Suspension of spay/neuter & intake services due to COVID-19 cuts adoptions by a third from 2019 NEW YORK CITY––Celebrating rehoming every dog and cat in custody soon after COVID-19 shutdowns began, animal shelters from coast to coast are suddenly––and predictably––weeping, wailing, and tearing hair about having no adoptable animals to offer in response to […]
Rescued dogs overheat––and pigs & chickens, as humane oversight fails
If rescue transporters can’t keep dogs from cooking in crates, what happens to livestock? NEW YORK CITY, TORONTO, LONDON (U.K.)––Again a New York City-based dog adoption transport has come to grief in hot weather, again leaving the rest of the adoption rescue transport to wonder why. Recounted Gabrielle Fonrouge of the New York Post […]
Blue Buffalo, Rachael Ray, Nutro, & 13 other brands linked to rare disease
When being big-hearted is not good in a dog SILVER SPRING, Maryland––Dogs are supposed to be big-hearted, but not in the literal sense. An abnormally enlarged heart can kill a dog, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration on June 27, 2019 warned for the second time in two years, this time linking the warning […]
Recurring nightmare: my escape from a serial no-killer, by Beth Clifton
Six years later it seems to be happening again PORT RICHEY, Florida––Pasco County Animal Services and Suncoast Animal League personnel on May 3, 2019 removed thirty-two dogs, four cats and a gerbil from the rented premises of the Humane Society of West Florida, a dilapidated former self-storage building in […]
Taking water from puppies?
New California law is amended version of bill vetoed in 2006 SACRAMENTO–California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 14, 2007 endorsed into law a new set of regulations for pet stores. As with other legislation adopted in the most populous U.S. state, the new regulations may become the default standard for the pet industry throughout the […]
Should the only dogs available be the offspring of the irresponsible?
by Margaret A. Cleek, Ph.D More than 25 years ago I was off-put by the claims of positive non-reproductive outcomes for neutering dogs. The recent ANIMALS 24-7 article Does castration really alter male dog behavior? reminded me of my concerns. Proponents of surgical neutering, the sooner the better, were and remain largely concerned with pet overpopulation. Animal […]
Retired: Bob Rohde personified “your Dumb Friends” for 45 years
Worked his way to the top from cleaning cages DENVER, Colorado––Possibly the longest serving executive ever of a humane society that he did not himself found, Robert “Bob” Rohde, 68, on February 9, 2018 turned over the presidency of the Denver Dumb Friends League to Apryl Steele, DVM, after nearly 45 years with the organization […]
Panhandlers & street corner animal exhibitors: who is who?
Animals dancing for pennies are regulated. Panhandlers’ animals are not. NEW YORK, N.Y.––Is Joseph Ramos, 70, also known as Joseph Noal and Joseph Noah, a street corner animal exhibitor, or just one of the longest active and most controversial panhandlers using animals as an adjunct to begging in downtown Manhattan? Joseph Ramos a.k.a. Noal/Noah […]
Distemper & transport incidents slow Hurricane Harvey rescue effort
Best Friends, after wrongly ripping the Houston SPCA via Change.org, has disaster on own watch HOUSTON, Texas––Best Friends Animal Society efforts to rehome dogs and cats collected after Hurricane Harvey have reportedly stalled, with 455 animals remaining at a temporary shelter at NRG Arena in Houston as of October 1, 2017, and an adoption […]
AVMA insight: cats are not dogs, so “Fix felines by five months”
Early-age sterilization, already widely practiced, is on pace to win full AVMA compliance by the year 2100 SCHAUMBERG, Illinois––Having realized that a cat is not a dog, following the advice of an expert panel issued in July 2016, the American Veterinary Medical Association board of directors in July 2017 “endorsed a document recommending that […]