Hagerstown, Maryland — Maryland's prison agency said Wednesday it
has suspended one facility's program allowing inmates to prepare rescued pets
for adoption after a prison worker and an inmate were bitten by dogs in
separate incidents in recent months.
The civilian worker required stitches for a bite in the
face, and the inmate suffered a puncture wound to his hand, a spokesman said.
The suspension of the Prison Pets program at the
medium-security Maryland Correctional Training Center near Hagerstown does not
affect animal-centered programs at nine other Department of Public Safety and
Correctional Services institutions, including two programs similar to Prison
Pets, spokesman Robert Thomas said. Most of the other programs involve inmates
training service dogs.
Thomas said the Prison Pets program was launched at the
180-bed prison with good intentions but without higher approval of any
guidelines or agreements with the animal shelters that supplied the dogs and
cats, which otherwise would have been euthanized.
"We think the program has merit. It needs to be
implemented in the correct way," Thomas said. He said agency officials
hope to make a decision about the program's future by the end of January.
The Herald-Mail first reported the suspension Tuesday. In
an earlier story in July, Warden Phil Morgan told the newspaper that the
program, then a year old, had had "a total calming effect" on the
prison's inmate population.
Thomas told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the
warden or his representative should have made sure the program was properly
approved. He said the warden sent authorization paperwork to an assistant
Division of Correction commissioner last fall, but the assistant commissioner
retired in November, apparently without taking action on the proposal.
The program adopted out 100 dogs and 30 cats, Thomas said.
He said he expects the 26 animals remaining in the program to be adopted by
Jan. 8.
Just in...Urgent: Sixteen (16) puppies and dogs were
transported to the Maryland SPCA today from another shelter, and they need our
help now! (See their heart-warming little faces in video below.)
Our adoption center is closed, but our expert vet staff is
here staying late to examine each of the 16 pets and address their immediate
medical needs. This includes finding foster care for a young dog and her five,
two-week-old puppies.
A generous friend of the MD SPCA heard about how much it
will cost to care for these special pets, and he's offered to match,
dollar-for-dollar, any donations raised now through 11:59 p.m. tomorrow, up to
$5,000!
Please help these pets by making a donation of any amount,
and your gift will go twice as far to help provide medical care, warm shelter
and nutritious meals to these 16 pets who desperately need saving! Even a small
gift can make a huge difference!
It sure hasn't felt like winter these past few weeks, so
we're extending our Whisker Wonderland adoption promotion! Through January 3,
you can start the New Year off with a new best friend for just $20.16*!
www.washhumane.org/adopt
If you adopt one-year-old Raven TODAY, her adoption fee is
just $20.16*! Be sure to get here before we close at 5 p.m. to take this
absolute gem home!
Less is more when it comes to Raven! She may be a tripod,
but she is the nicest, happiest, and smartest dog you will meet! She's already
getting good at walking and we are sure she'll be running soon! If you're a
looking for a constant friend and great girl, look no further. Meet her at our
New York Avenue Adoption Center today! *Standard adoption procedures apply.
(Photo by Christina Gephardt) #AdoptDC #AdoptWHS
From Raven:
Hi! My name is Raven! Despite losing my leg, I'm just about
the nicest, happiest dog you could ever hope to meet. I'm already getting
really good at walking on just three legs, and pretty soon I bet I'll even be
running! My favorite things are sitting on the couch and getting lots of
attention and treats. I like doing anything if it means I can do it with you!
I'm really smart and great at learning, and I already know how to sit. If
you're looking for a constant friend and generally great girl, then look no
further! Come meet me today!
The incredible moment a stingray gave birth on a boat after
being caught by a group of fisherman was caught on camera.
Javier Capello shared a 39-second long video to YouTube
Saturday of the pregnant stingray giving birth on his boat.
The video starts with a man placing his hand on the
stingray's belly, gently prodding the creature.
Moments later, one tiny baby ray popped out and started to
wriggle around the boat.
The man continues to press on the stingray's belly, as more
tiny stingrays pop out back to back.
He pauses for a few seconds, and then presses the
cartilaginous fish's belly again, causing more small stingrays to be born.
The video shows at least 12 stingrays being born on the
boat thanks to the help from the unknown man.
Capello, who also shared the video to Reddit, explained
that they caught the pregnant stingray with 'just the basic: Line, hook, living
bait' and 'used a little morena' as bait.
“We didn't really know what to do, she was having problems
letting the littles (sic) out so we gave her some help,” Capello wrote.
