FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Dogs and cats that were abandoned in the Fukushima exclusion zone after last year's nuclear crisis have had to survive high radiation and a lack of food, and they are now struggling with the region's freezing winter weather.

"If left alone, tens of them will die everyday. Unlike well-fed animals that can keep themselves warm with their own body fat, starving ones will just shrivel up and die," said Yasunori Hoso, who runs a shelter for about 350 dogs and cats rescued from the 20-km evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear plant.

The government let animal welfare groups enter the evacuation zone temporarily in December to rescue surviving pets before the severe winter weather set in, but Hoso said there were still many more dogs and cats left in the area.

"If we cannot go in to take them out, I hope the government will at least let us go there and leave food for them," he said.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11 triggered the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years and forced residents around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to flee, with many of them having to leave behind their pets.

More than 150,000 people from Fukushima prefecture still cannot return to their homes, with nearly half of them from the exclusion zone.

While Japan focuses on containing the nuclear accident and protecting people from radiation, Hoso, representative director of United Kennel Club Japan, has been trying to save as many dogs and cats from the no-go zone as possible, or keep pets for those who are living in shelters where pets are not allowed.

Toru Akama, an engineer working at the Fukushima nuclear plant, asked Hoso to look after his 14 dogs when an entry ban was imposed on his town.

"I was really happy for my dogs. They are part of my family. There was no way I could abandon them," Akama said.

Hoso said he aims to carry on until the last dog in his shelter is returned to its owner or finds a new home.

"When dogs are returned, many owners are really grateful and a limited few are not so grateful. But when it comes to dogs, all of them, without exception, become really ecstatic when they get reunited with their owners," Hoso said.

"That is what keeps me going, what makes me determined that I have to push ahead until the last one goes back to its owner."

Presidential candidates have been trying to find efficient, effective ways to incorporate the realm of social media into their campaigns ever since Barack Obama parlayed it into a four-year (at least) stay at the White House. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, perhaps known as much for his unconventional habits as he is for his unconventional "wisdom, is really starting to stretch the limits of this whole social media-as-campaign thing.

While he and Mitt Romney (and those other two guys) shell their embarrassing political ads en español in order to cajole Latino voters to cast in with them during today's Florida primary, Gingrich has been quietly courting the vote of another demographic: pets. As in your pets.

Pets With Newt 2012 sounds like a prank site but – I swear – it's legit and actually paid for by Gingrich's official campaign. As you can imagine, the website offers his supporters an opportunity to enlist their pets – who I presume have no prior qualifications aside from territorial pissings and the occasional corpophagia – into Gingrich's cause. All you need to do in order to commit your small, furry companion to the amusing-if-it-wasn't-true campaign of Gingrich is submit a few pieces of info.

The site's harmless enough and, honestly, if it were anybody else other than Gingrich I'd probably pass over it. But it's Newt Gingrich. And it's attached to his 2012 presidential campaign which, in case you've been smartly living under a rock when it comes to modern American politics, has been an epic farce.

You can also see a list of Newt and (third wife) Callista's favorite zoos. That's worth taking a look at if only for the opportunity to glimpse the slideshow of Newt mingling with captured animals of prey. I guess his handlers thought it'd be too risky to go find one of those Burmese pythons that have been decimating the Florida ecosystem as a good PR shot for today's primary.

Finally: I think I get a high-five for making it all the way to this point without making any jokes about how "Pets with Newt" is not really the best name for a site that endorses a known two-time (that we know of) philanderer.

You've heard of people stuffing animals they kill to keep as trophies. But now there is a growing trend in America to keep beloved pets.

People are no longer stuffing their animals, instead they are freeze-drying them. Many people absolutely love their pets. When they die, it's often hard to say goodbye. Now many people are opting not to.

"The reason I like freeze-drying, especially small animals, is that the actual animal is inside," explained Andy Peters of Peters Taxidermy. "The skeleton, meat everything and you get all that natural detail left in the face."

For Andy Peters, taxidermy is a passion. About five years ago, his passion for stuffing animals morphed into one for freeze drying them.

"This is the freeze drying tube," Peters demonstrated.

Freeze-drying an animal sounds like exactly what it is. You put an animal into a freezer, and with a special machine the moisture is slowly pulled from the body.

"Basically in laymen's terms, you're mummifying them," Peters stated.

The process can take a long time; three months for a 30 pound dog, and it's not cheap. A regular-sized house cat will cost between $300 and $400, while a big dog will set you back $1200 and $1500.

But if it's done right, Peters says your pet, whether it be a dog, cat, reptile or bird, will last a lifetime.

"I don't think people like to say goodbye to their pets," Peters believes. "I think they get that attached to them. I know some people who planned on getting buried with their freeze-dried animal."

The freeze-drying process is not a new technology. Peters says it's more than 50 years old.

He said the process only recently got popular because of television shows like Stuffers, which highlights people who keep their pets after they die.

SACRAMENTO - Governor Jerry Brown is planning to strip the $23 million dollars given annually to California animal shelters to compensate them for holding stray or lost pets for a minimum of six days prior to euthanization.

The original law, SB1785, or "The Hayden Law", was passed in 1998 by State Senator Tom Hayden in an effort to make California shelters more accountable and provide owners of lost pets more time to recover their beloved animals.

The Hayden Law mandates that shelters hold animals four to six days before they can be killed; post lost-and-found lists for owners to locate pets; and if choosing to only hold an animal for four days, to stay open some evenings and weekends to provide owners an opportunity to pick up lost pets after business hours.

Upon word of Brown's plans to repeal the law, animal activists quickly forged a petition to keep the Hayden Law intact. According to the San Francisco Examiner, the petition gathered more than 5,200 signatures in a week.

Hayden himself has reached out to Brown, pleading with the Governor to think of his own dog (featured in much of Brown's promotional collateral) before taking an action that would likely result in death for many animals who could have possibly been rescued or reunited with their owners.

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, California Dept. of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer defended the Governor's actions, citing a 2008 report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. The report claimed the six-day holding period does not save lives or contribute to increased adoptions, thereby costing the state an unnecessary $23 million per year.

Palmer's opponents claim the contrary, insisting their findings show longer holding periods equate less kills, more adoptions and reunite more lost pets with their families.

If the Hayden Law were repealed, shelters would be allowed to euthanize animals after a 72-hour holding period, whether or not those animals had been made available to the public for adoption.

(CBS) Soap opera actor Nick Santino killed himself last week after putting his pet dog to sleep, according to the New York Post.

The paper reports that the actor put down his beloved 5-year-old pit bull, Rocco, on Tuesday - his 47th birthday - and was found dead the next day of an apparent pill overdose.

Santino, who appeared in roles on "Guiding Light" and "All My Children," reportedly left behind a suicide note in which he said he "betrayed [his] best friend."

"Rocco trusted me and I failed him," he wrote, according to the Post. "He didn't deserve this."

The actor reportedly put Rocco to sleep following pressure from his apartment building's condo board, which had begun enforcing strict rules about owning dogs - breeds like pit bulls were reportedly banned, and dogs could not ride in the main elevator or be left alone in apartments for more than nine hours.

Although the ban didn't apply to pit bulls already in the building, the Post reports that Santino, who adopted Rocco from a shelter several years ago, received complaints and had been "harassed" by the building's management.

Santino reportedly called a former girlfriend at 2 a.m. on Wednesday and was found dead in his apartment, on New York's Upper West Side, later that day.

On Monday, the actor's sister told the Post that Santino would be buried with the ashes of his beloved pet.

(Los Angeles CA., January 27, 2012) Actress and animal advocate Betty White is a guest host next weekend on the nationally syndicated Animal Radio® show.

The 90-year old Emmy winning actress claims that she's more active with the animals than acting. Her involvement includes sitting on the board of the Los Angeles Zoo and the Morris Animal Foundation.

It's clear that Betty loves all animals, but when asked if she is more of a dog or cat person, Betty states "I love anything with a leg on each corner" says Animal Radio® host Hal Abrams.

Betty says that her parents loved animals and they would often bring creatures home and ask her if they could keep them. She suggests we enjoy everyday with our animals. "Their roads are shorter than ours."

Catch this special national broadcast February 4th 2012, noon eastern on XM Satellite Radio channel 166 and 100 incredible AM-FM stations across the nation. Visit http://AnimalRadio.com to find a local affiliate.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's. A pet's saliva can miraculously cure human cuts and scrapes. These are common beliefs held by pet owners, according to a new study commissioned by The GREENIES® Brand, makers of the #1 vet-recommended pet specialty dental chews and treats. But veterinary dental experts urge pet owners not to believe so quickly, as many of these beliefs aren't necessarily true.

Among the most commonly held beliefs, the study found that almost half of pet owners believe that dogs' mouths are cleaner than a human's and that any type of chewing is good for a dog's teeth. It also found that about 40 percent think it is normal for their pets to have stinky breath. About one-third of pet owners believe that a dog's saliva can help cure human wounds(2).

"There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding a pet's oral health," said veterinary dental expert Dr. Jan Bellows, incoming president of the American Veterinary Dental College. "Dogs' mouths are certainly not cleaner than a human's. Dogs often carry a variety of germs and bacteria in their mouths that stem from buildup of plaque and tartar that can potentially make humans sick through contact with saliva. Many pet owners also believe that any type of chewing is good for their dogs, but tooth fractures are a common occurrence in pets because teeth can only withstand a certain amount of pressure from hard objects before they break. Pets chewing on inflexible items like bones, ice cubes or nylon toys are often in danger of tooth breakage. And while smelly breath in pets is common, pet owners who believe this is normal may be missing the signs of poor oral health or potential dental disease."

A healthy mouth is essential to the overall wellbeing of pets, but misguided information about pet oral health can affect more than just our pets' mouths. For proper pet oral health, veterinarians advise daily brushing or giving Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) approved dental treats, and at least annual oral exams by a veterinarian with professional cleanings as recommended.

"Pet owners who are knowledgeable about their furry companions' oral health will avoid the pitfalls of commonly-held myths and enable the best care for everyone's wellbeing," said Dr. Bellows.

(Salem News - Dr. Marty Becker) - When you pick up a prescription from your veterinarian, do you know that it's likely a "people med" your pet is getting? It's true! Aside from flea- and tick-control products and some non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, most of the medications your pets receive are crossovers from human medicine.

And when I say "most," I mean "almost all." Some 80 to 90 percent of the drugs used in veterinary medicine come from human medicine. This so-called "off-label" use of human drugs allows veterinarians to treat medical conditions (and species) that aren't always priorities for drug companies when it comes to developing and selling medications.

Some of the medications may be used for different health conditions in animals than in people. For years I'd get raised eyebrows when talking about dogs prescribed Viagra (in dogs, it can be used to treat a heart condition) or Botox (used to treat problems caused by deep skin folds in some dogs). More routinely (and less surprisingly) prescribed are "human" antibiotics, anti-anxiety medications and many other drugs that pretty much treat the same issues in both people and pets.

The practice of veterinary medicine is challenging, that's for sure. We have to work with multiple species, none of whom can say, "It hurts here, Doc!" And we have to know more about pharmacology than our physician counterparts. After all, in human medicine, all drugs are FDA-approved, meaning that they have undergone significant scrutiny for safety and efficacy — but only in one species: ours. The guidelines for use are fairly clear.

But when a veterinarian believes a particular human medication can help an animal, she'll prescribe based on information that's often not quite as regulated with regard to its use in animals. This has been the case for decades, of course, but the practice has only really been legal since 1994, when Congress passed the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act (AMDUCA) regulating the conditions under which "off-label" use is acceptable.

Even before the legislation was in place, however, there was a working system for prescribing human drugs to pets. Veterinarians relied on peer-reviewed studies, clinical trials and published formularies that included suggestions for safe uses and dosages of human medications given to companion animals.

Today, with the legal issues cleared up, veterinarians and their patients have more options and better access to medications. Veterinarians have always been glad to provide in-house pharmaceutical services, and general pharmacists, too, have usually been willing to fill prescriptions written by vets. But recently, online retailers and specialty pharmacists have recognized that pets are an expansion market. These developments open the door to even more changes, including discussions on generic meds and walking out of your veterinarian's practice with a prescription instead of a pill bottle.

Chances are you won't be taking a prescription for Viagra or Botox with you the next time you go to the veterinarian's office, but you should still talk with the doctor about your pet's treatment options. A good veterinarian will discuss what medications your pet will need, tell you what screening tests may be required for safety beforehand, what side effects to look for after you get home and answer all your questions before you go. Your veterinarian should also encourage you to call with questions or concerns.

Good communication, after all, is as important a part of good medicine as, well, medicine.

On the verge of another season of winter hibernating bat surveys, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and partners estimate that at least 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats have now died from white-nose syndrome. Biologists expect the disease to continue to spread.

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is decimating bat populations across eastern North America, with mortality rates reaching up to 100 percent at many sites. First documented in New York in 2006, the disease has spread quickly into 16 states and four Canadian provinces. Bats with WNS exhibit unusual behavior during cold winter months, including flying outside during the day and clustering near the entrances of caves and mines where they hibernate. Bats have been found sick and dying in unprecedented numbers near these hibernacula.

"This startling new information illustrates the severity of the threat that white-nose syndrome poses for bats, as well as the scope of the problem facing our nation. Bats provide tremendous value to the U.S. economy as natural pest control for American farms and forests every year, while playing an essential role in helping to control insects that can spread disease to people," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. "We are working closely with our partners to understand the spread of this deadly disease and minimize its impacts to affected bat species."

Estimating the total number of bat deaths has been a difficult challenge for biologists. Although consistent population counts for federally listed endangered bats, like the Indiana bat, have been a priority for state and federal biologists, establishing population counts of once "common" bat species, like little brown bats, was historically not the primary focus of seasonal bat population counts.

"White-nose syndrome has spread quickly through bat populations in eastern North America, and has caused significant mortality in many colonies," said National WNS Coordinator, Dr. Jeremy Coleman, "Many bats were lost before we were able to establish pre-white-nose syndrome population estimates."

More than 140 partners, including tribal, state and federal biologists and bat researchers convened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for the 2012 Northeast Bat Working Group (NEBWG) meeting last week to discuss challenges facing bat research, management and conservation. Coordinating with wildlife officials in Canada, the group discussed population-level impacts to hibernating bats and developed the estimate of bats lost to WNS.

In addition to the lack of population data for many bat species, there has also been a lack of consistency in how bat population data was reported among agencies. As part of the May 2011 national WNS response plan, which was developed by the Service in partnership with a team of federal, state, tribal, and NGO scientists, agencies are addressing this by establishing methods for consistent data collection.

The National Plan for Assisting States, Federal Agencies and Tribes in Managing White-Nose Syndrome in Bats provides a framework for the coordination and management of the national WNS investigation response, and the Service leads an extensive network of partners in implementing the plan.

The Service serves as the primary resource for up-to-date information and recommendations for all partners, such as important decontamination protocols for cave researchers and visitors and a cave access advisory that requests a voluntary moratorium on activities in caves in affected states to minimize the potential spread of WNS.

In addition to developing science-based protocols and guidance for land management agencies and other partners to minimize the spread of WNS, the Service has funded numerous research projects to support and assess management recommendations and improve our basic understanding of the dynamics of the disease.

He bought just two of the furry critters. A year and a half later there were more than 90 of them, living in fishbowls and Tupperware containers, and causing him to starve himself to feed them.

A man from Lawrence, Mass., recently surrendered 94 hamsters to a local animal shelter that he had collected over a period of 18 months as they rapidly reproduced.

Much as with other animal hoarders, like the Florida couple who amassed 700 cats, the man had held onto his pets out of concern for their health, "where a sort of benign approach to dealing with [fast-breeding pets] resulted in a catastrophic number of animals," said Mike Keiley, director of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' care and adoption center, the shelter that accepted the hamsters.

Until he surrendered the hairy rodents, the man reportedly had managed to provide them with good care. Aside from a few minor abrasions -- the result of crowded living conditions, Keiley said -- all of the hamsters were found to be in good health during triage by the MSPCA. In fact, the man, who is on welfare, was so committed to caring for his hamsters that he began to go hungry, spending what little money he had on their food instead of his, Keiley said. He explained that the man's commitment to his hamsters' health distinguishes him from most pet hoarders -- who usually allow their pets' health to deteriorate -- and calls into question whether or not he actually deserves the designation.

The man sacrificed much of his apartment for them, too, storing the animals in an increasingly makeshift array of shelters including aquariums, fish bowls, buckets, Tupperware and a 10-gallon litter box. After realizing his situation was not sustainable, Keiley said, the man contacted the MSPCA, whose staff was stunned to hear the man say he wanted to surrender about 80 of the rodents.

Keiley says he and his staff are "glad that he came in and voluntarily addressed the issue." He also applauds the man's willingness to give up every last one of the pets, explaining that holding onto even a few can present a serious risk of relapsing into hoarding behavior.

Curbing Pet Hoarding Is No Easy Task

The man's situation sheds light on the legal difficulties of pet hoarding. Sometimes town governments determine the maximum number of pets a resident may own, while other times they don't, said MSPCA director of advocacy Kara Holmquist. And even if town leaders set such statutes, they typically only apply to dogs, and "it's often hard to come up with an absolute number over which a person is a responsible pet owner." Different owners are capable of owning different amounts of pets, she said.

What's more, the people who amass pets are often "loners," Keiley added. The problem can go unnoticed even if a person's lease prohibits, or stipulates limits, on pets, he said. To further complicate the issue, tenants are frequently reluctant to report their neighbors if they suspect a problem.

MONTREAL - Lily, a happy-go-lucky Labrador-Schnauzer, was walking down a misty street in Outremont Tuesday night when she started yelping, dropped to the ground in convulsions, and died.

Her owner, Kelly Downs, began to scream herself. "Lily! What's wrong? What is happening? Somebody help!"

It wasn't until Jeffrey Baker came out of his house to console her that she began to understand what had happened. Baker had been walking his dog past the same lamppost 20 minutes earlier and his dog had suffered a seizure.

Lily had been electrocuted.

Neither Downs, nor Baker, nor the city of Outremont had ever seen anything like it. But upon inspection it turned out that a defective wire inside the lamppost had created an electrified zone just outside it, possibly unnoticeable to humans, but deadly to dogs.

In fact, stray or contact voltage, as the phenomenon is known, is not uncommon at all, especially in cities plagued by aging infrastructure.

The most well-known fatality from stray voltage occurred in 2004, when New York resident Jodie Lane and her two dogs were electrocuted by voltage from a decaying service box under the street. The two dogs survived, with burns to their paws, but Lane, a Columbia graduate, did not.

Since then, however, there have been hundreds of cases reported across the United States, said Blair Sorrel, who has been tracking the incidents since 2002.

"Electrocutions are fairly rare, fortunately, but shocks are not," said Sorrel, who runs the website Streetzaps.com. "They tend to be underdocumented but fairly common - usually interpreted as "something happened to the dog."

Street electrocutions happen when stray voltage from improperly insulated or ungrounded wires or electrical equipment is conducted to street level, typically through metal grates, street signs, fire hydrants or bus shelters. Dogs are especially susceptible because their four paws are bare. The salt and snow on Montreal's sidewalks also work as conductors of electrical current.

But Sorrel, who suggests "indoor restroom" and de-icing products to mitigate the danger, said while the risk is higher in the winter, there are incidents all year round. "Equipment deteriorates all year round," she said, adding a national 30-year survey found the most incidents recorded in Florida, peaking in June.

There have been cases in Canada too, notably in Toronto. Two dogs were electrocuted on the same street corner near High Park in 2009, when they stepped on an electrified grate. The source was found to be a faulty cable underground. That prompted Toronto Hydro to launch a $14.4 million project to find locations where electricity was escaping and posing a danger to the public.

Here in Montreal, one other incident was reported to the press, in February 2009. A woman's three-year-old beagle was electrocuted while walking along an icy sidewalk. Hydro-Quebec spokesperson Jean-Philippe Rousseau at the time dismissed the possibility of electrocution as a cause, telling the Globe and Mail the utility had too many fail-safe layers of concrete, insulation and ground-lines.

Contacted Friday about this latest incident, Rousseau again suggested an autopsy should have been done on the dog.

"In Montreal this is the first time I'm hearing about this . . . did he eat something on the ground? A dog sniffs everywhere."

At any rate, lampposts are the city's responsibility, he said, not Hydro-Quebec's.

A veterinarian in East Tennessee has created a Facebook page to reunite lost pets with their owners.

Andrew Proffitt says he started "Lost and Found Pets of the Tri-Cities" about six months ago. He told the Kingsport
Times-News that the idea came after getting calls from people who found animals and didn't know what to do with them and calls from pet owners who had lost their animals.
Connection needed

"There was a real need there for a connection to connect the dots between pet and owner," he said. "You have someone call in to our office, and they say they have found a pet and they do not know what to do other than take it to a shelter. I have nothing against shelters, but these are someone's pets, and they are lost.

"You have the other side of it when someone calls and they are distraught about losing their dog or cat. It is a helpless feeling, but I decided to make something happen to make those situations come to a good conclusion."

Even though the site is only a few months old, Proffitt said it is already expanding. He says he met with the Kingsport and Sullivan County animal shelters this month and they plan to pool resources so that lost pets can be found more easily.

"This is a centralized way to kind of cut down on the amount of time a person can spend exhausting energy and power in what can be an upsetting situation. This is part of the veterinary business that goes unseen — the amount of people who go for weeks and months searching for that pet that they love," Proffitt said.

The site had gained almost 700 "likes" by mid-January.

(Animal Radio® Newsroom January 12, 2011) Iconic pop star and teenage heart-throb Frankie Avalon is a guest host next weekend on the nationally syndicated Animal Radio® show.

Avalon says at one point in his life he had 20 dogs and cats and even a goat. While none were muses for his music, he says his pets are a big part of his life.

Asked about his secret to longevity in the music business, Avalon says "I keep doing it because they keep asking me. When they stop asking – it's over."

"Frankie is perhaps the most genuinely friendly artist I've ever met. It's truly a pleasure to have him on the show," says Animal Radio® host Hal Abrams.

Catch this special national broadcast January 21st, noon est on XM Satellite Radio channel 166 and 100 incredible AM-FM stations across the nation. It will also be rebroadcast January 22nd at 5pm est. See http://AnimalRadio.com to find a local affiliate.

A French bulldog has replaced Kim Kardashian for the 2012 Skecher's Super Bowl commercial.

The ad will feature a French bulldog racing a pack of greyhounds at the Tucson Greyhound Park.

Grey2K USA, an animal rights group has petitioned to have the ad removed because it claims the greyhounds were mistreated at the park and that it showcases dog racing.

Skechers president Leonard Armato has defended the commercial as "a metaphor for a remarkable, underdog achievement."

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Newt Gingrich has acknowledged that Mitt Romney's "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me" comment was taken out of context by many of Romney's critics. That didn't stop Gingrich's campaign from including it in the Romney blooper reel entitled "For the Dogs," posted online Wednesday.

But it's a dog story that might turn the heads of voters who make up the dog-lover constituency.

To the playful tune of plucking strings, the video asks viewers to make up their minds on "the most important question this election: Who can defeat Barack Obama in the debates this fall?" What follows is a montage of comments Romney has given that have raised eyebrows, justifiably or not – among them, the now-infamous story of Seamus, the family dog, that Romney once tied to the roof of the car during a 12-hour road trip to Canada. In the story, first reported by the Boston Globe, Romney hosed down the Irish setter and kennel at a service station after the dog began dripping brown liquid down the side of the car.

"I have a yellow lab named Winston. I would no sooner put him in a kennel on the roof of my car than I would one of my children. Question: What were you thinking?" says Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace in the video clip.

"This is a completely air-tight kennel and mounted on the top of our car," Romney replied, "He climbed up there regularly, enjoyed himself. He was in a kennel at home, a great deal of time as well. We loved the dog. It was where he was comfortable and we had five kids inside the car. My guess is he liked it a lot better in his kennel than he would have liked it inside."

Newt Gingrich doesn't own any pets, but in late December the campaign launched the website Pets with Newt, which allows supporters to upload photos of their pets. At the time of the launch, Gingrich said it was a fun and positive way to reach out to voters. That, of course, was during the time Gingrich was still running a "positive campaign."

As to whether Seamus had anything to do with poking at Romney -- "I will neither confirm nor deny that that's why Pets with Newt was launched," said spokesman R.C. Hammond.

TULSA, Okla. — An Oklahoma woman who owns a partially paralyzed kangaroo as a therapy pet may be on the move yet again, a day after leaving town over a spat with city officials about keeping the animal.

Christie Carr and Irwin the kangaroo moved from Broken Arrow to McAlester late Wednesday after she said city workers were threatening to take the animal or fine her for violating a city ordinance. The city denied any threats were made.

On Thursday, Carr said she was planning another move after McAlester's assistant police chief said he was exploring whether it was legal for Carr to keep Irwin within city limits.

Carr said she planned to relocate to Foyil, a rural town in northeastern Oklahoma, and temporarily stay at a friend's house.

The death of a cat named Jimmy has pet advocates in Woodbury demanding changes in how the city deals with pets who have no one to look after them after their owners die.

They plan to speak out at Wednesday's City Council meeting because, they say, the city and the Animal Humane Society are not following state law.

"Jimmy would still be alive if Minnesota state statutes were followed," said Woodbury resident Debbie Long, who is organizing the rally. "We need these statutes enforced to protect animals to be sure they are taken care of."

The outcry stems from a December case in which the Humane Society euthanized a diabetic gray tabby cat whose owner had died. Her will stated that the cat should have gone to a no-kill shelter in Hastings.

Woodbury police took the cat to the Humane Society on Dec. 7. Police identified the deceased woman's estranged daughter as the rightful owner, and the society called her four days later. Ray Aboyan, the society's CEO, says the daughter gave the society permission to euthanize the cat, which the society could not place because of its condition.

Meanwhile, the executive director of Hastings' Animal Ark Shelter learned of the cat owner's death and called police to find out where Jimmy was. Mike Fry said he was concerned because the cat needed insulin. He also was its new guardian, according to the woman's will.

Fry contacted the Humane Society on Dec. 14 to learn that Jimmy had been killed.

State law requires shelters to hold stray animals for five days or until the owner comes forward, or 10 days if animals are victims of abuse, neglect or cruelty. Here, semantics come into play.

Aboyan said the Humane Society viewed Jimmy as a stray and held him for the required five days. Fry disagreed, saying Jimmy was a victim of neglect, which "can sometimes be unintentional," such as in the case of an owner's death, and thus should have been held 10 days. That would have been long enough for Fry, who was authorized by the woman's will to make decisions about Jimmy.

"Woodbury residents are upset because [the woman's] wishes were not carried out and the law was not followed," Fry said.

Aboyan said the Humane Society didn't know that Animal Ark was the cat's rightful owner. If it had known, "we would not have killed the cat," he said. "This is an unfortunate outcome. We were acting with the information we had. We followed the law."

Do puppies have souls? That's what an unusual lawsuit is asking a New York judge to decide.

In her civil suit, dog owner Elena Zakharova contends that pets — considered "property" under state law — are much more than that: living creatures that feel love and pain.

Zakharova says the upper East Side pet store that sold her a pooch with bum knees and trick hips should be liable for the pup's pain and suffering, as if it were a person.

She also wants compensation for her astronomical vet bills: $4,000 so far, with another $4,000 on the horizon — a total of about $1,000 a pound for the fuzzy year-old Brussels Griffon she named Umka.

"Pets must be recognized as living souls, not inanimate property," said Zakharova's lawyer, Susan Chana Lask.

"Umka feels love and pain like any human being whose pain and suffering would be recognized in a court."

Amid the proliferation of shady puppy mills that churn out "purebred" dogs with congenital heart and joint problems, New York State has a "Puppy Lemon Law" that lets buyers return a sick animal in 14 days.

But Lask says it took months for Umka's problems to surface. The 2-month-old puppy, Zakharova bought last February for $1,650, didn't start limping and whimpering until July. Despite extensive and painful surgery, the dog will never walk or run properly.

"Umka suffers a disorder causing her pain, her legs hurt, she cries when she is in pain, she drags herself with her front paws, she cannot run like other puppies," the suit reads.

"She should not have been sired by dogs with genetic disorders," it says.

If the judge won't recognize Umka's suffering, Lask said she will argue the dog should be subject to the Uniform Commercial Code that gives a buyer four years to return a "defective product."

The store Umka came from, Raising Rover in Carnegie Hill, says it is under new management.

"I know nothing about the sale. The prior owner has all the records. We are very careful about where we get our puppies," said owner Ben Logan, declining to provide any information about the prior owner.

The Humane Society said Raising Rover is one of 11 swanky "pet boutiques" revealed by a 2011 undercover investigation to be buying animals from Midwestern puppy mills with horrific records of animal cruelty.

Lask said the ultimate goal of the lawsuit is to increase the penalties on pet stores so they stop selling animals from unhealthy breeders.

(SUE MANNING) Seven in 10 pet owners say they believe animal shelters should be allowed to euthanize animals only when they are too sick to be treated or too aggressive to be adopted.

Only a quarter of the people who took part in a recent AP-Petside.com poll said animal shelters should sometimes be allowed to put animals down as a population control measure.

Gisela Aguila, 51, of Miramar, Fla., believes shelter animals should only be euthanized when there is no chance they'll be adopted — for example, if they are extremely ill or aggressive. "I don't think shelters should be euthanizing animals to control the population," she said.

She'd like to see an end to shelters destroying animals when they run out of room, saying, "We are way too civilized of a society to allow this."

But Leslie Surprenant, 53, of Saugerties, N.Y., believes shelters should be allowed to control populations. She says no-kill shelters that only accept animals with good prospects for adoption or that turn away animals once the shelter reaches capacity do not solve the problem.

"That doesn't truly mean no-kill shelters. It means there are more animals out on the streets being hit by cars and starving and living in Dumpsters," said Surprenant, who has two dogs and a cat. "It does not mean the general population is lower; it just means that they've opted not to kill."

Surprenant believes spaying and neutering is the way to go. In fact, higher rates of spaying and neutering in recent decades have cut the number of abandoned puppies and kittens, which in turn has cut euthanasia rates. Before 1970, about 20 million animals were euthanized each year in this country. In 2011, fewer than 4 million abandoned animals were euthanized.

Younger pet owners are most likely to favor no-kill policies, with 79 percent of those under 30 saying shelters should only euthanize animals that are untreatable or too aggressive, compared with 67 percent of those age 50 or over saying that.

The poll results are encouraging to leaders of the nation's no-kill movement, who'd like to see the U.S. become a "no-kill nation" with homes for every adoptable pet, and euthanasia reserved only for extremely ill or aggressive animals.

Any plan will take teamwork between shelters with government contracts that must accept every animal and the no-kill shelters that often only take animals they can help, said Ed Sayres, president and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Rich Avanzino, president of Alameda-based Maddie's Fund, pioneered no-kill in San Francisco in the early '90s through a pact between the open-admission city shelter and the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"We are just a breath away from doing what is right for the animals," Avanzino said.

He believes the country can achieve no-kill status by 2015, partly due to corporate giving to animal causes, which totaled about $30 million in 2010 and is expected to reach $70 million by 2015. That money can help with spaying, neutering and outreach, he said.

Public attitudes are also changing, with more people saying it's unacceptable for pets to languish or die in an animal shelter, Avanzino said.

Avanzino pioneered the no-kill concept in San Francisco. Sayres succeeded him and nurtured it, then went to New York and implemented it there in a much bigger way. The model is the same, but instead of two partner agencies like in San Francisco, New York has 155, Sayres said.

About 44,000 animals enter New York City shelters each year. Since Sayres has been there, the euthanasia rate has dropped from 74 percent to 27 percent.

The ASPCA has also teamed up with 11 communities from Tampa, Fla., to Spokane, Wash., in no-kill efforts, Sayres said.

He believes he will see a no-kill nation, at least for dogs, in his lifetime. Cats may take a little longer because of the large feral population, he said.

The euthanasia issue attracted some attention this week when it was reported that a stray cat being held at a West Valley City, Utah, animal shelter survived two trips to the shelter's gas chamber. The shelter has stopped trying to kill the cat, named Andrea, and she has been adopted. Shelter officials are investigating why the gassing failed.

Best Friends Animal Society operates the country's largest no-kill sanctuary for abandoned and abused animals. The Kanab, Utah, preserve is home to 1,700 dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, horses and wildlife undergoing rehabilitation, said Best Friends director Gregory Castle.

More than 800 grass-roots rescue organizations belong to Best Friends' No More Homeless Pets Network and are working to make their communities no-kill, Castle said. Attendance at an annual conference for network members has grown from 250 in 2001 to 1,300 last year.

The sanctuary's newest venture is a groundbreaking effort involving what Castle believes is the largest public-private partnership ever forged in the no-kill movement.

Best Friends is going to operate a shelter for the Department of Animal Services in Los Angeles as an adoption and spay and neuter center, he said. All animals will come from six open-admission Los Angeles city shelters.

The coalition's initial goal is 3,000 adoptions and 6,000 sterilization procedures, Castle said.

Differences in the varying no-kill campaigns are mostly a matter of nuance, Castle said, and how you define sick and aggressive.

Nathan Winograd, director of the Oakland-based No Kill Advocacy Center, believes 95 percent of all animals entering shelters can be adopted or treated. And even though the other 5 percent might be hopelessly injured, ill or vicious, he said they should not all be doomed.

Some, if not most of them, can be cared for in hospice centers or sanctuaries, he said. As for pit bulls and other dogs with aggressive reputations, he said shelters need to do a better job of trying to find them homes.

The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted Oct. 13-17, 2011, by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,118 pet owners. Results among pet owners have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Owning an exotic or nonnative pet at first can be fun and exciting, but as the animal grows, it can become expensive and dangerous.

Unable to care for their pets, some owners illegally release them into the wild, creating competition for food and habitats with native species said Tony Pernas, of the National Park Service.

"[Pet owners] think they're doing the right thing, but they're not," said Pernas, who estimates there are more than 180 nonnative species in South Florida.

Those owners have another option now: They can give up in their pets with no penalty at the inaugural Pet Amnesty Day in Palm Beach County. The event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Jan. 14 at the West Palm Beach Garden Club in Dreher Park behind the Palm Beach Zoo, 1301 Summit Blvd., West Palm Beach. They will accept pets from anyone and anywhere in South Florida.
Check out these bizarre and unusual destinations around the world.

Local agencies announced the program at a news conference on Thursday. They have been working together to combat the growing problem of nonnative species in South Florida for years. And the price can be steep.

Lisa Jameson, an invasive species biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said over $5 million a year has been spent to battle nonnative plants and animals just in Palm Beach County.

"This is becoming our No.1 problem here in Florida and one of the ways we're trying to resolve this issue is by letting pet owners turn in their pets instead of letting them loose," Jameson said.

If caught owning or releasing an exotic, nonnative animal, the owner can be fined or face jail time said Jameson.

Surrendered animals will be checked by a veterinarian, fitted with a microchip and made available for adoption to people approved by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Owners who bring in their animals may be allowed to later adopt them if they're approved. The pet adoptions will take place after 2 p.m.

Wildlife officials are looking for reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, fish and invertebrates; domestic animals such as cats and dogs will not be accepted.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has held this event throughout the state since 2006, but this is the first one in Palm Beach County.

Owners surrendered 60 nonnative animals at the Pet Amnesty Day last year at Zoo Miami, said Jenny Ketterlin Eckles, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Among the animals surrendered at past events: boa constrictors, ball pythons, iguanas, parrots, walking catfish and even a monkey.

"It's amazing to me how many exotic pets people have. There's a need for this type of amnesty day because it sets up an avenue in which these animals can be turned over no questions asked," said Zoo Miami Communications Director Ron Magill.

Another Pet Amnesty Day will be held sometime in the spring at Miami Zoo, said Ketterlin Eckles.

For more information about Pet Amnesty Day, call 561-735-6025. To become eligible to adopt an exotic or nonnative pet, visit myfwc.com/nonnatives.

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 5, 2012 - Describe the ideal weight-loss buddy, and you will likely hear words like "non-judgmental," "supportive" and "faithful." Thanks to a new relationship forged by Purina and Jenny Craig, that description may also include "four-legged."

Just in time to make New Year's resolutions a reality, weight-loss experts from Nestle Purina's Project: Pet Slim Down and Jenny Craig are joining forces to provide owners of overweight pets a first-of-its-kind program to help both the pets and their owners to lose weight.

"The obesity epidemic is not limited to people. While approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, more than half of U.S. pets are also battling the bulge," says Lisa Talamini, Vice President of Research and Program Innovation, Jenny Craig.

Recognizing the potential for pets and their owners to get fit together--and have fun doing it--weight loss experts from Purina and Jenny created a unique weight-management program in 2012 that helps both pets and their owners get started. Nestle Purina and Jenny are divisions of Nestle, the world's leading nutrition, health and wellness company.

