Via my fave Logcabineer, a photo essay by The Selby on a home I could move into THIS MINUTE.Rinalia over at For the Pit Bulls has a great post on "rehabilitating" fighting dogs. Go read it. Right now. Please. I love that Rinalia doesn't just talk the talk, as they say. She actually has a rescued pit bull, the most excellent Mina [and a terrific blog].
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Ranching, recreation collide in the great outdoors. If you're guessing the rancher loses, and his dogs [and many of his sheep] die as a result, you probably saw this item already over at Brent's blog. The story's a tragedy from any angle.
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I'm so envious of Daniel Hernandez I could just scream.
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Way cool tape art in NYC, from Indian by Design.
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Nina of the Nature Remains blog is in Indiana, photographing Sandhill Cranes. Photos here, here and here. So beautiful.
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How to fight. "Continue to shake it as much as you possibly can" LOLOL. H/T: Logcabineer.
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The Gray Lady has 1) an article on "the urban deerslayer" [see comments here], and 2) a gear test slide show featuring shotguns. Will wonders never cease.
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Last, but far from least: check out the fall colors at Indigo Hill. The joys of a 42' high birding tower...!
3 comments:
As you might expect, the sheep producers on my forum have some pretty strong thoughs on the subject of a rancher being convicted of a crime for owning guard dogs that attacked someone who rode her mountian bike into the flock, screaming. http://edgefieldsheep.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2430
Bill, thanks! Definitely worth reading, and here's a direct link: click here to visit the thread at the Sheep Production forum.
Seems to me that in the age of cell phones it should have been possible for the race organizers to call the flock owner and say, "Everyone is accounted for -- your shepherd can turn the dogs loose now." [I'm afraid the victim sounds like a vindictive piece of work, though of course it's awful that she was mauled.]
Hikers in Europe have also been attacked by LGDs.
Hi Luisa,
Thanks for doing the link thingie. I couldn't figure out how to make it work.
I think you have put your finger on the main failure: somehow no one told the rancher that this was going to be happening where he keeps his sheep. Neither the organizers of the race nor the Forest Service let him know ahead of time, as had been the practice in earlier events.
Couple that with the fact that Legro -- I hesitate to call her the victim because of the blamelessness implied by that appellation -- was delayed by mechanical problems and was riding after sundown.
And vindictiveness seems to be the motivation. It sounds like they were at least offered an insurance settlement, but wanted something else. It would have been interesting if they could have been dragged into civil court where their contributory negligence, the negligence of the bike race organizers, and that of the Forest Service could have been considered. But I expect that she signed a waiver to enter the bike race that prohibited her from suing the organizers and the Forest Service, and the law protects ranchers from civil litigation.
In any event, the only outcomes I see from this whole blow up for the immediate area around Camp Howe is that for a little while there will be a lot more sheep bones around, some of which will poke holes in mountain bike tires. (Maybe he'll even get sued for that.) Eventually the rancher, left with no way to protect his sheep, will be forced to either go out of business or let his lease on the land expire. Either way, no sheep grazing. And short of restoring the great herds of bison, no grazing animals means no meadows to ride your mountain bike through.
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