#- euthanasia can still be enforced.

[fabulouslygaybean]

okay apparently im not done ranting about quarantine puppies. for the love of god to NOT get a puppy if you won't bother with training and proper socialization. i don't care if you say it'll help your mental health, i don't care if you just reeeaaaally want one, i don't care if you're only gonna get a teeny tiny toy breed, do not get a damn puppy if you won't put in the necessary work for the sake of their own and other's safety

[mychlapci]

sorry that little snippet about sunny and sides in the k9 made me sad so i'm chipping in to allow them to heal

at some point, the owners of sunny and sides get fed with their attitude. they're simply too aggressive to keep employing and far too many handlers have gotten shredded trying to reign them in on guarding jobs.

so the enforcer station decides to put them down. their aggressive attitudes, despite having been cultivated by the enforcers who kept them as tools, became too much of a liability to keep them around. to the euthanasia clinic it is!

however on the way there someone doesn't do their job right. the twins were supposed be put under for the duration of the trip. they were supposed to be sentenced as soon as they arrived at the clinic so that they weren't a threat to anyone. a dead dog is no threat after all.

but someone fucked up and they fucked up real bad. sideswipe wakes up halfway through the trip and he is pissed. it takes little effort for him to rip the muzzle off his helm and break the bars of the far too small cage he's been trapped inside for as long as he can remember. it takes even less effort to rouse his brother and massacre the guards driving them to the clinic.

when the truck crashes in the middle of nowhere cybertron neither twin are injured. their armour was reinforced for their jobs after all! they survive and even thrive in the wilds of the planet they never got to explore in their youth; mechanimals fall under their fangs and claws and there are more than a few caves with rich supplies of raw energon that keep them well fed.

and it's strange for the both of them. they've spent their whole lives isolated, abused and hurt by those who used their violence as a means to an end. but now... well now they're on their own, completely able to do what they'd like. they wake up in the wide open wilderness without the ache in their struts from sleeping within a cage that's far too small for their frames. they're able to snuggle together without threat of beating or electrocution and without a guard constantly threatening to knock them out, they can finally spend their time trying to explore and act like the newsparks they never got to be.

i imagine that after a period of time they stumble across a random mech out in the wilderness, maybe someone investigating the sightings of a pair of "wild mechs" out in the middle of nowhere.

bluestreak, our intrepid explorer and a mech dumb enough to risk his own life for the sake of others is this somebody. he's part of a small charity organization that rescues k9 units and allows them to integrate into collective society.

he finds the twins ripping apart some poor turbofox that happened to stray too far into their territory. and surprisingly enough, he doesn't die immediately upon approaching them. both of the mechs have called down now that they're not being abused 24/7 but they're still on edge.

bluestreak manages to coax the red one closer to him, offering some actual refined energon that tastes way sweeter than the low grade the enforcers were feeding them and far richer in nutrient content than the unrefined stuff they've been drinking out of the pools.

with the promise of more fuel, bluestreak manages to take them all the way back to the clinic that's running the rehabilitation operation. of course the minute the twins see the clinic they go absolutely insane and only a mountain's worth of promises from bluestreak that he's not going to hurt them gets them to calm down.

inside they find not the dingy police office they're so used to but a well lit, meticulously cleaned and cozy reception room.

bluestreak leads them to ratchet's office and the twins get their first check up ever. the k9 unit didn't really see fit to treat their dogs if they got injured and sunny and sides were far too aggressive anyhow. if they got hurt bad enough that medical attention was needed, well... let's just say that injured dogs didn't last long there.

ratchet is appalled at the amount of smaller injuries the twins have, not to mention the lack of proper firewalls and virus protection within their systems. he treats them, not without anger since needles do not go well with sideswipe and sunstreaker is more than willing to bite the doctor's hand off for daring to harm his brother.

but they manage it eventually! and bluestreak even gets them their very own room, with a berth and washracks and a even a datapad with games and language learning modules since neither of them know how to read or write and they can barely speak the common tongue.

anyways i love them <3 and i deeply hope that k9 anon doesn't mind my addition to their posts.

aaaaaah Sunny and Sides living like mechaanimals in the wild, now that's some hills have eyes shit. I love it.

They don't feel out of place in the wild, not really. They crawl like all the mechanimals do, they bite and maul like all the turbofoxes and purr their engines when content. It feels like a good life... until Bluestreak finds them. He's like the horse girl of this scenario. He absolutely should not have been stretching his hands out to two rabid mechs, but they didn't attack him. Thank Primus. It takes a while for Bluestreak to drag them into the rescue centre and get them settled in. Sunny and Sides are less aggressive than they were back as guard dogs, but they're not exactly above biting the hand that feeds them now either...

It's probably confusing to them at first. It's difficult to comprehend why the mechs want them to sleep in the same kind of beds they sleep in, or eat out of cubes instead of bowls, or why they speak at them like that, like they want them to speak back... but they're quick learners.

[salmontheking]

Ok sure giant robots that stop falling stars are cool, but now let me ask the real question. In your post about synthetic food you said it was healthier, which made me question a question, what's the life expectancy in nations, and non nations, these days? We have seen they have a very advanced understanding of medicine and biology so what's the healthcare system like? What kind of surgeries are state covered, which kind are not? Do jobs now also have new type of health benefits apart from dental coverege? Do they *have* teeth or are they synthetic?? Just general info about the conditions of living in the nations and enclaves of the world

Global life expectancy in 2212 is 130.2, Axis and UNÉTA go to high 140s.

Medicine is about maximizing, not protecting health. Everyone gets treatment, sick or not. Everyone is on medical coke, which is good for you. Everyone smokes health cigarettes, which are still addictive to ensure diligence. Children are taught to smoke in grade 1.

There are many kinds, but these are for your throat

Impulsion

Or impulsive recovery strain, the biggest thing since vaccines, is a stem cell sample taken from fetuses, altered and reinserted. It makes you ageless until 60, wanes off by 80, after 120 implants keep you alive. It's biological infrastructure that makes other treatments possible.

People under 80 can take surgery like it's fixing a tooth, so the cure for many ailments is transplant. For vital organs, you get corporal insurance - spares are grown from your own cells and kept preserved. All else, you must wait until it grows. Yes, you can do SRS this way, but your genes decide the details.

Growing organs gets tough over 80 so the older you get, the less human amd more prosthesis you are.

This counts as granny fashion.

Impulsion does vectoring for gene therapy and fixes common disorders like hemophilia or color blindness. It lets you take much more brutal meds with bearable side effects. It also regulates metabolism, so bye bye diabetes-2 and obesity.

Many countries make it mandatory since it saves a looot of money. There are, of course, conspiracy theories against it. If you're not strained, you're screwed - medicine is now poison, safety standards got lower and food has slight amounts of petroleum products. 21.7% of humankind is unstrained by 2212.

There's also stem sickness, which is when the strain is faulty. It's lifelong, incurable, potentially horrific and often fatal. It's one of the worst ways to go, so you usually have right to euthanasia while you can still make sound decisions.

By country

In Axis, everything that we today would call more medicine than indulgence is state funded for all citizens. Quality varies - the General Secretary of Security gets a fancier fake liver than your great-great-grandma; lathe technicians get limbs as corporal insurance; firefighters get lung filters, and so on. Axis has less economic muscle than UNÉTA, so it enforces prevention rigorously. Keeping your kid from straining is a felony.

Transatlantic healthcare is, like everything UNÉTA, decentralized. Your local govt sets the rules, and those often shunt responsibility to companies (read: co-ops). Prevention is less consistent, and so you end up spending more on treatment. Federal healthcare still covers the basics, including all emergency services, life-threatening conditions and straining.

[ivyprism]

Angel's Fall AU (The Others)

Hello. Time for me to make four more girls. They're from Underlust and Dancetale. I decided to add them for the angst! Underlust is a NSFW Undertale AU, Minors stay ten feet away. They still look like their original selves, however, the Underlust girls are more modest. They are also the same height and weight as their original selves.

This contains mentions of abuse, death, near death, violence, loss of wings, etc.

Del and Shell: Del, also known as Harp, is a lovely young lady. She enjoys dancing and is frequently seen doing so. She is a sweetheart, much like Feather. She is kind and naive at the same time. She is gentle in her punishments and very loving. Her favorite dances are tango and waltz, but she can do them all. Shell, also known as Lyre, is shy and quiet, but she is dedicated and serious. She, like Wings, is stern and harsh, but she prefers to be kind to sinners. She is a dancer, just like her sister. She, too, dances, and her style is ballet mixed with hip hop, but she, like Harp, is extremely talented. They were kidnapped and their health was halved as one of their wings was removed from both of them. When they return to the safety of the Church, their health and missing wings are restored. They maintain their former personalities but are a bit on edge with the skeletons.

Aphrodite and Lily: Aphrodite, also known as Ambrosia, is a very sweet and protective angel. She is easily ill and only keeps her health in the church. She punishes sinners and even administers harsh punishments, but she otherwise lets them handle it unless they are special cases that she can handle. She has a good heart and does her best to help others. Lily, also known as Linnea, is harsh but kind. She is flirtatious and even flirts with some of the Sinners. She has committed her own share of sins, but she is still an angel because they were minor. She is a remarkable and rare beauty capable of seducing any man or monster who comes her way, but she is very serious about following the laws and rules of being an angel. They were kidnapped before returning to the church, and Ambrosia nearly died as a result of their adversaries and her illness. Lily had lost a wing and nearly her other, so she barely escaped with her sister and returned to the church, where their bodies were restored in the same way that Harp and Lyre's had been.

Rosie, Sarah, and Klara: They dance together and stay together. Rosie, also known as Viola, is a sweet girl who is constantly concerned about her family. She, like her mother, Lyre, is a dancer. Her dance style is simply ballet. She does, however, have a variety of styles because she is extremely talented. She punishes sinners gently because she does not want to cause harm. She's a little naive, but she knows when to be nice and when to be mean. Sarah, also known as Cello, is a non-binary child/person who is incredibly merciful and kind. They keep an eye out for Viola when she's too trusting of Sinners. They are judgmental of sinners, whereas Viola is gentle and forgiving. Their dance style is a fusion of modern dance and the waltz. They inflict severe punishment and understand when a sinner must be sent to the Executioner or Euthanasia. Klara, also known as Violin, is concerned about her younger siblings. Unlike her younger siblings, she believes that some sinners are beyond redemption. She despises Fallen and Sprite for their actions and the people they have harmed. Almost all of the younger Angels look up to her as an older sister. When given the "go" by Euthanasia, Enforcer, or Executioner, she enforces the rules against Sinners and is not afraid to kill the worst of the worst. Her dance style combines sword dancing, aerial dancing, and fan dancing. She and her sisters rarely leave the church because they miss their mother so much, and when they do leave the church, they try to be kind to the Skeletons.

Every character here is over the age of 18! They're ageless angels after all.

