Sue

Nothing as they have been nothing but bad this year. Neither girl got preggy so they don't deserve anything, the stud didn't do his job either so he's out of the getting as well. The two old ones are money sucking, bed hogging users so they can go without. :D Of course I have already bought and given them a swimming pool, toys and shampoos. I wonder what they are getting me?

I remember the same thing happening here in NZ years ago. An elderly couple let their beautiful setter out to toilet on the road verge. A car carrying young people came along the road, deliberately swerved onto the the grass verge and hit the dog, then speed away. Your dog should be safe on the verge, whether leased or not, from deliberate attack by f******ts. I don't know what motivates these people. Pity any dependants they have as they will show no mercy to them either.

News Story and photos A terminally ill Lower Hutt boy with a rare genetic condition is without his only friend after the SPCA seized his pet dog, placing it in "protective custody". Brooklyn Griffen's mum sold her car to buy the cavalier King Charles spaniel puppy for her nine-year-old son a year ago. Julie Hutton said she bought Ruby for $900 from a breeder on Trade Me as a companion for Brooklyn, who suffers from a mitochondrial disorder. This means he cannot walk, is prone to illness, and has serious physical and developmental problems. Doctors do not know how long he will live but he is not expected to make it to adulthood. Ms Hutton bought the puppy because her son does not have friends of his own. "I felt that a small dog would act as a good companion and give him something to love." Ruby never ate very much and began to show signs of congenital illness, including seizures. Ms Hutton said she bought the dog special food and tried to encourage her to eat, but the puppy had trouble gaining weight. Nearly three weeks ago, Ruby went missing from the family's Waiwhetu home. Two days later she was handed in to the SPCA, which says she was "seriously underweight and with other health issues". Ms Hutton says an SPCA officer told her then that she was under investigation. "She said that, in her opinion, I had neglected Ruby and that I had deliberately tried to starve her to death." Wellington SPCA chief executive Peter Mason said his staff denied accusing Ms Hutton of neglect, but he said the dog had been put in "protective custody". Ms Hutton says when she tried to follow up with the SPCA and see what was happening, the staff member she dealt with told her she was not allowed to visit Ruby. It was the puppy's first birthday last Monday. "I told her that my son was upset and said what I am supposed to do, he wants to see his dog and she replied, `tell him to get over it'. He knows something's wrong but I've just told him Ruby's in the hospital." Mr Mason said he had spoken with the inspector involved and she had denied saying this to Ms Hutton. The SPCA was awaiting lab and veterinary results before it decided the dog's future. Ms Hutton believes Ruby has congenital problems caused by bad breeding. Elaine Maisey, who has bred King Charles spaniels for almost 40 years, said after hearing from Ms Hutton, and another woman who had a puppy which died after seven months of similar symptoms, she believed both dogs may have come from the same puppy farm. "I am certainly going to write to the SPCA, because it sounds to me as though there are congenital problems." _____________________________________ So many questions and answers that could have been given. For example: The dog has been in the care of the SPCA for nearly 3 weeks. Has it gained weight, has her overall health condition improved? Why are the test results not back? What special food was being feed, when was the dog last seen by the owner's vet? What is the name of the congenial (present from birth) defect the owners believe the adult dog has? Was the bitch inadvertently injured as a puppy, causing internal injuries? I dislike the style of reporting where the reader is asked to feel empathy for the owners when simple information is not provided.

Well, actually they do experiment of living humans, often without the paticipants knowledge. National Women's Hospital cervical cancer enquiry I would be there are a fair few humans being used for experimentation without their knowledge right now, especially in areas where access to information and education is limited and doctors are viewed as gods. For those saying that these animals should be woken up - what then? Who is going to adopt them?

And these three are part of a sheep shearing gang. I hope every farmer keeps them off his land and forces the shearing gang boss to fire their backsides. They should have no access to animals. I also hope that every girl will stay well away from them too. We don't need them breeding.

So Bunderburg has a population who does not train its dogs, or an over zealous council, whereas the other communites have citizens who train and control their pets. The article makes declearing dogs meanacing sound like a public sport for councils.

I replaced free when a pup I sold was found dead in his kennel. Owners were devastated and thought he choked on a child's toy or similar. Sad thing is I just got the replacement dog back at 2 years old, underweight, untrained and in poor condition as owner committed suicide.

