Ever since witnessing my first hoarding cases while working at the local humane society, I’ve tried to understand how something like this happens: What makes someone fly past the tipping point of having multiple animals to having an unlivable situation? It’s one thing not to notice the dustbunny in the corner or the recycling that’s a few days past needing to go outside, but piles of feces and dead animals laying around the house? I remember one case in particular where there were so many dirty dishes in the sink and so much garbage piled around the kitchen that the homeowners had rigged up a hose from the sink, run it through the house and tied it off in various spots where they’d want access to water. At what point did that contraption make more sense than doing the dishes, or even just throwing the dishes out?
That desire to fathom the unfathomable is what had me looking forward to the new Animal Planet Confessions series that premiered on Wednesday.
Did the show meet my expectations? For the most part, yes.
We all want to believe that our pets are priceless, but when you show up on the doorstep of the emergency animal hospital in the middle of the night, or when your vet returns to the exam room after running bloodwork or taking an x-ray with that you might want to sit down for this look, that priceless theory is put to the test.
Vet care isn’t cheap, and the more we know, the more it costs us. Amazing advances in veterinary medicine are opening doors for everything from chemotherapy to skin grafts. Unfortunately, those open doors often lead right into your bank account, and a new survey says that pet owners are paying attention to the price tag on their pets’ lives.
This might seem like a random topic to post on Father’s Day. But other than the fact that it’s Sunday, and therefore a convenient time for me to catch up on my blog, it’s also a very relevant topic when it comes to my relationship with my dad. The only serious, refusing-to-speak-to-him fight we’ve ever had was over a dog. When I had decided I was getting my first dog, I was still in college. He was so sure that it was too much responsibility, financial and otherwise. He even played the “I’ll stop paying tuition” card (I’m pretty sure it was an empty threat, but still …). I adopted Juno anyway, and I’ve never regretted it. Dad was wrong, but more on that later. Read the rest of this entry »
Not that anyone is doubting Betty White’s extreme awesomeness these days, but the 88-year-old actress and lifelong animal activist just keeps on giving.
May is Pet Cancer Awareness Month. Although I might argue for a little less awareness in my household, this is obviously an important issue. Cancer is the number one disease-related killer of pets and more than 50 percent of dogs over age 10 will die from it. Not nearly enough is known about what causes cancer (in humans or animals) or how to treat it. So, Betty White teamed up with Petco and Blue Buffalo to raise $1 million this month for Morris Animal Foundation’s cancer research programs.
You can read more about Betty White taking on cancer at Change.org and watch the PSA below.
I’m going to be honest, this post is part lazy blogging (because I really need to spill my thoughts here more than once a month) and part shameless self-promotion (just in case you’re somehow reading this blog and unaware that I’m now the Editor of Change.org’s animal welfare and wildlife community). But mostly, I hope, it’s informative about some of the issues animals have faced over the past month.
So, in the spirit of last week’s announcement of the latest Webby Award winners (Congratulations, ASPCA!) and to celebrate my awesome new job, here are some recent highlights from the last month on the Change.org Animals blog:
Best Animal Story: Where There’s a Protest, There’s Riot Dog - It’s said that this stray dog in Athens, Greece, hasn’t missed a major political protest in two years. And he’s not just a mascot; he barks at the police, dodges tear gas, runs from the scene … it’s almost as if this guy believes in the cause. He may be a stray, but I think he’s living the life that many spirited dogs I’ve known would have loved.
Most Fun to Write: Zynga Removes Pit Bulls From Mafia Wars - When Mafia Wars announced the addition of a pit bull weapon to the game, more than 500 Change.org community members signed a petition and contacted Zynga, asking them to protect the pit bull image. Zynga contacted Change.org, letting us know they were removing the pit bull. During the email exchange, I found out that they’re a pretty cool dog-friendly, pit-friendly company. Campaign victory + positive image for pit bulls = Win!
Best Overdue Idea: Animal Shelters Go Green - Even though I’m leaving you, Ecology Center, I’ll always have a soft, green spot in my heart (that’s environmentalism, folks, not Michigan State or some strange disease). It was only a matter of time before the green building movement hit animal shelters, and some sweet upgrades are being incorporated into new shelters that help animals and the environment.
