jnilno

25/07/2024

“May you live all the days of your life.” —Jonathan Swift (It’s not over until it’s over.)

23/01/2024

15/12/2023

End the year on a good note by submitting to contests with a Dec 31 deadline! Prizes include $20k (and three $1k prizes for finalists) from Poetry Society of America, $15k + award ceremony to Baton Rouge, Lousiana, from Baton Rouge Area Foundation, and eleven others that consider all entries for publication: at.pw.org/Dec31Prizes.

28/11/2023

King Ragnar knows where it's at. 🔥 Cat after my own ❤️‍🔥.

10/11/2023

My Thanksgiving Cactus came early❣️ 🏜️🌺

10/11/2023

Magnolia Blossom aka Maggie Miss this sweet soul. Skully's best girl.

02/11/2023

CC Rider in all his glory 🤗😸🤗❣️

23/09/2023

❣️🌹😻❣️

13/09/2023

Thank you, Mom, for teaching me to garden, but tomatoes don't taste as good without you here to enjoy them with me. 10.4.35 - 9.11.21

26/08/2023

Flashback 8.26.12
The only reason Dad didn't own a motorcycle: Mom🤣
Dad was so cute 🤗❣️

16/08/2023

Forest cobra, inland taipan, bushmaster, rhinoceros viper, African bush viper, Gaboon viper, green mamba, eyelash viper, puff adder and several species of spitting cobra and saw-scaled vipers: These are the types of venomous snakes police

16/08/2023

Holden Farms allegedly fed dead piglets and f***s to their mothers, and horrifically abused countless pigs and piglets at their Utica, MN facility. The Animal Legal Defense Fund is taking Holden Farms to court for lying to the government about their treatment of pigs and violating federal and state....

16/08/2023

16/08/2023

How animal shelters are coping with a crisis of abandoned cats and dogs.

15/08/2023

❣️💊❣️ Love the OG, but this is nice.

10/08/2023

Happy Heavenly Birthday, Leah, my sweet underappreciated sister❣️ 8.9.55-9.3.21

26/06/2023

Once países de todo el mundo todavía comen carne de perro. Ellos son: China, Indonesia, Corea, México, Filipinas, Polinesia, Taiwán, Vietnam, el Ártico ... Leer más

18/05/2023

What do you see?

08/05/2023

The goose is loose and on the roose...I mean roof! 🤣

04/05/2023

Sometimes. Me: 😵‍💫

01/05/2023

I was told that the iconic big mushroom fell after a storm last year. At least these are still here to welcome you to the festival and town. We also enjoyed a cooking demo by and meeting .

01/02/2023

22/01/2023

San Francisco may become the first city in the nation to ban the use of shock collars. The Commission of Animal Control and Welfare voted to support the ban, which now goes to the Board of Supervisors: http://bit.ly/3GMvqEy.

It’s long past due. In the late 1990s, I wrote a position paper for The San Francisco SPCA entitled “Dog Rights”: https://bit.ly/33vBRZ1. In it, I argued that it was ethically wrong to use aversive training, including shock collars. Nothing I have seen in the last 20+ years alters that conclusion.

“Science shows animals will learn a new behavior faster and more successfully if they are allowed to voluntarily participate in the learning process and are rewarded for preferred behaviors... Punishment is not only less successful in changing unwanted behaviors, shock collars have been known to actually reinforce negative behaviors and create anxiety within pets”: https://bit.ly/3jIWEPI.

In addition, “using aversive training methods (e.g., positive punishment and negative reinforcement) can jeopardize both the physical and mental health of dogs.” And “there is no evidence that it is more effective than positive reinforcement-based training. In fact, there is some evidence that the opposite is true”: https://bit.ly/30MRuKV.

On a more philosophical level, “Animals, like human infants, arrive in the world ready to learn, ready to explore, ready to figure out the rules, ready to find their place”: https://bit.ly/2QvaxnA. When we fail to provide those opportunities, we harm them. From this perspective, teaching dogs (i.e., “training”) shifts from being an activity viewed as primarily done for the benefit of people to one that promotes fulfillment in dogs. But only if it does not involve punishment. Like all paternalistic actions we take on behalf of dogs, we are ethically obligated to act in their best interest by using the least invasive means possible: https://amzn.to/2GOWrvw.

In short, we should not hurt dogs.

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Please join me on Substack: nathanwinograd.substack.com.