Saturday, April 30, 2011
When’s The Last Time You Saw A Dog Nursing Two Bengal Cubs
Over in Xinjiang, China there’s a dog who has become a mother to two Bengal tiger cubs.
Looking at this video is amazing to see how these two cubs are getting the their milk from the dog due to their mother being unable to feed them.
Read the article here.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Saturday April 30th Is World Veterinary Rabies Prevention Day
Vets Focus On Rabies Prevention For World Veterinary Day
World Veterinary Day (WVD) takes place annually on the last Saturday of April and this year veterinary professionals from around the world join together on April 30 to raise awareness of the profession's role in rabies prevention and control.
The World Veterinary Association (WVA) created World Veterinary Day in 2000 as an annual celebration of the veterinary profession. The WVA, World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) have joined forces to promote this year's theme of rabies prevention.
Rabies remains one of the most serious viral zoonoses presently encountered worldwide. Despite being 100 per cent preventable, it is estimated that 55,000 people die worldwide from rabies each year, approximately one person every ten minutes: half are children under the age of 15.
"Prevention at the animal source is the key strategy in dealing with rabies, and veterinarians are therefore crucial to its control," according to the GARC. The alliance believes that national veterinary services around the world could eradicate rabies in animals and stop virtually all human cases by using just 10 per cent of the financial resources currently used to treat people after a dog bite.
Vets operate in all sectors of society: it is probably the only profession that understands the human-animal dynamic that exists in every community throughout the world. Recognising the profession's diversity in a changing world, BVA President Harvey Locke commented:
"World Veterinary Day provides an ideal opportunity to highlight the work of the veterinary profession around the world in food safety and public health, border controls and quarantine, clinical practice, animal health, animal welfare, environmental protection, research and development and wildlife conservation.
"I am particularly pleased that rabies control has been chosen as the theme this year and feel proud to be a member of a profession that can play a key role in bringing an end to this devastating but preventable disease."
2011 marks the 250th anniversary of the veterinary profession and has been declared 'World Veterinary Year'.
Mr Locke added:
"To celebrate World Veterinary Year the BVA's annual Congress will be held under the theme 'Vets in a changing world' in London on 22-24 September 2011. In anticipation that this year will witness the official declaration that another devastating disease - rinderpest - has been eradicated worldwide, I am delighted that the Wooldridge Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Dr Peter Roeder who led the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme from 2000 to 2007.
"And as a further illustration of the varied roles of the profession, the BVA's Overseas Group is organising a full day's programme exploring issues from livestock and global food security to veterinary involvement in disaster relief and management, as well as a session celebrating the 100th BVA overseas travel grant."
Source:
British Veterinary Association
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Rescue Workers Save Two Dogs After 175 Ft. Fall
These two golden retrievers dogs named Doug and George were sure some lucky dogs when they fell one hundred and seventy five feet down to the Clackamas river.
Their owner John Grady was Thankful that his two dogs were able to walk away from the fall with the help from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Marine Unit deputies, Estacada Fire and the Clackamas Fire District 1 crews.
Read the article by Rick Bella here.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Flame Retardants in the Serum of Pet Dogs and in their Food
High Levels Of Flame Retardants Found In Pet Dogs
Indiana University scientists have found chemical flame retardants in the blood of pet dogs at concentrations five to 10 times higher than in humans, but lower than levels found in a previous study of cats.
Their study, "Flame Retardants in the Serum of Pet Dogs and in their Food," appears this month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Authors are Marta Venier, an assistant research scientist in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and Ronald Hites, a Distinguished Professor in SPEA.
Venier and Hites explore whether pets could serve as "biosentinels" for monitoring human exposure to compounds present in the households that they share. Dogs may be better proxies than cats, they say, because a dog's metabolism is better equipped to break down the chemicals.
The study focuses on the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the blood of dogs and in commercial dog food. PBDEs have been widely used as flame retardants in household furniture and electronics equipment. The compounds can migrate out of the products and enter the environment.
"Even though they've been around for quite awhile, we don't know too much about these compounds' toxicological effects on humans or animals," Venier said. "The bottom line is that we still need to keep measuring them, particularly in homes."
PBDE mixtures made up of less-brominated compounds are regarded as more dangerous because they bioaccumulate in animal tissues. These mixtures were banned by the European Union and were voluntarily removed from the U.S. market in 2004, but remain in the environment. Mixtures with more-brominated compounds remain in use in the U.S. but will be phased out by 2013.
Venier and Hites report on an analysis of flame retardants in blood from 17 pet dogs, all of whom live primarily indoors. They also examined samples of the dry dog food that made up the pets' diet, attempting to determine if food was a major source of PBDE exposure.
The average concentration of PBDEs in blood from the dogs was about 2 nanograms per gram, about five to 10 times higher than the levels found in humans in the few studies of human exposure that have been done in North America.
In dog food samples, the researchers found PBDEs at levels averaging about 1 nanogram per gram. That is much higher than levels found in meat and poultry sold as food for humans, suggesting the PBDEs in dog food may result from processing rather than from the food sources.
A 2007 study by Venier, Hites and several co-authors found concentrations of PBDEs in house cats that were 20 to 100 times higher than levels found in humans. A 2010 article by Venier, Hites and two Clemson University researchers also reported high levels of PBDEs in nesting bald eagles.
Venier said the evidence shows dogs metabolize the compounds more rapidly than cats. A previous study showed that dogs produce an enzyme that breaks down organochlorine pesticides, and a similar mechanism may be at work with brominated compounds.
The current study also detected newer flame retardants that have come onto the market as PBDEs have been removed, including Dechlorane Plus, decabromodiphenylethane, and hexabromocyclododecane. The chemicals are largely unregulated but pose concerns because they are structurally similar to organic pollutants that have been linked to environmental and human health effects.
"The concentrations of these newer flame retardants were relatively low compared to the PBDEs," Venier said, "but the fact that they are new and not regulated suggests their levels are going to increase in the future."
Source:
Steve Hinnefeld
Indiana University
Monday, April 25, 2011
A Possible Dog Food Recall In South Africa
What is being reported as a possible dog food recall in South Africa after twelve dogs had died from eating three different brands of dog food. The brand names were Buddies, Hi Pro and Roodepoort that contained a toxic fungus.
The executive director of the Pet Food Institute of Southern Africa Barry Hundley said: the dogs died of aflatoxicosis which is caused by a fungus.
The Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital is asking all Vets to be on the lookout for warning signs. And the Department of Agriculture will be checking out the three different companies to see if the cause came from their factories or not.
Hopefully they can find out where this started from so that no other dogs will have to die.
Read the article by Angelique Seerrao here.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
I Wonder How Many Animal Shelters Are Like This
The Lucas County Animal Shelter has been killing dogs at a rate of thirty percent over last year in the first four months.
I’m not going to quote anything from this article but with all the so called dog owners that are just dumping their poor dogs off like they were trash has made the whole system of trying to adopt these poor dogs out unbearable.
How many other shelters are killing more dogs this year than last because of these ungratefully owners. Whatever happened to the love you had when you first brought your dog? What have we become in this day and age, that we forgot about the love of another to just discard the things that we once loved.
There is no excuse to just dump your dog off, none what so ever. O I forgot you had to move, well that’s not an excuse or I can’t afford to feed my dog is another one. Well there are many places out there that will give you dog food to help if you have become unemployed, just do a search on the web.
Sorry if I got out of hand here, but it just hurts to read these sad stories all the time.
If you like to read the article by Ignazio Messina go here.
One more thing.
I would like to Personally Thank all the workers and Vets that work in all these animal shelters and see all the sadness. Woof…Woof…
I’m not going to quote anything from this article but with all the so called dog owners that are just dumping their poor dogs off like they were trash has made the whole system of trying to adopt these poor dogs out unbearable.
How many other shelters are killing more dogs this year than last because of these ungratefully owners. Whatever happened to the love you had when you first brought your dog? What have we become in this day and age, that we forgot about the love of another to just discard the things that we once loved.
There is no excuse to just dump your dog off, none what so ever. O I forgot you had to move, well that’s not an excuse or I can’t afford to feed my dog is another one. Well there are many places out there that will give you dog food to help if you have become unemployed, just do a search on the web.
Sorry if I got out of hand here, but it just hurts to read these sad stories all the time.
If you like to read the article by Ignazio Messina go here.
One more thing.
I would like to Personally Thank all the workers and Vets that work in all these animal shelters and see all the sadness. Woof…Woof…
Friday, April 22, 2011
We All Know The Competing In A Dog Show Is Hard, But To Drug Another Dog So That Your Friend Can Win?
A Guy Named Ralph Ullum has been charged with cruelty to animals and attempted criminal damage to property for trying to drug another competing dog at a dog show in Wheaton last December at the Starved Rock Kennel Club Show.
