News Bulletin-One of the largest puppy mills seized!

November 9,2007

I received the following e-mail from the Montgomery County Humane Society:

Dear Jade,

In response to an urgent call for help with 1,000 small-breed dogs seized from a recently exposed, unregulated dog breeding operation in Hillsville, VA, the Montgomery County Humane Society sent medical staff and rescue vehicles to Southern Virginia yesterday afternoon.

The MCHS Private Rescue Shelter and medical staff are preparing for the arrival of up to 50 dogs, many of whom will need special care. The dogs are expected to arrive Thursday evening 11/8/07.

The dogs include nursing mothers, sick and injured dogs, and very young puppies. Their living conditions have been described as "deplorable and inhumane."

What is amazing is that, due to lack of enforceable regulations, Mr. Junior Horton, the owner, faces no charges or responsibility for the cost or impact his former profit center will incur upon the Carroll County government or the many non-profits like us, coming to assist.

The seizure of these dogs follows an investigation by The Humane Society of the United States into puppy mills in Virginia. The Hillsville site was among the largest it found, and the case has received widespread media attention.

In the coming days we will need the community's support to care for and find homes for these special dogs. To support this rescue mission, please click here(<- the link that was included in the email was not working properly, please visit the montgomery county human society and find their donation page if you would like to donate http://www.mchumane.org/puppymillrescue.shtml.

Thank you for all that you do for the animals,

JC Crist
President and CEO
Montgomery County Humane Society
www.mchumane.org

You can read about the puppy mill at   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/08/AR2007110802598.html?sub=AR

Please feel free to visit the Montgomery County Humane Society and make donations to help those poor dogs. Other shelters along the east coast have also pitched in to help. Please feel free to donate to any of the shelters.

On dog food.

What should you feed your dog?

November 4, 2007

Many pet owners take the convenient route, and while shopping for groceries pick up any range of pet food brands from the pet food isle of their local grocery store. Brands that are well known and well heard of, such as Purina®, Alpo® Authority®etc...

Is there anything wrong with that? Well, I am by no standards an expert on pet foods, nor am I an expert on doggy nutrition. So what gives me the right to write anything on the subject of pet foods? Simple… I am a dog owner of dogs that eat dog food. Wait! I am more than that… I am the owner of two dogs with THE MOST irritable and sensitive intestines out there! When my family adopted them, they had tummies filled with every worm and parasite imaginable, and were on their death beds from Parvovirus. Needless to say, my dogs thankfully survived, but were left with extremely sensitive intestines, and I have cleaned up countless mishaps of upchucks and runny bum accidents from the floors of my house.

I have asked the question to different vets about what brand of pet food, I should feed my dogs, and they have mentioned various brands. Unfortunately, I am skeptical as to whether these vet offices are supported financially by some of the pet brands, and have given up hope on a verifiable answer from any of them. However, I was tipped off by one vet in particular after seeking her advice for my dogs’ growing weight problem, that Purina® and a lot of other regular store brand doggy foods are filled with a lot of empty calories.

Armed with this info, I had to make a choice. I then decided that Eukanuba® and Iams® were more expensive than Purina® and therefore must be more nutritious. Nothing but the best for my doggies! These seemed to work well, although my dogs seemed tired of the same dog food brands and did not seem to like them very much. I then tried Nature’s Balance and so many other various higher priced dog foods found in your regular pet store shelves. They seemed to like Iams and Eukanuba the best, and these are the dog foods we settled on for years.

This past year, there were many dog food recalls due to the wheat gluten issue etc, and during the last recall scare, many dogs became sick from the wheat gluten. There were many rumors that there were a lot more dogs and cats sick than was announced on the news and that a lot of the incidents were “hush hush”.

During these scary times, my dogs mysteriously began vomiting a lot, and having bloody diarrhea. Eukanuba/Iams Company put out a statement that they were not involved in the recalls, and that their dog foods were safe. ¹ It is a strange coincidence that my dogs were ill considering they had been eating only Eukanuba® and Iams® dog food brands.

I have asked a few dog owners who feed their dogs Eukanuba® or Iams if their dogs were sick as well, but I have not heard of others sick from these brands, although this does not mean there are none. So what made my dogs sick? It is unknown.

My theories which can not be prove are;

1. Only a small number of bags from Eukanuba and Iams were affected, and we won the unlucky lottery**,
or
2. The dog food was slightly tainted, and most dogs were able to pass it off as no more than a slight tummy upset,
   while my dogs with their most sensitive damaged tummies could not handle the contamination.**, or;
3. Yes, it could be some extraneous item in the backyard, but what that could be is a mystery.

- Once again these are only theories.

Whatever the cause of my dogs’ illnesses, made their tummies even worse than they already were. They were no longer able to handle any dog food it seemed. We tried brand after brand giving their tummies rest in between by cooking rice soup and meat, even taking the chance to go back to Eukanuba and Iams after the dog food crisis was over. The only thing the dogs were able to tolerate was the rice soup and meat that I was cooking for them. They could not even tolerate table scraps that shouldn’t have made them sick in any way. The doggies were having such terrible diarrhea and vomiting episodes.

We looked into the various small company Holistic dog foods that were popping up everywhere taking advantage of the recall and dog food scare time periods. We listened to their claims that regular store bought dog food brands used whatever leftovers that FDA did not allow sold as human goods. We listened to their claims that the dog foods contained corn and other items that were very hard to digest. We also listened to their claims that their brands although much more expensive, were better, contained better ingredients, and lacked all the bad ingredients that the regular store brands contained. I was not convinced that these were not just false accusations, and false claims, but tired of having to cook everyday for my dogs, and worried that they were not getting enough nutrition that dog foods could give them, I ordered some holistic dog brands. (Sorry, I will not mention the brand names as not to sound like a commercial)

I can not say for sure that holistic dog foods have better ingredients like they claim, or that their statements are completely accurate, or even that the regular brand dog foods caused my dogs' further tummy problems. However, my dogs have been able to digest the holistic dog foods perfectly fine, but can not tolerate the majority of the famous store brands. The fact that other dog food brands make our dogs sick and these do not, makes me believe many store brands do in fact have a lot of non digestible contents and that holistic dog brands are really better. I would highly recommend dog owners to look into changing their brands to holistic ones. Sure they may carry a higher price, but our dog’s health is every bit worth it. Please look into any brand you are going to buy carefully before deciding that they are a legit holistic dog food company, and that their claims are true and accurate.

—Jade

**this blog statement is not endorsed by any pet food brand, nor are the accusations made to various named pet brands proof of anything, these are simply the author’s personal opinions or observations. The theories of this author can not be considered slander, as it is clearly stated that all of the above happenings are simply theories and opinions not proven or disproven by any facts.

1 http://us.eukanuba.com/eukanuba/global/EukanubaMediaStmt.htm

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