The term REALPOlITIK is one I remember from history class in school.It conjures up images of shady negotiations across the iron curtain where ethics and ideology came second to preservation of uneasy alliances. REALPOLITIK is the difference between what we would like to do and what we need to do. The German term defines a form of politics based on practical and material things. That's not to say it is a bad form of politics. Idealism doesn't buy the dinner,address the national deficit,or placate the trade unions.
Our coalition government is preserving an uneasy alliance. The Greens have a left-centric secularist,post-modern and pro-environmental view of the world,Bless them. Fianna Fail's nationalist core is tempered by three generations of power broking, global hustling and prioritising commercial growth over moral absolutes. Dog Breeding Legislation is well down the list of priorities for a party which used to draw votes from affording special status to Ireland's racing, coursing, hunting tradition. Fianna Fail will reposition our country in a global marketplace as a pro-enterprise economy. In return the Greens will impliment civil partnership reform, animal welfare reform, carbon offset credits, water upgrades and support fiscal austerity measures which international bondholders want.And Social advancement will ultimately emerge from difficult compromise.
The full text of the 2010 Dog Breeding Legislation is well crafted political reality, combining as it does measures to raise significant revenue from the dog industry and measures to satisfy the ideals of dog welfare and population control. Department of Finance needs revenue. The black economy in Ireland in 2009 was estimated at six billion euro. Insiders like me know that the dog trade exists in this black hole of untaxed cashflow. Now in our hour of discontent, it's time to tax some of this black hole while simultaneously reforming one of Ireland's animal welfare problems, namely the hitherto unregulated puppy farm problem
The Croke Park agreement is a good example of REALPOLITIK in that it at least keeps the country functioning and our civil servants off the streets. Brian Lenihan's last budget was a brilliant example of REALPOLITIK. His first budget most definitely was not. Being politically tactless and badly prespun it elicited protests until its most austere penuries were reversed. But the most recent budget which was full of fiscal austerity and brought reduced prosperity to one and all was grudgingly accepted with barely a whimper of protest. And such is our understanding that the country needs reality politics that we have already resigned ourselves to the next budget of expenditure cuts.The Santa Claus politics of "fantasy benchmarking" and "who wants to be a millionaire social partner" are over.
The British always applied the logic of REALPOLITIK to their colonial rulings. Better to swiftly slaughter a few hundred unruly gurkhas and indulge the Maharajah's fetish for victorian china than destabilise an entire area strategic for tea, rubber or slaves.The history of Ireland's famine is a legacy to REALPOLITIK. As Ireland's wheat and beef left to feed the empire, Westminster's awkward quandary about what to do with a starving peasantry was solved by their cheap and easy exit on fetid ships.
As a small ungovernable colony, the Irish learned politics from a Machiavellian empire which once ruled half the globe. Surprising then, that Britain's new Con-Dem government has launched straight into the minefield of electoral reform, headlong into disagreement over how and what way a lukewarm electorate should vote next time. Shrewd politics would be to focus all energy on the depressed economy and all reformist enmity on Labour's wasteful expenditure. At least for the first full year. Instead Nick Clegg's overreach towards the holy grail of proportional representative voting will end in tears as Prime Minister Cameron hasnt even the tact to support his coalition partner in public. Survival instincts in Irish politics are stronger. Cameron could learn a litle reality politics from Cowen and Lenihan's handling of our banks, trade unions, the ECB and our US investors over the last 18 months.
The Irish do REALPOLITIK very well. We have a history of coalition governments held together by tenuous promise and bartered favour. The ultimate exponent of REALPOLITIK was the most cunning of them all whose singular defining triumph was to deliver the Good Friday agreement. The boy republican from Drumcondra who gave the Reverend Paisley a gift of a Jacobite Musket on the battlefield of the Boyne, finally stalled sectarian conflict in Ireland by doing what politicians often need to do as a means to an end. Real political success is the acheivement of impossible compromise. Ahern, the son of a Cork IRA man acheived that one great thing on Good Friday 10th April 1998 by painstaking brokering and building relationships to dilute ideology. Fianna Fail have always done REALPOLITIK very well; progress by process and by compromise.
But the Dog Breeding Legislation? Now watered down by default so that opprtunities of revenue gathering, regulation and welfare improvement are lost for now. Fianna Fail are hardly dealing with the UVF this time.Romantic Ireland is dead and gone surely. But REALPOLITIK is with Ahern back in St Lukes, Drumcondra. Have there been Paramilitary Continuity Dog coursers and Beagle baiters darkly threatening backbenchers lest the 400 euro six bitch levy pass into law? Will we have to summon John De Chastelain to Ireland's potholed rural seats of greyhound power to clamber into battered transits and up to Paddyjoes to check who has seven bitches and who has only five OR who bought their own microchips CHAPE off the vanman at the dogtrack last night? The party that wore down the provos have given in to the dogmen!
During todays debate in the Seanad I heard one remark amidst the confusion over breeding bitches and civil partners "Anyone would think Tipperary was full of homophobic, guntoting, deer hunters". Its not, of course. The country has changed. The appetite for regulation of hunting, for conservation debates, for animal welfare advancements has fanned out across the eastern seaboard into the midlands of Ireland with the migrations of the last ten years. Bord na GCon or should that be Bord Na Con have pulled a two fold conjob. They have convinced the government by vocal lobby that their view is still a majority view in rural Ireland and they have successfully pleaded the poor mouth to avoid paying taxes which the rest of us may well now have to pay. An opportunity lost. government TDs? You've been Bord Na Conned!
Showing posts with label A Vets Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Vets Life. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The Dog Breeding Establishment Bill 2010
I read today that RISE which are the group representing the Ward Union Hunt spent 100k on their PR campaign before the wildlife amendment bill. In my view they got poor value for money. Not once in the months of publicity did we hear figures on exactly how many jobs depend on the Ward Union or just how much in tourist revenue does the Ward Union generate each year?I expect the outlawing of the live chase will not greatly inconvenience the ward union in reality as the hunt will continue in drag form which the vast majority of riders to hounds will equally enjoy. I believe that in a few years time we will marvel that it was ever legal to chase a 400 kg farm animal across suburbia with horses and dogs.
The shadowboxing of back bench TDs purporting to represent " Rural Ireland" will gather pace over the next few days as the government seek to pass a piece of legislation known as the puppy farming bill.
This bill will enforce an annual fee of 400 euro on breeders owning six or more bitches of breeding age.Local Authority Vets will be regulated to inspect licensed dog breeding premises annually or as warranted. Bitches will be restricted to three litters every two years. All pups will be microchipped by law. As I write there are indications that greyhound premises may acheive an exemption. This would be bad news as Vets and others in the animal industry know that the greyhound sector has a significant over production problem. The effect of traceability, regulation and a registration cost would be a reduction of puppy numbers at the cheaper end of the market which is where overcrowding and animal welfare issues are most likely to arise.
It is convenient for FF rural TDs to characterise animal welfare bills as part of a Green agenda or Green conspiracy. In fact this Dog Breeding Bill was put together in 2006 by Dick Roche in the previous Fianna Fail government working with the ISPCA, Veterinary Ireland and the Dept of Agriculture. My own profession want puppy farms reduced in number and size and subject to inspection. The desired end product will then be a healthy, well socialised pet with fewer genetic defects. A reduction of puppy numbers will be an important side effect of regulation in a country where over 10000 unwanted dogs are euthanased in council pounds each year.
Mattie McGrath reckons the Greens want to ban "the pussy cat from catching the mouse". Mattie is the one playing Cat and Mouse as a game of party politics. The real underlying issues are discontent with An Taoiseach's appalling retreat over the last couple of years into morose pedestrian communications, the government press office's bull in china shop relations with journalists and Fianna Fail members' real hunger for clear out and clamour for reform of party culture. Foremost though in Mattie's intentions will be the tight rope between clientalist management of his Tipperary voters and not burning his bridges completely within his party machine.
The loudest opponents of the dog breeding bill are hunt kennels and the greyhound fraternity. Hunt kennels are loss-making and rely on membership subscriptions. Traditionally kennels provided farmers with an essential service of fallen stock disposal. This source of revenue has now declined prompting hunts to seek exemption from the costs which are central to this bill. But microchipping can be done as cheaply as tattoeing. If this bill allows exemptions then we may as well admit loopholes.
Greyhound racing is seen as the poor relation of horse racing. As such it is heavily subsidised by government and no doubt this group will plead the poor mouth in the houses of the Oireachtas this week. However any insider will tell you the breeding and sale of greyhounds remains a thriving cash based trade. Declared revenues within this industry are only the tip of the iceberg where pups travel between UK and Ireland on pound note transactions. Bord Na gcon have their PR people but it is notable that there is an absence of greyhound trainers or breeders sticking their heads up to plead penury. This sector may acheive its exemption but is in fact best able to pay the modest levies proposed.
The greyhound racing industry would benefit most from Local Authority regulation for a number of reasons. DSPCA survey showed that of over 10000 dogs destroyed in council pounds in 2009, 10% were greyhounds. There are too few outlets for unwanted greyhounds which have retired or are simply too slow. The best remedy to oversupply is to discourage breeding from poorer quality bitches by imposing a cost and an inconvenience.
I and my colleagues hope this bill is passed in its entirety. Our current laissez faire animal legislation is anachronistic. In common with the now outlawed spectacle of riders on horseback following dogs in pursuit of farmed deer across suburbia I believe we will marvel in a few years time that anyone who saw fit was allowed to breed and sell dogs without regulation or licence.
The shadowboxing of back bench TDs purporting to represent " Rural Ireland" will gather pace over the next few days as the government seek to pass a piece of legislation known as the puppy farming bill.
This bill will enforce an annual fee of 400 euro on breeders owning six or more bitches of breeding age.Local Authority Vets will be regulated to inspect licensed dog breeding premises annually or as warranted. Bitches will be restricted to three litters every two years. All pups will be microchipped by law. As I write there are indications that greyhound premises may acheive an exemption. This would be bad news as Vets and others in the animal industry know that the greyhound sector has a significant over production problem. The effect of traceability, regulation and a registration cost would be a reduction of puppy numbers at the cheaper end of the market which is where overcrowding and animal welfare issues are most likely to arise.
It is convenient for FF rural TDs to characterise animal welfare bills as part of a Green agenda or Green conspiracy. In fact this Dog Breeding Bill was put together in 2006 by Dick Roche in the previous Fianna Fail government working with the ISPCA, Veterinary Ireland and the Dept of Agriculture. My own profession want puppy farms reduced in number and size and subject to inspection. The desired end product will then be a healthy, well socialised pet with fewer genetic defects. A reduction of puppy numbers will be an important side effect of regulation in a country where over 10000 unwanted dogs are euthanased in council pounds each year.
Mattie McGrath reckons the Greens want to ban "the pussy cat from catching the mouse". Mattie is the one playing Cat and Mouse as a game of party politics. The real underlying issues are discontent with An Taoiseach's appalling retreat over the last couple of years into morose pedestrian communications, the government press office's bull in china shop relations with journalists and Fianna Fail members' real hunger for clear out and clamour for reform of party culture. Foremost though in Mattie's intentions will be the tight rope between clientalist management of his Tipperary voters and not burning his bridges completely within his party machine.
The loudest opponents of the dog breeding bill are hunt kennels and the greyhound fraternity. Hunt kennels are loss-making and rely on membership subscriptions. Traditionally kennels provided farmers with an essential service of fallen stock disposal. This source of revenue has now declined prompting hunts to seek exemption from the costs which are central to this bill. But microchipping can be done as cheaply as tattoeing. If this bill allows exemptions then we may as well admit loopholes.
Greyhound racing is seen as the poor relation of horse racing. As such it is heavily subsidised by government and no doubt this group will plead the poor mouth in the houses of the Oireachtas this week. However any insider will tell you the breeding and sale of greyhounds remains a thriving cash based trade. Declared revenues within this industry are only the tip of the iceberg where pups travel between UK and Ireland on pound note transactions. Bord Na gcon have their PR people but it is notable that there is an absence of greyhound trainers or breeders sticking their heads up to plead penury. This sector may acheive its exemption but is in fact best able to pay the modest levies proposed.
The greyhound racing industry would benefit most from Local Authority regulation for a number of reasons. DSPCA survey showed that of over 10000 dogs destroyed in council pounds in 2009, 10% were greyhounds. There are too few outlets for unwanted greyhounds which have retired or are simply too slow. The best remedy to oversupply is to discourage breeding from poorer quality bitches by imposing a cost and an inconvenience.
I and my colleagues hope this bill is passed in its entirety. Our current laissez faire animal legislation is anachronistic. In common with the now outlawed spectacle of riders on horseback following dogs in pursuit of farmed deer across suburbia I believe we will marvel in a few years time that anyone who saw fit was allowed to breed and sell dogs without regulation or licence.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Tokyo Kittens and Urban Cowboys.
The words and phrases we use tell a lot about how we think about our pets. I meet owners whose fluffy bundle of joy has come from a "rehoming centre". Pets in these centres get a second chance because animal welfare advocates, in theory match animal to owner. A "rehomed" dog is implicitly part of the family."Adoption centres" are widespread. "Adoption" has a legal-sounding tone with connotations of responsibility and provision of care. "Dog Pounds" have austere echoes in our minds. They are the last chance saloon,akin to prison's death row for strays in which searching owners are in a race against time.Ten days is the usual grace period given in Ireland's crowded pounds before a dog is euthanased unless claimed.
What is significant about the words rehoming and adoption is their link to children. They have a borrowed use in animal welfare where it is understood that animals,like children inhabit our world and are our dependents. But the commonest term used in animal welfare,"rescue" is the most emotive of these words. Whether a "rescue dog" or a "rescue centre",there are negative connotations about the animal's previous relations with humans. Rescue dogs which are saved into new homes from neglect, abuse or euthanasia,are a growing phenomenon because animal abuse and neglect remains part of society.
In some countries vets encountering non-accidental injury such as obvious cruelty or neglect to an animal are legally obliged to report this.The reason why was illustrated this week by a story in the New York Times linking animal abuse to same household abuse of family members. Youngsters with "aggressive conduct disorder"(sic), according to research the NYT cited, become desensitised to cruelty and suffering by practice of animal abuse. Researchers looked at MRI scans of groups shown images of pain and suffering. Troubled youngsters within the study exhibited heightened activity in the brain's "reward centre" while viewing cruelty and abuse. The report concluded that some people have impaired systems of empathy and crucially that part of the brain involved in self-regulation switches off as empathy is eroded.
This report is not the first of its kind.Many serial killers began in their childhood with animal cruelty. Animal abuse is now in fact proven to be gateway behaviour which on a continuum of sociopathic relations with sentient beings is a stage towards cruelty to humans. There are also hopeful studies that have shown how empathy can be rekindled by caring for animals. Learning to relate to sentient beings such as horses can improve damaging behaviours towards humans. Equine therapy programs where teenagers muck out, groom horses and learn to ride are now common in urban areas all over the world including Ireland and form part of accepted interventions for troubled teens.
