Dogged Blog

Melamine and cyanuric acid: they ' re not just for fur babies anymore

I assumed that the melamine in infant formula and other milk products had been "cut into" dry milk powder just as it was "cut into" protein concentrates detected during last year's pet food recall. Turns out I was wrong.



It got there through the cows themselves. From Deep Harm over on Daily Kos, who has been doing some terrific blogging on melamine contamination of the global food supply:

A blockbuster revelation in the melamine scandal arrived today in the form of a little-noticed statement by the world's largest food company, Nestle, which announced that melamine discovered in its baby formula in South Africa was caused by "contaminated animal feed" fed to dairy animals.



[...]



Today's news follows an Associated Press report, on Wednesday, that the FDA had found traces of melamine or cyanuric acid had been found in U.S.-produced infant formula, prompting demands for a recall.



Citing a report by Feedinfo News Service, Flexnews, an industry publication, writes that Nestle's conclusions give "credence to the possibility that the industrial chemical may be able to cross from the feed to the food chain" despite longstanding claims by US and other food safety officials that melamine is not transferred to meat and other animals products because it is excreted in urine.  Importantly, melamine is 66% nitrogen. Nitrogen is excreted in urine; but, also in milk.

I'm sure you'll all be glad to know that, just like the pet food industry said during the pet food recall, Nestle is assuring us that its products are safe.



And since it was the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid in contaminated pet foods that caused the catastrophic stone formation and kidney damage in cats and dogs, it looks like babies might be getting both chemicals in their formula, too:

A spreadsheet the AP obtained from the FDA under a Freedom of Information Act request stated that Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron contained traces of melamine.



On Wednesday, FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon said that spreadsheet contained an error — that the FDA had incorrectly switched the names of the Mead Johnson product with Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron. That meant, Leon said, that the Nestle's Good Start had melamine while Mead Johnson's Enfamil had traces of cyanuric acid.



[....]



(Jean) Halloran (of the Consumers Union) said it is also possible some babies are receiving a variety of infant formula and could be ingesting melamine in one bottle and cyanuric acid in another bottle, creating a dangerous mix. (Washington Post)

Deep Harm gives an action item, then concludes:

Like last year's melamine crisis involving pet food, melamine contamination of human food is being revealed one small glimpse at a time, like a television game show.  But, the stakes in this game are much higher.  The world's children are being exposed to contaminants with the potential to harm them long after the last product recall.  Where are the whistleblowers?  Where is the accountability?  And, where can I buy my own dairy cow?

Food safety reform. Now.

Another fine Thanksgiving tradition, or, midnight at the veterinarian

Okay, it wasn't really midnight here, but it was on the East Coast, so that counts, right?



And to be perfectly accurate, my catastrophe last Thanksgiving was that my sink dropped down into the cabinet under it and cost me three hundred bucks for an emergency plumber. Because you can't make dinner for nine family members without a sink, yo.



Tonight it was Rebel, who had... come on, you know what he had, right?



A foxtail.



Allow me to use many, many curse words. Many.



Five hundred dollars, but that's to be expected because a dog is more important than a sink and it's much harder to be a veterinarian than a plumber.



I'll be over here in the fetal position, screaming silently in my mind.

Harvey Milk Lives

I grew up out in the foggy western neighborhoods of San Francisco. We may have been close in distance to the Haight-Ashbury and Castro neighborhoods with their exotic hippies and queers, but culturally, we might as well have been on different planets.

When I was in high school in the mid-70s, I was riding the streetcar downtown with two of my friends, no doubt to spend some of our babysitting money at one of the shops on Union Square. As we emerged from the Twin Peaks tunnel, a man got on the streetcar. Lots of people seemed to know him; I had no idea who he was. He shook some hands, laughed and joked, and introduced himself to the three of us.

"I'm Harvey Milk," he said, and shook our hands. He said he was running for something, but I didn't pay much attention, since I wasn't old enough to vote yet.

I won't say that lightning struck, or it changed my life. I'm sure my friends and I, in our little pleated Catholic schoolgirl skirts and knee-highs, just giggled at his big ears and odd name.