“We thought she was dying at first because we cut her tail
off before realizing she was pregnant.”
In the end, Capello wrote that they “felt guilty and threw
them all back,” including the mother and that “luckily they survived.”
It's unclear exactly where or when the video was filmed.
Rays are ovoviviparous, meaning they carry litters of young
inside them numbering up to 13 which feed on individual yolk sacks.
Female rays are capable of storing a male ray's sperm
inside their bodies without getting pregnant for years before impregnating
themselves at a later date.
The incredible moment a stingray gave birth on a boat after
being caught by a group of fisherman was caught on camera. Javier Capello
shared a 39-second long video to YouTube Saturday of the pregnant stingray
giving birth on his boat.
The video starts with a man placing his hand on the
stingray's belly, gently prodding the creature. Moments later, one tiny baby
ray popped out and started to wriggle around the boat.
The man continues to press on the stingray's belly, as more
tiny stingrays pop out back to back. He pauses for a few seconds, and then
presses the cartilaginous fish's belly again, causing more small stingrays to
be born.
The video shows at least 12 stingrays being born on the
boat thanks to the help from the unknown man.
In the end, Capello wrote that they “felt guilty and threw
them all back,” including the mother and that “luckily they survived”.
Latoria Middleton of Atlanta has raised and loved her pet
pig since he was just a week old. From just a tiny, bottle-fed piglet to a
full-grown hog that loves Reese’s Pieces, Rick Ross has lived with her happily
inside her home.
But last week, the curious pig got loose. Middleton was
heartbroken, and frantically set out to look for her pet. Luckily, her dog was
able to lead her to a manhole, in which her pig was a little shaken up, but
otherwise unharmed. Middleton then called authorities for help hoisting the 200-pound
piggy out from this deep hole.
To her surprise… no one would come to her rescue. She says
that the fire department essentially told her that there was nothing to be done
for her pet pig, and that poor Rick Ross’ last days were to be lived down that
dark hole.
Totally shocked and appalled by the community’s
unwillingness to help out, she climbed down into the hole with her pig and
alerted the media to this ridiculous situation. If it were a dog or a cat stuck
down there, there’s no chance that the fire department would have left him down
there. So why let a pig suffer?
While the fire department claims that they responded right
away, it’s clear that there was some sort of injustice to sort out. Whether it
was a miscommunication or not, Middleton is just happy that her
attention-grabbing stunt finally got her baby to safety.
Caring Hearts Rescue has just been asked to help a group of
15 Shih Tzus whose owner fled and abandoned them in a rented house. Although
the dogs are being fed temporarily by the landlord, they are in urgent need of
being rescued. The group includes a mama who recently had puppies so it's even
more urgent that they be rescued as soon as possible. Caring Hearts will take
as many of the dogs as we can but the number will depend on how many fosters we
have who are willing to take one or more of these pups. The dogs will be
arriving on Sunday, December 27 and will be ready to go to their foster homes
some time in the evening after they have been bathed, groomed, and have
received medical attention. If you can help foster, please email us at fosterchr@caringheartsrescue.org.
If you can't foster but want to help, we desperately need donations to pay for
their medical care. To donate towards their care, please go to http://www.caringheartsrescue.org/#!money-donations/c1iuw
Thank you in advance for helping us help these poor pups!
UPDATE
OPERATION HOLIDAY ANGELS UPDATE: So many of you have asked
for an update. Thank you so much for caring and sharing!
We have 11 males and three females. They have all been
cleaned up (with multiple baths to remove the stench), shaved down, and named,
and we are now in the process of vetting. This is Angel Liam in one of our
volunteer's arms waiting for the vet. Probably the FIRST TIME EVER being hugged
and loved by a human. Liam is about 1 1/2 years old and was probably used to
breed. This is likely also his first time to a vet. Liam did very well and
received all the necessary vaccines and shots, and we are now awaiting results
of medical tests.
While this post is not related to pets/animals, I wanted to
share in case some of my readers missed this message from Amazon.
Companies rarely advocate for the destruction of their
products, but given that some of Amazon’s hoverboards are spontaneously
combusting (and destroying themselves), all bets are off. Now, after already
pulling the product from both United States and United Kingdom sites earlier
this week, Amazon is telling customers to throw away unsafe hoverboards.
“We regret the inconvenience this may cause you but trust
you will understand that your safety and satisfaction is our highest priority,”
Amazon wrote in an email to customers. Those with boards featuring
“non-compliant U.K. plugs” should proceed immediately to a certified recycling
center, and will be refunded for their purchase within three days.
