Monday, September 2, 2013

Inca un copil ucis de caini. Vinovatii fara vina cer sa se faca lumina



Acum, anticipand un val de indignare publica indreptat impotriva iubitorilor de animale vreau sa lamuresc cateva lucruri...
In primul rand una din mentalitatile romanesti cele mai paguboase dupa parerea mea este cea in care toata lumea asteapta de la altcineva sa faca ceva in timp ce ei asista pasivi de pe margine. Asta e o atitudine infantila (in sensul ca asta face copilul mic, asteapta o rezolvare de la adult).
In filmul asta, de cele mai multe ori lumea asteapta de la ONG-urile de protectia animalelor si cand se intampla tragedii de genul asta, ONG-urile astea sunt blamate primele. Asta in conditiile in care ONG-urile sunt singurele care chiar FAC ceva in directia asta (programe de sterilizare, adoptii, etc). Aici exista doua mari probleme , zic eu, in legatura cu mentalitatea asta. Una e de intelegere a problemei -  ONG-urile nu sunt OBLIGATE  sa faca nimic. Ele fac ce pot in limita resurselor disponibile. A doua e de ipocrizie - nu stiu cati din cei indignati au donat vreodata bani unui ONG pentru a se ocupa de problema asta. In general ONG-urile astea sunt sustinute in mica parte de putinii iubitori de animale din Romania si in mai mare parte de donatori din tarile din vestul Europei.
Iar daca tot e pornita toata lumea sa caute un vinovat as vrea sa fac urmatoarea precizare: fiecare candidat la Primaria Capitalei sau cele de sector au promis solutii la rezolvarea acestei probeme. Care mai de care mai imbecile ce-i drept....Prigoana promitea ca face adaposturi. Pentru 30.000 de caini (estimarea minima) e utopic. In primul rand trebuie prinsi toti cainii. Spatiu, salarii, hrana, ingrijire veterinara, apa, electricitate etc. Toate astea pentru tot restul vietii lor naturale (care apropo, e mai lunga in captivitate decat pe strada). Cine plateste toate astea ? Din ce buget ? Ce primar isi asuma o astfel de cheltuiala din bugetul local ?
ONG-urile au tot venit cu propuneri de colaborare, planuri concrete, etc. Degeaba...Acolo unde sunt bani publici de papat pe sistemul „ne facem ca facem” nu se va rezolva nimic.

SOLUTII:
Eutanasia – e cea mai invocata, si pare foarte la indemana, nu ? Pai haideti sa va spun o poveste. La noi in Bucuresti exista falsa impresie/mit urban, spuneti-i cum vreti ca din cauza demolarilor comuniste avem noi caini. Fals! Aveam caini cu mult timp inainte.


"....Municipalitatea Bucuresti, in scop de a starpi cainii vagabonzi, inca din anul 1811, a infiintat in Bucuresti, cei dintai ucigatori de caini pribegi adica hengherii. Infiintarea lor la aceasta data se datoreste ocupatiunii rusesti, caci V.A. Ureche in Istoria Romanilor, tom. XI, pag 909, ne spune: Dela Divan la vel Armas. Porunca Luminatului mai marelui Comandir al armiei (rusesti) este ca toti cainii ce se afla aci in politia Bucurestilor, umbland pe ulita, sa se omoare. Divanul scrie dumnealui vel Armas, ca indata dupa primirea acestui Pitac sa oranduiasca higherhi sa umble pe toate ulitele Bucurestilor si veri cati caini vor fi sa-i omoare pe toti; in acest scop, nici ziua, nici noaptea, caine slobod pe ulite sa nu se afle. Si cand aceasta nu se va putea inlatura si nu vei orandui astazi hengherii, ca sa inceapa sa se vaza omorarea cainilor, sa stii ca dumneata vei avea a raspunde. Iar cine va vrea sa tie caini, sa-i aiba legati prin curtile lor (1811, Mai 12)."

