Best Friends Blog: The challenges of studying psychological trauma in animals
From Best Friends Blog:
The main difficulty in these studies is that the past histories of the dogs are rarely known to those of us studying and attempting to heal them. In many types of trauma – such as dog-fighting, inhumane puppy mill operations, and physical abuse – at the time the dogs are rescued the people who were "caring" for the dogs are now in trouble with the law, and hence not cooperative and forthcoming with the details of the dogs' living situations. (In providing us with the facts of the dogs' care they are likely to incriminate themselves.)
Thus we are left with many questions about the true nature of the trauma to each dog. Was a dog rescued from Michael Vick's property treated abusively, such as being forced to train on a treadmill to the point of exhaustion? Or beaten? Did the dog fight in one fight or dozens? In dogs rescued from a life in a puppy mill, had the breeding female been cooped up in the little cage for 3 weeks or 6 years?
Unlike in people who have endured psychological trauma where the victims can describe what happened to themselves, we can't ask the dogs what they went through. Because of this we have to use just what we know to be true: for example, that these dogs were rescued from a dog-fighting operation and some have scars indicating that they fought. Sometimes there are other clues, such as the fact that poorly socialized dogs tend to fear people and withdraw when a person approaches whereas an abused dog may fear people but still show a conflicted effort to gain human attention and affection.
In other types of psychological trauma, we may know exactly what the animals went through but then not know what their lives—and their personalities—were like before the trauma.
We encountered much of this type of trauma in the animals Best Friends rescued after Hurricane Katrina. For those many unfortunate pet animals who never reunited with their human family, we were not able to learn anything about what their lives had been like before the hurricane. Studying emotional scars when we don't know what the animal was like before the traumatic incident is very difficult due to the relative inability to recognize what, if anything, of the dogs' psychological make-up was changed by the traumatic events.
Now consider these two facts together as they apply to the dogs we are working with to heal their emotional wounds:
(1) their avoidance and fear of people and surroundings have a variety of potential causes, and (2) we don't know what happened to them prior to their rescue.
So what do we do? Do we throw up our hands and just proceed to deal with the fears without seeking the cause? Can a dog who fears people simply be treated as a case of "fear of people" without knowing what caused the fear? Does knowing the cause help us to determine the best form of treatment? And does knowing the cause of the fear allow us to give a more accurate prognosis for recovery from the emotional wounds?
The Wisconsin Puppy Mill Project: Dedicated to Ending the Suffering in Wisconsin Puppy Mills
while the pups huddle together on a wire mesh floor in a wire mesh cage. Yes,
that is snow you see on the corrugated metal roof and on the ground.
BUT THAT'S OK, the breeder tells us; "They were outside for a million years. It's only the last 200 that people have been putting 'em in the house."
IS THAT OK
WITH YOU?
IT'S
NOT OK WITH US!
read more ...
Best Friends Sanctuary Stories : Won't you be my neighbor?
Keep up regularly with the Vicktory dogs by bookmarking their page!
Cupid is also looking for sponsors.
ABC News: Three-Legged Hero Takes On Puppy Mills
from ABC News:
When Jana Kohl decided she wanted to buy a toy poodle several years ago, she quickly was confronted with what she calls the nightmarish conditions of puppy mills and commercial breeders. So instead of buying a puppy, she opted to adopt a rescued adult dog and made it her mission to bring the plights of dogs in puppy mills to the masses.
She and her roughly 9-year-old dog, named Baby, have traveled extensively promoting their agenda, and Baby even has become a celebrity in her own rite. Baby, who only has three legs because she lost one after spending years locked in a breeding cage, counts Barack Obama, Judge Judy and Patti LaBelle as fans.
Now Kohl has released a new book, called "A Rare Breed of Love," that has photos of Baby as well as original essays about the special love people have for their pets.
Click here to read and except of the book and Click here to visit Kohl's Web site.
The Gazette: What do Wayne Gretzky, The Beatles and Peeka the Lhasa all have in common?
From Canada.com:
Answer: Each is in a hall of fame
Wendy Gillis, TheStarPhoenix.com
The unusual behaviour of his family dog Peeka first tipped Ed Anderson off something strange was happening outside his door on a freezing winter day on Feb. 3, 2007.But Peeka wasn't just acting up - she helped save the life of a newborn infant girl, leading to Peeka's induction Monday into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame as a Canadian animal heroine.
