It’s often said you can tell a lot about a person by who his or her enemies are.
Or to put it another way:
“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”
–Jonathan Swift
It’s no secret that I have exposed the dog fancy’s sins time and again on this blog, but generally the main perpetrators of the crime have either been too ashamed to bother with my piddling piece of work.
Or they are of that generation that has no idea how to turn on a computer.
The only thugs I’ve ever dealt with are the bulldog mafia, but their arguments are so bad that they are nothing more than a minor nuisance.
If I had a dime for every time I got the following argument from bulldog owners, I’d be pretty wealthy man. It goes something like this:
My bulldog is entirely healthy! You’re mean!
Lots of data to work with there, eh?
I’ve written much more scathing posts on other breeds, especially Neapolitan mastiffs, a totally fantasy breed that its fanciers swear is the ancient war dog of the Roman legions.
It is, of course, nothing of the sort. It was created by a Swiss writer named Piero Scanziani (he was Italian-speaking Swiss), who wandered around Southern Italy after the War and began collecting farm mastiffs. As a writer of religious fiction, Scanziani wrote a fiction that these dogs were somehow connected to the ancient war dogs of Rome, and the ideas he expressed wound up gaining currency with many nouveau riche Europeans, who began flocking to Southern Italy in search of a “real Roman war dog.’
And the Italians began to breed dogs solely for this market, and it wasn’t long before some of these local dog dealers began to select for very extreme traits– excessive skin, hanging eyelids, and massive size.
And moronic Northern Europeans and the North Americans bought into the delusion. The Romans actually had a freakazoid dog with a litany of health problems to serve them in war.
I don’t know who would think such a fiction possible, but the Neapolitan mastiff fanciers certainly do.
Which leads me to the attack I received today.
I woke up this morning to several bizarre comments that I absolutely would never approve on this blog.
If hell were frozen over, I would never approve them. They included several personal attacks on other people who had commented on the blog. I guessed that this person had watched too much Fox News and thought that was how we do business on this blog.
Wrongo.
I banned the comment-maker.
And it normally ends there. I probably have to do this maybe twice a year, but normally I don’t hear anything back from these people.
But not this time.
Around noon today, I received an e-mail threatening lawsuits and calling me an idiot, which is to me the sign of someone with a severe mental disorder or a chemical dependency problem.
The person in question was Anne Latimer Goetz, a Neapolitan mastiff breeder, a science-denier, and a Grade-A Moron.
I need to tell Ms. Goetz something.
Apparently, she thinks she can get her way by bullying other people and screaming like a banshee.
Others, I guess have cowered away from her.
Well to quote Walt Kowalski in Grand Torino:
Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t have fucked with? That’s me.
Ms. Goetz has had the gall to ask me to retract a blog post.
For real.
Me? Retract a blog post?
In your dreams!
This was the e-mail I received:
I have a photo of the internet posting that states that MY image of Magic standing on a rock by a river, is your original photo on retrieverman.whatever your blog is…..
Print a retraction.
Anne Goetz
Centurian Mastini
I’m sorry, Drama Queen.
We don’t roll that way.
If you don’t like what I write, then tough shit, Princess.
Not only does she have the temerity– that’s a big word for cajones– to demand that I retract what I wrote about freakazoid breeding Neapolitan mastiffs.
She has no moral authority to stand on.
None.
0.
Let me show you:
See, this crazy bint has her own blog.
A blog that, unlike this tome, has very little readership.
It’s called Neo News, and it’s very revealing about Neapolitan mastiffs and the culture of their breeders.
The most recent blog post is lamenting the death of a dog she produced. It died of osteosarcoma at the ripe ol’ age of three, and it’s full of woo and science denial.
We kept trying to get the pup back, and when we finally did, his joints were RUINED, btw, he was diagnosed with elbow dysplasia, by Dr Allen, who asked, as we had done, that the puppy be off the concrete! And, she advised high quality food, and medications, and supplements, and the Garcias ignored every one of her recommendations. So,this poor puppy stayed in these conditions for about 6 months. Outside, on concrete, Ole Roy food, no supplements.
