melzawelza

If you're paying them money then you are a supporter of the RSPCA.

Yep, I'm pretty sure if that dog wasn't stopped so quickly the child could have died from injuries/blood loss. Eye-rollingly I saw a comment on line from someone that said 'That dog looks like a Rhodesian Ridgeback, they were bred to hunt lions in Africa. There is no place for these dogs in our society!!'. Really?!

Because they have Rabies in the USA they have to quarantine a dog for 10 days following a bite to monitor it for symptoms of rabies. I would imagine once that 10 days is up the dog will be put to sleep.

They're fixed outdoor security cameras. No one was filming. I seriously am so impressed with this cat. I've watched the footage so many times. What a badass. The dog's intent was horrible - that was serious and if no one was there to intervene it could have been a really, really bad attack.

Updated article: http://m.smh.com.au/nsw/man-injured-pet-greyhound-dead-after-dog-attack-20140511-zr99u.html Unsurprisingly, the breed of the attacking dog has now been changed. .. not that it's relevant in the first place. Very glad to hear they have found the dog and owner and the owner will be charged.

Made me sick to my stomach to hear. You would never, ever get over losing your dog in such circumstances. I thought of you as well HazyWal

That's great to hear TSD! Just saw this article in my news feed. Seems I vastly underestimated how many surrenders downtown dog rescue have prevented in the last year. It is in the thousands, not the hundreds. http://www.examiner.com/article/surrender-prevention-program-exceeds-its-lifesaving-goal-by-655

I don't have advice as far as whelping the litter but I just want to say to you Tess that although this situation is less than ideal - good on you for stepping up and doing the right thing by your dog and her puppies. The first vet needs a slap but unfortunately not uncommon. A woman I worked with ended up with two litters of unwanted kittens because the vet wouldn't spay the cat prior to 6 months or while pregnant. So of course she took the cat in at 6 months - pregnant. Had the litter, gave them to friends. Took the cat back to be spayed shortly after - pregnant again. Vet still refused to spay. Second litter ended up at the RSPCA. She tried to do the right thing but the bloody incompetent vet caused two unwanted litters regardless

Great post! Here's a couple of links I quickly pulled up to some communities that are saving over 90% of the animals in their shelters (and it's not through owner licensing, compulsory courses, mandatory desexing or other punitive measures). There's heaps of others I'll try and find later. Austin 'Out the Front Door' - listing 242 communities saving over 90% Downtown Dog rescue provide services to people that turn up at the local LA shelter wanting to surrender their pets, and keep quite a few hundred animals in their homes every year by helping them: Downtown Dog Rescue

Not allowing anyone to own a pet unless they've done an arbitrary course is punishing people into supposed compliance. What happens if someone hasn't done the course? Can't afford to? The course isn't running near them? Course only runs on a certain day and they have to work on that day? Seize the pet? Yep - that's definitely good for pets and impounding rates. You didn't say you wanted to see more education and owner support, you said want to make it harder for people to own pets - how is that not punishing people, the majority of which are good people who do the right thing by their pets. The ones that don't will very often come good with some help and guidance. Watch those kill rates skyrocket with that one. The reason I responded to you is that you said that because rescuers see the worst their opinions would be the same as yours. That isn't the case. Plenty of people in rescue look outside their own small bubble to the bigger picture, and to places that are doing it well. If you want to say that you have that opinion based on your own experiences that's fine, but don't imply that it's a general 'rescue' opinion and that anyone that has seen some awful rescue things would have their minds changed. The whole shelter pet thing can actually be sorted - there are many communities now in the USA that are importing rescue pets in to their shelters from other areas because they have pretty much emptied theirs. It'll never be sorted while people continue to cling to the old animal welfare attitudes though. You're right that love on it's own sometimes isn't enough but it's a damn good start, and if people love their pets but aren't knowledgeable enough to do the right thing for them, you can usually help them to do so as long as you don't come at them finger pointing and making them feel inadequate. As far as the general animal cruelty laws being implemented in Turkey, that's a great thing and it's awful to think there were next to none until now.

People need to be more knowledgeable about what it takes to be a good dog owner, far too many a clueless owner out there, very clueless and very irresponsible. Rescuers see the very worst - en masse - on a constant basis, I really think that would change anyone's viewpoint on this area. Nope, I contribute a lot to rescue and work with rescuers who are progressive minded and look at the evidence from around the world of what reduces shelter killing - and it isn't things like pet licensing/mandatory desexing/all the other silly things people push. Yes it can be easy in rescue to only see the worst, get jaded, complain about the 'irresponsible public' etc, but that's not really an excuse and it's not helpful to the actual goal of improving lives for pets and reducing shelter killing. Punishing people into compliance has never and will never work. Killing will simply increase, as it always does when these sorts of things are implemented. On the contrary, pet owner support and pound prevention programs over in the States are massively reducing surrenders and are a big contributor to getting kill rates right down and keeping pets in their homes. Most people love their pets and want to do the right thing by them but haven't either through lack of knowledge or resources. Give them the knowledge (in a non judgemental way) and/or the resources and life improves for both the pet and the owner in the majority of cases.

