Calera, Alabama - When people welcome a companion animal into their lives, they usually have so much compassion and affection in their heart, that they want to share it with another being. They will go to the shelter and pick out a pup or kitty to pour all of that love into. Alternatively, there are some people out there who treat animals as a way to release their aggression, and sadly, homeless animals with no guardian to protect them, tend to be the target of this anger. We’ve heard stories where stray animals are abused by people living in the area who are simply annoyed by their presence. We’ve heard of stray animals getting run over by cars and no one bothering to stop and see if they’re okay. And, sadly, we’ve seen dogs get picked up off the street and turn into bait or aggressive opponents for dogfighting circles. Just recently, the residents of a mobile home park in Calera, found a cat who had been shot in the back and was dragging herself through the park. At the time they found her, the bullet was still lodged in her spine. The fact that this little kitty was pulling herself around the park, likely looking for food or help, shows that this cat had a clear will to live. The folks who found her immediately called The Purrfect Love Cat Rescue. The kitten, now named Jackie, seems to be permanently paralyzed and the employees at the center are skeptical as to whether she will ever be able to walk, control her bowels, or her bladder. According to the veterinarian on board, it appeared someone put the gun up against her back, then fired, almost certainly intentionally. Why anyone would harm such a precious creature is beyond us. This kitty’s only crime was existing in the same space as a cruel human. Sadly, Jackie is too weak to undergo any surgery, so all that’s left to do is hope that this sweet kitten can somehow pull through the ordeal. Despite the fact that Jackie cannot undergo surgery, the rescue center employees are determined to do all they can for her and hopefully find the horrible individual who did this to her. They have set up a Facebook page and hope to get donations for what will likely be a very costly recovery program for Jackie. If you’re touched by this story and would like to donate to the cause, click HERE. Please donate if you can. Remember no amount is too small. Thanking you from Jackie and The Pet Tree House
New Jersey - A bear seen walking on its hind legs in New Jersey over the past several years was killed during a bear hunt on Monday, according to the Facebook page devoted to 'Pedals.' The announcement on Friday read in part: "For the hundreds and thousands of animals lovers who were following his story, I am sorry that we have this sad news to bring to you... The hunter who has wanted him dead for nearly 3 years had the satisfaction of putting an arrow through him, bragging at the station." The bear believed to be 'Pedals' was brought to the weigh station in Rockaway. State Wildlife officials have not confirmed its death. Photos and videos of 'Pedals' were often posted on social media. In one of its most recent sightings, witnesses including residents of Oak Ridge said the bear appeared to be severely underweight and injured. A nonprofit group called Orphaned Wildlife Center in Otisville, New York, offered to take in 'Pedals.' Wildlife experts said the black hear had some sort of leg or paw injury that didn't allow it to spend much time on all fours. Last November, activists dropped off petitions supporting relocation of the bear, and staged a small rally to raise awareness of 'Pedals' status. More than 290,000 people signed the petition at the time. You may be interested in reading:Pedals, the Walking Bear Spotted in West Milford, New Jersey on December 21
Nausea struck Corrie Butler as soon as she stepped inside the white clapboard home in Weston, Conn. The stench — a stomach-churning fusion of feces and putrefying flesh, baked in months of summer heat — was unlike anything the experienced animal rescuer had ever encountered. It overwhelmed her, even though she was in a hazmat suit, with her face hidden behind a respirator mask. If the smell was revolting, the horrifying scene inside the dilapidated house was even worse: Hundreds of snakes and exotic birds — some of them dead — were packed inside the cluttered, darkened rooms, according to Butler, a facility manager at Rhode Island Parrot Rescue. Some of the animals were trapped in stacks of bug-infested cages and aquariums; others were hidden beneath rotting piles of trash, cobwebs and debris. In some areas of the house, the floor was carpeted with several inches of urine-soaked refuse, birdseed and desiccated animal remains. Wherever rescuers turned, it seemed, more suffering awaited. In one room, a toucan beak was found among the debris. In another, a pillowcase full of snakes was discovered in a drawer, where rescuers estimated it had been for months. Somehow, those snakes — and close to 50 other serpents — were still alive, though barely. But the 1,500-square-foot house contained more than 100 dead reptiles, many of them stuffed in bags and left to die. The brightly colored birds — lories, rare macaws, a laughing kookaburra, cockatoos, parrots and parakeets — had fared no better. Inside cages caked in filth, emaciated creatures had turned to self-mutilation and begun plucking their vibrant plumage. Rescuers found others sitting in piles of excrement more than a foot high, often beside the decomposing carcasses of their cage mates. Deprived of water, unable to bathe and covered in so much urine their feathers had begun to fall out, some birds looked “melted,” one rescuer said. Instead of chirping or imitating human voices, the birds were eerily silent. “It was terrible, like something from a horror movie,” Butler said. What made it even more