With Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, animal rescue experts urge people to prepare for disaster and evacuate with their pets. A Zogby International study found that 44 percent of those who stayed behind when Hurricane Katrina hit did so because they wouldn't abandon their pets. Animal rescue and disaster preparedness for pets has become vital for saving human and animal lives.

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) August 29, 2008 -- With Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast, animal rescue experts urge people to prepare for disaster and evacuate with pets. A Zogby International study found that 44 percent of those who stayed behind when Hurricane Katrina hit did so because they wouldn't abandon their pets. Animal rescue and disaster preparedness for pets has become vital for saving human and animal lives. Allen and Linda Anderson, pet experts and Minneapolis-based authors of the award-winning book "RESCUED: Saving Animals from Disaster," (New World Library, September, 2006), provide practical suggestions to pet owners for fast evacuation in the wake of any emergency.

Linda Anderson says, "We just received a frantic call from a woman in Mississippi asking us where she could take her pet because she had to evacuate. The hotel the woman had found wouldn't accept pets. It's unbelievable, three years after Katrina, that there still aren't enough pet-friendly hotels. People died because they wouldn't leave their animal family members behind and had no place to go with them. This kind of tragedy can't be allowed to happen again."

Yet even though Hurricane Katrina precipitated the largest animal rescue operation in history, chronicled in Rescued, and the PETS Act provided federal incentives for states to include pet evacuation in disaster planning, complacency has returned. Most people are simply not prepared with a pet disaster kit that contains food, water, photos of their pets, and medications or a list of pet-friendly hotels along evacuation routes. This means they are putting their lives, the lives of their pets, and the lives of animal rescuers at risk.

Allen Anderson says, "When we did interviews for Rescued in New Orleans, we visited Animal Rescue New Orleans (ARNO). The executive director there told us a story that we'll never forget. She explained that volunteers in search of abandoned animals after Hurricane Katrina found an entire family that had refused to evacuate because they couldn't bear to leave their pets behind. The family's pet, starving and nearly dead, was lifted off a woman's lap by the ARNO rescuer and brought to their shelter. The entire family had perished. We all had tears in our eyes while listening to this tragic story. People choose to stay in or return to dangerous situations rather than abandon their pets."

A husband-and-wife writing team with the popular Angel Animals book series, the Andersons drew upon Allen Anderson's eight years as an Atlanta police officer and his position as director of safety for an international nonprofit organization to focus on how to stay safe through an emergency. The couple interviewed hundreds of animal rescuers and survivors of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Allen Anderson says, "Tragedy is compounded when people feel guilt and severe depression over loss of a companion or service animal. Laws and policies regarding the value of rescuing animals have not caught up with the reality that pets are family members living in two out of three American households. Disaster escalated after Hurricane Katrina and again in Lebanon when people wouldn't evacuate from a war zone due to the no-pets-allowed policies."

Among other vital pieces of information, the Andersons discuss are:

* The five crucial questions everyone with a pet must ask to assess if they are prepared for disaster
* What essential elements are needed in a pet preparedness kit for an owner to evacuate safely and quickly in the event of a house fire, neighborhood chemical spill, terrorism threat, evacuation order, or natural disaster such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, and earthquakes
* How to have a family emergency disaster plan that includes pets
* What should be in a person's car or a safe deposit box that could save lives
* What questions to ask of local, state, and national emergency planning committees, fire and police departments, and legislators to make sure people have support for pet evacuation and sheltering in disasters
* What will get a person into a shelter or rescue vehicle and why they and their pet could be turned away.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Mark Hayward of the MyTropicalEscape blog.

In a word: Kindness.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary defines kindness as - the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

It’s a simple concept in theory, but in reality it is an action that can sometimes be difficult to implement on a day-to-day basis.

Now I am not talking about the kindness that you might show to your spouse, family members, or friends; yes, of course that’s important.

Likewise, if you are going into your preferred religious institution or social gathering place it is easy to be kind to your peers and those who are familiar…however, how do you (we, me, US) treat those who might be different?

Specifically, I am talking about kindness toward strangers, particularly, those who might be different from us.

A little background
Today the sun is rising perfectly over Mt. Resaca as I sit here on the beach watching my dog dig for crabs in the sand. For me life is really quite good. However, yesterday a pipe burst in my house and we had gallons of water on our office floor, which took me the better part of two hours to clean up.

While undertaking the mindless act of soaking up water and wringing out the towels I got lost in my thoughts and began to reflect upon both the past and present state of the world.

* Why is there so much hatred?
* How come people have to suffer?
* What is one small change that I can implement to help make the world a nicer place to be?

Germination of this reflection
Typically I don’t think about such heavy subjects while I am working. However, two items that I have recently read, one a blog post and the other the beginning of a book, really struck a chord.