I know that the competition is rough but to drug another dog so that you have a better chance of winning is a disgrace. When a Vet. Induced the Siberian Husky called Pixie they found pieces of a pill called Protonix, some dog food and a rubber band.
That doesn’t sound like something the dogs trainer would be feeding the dog dose it?
Read the article by Art Barnum here.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Minnesota Puppy Killer Brought Out The Protesters
An animal abuser named Holly Boyd from Minnesota who charged with killing her little Chihuahua named Diesel when she threw the little puppy who only weighed two pounds against her dresser out of rage when the poor puppy pee on her is facing a protest outside of the court house.
While Holly Boyd had said: This was my dog, I wouldn't hurt it. I've been a member of ASPCA for 12 years.
The stories are now coming out that someone else killed the puppy but when you read the text message she sent to her boyfriend it seems like Holly did do it, but that why we have a court system.
The protesters are looking to get the maximum penalty by promoting a petition in part saying ( Ms. Boyd inflicted such great bodily harm upon this defenseless tiny Chihuahua puppy, that his skull was fractured in several places, and his bowels were protruding from his abdomen.) to be forwarded to the Anoka County Attorney Tony Palumbo.
Read the article by David Chanen here.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
University of Georgia Study On Causes Of Death In Dogs
Breed-Specific Causes Of Death In Dogs Revealed By Landmark Study
Dog owners and veterinarians have long relied on a mix of limited data and anecdotal evidence to assess which breeds are at risk of dying from various conditions, but a new University of Georgia study provides a rare and comprehensive look at causes of death in more than 80 breeds.
The study, published in the current edition of the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, can be used to create breed-specific health maintenance programs and is a starting point for future studies that will explore the genetic underpinnings of disease in dogs.
"If we can anticipate better how things can go wrong for dogs, we can manage their wellness to keep them as healthy as possible," said study co-author Dr. Kate Creevy, an assistant professor in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine.
Creevy and her co-authors examined data from the Veterinary Medical Database to determine the cause of death for nearly 75,000 dogs over the 20-year period of 1984 through 2004. They classified the deaths by organ system and disease process and further analyzed the data by breed, age and average body mass. Eighty-two breeds are represented in their study, from the Afghan hound to the Yorkshire terrier.
While some of the findings corroborate smaller, breed-specific studies, the UGA researchers also found plenty of surprises. Toy breeds, such as Chihuahuas and Maltese, are known to have high rates of cardiovascular disease (19 and 21 percent of deaths within the breeds, respectively), for example, but the researchers found that Fox Terriers also have high rates of cardiovascular disease (16 percent of deaths). Golden retrievers and boxers are known to have high rates of cancer (50 and 44 percent of deaths, respectively), but the researchers found that the Bouvier des Flandres actually has a higher death rate from cancer (47 percent) than the boxer.
Creevy noted that the previously unknown high risk of cancer in the Bouvier, a relatively rare breed, highlights the power of their comprehensive approach.
"With rare breeds, an individual veterinarian may not see enough cases to be able to develop the opinion on whether the breed has a high incidence of conditions such as cancer," Creevy said. "But if you analyze records that have been compiled over 20 years, you can detect patterns that you wouldn't otherwise notice."
Study co-author Daniel Promislow, a genetics professor in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, said the study may help solve one of the great enigmas of canine health. "Normally, if you compare different species of mammals, big ones live longer than little ones - elephants live longer than mice, and sheep are in the middle, for example - and that pattern holds pretty well across hundreds of different species of mammals," Promislow said. "Within dogs, the opposite occurs; the little dogs live longer."
The researchers found that larger breeds are more likely to die of musculoskeletal disease, gastrointestinal disease and, most notably, cancer. Smaller breeds had higher death rates from metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and Cushing's disease.
Promislow said dogs are an ideal species in which to explore the genetic basis of disease. There's an unparalleled degree of diversity among breeds - compare Chihuahuas to Great Danes, for example - yet all dogs are of the species Canis lupus familiaris. Within breeds, on the other hand, dogs are genetically very similar.
Scientists first mapped the dog genome in 2003 and have since compiled data on genetic variation at single points on the genome for more than 80 breeds. By combining the genetic data with the data from their study, the UGA team can search for genes that influence the risk of diseases such as cancer.
Promislow pointed out that because the building blocks of the dog genome and the human genome are the same, understanding the genetic basis of disease in dogs can inform human medicine. If specific genes are found to play a significant role in Cushing's disease in dogs, for example, scientists can assess whether the same process occurs in humans with the disease, with the ultimate goal of creating new strategies for early diagnosis and subsequent treatment.
"Is genetic variation for disease due to a few genes that vary in the population and have a big effect or dozens or hundreds of genes with small effects? That's a basic biological question that we can address," Promislow said. "There's potential to learn a lot about the genetics of disease in general using the dog as a model."
Promislow approached Creevy with the idea of collaborating after acquiring gigabytes of data that required a veterinarian's expertise to analyze. Much of the initial data analysis was performed by former veterinary internal medicine resident Jamie Fleming, who is now in private practice in Port Washington, Wis.
Creevy noted that Promislow's background in evolutionary biology allows the team to explore questions that have implications far beyond veterinary medicine. She also pointed out that their collaboration underscores the potential of interdisciplinary research. "This study is a good example of the unique things that can happen at a research university," Creevy said.
Source:
Sam Fahmy
University of Georgia
Dog owners and veterinarians have long relied on a mix of limited data and anecdotal evidence to assess which breeds are at risk of dying from various conditions, but a new University of Georgia study provides a rare and comprehensive look at causes of death in more than 80 breeds.
The study, published in the current edition of the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, can be used to create breed-specific health maintenance programs and is a starting point for future studies that will explore the genetic underpinnings of disease in dogs.
"If we can anticipate better how things can go wrong for dogs, we can manage their wellness to keep them as healthy as possible," said study co-author Dr. Kate Creevy, an assistant professor in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine.
Creevy and her co-authors examined data from the Veterinary Medical Database to determine the cause of death for nearly 75,000 dogs over the 20-year period of 1984 through 2004. They classified the deaths by organ system and disease process and further analyzed the data by breed, age and average body mass. Eighty-two breeds are represented in their study, from the Afghan hound to the Yorkshire terrier.
While some of the findings corroborate smaller, breed-specific studies, the UGA researchers also found plenty of surprises. Toy breeds, such as Chihuahuas and Maltese, are known to have high rates of cardiovascular disease (19 and 21 percent of deaths within the breeds, respectively), for example, but the researchers found that Fox Terriers also have high rates of cardiovascular disease (16 percent of deaths). Golden retrievers and boxers are known to have high rates of cancer (50 and 44 percent of deaths, respectively), but the researchers found that the Bouvier des Flandres actually has a higher death rate from cancer (47 percent) than the boxer.
Creevy noted that the previously unknown high risk of cancer in the Bouvier, a relatively rare breed, highlights the power of their comprehensive approach.
"With rare breeds, an individual veterinarian may not see enough cases to be able to develop the opinion on whether the breed has a high incidence of conditions such as cancer," Creevy said. "But if you analyze records that have been compiled over 20 years, you can detect patterns that you wouldn't otherwise notice."
Study co-author Daniel Promislow, a genetics professor in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, said the study may help solve one of the great enigmas of canine health. "Normally, if you compare different species of mammals, big ones live longer than little ones - elephants live longer than mice, and sheep are in the middle, for example - and that pattern holds pretty well across hundreds of different species of mammals," Promislow said. "Within dogs, the opposite occurs; the little dogs live longer."
The researchers found that larger breeds are more likely to die of musculoskeletal disease, gastrointestinal disease and, most notably, cancer. Smaller breeds had higher death rates from metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and Cushing's disease.
Promislow said dogs are an ideal species in which to explore the genetic basis of disease. There's an unparalleled degree of diversity among breeds - compare Chihuahuas to Great Danes, for example - yet all dogs are of the species Canis lupus familiaris. Within breeds, on the other hand, dogs are genetically very similar.
Scientists first mapped the dog genome in 2003 and have since compiled data on genetic variation at single points on the genome for more than 80 breeds. By combining the genetic data with the data from their study, the UGA team can search for genes that influence the risk of diseases such as cancer.
Promislow pointed out that because the building blocks of the dog genome and the human genome are the same, understanding the genetic basis of disease in dogs can inform human medicine. If specific genes are found to play a significant role in Cushing's disease in dogs, for example, scientists can assess whether the same process occurs in humans with the disease, with the ultimate goal of creating new strategies for early diagnosis and subsequent treatment.