A couple of years later, I heard Milk's name again, when he became the first openly gay man elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. But I was away in college, then, and he stayed off my personal radar until a friend came up to me in the lobby of my dorm. "Someone just killed your mayor," she said.

Since the Moscones lived around the corner from my family,  my first worry was that someone might have killed him at home. I turned on the news and saw that he'd been shot at City Hall, along with Supervisor Harvey Milk, by recently-resigned Supervisor Dan White.

Having grown up as part of San Francisco's Irish-Catholic community, I knew who White was. He'd given a PAL soccer trophy to one of my cousins not long before. I was stunned.

I was in San Francisco in May of 1979 when White's verdict was announced: second degree manslaughter. For an ex-cop who had crawled in a basement window to avoid the metal detectors, brought extra ammo with him,  re-loaded his gun after killing the Mayor, and then walked down the hall and pumped several bullets into Harvey Milk's body, including one that exploded in his brain and killed him?

I heard there was a march from the Castro to City Hall, and with a couple of girlfriends, I drove down to the Civic Center. We parked several blocks away, and as we got near, we could hear shouting and the sound of sirens.

I was barely 20 years old, and although I was outraged, I was also scared. We stayed far on the outskirts of the riot, watching police cars going up in flames from a distance, smelling tear gas. One friend's eyes began to water and swell, and things were going from bad to worse, so we finally left. We almost went back to the Castro, but ended up going home to rinse out her eyes instead.

I never forgot Harvey Milk, though. His death, and the story of his life that emerged in its aftermath, made a huge impression on me. When my friend Rob Epstein made a documentary about Milk, it was nominated for, and won, an Academy Award. All of us watching the Oscars at home went nuts. When it came out on video, I bought it, and over the years forced dozens of friends, newly out or new to San Francisco, to watch it. "You need to remember this," I told them.

It never crossed my mind, never, that anyone could forget him, or his story, but I was wrong. When Gus Van Sant's "Milk" premiered this fall, I was stunned at all the people who had no idea who Harvey Milk was -- including politically active young lesbians and gay men. I interviewed the actors, and the younger ones all said they hadn't learned about Harvey at all -- including James Franco, who grew up in the Bay Area. (He played Harvey's lover, Scott Smith.) Alison Pill, who played Harvey's lesbian campaign manager and aide, Anne Kronenberg, said while researching the role she met many young LGBT people who didn't know who Harvey was. Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, himself only 33, said he'd written the script because he was afraid Harvey's life was in danger of slipping off the stage of history.

But whether we knew his name or not, Harvey Milk's legacy still lives. Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of his death, and on 365Gay.com, I talk about it:

Lesbian activist Sally Gearhart told the crowd protesting White’s sentence that “Harvey Milk lives!” A demonstrator shouted back, “No, he’s dead, you fool!” And it was true. It was also true that in the months and even years after those violent events, the neighborhood-centered, grassroots politics Milk practiced vanished with him from both the city and national stages. No other leader emerged from the gay community to take his place. His legacy, like the man, appeared dead.

But was it?

At Milk’s memorial service, his successor on the Board of Supervisors, Harry Britt, told the crowd, “Something very special is going to happen in this city, and it will have Harvey Milk’s name on it…. Harvey will be in the middle of us, always, always.” It was hard to see in the aftermath of his death, but it turns out Britt was right.

When AIDS struck in the 80s, a group of street activists who later became known as ACT-UP began to organize, protest, and disrupt the institutions of commerce and government, demanding a better response to the epidemic that was killing so many in our community. Their slogan was “Silence=death,” and it’s one that Harvey, famous for both hyperbole and verbosity, would have loved.

Milk political protégé Cleve Jones went on to found the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, one of the single most successful acts of political theater and personal mourning ever conceived. It has traveled around the nation and the globe, was the subject of an Academy Award winning documentary, and is still the largest piece of community folk art in the world. It was catharsis for us as we lost countless friends and loved ones, and incited powerful sympathy and connection in people not of our community who grieved – and stood – with us.

[....]

Under the influence of [his]  admiration [for Milk], [San Francisco Mayor Gavin] Newsom defied an anti-gay state law and started issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples during San Francisco’s now-famous “winter of love.” It was that act that led to the chain of events that culminated in California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 constitutional amendment that stripped same sex couples of their newly-recognized right to civil marriage.

