pet connection

First, a little story about our editor at Universal Press, Mr. Greg Melvin. We love him. He’s talented, hard-working, funny and has a sexy voice on the phone. (Dr. Becker probably doesn’t care so much about that last thing, but I sure appreciate it.) Greg sees the big picture and sweats the details, and offers both praise and suggestions with grace and kindness.

Anyway, he’s awesome, and I tell him so every week.

Every columnist has something to fall back on when he or she is tired, lazy, busy or just plain out of ideas. Or needs a week off, whatever. For me, says Greg, I seem to dwell on the danger of collars.

“Oh no,” he groans. “Not The Collar Article” again. And then we laugh.

Well, maybe you have to be there.

But I do get kind of worked up about collars. Particularly about choke collars, which are a fine tool in the hands of someone who knows how to put them on properly and use them with proper timing.

Which is to say, almost nobody. (Aside from dog trainers, that is.)

Leaving a choke collar on a dog as his regular collar is asking for disaster. And misusing a choke-chain collar (putting it on wrong or keeping it tight in while walking your dog) is ineffective and cruel. Personally, if you’re having problems walking your dog I say make things easier on both of you and get a front clip harness. They’re easy to put on and will solve your leash-pulling problems. Plus, dogs like them better than head collars, and they’re nowhere near as ugly.

So read The Collar Article, and I’ll spare Greg the pain of doing so again. Instead I’ll torment him with The New Collar Article, about what to get after you’ve thrown that choke collar away for good.

Get a breakaway collar for your dog and your cat.

One of saddest things about being a syndicated pet-care columnist is that you’re extremely aware of all the horrible, heart-breaking accidental ways people have lost their pets — because they write to tell you about them.

Cats who have been killed in the dryer, or run over in their own driveways by owners who didn’t see them behind the tire. Dogs who have drowned at the river or lake because they got too tired, or died from heat stroke left in a car on a day when it wasn’t really that hot outside — but inside the car was another story. Birds who were killed by the fumes of non-stick cookware. And on and on and on.

I’ve known dogs who died when their collars caught on things — grates and even the teeth of other dogs in play. That’s one reason why some people don’t leave collars on their pets at all, which I think is a just bad idea. What happens if your pet gets out without ID or if you’re separated from your pet in a disaster? Shelter workers point out that a lot of pets (especially cats) who are obviously owned and loved die because nobody knows who they belong to, which is why I insist my pets have collars and ID, even Clara, my 6-month old kitten who’s an indoor cat.

Clara just got her first collar (and a very pretty collar it is, too!), and I got the three retrievers new ones, too. (My Sheltie’s collar is still in good shape.) They’re breakaway collars, one and all, so if they get hung up, they come apart with gentle pressure and my pet can escape safely.

And the tags? I hate the rattle of ID tags, so I went with these slide-ons from Boomerang. They were in my mailbox less than two days after I ordered them, and they look solid and attractive. Never ordered from this company before, but I’m recommending them now.

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NPR titled the piece “Stray Pets: A Complex Problem,” and then completely missed the complexity of the problem. They referenced the mandatory spay-neuter bill in California (now on hiatus, but soon to re-appear) and then let the HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle spin the story for them.

C’mon NPR, you can do better than that. It is a complex problem. So why did you just let the HSUS spin it without a look at the reasons why these animal are in the shelters and why they don’t get out? It’s not as simple as “if there were no breeders everyone would adopt a shelter dog” the way the “a breeder is a breeder is a breeder and they’re all bad” folks put it.

It would have taken about five minutes of Google searching and a couple hours of … um … I think it’s called “reporting” to discover that this isn’t a controversy at all “within the animal-rights community.” (Hey, there’s no animal-rights controversy at all: One generation and out. No more pets. Problem solved.) It’s the animal-welfare folks who are divided on how best to help, as well as the larger community of animal-lovers, including veterinarians and reputable, responsible breeders.

I’m getting really tired of the mainstream media taking the easy route and calling the HSUS on every animal story, which in turn gives this rich group the chance to get even richer, which means they get even more prominent, etc., etc.

