It took over 20 minutes, but rescuers were miraculously able to locate a dog named Apollo after he was swept off a Colorado cliff in an avalanche and buried deep in the snow.
Another miracle is that Apollo, who actually triggered the avalanche (bad dog!) in Berthoud Pass, survived this ordeal with apparently only an injured leg.
Skiers who witnessed the avalanche immediately went to work, poking their ski poles into the snow to try to find Apollo. This was no easy task, as the avalanche debris field was 300 feet long (that’s three football fields) and 50 feet wide, KABC reports.
“I found him! I found him! I found him!” yelled one of the skiers in a video that captured the rescue. He and the others quickly dug the dog out of the snow.
“Hey, you’re okay!” Apollo’s owner said to his very lucky dog. “Just a litttle scared.” In the video, Apollo appears to happily trot off in the snow.
Most human avalanche victims can survive as long as they’re dug out within 15 minutes, WABC reports. Apparently dogs have the good fortune of surviving a bit longer.
Apollo’s owner told KABC his dog’s rescuers are heroes, which they truly are. Hopefully he’ll make sure Apollo stays out of trouble like this in the future.
When a Colorado police dog named Lex saw his partner being brutally attacked on the other side of a fence by the trespassing suspect he was attempting to apprehend, the 3-year-old Belgian Malinois didn’t just sit there and do nothing.
During a foot pursuit of the male suspect in Shaw Heights early on Aug. 6, the deputy had jumped over the fence, leaving Lex behind. So Lex, who’s obviously a very smart as well as very heroic K-9 officer, quickly figured out how to use his paw to open the latch in a gate.
“Then Lex came to the assistance of the deputy and the suspect was apprehended,” the Adams County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
The injured deputy was taken to a hospital and treated for his injuries. He’s now recovering at home. The suspect was booked into the Adams County Detention Facility.
“Our deputies view canine Lex as a hero for saving the day,” said Adams County Undersheriff Harold Lawson in the statement. “We appreciate everyone in the K-9 Unit and their hard work to keep us safe.”
Lex has been a K-9 officer with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office since February 2015. The hero dog is certified in narcotics and police patrol through the Colorado Police Canine Association and National Police Canine Association.
As about 100 homeless dogs rescued from a high-kill shelter were being transferred from Tall Tails Rescue in Texas to new forever homes in Washington state, the truck and trailer in which they were riding slid on ice and crashed Thursday morning on a Colorado interstate.
Amazingly, no one was hurt — but the truck was severely damaged, leaving 100 dogs temporarily stranded in Eagle, Colo., while it was being repaired.
Eagle County Animal Shelter Manager Daniel Ettinger arranged for the dogs to be taken to the county fairgrounds.
“We took all the animals in, set up the kennels and started providing care,” Ettinger told 9News. “Our staff has been amazing through this, but this is something a little too big for us to handle on our own.”
Using social media, the shelter reached out to local residents for help.
Volunteers immediately responded. Among them were Kristie Bratschie, who helped clean up the kennels inside the truck “that, after a scary accident, needed a lot of cleaning,” 9News reports.
“They are getting back on the transport today so we want to make sure they are going home in clean kennels too,” Bratschie told 9News yesterday.
More than 100 volunteers (one for every dog!) showed up to help by walking the dogs and donating supplies. There was even a line of people waiting to walk the dogs, Eagle County Public Information Officer Kris Friel told the Post Independent.
Michael Wlodarek, who runs Tall Tails Rescue with his mom, told the Post Independent, “These dogs must think they’re in heaven, they’re getting so much attention and love. Every dog has been walked a couple dozen times and held for hours.”
Karen Jarchow of Eagle volunteered after seeing a post about the dogs on Facebook.
“A giant truck full of puppies in Eagle? I thought it was too good to be true,” she told the Post Independent. “Then someone else told me about it, so I went over on Friday morning and there were all kinds of dogs from adults to puppies. So I grabbed a leash and helped walk a dog.”
Among the items donated by local residents were dozens of blankets, cases of cleaning supplies, dog beds, toys, leashes and almost 2 tons of dog food, the Post Independent reports.
Ettinger told 9News it was “one of the most rewarding and exciting days I have ever had in my career.” He said his cell phone never stopped ringing.
Most of the dogs being transported already have new families waiting for them in Washington. The 10 dogs who haven’t yet been adopted will remain at the Eagle County shelter — and several of them already have new forever homes.
Last night, the 90 or so other dogs were back in the truck and on their (hopefully incident-free) way to new homes in Washington.
