OT--Attack Collie

[Bullethead 12]

My collie dog just killed an armadillo. GOOD DOG! I hate armadillos and kill every one I get a shot at, so was glad to see the dog finally earning her keep. And I was quite impressed. Years ago she chased and caught an armadillo but chipped a tooth on the armor and AFAIK hadn't messed with them since. Probably got clawed up, too. I've got scars from those wicked claws. But I the dog's been thinking about what went wrong back then because she sure got it right today. This is the 1st time I know of a dog managing the trick and armadillo invulnerability to coyotes and such is probably why they've spread like they have. I'd post a pic but they're pretty graphic. Anyway, anybody else's dog ever manage an armadillo?

[MudWasp48 3]

No armadillos around here, so I don't have any experience with them.

My dogs love hunting woodchucks which can tear up my garden real fast. What sort of damage do armadillos do?

[zoomzoom 2]

Wow, that's pretty impressive. You guys (you and the pooch) be careful though, I used to think the following was an urban myth regarding the little pesky tank-like rodents, but turns out it has some merit.

 

http://www.nytimes.c...prosy.html?_r=0

 

ZZ.

 

PS. Click the little "skip ad" in the upper right hand corner. Thats what I get for posting a link from the NY-Times...lol

Edited May 13, 2013 by zoomzoom

[NS13Jarhead 6]

Going through pilot survival training at Eglin AFB, Florida, my crew and I caught, killed, and ate one of the little buggers. We divvied it up, boiled it and then cooked the pieces over a small campfire. After three days without food, you will eat just about anything. BTW, it tastes like pork.

[Bullethead 12]

Some armadillos carry leprosy but don't suffer from it themselves, although they can pass it to people and apparently each other. Dogs don't get leprosy so I have no fear for Ofilosa from chewing one up. This has been known for like 30 years so I'm surprised at the 2011 date of that article, acting as if it was a new discovery. 35 years ago in Texas, armadillo races (with the losers being barbequed and eaten) was a popular small-town community event all over the state. But all that disappeared overnight once the link with leprosy was discovered. All too bad because the races were fun and armadillos taste good. But armadillos are horrible pests. While it's true they do eat fireants (a fellow illegal alien from south of the border), they spend most of their time totally destroying your yard, leaving ankle-twisting holes all over the place. This is why most armadillos got eaten at the races; the whole point was to kill them off.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Collies eh?...lol...can't beat 'em!

 

No Armadillo's here in the UK...but plenty of Rabbits have felt Sophie's wrath!..... She shows no quarter... and is more than happy to bring them back for the pot too! (she usually ends up getting the whole Rabbit to eat...though she shares it with Old Max (my other Collie)...whose Rabbit chasing days are over...though, in his Youth..he nailed his fair share!

 

And yet...when presented with their natural job of herding...they can be the most gentle Dogs...my friend who is a shepherd by trade, has a Collie, who will pin a lamb to the ground...just firmly enough, with his paw...to hold it there, until his master arrives...but causes no injury, or indeed..undue stress to the Lamb.

 

Quite the most amazing Dogs I've ever had dealings with.

Edited May 13, 2013 by UK_Widowmaker

[Olham 164]

35 years ago in Texas, armadillo races (with the losers being barbequed and eaten)

was a popular small-town community event all over the state.

 

And you say armadillos are a pest?

I wonder what armadillos would say about us, if they could only speak.

 

Hey, Widow, I haven't seen you much lately - I guess "collie" was the trigger...

Edited May 14, 2013 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

And you say armadillos are a pest?

I wonder what armadillos would say about us, if they could only speak.

Armadillos are illegal aliens, not native to the US, so deserve no sympathy. Besides, they absolutely tear up your lawn. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've sprained an ankle stepping in one of their rootings. DEATH TO ARMADILLOS!!

[Olham 164]

Armadillos are illegal aliens, not native to the US, so deserve no sympathy.

Like the white man?

 

Besides, they absolutely tear up your lawn.

You must have English ancestors - Mmuahahahahaaa!!!

 

I can't even begin to count the number of times I've sprained an ankle stepping in one of their rootings.

Stop counting, and watch your step, I'd say.

 

Here in Berlin, we have huge populations of rabbits in the parks.

Such big "communities" can really undermine the terrain so much, that they are beginning to be a plague.

Do your armadillos also live in large groups, or are they just living solo?

Edited May 15, 2013 by Olham

[MudWasp48 3]

Olham,

Rabbits are good eating. Is there a legal way to "harvest" a bunny while in the park? I'd be inclined to take a morning stroll in the park and return with a bag O'bunnies.

