Oklahoma Cracks Down on Puppy Mills

State Representative Lee Denney (R)-Cushing has introduced a bill, the Pet Quality Assurance Act--a.k.a. the puppy mill bill--that was passed in the state House by a vote of 74-26.

"For too long, Oklahoma's lax regulation had fostered an environment where unlicensed dog breeders know they won't face serious penalties until they have completely crossed the line onto outright cruelty," said Denney.

Oklahoma is one of the largest exporters of puppies in the U.S. spreading thousands and thousands of dogs around the country. It is also the only state with a high number of breeders and no state regulations. This act would require the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to license and regulate breeders that buy or sell at least 35 dogs or cats in the state in a year.

It would also allow the agency to inspect facilities to ensure animals are receiving adequate care, based on federal standards, with violations resulting in fines between $50 and $2,500 per incident.

Some are in disagreement with the new bill, like the AKC (who has already been compared to the KKK). The AKC promotes breeders at any cost. Why? Because they make money, and a lot of it, off registering these puppies from what they like to call "high-volume breeders."

While they don’t actually inspect most facilities, or provide any type of guarantee about the health of puppies, they’re sure happy to take fees for registration.

In 2006 the American Kennel Club (AKC) registered 870,000 individual dogs and 416,000 litters. At $20 per dog and $25 per litter (plus $2 per puppy), AKC brought in well over $30 million in revenues from registration of dogs born in puppy mills, according to Best Friends.

Regardless of opposition from groups and individuals, puppy mills need to be stopped. A lack of legislation in this area is also placing an unfair burden on responsible breeders who have to compete with puppy mills.

And remember, every eight seconds an animal in a shelter is put to death because of the overpopulation of pets in this country, and 25 percent of those dogs were purebred. When people buy from places like pet stores, it’s just giving puppy mill breeders incentive to keep on doing what they’re doing.

While this bill still has to pass in the Senate, let’s hope the House vote is an indication of what’s to come so puppies and dogs like Eva can be spared a life of misery.

For info on what you can do, check out The Truth About Oklahoma Puppy Mill’s website.

http://www.care2.com/

High End Doggy Apparel

If you are a true fashionista you and your dog will love this designer apparel for dogs.

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Dogster......Myspace for Dogs

Take a look at this website for your four legged best friend. Its a lot like myspace, your can create a profile for your dog and add pictures.

http://www.dogster.com/

Check out my profile

http://www.dogster.com/dogs/713376

Ten Worst Zoo's for Elephants

San Antonio Zoo (Texas)
Houston Zoo (Texas)
Los Angeles Zoo (California)
Buffalo Zoo (New York)
Oklahoma Zoo
Brec's Baton Rouge (Louisiana)
(TIE) Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle, Washington) and National Zoo (Washington, DC)
Ft. Worth Zoo (Texas)
Dallas Zoo (Texas)
Lowry Park Zoo (Florida)

To see the full article go to http://www.helpelephants.com/topten2008/

Breed of the Month

Cocker Spaniel

An excellent bird and small-game hunter, this breed is famed as one of the world's most popular breed.

Male: 15 in / 29 lbs
Female: 14in / 26 lbs


This breed was created by crossing setters and spaniels. The cocker spaniel is considered the smallest of the sporting breeds; its name comes from its superb ability to ferret out woodcocks. The sweetest in temperament and the smallest of the gun dogs, the American cocker spaniel has a short, firm body with a deep chest;shoulders that slope slightly from withers to loin; a wide distinctly domed head with clearly defined stop;long low set pendant ears, round, full brown eyes.

Famous Cockers
Lady from Lady and the Tramp
Checkers, owned by Pat Nixon and Richard Nixon
Freckles, owned by Robert Kennedy
Solomon and Sophie, pets of Oprah Winfrey

Socialize your Dog

Routine socialization of puppies and dogs should include the following:

1 Meet several new people each week of many different sizes, ages and races

2. Acclimation to gentle touching and handling and mild restraint by family members and your vet.

3. Exposure to common household and yard noises such as vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and music.

4. Exposure to car rides and to passing traffic.

5. Experience walking on different surfaces—tile, carpet, grass, gravel, sand, cement, chicken wire.

6. Regular meetings with dogs, cats and other animals your dog will routinely encounter.

Socializing your pup to your own family and home is a good start, but not nearly enough to promote stable temperament! Dogs that may have some genetic tendency to be reactively wary (for example, most of the terrier, herding, and guarding breeds) need extra heavy doses of socialization. If your dog has a breed standard that says something like “reserved” or “wary of strangers” this is your cue to super-socialize! You provide “pumped up” socialization by exposing the puppy to everything under the sun that you want her to be at ease with, in the most pleasant positive way that you can. Never push your puppy beyond his comfort level or give him more stimulation than he is ready to handle—an important part of socializing your puppy properly involves protecting him from unpleasant, emotionally overwhelming, or dangerous experiences. The result of continuous low key exposure to novel things is usually a more stable dog with vastly improved “bounce back” capability.

It is important to understand that the process of socialization doesn’t come to a dead stop once your dog passes four months of age, but rather that your dog’s willingness to accept novel things becomes greatly reduced. This means that while remedial socialization is still possible, making up for missed opportunities requires more time and effort and results are less predictable.

Since a dog’s degree of sociability is not set in stone at 4 months of age, this also means that you should not assume there will be no ill effects if you ever completely stop socializing him at some future time.

Animal Abuse

There are many different reasons why individuals abuse animals. Animal cruelty covers a wide range of actions (or lack of action), so one blanket answer simply isn’t possible. Each type of abuse has displayed certain patterns of behavior that we can use to help understand more about why people commit the crimes we encounter today.

Passive cruelty is typified by cases of neglect, where the crime is a lack of action rather than the action itself - however do not let the terminology fool you.

Examples of neglect are starvation, dehydration, parasite infestations, allowing a collar to grow into an animal’s skin, inadequate shelter in extreme weather conditions, and failure to seek veterinary care when an animal needs medical attention.

Active cruelty implies malicious intent, where a person has deliberately and intentionally caused harm to an animal, and is sometimes referred to as NAI (Non-Accidental Injury). Acts of intentional cruelty are often some of the most disturbing and should be considered signs of serious psychological problems. This type of behavior is often associated with sociopathic behavior and should be taken very seriously.