animal rights

Growing boys need their naps, no matter if they're human or canine. 

When Jessica Shyba and her husband got their three small children a dog this month, they decided to crate train the 7-week-old mixed breed.
But after the first night of whining, Mrs Shyba decided she couldn't bear to let the puppy named Theo sleep alone again.
And that applies to nap time as well. Every day after her son Beau is put down for his afternoon nap, his 'puppy brother' jumps up on the bed to cuddle up and catch a few z's as well.
Mrs Shyba recently wrote about the daily ritual on her blog, including some unbearably adorable Instagram photos. 

They used to be called guide dogs, but they're correctly known as service animals. Dogs are not the only service animals, and service animals are not just for the blind. People with many different disabilities can use them. But there are abuses.

From the time they're puppies, service dogs are rigorously trained to help those who need them most. They can get into places where no pets are allowed.

The dogs are identified by the vest they wear. But since it's not illegal to buy these vets, it's easy for anyone to go online and obtain a vest for their animal.
Susan Lee Vick, director of Canine Companions for Independence, demonstrated how easy it is to obtain one. "There's a real faux official quality to this, you know?" she said, showing a photo of a tiny dog wearing a service vest. "This is Bambi; Bambi's new service dog vest!"
She said it never occurred to advocates for the disabled that the vests would be misused.
"There was never any vision of this outcome, this just sort of explosion of the 'have a vest, wear a vest, go anywhere you want with your pet,' no one saw that," Vick said.
Peter Morgan has a spinal disorder that makes it nearly impossible for him to bend. He teaches kids with special needs, with his service dog Echuka constantly at the ready. His disability isn't very obvious to strangers. Morgan says no one had ever doubted his need for a service dog -- until recently.

HOPKINTON — Tiger, a 7-year-old fawn greyhound, has been a great pet, but he gets a little lonely when his owners are at work. A few weekends ago Robin and Steven Narcovich drove up from Rhode Island to Hopkinton to visit the Greyhound Friends’ fall open house, looking for a companion for Tiger.

With the guidance of kennel founder Louise Coleman and her volunteers, the Narcoviches quickly found their dog a partner. Wanda, a sweet-natured brindle, took to him immediately.
“She rested her head on him, so I think that’s a match,” said Narcovich as she filled out the adoption papers. A longtime dog lover, she works part time in a grooming shop on Saturdays. Greyhounds, she said, “are so unlike any other breed. They ask for nothing and appreciate everything.”
For 30 years, Greyhound Friends has built a network of owners and friends devoted to the breed. But for the first time, the organization has begun to arrange adoptions of dogs that are only part greyhound, if that. The breed is in flux as the dog-racing industry becomes a thing of the past in a growing number of states; Massachusetts voted in 2008 to ban greyhound racing, and New Hampshire banned the sport two years ago.

A courtroom in New Jersey erupted into cheers yesterday as a couple was sentenced to six months in jail yesterday for the abuse of their 17-year-old dog Sammy.

 

Back in March of this year Keith Morgan brought a Cocker Spaniel named Sammy to the Associated Humane Society in Tinton Falls. He claimed he had found Sammy in a garbage bag on the side of a road.
Sammy was malnourished, his fur was covered in urine and matted so badly that he couldn’t stand.
Morgan was first seen as a hero for finding the dog and even gave television interviews. Upon further investigation and thanks to an anonymous tip it was discovered that Morgan and Shauna Ewing Morgan were the owners of Sammy and they had owned him for at least nine years.
The Morgans reached a plea agreement in August. Keith Morgan pleaded guilty to one count of abuse of animal cruelty and filing a false report with law enforcement. Shauna Ewing Morgan pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty. Yesterday they faced their sentencing.
Jail time wasn’t guaranteed in the sentencing but when Judge Robert LePore announced that the defendants would spend six months the many Sammy supporters that had shown up for the sentencing cheered.
“Unless these individuals are imprisoned for their depraved, cruel and heinous conduct, such acts of animal cruelty will continue worldwide,” said Judge LePore. “The lack of care provided to Sammy was inexcusable.”
In addition to six months in jail the sentence also included a $1,000 fine, $13,500 in restitution to the Red Bank Veterinary Hospital and they couple is banned from ever owning a dog again.