We sent a friend to meet Mr Garcia when he finally decided to return our puppy and wait for another litter, (yes, I told him I would replace Blue. I would have done anything to get my dog away from these assholes) And, Mr Garcia met my young, pretty young female friend, and he was so sexually suggestive in his convesation [sic] and interactions with her, that she was frightened. And, the vet records he supplied, were actually, the vaccines we had given Blue prior to our shipping him, to them!!! He received no vet care at the Garcias, until we insisted he be taken to Dr Allen.
Blue is no longer with us. I blame the Garcias. I have to wonder if they are to blame for Moose’s death, also.
So, no, we did not supply them with another male to ruin. And, it won’t happen. Yes, they did take us to small claims court, and we told our story, and the court found against us.
The object of this post, is that we are warning anyone with a litter of neo pups to avoid the Garcias of New Jersey, like the plague.
In that blog post, she blames a dog’s death of osteosarcoma– a cancer with a very strong genetic basis— on vaccines, diet, and keeping the dog on concrete.
But the truth is the reason why the dog died of osteosarcoma is because it was the breed it is.
And a breed is only produced by a breeder. Concrete, vaccines, and cheap dog food won’t make a dime’s worth of difference.
And anyone who tells you otherwise is not a vet.
And it’s not just people like me, who hate the dog fancy, who have problems with Ms. Goetz.
It turns out that she is a dog dealer of the worst sort. On the Spanish Mastiff blog, she is attacked for being an inbreeding apologist and a person who crates her dogs too much. She also produced a litter of Spanish mastiffs, and she found out that she couldn’t sell them for exorbitant prices, so the poor mastinos would be living in cramped cages without enough access to food or water.
Now, it can be debated on what kind of condition the mastinos were in, but I can tell you that Neapolitan mastiff breeders, who are “breeding to standard,” as if that were some sort mission from God, have absolutely no moral authority in the world of dogs.
They continue to produce dogs with ectropion and entroprion. Dogs with bad hearts. Dogs with a very high incidence of cancer. Dogs that spend their entire lives in misery.
Dogs that die before they are 7 years old. It’s very telling that there has never been a dog longevity study on this breed, but most vets will tell you that these dogs are not long-lived. The Kennel Club (of the United Kingdom) did perform some longevity studies on its breed. The median age of death for Neo mastiff is a ripe old 2.33.
That’s pathetic.
But don’t blame the dog breeders, like Anne Goetz.
They are doing their best to “improve the breed.”
By “improve the breed,” they mean “win dog shows.”
And the other part of winning dog shows is to truncate and concentrate the gene pool as much as possible.
It’s pretty obvious to anyone with two or three functioning brain cells that Neo mastiff conformation isn’t healthy, but when you start paring away all that genetic diversity– not that there was much to start out with– you’re playing with fire.
This is the tragedy of the modern dog fancy, It allows scum like this to thrive, when they should be ostracized as much as possible.
In fact, if the AKC, KC, and FCI were worthy of the name of institutions that truly cared about the future and welfare of dogs, they would deep six the entire Neapolitan mastiff breed until someone with a bit more empathy or brains takes the helm.
This is a breed created because of fantasy, and its breeders live in a fantasy world in what is objectively objectionable is celebrated as virtuous.
There is no moral authority here. There is only claimed authority.
And there are too many totalitarians in the world of dogs for this sort of authority to go unquestioned or allowed to run amok in the already compromised gene pools of our domestic dog breeds.
So Ms. Goetz, my advice to you is to find another hobby.
You can continue to lambaste me on Facebook. Among the other things this child attacked me for was the fact that I am single.
I am single by choice.
I am happy as a single person, and I cannot think of anything lonelier than to be a relationship with a person who is totally wrong wrong me.
So if my regular readers can forgive me for my somewhat stroppy post this evening, please understand that the dog fancy has too many people like this.
They very rarely get to me. Otherwise, I’d stop writing about these issues.
But in the face of a cowardly internet bully who argues like a Fox News commentator, I have to turn upon the jackal as a good leopard must.
And do a bit of savaging.
Now, back to your regular programming.
***
Ms. Goetz is also one of those dumbass breeders who thinks that “incest is best.”
Check out the pedigree of the dog above, which she bred.
Click to make larger.
Wow. Sorry she got under your skin. It is understandable but regrettable. Grab Miley and go for a long walk.
