ANIMAL CONNECTION

Archive for the ‘Breeding’ Category

Can anyone explain why the USDA will NOT step in and help the dogs and puppies in the mills? There has been so much evidence of mills abusing and neglecting these animals.  Many of these animals are dying horrible deaths.  Most people have heard about these atrocities.  The flip side, they go into a pet store to buy something for their animal. When they are there they see the poor puppy eyes looking at them.  At that very moment they feel they need to buy this puppy and give it a good home.  They forget where the puppy came from.   It is a vicious cycle.  I like what they have done in West Hollywood California.  The stores only sell puppies that come from shelters or rescues.  Click here to learn how you can do the same thing in your community.

This past week there was a report about the USDA failing to cut down on puppy mills.   They detail the horrific conditions and lax enforcement.  If you would like to read this article, click here.

There was also a show on Animal Planet that exposed Petland puppies. Since the airing of that show they have had so many people coming forward telling them stories about the health issues, and medical challenges, their puppies have had. In addition, the cost to care for these animals.

So many stories were sent in describing what it has been like for the owners of these puppies since they purchased their new family member.  The stories include Bailey, a Cairn terrier (pictured here), who became deathly ill and had to be hospitalized after she was purchased in Texas, and Little Red, who reportedly had the worst hip dysplasia her veterinarian had ever seen.

On the positive side, hopefully this show will get people to do more research on the stores and breeders of  puppies.  Even people in your community might have a small mill going and you don’t even know it.

If you would like to read more about this, or know of a puppy that you want to report because they have medical issues, click here.

Over the past few weeks I have had so many conversations regarding our world and where we are headed.  I have always said, “Humans are blessed with an exceptional brain.  We have made wonderful advances in technology, medicine, etc.  At the same time, we also seem to use it to destroy the world and harm innocent animals.  Right now we are harming and destroying at the same time (oil drilling, polluting the waters and killing all kinds of fish and wildlife).

I came up with the name of my show, “Animal Connection” because I know animals and humans are connected.  I never realized the timing of my show would be so perfect with the events going on in our society, in such an extreme way.  One major issue, once we destroy this earth that’s it.  No matter how much money anyone has, we can’t replace it!

The animals were here long before we were.  We should respect them and not use them for profit.  Someone said to me, “We should go back to the times of Little House on the Prairie”.  I’m starting to believe that’s not such a bad idea, although it was a very hard life!

I don’t know what the answer is.  We don’t seem to be able to get along and respect other humans (look at the wars).  How do we expect people to respect animals?

I want Friday’s to bring awareness to other organizations that are doing wonderful things for animals. If you have information you want to share, send me a paragraph on the topic with a link to the website, by 11am on Thursday.  I will do this each Friday.  Please pass this link on to bring awareness to these wonderful organizations, thanks!

1. Have you ever thought about the food you eat?  How does it affect your body and health?

There is a new movie called Food, Inc.  It educates people about the food they eat. Oprah dedicated one of her shows to this topic.  Alicia Silverstone wrote a book called “The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet”. She also discusses this topic.

When we used to cook quality food at home our health care costs, and medical needs, were much lower.  Our world has changed.  People buy fast food an average of 4 times a week.  With that increase there has been an increase in health issues and health care costs.  Animals are force fed and given all kinds of hormones.  This impacts the animals, as well as the humans that consume them.  A few of the topics discussed in the movie:

1. Where our food comes from
2. How it affects our health
3. How to purchase quality food at the best price
4. Restaurants that serve high quality food that has been raised caged free

What are your thoughts about this?  You can comment below.

2. They say bears hibernate in the winter, right?  Watch the video below to see what they really do in the comfort of their own caves!  This is live video inside a bear’s den!

A team of  biologists go to a black bear den to study a female bear and her two newborn cubs. The group recorded each cub’s weight and gender and examined the mother bear.   Please listen to what they have to say about the bears and humans interacting.  Sound familiar about other animals in the wild?

THESE ARE WILD ANIMALS, PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS ON YOUR OWN!!

3. Kirsten Starcher plays bass in a Vancouver-based rock band and while performing in Toronto, Canada in 2006, took a poignant photograph of a homeless man with his dog nestled in his arms.  Her photo has touched many hearts around the world.  Her consent to “Pets of the Homeless” to use her photo set a wave in motion.

“Years later, it still amazes me how this one tiny action, which almost didn’t happen, has had a ripple effect I never would have predicted,” wrote Kirsten for an article in the March 2010, Pets of the Homeless Newsletter.

People started writing to tell Kirsten about how the photo affected them.  More charities asked to use it in their writings; artists asked to paint their own versions of it; a musician wrote a song about it. She received email from a woman in South Africa who found it on a flyer on the beach and was deeply moved. One of the artists planned to give a percentage of his gallery’s earnings – for a month – to a local homelessness charity, by way of appreciation.

This stunning photograph can be seen on the Pets of the Homeless website.