Relationship transforms resolutions to realityThe month of January is the month for New Year's resolutions, and is a popular time to kick off weight loss programs. Starting in January 2012, pet owners can go online to ProjectPetSlimDown.com/NewYears to register for the program and obtain exclusive offers to help them get started.

Special discounts will be available through Purina and Jenny Craig for those who enroll in Project: Pet Slim Down.

"One of the greatest challenges with weight management is making the right decisions about eating and exercise," says Purina veterinarian Grace Long, DVM. "Owners of overweight pets need specific advice, not just a vague 'your pet needs to lose weight.' They need to know what to feed, how much and how often.

"They also need specific recommendations for exercise, based on the owner's lifestyle and the health status of the pet," says Long. Finally, she notes, owners need to be held accountable. That means regular weigh-ins and consultations with a veterinary professional are vital.

The program runs from January 1 through March 31, 2012.

Pet owners can get tips for exercising with their pet at ProjectPetSlimDown.com/NewYears.

About JennyJenny Craig, based in Carlsbad, CA, is one of the world's largest weight management companies, with more than 700 company-owned and franchiised Centres in the United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.

About Project: Pet Slim DownProject: Pet Slim Down is a free program from Purina that teams owners of overweight dogs and cats with veterinary professionals who work with them to create an individualized feeding and exercise program to help pets reach a healthy weight. Elements of the program include:

Feeding software that enables veterinary professionals to calculate feeding recommendations for 1 to 2 percent weekly weight loss

Client education

Regular pet weigh-ins

Product coupons to help get patients started.

Rebates to help keep clients engaged.

What is it with this year's presidential campaign and dogs? Politics usually generates more dumb sports metaphors than dog news, but one of many curious aspects of this race is the unusual persistence of canine motifs, which have been popping up with bizarre regularity.

This week Stephen Colbert got into the act by telling viewers of The Colbert Report how he's planning to fill "the giant, ego-shaped hole" that Donald Trump left in the GOP primary when he cancelled the Trump debate nobody was planning to attend.

After announcing that his own debate will be held on Nat Geo Wild with an animal theme, Colbert said, "My co-host—the Dog Whisperer! Ron Paul talks baloney—boom! Flip him on his back, rub his belly—calm, submissive! Done!"

As we await this invaluable contribution to American politics, primary season is about to begin, and voters will have to make their choices in the polling booth. The evidence to date suggests that assessing the way a candidate treats his dog—not to mention other canines of his acquaintance—might be an edifying way to evaluate his character and fitness for office. Fortunately for all of us, this campaign has offered a wealth of material.

Topping anyone's list of riveting dog stories has to be the never-gets-old tale of the dear departed Seamus. The fact that Mitt Romney drove his wife and kids on a 12-hour journey to Canada with their freaked-out Irish setter strapped to the roof of the family station wagon (okay, the dog was in a carrier crate, but still…) has to rank among the all-time Great Family Stories in the annals of American politics. Talk about revealing a candidate's character—could it get any better than this?

And yet this incomparable gem might have been lost to history were it not for the heroic efforts of New York Times Op-Ed columnist Gail Collins, who has made a point of mentioning Romney's unusual strategy every single time she writes about him (which is, not surprisingly, often).

"How could anyone not want to mention it?" says Collins. "I just love that story, because it came from one of his sons, who thought of it as a story about Romney's leadership qualities. It's very Mitt Romney in every way, and it's very much about control. The guy is rich, but he chose to get them all to Canada for the summer by packing five boys in the car with his wife and putting the dog on the roof. A rich person could have found an easier way to do this."

Although Collins has performed a vital public service in keeping this story alive for the American electorate to ponder, the news was originally reported by The Boston Globe, in which the anecdote about Seamus was evidently intended to demonstrate his owner's "emotion-free crisis management." (It also demonstrated the limits of an Irish setter's gastro-intestinal fortitude, since Seamus responded to the stress of hurtling along at high speed, trapped in a box, by succumbing to explosive diarrhea that streamed from the car roof down onto its windows, eliciting howls of "Gross!" from the Romney boys).

But during a campaign in which even the Mitt-Bot's hair seems uptight, this event also illuminates other important issues. "The point, for the son, was that they designated a certain number of rest stops, and Mitt had those stops identified," Collins explains. "When the dog got diarrhea, Mitt got out and hosed down the dog, but nobody else was allowed to get out of the car, because it wasn't one of the designated rest stops."

Mitt apparently didn't resort to boxing his sons in a crate to confine them until the next designated stop, so he's probably good to go with the child welfare authorities; but People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was very unhappy about Seamus's ordeal, which the group's president described as "torture."

"If you wouldn't strap your child to the roof of your car, you have no business doing that to the family dog," said Ingrid Newkirk.

For his part, Romney claimed that PETA had targeted him because he once went quail hunting, and because he approved a rodeo as part of the Salt Lake City Olympics celebration. "And they're not happy that my dog likes fresh air," he said, apparently with a straight face.

(A couple of historical notes: while Seamus is, sadly, deceased, he was, while alive, known to the Romney family as "Mr. Personality," although it's hard to imagine why they gave that nickname to the dog instead of reserving it for the master of the house. Before Seamus passed away, he also made a habit of running away from the Romneys' Boston home. Again, it's difficult to understand why an ungrateful dog would ever want to leave such a photogenic all-American clan—imagine what Lassie's reaction would have been to such an act of familial disloyalty! The Romneys eventually dealt with Seamus's apostasy, and nervous stomach, by fobbing him off on Mitt's sister, Jane, who lived in California and was said to have space for the dog to roam freely, unfettered by straps, crates or station wagons. Unfortunately for campaign enthusiasts, history has not recorded Seamus's reaction at being forcibly reassigned to a different home on the other side of the continent.)

In any case, Mitt isn't the only Republican candidate to have had his personality illuminated by canine-related judgment calls. Herman Cain "suspended" his campaign in the nick of time—only hours before Ginger White, the woman who claims they had a 13-year affair, revealed exclusively to The Daily Beast that the Herminator told his financially-strapped friend to get rid of her Yorkshire terrier, Barry White, as a cost-saving measure.

Granted, Cain had been giving Ginger money for many years (something he himself admitted, although he denied that there was a sexual component to the transaction while conceding that he never told his wife about this unconventional household expense.)

But really—telling Ginger to give away the family dog in order to economize? Yorkshire terriers eat about two kibble bits a week, but only if you persuade them with loving blandishments delivered in baby talk. We are not talking about a major expense here.

Sparing himself the inevitable public uproar about his callous disregard for the emotional welfare of Barry White, not to mention that of Ginger's children (who were delivered from such heartbreak when their mother lied to Herman and pretended that she'd given the dog to a relative), Cain did everyone a favor by withdrawing from the GOP race.

Other candidates have also had dog issues. Rick Santorum—who owns a German shepherd named Schatzie—won PETA's praise for pushing legislation aimed at shutting down puppy mills, the mass dog-breeding facilities that often operate under sub-standard conditions. "He's a man with a heart," a PETA spokesperson said approvingly. (Take that, Mitt!) Unaccountably, however, Santorum's status as dog defender has thus far failed to help him in the polls.

Then there's the inspirational but puzzling story of Rick Perry and the coyote. According to Perry, he went out for a jog and ended up shooting a coyote that "laser-locked" its gaze on his daughter's Labrador Retriever. Doubters subsequently raised questions about this story, ranging from "Who jogs with a gun?" (Perry claimed he was packing because he's afraid of snakes) to the nature of the alleged weapon, a Ruger .380 —a lightweight compact pistol that gun enthusiasts describe as a "pea-shooter" fit only for metrosexuals, not macho cowboys from Texas.

Such a sissified pistol is "the firearm equivalent of a ‘sequined purse,'" explained Carol Flake Chapman, who has not only jogged with Perry in a running group but also competed with him in shotgun tournaments. As published in The Daily Beast, Chapman's thorough investigation of the coyote story failed to resolve lingering questions about the veracity of its gun-toting hero, although it did leave readers with intriguing visions of the GOP's John Wayne defending a puzzled black Lab by brandishing a sequined purse.

As 2011 draws to a close, commentators keep adding to the year's bumper crop of doggie items. Speculating about a GOP ticket pairing Romney with Chris Christie, analysts frequently describe the combative New Jersey Governor as playing the role of Romney's "attack dog." And pundits can always be relied upon for edifying breed comparisons. On Morning Joe, Mike Barnicle observed that with Republican voters favoring Newt Gingrich over Romney, this means "they prefer the pit bull to the collie."

But what about Newt Gingrich? He apparently does not have a dog, although his representatives have been known to manipulate that regrettable omission to score political points. Back in the 1990s, during Gingrich's tempestuous term as Speaker of the House, he was battered by ethics complaints. Ridiculing the accusations, Gingrich's spokesman counter-attacked by singling out House Minority Whip David Bonior for particular scorn.

"If Newt had a dog, Bonior would accuse him of kicking it. Well, Newt doesn't have a dog and Bonior doesn't have a case," the spokesman proclaimed.

Gingrich's accusers were nonetheless undeterred, and he was disciplined by the House of Representatives for ethics violations and sanctioned $300,000.

Although Gingrich stubbornly maintains his dogless status—always a mistake when running for office, given the image enhancement potential when adorable puppies are used with strategic finesse—one can still wonder about how he behaves around other canines. Does he have a good rep among his neighbors' pets? Was he nice to dogs when he was growing up, or was he the kind of kid who pulled their tails and tied their ears together?

Inquiring minds want to know; America takes its dogs very seriously (and lets 42 percent of them sleep in their owners' beds.) This is a country whose citizens spend $41 billion annually on their pets—more than the gross domestic product of all but 64 countries in the world.

And given Newt's conduct with at least two ex-wives and one half-sibling, his loyalties are suspect, to say the least. After all, his own half-sister recently criticized his position on gay rights and announced that she won't support him in 2012. "He is definitely on the wrong side of history when it comes to those issues," said Candace Gingrich-Jones, a gay rights activist who said she'll vote for Barack Obama instead.

Perhaps Gingrich-Jones can enlighten us about Newt's history with dogs—or maybe one of his ex-wives could recall some choice tidbits. While we're waiting for updates, however, there's always the White House mascot to contemplate.

As Obama struggles with a gridlocked Washington establishment amid widespread charges that he is unable to get things done, one hopes he's finding consolation in the company of the family pet. Bo is a neutered black male Portuguese water dog, and he—like his owner—has had to accept significant constraints on his freedom. As Bo could have told the president, were he so inclined: it's a dog's life, particularly in the White House.

Since the festive Yuletide season is once again upon us—that wonderful time of year when families gather together and reminisce fondly about good times gone by—this also seems like an appropriate moment to revive the thoughtful holiday idea that Gail Collins came up with last year. As a suitable Christmas gift—full of happy family memories!—for Mitt and his dear ones, Collins suggested "a tasteful Mitt Romney Christmas ornament" depicting Seamus bound to the station wagon roof.

With Christmas approaching fast, pet stores are chockablock with such must-have items as Cavalier King Charles Spaniel tree-topping angels. Surely the nation's dog-lovers (or at least the ones not facing foreclosure or standing on unemployment lines) can shell out a few extra dollars for Irish setter ornaments to commemorate the valiant contributions to American family life of the late, lamented Seamus.

Christmas Eve is a week from Saturday, and one can only hope that Mitt Romney will be visited by the ghosts of dogs past, present and future. No doubt Seamus, in non-corporeal form if not in the flesh, could come up with a few choice holiday greetings for his former master as the clock winds down on our very own American political Year of the Dog.

Back in April, New York's Division of Cemeteries issued an edict to pet cemeteries, prohibiting the burying of pet owner's ashes alongside the remains of their beloved pets.

The order from the state office came after an Associated Press story about the growing number of Americans who have decided to share a final resting place with their pets, and who, because pet remains aren't often welcome in human cemeteries, have opted to spend eternity in a doggie graveyard.

Apparently, this was news to the cemetery division — even though it has been going on, most everywhere, for a long time. A good 700 humans — in cremated form — had been interred at New York's 115-year-old Hartsdale Pet Cemetery before the state told it to stop.

That order came in February, and in April it was extended statewide.

Last week, the state Division of Cemeteries issued new regulations, once again permitting animal lovers, in cremated form, to rest in peace with their pets in pet cemeteries.

The new regulations, CBS News reported, do impose some conditions: Pet cemeteries may not advertise that they accept human ashes; nor may they charge a fee for doing so.

A spokesman for the department that oversees the cemetery division said the prohibition was put in place because cremated remains in pet cemeteries don't have the same protections as those in human cemeteries — namely the assurance that the cemetery will be maintained.

Like anyone's ashes — dog or human — are going to care about that.

The ruling had kept the ashes of at least one human from being buried. Taylor York, a law professor at Keuka College said the state order meant the ashes of her uncle, Thomas Ryan, who died in April, couldn't be buried alongside his deceased dogs.

York sent the cemeteries division a legal memo detailing why the state was wrong in banning burials of cremated human remains in pet cemeteries.

As the cemetery division saw it, law mandates that any cemetery providing burial space for humans be operated as a not-for-profit corporation. By promoting the human-interment service and charging a fee to open a grave and add ashes, Hartsdale was violating laws governing not-for-profit corporations.

But Hartsdale isn't a non-profit corporation.

"The law is clear," York said. "There's no authority for this board to just arbitrarily impose nonprofit corporation law on a privately incorporated for-profit business."

All the boring legal stuff aside, there really was, and is, no good reason to get bent out of shape about ashes, of whatever species. We throw them in the ocean, we cast them in the wind, we can even use them to make trees grow.

And there's no good reason for a state government to bury us, or our simple last wishes, in red tape.

"My uncle wants to be buried beside … what he considered to be his children and I'm not letting anyone stand in the way," York said before the new ruling was issued. "His love for those dogs was just as real and just as strong as any parent's for any child."

LOS ANGELES — Tony La Russa would like his dog to spend more time in his lap. Bob Barker would like his rabbit to spend more time in its litter box. And Lea Michele would like her cat to spend less time in her cotton ball jar.

The Associated Press asked several celebrity pet owners about New Year’s resolutions for their animals — and resolutions their pets might have for them.

La Russa, the reigning World Series champion manager, would like it if his 12-year-old Chihuahua Twiggy would jump into his lap every time he sat down. "I’d like that affectionate reassurance every time, not just sometimes," he said.

And on behalf of Twiggy, La Russa would resolve to "be the person that Twiggy wants me to be and deserves for me to be."

Jazz singer Roberta Flack would resolve "not to have to beg Yogi, my shiba inu dog, to eat his breakfast or dinner so his food bowl would not be looking at us all day long! He likes to be begged to eat — coerced — given one bite from the bowl by hand."

And for her: "That I talk less and quietly. I have a seal point Siamese, Mimi-La, who likes to put her front paw on my face as if to say, ‘Shhhhh.’"

Flack didn’t include resolutions for eight dogs, 12 cats, a llama, six horses, three donkeys, several Chinese chickens, a road runner, three flamingos and several geese she cares for after adopting them from petting zoos and other places.

"CSI: Miami" actress Eva La Rue would ask that "our bulldog Frank be less of a ham. He is so funny. He always needs to be right in the middle of the room where all the action is taking place. He constantly needs attention.

"If Frank made a New Year’s resolution for me it would be that I would devote 100 percent of my time to him only. If my shnoodle, Bingo, made a resolution, it would be that he would get just some of the attention that Frank demands from us! LOL!"

It seemed fitting to ask some of the actors in the movie "New Year’s Eve" for their resolutions.

Seven dogs — Oscar, Romeo, Stella, Piper, Weaser, Flora and Tamber — would like actress Katherine Heigl "to feed them consistently on time in the morning."

She wishes Oscar the hound would "not be so aggressive toward strangers. That would be good because I really don’t want to get sued."

Academy Award winner Hilary Swank said of her two dogs: "They are so great. ... I wish they could do every interview with me and just sit right here and here. That would be my New Year’s resolutions for my dogs — that they’re always with me."

Josh Duhamel would like his rescue dog Meatloaf "to really work on his coordination and work on getting a little more exercise because he’s struggling right now. But he’s still happy and he’s not in pain. But it’s really hard to get him to do anything. He’s super lazy. He’s like maybe the most unathletic animal you’ve ever seen."

"Glee's Lea Michele says her cat Sheila needs a resolution.

"I wish that Sheila would stop going into my bathroom, taking out all my cotton balls out of the jars and spreading them all over. So her New Year’s resolution would be to get over the cotton ball obsession."

Dog whisperer Cesar Millan would like his pit bull Junior to continue as "an ambassador for powerful breeds, reinforcing the message that it’s not the breed, it’s the human behind the animal." And Junior to Millan? "Accept yourself," he said.

"We have cats, lots of cats. They are pretty well behaved but one — Ted. I would resolve that Ted might start to work on getting along well with others," said Joe Bonsall of country music’s Oak Ridge Boys.

"All of my cats might wish that I stayed out on the road more so they would not have to share (my wife) Mary as much. Seriously! I am sometimes a blight on their existence," he added.

Fellow group member Duane Allen said sports and music would top his list.

"I taught my dogs how to play basketball — everything except shooting. So that would be on the list. l taught one how to sing. I am now trying to teach my Lab (Lana) how to talk. She thinks I am Elvis."

And if Lana had her way, "it would be to tell me to not talk," Allen said.

Country singer Buddy Jewell wants his Akita Jack to "eat more pork chop bones!" And Jack, in turn, wants Jewell to "Grill more pork chops!"

Bluegrass singer Janie Fricke said her favorite pet is Rico, an 18-year-old African grey parrot who plays like a baby. Her wish for him? "I hope he lives to be 80, as the book says."

And if he were to make a resolution? "He hopes we keep feeding him his fave snack — peanuts."

Retired game show host Bob Barker’s has an 8-year-old rabbit. Mr. Rabbit already follows Barker around the house "helping me in every way he can." If Barker could ask for more, it would be "to use his box every time, not just when it’s convenient."

And Mr. Rabbit’s resolution for Barker? What else? "To continue urging folks to have their pets spayed and neutered — including rabbits."

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama would come back as Bo. Not just any dog, but Bo the dog.

In a television interview, the first lady was asked what person or thing she would want to come back as when she dies. She named her family’s Portuguese water dog.

"He’s got a great life," she told ABC News’ Barbara Walters.

President Barack Obama took a pass on the question, one in a series the first couple faced for an upcoming holiday TV special.

Asked when he tells lies, the president said only in personal interactions with family members, such as when commenting on how someone looks in a particular dress.

As for his biggest pet peeve about his wife, the president said he had none. She said of him: "My list is too long."

(Animal Radio® Newsroom December 07, 2011) The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) has voluntarily retrieved a single production lot of dry dog food due to aflatoxin levels that were detected above the acceptable limit. This product has already been retrieved from store shelves. No illnesses have been reported in association with this production lot to date, and no other Iams pet food products are involved.

Product affected by this announcement:

Iams ProActive Health Smart Puppy dry dog food with Use By or Expiration Dates of February 5 or February 6, 2013

7.0 lb bag
12784177I6
1901402305

8.0 lb bag
12794177D2
12794177D3
1901410208

17.5 lb bag
12794177K1
12794177K2
1901401848

The affected product lot was distributed to a limited number of retailers located in the eastern United States (AL, CT, DE, FL, GA, LA, MD, ME, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, SC, VA).  These retailers have already removed this product from store shelves.  No other dry dog food, dry cat food, dog or cat canned food, biscuits/treats or supplements are affected by this announcement. 

While no health effects related to this product have been reported, P&G retrieved this product as a precautionary measure.  Consumers who purchased the product listed should stop using the product and discard it and contact Iams at the number below for a replacement voucher.

Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring by-product from the growth of Aspergillus flavus and can be harmful to pets if consumed in significant quantities.  Pets which have consumed this product and exhibit symptoms of illness including sluggishness or lethargy combined with a reluctance to eat, vomiting, yellowish tint to the eyes or gums, or diarrhea should be seen by a veterinarian.

For further information or a product replacement or refund contact P&G toll-free at 866-908-1569

(Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM EST) or www.iams.com.

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Pet Foods market. The global market for Pet Foods is projected to reach US$95.7 billion by the year 2017, with macro regional economic conditions, pet population, and most importantly, consumer attitude driving the market. Due to changing lifestyles and increase in 'alone or single-person family' and decreasing birthrate, pets are being considered as family members and companions rather than just animals. Factors such as attitudinal change towards pets combined with growing urbanization, and increase in disposable incomes have contributed significantly to the increase in number of households owning pets, which in turn, drives the demand for pet foods.

The pet food industry witnessed a significant increase in size in the last few years, with the market structure evolving as per the current requirements of the dynamic industry. In addition, pet foods represent one of the fastest growing sectors in the food industry. The industry has been growing on account of increased market segmentation and producer innovation. Numerous factors such as increased popularity of organic pet food, and greater interest in nutrition and health of pets are driving the pet foods market. Private label cat and dog food brands are increasingly being used in developing markets. There is also a growing preference for adoption of smaller pets in some parts of the world, as they are considered economical and require relatively less maintenance vis-à-vis larger dogs and cats. The rise in popularity of small pets has resulted in a considerable growth in the small animal food market.

The humanization trend in mature markets is stimulating demand for value-added products, such as functional pet foods and nutraceuticals. Research & Development is also anticipated to drive the market with innovative products incorporating advanced formulations. Other market propelling factors include brand value enhancement in major developed markets as well as improved delivery and supply services, aimed at consolidation of multiple grocery retailers. Against this backdrop, future for pet foods appears robust, with demand for healthy and premium-end foods for pets providing the needed impetus.

As stated by the new market research report on Pet Foods, Europe continues to remain the largest regional market. The European market is primarily driven by mounting focus on health-oriented products, especially those meant for different ages and types of pets and pet treats. Asia-Pacific represents the fastest growing regional market displaying a CAGR of about 9.0% over the analysis period. In developing markets including Vietnam, India, and China, product pricing, value for money and cost factor represents prime criteria for the purchase and demand of pet foods. In the relatively affluent and developed markets such as Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, growth drivers include innovation, shorter product lifecycles, healthier products, and convenience. In Japan, the pet food market is witnessing change in terms of food supplements as pet food makers renew focus towards development of new products to meet the needs of increasing older pet population.

Dog Food continues to be the largest and the fastest growing segment. The present market for dog food also comprises health stage specific food; prescription food; breed specific food as well as holistic and natural food. Cat food is particularly formulated for consumption and usage by cats, looking into their specific nutritional and health requirements. Cats are obligate carnivores and majority of the commercially prepared cat food comprises supplementary nutrients such as amino acid derivative taurine.

Retail grocery chains dominate the distribution and marketing space. Smaller specialists and pet superstores also hold a moderate share, with the remainder accounted for by independent grocers. Principal trends affecting the distribution of cat and dog foods include emergence of the new veterinarian/clinic distribution format, waning role of pet shops, and rise of hypermarkets and supermarkets. Due to an uncertain global economy, there is a considerable emphasis on purchase decision in terms of selection of retail store for buying pet food. The year 2010 experienced a decline in number of new product introductions as retailers concentrated more on value products and private labels. However, with economy showing signs of revival post recession, leading companies are gearing up with new product launches.

Primarily, two types of player categories essentially drive the cat and dog food categories in the pet food industry. One comprises of specialty firms producing pet food exclusively meant for addressing health related or other specialty pet food requirements. The other market structure is made up of players focusing on large -scale food manufacturing. Major players profiled in the report include C&D Foods Ltd., Del Monte Foods, Hartz Mountain Corporation, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc., Mars, Inc., Nestle Purina PetCare Company, Nutro Products, Inc., and The Iams Company.

The research report titled "Pet Foods: A Global Strategic Business Report" announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of trends, issues, strategic industry activities, and profiles of major companies worldwide. The report provides market estimates and projections (US$ Million) for product segments Cat Food, Dog Food, and Other Pet Food (other pets include birds, fishes and other small animals) across geographic markets such as the US, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific, Latin America (Brazil and Rest of Latin America), and Rest of World.

Jozef Demcak is a snake charmer, a rainmaker, a magician.

He can make drops fall from a cloud he produces from thin air. He can make a shimmering ball of water float. He can transform his wife, Bibiana, into a python.

"Then I turn her back into a woman," he says. "Nobody else can do that."

What Demcak can't do any longer is make a living.

Demcak's travelling road show, featuring the beautiful Bibiana, his beloved six pythons and his blackthroated monitor lizard, has been on hiatus since 2009, when the B.C. Wildlife Act introduced a ban on the exhibition of exotic pets.

Since the ban was introduced, Demcak, 70, says "I am now ruined financially."

Forced to move out of a home he could no longer afford, Demcak, his wife and pets are now living in a ragtag trailer behind Cinema Zoo in Surrey.

"Magic is a special culture," he explains. "We live with our animals, we have special communication with them."

He hopes, today, in B.C. Supreme Court, to make that culture better understood so he can resume his work teaching the public about the magic - and science - of nature and some of its most misunderstood inhabitants: snakes.

Demcak is presenting a legal challenge to the Controlled Alien Species Regulation, which, he says, was brought in without proper legislation and is too restrictive.

CAS limits the ownership, breeding, exhibition and sale of species alien to B.C., including alligators, big cats, hippos, giraffes and certain birds.

Demcak believes the law is unfair. "I could open the door to my snake enclosure and they wouldn't notice for hours," he says.

"They're slow. They're big. They're not interested in going anywhere."

Demcak keeps Burmese pythons. Cleopatra, Big Foot, Marco, Pepe, Apollo and Jean Pierre each consume about five kilos of chicken a week. "Backs and legs," says Demcak.

Demcak, who left Prague in 1968 and became a science teacher in Canada, began keeping snakes and using them to educate his students more than 20 years ago.

He is passionate about animals that he feels are misunderstood. For the last 20 years, he has made a living from his travelling road show, and offered free education in schools to promote understanding about reptiles and their habitat. "I explain to children what these animals are for in nature, that these animals should not be kept as pets, that they grow very big."

Demcak says he feels all animals have value, even unpopular ones. He doesn't sell or breed them, and says they are so well-fed they would never hurt another creature.

Gary Oliver, proprietor of Cinema Zoo, offered Demcak and his reptiles a place to stay after they lost their longtime rental when Demcak could no longer support himself.

Oliver, who provides animals for film and television production and education, lost 62 CAS animals, including alligators and venomous snakes, in a raid last year. He said he was given 30 days to get rid of his exotic animals or they would be put down. Oliver was able to find a home for his reptiles in Alberta.

"I was very angry," says Oliver, who says he never had any complaints or legal issues because of his animals.

Oliver often testifies as an expert witness in the U.S. on court cases related to death and injuries caused by exotic animals.

He knows too well what can happen when the wrong people are keeping exotic animals in the wrong circumstances, but he says the law is not well-conceived.

"I understand that these animals should not be kept as pets in people's homes," he says.

"They need to have a proper registry and certification for certain people that are qualified to handle them."

Oliver believes the tragic death of Tanya Dumstrey-Soos, a friend of his, who was mauled by a Siberian tiger kept by her boyfriend in 100 Mile House in 2007, prompted the blanket regulations that killed Demcak's magic show, and much of his own business.

In the Dumstrey-Soos case, Oliver says the caging wasn't adequate and the man keeping the animals wasn't qualified: "If SPCA and Fish and Wildlife had been up there in the first place and seen the situation, that never would have happened."

Putting a straight ban on exotic animals has only encouraged the development of a black market in the trade and keeping of alien breeds, something that could prove more dangerous to the public in the long run, says Oliver.

It also limits the exposure B.C. kids could have through the educational presentations in schools that he and Demcak used to present.

"Magic is science, and nature is magic," says Demcak, who will be representing himself in court.

This week, he hopes to perform another act of alchemy and convince the B.C. Supreme Court to amend or change the regulations that have taken the magic out of his life, consigned his reptiles to a closed, dark room and left him penniless.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Snake+charmer+feels+sting+exotic+animal/5776845/story.html#ixzz1f8X7KZFZ

TORONTO - Mattie purrs and shuts her eyes for a nap as she feels human fingers nuzzle the top of her head.

The roughly 10-year-old brown and grey tabby is surprisingly calm around people after she was found in an abandoned shed in the Hwy. 401-Islington area along with a 15 other cats in May. She was pregnant at the time and the Etobicoke Humane Society staff brought her and her kittens into the shelter.

"She had seven molars extractions," said Kathy Phillips, the foster co-ordinator of the EHS, as she held Mattie in her arms. "They were bad infections which affected her temperament and her ability to eat. She had surgery last week. She's also had upper respiratory problems."

Cat hoarding is a growing problem not only in the GTA, but throughout Canada.

Animal hoarding involves keeping higher than usual numbers of animals as domestic pets without being able to properly take care of them. Often, the person involved or "the hoarder" will deny their inability to take care of these cats.

In this country alone, there are hundreds of reported cases each year.

"Ontario tends to be a little higher in these statistics because in other provinces, it's easier to access veterinarians," Phillips said. "There are regulations in what they can charge to spay and neuter and makes it easier for a normal person who has a pet to care for it properly."

And for those who cannot care – many of those cats scurry into the open arms of a hoarder.

Roughly 200 to 300 cats end up at the EHS annually because of hoarding. Seth, Buddy and Regis – three black male cats – were also found in the abandoned shed where Mattie was found.

"(Hoarding) breeds health issues and without getting them resolved, they pass them onto other cats, kittens and litters," Phillips continued. "People believe they're doing good by providing shelter and food and to a certain extent, they are. One of the worst cases was where cats had access through a dog door and were kept in an environment that was very dirty and diseased."

Television shows such as Hoarders and Consumed are bringing the issue of overconsumption to the forefront, but when animal hoarding is going on next door, that's when it hits home.

Case in point: Diane Way, who was charged with animal cruelty after more than 100 cats were found in her Manor Rd. home in April.

Neighbours at the time said Way, a former lawyer and teacher at George Brown College, was a "terrific" woman who had some emotional problems. Way started out with four cats years ago and she couldn't bear "to get rid of" the kittens when the adults gave birth.

It was only when a pollster canvassing the area for the federal election called police, was it revealed that inside the urine-soaked and faeces-stained North Toronto home how big a hoarding problem this was.

According to Toronto Animal Services, a dwelling unit "no person shall keep in any dwelling unit more than six of any combination of dogs, cats, ferrets and rabbits."

If they go over that, they can be charged $240. The department received 131 complaints in 2010 and 13 complaints so far this year.

Councillor Josh Matlow continues to push for a more cohesive way for city departments to deal with hoarding. Right now, a bylaw officer cannot bust down doors if a home is believed to be a place of hoarding. An Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigator can, but if only there's proof of animal mistreatment.

An "interdivisional team" comprised of staff from animal services, public health, municipal licensing and standards, police and fire began meeting three months ago. Changes to the Criminal Code provincially might also help the individual departments deal with hoarding because right now there isn't one authority to handle the hoarding. It could mean allowing by-law officers to access warrants or police to enter homes based on bylaw infractions.

"There's a real systemic problem with hoarding in North America," Matlow said. "Toronto should take the lead. We should create a model that works. There needs to be a clear action plan – so if one department is contacted, there's an immediate trigger to include other agencies, so nobody ever passes the buck."

Dr. Douglas Saunders, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, said cat hoarding tends to happen because for those with mental illness, looking after animals can have a very positive effect.

"One of the things people do when they have difficulty relating to other people – because animals are so accepting and so forgiving – is they begin to develop relationships with animals," he said. "Often, if people have been abused in early childhood or very abusive relationships that likely makes them have personality disorders."

There's a "must save the world" attitude congruent to hoarding, according to Saunders.

"If you have 13 cats, what's one more?" he said. "After a while, if you just take on one or two each time, there's this notion that, incrementally, you can still look after them. Very quickly though, in terms of resources and ability to care for them, you no longer can. And that's where they lose touch with reality."

Humane Society of Canada chairman Michael O'Sullivan refuses to let his heart bleed for hoarders.

"I have zero sympathy for the people involved and I have tremendous sympathy for the animals and the charities that are left to clean up their selfish mess," he said.

"The courts are often sympathetic to people like this and my experience is they tend to re-offend so even if you have an order prohibiting them from having animals, you continually have to watch them to make sure it doesn't happen again."

O'Sullivan has been helping animals for 40 years in Canada and other countries. He estimates a single person who hoards 60 animals cost taxpayers easily up to $100,000 just as part of the investigation, finding homes for the animals, having them treated and going through the court system.

"That $100,000 could be used to spay and neuter a lot of animals," he said.

One of the most horrendous cases he's seen was in Essex County a few years ago where 600 animals were seized from a farm.

"The lady had animals in crammed wire cages, the animals in the barn were in really rough shape. There was a roomful of 300 guinea pigs," he said. "I met two of her older daughters and I could tell something was wrong. I had a call from a child worker who told me the woman had been keeping (her daughters) in cramped wire cages."

The Toronto Feral Cat Project, which works in a coalition with other groups and the city to control the feral cat population through trap, neuter and return programs, said hoarding, too, affects them.

"A big part of the feral cat problem is irresponsible pet ownership and abandonment of cats, which also impacts the hoarding," said the group's director, Roxanne St. Germain. "In a hoarding situation gone wrong, the animal is better off on the streets."

And there is a fine line between a rescue worker and a hoarder, she said.

"There are a lot of hoarders who have the ability to reason a bit and try to disguise their behaviour by disguising it as a sanctuary or rescue organization," she said. "A true rescue group has catches in place to prevent that type of behaviour. I don't think hoarding is about hurting animals – it just ends up that way."

Back at the Etobicoke Humane Society, Karen Heaslip, who handles adoptions at the shelter, said cats who have been saved from hoarding situations are often more difficult to adopt.

"Your next door neighbour could be a hoarder," she said. "It's heartbreaking. We still have some from our hoarding case from last year because they're nervous and don't trust people."

A solution to reduce the hoarding is implementing mandatory spaying and neutering, O'Sullivan said, as well as keeping cats indoors at all times. Backyard breeders should also have to pay a $10,000 licensing fee.

"It all comes down to an issue of numbers and responsibility," he said. "It's very tough on the animals and it's all because of the irresponsible actions of one person – the hoarder."

The owner of an elderly Golden Retriever that a police officer fatally shot sent a notice of claim to the city of St. Petersburg Monday that he intends to file a lawsuit seeking damages for the loss of his pet.

Pet owner Roy L. Glass, who is an attorney, said in the certified letter that his claim is over the "senseless shooting and killing of our 12-year-old Golden Retriever by Officer Misty Swanson…"

On Oct. 3, police responded to an animal complaint in the Old Northeast neighborhood. Boomer had pushed through a broken gate and wandered one street away from the Glass home. He was lying on a neighbor's front porch when officers arrived after midnight. Swanson said the dog lunged at her. She shot and killed Boomer.

Police Chief Chuck Harmon ruled last week that the shooting was justified but also changed police policy on responding to animal complaints. Officers will no longer respond to calls unless the animal poses an immediate danger to humans. Officers also will get catch poles to use.

Glass said by phone Monday that it was not enough. "I felt that we had no other choice after the police chief announced that the shooting was justified," said Glass.

He questioned Officer Swanson's statements to an internal police review board that Boomer tried to attack her, whch prompted the fatal shooting.

"That just would be completely out of character for him," Glass said. The elderly dog had arthritis and a thyroid condition.

"They could have just let Boomer go and he would have walked home," Glass said. "He had a collar and tag on."

In the letter sent Monday, Glass urged the city to contact him to reach a "mutually satisfied settlement," which he will donate to animal protection groups and for law enforcement officers to be trained in handling dogs.

Glass said in the certified letter that he will file a lawsuit if he does not get a satisfactory response.

Glass said in a phone interview that he believes that Florida law is not entirely clear on whether a person can get damages in excess of replacement value of a pet that is injured, maimed or killed.

Glass said that he and his family have suffered emotionally by the shooting death of Boomer, who shared their home in the Old Northeast neighborhood.

Glass said he is not seeking a specific amount of money at this time. He said he does hope to keep the issue alive. Glass plans to seek a law change in the Florida Legislature enabling pet owners to be compensated for non economic damages.

The law change would recognize the grief for pet owners when their animals are unjustifiably hurt or killed.

Meanwhile, a Facebook campaign has sprung up to call attention to police shootings of pets nationwide. The pages is named for Boomer, and includes YouTube videos, media coverage and a petition drive calling for more humane treatment of pets by police.

"The St. Petersburg Police Department has in my view a problem that they continue to perpetuate," Glass said. "They cover for their police officers. I will be looking at how many shootings were found to be 'justified' or 'unjusitifed' over the years.

"Until they get over this problem, there will continue to be unjustified shootings of pets and human beings that are ruled justified, when it is just a whitewash."