The book, The Years of Extermination, by Sal Friedlander covers the horrendous story of Nazi Germany and the Jews from 1939 to 1945. During the introduction of the book Friedlander starts off by telling the story of a photo that contains a young man, David Moffie, who was just awarded his degree in medicine in 1942 from the University of Amsterdam with all of the regular pomp and circumstance. He goes on to describe that in the photo you can see Moffie wearing a small palm sized star with the word Jood underneath.

The significance of the photo?
David Moffie was the last Jewish student at the University of Amsterdam under German occupation. According to Friedlander, shortly after graduation Moffie was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.

Along with the book’s introduction as described above, the other item that got me contemplating about the world and kindness was a recent blog post about racism on Chris Brogan’s website.

In his recent missive Chris veered from his usual musings on social media, the net, and blogging and he decided to get people thinking with a subtle post about media and how it can be used to perpetuate racism. As one example in the post he mentioned the recent New Yorker cover featuring Barack Obama and his wife who are shown, as a caricature, in a not so positive light.

What does this have to do with kindness?
While this is certainly not a post about racism or the Holocaust, I feel that both subjects are about as far away as one can get on the spectrum from kindness, as both are intentionally meant to degrade, humiliate, and hurt people.

Within my life I have been quite fortunate and have had the opportunity to travel to many countries, live for extended periods in various foreign nations, and have made some remarkable friends along the way.

Unfortunately, while traveling and living overseas I have also been the target of someone’s dislike and animosity on more than one occasion simply because I was different. Whether it was my skin color, poor language skills, hairstyle, or whatever, I am not really sure.

Nevertheless, as I have recently turned 40 I have been asking myself and thinking about the following:

“Where does the seeming hate and vitriol of racism come from and what would the world be like if we were all a little bit nicer to each other?”

Surely most of us are not perfect, but I have also been thinking lately about the fact that it’s very hard to have hate in your being or in your actions if you are sincerely trying to be kind towards others.

This is not meant to come off as preaching, in fact, this is as much a note to myself as it is to the Zen Habits’ readers who choose to peruse this post.

So what have I decided to do?
Starting today, the simple act (hack?) that I am going to practice to try and make the world a better place to live in is:

Kindness

Why kindness? Because it’s free, easy to implement, and we can consciously choose to be kind to fellow humans.

How can you participate?
In true Zen Habits fashion, what I would like to see the reader’s do is quite simple - be kind to someone today, i.e. kindness it forward through your actions and interactions.

By myself the act of kindness is just one very tiny drop into the global bucket, but Leo has over 60,000 subscribers from all over the world!

Together, as a collective effort and united front, if we all decide to “kindness it forward” today, tomorrow, and the next day can you imagine the impact we could have?

Think about it, if even 30,000 of Leo’s subscribers go out and are kind to two extra people today that is 60,000 acts of kindness. Possibly, the 60,000 recipients of this kindness will then decide to be kind towards at least two other people during their day. That would spread the kindness movement to 120,000…and you get the idea.

Instead of listing out ways to be kind (e.g. saying hello, smiling, giving someone a ride, etc) I would like to turn this into a Zen Habit’s participatory exercise.

In the comments section as a way to help us to remember to be kind I thought we could list out 100 ways that our collective kindness might help a stranger and just possibly make the world a nicer place to be today.

I will start with the first five. Our kindness today might just:

1. Save somebody’s life.
2. Cause a person to be nice to someone else.
3. Make someone smile.
4. Ease someone’s stress.
5. Help you to meet someone you might not normally come into contact with.

100.

Can we change the world? I don’t know.
But do we have the ability to make someone’s day a little better today because of a small act? Absolutely! And it all starts with kindness.

Mark Hayward owns a small business on the island of Culebra in the Caribbean. He blogs about lifestyle design, entrepreneurship, and travel at MyTropicalEscape and you can follow him on Twitter.

The New York Times
By MICHELLE NIJHUIS

Crows and their relatives — among them ravens, magpies and jays — are renowned for their intelligence and for their ability to flourish in human-dominated landscapes. That ability may have to do with cross-species social skills. In the Seattle area, where rapid suburban growth has attracted a thriving crow population, researchers have found that the birds can recognize individual human faces.

John M. Marzluff, a wildlife biologist at the University of Washington, has studied crows and ravens for more than 20 years and has long wondered if the birds could identify individual researchers. Previously trapped birds seemed more wary of particular scientists, and often were harder to catch. “I thought, ‘Well, it’s an annoyance, but it’s not really hampering our work,’ ” Dr. Marzluff said. “But then I thought we should test it directly.”

To test the birds’ recognition of faces separately from that of clothing, gait and other individual human characteristics, Dr. Marzluff and two students wore rubber masks. He designated a caveman mask as “dangerous” and, in a deliberate gesture of civic generosity, a Dick Cheney mask as “neutral.” Researchers in the dangerous mask then trapped and banded seven crows on the university’s campus in Seattle.

