Shep: Reporting Live Vol.1

Shep recently interviewed Sarah Graham, Communications Assistant at The Dogs Trust. Here is a full transcript.

Christmas was fun for me, I slept by the fire mostly. What do the dogs in Dogs Trust sanctuaries do at Christmas?

 

Once they are all cleaned and fed, all the dogs go for lovely long walk. Staff spend all day with the dogs to make sure they all enjoy their day and get lots of fuss and attention. All the dogs will also get a special treat out of their stocking – a special chew or a toy. All the dogs have stockings and the sponsored dogs proudly display their Christmas Cards from their sponsors. There is a Christmas tree in reception and the staff wear festive Santa hats.

 

So do people still get Dogs for Christmas (and not for life?)

 

 

I’m afraid so. 34 years ago Dogs Trust created the famous slogan “A Dog is for Life, Not Just for Christmas” – but sadly it appears that many people still buy dogs as presents without proper thought being given to the responsibilities involved. Each year we see around 100 dogs dumped at our re-homing centres over the Christmas period. We regret to say that 2012 was no different. It seems that people are still giving puppies as Christmas presents without considering the long term ramifications. Dogs can provide a world of happiness and enjoyment, and we urge anyone considering a new addition to the family to ‘think life’ and carefully consider the individual needs of the dog’s breed too.

 

Where do all the Christmas dogs come from?

 

 

Sadly one of the most popular places to buy dogs is online. Dogs Trust acknowledges that the Internet is an accessible way of purchasing gifts quickly, but the impulse buying of pets and animals poses the enormous risk of attracting many unscrupulous breeders. Consumers could, unintentionally, end up purchasing a pet from a puppy farm that has been trafficked into the UK. Such puppies often have physical and behavioral problems as a result of poor breeding conditions and traumatic transportation. To help prevent people thoughtlessly buying or giving a dog as Christmas present, Dogs Trust centers did not re-home dogs between the 22nd and 29th of December (22nd December to 2nd January in Scotland). People were still able to visit and reserve a dog, but were not be able to take it home until the New Year

Were there any Dogs Trust miracles this Christmas?

 

Dogs Trust Glasgow was broken into four times during the Christmas period. Not only did the charity lose equipment, but some of the dogs became very distressed by the trauma and the centre was forced to close for a short period of time. In the midst of this turmoil, however, a Christmas miracle took place as dedicated staff helped a three year old Jack Russell Terrier, called Josie, give birth to a litter of seven pups on Christmas eve. The pups are all doing really well and have all been reserved to go to their loving new homes when they are old enough.

Here’s Josie and her pups, all doing well!

Ethical Buisness: Ethical Life. Vol 2.

Welcome to Ethical Business: Ethical Life – we aimEBEL logo to showcase the people behind the amazing Ethical Businesses we meet through running Ethical Pets.This second edition is about our friends at Riverflow Clothing: they live on a beautiful red boat and sell fair trade clothes at affordable prices – it’s hard not to like them! Riverflow are a family of four and a half: there is Miriam, Matt and then Caleb and Flynn (5 ½ year old twins) and a bump on the way, due in April! They also live with their dog called Ella, who they rescued from from Birmingham Dogs Home. Ella was a “death row dog” – due to be put down the very next day. Thank goodness for Riverflow eh?!

Why did you set up Riverflow Clothing?

We’ve both worked jobs before that have either involved lining someone else’s, already very well lined, pockets or compromising our beliefs. Or both. So, Riverflow Clothing was born out of a desire to work for ourselves and to earn our money in a way that didn’t compromise our ethics and values. We don’t want to make money at the expense of others or the environment, so we try to ensure our business has the minimum negative impact possible. Everything we sell is fairly traded and ethically sourced, and our packaging is biodegradable or compostable too!

We get our stock by buying up samples, previous season and end of line stock from several fair trade importers, which means we can pass on the saving we make by offering everything at prices we’d be prepared to pay ourselves. Also, pretty much everything we stock is unique; it’s rare we have 2 of the same item.

the riverflow boat in the summerWhen did you set up and how did it go?

We set up just over a year ago. Matt was working full time so we sold at the odd event here and there to test the water. It was a slow and sometimes disheartening start. There were a lot of initial expenses, aside from the stock itself and rails etc, we’ve had to buy a box trailer to store everything and a stall frame for outdoor events. It’s also always a gamble booking new events, sometimes you pay a hefty stall fee and footfall is really low or it’s just the wrong sort of event. We made a few bad choices to start with but then, we had a stall at a local music festival in the summer and did really well which was a massive confidence boost. Since then we’ve been more selective about which events we book and have found it’s well worth traveling a distance for the right events.

Do you enjoy your work?

When we have a stall at an ethical event, it doesn’t feel like working: we get to spend the day together as a family and meet a whole bunch of lovely people. We’re definitely on the look out for more of those this year.

Riverflow is not the only work we do however. Miriam works a couple of days a week in a local charity shop and Matt has does some freelance website design. We’re not into profit yet with the clothing and don’t know if we’ll ever make enough to lithe twins playing in the show by the boatve on it exclusively – but we’ve grown a lot in a year though and feel like we’ve got a better idea of what we’re doing now!

