Phantom the Labrador’s owners left him behind in their apartment when they moved out. The 2-year-old dog wasn’t discovered until months later, when neighbors complained about a foul smell emanating from the now-vacant space. That’s when Phantom’s body was found. This horror took place in Hudson, Massachusetts, in 2011. Half a decade later Phantom’s legacy may be a first-of-its-kind law that helps prevent other animals from suffering this same dreadful fate.
This proposed law — S. 2174, which was written by Senator James Eldridge and passed the Massachusetts Senate— would require landlords to check on a vacated property to make sure no pets have been left behind within three days of a tenant getting out. This applies to foreclosed properties, or those that are empty for any other reason — even if the tenant has just taken off, which the landlords knows (or should have known) about. If there are animals discovered during the inspection, the landlord (or agent of the landlord) must contact animal control or the police. It’s that simple. And advocates hope it will come into law and be very effective. Says Kara Holmquist, director of advocacy for the MSPCA-Angell: One animal who dies of dehydration or starvation in an abandoned property in Massachusetts is one animal too many. Under California law, landlords must let animal control know if they find an animal left behind in a property. Massachusetts would be the first state to tell landlords they have an affirmative obligation to go check for these animals. It’s an important tool in saving lives, says Bill Ketzer, the ASPCA’s senior director of state legislation for the Northeast region. “By requiring owners to inspect for abandoned animals at recently vacated or foreclosed units and immediately notify an animal control or law enforcement, needless suffering can be reduced,” he said to BarkPost.
A tennis ball bomb is exactly what it sounds like. A bomb that people make using a tennis ball as the casing for the bomb. They look just like a regular tennis ball but will have a fuse sticking out. They also may be wrapped in duct tape, with a fuse sticking out. Earlier this year a man found two explosive devices. They were tennis ball bombs. He notified authorities, the tennis ball bombs were rendered safe and nobody was injured. However back in November of 2000 a man was walking a friend’s dog and found a tennis ball wrapped in tape. He kicked it a few times and then threw it for the dog to fetch. Sadly it exploded in the dog’s mouth according to Snopes.com. This is not an act of terrorism, it’s usually something curious teens do because they want to see something explode. If you find a tennis ball on the ground, that you do not own, leave it alone. If it looks suspicious, call authorities immediately. This YouTube video shows teenagers playing with tennis ball bombs. You can see the incredible force of the explosion and imagine what this would do to a dog’s mouth and face.
Rockville, Maryland - The investigation began Dec. 31 when animal services officers responded to the home for a dog bite case. While speaking to the homeowner outside, police said the officer became suspicious that there might be a large number of animals inside. A search warrant was executed Jan. 1, and it took 16 hours for animal services to find and track all of the dogs in the house. “When they went in, they saw the conditions, they saw the circumstances, and at that point in time, what we thought was maybe 20-plus dogs, it ended up being over 60 dogs – 66 in total,” said Tom Koenig of Montgomery County Animal Services. On Monday, FOX 5’s Emily Miller saw dog food piled up inside the house and dog feces all over the backyard. The owner was not home. “I've been doing this 11 years and this is the most dogs I’ve ever seen seized,” said Koenig. The 66 dogs were taken to the county shelter. They are different breeds, sizes and ages. Some of them required immediate medical care. “It was a variety of conditions. Some okay, some not so okay,” Koenig said. Currently, the dogs are being kept out of public view because they are considered evidence in an ongoing investigation. The owner could face criminal charges, including animal cruelty and abuse. The shelter says it will advertise on its website when the dogs that were seized are ready to be adopted. Until then, they have plenty of other dogs available. Learn more about adoption:www.montgomerycountymd.gov/asd
If you love cats you know how horrible and inhumane it is to declaw them, yet some people still insist on having the cruel treatment done to their cats to “save their furniture” even though there are many other ways to deal with the issue. A south New Jersey Assemblyman named Troy Singleton is sponsoring legislation that would make “onychetomy” which is the medical term for “declawing” your cat a crime of animal cruelty punishable by law. Both the cat owners seeking out the procedure and the veterinarians who perform it would face fines of up to $2,000 and 6 months in jail. Declawing is not a suitable replacement for proper training of your cats, it’s inhumane and cruel and it’s nice to see lawmakers are finally willing to take the steps to make this crime of animal cruelty illegal. Let’s hope this movement spreads across the country. If the law passes New Jersey would be the first state in the U.S. to outlaw declawing. A few cities in California have banned declawing, but it’s not a crime punishable with jail time and fines. Declawing may seem like a quick and simple solution to your problems but it’s not the humane solution, so if you or someone you know is considering declawing a cat, please get educated on the procedure and how cruel it really is.
