Ripley

My husband goes to Parklea markets every Saturday morning to buy fruit and veg. I don't the place so don't like to step foot in there unless I need to buy plant/tree stuff for the yard. He buys our parrot seed from that pet shop, I've asked him not to now. The whole place is being demolished in a year or so anyway. As with all other land around that area, it's going to be flattened for highrise. The uglification of Sydney's burbs continues.

I heard that the Cat Protection Society in Sydney do this around the Malabar bush area, their reasoning being if they trapped, another feral one would take its place. Not sure how true this is and it was a few years ago now that I was told this - again, not sure if its true or not but someone who worked around the area told me as she was pretty annoyed about it. I've found a lot of English people now living here have a very different attitude to cats and the ones I used to work with had no problem letting their cats roam in Sydney and thought if they caught one of our native wildlife it was 'just nature' as that's the attitude they had in the UK. That was my experience working in offices full of Brits though. I remember staying at this accredited 'Eco' lodge in Scotland and the owner had this cat that kept coming into our bedroom of the B&B they owned. I saw it on the kitchen bench while she was preparing her guests' breakfast too! She let it outside and told me it killed a few chaffinches and endangered red squirrels but that was nature. Nothing eco about their place other than they conserved water and had a vegie garden! Seeing I booked it because it had eco accreditation, I ended up writing to the place that gave them the eco stars and telling them but doubt anything happened - very different attitude to cats over there I found.

I read this the other day. What a lucky Westie to have a new home in the USA. There was a pug who was also dumped because of a skin condition, and he is going to live in Paris! Animals need all the help they can get over there. Seen some pretty cruel treatment of animals when I was over there

I'm so glad my neighbours don't have cats. They aren't popular in my street. So we have green tree frogs, blue tongues and lots of parrots in our backyard. I'm female and have never liked cats, but I owned a lilac Burmese given to me by a guy at work who was moving overseas. I was going to just foster her but as she had no hunting instinct, was great with my two parrots and didn't scratch or jump up on the benches and even let me bath her, I kept her. She was more like a dog than a cat and that's the only reason I became very attached to her. Can't stand your average marauding moggie. Wish there were cat curfews at night in every suburb. The dog over the fence barks whenever I'm watering my plants up near the back fence line. Really annoying I can't enjoy my own yard sometimes. They call it inside when it does, but it's a real barker. Looks like a golden retriever but I can only see a fluffy golden coloured shape running up and down through the gaps and I'm not about to stick my head over the fence. The shrubs are fortunately fence height now anyway.

The entire country is pretty much governed by what the National party voters want as they are in 'key seats'. More land clearing is next on Baird's agenda so let's clear more land and trees and expect taxpayers to fork out when there are future droughts. I can't remember a time when we had strong politicians in this country.

Baby boomer bogans, Australia's most prolific voting demographic, get their way yet again. What a surprise! Such a weak politician.

Morrisey was relevant when I was a teenager. He's always been a vegetarian animal libber even back in the 80s. He's just an old has been with deluded views thes days. ETA: the British have an entirely different attitude to cats and let them roam wherever they please (what I saw anyway)

I'd want them put down.

I'm about to give a memory stick to my bestie after I took photos of her newborn. I spent a lot of time in PS getting the ruddiness out of his skin and flakiness and I don't want her to go to Big W or Harvey Norman which she will! Maybe I should just get some printed for her? She kindly bought me a bottle of expensive French champagne for doing this as I don't like taking photos out of my comfort zone (landscapes and wildlife) so I want her to like them. :laugh: Wonder how much I'll be up for and how big I should print them. Maybe just get some standard sizes to start with?

I sometimes read a couple of UK newspapers and the BBC and two other papers are running this complete with the video footage and photos. Here's one: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/live-piglets-and-possums-filmed-being-used-to-illegally-bait-racing-greyhounds-in-australia-10050585.html

The little piglet was a pink domestic farm type piglet - yes just like Babe. Maybe runt of the litter given to the creep by a farmer or maybe he breeds his own - who knows. Possums (native animals) wouldn't be too hard to catch during the day if you know where their drey is or burrow if it's a brush tail. I gladly know nothing about the industry but to an outsider merely watching last night, it appears to be full of very unsavoury types and bogans short on the grey matter.

Some of the men interviewed with their vacuous expressions at a few questions, missing teeth and trackie dacks looked like hillbillies - duelling banjos not out of place there. I wasn't surprised at the use of rabbits and possums (even kittens I had heard but turned it off so don't know if that was shown), it was the delight they seemed to take while torturing small animals - joking around like imbeciles.

