dogsforlife

Thursday, 14 November 2013

Interesting Facts about Dogs

There are so many amazing facts about dogs, things that us humans never knew about them.
It is impossible to know them all but here are a few interesting facts about our canine friends:

Interesting Dog Facts

Thursday, 17 October 2013

World Animal Day 4th October 2013

At the start of this month we celebrated World Animal Day on the 4th October 2013.
World Animal day is a day when we should remember the importance of animals, to show respect and kindness to animals, to think of the joy and enrichment that animals bring to our lives and the special bonds that we share with animals.

Here are some links to show how different people/organisations from around the world celebrated World Animal Day.

Manila World Animal Day

Singapore World Animal Day

Trinidad and Tobago World Animal Day

UK World Animal Day

Bulgaria World Animal Day

Israel World Animal Day

Cyprus World Animal Day

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Romania, the Land of Death For Stray Dogs

Romania, a country reaped in history, a country where you are greeted by outstanding natural beauty, rolling hills and picturesque landscapes, but regrettably also a country were corruption, greed and brutality is rife.

After the incident of the child, Ionut, who was killed in suspicious circumstances in Bucharest, the government announced a new law on September 10th 2013, this law would put every stray dogs life that lived in Romania, in complete jeopardy.

The new law to 'euthanise all stray dogs, even healthy ones' was a harsh and brutal law bought in by propaganda and for nothing other than greed.

Its easy to turn the blame onto the stray dogs as they can't speak up and defend themselves, they are vulnerable and easy pickings for those with ulterior motives.
We do not know exactly how this child died or who or what killed this child, so we therefore have no right to blame innocent stray dogs for this tragedy.

There is too much negative press on the stray dogs through the media in Romania, they show one sided interviews, they present views only from anti stray persons and they show false or misleading statistics.
The media only adds fuel to the fire and creates an unnecessary situation, they manipulate the population with one sided views, which in turn creates fear in the people and makes the people dislike strays.

There are so many unanswered questions and the first port of call would be the grandmother, I don't want to get personal but surely the initial fault must lie with her, letting her grandchildren out of her sight for far too long.

We all know why the Romanian government conveniently wishes to blame the stray dogs for any tragedy that occurs on the streets, its simple because the stray dogs are worth money to them, especially if they are a 'problem'.
The government are not trying to control the stray dog population, they are trying to make money out of the situation.
Instead of carrying out Neuter, Spay and Release on the street dogs of Romania, which successfully reduces the stray dog population, they choose the brutal choice of collect and murder.
Neuter and Spaying the stray dogs isn't as profitable for them, as killing them is, so sadly because of corruption and greed, the stray dogs have suffered and continue to suffer immensely.
Innocent lives are lost to the hands of these brutal killers who seem to show no remorse or pity for the cruel and sick acts that they commit on these innocent creatures.

Even though this new proposed law is currently stated as being 'frozen', mayors, groups and individuals have still taken it into their own hands to kill innocent strays all over Romania.
Awful photos emerge after this new law was announced, it seems monsters were born or were already there in hiding and this new law has in effect given them permission to go out on the streets and carry out aggressive, sick, brutal and violent attacks on the vulnerable and unsuspecting stray dogs.
The photos that emerge are photos of innocent stray dogs that peacefully lived alongside the communities, murdered and treated in the most terrible ways, beaten with weapons, stabbed to death, tricked and poisoned, no victims were sparred, among the photos are friendly dogs, dogs that have lived in the communities for years, pregnant dogs, old dogs and even puppies.
Brutality on a large scale is being shown from the dog catchers, they are trying to steal owned dogs and are inflicting injuries on the owners in the process also they are collecting stray dogs in an aggressive and inhumane manner, the dogs are left with injuries from the capture process and sometimes death has occurred instantly.

I feel saddened as money is budgeted and put aside for the stray dogs of Romania to help and control the stray dog population, which will in turn improve both the humans and the stray dogs lives but these twisted government officials are using the money for themselves and the street dogs suffer at the hands of them because they are 'voiceless'.

