Support the Buckeyes! Pee on this Fire Hydrant!

I attended Ohio State University for awhile in the 1970's.

My subject was Medieval English Literature, which has very little to do with football.

But you couldn't go to Ohio State and fail to be aware that football was considered far more important than any academic subject.

My academic adviser, Francis Utley, was a giant among medievalists, but no one outside of the field had ever heard of him. I can't find a published picture of him.

Everyone had heard of the football coach, Woody Hayes, and anyone who went to OSU or who had any interest in college football would recognize him on sight. Students in my writing classes wrote fulsome panegyrics on the wonderfulness of Woody. Apparently he stood out on the football field in his shirtsleeves throughout every game, no matter what the weather, a display of fortitude that impressed them mightily.

Woody Hayes

The reason for the importance gap between football and English was, as it often is, money.

The Ohio State Football program generates millions of dollars--over fifty-one million in 2010. It supports, not only all the other athletic programs, but also academic scholarships (which I'd be willing to bet go mostly to promising athletes that they want to recruit)

Ohio State won a lot of football games, but when they lost, it was often to their hated rival, Michigan State University.

The rivalry was at a visceral level.

It wasn't a good-natured rivalry among fellow sportsman. 

It was war. With casualties. And collateral damage. 

I remember being out one night after the Buckeyes had lost. Buckeye supporters were screaming and yelling at anyone who might have been from Michigan and trashing cars bearing Michigan plates. I'm sure it wasn't safe for anyone wearing Michigan colors to be out on the streets that night. 

Participants in football frenzy weren't limited to lowbrow thugs of the sort you'd stereotype as "football hooligans." It seemed to touch all academic disciplines and all walks of life. I had a friend who was working on his PhD in history. He was so angry about that particular loss, he wouldn't even speak to anyone except in unprintable expletives--although I don't believe he resorted to actual physical violence.

Apparently nothing much has changed. The Ohio State school of veterinary medicine has just put in a new intensive care unit. It includes a dog walking area that features the fire hydrant pictured below--painted in Michigan colors.

Fire Hydrant at the School of Veterinary Medicine at OSU

It may be that the 1970's ferocity was a reflection of the coach's personality. Hayes was fired in 1978  for punching a Clemson linebacker during the Gator Bowl game (which Ohio State lost).

All the articles about this fire hydrant insist that it's all in good fun--but having been there, admittedly a long time ago, I can't help wondering.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/03/31/Michigan_fire_hydrant.html

Drones are Tracking Houston's Stray Dogs

Houston, apparently, has over a million stray dogs, more than any other city in America.

One of the Strays of Houston

When I came across an article about drones being used to track stray dogs, I had no idea of the scope of the Houston's problem and of the efforts being made to solve it..

The drones are playing their part in preparation for a new TV series that will begin airing in May. The show, "Operation Houston, Stray Dog City," will have 12 episodes chronicling the lives of Houston's stray dogs and the efforts being made to save them. The man behind the effort is Tom McPhee, executive director of the World Animal Awareness Society.

Tom McPhee

"Operation Houston" is not McPhee's first documentary. In 2007, he produced "An American Opera," a film that documented efforts to rescue pets left stranded by Hurricane Katrina.

Movie Poster for An American Opera

McPhee founded WA2S (World Animal Awareness Society) with the mission of filming contemporary animal/human interactions. "Operation Houston" is (I think) the second in a projected series on urban strays all over the country that began with Detroit..

Poster for the American Strays Project

The Houston project is a co-operative effort among at least 10 animal rescue operations and as many volunteers as they can muster to find and film stray dogs in Houston.

Among the participants:

Volunteers from Forgotten Dogs of the Fifth Ward have a regular feeding route in their section of Houson and work in tandem with rescue groups to get dogs off the streets.

A Fifth Ward Stray

Southside Street Dogs performs essentially the same services for the dogs in the Sunnyside and South Union Area

Sunnyside Street Dogs

Volunteers at Unity for a Solution are launching an effort to spay or neuter 1000 homeless dogs. They lead a steering committee that plans to do an annual 3-day survey of homeless dogs in the Houston area.

Alex Pacheco's charity, 600 Million Dogs is working to develop Spay Food, a pet food that will sterilize any dog who eats it in just one feeding. Their product is currently in clinical trials.

Who could resist donating to the cause after seeing this drawing?

Over a million homeless dogs in Houston. 70 million in the United States. Over 200 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization..

If we have 70,000,000, I bet 600 million is closer to the actual number worldwide.

It's a monumental task.

The American Strays Project aims to go far beyond filming the strays of the cities it visits. Its mission is to help solve the problem. It provides information and resources to the Humane Society and others who care for homeless animals. Working with teachers in Detroit, it developed Good Pet Guardian lesson plans for Michigan 4th graders

They are hoping to start this program country-wide.

More power to them!