Why then are punishments and sentences for animal abuse and neglect not more severe? Animal life is valued so much less than human in our value system and perhaps rightly so. But proof of a behaviour gateway to murder, rape, domestic violence and child abuse strengthens the argument for severe addressing at source of sociopaths and violent criminals. This approach is an auhoritarian view of crime and punishment. But consider the problem from the liberal perspective. If you believe that most abusers can be rehabilitated, deserve a second chance and that early interventions can and do work, the question becomes this.Why are equine therapy programs,empathy building programs involving animal companionship, NOT a widespread and integral part of our legal justice system? The reason why not is because that debate is ongoing and unresolved. Prison rehabilitates some, if not others. Intervention programs help some also, if not others. And the most draconian penalties, even the ultimate capital penalty fail to provide an ultimate deterrent to some perpetrators of heinous violent crime.
I believe piecemeal interventions and a prison service which attempts rehabilitation in an authoritarian environment are only reactive answers to violent crime. We know animal contact helps us learn moral behaviour and build empathic relationships therefore schools should provide pet interactions or even contain small pet zoos. Young offenders institutions could teach dog grooming and animal training. Prisons could incorporate responsible pet care as therapy for recovering addicts and for those most socially disconnected. Meanwhile new large stable yards as equine therapy centres in the worst urban areas of the country should be properly funded. The urban cowboys of West Dublin, Ballymun, Limerick city have a culture already of horse ownership which it would be easy to officially endorse and build on. The earlier the young bareback riders of deprived urban areas can be helped swap kalashnikov for saddle and whip the more likely that cycles of feuds and poverty can be broken.
The case for rehabilitation by animal therapy is more than a liberal do-gooder delusion.There is a need in people which animal companionship can satisfy.Peata is an Irish organisation which brings pets on visits to nursing homes, hospitals and hospices where patients are shown to benefit medically from regular contact with dogs. Peata can be reached through the DSPCA.
Overcrowded urban living paradoxically enforces isolation. The need for animal companionship can be as powerful as the need for contact with other humans. In the city of Tokyo where cramped apartment dwelling is the norm, pet ownership is problematic. To fill the void Kitten Cafes have sprung up which are "staffed" by cats and kittens ready to play with customers who pay by the hour. Kitten Cafes can also provide customers with a "doggie date" as they can rent you a dog for an hourly-rated walk or play date.This type of pet ownership by proxy is a Japanese solution to an urban Japanese problem.What void would a "doggie date" fill in a Tokyo commuter's life? Perhaps the gunslingers of Moyross and Southill experience the same void and could be helped by equine or pet therapy interventions.Make love not war or trade ponies not bullets?
What is significant about the words rehoming and adoption is their link to children. They have a borrowed use in animal welfare where it is understood that animals,like children inhabit our world and are our dependents. But the commonest term used in animal welfare,"rescue" is the most emotive of these words. Whether a "rescue dog" or a "rescue centre",there are negative connotations about the animal's previous relations with humans. Rescue dogs which are saved into new homes from neglect, abuse or euthanasia,are a growing phenomenon because animal abuse and neglect remains part of society.
In some countries vets encountering non-accidental injury such as obvious cruelty or neglect to an animal are legally obliged to report this.The reason why was illustrated this week by a story in the New York Times linking animal abuse to same household abuse of family members. Youngsters with "aggressive conduct disorder"(sic), according to research the NYT cited, become desensitised to cruelty and suffering by practice of animal abuse. Researchers looked at MRI scans of groups shown images of pain and suffering. Troubled youngsters within the study exhibited heightened activity in the brain's "reward centre" while viewing cruelty and abuse. The report concluded that some people have impaired systems of empathy and crucially that part of the brain involved in self-regulation switches off as empathy is eroded.
This report is not the first of its kind.Many serial killers began in their childhood with animal cruelty. Animal abuse is now in fact proven to be gateway behaviour which on a continuum of sociopathic relations with sentient beings is a stage towards cruelty to humans. There are also hopeful studies that have shown how empathy can be rekindled by caring for animals. Learning to relate to sentient beings such as horses can improve damaging behaviours towards humans. Equine therapy programs where teenagers muck out, groom horses and learn to ride are now common in urban areas all over the world including Ireland and form part of accepted interventions for troubled teens.
Why then are punishments and sentences for animal abuse and neglect not more severe? Animal life is valued so much less than human in our value system and perhaps rightly so. But proof of a behaviour gateway to murder, rape, domestic violence and child abuse strengthens the argument for severe addressing at source of sociopaths and violent criminals. This approach is an auhoritarian view of crime and punishment. But consider the problem from the liberal perspective. If you believe that most abusers can be rehabilitated, deserve a second chance and that early interventions can and do work, the question becomes this.Why are equine therapy programs,empathy building programs involving animal companionship, NOT a widespread and integral part of our legal justice system? The reason why not is because that debate is ongoing and unresolved. Prison rehabilitates some, if not others. Intervention programs help some also, if not others. And the most draconian penalties, even the ultimate capital penalty fail to provide an ultimate deterrent to some perpetrators of heinous violent crime.
I believe piecemeal interventions and a prison service which attempts rehabilitation in an authoritarian environment are only reactive answers to violent crime. We know animal contact helps us learn moral behaviour and build empathic relationships therefore schools should provide pet interactions or even contain small pet zoos. Young offenders institutions could teach dog grooming and animal training. Prisons could incorporate responsible pet care as therapy for recovering addicts and for those most socially disconnected. Meanwhile new large stable yards as equine therapy centres in the worst urban areas of the country should be properly funded. The urban cowboys of West Dublin, Ballymun, Limerick city have a culture already of horse ownership which it would be easy to officially endorse and build on. The earlier the young bareback riders of deprived urban areas can be helped swap kalashnikov for saddle and whip the more likely that cycles of feuds and poverty can be broken.
The case for rehabilitation by animal therapy is more than a liberal do-gooder delusion.There is a need in people which animal companionship can satisfy.Peata is an Irish organisation which brings pets on visits to nursing homes, hospitals and hospices where patients are shown to benefit medically from regular contact with dogs. Peata can be reached through the DSPCA.
Overcrowded urban living paradoxically enforces isolation. The need for animal companionship can be as powerful as the need for contact with other humans. In the city of Tokyo where cramped apartment dwelling is the norm, pet ownership is problematic. To fill the void Kitten Cafes have sprung up which are "staffed" by cats and kittens ready to play with customers who pay by the hour. Kitten Cafes can also provide customers with a "doggie date" as they can rent you a dog for an hourly-rated walk or play date.This type of pet ownership by proxy is a Japanese solution to an urban Japanese problem.What void would a "doggie date" fill in a Tokyo commuter's life? Perhaps the gunslingers of Moyross and Southill experience the same void and could be helped by equine or pet therapy interventions.Make love not war or trade ponies not bullets?
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Urban foxes and Urban legends.
The story of twin girls in a UK suburb who were savaged in daylight by a fox while asleep in their cots in an upstairs bedroom, filled a large slot in the news cycle this week. Urban foxes are part of the landscape and fauna of Britain nowadays. Recent wildlife census estimates a population density of 30 foxes per square mile in urban Britain. This is significantly higher than some population densities in the wild. In cities we now hear of humans and foxes interacting in closer and closer ways. Our relationship with this native wild species is thus changing.
Foxes are large predators who live on worms,beetles, mice,voles,birds and by scavenging.They are known to avoid human contact and are normally nocturnal in their habits. In the urban landscape foxes have no natural predator,if human hunters and pest control are taken out of the equation. Their habitat has dramatically altered in 100 years or so of urban sprawl.The British whose landscape once was parkland, forest and farmland are now essentially an urban people. How rapidly has the fox evolved to adapt to this change?
Perhaps our expectations about fox behaviour need to change to take into account its evolved lifestyle, instincts and even diet in an urban landscape. Householders in the UK now put food out for foxes at the end of their gardens and are forced to weigh down wheelie bin lids. Disposable nappies,filled with human excrement are a favoured target. Foxes are now known to enter kennels to eat dogfood, kitchens to eat catfood. Fast food outlets which throw out vast quantities of food are favourite gathering places for urban foxes.If they no longer fear humans as predators then it may not be long before the fox sees us as prey.
In common with foxes, urban living has separated humans from our predators. On first hearing of this fox attack on human babies I doubted it's veracity. The likelihood is that a young fox was attracted by the smell of freshly soiled nappy into the sleeping babies' cot. The injuries probably occurred as the startled fox struggled to leave the cot after the babies woke. But to have entered through patio doors, crept upstairs into a bedroom and then to climb into a cot, undeterred by human scents? This scenario implies an individual fox lacking the inhibition expected of its species. Is it hysterical to fear this mix of new brazenness and native cunning?
Foxes do not have a genetic history of centuries of coexistence on the edge of domesticity with humans as feral cats do.Domestic felines revert to feral with ease when survival instincts dictate.Dogs of course are wholly domesticated.Our pampered pooches, even the macho ones, bear little resemblance to the wild pack animal which was their ancestor. Yet even pet dogs can sometimes attack and even kill humans. Attacks which occur often when humans neglect to train their dog and assert the proper pecking order.
These isles which were thronged with wolves, bears and even large cats are now home to just one species of feral canine-the fox. Other indigenous wild species died out over thousands of years of whittling numbers and changing environment. Yet the fox has thrived through seismic habitat changes wrought in a mere 200 years since the onset of the industrial revolution.To survive these changes the laws of natural selection infer that today's fox must have evolved into a very different species from its pre-industrial forebearer. Our relationship and assumptions about foxes are formed from our tradition as farmers and hunters where the animal's fear of people is the key dynamic. If we no longer hunt the fox and we domesticate ourselves beyond recognition, surely that fear dynamic which works to OUR advantage could crucially alter.
We now live cocooned in concrete and no longer kill by our own hand to survive. Instead we rely on remotely processed produce which we eat from plastic. We forget that natural eco-systems are not stopped by the city lines.We dont live in a bubble. After hurricane Katrina, crocodiles were caught in the flooded streets of New Orleans. Alligators are said to live in the sewers of some cities in the deep south of USA. When pet owners die in locked homes their hungry pets will eat their masters to survive.In April this year a particularly brazen fox crossed a frozen lake, scaled a fence and entered an island compound to kill 12 flamingoes in Helsinki Zoo.Wild foxes are showing exceptional ability to evolve and adapt to whatever environment and food sources are available.
As a Vet I have taken an oath to work for the care and welfare of the animal kingdom. I am however a farmer's son. My link with my rural past is only one generation broken. All farmers know there are inherent dangers in working with horses, dogs, cats or in close contact with livestock. Indeed any Vet would agree that the wild instincts of all companion animals should be treated with caution. In our interactions with nature we rely on a pecking order that we impose on animals, not by brute force but by millenia of conditioning and control. The majority of people now in the UK are six or more generations removed from rural life and the familiarity with animals that rural living gives. Those who put food out for foxes at the ends of their gardens are part of an altering dynamic,an evolving natural order and are sending mixed messages to this wild animal on the edge of domesticity. Sending mixed messages will have mixed results.
Foxes are large predators who live on worms,beetles, mice,voles,birds and by scavenging.They are known to avoid human contact and are normally nocturnal in their habits. In the urban landscape foxes have no natural predator,if human hunters and pest control are taken out of the equation. Their habitat has dramatically altered in 100 years or so of urban sprawl.The British whose landscape once was parkland, forest and farmland are now essentially an urban people. How rapidly has the fox evolved to adapt to this change?
Perhaps our expectations about fox behaviour need to change to take into account its evolved lifestyle, instincts and even diet in an urban landscape. Householders in the UK now put food out for foxes at the end of their gardens and are forced to weigh down wheelie bin lids. Disposable nappies,filled with human excrement are a favoured target. Foxes are now known to enter kennels to eat dogfood, kitchens to eat catfood. Fast food outlets which throw out vast quantities of food are favourite gathering places for urban foxes.If they no longer fear humans as predators then it may not be long before the fox sees us as prey.
In common with foxes, urban living has separated humans from our predators. On first hearing of this fox attack on human babies I doubted it's veracity. The likelihood is that a young fox was attracted by the smell of freshly soiled nappy into the sleeping babies' cot. The injuries probably occurred as the startled fox struggled to leave the cot after the babies woke. But to have entered through patio doors, crept upstairs into a bedroom and then to climb into a cot, undeterred by human scents? This scenario implies an individual fox lacking the inhibition expected of its species. Is it hysterical to fear this mix of new brazenness and native cunning?
Foxes do not have a genetic history of centuries of coexistence on the edge of domesticity with humans as feral cats do.Domestic felines revert to feral with ease when survival instincts dictate.Dogs of course are wholly domesticated.Our pampered pooches, even the macho ones, bear little resemblance to the wild pack animal which was their ancestor. Yet even pet dogs can sometimes attack and even kill humans. Attacks which occur often when humans neglect to train their dog and assert the proper pecking order.
These isles which were thronged with wolves, bears and even large cats are now home to just one species of feral canine-the fox. Other indigenous wild species died out over thousands of years of whittling numbers and changing environment. Yet the fox has thrived through seismic habitat changes wrought in a mere 200 years since the onset of the industrial revolution.To survive these changes the laws of natural selection infer that today's fox must have evolved into a very different species from its pre-industrial forebearer. Our relationship and assumptions about foxes are formed from our tradition as farmers and hunters where the animal's fear of people is the key dynamic. If we no longer hunt the fox and we domesticate ourselves beyond recognition, surely that fear dynamic which works to OUR advantage could crucially alter.
We now live cocooned in concrete and no longer kill by our own hand to survive. Instead we rely on remotely processed produce which we eat from plastic. We forget that natural eco-systems are not stopped by the city lines.We dont live in a bubble. After hurricane Katrina, crocodiles were caught in the flooded streets of New Orleans. Alligators are said to live in the sewers of some cities in the deep south of USA. When pet owners die in locked homes their hungry pets will eat their masters to survive.In April this year a particularly brazen fox crossed a frozen lake, scaled a fence and entered an island compound to kill 12 flamingoes in Helsinki Zoo.Wild foxes are showing exceptional ability to evolve and adapt to whatever environment and food sources are available.
As a Vet I have taken an oath to work for the care and welfare of the animal kingdom. I am however a farmer's son. My link with my rural past is only one generation broken. All farmers know there are inherent dangers in working with horses, dogs, cats or in close contact with livestock. Indeed any Vet would agree that the wild instincts of all companion animals should be treated with caution. In our interactions with nature we rely on a pecking order that we impose on animals, not by brute force but by millenia of conditioning and control. The majority of people now in the UK are six or more generations removed from rural life and the familiarity with animals that rural living gives. Those who put food out for foxes at the ends of their gardens are part of an altering dynamic,an evolving natural order and are sending mixed messages to this wild animal on the edge of domesticity. Sending mixed messages will have mixed results.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Epileptic Boxers and Tripping Cavaliers- a word about seizures.
