Is a ‘no kill nation’ impossible or inevitable?
By David S. Greene
February 11, 2010
The Pet Connection team has a notable presence in the new issue of The Bark magazine.
Christie on the realities of no-kill today: Yes, our very own Christie Keith has a feature article in the current issue on the no-kill movement, which is both the hottest, most controversial issue in sheltering today and the most promising. Since the magazine’s articles are not available on Teh Interwebs, you’ll just have to go to your newsstand and pick up a copy, or better yet, do what I’m doing: Get yourself a subscription! To whet your appetite, I’ll give you a snippet of Christie’s piece:
For decades, the dream of a no-kill nation was considered exactly that: a dream. Yet today, communities across the country are closing in on the promise of saving all their healthy and treatable dogs and cats. Almost all organizations involved in tracking shelter data, including the Humane Society of the United States and Maddie’s Fund, estimate that the number of animals killed annually in shelters has plummeted from more than 25 million in the 1970s to around four million today. The United States has never been closer to becoming a no-kill nation than it is at this moment. But will we ever get there?
Best, brightest … and here: But wait, there’s more. Our own Gina Spadafori gets a mention in this issue, as well. She has been named one of the 100 best and brightest figures in the dog world, as well as Pet Connection’s Dr. Narda Robinson, of Colorado State University. Now how totally cool is that? Brava Christie, Dr. Narda and Gina! Other names on the list most likely to be familiar to Pet Connection readers include:
- Nathan Winograd, no-kill movement trailblazer
- Dr. Kate Hurley, shelter medicine pioneer
- Dr. Robin Downing, pain medicine expert
- Dr. Nancy Kay, internal medicine specialist and author of the Speaking for Spot blog
- Dr. Paul Pion, world-famous veterinary cardiologist and founder of the Veterinary Information Network and the VIN News Service
- Dr. Donald Strombeck, who wrote the book on home-prepared diets
- Dr. Marion Nestle, truth-teller, food industry expert and author of the Food Politics blog
- Dave Duffield, founder of Maddie’s Fund
- Richard Avanzino of Maddie’s Fund
- Wayne Pacelle of the HSUS
It’s not the first time Dr. Pion and Gina Spadafori have been on a magazine’s “Best of” list, by the way: Cat Fancy magazine named their book “Cats For Dummies” as one of the top 100 events of the 20th century for cats.
The pet beats the honey: If you’ve walked past any card store, flower store or jewelry store in the past week, you know that Valentine’s Day will soon be upon us. I’m not a big fan of the “holiday” for my own reasons, but MSNBC.com warmed my heart with the assertion that one in every five adults would rather spend Feburary 14 with their pet.
The survey of 24,000 people in 23 countries found 21 percent of adults would rather spend February 14 with their pet than their spouse, although the French were least likely to choose a furry friend over a human, with only 10 percent taking that option.
Bayer allows Advantage and K-9 Advantix to be sold via retail: Edie Lau at the VIN News Service says we can expect to see wider retail sale of some flea-and-tick products from here on in. Although you’ve been able to buy Bayer’s Advantage and K-9 Advantix through some online vendors and feed stores (which use legitimate but murky “gray market channels”), far more retail and internet outlets have been kept out of the selling of these products. Some veterinarians aren’t pleased with the development.
Expressing a resentment shared by others, Dr. Carl Darby, a practitioner in Seneca Falls, N.Y., wrote in an online discussion on the Veterinary Information Network (VIN): “I hope that Bayer understands that losing their highly educated, motivated and dedicated free sales force may have long-term impacts on their business, and it may be difficult for them to regain the trust of the profession.”
It’ll be interesting to see if other companies follow Bayer’s lead.
Teen kidnaps puppy to save it: Bronson Stewart is 19 years old and lives in New Zealand. His puppy was hit by a car and badly injured. When the family couldn’t pay for the surgery, they elected for euthanasia to end the dog’s suffering. Bronson wouldn’t accept that.
“I just knew I had to get my dog back. He’s like my brother,” Stewart told TV One’s “Closeup” program Wednesday.
“They can’t just kill him because I haven’t got any money.”
Stewart went to the veterinary clinic last Friday and asked to see Buck, grabbed the little dog and ran home.
Things got dicey after that, but it has a happy ending, promise. Go read.
Note: This is where I usually remind you to send links or tips for stories to me, but I’ll be out of town for a few days, and Gina will be pitching in for Monday’s column, so send tips and links to petconnection@gmail.com. See you next week.
Photo credit: Millie, thebark.com.
A dog’s view of a blizzard: Mid-Atlantic states from Virginia to New Jersey were clobbered with up to 30 inches of snow (and more) over the weekend. Even here in New England that’s a lot. But Maryland and Virginia aren’t Maine, Wisconsin or Idaho. When you’re used to less than a foot of snow the entire year, it does become Snowmageddon. John from ohmidog has a terrific report on what the historic snowfall was like —
heard–you probably are familiar with them already or have heard worse–suffice it to say that the column is about trends in animal cruelty laws.
The good news is that people in those states are working to improve the laws. Otto says that throughout the country, people are supportive of strong laws to protect animals. One of them is Tiffani Frautschi, president of
Baltic’s remarkable journey: This is not the kind of story that usually ends well. Poland is in the middle of an uncommonly cold winter. A dog became stranded on ice in the middle of the Vistula River, then started floating out to sea on a fast moving current. At that point, you’d expect the worst, right? Not this time. After more than 100 miles on the ice, the dog 

