Lucretius' First Day At Harmony Hall

Day one was not without its own trials and regrets. My back is so sore, I could only take him out as far as the picnic table to hold on to as he slightly yanked around trying to follow Cupid and explore. Never having been inside before, he went for a giant wee on the pot plant. I went to find the mop and a plan for dragging the plant out side. When I got back, he had gone all the way and done a major relief in the same pot. Pity really as that plant was magnificent and most of branches came off in the action. Fair play to Lucretius though, it is a massive pot and he made an effort to aim well.

I got it tidied up and manoeuvred the pot outside. Later he investigated under the piano and widdled on the sheet music I was sorting out in various piles! We had had a couple of hours of pats and rubs by then so I decided to let him out free without me on the end of the lead, in to the dark night and hope he would come back. He did!

So they were the challenges and a bark at Wish in the middle of the night but no chasing.

Apart from that, he is a great dog. Very soft, affectionate. If you even scratch under his chin, he goes into a love coma and he reaches his head out and starts blinking and drifting off. He loves his box and blankets by the heater and yet is keen to come along on every little expedition. When you have a bad back, every movement is a bit of an expedition, that needs careful planning and execution!

If we can work together, he will make a perfect family dog. Brian at the pound suggested that his longer ears and deep golden colour might suggest a little Vizsla in his Golden Labrador conception. If he bumps into Cupid on his way anywhere, because he is a bit of a bounding beauty as he's only two or three, he just jumps over him.

Now I just need a crate for him to sleep in as I can't spend too many more nights on the sofa, attending to his every movement. But i will if I have to as not good habits and clearing up have to be avoided for someone in my condition!!!

At least it's me doing it, rather than my Mum and Dad. If I hadn't pushed to collect him, I would have missed the post and my certificate saying I had won the art competition would have got drenched in the next shower!

And at least I had just taken a photo of that plant which was so very beautiful!

Taking Up the torch for a pound Dog

I am trying my hand at fostering, through the Protecting Pound Dogs system. It's funny how it happened as obviously someone like me mustn't look at dogs who need a home!

The thing was that my parents were thinking of looking for a new dog to replace beloved Jonah. Jonah was black - and hard to see in room with no light on. So, the question came up, should it be a golden labrador puppy - with microchip and background check as to it's genetic lineage - good hips and eyesight etc or should it be an older, established dog. Maybe a rescue dog could work but mightn't they have issues?

I swear I only clicked on one picture. Lucretius was in the pound right now.

 Then I saw his soulful eyes and ribs and without another thought sent the photos on to my folks and said what about if I look after him and get him to his former glory or full potential - health and family-dog behaviour wise - then they wouldn't have to worry about that bit. As my back is so weak at the moment, I am here anyway and happy to do that work.

They wrote straight back and said they want to find their dog and meet him (so over in England) and not yet, more like next spring. So that made sense and that was that.

Or was it? Of course, the next morning I woke up and thought, well I can hardly leave him there now, can I?

The brilliant Protecting Pound Dog system means that they knew of the dog, knew he needed fostering before rehoming in his hopefully forever home and they found out that he hadn't been booked to go elsewhere (like PAWS of Dogs Trust I imagine or another local interested in him).

Yesterday, lunchtime, my good friend and neighbour Klaus took me down to collect him. Brian at the pound was great, despite a few jibes about how raw bones and livers and hearts would be the best thing for Lucretius to put condition on - even after he said he remembered I was vegetarian! He even suggested Green Lipped Muscles from New Zealand for my back ache! But I didn't get drawn into my week's topic of 'How To Heal without eating anybody else's body parts or tested, casein-drenched drugs!' He said the dog was 'unsure but really wanted to connect' and in that he was spot on. He microchipped him and carried him out to the car. Very scaredy cat, with tail between his legs but not any more!
 

His kennel name is Lucas, formal name Lucretius, who was my favourite Roman philosopher poet. 

• De rerum natura (Latin:  [deː ˈreːrũː naːˈtuːraː] ; On the Nature of Things) is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius(c.  99 BC – c. 55 BC) with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. 

Therapeutic Pigs' Advice

I communed with the pigs this afternoon to see what their messages were.

Angel: Friendship. We have to make each other feel our friendship.

So, using the pendulum and the intensity of my intention, I helped her feel my affection for her 100%. Then I helped the free flow of her love to me, up to 100% too. 