Story Relevance:

Viola, Violin, and Cello assist the many people who live in the church with church repairs. They are usually quiet, only speaking to one another, or dancing together when no one can see them. Ambrosia, Linnea, Lyre, and Harp are angels who assisted the girls with punishment but were kidnapped and presumed dead because no angels could find them. They returned and started assisting. Each of them introduces themselves to their neighbors. Lyre and Linnea have nightmares about the time they were trapped and are constantly worried about their sisters. When Lyre and Harp's daughters return, they become more vibrant, even openly dancing and talking.

THEY DON'T HAVE ROMANTIC PARTNERS btw unless you make it that way with fanfiction/art. --------------------------------------------------- Dancetale by Teandstars Underlust made by NSFWShamecave (Again. Minors. Stay far away from this AU.)

[thespringertails]

Wait my roommate's mom breeds wolfhounds... What's the problem? I'm not well informed on the issue but are they bad pets or something?

Hi, I wouldn’t say I’m the most well informed person, but I understand quite a bit. Short answer: yes, they’re bad pets. They may not even be considered ‘pets’ they’re in a tough place between wild animal and a pet.

Why is breeding Wolf-dogs bad?

Okay first of all, what is the purpose of breeding a wolf-dog? What benefit’s do you get from breeding a wolf-dog that you cannot get from any other breed of domesticated dog that already exist? Most dog breed’s developed today are bred for a purpose, and responsible breeder’s often breed to improve there breed and increase the amount of healthy dogs developed for this purpose. We know what trait’s these breed’s are supposed to have, and we breed more of the ones that best meet the breed standard and are best made to fulfil their purpose. Most people want a wolf-dog for aesthetic reasons, they like the look of having a big ‘wolfy’ animal, and think it makes them look more powerful for having own one. 

Second of all, wolf-dog’s aren’t domesticated. It took thousands of year’s to domesticate the dog, we’ve been shaping them to our wants and need’s  for millennia’s, possibly even before the ancient Egyptians. They want to be with people, they enjoy our company, and for the most part, as long as they are handled correctly they are completely safe around humans. 

When you breed a wolf with a dog, your not going to get the perfect mixture of wolf appearance and dog personality, because that’s just not how genetics work. Some of the wild, undomesticated trait’s of the wolf will come through, and they just don’t fit well into human society. Some common wolf behaviour’s that can be seen in wolf-dogs which can be problematic in humans society include:

- Territorial needs. In the wild, wolves can have large territories ranging from up to 20 acres of land. They like to mark this territory, hunt on this territory and protect it against any invaders. A wolf-dog is not going to be satisfied with living in a house, and most back-garden’s won’t be safe enough. If the wolf-dog does end up living in your garden, how are you going to ensure that it can’t escape? Wolves can jump up to 12 feet high, most garden’s don’t have a 13 foot fence last time I checked. Why don’t you just take it for a walk? A walk is not the same as surveying 20 acre’s of territory, but also wolves will want to protect themselves, their territory and their owner from any perceived threats, which could include other dogs and possibly even other people. Also, wolves like to hunt, any small animal, which could be a rabbit, or even a cat or a small dog, could be perceived as possible prey to them, and if they’re available to them on a walk, they could try to hunt and kill it. Most people cannot contain their wolf-dog’s need for their own territory and any attempt to limit this could result in a threat to the general public, their pet’s or the wolf-dog’s household.

- rough-housing. It is not uncommon for a wolf-dog to want to rough-house or play with their owner and other member’s of their household. It’s well-known that dog’s love to play at all ages, and for wolves rough-housing can be good practice for the hunting and fighting they will need to practice when they grow up. Wolves and wolf-dog’s have tough skin and thick fur to protect themselves during rough-housing, but they are often unable to understand that their human companion’s have thin, hairless skin that can be easily broken by their bite or their claws. A bite or scratch that would be harmless to another wolf, could lead their human owner needing hospitalisation.   

Say a person ends up with a wolf-dog that display’s these behaviours, and realises that a wolf-dog is too much for them, where are the wolf-dogs to go? They can’t exactly stay in a dog shelter, where dog’s are often limited to kennel-sized spaces, the small space would drive the wolf-dog insane and lead to more frustrated and destructive behaviours. As well as this, it would be a threat to the other dog’s in the dog shelter and to staff who are not qualified in handling wolf-dogs. You can’t exactly release them into the wild either, they still have some domesticated feature’s which could mean that they would not survive long in the wild, and wolves may not even be native to the owner’s area, meaning they would become a threat to the local ecosystem. They would need to go to specialised centre’s that know how to handle wolf-dog’s or wolves, perhaps they could find a suitable home in a zoo, but the truth is that there just aren’t enough of these places for the amount of unwanted wolf-dogs. So the only option left is euthanasia.

Another significant problem that comes with the existence of wolf-dogs, is that many people will claim that their domesticated dog which looks like a wolf, is a wolf-dog. This is problematic for many reasons, say a person buy’s a ‘wolf-dog’ that is really just a wolf-looking domesticated dog, they think it’s great, it makes a wonderful pet and they enjoy it company. Their friends meet it and think it’s pretty cool and well-behaved too, so their friends decide they want to get a wolf-dog too. Except they end up with an actual wolf-dog, they end up with an animal that has all the problematic behaviours that I’ve discussed above, and they realise they can’t handle it and end up with the difficult problem of trying to rehome it. Another problem that comes with this is some animal shelter’s will also claim that there ‘dog which looks like a wolf’ is a wolf-dog, because it can sometimes be difficult to know the genetic heritage of a dog, and DNA tests are expensive. This can make the dog extremely hard to rehome, and could end up with it being euthanised. Also, ownership of a wolf-dog without a licence is illegal in 11 states in the USA, as well as in many other countries, most people enforcing these rules do not have the time or the money to DNA test every suspected wolf-dog, which can lead to the euthanasia of more ‘dogs that look like wolf-dogs’ which could be nothing but loved pets.

This is all that I can think of right now, but I hoped this helped you understand a bit more. If you want to do some further reading, I’ll link some sites below:

https://blog.dogsbite.org/2018/04/fatal-wolf-hybrid-attacks-archival.html

https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/the-tragedy-of-wolf-dogs

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/17224974.pdf

 https://www.hcn.org/issues/99/3063

[anon-e-miss]

Ooo! For the prompts what about "Oh look, it's alive." (If it hasn't been done already)

“Oh look, it’s alive.”

Prowl felt the tip of a ped nudge his side.He did not move. Let the think he as incapacitated and when the moment was right he would make his move. His frame ached, unsurprisingly. The blow to his helm had not corrupted his memory. He had fallen. The ground beneath him had opened up and he had fallen down and down. Everything hurt but there was no agony, Prowl hoped this meant his doorwings had been spared. For the second time in a mega-cycle Prowl felt servos that were not his own rooting through his subspace.

“Ric, if ya don’t get yer servos off o’m y’re gonna lose’em.”

“Jazz? What the fraggin’ Pit are ya doin’ here?”

“Got into trouble in Darkmount. Now ‘m tryin’ to get back to Iacon. Figured I’d stop in at the shop since the fragger broke my visor.”

“This fragger?“

“No! Now back off. Ya know ya could actually tell me when ya go plantin’ new traps.”

“Cons have been sniffin’ ‘bout more. Tryin’ to give’em the impression this is just a real tricky cave, ‘n not worth their trouble.”

“Staniz is playin’ a dangerous game.”

“Aren’t we all?”

The invading servos pulled away and were replaced by Jazz’s. He did not probe about Prowl’s subspace but checked him for damage. Prowl onlined his optics. For a moment he was afraid he was blind as he saw nothing but blackness but Jazz leaned over his face. Those white optics glowed, the only light in the darkness. It was eerie. Their glow was bright enough that Prowl could see Jazz’s mouth turn up in a smile.

“Ya a’ight, Prowl?”

“I believe so.”

Jazz helped him to his peds. Prowl tested his doorwings and was relieved to find they were intact. His optics saw only darkness but when he softly clicked his glossa, Prowl’s doorwings saw a little more, and as the echo faded Prowl began to commit the shape of the cave to his memory. It was imperfect. Echolocation was not in the curriculum of the enforcers. Prowl had learned it from his originator, just as he had learned to break out of stasis cuffs.

“My ‘creators’ll have a medkit ‘n we can see to all these dents. Lucky ya didn’t fall on yer back.”

“It was not luck,” Prowl replied. “I turned.”

“Clever. Ya’ve spent more time studyin’ Circuit-Su than I thought.”

“I am out of practice.”

“Maybe we can work on that.”

That would be good. Prowl had not trained with a partner since he and Tumbler had parted ways. He did not trust. His procreators had taught them the importance of this. They had been right. Every time he had trusted someone it had been a disaster. But sparring with Jazz did not require real trust. He was not taking the mech into his berth or into his spark. As he walked alone, with Jazz’s arm around his waist, Prowl ached, and right knee creaked. Prowl felt sticky liquid leak between the gaps in his armour.

“What’re yer levels like?”

“40%. I have a leak in my leg. I have diverted the flow.”

“I hope ya don’t expected me to apologize,” Ric said. His red visor glowed eerily in the darkness. Did they always wear them? Even when they were in their natural environment.

“No,” Prowl replied.

“Yes,” Jazz said. Ric snorted. There was no apology.

The tight passages opened up into a great cavern and it glowed under the soft light of thousands of crystals. It was still too dark for Prowl to see clearly, but it was more like the dark-cycle than total darkness. They passed mechanisms, some wearing visors like the one Jazz generally wore. Those that did not stared at them with white optics. Stared at him, Prowl thought. More than Jazz or Ric. No one troubled them. He supposed that was a blessing. They came to a row of habsuites carved out of the rock, Ric started up the stares. Prowl was not thrilled, but he followed. Jazz did not give him much of an option. At the top of the long staircase, Ricochet held the door. As Jazz ushered Prowl through, three mechs stood up.

“Jazz!” The tallest of the three was mostly yellow, at least Prowl thought he was. The light was dim. “What trouble have ya drug up now?“

“Just a friend. Got me outta Darkmount, then he got caught in one o’ Ricochet’s traps.”

“Your brother and Geni have been digging like a couple Dwellers the last few weeks. At least they have added the acid bath yet.”

“Pit’s sake,” Jazz grumbled. “Worn me before ya set up lethal traps, would ya?”

“Sit’m down ‘n introduce me. We’ll see if we gotta bring Fixit in.”

“Thanks, Ori. Is Geni ‘round. The fragger took my visor before he got distracted.”

“Ric, why don’t ya find yer genitors. Neither o’em would be happy if they missed Jazz.”

“Sure.”

Prowl sat quietly as the kinsmech spoke around him. He heard them speak, but did not follow the conversation. As often happened, he was distracted by his own thoughts. If the Decepticons actually knew Staniz existed under the desert, not so far from Darkmount, the underground village would have been blown to the pit. They would not need to enter the village, or even properly locate it. As long as the coordinates were anywhere close they need only drop one of the bombs they had dropped on Praxus to obliterate the caves and everything and everyone in them. Were there other communities like this, hidden underground, living out of sight as Autobots and Decepticons tore Cybertron apart over their helms.

