Author: David

Posted on

Rabies

When I was working in Florida, we were battling the problem of feral cats. At that time, we were using the age-old solution of trapping and killing the cats. With such a large number of cats being trapped, we found a large number of raccoons finding their way into our traps. I came up with the idea of testing the raccoons for rabies so as to determine whether if we had a problem.

Our Health Department wasn’t eager to open that bag of worms. They were worried that I would show the presence of rabies was more prevalent than they wanted. They were worried that I would unleash a crisis that they were not prepared to deal with. And for them, it was a nasty task of cutting out the brains of these animals. We eventually agreed to just deliver the head of the raccoons, so that they wouldn’t have to worry about disposing of the bodies.

I took on the task of mapping the locations where the animals that tested positive were trapped. We discovered that the presence of rabies was much higher than we expected in our raccoon population. Something that our Health Department didn’t want to be known. After all, how do you deal with rabies in a wildlife population?

Just because you find a raccoon that tests positive for rabies, you don’t necessarily have the risk that that animal is shedding the virus. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t use the presence of rabies as a PR stunt to encourage people to vaccinate their pets.

For the most part, the rabies vaccination can be purchased to provide protection for 1 year or 3 years. Many veterinarians will administer the 1 year vaccination to force their clients to come in annually for their pet’s health examination. It’s good for the veterinarian’s pocketbook, and it is a thing that responsible pet owners do.

I’ve always believed that the solution of dealing with raccoon and feral cat populations would be in the form of seeding an area with pellets that contain rabies vaccine and a sterilant I just can’t figure out how you package the pellets so that small children don’t eat them; but, no matter how gross the things that children pick up and eat, they seem to survive.

Posted on

Speak your Truth

A new trend has emerged, advising people to “speak their truth.” It seems that the truth is all about perspective and not about actual truth. Silly me, I always thought that truth was up there next to wisdom; but, wisdom is based on fearing God. Truth now seems based on how someone sees something, whether it is true or not.

You can say that someone who has a penis is a woman. For many, they think that is the truth. To the rest of us who understand physiology, see that as lacking wisdom. So, if your truth lacks wisdom, then it is false. We live in a time in which we are seeing so much false truth. Because we lack wisdom, we cannot discern whether “our truth” is actually truth.

Worse yet, we are introducing this false truth into our schools. It is no wonder that college students are graduating dumber than when they started. Unless the curriculum is grounded in wisdom, it stands a good chance of being false. Truth has to pass the litmus test of being wise. God has to be the basis of our truth. When we turn over our truth to idiot professors, we are likely to be wrong.

So much of our truth arises from our sin. The more that we can drag others into our sin, our sin becomes their truth. Many want to teach their sin to school children and display their sin in parades. The rest of us show our lack of wisdom for looking the other way. I have committed plenty of acts of sinning against God, I am not proud of that sin, and I don’t parade it around, and I certainly don’t suggest that children be taught to accept my sin. Why? Because I have enough wisdom to realize that doing that would just be stupid.

Posted on

Dog Bites on Postal Carriers

A couple of months ago, I received a postcard from the Post Office reminding residents of the need to secure their pets; dog bites rise in the summer months. Today, our local media reports that there has been a spike in the number of postal carriers being bitten by dogs. Two factors are present when dog bites occur: hot weather that makes dogs short-tempered, and irresponsible dog owners who let their dogs run loose. There isn’t much of a cure for either of these two factors…. Or is there?

I have always believed that the Postal Service holds the greatest cure to end the stupidity factor. They only need to stop mail service to the neighborhood with loose aggressive dogs, and the dog owners’ neighbors will begin the education process. In most cases, the dog owner sees his (or her) error and will comply with the neighborhood norms. If that doesn’t work, then the dog becomes a victim of the neighborhood by either someone holding the dog for Animal Control to pick up or by “accidentally” digesting food that disagrees with the dog.  Having the option of having animal control in the community is a good step in reducing incidents of extreme justice.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of pet owners who cannot overcome their stupidity and thus secures the careers of many animal control personnel. I used to meet up with postal carriers to check in with them about potential problems on their routes. No one knows the problem of loose dogs better than postal carriers: work with them to keep the mail flowing.

In communities where animal control is underfunded, I have heard about neighborhoods in which people carry weapons when going out for a neighborly walk.  Usually, the problem has to persist when neighbors resort to such activities; and yet,  the owner acts shocked when one of their dogs is the recipient of a neighbor’s bullet.   Clueless is right up there with stupidity for such people.

