House Rabbit Society is hopping mad at PetSmart

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

PHOENIX–Just as PetSmart Charities
should have been basking in success, the
nonprofit subsidiary of the PetSmart pet supply
chain found itself uncomfortably caught between
the parent company and the humane community.
PetSmart Charities on June 25, 2007 celebrated
the three millionth animal adoption through the
928 PetSmart in-store adoption centers since the
PetSmart chain started in 1987–five years before
PetSmart Charities was formed to manage the
adoption program and help fund the work of the
3,400 participating animal welfare agencies.
Within days, however, PetSmart
announced that it “is testing the sale of spayed
and neutered dwarf rabbits as part of the
selection of small pets we offer for sale,” at
25 selected stores.”

Shanghai cat rescue is biggest yet in China

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
SHANGHAI–Rallied by Duo Zirong, 39,
“cat lovers in suburban Shanghai’s Xinzhuang area
stopped a truck carrying more than 800 cats to
diners in Guangdong Province,” reported Zhang
Kun of China Daily on July 10, 2007. The rescue
was at least the third by opponents of cat-eating
since June 2006, when activists stormed and
closed the newly opened Fang Company Cat Meatball
Restaurant in Shenzhen, winning a promise from
the owner that he would no longer sell cat meat.
“Duo called the police and stopped one
truck,” Zhang wrote. “According to Duo, three
trucks loaded with cats left before the police
took action. Duo claimed many of the cats were
hers, but the cat dealers presented documents
showing they were from a farm in Anhui Province,
with inspection and vaccination papers.”

Bogus vaccines contribute to human rabies death toll in China

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
BEIJING–Counterfeit human post-exposure rabies vaccine has
resurfaced as a factor in the fast-rising human rabies death toll in
China, Chinese media reported in late July 2007. The fake vaccine
reappeared two years after officials believed it had all been
destroyed, following the deaths of two boys who received worthless
“post-exposure” treatment.
Human rabies deaths in China have increased from 163 in 1996
to 3,215 in 2006, with 1,043 in the first five months of 2007. The
rise is roughly parallel to the increasing popularity of dogs as
pets–but the rabies cases are overwhelmingly concentrated in the
southern and coastal areas where dogs are raised for meat. So-called
“meat dogs” are not required to be vaccinated, unlike pet dogs.
For the second consecutive year dogs were massacred amid
spring rabies panics in Qhongqing province. News coverage of the
killing was suppressed, unlike in 2006, when the officially
directed dog purges were much criticized by both official news media
and on public Internet forums.

Pet food scare may bring trade reform to China

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
BEIJING–Furor over the deaths of cats and dogs who were
poisoned by adulterated and mislabeled Chinese-made pet food
ingredients may have protected millions of people as well as animals
worldwide.
Chinese citizens themselves, and their pets, may be the
most numerous beneficiaries of new food safety regulations introduced
by the Beijing government on May 9, 2007.
With 1.5 billion citizens, China is the world’s most
populous nation–and also has more than twice as many pets as any
other nation. Officially, China had more than 150 million pet dogs
as of mid-2005. China is also believed to have from 300 to 450
million pet cats, but the Chinese cat population has never been
formally surveyed.

BOOKS: Your Cat: A Revolutionary Approach to Feline Health and Happiness

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007

Your Cat:
A Revolutionary Approach to
Feline Health and Happiness
by Elizabeth M. Hodgkins, DVM, Esq.
Thomas Dunne Books
(c/o St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York,
N.Y. 10010), 2007. 320 pages, hardcover. $27.95.

How gullible we all are. How easily we accept the
blandishments of the big pet food producers that their dry and
unnatural pellets are a “balanced and complete” food for our
companion animals. Common sense should tell us that this cannot be
so. The main component of these mass-produced convenience foods
often consists of cereals such as corn, for which a carnivore’s
digestive system is not designed. One will not see a wild cat
chewing on a corn cob.
Of course it is so convenient to open a packet of kibbles and
pour them out into a bowl. No cooking, no mess, no cleaning up and
the dry pellets can stay out all day.

Melamine hit Africa too

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
CAPE TOWN–At least 30 and possibly as many as 65 dogs died
after eating melamine-contaminated pet food in Cape Town, South
Africa, veterinary pathologist Fred Reyers told Helen Bamford of the
Cape Argus in April 2007.
Little noticed beyond Cape Town, the South African cases
followed much the same trajectory as the high-profile melamine pet
food contamination crisis in the U.S.
“Royal Canin, which makes its own brands as well as Vets
Choice, said in a statement that corn gluten contaminated with
melamine was delivered to South Africa by a third party supplier and
originated from China,” Bamford wrote.

Three variants of U.K. tail-docking ban

May 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:

A new Animal Welfare Act took effect in Britain on April 6,
with different versions applying in England, Wales, Scotland, and
Northern Ireland. The English version allows a veterinarian to dock
puppies’ tails within five days of their birth, if the person
requesting the docking documents the “type” of the mother and
produces evidence that the dog will be used for hunting or work.
Wales requires definition of “breed” rather than type. Scotland
prohibits docking altogether. The new law also requires that
sociable species, such as dogs and rabbits, must be given
appropriate companionship. A new definition of neglect allows
prosecution of pet keepers who either persistently overfeed or starve
animals.

How Chinese ingredients contaminated U.S. pet foods

May 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:

BEIJING–How and why melamine came to contaminate wheat and corn
gluten and rice protein concentrate manufactured in China is still
unknown.
But, as a maker of wheat gluten, MGP Ingredients vice
president Steve Pickman has voiced an idea.
“It is my understanding, but certainly unheard of in our
experience,” Pickman told media, “that melamine could increase the
measurable nitrogen emitted from gluten, and then be mathematically
converted to protein. The effect could create the appearance or
illusion of raising the gluten’s protein level. Understandably, any
acts or practices such as this are barred in the U.S. How the U.S.
can or cannot monitor and prevent these types of situations from
occurring in other parts of the world,” Pickman concluded, “is the
overriding question.”

Liability cases loom over melamine-tainted pet food

May 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:

EMPORIA, Kansas–“To the extent that we identify that the
cause of any expenses incurred [by pet keepers for veterinary care] are related to the food, Menu will take responsibility,” Menu Foods
chief executive Paul Henderson pledged, after ordering the first of
a flurry of pet food recalls.
But that was just before pet keepers and law firms coast to
coast began alleging in more than two dozen attempted class action
cases that Menu Foods responded too slowly to the crisis, caused by
melamine contamination of pet food ingredients. The contamination
kills dogs and cats–especially cats–by attacking their kidneys.

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