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PETA sent a letter to the president of USA Network today, urging the network to cease showing the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, sponsored by the American Kennel Club.

The letter requested that USA Network follow the lead of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), which announced last month that it will no longer televise Britain’s Crufts dog show because of harmful breed standard policies. The action followed a BBC special report on how breed standards have created health problems in many purebred breeds.

The standards of the British Kennel Club and the AKC are almost identical, PETA said.

“The AKC has failed to help reduce the debilitating health problems that plague purebreds. Furthermore, it specifically encourages painful mutilations such as ear-cropping and tail-docking. Dog breeders routinely perform these cruel procedures, which can lead to infection, and often use genetic manipulation or inbreeding to achieve certain “desired” breed standards,” a PETA press release said.

PETA also said purebred breeding adds to the nearly 8 million animals in shelters every year – many of them purebreds –about half of which are euthanized.

“Countless dogs suffer painful cosmetic surgeries and millions of wonderful dogs die in animal shelters because of the AKC’s inhumane policies,” says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “USA Network can take a stand against the cruel treatment of animals simply by denying air time to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.”

The quick answer is no. Despite a recent boo boo — actually a boo boo repeated from 2006 — in one of her “dog-friendly” recipes, Rachel Ray, whether you find her endearing or annoying, appears to be a true dog person, dog lover and dog philanthropist.

That one of her recipes — reprinted alongside a profile of Ray in this month’s Modern Dog magazine — calls for onions, which can be toxic to dogs, was an unfortunate oversight, a result of either the conflicting information that’s out there or a reflection of Ray’s learning curve when it comes to canines.

The recipe in question, “Isaboo’s Butternut Squash Mac and Cheddar,” originally appeared in Ray’s own magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, which runs a “pet friendly” recipe in every issue — a meal you can make for both you and your dog to eat.

The macaroni and cheese dish, which calls for half an onion, was the first of those to appear in the magazine, back in March 2006.

Ray also has her own dog food company, Rachael Ray Nutrish, some of the profits from which go to her own rescue organization, as she’s quick to point out on her website:

“There are no fillers.  No junk.  Just lots of good, wholesome stuff. How cool is that? And you know me.  I’m all about giving back, so some of the proceeds from Rachael Ray Nutrish go to charities that take care of animals who have no one else to look out for them.  Wow.  How good do you feel now?”

But back to poisoning dogs.

After the onion episode came to light, we went back and checked all the “dog-friendly” recipes Ray has published in her magazine, starting in April 2006 — all 27 of them — and we’re pleased to report that none of them are likely to kill your dog.

True, some of them call for avocados, which are toxic to dogs, and scallions, which are toxic to dogs, and nutmeg, high levels of which can result in seizures, tremors, central nervous system problems and death.

But almost always those recipes point out — either in the ingredient list or in the directions — to use those items only in the human portions.

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The Maryland SPCA is holding a special screening of Hotel for Dogs Saturday morning at Regal Cinemas Hunt Valley.

Admission is free, but a $5 donation is requested. Donations will help provide food, vaccinations, spay/neuter, shelter, care and enrichment for homeless and lost animals at The Maryland SPCA.

The film stars Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin as two kids who secretly take in nine stray dogs, using an abandoned building as a dog hotel.

Several adoptable dogs from The Maryland SPCA will be at the theater. Doors open at 10:00 a.m. The movie starts at 10:30 a.m. The theater is at 118 Shawan Road in Cockeysvile.

All moviegoers will be automatically entered into a drawing for one of ten free special edition stuffed dogs. Additional stuffed dogs will be available for a $15 donation.

Because space is limited the SPCA recommends registering by Thursday if you plan to attend. To do so, contact Tami Gosheff at tgosheff@mdspca.org with the names and email addresses of those attending. Names must be on the list for admission.

As if one species weren’t enough, PEOPLE magazine has branched out, establishing a new website called “PEOPLE Pets.”

Like the original magazine, the online pet version is short on edge and depth, heavy on fluff (we’re referring to both the animal and journalistic variety), with a heavy dose of celebrities stories and send-us-your-cute-dog-pictures contests.

It has a news section, and a style section, (“Mariah Carey celebrates the Holidays with her two loves. Plus: Mary-Kate Olsen, Dennis Quaid and other stars with their furry pals!”), and plenty of opportunities for readers to submit pet pictures.

