pet connection

This week, the Center for Consumer Freedom, a group of problematic parentage, to say the least, nonetheless again did some of the media’s heavy lifting for them, getting and releasing one of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s required reports from all “shelters,” in particular the one in Norfolk, Va., that is run by an organization that  the lazier members of the media tap for “the animals’ side” of many animal-related issues.

Yes, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.

Here is that report, including a link to the source document, on CCF’s PETAKillsAnimals.com Web site. Go read it, and come back.

In the meantime, I’ll note that this incredibly successful site (from the opposition’s point of view) recently gained a sibling, HumaneWatch.com, which is now doing to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) what PETAkillsanimals.com did to PETA: Look for things donors don’t know about and might not agree with and publicize those matters, in hopes of gutting support for the organization.

If you think the HSUS finds this development alarming, you’d be right.

OK, welcome back. Let’s recap: So how many animals who came in the doors of PETA in 2009 left in anything other than a body bag?

39, of which 8 were adopted out, the remainder transferred.

8 adoptions out of …. 2,366 animals taken in.  Yes, a 97.3 percent kill rate, their “best” since 2006. Since mid-1998, the group has killed 23,640 pets.

PETA tells its donors that the animals they killed were unadoptable … suffering, in many cases. When someone challenges that, they don’t provide veterinary records or behaviorist reports — they send out their lawyer to rattle a saber.

They did that to me a couple years ago. And after that letter I posted this:

[W]ere there medical examinations by a veterinarian, and written records of the same for each animal killed? A behavioral analysis by a qualified behaviorist, and written records of the same for each animal killed? May we see them? Or were these determinations made by the animal’s previous owners, and if so are there the signed forms standard at every veterinary office and shelter making sure the previous owner understands that they are turning the animal over to be killed? May we see those forms? Alternately, may we get the names of all the previous owners so we can ask each and every one of them if it was their understanding that they animal was unadoptable and would be killed when they surrendered the animal? So we can ask, exactly, what they were told by PETA?

If PETA staff made these determinations that the animals were unadoptable, may we have the names of these people and see their qualification to perform such tasks? Are they veterinarians or certified behaviorists? May we see the records of their medical and behavioral determinations that these animals were not adoptable? May we see PETA’s guidelines for determining adoptability?

In response … nothing.

Another year, another couple thousand dead animals who according to PETA’s legal eagles were absolutely not hoping for new homes when they lined themselves up for the needle in Norfolk. No matter what PETA itself reported to the Commonwealth of Virginia, in reference to animals taken in “for the purpose of adoption.” (For a thought of why, exactly, PETA  kills, check out what no-kill flame-thrower Nathan Winograd has to say, here.)

Another year, and again, I have to ask:

Why is anyone still listening to PETA?

To debark or not to debark.  That’s only one of the questions: Last week I posted a New York Times story that discussed debarking.   The article spawned more than 400 comments (so few?  Must have been a big vacation week for NYT readers).   Following up the questions raised, Dr. Sharon Vanderlip had answers. One of Dr. Vanderlip’s most salient points:

Among the many options that may be pursued to manage excessive barking problems are social enrichment, training classes and behavior modification methods. These require time and dedication. Many dog trainers offer these services, as do veterinarians specializing in animal behavior. The success or failure of behavior modification techniques varies among individual animals, trainers, behavioral counselors and the dedication of the owner.

As with any behavior problem, prevention is much easier than correction or modification.

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 — from a canine point of view.    Hint:  you want to see a dog have a great time?  Watch him romp around after a big snowfall.  The pictures are priceless, too.

Even among more elderly dogs at the park, the snow seemed to have made them young again, bringing more spring to their steps, more sparkle to their eyes. It made me reflect back to my New Year’s resolutions – to look at things, including burdensome ones like two feet of snow, and see the joyous opportunities they present.

Like dogs do.

A modest proposal for PETA: I never cease to be amazed by what PETA will come out with next.  Last week’s Groundhog Day gave us a wonderful piece of comedy:  Punxutawney Phil should be replaced with a robot.  Loyal reader Valerie Hayes, in response, submits a modest proposal.  I’m not quoting any of it because I’d prefer you read the whole thing.  Thanks, Valerie!

You’ve got to love when karma stands up and takes a bow: Our friend Maria Goodavage at Dogster has a story from WDIV in Detroit that gives new meaning to rescue dog.

Dog pack attacks gator in Florida: And finally, I absolutely have to share an email sent to me by a dear friend (thanks, Lynn).