By SUE MANNING, Associated Press – LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vet visits cost pet owners an average of $505 dollars last year, according to a new AP-Petside.com poll, with those whose pets faced serious illness spending more than $1,000 on average.

Eight in 10 pet owners took their animal companion to a veterinarian in the past 12 months. And cost was an obstacle for a third of those who did not visit the vet.

But most pet owners trust that vets are not suggesting unnecessary treatments, and the bulk of pet owners faced costs below the average. Sixty percent of those who did take a pet to the vet spent $300 or less on their animal's care, the average expenditure was boosted higher by the one in eight (13 percent) who spent $1,000 or more.

About one in six pet owners say their pet faced a serious illness during the year, and those pet owners spent an average of $1,092 on vet care. One percent say they took their pets to the vet and spent no money.

Thomas Klamm, 76, of Boone, Iowa, says he and his wife Beverly spent $3,000 on their two Chihuahuas, sisters Kati and Keli, and he would have spent more if necessary, even though his annual income is under $50,000.

The biggest bills resulted from a spinal condition Kati had, but Klamm says he has a lot of confidence in the vets and senior students at Iowa State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital in nearby Ames, where the little dogs have been going since they were pups.

According to the poll, most pet owners have faith in the treatment vets recommend. Overall, 52 percent say vets do not often recommend excessive treatment, 26 percent say that happens moderately often, 17 percent extremely or very often.

Those whose pets had been seriously ill in the past year were no more likely than others to say that vets suggest treatments that go beyond what is reasonable and necessary.

Among those who did not take their pets to the vet last year, 52 percent say they only take their pets to the vet "when they're really sick" and a third say they can't afford it at all.

Luis Calderon, 56, of El Monte, Calif., couldn't afford to take Buddy, his 3-year-old German shepherd, to the vet last year. Buddy was given to Calderon when the dog was 6 months old. "We have become best friends," he says.

Calderon, a self-employed handyman, has a wife and two kids and says work is scarce. If Buddy needed a vet, Calderon says he would have to go through public services or use credit. "We would have to get him help."

How much would be too much? It would depend on what was wrong and what the vet said, Calderon says. "At that point I would have to consider whether to keep him or let him go, put him to sleep," he says.

He hates the idea of putting limits on Buddy's health. "But we have to survive. At this point, my mortgage is No. 1. This month is really close to the edge," Calderon adds.

Fifty-eight percent of those who did not take their pets to a vet in the past year said they "have a type of pet that doesn't need much veterinary care." Among them, 52 percent have dogs, 52 percent cats, 10 percent fish, and 5 percent birds.

Not surprisingly, higher-income pet owners (household incomes over $50,000) were more apt to take their pets to the vet than those with incomes below $50,000 — 90 percent versus 74 percent. Forty percent of those with household incomes below $50,000 who didn't take their pets to the vet say they can't really afford to do so.

Art Jones, 62, of Alameda, Calif., says two of his family's cats died in the last year. He estimates he spent $600 on vet bills — half of that to euthanize one of the cats. The other cat died at home.

"But we are not so wealthy we can spend thousands on a house pet. That's unfortunate, but that's the truth," Jones says.

He says he has family friends whose dog is getting cancer treatment and the cost is nearing $10,000. "To me, that's insane," Jones says.

Over the past few years, Jim Salsman, 51, of Las Vegas, paid for several $500 trips to the vet for his neighbors' cat, Mau, after the declawed feline got in fights with other animals. Last year, the neighbors left and gave the cat to Salsman. He ended up paying another $400 in vet bills, but says he didn't mind because his neighbors were in foreclosure and struggling, and the cat became an important member of the family.

"He means everything to us," Salsman said.

According to the poll, dog owners were a bit more likely to take their pets to the vet than cat owners — 85 percent of dog owners compared with 79 percent of cat owners. But dog owners spent a bit less — an average of $537 — than cat owners, who spent an average of $558.

The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted Oct. 13-17, 2011, by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,118 pet owners. Results among pet owners have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Experts say that people who engage in domestic abuse against a spouse or children often will use the family pet to control the rest of the family through fear.

Brenda Heredia, executive director of the Family Crisis Center in Harlingen, has seen cases in which people fleeing domestic violence are preoccupied with the safety of their pets because emergency shelters don't allow in animals.

"People don't think that's all that important," Heredia said. "They think, 'Food, clothes,' all that kind of stuff."

However, the welfare of the family pet is crucial, because an abusive relative often uses the animal as leverage.

"They always threaten beforehand," she said. "Most of the time it's only threats, I will tell you that. But that's because they know how psychologically effective it is."

Catherine Faver, a professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of Texas–Pan American in Edinburg, has conducted extensive studies on the link between domestic violence and animal abuse.

"It was some years ago that people discovered, realized, that intimate partner violence and child maltreatment often coexisted in the same family," Faver said. "Often, there's definitely more than one perpetrator and more than one victim. And so a father may abuse a child, and the child may in turn abuse the pet. But not all children who are abused turn around and abuse their pets. Some try to protect the pets."

The connection between domestic and animal abuse is pervasive across the country, and it is no different in the Rio Grande Valley. Between 2003 and 2005, Faver spoke to 151 pet owners in the Brownsville and Harlingen areas who were victims of domestic violence. Some, but not all, of the women in the study were at local crisis centers.

The study found that:

>> 36 percent of the women reported that their partners had threatened, harmed or killed their pets.

>> 35 percent said they worried about the safety of their pets while they were in their abusive relationship.

>> And 20.5 percent said concern for the safety of their pets in some way affected their decision to seek shelter.

Some of the women in Faver's study between 2003 and 2005 were at the Family Crisis Center in Harlingen. In the course of that two-year period, Heredia said, she realized the predicament in which pet owners find themselves when they are fleeing an abusive situation.

"I thought, 'Well, wait a minute,'" she recalled. "'If I'd been abused and I needed shelter, and I were told that you can't bring your cat with you because we don't take pets, I would sleep in my car, or go home, or sleep in a park because I wouldn't leave my cat.'

"And that's when we started saying, 'OK, if the family has a pet, we'll find a foster parent for it.' We got a group together where we find foster parents for the pet while they're in our shelter."

Heredia recalled one incident in which a woman and her young daughters came to the shelter with a pet dachshund.

"Of course, just coming to the shelter and not being at home, that was hard on them, but they were so worried about their dog," she said. "And so it was great that we found a foster person, and when the little girls got out, they got their animal back."

Heredia recalls one horrific incident about four or five years ago in which a family pet was being hideously tortured in a domestic incident. She was called for jury duty in Cameron County and she really wanted to be chosen for the case: A man had been abusing his children, and he showed them what he would do to them if they told anyone. He put their puppy on a barbecue grill that had a live fire going, closed the lid and roasted the animal alive, right in front of the children.

"I wanted to be on that jury, but when they found out that I'm the ED of Family Crisis Center, they said, 'Oh, no, you can't be on there,'" she said.

Recent state legislation now addresses the problem of pets caught in the violent wrangling of domestic abuse. The website www.capital.state.tx.us says a new law went into effect Sept. 1 that extends protective orders to include family pets.

In other words, it is now illegal for a defendant in a domestic violence dispute to remove pets owned by a person protected by an order, or "by a member of the family or household of a person protected by an order." It is illegal harm them, threaten them, or interfere with their care, custody, or control.

Alex Komechak has loved animals her entire life, but it wasn't until she moved from the Midwest to Arizona at 19 that she was able to begin living her dream of raising camels and other animals. Shortly after arriving in Arizona, Komechak purchased some land and, that same day, purchased her first newborn Dromedary (or Arabian) camel, who she named Baby. "It didn't take too long after meeting him for me to know what I wanted to do: Raise, breed and train camels with a long term goal of having a farm open to the public with an education center where students can come and learn more about animals and be inspired by nature like I was as a child," Komechak told

Komechack, who is currently in school to be an elementary school teacher and has rehabilitated all kinds of wildlife, now has nine animals: two Dromedary camels, Baby and Nessie (who appears in the video); five rescue dogs (a German Shepherd, an Australian Shepherd mix, two Borzoi, and a young Doberman Pinscher, a Von der Decken's Hornbill, and a Robovorski's hamster. But, of course, it's the camels that get — and require — the most attention.

"They're very demanding and there's not one day that you can slack off or ignore them," Komechak said, although it's certainly easier now than when Baby and Nessie were calves and required proper bottle feeding every two hours, around the clock. "This is something I'm going to be doing every day for the rest of my life and it's a huge commitment. If I'm going somewhere or planning to do something I have to think, ‘But whose going to take care of my camels?' It might be easy to find someone to come to your house to watch your dogs, but it's not so easy with camels."

The joy these Dromedaries bring to Komechak make all the work worthwhile, though. "I feel very honored to be able to share my life with these wonderful animals. Nessie and Baby are both very sweet and very clever. Baby lays down on the ground, which is called cushing, just by saying the word to him. And Nessie knows to stand by me and wait until I say, ‘Go!' before we run. They're both trained like this with many different vocal commands."

Nessie's been racing — and beating — Komechak from the very beginning. "She beat me right away!" she says. "I think it was only a few days after I got her, when we started running together in the fields behind my house. Even though she only weighed about a hundred pounds and was a skinny little hump-less thing, she was very fast. In school I ran in track for years, but even at two weeks old Nessie was beating me. They're actually really fast, despite their awkward appearance. Camels can easily run 25 mph and a trained fit racing camel can reach 40 mph."

When not running or eating, Baby and Nessie both love to play — in fact, this winter, Komechak plans to teach them to fetch. "Baby loves to carry around orange plastic traffic cones and stick them up in tree branches. Nessie likes kicking and going after balls."

Keep an eye on her Camels and Friends YouTube channel for more videos.

Want to learn more about Komechak and the animals? She regularly posts pictures, videos and news on her blog, Camels and Friends.

(Los Angeles CA November 29, 2011) Once a fixture on prime-time TV, former Price Is Right host, Bob Barker is returning for his ninth time to guest on the nationally syndicated Animal Radio® program.

Since retiring, Barker has been entrenched in animal welfare, rescuing several elephants from zoos, and significantly funding the agenda. His latest project supports legislation that aims to restrict use of exotic animals in Circus acts and other traveling shows.

"Bob always cuddles up with us and shares the most intimate details of his life…especially when it comes to animals," says Animal Radio® host Hal Abrams.

Barker explains his living situation. He has one remaining rabbit and a maid named Mercedes. "She built a room for the bunny, but I just let him have the run of the second floor. He chews up everything."

Catch this special national broadcast this weekend (December 3rd) as Animal Radio® kicks off its 'Starry Holiday' - Celebrities and their Pets - noon est on XM Satellite Radio channel 166 and 100 incredible AM-FM stations across the nation. See http://AnimalRadio.com to find a local affiliate.

(By Susan Payton) Laura Bennett, CEO of Embrace Pet Insurance, knows more about pet food, pet accessories and pet healthcare than the average person. While her business is pet health insurance, she tries to care about other niches in the same industry as a way to be successful with her business: "Know more than your small segment," she suggests.

We interviewed Laura to find out what makes her niche market, pet insurance, tick, as well as to get her advice as a seasoned entrepreneur.

Laura, what is pet insurance and how does it work for the consumer?

First off, let's specify that it's pet health insurance. It doesn't cover death benefits for your pet. Primarily, pet health insurance covers dogs and cats, though there are policies for other types of animals. Pet owners pay for their services at the veterinarian's office, then submit the claim to the pet insurance company for reimbursement.

What type of growth are you seeing in this industry?

In America, 65 percent of households have dogs or cats, yet only 1 percent of those pets have pet insurance. Across the ocean, 25 percent of cats and dogs carry pet health insurance in the U.K.

British people don't mind insurance very much. In the U.K., when pet health insurance came out 35 years ago, it delivered upon its promise, creating a positive experience, which is now backed by lots of advertising. In the U.S., early on, pet insurance didn't pay what people expected it to, and the relationship with insurance in general is a bit rocky here. But it is slowly turning around.

Are there any new pet insurance industry trends that you see taking place?

Right now, we're not seeing ads for dog or cat pet insurance, and most pet owners only hear about it through their vets. But with some big companies, like the ASPCA, coming on board to offer white-labeled pet insurance, the awareness level may increase. More non-pet insurance brands are becoming interested in offering it.

Has the economic climate affected pet insurance trends or pet insurance industry growth at all?

In the U.S., we've seen 15 to 20 percent growth over the past few years (it was better before the economic downturn), and people who still have disposable income are still spending on pets. Pet parents are buying pet insurance right now. These are people without children who dote on their pets, as opposed to pet owners, who may not be willing to spend more on the animal members of the household.

What type of veterinary services does pet insurance cover?

Pet insurance policies cover unexpected accidents and illnesses, as well as vet visits, diagnostic tests, cancer treatment, hip replacement and surgery. Some pet insurance policies cover dental and wellness visits as well. The only thing no brand of pet insurance covers is pre-existing conditions.

What type of increased interest have you seen in veterinary pet insurance? Is this becoming mainstream for consumers?

Right now there are just 11 companies offering pet health insurance in the U.S. It's a very niche market. Pet owners are learning about it through their vets, but as big brands start to offer it, the exposure will be much greater.

You've been a pioneer in this industry. What advice do you have to other entrepreneurs or small business owners about being an early player in an industry?

I like being early to the market, but not the earliest. Not being the first to market has its advantages, as it gives you the chance to watch those who came before you and learn from their mistakes. Don't just copy what they did; learn from the problems and fix them.

Our business stands apart because we talk to people as if they are human beings, and we care about them. It sounds simple, but it doesn't always happen.

Any advice for those wanting to get into the booming pet industry in general? Any particularly hot industry segments, or tips for how to be successful?

Know the wider industry you work in, whether that's the pet industry or any other. Care about other niches in the same industry. I don't have to care about pet food and pet accessories, but I do, because it's part of my industry. And networking, both in your industry and outside, is key for success.

There's not a lot of sophistication online in the pet industry, so there's room for improvement there. The pet industry is still considered "fluffy," pun intended. Stand out. Do it differently. Get a great pitch.

(Sue Manning) Just over half of American pet owners will buy gifts for their pets this holiday season, and they'll spend an average of $46 on their animals, with toys and treats topping the list, according to a new AP-Petside.com poll.

Sixty-eight percent of pets getting gifts can look forward to a toy, 45 percent to food or another treat, 8 percent new bedding, 6 percent clothing, 3 percent a leash, collar or harness and 3 percent new grooming products, the poll showed. (Some pets will get more than one gift.)

"Christmas is about the pets," said Gayla McCarthy, 58, of Kekaha, Hawaii, whose Australian shepherd, Echo, will find a toy under the tree. McCarthy even got a shirt for her husband as a gift to him from the dog, and she'll be giving collapsible bowls that she ordered online to all their friends' dogs.

Although the average budget for pet gifts among those surveyed was $46, 72 percent of those polled said they'd spend $30 or less. Those who bought gifts for their pets last year said they spent $41 on average.

Overall, 51 percent of those polled this year said they would buy holiday gifts for their pets, a figure that's been relatively stable in the last few AP-Petside.com polls. It was 53 percent last year, 52 percent in 2009 and 43 percent in 2008.

Income does matter. Those making $50,000 or more say they plan to spend an average $57 on their pets. Those making under $50,000 say it will be $29.

Major pet retailers have been taking part in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday frenzy for a few years. Petco Animal Supplies Inc. plans a 72-hour "Black Friday Weekend Blowout," said Greg Seremetis, vice president of marketing.

Products for both pets and pet owners will be available, he said. "Including pets in holiday gift-giving has been a growing trend in the last few years. More and more pets are being treated as family members and being included in holiday traditions, including having a gift waiting for them under the tree," he said.

PetSmart Inc. plans to open stores at 7 a.m. on Black Friday, then continue with a "Countdown to Christmas" sale, said spokeswoman Stephanie Foster.

Online retailer Foster & Smith Inc. plans a live, streaming, four-hour (11 a.m. - 3 p.m. EST) webcast full of sales and giveaways on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, spokesman Gordon Magee said. "As far as we know, with the exception of QVC …, no other retailer has done a live broadcast like this on Black Friday and Cyber Monday," Magee said. "We are going to give it a go."

Younger pet owners are more apt to say they'll buy their pet a holiday gift, including 56 percent of pet owners under age 50. Among those ages 50-64, it's 47 percent, and among seniors, 39 percent, the poll showed.

Lauren Beard, 22, of Felton, Pa., and her family lavished their dog Groovy with gifts last year — including treats and bones — because it was the chocolate lab's first Christmas. "We still love her but it's a little less exciting this year," Beard said. So she reduced her budget of $70 last year to $50, and hopes to get some things on sale. She'll also buy a gift for Groovy's best friend and neighbor, a golden retriever named Tessie, Beard said.

Ronda Singleton and her husband live in Elk, Wash., and raise and show standard poodles. But they don't plan to get gifts for their dogs or for each other. "If we need something, we go get it," she explained, adding that the dogs get treats all the time. She and her husband like to celebrate holidays with traditional dinners and church services.

Thomas Koch, 69, in Raleigh, N.C., has something special to celebrate this year — adoption of his adult son should be finalized, he said.

The two will spend the holidays with their dog, Jessie, a Sheltie-chow mix, and two cats, Tanz and Callie.

Last year, Jessie got toys and the cats got play mice and a large bag of catnip. "They liked it so much we just threw it on the carpet and let them roll in it," Koch said.

He covered the goodies last year for a mere $8, but is setting aside $10 this year just in case prices have gone up.

George Smith, 43, a father of three in Adams County, Colo., says pets are "part of the family, just like our kids." But they keep the holiday gifts for Miley, a golden retriever, and Zippity, a cat, low-key: no fancy wrapping or stockings, just $10 worth of toys and treats.

Steve Gottula's budget was $100 last year and he figures it will run about the same this year for his two dogs and seven cats. Odie, a dachshund, and Sky, a Dalmatian, will get special bones, and the cats will get catnip and mouse balls.

Gottula, 48, his wife Leigh (she's the one who brings home the strays) and five kids (ages 6 to 16) live with the nine pets in Spring, Texas.

His daughters have made stockings for the pets — with their initials — and they are always part of holiday celebrations, Gottula said.

"The cats like to play with the paper and ribbon and get lost in the boxes and wrappings," he said.

What do his pets mean to him? "They are entertaining, they are companions. They have little senses of humor. They all have personalities. If you give love to them they give it back — it's unconditional," he said.

The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted Oct. 13-17 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,118 pet owners. Results among all pet owners have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Amherst County, VA - Do you think your pet should be a movie star? An animal expert in Amherst County could tell you for sure.

Miriam Fields-Babineau has been professionally training animals for decades, and she's been involved in the animal actor business for decades too.

"I've provided not just dogs but cats, elephants, snakes, rodents, birds, turtles for Verizon once," said Fields-Babineau.

Fields-Babineau got into the animal acting business in the early 1980s when her own cat got "discovered" and landed an advertising job. She got the bug and hasn't looked back.

"I guess people recognize the movies mostly... 'War of the Worlds,' 'The Replacements,' 'Enemy of the State.' I did some TV shows I did 'Commander in Chief,' I did the 'District.'"

She's also done countless commercials including one that's just coming out for Cato Fashions. Cheryl Brown's two maltipoos doubled as the star, next to the clothing model of course.

The producers went to Miriam looking for a dog who could do three specific things: Sit and stay, jump off a chair on command and put their paw over their nose.

Brown wasn't sure if her dogs could do that one.

"I said we could do two out of three," said Brown.

But Miriam figured both Sugar and Sunshine could handle the task, so she and Cheryl spent three weeks training the "touch nose" trick. Brown had to agree to specific grooming for her dogs, too. When they hit the set, they did the touch nose trick over and over and over.

"We must have done at least 20 takes of that," Brown recalls.

"On the set it's exhausting and very stressful, there's stress all around, " said Fields-Babineau.

So what does it take to be an animal actor?

"The first thing I need to see is his basic obedience because it's very important they have to know basic things. They have to know to walk with you, sit, stay, down, stay, come," she said.

I gave my dog Cadbury a screen test. Of course I think he's a star, but would Fields-Babineau?

After a couple of tests of making him move, sit and stay, this was her assessment of Cadbury:

"His face is light enough that they can see his expression which is good, so he has the coloring for it and has the temperament for it, but he doesn't have the training for it yet. He needs a lot of distraction training and a lot of hard work to become an animal actor," she said.

Okay, so Cadbury's not ready, but that's an important point. Even if your pet does have what it takes, Brown says you might get some bragging rights, but not much else.

"Well it was a lot of work, I will say that. It's a commitment and at this point the animal owner and the animal doesn't receive a huge amount of compensation for the position, so you have to do it because you love it," said Brown.

Fields-Babineau says you can make as little as $50, but some agencies say you might make a couple of hundred for a day's work. If you happen to have a trained elephant or grizzly bear, you can make into the thousands.

In Fields-Babineau's case, producers know her and call her with specifics, then she provides and trains the animal and is the handler on set.

First it was spurious claims for whiplash and other injuries, then it was "crash for cash". Now a new type of fraud is affecting the insurance industry - pet scams.

Dishonest claims on animal policies almost quadrupled last year, making it the fasting growing area of insurance crime.

Figures from the Association of British Insurers show there was £1,929,900 worth of pet insurance fraud detected last year – up from just £420,000 in 2009.

However, the true scale, is thought to be far higher and pushing up the average £220 premium. A total of 2.3 million cats and dogs were insured last year and virtually every type of animal can be covered.

The Association of British Insurers is arranging a shared database of information about insured animals to detect fraud.

Insurers believe frauds include owners getting rid of the animal - by selling it or even killing it - then claiming a payout for early death. The animal may never have existed in the first place.

Other owners have injured their pets in "faked accidents" to cover up pre-existing injuries or conditions that were not covered by their policy.

Another scam involves staging the disappearance of an animal, because some policies pay out if a pet is lost or stolen.

Other tactics detected include claims for expensive vet treatments that have either not actually been given, or are unnecessary or are more expensive than they need to be. Experts suspect that some vets are involved.

In some cases, claims are made for uninsured pets on the policies of other insured animals.

One unnamed major insurer has revealed that between 2008 and last year, the number of animal-related claims where deception was suspected or proven increased by 440 per cent.

One reason the pet policies are proving susceptible to fraud is because veterinary records for animals can be difficult to trace.

Carys Clarke, a solicitor who works as an insurance fraud investigator for law firm Berrymans Lace Mawer, said: "I am aware of cases were owners have maimed their animals in order to make claims on their policies."

John Ellenger, pet product manager for More Than, said: "The increase in detected pet insurance fraud is quite significant. Pet insurance fraud is costing companies more and will have an impact on other people's premiums in the future."

TOLEDO, Ohio-- A debt-ridden man distraught over marital problems and deep in debt told one of his farmhands the night before he released a menagerie of African lions, Bengal tigers and other exotic animals that he had a plan and said to the caretaker: "You will know when it happens."

Terry Thompson threw open the animals' cages late in the afternoon on Oct. 18 and then committed suicide on his farm near Zanesville in eastern Ohio.

According to reports released Friday, sheriff's deputies who arrived at Thompson's private compound had no choice but to shoot the animals crouching between abandoned vehicles and tigers still coming out of their cages. When it was over, 48 animals were dead.

Nearly all the cages were unlocked and holes had been cut in the metal fencing. A tiger and a black bear were in the same enclosure, but the door was unlocked and open. "As I backed the team up, the tiger came out the door and charged right at us," said deputy Jay Lawhorne.

Deputies shot the tiger, and the bear, after it ran at other officers. Another deputy said he shot a charging black bear that dropped within 7 feet of him.

The reports released by the Muskingum County Sheriff's Office reveal how deputies suddenly found themselves in the middle of a desperate hunt. They also offer clues to Thompson's motive.

The 62-year-old told a farmhand that he was upset about his marital problems and that he had a plan, according to a deputy who talked with the caretaker.

Thompson then told the caretaker: "You will know it when it happens."

He and his wife had devoted their lives to the animals. He bought his first exotic animal, a lion cub named Simba, at an auction for his wife's birthday about 14 years ago.

Just days before he set the animals free, he told a deputy that he was having a tough time taking care of the animals after spending a year in prison on a gun conviction. He also was deep in debt to the Internal Revenue Service.

The accounts from deputies at the scene show just how close the animals came to attacking some of them. Authorities have defended their decision to shoot and kill the animals, saying they were trying to protect the public.

Deputies said they saw Thompson's body but couldn't get near him to determine whether he was alive because a white tiger "appeared to be eating the body," a report said. Authorities have said that it appeared one of the big cats dragged his body and that there was a bite mark on his head.

Other animals near his body started moving toward a pickup truck where, in the back, four sheriff's deputies armed with rifles began firing.

With only an hour of daylight left and no tranquilizers on hand, they were in the middle of a desperate hunt and decided that the only option was take down the animals, Lawhorne said.

Their main concern appeared to be making sure none of the animals got near or outside the fences that separated the farm from several neighboring houses and Interstate 70, according to the reports.

Two deputies shot a pair of lions running near a fence along an interstate highway. One lion got up and charged a deputy before he killed it. "One of the African lions that we had shot got up and started running towards us," a deputy said. "At this point, we opened fire on it again, eventually killing it."

One deputy said he shot a lion after it busted through a fence and race toward a road. At the same time, he saw other deputies firing at several other lions running through the front yards of neighboring houses.

He then came across a mountain lion that was hissing and showing its teeth.

Once night came, firefighters used thermal-imaging cameras to spot a grizzly bear bounding across a field. Deputies decided to shoot it.

Several of the cages and surrounding fencing had been cut, making it impossible for authorities to secure the animals, the reports said.

One lion came within three feet of an auxiliary deputy who was trying to close the cage doors but didn't see a hole had been cut in the cage, Lawhorne said.

Today marks the American Cancer Society's 36th year that the Great American Smokeout takes place — meaning people nationwide are making the attempt to forgo their daily habit for a day or for life in an effort to live healthier lives.

But kicking cigarettes won't just affect humans, it can promote a healthier environment for pets, too.

Obviously, pets breathe the same air that we do, and are exposed to environmental toxins that their human counterparts are. What you might not know, is that they are vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke, just as humans of any age are.

Some pets, cats in particular, are at double the risk of getting cancer if they live in households with people that smoke. One specific type of cancer, malignant lymphoma, seems to be directly connected.

Feline malignant lymphoma is the most common type of cancer found in cats.

Since as early as 2002, clinicians have been talking about this correlation, when a study done by researchers from Tufts University and University of Massachusetts released their findings, which were unexpected.

Lymphoma typically affects the nasal cavity and intestines of felines.

Dr. Antony S. Moore, DVM is one of the researchers involved in the study.

"We were interested in lymphoma because it's the most common cancer in cats and not very treatable," he says.

"At the same time, we wanted to figure out why we were seeing more feline lymphoma when leukemia virus was becoming less prevalent. We looked at flea control products, diet and other variables, and smoking came out very strongly."

Further findings also indicate that cats exposed to secondhand smoke for five years or more are at triple the risk of developing malignant lymphoma.

Another equally deadly type of cancer, squamous cell carcinoma — which affects the mouth — is also connected to exposure to secondhand smoke.

Justin Bieber has attracted a lot of attention with his choice of pet: a baby boa constrictor named Johnson. The pop star and Johnson are set to go their separate ways, however, as the snake's being auctioned off for charity, reports the New York Daily News.

The teen singer is selling his baby boa – who came to our attention at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards – to raise money for Justin's non-profit of choice, Pencils of Promise.

You'd better have deep pockets if you're interested in owning Bieber's snake. According to online auction site Charity Buzz, bidding is already up to $5,750.

The auction site does have a warning on snake ownership for any flaky bidders: "Before making any decision about keeping one please ensure you have the money, space, knowledge, time, resources and enthusiasm required to properly care for the species you intend to keep, for the duration of its life."

Johnson the snake will head home with the highest bidder – who will be screened for proper pet ownership – after the auction closes November 29.

Seventeen-year-old Bieber is one charitable little dude. Not only is he selling his very own pet snake for a good cause, the singer recently announced the launch of his "Believe" charity drive. Part of the proceeds from the singer's Christmas album, "Under the Mistletoe," will go to organizations including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Johnson's cause, Pencils of Promise.

Is your puppy worth more than treasured family photos?

How about an heirloom wedding veil?

A bank of trees on the land where you plan to build your retirement home?

And what's a canine lover to do when the animal shelter puts your dog down after you made it clear you'd return for him?

Those are the kinds of questions that judges on the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth had to wrestle with in the case of Medlen v. Strickland.

If you think the answers are obvious, maybe you aren't thinking hard enough.

Avery was a mutt.

Kathryn and Jeremy Medlen got him from a homeless man who was giving away puppies. Avery slept on the couch, curled up with the kids by the TV, was a member of the family.

But on June 2, 2009, 8-year-old Avery got out of the back yard and was picked up by Fort Worth animal control. According to the court record, Jeremy Medlen didn't have the $95 for fees when he went to the animal shelter for Avery, but the plan was to get him on June 10. Despite a "hold for owner" tag on Avery's cage, he was euthanized on June 7.

What are you supposed to do when you're wronged like that?

The Medlens sued - though not for the money, their lawyer says.

And before you go, "That's preposterous!" consider the context of Texas law.

In 1891, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in a case called Heiligmann v. Rose that dog owners could collect damages from a man who poisoned three of their pets. A jury could base compensation on market value, if the animals had any, or "some special or pecuniary value to the owner" that "may be" determined by considering the dogs' usefulness and services.

Fast-forward to the Medlens' lawsuit, which a Tarrant County judge dismissed because they were suing for Avery's sentimental value, not services such as herding skills or breeding potential.

A three-judge appeals panel ruled Nov. 3 that a jury should be able to consider how much sentimental value the Medlens attached to their pet.

It wasn't some puppy-hugging, PETA-loving activism from an all-Republican court.

Texas law recognizes, at the very least, that dogs are personal property. And the Texas Supreme Court has said loss of personal property is worth something.

In 1963, the court said a drive-in theater operator in Pecos could collect damages for heirlooms - including her grandmother's wedding veil and her grandfather's pistol - after faulty wiring in the neon sign set her family apartment beneath the theater on fire. (City of Tyler v. Likes)

In 1984, the high court let a Freestone County man seek damages for the "intrinsic value" of "a number of large trees, some as much as four feet in diameter" that a neighbor had bulldozed on the wrong side of the property line while building a fence for a new exotic-animal ranch. (Porras v. Craig)

And in 1997, the court said a Tyler woman could get compensation from the city after drainage culverts overflowed during heavy rains, sending a neighbor's landscaping cascading through her window and destroying family letters, photos and keepsakes. (Brown v. Frontier Theatres)

So, should Texas law protect a photo of the family dog and not the animal itself?

"Because of the special position pets hold in their family, we see no reason why existing law should not be interpreted to allow recovery in the loss of a pet at least to the same extent as any other personal property," Justice Lee Gabriel wrote in the Medlen case.

"Dogs are unconditionally devoted to their owners. Today, we interpret timeworn Supreme Court law in light of subsequent Supreme Court law to acknowledge that the special value of 'man's best friend' should be protected."

Now, I recognize there's a slippery slope here. If dogs, then surely cats. What about domestic spiders and snakes? The multilingual parrot asphyxiated by the fumigator? (See CSI for a variation on this.)

Frivolous suits - or legitimate property rights?

The good judgment of juries and judges still would have to determine sentimental value. Things like pain and suffering or mental anguish still would be excluded.

The Medlens' lawyer, Randy Turner, pointed out that the law already accounts for pets in some ways: Texas lets judges include pets in protective orders, and the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2006 requires states seeking federal disaster aid to include plans for accommodating families with pets during major emergencies.

Forced to choose, I can't imagine saving even my dearest keepsakes before Wizard and Pepper, the irreplaceable gooberheads we took into our home and our hearts almost nine years ago.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/11/3259987/pets-are-worth-at-least-as-much.html#ixzz1e6CG3v8t

(Animal Radio® Newsroom November 4, 2011) PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) attracts the attention of comedian Stephen Colbert with their latest lawsuit. The animal rights group announced that they're suing SeaWorld, asking a federal court to declare that five Orcas are being held as slaves in violation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

The host of Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" isn't buying PETA's claims. PETA General Counsel Jeff Kerr says this is the first time any group has sought to extend the protection of the 13th Amendment to animals.

PETA maintains that SeaWorld's Orcas are denied freedom and kept in small concrete tanks so they can perform tricks for the passing amusement of humans.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said a limited amount of pet food, treats and supplements will be tested during the next year for salmonella.

Officials at the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine said although cases of pet food contaminated with salmonella are rare, they are concerned about animal feed and pet food serving as vehicles for transmitting pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacteria to humans and other animals -- particularly salmonella being transmitted to humans through pet foods, pet treats, and supplements for pets fed in homes.

The testing will:

-- Determine the prevalence of salmonella in samples collected from a limited number of pet foods, pet treats, and supplements for pets.

-- Determine the serotype, genetic fingerprint and antimicrobial susceptibilities of each salmonella found in samples collected from pet foods, pet treats and supplements for pets under this assignment.

-- Ensure that salmonella-contaminated pet foods, pet treats and supplements for pets are removed from interstate commerce.

-- Collect investigational samples for research purposes and for providing surveillance information on microbes other than salmonella in pet foods, pet treats and supplements for pets.

Certain vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly and individuals with compromised immune systems, are particularly susceptible to salmonella infection from such animal feeds or pet food and consumers are advised to wash hands after handling pet food, FDA officials said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/11/03/FDA-to-test-pet-food-for-Salmonella/UPI-95331320365575/#ixzz1cmoD93Vj

SAN DIEGO — Two weeks after he was purchased for $1,000 from a Los Angeles pet store and abandoned by his owner, a puppy named Parker is in foster care and will soon be up for adoption from the county’s Animal Services shelter in San Diego.

The pooch, a beagle/Boston terrier mix known as a "Boggle," was left on the doorstep of a woman who delivered the dog to San Diego County Animal Services in Carlsbad. Parker, named after Parker Brothers, the company that makes the game Boggle, had suffered a broken leg after falling from a sofa, and his original owner could not afford to pay veterinarian bills.

According to a news release from county Animal Services, shelters have seen a recent increase in pet owners resorting to abandonment or relinquishment of animals they can no longer afford to care for. Many of the animals, like Parker, are purchased at high prices, and expensive veterinarian bills add to the financial burden of some families, Animal Services said.

Parker's leg is healing after surgery. The operation was funded by the Spirit Fund, an all-donation fund set up by Animal Services to help pets get ready for adoption. Applications to adopt Parker and other animals in county shelters can be found at sddac.com. For more information, call (619) 767-2675.

The case includes nine per-instance willful citations for failing to require respirator use by six workers exposed to dust above the permissible exposure limit and failing to adequately protect three dust collection units which collect dusts such as starch, potato base, cellulose fiber, and pea protein.

OSHA announced an enforcement action with a total of $758,450 in proposed fines against All-Feed Processing & Packaging Inc. for 23 alleged safety and health violations at its pet food production and packaging facility in Galva, Ill., on Nov. 2. The citation alleges the site willfully violated air contaminant, respiratory protection, and hearing conservation standards, and some alleged fire and explosion protection violations were cited under the general duty clause, where concentrations of combustible dust existed, according to the agency's news release.

"Even after a powerful dust explosion and fire at this facility in 2009, along with a number of citations previously issued for similar conditions, All-Feed Processing & Packaging fails to comply with safety and health requirements," said OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels. "By showing a blatant disregard for worker safety and health, this employer continues to expose workers to deadly hazards."

The case includes nine per-instance willful citations for failing to require respirator use by six workers exposed to dust above the permissible exposure limit and failing to adequately protect three dust collection units which collect dusts such as starch, potato base, cellulose fiber, and pea protein.

Four additional single-instance willful citations were issued for requiring employees to work in areas where they were exposed to total dust in excess of permissible limits and failing to implement adequate engineering controls for the employees; the citation says the site allowed the use of liquid propane-powered industrial trucks in atmospheres where combustible dust could be ignited.
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These 13 willful violations totaled $700,700 of the fines, OSHA said.

Before the inspection that resulted in the citation began in May, All-Feed Processing & Packaging had been inspected by OSHA 10 times since 2000, resulting in 17 alleged willful, 44 serious, five repeat, and 10 other-than-serious violations. OSHA's release said the company has been placed in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which includes mandatory OSHA follow-up inspections and inspections of other sites operated by the same employer.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — More than 20 cases of the life-threatening bacterial infection leptospirosis have been reported in Detroit-area dogs in the past three weeks, according to Michigan State University's Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health.

Experts at the MSU center, a service unit of the College of Veterinary Medicine, diagnosed the specific strain of the disease, which can cause fatal damage to dogs and can be transmitted to humans.

