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Dorothee

Dorothee

Germany

February 19, 2012

Please! Please! Please! You would do me the greatest favor by at least just reading this. If you don’t have the time to read everything, then at least read the last clause, please. Thank you!

In 2011 there was a discussion in Uganda about whether or not death penalty shall get reintrodiced and if people also should be sentenced to death for being gay. International protests (also and especially from Obama, the president of the USA) made them abandon this discussion for the moment. However now they decided to recontinue and if we don’t intervene they are going to kill people simply for behaving according to their nature. Yes, for natural behaviour, because homosexuality can be found everywhere! There are reports and footage proving that homosexuality can be found in the animal kingdom, too. They even filmed intelligent animals, like whales, dolphins or primates which showed homosexual behavior. So you can’t say that this is condemnable, because of being against nature. They say that this is condemnable, because the Old Testament condemns it. When an US-American Christian theologian held a speech about why homosexualty was condemnable according to the OT she received a letter saying something like “What do you think. How much money should I ask for when I sell my daughter into slavery? Because that’s exactly what one sentence written in the Old Testament allows me to do. How should I kill my uncle for growing two things in one and the same field?” You can’t just fix a whole theological theory on one single quotation. 1 Thess 5,21 even says that we should firstly test it and only keep it if it’s still good. I don’t want to go any further. If you really want to know why I – a strictly religious lady – am against discriminating homosexuals and even think that my religion tells me to do so, then you should read “http://www.englishbaby.com/findfriends/view_photo/596319?page=4”. It’s the comment of 03:13 AM Mar 08 2011.

However David Bahari, a member of Uganda’s parlament as well as of its ruling party also had a comment in favour of this upcoming law, saying that homosexualty could destroy family structures and tolerating homosexuals could have a bad influence on children. I agree on the first comment. Even most younger people still have problems trying to accept “gays” as some still circulating jokes about homosexuals prove. Also organisations like “La Refugee” that adopt adolescents who got abandoned by their parents simply for being gay prove that homosexuals have serious trouble trying to fit in even into their own family. However this could also be considered as a social problem rather than a problem caused by homosexuals. After all the history of Judaism also is full of discrimination, persecutiion and not just one genocide and today nobody would say that the Jews were to blame for what happened to them. Only real nerds would still walk around saying something stupid like “Well, if these Jews hadn’t been Jews none would have killed them. So the problem obviously was that they were Jewish!”
His second comment however sounded like – excuse the word – rubbish to me. I’m sorry, but what sort of influence does he imagine here? That a kid who gets asked why he / she is gay could defend this attitude of his / her by saying “But Peter from 9th grade is homosexual, too. So I make love to someone of my sex, because I want to be like him.”?
What about another example? Nearly all children have an idol and usually this is a movie or a pop star. Does Bahari really think that if one of these stars was gay, a child of under ten years would say “Gee! When I’m grown up, I want to be gay, too.”? I suppose – or at least I hope – not! This would be just ridiculous.

If you want to do something against this madness then please sign the following petitions or inform others about them:

“http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/27844/”

“https://secure.avaaz.org/en/uganda_stop_homophobia_petition/”

We beat Uganda’s anti-gay bill once! I’m sure we can beat it twice and – if necessary – three times. Thank you for your support!

 

P.S. It goes without saying that this text in no way is trying to deny the fact that according to most Christian confessions, Islam, Judaism and a few less well-known religious groups homosexuality is a sin. I'm just against forcing aforementioned beliefs upon people - especially by using measures as cruel as these - and against disrespectful treatment of an ethnic group that hasn't done harm to anybody. Also I'm against killing people - especially in cases like this one where they want a group of people dead, just because said group is considered socially-awkward and subhuman by their standards. In addition to that I think all the information I got before creating this text also rises the question whether or not calling homosexuals "unnatural beings" is such a good argument for punishing them. Maybe they just should think through their arguments before enforcing a law that is as crucial as this one.

10:12 AM Jul 21 2017

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

"GEA" says that now German president Steinmeier made it official that he signed a new law according to which from now on homosexual couples may marry in Germany and have the same rights as other married couples.

12:19 AM Jun 20 2016

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

Has anybody been to the "Brandenburger Tor" in Berlin (Brandenburg /Germany) last weekend?