How is the city dealing with the over population?

 

Years ago I watched a news show out of Buffalo, NY dealing with the topic of deer over populion with in the city suburbs. Many people were for a limited hunt and some very opposed to controlled hunts in the parks. I couldn't stop laughing when one opponent to hunting suggested contraception. Not in the form of birth control in the food, but actual condoms. The city wound up allowing a few limited archery hunts and relocating many of the remaining deer.

[tranquillo 10]

Armadillos are illegal aliens, not native to the US, so deserve no sympathy.

Ok, so they are a pest and as such need dealing with but to say they deserve no sympathy? It's not their fault they're armadillos and that they don't belong there.

[Olham 164]

Rabbits are good eating. Is there a legal way to "harvest" a bunny while in the park?

I'd be inclined to take a morning stroll in the park and return with a bag O'bunnies.

How is the city dealing with the over population?

Some years ago they had a nasty disease, which made their fur look scrubby, and they got blind.

You wouldn't want to eat them, I guess.

I can only assume, that the City poised them, when they became too many.

They did the same with the pigeon overpopulation, and poised them.

With the result, that they also exterminated almost all of our sparrows.

Only slowly now their population recovers.

 

...one opponent to hunting suggested contraception.

Not in the form of birth control in the food, but actual condoms.

Yeah, well, some people tend to exaggerate their ideas about animal welfare.

Another "Mmuahahahahaaa!!!" would fit well here.

Animals can usually help themselves quite well, and they even get used to manmade landscape changes.

We actually have foxes IN the city of Berlin.

One day I had to meet a client very early and waited at their parking space behind the main building.

And on came a female fox.

She stopped and stood as still as me.

She tried to catch a scent of me, looked me up and down carefully - and then she trodded on,

passing me by only 4 meters without showing any shyness.

Of course the community would kill them, if they should get rabies - the safety of kids goes first.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

Apologies in advance for the compacted nature of this post but it's that IE 10 carriage return problem. So all I can do is put breaks within lines to separate things.*************** @ Olham: If the whiteman is an illegal alien in the US, then Germans are illegal aliens in Germany :). I mean, Homo erectus was the 1st guy there, but he was replaced by H. heidelbergensis, who was replaced by H. neanderthal, who was replaced by H. sapiens. And within the latter group alone you've had the "native" Mesolithic folks replaced by Neolithic farmers coming up the river valleys from the Middle East and Asia Minor. Then Indo-European folks came in off the steppes and seem eventually to have become Celts. Finally, another group of Indo-Europeans became Germans and chased the Celts not only out of Germany but most of Europe in general.******As to my own ancestors, modern genetics have shown I'm a total mutt, so I had ancestors on both sides of pretty much every migration and invasion, ever. I got my ribcage, shinbones, and various parts of my skull from a Neanderthal. My Y-chromosome goes back to the 1st wave of Indo-Europeans coming into Europe, my mtDNA comes from North Africa, my ass comes from West Africa, and my shovel-shaped teeth, which came from China via Beringia as the glaciers melted, met up all these other parts in the New World.***********@ Tranquillo: Of course it's not their fault they're armadillos, but it's not the fault of smallpox, anthrax, or any other disease that they're what they are, either. Still, they're all in the same general category of living things that cause nothing but problems and should be exterminated. Nobody has any sympathy for the microbes so why feel sorry for armadillos?

[tranquillo 10]

Microbes are not thinking creatures capable of emotion and putting armadillos in the same category as a deadly disease/virus which threatens human existence simply makes no sense.

I will not argue with you further, my life is already going to be shorter than I'd wish and my energy is best placed elsewhere.

[Olham 164]

If the whiteman is an illegal alien in the US, then Germans are illegal aliens in Germany :)

I didn't say that the white man is an illegal alien in the US.

I only compared his status of legality to that of the armadillo. You decide, wether it's legal or not.

 

I had ancestors on both sides of pretty much every migration and invasion, ever.

That makes you a "mongrel" - those are the toughest, best tempered fellers usually.

 

Still, they're all in the same general category of living things that cause nothing but problems...

Again - you might as well be talking about human beings.

 

 

Tranquillo, whatever you mean, I guess it's not the length of time we can have, but the quality that makes the bill acceptable.

However - I wish you that all negative prognoses will be proved wrong in the end, my friend.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Olham

[MudWasp48 3]

Olham,

That's kinda tragic that the sparrows were hit hard by the pidgeon poison. Maybe the rabbits had mange?

