Stray dogs

Struuf. And yes, a huge problem with neutering in countries like France and Mediterranean countries - refuges in Southern France rarely neuter cats and dogs, because they say French people won't give them homes!

D'you think they get embarrassed when their pals see they've been 'done'. I mean, they could always cross their legs and keep their tails down when socialising but you can't miss a ruddy great chunk cut out of your ear. It's as bad as 'the cone of shame' ...

They are neutered, and a nick in the ear done afterwards to show clearly which cat has been 'done' so there is no need to trap them again to check!

They do the same in Tenerife where my daughter lives.

How does cutting a triangle in their ear "do the business? " Isn't it a different bit that needs to be cut?

I must be more naive than I thought.

nanaej how do you know the 'news' is manufactured. In fact what does that mean?

According to the DM article the dog rescue involved an already established charity called K-9.

These were not just strays, they were dogs being kept in cruel conditions, more so than you would be likely to find in British dog rescue establishment.

I am ready and willing to lose my innocence so please enlighten me.

It would have been better for the money the DM spent on this manufactured 'news' to have been spent on neutering several dogs..if it had to be used on dogs!

In Malta/Gozo there is an active programme for neutering stray cats..they all have a little triangle nick on their ears when they have been 'done'!

Thanks for that link merlotgran, a heart-warming story, also distressing.

The new regulations are totally inadequate as dogs from EU countries don't have to wait the 6 months after rabies inoculation and re-testing. If dogs already have rabies, inoculation won't work and rabies could manifest itself at a later stage. Totally wrong imho - if a country has rabies, irrespective of EU or non EU- strict and effective guidelines should still be in place for goodness sake.

I understood dogs have to be checked out for diseases first, before they are allowed to go to any person or organisation that has rescued them from another country.

According to the article,here the Daily Mail footed the bill for rescuing the dogs. They were seen by a vet and given the correct innoculations, passports and microchipped before arriving in UK.

The DM knows Liz Jones will raise hackles.....it sells newspapers.

HildaW above suggests she polarised us Greatnan

I mentioned the Guardian because that is the newspaper I read, hence that is where I saw other columnists writing about their families. I mentioned other columnists doing what we were criticising LJ for doing because I thought it was only fair. I think it is just a journalistic style.

Liz Jones is such an idiot! If she really smuggled dogs out of Romania it was the height of irresponsibilty. I get so furious with people who make a big thing of being an animal lover, yet will happily risk infecting the country with Rabies. It puts her on a par with Justin Bieber with his unfortunate monkey.
Her stupid comments about the NHS aren't worthy of comment, although I notice that her ingrown ear ring was her husband's fault - not her's for not treating it properly. Typical Liz!

Has she polarised us - I don't see many complimentary things being posted about her? This thread is certainly not a vehicle for political disagreements - I have no idea what her political beliefs are and I can't quite understand why you mentioned The Guardian.

Oh alright, looks like I will have to accept that we have identified a human being totally without redeeming qualities. Even good at polarising people on GN!

Granjura I hope I didn't sound judgemental about dog pounds - rather about thoughtless owners who take on a dog they can't manage, breed litters of unsuitable dogs or take the "cheap" way out of vet treatment or boarding expenses when they want to go on holiday. I am a passionate dog lover but would rather see a dog put to sleep painlessly than live a miserable life or be a risk to others. It is the feckless owners who depress the owners of the K place, as they too are dog lovers. The Retired Greyhound Trust will either pay for or make a sizeable donation towards neutering of dogs which they rehome, BTW. Sentiment can be too often misplaced.

I don't quite see why the fact that some other journalists write about their families makes any difference - I was talking about this particular one, who has said many times how she gave her sister a cottage and how ungrateful all her relatives are.
She also claimed for several months that she was having an affair with a rock star who adored her but he seems to have vanished from the scene.
She revealed intimate details of her marriage - no wonder it disintegrated.
She once claimed to have no money for food and pensioners were sending her money - this in spite of the fact that she has had a column every week for year, and is always mentioning her expensive clothes - apparently, even her dog has a designer-label blanket.
Of course most of what she writes is pure fiction and I think she must be getting a bit desperate now, as she appears to have set out to antagonise as many people as possible, which is, presumably, the way she keeps her job.
By the way, I believe the fire service will no longer get cats out of trees!

petallus, I remember reading the Mail on Sunday mag around that time too, but my impression was that the reason the marriage broke up was because he started cheating on her and lying about it. If I remember rightly, they were in the process of trying to adopt a baby, so I don't know why some people think she doesn't like children.

BTW, I have neither time nor sympathy for her these days.

At our medical centre, one of the practice nurses would deal efficiently with an embedded earring.

Seem to remember we had several unpleasant arguments on GN about this woman before. She seems particularly good at polarising folks....good for selling newspapers perhaps not much else methinks.

Petallus, you quite rightly took your daughter to your GPs surgery about her earring - which is the thing to do. Not A&E though - people just misuse A&E so badly - and cause the huge waiting lists. People turning up in A&E for non emergency ailments should just be turned away by triage! Which is what would happen in any other country in the world - but in the UK, where just too many people take the *iss of the NHS and are causing its demise.

gracesmum - no we haven't had a stadium close - just a very active greyhound rescue kennels. I would estimate that around a third of the dogs in town are greyhounds. The lady opposite now has three.

I'm sure she makes at least some of it up

Some years ago I used to read her column when she was going on about her lovely young husband who then became less than satisfactory and eventually I think left her.

I assumed at the time that was made up but now it seems not.

petallus Did her dog need rescued too? All I heard was that she wanted a helicopter called out to to search for her cat. Cost about £12,000 an hour and the cat would probably dive into deep cover as soon as it heard it approach.

She makes it all up, you know. No-one could possibly be such a silly b** as she paints herself and still be alive.

Oh and her comments on suicide made me think. It probably does take courage to swallow a supposedly lethal dose. I watched a very moving program recently about someone who went off to, er is it Switzerland, to so he could be euthanased.

Talk about give a dog a bad name!

I think smuggling those dogs out was an act of kindness.

As for calling out the fire brigade to rescue her dog, people do this, old lady with cat up a tree sort of thing.

I admit I once took DD, when she was about 13, to the surgery because an earring had become embedded in her ear which had turned septic.

As for the fact that LJ writes about her family situation in her column, well at least four columnists with the Guardian do this. It's what some journalists do.

Of course this doesn't mean she is likeable, but fair's fair!