ForYourCanine.com

Great Information On Puppy Mills

Thanks to an Oprah Winfrey show on puppy mills, more and more information is getting out about the crimes that are being inflicted on helpless dogs across our country. This article here gives great information on the subject of puppy mills. The fact that there is debate on this issue is incredible. Buy your next puppy from a reliable small breeder please.

Beware Of The Puppy Scam

There is a scam out there that targets pet owners and pet lovers alike and goes something like this. Someone will place an ad in the classifieds of the newspaper or CraigsList stating that they are moving a great distance or out of the country and they need to find a home for their (often) purebred puppy or dog. Once you contact this person they will ask for funds for either the animal itself or for shipping and transport charges to send the animal to you. Of course, seeing as this is a scam, you’ll pay the requested funds and never receive the puppy… because the puppy never existed.

Setback For Puppy Mill Opponents In Vermont

Legislation was proposed and didn’t make it out of committee in the State of Vermont that would’ve made it illegal to run a dog breeding operation that sold more than 100 puppies or 20 litters in a year. This legislation would’ve kept small breeders and hobby breeders in business, but would’ve made so-called puppy mills illegal. Here is a link to a news story about this setback. Thankfully the Humane Society continues to fight large scale dog breeders who continue to abuse their animals.

Poodles, We Got Poodles

Charlie, who got her name from the TV show Charlie’s Angels, started giving birth to her litter of pups on St. Patrick’s Day around 6pm, Charlie stopped giving birth the next day at approximately 2pm. Over the course of this long process, Charlie managed to give birth to 16 (yes, you read that right… sixteen) healthy puppies. Charlie is a purebred poodle located in Canada and this appears to be a new Canadian record. Charlie previously had a litter of 12 puppies awhile ago, so this isn’t a total shock. Check out the story of these 16 pups!

A Sad Lesson In Small Dog Safety

This story comes from Nebraska where a woman took her small Pomeranian puppy to play at a park where dogs are allowed. The park has two sections, one with signage stating it is for “small dogs” and one where it is posted as open to “all dogs”. The woman’s puppy was in the “all dogs” section when a larger dog, most likely thinking it was a toy of some sort, picked it up in it’s mouth and shook it violently back and forth killing it. The large dog is being watched now and the owner was cited for damaging property.

Doing Good Deeds In The Name Of Kindness To Animals

Read about how one woman from Illinois has taken her job as a licensed humane officer and used it to its fullest powers. She not only delivers food to owners who cannot properly take care of their pets, but she goes after the bad guys too. She has broken up what was at the time the state’s largest dog fighting ring. She has recently been involved in the rescue of almost fifty feces covered dogs from a puppy mill operating in her jurisdiction. She has gone above and beyond the call to do her best to make sure that animals are treated humanely. We should all acknowledge people like this, they are the unheard of heroes that rarely get mentioned whenever there is an article regarding the arrest of animal abusers.

Stars Come Out To Honor Dogs

Check out this story about the first ever Dogs Trust Honours held recently in London to honor dogs who displayed heroic abilities, trustworthiness, or just loyalty.  Nice to see celebrities coming out to praise our four legged friends for their super human… er, super canine abilities.

The Use Of The Dog In The Military

Here is a great article detailing the uses that dogs serve in the United States military.  Dogs can be helpful to soldiers in a number of different ways and are on the frontlines in places like Iraq as we speak.

Interview With PetFirst Founder Brent Hinton

A very interesting interview with PetFirst (a pet health insurance company) owner Brent Hinton.  Not only talks about his company and what it is that he provides, but also delves into the business development side of things and gives details pertaining to how it was started and what some of the reasons to bring it about were.

A Look Back At The 2007 Pet Food Recall

A Look Back At The 2007 Pet Food Recall

2007 will go down in pet circles as the year of the pet food recall. It was a very scary moment for pet owners everywhere when it seemed like every day there was new information regarding contaminated pet foods that were not only causing sickness in pets, but death too.

In March of 2007 reports started coming in worldwide of pets suffering from renal failure. Such widespread problems caused concern and government agencies as well as the pet food companies themselves started looking for a cause. When a company test showed not only sickness but death in test animals, Canadian pet food manufacturer Menu Foods became the first company to issue a voluntary recall on March 16, 2007. Initially the recall was confined to wet pet foods and was traced to wheat gluten from a single Chinese company. Later, other contaminations would be discovered that would lead to a complete investigation of Chinese food exportation. This investigation would also find contaminated rice protein that was related to kidney failure in pets.

Although the actual number of infected pets and pets suffering death as a result will probably never be known due to the lack of a centralized animal death registry, the number was originally reported as around 100 at the end of March and has grown to be reported as multiple thousands. When all was said and done over 5300 pet products were recalled by multiple companies and a true cause was never completely discovered.

With several lawsuits still pending litigation and an investigation that found the distribution point, but not the source of the contamination, many wonder what the long term effects of the pet food recall of 2007 will be. Perhaps the long term effects will be what some people want, government regulation of the pet food industry.