Around here it is common to see birds eating fast food scaps in fast food parking lots. Some people feed them. I'll never forget seeing a huge 10 point buck doing the same. The kicker was that I had spent the cold wet morning hunting deer in the forest and seen NOTHING. The running joke that year and for a few years there after was to pack french fries when heading out on a deer hunt.

[MudWasp48 3]

My grandparents called pigeons... "City Chicken". I didn't find out until many years later that the "City Chicken" meal Grandma was famous for was actually pigeon that Grandpa had "plunked" with his pump pellet pistol.

[Olham 164]

Yeah, the old "ironweeds" - when Berlin was in ruins after WW2, people ate pigeons

and "Dach-Hasen" (roof rabbits) - which were really cats.

Well, hunger does that, I suppose.

Never heard of dogs been eaten.

I guess even very hungry Germans just can't bring themselves to do that?

[MudWasp48 3]

Eating dogs is taboo in most cultures. Might be becuse they also use them for hunting, protection, and they kinda become a family member.

Horses are another animal that is a last resort for most cultures.

 

Never heard of the term "Roof-Rabbits" before. Post WWII Berlin must have been horrible. I recall some footage of a 3rd or 4th level apartment building, just barely standing with one whole side exposed and a pile of brick rubble below and a woman either tiding up or eating, carring on as best she could.

 

My Granparents were young adults in the "Great Depression". I learned much from them, most of that seems out of place in todays world of disposable everything.

[Olham 164]

From Julius Buckler's (Jasta 17 leader) book* I learnt how poor many handcraftsmen's families were

before WW1. In winter, when they couldn't build buildings, they were simply without work and income.

No social money! They just had to think of something else. Often they had no money for the rent or

for buying food at the end of a month.

 

After WW2, some big German cities were mostly in ruins. Men returning home from Russia could

often not find their home street, because all the familiar buildings were missing. The women collected

and cleaned bricks from collapsed buildings; they were used again for rebuilding them.

 

*("Malaua! The battlecry of Jasta 17" - translated into English by or with Norman Franks, and still available)

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

The Fact that Bees are dying out, is the most worrying thing I've heard in years!.... No Bees = No Life on Earth :(

 

It's always the smallest things, that have the largest impact don't you find?

 

Olham..yes, sorry not been around much...damn life always get's in the way...but I can never resist a post about the Black and White Wonder Dogs! :)

 

(in fact...My New Skin should have one on, what ya reckon?)..... It would have been no problem for them...Black and White paint was in ready supply in WW1 I suspect)

Edited May 16, 2013 by UK_Widowmaker

[Olham 164]

The Fact that Bees are dying out, is the most worrying thing I've heard in years!.... No Bees = No Life on Earth :(

 

Heard about that too. Especially in the USA they seem to die from stress and exhaustion.

There they are getting driven in huge trucks from one farm to another.

But also the European bees seem to suffer from weakness - whatever the reason is.

[tranquillo 10]

We had a minor result in Europe recently where dangerous pesticides were banned. Germany cast the crucial "yes" vote but only after being lobbied by German beekeepers.

Cameron wanted to wait until it was proven without doubt that the pesticides are dangerous to bees but by the time we know for an absolute certainty it would be too late.

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

The pest in my coastal city is called seagulls. A flying bane actually. They repaint in stinking white buildings, cars and passing-by bikers and pedestrians (can you represent yourselves how much a big seagull can drop in once?!), they rip open the trash bags... Many people here can't even stand their ugly call. And be sure that behind their impressive beaks, they don't fear dogs at all. When my parents came to visit me by the sea, they brought their late dog, an insane jagd terrier used to assault and swiftly kill anything small and defenseless enough breathing within one yard from her nose. The first time the beast saw a sitting seagull on a bench back, of course she attacked him... and braked in surprise at a few inches, as the flying pest seemed not impressed at all, and just kept on looking downwards at her with conspicuous scorn. Very different from her usual inland preys. The pest is legally protected here, and the method to fight the bane is to locate the nests and sterilize the eggs, to have the birds keep on sit on them and waste a season for reproduction. Yet there seem to be more and more many of them each year.

[B52STRATO 215]

Isn't there was a period when this flying crap could be slaughtered by fishermen ? I remember well the scourge they represented in Cherbourg or Brest (also as a result of disposal and nest destruction campaign a few years ago alot have vacated the port and the Finistère coast).