Two years after Katrina, HSUS marks progress in protecting animal victims of disasters. at Pet Monologues

Asides

Who would be the next President of the animal kingdom…

Kobe Bryant’s popularity extends even to the animal kingdom. From a database of more than 465,000 pet insured animals including dogs, cats, birds, and exotic domesticated animals, 359 are named “Kobe,” making it the 189th most popular name of 65,536 pet names across the nation. Five pets in the database are named “LeBron,” two are name “Yao Ming,” and there’s a “Boston Garnett” along with a “Dirk Nowitzki.”

The most unusual sports name in the pet world, however, might belong to a Yorkshire Terrier that answers to “Kobe Shaq Jackson.” via los angeles times

Dress up games.

For Halloween one needs a creative tool to dress up Fluffy and Buddy. Here it is! Dressup games. My cute pet dressup.

Pets vote.

“Even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter.” vice president Al Gore Click on a dog to buy a vote for Bark Obama or McCanine. Check in daily to see who is pulling on the lead…

visit petsvote

Pets. Dead people. Asked to vote.
CHICAGO — More than 1,000 phony registrations were submitted, Lake County official says. Dogs, goldfish and dead people were sent voter registration forms by mistake as part of an aggressive registration drive in the northern suburbs, Lake County Clerk Willard Helander said Friday. "This is nothing like we've ever seen before," Helander said in a news conference in Waukegan, where election workers identified more than 1,000 phony registrations submitted over the past few weeks. Helander blamed the problem on a group called the Voters Participation Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that is a project of Women's Voices/Women's Vote based in Washington, D.C. Sarah Johnson, a Women's Voices spokeswoman, said the group uses a commercial data list generated by a national vendor to send out registration forms and that mistakes happen. "Sometimes . . . people think it's funny to get a magazine addressed to their cat or their dog, and when they do that, their cat or dog ends up on the list," Johnson said. "But we're just trying to make it as easy as possible for people to register and vote." Election officials in Oregon, Kentucky and other states have complained that the Women's Voices project has caused confusion. A record 401,935 Lake County residents are registered for the Nov. 4 election. via chicago tribune [1] [1] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lake-voter-fraud-both-18-oct18,0,7157423.story

Great Lakes wolf killing stopped.
Court Reverses Bush Decision to Strip Protection From Wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Breaking News! Agreeing with a Center for Biological Diversity legal action, a federal judge today overturned a 2007 Bush administration decision to remove Great Lakes area wolves from the endangered species list. The ruling puts an immediate halt on the killing of hundreds of wolves in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. While the Great Lakes wolf population has increased to 4,000 individuals under the protective cover of the Endangered Species Act, the species is still missing from most of its historic range, including the Northeast, the southern Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the West Coast. Rather than developing a national wolf recovery strategy, the Bush administration craftily abandoned wolf recovery in most of the country by delisting wolves in the Great Lakes and the northern Rocky Mountains and declaring that the lack of wolves in other areas relieves the administration of any responsibility to continue recovery actions. In today's ruling, the judge agreed with the Center's amicus argument that stripping protection from local populations while refusing to consider the recovery of wolves throughout the lower 48 appears to violate the central purpose of the Endangered Species Act. The precedent setting ruling will protect hundreds of species from this backdoor strategy of abandoning species recovery. This is the second major victory in two weeks for the Center's wolf recovery fund. On September 16, the government announced it would give up defending against our northern Rockies wolf lawsuit. Thanks for supporting the wolf defense fund and sending thousands of emails and petitions objecting to the slaughter of wolves in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This victory couldn't have happened without your help. Thanks also to our litigation allies at the Humane Society, Help Our Wolves Live, the Animal Protection Institute, and Friends of Animals and Their Environment.

Endangered species act under assault.
Send Comments to Secretary Kempthorne. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced devastating changes to the Endangered Species Act, signaling the end of protection for thousands of imperiled species. The new regulations would: - Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act; - Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight; - Limit which effects can be considered harmful; - Prevent consideration of a project’s contribution to global warming; - Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to participate – or else the project gets an automatic green light; - Enable large-scale projects to go unreviewed by dividing them into hundreds of small projects. We must stop Kempthorne from fatally crippling our nation’s most successful wildlife law. Take action today. [1] [1] http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25351

Porpoises belly up to low-fat diet.
TOKYO — Dolphins at a Japanese marine park are going on a low-fat diet after developing potbellies and failing to look sharp in their aquatic performances. Kinosaki Marine World in western Japan said Tuesday that all its 19 dolphins have been on a low-fat diet since late August, when they started failing to hit jumping targets and keep upright while treading water. "We were puzzled by their poor performance. Then we noticed they looked rounder," said park spokesman Haruo Imazu. Keepers weighed them and found all had gotten plumper, some up to 22 pounds heavier just during the summer. All had the same menu—about 31 pounds of mackerel mixed with some white fish — but keepers found the mackerels had gotten fattier, adding too many calories. Keepers immediately put them on a weight-loss program, feeding them more white fish and less fatty mackerel while instituting an exercise regime, Imazu said. Less fat and moderate exercise seem to be working. via chicago tribune [1] [1] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-dolphins_01oct01,0,4672913.story

Man punches shark. Saves dog.

