Day: June 18, 2014

I am very happy to share with you the tentative cover for my upcoming E-book “Who Speaks For the Carriage Horses?: The Future Of Animals In Our World.” My agent Christopher Schelling of Selectric Artists is working with designers and editors to publish the book, which includes about 40 photographs and edited and expanded versions of my writing about the New York Carriage Horse controversy.

I began writing about this issue in January, and I haven’t really stopped. It is an important one for anyone who is concerned about the future of animals in our world. When I went to New York to see the horses for myself and go through their stables, I was profoundly moved and disturbed over the controversial, long and often disturbing campaign to ban the horses, put the carriage trade owners out of business and leave the scores of carriage drivers without work.

If the horses are driven from New York, there will be enormous consequences for people and animals, animals other than pets are being driven from our lives, our cities, our world. The animal rights movement in New York has become too arrogant, too powerful and out of touch, their campaign against the horses is dishonest and increasingly abusive to people. So I’m very proud to be publishing an e-book on this subject, a portion of any proceeds will go to a fund to help keep the horses in New York.

I spent months researching  this story, and it has grown way beyond the horses, it speaks to the future of animals, the true nature of their rights and welfare, the real meaning of abuse and cruelty to animals,   and the very real implications in the fate of the horses for anyone who lives with animals and loves them.

I spent seven months researching this book, calling city agencies, visiting the stables and drivers in New York. This story is very important to me, it has drawn many thousands of people to my blog and my work. I am publishing this in the hopes it will reach an even bigger audience. The horses need every one of you.

Tonight, I just wanted to share the cover with you.

The book will be available anywhere e-books are sold, it can be purchased online, at Amazon, Ibooks and Bn.com or on any smartphone, tablet or computer. There are no plans to publish this book in paper form, it is just not feasible or economical. I suspect the book will be published within a few weeks, I love this cover and think it has a lot of power and depth.

As was inevitable, Red got into the ram’s face, and he charged at Red, butting him hard in the head – I heard the thud loud and clear from 20 feet. It was a hard hit, but Red shook it off. He is resilient.

Our dog-broke sheep would never get to close to Red, would not challenge him, these sheep had no fear of the dog, when he got close they all tried to charge him.

Red got down low, came up suddenly and nipped the ram in the face, the ram was startled and backed up. The people at the farm were taken with Red and asked if we could come back to god-break the sheep. That could be great fun, we’ll find a time to do it. Red did beautifully, he was calm, intuitive, he was forceful without being aggressive, he grasped the task and help everyone get the sheep where they wanted them to go. I think they would have figured it out without  him although the sheep were refusing to take grain and had been panicked by the wild dog.

It worked out well, is all that matters.

Red held the sheep under the tree while the Common Sense farm members unraveled a white fence. At this point, the ram was off his halter and he and Red locked horns, so to speak. Red held the sheep in place, but  I knew a confrontation was looming, too much testosterone and Red does not give way to any sheep.

At one point during our march back, three of the ewes tried a break out, they turned and headed towards the road and town. I sent Red out on a “come bye” and he headed them off and “walked up” towards them. They though of challenging him, but he nipped a nose or two and turned them back and they fled towards the ram. At that point, Red had them under control.

There is nothing – absolutely nothing – that I love more than when somebody calls for help with sheep or cows or goats that have broken loose. Rose did scores of emergency visits, and Red is starting to get his own calls. Today it was from our friend Jenna Woginrich calling on behalf of the people at the huge Common Sense Farm, a religious community on the edge of Cambridge. Jenna texted me, her border collie Gibson was injured, she said, the farm’s sheep were running amok around the farm.

Nobody needs to say more to me. I yelled “let’s go to work,” Red came tearing out and into the car, I grabbed my camera and we took off for Common Sense Farm, about two miles down the road. Everybody looked a little fried, a wild dog had shown up, along with the police, and the sheep had been running everywhere, lots of long tongues. The people at Common Sense were beginning to get things under control, they had the ram on a halter when we arrived, the others were running around, they were not dog broke so did not know just what to do around Red. And they had a long ways to go to get to the shade tree.

Red didn’t skip a beat, he corralled the two stragglers, butted heads with the ram, and started marching them towards the shade tree where they had a portable fence ready to set up. Red just put pressure on the ewes to keep walking in a straight line, he sensed where we were going, when one of the sheep broke off, he got around them and kept them together. When they got to the shade tree, he lay down and kept them in place until the fence was up.

I knew we were in good shape when I saw that the ram was on a hallter, because sheep hate to be separated from one another, and as long as the ram was moving in the right direction, it would be simpler, if not simple, to keep them moving towards him. The ram had no choice, he was being pulled, the sheep did – they refer any option other than the dog bearing down on them. When we got to the shade tree, Red swung around and kept them still.

It was a textbook case of good border collie work, it is inspiring to watch Red figure things out, and it makes me rethink sending all of the sheep away (Maria was already rethinking it.) It is such a special gift Red has, it would be a shame not to use it regularly. One of the people at Common Sense said the community doesn’t believe in having dogs or “useless” pets, (they have two donkeys who work in the fields) but I pointed out that Red was the most useful creature present, and they agreed.

Red loved it, he ended up butting heads with the ram again and he took a couple of direct hits – this ram, Cloud, was from Jenna’s farm and she was proud of him when I told her how he was protecting his girls. I loved it, too, it is one of those things that makes my life here special. We have done emergency herding for cows, goats, and sheep. Rose got paid $10 for a visit, she had earned $340 when she died. I haven’t charged for Red yet.

I’ll put a few photos up on Facebook, it was a great adventure all around.