In most cases, the dogs were not vaccinated against leptospirosis, or they had an uncertain vaccination history. Because this particular type of leptospirosis is associated with contact with rats, stray dogs are typically thought to be at highest risk.

"What is particularly unusual about this outbreak is that the dogs affected are not stray animals, but people's pets," said Carole Bolin, director of the Diagnostic Center. "Unfortunately, we expect to see more cases, and this is a very dangerous type of leptospirosis. Many veterinarians have never seen this type in dogs because it was markedly reduced by vaccination."

Bolin and her team performed diagnostic testing and identified the particular strain of infection as icterohaemorrhagiae, which can cause severe disease in humans and animals. It is commonly carried by rats but also can be transmitted dog-to-dog or dog-to-human. Bolin is aware of nine dogs that died or were euthanized as a result of the disease, but there may be others.

"The Diagnostic Center became involved because of our experience, expertise and our desire to help the public," Bolin said. "Our diagnosis helped identify this relatively rare strain, and the samples we tested will provide teaching tools for our students and residents so they will recognize this disease in the future."

Leptospirosis spreads by infected wild and domestic animals. The bacteria (leptospira) that infects these animals can reside in their kidneys, and the host animal may or may not appear ill. They contaminate their environment with living leptospira when they urinate. Pets can become infected by sniffing this urine or by contacting standing water that becomes contaminated by rain and water runoff.

The bacteria spread rapidly through an animal's blood stream, usually causing fever, depression and vomiting. The bacteria also attack the liver and kidneys, which can lead to organ failure.

"This is a very serious, rapidly progressing type of leptospirosis in dogs," Bolin said. "Dogs can appear normal one day and be severely ill the next day. People can become infected, so this also is a threat to animal owners, caretakers and veterinarians."

In the 1980s, Bolin's mentor Alex Thiermann conducted studies on the high leptospirosis prevalence in the rat and dog population in Detroit. Leptospirosis caused by icterohaemorrhagiae was identified as a cause of human cases and as a common infection in rats and stray dogs. The prevalence of leptospirosis dropped significantly after the conditions predisposing to large rat populations were corrected.

Also, a leptospirosis vaccine was routinely administered to dogs, greatly diminishing the number of cases. As cases of disease in dogs decreased and because of the vaccine's potential for adverse reactions, vaccine use diminished and it no is longer given to all dogs. However, Bolin said this outbreak demonstrates that leptospirosis remains a significant risk for dogs.

"There is something we can do now to prevent this disease and that is to vaccinate," she said. "Dog owners need to contact their veterinarian to get more information regarding vaccination."

MSU's Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health has become one of the country's premier veterinary diagnostic laboratories, handling more than 220,000 cases involving approximately 1.5 million tests annually.

(Animal Radio® Newsroom October 25, 2011) The truth about cats and dogs: They can cost an arm and a leg in the long run.

Dogs can cost between $310 and $7,100 to maintain every year and between $4,070 and $101,070 to maintain over a lifetime, says Kiplinger's Personal Finance. That's more than kibbles and bits.

Cats are cheaper on average: between $490 and $940 per year and between $7,760 and $15,260 per lifetime.

The annual costs take into account many factors, including food, toys, monthly veterinarian visits, and other essential supplies.

However, fish remain a cost-effective alternative to the more high-maintenance pets. Fish cost an average of just $230 in their first year, $20 annually, and $270-$910 for a lifetime.

If you plan on owning a cat or dog, be sure that you have the money to pay for the expenses. Love for a pet is essential, but ultimately it's money that pays the bills. If the cost for a dog or cat is too high, there are always other fish in the sea.

(Reuters) - A pet cat missing for two months after escaping its carrier at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport has been discovered alive in a customs room, American Airlines said on Wednesday.

The cat, named Jack, was due to fly with its owner, Karen Pascoe, in August to San Francisco where she was starting a new job, the airline said. But it disappeared from its travel container before the flight took off.

It was discovered on Tuesday, the airline said.

Since being missing, the cat developed fatty liver disease, a treatable condition that can develop when a cat is not getting enough food.

Pascoe, who flew to San Francisco without Jack but with a second cat named Barry who arrived safely, was contacted by the airline when Jack was identified by a microchip implanted between his shoulder blades.

During the two months that Jack was missing, a Facebook page was created on its behalf that attracted more than 16,000 subscribers. The page featured reports of possible Jack sightings that proved to be dead ends.

Bonnie Folz, a dog trainer and pet-lover who lives near the airport, volunteered to oversee search efforts, despite having never met Pascoe or Jack.

She said she saw the cat at the office of a local veterinarian on Tuesday night.

"He looks tired but he looks beautiful," she said. "He's got beautiful bright eyes."

Folz, who has helped other people try to locate lost pets, criticized the airline's handling of the pet container, saying she suspected baggage handlers had stacked Jack's crate precariously and failed to secure its door with a zip tie.

Ed Martelle, a spokesman for American Airlines, said he could not comment on how Jack managed to escape. He said the airline would fly Jack to California to be reunited with his owner once he is healthy.

But Folz said she talked to Pascoe, who plans to pick up Jack herself.

Jack has lost so much weight that he likely comes in below the 15-pound limit and would be allowed to fly this time with his owner in the passenger cabin, Folz said.

Scores of people were forced to give up their dogs last year because their landlords banned pets, an animal charity says.

The number of people handing in pets to the Dogs Trust as a result of housing problems has risen by 56% in the past five years and last year 276 people handed their dogs to 17 rehoming centres.

The charity warned that as high property prices force more people into rented accommodation, many pet owners will be forced to abandon their animals or even have them put down.

One in three people surveyed could not find a suitable property to live in with their pet and the research found pet owners who were successful in finding a tenancy tended to take longer to find a home.

Almost half (47%) of those who looked for a property said their lettings agency did not help them to find a pet-friendly home.

The survey found that 59% of pet owners would be willing to pay a higher deposit to rent with their pets and 75% would be happy to pay for their carpets and soft furnishings to be professionally cleaned when they moved out.

Clare Kivlehan, who runs the charity's Lets with Pets scheme, said: "We're campaigning for lettings agents and landlords to take a 'pets considered' approach rather than rejecting all pets.

"We'd like people to be able to search easily on property websites for suitable options rather than having to make individual enquiries and we're keen to hear from any agencies interested in becoming campaign supporters."

It might seem silly or insignificant to some, but for millions of animal lovers like Jon Katz, the death of a pet can be devastating. In his new book, Going Home: Finding Peace When Pets Die, Katz explores the complex feelings of grief that can arise upon an animal's death. From his farm in upstate New York, Katz talked to TIME about dealing with guilt, the importance of mourning and the struggle to move on.

You've written numerous books about animals and their connection to humans over the years. Why write about them dying?

I was speaking at a veterinary conference, and a bunch of vets came up to me and said that they were seeing a dramatic rise in grieving, were overwhelmed by it, and didn't know how to deal with it. I looked around, and there were many books about animals dying, but they almost all had to do with the afterlife—about seeing a dog or cat in heaven. There was almost nothing about dealing with grief right now.

Having the farm and a life with animals, I've experienced a great deal of loss. I realized that it's a very powerful thing, but no one in the culture takes it seriously. There's this idea that if you grieve for a pet, you're indulgent or silly.

You've witnessed the deaths of all kinds of animals during your time at Bedlam Farm. But you write that your decision to put down your dog Orson affected you most profoundly.

Orson inspired me to come to the farm in the first place. This was the dog that began my writing about dogs, animals and rural life. I felt a great debt to him. He was also a great personality, and he really changed me. But I felt foolish in feeling grief for him. I kept thinking, "It's just a dog." But after writing more about animals, I realized that the loss of a pet can be devastating. In [Orson's case], I didn't really deal with it or acknowledge it. I didn't allow myself a good cry or talk about it much. I think I paid for that. Part of the book's message is that it's okay to grieve animals.

You make the point that not everyone is an animal lover. So, if you're grieving, how do you address that with people who might not understand?

I don't know that you can really. I think all you can say is, "It's very painful for me. It's a big loss for me." I don't honestly think that you can expect non-animal people to grasp it. When someone suffers a loss like this they need to get to those who understand—animal lovers. What I say to people [who are grieving]—and I think it's the only thing that is helpful— is that I'm sorry and I know how you feel. It's very simple.

Losing a pet is also very complicated because this is the only time in our lives when we're sometimes called upon to kill something we love. That's what happened with Orson. I had to euthanize him because he bit three people. We feel very guilty about these decisions. We're not prepared for it, we haven't thought through the emotional, moral or psychological elements of it. The truth is you'll never know for sure if you made the right decision. I can't tell you even today if I'm sure that it was the right decision [with Orson]. It was just the best decision I could make at the time. You can't look to other people to tell you if you're right or wrong.

I think it's definitely comforting for people to know that they're not alone in feeling grief over an animal. How does this sense of camaraderie help the healing process?

The biggest help it provides is it lets people know that it's okay to feel bad. Animals have come to mean so much in our lives. We live in a fragmented and disconnected culture. Politics are ugly, religion is struggling, technology is stressful, and the economy is unfortunate. What's one thing that we have in our lives that we can depend on? A dog or a cat loving us unconditionally, every day, very faithfully. Of course we're going to grieve them when they go. The other side of that is, in my mind, I don't want to make grieving a way of life. There are about 12 million dogs in need of homes. When I'm ready, I like to mark the loss and move on. And the most healing thing I know of is to adopt another animal.

But is it healthy to try to replace an animal that's passed with a new one?

I think it's healthy and helpful when you are ready. I don't think it's healthy to go out the next morning and get an animal, because it makes them feel disposable. But I do think the real healing begins when you get another. When an animal dies, it gives you the chance to love another animal. That's an insightful and profound way to look at it. Unlike most situations with loss, you can move forward.

Something you said in the book really hit home with me. You write that, for many, the death of a pet is almost harder than that of a relative or friend because there are no complicated emotions, just pure love.

Look, we have families. Kids leave us and go off on their own lives. Family members tell us what they think of us. Animals can't do that. They really are blank canvases, and we can project anything we want onto them. So the relationship is very pure and simple. This level of grieving [for animals] has probably come about because our society is not doing a great job of connecting with one another. People seem angrier and more frustrated, and animals seem more loving and important.

But you also caution not to project human emotions onto animals, because in the end, they are animals.

That was a very important part of the book for me, to encourage people to remember that animals are not feeling what we are feeling. They don't feel guilt or regret. They don't resent things. That's what I love about them. I love the fact that they do not carry our baggage around with them.

Death is also a great part of an animal's life. Some of the animal communicators I talked to said the number one question people ask after their animals have died is, "Are they mad at me?" Animals don't think like that. They're very accepting of life. I think of animals more as spirits that come and go. They enter our lives at a particular time and they leave at a particular time. The whole glorious history of animals with people is about joy and connection. It's about loving this creature and letting this creature love you.

Hear Jon Katz on Animal Radio®

A leading animal charity has called for a toughening of the laws regarding the keeping of exotic or dangerous pets following the horrific incident last week when almost 50 animals were shot dead after being released by their crazed owner.

Sheriff's deputies in Ohio had little choice but to hunt down and kill the animals - including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions- after their owner, Vietnam vet Terry Thompson, threw open the cages at his Muskingum County Animal Farm.

While Mr Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot he also had a bite wound to the head that appeared to have come from a large cat, such as a Bengal tiger.
Slaughtered: Authorities in Ohio had little choice but to shoot almost all of the 50 animals, including lions, tigers and bears, after they were set free from a private zoo

Slaughtered: Authorities in Ohio had little choice but to shoot almost all of the 50 animals, including lions, tigers and bears, after they were set free from a private zoo

He had been convicted of animal cruelty in 2005, and his vast collection of dangerous animals had been the subject of numerous complaints from neighbours near the town of Zanesville.

The ones that got away: Sad survivors of exotic animal bloodbath after 'time bomb' private zoo owner opened the cages and shot himself

However despite these obvious calls for alarm he had been allowed to keep his collection of exotic animals.
Concerns: Vietnam vet Terry Thompson was allowed to keep a 'Noah's Ark' of exotic animals despite convictions for animal cruelty and warnings from neighbours

Concerns: Vietnam vet Terry Thompson was allowed to keep a 'Noah's Ark' of exotic animals despite convictions for animal cruelty and warnings from neighbours

Mr Thompson, who was described as a 'gun-crazed animal lover, had reportedly separated from his wife.

In addition to his lions and tigers, Mr Thompson also kept three leopards, six black bears, three mountain lions, three grizzly bears, two wolves, two monkeys and a baboon

Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them.

According to Born Free, at least nine people have been injured in exotic pet incidents in the state since 2005 and one person killed.

Will Travers, CEO of The Born Free Foundation, said: 'The authorities have a lot of questions to answer as this terrible situation was, in my view, wholly preventable.'

In the last 20 years Born Free has documented hundreds of incidents involving exotic animals many of them fatal. Now they are calling for a toughening of the laws

Mr Travers added: 'Responsible legislation is necessary to protect the animals from the public and the public from the animals.

It should also establish whether an individual is a fit and proper person to operate such an enterprise, whether high animal welfare standards can be met and whether appropriate security and public safety measures are in place.

'It seems that none of the above were properly addressed and the authorities simply ignored the situation.'

Following the the incident Ohio Governor John Kasich signed an executive order to stop unlicensed exotic animal auctions, in a bid to reduce the number of exotic animals being kept as pets.

The Humane Society of United States urged Ohio officials to issue an emergency rule to crack down on exotic animal ownership after yesterday's incident.

The organisation said that if the previous emergency order issued by then-Governor Ted Strickland had not expired, then Thompson 'would almost certainly have had his animals removed by May 1, 2011.'

Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them.

In the UK exotic pets become popular during the 1960s and 1970s fueled in part by celebrity owners.

But in 1976 the law was changed meaning strict licenses were required to keep exotic animals.

Faced with the prospect of seeing their beloved pets put down some owners responded by releasing them into the wild.

There are thousands of reported sightings of exotic animals living wild in the UK every year and many believe these to be former pets or their offspring.

Although it is virtually impossible for private individuals in the UK to own big cats, primates or other dangerous large animals such as bears, the popularity of keeping snakes and reptiles continues to rise.

In America laws differ from state to state so while the keeping of exotic pets is completely banned in of Iowa and Massachusetts, there is almost no regulation at all in others such as Ohio.

Florida has the highest number of reported incidents involving exotic animals followed by Ohio.

While they may not seem initially threatening monkeys and other primates are considered particularly dangerous as they can be vicious and have a tendency to bite and scratch.

Exotic animals are also of concern as they can spread diseases including Salmonella and herpes.

Obesity in pets can be the reason for their inactive behavior and frequent illness. A research conducted by the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, an animal health and welfare charity, cited that about 12 million pets in Wales are fed with foods as cakes, cheese, crisps, biscuits, etc. which tend to increase the levels of obesity in them. The PDSA said that as overeating and eating unhealthy food has its consequences for human, similarly it affects the health of the pets.

The weight of pets should be in accordance with their age, so as to avoid the occurrence of some deadly disease in them. In the survey 885 pet owners were included; all of them were required to answer few questions regarding the food they feed their pets with. The results stated that dogs were on the top of the list, 89% of pet owners approved that they fed their dogs with food not meant for them as cake, biscuits, etc., the second position was conquered by the cat community with 42% of cats being fed with food resulting in increased levels of fat and on the last position are the rabbits with 21%.

An obesity specialist from University of Liverpool Veterinary School, Dr. Alex German, said that the findings of the survey are astonishing and shall be considered seriously by all the people who love their pets and want them to lead a healthy life. He said that feeding the pets with junk food sometimes is understood but repeating the same on regular basis is an issue of concern regarding their health.

The Animal Health and Welfare Charity has stepped forward to deal with the problem by making the pet owners aware about the necessity of healthy food for pets and by commencing various programs which will help overweight pets in losing weight.

Yesterday, the lawmakers in New York's Albany County voted unanimously to approve a new piece of legislation that would effectively ban New York animal abusers from being able to own a pet again, this according to Global Animal.

According to the report, the new law, which applies to misdemeanor and felony convictions for animal cruelty and associated crimes, will force animal abusers to enter into an abuse registry similar to the registry set up already for sexual offenders.

It is only the third county in New York and the nation to set up an animal abuse registry.

The way the law will function is that it will force adoption agencies and other organizations selling animals to check the abuse registry to ensure that the buyer is not a previous offender. In theory, the law is supposed to help prevent animals from falling into the hands of potentially cruel owners.

Animal abusers who are convicted for a first time will be required to register for a 10-year-period, a time which they cannot own any animal. If they are convicted a subsequent time, they will be in the abuse registry for life.

Randy Crooks, who manages a Russell Feed & Supply store in north Fort Worth, has sold items for animals for decades. So, he knows his stuff.

That's why you won't get top-of-the-line flea and tick medications at his store unless you ask for it. These days, it's kept under the counter.

"The people that are going to buy it, they come up and buy it. The people that were looking to do other things with it, check the price and leave," said Crooks.

A 3-month supply of brands like Advantage and Frontline costs about $50. When they were on the shelves, they disappeared.

"Once or twice a week, we'd find an empty box. They'd just remove the contents, because they're very light, and set the box back on the shelf," said Crooks.

Still, many pet stores still have the medications right out on the shelf. Those stores are getting hit hard. One Petsmart in southwest Fort Worth keeps the medications in protective plastic cases. Warnings are posted on the shelves so customers know cameras are watching. Still, thieves hit the store seven times in the past two months.

The managers would not talk to us on camera, referencing company policy. According to police reports, seven boxes of medication were stolen in at least two of the thefts. Altogether, it could be thousands of dollars of medication stolen.

The Petsmart thefts are part of an open investigation. Fort Worth police would not comment on the case.

Police say, often, the stolen pet medications end up for sale online. We found nearly a dozen posts for flea/tick medication on Craigslist, so we tried to contact the posters.

We heard back first from a woman named Kristi. Her post offered Sentry flea medication, but she says she's only selling one box. That's not a sign of stolen medication. Thieves will generally be selling multiple boxes.

Other posts looked more suspicious, offering multiple types. Some were selling for as cheap as $20.

One poster explained he had to put some of his dogs to sleep. The post offered flea medication for any size of dog. He was even offering medications for cats.

We only got one other response, from a man named Vincent. He wouldn't talk on the phone, explaining his phone speaker is broken. We tried to ask, through email, where he got the medication. He didn't respond.

Police say the only way to know you aren't buying stolen goods is to buy from someone with a retail license.

It's almost the spookiest night of the year so the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recommends taking some common sense precautions this Halloween to keep you and your pet saying "trick or treat" all the way to Nov. 1.

-No tricks, no treats. That bowl of candy is for trick-or-treaters, not for Scruffy and Fluffy. Chocolate in all forms - especially dark or baking chocolate - can be very dangerous for dogs and cats. Candies containing the artificial sweetener xylitol can also cause problems. If you do suspect your pet has ingested something toxic, call your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435.
-Hide the fake food. Popular Halloween plants such as pumpkins and decorative corn are considered to be relatively nontoxic, but they can produce stomach upset in pets who nibble on them.
-Safety first. Wires and cords from electric lights and other decorations should be kept out of reach of your pets. If chewed, your pet might suffer cuts or burns, or receive a possibly life-threatening electrical shock.
-Jack-o-Lantern candle care. A carved pumpkin certainly is festive, but do exercise caution if you choose to add a candle. Pets can easily knock a lit pumpkin over and cause a fire. Curious kittens especially run the risk of getting burned or singed by candle flames.
-Dress-up can be a big mess-up for some pets. Please don't put your dog or cat in a costume unless you know he or she loves it (yup, a few pets are real hams!). For pets who prefer their “birthday suits,� however, wearing a costume may cause undue stress. If you do dress up your pet, make sure the costume isn't annoying or unsafe. It should not constrict the animal's movement or hearing, or impede his ability to breathe, bark or meow. Also, be sure to try on costumes before the big night. If your pet seems distressed, allergic or shows abnormal behavior, consider letting him go au naturale or donning a festive bandana. Take a closer look at your pet's costume and make sure it does not have small, dangling or easily chewed-off pieces that he could choke on. Also, ill-fitting outfits can get twisted on external objects or your pet, leading to injury.
-Avoid anxios pets. All but the most social dogs and cats should be kept in a separate room away from the front door during peak trick-or-treating hours. Too many strangers can be scary and stressful for pets.
-Keep an eye on pets at all times. When opening the door for trick-or-treaters, take care that your cat or dog doesn't dart outside.
-IDs, please! Always make sure your dog or cat has proper identification. If for any reason your pet escapes and becomes lost, a collar and tags and/or a microchip can be a lifesaver, increasing the chances that he or she will be returned to you.

This dog only wants to be judged based on the content of its character, not the color of its fur.

According to pet shelter workers, ebony-colored cats and dogs suffer from the "Black Dog Syndrome": they are often the last to be adopted and the first to be euthanized.

There are no statistics to prove the trend, but there's plenty of anecdotal evidence and many possible explanations, rooting from a simple logistical problem: Black animals are hard to photograph well, and are therefore hard to advertise. To combat the problem, shelters will change lighting, use light-colored blankets, and even dress the animals up to try to get better photos for websites, ads and fliers.

Photographer Seth Casteel of Little Friends Photo in Los Angeles just launched a free, nationwide, nonprofit program called Second Chance Photos. The site, secondchancephotos.org, has tips for volunteers to take good photos of shelter pets. One suggestion?

"With black dogs, do your best to showcase their unique and positive personality. You can take the dog on a short run before the photo shoot so that he or she will pant, which looks like a smile."

If photographers follow these steps, black-colored pets will hasten the adoption process, which tends to be a bit longer than for lighter-furred animals.

"Overwhelmingly, we hear from the shelter and rescue groups that black dogs, especially the big black dogs, and black cats take longer to get adopted," said Kim Saunders, vice president of shelter outreach for Petfinder.com, an online pet adoption database.

Apparently, the misperceptions are fueled by the entertainment industry, as well.

"If you think of any movie with a mean, devil dog, it's always a black dog, and if you see a witch in a movie, they always have a black cat," says Mike Arms, president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. The latter example, of course, ignores the entrenched superstition about black cats that easily prepares them for typecasting.

Some shelters hold special adoption events for black pets, with incentives like lower adoption fees and two-for-one adoption days. They also make sure the animals are taken out of their cages to meet potential owners as a way of encouraging their adoption.

Even if better photography and movie stereotypes take time to change the pattern, once animal rights agency has a time-honored insight.

On its website, the Oahu Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals talks about Black Dog Syndrome and asks potential pet parents: "Don't judge a pup by its color."

(CBS/KCNC) LONE TREE, Colo. - A puppy pilfered from a pet store - a pug, no less - has been returned to its proper owner, and the perpetrator has been arrested, say Denver area police.

Surveillance video recorded the suspect playing with the $1,200 pug in the store in Lone Tree, Colo. Monday afternoon, reported CBS affiliate KCNC.

The woman spent some time with the dog, then left and returned to Just Pets a few hours later.

"(She) really liked her, said she was in love with her; was going to think about her and come back," store owner Lisa Stone said, according to KCNC.

Stone said the woman said she wanted to buy the dog but needed a few more minutes. Meanwhile, another customer came in to look at kittens. When Stone went to the back of the store the pug-napper dashed out the front door.

"I didn't see anybody anywhere; nobody running, no car, no nothing -- gone," Stone said.

According to the American Kennel Club, pet theft is a growing problem nationwide. Approximately 224 pets have been reported stolen in the first 7 months of this year compared with just 150 in the same period of time last year.

TAMPA — Last November, Bruce C. Ungerer received notice from Hillsborough County that it was nearly time to renew the annual registrations for his two dogs and five cats.

Trouble is, Ungerer owns two dogs, Poco and Taz, but no cats.

An investigator for the county has turned up multiple instances in which pet owners say nonexisting animals have been registered in their names. Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said he will ask the Sheriff's Office today to look into whether there were any criminal violations.

The pet owners in question each have three things in common, heightening concern:

• All are low-income.

• Each qualified for a voucher program that enabled them to have their pets neutered, obtain a license and get a rabies shot for their animals at next to no cost. They got the vouchers by proving they receive public assistance and paying $10 per animal. They took those vouchers to a veterinarian, who was reimbursed for each sterilization by the county.

• Almost all of the pet owners used the same veterinary clinic, the Animal Coalition of Tampa at 1719 W Lemon St., whose operators are vocal voucher advocates.

The investigative report, shared with county commissioners this week, documents seven curious and possibly fictitious pet registrations, all but two of them originating from ACT.

The pet owners say they received registration renewal notices close to a year after getting their animals sterilized at the clinic that included multiple cats that they don't own. Others say they were asked by clinic employees to write in additional pet names on an application.

The program allowed residents to get subsidized sterilizations for up to eight animals.

The upshot, the investigation concludes, is that ACT and other veterinary clinics may be getting reimbursed by the county for sterilizations of nonexisting animals or strays. The investigation couldn't determine that for sure.

"That's part of the problem: There's not evidence one way or the other," Merrill said. "That's why the report recommends that it be turned over to the Sheriff's Office."

Frank Hamilton, president of the board that runs ACT, said he had not seen the report. But he said if employees encouraged customers to submit fake pet names, they would be fired.

The report by the county indicates a supervisor in Animal Services reported that within the past year several people voiced similar complaints after getting pets neutered at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.

The supervisor, operations director Dennis McCullough, said he suspected the Humane Society was using reimbursements to pay for a program through which it traps, neuters then releases feral cats.

McCullough told the investigator that when he raised that concern with the Humane Society's executive director, voucher reimbursement requests fell.

Attempts Thursday evening to reach Humane Society director Sherry Silk were not successful.

Hamilton said his clinic does not engage in such a practice.

"To the best of my knowledge, I would say, no, we haven't done that," Hamilton said. "That's not our policy."

The county has had the voucher program in place since 2002 in an attempt to cut down on animal euthanizations. Some 20 veterinarians are registered to provide the service.

Since 2002, the county has spent $2.1 million on reimbursements. Just more than half went to ACT and the Humane Society.

Until recently, pet owners could apply directly to participating veterinarians for vouchers. Now, as a result of the investigation, pet owners must apply directly to the county.

"That will avoid the problem that existed," said Dick Bailey, interim Animal Services director.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would have required cats and dogs released from California animal shelters to be implanted with microchips for identification.

Brown's office announced his veto of SB702 Friday. The bill was sponsored by Democratic Senator Ted Lieu of Torrance.

In his veto message, Brown said that under current law, local agencies and shelters can—and should—require animals to be implanted with microchips before being released and there is no need for state law to mandate the procedure.

Supporters say the bill would have reduced the $300 million-a-year taxpayer cost for euthanizing stray animals and greatly increase the chances of reuniting lost pets with their owners.

Opponents say the microchips can cause medical problems and that the issue should be decided locally.

Animal activists, including one man dressed in a head-to-toe dog costume, cheered Tuesday night when Irvine City Council members banned the retail sale of cats and dogs.

The ordinance, which passed by a 4-1 vote with Councilman Jeffrey Lalloway dissenting, also bans rodeos and circuses featuring exotic animals, the Daily Pilot reported.

"It's just a win for animals all around," said Irvine resident Wendy Fears, a member of a small local group that helped organize support for the ban. "I'm just real proud of Irvine for standing up against animal abuse."

While Lalloway expressed disgust for those capable of animal cruelty, he worried that the proposed ordinance may move pet sales to the Internet and "import a pet problem rather than stop it."

"Today, tonight, we are here to deal with a problem that simply does not exist," Lalloway said. "We do not have any mass-breeding facilities here in Irvine. We have one pet store, Russo's, which will not be selling dogs and cats after next year."

In August, the Irvine Co., which owns the Irvine Spectrum where Russo's Pet Experience operates, announced that it would not renew the store's lease when it expires in October 2012.

The city also does not host circuses featuring wild animals or hold rodeos, Lalloway said.

While existing animal welfare laws should be enforced, new legislation in the city should "focus on putting people back to work, not on a problem that does not exist," he said.

More than 50 public speakers presented arguments to the council citing inhumane conditions found in so-called puppy mills and buyers' lack of knowledge about them and the associated health risks.

"The reason that we need to make these laws is that the public is duped," Fears said. "Every pet store will tell you that they get their dogs from responsible breeders, but the truth is that responsible breeders would never sell to a pet store."

However, Fears, who volunteers with multiple animal rights groups, said activists would now start looking toward other cities to adopt similar ordinances.

"This is just the first step in a process," Fears said. "People are starting to be become aware of how horrible a puppy mill is."

October is Adopt a Pet Shelter Month, and as far as I am concerned, we should be celebrating this every month of the year. According to the Humane Society site, animal shelters care for up to 8 million dogs and cats every year and euthanize around 4 million animals. Today there are more than 135 million dogs and cats in our homes. Back in the 1970s, when there were just 67 million pets, over 12 million dogs and cats were euthanized a year; so in a sense our society has come a long way in caring for our animals.

All of our local shelters do their best in trying to get these defenseless animals a home. As was reported in the Bandera Bulletin this week, "Saturday turned out to be another great day for adoptions in Old Town Helotes where 9 dogs and puppies found new homes." Publications like Philadelphia's PhillyBurbs.com continually promote local animals available for adoption. They even suggest that if you can't adopt one yourself, be a good citizen and "support local shelters by putting together care packages which could include baked goods for the volunteers, blankets and toys for the pets, and pet food items for the shelters' supplies."

And don't forget the Red Star Animal Emergency Relief effort that was reported on recently in The Huffington Post. This part of the American Humane Association helps animals in disaster events like the Minot, N.D. flood this summer and the Joplin, Mo. tornado last spring.

There are plenty of Americans who don't have pets and don't understand how important a companion these pets can become. Pets are also teachers helping humans of all ages learn about loyalty, responsibility, empathy, sharing and unconditional love. Kindness to animals can rub off and teach us to be kinder to our fellow man and woman. If you are elderly, a pet can offer you hope, because being responsible for another life can add new meaning to your life.

Every American should give thought during this special month for pets on how they can help their local shelter. My company, DollarDays is giving away $5,000 in supplies to shelters on our Facebook page. If you have a favorite shelter, make sure you nominate them to win. If you don't have a favorite shelter, support them all by donating to one of the national organizations helping animals.

During these tough economic times, it is quite difficult to help the humans who need us, let alone the animals that need us. So if you can't support this cause financially, volunteer at your local shelter. These animals need a friend as much as you do, even though pets offer us much more in return than we give them. They can help us learn more about love and friendship than we can teach them. Just a few hours with a pet can improve our emotional health. These animals may be the best therapist you have ever met.

Looks like Scott Disick isn't the only snake in the Kardashian family anymore.

Kourtney Kardashian adopted a slithery little guy at Fauna, an exotic pet store on the Upper West Side, yesterday. According to reports, the black and white snake Kardashian chose was described as "big and vicious." She had it delivered, along with a tank and supplies, to the Gansevoort Hotel, where she is staying. As a bellhop brought it to her suite, it was reportedly "snapping at the glass."

Khloe Kardashian accompanied her sister on the trip to the pet store, but didn't seem too excited about the new member of the family. "Ewww," she said to an onlooker. "It's not mine."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/kourtney_kardashian_gets_pet_snake_sKG8SCSeqkV7WdbbblRdVL#ixzz1anQNHG00

(Animal Radio® Newsroom October 6, 2011) There is no denying that the pet-food industry not only extremely diverse and competitive, but with 40-billion-dollars a year at stake, it's just plain downright Dog Eat Dog.

Nestlé Purina PetCare, one of the largest in the business, is taking a chance you'll buy Beneful, with a specially designed commercial only your dog can hear.

The 23-second ad uses high-frequency tones, whistles and pings to attract Fido's attention. Humans cannot hear the noise because it is out of our range. But don't be surprised if your dog is suddenly very interested in TV. The spot is currently airing on Austrian television, and if successful, a campaign may be designed for America.

"We wanted to create a TV commercial that our four-legged friends can enjoy and listen to, but also allow the owner and dog to experience it together," said Nestlé Purina’s Anna Rabanus.

Animal behaviorists in the U.S. conducted research for the project, looking for sounds that would get a dog to sit in front of a TV. And nobody should be surprised, this has been going on for years with our children. Who do you think that Fruit Loops commercial is supposed to appeal to?

"The television commercial aims to reach both the pet and the owner, supporting the special one-to-one relationship between them," said Xavier Perez, Brand Manager of Beneful for Europe.

Will it work? Well, Dogs' hearing is twice as sharp as humans. They can pick up frequencies which are beyond our range and they are better at differentiating sounds according to Georg Sanders, a nutrition expert with Nestlé.

This isn't the first attempt to reach out to our pets. Recently, the streets of London were filled with dog-food scented billboards in an award winning advertising campaign.

You can see the TV commercial on YouTube and judge for yourself.

While pets bring their owners much joy, they can also pass on diseases, some with symptoms that might not be noticeable at first. More than 100 infections can be transmitted to humans from domestic pets. But taking precautions can help prevent many of those infections, including three of the most common.

About 14 percent of Americans are infected with Toxocara, or internal roundworms, which are transmitted by the feces of cats and dogs. See your vet if you notice worms in your pet's stool or if your cat or dog develops a potbelly.

Your symptoms: Roundworm larvae that travel through your body can trigger fever, coughing or pneumonia.

Pet prevention: Follow your vet's instructions for deworming kittens and puppies, since many are infected at birth or while nursing. Pick up dog droppings around your yard to keep worm eggs from accumulating in the soil, and wear gloves when gardening.

Ringworm
Don't let the name fool you. Caused by a fungus, it's reported to be the most common condition people contract from cats. It can also affect dogs. The fungus looks like dandruff on your pet's fur.

Your symptoms: An itchy, circular rash with a reddish border will usually appear within a week or two of exposure, often on your hands or face. If the infection is on your scalp, you might lose some hair. Treatment calls for an oral or topical antifungal medication.

Pet prevention: If your cat or dog develops a bald spot or crusty skin, see your veterinarian for treatment.

Salmonella
Reptiles and amphibians are the riskiest pets to own because they naturally carry salmonella in their digestive tract.

Your symptoms: Abdominal cramps, diarrhea and fever. A salmonella infection can be life-threatening to children, the very old and those with weakened immune systems.

Pet prevention: Use bleach to disinfect the tub or sink after cleaning aquariums and supplies, and always wash your hands after touching those pets.

But wait, there's more
Ticks can transmit dangerous blood-borne diseases to both pets and humans, according to Lynne White-Shim of the American Veterinary Medical Association. They include Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and babesiosis.

Fleas don't tend to bite humans if there are animals around. In severe cases, fleas can suck enough blood from a cat or dog to cause anemia. And pets can get tapeworms if they swallow larvae-infected fleas during grooming.

How can you keep fleas off your cat or dog, and how can you tell if some have made their way on?

Animals often get fleas from one another, so pets that are out and about with other animals are at a higher risk than pets that hardly ever leave the house. There are many flea-prevention products on the market; your veterinarian can help you choose an appropriate one.

If you opt not to use a preventative, you need to check for fleas on your cat's or dog's belly. Obviously, if your pet starts to itch, that's a bad sign. You may find "flea dirt" — flakes of flea excrement — on your pet's fur or skin. To verify that it's flea dirt, put some on a paper towel and moisten it. If it turns red – from the blood the flea sucked from the cat or dog – it's a sign of fleas.

There are also tick preventatives, some in combination with flea preventatives; again, you need to talk to your vet about what might be appropriate for your pet. After walking your dog in the woods or high brush, closely examine the dog — and yourself — for ticks. If any have attached, use tweezers to grab the tick as close to the skin as possible, and pull it straight out without twisting. If you notice that your dog is limping or acting tired or weak after a tick bite, tell your vet about it. Note that outdoor cats can get ticks, too.

Copyright 2011. Consumers Union of United States Inc.

(CBS) Add pet accessory designer to the lengthy list of hats that singer, reality TV star, and entrepreneur Bret Michaels has worn. The Poison frontman and "Celebrity Apprentice" winner announced that he's starting a line of products with PetSmart for your rock 'n roll Rover.

"As a musician who loves animals, I'm thrilled to be collaborating with PetSmart to create the Bret Michaels Pets Rock collection," Michaels said. "As a dedicated pet owner myself, this is a natural partnership for me, and I can't wait to unveil the collection. I know my own pets rock, and I wanted to design a line of pet products every bit as fun and cool as they are."

The brand, appropriately named Bret Michaels Pets Rock, will launch in Summer 2012. You can register now to get up to date announcements on the line.

We're betting that Michaels will be dressing up his pooches in these duds, and asking whether or not that cowboy hat makes his dog's butt look big.

ABC News' Christina Capatides reports:

As kids across the country head back to school and away to college this week, most Americans are sensitive to the fact that some parents may experience a form of "empty nest syndrome": a range of symptoms and behaviorisms associated with separation anxiety. So, that explains the scratches on the back door and the shredded throw pillows in the living room, right?

