Anyone requiring an emotional support animal may need a few moments with that pet now: Airlines and cruise ship operators have announced tighter restrictions on such animals traveling by air and sea. Southwest Airlines said Tuesday it is limiting the emotional support animals (ESAs) allowed on its flights to only dogs and cats, while Royal Caribbean is prohibiting all such creatures, reports said. That means no emotional support ducks, peacocks or hamsters. Southwest's policy requires that all such dogs and cats be restrained by a leash or kept in a carrier, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Dallas-based airline will also limit each passenger to one emotional support animal, according to the report. Well, that didn't fly! United airlines refused to allow a woman, and her emotional support peacock, to fly. You have to see it to believe it. For service animals that are trained to assist with passengers' physical disabilities, the carrier will accept dogs, cats and miniature horses, the paper reported. “We want to make sure our guidelines are clear and easy to understand while providing customers and employees a comfortable and safe experience,” said Steve Goldberg, Southwest's senior vice president of operations and hospitality, according to the Times. Southwest's new policy, which takes effect Sept. 17, requires travelers with an emotional support animal to present a letter from a medical doctor or licensed mental health professional "attesting that the passenger must fly with the animal," the Times reported. Several other airlines, including Alaska, Delta, JetBlue and United have also adopted stricter rules on pets boarding planes. For travel by sea, cruise ships are tightening restrictions on ESAs, with Royal Caribbean prohibiting all emotional support animals aboard its international ships effective immediately, according to Miami's WFOR-TV and the Royal Caribbean blog, an unaffiliated industry site. "We are updating the policy to differentiate emotional support animals from service animals that are trained and certified to perform a function for a person with a disability," Royal Caribbean said in a statement, according to the blog. The cruise ship company also said it's "important to us that all our guests enjoy their vacation, which is why we put into practice this new policy," adding that the policy for service animals traveling with guests who have a disability would remain the same. Reservations of travelers with ESAs noted on bookings prior to July 30 would be allowed to sail, the report said. Other cruise lines Norwegian and Carnival also do not allow emotional support animals onboard, but does permit trained service animals, MarketWatch reported.
Animal shelters across the country are teaming up with NBC and Telemundo stations to find loving homes for pets in need. The fourth annual Clear the Shelters event, a nationwide pet adoption initiative, will be held Aug. 18. Hundreds of shelters — including locations in D.C., Maryland and Virginia — will waive or reduce fees as part of the one-day adoption drive. The goal is to #ClearTheShelters by finding forever homes for as many animals as possible. More than 61,000 pets were adopted during last year's event, including more than 1,300 in the D.C. area. One of those was a dog named Odysseus, then 10 years old. The odds weren't necessarily in his favor: He was a senior dog and also a large one, at 73 pounds. But the German shepherd went home with his new humans that day and found his happily ever after. To learn more about this event, click here:Clear the Shelters Interactive Map: Find Animal Shelters Waiving Adoption Fees This Saturday, August 18 Please Share!
FOLLOW US!
"Poodle cats" are so fluffy that they look more like stuffed animals than living things. The felines, which have been referred to as "cats in sheep's clothing," have made a splash on the internet in recent days, but according to Mother Nature Network, Poodle Cats, officially known as Selkirk Rex, have been around since 1987. Last year, scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna confirmed that the cats had formed a genetically distinct line, and declared them a unique breed. The signature of the Selkirk Rex is, obviously, its absurdly curly hair; even their whiskers curl at the ends. Since this curliness is a dominant gene, the Poodle Cat can be cross-bred with other cats and still produce offspring with the same poodle-like look, according to the Daily Mail. The International Cat Association reports that the first curly cat was born in 1987 in Montana. There she garnered the attention of Jeri Newman, a breeder of Persian cats, who cross-bred her with a black Persian male. The majority of their kittens were born with curly fur, leading Newman to conclude that the gene was dominant. Besides being a genetic anomaly, Poodle Cats are also becoming more and more popular as pets and are downright hilarious to look at:
Dogs can be poisoned by a number of different things including chocolate, grapes, and candy containing xylitol. Just like with humans, poisoning is a very serious issue for dogs, but if you know the signs you can help your pup and get it to the vet in time! To figure out if your dog has been poisoned, look to see if its gums or tongue are blue, purple, white, bright red, or brick colored. Place your hand on the left side of the dog’s chest and listen for a pulse of 180 bpm or higher. Observe your dog to see if it is vomiting, having diarrhea, are dizzy or disoriented, pant heavily for over 30 minutes, or if it's lost its appetite for over a day. If you see any of these signs, contact your vet immediately. Examine Your Dog’s Body 1) Look in your dog’s mouth.
