Foaling and breeding season is beginning for horses and a lot of people are very anxiously awaiting their new foals as well as being able to breed. Today's blog is about something that has always royally pissed me off: Breeding 2 year old fillies.
Fillies (young female horses) are not considered mares (adult female horses) until they reach the age of five. This is when their knees, hocks, ankles, and spinal joints are closed/fused and they are completely done growing and maturing. This is when they are considered fully mature in body as well as in mind. This is the optimum age to breed and start serious training at. Yet few breeders want to wait five years while their filly (or colt) is 'out to pasture' growing up. A lot of breeders think there is nothing wrong with breeding a two year old, filly or colt. I commonly hear people saying "Well, lots of breeders do it so it must be okay."
Tell me what the fuck makes it okay or healthy for a two year old filly to be bred? She's just a fucking baby herself!
I don't give a shit what idiot breeders think. I don't want to hear the "Oh she's structurally sound!", "She's good-sized for her age!", "She's a large breed!" and other excuses. They are just that. Excuses. She's still a fucking baby regardless of size or breed. Horses all mature at the same rate, regardless of breed. She's not mature mentally, structurally, or internally, and won't be for another three years. She is still a child by horse standards. Fillies and colts will nurse off of their mothers naturally until they are yearlings. So she's now two and learning to be independent. Just because she is not nursing off of her mother still does not mean it is okay for her to have a foal herself.
Structurally, at two years old, her bones are not sound for breeding. Her knee joints are not yet closed, her bones are not fully hardened, her bone fusions are not complete. Mentally she is still just a baby. All she needs to be learning is the things her mother would have taught her. Where to feed, when to sleep, how to behave, how to be a horse. Internally her pelvis isn't fused and her uterus isn't conditioned fully yet.
Big name horse breeders will often breed their two year old fillies. The first thing that comes to mind for me is 'puppy-mill', or in this case 'foal-mill'. Breeders don't want to wait for their filly to grow up and mature before breeding her. That costs "too much time and money". 'Who cares if she is a baby, if we're not gonna break her at two at least we can get a baby out of her, or two or three, before she is five years old then at least we can make some kind of income off of her.' That is the mentality that fuels the breeding of two year olds. It's not uncommon two see a mare that just turned five years old and already has two or three foals.
If you can't afford to let your baby horse grow up out in the pasture learning to be a horse you have no fucking business being a breeder or horse owner! Breeding a two year old filly is equivalent to a thirteen year old human girl getting pregnant. Parents and society would scream abuse, disgust, and horror over this. But hey, a thirteen year old girl has started her menstrual cycle and thus that means she is capable of getting pregnant and carrying a baby. Does that make it okay for her to get pregnant? Fuck no! It's the exact same thing with two year old fillies. They are just babies. Just because they are capable of getting pregnant and carrying a foal does not mean they should. Two year olds should absolutely not be purposefully bred. Ever.
On top of her not being physically ready to carry a foal think about her background. Has she even done anything at two years old to even merit being bred? There are already tons of fugly foals being produced from worthless conformational train-wrecks. Wait a while, get her some show experience, wait until she is broke to ride or drive at four years of age. Make breeding her worth-while. Foals from sires/dams with no record of doing anything other than breeding are pretty much worthless, especially in this economy.
Thoroughbred breeders often breed their fillies as 'long yearlings', not yet two, because all registered TBs birthdays are considered January 1st. So these are yearlings getting pregnant and having foals at late two. They don't even have time to be babies. They are born damn near right into motherhood. All of which is sick and very unethical.
The fact is this: horses, regardless of breed, take time to mature. Five years to be completely structurally sound for breeding/serious training (I'm not against gently starting/backing a horse at three years old, even though I prefer four years old) (As well I am not against breeding mares at late three, early four if you cannot wait til five). If you cannot wait at the very least three years to breed your filly then you have no right to own her. If you are one of the shitty breeders that just cannot wait and think it's okay to breed your two year old fillies shame on you. Go talk to a thirteen or fourteen year old teenage girl that got pregnant. Maybe it will make your money-hungry selfish ass think twice about breeding your two year old next time.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
HYPPocrites
The HYPP debate has always been something that rattles my cage. Today's blog is about the idiocy/stupidity of horse breeders and uneducated horse buyers that are both connected to and responsible for HYPP.
Before we get into it here are some facts on HYPP:
HYPP or HYperkalemic Periodic Paralysis is an inherited equine muscular genetic disorder all stemming from a single American Quarter Horse stallion named Impressive. Impressive, a chestnut Appendix Quarter Horse (QH x TB), was born on April 15th, 1968. No one knew that he would set out to become one of the most notorious and famous Quarter Horses in history, not because of his amazing breeding or because he won this and that, but because of the genetic disorder that he spread over much of the American Quarter Horse breed. At just 6 years old he already had 48 halter points and became the first World Champion Open Aged Halter stallion. Due to his show-ring wins and his thickly muscled physique he was all the rage in a sire that everyone wanted. He produced nearly 30 world halter champions and overall sired around 2,250 live foals. His foals and their descendants make up of over 100,000 AQHA registered horses. He died in 1995 at the ripe old age of 27 (a very old horse by today's sickening short-lived halter horses). It seemed that he and his progeny would go down into history as the best of the best in the equine halter showing world... that is, until it was brought to light that he was the horse solely responsible for the genetic disorder we call HYPP.
Under detail HYPP is a genetic disorder that causes muscle tremors, 'tying up', stiffness, weakness, collapse, paralysis, and death. It is a dominant disorder which means it only needs one copy of the defective gene to be physically present and to pass on. Yet another symptom of HYPP positive horses is the one thing that keeps breeders producing HYPP positive foals for the show ring: overactive constantly spasming muscles lead to very thick sometimes overmuscled horses that do phenomenally in the halter show ring. Due to the fact that the muscles in affected horses are nearly always contracting even if not seen by the naked eye the horse puts on double the muscle that a normal horse his age would and thus makes it look to have a 'bodybuilder' physique, which the judges in the halter ring reward with many ribbons and trophies.
So why keep breeding horses that have such a potentially deadly disorder? Because in the showring it's what is winning.
Yes... Breeders, small and large, are breeding horses with a serious deadly genetic disorder simply because it wins in the show ring. They're not only showing but breeding, training, and selling these genetically defective horses. What's worse, is the uneducated people that are buying these horses for themselves or for their children. There are quite a few documented cases of HYPP horses being bought for young riders that have an episode while under saddle. Catastrophic. There's nothing more terrifying than the horse underneath you seizing up and going down while at a canter or a full gallop. It's happened more than once, and it can happen at any time on an effected horse with absolutely no warning. Still these horses are being bred, shown, and sold. As of 2005 39% of the registered AQHA horses are either N/H or H/H... That means almost 40% of the registered population of Quarter Horses carries and reproduces this fatal disorder. More than one-third of all registered Quarter Horses. Even worse, it's being bred into other previously unaffected stock breeds such as paints and appaloosas.
What makes it fucking ridiculous is that HYPP could be wiped clean out in a single generation if people would just stop breeding horses that are N/H and H/H and only breed clean horses (N/N) without the defective gene. Yet so long as these overmuscled freakish horses are winning in the show ring asshat breeders who only care about money and ribbons and not about the horses will keep churning out foals with the potentially fatal disorder. It's all about the money and not about the horses. What does it matter if they are churning out thousands of genetically defective foals year after year if they are winning and taking the show ring by storm? This is the mindset of people who breed and show HYPP positive horses. Breeders, STOP BREEDING THEM. It's unethical to breed or sell HYPP horses, especially when you are selling them and the danger they pose to unsuspecting buyers. And buyers, DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE you buy a Quarter Horse! Judges, STOP PLACING THEM well in the show ring! Registries, STOP REGISTERING THEM! Business. It's all about the business of what's wining and selling and not about the horses, it never has been, it's all about the money. HYPP could so easily be eradicated if stupid people would pull their heads out of their pompous asses and make it about the horse and not about the money/show wins.