In the months that followed, the researchers and volunteers donned the masks on campus, this time walking prescribed routes and not bothering crows.

The crows had not forgotten. They scolded people in the dangerous mask significantly more than they did before they were trapped, even when the mask was disguised with a hat or worn upside down. The neutral mask provoked little reaction. The effect has not only persisted, but also multiplied over the past two years. Wearing the dangerous mask on one recent walk through campus, Dr. Marzluff said, he was scolded by 47 of the 53 crows he encountered, many more than had experienced or witnessed the initial trapping. The researchers hypothesize that crows learn to recognize threatening humans from both parents and others in their flock.

After their experiments on campus, Dr. Marzluff and his students tested the effect with more realistic masks. Using a half-dozen students as models, they enlisted a professional mask maker, then wore the new masks while trapping crows at several sites in and around Seattle. The researchers then gave a mix of neutral and dangerous masks to volunteer observers who, unaware of the masks’ histories, wore them at the trapping sites and recorded the crows’ responses.

The reaction to one of the dangerous masks was “quite spectacular,” said one volunteer, Bill Pochmerski, a retired telephone company manager who lives near Snohomish, Wash. “The birds were really raucous, screaming persistently,” he said, “and it was clear they weren’t upset about something in general. They were upset with me.”

Again, crows were significantly more likely to scold observers who wore a dangerous mask, and when confronted simultaneously by observers in dangerous and neutral masks, the birds almost unerringly chose to persecute the dangerous face. In downtown Seattle, where most passersby ignore crows, angry birds nearly touched their human foes. In rural areas, where crows are more likely to be viewed as noisy “flying rats” and shot, the birds expressed their displeasure from a distance.

Though Dr. Marzluff’s is the first formal study of human face recognition in wild birds, his preliminary findings confirm the suspicions of many other researchers who have observed similar abilities in crows, ravens, gulls and other species. The pioneering animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz was so convinced of the perceptive capacities of crows and their relatives that he wore a devil costume when handling jackdaws. Stacia Backensto, a master’s student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who studies ravens in the oil fields on Alaska’s North Slope, has assembled an elaborate costume — including a fake beard and a potbelly made of pillows — because she believes her face and body are familiar to previously captured birds.

Kevin J. McGowan, an ornithologist at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology who has trapped and banded crows in upstate New York for 20 years, said he was regularly followed by birds who have benefited from his handouts of peanuts — and harassed by others he has trapped in the past.

Why crows and similar species are so closely attuned to humans is a matter of debate. Bernd Heinrich, a professor emeritus at the University of Vermont known for his books on raven behavior, suggested that crows’ apparent ability to distinguish among human faces is a “byproduct of their acuity,” an outgrowth of their unusually keen ability to recognize one another, even after many months of separation.

Dr. McGowan and Dr. Marzluff believe that this ability gives crows and their brethren an evolutionary edge. “If you can learn who to avoid and who to seek out, that’s a lot easier than continually getting hurt,” Dr. Marzluff said. “I think it allows these animals to survive with us — and take advantage of us — in a much safer, more effective way.”

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Looking for a Better Man-to-Dog Lifespan Ratio


If a human year really were equivalent to seven dog years, then people would reach reproductive age by seven, and some would live past 150.

For more than 50 years, scientists and dog lovers have been trying to debunk the dog-years myth. Yet, it persists in books, news articles and the popular imagination. No matter how you measure it, this numerical notion has impressive longevity.

"You can't really kill the seven-year rule," says Kelly M. Cassidy, curator of a biology museum at Washington State University, who in her spare time maintains an online compilation of dog-longevity studies.

The rule's one-size-fits-all simplicity makes it a compelling way for people to track their pets' development, or to monitor their own lives through their pets. That simplicity, however, is also the rule's undoing -- the seven-year glitch.

Scientists would prefer more-nuanced conversions. Typical lifespans among the hundreds of canine breeds can range from 8 to 16. And dogs grow quickly in the first couple of years, with bigger breeds reaching the equivalent of U.S. voting age in toddlerhood, by age two. "Eight years in one breed is not equivalent to eight years in another," says David J. Waters, associate director of Purdue University's Center on Aging and the Life Course.

It remains mysterious to scientists why big dogs die younger. Across different species, bigger animals tend to live longer: Compare men with mice. Within species, an inverse relationship sometimes takes hold: Smaller rats live longer than big ones. Prof. Waters prefers a physiological explanation for small dogs' longer lifespans.

Tracing the dog-year mythology to its source is difficult. An inscription at Westminster Abbey -- no relation to the dog show -- from the 13th century puts the ratio at 9 to 1, noting that dogs live nine years and men 81, with other life forms living longer by ratios of three, up to the predicted planet lifespan of 19,683 years. A similar ratio was calculated by 18th-century French naturalist Georges Buffon, who reported that dogs can live to 10 or 12, and man to 90 or 100.