Well, not exactly.

That damage is a product of someone in your household experiencing empty nest syndrome, but it's definitely not your mom.

What people may not initially realize is that household pets are also extremely susceptible to separation anxiety.

"Your dog probably knows the difference between the shoes you wear to work and the shoes you wear to take him for a walk," says Dr. Debra Horwitz, a board certified veterinary behaviorist. "They're very observant and they use those kinds of cues to determine what's going to happen in their day. So, when everyone is home all summer and then, boom, they're not anymore, that change in routine can be anxiety provoking for certain individuals and trigger a distress response, when the dog is home alone and separated from the ones that he or she is most attached to."

In fact, animals may even be more shaken by a child's sudden departure than parents because they have no way of being explicitly notified.

"Just because you know there's going to be a change and you're ready for it, doesn't mean your pet does," explains Dr. Horwitz. "The end of summer vacation often means that we can no longer sleep in or take leisurely morning walks with our pets. We have to get up, get ready and go straight to work instead. We don't like those changes either, but we know they're coming and we're prepared for them."

Pets, for their part, will exhibit this anxiety through a range of behavioral signs, including panting, pacing, whining, barking and destruction. In severe cases, Horwitz says, pets may experience a loss of appetite, even when their people are home.

However, the severity of the distress response really depends on the flexibility of the individual pet.

"Some people are really flexible," says Horwitz. "Things will happen to them at work and they will simply say, ‘O.K.,' and adapt to them. Other people will see that their pencil box has been moved and scream, ‘Who was at my desk?!' Animals are like that too. It is a part of the normal variation."

Roseanna Salonia, a New Jersey native, says that her four-year-old Chihuahua Lulu always displays signs of distress when her son leaves for college.

"Lulu definitely notices all the packing and ‘getting ready' when he goes off to college," Salonia says. "Then, once he's gone, she sleeps outside his bedroom door every night. And when I let her into his room, she runs under his bed or likes to sleep on one of his pillows … she mopes around for a while every time he leaves, but it is most severe when he goes back to school after the summer."

Depending on the flexibility of the pet, veterinary behaviorists recommend several behavioral and pharmaceutical interventions that can help him or her cope with the situation.

It is best to take preventative measures, before the actual change occurs. So, if you can, professionals recommend starting to wake up a bit earlier, packing a back pack or scheduling brief departures of about an hour, in the closing weeks of summer. These changes can help ease your pet into the upcoming transition.

Otherwise, it often helps to wake up a little early and either conduct a play session or take your dog for a morning walk, before you leave for work. This way, the dog is mentally stimulated and will spend more time resting when you are gone. Additionally, it is important to make departures low-key and matter of fact, rather than prolonging the act of actually walking out the door.

"Sometimes it also helps to leave a food-enhanced toy," suggests Horwitz.

For dogs, this can take the form of a toy with a bit of peanut butter smeared on it. For cats, it is often helpful to hide treats throughout the house with varying degrees of discovery difficulty.

And for severe cases, there are two approved medications – Reconcile and Clomicalm – proven to be effective for the treatment of animals with separation anxiety, when combined with other behavioral modifications.

"These animals are not being spiteful or mad," explains Horwitz. "They are anxious and they are really worried. And all the destructive things they might do are based on this stress and anxiety. It is our job to address that as quickly and humanely as we can."

Which hotels give four-legged, furry guests the most TLC?

Hotel review giant TripAdvisor compiled a list of the Top 10 most pet-friendly hotels by crunching its 2011 review data, and now USA TODAY has assembled a photo gallery for dog-loving travelers.

The list comes as more travelers bring their pets with them - even on business trips.

To see the full Top 10 list, click on our photo gallery, but here are a few nuggets to whet your appetite:

No. 1 most pet-friendly hotel: TripAdvisor gave the top honors to the Affinia Dumont, which is part of the small, New York-based Affinia boutique hotel chain. Through Affinia's "Jet Set Pets" program, your dog will receive organic treats, a city-specific chew toy, and a signature canvas water bowl designed specifically for travel—all of which you can take home. While in the hotel, your dog can sleep on a plush pet bed and even book a session with a groomer or psychic. Expect nightly rates that start at around $200, excluding the $25 pet surcharge.

Kimpton chain with two hotels in Top 10: The San Francisco-based boutique hotel chain Kimpton deserves the "best in show" award for having two hotels that made the Top 10. The hotels are the Hotel Monaco in Portland, Ore., where rates start at around $130 a night, and Palomar Washington D.C., where rates start at around $180 a night. One bonus: Kimpton hotels don't charge an extra pet fee. Another: Kimpton hotels are also prepared to accept cats and other types of pets.

Cheapest hotel on the list: The Ocean Park Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C., may not dole out fancy treats or pet beds, but if you're looking for a good rate at a hotel near the beach, then you'll be happy. Rates start at about $60 a night, excluding the $15 pet fee.

PORTLAND, Ore. - A massive raid was carried out on an Oregon Coast pet store Wednesday and about 170 animals were seized after months of complaints about possible animal neglect.

The kinds of animals seized included puppies, birds, rodents and fish. They were taken from Circus World Pets in Newport and brought to the Oregon Humane Society in Portland in three vans.

According to the Oregon Humane Society, the owners of the pet store had been warned for four months to take better care of the animals but didn't listen.

"In working with the owners trying to resolve it but unable to do that, and so for the life and health of these animals we served a search warrant and we seized them today," said David Lytle with the Oregon Humane Society.

The Oregon Humane Society said it got numerous tips about the rotten conditions at the store, which was especially upsetting for investigators.

"They should know how to care for their pets," said Wendy Reimer, a Humane Society investigator. "They're trying to educate the public on how to have this pet in their home, so they should know proper husbandry, proper diet, what that pet needs to thrive and survive."

All the pets will get checked out, cleaned up and given some extra attention.

But the animals won't be up for adoption anytime soon, because they're considered evidence until the case is sorted out in court.

The pet store owners can relinquish the animals. The Oregon Humane Society said the owners may consider it once they find out how expensive it will be for the animals to be cared for at the Humane Society.

The owners of the pet store would only say they've done nothing wrong and are just being harassed.

(By Nadirah H. Rodzi, Michael Murty and Predeep Nambiar) KUALA LUMPUR - "We're sorry." Those were the words of a pet boarding centre, Petknode Cat Boarding, after sparking anger among animal lovers for allegedly starving more than 200 cats and a dog on its premises.

In one of the two statements posted on their Facebook profile at 11.31am yesterday, the centre also called on the public to take care of their pets because it did not have enough funds to do so.

"We regret for failing to look after the welfare of our clients' pets as we didn't have enough manpower.

"We did try looking for more staff but seeing that it's a small business that we're running and due to lack of funds, we failed to provide the best accommodation for the pets. However, we have tried our best to manage everything with what we have," the statement said.

The post drew more than 100 comments within an hour of posting.

Petknode also thanked rescuers for saving and providing care for the felines.

"Currently, we admit that we're incapable of caring for the cats and a dog we rescued six months ago. Some of the cats have been with us for the past 10 years.

"We hope that there are individuals out there that are kind enough to give temporary shelter for all 27 of our cats," it said.

Pet owner Hanis Zakiyah, 23, said she was fooled by the "respectable" place as it had good reviews.

"The website looked organised, the shop lot it was operating from appeared clean and it was in operation for a few years. So we sent our cat, Ted, for their Hari Raya special promotion."

Hanis said her cat was covered in its own urine, dehydrated and had lost a lot of weight when she went to pick it up.

"It broke my heart to see him and the other cats in such condition. They were weak and miserable.

"And what about the owners whose cats died in their care? You can't simply replace a beloved pet. I hope the authorities bring those responsible for this atrocity to justice and give them sufficient punishment."

Alia Burhanuddin said the condition of the cats was "the most heartbreaking thing to see".

"I found out from Twitter about 8pm, so I went to Kucing Terbiar Anjing Jalanan's (KTAJ) Facebook page and saw that they needed help.

"At 9pm, I arrived at the place. There were rows and stacks of cages filled with the most miserable looking cats," she said.

Alia called for a public apology from the operators of Petknode Cat Boarding centre, followed by jail time and "a few hundred hours of community service".

(Reuters) - A pet rabbit is being credited for saving its owners from a house fire in southeastern Alaska before it died of smoke inhalation, fire officials said on Friday.

The rabbit woke up the homeowner early on Tuesday morning by scratching on her chest, the Ketchikan Fire Department said in a statement.

The homeowner realized that the house was full of smoke, woke up her daughter and fled the house.

The fire was brought under control fairly quickly, with four engines, a ladder truck and 33 firefighters responding.

Damage to the house from flames, smoke and water was considered moderate.

While there were no injuries to the mother or daughter, the rabbit was not so lucky. The animal succumbed to smoke inhalation and did not survive, the fire department said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian pet owners and activists who found nearly 300 starving cats caged and soaked in excrement at pet care centers demanded sterner laws Tuesday against cruelty to animals.

The felines had been left with a company that was supposed to take care of them in Malaysia's central Selangor state while their owners returned to their hometowns for a week to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr.

Many owners became worried when they were later unable to contact company representatives. Rescue volunteers broke into the company's two facilities Sunday and discovered the emaciated cats lying in their own feces and urine in cages stacked atop each other.

Activists estimated at least 12 cats were dead and dozens more were missing. Police have questioned the company owner and an employee, but no arrests have been made.

The case has energized activists to push for stronger prosecution against people who mistreat animals, said Christine Chin, who heads the Malaysian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"There is no deterrent in this country for animal cruelty, so the problem just spreads," Chin said.

More than 7,500 people have joined a Facebook group created Monday demanding government action against the company that abandoned the cats. The animals' owners were also considering suing it for breach of contract, Chin said.

Chin said her organization receives about 200 complaints of animal mistreatment each month, mostly involving dogs. However, it has recorded only about five prosecutions by authorities in the past decade.

Malaysian laws provide for a 200 ringgit ($66) fine and a jail term of up to six months for people convicted of cruelty to animals. However, only one offender is known to have been jailed — for a day — after he kept his dog chained so tightly that it suffered a bloodied neck wound, Chin said.

Government veterinarian resources are often focused on livestock and the prevention of disease outbreaks, with insufficient attention paid to animal cruelty, Chin added.

Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin, head of Malaysia's Veterinary Services Department, told reporters Monday there were already plans to introduce a new law next year to raise the animal cruelty fine to 100,000 ringgit ($34,000).

Chin said activists also want offenders to be forced to undergo psychiatric treatment and be banned from owning pets.

(Reuters) - British Fashion designer Alexander McQueen did it and so did billionaire hotel operator Leona Helmsley, but legal experts warn that there can bepitfalls to bequeathing money to a pampered pet.

Between 12 and 27 percent of pet owners provide provisions for their beloved pets in their wills, according to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.

McQueen left 50,000 pounds ($81,000) for the care of his English bull terriers when he died last year, and Helmsley bequeathed $12 million to her now-deceased Maltese, named Trouble, after her death in 2007.

"Although pet inheritance in America was recognized in 1923, and despite several recent innovations, the law remains unstable," said Washington University Law Professor Adrienne Davis.

She said trusts must be properly drafted and should name caretakers who are willing to comply with the trust terms. If a final resting place is desired for the pet, lawyers should check that it will accept animals.

Despite Helmsley's wishes, a U.S. judge reduced Trouble's bequest from $12 million to $2 million and more problems arose after the dog's recent death.

"The remainder of Trouble's money will go to Helmsley's charitable trust," said Davis, adding that gifts to charitable trusts would qualify for a tax deduction in the United States.

"However, tax law excludes charitable remainders following pet trusts from qualifying," she added in a statement.

The judge also overturned Helmsley's wish that her charitable trust go to animal welfare, and allowed the trustees to distribute the money to charities of their choice.

Helmsley also wanted Trouble to be buried in the family mausoleum but pets in the U.S. cannot be buried in cemeteries for humans.

Davis called for legal reforms to make sure pets receive what they are owed.

"One proposed bill would extend the charitable remainder tax deduction to pet trusts. Other reforms would make it easier to create trusts for future generations, or 'grand-kid pets.' That 'companion' feeling has spilled over owners' lifetimes into their estate plans, with no end in sight."

Washington University Professor Frances Foster believes that the traditional concept of family is outdated and legal changes are needed to reflect how important pets are in peoples' lives.

"Trouble -- and millions of American pets like her -- should inherit," she said in an article in the Florida Law Review.

"American inheritance law is trapped in an outdated family paradigm. That paradigm assumes that the decedent's closest relatives by blood, adoption or marriage are the most deserving recipients of the decedent's estate," she added.

But Foster said for many Americans today that is not the case because "their pets, not their human family members, are their nearest and dearest."

Just past dawn, a gray SUV pulled into Hailey Shelton's driveway and made off with Chloe and Dixie.

Nobody heard a bark on that June morning. Nobody found an open gate. The only explanation came from a neighbor, who witnessed the early morning dognappers from across the street.

"They just straight-up took two puppies," said Shelton, 19, who lives in Durham, N.C.

Animal advocates are reporting a sharp rise in dog thefts — murky and hard-to-track crimes that often are not reported.

The American Kennel Club tracks thefts through a national database, and its figures show at least a 32 percent uptick so far in 2011. The group bases its numbers on media reports of stolen dogs and customers who call its Companion Animal Recovery service.

The AKC database showed 224 animals were stolen during the first seven months of this year compared with 150 during the same period last year and 255 in all of 2010. In 2009, 162 thefts were reported to the AKC, said Lisa Peterson, spokeswoman for the New York-based group.

"Some are taken out of homes, some are taken out of cars, some are taken out of pet stores," Peterson said. "I've even seen some taken out of a child's arms on a park bench."

Peterson said the AKC's numbers exclude lost dogs. It counts only animals that likely have been stolen — from a locked car or during a home break-in, for instance.

The motive for stealing a dog is always money — whether dogs are resold, sold to laboratories or used in fights.

Peterson said dog thieves are misguided and naive. Animals can't be pawned. High-priced dogs require registration papers. Collecting heavy ransoms is unrealistic.

Shelton's dogs were pit bulls. They, along with other large breeds, tend to be stolen most often.

In the case of Shelton's dogs, the perpetrator found enough incentive to open a 6-foot-tall fence when every resident was home.

The number of stolen pets is small compared with those that are lost or abandoned.

The SPCA of Wake County maintains an entire wall of posters of lost pets, with only a few marked as stolen.

In 2010, most of the 18,297 animals that entered the county's shelters were strays with no identification, according to Mondy Lamb, the SPCA's marketing director.

Lost and wandering dogs that haven't been stolen create a far greater problem, she said.

Stray cats, estimated at 50 million, are too common for anyone to steal, said Pam Miller at Safe Haven for Cats in Raleigh.

Still, some call the threat exaggerated.

The California Biomedical Research Association, for example, describes the idea as "The Pet Theft Myth."

The myth says shadowy figures are luring animals into vans and selling them to research labs, but most dogs and cats used in research are specifically bred for that purpose, the group says.

A suspicious dognapping happened to Debbie Hawes' son Zach in Knightdale, N.C. After posting a missing pit bull report, she said, Zach discovered second-hand through a rescue group that the dog had been found. But the person who recovered it didn't want to return it directly to the owner, and he wanted a $125 fee.

Hawes said her son paid the fee and didn't ask questions. It was worth it to have his friend back home.

For a list of pet-theft prevention and recovery tips, got to www.akc.org/press_center/pet_theft.cfm.

Across the world, scientists from more than a dozen institutions are harnessing cutting-edge technology to develop a non-surgical sterilant for dogs and cats. They hope their innovative experiments will pay off in two ways: 1) Solve the problem of pet overpopulation, and 2) Secure a $25 million prize.

In 2008, Found Animals Foundation announced the launch of its unique Michelson Prize & Grants program, named after Found Animals' creator Dr. Gary Michelson, a billionaire orthopedic spinal surgeon who wants to see a decrease in the 4+ million animals euthanized each year in U.S. shelters. In addition to the $25 million incentive to the first person to successfully develop a nonsurgical method for sterilizing cats and dogs, the Michelson Grants in Reproductive Biology offers a maximum of $50 million in funding for promising research in pursuit of non-surgical sterilization technology.

Found Animals has received more than 150 letters of intent for the Michelson Grants, and has invited more than 50 investigators to submit full grant proposals. To date, 15 grants have been approved totaling more than $6 million in funding for research that includes nanocontainers and the latest in gene silencing technology from labs in Argentina to California.

Surgical spay/neuter procedures are the current standard for sterilizing animals. While this approach is relatively safe and effective, it is far from ideal. Spay and neuter procedures require general anesthesia and an adequately equipped surgical facility, which can create obstacles for vets (depending on available resources and local infrastructure) while high costs, transportation and inherent risks of surgery are all potential barriers for pet owners. A single-dose, non-surgical sterilant could help increase convenience and defer costs.

Learn more about the application process for the $25 million Michelson Prize here. The Found Animals Scientific Advisory Board, made up of top scientists in reproductive biology, immunology, biotechnology, drug development and animal welfare, regularly review proposals for funding.

Dog lovers in China and elsewhere can sleep easier tonight, after officials in Jiangmen withdrew a proposed ban on dogs in the city. The near-total ban, which would have resulted in thousands of dogs being either killed or transported to rural areas, was prompted by fears of rabies in the city of 3.8 million.

News of the ban hit media outlets in the U.S. and England Wednesday. But it seems to have been the outrage of dog fans in Jiangmen and elsewhere in China that prompted the government to reconsider the ban.

"I am tremendously happy and proud to see that public uproar from within China stopped this unethical killing. said Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "In the past we were only able to stop some of the dog culls with international pressure."

The city had set a deadline of Aug. 26 for residents to drop off their dogs — a process that was to begin on Aug. 10. Now they'll be able to keep their dogs, but the city is still insisting on some changes.

According to China Daily, "Citizens will be able to keep their pets but are forbidden from taking them to some public areas including parks, city squares, schools, kindergartens, shopping malls and hotels etc."

Several "dog culls" similar to the one that had been planned for Jiangmen have taken place in recent years. And while it's difficult to say with certainty what motivates the mass killing of dogs, many reports claim that China lacks both a national animal welfare law and a plan to fight rabies.

(By Joan Cary) Even before Eric Pihl pulls into TheraPET Wellness Center parking lot, his dog, Bonnie, climbs up from her lounging position in the back seat and eagerly looks out the window.

If only we all could get that excited about climbing on the treadmill to lose weight.

Bonnie, a 5-year-old shepherd mix, needs to shed some pounds — and she's one in a growing number of big dogs and fat cats, experts say.

She already has dropped a few pounds since weighing in at 63, but Pihl and her veterinarian would like her to get down to 45 or 50. So after work on Thursdays, Pihl drives her to TheraPET in Buffalo Grove to get on the treadmill. The rest of the week, they take walks together through their Arlington Heights neighborhood.

Just like humans, pets are getting fatter. Fifty-four percent of dogs and cats are overweight or obese, reports the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. The most common side effects are osteoarthritis; insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, primarily in cats; high blood pressure; heart and respiratory diseases; and joint problems.

Bonnie had surgery on one knee and might have to have another operated on, Pihl said.

But he hopes her weekly run on the underwater treadmill will help her shed weight and lessen some of the pressure on her joints. He also put her on a diet, cutting her commercial dog food intake in half and replacing it with filling, high-fiber green beans. She also gets dry Rice Chex as an occasional treat, and her dinner includes a 20-calorie chicken strip.

Vets suggest that dog owners replace treats with healthier selections such as carrots, celery sticks, low-sodium green beans and frozen yogurt. Bonnie doesn't mind the beans, "but only if they're cooked," said Pihl. "I tell her that if she ever runs away, she will have to learn how to build a fire."

Jeanette Potter, a veterinary technician at TheraPET, said 9 out of 10 dogs that come through the door are overweight.

"Bad hips, bad elbows, bad knees," she said. "And a lot of it has to do with being overweight."

Although cases like Bonnie's are complicated by thyroid problems, most pets can blame their best friend for their weight issues, experts say.

Pet owners become complacent, get busy and stop walking their dogs, reward them with fattening treats, equate food with love and maybe figure their cats prefer to sleep all the time.

Try a laser pointer to get your cat up and moving, suggests Maria Manrique, a veterinarian at the South Loop Animal Hospital who made a YouTube video about pet obesity for the American Veterinary Association.

"I have seen quite a bit of an increase in weight problems," she said.

Owners often insist they are only feeding a cup of food at meals, but the cup isn't a measuring cup. "It can be a Big Gulp cup, and they are not mentioning the treat here, rawhide bone there, or the table food," Manrique said.

"Feed only for meals, as opposed to leaving the food out. No table scraps. Give small treats cut into bits if you must give treats," she tells pet owners. "I always encouraged people to come in and get their dog weighed so they can keep track. There is no charge for weighing your pet."

Keeping a dog or cat at normal weight takes stress off joints and often eliminates the need for arthritis medications as they age, she said. "Respiratory compromise is also a big issue. Overweight animals are less able to take deep breaths, can overheat easily and have increased respiratory sounds."

Surgical anesthesia also becomes more risky as doctors have to adjust dosage for body weight, veterinarians said.

To promote awareness of pet obesity and inspire people to improve their pets' health, veterinarian John Bishop last year started a Biggest Loser competition at the Willow Grove Pet Clinic in Willowbrook. Prizes were awarded for the canine and feline patients that lost the largest percentage of body weight.

"We didn't get as good of compliance as we hoped for, but I think we will try it again this fall," Bishop said. "It's all about diet and exercise."

He cautions pet owners to go slow in exercising an overweight pet, and to talk to their vet about their animal's nutritional needs.

Charlene Numrych, of Chicago, takes her 9-year-old Labrador retriever mix, Cooper, twice a week to the Buffalo Grove clinic to walk and swim. She also has changed his diet and is pleased with the results.

Although plagued by numerous health problems, including hip dysplasia and cancer that required partial amputation of his right front leg, Cooper has dropped from 130 pounds to 107.

"You can see the bounce in his step again," Numrych said.

She has also replaced treats with attention, giving Cooper more massages and play time.

In 2006, Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc. approached Dr. Robert Kushnar, medical director for the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The Topeka, Kan.-based pet food company was interested in having him conduct a study looking for a correlation between the parallel epidemics of human and pet obesity.

Kushnar's study found that people lost weight whether they owned a dog or not, but those who buddied up with their dogs got enjoyment from exercising and were more apt to continue.

The dogs, he said, often acted as a prompt or incentive and would be standing at the door, waiting patiently, nudging their owners to take them out, he said.

"We know that if exercising isn't fun, you aren't going to stay with it, and that part of losing weight is exercise," he said. "A dog is the best exercise machine on a leash that you can find."

Having Bonnie around has forced Pihl to take a walk after work, even on the days when he doesn't feel like it.

"We both benefit," he said. "There are great social benefits to having a dog. I work with people who say they don't know their neighbors. I can say I know my neighbors, and they know me and Bonnie."

STERLING, Va., Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the economic downturn that has adversely affected many market and retail sectors in the Washington DC metro areas and beyond, one Fairfax-based business is busy expanding its operations into neighboring Loudoun County, Virginia. The Olde Towne Pet Resort (OTPR) -- a "Day Spa & Hotel" for dogs and cats providing numerous dog and cat boarding services and amenities -- will soon be part of Loudoun County's vibrant business community which, according to the Virginia Employment Commission, is more than 8,500 businesses strong.

The Loudoun County area -- recognized as one of the "richest counties in the country" by Forbes.com since 2010 -- has the right combination of strong demographics and close proximity to Washington DC and Dulles International Airport. "The decision to expand our pet resort into the Loudoun community was easy to make given the county's strong economy, high median incomes and ideal location," says Steve B. Jones, President of OTPR's management company, Fried Companies, Inc.

While expanding to Loudoun was an easy decision, the process has been lengthy. "The entire process — from identifying the right location, purchasing the land, creating the architectural plans and actually building out our new pet resort facility has been about a three-year adventure," says Jones. "We have certainly tended to every possible detail before and during the construction process to create what will soon be known as a 5-star pet boarding resort with three expansive day camp rooms, 58 newly constructed 'cat condos' and 142 spacious dog boarding suites."

The Sterling-based pet resort is presently under construction and scheduled to open to the public by October 1, 2011. With its opening, OTPR will bring over 100 new jobs to Loudoun County. These new jobs reflect the continued and growing trend of pet-savvy/pet-friendly professionals in the pet boarding industry. According to recent industry reports, the number of employees in this market vertical has increased at an average annual rate of 2.1% to 112,513 in the past five years.

Industry growth over the past five years is largely attributable to higher pet ownership and accompanying demand for pet products and services. According to the 2009/2010 "National Pet Owners Survey" published by the American Pet Products Association (APPA), about 62.0% of US households own a pet, which equates to 71.4 million homes. Pet ownership has been slowly but steadily growing over the past two decades.

Moreover, the pet services industry has also exploded in the past 10 years. The emerging trends of "pet parents" has also brought about high demand for premium pet products and services. IBISWorld estimates that margins for premium pet services have increased from about 3.6% of revenue in 2006 to about 4.1% in 2011. Over the same five-year period, the number of pet-related enterprises has grown at an average annual rate of 1.6% to 15,769. IBISWorld projects that these favorable conditions will continue through the five years to 2016 and forecasts revenue to increase at an average annual rate of 4.4% to $18.0 billion by 2016.

"I welcome the decision by Olde Towne Pet Resort to locate its second facility in Loudoun County. It is high-end, consumer-focused businesses such as this that contribute to the amenity base that Loudoun's highly educated workforce and citizens have come to expect," says Thomas Flynn, Director of Loudoun County, Virginia Economic Development.

A 32-year-old pregnant woman from Pacifica was attacked and killed by her family's pet pit bull Thursday, police said.

Pacifica Police received a 911 call at approximately 12:15 p.m. about a possible dog mauling in the 500 block of Reina Del Mar Avenue. The first officer to arrive on the scene located the victim, Darla Napora, lying in the front room of her home, Pacifica Police Chief Jim Tasa said.

"The victim had major trauma, was not breathing or responsive," Tasa said.

The first responders' efforts to revive the woman were not successful.

The victim's husband, who had called the police and was at the scene when they arrived, told police that their 2-year-old male pit bull had attacked his wife after he left for work. He said the dog had been secured in their backyard before he left.

While paramedics and fire department personnel were tending to the victim, the dog escaped from the backyard and began approaching them in the front yard. Police officers shot the dog three times, killing it, Tasa said.

The victim has been released to the San Mateo County Coroner's Office and the dog's body was released to San Mateo County Animal Control.

There was a second dog, another pit bull, in the backyard. It and the deceased dog were taken to the Peninsula Humane Society for examination.

An autopsy for the woman and a necropsy for the dog are scheduled to take place Friday.

Pacifica police are conducting an investigation of the incident.

TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow and the state Division of Consumer Affairs announced a lawsuit on Thursday seeking injunctive relief against a pet dealer who allegedly sold gravely ill puppies.

Allan Levine of Millstone Township, N.J., and his three businesses allegedly violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and the Regulations Governing the Sale of Animals by engaging in unconscionable business practices, including failing to have pets properly examined by a veterinarian prior to sale, refusing to provide refunds or reimburse the consumers' veterinary costs, and for failing to truthfully disclose the puppies' health information to the buyers.

The division has received approximately nine complaints against Levine and his businesses, Al's Special Friends, Van Dam Inc., and Allan Levine Inc. The state Superior Court granted the state's request for a temporary restraining order against the businesses on August 5.

"By allegedly selling puppies without disclosing serious health conditions that led some of the dogs to die within days of being welcomed into a home, these defendants demonstrated a level of callousness that is simply unconscionable," Dow said. "New Jersey's pet regulations exist to protect animals as well as consumers. Anyone who seeks to profit by violating them will be held fully accountable to the law."

Dow is seeking restitution for consumers, as well as civil penalties and reimbursement of attorneys' fees and related costs and to have the defendants permanently enjoined from selling animals.

The lawsuit alleges that Levine and his companies sold at least 10 gravely ill or dying puppies to unknowing consumers and then refused to provide refunds or reimburse the consumers' veterinary costs. The consumers viewed and purchased the animals at Levine's home.

The lawsuit further alleges that Levine later altered his business model by casting Allan Levine Inc. as a charitable organization and characterizing payments for animals as charitable "donations." The defendants allegedly freely comingled the "donations" with Levine's own assets in his personal bank account and repeatedly failed to produce any financial records required of charities to the division.

"No matter what defendant Levine wants to call his companies - the conduct alleged in our complaint is nothing less than fraud," Calcagni said.

Under New Jersey's pet regulations, pet dealers must have each animal examined by a licensed veterinarian prior to sale and must provide a complete history and health certificate for each animal sold. Consumers have certain rights if the pet they purchase turns out to be diseased or ill, including being able to return the animal and receive a refund.

(By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service national) It once was common for dogs and other pets to be stolen or sold by pounds to dealers who put them into monstrous holding kennels before reselling them to scientific researchers.

Those practices have dwindled in the four decades since outrage from the well-publicized plight of a few dogs brought about the nation's first federal law to protect animals used in biomedical research in 1966.

At the heart of the Animal Welfare Act was concern that pets might be stolen or otherwise acquired by dealers and quickly sold to labs with no chance for rescue or adoption, and that animals bound for research would be badly cared for.

That was the saga of Pepper, a beloved Dalmatian stolen in 1965 from her Pennsylvania home and killed in an experiment at a Manhattan hospital before her family could track her down.

Her story, reported in Sports Illustrated as well as in a photo expose in Life magazine, looked at the awful conditions endured by dogs collected for research at a Pennsylvania kennel. The Life piece was headlined "Concentration Camp for Dogs." The exposes rallied congressional support to protect at least some species of research animals.

Today, the overwhelming number of all animals used in research -- including dogs and cats -- are specifically bred for that purpose. Most medical experiments use animals that are standardized and often genetically modified to mimic some human disease or condition.

Dogs and cats represent only about 0.05 percent of all animals used in U.S. biomedical research, but that's still more than 90,000 animals a year -- with an estimated 3,000 or so collected by a dwindling number of "random-source" dealers.

There are still experiments where scientists say a few stray or donated dogs or cats are needed.

"There are certain diseases and conditions -- arthritis or metabolic disorders, for instance -- where you need to study an older animal. But hardly any breeders keep an animal beyond six months,'' said Dr. Larry Yates, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who used random-source cats in his early work, but no longer does. He also served on a National Academies of Science committee that examined the secondary market for research animals for a report issued last year.

Although regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the 10 or so random source or "Class B" dealers still operating have come under heavy criticism from inspectors, congressional investigators and animal-protection groups in recent years for problems ranging from poor animal care to sloppy record-keeping. Records are intended to ensure that no stolen animals are used in labs.

"The government inspectors are still spending a huge amount of time to manage this small group of dealers, and we have to wonder about the institutions that are still supporting this practice,'' said Sue Leary, president of the American Anti-Vivisection Society.

Just in March, federal prosecutors charged a dealer -- operating a kennel near Shippensburg, Pa. -- with illegally buying hundreds of dogs from small breeders in at least 10 states for $50 to $75 an animal, giving them false documentation and veterinary certificates and then reselling them to researchers for hundreds of dollars each.

Aside from the dealers, research institutions in 33 states may negotiate with local pounds to acquire animals. In Minnesota and Oklahoma, state law allows researchers to demand that animals be turned over to them. The University of Utah became the latest institution to stop buying animals from shelters this spring after public outcry over the death of a pit bull mistakenly taken from an area animal shelter.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have laws forbidding pounds from turning over animals to research. The states are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

In the remaining states, pound and shelter policy is dictated by county or city government, not the states. In California, all counties currently have policies banning the sale or donation of animals for research.

Despite a county ordinance banning such transfers, a shelter in Red Bluff, Calif., in 2008 was discovered to have allowed five dogs and eight cats to be "adopted" to a nearby lab that drew their blood for transfusions in veterinary hospitals.

Animal-protection advocates in many areas have challenged city and county agreements to sell animals to labs, but say these arrangements still bring in about a quarter of all the dogs and cats used annually in research.

J.R. Haywood, a researcher and vice president for regulatory affairs at Michigan State University in Lansing, works with rats and baboons in his own diabetes research, still supports continued access to pound animals, although he concedes that the dealers have proved a poor source. He noted the practice has "about disappeared in Michigan," although there is no statewide ban.

It's ironic that while researchers have reduced the number of cats and dogs we use by half in the past several decades by changing methods or using other animal models, there are still hundreds of thousands of those animals being sacrificed in pounds every year because no one will adopt them," Haywood said. "Wouldn't it be better if we could learn something from them that would help people and animals ... before they're put to sleep?"

Yates and Haywood said there have been discussions about setting up research consortia to obtain and care for pound animals, as well as a plan to have the National Institutes of Health establish breeding colonies where dogs and cats could be kept long enough to develop some of the traits that only come with age. No specific plans have been made.

(Animal Radio® Newsroom August 9, 2011 - Letter received from Merrick Pet Care) Merrick Pet Care, Inc. of Amarillo, Texas is recalling a single lot of its Doggie Wishbone pet treat (ITEM # 29050, UPC # 2280829050, Lot 11031 Best By 30 Jan 2013) because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Merrick Pet Care has made the decision to recall the Doggie Wishbone pet treats in the abundance of caution. 248 cases of this lot were manufactured and shipped to distributors in 10 states. Those distributors have been notified. Only one lot of Doggie Wishbone is affected by this recall. No additional Merrick Pet Care products are involved in this recall. No other Merrick brand products are involved.

Salmonella can affect animals and there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products. People handling the treats can become infected with Salmonella, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the chews or any surfaces exposed to these products. Consumers should dispose of these products in a safe manner by securing them in a covered trash receptacle.

Healthy people infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. Rarely, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers immediately.

Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian immediately.

The Doggie Wishbone was shipped to distributors and retailers throughout the US. These individuals have been notified and have activated their recall procedures.

No illnesses have been reported to date and there have been no consumer complaints for this product. This issue was identified through routine sampling by the Food and Drug Administration.

At Merrick Pet Care, the safety and efficacy of our products are our top priority. We apologize for any inconvenience due to this recall. Consumers who have purchased the Doggie Wishbone with the lot code 11031 are urged to return the unused portion to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-800-664-7387 M-F 8:00am - 5:00pm CST.

(Animal Radio® Newsroom July 31, 2011 - Letter received from Nestlé Purina Pet Care Company) Nestlé Purina (NPPC) is voluntarily recalling a limited number of 3.5- and 7-pound bags of its Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity 7+ Dry Cat Food from a single production run and shipped to customers in 12 states in December 2010.  This is being done because some bags of the product have been found to be contaminated with Salmonella.  Only Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity 7+ Dry Cat Food with both the "Best By" date and the production code shown are included in this voluntary recall :

Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity 7+
3.5 lb.
MAY 2012  03341084 17800 01885

Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity 7+  
3.5 lb.
MAY 2012  03351084 17800 01885

Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity 7+
7 lb.    
MAY 2012  03341084 17800 01887

Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity 7+  
7 lb.    
MAY 2012  03351084 17800 01887

*"Best By" Date and Production Code are found on the back or bottom of the bag. No additional Purina cat or dog products are involved in this voluntary recall.  No other Purina ONE brand products are involved. Only Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity 7+ brand products which match the "Best By" dates and production code above are included in this recall. Consumers who have purchased Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity 7+ Dry Cat Food products with these specific "Best By" Date and Production Codes should discontinue feeding the product and discard it.

Salmonella can affect animals eating the product, and there is a risk to humans from handling contaminated products. People handling contaminated dry pet food can become infected with Salmonella, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with surfaces exposed to this product. Healthy people infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. Rarely, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation and urinary tract symptoms. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.

Pets with Salmonella infections may exhibit decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, pets may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If you pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.

The product was distributed to customers located in California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin, who may have further distributed the product to other states.

Nestlé Purina PetCare Company became aware of the contamination as a result of samples that had been collected in several retail stores.

At Nestlé Purina PetCare, the safety and efficacy of our products are our top priority. We apologize for any inconvenience due to this voluntary recall. For further information or to obtain a product refund, please call NPPC toll-free at 1-800-982-6559 or visit www.purina.com.

The San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission wants to take away your goldfish, proposing a bill that would also include a renewed ban on pets like puppies, kittens and hamsters.

The proposed ban is meant to discourage "impulse buys" of pets that sometimes end up at shelters, said commission member Philip Gerrie.

He said goldfish, guppies and other tropical fish were added to the proposed ban because of what he called the "inhumane suffering of fish" and the way the fish are harvested.

"It causes animal suffering," Gerrie told Fox News Radio. "Whole reefs and ecosystems are being exploited for whatever might be marketable or sellable."

