Declawing? Pet Centers?

[Buddy & Boonie]

lets talk about the animal fighting topic
where i live cockfighting is legal because its part of the peoples culture
i cant wait to move where laws are good and right

[PineBlossom120]

Have you ever thought about starting a group of people who share your opinion to write a letter to the mayor to see if you can some how change that law :3

[Buddy & Boonie]

no because the mayor is part of there culture
them chamorros dont understand it hurts the birds
thats the^^^ culture

[Sadies]

I don't agree with the Dressage and some bits of Cross-country in the Olympics but I know for sure they don't inject stuff in their legs, the horses are tested and every swears not to use drugs. The tape on their legs is to look nice or to protect their legs. I don't agree with the Dressage because the horses do not seem to look happy, I mean having your head pulled in doesn't exactly seem relaxing to the horse, they can't enjoy that and most have foaming mouths which shows it's not comfortable on their mouths. I don't like the Cross-country as I don't like the fact that if it goes wrong those horses could die"

[Saracirce]

The whole point of dressage is to make it seem like the horse is doing all those things without cues or with barely any cues from the rider. They want the horse to keep a soft mouth and would never pull really hard on the reins and risk hurting it's mouth. They hold the reins tight simply because it makes it easier for the horse to feel when the rider moves their hand. I honestly can't comment on the mouth foam part as I don't watch that much dressage (I prefer show jumping and cross country) but I do know they want the horses to look their best. The looks is a big part of dressage.

As for the cross country thing, I've seen blooper videos of show jumping where the horse flips over the bars and face and chest plants, grinds their faces into the dirt, stumble hard, and even actually land on their backs. I just saw one this morning where a horse's front legs got caught by the bars and flipped over to land on it's chest with it's neck out to the side. I've also seen horses get spooked while doing dressage and end up injuring themselves or the riders by rearing, bucking, or suddenly bolting to the side and running into something. Something can go wrong and seriously hurt both the rider and the horse anytime you're on a horse. As long as the horses and riders are trained right and completely trust each other, the risk is minimized.

[Sadies]

But is looking good better than the horse being comfortable?
This is some images of one of the 2012 Olympics horse foaming at the mouth:
http://d1engbabf2cb77.cloudfront.net/wp ... rs_800.jpg
http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/29 ... 66x310.jpg

Not Olympics 2012 but still dressage:
http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/30 ... 36x471.jpg
http://www.dressage-news.com/wp-content ... 5U5782.jpg
http://www.hesteinternatet.dk/graphics/ ... 4_full.jpg

It doesn't look good in my opinion and is generally not a good sign.

Cross-country is dangerous, it's not safe at all.
- 1 out of 4 don't finish Cross Country at Gatcombe
- 11 top horses killed in Badminton Horse Trials 2010 - this is a champion show

Training shouldn't matter, it should be designed to be safe for all levels of horses. Show Jumping is okay, the bars collapse but Cross Country jumps mainly don't and are dangerous.

[Jazi]

Sadies, the chow mix foams at the mouth when she's walked, when she plays, when she's excited. Drool (which makes foam) doesn't just mean pain or stress... it can mean excitement, enjoyment, or simply the animal is too hot.

Riding horses, just hobby riding horses, kill and injure their riders, injure themselves, put themselves in dangerous situations, all the time. Heck, when I rode just as a hobby my horse would occasionally shy away from the fence if there were deer too close. Once he stumbled doing so and was lame for a couple months afterward... and that's just clopping around a ring a few times! Once he stepped on the help (accidentally, seemed to have forgotten she was under there) when she was removing his saddle and nearly broke her back. He bit her and broke her thumb once when he was in a bad mood due to a disagreement with a boarding horse at that stable. And I've seen a lot worse accidents in nearly every horse event and working environment. Accidents happen, that doesn't make the event cruel.

[blueshadowmoon]

Sadies, the chow mix foams at the mouth when she's walked, when she plays, when she's excited. Drool (which makes foam) doesn't just mean pain or stress... it can mean excitement, enjoyment, or simply the animal is too hot.

Riding horses, just hobby riding horses, kill and injure their riders, injure themselves, put themselves in dangerous situations, all the time. Heck, when I rode just as a hobby my horse would occasionally shy away from the fence if there were deer too close. Once he stumbled doing so and was lame for a couple months afterward... and that's just clopping around a ring a few times! Once he stepped on the help (accidentally, seemed to have forgotten she was under there) when she was removing his saddle and nearly broke her back. He bit her and broke her thumb once when he was in a bad mood due to a disagreement with a boarding horse at that stable. And I've seen a lot worse accidents in nearly every horse event and working environment. Accidents happen, that doesn't make the event cruel.

This. Just because the mouth is foaming doesn't mean pain or stress. It can mean excitement because when a horse is being rode in front of a lot of people, some cheering, it can get excited and foam. Almost everything for horses is dangerous. Horses can get hurt standing in their stall. Accidents happen in dog shows and agility for example, but that doesn't mean it's cruel. I had a border collie that I would be in agility with and he loved it. Accidents did happen at agility but it's not cruel or I wouldn't have been doing it for those years. People and animals aren't perfect, you can get hurt walking on a sidewalk, it doesn't mean walking on sidewalks is cruel.

[Saracirce]

Also, the riders don't immediately jump into cross country with horses. They work with them with ground work first, then going over poles on the ground, then using the type of jumps that are collapsible. Only after the horses are confident and jumping well do they start going over the solid jumps. Even after that, it's gradually increasing distance, speed, jumping distance and jumping height. Most owners know better then to try to a ride horse through a course it's not ready for. I've also seen those supposedly safe jumps that are supposed to collapse hold up when a horse crashes into it and cause the horse to flip. It not only endangers the horses though. It can also cause severe injuries to the riders, especially if the rider falls onto one of the jumps or the horse lands on top of them. The riders, even if they don't care about the horses, usually care enough about themselves to make sure the horse is safe.

[Bayleaf]

Okay, I did more research and still I can't tell what they do to the Olympic horses. let's just leave it at neutral for now.

And declawing, you guys have brought up some pretty good points. Some people declaw their aggressive cats when some simple training and different settings could make them happy and friendly.

Let's talk about pet centers.I've been to many looking for a new cat when Frank died. They had small cages , but at set times, the cats were free to roam the place. Other places aren't so great. Such as the ones that kill the animals that haven't been adopted for a while. Some young boy or girl could be perfect for that pet, but it gets killed before they can adopt it. Also, some nice places like I mentioned above have old beat up cats and dogs that are obviously suffering. They don't put them down, which probably is the best thing to do. For example, when I went to a humane society there was this raggedy old cat with one eye, one ear, and a terrible limp. And the nice places also leave food out for ALL the animals, and one eats most of it every day. the rs ult: A furry beach ball. All of these things, (except the places where the animals get killed) I have viewed with my own eyes. Ever since then I've had such a different view on pet centers.