Dogged Blog

CDC investigating water frog breeder for salmonella

From kingsnake.com (and also, h/t to reader Susan Fox:

The Centers for Disease Control announced yesterday that it is still investigating an outbreak of salmonella typhimurium associated with African Dwarf Frogs bred at Blue Lobster Farms in California.

• This nationwide outbreak is ongoing. As of July 18, 2011, a total of 241 individuals infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 42 states since April 1, 2009. These infections are associated with African dwarf frogs–a type of water frog–and water from their habitats (e.g., tanks or aquariums).



• Epidemiologic, traceback and laboratory findings between 2009 and 2011 link this ongoing nationwide outbreak of human Salmonella Typhimurium infections to a single African dwarf frog breeding facility in Madera County, California, Blue Lobster Farms. The owner of Blue Lobster Farms voluntarily stopped shipping African dwarf frogs in late April but resumed shipping the frogs in early June. These frogs may be found in pet stores, educational stores, toy stores, fairs, carnivals, from online retailers and other venues.



• Public health officials with the Madera County Department of Environmental Health are currently working with the owner of Blue Lobster Farms to conduct interventions and ongoing testing and monitoring of the frog breeding facility. At this time, the effectiveness of these interventions is unknown, and reports of ill persons infected with the outbreak strain are continuing.

More information at kingsnake.com.



Photo: CDC.

Animal control saying ' yes ' to tax dollars, ' go away ' to taxpayers

It struck me as odd that so many animal control agencies in different parts of the country were responding in the same way to public calls for reform: by shooting the messenger.



From my column in SFGate.com:

There's an epidemic spreading through the nation's animal control shelters, and it's not something a vaccination can prevent. It's an epidemic of secrecy.



Consider this: Animal control is a government function, paid for with your tax dollars. It's work done on behalf of the public; shouldn't the public have some way to ensure it's being done appropriately?



But in communities all over the country, including here in California, calls for animal control reform have been met with the sound of a door slamming in the public's face.



[....]



The Central California SPCA, a private organization that holds the animal control contract for the city of Fresno, recently closed its board meetings to the public, sparking a wave of protests, including a July 19 demonstration organized by FixFresno.org, an advocacy group aimed at ending the killing of healthy and treatable pets in the city's shelters.



It's not surprising that citizens want to reform how Fresno's homeless animals are treated; the CCSPCA kills around 80 percent of the pets it takes in, one of the worst kill rates in California and far above the national average of 50 percent.



Recently, animal rescuers in the community have also been alleging mismanagement, abuse and neglect at the shelter.



Until last month, the CCSPCA's board meetings were open to the public, but on June 16, the president of FixFresno.org, Melissa McDonald, received a letter from the shelter's attorney, Jeffrey M. Reid, advising her that the meetings were now closed and members of FixFresno.org would no longer be allowed to attend.



Attendance by FixFresno.org members had been permitted previously, he said, after the group asserted that the board meetings were subject to the Brown Act, California's open meetings law. However, Reid told them this interpretation of the law was incorrect.



He pointed to what is essentially a loophole in the law, which calls for open meetings of private organizations contracted to do government work only in cases where the organization was created specifically to do that work, or if a member of the government sits on the organization's board. Neither of those provisions applies to the CCSPCA.



Members of FixFresno.org showed up at the next board meeting anyway, only to be met at the door by Reid.



"He said that having us there was too 'intimidating' for the board to function," McDonald told me. "It is sad that they chose to hide what is going on instead of addressing the problems."



I called CCSPCA spokesperson Beth Caffrey, and asked what prompted the organization to contact an attorney on this matter in the first place.



"We want our board meetings to be productive," she told me. "We couldn't be productive because of the disruptive behavior of people who were there."

In the rest of the article, I update the situation in Memphis and New York City, and have a great wrap-up commentary from FixAustin.org's Ryan Clinton. It's all here.



Photo: Courtesy of Celeste Pryor.

