Category: Tips

A Very Scary Reason Why You Shouldn’t Take Your Dog on an Escalator

A small dog riding an escalator with his owner at Los Angeles International Airport last week could have lost a paw if not for the quick actions of a good Samaritan and police officers nearby.

The dog’s paw got caught in the grate at the top of the escalator. A passerby who witnessed what happened quickly pressed the emergency shut-off button to stop the escalator. LAX police officers were able to unscrew the grate’s teeth and free the dog’s paw. Fortunately, the dog did not appear to be seriously injured.

The entire scary incident was captured by security camera and posted on TMZ.

A year ago, the exact same thing happened to another small dog riding the escalator at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. That dog was also safely freed, but bit his owners in the process.

Lesson learned: It’s not a good idea to let dogs, especially small ones, ride on escalators. Unless you can can carry your dog, always take the stairs or elevator instead.

“Many pet owners do not understand the danger escalators and moving walkways pose to pets, who do not know that they need to lift their feet at the top to avoid being trapped by the ‘combs,’” MSPCA-Angell warned in 2012, after a Pomeranian mix named Mace lost two toes after getting his paw stuck on an escalator in a Boston subway station.

Each year, MSPCA-Angell veterinarians perform surgery on an average of two to three dogs whose paws were mangled after they were stuck in escalator combs.

“This is a very serious issue; most of us don’t think twice when stepping onto an escalator, but it’s crucial for all of us to understand that dogs have no sense of the danger awaiting them at the top,” stated Dr. Ashley Davis, one of the veterinarians who treated Mace. “If anything positive can come from Mace’s ordeal, it’s the awareness that his story will generate.”

If you can’t carry your dog and must ride an escalator, bring booties for him to wear, suggested Jeannine Berger, DVM. “Just make sure they fit snugly, without superfluous material that can catch in the moving escalator parts,” she warned.

Photo credit: quinntheislander

What to Watch on Super Bowl Weekend If You Love Dogs

If you’re like me, the big game on Feb. 4 isn’t Super Bowl LII, but Puppy Bowl XIV. The good news this year is that there’s another new bowl game with four-legged players to watch, plus a Very Special Episode of the beloved TV series “This Is Us” that may involve a dog.

“Puppy Bowl XIV” — Animal Planet at 3 p.m. EST Sunday.

The 14th edition of Puppy Bowl will feature 90 players — the most in the show’s history. It will be held in a brand-new venue: the bone-shaped Geico stadium. Once again, there’s no real audience, but wouldn’t it be cool if they sold tickets to fans and donated the proceeds to animal rescue groups? Are you listening, Animal Planet?

To recruit the adoptable players, Animal Planet worked with 48 animal shelters and rescue organizations in 25 U.S. states and territories. What’s especially heartwarming this year is that most of the puppies vying for the “Lombarky” trophy are from areas that were devastated by hurricanes last year. For the first time ever, there will also be a player from Villalobos Rescue Center, featured on Animal Planet’s “Pit Bulls and Parolees” series.

Some special-needs puppers will be playing this year, including Ryder, a sight-impaired Husky; Chance, a deaf Dalmatian; Moonshine; a sight-impaired and deaf Border Collie; and Luna, a Pomeranian mix with a cleft palate.

As for other adorable animals, look for Shirley the rescue sloth, who’ll be making her debut as the assistant to returning “rufferee” Dan Schachner.

Check out the Animal Planet website for the complete Team Ruff and Team Fluff lineup.

“Puppy Bowl Presents: The Dog Bowl” — Animal Planet at 8 p.m. EST Saturday.

Sure, all those puppies are ridiculously adorable, but a not-so-cute fact is that older homeless dogs have a much rougher time getting adopted. With this in mind, Animal Planet is debuting “Puppy Bowl Presents: The Dog Bowl” this year, which will feature 50 adult dogs from 15 shelters in 11 states. Their ages range from 2 to 15 years old.

The players will be “going nose to nose for touchdowns, furry fumbles and ultimately the win,” according to Animal Planet. “After the game of tail tugs and ear pulls is over, they all end up winners as they find their forever homes.”

