UK - Don't Buy a Pet On Gumtree

The story concerns a dog, Kai, and I am sure that a lot of people have read about this.  The dog was left abandoned on a railway station with all the bits and pieces that a person needs to look after the dog in a suitcase.  It was the classic Paddington Bear scenario.  There was uproar as to how somebody could leave a dog on a railway station, so cruelly abandoned and the abandonment was highlighted by all the accoutrements the person needed to look after the dog being left on the railway station as well.

As it turns out, the story isn't a simple case of the abandonment of a domestic animal.  I believe that we can lay the blame for this act of apparent domestic animal cruelty at the feet of a commercial organisation: Gumtree.  Gumtree is a bit like Craigslist in America.  It is the American version of it.  Anybody can sell anything on Gumtree.

In this instance we discovered that a lady, Fin Rayner, had left the dog at Ayr railway station, Scotland.  What happened was she had responded to an advert for the dog on the Gumtree website; the dog had been advertised for £400.  The dog is a cross breed shar pei.

'I went to buy a dog but the dog was not the same as the picture advertised.'

When she met the seller, a man, she realised that the dog was not the same animal that she had seen advertised on Gumtree and, in addition, she noted there was a problem with the dog's eyes (probably a breeding problem). She became suspicious and, in response, the seller asked for a deposit of £150 if she wanted to take the dog for a walk.  She appears to have done that but she hadn't got far before the man disappeared with her money.

Things got worse because the dog was clearly nervous and unsettled as he was peeing everywhere.  The lady felt she had not bought the dog and having tried to call the seller to return to collect his pet without success she decided to get on the next train to Glasgow and before doing so she told a member of staff at the station that the dog belonged to somebody else. She abandoned the dog.

She said: 'He lied about the dog. I can't believe he did this....I've been shaken for days....I don't think people should sell dogs on Gumtree.'

The moral of the story is that you should not buy a dog on the Gumtree website despite the fact that there are many cats and dogs and other pets on that site.  You simply cannot be sure what you are buying.  There is not only a problem in respect of the buyer but also the animal.  Many buyers will also be unscrupulous leaving the animals exposed to abuse having been sold on perhaps for animal research or perhaps dog fight baiting.

Of course, not all sales of domestic animals on Gumtree go wrong but the whole process is simply unethical and liable to go wrong and I'm thinking of the animals more than the people.  It is disrespectful to advertise them online.

The reason why the seller wanted rid of his dog is because he/she had an eye problem requiring surgery, the price of which was £1,000. He could not afford it. A vet did the surgery for free probably organised by the Scottish SPCA.

Increase in Pet Obesity Is a Worrying Trend

British dogs are now amongst the fattest in the world.  35% of British dogs are overweight or obese which is a larger proportion than in France (39%) or Australia (31%).  The United States of America has a special place in obesity rankings as we are told that 55% of cats and dogs in America are obese (USA trends).

In this article I will discuss dogs but the same sort of principles obviously applie to all pets including cats and I have written about cat obesity before.

Obese dog in Morocco. Photo Jeremy Vandel (Flickr)

There appears to be a world trend particularly in developed countries of couch potato owners and obese dogs.  With respect to dogs it isn't just about obesity.  We are also told that many of Britain's dogs are also aggressive and disturbed because they are not getting enough stimulation through play and activity.  This is all part of the couch potato mentality which has begun to afflict British people.

The British say that they are a nation of dog lovers indeed pet lovers but it appears that many of their dogs are unhappy because they are providing their dogs with a life which mirrors their own.

The research was carried out by Alex German who analysed 30 scientific papers.  Mr German runs a specialist veterinary clinic for obese dogs and conducted the research at Liverpool University.  He says that there is a shocking and rapid rise in the weight of the British dog.  He not infrequently sees dogs who are twice the weight they should be. Even greyhounds he says are overweight.

He says that there is a parallel rise in the weights of dogs and people. Fat parents begat fat children and develop fat pets. This is because people treat their cat or dog as another child.  It's all about overfeeding and under exercising and there's no getting around that simple conclusion.

In Britain 64% of adult British citizens are now overweight or obese. The British are doing their best to match up their pets to the same level of obesity. With obesity comes health issues such as diabetes and arthritis. We all know that yet it doesn't change the habits of the couch potato pet owner.

Veterinarians say that being overweight can shorten the life of a dog and I presume therefore a cat by around 2 years on average. Some British people overfeed their pet by as much as 60%. The problem is often treats. Fatty treats such as fast food leftovers and crisps or biscuits and chips given to the dog is the problem.