Monografia Serviciului Sanitar al Municipiului Bucuresti Const. St. Radulescu, 1930 Cap IV "Exterminarea cainilor vagabonzi si Serviciul de Equarisaj" (p.139)

Deci, iata ca in Bucuresti se omoara caini de 200 de ani si iata ca inca avem o problema cu cainii. Asta zic eu ca spune tot despre eficienta metodei.


Eutanasia este o solutie la fel de utopica ca si adaposturile. Si pica in aceeasi mentalitate infantila (Copilul mic solicita gratificare imediata, in ciuda evidentei ca problema nu poate fi rezolvata imediat. El nu isi poate amana satisfacerea nevoilor/indeplinirea dorintelor.)


Sterilizare:
Sterilizarea in masa si aici vorbesc de un program la nivel national in care sa se implice statul si care sa aiba ca obiectiv sterilizarea TUTUROR cainilor. Este eficienta doar cuplata cu alte masuri si doar cu conditia ca ritmul castrarilor sa depaseasca ritmul natural de reproducere al cainilor. Avantajul ar fi ca oamenii isi aduc singuri cainii de pe langa bloc la veterinar pentru ar fi castrati (cei care ii hranesc oricum in fata blocului) si nu ar mai ascunde cainii prin casa cand vine masina de hingheri pentru a-i elibera o ora mai tarziu. Deasemenea, pentru ca abandonul e un factor important ce contribuie la problema cainilor de pe strada eu as introduce obligativitatea inregistrarii cainelui propriu din gospodarie (baza de date la nivel national) sub pedeapsa de amenzi dureroase. Apoi obligativitatea castrarii cainelui propriu in afara situatiei in care dovedesti ca esti crescator autorizat (caz in care platesti imposit si o taxa suplimentara). Daca pur si simplu nu vrei, platesti o taxa cu care statul sa castreze alti 10 caini (taxa anuala).

Ce s-a intamplat e groaznic. Denunt cretinismul celor care sustin ca de vina e copilul "ca sigur a provocat cainele" cat si cel al celor care sutin ca vina e a cainelui. Toti ne dorim o rezolvare la problema asta. Insa rezolvarea nu va veni nici din lamentari nici din argumente emotionale si irationalitate. Ci din actiune.

PS: In legatura cu subiectul cainilor maidanezi recomand pagina ASTA, foarte bine documentata si argumentata scrisa de prietenul meu Vlad Popescu. Nu avea rost sa reiau si eu aceleasi argumente, va las sa le cititi singuri.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Dog training videos

I will start posting here whatever videos I found interesting, useful, well taught and executed: "Leave it" command

Friday, March 15, 2013

Lithuania Lecture - Introduction to Animal Assisted Therapy and Ethology

I have recently been invited to Vilnius, Lithuania to talk about AAT and related topics. The entire event was hosted by the Austrian Embassy in Vilnius. The presentation was great, we had a great audience who asked a lot of interesting questions. What I really enjoyed about this is that this event brought together animal lovers from all over Lithuania, dog owners, trainers, breeders and people just interested in AAT. I got a lot of positive feedback and one of the reasons why I'm writing this is that I found that people are actually reading this blog.:D So, for those of you who attended this lecture, I just wanted to say thank you ! Also a big thanks goes to Vier Pfoten for making this possible and Ms. Gudrun Koller and the Austrian Embassy for their involvement and hospitality. It was a great experience that I hope to repeat soon ! Thank you ! Victor

Monday, December 17, 2012

The Effects of Animal Assisted Therapy on Communication and Social Skills: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis was published in the Transylvanian Journal of Psychology as part of my doctoral research, and it's just been indexed by Ebsco :)

My Dropbox Anthrozoology Library

This is my Dropbox Anthrozoology Library. I thought I'd share all these materials with you. You will find great books and research articles. The folder is constantly updated, so check back :)


School of Advanced Studies: Human-Animal Interaction 2012

Between the 20th and 25th of November in Cluj Napoca, Romania took place a series of lectures and events organized under the name of School of Advanced Studies: Human Animal Interaction. Among the lectures on Behavioral Enrichment, Animal Training, Animal Keeping and numerous others by distinguished speakers, the event also marked the official launch of the Human Animal Interaction Research Institute (ICIOA). You can visit the institute's site here.

