The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : HSUS The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : HSUS
Showing posts with label HSUS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HSUS. Show all posts

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Animal Hoarding – What Do You Think?


I am not an expert on this subject. All of the views below come from other sources. I would like to know what you think about Animal Hoarding.

The Humane Society of the United States says:

What is an animal hoarder?
An animal hoarder is a person who amasses more animals than he/she can properly care for. Such individuals generally fail to recognize or refuse to acknowledge when the animals in their custody become victims of gross neglect. Animal hoarders are sometimes referred to as animal "collectors" or animal "addicts."

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)  says:

What Is Animal Hoarding?
Animal hoarding is a complex and intricate public health and community issue. Its effects are far-reaching and encompass mental health, animal welfare and public safety concerns.

For more information on animal hoarding, visit: How Animal Hoarding Develops





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Saturday, August 18, 2018

Animal Hoarding – What Do You Think?


I am not an expert on this subject. All of the views below come from other sources. I would like to know what you think about Animal Hoarding.

The Humane Society of the United States says:

What is an animal hoarder?
An animal hoarder is a person who amasses more animals than he/she can properly care for. Such individuals generally fail to recognize or refuse to acknowledge when the animals in their custody become victims of gross neglect. Animal hoarders are sometimes referred to as animal "collectors" or animal "addicts."

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)  says:

What Is Animal Hoarding?
Animal hoarding is a complex and intricate public health and community issue. Its effects are far-reaching and encompass mental health, animal welfare and public safety concerns.


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Sunday, August 27, 2017

How To Support Animal Shelters During Hurricane Harvey


Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas on Friday night, causing  widespread damage to cities along the coastline. Many areas are already facing flooding, while others hunker down and wait for the hurricane to pass. As is often the case in massive natural disasters, pets and stray animals often fly under the radar amid the mayhem. So, if you're wondering how to support animal shelters during Hurricane Harvey, you're tapping into a huge need.

According to BuzzFeed, during Hurricane Katrina as many as 250,000 dogs and cats were displaced during evacuations, and 150,000 pets died either during the Hurricane or in the aftermath. In response to these numbers, less than a year after Katrina the Pet Evacuation Transportation Standards (PETS) Act of 2006 was put into place. This law forces state and local governments to consider pets as part of their emergency evacuations, and also enables workers to "procure, construct, or renovate emergency shelter facilities and materials that will temporarily accommodate people with pets and service animals."

To read more on this story, click here: How To Support Animal Shelters During Hurricane Harvey


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Monday, October 3, 2016

Construction Workers Find a Small Helpless Animal in a Hole: They Thought it Was a Puppy – It Was Something They Didn’t Expect


When construction workers were on the job in Canary Wharf, London, they found something they didn’t expect. Deep in a hole caked in mud and strips of plastic was a small helpless animal.

The workers carefully extracted the animal from the hole, but it was so entrenched in mud and garbage that they could not make out exactly what it was. At first, they guessed it was a puppy, but they soon learned they were wrong. They enlisted the help of a wildlife hospital, and you won’t believe what they found. 

PetsFans.com tells the story: “The story started when, on a normal work day in England, some construction workers had a task to do near an area close to London’s Canary Wharf. While going on with their jobs, a few ground holes were left open. The workers were startled when they heard a faint sound of cries coming from one of the open holes! Imagine how heartbreaking it must have sounded. The workers didn’t waste any time, they rushed to try and locate the animal, without even knowing what they should expect to find, or whether any of them could be in danger.”

The workers contacted specialists from the Essex Wildlife Hospital who worked for hours to carefully clean the animal. After a good bath and lot of special care, the workers were able to properly identify the animal as a four month old baby fox. They named him Muddsey and lauded the construction crew for saving him.

Su Schwar who runs the hospital said, “it would certainly have had a pretty awful death if it hadn’t been found, it was very cold and in shock but is fine now. We felt very sorry for him because he was completely caked and was absolutely petrified.”

Others have applauded the efforts of construction workers as well. One Green Planet wrote, “If rescuers hadn’t found this baby fox trapped in a hole, who knows what could have happened to him? With all that dirt on him and no mother in sight fretting over him, he must have been tough to spot. What a lucky guy! While we’re not sure if he’s old enough to be out and about on his own just yet, he’s in the capable hands of the veterinary staff at the wildlife hospital, who will help him learn to be the best fox he can be before they release him back into the wild.”

Hero Viral wrote, “This 4 month old fox had actually fallen so deep that he couldn’t get out himself. As to why the fox came to the construction site, chances are the construction forced his family to move out of their home. They give the poor fox a bath and now he looks like a proper fox! According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), animals find themselves at threat against various land developments and hence they decide to move out and go somewhere else.”




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Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Angry Animal Advocates Can Calm Down: Tens of Thousands of Wild Horses and Donkeys Will be Spared the Threat of an Untimely Death


The federal government said this week that it will not consider a suggestion to euthanize the animals or sell them to slaughter.