Despite the initial popularity of the gadgets (especially
with the upcoming holiday season), a closer inspection of the futuristic
devices made it clear that there were some very serious safety hazards
associated with their use. Earlier this month, the U.K.’s Trading Standards
seized 15,000 unsafe hoverboards after the London Fire Brigade reported three
house fires within 10 days, all traced back to those trendy wheels.
Bo Obama is a perfectly well-behaved Portuguese Water Dog.
He’s had top notch breeding and training. In fact, his professional trainer
said that Bo was an attentive student who never had an accident. He’s certainly
a presidential pup. Sunny Obama, Bo’s furry sister, is a bit of a punk.
First Lady Michelle Obama admitted that Sunny, the younger
of the First Family’s two dogs, can be a little naughty. The pup will sometimes
sneak out of the kitchen and go poop at the other end of the White House. Sunny
didn’t get the expert training that Bo did, apparently, and she wasn’t potty
trained when the Obama family got her in 2013.
Sunny has a history of rowdy behavior. She once knocked
over a toddler at a White House holiday event, though she apologized by licking
the little one’s face. It’s nice to know that her high status in society hasn’t
affected Sunny’s ability to throw decorum to the wind. Even the President has
to deal with dogs pooping in the house.
There are essentially three types of people in horse
racing. There are the crooks who dangerously drug or otherwise abuse their
horses, or who countenance such conduct from their agents, and who then dare
the industry to come catch them. Then there are the dupes who labor under the
fantasy that the sport is broadly fair and honest. And there are those masses
in the middle—neither naive nor cheaters but rather honorable souls—who know
the industry is more crooked than it ought to be but who still don't do all
they can to fix the problem.
The first category, the cheaters, are a small, feral
minority still large enough to stain the integrity of the sport for everyone
else. The second category, the innocents, also a small group, are more or less hopeless—if
they haven't figured out by now they are being wronged they likely never will.
So it is from the third category of horsemen and horsewomen, the far-too-silent
majority, the good people who see wrong but won't give their all to right it,
where serious reform must come if the sport is to survive and thrive.
And that's why exposés about the abuse of racehorses, like
the one posted last week by Joe Drape in The New York Times, are so important.
They don't aim to offer salvation to the unholy or to rouse the ignorant from
their slumber. They speak directly instead to the many good and honest people
in horse racing whose consciences are still in play. And they say to those
respectable people, in essence, "You are fooling only yourself if you think
the whole world isn't aware of and repulsed by what nasty business you allow to
go on inside your sport."
Little turtles are popular pet substitutes for families
whose children are allergic to cats and dogs. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), however, warns the public that the animals can cause
salmonella
In 2006, health officials recorded the first multistate
salmonella outbreak in the US, which included four cases. From that year until
2011, authorities investigated four more outbreaks, which entailed 394 cases.
One of the outbreaks was said to have claimed the life of a 3.5-week-old baby,
who was exposed to a tiny turtle
Numbers Linking Salmonella Outbreaks and Turtle Exposure
For the current research, the scientists studied eight
outbreaks of salmonella related to small turtles from 2011 to 2014. The total
number of cases was 473 and it included those from Puerto Rico and the District
of Columbia.
The findings showed that children aged below 18, below 5, and
below 1 made up 74 percent, 55 percent, and 23 percent of all cases
respectively.
For race and ethnicity, Hispanics made up 45 percent of the
cases.
Out of the patients who got infected, 28 percent required
hospitalization, which commonly ran for three days.
The results of a turtle exposure questionnaire for 102
cases revealed that 80 percent had turtles at home. Almost two-thirds of the
patients in this category had direct exposure to a turtle or in its habitat
within the week of symptoms onset. About one-third of infants and children aged
below 5 also exhibited the same findings.
How Turtles Are Associated with Salmonella
CDC warned that the bacteria may be present even if it's
not seen. Salmonella can be found naturally in the gut of turtles and even if
the bacteria are there, the animals do not necessarily exhibit signs and
symptoms of infection. Aside from that, turtles do not shed the bacteria all
the time hence, even if a turtle tested negative in diagnostic investigations,
it does not confirm an infection-free state.
In homes, salmonella may be detected in surfaces and waters
that turtle have had contact with. In one of the cases encountered by the
researchers, a baby was infected with salmonella because feeding bottles were
washed in a sink where a pet turtle habitat was also cleaned.