Most Disappointing: Will Obama Sell Out Whales on Earth Day? After a series of sketchy back-room talks, including an Earth Day meeting, Obama seems to be backing the legalization of commercial whaling. Even George W. Bush upheld the moratorium on whaling. ‘Nuff said.
I wasn’t always sure that I believed in chemotherapy for pets.
In humans, chemotherapy conjures thoughts of months of suffering through nausea, hair loss, and other side effects. People can choose to bear this treatment because they know they’re aiming for a light at the end of the tunnel. But your pet wouldn’t understand why she was feeling so sick, which would cause serious quality of life problems. And, with any treatment, it might be all for nothing.
Except for most animals – about 95 percent of them – there are little to no side effects. In terms of advances in veterinary medicine, chemotherapy is no joke. I mean, they’ve figured out how to blast cancer cells in multiple species. And when it works, it really works.
Not every animal can, or should, be treated. Specialty vet medicine really needs to be considered on a case by case basis. When Sierra was diagnosed with lymphoma, her abdomen was so full of fluid (which is caused by a number of things, all bad) that her digestive system was being pushed almost against her spine. Her liver was enlarged, as were the lymph nodes near her chest.
Lymphoma can’t be cured, but it’s known for responding pretty well to chemotherapy. “They” say the usual response is 9-12 months, qualified by “not all dogs respond” and “some dogs live a lot longer” and “sometimes it can be treated more than once.” There was some concern with her liver already involved, since that can get in the way of properly processing the drugs. Sierra is only about 8 1/2 years old and, other than a loss of appetite most likely due to the pressure on her internal organs, she didn’t really have any symptoms. She was maybe a little lethargic and looked a little skinny, but in between her bloodwork appointment and her ultrasound, she went to the park and trotted around like nothing was wrong.
That’s just how she is, and that’s why there was no question that I was going to try to treat her. Read the rest of this entry »
The man set down his gun to retrieve some duck decoys a few yards away. That’s when the dog stepped on the shotgun, disengaged the safety, and fired at her companion a la Dick Cheney.
One headline on this story read: Hunting dog triggers shotgun, hits master. I wonder how they think “master” is defined…
Change.org, that is. This socially conscious social network just launched a shiny new Animal Welfare blog…and I’m lucky enough to get to write for it.
If you’re not already on Change.org, you should be (and if you are, why aren’t you my friend?). Every day, I’ll be blogging about animal stuff – the latest news, primers on the issues, updates, amazing/tragic/fillintheblank stories, or whatever happens to be on my mind. Got something on your mind that you’d like to see a post about? Let me know!
Check out the new blog, join the cause, and help me spread the word!
Jonathan Safran Foer, acclaimed author of “Everything is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” (both books that I highly recommend) just released his latest book called Eating Animals.
It was an issue he’d never really thought about until he became a father and was responsible for someone else’s food choices. His research led him to understand the inhumanity of factory farming, the environmental impacts, and the effects on human health. People from Dr. Andrew Weil to actress Natalie Portman have been profoundly affected by this book and are blogging about how it’s changed their lives and views.
I haven’t read the book yet, but I think it’s powerful for a number of reasons. For starters, Jonathan Safran Foer has a way with words that’s both accessible and awe-inspiring. But even more important is that this book wasn’t written by someone with an agenda. It wasn’t sponsored by an animal rights organization or penned by a life-long activist. Not that there’s anything wrong with books that fall into those categories, but skeptics tend to approach those volumes with, well, skepticism. It takes a lot of bravery and honesty for someone new to an issue to take it on the way Safran Foer did, and I think that appeals to people who are a bit unsure about the subject. It will be interesting to see how, or if, his fiction audience follows him to this new territory.
In a CNN column, he said, “I’m a novelist and never had it in mind to write nonfiction. Frankly, I doubt I’ll ever do it again. But the subject of animal agriculture, at this moment, is something no one should ignore. As a writer, putting words on the page is how I pay attention.”
When Cook County police raided a Chicago suburban home earlier this week, they found nine dogs in horrible condition and plenty of dog fighting paraphernalia on the property. Inside the home, they also found ten children entrusted to the care of these same people.