Yes, you can get horses genetically linked to Impressive, even line, double, or triple linebred back to him that are not HYPP positive and cannot pass it on to their foals. Those are the only offspring, great offspring, great great offspring, etc that should be bred with his bloodlines. Those that are HYPP N/H (Positive, 50% of foals will also have HYPP) or H/H (Positive, 100% of foals will have HYPP) should never ever be bred. Avoiding Impressive bloodlines altogether is foolish though. He was a great long-lived horse, but I would make sure that any and all horses linked to him that someone might want to buy, sell, or breed are tested right off the get-go. HYPP can easily be avoided and eradicated. Do not breed HYPP positive horses and do not buy a stock horse without seeing current proof of a HYPP negative test. Encourage the AQHA to halt the registration of all HYPP positive horses and their offspring. This would stop them from winning in the show ring and their prices would drop considerably. If horse people can't make money off of HYPP positive horses they would quit breeding them. That along with educating people about HYPP would eventually curb the problem and eliminate the majority of the disorder. I say majority because looking at the facts there will always be people too ignorant/cheap to test their horses, and for those that don't care, they will continue to breed/sell them. Still, the show-rings would be clean of the disorder and that would make a world of difference to the American Quarter Horse and all stock breeds.
Before we get into it here are some facts on HYPP:
HYPP or HYperkalemic Periodic Paralysis is an inherited equine muscular genetic disorder all stemming from a single American Quarter Horse stallion named Impressive. Impressive, a chestnut Appendix Quarter Horse (QH x TB), was born on April 15th, 1968. No one knew that he would set out to become one of the most notorious and famous Quarter Horses in history, not because of his amazing breeding or because he won this and that, but because of the genetic disorder that he spread over much of the American Quarter Horse breed. At just 6 years old he already had 48 halter points and became the first World Champion Open Aged Halter stallion. Due to his show-ring wins and his thickly muscled physique he was all the rage in a sire that everyone wanted. He produced nearly 30 world halter champions and overall sired around 2,250 live foals. His foals and their descendants make up of over 100,000 AQHA registered horses. He died in 1995 at the ripe old age of 27 (a very old horse by today's sickening short-lived halter horses). It seemed that he and his progeny would go down into history as the best of the best in the equine halter showing world... that is, until it was brought to light that he was the horse solely responsible for the genetic disorder we call HYPP.
Under detail HYPP is a genetic disorder that causes muscle tremors, 'tying up', stiffness, weakness, collapse, paralysis, and death. It is a dominant disorder which means it only needs one copy of the defective gene to be physically present and to pass on. Yet another symptom of HYPP positive horses is the one thing that keeps breeders producing HYPP positive foals for the show ring: overactive constantly spasming muscles lead to very thick sometimes overmuscled horses that do phenomenally in the halter show ring. Due to the fact that the muscles in affected horses are nearly always contracting even if not seen by the naked eye the horse puts on double the muscle that a normal horse his age would and thus makes it look to have a 'bodybuilder' physique, which the judges in the halter ring reward with many ribbons and trophies.
So why keep breeding horses that have such a potentially deadly disorder? Because in the showring it's what is winning.
Yes... Breeders, small and large, are breeding horses with a serious deadly genetic disorder simply because it wins in the show ring. They're not only showing but breeding, training, and selling these genetically defective horses. What's worse, is the uneducated people that are buying these horses for themselves or for their children. There are quite a few documented cases of HYPP horses being bought for young riders that have an episode while under saddle. Catastrophic. There's nothing more terrifying than the horse underneath you seizing up and going down while at a canter or a full gallop. It's happened more than once, and it can happen at any time on an effected horse with absolutely no warning. Still these horses are being bred, shown, and sold. As of 2005 39% of the registered AQHA horses are either N/H or H/H... That means almost 40% of the registered population of Quarter Horses carries and reproduces this fatal disorder. More than one-third of all registered Quarter Horses. Even worse, it's being bred into other previously unaffected stock breeds such as paints and appaloosas.
What makes it fucking ridiculous is that HYPP could be wiped clean out in a single generation if people would just stop breeding horses that are N/H and H/H and only breed clean horses (N/N) without the defective gene. Yet so long as these overmuscled freakish horses are winning in the show ring asshat breeders who only care about money and ribbons and not about the horses will keep churning out foals with the potentially fatal disorder. It's all about the money and not about the horses. What does it matter if they are churning out thousands of genetically defective foals year after year if they are winning and taking the show ring by storm? This is the mindset of people who breed and show HYPP positive horses. Breeders, STOP BREEDING THEM. It's unethical to breed or sell HYPP horses, especially when you are selling them and the danger they pose to unsuspecting buyers. And buyers, DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE you buy a Quarter Horse! Judges, STOP PLACING THEM well in the show ring! Registries, STOP REGISTERING THEM! Business. It's all about the business of what's wining and selling and not about the horses, it never has been, it's all about the money. HYPP could so easily be eradicated if stupid people would pull their heads out of their pompous asses and make it about the horse and not about the money/show wins.
Yes, you can get horses genetically linked to Impressive, even line, double, or triple linebred back to him that are not HYPP positive and cannot pass it on to their foals. Those are the only offspring, great offspring, great great offspring, etc that should be bred with his bloodlines. Those that are HYPP N/H (Positive, 50% of foals will also have HYPP) or H/H (Positive, 100% of foals will have HYPP) should never ever be bred. Avoiding Impressive bloodlines altogether is foolish though. He was a great long-lived horse, but I would make sure that any and all horses linked to him that someone might want to buy, sell, or breed are tested right off the get-go. HYPP can easily be avoided and eradicated. Do not breed HYPP positive horses and do not buy a stock horse without seeing current proof of a HYPP negative test. Encourage the AQHA to halt the registration of all HYPP positive horses and their offspring. This would stop them from winning in the show ring and their prices would drop considerably. If horse people can't make money off of HYPP positive horses they would quit breeding them. That along with educating people about HYPP would eventually curb the problem and eliminate the majority of the disorder. I say majority because looking at the facts there will always be people too ignorant/cheap to test their horses, and for those that don't care, they will continue to breed/sell them. Still, the show-rings would be clean of the disorder and that would make a world of difference to the American Quarter Horse and all stock breeds.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Parade of Freaks: Labrador Retrievers
I have to ask the show ring-crazed breeders...
Labrador or Flabrador?
Known as simply 'labs' to most people the Labrador Retriever is the most popular breed of dog in the world. Number one on all of the breed registries/stud dockets. The popularity of the breed is most likely due to their wonderful goofy family-friendly personalities and ease of acquiring them for very little. Being that they are the most popular breed worldwide also means they are the most overbred (and probably inbred) breed as well. That's not what I am here to rant about today, though. Today's blog, continuing on with my 'Parade of Freaks' series is about how the show ring has ruined the Labrador as a working breed and turned them into something entirely disgusting.
These are pictures of two very well-bred 'field' Labradors. They are in good weight, fit, trim, have good eyes/noses/joints, have sleek glossy low-maintenance coats, and are capable of working in the field as hunting dogs (their intended purpose) all day long. To show an unbiased un-sexist account there is a picture of both a male and a female. Both of these dogs are working hunting dogs. They can and do work birds in the field, do not have joint issues, and are both beautiful. Field bred labs, considered 'mongrel mutts' or 'lab whippets' by show lab breeders tend to live well into fourteen or sixteen years.
...and this is what the show ring has reduced Labradors to. I call them Flabradors. Field lab breeders called them 'rottadors' or 'mastadors' due to their bulk. Both of these dogs are massive, totally obese, and completely useless as hunting dogs. What's more, both are multi-counry national conformation show ring champions. The insanity of show ring breeders has reduced 'bench' or 'show' type Labradors to brain-fogged lumbering 'pigs on posts' as I call them. Severely overweight, large-headed, shorter muzzled, short tailed, insanely high-shedding porkers that are good for nothing but laying around, even before the hip dysplasia and cancer sets in. The weight alone, on top of the overly large bone structure is enough to make me gag. Why in the hell any judge would title a dog like these 'champion' is beyond me. Obesity/massiveness aside cancer/hip dysplasia is so rampant in show-bred labs that few live past eight to ten years of age.
