The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

A post about a lost dog, a wayward young whale, and trolls who must lead joyless lives

 

While most people in Chicago cheered the recent rescue of Pifas, the lost dog trapped on ice in Lake Michigan, there are always the trolls who voice their self-righteous indignation that money and manpower are being spent on mere animals.

Commenter on WGN website:

Are you serious?? Rescuing a DOG rather than saving Human lives?? 911, we have four calls of people being attacked, and one of a dog on ice,, which do you choose?? WE are going to rescue the dog because it's alot easier!! When do dogs rate higher than human lives?? So once again lemme get this straight because maybe I'm confused about the whole risk your life to save an animal thing. SAVE A HUMAN!!! Chicago has been rated as the murder capitol of these United States and somehow a DOG is more important!! Get you heads outta you collective bungholes and go back to SAVING US!!! Source

 

 

In 1985, a young and obviously not very bright humpback whale appeared in the San Francisco Bay where "Humphrey" became a media star, appearing on local TV news every night.

Then for reasons known only to Humphrey, instead of swimming back to the ocean, he decided to explore the Sacramento River.

In spite of many attempts to get the 40-feet long, 36-ton whale back to salt water and his food source, Humphrey continued his adventure until he reached a dead end slough 69 miles from the ocean.

For weeks hundreds of people, thousands of dollars and many ideas went into numerous attempts to lure or force him back to the ocean. Being in freshwater was taking a toll on Humphrey as he was showing more and more signs of physical stress as days passed.

 

It was during this time that my dad visited us from Indiana. As we were watching the news, Humphrey was, as always, the lead story.

I started to explain the back story to him, expecting that he would roll his eyes at yet another silly California story.

Instead…

“Oh, Humphrey. How is he doing? Do they have him headed back        to the ocean yet?”
“You know about Humphrey?”
“Sure. We get daily updates on him in Indiana.”

 

It seemed that Humphrey the wayward whale wasn’t just a local story. People all over the world were rooting for him and for all the people trying to get him back to his home.

Except for…

Letters to the editor and local call-in radio shows were swamped with the self-righteous, furious that all that time and money was being spent on an animal when there were people in need. I'm sure they felt a certain moral superiority being, you know, so concerned with people in need. The subtext of their message is to make us feel guilty.

 

Humans working together to help an animal in distress, these are stories that should bring us together as compassionate human beings, the kind of situation that should unite us in our humanity and make us better people. But I guess we’ll always have the trolls.

 

Eventually a plan was worked out to borrow a powerful speaker and amplifier system from the Navy to play recordings under water of humpback whale songs to lure Humphrey down river back to the ocean. It was a long shot. No one knew if it would work.

The plan involved a huge crane to remove barriers to free him from the slough and state-of-the-art technology. Oceanographers, teams of scientists from universities, fish and wildlife agencies, law enforcement, the Coast Guard, the Navy, and the Army were all involved in the elaborate effort.

It worked.

As helicopters circled overhead and people cheered from the shores, Humphrey finally swam under the Golden Gate Bridge back to the ocean where he could go on with life…26 days after he took a wrong turn.

And the world felt good about what had been done.

Except for the trolls.

Mother dogs—Amazing animals

Betty Boop, a Chihuahua mix, arrived at a county animal shelter in Arizona just in time to deliver two healthy boys. On the same day a litter of Shih Tzu puppies was not so lucky. The mother died after giving birth to seven puppies.

When she was offered the puppies, Betty Boop quickly adopted all seven as her own. They were all spared possible euthanasia at the county shelter when they were rescued by a no kill facility.

Arizona Animal Welfare League & Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (AAWL & SPCA) operates the state's largest no-kill shelters. They are committed to caring for animals until they find loving homes.

During the same week a newborn puppy was taken to AAWL. The staff decided to introduce him to Betty Boop, who once again instantly accepted him into her growing family.

Betty Boop and the puppies went to a private home where they could be fostered. She has raised all ten of her puppies from helpless newborns to chubby, healthy puppies ready to go to homes of their own.

Betty Boop’s days as a mother dog will be over when she goes to her forever home. Sometimes it's harder to place older dogs than puppies. Vicky Eckerdt, director of Operations at AAWL said:

This little dog has an exceptionally strong mothering instinct, accepting, nurturing and protecting all of the puppies in her care. When she is ready to go to a permanent home, she will be a terrific member of that family. Source

 

Mother dogs—Amazing animals

The best spay/neuter PSA ever...

Or maybe it's the worst. What do you think?

Neutering the family pet is almost universal among people who can afford to do it. They see the benefits to the pet, and equally or maybe more important they see the benefits to themselves.

Among those who haven’t done so, they cite two reasons, they can’t afford it and they have no transportation. And please don't tell me if they can't afford it, they shouldn't have a dog. A dog can be a great comfort and companion to a child in a poor family or a homeless person. Having a dog can be a life changing experience.

