Be Kind to Animals Week Plus Local Stuff

So this week is Be Kind to Animals Week - May 3rd to 9th - put on by the American Humane Association. They want us to speak out for animals, report abuse, appreciate wildlife, adopt a pet from a shelter or rescue and take care of our pets. That all sounds pretty great to me. If you click on the link you can find out more about what the AHA wants you to do, but if you look around you I'm sure you can figure out something locally that will make a difference too.

On that note, I got an email today from a lady who runs a local cat rescue - I'll just copy it here and you can pick from the list of how you'd like to help if you feel moved - this lady has saved a ton of cats and feeds several colony's of feral cats, so she puts her money and time where her mouth is.

Hi there friends and supporters,

It is with great sadness that I must report that for the first time in 3 years and 201 rescued cats, we have a confirmed case of distemper (panleukopenia) in a kitten. Tongo was outwardly healthy for the first 8 days he was here, but on Sunday morning, he suddenly fell quite ill. We treated him and kept him as comfortable as possible, but by Monday afternoon, he was too far gone to hold out any hope for survival, so I helped him make a trip up to Heaven, by humanely euthanizing him at the vet.

Here is what I wrote on Facebook on Monday morning, before he died:
I am very sorry to report that for the first time in our 3 years of rescue, we have a kitten with distemper, also called panleukopenia. He is very sick and I am praying he will survive, but it is not looking good. Tongo was doing fine since he arrived last Saturday, but yesterday he suddenly developed a high fever, is vomiting, has bloody diarrhea and no appetite or energy. We provided Pedialyte and subcutaneous fluids last night, and this morning I took him to my vet. He was tested with a rectal swab SNAP test, and it came back positive, so this is not just a suspected case, but has been confirmed.

Thus we are trying to disinfect EVERYTHING he may have come in contact with, and will have to keep the rescue workshop under QUARANTINE until further notice. Donations of bleach and disinfecting wipes are badly needed. We will have to throw away all our litter boxes, scratching posts and cat beds. We would really appreciate donations of new cat supplies, to re-stock our rescue.
As it is, I don't have any idea how I am going to pay the enormous vet bills! Please volunteer at our Bottle Drive on May 16th Thanks so much,
Sonya Higgins

Since writing that message, I have had a case of bleach donated! So we don’t need any more bleach right now, but I am including a “Wish List” for the things we could use:

I would like the following items for cleaning:
paper towels
boxes of tissues
Disinfecting wipes (Lysol, Mr. Clean, Clorox or any brand)
hand sanitizer
small hand broom sweepers with dust pans

Extra miscellaneous items:
a Dust Buster
a space heater
a large cat scratching post or tower
a digital thermometer

Cat items:
small scratching posts
cat beds
cat blankets
toys: balls, mice, feather wands, etc
cat carriers
litter boxes
litter scoops

Of course, we need money to help cover the vet bills. Donations of cash may be made in person at the Eastern Passage Village Vet hospital to the SCARS account. They also accept debit and credit card. If you want to donate, but cannot make it to the vet in person, you can call in your credit card and they would mail you a receipt. I have also had a few people send me an Interac email money transfer.
Personal Cheques are not accepted at the vet, but may be mailed to me:
143 Briarwood Drive
Eastern Passage, NS
B3G 1B7

Thank you so very much on behalf of the (remaining) kitties,

Since the distemper virus can live for a long time in the environment, as it is airborne, we will NOT be able to take in any new kitty cats for quite some time. At least a few months, possibly for up to a year! This does NOT mean the end of Healing Animal SCARS – we can still help people who are willing to foster the kitties through our program. I can also still help folks who want to TNR an adult cat, as long as they are not looking for financial assistance. People who want to help a feral or stray cat and are willing to pay the reduced veterinary costs, can borrow a trap form me, get help trapping, plenty of advice. I can lend them equipment to keep the cat confined in their own shed or spare room for a few days post surgery. I just cannot have any new cats come into my rescue for a while. So please spread the word! We need foster homes desperately!