“He’s burnin’ up.” A servo touch his helm, feeling almost shockingly cool. Prowl brought his optics back into focus. It was not Jazz, it was... his originator.

“He’s been burning through coolant. Prowl what’re yer levels at.”

“30%.”

“Ya burned or leaked out 10% in half a joor. Ori, mind if I raid your stores?”

“Have at it. Prowl? ‘M gonna open up yer leg ‘n see where the leak is.”

“I appreciate your assistance.”

“Ya got manners. Jazz must drive ya crazy.”

“He puts a concerted effort into it.”

“Ha!” Jazz replied. “Two cubes, Prowl. Drink’em ‘n we’ll see where that puts ya.”

“Put a cold compress on his helm too. I think that’s where the trouble really is.”

“Ya think he’s got a leak in his helm? Frag!”

“No. I think he’s got a glitch givin’m some grief.”

“A glitch? Prowl?”

“I will not crash,” Prowl said, feeling defensive. They called him a glitch and a drone. These were just insults, they did not really know. Not even Ratchet knew. Jazz laid a compress over Prowl’s helm and sat down next to him. He helped Prowl drink the coolant.

“If ya do, ya do. We’re safe enough. How ‘n the fraggin’ Pit did I not know you had a glitch.”

“I don’t imagine anyone knows, do they, Prowl?” Punch said. His tone was gentle, so were his digits as he probed Prowl’s knee.

“No.”

"Not even Ratchet?” Jazz asked.

“No.”

“He’s gonna have yer platin’.”

“I found the leak,” Punch said, Prowl scarcely nodded, not wanting to disturb the cool cloth, it was a considerable relief. “I can patch it. Just relax.”

“Ratchet does not need to know,” Prowl said. It sounded too much like a plea to Prowl’s own audios. Even if that was what it was.

“Don’t ya need maintenance sometimes?”

“I manage.”

“Ya know it ain’t a big deal, Prowl. Red’s got a glitch ‘n no one cares.”

“It’s an old habit, ain’t it Prowl?” Punch asked. “Hidin’. Ya emerge wit it?”

“Yes.”

“Yer procreators knew.”

“They discovered it when I was a newling.”

“They must o’ been scared.”

“The assassinated the medic who made the diagnosis before he could report it to Central Health.”

“Hold up,” Jazz said. “Why’d they go that far?”

“Praxus had laws, Jazz,” Punch explained. Prowl wondered how he knew. “No matter the age if a defect was uncovered, they were ‘sposed to be reported to the state to be “managed”. Sometimes managed meant euthanasia, sometimes it meant repairs, or mnemosurgery.”

“The nature of my glitch would have required my processor all but be replaced in its entirety. My procreators could not tolerate the thought. They hid my defect well. I was home schooled, and trained to manage my glitch. I did well. Until I crashed during an enforcer exercise and my partner reported me to the CH. We were all arrested. I was detained in an CH facility to be “corrected”. My procreators broke me out and got me to Rodion. They went back for my brother but they were recaptured.”

“‘M sorry,” Jazz said. “When ya said not all cultures criminalize defects, ya were speakin’ bout yer past. He did not know.”

“Not then. I refused to allow him to perform mnemosurgery on me. He believed I could be fixed. He was angry I was too prideful to allow it.”

“Ya don’t need to be fixed. In Rodion ‘n Iacon they’d say I outta replace my optics wit standard issue blue ones so I would need to worry ‘bout visors. ‘M not effectively blind because my optics are bad. ‘M effectively blind ‘cause my optics are too good. ‘M thinkin’ yer processor’s the same.”

“That is an adapt comparison.”

“Let’s test yer knee,” Punch said. Prowl bent and straightened it as ordered. “Good. Give’m another cube o’ coolant. Just be safe. That’s how ya stop yerself from crashin’ too much, ain’t it. Ya go through coolant.”

“An obscene amount. I pay out of my own account. I am not stealing from the Autobots...”

“Takin’ what ya need to function ain’t stealin’. Ya ‘n me’ll see Ratchet when we get back. Maybe ya outta get some medgrade added to yer rations. I know Red does.”

“Okay.”

Prowl did not know why he wanted to cry. No. That was not true, he knew exactly why. He was utterly overwhelmed and utterly exhausted and having anyone care even this much was more comfort that he had been allowed in vorns and vorns. Since Praxus had been destroyed, Prowl had wondered what had become of his procreators, he had not felt the bonds break. Now he knew, and there was no peace knowing, only helplessness and guilt.

“I suppose yer procreators didn’t make it out,” Jazz said, softly as he placed another cube of coolant into Prowl’s servos.”

“Barricade broke them out before the bombing. They are detained. He could not convince them to enlist. He has kept them prisoner all this time. That was why he wanted me to defect. He thought that was the push that they would need.”

“Fraggin’ aft,” Jazz hissed. “He didn’t tell ya where?”

“No.”

“No matter. We’ll figure it out. ‘N we’ll spring them ourselves.”

[darkwood-sleddog]

Okay okay,

I’ve been seeing this a LOT on the instagram lately and it truly bothers me:

The ARA angle that is okay with dog sports as long as the dogs are not competitors in any competition, because that somehow makes sense. Like “dog sledding is evil because they are forced to run and COMPETE for money but look at these sled dogs that are happy because they don’t have to compete even though their lives are identical with the exception of competition!”

That. is. not. how. any. of. this. works.

1.) Competition is not abusive. Dogs don’t understand that they are competing, they are here to have fun and run and pull. No different than agility, no different than disk dog or dock dog. Dogs feel the heightened energy of competition for sure, but competition as a concept? Running for money as a concept? Dogs don’t understand that.

2.) Any purse given out by a race is a minimal amount of money for most mushers and it goes towards the care of their dogs. You don’t get rich running sled dogs, most competitive kennels have many dogs that they need to feed, vet, train, house etc in a humane way. 

That costs a LOT of money. HERE is a recent article from the Anchorage Daily News that describes some of the costs of competition. The immediate costs to race dogs in the Iditarod is around $15,000 USD, that cost does not include the cost to train and care for the dogs leading up to the race (those “yard costs” are around $37,000 on average if you have around 50 dogs like many long-distance mushers). To qualify for the Iditarod you need to place in other race such as the Yukon Quest ($10,000 USD cost to race with only $19,000 going to the winner, that’s not enough to cover the race cost and dog care...). The Iditarod purse is around $22,000 for 10th place and the Yukon Quest purse is $3,700. That covers basic care. Most additional money mushers make is going to be on sponsorships. 

To be competitive you can’t take poor care of your dogs, you just. can’t. For dogs to be competitive they need to be in great fit, athletic and healthy condition, they need to be happy year round.  Each dog needs its own house and space and that space must be kept clean and dry. That’s a lot of work! The average American can barely take proper care of their pet dog (a huge aspect of why we have a large shelter dog issue in some areas of the country).

3.)  Most modern races are run under the International Sled Dog Racing Association (ISDRA). ISDRA has strict animal welfare rules for each of their race (found here) AND a Race Marshall must be present to enforce these rules. ISDRA also partners with Mush with P.R.I.D.E, an organization that promotes sled dog care, advocacy and welfare. P.R.I.D.E is available for anybody to join. You don’t need to mush dogs, they have several levels of membership for different types of members and they keep it relatively affordable. 

P.R.I.D.E also has a voluntary kennel inspection program that kennels can sign up for. These inspections inspect dog kennels for 10 basic kennel standards such as: daily feeding, adequate shelter, safe confinement, responsible breeding, adequate exercise, fenced yards, daily fecal clean up, veterinary attention that includes regular worming and vaccination, humane euthanasia and finally proper socialization for each dog. These are standards that are really great and most people will agree is a good overall standard to meet. Many rescues I know don’t meet these basic standards that the mushing community has set for itself. These organizations are created by mushers, all of us who love our dogs and love our sport and want to ensure that the animals have the best care. Animal Rights Advocates aren’t the ones supporting or creating these programs. They aren’t donating to our organizations set up to promote the welfare of sled dogs, instead they’re ranting about it on social media and making no real impact in the welfare of sled dogs. Big competition kennels play a huge part in creating and implementing the modern care standards set by Mush with P.R.I.D.E.

4.) Non-Competition dogs aren’t held to the high standard of care that competition dogs are held to even if the lives they live are nearly identical in every way. A musher that lives on their own property and mushers in the backcountry is not seen by the general public. Competitive mushers have to deal with judgement of their care from the general public because they are visible. When we talk about the kennels and mushers that are lacking in giving their dogs the care they deserve it is almost nearly. almost aways these non-visible kennels. 

What is different about a person that enjoys competing with their dogs and occasionally gives a tourist a sled or rig ride and one that does ALL of that but doesn’t compete? The dogs are cared for the same way, the dogs are run just as many miles, the dogs are often still taken on overnight expedition (heck in some breeds, such as the Alaskan Malamute we require overnight expeditions for the high level sledding titles).

Why is a dog that is given its own space, warm shelter and gets to run everyday seen as “abused” versus our average pets that will likely not get its personal space respected and occasionally gets a dull walk around the neighborhood? We don’t even hold our house pets in this country to the same standard of care that Mush with P.R.I.D.E sets for its sled dog kennels. Many pet dogs don’t have safe confinement (meaning they can’t escape and injure themselves or others, the amount of loose dogs in my rural area can attest to that), many pet dogs don’t get regular veterinary attention (i know MANY people that refuse to vaccinate their dogs or take them to see a vet), many pet dogs don’t get adequate exercise OR proper socialization...like how many pet dogs do you know that NEVER leave their house or property?? And yet for us (and by us I mean the industrialized West), this is normal. Why is doing something active in partnership with your dog so unusual now? Why is it considered abusive only when the dog/human partnership is rewarded for their success? Why is it so foreign to us that ARAs are willing to call it abusive when the community has improved its welfare standards over and over and over again?

We need to connect to the history of the dog again, we need to understand that we bred dogs historically to help US and be partners with US, not to sit and be quiet in the corner of the house occasionally and be compliant as we “alpha roll” them into submission. Dogs are our partners and somehow one of the best examples of that symbiotic relationship between humans and dogs (helping each other survive and exist in the Arctic) has been twisted and turned by ARAs into the “abuse” narrative and honestly. I will not stand for it.

[nicklloydnow]

“A fundamental change in the relationship between the state, natural elites, and intellectuals only occurred with the transition from monarchical to democratic rule. It was the inflated price of justice and the perversions of ancient law by kings as monopolistic judges and peacekeepers that motivated the historical opposition against monarchy. But confusion as to the causes of this phenomenon prevailed. There were those who recognized correctly that the problem was with monopoly, not with elites or nobility. However, they were far outnumbered by those who erroneously blamed the elitist character of the ruler for the problem, and who advocated maintaining the monopoly of law and law enforcement and merely replacing the king and the highly visible royal pomp with the "people" and the presumed decency of the "common man." Hence the historic success of democracy.

