“Raccoons enter home thru doggy door, attack pets - Fresno Bee” plus 1 more |
| Raccoons enter home thru doggy door, attack pets - Fresno Bee Posted: 15 Dec 2010 04:31 AM PST Page Not Found Unfortunately we are unable to locate the page you have requested. This could be due to content on our site having expired, a broken link, an outdated bookmark, or a mistyped address. Please use the navigation provided on this page, or click here to visit our home page. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| NOREEN: Holidays not fun for some pets - msnbc.com Posted: 29 Dec 2010 07:13 AM PST Rocky, that cute terrier-mixed breed someone adopted before Christmas so they could give a pet as a gift, might soon be returning to the animal shelter because, on second thought, it wasn?t such a good gift idea after all. Except that Rocky won?t re-stocked on a shelf like that unwanted sweater. Being returned to an animal shelter in January often can result in a dark fate because pet adoptions are far less frequent in winter. Pets returned after Christmas easily can end up like so much unwanted gift wrap, discarded with the rest of the holiday season?s remains. Just a few days after Christmas, ?we?ve had three returns,? said Jan McHugh-Smith, director of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region. ?Obviously, there are times when things don?t work out.? In one case, a dog didn?t get along well with a dog already in the household. In another, a family member was allergic to the new pet. By sometime in January, others may return to the shelter because the joy of Christmas morning has simply worn off. For McHugh-Smith and others in the animal-welfare vocation, the return of an animal to the shelter is never a good thing, but she explained that sometimes it?s for the best ? especially if the pet?s owner ultimately would have become indifferent to the animal. ?We?d actually rather have people return an animal than keep one if they?re not going to bond with it,? she said. McHugh-Smith said there was a time when animal-welfare experts strictly opposed the idea of adopting animals from shelters for the purpose of gift-giving. She said that position has softened in the last decade because studies have shown that people who receive pets as gifts keep them longer than previously thought. ?That said, people need to think long and hard for anyone to get a pet for someone else,? McHugh-Smith said. That makes sense: Adopting a dog or cat is the beginning of a long-term relationship, not to be taken lightly. Most of us who own dogs or cats would rather be party to the selection of the pet from the first day. One option is to buy a gift certificate to the shelter as a gift, allowing the recipient to make the choice. When people come to the Humane Society to adopt a pet, ?we do counseling,? McHugh-Smith said. Sometimes people have very good reasons for giving up a pet. Often, however, pets are simply abandoned. On Tuesday, the Humane Society had 233 animals in its Colorado Springs shelter and 161 at a shelter in Pueblo. On average the agency receives 65 pets a day. There are an estimated 50 million stray cats on America?s streets. It?s true that owning a pet is not for everyone, but let?s hope the post-holiday wave of pet returns is smaller this year. ? Listen to Barry Noreen on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. on Fridays and read his blog updates at gazette.com blogs/barrysblog ... Click here to continue to the story This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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