Post your pet related links, comments, questions, and tales of intrigue.
Also, regular readers will recognize this barnyard crew:
Post your pet related links, comments, questions, and tales of intrigue.
Also, regular readers will recognize this barnyard crew:
You should post their donation info again with this photo. They are looking wonderful. Thank you for sharing this photo.
Here is the link for donations:
http://meowsandbowwows.chipin.com/charlottes-child-support
OMG,This picture made my day….how beautiful..Hope
kitty got over the poking from the a**…..
Need some advice.
There’s a very large and well-known puppy mill in my area that sends their unwanted dogs to auction every weekend. One of the volunteers at my rescue goes there each and every weekend to “pull” dogs. It’s unethical for the rescue to pay pull fees like this, so volunteers pay out of pocket. The fee is $100 for each dog.
From my understanding, the mill has a separate barn for their unwanted animals – usually puppies 9 to 11 months old that didn’t sell because the POS public thinks they’re too “old”, or they didn’t make it to a petstore for whatever reason, and retired breeders.
The mill has no idea that the volunteers who go each and every weekend are with a rescue. They assume that they’re just brokers.
I’m having a crisis of conscience with this. When we pay $100 for these animals, the puppy mill wins. I feel like we’re basically supporting them, which means they will just keep doing what they’re doing. However, as much as I don’t want to give a dime to this hell on earth, I want to save these dogs from leading horrendous lives even more.
So, what would you do?
I agree with you M. At a $100 a pop, the vols are providing a steady income for these folks. If they wanted to redirect those funds toward enforcement of the laws on the books regulating puppy mills, that might put a dent in the business and reduce/eliminate the output long term.
Many people have tried shutting down this mill – the SPCA, folks who have purchased dogs from them, you name it. I think people are now afraid to speak out against them for fear of being sued, as this mill has a tendancy of doing that. The last time someone spoke out against them, the mill sued the person and won.
Sadly, this province could care less about regulating puppy mills, or animal welfare of any kind. Just look at Berger Blanc. We’re trying, though.
I’d love to take the easy route, though, and just get these dogs out. But I feel it’s similar to “rescuing” a puppy from a pet store.
I don’t know what I would do. Puppy mills are one of the worst things to deal with and this one sounds pretty horrendous. On the other hand, by buying the pups it does keep them in business. I don’t know what to say, except that I wish it would stop.
Bless you for caring.
From the sounds of it – I would agree that ‘rescuing’ the dogs in this way is enabling the puppy mill to continue operating. Since you have tried to get other groups involved in getting them shut down – with no positive results…as much as I absolutely HATE to say this – maybe it would be time to get a hold of H$U$ and see if they can step in and do something to help.
BUT I would first check and see if your state has a program that you can report puppy mills to for investigation – I know that Missouri has Operation Bark Alert, which has been very successful in shutting down puppy mills.
Such wonderful, different fates these babies have now!
WOW! What beautiful healthy babies. How is Charlotte doing? I’ll be she is a good momma and hopefully that ugly sore on her nose has healed.
Thanks – you made my day with these photos! Thanks to all who made this happen. It reminds me why we do what we do.
Charlotte is being a great Mom and her babies are doing very well. Her nose is healing too. At first she wasn’t eating very much but that has changed. Dare I say it..she is eating like a pig! The Wilburettes are just starting to explore their surroundings now. They are so cute!
If you disagree with an organization’s political stance are you a hypocrite if you either take money from them or donate to a specific part of their program? Let me give you the two examples I am thinking of. The ASPCA is having a contest to give away 100,000 to a rescue/shelter. Some of the shelters that are participating have been critical over the ASPCA’s stance on Oreo’s law. So are they hypocritical for then asking for the ASPCA’s money, or since the money was donated to help animals and getting it would in fact help animals is it a wash?
The second is personal. I don’t like Best Friend’s stance on Oreo’s law either. But I donate to their Guardian Angel program because it is for the special needs animals and I know most of those get euthanized because shelters can’t afford to treat them. But I am torn – can I financially support them and still criticize their political stance or should i put my money where my mouth is and stop sending them money? No matter how I feel about their politics I do think they do well by the animals they have and I want to support that – but can you support one part of an organization? Or is it an all or nothing thing?
Daniela
I understand what you are saying Daniela and certainly there are nuances to these kinds of things. My preference would be to donate to an organization that I didn’t strongly disagree with on one or more issues. For example, is there another group that helps fund special needs animals that you don’t take issue with? If so, I’d rather put my money there.