No? Because according to "Tagesschau" if one had been there, he vould have seen a solemn vigil titled "Berlin for Orlando" during which the "Brandenburger Tor" was illuminated in the colors of the rainbow to show solidarity with the victims of what here is called the "Orlando-Massaker".

12:24 AM Jun 17 2016

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

"Domradio" says that the European Court in den Haag now decided that EU-member states still have the right to juristically seen define marriage as a thing between one man and one woman as opposed to states that allow polygamy or homosexual marriage. However each EU-member state is obliged to offer alternatives to marriage to homosexual couples. They argued with the cultural - not the religious - background of some states. Real discrimination or even persecution still is not allowed within the EU, though.

12:22 AM Mar 29 2016

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

On Good Saturday "Domradio" announced that the protestant church in Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz plans to allow homosexual marriages as something that is in keeping with their interpretation of Christian faith. However some church-communities - about 20 - still doubt that this is in keeping with Christian faith and thus they are allowed for the next five years at least to refuse marrying homosexual couples. It is a compromise everyone can live with as homosexual couples from these communities still can have their marriage in any other protestant church in this area.

01:08 PM Jun 05 2015

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

Dear peyman,

Especially after just receiving this accusing comment from Ahmed, I really appreciate you sticking up for me in this blog. So with a "slight" delay I thank you, Sir.

 

 

Dear Ahmed,

I don't quite understand why this three year-old blog of mine just made you so upset. In fact I presume, the problem is that by posting this blog I simply expressed myself in a way that can be misunderstood. If so, I'm really sorry, Sir and I think it's time I clear up this "malentendu" between you, Sir and me as it never was my intention to express myself in an ambiguous way:

 

>The fact that I defend an elemental right of homosexual people here - namely the right to live - doesn't say anything about my sexual orientation, but rather about my scepticism towards death penalty - which is understandable considering I was raised in a country where there is no such thing as death penalty.

In fact I already stood up for Muslims, Jews, Rohingya, Roman-Catholics and many more on my profile - although I of course can't be all of these. Thus you can savely presume that this blog doesn't say anything about my relation to people of the same sex as mine.

 

>The fact that I criticize their arguments and bring forward some arguments I learned from a Western documentary movie does not say I want our Western culture to be forced upon these people. That would even be illogical seeing how I find some Ugandan traditions and cultural subjects like songs, dance etc. quite interesting. I simply said that their arguments were just too unconvincing - if not illogical - to base a whole penalty on them and that they at least should bring up some better arguments that maybe could convince some more people - although I of course still would be against death penalty for homosexuals as well as for anybody else.

>I never said that Uganda or any other state should give homosexual couples the right to get married. As long as here are people out there who get killed for religious, political or ethnical reasons - or because they are wrongfully accused of having committed a crime - it even seems ridiculous to me that amidst all this cruelty in the world I should care about a very small minority - like homosexuals - getting the political right to get married.

 

>This blog definitely is not a criticism of the Roman-Catholic church and its refusal to bless homosexual marriage - I thought I already made that clear by posting statements of Roman-Catholic leading figures who just like me say that you shall not kill or discriminate against homosexuals. In fact today "Domradio" reported about a Roman-Catholic German bishop and his negative point of view of lawful marriage of homosexual couples and I can merrily admit that - although I didn't understand nor could remember everything - some of his arguments against legal marriage still make sense to me. For example he says that in Ireland homosexual couples now can marry and adopt a child even though this child probably never wanted to live with a homosexual couple and its parents probably never would have wanted it to live with a homosexual couple. Putting things this way it made a lot of sense to me when he said that under this point of view the orphaned children are degraded to things that can be given away to anybody against their will and against the will of their parents. This little anecdote shows that I in fact am capable of understanding Roman-Catholic ideals and also take them very serious. Thus I hardly can be a Catholophobe.  

 

To keep a long letter short: This blog doesn't say anything about my love life, about my opinion on Ireland legalizing homosexual marriage, about my thoughts on Ugandan culture or about my relation to any religious or cultural group. All I wanted was for Uganda not to base its laws on such banal and irrational arguments and for homosexual people to live. Seeing as this goal was reached months ago I don't understand why people are still commenting and even still get angry with me.

03:00 PM Nov 23 2012

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

I thank you Sir for clearing up this misunderstanding. Now I know that you didn't mean that in a negative way. Thank you, Sir!

