Last month six Bulldog mix puppies were found zipped inside a canvas suitcase left in an alley behind a convenience store in Toledo, Ohio.
They were only four weeks old, too young to be separated from their mother who was frantically pacing nearby. Fortunately the pups were found before they suffocated and put into a foster home by the Toledo Area Humane Society.
The Humane Society will take owner surrendered dogs when the owner cannot care for them.
The Bulldog is one of the most popular dog breeds. It is not unusual for purebred Bulldog puppies to cost $800 and up.
Because they have been so inbred and overbred, it is also not unusual for veterinarian bills to be that much.
These little guys have the sweet Bulldog faces but hopefully they won’t have those genetic weaknesses.
At any rate 132 people filled out applications for adoption. A lottery was held for the mother and six pups, winners were carefully screened, and seven happy families were thrilled to come in to meet their new family members.
The perp, Howard Davis, 56, lived only a couple of blocks from where he abandoned the puppies. He was quickly caught due to keen detective work—and the fact that he had left a tag on the suitcase with his name and contact information. And the fact that the mother dog matches the description of a dog he had licensed. And the fact that an eyewitness claims to have seen him drive off.
None of his lies excuses made sense and eventually he entered a no contest plea to misdemeanor charges of animal abandonment and cruelty. He is expected to be placed on probation for four years.
He also agreed to pay $466 to the Toledo Area Humane Society and to spay and neuter the other dogs he owns.
Wait, what? Other dogs he owns?
The man is too stupid to own a pet rock.
Sheesh.
I was sent a Furminator Dual Brush to try out.
I asked my daughter, Pam, (Pammybean to her fans) to try it on her dogs, my granddoggies. They have more serious fur issues than my guys. And my daughter is camera-literate.
As someone with two small dogs with an ungainly amount of fur, I need a brush that is small but effective, simple to store and easy to use. I was happy to test this brush to see if it would meet my needs.
The Furminator Dual Brush is a two-sided brush with ½” pin bristles on one side, and nylon bristles on the other. According to Furminator, the pin bristle side “works great on long coated dogs. The flexible bristles and padded base is [sic] very comfortable on the dog’s sensitive skin.” The nylon bristle side is “an excellent all around brush that can be used on dogs of almost every type of coat.” The handle is black rubber and seems shaped for the hand. It comes with a two-piece protective cover.
Test subject #1: Sammy (aka Butter-boy)
Sammy here loves to be brushed. It’s almost embarrassing to see. The moment I pulled the Furminator out of its package and sat down on the floor, he was my abject slave.
As Furminator predicted in its product description, the dual brush worked very well on Sammy’s short, wiry fur. We started with the pin bristle side. Much of his excess fur was captured, without pulling his fur or making him uncomfortable.
Switching to the nylon bristle side, I found it also picked up quite a lot of fur. But I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to pull the fur off the brush to dispose of it. I own a large, oval-shaped nylon brush I’ve given up using because it’s impossible to clean. Maybe the size or the triangle shape is an improvement.
Test Subject #2: Daisy Fox (aka Trouble)
Aww! Pam! How can you call this sweet-looking Pomeranian mix “Trouble”? Because she has an undercoat, and when it’s shedding season, she leaves gigantic mounds of loose fur all over the house. By the way, shedding season seems to happen any time of the year, summer or winter. See? Trouble.
Anyway, the pin bristles of the Furminator worked as well as can be expected when you’re talking gigantic mounds of loose fur that need to come out. But the nylon bristle side did not work on her long fur and undercoat.
As I brushed Daisy, Sammy skulked in the background, waiting for his moment to sneak back in for more brushin’.
What I expected to like:
The ergonomically-correct brush handle was terrific and spoiled me almost immediately. It made it quick and easy to maneuver the brush, without fatigue. Both sides of the brush worked well and the dogs seemed to find them comfortable.
What I was surprised to like:
The nylon bristle side was surprisingly easy to clean.
What could be improved:
Furminator includes a two-piece protective cover. But as hard as I tried, I could not get the cover to snap together.
So, all in all, this is a terrific brush, especially for use on dogs with short or medium-length fur of all types.
The Curry Comb
This is a tool that can be used between serious brushings on short and medium hair. It removes dust and loose hair and stimulates the production of natural oils in the coat. Comfortable to use and dogs love it.
Pam Martin
Guest Blogger
San Francisco is known as one of the most dog-friendly cities in the world. In the city of 805,000 the number of dogs is greater than the number of children. And dog owners have serious political clout.