We have seen unusually high numbers of dogs presenting to us at both clinics in recent weeks either during or after seizure episodes. Full-blown seizures are dramatic and sudden in onset. This lack of warning and the violence of the convulsions mean that pet owners are often as distressed by the time they have reached Kildare Vet Surgery as the dogs themselves.
Epilepsy,a word we are all familiar with, is used to describe the syndrome of repeated seizures. It is often genetically inherited in dogs and can occur at almost any age but usually manifests between one and three years old. Secondary epilepsy is the term used to describe seizures triggered by any underlying cause such as liver disease, cardiac disease, metabolic disorder or other neurological disease such as meningitis or meningoencephalitis. Not all seizure cases will be epileptic. Nor indeed will all primary epileptic dogs develop full blown seizures especially if diagnosed early.
As I write this I am conscious that these paragraphs diverge from my usual style of(hopefully) accessible and not too reverent commentary and stray into the jargon of the science journal. This tends to happen when so-called experts are discussing topics of which quite a lot remains unknown.A great word we love to use is idiopathic which literally means "we dont know". In fact the next time you hear a scientist,politician,banker or economist baffling your eardrums with corporate esperanzo you can be sure they either dont know what they're talking about or dont want you to know.
So why would cases of seizure be any more common now than usual? One reason is certainly that we know seizures are triggered. Stress of any sort and changes in weather have both been identified as trigger factors. It's not too fanciful to think that animals in the current zeitgeist have picked up on some of their owners stress. During the recent good weather I have seen cases of latent primary epilepsy triggered by this heat wave and have also found that heat stroke can present to us as a kind of pseudo-seizure.
Precise data on the incidence of epilepsy is not available. But best estimates cite figures of between 1 percent and up to 5 percent of dogs suffer from epilepsy. Figures at the higher end definitely apply to some breeds. As much as 5 percent of Boxers are believed to suffer seizures. While the unfortunate Cavalier King Charles breed which has been the subject of controversy over selective breeding for it's unnatural head shape also have an above average incidence of seizures, epileptic or otherwise.
Treatment protocols for true epilepsy in animals are more limited than the human equivalents. But are relatively simple and successful. Once a diagnosis is confirmed we can often reassure pet owners by giving a quite favouable prognosis. The work will be ongoing. Treatment is continuous and dosages of medication will be modified regularly in the first year after diagnosis. We will be guided by both quarterly blood tests and the feedback we get from owners on how their pet has responded to the meds.
The tests we need to undertake to rule out a whole range of possibles before diagnosing primary idiopathic epilepsy are in themselves the best advert for Pet Insurance. At the end of all that ruling out our drug options generally narrow down to three namely valium, potassium bromide and phenobarbital. The trick however is often in the dosage and in the mix of all three. After that it's down to you the owners to live with your epileptic dog. Become good at giving pills!
Epilepsy,a word we are all familiar with, is used to describe the syndrome of repeated seizures. It is often genetically inherited in dogs and can occur at almost any age but usually manifests between one and three years old. Secondary epilepsy is the term used to describe seizures triggered by any underlying cause such as liver disease, cardiac disease, metabolic disorder or other neurological disease such as meningitis or meningoencephalitis. Not all seizure cases will be epileptic. Nor indeed will all primary epileptic dogs develop full blown seizures especially if diagnosed early.
As I write this I am conscious that these paragraphs diverge from my usual style of(hopefully) accessible and not too reverent commentary and stray into the jargon of the science journal. This tends to happen when so-called experts are discussing topics of which quite a lot remains unknown.A great word we love to use is idiopathic which literally means "we dont know". In fact the next time you hear a scientist,politician,banker or economist baffling your eardrums with corporate esperanzo you can be sure they either dont know what they're talking about or dont want you to know.
So why would cases of seizure be any more common now than usual? One reason is certainly that we know seizures are triggered. Stress of any sort and changes in weather have both been identified as trigger factors. It's not too fanciful to think that animals in the current zeitgeist have picked up on some of their owners stress. During the recent good weather I have seen cases of latent primary epilepsy triggered by this heat wave and have also found that heat stroke can present to us as a kind of pseudo-seizure.
Precise data on the incidence of epilepsy is not available. But best estimates cite figures of between 1 percent and up to 5 percent of dogs suffer from epilepsy. Figures at the higher end definitely apply to some breeds. As much as 5 percent of Boxers are believed to suffer seizures. While the unfortunate Cavalier King Charles breed which has been the subject of controversy over selective breeding for it's unnatural head shape also have an above average incidence of seizures, epileptic or otherwise.
Treatment protocols for true epilepsy in animals are more limited than the human equivalents. But are relatively simple and successful. Once a diagnosis is confirmed we can often reassure pet owners by giving a quite favouable prognosis. The work will be ongoing. Treatment is continuous and dosages of medication will be modified regularly in the first year after diagnosis. We will be guided by both quarterly blood tests and the feedback we get from owners on how their pet has responded to the meds.
The tests we need to undertake to rule out a whole range of possibles before diagnosing primary idiopathic epilepsy are in themselves the best advert for Pet Insurance. At the end of all that ruling out our drug options generally narrow down to three namely valium, potassium bromide and phenobarbital. The trick however is often in the dosage and in the mix of all three. After that it's down to you the owners to live with your epileptic dog. Become good at giving pills!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
The Cottontail's wire-meshed Shawshank.
Long Ears is a blue and white cotton-tail inhabitant of a large well-made hutch of wire mesh and steel behind the back door of the Groome family abode. He moved in with us over a year ago after a client who had taken in a labrador puppy brought a young traumatised rabbit to me and shared a tale of prey and predator incompatibility. He had lost some weight,was refusing to eat and in a state of chronic stress(the rabbit that is- not the client).
Predator and prey species frequently do not mix. It goes against the natural order to attempt to make a rabbit and dog coexist as domestic pets. Remember the old looney tunes cartoons of the tomcat thwarted by tweetie pie or terrorising the goldfish? There are exceptions such as when socialised together from a few weeks of age, but in general natural urges supercede conditioning. When we have rabbits, hamsters, parrots, other prey species or exotics to stay at KIlDARE VET SURGERY we isolate them from our inpatient dogs and cats for this reason. Its not fair on either to mix them.
Thus Long Ears was adopted by the Groomes. Daniel,(7), James (5) and Tom (3) are too young yet to care for a dog or cat. A rabbit is an excellent first pet. That is until Dad, yardman Lar and grandad Tom get left to do everything. This winter in fact was so harsh that Long Ears shamefully was left in his outdoor hutch and coop largely to interact only with the adults.
A few days of snowman building and snowballing being memorable exceptions, the three boys spent the winter in the playrooom as engineers on the Island of Sodor or roadbuilders in Radiator Springs. Long Ears was sorely in need of some attention as rabbits need constant handling and interaction with people to ensure they remain socialised, do not revert to semi-feral and can be managed or cared for by a young owner. More importantly constant interaction is necessary so that the relationship between child and pet is wholesome and stress-free for BOTH.
Recently when the bikes were polished off and the boys started using the garden again they resolved to get Long Ears out to play. The first few episodes of manhandling led,not unexpectedly, to the rabbit wriggling and leg-thumping his way to freedom. Tom discovered that bunnies can have a nasty nip when startled. But after a week or so of handling, boys and rabbit became friends and played a sort of tag or hide-and-seek game in our enclosed side yard. Each day Long Ears would agree to be enticed by lettuce back to his hutch until the next time.
One day however our bunny found a new spring to his step. The time came for supper and to return Long Ears to lockup. But I looked out to find three boys of varying size and athleticism galloping around the yard trying to turn and corner a now fitter and confident Long Ears. It was definitely a Looney Tunes version of a Clonmel Hare coursing contest. At one stage as Long Ears paused for a breather and turned sharply to unbalance his twolegged pursuers,he looked across at me and I almost heard him say " Whats up Doc?".
That pursuit ended on Long Ears terms, when he decided he was tired of the chase and returned himself to barracks. But the next morning I looked out from upstairs to see his run empty. I spotted something beyond the back garden some 100 metres away and opened the window to get a better look. There he was in the long meadow keeping the pony company. Ears forward, aloft on hind legs with a blade of grass between his paws. No doubt smelling the sweet breeze of freedom.I laughed at the joie de vivre of our cotton tail, this time definitely less Looney Tunes and more Shawshank Redemption!
The boys' Mum warned darkly of the grim fate that could befall this fluffy innocent abroad in the long grass. A capture party was thus swiftly dispatched and soon Long Ears was reincarcerated to stare at the four small wire sides of his prison. As the old sage "Red" in that great movie said from his cell "Same old shit, different day!". We repaired the never before eaten-through wire meshing.
But something had changed. Long Ears escaped again. And again. And Lar the yardman nodded one day and said "he's got the taste of freedom now. Only the crows will scare him. He will breed with the wild ones and there'll be blue and white little lads everywhere!". Lar was our "Red"; the Morgan Freeman character who watched Andy in Shawshank always trying to escape in the 1994 movie and provided the slow voiceover "I have to remind myself that some birds aint meant to be caged, that's all".
Here's the thing. Long Ears hutch hadnt changed.But his attitude had. Now he could escape because he wanted to. For the previous year the blue and white cottontail had languished behind a wire mesh wall he himself held the power to breach. Held captive only by a barrier in his bunny brain.A taste of freedom had empowered him. The smell of free air had shown Long Ears the possibilities of life. Now escape was as easy as his dreams of a new reality!
There's some work to do tomorrow in mending that hutch.It will be no laughing matter for three little boys if a certain cotton tail meets a sad ending in the long grass. For now though remember "Shawshank" brought to you by eternal optimist and escapologist Andy Dufresne, AKA Long Ears. What imaginary prisons hold any and each of us back? A negative equity mortgage holding you back from a fresh start or a re-education? Fear of failure holding back that germ of a business idea? Unemployed, bankrupt or squeezed by the weight of institutional credit? Feel the failure if you need to- and let it liberate you.
I will leave the last word to Andy Dufresne who finally did escape."Dear Red. If you're reading this it means you've gotten out. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further.Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies".
Predator and prey species frequently do not mix. It goes against the natural order to attempt to make a rabbit and dog coexist as domestic pets. Remember the old looney tunes cartoons of the tomcat thwarted by tweetie pie or terrorising the goldfish? There are exceptions such as when socialised together from a few weeks of age, but in general natural urges supercede conditioning. When we have rabbits, hamsters, parrots, other prey species or exotics to stay at KIlDARE VET SURGERY we isolate them from our inpatient dogs and cats for this reason. Its not fair on either to mix them.
Thus Long Ears was adopted by the Groomes. Daniel,(7), James (5) and Tom (3) are too young yet to care for a dog or cat. A rabbit is an excellent first pet. That is until Dad, yardman Lar and grandad Tom get left to do everything. This winter in fact was so harsh that Long Ears shamefully was left in his outdoor hutch and coop largely to interact only with the adults.
A few days of snowman building and snowballing being memorable exceptions, the three boys spent the winter in the playrooom as engineers on the Island of Sodor or roadbuilders in Radiator Springs. Long Ears was sorely in need of some attention as rabbits need constant handling and interaction with people to ensure they remain socialised, do not revert to semi-feral and can be managed or cared for by a young owner. More importantly constant interaction is necessary so that the relationship between child and pet is wholesome and stress-free for BOTH.
Recently when the bikes were polished off and the boys started using the garden again they resolved to get Long Ears out to play. The first few episodes of manhandling led,not unexpectedly, to the rabbit wriggling and leg-thumping his way to freedom. Tom discovered that bunnies can have a nasty nip when startled. But after a week or so of handling, boys and rabbit became friends and played a sort of tag or hide-and-seek game in our enclosed side yard. Each day Long Ears would agree to be enticed by lettuce back to his hutch until the next time.
One day however our bunny found a new spring to his step. The time came for supper and to return Long Ears to lockup. But I looked out to find three boys of varying size and athleticism galloping around the yard trying to turn and corner a now fitter and confident Long Ears. It was definitely a Looney Tunes version of a Clonmel Hare coursing contest. At one stage as Long Ears paused for a breather and turned sharply to unbalance his twolegged pursuers,he looked across at me and I almost heard him say " Whats up Doc?".
That pursuit ended on Long Ears terms, when he decided he was tired of the chase and returned himself to barracks. But the next morning I looked out from upstairs to see his run empty. I spotted something beyond the back garden some 100 metres away and opened the window to get a better look. There he was in the long meadow keeping the pony company. Ears forward, aloft on hind legs with a blade of grass between his paws. No doubt smelling the sweet breeze of freedom.I laughed at the joie de vivre of our cotton tail, this time definitely less Looney Tunes and more Shawshank Redemption!
The boys' Mum warned darkly of the grim fate that could befall this fluffy innocent abroad in the long grass. A capture party was thus swiftly dispatched and soon Long Ears was reincarcerated to stare at the four small wire sides of his prison. As the old sage "Red" in that great movie said from his cell "Same old shit, different day!". We repaired the never before eaten-through wire meshing.
But something had changed. Long Ears escaped again. And again. And Lar the yardman nodded one day and said "he's got the taste of freedom now. Only the crows will scare him. He will breed with the wild ones and there'll be blue and white little lads everywhere!". Lar was our "Red"; the Morgan Freeman character who watched Andy in Shawshank always trying to escape in the 1994 movie and provided the slow voiceover "I have to remind myself that some birds aint meant to be caged, that's all".
Here's the thing. Long Ears hutch hadnt changed.But his attitude had. Now he could escape because he wanted to. For the previous year the blue and white cottontail had languished behind a wire mesh wall he himself held the power to breach. Held captive only by a barrier in his bunny brain.A taste of freedom had empowered him. The smell of free air had shown Long Ears the possibilities of life. Now escape was as easy as his dreams of a new reality!
There's some work to do tomorrow in mending that hutch.It will be no laughing matter for three little boys if a certain cotton tail meets a sad ending in the long grass. For now though remember "Shawshank" brought to you by eternal optimist and escapologist Andy Dufresne, AKA Long Ears. What imaginary prisons hold any and each of us back? A negative equity mortgage holding you back from a fresh start or a re-education? Fear of failure holding back that germ of a business idea? Unemployed, bankrupt or squeezed by the weight of institutional credit? Feel the failure if you need to- and let it liberate you.
I will leave the last word to Andy Dufresne who finally did escape."Dear Red. If you're reading this it means you've gotten out. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further.Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies".
Friday, April 23, 2010
High Rise Syndrome- The science of the nine-lived feline.
A young Jack Russel of my acquaintance is now newly christened Kamikaze Jack.When Jack presented at Kildare Vet yesterday he had some bruises and a shoulder injury. While I xrayed Jack to reveal nothing more sinister than a bad sprain his owner told a tale of derring-do and a death-defying leap.
