GoodDogz.org - choose wisely. choose for life

I just saw this post about a new animal advocacy radio station - Animal Voices. I haven’t listened to it yet, but it looks like it could be a winner. What a cool way to get the word out about animal welfare!

This just in…Best Friends Animal Society has helped to save 1000+ puppy mill dogs from a mill in Parkersburg, WV. They desperately need help. Kudos to Best Friends for helping to give these dogs a second chance at a happy life. Here’s the article in full.

This was so weird and fun that I had to share. Enjoy!

Make Your Pets Do the Talking

You may have already heard of this, but I just ran across PetMD.com. I’d love to get the opinion of others on this site. The interface and graphics are nice, but unfortunately the look and feel greatly exceed the functionality. For example, there were only four vets in my zip code and the neighboring zip code didn’t even exist. I looked up diarrhea (as my Jack Russell does indeed have diarrhea) and all I got was a laundry list of diseases that my dog could have - ranging the gambit of stomach flu to conditions I’ve never even heard of. I guess if you’re going to mimic a dynamic service like WebMD.com, you might want to beef up your resources first.

A new service was also launched recently called Webvet.com. Again, the site is slick and contains a lot of information. I had a hard time navigating the many, many links, so I punted and searched for diarrhea. I received a lot of results, but in that same “laundry list of conditions” fashion, it was hard to narrow down what’s wrong with my dog. Webvet.com seemed to have more information than PetMD.com and with a little tweaking to their symptom checker - it could be a great resource.

With that said, all pet owners need to remember - if your pet is sick or hurt, take him/her to your vet. Tools like this are certainly helpful, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

My husband and I were having brunch yesterday and reading the Washington Post. We were both disturbed and disappointed to read that during a suspected drug bust, Prince George’s county sheriffs shot and killed PG county mayor Cheye Calvo’s two Labrador retrievers, Payton and Chase, one while it was running to a back room to get away. A sheriff’s spokesperson stated that “deputies on the scene felt threatened by the pets.”

I have a lot of respect for police and what they do. I certainly wouldn’t want to do that kind of work and I appreciate the risks involved. However, I find it very sad that officers would have felt a need to shoot and kill two dogs that meant them absolutely no harm.

In the article, it is mentioned that Calvo’s mother-in-law was home when the suspicious package was delivered (by an undercover police officer). She chose to not open the door and asked that the package be left on the porch. If she had opened the door, would the police have shot her too?

When I was in high school, we lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood in FL and much to our alarm, their was a house where drugs were being sold down the street. Police raided the house and the first thing they did was shoot and kill the rottweiler that lived in the house. The suspects weren’t even home.

Maybe someone can explain to me - why was it necessary to shoot and kill two Labrador retrievers? I can understand that if the dogs were attacking the officer there being a need to use force to subdue the dogs. But, one was running away. Is it just me, or does this seem terribly wrong?

Here is the article in it’s entirety.

You may have seen the Verizon commercial depicting the man and the Pit Bull running for the cell phone. The man makes it to the phone just in time for the dog to get yanked on his chain and snap at the man. The commercial was in terrible taste and Verizon caught a lot of heat for it. Care2 and the ASPCA circulated a petition that got traction and Verizon pulled the ad. Here’s the summary:

Dear Beth J.,

You signed the petition, Make Verizon Accountable. Can They Hear Us Now?, on Jul 17, 2008. The petition received 5083 signatures. The petition author, R. Brace and the ASPCA online community, has now closed the petition and posted the results:

Message from the petition author, R. Brace and the ASPCA online community:

———————————

I have just spoken with Steve Schwartzman, Executive Coordinator, who told me that the offensive ad has been pulled in all markets. Thank you to all who signed this petition and made the calls! Mr. Schwartzman was very understanding of our feelings, and admitted that they have received quite a bit of heat over this commercial.

Each and every one of you made the difference.

Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Renee Brace and the ASPCA Online Community

GoodDogz.org will be participating in the 2008 Combined Federal Campaign. We just received our charity number - 200416698. If you are a federal employee and want to support animal welfare, please consider participating in the CFC and designate GoodDogz.org as your charity of choice!

The GoodDogz.org team exhibited at the HSUS Taking Action for Animals conference over the weekend in Arlington, VA. An extremely successful event, our team networked with other animal welfare organizations, conference attendees and hosts. We attended the sessions on lobbying for animals and plan to attend the Lobbying for Animals day on Monday. All in all -  a great weekend! Thanks HSUS!

Best Friends Animal Society is heading up an effort to encourage Senator Obama to adopt a dog rather than purchase one. It’s called Obama Family Dog. Apparently, he promised his children that if he allowed him to run for President, they could get a dog. He’s already being courted by the AKC to purchase a purebred dog, so it’s time to let him know what the rescue community thinks! Sign the Best Friends petition in order to help “persuade” Mr. Obama to do the right thing.

Come meet the GoodDogz.org team at the upcoming Taking Action for Animals hosted by The Humane Society of the United States. We will have a booth in the exhibit hall July 19 - July 20 and would love to say hi! We will be featuring our new website and would love to talk to you about dog adoption, animal welfare education and what you can to help homeless dogs.