Animal Welfare Movement – Page 11 – A perspective from the trenches

November 8, 2024November 8, 2024

Treasure up my Commandments

I got a little ahead of myself. Proverbs 2 spoke so personally to me that it started me on my wisdom quest:

My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.

16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
17 who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;
19 none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.

20 So you will walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 2:1–22.

I feel God’s spirit stir within me as I read the first verse “treasure up my commandments.”

November 7, 2024November 8, 2024

Keeping God’s Commandments Brings Wisdom

Proverbs 3 speaks to me:

My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
2 for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you.

3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good success
in the sight of God and man.

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.

9 Honor the LORD with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
10 then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.

11 My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
12 for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 3:1–12.

True wisdom comes in keeping God’s commandments, trusting Him, and honoring Him. In these things, you become truly wise.

November 7, 2024November 8, 2024

Wisdom Brings Judgement

This is the story in 1 Kings 3:16-28 where two women are claiming to be the mother of a single child. Solomon orders that the child be cut in two and each mother would receive half of the child, knowing that the child’s real mother would give up her child so as to keep it alive.

And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Ki 3:28.

True wisdom brings about real justice.

November 7, 2024November 8, 2024

Discernment Gives Wisdom

Everywhere I look I see that wisdom does not abound in our society. We see multiple incidents of stupidity daily with dog owners entering our animal shelters. We’ve clearly shown that our own wisdom is just foolishness. We look to ourselves for wisdom when only the wisdom of God is sufficient. I’ve decided to take a path to find wisdom and I am taking you along on that journey.

Solomon asked for discernment in 1st Kings 3:9:

Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil,

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Ki 3:9.

Discernment is the first step towards wisdom, the ability to distinguish between good and evil. Looking around, we see good overcome by evil. We need to become a society that sees evil for what it is.

October 27, 2024

Metal Fatigue

As we enter the winter months, please look out for an increase in fenced dogs escaping from their yards due to metal fatigue. As the weather turns cold, metal can become more brittle. Those cheap gate latches are prone to snapping when a large dog jumps up against the gate.

When returning loose dogs to their owners, who can’t figure out how their dog is getting out of the yard; it just might be caused by a broken latch.

October 24, 2024

The Roadkill Hunter

Traumatic times occur in our lives that we forever remember where we were and what we were doing. I’m old enough to remember I was on the school grounds when I learned that Kennedy was assassinated, and I was a few blocks away from the Pentagon on 9/11. You might have attended the same American Humane Conference as I did. Of course, the conference shut down and the smell of burning fuel filled the air. Most of the attendees watched, as all America did, the footage of the airplanes hitting the Twin Towers. A few of us walked the few blocks to see what was happening at the Pentagon.

As the day progressed, the events hit home: what should we do? Flying home was not an immediate solution. I attended the conference with my co-workers from the ASPCA. One of our group managed to rent a van, I think the last one available. It was nuts.

On the way back to Illinois, I invented the Adventures of the Roadkill Hunter. It was a long drive. I proceeded to entertain my fellow riders with episodes of The Roadkill Hunter using my Aussie voice. As our hunter carefully approached the roadkill waiting to see if the flattened piece of fur was either dead or playing possum. After a few hundred miles, my fellow riders gave me an option to either shut up or be left on the side of the road.

When we approached the Champaign Airport, we were stopped by a police car. Clearly, an early morning encounter had not prepared the office for a van full of tire conference goers. It became obvious that the officer didn’t know what to do. Clearly, airport security was stepped up after 9/11, but the plan didn’t include how the police would handle would-be terrorists. The officer didn’t let us approach the airport, nor would he allow us to leave.

The stress in the van was high. I was smart enough not to regale my comrades with another episode of The Roadkill Hunter.

Eventually, the officer allowed us to approach the airport. I suspect that his need for a coffee break outweighed his need to hold us hostage.

October 5, 2024

Constitutionalists

When I was working in Portland Oregon, I encountered my first Constitutionalist. These folks believe that if it isn’t written in the original Constitution, it isn’t legal. We impounded this guy’s dog for running at large and he refused to allow us to vaccinate his dog for rabies. He is right, nowhere in the U.S. Constitution mentions dog vaccinations, nor does it mention running at large either. The problem was that County law prohibited me from releasing his dog without a dog license. You got it, dog licenses require a rabies vaccination. This guy wasn’t going to budge. I had to be creative so that I could give this guy back his dog.

I waited out the stray holding time when the dog became my possession. I then vaccinated ‘my’ dog. I called the guy and told him he could return to the shelter and reclaim his dog. There was no reason to stir the guy up, so I didn’t mention the vaccination.

We live in a culture in which everyone is pushing the boundaries of the authority that they will comply with. I have to count my blessings that I never had to deal with a sovereign citizen. Who knows how that would have gone?

September 9, 2024

Songbirds

During my first few years as an Animal Control Officer, I learned how much I didn’t know. For example, every spring I would start getting calls asking me to save songbird nests from either cats or crows. We didn’t have a cat ordinance so I decided one spring I would take on crows.

I figured I needed a way to frighten crows in the neighborhoods complaining about them. I found a tape online called The Death Cry of a Crow. Surely, that would be my ticket to frightening away the crows resting in the trees.

When the tape arrived, I drove my personal truck to the scene because it had a nice stereo system. I opened both doors and started the tape. Sure enough, it sounded like someone was choking a crow inside my truck. I sat back and watched. Well, first doors of homes in the neighborhood began to open as people came out to see what was going on inside my truck and then flocks of crows began diving at it.

I had seriously miscalculated the response to the tape. Fortunately, no one called the police, but I knew that I had to get out of the neighborhood before someone recognized me. It was a small town and I didn’t want to be in a position in which I was front page news trying to explain what I was thinking.

If you ever get the urge to drive off crows, keep in mind that crows will flock to help another crow. Lesson learned.

July 20, 2024July 20, 2024

Confession

The last blog hit a nerve with me. The mention of picking up road-kill skunks reminded me of the most evil thing that I ever did. It is confession time.

I was called to a location where a guy was using leg-hold traps in his yard. He was trying to catch his neighbor’s cats and caught a skunk instead. I was so angry that the guy was using leg-hold traps on any animal. I decided to school the guy. I might have gone too far. Way too far.

I planned to tranquilize the skunk and remove it outside our city. Every time I tapped the skunk it would attempt to spray me. I was much faster in those days. It wasn’t until I returned to the neighborhood a few months later that I realized that one tap would have been overkill, but why did I have to tap it six times? The only good that came out of that is that the guy never set that trap again.

Every time I smell the odor of skunk, I feel guilty. I have to live with that. If you are ever driving through Pullman Washington and smell skunk, I am so, so , sorry.