I have just set up a ChipIn to help a kitty who needs dental work. Here’s the link on his foster mom’s blog: http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2011/04/help-valentino-get-his-dental-by.html, and here’s the link to the ChipIn page: http://valentino.chipin.com/valentinos-dentalwork. If enough people could just chip in a dollar or five, we could help this kitty cat out.
I wanted to share a powerful post from several days ago by Steve Markwell, founder of Olympic Animal Sanctuary in Forks, Washington (I live in Washington state), on OAS’s website. The post is about how irrational dangerous dog laws are. OAS takes dogs with a bite history, so Markwell deals with these laws all the time and sees the impact on dogs and their families.
Markwell is a No Kill supporter (although, as someone who deals with part of “the other 5%,” he thinks No Kill doesn’t go far enough), and he writes a bit like Nathan Winograd — that is, his posts are long, detailed, and eye-opening.
http://www.olympicanimalsanctuary.org/2011/04/whos-really-dangerous.html
Thanks for sharing this! I have taken in several dogs that qualify as dangerous, and I’ve never seen where the label helped ANYONE…certainly not the dog, and not the humans, and not the government.
Dogs are dogs, and some people are stupid about that.
I love it – “Dogs are dogs, and some people are stupid about that.”
I, also, take in dogs labeled as ‘dangerous’ – pit bull types…very rarely do I have problems with them – but then again I have learned how to ‘read’ their body language and been able to use that as a tool in figuring out how to work with the dog to fix any issues that it may have.
Karen – thank you for sharing that…very interesting.
Nathan Winograd is urging the passage of the Companion Animal Protection Act over at http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=5771
And backing up his argument with some horrific images from kill shelters across the U.S., including some you may recognize. A couple of photos show horrors at Associated Humane Societies in Newark, NJ. Maybe you’ve heard of them recently since they took in Patrick, the abused pitbull who nearly died after being slowly starved and then tossed down a garbage chute with the trash. He fell over 20 stories but survived. My opinion of Associated Humane just took a real dive, too, after I saw those photos. From which is hasn’t recovered–and likely won’t. Sometimes I’m amazed at the yawning abyss between the appearance of things (what a wonderful humane society to spare no expense on Patrick’s rehabilitation!) and the dark day-to-day reality (take a look for yourself).
I saw something earlier (but haven’t had a chance to read) about Patrick having food aggression issues. I don’t want to jump to conclusions but since you bring up the shelter, I am hoping this is not the first step to declaring Patrick unfit to live.
I heard they are refusing to adopt him to any of the 3 people who offered to take him – which includes the vet who is treating him. SO yes I do think this is the first step to killing him
Daniela
Refusing to adopt because of the food aggression or do you know? I hate to point out the obvious but the dog was starved. Even in recovery he looks like a walking skeleton. It does not surprise me that he would guard his food bowl aggressively.
Exactly. This has been on my mind since I read about those “issues” the other day.
I hope that’s not the way his situation plays out.
They didn’t say for sure – it was just implied that it was because of the food aggression issue. Which I wouldn’t blame him for and which I also wouldn’t expect him to ever get over. I would consider adding a “no children” to his info sheet though. I don’t have dogs so don’t know if I am being pessimistic about the food bowl aggression issue but I don’t consider that by itself a “no adopt” issue.
Daniela
Goodness that poor dog deserves to be food aggressive after his life! It would be so so manageable to just feed him crated or in a separate room to avoid issues. Ugh.
Since this thread is for showing off ;) These are the kittens from Memphis Animal Shelter that Meows & BowWows pulled, that have Cerebellar Hypoplasia. Warning: Major Cuteness and guaranteed to make you smile
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir-X41E81u0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAA0QuCF2QI
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On a personal level, my old girl Lily needs eye surgery. Not to take away from Charlotte and her babies needs, but if you have a couple of extra $$ I could put them to good use here: http://kittyneedshelp.chipin.com/lily-cats-eye-surgery
If we go over what is needed for Valentino, I will give any excess donations for Lily!
Random: 2 hits on the blog today from search terms “ferret paw tattoo”. No idea how that lead to this blog but I’m really hoping it’s someone wanting to GET a tattoo of a ferret’s paw and not someone wanting to PUT a tattoo on a ferret’s paw…
Any word on the Chesterfield investigation by SLED?