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Animal Shipping Mishaps in the News

Guess the puppy

Guess who got really lucky?

Two years ago, just before Christmas, my friend Paula answered the phone to an inquiry about one of her Abyssinian Kittens. The caller was from New Jersey, and was very interested in buying a male kitten as a Christmas gift for his wife. Paula explained to him that it was far too cold to ship a kitten to New Jersey at that time of the year.

Some people, apparently, don’t get the whole ‘no flying kittens in cold weather’ connection.

From the SF Gate:

On January 22, Connecticut resident Heather Lombardi was eagerly awaiting the arrival of her new, not-so-furry family member, Snickers, an 11-week-old, 3-pound hairless kitten that she had recently purchased from a breeder in Utah. Snickers was to be shipped in the climate-controlled cargo area of a Delta airlines flight.

But what was to be a joyous reunion turned into a nightmare when Lombardi opened Snicker’s carrier and discovered that she was icy cold and couldn’t move her head or paws. The kitten died from hypothermia a short time later.

While I am sorry for Heather’s loss, I have to wonder about any breeder who would stick a 3 lb, hairless kitten into a cargo hold in Utah in the coldest month of the year. Yes, the cargo area on planes are ‘climate controlled’ – but what about the tarmac?

If you’ve flown for any length of time, you’re familiar with the sight of cargo transporters sitting waiting on the tarmac to be loaded on to planes, or sitting waiting to be brought into the terminals. Those waits have killed countless dogs and cats over the years, and are yet one more reason why I will NEVER fly one of my puppies in cargo.

When Paula tried to explain to her caller that she couldn’t ship his kitten due to the weather, he had a great solution –

“Ship it to me Fedex – those guys can get anything anywhere”.

Paula passed on his suggestion, but over in Minneapolis, one woman decided that even if Fedex couldn’t, the USPS could.

From the Star Tribune

The postal worker was stunned when the package moved by itself and fell to the floor. Then came the sounds of heavy panting.

Within minutes, she and co-workers had unwrapped a tightly sealed box and rescued a 4-month-old puppy that a Minneapolis woman tried to mail to Georgia.

“It’s just crazy,” said Minneapolis Police Sgt. Angela Dodge. The air holes the woman punched in the box were covered up with mailing tape, and the priority mail trip would have taken at least two days, she said. “It was supposed to be a birthday gift for a family member. It would have been kind of traumatizing to get a dead puppy”

The puppy, a Schnauzer/Poodle miss named “Guess” (which I suspect is short for “guess how lucky I am to be alive” or maybe “guess what some idiot put inside this postal box”) is doing just fine, and is recovering at Minneapolis Animal Control.

Since MAC is a kill shelter, let’s hope Guess’ stay there is short, and that he’s not another celebrity dog recsue who ends up falling through the cracks and being killed.

Mailed Puppy Alive & Well at Minneapolis Animal Control: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Monday Morning Frenchie Photo Fun

Tessa and Sailor say "Shut up, and make with the cookies".

Tessa and Sailor say shut up, and make with the cookies

I’ve been mulling over my growing hatred for anyone who says that they can “understand the reasons behind breed bans”. This, coupled with my increasing suspicion that most of this hysteria can be blamed on the media, has left me a rather grumpy person lately.

In case of grumpiness, spend ten minutes watching puppy play with bottle cap.

In case of grumpiness, spend ten minutes watching puppy play with bottle cap.

I was going to post a big, long, unhappy rant about stupid people and the stupid things that they say, but instead, let’s look at some photos of happy Frenchies. It’s better for my blood pressure, and it’s probably more fun for you, the reader.

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When is a Frenchie not a Frenchie?

Pit Fighting Frenchies

According to the author of this newspaper article about an Arkansas “Pit Bull” attack, a Frenchie is not a Frenchie when it’s actually a Pit Bull. Ditto Bostons and (English) Bulldogs, by the way.

The American Pit Bull Terrier was bred first to bait bulls and bears. When baiting bulls was deemed inhumane, dog fighting became more popular, and the pit bull was used in the sport. The term pit bull today is used to refer to the specific breed as well as the Boxer, English Bulldog, Olde English Bulldogge, American Bulldog, French Bulldog, Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog, Valley Bulldog, Boston Terrier and Bull Mastiff.

Note this sentence: “The term pit bull today is used to refer”.

Funny enough, that’s actually sort of accurate – after all, moronic politicians across the world have been referring to Boxers, Bulldogs, Frenchies, Pugs, Dogues De Bordeux, Bullmastiffs and just about any other dog breed you care to imagine as “Pit Bulls”.

In fact, the ‘term’ Pit Bull is pretty much just that – a ‘term’, used as a catch all to encompass just about any short haired, slightly blocky headed dog breed or mixed breed dog, anywhere in size from 15 pounds to 200 pounds. It no longer means anything – and it certainly no longer means the singular dog that the term was originally meant to designate, the breed now known as the American Pit Bull Terrier or American Staffordshire Terrier.