At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty

The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the “apex predator”, can still fall victim to implemented ‘team work’ strategy, made possible due to the tight knit social structure and “survival of the pack mentality” bred into the canines.

See the remarkable photograph below, courtesy of Nature Magazine. Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while another dog has a hold on the tail to keep it from thrashing. The third dog attacks the soft underbelly of the gator.

Got a tip?  Got a story?  Don’t keep it to yourself.  Send it to me at davidsgreene@gmail.com or give me a shout in the comments.

Photo credits: Dogs in snow, John Woestendiek

For those of you feeling a little bit of cabin fever, we start with …

Oscar the peripatetic pooch: I’ve traveled to nine countries on three continents in 45 years.  Oscar the terrier visited 29 countries on five continents in six months.   I am so totally jealous of this dog I can’t even tell you.    Oh, and wait, it gets better.  He and his mom also helped rescues around the world.    Talk about having a very good year….

Next, some thoughtful writing from the blogosphere.

Pets are responsible for climate change? When I noted the Science Daily article recently that intimated pets contribute to global warming, I didn’t have to mention how ludicrous the idea was.   However, Dr. Marion Nestle over at Food Politics tears the fallacy apart in a rather (pardon the pun) delicious manner.

We think pet food performs a huge public service. If pets didn’t eat all that stuff, we would have to find a means of getting rid of it: landfills, burning, fertilizer, or converting it to fuel, all of which have serious environmental consequences. If dogs and cats ate the same food we do, we estimate that just on the basis of calories, the 172 million dogs and cats in American would consume as much food as 42 million people.

But they don’t. They eat the by-products of human food production. If we want to do something to help reverse climate change, we should be worrying much more about the amount of meat that we ourselves are eating–and the amount of cereals we are growing to feed food animals–than blaming house pets for a problem that we created.

The day it all changed: At Raised by Wolves, Houlie draws on a comment from PC.com regular straybaby and connects the dots to find when dogs stopped being valued solely for what they did and became status symbols based on looks and “papers.” Interesting read, with a twist for an ending.

The Cesar Wars: The battle over how to best train a dog is getting hot again, as Susan McCullough notes at The Allie Chronicles.  It’s Cesar Millan vs. well, everyone who doesn’t like Cesar’s Way.  And Cesar’s attorneys aren’t happy at any challenge to Cesar’s empire. I suggest this one because it’s less about the training methodology itself, and more about the fight over who is right and who has might.

Noting that the mere mention of Millan brings out strong emotions, I figure this pointer is good for my first hundred-comment post. One thing for sure: Love him or hate him, seems no one who has a dog is actually neutral on the subject of Cesar Millan. And that’s all I’m going to say without consulting an attorney.

Pedigree and paranoia: Sometimes I read posts that annoy me not because of what they say, but because they remind me I’m not nearly as good a writer as I’d like to think.   Terrierman gives us two e-mails from best-selling author and Border Collie man Don McCaig, both so masterfully delivered they make me shake my fist at the heavens (in spite of their invocation of Godwin’s Law).   They’re well reasoned, funny, brilliant and damn near perfect. (Gina gushed over them, too, in the comments section, even, which is kinda embarassing, but shhhh! don’t tell her I said so. She’s a little old to be such a silly fan girl.) Mr. McCaig writes that the only thing holding up the crumbling edifice of the AKC is the “fancy’s” overblown paranoia regarding animal-rights zealots:

“Don’t you see — it’s just like dominoes. First they come for the socialists . . .”

“I’ve never heard of that breed.”

“No, it’s like Nazi Germany. ‘First they came for the socialists.’”

“But this isn’t Nazi Germany. Dogs aren’t socialists.”

“Never-you-mind: they’re coming for our dogs!”

On that note: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good … day.

Hey, I’m glad to be new to the Pet Connection blogging team. If you have something newsworthy you think needs a pointer, let me know.

Don’t forget it’s Dr. Marty Monday on “The Cooper Lawrence Show” tonight — first Monday of every month. The show is on 115 radio stations from coast-to-coast,  and Dr. Becker will be on at 9 p.m. ET. Between Cooper and Dr. Becker, you’re in for some of what Dr. B calls “edutainmanent.” Click the link to listen online or find one of those stations.