The pronouncement, issued by the Bureau of Land Management, followed a public outcry over an advisory board’s recommendation on Friday that the agency kill or sell all of the 45,000 horses and donkeys in its custody that cannot be adopted.

In a statement and blog post in response, the Humane Society of the United States described the recommendation as “unhinged advice,” “a complete abdication of responsibility,” and “a sort of ‘Final Solution.’ ”

An online petition has collected more than 118,000 signatures so far.

But a spokesman for the bureau made clear in an interview that it had no plans to act on the advice.

“We’re making no change in our current policy,” the spokesman, Tom Gorey, said on Thursday. “We’re not going to sell to slaughter or put down healthy horses.”

The bureau will reinforce its contention at the next meeting of the group that made the recommendation, the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. The recommendation was adopted by seven of its members, with one dissenting and another absent. It meets again in the spring.

The advice, however, puts into focus what some have described as a crisis for the program: The bureau takes in more and more animals as the population in the wild swells, using money that could be spent on dealing with population growth in the first place.

The federal agency houses more than 45,000 horses and burros in corrals, pastures or sanctuaries at a cost of more than $49 million annually.

In addition to the animals in captivity, there are more than 67,000 wild horses and burros roaming on federal land in the West, about 2.5 times the level the agency deems ideal for them to “thrive in balance with other public land resources and uses.”

The imbalance is most severe in California, where the current population is 3.8 times the sustainable level, according to the bureau’s estimates.

The agency takes more in each year, but it can’t keep up with explosive growth: The wild population expanded by 15 percent last year and 18 percent the year before.

While the agency adopts out thousands of animals each year and administers birth control to hundreds more, neither of these methods makes for a viable long-term solution to the population problem, Mr. Gorey said. The best hope is to improve birth control.

“What we need is a deus ex machina; we need a longer-lasting fertility-control agent and right now that’s not to be seen,” Mr. Gorey said. Current methods last about a year.

In the meantime, he said, the agency will just have to do the best it can to keep the booming population down.

The Bureau of Land Management used a helicopter to trap wild horses in Utah in 2015, though several escaped. It is costly to manage the animals, some critics say. Credit Jim Urquhart/Reuters.



You may be interested in reading: Bureau of Land Management Recently Recommended that 45,000 Wild Horses and Burros be Sold and/or Killed by a Range Management


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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Dog and Cat Overpopulation


As ISAR’s many supporters know, addressing the scourge of dog and cat overpopulation is one of our major programs. We have been fighting that problem for decades, and although ISAR and other organizations have been making some progress—mandatory spay/neuter, prohibitions on retail sales, crackdowns on puppy mills—still the cycle of birth-suffering-death goes on unabated: too many shelters do an incompetent job of obtaining adoptions; spay/neuter programs, if they exist at all, are ridden with exemptions; dogs and cats continue to breed (and be bred!). And as they multiply endlessly, the dead bodies of their predecessors go up in smoke, literally.

It has been estimated that at least 70,000 puppies and kitties are born in the United States every day. Many are born into households whose members cannot provide for them, or mistakenly believe they can but later learn otherwise and relinquish the animals. For decades most shelters have been at capacity, with routine ever-ending euthanasia the rule rather than the exception. Indeed, the Humane Society of the United States has reported that between six and eight million dogs and cats enter shelters each year, and over half of them are euthanized.

To read more on this story, click here: Dog and Cat Overpopulation



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Monday, September 12, 2016

Humane Society of the United States Offering $5K Reward In Gruesome Killing of Cat in Elkton, Maryland


Elkton, Maryland  - The Humane Society of the United States is offering a reward of $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in the gruesome killing of a cat in Maryland.

On September 7, 2016, authorities say a cat was found burned to death in an apartment complex in Hollingsworth Manor in Elkton, Maryland.


Investigators believe it was severely tortured and then set on fire.

“It is absolutely horrific to imagine someone intentionally and viciously harming an innocent cat in this way,” said Emily Hovermale, The HSUS’ Maryland state director. “Whoever would commit such a crime is clearly a dangerous person, and we are hopeful that this reward will bring forward anyone with information about this heinous crime.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call the Cecil County Animal Services at 410-441-2040.



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Sunday, August 21, 2016

WHS/WARL: The Transport of Louisiana Dogs Has Been Cancelled Due to Mechanical Problems with Transport Vehicle – Dogs Will Stay in Roanoke, Virginia


Washington, DC  — The transport of 20 homeless dogs to the Washington Humane Society-Washington Animal Rescue League (WHS-WARL)  has been cancelled due to mechanical problems with the HSUS transport vehicle. The dogs that were scheduled to arrive at WHS-WARL will stay in Roanoke, Virginia at the Angels of Assisi Adoptions Center there. 
  