When the six-year-old Lhasa Apso would not stop her persistent barking and scratching, Anderson looked out his back window, but could not see anything unusual. He called to his daughter Mariel to quiet the dog.
After she continued to make noise, Anderson knew Peeka was trying to tell him something."She usually alerts us when someone is walking down the street by barking and scratching at the door, but this time she was very persistent," he said.
Anderson opened the back door to his Lawson Heights home to find "a very big surprise" - a newborn infant, bundled in a towel and sleeping bag, laying on the back porch.
Newsday: New home for NYC poodle so overgrown it couldn't stand
Newsday and the Associated Press report:
4:15 AM EST, February 15, 2008
NEW YORK
A neglected poodle that was found unable to stand under the weight of her matted, filthy fur is headed for a new home.
A retired couple is adopting the 6-year-old dog, known as Miss Bea. Grandson Sal Mellone says the poodle will get "a lot of attention" with the couple, Gabriele and Giovanna Sorci of Dingmans Ferry, Pa.
Animal rescuers said last week they found Miss Bea in an East Harlem closet, weighed down by three pounds of gnarled, dirty fur on her roughly 6-pound frame. Her former owner faces animal cruelty charges.
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Senior Vice President Gail Buchwald says the agency's staff has grown so fond of the dog that "it's going to be bittersweet to see her go."
GazetteExtra.com: Rescued twice over: Edgerton embraces puppies stranded in crash
from the GazetteExtra.....
EDGERTON — They say cats have nine lives.
But dozens of puppies are starting at least their third lives this week after being rescued twice in three days.
The dogs were on their way to Minnesota from an animal shelter in a southern state, where many of them probably would have been euthanized.
Three volunteers from Safe Hands Rescue, a foster-based animal group headquartered in Minneapolis, were transporting the dogs Sunday on Interstate 90/39 when their cargo van hit a patch of ice. The van fishtailed and struck a guardrail under the Highway 59 overpass near Edgerton.
“My first concern was for the dogs,” said Janine Campbell, who was driving when the van crashed around 7:45 a.m.
Edgerton firefighters found more than 60 scared, cold dogs—mostly puppies. Some of the kennels had broken, but most of the animals were too scared to leave their cages, Campbell said.
One puppy, Sunshine, was missing. Firefighters found her half an hour later, frozen to the side of the driver’s-side wheel well. A broken water jug had spilled on her fur.
“She could barely move,” said Lynne Bengtson, a Safe Hands volunteer. “I thought there was no way she was going to make it.”
But she did, along with the 65 other dogs.
A tow truck moved the van with the dogs to Hillside Springs Hunt Club in rural Edgerton. Owner Andy Walton, whose son Adam is an Edgerton firefighter, didn’t hesitate to take in the animals.
“There was no question,” he said. “They needed help, and we had a place.”
Walton loaded the puppies into the club’s kennel building and called his veterinarian, Terry Johnson, to check them out.
Some of the dogs were dehydrated, and one had a bruised leg, but they’re all going to be fine, Johnson said.
Johnson brought food and supplies for the dogs. A Madison rescue group, The Twig Project, donated more supplies and took in some of the puppies that needed extra care.
The Waltons called in friends and family members to help.
“People just started showing up,” Bengtson said. “They fed, they watered, they comforted these poor animals.”
They also comforted the human volunteers, offering food and lodging.
Monday, the puppies appeared good as new. Some slept, some yelped and some wiggled as humans cleaned their kennels, took them outside and fed them. An adult beagle named Judy looked on placidly from a blanket she’d claimed in the corner.
A second van was on its way from Minnesota late Monday morning to take the group home.
Tears spilled from Terrilea Holm’s eyes as she spoke of the Edgerton community’s generosity.
“I feel like I have a whole new extended family,” she said.
The story couldn’t have ended happier for Sunshine. Johnson and his wife adopted the puppy, and she’s doing great.
“She’s like a new dog today, a normal puppy,” Johnson said Monday. “It’s unbelievable.”
Newsday: Neglected NYC poodle unable to stand under weight of own fur
NEW YORK - Animal rescuers discovered a miniature poodle so neglected that it could not stand under the weight of its own matted, feces-covered fur, authorities said Friday. An animal protection agent arrested Diana Elias, the owner of the six-year-old dog named Miss Bea, which was discovered in a Manhattan apartment closet with three pounds of gnarled fur on its roughly six-pound frame.
"Miss Bea's body and all four of her legs were encased in a solid cocoon of severely matted hair, and she demonstrated considerable pain when she was handled," Dr. Robert Reisman, an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals medical coordinator, said in a statement.