Home alone while his owner shopped, Jack was locked in the kitchen as a regular routine. This recent fine day his owner returned home to find his dog in the garden at play. Doors remained locked. No other family member had been home. How did Jack get out?
A neighbour solved the mystery by reporting that he had watched while Jack poked his nose out an upstairs window,tentatively placed first one paw on the windowsill, then squarely positioned the other paw for take-off, until with ears cocked confidently forward, Jack had launched himself groundward off the upstairs windowsill.
Jack landed with nose, teeth and shoulders all a muddle. Like a tangled canine Wilbur Wright. True also to my son Daniel's favourite Buzz lightyear catchphrase " flying is falling with style"!
The solution for this owner now is to obtain a travel crate which is a type of collapsible cage large enough for a dog bed. Kamikaze Jack will now be cage bound in his owner's absence to curb further flights of fancy.
This behaviour is indeed strange in a dog. And of course in this case our patient was lucky not to sustain serious injury. Cases of falling cats are altogether more common however and a myriad of injuries are seen in association with cats falling from buildings.
Veterinary hospitals in New York first reported high-rise fall injuries in felines in Manhattan in the sixties. Appropriately they termed these cases " High Rise Syndrome". What made these cases news worthy was the surprisingly high survival rate in those cats who made it as far as the veterinary hospital after an often shocked and traumatised owner had peeled their pussy off the pavement.
This catalogue ( if you'll pardon the pun)of feline falls reveals the following; Two or three storey falls are more likely to be fatal than a five to ten storey fall. Survival rates were optimal for six storey falls as cats have time to right themselves to extend all four limbs ground-first but not time to reach terminal velocity. Having reached terminal velocity all is not lost as the cat will sprawl all four to extend body area in order to dissipate its force of impact. Their lower ratio of body mass to surface area is also an advantage cats have over many other species including of course the hapless human jumper.
The "record" is reportedly held by Sabrina ( not a teenage witch) who lived to meow the tale of her 32 storey fall off a frosty Manhattan window ledge. Incidentally the sorts of injuries these falling cats sustained were often no more serious than a few broken ribs, cracked jaw or chipped teeth.Of course critically serious injuries can also occur. But the good doctors of Happy Vet 5th Avenue can and will save one of your proverbial squashed cats nine lives IF your credit card can bear the pain. Strong Coffee and plush waiting rooms come as standard.
Home alone while his owner shopped, Jack was locked in the kitchen as a regular routine. This recent fine day his owner returned home to find his dog in the garden at play. Doors remained locked. No other family member had been home. How did Jack get out?
A neighbour solved the mystery by reporting that he had watched while Jack poked his nose out an upstairs window,tentatively placed first one paw on the windowsill, then squarely positioned the other paw for take-off, until with ears cocked confidently forward, Jack had launched himself groundward off the upstairs windowsill.
Jack landed with nose, teeth and shoulders all a muddle. Like a tangled canine Wilbur Wright. True also to my son Daniel's favourite Buzz lightyear catchphrase " flying is falling with style"!
The solution for this owner now is to obtain a travel crate which is a type of collapsible cage large enough for a dog bed. Kamikaze Jack will now be cage bound in his owner's absence to curb further flights of fancy.
This behaviour is indeed strange in a dog. And of course in this case our patient was lucky not to sustain serious injury. Cases of falling cats are altogether more common however and a myriad of injuries are seen in association with cats falling from buildings.
Veterinary hospitals in New York first reported high-rise fall injuries in felines in Manhattan in the sixties. Appropriately they termed these cases " High Rise Syndrome". What made these cases news worthy was the surprisingly high survival rate in those cats who made it as far as the veterinary hospital after an often shocked and traumatised owner had peeled their pussy off the pavement.
This catalogue ( if you'll pardon the pun)of feline falls reveals the following; Two or three storey falls are more likely to be fatal than a five to ten storey fall. Survival rates were optimal for six storey falls as cats have time to right themselves to extend all four limbs ground-first but not time to reach terminal velocity. Having reached terminal velocity all is not lost as the cat will sprawl all four to extend body area in order to dissipate its force of impact. Their lower ratio of body mass to surface area is also an advantage cats have over many other species including of course the hapless human jumper.
The "record" is reportedly held by Sabrina ( not a teenage witch) who lived to meow the tale of her 32 storey fall off a frosty Manhattan window ledge. Incidentally the sorts of injuries these falling cats sustained were often no more serious than a few broken ribs, cracked jaw or chipped teeth.Of course critically serious injuries can also occur. But the good doctors of Happy Vet 5th Avenue can and will save one of your proverbial squashed cats nine lives IF your credit card can bear the pain. Strong Coffee and plush waiting rooms come as standard.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
A Parrot is for life- not just for Christmas!
If the Bank of America cant float their stocks and bonds these days, signs are they are preparing to float a new Noah's Ark if the activities of their debt collectors are anything to go by.
A character of our times, a woman in Somewheresmallville Florida, a woman in serious arrears of her mortgage repayments, arrived home to her subprime humble abode the other day to an empty house. But this was an empty house with a difference.
Monica Florent who was recently unemployed and had ignored correspondence from her mortgaging bank for some months, lived alone except for her 11 year old Blue Macaw Parrot named Luke. The Bank's collection sheriff believing the house to be vacant,followed the bank's salvage policy and efficiently emptied its entire contents. Including Luke, a very large, vocal, valuable but more importantly much-loved Parrot.
There followed an anxious time for Monica. Separated from her beloved Luke she repeatedly negotiated with bank representatives over the course of seven increasingly fraught days. Bank officials admit that they had to insist Monica stop calling as twenty to thirty daily enquiries after Luke's welfare eventually wore them down. Luke was released back to his owner after over a week in bank custody in a debt collector's warehouse 80 miles away.
Monica is getting her own back now. In a court case which has attracted world media attention Luke's owner has claimed severe emotional distress over the whole sorry episode and is suing Bank of America for reparations over separation anxiety.The outcome of this case no doubt will set a precedent for the work practices of debt collectors across the US.
The case of Luke's apparent kidnapping is interesting on several levels. Blue Macaws have a market value of 1500 to 3000 Dollars. Thus Luke could conceivably have bought Monica significant additional leeway on her distressed mortgage.However the distress caused, not to Monica but to Luke could bring a storm of animal welfare protest down on an already unpopular banking symbol of financial malfeasance.
Blue Macaw Parrots are the ones seen on every Treasure Island screenplay, made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson. Standing up to 20 inches tall with a tail of a further 15 inches, they have a brilliant-blue wings and back, yellow chest and splash of green on the crown and beak. Their formidable beak can give a nasty bite and when angered they will loudly startle strangers with a hissing wing-flapping charge. They form a strong emotional bond with preferably just one owner. They also can live for up to 70 years.
Bank of America could therefore have bitten off more than they could chew,so to speak, with Luke. I was reminded of a veterinary colleague owed a considerable sum of money by a racehorse trainer, who recently obtained a court order to collect his debt by the legal channels. The court sheriff arrived out to the trainer's yard to collect the debt to the vet only to find the only thing in the yard that wasnt bolted down had four legs.
Next day the county Sheriff ( yes,they actually are called that outside the pale)rang the vet to deliver his official line that " no goods were recovered". He did mention the horse in the yard as the only thing that could conceivably be seized and sold. " Why didnt you seize the horse?!That gelding won in Galway last month and would fetch a right few quid!"said the hapless vet.
The Sheriff's reply" The court service dont equip us with horseboxes!".
A character of our times, a woman in Somewheresmallville Florida, a woman in serious arrears of her mortgage repayments, arrived home to her subprime humble abode the other day to an empty house. But this was an empty house with a difference.
Monica Florent who was recently unemployed and had ignored correspondence from her mortgaging bank for some months, lived alone except for her 11 year old Blue Macaw Parrot named Luke. The Bank's collection sheriff believing the house to be vacant,followed the bank's salvage policy and efficiently emptied its entire contents. Including Luke, a very large, vocal, valuable but more importantly much-loved Parrot.
There followed an anxious time for Monica. Separated from her beloved Luke she repeatedly negotiated with bank representatives over the course of seven increasingly fraught days. Bank officials admit that they had to insist Monica stop calling as twenty to thirty daily enquiries after Luke's welfare eventually wore them down. Luke was released back to his owner after over a week in bank custody in a debt collector's warehouse 80 miles away.
Monica is getting her own back now. In a court case which has attracted world media attention Luke's owner has claimed severe emotional distress over the whole sorry episode and is suing Bank of America for reparations over separation anxiety.The outcome of this case no doubt will set a precedent for the work practices of debt collectors across the US.
The case of Luke's apparent kidnapping is interesting on several levels. Blue Macaws have a market value of 1500 to 3000 Dollars. Thus Luke could conceivably have bought Monica significant additional leeway on her distressed mortgage.However the distress caused, not to Monica but to Luke could bring a storm of animal welfare protest down on an already unpopular banking symbol of financial malfeasance.
Blue Macaw Parrots are the ones seen on every Treasure Island screenplay, made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson. Standing up to 20 inches tall with a tail of a further 15 inches, they have a brilliant-blue wings and back, yellow chest and splash of green on the crown and beak. Their formidable beak can give a nasty bite and when angered they will loudly startle strangers with a hissing wing-flapping charge. They form a strong emotional bond with preferably just one owner. They also can live for up to 70 years.
Bank of America could therefore have bitten off more than they could chew,so to speak, with Luke. I was reminded of a veterinary colleague owed a considerable sum of money by a racehorse trainer, who recently obtained a court order to collect his debt by the legal channels. The court sheriff arrived out to the trainer's yard to collect the debt to the vet only to find the only thing in the yard that wasnt bolted down had four legs.
Next day the county Sheriff ( yes,they actually are called that outside the pale)rang the vet to deliver his official line that " no goods were recovered". He did mention the horse in the yard as the only thing that could conceivably be seized and sold. " Why didnt you seize the horse?!That gelding won in Galway last month and would fetch a right few quid!"said the hapless vet.
The Sheriff's reply" The court service dont equip us with horseboxes!".
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Ultra-Marathon Man leaves his mark
When I drifted away from race-riding eight or nine years ago after having too many falls, riding too many slow horses and eating too few good dinners over the previous ten years ( !)there was a void in my life for a while. I needed a competitive outlet and a routine of self-challenge and outdoor exercise. I began to run. First a few miles at a time, then seven or eight miles a few times a week. Given the mind and body of the man in question it wasnt long before I turned to Marathon running. Thus began the first of many journeys. Most of those journeys ended with a medal, a sense of self reaffirmed, an extra lesson learned, and ended at the finish line of another 26 mile run in a city or on a mountain somewhere. There is a spirituality in the mindset of the self-improvement, the self-discipline that becomes part of the runners' world. Like the separateness that becomes part of the life of the committed cyclist or jockey. It was an odd type of separateness for a gregarious open communicator like myself, but it was part of a routine of challenge and endeavour that had been part of my life since I first sat on a horse. And I suppose I am no more or less of a contradiction of a man than anyone.
I read a book several years ago that inspired me and led me to deliver several motivational speeches about the power of goal setting. The story of Dean Karnazes, possibly the greatest endurance runner since Pheidippides. A man more than ordinary who inspires in ways that the untouchable great athletes fail to inspire a mere mortal athlete of flat feet as I indeed was; Dean inspires because as an ordinary advertising executive at the age of 30, he turned his face to finding what he looked for in life, and did so as a family man and fundraiser, with the focus, but without the selfishness that typifies many great acheivers.
Dean's creed;
Run when you can
Walk if you have to
Crawl if you must
Just never give up
I will post my speech about the power of goalsetting some time. I will also post the tale of the journey to the finish line in the Dublin Marathon 2003, my first full marathon finish.
For today though the story is of a bionic hip. The runs and falls have taken their toll; I have to have surgery to remodel my right hip joint in a few weeks. The next marathon I finish will be at a walk! Somebody famous said" Its not the years, its the mileage..." A phrase definitely applicable to me in my current broken down lame state.
But ask me was it worth it?
Every step of the way!
I read a book several years ago that inspired me and led me to deliver several motivational speeches about the power of goal setting. The story of Dean Karnazes, possibly the greatest endurance runner since Pheidippides. A man more than ordinary who inspires in ways that the untouchable great athletes fail to inspire a mere mortal athlete of flat feet as I indeed was; Dean inspires because as an ordinary advertising executive at the age of 30, he turned his face to finding what he looked for in life, and did so as a family man and fundraiser, with the focus, but without the selfishness that typifies many great acheivers.
Dean's creed;
Run when you can
Walk if you have to
Crawl if you must
Just never give up
I will post my speech about the power of goalsetting some time. I will also post the tale of the journey to the finish line in the Dublin Marathon 2003, my first full marathon finish.
For today though the story is of a bionic hip. The runs and falls have taken their toll; I have to have surgery to remodel my right hip joint in a few weeks. The next marathon I finish will be at a walk! Somebody famous said" Its not the years, its the mileage..." A phrase definitely applicable to me in my current broken down lame state.
But ask me was it worth it?
Every step of the way!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Rip off Ireland.... not RIP just yet.
At Groome PetVets I have reduced the price of many of our key services in the last ten months.
I began with a pre-Christmas offer of a free microchip with every booster.
In February I looked at our price list critically and reduced the price of six key services by one third. In July I addressed the fall off in week-day customer numbers by introducing a deal of one third off everything -for OAPs- on tuesday and wednesday. In August I have begun a campaign to reverse the decline in preventative pet health care ( for example Vaccination numbers are well down) by introducing a Loyalty card for booster vaccination and puppy primary vaccination and a clubcard for Propak pet food.
The unfortunate fact though is that the only reason I can afford to make these price changes is because my pay roll costs have halved by my reduction in staff numbers from 15 , just a year ago, to only 8 working in the practice now. Those now working at Groome PetVets provide a better sevice to our clients in many ways and do so more efficiently and cost effectively. That I can now identify those improvements is symptomatic of the difficulties the entire economy created for itself by the high cost-spiral which we all contributed to and accepted- then passed on to customers. That I was able to radically shift business strategy and realign staff to new behaviours and a new business culture is a reflection of the flexibility that small private sector business can take advantage of when there is a will and need for change.