To read the initial story, click here: WHS-WARL to Receive 20 Dogs from Flood-Stricken Louisiana: Scheduled to Arrive in DC on Sunday Afternoon, August 21st

About Washington Animal Rescue League/Washington Humane Society (WARL-WHS)
The Washington Humane Society -Washington Animal Rescue League combined organization cares for more than 60,000 animals annually. The broad range of programs offered include: rescue and adoption, humane law enforcement, low-cost veterinary services, animal care & control, behavior and training, spay-neuter services, humane education, and many others.  Operating four animal-care facilities in Washington, D.C., the organization occupies a significant footprint in the District, and serves as a resource to current pet guardians and prospective adopters across the region. 

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Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Starting This Summer, Wisconsin Has Made it Legal to Bust Dogs Out of Hot Cars


In Wisconsin, starting this summer, good Samaritans who see dogs — and kids — trapped in hot cars can bust them out, without facing civil liability.

California, New York, and Massachusetts lawmakers are currently considering similar bills.

Wisconsin’s law — like those in the other states — allows concerned bystanders to take a hammer to a car window only under certain conditions: You’ve got to have a good faith belief that the pet or child is in danger. “Forcible entry” must be required — in other words, make sure the car door isn’t unlocked. You must call 911 or let law enforcement know what you’re about to do.

And then you’ve either got to stick around until the owner or the cops arrive, or leave a note on the windshield about who you are and what you did.

This law was signed by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker last November. As Milwaukee public radio station WUWM noted in a recent story, this is the first summer that the law has been in effect.

“I wonder whether or not in the 25 cases where children died last year, or hundreds, if not thousands of cases where pets died last year, whether or not people saw it happening but they didn’t think that was their business or their call or didn’t want to get in trouble damaging the property,” one of the bill’s co-authors, Reps. Tod Ohnstad, told the station.

We’re going to go ahead and editorialize here: This law is really great. We’d like to see the other 46 states adopt their own versions of it. (Let your state lawmakers know if you’d like that, too.)

“Laws like this increase bandwidth of first response agencies and even better rely on community members to help each other out in crisis. Most people who leave a pet in a hot car do not do so out of malice, and never expect their ‘quick errand’ to result in tragedy,” said Cory Smith, the Humane Society of the United States’ director of public policy for companion animals. “These Good Samaritan laws can prevent tragedies for people and pets.”

It’d be even better if no one had to use their hammer, legal or no. When it’s hot out, don’t leave your dog in a car —
for pete’s sake, leave your dog at home.



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Friday, July 1, 2016

New Legislation Passed Recently Makes Ohio One of the First States to Protect First Responders Who Administer Lifesaving Aid to Pets


Columbus, Ohio - Until a new law was passed this spring, it was against the law in Ohio, along with many other states, for firefighters or paramedics to provide basic first aid to dogs and cats rescued from house fires, car accidents or other crisis situations. Only licensed veterinarians could do that.

The legislation passed recently makes Ohio one of the first states to protect first responders who administer lifesaving aid to pets, companion animals or police dogs in crisis. Animal advocates say they hope the statute, which they liken to laws protecting good Samaritans who come to the aid of injured humans, removes hesitation for first responders who might have concerns about tending to injured pets.

The law will allow first responders to, without fear of liability, provide oxygen, perform mouth-to-snout resuscitation, try to stem bleeding, bandage and even administer the overdose antidote naloxone to dogs or cats that have ingested opiates. Liability has been a concern because owners of pets have sued first responders who treated animals that ended up dying.

"It's another layer of protection for the good guys," said Cory Smith, director of public policy for companion animals at The Humane Society of the United States.

Ohio's law, which follows a similar action by Colorado in 2014, came about after Bob Swickard, the director of an EMS service in a small town in northeastern Ohio, contacted state Republican Rep. Tim Ginter with concerns about a recent rash of on-duty injuries to police dogs. In seeking guidance from a veterinarian on first aid for dogs, Swickard said he found "a missed loophole" — it was clearly illegal for EMTs to treat animals. He and Ginter were especially concerned that paramedics couldn't administer naloxone to police dogs that came in contact with prescription pain pills or heroin.

"There is the possibility that a dog could get a snout full of something and go down," Ginter said. "The best that they could do before this law was to call either a veterinarian to come to the scene or call for transport."

Dr. Ed Cooper, head of emergency and critical care at Ohio State University's Veterinary Medical Center, said that as a result of the law, which takes effect Aug. 31, some veterinarians are reaching out to first responders to provide basic training, and first responders are beginning to seek it out.

"The hope in having this law passed is really just to give first responders the opportunity and extend the option without the potential for recourse to assist pets as well as people in these kinds of crisis situations," Cooper said. "So (veterinarians) certainly see it as a positive thing."

What the law doesn't do is require first responders to treat animals, nor does it now make it OK for people to call 911 when their pets get injured or sick. People should still call emergency animal hospitals in these situations.