I don’t think a group lobbying for animals is bad thing. And I think the HSUS has done a lot of really good work over the years — for example, they have been exposing the puppy-mill issue for years, and were among the first to do so. But lately it seems as if they’re offering themselves as one thing to raise money and another to push their agenda (some of which, by the way, I agree with, and some of which, I vehemently don’t).

But this isn’t really about the HSUS, except to say that they do not speak for every animal-lover in this country on every issues, nor do animal-lovers all agree on everything they do.

What it’s about is the media taking the short-cut, lazy way out and calling the HSUS (or PETA) for comment at every opportunity.

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As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve had a lot of experience with public relations. I’ve worked in it, I’ve dealt with it as a reporter, and I’ve had one of its most singularly brilliant practitioners as a friend for years. (Some of his clients would give you the willies.)

There are PR pitches — “Ms. Stafadordi, the new diamond-encrusted cat bowl is something your readers must know about! You’ll write about it for your colum, right?” — and then there is high-level public-relations. The latter is an expensive chess game that, when played properly, changes the public perception while leaving no fingerprints behind.

These guys are scarey-good at what they do.

Last night, reading this piece from the Associated Press, I thought: “Aha, the game’s afoot!”

See, turns out it’s not just China. It’s also Mexico. And I wouldn’t be surprised if those sneaky folks to the south of us are sending their poisoned cantaloupes over on the backs of illegal immigrants, because wouldn’t that just be like them?

For the clue-impaired, I’m being sarcastic. With all respect to Lou Dobbs, who’s a must-see in this house, I think the whole “illegal immigration crisis” is part real issues that need to be discussed, part xenophobia and a lot planned distraction from what’s really going south in this country. In other words (and I’m not the first to say it, so I can’t take credit): Illegal immigration is the new gay marriage.

When something comes out of nowhere and takes over everything to the point of pushing out discussion on other issues, it makes my spin-meter twirl. A friend calls it the “look, a squirrel” approach to public policy: Keep introducing new hot topics that can get people all riled up and the boring work of things like reforming the FDA or caring about the Farm Bill gets pushed to the side by the public. The folks with the money get the government they want, in part because we’re looking somewhere else.

Hence:

Mexican cantaloupe irrigated with water from sewage-tainted rivers. Candy laced with lead. Chinese toothpaste is not the only concern for U.S. consumers wary of the health risks posed by imported goods.

Producers in other developing nations are big violators of basic food safety standards, even as they woo consumers with a growing appetite for foods like pickled mangoes from India and winter-season fruits and vegetables from Mexico.

Does this strengthen the call for food-safety reform or represent a major shift in money from China to a top public relations firm? I’m looking for the fingerprints now. After all, if it’s not just China … well, why are we picking on them? And if it’s everywhere, and we can’t do anything about it, then … learned helplessness sets in and we soldier on bravely with our shopping. All we can do is hope for the best.

And look, there’s a squirrel!

By the way, this is the another AP story that drops the mention of there being any problem with tainted pet food. And that’s kinda what started all this unscheduled consumer freak-out that’s driving all the squirrel releases from the people with the money, here and abroad. But the thing is, aside from the fact that thousands of pets were made sick or killed — not an aside to us, obviously — the tainted ingredients could just have easily been in food for human consumption. That makes it all part of the same story, seems to me.

But not according to the AP:

Fears over Chinese products began last year after dozens of deaths in Panama blamed on medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol, a chemical used in anti-freeze that can cause kidney failure, paralysis and death.

Um, no. In fact, people in the United States were blithely unaware of the deaths in Panama until our pets started dying and the news media started looking around for other problems with the food-safety system. People may have been dying last year in Panama, but that wasn’t reported in any significant way until after the pet-food recalls got us all thinking, “Geez, what else could be tainted?”

For an entertaining, provocative and frightening read on public relations, check out “Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry” (perfect title, considering the book is 12 years old!). Also read some PR strategy guides, or anything by or about Edward Bernays, the father of modern public relations.

And always, look for fingerprints. And squirrels.