disturbing was the identity of the home’s owner: Daniel Kopulos, a wildlife conservationist who owned an exotic pet shop in Manhattan. Kopulos does not have a history of harming animals, investigators say. In fact, he was widely admired as a force for good — a dedicated advocate for endangered birds and other threatened species. But rescuers said it was the worst case of animal hoarding they’ve ever known — a case so unsettling that many are struggling to move past what they saw. Butler, for one, said she has had trouble sleeping since the rescue operation at what the local newspaper dubbed the “Weston House of Horrors.” Kopulos was formally charged with animal cruelty Tuesday after surrendering to the authorities, according to the Weston Forum. Weston Police Sgt. Patrick Daubert described Kopulos as “very cooperative.” Kopulos is scheduled to appear in Norwalk Superior Court on Oct. 24. If convicted, he faces a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison, the Forum reported. Kopulos could did not immediately respond to a request for comment after he was charged. He declined repeated attempts to be interviewed by The Washington Post in the weeks prior to his surrender, but said in brief emails that the case “has destroyed my life, my reputation, and is spilling over to my employees and others that are close to me.” People close to him are being harassed by “animal welfare people,” he wrote, adding that he worried about the “devastating effects” a story about him might have on his conservation work. “There is obviously another side to the story,” he wrote last month, without elaborating. “Behind the reported story is a real person whose life is being destroyed,” he added. [In Indiana hoarder couple’s home, police find a ‘neglected child’ — and 111 cats] Police were called to the home on Sept. 15 for an “odor investigation.” Responding officers were so overwhelmed by the noxious air that they had to retreat before calling the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. “You could compare the smell to a dead body,” Daubert, the police sergeant, told The Post. “To enter the home, you had to have a respirator.” Firefighters, health officials, hazardous materials workers, veterinarians and authorities from the state Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security were eventually called to assist. Over the course of 12 grueling hours, Butler and other rescuers removed about 220 non-venomous reptiles and birds worth more than $100,000 from the two-bedroom home and a barnlike building on the 3.3-acre property. There were so many animals, rescuers said, that they had to be transported to facilities in a 34-foot horse trailer. Police said the 41-year-old Kopulos — who purchased the property in 2009 — was living at the residence, without running water, when the grisly discovery was made. The day authorities arrived, Kopulos told them he planned to spend the night in the house; but he was not allowed inside, and the property is now condemned, authorities say. Kopulos was perhaps best known as the owner of Fauna, an exotic pet store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Through the store, he became known as a force for good; in 2011, the New York Times noted that “Fauna’s mission is education and conservation. Impulse buyers beware: Mr. Kopulos will sell you a bird only if he approves of you. A mandatory veterinary check-up is built into the price. Not that the birds are ailing: it’s further education for owners.” The paper referred to Kopulos as “the soft-spoken bird whisperer,” and he even appeared on NBC’s “Today” show. “We are very picky about who gets animals from here,” he told the Epoch Times in 2013. “We spend a lot of time speaking to them, we try to meet the entire family.” “I find it more effective to talk to the child then the parents,” he added. “It’s a long-term commitment. We don’t have anything here that lives less than 10-12 years.” The New York Times reported that Fauna had 700 animals in the store at any given time, and there were another 400 “in various stages of being bred, hatched or hand-raised” at Kopulos’s home and aviary in Weston. Among that population, the paper reported, were endangered species that Kopulos bred for conservation and not commercial purposes. Presumably, rescuers said, these were some of the same animals that were found dead and dying at his home earlier this month. Fauna’s Manhattan location has closed. The store was thought to be moving to Yonkers, but calls to the number listed on the Fauna website were not answered, and voice-mail messages were not returned. The store’s social media accounts have also disappeared. The cruelty allegations against Kopulos have shocked the conservation community and those who have worked with him. Photographer Kathryn Elsesser traveled to Guatemala with Kopulos for several weeks in 2012 to document his efforts to teach local veterinarians about macaw husbandry and chick rearing. His goal, she said, was to start a nonprofit organization to aid scarlet macaw conservation. Kopulos seemed to care deeply about the birds, Elsesser said. Even minor details — the type of plastic used in the animals’ feeders, the best way to mix their food — merited grave concern, she recalled. “He was very gentle, and he was an amazing teacher,” she said. “He was so knowledgeable. He gave off the impression of being someone who was a trained veterinarian. You could tell this was a passion of his.” He never displayed any behavior, she said, that could have hinted at a penchant for hurting animals. “Not at all,” she said. “That was not the Daniel that I knew.” The reasons people begin hoarding wildlife vary, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Researchers have linked the practice to obsessive compulsive disorder in the past, but