"Why do the children keep dying?"

It's those terrible pit bulls! And those terrible pit bull mixes that are actually 100% real pit bull, whatever the hell that is! Oh, wait — my bad — these children actually died of abuse and neglect at the hands of their human "caretakers":

All told, the records show, 32 children in Los Angeles County died in 2008 from abuse and neglect, including physical assault, drowning and malnourishment. Eighteen of the children were in families that had never been in contact with the family services agency.

But the other 14 families should have been well-known to child welfare officials, based on previous referrals and investigations.

There have been numerous calls for reform -- but little action. In the passing years, an unknown number of children have been harmed or killed.

At least a dozen reports have landed on county leaders' desks since the early 1990s saying agencies that work with troubled families must improve their ability to talk to each other. County supervisors have freely admitted that the system is broken, and even have voted several times to establish computer systems to open communication channels.

Solutions have been doomed by bureaucratic infighting, turf wars, privacy concerns and limited political attention spans. When horrific deaths or abuse drop out of the news, the board and department heads often focus elsewhere, leading to long stretches of inaction -- until another case gives them a terrible jolt.

If you ask me, politicians who waste a nanosecond on BSL or MSN or other junk legislation should have their posteriors handed to them on a platter. "Yes, kids are dying on our watch — but we hammered out a rockin' spay/neuter ordinance in 2008!" Kudos to you, L.A.County Supes. You must be so proud.


In other dreadful news, an unsupervised 17 month old Merced child was killed yesterday by a mixed-breed dog. No, sorry: it was an Akita. I mean an Akita mix. Akita/pit bull mix. Dammit, no: a pit bull/Akita mix. I mean a pit bull. That's it, a pit bull. Yes, sir, I'll be sure to put that in the headline.

260 news stories and counting, and most articles have failed to report that the dog was, in fact, a mixed breed. Even birthers don't bring of the stupid quite like journalists with their canine one-drop rule.

This dog killed a child in Merced. This dog looks just like my dog. Therefore, I should arrange for my dog to be castrated at once, and I should keep him muzzled at all times, and I should move out of the city and confine him in a high-security enclosure and pay big insurance premiums, all because my dog looks a lot like "the dog that killed that little baby." Except that my good boy is fine with children. He's even friendly with cats, not that any of that matters.

It will be interesting, by which I mean "as disappointing as ever," to see how long our local politicians can keep their gnat-like attention spans on the lives and deaths of children under county supervision. Me, I'm betting on a new round of "Kill all the Akitas pit bulls!"

They paved paradise and put up a Heritage Park

With a big ol' historic schoolhouse and, yeah, a parking lot.

That's the schoolhouse, or a section of it, anyway, on the left. The local Historic and Scenic Preservation folks put it in the middle of my sheep pasture the city-owned property [a former dairy farm] where I kept my sheep for the last twenty-some years. "At its new location, the historic building will serve as an events hall and arts center and also act as a community meeting place for the city," said a local paper about the building that appeared in my pasture the "lot" overnight. Yippee.

So I sold the last of my ewes today, and the feeders and the water troughs and some meds and a drencher, and for the first time in a quarter-century I have no sheep. It doesn't feel at all like the end of the world [one door closes, another door yadda yadda], but it does feel kind of weird.

Good thing: the last eight ewes went home to San Diego County with a border collie person I've known forever. I'll miss my Cheviots [weeps]. I won't miss the hay bills. Should have taken more photos of the place back in the day. Good times, those.

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot [Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon]

I laughed, I cried

DrinkMoloko's Bagel the Beagle on Flickr.

A beagle obit moves Andrew Sullivan to write about his beloved Dusty: a hilarious, poignant read.

I used to think that dogs were just dogs, beneath us humans, different in fundamental ways. I don't any more. I see the trace of God's love and God's creation in every one. But I only really see it in the one I love and have lived in the same room with for twelve years and counting.

Mr. Beagle takes "a little nap before dinner." Photo by Macorig Paolo on Flickr.

Kind of a big deal

More proof that black oaks rule.

A big deal for me, anyway. That little gent with the red bib and the big bill is a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Hit the link and check out his range map. How'd you wind up in California, dude?

This is actually a wide-ranging [or wide-roving] species, and sightings here in California are "regular but rare," according to the Interwebs. I took these snaps near Big Bear Lake, CA in early August.

"How you doin'?" Couple of nuthatches to the right of the feeder, and down in the lower right-hand corner, a female Black-headed Grosbeak. I think. Click for [a bit] bigger.

The female's in shadow behind the feeder.

Sign on Big Bear Boulevard

And I had a camera! *Is proud*

Dog's Life

Portuguese TV commercial for Amnesty International. H/T: JMuir of the most excellent Vagabundia.

"Maybe we shouldn't have these animals on the civilized streets"

That's former Attorney General Michael Bryant, the rabid hysteric behind Ontario, Canada's pit bull ban. He's sitting in the back of a police cruiser.

There was a man hanging onto his car, apparently, so Bryant sped down the wrong side of the road and tried to scrape the man off against trees and mailboxes. When the man fell from the car, Bryant ran over him. And then drove away. Killed was Darcy Allan Sheppard, 33, of Toronto. Bryant has been charged "with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death," according to Toronto police Sgt. Tim Burrows.

If you visit no other link, please check out small dead animals: the awesomeness of Kate's headline and the perfection of her sentence-long post make me very happy and very jealous.

Related:
Bryant: "Mark my words, Ontario will be safer"
Pit Bull Ban Author Fail!
MICHAEL BRYANT, THE GUY WHO BANNED 'PIT BULLS' IN ONTARIO, CHARGED IN CYCLIST'S DEATH
Troublemakers: What pit bulls can teach us about profiling [Source of Bryant quote used in this post's title]