Like “Puppy Bowl,” there will be two teams: Team Wags and Team Tails. The one-hour special will also feature “Dogs Life” profiles of some of the players, as well as NFL player Eric Decker and Jessie James Decker, who run Deckers Dogs, a nonprofit that trains rescue dogs to be to be service dogs for disabled vets; NFL player and animal advocate Logan Ryan; Tia Torres from “Pit Bulls and Parolees”; and Steve Greig, aka @Wolfgang2242 on Instagram, who rescues and cares for senior dogs in need.

The good news is that most of the 50 players have already been adopted, according to USA Today. But hopefully they’ll inspire viewers to look for other older dogs that are still in need of forever homes.

“This Is Us” — NBC after the Super Bowl.

Spoiler alert: If you’ve never watched “This Is Us” but plan to one day, you might want to read no further.

For the rest of us, we know that this episode will finally reveal how Pearson family patriarch Jack died in a house fire. In the last episode that aired, we found out it was an old Crock-Pot that sparked the blaze, which was quickly spreading from the kitchen to the upstairs bedrooms as the episode ended.

Rebecca, Kate and Randall Pearson all survived the fire. (Kevin was away, spending the night at his girlfriend’s house.) So why did Jack die?

Here’s my guess: The family dog was sleeping downstairs. Maybe after everyone was safely out of the house, Kate begged her dad to go back inside and save him. And maybe that’s why, many years later, Kate didn’t want to adopt another dog, because it would stir up all those terrible memories. (Aren’t you glad she changed her mind? That little dog truly is as cute, as Kate said, as cute as Jason Tremblay.)

If that’s the case, Jack truly died a hero. No matter what happens, be sure to have a tissue box or two handy when you watch this episode. And thanks for nothing, NBC, for ending Super Bowl Sunday with a very sad bawlfest.

Photo: Puppy Bowl/Facebook

RECALL ALERT: Just Food For Dogs Turducken Frozen Dog Food

Just Food For Dogs has announced a voluntary recall of some of its cooked frozen dog food products after green beans in some of its Turducken tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes.

The food was tested after a customer’s dogs became sick with vomiting and diarrhea after eating it. Both dogs made a full recovery within a day when their owner switched their diet to another Just Food For Dogs product.

This is the first recall in the history of the company, which makes hand-crafted food for dogs.

“It is genuinely heartbreaking to report that we have just received preliminary test results that suggest our human-grade green bean supply was sent to us contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes,” Shawn Buckley, founder of the company, said in a recall announcement sent to customers that was posted by Dog Food Advisor. “Healthy dogs may experience no signs but some, including elderly or weakened dogs, may experience vomiting and/or diarrhea.”

Although severe disease from Listeria monocytogenes is rare in dogs, it can be more concerning for humans, Buckley said. It can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

The following Just Food For Dog products that contain green beans are being voluntarily recalled:

Turducken
Batch dates XX110118 to XX123118

Beef and Russet Potato
Batch dates XX110118 to XX011419

Fish and Sweet Potato
Batch dates XX110118 to XX011419

Just Food For Dogs is preparing new batches of these products without the green beans that will be available by Jan. 17 at all of its locations.

If you purchased one of the recalled products, stop feeding it to your dog and dispose of it. Upon request, Just Food For Dogs will reimburse customers who bought these products that were made Nov. 1, 2017 to Jan. 14, 2018.

Customers with questions about the recall can email support@justfoodfordogs.com. Include the first and last name on your Just Food For Dogs account.

“While this issue may not be our fault, the safety and efficacy of every meal is our responsibility,” Buckley stated. “As we work with our restaurant supplier, we will be implementing greater controls to prevent this from happening in the future.”

Photo: Just Food For Dogs

New Study Finds Raw Meat Diets May Not Be Safe for Dogs or People

Over the past few years, food diets for dogs that include raw meat, vegetables and fruit have really been growing in popularity. Many people who feed their dogs this diet were probably spooked by the major recall of Iams, Hill’s Pet Nutrition and nearly 200 other pet food brands in 2007 after thousands of dogs and cats were sickened or died from kidney failure due to contaminants in these products. (My sister’s cat was one of the victims.)

