pet connection

It’s finally time to reveal the winners of my $70,000 shelter/rescue group giveaway, held as part of my BIG Bus Tour across America in celebration of the release of my book “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual.” Are you ready?

The Grand Prize winner is Legacy Boxer Rescue, which serves the Dallas/Forth Worth area of Texas. They’ll receive $20,000 worth of prizes donated by our wonderful sponsors! The photo of some Legacy volunteers was taken in Dallas, when they all turned out for the last stop on the BIG Bus Tour to say hello! Congratulations to a great organization!

Winner of the Second Prize was Villalobos Rescue Center, a rescue, rehabilitation and placement facility for abused and abandoned pit bulls located in Canyon Country, Calif. They’ll receive $5,000 worth of donated prizes (with an extra wag of the tail from my own rescued pit bull mix, Gracie!).

The group with the third-highest number of votes, and winner of  the Third Prize, is Great Lakes Bengal Rescue, a non-profit Bengal cat rescue within the Great Lakes region serving Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. They maintain a network of over 25 foster homes, and will be receiving $4,000 worth of donated prizes. Great work, friends!

Winning the Fourth Prize is Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary, a North Carolina-based organization that provides a safety net for blind cats who are homeless. They will receive $3,000 worth of donated prizes, which we know will be put to great use!

Our Fifth Place winner is Detroit Dog Rescue, which saves abused, abandoned, injured and starving dogs off the streets of Detroit. They are in the process of fundraising to build a no-kill shelter in the city, and already let us know that whatever they win will be given to to members of the Detroit community as part of a “Free Dog Food Day” giveaway of their own. That’s something I’m proud to be part of!

Now for some more exciting news: Every single one of the rest of our 50 finalists will receive at least $1000 in donated prizes! I’ll post later this week about just how that was made possible, and thank the donors who came through for us.

I want to take this opportunity to thank our prize donors, everyone who nominated rescue groups and shelters in the contest — more than 13,000 of you! — as well as thank all the dedicated rescuers and shelter volunteers and workers who do so much for the cats and dogs every day!

I am proud and honored to be able to support you in any way possible, my friends!

Here are the rest of the finalists who will each receive at least $1000 in prizes, under the jump:

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While displaced families from the Joplin, Mo., tornado were receiving support this week at the American Red Cross’ makeshift shelter in the student center on Missouri Southern State University’s campus, their four-legged family members were just several feet away downstairs — safe in the arms of rescue workers from the Humane Society of Missouri.

“It’s a great way for the families and the pets to brighten each other’s day while they are here. Family members come down and walk their dogs or hug their cats anytime they want and it just gives both of them a sense of familiarity and calmness in the chaos,” says HSM’s Corrie Kahl, shelter manager for the emergency shelter in Joplin and for the HSM shelter in St. Louis.

Racquetball courts and offices in the basement of the student center have become the temporary housing units for the animals. Kennels and blankets and play toys fill the rooms. But most of the pets don’t have much time to use them since staff and volunteers from the HSM spend most of their time holding and babying about 14 animals belonging to the families in the shelter.
The safe-keeping of victimized families’ pets is only one part of the HSM’s activities in Joplin. The HSM Disaster Response Team goes where it is needed throughout the state and neighboring states to execute animal search and rescue efforts. As though to drive that point home, Corrie’s walk talkie crackles with a DRT member from the devastated Joplin suburb, saying, “We do have evidence that the cats are still alive; they are using the litter box. We’ll continue our search.”

Meanwhile, not far from campus, the Joplin Humane Society Animal Adoption and Resource Center’s facility is fulfilling another service: keeping the pets that have been found safe and providing flexible hours for people to come, look and, hopefully, identify their pets. While the facility is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., they are also using social media tools, posting pets’ pictures and date they were found on its Web site.

The Joplin Humane Society (JHS) also has an active Facebook site, too. On that site, there is an Amazon link that lists the product and supplies needed for the shelter that can be shipped. Pet owner Randy Resler is just one person depending on the services of the Society’s AARC. His home was one of the lucky ones; it was not totally destroyed. In fact, he and his wife stayed in it after the storm. His two cats and Pomeranian named Lilly were in crates in the garage out of harm’s way from the debris. While he and his wife were in their house sorting through things, someone apparently found the animals in the garage at the back of the house and did not realize anyone was home and took them. Randy hopes it was a rescue team that found the animals and he is confident that once the JHS has time to process more found animals, he will find his. He was heading that day to the shelter to take another look. As of Saturday, he was still looking.