Somewhere along the way, it seems likely to several veterinarians, typical lifespans were pegged at about 70 for humans and about 10 for dogs. Thus, the seven-year rule was born. "My guess is it was a marketing ploy," says William Fortney, a veterinarian at Kansas State University, "a way to educate the public on how fast a dog ages compared to a human, predominantly from a health standpoint. It was a way to encourage owners to bring in their pets at least once a year."

The rule has endured in many corners of world culture. In May, unverified reports of a 29-year-old mixed-breed dog in Chesterfield, England, headlined its supposed 203-year-old age. The notion has even been adopted by the Internet culture to explain its faster-than-life pace. The book "21 Dog Years" is about the author's three years at Amazon.

Vets who tested the rule found several problems. Some 55 years ago, researcher A. Lebeau studied life-stage markers common to dogs and humans, such as puberty, adulthood and maximum lifespan, and found that aging in dogs can proceed 20 times as fast as human aging before age 1, gradually slowing to a ratio of about five. Since then, scientists have used veterinary-hospital records and breed-club surveys to refine the relationship further, by breed and by weight.

The improved formulas have appeared in general-interest books such as "Dogs for Dummies" and recent editions of "Old Farmer's Almanac."

But the new orthodoxy is itself based on uncertain numbers. There is no equivalent to the National Center for Health Statistics for dogs. Instead, there are three main sources for data on their longevity: pet-insurance companies, breed-club surveys and veterinary hospitals.

The first two may be biased toward longer-living dogs, because owners who belong to clubs and buy insurance may spend more to prolong their pets' lives. Dr. Cassidy adds that surveys require dog owners to recall their pets' lifespan, a number they tend to exaggerate. She has documented the gap by comparing ages from death notices on a poodle email list she belongs to with birth records in a poodle database. (Like other investigators in the field, Dr. Cassidy is a dog owner -- three in all, ages 2 to 10 actual years.)

Meanwhile, hospitals may be biased toward shorter lifespans, because they tend to admit the toughest cases, not healthy dogs. "It's not good data, but it gets you in the ballpark," says Prof. Fortney.

The true numbers are moving targets, adds Jeff Sampson, canine-genetics consultant to the Kennel Club in the U.K. As veterinary medicine improves and more dogs are immunized, fewer die young of distemper and parvovirus today than 30 years ago, Mr. Sampson says.

To dog lovers, fixed mathematical ratios of lifespan matter far less than the comfort that their companion lived a long and happy life.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Americans have elected a poodle to the White House, the American Kennel Club (AKC) said Thursday.

After reports that Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle promised their young daughters that they could have a dog after the presidential election, the AKC polled the US public to find out what kind of canine would be most suitable for the possible first family.

More than 42,000 people voted over seven weeks to choose America's top dog, and, love them or hate them, the poodle won by a wet nose after a dogfight with the little-known soft-coated Wheaten terrier.

"In a race almost as tight as Hillary Clinton and Obama's run for the Democratic nomination for president, the poodle won by a (dog) hair, with just a few hundred votes separating the top two contenders," the AKC said in a statement posted on its website.

Described by the AKC as "exceptionally smart and athletic," the choice of the poodle as the ideal White House dog was no surprise, said AKC spokeswoman Lisa Peterson.

"Poodles are currently the eighth most popular breed in the US, according to 2007 AKC registrations statistics, and spent more than two decades in the top spot - a true testament to their suitability as a family pet," Peterson said.

Other dogs in the running were the miniature schnauzer, bichon frise, and Chinese crested.

No similar vote was held for John McCain, who is poised next week to be named the Republican Party candidate for the White House.

That's because, according to the AKC, McCain already has 24 pets, including four dogs.

Thousands of dog lovers vote for “best breed for the Obamas” in national poll.


The Poodle is poised to be the next presidential dog, that is, if the votes cast by 42,000 people influence Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama when selecting a family dog.

The seven-week campaign resulted in a tight race between the Poodle and the Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, with the Poodle clinching the nomination by a few hundred votes. Other contenders included the Miniature Schnauzer, Bichon Frise, and Chinese Crested – breeds picked because they’re easier on allergy sufferers, and one of the Obama daughters has allergies. Poodles are the only breed that comes in three sizes: Toy, Miniature, and Standard.

“When times get tough – during a bad economy or when presidential pressures are at their peak – these dogs serve as devoted and non-judgmental companions that bring joy and relaxation to our first families,” said Lisa Peterson, spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club.

The AKC launched a national poll to find a breed for the Obama family after reports that – win or lose – Obama promised his daughters, Malia and Sasha, a dog after the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Survives seven days in the wild and being hit by a car

By Moya Dillon

OSHAWA -- A small poodle that was lost in early August has been reunited with her grateful owner, thanks to the efforts of an unknown Good Samaritan.

"She's a miracle," owner Leigh Costain said of Sugar, her white Maltese poodle. "I'm so happy to have her back, I'm on Cloud 9 still."