You say you want me to prove my point of view, but I honestly don't understand you here, Sir. I gave you examples from nature - and some theologians say that we can partly figure out God's will by watching nature in addition to learning from the Bible /the church -, I gave you quotes from the Bible that I just interpret this way and I actually never said that I was right and you were wrong. I just don't know. I just tried to explain how I could interpret such a thing into the Bible even though I completely understand why so many Christians are against homosexual people. I even think it's a good idea of yours that we should help homosexual people, since some of them really have problems with their sexual orientation and they don't want to be like that. I didn't even do this to show off, but to prevent Uganda from sentencing homosexual citizens to death...and as far as I understand you, you also are against death penalty for homosexuals, aren't you, Sir? This is one thing we have in common!

In your comment you used the expressions "false Christians" and "Christians who never have opened a Bible". The latter actually is rather doubtful, since I don't consider it as possible that whole Christian churches never opened a Bible, so I'll just focus on the first one.  It's just my point of view, but I don't really like this expression. In some cases there just is no "false" or "correct" that is based on the Bible only. For example "Is it right to kill a person for the crimes he /she committed?" The Old Testament condons executions and condemns killing, while in the New Testament Jesus Christ is against the execution of a lady who did something that deserves death penalty according to the Old Testament, I know US-American Christians who condon death penalty and especially the first US-American settlers had a law concerning death penalty that was based on the Bible, while I know many Christians who generally  are against death penalty. Also there always have been Christian, Jewish and Muslim soldiers and during a war soldiers just are forced to kill sometimes. They all have /had an opinion that was /is based on the Bible and have /had good reasons to believe that they are /were right.

I never meant to upset anybody and I apologize if I still did. I just wanted to help these poor people who were about to be executed in Uganda. Let alone that this event - people getting executed for religious reasons - made several atheists start real hating campaigns against religion in general and I just needed to defend myself as well as my brothers in faith. My intentions never were condemnable. I just tried to find a way to make users join my fight for the lives of these people and the best idea I came up with was this: giving them an insight into what I think about the Bible.

01:05 PM Nov 23 2012

I M P E R I V M
United States

I did not say you cheated in a negative way. What I meat is that if you use what others say or do as arguments then really is no way of debating because that is not evidence or TRUTH but merely opinions.

If you want to prove homosexuality is normal you have to demostrate: 1 It is not a learned behavior (we already discused it was) 2 It is natural (good luck on that) 3 That it is aproved by God (this one is only necesary if you want all people to accept it) yes some christians approve it but they either are false chirstians or have never opened a bible.

What you said about the christians who killed people is true and ovbiosly I dont like that, history is full of that but their actions just show they did exactly the oposite to what God said (you should not kill) So you should not reject God for that but instead learn that those false christians dont represent their God.

Why is it so hard for you to understand Dorothee? Tongue out

12:47 AM Nov 23 2012

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

Excuse me, Sir, but don't you think it's kind of inappropriate to call me like that even though you've never seen me before. Let alone that I made it clear in this blog that I only posted this to prevent the killing of homosexuals in Uganda. I know that most religions - including most Christians - condemn homosexuality, but on the other hand there also are Muslims (just a few) who condon terrorism, there already were Christians who condoned the burning of witches, crusades, slavery and the murder of non-Christians. They also justify /justified that by refering to their religious scriptures - which clearly proves my point that you could interpret really anything into a religious book - and I suppose you - as a "modern" Christian - do not want slavery, the burning of witches or a genocide on non-Christians, do you?

By the way: Maybe it's just me, but your examples of other religions /cultures that allow drugs, sodomy etc. didn't really convince me. Drugs - if not used for medical purpose - can do serious harm. Having sex with animals or children - like some cultures allow it - is a torture for them. Infanticide - also allowed in native tribes - of course is cruel towards these babies. However by practicing homosexuality you actually don't harm any person or animal. Of course if a girl falls in love with a boy and later realizes that he will never love her back, because he is gay, may hurt her, but love just hurts sometimes. She would also get hurt if the boy had fallen in love with another girl instead of her. But as I said it's just me. In addition I think that the people who take drugs, rape children and animals or kill people - the examples you mentioned in your comment - usually do that intentionally while as far as I'm informed you can't really control whom to fall in love with.  I just tried to explain to you my lack of understanding. I just didn't understand why you called this argument of mine cheating.

