Tennessean: Authorities found 747 live animals and 12 dead ones at Pine Bluff "Kennels."

Compare and contrast.

Sounds like they ought to add fraud to the list of charges.

Dendrobate Tinctorus "Patricia"

It is too hot to be outside right now, so I thought this was a good time to post some of my new critters. These are dendrobates, also known as “poison dart frogs”, or just dart frogs because when bred and raised in captivity they are not poisonous. I got interested in these colorful amphibians when exploring options for a large aquarium that had become available to me. My
internet search led me to a Massachusetts company called Black Jungle whose website (Link...) has a photo gallery of tropical rain forest “vivariums” with waterfalls, live plants and natural wood. They are quite beautiful and that sold me because I have always loved frogs and these habitats were just wonderful. I now have 3 tanks with 7 frogs, mostly because I was hoping to have a breeding pair so I can experience the tadpole, metamorphosis and joy of raising a tiny new frog. Since their sex is not determined till they are older, you have to buy several in hopes of getting a breeding pair.

In addition to the special tank design and prep (temp and humidity monitored), I grow 3 different types of bugs, 2 specialized fruit flies and springtails. It will get even more complicated if there are ever any tadpoles.

The Tennessean reports that local authorities working with the Humane Society of the U.S. have rescued more than 700 animals from a puppy mill in Hickman Co. just west of Nashville. They say it is the largest known puppy mill rescue ever conducted in Tennessee. A criminal investigation will follow.

Here's the Humane Society's press release.

Here's disturbing video from the scene for anyone who ever wondered what it looks like in a puppy mill.

Unfortunately, many of the pets you see in newspaper and internet ads, and in pet stores, come from puppy mills and their brokers. They are usually AKC "registered," and wholesale puppy mills are "licensed" and "regulated" by the USDA. Puppy mills that sell direct are generally not regulated.

The Humane Society of the U.S. has lots of information about puppy mills. Learn how you can avoid buying a puppy mill pet. The best way is to find a responsible breeder (they generally don't advertise and they definitely don't sell in pet stores), or better yet adopt through a pet rescue organization or your local shelter.

WATE has been following the story of a woman whose dog died under mysterious circumstances at a pet groomer. There was speculation that the death was due to overheating in a dryer cage.

As we mentioned here previously, there is proposed legislation in Massachusetts and New York to regulate pet groomers and to ban dryer cages.

WATE reported last week that State Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) is proposing the same for Tennessee:

"We've got to regulate the grooming industry and if we don't, we end with people losing their animals and no animal deserves to die like that," Burchett says.

The senator wants cage dryers banned and he also wants licensing for groomers.

The report quotes a state groomer's association spokesperson as saying they oppose such regulation.

Last night there was a meeting of area groomers to discuss the issues. The woman whose pet died at a local groomer confronted the owner at the meeting. The owner publicly admitted what happened for the first time:

"The timer on the dryer cage got stuck and it was extremely hot and I got rid of the dryer and fired the employee," says Happy Tails owner Erik Webb.

According to the report, he apologized to "all the pet owners who lost animals at his facility."

As I said previously, it sounds to me like dryer cages should be outlawed. There should be other regulation, too, about the use of sedatives and making sure groomers are at least minimally qualified and are familiar with various breed standards for grooming.

WATE has a followup on the sad death of a pet while at a local groomer. Apparently it's not the first time this has happened at this particular groomer. The report suggests there may have been a problem with a "drying cage."

I had never heard of drying cages, so I googled it up and found this:

The parade will begin in Market Square and end at the future site of the city's new downtown dog park on the southeastern corner of Summit Hill Drive and Central Avenue.

Registrants will receive a doggie goody bag and a royal court will be selected for the best dressed. Grooming and vaccination stations will be on site, as well as food vendors (including gourmet dog treats). Participants may purchase Mardi Growl Parade dog shirts or photos of their favorite pets in front of a Mardi Growl background.

