Category Archive

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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CHADWICK BEACH ISLAND, N.J. — A pair of New Jersey women whose cat escaped after they evacuated their home after superstorm Sandy said the cat showed up six months later.

Mother and daughter Uranie Roberts, 86, and Carol Baumann, 62, said they evacuated their Chadwick Beach Island home after the storm in November and stayed with in-laws about eight miles away in Point Pleasant from where their cat, Porsche, escaped, Philly.com reported Wednesday.

Roberts, 86, said Porsche’s tags were attached to a breakaway collar that he could have easily removed, but she still believed she might find the feline.

“I never gave up hope,” she said, but she admitted she feared that “maybe he crossed the rainbow bridge, as they say from that poem about animals that pass on.”

The women said they returned to their home April 29 and two days later they heard a noise on the back deck.

“I saw the green eyes and I said, ‘My God in heaven, it’s Porsche!'” Baumann said.

Roberts said Porsche appeared fit and well-fed after his “journey of a lifetime.”

“I would not be surprised at anything,” Roberts said. “It’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop or the other piece of the puzzle. … It clearly looks like he must have been somewhere.”

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Ernesto Rodriguez, a tattoo artist, said he put the intricate tattoos on the bellies of his two dogs so they could be easily identified if they were lost.

ALBANY – A Manhattan pol is trying to stop tattooing and body piercing from going to the dogs.

Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Democrat, has introduced legislation to ban the piercing or permanent tattooing of companion animals.

“These are living beings and they should not be subject to human whims and fashion choices,” Rosenthal told the Daily News Thursday.

Rosenthal said subjecting pets to body piercing or tattooing is cruel and “just like any other abuse.”The bill has the support of the Humane Society of New York.

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Animal sanctuaries can play an important role in rehabilitating goats and other animals that have suffered from neglect, according to scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.

In this first scientific study of rescued animals, the researchers examined moods in 18 goats, nine of which had endured poor welfare, such as inappropriate diet, and lack of space or shelter before arriving at a sanctuary. They created a spatial awareness test, which involved giving the animals an opportunity to look for food, to understand the link between poor welfare and the goats’ mental health, by comparing the behaviour of the mistreated goats with that of the goats that had been generally well treated.

The scientists observed whether some goats were faster to explore specific areas that resulted in the reward of food and others that did not. They assessed how the goats judged previously unknown locations, described as ambiguous because they were situated between spaces known to contain food and areas without food.

“Mood can have a huge influence on how the brain processes information. In humans, for example, it’s well known that people in positive moods have an optimistic outlook on life, which means they are more resilient to stress. In the same way, measures of optimism and pessimism can provide indicators for an understanding of animal welfare,” explains co-author Dr Elodie Briefer from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences.

It was thought that the goats from the poor welfare group would be more ‘pessimistic’ and slower than the well-treated goats to explore ambiguous locations for food, where the promise of reward was not guaranteed. However, a surprising result of the study was that female goats that had been mistreated in the past were more optimistic than the other well-treated female goats.

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Contrary to popular belief, so-called hypoallergenic dogs do not have lower household allergen levels than other dogs.

That’s the conclusion of a study by Henry Ford Hospital researchers who sought to evaluate whether hypoallergenic dogs have a lower dog allergen in the home than other dogs. Hypoallergenic dogs are believed to produce less dander and saliva and shed less fur.

The findings are to be published online this month in the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy.

“We found no scientific basis to the claim hypoallergenic dogs have less allergen,” says Christine Cole Johnson, Ph.D., MPH, chair of Henry Ford’s Department of Public Health Sciences and senior author of the study.

“Based on previous allergy studies conducted here at Henry Ford, exposure to a dog early in life provides protection against dog allergy development. But the idea that you can buy a certain breed of dog and think it will cause less allergy problems for a person already dog-allergic is not borne out by our study.”

This is believed to be the first time researchers measured environmental allergen associated with hypoallergenic dogs. Previous studies analyzed hair samples from only a handful of dogs in a small number of breeds.

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NBC’s Kerry Sanders gets some canine comfort.

Tales of hope abound in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, and even four-legged workers are pitching in to provide relief (and cuddles) to those in need. Throughout the week, the Boston community can count on canine comfort from five specially-trained golden retrievers deployed by Lutheran Church Charities in Addison, Ill.

On Tuesday, three of the organization’s comfort dogs flew from Chicago to Boston, where they joined two retrievers who have been working with bereaved students and parents at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., every day since December.

“People talk to the dogs — they’re like furry counselors,” Tim Hetzner, president of Lutheran Church Charities, told TODAY.com. “It’s a chance to help bring some relief to people that are shaken up because of the bombings.”

Lutheran Church Charities

Golden retriever Isaiah waits to board his plane to Boston.