P.S. There indeed are Christian churches who tolerate homosexuality for the reasons mentioned in this blog, such as the Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany, the United Church of Christ and the United Church of Canada.

05:00 PM Nov 22 2012

I M P E R I V M
United States

Refering to others cultures, religions or what "somebody said" is like cheating Dorothee let me explain: If I want to use drugs there are many religions where is okay to use them. And in some cultures people eat their babies (canibalism) in others cultures is okay to have sex with animals, kids, between gays ect. So if I want to justify myself I just have to look for a another culture, religion of my taste and then I can do what I want.

I am Christian (non denomination just God) because I have tested God and what he says (Bible). I was an atheist before and I used every thing I could to have my way

I think you are maybe lesbian or want to be and uncounsiously want to hear people tell you is ok to justify yourself.

09:12 AM Nov 22 2012

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

First of all I thank you for agreeing that homosexuals also should have a right to live. You must be a very kind and tolerant person, Sir.

Your examples are correct. Some animals develop homosexual behavior if they don't have a partner of the opposite sex while others mate with individuals of the same sex to dominate them rather than for sexual reasons.

However I could swear to you that I once saw a German documentary that stated that for example some dolphins that lived in their natural environment with individuals of the opposite sex nearby developed homosexual behavior that had nothing to do with dominance, but with sexual interest.

P.S. Whether or not you consider this as a sin may depend on your religion, since some religious groups - like some native tribes - don't see homosexuality as a real sin. Also I think that you can interpret anything into a religious book. In the German novel "Jäger des weißen Goldes" (not available in English) for example there is one chapter that deals with an argument between two Christian men. One of them claims that God wants the white population of his country to opress and even enslave its black majority while the other is against opression and slavery and also claims that his opinion is based on the Bible.

View all comments >

September 27, 2011

  I chose this picture, because it looks like this orca is waving goodbye.

What I am trying to say is that my semester break is as good as over. Now it's getting serious again! It's about my future and thus also about the future of the people surrounding me! As soon as my studies start - and there aren't even two weeks left - I just can't take my time for my keypals anymore, but I've got to spend as much time as possible for my studies.

This may be hard for me, because as you can see I've been here a lot since my registration three or four years ago, but...this is important. I hope you all will have understanding, but please son't send me any further friend requests. You'll only be disappointed if you have to wait for months only to hear that there is no time for further keypals in my life. Also I ask everyone for patience. Some people consider it as impoliteness if their messages don't gt replied within a week or two, but in my case it just will be ( nearly ) impossible to be here more often than just once a month. Actually I even think I should be glad, if I really have enough time to visit this website once a month during my academic studies. Thanks a million for your understanding! Know that I'm still glad for every friendly e-mail and comment I receive. Thank you! I wish you all all the best.

12:56 PM Jun 02 2012

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

Seriously! Why are there still so many people who keep sending me friend requests? :) The chance that I may accept you is really, really low, since I already have so many keypals...and it just takes time to answer their messages properly.

12:56 PM Apr 14 2012

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

Now there is only one day left until my vacation is over. Thus I ask for your patience if you have to wait for my reply to your e-mails for two or three months or so. I'm sorry, but this is about my future...and I just need some time to relax, too. I thank you for your understanding. Bye!

11:00 AM Dec 31 2011

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

Thus I wish both of you the same: success, health, joy...and everything else you could want.

( Sorry, but this time I failed trying to find an appropriate picture I'd have loved to put in here. )

10:52 AM Dec 31 2011

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

I thank both of you so much for wishing me a happy new year, because I hope I'll still be happy next year. After all the exams I'm going to pass in January are my first university exams ever. Smile

07:56 AM Dec 31 2011

Nicte ha

Nicte ha
Mexico

12:11 AM Dec 27 2011

mahtab.bp

mahtab.bp
Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I was late for Christmas (because I was in travel!) then I want to give you my early greeting for New Year.

LOVE YOU ALL.

MAHTAB

 

July 29, 2011

Dancing Bears

Especially in the East of Europe you still find bears who got trained to "dance". When they are still cubs somebody puts them on a hot metal and plays a melody. The young bear raises its paws in order to escape the heat. When the bear is fully grown he still thinks that whenever this melody plays a heated metal could be put under its paws again. Thus the predator raises its paws to avoid this heat - and starts dancing.

