Redsonic

Awful for the family: ABC News I know it was wrong to allow the dog access to the room with the baby, but I can understand an exhausted mother in the middle of the night forgetting to shut a door. I hope bub will be OK and not too badly scarred. I hope the family are able to manage the dog rather than euthanase it, but it is understandable if they do put it down.

Owner takes her case all the way to the high court: ABC News article Sounds like the owner was totally irresponsible and I doubt she deserves to get Izzy back, but glad the court saw sense and reversed the verdict in favour of the dog.

Lovely dogs; I always like seeing working Labradors; so lean and muscly! Makes up for all the overweight ones you see. I wonder why search and rescue dogs are usually medium to large breeds? I would think a well trained terrier (for example) would be great at getting into small spaces to locate a person/body. Also smaller and more convenient to move about in a helicopter/plane.

I read on the Daily Mail site that the groomer who clipped the dogs was supporting the cause to let the dogs stay. I wonder if she has thought how her life (and that of all people who work with animals in Australia) would change if rabies was introduced here? I think a criminal act has been perpetrated and think the owners should be deported as well as the dogs.

Tibetan Mastiffs in the news again: Oregonlive.com

What a lowlife (Dutch's owner I mean). She obviously knew Dutch was a problem to the neighbour yet habitually let him wander. There is so much to read between the lines here, and I suspect there is a completely different side to this tale. 22500 supporters of her petition just shows how gullible people can be. She is asking for jail time for her neighbour but, depending where she lives, her neighbour may have acted perfectly legally: VIC Govt Act

Agree about the holiday attitude. I bet the caravan park they were staying at (if that's where they parked their motorhome) would have been thrilled to know they had a dangerous dog with them. Does anyone know if the dangerous dog legislation has local, state. or federal jurisdiction?

A nice story on ABC News: Hounds4Healing

I would say that the meter reader felt safe because the council specified dangerous dog signs indicated to him that the dog would be confined in a pen. The council report that the dog was to be kept confined to a pen under the house at all times when not under direct supervision. It is the householder's responsibility to make sure that their meter, letterbox & front door are accessible.

Bruce's owner: How on earth would the owner know that Bruce has never bitten anyone/thing outside his yard? How can the owners know what their roaming dog gets up to? The dog and his owners first came to the council's attention because Bruce was roaming and there were complaints about the dog being aggressive. Council spokesman:

Thanks for the recommendation Pie. I have noticed that if the squeaker is protected (like it is with the Elephant's feet), it is harder for him to locate and destroy. I will give the Dexter Elephant a try!

I just played the original poster's Youtube vid and my Border Terrier leapt out of my lap and ran to look at the toy box! I tried the bad cuz with him once. He destroyed the squeak in less than 2 minutes. It is his mission in life to destroy squeaks - cheapies last less than 20 seconds and I have only found a very few that last more than one session (we take "survivors" away from him to fight another day). Fortunately, he still loves them when they are dead (I call them "the thing that used to squeak"). He has also destroyed the 2 Chuckit toys I have bought for him (both floating fetch toys). We are about to claim the lifetime guarantee on a Bumi and have had a Bionic tug replaced under warranty (the new one quickly failed too). Given he is only 9kg, I don't know how owners of larger dogs cope. And yes, he only gets toys during supervised play!

Thanks for the update. It would seem the police were suspicious from the start. Poor kid must have had a miserable life. Certainly a short one. I hope justice is served in this case.

Story here, with lots more pics: http://sfglobe.com/?id=336 Here he is all recovered

I find it astounding that his lawyer mentioned that it was the fact that the dog had diarrhoea and messed on the carpet that sent the surgeon into a rage (not that we're admitting guilt, of course). If he has that sort of response to a sick dog, it is hard to imagine much (any?) empathy with sick patients. I would have thought a medical professional would have taken a bit of a poo mess in their stride.

WSM, you might want to try these: Available through Therapaw

I think that if dogs had written that article, they would have added: I hate it when humans bath me in smelly shampoo; I hate it when humans engulf themselves/the house in smelly sprays. We rarely think about how sensitive the dog's nose is, and how strong some of the synthetic smells we coat ourselves in must be to them.