"Is genetic variation for disease due to a few genes that vary in the population and have a big effect or dozens or hundreds of genes with small effects? That's a basic biological question that we can address," Promislow said. "There's potential to learn a lot about the genetics of disease in general using the dog as a model."
Promislow approached Creevy with the idea of collaborating after acquiring gigabytes of data that required a veterinarian's expertise to analyze. Much of the initial data analysis was performed by former veterinary internal medicine resident Jamie Fleming, who is now in private practice in Port Washington, Wis.
Creevy noted that Promislow's background in evolutionary biology allows the team to explore questions that have implications far beyond veterinary medicine. She also pointed out that their collaboration underscores the potential of interdisciplinary research. "This study is a good example of the unique things that can happen at a research university," Creevy said.
Source:
Sam Fahmy
University of Georgia
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Two From Arizona Facing Animal Cruelty Charges
Photo by Chandler Police Department
This is as low as it comes when you just get up and leave your pets to fend for themselves. These two animal abusers named Karine Hawley and Buddie Kent were living in an apartment in Chandler, AZ and just got up and left their five pit bulls in the apartment with no food or water.
Reading this is so upsetting when you read the outcome of their crime: Two of the dogs had died and the other dogs were feeding of the dog dogs just trying to survive.
Read the article by Edythe Jensen here.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Today’s Video’s: A Dog Stuck For 3 Weeks & 54 Dogs Rescued
This poor dog Lucy had gotten loose three weeks ago and was finally found along a river bank after being stuck there for three weeks.
See the video here.
See the video of the Chester County SPCA rescuing fifty four dogs in Malvern, PA here.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
What Started Out As A Poster Contest For Animal Cruelty Sure Had Some Surprises
What better way than to help kids understand animal cruelty then to get them involved with awareness. So an organization called Animal Rescue Superhighway that was founded by Melanie VanNuys offered to help the local grammar schools kids in Brooke, Hancock, Harrison and Jefferson counties in Ohio.
And that was all that happened for these little kids, they had a guest visitor named Prospect and his Chauffeur named Ed from K9roadtrip. I’ll bet these little kids were sure happy as some of the kids received awards along with the visit from Prospect.
Melanie Van Nuys from Animal Rescue Super Highway said: Cruelty is out there. The sooner they learn in their early years, instill compassion and respect it will be better and stop potential abuse later on.
While Ed the Chauffeur said: He brought lots of love and companionship to my life, animals have a lot to offer to humans: patience, understanding. You have to look at that.
Read the article by Amy Wadas here.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Animal Shelter Using Shock Collar Burns Dog Neck
So you dog gets loose and the local animal shelter which is in Maple Grove, MN locks your dog up over night, and they put a shock collar on the dog so he won’t bark throughout the night. And when you get your dog back the poor dog has a bad burn on his neck.
Well after looking at this video this poor dog’s neck is so burnt up due to this collar as per the dog's owner Julie Nestico.
I don’t know about you but my wife brought one of these collars for one of our dogs and after watching the first shock the poor dog got, I threw the dam thing out. So I can believe Julie as she is blaming the shelter for the burns on her dog.
Read the article Lauren Radomski here.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Missouri Sells Out On Puppy Mill Law Over Greed
This is unbelievable for the voters that voted for this bill to have it knocked down because the state thinks that the money that would be lost is more important.
The president of the Humane Society of the United States Wayne Pacelle said: The effort in Jefferson City is a piece by piece dismantling of every core provision. It suggests to me that this is an industry that wants deregulation. They want to do things that they want and to heck with the people who care about dogs or consumers as long as there are enough dogs purchased.
I have to agree with Pacelle and I wonder if all of those who voted on reversing this bill are going to adopt all the poor dogs that are sitting in the shelters due to the over breeding. And how many of them have seen the bad side of some of these so called breeders.
Read the article here.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Need To Find A Local Vet, Now You Can
American Veterinary Medical Association Launches MyVeterinarian.com, An Online Search Tool For Pet Owners
Pet owners searching for a veterinarian need look no further than the American Veterinary Medical Association's MyVeterinarian.com.
Only a mouse click away, MyVeterinarian.com provides pet owners with detailed information about veterinary practices from around the country. Whether they're welcoming a new pet to the home, are moving into a new home themselves or are looking for a veterinarian while out of town, pet owners can rely on MyVeterinarian.com 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
"What makes MyVeterinarian.com superior to other online veterinary search tools is the amount of information we provide about each practice on our site," said Dr. Larry Kornegay, AVMA president and a companion-animal practitioner from Houston, Texas. "There aren't any other sites that give you as much information in one place."
Visitors to MyVeterinarian.com simply type in a zip code if they're looking for a veterinarian in a geographic area. The list that's provided contains everything a pet owner needs to know: The clinic's name, address, phone number and business hours; the medical services provided; the species of animals served; and the names of the veterinarians on staff. Practices can also list their website address, and a map is available to show the clinic's location.
Pet owners can also search the site for specific health and pet-care related topics, such as what clinics might offer dermatologic or behavior services, for example, or where boarding and training is available. A link on the site to the AVMA's Animal Health page provides access to valuable information related to general pet care, emergency and first aid resources, and many other pet-related topics. Access to all of the information on MyVeterinarian.com is free.
"Thousands of practices are listed on MyVeterinarian.com, and we're adding more every day," Dr. Kornegay said. "Pet owners who visit our site can be assured that they are getting information from a trusted source that represents more than 81,500 veterinarians across the country."
Source:
American Veterinary Medical Association
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Will Alabama House Vote For Ban On Gassing Dogs To Death
So far all of the Alabama Senators have voted for a bill that Republican Sen. Del Marsh had sponsored to put an end of the gas chambers in the animal shelters.
After reading how cruel these gas chambers are over the years and Alabama even had a dog that survived being killed by one of these, it will be nice to see this bill pass.
Read the article here.
After reading how cruel these gas chambers are over the years and Alabama even had a dog that survived being killed by one of these, it will be nice to see this bill pass.
Read the article here.
The Store Was Called Forever Puppies Which Turned Out To Be Hell
An unlicensed pet store owner named Debora Van Oort ran a pet store called Forever Puppies but when the Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control workers went into her place of business they found two dead puppies and no food for the other animals.
Photo by Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post
The worst part was when the workers search Debora’s home they found five dead dogs in her freezer along with two other dead animals in her home.
How sick is this for a person who has the gall to name her store Forever Puppies. And to think that the judge only charged Debora Van Oort today with: failure to pay a puppy supplier.
What about all the abuse the dead dogs and the animal abuse which she did to these poor little dogs is what I would like to know.
Read the article by Michael Laforgia, Sonja Isger and Cynthia Roldan here.
The worst part was when the workers search Debora’s home they found five dead dogs in her freezer along with two other dead animals in her home.
How sick is this for a person who has the gall to name her store Forever Puppies. And to think that the judge only charged Debora Van Oort today with: failure to pay a puppy supplier.
What about all the abuse the dead dogs and the animal abuse which she did to these poor little dogs is what I would like to know.
Read the article by Michael Laforgia, Sonja Isger and Cynthia Roldan here.
Philadelphia Arrest 14 For Dog Fighting
Yesterday the Pennsylvania SPCA and the police made a raid at a few different locations which resulted in the arrest of fourteen animal abusers. The SPCA were also able to rescue twenty six dogs as a result of the raid.
Supposedly there were around twenty five animal abusers at the dog fight, but the police were only able to arrest fourteen of them. Their names are: Henry Beard, Rashawn Coleman, Jerome Davis, Paul Escobosa, Vincent Floyd, Theodore Gaines, Jonathan Galarza, Edward Gonzalez, Paul Greenidge, Jeffrey Harris, Marcquel Johnson, Donte Jones, Daniel Parmegiani and Juan Rosa.
Hopefully the dogs with be able to find good homes where they will be loved and these animal abusers will be the ones locked up in cages.
If you want to see their photo’s and read the article by Nicole Brewer and Jim Melwert here.
Supposedly there were around twenty five animal abusers at the dog fight, but the police were only able to arrest fourteen of them. Their names are: Henry Beard, Rashawn Coleman, Jerome Davis, Paul Escobosa, Vincent Floyd, Theodore Gaines, Jonathan Galarza, Edward Gonzalez, Paul Greenidge, Jeffrey Harris, Marcquel Johnson, Donte Jones, Daniel Parmegiani and Juan Rosa.
Hopefully the dogs with be able to find good homes where they will be loved and these animal abusers will be the ones locked up in cages.
If you want to see their photo’s and read the article by Nicole Brewer and Jim Melwert here.
