Category — News

Found this earlier today. It made me feel good.

Here are some photographs from the Sports Illustrated website of a few of the dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s property that were lucky enough to be place in family homes. These dog certainly do a lot to prove that there are no bad dogs, only bad dog owners.

Today, President-Elect Obama selected former Iowa govenor Tom Vilsack for the position of Secretary of Agriculture.  This position has a significant impact of animal welfare and legislation in this country and Vilsack was one of Humane Society’s top choices for the seat.  Some may remember him for his brief run at the Democratic Presidential nomination.  He dropped out after three months, just about the time that Obama announced his run. According to this article from the New York Times, Vilsack’s primary focus will be on increased production of biofuels and other natural forms of sustainable energy.  Last year, as govenor, Vilsack vetoed a bill allowing hunting of mourning doves.

The Humane Society of the United States has started a campaign urging President-Elect Obama to appoint animal friendly politicians to his cabinet. The positions of Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture are important to animal welfare, both wild-life and domesticated. There is on online form to send to Obama endorsing and opposing for each position. The HSUS endorses John Boyd Jr. and Tom Vilsack for Agriculture and Raul Grijalva, Jay Inslee, and David Hayes for Interior. The link to this form is here. If you don’t agree with HSUS’s choices there is space to type your own message. Please send you voice to the president elect and help make the new administration animal friendly.

I will be at an adoption event on Sunday November 16th for Almost Home Rescue. The event will be at Pet Quarters in Newington NH. The address is 45 Gosling Rd. I will be there from 10am to 3pm. We will be raffling off some gift baskets and getting the word about our organization out. Swing by if you’re in the area.

Addie was seen today by a teenager in Middleboro MA. This is the first sighting in five days. She is 4.4 miles from where she started according to Google Maps. Her family set up the trap nearby and a neighbor agreed to check it in the morning. Last Tuesday she was seen running across Route 24. This is a six lane highway. The woman who saw her said she ran across three lanes, was stopped by the concrete barrier, and ran back across the three lanes. I was getting very upset that no one had seen her after this. Hopefully she’s in the Have-a-Heart trap right now.

PetSmart Charities offers some free webinar classes. Registration is also free. I haven’t attended one yet myself but hope to in the future. The times in November conflict with my schedule but the topics sound interesting: Infectious Diseases vs. Socialization… Playing the Odds and Stress, Burnout and Compassion Fatigue: Keeping the Balance for You and Your Agency. The second one sounds like it is applicable to nonprofits in a variety of social service organizations. If you attend one of these, please let me know what you think.

Puppy mills have been a problem in this country for decades. On October 10, Governor Ed Rendell signed a new law in Pennsylvania which nearly abolishes all possibility for these operations to continue in the state. PA has been one of the worst states as far as animal protection legislation is concerned but this new law could make them into one of the best. Other states should take notice of this law and follow its example. Here is an article from the Intelligencer Journal of Lancaster County which outlines some of the changes.

Yesterday, on our historic election day, there was more to celebrate than a Democratic president in Massachusetts. The citizens voted yes on proposition 3 which banned dog racing in the state. There shall no longer be any bets placed on the speed or ability of dogs. Without the money coming through there is no reason to continue racing. It is the conditions the handlers keep these dogs in as well as the risk of injury which makes the sport so atrocious. Since the people involved with dog racing are unwilling to reform on their own, it was up to the people of Massachusetts to remove the option of racing altogether. I applaud them for it. You can see the text of the proposition here.

This is another article from the Boston Globe about the vote.

I recently received an email from the Almost Home Rescue forum. It told the story of Brutus, a military dog that was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his tour in Iraq. I thought this was an amazing story. And it is; it’s amazing like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are amazing. www.snopes.com exposes Brutus for what he is, an urban legend.