Sonya Higgins
Chairman/Director, “Healing Animal SCARS - Sonya’s Cat & Animal Rescue Society”
katsonya@accesswave.ca
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NS28.html

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There was an article in this week's Community Herald written by the unparallelled Pat Lee about a lady who knits hats for dogs - and the dogs always look so cute! And my friend Maureen gave Buttercup one of these hats a long time ago - doesn't Buttercup look cute in hers! haha!

Knitter turns hand to perky hand-knitted pet toques Dog lovers from around the world order East Jeddore woman’s cute canine creations

EAST JEDDORE — They might not be making a splash on the runways of Milan, but Debbie Storey’s hand-knitted toques for pooches are sure to turn heads.

Brightly coloured, stylishly designed and just cute as all get out when on the head of a tiny chihuahua or a fuzzy shitzu, the petite hats with appropriately placed holes for the ears are designed and knitted by Storey and sold in select pet stores or over the Internet at http://www.thegreatcanadiandog.ca/.

"I get great feedback from people," the local woman said recently. "They just love them."

In the three years she’s been making the toques — considered Canada’s national hat — she has shipped the colourful creations all around the world, including various parts of the U.S., Australia and Japan.

She said some people order them straight off the Internet, but others send a picture of what they’d like her to knit.

"They’ll e-mail me and say, ‘I want a plain red hat like this one in the picture’ and then we’ll go into detail with the measurements."

Storey runs her Great Canadian Dog Hat Company out of her home in East Jeddore, where she’s kept company during the day by her yellow lab Honey, who ironically is not a great model for her knitted creations.

"If you look at a lab, they don’t have a (pointed) head. It just slides off," she said, laughing, although she does offer a "helmet-style" hat for bigger dogs.

Storey learned to knit and do other needlework, like embroidery, from her grandmother and first put her skills to use in her native New Brunswick where she sold children’s knitwear. She ran the clothing items up on a knitting machine and then added embroidered detailing by hand.

She estimates she sells 300 hats a year, getting busy in late August as the two stores she deals with — one in Toronto and Brenda’s Dog Dudz in Lower Sackville — want to ensure they’re stocked for Christmas. She said she’s been in touch with other local stores that are interested in selling her hats, some which come with matching scarves.

The hats sold directly by her sell from $15 to about $40.

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And lastly - back to the being kind to animals, but on a different tack - WSPA put out a report on the fact that Animal cruelty still goes unpunished in Canada - this is what they've said -

It's been one year since Parliament amended Canada's animal cruelty laws to increase the jail time and other penalties for animal abuse. Recent headlines show that little has changed.

Offenders and their lawyers continue to exploit flaws and loopholes in the law to get off with a mere slap on the wrist or no penalty at all. The burden of proof that Crown Attorneys, police and SPCA investigators must meet in order to successfully prosecute these crimes is too high since it's virtually impossible to prove that the cruelty was 'wilful' in its intent and 'unnecessary'.


We need modern legislation now - We need the government of Canada to pass modern and enforceable legislation that protects all animals from cruelty and abuse. Animals matter to Canadians - it's time to reflect this in our laws.

What's really neat is that they've released a pdf report of cruelty cases that have had almost no punitive punishments associated with them - and they've included a couple of Nova Scotia cases - it's too bad that they missed a couple cases though - the Chapman case where they shot 175 of their dogs isn't mentioned, and the Celtic Pets case also is not mentioned. That's too bad - because those 2 cases are very blatant cases of the justice system giving the animals no any justice what so ever.

(Jack before he went to Cape Breton)
(Jack after he came back to Halifax - and had 2 baths and had the matts cut away from his eyes so that you could actually see them)
Need I mention once again that my dog Jack went down to Cape Breton with TWO eyes and came back to Halifax with ONE eye? You may be reading on different spots on the internet currently that there are some apologists for the animal abusers the MacIsaacs - and you may be wondering why I am not replying to them - it's because the things they are saying are so ludicrously obvious in their allegiance - and the facts of the case are so obvious that no reply is needed. All one needs to do is look at a dog like Jack to see that serious abuse took place in the home of animal abuser Alice MacIsaac.

And need I remind you that this poor dog was found in the "shelter" on animal abuser Zonda MacIsaac's property? Enough said. So the animal abusers MacIsaac apologists can go pound sand as far as I'm concerned.


The pdf report from WSPA is here