How ironic that monarchism was destroyed by the same social forces that kings had first stimulated and enlisted when they began to exclude competing natural authorities from acting as judges: the envy of the common men against their betters, and the desire of the intellectuals for their allegedly deserved place in society. When the king's promises of better and cheaper justice turned out to be empty, intellectuals turned the egalitarian sentiments the kings had previously courted against the monarchical rulers themselves. Accordingly, it appeared logical that kings, too, should be brought down and that the egalitarian policies, which monarchs had initiated, should be carried through to their ultimate conclusion: the monopolistic control of the judiciary by the common man. To the intellectuals, this meant by them, as the people's spokesmen.

As elementary economic theory could predict, with the transition from monarchical to democratic one-man-one-vote rule and the substitution of the people for the king, matters became worse. The price of justice rose astronomically while the quality of law constantly deteriorated. For what this transition boiled down to was a system of private government ownership — a private monopoly — being replaced by a system of public government ownership — a publicly owned monopoly.

A "tragedy of the commons" was created. Everyone, not just the king, was now entitled to try to grab everyone else's private property. The consequences were more government exploitation (taxation); the deterioration of law to the point where the idea of a body of universal and immutable principles of justice disappeared and was replaced by the idea of law as legislation (made, rather than found and eternally "given" law); and an increase in the social rate of time preference (increased present-orientation).

A king owned the territory and could hand it on to his son, and thus tried to preserve its value. A democratic ruler was and is a temporary caretaker and thus tries to maximize current government income of all sorts at the expense of capital values, and thus wastes.

(...)

While the state fared much better under democratic rule, and while the "people" have fared much worse since they began to rule "themselves," what about the natural elites and the intellectuals? As regards the former, democratization has succeeded where kings made only a modest beginning: in the ultimate destruction of the natural elite and nobility. The fortunes of the great families have dissipated through confiscatory taxes, during life and at the time of death. These families' tradition of economic independence, intellectual farsightedness, and moral and spiritual leadership have been lost and forgotten.

Rich men exist today, but more frequently than not they owe their fortunes directly or indirectly to the state. Hence, they are often more dependent on the state's continued favors than many people of far-lesser wealth. They are typically no longer the heads of long-established leading families, but "nouveaux riches." Their conduct is not characterized by virtue, wisdom, dignity, or taste, but is a reflection of the same proletarian mass-culture of present-orientation, opportunism, and hedonism that the rich and famous now share with everyone else. Consequently — and thank goodness — their opinions carry no more weight in public opinion than most other people's.

Democracy has achieved what Keynes only dreamt of: the "euthanasia of the rentier class." Keynes's statement that "in the long run we are all dead" accurately expresses the democratic spirit of our times: present-oriented hedonism. Although it is perverse not to think beyond one's own life, such thinking has become typical. Instead of ennobling the proletarians, democracy has proletarianized the elites and has systematically perverted the thinking and judgment of the masses.

On the other hand, while the natural elites were being destroyed, intellectuals assumed a more prominent and powerful position in society. Indeed, to a large extent they have achieved their goal and have become the ruling class, controlling the state and functioning as monopolistic judge.

This is not to say that democratically elected politicians are all intellectuals (although there are certainly more intellectuals nowadays who become president than there were intellectuals who became king.) After all, it requires somewhat different skills and talents to be an intellectual than it does to have mass-appeal and be a successful fundraiser. But even the non-intellectuals are the products of indoctrination by tax-funded schools, universities, and publicly employed intellectuals, and almost all of their advisors are drawn from this pool.

There are almost no economists, philosophers, historians, or social theorists of rank employed privately by members of the natural elite. And those few of the old elite who remain and who might have purchased their services can no longer afford intellectuals financially. Instead, intellectuals are now typically public employees, even if they work for nominally private institutions or foundations. Almost completely protected from the vagaries of consumer demand ("tenured"), their number has dramatically increased and their compensation is on average far above their genuine market value. At the same time the quality of their intellectual output has constantly fallen.

What you will discover is mostly irrelevance and incomprehensibility. Worse, insofar as today's intellectual output is at all relevant and comprehensible, it is viciously statist. There are exceptions, but if practically all intellectuals are employed in the multiple branches of the state, then it should hardly come as a surprise that most of their ever-more voluminous output will, either by commission or omission, be statist propaganda. There are more propagandists of democratic rule around today than there were ever propagandists of monarchical rule in all of human history.

This seemingly unstoppable drift toward statism is illustrated by the fate of the so-called Chicago School: Milton Friedman, his predecessors, and his followers. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Chicago School was still considered left-fringe, and justly so, considering that Friedman, for instance, advocated a central bank and paper money instead of a gold standard. He wholeheartedly endorsed the principle of the welfare state with his proposal of a guaranteed minimum income (negative income tax) on which he could not set a limit. He advocated a progressive income tax to achieve his explicitly egalitarian goals (and he personally helped implement the withholding tax). Friedman endorsed the idea that the State could impose taxes to fund the production of all goods that had a positive neighborhood effect or which he thought would have such an effect. This implies, of course, that there is almost nothing that the state can not tax-fund!

In addition, Friedman and his followers were proponents of the shallowest of all shallow philosophies: ethical and epistemological relativism. There is no such thing as ultimate moral truths and all of our factual, empirical knowledge is at best only hypothetically true. Yet they never doubted that there must be a state, and that the state must be democratic.

Today, half a century later, the Chicago-Friedman school, without having essentially changed any of its positions, is regarded as right-wing and free-market. Indeed, the school defines the borderline of respectable opinion on the political Right, which only extremists cross. Such is the magnitude of the change in public opinion that public employees have brought about.

Consider further indicators of the statist deformation brought about by the intellectuals. If one takes a look at election statistics, one will by and large find the following picture: the longer a person spends in educational institutions, someone with a PhD, for instance, as compared to someone with only a BA, the more likely it is that this person will be ideologically statist and vote Democrat. Moreover, the higher the amount of taxes used to fund education, the lower SAT scores and similar measurements of intellectual performance will fall, and I suspect even further will the traditional standards of moral behavior and civil conduct decline.

Or consider the following indicator: in 1994 it was called a "revolution" and Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, was called a "revolutionary" when he endorsed the New Deal and Social Security, and praised civil rights legislation, i.e., the affirmative action and forced integration which is responsible for the almost complete destruction of private property rights, and the erosion of freedom of contract, association, and disassociation. What kind of a revolution is it where the revolutionaries have wholeheartedly accepted the statist premises and causes of the present disaster? Obviously, this can only be labeled a revolution in an intellectual environment that is statist to the core.

(...)

The situation appears hopeless, but it is not so. First, it must be recognized that the situation can hardly continue forever. The democratic age can hardly be "the end of history," as the neoconservatives want us to believe, for there is also an economic side to the process.

Market interventions will inevitably cause more of the problems they are supposed to cure, which leads to more and more controls and regulations until we finally reach full-blown socialism. If the current trend continues, it can safely be predicted that the democratic welfare state of the West will eventually collapse as did the "people's republics" of the East in the late 1980s. For decades, real incomes in the West have stagnated or even fallen. Government debt and the cost of the "social insurance" schemes have brought on the prospect of an economic meltdown. At the same time, social conflict has risen to dangerous heights.

Perhaps one will have to wait for an economic collapse before the current statist trend changes. But even in the case of a collapse, something else is necessary. A breakdown would not automatically result in a roll-back of the State. Matters could become worse.

In fact, in recent Western history, there are only two clear-cut instances where the powers of the central government were actually reduced, even if only temporarily, as the result of a catastrophe: in West Germany after World War II under Ludwig Erhard, and in Chile under General Pinochet. What is necessary, besides a crisis, is ideas — correct ideas — and men capable of understanding and implementing them once the opportunity arises.

But if the course of history is not inevitable (and it is not) then a catastrophe is neither necessary nor unavoidable. Ultimately, the course of history is determined by ideas, be they true or false, and by men acting upon and being inspired by true or false ideas. Only so long as false ideas rule is a catastrophe unavoidable. On the other hand, once correct ideas are adopted and prevail in public opinion — and ideas can, in principle, be changed almost instantaneously — a catastrophe will not have to occur at all.

This brings me to the role intellectuals must play in the necessary radical and fundamental change in public opinion, and the role that members of the natural elites, or whatever is left of them, will also have to play. The demands on both sides are high, yet as high as they are, to prevent a catastrophe or to emerge successfully from it, these demands will have to be accepted by both as their natural duty.

Even if most intellectuals have been corrupted and are largely responsible for the present perversities, it is impossible to achieve an ideological revolution without their help. The rule of the public intellectuals can only be broken by anti-intellectual intellectuals. Fortunately, the ideas of individual liberty, private property, freedom of contract and association, personal responsibility and liability, and government power as the primary enemy of liberty and property, will not die out as long as there is a human race, simply because they are true and the truth supports itself. Moreover, the books of past thinkers who expressed these ideas will not disappear. However, it is also necessary that there be living thinkers who read such books and who can remember, restate, reapply, sharpen, and advance these ideas, and who are capable and willing to give them personal expression and openly oppose, attack, and refute their fellow intellectuals.

Of these two requirements — intellectual competency and character — the second is the more important, especially in these times. From a purely intellectual point of view, matters are comparatively easy. Most of the statist arguments that we hear day in and out are easily refuted as more or less economic nonsense. It is also not rare to encounter intellectuals who in private do not believe what they proclaim with great fanfare in public. They do not simply err. They deliberately say and write things they know to be untrue. They do not lack intellect; they lack morals. This in turn implies that one must be prepared not only to fight falsehood but also evil — and this is a much more difficult and daring task. In addition to better knowledge, it requires courage.

As an anti-intellectual intellectual, one can expect bribes to be offered — and it is amazing how easily some people can be corrupted: a few hundred dollars, a nice trip, a photo-op with the mighty and powerful are all too often sufficient to make people sell out. Such temptations must be rejected as contemptible. Moreover, in fighting evil, one must be willing to accept that one will probably never be "successful." There are no riches in store, no magnificent promotions, no professional prestige. In fact, intellectual "fame" should be regarded with utmost suspicion.

Indeed, not only does one have to accept that he will be marginalized by the academic establishment, but he will have to expect that his colleagues will try almost anything to ruin him. Just look at Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. The two greatest economists and social philosophers of the 20th century were both essentially unacceptable and unemployable by the academic establishment. Yet throughout their lives, they never gave in, not one inch. They never lost their dignity or even succumbed to pessimism. On the contrary, in the face of constant adversity, they remained undaunted and even cheerful, and worked at a mind-boggling level of productivity. They were satisfied in being devoted to the truth and nothing but the truth.