In addition these animals usually are sick, because they aren't fed properly, already when they are cubs somebody cuts of their claws - which causes them to bleed heavily - and their teeth, plus they get a ring plugged through their noses. The wounds of this procedure often ignite, meaning that their owners have them under control, because just pulling the string this ring is tied to, really causes a lot of pain for this animal.

 

Bull Fighting / Cock Fighting    

A lot of people who dislike these animal fightings still don't have the courage to say anything against it, because they are afraid that somebody may call them racist. After all this is part of these countries' culture...Come on! Sacrificing human beings also used to be part of many cultures - Aztecs, Maya, Inka... - and still everybody would be upset if a group of these people's descendants killed someone. I know this comparison is rather extreme, but I just needed it to explain myself.

If you really want to see an animal fighting, you have many alternatives to that: You can watch a documentation showing impressive fighting scenes between wild animals. Today's Inka still have a spectacle in which a condor gets tained to sit on a bull till the cattle gets exhausted. In the end the condor gets set free again and the bull is allowed to return to its herd. The "Courses Camarguaises" and the "Course Landaise" are bull fightings practiced in France. There is nothing violent about it and this is rather meant as a game. In the end the bull is allowed to return to its herd living half - wildly in the Camargue.

 

Racing horses

      Okay! I admit it! It looks really impressive when these animals gallop through the race course, their hooves dispersing dust, their tails like flaggs in the wind...However you can't enjoy this for too long. Most of these raising horses die at an age of less than 10 years. Firstly most of them are way too young when they get separated from the mare to start training, meaning that this may cause some deformation when they are fully grown. Secondly the fact that they usually are locked away in their boxes without any companion and only get let out for their training and for races causes some abnormal behavior. It just is too much stress for these herd animals - that in the wild only run short distances when they have to escape something - when they suddenly are brought out of their box into a racing area where it is very noisy and where they suddenly meet many unknown horses. Even worse! In many countries a jockey is allowed to really hit his horse multiple times before and during a race in order to make it run faster. Another extreme contrast is the race itself: These animals have to run with such a quickness that doesn't fit their nature for several minutes only to stay in the box for most of the rest of the week. Of course this causes serious heart problems!

Under these circumstances the life expectency of only 7 years isn't too surprising, is it?

 

Breeding

Since the ninetees keeping exotic animals as a pet has become very popular. That goes so far that meanwhile teenagers who keep "ordinary" animals like hamsters or rabbits as pets are considered as boring by their classmates. What these teenagers - but as it seems a lot of adult people as well - don't know is that by encouraging this trend they make more and more animals suffer...

I'm not talking about the many parrots who spend most of their life all alone in a cage although they firstly are herd animals and secondly need to fly or else they will get problems with their muscles. Nor am I talking about a relative of mine who once kept a chameleon although he neither had the money nor the time to offer this creature a species - appropriate life. When he realized that the way he treated his  pet wasn't correct it already was too late and the animal was sick. Then he finally gave it away to someone who bought it from him and who had enough money and time to keep a reptile like that...Anyway I'm getting off the subject: I'm not talking about things like these, but about the fact that by breeding wild animals in captivity and hold them as if they were pets, we make diseases amongst these specimens spread that didn't even exist before. For example a person I know had an atelerix that one day died. Of course she knew about some strange symptoms it showed when it was still alive, but she never considered them as something serious. It wasn't until after this animal's death that she heard about the unhealable sickness WHS that practically doesn't exist in the wild and that is a genetic disease her pet obviously inherited from its parents. After comparing the symptoms she noticed and the ones of which she knew that they are typical for WHS - sick animals, she understood what happened to this hedgehog.

However even if it wasn't for this sickness, holding them in a cage still would be cruel. Everyone who saw an atelerix running will realize that they aren't ment to be kept in small spaces.

 

Animal Experiments

Although meanwhile the media doesn't criticize them as often as they used to do, they still continue. For example I just watched a report about a few shimpanzees that got freed from a laboratory. These animals were traumatized, of course in bad conditions and at first had to learn the things every normal shimpanzee knows; like climbing or cleaning themselves. Meanwhile they live in the enclosure of a pet sanctuary.