I want Friday’s to bring awareness to other organizations that are doing wonderful things for animals. If you have information you want to share, send me a paragraph on the topic with a link to the website, by 11am on Thursday.  I will do this each Friday.  Please pass this link on to bring awareness to these wonderful organizations, thanks!

Enjoy the 6 posts below:

1.  A Love Story: A) Here, his wife is injured and the condition is fatal.  She was hit by a car as she swooped low across the road.

B) Here he brought her food and attended to her with love and compassion.

C) He brought her food again but was shocked to find her dead. He tried to move her….a rarely-seen effort for swallows!

D) Aware that his sweetheart is dead and will never come back to him again,he cries with adoring love.

E) He stands beside her, saddened by her death.

F) Finally aware that she would never return to him, he stays beside her body with sadness and sorrow.

Millions of people cried after seeing this picture story in America and Europe and even in India .  It is said that the photographer sold these pictures for a nominal fee to the most famous newspaper in France .  All copies of that newspaper were sold out on the day these pictures were published. And many people think birds and animals don’t have a brain or feelings!!

1. 2.  On December 15th, 2009 the SPCA of Texas took custody of 26,000 exotic animals from US Global Exotics in the largest animal seizure in US history. USGE was a major distributor of exotic animals from wallabies to hamsters; warehousing them in horrific conditions until they could be brokered to stores, breeders and retailers. Thousands of reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, arachnids, and many other animals were cruelly confined in filthy conditions, literally crammed into cattle-feeding troughs, boxes, bags, and even pop bottles. They did not have food, water, or veterinary care. According to reports 500 animals a day were dying at USGE, ending up tossed in their dumpster.

Thanks to an undercover PETA investigation the animals were permanently awarded to the SPCA of Texas on Feb 1, 2010. Love or hate PETA you have to give them credit for this one.  Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary was proud and honored to be selected as one of 30 rescues in the nation to receive some of the rescued animals from the US Global Exotics animal cruelty and neglect
case. Located in Northern Illinois Critter Camp board member Shary Stelter made the trip to Nashville, TN to meet up with the SPCA of TX transport on Superbowl Sunday where she was interviewed by Nashville Television station WSMV.  See the 75 critters from USGE now calling Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary their home, including adorable Texas Spotted Ground Squirrels, short-tailed opossum , Roborovski hamsters and little white mice; and find links to more information on our Global Exotics Rescue Page:
Click Here For More Information.

Critter Camp is the only exotic pet sanctuary of its kind in the U.S. giving a safe, healthy happy home to the elderly, sick, disabled and aggressive un-adoptable exotic pets that have nowhere else to go, currently caring for over 300 animals of 36 different species!  Click Here to go to Their Website

3. Pepsi is funding grants in various categories until 2/28. Many Houston dogs are euthanized due to heartworms in a good economy, it is at a horrendous pace currently.

The drug to treat this is very expensive and each bottle only treats 22 lbs. This group is desperate to move up into the funded top ten. More information and pictures of saved dogs are on the site.  This could help dogs at many rescue groups and shelter.  People can vote every day, until the 28th. PLEASE, CLICK HERE to go to this site to vote today, and everyday until the 28th.

4. TAKE ACTION TODAY!!! 36,000 elephants were killed last year for their ivory. In 16 DAYS 111 tonnes of ivory will be traded at the CITIES* conference if certain countries have their way.

This will pretty much kick-start the ivory trade in a massive way meaning the end for tens or even hundreds of thousands of elephants.

If this bothers you too, please try and stop this happening by signing this petition, CLICK HERE (you’ll need to confirm your signature).

5.   A documentary was just completed.  It’s about No Kill Pet Rescues and Shelters as well as the challenges they face. In November of 2008 a family adopted a new family member from the Animal Welfare Society and learned about the lack of awareness of the No Kill shelters.  They took it upon themselves to finance and create a program about these shelters.   They have pledged 60% of all profits to go to the AWS and if they can get great distribution, will split some for other local shelters in the Detroit area.

6.   Dachshund Rescue of Bucks County & NJ  have on-line workshops. They are hosted by dachshund experts and are designed to help you have a long and happy relationship with your doxie of any size.  There is a small donation fee charged for attendance with all proceeds donated to DRBC for the high medical fees incurred in the rescue and rehabilitation of our beloved breed.

This Month’s First Topic: Dental Disease and Your Dog
Those amazing toofers. How to keep them clean, bright and where they belong.  Are doxies more prone to dental disease?   How often should I clean my dogs teeth. How often should my vet clean my dogs teeth?   Dental and cardiac disease,yes, they are related.  Did you know there is anew vaccine to eliminate 4 out of 5 of the causes of tartar?   You can find out all about it at this session.

Click Here To Register

What do you think about cloning the DNA from an endangered animal to keep it from going extinct?  Dr. Betsy Dresser, senior vice president of research for the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, is doing just that.  She takes the DNA from an endangered animal and uses it with a non-endangered relative.  An example is the typical house cat and the African Wildcat.

