Category: Companion Animals

Hong Kong dog dumping study

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

HONG KONG–A survey of pet abandonment published in August
2006 by My Pet magazine of Hong Kong found that among 303 people who
admitted dumping pet dogs, 63.4% did so after the Housing Authority
or private landlords enforced “no pets” rules. The only other major
reason for abandonment was disliking the animal.
More than half of the people who dumped dogs dumped more than
one, My Pet learned. About 20% replaced an abandoned dog, only to
abandon that dog too.
The Agriculture, Fisheries, & Conservation Department,
responsible for animal control in Hong Kong, impounded 13,100 dogs
in 2005, killing 11,900 who were neither claimed nor adopted within
four days. With almost the same human population as New York City,
Hong Kong had an almost identical rate of shelter dog killing.

Rocket attack victim stayed behind for his dog

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

HAIFA–Among the Israeli dead from the August 2006 Hezbollah
rocket attacks on northern Israel was Dave Lalchuk, 52, originally
from Boston, who reportedly emigrated to Israel in the early 1980s.
Lalchuk and his Israeli wife Esti joined Kibbutz Sa’ar near Nahariya
in the western Galilee region, raised two daughters, now adults
living elsewhere, reported Jack Khoury of Haaretz.
“Despite rocket hits in the area, Lalchuk continued working
in the citrus groves and caring for the animals he loved, including
his beloved dog, Blackie,” Khoury wrote.

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Quick rabies containment

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

WASHINGTON D.C.–PetSmart Charities suspended cat and dog
adoptions at 22 stores in Virginia and Maryland in early June 2006,
after two kittens adopted from the Greenbelt store in the Washington
D.C. suburbs proved to be rabid. The kittens were in the store for
five days, beginning on May 14, Greenbelt PetSmart manager John
Marsiglia told Washington Post staff writer Hamil R. Harris.
The adoption shutdown limited human exposure to animals who
may have had exposure to the kittens. Those animals were quarantined
successfully.
The two rabid kittens and four litter mates of the first
kitten were euthanized, Last Chance Animal Rescue director Cindy
Sharpley told Harris. Six humans from two familes who adopted the
kittens and several store employees received post-exposure
vaccination.

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Rosalba

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Rosalba (1991-2006) died of cancer on July 10, 2006. Born
in inner Bridgeport near a Catholic school that was closing down,
she appeared to be the last survivor of an early 1991 litter. Her
mother, called Maybelline by the nuns, was trapped at the same
time, pregnant. She gave birth to four kittens the next day.
Rosalba shook as if she had palsy, and her eyes constantly blinked.
She was the most pathetic cat I had seen. I thought our veterinarian
would recommend euthanasia. I wanted to feed her and give her some
comfort before she died, and I thought she needed a pretty name,
because she looked so dreadful. Her fur was grey with dirt, but I
could see she was white, and I named her Rosalba–“white rose” in
Spanish–after a Mexican friend of mine. To my surprise her
condition quickly improved with feeding. She was quite robust for a
time. She had to have all her teeth taken out quite young, then she
developed a chronic skin problem that lasted for most of her life,
but–always a stoic–she seemed to enjoy her life.
–Kim Bartlett

Progress against docking dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

EDINBURG, JOHANNESBURG–The Scottish Parliament on May 31,
2006 approved inclusion of a ban on tail-docking dogs in a pending
Animal Health & Welfare omnibus bill, while leaving open the
possibility of exempting working dogs. The Scottish language
parallels language approved by the British Parliament in March 2006,
as part of a general update of anti-cruelty legislation. Similar
language was introduced in 2005 but not put to a vote in New Zealand.
The South African Veterinary Association ruled meanwhile that
vets who dock dogs’ tails after June 2007 may be charged with
“unprofessional, improper or disgraceful conduct.”
Australia banned tail-docking dogs except for medical reasons
in 2004. Tail-docking dogs was already prohibited in Sweden,
Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Denmark. Nations
including Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, and Switzerland
have ratified the Convention on the Protection of Pet Animals
proposed in 1987 by the Council of Europe, which includes a
tail-docking ban, but have not adopted anti-docking legislation of
their own.