"All turtles - healthy and sick, big and small - can
carry Salmonella," said lead author Dr. Maroya Walters from CDC.
Experts Advise Against Having Turtles as Family Pets
The researchers acknowledged that they were not able to
track all turtles for sale because it is often illegally sold in unregulated
locations such as street events and flea markets. Despite this, Dr. Elizabeth
Barnett, from Boston University School of Medicine who wasn't involved in the
study, believed that the authors were able to convey the importance of
deviating from the idea of having turtles as pets.
"Turtles and other reptiles shouldn't be kept at home
or school or any other facilities where there are children under the age of 5,"
said Walters.
Government Ban on Pet Turtles
Since the 1970s, the U.S. government has banned selling
turtles with shells that measure less than 4 inches. Although the ban and risks
information were widely advocated, salmonella outbreaks continued to increase.
As flu season approaches, people who get sick may not
realize they can pass the flu not only to other humans, but possibly to other
animals, including pets such as cats, dogs and ferrets.
This concept, called “reverse zoonosis,” is still poorly
understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians, who
want to raise awareness and prevent further flu transmission to pets. About
80-100 million households in the United States have a cat or dog.
It’s well known that new strains of influenza can evolve
from animal populations such as pigs and birds and ultimately move into human
populations, including the most recent influenza pandemic strain, H1N1. It’s
less appreciated, experts say, that humans appear to have passed the H1N1 flu
to cats and other animals, some of which have died of respiratory illness.
There are only a handful of known cases of this phenomenon
and the public health implications of reverse zoonosis of flu remain to be
determined. But as a concern for veterinarians, it has raised troubling
questions and so far, few answers.
Veterinary researchers at Oregon State University and Iowa
State University are working to find more cases of this type of disease
transmission and better understand any risks they pose to people and pets.
“We worry a lot about zoonoses, the transmission of
diseases from animals to people,” said Christiane Loehr, an associate professor
in the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. “But most people don’t realize that
humans can also pass diseases to animals, and this raises questions and
concerns about mutations, new viral forms and evolving diseases that may
potentially be zoonotic. And, of course, there is concern about the health of
the animals.”
The researchers are surveying flu transmission to household
cat and dog populations, and suggest that people with influenza-like illness
distance themselves from their pets. If a pet experiences respiratory disease
or other illness following household exposure to someone with the
influenza-like illness, the scientists encourage them to take the pet to a
veterinarian for testing and treatment.
The first recorded, probable case of fatal human-to-cat
transmission of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus occurred in Oregon in 2009, Loehr
said. Details were published in Veterinary Pathology, a professional journal.
In that instance, a pet owner became severely ill with the flu and had to be
hospitalized. While she was still in the hospital, her cat – an indoor cat with
no exposure to other sick people, homes or wildlife – also died of pneumonia
caused by an H1N1 infection.
Since then, researchers have identified a total of 13 cats
and one dog with pandemic H1N1 infection in 2011 and 2012 that appeared to have
come from humans. Pet ferrets have also been shown to be infected, and some
died. All of the animals’ symptoms were similar to that of humans - they
rapidly develop severe respiratory disease, stop eating and some die.
Serological studies suggest there is far more exposure to flu virus in cats and
dogs than previously known.
“It’s reasonable to assume there are many more cases of
this than we know about, and we want to learn more,” Loehr said. “Any time you
have infection of a virus into a new species, it’s a concern, a black box of uncertainty.
We don’t know for sure what the implications might be, but we do think this
deserves more attention.”
Natural and experimental transmission of the H3N2 influenza
virus from dogs to cats in South Korea showed the potential for flu viruses to
be transmitted among various animal species, Loehr said. It’s unknown if an
infected cat or other pet could pass influenza back to humans.
The primary concern in “reverse zoonosis,” as in evolving
flu viruses in more traditional hosts such as birds and swine, is that in any
new movement of a virus from one species to another, the virus might mutate
into a more virulent, harmful or easily transmissible form.
“All viruses can mutate, but the influenza virus raises
special concern because it can change whole segments of its viral sequence
fairly easily,” Loehr said. “In terms of hosts and mutations, who’s to say that
the cat couldn’t be the new pig? We’d just like to know more about this.”
Veterinarians who encounter possible cases of this
phenomenon can obtain more information from Loehr or Jessie Trujillo at Iowa
State University. They are doing ongoing research to predict, prevent or
curtail emergent events.