The ASPCA noted that poodles and some other dogs have been bred not to shed their fur, making grooming particularly vital. Miss Bea's nails had grown so long that they curled around and pierced her paws, the organization said.
Elias, 52, faces up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if convicted on animal cruelty charges. Rescuers went to the home on an anonymous complaint. Elias has no listed phone number, and prosecutors had no information on whether she had a lawyer.
Miss Bea has been treated and will be put up for adoption.
AP: Journey of 2 dogs helps family of slain soldier
The Associated Press reports ...
By KEN THOMAS The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing up, Peter Neesley was an animal lover who always took in strays around his Michigan home. So when his family heard that the Army sergeant was taking care of two dogs outside his Baghdad military base, no one was surprised.
In e-mails and phone calls from Iraq, Neesley talked about how he came across Mama, a black Labrador mix, and Boris, her white-and-brown spotted puppy, while on patrol in a Baghdad neighborhood.
One of Mama's puppies was later killed by a car, so Neesley and his friends built a doghouse to shelter the animals. Photographs show Neesley feeding the dogs, kneeling next to the red-and-white doghouse and Boris walking along the cracked sidewalks of Baghdad.
"He was determined. He had already been sending us e-mails about how when he came home in July, he was going to find a way to bring them with him," said his sister, Carey Neesley.
Neesley's family was devastated when they learned Christmas morning that the 28-year-old had died suddenly in his sleep. The Army said his death is still under investigation pending an autopsy.
Still grieving, the family decided that they would honor Neesley's wishes and try to bring the dogs home to Michigan.
"To have something that they can hold and touch and care for that Peter cared about, that's the whole thing," said Julie Dean, his aunt.
Read more ...
NYT: Given Reprieve, N.F.L. Star’s Dogs Find Kindness
Garrett Davis for The New York TimesPublished: February 2, 2008
Scars from puncture wounds on her face, legs and torso reveal that she was a fighter. Her misshapen, dangling teats show that she might have been such a successful, vicious competitor that she was forcibly bred, her new handlers suspect, again and again.
But there is one haunting sign that Georgia might have endured the most abuse of any of the 47 surviving pit bulls seized last April from the property of the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in connection with an illegal dogfighting ring.
Georgia has no teeth. All 42 of them were pried from her mouth, most likely to make certain she could not harm male dogs during forced breeding.
Her caregivers here at the Best Friends Animal Society sanctuary, the new home for 22 of Mr. Vick’s former dogs, are less concerned with her physical wounds than her emotional ones. They wonder why she barks incessantly at her doghouse and what makes her roll her toys so obsessively that her nose is rubbed raw.
“I’m worried most about Georgia,” said the Best Friends veterinarian Dr. Frank McMillan, an expert on the emotional health of animals, who edited the textbook “Mental Health and Well-Being in Animals.” “You don’t have the luxury of asking her, or any of these animals: ‘What happened to you in your past life? How can we stop you from hurting?’
Garrett Davis for The New York Times
John Garcia, a caregiver at the Best Friends sanctuary, tries to teach abused dogs to trust people.
to watch an audio slide show, click here...
read the rest of the article, click here ...
Vick dogs don't look so vicious now
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Dogs down South escape death and finds homes in N.H. - The Boston Globe
COLUMBIANA, Ala. - With excited barking filling the chilly morning air, about 30 dogs frolicked in outdoor pens, jumping, playing, and nipping at one another - blissfully unaware they were escaping almost certain death, thanks to newfound friends in New Hampshire....read more digg story
Check out the YouTube video above, or these still shots from the Shelby Humane Society and their Shelter Partners Program-- they're wonderful!
Two dying pit bulls found in Westchester trash
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New National Geographic Series: Dog Town
DogTown is the largest no-kill animal facility in the country, located on 33,000 acres of Southern Utah canyon country. At any given time, the sanctuary hosts hundreds of dogs from all around the country, and the world, along with cats, horses, guinea pigs, rabbits, goats, and various other farm animals—between 1,500-2,000 animals at any one time. National Geographic Channel teams up with the DogTown’s top-notch staff of veterinarians and trainers to find out what it takes to rehabilitate problem pooches and find them loving homes.
Loyal Friend and Role Model
Nine years ago, His Majesty the King adopted a stray female dog, and named her Khun Tongdaeng. His care for the poor canine became a model for his subjects to follow.
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