Brand new GPS tracker: It ' s what ' s for dinner!

How do you know I love my dog Rawley? I haven't killed him.



I'm on my fourth Kindle thanks to his insatiable appetite for them. I blame myself for leaving them where he can get them, though.



But today he ate up his brand-new, never been used Garmin GPS locator, which was sitting on my desk connected to my computer, charging for its first use.



He has never taken anything off my desk, let alone something connected to the computer. I mean -- my mouse, my phone, my speakers, my router are all right there. Why this? Why now?



Why, Rawley, why?



He complete destroyed the USB cable, but I'm not sure he's actually destroyed the GPS unit itself. I'm going to order a new cable and keep my fingers crossed.



Metaphorically, of course. Otherwise it's too hard to type.



I love him, I love him, it's stupid but I love him.

Should you trust your veterinarian?

When your pet's veterinarian says the sky is blue, do you feel a need to run outside and check?



I'm constantly bombarded by emails from pet owners who seem to feel that way, so much so they often don't take even clearly very sick pets to the veterinarian, but instead waste time writing me 20-page missives on every symptom their pet has expressed for the previous several weeks.



When I ask why they haven't taken their dog or cat to the vet, sometimes the answer is money. But most of the time, it's a screed ranging from general distrust of the entire veterinary profession to the occasional full-blown conspiracy theory heavily tinged with paranoid delusions.



Setting aside that last group, whose problems are beyond the scope of a pet writer, it really worries me that so many people have let one or a few bad experiences with veterinarians turn them away from getting necessary care for their pets. From my column today on SFGate.com:

I've had bad experiences with veterinarians. I've also had terrible haircuts and gone to dishonest auto mechanics. Nonetheless, I keep getting my hair done and my car fixed -- and taking my pets to the veterinarian.



Good veterinarians have knowledge and experience, as well as access to diagnostic testing, that no pet owner -- and no pet writer, either -- can have. Condemning the entire profession for the unethical behavior of one or a few individuals is irrational and dangerous for your pet if it means he doesn't get necessary care.



But trust should never be given unquestioningly, simply because someone has a "DVM" or "VMD" after her name. Trust is something the veterinarian has to earn.



Obviously, once a vet has been treating your pets for years, you can trust him based on his track record. But there are plenty of times we can't rely on a vet we've had for years -- when we move, while traveling, when our vet retires, or when a pet needs immediate care and his regular vet isn't available.



I've written before about how to find a veterinarian who practices excellent veterinary medicine. Here are the tips I use to decide whether or not a veterinarian deserves my trust:



The trustworthy veterinarian knows he doesn't know everything. No one is omniscient. I have no problem with that. While I would assume any veterinarian knows a great deal more than I do about general medical issues relating to pets, I don't expect him to be an expert on every single medication, condition or obscure article in a medical journal.



But when I ask him a question he can't answer I do expect him to respond by saying, "I don't know, let me check on that." Veterinarians who try to bluff to preserve their authority, or worse, imply you're being fussy, bothersome or over-protective for asking in the first place, don't deserve your trust.



For example, my dog Rebel, who died in 2009, had a very rare genetic condition that most vets will go their whole careers without treating. I understood that even the best veterinarian was going to need to do some research to treat him.



As long as the veterinarian understood that, too, everything was fine. But the minute a vet dismissed my questions or the information I was giving him about my dog, I was gone. Not because I wanted him to replace his judgment with mine, but because he was doing so not on the basis of his greater knowledge or expertise, but arrogance or insecurity.



She keeps up with the profession. This one seems like a no-brainer, but I've met a few veterinarians who seem proud of the fact that they still practice to the standards of the year they graduated from vet school.



One veterinarian I saw in San Mateo County -- fortunately now retired -- bragged to me about how he didn't use modern anesthetic gases because he felt it was better to keep using the methods you were most familiar with.



"Even if they're more dangerous than newer, safer drugs?" I asked him in amazement.