She immediately runs to me when I sing Angie by the Rolling Stones…how could she  know it wasn’t written about her?

Ethereal: Clear all the spirits around you. 

She was referring to the animals I care about. I tune in every day, on a may-it-be-over-soon level and RIP level, in factory farms and at the slaughterhouse and on ships.

Becky:

She told me to do as she does. I realized she is always involved in ‘gainful employment’. Always busy with something useful that brings dividends her way. I asked her to be more specific and she said 

1) Have piglet Welcome Days; ask for a donation of a tenner per family and make a cake. Let people know they can hug Legend as he’ll come and hang out in winter. Say that in the summer, when the paddock is dry and grassy, people can lounge around with her and the piglets too. But tell them pigs need love all year round!

2) Cruise on past efforts. You have the house right now for visitors or B&B or courses or a lodger, just rest on your laurels and wait.

3) Decide exactly what you want to do with your next 500 euro and it will arrive.

4) Marry a rich man? By way of clarification, she was referring to someone like Legend; resourceful, paying attention, protective and provides but does not eat that much of the grub.

5) Forage – Keep foraging around the garden. There are still apples on the tree, cauliflower, spinach and an occasional spud to unearth. Pick a little purple sprouting broccoli as it comes. Eat the sorrel and enjoy the rocket and learn more about living from the area, as it gets wilder. 

Legend:

Clear the parasites, the irritants and the aggravators.

Interesting as parasites often do secretly reside in the spinal fluid and that is and I have had terrible back ache. Sugar and alcohol feed them sadly, as well as blocking vitamin C to the cells so not too much booze for me. Also sore hips are a sign of a sluggish liver, so another reason not to self-medicate with a brandy or two this time!

Irritants and aggravators were mainly people and situations. I have sent a lot of letters recently implicating a lot of animal abusers, exploiters and environmental polluters. I’ve generally exposed as much corporate and governmental corruption as I feel like rather than a strategic approach, more of a scatter bomb approach, in the hope that someone somewhere will pick up and run with the information – most recently, to the brilliant TD Maureen O’Sullivan. I think there is always a backlash (interesting word to come to mind!!!) when you get involved in politics and money grabbing industries who’ve been getting away with it for years! They’d probably rather I shut up!

Obviously not going to though as the voiceless really need a result. It must be so frustrating for them not to be able to speak. To have so much consciousness and things they want to impart to us but no language we can understand.

It’s like a punishment in itself, to be so misunderstood and ignored, let alone the mistreatment, captivity and killing of so many. Such a buzz to have perfected animal communication, using the pendulum to check my telepathic accuracy.

What a treat to write a blog again From The Pigs' Perspective‘ of which I have many hundred from previous years!!

Welcome home Legend and Rebecca and welcome to Ethereal and Angel, the beloved adopted piglets who are here now too!  

Plant Trees, Yes! But four things to STOP doing too

Less obvious abuse

There is an abuse cycle that people may not have thought of. We all grasp the idea that someone having been abused may justify abusing another. But it’s usually in a 1^sthand domestic and violent context. I have noticed there is an illness abuse cycle. This is where we think we need something or are told we do and our physical pain justifies an ocean of 3^rdhand abuse.

Justifying Pills? 

I had this example in the last couple of days as my back stiffened up again in an extreme way. Twenty minutes to navigate the logistics of getting out of bed kind of a way. My Mum said, take an aspirin for the journey. I know you don’t usually take anything but it’s ‘an emergency’. Does my no doubt self-inflicted pain justify a dairy casein, whey-coated concoction of pharmaceutical chemicals (as all pills are) tested on countless innocent animals? Probably not. We create our problems , we should deal with them.  

Justifying Animal Testing?

Although aspirins are not tested on animals; and we’re a) talking a continuum, not just one trial. B) And, of course, a lab animal has no way of letting us know if pain has eased and would certainly not assume that their experimenters care if the pain is eased (a carer’s attention and intention is well understood to be the main powerful component in a recovery situation. C) With medicines they test lethal doses, fatal accumulation levels by literally increasing how much they administer.

Justify Toxicity Testing? 

Take Lyrica for example, a nerve pain drug. If you have lived with someone who takes that, you will know that their pain has not receded but a zombified stupor of discomfort replaced it. Neither awake nor asleep. No longer able to exercise ‘mind over matter’ or constructive exercises or bring any conscious awareness to the painful area.