Still it meanwhile is commonly known that not all of these results can be transfered from animal to man. Okay! With some of these hominides it works, but they use rabbits to test some medicine, although not in every case the effect is the same as if they had tested it on a human body due to physical differences.

But even in the cases in which the results can be transfered to human beings: Meanwhile our technology is so far developed that we don't always depend on these experiments. We have computers that can analyse a certain new medicine, we can make virtual copies of these experiments etc. In short the only advantage of experiments with animals is that there are no technical mistakes, while when you use technology there still is a minimal chance that a technical error could happen. Minimal as I say!

 

Gassing

There are many countries in which straying cats and dogs get captured and put to death by gas to avoid that they could attack human beings or spread maladies. The gassing itself may not be the worst for these animals, because they just breathe it in, loose consciousness and die. However it must be horrible for them to be caught and then being brought into this horrible place where they only can guess what happens to them. The worst thing about this is that not all of these strays are ill or too wild for finding a family. For example months ago a lady from a German aid organisation ( I already forgot what exactly this organisation was doing, but if I remember correctly it partly can be compared to a dog rescue. ) for these dogs gave an interview in which she claimed that neverminding her protests they put some straying dogs to death, although they were healthy and not aggressive towards human beings. Another article I read about dealt with a dog that survived an unusual long time in this chamber. It was long enough for some people to make the responsible men let this animal get out. This case became very famous and got spread through the media. Meanwhile many people want this cute little doggy as a pet!

I understand that they want to avoid any danger caused by wild animals living close to men, but is this really the best solution? Wouldn't it make more sense to pay people for finding and catching these dogs as puppies or - if they got abandoned by their former owner - as animals that still are used to human - instead of paying some men for killing them - and then bring them to pet asylums where people work who earn their money this way; by caring for animals that are brought there? i don't know how many countries use the method of gassing these dogs, but in some sources I read names like Japan, Italy and many countries lying in the East of Europe appeared. I'm sure there also are some I missed in this report of mine!

 

Pigeon-Feeding

I know...When thinking about pigeon-feeding most people think about elder ladies who just feel lonely and at least want some birds as company. Some may also think about adorable little children who just love animals. The truth is that no matter how harmless the thoughts of these people are, they torture pigeons. The city-life - lots of smoke, loud noises etc. - affects these birds' lifes. In the city most pigeons don't last for more than three years which is only 25% of the age they can reach in the wild. In the city there is a lot of waste that can endanger these animals. For example I once saw a street-pigeon with only one intact foot. It seemed to me that the other foot got torn of when he - it was a male - entangled himself in a net or wire and tried to get free. Also not all people watch what they feed to these birds. Some of the bread street-pigeons eat either is too old to be eaten or - like brezel for example - contains chemicals that can't harm us, but are dangerous for little birds. Last but not least many people consider them as pest that spreads deseases and thus they try to kill them. Some cities even pay hunters to shoot these beautiful, social and rather smart birds - not to mention the people who kill pigeons unintentionally, like when there was a little mass-panic in Stuttgart some years ago and some people accidentally trampled down a rather young pigeon.

These pigeons descent from a specimen of wild pigeon and that's why many animal-aid-organisations say that if we stop feeding pigeons, most of them shall get back into the wild where they can still find enough food to feed themselves and grow old.

 

Clipping a Flying Bird's Wings (Information and Picture Were Takrn From Wiki)

People say that peasants have been clipping the wings of their chicken, ducks and geese for almost 2000 years now and in all these years there never were any remarkable problems like abnormal behavior or reproduction-problems. What these people don't realize is that wild chicken only fly to escape a predator or to sleep on a high branch where they would be save during night. Wild ducks rather jump into the water when they feel threatened by another creature. Most breeds of domestic geese that are known today are almost flightless anyway, because they've grown much heavier than their ancestors while their wings are shorter. Flying birds however need their wings, because their instinct tells them to fly. When they clean their feathers especially smart birds - like parrots - could get confused when they see their kind of deformed feathers which leads to anormal behavior.

Worst of all: Most birds also use their feathers for balance when they climb around on branches. There already were some accidents with domestic birds that fell down and got wounded seriously, because their wings weren't really useful when they tried to climb around in their cage.