It is here that what is left of the natural elites comes into play. True intellectuals, like Mises and Rothbard, can not do what they need to do without the natural elites. Despite all obstacles, it was possible for Mises and Rothbard to make themselves heard. They were not condemned to silence. They still taught and published. They still addressed audiences and inspired people with their insights and ideas. This would not have been possible without the support of others. Mises had Lawrence Fertig and the William Volker Fund, which paid his salary at NYU, and Rothbard had The Ludwig von Mises Institute, which supported him, helped publish and promote his books, and provided the institutional framework that allowed him to say and write what needed to be said and written, and that can no longer be said and written inside academia and the official, statist establishment media.

Once upon a time, in the pre-democratic age, when the spirit of egalitarianism had not yet destroyed most men of independent wealth and independent minds and judgments, this task of supporting unpopular intellectuals was taken on by individuals. But who can nowadays afford, single-handedly, to employ an intellectual privately, as his personal secretary, advisor, or teacher of his children? And those who still can are more often than not deeply involved in the ever more corrupt big government-big business alliance, and they promote the very same intellectual cretins who dominate statist academia. Just think of Rockefeller and Kissinger, for instance.

Hence, the task of supporting and keeping alive the truths of private property, freedom of contract and association and disassociation, personal responsibility, and of fighting falsehoods, lies, and the evil of statism, relativism, moral corruption, and irresponsibility can nowadays only be taken on collectively by pooling resources and supporting organizations like the Mises Institute , an independent organization dedicated to the values underlying Western civilization, uncompromising and far removed even physically from the corridors of power. Its program of scholarships, teaching, publications, and conferences is nothing less than an island of moral and intellectual decency in a sea of perversion.

To be sure, the first obligation of any decent person is to himself and his family. He should — in the free market — make as much money as he possibly can, because the more money he makes, the more beneficial he has been to his fellow man.

But that is not enough. An intellectual must be committed to the truth, whether or not it pays off in the short run. Similarly, the natural elite have obligations that extend far beyond themselves and their families.

The more successful they are as businessmen and professionals, and the more others recognize them as successful, the more important it is that they set an example: that they strive to live up to the highest standards of ethical conduct. This means accepting as their duty, indeed as their noble duty, to support openly, proudly, and as generously as they possibly can the values that they have recognized as right and true.”

[d-a-anderson]

Hybridism

Art Source: Eugenia Firs - Alexandria

A hybrid wasn’t the same thing as a human with a mechanical augmentation. It was common to have alternate limbs, either to counter a disability or to extend a pre-existing ability. Prosthetics, after all, had been around for millenia. What made a hybrid different was that it wasn’t just their body that was modified, but their consciousness. Hybridism was a punishment reserved for convicts.

The Accord of Consciousness specifically forbade humans mindsharing with dominant, artificial egos. It was agreed and signed onto by all post-nation-state entities after disastrous experiments that led to derangement, hallucination, and brain-death, after which it was enforced by all major players.

Of course, the fine line between a hybrid and an assisted, natural ego was difficult to determine. After all, didn’t most citizens mindshare with a programmed intelligence of some sort? The authors of the Accord maintained that the “wholeness” of human consciousness was reflected in the relationship of the body-brain system to the augmentation, and thus modifying the biological portion beyond a certain point would yield a different kind of organism.

In truth, it was an issue of rights and privileges. If an organism is hooked up to an apparatus that keeps it in constant conversation—and that conversation is one in which the human portion can’t get a word in edgewise—can that organism make decisions wholly on its own volition? And if it can’t, is that organism still human? The contract between assisted humans and their adjunct egos was voluntary and could be opted out of at any time. There was no such voluntary condition in hybridism. Hybrids could be hooked up to a network against their will with no right afforded them to protest it. They might be aware of their choices, but they couldn’t control them. They might have an experience, but it would be truncated, like seeing through a dim peephole. Perhaps, by force of sheer will, they could dredge up one impulse while suppressing another. It depended on the degree to which they were modified—and so there were many gradations of the procedure, often doled out according to the degree of punishment.

This gave detractors of the Accord leverage in the debate: after all, if hybrids have an experience of suffering at all, aren’t they still sentient and worthy of compassion? If the point of penitence is to cause suffering for a human ego, doesn’t the ego have to remain human to make recompense?

Those in favor of the Accord argued that it was a distinction without a difference. The procedure was permanent, so recompense was unremittable for a hybrid. As such, hybridism among those who signed onto the the Accord was reserved for individuals who would otherwise get a death penalty, and they were deployed to do menial tasks like guarding citadels, mining in dangerous conditions, and scouting treacherous terrains. These were human willpowers held in mechanical limbos, leftovers or even recombinations of many, woven by something alien to them and inserted against their will into a new body by a powerful third party, puppeteered by superconsciousnesses that commanded them beyond certain thresholds of otherwise natural will.

The condition was similar to an addict’s, but without the chemical dependency. Instead, the impulse was programmatic, instinctive, and predictable. If a hybrid was owned by an enterprise, it might be forced to do things that its human portion might not agree with—of course. But that always left the possibility that the hybrid could be manipulated by a yet more invasive force, like a being cursed with an induced alien hand syndrome from multiple puppeteers. So there was always an air of suspiciousness about them that added to the punitive stigma: after all, if I’m induced to serve a mental master other than myself, isn’t it possible that I could be induced a second or third time? How would an observer know my real allegiance?

So detractors of the Accord of Consciousness often hacked hybrids in an effort to “liberate” them. Freedom fighters insisted by the Rights of Compassion and Sentience, clauses within the Accord itself, that hybrids should either be destroyed or made wholly human again, if not banned outright. Since the procedure was supposed to be irreversible, they usually pursued the former strategy, viewing it as euthanasia. Whether their latter attempts at disentangling the human psychologies implanted in their mechanized carapaces were successful or not was up for debate with no clear winner on either side. But it was clear that once the process of hybridism was invented, it was possible to have gradations of humanity, gradations of free will, and thus degrees of rights. Those who lauded the Accord proposed that those who deserved hybridism had already given up their rights and privileges by committing atrocities against other free, humanborn agents. But the mandate of who judged this ultimately fell to the powerful, regardless of whether their decisions were justified.

[puppyexpressions]

7 Reasons Not To Buy A Puppy From A Pet Store

Puppy mills, or large commercial facilities that breed dogs to sell to pet stores, show little regard for the well-being of the animals they're breeding. Not only are the puppies born into overcrowded and unsanitary conditions -- the breeding dogs are also often kept in separate, confined cages.

1. Nearly all of the dogs sold at pet stores come from puppy mills.

Do not support a pet store that sells dogs, 90 percent of pet store puppies are from puppy mills.

2. Even if a pet store says it doesn't use puppy mills, there's no way to really know.

Lots of pet stores say that they buy their dogs from responsible breeders. But the word "breeder" can apply to anyone who puts two dogs together. In addition, an actual responsible breeder usually doesn't want to sell her dogs to a pet store -- they'd prefer to sell them in person to a buyer. Even if a breeder is USDA or government inspected, he can still legally house dozens or even hundreds of breeding dogs in small wire cages for their entire lives.

3. There's no guarantee the dog is healthy.

Many puppies sold in pet stores bring health problems and injuries along with them. Even if they are sold with a health certificate, it only means the dog has passed a brief "wellness" check by a veterinarian -- this doesn't require checks for genetic disorders, parasites or testing for diseases such as Giardia and Brucellosis -- both of which run rampant in puppy mills and are contagious to humans.

4. They often have worse psychological problems.

A 2017 study from the University of Pennsylvania found that dogs bred in puppy mills showed greater psychological problems as adults than those that weren't. The puppy mill dogs showed greater aggression toward their owners and other dogs as well as a greater chance of escaping, roaming, and running away. This is related to both the small, isolated conditions they are raised in, but also the stress their mothers went through while pregnant.

5. It costs taxpayers ... a lot.

Puppy mills don't just hurt animals -- they hurt taxpayers, too. Not only is there the cost of law enforcement, cleanup and euthanasia for sick animals when a particularly bad puppy mill is busted, taxpayers must also absorb the cost of sheltering, rehabilitating and housing animals that are rescued from puppy mills. A single raid on a large-scale puppy mill can cost taxpayers a whopping $100,000.

6. Adopted dogs are usually healthier and less expensive.

Almost all animal shelters give dogs examinations and vaccinations, as well as spaying or neutering them before they are adopted. Shelter employees also usually take more care to match the temperament of a dog with his or her prospective owner and household. It's worth mentioning, too, that the adoption fees at a shelter are often much less than a pet store price tag -- and the proceeds go to rescuing other dogs.

7. There are millions of shelter dogs are in desperate need of homes.

[stone-man-warrior]

May 18, 2020: 9:54 pm:

May 18, 2020: 9:26 pm:

I want to try to explain a terror concept that I have rarely attempted to explain before. The following information is so difficult to put into words that can be comprehended, that I have avoided trying to explain it simply because of the added possibility of confusion that could happen resultant of the explanation, but mostly I avoid this subject because I have always believed that the people who are supposed to protect USA, are smart enough to consider the different ways that terror soldiers, and their Screen Actor Guild leadership can fool them. Also, I have provided numerous and clearly stated advisories about the danger of making contact with local authorities. This following information is necessary because of the obvious insistence of the National Security Personnel to make contact, and trust the local, Oregon law enforcement, and government officials.

As follows:

I know there are people who are helpful, they want to talk to me, and they make a phone call, one that is supposed to reach my telephone, make the phone ring, so that I will answer the phone, and speak the them. That much is made clear often.

Some facts:

My phone is a cellular phone.

I use US Cellular Phone Service.

I have had the same phone number since 2002.

My telephone bill is paid.

My telephone bill has never been missed or late to pay, always on time.

I have nearly perfect credit score, with a score that exceeds 800.

There is nothing wrong with my telephone, it is a functioning telephone.

There is everything wrong with the telephone systems that is provided by US Cellular Phone Service.

The problems with the telephone service are beyond the systems that are provided by US Cellular Phone Service.

Telephone Service in Oregon suffers from terrorist manipulations that are compounded, with overlapping, and duplicated means of manipulations.

The goal of the terror elements in Oregon, is to prevent people like me, United States Citizens in need of help. From reaching said help.

The other goal, is to prevent the help from reaching people like me, United States Citizens who need help.

With all of that said, this is what actually occurs:

First, an assumption: I am assuming that the people who are trying to reach me by telephone, have contacted local authorities in Oregon, and have made them aware somehow, that a phone call will be made at a given time.

So, with local authorities and the National Security Personnel both informed that a call will be made to contact me, a phone is then made, to my phone number.

The call is intercepted.

My phone does not ring.

I am unaware that any attempt to call me was made.

Instead, a terror intruder comes into my home, by using a key that they made, with help from a Screen Actor Guild Locksmith.

The intruder comes inside my house, while I am walking a short walk to Jackpine and back again, a distance of about five-hundred feet each direction.

When I return to my home, there is no sign of any intruder, the intruder is hiding behind the furniture, in the bathroom, or in the laundry room.

The intruder fills the house with Nitrous Oxide/Versed gas mixture.