It's just further proof that all working use has been removed from breeds bred for the show ring. These dogs are no-longer 'sporting' dogs as their show group implies. They couldn't hunt a bird if it flew up and smacked them in the face. Fat, lazy, useless, and riddled with join problems and cancer, 'bench' or 'show' Labradors (or Flabradors) are now highly inbred couch-puffs. The judges keep awarding these dogs and I can only see it getting worse over the years. I never thought that obesity would be rewarded by breed/kennel clubs that claim to 'promote health and well-being of purebred dogs'. There is nothing healthy or well-bred about these 'champion' show dogs.
...and don't even get me started on 'silver' Labradors. That's a blog for a different day.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
It's All in the Advertising Pt. II
Getting back to my advertising rant, there is another thing that really bothers me about people who are selling animals, and that is lack of grammar and piss poor spelling. It's like... most people trying to sell something didn't even make it though basic elementary school. Few of them use any kind of capitalization, punctuation, and the spelling is something that would be compared to a four year old. What people don't realize is that people like me, when we're searching through the classified ads, will specifically avoid ads that are cluttered, ill-written, and have spelling that is enough to make your eyes scream for brain bleach. The last thing I want to have to do when looking to buy something is try and decipher elementary hieroglyphics. Here are some of the common spelling issues I see when looking through animal ads...
Horse Ads:
'Theral Bred' - Thoroughbred. Your horse is bred from a sire named Theral? ...or it's from Philadelphia.
'Through Bred' - Thoroughbred. Um, bred though what? Male horse to female horse? I would hope so.
'Peer Bred' - Purebred. It was bred by those you look up to?
'Pure Bread' - Purebred. Umm... White, wheat, rye?
'Tricolour' - I don't think so. Bay/buckskin paint.
'Palameano' - Palomino. You have a white mane/tailed golden horses that's mean?
'Philly' - Filly. Unless your baby female horse is from Philadelphia.
'Guilding' - Gelding. Your castrated male horse has well-built golden genitalia?
Dog Ads:
'Pure Breeded" - Purebred. Or bred purely for elementary teaching?
'Boarder Collie' - Border collie. Half dog, half log. I wonder what the board half is... mahogany, ebony... teak?
'Tearry' - Terrier. Apparently one with very runny eyes.
'Pappy Yawn' - Papillon. Or your tired grandpa.
'Malt Ease' - Maltese. Or a chocolate shake laced with Ex-Lax.
'Shit Zoo' - Shih tzu. Or a run down facility full of neglected animals.
'Snoozer' - Schnauzer. Or someone who is sleeping.
'Peeking Ease' - Pekinese. Or a small hole that is easy to look through.
'Nuttered' - Neutered. Or someone who lost their mind.
'Spaded' - Spayed. Or ground that has been turned over with a shovel.
'Doxie' - Dachshund. Or a small mythical little fairy... thing.
'Datsun' - Dachshund. Or a specific make and model of vehicle.
Chiwawa - Chihuahua.
'Blue Healer' - Blue Heeler. Or a smurf that's a doctor.
'Miniature Puddle' - Miniature Poodle. Or a small patch of water.
...and it goes on an on and on. I mean really... if you can't even spell the name of the breed you're trying to sell, you need to stop breeding/selling animals, get online, and learn how to operate Google.
Horse Ads:
'Theral Bred' - Thoroughbred. Your horse is bred from a sire named Theral? ...or it's from Philadelphia.
'Through Bred' - Thoroughbred. Um, bred though what? Male horse to female horse? I would hope so.
'Peer Bred' - Purebred. It was bred by those you look up to?
'Pure Bread' - Purebred. Umm... White, wheat, rye?
'Tricolour' - I don't think so. Bay/buckskin paint.
'Palameano' - Palomino. You have a white mane/tailed golden horses that's mean?
'Philly' - Filly. Unless your baby female horse is from Philadelphia.
'Guilding' - Gelding. Your castrated male horse has well-built golden genitalia?
Dog Ads:
'Pure Breeded" - Purebred. Or bred purely for elementary teaching?
'Boarder Collie' - Border collie. Half dog, half log. I wonder what the board half is... mahogany, ebony... teak?
'Tearry' - Terrier. Apparently one with very runny eyes.
'Pappy Yawn' - Papillon. Or your tired grandpa.
'Malt Ease' - Maltese. Or a chocolate shake laced with Ex-Lax.
'Shit Zoo' - Shih tzu. Or a run down facility full of neglected animals.
'Snoozer' - Schnauzer. Or someone who is sleeping.
'Peeking Ease' - Pekinese. Or a small hole that is easy to look through.
'Nuttered' - Neutered. Or someone who lost their mind.
'Spaded' - Spayed. Or ground that has been turned over with a shovel.
'Doxie' - Dachshund. Or a small mythical little fairy... thing.
'Datsun' - Dachshund. Or a specific make and model of vehicle.
Chiwawa - Chihuahua.
'Blue Healer' - Blue Heeler. Or a smurf that's a doctor.
'Miniature Puddle' - Miniature Poodle. Or a small patch of water.
...and it goes on an on and on. I mean really... if you can't even spell the name of the breed you're trying to sell, you need to stop breeding/selling animals, get online, and learn how to operate Google.
Monday, January 21, 2013
My Take on 9/11
"Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act." - Albert Einstein
The whole 9/11 'Terrorist Attacks' never ever sat right with me. They never will. I've never been 'at ease' with the stories that the government and the mainstream media concocted and spoon-fed everyone. I've been researching, watching, listening, and doing my own type of investigation since they happened. I've come to my own conclusions after all this time, after what I've seen, read, heard. I'm finally going to explain why I think this way. Oh I'm sure it will piss a lot of people off, and I'll get a lot of flack for it. Doesn't matter. My blog. My writing. My rules. Such is life. People don't like what they don't understand because it scares them. Put on your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
The story... '19 foreign terrorists hijacked 4 planes with boxcutters and flew them into the World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 (destroying them and WTC building 7) and the Pentagon, the last crashed in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania field.' ...and it all happened within 2 hours (except building 7)...
I'm not buying it... I call it like I see it. I'm calling bullshit. Call it as you will: A conspiracy theory, absurdity, etc. I'm calling it as it is. Lies. Deceit. A cover up.
The facts/research speaks for itself in my opinion:
---
North Tower (NT) World Trade Center
--Made of 100,000 tons of steel, 75,000 cubic yards of concrete, 21,800 windows, 60,000 tons of cooling equipment. The girders used in the internal structure were 36 x 16 inches thick.
--On Feb. 14th, 1975 a 6 floor fire raged in the North tower. It burned for 2+ hours. The building had no sprinklers. It made it through that without collapsing.
--Supposedly American Airlines flight 11 flew across the whole of Manhattan in just 90 seconds at just 900 feet going 550 miles per hour. (Fact: A 757 can not fly that fast at sea-level.)
--Seconds before the 'plane' hit the NT people survivors described hearing "boom boom boom" "like explosions" all over, like bombs under their feet in the middle and the bottom of the tower.
--9 seconds after the 'plane' hits, there are multiple sound recordings of a second explosion.
--Hit at 8:45 EST.
--'Plane' described as solid gray with a blue frontal logo and no windows. Not an American Airlines plane.
--Firefighters, the first in the building after it was hit, describe multiple explosions/booming sounds from in and around the ground floors.
--Collapsed second.
--Burned for 103 minutes after impact until 'pancake' collapse falling at nearly freefall speed.