Thus I recommend you: Rather than clipping your pet's wings to avoid that it could fly away, you should just make sure that all windows /doors are closed when you let it out of its cage. There may have been some accidents with flying birds that were unable to see a window, but they could have been avoided if the owner of these windows had hung some curtains in front of them. Decorating your windows actually will do, too. Under normal circumstances - i.e. if you don't give your pet a reason to panic - a healthy bird with "normal" wings also should be able to avoid walls, doors and any furniture that could hurt your feathered friend.

I'm glad to live in a country where it's actually illegal and punishable to clip a bird's wings.

11:21 AM Jul 15 2018

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

'Mitteldeutsche Zeitung' says that in Halle (Saxony/ Germany) despite the intense heat of the past few days someone decided to abandon a litter of kittens by putting them between two bins. Luckily a gentleman heard the screams of the hungry, dehydrated and overheated kittens, initially mistook them for human crying and then brought them to a pet rescue. As just abandoning an animal is illegal in Germany, the police is still trying to find the owner. The cats however are going to be fine and I'm sure there will be a lot of people willing to adopt them.

08:36 AM May 31 2018

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

The German magazine "Dein Spiegel" says that from January 1st, 2019 on it will be illegal in San Francisco to sell or even buy fur coats. However you may still keep the fur coats you already got. Reason is that all around the world 50 millions of animals per year die for fur coats.

02:31 AM Feb 17 2018

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

Oh Joe! Thanks for this historical background. Honestly I must admit I didn't know about this connection between these puppy mills and the Depression Era. Also I think that puppy mills exist in every country as every country also has this sort of people that wants to make MUCH money fast and easy, but doesn't want to work hard enough to earn this much money.

The following example also seems to prove this: In Ammerland (Lower-Saxony/ Germany) someone stole the three pet-kangaroos of a private owner. The thief had the intention of selling these exotic pets for a lot of money.

01:50 PM Jan 14 2018

WobblyJoe

WobblyJoe
United States

That's a "for real" problem in the USA. Back in the days of the Depression, the government encouraged "puppy mills" to provide income for depression-era farmers. Now, puppy mills are a absolute disgrace, but they do exist, just as described. 

12:50 PM Jan 14 2018

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

"Hope For Paws" says that in Los Angeles (California/ USA) someone abandoned a female yellow labrador. As it turned out the dog was used for excessive breeding in order to earn money by selling the puppies. Having an unnaturally high number of puppies in such a short time span weakened her body until she was too weak to have any more puppies. This made her useless for the breeder who just dumped her on the street. The confused and scared animal almost caused an accident running around freely on the street. After catching her "Hope For Paws" found her a new home uncommonly fast.

12:47 PM Jan 14 2018

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

"Hope For Paws" says that in Los Angeles (California/ USA) someone abandoned a female yellow labrador. As it turned out the dog was used for excessive breeding in order to earn money by selling the puppies. Having an unnaturally high number of puppies in such a short time span weakened her body until she was to weak to have any more puppies. This made her useless for the breeder who just dumped her on the street. The confused and scared animal almost caused an accident running around freely on the street. After catching her "Hope For Paws" found her a new home uncommonly fast.

01:03 AM Jan 02 2018

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that somewhere in Israel now a wild hedgehog had to be brought to the vet. The poor animal was overweight and unhealthy due to people in this area often putting leftovers outside for wild animals- like this hedgehog - to eat.

10:57 AM Dec 22 2017

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

The "Tierschutzbund" - Germany's national aid-organisation - says that currently the "Ordnungsbehörden" (regulatory authorities) of Munich and Hamburg deal with 45 cases of presumably false information concerning the use of fur on clothes. In some of these cases the label probably lied as to which animal the fur came from and in others the label denied the use of fur altogether, even though they probably used real fur.

12:15 PM Dec 15 2017

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

This year "Tierschutz Euskirchen" encourages eople not to give away animals as Christmas presents.

Alternative presents suggested by "Tierschutz Euskirchen" are:

>a book about keeping this or that kind of pet,

>things he or she may need if he/ she someday is going to get the pet he/ she wished for,

>a - perhaps self-made - gift coupon for buying the pet in question...someday after the holiday season.

05:34 AM Aug 18 2017

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

Tierschutz Euskirchen” says that this week a feed-lot for chickens caught fire in Paderborn (North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). Thus you could say that a simple malfunction of an electric device killed 7.500 chickens and caused a damage worth thousands of dollars. At least nobody got hurt.

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