However I am only in control of parts of my own cost base and most of my costs of doing business have not reduced and some have even increased. Animal remedies and medicines comprise about thirty percent of my costs. The major medical wholesalers and manufacturers increased prices by between 4 and 8 percent in September/October '08 and have not reduced prices since. The markets two main specialist pet foods increased prices in October 08 and april 09 respectively and needless to say did not reduce prices as the economy further shrank into deflation this summer. Energy and communications costs are often cited as having fallen this year. In practice however I have found that the newer entrants to these markets tout for business with lower base charges but running charges will amount to about the same month by month- and I have tested this by moving my service around. Despite the ongoing lowerECB base interest rates, Bank overdraft rates and business charges remain punitive within the big two in the Irish bank market. Commercial rates have not reduced as budget-stressed local authorities seek revenue from the limited sources available. Many small businesses are simply unwilling to pay rates this year and will remain in arrears of rates, I predict into next year and the year after, as the rates bill joins a pile under a paper weight on the owner-manager's desk. My PRSI contributions have not reduced, neither has the rate of VAT I am required to pay and then pass on to my customers. Rents have reduced as the smaller commercial property owners have become increasingly anxious to keep their tenants- though unfortunately many retailers and other small business tenants are now falling behind in their rents, while in many sectors the concept of upward only rate review remains the norm. Rising waste disposal costs, implimentation of parking charges even in small towns, consistently high motor fuel costs, road toll costs and so on- these all form parts of the cost base of the Irish small business and can broadly be blamed on either the pressures of the macro-economy OR the pressures of government costs- boh of which are being brought to bear on the SME sector as externalities beyond our/my control.
In the macro- economy world business forces are governed by multinationals with revenues often in excess of a small country's GDP- these forces now must extract the penalty for share-holder driven growth strategy from wherever they can. In the case of our budget obsessed Irish government; government and public sector costs- driven up by years of appeasing unions amidst complacency about ongoing revenue- will be brought down by Bord Snip implimentations , but will be brought down slowly In the mean time small business have been targeted to foot the bill.
Recent media reports about the demise of "rip-off Ireland" may be greatly exaggerated. I believe balance within our economy cant be acheived until Banks, Government, Government employees, Trade Unions and Share-holder driven Big Business bring their own cost base and ransom-like tariffs into line with the new economic reality that small businesses envisage.
There is an appetite for change of the political landscape in Ireland and some debate on the need for a new radicalism in political thinking. I believe that radicalism needs to come from the centrist mindset of middle society. Those who believe in neo-liberalism but wont stand for free market control by the big business economics of the Thatcher, Reagan, Karl Rove/Bush tradition any longer. This is very much radicalism with a small r. I believe we must be very careful not to allow the debate for change to be ambushed by Left , or right, ideological forces who if allowed grow to become relevant could polarise the electoral process, create dysfunctional and paralysed coalition government and alienate much needed foreign investors. In the face of the body politic's poor handling of public relations, seeming imperviousness to the plight of indigenous small business, tardy decision making and those continued embarrassing revelations about expenses and God knows what else opportunists on the socialist fringe in particular now have the climate to thrive. But I believe as a small business owner and employer that their agenda for self-interest would prove as damaging as those big business forces now hoist by their own petard, though still looking for the rest of us to pay!
Des Groome.
I began with a pre-Christmas offer of a free microchip with every booster.
In February I looked at our price list critically and reduced the price of six key services by one third. In July I addressed the fall off in week-day customer numbers by introducing a deal of one third off everything -for OAPs- on tuesday and wednesday. In August I have begun a campaign to reverse the decline in preventative pet health care ( for example Vaccination numbers are well down) by introducing a Loyalty card for booster vaccination and puppy primary vaccination and a clubcard for Propak pet food.
The unfortunate fact though is that the only reason I can afford to make these price changes is because my pay roll costs have halved by my reduction in staff numbers from 15 , just a year ago, to only 8 working in the practice now. Those now working at Groome PetVets provide a better sevice to our clients in many ways and do so more efficiently and cost effectively. That I can now identify those improvements is symptomatic of the difficulties the entire economy created for itself by the high cost-spiral which we all contributed to and accepted- then passed on to customers. That I was able to radically shift business strategy and realign staff to new behaviours and a new business culture is a reflection of the flexibility that small private sector business can take advantage of when there is a will and need for change.
However I am only in control of parts of my own cost base and most of my costs of doing business have not reduced and some have even increased. Animal remedies and medicines comprise about thirty percent of my costs. The major medical wholesalers and manufacturers increased prices by between 4 and 8 percent in September/October '08 and have not reduced prices since. The markets two main specialist pet foods increased prices in October 08 and april 09 respectively and needless to say did not reduce prices as the economy further shrank into deflation this summer. Energy and communications costs are often cited as having fallen this year. In practice however I have found that the newer entrants to these markets tout for business with lower base charges but running charges will amount to about the same month by month- and I have tested this by moving my service around. Despite the ongoing lowerECB base interest rates, Bank overdraft rates and business charges remain punitive within the big two in the Irish bank market. Commercial rates have not reduced as budget-stressed local authorities seek revenue from the limited sources available. Many small businesses are simply unwilling to pay rates this year and will remain in arrears of rates, I predict into next year and the year after, as the rates bill joins a pile under a paper weight on the owner-manager's desk. My PRSI contributions have not reduced, neither has the rate of VAT I am required to pay and then pass on to my customers. Rents have reduced as the smaller commercial property owners have become increasingly anxious to keep their tenants- though unfortunately many retailers and other small business tenants are now falling behind in their rents, while in many sectors the concept of upward only rate review remains the norm. Rising waste disposal costs, implimentation of parking charges even in small towns, consistently high motor fuel costs, road toll costs and so on- these all form parts of the cost base of the Irish small business and can broadly be blamed on either the pressures of the macro-economy OR the pressures of government costs- boh of which are being brought to bear on the SME sector as externalities beyond our/my control.
In the macro- economy world business forces are governed by multinationals with revenues often in excess of a small country's GDP- these forces now must extract the penalty for share-holder driven growth strategy from wherever they can. In the case of our budget obsessed Irish government; government and public sector costs- driven up by years of appeasing unions amidst complacency about ongoing revenue- will be brought down by Bord Snip implimentations , but will be brought down slowly In the mean time small business have been targeted to foot the bill.
Recent media reports about the demise of "rip-off Ireland" may be greatly exaggerated. I believe balance within our economy cant be acheived until Banks, Government, Government employees, Trade Unions and Share-holder driven Big Business bring their own cost base and ransom-like tariffs into line with the new economic reality that small businesses envisage.
There is an appetite for change of the political landscape in Ireland and some debate on the need for a new radicalism in political thinking. I believe that radicalism needs to come from the centrist mindset of middle society. Those who believe in neo-liberalism but wont stand for free market control by the big business economics of the Thatcher, Reagan, Karl Rove/Bush tradition any longer. This is very much radicalism with a small r. I believe we must be very careful not to allow the debate for change to be ambushed by Left , or right, ideological forces who if allowed grow to become relevant could polarise the electoral process, create dysfunctional and paralysed coalition government and alienate much needed foreign investors. In the face of the body politic's poor handling of public relations, seeming imperviousness to the plight of indigenous small business, tardy decision making and those continued embarrassing revelations about expenses and God knows what else opportunists on the socialist fringe in particular now have the climate to thrive. But I believe as a small business owner and employer that their agenda for self-interest would prove as damaging as those big business forces now hoist by their own petard, though still looking for the rest of us to pay!
Des Groome.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Co-operative marketing; Helping those who help themselves.
Kildare Chamber of Commerce voucher book is a resounding local success. Participating Local businesses report increased footfall. Local consumers are enthusiastic about the novel offers available and the value they can now find for everything from Pizzas to PC Doctor to Pet Health.
Households can use up their voucher book over the coming months and develop the all important habit of visiting our vibrant service provider and small enterprise based town centre.
Kildare Chamber of Commerce will launch a new book in the autumn to create a pre-Christmas shopping lead-up in Kildare town and to help our members help customers by giving real LOCAL value for money.
The Co-op movement sustained a generation in rural Ireland in the past. Co-ops helped farmers sell their produce, helped creameries acheive the volume needed to compete with imported produce, gave a retail outlet to rural households.
Kildare Chamber of Commerces voucher scheme is not original , but it does represent a new form of Co-op movement. Co-operative marketing.
The next level of Co-operative marketing has also now arrived to Kildare. A group trading as www.iBuyVouchers.com has the potential to help further business growth and promote customer loyalty.
Signing your business up will place your discount offer on a database for anyone to print or download and avail of -as an incentive to become a customer or a visitor to your town. Credit card style loyalty cards will be sold for three euro in each ibuy participating business. The same card sold in each member business can be used in any other business listed with the ibuy network to avail of their special iBuy member only offer.
An iBuy card holder going on holiday to Galway could look up restaurants linked to the scheme and perhaps eat every night at a special offer price while on holidays.
An iBuy card holder visiting Kildare village or the National Stud could buy a new suit on Kildare 's market square, availing of an iBuy member card offer- and enjoy iBuy card holder benefits in one of Kildares feted hostelries before heading home after a successful day trip.
As Kildare Chamber Chairman I am encouraging all our business members to join this co-operative marketing network AND I encourage consumers and householders to pick up their iBuy 3euro Loyalty card today.
Schemes like this can harness the potential of the small local business sector to help each other.
This is the type of Grass-Roots empowerment that helped Ireland conquer economic, social and political deprivation many times before in our past and can equally see us through the trials of today.
Des Groome
Households can use up their voucher book over the coming months and develop the all important habit of visiting our vibrant service provider and small enterprise based town centre.
Kildare Chamber of Commerce will launch a new book in the autumn to create a pre-Christmas shopping lead-up in Kildare town and to help our members help customers by giving real LOCAL value for money.
The Co-op movement sustained a generation in rural Ireland in the past. Co-ops helped farmers sell their produce, helped creameries acheive the volume needed to compete with imported produce, gave a retail outlet to rural households.
Kildare Chamber of Commerces voucher scheme is not original , but it does represent a new form of Co-op movement. Co-operative marketing.
The next level of Co-operative marketing has also now arrived to Kildare. A group trading as www.iBuyVouchers.com has the potential to help further business growth and promote customer loyalty.
Signing your business up will place your discount offer on a database for anyone to print or download and avail of -as an incentive to become a customer or a visitor to your town. Credit card style loyalty cards will be sold for three euro in each ibuy participating business. The same card sold in each member business can be used in any other business listed with the ibuy network to avail of their special iBuy member only offer.
An iBuy card holder going on holiday to Galway could look up restaurants linked to the scheme and perhaps eat every night at a special offer price while on holidays.
An iBuy card holder visiting Kildare village or the National Stud could buy a new suit on Kildare 's market square, availing of an iBuy member card offer- and enjoy iBuy card holder benefits in one of Kildares feted hostelries before heading home after a successful day trip.
As Kildare Chamber Chairman I am encouraging all our business members to join this co-operative marketing network AND I encourage consumers and householders to pick up their iBuy 3euro Loyalty card today.
Schemes like this can harness the potential of the small local business sector to help each other.
This is the type of Grass-Roots empowerment that helped Ireland conquer economic, social and political deprivation many times before in our past and can equally see us through the trials of today.
Des Groome
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Those who will rebuild.
I gravitated towards an interesting looking character at a business function in Portlaoise recently. He was about my own age and wearing a good suit and tie in the manner of a man who does a days work for a living. I joked that we had the same tailor. He replied that it looked like we also shared a barber. Common ground quickly established, economics and politics- locally- we then explored at length. Fianna Fail were hammered in Portlaoise in the Locals; the state of the local small business sector is dire; Cowen was at an opening in the town recently and spoke well, impressed many and left a feeling of optimism in his wake- what the hell is going on up in hq Fianna Fail?- Why isnt he visible, involved, spreading that feeling nationally?. I have debated these and similiar questions, over a pint or at work or at cumann meeting, many times recently.
Guards and prison officers, civil servants and teachers, these are the voters who punished the local Fianna Fail councillors in Portlaoise, Newbridge, Naas, Athy, Tullamore and of course Dublin itself. The backbone of the country and the frontline workers of our social and public sector who must now take a cut to help correct the foolish inflationary spiral driven forward by a Public Private Partnership of one dimensional trade unionists and Politicians who learnt their economics on the election canvas in Clara and Clonliffe Road. The PPP with its annual increments served Begg, OConnor et al and which now can be shown to have done its beneficiaries a disservice.
My Portlaoise small businessman had a workforce of twenty in a small engineering works which served the building trade and grew to a fleet of 5 jeeps, with often several on-site projects, and two units in a business park noisy and busy for the last eight years. The owner himself, then managing and supervising relished an expanding universe and the opportunity afforded by the climate of the time. He told me with a smile that he is now back on the machines and enjoying it again. The forty year old midriff spread will soon be shed as all bar one jeep are handed back and the office chair wont be warmed as much in future. He was stung badly by a few builders and had to let most of the lads go, as the bank took his overdraft and put it on term loan. He wont let out as much credit in future and wont take on big staff numbers again unless the serious contracts reappear.
Morale is a vague concept. Some people need it to be given to them by some equally vague concept of leadership. Morale can be high or it can be poor. The National morale is now said to be Low. Myles Na gopaleen could have some fun now with his encyclopedia of cliches- The man whose morale was Low; The Man who said we needed Leadership.
What you dont hear now though is the real truth which is that ordinary people, not Leaders, not Obamas, just workers, make their own morale. The story you need to hear now is the story of the man who took off the suit and went back on the machines, or who left the office and got back on a digger or who went from the big auctioneering firm to the dole queue to learning to write software to designing websites.
Media can say what they like about leadership until it becomes a cliche in itself. In the upper corporate world, high performing companies are often said to have a culture of self- leadership.
The generations of Irish who escaped the dreary wet deprivations of their youth and emigrated to build better lives and contribute to other societies knew self- leadership. But they would have just called it survival.
A hero of my youth, an icon of eighties Ireland, Barry McGuigan is now bizarrely choreographing a reality boxing show. Ten middle class symbols of the Ahern era including actors, Tg 4 stars, a builder, A former GAA star, a comedian, are putting aside their comfortable success after an easy expansionist Ahern decade to be trained to leanness and to fight in a ring under McGuigans mentoring. McGuigan had an innocence. The innocence of the kid who took no credit for his own greatness was typical of the Ireland before Riverdance, of the Irish who had to take their own chances with a boat or a plane, and bears no resemblance to the urbane cosmopolitan, confident irish sportsman of today who Expects.
I think this incongruous mix of nostagia and grit is no accidental metaphor. I believe the generation now reeling a little and now holding the private sector together with their fingernails were reared lean and learnt to work hard. They took all the advantages of tax breaks and a perfect expansionist economic climate to create the Celtic Tiger, a cliche to burn now on a ceremonial bonfire of the celtic Vanities. I believe that now this generation, now barely forty perhaps have the best working years of their careers still ahead of them. This generation of men like me- and the ten gobshites on TV who McGuigan is going to train- to whom Barry McGuigan was a representative icon of Irish fighting spirit in the face of social, political and economic adversity in the late eighties. A generation who will make their own morale and provide their own leadership are once again fit and ready to start at their beginnings. Ready to rebuild.
Eye of the Tiger!
Des Groome
Guards and prison officers, civil servants and teachers, these are the voters who punished the local Fianna Fail councillors in Portlaoise, Newbridge, Naas, Athy, Tullamore and of course Dublin itself. The backbone of the country and the frontline workers of our social and public sector who must now take a cut to help correct the foolish inflationary spiral driven forward by a Public Private Partnership of one dimensional trade unionists and Politicians who learnt their economics on the election canvas in Clara and Clonliffe Road. The PPP with its annual increments served Begg, OConnor et al and which now can be shown to have done its beneficiaries a disservice.