At first glance that might seem like a bittersweet piece of Milk’s legacy, but just as it took violence to give birth to our movement, the shocking victory of Prop 8 woke a sleeping giant. A new generation of activists poured into the streets within a day of the election, protesting the tyranny of the majority that subjected our civil rights to a popular vote.

The man may indeed be dead, but Harvey Milk unquestionably lives forever, in us.

The full piece is here -- I hope you read it, and remember.

Have a clean smelling home for the holidays -- even if you have pets

Why yes, that's Kyrie in the photo accompanying this week's lead story for the Pet Connection syndicated feature. In fact, that's my hand, my sofa, my living room, and my steam cleaner, too. The story? How to make sure your home passes the smell test this holiday season:

Your home is spotless, and the inviting aromas of a holiday meal fill the air. But as you open the door to your guests, their twitching noses suggest they smell something you didn't.



"I see you still have that cat," your older sister says disapprovingly. Her nose twitches again. "And the dog, too."



But pet odors aren't irresolvable. Eliminating them can be challenging, but following a few simple tips from the experts can leave your house smelling fresh and clean this holiday season.

Also in the holiday spirit, Gina talks about cats and Christmas trees:

Cats love to follow motion, pouncing on toys as if they were prey. When stringy substances are eaten, however, they can bind up in a cat's intestines and often must be surgically removed. Strings that are electrified, such as power cords and lights, offer even more hazards.



If you can't keep your cat away from the tree -- by keeping him out of the room when you're not around, for example -- then I'm afraid the danglies can't be part of your holiday decor.

Susan Tripp, MS, and Rolan Tripp, DVM share some ideas on how to use food to train your dog without making him gain weight, Dr. Marty Becker and Mikkel Becker Shannon talk about a hero dog and the worldwide jellyfish population explosion, courtesy of global warming.



Plus: keeping pets safe from coyotes, how to pick a great veterinarian, and pet grooming tools by the numbers. All this and more, in our Pet Connection newspaper feature, which you can read on the Universal Press Syndicate Web site.



(Pictured: Kyrie at home, by Pet Connection Director of Photography Morgan Ong)



Update: The DeLonghi Steamit in the picture is no longer being made. Wish I'd bought one when I checked the price a couple months ago. Christie's checking out some comparable steamers to suggest for anyone interested, and she'll check in after the holiday.

She lives!

You can always guarantee if I totally stop blogging that I'm in deadline hell.

I have four new articles up today, two about pets and two about the film "Milk," which I saw when it premiered in San Francisco last month. The first "Milk" piece is a review, and the other a profile of Alison Pill, the actress who played Harvey Milk's lesbian campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg. From the profile of Pill:

Canadian actress Alison Pill didn't know much about Harvey Milk when she auditioned to play his lesbian campaign manager in Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk. Twenty-two years old, she considered herself fairly informed about the history of the gay rights movement, and yet all she knew about Harvey was something vague about the "Twinkie defense."

Today, Pill is one of Harvey's biggest fans. And she belongs to another fan club, too, one a lot of queer women are going to be joining when they get to know Anne Kronenberg, the curly-haired dyke-on-a-bike who ran Harvey's first successful campaign, played by Pill in the film.

At first glance, it's hard to see much similarity between the two women, although Kronenberg was also 22 years old when tapped by Milk to run his third supervisorial campaign.

Strong, confrontational, and passionate, Anne rode a motorcycle and wore leather jackets. She took on the cautious gay male establishment of the times and helped Harvey kick down some of the social and political walls between lesbians and gay men.

From the review:

It's hard to take an objective look at a film whose story is not just familiar but iconic to its audience. It's even harder when that story has already been told in a groundbreaking documentary, and harder still if some of the film's audience actually lived through its events.

That Gus Van Sant's Milk transcends all those factors and looks to be one of the best films of the year is a testament to the power of its story as well as the creative forces that came together to tell it.

