Posts tagged with “people”
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What if Criminals and Murderers Pay in Money Instead of Time?

What if people paid in $ for crimes instead of jail time? Like paying a traffic fine, as an example.

Jail time seems unbalanced for the crime committed and jails are crowded. A murderer gets a few years, insurance fraud gets more than murder, all depending on the randomness of Courts, judges, and expensive lawyers. Eating a person you've just killed on a bus... it happened in Canada and he was out in a few years. I've yet to see anyone murdered come back to life but it seems murder is not all that costly in time. Maybe... it could be counted on a different scale. Cash value instead of time served. It's a start.

I think the old idea of work houses could be brought back. Prisoners work in order to buy their freedom, eventually. I don't see that ever happening these days. Like capital punishment, it isn't likely to come back. (Capital punishment and the death penalty are not the same thing. Young people don't know and assume a lot).

So, just fine them and let the credit agencies nag at them for payment. If its good enough for people who haven't committed a crime, other than getting in debt, why not? A little stress and endless calls from credit agencies always tracking them down, isn't too tough a punishment.

I don't think jail time was ever working as punishment anyway. It was supposed to reform people. How can you really ever reform or punish someone for a crime like murder? Other crimes like assault, robbery, etc. as long as no one was killed. There should be a line somewhere. It gets complicated when you decide if "left for dead" is the same as murder/ killing. I think so. Why should a killer benefit from the luck or determination of someone else to live.

So most criminal activity could be set as a dollar amount payable to the Canadian government (or whatever the local government is). Not as a punishment just a heavy fine. A better deterrent than jail. For one thing it will cost the government less than housing, feeding, entertaining them. Making use of credit agencies means the government won't have to hire extra staff, unless it goes through Canada Revenue, which I guess it must at some point. Of course, payments for crimes will not get any tax credits or refunds. That would be silly.

Maybe the government could collect enough to lower taxes. I just keep finding all kinds of good options for this idea.

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Grey Rocking

Disengaging with narcistic people as a way of protecting yourself. Not great for relationships with immediate family over the long haul. In the end, you lose track of yourself due to ignoring yourself.

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Bad Days do Not Erase Your Progress

Source: Redbubble - thelatestkate

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The Tale of a Town

"Capturing the collective community memory of Canada's Main Streets, one story at a time." "The Tale of a Town is a site-specific theatre and media project capturing the collective community memory of Canada's Main Streets, one story at a time, while preserving local heritage and promoting neighbourhood culture".

This may not still be active. But, I've seen a few of the shows on TV. I enjoyed them.

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Big Cats Should Not be Bred in Little Cages

I was watching the episodes of Snow Leopards of Leafy London, about the National Cat Trust, with Dr. Terry Moore in the UK. Although its great to see someone taking in cats who have no where else to go. In the end, they are living in captivity for however long they live. Not able to have space, hunt, and live a feral life. He also breeds them. It wasn't clear if he also lets the domestic cats breed too. The Trust takes in domestic homeless cats as well as the big cats. I hope the Trust works on some version of the neuter and release idea.

The series was made awhile ago and I wondered what became of the cats, especially the snow leopards which were featured, and the Trust. I found the website, not really updated since 2013 it seems to me. I didn't see any updates about the snow leopard release project with India which was talked about often in the films. There is some project based in Argentina.

Also, interesting, was to find that his wife was part of things, one of the trustees for the organization. But, she was never mentioned in the films. If she were there, she wasn't given credit for her work.

I found reviews on the TripAdvisor site, which made the Trust seem overwhelmed. Not enough volunteers to look after the place. Also, no visitors due to restrictions. That may be changed now, but it was only for sponsors/ members of the Trust. Not a bad thing, no doubt they need the funds. Feeding big cats would be expensive.

I posted this as a comment on Facebook:

I don't think any of these kept cats can go back to the wild. Even if a habitat could be found for them. These cats have had an indolent lifestyle. They will have hunting instincts but no practice. So they will not have the skills or the muscles built up to take care of themselves without someone feeding them dead carcasses. So they will look for humans to feed them, leaving the wild areas and likely end up being shot by people who are afraid of big cats approaching them. It's really sad to see these cats being bred in captivity to live their lives in small spaces, never having space to roam and be wild.

I love cats of all sizes. But, I think it is very misled to breed them in cat farms like this. Without a sure place to release them into the wild and a lifestyle which keeps them fit and skilled (and not relying on humans to feed them) there isn't real hope for these cats to live anywhere but in concrete with a little patch of grass. Cats need to wander and roam and hunt. Even domestic cats will have a territory (unless they are kept indoors all their lives).

It would be very hard, if not impossible, to have these kept cats able to adapt and live in their natural home now. They've adapted to our environment, our culture, pollution, schedule, etc. Like being a tourist in another country, they would not know the local culture, the language and the ways of the other big cats who were born to the wild life in that area. They would not know what to eat when seasons change and prey migrate or change their habits. They won't know or have natural defenses from other animals, insects, and diseases.

Their ancestors could be from that area but it would be culture shock for them to be dropped into a new place and left to learn how to survive. Having eaten dead meat all their lives, is it possible they would only look along roadways and other places they could smell roadkill and dead animals. Are their bodies able to live that way, deal with the parasites and such which they would pick up from dead meat versus the freshly killed animals they would eat naturally.

I wish the Cat Trust well but I think the project is really Terry Moore and volunteers making friends and pets out of these cats. Cats can be great pets, but not every cat should be kept as a pet.

Trying to give them a better life is a great ambition, but breeding them is selfish not selfless. There is no natural selection when females are forced to be bred/ pregnant every few months or every year with whatever male is closed in with them.

Not every female will want to be having batches of kittens constantly. I've seen domestic cats abandon new born kittens because they did not want them. I'm sure that must happen with big cats too.

Kept big cats do not live a natural, healthy, active life. Are they physically strong enough to have kittens? Being pampered and inactive means these big cats may not have the strength and stamina for pregnancy and birth. They are not exposed to conditions which toughen wild big cats, including bacteria, which they build immunity to. They just don't make pet happy documentaries about any of these things.

I don't think this will end well. Other places like this have failed, had to close. The cats are left homeless when shelters can't be found for all of them. When there are reports about big cats wandering and hunting in rural and suburban areas, its likely true. How many of them are cats which grew up in zoos/farms which had to close and let the cats out of their cages rather than euthanizing them. It is not a kindness to breed cats, or any animal, just to hoard them in captivity.