My Portlaoise small businessman had a workforce of twenty in a small engineering works which served the building trade and grew to a fleet of 5 jeeps, with often several on-site projects, and two units in a business park noisy and busy for the last eight years. The owner himself, then managing and supervising relished an expanding universe and the opportunity afforded by the climate of the time. He told me with a smile that he is now back on the machines and enjoying it again. The forty year old midriff spread will soon be shed as all bar one jeep are handed back and the office chair wont be warmed as much in future. He was stung badly by a few builders and had to let most of the lads go, as the bank took his overdraft and put it on term loan. He wont let out as much credit in future and wont take on big staff numbers again unless the serious contracts reappear.
Morale is a vague concept. Some people need it to be given to them by some equally vague concept of leadership. Morale can be high or it can be poor. The National morale is now said to be Low. Myles Na gopaleen could have some fun now with his encyclopedia of cliches- The man whose morale was Low; The Man who said we needed Leadership.
What you dont hear now though is the real truth which is that ordinary people, not Leaders, not Obamas, just workers, make their own morale. The story you need to hear now is the story of the man who took off the suit and went back on the machines, or who left the office and got back on a digger or who went from the big auctioneering firm to the dole queue to learning to write software to designing websites.
Media can say what they like about leadership until it becomes a cliche in itself. In the upper corporate world, high performing companies are often said to have a culture of self- leadership.
The generations of Irish who escaped the dreary wet deprivations of their youth and emigrated to build better lives and contribute to other societies knew self- leadership. But they would have just called it survival.
A hero of my youth, an icon of eighties Ireland, Barry McGuigan is now bizarrely choreographing a reality boxing show. Ten middle class symbols of the Ahern era including actors, Tg 4 stars, a builder, A former GAA star, a comedian, are putting aside their comfortable success after an easy expansionist Ahern decade to be trained to leanness and to fight in a ring under McGuigans mentoring. McGuigan had an innocence. The innocence of the kid who took no credit for his own greatness was typical of the Ireland before Riverdance, of the Irish who had to take their own chances with a boat or a plane, and bears no resemblance to the urbane cosmopolitan, confident irish sportsman of today who Expects.
I think this incongruous mix of nostagia and grit is no accidental metaphor. I believe the generation now reeling a little and now holding the private sector together with their fingernails were reared lean and learnt to work hard. They took all the advantages of tax breaks and a perfect expansionist economic climate to create the Celtic Tiger, a cliche to burn now on a ceremonial bonfire of the celtic Vanities. I believe that now this generation, now barely forty perhaps have the best working years of their careers still ahead of them. This generation of men like me- and the ten gobshites on TV who McGuigan is going to train- to whom Barry McGuigan was a representative icon of Irish fighting spirit in the face of social, political and economic adversity in the late eighties. A generation who will make their own morale and provide their own leadership are once again fit and ready to start at their beginnings. Ready to rebuild.
Eye of the Tiger!
Des Groome
Monday, July 20, 2009
Stand and be counted- YOUR EURO COUNTS
The flow of money into and around- and out of- the Irish economy for the last decade can be likened to the flow of liquid life aid from an out of control hydrant on a hot day. An abundance of cash overflowing, much of it wastefully, on streets awash with foreign credit. Abruptly the tap has been turned off now for about 12 months. The private sector exists on a slow drip.
The public sector, government included, have been slow to feel the drought.Perhaps they have been able to keep their own sprinklers switched on and exist in a pampered mindset, oblivious to the lack of cash flow in the new economic reality the rest of us have to do business in.
I have launched a voucher campaign to promote local shopping in Kildare town as part of my chairmanship of the chamber of commerce. It is a two sided argument; The retailer and small business is encouraged to give REAL value to consumers_ rip off Ireland is dead and gone!-
and the consumer/household shopper is asked to remember that SMEs CAN compete with big outlets in many ways , and remember that small towns need small business at their vibrant centres, small businesses that we all have a duty to support.
Groome PETVETS answer to this movement has been to reduce prices of many key services to 2005 prices- a bitch spay now reduced to 120 euro. Consult fee now down to 38 euro.
Old Age Pensioners are the back bone of our nation.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays we give ONE THIRD off all Vet services to OAPs.
Community values, local solidarity, value for money, self-help.
These are the principles on which we can rebuild our country.
The so-called boom should have been switched off and some costs controlled for the cash drought we now have . There is a feeling of loss and of waste.
The loss of prosperity will be only temporary.
Lets see what values we can refind on the journey forward again.
Des Groome.
The public sector, government included, have been slow to feel the drought.Perhaps they have been able to keep their own sprinklers switched on and exist in a pampered mindset, oblivious to the lack of cash flow in the new economic reality the rest of us have to do business in.
I have launched a voucher campaign to promote local shopping in Kildare town as part of my chairmanship of the chamber of commerce. It is a two sided argument; The retailer and small business is encouraged to give REAL value to consumers_ rip off Ireland is dead and gone!-
and the consumer/household shopper is asked to remember that SMEs CAN compete with big outlets in many ways , and remember that small towns need small business at their vibrant centres, small businesses that we all have a duty to support.
Groome PETVETS answer to this movement has been to reduce prices of many key services to 2005 prices- a bitch spay now reduced to 120 euro. Consult fee now down to 38 euro.
Old Age Pensioners are the back bone of our nation.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays we give ONE THIRD off all Vet services to OAPs.
Community values, local solidarity, value for money, self-help.
These are the principles on which we can rebuild our country.
The so-called boom should have been switched off and some costs controlled for the cash drought we now have . There is a feeling of loss and of waste.
The loss of prosperity will be only temporary.
Lets see what values we can refind on the journey forward again.
Des Groome.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
"Beginning to Engage"- The complacency of the mediocre.
My family have had a long dark fortnight. We knew it was coming and the outcome thank God has been a good one but an emotional numbness remains. Now that James is home from Crumlin we can sleep in our own beds, pay attention to our other children, nurse him in the comfort of our own home and gain relief from knowing that his surgery has been a succcess, a hurdle has been crossed, the spectre of fear of tragedy has passed. But it is hard to write about, and speak about, and the experience is still chest-tightening to think about, and doesnt yet feel much like relief. When JK Rowling conceived the spectre of the Dementors in her Harry Potter Saga she could have drawn on the living grief and the empty fear of parents of desperately -ill children. Parents who have no power but to hope, who are often too angry to pray. To parent a child through pain you cant control or through awful invasive heart surgery in which you must have faith is to be touched by a Dementor, to inhale the stress, to be drained flat and cold. You inhale all that into your chest and then take another deep breath to find the strength to be a parent, to make your child trust, believe and heal.
Just after James surgery when he was still in intensive care I answered an invitation from Kildare Souths conscientious TD Sean OFearghail to attend his committees grilling of Professor Drumm of the HSE. The timing was bad but I went to try to get a flavour of this man presiding over the vast and inert human pyramid we call a health service. The committee itself had called this man to make sense of why, without any political compunction, Crumlin hospital had cut back essential services, closed operating theatres, and launched a war of words with Drumm at the first hint of coercion to reduce costs. The background story we have all heard is of a 9m euro deficit which the HSE has forced Crumlin to live with in 2009. The real story however, according to Drumm, is that Crumlin over-spent by 9m in 2008 and have simply been told by the HSE not to do so in 2009 as this year "we wont have the 9million to give you". Now even to me as a parent that sounded reasonable if indeed the money wasnt all wisely spent or if good efficiencies could be found without care being compromised. OFearghail himself put it succinctly and fairly " We are asking the hospital managers to manage this hospital and find efficiencies without sacrificing front line services". OFearghail is one of the good guys. I am in agreement with him in putting it up to managers to fulfill their job descriptions and manage costs- including their own cost.
Drumm made three good points that the entire panel of cross party TDs found agreement with; He wanted Crumlin to pool their blood costs and needs with St James'; He wanted them to raise an extra 12million a year by billing their private patients more accurately; He wanted them to cut their payroll by 3% as they pay the highest rate and proportion of over-time of any hospital.
These three requests the board of Crumlin have failed to do but have cynically reacted in a war of PR with the HSE by closing a theatre and wards. On these three simple cost efficiencies Drumm is right and the board of Crumlin plainly are remiss in a city full of hospitals and full of wateful duplication of service in some areas ( for example we have 3 childrens A and E in one city ) and only 80% use of beds in some parts of Crumlin while children from Temple street hospital wait often in over-crowded adult wards.
But there are disturbing mediocrities emerging about Drumms role also; Questioned at length by OFearghail and his committee about who calls the shots-or are the HSE just observers ?.. Drumm procrastinated, prevaricated, " Crumlin havent agreed how to cut the costs" ..." I have asked Crumlin for full support for a Cross-clinic approach"..." Paediatrics needs a leader as oncology has made great strides with its new clinical leader"... On more than one occasion in the debate Drumm acknowledged difficulties in getting the hospital board to his view point but used the phrase" we are beginning to engage". How many years into Drumms job has it taken him to get the hospital boards to begin to engage...
TDs challenged Drumm about a credibility gap between what Crumlin had told O Fearghail,s committee and what Drumm was saying. He did acknowledge this credibility gap and explained the difficulties in terms that would be clear to students of organisational behaviour in any business school; Drumms hands are tied by human resource management issues, by resistance to change, by his failure to acheive involvement in his vision for the future of health care.
The answers to me are not crystal clear or neatly aligned into a strategic change management ladder towards a wonderful dynamic future for our HSE. But there are some things clear to me- Drumm is a poor communicator and lacks the courage to execute real change.
His vision - and it is also Harneys vision- is the wrong one, as why otherwise would opposition to it be so intense and widespread. His exasperation with the unions, the work practices of hospitals, his veiled criticism of boards he is only now beginning to engage with; these are the flaws of a man who is not a leader or a lateral thinker, who should be still treating patients- not trying to focus a big picture which to him plainly still remains a jigsaw in pieces.
To put one final fact to the philosophy, to put this in context. Crumlins wage bill is 74 % of its entire budget. I dont know of one business sector that could be viable with that cost ratio for labour. Childrens health care doesnt need to be compromised. Does this issue like so many others arrive back at the need for unions, for people, to be realistic about how money should be spent and what the rest of us are able to pay for.
Just after James surgery when he was still in intensive care I answered an invitation from Kildare Souths conscientious TD Sean OFearghail to attend his committees grilling of Professor Drumm of the HSE. The timing was bad but I went to try to get a flavour of this man presiding over the vast and inert human pyramid we call a health service. The committee itself had called this man to make sense of why, without any political compunction, Crumlin hospital had cut back essential services, closed operating theatres, and launched a war of words with Drumm at the first hint of coercion to reduce costs. The background story we have all heard is of a 9m euro deficit which the HSE has forced Crumlin to live with in 2009. The real story however, according to Drumm, is that Crumlin over-spent by 9m in 2008 and have simply been told by the HSE not to do so in 2009 as this year "we wont have the 9million to give you". Now even to me as a parent that sounded reasonable if indeed the money wasnt all wisely spent or if good efficiencies could be found without care being compromised. OFearghail himself put it succinctly and fairly " We are asking the hospital managers to manage this hospital and find efficiencies without sacrificing front line services". OFearghail is one of the good guys. I am in agreement with him in putting it up to managers to fulfill their job descriptions and manage costs- including their own cost.
Drumm made three good points that the entire panel of cross party TDs found agreement with; He wanted Crumlin to pool their blood costs and needs with St James'; He wanted them to raise an extra 12million a year by billing their private patients more accurately; He wanted them to cut their payroll by 3% as they pay the highest rate and proportion of over-time of any hospital.
These three requests the board of Crumlin have failed to do but have cynically reacted in a war of PR with the HSE by closing a theatre and wards. On these three simple cost efficiencies Drumm is right and the board of Crumlin plainly are remiss in a city full of hospitals and full of wateful duplication of service in some areas ( for example we have 3 childrens A and E in one city ) and only 80% use of beds in some parts of Crumlin while children from Temple street hospital wait often in over-crowded adult wards.
But there are disturbing mediocrities emerging about Drumms role also; Questioned at length by OFearghail and his committee about who calls the shots-or are the HSE just observers ?.. Drumm procrastinated, prevaricated, " Crumlin havent agreed how to cut the costs" ..." I have asked Crumlin for full support for a Cross-clinic approach"..." Paediatrics needs a leader as oncology has made great strides with its new clinical leader"... On more than one occasion in the debate Drumm acknowledged difficulties in getting the hospital board to his view point but used the phrase" we are beginning to engage". How many years into Drumms job has it taken him to get the hospital boards to begin to engage...
TDs challenged Drumm about a credibility gap between what Crumlin had told O Fearghail,s committee and what Drumm was saying. He did acknowledge this credibility gap and explained the difficulties in terms that would be clear to students of organisational behaviour in any business school; Drumms hands are tied by human resource management issues, by resistance to change, by his failure to acheive involvement in his vision for the future of health care.
The answers to me are not crystal clear or neatly aligned into a strategic change management ladder towards a wonderful dynamic future for our HSE. But there are some things clear to me- Drumm is a poor communicator and lacks the courage to execute real change.
His vision - and it is also Harneys vision- is the wrong one, as why otherwise would opposition to it be so intense and widespread. His exasperation with the unions, the work practices of hospitals, his veiled criticism of boards he is only now beginning to engage with; these are the flaws of a man who is not a leader or a lateral thinker, who should be still treating patients- not trying to focus a big picture which to him plainly still remains a jigsaw in pieces.
To put one final fact to the philosophy, to put this in context. Crumlins wage bill is 74 % of its entire budget. I dont know of one business sector that could be viable with that cost ratio for labour. Childrens health care doesnt need to be compromised. Does this issue like so many others arrive back at the need for unions, for people, to be realistic about how money should be spent and what the rest of us are able to pay for.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
All Gods Creatures got a place in the Choir..
Irelands media reverberate now in july 2009 with a cacophony of political dissent. Some criticisms against our political decision-makers are justified and are constructive. The rising cries to reduce salaries of high ranking civil servants, to tax the judiciary in line with the citizenry, to reform the public sector- these voices must be heard and change must sooner happen. Dissonant notes of self-interest from unions, from banking groups, from the construction sector-those voices must be faced down in the long term interest of an equitable society. Fianna Fails leadership must face these groups and face the decisions which have to be made if necessary against groups who have even donated heavily to these same politicians. Perhaps therein lies the difficulty, but if Cowens government can deconstruct the legacy of Bertie Aherns misguided, if well meaning, social partnership annual giveaways and the contradictory Reagonomic tax regime, then this government could move Fianna Fail back to its ideological base as a centrist party of the " Plain people of Ireland". I say this as a committed member of Fianna Fail and acknowledge that the plain people of Ireland are now a sophisticated and discerning society who should be addressed as such. I also however ask this same society to acknowledge that these past Fianna Fail governments main sins were of creating a wastage culture and of giving too much. A wastage culture therefore that we all must partake in amending.