Mind over matter

d) Animals in laboratories and most animals do not have cognitive reasoning. They have plenty of levels of consciousness and sentience but none that can take them outside the physical experience of being captive, experimented on and deliberately hurt.

Product testing

This isn’t just medicines, as people well know. I had thought for a while that women are slightly more considerate than men and that men sometimes fall back on the argument ‘a man has to do what a man has to do’ which is a philosophical argument model which doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. However, every time I go to the airport, I realize that it’s the women’s mere need to be, look and smell ‘nice’ or sexy or rich or floral or natural or alluring that justify the continued abuse of thousands of animals every year in testing cosmetics and perfumes. 

I spend my hour or two every flight, going from brand to brand. Saying, ‘could you point me in the direction of your cruelty free products, so sort of definitely not tested on animals but also preferably no animal ingredients’. I make it sound like an obvious consideration. I am relaxed, implying that there’s bound to be some somewhere but they know their way around their stock better than I do. We stay on the same side, with me saying, that’s mad isn’t it that companies are still testing.  Dreadful to think of it isn’t it.

Is wanting to be more attractive good justification?

Everyone agrees and then they say ‘Estee Lauder (insert whoever) have always had a strong cruelty-free policy but obviously our products are tested in China since we entered that market. They insist.’

Is wanting to sell your stuff in China good enough justification? 

How about not entering that market then? Europe not big enough for you? The States not big enough. What about saying no, testing is not necessary – look at all the products we’ve sold over 2 or more decades and no casualties apart from a couple of irritated scalps?

Should we look at the China's other practices?

So there’s another abuse cycle. If there’s money in it, or a market compliance request, well that justifies a multitude too doesn’t it? And since we’ve seen the dog pinned to a board as art in China and we know of the dog meat all-year-round festival and preparations and maybe you were privy to the living chimpanzee with the top of its head cut off in a restaurant so that diners could serve the brains up. ..Well, we can have a stab and concluding that the testing facilities there are cold-hearted affairs.

Or look first at our own?

But, back to Ireland, the testing capital of Europe. Countless American companies are here as we don’t tax and happily overlook systemic cruelty. Not much of an accolade. Give me humanity above innovation any day of the week. And, what’s more important, is that we don’t have to choose. I find it totally straightforward to be innovative and not abandon my moral compass instantly. 

So this is another thing we need to close down

Close all slaughter houses and close all slow torture houses. Laboratories have to go. They can’t be justified, not when you look within – them or yourself.

We create our own reality

Back to my back. It is not in the nature of other vertebrates to ‘overdo’ it. While I was filling the pentagon raised bed with manure with a broken head off a shovel, digging it in and wrestling the grass roots up. When I was planting the onions and garlic and winter beans. When I was dragging the roof of my geodome – all that remains really apart from the bed frames – what were the dog and cat doing? Sunbathing. Keeping me company. What were the pigs doing? Aerating the soil for next year but taking their time, nibbling the grasses, taking regular lie-downs. What were the mice doing? Hiding from the other mammals. We’re the only species to press on regardless. Really regardless, of ourselves and or anyone and anything else..

That is why I’m adding a new political approach to my re-wilding. Absolutely do not be passive but don’t just switch course either and tear in a new direction. 

We need to stop first, pause. Remember when the organic soil association said that we couldn’t have certification until chemical free animal and land management practices had been in place for 6 years? That is because research shows that is all the time it takes for the soil’s integrity, balance, pH, bio profile to return and with it the beneficial insects to manage the less beneficial ones! 

I watched a programme recently about how it was just one or two ‘keystones’ that brought life, fertility and a working ecosystem back to the Serengeti. Even there on that grand scale it was only 4 years for regeneration of species to balance. Wilderbeest…yes herbivores like our cows, pigs and sheep fertilized the planes and trees and shrubs colonized the barren miles once again.

I asked my intuition, what are the key stones for Ireland and the UK. Is there top predator or consumer or decomposer etc to bring in or take out? There are 5. Planting trees is the only action-packed one. The other four are things that we simply need to STOP doing. 1) Stop the production and use of agri-chemicals – including pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers. 2) Re-purpose animals in agriculture – no more exploitation for their flesh or dairy but instead to build the healthy soil crust with manure to support crops. 3) We need to stop the geo-engineering – the deliberate degradation of air and water, through the dropping of waste chemicals from planes. The majority of airlines are involved in this lucrative work. 4) We need to stop giving our individual time, imagination, responsibility, wellbeing and dignity to employers and leaders that keep us in a mere survival mode. We need our hearts and energy intact, not depleted and our frequency high.