Mandatory spay/neuter laws don't work wherever they are tried. Levying a fine on people who can't afford to obey the laws is cruel and results in more abandoned dogs for the shelters to deal with, not fewer.

Instead of spending money trying to enforce the unenforceable, why not offer a means to avoid unwanted litters.

Rather than punitive measures, this SPCA  uses shock and humor to get attention, with a voiceover  offering free service, free transportation, a happy owner and a loyal dog.

Thanks to Will My Dog Hate me for finding this video.

Snuppy, the first cloned dog, will become a father and the controversy continues

(Photo of Snuppy as a puppy, his clone father and surrogate mother)

The sperm of Snuppy an Afghan hound has successfully impregnated two cloned Afghan Hound bitches through artificial insemination, researchers at Seoul National University announced.

If the births take place, it will mark the first time that cloned dogs have reproduced successfully, according to lead researcher Lee Byung-Chun.

“The second generation of cloned animals used to be malformed but we have not found any abnormal aspects about the fetuses so far," Lee said, indicating that ultrasonic tests show the fetuses are healthy.

The published stories have caused an angry reaction from authorities at the Seoul National University which has a strict policy against releasing research results to the press before publication in academic papers. This policy came about after another cloning expert, Wang Woo-Suk, was caught faking results of stem cell research.

"This is a breach of school regulations against releasing experiment results to the press before completing relevant academic papers," Kook Yang, the research department head, told journalists.

“The university will discipline Lee,” he said. source

Kind of makes us wonder about researchers playing God when they seem to be publicity whores who can’t follow the rules of human ethics.

Cloning pets: it’s not what we thought it would be

When Dolly, the sheep that was the first cloned animal, was born in early 1997, some scientists and investors began to see dollar signs.

They imagined a rich market of show dog breeders and wealthy people with beloved pets clamoring for the services.

What they didn’t take into account was the human spirit and the relationship people have with their animals. Breeders of show dogs are generally not looking to duplicate a champion; they dream of breeding one even better.

Cloning pets presents other problems. Many owners are resistant to the idea of duplicating their pets. Then there is the problem of understanding what a clone is.

Only four dogs have been cloned, but cat cloning is becoming a business to produce a clone for only $50,000 (although I hear some labs are running 40% off sales).

But here’s the thing about cloning cats.

The first cat, CC (Carbon Copy) was cloned by transplanting DNA from Rainbow, a female calico cat, into an egg cell and implanting the embryo into a surrogate mother.

This picture was taken a year after the birth. Rainbow (left) is gold and black on white, but CC has a striped gray coat on white. Changes in coloration occur in the uterus.

Not only is their appearance different, but according to this msnbc story their cat behavior and personalities are also quite different. In other words when a cat is cloned, the DNA will be the same, but it won’t necessarily look or act like the original.

Rainbow looks and acts very much like my calico cat Taki, who wandered into our lives off the street as a teenage stray a few years ago. She is a great cat, affectionate and fearless.

If I were to pay to have her cloned, I’d want her same personality and behavior. I’d want her coloring and markings down to the tiny white patch on her back and the tan spot on her front leg. Or I’d want my money back.

There are a lot of great pets at animal shelters. All they need is a chance.

Three female dogs were cloned in 2006

They didn’t get much publicity, but three female Afghan Hounds, Bona, Peace and Hope, were cloned this year. The team was led by Lee Byeong-chun, a veterinary professor at Seoul National University in South Korea, according to this story by CBS.

Their first cloned dog, Snuppy, an Afghan male, was named the “most amazing invention of 2005,” by Time Magazine before the scandal broke early this year.

Lee, along with project leader Hwang Woo-suk, was shown to have falsified research in their effort to create human stem cells through cloning. Hwang and Lee and other members of the team are on trial on charges of misappropriating research funds. However the DNA of Snuppy and the three female dogs show that they are true clones.

Hwang chose Afghan hounds because of their striking good looks. However, Afghans also have the reputation of being the dumbest dogs alive.

Before you start dreaming of having your own dog cloned, you might consider this: much of the funding for dog cloning was granted by Genetic Savings & Clone (is that cute?) of Sausalito, California, which has invested more than $19 million in the attempts to clone the first dog.

The company is owned by Arizona entrepreneur, John Sperling. Tissue samples from his beloved pet Missy, a Husky mix who died in 2002 at the age of 15, have been saved for cloning purposes.

Before finally succeeding with the birth of Snuppy, the South Korean group worked for nearly three years, seven days a week, 365 days a year and used 1,095 eggs from 122 dogs. The next procedures were much easier. To produce the female clones 167 reconstructed embryos were transferred into 12 surrogate mothers to produce the three living female puppies.

Because of biology cats have been easier to clone than dogs. “CC” (Carbon Copy), the first successful cat clone, was born in December 2001. The price tag for cloning a pet cat has been set at $50,000. There is some concern with long range health problems in cloned animals.

When you win the lottery, is there a dog or cat in your life, past or present, you would like to have cloned?