Most LGBT people probably know the bare bones of Harvey Milk's story already: That he helped spearhead the fight against a tidal wave of anti-gay legislation that swept the country as part of Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade; that he advocated coming out as the most powerful weapon against homophobia; that he was shot to death by a political opponent after predicting his own assassination.

But one of often-forgotten pieces of

Harvey

's story was his commitment to building bridges with every possible group that might be an ally in his struggle. He made a friend out of organized labor by getting Coors beer out of

San Francisco

's gay bars. He reached out to all communities of color and ethnic groups in the state. He was an ex-hippie turned businessman who could and would talk to anyone – including his fiercest enemies – if he thought it would further his cause.

And at a time when the gay and lesbian communities were almost completely isolated from each other, when women held virtually no leadership roles in the gay rights movement and our communities were often actively hostile towards each other, Harvey Milk not only reached out to women's organizations, he brought in a 22-year-old lesbian named Anne Kronenberg to run his fourth campaign for office – the first one, in fact, that he ever won.

I interviewed Pill, Kronenberg, as well as Sean Penn, who played Milk, director Gus Van Sant, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Milk political protege Cleve Jones, Josh Brolin, who played Dan White, Emile Hirsch, who played Jones, and James Franco, who played Milk's lover Scott Smith. Two future pieces based on those interviews will be coming out in the next few days. One will be on 365Gay.com, and the other on AfterElton.com; I'll link when they're up.

In the critter category, my Borzoi Kyrie got some ink... er, pixels... on SFGate.com, where I discussed the issue dogs, parks, and leashes:

I happily cede the dog parks to the unleashed dogs and their doggy joy. In fact, although San Francisco has a lot of them already, I’d like to see more - many more. Dozens more. But what I don’t like to see is an uncontrolled dog running loose in an area outside the dog zone.

It’s not so just my concern for my fellow citizens that makes me feel that way; it’s my love of dogs, too. See, I left out some back story: My dog Kyrie is scared of other dogs when she’s on a leash.

Kyrie lived the first eight years of her life in the country, running and roaming off-leash with my other dogs on my fenced, wooded acreage. And even off our property, where I walked her on a leash, it was very rare that we’d run into a strange dog. It’s not that country dogs don’t often run loose; they do. It’s just that there’s a lot of room out where we lived in the hills of western Sonoma, and the few times we saw strange dogs, they ignored us.

That was fine until I decided, after 16 years in the country, to move back to the city. The fact that neither of my dogs spoke “city dog” caused some problems. The city, it turns out, is full of dogs whose idea of proper canine etiquette was formed in a completely different environment. When they see a strange dog in the park, their first thought is, “Oh oh oh! It’s a new friend! I must say hello!” And they race over, their entire bodies wagging, eager to greet these exotic newcomers to their world.

At first, things were difficult for me and the dogs. Rebel, who was a show dog in his youth, actually adapted pretty easily to the ways of the city dogs, possibly because he’s bigger than any of them and doesn’t worry that the pipsqueak racing towards him at top speed can do any damage to him. No one ever has, he figures; why worry now?

But Kyrie was always the smallest hound in our pack, and relied on two things to keep out of the way of the bigger, heavier deerhounds when the play got rough: greater speed and greater agility. Here in our urban playground, she’s lost that advantage entirely, because she’s on a leash. So when those strange dogs - even the truly friendly ones - come tearing over to say hi, she thinks she’s being attacked by raving lunatics, because she’s never seen this body language before.

Dog people might say I failed to properly socialize Kyrie to strange, off-leash dogs while she’s on a leash, and they’d be right; I did. If I had a time machine I’d get in it and go back and change that. But no matter what my failures as a dog mom might be, don’t she and all the other shy dogs in the world have a right to go for walks in the park, too, just as people who are afraid of dogs or who are frail, disabled or elderly do?

[....]

(A)ll of us, human and canine, have the right to enjoy shared public spaces without untrained, rambunctious dogs running up and jumping on us or our leashed dogs while their owners call out from a distance, “He’s friendly!” Maybe he is, but my dogs think he’s rude, and I’ll bet that nice lady shielding her stroller against your dog’s curiosity thinks so, too.