newer theories suggest depression, paranoia and “attachment disorders in conjunction with personality disorders” can play a role. “Some animal hoarders began collecting after a traumatic event or loss, while others see themselves as ‘rescuers’ who save animals from lives on the street,” the ASPCA reports. Hoarders come from many backgrounds, in many ages, according to the ASPCA, but they often share one thing in common: “A failure to grasp the severity of their situation.” They also fail to recognize the suffering animals are experiencing in their care, the ASPCA says: “Research shows many hoarders are beginning to set themselves up as ‘rescue shelters,’ complete with non-profit status. They may appear to be sensible people, persuasively conveying their love for animals and readiness to take those who are sick and with special needs.” [Animal hoarding isn’t just gross, it’s a recognized psychiatric disorder] Valerie Ashley, the director of Rhode Island Parrot Rescue, said it’s hard to understand how a wildlife lover could relegate “some of the most beautiful birds on the planet” to filthy chicken-wire cages and bug-infested breeder boxes. Given the animals’ intelligence and their need for stimulation, Ashley compared the treatment to putting a special-needs child in solitary confinement — for months. “How can a human being live in a house with animals dying around them?” she asked. “Maybe he’s a monster or maybe he was dealing with depression. … But I know people who even at their worst can still say, ‘Please take care of my animal or my child because I can’t do it.’ “Instead, he just walked away and let them starve,” she said. Five of the birds, out of a total of 118 rescued by Rhode Island Parrot Rescue, have since died — and it will take months to nurse the others back to mental and physical health, Ashley said. Even more animals were removed from the property by other New England rescue groups. In the media, Kopulos portrayed himself as an environmentally conscious business owner with a lifelong love of wildlife. He told the Epoch Times that he was raised on a farm in Nashville, where he began caring for injured raccoons and squirrels at any early age. He said he got his first bird when he was 11 and began breeding them a year later. “Every since I was little, I always knew I was innately drawn to animals,” he told the newspaper. “Birds are so intelligent and emotionally driven. They’re very connected, when a bird chooses you that’s a very special thing.” Kopulos told the New York Times that when he was 12, he rescued a macaw named Patches from a Tennessee pet store. More than three decades later, the same bird could be found at Fauna, riding on the shoulders of employees “like a feathered hood ornament.” Rescuers said they do not know what happened to Patches or whether he’s among the massive flock of rescued animals whose names they don’t know. Ashley said the belief that Kopulos’s home was a rescue shelter led many people to hand their pets over to him when they could no longer care for their animals. Now, she said, those same people are calling her to find out whether their former pets are dead. On his Facebook page, Kopulos has railed against animal mistreatment in recent months. In July, he posted an article about teenagers suspected of beating porcupines to death in New York. “Since when is animal cruelty not animal cruelty?” he wrote. “‘Nuisance’ species or not, it’s animal cruelty!” “People are a nuisance,” he added, “but you don’t see me running around beating people to death.”
Rescuers said these lories had nails so long, the birds were unable to walk. (Rhode Island Parrot Rescue)
Daniel Kopulos’s home in Weston.
Daniel Kopulos feeds two Persian Turacos at his exotic pet store.
Ever seen a cat out walking on a leash? Most people who have seen one react with astonishment that a cat would be domesticated enough to willingly allow itself to be tethered to a leash and guided around by -- of all things! -- a human companion. But it can, and does happen. After all, why should dogs have all the fun? Everyone knows cats like the outdoors, too. Shouldn’t they get the opportunity to explore the great outdoors along with the rest of us? Shouldn’t they be allowed to maintain their youthful figures with some regular exercise? Learning how to walk a cat may seem impossible, but with proper supervision, patience, and consistency, you too can train your cat to walk on a leash.
Does Age Matter?
Once a cat has reached the age when she has been fully vaccinated, it is safe for her to go on walks outside. Remember that this is not so much to protect other animals from what she might be carrying, but to protect her from what they might be carrying. It is best to start as early as possible, before your cat has developed a fear of the outdoors or a fear of unusual noises. Older cats are often more reluctant to go outside on a leash -- or to be on a leash at all. It may take months to get her used to accepting a harness, and to being led, but with diligence and a wish to succeed, you can do it.
It will help a lot of your cat is already responsive to you. If you can call your cat and she consistently comes to you, you are already on a good track. If you do not have this type of relationship, you will need to start there. Using treats and lots of praise, call your cat to come to you. After some time, your cat will learn that coming when called will be rewarding.
Selecting the Proper Harness
Because cats are so agile, a simple collar around the neck is not enough to hold them while walking outside -- they can easily pull out of the neck collar, even a well fitted one (and you do not want to make the collar so tight that there is a potential of cutting off air flow). Instead, use a good-quality harness that has been designed especially for cats.