Sugar ran away Aug. 4 from an Oshawa home Ms. Costain was visiting. The poodle was spotted several times by motorists along Hwy. 401 but wasn't found until Aug. 11, when a passing motorist noticed a group of children huddled around an injured dog. The dog had just been hit by a car and wasn't breathing, but the woman who happened upon them performed mouth-to-mouth to revive Sugar and then brought her to a nearby vet hospital.

"She is a beautiful angel," Ms. Costain said of the woman, who she only knows as Janice.

When Janice phoned to tell Ms. Costain Sugar had been found, she told Ms. Costain she had been so determined to save Sugar because she'd just lost her own beloved dog and didn't want anyone else to have to go through that.

"When Leigh was talking to her both of them were just crying on the phone," said Ms. Costain's father, Gene. "Since she lost her own dog, it felt so good for her to help Leigh."

Mr. Costain, who travelled to Oshawa from his home in Tampa, Fla., to help search for Sugar, had ample praise for all the people who rushed to help them.

"I've been away from Canada for 12 years, so I guess I forgot what Canadians are like," he said. "They are universally helpful. From the children in the area to the hotel staff where we were staying, everyone helped in some way, from joining in searches to just providing comfort."

Ms. Costain said Sugar is doing well, although she's still suffering from a mild concussion and is wary around other animals. The Costains believe the dog travelled through a ravine in Oshawa to where she was eventually hit in Whitby, travelling more than 22 kilometres in the seven days she was missing.

"I can kind of compare it to winning the lottery," Ms. Costain said of finding Sugar. "I never wanted to give up hope, I had a feeling she was out there somewhere and she was. She's a lucky dog."

Poodle Pup Runs Three Bears Out of Yard


A 15-pound Poodle cross puppy has successfully scared off a mother bear and her two cubs after they meandered into the pooch's back yard. Pawlee, the puppy, ran the two cubs up a tree with his barking.

Pawlee's family said: "We had just let him out for the morning and he ran into the yard and started barking his head off." It was the first time the family had seen a bear, though they're not uncommon in northern New Jersey.

Jessica Marshall, Discovery News


Aug. 25, 2008 -- Researchers have found the cause behind mysterious bat deaths near wind turbines, in which many bat carcasses appeared uninjured.

The explanation to this puzzle is that the bats' lungs effectively blow up from the rapid pressure drop that occurs as air flows over the turbine blades.

"The idea had kind of been floating around, because people had noticed these bats with no injuries," said Erin Baerwald of the University of Calgary and lead author of a study about the finding in the journal Current Biology.

Researchers examined a large sample size of hoary and silver-haired bats found under wind turbines, performing necropsies on the bats within hours of their death.

The damage from rapidly expanding air in the lungs caused by the sudden drop in pressure was clear. Ninety percent of the bat deaths at the southern Alberta site involved internal hemorrhaging consistent with such damage, called barotrauma, while only 50 percent showed signs of collision with turbine blades.

For those overlapping cases, it may be that the bats flew through the pressure drop, suffered barotrauma, and then were struck by a blade. It is also possible that they were struck first, causing internal hemorrhaging.

But, Baerwald said, "When people were first starting to talk about the issue, it was 'bats running into the turbine blades.' We always said, 'No, bats don't run into things.' Bat's can detect and avoid all kinds of structures."

In fact, they are even better at detecting moving objects, Baerwald said.

"This kind of answers that mystery," she added. "It was something nobody could have predicted."

The bat fatalities appear to be a more significant problem than bird deaths from wind turbines in most locations. "Here we're picking up ten bats for every bird," Baerwald said.

"I can pick up nine different species of bird. I can pick up two species of bat," she added. "The impact on the populations is very different."

Whether these deaths are having a significant effect on the bat populations in Alberta or elsewhere is difficult to gauge because so little is known about the bats.

All species are susceptible to death by sudden change in air pressure, Baerwald said. "But the larger the animal is, the bigger the air pressure drop has to be. We know that four kilopascals [a unit of pressure] is enough to kill a rat. Bats are much smaller. We found that these wind turbines produce a five to 10 kilopascal drop."

Birds are less vulnerable to the drop, because they have rigid, tubular lungs, compared to the balloon-like structures of bat lungs, which are much like human lungs.

"It's one of those things we have speculated on for a long time," conservation scientist Edward Arnett of Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas, told Discovery News.

"It's an important finding on the cause of the fatalities. They're not offered much room for error. If they avoid being struck at the last minute, they still may be killed by this rapid change in air pressure."

However, he added, "It may not lead us directly to any solution. Whether they're getting struck or they're dying from the barotrauma may or may not make any difference. We have to find ways to keep them away from the turbines."

"There are a lot of people testing different forms of mitigation," Baerwald said. "Right now the most promising one is to shut turbines down during slow wind speeds during the fall migration at night." These are the conditions when bats are most active.

