ohmidog!

An 18-year-old blind Muslim student in England is the first to be allowed to take his guide dog into a UK mosque, the BBC reported this week. 

Dogs are traditionally regarded as “unclean” in Islam and not allowed into mosques. The Muslim Law (Shari’ah) Council UK, however, in response to the request of the student, Mohammed Abraar Khatri, issued a fatwa which allows guide dogs inside mosques but not into prayer rooms.

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the Muslim Council of Britain worked together to reach the agreement.

Guide Dogs for the Blind said it was “a massive step forward for other blind and partially-sighted Muslims … It is also hoped that mosque leaders both in the UK and internationally will now make similar adjustments to enable Muslim guide dog owners to enter their mosque.”

A special rest area has been set up in the entrance of the Bilal Jamia Mosque for the dog, named Vargo, to stay in while his owner is praying.

“He does just lie down and relax there and sit here,” Khatri said. “Being a guide dog, their whole manner is to be calm and relaxed and just out of the way.”

For the BBC video, click here.

PETA’s suggestion to Ben and Jerry, proposing human breast milk be used in place of cow’s milk in the making of its ice cream products, has been rejected.

PETA made the request after hearing that Storchen, a  restaurant in Switzerland, has just announced that they will be unveiling a new menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent human breast milk.

That, a PETA blog explains, “got us thinking … which product would be fabulously awesome if it were made with breast milk instead of cow’s milk? (Light bulb!) Ben and Jerry’s!”

Humans, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals notes, are the only species on the planet that drinks the milk of another species.

“We explained that using cow’s milk for their ice cream is a hazard to consumers’ health,” the PETA Files blog continues. “…Animals will also benefit from the switch to breast milk. Because, like all mammals, cows only give milk during or after pregnancy, in order for humans to constantly milk them, they are forcefully impregnated every nine months. Many live in filthy conditions and are forced to give 10 times more milk than they would naturally. It’s truly an awful life.”

Since Ben and Jerry no longer own Ben and Jerry’s — they sold out to Unilever eight years ago  – they didn’t get much say on the proposal. A spokesman for Unilever said that while the company valued PETA’s input, it has opted against the idea, Advertising Age reported.

“We applaud PETA’s novel approach to bringing attention to an issue,” the spokesman said, “but we believe a mother’s milk is best used for her child.”

One of our intrepid correspondents, braving the wilds of YouTube, tracked down this old video of 71′s arrival at the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in California, 22 years ago.

We share it here in memory of the elephant, who (see below) died last week.

    Slated to be sold to a circus after her mother was killed by hunters, a baby elephant from Africa arrived in the U.S. a quarter of a century ago in chains.
    She had no name, just a number.
It was 71.
    Instead of ending up at a circus, she was purchased by a wealthy landowner in Florida and lived on his estate, but — having been taken so young from her mother — she was malnourished, chronically sick and nearly died.
    In an attempt to save her life, Pat Derby and Ed Stewart, founders of the Performing Animal Welfare Society in California, offered to give her sanctuary.

When she arrived at PAWS, again in chains, veterinarians said she would never be healthy, but Derby and Stewart bottle fed the elephant — whose name would remain simply “71″ — until she was strong enough to eat on her own. They slept with her for months.

“When 71 first arrived and walked out of her crate,” Derby recalls, “we immediately cut the chains from around her neck. We promised her right then she would never again be chained. She would never be beaten. She would never have to do anything she didn’t want to do. We kept that promise to her.”

71 peacefully passed away on Friday, September 19,  PAWS reports. She was 26 years old.

“71 was the cornerstone of PAWS. She was the reason for everything that guides PAWS’ founding mission. She leaves a legacy for the other African elephants, Mara, Ruby, Lulu and Maggie, whom she led,” Derby said.

Derby believes captivity — the practice of capturing elephants, tearing them away from their families, forcing them to live in confined spaces, and using often cruel techniques to train them — is ultimately what destroys them.

“I hope everyone who hears 71′s story will remember her when they see elephants languishing in small spaces, rocking and swaying, deprived of their freedom and their families,” she said. 

Founded in 1984 by Derby, a former Hollywood animal trainer (“Flipper”, “Daktari”, “Gunsmoke”, “Lassie”, “Gentle Ben”) and her partner, Ed Stewart, PAWS maintains three sanctuaries for captive wildlife – 30 acres in Galt, California, 100 acres in Herald, California and 2,300 acres in San Andreas, California.