And also, thanks for the term “bint.” I’m a word lover; that’s a new one for me, and now I’m glad I know it.
It was actually walking her that got me to write this thing :)
I recall hearing the word “bint” used quite a lot back in our colonial and early post colonial days by some of the less well educated members of the lower ranks of the British army when referring disrespectfully to a “native” woman. It was either of Indian or Arab origin and was even used on the streets of Britain by some exsoldiers after they had returned to Britain from service in the colonies.
It seems that the word ‘Bint’ came from Arabic word pronounced with a soft ‘T’ meaning ‘daughter’ or sometimes a ‘young girl’. British army soldiers of colonial era used to use it a lot and may have picked it from several dozen Arab principalities they were serving in. ‘Bint’ is a respectful word when used with family surname, like Bint Zubaid (my surname). Uttering it by itself means a young girl (not a vulgar one) who is found on street doing menial tasks or begging for money or food from passer-bys (but not a professional beggar) and whose surname is not known or required to be known.
It British English, it’s not a nice word.
It may even have some racial aspects to it, which makes me a bit uncomfortable using it.
replace the B and the I with a C and a U and I think you will have summed her up perfectly
I know that, but thanks for sharing your feelings :-)
And once again, I raise my mug to your honor, Ser Westfall. Excellent post. So far, I haven’t received an email back from her in response to my sent message.
http://www.centurionmastini.com/
As disgusting as the breed itself. If their appearance wasn’t the cause of such miserable health, I wouldn’t care. People have their own aesthetic tastes. But a creature which can barely walk, which bites its own face while doing normal things like eating, which can’t avoid fungal infections in the skin without regular maintenance, which dies of cancer at an absurdly young age…that isn’t beautiful. And calling it beautiful is sick. If you love your dogs, breed them healthy. And quit acting like it’s an “improvement” to create mutants out of flesh.
Well said Scotty I’m in total agreement, I would also add that I believe each breeder should have a ‘Health database’ on their website, stating what each dog has died from. Which also lists if they have epilepsy, eye problems, hip dysplasia etc. It is impossible for every single puppy to be perfect, but at least have a webpage dedicated to the health details of every litter. This way breeders will be able to make a difference and improve the breed in making wiser choices when breeding puppies. And to the lovely Anna Goetz, if you think that this is not happening, I can tell you now that the breeder I buy my pups from (Belgian Tervurens), has a dedicated webpage stating this very thing and more and more people around the world are starting to incorporate this very important information. Isn’t there a saying, ‘if you’ve got nothing to hide, then hide nothing’
Just thought I’d let you in on a bit of a laugh, I went on Ms Goetz website and if you scroll down you’ll see ‘Tante Beneditta’ this is NOT Italian. According to the lady this means ‘Many Blessings’ she is either writing in some obscure dialect, or she just stuffed up her Italian or is making it up as she goes along !!
I had an Italian speaker make the same comment on my Facebook group!
I know exactly what this person was trying to say – being from an Italian background and I can also tell you what the spelling should be, but I am loathe to give out ‘free’ translation, so that she can tidy up her webpage. I’d rather she look like a fool for all to see :)
Tante is ‘Aunt’ in French. I think she is confused.
‘Tante’ actually IS many or much in Italian. ;) But what beneditta should be I have no idea…
Benny dit-ta.
Wow, I was wondering what on Earth was going on this morning in my e-mail inbox when an aggressive reply to a comment I made so long ago popped up. I had commented on being a certified vet tech for over 12 years and seeing the health issues of giant breed dogs, and this crazy woman, obviously in denial, told me I was wrong and not so nicely. I just shook my head and hit delete. Good for you Scotty though for letting her have it. She obviously needs to be put back in her place. Far away. On another planet.
The weird thing is, Ms. Goetz actually commented on an earlier post of Scottie’s about Neopolitan Mastiffs a couple years ago and sounded relatively sane at the time. But then randomly now out of the blue she comes back ranting about ‘photo theft’ (there’s this bizarre paranoia many show people have about their photos, I notice) and confusing him with Terrierman.
The plus side is, now there are some more hits for Google to associate her name with the various unethical breeding incidents people have had with her. Posting crazy stuff under your real name on public places online is never a good idea. The internet never forgets.