Tests of this approach at her site in Alberta and elsewhere are promising, she said.

Nick Hasty, Muscatine Journal Correspondent

MUSCATINE, Iowa — A puppy mill poodle with a funny walk not only found a home, but a friend for life who helped it overcome a condition brought about by mistreatment.

Nancy Pagel of Muscatine adopted Willoughby, a standard apricot poodle, from the Muscatine Humane Society, which had purchased the dog from a puppy mill auction in central Iowa..

Puppy mills are places where puppies are bred and kept. However, living conditions in the mills are often substandard. Sometimes auctions are held to encourage people to adopt dogs from mills.

“I encourage people to do an on-site visit to see where the dog is coming from,” said Pagel. At first glance, Willoughby, who is about 7 years old, looks like a normal poodle, but upon closer inspection, it’s evident that his legs are bowed and his paws point outward.

This is a result of his living conditions at the puppy mill, according to Poggel. The elevated wire cage caused the puppies to stand awkwardly so they didn’t fall through the bottom of the cage.

Pagel and Willoughby take walks at Discovery Park nearly every day. Lots of people know the high-stepping white poodle from a distance because of his unusual gait.

Sometimes they go to the Canine Activity Center of Muscatine at 920 S. Houser St.

There, the two practice stunts such as jumping hurdles, zig-zagging around poles and running through tunnels.

Willoughby's favorite stunt is jumping over hurdles, which are normally set at 12 inches high, Pagel said. He is able to gather his legs together and clear the jump, despite his wide stance.

“We just pick and choose the obstacles we’re able to do,” she said.

A six-week training course at the Humane Society helped to teach Willoughby how to clear obstacles.

Pagel and Willoughby enjoy spending time with other dogs at agility fun matches held at the Center.

Pagel said she doesn’t want to enter Willoughby into any agility competitions or push him too much. She said the main reason to get involved in agility activities is to get Willoughby some exercise and work on his mobility.

However, when Willoughby does have an audience, “he gets a smile on his face from the clapping,” Pagel said. “He likes to hear the crowd clapping and cheering.”

“He loves meeting people and other dogs,” said Pagel. She said that Willloughby also loves hanging out with his “big brother,” Baron, a 110-pound Doberman.

“He overcame and he’s just been a great dog,” said Poggel.

Good Samaritan Took Wounded Dog To Animal Hospital


RAYTOWN, Mo. -- Workers at the Raytown Animal Hospital were caring for a neglected poodle Wednesday, hoping a surgery to save his foot will be successful.

A good Samaritan found the poodle eating out of her neighbor's trash bag and took him to the animal hospital, where they immediately went to work on the dog that they called Treasure.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure," said Paige Maasen, a veterinarian.

The poodle's hair was matted all over and was very thin.

Matting had begun to cut the circulation off to one of his feet, so a veterinarian performed surgery to remove the matting and restore his circulation.

If the surgery is successful, he'll be fine, Maasen said. If not, they'll have to amputate his leg, but he'll still be able to walk on his other three legs.

Simple grooming could have prevented the problem, Maasen said.

"The typical groomer is going to charge maybe $30 and you do it every six to eight weeks," she said. "It would not have been a hard task."

Despite everything, Treasure loves people, Maasen said. Once they get him healthy again, he'll be available for adoption.

"We're just hoping to save this little guy's life and the other that come in just like him," Maasen said.

Caring for him will be costly. Anyone who wishes to contribute to his care can call the animal hospital at 816-353-3666. Anyone interested in adopting Treasure can call 816-304-6465.

By ROBERT TRUSSELL
The Kansas City Star

The Lyric Opera of Kansas isn’t exactly going to the dogs.

It just needs dogs. Two dogs, in fact. Dogs that are cute and, presumably, well behaved.

The opera company will hold dog auditions from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday Aug. 26 on the front steps of the Lyric Theatre, 11th and Central, to cast a miniature poodle or another kind of toy dog to be held by Musetta when she makes her grand entrance.

“We’ll be signing a contract with a dog and one understudy,” said marketing director Jim DeGood.

Dogs or their representatives wishing to audition should submit an application from the Lyric’s Web site (a href="http://www.kcopera.org'>www.kcopera.org) and arrive at the theater no later than 5:15 p.m. on audition day. Judging the auditions will be director Ellen Douglas Schlafer, prop mistress Debbie Morgan and Katrina Thurman, who plays Musetta.

The dogs must be crate-trained and know basic commands. Owners must commit to rehearsal and performance time and will receive complimentary tickets to the production.

This production marks the Lyric’s 50th anniversary. Puccini’s “La Boheme” was the first opera presented by the company on Sept. 29, 1958. The opera will open the company’s 2008-2009 season on Sept. 13.

In other opera news, the Lyric s set a record with its one-day ticket sale on Aug. 15.