South Tower (ST) World Trade Center
--Made of 100,000 tons of steel, 75,000 cubic yards of concrete, 21,800 windows, 60,000 tons of cooling equipment. The gerders used in the internal structure were 36 x 16 inches thick.
--Hit at 9:03 EST by by supposed plane United Airlines flight 175.
--The hole, analyzed appears to be about 65 feet in diameter where the 'plane' hit... A Boeing 757 wingspan is 144 feet. (The hole in the Pentagon where a supposed 757 also hit, after roof collapse was also about 65 feet, coincidence? I think not.)
--'Plane' described as solid gray with a blue frontal logo and no windows. Not an American Airlines plane.
--What the hell was affixed to the bottom/belly of the 'plane' that was long, dark gray, cylindrical and NOT standard on normal passenger jets?
--What cause the fiery flash before the 'plane' hit, and why does it look like the wing has disintegrated/vaporized before impact?
--Collapsed first.
--Burned for 53 minutes after impact until 'pancake' collapse.
--Took 10.8 seconds to fall. Nearly freefall speed.
--The WTC buildings' steel would only have become molten/soft enough to collapse at 3,000 degrees. The hottest temperature at ground floor was 1500 degrees.
--Molten metal at 3200 degrees was found for up at 5 weeks after 9/11 in the 6th and 7th basements of both towers and in building seven that compared almost uncannily with a controlled demolition.
--There is NO WAY in hell that fires at the TOP of the towers brought that much heat to the basement enough to cause the collapse on not one but both WTC towers and building seven. There is also no way the the fire 'traveled down the elevator shafts'. They were air-tight.
--If you watch any of the captured videos of the collapses you can see explosions that took out windows 20-30 feet below each point all down the buildings as they collapsed as like controlled demolitions.
--Clearly noted by building experts and demolition experts that WTC South/North towers and Building 7 were all very carefully planned/executed controlled demolitions.
WTC Building 7
--It was being used to store 3,000-5,000 files of Wall-Street investigations.
--The decision was made by Larry Silverstein (Building 7's lease-holder) over an hour before it collapsed, even before the Trade Center towers fell, to "pull it"... "Pull it" is a term used by demolition experts meaning bring a building down.
--Fell straight down in a 'pancake' collapse in just 6 seconds, into a neat little pile.
--Excuse... 'Falling debris from the twin towers created an internal fire' that brought it down... Bullshit.
--In 1959 a B-52 Bomber jet lost in fog crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. It's still standing to this day.
Pentagon:
--No wreckage. No tail section. No fuselage. No luggage, seats, plane nose... nothing.
--No bodies.
--A 16 foot hole (65 feet after roof collapse)... No way could a Boeing 757 leave that small of a hole in the pentagon if it slammed right into it.
--A Boeing 757 is 155 feet long, 44 feet high, and has 124 foot wingspan, and weighs 98 tons (196,000 lbs)...
--Each turbine engine weighs 6 tons and is 9 feet wide and 12 feet long.
--A Boeing 757 travels at 535 miles per hour.
--No way in hell could a plane that size with a 144 foot wingspan leave a mere 16 foot hole, no wreckage, and no evidence of a plane...
--Everything around the 16 foot hole (before roof collapse) was completely intact and unsinged/unburnt.
--The hole goes all the way through 3 rings, through 9 feet of steel reinforced concrete, to the other side, an is visible at the C-ring. 16 feet wide. Everything around it completely intact, and again, no plane wreckage.
--The only thing capable of doing exactly that kind of damage is an Air Force cruise 'Bunker Buster' missile.
--Witnesses say they saw a black helicopter as well as a black military jet circle the building minutes before the 'plane' hit.
--Witnesses also describe a 'shockwave' both in an around the Pentagon (as far as 1.6 miles away in a hotel) as if explosives had been detonated.
--A number of people said they smelled cordite, an ingredient used in explosives. Cordite produces little smoke, no flash, but produces a very strong 'detonation wave'.
--The surveillance tapes from 3 separate places were confiscated by the FBI within minutes of the explosion.
--Hit in the only place that had recently been renovated to 'withstand' that kind of attack.
Plane flight trajectory:
--At 9:38 am in Arlington, Virginia, apparently Flight 77 (the Boeing 757 that hit the Pentagon) executed a 333 degree 'hairpin' turn while going 535 miles per hour descending 7,000 feet in 2.5 minutes to line up the aircraft to crash into the Pentagon. That is physically impossible for a jetliner to do. It would have caused a high-speed stall for the plane and it would have fallen out of the sky in a spiral.
--As it supposedly crossed over the highway ever lower toward the Pentagon it clipped many of the light poles. Although when another Boeing plane a few years earlier hit just one light pole with the edge of the wing it crashed immediately and the pole was in two. The ones on the lawn of the Pentagon appear to have been ripped right out of the ground and scattered about. Not bent or broken. If a plane hit them they would have been in pieces and the plane would have crashed much earlier than supposedly hitting the Pentagon as the wings would have been in tatters from hitting so many.
Shanksville, Pennsylvania Flight 93
--No wreckage. No bodies. No plane parts. No luggage. No seats. No blood. No human parts or pieces. Nothing.
--Flight 93 didn't even crash. Reports from a Cleveland, Ohio airport received two Boeing jets after a 'bomb threat'. One was identified by United Airlines as US Flight 93.
--All 200 passengers were evacuated in 31 minutes and taken to a NASA Research Facility. They have not been seen or heard from since and were declared dead from the 'crash'.
--What about all the 'cell phone' calls? None of them happened. The probability of any cell phone connecting at 4,000 feet 0.4%, 12,000 feet 0.04%, 20,000 feet 0.016%, 26,000 feet 0.010%, 32,000 (cruising altitude) feet 0.008%. Cell phone towers/receivers were not installed into jets until 2003-2004...
---
Think about it this way... You're gonna tell me that 19 people hijacked 4 planes with boxcutters (Bypassing a 40 billion dollar security system) and all of the people on those planes couldn't have easily taken them down? BOXCUTTERS are not guns, they are 3 inch razorblades. I guarantee that the people aboard those 'planes' would have easily overtaken them with minimal injury... It just did NOT happen the way they said it did. It's all complete bullshit.
The idea that planes, comprised of very thin aluminum alloy bodies crashed, whole, through multiple 16 x 36 inch solid steel columns and vanished into the buildings is as absurd as it is scientifically impossible... IF a plane had hit it would have been as if hitting a wall, it would have smashed backward, broken into pieces, and exploded long before it vanished inside the tower, due to the steel columns that it would have contacted.
Only 1 out of 4 'indestructible' black boxes were found, and the one they found had 'nothing of use' on it? Bullshit.
---
So as it stands. Yes I believe it was a cover up by our corrupt, money hungry government as an excuse to start some shit with Afghanistan/Iraq in order to get at their oil and start a war (which creates profit for them). Nothing anyone says or does will ever convince me otherwise.
I had a ton of pictures I had collected over the years and studied but I think this blog is quite long enough. If you want them, feel free to email me.
...let the hatemail commence. I look forward to it.
The whole 9/11 'Terrorist Attacks' never ever sat right with me. They never will. I've never been 'at ease' with the stories that the government and the mainstream media concocted and spoon-fed everyone. I've been researching, watching, listening, and doing my own type of investigation since they happened. I've come to my own conclusions after all this time, after what I've seen, read, heard. I'm finally going to explain why I think this way. Oh I'm sure it will piss a lot of people off, and I'll get a lot of flack for it. Doesn't matter. My blog. My writing. My rules. Such is life. People don't like what they don't understand because it scares them. Put on your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
The story... '19 foreign terrorists hijacked 4 planes with boxcutters and flew them into the World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 (destroying them and WTC building 7) and the Pentagon, the last crashed in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania field.' ...and it all happened within 2 hours (except building 7)...
I'm not buying it... I call it like I see it. I'm calling bullshit. Call it as you will: A conspiracy theory, absurdity, etc. I'm calling it as it is. Lies. Deceit. A cover up.