Monday, April 11, 2011
The 6th Canine Vector Borne Disease Forum Calls For Greater Awareness
Veterinarians And Pet Owners Urged To Act Upon Evolving Dangers Posed By CVBDs
Leading experts from around the world came together today to share their latest research findings at the 6th Canine Vector Borne Disease (CVBD) forum in Nice, France and call for greater awareness of the dangers posed to animals and humans by these increasingly important diseases. "A number of the CVBDs cause real suffering and even death in dogs, and many represent a zoonotic risk. It's vital that veterinarians and pet owners everywhere understand the seriousness of the threats posed, and take action to prevent transmission of these diseases" said Prof. Dwight Bowman of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, USA.
"Data presented here highlight the underestimation and underreporting of serious diseases such as Tick-Borne Encephalitis (TBE), despite their potential to threaten the life of infected animals" according to Prof. Martin Pfeffer of the Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, Germany. "Like many of the CVBDs, TBE has spread beyond its traditional home and is being found across Europe and Asia, exposing previously unaffected populations to this serious disease. In light of the increasing geographical spread of diseases like TBE, veterinarians should ensure all dogs are protected from the threat of CVBD transmission and should consider even 'exotic' or 'rare' diseases when diagnosing sick animals."
This theme was taken up by Prof. Luís Cardoso of the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal, whose group reported the first cases of clinical babesiosis by Babesia microti-like piroplasm outside Spain. "This finding is important as this form of babesiosis is previously unknown in Portugal and we found not just two infected adults with a history of travel to endemic areas, but also infection in a puppy with no history of travel outside the country. This suggests that either the disease is capable of being transmitted from mother to pup or that there is now a reservoir of infection in Portugal."
Further evidence of the changing face of CVBD management came from Dr Filipe Dantas-Torres of the Department of Veterinary Public Health at the University of Bari, Italy, who presented data suggesting that the common Brown Dog tick (Rhicephalus sanguineus) has the potential to be involved in the epidemiology of leishmaniosis, a disease that can prove fatal to dogs and humans. Dr Dantas-Torres explained "If our hypothesis is confirmed, we would in a next step investigate whether ticks could also transmit Leishmania infantum to dogs which would dramatically increase the geographical reach of leishmaniosis. Currently however, only sand flies are proven biological vectors of the Leishmania parasites."
According to Prof. Domenico Otranto of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (Universitá degli Studi di Bari) Italy, "These findings reinforce the message that tick bite and sand fly prevention through a repellent parasiticide is a must for all dogs travelling to CVBD endemic areas. Not just because of the threat posed to the animal itself, but also to prevent the CVBD pathogens establishing in new, non-endemic areas and spreading via blood-sucking parasites."
Many of the discoveries presented at this year's meeting were made possible due to major advances in the field of molecular biology and genomics. In his keynote address, Prof. Robin Gasser from the Faculty of Veterinary Science of The University of Melbourne, took an evolutionary perspective and explained how the discovery of DNA, the development of nucleic sequencing and the initiation of large-scale biological and biomedical research, have driven changes in veterinary medicine, particularly over the last decade. Prof. Gasser spoke of challenges and of the major impact that next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic technologies are having in many fundamental and applied areas of infectious diseases, as they become more accessible. "These 'omic technologies will completely change the way we study CVBDs and will substantially deepen our understanding of parasites, vectors and host relationships, pathogenesis, epidemiology and ecology at the molecular level. These fundamental insights will underpin the design of radically new interventions and management strategies against these important diseases into the future."
In this context, Dr Xavier Roura of the Hospital Clinic Veterinari of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, presented promising new applications of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostics at the meeting and emphasized the value of these new techniques; "The advent of Real Time PCR means that it is now possible to track disease development through reliable quantitative results. Veterinarians need to be aware of these new advances in diagnostics that make identification of CVBDs more accessible and accurate and take action to ensure that they take advantage of their benefits to improve prognosis and treatment decisions."
The CVBD World Forum is supported by Bayer Animal Health as part of its ongoing commitment to advancing research into CVBDs worldwide. "We are committed to advancing the scientific understanding of CVBDs by bringing together the latest researchers from around the world in this unique forum - we are proud to have played our part in ensuring the next chapter in global CVDB management and prevention is written in 2011," said Maria de Lourdes Mottier, Global Veterinary Services Manager, Bayer Animal Health.
Further information on the diseases discussed in this release can be found along with video interviews with key speakers from the 6th CVDB Forum here.
Live updates made during the forum are available here.
Source:
Bayer HealthCare AG
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Video Called A Cat And The Dolphin
Yes I know that this is a dog blog, but I couldn't pass up posting this video.
There’s One Less Animal Shelter In Oklahoma Due To A Fire
Photo by NewsOn6.com
Times are hard enough for all the animal shelters but to read about the Heartland Humane Society shelter that burned down in Bristow sure makes the outlook bad for them. Thankfully all the animals made it out safe and weren’t killed by the fire.
Word is that the Oklahoma Lucky Dawg Rescue has stepped up to take the animals in to help support Heartland Humane Society's needs. So if you can help support them in their needs on taken care of these animals you can contact the Oklahoma Lucky Dawg Rescue here.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Unlicensed Humane Society Gets Shut Down
What is being call as an unlicensed Humane Society in Pendleton County, KY has been shut down after someone tipped of the authorities and a warrant was served to the owner Carletta Chaney.
There were a total of eighty five dogs and eight cats that were removed from a warehouse where the so called shelter was being ran out of.
The owner Carletta Chaney said: I don't have a license, but I have trouble getting one and the county attorney told my attorney for me not to get one. And her reply to the horrid smell of ammonia in the building was: It's only been hot two days, we haven't opened the exhaust fans yet. They were closed for the winter because it makes the heat bills so much more.
So where do you go from there now that these dogs and cats were moved to two different shelters. Was this place really being run right or not, but the bottom line was that Carletta didn’t have a license.
Read the article here.
There was also a good article about people using phony service dog license which has gotten a lot of people upset.
Read the article by Carmel Cafiero here.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Bernese Mountain Dog Rescued By Helicopter After Being Lost In The Mountains For 15 Days
After a long fifteen day search looking for Darwin Schandor’s lost Bernese Mountain dog the North Shore Rescue crew were able to air lift his missing dog named Hurley to safety.
Apparently Hurley had gotten lost in the Vancouver, North Shore mountains and was not wearing a GPS that was part of the deal from a dog service company while the Schandor’s were on vacation.
The search manager from North Shore Rescue Tim Jones said: Hurley was found on a three metre wide ledge at the five fifty metre elevation beside a water source. He probably fell and tumbled there. He wasn't hurt other than a scratched paw, but he was stuck and he couldn't get off.
Read the article by Kim Pemberton here.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Rescued Puppy Mill Dog Get’s Life Saving Heart Surgery
A little puppy that has been named Puff who was rescued for a puppy mill in Minnesota has gotten a life saving surgery by doctors at the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Clinic.
The Executive Director from the Underdog Rescue in St. Paul, MN named Shannon McKenzie said: Puff was rescued from a puppy mill and she was born with a congenital heart problem.
It amazes me how far we have come for a vet to be able to do heart surgery on a dog who had patent ductus arteriosus. And a big Thanks goes out to the anonymous donor the paid for this poor dog’s surgery.
Read the article by Jeffery DeMars here.
The Executive Director from the Underdog Rescue in St. Paul, MN named Shannon McKenzie said: Puff was rescued from a puppy mill and she was born with a congenital heart problem.
It amazes me how far we have come for a vet to be able to do heart surgery on a dog who had patent ductus arteriosus. And a big Thanks goes out to the anonymous donor the paid for this poor dog’s surgery.
Read the article by Jeffery DeMars here.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
UK Vets Are Warning Dog Owners About Lungworm Breakout
What is being said is that the killer parasite called Lungworm is spreading though out the country at an alarming rate. This parasitic worm will cause severe respiratory problems and sometimes be fatal it not treated in time.
Last year a Doctor named Eric Morgan from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences who led the research said: This parasite can cause serious disease and is spreading, reaching many new areas (including Bristol and Scotland) in the last few years. Disease can present in a variety of ways, not necessarily involving respiratory signs, so pet owners and their vets should be aware of the risk. Disease is most common in younger dogs, though age is not a barrier to infection. On the bright side, dogs that are treated regularly with appropriate wormers are at lower risk, so we can act to protect our pets’ health.
If you would like to learn more about this parasite Bayer has put up a web site for some great info for pet owners here.
Read the article here.
Last year a Doctor named Eric Morgan from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences who led the research said: This parasite can cause serious disease and is spreading, reaching many new areas (including Bristol and Scotland) in the last few years. Disease can present in a variety of ways, not necessarily involving respiratory signs, so pet owners and their vets should be aware of the risk. Disease is most common in younger dogs, though age is not a barrier to infection. On the bright side, dogs that are treated regularly with appropriate wormers are at lower risk, so we can act to protect our pets’ health.