Even so, he insisted. I guess the prospect of learning the new methods of anesthesia was just too much change for him to contemplate.



Bottom line: If you ask how the veterinarian handles anesthesia or pain management and are brushed aside with outdated information, it's time to walk.

Read the rest of my tips here.

Are people who bring their cats to shelters ' abandoning ' them?

Is someone who takes a cat to a no-kill shelter because they have lost their job and their home "abandoning" their cat?



That's what a no-kill shelter in a southern state just posted on their Facebook page. This is something that's been driving me nuts for a long time now, but maybe it's just me.



So, what do you think? Has that cat been "abandoned"?

Memphis city attorney threatens pet blogger covering abuses at city pound

The situation for animals in the Memphis city pound is a nightmare. I'm not just guessing; after a high-profile sheriff's raid on the facility in 2009, the city installed webcams in the shelter's back areas, allowing concerned animal lovers everywhere to see for ourselves what's happening there.



Blogger Shirley Thistlewaite has been covering the story at MAS (stands for Memphis Animal Shelter, although there's precious little "sheltering" going on) for a long time now, and if you're not following it, you're missing out.



Shirley had also been raising funds to help rescuers pay for the care of animals rescued from this kill factory -- they kill more than 70 percent of the pets they take in -- but she's shut that effort down after receiving a legal threat from Herman Morris Jr., the Memphis city attorney, who apparently thought it was a valuable use of the city's time and resources to dig through the law of Shirley's home state and find one that sounded scary enough to get her to shut the hell up.



Set aside the fact that Shirley wasn't even doing what she was being accused of doing. Set aside the fact that the Memphis city attorney has no power to do one damn thing about a law in another state. Set aside that aforementioned massive waste of resources, and just ask yourself in what universe it's anything short of catastrophically stupid to stop people from trying to help animals saved from your hell-hole of a "shelter"?



You can read the letter and Shirley's response to it here. I wouldn't have shut down the donation drive; I'm not an attorney, but I don't see where Shirley was soliciting donations on behalf of MAS without their permission; she was creating a fund to help rescuers pay for medical care for pets rescued from MAS.



In fact, this whole thing stinks of  a SLAPP -- a legal threat followed by a lawsuit intended to silence public criticism, AKA, a "strategic lawsuit against public participation." Why else would an attorney in the city of Memphis be writing threatening letters about a law in South Carolina?



In fact, I think I'll call him tomorrow and ask that exact question.



Photo: Webcam shot of Ranger, the only dog Shirley's fund was able to help before the Memphis city attorney sent out his threat.

My dog's testicles are not why your dog doesn't listen to you

So, here's a true story.

I'm standing at the water fountain at the entrance to a San Francisco dog park, giving my Scottish Deerhound, Rawley, a drink. We're right next to the parking lot.

A Lab mix comes flying across the field, a distance of around two city blocks.

The owner of the Lab mix runs toward us from the other end of the field, shouting, "Arden! Come! Right now! Come! Get over here! Arden! I mean it! RIGHT NOW! Come! Stop it! Leave him alone...."

Her voice becomes more breathless because she's shouting and running; her dog has been ignoring her all along in favor of giving all his attention to Rawley.

"I told you to come..." she continued.

I'd snapped on Rawley's leash when I saw the owner had no control of her dog. He'd already had his walk, so he was quiet.

The Lab mix started out okay, but as he sniffed Rawley, he became a little more assertive. He went up on the balls of his feet. He stood straighter. If he'd been human, I'd have said he narrowed his eyes. Maybe he did.

I moved away, toward my car, Rawley with me.

The Lab mix jumped on Rawley and tried to hump him.

I moved away, but the Lab mix jumped down, then back on.

His breathless owner finally arrived, and took a look at the situation -- i.e., my dog doing nothing whatsoever, her dog running away from her, ignoring everything she said, and then bothering my leashed, quiet dog in a really annoying way. What do you suppose she says?

"Oh! He's intact!" Then she glares at me. "Why isn't he neutered yet?"

