Neuter That Boy- GRated

Family- friendly video encouraging spay & neutering of pets

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Shelter dogs learn new tricks — msnbc.com

This is almost a preview of the Ad Council’s upcoming PSA campaign, the Shelter Pet Project! (The campaign launches 9/24 — in conjunction with HSUS and Maddie’s Fund.)   Make adoption your first option!

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Comcast helps humane societies get pets adopted

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Comcast helps humane societies get pets adopted

We got great coverage of our second rotation of 15 adoptable animals who will soon appear on Comcast’s Pet Adoptions on Demand (Get Local).  Take a look:

Channel-surfing for a cat: Cable TV connects people with new animal companions by Sarah Andrews, DC Cats Examiner, examiner.com, 9/3/09

Television Pet Adoptions ‘On Demand‘ (video) with Lindsay Mastis, W*USA9, 9/3/09

 

UAN’s HEAR program featured by AP writer

Pet-focused reading program aims for empathy

Group hopes to help kids learn responsible pet care, prevent animal cruelty

By Linda Lombardi for The Associated Press

Wheaton, MD

August 3, 2009

—

Details about the United Animal Nations HEAR program:

Humane Education Ambassador Readers

 

A boy, a bike and a snake

The loose pet python in Gaithersburg this week brings back one of my funny Florida memories that’s just begging to be told.  A shaggy dog story this is not.  Nor is it a tale about the fish that got away.  Hush up and listen — this is a personal true story in the category, a la Dave Barry, I’m not making this up.  Here goes:

My then-hubby Mike had a not-so-Little Brother from the Big Brothers organization.  Paul had been living with his grampa, who was his guardian.  When Gramps died, Paul, 14, came to live with us for a short time before he was to move back to New Jersey with his mom.

That much was fine.  The interesting part was Paul’s pet boa constrictor, probably about 6-7 feet long.  I decreed he could keep the snake in the house provided it was constrained to Paul’s bedroom, and that Paul would assume full responsibility for feeding it.  Paul proved to be a most dutiful caretaker.

One of the lad’s signature famous lines was “Jump back, fellow inmates!” — told with a quirky, twisty spring from one side to the other as he spoke the line.  The snake was oblivious.  I kept a wary eye on the door to the bedroom, ascertaining it was closed at all times.

As the date grew near for Paul to fly back to Jersey, Mike contacted the airline (Eastern!  any readers old enough to remember Eastern?  good grief!) about how to “pack” the snake.  On three separate occasions, three different people offered the following instructions:

• Put the snake in a pillowcase and tie a knot in said pillowcase.
• Put the knotted pillowcase inside a carry-on flight bag and zip it up.
• Board plane with carry-on bag containing snake.

We shook our heads with skepticism after each call, but hey — three times?  Three people?  Maybe they knew something we didn’t know, so despite our doubts, we proceeded per their dictum.

Came the day of Paul’s flight and I was neck-deep in managing public relations for the first year of the Florida Renaissance Festival.  Mike and I were taking the cheap way out for costumes, garbed simply as peasants.  We planned to drop Paul, his duffel bag, his bicycle and…the snake…off at the airport and then hie to the festival.

You can picture the scene.  As we went through the X-ray machine, a tough, stocky woman was the chief inspector.  She reminded me of Clara Pelf in the 1970s flick, Semi-Tough starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson.  Inspector Pelf freaked out when the snake was clearly visible in the X-ray as the closed-up flight bag rode along on the conveyor belt.

“That snake is not going in the cabin with my passengers!” she shrieked.  She would not be argued or reasoned with.  “No way that snake is flying with people!” she bellowed.  The clock was ticking — Paul had to get on the plane or it would leave without him — and I needed to make haste to the Renaissance Festival even though it was pouring down rain and our first weekend was headed for a wash-out.

To save time, Mike and I rushed Paul, his duffel bag and his bike to the boarding area, promising to get the snake to him as soon afterwards as we could.  Done deal.

—

Paul is airborne.  Mike, the snake and I drove around the airport to Eastern’s air cargo.

Once again, you can picture the scene:  Mike and me in our peasant garb, both of us short, unassuming, non-threatening villager types.  Me carrying the bag with the snake.  Me, not Mike.  Paul was Mike’s Little Brother but I was somehow the one charged with transporting the boa.  We entered the air cargo office.