Please note that some news outlets reported this recall Sept. 22, 2015, because the FDA sent an email linking to a July 2015 press release. However, there have been no additional recalls of I and Love and You products since July. Click the link below for the most up-to-date information about the expanded recall of I and Love and You Cow-Boom Strips.
Nearly 3,000 cases of I and Love and You Cow-Boom! Strips Beef Gullet dog chews are being voluntarily recalled because they may be contaminated with Salmonella.
According to the I and Love and You website, the company, which is based in Boulder, Colo., was notified July 10 by the Colorado Dept. of Agriculture that a routine sampling of Cow-Boom! Strips Beef Gullet treats tested positive for Salmonella.
Salmonella can affect animals as well as people who handle the contaminated food. The symptoms for both people and animals include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. If you or your pet experiences these symptoms after handling or eating the recalled product, see a doctor or veterinarian.
The recalled I and Love and You Cow-Boom! Strips Beef Gullet treats were sold throughout the U.S. by wholesale distributors, online retailers, and retail stores including grocery chains. They were supplied by a U.S. supplier. According to the package label, the treats are manufactured in Brazil.
Only 2-ounce packages with the following information are included in the recall:
Lot numbers: C20130-1994T1 and C20130-2024T1
Best-by-date: 07/2016
UPC code: 8 18336 0113 4
The lot number and UPC code are printed next to the proof-of-purchase bar code on the back of the package.
The company has not received any reports of illness from the recalled products.
“The health and safety of our customers and their beloved four-legged family members is paramount to us,” said CEO Steve Ball on the I and Love and You website.
If you purchased the recalled product, do not give it to your dog. Contact the company, or either dispose of the product or return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.
For more information about the recall, call I and Love and You at 855-459-5683 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. MT, or email service@ilypet.com.
Voters in Aurora, Colo., overwhelmingly decided yesterday not to repeal the city’s nine-year-old ban on Pit Bulls. As of 6 a.m. this morning, 66 percent of them had voted to keep the ban.
Yet you can still purchase assault rifles and Glock pistols in local sporting goods stores, as Aurora resident James Holmes did before shooting down moviegoers in July 2012, killing 12 and wounding 58 — however, Pit Bulls are “dangerous,” and continue to be banned from the city.
Breed-specific legislation (BSL) — laws that single out a particular breed instead of placing responsibility on dog owners — is opposed by every major animal welfare organization, including the ASPCA, AVMA, HSUS, etc., etc., as well as by the president of the United States, who called it a “bad idea.” It is expensive to enforce and has not proven to increase public safety.
So why did the majority of Aurora voters decide to keep the city’s Pit Bull ban?
“I personally think it’s an uphill battle to win a repeal via a public vote, generally because if a ban is in place, most of the residents have had very little personal interaction with the banned breeds and thus, are more apt to have to rely on the media coverage as the basis for their opinions,” wrote Brent Toellner, co-founder of KC Pet Project, the nation’s third-largest no-kill shelter, on the Huffington Post.
“To this point, the area media has not been terribly accurate in their reporting.”
As always, leading the support of the ban — and bans everywhere — was DogBites.org (start typing that in Google, and what automatically pops up is “DogBites.org bias,” “DogBites.org bullshit,” “DogBites.org scam” — you get the picture).
This lobbying organization that spews twisted statistics is run by one woman, Colleen Lynn, who was bitten by a Pit Bull. (I wish she could meet Donna Lawrence, who was also bitten by a chained Pit Bull. Instead of bitterly wanting to ban the entire breed, Lawrence rescued an abused Pit mix named Susie, and they both helped each other heal — and Susie, now a therapy dog, continues to help others heal. Susie is this year’s winner of the American Humane Association’s Hero Dog Award.)
Lynn is by no means a dog expert, yet the mainstream media continues to report the “facts” she provides, without bothering to dig a little deeper to uncover the truth.
As Lynn points out, Pit Bull bites have decreased since the Aurora ban went into effect — but animal control officers have been ignoring bites by other breeds, which have increased, according to Juliet Piccone, president of Coloradans for Breed Neutral Dog Laws Inc.
“If the goal is to prevent dog bites, it’s not working,” Piccone told the Denver Post. “If the goal is to prevent dog bites from restricted breeds, they can say, ‘Yes, that’s happening.’ ”
City officials told the Denver Post that Piccone was incorrect — but they did not provide the actual statistics.
For the majority of us who feel BSL is unfair and ineffective, the good news is that the trend across the country has been to repeal breed-specific legislation.
“While disappointment is part of the game, it does not signal the end,” wrote the advocacy group ColoRADogs on its Facebook page last night. “Twenty-three thousand people voted NO to hysteria, NO to social disapproval and NO to discrimination.”
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