Your dog’s gums and tongue should be pale to medium pink. If your dog naturally has black gums, look at its tongue. If the gums or tongue are blue, purple, white, brick colored or extremely bright red, seek veterinary medical attention immediately. This means that something is impeding the flow of blood throughout your dog's body. You can also do a "capillary refill time" test to determine if a poison is impeding your dog's blood circulation. Lift the upper lip and press above a canine tooth with your thumb. Release your thumb then watch for a color change where you pressed. The gum color should change from white to pink within two seconds. If there is significant delay (more than three seconds), check with your veterinarian. 2) Take your dog’s pulse.
If a dog’s heart rate is over 180 beats per minute, and you have any reason to suspect poisoning, seek immediate medical attention. A normal resting adult dog’s heart rate is between 70 and 140 beats per minute. Larger dogs are typically at the lower end of the scale. You can check your dog’s heart rate by placing your hand on the left side of its chest, behind its elbow, and then feeling for the heart beat. Count how many heart beats you feel in 15 seconds and multiply that number by four to get the beats per minute. If you have enough foresight, write down your dog’s normal pulse rate in a dog journal for future reference. Some dog's heartbeats beat faster by nature. 3 Take your dog's temperature with a thermometer.
The normal temperature range of a dog is between 100 and 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 to 39.2 Celsius). A fever does not necessarily indicate that your dog has been poisoned, but it does point to some general infirmity. If your pet is stressed or excited, you may get a falsely elevated temperature. If your pet is acting lethargic and ill and has an elevated temperature, contact your veterinarian immediately. Ask a partner to help take your dog's temperature. One person should hold the dog's head while the other inserts the thermometer into the dog’s rectum, which is found directly under the tail. Lubricate the thermometer end with petroleum jelly or water based lubricant like K-Y. Use a digital thermometer. Identifying Strange Behavior 1) Examine your dog's balance.
If your dog is staggering, disoriented, or dizzy, it could be suffering from neurological or heart problems, as well as low blood sugar caused by poisoning. Again, seek veterinary medical attention immediately. 2) Watch for vomiting and diarrhea.
Both are highly irregular in dogs. They are signs of your dog’s body attempting to expel foreign poisonous substances. Examine your dog’s vomit/stool for content, color, and consistency. Your dog’s stool should be firm and brown. If your dog’s stool becomes watery, loose, yellow, green, or deep black, contact your vet. 3) Pay attention to your dog’s breathing.
Panting is normal for dogs most of the time. It is their way of expelling heat. Heavy panting lasting for longer than 30 minutes may be a sign of respiratory or cardiac difficulty. If you can hear wheezing or crackles as your dog breathes, seek immediate veterinary medical attention. If your dog ingested something, it could be affecting its lungs. You can determine your dog’s respiratory rate by watching the dog’s chest and counting how many breaths they take in 15 seconds and multiply by 4 to get the breaths per minute. The appropriate respiratory rate of a dog is 10-30 breaths per minute.
FOLLOW US!
ROCKPORT, Ind. — Authorities are investigating allegations in Spencer County of animal abuse in the form of freezing kittens that were still alive as a way to euthanize them. The initial investigation was led by the Spencer County Sheriff's Office, who refused to comment about the case to the Courier & Press. Officials only have said they turned the investigation over to the Prosecutor's Office due to a potential conflict of interest. Former Spencer County Animal Shelter worker Bridget Woodson said during her 3.5 months working at the county's shelter, she'd been asked on two separate occasions to put still-alive kittens in a plastic bag and then into a freezer to kill them at the direction of the Spencer County Animal Control Officer. A call to the officer was unanswered as was a text message. Calls to the shelter were unanswered, and the shelter's Facebook page has been taken down. To read more on this story, click here:Authorities Investigating Allegations of Frozen Kittens at Spencer County Shelter
FOLLOW US!
When the artist Ventiko and I walked downstairs in the spacious Venice home she was visiting, Dexter was perched on a wraparound sofa that had been covered with pee pads. His long tail feathers cascaded gracefully to the floor. Dexter's claws were painted a vibrant — you might say peacock — shade of blue. Ventiko's toenails, as it happened, were the same color. "Matchy, matchy," she said with a smile. She stood in front of the bird, cooing. He raised his face to her. She gently cupped her hands around his face and began rubbing them together, the way you do when you're trying to get warm. "He loves when I do this," said Ventiko, a single-monikered conceptual artist and photographer whose thwarted flight from Newark to Los Angeles last month made headlines after United Airlines refused to let her bring Dexter aboard as a support animal, even after she purchased him a seat. Their story set off a debate about emotional support animals: Where is the line? Who gets to draw it? I believe all pets provide emotional comfort and support, be they feathered or four-footed. I can understand an airline not wanting a passenger to bring aboard a 15-pound peacock with a yard-long feather train. And I can understand not wanting to check a beloved pet like a piece of luggage. To read more on this story, click here:After a Brush With Fame, Dexter, the Pet Peacock Who Was Refused a Seat on United, Has Moved On
FOLLOW US!