The facts/research speaks for itself in my opinion:
---
North Tower (NT) World Trade Center
--Made of 100,000 tons of steel, 75,000 cubic yards of concrete, 21,800 windows, 60,000 tons of cooling equipment. The girders used in the internal structure were 36 x 16 inches thick.
--On Feb. 14th, 1975 a 6 floor fire raged in the North tower. It burned for 2+ hours. The building had no sprinklers. It made it through that without collapsing.
--Supposedly American Airlines flight 11 flew across the whole of Manhattan in just 90 seconds at just 900 feet going 550 miles per hour. (Fact: A 757 can not fly that fast at sea-level.)
--Seconds before the 'plane' hit the NT people survivors described hearing "boom boom boom" "like explosions" all over, like bombs under their feet in the middle and the bottom of the tower.
--9 seconds after the 'plane' hits, there are multiple sound recordings of a second explosion.
--Hit at 8:45 EST.
--'Plane' described as solid gray with a blue frontal logo and no windows. Not an American Airlines plane.
--Firefighters, the first in the building after it was hit, describe multiple explosions/booming sounds from in and around the ground floors.
--Collapsed second.
--Burned for 103 minutes after impact until 'pancake' collapse falling at nearly freefall speed.
South Tower (ST) World Trade Center
--Made of 100,000 tons of steel, 75,000 cubic yards of concrete, 21,800 windows, 60,000 tons of cooling equipment. The gerders used in the internal structure were 36 x 16 inches thick.
--Hit at 9:03 EST by by supposed plane United Airlines flight 175.
--The hole, analyzed appears to be about 65 feet in diameter where the 'plane' hit... A Boeing 757 wingspan is 144 feet. (The hole in the Pentagon where a supposed 757 also hit, after roof collapse was also about 65 feet, coincidence? I think not.)
--'Plane' described as solid gray with a blue frontal logo and no windows. Not an American Airlines plane.
--What the hell was affixed to the bottom/belly of the 'plane' that was long, dark gray, cylindrical and NOT standard on normal passenger jets?
--What cause the fiery flash before the 'plane' hit, and why does it look like the wing has disintegrated/vaporized before impact?
--Collapsed first.
--Burned for 53 minutes after impact until 'pancake' collapse.
--Took 10.8 seconds to fall. Nearly freefall speed.
--The WTC buildings' steel would only have become molten/soft enough to collapse at 3,000 degrees. The hottest temperature at ground floor was 1500 degrees.
--Molten metal at 3200 degrees was found for up at 5 weeks after 9/11 in the 6th and 7th basements of both towers and in building seven that compared almost uncannily with a controlled demolition.
--There is NO WAY in hell that fires at the TOP of the towers brought that much heat to the basement enough to cause the collapse on not one but both WTC towers and building seven. There is also no way the the fire 'traveled down the elevator shafts'. They were air-tight.
--If you watch any of the captured videos of the collapses you can see explosions that took out windows 20-30 feet below each point all down the buildings as they collapsed as like controlled demolitions.
--Clearly noted by building experts and demolition experts that WTC South/North towers and Building 7 were all very carefully planned/executed controlled demolitions.
WTC Building 7
--It was being used to store 3,000-5,000 files of Wall-Street investigations.
--The decision was made by Larry Silverstein (Building 7's lease-holder) over an hour before it collapsed, even before the Trade Center towers fell, to "pull it"... "Pull it" is a term used by demolition experts meaning bring a building down.
--Fell straight down in a 'pancake' collapse in just 6 seconds, into a neat little pile.
--Excuse... 'Falling debris from the twin towers created an internal fire' that brought it down... Bullshit.
--In 1959 a B-52 Bomber jet lost in fog crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. It's still standing to this day.
Pentagon:
--No wreckage. No tail section. No fuselage. No luggage, seats, plane nose... nothing.
--No bodies.
--A 16 foot hole (65 feet after roof collapse)... No way could a Boeing 757 leave that small of a hole in the pentagon if it slammed right into it.
--A Boeing 757 is 155 feet long, 44 feet high, and has 124 foot wingspan, and weighs 98 tons (196,000 lbs)...
--Each turbine engine weighs 6 tons and is 9 feet wide and 12 feet long.
--A Boeing 757 travels at 535 miles per hour.
--No way in hell could a plane that size with a 144 foot wingspan leave a mere 16 foot hole, no wreckage, and no evidence of a plane...
--Everything around the 16 foot hole (before roof collapse) was completely intact and unsinged/unburnt.
--The hole goes all the way through 3 rings, through 9 feet of steel reinforced concrete, to the other side, an is visible at the C-ring. 16 feet wide. Everything around it completely intact, and again, no plane wreckage.
--The only thing capable of doing exactly that kind of damage is an Air Force cruise 'Bunker Buster' missile.
--Witnesses say they saw a black helicopter as well as a black military jet circle the building minutes before the 'plane' hit.
--Witnesses also describe a 'shockwave' both in an around the Pentagon (as far as 1.6 miles away in a hotel) as if explosives had been detonated.
--A number of people said they smelled cordite, an ingredient used in explosives. Cordite produces little smoke, no flash, but produces a very strong 'detonation wave'.
--The surveillance tapes from 3 separate places were confiscated by the FBI within minutes of the explosion.
--Hit in the only place that had recently been renovated to 'withstand' that kind of attack.
Plane flight trajectory:
--At 9:38 am in Arlington, Virginia, apparently Flight 77 (the Boeing 757 that hit the Pentagon) executed a 333 degree 'hairpin' turn while going 535 miles per hour descending 7,000 feet in 2.5 minutes to line up the aircraft to crash into the Pentagon. That is physically impossible for a jetliner to do. It would have caused a high-speed stall for the plane and it would have fallen out of the sky in a spiral.
--As it supposedly crossed over the highway ever lower toward the Pentagon it clipped many of the light poles. Although when another Boeing plane a few years earlier hit just one light pole with the edge of the wing it crashed immediately and the pole was in two. The ones on the lawn of the Pentagon appear to have been ripped right out of the ground and scattered about. Not bent or broken. If a plane hit them they would have been in pieces and the plane would have crashed much earlier than supposedly hitting the Pentagon as the wings would have been in tatters from hitting so many.
Shanksville, Pennsylvania Flight 93
--No wreckage. No bodies. No plane parts. No luggage. No seats. No blood. No human parts or pieces. Nothing.
--Flight 93 didn't even crash. Reports from a Cleveland, Ohio airport received two Boeing jets after a 'bomb threat'. One was identified by United Airlines as US Flight 93.
--All 200 passengers were evacuated in 31 minutes and taken to a NASA Research Facility. They have not been seen or heard from since and were declared dead from the 'crash'.
--What about all the 'cell phone' calls? None of them happened. The probability of any cell phone connecting at 4,000 feet 0.4%, 12,000 feet 0.04%, 20,000 feet 0.016%, 26,000 feet 0.010%, 32,000 (cruising altitude) feet 0.008%. Cell phone towers/receivers were not installed into jets until 2003-2004...
---
Think about it this way... You're gonna tell me that 19 people hijacked 4 planes with boxcutters (Bypassing a 40 billion dollar security system) and all of the people on those planes couldn't have easily taken them down? BOXCUTTERS are not guns, they are 3 inch razorblades. I guarantee that the people aboard those 'planes' would have easily overtaken them with minimal injury... It just did NOT happen the way they said it did. It's all complete bullshit.
The idea that planes, comprised of very thin aluminum alloy bodies crashed, whole, through multiple 16 x 36 inch solid steel columns and vanished into the buildings is as absurd as it is scientifically impossible... IF a plane had hit it would have been as if hitting a wall, it would have smashed backward, broken into pieces, and exploded long before it vanished inside the tower, due to the steel columns that it would have contacted.
Only 1 out of 4 'indestructible' black boxes were found, and the one they found had 'nothing of use' on it? Bullshit.