As an animal trainer in Hollywood — one whose methods were based on trust as opposed to fear — Derby was shocked at what she calls rampant neglect and abuse. Her autobiography, Lady and Her Tiger, was the first expose of the harsh training methods that she says once were standard in the entertainment industry.

PAWS is dedicated to the protection of performing animals, to providing sanctuary to abused, abandoned and retired captive wildlife, to enforcing the best standards of care for all captive wildlife, to the preservation of wild species and their habitat and to promoting public education about captive wildlife issues.

(Photo courtesy of PAWS)

To reclaim his dog from an animal shelter, a homeless man named James Clark used his dog’s bowl to beg for money on the streets of Sacramento.

And, thanks to some help from the mayor, Clark has been reunited with his dog, Cosmo.

Cosmo, according an online report by TV station KRCA, was placed into a city animal shelter when Clark was arrested for using public transit without paying.

“I had light-rail warrants, you know,” Clark said. “I got out in less than 24 hours just getting some warrants cleared and he’s stuck in there (shelter) … almost a week.”

Clark said he missed the dog’s companionship and worried about how he could raise the $130 he needed to get Cosmo out. That’s when Mayor Heather Fargo  heard Clark’s story and helped him out.

“Especially if you’re homeless, having your pet … that’s your best friend,” Fargo said. “That’s the animal that is there with you, and there’s a lot of comfort in that.”

The mayor called animal control, which placed a hold on Cosmo, which meant he wouldn’t be given away or euthanized. The animal control office showed some compassion as well, dropping Clark’s fee to $60 once he agreed to have Cosmo neutered.

Clark paid the fee and has been reunited with his dog, KRCA reports.

Clark says the dog helps him know who’s a friend and who’s a foe on the streets.

“If somebody walks by your dog, (it) lets you know who you can trust and who you can’t,” Clark said.

Rising foreclosures and the sagging economy are making it more difficult for families to properly care for their pets, and this week JAKKS Pets and the Petco Foundation are doing something about it — offering free dog and cat food to struggling families and pet rescue groups in Detroit, Chicago and Greater Cleveland.

A free one-week supply of dog or cat food will be handed out to those who show up Saturday or Sunday at the Petco stores at Westgate Mall in Fairview Park or at 500 East Aurora Road in Macedonia.

“Pets have become innocent victims of the recession,” a company spokesman said, “and the number of animal intakes at shelters has risen dramatically.”

The move may not be purely altruistic. The company’s public-relations events follow a raid of its Illinois warehouse in June, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and marshals confiscated pet food that had been stored in filthy conditions, according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

The warehouse, which supplied Petco stores in Ohio and 15 other states, was infested with rodents and birds. There had been no reports of pet illness from consuming Petco food, but pet owners were told to wash their hands after handling the bags and plastic containers.

I’m not a superstitious sort — so, normally, a black cat on my back fence would not bother me.

But when he sits there for 30 minutes, motionless, staring, in kind of an intimidating vulture pose — as this fella did over the weekend – it does make me think twice.

Then I realize I’m not being logical — that I’m buying into the myth that a black cat means bad luck. Besides, this cat didn’t really cross my path. He just sat atop my fence. That’s a whole different thing. Right?

Such silly superstitions are part of what makes life harder for black animals, at least those who don’t have a home. Black cats and dogs generally take the longest to get adopted and are more likely to be euthanized. With black dogs, people wrongly think they will be meaner. With black cats, superstitions come into play.

On top of all that, most humans generally prefer light colored, or multi-colored animals. Black means mysterious, and, in our pets, we prefer predictability.

It’s also harder for humans to read a black animal’s facial expressions and body language, says Kristen Nelson, a Scottsdale, Ariz., veterinarian and member of the American Association of Human-Animal Bond Veterinarians.

“(People) focus on the animal’s eyes, which stand out against the neutral background, and miss all the other signals the animal is giving.”

Nelson was quoted in a well-researched article on the plight of black cats and dogs in the Bend (Oregon) Bulletin Monday.

The article also quotes Michael Arms, founder of Iams Home for the Holidays, an animal welfare campaign based in San Diego. Of the 3 million animals he says he has helped get adopted, the last to go are always the dark-colored ones.

“Put bandanas around the dog’s necks,” he advised. “Yellow, red, green, blue. That changes it.”

He also suggests changing the dogs’ names. “I go into some shelters, and people name the dogs Killer,” he said. “Who would want to adopt a dog named Killer?”