The opera company sold $25 tickets to all four of its 2008-2009 productions. Tickets were sold for best available seating on Wednesday night performances, on a first-come, first-served. basis.

The Lyric sold 953 tickets for a total of $23,825. The previous one-day sales record was about $7,000 in the week following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Also on the 2008-09 calendar are Handel’s “Julius Caesar,” Verdi’s “La Traviata” and “The Pirates of Penzance” by Gilbert & Sullivan.

For information, call 816-471-7344 or visit a href="http://www.kcopera.org'>www.kcopera.org

Dog Named Treasure Needs Adoptive Home

RAYTOWN Mo. -- A stray poodle was named Treasure after it was found in a trash pile earlier this week.

The dog was found rummaging through trash bags outside an abandoned house near 83rd Terrace and Harris Avenue in Raytown.

KMBC's Jere Gish reported that when Treasure was found, he had hair that was matted all over his body. It had been so long since he was groomed that the hair covered his eyes.

The tangled hair even caused a wound on one of the dog's back legs because the matting strangled his foot.

"It can tighten down and tighten down, these mats can, and you can end up with a lot of sores underneath it," said a worker with Raytown Animal Hospital. "He had so much neglect, he's going to need a little time to recover."

Animal workers shaved off Treasure's hair so he could heal faster.

The veterinarians are hoping they can save Treasure's leg.

Workers hope someone will adopt Treasure and give him a good home.

Workers said dogs who have been neglected can make the best pets.

"I think it's that they're thankful that they finally find somebody who loves them," an animal worker said.

To adopt Treasure, contact the Raytown Animal Hospital.

By Archie Bland
Why are we asking this now?

It's long been known that pedigree dogs are more likely to suffer from health problems than their mongrel brethren. But a study by scientists at Imperial College, which featured in a BBC1 documentary last night, has revealed just how severe those problems are.

What does the study say?

In a nutshell, that pedigree dogs are much more heavily inbred than had previously been demonstrated, and that that inbreeding causes serious birth defects and abnormalities that can make the animals' lives a misery. 

How serious is the problem?

That depends on the nature of the abnormality: for some breeds, though, their breeding can have appalling consequences. Perhaps the most startling ailment is that suffered by a third of cavalier King Charles spaniels, syringomyelia, which is the result of their brains being too large for their skulls. "The cavalier's brain is like a size ten foot that has been shoved into a size six shoe," says veterinary neurologist Clare Rusbridge. "It is described in humans as one of the most painful conditions you can have, a piston-type headache... If you took a stick and beat a dog to create that pain, you'd be prosecuted. But there's nothing to stop you breeding a dog with it."

Many other breeds suffer similar problems: golden retrievers are prone to cancer, while boxers often suffer from heart disease and epilepsy. The Kennel Club claims that 90 per cent of the British canine population is healthy, and that these kinds of genetic diseases are actually more common in humans than dogs. But there are concerns that the problem will get worse, as an increasingly concentrated gene pool makes the abnormalities even more likely to be passed on.

Some are concerned that dog breeders show little regard for the health of their charges. "I defy anybody to say that they would approve of brother-sister mating or father-daughter mating [in humans]," says geneticist Steve Jones. "And yet if you speak to dog breeders, father-daughter or father-granddaughter mating is common. They must know that this is going to cause problems."


Why are the dogs inbred?

The whole point of the pedigree designation is that it applies to animals which have not had their breed's natural characteristics diluted by cross-breeding with another. The Kennel Club maintains strict pedigree standards that competition dogs are compared to, and, for obvious reasons, breeding close relatives makes it easier to keep dogs close to that template – and helps encourage features that go down well with judges at shows like Crufts. The role Crufts and other competitions have played in encouraging dog breeders to mate close relatives has led the BBC to consider whether it will continue broadcasting the show. "When I watch Crufts, what I see is a parade of mutants," says Mark Evans, chief vet of the RSPCA. "It's some freakish, garish, beauty pageant that frankly has nothing to do with health and welfare."


What other problems do the pedigree standards cause?

As well as the genetic defects like heart disease and epilepsy, the exaggeration of prize-winning features can cause health problems in themselves. These features are often not natural to the breed, but have been exacerbated by years of selective breeding between two dogs that share the same strong characteristics.

The folds of flesh on a bassett hound's legs cause skin complaints; flat-faced pugs have difficulty breathing; prize bulldogs are so oddly proportioned that they often find it impossible to mate or give birth without help.

How long has this been a problem?

The problems began in the 19th century, when dog fanciers began to set down particular physical features that were deemed to be ideal for the breed in question.

In 1864, for instance, Birmingham breeder Jacob Lamphier created the 'Philo-Kuon' standard for bulldogs, decreeing it essential that a bulldog have a deep furrow between its eyes, a recessed nose, and a short, thick neck. Before then, dogs had simply been bred with their practical uses in mind, meaning that their physical capacities were more important than their aesthetic appeal; now, inbreeding is so ubiquitous that the Imperial College researchers estimate the UK's boxer dog population of 20,000 to have the variety of genetic material you would expect to find naturally in a population of about 70.

