Pet Blogging Round Up

I’m reminded on an almost daily basis of what an utterly kick ass job many of my fellow pet bloggers do. This morning, I found so many notable, read-worthy posts that I decided to just stick them all into a single, great big, “Oh my God, go and read this entry right now” post.

Like a lot of people, Nathan Winograd opened my eyes to the reality of No Kill versus Kill. But, what’s it really like to try and take a small, underfunded, over crowded Southern shelter from high kill to no kill? What does it do to you, mentally, to feel you’re falling short of the lofty (and immediate) goals Nathan is calling for every shelter to achieve?

Spotted Dog Farms (one of my favorite and consistently most heart breaking reads) writes about what it’s like to want to transition to No Kill, but to feel you’re failing at every turn. She takes the words we’ve heard about No Kill, and puts a real face on the Directors who haven’t quite yet managed to get there.

How can I live with myself and face each day? Winograd’s recent post again called for the immediate removal of all shelter directors who weren’t immediately implementing no kill. That makes me want to run to the bathroom and cut myself. I am committed, but I run into roadblocks at every turn, and now am bone-tired. I just schmoozed with rescue on Sat. night and begged them to work with us; we send way more animals to foster than ever before; we do TNR but where exactly to R when people don’t want them around? I’m hiring motivated people, everyone’s doing their best to recruit volunteers, we’re spending more money on vetting than ever, sending everyone we can for free spay/neuter, my own farm is bursting and I’m losing my mind because how do we staunch the flow of animals coming in?

Go read it.

The always wonderful Smart Dogs Blog has done a fantastic job continuing to follow up on that complete freakin’ moron of a ‘Shelter Director’ in Arkansas who decided that the best way to deal with his shelter’s influx of strays was to set them free in the National Forest.

Two weeks ago we reported on a terrible situation in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas. The local mayor, having few financial (and even fewer intellectual) resources, decided that setting dogs from the city shelter “free” in a nearby National Forest was a good way to get rid of them manage the problem.

We wrote then – and still believe – that this was a criminal act. Apparently Circuit Court Judge David Henry agrees. According to KARK News Mayor James Valley will be charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty.

Definitely go and read the rest of the story. This idiot just can not keep his mouth shut.

Itchmo, the blog that did so much to keep us all informed during the breaking pet food crisis, has apparently been retired from active blogging duty (although the forums remain up and running). I had no idea that the founder of the Itchmo blog had another, more visible face on the net – as the founder of I Can Has Cheezburger (aka Lol Cats).

Into the breach has stepped Yes Biscuit!, which is doing a bang up job of continuing to educate us about pet food, pet food ingredients and formula comparisons.

Today, I looked at a new, AAFCO approved food on the market for dogs. It contains all the usual advertising tags which make me suspicious: “100% complete and balanced”, “No fillers”, “High quality proteins”, etc. Here are the first seven ingredients leading up to the first source of fat:

1. Rice Flour – This is the main ingredient of the only food you want me to feed my dog – rice flour? Isn’t that better used for making gluten-free baked goods or something? Flour comes in a sack and it’s all powdery. My dog doesn’t want that as the main ingredient in his dinner! And I question the quality of any flour sold for use in pet food. I assume that like many other pet food ingredients, it’s of lower quality than the flour sold for human consumption in my local grocery store. Exactly how much nutrition is my dog supposed to get from this pet food grade sack of flour? The “no fillers” claim isn’t sounding so truthful right about now.

Here’s the rest.. and it’s scary.

Luisa over on Lassie Get Help just drives me nuts. She manages to get the great stories, every single time. If she’s not blogging about some crack “Pit Bull Attack” reporting, she’s finding this list of mis spelled dog breed names given by their owners at the Vet’s office –

Begall—-Beagle
Malibu—-Malamute
Bull Massive—-Bull Mastiff
Bull Mater—-Bull Mastiff
Patedillon—-Papillon
Pegniece—-Pekingese
Pequenes—-Pekingese
Chewawa—-Chihuahua
Chiguagua—-Chihuahua
Chiwawa—-Chihuahua
Chiyaya—-Chihuahua

Go check out the rest.

And thanks, all you great pet bloggers. You give me so many great excuses to not get any work done, and reading you is worlds better than reading the Joomla manual for the tenth time…