2 in 30 people care? (Rant content)

I was late to get to my desk the other day because as I was walking from the parking lot into the building, I spotted a small dog, about a block away, walking down the sidewalk towards me. I stopped to see if his collar had a tag on it, which it unfortunately did not. But this dog was chubby and clean, not a wasted away muddy mess like a dog who'd been on the lamb a while would be, so I figured, hed only gotten out that morning when someone left for work. He would have a better chance of finding home on his own than at a shelter, or in my house with posters up around town, so I let him go on his merry way.

But it took me 5 or 10 minutes to coax the dog up to me so I could check his collar. Fortunately, my boss is a dog person too, so it was all copacetic.

paranoid_android74 wrote: I'm clearly in the minority here and I'm fine with that.

Think your reading the tea leaves of compassion wrongly.

Very possible. I wasn't keeping an accurate tally...

foxtrapper wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: I'm clearly in the minority here and I'm fine with that.

Think your reading the tea leaves of compassion wrongly.

tuna55 wrote: I moved a 2-3' diameter snapper out of a bike path once. He was pissed. He didn't thank me for not getting hit with a mountain bike, he tried to eat me.

Once while I was riding in a large group, I actually hit a snapping turtle on a bike path throwing me over the handle at about about 25mph . Surprisingly he wasn't pissed and recoiled into his shell from the rather devastating blow.

In terms of deer, clean up after yourself. If you hit a deer it is YOUR responsibility to clean it up.

I forget, do we help all of the animals, or just the cute ones?

funny story with a snake.

I was driving my Father's 88 Grand Marquis, big square rigged boat of a car. Going down this narrow woods road and I see a snake coming across from the other side, so I started to steer away, eventually putting two wheels -off- of the shoulder to avoid said snake.

I must have missed it by inches as the last time I saw it, it was moving as fast as it could back across the road to where it had come from.

Only the cute ones. No exceptions

Mitchell wrote: I forget, do we help all of the animals, or just the cute ones?

paranoid_android74 wrote: Only the cute ones. No exceptions

Mitchell wrote: I forget, do we help all of the animals, or just the cute ones?

What about the African Snails that are now invading florida?

Hmm- a curve ball!

How about little, cute and furry?

mad_machine wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: Only the cute ones. No exceptions

Mitchell wrote: I forget, do we help all of the animals, or just the cute ones?

What about the African Snails that are now invading florida?

Generally, if you see a turtle out and about, it's a female. It takes ten years for a turtle to reach egg-laying maturity, so those people who swerve to run over them (honestly, what the hell kind of person does something like that?) have a devastating impact on creatures that are hard-hit by the destruction of their habitat. I wrote a short piece about it last year: http://www.auto-venus.com/en/give-turtles-a-brake/331/

Read something last week that I found profoundly disturbing. The black African rhino was just declared extinct.

yes Lesley.. and nobody seemed to care. at least nobody at work talked about it

paranoid_android74 wrote: Hmm- a curve ball! How about little, cute and furry?

mad_machine wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: Only the cute ones. No exceptions

Mitchell wrote: I forget, do we help all of the animals, or just the cute ones?

What about the African Snails that are now invading florida?

I'm sure they didn't get there on their own. Anytime we've messed with a balanced eco-system, it's created disastrous results. Those big buggers are really cool, but they shouldn't be there - they'll crowd out the local species that should be. You know, just like the snowbirds...

mad_machine wrote: funny story with a snake. I was driving my Father's 88 Grand Marquis, big square rigged boat of a car. Going down this narrow woods road and I see a snake coming across from the other side, so I started to steer away, eventually putting two wheels -off- of the shoulder to avoid said snake. I must have missed it by inches as the last time I saw it, it was moving as fast as it could back across the road to where it had come from.

That's great, MM, because I deliberately swerved to tag one about a month ago.

tuna55 wrote: I moved a 2-3' diameter snapper out of a bike path once. He was pissed. He didn't thank me for not getting hit with a mountain bike, he tried to eat me.

i don't think that snapping turtle gave two E36 M3s about whether or not a biker hit it- he wouldn't have even noticed, but he would have gotten a good view of some weird spandex clad dude with a styrofoam helmet bouncing off the ground a few feet in front of him, so you wrecked his entertainment plans for the day... no wonder he tried to eat you..

Long story:

Mom died 8/30/04 in Naples, FL - that happened to be right in between the hurricane that hit Florida, and Katrina(sorry, I honestly don't remember the name of the 1st storm), and I had to make a frantic trip down to retrieve what little personal belongings she had.

Somewhere down in central FL at about 2am we stopped for gas, and this tiny black kitten was roaming around the gas pumps. I inquired about it when I went inside, and the clerk told me it had been there for hours. Well, what else was I to do...I grabbed a can of cat food, scooped up the cat and took it along for the road-trip. I'm sure she would have been killed had I left her there, unless someone else crazy/foolish enough to pick her up happened to stop by.

When these make it to Louisiana, we've already got a recipie for them.

Lesley wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: Hmm- a curve ball! How about little, cute and furry?

mad_machine wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: Only the cute ones. No exceptions

Mitchell wrote: I forget, do we help all of the animals, or just the cute ones?

What about the African Snails that are now invading florida?

I'm sure they didn't get there on their own. Anytime we've messed with a balanced eco-system, it's created disastrous results. Those big buggers are really cool, but they shouldn't be there - they'll crowd out the local species that should be. You know, just like the snowbirds...

maybe the pythons will stop eating gators and go after the snails instead..

If someone hit a puppy and it was in the middle of the road people would be outraged.

Having hit a fawn, sorry - no compassion here, either. While much smaller and lighter than an adult deer, it still did a fair amount of damage.

Canadian geese, on the other hand... I aim for the berkers around our office... but they always get out of the way just in time.... now they only have to hear my car (a TDI makes a distinctive noise) and the damn things scatter long before I can get to them. Bastards...

I rarely see turtles, but I've seen two crunched on the road in the last month or so.

novaderrik wrotetuna55 wrote: I moved a 2-3' diameter snapper out of a bike path once. He was pissed. He didn't thank me for not getting hit with a mountain bike, he tried to eat me.

You should have eaten him, snapping turtles are delicious.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

novaderrik wrote: those things are 6 foot tall rats that do nothing but destroy.

By far the best post in this thread!

You are exactly right Lesley!

Lesley wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: Hmm- a curve ball! How about little, cute and furry?

mad_machine wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: Only the cute ones. No exceptions

Mitchell wrote: I forget, do we help all of the animals, or just the cute ones?

What about the African Snails that are now invading florida?

I'm sure they didn't get there on their own. Anytime we've messed with a balanced eco-system, it's created disastrous results. Those big buggers are really cool, but they shouldn't be there - they'll crowd out the local species that should be. You know, just like the snowbirds...

Yup.

A few years back someone ran over an adult swan that had little ones. In the press they were calling for a life sentence for the murderer if he or she was caught.

PHeller wrote: If someone hit a puppy and it was in the middle of the road people would be outraged.

Lesley wrote: Read something last week that I found profoundly disturbing. The black African rhino was just declared extinct.

Heard it in the news about a month ago. Poor reporting actually. The black African rhino was declared extinct in one area or country, not as an entirety. Not that the animal isn't likely to become completely extinct shortly.

novaderrik wrote: if it's anything like around here, another dead deer is one less car that's totalled later on and one less garden that isn't chewed down to the roots.. those things are 6 foot tall rats that do nothing but destroy.

but they taste great