Tag: animal care

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Face to Face with PIT BULLS: The Real Deal

I saw this recently and I heard subsequently that it had been cited in a radio program:

Ten Commandments of Pit Bull Ownership

  1. Thou shalt NEVER trust thy Pit Bull not to fight
  2. Thou shalt contain thy Pit Bull securely when not supervised by an adult
  3. Thou shalt NEVER leave thy adult Pit Bull alone and unsupervised with another dog
  4. Thou SHALT attend obedience classes most faithfully with thy Pit Bull
  5. Thou SHALT keep thy Pit Bull socialized with ALL KINDS of people
  6. Thy Pit Bull wilt NEVER be allowed off-leash in a public place
  7. Thy Pit Bull wilt NEVER be allowed to roam free in thy neighborhood, EVER!
  8. Thou SHALT take thy well trained Pit Bull out in public and show him/her off – on leash for good breed PR!
  9. Thy Pit Bull shalt go forth into the world as an ambassador of the pit bull breed
  10. THOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY WRONG DONE BY THY DOGS!

I thought I would use these ‘commandments’ as a framework for an analysis of the breed from a real-world perspective rather than a sensationalist one, since a list like the one above reinforces all the preconceptions about the breed and causes people to fear them. Continue reading “Face to Face with PIT BULLS: The Real Deal”

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BREAKING the CYCLE: The Animal Welfare Imperative

‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ – Benjamin Franklin

As a strategist and problem solver in the Corporate world, I was always somewhat dumbfounded by the degree to which problem-solving was directed rather simplistically at symptoms rather than root causes, effectively only solving part of the problem, or solving it only for a short time, or causing other problems that negated the solution anyway.

Animal Welfare SA suffers the same malaise. Many organisations and individuals focus on rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming, and of course there is a necessity that somebody do this, since there are so many homeless animals. This is an attempt at finding, for each animal, a ‘cure’ – a home in which they can live happy lives.  If we recruited more people to welfare, could we home more animals? That very much depends Continue reading “BREAKING the CYCLE: The Animal Welfare Imperative”

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PYOMETRA and the benefit of spaying your female dog

The word pyometra can be divided into two root words

  • Pyo means pus
  • Metra refers to the uterus

Pyometra starts after a dog goes through a heat cycle, usually within about 3 to 5 weeks

Spaying is the treatment of choice

Prognosis is usually favorable, providing that the patient is not profoundly ill

Anatomy

  • The uterus is a Y-shaped organ that has two horns
  • An ovary is located at the end of each horn of the uterus

Pathophysiology

  • The word pyometra can be divided into two root words

o        Pyo means pus

o        Metra refers to the uterus

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All about PARVO…

WHAT IS CANINE PARVO VIRUS?

EVERYTHING IS CONTAMINATED – WHAT NOW?

CHOICE OF PRODUCTS

Parvovirus is a HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS virus that attacks the intestines and causes sloughing of the inner layers of the intestine. The virus is minute but extremely hardy and can survive in the environment for months or even years.

WHO IS AT RISK?

Parvovirus is contagious to dogs only — not to cats or people. This potentially deadly disease is usually more severe in young dogs less than 6 months of age, old dogs and breeds such as Rottweilers and Continue reading “All about PARVO…”

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THE GRAVE OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

(People who work in animal rescue and welfare speak of the ‘war’ – it is a war against incredible odds with scarce resources and a never-ending time-frame. I’m not sure we’re winning it. – animalman)

Today I put down a dog. I don’t know if she had an owner and I don’t know if she had a name.

She was just an old dog, probably not nearly as old as she looked, who had spent her whole sad life in a bad place. She was very thin and had bad mange of most of her body, and ticks and fleas and worms. Her hindquarter had collapsed, partly from malnutrition and partly from bad arthritis from old untreated injuries. Her ears had been cut short and were eaten away by flies. Her teeth were stumps, Continue reading “THE GRAVE OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER”

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THE TRUE UNSUNG HEROES

I would like to dedicate a short piece to those incredible people who take in our battered and abused dogs, and treat them with such dignity and love that they learn to trust humans again, and learn to accept a kind human touch.  Once every two or three years, we bring in a soul that had been destroyed by human abuse to such an extent that, in such a case, the dog cannot be networked to be homed, due to his/her extreme fear and accompanying behavioural problems.

In each instance, a human angel has come forward, willing to mend the broken spirit with unending and absolute love and commitment.

The most recent of these adoptions happened this weekend, to everyone’s delight.

I was called out to remove a Chow from a property earlier this year.  The so-called caregivers of Teddy, as we came to call her, had left her behind on a rental property when they moved. She had been on her own Continue reading “THE TRUE UNSUNG HEROES”

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Spaying: Why it’s better…

(This is an excerpt for an excellent article I found on the subject of spaying – please refer people to this when they give the classic ignorant arguments for keeping their female unspayed – animalman)

The following significant medical benefits can be gained from spaying your dog:

* Mammary (breast) cancer: Females spayed prior to their first oestrus cycle have a significantly reduced risk of developing mammary cancer, a common cancer in unspayed females. The chances of developing this cancer increase if a female isn’t spayed until after her second heat cycle, but they still remain lower than the risk for unspayed females. So if your dog has already gone through her first heat cycle, it’s not too late. Spaying her will still reduce her risk of developing cancerous

Continue reading “Spaying: Why it’s better…”
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Letter of Apology

Merry Browne said that “preconceptions are the locks on the door to wisdom”.  The following article, found by Bernice and Brenda in different places during the same week (?!) clearly illustrates the ignorance prevailing in the world of domestic animals. Thanks to Bernice for doing the editing of the original which had some grammatical problems, and for providing the picture… (animalman)

I’m sorry you are frightened of my dogs and are trying to have them killed because they are pit bulls.

I’m sorry you lack the understanding of this breed’s true history, gentleness with people, wonderful temperament, intelligence and behavioural conformation.

I’m sorry you won’t read the *ATTS stats regarding our breed’s true temperament, in which they score over 83%. That’s 6% more than an average breed.

I’m sorry that you think it’s ok to assume an aggressive dog that resembles a pit bull is a pit bull. I’m sorry you won’t take Continue reading “Letter of Apology”