---
So as it stands. Yes I believe it was a cover up by our corrupt, money hungry government as an excuse to start some shit with Afghanistan/Iraq in order to get at their oil and start a war (which creates profit for them). Nothing anyone says or does will ever convince me otherwise.
I had a ton of pictures I had collected over the years and studied but I think this blog is quite long enough. If you want them, feel free to email me.
...let the hatemail commence. I look forward to it.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
It's All in the Advertising Pt. I
So it's always irked the hell out of me how people market and sell things with their cheap tricks, gimmicks, and their selective or even made up wording.
People who are selling animals specifically piss me off. They use words that make their animals sound special, unique, or rare. Rare color, rare breed, rare this or that. Things that in reality are just lies. Whatever it takes to get the animal sold I suppose. It happens with people selling all kinds of animals. People even make up words, titles, and things that make their animal sound so much better than the next of the same species or breed. Let's explore this shall we?
Horse people use words like:
"Chrome" - Probably my biggest peeve about horse ads. Used to describe flashy white markings, usually a blaze and four white socks or stockings... Chrome is term coined for the silver detailing on cars. Since when did horses sprout silver metal from their face and legs? ...better call a detail shop, the horse needs grooming.
"Own son/Own daughter of" - Um, who the hell else's son or daughter would it be other than the sire/dam? Oh we lied, your foal is adopted. This is just so damn stupid.
"Tri-color Paint" - Just because your bay/buckskin is a paint does not make it a tricolor paint. It's not rare or unusual. It's just a bay/buckskin with added paint genes. It's not a tan-point dog, and the only thing that's gonna make it a 'tri-color paint' is if Bob Ross comes back from the dead and works his magic all over it with 'happy little trees' and 'friendly little waterfalls'.
"Elegant" - Underweight or scrawny, with the likeness of a deer. Feed your damn horse.
"Spirited" - Untrained or very little training. Get off your ass and train your horse.
"Flashy" - Usually a paint. It's no more flashy than any other horses just because it has white, unless it has blinky lights growing on its ass.
"Stud Prospect" - Uh yeah, it has testicles, that makes it capable of getting a mare pregnant... Does that mean it should be allowed to? 99% of the time hell no. Most of the time its a conformationally flawed youngster with nothing to show for itself and no record of doing anything.
"Broodmare Prospect" - It has a uterus and is capable of carrying a foal. Does that mean it should be allowed to? 99% of the time hell no. Most of the time its a conformationally flawed youngster with nothing to show for itself and no record of doing anything.
"Richly colored" - Any color other than gray... err, gravy?
"Champion bloodlines" - Usually the champions are 5, 6, 7 or more generations back and really account for nothing. All registered horses with 'championship bloodlines' have champions somewhere in their history.
"Rare breed" - Usually not that rare at all. The new 'trendy' breed, such as Gypsy cobs. A breed used for steaks?
"Started" - Probably had one or two rides only. Or dinner will be ready in a while?
"Green" - Probably had three or four rides only... or the color of grass.
"Grade" - Mixed breed... or a mark you receive on a test.
... and on and on.
Dog people use words like:
"Designer breed" - ...A mutt. Usually concocted of breeds that were stupidly purposely bred together with a name that is a mixture of the parent breeds and sounds equally as stupid.
"Hypoallergenic" - Usually a poodle mix. There is no such thing as a hypoallergenic animal. If you actually found/created a true hypoallergenic animal, you'd be a billionaire.
"Tea-Cup" - Bred to be way too damn small. Usually pictured as a 2 week old puppy, eyes barely open, in a small coffee cup or next to a soda can. Will not stay that small. Very fine-boned and prone to health problems.
"Non-shedding" - Usually a poodle/bichon mix. Curly hair that grows continuously and requires grooming every 6-8 weeks. Meaning you better have the money to pay a groomer.
"High-Content" - More blood of one breed than any other breed but still a mix. High-content? Is that anything like high-octane fuel? Or... they are highly content with life?
"Wolf Hybrid" - Wolves and dogs are both canines. A hybrid is a cross between species, like a lion/tiger to get a liger or a donkey/horse to get a mule. Usually a silver/black sable husky/malamute mixed with something else, or a Czech/Saarloos wolfdog (which are domesticated breeds not part wolf).
"Rare breed" - Usually a new purpose bred 'designer' mix, or the current 'trendy' breed. Or a dog bred for steak?
"Champion bloodlines" - Usually the champions are 5, 6, 7 or more generations back and really account for nothing. All registered horses with 'championship bloodlines' have champions somewhere in their history.
"Not fixed. Breeding prospect." - Meaning it can be used to churn out more puppies the world doesn't need. Usually of shitty conformation/type, most often a small dog used to create more 'tea-cup' mutts in a puppymill.
"Partially trained" - Knows 'sit' and not much else.
"Good yard protection dog" - Spent it's entire life on a chain with little or no human companionship.
"Exotic color" - A non-typical/non-accepted color for the breed produced by breeding in another breed that carries the color and attempting to breed that breed out again leaving just the color.
...and so on.
It's absurd the lengths that people will go to just to sell something. The amount of blatant lies and sugar-coating is easy to see when you look in any classified section. They will tell people anything they want to hear get a few dollars. What's worse, people believe it! I suppose, then, if ignorance is bliss, then why aren't a hell of a lot more people happy (especially with they purchase)?
People who are selling animals specifically piss me off. They use words that make their animals sound special, unique, or rare. Rare color, rare breed, rare this or that. Things that in reality are just lies. Whatever it takes to get the animal sold I suppose. It happens with people selling all kinds of animals. People even make up words, titles, and things that make their animal sound so much better than the next of the same species or breed. Let's explore this shall we?
Horse people use words like:
"Chrome" - Probably my biggest peeve about horse ads. Used to describe flashy white markings, usually a blaze and four white socks or stockings... Chrome is term coined for the silver detailing on cars. Since when did horses sprout silver metal from their face and legs? ...better call a detail shop, the horse needs grooming.
"Own son/Own daughter of" - Um, who the hell else's son or daughter would it be other than the sire/dam? Oh we lied, your foal is adopted. This is just so damn stupid.
"Tri-color Paint" - Just because your bay/buckskin is a paint does not make it a tricolor paint. It's not rare or unusual. It's just a bay/buckskin with added paint genes. It's not a tan-point dog, and the only thing that's gonna make it a 'tri-color paint' is if Bob Ross comes back from the dead and works his magic all over it with 'happy little trees' and 'friendly little waterfalls'.
"Elegant" - Underweight or scrawny, with the likeness of a deer. Feed your damn horse.
"Spirited" - Untrained or very little training. Get off your ass and train your horse.
"Flashy" - Usually a paint. It's no more flashy than any other horses just because it has white, unless it has blinky lights growing on its ass.
"Stud Prospect" - Uh yeah, it has testicles, that makes it capable of getting a mare pregnant... Does that mean it should be allowed to? 99% of the time hell no. Most of the time its a conformationally flawed youngster with nothing to show for itself and no record of doing anything.
"Broodmare Prospect" - It has a uterus and is capable of carrying a foal. Does that mean it should be allowed to? 99% of the time hell no. Most of the time its a conformationally flawed youngster with nothing to show for itself and no record of doing anything.
"Richly colored" - Any color other than gray... err, gravy?
"Champion bloodlines" - Usually the champions are 5, 6, 7 or more generations back and really account for nothing. All registered horses with 'championship bloodlines' have champions somewhere in their history.
"Rare breed" - Usually not that rare at all. The new 'trendy' breed, such as Gypsy cobs. A breed used for steaks?
"Started" - Probably had one or two rides only. Or dinner will be ready in a while?
"Green" - Probably had three or four rides only... or the color of grass.
"Grade" - Mixed breed... or a mark you receive on a test.
... and on and on.
Dog people use words like:
"Designer breed" - ...A mutt. Usually concocted of breeds that were stupidly purposely bred together with a name that is a mixture of the parent breeds and sounds equally as stupid.
