pet connection

Over on our DogCars.com site, editor Keith Turner had earlier mentioned a media release touting hotels that put out the welcome mat for pets. Pet travel expert Marjorie Darby took issue with some of the hotels, in an extended comment that offers some additional suggestions. It’s well worth a read if you’re planning to head out with your pet on a trip any time soon.

Watch this space: Adding notables from here and there … the Massachusetts state Legislature voted unanimously to outlaw “pet rentals,” and may other states follow suit. (If you want a part-time pet, how about volunteering at a shelter or fostering?) … California legalized pet trusts, although it’s still better to count on friends and family, not the law, to protect your pet if you die. … Factory farm interests pour big money into defeating the most basic anti-cruelty measures for food animals.

Having just flown across across the country to attend an automotive event here in New York City, I was pleased to notice several airline passengers toting their well-behaved pets along with them on the plane.

One young lady, who was carrying her year-old cat in a nice travel case, told me that she wouldn’t think of leaving her kitty home alone while she went off to visit family in Chicago.

“She gets upset when I just go out for the evening,” the girl said. “And is waiting right by the door until I get home.”

The tiny barking sound I heard when I arrived in the New York airport was also a welcome change from the usual airport noise of PA systems and crying babies. I quickly noticed a family of four heading off on vacation with their small dog comfortably contained in a snazzy carry-on bag. A small crowd of young children were gathered around to get a peek at the cute pup.

Little by little, we’re seeing pets being welcomed on some airlines and in some hotels.

But if you really want to know the scoop behind the pet friendly amenities of a hotel, talk to Marjorie Darby, a long-time dog trainer and responsible dog ownership advocate who has written extensively on pet travel. She’s even conducted a survey or North American hotels and their pet policies, and has written guidelines for helping hotels become less discriminatory toward pet owners.

Marjorie submitted an extensive comment to our recent post about pet-friendly hotels, but we wanted to highlight some of her views here as well.

I would only caution that pet-related services often don’t quite match with the overall pet-”friendliness” (or should I make that “friendliness towards the owner?) of the hotel.

I readily admit that many dog owners aren’t as experienced as I am, nor to many dog owners have the same (high) standards that I have, when it comes to travel and accommodations. Most probably aren’t as militant, either. (blushing)

Many people do, indeed, travel with the kinds of poorly-behaved dogs most hotel pet policies mean to address. So these policies may make perfect sense to them. All dogs bark incessantly in a strange place or when someone knocks at the door, right? That’s why it’s reasonable to prohibit dogs from being left alone in the room. All dogs smell bad, right? That’s why it’s okay to force pet owners to stay in a smoking room. Big dogs are dangerous, right? That’s why it’s okay if hotels only want small dogs staying with them.

I remember someone asking me for hotel recommendations, and when the only ones I could truly recommend were over $400 a night, she admitted that she’d never stayed in a hotel that was more than 3-stars. On the plus side, I pointed out that motels and the like are often much more pet-friendly than their 5-star counterparts. There are whole chains of motor lodges with pretty darn good pet policies. If that’s your bag, then you’re in pretty good shape, I’d say.

Marjorie goes on to describe a nightmare situation that she encountered at one high-end hotel who promised her that her large dog was welcome in their room. But what she was told upon arrival was that the dog was not allowed to be left in the room unsupervised.

Well so much for going to that . . . restaurant we’d been dying to try, or even using one of the hotel’s many-starred restaurants. Forget about seeing that foreign film at the local repertory theater or doing any shopping at all. That is, unless we decided to do those things individually, while one of us stayed behind with the pooch.

I hope you like watching television in your room . . .

You can read the rest of Marjorie’s insights into dog-friendly travel in the comment section of this post. But here’s her conclusion:

I wish more hotels considered that people are individuals. Just because they don’t know much about dogs or dog owners doesn’t mean we’re all dirty, noisey, careless louts. Some of us are happy to pay just about anything for a comfortable stay away from home, and our dogs reflect our standard of living and respect for others.

We couldn’t agree more. Thanks Marjorie!

I guess I tend to overestimate the level of common sense I credit Midwesterners with having. But no … today Chicago will be entertaining a forced spay-neuter ordinance, with all the usual lack of understanding of the dynamics of the situation:

Aldermen Burke and Rugai introduced the measure last May after a pack of five pit bulls attacked a woman while she was walking in the 6600 block of South Richmond Avenue on the Southwest Side.

[...]

In addition, the aldermen said the proposal takes aim at Chicago gang members who operate dog-fighting rings. Under the legislation, individuals seeking an exemption to the sterilization requirement would be forced to apply for a breeder’s license, a step that would require a criminal background check.

“I don’t know of too many gang members that would be willing to subject themselves to this type of scrutiny by law enforcement authorities,” Burke said.

I would agree that dog-fighters are not going to be applying for a breeder’s license. But to think that’s going to stop them from doing anything is beyond ridiculous.

And as usual, forced spay-neuter will do nothing to deal with the largest number of animals needing help — feral cats, who also don’t check with authorities before breeding. And as usual, such legislation will hit reputable, ethical breeders the hardest, making it difficult to continue the work of preserving healthy, well-socialized examples of our heritage breeds going forward. (For those of you just dropping in with “all breeders are the same” beliefs, reputable, ethical breeders take responsibility for the animals they bring into this world for life. All breeders are not the same.) … As usual, the proposal exempts “federally licensed breeders,” a/k/a puppy-millers.