And I penned... er, typed... the lead piece for the Pet Connection syndicated pet feature, for which I'm a contributing editor, this week. This one's on keeping your home smelling good for the holidays, even if you have pets:

Your home is spotless, and the inviting aromas of a holiday meal fill the air. But as you open the door to your guests, their twitching noses suggest that they smell something you don't.

"I see you still have that cat," your older sister says disapprovingly. Her nose twitches again. "And the dog, too."

But pet odors aren't irresolvable. Eliminating them can be challenging, but following a few simple tips from the experts can leave your house smelling fresh and clean this holiday season.

That's it for today.... but I think you can now get an idea of why you haven't seen me in a while.

Another go-round about off-leash dogs

My column this week over on SFGate.com is about one of my pet peeves, people who let their dogs run off-leash in leash-required areas even though those dogs are not under voice control (and often, aren't even in their owner's sight):

I happily cede the dog parks to the unleashed dogs and their doggy joy. In fact, although San Francisco has a lot of them already, I'd like to see more - many more. Dozens more. But what I don't like to see is an uncontrolled dog running loose in an area outside the dog zone.



It's not so just my concern for my fellow citizens that makes me feel that way; it's my love of dogs, too. See, I left out some back story: My dog Kyrie is scared of other dogs when she's on a leash.



Kyrie lived the first eight years of her life in the country, running and roaming off-leash with my other dogs on my fenced, wooded acreage. And even off our property, where I walked her on a leash, it was very rare that we'd run into a strange dog. It's not that country dogs don't often run loose; they do. It's just that there's a lot of room out where we lived in the hills of western Sonoma, and the few times we saw strange dogs, they ignored us.



That was fine until I decided, after 16 years in the country, to move back to the city. The fact that neither of my dogs spoke "city dog" caused some problems. The city, it turns out, is full of dogs whose idea of proper canine etiquette was formed in a completely different environment. When they see a strange dog in the park, their first thought is, "Oh oh oh! It's a new friend! I must say hello!" And they race over, their entire bodies wagging, eager to greet these exotic newcomers to their world.



At first, things were difficult for me and the dogs. Rebel, who was a show dog in his youth, actually adapted pretty easily to the ways of the city dogs, possibly because he's bigger than any of them and doesn't worry that the pipsqueak racing towards him at top speed can do any damage to him. No one ever has, he figures; why worry now?



But Kyrie was always the smallest hound in our pack, and relied on two things to keep out of the way of the bigger, heavier deerhounds when the play got rough: greater speed and greater agility. Here in our urban playground, she's lost that advantage entirely, because she's on a leash. So when those strange dogs - even the truly friendly ones - come tearing over to say hi, she thinks she's being attacked by raving lunatics, because she's never seen this body language before.



Dog people might say I failed to properly socialize Kyrie to strange, off-leash dogs while she's on a leash, and they'd be right; I did. If I had a time machine I'd get in it and go back and change that. But no matter what my failures as a dog mom might be, don't she and all the other shy dogs in the world have a right to go for walks in the park, too, just as people who are afraid of dogs or who are frail, disabled or elderly do?



[....]



(A)ll of us, human and canine, have the right to enjoy shared public spaces without untrained, rambunctious dogs running up and jumping on us or our leashed dogs while their owners call out from a distance, "He's friendly!" Maybe he is, but my dogs think he's rude, and I'll bet that nice lady shielding her stroller against your dog's curiosity thinks so, too.

The rest of the story is here. Have any off-leash stories to tell, or suggestions for how we can all share public spaces in harmony?

How do you recognize a good dog breeder?

Let's face it: puppies are cute. All of them. And if you're shopping in your local mall or wandering around the Internet late one night, you might feel the impulse to add one of those little fluff balls to your family.



Resist.



Of course, most of you reading this already know that. You've had Puppy Mills 101 and know that no responsible breeder will sell her puppies to just anyone with a credit card, nor through a third party. If you've made the decision to get your puppy from a breeder, you're probably already aware that a small, home-based breeder is who you're looking for.



But the marketing world is devious, and it's surprising the kinds of things puppy sellers will say to get you to purchase the only kind of love money can buy. Besides, none of us has superpowers; it's not possible to read the minds and hearts of someone who knows all the right things to say but doesn't mean any of them. So you're going to have to do some homework, and you may also have to exhibit a fair amount of patience.