That is when the phone call comes in.

I begin to hear the sound of  distant voices inside my house.

I check the windows, and look outside for someone there.

There is no one outside that I can see.

Then I look to see where my cats are at, maybe that is the sound I heard.

I give up looking for sounds, and talk to my cat, the Nitrous gas begins to take affect.

I sit down in my recliner, I feel happy, and safe, and everything is wonderful, and I talk to my cat.

I begin to breath heavy.

Those voices are ever present, I can hear that there is some kind of small noise, sounds like people talking, but also sounds like the cat.

I don't care, nothing matters by that time, the house is filled with Nitrous gas, and the cats are passed out.

The intruder then says: “He's ninety-eight”.

“Ninety-Eight” is terror code for: “He is ready for surgery” and is based on the notion that people under anesthetic for surgery are instructed to count backwards from one-hundred. No one ever gets to ninety-six, so, ninety-eight is ready for surgery, when the terror phone call like this one, comes in.

The phone call is hand delivered by the terror soldier, who works in association to the Oregon Government Officials that I told the National Security people not to contact.

At that point, after the “Ninety-eight” announcement, the terror intruder with the phone call (Three-Dee-Chinese-Phone-Call) begins to attack, with either a hypodermic needle syringe filled with euthanasia, a .25 custom made gun, or a sword.

These kinds of three-dimensional intruder phone calls have happened to me hundreds of times.

I fight back.

So far, I am still alive, and hundreds of terror soldiers who brought those phone calls, are dead, or have been badly injured.

Some of them have managed to leave uninjured.

This explanation covers three-dimensional, hand delivered phone calls that have been coming in like I explained there for more than ten years, on occasion.

That is the end of the explanation.

End terror report: 9:52 pm.

There are no signs of any helpful people anywhere, and never have been.

Please send US Military to Oregon.

Please send help.

[alborear]

𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐑𝐀'𝐒  𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐊:

all  together,  aurora  has  six  dogs,  all  adopted  from  crime  scenes  she’s  worked  where  there  was  no  family  /  friends  to  take  the  dog  in,  so  they  were  facing  life  in  the  pound  after  being  wounded  and  losing  their  family  to  a  traumatic  even,  or,  even  worse,  facing  euthanasia.

ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑜   —

halo  was  the  first  dog  aurora  adopted,  from  the  first  crime  scene  she  worked  as  an  agent.  halo’s  family  had  been  killed,  and  she  was  aggressive  toward  everyone  that  tried  to  come  near  her,  apart  from  aurora,  so  instead  of  letting  her  be  put  down,  aurora  brought  halo  home  with  her.  halo  was  extremely  traumatized  by  the  brutality  she  witnessed  befall  her  family,  and  it  took  aurora  months  to  finally  earn  halo’s  trust  completely.  now,  halo  is  the  leader  of  aurora’s  little  pack,  and  the  only  dog  allowed  to  sleep  in  her  bed  with  her.  even  when  aurora  is  away  working,  halo  sleeps  in  her  bed,  and  is  the  reason  aurora  has  to  get  a  dog  sitter  to  come  to  her  house  instead  of  leaving  her  pack  at  a  daycare  or  separating  them  up  among  her  friends  because  halo  refuses  to  be  away  from  home  without  aurora.  aurora  figures  that  she  thinks  she’s  going  to  have  her  life  uprooted  again,  but  she  would  never  let  that  happen.

𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑦   —

mercy  and  diego  were  adopted  only  two  weeks  apart,  from  back  to  back  cases.  mercy  was  found  by  aurora’s  pitbull,  hennessy,  while  he  was  working  a  case  with  her.  she  was  scrawny  and  shaking,  and  she’d  somehow  managed  to  evade  all  the  law  enforcement  that  had  been  trampling  through  her  house  for  almost  two  weeks.  and  she’d  almost  been  left  there  alone.  the  thought  made  aurora’s  heart  ache.  mercy  would  be  her  first  puppy,  and  she  knew  that  would  be  a  challenge,  but  it  was  a  challenge  that  she  was  willing  to  take  on.  and  mercy  has  turned  out  to  be  a  miracle  puppy.  she’s  quiet  and  well  behaved,  playful  but  not  too  energetic,  and  she’s  sweet  as  could  be,  always  insisting  to  cuddle  on  aurora’s  lap,  or  walk  right  beside  her  legs,  so  she  can  be  as  close  to  the  woman  who  saved  her  as  she  can.

𝑎𝑢𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑠   —

augustus,  or  “auggie,”  as  aurora  calls  him,  is  the  only  dog  of  the  pack  that  aurora  didn’t  adopt  from  a  crime  scene.  aurora’s  best  friend,  summer  caine,  had  decided  she  wanted  to  adopt  a  dog,  so  aurora  went  along  with  her  to  the  shelter  to  try  and  help  find  her  perfect  dog.  they  looked  for  awhile,  seen  a  few  dogs  up  close,  but  none  of  them  seemed  perfect  for  summer.  they  were  about  to  leave  when  one  of  the  shelter  volunteers  stopped  them  and  asked  them  to  look  at  one  more  dog.  augustus  was  a  three  -  legged  retired  police  dog,  and  he  and  aurora  clicked  immediately.  but  augustus  didn’t  seem  to  trust  summer,  so  aurora  asked  who  the  volunteer  had  intended  this  dog  for,  and  she  admitted  that  she  knew  of  aurora’s  reputation  with  animals,  and  how  she  was  always  volunteering  her  weekends  and  days  off.  she  went  on  to  explain  augustus’  story,  how  he  was  hit  by  a  car  in  the  line  of  duty,  and  lost  one  of  his  legs.  she  said  that  augustus  was  sour  towards  everyone,  that  the  incident  seemed  to  sour  him,  making  him  aggressive  towards  his  old  handler,  and,  if  they  didn’t  find  him  a  home  by  monday,  they  were  going  to  have  to  put  him  down.  aurora  looked  down  at  augustus,  and  he  laid  his  head  in  her  lap,  and  she  knew  in  that  moment  that  she  couldn’t  not  take  him  home  with  her.

𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑔𝑜   —

diego  is  the  troublemaker  of  the  pack.  he’s  always  into  something,  destroying  the  couch,  pillows,  the  walls!  aurora  got  lucky  with  mercy,  she  was  so  calm  from  the  moment  she  found  her,  but  not  diego.  diego  had  to  be  dragged  from  the  bed  where  his  master  was  killed,   (   a  young  boy,  no  older  than  fourteen   )   and  he  only  went  struggling  and  crying.  even  aurora,  the  resident  dog  whisperer,  couldn’t  calm  the  young  puppy  down.  but  that  didn’t  stop  her  from  trying.  she  was  kicked  out  of  the  hotel  the  team  was  staying  at  and  forced  to  sleep  in  one  of  the  suvs  with  diego  because  he  wouldn’t  stop  howling.  he  settled  down  a  little  when  she  finally  got  him  home,  when  he  met  all  the  other  dogs.  he’s  the  newest  member  of  the  pack,  so  he’s  still  weary  of  them,  but  halo   ---   who  usually  doesn’t  want  anything  to  do  with  the  new  dogs  aurora  brings  home  for  the  first  few  months   ---   seems  to  have  taken  the  puppy  under  her  wing,  and  become  his  surrogate  mother,  which  is  sweet,  but  aurora  wishes  that  diego  would  start  warming  up  to  her  some,  not  just  her  dogs,  though  she’s  glad  he’s  settling  down.

ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑦   —

hennessy  is  aurora’s  fierce  protector.  she  had  to  get  special  authorization,  and  take  hennessy  through  months  of  dog  training  courses  before  her  local  government  allowed  him  to  live  in  aurora’s  neighbourhood.  because  he’s  a  pitbull.  because  he’s  big,  bulky,  and  kind  of  scary  looking.  hennessy  has  technically  been  trained  as  a  police  dog,  and  as  an  fbi  canine.  and  since  he  has  his  own  badge  at  the  bureau,  aurora  often  brings  him  in  on  days  when  there’s  not  much  going  on.  hennessy  is  a  giant  teddy  bear,  so  everyone  smothers  him  with  love  and  affection,  and  he  just  soaks  it  up.  hennessy  was  even  called  in  to  consult  on  one  of  the  bau’s  cases,  and  travelled  to  texas  with  aurora  and  the  team.  that  was  where  they  found  mercy,  or,  technically,  that’s  where  hennessy  found  mercy.  aurora  was  packing  up  to  leave  the  crime  scene  as  the  case  was  over,  but  she  couldn’t  get  hennessy  to  come  with  her.  after  struggling  for  a  minute,  she  lost  her  hold  on  his  lead  and  he  ran  back  in  the  house,  leading  her  to  a  tiny  red  puppy  who  was  hungry  and  afraid,  and  had  evaded  being  found  by  all  the  law  enforcement  that  had  trampled  through  that  house  for  almost  two  weeks.  hennessy  and  mercy  are  now  inseparable,  and  they  do  everything  together:  sleeping,  eating,  playing.  

𝑔𝑒𝑚𝑚𝑎   — 

aurora  hadn’t  planned  on  adopting  another  dog  after  halo,  and  she  certainly  didn’t  plan  on  having  as  many  dogs  as  she  does  now,  but  about  six  months  after  she  adopted  halo,  aurora  worked  a  case  where  the  family  dog  managed  to  attack  the  unsub,  and  had  gotten  shot  three  times  in  the  process.  aurora  spent  a  lot  of  time  with  the  forensics  team  when  they  worked  on  gemma,  gathering  evidence,  and  she  spent  even  more  time  at  the  vet  where  gemma  was  being  treated.  even  after  the  case  was  solved,  and  the  rest  of  her  team  left,  aurora  stayed  behind  to  make  sure  that  gemma  would  make  a  full  recovery.  she  became  good  friends  with  the  vet,  dr.  bailey  quinn,  and  the  sheriff  who  found  gemma,  penelope  gail,  while  she  was  spending  time  beside  gemma’s  sick  bed.  she  thought  that  the  plan  was  for  the  sheriff  to  take  gemma  home  when  she  got  strong  enough,  but  it  turned  out  that  gemma  didn’t  get  along  with  her  cats,  so  aurora  couldn’t  just  leave  her  there,  and  she  brought  gemma  home  with  her.

[tahliyah]

Adopting vs Shopping--Which is Better?

So, you’ve finally decided you want a dog.  First of all, congratulations!  It’s undeniable that a furry companion is great for when your home begins to feel just a little too empty.  Although people have pets for plenty of different reasons, it is important to realize how much care and thought must go into both adopting and taking care of your new companion--including where you decide to get your new dog from.  Now, allow me to walk you through the importance of adopting dogs from shelters over receiving them from private backyard breeders or pet stores.