This is what I added for those town dwellers who have a garden but mustn't lose the light into their windows:

 Frances MicklemDon't forget that if you only have a small garden you can still plant a tree or three but snip their apex (central stem) after a year so they grow outwards like a shrub or a hedge - fuller rather than higher and yet still ding the good work and happy to be planted xxx

Rachel That's a really useful tip to share- thank you. Do you have any links for pruning in different ways for small gardens? :)

 Frances Micklem Thanks. I went looking for links but really the things are 1) to cut stems at an angle so the rainwater doesn't gather and 2) Do it in autumn or winter when it's not busy with sap surging. 3) Leave them a few years so they're established. My first lot werecrabapple, the fruit of which can make a savoury mint jelly or sweet jelly. Now they're a real windbreak for the pony and pet pigs, rather than all trunk and canopy up high. Everything here is an experiment but I know for definite that root systems like company so always plant at least 2 I reckon, even different species relate well! Here's a crab apple link in case there's any gems in it!

Reducing a crab apple

Rachel Thank you! :) What are good companions for fruit trees, in your opinion?x

Frances   My main guiding light is my black walnut that only goes with oaks and cherries and other walnuts and will toxify the fruit of other trees. Also, they're a big tree so smaller ones suited to a mini forest garden - top canopy: mini apple trees, hazels and sweet chestnut, then around them raspberries, gooseberry bush, then some herbs, any beds circumnavigated with garlic and onions to protect the tastier spring veg and camomile and sorrel and calendula, colourful edible lawns or areas instead of grass.

Puppy Farm License...Then 2.5 Tonnes of Dead Animals

Well said. 2.5 tonnes of dead animals taken away and oh, wow, the council won't release the just-previous inspection report which the Myshall puppy farm passed with flying colours and were awarded their license renewal no problem. 

But it's not Carlow is it really? it's everywhere and Carlow Kilkenny are in bed together when it comes to the Dog Shelter and the dog wardens. And it's not the council is it really? it's the two or three dog wardens from the Carlow Kilkenny Dog Pound, who do those inspections. They are either not being allowed on to the sites, or don't give a damn, or are being bribed. Or quite probably all three. 

When Kilkenny Council were giving the massive public contract to run the Carlow Kilkenny dog pound, to the carcass company, trading as ACS-Four Seasons, Carlow Councillors knew nothing (even though Carlow Council pays a couple of hundred thousand towards the pound annually) about it and were appalled. 

This tenderer was recommended whole heartedly by the Kilkenny County vet, so obviously there's money in rounding up the strays and putting them to sleep, without passing go, let alone recovery or rehoming options. 

Still, one of the dog wardens jobs are these inspections and it might be them we need to ask for those inspection reports. They are not animal lovers, they are guard dog trainers which people might or might not find appropriate for a dog shelter. 

That inspection procedure should be way more accessible for scrutiny. Maybe Carlow Council could first release a blank inspection report for us to consider. Then, instead of looking back and blaming, we could look forward to a more robust system with whatever extraordinary loopholes there were taken out! 

I also heard (from one of the dog wardens) there are about 300 puppy farms between carlow and enniscorthy, it's a black spot and so those inspectors are busy too if they are trying to find these places.

The only solution is shut down all puppy farms. They're all God-forsaken hell holes and there are enough dogs already to care for.

Anyway, well done to People Before Profit's Adrienne Wallage for the motion to stop it happening again. 

This is a topic close to my heart! I would also take on the job of finding these farms if it could be funded and I guarantee, unlike the current inspectors, my heart would be in it. I would leave no stone unturned!!!

New vaccination scheme masquerading as 'animal health programme'

Janusz Wojciechowski is to be the European new Agriculture Minister

So we need to start writing to him to explain where we're at in Ireland and what we really need European funding for.

We really need a system change.

There has been a 10 million euro allocation for a new vaccination scheme is allocated under ‘animal health’ but is only in reality a European grant to pharmaceutical companies  - The 20 euro per vaccinated calf will only be recoverable after payment. It is to the ‘discretion’ of the pharmaceutical producer no doubt how much they will charge and the scheme will  not cover all the costs and will definitely not be charged at any lower than the max €20 euro they’ll know is available.

