Category Archive

Lost or stolen family pets are being put up for sale online by people trying to make a quick buck.

“Dog-Flipping” – if you do not know the phrase by now, get used to hearing it again, and again. Here is how it works – on social media sites like Craigslist, there are posts saying someone found a lost dog. What a dog flipper does is say that dog is theirs, then they turn right around and sell it. A local pet owner said she was a victim.

Her dog was lost, found and is now microchipped.

“So happy that we got her back now,” said dog owner Leisa Waggoner.

It was a reunion with Rosie the dog, that almost did not happen. The black miniature schnauzer was on an electric fence. She wandered off when someone cut the line while mowing.

Rosie was found, then wound up at a vet’s office in Beech Grove. That was when Wiley Brown got the call.

“‘We know this is your dog, it looks just like her.’ I said, ‘that is great, my family will be ecstatic,’” said Brown.

But the dog did not belong to the Browns. They posted “Dog Found” messages on Indy Lost Pet Alert and Craigslist. It did not take long for someone to come forward, with a sad story, and claim the dog.

“I am pregnant, I have a 1-year-old, I have not had time to get pictures on my phone,” Brown said he was told over the phone. “I do not have anything to send you, but it does look like my dog, Ginger.”

So after hearing the hard-luck story of a dog lost and now found, the Brown family brought the dog and met the woman in a parking lot. Even after reuniting “Ginger” with her rightful owner, something still did not feel right.

“I never thought somebody would ‘flip’ a dog, so it really did not come up in my mind,” said Brown. “I just thought she was happy to see her. She said, ‘Oh Ginger.’”

Then another call that changed everything, another family said the dog was theirs.

“They had pictures of the dog,” said Brown. “They described everything about her, even the white patch of fur on her chest. We just knew it was their dog.”

The Browns checked Craigslist again. The dog they had returned was now for sale.

“We could believe it, but at the same time it was like, ‘Why would someone actually do that?’” said Brown.

Dog flipping, claiming a dog as your own then selling it to make money, is on the rise.

“Unfortunately dog flipping in a new source of revenue for people,” said Danielle Beck o Indy Lost Pet Alert. “They do not think about the pets someone’s family member, but a source of let’s try to re-home this pet for $25 on Craigslist. Let’s go for $50.”

“We will put things aside and we will give you $100,” Brown said he told the woman. “We know who the real owners are, we just want to be able to give them their dog back. She said, ‘No, this is my dog.’ We said okay, $200. She said, ‘$250 and I will do it.’”

They met up at the parking lot again.

Please tell every dog or cat owner you know. Even if you don’t have a pet, please pass this to those who do.
Over the weekend, the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden. The dogs loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog (Calypso) decided the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats something new but wasn’t acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk. Halfway through the walk, she had a seizure and died instantly.

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company’s web site,

This product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.

Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey’s, and they claim that “It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won’t eat it.”

Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman’s Garden Supply and other garden supply stores contains a lethal ingredient called ‘Theobromine’. It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks.

Read More.

MOORE, Okla. – A Moore woman was on her way to work when the tornado touched down Monday afternoon.

She said she pulled over when she heard the weather was getting bad.

The Moore resident said she sped home, not caring if police tried to give her a ticket.

She said she grabbed her dog, jumped in her bathtub and threw pillows over them for protection.

Pending the decision in a lawsuit filed by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) against the University of Nebraska, students could be allowed to have their pets live with them in their dorm rooms.

On behalf of Brittany Hamilton, HUD sued the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) for not allowing her to have her dog live in her dorm room with her. Hamilton said she wanted her dog in her room to assist with her anxiety and depression.

HUD is suing on the grounds of a violation of Hamilton’s rights under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The rule states that it is unlawful to deny dwelling to a person based on their “handicap.” It also states that eligible persons may accommodate a wide array of “assistance animals.”

“Assistance animals” go far beyond typical service animals (e.g., seeing-eye dogs) as they include animals that provide mental or emotional support.

UNK argues that their on-campus accommodations should not be considered a “dwelling” as defined by the FHA and because the housing is only temporary. UNK argued further that their accommodations are not for residential purposes, but rather for educational purposes.