Registration is $8. As required by law, all dogs must be leashed and owners are required to clean up any dog waste.

The recent killing of a young Knox County woman by pit bulls brings up again an issue I have addressed in the past.

The Young-Williams Knoxville-Knox County City-County Animal Shelter continues to adopt out pit bulls, and the time has come for this to stop.

There are at least two reasons why pit bulls should not be adopted out. One is inherent to the animals. The other is purely human.

Statistically, pit bulls do not necessarily attack humans more than all other breeds of dogs. But when pit bulls attack, they attack particularly viciously. There is no way to determine that an animal will turn vicious. A young child was recently killed in Arizona by a loved family pet that had been adopted from a humane society there. Prior to adopting out the animal, the humane society had subjected it to behavioral testing to determine whether it was likely to become violent. The animal did not show violent tendencies, yet a child is now dead.

In addition, however, humans have selected pit bulls for cruel, illegal, and vile use. As we all know from the Michael Vick case, pit bulls are central to the horrific dog fighting culture. Pit bulls have also become the dogs of choice for drug dealers. Shelters who adopt out pit bulls are an easy source of animals for people who want to use the animals for such cruel purposes.

In continuing to adopt out pit bulls, the shelter is not necessarily doing a favor to either the adopters or to the animals.

A frequent argument in favor of pit bulls is: it's not the animal, it's the owner. This may be true. I'm not sure, however, how it helps -- either the abused animal or the attacked victim.

On one recent trip to the city-county shelter, more than half the dogs held at the shelter were pit bulls. When the shelter is forced to kill over 12,000 animals per year, other animals are dying so that cages can be occupied by pit bulls. Why kill other, more adoptable animals, in favor of animals which may not be adoptable at all, and, if they are adopted, could maim or kill their owners and others, or may well be subjected to unthinkable cruelty?

The time has come to stop adopting out pit bulls.

The discussion of dog behavior reminded me of this, discovered about ten years ago when we were learning about dog behavior and training. It's a useful approach to mutual understanding from the dog's point of view. Here's an excerpt from "A Study of Human Behavior" by Dr. Ranger P. Snufflebutt, PhD.:

(Springbrook Park, about an hour ago.)

I was perusing Blount Views (I grew up off of Old Niles Ferry) and noticed this sad story about an abandoned dog. I'm not trying to pimp for Home Again but I recently had my dog "chipped" at the vets office over the weekend. I'm uber paranoid about my pets (I have two wild a$$ Jacks and a rescue greyhound...and a cat...I feel like Dr. Doolittle sometimes) so I decided to get them all chipped. The cost was minimal for the peace of mind in the event they make the "Great Escape" from my fenced in yard (they are all inside dogs, but I'm still paranoid). Even if you don't have a pet or don't want to get your dog chipped you can still sign up for the "Home Again Pet Rescuers" service. They will send you emails based on your zip code for any lost pets in your area.

To combat the growing animal overpopulation problem, Knox County is launching a $250,000 mobile spay/neuter clinic. The mobile lab has surgical facilities and space to handle 30 animals.

The article notes that the Young-Williams Animal Center took in nearly 17,000 animals last year. That's a staggering number, and sadly you know what happens to most of them.

Spay and neuter, people, and don't buy puppy mill pets from pet stores!

We were over at the park walking pupster yesterday evening and were happy to see that the dog waste stations donated by the Mrs. have finally been installed.

Read more about the project and the history of Springbrook Park...

"To fight fleas and ticks, he has used a folk remedy. A tobacco chewer, he saves the juice and sprays it on the lawn."

Sometimes creativity and home remedies are the only things that allow people living in rural areas without free spay clinics to help an ever increasing population of stray or abandoned animals.

Link...

