Articles
INDEX
PROSTHETIC…BEAK? >>
PETA TO OFFER $1 MILLION FOR VIABLE ARTIFICIAL MEAT >>
RESCUE BREAKS UP LARGEST DOGFIGHTING RING IN IL. HISTORY >>
CASTAWAY CANINES >>
PET MICROCHIPS RUN INTO HUMAN GLITCH >>
Prosthetic…Beak?
AFTER:
From National Geographic
June 11, 2008—More than three years after a poacher shot off her upper beak, a bald eagle named Beauty—pictured above, before and after her operation—has been outfitted with a new one. A team attached an artificial beak to the 15-pound (7-kilogram) eagle in mid-May, improving her appearance and, more importantly, helping her grasp food.
“The eagle has landed, and she has a beak,” engineer Nate Calvin said after the surgery. Calvin spent 200 hours designing the complex prosthetic appendage.
The nylon-composite beak is only a temporary fix, designed to nail down precise measurements. A final beak made of tougher material will be created and attached later.
Although the the bird’s saviors don’t plan to release her back into the wild, the artificial beak is key to Beauty’s survival.
A wild eagle that must be hand-fed by humans would eventually have to be euthanized, especially when its life span could run four more decades, said Jane Fink Cantwell, who took Beauty to a raptor recovery center in Idaho two years ago.
— Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press
PETA to offer $1 million for 1st viable artificial meat
By John Schwartz | New York Times
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to pay a million dollars for fake meat—even if it has caused a “near civil war” within the organization.
The group said it would announce plans on Monday for a $1 million prize to the “first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.”
The idea of getting the next Chicken McNugget out of a test tube is not new. For several years, scientists have worked to develop technologies to grow tissue cultures that could be consumed like meat without the expense of land or feed and the disease potential of real meat.
New Harvest, a non-profit organization formed to promote the field, says on its Web site, “Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting and more humane than conventional meat.”
A founder of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, said she had been hoping to get the organization involved in advancing in-vitro meat technology for at least a decade.
But, Newkirk said, the decision to sponsor a prize caused “a near civil war in our office,” because so many PETA members are repulsed by the thought of eating animal tissue, even if no animals are killed.
Lisa Lange, a vice president of the organization, said she was part of the heated exchange.
“My main concern is, as the largest animal-rights organization in the world, it’s our job to introduce the philosophy and hammer it home that animals are not ours to eat.”
Newkirk said her goal was more pragmatic.
“We don’t mind taking uncomfortable positions if it means that fewer animals suffer.” In that way, she said, “in-vitro meat is a godsend.”
Henk Haagsman, a professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and an in-vitro meat research pioneer, said he welcomed the prize competition.
“It will hopefully spark more interest to invest in the technology,” Haagsman said.
The Netherlands has put $5 million into in-vitro meat studies.
Rescue Breaks Up Largest Dogfighting Ring in Illinois History
In July 2007, the largest dog-fighting ring in Illinois state history was shut down. According to Channel 5 Chicago news, the Cook County Sheriff’s Department rescued 37 dogs from a heavily insulated and ventilated old chicken coop behind Kevin Taylor’s South Holland home. They ranged in age from puppies to adults, and most had some kind of injury.
The humane investigator that got the initial anonymous complaint, and was the catalyst for police intervention is Linda Bober of Cause for Paws Rescue.
“All of them were emaciated, many were heavily scarred, some had fresh wounds and most were scared. Their nails were all a couple inches long because they spent their entire lives in tiny crates that in many cases were not even big enough for them to stand up or turn around. It was heartbreaking. Everything to them is/was a new experience….riding in a car, walking on grass, having toys and treats, etc.,” she said.
A dog’s excessively long nails
Taylor’s home had all the makings of a sophisticated and professional dog-fighting operation, police said. Treadmills and weights were nearby for building strength, while a female dog was kept in a separate room where breeding was done, Channel 5 reported.
This is Coco Chanel, a female dog who was used for breeding. She exhibits horrible scars on her rear leg, and a missing toe on the other
“The barn where they were smelled horrid,” Linda said. “When they opened the doors, the stench could be smelled all the way to the next block. These dogs never came out of the feces-filled crates - lived in it, slept in it, and in many cases they ate it since they weren’t fed often.”
One of the crates
“Something that broke my heart is, after I brought the dogs home (most were puppies about 3 months old), every time I would bring them outside, they would hold their noses up in the air and just sniff, like they were so glad to just smell fresh air. I would hold them and they would just stick their tiny faces into the air upturned and sniff. They did it everytime they came out. In a way, it was very heartbreaking but in another way, I knew that they were saved from ever having to suffer like that again and will spend the rest of their lives with fresh air.”
Originally it was reported that the dogs would be evaluated and those found to be too aggressive would be put down. Luckily Linda stepped in.