Smith noted that with two-thirds of American households having at least one pet, it stands to reason that first responders are going to encounter injured animals on the job.

"Really, it's just about building humane communities," she said. "I think when first-response agencies and local governments and especially state governments plan around the fact that animals are such a huge part of our lives, it can only lead to good things."


In this Dec. 9, 2010, file photo, Amira Bichara, right, gasps in relief when a golden retriever rescued from a house fire begins breathing normally, as a firefighter and resident administer oxygen in Kettering, Ohio. Under a new Ohio law taking effect Aug. 31, 2016, firefighters and EMTs can provide basic first aid to dogs and cats rescued from house fires, car accidents or other crisis situations, treatment that only licensed veterinarians could legally provide under existing law. 




In this Oct. 24, 2008, file photo, Perkins Township, Ohio, firefighters administer oxygen to a dog rescued from a house fire in Sandusky, Ohio. Under a new Ohio law taking effect Aug. 31, 2016, firefighters and EMTs can provide basic first aid to dogs and cats rescued from house fires, car accidents or other crisis situations, treatment that only licensed veterinarians could legally provide under existing law. 




In this June 24, 2008, file photo, fire paramedic Kelsey Ward administers oxygen to a pet cat that suffered smoke inhalation before it was rescued from an apartment fire in Enon, Ohio. Under a new Ohio law taking effect Aug. 31, 2016, firefighters and EMTs can provide basic first aid to dogs and cats rescued from house fires, car accidents or other crisis situations, treatment that only licensed veterinarians could legally provide under existing law. 


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Sunday, February 28, 2016

A Woman Was Out Driving and Saw What She Thought Was a Dead Opossum: What She Does Next Will Warm Your Heart


Judy Obregon knows an opossum when she sees one. There is one who visits her porch regularly.

While driving down her block on February 20 heading to her mother-in-law's house, she stopped as she saw what she first thought was a dead opossum in the road.

Until the little one lifted her head. And looked toward Obregon.

It was as if the opossum knew Obregon was there to help.

"I knew I could not walk away," she said.

As the founder of The Abandoned Ones "Saving Animals in Danger" animal rescue in Fort Worth, Texas, Obregon has been rescuing dogs mainly from a known dog-fighting area in her city. However, if an animal needs help, regardless of species, Obregon springs into action, as she did with the opossum.


The opossum at first struggled to walk away before Judy Obregon was able to get her to the side of the road.

Obregon got out of her car and walked over to the opossum and saw a trail of blood leading from a driveway to the animal while a bloody stick lay nearby. Her gut told her the animal had not been hit by a car and that the opossum was a "she" carrying babies.

Helping the helpless

The opossum kept struggling to lift her head and tried to walk, so Obregon helped gently push the animal to the side of the road to prevent a mishap with a car. Obregon ran to her own car to grab a T-shirt to cover the opossum for warmth.


Obregon found a T-shirt in her car and was able to wrap the opossum in it for warmth.

She then got on the phone and started reaching out to find someone who could help. After calling DFW Wildlife Coalition, she was given a list of numbers for local wildlife rehabilitators and finally reached Tabatha, who lived within minutes away.

While she waited for Tabatha, Obregon knew it was most important to find a box and get the opossum safe and warm.

Since she was a block from her mother-in-law's house and her husband was there, she got him to watch the opossum while she ran inside to get a box.

Obregon wanted to make sure not to hurt the animal.

The opossum was so tiny. So fragile.

And so scared.

"I put the box down to see if the opossum would crawl into it," she said. "I put it in front of her and used my hands to guide her into the box." The opossum struggled but crawled inside as if she knew she was being rescued, according to Obregon, who then carried the box about a block back to her mother-in-law's house where she sat in front and waited.



Wildlife help arrives

Tabatha arrived about 10 minutes later.

"It was so emotional," Obregon said. "I do rescue work all the time, but to see another rescuer do what I do was so heartwarming."


Tabatha, the wildlife rehabilitator, evaluated Angel the first night she brought her home.

Tabatha is a wildlife rehabilitator who is in her fourth year of helping to rehabilitate a variety of animals, from opossums (the only marsupial in North America) and squirrels, to minks and raccoons. She and her husband Ronnie each have a sub-permit (they work under someone who is permitted) with the state of Texas, whereby they are taught everything necessary to rehabilitate animals from feeding, triage and how to determine if an animal needs veterinary care to nutrition, cage setup and releasing an animal back into the wild. Tabatha is in the process of applying for her own permit.


Angel's injuries were extensive, and Tabatha believed they were inflicted by humans.


First Tabatha verified that the opossum was female and that she did have joeys (or babies) in her pouch. Joeys are born blind, bald and completely defenseless; they weigh about 3 to 4 grams and develop in their mother's pouch for 60 days. Tabatha covered the opossum, who Obregon named Angel, with a blanket and placed her safely in a carrier and took her home.

