pet connection

Here’s a fairly bizarre and completely disgusting story, about a dog breeder who took it upon herself to practice veterinary medicine, performing everything from spays to ear crops, tail dockings, cesareans, hernia repairs and dew claw removal. (Side note: A lot of breeders do their own tail docks and dew claw removals, on newborn puppies, so this in itself isn’t outside of the norm. But a spay? )

Anyway, the woman apparenly isn’t a very good surgeon, leaving parts of the organs she was planning to take out behind, with disastrous results. Her explanation for all this?

“It used to be that you could perform surgeries on dogs if they were your own,” said [Kathy Bauck, who owns and operates Pick of the Litter, Inc.]. “The state doesn’t read it that way anymore so I won’t do it anymore. I’ve complied 100 percent and I don’t have a problem with that … I never did anything to intentionally hurt any of the animals.”

The order states the dogs involved were not hers, which Bauck says is not true.

“They were not sold, they were given away,” she said. “Because I still had the papers, I assumed I still owned them. The state got (the case) because I spayed a dog I was giving away. It got an infection and I paid the veterinarian bill. That’s the end of it.”

Geez, I sure hope that IS the end of it. And by the way: Pick of the Litter, Inc.? I’ve never known a reputable breeder who did enough business to incorporate under a cutesy-pie name. That sort of thing is usually reserved for puppy-millers.

What kind of person doesn’t go to a good veterinarian? And what kind of person has the breeder do surgery? Honestly, I’m starting my annual no-swearing New Year’s resolution early, so I won’t tell you the words I have in mind.

Here’s the rest of the story.

One of the things I love about the pet industry — and yes, it is an “industry,” with lots of people who think of pets as nothing more than widgets to sell — is the astonishing number of small companies that start up on a dream, produce high-quality merchandise and thrive in the shadows of the big crap-merchants.

In the Portland Oregonian, pet columnist Deb Wood profiles three Oregon companies — Castor & Pollux Pet Works, Ruff Wear and Rad Cat:

[The] three companies from Oregon are not just surviving but thriving in a tough environment. These companies are notable for their Oregon-style values, including putting the health of animals first; packaging and manufacturing in an environmentally friendly way; and giving a healthy portion of their profits back to the community.

Read their stories.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, a piece on a new veterinary center for integrative/alternative/holistic care, featuring Dr. Cheryl Schwartz (”Four Paws Five Directions: A Guide to Chinese Medicine for Cats and Dogs“), a superstar in the world of Chinese vetmed:

The three rooms dedicated to consultations and treatments also are painted in colors more likely to be seen in a massage studio or in Architectural Digest.

“A lot of people don’t consider the environment as part of the healing process,” said Schwartz, who has studied the impact of color on animals for 25 years and was a consultant on the renovation.

Even though pets are mostly color-blind, Schwartz said, the frequency of the vibrations in each color resonates with them.

She said the pink room will help those that are cold — for example, a pet with hypothyroidism. The yellow room will energize dogs and cats that are lethargic, while the blue room will calm those that are restless or aggressive [...].

In the Chicago Sun-Times, a piece on breed profiling by insurance companies:

Rescue groups are having a hard time placing dogs such as [pit bulls] because prospective owners are struggling to find an insurance company willing to provide coverage for a home inhabited by a dog the industry has deemed dangerous.

”Some people don’t want to go through the hassle of adopting a dog if they had to change insurance companies,” said [Beth] DeLaForest [of the A Rotta Love Plus rescue group in Minneapolis].

Of the 30 applications A Rotta Love receives every month, about five drop out because of insurance problems.

Ever since a woman was mauled to death by Presa Canarios five years ago, in a case that drew national attention, insurance companies have been increasingly denying or restricting coverage to homeowners with certain breeds of dogs.

The top targets: Rottweilers, pit bulls, Doberman pinschers and German shepherds. Insurers, who pay a steep price each year settling dog-bite claims, view these dogs as more likely to attack.

And finally, from Reuters, a piece on the Brazilian fascination with a litter of puppies seemingly born to a cat:

Geneticist Adil Pacheco took blood samples on Friday from three puppies in a poor neighborhood in Passo Fundo in southern Brazil to settle a dispute over a claim they were born from a cat.

“It’s rather simple really. If the puppies prove to have 78 chromosomes, they are dogs. If they have 38, they are cats,” said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo.

“But I seriously doubt they are feline. Every characteristic about them is canine.”

Yeah, well, let’s not let science get in the way of a good story.

The things you trip across on The Internets: A page to help you ID ticks. Mmmmmm! All kidding aside, knowing what you and your dog have been bitten with is pretty darn important. So go … and be warned: Ticks are revolting to look at, even on a Web page.

The first round of weekly contests is over, with great prizes on the way to the winners of our random drawings. Prizes were from Bamboo and Petmate for the first four drawings; now they’re from 1-800-Help4Pets. The first winners:

• Carin, of Pennsylvania, getting a cat prize basket from Bamboo
• Charles, of North Carolina, getting a dog prize basket from Bamboo
• Susie, of Oklahoma, getting a dog crate from Petmate
• Cyndi, of Ohio, getting an automated litter box from Petmate

Congratulations! We’ll post more winners soon. In the meantime, enter in the weekly drawing! It’s absolutely free, and you could get a year of free service from 1-800-Help-4-Pets, which could save your pet’s life.