Posted on

The Straight and Narrow Road

There lay a straight and narrow road ahead of me. The pavement is unadorned; it is littered with debris. All around me are dead shrubbery, not a single hint of green. I can see other paths far off in the distance. Those paths are beautiful and awe-striking. Many walk those roads, despite the fact that I’ve seen and foretold of the doom at their destination. Their roads are downhill, and very easy to tread on. My path ascends uphill, creating much difficulty. Yet, while weary, I press on because I see a great light, and golden gates in the clouds. There, a crowned man beckons all to come, and flee the path of immorality and death. Few obey, but those who reach Him are richly rewarded. Though I grow tiresome, and many fall away from the straight and narrow road, I continue on, strengthened through the call of the crowned man. When I reach the top, I am greeted by the crowned man in scarlet robes. He says to me “Well done, my good and faithful servant, in whom I am well pleased.” I rejoice greatly with all those who came before me. Here, we spend all of eternity praising our Master for saving us from everlasting torment.
Logan Flagler
10-23-24
Posted on

Using GPS

Throughout my career, I have used GPS in several organizations that I have overseen.  Here are a few war stories:

In Portland, we received a call that one of our vehicles had kicked up a rock and cracked the caller’s windshield.  We checked the location of the incident against the GPS of the vehicle that the guy reported.   We found that the vehicle was on the other side of the County when the incident occurred.  We discovered that people get their windshield cracked and begin looking for a government vehicle on the road to blame the incident on and get a free windshield replacement.

In Jacksonville, we received a call about one of our drivers driving recklessly.  We pulled up the GPS data and found that our driver was driving 50 miles per hour in a 35-mile zone.  The caller was right.

Also, in Jacksonville, we deal with a lot of impatient callers who are calling in to see where the truck dispatched to their address is.  We can look at the mapping software and advise them.  It was not uncommon that we’d see the vehicle pulling up in front of their house and advise them to look outside the window.

GPS finds the best use for new drivers who are unfamiliar with your city.  It helps them get around.

GPS systems help advise your dispatcher as to which vehicle is the closest to the incident location.

We lost one of our employees in Fairfax County.  He had pressed the emergency button on his radio, and we were able to find the location of his vehicle via GPS.  When it started getting dark, we dispatched a helicopter and asked him to shine his flashlight straight up, and the helicopter pilot was able to direct our search to him.

GPS is a wonderful tool.  I used the it in Jacksonville to map the locations of raccoons that had tested positive for rabies.

In Salt Lake City, I used GPS to map the locations of dogs that had been declared dangerous.   I have heard of communities that have online mapping to let neighbors know where the dangerous dogs are in their neighborhood.

As an oldtimer, I use GPS when I am using the public transportation system in my city.    Google has a feature where you can share your location (not with just China (joking)).  So when I go out the door, I turn on Google Maps, and my daughter can track me when she turns on her Google Maps.  If I am headed out to a soccer game, she can see how far I am away.

You would be remiss if you didn’t take advantage of the tools that are available to you.

Posted on

Advisory Boards

Community leaders will create advisory boards to oversee governmental operations to show their openness to community input.  The one thing that many of these boards have is attracting people with special interests.  Those same community leaders aren’t smart enough to know what they have done.

It is difficult to direct a governmental operation when your advisory board does not share your vision.  The no-kill movement exasperated the problem for animal shelters when their advisory boards were led by animal rights nuts demanding that the shelter meet its 90% live release rate to satisfy the board’s directive to become no-kill.

It is very easy to get onto an advisory board.  In most cases, you just express your desire.  Since most hard-working people aren’t interested in nightly meetings, special-interest folks will pack the board.  Usually, each county commissioner or city council member appoints a person for each board.  I witnessed incidents in which members of an animal rights interest would send letters and emails to specific council members to direct their appointee.

Keep in mind, the only purpose for creating advisory boards is to make the commission or council feel better about themselves.  They have no idea as to what they have unleashed upon the departments.  I have not witnessed many effective boards because most of those boards fail to represent the citizens at large.

School Boards and Animal Shelter Advisory Boards seem to draw the moths of the liberal hivemind to them as an automobile speeding down the highway with its highbeams on.

Imagine being given the task of solving the deer overpopulation in your community and recommending a kill solution.  That is going to make your life with the animal rights members of your advisory board difficult.  I remember hunting with my father as a child in Utah.  That seemed like a good place to move to.