Good for her for being involved with and promoting rescue but PETA can go jump. What Maddy said:

If it gets people to desex that wouldn't otherwise, then that's fine by me Obviously if you can save yourself the cost of the implants themselves that's better for you guys - but if that's your husbands condition for the desexing then it's not the end of the world.

There is more than one study showing that 'free' animals are no less valued than animals that have cost. But these ridiculous groups prefer to rely on their feels rather than what the data shows. Absolutely ridiculous. So right. The key variable is the intrinsic value of the pet by the particular owner/owners. Keep up the good work, cas and friends. You're all doing very well on behalf of animal welfare. :) Yep, another study actually found that pets given as gifts had a higher rate of retention than pets adopted from shelters/rescues, pet shops and breeders. They think it's possibly because when someone is given a pet as a gift it is such a good feeling and they associate the pet with all of those good feels, and the pet has a very high intrinsic value to them.

The NSW Companion Animals Act has this to say about ownership: This is only in relation to functions under the Act though - so things like dog attacks, barking dogs, off leash dogs, who is able to collect the dog from the pound etc... If it was a civil property dispute the above may be considered but there would be many other things likely to be brought into it (things like others have said - vet bills, food bills etc) and I would imagine it would really be on a case by case basis.

That is fantastic!!!

There is more than one study showing that 'free' animals are no less valued than animals that have cost. But these ridiculous groups prefer to rely on their feels rather than what the data shows. Absolutely ridiculous.

Keep him tethered or on lead while around the cat, use a crate, or the baby gate idea as mentioned. You need to control his behaviour so he can't practice the very fun chasing behaviour. Work on his obedience independent of the cat so that he listens to you eventually while around the cat off the leash.

I don't understand why you are trapping community cats and taking them to the pound if you are simultaneously upset about cats being killed in the pound? Why wouldn't you neuter them and put them back?

What if your available carer/s can only take kittens? Is it better to save the kittens and leave mum, no matter how devastating that is, or to leave the whole lot to be euthanased rather than be judged by other rescuers?

Yep! My dog loves other dogs and is generally great with the littlies as long as I'm there to step in if she gets to boisterous/excited. I could easily imagine that she could injure a small dog if unsupervised with one even if her intent wasn't to do so. Hope you can get it sorted.

This is awesome. Congrats Casowner & P&C!

I can't tell you how many people have said, in their representations for a menacing or dangerous NOI following their dog attacking another dog or a person, that it shouldn't be declared dangerous/menacing because it 'isn't a Pit Bull/dangerous breed'. Even when the dog has actually caused injury, it still isn't seen as a real problem by its owner because people think attacks are a breed issue and a breed issue alone. Is there any wonder dog attacks increase in places with BSL?

It really is awful. I've been thinking about her a lot. Does anyone know if she's still critical? Re the bolded part - while our society continues to focus on 'breed' as the sole reason for dog attacks, what you describe won't get people to understand the responsibility of owning dogs. The general dog population will not think it applies to them because their dog isn't a 'pit bull', and therefore their dog couldn't possibly hurt anyone or anything. They will continue to be complacent and these incidents will continue to occur. It's only once we start focusing on and educating based on what studies have found are the main contributors to serious dog attacks (of which we can already see there are a few in this situation), rather than 'breed', that we will see improvement.

Really? Wonder what the use of it is then .... save for revenue. When I microchip my puppies, they have to go into my name. I sign and complete the transfer form and all the new owner has to do is sign it, add their contact details and send it off and the owner details are changed. Simple right?? Must be too hard. I sold a pup 18 months ago. I got a letter from the microchip company the other day, saying the pups microchip registration is up for renewal? WTF? Firstly when the dog was sold interstate with this document, the new owners did not complete the transfer. Secondly, microchip registration renewal fees? When I was at the pound, you would get a dog, scan for the chip and log in and search the registries. If it was the companion animal registry, they would take your details, contact the owner and request the owner to contact you at the pound. Any other registry, they would give you the name and contact number for the chip. I could not be joe smith of the street ringing in and asking for details. We had our authorisation ID and password. There are many NSW dogs sold interstate. The companion animal registry there has to be the most un user friendly and had the worst customer service if you don't live in nsw. The NSW CAR is really really great if you are an authorised officer in NSW, much better than all the other privately run ones. But I've heard the same thing as you have said for interstate officers, it is nigh on impossible to get the info. It is because it is Government run and privacy is seen as paranount. Needs to be one Gov- run registry Australia wide to fix that issue.