Like many cat owners, Dr. Jessica Quimby spends a lot of time worrying about feline health. With six cats of her own, this veterinarian knows the odds are that at least one will develop chronic kidney disease. In fact, her cat Sophie already has the highly common and incurable disease. “I’m really surprised when a cat in its mid-teens doesn’t have kidney disease. It’s so common that it is more abnormal for an older cat to have normal kidney function,” said Quimby, an assistant professor and board-certified internal medicine specialist in the Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Veterinarians estimate that up to half of cats over 15 years old will develop renal failure. That’s 2 million cats in the United States. Chronic kidney disease is irreversible, so treatment focuses on treating complications through changes in diet, medicating high blood pressure, and keeping the cat hydrated. Quimby is a cat crusader, doggedly pursuing these and other treatments that will make life better for ailing cats and their humans. “As an internal medicine specialist, I work with both cats and dogs, but I always had the goal of working with cats – elderly cats, complicated cats. I grew up with cats on a farm and saw them suffering from various diseases, so I came to CSU so I could have the power to do studies and learn new things to help them,” said Quimby, whose office in the James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital is decorated with photos and paintings of feline friends. Does your cat have chronic kidney disease? To read more on this story, click here:Starting from Scratch: CSU Veterinarian Searches for Answers to Chronic Kidney Disease in Cats
In Wisconsin, starting this summer, good Samaritans who see dogs — and kids — trapped in hot cars can bust them out, without facing civil liability. California, New York, and Massachusetts lawmakers are currently considering similar bills. Wisconsin’s law — like those in the other states — allows concerned bystanders to take a hammer to a car window only under certain conditions: You’ve got to have a good faith belief that the pet or child is in danger. “Forcible entry” must be required — in other words, make sure the car door isn’t unlocked. You must call 911 or let law enforcement know what you’re about to do. And then you’ve either got to stick around until the owner or the cops arrive, or leave a note on the windshield about who you are and what you did. This law was signed by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker last November. As Milwaukee public radio station WUWM noted in a recent story, this is the first summer that the law has been in effect. “I wonder whether or not in the 25 cases where children died last year, or hundreds, if not thousands of cases where pets died last year, whether or not people saw it happening but they didn’t think that was their business or their call or didn’t want to get in trouble damaging the property,” one of the bill’s co-authors, Reps. Tod Ohnstad, told the station. We’re going to go ahead and editorialize here: This law is really great. We’d like to see the other 46 states adopt their own versions of it. (Let your state lawmakers know if you’d like that, too.) “Laws like this increase bandwidth of first response agencies and even better rely on community members to help each other out in crisis. Most people who leave a pet in a hot car do not do so out of malice, and never expect their ‘quick errand’ to result in tragedy,” said Cory Smith, the Humane Society of the United States’ director of public policy for companion animals. “These Good Samaritan laws can prevent tragedies for people and pets.” It’d be even better if no one had to use their hammer, legal or no. When it’s hot out, don’t leave your dog in a car — for pete’s sake, leave your dog at home.
The ivory trade has been running rampant for decades now, and these poor gentle giants suffer immensely at the hands of it. Hundreds, if not thousands, of elephants are killed every year for their tusks to be sawed off and sold on the black market. This can leave many baby elephants without the mothers they need to take care of them, and they end up dying as well. It can be difficult to track down these poachers and see that they’re brought to justice, but one woman is taking the task into her own hands to ensure that these creatures are no longer mistreated and murdered for their tusks.
Since 1977, Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick has taken it upon herself to raise the elephant orphans who have suffered both physical and emotional injuries from the loss of their mothers.
They’re provided with enough space to roam, and each have their own handler to care for them throughout the day to ensure that all of their needs are met.
Her years of study have helped her to develop a formula that is similar to an elephant mother’s milk, making it easier for these babies to develop as they should to be big and strong.
Daphne’s main goal is to help these creatures recover so that they can be returned to the wild and help to repopulate the wild herds that have been diminishing in numbers.
Daphne is so passionate about the ending of the ivory trade that her open arms have been extended to rhinos as well, whose numbers are dwindling into the verge of extinction. Watch the video below.
The familiar cadence of "oohs" and "ahs" increases with each sizzle, pop and boom of a dazzling and people-pleasing Fourth of July fireworks display. Meanwhile, your cat or dog quivers, cowers or worst of all — runs away — due to the shock and stress of it all. "Every muscle of a cat's body is primed for 'kill or be killed,' so its whole nervous system is always on alert," animal behaviorist Jackson Galaxy, host and executive producer of Animal Planet's "My Cat from Hell," told TODAY. "Now put yourself in their shoes when they hear fireworks." "The Fourth really can be a scary day for all animals," said DogVacay pet expert Nicole Miller of the popular online pet-sitting community. "Owners may think their dog will be fine, but it's best to be prepared." The terrified-pet scenario will repeat itself millions of times across the U.S. this Monday. In fact, according to the online lost-pet finder system PetAmberAlert.com, animal control officials nationwide expect to take in 30 to 60 percent more pets between July 4 and July 6 than normal. The holiday surge in lost animals strains a system that doesn't bode well for pets that go unclaimed at any time of the year. "It's no myth that fireworks startle pets," Emily Weiss, vice president of research and development at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told TODAY. A certified applied animal behaviorist, she said the nonprofit's own extensive research couldn't confirm such high numbers. However, when analyzing its own shelter statistics, ASPCA found a slight increase in dogs going into shelters during July, but not so for cats. To read more on this story, click here: July 4th Fireworks: Tips to Protect Your Dog or Cat from Jackson Galaxy, Pet Experts
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