Where the Points Don’t Matter

BorderWars gets 101 Likes on Facebook

Just two months ago I launched the  Border Wars page on Facebook and now over 100 of you have given it the thumbs up.  In celebration of this milestone in virtual popularity points on the internet, I present you with the most shared and liked posts from the blog according to Feedly’s ❤ metric, which they describe as “# of likes on Facebook and Google+.”

Thank you for liking and sharing Border Wars content over 20,000 times!

The Millennium Club:

	Only 2% of Dogs Die in Shelters Yearly New data released by the ASPCA, HSUS, and the American Pet Products Association‘s National Pet Owners Survey show that shelter killings are at an all time low in both whole numbers and percent of pet dogs in America. Down from a high of nearly 25% of all dogs per year in the 1970s, as little as 2% of dogs now find their end in US shelters per year, the majority of them are pit bulls.	[4502❤]
	Westminster Rewards CrueltyThe son of blind and deaf double merle stud, Wyndlair Avalanche, has won Best of Breed at the 2012 Westminster Kennel Club dog show. You can see “Vinnie” tonight during the Herding Group Judging.GCH CH Wyndlair Cherokee Vindication is the son of Wyndlair Avlanche and Ch Twin City Cleopatra. He was bred by Anita & Matt Stetler and J Morris. He is also owned by Renee Beals and Laura Rizzo, handled by Beals. “Vinnie” is not a double merle himself, but he was produced by one. Both of Avalanche’s parents are merle and he was intentionally bred by the Stetlers of Wyndlair Collies and “Mike” Cheatham of Southland Collies in hopes of creating a double-merle stud dog that would produce all merle offspring.	[2137❤]
	No Happy Ending for Blind DaneYou’ll remember the touching story of blind Great Dane Lily and her companion Madison; the news reports were dripping with saccharine anthropomorphisms of how Madison is Lily’s “seeing eye dog” and how they were “inseparable for the past five years” and destined to be “friends forever.” The story goes on to document how Maddison “took the sightless [Lily] under her wing” and how “devoted” and “close” Maddison is to her, “touching her to let the blind pooch know where to go.” We were told of how they “cuddle at night” an “curl up together.” Most other dog blogs and media outlets focused on the hopeful prospect that such a love story could continue and that the perfect new home would be found for these two dogs. No such nonsense here at BorderWars.	[1730❤]
	Parasite BreedersOh Claire, I’m sorry for all the suffering you’ve experienced in your life. It’s one thing for me to write about qualzucht, torture breeding, and to think and debate about it in the abstract. But when theory hits reality, when real dogs with real names and real stories come forth, it’s nearly impossible to remain objective and dispassionate given the true suffering you qualzucht dogs go through.	[1281❤]
	“Health Testing” in Dogs is Limited“Health testing” is not health testing. It is disease testing. No test will ever tell you that your dog is healthy. Health is more than simply the absence of known diseases which have a name and a definitive DNA test.Plenty of diseases that are serious and pervasive in breeds have no DNA test and some diseases like idiopathic epilepsy have no diagnostic test or conclusive diagnosis tool at all save the elimination of other suspected causes.	[1032❤]

The Century Club:

 BC/R&F: Viggo Mortensen [990♡] Who’s Your Double Merle Daddy? [954♡] Fancy Mice [792♡]

Aiding the Enemy or Cleaning House? [549♡] Something is Rotten in Harlequin Danes [495♡]

Heterozygoats [495♡] Crufts’ Best Dogs Fail Vet Checks [483♡] Torture Breeding [408♡]

Multiple Orcasms [318♡] The Peke Doesn’t Stand a Chance [291♡] KC Bans Merle to Merle Mating [288♡]

The Unfortunate Case of the Wild Australian Shepherd [282♡] Lethal Semi-Dominant: Merle [270♡]

Double Merle Breeders Don’t Want You to See This [252♡] Queen Victoria’s Border Collies [243♡]

Confusing Hoarders with Breeders [213♡] Brackett’s Formula for Failure [191♡]

I Homed More Dogs Than PeTA [165♡] DogTime’s Slobbering Hatred for Breeders I [153♡]

As the Toller Burns [138♡] Without a Tail to Sit On [135♡] The U.S. Sheep Industry is Belly-Up [102♡]

Honorable Mentions:

Selective Breeding Gone Bad [87]; The Blind Collies of Westminster [75]; Dwarf Dogs [75]; Marathons Are Why We’re Better [72]; Unexpected Leonberger Diversity [72]; The BC Bottleneck [69]; The Limits of “Health” Testing [66]; No Repeat for Qualzucht Collie [63]; The Chalk Got In Their Eyes [63]; Border Collies Bred Like Alaskan Sled Dogs? [63]; Inbred Mistakes I [60]; DogTime Smears No-Kill [60]; Double Merle Breeders: In Their Own Words 1 [60]; Bunnies Can Herd, Really! [57];  Lessons from Island Wolves [54]; For Whom the Dog Tolls [54]; Watch Pedigree Dogs Exposed: Three Years On in America [54]; Love Them and Leave Them, Italian Style [48]; Only the Best Die Young [47]; Academic Fraud in Toller Research [45]; Celeste Killed the Easter Bunny [45]; Yes! We Have No Bananas [45]; Inbreeding is Screwing Yourself [42]; Pit Bull Popularity by State [42]; Like a Bobtail Without an Anus [42]

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