"I could tell she was not hit by a car from the blood evidence and what she looked like," Tabatha said. "I could tell she was struck by something."

A plan for Angel to recover

Upon arrival at her home, Tabatha took Angel out to check her thoroughly and found no broken bones or heavy bleeding. "I could tell on evaluation of her that she was struck, and I'm pretty sure she was shot with a BB gun," Tabatha said. There were about four teeth that were damaged and a spot on the roof of her mouth where the BB hit. Since there was no exit wound, Angel most likely swallowed the BB.


By the second night, Angel started to show some improvement.

Tabatha called the wildlife veterinarian with whom she consults and talked over the case and determined Angel did not need to go into the office. On the vet's advice, Tabatha administered some pain medication and fluids, cleaned Angel's wounds, placed her in a cage and fed her some vegetables, fruit and chicken. "You can tell her mouth is sore, but she has been eating and drinking on her own, which is great news."

She also checked on Angel's babies, who were OK. However, she was not allowed to remove them as that could be dangerous for the babies.

Opossums oftentimes get a bad rap, but a little education can go a long way.


Angel loves being held and snuggling with Ronnie, Tabatha's husband, who is also a wildlife rehabilitator.

For starters, it is highly unlikely for them to carry rabies, according to Tabatha, as their blood temperature is too low to sustain the virus. Most often they are scared of humans and are not aggressive.

Tabatha has been evaluating Angel at night because opossums are nocturnal. She wants to ensure Angel is calm and there are no loud noises. "Right now she is scared and you can tell she is hurting," she said. "She is very sweet. Opossums have a very shy demeanor."

When scared, opossums will hiss and open their mouths very wide. "If that doesn't work they can play possum, which is play dead and they actually have glands on their anus that secrete a very stinky, horrible smelling fluid to make them smell dead." Typically if you leave them alone, they will leave an area, unless there is food.

Accepting help from humans

Although Tabatha feels that Angel was hurt by humans, "She has not tried to bite me once," she said. "She knows I am here to help, not to hurt her. I think she has a very good chance.


Angel continues to heal, and Tabatha hopes to release her in a couple of weeks.

"My goal is to make sure she doesn't get an infection, add a little weight to her, and release her and her babies together as soon as possible," which most likely will be another week or two as long as Angel continues to heal. Tabatha knows a man who loves wildlife. He has 60 acres and hunting is prohibited, so she will release Angel on his property.

Rescuing Angel was "not one of my typical rescues because I rescue dogs and cats," Obregon said. "This is out of the ordinary for me, but I wouldn't have avoided her for that reason. She is still an animal with a beating heart, and it was still beating when I got to her."

If you find an injured wild animal, the Humane Society of the United States has information to help. You can also contact your local parks and wildlife organization for information and a list of rehabilitators in your area, or call your local animal control. If you ever bring wildlife to a rehabber, please leave a donation as they are self-funded.

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Saturday, March 28, 2015

Puppy Mill Rescue Teams Are Finding More, and More Designer Dogs in, Farms Where Dogs Are Kept In Misery: Labradoodles


A couple and their four children, wanted a dog in the worst way. Not just any dog, but the type more popular today than any of the dazzling breeds at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.

They wanted a labradoodle.

With luck and money, they found one not far from where they live in Connecticut. The breeder claimed the dog came from several generations of labradoodles, who in turn were carefully bred from miniature poodles and Labrador retrievers in Australia, where labradoodles were popularized 25 years ago. A ball of chocolate fluff, the puppy cost $2,800. That's more than it would have cost the family to adopt every single dog at their local shelter. But it was not outlandishly priced for a labradoodle.

The family installed an electric fence inside the house to keep the pup contained, paid for obedience classes from a trainer, and were set.

Only they weren't. Theirs is a cautionary tale, an increasingly common one, of what can happen when a dog becomes too popular for its own good.

 The Heartbreaking Truth About Those Cute Doodle Dogs
The puppy did not have the docile temperament of a lab, as advertised. He was high-strung, as poodles can be sometimes, especially miniature poodles. He was not good with children; he competed with them as if they were littermates—scolding, wrestling, biting them. He was not, as labradoodles are marketed, low-maintenance. Like both a poodle and a labrador, the puppy craved constant company. Being confined to two rooms by an absurd, zapping, invisible "fence" drove him crazy. So did the children and the nanny, who were inconsistent with their attention and discipline.

Like more and more labradoodles, and their cousins, the golden doodles, a golden retriever-poodle mix—this pup was dumped. He ended up at the Doodle Rescue Collective, Inc., based in Dumont, New Jersey, which fields calls from doodle owners all over the country desperate to dump their dogs.

