Animals and COVID-19

What You Need to Know

•  The risk of animals spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to people is low.

•  The virus can spread from people to animals during close contact.

•  More studies are needed to understand if and how different animals could be affected by COVID-19.
• People with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should avoid contact with animals, including pets, livestock, and wildlife.

To read more on this story, click here: Animals and COVID-19

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Large Study Finds Pet Owners Are Different

You’ve seen headlines like “Puppy Love: Pet Owners Are Happier, Healthier” and "How Pets Save Us Billions Every Year In Health Care Costs!" And it is true that a lot of studies have reported that pet owners have better physical and mental health than people who do not live with companion animals. But as I have pointed out in previous posts, the results of this body of research have been mixed (here and here). Further, we do not know whether getting a pet causes better health, or whether the causal arrow points in the other direction. In other words, pet owners might be different to begin with. If so, non-pet-related differences such as socioeconomic status might be the real cause of better health for companion animal owners. For example, people who are married, white, female, and wealthy have lower death rates. If individuals with these characteristics are also more likely to live with pets, we could wrongly conclude that it is dog or cat ownership that makes them live longer.

If we really want to understand the effects of companion animals on human health, we also need to know how pet owners and non-pet owners differ in terms of demographics. Investigators from the Rand Corporation and UCLA used a large data set to address this question. Recently published in the journal PLOS One, their research report offers important insights into the differences between pet owners and non-pet owners and the impact of pets on our health.

To read more on this story, click here: Large Study Finds Pet Owners Are Different

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Pets and Estate Planning

What happens if you die before your cat or dog? It’s a question being addressed increasingly as more people are including pets in their estate planning.

PETS ARE PROPERTY
In the eyes of the law pets are property. But ask any pet guardian – otherwise known as a pet  owner – if Fido or Fluffy is on equal footing with their other possessions and most will say ‘no.’ Increasingly, dogs, cats and other companion animals are the subject of bitter custody fights when couples divorce, and are gaining the upper paw when it comes to estate planning.

While the law classifies pets as property, it does recognize that they’re qualitatively different than, say, a sofa or nightstand or the ’69 Camaro you painstakingly restored. In fact, it’s a crime in all 50 states to abandon an animal, an issue brought into sharp and painful relief during the ongoing home foreclosure crisis. Many animals die when once-responsible owners feel they have no choice but to abandon their pets, falsely assuming that someone from the bank will quickly come to their animals’ rescue. Rarely is this the case and a once-beloved family member is literally left to die.

To read more on this story, click here: Pets and Estate Planning


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Meet Simon, The Pit Bull with The World’s Best Eyebrows and His Dedicated Foster Parents

While many people look at shelter websites only when they’re looking to get a companion animal for themselves, there are others who will look at these sites frequently to lend a hand as a foster parent. These foster homes become a place for pups to escape euthanasia on their quest to find forever homes. 

A woman by the name of Stephanie is one of these people. After successfully finding a family for her first foster dog, Kane, Stephanie decided to try the endeavor again. As she was scrolling through the Secondhand Hounds shelter website, one particular dog caught her eye: a Pit Bull with incredibly expressive and bold, black eyebrows. This goofy-looking pup was so uniquely adorable, Stephanie and her friend Kristy decided to co-foster him. 

They went and picked him up, ushering him into a new chapter of life. Considering all of the wrongful stereotypes against Pit Bulls and the fact that they sadly have a 93 percent euthanasia rate at shelters, this kind act was the difference between life and death for this pup.

This is Simon, likely one of the most unique Pitties you have ever seen.

Simon is a very lucky pup who was a part of a litter of 13 that escaped euthanasia in the nick of time when he was picked up by Secondhand Hounds, along with the rest of his family.

Stephanie and Kristy aren’t Simon’s first parents. This adorable pup was returned by his former adopted family because of housing complications. 
Since his parents spoke a different language, Simon arrived at Stephanie’s home unable to understand basic commands or his name in English.
However, slowly but surely, Simon was able to pick up some of these commands and started getting along swimmingly with Stephanie’s other dogs.

Unfortunately, when Simon arrived at Stephanie’s house, he began coughing. After the sickness was diagnosed as kennel cough, Stephanie knew that getting him adopted would take a little longer than she anticipated. He would have to stay in quarantine for a few weeks.

Since all Simon had learned about life was from within a kennel, he didn’t have many house manners. He’d jump onto tables, steal food from counters, and barked at anything he saw outside.

A few applications were submitted to adopt Simon, but none of them were a right fit. Eventually, Stephanie decided to adopt Simon herself!

Now, Simon is getting better at behaving and even participates in dock diving, a sport where dogs get to jump, swim, and play in water and then are scored based on their jumps.

Simon loves this activity immensely and spectators always recognize the “dog with the eyebrows.”

Stephanie knew that handling and training Simon would be a big project but after fostering him for several weeks, her love for him outweighed all of the work that lay ahead of her.

It can be extremely easy to see a difficult-to-manage dog and deem them as “too big of a burden” to welcome into your home. However, dogs are just like children. Just like it would be wrong to go into an adoption agency and try to pick and choose the perfect human child, it is wrong to go through a kennel and completely ignore all of the dogs with behavioral imperfections. 

Simon may have started off as a somewhat unruly dog who did not know how to follow commands and did not know any manners. However, as Stephanie proves, with a little patience and a whole lot of love, any dog can be turned into a wonderful companion animal. Not to mention, Simon has become an unofficial ambassador for Pit Bulls and illustrates that this breed of dog is just as loving and playful as any other dog. 

Simon’s adorable face allows people to see past all of the negative stereotypes this breed has and see Simon for who he really is, just another dog who wants love and has tons of it to give in return. 

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Top Dogs: Australian Predators Can Provide 24-7 Feral Cat Control

Feral cats are devastating our wildlife, so we need a long-term, sustainable solution. This is where Australia's natural predators come in.

A few moments on the internet will reveal that, as companion animals, cats are rivalled only by dogs. Our love affair with them is hardly surprising: they are elegant, graceful and affectionate animals. But they are also highly adaptable and successful hunters. Sadly our soft spot for them brings with it disastrous consequences for smaller wildlife species, particularly mammals, birds and reptiles.

To read more on this story, click here: Top Dogs: Australian Predators Can Provide 24-7 Feral Cat Control

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