First, don't let yourself be misled about where your puppy came from. Pet stores routinely assure shoppers that their pets don't come from puppy mills, and Internet pet store sites certainly won't announce that theirs do. Instead, they use phrases people find reassuring: "Family raised." "Private breeders." "Raised with love."



Despite those marketing slogans, the reality is that virtually all puppies sold in pet stores and on the Internet are mass-produced in circumstances that range from truly hellish to sterile, lonely and boring. The mothers and fathers of those puppies spend their entire lives in cages, bored beyond belief, sometimes kept in filth and misery, having litter after litter until they can't produce any more.



How can you know whether a breeder or other seller's claims are true? And even if you could hook the breeder up to a lie detector, how do you know what questions to ask or what the answers should be?



The Questions



What's most important are not the questions you ask the breeder but the ones the breeder asks you.



Being grilled about your suitability as a pet owner is the single best indicator that you're dealing with a reputable breeder. Why? Ask yourself this: Would you really want to bring a living, breathing creature into your home, to become a part of your family, who was born and raised in the hands of someone who didn't give a damn what happened to that animal?



Ethical, caring breeders want to know about your living situation, your past experience with pets, how other family members feel about a new dog and if they can contact your veterinarian. Breeders are likely to want to know how extensive your knowledge of the breed is, and some of them have multipage questionnaires.



Those frustrating restrictions and contracts, and those intrusive questions, are your guarantee that the breeder of your pet is an ethical one. Or to put it more bluntly, the easier it is for you to get that puppy, the less careful the breeder is.



Which is precisely why reputable breeders, those who are committed to improving and preserving their chosen breeds and bringing the healthiest possible puppies into the world, would never consider letting a third party, such as a pet store, place them in new homes. They care far too much about what happens to those puppies to let anyone else, let alone a stranger, take that decision out of their hands.



The Acid Test



If the first test of good breeders is that they be as picky about you as you are about them, the second is the one I call the acid test: If in the future you, for any reason, cannot keep this puppy, will the breeder take him or her back?



There is only one right answer to this question, and that's an unequivocal yes. In fact, good breeders won't just agree to that, they'll require it in their contract. Since animals are living creatures and not household appliances, no breeder, no matter how ethical, can guarantee they'll never have health or behavior problems. But I can guarantee that a breeder who answers no to that question is not someone you'd want to give your money to, or someone you should trust to bring your future pet into the world.



The Guarantee



Any guarantee that requires you to return a sick or defective puppy or kitten in order to get your money back is no guarantee at all. It is actually a way to get out of guaranteeing the pet, because very few people will ever return an animal once they have brought it into their home. Breeders or pet stores that put the bottom line before the human-animal bond use that fact to get out of standing behind the health and fitness of the puppy or kitten they sold. Don't ever buy from breeders with this clause in their contract, because it's not only worthless, it's sadistic.



Following these guidelines won't guarantee your puppy will never chew the sofa, pee on the rug, or get sick. But it will ensure you can sleep at night, knowing your puppy's mother is someone's beloved pet and not someone's puppy-making ATM.

Tensions Erupt Over White House Puppy Appointment

Top political analyst Al Giordano of The Field is breaking the following story out of Chicago:

George Stephanopoulos' report last week on ABC that the Obama family had secretly met with "Rex" at the Hyde Park Humane Society Kennel has touched off a firestorm of conflicting reports, rumor, gossip, innuendo, drama and questions about whether the young golden retriever could be vetted in time for Inauguration Day next January 20.



President-elect Barack Obama had, on the night of November 4, issued a vague set of promises involving "change" to his two daughters, Sasha and Malia, that they had earned a new puppy that would be coming with them to the White House. But serious questions remained as to what kind of puppy, from what region of country, whether it would be a mutt (the president-elect's personal choice) or hold a pedigree, and its level of experience at tackling the tough White House challenges ahead.



Rex declined to return calls from this reporter, directing us to the Transition Team, which declined to respond. But speculation swirled across Washington today about the implications of the rumors.