Since the Doodle Rescue Collective began rescuing doodles in 2006, it has helped over 1,200 dogs and counting. And it is not alone. There are dozens of other poodle-mix rescues, including rescues for cockapoos, or cocker spaniel-poodle mixes; schnoodles, for schnauzer-poodles; chi-poos, for chihuahua poodles; maltipoos, for maltese-poodle mixes; and so on. The rescues often spend thousands of dollars in healthcare and rehabilitation for these so-called designer dogs, mutts actually, whose owners spent months on breeder waiting lists to get them, and thousands of dollars to buy them, only to abandon them within a year or two.

Of course, not all labradoodle breeders run puppy mills. Gail Widman, president of the Australian Labradoodle Club of America, said that all members of the club must adhere to strict breeding standards, using DNA tests as proof, register with the source group in Australia, and guarantee the health and temperament of their dogs.

Given all those qualifications, Widman said, for people who might not be able to have a dog otherwise because of allergies, the true labradoodle, she claimed, "is the perfect dog."

"You'll be hard-pressed to find a real Australian labradoodle in a shelter," Widman said. "They have wonderful temperaments, no smell, no shedding—they're brilliant dogs and they simply do not get given up."

But it is true, Widman added, "That a lot of breeders call their dogs Australian labradoodles and they aren't."

These dogs have become victims of their hype, rescuers say. It's a phenomenon that happens to many breeds of dog. Every time a type of dog captures the public's imagination, the clamor surrounding it creates new backyard breeders, a new product for puppy mills, and new owners swept up by the hype. Dalmatians were all the rage after Disney's 101 Dalmations was released. Cocker spaniels had their day after Disney's Lady and the Tramp. Paris Hilton made teacup Chihuahuas dressed up in tutus a fleeting fad.

Each time a breed becomes too popular, it gets inbred and overbred, causing severe health problems or behavioral issues they dogs' guardians don't want to pay for or live with. Labradoodles and other poodle mixes are marketed as hypo-allergenic, non-shedding and odor-free, attracting some people who have never lived with a dog before, but like the idea of one that sounds low-maintenance.

Labradoodles attract some people, in short, who probably shouldn't own dogs.

Meanwhile, dogs,or cats that might be a better fit languish in shelters, or are euthanized for lack of space. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) estimates that out of the six to eight million dogs and cats animal shelters care for each year, three to four million healthy, adoptable animals are euthanized.

Puppy mill rescue teams are finding more and more designer dogs in farms where dogs are kept in misery— in cages, usually in filthy conditions, in every state in the country. Such dogs are often in poor health. Breeding females are treated like puppy factories, pregnant at every heat for years on end. A breeder may use the same miniature poodle—or cockapoo, which looks like a miniature poodle—to breed labradoodles, maltipoos, schnoodles, affenpoos (affenpinscher-poodles) or jackipoos (Jack Russell terrier-poodles).

The HSUS announced it had investigated a large suspected puppy mill in Arkansas, and posted a picture of one of the 121 dogs it rescued, a severely matted goldendoodle.

Kathleen Summers, director of outreach and research for the Humane Society’s Stop Puppy Mills Campaign, said the HSUS is finding designer dogs in half of all the puppy mills it investigates.

“The hybrid breeds are very attractive for the puppy mills to produce,” Summers said. “They really cash in on the whole ‘hypoallergenic’ sales pitch that there are some dogs that don’t shed and that won’t aggravate some people’s allergies. Puppy mill breeders try to sell the notion that anything mixed with poodle is going to be hypoallergenic.”

While people research their breeders on the Internet, what they don't know, Summers said, is the amount of false advertising presented in the marketing of the dogs.

"Most of the websites for puppy mills that we've shut down for horrific conditions," Summers said, "say things on their site like 'We don't support puppy mills.'"

No one has lamented the popularity of the doodles more urgently than Wally Conron, who created the first labradoodle. As the puppy-breeding manager at the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia, Conron was trying to fulfill the need for a guide dog from a woman in Hawaii whose husband was allergic to dogs. He bred a standard poodle with a Labrador retriever for this couple. But there was more than one puppy in the litter, and no one on his three- to six-month waiting list for guide dogs wanted a crossbreed. So, "We came up with the name labradoodle," Conron said in a recent interview with the Associated Press. "We told people we had a new dog and all of a sudden, people wanted this wonder dog."

With all the breeds and crossbreeds in the world, Conron says, he is horrified at the proliferation of labradoodles and the other poodle mixes. He blames himself for "creating a Frankenstein.” Instead of breeding out problems, he said, clueless and unscrupulous breeders are breeding them in.

"For every perfect one," he says, "you're going to find a lot of crazy ones."

The gold standard for labradoodles remains the Rutland Manor Labradoodle Breeding and Research Center in Australia, which now calls its dogs "cobberdogs." Rutland Manor claims the true Australian labradoodle has developed over two decades of careful breeding into a breed in its own right. Its hallmarks, the Rutland Manor website says, "are a highly developed intuitive nature, a love of training and a yearning for eye contact. It has a 98 percent record for allergy friendliness, a reliably non-shedding coat and is sociable and non-aggressive."

