Petco and PetSmart Will Stop Selling Treats Made in China

You can expect the dog treat shelves of your local Petco and PetSmart stores to start looking pretty barren. As both national chains promised last year, they will no longer sell pet treats that were manufactured in China.

More than 1,000 dogs have died after eating chicken, duck or sweet potato jerky treats made in China, and nearly 5,000 more have become ill. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been investigating these cases since 2007 (and taking way too long to do so, many pet parents complain). No link has yet been found between the treats and the illnesses.

About 60 percent of the illnesses reported to the FDA were gastrointestinal problems; 30 percent were kidney or urinary issues; and the remaining 10 percent were symptoms including convulsions, tremors, hives and skin irritation.

“We know some pet parents are wary of dog and cat treats made in China, especially chicken jerky products, and we’ve heard their concerns,” Jim Myers, CEO of Petco, said in a press release last May. “As a leader in the industry and the trusted partner for our pet parents, we’re eager to make this transition and to expand our assortment of safe and healthy treats, the majority of which are made right here in the U.S.”

Since September, Petco has been pulling the products from its online store and 1,300 physical stores; PetSmart will finish removing them by March.

Petco Vice President John Sturm told the Associated Press the chain will substitute the China-made treats with those made in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Last week Jump Your Bones recalled some lots of its Roo Bites, treats made in Australia from dehydrated kangaroo meat, because they may have contained Salmonella.

It seems like it may not be a good idea to feed your dog commercially made jerky treats, no matter where they’re manufactured.

Photo credit: Tony Alter

R.I.P. Gracie, Vick Dog Who Became Vicktory Dog

Gracie, one of the 50 Pit Bulls rescued in 2007 from Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels in Virginia, crossed the Rainbow Bridge today.

“This morning, little, old, bow-legged Gracie passed away and got her angel wings,” according to the Gracie’s Guardians Facebook page.

Named in her honor, Gracie’s Guardians, an initiative of the Richmond Animal League, is focused on improving the welfare of Pit Bulls in the Richmond, Va., area.

“Any words we write here could never begin to express the profound, positive and lasting impact that this little, black Pit Bull had on so many people who encountered her or heard the story of her suffering and triumph. We are and will be forever grateful for this little, broken black dog and everything she personified.”

According to the Gracie’s Guardians website, Gracie was chosen as its namesake “in tribute to her perseverance and that of countless other Pit Bulls who have suffered or continue to suffer at the hands of people, yet whose spirits and love for humans remains untarnished.”

Gracie was adopted by Sharon Cornett, who told CBS 6 news in April 2014 that of all the dogs she’d ever had, Gracie was probably the most docile. “Honestly, I think her legacy is to show that the public has absolutely nothing to fear,” Cornett said.

Will Lowery, co-founder of Gracie’s Guardians, agrees. He told CBS 6 that the successful rehabilitation of the Vick dogs has led to more adoptions of abused dogs.

“I think everybody involved would probably admit that there’s a lot learned about these dogs, and how to handle them, and what their future might hold,” Lowry said.

Prior to 2007, most dogs rescued from fighting operations were euthanized. Even Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said back then that the rescued Vick dogs would never be suitable as pets, and should all be destroyed.

But dog experts at animal welfare organizations like the Richmond Animal League, Best Friends Animal Society and BAD RAP knew better. They took in the Vick survivors, rehabilitated them and found loving forever homes in which many of these “unadoptable” survivors thrived.

Along with Gracie, another of those lucky dogs was Jonny Justice, who was awarded the prestigious ASPCA Dog of the Year award last year. Yet another was Hector, a Vick dog who became a therapy dog. Hector died three months ago.

The CBS 6 news report below from April 2014 features Gracie and more Vicktory dogs who defied the odds. It also shows the horrors inside the Bad Newz Kennels, including the trees from which Vick himself hanged dogs who weren’t good fighters.

The property has been transformed into the Good Newz Rehab Center, which treats abused dogs who have been kept in chains or pens.

Rest in peace, Gracie. To make a donation to Gracie’s Guardians, click here.

Photos via Facebook

Soaked Pup Runs to Catalina Island Bar, Alerts Patrons to Owner’s Fate

For the past few years, Bruce Ryder lived on a boat with Pretty Boy (aka P.B.), his beloved Yellow Lab, in Avalon Harbor at Catalina Island, Calif.

Ryder and P.B. were inseparable, and well known by the locals.

Although Ryder no longer drank, he still paid frequent visits to the Marlin Club, Avalon’s oldest bar. So when P.B. ran into the bar alone, wet and shaking, during an unusually fierce storm Tuesday night, inventory manager Randy Jackson feared the worst.

“That dog was his life and his life support,” Jackson told the Los Angeles Times.

Concerned, Jackson called Ryder’s cellphone, but got no answer. So he called the harbor patrol.

Ryder’s body was found around 7:30 the next morning, floating in the harbor.

The 4- to 8-foot swells whipped up by the freak storm destroyed five boats, broke off part of a pier and took the lives of Ryder and Tim Mitchell, a harbor patrol officer who was crushed between rocks and a boat he was trying to save that had broken loose from its mooring.

“People were just zombied, absolutely stunned” by the two deaths, Mary Schickling, of Avalon, told the Los Angeles Times. Along with many other residents, she’d known the two men very well.

Both Ryder and Mitchell had worked for Scuba Luv, a diving operation on Catalina Island.

“There are no words to describe the devastation, and the Scuba Luv family appreciates your thoughts at this difficult time,” the company wrote on its Facebook page Wednesday.