Consider Animal Control in Sarnia, Ontario. They, like so many other ACs in so many other cities, put the onus on the owners of dogs deemed to be ‘substantially like’ a Pit Bull to prove that their dog is NOT one. For Sarnia AC, paperwork proving parentage is not proof of the breed of the dog itself (don’t try to think about this too hard, as it will only cause your head to hurt).

So, if I was to walk Pickle, for example, through Sarnia – on a leash, law abiding and minding our own business – Sarnia AC could still pick Pickle up, impound her, and sentence her to euthanasia. And, since I have not yet registered her litter, the fact that I can prove that her mother is a French Bulldog and her father is a French Bulldog would not be enough for me to prove that she is a French Bulldog.

Of course, in some cities it would not matter if I could prove that she is a French Bulldog, since French Bulldog = Pit Bull = Banned = Dead.

Also, let me point out that a few cities out there have banned Pugs.

This is like banning marshmallows for having too many hard corners. It’s like banning kittens for being not fluffy enough. It’s like listening to idiot politicians who have zero clue about dog breeds, and ignoring the actual experts with concrete knowledge of dog bite issues.

It’s like living in Ontario, where Michael Bryant can drag a cyclist to his death, and come out of it as the injured party who was in fear for his life.

Summer Heat Kills Dogs – Again

Every year I hammer home warnings about what happens to dogs left in hot cars, even for a few moments. Time and again, people underestimate just how hot it can get, and how fast, inside of parked car. Windows partly rolled down? No difference. Parked in the shade? Ditto.

The simple truth is that dogs die in parked vehicles. The only way around this? Never, ever, ever leave your dog in a vehicle, even if the weather only seems mildly warm to you.

From FPRC comes this note about a temperature study done by Stanford University:

Stanford University School of Medicine conducted a study to measure the temperature rise inside a parked car on sunny days with highs ranging from 72 to 96 degrees F. Their results showed that a car’s interior can heat up by an average of 40 degrees F within an hour, regardless of ambient temperature. Ambient temperature doesn’t matter – it’s whether it’s sunny out. Eighty percent of the temperature rise occurred within the first half-hour. Even on a relatively cool day, the temperature inside a parked car can quickly spike to life-threatening levels if the sun is out.

Further, the researchers noted that much like the sun warms a greenhouse in winter; it also warms a parked car on cool days. In both cases, the sun heats up a mass of air trapped under glass. Precautions such as cracking a window or running the air conditioner prior to parking the car were found to be inadequate.

This summer, a well known professional handler has already learned that lesson, the hard way.

From the St. Louis Dispatch:

Seven high-priced show dogs, including one of the top Akitas in the country, are dead after being left by their handler for several hours in a hot van in Jefferson County.

Police say Mary Wild, a 24-year-old woman who was caring for the dogs, left them in a cargo van early Monday and went to bed after returning from a dog show in Iowa.

Ms. Wild, who is by all accounts an excellent handler, had moved the dogs from their kennels in a garage to her van, in the belief that it would be cooler there with fans running.

She told police she put six electric fans in the van to keep the dogs cool. She also left a door open to the van and the van’s windows partly open, said Capt. Ralph Brown of the Jefferson County sheriff’s office. The van was apparently parked in the driveway, Brown said.

She left them in the van about 1 a.m. Monday and went inside the home to sleep. She told police that, three hours later, she went outside to check on the dogs. They were fine, she told police. Then, about 6:30 a.m., all eight dogs were in distress. She found five of the dogs breathing, but not responsive. The other three were clearly in distress, but could at least raise their heads.

She tried reviving the dogs, by hosing them down, then took them to a veterinarian in House Springs. Only one of the eight survived.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of handlers allowing dogs in their custody to die in this fashion, either. Every summer brings stories of dogs left in cars at shows who have succumbed to heat stroke. If we can’t get pet professionals to believe that there’s never a safe way to leave dogs in parked vehicles, what hope do we have in convincing the public?

Just like a pet owner should choose to leave their dogs at home in the summer when they run out to do errands, those of us who show dogs have to weigh the risks in attending outdoor shows. If it’s too hot, and we don’t have someplace 100% safe and cool to house our dogs, then we need to just skip that show. What points can possibly be worth the death of our dogs?

Pet Connection has an excellent article on the dangers of heat stroke, and how to deal with it if it does happen to your pet.

And in other news, hell just froze over

Michael Vick to become PETA spokesman. Yes, really.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=136403

snippet:

I’m familiar with [the plan],” said Dan Shannon, director of youth outreach and campaigns for PETA. “We have been in discussions with Michael Vick, with his management team, about the possibility of him putting out a public-service announcement with PETA when he’s out of jail. We want him to discourage people from taking part in dog-fighting. I can do it until I’m blue in the face and it might not convince anybody. Michael Vick sure can. He can say, ‘Look, I did it, I was wrong, and it ruined my career.'”