Thanks to Health24.com for this hopeful article.

Dogs helping in cancer fight

Alex doesn’t know it, but the 12-year-old golden retriever is actually a hero of cancer research.
“When she was about 10, we noticed that she started to limp,” said her owner, Kevin Darling, an IT professional living near Columbus, Ohio. “She had the beginning stages of osteosarcoma - bone cancer.”

Because the tumour was confined to Alex’s left front leg, veterinarians recommended amputating the limb and then giving the dog chemo. “They said she probably had a 50% chance of living one year,” said Darling, 45.

He took that chance, and nearly three years later, Alex, minus one front leg, is still “full-tilt running, keeping up with my other dogs,” Darling said.

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How absolutely intelligent! I wonder of we could get this law passed in more towns and cities?

Thanks to The Manchester Times for this article.

Brick May Bar Sales Of Dogs And Cats At Pet Shops
By Catherine Snipe

BRICK - The township is considering a law that would ban new pet shops from selling cats and dogs, limiting them to selling only such things as fish and supplies.

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Did you catch WE Channel’s America’s Cutest Puppies? If so, you might have gotten a look at a fellow Dogster! Buddy strutted his cute self on the San Francisco episode. He’s the one on the left in the picture above.

Here’s what Buddy’s furmom had to say:

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Thanks to WSBTV.com for staying on top of this case.

Police Suspect Dogs Buried On Vick’s Former Property

ATLANTA — Virginia investigators said they now suspect there are 30 dogs buried on Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick’s former Surry County, Va., property. They also said that seven pit bulls were killed and buried in shallow graves just days before the first police raid in April.

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Let’s see… Menu Pet harasses pet owners who are suing the company but won’t talk to other pet owners trying to file claims directly with the company — even though the instructions we’ve been given were to ahave pet patents contact Menu Pet directly. Is this like that game of hide and seek that little kids play when they cover their eyes and ears and say I can’t see or hear you so I’m invisible?

Thanks to Jean, Gypsy’s mom, for barking in this article from USA Today .

Court: Menu Foods harassed pet owners

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

The pet food company that recalled 60 million cans of contaminated dog and cat food repeatedly made harassing phone calls to pet owners who had lawyers and said they didn’t want to talk, even after a judge ordered the firm to leave them alone, court records show.

Lawyers from six firms representing clients who claim their pets were harmed by Menu’s pet food asked a federal judge in New Jersey Wednesday to stop Menu from “bullying” people who had called the company since the recall was announced March 16, according to their court filing.

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As Memorial Day Weekend comes to a close here in the States, we can all share the All Fur Fun Group’s Memorial Day Stroll. Here are just a few of the Dogsters and Catsters who participated in it this year.

There are actually two strolls and here are links to both of them:
Stroll A
Stroll B

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I hate to agree with the Chinese government but I have to on this issue. Our huge corporations push suppliers to get cheaper and cheaper and sooner or later something gives. This time it was our furbabies. We must push our corporations to provide a minimum level of quality in food imports and products.

And the first thing our North American governments need to do is say, “no more Chinese food products of any kind until you guys clean up your quality standards and enforcements.” Until Chinese companies stop poisoning their own people with their shoddy products there is no reason to allow any of it into North America. This should not be a case of the FDA or anyone trying to “catch” their bad products; the Chinese should be held accountable to prove that they have improved their standards.

Thanks to USA Today for this article.

Chinese say U.S. shares blame in food scandal

By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

BEIJING — Fed up with weeks of Americans bashing their food safety standards, Chinese government and industry officials say that bargain-hunting U.S. food companies share blame if contaminated Chinese ingredients wind up in food.
More than two months after the USA began a massive pet-food recall, since linked to contaminated ingredients imported from China, business and government officials in China are investigating what went wrong and promising improvement in a country where mass poisonings from tainted foods have been common. But they also say they’re not the only ones who need to take more responsibility.

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Here’s our Sunbear Squad tip for this week:

Watch out for pets accidentally trapped without food or water or intentionally abandoned by students moving out of their apartments.

Thanks to Sherrie Escue at Dog Blog for barking in this interview from ESPN with the dog fighting informant talking about Michael Vick’s dog fighting activities.

Source: Vick ‘one of the heavyweights’ in dog fighting
By Kelly Naqi
Special to ESPN.com
Updated: May 28, 2007, 11:03 AM ET

He arrived at the hotel room, where our cameras were set up, in a T-shirt and jeans. “I’m nervous,” he said, surveying our lights and camera equipment. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Our confidential source said he’s been involved in dog fighting for more than 30 years. He has trained and fought — by his estimation — about 2,000 pit bulls and was poised to tell “Outside the Lines” about the time in 2000 when his dog squared off against a dog owned by someone he referred to as one of the “heavyweights” of the dog fighting world: Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.

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Stories like this one renew my faith in humans.

Some of you have barked in looking for info on how to donate to David’s surgery. It looks like that may not be necessary now.

Here’s a link to the original post on this story.

Thanks to WILX News for this update.

Disabled Veteran Receives $10,000 For Dog’s Surgery

Reporter: Lauren Zakalik

“I never realized there were that many people out there that cared,” says an emotional Richard Reister.

He’s the disabled veteran from Chesaning who’s mowing lawns for $10 to raise money for a life-saving surgery for his dog, David.

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