Describe an average day in the life of you.

The most important thing to us is our family. We try to spend as much time together as possible – something that doing events allows. Do we have an unusual lifestyle? We’re a home educating, vegan, TV free, co-sleeping, attachment parenting, nomadic, live-a-board family. Whether that’s unusual depends on your perspective, but I guess to most people it probably is.

An average day? There isn’t one! As much as possible we try to make sure one of us is available to spend time exclusively with/on the boys. What we’re doing though varies day to day and depends on so much. Matt works mostly from home but Miri is in a different couple of days at the charity shop each week. There are home ed. groups we go to. We have stalls at events. There are lots of chores living on a boat too, so we might have to move the boat to fill life on the waterwayswith water or fuel, take washing to the launderette, visit the builders merchant for a new gas bottle or take recycling and rubbish to the tip. This time of year there’s always wood to fetch and cut. Never appreciated the phrase “there’s not enough hours in the day” as a kid but can completely relate to it now!

What are your ethical principles and how do they guide and motivate you?

We try to have the biggest positive impact and smallest negative impact that we can in everything we do. We don’t really subscribe to any particular set of beliefs as is but veganism, sustainability, fair trade, permaculture, unschooling, attachment parenting, non aggression principle, libertarianism, anarchy and volintarism all come into it somewhere along the way.

We’re fortunate to know a whole bunch of lovely people from different backgrounds and with massively different lifestyles and beliefs. It often makes for interesting conversations and ones that challenge, or make you reaffirm, what you think and do.

Any words of wisdom?

‘Anything is slavery if it isn’t in your heart’

Inner Terrestrials – Thirty Pieces

Launching soon: Ethical Business, Ethical Life

We love working with other ethical businesses, and have decided to showcase some of the amazing people behind them. We would like firstly to introduce some of the great people we have met since we started up a year ago, and secondly – well, we want to meet even more great people too!

The “Ethical Business, Ethical Life” series will consist of short interviews with people who run their own ethical business: we will ask about how the business got started, what day to day life is like in their office, what motivations them and if they have any advice for people who would like to start up their own ethical business. We are always looking for more new ways to spread the love, and can’t wait to get started with this project! If you would like to nominate a business, just drop us a line by email, on twitter or on facebook.

Cuthbert & i

Hillside Animal Sanctuary was founded in 1995 to help and campaign for animals in need’ and most importantly, to bring public awareness to the millions of animals suffering every day in the intensive factory farming industry. Although Hillside has given sanctuary to over 500 horses, ponies and donkeys, most of their residents have been rescued from the farming industry. Please make a donation, if you can, to this wonderful home for animals

How not to entertain your puppy…

(ok, and how to as well…)

A guest blog from Alison Clayton-Smith

 

Bobby the Tibetan Terrier is coming up to 5 months old and yes he is very cute but he’s also very tetchy when he’s bored, which is pretty frequent (like every hour). Here are 3 lessons learnt on how not to entertain your puppy:

Bobby
  • Leaving work notes on the sofa
  • Cleaning up wee in the house without removing him from the temptation of waggling tissues
  • Wearing dangling necklaces, scarves, laces. In fact, pretty much wearing any clothing at all, though I have to admit, it would be more painful without the clothing barrier, and a bit chilly what with the doors being open so much to let him into the garden. (Top tip: never get a puppy in the winter months…)

Bobby loves digging up the garden to hide his hedgehogs and crocodiles.

There are better strategies and some of them even come with a good ethical pedigree, for example:

Hedgehog Chew Treat
  • Bobby loves digging up the garden to hide his hedgehogs and crocodiles. He likesme going with him. I tell myself it is in case he forgets and he is relying on me to remember, but I suspect that might be a bit of anthropomorphism going on there. At some point he’ll go back and dig them up, running triumphantly across the garden. He might eat a bit or he might just go and hide it somewhere else.
  • An empty plastic bottle, clean and reasonably firm, makes a good toy to chase around. He had a particularly great time in the snow as the bottles slid across the surface. The only thing we have to watch is his little pincer teeth chewing the plastic off. In fact he’s pushing one round the lounge right now. If you’re outside and got neighbours, I don’t recommend giving them the bottle before 8am, it makes quite a racket.
  • Cardboard tubes from toilet rolls, for example. I reckon he thinks our downstairs toilet is where cardboard tubes are made. Good for chewing, nosing around the carpet and sometimes hiding treats in, though he’s not great on the whole ‘Find’ thing yet.
  • And finally, frozen carrots. I found this one on the Internet. Chop them up into chunks and freeze. Healthy snack, good for teething, and for some reason, fun to hunt. I’ve never thought of a carrot as prey. Works particularly well on a tiled/slippery surface where the carrot ‘escapes’ at every touch. Downside, Bobby does have a tendency to let them go mushy, which isn’t always nice for the carpet.

Ok, well he’s starting to get up to mischief so best be off!

 

Alison Clayton-Smith lives in the first Garden City, Letchworth, Hertfordshire. She is a facilitator and writer focused on sustainable living, ecopsychology and mindfulness. Her back ground in management/personal development has not proved that useful for puppy development! 2012 is the year for a number of exciting new projects – find out more at www.growinginsights.co.uk.