“I contacted anyone and everyone to beg and plead for them to let us at least evaluate the dogs to see if they could be saved. My trainer (Curtis Scott) is phenomenal and I trust him 100%. Without his help, these dogs never would have been saved.”
Coco
In the end, she said, only 8 had to be put down. Linda took 7 of the dogs into her small rescue and the rest went to other area rescues.
“Several rescues that stepped up to take them, and still have some for adoption. There is a list of them on my petfinder site,” she said. (www.MyCause4Paws.petfinder.com)
Lucky
The other shelters that stepped up were: Don’t Bully My Breed, Puppy Love/Love Cats, AARS, PAWS Tinley Park, Animal House, MABBR, and Lake Shore Animal Shelter.
This group effort resulted in the rehabilitation of wonderful pets.
Konerko and his human buddy
“If it had not been for the help of my trainer and the networking ability of Catherine Hedges, these dogs would not have been saved from death row, not to mention the amazing rescues that stepped up, the people that forwarded emails and made calls, the people that spent two entire days transporting them to rescues, etc.,” Linda said. “All of these people turned a horrible event into something special, something that had never been done before. It is very rare for dogs from dog fighting cases to be spared from euthanasia and this is a huge step forward to let people know that dogs like this do not have to by systematically euthanized but they can be saved, rehabilitated, and made into awesome pets!”
Many of the dogs still bear scars, but the trainer has spent time making sure they like human contact. “Our test includes people aggression, dog aggression, includes resource guarding — overall mental health of the dog,” trainer Curtis Scott told Channel 2 News Chicago. Scott showed off Coco Chanel as a representative dog that passed all the tests.
Coco Chanel
Linda said Coco Chanel is still with her, “but she has recovered immensely from this traumatic situation. She was bred over and over, just being used as an incubator. She has learned that people aren’t bad, that dogs are fun, that rides in the car are cool, and that broomsticks are not made for beatings. She has learned to be a dog not a baby machine and in my opinion, that is enormous! She doesn’t hold any grudges.
She was one of 37 that so many people were going to write off as a lost cause and just another statistic and that didn’t happen because she does matter…they all matter.”
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Alas, funds are drying up and Cause 4 Paws still has a long way to go with some of the dogs’ medical treatments.
“I still have four dogs from the South Holland case,” Linda said. “I have vet bills from when they were first taken and I have more vet bills looming as one of them has two luxating patellas, another may have one and a third has deformed legs and chest and now that he has grown more, we need to get films to see if any surgeries need to be done on him. They all have allergies also.
I am fortunate enough to have a fantastic vet that lets me run a tab and every time I get money, it goes right to her.”
Like all rescues, Cause 4 Paws is always looking for foster homes, blankets, treats, toys and volunteers. “Any help is always appreciated from donations to fosters to offering to help us at events, help with processing applications, etc.”
Cause 4 Paws is located in the Calumet City area.
“I have been involved in rescue for almost 18 years. I got started by picking up a pair of Chow pups that had been dumped, which I kept but it opened my eyes. I have always been a huge animal lover but then I started taking in animals and re-homing them. I worked with various rescues, then started my own 5 or 6 years ago. I love all animals but have a real soft spot for the Bully breeds!”
Please contact Linda Bober if you would like to help out Cause 4 Paws or donate to the dogs’ medical fund (which you can send directly to the vet – contact Linda for her info – or send via mail or paypal).
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Click here for video from that day: http://cbs2chicago.com/vdeo/?id=35742@wbbm.dayport.com.
Castaway canines
Humans aren’t the only people suffering from the foreclosure crisis. Check out this article from the Detroit Free Press:
The number of abandoned pets is on the rise by displaced homeowners who can’t afford them
BY JOHN WISELY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • March 28, 2008
When a car pulled away from a home on Keating Street near 8 Mile Road in late January, it left behind an unkempt white poodle.
“They drove off and the dog was trying to follow them, running after the car,” said Deborah Thurman, shelter director for the Michigan Anti-Cruelty Society in Detroit.
After neighbors called, crews found the dog, since named Albert Einstein because of his wild white hair, waiting on the porch for a family that had moved out and wasn’t coming back. The dog remains in the shelter, but a potential owner has applied to adopt him, Thurman said Thursday.
Although Einstein’s drama may have a happy ending, other pets aren’t always so lucky. Animal welfare advocates say Michigan’s two-legged residents aren’t the only ones losing their homes to foreclosure and eviction. Increasingly, pets are being left in abandoned apartments and houses, surrendered at shelters and even dumped along roadsides. continue reading >>
Pet Microchips Run into Human Glitch
By William Hageman | Tribune staff reporter
(From the Chicago Tribune)
It was 1986 when John Snyder, then managing a Florida animal-control facility, saw his first microchip. He thought it was The Solution when it came to lost pets.