With respect to exercise, dogs are being taken for shorter walks. This is partly because many people rarely let their dog off their lead in case they run away or perhaps get into a fight. When the dog is taken out on a lead the dog walks a lot less and therefore gets a lot less exercise. Dogs which are allowed off the lead cover 5 times more ground than those on the lead.

Dogs need long walks because without them obsessive-compulsive disorders can develop such as spinning around in circles. Dogs have got their own Facebook which is meeting up with another dog and sniffing the dog. Dogs need to do this sort of thing.

The cure is strict and permanent dieting with increased exercise but will people do this? As long as  people themselves are unable to exercise or eat less it is highly unlikely in my opinion that they will care for their dogs to a higher standard.

Lilica a tender and kind dog feeds her animal buddies

Humans barely share things. This dog travels four miles daily to collect food from a really nice lady to take back to her junkyard animal chums including a cat! I had weave a cat into the story. But this is about a dog who shows tenderness and kindness that teaches us a lesson.

Lilica was a homeless dog but made a home for herself in a junkyard in Brazil. In her search for food she bumped into Lucia Helena de Souza who lives four miles away. Lucia is an animal lover and she feed Lilica. Then one day the dog grabbed the bag in her teeth and took it away. The bag was open so the food was spilled. The next time Lucia made sure the bag was closed and eventually Lucia decided she had to find out where Lilica was taking the food because this routine had been doing this for a long time.

She discovered Lilica travelled the four miles back to the junkyard four miles away along an unlit and dangerous road where Lilica shares her food with the other junkyard animals including a cat as I understand it.

How about that? Shouldn't we learn from that? A lot credit must also go to Lucia who feeds Lilica and as you can see waits for her to turn up daily. This is a very tender-hearted woman who has taken on the responsibility of caring for Lilica and her junkyard buddies at a distance.

Dolly Parton Offers to Adopt Dolly in the UK

Dolly

You have probably heard about this story but if you haven't it is about a dog that was abandoned at the recent Glastonbury Festival and is now being cared for at a rescue centre. Dolly Parton, who sang at the Glastonbury Festival and was probably the main attraction, heard about Dolly and these are her own words on her Google plus account page:

Well, I heard about the dog that was abandoned after Glastonbury Festival this year that's since been named after me... I had my manager call the Happy Landings Animal Shelter to make sure the dog is being treated and cared for properly, and if nobody claims her, I will take her back home to America with me!

Ain't she cute? :)

I wonder if her manager wrote those words. Quite possible but they are meant to be from her. I don't think you can add much more to the post and that. It's rather strange that nobody as far as I'm aware has come forward in the UK to adopt Dolly who indeed is a very cute long-haired random bred dog as far as I can tell (no, I am told she is a 7 year old lurcher - possible a lurcher mix).

I realise of course that this is not about cats but I couldn't resist and in any case it's about companion animals so it is a very similar subject.

John Dolan And George. The Power of Companion Animal Friendship

John Dolan has spent a total of 12 years in prison.  It was mainly for theft and drug offences.  He was living rough in east London in 2010 when he was given a Staffordshire bull terrier called George.  Dolan says:

 “Just before I got George I was on drugs, it was terrible.  The day I got the dog I wasn't sure what to do.  I realised I had a big powerful animal on my hands that needed a lot of looking after and there was I, barely able to look after myself...  What George has given me over the past three years is a belief in myself and my ability to draw."

Dolan credits George with helping him to transform his life from a homeless criminal into a successful artist.  He now sells his drawings to £2000 each.  John Dolan knew he had some talent because he used to dabble with art when he was a teenager.  While he was sitting on the pavement doing nothing as a homeless person with George he decided to draw the buildings opposite.  I suppose it kept him occupied. Up until that time he was simply begging for money it seems receiving the odd coin here and there.  Then he started to supplement the donations by selling his drawings for £10 and £20 each.

Gradually John Dolan became known as street artist and a lawyer, Richard Howard-Griffin, got to hear about him and recognised his talent.  He organised an exhibition of his work.  And now a forthcoming book is about to be published about John Dolan and his dog George - John and George: The Dog Who Changed My Life.  It is due to be released next month.

Which brings me nicely to the next topic of this short article which is that John Dolan's story very nicely mirrors the story of James Bowen who adopted an orange tabby cat named Bob.  At the time James was a drug-addicted busker. His story has been well publicised and as I recall, two books have been published about him and his relationship with Bob.  More than 1,000,000 copies have been sold.  James Bowen's life has been transformed and he too credits that transformation, at least substantially, to Bob.

John Dolan says,

“If I had not had George, I would never have picked up a pen.  He is my saviour...  He's like my child, the one I never had.  He's given me a life."

Both the stories of James and John remind us of the power of the friendship of a companion animal.  Don't underestimate it.