"Barney, the lame duck dog of the Bush White House, leaves heavy paw prints to fill," two Democratic Party sources told Andrea Mitchell of NBC. "It is unknown whether the puppy to be chosen by the Obamas will be able to tackle the challenges of knowing which members of the White House press corps to bite, where the bones are buried in the Rose Garden, and solving the Middle East peace process."



The New York Times reported earlier this week that Malia Obama had officially offered the job to Rex. The Guardian then published a story stating that Rex had agreed to the position. But now tensions have erupted between the Rex and the Obama camps over a constant stream of leaks, and a high placed source reveals that Michelle Obama is concerned that those leaks could continue to trickle over the carpet in the Oval Office come January.

This is a critical look at a nation in transition, and a prime example of the kind of fearless pet writing journalism we like to promote here at Pet Connection. Don't miss it.



Updated with President-elect Barack Obama's brilliant speech about the puppy -- trust me and watch it. You will shed tears, I promise.

Special rights for a lifestyle choice?

I'm sick and tired of being told what to do by a group of people who have made the choice to live a certain lifestyle and are trying to shove acceptance of that lifestyle down my throat, and demand and accept special privileges for that lifestyle choice.

I'm speaking, of course, of religion.

Please explain to me, like I was in kindergarten, the religious right's idiotic meme that being gay or lesbian is a behavior or a choice and thus we should not be protected under the laws of the land, in the face of their unquestioned belief that religion -- which is inarguably a choice -- should be? I mean, more people change their religion every day than have changed their sexual orientation in the entire history of the universe.

And as if that weren't bad enough, they have special laws at every level, from local zoning ordiances to national tax laws, giving them special privileges that no other charitable group has. Churches can build in areas no other charitable or social group could build, they have tax-exempt status beyond what other charitable organizations have, and there is a whole host of laws that exempt them from hiring, firing, and other labor laws and regulations.

So the next time some paranoid right wingnut with a persecution complex accuses a gay person of wanting "special rights," or calls being gay "a choice" or "a behavior," just ask them: Projecting much?

Doggy Do Right: Housetraining the older dog

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Specifically, if you adopt or already own an older dog who isn't housetrained, will you be able to train him not to use the house as a toilet? Gina and Dr. Marty Becker say yes, and tell you how, in this week’s Pet Connection syndicated column:

(T)take heart: You can teach an adult dog to do his business outside.



Before you start training, though, you must be sure that what you have is a behavior problem and not a physical problem. This is especially true with a dog who has been reliable in the past. You won't be able to train your pet if he's struggling with an illness. So check with your veterinarian first for a complete checkup.



If you've ruled out medical problems, house-training an adult dog uses the same principles as house-training a puppy, except you have to be even more diligent because you need to do some "untraining," too. And a lot of cleaning: You must thoroughly clean any soiled area with enzymatic cleaner (available through pet-supply outlets) to eliminate the smell that invites repeat business.



You'll need to teach your dog what's right before you can correct him for what's wrong. To do this, spend a couple of weeks ensuring that he has nothing but successes by never giving him the opportunity to make a mistake.

Also this week: how to slim a fat cat, dogs who can sniff out cancer, a new antibiotic, and a promising new treatment for canine arthritis. Plus, three reasons not to get a puppy as a Christmas gift:

• Holiday stress. Puppies are not toys. They are animals who need a lot of attention. Who has time for a pup during the holidays, that stressful season of socializing and shopping? With a houseful of guests and a holiday dinner to prepare, who will make sure the puppy isn't being mauled by overly enthusiastic children and guests?



• Bad timing. Try house-training a puppy when it's cold and stormy. And what about the rest of the training? The first few months of a dog's life are crucial: Bad habits are far easier to prevent than they are to break later, and ongoing socialization is critical. Will you really feel like training and socializing your pup when the holidays are over, the days are short and the kids are back in school?



• Poor selection. Many reputable breeders and shelters will not cooperate with your Christmas puppy desire. That means if you're looking for a puppy, you may be choosing from sellers who don't know or care enough to offer healthy, well-socialized puppies.

Plus: How many people include their pets in their weddings? More than you might think! All this and more, in our Pet Connection newspaper feature, which you can read on the Universal Press Syndicate Web site.