand each other.