Charlie wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
A lot of the lame threads are here these days because the loon squad has run off a lot of the good folks. This is not unique to rec.gardens, and it's happened before, but it still stinks.
Go through the rg archives in google, and look at the posts made by a Bill Morgan, that name ought to be familiar to some of the other old-timers here. Compare and contrast to our current crop of BillBilly.
Hey, if Keslick can come back after a long hiatus, maybe someone good can, too!
Sure you wouldn't like to put a finer point on that? At the very least, I wish his "inmates" luck. I'm afraid they'll need it. I told the OP to get professional advice, and when he didn't see the wisdom of that I took umbrage with his intent. I have no basis for that conclusion except having listen to idiots for many years that have tried to pass themselves off as "enlightened".
And your suggestion would be? My dogs love riding in the truck. What should I do? Strap them to a pallet, secured with a truckers hitch? Do you have dogs? Do you take them to the nursery, hardware store, or the market. They have three lots to run around on but, like most of us, they want more.
Sadly, you are correct about alt.med.veternarian, but still 2 for 3 ain't bad;O)
It didn't start that way. If he could have given the group that he works through, there would have been no question.
Ah, jeez, don't go maudlin on me. If you want to be an enabler for anyone who wants to imprison a wild animal, fine, but I want no part of it.
That would be correct. There are only about 4 or 5 of us (in a large city), and no funded organizations that deal with wildlife. That is, aside from housing them overnight and usually euthanizing them within a day or two.
The 'Billy's of the world should try volunteering their time rather than telling everyone else how it should be done. That would lend some perspective in a hurry.
BTW, my father (out of state) works with bats. Amazing creatures.
Lee was correct, you're not. And what's with the "Dr. Bob" thing? Are you retarded? I said I volunteer my time and money, I took the time to study and get licensing, I hire the best veterinary specialists that I can find, and fund everything myself. That's all you need to know.
Your thing started off tiresome and went downhill from there. Hopefully you got the attention that you crave.
That would be correct.
Hallelujiah. Now go volunteer your own time and money so you can figure out what's actually going on here.
That gave me a chuckle too. But you gotta admire his tenacity--he's sticking to it: I should be asking zoologists and veterinarians about growing grass. But lucky for me, Billy the Gardener knows all about zoology. So it evens out.
And it is a shame that this was turned into another usenet flame thread by a couple self-centered loons. Most usenet groups have gone that direction, as it only takes a couple of 'em.
If you want to see something hilarious, read through some threads on science and physics groups sometime. They've got wackos who have theories about quantum mechanics, but they "...don't know math, so someone else has to write it down". Some funny stuff.
not NYC? do you get any other of the fringe city dwellers, like oppossum, raccoons, coyotes, foxes? or just the obvious, like squirrels? any birds? raptors?
yes, they are. i'm so happy the government is giving emergency funding for the study of white nose! can you imagine how awful the mosquitoes would be without them? or a world without vanilla? lee
There's something about this that seems to bring the loonies out of the woodwork. Hard to figure. You could post about mugging old ladies and no one would comment. Post about spending time and money trying to help animals and they start howling.
City newspapers occasionally run stories on the local wildlife rescue people, and you wouldn't believe some of the vitriolic hate mail that usually follows in the wake. "Your money should be going to ---- instead" (from people who obviously don't donate their own money to anything) ...and even people saying that the animals should all be euthanized (like the first nasty reply in this thread). Hard to comprehend.
It's usually balanced out by nicer, saner people such as yourself. So thanks for that.
I'm not a gardener, so this was probably a one-time (innocent) question for me. Sorry to see what's going on with your newsgroup.
Oh yeah, I have several types of UVB lights. That's something that I researched a lot when I dealt with reptiles. Always worried about MBD, but there have also been some vet conference seminars that have correlated location (probably light and temperature) with other diseases. I believe there was some relation between incidence of osteomyelitis in northern states. Something that may be worth looking into if your animals are prone (I've enountered it).
