a-hiking-fish

[a-hiking-fish]

how do tollers compare to border collies? i need a toller connoisseur to describe them to me. what are they like

#LOL #Every toller I’ve met has been a nut but they seem like nice dogs

[a-hiking-fish]

We climbed a tiny mountain Saturday

#fish the gsd #dogblr #gsd #german shepherd #dog #handsomedogs #pnw #ruffwear #dogs #oregon #kicked our butts lol Not that it slowed Fish down any

[a-hiking-fish]

Tried to get some barking photos of Hallow the other day, failed miserably (managed to get photos BETWEEN every bark), ended up with this photo where love and joy is visibly shining out of her every pore.

Don’t even try to make Hallow look like a badass. It’s not possible.

[a-hiking-fish]

Enjoy.

[a-hiking-fish]

[a-hiking-fish]

deep in the 💙 of texas

[a-hiking-fish]

For her 8th birthday, Chandra got 8 inches of snow! She is quite thrilled with her present.

Happy birthday to the best big black beast! 🧡🧡🧡

#happy birthday!!!

[a-hiking-fish]

Procrastinating with a Broholmer.

[a-hiking-fish]

i’m dual-wielding

[a-hiking-fish]

Some shading practice.

[a-hiking-fish]

The handsomest and most manly of men!

[a-hiking-fish]

Looking at breeders again and I find myself once again wishing I had a mentor in the breed or at least a crash course on pedigrees but alas

#I’m not going to get another dog for years at this point #however… I wanna get my foot in the door now #idk why the brain disease is like that but 🤷‍♂️ #more studying to do anyway

[a-hiking-fish]

I know it’s controversial so no pressure to answer this, but what are your thoughts on TNR and its role in mitigating the issues feral cats bring about? I’m especially curious because you’re a vet, a birder, and you seem very into one health.

Most people get up in arms with me if I question whether TNR is the most ethical and effective strategy both for the cats welfare, and environmental welfare. Like it’s better than nothing, and it’s probably the most feasible due to the impacts of public opinion, but sometimes I wonder if culls would be more effective & humane.

Ahh TNR, one of the most controversial subjects in the field of animal care and conservation. For those unfamiliar, “TNR” stands for trap neuter release, and it is the practice of capturing and sterilizing feral cats before releasing them into the wild, in the hopes of reducing their population.

I was actually asked my opinion about this very subject during my interview for vet school (they like to ask about hot button issues to see if you’re able to defend your opinion) and back then I was a little more optimistic about the efficacy of these programs, but I do remember saying to my interviewer that nobody would even consider spaying invasive pythons just to release them back into the Everglades, the only difference is that most people don’t think pythons are cute.

I’m definitely not opposed to TNR, because as you say it’s certainly better than nothing and it gives us a chance to examine and vaccinate these cats. I myself have worked with a lot of TNR programs and doing high volume spays/neuters was great experience for me as a surgeon. But I couldn’t help but think about what kind of lives these animals were going back to in a feral cat colony. These days I regularly see feral cats brought in by good samaritans to be euthanized. They suffer from horrific injuries, infectious diseases like FIV, prolapses, cancer, you name it- and they’re usually profoundly ill by the time they let someone catch them. I am a huge obnoxious cat lover (the kind of person who shows strangers cat pics in an elevator totally unprompted) and the way these animals suffer really bothers me. Lots of people would disagree, but the things I’ve seen have made me feel these colonies are a serious welfare concern.

As I said I used to have a little more faith in TNR programs ability to actually control cat populations. The more I read published data about this the more I feel that it only works in specific circumstances that can’t always be replicated. The data on the efficacy of TNR is lackluster, while the data showing the ecological impacts of feral cats is rock solid. You simply cannot dispute the evidence of how bad invasive cats are for the environment, and anyone claiming to love birds or reptiles must also recognize how cats are one of the greatest contributors to decline of these animals.

As much as I love cats, and Burmese pythons, and Indian mongooses, and European starlings, I also know that it is our responsibility as stewards of the wild to mitigate the damage inflicted by invasive species. TNR does nothing to address this ecological threat, and that is my primary issue with these programs.

If you’re reading this and would like to review the data yourself to form your own opinion (as you should) I recommend this overview as a starting point, as I feel it’s a fairly comprehensive look at a lot of the data we have on TNR programs and their effectiveness.

Thanks for reading! Here’s my cat Riker, a formerly feisty feral feline I brought home instead of releasing.

[a-hiking-fish]

i really wish unethical cat breeds were taken seriously by animal lovers as unethical dog breeds. we rightfully condemn what they've done to pugs, but persians, munchkins, and lykoi cats still get posted everywhere like they're normal breeds. its so heartbreaking

#we have a DVM client of ours who breeds Scottish folds like…. ma’am are you for real?

[a-hiking-fish]

2 more master Qs in the bag, 2 more to go until our RATM!

#fish the gsd #dogblr #barn hunt #literally his favorite game on earth

[a-hiking-fish]

I knew one of our clients bred, trained, and worked SAR dogs but I haven’t actually looked up her kennel until now and wow

#I just wanna pick her brain so bad!! #sat on the FEMA board and did a whole bunch of stuff throughout her career #still have the pipe dream of doing SAR with a k9… #maybe one day

[a-hiking-fish]

Castro Laboreiro Dog, source.

#I’m a sucker for brindle smh #now if they had pointy ears…. 👀