But at the Carolina Poodle Rescue, outside Spartanberg, S.C., Donna Ezell, who has been rescuing poodles for 15 years, said that labradoodles and other poodle mixes she sees are not only unpredictable in size, shape and looks, but also in temperament.

"If you have a purebred poodle or a purebred boxer from a reputable breeder," she said, "you know what you're going to get. You know what it's going to look like. You have a pretty good idea of its temperament. With the doodles and maltipoos and all these others, they don't breed true. You can't predict what they'll be. They all look different. They have different temperaments. And some are non-shedding, some are not."

Jacqueline Yorke of the Doodle Rescue Collective, said poodle-mix owners are often surprised to find that they are still allergic to their "hypoallergenic" dogs. "They may be allergic to the dog's saliva, or the skin it sheds or the fur it does shed," she said. "And they've also found out that non-shedding does not mean no work. If the fur doesn't shed, it grows and grows. They need to be mowed down and groomed every six to eight weeks."

Yorke said the rescue has taken in dogs with fur so matted the dogs were unable to relieve themselves; their feces were stuck in their fur.

Time and again, the rescue has fostered dogs with the same health conditions, including hip dysplasia, cataracts, torn anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, injuries which require expensive surgery, and megaesophagus, a potentially life-threatening disease which causes the dog to choke on its food.

But the primary reason doodles end up in the rescue, Yorke said, are issues with children."We just got three more," she said. "Every one listed 'aggressive with children.'"

The poor dog featured at the beginning of this article ended up being euthanized after he attacked and bit Yorke and was evaluated by veterinarians and trainers who deemed him dangerous. But that kind of extreme situation, Yorke said, is rare.

One bit of good news, Yorke said, is that doodles and other designer dogs are so popular rescues have long waiting lists of potential adopters.

 "We have hundreds on our list," Yorke said. Most will not make the cut when vetted by the group. The rescue will not adopt out doodles to families with small children, for example. The goal is to provide the dogs a permanent home, Yorke said, and not see them back at the rescue.

"We get hate mail all the time from people mad at us for not handing them a dog. They'll say, 'Well, I'm going to a breeder.'"

Her response? Buyer beware.

Labradoodles and other poodle mixes are very trendy, but is it ethical to get one?

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Thursday, March 5, 2015

Ringling Brothers Finally Retires Its Elephants After Years of Mistreatment


Picture of Ringling Brother's elephant sitting on stand
Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, issued the following statement in response to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ announcing that it will retire its performing elephants in 2018:

“This is a startling and tremendously exciting announcement. With consumers now so alert to animal welfare issues, no business involved in any overt form of animal exploitation can survive in the long run. Whether it is locking pigs in metal cages on factory farms or chaining elephants for long-distance travel in performing circuses, businesses must adapt to public concerns in order to succeed in today’s humane economy.

"We’ve said all along that the public won’t tolerate the abuse of elephants with sharp bullhooks to get them to perform tricks or the constant chaining of these highly intelligent and mobile animals. There are better forms of entertainment that don’t harm animals. Cities like Los Angeles and Oakland have recently banned the use of bullhooks, and the trajectory was clear that this practice had no future in the 21st century.”

Six reasons Ringling made the right call FOLLOW US!
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Friday, February 13, 2015

How to Care for Outdoor Cats in Winter


Who are those cats you see outside on cold days? They may be pets whose owners let (or put) them outside.

Or they could be community cats, a group that includes ferals (who are afraid of people) and strays (who've been lost or abandoned). No matter how resourceful these outdoor cats are, they need help surviving winter.

To read more on this story, click here: How to Care for Outdoor Cats in Winter FOLLOW US!
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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Virginia Creates Nation's First Attorney General's Animal Law Unit


Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring has created the nation's first attorney general's Animal Law unit.

The small group of existing staff attorneys will spend a portion of their time working with local law enforcement and state agencies on issues involving animal welfare, animal fighting or abuse,  attorney general's office said in a statement Thursday.


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Sunday, January 11, 2015

The Humane Society of the United States is Offering a Reward of Up to $7,000 for Information leading to the Arrest/Conviction of the Person(s) Responsible for Intentionally Burning a Dog in Prince George's County, Maryland


Picture of dog
From Prince George's County Animal Shelter :

As difficult as animal cruelty can be to see, we are asking you to share Leonidas' story in the hopes that we can find the person responsible. Thanks to the PGSPCA and the HSUS for offering a reward for information leading to a conviction in his case.

Leonidas, a shining example of the loving and forgiving nature of dogs, is healing amazingly well and is starting on his journey to a new loving home!