Photo by Rob Weir

Insect Repellent Detected in Jerky Pet Treats for Dogs

Do you remember the scandalous story of the pet jerky treats made in China and people reporting over one thousand dog deaths and many more complaints of illness as a result of eating these treats?  The majority of the problems concerned dogs but some cats were also affected.  As I recall, the FDA was unable to establish hard evidence that the Chinese made pet treats were causing the deaths and therefore the product remained available to the consternation of perhaps hundreds of thousands of dog owners. Petco recently decided to remove it (in the near future) from their shelves.

Well, I read today a post on the website of Dr Mark Peterson a veterinary endocrinologist which he is titled “Insect Repellent, Anti-Viral Drug Detected in Jerky Pet Treats for Dogs".  The post is dated May 22, 2014.

This is not, therefore, strictly about cats but it is about pets and therefore relevant in my opinion.  Dr Peterson states that chicken jerky treats which are being eaten by dogs over the past few months have been found to be tainted by insect repellent which is known as a DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide).  DEET is a rather nasty chemical that can affect a person's health in sufficient dosage. This product has also been found to be tainted with the anti-viral drug called amantadine.

This information is according to a veterinary pathologist who I understand is Dr Harr referred to below leading independent research into his long-standing pet jerky treat mystery which, as mentioned, remained un-resolved for a long time by the FDA.

Dr. Kendal Harr, leading the study remarks:

“The clinical significance is unknown … but these are contaminated treats,” Harr said. “I think what the illegal residues tell us is that we have a contaminated food source.”  

This information seems to be significant to me and I believe that it would be wise to pass it around the Internet.

This is a full report.

Pet Therapy For British Prisoners

16th June 2014 -- Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Oakwood, near Wolverhampton which is managed by G4S plc have introduced "pet therapy" to try and calm down the inmates. For some reason cats are excluded. The inmates can be responsible for the care of dogs, rabbits and hamsters but not take them to their cells.

There were riots at this prison fairly recently, I recall. I suppose this is a novel attempt to try and stop future discontent and rioting. Do pets calm people down? Well, yes, quite definitely. It has been proven scientifically as far as I remember.

G4S have a poor record. They messed up recruitment when they were contracted to manage security at the Olympics. The army had to step in in their place or in support.

Is pet therapy at a prison a hairbrained scheme? It depends how the prisoners respond. If they embrace it seriously and don't abuse it, it will help I believe.

This is the first scheme of this type in a British prison as far as I know. Let's hope it works but why were cats excluded? Probably because the cat is unsuited  - LOL. Obvious reason. Cats don't like change and some cats won't like the male criminal because they are probably a bit clumsy and insensitive towards a cat. Dangerous for the cat. Also I am sure that most prisoners will be dog types. That is the stereotype.

Cats Taken to a Veterinarian Less Often Than Dogs

This is quite a well-known statistic and a rather worrying one, actually.  In America cat owners take their cats to the veterinarian much less than dog owners take their dogs to the veterinarian which on a crude interpretation means that dog owners care for their dogs more than cat owners care for their cats!

I don't think it is as simple as that however.  It may be about the fact that dogs are more in your face and more needy and possibly more immediately connected to their “masters", while cats are more independent and possibly hide discomfort more than dogs.

As at 2001 more domestic cats were kept as pets than domestic dogs but despite that statistic dog owners made over 117,000,000 visits to the veterinarian, while cat owners made 70,000,000 visits to a veterinarian.  Quite a disparity.

However, the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association in 2004 reported that cat owners increased the number of visits to the vet from 1.6 in 2000 to 2.3 visits in 2002.  This made them more comparable with dog owners who averaged 2.6 visits in 2000 and 2.7 visits in 2002.

The American Veterinary Medical Association Survey (2002) found that both cats and dogs were most frequently brought in for physical examinations (67% and 69% of visits respectively).

Dog visits were more likely to involve drugs and medications (31% of visits versus 18% for cats). Visits involving vaccinations were slightly more frequent at 71% of cats, against 64% of dogs.

Cat visits were much more likely to involve sterilisation at 14% of visits compared to 6% of dogs. A very low percentage of dogs and cats at 0.6% and 0.3% of visits, respectively, involved micro-chipping identification or tattoo identification.

As for expenditure, in the USA cat owners, in 2001, spent over $6.6 billion while dog owners spend over $11.6 billion on veterinary visits.

Source: Welfare of Cats Published by Springer

Groundswell of feeling against cops' attitude towards animals

Latest news 7th July 2013: I am impressed by the groundswell of feeling and passion by the American people generated by the unnecessary and callous shooting of Max the rottweiler dog that belonged to a bystander who was videoing the police doing their work. The police took exception to him, arrested him and in the melee, his dog was shot as he approached the police.