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Please visit the link below to help reunite lost and found pets in the Moore Oklahoma and South OKC area, with their owners.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moore-OK-S-OKC-Lost-and-Found-Pets/148795011947464

Barbara Garcia, a resident of Moore, Oklahoma, who survived yesterday’s potentially historic tornado, was being interviewed by CBS News about riding out the storm in the bathroom of her former home.

Garcia was holding on to her dog when the winds came, but after the walls fell down the two separated, and she had been unable to locate him since.

Then, in the middle of the interview, little “Toto” suddenly emerged from the rubble, and the two were reunited in the most tearjerking of fashions.

“Well I got God to answer one prayer to let me be okay, but he answered both of them,” Garcia said.

[video via CBS News]

Lifeguards rescued a blind wild stallion caught in a rip current along North Carolina’s Outer Banks this month, the director of a horse protection group said.

The horse, already blind in one eye, had its other eye damaged in a fight with another stallion May 2 near the small community of Corolla in Currituck County. Karen McCalpin, director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, told The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot the injured older stallion ran into the ocean and was caught in a strong current that carried him away from the beach and more than a mile down the shore.

The wild horse reached a sandbar where he was able to get his footing, allowing lifeguards to use rescue buoys to push the horse from behind and gradually guide him to land, McCalpin said.

Chief Sylvia Wolff said saving a horse was a first for the Corolla rescue unit.

The stallion, since named Amadeo, meaning “blessed by God,” is recovering but remains nearly blind and will not return to the wild herd.

“He’s going to be our responsibility for the rest of his life,” Wolff said. “He can’t go back.”

www.bignewsnetwork.com

If there was any doubt about the benefits of sharing your home with a pet, here is something to mull over — scientists claim that the presence of a pet greatly reduces the risk of heart disease.

According to a report in Science Daily, the American Heart Association has published a scientific statement attesting to the benefits to the heart from a pet.

The statement is published online in the association’s journal, Circulation.

“Pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, is probably associated with a decreased risk of heart disease,” said Glenn N. Levine, MD, professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

“In essence, data suggest that there probably is an association between pet ownership and decreased cardiovascular risk,” Levine said.

“What’s less clear is whether the act of adopting or acquiring a pet could lead to a reduction in cardiovascular risk in those with pre-existing disease. Further research, including better quality studies, is needed to more definitively answer this question.”

Big News Network (IANS)

SEATTLE — A chemical threat lies hidden in millions of American homes, and top government scientists believe it could be killing cats.

Right now in the special session of the state legislature, lawmakers are fighting powerful interests to ban versions of the chemical.

Dr. Dennis Wackerbarth is a top expert on hyperthyroidsim, and he said countless numbers of cats die from the disease each year.

Millions of indoor cats have been hit in recent decades by thyroid glands that go crazy, switching their metabolism into high gear. They become ravenous, yet their bodies waste away until they die.

Scientists examined the places where indoor cats spend their time, especially on furniture and the floor. A groundbreaking government study found “significant association” between the cat illness and certain flame retardants.

The chemical, in one variation or another, is added to all sorts of things found in nearly every American home, including foam padding, carpet pads, appliance chords, electronics, children’s clothes and more.

At precisely the time flame retardants became heavily used in the 70s and 80s, indoor cats started dying of thyroid problems. Now those flame retardants are widely viewed with concern about unintended effects.

The next question scientists asked was that if the chemicals are harming cats, then what are they doing to humans? That’s where the state legislature comes in.

“I mean, everything right now has these toxins in it. And we’re not giving our kids a chance, at all,” said Sen. Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island.

Nelson is among the lawmakers fighting to extend existing bans on flame retardants that have become so pervasive they’re now found in nature, wildlife and almost certainly in people. Experts believe you would find traces of the chemical in everyone.

“We’re hearing a lot from citizens,” Nelson said. “The difficulty of being in Olympia is the strength of different lobbyists.”

The chemical industry and business lobbyists say it would be too expensive and burdensome to ban more kinds of retardants, which several other states have already done.

Some of the more toxic forms have already been banned. The chemical industry creates replacement forms of flame retardants they feel are safer, but critics say they’re still too toxic.

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