Also, you can visit my Youtube channel for HD recordings of some of the lectures.


Sunday, February 12, 2012

Anti - ACTA protest Bucharest

Around 300 people gathered today in Bucharest to protest against ACTA.There were more people than I expected and less people than I hoped.
Even though the protest for some reason was not given the proper media attention, the protesters endured -10 degrees cold in order to urge the authorities to ban ACTA in Romania. It was a peaceful protest done by a very enthusiastic crowd, mostly young educated people.
Hats off to them !

                                                                                                                                                                    




To quote one of the slogans we shouted there today:
" ROMANIA, WAKE UP !!!"

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Useful Free Software for Ethology, Behavior Analysis and Conservation

This is just a list of software that I played with or just found interesting. I will come back with more detailed descriptions.


Agna - Social Network Analysis
SocNetV - Social Network Analysis
jWatcher - Behavioral Analysis
CowLog - Behavioral Analysis (not as complex as JWatcher)
EthoLog - Behavioral Analysis
Distance - Distance sampling surveys of wildlife populations
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847204/
Vortex - Population Viability Analysis
ArcGIS - online mapping application
Maxent - species habitat modeling
Garp - predict and analyze wild species distributions
JAABA - The Janelia Automatic Animal Behavior Annotator (JAABA) is a machine learning-based system that enables researchers to automatically compute interpretable, quantitative statistics describing video of behaving animals.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Fender Classic Player 60's

This is my Fender Stratocaster Classic Player 60's.
Up until recent I was a very metal oriented guitar kind of player, although I listen to music from a very wide array of genres. About 6 months ago I discovered a guitar player whose playing changed my world: Jeff Beck.
Of course I had heard of him before, even listened to some of his music but at the time it just didn't impress me I guess. I've come to the conclusion that in music, as in literature there is a right time and age for a certain author or piece of work. I probably had to turn 30 to really learn to appreciate the exquisite technique and feel of Jeff Beck's playing.

Which brings be to the Classic player 60's. So after falling in love with Jeff Beck's playing, I decided I really needed a strat (actually a guitar with a tremolo system, which my previous ones didn't have). At the time I had a PRS SE Mark Tremonti signature (which will most likely be the subject of a different review since it is a great guitar for the price). I quickly sold the PRS and headed to the guitar shop to search for a strat. I had my eye on this one but I needed to feel and hear it. Even though the Classic player 60's comes in one of my favorite colors (and highly sought after in strats) - sonic blue -  I wasn't willing to compromise on the sound just for that.

The Classic player 60's comes in Sonic Blue and Tobacco Sunburst. It is Custom Shop designed (not built, just designed). The classic player series is made in Mexico.

Cool features:
- The Sonic Blue (obviously) :)
- Two point tremolo (never before availble outside custom shop). The guitar stays in tune like a dream, in spite of heavy Jeff Beck like tremolo abuse :)
- The Custom '69 pickups. I could go on for hours about the fantastic warm and punchy sound of these fenomenal pickups, but you have to hear them.

Not so cool features
Keep in mind this guitar is largely built after the specs of 60's strats. Which means:
- The truss rod adjustment is acessed through the base of the neck, close to the neck pickup. A lot of people say that in order to adjust it you actually have to take off the neck. The guitar tech at the guitar shop managed without. So it's doable.
- The more modern strats have the middle pickup in reverse wound. Which means that when you select two pickups together the positive and negative polarities will act as a hum reducer. Well, back in the 60's it seems they didn't know this. So yes, in any position, the guitar hums, especially when subjected to higher gain.
- 21 frets - says it all. There will be a lot of songs you will not be able to play simply because at some point you may run out of frets :)

Overall, at this price this is a fantastic guitar that I will probably never part from, no matter what other toys I may buy in time. After all, you know what they say.... Stratocasters are like underwear...you must own at least one.