If you would like to learn more about this parasite Bayer has put up a web site for some great info for pet owners here.
Read the article here.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Who Would Duct Tape A Dogs Mouth Shut
Well it was two lowlifes named Ricky Allen Adams and Frederick Newton Lease from Cumberland, Maryland who had duct tape a dogs mouth shut. The main problem for this poor dog was that it was on the loose for a week before anyone was able to catch the dog.
Now these two lowlifes are being charged with animal cruelty with a possibility of more charges being added.
So now the big question is: Who owns this poor little dog that has been nicked named Ducky.
Read the article by Jeffrey Alderton here.
The Slaughter Of Dogs In Romania For Profit
This is a translation from the original post:
The Stray Dog Business in Romania
Between 2001 and 2011 the Romanian animal control people have killed hundreds of thousands dogs by spending tens of millions of EUROs in public funds, while the number of stray dogs only grew larger.
For example, in Brasov, although there were only 4,000 stray dogs in 2001, the dog catchers managed to "kill" about 20,000 in 8 years. The only noticeable result of the "final solution" was the emergence of a classic mechanism of siphoning off public money, put in place by the local authorities and animal protection services in Bucharest and many other cites and towns (Brasov, Arad, Constanta, Timisoara, Ramnicu Valcea, Braila, etc.), authorities that came to realize that the mere existence of the that strays is a very profitable business for the following reasons:
- Budgets. Under the pretext of the "stray's terror" generous budgets were allocated. The Bucharest do catchers spent about 13 million EURO in 7 years. The dog catchers in Brasov spent about 2 million EURO in 8 years. Overall it is estimated that Romania spent between 25 and 40 million EURO on strays from 2001 until 2008.
- The flexibility of the budgets. Contrary to the popular belief that fuels the anti-stray protests, the money spent on food for the strays was just a infinitesimal part of the budget, as the dog were being fed "subliminal" quantities, to quote the so called specialists from DSVA Brasov. Out of a total budget of 1,500,000 lei for 2008, the dog catchers in Brasov allocated only 5,000 lei for the dog food, less than 3%. Instead enormous gas quotas were approved. In Brasov, 4 rundown old cars with easy to tamper with mileage tracking systems were each allocated about 350-400 l of gas per month, which means each car did about 100 km/day. Land was rented for the municipality shelters, despite that fact that local authorities had land they could build on. In Brasov, the municipality paid in 8 years more than 1,500EURO/month (170,000 EURO in total) to the owners of a former swine farm that was in really bad condition and it also invested in modernizing the farm. All of this while it could have built a brand new shelter with 15,000 EURO on a land it owned.
About 100,000 lei were annually spent on tranquilizers and lethal substances, but nobody ever checked that against the number of dogs reported caught and/or euthanized. These substances were bought illegally (without prescriptions), used illegally (because the dog catchers got lazy and started to catch all dogs with tranquilizers, committing two felonies and one ?) and may have even been used or sold as drugs (Vetased, the most used tranquilizer contains ketamine, which is used as a drug and is legally considered drug since 2010).
In Brasov, the chief dog-catcher even got to buy his own jeep, a Mitubischi L200, for about 30,000 EURO, under the pretext of helping large animals, such as cows, pigs. Bears, rhinoceros or giraffes that might have wondered into the public roundabouts build by mayor Scripcaru. Rumor has it that the jeep is used in certain weekends by two local authorities in their hunting trips.
- The business of gathering dogs. Several mayors with business "abilities" transformed the local animal control departments into businesses that made money by catching and killing dogs from small towns that didn't have their own shelters or by catching the dogs in a town without shelter and "hosting" the dogs in a different city, tens of km away. The corrupt mayors became so addicted to these profits that they imposed quotas on their dog catchers: the Brasov dog catchers hunted in 4-5 counties, bringing over 120,000 lei to Brasov's budget. Most of the dogs were exterminated in the Stupini shelter and a small number were handed over to other cities that had shelters.
The whole operation was made profitable at the price of torturing the animals and breaking the Romanian animal protection laws. After loading up the dogs and before heading for Brasov, the Brasov dog catchers would be paid per number of dogs for capture, transportation, sheltering and euthanasia.
Since they were already paid and everyone saw them leaving with the dogs, nothing (certainly not their conscience) stopped the dog catchers from releasing most of the dogs on their way back to Brasov, to make sure that the problem continues and they are called back to "help". Any animal lover would be happy to hear that, if they didn't know that the dogs would be caught again and again, sometimes injured in the process, and would most likely continue to multiply.
- The counting of the dogs. The audit of the activity of the do catchers was a chimera. Nobody was really counting the dogs. Nobody knew how many dogs actually went through their hands, from capturing through incineration, especially since the documents for Protan (the incineration company) were filled out by the dog catchers themselves who approximated the weight of the bodies, filling in numbers with a lot of digits and even decimal points, and tried to make it match the number of dogs they claimed to have caught. It was very easy for them to claim for example they caught 5,000 dogs while in reality they caught half of that number. The dogs that (fictionally) entered the center were also supposed to (fictionally) leave the shelter. On June 25, 2009, according to the official documents, between 131 and 54 dogs were killed in Brasov. A witness and several documents point to the fact that only 90 animals were killed and that those dogs were from Victoria, Fagaras and a few other towns. In November 4, 2009, the Brasov dog catchers captured 46 dogs in Covasna. People from Covasna were told that the dogs were in the Brasov shelter and people from Brasov were told they were in the Covasna shelter, but the dogs were not found in either shelter. On June 1st 2010 the Brasov dog catchers caught 48 dogs in Sangeorgiu de Mures and transported them to the Reghin shelter. The Reghin shelter received and registered only 25 dogs.
Another way to make money was to manipulate the adoption numbers, especially the adoptions towards private shelters: adopted dogs were also counted as euthanatized. In 2008 at least 400 dogs were adopted from the Brasov dog catchers by the "Millions of friends" rescue association. In the official documents that number is 0!
Finally, another way was to modify the number of deceased dogs, by recording a smaller number than the real one and accordingly increase the number of euthanized dogs. For 2008, the shelter mortality as it resulted from official records was of 79 dogs, meaning a dog died every 4 days. In the first months of 2009, the mortality was of only 23 dogs, meaning a dog did every 8 days. In reality, the number of dogs that died in the shelter is much higher: at least 300-400 in 2008 and at least 150 in 2009. And there were also the dead dogs that were found in the city and which had to be, of course, euthanized.
Through all of these manipulations the animal control folks were gaining about 25-30 lei per dog, by either selling the substances for euthanasia or by writing fictional invoices, in complicity with folks from the veterinary supply deposits.
- Protan and how to incinerate public money. The incineration of a 20 kg dog costs 10 EURO (0.5 EURO/kg). Since most shelters don't have weight scales and Protan reception documents specify that the quantity column should be filled out by the customer, the weight was eyeballed by the animal control folks. If you fictionally kill between 40 and 60 animals, you also need to approximate their weight and fictionally incinerate about 1,000kg, which brings Protan about $500 EURO.
If you extrapolate this schema to a whole year between 10,000 and 15,000 EURO were embezzled in Brasov only.
It was obvious that this whole embezzlement mechanism was accompanied by a long term strategy to keep the animals on the streets. When they were out hunting in other cities the dog catchers were catching everything they could get their hands on, especially dogs with owners or protectors and dogs that were sterilized and returned to their territory according to HG 955/2004. There were cases where dogs were taken while walking next to their owners or where the dog catchers went into people's yards and took their dogs. A lot of the owners tried to negotiate a return fee smaller than the official one and eventually, especially in Bucharest, a "protection fee" paid to the dog catchers became the norm.
Although the problem of the aggressive dogs was supposedly the number one priority, the animal control folks rarely caught aggressive dogs. Instead they almost always took puppies and little, friendly dogs that were easy and safe to catch. This approach had the double benefit of keeping the dangerous dogs on the streets in order to perpetuate the "terror of the strays" while making the dog catchers appear as heroes and saviors in the eyes of the people.
Quarrels... in the "dogcatchers ' paradise"
At the end of December 2007 the Deputies Chamber voted a modification of the Animal Protection Law(205/2004) also known as "Marinescu's Law".Among other things, this law classifies animal cruelty as a crime punishable by law and prohibits the euthanasia of healthy cats or dogs.It seemed as if common sense and logic had won over the hundreds of mayors and dogcatchers (who during 8 years managed to "bury" aprox. 35 million euros in a mountain of stray corps).Also, during the same time, in December 2007, the Senate modified the law concerning the strays and replaced euthanasia with spay/neuter and returning to territory, according to the WHO's guidelines. AND NOW COMES THE "PROBLEM"....These two new legislative measures would have solved the strays problem, leaving all of those who made big money from the "stray business" without their huge profits!!!