Stuff we’re reading elsewhere:

What if your happy little Samantha is really a Stanley?  Pet Connection  BFF  Dr. Patty Khuly writes in her Daily Vet blog about the not as rare as you might think confusion of gender in pets (the pets aren’t confused, we are).  … and don’t miss her column in Veterinary Practice News on the war for veterinary hearts and minds, AVMA vs. HSVMA.… more on the HSUS front, Nathan Winograd offers his own take on the recent fund-raising pitch involving Fay (not Faye) that Gina wrote about last week. … The Toronto Star has a ton of letters to the editor regarding the mess at Toronto Humane.

Dogster reports on a controversy over a working dog in Clearwater, Fla.    This isn’t the kind of working dog that you typically think of, though.   Cody has his own T-shirt, nametag, and never asks for a break to smoke. However, along with not having a social security number and possibly being underage, Cody ran afoul of Florida authorities.  It’s so hard to find good help nowadays. Read more, here. …

Sick Vick returned to Atlanta with his new team, and the AP says he “teared up” at the “support.” Those who didn’t support the dog-killing dirtbag were spit on. “That is a direct attack on his character,” said Vick fan Robert Green. Yes, it is. And your point is? …

YesBiscuit! is supporting an initiative in South Carolina, sponsored by the Animal Protection League of SC, to focus on the Black Pearls.   For those that aren’t familiar with the term, a Black Pearl is the term used for a black dog at a shelter, as they are statistically more likely not to be adopted in shelters, and in many cases, to be killed.  Check it out. … And for some holiday action, visit Full Cry for a look at a horse-and-hound parade in Middleburg, VA …

For now, I’ll wrap with this:  It’s time to start thinking about what you want on your wall/fridge/barn door for a 2010 calendar.  Might we suggest guinea pigs?  The Guinea Pig Connection has some ideas for you.  Four of them, in fact.

Shameless. And shameful. Those are perhaps the most polite words that have landed in the PetConnection e-mail queue since the HSUS sent out this fund-raising pitch:

This is Faye. She survived because of you.

I’ll never forget Faye’s story. I bet you won’t, either.

Our team met her in Missouri, when The Humane Society of the United States helped rescue hundreds of animals from the horrors of dogfighting. She’d been wounded badly in a fight, and a dogfighter had mercilessly cut off her lips. She was in tough shape, but we found her in the nick of time.

Watch our moving video to see Faye’s happy ending — then become a Humane Hero with your monthly donation to our 2010 Animal Survivors Fund.

Faye’s a lucky survivor: She now sleeps in a warm bed in a safe place. To help save thousands of animals just like her in the new year, we’re doing something we’ve never done before, and it’s BIG: We’re hoping to raise a million dollars online by December 31 for our 2010 Animal Survivors Fund.

It’s ambitious — but so are our plans for saving animals next year. We’ll not only continue to help bust dogfighting rings, but we’ll also take on the individuals and industries that profit from animal suffering — from people who club baby seals to death, to those who confine animals in factory farms, to those who abuse dogs in puppy mills.

Your gift of $20.10 a month for 2010 — just 66 cents a day — can help thousands of animals like Faye not just survive, but thrive in the new year. Click here to watch Faye’s video and make your tax-deductible monthly donation today. Thank you for everything you do for animals.

Sincerely,
John Goodwin
Manager, Animal Fighting Campaign
The Humane Society of the United States

Problem? The HSUS hasn’t given one thin dime to help Fay (not Faye), according to her foster mom, who noted in the comments yesterday:

I am rather sad that HSUS has chosen to use Fay (not Faye)in their fund drive. Fay has never received a dime from HSUS. How do I know? Because I am the one that is fostering Fay. Fay is currently going through expensive surgeries to recreate medically need lips so her teeth do not fall out, her jaw bone stops deterioating, and she can live a normal life. HSUS never contacted us regarding Fay. In the video John states she is in a loving home…really…thanks for the compliment but Fay is LOOKING for her forever home.

BADRAP’s Donna Reynolds wasn’t quite so kind, noting acerbically that, “fight bust victims have become hot commodities. Who knew?”

The HSUS knew.  One figures they had a little pow-wow — lawyers, fund-raisers and accountants — and then did the math, figuring any howls of protest  would be more than offset by the sight of a dog with her lips cut off by a dogfighter, and the number of people who’d click on that link and give, give, give.