You know what, lady? My dog's testicles are not your dog's "get out of jail free" card for running away from you, ignoring your commands, and hassling another dog.

Cutting off my dog's testicles will not miraculously turn your dog's hearing back on. Nor is sniffing my intact dog's Very Special Scent the only irresistible activity your dog will ever wish to engage in against your wishes. I mean, what if Rawley had been on the other side of a busy road?

In short, the problem is not my dog's balls. The problem is you, and the fact that your dog is not trained.

This happened not long before Christmas. Since then, I had Rawley neutered, primarily to make his life in this city full of untrained dogs and their obnoxious owners a bit more pleasant for him. I have a lot of regrets about doing it, and if he has health problems because of it, I know I'll have a hard time forgiving myself, but I didn't see too much choice at the time.

And it definitely did reduce the number of dogs who find Rawley's mere presence at the park to be cause for mayhem down to manageable levels (although not to zero, because apparently the fact that he's way bigger than they are is also an issue).

I know it's a dream I'll never see come true, but you know what I'd like?

A world where people socialize their dogs around both intact and altered dogs, so dogs understand this is something normal in the canine universe they inhabit. Because people acting as if the parts our dogs are born with are a disease or a badge of irresponsible pet ownership is my least favorite thing about modern American dog culture.

/futile

Photo: Rawley: "See how good I am?"

Tonight! Carol Lea Benjamin, Denise Wall: A tale of two border collies

I'm going to be interviewing dog-trainer and author Carol Lea Benjamin and Denise Wall, a respected stock dog trainer and biochemist who serves on the health and genetics committee of the American Border Collie Association, the registry for working Border Collies, this evening from 9-10 PM Eastern Time.



The interview is part of PetHobbyist.com's Thirteenth Annual Chat Month, and we'll be talking about lots of things, including their new book, "Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep?" (which I reviewed right here a couple of weeks ago).



You can listen over the Animal Wise Radio network here, and if you'd like to ask questions, just drop into the Auditorium chat room where you can post them during the interview. I'll be watching. :)



You can also listen on your mobile device here.



Oh, and two other things: PetHobbyist.com has had a name change, and is now ConnectedByPets.com, and to help launch the new name and some new features, they're giving away three brand new iPad 2s! Check it out.

Head of B.C. task force: Sled dogs ' aren ' t pets, ' can be killed

If you thought the fate of the 100 sled dogs who were slaughtered in British Columbia would mean a better day ahead for dogs, think again.



Instead of learning from the tragedy, instead of understanding that yes, sled dogs can be and frequently are adopted into pet homes, instead of acknowledging that death -- whether it's from a bullet to the head, a knife to the throat, or a syringe full of Fatal-plus --  is not an acceptable canine retirement plan, the task force assigned to investigate the killings is turning its back on Canada's working sled dogs.



Task force head Terry Lake, a veterinarian and past vice-president of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association as well as currently an elected official representing Kamloops-North Thompson in the B.C. legislature, had this to say to The Canadian Press:

Lake speculated the task force could end up recommending tighter rules and regulations to govern B.C.'s sled dog industry.



He said the task force will also review the gruesome ways in which the dogs died and likely recommend guidelines for more humane methods of destroying working animals.



"In over 20 years of practise, I probably have euthanized hundreds of animals, and, of course, in an acceptable and humane way," Lake said. "These are not pet dogs we are dealing with, and so the method of euthanasia in a veterinary office is not the only humane method of euthanasia. I think that's an important thing to say."

You know what, Mr. Lake? It's a stupid thing to say. It's a false thing to say. It's a steaming pile of crap. You should be removed from this task force for having given up on these dogs before your investigation even began. You make me sick. Your fellow veterinarians should turn their backs on you when you walk in the door.



I shouldn't really be all that surprised; the president of the British Columbia SPCA is on the task force, too -- you know, the organization that said these dogs weren't adoptable, without having ever seen or evaluated a single one of them? Who said if they'd been brought into the case earlier, they'd have killed them, too?