"Tina Churchwell, head of the humane society in McNairy County, where Finger and Selmer are situated, calls 12 dogs her own and has set up a makeshift shelter at her home, kennels holding 22 other dogs she hopes might be adopted. The society is searching for money to build a proper shelter on land the county has offered, but community support is lacking, Ms. Churchwell said."

The Humane Society does what it can, but too few vets and a population that can't afford to pay for their services is creating a potentially serious health situation. Tammy Rouse, the Applachian coordinator for volunteer service has her hands full.

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a gushing artery,” she said. “Spay-neuter has to go hand in hand with education and legislation.”

It sounds like the only thing that could turn this situation around would be to have a team of vets and volunteer assistants form a group similar to "Doctors Without Borders". There probably aren't enough of these here in Tennessee, so it would have to be an effort that would attract vets and vet students from all over the country. A kind of tent meeting of professionals that could set up for a week or two. There is a long history of tent revivals here. Why not use this old fashioned idea to save the souls and lives of all the unwanted dogs and cats in areas that are too far from vet services or owned by people too poor to afford them? This would of course take a combination of county, state, and federal monies.

Fat chance of that.

We've gone over this territory before, and some people will say there should be laws to stop poor people from having animals, but that is about as logical as expecting poor people to not have babies. Education is always the best answer of course, but in the meantime the crisis is growing.

It's really sad to know that local problems that only affect a few rural people can't be resolved because most of our state and federal money is going to large causes like homeland security. We are slowly becoming a bankrupt nation. Little is being done to improve employment in rural areas.

Domesticated animals are low on our priority list in spite of the fact that dogs and cats have been our loyal best friends for generations. In cases like this one it will take more than local resources to get the situation under control.

Fat chance of that.

Via Sharon Cobb, Romney shows no compassion for family pet.

According to Time Magazine, Romney on a family vacation in 1983:

"The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest."
...
Romney, of course, has expressed support for the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques when it comes to terrorists; his campaign did not return repeated calls and emails about the treatment of his dog.

This guy wants to be President!
Has he even got a clue as to what this job entails?

Opportunities are still out there, you just have to rise to the challenge.

According to the Orlando Sentinel (registration required), people are willing to pay $10/week to have you pick up after their pet.

"It's well worth the price of admission," said Mary Newhouse-Gordon, one of Brott's clients. Newhouse-Gordon said she and her husband don't have the "time or energy" to pick up after their golden retrievers, Kramer and Mr. Peterman, because they both work 50 to 60 hours a week..."

The business is not new, just growing. Pet Butler was founded in 1998 by Matt “Red” Boswell as a one-person operation with an initial $1600 investment. Pet Butler is now a multi-million dollar national company, with operations from coast to coast.

The New York Times wrote about this nearly a year ago. According to, Matt Boswell, founder (Pet Butler), there was no shortage of office workers willing to trade briefcases for pooper scoopers. Each month he receives more than 200 applications from people willing to pay the $24,900 franchise fee.

These darlings were dumped off on Busbee Road (between Chapman Highway and Taylor Road) one Saturday night in late May. My headlights "hit" this little pile of faces and fortunately I was able to scoop them all up but one (whom I finally got the next morning).

Read more after the jump...

The Alcoa City Commission passed the amended Alcoa Animal Ordinance last night by a unanimous vote. It took a little longer than expected to get it on the agenda because lawyers had to rewrite some language to incorporate a few suggested changes. You can read more about that here.

We spoke with Alcoa Police Capt. Phillip Dunn, who is in charge of animal control and is a super nice guy who cares about his work with animals (and pet owners). We thanked him for listening to our concerns and incorporating changes to address them. We also thanked City Manager Mark Johnson for working with us to get this done.

Capt. Dunn also told us that they had already purchased the microchip scanners City Manager Mark Johnson had authorized, and they hope this will help keep some strays out of the shelters.

Capt. Dunn also said they are working with local veterinarians on a registration program that would let residents register their pets when they go to the vet for annual rabies vaccinations.