The dogs are set to remain in Boston until Sunday, and possibly longer depending on the needs of the community. They’re stationed at First Lutheran Church, which is a few blocks from the finish line of yesterday’s marathon — the site of Monday’s bombings. Hetzner says the team will likely visit the area’s hospitals as well, where over 100 victims are being treated.

“I would imagine their effect will be the same as it was in Newtown,” Hetzner said. “They bring a calming effect to people and help them process the various emotions that they go through in times like this.”

Lutheran Church Charities

Therapy dogs comfort the Newtown, Conn., community on Dec. 17 in the wake of the school shooting.

The therapy dogs are especially equipped for extremely stressful situations: Each of the organization’s retrievers has gone through eight months to a year of service training, starting at the age of 6 weeks. Those touched by the dogs can keep up with their newfound friends on Facebook and Twitter, since each dog has his own social-media accounts.

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On a recent morning, Jackie, age 8, waited patiently in the security line of Terminal 6 at Los Angeles International Airport.

When it was his turn to walk through the metal detector, he did so quietly and without incident. And after he set off the alarm, he patiently allowed a Transportation Security Administration screener to pat him down. He hardly reacted.

Jackie is a dog. A Doberman to be specific.

He likes eating carrots, barking at squirrels and lounging in human laps.

He is also key to

an ambitious plan to turn around an airport that historically receives some of the worst marks in passenger satisfaction surveys. (Travel + Leisure magazine called it America’s second-worst airport in 2012.) Beginning today, LAX will unveil its “Pets Unstressing Passengers” program, or PUP, to use the acronym preferred by airport officials. The goal: To keep waiting passengers calm.

So far, about 30 handlers have signed up. They’re all volunteers, and for two-hour shifts they’ll walk from gate to gate, introducing passengers to their dogs. For now, there might only be two or three dogs at the airport at any one time. But eventually, airport officials would like to have one in each terminal at all times. And petting is encouraged.

Airport officials say this is the most intense doggy rollout ever attempted, noting that the only other facility with a similar de-stressing program – Mineta San Jose International Airport – has fewer than a dozen dogs.

Don’t worry: The airport has cleared the program with its risk managers and with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. And each animal is certified by Therapy Dogs Inc., a national organization with more than 12,000 approved handler/dog teams.

No program can be perfect, but program coordinator Heidi Huebner said the dogs – and their owners – are well-trained and docile. And all should be able to last an entire shift without an accident, although the airport has four small patches of fake outdoor grass just in case. (They’re called doggy relief stations.)

“The dogs know they’re working,” Huebner said. “The volunteers are very good about making sure they go potty before. If a dog has to go, the owner is going to take it outside. “

Led through the airport last week by owner Marwick Kane, Jackie appeared to be enjoying himself. During the trial run, he was patient – even when children tried to pull his tail. Dog and owner slowly walked through the Terminal 6 seating areas, engaging with passengers.

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The Welsh government has rejected calls to relax the ban on electric shock collars for cats and dogs so pet owners can use so-called invisible fences.

Petitioners say invisible fences can stop cats and dogs straying on to roads

Ministers say they see no reason to change the law after a petition to the Welsh assembly.

Petition organiser Monima O’Connor from Cardigan says invisible fences can protect pets from busy roads.

The devices automatically shock animals through their collars if they wander too far from home.

Electric shock collars have been illegal in Wales since 2010 and anyone using them can be fined £20,000 or jailed for up six months.

The ban also applies to what are known as invisible or containment fences.

They deliver a shock through the pet’s collar if it crosses a boundary, such as a wire buried at the edge of a garden.

‘Physical and mental harm’

A petition was handed in at the Senedd in January saying the law should be changed so pet owners can install the fences at home.

However, in a letter to the assembly’s petitions committee, a minister says the regulations were made because of the “physical and mental harm that could occur with the use of devices such as ‘invisible’ electric fences”.

Former Environment Minister John Griffiths, who has since been moved in a Cabinet reshuffle, wrote: “An electric shock is an electric shock whether caused by a remote or an underground circuit.”

He said regulations were reviewed periodically to make sure they are fit for purpose.

“We will also review if there has been a change in the science of the use of these collars.

“So far, no significant proposals or change has been seen to warrant an amendment or reversal of this legislation.”

Mrs O’Connor, 52, said she supports the ban on electric shock collars which are sold as training devices.

But she said invisible fences were “harmless” and animals quickly learned to obey alarms which warn them they are about to be shocked.

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They’ll reunite at new facility in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI — A southwestern Ohio hospital soon will be welcoming the furry, four-legged friends of children who face long hospital stays.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center broke ground last week on a Family Pet Center. Hospital officials said they think the center will be the country’s first hospital-based facility to reunite kids and their pets.

The center will be open to children battling cancer and others with other serious medical conditions.

John Perentesis, executive co-director of the hospital’s Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute, said pets can be “very therapeutic” to patients.

He said the pets will bring joy, comfort and a positive mindset to ailing children.

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