Carrie Fisher Led a Protest This Year Against the Yulin Dog Meat Festival

Really, 2016? Just two days after the sad and shocking news that George Michael had died, Carrie Fisher has also left us. Just like Michael, the multi-talented Fisher used her fame to help others, including animals.

In June, Fisher and her constant companion, a devoted French Bulldog named Gary, led a protest outside the China embassy in London, calling for an end to the annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival, a 10-day event in June during which thousands of dogs — including stolen pets — are brutally killed and then eaten.

“My dog Gary is my best friend and it makes me shudder to think there are dogs just like him being kidnapped, beaten and eaten,” Fisher told the Sun at the time. “I told Gary about the festival this morning and he was disgusted. He hasn’t spoken a word since.”

An estimated 10 to 20 million dogs are killed for their meat in China every year. The Yulin Dog Meat Festival was launched six years ago to help boost sales of dog meat.

Thanks to protesters like Fisher, the scale of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival has been reduced by 80 percent in the past few years. The government of China is currently working with local partners to enact new animal protection laws that will end the festival and the dog meat trade.

On Dec. 23, the same day Fisher suffered a heart attack, 110 dogs that were to be killed arrived safely in Toronto after being rescued by the Humane Society International (HSI).

Still, Fisher asked the Sun’s readers to “help keep up the pressure” to end the festival she called barbaric. “Just because it’s happening far away doesn’t mean we should sit back and do nothing,” she said.

In her memory, let’s all keep up the pressure.

How You Can Help End the Yulin Dog Meat Festival

Official Cause of Carrie Fisher’s Death

Carrie Fisher died after she drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra. May she rest in peace.

Photos via Twitter; Twitter

George Michael Was a Great Voice for Animals, Too

George Michael, yet another talented artist who we lost this year, will always be remembered for his amazing voice. But his legacy should also include the amazing voice he had for the welfare of animals, particularly sick puppies being sold by unlicensed breeders via the internet.

Michael had very recently been working with the UK animal welfare organization Blue Cross to call attention to this issue. In late November, he and a group of veterinarians and celebrities including Morrissey, Graham Norton, Joanna Lumley and Miranda Richardson sent a letter to the government, asking for tougher regulations for pet breeders and sellers.

Thousands of puppies are illegally trafficked from Ireland and Eastern Europe every year and sold online, The Times reports. Some breeders make as much as £35,000 a week — almost $43,000 in U.S. dollars.

According to a Blue Cross report on the internet sale of puppies, using nine different email addresses, one puppy seller placed 138 ads in 24 months on the classified advertising website Gumtree. Since the puppies were offered for sale in seven different areas, it was challenging for local authorities to enforce laws, which differ from area to area. For example, some areas only require a license for breeders of more than five litters each year.

Michael, along with Blue Cross, wanted laws that required a license for anyone who breeds one litter or more each year. He also wanted pet stores to be banned from selling breeders’ puppies.

‘Puppies with No Access to Daylight’

“Findings include pets shops not inspected for two years, maggots in drinking water, puppies with no access to daylight and many licensing officers unable to identify welfare issues with exotic pets,” Michael and the others wrote in their letter to the government. “Blue Cross vets are frequently faced with puppies and kittens that fall desperately ill just days after they are sold.”

The group called for legislation “that makes a real difference to pets bred and sold in the UK by empowering local authorities with sufficient resources and training, targeting the growing online pet market and making breeders and sellers fully accountable for the welfare of pets in their care — only then can Britain can truly start to live up to its reputation as a nation of pet lovers once more.”

Here’s hoping tougher puppy-breeding regulations are passed by the government — and in his honor, the new law is named after Michael.

To make a donation to Blue Cross in memory of George Michael, click here.

Photo via YouTube

Phoenix Teen Jumps off School Bus to Save His Dog from House Fire

As 14-year-old Mike Assi of Phoenix rode the bus to his middle school yesterday morning, he noticed smoke pouring from a house.

It was his house, and his Pit Bull mix, Zach, was inside it. Assi ran to the front of the bus and yelled for the driver to stop.

“The bus driver was yelling at me, telling me not go in but I just had to open the door,” Assi, a student at Deer Valley Middle School, told KPHO. “I had to at least yell for my dog to see if I could give him a chance to come out. I was just worried about him. I wasn’t scared. I was worried about him because he’s family.”

Assi jumped off the bus and ran to his house. When he opened the front door, smoke poured out. He called Zach’s name but got no response. So he ran around to the back door. When he opened it, Zach ran out.

Assi said Zach has been part of the family for 8 and a half years — over half his life.

Neither Assi or Zach were injured. No one else was home at the time. Firefighters put out the fire, which caused extensive damage to the house.

Capt. Aaron Ernsberger with the Phoenix Fire Department told KPHO that if you should happen to see a house fire, call 911 immediately.

The Assi family is thankful Zach is alive, and they’re calling Mike a hero for saving his life.

Family Lost Everything Except Their Dog

According to a GoFundMe page, the Assi family lost just about everything except Zach in the fire.