They are also working on a new brochure to give to all new residents explaining the animal control ordinances and registration requirements (which we did not know about), and hope to have this info on their new website soon. They also hope to allow for online renewal of registrations at some point.

We briefly discussed the new Smoky Mountain Animal Care shelter, a non-profit that will hopefully be taking over Blount County's shelter operations soon. (Read more about that here.) There are no plans at this time for the City of Alcoa to change their shelter arrangement with the City of Maryville. Alcoa city officials have been involved with the group, though, to help with planning.

P.S. In related news, the Mrs. is donating two dog poop stations to be installed at Springbrook Park. The stations have cleanup bag dispensers and waste receptacles. Blount Co. Parks and Recreation will take care of the installation, resupply, and maintenance. There is currently only one and it is at the parking lot. We'll be going over there next week with the parks guy to scout out locations for the new ones.

Today there is another Animal Control Committee meeting.

So let's try to get up to date with where we are now on this Blount County issue.

~The county commission has approved a 350K loan to Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation to get the basic shelter built.

~The county is allowing this shelter to be placed on county land and in the end, the county will pretty much own the building and the land.

Animal Control enforcement duties for Blount County will still be provided by the County but the housing, care and adoption of these animals will be provided by the new shelter.

Much like the Young Williams model with some changes. For operation details check out the presentations at Link...

At this point is sure seems like they are working on the details and here is where you all can help! This shelter and it's services are currently being targeted to Blount County's non-incorporated areas. That means if you live in Alcoa or Maryville and your doggie should happen to wander off and be picked up by the City, it won't be taken to the new shelter.

Lost pups, stray dogs and wandering cats have no idea if they are wandering in the City or in the County. For this reason alone you folks in the cities should pick up the phone, call city hall and say you want your city to join in with the new Animal Shelter! No way, no how will these cities change what they do now if the citizens don't speak out.

Animal Control duties can and should stay with the cities but the care and placement of those unwanted and misplaced animals can be done by this new shelter.

Pick up the phone.

Go to the meetings.

Raise a few bucks to help get this thing going.

In the end, your pup will thank you for it.

And so will the rest of us.

Animal Control Committee meeting
Tuesday, May 8, 2007, 5:00 p.m.
Room 430, Blount County Courthouse

Goodbye my sweet little girl
I'll meet you at the Rainbow Bridge
We'll run and play and laugh again
And steal cookies from the fridge.

Tweety
1992 - 2007
My friend and companion and protector.
I love you forever.

Melamine is a common animal feed additive in China:

Melamine scrap is believed to be commonly mixed in animal feed in China to artificially boost the protein level, especially in soymeal, tricking feedlots and farmers into paying more for feed for chickens and pigs.

[..]

But an official at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group, which produces urea for fertilizer, said all of its melamine scrap was sold to companies to boost the nitrogen content in their feed products.

"They add very small amount of melamine scrap to the feed, which does not lead to mass deaths of animals. But a few here and there might react," said the manager at the Shandong feedmill, who had not heard that the product had been linked to pet deaths overseas.

"It might be another story for pets though."

According to the article, the practice is currently unregulated but the Chinese government is looking to change that. Industrialized agriculture, globalization, and free markets -- the Chinese are adapting well to capitalism. Little Fluffy is just roadkill on the highway to higher profits.

...Salvaged pet food from companies known or suspected of using a tainted ingredient was shipped to hog farms in several states for use as feed....

Then maybe fed to us. No evidence of harm to humans. Until a human reports harm, I guess.

It's melamine. You know the stuff used to make dinnerware in the 60's and 70's. While it's used to make plastics here in the US, it China it's used as a fertilizer.

Link...

Now they think rat poison made its way into the pet food chain. More here.

The incident has prompted hundreds of lawsuits, including a $25 million lawsuit in Knoxville. This latest news probably isn't going to help the defendants.