Raw diets have been fed to racing dogs for decades, and were first recommended for family pets by Dr. Ian Billinghurst, an Australian veterinarian, in 1993. He and other raw diet proponents said pets thrive on uncooked meaty bones and vegetable scraps, since that’s what their ancestors ate long ago — not processed, grain-based commercial food. It was Billinghurst who coined the term “BARF” diet, an acronym for Bones and Raw Food, or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food.

But speaking of barf, could feeding your dog raw food make both you and your pet sick? A new study, published in Vet Record, found that some raw diets can be unhealthy for pets as well as people.

Researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands tested 35 products from eight brands of commercially available raw meat-based diets (RMBDs) to see if they contained bacteria and parasites that can be transmitted from pets to humans.

And yes, they sure did. Forty-three percent of the products contained species of Listeria, which can seriously sicken pregnant women, babies, elderly people and anyone with a weakened immune system. Nearly 25 percent contained E. coli, while 20 percent contained Salmonella. These could cause bacterial infections in pets — and can be transmitted to their owners who handle contaminated pet food or surfaces, touch their infected pet or eat cross-contaminated human food.

But what about feeding your dog non-commercial raw meat? Not a good idea, according to the researchers.

“Feeding of freshly prepared, non-frozen raw meat based-diets to companion animals can not only result in infection and disease in the animals, but also poses a risk to public health and livestock farming through shedding of pathogens into the environment,” they stated in the study. “Pet owners should therefore be informed about the risks associated with feeding their animals RMBDs.”

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) discourages feeding pets “any animal-source protein that has not first been subjected to a process to eliminate pathogens because of the risk of illness to cats and dogs as well as humans.”

To prevent your dog or yourself from getting sick from raw meat, the AVMA recommends “cooking or pasteurization through the application of heat until the protein reaches an internal temperature adequate to destroy pathogenic organisms.”

For more information about the pros and cons of a raw food diet for your dog, check out WebMD.com.

Photo: dewkort

How to Help Shelters and Rescues Affected by Recent Hurricanes

One right after another, three recent catastrophic hurricanes — Harvey, Irma and Maria — wreaked havoc on Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Hundreds of thousands of people are now without homes, and animal shelters have been taking in their pets. Hundreds of shelter dogs and cats were flown to facilities in other states to make room for all the incoming pets.

One of the most helpful things you can do, even if it’s just for a week, is provide a temporary home for a displaced dog. Visit the Foster a Hurricane Pet website to find a perfect match. Or, better yet, adopt a shelter dog who was evacuated to make room for four-legged hurricane refugees.

Here are some of the other ways you can help shelters and rescues in the affected areas. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list. If you know of other shelters and rescues that need post-hurricane help, please leave a comment.

TEXAS

Austin Pets Alive!

The Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) shelter, which itself was flooded during a 2015 storm, rescued over 2,000 pets after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston. It acted as a supply hub for other shelters in need, and opened temporary shelters in Houston as well as Austin.

“We cannot express our gratitude for the continued support from the Austin Pets Alive! community – both new and old,” the nonprofit, which is dedicated to keeping Austin no kill, wrote on its website.

You can help by:

BARC

BARC is the City of Houston’s animal shelter and adoption facility, and the only city shelter in Houston required by law to accept every animal that comes through its doors regardless of breed, temperament, health conditions or circumstance.

You can help by:

Houston SPCA

Located at ground zero, the Houston SPCA is still making water rescues, spokeswoman Julie Kuenstle told KHOU Sept. 21.

  • You can help by fostering a pet, especially if you live in Texas or Louisiana.

SPCA of Texas

The SPCA of Texas, located in Dallas, is “putting every available resource behind assisting pets and people who have evacuated the Gulf Coast to the North Texas area,” according to its website. It “has provided and continues to provide all needed pet supplies as these families pick up their pets so that the pets have all they need until their owners are able to purchase further supplies.”

Tall Tails Animal Rescue

When a dam was opened without warning Aug. 28 near Hankamer, Texas, where Tall Tails Animal Rescue is located, its kennels were flooded with over a foot of rising water, putting the lives of over 100 dogs in danger.