To read more on this story, click here: Reward Offered in Maryland Dog Burning




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Monday, November 10, 2014

What to Do If You See a Pet Left Out in the Cold


Picture of dog in snow
Cold weather can be deadly for pets. As the temperature plummets in many parts of the country, The Humane Society of the United States sees a marked increase in the number of complaints about dogs and cats who have been left outside with no food or shelter.

To read more on this story, click here: What to Do If You See a Pet Left Out in the Cold FOLLOW US!
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Sunday, November 2, 2014

The Lie at the Heart of the Killing - The Myth Pet Overpopulation


Today, an animal entering an average American animal shelter has a 50 percent chance of being killed, and in some communities it is as high as 99 percent, with shelters blaming a lack of available homes as the cause of death.

But is pet overpopulation real? And are shelters doing all they can to save lives? If you believe the Humane Society of the United States, the American Humane Association, the ASPCA and PETA the answer to both those questions is “yes,” even though that answer flies in the face of the data and experience. It is simply “received” rather than substantiated wisdom. To adherents of the “we have no choice but to kill because of pet overpopulation” school, pet overpopulation is real because animals are being killed, a logical fallacy based on backwards reasoning and circular illogic. In other words, data, analysis and experience—in short, evidence—have no place. Neither do ethics.

To read more on this story, click here: The Lie at the Heart of the Killing - The Myth Pet Overpopulation

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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Bears Are on the Ballot in Maine as Hunting Methods Are Debated


It has been a big year for bears in the news, especially in Maine, where voters on Nov. 4 face a question that has bedeviled other bear-heavy states: how to keep the species’ population at bay in the face of pressure from animal rights groups lobbying to ban certain hunting methods.

The campaign around the Maine Bear Hunting Ban Initiative, which will appear on the ballot as Question 1, has shed light on Maine’s unique status in the wildlife world. It remains the only state in the lower 48 where hunters may use bait, traps and dogs to nab bears.

To read more on this story, click here: Bears Are on the Ballot in Maine as Hunting Methods Are Debated









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Friday, October 17, 2014

Finally, the Federal Government is Treating Animal Abuse as a Serious Crime: FBI Will Crack Animal Cruelty Cases


Last month the Federal Bureau of Investigation quietly changed its policy by agreeing to add animal cruelty as a distinct offense in the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The new policy followed proposals from the National Sheriff’s Association and the Animal Welfare Institute.

Until now, the FBI classified animal abuse under the "other" category, with a group of less serious offenses. That made it difficult for law enforcement agencies and animal welfare groups to monitor, and fight, the unlawful harming of animals across the country. Now the crime will have its own felony classification similar to other violent crimes such as murder, assault and rape. "It will be a Group A offense and a Crime against Society," the FBI said in a statement provided to The Dodo. "Criminal activity and gang information will be expanded to include four types of abuses."

The four categories are: simple/gross neglect; intentional abuse and torture, organized abuse (ie, dog and cock fighting); and animal sexual abuse.

What constitutes cruelty? "Intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly taking an action that mistreats or kills any animal without just cause, such as torturing, tormenting, mutilation, maiming, poisoning, or abandonment," the FBI statement said.

Examples of such abuse include failure to provide food, water, shelter or needed veterinarian care, confining an animal in a way that is likely to cause injury or death, and inflicting excessive or repeated pain and suffering.

"This definition does not include proper maintenance of animals for show or sport; use of animals for food, lawful hunting, fishing or trapping," the FBI statement added.

While disappointed that the new policy will not cover industrial animal production and does nothing to reverse so-called "Ag-Gag" laws — which ban the taking of photos or video inside a factory farm without permission — animal welfare advocates applauded the move.

"It's an excellent thing and it has two immediate effects," said John Goodwin, director of animal abuse policy at the Humane Society of America (HSUS). "First, the fact that the FBI is taking animal cruelty crimes seriously enough to track them sends a message to all law enforcement agencies that this is a serious concern and they need to take it very seriously." The second result will be real-time tracking of animal abuse in all 50 states, as compiled in monthly crime reports by local law enforcement. Data reporting will begin in January 2016.

"Accurate data will give people information on what needs to be done about the problem," Goodwin said. "It can tell us the geographical range of the crimes and which individuals are committing them." That information could help alleviate the problem. "There are different ways to tackle different types of cruelty," Goodwin said. The answer to neglect, for example, may be better education, acts of torture will require stronger penalties and serious psychological counseling, while animal fighting data will show where gambling profits need to be addressed. The new classification could also put more teeth into the enforcement of animal cruelty laws on the state level, according to Madeline Bernstein, president and CEO of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles. "It will help get better sentences, sway juries and make for better plea bargains," she told the Associated Press. The new classification will also help identify juvenile offenders, who sometimes go on to harm or kill people. “We’re very, very pleased. A lot of good things are happening in law enforcement now, and we can continue to make the world a better place for animals,” said HSUS’s Goodwin. “But a lot of policy making still needs to be done before we reach the point of referring to ourselves as a completely humane nation.”
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