Posted on

Its not their fault!

I was reading comments following the recent incident of one of our police officers shooting a dog.  Many people conclude that the dog was not to blame.  On that, I agree.  Dogs become confused, especially when some stranger is yelling at them.  Time and time again we see evidence that many pet owners are not smart enough to own a dog.  Any reasonable person would realize that the best way to control your dog is with a leash.   If you can’t figure out the purpose of the leash, you should not take your dog into a crowd.

Every effort that the person attempting to control the dog made it worse.  Their excitement just further excited the dog.  During the two separate altercations that the police had with the dog, I did not hear a single person say “no” to the dog.  That is the first step in training dogs to be around people; to stop aberrant behavior.  This incident failed at all levels.

When the officer approached the dog the first time, the leash was on the dog, but no one was holding the leash.  Someone was stepping on the leash.  The officer should have seen the risk that he was entering into and demanded that someone take the leash into their hands.  It might have helped that he didn’t start with “his cop voice.”

In the second incident with the dog, the dog was off-leash.  The person near the dog could be clearly seen with the leash in her hand.  This makes no sense; the person had to be pretty stupid to take the dog off leash following the dog biting an officer just moments before.

Still using his “cop voice,” but a little more excited, the officer was yelling at the woman to hold the dog.  In addition to the woman being stupid, she was also very slow.  The dog began approaching the officer and the woman’s efforts to stop the dog only seemed to excite the dog more.

As slow as the woman was, the police officer was very quick in pumping four rounds into the dog.  Although the dog didn’t immediately die, it was in pretty bad shape.  I don’t know at what point that dog realized that he was acting badly; it is further evidence that people should be tested first before they are allowed to own a pet or have children.

Posted on

What do we seek?

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Co 1:22–25.

  • 1 Co 1:18 | For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
  • Mt 12:38 | Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
  • Ga 5:11 | But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.
  • Lk 2:34 | And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed
  • 1 Co 1:30 | And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
Posted on

The four primary characters in Proverbs.

There are four primary characters in Proverbs: the wise, the fool, the simple, and the scoffer. The wise embrace God’s covenant. Fools, on the other hand, are opposed to God, yet they are not beyond hope. The simple are those who remain uncommitted to either wisdom or folly, and because of that they are easily misled. Scoffers are proud and arrogant and scorn God’s ways. Other voices in the book include Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly, each of whom personifies the characteristics of her name, and the Woman of Excellence, with whom the book concludes.

Lydia Brownback, Proverbs, A 12-Week Study, ed. J. I. Packer, Dane C. Ortlund, and Lane T. Dennis, Knowing the Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 7–8.

Posted on

Officer Involved Shooting

Our local police responded to a parking lot full of people.  From police footage, it appears that most of the people were homeless.  One police officer approached the group and was attacked and bitten by a dog.  It appeared to me that the dog was on a leash at the time.   The officer was walking off the attack when he came back into view of the dog again, which was now off-leash.    Another officer approached the dog’s owner yelling at her to control her dog.  Her attempt was feeble, at best.  He promised her that he would shoot the dog if she didn’t gain control of it.  She didn’t and the dog attacked again and was shot four times for its efforts.

In most circumstances, I would feel sorry for the stupid dog and its owner; but, people don’t realize the impact that has on the officer.  As an animal control officer, I could have taken the dog without killing it.  That’s what we do.  But, I don’t expect a police officer to handle the situation as I would have.  Police officers are trained to think with their guns when they are in danger.  So, given the circumstances, it was a righteous shooting. Although, a Taser would have been my first choice.

Before you start thinking that I’m all full of myself, keep in mind that most animal control officers don’t carry guns.  So shooting a dog isn’t an option.  If we are experienced animal control officers, we get out of our vehicles with a ketch-pole and leash in our hands.  The prospect of getting bitten doesn’t worry us as it does police officers.  Of course, we also get more experience facing down a face full of doggie teeth.

I recall using pepper spray on a Rottweiler once.  The owners complained to the police about my use of pepper spray and when the police sergeant came out to talk to the dog’s owners, the dog attacked him.  He came just short of shooting the dog.  Once the sergeant calmed down, he told me not to worry about the complaint.  I was a little embarrassed that I stepped out of the vehicle without my ketch-pole.  After all of these years, I still feel bad about using the pepper spray.