A cat harness is typically made with an adjustable neck collar, which is attached to an adjustable body wrap. The harness should fit snug to the body, but not be so tight that air flow will be constricted. You should be able to fit two fingers under the harness at the neck and under the chest.
Depending on the harness, the leash should attach at the body strap or between the shoulders instead of at the neck. The clips holding the harness should snap securely -- they should not be the break away type that is commonly found in cat collars. To read more on this story, click here:How to Walk a Cat (and Live to Tell About It)
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Dog shows are meant to show off the best of the best examples of purebred dogs. There are many strict standards that must be adhered to, and not all of those standards result in healthy pups. One artist, Levi Morris, created a series of dog breed portraits that show off just how harmful these purebred standards can be. In one painting, he shows how the short snouts and flat faces of Bulldogs can lead to breathing problems. In another, he shows how large, bulging eyes on Pugs can lead to problems with vision, and even eyes falling out. And in another painting, he shows how the excessive folds of a Shar-Pei‘s skin can cause irritation. To read more on this story, click here: Artist Paints Breed Portraits To Show How Purebred Standards Hurt Dogs
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Q: The veterinarian I just saw refuses to declaw my cats. She says it’s considered unethical, but I’ve had cats forever and never got this memo. I think it’s unconscionable to leave cats outdoors, and that’s what would happen if I didn’t declaw my cats. (My hands and my furniture require it!) Is this a real rule among veterinarians or is my vet being dramatic? A: Here’s the memo: The procedure we commonly refer to as a “declaw” is one an increasing number of veterinarians refuse to perform. Many of us consider it unethical and immoral to amputate the first knuckle of a cat’s digits just because it makes our lives easier and keeps our furniture healthy. I mean, if destruction and injury were the concern, why would we stop at the claws? Why not take out all their teeth, too? Clearly, neither de-teething or declawing cats offers a realistic solution to the problem of cats being cats. From time to time they will still behave in ways that are inconvenient to us. But that doesn’t mean we have to suffer unduly. We can all learn to manage our cats’ unwanted behaviors by understanding how and why they use their claws, teeth and other potentially problematic parts. In the case of claws, here are some key points to keep in mind: 1: Cats who have their claws removed are still capable of inflicting damage to humans and their property. Further, veterinary behaviorists recognize that declawed cats may use their teeth more often during aggressive encounters (with cats and humans). And teeth typically inflict more damage than claws do. To read more on this story, click here:Is Declawing Cat an Amputation? Vet Weighs In
The theory has been around for some time, but a new book backs up the idea that 'dogs smell time’. “As each day wears a new smell, its hours mark changes in odors that your dog can notice,” explains Professor Alexandra Horowitz, founder of Barnard College's Dog Cognition Lab. The dog expert makes the claim in her new book 'Being A Dog'. While for most humans, the world is primarily visual, for dogs, their world is based on scents. Dogs are often used to sniff out drugs, explosives, disaster victims, dead bodies and even cancers, thanks to their extraordinary power of smell. Even for humans, scents can give clues as to what time of day it is, such as the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the morning. Professor Horowitz believes that dogs can detect subtle changes in scent during the day, giving them a sense of time. “Smells in a room change as the day goes on. Hot air rises, and it usually rises in currents along the walls and will rise to the ceiling and go kind of to the center of the room and drop,” she explains in an interview with Fresh Air. “I think dogs can smell that through the air movement in a room” she said. This could explain why a dog knows when its owner is due to return home. If the dog is able to detect the level of its owner's diminishing scent since they left the house, they may be able to predict roughly when they are due to come back.
The Weber County Sheriff’s Office in Ogden, Utah, announced on Facebook that the department has added a cute new member to its staff, an electronic detection K-9 or “porn dog” named URL, who is the first of his kind in the state. The 16-month old black Lab, who was rescued from an animal shelter as a puppy, is only one of nine certified electronic detection K-9s in the country, the post said, and comes from the same trainer as Bear, the K-9 who played a key role in the arrest of ex-Subway spokesman Jared Fogle last year. “Specially trained to sniff out electronic storage devices such as thumb drives, cellphones, SIM cards, SD cards, external hard drives, tablets and iPads, URL offers a unique set of skills to aid investigators in fighting crime,” the Facebook post said. “Whether it’s child porn, terrorism intelligence, narcotics or financial crimes information, URL has the ability to find evidence hidden on basically any electronic memory device.” URL will assist investigators on specific types of cases and will also be used at the local correctional facility to seek out contraband such as cell phones. But how does the pup do it? “His highly sensitive nose has been trained to detect the unique chemical compounds found in the certain electronic components,” the post said. According to the department, URL went through six months of training in Indiana before becoming certified. His handler, detective Cam Hartman, also received nine days of expert training and the pair will be re-certified each year.