I started off with a BYB SPCA reject Dobermann, extremely dog aggressive but loved humans, then decided to get a pedigree Dobermann to show, who was just plain nutty to tell you the truth. After those two, who were both wonderful pets in their own way, I decided I needed a less active and needy breed so bought a pedigree Bull Terrier bitch to show. After the two dobies, the bully was bliss and a few more followed. I now have kinda swapped again to mini bulls which I think are even nicer than Bull Terriers. I can fit more on the bed and they take up less room! Sometimes people admire a breed from afar but once they have one realise that the breed really doesn't suit them for whatever reason. I am glad that I decided not to stay with the dobies as they are a breed that need a lot of mental and physical exercise to keep them sane, plus someone home 24/7 so they don't bark the neighbourhood down. Bully's are content to lay around and snore till its time for action or food. They are also more mentally stable in my opinion.

Whether the pups will be okay or not will depend on many aspects of the breeding. Are the sire and dam free from hereditary disease? Were they in good health when breed? Has the bitch been fed well? I am sure that there are many such matings happening around the world when siblings are kept and allowed to breed. And it happens "naturally" in the wild too when populations are isolated for whatever reason. It doesn't have to result in defects, in fact it can result in desirable adaptations, but in the wild weak or deformed animals would die. Unless you are prepared to PTS any pups that are born deformed them my thoughts would be to spay the bitch if at all possible, aborting the litter at the same time. Hope all goes well with whatever course of action you decide upon.

I bought some of these and used them on my bitch. Very fast and polite service from Lapdog - can't fault them on that! I couldn't see any change in the pads at all. She stood for the dog on day eight and mated him naturally (alone on the lawn, me watching from inside in case they needed help) for the next five days. My other bitch is now on heat and she is day eight tomorrow so I will start using the left over ones on her to see if there is any difference in the test pads this time. Personally though I'm not convinced. But maybe I just didn't get it :D

Mine had possum patties. Yummy. Made from whole, skinned possum. Its a new product from my pet food supplier and I couldn't be happier with them. Finally those aussie invaders are being made good use of!

The earthquake was centred around Christchurch in the South Island. There is extensive damage to property and infrastructure. There are pictures and video at http://www.stuff.co.nz

48 hours does not give a person time to contact and reclaim a lost pet, especially if the pet has been transported out of the dogs local area by the finder if the description of the pet differs from the description of the pound. I remember a "red rottwieller" puppy that was advertised as lost on a NZ site. The picture showed a mastiff cross puppy which did not appear to be a rotti in any way. They were determined to continue with their description as this is what the were told the puppy was. As the pound would be thinking they were looking for a rotti looking dog with a strange colouring, this puppy would have died. These laws are unfair to all owners, and responsible owners are in danger of losing their pets. After all, dogs are not benign beings. They will take an opportunity to escape and go walkabout.

How could the child have such horrific injuries but that the father didn't notice anything wrong when he placed the child back in her bed? Surely her clothes would have been soaked in blood, saliva and torn from some of those 100 bites? The child must also have been distressed or gasping for breathe is she had chronic lung disease and had suffered that sort of trauma. Poor child.

More info here

Link here qith picture Four teenagers have been arrested for punching and kicking a two-month-old puppy and then throwing it through a basketball hoop. Police said the Labrador has bad bruising and is barely able to stand after the attack at a park near Wilson Place in Papakura yesterday at 6.15pm. The dog was taken to the SPCA for treatment. "Witnesses reported the dog being repeatedly kicked before it was thrown up a tree. The dog was motionless when it fell back down," a police spokesman said. "One of the boys then held it by its front legs whilst another boy kicked it in the stomach. They continued punching and kicking the puppy and threw it through a basketball hoop." Police arrested the teenagers at the scene and have referred them to Youth Aid. ____________________________________________________________ _______________

I have weetherbeetas for my dogs and find them great. They are very hard wearing (good thing for bullies!) and are easy to wash and dry. I will certainly be buying more when my current ones need replacing.

There was a case recently in NZ where a dog had attacked a person and was ordered to be destroyed. The owner went and got a dog being offered for rehoming free and took it to the vets and had it destroyed in his pets place. Somehow the deceit was discovered, not sure what happened to the dog which was meant to be destroyed but the owners of the dog given away were very upset.

An old boxer was dumped outside my house once, main road, lots of traffic. The next door neighbour took the dog and said they would hold the dog overnight and call the pound in the morning if the owner hadn't been found. I got up early next morning to take my dogs for a walk and found the old dog out on the road again. Neighbours had let the dog go during the night as they couldn't be bothered with it. All they had to do was knock on my door and say "here, you look after it". I had to wave down traffic so I could catch this poor thing, then lock it in a show cage, feed it, water it and called the pound. Moral of the story - just because someone assumes responsibility for a found animal doesn't mean that in a few hours time they won't open the gate and let the animal go. I would much rather my dogs be handed over to the pound immediately than be "held" by someone in the hope that an owner turns up.

How could you not hear your child being attacked? Makes you wonder if the parents were even home. Poor kid and poor dogs.