"Hypoallergenic" - Usually a poodle mix. There is no such thing as a hypoallergenic animal. If you actually found/created a true hypoallergenic animal, you'd be a billionaire.
"Tea-Cup" - Bred to be way too damn small. Usually pictured as a 2 week old puppy, eyes barely open, in a small coffee cup or next to a soda can. Will not stay that small. Very fine-boned and prone to health problems.
"Non-shedding" - Usually a poodle/bichon mix. Curly hair that grows continuously and requires grooming every 6-8 weeks. Meaning you better have the money to pay a groomer.
"High-Content" - More blood of one breed than any other breed but still a mix. High-content? Is that anything like high-octane fuel? Or... they are highly content with life?
"Wolf Hybrid" - Wolves and dogs are both canines. A hybrid is a cross between species, like a lion/tiger to get a liger or a donkey/horse to get a mule. Usually a silver/black sable husky/malamute mixed with something else, or a Czech/Saarloos wolfdog (which are domesticated breeds not part wolf).
"Rare breed" - Usually a new purpose bred 'designer' mix, or the current 'trendy' breed. Or a dog bred for steak?
"Champion bloodlines" - Usually the champions are 5, 6, 7 or more generations back and really account for nothing. All registered horses with 'championship bloodlines' have champions somewhere in their history.
"Not fixed. Breeding prospect." - Meaning it can be used to churn out more puppies the world doesn't need. Usually of shitty conformation/type, most often a small dog used to create more 'tea-cup' mutts in a puppymill.
"Partially trained" - Knows 'sit' and not much else.
"Good yard protection dog" - Spent it's entire life on a chain with little or no human companionship.
"Exotic color" - A non-typical/non-accepted color for the breed produced by breeding in another breed that carries the color and attempting to breed that breed out again leaving just the color.
...and so on.
It's absurd the lengths that people will go to just to sell something. The amount of blatant lies and sugar-coating is easy to see when you look in any classified section. They will tell people anything they want to hear get a few dollars. What's worse, people believe it! I suppose, then, if ignorance is bliss, then why aren't a hell of a lot more people happy (especially with they purchase)?
Monday, January 14, 2013
'Certified Master' Groomers
As many of my readers (especially those who follow me on Facebook) know, I am a full time professional pet groomer. I have been grooming professionally since 2005 and groomed quite a few show dogs, when I was showing, in the years before that.
There are ins and outs to grooming. Some groomers will try to make themselves look/feel better by calling themselves something other than a groomer, like 'pet stylist', 'animal hygienist', 'companion animal cleaner', 'canine coat technician' etc. It doesn't make a difference with all of the wishy-washy phony titles out there, the people who take care of animals' skin, coat, nails, etc are groomers. End of story. Call them what you will. A groomer by any other name is still a groomer.
What I dislike is groomers that have some kind of certification that makes them think they are the Creator's gift to man/animal kind. Let me tell you why it irritates me so much...
There are many certifications that can be gotten by groomers, a few are:
Nationally Certified Master Groomer (NCMG)
Certified Master Groomer (CMG)
Certified Master Feline Groomer (CMFG)
International Certified Pet Groomer (ICPG)
Professional Pet Groomers' Certification (PPGC)
International Professional Groomer (IPG)
Companion Animal Hygienist (CAH)
...etc.
Here's why I don't think this title really means as much as it makes people think it does. First of all, I am absolutely not bashing groomers, and yes I do commend the people who do get certified as 'master groomers', it shows that you have talent and that you're eager to share that. What pisses me off about most nationally certified 'master groomers' is they think they are better than all other groomers, the elite Gods of the grooming world. The reason I don't think it makes a person the Creator's gift to the world is because it's not as in depth as it sounds. Master groomers, to get certified as such, are only required to do the grooming on four dogs of of their choosing of separate acceptable breeds and take a written questionnaire.
There are well over 460 recognized/registerable breeds of dogs. AKC alone has registries for 158 breeds. The UKC has registries for 374 breeds. The CKC has registries for 192 breeds. The FCI has registries for 337 breeds.
...you're going to tell me that by doing a perfect, or nearly perfect breed standard groom on just four different common breeds and answering a four hundred count questionnaire that you are now certified to groom all 460+ breeds? I don't think so.
The breeds for each section of the physical exam, the ones you have the choice to groom to breed standard, are (Choosing 1 from each section):
Non-Sporting:
Toy Poodle
Miniature Poodle
Bichon Frise
Sporting:
American Cocker Spaniel
English Cocker Spaniel
English Springer Spaniel
Long-Legged Terrier:
Miniature Schnauzer
Wire Fox Terrier
Kerry Blue Terrier
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier
Short-Legged Terrier:
West Highland White Terrier
Scottish Terrier
Sealyham Terrier
Cairn Terrier
Each dog is required to have at least 8 weeks of hair growth, so it can be shaped, molded, and scissored into the clips/grooms deemed acceptable. The dogs are also required to be well trained, quiet, and free of mats, tangles, dirt, and any kind of skin conditions before the test ever begins. Most of the dogs are owned by long-time groomers and have very nice full show quality coats the comply with their breed standards. The part that gets under my skin is simply this: Purebred dogs with silent, docile, perfect temperaments. Trained, calm, and obedient for grooming. Perfect skin, no skin issues. Perfect or at least very good hair. Correct conformation by size, coat, and weight, or very close to it.
...in the real world, in a real every-day grooming salon this is -not-, let me repeat, -not- what you see.
More than half of the time in any regular grooming salon on any given day you get mixed breed dogs that are matted/tangled, extremely filthy, ill-bred with severe conformational flaws, with one or more skin condition or parasites, and a nasty, often aggressive or difficult to handle temperament.
I do not think it is entirely fair to give the title 'master groomer' to someone who only has to groom four clean, parasite/skin condition free, conformationally correct dogs that are quiet, well-trained, and used to being groomed once a month, because that's definitely not the reality of what you see on a day to day basis in any shop.
To start off, most of the pet dogs taken to a groomer are mixed breeds! You get dogs that are hard to handle from lack of training/discipline/grooming. Many come in with a load of tangles or are matted. Over half of them are terribly bred with massive conformational and structural flaws. They don't want to be messed with, they don't want to stand, many of them are constant barkers/whiners, they fight for blow-drying and bathing, some urinate/defecate on themselves. The list goes in. While we do get a lot of lovely dogs that are a pleasure to do, the fact is, on and every day basis, you're usually dealing with animals that have issues in coat, temperament, structure, hair, skin, etc or a multitude of issues. ...and tell me this, how many average pet dog owners want a very expensive 6+ inch long showring groom on their backyard mixed breed? Exactly.
Just because you can do show grooms doesn't mean everyone will want them, in fact, most pet owners won't. They want something simple, cost-effective, and practical. A very long hand scissored groom on a pet that gets groomed every 12 weeks (or longer) and receives very little grooming/maintenance is not practical at all and it is expensive.
Now if aspiring master groomers were made to take 5 or 6 dogs from the shelter they knew nothing about that didn't have perfect hair, temperaments, or conformation I would be a lot more respecting. To me, a master groomer is someone who can take a dog with structural flaws and make it look structurally correct, or grooming a dog with time and patience that is a fighter or difficult to do without getting upset/stressed. A master groomer, in my opinion, can make a mixed breed look exceptional when it either looks nothing like the breeds its supposed to be made up of or can make it look more outstanding than any purebred registered showring dog. That's what makes a master for me. Someone who can make something amazing out of nothing. Basically turning a mutt, a lump of coal, into a diamond with their exceptional grooming.
Four perfect (or nearly perfect) dogs and a questionnaire, for me, does not make you a master groomer.
Furthermore, the reason more veteran and apprentice groomers do not go for their master grooming certification is two reasons: It's a downright pain in the ass, and it's very expensive!
