Many common plants, both in the house and the yard, can be
toxic to our pets, including some that can still be found this time of year,
either because they are being brought in from outside or because they are
popular in holiday displays or decorations. Some toxic plants only cause mild
stomach upset, while others can be poisonous. To make things even more
confusing, some plants are safe for some species while deadly for others. As a
pet owner, it is important that you be familiar with the most dangerous of the
toxic plants.
Last year, 5,767 postal carriers were bitten by dogs, up
from 5,581 in 2013, and the most attacks happened in warm and sunny Los
Angeles, Houston and San Diego, said Linda DeCarlo, manager of safety for the
U.S. Postal Service. None of the bites caused deaths.
The cities' weather draws pets and people outside and doors
and windows get left open, DeCarlo said. The slight rise in bites also stems
from the popularity of online shopping because postal workers must bring
packages to front doors instead of street-side mailboxes, DeCarlo said.
But the biggest victims are children and senior citizens,
who can be overpowered by dogs. Of the 4.5 million people bitten every year,
more than half are kids, said Dr. Jose Arce, an American Veterinary Medical
Association board member.
Bites kill about 16 people a year. Besides the
postal-worker totals, specific numbers on dog bites are lacking because few
people seek treatment. And no one tracks bites by breed.
National Dog Bite Prevention Week starts Sunday, and this
year's programs launched Thursday. Because children are the most vulnerable and
easily injured, the American Veterinary Medical Association will focus on
teaching kids how to deal with dogs.
What NOT To Do
Stare into a dog's eyes.
Tease a dog.
Approach one that's chained up or injured.
Touch a dog you don't know that's off a leash.
Run or scream if one charges.
Play with a dog while it's eating.
Touch one while it's sleeping.
Get close to one that's nursing puppies.
Leave a small child alone with a dog, even if it's the
family pet.
What TO Do
Ask an owner before petting a dog you don't know.
Let the dog sniff your closed fist before touching it.
Freeze if a dog runs toward you.
Socialize puppies so they are comfortable around people and
other animals.
Use a leash in public.
How Parents Can Help
When the mail arrives, place your pet in a closed room so
it can't go through a window or screen door to possibly attack the carrier.
Tell children not to take mail from the carrier in front of the dog because the
animal could see it as threatening.
Also, teach children to treat dogs with respect and avoid
rough or aggressive play.
What Kids Can Watch
The veterinary group made YouTube videos describing
miscommunication between dogs and kids. A new short will be released each day
through the week. One gap is that most pooches don't like to be hugged. That
helps explain why two-thirds of young victims get bites on the head or neck,
according to the American Humane Association.
Where Bites Happened
Last year, 74 postal-carrier bites were reported in Los
Angeles, followed by Houston with 62 and San Diego with 47, DeCarlo said.
The LA tally rose from 61 bites in 2013, when Houston was
No. 1 with 63. San Diego moved up a notch from two years ago, when 53 postal
workers were bitten.
The Postal Service didn't break down the severity of
injuries, but 1,540 bites kept employees from work for at least a day after the
attack, DeCarlo said.
Insurance Payouts
Bites and other dog-related injuries cost insurers $530
million last year, about a third of their paid claims, the Insurance
Information Institute said.
The number of dog-bite claims decreased 4.7 percent from
2013, but the average cost per claim rose by 15 percent because of higher
medical costs and settlements. The average claim in 2014 was $32,072, up from
$27,862.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce on Thursday accused Depp
of smuggling his beloved Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce into Canberra
aboard his private jet when he returned to Australia on April 21 (after cutting
his hand) to resume filming of the fifth installment in the Pirates of the
Caribbean movie series.
The Agriculture Department on Wednesday gave Depp, 51, and
wife Amber Heard, 29, 72-hour notice to send the pets packing back to the states
or they will be put down.
"If you start letting movie stars — even though
they've been the sexiest man alive twice — to come into our nation (with pets),
then why don't we just break laws for everybody?" Joyce said. "It's
time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States."
Heard posted a photo of the dogs being held by Depp's
daughter, Lily Rose, two months ago.
A petition has gone up at Change.org to save the dogs.
Australia has quarantine regulations to prevent diseases
such as rabies spreading to its shores. To bring a pet in, owners must apply
for a permit and submit to a 10-day quarantine period upon arrival.
Depp's pups were discovered when a handler had taken the
terriers in a handbag to a Gold Coast dog groomer on Saturday, Joyce said.
"Now Mr. Depp has to either take his dogs back to California or we're
going to have to euthanize them," Joyce said.
Depp's reps have not responded.
Joyce's spokesman Brett Chant said the dogs were in
"home quarantine" at the moment, but would not say where, reports AP.
And Joyce said the Agriculture Department would be responsible for putting the
dogs down if they do not leave Australia.
"After that, I don't expect to be invited to the
opening of Pirates of the Caribbean," he said.
Laura Gontchar loved the family of 11 Muscovy ducklings and
their mother that lived near her home in Wellington, Fla. After the ducklings
hatched, Gontchar and her family would leave food out for them and watch as the
ducks ventured out of their lake to eat.
That’s exactly what Gontchar; her husband, Boyd Jentzsch;
and their 7-year-old son, Kai, were doing on May 2, they said. That is, until
Jason Falbo, a landscaper working his way through the yard on a riding
lawnmower, started heading straight for the family of ducklings.
Gontchar told the Palm Beach Post that she ran outside to
flag Falbo down as he approached the ducklings. Her son followed her, she said.
“He was yelling, ‘Stop, stop! Ducks! Stop!’”
But according to the family, Falbo plowed right into the
family of ducklings, then backed up his lawnmower to run them over again. All
but two of the ducklings were killed; seven were killed in the lawnmower’s
blades and two others drowned as what remained of the family escaped back to
the safety of the lake.
On Wednesday, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office
arrested and charged Falbo with nine counts of animal cruelty, according to the
office’s inmate records. He’s being held on a $27,000 bond.
Jentzsch told the Sun Sentinel that Falbo was smiling as he
made his second pass over the family of ducks:
“What are you doing to my ducks?” Kai wailed, his father
remembers. “Why are you laughing?”
The boy, in tears, ran from the backyard and back into his
house. Jentzsch and his wife were stunned.
“It was one of the most emotional things I’ve ever seen,”
Jentzsch said. “It was just — wow.”
Falbo was confronted by Gontchar and Jentzsch. He said he
was unable to see the ducklings as he mowed their lawn. But the family didn’t
believe him. After he left their property, Jentzsch called authorities. Animal
Care and Control found their remains by the lake, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Falbo’s boss, Wayne Soini, told the Palm Beach Post that
the lawn’s grass was too high for Falbo to see the small ducklings and that he
believed the whole ordeal was a misunderstanding. But a police report obtained
by the paper notes that the family was farther away from the ducklings than
Falbo was and had no problem seeing them in the grass.
Soini also defended his employee in an interview with CBS
12. “He’s not cruel, he would not have done this deliberately,” Soini, who gave
only his first name to the CBS affiliate, said. Soini rents a room in his home
to Falbo and as employed the landscaper for nine months. Soini added that he
believes his employee threw the lawnmower into reverse not out of cruelty but
because “there were more in front of him … when he backed up it was to prevent
[killing] the ones that were still there.”
Gontchar told the Palm Beach paper that since that awful
day, the mother duck and her two remaining children have returned to the site
multiple times. “She came back and was clucking, calling for her ducklings. But
they weren’t there.”
The couple is struggling to explain to Kai what it is that
he witnessed, Jentzsch told the Sun Sentinel. “He asked me,” Jentzch said, “‘Is
everybody out there like this?'”