I've had to turn it off after watching a baby possum and then a tiny pink piglet ripped apart. Cackling like a hyena at the tiny baby ringtail was strapped up. These cruel, fat old men and their lust for the money.

I've seen this guy walking those two adult dogs around Martin Place and other parts of the CBD before. Some people cross the road to avoid the dogs because of how they look. It's always in the middle of peak hour I've seen him - morning and evening. He comes across as a real nutter.

Oh so heartbreaking, shelby. Gorgeous sheltie. Zara is doing ok. I will pm you an update later.

So sorry for the loss of beautiful Brandi, shelby. What a gorgeous dog. Was Brandi Zara's mother?

I wonder how much the wife was insured for?

Stick your camera around your neck with your lens on it and walk on board. I've done this once before with a ticket that was carry on only and a certain baggage weight. Yeah you look like a dickhead but who cares - it's on your person and then once on board you can pack it away. I didn't attach my 300mm though but I could have :laugh: You could take a smaller bag to fit in the larger bag you are carrying and then unwrap your camera/lens combo from your neck and place them the smaller bag once on board. Hell, just stick lenses all about your body - wear a baggy jacket and place a lens in each pocket, one in the side pocket of some cargos, - you get the picture. That will free up some space in your carry on luggage.

Poor heron. God it upsets me to see birds suffering because of fishing hooks and other man made crap left in the water.

amongst others, people who are heartily sick of seeing the damage feral dogs are doing to their livestock, and to local wildlife ..... We were about to go for a walk in a National Park in Sydney and saw this husky just run across the road from the nearby oval and disappear into the National Park. There were signs there saying no dogs allowed and hefty fines. I tried to find the owner but he was nowhere to be found. If that dog was trapped or shot by a ranger I would not be surprised - but it wouldn't happen and there are fairy penguins around the area. Thoughtless bloody owners. The dog eventually reappeared after a while and ran back to the oval where presumably its idiot owner was.

I quickly found this site from the US about a rescue who rescue 'lethal white' Aussie shepherds. Has lots of info if you want to pass on. The dogs are beautiful but in one group photo on their site below, they remind me of that movie, The Children of The Damned. http://www.amazingaussies.com

Do you think the family and the woman were devout Christians and believed that if they pts the guide dog, the dog would then be with their daughter in the afterlife? I'm not religious but that could be their way of thinking. Personally I feel it's a very selfish thing to do when that beautiful, and still fairly young dog, could have been rehomed to provide assistance to another person in need of a guide dog - isn't there a waiting list? Or rehomed into a pet home. People never cease to disappoint or surprise me with their actions though.

I also use layer masks and sometimes blur the edges of my mask by going Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur and adding pixel to about 1 or 2 depending on my mask.

Pepe, I did some googling about Deposer and read various info that he never made it to Australia but that was the intention. His owner was a Hong Kong billionaire, Harry Chen Kar. Other reports that he was sold for $220 to a dogger in a vic sale and that is where the footage is from? I stopped going to the races years ago and could never go again. Don't even watch Melb Cup anymore. Just so sad for that beautiful horse. eta: On the youtube clip I scrolled through the comments (I had time today) and Deposer's trainer, John Best, posted under the youtube video after someone obviously sent it to his website. John Best, Deposer's trainer says: "We at Best Racing trained Deposer in the UK until summer 2009 when he was sold to a new owner/trainer to continue his racing career in Hong Kong. We are all absolutely devastated at the news about Deposer as we take seriously the welfare and happiness of the horses in our care. If a horse doesn't remain in racing we always find a suitable, loving home for them and are sorry that this wasn't the case for Deposer. Unfortunately when a horse is sold we have no control over what happens to them." The person who filmed the clip says she had no idea the gorgeous horse there was Deposer, cross posted from the youtube video she/he filmed: "We had no idea who he was that day, all we knew was that he was such a special boy, but then a few weeks after the sales my friend tracked down his brands and found out who he was."

A FB friend of mine posted an Animals Australia link about some knackery in Victoria and their inhumane practises. I don't take things posted by AA as fact as they have become too extreme to have my support, but the knackery was investigated and they supply the Melbourne zoo with horse meat for the big cats and Melb zoo now reportedly has ceased business with them. Here is the link - a racehorse called Nature's Child they state wasn't dead when she was dragged around to the cutting room floor. Just posting it, have no opinion if it's true or not. http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/stop-knackery-abuse