I’m very sorry about all this.
The reason I removed all those comments is they were all abusive and were not directed at me.
There now, doesn’t that feel better? ;-)
(Well done btw.)
I just now reached for my 1989 Kennel Club’s Illustrated Breeds Standards book from the shelf and checked the entry for the Neapolitan Mastiff. The photographs were of a much much less freakish dog than the one shown on your blog. 25 years on and I see it has become a monster. Obviously it won’t exist much longer.
A Neo from 1950:
Some typical Neo heads from the 1980s:
They’ve been going downhill rapidly since the ’80s, looks like.
Today, you reminded me of my father and a younger brother Scottie. When they wanted to respond in kind to someone, their English improved many-folds.
I was at a pet show and had a picture taken with a young Irish Wolfhound. When I was in my teens, I always longed for an Irish Wolfhound. However, on my asking the woman owner divulged that the average life of that breed is only 7 years, I was devastated. 2.5 years is just too short, but looks like a distinct possibility even after a cursory glance on the physical features of the Neapolitan dog breed.
I enjoyed this spicy post from you. This seems like a beginning of a super hit book in the making.
So the neapolitan mastiff was a “war dog”. I guess the enemy would have died laughing? Seriously, however, as I said in an earlier post, only 25 years ago, judging from the photographs in my Kennel Club Breeds Standards book, the neapolitan mastiff in 1989 was still looking like something you might not be too ashamed of. Let me quote from just one paragraph from the standard: “..A degree of loose-fitting skin over body and head with some dewlap, is a “feature not to be excessive.” Well we know what happened, sadly, after those words were written. However this is an entirely academic argument, because apart from the cruelly loose skin this is obviously a breed which is finally on a short road to nowhere. I’ve had guinea pigs which have lived longer than these poor things! That said, we should all consider whether or not we are being altogther kind and responsible people concerning the dog designs we are individually helping to perpetuate.
Whoa! Breaking Bad! Your comments were well founded and its too bad that they were necessary but you put up a good and logical fight. I hope that NEO Mastiff breeders are reading! And shame on the AKC for enabling these breeders!
Thought you may want to know that there are people in Italy that feel the same way about the Neopolitan MastiffThe Cane da Presa (Italian for “Southern Catching Dog”) is the old, “functional” variant of the Neapolitan Mastiff. Before 1946 there was no distinction between Neapolitan Mastiff, Cane da Presa and Cane Corso, these were just three different names for the same dog. The modern Neapolitan Mastiff is a caricature of the original, a dog created by dog shows. Fans of the original mastino have started an organisation which is trying to gather the remaining specimens which would fit the 1946 standard of the Neapolitan Mastiff/Cane Corso/Cane da Presa.
I’ve written something along those lines before.
I didn’t know about the Cane da presa, though.
Are cane da Pressa same as Pressa Canario of Diane Whipple fame?
No. The latter is from the Canary Islands. These are from southern Italy.
Presumably such a recovery operation would only be worthwhile if it included the introduction of healthy outcrosses over several generations – and even then how likely is it they would end up with a fit -for- purpose breed based on that ridiculous design model? Anything bred to have a loose skin like that is by definition highly compromised and therefore unethical wouldn’t you think? IAnything following the original concept would also seem to involve a normal sized heart labouring to service an oversized body. There are better things to do than go down that road.
Just left a polite reply on that neo website..
LOL. They don’t really do polite.
With pedigrees like that, I am unsure why they are so shocked that these dogs barely make it into adulthood.
2.3 years is pitiful. And, judging by the structure and incredible amount of infected loose skin on these dogs, they are a miserable couple of years.
You GO man!
So what were Piero Scanziani’s books about?
Religion or science fiction. Neither of which I read.
I like science fiction…..mainly because they say point blank, it’s FICTION!
Says so right in the name of the genre!
LOL! Good one and well said!
Celtic Britain was a major supplier of war dogs to the Roman Empire and so it seems likely that here this is where these Italian mastiffs largely originated – and I bet they were more fit for purpose in those days.
And god made the dog to be a helper and a companion to man… and man looked at the dog and said “Oh,I have a better idea!”