The Kennel Club, which now governs the pedigree standards in the UK, has been roundly criticised for failing to do enough to solve the problem.

Why is the Kennel Club under fire?

Critics argue that it has not done enough to change the way pedigree dogs are bred. It is against club rules to cross-breed a pedigree dog with a different variety, which makes it hard to see how the gene pool can diversify.

And while many other national kennel clubs have changed their rules to bar incestuous breeding in the face of mounting concerns over the health ramifications, it is still perfectly legitimate in the UK.

In its defence, the club says that inbreeding is an essential tool for the development of breeds. And it points out that it amended pedigree standards 20 years ago to discourage breeders from placing a dog's aesthetic appeal above its health.

In theory, too, unhealthy dogs should not be able to win prizes at dog shows, although many are sceptical about the practical application of that principle. "We recognise the problem," says Club secretary Caroline Kisko. "But it is far less common than it ever was in the past... We are the ones that are trying to put things right."


So how can the problems be solved?

The Imperial college researchers suggest three crucial changes. Since successful competition dogs are likely to be particularly popular breeding stock and will therefore concentrate the gene pool still further, they argue that there should be a limit on how many times any one dog can father a litter.

To combat the problems that arise from a severely limited pool of available animals, they suggest encouraging owners to mate their dogs with animals from abroad. And they say that the breed rules should be relaxed to allow animals to breed outside of their pedigree.

Failing to take such actions may exacerbate the health problems suffered by purebred dogs. "If dog breeders insist on going further down that road," Steve Jones says, "I can say with confidence that there is a universe of suffering waiting for many of these breeds."


Should we be ashamed to watch Crufts?

Yes...

* It has been known for years that the in-breeding of dogs causes health problems

* Even without scientific evidence, some of the health problems of are obvious

* The dogs have no say in whether they want to be shown, so it's cruel if they're sick

No...

* The scientific evidence is new, and the Kennel Club has promised to consider it

* Ninety per cent of the dogs are said to be healthy – a higher proportion than in humans

* We allow human beauty pageants even though size zero is proven to be unhealthy
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It's a fate that could befall almost any journalist. You get the dream job - yes, the Beijing Olympics! - and you head out determined to make your mark.
By Andy Hooper

You'll barely stop for breath as you dash from Bird's Nest to Water Cube, via velodrome, filing thousands upon thousands of words to delight readers with your insight and razor-sharp wit. 

Or you get the archery. Not a bad gig, by any means, but perhaps not as sexy as, say, the marathon.

So how do you spice up those little snippets the subs can afford you? By picking up the China Daily and faithfully reproducing its 'Did You Know?' fact of the day, that's how!

But was Eddie Butler, former captain of the Wales rugby union team, turned journalist and commentator, wearing his thinking cap when he wrote following in his Friday piece?

"Having watched just about every one of the 29,500 arrows shot in seven days of archery competition, may I share with you something that has no point. At the Paris Olympics of 1900, there was a poodle-clipping competition. Seriously. A French farmer's wife won gold."

Read the rest here, but what Eddie hadn't checked for was the source of this gem.

A few months ago the Telegraph's Olympic countdown, faithfully compiled by our man (and pal of Eddie) Chris Lyles, unleashed the 1900 Olympic poodle-clipping event on an unsuspecting public. 

There were 128 days left before the Games. Yep, you're right - it was April 1.

Here's the April Fool in full:

128 days to go . . .

128: The number of competitors who participated in the poodle-clipping event at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. The event was held in the leafy environs of the Bois de Boulogne and it was the only occasion that it featured as an Olympic discipline.

This, no doubt, came as a relief to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the French founding father of the modern Olympic movement, who had opposed its inclusion, but was outvoted by his International Olympic Committee colleagues.

The gold medal was won by Avril Lafoule, a 37-year-old farmer's wife from the Auvergne region of France, who successfully clipped 17 poodles in the allotted two-hour time frame.

The poodle-clipping competition, held on April 1, was watched by 6,000 spectators, one of the larger audiences at the most chaotic Olympic Games of all.

The curious case of Olympic poodle-clipping is a classic web tale. Cut from the original Telegraph countdown and pasted into the blogosphere, it took on a life of its own, losing all its original context and eventually becoming a "fact" in Beijing.

And in fairness to Eddie, he's not the only one to fall for "Olympic poodle-clipping", which now garners almost 25,000 Google search results.

The BBC's live Beijing blog ran it on Tuesday because the Poodle and Dog Blog had already devoted a lengthy discussion to it. And the day before the Games began, the Mirror's website ran it, too.

Just a few of the many victims of Olympic poodle-clipping.

(There but for the grace of God...)