But sometimes dogs can be vicious and in the public interest it is the duty of police officer John Denny to decide the fate of the animal and the owner.
Rather than having multiple judges with multiple prejudices rule on multiple cases, Denny, a 28-year veteran has been assigned all dog hearings. This system assures the dog and the owner that they will be given a fair day in court. Dogs are judged on behavior, not looks.
Up until the year 2001, people in San Francisco rarely reported dog bites and little was done to keep track of vicious dogs. But in 2001, Diane Whipple, a 33-year-old lacrosse coach, was mauled to death in the lobby of her apartment building by two Presa Canarios.
It turned out that the two dogs had terrorized people on 18 different occasions, but no one ever filed a police report. There was obviously a need for a full-time police unit to protect the public and give a fair hearing to the dogs.
Denny investigates about 450 cases a year and holds around 120 hearings. Only about 15 percent of the dogs are deemed “vicious and dangerous.”
Those dogs have to be microchipped and wear a special red flag. They must be leashed and muzzled in public and the owner must submit to surprise inspections. Owners have to post warning signs at their homes and may be required to attend obedience classes.
After the first violation the dog and owner are put on probation for three years. If the owners break one of the rules, their dogs can be destroyed. Fewer than ten dogs a year have had to be destroyed.
Denny loves the chance his job gives him to correct animal and human behavior before it turns violent.
"One reason I became an officer is to bring compassion to the job," he said. "I'm here to put people at ease. People are very upset about the thought of losing their dogs, and 99 percent of the time, we can come up with a solution." More information
Dogs are dogs, even when they are highly trained--and expensive--police dogs.
During a search-and-rescue operation in November by the Illinois State Police and Canine Unit, a dog disappeared. The dog had gotten his 20-foot leash tangled in brush and when the handler got him untangled, the dog—being a dog—was off chasing a deer and was not seen again.
As a result, today 33 Illinois State Police dogs are wearing high-tech collars, according to Sgt. David Yount, Commander of the Canine Unit.
Although the collars are meant to track lost dogs and injured handlers, they soon found that the system has had unexpected benefits.
They were searching for a missing Alzheimer’s patient in need of immediate medical attention. They found that the new GPS collars showed them the topical layout of the land, allowing them to navigate more quickly and efficiently to locate missing persons.
According to Yount:
"It's a remote system that runs off of global positioning satellites. We put it on a harness system, and it's just a small pouch. It's user friendly; (the trooper) doesn't have to do anything other than push a button to activate. The dogs don't even know it's on there. They wear the harnesses anyway, so this just pops right on the top of the harness."
It cost $5,000 to outfit the entire unit. The average cost of a fully trained working dog ranges from $5000-$8000. The money was raised by a group called Friends of Canines.
From The Detroit News
You have to hand it to the governments of the world for sheer gall.
They spend and spend and when the coffers are empty, they look around for creative sources of revenue to squeeze out of taxpayers.
In Italy some unnamed lawmaker noticed that people had pets, and on Friday there was a proposal by a parliament commission to levy a tax on domestic “animals of affection.”
Furious Italians rose up as one. There was so much furor that one agency ran nearly 40 news items on the proposal in less than four hours.
It was called “grotesque,” "surreal," "idiotic," "shameful" and no doubt a lot of other Italian words that aren’t fit to print.
A few hours later by early Friday evening, the proposal was withdrawn and, possibly fearing tar and feathers, no one on the commission would take credit for proposing it.
Way to go, Italians!!
Taipei, a city in Taiwan, has an interesting solution to keeping streets free from doggie bombs.
In July they will offer residents the chance to enter a drawing. One lottery ticket will be given in exchange for a bag of doggie poo. The top prize is a gold ingot worth $2000.
They successfully ran the lottery last year and attracted more than 20,000 participants.
Meanwhile in Mexico dog owners who pick up poop and deposit it into a special box will win a reward for everyone: free Wifi.
A sensor will calculate the weight of the dog poop and the heavier it is, the more minutes of free Wi-Fi the park will receive.
What about people who don’t have dogs or ones who just stuff their bags with rocks? According to organizers, what is important is keeping the parks and sidewalks clean and to develop good habits among the citizens.
Other ways of dealing with the problem have involved hefty fines, but that requires that a sworn official must witness the act of pooping. Another idea is to trace the dog through DNA. But that requires the owner to submit the dog for DNA samples.
Maybe the carrot approach will be better than the stick.
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