Previous owners in custody battle with new owners. From Yahoo News:
Two dogs that survived Hurricane Katrina are at the center of a custody battle between their old owners in New Orleans and their new ones in Florida.Master Tank and Nila were owned by Steven and Dorreen Couture of St. Bernard Parish. When Katrina destroyed their home last year, they had to evacuate and left the dogs at a local animal shelter.
When the Coutures returned five weeks later, they learned the dogs had been sent to a shelter near St. Petersburg, where they were put up for adoption.
The Coutures came to Florida this week trying to get their dogs back, but the new owners have refused to return the animals.
Steven Couture said at a news conference he might consider legal action to contest the adoptions.
Pam Bondi, who adopted Master Tank and renamed him Noah, said the St. Bernard was near death from heartworms when she got him and is better off with her.
"I know in my heart I did the right thing," Bondi, a state prosecutor in Tampa, said in a television interview.
I also think it likely that the dog picked-up the heartworms at the shelter.
Lastly, the shelter should not have been so quick (or so lax in record keeping) to think the dogs were placed there to be adopted.
The dogs should be returned to the original owners. Bondi should go fuck herself.
Update 7/6: A hearing is scheduled. From WFTV (FL):
A judge set a Tuesday hearing to try to determine the rightful owners of two dogs that were separated from a Louisiana family in Hurricane Katrina and later adopted by Tampa Bay area residents.Steven and Dorreen Couture sued in state court Friday to try to force the return of the St. Bernard and shepherd mix that they dropped off at a shelter before fleeing the storm in August.
They contend the Humane Society of Pinellas, which helped rescue the dogs, negligently adopted them out to new owners who are refusing to return them.
"They don't have a lawful right to retain possession of the two dogs because the Coutures have always been the owners," said Murray B. Silverstein, the St. Petersburg lawyer representing the family, which now lives in Talisheek, La.
Pam Bondi, a Hillsborough County prosecutor who adopted the St. Bernard, has said the dog was dying when she took him and she saved his life, an assertion disputed by the Coutures. Rhonda Rineker of Dunedin, who adopted the shepherd mix, hasn't talked publicly about the dispute.
Something about slow and steady winning the race? From USA Today:
A 176-year-old giant tortoise believed to have been studied by famed English naturalist Charles Darwin, has died in Australia after a short illness.Harriet was hatched on the Galapagos Islands in 1830 but lived out her final years at Australia Zoo in southeast Queensland where she was the star attraction.
Senior veterinarian John Hangar said the 330-pound reptile died on Thursday night after a short illness.
Hangar said Harriet had been credited with helping Darwin pioneer his theory of evolution.
"It's thought she may have been taken off there (Galapagos) by Charles Darwin," he said. "She's spent a period of time in Britain and found herself at the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane from about 1850 or 1860 onwards and eventually she found her way up to Australia Zoo."
Harriet made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest living animal. However, a tortoise who died in India earlier this year, Addwaita, was said to be about 250 years old, according to the Calcutta zoo where he had been living since 1875.
Friday, June 23rd is Take Your Dog to Work Day. It's like that everyday at my job but for those whose bosses aren't as accepting, maybe they'll make an exception today. From the Miami Herald:
Launched eight years ago by Pet Sitters International, a trade association representing 7,500 professional sitters, the day aims to promote the human/animal bond and focus on the plight of shelter pets.''Take Your Dog to Work Day is about confronting the realities of pet overpopulation in a positive and proactive way,'' said Pet Sitters President Patti Moran. ''People bringing their dogs to work,'' as well as businesses allowing shelters to bring in adoptable pets, ``can make a huge difference in pet adoptions around the world.''
Many studies have shown that animals make a huge difference in humans' moods by reducing tension and anxiety.
On a typical day at Tellme Networks Inc., Jackson snores, Penny spends time learning Chinese and the bosses and workers are delighted.Penny, a Labrador Retriever, and Jackson, a bulldog, are part of an effort at many U.S. companies to allow pets in the workplace. One survey shows nearly one in five U.S. companies allow pets at work.