(As much as we love the Pupster, $25 million seems a little excessive. Stuff like this is what leads to "tort reform" that limits access to justice for those with legitimate claims. Although I'd probably want at least a million. OK, maybe I'd settle for less. But still.)

We're seeing hundreds of Google hits from people looking for info on the recent pet food recall brought to our attention by CL in an earlier post.

Here are links to the manufacturer's website and lists of the brands involved:

Cat food

Dog food

An overview of the manufacturer's links to more info can be found here.

For the Iams/Eukanuba brands affected, the manufacturer refers you to their respective websites.

The Iams website appears to be down at the moment, but here's the Eukanuba notice. The recall affects only canned and foil pouch "wet" pet foods. Dry foods are not affected, according to Eukanuba.

The FDA has announced a major pet food recall. Menu Foods, Inc. makes store brand pet foods for several large chains and some brand-name pet foods. Here's a link to the FDA's press release that has a link to Menu Foods list of recalled items.

Link...

A few weeks ago we told you about Alcoa's proposed new animal control ordinance and some concerns we had about it. We put our concerns in a letter to Alcoa City Manager Mark Johnson and suggested some possible changes.

Last week Mr. Johnson sent a letter saying he had reviewed our concerns and would look in to it. Earlier this week, Capt. Phillip Dunn of the Alcoa PD called to discuss the specifics with the Mrs. He has put a lot of effort into the new ordinance and has reviewed similar laws from all over the state. He was very receptive and open to suggestions.

Yesterday we got another letter from City Manager Mark Johnson and there's good news: the City of Alcoa has agreed to most of the changes we suggested, with a few compromises negotiated between Capt. Dunn and the Mrs.

Specifically:

• A warrant will be required for right of entry for inspection unless the owner consents or there is a violation in plain view.
• A grandfather clause will be included in the new restriction of four animals per household.
• The number of days for impoundment will be increased to five working days for unlicensed animals and seven working days for licensed animals.

Mr. Johnson noted that animals taken to the shelter are already scanned for microchips, but goes on to say: "I inquired to the benefits and costs of outfitting our officers so they would be available in the field. As a result, I am authorizing the purchase of two scanners for use by the city's officers. Hopefully, the officers can identify the owners of the animal and return it immediately preventing an animal from being taken to the shelter."

Details of the changes are covered in Mr. Johnson's letter, copy here (PDF format).

Alcoa City Commission's second reading of the ordinance has been postponed until March 13th to allow time for making the changes. Unless you have other concerns, it probably isn't necessary to attend the meeting unless you just want to thank the City of Alcoa for listening.

We would like to sincerely thank Alcoa City Manager Mark Johnson and Alcoa PD Capt. Phillip Dunn for taking the time to review our concerns and adopt these changes. It's nice to live in a place where local government is responsive and listens to its citizens.

The City of Alcoa has drafted a new animal control ordinance. Here's a recent Maryville Daily Times article on it.

Here's the full draft of the proposed new ordinance (PDF format).

Overall it looks like a good ordinance that puts safety and animal welfare first and foremost. (Bonus: there's a pooper scooper provision complete with fines.) There are a couple of minor exceptions (and one major exception: see 10-133) that might need re-thinking. Take a look and tell us what you think in comments. Ours are listed after the jump.

By the way, did you know there is an existing requirement to register your pets in Alcoa? We didn't. The Mrs. already went down this morning to get Pupster legal. Act now and avoid the increased fees!

Read more after the jump....

(Click for larger view)

The annual Paws in the Park event was yesterday at Springbrook Park. The weather was beautiful and the turnout was great. This is pupster having fun on the agililty course. More photos after the jump.

Found: Female German Shephard. Appears to be between 1-2 years old. Off Western Avenue near 640. Or, if you'd like to have this dog, please contact me. Skittish of men, no visible health issues. Coat is healthy, but you can feel her ribs. investibles@yahoo.com.

Click below for photos of dog:

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