The test alone to become a nationally certified master groomer is nearly $700 by itself. That doesn't account for registry, food, lodging, fuel, and other expenses. Then you have to find four quiet well-trained purebred structurally correct dogs that conform to their breed standard and have at least eight weeks of non-matted non-tangled hair growth to work on (they do not provide the dogs for you to test on). Then you have to have crates/food for all of them. Then there's finding a hotel that will cater to your stay with four dogs during your duration of testing. Then you have to haul all of the dogs, the crates, and all of your grooming equipment to the testing center at the asscrack of dawn and spend the entire day there. On top of that, to use the nationally certified master groomer logo/info in your advertising or at your grooming salon you have to pay yearly fees to the NDGAA of $40 just to stay registered as a certified master groomer, and if you ever need a replacement copy of any of your certificates, those run between $15 and $25 apiece.
This is why I feel it is unnecessary. I know I am a good groomer. I know I am a damn good groomer. My clients are sure to not only show but to tell me. I don't feel that I should be required to spend a great deal of money, search across hell and high water to find quality dogs, and take a test on just four animals to be called a master. I know I am damn good at what I do, certified as a 'master groomer' or not. It's just a piece of paper. The proof is in my performance and in how good the animals I groom look/feel when they leave my care.
There are ins and outs to grooming. Some groomers will try to make themselves look/feel better by calling themselves something other than a groomer, like 'pet stylist', 'animal hygienist', 'companion animal cleaner', 'canine coat technician' etc. It doesn't make a difference with all of the wishy-washy phony titles out there, the people who take care of animals' skin, coat, nails, etc are groomers. End of story. Call them what you will. A groomer by any other name is still a groomer.
What I dislike is groomers that have some kind of certification that makes them think they are the Creator's gift to man/animal kind. Let me tell you why it irritates me so much...
There are many certifications that can be gotten by groomers, a few are:
Nationally Certified Master Groomer (NCMG)
Certified Master Groomer (CMG)
Certified Master Feline Groomer (CMFG)
International Certified Pet Groomer (ICPG)
Professional Pet Groomers' Certification (PPGC)
International Professional Groomer (IPG)
Companion Animal Hygienist (CAH)
...etc.
Here's why I don't think this title really means as much as it makes people think it does. First of all, I am absolutely not bashing groomers, and yes I do commend the people who do get certified as 'master groomers', it shows that you have talent and that you're eager to share that. What pisses me off about most nationally certified 'master groomers' is they think they are better than all other groomers, the elite Gods of the grooming world. The reason I don't think it makes a person the Creator's gift to the world is because it's not as in depth as it sounds. Master groomers, to get certified as such, are only required to do the grooming on four dogs of of their choosing of separate acceptable breeds and take a written questionnaire.
There are well over 460 recognized/registerable breeds of dogs. AKC alone has registries for 158 breeds. The UKC has registries for 374 breeds. The CKC has registries for 192 breeds. The FCI has registries for 337 breeds.
...you're going to tell me that by doing a perfect, or nearly perfect breed standard groom on just four different common breeds and answering a four hundred count questionnaire that you are now certified to groom all 460+ breeds? I don't think so.
The breeds for each section of the physical exam, the ones you have the choice to groom to breed standard, are (Choosing 1 from each section):
Non-Sporting:
Toy Poodle
Miniature Poodle
Bichon Frise
Sporting:
American Cocker Spaniel
English Cocker Spaniel
English Springer Spaniel
Long-Legged Terrier:
Miniature Schnauzer
Wire Fox Terrier
Kerry Blue Terrier
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier
Short-Legged Terrier:
West Highland White Terrier
Scottish Terrier
Sealyham Terrier
Cairn Terrier
Each dog is required to have at least 8 weeks of hair growth, so it can be shaped, molded, and scissored into the clips/grooms deemed acceptable. The dogs are also required to be well trained, quiet, and free of mats, tangles, dirt, and any kind of skin conditions before the test ever begins. Most of the dogs are owned by long-time groomers and have very nice full show quality coats the comply with their breed standards. The part that gets under my skin is simply this: Purebred dogs with silent, docile, perfect temperaments. Trained, calm, and obedient for grooming. Perfect skin, no skin issues. Perfect or at least very good hair. Correct conformation by size, coat, and weight, or very close to it.
...in the real world, in a real every-day grooming salon this is -not-, let me repeat, -not- what you see.
More than half of the time in any regular grooming salon on any given day you get mixed breed dogs that are matted/tangled, extremely filthy, ill-bred with severe conformational flaws, with one or more skin condition or parasites, and a nasty, often aggressive or difficult to handle temperament.
I do not think it is entirely fair to give the title 'master groomer' to someone who only has to groom four clean, parasite/skin condition free, conformationally correct dogs that are quiet, well-trained, and used to being groomed once a month, because that's definitely not the reality of what you see on a day to day basis in any shop.
To start off, most of the pet dogs taken to a groomer are mixed breeds! You get dogs that are hard to handle from lack of training/discipline/grooming. Many come in with a load of tangles or are matted. Over half of them are terribly bred with massive conformational and structural flaws. They don't want to be messed with, they don't want to stand, many of them are constant barkers/whiners, they fight for blow-drying and bathing, some urinate/defecate on themselves. The list goes in. While we do get a lot of lovely dogs that are a pleasure to do, the fact is, on and every day basis, you're usually dealing with animals that have issues in coat, temperament, structure, hair, skin, etc or a multitude of issues. ...and tell me this, how many average pet dog owners want a very expensive 6+ inch long showring groom on their backyard mixed breed? Exactly.
Just because you can do show grooms doesn't mean everyone will want them, in fact, most pet owners won't. They want something simple, cost-effective, and practical. A very long hand scissored groom on a pet that gets groomed every 12 weeks (or longer) and receives very little grooming/maintenance is not practical at all and it is expensive.
Now if aspiring master groomers were made to take 5 or 6 dogs from the shelter they knew nothing about that didn't have perfect hair, temperaments, or conformation I would be a lot more respecting. To me, a master groomer is someone who can take a dog with structural flaws and make it look structurally correct, or grooming a dog with time and patience that is a fighter or difficult to do without getting upset/stressed. A master groomer, in my opinion, can make a mixed breed look exceptional when it either looks nothing like the breeds its supposed to be made up of or can make it look more outstanding than any purebred registered showring dog. That's what makes a master for me. Someone who can make something amazing out of nothing. Basically turning a mutt, a lump of coal, into a diamond with their exceptional grooming.
Four perfect (or nearly perfect) dogs and a questionnaire, for me, does not make you a master groomer.
Furthermore, the reason more veteran and apprentice groomers do not go for their master grooming certification is two reasons: It's a downright pain in the ass, and it's very expensive!
The test alone to become a nationally certified master groomer is nearly $700 by itself. That doesn't account for registry, food, lodging, fuel, and other expenses. Then you have to find four quiet well-trained purebred structurally correct dogs that conform to their breed standard and have at least eight weeks of non-matted non-tangled hair growth to work on (they do not provide the dogs for you to test on). Then you have to have crates/food for all of them. Then there's finding a hotel that will cater to your stay with four dogs during your duration of testing. Then you have to haul all of the dogs, the crates, and all of your grooming equipment to the testing center at the asscrack of dawn and spend the entire day there. On top of that, to use the nationally certified master groomer logo/info in your advertising or at your grooming salon you have to pay yearly fees to the NDGAA of $40 just to stay registered as a certified master groomer, and if you ever need a replacement copy of any of your certificates, those run between $15 and $25 apiece.
This is why I feel it is unnecessary. I know I am a good groomer. I know I am a damn good groomer. My clients are sure to not only show but to tell me. I don't feel that I should be required to spend a great deal of money, search across hell and high water to find quality dogs, and take a test on just four animals to be called a master. I know I am damn good at what I do, certified as a 'master groomer' or not. It's just a piece of paper. The proof is in my performance and in how good the animals I groom look/feel when they leave my care.