Standing by the counter were about a half dozen tall, husky, well-built he-men, just passing time on a rainy Sunday morning.  We explained the situation and I held out the bag with the snake.  Yegads!  Not a single one of these hurly-burly strong men accepted!  They even flinched!  I couldn’t believe it.  Here I am, not even 5′ tall, dressed like a hick from another era, and I wasn’t disproportionately concerned about the contents of the bag, and these giants were freakin’ out!

The Eastern air cargo desk refused our package.  But as luck would have it, I had just finished researching and writing a blurb for the Tampa Bay area lifestyle magazine I edited about a specialty business, Air Animal, whose main service was shipping exotic animals and whose main client was Busch Gardens.  Even though it was Sunday, I thought they might be able to help.  Alas, I had to leave a message on their answer machine, and we had to take the snake back home for another night.

When we finally made a live connection with Air Animal on Monday, the upshot of the adventure was that the cost to ship the snake separately slightly exceeded the cost of Paul’s airfare (including standard luggage) and an upcharge for his bike.  The snake arrived a day after Paul.

And I ended up with this funny tale that still regales me many years later.

Ta-da!

 

As California goes, so goes the nation?

This is one case where I surely hope California doesn’t turn out to be the bellwether for the rest of us:

Schwarzenegger on Shelter Animals – Kill’em Faster to Save Money!, For the Love of the Dog blog, 6/7/09

See also:

A Pet Tax Break – A Deduction for an Adoption – VIDEO, For the Love of the Dog blog, 4/16/09

(Now that wouldn’t be a bad idea to adopt, pardon the expression!)

But then there’s this other proposal kicking around in California that would add a burden to pet parents:

A Sales and Use Tax on Vet Services?, For the Love of the Dog blog 11/28/09

So it sounds as if legislators in the Golden State can’t seem to get their right hands in sync with their left hands when it comes to doing what’s best for both people and dogs.  Heaven forbid anyone should use logic in coming up with ways to manage costs of animal care.  Win-win is just more than anyone can imagine, y’think?

 

NPR’s Frank DeFord on Michael Vick

DeFord points out yet another perspective on Vick:

Sweetness and Light, Morning Edition, June 3, 2009

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104831602

 

Update on the Shelter Pet Project from Maddie’s Fund

Regardless of whether a shelter’s mission specifies “open admission” (accepts all animals) or “no kill” — and the two are not mutually exclusive — animal welfare organizations around the U.S. will be dramatically affected by the upcoming Shelter Pet Project campaign.  The Ad Council is teaming up with HSUS and Maddie’s Fund with the objective of increasing shelter pet adoptions to the point that upwards of 3 million healthy, adoptable animals no longer lose their lives.  Take a look…

Maddie’s Fund May 2009 e-newsletter (Shared via AddThis)

Be sure to read these individual links:

• A Big New Voice For Shelter Animals
• The Shelter Pet Project By The Numbers – And Something More
• When The Adopters Show Up, Will Your Shelter Be Ready?
• Petfinder.com survey results (summary)

 

And for another take…

There’s certainly more than one way to look at Michael Vick and HSUS.  Here’s Nathan Winograd, on his blog:

In bed with monsters
5/25/09

To which I reply, yes, HSUS does adopt some very questionable policies, to say the least.  HSUS also adopts some very progressive policies, at least on the outset.  So do we throw the baby out with the bath water?  Or do we work from inside to try to change the system?

For those of us who believe HSUS does have at least some merit, I say it’s up to us to help other folks understand what programs they do and do not undertake.  If you want to support animal welfare directly rather than through advocacy, put your nonprofit dollars into local or small, struggling organizations with a valiant mission, where every penny makes a legitimate difference in animal lives.  These organizations still are able to draw on the HSUS knowledge base, which is considerable in spite of some of the criticism from those with an opposite political philosophy.  And HSUS’s advocacy efforts are still effective in many ways at saving animal lives on a macro level.

There’s room in my playbook for some of what HSUS is all about, and also some of what Nathan Winograd is all about.  I’m for picking the best practices each has to offer rather than pitting one against the other.  The latter more closely resembles a dog fight.  I thought that’s what we’re all against, folks!