Veterinary nurse pleads guilty to owning dogs that worried livestock

This story is about a veterinary nurse, Evie Watson, who, it has been suggested, should have known better when going out into the countryside with her two dogs near to a farm called Hall Pastures Farm where there were sheep and lambs. She didn't have one of her dogs, Beans, on a lead and her other dog's lead was dropped as she tried to untangle him. That dog's name is Patcho.

In short, both her dogs became free and they ran off and worried, attacked and killed sheep and lambs. In all, it's reported by The Times that her dogs killed 15 ewes (adult female sheep) and lambs in an horrific attack. Further, the newspaper reports that she did not call the police until the following day.

It's been traumatic for the farmer as you might expect. Lynne Parnell, said that she felt "very sickened" by the attacks and mentioned that she had wished that Watson had told her what had happened straight away.

It's been traumatic for the ewes who lost their lambs. In a victim impact statement she said: "Farmers like us work hard, and our livelihood depends on us producing good quality livestock and [it] is a long term enterprise. A disruption such as this can take years to recover from".

Evie Watson attended Southern Derbyshire magistrates' court on May 17 and pleaded guilty to owning dogs that worried livestock. The magistrates told her that it had been an horrific incident but they recognised her efforts in trying to track down her dogs, one of which had collapsed. She took him to the vet. Watson had tried to follow her dogs and bruised herself as she scrambled in bushes but she lost sight of them. She asked her family and ex-partner for help and they assisted. She found her dogs after 3.5 hours.

So Watson did make some big efforts but she's been criticised by Derbyshire Police. Sergeant Chris Wilkinson of the rural crime team said: "No one ever wants to believe that their dog is capable of hurting other animals but as has been seen time and time again they can and do return to their predator instincts, and chase livestock if given the chance. That's why it is vital that dogs are always kept on leads around livestock."

That's the point: dogs revert to their grey wolf ancestors' instincts and become predators when given the chance. The same happens to domestic cats. The dog is a predator and as such they must be on a lead under the circumstances described.

Separately, a survey of 1,100 dog owners by NFU Mutual has found that 68% of people let their pets off the lead in the countryside last year. And almost 8% admitted that their dog had chased livestock. However, 46% believed that the dog was not capable of causing death or injury to farm animals. While 49% of the respondents in this survey said that the dog always came back when called. In other words 51% don't. And almost half of dog owners don't believe that their dog is a predator it seems to me!

As Watson was convicted of owning dogs that worried livestock, she was ordered to pay £750 which included a £475 fine, legal costs and a victim surcharge. The farmer said that the punishment was insulting but added that she at least received justice.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Civet cats cruelly abused for the civet cat poop coffee business in ghastly Indonesian farms

Civet cat poop farm. Screenshot from PETA video.

OPINION: I bumped into this picture (below) of the civet cat as it used to be called. As you can see this species of small mammal looks like a cat but it isn't. It is more closely related to mongooses. Many years ago, they were called civet cats when scientists classified animals by their appearance only. Nowadays we have DNA analysis which tells us this is not a member of the cat family.

Civet cat. Image in public domain.

It's a good picture because it shows you how in some ways they are similar to domestic cats but the muzzle is much longer. The civet that you see in the picture is a large spotted civet which is endangered in south-east Asia. They are eaten in China and may be extinct in China. Their main threat is deforestation to make way for palm oil plantations as they live in forests. Another example of human behaviour destroying habitats and the animals that live in those habitats.

For the civet it is worse than just destroying habitat. I didn't need to go far to bump into more abuse of wild animals. In this case the abuse of civets for the simple reason that their poop is used to make coffee; very expensive coffee. Can you believe that?

Civet poop coffee

This fashionable trend started some years ago and animal exploiters jumped on it. It is called the 'kopi luwak' industry in Indonesia. It is coffee made from civet cat poop. The reason that it can be made from faeces is because the civets eat coffee beans and therefore, they defecate some of the coffee beans in their poop. That is how it works as I understand it. Apparently, the coffee so produced tastes less bitter than conventional coffee.

PETA Asia investigated the Indonesian farms where civets are kept in abysmal conditions. They say that the sensitive Asian palm civet cats are constantly confined to cramped wire cages and fed a restrictive diet of coffee cherries.

As you might expect the animals become terribly stressed and anxious. They pace which is a displacement activity to try and cope with stress. They try and escape their filthy prisons. They have to eat this unnatural diet as it produces excrement they can be sold as "civet cat poop coffee" a.k.a. kopi luwak.

PETA says that some of the civets go insane. Indonesia is the world's top producer of this ridiculous form of coffee bean. You can buy this sort of coffee in cafés worldwide.

The tourists who drink it are aware of the animal cruelty behind it. They should be enlightened. That's why I am writing this to contribute towards that enlightenment.

The Asian palm civets are a protected species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). But they aren't, are they? That particular treaty is a complete failure as far as I am concerned. It is routinely ignored and unenforced.

PETA says that there is "pervasive cruelty on every single farm". These are nocturnal animals. They cannot express their natural behaviour obviously. They have no dark place to sleep and therefore do not get enough rest. When they were observed they panted "incessantly in the inescapable heat". Some had bloody wounds and appeared not to be receiving veterinary care. Some were losing their fur because of malnourishment.

Those in this ghastly business say that their civet cat poop is wild sourced but it isn't. More lies. Thankfully, because of PETA Asia's many investigations over 10 years some outlets have made the decision to pull kopi luwak from their shelves and to cut ties with this cruel industry.

Disappointingly, distributors in Japan, where there is one of the biggest civet cat poop markets, choose to continue to profit from this gross animal cruelty.

Further comment: I despair to be honest. There's no reason on God's earth why people need to drink coffee made from an animal's faeces! It just is ridiculous in the first place but to compound the ridiculousness of this form of human behaviour, humans have to be cruel to the animals that produce the poop. It's a double whammy of madness. When is the human going to grow up, stop being so stupid, stop being so self-indulgent, stop being so cruel to animals and start to be civilised?