I deal with warm-blooded creatures these days, so they can still get some outdoor time during the winter. We set up cages where we can shuttle them from indoors to outdoors for 1/2 hour or an hour, and it seems to keep them happier (Now if I were only less busy with the little buggers, I'd be able to go outside too).
At the time that I was looking for data on UVB, the main resource was a Yahoo group called "UVB Meter Owners":
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of a misleading name in that many did specialize in reptiles. There were a lot of great people there, both on the more scientific end, and others who did extensive testing to try to improve reptile environments.
One of the newer topics when I was active (it's been a few years) was the Weston UVB lamp; a full sized flood with external ballast. There was a lot of debate about whether the fluorescent-type designs (Zoomed, etc) were weak, or the Weston-type bulbs were too strong.
I don't know about resolution to that, but I did end up trying a couple Weston bulbs. My feeling was that even if the fluo bulbs were putting out enough 310nm, that the close proximity required would result in hit or miss exposure. Since UVB radiation obeys inverse square law, my feeling was that the more powerful Weston type could be mounted at greater distance, for less proximity sensitivity. IOW, distance between the lamp and green critter would not vary over as wide a percentage. When you consider it, that's closer to how sunlight works.
Anyway, since you still deal with reptiles, I thought that may be of interest to you.
Great idea! Restaurant supply we -do- have. I'll check with them.
I love turtles. Never kept one, though we used to occasionally rescue them when I lived in the sticks.
Already mentioned that my father studies bats. Moved close to some of the large caves. Beautiful creatures. Yeah, I wouldn't want to chase one around if he got loose. Not sure how you recaptured yours.
One of the current concerns is White Nose Syndrome (WNS), which you've probably heard of:
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wonder where these things come from. Luckily, it doesn't appear to have spread much into southern states yet. Gotta hope that it's dependant on northern environment, or that's bad news for large bat populations.
I just mentioned WNS in another post, but obviously you already know about it. Yeah, it's tough to stir up sympathy for bats (squirrels are tough enough, and they're cute and fuzzy). I hear lots of "let 'em die" from the usual crowd, until they're informed of the possible consequences. For some, it depends on which animal you hate worse, so mentioning West Nile/Mosquitos usually elicits some sympathy for bats.
I've occasionaly 'rescued' birds, but that entailed just mainenance or shuttling the worse injuries off to those more specialized. I've actually seen a couple raccoons and oppossums wander into the city, but I don't deal with them (my life is complicated as it is, and there's a whole other level of licensing for possible rabies vectors).
One of the misperceptions about those mythological altruistic city-funded "Wildlife Organizations": Someone called the city about an oppossum who had wandered into a park. They captured and euthanized the poor critter and its babies. Would have been easier to transport her to a rural location, but that's "not their policy." The animal is nocturnal--she wasn't bothering anyone. She was obviously just displaced or lost.
Since you're up on WNS, do you happen to know if there's been any news re profiling it or its spread?
Well before you go, I was thinking about what might keeps a squirrel mentally challenged and perhaps this would be sturdy enough. It keeps dogs entertained.
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haven't been to that web site before so I'm not endorsing it, just the toy. Put some peanut butter, a few nuts, freeze and give the creature something to occupy their time. Just a thought.
well, the "squirrels are cute" line doesn't really work so well when they're mauling my garden & making off with my hickory nut crop ;) i do like squirrels though, mostly because of their most annoying trait: figuring things out. how *do* you keep a squirrel in a pen? and bats are cute and fuzzy too!
it's surprising how many people *hate* possums, i guess because they look like rats. i wouldn't mess with an adult if i didn't need to, because they can be pretty nasty, but they don't go out of their way to attack. i have barn cats, who have a heated bed in the winter. one night i went out to shut the chickens in (they free range) & feed the cats, and there was a possum curled up in the cat's bed sound asleep. not exactly what i want in my chicken barn... it was persuaded to leave, & hasn't returned, but that was weird. i also have a couple skunks that eat with the cats. they don't bother the chickens, but they do get a few eggs. they eat ground nesting yellow jackets, so i'll let them have a couple eggs. it's a good tradeoff.
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