Ahwatukee Pet Idol

The Ahwatukee Foothills News is sponsoring an "Ahwatukee Pet Idol" contest, all proceeds of which will go to the animal rescue group that Kat and I volunteer for, Arizona R.E.S.C.U.E.

Our dog Otto is a contestant and could use your vote...

UPDATE (June 23, 2007): Otto has made it through the first two rounds of cuts and is one of the 25 finalists in the last round of voting.

DEA training: everyone shoots the dog

Radley Balko points out a passage from an article about DEA training for raids on drug labs:

The instructor knocks on the front door, shouting, "DEA! Police! We have a search warrant!"

The next thing you know you're inside, clearing rooms like a SWAT team on COPS, firing only at targets with odd numbers. The even-numbered targets could be the good guys, even children. Everyone shoots at the dog. It's covered with paint-ball splatters.

Balko quotes his basketball coach: "You play the way you practice."

And provides this link that proves it.

Happy 10th birthday, Shelby

Today is our dog Shelby's 10th birthday (that's 70 to you and me). She's a Queensland Heeler/Border Collie/Chow/who knows what.

Meet Ollie

Ollie is our foster dog. Check him out on the RESCUE site. He's great fun and very loving. And available for adoption in the Phoenix area.

UPDATE (December 10, 2006): Ollie was adopted last night by a family with another bassett hound and a shar pei.

Hot enough for blood popsicles

How hot has it been this week? Hot enough for the lions at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston to be fed frozen blood:

In Boston, animals at the Franklin Park Zoo were kept cool with sprinklers and frozen treats. The African wild dogs and lions got frozen blood; the primates received frozen fruit juice.

(Hat tip to Trent Stamp of Charity Navigator.)

Dogs and the Bible

Odyssey Truett, a Springer Spaniel, comments on the Bible's negativity about dogs.

(Hat tip to Ed Babinski.)

Help me help dogs and cats

Jim and I have been volunteering with RESCUE (Reducing Euthanasia at Shelters through Commitment and Underlying Education) since January 2002. Two of our dogs, Otto and Fred, came from RESCUE. We believe it is a worthy cause and I am asking for you help. I am participating in the Fourth Annual Bowl-A-Rama which raises money for animal organizations in Arizona. I am on Team Tango, representing RESCUE.

All pledges raised by RESCUE will go directly to their mission of providing a second chance at life for dogs and cats who, through no fault of their own, are spending their final days at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control. Thes money goes toward medical treatment, boarding, etc. while the animals are in RESCUE's care. The passion that began RESCUE has resulted in a volunteer-driven non-profit corporation with over 300 dedicated volunteers who have helped care for and place over 8,000 wonderful cats and dogs.

If you can spare $10, $20 or more, please go to http://bowl.azrescue.org and make a pledge to Team Tango.

Find the Pit Bull

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.

Nellie adopted

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.

Animal Planet Heroes Phoenix

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.

Another stray puppy

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.

Buying Pet Medicine Online

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 rm3xt7yr2ra@networksolutionsprivateregistration.com
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 68701

I 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 94538

M. 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.