do not buy pets from pet stores!

see this article on the crisis with bunnies in the bay area:

pet stores, especially serramonte pet store, have wiped their hands clean of this pet rabbit overpopulation problem. that's despicable. there is a reason why stores such as petsmart, pet food express, and petco no longer sell rabbits, and advocate adoptions for cats and dogs. it's called pet overpopulation. rabbits are the third highest euthanized animal behind cats and dogs. pet stores sell young, baby rabbits as impulse gifts that people buy for their children, significant other, or simply just because "they're so darn cute in the store window". pet stores often sell baby rabbits that are far too young to be separated from their mother, advertise them as the cuter, popular dwarf breed that stays small, and sell them to practically anybody who will shove the 20 or 25 bucks into their greedy little fists. they sell them to families with small kids, insisting they make good starter pets, whereas most rabbits are too delicate for the rough treatment given by over-excited, impatient kids. most rabbits DO NOT LIKE TO BE PICKED UP.

so when that rabbit suddenly grows to its true size-5 or 7 or even 8 lbs, and is not the "dwarf" the store claims they are, the family is no longer interested in them. and even if they are cute and furry and has the chubby dwarf face, the kids start to get bored and parents have to clean up the rabbits. sometimes the people at the pet store doesn't even sex them correctly (cuz the babies are too damn young to tell the sex) so a family that took home two "girls" issuddenly inundated with six or seven bunnies. heck, the first litter was a funny surprise, but the now its getting out of hand...no one in the neighborhood wants a bunny now.
and all along no one bothered to tell them that their $20 bunny would cost $80-120 to get it spayed. or that it would chew up the baseboards. or that they would far outlive the interest their kids show in them.
it all ends the same. the cute impulse-buy bunny has run out of time, and is now dumped at the park or in the shelter, where it will join thousands of other rabbits whose owners weren't told by that "responsible" pet store how much time, effort, and money it would take to properly care for a rabbit.

and that bunny, whose is perfectly healthy and lovable, will die.

i know first-hand what those pet stores claim to know about bunnies. when i was a kid, i bought a few bunnies from pet stores (back then, no one knew any better). one, who i bought as a gift for my best friend, was actually pregnant , gave birth a week after i bought her, and died a day later after giving birth to babies, who all died. most pet stores i've been in have lied about what breed they were and claimed they would all stay small. they have lied to my face and didn't know a damn thing about rabbits (i read the rabbit care books, so i knew what i was loking at). they sold me - a kid! - rabbits when they didn't even know if i had the proper housing or food for it or whether i had my parent's approval to bring home and animal.

even now when i walk into small pet stores, the lies go on and on. which is amazing, considering there is new information on rabbit care. it has evolved tremendously over the years. it is no longer the norm to stick a rabbit in a cage with a wire bottom and slide tray.

so screw serramonte pet store and all its bullshit lies. the owners don't care about animals. if they did, they would host rescue organizations and have them come in with adoptable homeless pets. but no, its all about profit.

this past weekend

despite decent weather conditions i did not saddle up (or gear up) and break in my specialized baby. poor thing is gathering dust and cobwebs. instead i opted for an oil change for my kitty cat and venturing out to marin for the house rabbit society-sf/marin chapter/save-a-bunnyhrs organization's volunteer gathering. i foster and volunteer for the the different organizations in the bay area. i watched match point at amc mercado with chris. i also went running with eric and johanna around lake merritt. all three of us want to run a race, either a half or full marathon. i think eric and i may do the rock n roll marathon in san diego in june. other future marathons i want to run in include the walt disney world marathon, miami (both in january, so maybe in 2007). i also want to run in alaska, ireland, or italy.

maiden voyage

hopefully this weekend's weather forecast will prove favorable so that i may embark on my maiden voyage. this past christmas i was blessed with my very own bicycle. (thanks santa! no speeding on your sleigh now...)

due to inclement weather and scheduled trips, i have not been able to customize the set-up nor ride it. every day as i set off to work, it greets me by the front door, begging to yield to its master. the gleam of the sleek aluminum alloy bars hints of its lean strength as it lounges in the morning light streaming in through the window. the shiny supple sculpted black leather pulled taut beckons me to take a seat. occasionally i would trail my fingers along the thick rubber treads of the back wheel. soon we will ride, i promised.

perceptions in the media

all the latest media hype is on the san ramon couple who left their two young children, one of whom is autistic, home alone while they jaunted off to vegas for nye. apparently they found someone to take care of their puppies, but not the kids. so the kids were left home alone with cheerios and frozen food. even more embarassing is that the parents are of filipino heritage. :(

wonderful. they can add their names to all the other filipinos and filipino-americans who represent us in the media: andrew cunanan. joseph de guzman. imelda marcos. when we're not terrorists, murderers, or corrupt politicians, we're baklas. hookers. prostitutes. sex workers. exotic orientals.

what is really pissing me off right now are the radio ads and trailers for that new happy madison (adam sandler's company) comedy movie, grandma's boy. i saw the trailer to it a few months ago during the previews at the movie theater. in grandma's boy, the main character is this video gaming loser who moves in with his grandmother. he is described by another character as always "spending all his money on filipino hookers". it's one thing to have that "joke" in a move. it's another thing to have that used in the trailer. now it is being advertised on the radio, and i hear that stupid ad and people get to hear the "filipino hooker" phrase several times a day.

filipino hookers. filpino hookers. filipino hookers. filipino hookers.

harmless, right?

fuck that shit.

not when u.s. servicemen gang-rape a filipina in the philippines.

it's an insult to all women. all mothers and daughters. all women of color. all professional women who worked their asses off to have careers. all women forced into prostitution because they have families to feed and their government has no jobs for them.

fuck all those foreign devils that come into third world countries and flash a few dollars, thinking they're the shit and they can do whatever they want to women and children. (that includes pedophile gary glitter who paid off the vietnamese families of those girls he raped. fuck you, too)

i hope those guys burn in hell for what they did to that poor woman.

more thoughts:
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/press/media/0511092