An aside: You know who’s really good at looking for fingerprints? The staff at “The Daily Show.” Comedy is dead serious stuff, isn’t it?

Another aside: Fox News says we’re one of the 10 best blogs in pet health. Cool! A correction in that piece, though: We’re not produced by Universal Press Syndicate. The folks here also write a weekly syndicated pet-care page for Universal Press Syndicate (awesome folks, by the way).

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From the scrappy folks at Bad Rap, probably the best commentary I’ve read yet on the Vick dogfighting case. Instead of the pious mouthings Gina already blogged about how bad dog fighting is, they have harsh words for just about everyone involved in this matter (including those seeking donations to “care” for the seized pit bulls), and a reminder of who is really suffering: The dogs.

The sports world has not been kind to pit bulls, starting with this 1987 cover. Numerous sports figures have since been linked to dog fighting, and even the tennis show moguls (Nike) found a way to exploit the dogs and make a buck off of graphic fight imagery. Why treat them kindly when they’re really werewolves? ….And, here we are today, reading about the unspeakable torture of mans’ best friend.

We don’t need to detail how horrific the crime of dogfighting is. There’s enough gore spinning around the Net to cover that angle.

But, we do need to remember — the dogs. Where are the dogs in all this?

We started wondering when the HSUS put out a public plea for funds “to care for the dogs seized in the Michael Vick case.” We’re not sure how the word ‘care’ is being defined … toys and treats? kuanda beds? staff help for yard exercise? (doubtful)… although it’s certain the dogs will be destroyed in due time. The org has been staunchly opposed to re-homing abused pit bulls and will dutifully insist that each and every fight bust dog is damaged and dangerous.

We know that’s not altogether true.

We have dogs like Amy, Hiro, BB, Sadie, Lil’Bit, Pearl, Doe Koo, and even Little Man – all from fight backgrounds – to remind us that the soundest of dogs really can and do rise above the harshest of beginnings. Even more astounding, many somehow survive the torture and starvation with their adoration for humans still intact. Talk about optimists. I can’t fathom how this breed can possibly trust despite having seen the worst side of humanity, but they just keep surprising us.

Pity the Vick dogs. Had they somehow washed up out of their pens in the storms of Katrina, they would’ve been made into media darlings. Volunteers would’ve rushed to bathe and comfort them (many quite wonderful Katrina pit bulls came with fight scars from pre-storm misadventures). Some might’ve ended up in shelters willing to temperament test and offer the best for adoption. But no such luck — they were doubly cursed when they were sold into that VA hellhole.

Thanks to Serijna in the comments for sharing this link… lots more here.

Update from Gina: Over on Lassie Get Help, Luisa adds good stuff to the discussion, including giving HSUS a rap on the nose for using the Vick situation to raise money. And this is the great line of the day (emphasis mine).:

[...D]onations have swamped the Humane Society of the United States, a powerful lobbying group that runs no shelters or rescues and is not affiliated with your local humane society, yet appears, Zelig-like, in most major news stories about rescued animals.

Well … they do some other things.  As a guest of the HSUS and Denver Dumb Friends League a few years ago, I spent two weeks learning the best ways to help adopters work through behavior problems with their new pets. Two of the best weeks I’ve spent anywhere, and took away a lot from the program — as did all the others in my class, who were all shelter workers.

But still, Luisa’s point is well-taken. HSUS isn’t in this business of running shelters, much less one for former fighting dogs. But they’ll take donations, anyway.

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Earlier this week Dr. Becker and I got the page proofs for the second of the three books we have coming out this fall. “MeowWow: Curiously Compelling Facts, True Tales and Trivia Even Your Cat Won’t Know” is the first book I’ve ever worked on with illustrations “just for fun” — as opposed to showing some aspect of pet care. The proofs were the first time I’d seen the illustrations — or  indeed any of Molly Pierce’s work — and they are so delightful they put a smile on my face that lasted for a long, long time.

Here’s one of them, an image that goes with a segment about Shakespeare and cats:

Pretty cute, huh?

You can pre-order the books now, by the way.

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