Today – Friday, 4th April 2014 World Stray Animals Day.
If you want your life to be better with a dog…please visit your local adoption center. (Remember, even Snoopy was adopted!)
Posted in animal welfare, Dogs
Tagged adoption, Life is Better with a Dog, Peanuts, Snoopy, World Stray Animals Day
Well done to Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy for helping to save some of Sochi’s stray dogs. Don’t forget to click through on the link in this article to the Today Show interview where Kenworthy and his friend talk about the challenges they faced in saving the dogs.
Posted in animal welfare
Tagged 2014 Winter Olympics, dogs, Gus Kenworthy, Olympics, Sochi, Today Show, Winter Olympics
Source: National Geographic
Posted in animal welfare, dog breeds, Dogs
Tagged adoption, American Pit Bull Terrier, bully breeds, euthanasia, Pit Bull, second chance, Staffordshire Bull Terrier
Moving Animals Places, or MAP, is an interactive, web-based application to help address oversupply and demand challenges for animal shelters across the U.S.
Hosted by the ASPCA, the system allows shelters to contact each other and work out how to move animals places where they are more likely to find homes.
Membership is free and the data stream is in real-time so shelters are guaranteed to receive the latest information.
This is just one initiative to help relocate animals from overcrowded shelters and those with a higher euthanasia rate to those with space and capacity for adoption.
Does your shelter belong to the MAP system? If not, it may be worth a look!
Posted in animal welfare
Tagged animal shelters, ASPCA, MAP, Moving Animals Places, web-based application
A dog rests outside of the Bolshoi Ice Dome before the USA versus Russia hockey game for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) ( Nhat V. Meyer )
A really good article about how the presence of dogs in Sochi is affecting some Olympic athletes and what they would like to do to help.
Posted in animal welfare, Dogs
Tagged 2014 Winter Olympics, Bolshoi Ice Dome, Nhat V. Meyer, Olympic athletes, Olympic games, Russia, Sochi, Winter Olympics
In the aftermath of the Christchurch 2011 earthquake, officials had difficulty identifying the status of dogs at civil defence centers. If you were the owner of a disability assistance dog, this made things more difficult in what was already a stressful time.
In December 2013, the Minister of Civil Defence, the Hon Nikki Kaye, announce the production of a Disability Assist Dog tag that will be officially recognised throughout New Zealand. The tags will be entered into the National Dog Database and provide unique identification for each dog, linking it to its owner/handler and the organisation that certified the dog. These tags will be help match lost dogs and owners much faster and ensure that handlers and their dogs are allowed entry to official civil defence centers.
(Dogs are also micro-chipped in New Zealand; this is compulsory)
Seven organisations are authorised under the Dog Control Act 1996 to train and certify disability assist dogs. Only dogs certified through these organisations will qualify to wear the official identification tag:
What programs are in place in your country to support owners/handlers and their assistance dogs?
Posted in animal welfare, special dogs and awards
Tagged assistance dogs, assistance dogs New Zealand, Civil Defence, disability assist dogs, disability assistance dog, Dogs Trust, epilipsy assist dogs, hearing dogs, Ministry of Civil Defence, mobility assistance dogs, New Zealand, Nikki Kaye, perfect partners assistance dogs trust, Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind
Officials in Sochi have hired a private extermination company, Basya Service, to cull stray dogs from the streets in preparation for the Winter Olympics.
For months, animal welfare groups have been protesting against the poisoning of the dogs in the city, which has a large stray dog population. There were promises that the practice would stop, but it appears Russian officials have decided that if they can’t poison the dogs, they’ll simply kill them another way.
The manager of Basya Service, Alexei Sorokin, has told the Associated Press that the dogs are ‘biological trash.’ Justifying the mass killing, he says that it would reflect badly on Russia if someone where attacked or bitten by a stray dog.
Clearly killing dogs is something that he doesn’t think will reflect badly on the country!
Well, if dogs are biological trash then this is one person who won’t be watching or supporting the Olympic Games, which open on Friday. Join me in doing this and don’t support any products that are made or sourced in Russia.
Posted in animal welfare
Tagged Alexei Sorokin, Basya Service, dog cull, dogs in the city, Olympics, Russia, Sochi, stray dog, Winter Olympics
As the Christmas holiday is upon us, across the world there are special people who are working in animal shelters and rescues caring for homeless dogs. Let’s be thankful that these folks exist. If you are considering adding a dog to your pack, please think adoption first!
This quilt hangs in the kennels at Dogtown in the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Kanab, Utah
Posted in animal welfare, dog quotes, Dogs
Tagged a special place in heaven, adoption, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, caregivers, Christmas, Dogtown, heaven, Old Friends
In this New York Times opinion piece, Professor Gregory Berns discusses the MRI findings of brain activity in dogs, the evidence for ‘sentience’ and the reasons why dogs’ rights should go beyond consideration of animals as property.
For anyone involved in animal welfare advocacy, it is essential to have animal welfare laws that recognise dogs as sentient beings – with the ability to experience emotions like love and grief – because abuse and harm done to sentient beings carries a higher penalty in law than if an item of property is damaged. (In many areas, dogs are considered nothing more than property.)
Jane Evelyn Atwood/Contact Press Images
Posted in animal welfare
Tagged animal welfare, canine brain, canine cognition, dogs, MRI, New York times, Professor Gregory Berns, sentience, sentient beings
Christchurch based animal welfare charity K9 Rescue and Rehoming has paired well-muscled men with dogs available for adoption in their 2014 calendar.
Entitled Dogs and Dudes, this fundraising calendar includes photographs of New Zealand actors and other local celebrities who were willing to bare their bodies to support dog adoption.
The best way to organise a purchase is to contact Trisha through the organisation’s Facebook page. Calendars cost NZ$25
And dog owners get to enjoy a little beefcake all year long, combined with some really beautiful dog photos, too!
Posted in animal welfare
Tagged 2014, adoption, beefcake, calendar, celebrities, Christchurch, Dog, dogs, fundraising, fundraising campaigns, K9 Rescue and Rehoming, photography
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