The Board of Supervisors considered a similar ban last year that would have included dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats and guinea pigs – but not fish. That proposed ban was tabled last August. The supervisor said they were going to reconsider it in January of this year – but did not.

The proposed fish ban has local pet store owners up in arms.

"The city is taking more and more control," said Ocean Aquarium owner Justin Hau in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. "They are very stupid."

Gerrie said that's the response he expected from pet store owners. "They have a very strong interest to say it's stupid," he told Fox News Radio. "That's the basic thing with human beings. We exploit everything in the world until it's exhausted."

Gerrie accused the "human" species of exploiting the environment – and the fish.

"Humans are overfishing for food," he said. "There's a huge market for aquarium fish. That creates a demand."

As for people who would argue that it's just a goldfish? "That's how we are in this society," Gerrie said. "Some people say, ‘It's just a human' – when it comes to some that kill. It's a matter of degree. Where do you stop?"

The recommendation from the commission could be a tough sell among the Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd told the San Francisco Chronicle he had doubts the new proposal would pass – calling it "another Animal Welfare idea that will end up in the dustbin of history and go absolutely nowhere."

A YOUNG woman is severely disabled after contracting a rare brain disease "most probably" from inhaling faeces dust from parrots or budgies at a pet store where she worked, it has been claimed before the High Court.

Patricia Ingle (22), who is paralysed and uses a wheelchair, claims she suffered her permanently disabling injuries after contracting chlamydia psittacosis – an airborne infection which can be transferred from birds to humans – while working in 2008 at the Petmania pet store at Ennis Road, Limerick.

Ms Ingle, formerly of Ballinacurra, Weston Co Limerick, but currently an inpatient at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Dooradoyle, Limerick, has sued Petmania Ltd, Jetland Retail Park, Ennis Road; its parent company O'Keeffe's of Kilkenny Ltd, Springhill, Kilkenny, and the Health Service Executive.

Ms Ingle claims she was an employee at the pet store from December 2007 and was given no health and safety training or warnings about the dangers of working with animals when she began working there. She also alleges her condition was not diagnosed in time at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.

Opening her action yesterday, Dermot Gleeson SC said chlamydia psittacosis was a rare disease which could be passed from parrots or budgies to humans through inhalation of dried faeces dust from the feathers or respiratory secretions of the birds.

It is alleged Ms Ingle contracted the disease during July/August 2008 during which time, it is alleged, a cockatiel parrot was bought by the store for €20. It is alleged that class of bird was implicated in the disease.

Mr Gleeson said the store did not provide gloves or masks for staff. A health and safety manual, which the company claimed was issued to staff, was "remarkable" in making no reference at all to the risks of working with animals.

On August 12th, 2008, Ms Ingle was a healthy and active 19-year- old who had done well at school and hoped to run her own dog-grooming business at some stage, Mr Gleeson said.

On August 20th, she suffered violent headaches and vomiting. She was treated at the Mid-Western Regional and sent home to rest. There was a slight improvement but, after a very bad night on August 31st with headaches and increased vomiting, she went to her GP on September 1st and was sent to the hospital.

By September 3rd, she was technically voiceless and had suffered irreversible brain damage, blurred vision and could not move and had difficulty in swallowing.

She had remained in that condition since, she could only breathe adequately through a ventilator and was fed through a tube.

Ms Ingle's hospital records would have shown she worked with animals because she had previously attended hospital after being bitten by a rat. He said Ms Ingle had remained in the Mid-Western for 58 hours before being transferred to Cork. At that stage, she had suffered brain damage.

The defendants have denied the claims against them. Petmania denies Ms Ingle contracted the alleged disease and also denies any condition was contracted while working at the store.

The HSE has not disputed Ms Ingle contracted the disease but denies negligence and pleads that her condition was appropriately managed while in hospital.

When Samantha Lowe's 12-year-old Labrador retriever needed anti-inflammatories to ease its arthritis, she found herself facing the same question humans face when it comes to prescriptions: name-brand drug or generic?

She did the same thing many people do. She chose the generic version to save money.

"If a generic works as well as the real thing, I'm all for saving money," said Lowe, whose family in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, includes two other dogs and a cat, in addition to her husband and two children.

As patents expire for branded pet drugs, more generics are finding their way into veterinarian offices, where they offer the potential of big savings for owners of dogs, cats and other pets. In a nation where people have more than 86 million cats and 78 million dogs as pets, the savings are substantial.

An estimated 10 percent of animal health drugs are now generic varieties, up from an estimated 5 percent five years ago, and many think generics will account for half of all pet medications within a decade, said Robert Fountain II, president of Fountain Agricounsel, an animal health consulting company in Connecticut.

"We've been saying that this is the dawn of the bull market for generic animal health drugs," he said.

Veterinarians can now prescribe any of four types of drugs for animals in need of medication — human-approved branded and generic drugs, or pet-approved branded and generics.

Although the animal market is a fraction of what is spent on prescriptions for people, it's still a big-money industry. In 2009, $6.4 billion was spent in the U.S. on animal medicine, with 60 percent of that — $3.8 billion — spent on companion animals and the other 40 percent on food animals, such as cattle, pigs and chickens, according to the Animal Health Institute, a trade group in Washington, D.C.

The pet prescription market for the most part has been dominated by large, well-known companies such as Pfizer and Merck, which owns the Intervet/Schering-Plough animal health business. But other companies are now developing generic pet drugs as the opportunity arises.

Putney Inc. is one of those companies. Started five years ago in Portland, Maine, it launched its first product — carprofen, a generic version of Rimadyl, a painkiller marketed by Pfizer's animal health division — in 2009.

Americans fill 72 percent of their own prescriptions with generics, said Putney chief executive Jean Hoffman. But with so few pet-approved drugs having generic equivalents, Hoffman said there's plenty of opportunity for new generics to be introduced as Americans treat their dogs and cats for such things as diabetes, bronchitis, skin infections and anxiety. Generic drugs on average offer savings of about 25 percent, she said.

Several patents on branded pet drugs have expired, and many more are to follow suit in the next few years.

Fountain expects the animal health divisions of the largest pharmaceutical companies — such as Pfizer and Bayer — to create generic versions of their branded drugs to cash in on the generic market. Those companies are at an advantage because they'll be able to turn around a generic version of a branded drug without FDA approval because the drugs will be the same as their branded ones, he said.

Alerted by reports of a naked man covered in blood, police rushed to a Near West Side apartment and found a "highly intoxicated" man who had been operating on his pet Doberman, "Foley," officials say.

Stewart Gibbs, 44, was charged with felony cruelty to an animal late Sunday after he told police he had tried to remove a cyst from under the dog's right ear, according to police. Bail of $75,000 was set for Gibbs, whose attorney said is a health care administrator.

Gibbs' landlord got a call from other tenants in the building who said water was leaking into their apartments from the ceiling, according to Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto.

The landlord knocked on Gibbs' door, got no response and let himself in, police said. Gibbs then ran toward him, naked and covered in blood, Scaduto said. The landlord also saw a blood-soaked towel in the apartment before he left to call police.

Officers arrived about 10 p.m. and were met at the door by Gibbs, whose hands were covered in blood and who "appeared highly intoxicated," according to a police report.

Gibbs let the officers in, and they found blood on the floor and walls of the hall, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. They also found the Doberman with a wound under its right ear, police said.

Gibbs told the officers he had been using a butcher knife to remove a cyst from under the dog’s ear, and had turned on the water in the bathtub to clean up the dog, according to police and prosecutors. Gibbs told officers he had been drinking at Trump Tower earlier in the evening, returned to his apartment, had another half-bottle of wine and "proceeded to perform surgery" on his dog, according to a police report.

Gibbs did not claim to be a veterinarian but told officers he was a cardiologist, Mirabelli said. There is no state license information on Gibbs being a physician.

"Foley" was taken to an emergency veterinary center for treatment, authorities said. Gibbs gave up custody of the dog, and the Doberman is now in the care ofChicago Animal Care and Control, officials said.

In court today, Gibbs was attentive and wore dark blue jeans and a black T-shirt with a yellow or gold design on it. Public Defender Anand Sundaram said Gibbs has been inChicago five years, is a health care administrator and has a degree from the University of California, Irvine.

Gibbs will have to post 10 percent of his bail, or $7,500, to be released from Cook County Jail.

He is scheduled to appear June 27 in Branch 44 of Cook County Court, 3150 W. Flournoy St.

Don't be an ass!

Reese Witherspoon's Ojai, Calif. neighbors are not happy about the noise level of her donkeys, Honky and Tonky. They hee-haw at such a high-volume that "they're driving us crazy!" a source told Us Weekly.

"It's so bad that a few residents have sent her a letter," a local added. But the 35-year-old actress' neighbors don't want her to leave, just quiet down her donkeys! "She's beloved here," a neighbor said. "I'm not even sure she knows what's going on."

In an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in December, Witherspoon opened up about her farm full of animals. "This year we got donkeys. They're really cute," she gushed. "They're actually miniature donkeys… They're docile and sweet."

"I [also] have two pigs, and I have three goats and I have 20 chickens and of course I have three dogs. And I have one horse. It's hanging out with the donkey, it's sweet," she added.

Witherspoon makes sure her son Deacon, 7, and daughter Ava, 11, learn some responsibility through taking care of the family pets. "It's so good for the kids to learn about animals and kindness and compassion," she said. "I make them clean the stalls."

(Reuters) - Trial proceedings began on Monday for a central Florida mother and her boyfriend who are accused of allowing their pet python to strangle a 2-year-old girl in her crib.

Jaren Hare, 21, and boyfriend Charles Darnell, 34, were charged with manslaughter, third-degree murder and child neglect after the July 1, 2009, death of Hare's daughter, Shaianna Hare, in Bushnell northwest of Orlando.

Darnell found the couple's 12-foot-long albino Burmese python named Gypsy wrapped around Shaianna's head and body, according to the Sumter County Sheriff's Office. The medical examiner found bite marks on the child's head and arms.

Darnell estimated that Shaianna weighed 22 pounds compared to the snake's 45 to 50 pounds, the incident report said.

Darnell told deputies that he woke up in the middle of the night, found the python in the hallway and returned it to its 200-gallon aquarium where it spent most of its time. He thought he had secured the snake by placing it in a laundry bag, which had a small hole in it, and then covering the aquarium with a quilt held on by safety pins.

But Hare told deputies that the snake had escaped from the tank and laundry bag 10 times in the previous two months, and she was planning to make a locking lid for the tank.

Florida state law requires owners to keep pythons under lock and key. Neither Darnell nor Hare obtained a state permit to keep the python.

Darnell said the snake was due for its monthly feeding, but he didn't think the animal wanted to eat the little girl. Darnell said he stabbed the snake while trying to pry the toddler from its grip but the child was already dead, the sheriff's report stated.

The couple told deputies they often took the snake out of the tank to play with it and would place it around the shoulders of the children in the home without incident.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission took possession of the python and a red-tailed boa constrictor in the home. After the python was treated for stab wounds, both reptiles were placed with a licensed facility.

Lawyers selected a jury on Monday and were scheduled to begin opening statements Tuesday morning.

(By JORGE CASTILLO) In his 17 seasons in the Bronx, Derek Jeter cemented his legacy as one of the great Yankees. He is the team's captain. He has five World Series rings. He entered Tuesday's game six hits from becoming the first Yankee to join baseball's 3,000-hit club.
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Over 17 seasons and nearly 3,000 hits, Derek Jeter has inspired many dog owners who have named their pets after him.

Off the field, he has had a pretty good career, too, becoming the face of one of the most popular franchises in American sports, and dating many beautiful women.

His success has allowed him to take his place among names like Ruth, Mantle and DiMaggio. It has also, it turns out, earned him a prominent place among another set of names — like Princess and Rocky, Lucky and Buddy and Coco.

New York City, you see, is home to 33 dogs actively registered under the name Jeter. Across the Hudson, at the Valley Animal Hospital in Clifton, N.J., there are seven clients who go by the name Jeter, and on a single mail route in nearby Montclair, there are at least two Jeters — both reported to be friendly. In Jersey City, a Labrador is named Jeter; in Stamford, Conn., the city's lone Jeter is a beagle.

Jack Beibel, 16, of Montclair said he named his dog Jeter because the shortstop was his favorite player. His cockapoo has taken to it.

"If we yell, ‘Yankees,' he starts barking,' " Beibel said. "And if we yell, ‘Red Sox,' he kneels down."

Jeter, by this canine measure, is more popular than his teammates, according to statistics provided by the New York City Department of Health. There is, for instance, one licensed dog named A-Rod. There are eight licensed dogs named Tex in the city, although it is far from clear whether they are all named in honor of Mark Teixeira.

The phenomenon, though, has crossed into enemy territory, and has been realized in Jeter's hometown. There are, for instance, three dogs registered as Jeter in Worcester, Mass., and another in Cambridge, a mere bone's throw from Fenway Park.

In Kalamazoo, Mich., where Jeter grew up, there are four dogs named for the hometown hero. Oh, and two cats, too.

But there has been, along with the harmless good fun, at least one truly solemn story involving a dog named Jeter. In Dayton, Ohio, a Great Pyrenees named after the shortstop died in a fire in June 2009 after alerting his owner about a fire in the basement of their home.

The owner, Glenda Moss, credited Jeter with saving her and her son's lives.

"We named him Jeter because we always loved Derek Jeter and we respect him," said Moss, who has no ties to the New York area and is not a Yankees fan. "We believe that he has morals and that he really cares about the games. That's what we look for in baseball players. Do they respect the game or is it just a business for them?"

Moss rescued Jeter through the National Great Pyrenees Rescue and had him for three years before he died. The organization donated another dog to the family four months after the fire. Moss named her Maddux after the former major league pitcher Greg Maddux.

"He had the greatest social life," Moss said of Jeter, her dog. "Everybody loved him, and he loved everyone."

Jon Levine and his family, also of Montclair, have a Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Jeter with a couple connections to the almost certain Hall of Famer.

The Levines' Jeter was born on June 25, 2009 — one day before Derek Jeter's birthday — and was taken home to his new family on Sept. 11, 2009, the night Jeter passed Lou Gehrig on the Yankees' career hits list.

"The easy answer is I'm a die-hard Yankees fan," Levine said when asked about why he named his dog Jeter. "I was a big fan of Thurman Munson, and in my adult life, Jeter has played that role. He's the epitome of class and character."

The Jeter dog count is, by definition, fluid and perhaps imperfect (one cannot, for instance, say with certainty they are all named after the shortstop). The various agencies that keep track of such things list only dogs that are currently registered; there could be a few unlicensed, unregistered Jeters. There could be still other Jeters who have died since the Jeter who was the 1996 American League Rookie of the Year broke into the majors at age 21.

Naming pets after famous athletes is certainly not a recent development. With plenty of research, one could probably figure out how many Madduxes and Griffeys are out there. At the same time, naming dogs after athletes is not all that popular.

In New York, Jeter does not come close to cracking the city's 10 most popular dog names. That list consists of traditional dog names like Max, which 942 dogs answer to in the five boroughs. The only top name that could possibly be associated with an athlete is Rocky, which is the third-most popular name in the city, with 644 dogs licensed.

But pets are not the only Jeters around. According to the Social Security Administration, 47 baby boys nationwide were named Jeter in 2010, up from 39 in 2009. In 1998, five newborns were given the name.

Yet, Jeter as a baby name does not compare to another Yankees legend. In 1957, Mickey Mantle won the second of his back-to-back American league Most Valuable Player Awards and led the Yankees to the World Series title. That same, year 944 babies were named Mickey.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO -- Police have arrested a South San Francisco man who allegedly ran away with a small dog he believed was his and assaulted the woman who adopted it from a shelter last year.

The woman, a South San Francisco resident, was walking her dog Kelsey, a Chihuahua-Pomeranian mix, on Eucalyptus Avenue when the attack happened just after 11 a.m. Friday, police said Monday.

Genesis Sicat, 47, confronted the woman when she got to Baden Avenue and yanked Kelsey from his leash, police said. After shoving the woman several times, Sicat ran away with Kelsey in his arms, police said.

Police found Sicat the next day, booked him on suspicion of robbery and assault and battery, and returned the dog to his owner.

Sicat told investigators that he thought Kelsey was actually Bruce, a dog he lost some time ago, said Sgt. Joni Lee, a police spokeswoman.

Kelsey's owner, whose name was not released, found the dog in her apartment complex in October 2010, "dying and in poor health," and brought him to the Peninsula Humane Society, Lee said. She adopted the dog later that month.

Scott Delucchi, a spokesman for the humane society, said the shelter follows the state-mandated holding period of four days for strays. If the animal has any identification on it, the society holds it for another 10 days.

Delucchi said he could not comment on whether Kelsey and Bruce were one and the same without knowing who Kelsey's owner is.

Kelly Osbourne is mourning the loss of her pet Pomeranian, Noodles.

"My poor baby girl Noodles is sick," the Dancing With the Stars alum tweeted Tuesday. "She had a seizure and they don't know why. I'm taking her to see a specialist two hours away for a brain scan."

Osbourne, who adopted Noodles in March, nicknamed the pooch "Noody Bear." Three months later, the puppy's health took a turn for the worse. "I can't even look at my baby girl without crying," Osbourne tweeted. "She just looks so sick and helpless."

A veterinarian performed a brain scan and delivered some bad news: Noodles was suffering from brain swelling.

"Noodles is not going to make it," Osbourne, 26, wrote. "She was born with a brain defect and I have to put her to sleep today. I'm devastated. I just can't believe it."

When one of Osbourne's followers criticized her for putting down her puppy, she defended her decision by saying: "She was not in peace. Her brain was swelling in her head. I don't play God! It was unfortunately necessary!"

PUTNAM LAKE, N.Y. — New York authorities are investigating the death of a woman who was possibly bitten by one of the many pet snakes she kept in her home with her live-in boyfriend.

Putnam County Sheriff Donald Smith says 56-year-old Aleta Stacey was found dead by her boyfriend Tuesday night in their Putnam Lake home, where they kept about 75 snakes — many of them venomous — in glass aquariums.

The boyfriend told authorities he suspected a poisonous, 5-foot-long African black mamba had bitten Stacey because the securing locks on the snake's pen were off. Investigators found what appeared to be bite marks on the victim's forearm.

An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday night, but results could take several days. The snakes were removed from the home and taken to the Bronx Zoo.

A night of boozing can have many unintended consequences, the cutest of which is buying a puppy.

Two pet stores in New York's West Village have banned people who may be under the influence of alcohol from buying pets. Le Petite Puppy manager, Fernanda Moritz, said patrons who leave nearby watering holes after happy hour wander into the store to gawk at and sometimes purchase the pups, according to DNAinfo. On at least one occasion, this had an almost fatal outcome.

Moritz said she sold a Chihuahua to a possibly drunk woman, who brought it back the next day almost dead. "We took it to the vet, and he found five pills in the dog's stomach," she said. Thankfully, the little guy survived.

Citipups has instituted a similar ban. Leandro Jacoby, the store's manager, prevents impulse buys by asking drunk customers to come back the next day to make their puppy purchase. Most don't.

In a few cities across America, it's already impossible for people who are drunk and sober to take home a furry companion. West Hollywood banned pet stores from selling cats and dogs last year, in the hopes of hurting puppy mills. Stores are still allowed to offer up pets from shelters.

San Francisco is once again considering a ban on purchasing pets of all kinds — yes, even goldfish. Proponents of the Human Pet Acquisition Proposal hope the ban would stop animals from being taken to shelters and being euthanized.

"The pet trade is a multi-billion dollar industry that treats animals as commodities to be bought and sold for profit," a statement from the Commission of Animal Control and Welfare reads. "This leads to suffering on a massive scale when animals are warehoused, bred for sale, denied socialization and basic veterinary care, and finally transported with minimal care."

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — When Samantha Lowe's 12-year-old Labrador retriever needed anti-inflammatories to ease her arthritis, she found herself facing the same question humans face when it comes to prescriptions: Name-brand drug, or generic?

She did the same thing many people do: She chose the generic version to save money.

"If a generic works as well as the real thing, I'm all for saving money," said Lowe, whose family in Cape Elizabeth includes two other dogs and a cat, in addition to her husband and two children.

As patents expire for branded pet drugs, more generics are finding their way into veterinarian's offices, where they offer the potential of big savings for owners of dogs, cats and other pets. In a nation where people have more than 86 million cats and 78 million dogs as pets, the savings are substantial.

An estimated 10 percent of animal health drugs are now generic varieties, up from an estimated 5 percent five years ago, and many believe generics will account for half of all pet medications within a decade, said Robert Fountain II, president of Fountain Agricounsel LLC, an animal health consulting company in Connecticut.

"We've been saying that this is the dawn of the bull market for generic animal health drugs," he said.

Veterinarians can now prescribe any of four types of drugs for animals in need of medication — human-approved branded and generic drugs, or pet-approved branded and generics.

While the animal market is a fraction of what is spent on prescriptions for people, it's still a big-money industry. In 2009, $6.4 billion was spent in the U.S. on animal medicine, with 60 percent of that — $3.8 billion — spent on companion animals and the other 40 percent on food animals, such as cattle, pigs and chickens, according to the Animal Health Institute, a trade group in Washington, D.C.

The pet prescription market for the most part has been dominated by large, well-known companies such as Pfizer and Merck, which owns the Intervet Schering-Plough animal health business. But a number of other companies are now developing generic pet drugs as the opportunity arises.

Putney Inc. is one of those companies. Started five years ago in Portland, it launched its first product — carprofen, a generic version of Rimadyl, a painkiller marketed by Pfizer's animal health division— in 2009. Its second product, a generic ketamine used for anesthesia and sedation, came out last year.

The company plans to launch a third pet generic this year or next depending on FDA approval, and has another 20 in the pipeline that could be brought to market in the next three to five years, said President and CEO Jean Hoffman. She's aiming to grow her company's revenues from about $10 million last year to $150 million in 2015.

Americans fill 72 percent of their own prescriptions with generics, she said. But with so few pet-approved drugs having generic equivalents, Hoffman said there's plenty of opportunity for new generics to be introduced as Americans treat their dogs and cats for everything from diabetes and bronchitis to skin infections and anxiety. Generic drugs on average offer savings of about 25 percent, she said.

"There are very few generic drugs approved for pets," she said in an interview in her Portland office. "We see that as the need."

Veterinarians are slowly increasing the number of generic pet prescriptions they're writing. At the Forest Avenue Veterinary Hospital in Portland, generics — both human and pet — now make up a majority of the prescriptions that are filled, said veterinarian Bennett Wilson.

Wilson prescribed carprofen instead of Rimadyl as a cost-saving measure when prescribing a painkiller for Maggie, Lowe's black Lab. While pet drugs make up only a small portion of the generics he prescribes, they have grown at 10 to 15 percent in the fast few years, he said.

"I think it's good for the industry, good for pets and good for pet owners," he said.

A number of patents on branded pet drugs have already expired and many more are scheduled to expire in the next few years.

Fountain expects the animal health divisions of the largest pharmaceutical companies — such as Pfizer and Bayer — to create generic versions of their branded drugs to cash in on the generic market. Those companies are at an advantage because they'll be able to turn around a generic version of a branded drug without FDA approval because the drugs will be the same as their branded ones, he said. But a company developing a new drug for the first time could wait years for government approval, he said.

"There'll be growth, but some of the generic companies that are out there won't be seeing as much opportunity as they thought because the pioneer companies will create their own generic division and sell both the high road and the low road," Fountain said.

JUPITER, Fla. - A condominium in Palm Beach County will now use DNA to find dog owners who don't pick up their pet's droppings. According to the Palm Beach Post, managers at the Villages Of Abacoa will collect samples of confiscated poop to a laboratory, and when results come back, slap the owner with a $1,000 dollar fine.

It's not so easy in Tampa. Ever since the city lured high-rise condo buildings and new residents to Downtown and Channel District, the problem of poop on sidewalks and green spaces has been growing.

"Sometimes they just get lazy about doing it and look around and see there ain't nobody looking," says Gary McCurtis, who works cleaning streets for the Tampa Downtown Partnership.

He says he knows where the usual places and suspects are because he cleans up what they leave.

Tampa has a city ordinance that requires owners to collect the droppings of their animals, but a code inspector must actually see the violation happen to issue a citation.

And that's not lost on code enforcement officers: supervisor Kevin Amos says one inspector usually goes on undercover duty.

"He's actually in plain clothes. He's got an inspector's badge just inside his shirt," says Amos. But the $150 dollar fine for a violation has never been levied because it allows violators to pick up the droppings to avoid a citation.

Amos says, when confronted, violators sheepishly go in search of a bag and do the deed.

The Tampa Downtown Partnership is giving "Get The Scoop On Poop" cards to downtown pet owners. Paul Ayres, marketing manager for the organization, says they hope to get increased voluntary compliance.

"We're just trying to encourage residents to do their job and pick up after themselves and their pets," he said.

SEOUL — South Korea will impose tougher penalties including possible prison terms for cruelty to animals following a highly publicised case, the government said Monday.

Under a revision to the animal protection law, people who mistreat pets will face a jail term of up to one year or a maximum fine of 10 million won ($9,400), the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.

The current penalty allows only a maximum fine of five million won.

"The revised law reflects the people's increasing concerns over ill-treatment of animals," the ministry said in a statement.

Public awareness of animal cruelty rose sharply recently after a local TV programme highlighted a case in which a man beat a dog almost to death.

An animal rights group has offered a one million won reward for the arrest of the offender, who has not been traced.

The revised law will also compel dog owners to register ownership with local governments from 2013.

The number of pets abandoned or lost on the street rose from about 25,000 in 2003 to more than 100,000 last year, the ministry said.

HUDSON, FLA. — Five years ago Don and Brenda Hoch took home a skunk after seeing it by chance in a pet store
The Hudson, Fla., couple found they had a way with the animals, and now the Hochs share their home with not one, but 15 skunks.

Their original pet skunk, Spike, shares his permanent home with fourteen others the couple are fostering for Florida Skunk Rescue. Eventually the skunks will move to permanent homes.

"A lot of our rescues are skunks that needed someone to work with them because they were neglected in the home they came from and consequently became biters," Brenda Hoch said. "We've worked with them and have gotten them to become friendly again."

Fortunately, the Hochs don't live with a constant fear of being sprayed. The skunks are de-scented at a young age, around two to three weeks old.

Every year around 100,000 owners use the pet passport scheme to take their animal on holiday as well as on work trips. According to recent pet travel regulations, January onwards pets will no longer require a blood test for their travel within the European Union and they will have to wait for only 21 days before they get permission to make their journey, provided they have received a rabies vaccination. These regulations are also applicable to non-risk countries, including Australia and the United States.

While explaining the current pet quarantine rules in the UK, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Caroline Spelman, said that the policies are outlined to fight against rabies. "These outdated rules need to be changed as they have caused hardship to generations of pets and pet owners and those who rely on assistance dogs, with too many animals cooped up unnecessarily", Spelman said.

Additionally on Thursday, she is expected to make an announcement that Britain will relax the rules as an attempt to bring the country into line with more liberal regulations across the European Union where animals will be directed to have vaccination 21 days before coming back into the country, thus escaping the blood test requirement.

Sources have reported that a majority of vets charge approximately £100 for the pet blood test, therefore, the new regulations can play a big role in saving a good amount of money for the pet owners.

The people who pilfered a 70-pound tortoise from a Lincolnwood exotic animal store early this morning may have unwittingly gotten more than they bargained for, the store's owner said.

Sure, a reptile of such stature might fetch up to $1,500 to the right buyer, but care and cleanup are other matters, said Kenn Bearman, owner of The Animal Store.
"The first time it takes a dump in your bedroom, you're going to be sorry," he said.

Spur, 30, a female Sulcata tortoise, has been missing since about 3:30 a.m., when Bearman got a call from the alarm company saying there had been a break-in at the store, 4364 W. Touhy Ave. When he arrived, the glass front door of the store was shattered and Spur was gone.

Surveillance video from a camera inside the store shows caged cockatoos, chinchillas and prairie dogs all jump at one moment, apparently at the sound of breaking glass, he said. A person's foot can be seen protruding about 18 inches into the doorway and then it is gone, Bearman said.

Spur usually spends her days in a tile pen at the front of the store. She is something of a local celebrity, appearing at children's birthday parties, fairs and block parties.

"The kids don't ride her or anything, but they chase her around," Bearman said. "She's pretty quick for a tortoise."

Sulcata tortoises, also known as African spurred tortoises or African spur-thigh tortoises, hail from Subsaharan Africa and typically live 30 to 50 years. Bearman acquired Spur about 20 years ago, when she was about 10 inches long.

Bearman doubts anyone would steal a tortoise on a whim and wonders if the thief stole Spur for a waiting buyer. After all, moving around a 70-pound reptile with a shell is no small feat. Neither is unloading one on the open market.

Police have taken a report, and Bearman has publicized the theft on his blog and Facebook, and he has friends in the exotic animal community on the lookout. There has been talk of a reward, but really Bearman just wants his tortoise back, no questions asked.

"Just bring her back," he said.

China -- Dyeing Poodles pink, Peek-a-poo's purple, and other breeds a spectrum of inspiring colors is a trend that has been growing around the world for the past decade.

Dog owners in China, however, have taken dyeing dogs colors to a new level by dyeing their canine friends to resemble other animals. Pandas and tigers are just some of the choices, a telling example of the changing views towards dogs in Asia.

As China's economy has prospered, the Chinese have begun pampering their pets as much as Americans.

It was only 10 years ago that dogs in China were still eaten in public restaurants and raised on farms strictly for food. Today, eating dog meat is seen as a poor reflection of a past practice that is largely no longer a part of society.

Only time will tell what new trends in dog pampering develops in China and around the world.

Bad news for pets and their beloved owners: New York's Division of Cemeteries has instructed animal cemeteries to stop burying the ashes of pet owners alongside deceased Lassies and Patches. And as you can imagine, owners who have been affected are none too pleased about it: "Suddenly I'm not at peace anymore. You want to be with the people you are closest with, your true loved ones. The only loved ones I have in my life right now are my pets, which I consider my children." Bronx resident Rhona Levy told NBC.

Levy had prearranged to have her ashes interred there along with five pets, four of whom are already buried at the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester—her dog Snow, cats Putchke, Pumpkin, Twinkie and Shaina (who is still alive). The pet cemetery has long allowed people to be buried with their pets, as long as their pets were buried their first, and they were cremated. Hartsdale has an estimated 700 humans interred with about 75,000 animals; they add approximately 10-12 new people each year.

Cemetery director Edward Martin told the Post that its lawyers have always maintained that the human ashes "are no longer human" and therefore could be placed anywhere. But the state is cracking down after an AP article about the practice came out earlier this year. According to state law, any cemetery providing burial space for humans must be operated as a not-for-profit corporation, which they say Hartsdale isn't. Martin told NBC that it was ridiculous that they can't accomodate owners now: "As of now, we've suspended the human part of it, but it's our position that they don't have the authority to do this."

And in the meantime, families will have to deal with the fallout. Law professor Taylor York said the state order has prevented her uncle, Thomas Ryan, from being buried with his wife, Bunny, and their two dogs BJ I and BJ II (though there is still space for the still living BJ III). "My uncle wants to be buried beside his wife and what he considered to be his children and I'm not letting anyone stand in the way. His love for those dogs was just as real and just as strong as any parent's for any child," she said.

Don't be an ass!

Reese Witherspoon's Ojai, Calif. neighbors are not happy about the noise level of her donkeys, Honky and Tonky. They hee-haw at such a high-volume that "they're driving us crazy!" a source told Us Weekly.

"It's so bad that a few residents have sent her a letter," a local added. But the 35-year-old actress' neighbors don't want her to leave, just quiet down her donkeys! "She's beloved here," a neighbor said. "I'm not even sure she knows what's going on."

In an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in December, Witherspoon opened up about her farm full of animals. "This year we got donkeys. They're really cute," she gushed. "They're actually miniature donkeys… They're docile and sweet."

"I [also] have two pigs, and I have three goats and I have 20 chickens and of course I have three dogs. And I have one horse. It's hanging out with the donkey, it's sweet," she added.

Witherspoon makes sure her son Deacon, 7, and daughter Ava, 11, learn some responsibility through taking care of the family pets. "It's so good for the kids to learn about animals and kindness and compassion," she said. "I make them clean the stalls."

The president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States called Friday for a ban on exotic animal pets in the wake of a monkey attack in Fremont one day earlier.

Wayne Pacelle said "cute and agreeable baby animals become aggressive and territorial as they mature," which is why he wants Ohio to reinstate rules that forbid private citizens from owning wild animals as pets.

Earlier this year, Gov. John Kasich directed the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to set up a process for public comment on the issue of wild animal pets. An Executive Order banning several kinds of wild animals expired when Gov. Kasich took office.

On Thursday, a grivet monkey took off its own leash and escaped from its owner in Fremont, police said. The monkey then attacked two young girls, leaving them with scratches, they said. During a nearly three-hour pursuit, officers unsuccessfully fired two live rounds at the monkey, who was later caught by its owner, police said.

The owner was cited with a minor misdemeanor for allowing an animal to run at large and faces a fine of up to $150.

More than 800 pets have been rescued since the tornado hit southwest Missouri.

Columbia, MO - infoZine - Found in a flooded, steel culvert, claws worn away, a chocolate Labrador Retriever desperately clung to life as it fought to keep its head above water in the aftermath of Joplin's devastating tornado last week. Though he had been missing for three days, Sampson was finally reunited with his family this week through the diligent disaster efforts of volunteers at the Joplin Humane Society.

"As one of our community partners, the Joplin Humane Society is playing an important role in both the healing and relief efforts in the Jasper-county area," said Libby Turner, federal coordinating officer for the disaster. "Their pet-reuniting efforts are essential to making this community whole again," she added.

More than 800 pets have been rescued since the tornado hit southwest Missouri May 22, 2011. More importantly, 282 pets have been reunited with their owners since then. Some 643 pets are still waiting to be claimed. Before the disaster, the shelter housed about 300 pets per day.

"It's so rewarding to see the tears of joy on people's faces when they are finally reunited with their lost pet," remarked Karen Aquino, executive director for the Joplin Humane Society. "They are so overjoyed to find their family member," she added regarding the pet reunions.

Though the shelter has mostly rescued displaced dogs and cats, other species have also been found. Snakes, ferrets, birds, turtles, rabbits, chickens, pot-bellied pigs, and even goldfish have been rescued in Joplin since the tornado, Aquino explained. Photos of all the animals housed at the shelter may be viewed at JopinHumane.org.

According to Aquino, volunteers from Missouri and throughout the country are lending helping hands to the pet-rescue efforts in Joplin. About 10 volunteers worked each day at the shelter prior to the tornado disaster. Since then the shelter has been utilizing about 150 volunteers a day.

Additionally, donations have been streaming into the shelter with truckloads of pet food, tractor-trailer loads of pet supplies, boxes of veterinary medical supplies as well as food and meals for shelter volunteers.

"The community and volunteer response has been tremendous, really humbling," Aquino said. "It's a huge collaborative effort making families whole again."

In efforts to maximize volunteer efforts, Aquino asks those wishing to volunteer to contact the shelter through its Facebook page which may be accessed online at the shelter’s website. The shelter can then schedule new volunteers into its work schedule.

Though Aquino says the donations have been tremendous, the shelter is really in need of cash. She alsosuggests donating gift cards from stores like Wal-Mart, Target, PetSmart, Ace Hardware, Atwoods Ranch and Home, and Tractor Supply.

LISA CORNISH is rattling off today's menu:

Pan-seared duck with brown rice and blueberry compote.

Roasted turkey with butternut squash and russet potatoes.

Salmon with black-and-white quinoa.

Delish. Just keep in mind that all of this, right down to those banana and yogurt health bars, is dog food. Not mere Alpo, mind you — not by a long shot. And to prove it, Ms. Cornish, who works for a company called Petcurean Pet Nutrition, will give you a taste.

If you're wondering why anyone would even consider noshing on dog chow, you haven't been to the Global Pet Expo here, where the impresarios of America's thriving, multibillion-dollar pet economy profitably ply their wares.

If there is a pet heaven, this could be it.

Even as the economy for us humans bogs down again, the pet economy has proved remarkably resilient to a weak housing market, high unemployment and those diminished 401(k)'s. The industry has continued to grow through the recession, albeit at a slower pace, and last year, Americans spent a record $55 billion on their pets, according to the market research firm Packaged Facts, more than the gross domestic product of Belarus.

Wherever the stock market goes — and lately, it has been going down — this nation seems to be in the thrall of a great bull market for pets. And high-priced, "human grade" pet food is only the beginning.