Protests against police shooting of Max a dog

This has stirred up feelings about the police and their handling of companion animals. The Causes website has gathered almost 90,000 signatures in its petition to fire the officer who shot Max. Their target is 100,000. An impressive figure indicating that a lot of people have strong feelings about how individual policemen can sometimes overreact and treat companions animals in an unsympathetic way. Enough is enough. There are quite a few cases of dogs being hurt by police. Elisa regularly writes about them. Cats are abused by police too on occasion.

I hope the police take note of public opinion. I guess they won't. I don't believe online petitions achieve much but they do indicate a depth of opinion and this shooting shines a light on the feelings of American citizens about the less than satisfactory attitude of some police officers towards dogs and cats, in my opinion.

There are many other options when dealing with cats and dogs other than simply and crudely shooting them, which is often in truth a crime. Not that the police ever get prosecuted for criminal behavior.

The FDA and Chinese Dog Treats

This is a bit smelly. It is a bit bizarre. If you are an old geezer like me you tend to become a bit cynical when you think what might be behind stories such as the FDA and Chinese dog treats.

Elisa wrote about Purina Pet Treats Made In China Killing Dogs. This is a short follow up after I read a bit of material about it. There is a lot of information (too much) on the internet about this.

The major interest in this story is that the FDA today, 3rd June 2012, some 5 years after this problem first appeared, are still doing tests on the product to try and discover the contaminant that is causing dogs to fall ill and some to die after eating these treats.

Despite lots of reports of dogs dying shortly after eating the product, the FDA decided that the product can remain on the shelves. They have a bland notice on their website which cannot satisfy a concerned dog caretaker. In fact it makes me positively suspicious and dog owners angry. There are similar stories coming out of Australia about the same product.

They have taken the view that there is no hard evidence that chicken jerky products made in China kills dogs. Maybe something else is causing these deaths? I understand their caution but judging by the ton of anecdotal evidence the product should be withdrawn.

The cause of death would appear to be kidney failure. Kidney failure in dogs can be caused by high levels of vitamin D in a diet. Or by heavy metals or rodent killer. Any of these might apply in this case.

Like many others I feel that if after about 5 years the FDA can't discover the cause of the toxicity in Chinese made dog treats they are unlikely to ever find it. This can only mean that the food is not toxic which flies in the face of all the stories and complaints from dog owners. Or it is toxic but the FDA have a vested interest in not declaring it toxic.

Vested interests are usually of a monetary kind. We know that the Chinese government has openly admitted that there is far to much corruption in China. It permeates all aspects of business and regulation of business.

Is there something smelly going on the corridors and laboratories of the FDA? And why is Nestlé Purina®/Friskies sourcing pet food China with the horrible history that country has with respect to pet food quality and toxicity. See for example the classic: Melamin in Cat Food. And this article by VG. They are too concerned with profit and not enough with animal welfare.

Also, Purina are involved with animal testing. Or they were and I see no reason to believe that they have stopped. I don't see any redeeming feature with Purina.

Devocalising Dogs is Cruel

Here is a video about the cruel surgery of devocalising dogs. I know this is not about cats but let's not worry about that because it is an important subject and people should be forbidden from doing it. It should be banned, and it is close to being banned in certain parts of the USA as I understand it. How it can be allowed to happen is beyond my comprehension.

Debarking operation illustrated or softening of the bark! Image in public domain as assessed.

It is similar to declawing in its cruelty and the unethical nature of the operation. The same mentality is behind it: "I want a pet but not exactly what is on offer, so I'll just modify it...." Stop it...

It is a failure of the human that he thinks he can modify his companion animals to suit his preferences. Dogs are not products to be bought over the counter. You don't modify dogs like you customise a car or a computer. They are living creatures the way God created them. Let's enjoy that and stop being silly and ignorant.

And a further point: cats are also devocalised. Can you imagine it! It's madness. Quite insane. Cat hoarders, breeders and a Siamese cat breed and fancier have had their cats devocalized.  Then they gave them up anyway. The kind of mentality that allows people to abandon their cats is the same kind of mentality that drives people to devocalise and "voice stifle" their cats and dogs. These people are quite simply unsuited to be anywhere near companion animals.

Vets who agree to devocalise are equally unsuited. They should be struck of the register. Of course, the AVMA is powerless. Apparently, the Massachusetts, ASPCA are in league with the vets to promote devocalisation. This is horrible. Can it be true?

Can someone please tell me why two groups of people who profess to care for the welfare of dogs and cats, wantonly and for-profit assault them in this cruel way. I am at a loss to understand it.

Please visit this website: New York Against Devocalisation.

Associated: Declawing Cats.