Let me make this clear: the problem here is not “pitbulls and children.” The problem is the people who can watch their animals mutilate one another for “entertainment,” who can neglect and abuse them for the hopes of profit, being allowed anywhere near children. There is a well-known (and documented) correlation between the way people treat animals and the way they treat humans. Even if these children were kept completely separate from the dogs, would you trust them to provide compassionate care for your child? Would you want to give them the opportunity to influence your child with their (lack of) moral sense?
The police had received multiple calls in recent years about this house, but were unable to find enough evidence to do much about it (which is, unfortunately, a common problem in prosecuting all sorts of animal abusers). Odds are, this has been going on for years. This – and many other similar operations that don’t make the news or have yet to be discovered – is not some Michael Vick fad. The general public may not have known much about dogfighting before the Vick story, but it’s not a new thing and it has never been confined to some comfortable demographic of supposedly obvious suspects, like drug dealers and convicts.
This is an unfortunate truth-is-stranger-than-fiction moment. Many of my beta readers have questioned some of the characters associated with dogfighting in my novel – Would there really be parents and professionals at a dog fight? Wouldn’t the protagonist know if an acquaintance was into such a thing? All the dogfighting references in my book that have taken people by surprise do not add up to the facts of this latest bust to hit the news.
We all spend a lot of time and money to keep our pets safe – choosing high quality food, paying attention to recalls, buying the right toys that will keep him entertained and hold up to his teeth (at least for a little while). I mean, you wouldn’t let him chew on block of lead or an arsenic-filled bone any more than you’d let him play in traffic, would you?
But what if, despite all of your good intentions, your dog or cat is surrounded by toxic chemicals in their toys, beds, and collars?
There are no government standards for hazardous chemicals in pet products and, in HealthyStuff.org’s test results on over 400 items, it shows. One-quarter of the toys and nearly half of the collars tested had detectable levels of lead, many of them exceeding the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) limit for children’s products.
The tennis ball you bat around the court is less likely to contain lead than the one you bought at a pet store for your dog to put in his mouth.
Our pets are highly sensitive to chemical exposure. Just about everything in your house sheds chemicals, which become part of the dust that settles on the ground, where your pet sniffs, lays, and has probably eaten a thing or two. Even if your pet doesn’t eat things he shouldn’t (though he was a puppy at some point, so odds are that he has), his toys are designed for chewing. That’s what dogs and cats do. They also groom themselves, directly ingesting the chemical-laden dust.
If they’re in trouble, we’re in trouble…and not just because they’re a part of the family. Are you familiar with the Canary in the Coal Mine? Now there’s the Beagle in the Bedroom, the Siamese in the Sitting Room.
Some people argue that we don’t know exactly what these results mean for the health of our pets – whether the presence of a chemical means there’s exposure, or what the “safe” level might be for different size dogs. There hasn’t been much research done in this area, but bio-monitoring of cats has already shown the exposure to toxic flame retardants is 23x higher than humans.
When there are safe options available, why would we choose to expose our pets and ourselves to toxic chemicals?
- Check out HealthyStuff.org’s database to help you make smarter shopping decisions and see what’s in your house. In addition to pet supplies, there are children’s products, clothing accessories, even cars. You can also let them know what you think should be tested next.
- Though the tags say to throw away a toy once it becomes torn, most of us let our pets destroy their toys until they’re unrecognizable or obviously hazardous. Sometimes the innards of toys hold the worst chemicals, like flame retardants in stuffing or lead in the parts that reinforce tougher toys. So, it might not be a bad idea to pay extra attention to what your critters are putting in their mouths and get rid of toys that have seen better days.
- Contact the manufacturers of your favorite products and let them know you want safe products for your furry friend (and let the ones with healthy products know you appreciate them!). The pet industry is huge – it’s our dollars that have gotten it there and it’s our dollars that can impact where it goes next.
- Go to the Take Action section of HealthyStuff.org to find out how to contact your elected representatives. You can’t tell just by looking at stuff whether it’s healthy, and Made in the USA isn’t a guarantee either. It’s impossible to test everything on the market and, ultimately, we need stronger laws to get safe products on the shelves.
As pet owners, we’re used to speaking for those who can’t speak for themselves. Now they need us again, so spread the word and stay informed!
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Last week, a hunter in California was 
Jonathan Safran Foer, acclaimed author of “Everything is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” (both books that I highly recommend) just released his latest book called 
