Dogs

See if you can spot the pit bull on this web page. This is from http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/, a great site to learn more about the American Pit Bull breed. I know a lot about dog breeds, and I only got it right on my third try. (Yes, there are many breeds pictured that are not popular in the U.S.) While many cities/insurance companies are considering breed-specific ordinances/restrictions that penalize pit bulls and their guardians, this web site highlights the fact that most people cannot recognize a pit bull when they see one. I believe any dog breed can be aggressive and a danger to society at large. Breed-specific legislation targets the dogs, not the people who are really the problem. ...

Last weekend, our foster dog Nellie was adopted. We fostered her for the past five months, a little longer than our average foster time of three months per dog since we started fostering dogs in October 2003 for R.E.S.C.U.E. Nellie was an owner turn-in to Maricopa County Animal Care & Control. She’s a very shy dog who did not do well in the noisy kennel environment and was on her way to euthanization. While in our care she did not fully overcome her shyness and skittishness, but she got much better and was very happy in our house. Our house is quieter without her and we miss her, but she found a great home. ...

Tonight is the premiere of Animal Planet Heroes Phoenix, a fifteen-episode series which filmed animal-related emergencies last year which were handled by the Arizona Humane Society’s Emergency Animal Medical Technicians (EAMTs), a program launched in September 2002. The show airs at 8 p.m. MST in the Phoenix market on the Animal Planet channel. UPDATE: Kat and I attended the Arizona Humane Society’s premiere event last night at Harkins Cine Capri. Many of the production crew (from Anglia Television), all of the EAMTs, and many AHS staff and volunteers were present, and available to chat after the show. The show (an episode titled “Trapped Underground”) was alternately heartwarming and saddening. A 14-year-old Spaniel was trapped 20 feet underground in a sinkhole in the owner’s yard, a kitten was trapped in the piping of an apartment sprinkler system, a dog and her puppies were stung repeatedly by bees, and a large number of Brussels griffons were being kept in horrific conditions by a hoarder. The upcoming schedule is a new episode each night this week: “Wandering Beagle” tonight (Jan. 17), “The Dog House” (Jan. 18), “Promise to Mother” (Jan. 19), and “Desert Rescue” (Jan. 20). Information on air dates and times may be found at Animal Planet’s site.

In our neighborhood, we frequently see stray dogs, usually without collars or identifying information. We catch them when we can, and turn them into the pound. The puppies tend to get quickly adopted. Others, we point out to RESCUE, an animal rescue group we volunteer with, so that if they get put on the euthanasia lists they may have another opportunity for survival. Unfortunately, RESCUE can’t save all of them. This puppy had been given to a homeless man we know, who in turn gave him to us to take care of. Kat removed numerous ticks and gave her a bath (the first photo is pre-bath, the second is post-bath). We estimated her age at less than three months, and the breed could be some kind of Chow mix. I think this is the fifth stray we’ve turned in this year; last year we turned in about the same number, including at least three puppies. ...

We were looking for places to buy arthritis medication online for our eight-year-old Queensland Heeler/Border Collie mix, and I was surprised to find how sleazy many of them are–hiding the true identity of the companies or individuals behind them with private domain registrations, postal mailboxes, etc. For example, discountpetmedicines.com had a great price, but turned out to actually be a directory service operated by a company called OnTrack Professionals, Inc. (an Oklahoma corporation whose registered agent is John M. Gerkin, an attorney who was just named as a Special Judge for Washington and Nowata counties in September). The directory service points to a Yahoo store called entirelypets.com. Entirelypets.com has a Network Solutions private registration: Domain Name: ENTIRELYPETS.COM Administrative Contact: EntirelyPets.com, EntirelyPets.com [email protected] ATTN: ENTIRELYPETS.COM c/o Network Solutions P.O. Box 447 Herndon, VA 20172-0447 570-708-8780 Its website gives a mailing address in Norfolk, Nebraska that’s a private mailbox service: 710 South 13th Street Suite 900 PMB# 384 Norfolk, NE 68701I went into the site’s online chat: Please wait for a site operator to respond. Chat Information You are now chatting with ‘Herman’ Herman: Welcome to EntirelyPets.com! How can I assist you? Jim: Hello, Herman. I’m trying to find out if there is a legitimate corporation behind entirelypets.com before I do business with you. Jim: How can I verify that? Herman: That’s an excellent question sir. We have been in business for over 6 years now. The name of our corporation is HealthyPets, Inc. We are certainly legitimate. If you would like to speak with one of our reps you can call us at 1-800-889-8967. Jim: Is that a Nebraska corporation? Herman: That is both a Nebraska and California Corporation. All of our shipments are made from CA, but our main branch is here in Nebraska. Jim: OK, thank you very much!I looked up information on HealthyPets, Inc., and found that there is no Nebraska corporate registration for a company with that name, but there is one in California: HEALTHYPETS, INC. Number: C2133197 Date Filed: 2/5/1999 Status: active Jurisdiction: California Address 43450 MINTWOOD ST FREMONT, CA 94538 Agent for Service of Process M GHUMMAN 43450 MINTWOOD ST FREMONT, CA 94538M. Ghumman turns out to be Mandeep Ghumman, DVM, and it turns out that HealthyPets, Inc. has a long history of registering domains in the names of other online pet stores and vets, and then losing them to those other pet stores and vets in WIPO arbitration hearings: petsuppliesforless.com and lambiarvet.com (awarded to the owners of petsupplies4less.com and lambriarvet.com in 2003). kvvetsupply.com (awarded to KV Vet Supply in 2001) drfostersmith.com (awarded to Dr. Foster & Smith in 2000) The site at the HealthyPets.com domain–which includes references to HealthyPets, Inc.–does not sell any prescription medications, so far as I can see, though clearly at least the entirelypets.com site, which contains no references to a real company, does. I also found a record of complaints about HealthyPets, Inc. at ripoffreport.com, which points out that they use other domains like naturalpets.com, petmedications.com, and toppetmed.com, as well as reports on a number of consumer complaints about the company. I decided to go instead with 1800petmeds.com, which is a publicly traded company whose CEO is named and pictured on the site, figuring that I’d rather pay more than do business with a sleazy company. As it turns out, 1800petmeds.com has a price-matching policy, and actually offered us a better price than entirelypets.com was offering. ...