It is thought that the vaccine will not need to be administered by a vet, another huge expense to farmers, but the farmers themselves will be able to inject their herds. But they could easily change their minds on that.

A vaccination will only cover one or two strains and will not reduce risk of contracting pneumonia. The more obvious reason why dairy calves suffer so regularly from pneumonia is that they are separated from their mothers before receiving the cholostrum needed to develop their own immune systems. It would be much better to change the system to stop them being taken from their mothers at birth. The next place of risk is the overcrowding in cold barns with countless other vulnerable, if not ill already, calves. Export for veal should be stopped as both the travel and then isolated, unnatural keep of calves increases the risk of pneumonia.

As a farmer, I disagree that vaccination improves the health of calves. I also question why we would go to the manufacturers of anti-biotics to ask them for a preventative measure against pneumonia. They are corporate entities benefiting their share holders from the sale of endless rounds of antibiotics when pneumonia takes hold and now they are being promised 10 million to provide a vaccination against that same income stream. As calves are only kept for a matter of months, we can be sure that the long term effects of animal vaccinations living on in trace elements in the meat for human consumption are never known. 

We should be pushing for a system change where organic standards of care are offered, a better price given for high welfare traceability and practices that eliminate the need for veterinary and chemical support are funded. 

In the same edition, I see that Kepak are going to be penalizing farmers for animals that come in at weights outside their randomly-decided remit. Surely, this should not be allowed when all the meat plants have such high incident rates of  non compliance, price-setting and weighing machines at factories that are operating well outside the tolerance level of inaccuracy. How can the meat plants be allowed to decide how few animals they will accept at one time from a farmer and then be allowed to penalize them for going out side the finishing weight that they want to receive them at. I noticed that there will be a new weighing scheme for dairy calf to beef weighing. I suggest that farmers could put that 10 euro per head  for each 1-2 year old calf weighed on their farms to better use. Will we be allowed to weigh them ourselves and who will those weights be submitted to and why?

Everything in animal agriculture, at the moment, from care, to finance, to good practice, to cost, to quality of life, to welfare, to licenses, to cut backs, environmental measures etc is the responsibility of the farmers and meanwhile the meat bosses share the table at the Bord Bia awards, make deals for thousands of tonnes of beef abroad and command profits of over a billion annually  and the European Union is clearly being wined and dined by the agri chemical and pharmaceutical industries and organizing that all schemes and grants directly and only benefit them. 

TD Josepha Madigan HAS LIFTED the ban on senseless hare capture

Pippa Hackett for the Green Party pointed out:

“Minister Madigan has an abysmal record on wildlife protection, and this decision is a total abuse of power and a reckless act of wildlife vandalism. She is pandering to a minority group of people and amoral backbenchers that support this cruel activity, and it’s risking the increased spread of this fatal disease.

I wrote:

Dear Josepha,

I don't know what pressure you are under or from who but if you don't reinstate that ban on hare netting...hares being the national emblem of Ireland and endangered and horribly kept and tortured in coursing, you are literally licking the *****of the hare coursers. 

I have demonstrated outside the championships in Clonmel 4 years in a row. I can safely confirm that that is something you do not want to do. The men are gross, cold, ignorant and indifferent. Or should I say attached to their violent viewing.

 There are a few women who show up too, but they just don't want to be hated. This, I understand. But in your position, where you can make a change for the better and you started the ball rolling.

 I ask you to make up whatever pretext you need to protect the hares. Or just keep the threat of imminent extinction going as a reason to keep the ban on netting hares going. They have never done anything to you. To anyone.  

Every other country has banned it. 

The greyhound cruelty has even at last been highlighted in Ireland. Oh yes and some of the public don't like the hare torture, Is that what you want to mention at the pearly gates? That you didn't care? That you didn't respond to public opinion? That you had every back up?

 The RTE have exploded the situation.

You know there's a fatal disease. Why would you let  the ban go now? You have a chance to enforce something that has needed, cried out for and required someone to deal with it for years.

 The disease is spread by the empathy-free conditions of the cages the lads put them in. And yes it is only men. I would love to hear if there are any girls out there 'lamping': Petrifying and killing rabbits and hares.. I really doubt it.