The conspiracy
All the dogcatchers and their "official sponsors" quickly realized that if the new legislative proposals (PL912) will be presented to the ADP in spring 2008, the new law will become definitive, as approved by the Senate.Their only chance was to postpone and prolong this indefinitely. This would have given the dogcatchers plenty of time to still operate as before , the solution wouldn't have been applied and it would present later on as the perfect excuse to suggest euthanasia of all strays as the number of strays would have grown even more.Their evil plan worked, as the new legislative proposal (PL912) still has yet to be presented to ADP since 2008!
ANSVA , DSVSA and other public institutions
Although euthanasia had been abolished, majority of public administrations across country continued the mass killing of strays , using the most absurd justifications: suddenly, all strays became terminally ill (backed up by false documents produced by corrupt state employees)or using "personal interpretation " of the law. All this was going on with the silent approval of the official services for animal protection, just as corrupt as the public administrations: ANSVSA and DSVSA.
Thousands of strays were captured, the "lucky"ones being detained sometimes for a couple of weeks before their death in the official "shelters": filthy,cold , very small cages, lying in their own feces, deprived of food and water, beaten and abused daily and then finally killed by untrained or uneducated dogcatchers, in the most cruel ways possible, suffering the most unimaginable pain till the last breath...
Anybody that get the chance to see some of their official evidence of these atrocities would be appalled by the gruesome mistakes used to justify what they did.
As many of these dogcatchers are paid by the local authorities, their only "enemy" are the NGO's. Therefore, they are doing their best to keep the NGO's as far away as possible, refusing any collaboration or cooperation with them.
The Almighty dogcatcher and his dark amendments....
About a year later, once a few people started complaining about their dirty business, the almighty dogcatchers across the country started to be concerned and thus considered it's the perfect time to start changing the law according to their interest.
The "chosen" one to formulate the new proposal of law was no other than Barbulescu Flavius ( famous for killing 30000 dogs in 8 years and having at least 6 legal complaints against him) , supported by Simona Panaitescu. Both of then had the "blessing" of Brasov's mayer, George Cripcaru, also known as "Dracula of dogs",prominent member of PDL (Democratic-Liberal Party) and a man used to manipulate the laws according to his best interests.
Barbulescu's new law proposal included mass euthanasia of strays , banning the NGO's any involvement in the dogcatchers or municipal shelters activity, obstructing adoptions by implementing severe fines for people feeding or taking care of strays on the streets
The evil plan
Once Barbulescu's "masterpiece" was finished, they needed someone to make it public. And who better than Bucharest's prefect , Mihai Atanasoaiei , well known for his embarrassing public speeches and appearances. After that, the game moved on to Elena Udrea and Sulfina Barbu.
Zanfir Iorgus (PDL) :"The best solution is spay/neuter...or Euthanasia...or better yet let the mayors decide!"
Sulfina Barbu:" I suggest that it should be mandatory by law that local administrations and NGO'S became partners.." .....that was all she had to say after all NGO's representatives explained and documented 453,17 arguments against the reintroduction of mass euthanasia of strays. They have showed her in every way possible why mass killing of dogs is inefficient,inhumane, absurd, very expensive and not cost-effective compared to the alternative,against WHO's guidelines: They also showed her how during the last 7 years the officials did nothing to solve this problem the right way, how they delayed everything , didn't pass the law , abused the power they had, continued the killings and misused the taxpayers money.....
Manipulation
Their biggest weapon is the manipulation of the population through mass-media. Their "servant" PRO TV always "deliver" twisting the facts and lying out in the open without remorse, just as long as they can blame something on the strays (e.g. The case of a woman attacked by dogs in a private yard, because she entered the premises at night, without any authorization, presented to the public as a woman killed by strays. The same type of story happened again, a drunk woman was attacked by dogs who had owners, and they also blamed the strays for her death. Even after the official reports from the investigations were released, PRO TV never rectified their stories , apologized, on the contrary, everyday they try to find more things that they can blame the strays for...
And PRO TV is not the only one. There are other TV stations and newspapers in the same boat.
Elena Udrea
She is one of the biggest supporters of euthanasia of all strays, as a future candidate for the Mayor of Bucharest. She encourages the passing of the anti strays law, claiming that this is the "American"model, but failing to realize the HUGE differences between the two countries when it comes to animal welfare.
SUMMARY/RECAP
2007: The Senate votes PL 912/2007 that replaces the mass killing of strays with spay/neuter/release
2008: Animal Protection Law prohibits mass euthanasia.
ADP from Deputies Chamber blocks the discussion of this law for 3 YEARS!!!
Meanwhile, local authorities continue the killing and totally ignore the solution:spay/neuter/release. They are officially breaking the law and try to cover for all who do that also.
In Brasov, a German organization offered to spa/ neuter all the city's strays but were completely ignored by local authorities.
The only town where the mayor actually used spay/ neuter/release programs was Oradea, and the results are showing: in 6 years the population of strays decreased 8 times.
So after 3 long years of blocking PL912 from being approved, the politicians want now to "solve"the stray problem by mass killing!!!
Knowing very well that euthanasia is not a solution, they all want that as it is a guarantee for more dirty money to be made in the future from "the stray business". Spay/neuter/ return programs would only jeopardize their source of dirty profits!
On the 1st of March 2011, Sulfina Barbu sneaked in Atanasoaiei's new proposals of law(modifying PL912) which granted the mayors the liberty to decide on euthanasia or not. Animal lovers were protesting outside the Parliament's Building unnoticed...
On the 7th of March 2011 , when ADP tried to vote the "new and improved "PL912 with Atanasoaiei's proposals, a miracle happened:the deputies decided to return the law to the Commission to allow the NGO' s and Animal Welfare groups to be consultants and the law to be re-discussed after 3 weeks.
This delay "caught by surprised" a lot of mayors too, who already counted on the mass euthanasia to be approved and were "ready" to take action, having everything ready do to "the job". And strangely enough, during these 3 weeks more and more cases of strays shot, poisoned, beaten to death, burned , abused and tortured appear every day , all over the country...
Read the original post here: Adopta un caine!
The Stray Dog Business in Romania
Between 2001 and 2011 the Romanian animal control people have killed hundreds of thousands dogs by spending tens of millions of EUROs in public funds, while the number of stray dogs only grew larger.
For example, in Brasov, although there were only 4,000 stray dogs in 2001, the dog catchers managed to "kill" about 20,000 in 8 years. The only noticeable result of the "final solution" was the emergence of a classic mechanism of siphoning off public money, put in place by the local authorities and animal protection services in Bucharest and many other cites and towns (Brasov, Arad, Constanta, Timisoara, Ramnicu Valcea, Braila, etc.), authorities that came to realize that the mere existence of the that strays is a very profitable business for the following reasons:
- Budgets. Under the pretext of the "stray's terror" generous budgets were allocated. The Bucharest do catchers spent about 13 million EURO in 7 years. The dog catchers in Brasov spent about 2 million EURO in 8 years. Overall it is estimated that Romania spent between 25 and 40 million EURO on strays from 2001 until 2008.
- The flexibility of the budgets. Contrary to the popular belief that fuels the anti-stray protests, the money spent on food for the strays was just a infinitesimal part of the budget, as the dog were being fed "subliminal" quantities, to quote the so called specialists from DSVA Brasov. Out of a total budget of 1,500,000 lei for 2008, the dog catchers in Brasov allocated only 5,000 lei for the dog food, less than 3%. Instead enormous gas quotas were approved. In Brasov, 4 rundown old cars with easy to tamper with mileage tracking systems were each allocated about 350-400 l of gas per month, which means each car did about 100 km/day. Land was rented for the municipality shelters, despite that fact that local authorities had land they could build on. In Brasov, the municipality paid in 8 years more than 1,500EURO/month (170,000 EURO in total) to the owners of a former swine farm that was in really bad condition and it also invested in modernizing the farm. All of this while it could have built a brand new shelter with 15,000 EURO on a land it owned.
About 100,000 lei were annually spent on tranquilizers and lethal substances, but nobody ever checked that against the number of dogs reported caught and/or euthanized. These substances were bought illegally (without prescriptions), used illegally (because the dog catchers got lazy and started to catch all dogs with tranquilizers, committing two felonies and one ?) and may have even been used or sold as drugs (Vetased, the most used tranquilizer contains ketamine, which is used as a drug and is legally considered drug since 2010).
In Brasov, the chief dog-catcher even got to buy his own jeep, a Mitubischi L200, for about 30,000 EURO, under the pretext of helping large animals, such as cows, pigs. Bears, rhinoceros or giraffes that might have wondered into the public roundabouts build by mayor Scripcaru. Rumor has it that the jeep is used in certain weekends by two local authorities in their hunting trips.