SLAMORADA, Fla. — A dog is recovering after a Florida Keys carpenter dove in to save his pet from a shark.

Greg LeNoir said he took his 14-pound rat terrier Jake for a daily swim at a marina Friday.

The 5-foot shark suddenly surfaced and grabbed nearly the entire dog in its mouth.

LeNoir said he yelled, then balled up his fists and dove headfirst into the water. He hit the shark in the back and the creature finally let go of the dog.

Man and dog made it safely back to shore. The dog suffered bite wounds but was not critically injured.

PM editor’s note: OMG!

Elephant killed by bus.
MEXICO — A five-ton elephant was killed by a bus after it escaped from a circus in Mexico, and wandered onto a busy highway. Bus driver Tomas Lopez, 49, also died and at least four passengers were taken to hospital after the accident, which happened just before dawn on Tuesday in Ecatepec, north of Mexico City. The elephant had escaped from its cage at the Circo Union circus, according to Mexico State police spokesman Juan Sanchez, who said officers were still investigating the circumstances. It is understood that the 40-year-old animal, named Hilda, broke free as her keeper arrived to feed her. She apparently knocked down a metal door that led to the street and wandering through two neighbourhoods before trying to cross the road. Marcelino Ramos, 22, keeper at the Circo Union circus, told El Universal daily newspaper: "I untied her so she could eat. She never did this before, but suddenly she ran at full speed and broke through the gate." Police said the bus driver stood no chance of avoiding the elephant as it charged onto the road near the famous Teotihuacan pyramids. Last month, a 500lb lion escaped from a private zoo in southern Mexico. The animal killed two dogs and a pig and attacked a woman and child on a donkey before it was sedated and caught. via telegraph.co.uk [1] [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/3069003/Escaped-circus-elephant-killed-by-bus-in-Mexico.html

Two years after Katrina, HSUS marks progress in protecting animal victims of disasters.

As Gulf residents mark the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s destructive path through Louisiana and Mississippi, those involved in the historic effort to rescue the animals left behind will recall the devastation brought by the storm. In the aftermath of so much loss, animal welfare organizations including The Humane Society of the United States have been working to apply the lessons from Hurricane Katrina.

“No one was fully prepared to deal with a disaster the size and scope of Hurricane Katrina, including the agencies responsible for caring for animals,” said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO. “But since 2005, federal and state policies that control evacuation procedures have changed, people who have pets have learned that they need to be prepared, and the capabilities of animal rescue organizations have improved significantly. Along the Gulf coast, we hope that through the actions of HSUS and other animal protection organizations that the humane infrastructure in these states is stronger now than it was before the devastating hurricanes of 2005.”

Over the last two years, The Humane Society of the United States dedicated significant resources to helping animals in disasters:

* The HSUS and other groups operated a real life Noah’s Ark in Gonzales, La. to house the animals left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. In all, more than 10,000 animals were rescued. More than 2,500 animals were reunited with their families, and the remaining were adopted out into new and loving homes all across the country.
* The HSUS successfully pushed federal and state lawmakers to strengthen policies regarding animals and disasters. In 2006, President Bush signed the HSUS-backed Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act, requiring states to include pets and service animals in evacuation plans or lose federal disaster funding. Sixteen states have passed post-Katrina laws to protect animals in disasters. The HSUS is working in the remaining states to pass strong disaster laws for animals.
* Heeding the call for more training in animal rescue and disaster response, HSUS staff held workshops in 26 states over the past 20 months. Now thousands of trained individuals are able to answer the call to help animals when disaster strikes.
* The HSUS spent or allocated $34.6 million to help animals in disasters, including an investment of $8.35 million to rebuild 45 animal shelters throughout the Gulf region. The funds helped to build new facilities for the Louisiana SPCA and the Humane Society of South Mississippi, which suffered catastrophic losses from the storm, as well as dozens of other facilities.
* The HSUS granted $800,000 to Louisiana State University Veterinary School and $900,000 to Mississippi State University Veterinary School, to start innovative low-cost spay and neuter programs to help curb pet overpopulation in the Gulf region. The HSUS also allocated $600,000 to Dixon Correctional Institute to build an overflow shelter and start a model program in which prisoners temporarily care for pets displaced by future disasters.
* HSUS disaster teams are in Mexico now responding to the damage from Hurricane Dean and assisting animal welfare organizations. This is one example of HSUS disaster personnel on the ground dealing with disasters and large-scale cruelty cases that exceed the capability of local animal welfare groups. Other examples include The HSUS’ recent response to floods in Coffeyville, Kansas and Binghamton, N.Y., wildfires in Montana, and caring for animals in cruelty cases in Oklahoma and Maine.
“While others were rushing out of the disaster zone, trained HSUS rescuers and responders were rushing in to rescue animals,” added Pacelle. “We hope that in the future, planning and preparation are the watchwords for the people of this nation in dealing with disasters. It’s much easier to do the work before a disaster strikes than after.”

To commemorate the anniversary, The HSUS is publishing a week-long series of articles on its website humanesociety.org. The articles chronicle the individuals and organizations involved in the largest animal rescue effort in American history.

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest animal protection organizationâ€”backed by 10 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Issues/Opinions, Law, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.