The Under Siege star is currently shooting new movie A Good Man in the eastern European country, and he took time out from work to visit an animal shelter in Bucharest on Sunday (17Nov13).

 

Seagal, a well-known animal lover, became so fond of one of the centre's stray dogs, a black puppy named Grivei, he agreed to adopt the animal through the shelter's long-distance program, which allows him to pay for the pooch's care even though he is not allowed to take it back to America with him.
The actor will send money every month to pay for Grivei to stay at the shelter, and he also donated a large quantity of dog food.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — He plays the tough guy in movies but actor Steven Seagal showed his soft side when he adopted one of Bucharest's street dogs.

 
The dogs have been in the news after a 4-year-old boy was fatally mauled by a stray in August and Parliament passed a law allowing for Bucharest's 64,000 street dogs to be euthanized.
Seagal visited a dog shelter south of Bucharest Sunday and adopted a 7-month-old black puppy in the long distance adoption program, which costs 60 lei ($18) a month. The dog will remain at the shelter.
"I am doing the best I can to bring awareness... so that we can make sure these accidents and tragedies don't happen again," he said in comments broadcast Monday.
He is currently filming thriller "A Good Man" in Romania.

Most dogs just saunter into the house after frolicking around in mud, and don’t give dirtying pristine floors and carpet a second thought.

 

But this considerate canine obviously knows better.
After being invited in by his owner, he begins to wipe his paws with gusto on the doormat, tail wagging happily.
He keeps going for ten seconds, until he is interrupted by the porch door closing.
There’s a noticeable bounce in his walk as he then makes his way inside, safe in the knowledge he’s dodged the dreaded bath for another day.
Who needs a Dog Whisperer when you’ve got a pet as well-trained as him?

The first thing that hits me is the smell. It's blood, unmistakably, despite the accompanying stench of disinfectant. It clings to the back of my throat and nose for a long time after, as if I'd spent the day sucking on an ancient penny.

There is also a tang of excrement and something else I can't place. Maybe the testosterone that has run so high in this room has seeped into the pocked walls as a permanent reminder of what has gone on here. When we leave, I spit and spit, hands on knees, and do that thing footballers and boxers do of pressing on one nostril and expelling the offending snot. No one seems to object to my unladylike behaviour. They do the same, but in a more practised manner.

"You should smell it fresh," Jake says sympathetically, kneeling slightly to be nearer my bent-double ear level. He hands me some gum. He then turns to his friends. "Wanna get some chicken?" he asks. They all agree and I want to laugh crazily at what seems, in the context, a vulgar suggestion.
You might say my being here today is the result of tumbling down a pretty nasty rabbit hole. I was curious about one thing and found quite another. I wanted to take a closer look at the ownership of unsafe dogs by young men. I expected to write an article on swagger and masculinity protected by furry, four-legged bouncers. I found something much darker where dog ownership was concerned, which is why I ended up outside a grim warehouse in east London expelling bodily fluids in front of strange young men. The only thing that would make this experience more grim would be to witness one of the dog fights held in the warehouse – which is illegal under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
Another piece of legislation, The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, explicitly prohibits the breeding of dogs for fighting or profit and particularly bans the ownership of four types – the pit bull terrier, Japanese tosa, dogo Argentino and the fila Brasileiro – without specific court exemption. It was passed in response to a spate of injuries and deaths caused by dogs, but there have, nevertheless, been 16 fatalities due to dog attacks since 2005 and the law is currently being updated.

Owning a dog teaches responsibility -- from training, to cleaning up, to tending to another being's every need. 

 

But anyone who's actually had a canine companion knows that the lessons go beyond the mundane tasks.
This sweet video from HooplaHa combines corgis, dalmatians, pugs, and more to remind us what dogs really teach the people they love so much.
Watch the 2-minute clip and you may learn a thing or two about listening, sharing, overcoming, and healing.