Millions of Americans believe pets on the job lower absenteeism and encourage workers to get along, according to the survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.
Pets at Tellme, an Internet telecommunications company, help workers become friends, said Grant Shirk, whose dog Penny is learning Chinese commands from a colleague.
[...]
Dozens of dogs come to work with their owners at Replacements, Ltd., said Scott Fleming, president of the company that deals in china, crystal, silver and collectibles in McLeansville, North Carolina.
"They have not broken a single piece, which is more than I can say for the rest of us," Fleming said.
Pet-friendly environments can pay off in a competitive job market, said Phil Carpenter, vice president of marketing at Simply Hired, an online jobs database that has added an option for job-seekers to select a dog-friendly company.
More than 400 companies — among them Google Inc. — have listed themselves as dog-friendly, he said.
"Companies hire in-house masseuses to in-house chefs. Why not take this step and allow people to bring a companion that's really important to them in their lives?" he said.
A survey by Simply Hired and Dogster, an online site, found a third of dog-owners would take a 5 percent pay cut to take their pets to work, two-thirds would work longer hours and half would switch jobs.
From RedOrbit comes this scary report:
MAN'S best friend may be woman's biggest enemy after a study yesterday suggested dogs may be a cause of breast cancer.The shock report found women diagnosed with the disease were more than twice as likely to own a dog than other women of the same age.
If the theory is true it would go some way to explaining why breast cancer seems to affect more affluent women in Western society.
It is believed dogs pick up a virus from mice called the mouse mammary tumour virus which they get from constantly sniffing the ground.
A study by the University of Munich found 37 per cent of breast cancer sufferers owned a dog, compared with 15 per cent of women in general.
A further 16 per cent have owned a dog at some point in the last 10 years.
The team said previous studies identified MMTV as inducing breast cancer in mice - but with similar properties to human breast cancer.
Their report said: "This offers a possible explanation for the increased incidence of breast cancer in Western countries and its correlation with a higher living standard, as those who are less affluent are often unable to financially support a householdpet."
Folks, statistics can be manipulated ad nauseam to find for whatever you hope to prove. A common practice goes like this: Many people drive red cars. Cops give a majority of speeding tickets to people driving red cars. Conclusion: People who own red cars are bad drivers. An alternate answer -- not mentioned -- is that maybe the color of the car simply makes it stand out more and the cop concludes it was the red car that was pinging his radar.
Besides, everyone knows that dog ownership helps you live longer.
An unpleasant story from California:
COLMA, Calif. (AP) - Nila Negri grieved her two dogs and a cat years ago, when they were buried at the lone pet cemetery among 17 human graveyards in this town known as the "City of Souls."Now she is back at the Pet's Rest cemetery, sitting on a gravestone, head in hands.
Some 1,000 animals buried here have to be dug up and moved because they were buried on leased property, and the landowner, a local real estate firm, wants to use it for human graves.
For Negri and the other owners, the prospect of seeing the animals exhumed stirred up grief they thought had been put to rest.
"I don't want anybody touching my pets," said Negri, who has lived in San Francisco since 1949.
Nearby, piles of freshly turned earth and cracked stone slabs marked places where animals had recently been removed, and a miniature coffin scarred with rust sat in the grass.
Pet's Rest owner Phillip C'de Baca sent letters in May to the pet owners buried at the graveyard's eastern end, giving them 15 days to choose between two free options: relocation or cremation.
Frantic pet owners recently staged a rally at the cemetery, and they are exploring legal options to stop the exhumations, said Cathryn Hrudicka, whose buried her dog Poquito at Pet's Rest.
"At no time was I told he was being buried on leased land," said Hrudicka, 53.
C'de Baca said he thought he'd be given the chance to buy the land once the lease was up. But the owner, the Cypress Abbey real estate firm, plans to use it as a human cemetery, said its attorney David J. Friedenberg.
"They've been waiting to get their property back," he said.