This happened in a semi-rural area near the Gold Coast (Mt Tamborine). Poor guy is stable in intensive care. The news says the dogs are going to be euthanased. Sad for everyone Gold Coast Bulletin

I think the fact that she stopped in the left lane (Canada's fast lane) adds to her culpability. A pretty stupid thing to do, but she does deserve some leniency because there was no ill intent. I read a linked article that said the poor wife and mother was following on another bike and watched the whole thing happen in front of her. From the photo, it looked like she went down too, although she could have just dropped her bike in her hurry to get to her loved ones. It happened in daylight (7:20pm but summer days run long up there) and apparently a driver seconds ahead of the motorcycles nearly collided with the car too. The convicted woman had been walking up the highway to return to her car and may have caused a distraction, diverting the drivers' attention away from the road ahead.

I love how Joe O'Brian kept interrupting his commentary on the video with Awwww...!

Yep, I mentioned this attack in the thread about the woman in her 90's. Apparently the attacking dog ("pitbull") is still on the loose (its owner took off with it), and the attacked dog was little. Maybe the dog in the picture was the attacked person's other dog? The TV certainly made out as if the Vizla type dog was a pitbull!

An update to the article about the 92 year old woman states that last night a man has had his hand ripped apart by a pitbull that attacked his dog: Australian Article

I don't know how long it takes to do a tattoo like that one, but I am sure the dog was under anaesthetic unnecessarily long to get it done. Splenectomy is done with the dog on its back; I doubt a vet would let him tattoo the shoulder during the actual surgery (all sorts of sterility issues). So, either the anaesthetic was deliberately prolonged; the tattoo was very quickly done; or the tattooing was performed while the dog was waking up. I don't like it but, as others have said, not a huge welfare issue in the scheme of things.

I'm sure I will find a dead body one day. It seems that every time a body is found it's found by a dog walker around 6am!! ^^^ Wow, so I am not the only one who thinks this! I often walk my dog through degraded bush near a highway and think that it is just the sort of place where "a local walking their dog found the body".

Courier mail article: "A WOMAN has avoided jail after pleading guilty to starving two dogs to death and cruelly laying out food next to their "skin and bones". Debra Louise Pridmore, 46, also pleaded guilty to failing to treat the dogs for severe hookworm before their emancipated bodies were found by the RSPCA in June last year. The Ipswich Magistrates Court heard RSPCA inspectors went to Pridmore's home in Ebbw Vale after a complaint. Documents tendered in court showed the complainant said a dog was in a cage and "just skin and bones". On June 17 two officers found a white American staffordshire bull terrier dead inside a 6m by 3m greenhouse. The court heard the dog's tongue was hanging out of it's mouth, it's eyes were closed and it was cold to touch. The area was littered by faeces and the dog was later found to have been severely anaemic. A report by a vet concluded the dog had been dead for about 24 hours before it was found. In the same greenhouse a small white and tan dog was found in the same condition with a sunken stomach and had been dead for 36 hours. In a disturbing act of "callousness" the court heard fresh food had been laid out next to the dead dogs. "That shows the pure callousness on behalf of the defendant to effectively be feeding dogs she knew were dead," solicitor Bernard Catt, appearing for the RSPCA, told the court. Witnesses told the inspectors the dogs had been kept in the greenhouse since the family moved in three months prior to their death. The court also heard witnesses said the dogs were never allowed outside, they would bark and howl during the day and the dogs hadn't been heard barking for at least five days before they were found dead. Pridmore, who represented herself and is on a carers pension, told the court the dogs were healthy before she moved into the home. The court heard that when Pridmore was interviewed by the RSPCA she said: "I'm not a millionaire I'm not rich, I can't afford vets and (expletive) so nuh I didn't take them to a vet because I couldn't afford it, I just fed them so I didn't know what was going on ... They just lost weight." She was sentenced this morning to two months' imprisonment to be wholly suspended for 18 months. In sentencing Magistrate Donna McCallum said it was a "distressing and disturbing" case. "Animals are as vulnerable as children and our obligation to them are at the highest level." Pridmore was banned from owning dogs for life but after five years can apply to have them again." Sounds like she heard the RSPCA was coming so placed food beside her dead dogs. What a low life. ....oh, and there is nothing funny about this story but I love how Queensland's venerable paper says the dogs are "emancipated"!