Out-of-city puppy-mill scum and careless, clueless backyard breeders either won’t be affected or won’t pay attention to any new laws.

Simple, sound-bite solutions don’t work, kids. Trap-neuter-release and no-kill communities do.

More:

“When we come to this wall which is seemingly impossible to get over, the only answer is legislation….It’s the obvious answer. …The movement for spay and neuter legislation is sweeping across this country. It’s been compared to a tsunami,” [retired game show host Bob] Barker said.

When last I checked, a tsunami wasn’t consdered a good thing.

Pat Howard, 29, of Lake View: “The permits are a good idea because any person not willing to pay for a breeding permit is typically the kind that won’t pay to get them spayed or neutered.”

Ohhhhhhkaayyyyyyy …. so the person who isn’t going to pay for spaying or neutering is going to pay get a breeding permit? Goes back to the dog-fighters, saying: “Oh gosh! I don’t mind that what I’m doing is a felony, but oh my goodness I’d better get a breeding permit or I might get a ticket!”

:::head exploding:::

On a lighter note: A Labrador is running for mayor of an Alaskabama town. I’d vote for him over many of the people in office now, that’s for sure. (Thanks, Pat.) … and a personal note: The wonder kitten Ilario (five months old and change) just realized yesterday that he can jump onto the kitchen counters … now where did I put that spray bottle?

Kim’s article on dognapping is now on the MSNBC.com home page, front and center. Nice work!

Here’s the link directly to the article.

This is Day Four of one of these crappy, bad-air-quality summer stretches where I’ve been pretty much physically incapacitated and exhausted by a run of breathing difficulties. Yeah, life’s a bitch, and my earliest memory is my dad carrying me into the ER struggling to breathe, back in the bad old days when good asthma drugs were pretty much non-existent.

Generally, my asthma is under pretty good control, which is a long way from the situation a decade or more back, when I nearly died twice in the ER, and once spent six days in the hospital and six weeks off work recovering from a freaking asthma attack. After that, I got smart and found a good pulmonologist and an even better drug regimen. I got my life back, 95 percent of the time. But that other 5 percent … geez, can I just breathe a little, please?

You’d probably thinking breathing is the only thing on my mind this morning. But you’d be wrong. I’m also overwhelmed with Dog Guilt.

See, three of my dogs are field-bred retrievers. A couple days of doing nothing and these work-minded dogs are climbing the walls. A long stretch (48 hours in dog terms) of not getting wet and/or utterly exhausted and they are giving me sad, reproachful looks.

This is Day Four, and even though they are trying to be understanding, they know in their doggy hearts that they won’t be going to the river today or getting any training today, and they are not happy about it.

In the short term, I gotta ride it out. In the longer term, I gotta move. As the population continues to grow here and climate change seems to be kicking off fire seasons earlier every year, living in a valley full of smoke, heat and exhaust just isn’t cutting it for my lungs — or my dogs.

After I finish our syndicated pet-care page for the week, I’ll be looking at real estate porn, at small pieces of acreage in other states, in places that are less crowded and certainly have better air quality. (This is a long-term project because I just happen to live in a place where you couldn’t currently give a house away, No. 5 on the foreclosure hit parade, with one in 50 homes on the way to being owned by lenders.) And then, exhausted and feeling very sorry for myself, I’ll be napping.

Enough whining … these bad-breathing stretches come and go, and they’re just part of life for me. Honestly, I find them more frustrating than worrisome, because I have a lot of things I’d like to be getting done. (Including taking the dogs out, of course!)

Side benefit of a slow economy: Direct-sale internet puppy-millers seem to be reducing prices because “stock” just isn’t moving anymore. Maybe they’ll get into another line of work! One of the dirtbags who always shows up on my gmail account ads is reducing prices by half to dump the three litters of “doodles” she has. She is also selling her “proven stud” and one of the crank-’em-out girls who “throws nice puppies.” Ugh.

Male “enhancement” pills: Maybe her “proven stud” just needs some help! Ever wonder what’s in those “male enhancement” pills? Why, so does the FDA:

Jack Distribution, LLC, 1501 Green Road Unit C Pompano Beach, Florida 33064 and its wholesale distributors G & N works, Inc., and Devine Distribution, Inc., announced today that they are conducting a voluntary nationwide recall of all lot numbers of the company’s supplement products sold under the brand names Rize 2 The Occasion and Rose 4 Her. New lots of Rize 2 and Rose 4 her (not subject to this recall) will contain lot numbers beginning in “BL”. Jack Distribution, LLC, is conducting this recall after being informed by representatives of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that lab analysis by FDA of Rize 2 and Rose 4 Her samples of random lots found the product contains potentially harmful, undeclared ingredients.

No it’s not pet-related, just weirdly amusing in my oxygen-deprived state. As you may have gathered from past postings, I watch a fair amount of Thoroughbred horse-racing, mostly on the weekends when the top-level horses are running in stakes races. Because of this, I also see a lot of “male enhancement” advertising.

See, the ads on the horse-racing networks (really, the horse-gambling networks) seem mostly to be for “male enhancement,” hair enhancement, money lending and debt relief. I’m guessing I’m not the networks’ target demographic …