Me, I bury my beloved ones in places where they'll never be disturbed. One is beside my front door, by a window she used to look out of. The other is in the woods behind a friend's home.
In the past as well as today, Americans have bravely fought in wars to protect our great nation. I've written about this before but so have our best friends -- our canine companions. There's a website dedicated just to such good dogs, The United States War Dogs Association and if you've got several hours you'd like to spend -- sometimes in tears -- I heartily recommend a visit there. A truly wonderful site that honors the valor of our four-footed patriots.
First we had the house cat who treed a bear and now on the same day, a pair of dogs chasing a mountain lion up a tree:
Friday morning Joy Porter watched as her two dogs ran a mountain lion right up a tree in her yard."We have a big pond so we're thinking it may have come here for the water," Porter said.
Porter and her husband, Ken, own a home on Madrone Forest Drive, about a mile and a half up the road from the busy Glenbrook Basin - an area apparently not busy enough to keep the mountain lions away.
"My husband came home and found it (the mountain lion) ... our dogs treed it," Porter said of the unexpected visitor they received. The Porters have two Weimaraners, or "Gray Ghosts."
Known for their smooth gray coat and affectionate temperament, Weimaraners were originally bred for hunting big game. The Porters' dogs certainly seemed to live up to their pedigree Friday, considering the two dogs treed the mountain lion not once but twice.
Unless you're willing to pay for an expensive breeder's license, you're cat MUST be fixed in Rhode Island State. From Yahoo/AP:
Gov. Don Carcieri signed a law Friday making Rhode Island the first state in the nation to require cat owners to spay or neuter their pets.Cat owners must spay or neuter pets older than six months unless they pay $100 for a breeder's license. Violators can be fined $75 per month.
"By signing this legislation today, we are taking the necessary steps to reduce the number of impounded cats that are euthanized in cities and towns throughout the state," Carcieri said in a written statement.
The law would also save money by cutting down on housing and feeding costs at city shelters, he added.
Whatever you do, don't mess with Jack:
WEST MILFORD, N.J. - A black bear picked the wrong yard for a jaunt, running into a territorial tabby who ran the furry beast up a tree — twice.Jack, a 15-pound orange and white cat, keeps a close vigil on his property, often chasing small animals, but his owners and neighbors say his latest escapade was surprising.
"We used to joke, 'Jack's on duty,' never knowing he'd go after a bear," owner Donna Dickey told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Friday's editions.
Neighbor Suzanne Giovanetti first spotted Jack's accomplishment after her husband saw a bear climb a tree on the edge of their northern New Jersey property on Sunday. Giovanetti thought Jack was simply looking up at the bear, but soon realized the much larger animal was afraid of the hissing cat.
After about 15 minutes, the bear descended and tried to run away, but Jack chased it up another tree.
Dickey, who feared for her cat, then called Jack home and the bear scurried back to the woods.
"He doesn't want anybody in his yard," Dickey said.
I first wrote about this story and company two years ago. The plan was to develope cats that don't set people's allergies off. There's an update today in the New Scientist:
A California company has turned to conventional breeding to deliver the non-allergenic kittens it promised two years ago. But allergists warn the new cats may still be something to sneeze at.In 2004, Allerca, then based in Los Angeles, announced plans to genetically engineer cats so they would not produce the most common cat allergen, a protein called FEL D1 (See Doubts over plan for allergen-free cats). Now based in San Diego, Allerca has abandoned genetic engineering to focus on selectively breeding cats that lack the version of the FEL D1 protein that triggers allergic reactions.
A spokeswoman says the company will deliver the first 400 to 500 "GD" (for genetically divergent) kittens in 2007.
Allergists consider the approach scientifically plausible. "It's been known for a long time that some cats are very low allergen producers", producing just one-thousandth the FEL D1 of a normal cat, says Robert Wood, director of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, US.