“We thought it was Star Wars, really cool,” said Snyder, now vice president, companion animals, for the Humane Society of the United States. “It solved all the problems — it won’t come off like collars and tags, people won’t remove them when they bathe the pet.”
But microchips–devices about the size of a grain of rice that are implanted between a pet’s shoulder blades and can help trace an animal back to its owner–haven’t been a panacea. And generally, the problems lie not with the chips but with the pet owners, who often make wrong assumptions or fail to do what’s necessary to be reunited with a lost animal. In addition, competing products and technologies also leave cracks through which lost animals can fall.
“The biggest misconception [is] people think it’s a GPS device,” said Dan Knox, a veterinarian and director of companion animal operations with AVID Identification Systems, the leading supplier of microchips.
Added Kathleen Heneghan, past president of the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association, who has a practice in the western suburbs: “No, we can’t track [pets] going 10 miles an hour down Grand Avenue. … And people don’t realize that if they don’t register their pet, if they move or change phone numbers, well, that’s it.”
“Lack of identification is probably the most common cause of death for animals in this country,” Knox said. “And that microchip is that animal’s phone call home–if the information is current.”
There’s the rub. When people adopt a chipped dog or a cat, they need to make sure they’re registered with the chip data base. Their name, address and phone numbers all go into the file. When a lost pet is brought to an animal-control facility or a vet’s office, it gets scanned. The microchip is activated when the hand-held scanner passes near it, and the scanner reads the number in the chip, which is then matched to the owner’s contact information. Pet and owner are reunited. Tails wag, people smile. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
“A lot of shelters register the chip in their name. Certain rescue groups, they keep the chip registered in their name,” said Charles Craft, the supervising animal-care clerk at Chicago’s Animal Care and Control. “But when you leave here, it’s your dog. And it’s your responsibility to update the information.”
“And it’s really important to have that cell phone number in your contact information,” said American Kennel Club spokeswoman Lisa Peterson. “If you’re traveling or you’re at work, your cell phone is most likely with you, and the recovery people can get to you.”
Another problem is that all scanners don’t read all microchips.
Most microchips in the U.S. operate on 125 kilohertz. Two other chips operate at 134.2 kHz, which is the standard around the rest of the world. The American Kennel Club sells a chip that operates at 128 kHz, the only U.S. chip at that frequency. There are universal scanners–and the various manufacturers provide thousands of free scanners to shelters and vets every year–but even the so-called universal scanners don’t always read every chip.
“I believe it’s absolutely about money,” Heneghan said of the competing technology.
“Initially there were just a couple of chips, and it was like VHS versus Beta. Eventually one will win out.”
The AKC’s Companion Animal Recovery service has been around for more than 10 years. But it wasn’t until last year that the AKC began offering its own microchip.
Peterson disputes the notion that the AKC chip is more difficult to read.
“I believe the majority of scanners out there do read from 125 to 128 kHz,” she said. “So the majority of scanners . . . certainly read the 128 chip.”
But AVID’s Knox believes it makes sense to go with the majority.
“The USDA recently completed a two-year study in the United States, and it showed that of the animals in the U.S. that have microchips, 98 percent are working at the 125 kHz frequency,” he said.
When implanted properly and scanned correctly, a microchip can be a lifesaver. But with only 5 percent of U.S. animals chipped, older technology has its advantages too.
“Our position is, microchips are great under certain circumstances,” said the HSUS’ Snyder. “But nothing currently beats having an external collar and tag as the first line in getting your animal back to you.”
That could be a rabies tag, a city license or a personal tag, listing a dog’s name and owner’s contact information.
Also, Heneghan said, pet owners need to replace the standard S-hook that comes with a rabies tag or dog license with a split ring.
“It’s harder, it’s more of a pain to get on the collar, but then it’s more of a pain to get off the collar,” she said.
Ann Markham, director of adoptions for Lake Shore Animal Shelter in Chicago, has reservations about chipping in general. She prefers a good collar and tags.
“[A lost dog] may be picked up by some character at animal care and control who forgets to scan,” she said. “Or it may be in a rural area where they do not have or they do not know about chips and scanning. It’s not foolproof.”
Dr. Marek Dygas, supervising veterinarian at Animal Care and Control, said that from his experience, chipped pets are reunited with their owners 70 or 80 percent of the time. Without chipping, the numbers are considerably less.
“In general, about 10 percent of stray dogs have been redeemed,” Dygas said. “In cats it’s even less. But with microchipping, we have good success.”
Chicago’s Animal Care and Control plans to offer microchipping on May 3, in conjunction with Be Kind to Animals Month. Chicago residents can get their animals vaccinated for rabies, licensed and chipped at the facility. Low-cost chipping is also offered on spay day, the last Wednesday of every month; call 312-747-1406.
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