Private and public shelters are the two primary forms shelters take.  Private shelters are typically limited in space and tend to avoid euthanasia (the act or practice of permitting the death of hopelessly sick domestic animals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy), although they still may euthanize animals if they are severely ill or have severe behavioral issues that deem them “unfit” for adoption.  Public animal shelters deal primarily with stray animals within their respective communities and animals that have been impacted by state cruelty laws, and are shelters that euthanize for space if an animal has been available for adoption for a prolonged period of time but has not been adopted or properly claimed by an owner.  Despite many people being actively against the act of euthanizing, don’t forget to consider that many shelters go through an extensive process of behavioral readjustment, psychological evaluations, and health evaluations before even considering euthanasia.  Also, as someone who volunteers at a local shelter, I can assure you that it is always saddening and hard to have to take away an animal’s life for any reason.  Ultimately, running a shelter can be extremely financially straining, which means hard decisions must be made.

Despite what many people assume, most animal shelters and rescue organizations do not receive financial assistance from the government.  The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not funnel in tax-payer money to make sure the doors of shelters stay open and that food-bowls stay full--they simply enforce animal welfare laws and provide funding for animal control services in larger cities and towns.  In order to operate, shelters rely heavily on donations, either in money or in resources, and the help of volunteers.

Private breeders are a very different story.  Although there are people who receive animals from private breeders on a regular basis, and there is nothing inherently wrong about wanting to provide any animal with a new family and a loving home, a lot of the problems with private breeders are in relation to the way in which they operate their businesses and contribute to the negative stigma surrounding shelter animals.

The first major concern about private breeding is related to what are known as puppy mills. Most puppy mills and backyard breeders breed puppies in order to profit from the misconception that dogs that are privately bred are “better” and have better temperaments or traits than dogs in shelters.  Many of these dogs are subject to harsh conditions, mental and physical abuse, lack of enrichment, inadequate healthcare, and are also separated from their mothers--also known as “breeding bitches”--at only a few weeks old, intending to maximize profit as much as possible.  Private breeders are not always educated on how to care for dogs, nor do they always possess the correct medical equipment or proper veterinary training to do so, which leaves a lot of room for dogs to be born with serious short (but fatal) or long-term health complications that can make them very expensive to care for.

What about mills that are licensed by the USDA? Or puppy mills that regularly sell to pet-stores?  

I have news for you, honey.

Although there are puppy mills licensed by the USDA, the standards the USDA has in place for commercial breeders are very, very low.  It’s pretty rare for the USDA to reprimand private breeders for health and welfare violations, and inspections are done usually about once every couple of years.  This means that there are currently thousands of private puppy mill owners profiting off of and benefitting from the USDA’s lax nature towards ensuring that commercial breeders are providing safe, sanitary spaces for animals to live until they are either adopted or sold to pet stores.

Yes--pet stores buy from private breeders too.  A plethora of animals that are sold in pet stores come from private breeders, including breeders known to be repeat violators of animal welfare laws. 

Overall, at face value, you believe you are participating in something important and ethical--providing a new living situation for a sweet animal in need of it.  It is not your fault that there are people who take advantage of animals in order to profit, but you do possess the ability to contribute to taking away the power of people who own puppy mills.  This, of course, starts with you considering adopting primarily from animal shelters, which house dogs of different breeds, sizes, traits, and temperaments.  Most shelters utilize a system that ensures that you are matched with an animal that will fit your personality and home environment, which makes it so that both you and your new dog will remain happy and healthy.  According to the ASPCA, around 3.3 million dogs are brought into shelters in America every year--I can assure you that one of them is meant for you.

Remember to stay safe, healthy, and kind during this pandemic.  Also, consider fostering an animal from your local shelter or SPCA, as it is currently growing difficult for shelters and rescues to remain open.

SOURCES

https://www.thepuppymillproject.org/about-puppy-mills/

https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/pet-stores-puppy-mills-factsheet.pdf

https://www.animalrescueprofessionals.org/myth-vs-fact/animal-shelters-funded-by-the-government/

https://positively.com/animal-advocacy/puppy-mills/

https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics

[whatthefluffnightvale]

Hey guy's! If you know me you know I NEVER post stuff like this but thought I'd do something a little different (this will not be a reacurring event).

A rescue I'm going to be volunteering/working at for the summer recently got a new case in, and she's the sweetest goddamn mule there is! Please help with her case and donate!!

Here's Wilma's story:

The case I received came from a neighbor in West Texas who was worried about the mule next door. They described the mule as thin, and always standing at the fence looking for passerby to hand them some grass. Based on the description of the mule's condition I was worried that he or she might not survive until we could start traveling again. When I asked the neighbor whether law enforcement was involved, I was told that multiple reports had been made and the Sheriff’s office had not addressed the problem. I was given the address where the mule was at and left San Angelo early one morning with a trailer in tow. When we arrived, I put a mask and gloves on and knocked on the door. The owner of the mules answered. When I told them their options, they agreed to sign the mule over to LMMR. I asked them to stay in the house while we loaded the mule, and what I saw in the pasture brought tears to my eyes.The mule was skinny and alone. She was so weak and unsteady on her feet that when we gently asked her to load, she put her two front feet into the trailer and then fell to her knees. We coaxed her back up, steadied her and drove away slowly with a direct route set to our veterinarian’s office. But 30 minutes before arriving, we saw Wilma go down in the trailer cam. We pulled over and found her unable to get back up. At that moment I had to make a decision to either put her down there or continue on. We got back in the cab and hurried her to the vet. When we arrived, the vet took one look at her body and vitals and told us she needed to be put down. I felt like we were too late. I told myself that maybe if I had left a day or two earlier, it would have been different for Wilma. As I had these thoughts I held her head and she leaned against me for support. I could tell that she wanted to live, but the stress of travel was too much for her frail body to hold itself up. She tried to get up once and sat up briefly before lying down again. If she wasn’t ready to give up, then neither was I. 

We drove her 15 minutes back to our facilities and with 6 people helping we were able to transition her from the bed of the trailer to a soft bed of grass. I sat beside her as she drank some water and ate a little. I told her that if she could just find her way to her feet, I would make everything better. Slowly the light returned to her eyes. Then, with our help and a sling, she stood up and miraculously stayed standing. We pulled some of her blood and took it in to the vet right away for testing. Then we provided palliative care and made her a pen in our quarantine barn with clean water and soft pine bedding. It has now been a week and Wilma is still standing, and life is slowly returning to her body. I spend my evenings in her pen giving her affection, which is all she wants, even more than food. We are waiting for the results of further testing. For now, it is too soon to share any results but we will share as soon as we have determined next steps with our vet. LMMR is already absorbing the costs of the #28MuleRescue, which is upwards of $40,000. Wilma was an unexpected but welcome addition to our rescue, and we are asking for help with her ongoing care and also the expansion of our special needs area where she will be staying. LMMR has a comprehensive euthanasia policy and we will not allow any of our mules to suffer needlessly, but we are hoping for Wilma to make a full recovery and live her life here on our sanctuary with the rest of our special needs mules as her companions.

Thank you to anyone who can share and support Wilma’s rescue. We promise to share as many updates with you as possible. Funds raised will be used to rehabilitate Wilma and expand our special needs field to accommodate her and other special needs mules in our care.

Website link: mulerescue.org

[ivyprism]

Sad Angel's Fall Headcanons/Canons? I guess?

Yayyy. Time to cause PAIN to the people who love this AU. This contains mentions of death, sadness, fighting, etc.

The girls only refer to each other as their real names when they're really distressed or upset. (Example: "Please, please, don't die, Shelly. Please!")

Executioner sometimes befriends the worst of the sinners and sometimes has to kill them when their redemption will not go any further.

Fallen and Sprite craves attention. It's why they cause so much trouble in hopes they'll be seen.

Enforcer sometimes hesitates on killing the sinners, prompting her mother to intervene before the sinners can kill her.

The only thing keeping Citrus going is the "despite everything, it's still you" mindset and Sun.

Sun once had to kill a sinner. She has never been the same since. She trembles at the thought of touching her weapon again.

Executioner sometimes regrets killing the sinners.

One of the most dangerous people in the church, Euthanasia, will cry at the thought of killing someone or seeing someone die.

When their wings are hurt, they're often put on the brink of death.

Ruriko and Radiant once had a terrible fight and then left each other alone. Ruriko was seriously injured that day, and Radiant vowed never to leave her alone again.Ruriko often over exerts herself and it causes her to become ill.

Feather is overly trusting to a fault. If someone betrays her, her trust will be broken, and she will withdraw.

Regardless of how cruel some of them are, they still have feelings, and being treated as less than anyone else hurts them.

Wings was injured once and nearly died as a result; since then, Feather has made it a point to constantly check her wings to ensure they are not broken or injured.

Seraph and Empathy still see the good in their sisters despite how often they hurt her.

Sprite wants to change, but is too scared to try.

The more serious girls rarely cry, but when they do, everyone knows it's serious.

[arlingtonpark]

SNK 115 Review

nickyoung_confused.gif edition

Point in favor of Levi being alive: Note how he was found. He was lying on the banks of the river perpendicular to the shore. Remember, the last panel in the last chapter seemed to indicate he was going to land in the river. This implies he survived the explosion and was able to swim to shore. That means Hange was lying about him dying instantaneously from the blast, and from there we can infer she’s also lying about his current condition.

Point against Levi being alive: note how Isayama draws his eyes. They’re blackened out, like they’ve been removed completely. This is exactly the same way he drew Zeke’s eyes when he was dead.

My best guess is that Levi survived the explosion and was able to make it ashore, but lost consciousness shortly before Hange found him. If he isn’t dead now, he will be soon. I’m not holding my breath.

But if Levi IS alive right now, he definitely should be. Drowning is traditionally not helpful treatment for the severely wounded.

Last chapter was about Zeke’s origins, but in hindsight, it plays a lot like the first part of a two part special. 114 and 115 are basically a double length chapter as far as I’m concerned. Together, they tell Zeke’s story.

And it’s very enlightening about Zeke’s character.

Perhaps the most interesting new element to Zeke’s character is his loneliness. Zeke…is lonely. It’s a lonely place at the top (of Mount Psychopath). His father never loved him and he knew it. He loved and trusted Mr. Xaver more than his own flesh and blood. After biting Mr. Xaver’s head off, Zeke calls him father, as he should.

The relationship between these two people is quite something. They gave each other the loving relationship they weren’t able to have on their own, and together, with full faith and conviction, they concocted a truly despicable plan. They’re bound together in sickness and in health.

Suicide and euthanasia are touchy subjects, so I won’t go into them here, but I will say this:

Euthanasia without consent. Is. Murder.

They call this the “euthanasia plan” but that’s just good branding. Their plan is to murder the Eldian race. It doesn’t matter if this is an act of mercy, as the word euthanasia implies, if it is done without the approval of the subject, it’s murder. The Eldian people, of course, cannot consent to this because there is no one body or individual with that authority.

The only two people who could conceivably make that call are Historia, the reigning Eldian monarch, or Eren, as bearer of the Founding Titan. Zeke is just some rando who took it upon himself to genocide a whole swathe of the population. He clearly has grandiose delusions.