Pet owners, or "parents" in industry parlance, are being sold on human-style luxuries and medical care. There are stylish rain slickers, organic foods and even antidepressants for today's pampered cats and dogs. If more evidence of this boom were needed, consider Neuticles, prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs and cats, at about $1,000 a pair, which, their designers say, help "your pet to retain his natural look, self esteem and aids in the trauma associated with altering."

Make no mistake: this is big business, as a visit to the Pet Expo here shows.

Over at one booth, Debbie Bohlken, owner of Claudia's Canine Cuisine, sits behind a table of brightly-decorated cookies and cakes that wouldn't look out of place in a bakery. All of these treats are for dogs. She sells her products under the slogan: "Treat Her Like the Bitch She Really Is."

"Will you try one?" she asks.

Her dog biscuits, it turns out, taste a bit like ginger snaps.

Elsewhere, manufacturers are marketing foods with ingredients worthy of a Michelin-starred restaurant: pheasant, freshwater trout, yak's milk, organic pumpkin — the list goes on.

There is much more to this than food. At the Petzlife booth, one of the owners, Steve Tibbetts, explains that his oral spray is made from "human-grade" ingredients that keep a dog's teeth and gums healthy and fight dog breath. He says it works for cats, too. And apparently, for people: Mr. Tibbetts sprays the stuff into his mouth. Twice.

"People are just ga-ga over their pets," Mr. Tibbetts says. "They'll spend money on their pets before they spend money on themselves."

The growth in the pet market last year was driven in part by a 7 percent increase in veterinary services. America's pet population, like its human one, is living longer. Human medical technologies are increasingly being used for pets. Dogs' and cats' owners — particularly those without children at home — are taking better care of them, both medically and nutritionally, experts say.

"Pet owners aren't just looking to provide a home for their pets," says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Association. "They are investing in their pets' quality of life. Oftentimes they do this at their own expense, cutting personal expenses, but not those affecting their faithful companions."

Jessica Taylor, managing editor of Petfood Industry, says that when she started at the magazine four years ago, the pet food industry lagged human trends by a year or more. Now, it is just six months behind, or less.

She predicts that blueberries and pomegranates, whose antioxidant wonders have been marketed to humans in recent years, will be the next big thing in pet food.

THE pet industry has long considered itself recession-resilient, and it proved just that during the recent downturn, despite some bumps along the way. For instance, shelters were swamped with pets that were given up by owners who apparently could no longer afford them. Fewer people bought pets, in part because pets are often acquired after a home purchase, and there were considerably fewer of those.

Sales growth of pet products slowed, particularly among "hard goods" like leashes and bowls. But they were still up — which is more than you can say for many industries. Sales growth of natural pet products slowed to a relatively meager 6 percent in 2009, compared with 43 percent in 2007, according to Packaged Facts.
Is Your Pet Eating Better Than You Are?

Join the discussion on the Well blog about your pets' meals. If you have a question about pet health and nutrition, direct your comment to Dr. Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary nutrition at Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center. He will respond to a selection of readers' questions.

Analysts say the pet industry will continue to rebound, driven by demand for veterinary care and health-related products, including premium treats and chow for dogs and cats.

"I'm still very bullish on natural and organic," says David Lummis, senior pet market analyst for Packaged Facts, noting that such products account for about 7 percent of pet food sales. "There is still a lot of growth there."

In addition, he notes that expected demand for luxury pet products is strong enough to lure companies and even celebrities into the business. Among them: Martha Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres, Fisher-Price and General Nutrition Center, which now offers health supplements for pets.

Wall Street is bullish, too. Shares of PetSmart, the pet store chain, are hovering near a record high, at $43.46 a share. In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the company said same-store sales had increased 6 percent over the quarter a year earlier.

PetSmart's main competitor, Petco, is privately owned and doesn't publicly report its earnings. But Jim Myers, Petco's chief executive, says his company did not have a single negative quarter throughout the recession. Fewer people traded up to more expensive items during the downturn, but he said they didn't trade down, either, sticking with a "premium and higher-level range of food products."

"Our perspective is that, thankfully, we are in a pretty emotional category," Mr. Myers says.

At a Petco store in West Orange, N.J., natural and organic products occupy more than half the aisles set aside for dog and cat food. A sign hanging from the ceiling reads, "It's all natural: the very best natural products for your pet."

A representative for Blue Buffalo dog food, Gina Corbosiero, is to pitch an array of products, which she says are "holistic" and contain antioxidant pellets that are "cold pressed."

Blue Buffalo's dog food costs as much as $4 a pound, but it isn't the most expensive line on these shelves. Royal Canin makes dog food for specific breeds. Its Shih Tzu line sells for $6.80 a pound.

Lowly Pedigree, by comparison, costs 50 cents a pound.

It's all too much for Mike Pinkard, 46, who was dispatched to buy some food for his daughter's new pit bull-Labrador retriever puppy, Taz. Asked what he will buy, he says: "I have no idea. It's changed so much from when I had a dog."

When Mr. Pinkard was a kid, he says, "It was regular dog food. Make sure you give them water and exercise and you are in good shape." He settles on a bag of Nature's Recipe, a midprice natural brand.

Are our pets healthier for all of this? Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary nutrition at Ohio State University, says his students have studied the diet history of thousands of animals and have not yet determined that one pet food is better than another.

"We have been unable to distinguish an outcome in healthy animals eating a wide variety of foods," he says. Asked about the variety at megastores like Petco, he says, "I don't even go in there anymore. I wouldn't know where to start."

He adds: "If you put them all in a plain brown bag, you'd probably be fine with any one of them."

ABOUT 62 percent of American households have a pet, with dogs accounting for 40 percent of the total. Cats are second, at 34 percent. Dog and cat ownership has continued to grow slightly in recent years, even as the popularity of other types of pets, like birds, fresh-water fish and reptiles, has declined.

But the vendors at the Global Pet Expo, held at the Orange County Convention Center here in April, are betting that pet owners will splurge again.

One vendor is offering treadmills and treadwheels — essentially oversize hamster wheels — that let dogs exercise indoors, without the indignities of cracked sidewalks or rain.

There are "eco-friendly" pieces of furniture, grooming products and wipes, the wipes made from organically grown bamboo. An Israeli firm hawks dog shampoo containing Dead Sea minerals. Another, Pet Pop of Australia, promotes a vitamin-infused "mountain-spring water" for dogs. The price: $3.30 a bottle, about as much as a gallon of milk.
Is Your Pet Eating Better Than You Are?

Join the discussion on the Well blog about your pets' meals. If you have a question about pet health and nutrition, direct your comment to Dr. Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary nutrition at Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center. He will respond to a selection of readers' questions.

"We actually saw that there was a gap in the market for beverages for dogs," says Bonnie Senior, a manager at the company. Then there is Jenn Mohr, who says she combined her love of dogs and love of candles to create Sniff Pet Candles. Made of "100 percent organic natural ingredients," the aromatherapy candles have names like "Day in the Hamptons" and "Field of Dreams" and "promote your dog's optimum health and well-being," her company says.

Ms. Mohr even designed a candle to address the flatulence of Rufus, her Rhodesian ridgeback. Made with floral ylang-ylang, white tea, myrtle and fennel, the "Fart & Away" candle "won't completely stop them," Ms. Mohr says. "But it will help." The price: $28.

Aromatherapy candles aside, pet food, rather than pet extras, dominates the expo. Many vendors were pushing the idea of human grade pet food. Nummy Tum Tum, which sells canned organic pumpkin and sweet potato for pets, acknowledges that the line between pet and owner has been blurred. Last fall, amid a pumpkin shortage, people called to ask if it was O.K. to use Nummy Tum Tum to make pumpkin pies.

Answer: Sure. Daniel Stockton, national sales manager, says the company that makes Nummy Tum Tum makes canned pumpkin for pies, too. It simply switches the label. Both are simply pureed vegetables.

"What you can do is make some pies out of it, and leave the cans on the counter after everyone has eaten to freak people out," Mr. Stockton says.

Canine Caviar Foods says it makes "the only alkaline-based dog food in America that was specifically designed to prevent cancer." The ingredients include canned beaver, duck and venison tripe for dogs and cats, as well as a variety of "free-range, grass fed buffalo" treats for dogs.

The Honest Kitchen is offering dog food with names like "Zeal" and "Verve" and lists the provenance of the ingredients. There is organic, fair-trade quinoa from Bolivia and "wild, line-caught Icelandic haddock." Its food is "gently dehydrated" to preserve it.

Hill's Science Diet promotes prepackaged meals to help slim down tubby dogs and cats. American pets, it turns out, have weight problems just like many of their owners.

"We show you how to feed your animal to lose weight," says Mike Gooch, a sales manager for Hill's Science Diet. "It's really kind of a paradigm shift in how you control the weight of the animal."

Of course, it would be easier — and substantially cheaper — to feed pets less or take them for longer walks. But Mr. Gooch said that simply isn't happening for pets or owners.

"I would like to see us eat less McDonald's and Hardees," Mr. Gooch quips.

Bravo Raw Diet is peddling raw food for pets, which, along with refrigerated pet food, is among the hottest trends in the business. Bette Schubert, a co-founder, says dogs that eat raw meat diets — much like their wild ancestors — are healthier than those that eat processed kibbles.

Over at the Del Monte booth, Don Terry and Daniel Caulfield take all of this in with an air of bemusement. Del Monte makes old-line dog food like Kibbles 'n Bits, Gravy Train, Milk Bone and Snausages.

Neither seems too worried about all these organic and holistic upstarts. "Do you know how many Milk Bones we sell compared to these companies doing $2 million a year?" Mr. Terry asks. "Dogs have lived a long time on Kibbles 'n Bits and Gravy Train."

Mr. Terry, however, isn't about to pop a Snausage into his mouth.

THE idea of eating your dog food to prove its wholesomeness didn't originate at the Global Pet Expo. Paul Newman sampled his organic dog food on "The Tonight Show" in 2006. The audience howled.

These days, pet food makers are eating their own products to make a point and close a sale, wisecracks aside. Ms. Bohlken, of Claudia's Canine Cuisine, says she ate all sorts of dog treats while tweaking recipes for her products, which now include cookies and microwaveable cakes for dogs. Even now, she says, she will suck on a Puppy Pop when she has a sore throat.

Up in Brooklyn, Hanna Mandelbaum and Alison Wiener spent March dining on their dog food, Evermore, a brown mush made from beef hearts and chicken livers, among other things.

"My business partner really enjoys the taste," Ms. Mandelbaum says. "For me, it was a little bit more an acquired taste."

The gimmick generated a huge spike in sales but came at a price: relentless ribbing from friends. Says Ms. Mandelbaum: "They want to know if we have a sudden urge to sniff each other's butt."

Did you know that a pet gaining one pound is the same as us gaining fifteen pounds? Believe it or not, it's true. Obesity is a huge problem in America, and studies show that more and more pets are also becoming overweight. Is it because we show our pets love by giving them food and treats or that we sneak them table scraps ( I raise my hand!), or is it due to a lack of exercise? My guess is that it is all of the above. Whatever the reason, the fact remains 44 percent of dogs and 57 percent of cats in the United States are overweight or obese. Just as in humans, overweight pets are predisposed to heart disease, arthritis, diabetes and skin problems.

As a vet, I often hear pet owners say that they think that it's cute for their dog or cat have a little "meat on their bones" and think that by being slim or fit, that their pet looks sickly, or because their pets are a part of the family that they should eat whenever everyone else eats, and my absolute favorite one, "When I found him, he was so skinny that I wanted to make up for all the food he didn't get when he was homeless." While I'm glad that you love your pets like family, let's make sure that we don't love them to death!

So how do you tell if your pet is overweight? Most of the time you can tell by just looking at them. When you pet or rub them, you may feel fat pockets, or you may notice the fat hanging from their belly that swings when they walk or run (in cats especially), or maybe that cute little shirt that you bought last year is fitting tighter or not at all. Dogs and cats should have a 'waist-line' and when we examine them, we should be able to feel (not see) their ribs and see a nice little tuck underneath the abdomen. When you or someone else notices that your pet is packing on the pounds, a weight loss program should be implemented immediately. You can start by following the feeding guidelines,which you can find on the back of most bags of pet food, these give a recommendation as to how much your dog or cat should be eating daily.

Also, you can limit the amount of treats to about one or two per day. If you feel you must give Fluffy or Kitty a treat for good behavior, training, learning a new trick, or whatever you use treats for, you can try giving healthy treats like carrots or celery. If this doesn't work, your vet may prescribe a weight control formula like Hills W/D, R/D or Royal Canin Calorie Control Diet. These weight control diets also come in a canned form, so you can divide the contents of the can into small pieces, shape them if you like, bake them for a few minutes and give this to them as treats, which will continue them on their weight loss regimen. I often tell clients that if you change your pet's food to a calorie control diet, you should feed them for the target weight, not the weight that your pet is currently. For example, if your dog weighs 60 pounds and your vet tells you that he needs to lose 10 pounds, that you begin feeding your dog the amount that a 58 pound dog should get, then when he gets down to 58 pounds, feed him as a 56 pound dog etc., until he loses the 10 pounds. The reason I recommend a gradual decrease in food is because you don't want to starve them and make it to where they become ravenous (because they are so hungry) and try to steal food from the trash, eat things in the yard or wherever else they can find food.

Another weight loss method that I find works well in dogs, is the "Green Bean Diet" where you slowly introduce fresh, frozen or low salt, canned green beans to your pet's diet. Initially, you replace 10 percent of the pet's dry kibble with green beans, after two or three days, replace another 10 percent with green beans and do this until half of the kibble is replaced with green beans. This is an inexpensive, all natural and tasty way to help your dog lose weight and increase the fiber which makes them feel full and can be beneficial to the digestive system as well. If you implement a weight loss program and your pet does not seem to be losing weight, I would suggest taking them in to see your veterinarian where they can have an exam and tests run to check for diseases such as Hypothyroidism or Cushing's Disease. Some pets gain weight after they are spayed or neutered and sometimes as they age, due to inactivity, so there may not be a medical cause for them becoming overweight. For indoor cats, a suggestion on how to increase their activity/exercise is to purchase a pen or laser light and shine it on the wall so they can chase it.

Weight loss in pets requires a life style change and compliance from owners. In general, eat less and exercise more is the best way to get your pet (and yourself) to lose weight. We love our four-legged babies so let's do what we can to keep them fit and trim. Remember, it's better to prevent than to have to treat!

Bloat (officially gastric dilatation/volvulus, or GDV) is a condition that some call the "mother of all emergencies," one that kills thousands of dogs a year, one so concerning that the non-profit AKC Canine Health Foundation has identified as one of its research priorities establishing ways to prevent bloat and identifying the contributions of genetics to it.

And yet, many pet owners have never heard of it, don't know they have a breed (or a mutt composed of a breed) that's predisposed to it, and are unaware of the symptoms and the need for instant action when they materialize.

"There's very little time," says veterinarian Karen Halligan, director of veterinary services at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in L.A. and author of What Every Pet Owner Should Know: Prescriptions for Happy, Healthy Cats and Dogs.

Her own chocolate Lab, sweet Duke, developed bloat, had fast medical intervention and surgery, but developed post-surgical complications common with bloat survivors, and days later she let him go.

In bloat, gas or food stretches the stomach to well beyond its normal size, pinching off both sides of the organ and causing enormous pain. In 75% of cases, the stomach rotates, twisting off its own blood supply and blocking the route through which the rapidly accumulating gas could leave.
Concerns, 'few proposals'

The AKC’s Canine Health Foundation is actively encouraging research proposals in the area of bloat, though, according to the organization’s Erica Kitchen, “we continue to receive very few proposals.� Breed clubs representing more than two dozen breeds have identified bloat as a concern, including:

• Akita
• Anatolian shepherd
• Basset hound
• Beauceron
• Bernese mountain dog
• Black and tan coonhound
• Black Russian terrier
• Bloodhound
• Borzoi
• Briard
• Cane Corso
• Chow Chow
• Collie
• Curly coated retriever
• English foxhound
• Flat-coated retriever
• German shepherd
• German wirehaired pointer
• Gordon setter
• Great Dane
• Great Pyrenees
• Greater Swiss mountain dog
• Greyhound
• Komondor
• Miniature poodle
• Neapolitan mastiff
• Newfoundland
• Poodle
• Rottweiler
• Saint Bernard
• Samoyed
• Scottish deerhound
• Spinone
• Standard poodle
• Weimaraner
• Wirehaired pointing griffon

Nearby organs are affected as the oversized stomach presses against them.

The earliest signs of bloat, Halligan says, are repeated unsuccessful efforts to vomit, restlessness and pacing, and increasing anxiety as the dog is unable to get relief from the excruciating pain. The abdomen is often swollen and drum-like; the dog usually drools in panic because it can't belch or vomit the mounting pressure away.

Dogs stricken with bloat can sometimes be saved, provided the human recognizes the crisis fast and seeks emergency intervention instantly — emphasis on "instantly." Minutes are crucial, and if the dog has been afflicted for an hour or two, damage may be so severe he can't be saved. Even with timely surgery, up to one-third of the dogs afflicted with bloat die, Halligan says.

Bloat is most common in dogs weighing more than 99 pounds (though some small dogs have developed it), experts say, and in dogs described as "deep-chested," meaning the chest width is relatively narrow and the length from the backbone to sternum is relatively long. Great Danes are at highest risk; other breeds with a tendency to bloat include greyhounds, all setters, standard poodles and boxers.

"We don't fully understand exactly what causes it," Halligan acknowledges, but there are similarities among dogs that have developed it.
Bark at us

Sharon L. Peters is an award-winning pet journalist who lives in Colorado. E-mail her at pets@usatoday.com.

It's more common among dogs with anxious or fearful dispositions, and those that are aggressive to other dogs or people, Halligan says. High-stress situations, such as boarding, a new dog in the home, dog shows or changes in routine, may serve as a tipping point.

Dogs that gulp food fast are at higher risk, particularly if they exercise less than 60 minutes after a meal. Using elevated food bowls or feeding dry food that contains citric acid as a preservative may also contribute (risk increases if kibble containing citric acid is moistened), some experts say.

For large breeds, Halligan says, bloat risk jumps 20% each year after age 5; for giant breeds, the risk goes up 20% each year after age 3.

Studies have shown that more than 50% of dogs with bloat will bloat again within three months, Halligan says, and 76% of them will bloat again in their lifetime unless they have a surgery called a gastroplexy, in which the stomach is attached to the body wall.

Helping protect your dog from bloat requires avoiding the high-risk things, and feeding two or three times a day instead of once. Also, although Halligan knows of no studies identifying flea infestation as a possible contributor, gulping air (as dogs do when they're chewing at fleas) is a risk, so she recommends rigorous preventive efforts.

Many people with predisposed dog breeds take the step of having a preventive gastroplexy performed before a bloat episode. "If you have a dog in the top tier of breeds predisposed to this, like a Great Dane, it can definitely make sense to suture the stomach in place, ideally when the dog is neutered," Halligan says.

Bloat is so painful that rushing a dog suffering of it immediately to the vet is crucial, even if you know you won't spend the money to try to save it, so it can be euthanized. "Suffering through bloat," she says, "is a miserable way for a dog to die."

Los Angeles - The City Council today instructed the Department of Animal Services to draft a law banning the commercial breeding of dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens in Los Angeles and the sale of factory-bred animals in pet stores.

The motion, which was introduced by City Councilman Paul Koretz and was approved unanimously, also asks the department to arrange frequent adoption drives for shelter animals at licensed pet stores.

Koretz called the measure a win-win for the city.

"It will help us reduce our pet over-population problem, and it will save us a significant amount of money," he said.

Koretz said he unknowingly purchased a "puppy mill" bichon 20 years ago, and it required expensive medical care.

"This is frequently the case because these animals are inbred and raised in terrible conditions, and that results in medical problems, behavioral problems ... often that leads to those animals winding up in our animal shelters," he said.

The Department of Animal Services took in about 55,000 animals last year and expects that number to rise this year. It euthanizes about 25 percent of dogs and 50 percent of cats that wind up in shelters.

"We're not only protecting the animals, but we're protecting the people in the community, the people who don't know that when they go into a pet store they are paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for an animal that is likely to be sick (or) have genetic defects," Animal Services General Manager Brenda Barnette said.

Barnette said she knows there are puppy mills in the city, but not how many.

"A lot of them fly under the radar illegally. They're very clever, and they have their little lookouts and they will move from house to house to house, and move their animals with them and stay one step ahead of law enforcement," Barnette said.

Councilman Ed Reyes voted to support the ban, but cautioned that it needs to come with some enforcement mechanisms.

"I have seen us pose policies that are very well written, very well intended, but enforcement is the key," he said.

Barnette agreed the effort would reduce her department's costs. She said the average dog costs the city about $402 and the average cat costs about $281. The costs include food, health care, facility maintenance and the staffing costs for a three-member panel necessary for approving about 20,000 euthanizations per year.

The motion also calls for the city to generate a type of endorsement for pet stores that operate humanely.

Councilman Tony Cardenas, who helped create the city's Animal Cruelty Task Force in 2005, said the policy would be a model for the rest of the country.

"All too often, unsuspecting pet owners are supporting greedy and cruel puppy mills. I want that to end in Los Angeles," Cardenas said.

Mike Tyson says his pet pigeons are like "brothers and sisters" to him.

The retired boxing champion, who is currently promoting his new movie The Hangover 2, revealed his love for his feathered pets and described them as family.

Mike, who stars as himself in the sequel alongside Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms, talked about his quiet lifestyle in retirement.

"These birds over here, I've had since I was 14 years old," he told CBS News' Bill Withaker. "They're like my brothers and sisters. My friends. 'Cause I don't have to worry about them asking me for any money or try and get over me or do anything or try to hurt me for any reason."

Tyson, who earned a reported $400 million at the height of his career, also said that his sporting achievements mean nothing to him in hindsight.

The controversial former heavyweight, who served three years in prison for alleged rape - a charge he has always denied - and infamously bit off a part of his opponent Evander Holyfield's ear during a fight, says that his family is all he cares about now.

"I can say I bled for garbage," he said. "At one time it meant a lot - when you're just a young kid, this is everything to you. But then you realize your priorities change. And you just want your children to be happy and do nice things and that makes you happy.

"This stuff is nothing. This is just nothing, man."

PDT Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- A bill that requires dogs and cats taken from an animal shelter to be implanted with microchips for identity purposes has passed the state Senate.

The legislation by Democratic Sen. Ted Lieu of Torrance would require owners of an animal that is claimed or adopted from a shelter to implant a microchip. Lieu says it will improve the odds of reuniting lost pets with their owners.

His bill is supported by the Human Society of the United States, but a coalition of pet owners says it is concerned the microchips can cause tumors and cancers in animals.

Lawmakers passed SB702 on a 31-6 vote Tuesday. The bill now moves to the Assembly.

NATIONAL REPORT — As the cost of owning a pet—and running a veterinary practice—rises, more pet owners are turning to third-party payment plans to keep their animals healthy.

In fact, a new study by Packaged Facts indicates that sales of pet insurance policies are actually growing faster than the sales of veterinary services.

Following a jump of 27 percent from 2007 to 2008, pet insurance sales rose 16 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to Packaged Facts. Sales of veterinary services rose 10 percent during the same year.

The growth is not expected to end, estimates Packaged Facts, which says pet insurance sales in the United States could climb toward $760 million by 2014. An earlier Packaged Facts estimate cited by the North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA) places total pet insurance sales at $1.1 billion by 2012.

The recession may have prevented the pet insurance industry from reaching that mark, which was predicted in 2007 before the recession escalated. With only an estimated 1 percent of cats and dogs insured, the study concludes there is certainly room for pet insurance to grow as the economy improves.

Pet insurance sales grew a total of 21 percent over the four years—from 2005 to 2009—studied in the Packaged Facts' report. Total sales in the United States reached almost $303 million in 2009, more than doubling the 2005 sales of $143 million.

The Packaged Facts report suggests that more choices are helping the pet-insurance industry grow. Although pet insurance pioneer Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) leads the category, according to Packaged Facts, more than a half-dozen new companies have introduced insurance products to the market over the last five years. Some of these have unique strengths because of partnerships with big-name brands like Purina and American Kennel Club or retail channels such as http://Petfinder.com/ and Petco.

The report also includes data on who is buying pet insurance. Nearly 7 percent of dogs who are taken to the veterinarian three or more times per year are covered by insurance. So are 5.3 percent of dogs belonging to a household with an income of $60,000 or more, the Packaged Facts report states. About 5 percent of large-dog owners purchase pet insurance, as well as 4.5 percent of owners who spend $240 or more per year on dog-related expenses.

The full report, "Pet Insurance in North America," is available at http://packagedfacts.com/.

In the latest investigation involving a Los Angeles city agency, officials have launched a probe into the disappearance of nearly 40 dogs, cats and other animals from a Lincoln Heights shelter.

Brenda Barnette, general manager of the Animal Services Department, said 64 animals have disappeared from six shelters in roughly a year. Of that total, 39 were housed at the city's North Central shelter on Lacy Street — a missing rate considered unusually high.

Although some animals could have been incorrectly listed as missing because of clerical errors, at least some have "wrongly disappeared," Barnette said. Many of the missing animals were considered "highly adoptable" and officials are trying to determine if any were stolen and sold for a profit.

"They were the young ones, the cute ones," Barnette said. "They were ones that would have been likely to have been sold or be a nice gift for someone." The majority of the unaccounted-for animals were dogs, Barnette said.

In April, officials turned the matter over to the Los Angeles Police Department, as well as the city Personnel Department, which has a team of administrative investigators. Since then, the animal services agency has added new locks at the North Central shelter and changed some of the personnel assigned there.

Barnette would not say if any employees had been placed on leave.

Sarah Hamilton, spokeswoman for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, had few details on the investigation but confirmed that Barnette had asked for help with the probe. "She wants to have a well-run department, and when she saw this discrepancy she came to the mayor's office and asked for assistance," Hamilton said.

Animal Services is among several city agencies currently under scrutiny. At the Department of Building and Safety, FBI agents have arrested two building inspectors on suspicion of soliciting bribes and demanded personnel information on 10 others.

At the Department of Transportation, two traffic officers were put on leave in April as part of an investigation into whether they appeared in a pornographic video while in their official city uniforms. And at the city's housing authority, former board President Beatriz Stotzer is the subject of a district attorney's inquiry into possible conflicts of interest.

Stotzer resigned abruptly Friday. Her lawyer said she has recused herself from agency decisions when necessary.

Also on Tuesday, a team of seven auditors from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development showed up at the city's housing authority to comb through documents, including six years' worth of minutes involving the agency's board.

Not all adorable animals make good pets. Wild animals demand exceptional pet parenting. Mature wallabies, a pint-sized version of the kangaroo, can weigh up to 50 pounds and grow a three-foot long tail. In Woodinville, Washington, high school freshman, Cole Porter (yes, that is his real name) worked odd jobs to help pay for Marley, his pet wallaby.

Marley is very affectionate and as videos show, has bonded to Cole. Mom Colleen loves having animals in the house, even exotic pets like Marley, who needs his wallaby diaper changed 3 to 4 times a day. When Marley arrived from Fall City Wallaby Ranch, he weighed 4 pounds. Being a marsupial, for the first few months he lived in a soft pouch and was bottle fed six times a day. That meant Marley became a family affair. Mom would sling the pouch around her neck and take Marley shopping, or Cole's brother, a college student would take Marley to classes.

Not everyone is as enthused about having wild animals as pets. King County animal authorities ban some wild animals such as bears and crocodiles, but wallabies are not mentioned so Marley is in the clear. Woodland Park Zoo in nearby Seattle will not accept wild animals from owners who want to give them up. They only have funding for the planned additions to their wild animal population. The City of Seattle bans any exotic animal that might do harm if they got out. Marley did get out and was gone for two days. Wallabies are difficult to train and unlike dogs, cannot find their way home. Colleen says "(Marley)... is as dumb as a post."

He will not always be a house pet. Now that the weather is warmer, Marley will have a new outside home enclosed by 6-foot fences to keep him from hopping out. When the weather turns cold again, the family will welcome him back into the house. By then he could be 3 1/2 feet tall. Imagine a six-year-old with spring-loaded feet and an unruly three-foot long tail bounding around the house. The Porters are good with that and have no regrets welcoming Marley the Wallaby into their lives.

It's everywhere.

The north woods of Maine. The mountains of Utah. The 'burbs of Chicago. All of those places, previously thought out-of-reach and safe, are in fact suffering the ravages of the insidious march. Or, more precisely, the pets living there are.

Heartworm disease, the nasty, strength-sapping, potentially deadly assault on animals limited mostly to the South up until the last decade, has surged its way throughout the nation, according to recently released results from the American Heartworm Society (AHS). The every-three-years survey, which tracks heartworm incidence from data supplied by more than 5,000 veterinary clinics, has documented cases in every state, says Wallace Graham, a veterinarian in Corpus Christi, Texas, and president of the AHS.

"It's troubling," this relentless spread, says Graham, "especially when prevention is so simple."

That simple thing to which he refers is heartworm prevention medication, which generally runs about $50 to $100 a year, depending on the brand and weight of the dog.

The case for taking the prevention route, regardless of where you live, is pretty simple: Any dog (or cat, for that matter, it's now known) that isn't on a preventive protocol can be infected when bitten by a mosquito carrying the parasite — which the mosquito picked up when it bit another infected animal. The parasite takes up residence in the animal's pulmonary arteries and heart, ultimately leading to awful trouble breathing, lung disease, issues with other organs and heart failure. Treatment to rid dogs of heartworm (there isn't one for cats) is harsh: an arsenic-based drug kills the parasite, costs $600 to $1,200, and the dog must be confined in a crate for a month or more while the heartworms die off and dissolve (because exercise or excitement can prompt embolism).

Another argument for the preventive protocol: An infected animal is a virtual Petri dish for spreading the disease to others near and far.

There was a time when vets in areas where mosquitoes disappear for six or more months a year — places such as New England, the mountains of the West, and the Northern tier states, for example — recommended six-month, summer-only schedules of preventive meds. Some of them still do (and some have shifted to nine-month protocols).

But AHS says that less than year-round prevention everywhere is bad because:

•Many areas are experiencing warm weather earlier in spring and later in fall than in years past, meaning mosquitoes can emerge unexpectedly.

There are warm micro-climates that support mosquitoes even in cold regions.

Owners increasingly take their pets on vacation, often to areas where mosquitoes are active.

Companies that produce heartworm prevention will pay for a good chunk of the treatment in the rare case that a dog develops heartworm disease if vet records show drug purchases indicate the animal was on the preventive year-round.

So even though many owners and some vets still don't follow the year-round recommendation, "thinking that the cold or dry climate they live in makes such vigilance unnecessary," says Graham, "we can cite case after case of heartworm-positive pets living in areas assumed to be low-risk for heartworm."

For both dogs and cats, heartworm disease may not be obvious early on. But eventually, dogs will develop a persistent cough, fatigue and weight loss, the AHS says, as the worms grow to the point that they literally strangle dogs' ability to breathe and pump blood and survive.

Cats, when invaded by the parasite, may vomit, gag, have difficult or rapid breathing, and show lethargy and weight loss. The respiratory symptoms are often mistaken for feline asthma or allergic bronchitis, when they're actually the result of a syndrome defined quite recently as heartworm-associated respiratory disease.

"This is a much different disease in cats," says Graham.

Most cats spontaneously cure themselves over a period of months (though sudden death occurs in a few), but significant lung damage often occurs, and supportive therapy as they heal can be necessary, including prednisone, IV fluids, oxygen therapy and cardiovascular drugs.

The heartworm society — which since 1974 has been tracking the disease, advancing the study and treatment of it, and making information available to vets and consumers — is funded in part by the many companies that make heartworm-prevention medications. This could be regarded, of course, as a moderator as folks process how risky one's particular situation is and what steps should be taken, especially when living outside the South (where dogs die of the disease in huge numbers, and 70% of some shelters' animals are heartworm positive).

Graham knows the funding can raise skepticism. But, he says, it's from many companies, not one; they exert no pressure regarding how the society goes about educating the public and the veterinarian community; and AHS' recommendations are based on "peer-reviewed scientifically documented research."

AHS' website, www.heartwormsociety.org, has a wealth of information.

There's little scarier than the thought of a pet ingesting some of your prescription medicine. I take Zyrtech (not prescription) and whenever I drop one of the little buggers, I pounce on the bouncing little pill like a maniac, before a furry one can pop it into its mouth.

Well, the Pet Poison Helpline just released some helpful info about what would happen (and what you should do) if a pet eats some of what are the top five most popular drugs in the country: Lipitor, Nexium, Plavix, Advair Diskus and Abilify.

"Nearly half of the calls we receive are for pets that have accidentally ingested human medications," Dr. Justine Lee, the associate director of Veterinary Services at Pet Poison Helpline said in a statement. "Recognizing the most commonly prescribed drugs in the U.S. and how they affect pets can help pet owners be more cognizant of potential dangers associated with these drugs."

Some drugs cause only minor symptoms and some can be potentially life threatening. Here is exactly what the helpline has to say about each of the Top 5 meds:

Lipitor: Used to reduce cholesterol levels. When pets get into it, only mild side effects are seen, such as vomiting and diarrhea. Lipitor is not considered to have high toxicity levels for pets.

Nexium: It is an anti-ulcer medication and proton-pump inhibitor that results in decreased gastric acid secretion. While it is utilized in veterinary medicine for some pets, mild side effects can include vomiting and diarrhea. Pet owners of dogs or cats that get into this drug should watch their pet closely, but not be alarmed since symptoms will generally subside on their own.

Plavix: A drug that affects platelets in humans, inhibiting clot formation and reducing the risk of stroke. When pets get into Plavix, it has a wide margin of safety and generally is not considered to be acutely toxic. Only mild vomiting or diarrhea.

Advair Diskus: Often used for treating asthma and administered through an inhaler. Because inhalers contain many doses, dogs that chew into them are exposed to massive amounts of the drug. This often results in heart arrhythmias, an elevated heart rate, agitation, vomiting and even acute collapse. Severe electrolyte abnormalities such as very low potassium levels are likely and can be life-threatening without immediate veterinary treatment.

Abilify: Used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and clinical depression. It is important to keep this drug out of the reach of pets, as ingestion can result in profound lethargy, vomiting, hyperthermia, significant changes in heart rate and blood pressure, and seizures. If a pet ingests this drug, immediate veterinary attention is needed.

The helpline advises people to keep human meds away from pet meds -- apparently accidentally mixing them up is common. They advise against pill boxes -- which can seem like rattle toys to dogs and cats and putting meds into plastic baggies which can be easily chewed through.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala (Reuters) - The deluge of pets displaced by tornadoes and flood waters this spring is straining animal shelters in the Southeast.

Nearly a month after deadly tornadoes ripped through Alabama, the Metro Animal Shelter in Tuscaloosa is home to more than 400 animals, twice as many as before the storms.

Some of the 172 individual kennels at the Birmingham-Jefferson County Animal Control shelter are housing as many as four dogs or cats each.

"We have easily 350 animals here," said Phil Doster, the shelter's adoption and rescue coordinator.

There is no statewide count of how many animals were rescued in Alabama, but figures provided by local shelters offer another glimpse into the widespread devastation caused by storms that killed 238 people in the state on April 27.

Emergency policy changes have allowed shelters to keep animals longer than usual to give owners time to locate them.

"Certainly people have suffered a phenomenal loss in the last few weeks," said Mindy Gilbert, Alabama's director for the Humane Society of the United States. "For many, many of those people, the number one priority was finding their pets."

The Birmingham shelter's normal "stray hold" policy is to either adopt out or euthanize animals in seven days.

Under the revised protocol, "we will not euthanize or adopt out these tornado dogs or cats. Our goal is to reunite these animals with their owners," said Doster, who estimated about 40 percent of the shelter's rescues had been reclaimed.

The shelter worker recently witnessed one such reunion.

He had found a 7-year-old German shepherd named Alex guarding another dog's lifeless body in the tornado rubble in Concord, but couldn't locate the homeowner whose name he got from a receipt.

Last week, Doster learned that the dog's owner, Eddie Gordon, and his wife and 20-month-old son had all been hospitalized with injuries sustained during the twister.

A Facebook page of lost-and-found dogs led Gordon to retrieve Alex from the shelter on Thursday.

"This one is especially emotional for me because I found her and brought her in," said Doster, who has his own dog's paw prints tattooed on his hands.

The animal shelter in flooded Vicksburg, Mississippi, has taken in dozens of dogs, cats, horses, goats and chickens from residents who live in low-lying areas.

"The worst part about the timing is that this is the time of year we get ... irresponsible people bringing their unwanted litters in," said shelter director Georgia Lynn.

She is directing those people to the animal shelter in Jackson to make room for pets displaced by the flood waters.

Shelters in Alabama have received donated animal crates from around the country, and volunteers from as far as New York and Hawaii have flown in to help, Gilbert said on Sunday.