“The home was deemed a total loss and very little was salvageable,” wrote a family member. “My sister who is a competitive cheerleader lost all of her uniforms, we lost Christmas presents that had been bought, along with the irreplaceable family photos and memorabilia.”

More than $2,200 has been raised for hero Mike and his family as of Saturday. If you’d like to help them, click here.

Photo via YouTube

Rottweiler Saves Pug Stuck in Well for 10 Days

Spooked by fireworks during a walk earlier this month, a Pug named Olive bolted. She seemed to have vanished from Wick, a village in England.

For over a week, Saffron Mackeson, along with friends and strangers, searched for her little dog. Their hopes for Olive being able to survive in the wintry conditions began to fade.

Ten days after Olive disappeared, Nichola Jones walked Bear, her 2-year-old, 110-pound Rottweiler, about a half mile away from where Olive ran off. Bear suddenly began to act strangely.

“I was just walking past a hedgerow and Bear stopped. He wouldn’t move,” Jones told the Daily Mail. “So I went through the hedge, and I found a well and looked down, and there was this black Pug.”

It was Olive who was looking back up at her. Jones climbed into the 5-foot-deep well and pulled her out to safety.

“I was worried she might have hurt herself,” Jones said. “She was petrified, but then her tail wagged. She was fine.”

Mackeson couldn’t be happier to be reunited with her beloved dog. “I’m so relieved,” she told the Daily Mail. “She’s lost a lot of weight, but other than that, she’s fine. We were so happy when we got the call.”

People that Mackeson said she doesn’t even know have been coming by, bringing Olive treats as the Pug recovers.

You know who else deserves to be showered with treats? Bear the hero dog.

“Bear is amazing. He is beautiful and has saved Olive’s life,” Mackeson’s mom, Zed Hale, told the Daily Mail. “He deserves a medal.”

Here’s hoping the gentle giant will get what he deserves.

Photo credit: joaquin uy/Flickr

LAPD Cop Shooting Dog at Busy Venice Beach Also Shoots Woman

On a summery day like yesterday in Los Angeles, crowds of tourists flock to popular Venice Beach. Despite putting these visitors at risk, an LAPD officer opened fire in the middle of the afternoon on a Pit Bull who he said bit his hand. The bullet passed through the dog and hit the leg of a woman who was riding by on a bicycle.

The woman was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where she was in stable condition yesterday. The dog did not survive.

The unidentified officer who somehow thought it was a good idea to use his gun on a crowded boardwalk has been assigned to non-field duties as this case is being investigated. He will “have to be able to articulate why they used the force they did, and why they did not use other options if they were applicable at the time,” Detective Meghan Aguilar told KTLA.

There’s currently no video available of the shooting incident. It happened after two mounted LAPD officers told a group of people who were blocking part of the bike path to move their belongings. A couple of people in the group became belligerent, and the dog became agitated. When the officers got off their horses, the dog allegedly bit an officer’s hand.

“I heard a struggle, and the next thing I knew, I heard a shot. And I saw the dog laying there,” Tara Borris, a witness, told KCBS. “I think the dog was just protecting his owner. I didn’t hear any growling.”

Terah Clark, a woman in the group, told KCBS the dog’s owner was holding the dog back by his collar when the officer fired.

This case was described by KCBS as “very unusual” because an innocent bystander was also shot — but these cases are not unusual at all. In June 2015 a 4-year-old girl was shot by a cop who was aiming for her family’s dog. Three months before that, a woman in Iowa was killed by an officer’s bullet intended for her dog.

The KCBS report shows the owner sobbing as he holds his dead dog, who Clark said he’d had for 10 years. One person in the group was arrested for an outstanding warrant and another for resisting arrest, but the dog’s owner wasn’t one of them.

Preventing ‘Puppycide’

It’s a horrible statistic, but more than 10,000 pet dogs are shot by police officers in this country every year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. There’s even a term for it: “puppycide.” To prevent this, some police departments are training their officers in non-lethal ways to deal with scared pets.

In response to the shocking, viral 2013 video of a Hawthorne, Calif., police officer shooting a Rottweiler named Max as his owner begged him not to, spcaLA began offering the class, “Dog Behavior for Law Enforcement” to all police departments in California. (The mounted LAPD officer patrolling Venice Beach yesterday may have skipped this class.)

In 2013, Colorado became the first state to pass a “Dog Protection Act,” which requires similar training for law enforcement officers. Two years later, Texas enacted a law that required the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to establish a statewide comprehensive training program in dog encounters.

These programs are a good start, but as those sad statistics make clear, teaching law enforcement officers how to humanely deal with dogs should be required in every state.

Fortunately, many police officers inherently know the right way to handle frightened animals. Just last week, two deputies in Florida saw two scared, stray Pit Bulls in the middle of a street. While that LAPD officer would likely have shot both of them, Deputy Boggs and Deputy Reed with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office stayed with the dogs, comforting them until animal services arrived. Good cops, indeed.

Photo via YouTube

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