- The business of gathering dogs. Several mayors with business "abilities" transformed the local animal control departments into businesses that made money by catching and killing dogs from small towns that didn't have their own shelters or by catching the dogs in a town without shelter and "hosting" the dogs in a different city, tens of km away. The corrupt mayors became so addicted to these profits that they imposed quotas on their dog catchers: the Brasov dog catchers hunted in 4-5 counties, bringing over 120,000 lei to Brasov's budget. Most of the dogs were exterminated in the Stupini shelter and a small number were handed over to other cities that had shelters.
The whole operation was made profitable at the price of torturing the animals and breaking the Romanian animal protection laws. After loading up the dogs and before heading for Brasov, the Brasov dog catchers would be paid per number of dogs for capture, transportation, sheltering and euthanasia.
Since they were already paid and everyone saw them leaving with the dogs, nothing (certainly not their conscience) stopped the dog catchers from releasing most of the dogs on their way back to Brasov, to make sure that the problem continues and they are called back to "help". Any animal lover would be happy to hear that, if they didn't know that the dogs would be caught again and again, sometimes injured in the process, and would most likely continue to multiply.
- The counting of the dogs. The audit of the activity of the do catchers was a chimera. Nobody was really counting the dogs. Nobody knew how many dogs actually went through their hands, from capturing through incineration, especially since the documents for Protan (the incineration company) were filled out by the dog catchers themselves who approximated the weight of the bodies, filling in numbers with a lot of digits and even decimal points, and tried to make it match the number of dogs they claimed to have caught. It was very easy for them to claim for example they caught 5,000 dogs while in reality they caught half of that number. The dogs that (fictionally) entered the center were also supposed to (fictionally) leave the shelter. On June 25, 2009, according to the official documents, between 131 and 54 dogs were killed in Brasov. A witness and several documents point to the fact that only 90 animals were killed and that those dogs were from Victoria, Fagaras and a few other towns. In November 4, 2009, the Brasov dog catchers captured 46 dogs in Covasna. People from Covasna were told that the dogs were in the Brasov shelter and people from Brasov were told they were in the Covasna shelter, but the dogs were not found in either shelter. On June 1st 2010 the Brasov dog catchers caught 48 dogs in Sangeorgiu de Mures and transported them to the Reghin shelter. The Reghin shelter received and registered only 25 dogs.
Another way to make money was to manipulate the adoption numbers, especially the adoptions towards private shelters: adopted dogs were also counted as euthanatized. In 2008 at least 400 dogs were adopted from the Brasov dog catchers by the "Millions of friends" rescue association. In the official documents that number is 0!
Finally, another way was to modify the number of deceased dogs, by recording a smaller number than the real one and accordingly increase the number of euthanized dogs. For 2008, the shelter mortality as it resulted from official records was of 79 dogs, meaning a dog died every 4 days. In the first months of 2009, the mortality was of only 23 dogs, meaning a dog did every 8 days. In reality, the number of dogs that died in the shelter is much higher: at least 300-400 in 2008 and at least 150 in 2009. And there were also the dead dogs that were found in the city and which had to be, of course, euthanized.
Through all of these manipulations the animal control folks were gaining about 25-30 lei per dog, by either selling the substances for euthanasia or by writing fictional invoices, in complicity with folks from the veterinary supply deposits.
- Protan and how to incinerate public money. The incineration of a 20 kg dog costs 10 EURO (0.5 EURO/kg). Since most shelters don't have weight scales and Protan reception documents specify that the quantity column should be filled out by the customer, the weight was eyeballed by the animal control folks. If you fictionally kill between 40 and 60 animals, you also need to approximate their weight and fictionally incinerate about 1,000kg, which brings Protan about $500 EURO.
If you extrapolate this schema to a whole year between 10,000 and 15,000 EURO were embezzled in Brasov only.
It was obvious that this whole embezzlement mechanism was accompanied by a long term strategy to keep the animals on the streets. When they were out hunting in other cities the dog catchers were catching everything they could get their hands on, especially dogs with owners or protectors and dogs that were sterilized and returned to their territory according to HG 955/2004. There were cases where dogs were taken while walking next to their owners or where the dog catchers went into people's yards and took their dogs. A lot of the owners tried to negotiate a return fee smaller than the official one and eventually, especially in Bucharest, a "protection fee" paid to the dog catchers became the norm.
Although the problem of the aggressive dogs was supposedly the number one priority, the animal control folks rarely caught aggressive dogs. Instead they almost always took puppies and little, friendly dogs that were easy and safe to catch. This approach had the double benefit of keeping the dangerous dogs on the streets in order to perpetuate the "terror of the strays" while making the dog catchers appear as heroes and saviors in the eyes of the people.
Quarrels... in the "dogcatchers ' paradise"
At the end of December 2007 the Deputies Chamber voted a modification of the Animal Protection Law(205/2004) also known as "Marinescu's Law".Among other things, this law classifies animal cruelty as a crime punishable by law and prohibits the euthanasia of healthy cats or dogs.It seemed as if common sense and logic had won over the hundreds of mayors and dogcatchers (who during 8 years managed to "bury" aprox. 35 million euros in a mountain of stray corps).Also, during the same time, in December 2007, the Senate modified the law concerning the strays and replaced euthanasia with spay/neuter and returning to territory, according to the WHO's guidelines. AND NOW COMES THE "PROBLEM"....These two new legislative measures would have solved the strays problem, leaving all of those who made big money from the "stray business" without their huge profits!!!
The conspiracy
All the dogcatchers and their "official sponsors" quickly realized that if the new legislative proposals (PL912) will be presented to the ADP in spring 2008, the new law will become definitive, as approved by the Senate.Their only chance was to postpone and prolong this indefinitely. This would have given the dogcatchers plenty of time to still operate as before , the solution wouldn't have been applied and it would present later on as the perfect excuse to suggest euthanasia of all strays as the number of strays would have grown even more.Their evil plan worked, as the new legislative proposal (PL912) still has yet to be presented to ADP since 2008!
ANSVA , DSVSA and other public institutions
Although euthanasia had been abolished, majority of public administrations across country continued the mass killing of strays , using the most absurd justifications: suddenly, all strays became terminally ill (backed up by false documents produced by corrupt state employees)or using "personal interpretation " of the law. All this was going on with the silent approval of the official services for animal protection, just as corrupt as the public administrations: ANSVSA and DSVSA.
Thousands of strays were captured, the "lucky"ones being detained sometimes for a couple of weeks before their death in the official "shelters": filthy,cold , very small cages, lying in their own feces, deprived of food and water, beaten and abused daily and then finally killed by untrained or uneducated dogcatchers, in the most cruel ways possible, suffering the most unimaginable pain till the last breath...
Anybody that get the chance to see some of their official evidence of these atrocities would be appalled by the gruesome mistakes used to justify what they did.
As many of these dogcatchers are paid by the local authorities, their only "enemy" are the NGO's. Therefore, they are doing their best to keep the NGO's as far away as possible, refusing any collaboration or cooperation with them.
The Almighty dogcatcher and his dark amendments....
About a year later, once a few people started complaining about their dirty business, the almighty dogcatchers across the country started to be concerned and thus considered it's the perfect time to start changing the law according to their interest.
The "chosen" one to formulate the new proposal of law was no other than Barbulescu Flavius ( famous for killing 30000 dogs in 8 years and having at least 6 legal complaints against him) , supported by Simona Panaitescu. Both of then had the "blessing" of Brasov's mayer, George Cripcaru, also known as "Dracula of dogs",prominent member of PDL (Democratic-Liberal Party) and a man used to manipulate the laws according to his best interests.
Barbulescu's new law proposal included mass euthanasia of strays , banning the NGO's any involvement in the dogcatchers or municipal shelters activity, obstructing adoptions by implementing severe fines for people feeding or taking care of strays on the streets
The evil plan
Once Barbulescu's "masterpiece" was finished, they needed someone to make it public. And who better than Bucharest's prefect , Mihai Atanasoaiei , well known for his embarrassing public speeches and appearances. After that, the game moved on to Elena Udrea and Sulfina Barbu.
Zanfir Iorgus (PDL) :"The best solution is spay/neuter...or Euthanasia...or better yet let the mayors decide!"
Sulfina Barbu:" I suggest that it should be mandatory by law that local administrations and NGO'S became partners.." .....that was all she had to say after all NGO's representatives explained and documented 453,17 arguments against the reintroduction of mass euthanasia of strays. They have showed her in every way possible why mass killing of dogs is inefficient,inhumane, absurd, very expensive and not cost-effective compared to the alternative,against WHO's guidelines: They also showed her how during the last 7 years the officials did nothing to solve this problem the right way, how they delayed everything , didn't pass the law , abused the power they had, continued the killings and misused the taxpayers money.....