After Tall Tails founders Kat K Tschirgi and Kevin Miller put out cries for help on social media, volunteers in boats arrived to save some of the dogs. A video of the rescue effort has been viewed more than 244,000 times.

While all the animals were fortunately saved, the kennels and house were destroyed. The couple plans to rebuild in another location so they can continue rescuing and rehabilitating sick, injured and pregnant dogs.

  • You can help by making a cash donation.

FLORIDA

Florida Keys SPCA

“As we look forward, it becomes clear this will be a long haul for our community to restore our way of life to pre-Irma days,” the Florida Keys SPCA (FKSPCA) wrote on its Facebook page Sept. 19.

“The FKSPCA will make every effort to help keep animals in their homes as opposed to being surrendered due to displacement of their pet owners by assisting with foster care options, sheltering options through our FAITH program, and routine and wellness care options.”

You can help by:

Gulf Coast Humane Society

Income for the Gulf Coast Humane Society (GCHS), the oldest non-profit animal welfare organization in southwest Florida, was frozen for nearly two weeks as the Fort Myers shelter prepared for and then cleaned up after Irma.

Humane Society Naples

After Hurricane Irma battered Naples with 135 mph winds, the Florida town was left without power and residents were advised to boil water. Because of these dire conditions, the 79 dogs (and 64 cats) at Humane Society Naples (HSN) were flown across the country to the San Diego Humane Society.

HSN is currently taking in pets that have been left homeless due to Irma. “Naples residents are already overwhelmed and most aren’t ready to add another family member during this difficult time,” it wrote on its website. “We have no doubt that there are countless families in another state who want to give loving homes to a ‘Hurricane Irma’ pet.”

You can help by:

Humane Society of Broward County

The Humane Society of Broward County (HSBC) in Fort Lauderdale “not only weathered the massive storm but also sprang into action to help other areas of the state that were devastated by the hurricane — all thanks to long hours of smart planning and preparation by HSBC’s dedicated team,” according to its website.

You can help by:

Humane Society of Greater Miami

Two weeks after Irma struck, the Humane Society of Greater Miami was “happy to report that we have been able to move some of our pets back into their original rooms after the hurricane,” according to its Facebook page. “Although we still have a long road ahead of us to fully recover from Irma’s impact, we are surely on our way!”

PUERTO RICO

Island Dog

The mission of Island Dog, a nonprofit based on Puerto Rico’s east coast, is to raise awareness of the suffering and cruelty animals endure in the U.S. Caribbean Islands. To help reduce the number of strays, it provides low-cost spay and neuter clinics around the island.

Just before Maria struck, Island Dog co-founder Sali Gear chartered a plane and flew 300 animals to safety at her farm in Virginia. From there, the animals were taken in by rescue groups and will hopefully find forever homes around the country.

Second Chance Animal Rescue of Puerto Rico

Located in the mountains of Villalba, Second Chance Animal Rescue of Puerto Rico is usually home to over 150 animals. Because of the lack of electricity and cell phone service throughout the island, it’s not yet known whether the shelter withstood the hurricane.

“The most we can do is to raise money to help them recover the shelter and evacuate rescues to our stateside support teams as soon as roads are passable and flights are available,” the nonprofit wrote on its website.

The Sato Project

The Sato Project is dedicated to rescuing abused and abandoned dogs from Puerto Rico. Over the past six years the nonprofit has saved more than 1,600 dogs, mainly from “Dead Dog Beach” where pets are dumped and often, as the name sadly implies, do not survive.

Dead Dog Beach is located on the southeastern coast in Yabucoa, which was directly hit by Maria on Sept. 20, with 155 mph winds, torrential rain and flooding. According to an update on The Sato Project’s Facebook page three days later, the dogs in its shelter survived, but the structure suffered catastrophic damage.

  • You can help by making a cash donation to The Sato Project’s Hurricane Relief Fund. According to the website, doing so will “help mobilize critically needed supplies and support to our team on the ground in Puerto Rico, and to transport as many dogs as we can to safety in the coming days and weeks.”

Photo credit: Texas National Guard

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