The JHS’s Facebook postings say more volunteers are not needed at this time at the JHS, but to check back in several weeks. However, there are always unforeseen expenses creating a need for monetary donations now more than ever. Donations can be made through the JHS’s Website.

While some animals are just waiting to get back home, there are some canines with jobs to do. News reports Saturday stated there were 600 volunteers and 50 dog teams out again across the city in search and recovery mode. One organization is Gateway Search Dogs, Inc. of St. Louis.  Kathy Roeder, president of Gateway, was there Thursday with her Australian Shepherd, Cooper. The nonprofit organization provides trained canines and personnel to locate lost, missing and deceased persons. It serves all cities, county, state or national search-and-rescue agencies at no charge.

Updates about Joplin are provided on Web sites like the City of Joplin’s Facebook site where information is immediately posted. Go here for more information. The Web site for the city of Joplin is here and includes links to donations sites and important phone numbers. A volunteer coordination center is manned on the campus of Missouri Southern State University at 3950 Newman Road, Joplin, MO 64801. During the week, the number to call is 417-625-3543 for individuals and groups.

Please do not come from out of town unless you call first to find out if there is anything you can do. Police and fire officials are strongly encouraging anyone who does not have a home in the affected area to please stay clear of the damage site. There will be plenty of time for many months to come to help locally.

Image credit: All photos courtesy of Kathie Kerr.

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Since the tornado roared through Joplin, Missouri, claiming at least 139 lives, the cleanup has been slow and the aftermath grim.

Nevertheless, miraculous stories are emerging from the rubble. One particular bit of news has brightened everyone’s spirits. A rescue dog named Javier alerted his handlers that he detected someone who might be alive. The team heard moaning, and started frantically digging through the debris, eager to pull out any survivors. As it turned out, Javier was right. He had found….a fellow dog! A very relieved yellow Lab was pulled from the wreckage, and gave everyone new hope that miracles are always possible, even in the worst catastrophes. KABC has the video story. Please remember to come back to Pet Connection a little later today for another story out of Joplin.

A new twist on “Where’s the beef?”: If you sell a product and promise it contains (let’s say) shrimp, by law it actually has to have shrimp in it. If it doesn’t, that’s not just deceptive advertising, it’s illegal. Hence, the warning letter sent by the FDA recently to Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company. The Lamb and Rice dog food contains no discernable traces of lamb, though there is “bovine material” (I don’t want to know, truly). Additionally, the Grain Free Duck pet food has the same problem. From the FDA letter:

(T)he analytical sample results did not detect the presence of duck in the product.

That’s a problem, wouldn’t you say? There’s a bit more, as the FDA alleges Evangers failed to provide requested processing and production records for 2009. the letter is just a warning, putting the company on public notice. They’re not alleging that the food is unsafe, though there is a mention of the products being “adulterated” (which is a definite no-no), only that it isn’t what they claim it to be. By extension, you could correctly infer the FDA is calling into question how the food could be priced and sold while not containing the lamb and duck it purports to include. This isn’t Evangers’ first rodeo with the feds, and you can bet this story isn’t over. Stay tuned.

Did Hepatitis C come from dogs? Dr. Amit Kapoor, an investigator with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health‘s Center for Infection and Immunity, has made a claim that could change the way we look at hepatitis, a deadly liver ailment: Hepatitis C could have “jumped” from dogs to people more than five hundred years ago. The virus, also known as HCV, affects more than two hundred million people around the world and still has no known cure. Dr. Kapoor is quoted in HealthDay explaining how his team discovered the link.

“[W]hile we were analyzing samples from dogs involved in outbreaks of respiratory disease, we came upon a virus that was more similar to HCV than other viruses of the same family. So far, we have only detected [the virus] in sick animals, a few of which had died of unknown causes. Because of its close genetic similarity to HCV, we suggested the name of canine hepacivirus.”

The Columbia study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bad Newz turns to good: A small animal rights group in Tipton, Penn., called Dogs Deserve Better just bought a five-bedroom mansion for $600,000. That’s an unusual purchase, no? Yes, it is, but there’s a reason you should care about it. The home was the former headquarters for Bad Newz Kennels. That’s right. SickVick’s former house of horrors will forever more be used as a rehabilitation center for dogs who have been chained and penned. The new owners plan to balance the karmic scales. From NBC Sports:

“I think by us overtaking this property we are winning for the dogs. We are, in essence, giving this property back to the dogs that were abused there by using it to help other dogs just like them,” said Tamira Thayne, the group’s founder.