Gilbert, a veteran of rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina, said it was important to keep displaced pets close to their homes to increase the chances of reuniting them with their owners.

"That's always one of the challenges because so many people and so many groups want to help," she said.

"But coming in and rescuing the animals and taking them out of their home zones really kind of negates the ability get them back to their owners."

Brea, Calif. (May 24th--, 2011) — Some of the best days for people—weekends, holidays, summer break—turn out to be the worst for pets. Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI), the nation's oldest and largest provider of pet health insurance, recently analyzed its database of more than 485,000 insured pets to find the most dangerous days for pets in 2010. The company tracked accident claims by treatment day across the entire year to discover that, in general, more accidents occur in the summer months, and the most accidents are treated the day after holidays and weekends. Contrary to popular belief, the company did not find any spike in pet accidents treated on or following full moons.

Day - 2010 Number of Accident Claims Treated
1.  Monday, June 7 206
2. Tuesday, September 7 205
3. Monday, June 14 199
4. Tuesday, June 1 193
5. Monday, June 21 188
6. Monday, August 9 183
7. Monday, April 26 179
8. Monday, June 28 179
9. Monday, April 5 173
10. Monday, August 2 171

The amount of accident claims treated spiked following holidays—particularly Labor Day (No. 2), Memorial Day (No. 4) and Easter (No. 9)—and increased overall during the late spring and summer months. June was the most dangerous month of the year, with 4,145 claims for an average of 138 pets treated each day for accidental injuries and five of the Top 10 most dangerous days of the year.  The safest month was December with an average of 108 claims treated each day and only 2 days in the top 50 most dangerous days.

In order to accurately assess the "danger" of a day, the company only analyzed claims submitted for injuries requiring immediate attention, such as broken bones, poisonings, and lacerations. The data revealed that on the average day in 2010, about 118 VPI-insured pets were treated for severe accidental injuries. Of the days of the week, Mondays had the largest average number of pets treated for accidental injuries at 152. Sundays were the lowest at 59. 

"The difference in the number of accidents treated between Sunday and Monday may indicate that treatment is more difficult to find on Sundays and holidays," said Dr. Carol McConnell, vice president and chief veterinary medical officer for VPI. "In case of an off-hours or holiday emergency, pet owners should know where to find the closest 24-hour animal hospital and have a plan for covering unexpected treatment costs. Preparation and timely treatment can make the difference between life and death."

While some people may suspect that full moons cause an increase in emergency room visits and accidental injuries, VPI actually saw a slight decrease in the average number of pets treated for accidental injuries—107—on days with a full moon. There was only one "Friday the Thirteenth" in 2010. VPI received 112 claims for accidental injuries on that day in August, which was below the average for the year, month and for Fridays in general.  For a full breakdown of the data, visit http://on.fb.me/dangerousdays.

Health officials warned New River Valley pet owners to vaccinate against rabies Tuesday after a rise in confirmed cases signaled the need for vigilance.

Fifteen animal infections have been confirmed in the valley this year, equal to all of last year, the Virginia Department of Health said Tuesday.

The data is for Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties and the city of Radford.

Giles County, which has confirmed three rabid raccoons this year, is responding with preventive medicine.

More than 130 pets were vaccinated against rabies in a May 7 clinic held by Giles County Animal Rescue with help from veterinarian Jason Wall, the rescue group reported.

Long-term trends show a 5-year general decline for confirmed rabies cases in Virginia -- from 637 in 2006 to 730 in 2007, 620 in 2008, 564 in 2009 and 573 last year. There are 216 cases on the books so far through May 14, VDH records show.

A virus that primarily infects mammals but can sicken or kill humans, rabies spreads through exposure to the saliva or brain matter of an infected victim. It attacks the nervous system and often results in death. The wild animals most often diagnosed with rabies are raccoons, skunks and foxes. The most common domestic animal diagnosed with rabies is the cat.

However, rabies vaccination prevents infection in cats, dogs, ferrets and some livestock. The cases confirmed so far in the New River Valley this year include two cows and a bobcat among other more often diagnosed animals.

Health officials urge residents to have animals vaccinated against the disease, avoid contact with wild animals including feral cats and monitor wildlife for signs of unusually tame behavior, loss of coordination or staggering.

"Any animal bite should be taken seriously," said Dr. Molly O'Dell, who directs the New River Health District. "If an animal bites you, wash the wound immediately. Call your physician, local health department or animal control agency immediately."

People whose pets are bitten by a wild animal should contact a veterinarian or the local health department.

One of the most frightening thing about owning a pet is when they run away. Here are some ways to make sure you get your pet back.

"The first thing those of us at the Animal Shelter will tell you is that you need to come here and look for your lost pet," said Tim Adams, Executive Director of Young-Williams Animal Center. "But even before that, you need to put signs up in your neighborhood and check with any local veterinarians. Also, check with your neighbors and walk around the neighborhood a little bit."

If that doesn't work, Tim said to head to your local animal shelter.

"We're taking in 40 animals a day," said Adams. "We would encourage you to come probably every other day because if we're taking in 40 animals a day, there's a good chance that if it's not here one day, give it a couple of days and by then someone may have found it and taken it to the animal center."

Young-Williams will also log lost pets in hopes someone might bring the animal in.

"You can register with our lost pets log as well so that if someone might come here with a pet they've found, they can flip through and see 'oh look, there's the dog we picked up'."

In this high tech age, many pet owners are looking to social media and sites like Craigslist to help them find their missing animals.

"We have staff who check Craigslist daily. We've had minor success, maybe a couple of times a month on average, they tell me it' runs in cycles, we'll do 5 in 1 month and then 2 months without any luck."

Still, he cautions pet owners not to rely on one tool for finding their missing animal.

"If they put it on Craigslist and never come down here, they're really limiting their potential to find their lost pet."

Tim also credits microchipping with helping to reunited pets and their owners.

"If an animal has a microchip it's not going to get lost. The problem is if you've microchipped your animal and moved and gotten a new cell phone let's say, and you have haven't called the microchip company to let them know. When we call that number it's not longer in service and we're at a dead end."

Tim said dog owners are far more likely to come and search for their lost pet than cat owners.

"Probably about 10% of dog owners that come in stray get reunited. Less that 1% of the cats that come in get reunited with their owner, so people are not coming to look for cats as much as we would like for them to."

The reunions are especially rewarding for those who work each day with the animals at Young-Williams.

"I will have staff come and tell me 'we've reunited 10 dogs today or 10 animals with their owner' and they're excited about that. It gives them a feeling of hope, a feeling that they've accomplished something. To reunite animals with owners is the fastest, easiest way to feel good about what we're doing."

To its devotees it is 'chiengora', a material that is soft, luxurious and gentle on the skin.

To the rest of us it is known by its more down-at-heel name - dog hair.

A thriving cottage industry has sprung up selling clothes such as mittens, sweaters and socks made of hair that comes from canines.

Dog-hair enthusiasts say that garments are as soft as anything that comes from a sheep and, if you use your own pooches' coat, provide the ultimate way to get closer to your pet.

In response to demand they have started making items to order for dog-lovers who want to wear exactly what they walk.

And in order to avoid the 'smelly dog' stigma, they have even invented their own name for dog hair - chiengora, a term built around the French word for dog that also evokes the luxurious feel of angora wool.

Dog hair is taken from natural shedding or, if the dog will not suffer as a result, it is shaved off. No animals are skinned for their pelts.

Experts say the hair is washed several times in detergent before being spun into yarn to remove the 'doggy' smell.

White long-haired dogs supposedly provide the best yarn, but experts can spin thread out of anything from a Poodle to a Labrador.

Dog hair enthusiast Angella Dirks, from Louisville, Colo, told the Wall St Journal that once you get past the 'smelly dog' phobia, people really open their minds.
Websites now sell the unusual knitwear for customers keen to turn their dog into something a little more useful than just a pet

Websites now sell the unusual knitwear for customers keen to turn their dog into something a little more useful than just a pet

But Kendall Crolius, co-author of 'Knitting With Dog Hair: Better a Sweater From a Dog You Know and Love Than From a Sheep You'll Never Meet' added that it might be a while before the material moves beyond a cottage industry.

'It's not ever going to be a big commercial operation,' she told the WSJ.

'But I think it's going to continue to grow. It makes people smile.
What can I say?'

One of the things hiding dog hair back is the cost - whilst wool and acrylic will set you back about $1.50 an ounce, canine hair is about $12 an ounce, not including the cost of weaving and knitting.

This means that a custom sweater of poodle yarn can cost as much as several hundred dollars.

Another issue is the fear that, when the material gets wet, those caught wearing it will end up smelling like a pooch.

The attitude was summed up by passer-by David Johnson, who inspected the material at a craft fair.

'Just don't wear that in a rain storm, right?' he laughed.

Jennifer Aniston has bought a luxury New York penthouse in her dog's name, according to reports.

The Just Go With It star reportedly inked a deal to purchase three separate units in a building in Manhattan's trendy West Village neighbourhood last month.

Now it has emerged that the 42-year-old actress bought the property for a reported $4.95m using the name of her beloved corgi-terrier mix, Norman.

Property records reveal the apartments were formally purchased by Norman's Nest Trust.

Aniston's business manager, Bruce Lagnese, is also a signee on the mortgage documents.

The 1200sq ft penthouse, which previously belonged to celebrity hairdresser Sally Hershberger, is on the 18th floor of the building and boasts views of the Empire State Building. It also has an 800sq ft terrace that overlooks New York Harbour, but has just one bedroom and one bathroom.

As well as the penthouse, the former Friends star snapped up two other small units on the 17th floor of the building. It is thought that she will combine all three units to make one sprawling duplex apartment.

A representative for Aniston was unavailable for comment.

Home Depot is banning pets from all their Canadian stores after an Ottawa employee had the tip of her nose bitten off by a customer's dog.

The company says it is moving forward with the policy in the interest of employee and customer safety.

"We believe this is the best decision for the shopping enjoyment and safety of all customers," the company said in a statement released on Thursday.

Home Depot says the policy has been announced at all stores and the change will take place over the next few weeks.

By May 16, no pets will be allowed in any Home Depot store in Canada, with the exception of service animals.

The updated policy follows an incident involving an employee at an Ottawa Home Depot store on Cyrville Road.

Anne Riel was greeting customers last week when she welcomed a woman and her pet Shih-Tzu into the store.

The dog was in a shopping cart and when Riel bent down to pet the dog, it jumped up, biting off the tip of her nose.

Riel was rushed to hospital where she received plastic surgery. She got her stitches removed Wednesday and her nose is healing well.

"It's a fluke thing -- who gets bit by a dog when shopping, but its safety number one," Riel told CTV Ottawa on Thursday.

Although Riel is grateful for Home Depot's quick response, she says she will miss some of the pets that came through the store.

"It was one incident, it's not all dogs," she said. "There was one that came in this morning; he came and gave me kisses."

The dog that bit Riel must now be muzzled. The dog's owner has also been fined $610.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Alyshah Hasham

More stories emerge from Japan of valiant rescues and the ongoing care of the animal survivors from the tsunami. In a struggle against sometimes daunting odds, dedicated volunteers make the difference, rounding up lost pets and making sure they get medical care, food and love as they are attempted to be reunited with their guardians. Below, the latest on the ground in Sendai. – Global Animal

SENDAI, Japan — Hungry, hurt and separated from owners who are either dead or in evacuation centres, hundreds of family pets are struggling to survive in the desolation of Japan's tsunami-ravaged northeast coast.

Among the many rescue teams sent from around the world to search for survivors and bodies after Japan's worst natural disaster for nearly a century, a handful of specialised animal rescue groups have also been at work.

In the days immediately after the March 11 tsunami that wiped out dozens of thriving coastal towns, the prospects looked grim.

"In the hardest hit areas, we saw no animal life whatsoever," said Ashley Fruno, from animal rights group PETA.

"We did see some paw prints in the mud at one point, but they didn't lead anywhere, and we could not find any animals nearby."

Slowly but surely, however, abandoned pets began to emerge, often from damaged homes where they had managed to ride out the destructive force of the tsunami.

Many pet owners left their cats and dogs when the tsunami warning sounded, never imagining that the wave would be as large and powerful as it eventually was.

The animals were left to fend for themselves in a hostile environment with no food or fresh water.

Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS), a hastily assembled coalition of animal welfare groups, has spent the last two weeks searching what's left of the worst-hit coastal towns.

The teams, which include several volunteer vets, provide food and treatment for injured animals and try to find temporary shelters for those that have lost their owners.

They also visit evacuation centres where those people who escaped the tsunami with their pets are having trouble holding on to them in difficult, cramped surroundings where animals are not always welcome.

"There have been some problems in the centres, with tensions between those with pets and those without," said vet Kazumasu Sasaki.

"Some people have pet allergies, and they complain that the dogs are barking and fighting. It's understandable."

There have been cases of people choosing to stay in their ruined houses because shelters refused to accommodate pets, and JEARS coordinator Isabella Gallaon-Aoki said it was difficult to persuade those in the centres that their animals would be better off in a temporary shelter.

"People here see pets as family members. For some, after everything that has happened, their pet is the only thing they can cling on to — the only thing that brings them comfort," she said.

Timo Takazawa, who survived the tsunami along with her husband, refused to give up their dog, Momo, despite complaints from other evacuees in their crowded shelter in the city of Sendai.

"When we escaped from the tsunami we didn't take anything, just Momo," said Takazawa, 65.

"I can't imagine not being here together. If anybody said to me I couldn't keep Momo here, we would leave with her, we would go somewhere else."

Animals have featured in a number of unusual tsunami survival stories, most notably a porpoise rescued from a rice field after it was washed two kilometres (1.2 miles) inland.

Then there was the case of Tashirojima island in Miyagi Prefecture, known locally as "Cat Island" for its feral feline population that vastly outnumbers the 100 or so human residents.

The tiny island was engulfed by the tsunami — but a rescue team that flew in by helicopter reported that both cats and people had come out unscathed.

In Sendai, tsunami warden Mr Kamata tried to return for his dog — a large pedigree Akita — after warning neighbours about the incoming wave, but found his way blocked by the churning water.

"I thought there was no way he could have survived. It was terribly sad," Kamata said.

But later that night, as he sheltered in a refuge with hundreds of other residents, Kamata heard that a dog had been found outside.

"It was him. He'd swum and found me. He'd ingested a lot of sea water and kept throwing up and I thought I was going to lose him anyway, but he pulled through," Kamata said.

Heartwarming stories of survival aside, PETA's Fruno said that animal welfare groups would be busy in tsunami-affected areas for some time to come.

"Recovery from this disaster is going to take months, if not years," she said.

"People in the hardest hit areas will continue to need pet food and veterinary supplies, as will the animal shelters, which will also need to house animals until their homeless guardians are able to find somewhere to live."

WASHINGTON -- United Pet Group is voluntarily recalling approximately 1.2 million aquarium heaters because of potential fire and laceration hazards.

A wiring problem can cause the Marineland Stealth and Stealth Pro aquarium heaters to overheat or break during normal use, damaging the aquarium and posing fire and laceration hazards. Overheating can cause the heater to shatter or the aquarium glass to break.

The Cincinnati company said Thursday that there have been 38 reports of fires that caused property damage and 45 reports of broken aquarium glass. There has been one report of an eye injury suffered when the heater forcefully broke in a consumer's hands.

The heaters are black plastic tubes and have a temperature adjustment knob at the top. The model name "Stealth" appears in white letters or "Stealth Pro" in red letters on the heater's side. The model number and wattage rating are printed below the model name. Stealth Pro heaters were also sold as part of aquarium starter kits.

The heaters were sold for between $20 and $300 at pet stores nationwide and online from January 2004 through February 2011.

The Internet can be a great source of information, but always go to a vet

Pets are increasingly being diagnosed and having treatment protocols developed by folks without veterinary training: their owners.

Feeling bolstered by the abundance of advice offered on websites or in online forums -- usually by people with a similar lack of training or expertise -- owners often are responding to their animals' ailments, injuries and emergencies by heading to their computers instead of the vet clinic.

And there are sometimes unhappy results, veterinarians across the country say.

"There's great risk of unnecessary pain, expense or worse," says veterinarian Marty Becker, who practices in Coeur D'Alene and Sandpoint, Idaho, and has written several books, including the just-released Your Dog: The Owner's Manual (Grand Central Life & Style, $25.99).

This ask-a-fellow-pet-owner-online approach has become so common, he says, it's become "the new normal."

Becker calls it the "vets vs. Net" phenomenon; veterinarian Nancy Kay, internal medicine specialist at the VCA Animal Care Center in Rohnert Park, Calif., calls it the "Get Dr. Google's Opinion" approach to pet care.

And though many veterinarians say they appreciate the Internet because it broadens clients' knowledge base and presents, for example, cutting-edge options for chronic conditions and support from other owners dealing with the same heartaches, too many people use it as a primary source when they have a sick pet, "and they put things off until it's too late," Becker says.

He knows that when a vet says such things, some people assume it's merely to keep revenue constant. But he often encounters the unfortunate fallout of delays.

Many conditions that make a dog or cat miserable can be quickly and relatively cheaply addressed with a veterinary visit and proper medications, he says. There's the dog that suffered for six years with feet so itchy he licked and chewed constantly. The owners, concluding it was allergies, used countless anti-itch products and shifted food regularly. Finally, weary of the wee-hours sounds of foot-chewing, they sought vet help. The dog had a "carpet of yeast and staph in his feet," Becker says. Within 48 hours of being prescribed an antifungal and an antibiotic, the itching disappeared.
Sometimes, though, the veterinary visit comes too late.

A dog arrived comatose at Becker's clinic after the owners had concluded a minor stomach upset was causing the non-stop vomiting. In fact, he'd swallowed a chunk of carpeting that lodged in the intestine, it ruptured, the abdomen filled with pus, and when they finally sought treatment, the dog couldn't be saved.

"Sometimes hours or minutes matter," Becker says.

"People are crestfallen when, despite their best -- though delayed -- intention, and our best -- though very late -- efforts, we can't save them," Becker says.

"Responsibly surfing (the Web) is fabulous," Kay says, but that "does not take the place of a call or visit to your veterinarian."

Kay, author of Speaking for Spot (Trafalgar Square Books, $19.95), a consumer guide on how to advocate for your pets, often advises vets at conferences how to help clients use online sources wisely.

"Clients will surf," she says, and it's best if vets instruct them how to find reliable sites, so they don't find and believe information that causes "a prognosis to become bleaker."

Two tips she offers: "If a site has stuff for sale on it, skip it." And "when you plug in symptoms, follow them immediately by 'veterinary school' or 'college of veterinary medicine.' "

And in an emergency, don't go first to the computer.

BOSTON - A long-stalled proposal to curb domestic violence by permitting judges to include pets in restraining orders may get a fresh look during next week's budget debate in the Massachusetts House.

The plan has been filed by Rep. Cory Atkins (D-Concord) as an amendment to the $30.45 billion spending document, delighting animal protection advocates and veterinarians, as well as groups seeking to reduce and prevent domestic abuse.

"It has been our experience working with animal control officers and veterinarians that often if a partner or a human member of a household is abused, often a pet is abused," said Susan Curtis, executive director of the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association. "Sometimes the abuse of a pet is a precursor to abuse of a member of a household, or vice versa."

The proposal, filed as standalone legislation by Sen. Katherine Clark (D-Melrose) and supported by 41 co-sponsors, would permit judges to transfer control and care of a pet to a person who files a restraining order. In addition, a judge may order an alleged abuser to "refrain from abusing, threatening, taking, interfering with, transferring, encumbering, concealing, harming, or otherwise disposing of the animal."

"Many people will not leave or delay leaving a violent relationship because they're afraid of what will happen to a pet," said Kara Holmquist, director of advocacy for the Massachusetts Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "People care about their pets. They don't want to leave them in a situation where they could be harmed. This language would help address that."

Holmquist said that under existing law, judges are often unsure whether they have the power to include pets in restraining orders because pets, under the law, are considered property.

Domestic violence advocates say the policy would help protect battered men and women who are often afraid to leave abusive relationships.

"There are circumstances where the pet is used sort of as a way to manipulate somebody into staying," said Maureen Gallagher, policy director for Jane Doe Inc., an anti-domestic violence group.

Clark's bill (S 682) is awaiting a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. The same proposal filed last session died without action in that committee.

Read more: http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x528720968/Budget-provision-would-permit-pets-to-be-included-in-restraining-orders#ixzz1KeRNGB6S

Eighty-one pets that were rescued from an Arizona animal hoarder arrived in Denver early Friday morning.

On March 23, 200 dogs, 26 cats, two geese and one pig were removed from a 40-acre property in eastern Arizona, according to the Denver Dumb Friends League.

The Humane Society of the United States helped the Apache County Sheriff's Office remove the animals from the property.

Most of the dogs removed from the property are hounds, shepherds, huskies and retrievers. The dogs were living in dilapidated outdoor pens filled with feces. Several dogs had open wounds, mange, malnourishment and matted coats.

All the animals were taken to an emergency shelter in St. Johns, Ariz., where they were treated by veterinarians.

Investigators learned that the animals' owner, Mary Port, 86, previously lived in Simla and ran the Colorado Animal Refuge. She faces animal-cruelty charges.

Port left Colorado after she was issued a cease-and-desist order demanding that she provide proper care and sanitary living conditions for the animals on her property.

The 81 animals were at the Dumb Friends League, at 2080 S. Quebec St., which will distribute some to other shelters.

The Dumb Friends League will hold 32 dogs; the Humane Society of Boulder Valley will take 12 dogs and six cats; the Longmont Humane Society will receive three dogs; the Larimer Humane Society will take eight dogs; and the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region will get 20 dogs.

Some animals may be available for adoption next week, but many may need in-shelter training or foster care for socialization.

The Dumb Friends League is offering $50 adoption fees for all cats and dogs through June 30.

Meanwhile, in El Paso County, officials announced that 64 dogs and puppies were rescued Tuesday after an animal-cruelty investigation.

The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office searched a property east of Colorado Springs.

Officers discovered horses, fowl, pigs and dogs living in feces and surrounded by garbage. The animals had little food and water, and many needed medical care.

(Reuters Life!) - Americans may be clipping money-saving coupons and delaying buying a new home, but when it comes to their pets they're spending more than ever, according to a new survey.

Between trips to the vet, specialty foods, treats and toys, pet insurance and even parties, Americans have no compunction about opening up their wallets to keep Rex, Rover or even the house lizard healthy and happy.

Flying in the face of economic woes, between two and five percent of pet owners said they spent more on their pets last year, according to the poll by the non-profit American Pet Products Association (APPA).

Americans are so concerned about their pets that 16 percent of dog owners and 13 percent of cat owners said their animal's medical treatment would take priority over their own.

"Although the economy has been a major factor for many industries, the pet industry continues to see unprecedented growth," said APPA President Bob Vetere.

"The survey reveals pet owners are willing to spend money on their pets despite a downturn in the economy."

About 73 million U.S. households, or about two-thirds of the total, have one or more pets, the survey showed, with dogs and cats accounting for about three-quarters of pets.

Animal owners cite companionship and love as their chief attributes, but dog owners increasingly mention stress relief and exercise, such as walking or jogging with them, as benefits of ownership.

Fish are also stress relievers, in addition to being fun to watch, while reptiles get points for being quiet, as well as being fun to have around.

But all that comes at a cost, the survey showed.

Pet owners are projected to spend a whopping $12.2 billion on veterinary cares in 2011, up from $11 billion last year and $8.2 billion five years ago.

Cat owners in particular are making more trips to the vet -- 2.4 visits in 2010 compared to 2.1 in 2008 -- and spending $423 on surgery, more than $278 in 2008.

Doggie-gift spending was up a reported 30 percent, from $56 million to $73 million, while nearly 10 percent of owners said they had hosted parties for their beloved canines.

The cost of buying a dog has also spiked from $121 to $364 due to the increased price of pure breeds.

So just who is getting, keeping and paying for all these pets? According to the survey, pet owners are more apt to be defined as traditional families, and more likely to be younger, and married, than the overall population.

And while Hispanic and African-American segments of the population are among the fastest-growing, they have lower than average incidence of pet ownership.

Pets have such charm—why is it so few photos of them show it? In most snapshots, pets look stiff, posed and vaguely uncomfortable. Just — come to think of it — like most people in posed shots.

Grace Chon, a pet photographer in Los Angeles, has made a business of capturing a pet's personality in casually artful portraits.

She has offered tips that any pet owner can use to immortalize the dog or cat with a mantel-worthy portrait.

1) Let the animal be an animal: Photograph your pet where it likes to hang out, whether it's the backyard or the foot of the bed. And give the pet its favorite toys. That's one way to capture your pet showing its personality — have it doing what it likes to do best. It's all about making the Rex or Whiskers comfortable.

2) Pay your models: "I try to keep this as fun and engaging for the pets as possible. I use very high-reward treats," said Ms. Chon. Her goodie bag often includes freeze-dried steak and dehydrated organic duck. "I call it doggie crack," she said. "The pet is going, ‘Oh, my god! I have to pay attention to this lady! She has amazing food!'"

3) Get to know them: Animals often find being stared at intimidating — and to them the camera can look like a big unblinking eye. Give your pet treats while you are holding the camera. Work up to holding the camera to eye level with the pet. If they flinch at the shutter sound, click the camera, then give them a treat until they adjust. "It's all about getting them incrementally used to you." Most of all, avoid using the flash.

4) Light lightly: Outdoors, Ms. Chon prefers to shoot in full shade and indoors in a room filled with diffuse light. That way details, like individual strands of light-colored fur, don't get lost to overexposure.

5) Be patient: "Animals are so unpredictable. I don't go in and say, ‘I'm going to shoot a dancing chihuahua today,' although that has happened. Get in position with the pet, compose your frame, then wait. You have to be willing to sit until the pet is, say, done chewing its toy before you get the right expression. It can't be rushed or planned unless …"

6) Shoot and repeat: If the pet can be enticed to repeat a photogenic pose, don't hesitate. "I will recreate moments," said Ms. Chon "I am totally fine with, ‘Hey, lets do that again.'"

7) Stay focused: Ms. Chon doesn't carry a giant gear bag. She uses a Canon 5D Mark II professional camera, mostly with a 50mm f1.4 lens, which is crucial to getting those softly focused backgrounds. That way, the pet is at the literal and figurative focus of the shot, even if the family wants to make an appearance. "Owners like to be in the photos, but the pets are the heroes. So the owners are there, they are a part of the story, but the emphasis is always on the pets."

8) Retouch with a catlike tread: Ms. Chon shoots in RAW format, which she said could leave images looking a little drab. She gently increases contrast and uses the vibrance control to intensify colors, not saturation, which she said looks too artificial. "I don't think your photos should look like you have done work in Photoshop," said Ms. Chon. "You have to use restraint."

While these tips can work wonders for pets, they may apply to working with any difficult subject, whether squirmy children or a cranky uncle. Keep those organic duck treats in mind.

Ottumwa, Iowa - Authorities seized ten dogs and seven cats late Friday afternoon from Noelle Stanbridge. A concerned citizen had videotaped Stanbridge allegedly hitting one of her dogs 15 times with a long stick.

Stanbridge was arrested and charged with animal cruelty, seven counts of failure to obtain a dog license, three counts of failure to vaccinate a dog and one count of operating as a dealer without a license.

The suspect denies abusing her dog, and wrote on her Facebook page that she was just disciplining the dog. Facebook fans took exception to her statements and were outraged at her behavior.

The animals are being held while authorities investigate.

Pets are living longer and healthier lives thanks to pet owners' willingness to provide veterinary care, specialty foods, supplements and alternative treatment options. In fact, more than one-half of dog and cat owners report they would leap into action for an injured pet. Pet health insurance continues to be an area of growth as pet owners seek additional ways to ensure their pet's well-being. According to the American Pet Products Association's (APPA) new 2011-2012 National Pet Owners Survey, the number of U.S. households that own a pet has increased by 2.1% to an all-time high of 72.9 million.

Since the inception of the APPA National Pet Owners Survey in 1988, dogs and cats have accounted for nearly three-quarters of all households that own a pet. The actual number of pet owning households is significantly higher than it was 20 years ago, as is the overall number of U.S. households. While the actual number of households owning any type of pet has increased in the past 20 years, the proportion of ownership has remained relatively stable.

Both the number of pet owning households and those with multiple pets have contributed to the overall rise in total pet ownership. According to the survey, there are more than 78 million dogs, 86.4 million cats, 151.1 million freshwater fish, 8.61 million saltwater fish, 16.2 million birds, 16 million small animals, 13 million reptiles and 7.9 million equines owned in the U.S. Approximately four-out-of-ten pet owning households in the U.S. are multiple pet owners.

"Although the economy has been a major factor for many industries, the pet industry continues to see unprecedented growth and diversity. The survey reveals pet owners are willing to spend money on their pets despite a downturn in the economy," said Bob Vetere, president of APPA. "More products and services are available than ever to assist in responsibly caring for a pet, so it is becoming increasingly easier to add another pet to your household."

Below are just a few interesting facts pulled from the extensive survey that tracks hundreds of pet ownership trends:

Benefits And Drawbacks Of Owning Pets
The survey shows that pet owners are extremely consistent with attributes they consider beneficial to pet ownership. The top benefit of dog, cat, bird, small animal and equine ownership remains companionship/love/company/affection. There's also a significant gain in the percentage of dog owners stating relaxation/relieves stress and walking/jogging/exercise as a benefit of ownership. Fish are loved for their appearance and being fun to watch and for offering their owners relaxation/stress relieving benefits. Reptile owners reported the two principal benefits associated with reptile ownership as being quiet and fun to watch and have in the household.

Amount Spent On Pets In The Past 12 Months
Excluding equines, dog owners spent the most to purchase their pet at $364, which is significantly more than the price reported in 2008 ($121). The increased price of pure breed dogs is definitely a contributing factor in this increase. The greatest expenses for dog and cat owners are food, kennel/boarding, routine veterinary visits and surgical veterinary visits. The greatest expenses for freshwater fish owners are ponds and expenses associated with owning them. Saltwater fish owners spend the most each year on aquariums, aquarium stands and other supplies. The greatest costs associated with owning a bird are cages, routine veterinary visits and surgical veterinary visits. Owners of small animals and reptiles paid the most for food, other supplies and routine veterinary visits. The greatest expenses for equines are trainers/exercisers, farriers, routine veterinary visits and surgical veterinary visits. There are some estimates that project pet owners spend an average of $11,000 per pet during its lifetime, even in times of recession. The pet industry as a whole is expected to have spending exceed 50 billion in 2011.

Pet Obesity And Food
The use of specialty formulated food for dogs notes significant declines in 2010 (to 53 percent from 67 percent). Cat owners using a specially formulated food are down only slightly (to 60 percent from 62 percent). The percentage of dogs considered overweight by their veterinarian is 12 percent. Based on the total number of dogs in the U.S., that equals 9.4 million overweight dogs versus 10 million dogs in 2008. Among cat owners, there is a significant decline in the percentage considered overweight (to 14 percent from 21 percent), which translates to 12.1 million cats down from 19.6 million cats in 2008. Fewer overweight cats may be related to a decrease among those eating a special diet (to 9 percent from 14 percent). There is a gain in the percentage of birds considered malnourished or overweight to 1 percent from 0.3 percent in 2008. However birds on a special diet doubled.

Caring For A Pet's Health
APPA projects that this year pet owners are expected to spend $12.2 billion for veterinary care, up from $11 billion last year and $8.2 billion five years ago. Bird owners reported the same number of visits as last year (2.0), but spent significantly more on surgical visits ($190 up from $55). Owners also took their cats to the veterinarian more often in 2010 (2.4) than in 2008 (2.1) and spent an average of $423 on surgical veterinary visits as compared to $278 in 2008. The average number of times a dog has been taken to the veterinarian in the past 12 months is almost three (2.7), which is nearly identical to the number of visits in 2008 (2.8). Interestingly, only 5 percent of dogs have been given a homeopathic remedy.

Pet Travel
While most pet owners will ask family, friends or neighbors to come to their home to care for their pets when they are traveling, an increased number will bring their pet along. Almost a quarter of owners reported they took their dog with them in the car when they traveled for at least two nights. Additionally, 4 percent of bird owners, 3 percent of small animal owners, and 2 percent of reptile and cat owners respectively travelled with their pet in the car. Unchanged since 2008, 3 percent of dog owners have taken their dog to work with them, an average of 22 times, up from 17 times in 2008. Based on the number of dog owners (46.3 million), approximately 1.4 million dog owners are taking their pet to work.

Training Devices
The percentage of dog owners currently using some type of training device or service to train their dog continues to increase while the percentage of cat owners using a training device or service has remained relatively stable. Approximately one-half of dog owners (48 percent) continue to use treats as a way to train their dog, versus 12 percent of cat owners using treats as a reward. One-out-of-ten dog owners also used an unspecified "other" device as a training method, as well as professional training, training books and videos and bitter apple.

What Pet Owners Would Do Upon The Death Of Their Pet
Upon the death of their pet, two-to-four-out-of-ten owners (with the exception of equines) would buy something to either memorialize or bury their pet. Specifically, almost all equine owners reported they would do something; usually have their horse buried at a farm. More dog owners (18 percent) would buy an urn than cat owners (12 percent), bird owners (6 percent) or small animal or reptile owners (3 percent each). Less than 4 percent of pet owners would purchase a headstone. Among dog owners, the current percentage who said they would get another pet of the same type notes a significant increase (to 39 percent from 34 percent) over 2008.

Disaster Preparedness
In the 2011-2012 APPA Survey, pet owners were asked what they would do with their pets if they were faced with a disaster situation. For most species, the majority of owners would take their pet with them. In the event a pet owner would have to choose between their dog's or cat's medical treatment and their own, 16 percent of dog owners and 13 percent of cat owners stated their pet's medical treatment would take priority over their own treatment.

Gifts For Pets
The percentage of pet owners who purchased gifts for their pet in 2010 is practically parallel to what was reported in 2008. In spite of conservative consumer spending on themselves or other people, pets do not appear to be "victims" in the current economic climate. In contrast, pets appear to be the winners in these tough economic times. As a result of dog owners spending more money per gift, there is a 30 percent gain in dollars spent on dog gifts (to $73 million from $56 million dollars). Gifts are typically purchased for no special occasion but dogs, cats, birds and small animals are more likely to also receive a gift for Christmas. Additionally, the survey reports 9 percent of dog owners and 4 percent of cat owners have held a holiday or birthday party for their pet.

Economy And Pets
For the first time, the survey asked respondents if the economy influenced pet ownership in any way. The majority of pet owners reported that the economy hadn't affected their decision to own a pet, in fact, anywhere from 2 to 5 percent of pet owners reported spending more money on their pet than in previous years. It was reported, however, that 18 percent of nonpet owners surveyed stated they did not get a pet because of the economy. These respondents are more likely to reside in the Northeast region.

Demographics
The survey also profiles who the pet owners are and where they live in the U.S. Pet owning households are more apt to be defined as traditional families (76 percent) than the U.S. population (68 percent). Pet owners are also younger than the total U.S. population as a whole and significantly more pet owners are married (63 percent) compared to the rest of the population (55 percent). Approximately one-quarter of the U.S. population and all pet owners live in rural, small towns, as do specific species owners.

Primary Shopper For Pet Products
Unchanged since previous APPA surveys is the finding that at least three-quarters of primary shoppers for pet products are female. However, men reported spending more money on gifts for pets than women. The average age of the primary shopper for pet products remains 47 years old.

Additional Pet Ownership Trends
In addition to the information provided in the survey, APPA has noted additional trends in the pet marketplace that may affect pet ownership growth including: the total pet population continues to grow but at a slower pace; the pet industry continues to perform as recession resistant and show resilience both after September 11th and after the economic crisis throughout 2010; pet food trends mimic human food and diet trends; health and wellness focused pet products and services including pet insurance represent one of the most powerful current trends in the pet industry; pets are replacing children, so owners are even more willing to purchase products to satisfy and spoil pets; specialized pet services such as high-end grooming and daycare are projected to grow as owners continue to work; research indicates that Black and Hispanic segments are the fastest growing U.S. demographic, but have lower than average incidence of pet ownership.

The complete 2011-2012 National Pet Owners Survey includes more than 500 pages of trended information on pets covering the past two decades. The survey will be available for purchase online at the APPA website.

Last month's 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Honshu, Japan is reportedly the fifth strongest ever recorded. The quake created a tsunami which dealt a destructive blow to the humans and pets inhabiting Japan's cities, towns, and rural areas.

This dog found its guardian eight days after the 9.0 Sendai temblor. (Japanese Coast Guard/HO/UPI) WeHo News

This morning (Thursday evening in Japan) an aftershock measuring 7.4 "struck off Japan's eastern coast about 60 miles from Sendai and 90 miles from Fukushima. It was about 215 miles from