New mobile S/N record

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

GREAT FALLS– Thirteen veterinarians and nearly 300 volunteers
tried from June 15 through 19, 2006 to break the Montana Spay/Neuter
Task Force record for most dogs and cats sterilized in five days by a
mobile surgical team, but fell barely short.
The final total of 370 dogs and 866 cats sterilized, for a
total of 1,236, was third best for the task force, whose top figure
was 1,354 achieved during Lewis & Clark Count Pet Care Week in 2004.
That broke the 1998 record of 1,336 sterilizations done in six days
during Salish & Kootenai Love Your Pet Week.
The Great Falls City Council and Cascade County Commission
pledged to fund a follow-up task force visit to sterilize 800 animals
who were left on a waiting list, said Montana Spay/Neuter Task Force
founder Jean Atthowe.
Great Falls was the last Montana city of at least 5,000
people to receive a task force visit. On the road since 1996, the
team has noted results including a 76% drop in intake at the Wolf
Point Dog Pound on the Fork Peck Reservation, after four visits,
and a 26% drop in intake plus a 42% drop in killing at the Billings
Animal Shelter, after just a single two-day visit.

Post-Hurricane Katrina pet custody cases challenge adoptions

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

BATON ROUGE–Pet custody cases arising out of the
post-Hurricane Katrina animal rescue effort are presenting a
nationwide challenge to some animal advocates who have worked for
decades to promote recognition of pets as family members, and to
strengthen anti-pet theft laws.
“People who first considered themselves foster caregivers now
say some Katrina pet lovers don’t deserve their animals back,”
summarized Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Kathy Boccella in a
mid-July profile of four cases that are expected to soon go to court.
“They cite failure to have animals spayed or neutered and not getting
rabies and heartworm prevention as evidence of unfit care.”
Also often mentioned by defendants in Katrina-related custody
disputes is that many people who were displaced by Katrina were
allegedly slow to begin searching for their animals. Most apparently
waited until they returned to their homes and found no trace of
missing pets before going to the Internet, many as first-time
Internet users.

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BOOKS: The Price of a Pedigree

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

The Price of a Pedigree:
Dog Breed Standards & Breed-Related Illnesses
Advocates for Animals (10 Queensferry Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4PG,
Scotland, U.K.), 2006. 25 pages, paperback, no price listed.

Members of the dog and cat fancies, as breeders and
exhibitors of purebreds style themselves, like to pretend that there
was a time when the humane community endorsed their obsession with
“improving” dogs by selective inbreeding. Yet there has always been
tension between those who recognize a moral obligation toward all
animals and those who would distinguish between upper and lower
classes, based on pedigree.
From the beginning of humane involvement in animal control,
some fanciers have adopted prime specimens of their favorite breeds
from death row in shelters, while humane workers have struggled with
conflicting emotions–grateful that some animals are saved, but
frustrated that even a biting purebred will almost always have a
better chance of rescue, as a presumed “better” animal, than the
nicest large mongrel or domestic shorthair.

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Humane success makes market for mixed-breed pups

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

 

TACOMA–Why did the Humane Society of
Tacoma & Pierce County fire one 15-year employee
on May 25, and suspend another without pay for
three days, for mistakenly euthanizing five
Labrador-mix puppies?
Why did Joseph P. “Jo Jo the Dog Man”
O’Neill, 70, die alone of a heart attack on
June 22, 2005 aboard a train in Poland, after
40-odd years of rounding up surplus puppies in
rural Ohio for sale in New Jersey?
Why are puppies suddenly the hottest
animal commodity crossing the Mexican border,
supplanting the traffic in parrots?
After a decade of rumors about an
impending puppy shortage, mostly disregarded by
animal advocates as breeder propaganda, the U.S.
and western Europe are experiencing a puppie
scarcity so severe that even some young dogs
considered utterly unadoptable just a few years
ago are quickly finding homes.

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