We’ve cut the HSUS a lot of slack here, justifiably so,  and even noted what seems to be a change in the internal culture of the place and policies that seem to be shifting as a result. Some of this seems to be ideology — a move more to honest-to-goodness animal advocacy and away from the policies of the  unapologetic animal-rights killersangels of death at PETA. The HSUS has made 180 degree turns in its policies on no-kill communities, on trap-neuter-release of feral cats, and on the rehoming of fight-bust dogs. They’ve even backed off their enthusiasm for forced spay-neuter — recognizing a difference between reputable, ethical breeders and puppy-milling scum –  although we’ve yet to see the formal policy change said to be in the works last summer.

But no doubt the change is also driven by the realities of a changing attitude among animal lovers: That no-kill communities are the wave of the future, that exterminating community cats isn’t kinder than trap-neuter-release and colony management – and that fight-bust dogs “saved” by humane groups are not deserving of the needle just because they were once owned by twisted sociopaths like Michael Vick.

Oh yes, Michael Vick. The HSUS could simply have not handled that particular hot potato worse. As with Fay, they fund-raised on the backs of dogs they didn’t have and weren’t helping. In the Vick case, they advocated for the deaths of the seized dogs, in keeping with their long-held policy that fight-bust dogs were too mentally unstable, too potentially dangerous to ever be trustworthy members of human society.

And then, they watched, no doubt in wide-eyed amazement, as BADRAP and other groups took Vick’s dogs and proved everyone wrong. The HSUS surely yearned for the warm, basking glow other groups enjoyed when Sports Illustrated put out a cover story on the saved dogs. Oh, such missed opportunities!

Did they figure that if the dogs could be a generator of positive publicity — and donations — that Michael Vick could be, too? It’s hard to imagine any other motive for laundering the dirtbag, cleaning him up and making him acceptable to the NFL and at least one morally-challenged franchise, the Philadelphia Eagles. The HSUS trots him out at regular intervals, to mumble half-hearted “don’t get caughtdon’t be like me” talks to at-risk youngsters who learn more by meeting his victims than the sociopath himself.

No, the HSUS doesn’t get the Vick thing, even though everyone and her sister has tried to clue them in. And they apparently don’t get that it’s downright sleazy to fund-raise on the backs of fight-bust dogs the organization isn’t actually helping. Not even with the vague promise of possibly helping others in the future.

I suppose we should be pleased that the HSUS is no longer raising money on one side of the office while advocating the needle on the other.

But it’s not enough.

Having thrown themselves into this situation, the HSUS should use the money it already has to pick up every penny of the cost of Fay’s medical and mental rehabilitation. That’s right, every damn penny. And every penny of the cost of the other dogs seized with her.

Going forward, HSUS leadership — hello Mr. Pacelle — needs to shake up the fund-raising staff, and stop misleading people.

Until both of those things happen — and happen publicly, with a statement of wrong-doing and a pledge to animal-lovers going forward, I would encourage animal-lovers to give to the HSUS not one thin dime. Which is exactly the amount they have given to help Fay, their fund-raising poster dog.

Instead, from Gale, Fay’s foster mom:

If you really want to help Fay, please go to our website, http://www.muttsandstuff.com and click on the donate now button. If you want to help the other 35 dogs we took with their own health issues….please donate. We are a small group that can use the help.

I’ve long believed that any massive national group cannot be as effective as a small-community-based charity. This has not changed my view, and in fact has reinforced it. Think globally, give locally. Or rather: Think big, and give small — not small amounts, but to small groups that really do the job the big guys claim the credit for.

Update 3:47 p.m. PT: As noted in the comments, the HSUS has now said on Twitter that they will be picking up the tab for Fay (not Faye)’s surgery.  The decision is the right one, and I’m glad they’ve stepped up. Now they just have to tell Mutts-n-Stuff to update their Web site, which as of a few minutes ago was still asking for help in paying for the dog’s care (home page at right, detail below).

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Be very clear about this: Unlike the “H$U$” haters who routinely rag on the organization for not operating any shelters, I don’t have any problem with them raising money to be an advocacy group. None whatsoever. A powerful animal advocacy group is very much needed, as is an organization that can go in with trained teams to assist local groups when they’re faced with major fight bust, puppy-mill shut-down or a crisis like Hurricane Katrina.

But the HSUS has to be clear about its role and honest with its donors.  In this case, they weren’t.  I’m glad they’re jumping in now to help after they were called out, but their fund-raising pitches need to change going forward. If they aren’t going to help small rescue and shelters after the high-profile bust, they need to stop suggesting that they do.

Better yet: Give those little groups some money.