But, you know... humanely.



I could understand, barely, that the sled dog tour company took the attitude that the dogs were just livestock and could be disposed of when their usefulness was at an end. I didn't like it, I didn't agree with them, but it at least had some kind of rational framework I could grasp.



But this? Veterinarians and animal welfare officials talking about how these dogs aren't pets and as long as they're killed less horrifically than the way Robert Fawcett did it, that's okay? But don't worry, it doesn't even have to be in a veterinarian's office to be humane.



And it's the mushers and sled dog tour operators you think need regulation? It sounds to me like this task force needs regulation. What do you think?



Photo: Some "unadoptable" sled dogs enjoying their retirement with Jo Jacques of Salem, Mass. But remember... these aren't pets.

Lessons from a sled dog massacre

In the aftermath of the horrific   massacre of 100 sled dogs in British Columbia, Marcie Moriarty, the head of animal cruelty for the B.C. SPCA went on record as saying that even had the organization known that the dogs needed help, they'd have probably ended up killing them all themselves.



Her reason? Working sled dogs are "unadoptable." As she told the Vanouver Sun:

"What people have to realize because of the way they're raised they're not highly adoptable animals. Maybe a few could have been adopted, but these dogs are on tethers 90 percent of their lives."

From my SFGate.com column today:



That sweeping generalization is easy to disprove, simply by meeting any of the thousands of working sled dogs who have successfully made the transition from tether to living room sofa.

"Two of my four sled dogs were adopted as adults from a professional dog racing kennel," said Jo Jacques of Salem, Mass., president of the International Siberian Husky Club. "One was two and the other was nine when we adopted them. Both adore meeting new people and love dogs. They can take Cheerios from babies without even leaving spit on their fingers."



One of the dogs, Viking, grew up in a mushing kennel. Around six months after Jacques had adopted him, she became very ill. "I had a difficult time walking," she said, "Viking never left my side. When I would have to move anywhere, he would paste himself against my left hip and stabilize me. If I fell, he would position himself in front of me and help me up."



Amazingly, Jacques never trained Viking to do this; it was all his idea. "Hearing the SPCA call these dogs 'unadoptable' as a group, sight unseen, without any individual evaluations infuriates me," she said. "It makes me just want to hug my 'unadoptable' sled dogs and cry all day."



Nannette Morgan of Morgan Hill adopted a sled dog named Cricket from a mushing kennel.



"The biggest problem I had with her is that she was used to being outside," Morgan told me. "The first couple of weeks it was hard to get her in the house at night. Then when she'd come in, she'd look up at the ceiling, looking for the stars."



It took only around a month, the companionship of Morgan's other dog, Binks, and what Morgan called "gentle guidance" to get Cricket adjusted to her new life.



"She's totally at home," Morgan said. "She's a princess. She has a chair she likes to sit on. She sleeps on my bed."

Both Jacques and Morgan went into detail about sled dog operations that know how to do right by their dogs, the still-developing sled dog re-homing network, and tips on helping working sled dogs make the adjustment to family pet:

Those stories, along with those of Cricket, Viking and the rest, demonstrate that people who insist sled dogs are "unadoptable" are wrong.



That alone should end the argument, but somehow, it doesn't. The bias of those like the B.C. SPCA and their unnamed "expert" is just too deep to be changed by the facts.



But if the Michael Vick case taught us anything, it's that all dogs being assessed for temperament and the ability to adapt to life as pets deserve an individual evaluation and shouldn't be dismissed as "unadoptable" because they came from a certain background. This is true of dogs like Vick's and the many lesser-known victims of dog fighting rings; it's also true of racing greyhounds and sled dogs.

I have a lot more to say, and I hope you'll read the whole article.



Thanks to Jo Jacques and Nannette Morgan for talking to me about their dogs, and sharing their beautiful photos with my readers. Seen here is Viking, courtesy of Jacques.