Folks are allowed to bring their pet critters to the job where I work. Not all work places are as friendly. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
A state judicial agency says a dog's place is in the home and has ordered a suburban Detroit judge to stop bringing pet terriers Lurch and Lizzard to court.
The State Court Administrative Office, an agency of the Michigan Supreme Court, this week contacted Eastpointe District Judge Norene Redmond about the dogs, said agency spokeswoman Marcia McBrien."Animals don't understand that court proceedings are not to be disturbed,'' McBrien told The Detroit News for a story Thursday. "Courtrooms are serious places, and respect for the court needs to be maintained. Dogs and other pets can inject a note of informality. That was not appropriate.''
Redmond said last week that she saw no problems with bringing dogs to court, something she has done occasionally since 2004.
The dogs brought calm to the tense courtroom and were an attraction for schoolchildren, police officers and attorneys, she said.
"The employees love having the dog. It brings a sense of happiness,'' she said. "Everybody who frequents this court knows it's a pet-friendly workplace.''
The state agency learned of several complaints about the dogs. One came from a lawyer for Eastpointe.
It's not common but yes, another "flu" we have to worry about. From the LA Times:
ozens of dogs are being treated at an Oceanside kennel after contracting San Diego County's first documented cases of dog flu.Sixty-four dogs are believed to have been infected with the virus at the nonprofit Canine Companions for Independence in Oceanside, which trains the animals to become aides for disabled people.
Symptoms include sneezing, coughing, runny noses and mild fever. Symptoms can last 10 to 21 days.
And here's an article pointing out something you probably already knew. From the Honolulu Star Bulletin:
Cats are inquisitive and enjoy exploring, but that doesn't mean they are only happy outdoors. Keeping cats inside is best. Domestic cats might find as much satisfaction prowling through your closet as they would anywhere outside.In an urban environment, cats allowed to roam outdoors face danger every day. Tangles with traffic; exposure to fleas, ticks, poison and disease; and the temptation to fight other animals all shorten their life expectancy. Outdoor cats also require more visits to the veterinarian and can cause problems in your neighborhood.
Most cats adapt easily to staying indoors, as the stress of dodging cars and the dog next door disappears. But some cats might need extra attention or training to make the transition.
If your cat has always been an outdoor cat, slowly reduce the amount of time spent outside. Your cat will adjust and in a few weeks should be converted completely to the great indoors.
Introduce the litter box: Start with litter box training immediately. Place the litter box in a quiet area and bring the cat to the area frequently. It usually doesn't take long for cats to grasp the concept, and then you can begin to keep it inside for longer periods.
I'm not necessarily against these, either. From NBC TV in LA:
LOS ANGELES -- A county ordinance requiring most dogs in unincorporated Los Angeles County to be spayed or neutered and implanted with an identifying microchip will go into effect Saturday.Under the ordinance, all canines must have a microchip the size of a grain of rice placed underneath their skin. The chip would identify a dog in the event it runs away and ends up at an animal shelter.
The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control will offer free microchips this weekend at shelters in Downey, Gardena, Baldwin Park, Lancaster, Castaic and Agoura Hills.
The ordinance also requires most dogs to be spayed or neutered. Though the ordinance will go into effect Saturday, dog owners have a 90-day grace period to neuter their animals.
The spay/neuter requirement applies to all breeds, excluding animals that compete in dog shows, work with law enforcement or assist the disabled.
Canines must be spayed or neutered at four months of age.
The measure will also increase annual dog license fees. A license for a spayed or neutered dog will increase from $15 to $20. Licenses for unaltered dogs will double to $60.
The sponsors claim it's to cut down on dog bites but it sounds more like a PETA "free the animals" kind of thing. From KCRA TV:
The state Senate on Thursday approved a bill that would prohibit the chaining of dogs to a stationary object, such as a tree or fence, as a primary means of confinement.According to a news release from the California Animal Association, which sponsors the bill, the legislation was originally introduced as a public safety measure to reduce the number of dog bites and dog attacks.
The group said research has shown that chained dogs are 2.8 times more likely to bite than unchained dogs.