I must just say, of all the stray dogs that I have come across, hundreds and hundreds of them, I have never come across an aggressive stray dog, most have all just wanted love and affection, some were too scared to come near me, for obvious reasons, but none of them ever showed signs of aggression. All they wanted is human interaction and to be loved, lots of them would even chose cuddles over eating the food I would give, it would mean so much more to them. So from my experience of stray dogs, observing them and spending time with them I know what they are like and I know how much trust they have in us humans, even though they are let down by people and scared time after time, they are always forgiving and its a common sight to see a wag of a tail from them, when they realise that you are going to be kind to them and not hurt them.
Its their only fault really, they are too kind, too trusting and too friendly for their own good.

I cannot bear to think about what will happen today, how many more innocent and friendly stray dogs that are peacefully sleeping or innocently walking along the streets, will lose their lives? Will luck give them another day or will they be unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

How you can help:

Sign the Petitions

The Romanian Government and the European Parliament: End Romanias Government abuse of public funds

Give the Romanian Stray Dogs The Chance to Live

Romanian Government: STOP mass killing dogs! Adopt mass sterilization!

Constitutional Court of Romania: Please reject the PL912 modification proposal of the Lower House

Adopt, Sponser or Foster a Romanian Stray Dog and Save Their Life

PHOTOS - Flash was brutally cut open by the stomach and during operation to put intestines back in, the heart stopped and Kloe was frightened when the dog catcher put the noose around her neck and she suffered a heart attack.
These are just two cases of the thousands of stray dogs in Romania that have cruelly lost their lives since this new law came in.

Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Funny Dog Video - Our Naughty Pointer Raiding the Kitchen

This funny dog video shows our naughty Pointer dog barging open the kitchen door after we had gone out and helping herself to whatever she could find. In her case it was a jar of peanut butter, which she took to her bed and was saving for later and a bag of shopping. Her fun ended after she made a loud thud, because that alerted our Kangal mix boy, who then comes trotting into view to see what is going on, he looks around concerned as though he thinks there is an intruder in the house. Our Pointer see's him coming and acts submissive by freezing to the spot, as if to say 'it wasn't me, I don't know nothing about it'. Our boy looks around deeply concerned and confused (poor thing) as he knows something is not right, he rushes past the bag of shopping on the floor as he doesn't want anything to do with it and knows it shouldn't be there. Then he checks at the front door to see if we are home and finally settles down next to our Pointer, which was a good thing as she didn't move a muscle after that!

Monday, 12 August 2013

Dogs and the Danger of Oleander Poisoning

Some plants can be a real danger to pets if they are consumed, sometimes a single leaf can even be deadly, so it is important to know the plants that are poisonous to dogs.

In this article I am referring to one specific plant, the 'Oleander'.

Oleander, the wonderful shrub that stays Green all year round, it blooms such beautiful blooms in a range of gorgeous colours such as a pure White, a delicate Peach tone, a lemon Yellow colour and finally the marvelous shades of Pink.

Our dog had a lucky escape last month after consuming an Oleander leaf, he never nibbles leafs and is a fussy eater, so we never thought such a problem would exist with him.
Our Oleander shrub was dropping leaves due to a minor disease, so we were regularly sweeping up the leaves.

One night our boy was outside with us and I turned to see him chewing something, something so small that we couldn't see what it was, we forgot all about it until the next morning.
The next morning on the walk he had severe diarrhea and there was no explanation for it, we remembered back to the following evening and suddenly thought maybe he had actually been chewing an Oleander leaf that had dropped off.

When we got home his heart was racing and he seemed restless, he stood by the front door as he needed to go to the toilet again.
We went to the vets, the vet said activated charcoal (which is normally used for this problem) couldn't be used as it was too late, the poison was already in his blood stream, so he had several doses of laxatives to get all the poison out from his body and we spent many hours walking around giving him the chance to go to the toilet.

Once back home that evening he was tired and weak, the vet gave us a hydration sachet for him, which we gave to him, this was to replace the lost body salts and to make him feel stronger.

The next day we saw a bigger improvement in him, so was very happy, it was such a worrying time for us, especially as we had researched and found out that Oleander is one of the most poisonous plants for dogs.
Our boy was lucky because he only consumed one small leaf and he weighs over 30kg so he was strong enough to fight back but if he was a smaller dog it might have been a very different outcome.