The organization paid for the house with a 30 percent down payment secured through donations and a loan. An anonymous donor has agreed to make payments for the next ten years, but Thayne said fundraising will continue.

Ultimately, the group wants to raise $3 million to fully pay for the site, install fencing and build a facility for the dogs. The house will serve as the group’s new headquarters and Thayne said she or another staff member will live there to monitor the dogs.

This is how it should be, don’t you agree?

Surreal story out of D.C.: Video surveillance in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C showed a woman allegedly attempting to poison stray cats earlier this month. She was arrested, charged with animal cruelty, and faces up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 if guilty. I’d never bother to report such a run-of-the-mill story, except the woman is a researcher working for the Smithsonian Museum’s Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo. What’s more, the Smithsonian has no intention of suspending her while the case is investigated. Your tax dollars at work. Alley Cat Allies is on the case.

What happens when you tease a dog: I love this YouTube video about a guy with too much time on his hands, and his dog, who deserves a big ol’ steak.

And to finish off this week’s column, I give you a total “awwww” moment: Sleepy kitten and her snuggly mom.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credit: Video screengrab from KABC.

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It’s true: I was against legislating shelter reform before I was for it.

But a string of particularly horrific stories of abuse and neglect in our nation’s shelters, as well as watching our economy crash and burn because we’d gotten to the point where we were basically letting Wall Street “regulate” itself, have combined to turn me into a shelter reform flip-flopper.

That’s why I’m now strongly supporting passage of laws based on the model “Companion Animal Protection Act” (CAPA) in every state in the U.S. From my column today on SFGate.com:

It’s more than a little disturbing to consider how little actual “shelter” homeless pets receive in some agencies bearing that name. Take Tennessee’s Memphis Animal Shelter, for example.

Conditions there were so bad that they prompted a high-profile sheriff’s raid on the facility in 2009. Investigators found animals starving to death and going without water; there were even allegations of dog-fighting going on at the agency

After the raid, the city installed webcams inside the facility so citizens could see what was going on behind the scenes, but even then, conditions didn’t improve all that much.

Blogger Shirley Thistlewaite, who has been covering the situation in the Memphis shelter for more than a year, posts webcam images from MAS several times a month.

Some of the images show dogs being dragged, terrified, to the kill room. Others show cats being poked with sticks by staff members. There are examples of workers violating city policies, of pets escaping from kennels and cages, even of a puppy being hauled to his death, dangling from a worker’s hand that was holding a fistful of the loose skin on the puppy’s back.

If you’re tempted to dismiss the situation at MAS as an aberration, think again. Other animal control facilities may not have webcams in their backrooms, but volunteers and animal rescuers frequently report abuse and neglect in shelters all over the country.

[....]

I don’t normally get on board the legislative express when it comes to reform. I think that education and advocacy are the best approaches to take when trying to change things. In fact, when (CAPA author Nathan) Winograd proposed that San Francisco adopt its own version of CAPA at a meeting of the city’s Animal Welfare Commission two years ago, I didn’t agree. I thought it was micromanagement. I thought it was government run amuck.

I’ve changed my mind. There are simply too many abuses going on in too many shelters, and too many of them are going unpunished or even uninvestigated. The provisions of CAPA are not outrageous, and most of them are being used already by the best shelters in the country, including animal control agencies in Reno, Nev., Charlottesville, N.C., and Ithaca, N.Y.

Read the complete article, including about the launch of Rescue-50, a joint project of Winograd’s No Kill Advocacy Center and the Florida organization No Kill Nation, to pass CAPA nationwide, here.

Photo: Puppies in a feces-smeared cage in a “shelter,” courtesy of Nathan Winograd.

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As part of the BIG Bus Tour celebrating the release of Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual, Dr. Marty Becker is giving away pet care products, supplies and equipment valued at more than $70,000 to shelters and rescue groups across the country, all donated by leading pet and veterinary product manufacturers.

The contest received more than 13,000 nominations, and 50 finalists have been selected at random from among them, and will go on to the voting round.

To vote, just go here (you have to have a Facebook account to vote).

The 50 finalists are under the jump….

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