For more information on homeless dogs and the efforts being made to save them, see the links below.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/animals/2015/03/23/drones-being-used-to-track-houstons-stray-dogs/70360624/
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/texas-news/2015/03/28/drones-being-used-to-track-houstons-stray-dogs/70593756/
pix http://wagbrag.com/how-drones-help-find-stray-dogs/
http://southsidestreetdogs.org/?page_id=270
http://www.wa2s.org/executive-director.html
Interview with Nathan Winograd, no kill advocacy center https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gslyqw6le8I
Michigan project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UClaEWFkZSY
http://www.wa2s.org/american-strays.html?gclid=CPbEj9D09sQCFdKEfgodJKUAMg
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-animal-homelessness
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/12-alarming-facts-about-pet-homelessness/
https://www.bissellpetfoundation.org/education/
lots of statistics http://www.oxfordpets.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61
http://www.thedogrescuers.com/statistics--facts.html
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/facts/pet_ownership_statistics.html
http://www.mcaspets.org/homeless-animal-statistics.html
http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/straydogs.html
https://www.aspca.org/about-us/faq/pet-statistics

Minneapolis Maps Bad Dogs

San Diego maps the location of sexual predators.

Minneapolis maps the locations of vicious dogs.

Four of Minnesota's four-legged offenders

You can take a virtual tour of bad dogs on their interactive map.

This is Barron, He bit someone.

You could take an actual tour, too, if you wanted. Besides having their pictures and rap sheets posted on the website, the dog's owner's name and address are listed and located with a numbered red dot on the map. Click on the dot, and you can zoom in to see exactly where the dog lives.

If a dog acts aggressively in Minneapolis, it is put on a "potentially dangerous dog" list and the owners are required to follow some rules such as keeping it on a 3 foot leash or muzzling it.

This un-named dog is on the city website.

If it offends again, or if the first offense is serious enough, the dog goes on the map. Once that happens, the dog must be sterilized, the owners have to take out a $300,000 insurance bond on the dog, and must post a warning sign in front of their home, and pay an anuual registration fee of "not more than $500." The dog must be microchipped and wear an identifying collar..

Collar Identifying a Dangerous Dog

The dog doesn't have to stay on the map for life. The city's website states:
 If an animal's owner completes the necessary training and education for themselves and their pet, and an approved trainer affirms that the pet and pet owner have made progress toward meeting certain safety goals, the City of Minneapolis will review the case after a reasonable amount of time (6 to 12 months, for instance) and may remove the dangerous dog declaration.

A dangerous dog has to wear this tag.

For the most serious incidents, or if the owners refuse to comply with the requirements, they may be issued a "destruct" order..

There are some exemptions.

Police dogs are exempt. No surprise there.

If someone gets bitten while trespassing, committing a crime, or tormenting a dog (or if it can be shown that he has repeatedly tormented the dog in the past)--too bad. In those cases, the dog was within his rights to bite.

I thought the regulations were pretty well thought out. They seem to have taken some care to insure that a dog is not put on the list without a good reason and that it can get off the list with proof of good behavior.

I would hope they've made keeping a dangerous dog expensive enough and onerous enough that most people would take the trouble to make sure their dogs don't get on the list.

Minneapolis is not the only city to have a map of dangerous dogs. Austin, Texas, has one, as does Knox County, Tennessee.  Orlando, Florida, was considering such a map, but decided against it for fear it could cause mass hysteria or bring down property values.

I'd be interested to see whether the maps have made a difference in the number of dog bites.

Some Dog Bite Statistics

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/299122381.html
http://www.kare11.com/story/news/local/2015/04/09/minneapolis-maps-out-citys-dangerous-
dogs/25517985/
http://minneapolis.about.com/od/familieschildren/a/dangerousdogs.htm
https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=347.51&year=2008
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/299122381.html
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/animals/dangerous/index.htm
https://www.avma.org/Events/pethealth/Pages/Infographic-Dog-Bites-Numbers.aspx

Take Your Dog Out to Dinner

If you'd only known, for just £20, your dog could have enjoyed a gourmet, five course meal with "paired drinks" served by waiters at his own table.

The WildFood Cafe in London. The chef is branching out into dog cuisine

The starter: textures of tripe with seaweed and kale puree. Yum!

The main course: crispy paddywack reishi-mushroom-flaxseed cream.

Paddywack is a ligament in the neck of sheep or cattle, eaten in some countries as human food, and also dried as a dog treat.

For dessert, he'd have been treated to  coconut and blueberry-chia pudding with (gluten-free!) cinnamon quinoa.

Served with each course: alkaline water, beef consomme, and coconut water.

And for post-prandial relaxation, your dog could have had a marrow bone from Hill & Szrok to clean his teeth and a fresh-breath herbal tea tonic to aid his digestion.

London Butchers by Day, Restaurateurs by Night

But you're too late. Even if you and your dog could fly to London this weekend, the Curious Canine Kitchen is sold out.

Dog socialites at the table

It's a pop-up restaurant happening in Shoreditch on April 11th and 12th, the brainchild of Natty Mason and Emily Stephenson, and was inspired by The Complete Herbal Book for the Dog, by Juliette Bairacli-Levy.

Chef Emily Stephenson

The proceeds will be donated to Amazon Cares, an animal rescue charity operating in Peru, for which Natty Mason volunteers.

Expensive fun for a good cause. I wish we could ask the dog attendees for a review.

Here's an update on the dinner that took place on Saturday, April 11. Apparently the dogs didn't care for the seaweed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-3030005/Britain-s-holistic-pop-restaurant-DOGS-open-London.html

http://munchies.vice.com/articles/londoners-can-now-take-their-dogs-out-for-high-end-hippie-cuisine

https://www.tickettailor.com/checkout/view-event/id/25372/chk/b0b4/ref/website_widget