                       







Dog training materials

HERE is a link to my Dog Training collection on Dropbox

Friday, July 9, 2010

Expat syndrome

Some of the work that I do is with English speaking expats. I can tell you from the experience with my clients that moving to a new place and adjusting to a new culture can be hard. Especially for the "serial movers".
Sometimes it happens that seemingly perfectly adjusted individuals present anxiety disorders and depression. These are usually the kind of people that manage to cope on a conscious level, by rationalization, to the change. But their unconscious mind feels the rupture, and when they deny it consciously, the unconscious manifests itself through sleep disorders, anxiety and depression. And since from their point of view adapting to this new environment was not a problem, these symptoms scare them because they fail to understand the cause.
Another characteristic of these frequent movers is that at some point they realize that any new meaningful relationship is doomed. At some point they would have to leave and also leave this relationship as well. Some invest at first emotions in these relationships, and when they first have to move they feel like they lost a friend for instance and they feel hurt and disappointed. And so from fear of getting hurt they stop investing emotion in any new relationships, which in time leads to feelings of loneliness, and back to the same symptoms I talked about before.
I am only sharing this so you could get an idea on what the psychological dynamics of these individuals might be. Of course, it is not always the same.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The 12th IAHAIO International Conference in Stockholm

I have just returned from this conference in Stockholm. For those of you who are wondering what the hell IAHAIO means, here it is: IAHAIO is an acronym for the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations. It is an international umbrella organization for all organizations within its field.
The conference lasted for four days, and was filled with some very interesting presentations on all areas involving human-animal interaction. My presentation was on the work I do with the VIER PFOTEN Foundation in Bucharest on animal assisted therapy for children with disabilities.
This conference brought together people from all areas involved in human animal interactions: medical doctors, psychologists, ethologists and dog trainers. The only problem is that all these people do not speak the same language (we got along just fine in English, but that's not what I want to talk about). Researchers came to share studies, recent research and scientific information. Dog trainers came to talk about their practice with dogs. Some of the more scientific presentations were I think too scientific for the dog people, and some of the dog trainers presentations seemed to lack scientific support to the scientists.
In the end, there was something in it for everybody. Everybody got what they came there for. But still the gap remains between the practitioner and the scientist doing the research. And still the practitioners accuse scientists that they lack hands on experience, and the scientists accuse the practitioners of lack of scientific rigor. 
The way I see it there is only two ways out of this:
1. to promote the scientist-practitioner paradigm, meaning that the scientists should get out of the lab and get their hands dirty
2. to create mixed research teams in which practitioners should be included
There is a lot of valuable information and knowledge out there with the practitioners, that doesn't push science further just because the practitioners don't write it down, structure it and publish it. Opinions, and ideas should be encouraged more in practitioners. Research should be based more on solving the problems they face every day in practice.  
Human Animal Interaction is a new field. It's normal that the beginning should be like this. Events such as this conference bring together people from different disciplines to share knowledge. And it's great this is happening. But in the end, it all comes down to money again. How many good people interested in this field can afford the trip to Stockholm for the sake of knowledge ? Even more, 3 years from now, in 2013, when the conference will be held in Denver, how many Europeans will afford the trip to Colorado ?
Not many from Romania, I can tell you that.
What's sad is that we have a lot to offer in this field in terms of research material. We have great wildlife, and a consistent population of stray dogs. The number of research topics that can be explored extensively on stray dogs alone is tremendous. 
These are some of the thoughts I brought with me from this trip. This, a lot of contacts of wonderful people I met, a lot of ideas to work on, and the image of beautiful Stockholm.

Autism and intelligence

A friend send me this link to a video on YouTube. It can shift your view of intelligence altogether. It actually confirms one theory that I had for a long time about autistic children such as this case presented here.
And that is that all the manifestations of severe cases of autism, like the one presented here, are often regarded as mental retardation, when in fact, they can easily represent a complex of compulsions able to mask the intelligence. The problem is that this complex also makes intelligence very hard to stimulate, and the instruments available now to test the intelligence are limited and restrictive. They are mere artificial patterns in which we are trying to squeeze real people. Watch the video !