This plan also reveals a very odd facet of Zeke’s thinking. He seems to view the Eldian people as a singular entity. And I mean, yeah, they are all connected to each other through the Founding Titan, but it still says a lot about Zeke that he describes his goal as a “euthanasia” (a thing that is done to individuals) instead of as a “genocide” (a thing that is done to groups and what his plan actually is). He seems to have taken it to heart that the Eldians are just an extension of the Founding Titan.

This truly is a deranged plan. The way of thinking that underlies the euthanasia plan is basically a kind of anti-hedonism. Anti-hedonism would be the idea that painful events are inherently bad and that there is no such thing as an inherently good event. No such thing as an inherently good event.

Zeke doesn’t believe in inherently good events.  

There are only things that cause us pain, like having a shitty dad, and things that serve to diminish that pain, like playing catch, but those events are not good in themselves. Thus, the only intrinsically valuable things to gain from living are things that have intrinsically negative value, so we’re all better off dead.

If that sounds stupid, that’s because it is. This is a really fucking stupid idea. Believing in this means believing that pain now for the sake of happiness in the future is nonsensical.

Because happiness has no value in itself, but pain does have value in itself (negative value, that is) the concept of sacrifice does not compute. This is probably why Zeke couldn’t understand the sacrifice the Survey Corps made at Shighanshina, or for that matter why Levi was willing to sacrifice his fellow soldiers.

Enduring pain for the sake of happiness makes no sense when pain is inherently meaningful and happiness isn’t.

But the idea that there is never any reason to make sacrifices is ridiculous.

And another thing: why doesn’t Zeke bring his plan to its natural conclusion? If death is preferable to living, then why not use the power of the Founding Titan to just kill all the Eldians up front? 

It would be easy. He could alter Eldian biology so that oxygen was poisonous to them. 

Why not? If non-existence is the best state of being, why not just kill them all?

But that’s the biggest indictment of Zeke’s plan. The logic behind Zeke’s plan leads you to one unavoidably dumb conclusion:

Murder is cool.

Killing people is cool because life is suffering. Zeke is what you get when you take edgelord teen philosophy to its logical extreme.

Except that’s obviously not true. Happiness/pleasure/fulfillment/what have you are clearly inherently worthwhile, and so long as that is true, living will always be preferable to death. The reason why is because of opportunity cost.

Opportunity cost refers to the benefits you miss out on by choosing to do one thing over another. If you die, then you miss out on the happiness you would have enjoyed had you lived. If the opportunity cost of dying is greater than the cost of living, then living is preferable to death.

But in the end, all this talk of preferring death over life is beside the point because that’s not even what Zeke’s plan involves. Zeke’s plan is not to literally euthanize all Eldians, it is to sterilize them so their race dies out in 100-aught years.

That’s genocide.

The enforced sterilization of a whole people is genocide. Not just colloquially, but even legally. The crime of genocide was first defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which entered into force in 1951.

Article 2(d) is very clear:

“[G]enocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: […] Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

The idea that destroying a whole group of people is immoral is based on the notion that life is inherently worth protecting. But of course, Zeke doesn’t believe in this. See: all the bodies he leaves in his wake.

Yes, Zeke’s logic is that life has more pain than pleasure, but this logic only works if you also assume the positive aspects of life have no intrinsic value. The euthanasia plan is just as much a product of Zeke’s psychopathy as it is a product of his ideology.

It’s not that Zeke is a psychopath because he thinks death > living, it’s that he thinks death > living because he’s a psychopath.

Speaking of dumb things Zeke believes, I looooove the meeting between him and Eren.

Eren feeds Zeke this obviously dumb line poo-pooing the Eldians for making them kill innocent people by existing and Zeke is in tears because yes, finally, someone gets it!

Eldians never should have been born; because they were, I have to kill innocent people in furtherance of my ideology that Eldians never should have been born.

...

Wait.

Eren’s statement makes no sense at all, but Zeke “11/10 intelligence” Jeager has his head so far up his ass he doesn’t even see it. Dude is so overjoyed that someone is finally stupid enough to see things his way he starts crying.

And I’m crying too. Because of how sad this is.

Eren obviously doesn’t believe what he’s saying. Zeke just wants someone in his life who understands him and he thinks he’s finally found that someone. But he truly is alone. I might actually feel bad for him when it all falls apart for him.

Eren is almost certainly playing him. Eren fights for freedom. I think the kind of freedom he supports is shallow, but ultimately freedom to Eren entails living, so there is no way he’s actually on board with this plan.

Eren siding with Zeke essentially makes him a proponent of the King Fritz School of sinful atonement, and unless a substantial flashback is in the offing, there’s no way such a drastic change in his character would happen off screen.

Another interesting new element is Zeke’s view of the titans. He seems to believe that titans aren’t the problem, it’s the people who abuse them. It’s a take on the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” line you see sometimes. It’s not the tool, but the people who use it.

But it also seems Zeke has no faith in people (what a surprise) and that the only way forward is to deprive them of those tools completely. He sees humans in puerile terms, as hopelessly immature. And as far as the story is concerned, he’s right.

Yelena makes the point that power invites temptation for abuse. Having titans at your disposal gives you power over others and people have abused that power throughout history.

But Yelena is a hypocrite. She was known for abusing people she took captive. And now, having won power over Pixis and his men, she has decided to impose a caste system on them.

Paradisians must now wear armbands that denote when they swore allegiance to Zeren. And because the time of your swearing determines your station, these armbands are also a status symbol. They indicate your status in the new social order. For the people who surrendered last, it is a form of public humiliation. It’s cruelty.

It’s also what the Marleyans did to the Eldians, and Yelena thinks this was a good policy. Reminding the lower classes of their place is a good thing to her.

I think the point of this anecdote is to show how hopeless humanity is. I don’t know where the story is going with this. My sense is that Isayama is going for an absurdist moral to the story.

Such a moral would look something like this: life is a grueling struggle that you will ultimately lose. But you should keep struggling because that is the only way to rebel against the cruelty of the world.

Isayama did say in an interview that certain philosophies have influenced him, and Albert Camus’ absurdism is one of the more well-known philosophies.

During their meeting, Eren mentioned how Grish killed children. And Eren killed children too, so let’s delve back into this in light of what Eren said.

It’s awful whenever anyone dies, but not all killings are immoral. There are exceptions, and those exceptions depend on your ethical framework.

The one that SNK appeals to the most is a form of consequentialism. Consequentialism, to put it simply, is the idea that actions are moral if they make the world a better place. By what measure depends on the specific kind of consequentialist theory you believe in. And ONLY the consequences matter. Nothing else.

There is nothing wrong with having a consequentialist worldview. If those children had to die to save those people, then killing them was not wrong, provided Grisha didn’t act with any malice.

But there are other ways to judge. One of them is by applying the Principle of Double Effect.

The double effect principle states that actions are not immoral even if a bad result comes of it if the bad result is a side effect of the action. (In the past, “double effect” referred to what we now call a side effect)

The principle of double effect is often misunderstood, so I want to be clear here: it is not the idea that it is ok to do a bad thing if it will lead to a good outcome. The bad result must be incidental to the action, not a direct result of it.

The exact criteria varies, but it usually goes something like this:

The action must be inherently good or at least morally neutral.

The person committing the act must merely permit the bad result to occur. It cannot be intended.

The bad result must not be a direct result of the action. It can only be incidental.

The good result must adequately compensate for the bad result.

If these criteria are met, the Principle states the action was a moral one.

For example, when confronting the Female Titan during the expedition, Erwin kept many soldiers in the dark about his true plans, and many died because they didn’t know what they’d be dealing with. Was that wrong?

No, it wasn’t. Many soldiers died, yes, and Erwin certainly foresaw that would happen, but that was incidental to his decision. Erwin Smith bears no burden for their deaths.

Now think about what Grish did.

He killed children because they were royalty and he wanted to eliminate the possibility that the Founding Titan could be reclaimed by them.

By the criteria of double effect, this is clearly immoral. Grish intended for them to die. He wanted it to happen. And their deaths were not incidental to Grish’s decision to kill them. 

Needless to say, people die when they are killed. 

Grish killed them for a good cause, but committing a bad act in pursuit of a good goal is impermissible under double effect.

Now what about Eren?

Eren wanted to launch an attack on the Marleyan government and he did it from the basement of a building. He did it by transforming into a titan while in the basement. He knew there were people in the building and he foresaw they would die if he transformed. He did it anyway. During the attack, people in the crowd were also killed. Was that wrong?

Yes, it obviously is.

Killing people and provoking the world’s militaries was the entire point of the attack.

Eren wanted them to die.

And it’s not like these people were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Never forget that Eren used the people in the building as shields first. By threatening to transform and kill them if provoked.

Eren intended for them to be in a position to die if he transformed, which he was planning to do anyway all along. They died when he transformed because Eren wanted it to be that way.

Honestly, I’m not even sure Eren’s actions were ok even from a consequentialist perspective. Yeah, his plan may make the world better off, but there’s something to be said about necessity.

Did those children really have to die to make this plan work? Why is it necessary to gather a coalition of the world’s militaries at Paradis? That’s the only part of Zeren’s plan that remains to be revealed.

I don’t like how the series implies a choice between Grish being right and Zeke being wrong and Grish being wrong and Zeke being right.

Grish’s actions are controversial. At. Best.

This series tries to push the line that people need to do bad things to bring about a good ending. I still have flashbacks to Armin’s “Erwin is a bad person for doing what needs to be done” speech in the Female Titan Arc. It’s dumb and it makes no sense.

You can’t be a bad person for doing the right thing. You just can’t. It’s impossible. I don’t have to explain why, do I?

No?

Okay, good.

So in other news.

Congratulations everyone! If you had “Zeke dies but comes back in a reference mashup of Star Wars and Jesus’ Resurrection,” come on down to collect your winnings! Now I wonder if Luke emerged naked from the taun taun 🤔

Seriously wtf?

What’s great about this chapter is how well it does subtle comedy.

Zeke emerges from that titan and the rain stops. The clouds part and a naked Zeke is bathed in rays of light as he emerges from his titan incubator. :D

Zeke is asked what happened and he straight up has no idea. Hard cut to him looking on in bewilderment as a girl molds his body out of dirt. :DD

Eren says he wants Gabi to help him flush out the Marleyans who’ve infiltrated the walls. Pieck is standing right behind him. XDDD

It’s disturbing how Eren apparently can’t be bothered to learn Gabi’s name. To him, she’s just the brat who killed Sasha.

Sasha is dead and Eren was her friend. He has every right to be upset. To be upset at Gabi. But that’s no license to disrespect her person by refusing to learn her name. Mr. Braun has shown that.

Eren has only ever called Gabi “that girl who killed Sasha.” That sends a clear signal. That signal is that this is all she is to him. It’s dehumanizing and it’s why I hope that through it all, Eren will not be elevated by the story by being made into the ultimate hero of it.

He is just such an asshole.