Most of our media commentators flaunt an agenda of blame. While the three horsemen of the apocolypse- MacWilliams, Hobbs and Lee- persist with an easy to be wise after the event refrain of "I told you so".
Yesterdays Irish Times ran a heart warming story of political inclusiveness. Against the dissonant choir of the day this was a simple tale of enhanced engagement in the political process. A recently elected Fine Gael Councillor from Bagenalstown had a series of clashes in public with a political rival. Councillor Bambrick has reason to agree that politics may indeed be a dog eat dog business. His political jousts with one Larry Byrne were however a horse of a different colour involving a dog of decidedly Blue Shirt allegiance. Byrne was cited in court for disturbance of Cllr Bambrick by loudly ordering his dog not to approach, but " to come away from that or you will be contaminated" . In his defence Byrne stated that he had merely warned his dog to avoid the greasy poo on the grass. I am reminded of Disraelis famous entreaty to avoid the greasy pole of politics- sage advice to man or beast.
Judge Harnett of Bagenalstown district court entered into the spirit of multi-species political inclusiveness towards the cause of mammalian suffrage by declaring that he was sure this canine was " undoubtedly a Fine Gael dog". Equally magnanimously both judge and Gardai agreed "it wouldnt be necessary to call the hound as a witness".
By way of setting legal precedent Judge Harnett ruled that second hand ( or second paw) commentary through the intermediary of a canine could not legally be construed as insult to any third party.
Presumably Byrne and Bambrick were given paws for thought as they left the court with Bambrick bound - or was it boned- to the peace for a year.
Most of our media commentators flaunt an agenda of blame. While the three horsemen of the apocolypse- MacWilliams, Hobbs and Lee- persist with an easy to be wise after the event refrain of "I told you so".
Yesterdays Irish Times ran a heart warming story of political inclusiveness. Against the dissonant choir of the day this was a simple tale of enhanced engagement in the political process. A recently elected Fine Gael Councillor from Bagenalstown had a series of clashes in public with a political rival. Councillor Bambrick has reason to agree that politics may indeed be a dog eat dog business. His political jousts with one Larry Byrne were however a horse of a different colour involving a dog of decidedly Blue Shirt allegiance. Byrne was cited in court for disturbance of Cllr Bambrick by loudly ordering his dog not to approach, but " to come away from that or you will be contaminated" . In his defence Byrne stated that he had merely warned his dog to avoid the greasy poo on the grass. I am reminded of Disraelis famous entreaty to avoid the greasy pole of politics- sage advice to man or beast.
Judge Harnett of Bagenalstown district court entered into the spirit of multi-species political inclusiveness towards the cause of mammalian suffrage by declaring that he was sure this canine was " undoubtedly a Fine Gael dog". Equally magnanimously both judge and Gardai agreed "it wouldnt be necessary to call the hound as a witness".
By way of setting legal precedent Judge Harnett ruled that second hand ( or second paw) commentary through the intermediary of a canine could not legally be construed as insult to any third party.
Presumably Byrne and Bambrick were given paws for thought as they left the court with Bambrick bound - or was it boned- to the peace for a year.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
OAP Tuesday - and WEDNESDAY!
My father lived life to the full, lived it at a pace few would keep up with and lived a life less ordinary. But he was a man of his time and those who grew up in fifties Ireland and worked through seventies and eighties Ireland did see it all. He would have valuable advise for young families and business people in an Ireland that has changed a lot but is now affected by economic and international forces that we have been through before.
Dad emigrated to England as a young dentist and came back with my mother and a young family to Carbury in north Kildare to farm and set up his practice. His passion for horses led him to race ride until he was 45 years old. He rode at the Cheltenham festival on a mare he broke, owned and trained at the age of 43. My sisters and I had a rural childhood of freedom, fresh air, hard work, surrounded by cattle, dogs and ponies. My father began his day on the farm, then donned a suit and put in 8 hours in his dental surgery in Edenderry, then fed cattle and horses and walked his fields until dark, usually with me, the boy, by his side.
The advices that resonate every day, of hard work, of fair play, honesty, independence, have stood me in good stead. We took risks and chances, both he and I, in business and in life - with crazy horses on the racetrack and optimistic enterprises to remind ourselves that every failed plan or tumble at the last is just another lesson learnt. The voice that goes on in my head in every day dealings, to walk away, to hold counsel, to keep the cheque book closed or to speak out and support what feels right- that voice is his.
I remember two pieces of advice about business. The first was never to trust a Bank or let them control your affairs. The second was never to owe what you cant easily pay back.
I would say its a bit late to be giving some people those pieces of advice. The next thing he'd say would be - dont let the banks bully you when you are in trouble!- paay them back a bit and dont panic them by telling them too much!
I mention these sayings of his in tongue in cheek fashion as the reality of todays business climate for the SME sector is grim- as grim as the late seventies perhaps. My chairmanship of Kildare Chamber of Commerce has put me in touch with businesses staying open only by will power.
But will power is a much under estimated asset.
If Dad was around he would be just 66. He passed away on a sunny morning up on the Curragh on horse back on the gallops. I cant picture him as an OAP. But I do know that people like him lived with 50 % income tax and 17 % interest rates and worked through that to educate the generation here now and build the nation we have, such as it is, warts and all.
Groome Pet Vets now give OAPs one third off all Vet services on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
If you are an OAP- you know thats the least you deserve!
Des Groome.
Dad emigrated to England as a young dentist and came back with my mother and a young family to Carbury in north Kildare to farm and set up his practice. His passion for horses led him to race ride until he was 45 years old. He rode at the Cheltenham festival on a mare he broke, owned and trained at the age of 43. My sisters and I had a rural childhood of freedom, fresh air, hard work, surrounded by cattle, dogs and ponies. My father began his day on the farm, then donned a suit and put in 8 hours in his dental surgery in Edenderry, then fed cattle and horses and walked his fields until dark, usually with me, the boy, by his side.
The advices that resonate every day, of hard work, of fair play, honesty, independence, have stood me in good stead. We took risks and chances, both he and I, in business and in life - with crazy horses on the racetrack and optimistic enterprises to remind ourselves that every failed plan or tumble at the last is just another lesson learnt. The voice that goes on in my head in every day dealings, to walk away, to hold counsel, to keep the cheque book closed or to speak out and support what feels right- that voice is his.
I remember two pieces of advice about business. The first was never to trust a Bank or let them control your affairs. The second was never to owe what you cant easily pay back.
I would say its a bit late to be giving some people those pieces of advice. The next thing he'd say would be - dont let the banks bully you when you are in trouble!- paay them back a bit and dont panic them by telling them too much!
I mention these sayings of his in tongue in cheek fashion as the reality of todays business climate for the SME sector is grim- as grim as the late seventies perhaps. My chairmanship of Kildare Chamber of Commerce has put me in touch with businesses staying open only by will power.
But will power is a much under estimated asset.
If Dad was around he would be just 66. He passed away on a sunny morning up on the Curragh on horse back on the gallops. I cant picture him as an OAP. But I do know that people like him lived with 50 % income tax and 17 % interest rates and worked through that to educate the generation here now and build the nation we have, such as it is, warts and all.
Groome Pet Vets now give OAPs one third off all Vet services on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
If you are an OAP- you know thats the least you deserve!
Des Groome.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Canine casualties of the property bubble...
We have a client in one of our clinics who shall remain unnamed in todays monologue. A big brash builders foreman who earned his first weeks wage under the benevolent conciliatory largesse of Ahern and who has now joined his first dole queue during the chilly and pragmatic stewardship of Cowen. In keeping with the time He collected four or five beautiful big pedigree dogs, rottweillars mostly. For good measure when the new house was built and fenced off he added three or four ponies until the healthy growing menagerie began to create healthy growing Vets bills. Wisely, an insurance policy was taken out for each dog so that the monthly premium to Allianz replaced the unexpected.
Pet Plan are a subsidiary of allianz Insurance Company who have the Pet Insurance market more or less to themselves. It is a problematic business. Insuring horses is a minefield as Irelands army of canny horse dealers would out smart and bankrupt any insurance company. Insuring pets is also not without risks as pur bred blue blood canines have their breed specific congenital defects which can be troublesome and expensive to treat. In fact some of these defects can be so wide spread ,such as hip dysplasia in the German Shepherd and Entropion in the Sharpei, that insurers request extensive examinations before accepting a dog or will simply insist on an exclusion clause in the policy for certain defects or conditions.
Our hero's first few years as a pet owner were uneventful as his pride of rottweillars grew as healthily as his bank balance. The new house was sold for one of those improbable sums of the halcyon peak era and a newer and bigger one with more room for dogs and ponies built next door. We didnt see our hero very often in the clinic but I made the occasional house call to the ponies and would often note that the wad I was paid from was matched only by the size of the newest tattoo on the arm.
Until last week, when he reappeared with a rottweilar I hadnt seen in a few years which now had a severe hind limb lameness. We admitted Jake, a 4 year old 52 kg male rotti, for sedation, examination and x-rays. A diagnosis of rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the stifle was made after the " draw test"- a type of manipulation of the stifle joint and a tell tale sign for cruciate injury.
Repair of this condition is by a surgical repair using a prolene ( a form of nylon) replacement for the torn ligament. The tricky procedure is then followed by lengthy rest, physio and then controlled exercise to test the new ligament. Surgery in a dog like Jake would be a three hour affair involving two Vets, two Nurses, numerous X-rays. Jake would stay with us for perhaps three days and need the best antibiotics available to us for up to ten days afterwards.
We gave a quote for Jakes total Veterinary work as an estimate of 750-950 euro; The final figure would depend on soreness/swelling post-surgery etc.
The owners bellow of anguish seemed out of character and a far cry from his ebullient old self.
I reassured him that Jakes insurance would probably cover this and went to make a call to Allianz only to be told that our hero had let the insurance lapse as the bills had only ever been in the region of 60 to 100 euro before and it had seemed a waste to be paying out for insurance...
Des Groome.
Pet Plan are a subsidiary of allianz Insurance Company who have the Pet Insurance market more or less to themselves. It is a problematic business. Insuring horses is a minefield as Irelands army of canny horse dealers would out smart and bankrupt any insurance company. Insuring pets is also not without risks as pur bred blue blood canines have their breed specific congenital defects which can be troublesome and expensive to treat. In fact some of these defects can be so wide spread ,such as hip dysplasia in the German Shepherd and Entropion in the Sharpei, that insurers request extensive examinations before accepting a dog or will simply insist on an exclusion clause in the policy for certain defects or conditions.
Our hero's first few years as a pet owner were uneventful as his pride of rottweillars grew as healthily as his bank balance. The new house was sold for one of those improbable sums of the halcyon peak era and a newer and bigger one with more room for dogs and ponies built next door. We didnt see our hero very often in the clinic but I made the occasional house call to the ponies and would often note that the wad I was paid from was matched only by the size of the newest tattoo on the arm.
Until last week, when he reappeared with a rottweilar I hadnt seen in a few years which now had a severe hind limb lameness. We admitted Jake, a 4 year old 52 kg male rotti, for sedation, examination and x-rays. A diagnosis of rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the stifle was made after the " draw test"- a type of manipulation of the stifle joint and a tell tale sign for cruciate injury.
Repair of this condition is by a surgical repair using a prolene ( a form of nylon) replacement for the torn ligament. The tricky procedure is then followed by lengthy rest, physio and then controlled exercise to test the new ligament. Surgery in a dog like Jake would be a three hour affair involving two Vets, two Nurses, numerous X-rays. Jake would stay with us for perhaps three days and need the best antibiotics available to us for up to ten days afterwards.
We gave a quote for Jakes total Veterinary work as an estimate of 750-950 euro; The final figure would depend on soreness/swelling post-surgery etc.
The owners bellow of anguish seemed out of character and a far cry from his ebullient old self.
I reassured him that Jakes insurance would probably cover this and went to make a call to Allianz only to be told that our hero had let the insurance lapse as the bills had only ever been in the region of 60 to 100 euro before and it had seemed a waste to be paying out for insurance...
Des Groome.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Web of inclusion - or circus of confusion.
Sally Helgesen ,a US writer, in her book "The web of inclusion" described how a revolutionary way to organise work in the famous Beth Israel New York Hospital created a new philosophy of patient care and became a world wide movement. Breathtakingly simple, the new system assigned a single senior nurse, known as the primary carer, to each patient. This nurse would manage that patients hospital stay by forming a care team made up of everyone from housekeeping to Laundry, junior Doctor and Senior Consultant. The care team consult as one on the patients therapy or surgery with each part of the hospital chain connected together. Helgesen likened the system to a spiders web where the beauty of the whole structure depends on the links between each part. The benefits of Primary Care Nursing as this is now known are many; Trainees learn by involvement, Domestic staff develop pride in their work, The Primary Care Nurse bonds with the patient- and Consultants practice humility because, uniquely, they have to consult. The patient is treated as customer, guest, client and centre of attention. The model has been adopted by commercially focussed hospitals and those with a patient-centred ethos the world over.
Earlier this week I attended Blanchardstown Hospital to have an arthritic joint (a recent running injury to my right foot) injected. My appointment was for 7.30 am. I presented myself on time, filled in a number of forms and handed over my health insurance card to the consultants secretary. Some eight to ten others assembled simultaneously, likewise answering a 7.30 appointment, without any particular order to proceedings. I was called into a day ward after only a few minutes, given a cubicle and the usual flimsy backless gown, and told to undress and put this on. I mentioned that my big toe would be the consultants only focus today, hence there was hardly any need to undress, but was told by the senior nurse " It doesnt matter, its procedure". I was then asked to put my shoes back on and go to X-ray. I pointed out that my boots were painful to put on and take off and in any case the foot itself was the point of X-ray. The answer to this was " sorry, health and safety".
After the X-ray was taken I returned to this day ward clutching the film of my painful big toe. I had not by this stage seen my consultant or been given any indicator of when I would get my injection -a ten minute simple procedure in itself- so I mentioned to the nurse who appeared to be " in charge" that I had an equally important 12 o clock appointment with another consultant in St James hospital. A rare abundance of medical attention for me I can assure you, but an appointment I had waited for and would have to wait two months for again. I was reassured that I would be out by 11 and settled down to wait for the big toe man to call me.
Some two and a half hours later, at half past ten, this nurse reappeared apologetically to say I would have about another half hour wait and might need to cancel my other appointment. I considered my options for a few minutes and then reluctantly rang James' to explain my predicament. A very understanding receptionist promised to reschedule me, albeit to some time next month. Again I settled down to wait.
At five past twelve I rang my own receptionist to make other plans. My own efficient lady rang me back to say an orthopedic man in Clane would see me at half twelve next day. So I got dressed. At the ward desk I asked for my X-ray back and stated I couldnt wait any longer.