Since Tuesday night, Marlin Club patrons have been comforting P.B. The bar’s owner, Tony Underwood, told the Times it will be P.B.’s new home.

Photo credit: Klownacide Records

Sarah Palin Thinks It’s Fine for Son to Use Dog as ‘Stepping Stone’

JAN. 3, 2015 UPDATE: Sarah Palin finally responded on her Facebook page this afternoon to the outrage over the photos she posted:

“Chill. At least Trig didn’t eat the dog.
Hey, by the way, remember your “Woman of the Year”, Ellen DeGeneres? Did you get all wee-wee’d up when she posted this sweet picture [a child standing on a dog]? Hypocritical, much?
Did you go as crazy when your heroic Man-of-Your-Lifetime, Barack Obama, revealed he actually enjoyed eating dead dog meat?”

Ooh, burn! Her barrage against PETA goes on for a few more paragraphs, then concludes with this:

“Our pets, including Trig’s best buddy Jill Hadassah, are loved, spoiled and cared for more than some people care for their fellow man whose politics may not mesh with nonsensical liberally failed ways or don’t fit your flighty standards. Jill is a precious part of our world. So is Trig.”

So Palin has Jill’s back. Hopefully Trig won’t end up breaking it.

Remember when Sarah Palin famously said the difference between Pit Bulls and hockey moms was “lipstick” — helping fuel the stereotype of the breed as being aggressive? And who, when she was governor of Alaska, supported killing wolves by shooting them from helicopters?

The former vice presidential candidate is once again earning the wrath of animal lovers.

Photos she posted on her Facebook page Thursday show her son, Trig, who has Down syndrome, using the family’s black Lab as a step stool. Which was fine with Palin.

“May 2015 see every stumbling block turned into a stepping stone on the path forward. Trig just reminded me,” Palin wrote in the caption. “He, determined to help wash dishes with an oblivious mama not acknowledging his signs for ‘up!’, found me and a lazy dog blocking his way. He made his stepping stone.”

Cathy Liss, president of the Animal Welfare Institute, also has a child with Down syndrome. In a statement, she said she understands how a relationship between a child with special needs and the family pet can be beneficial to the child.

“That said, it is the responsibility of the parents to ensure that the interaction is safe and appropriate for both,” Liss added. “Although perhaps a seemingly innocent post on Facebook by Palin, a child standing on a dog is not safe for either the child or the dog.”

More than 21,000 comments have been made on the Facebook photos.

“Being a parent of a child with special needs (downs syndrome) this is not the proper way to teach a child,” wrote Linda Whitehead.

Many Palin supporters have no problem with the photos, however.

“Get over it liberal tree hugging morons! The dog is fine!” wrote Josh Robinson. “‘Oh that poor dog, animal abuse, etc.’ Give me a break!”

I may be a liberal tree-hugging moron, but I think that even someone who can see Russia from her Alaska home should have enough sense to realize that putting so much pressure on a dog’s back can cause serious injury to his spine.

Palin has not yet commented on the reaction to her photos.

Photo via Facebook

Viral ‘Poetic Dogs’ Photo Series Transforms Shelter Pups into Authors

Photographer Dan Bannino, dog dad of a former pound pup, wanted to do something to help get more homeless dogs adopted. In June 2014, he came up with the inspired idea of transforming shelter dogs into his favorite authors, photographing them and then posting the pictures on social media.

His project, “Poetic Dogs,” has gone viral since it debuted in late November.

“I’ve realized how dogs are similar to writers: speaking through their expressions, sounds and movements, they’re telling you everything while saying nothing, just like an author would do with their fine words in a poem,” Bannino, who lives in Italy, wrote on his website

Early last year, Bannino adopted his dog, Rothko, from a shelter. “From that day my life has changed,” Bannino wrote. “When I adopted him, I realized how many dogs are in the same condition all around the world, and how a single adoption could change their lives and help support the situation in a dog shelter.”

Bannino is raising funds online to take more photos and publish them in a book.

Here’s hoping the stories of all these “authors” have happy endings.

Nespola as Mark Twain

“Nespola gave us a smile from the first moment we saw him,” Bannino writes. “With his white tousled fur and his incredibly funny yet elegant ways we couldn’t associate him to anyone else than the ‘greatest American humorist.'”

Aky as Leo Tolsky

Aky, a Golden Retriever mix, was dumped at a shelter when he became too old to work as a search dog. “Since his arrival, everyone at the shelter is taking good care of him and now he’s patrolling the area, solving cases of missing cookies,” Bannino writes.

Biscuit and Crumb as the Brothers Grimm

“Like Hansel and Gretel in the Brothers Grimm’s tale, Biscuit and Crumb are two little clever puppies,” Bannino writes. “The only survivors of a litter of eight, they were found under a bridge on a very cold day.”

Wall Street as Charles Bukowski

The oldest pup in Banino’s photo series, 14-year-old Wall Street was brought to a shelter after his owner passed away. “When I saw him he suddenly reminded me of the famous writer Charles Bukowski,” Bannino writes. “He didn’t like staying too much with the other dogs, he always looks drunk since he’s very old and not standing a lot on his feet, but as soon as you establish even the smallest contact with him, it looks like he’s telling you all his incredible stories.”

A Few More Author Doggie Dopplegängers

Ernest Hemingway

 Emily Dickinson

 Edgar Allen Poe

William S. Burroughs

Charles Dickens

Photos via Instagram

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