A few years ago a borouh's campaign poster included a picture of a boy eating dog poop, and it went viral on the Internet. Is it too much in the war on poop? Some people take dog poop really seriously. If you work here at Dogster, it's kind of hard not to notice. Recently, Michael Leaverton wrote about the neighborhood in Brooklyn (my old neighborhood, actually), that was fighting dog poop via webcams, and activists in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Boulder, Colorado, have advocated using DNA testing to catch owners who don't clean up. And in a moment of true hipster weirdness, two Brooklyn artists had a turf war over painting dog poop gold. These examples aren't much, though, when compared with the anti-poop campaign unleashed by the borough council of Spelthorne in Southeast England. These people really hate dog poop, and they've grossed out about half the planet in the process. A poster in the council's "No Messin'" campaign features a picture of an adorable ginger-haired toddler looking at the camera. The child is holding two lumps of what looks like dog poop in his hands, and it's smeared around his mouth and cheeks. The caption reads "Children will touch anything. Dog feces can be harmful to human health and can cause blindness. An infection called Toxocara canis can be caught if the waste is not removed immediately." The campaign was launched last year but recently exploded across international borders when it was posted to Imgur.com. Since it went up Sunday, the poster has gotten 1 million hits on Imgur and been reposted to scores of other sites. Some people have declared the poster to be "vile," but the Spelthorne Borough Council continues to stand behind its approach. In a statement, one council member said that the campaign was effective precisely because it was "hard-hitting." The statement further reads: "The council takes the view that these kinds of messages and imagery are necessary to have the required effect. It is using a number of different images and messages to deal with this problem which, it hopes, will persuade people to act more responsibly." Spelthorne isn't the first government body in England to use this tactic, either. Last year, officials in Bristol put up a billboard as part of its war on poop showing a little girl eating fake (we hope) poo. Our man Leaverton wrote a hysterical take on this one, Why Is This Little Girl Eating Dog Poop on This Billboard? It's certainly the responsibility of every dog owner to clean up after his or her pet, but -- does this go too far? I have to admit that my inner 12-year-old is giggling up a storm, but grown-up me is kind of squirming. I'm all for confrontation and making people uncomfortable in the name of a good cause. A good part of my urge to write is driven by the old maxim to "Comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable." But this is dog poop. Is the situation really this out of control? What do you think? Is the ad a good way to draw people's attention to a serious problem, or a bunch of people blowing things out of proportion with shock tactics?
Clean up after your pets by Shutterstock.
The poster that's gained so much international infamy for Spelthorne.
Another poster from the same "hard-hitting" campaign. This one kind of looks like the dog poops money. Isn't that a good thing?
Piece of poop on the beach by Shutterstock.
FOLLOW US!
Andrew Orchard lives near the northeastern coast of Tasmania, in the same ramshackle farmhouse that his great-grandparents, the first generation of his English family to be born on the Australian island, built in 1906. When I visited Orchard there, in March, he led me past stacks of cardboard boxes filled with bones, skulls, and scat, and then rooted around for a photo album, the kind you’d expect to hold family snapshots. Instead, it contained pictures of the bloody carcasses of Tasmania’s native animals: a wombat with its intestines pulled out, a kangaroo missing its face. “A tiger will always eat the jowls and eyes,” Orchard explained. “All the good organs.” The photos were part of Orchard’s arsenal of evidence against a skeptical world—proof of his fervent belief, shared with many in Tasmania, that the island’s apex predator, an animal most famous for being extinct, is still alive. The Tasmanian tiger, known to science as the thylacine, was the only member of its genus of marsupial carnivores to live to modern times. It could grow to six feet long, if you counted its tail, which was stiff and thick at the base, a bit like a kangaroo’s, and it raised its young in a pouch. When Orchard was growing up, his father would tell him stories of having snared one, on his property, many years after the last confirmed animal died, in the nineteen-thirties. Orchard says that he saw his first tiger when he was eighteen, while duck hunting, and since then so many that he’s lost count. Long before the invention of digital trail cameras, Orchard was out in the bush rigging film cameras to motion sensors, hoping to get a picture of a tiger. He showed me some of the most striking images he’d collected over the decades, sometimes describing teeth and tails and stripes while pointing at what, to my eye, could very well have been shadows or stems. (Another thylacine searcher told me that finding tigers hidden in the grass in camera-trap photos is “a bit like seeing the Virgin Mary in burnt toast.”) Orchard estimates that he spends five thousand dollars a year just on batteries for his trail cams. The larger costs of his fascination are harder to calculate. “That’s why my wife left me,” he offered at one point, while discussing the habitats tigers like best. To read more on this story, click here:The Obsessive Search for the Tasmanian Tiger
FOLLOW US!