To the senior nurse who appeared gob-smacked I said " I am afraid this is probably one of the reasons why the public have lost faith in the HSE". A Student Nurse from meath whose dad was a farmer had chatted to me earlier about Aberdeen Angus cattle and Meath GAA while she brought me down to x-ray.I thanked her and said " Niamh, this is called voting with your feet- Some day I may be so sick that I have no choice but to put up with this ; but today I have a choice so I am not going to be treated like this and then pay out my own good money to the man".
As I limped out onto the corridor I got a surprise as the embarrassed consultant himself came out of a theatre door after me. He apologised for the delay with a defence that he had got bogged down in a surgery and hadnt been drinking tea in there.. I said, look, there is no argument, you are busy but so am I - I was here at 7.30 for a small procedure, it is not acceptable to have to wait five hours without warning, you cant treat people like that any more.
He was also told how disorganised the place was and how disrespectful it is to herd in your whole day list at 7.30 am with no order or communication- and in an off-hand manner to force me to miss another important medical appointment for no good reason.
He did apologise again profusely but in reality the loss of a private patient was likely the only thing to exercise him to rush into the corridor after me.
When Kildare Vet Surgery was built in 2004 it was built at cost to one person-me- to provide a service to animal owners, to work to a high standard, to become a local asset and social benefit, to raise the level of animal care in Kildare to a new level- and to be a commercial success.
We work to a mission statement - Aiming to provide excellence in Veterinary when you need it near you.
This mission statement is client-centred. Our success and survival depends on attention to customers. Excellence in Veterinary is something we strive for as we deliver the services the market demands.
If a client or their pet are unhappy with us in any way we can and must be told - and if we are not responsive to customers needs or wants then we dont have the right to that customers business.
Questions arise from that trip to Blanchardstown- Did the Nurses even bother to tell the consultant I needed to be out by 11? Did they place any value on my time and the wasting of my time? Did that consultant ever have to bother before about disrespecting a private patient or any patient?
Plainly they have a culture/ethos/policy of not treating patients like customers.
In fact they barely treat their patients as adult human beings as far as I could see.
If the HSE in Ireland or even just Blanchardstown Hospital were to adopt a client-centred policy, as Vets like myself who have to make a living adopt client-centred aims, it would have to be called patient-centred and would use many of the strategies of the Primary Care Nursing movement.
For this to happen, many more paying customers like myself will have to vote with their feet, will have to get up and walk out and will have to calmly face to face with these senior Nurses and Consultants say- I will not be treated like this and disrespected by you and your flawed system and your archaic hierarchy.
Des Groome
Earlier this week I attended Blanchardstown Hospital to have an arthritic joint (a recent running injury to my right foot) injected. My appointment was for 7.30 am. I presented myself on time, filled in a number of forms and handed over my health insurance card to the consultants secretary. Some eight to ten others assembled simultaneously, likewise answering a 7.30 appointment, without any particular order to proceedings. I was called into a day ward after only a few minutes, given a cubicle and the usual flimsy backless gown, and told to undress and put this on. I mentioned that my big toe would be the consultants only focus today, hence there was hardly any need to undress, but was told by the senior nurse " It doesnt matter, its procedure". I was then asked to put my shoes back on and go to X-ray. I pointed out that my boots were painful to put on and take off and in any case the foot itself was the point of X-ray. The answer to this was " sorry, health and safety".
After the X-ray was taken I returned to this day ward clutching the film of my painful big toe. I had not by this stage seen my consultant or been given any indicator of when I would get my injection -a ten minute simple procedure in itself- so I mentioned to the nurse who appeared to be " in charge" that I had an equally important 12 o clock appointment with another consultant in St James hospital. A rare abundance of medical attention for me I can assure you, but an appointment I had waited for and would have to wait two months for again. I was reassured that I would be out by 11 and settled down to wait for the big toe man to call me.
Some two and a half hours later, at half past ten, this nurse reappeared apologetically to say I would have about another half hour wait and might need to cancel my other appointment. I considered my options for a few minutes and then reluctantly rang James' to explain my predicament. A very understanding receptionist promised to reschedule me, albeit to some time next month. Again I settled down to wait.
At five past twelve I rang my own receptionist to make other plans. My own efficient lady rang me back to say an orthopedic man in Clane would see me at half twelve next day. So I got dressed. At the ward desk I asked for my X-ray back and stated I couldnt wait any longer.
To the senior nurse who appeared gob-smacked I said " I am afraid this is probably one of the reasons why the public have lost faith in the HSE". A Student Nurse from meath whose dad was a farmer had chatted to me earlier about Aberdeen Angus cattle and Meath GAA while she brought me down to x-ray.I thanked her and said " Niamh, this is called voting with your feet- Some day I may be so sick that I have no choice but to put up with this ; but today I have a choice so I am not going to be treated like this and then pay out my own good money to the man".
As I limped out onto the corridor I got a surprise as the embarrassed consultant himself came out of a theatre door after me. He apologised for the delay with a defence that he had got bogged down in a surgery and hadnt been drinking tea in there.. I said, look, there is no argument, you are busy but so am I - I was here at 7.30 for a small procedure, it is not acceptable to have to wait five hours without warning, you cant treat people like that any more.
He was also told how disorganised the place was and how disrespectful it is to herd in your whole day list at 7.30 am with no order or communication- and in an off-hand manner to force me to miss another important medical appointment for no good reason.
He did apologise again profusely but in reality the loss of a private patient was likely the only thing to exercise him to rush into the corridor after me.
When Kildare Vet Surgery was built in 2004 it was built at cost to one person-me- to provide a service to animal owners, to work to a high standard, to become a local asset and social benefit, to raise the level of animal care in Kildare to a new level- and to be a commercial success.
We work to a mission statement - Aiming to provide excellence in Veterinary when you need it near you.
This mission statement is client-centred. Our success and survival depends on attention to customers. Excellence in Veterinary is something we strive for as we deliver the services the market demands.
If a client or their pet are unhappy with us in any way we can and must be told - and if we are not responsive to customers needs or wants then we dont have the right to that customers business.
Questions arise from that trip to Blanchardstown- Did the Nurses even bother to tell the consultant I needed to be out by 11? Did they place any value on my time and the wasting of my time? Did that consultant ever have to bother before about disrespecting a private patient or any patient?
Plainly they have a culture/ethos/policy of not treating patients like customers.
In fact they barely treat their patients as adult human beings as far as I could see.
If the HSE in Ireland or even just Blanchardstown Hospital were to adopt a client-centred policy, as Vets like myself who have to make a living adopt client-centred aims, it would have to be called patient-centred and would use many of the strategies of the Primary Care Nursing movement.
For this to happen, many more paying customers like myself will have to vote with their feet, will have to get up and walk out and will have to calmly face to face with these senior Nurses and Consultants say- I will not be treated like this and disrespected by you and your flawed system and your archaic hierarchy.
Des Groome
Sunday, May 31, 2009
It shouldnt happen to a Vet!
The iconic Yorkshire Veterinary Surgeon James Herriott has a lot to answer for- certainly amongst my generation of Vets. The BBC tv show "all creatures great and small " of the early eighties ran for years and was a dramatisation of Herriotts series of books about his adventures with the characters, the farmers and their diverse animal woes over his many years as a country Vet. Herriott wrote like a combination of Wodehouse and Flann OBrien with each tale a vignette of rural farce where cunning rustic folk invariably had alaugh at the expense of the sincere earnest but often hapless young vet.
The books themselves are hilarious but are also a snapshot of rural British life in the thirties and forties- with this way of life starting to change in the fifties with better drugs, bigger factory farms, better roads and competition from imported produce threatening old assumptions.
It resonates with me again as I write this in a way that makes Herriott seem relevant to Ireland.
The people and countryside Herriott describes were familiar to me , oddly enough, growing up in 1970s rural Ireland- thats right ,not a million years and miles from 1950s Yorkshire.
We have come a long way. Agriculture has declined in relevance, but has streamlined and thankfully lost much of its hardship and poverty, largely because of the EECs initial help to Ireland and our continuing vocal central role at the heart of Europe.
This progress must not be taken for granted and the heritage of where we came from in a short three generations must not be forgotten.
I am canvassing for the local elections at the moment with a Kildare candidate Suzanne Doyle.
There is anger and bewilderment at the moment about our recession, our irresponsible bank,s lending policies and the staggering way world cash flow has just stopped like a tap being switched off.
Much of this response in born out of fear as we are all indebted to a level that our new 2009 incomes cant cope with. My advice to you as a businessman sharing my own difficulties of cash flow to liability shortfall is this. Dont ignore the banks. Send them all the information they want about your finances. Then pay them what you can pay them on your own terms. Dont try to meet all your repayments if it is going to lead to hardship for your family or closure of your business. But pay all your institutional debtors some sum of money every month.
Ireland will never go back to the bad old days of state sanctioned evictions of families. We have a very strong constitution which upholds the rights of individuals. Dont believe the media hysteria about repossessions of homes and worse- these are just the people who have been ignoring every bank letter and not paying a penny for perhaps two years.
If you make a little effort to meet your debts the system we have, such as it is , will be in your favour.
Herriotts second book " it shouldnt happen to a Vet " told tales of the young Vets mistakes, setbacks and frequent kicks from truculent livestock. As the celtic garfield has now well and truly lost its nine lives I can look back and say I made mistakes by over-investing, over-paying staff, expanding too quickly and over-estimating how much potential growth there was in the market. But my family are alive andhappy. My wife and three little boys are my universe. Thats all that matters and thats not a cliche.
My associate Vet Simon rang last night to say he had just broken his arm. He took a hard fall while schooling a young horse. He can now expect to be out of work for up to six weeks. It will be a torrid time at Groome Pet Vets without his valued help.
A young newly married man who is starting to build a house he can ill afford as a self-employed Vetto be unable to work for six weeks.
Now THAT shouldnt happen to a Vet!
The books themselves are hilarious but are also a snapshot of rural British life in the thirties and forties- with this way of life starting to change in the fifties with better drugs, bigger factory farms, better roads and competition from imported produce threatening old assumptions.
It resonates with me again as I write this in a way that makes Herriott seem relevant to Ireland.
The people and countryside Herriott describes were familiar to me , oddly enough, growing up in 1970s rural Ireland- thats right ,not a million years and miles from 1950s Yorkshire.
We have come a long way. Agriculture has declined in relevance, but has streamlined and thankfully lost much of its hardship and poverty, largely because of the EECs initial help to Ireland and our continuing vocal central role at the heart of Europe.
This progress must not be taken for granted and the heritage of where we came from in a short three generations must not be forgotten.
I am canvassing for the local elections at the moment with a Kildare candidate Suzanne Doyle.
There is anger and bewilderment at the moment about our recession, our irresponsible bank,s lending policies and the staggering way world cash flow has just stopped like a tap being switched off.
Much of this response in born out of fear as we are all indebted to a level that our new 2009 incomes cant cope with. My advice to you as a businessman sharing my own difficulties of cash flow to liability shortfall is this. Dont ignore the banks. Send them all the information they want about your finances. Then pay them what you can pay them on your own terms. Dont try to meet all your repayments if it is going to lead to hardship for your family or closure of your business. But pay all your institutional debtors some sum of money every month.
Ireland will never go back to the bad old days of state sanctioned evictions of families. We have a very strong constitution which upholds the rights of individuals. Dont believe the media hysteria about repossessions of homes and worse- these are just the people who have been ignoring every bank letter and not paying a penny for perhaps two years.
If you make a little effort to meet your debts the system we have, such as it is , will be in your favour.
Herriotts second book " it shouldnt happen to a Vet " told tales of the young Vets mistakes, setbacks and frequent kicks from truculent livestock. As the celtic garfield has now well and truly lost its nine lives I can look back and say I made mistakes by over-investing, over-paying staff, expanding too quickly and over-estimating how much potential growth there was in the market. But my family are alive andhappy. My wife and three little boys are my universe. Thats all that matters and thats not a cliche.
My associate Vet Simon rang last night to say he had just broken his arm. He took a hard fall while schooling a young horse. He can now expect to be out of work for up to six weeks. It will be a torrid time at Groome Pet Vets without his valued help.
A young newly married man who is starting to build a house he can ill afford as a self-employed Vetto be unable to work for six weeks.
Now THAT shouldnt happen to a Vet!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
A taste of the exotic
My KFM Vets Corner now runs every Friday at 11.15 on Clem Ryans morning show. The public reaction to my show,both on and off the air is testament to the growing dedication and enthusiasm of Irish people for all creatures great and small. Animal loving Clem helps it along with his own curiosity and love for the animal kingdom.
A missing African Grey Parrot in the Curragh area prompted my tale of the Koran reciting Saudi Arabian Parrot I once encountered in Jeddah- where the custom of keeping polly on a perch above the stove in the kitchen led to a high incidence of a fungal emphysema called Aspergillosis.
This tale was soon bettered by a callers anecdote about Bruce Lee, the Chinese owned Parrot in a Sheriff Street take away who could curse in Dublinese, Cantonese and bark at the owners mother in laws Pekinese.
Clems interest in the exotic thus piqued I recounted a sad case history about a tiger cub with the wobbles who entered Jeddah Vet Hospital one boiling hot day ( every day was a boiling hot day) with a growling half stagger- like a character from a T.S.Eliot cat poem-followed by a nervous besandled Arab youth on the end of his chain.
Dubbed Macavity the mystery cat by the hospitals puzzled staff, this tiger was eventually diagnosed with calcium- deficit ricket disorder and eventually responded well to mineral correctng therapy.
A tail for our times perhaps as like many a celtic tiger cub Macavity's domestic diet of fresh steak daily lacked balance and proved too much of a good thing for a cat born to be wild!
A missing African Grey Parrot in the Curragh area prompted my tale of the Koran reciting Saudi Arabian Parrot I once encountered in Jeddah- where the custom of keeping polly on a perch above the stove in the kitchen led to a high incidence of a fungal emphysema called Aspergillosis.
This tale was soon bettered by a callers anecdote about Bruce Lee, the Chinese owned Parrot in a Sheriff Street take away who could curse in Dublinese, Cantonese and bark at the owners mother in laws Pekinese.
Clems interest in the exotic thus piqued I recounted a sad case history about a tiger cub with the wobbles who entered Jeddah Vet Hospital one boiling hot day ( every day was a boiling hot day) with a growling half stagger- like a character from a T.S.Eliot cat poem-followed by a nervous besandled Arab youth on the end of his chain.
Dubbed Macavity the mystery cat by the hospitals puzzled staff, this tiger was eventually diagnosed with calcium- deficit ricket disorder and eventually responded well to mineral correctng therapy.
A tail for our times perhaps as like many a celtic tiger cub Macavity's domestic diet of fresh steak daily lacked balance and proved too much of a good thing for a cat born to be wild!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)