Link to article The chief executive of Te Awamutu's SPCA has stepped down after the Waipa District Council found the premises in a squalid state and threatened to prosecute. Volunteers spent much of last week cleaning out the dog-runs and other areas at the site on Bruce Berquist Dr after Dianne Gray was asked to stand down, pending an investigation by the Royal New Zealand Society for the Protection of Animals (RNZSPCA). Mrs Gray said she could not comment because of the investigation but it is understood the condition of the premises was because of the large number of dogs held on site. The Te Awamutu SPCA has a permit to house 20 dogs but, when council staff visited in March, 37 dogs were found. In the past there have been up to 70 dogs found on the property and the branch has been repeatedly warned by the council to get the number of dogs down. After the visit in March the council sent a letter which warned "the initiation of a prosecution would be a likely outcome" if the situation was not addressed immediately. Environmental services team leader Karl Tutty noted in the letter that "the amount of faeces, the number of flies and the odour would constitute a nuisance". He put this down to the number of dogs and the resulting limited amount of time they had outside. "I certainly do not encounter these conditions at vets, or our own pounds where animals can be housed en masse," he wrote. The letter sparked the RNZSPCA, the umbrella group of the country's SPCAs, to act and chief inspector Charles Cadwallader was sent to take control of the branch. RNZSPCA chief executive Robyn Kippenberger said the premises were "filthy", with dogs housed in "urine-soaked" cages. She said in the past the branch opened for three hours on a Sunday or by appointment but it would now open every day, even if only for a few hours, so that the dogs had more chances of being adopted. "It could be a really nice SPCA but all we need to do is open the doors a little bit more," she said. It is understood that other branches around the region took some of the extra dogs but some had to be put down. Mrs Kippenberger is urging people who can adopt a dog from the Te Awamutu SPCA to do so. She said once the premises were cleaned up and the non-compliance issues addressed, operation of the branch would be handed back to the board of trustees. Mrs Gray has been a member of the Te Awamutu SPCA since its inception and was a key member of the fundraising committee which raised funds to build the premises.

8 months learning to walk. Poor cat.

Link to article A Christchurch teenager saw an intruder choke the life from the family's pet dog. Fern Gaber said four-year-old boxer Troy was a "loyal friend" to the family and playmate for her son, Tyler Corbett-Gaber, 13. Troy died in Tyler's arms on Friday after an intruder entered the Spreydon house and strangled the dog to death with its own lead as it defended the property. Gaber, 35, said Tyler was home ill and asleep in his room when a man entered the Milton St home through a window. The burglar reckoned without Troy, and Gaber said the ensuing struggle left the house like a "war zone". "There were broken doors, and the shower curtain was ripped down," Gaber said. "It was horrific." In the chaos, Troy's lead fell from a cupboard on to the floor, and the intruder wrapped it around the dog's neck. Tyler went into the bathroom to see Troy being strangled. "Tyler was shouting at him to `leave the dog alone, leave the dog alone', but he had to witness it. That's pretty scary for him to come out of bed and that's happening in his house," Gaber said. The dog "collapsed" and the intruder fled out of the bathroom window. "Tyler just went and hugged Troy and said, `Hold on buddy, hold on buddy', and Troy just looked at him and stopped breathing." The family was struggling to come to terms with Troy's death, especially Tyler, whom she said was extremely shaken. "He was really good with kids and he loved rugby and going to watch rugby games. He was just a good, loyal family pet and friends with the kids and a brilliant guard dog," she said. "[The intruder] was obviously trying to protect himself from the dog and decided it's him or me, and sadly it was Troy." Acting Sergeant Andrew Savage of the Christchurch South police said police want to hear from anyone who saw the intruder fleeing the scene. He was of medium build and height, dressed in black and wore a balaclava and gloves. Gaber said she wanted to see whoever killed Troy caught. "I don't feel [Troy] should have died in vain. He was just doing his job," she said. ------------------------------------ I'm sure we can all think of our own words to describe the person responsible. RIP Troy.

If Noah and his band of merry men only saved two of each animal, all animals after the first generation are the result of incest. And if there wasn't one of each sex then... Oh dear....

Unfortunately the SPCA has become too successful for its own good. By that I mean they have gone down the track of building huge, expansive glass towers to take in unwanted animals and now people think the SPCA is the place to take their mistakes. Gone are the ideas of being an organisation that deals with animal welfare. They are now in the business of animal trading. I always thought instead of being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, they should be working at the top. Stop building larger shelters and instead spend that money offering free desexing in every town in what ever nation they appear in. The money saved on housing, maintenance, feeding, staffing, vetting, destroying etc hundreds of unwanted animals would desex a good number of pets. Over a period of time, the number of abandoned animals will decrease.