I don’t know my fence-sitting cat’s name, though I think he lives around the corner. He hissed when Ace and I approached him, so we backed off. But whether he’s a harbinger of bad things ahead or not, he’s welcome to stay — as long as he keeps those Baltimore rats at bay –  for as long as he likes.

Genetic scientists said Sunday they think they have figured out why some Labrador retrievers – the most popular dog breed in the world — are prone to collapsing after exercise.

The tendency among some Labradors, after as little as five minutes of strenuous exercise, to develop a wobbly gate, run a fever and lose control over their rear legs, was first spotted by vets in the 1990s.

Now, scientists say the syndrome, called exercise-induced collapse, is likely caused by mutation of a gene called dynamin 1, or DNM1, on the dog’s ninth chromosome that controls a key chemical in the nervous system.

In an experiment reported Sunday, University of Minnesota researchers carried out a gene scan of 96 dogs, 60 of which had the syndrome. Up to 30 per cent of Labrador retrievers carry the mutation, though only three to five per cent of them suffer from exercise-induced collapse, the scientists said.

The study appears in Nature Genetics, a journal of the British-based Nature Publishing Group.

The University of Minnesota team developed a gene test to see whether dogs have the normal or mutated form of DNM1, which could help dog breeders.

“This is very exciting because it is the first naturally occurring mutation of this gene identified in any mammal,” said James Mickelson, a professor of veterinary sciences at the university. “Its discovery could offer insight into normal as well as abnormal neurobiology in both animals and humans.”

A Labrador retriever gave birth earlier this month to what are claimed to be the world’s first puppies born from transplanted frozen fertilized eggs, a Japanese newspaper reports.

A research team led by Prof. Hiroshi Suzuki  at Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine transplanted frozen fertilized ova of a Labrador retriever guide dog into another female of the same breed.

According to The Yomiuri Shimbun, the births could help alleviate the shortage of guide dogs in Japan. 

Potential guide dogs must be neutered before training to prevent them from becoming distracted by sexual urges. That, up to now, has meant those that excel at the work and have the best temperament for it are unable to produce offspring. Only about three of every ten dogs trained pass the test to become guide dogs.

Researchers said eggs taken from a female can be stored indefinitely before being fertilized and implanted in a surrogate dog.

Three puppies were born on Sept. 8., and though one was stillborn, the experiment was judged to have been a success. According to Suzuki, the survival rate of fertilized eggs after freezing is low, and there have been no other successful births to date.

The research was conducted in conjunction with the Sapporo-based Hokkaido Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.

About 8,000 people in Japan have applied to own a guide dog, but only about 1,000 such dogs are in active service.

While celebrities walked the red carpet at Thursday night’s premiere of “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” about 20 protesters stood by with signs urging people not to rashly buy chihuahuas after they see the movie.

“We know the movie is cute,” says Kim Sill, who runs the campaign against puppy mills for Last Chance for Animals, the group that organized the protest. “We don’t want to say we’re against the movie. We’re against people going to a pet store after they see the movie.  We want them to go to a shelter, because there are a lot of Chihuahuas there”

Animal welfare advocates have been concerned about the impact the Disney movie — which opens Oct. 3 — will have on sales of Chihuahuas, the Los Angeles Times reports in its pet blog, Unleashed.

Popular dog movies often cause a run on the breed featured. “101 Dalmatians” led to a surge in Dalmatian ownership. But when people realize the dog may not be right for their family — Damaltians are difficult and Chihuahuas are not always great with children –”they get dumped,” says Sills.

When a movie is about to open, puppy mills, she contends, gear up to produce more of that breed to supply pet stores.

There are already more Chihuahuas among registered dogs in Los Angeles County than any other breed, and shelters say they already have high concentrations of the breed.

Some of the Chihuhuas at the Carson shelter, run by the Los Angeles County shelter system, are featured in the video that Last Chance for Animals made to drive home its point about not buying Chihuahuas.

Sill said her group wanted Disney to air a pre-movie public service announcement in theaters, telling patrons to think hard before choosing a pet. “We would have happily produced it for them and given it to them,” said Sill.

The movie’s credits include an advisory that getting a pet is a serious and lifelong commitment that should be researched first.

Ed Boks, general manager of LA Animal Services, saw the movie Thursday night.  “I was a bit disappointed,” he said. “The movie has a strong ‘adopt’ and ‘rescue’ message, but no ‘spay/neuter’ message. In fact, one female dog opined that she longed for a boyfriend who has NOT been ‘fixed.’

“…Disney just does not seem to share our concern over the influence this movie could have on people who will now think of Chihuahuas as cash cows.”