She takes the egg of the house cat and sucks out the DNA.  She then takes DNA from the skin cells of the African Wildcat and places it inside the egg.  She uses electrodes to spit the eggs.  If everything goes well she places the egg inside the house cat so it can mature and product a new kitten.  It has been going so well, the cloned cats are mating and giving birth to very healthy kittens on their own.

This procedure might sound easy but it’s not.  There is a lot of scientific research that goes into this.  Take the Woolly Mammoth.  They don’t know the gestation period for an animal like that so they would have guess.  The goal is to keep endangered species from going extinct, not to bring back the Woolly Mammoth.  She would like to do work on the Lynx to keep it from going extinct, or the bongo, cousin to the antelope.

The Audubon Nature Institute is located on 1,200 acres of land.  It seems part Serengeti, part high-tech medical facility.  She knows there is a lot of controversy on this topic.  Her opinion, she doesn’t want our next generation of kids to only know an elephant from a text book.  She wants the kids to be able to see these animals alive, in their own environment.  If she doesn’t do this now, then we will be losing a lot of animals for future generations.

She is known as the lady with the “frozen zoo”.  She collects tiny skin samples from thousands of different animals, representing hundreds of species, and is storing them at 343 degrees below zero in tiny canisters inside tanks filled with liquid nitrogen.  She has samples from tigers, bears, frogs, rhinos and many more animals.  She feels there is no reason not to save DNA from every species since the cells can survive for hundreds, if not thousands of years in these tanks.

The Woolly Mammoth is her poster animal because the thought of it is inspiring.  Imagine the face of a 9 year old child.  This child sees a picture of the Woolly Mammoth and knows that there might be the possibility of brining that animal back to life.  Talk about inspiring for a kid to want to get involved in science that way.  If not, there is the message to do something to improve our environment NOW so we are not impacting and affecting animals is such a negative way.  We all live on the same planet and are connected to each other.

No one has yet found the intact cell it would take to resurrect that Woolly Mammoth, but in Siberia, two years ago, a reindeer herder discovered a remarkably well-preserved one month old baby mammoth that had lain frozen in permafrost for 40,000 years.

Its DNA was in better shape than any previously found, raising hopes that between new finds and new technology, it may just be a matter of time.

Watch the Frozen Zoo  video

Last month the Humane Society Legislative Fund had a contest.  They wanted people to submit ideas for new legislation that involves animals.  They had more than 3,500 entries.  The winner was Cheryl Woodcock.  Her idea was for people to get a tax credit for spaying and neutering their animals.  She felt this would encourage owners to do their part to help with the overpopulation of animals.  The HSLF is working with members of Congress to introduce a new federal bill to promote the spaying and neutering of pets.   If you would like to help here is the link.

What is the impact of spaying or neutering your animal?

Spay/neuter is the only permanent, 100-percent effective method of birth control for dogs and cats.

Overpopulation is everywhere

There are so many homeless animals all across the country.  In the U.S. there are an estimated 6-8 million homeless animals entering animal shelters every year. About half of these animals are adopted but the rest have to be euthanized. These are healthy, sweet pets and would have made great companions but there were no homes.

These are not the offspring of homeless “street” animals—these are the puppies and kittens of cherished family pets and even purebreds.

Your own pet could be a shelter animal

Many people believe that their pet’s puppies or kittens would never become homeless shelter animals. But the reality is that every time the dog finds his way under the fence to visit the neighbor’s female dog, or the indoor/outdoor cat comes back home pregnant again, the result is a litter of dogs or cats. Even if they are placed into homes, it is still possible for them to end up in shelters once they become “hard to handle,” or for them to reproduce further and for the next generation of puppies or kittens to wind up homeless.

Not just for dogs and cats

When being conscientious about the pet overpopulation, don’t forget to spay or neuter your rabbit. Rabbits reproduce faster than dogs or cats and often end up in shelters where they must be euthanized. Spaying or neutering rabbits can reduce hormone-driven behavior such as lunging, mounting, spraying and boxing. Spaying females can prevent ovarian, mammary and uterine cancers, which can be prevalent in mature females.

Millions of pet deaths each year are a needless tragedy. By spaying and neutering your pet, you can be an important part of the solution.

What can you do?

Contact your veterinarian or local shelter to see about getting your pet spayed or neutered.  There is also a service called MASU (Mobile Animal Sterilization Unit).  They will come to you.

Lately I have seen some very interesting, educating and amazing videos about animals.  The ones I seem to like the most are ones that are filmed in the wild. We get to see animals in their own, natural, habitat.  It bothers me to think that a lot of these animals might not be here for our children, or grand children, to see.

It’s Monday so I wanted everyone to be able to start the week off with something enjoyable.  Some of these might be disturbing, but remember, you’re viewing nature.

Have a fabulous day!

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