Manipulation
Their biggest weapon is the manipulation of the population through mass-media. Their "servant" PRO TV always "deliver" twisting the facts and lying out in the open without remorse, just as long as they can blame something on the strays (e.g. The case of a woman attacked by dogs in a private yard, because she entered the premises at night, without any authorization, presented to the public as a woman killed by strays. The same type of story happened again, a drunk woman was attacked by dogs who had owners, and they also blamed the strays for her death. Even after the official reports from the investigations were released, PRO TV never rectified their stories , apologized, on the contrary, everyday they try to find more things that they can blame the strays for...
And PRO TV is not the only one. There are other TV stations and newspapers in the same boat.
Elena Udrea
She is one of the biggest supporters of euthanasia of all strays, as a future candidate for the Mayor of Bucharest. She encourages the passing of the anti strays law, claiming that this is the "American"model, but failing to realize the HUGE differences between the two countries when it comes to animal welfare.
SUMMARY/RECAP
2007: The Senate votes PL 912/2007 that replaces the mass killing of strays with spay/neuter/release
2008: Animal Protection Law prohibits mass euthanasia.
ADP from Deputies Chamber blocks the discussion of this law for 3 YEARS!!!
Meanwhile, local authorities continue the killing and totally ignore the solution:spay/neuter/release. They are officially breaking the law and try to cover for all who do that also.
In Brasov, a German organization offered to spa/ neuter all the city's strays but were completely ignored by local authorities.
The only town where the mayor actually used spay/ neuter/release programs was Oradea, and the results are showing: in 6 years the population of strays decreased 8 times.
So after 3 long years of blocking PL912 from being approved, the politicians want now to "solve"the stray problem by mass killing!!!
Knowing very well that euthanasia is not a solution, they all want that as it is a guarantee for more dirty money to be made in the future from "the stray business". Spay/neuter/ return programs would only jeopardize their source of dirty profits!
On the 1st of March 2011, Sulfina Barbu sneaked in Atanasoaiei's new proposals of law(modifying PL912) which granted the mayors the liberty to decide on euthanasia or not. Animal lovers were protesting outside the Parliament's Building unnoticed...
On the 7th of March 2011 , when ADP tried to vote the "new and improved "PL912 with Atanasoaiei's proposals, a miracle happened:the deputies decided to return the law to the Commission to allow the NGO' s and Animal Welfare groups to be consultants and the law to be re-discussed after 3 weeks.
This delay "caught by surprised" a lot of mayors too, who already counted on the mass euthanasia to be approved and were "ready" to take action, having everything ready do to "the job". And strangely enough, during these 3 weeks more and more cases of strays shot, poisoned, beaten to death, burned , abused and tortured appear every day , all over the country...
Read the original post here: Adopta un caine!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
So Where’s Your Dog Like To Hang Out At?
After looking at the photo of this dog called Dubi hanging out on the roof you have to wonder if he just likes to be able to see everything in sight. I know that my little Dachshund just loves being up high, so that he can see further out then from his low profile view.
Photo by Mike Peters/Greenly Tribune
Dubi’s owner J.D. Pickett said: The patio on the house in back is just about four feet below the roof at one point, when Dubi was little, he jumped up there in the snow one winter, and I had to keep helping him down. Now he goes up there every day on his own just watching the neighborhood.
At first neighbors would come to the door and say: Do you know you've got a dog on the roof? Pickett would tell them it was OK. Now people stop and ask if they can take a photo.
Read the article by Mike Peters here.
Dubi’s owner J.D. Pickett said: The patio on the house in back is just about four feet below the roof at one point, when Dubi was little, he jumped up there in the snow one winter, and I had to keep helping him down. Now he goes up there every day on his own just watching the neighborhood.
At first neighbors would come to the door and say: Do you know you've got a dog on the roof? Pickett would tell them it was OK. Now people stop and ask if they can take a photo.
Read the article by Mike Peters here.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Dog Keeps Missing Child Safe Overnight
It’s hard enough know that your little baby is missing but to find out that your dog was there to protect him just makes your day. A little child named Tyler Jacobson went missing on Friday and was finally found hiding across the street with his dog today by his side protecting throughout the night.
It just goes to show the love dogs process and the sense they have when they know something is wrong. I just love reading happy ending when everything works out all right.
Now for the mother Jacklyn Marie Jacobson and her boyfriend Jose Gloria who live in Elgin, SC, I have to wonder how they let this little child disappear in the first place.
Read the article by Logan Smith here.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Rescued, Missing And Dead Dogs
So who left the two dogs with seven puppies in a box at the Strawtown Auction Barn in Hamikton County, Indiana? That’s what Tom Rogers from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office ( 317-776-4110 ) would like to know.
How could anyone just dump their dogs off with their little puppies is just heart breaking.
Read the article here.
Two coast guards in Japan have rescued a dog that was living on a roof off the coast of Kesennuma some three weeks later. I can only say that this is one lucky dog to be able to survive that long at sea.
Read the article by Stephen Smith here.
What I would call an animal abuser named Dennis Reidy from Cayce. SC was arrested and charged with maltreatment of animals after what police chief McNair said: In thirty six years I have seen some deplorable conditions but nothing compares to this, had these animals escaped I have no idea what we would have faced.
There were six dogs killed when they attacked a few of the officers as they went into the home of Reidy with a warrant. They were able to rescue six other dogs that were in this mess.
Hopefully the six dogs that were rescued will be able to find a real place to call home.
Read the article by Tony Santaella here.
This poor little dog named Coal from Mill Valley, CA had died due to alcohol and drug poisoning by a bunk of kids at a party.
Photo by CBS SF
How cruel is that for this little guy to die because these kids thought that it would be fun to let the dog drink booze.
Read the article here.
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office SWAT team and the Humane Society had their hands full when they arrest Eric S. Cox and rescued twenty four dogs and one hundred roosters that were being used for fighting.
Hopefully these dogs can be treated and become adoptable.
Read the article by Cindy Swirko here.
Finally Maximina Sue Shelton of Salem, Indiana has confessed to throwing her little cocker spaniel our her car earlier this month.
Rebecca Eaves from the Shamrock Arrow Fund said: She confessed to throwing Bambi from the car. The sad part is this will be a misdemeanor.
< br> Well hopefully the judge doesn’t see it as a misdemeanor and make this animal abuse pay the price.
Read the article by Charles Gazaway here.
How far would you go to find your missing dog? The owners of a dog named Diesel named Jennifer Mowdy and Derek Wilhoit have gone all out by putting up a billboard along a main road in Johnson City, TN.
Well I must say these two definitely love their dog to go this far out to find their dog.
Read the article by Chris McIntosh here.
How could anyone just dump their dogs off with their little puppies is just heart breaking.
Read the article here.
Two coast guards in Japan have rescued a dog that was living on a roof off the coast of Kesennuma some three weeks later. I can only say that this is one lucky dog to be able to survive that long at sea.
Read the article by Stephen Smith here.
What I would call an animal abuser named Dennis Reidy from Cayce. SC was arrested and charged with maltreatment of animals after what police chief McNair said: In thirty six years I have seen some deplorable conditions but nothing compares to this, had these animals escaped I have no idea what we would have faced.
There were six dogs killed when they attacked a few of the officers as they went into the home of Reidy with a warrant. They were able to rescue six other dogs that were in this mess.
Hopefully the six dogs that were rescued will be able to find a real place to call home.
Read the article by Tony Santaella here.
This poor little dog named Coal from Mill Valley, CA had died due to alcohol and drug poisoning by a bunk of kids at a party.
How cruel is that for this little guy to die because these kids thought that it would be fun to let the dog drink booze.
Read the article here.
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office SWAT team and the Humane Society had their hands full when they arrest Eric S. Cox and rescued twenty four dogs and one hundred roosters that were being used for fighting.
Hopefully these dogs can be treated and become adoptable.
Read the article by Cindy Swirko here.
Finally Maximina Sue Shelton of Salem, Indiana has confessed to throwing her little cocker spaniel our her car earlier this month.
Rebecca Eaves from the Shamrock Arrow Fund said: She confessed to throwing Bambi from the car. The sad part is this will be a misdemeanor.
< br> Well hopefully the judge doesn’t see it as a misdemeanor and make this animal abuse pay the price.
Read the article by Charles Gazaway here.
How far would you go to find your missing dog? The owners of a dog named Diesel named Jennifer Mowdy and Derek Wilhoit have gone all out by putting up a billboard along a main road in Johnson City, TN.
Well I must say these two definitely love their dog to go this far out to find their dog.
Read the article by Chris McIntosh here.
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