s4fun

Just a quick Hello from me, I've been in the US since 2001 and it suddenly occured to my it might be a nice change to chat with some Brits.I have 2 boys doing well at school and I'm a nurse.Gillian.

snowbunny

Hello Gill,

Texas is somewhat large.... do you mind sharing what part of the state you hang your hat in?

s4fun

yes,I'm a 6 hour drive to the east of you in deep east Texas,our nearest town is San Augustine..

snowbunny

Piney Woods?

s4fun

yes,the Piney woods, bibley belt bit! infact Louisiana is just over the hill and across a bit of water.Hows life in the more liberal area of Austin these days?

snowbunny

I like Austin. I am a native Texan, so you'll have to wait a bit for a Brit to turn up. I'm dealing with some issues in my hometown of Corpus Christi, which is an appalling shithole.

scrubbedexpat097

We were in your neck of the woods about a week ago on a long long ride on the Harley. It's different, I like the hilly bits

We are on the Gulf Coast about 35 miles south of Houston where it is flat, hot and humid.

Welcome to the board

s4fun

erm , why be it a 'appalling poophole'

s4fun

well cheers, its hot and humid here too, thankfully it has been a long winter, we even had six inches of snow, twas ace! I do have soft spot for Houston as I worked there for a year a while back.I've always fancied the coast but them there hurricanes make me a tad nervous

snowbunny

Nearly every kid has to leave there to get a decent job, and the laws and attitudes are horrible.

Here's what is giving me a lot of personal grief today, along with an interfering family member:

"The pet dump practice isn't limited to Tennessee. The Corpus Christi, Tex. animal control office has what they gently describe as a night depository. These are enclosed wooden boxes adjacent to the shelter building where pets are abandoned after hours.

It's true that unlike the Tennessee dumps, these animals are gently delivered into a box rather than dropped into a chute. Also, the location is at the shelter, not at a smelly recycling center. Also once a single pet is inside a box, the door closes and locks, and you can't add in any more pets.

Still, this is not a good thing, according to Morris. "The mind set is the same as the dump - I don't care what's it's called. It's just too easy to give up pets under the cover of darkness."

"We have no choice," argues Jeff Beynon, director of animal control in Corpus Christi. He agrees, the boxes are only the symptom the problem is cultural.

From August of 1998 through July of '99, an astounding 24,000 pets (including strays and owner give-ups) were brought into the shelter, and 95 percent of those animals were euthanized. That is astounding. Corpus Christi is a city of just over 300,000 people. At the Anti-Cruelty League in Chicago, a city of about 2.8 million, 15,000 pets were brought into the shelter in 1999 (including strays and owner give-ups), and about 50 percent were euthanized.

It's not unusual for the night depository to fill up, and people break down the doors of the individual wooden holding cages - tossing in their animal with whatever happens to already be there. When the night depository was closed for a short time for construction, pets were left in the parking lots, sometimes in a box or carrier, but usually just wandering. It's no surprise, 25 to 30 road-kill dogs and cats are picked up on a daily basis.

"This is Texas, where farmers who find strays on their property shoot to kill, it's legal," say Beynon. "It's even legal to kill your own pet if you do it fast, so there's no long, drawn-out pain and suffering."

Beynon guesses only about 20 percent of the Corpus Christi population spay/neuter their pets, and about 30 percent vaccinate for rabies. Two veterinarians, who did not want to be identified, concurred that his numbers are about right."

Beynon is WRONG - farmers cannot kill domestic animals with the exception of dogs who are provably bothering livestock.

Anyway - if you want to talk about utter disregard for responsibility - that's CC. They also have a huge rate of (human) medical malpractice suits filed - if something goes wrong, sue the doctor.

http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/166/9/1195

s4fun

Jesus ,yav just put me into a deep depression.......go look at my profile , the intrests/hobbies bit......when I just finished it I dropped on your reply, I thought you were some kinda of psychic or something! living here in all this land me and me mate have managed to rescue 17 dogs and 5 cats, the latest being 2 pups that the neighbour to my kid he was gunna drop off in the woods! I always fancied a trip to your neck of the woods but thats '.....d up' it would it would scar me for life, an I aint telling me mate about this . she'll faint.....I wish there was something I could do, but we are overwhelmed at this number.

Sue

Hi Gillian,

I'm in NC. Welcome to the site. I'm sure you will enjoy your time here and will make loads of friends. We've got characters and humour for every mood

Pop over to the USA forums and say hi. We've got a few members who live in Texas.

s4fun

thanks darling! I think this will be fun..........mind is it to early for a beer!

Sue

It's never too early for a beer ..... or maybe a glass of wine

s4fun

cheers then!