It also has – for reasons I don’t grasp — lots of ads for Slim-Fast, the human weight loss beverage.

“It’s a site from the folks who do PEOPLE magazine, and it’s dedicated to all the things we love about our pets – funny photos, silly videos, heartwarming stories and, of course, styling pet gear,” Carol Vinzant, PEOPLE Pets community manager, said in an email about the new website.

Here’s an accidentally artsy photo I took at the park recently. It’s Ace (the brown blur) wrestling with Soju (the grey blur). Soju is a Great Dane, and one of Ace’s favorite wrestling partners.

You can see Soju — he’s named after the distilled beverage, native to Korea — elsewhere on this page, as he, along with his owner, is featured in one of our advertisements.

I could tell you what my camera settings were, and attempt to sound like a skilled photographer, but it was just on automatic, and the sun was going down. So the slow shutter speed, I think, accounts for ghostly streaks in the image –  not unlike how things might look if you had too much soju.

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Here’s a wonderful report by Steve Hartman of CBS News about Tarra, an elephant, and Bella, a dog, and the amazing bond that has developed between them at The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn.

Sanctuary co-founder Carol Buckley says it’s common for elephants arriving at the sanctuary to pick another elephant to hang out with. But in this case Tarra picked Bella, or vice versa.

Buckley spent more than 20 years performing with her elephant, Tarra, in zoos and circuses before deciding the animals deserved a different life and opening the sanctuary. Bella is one of about a dozen stray dogs they’ve taken in.

For years, Tarra and Bella have played together and eaten together, and when Bella suffered a spinal cord injury a few months ago (the piece doesn’t explain how, but hopefully Tarra wasn’t involved), Tarra — despite having 2,700 acres to roam, stood vigil outside the sanctuary office, where Bella was recuperating.

Bella’s better now, and she and Tarra remain inseparable, Hartman reports.

(For another video about Tarra and Bella, click here.)

(To see another amazing elephant video, click here.)

Singer Patti Page has re-recorded her classic hit, “How Much is that Doggie in the Window?” in hopes that a more politically correct version — “Do You See That Doggie in the Shelter?” — will steer the public away from puppy mills dogs.

The 81-year-old Page, whose autobiography, “This is My Song,” comes out next month, originally recorded “How Much is That Doggie” in 1952.

The re-recorded tune, she says, is an effort to bring attention to the plight of shelter dogs awaiting adoption and the deplorable conditions in puppy mills that supply dogs to some pet stores.

The new lyrics were written by Page’s publicist, Sanford Brokaw, and Chris Gantry, composer of the 1968 Glen Campbell classic, “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife.”

The first live performance of the song, during its recording, was played to an audience that included three rescued Bassett hounds and a rescued Italian Greyhound.

Page says she hopes that when people now hear the old familiar “Doggie” melody, they’ll think about homeless animals and animal shelters instead of pet stores and puppy mills.

Skateboarding bulldogs Tyson and Tillman, as we suspected back in November, turned out to be a huge hit at the Tournament of Roses Parade.

As Maria Menounos reported for MSNBC, the dogs trained for months, on a track built on a moving truck, in preparation for the parade. For two and a half hours, they circled the track that was part of the Natural Balance float in the New Year’s Day parade.

National Geographic Channel’s critically acclaimed “In The Womb” series returns this month with two new one-hour specials — including one that follows the fetal journey of four litters of canines.

Featuring some amazing visual images, the show follows the development of litters inside a Neapolitan mastiff, golden retriever, chihuahua and wolf – from fertilization through the remarkable 63-day journey that takes them from a single cell to man’s best friend.

“In the Womb: Dogs” airs Jan. 4 at 8 p.m.; followed by “In the Womb: Cats” at 9 p.m.

I screened the dog special last week, and can report that it’s both a visually riveting hour of TV and a highly informative account of what’s happened in the 15,000 years since wild wolves began making the transition to domesticated dogs — and of what man did to them after that.

The show intersperses dog history with visits inside the womb, showing how all breeds (more than 400 of them) stemmed from wolves, thanks to selective breeding of them by humans. So hunters wouldn’t have to go pick up the birds they shot, we made retrievers. To scare off intruders, we made mastiffs. To rid our land of varmints, we made short-legged dogs that could burrow into holes. It wasn’t always in dogs best interest — sometimes quite the opposite — but as a result, dogs became the most diverse species on earth.

Despite all that diversity, the four canines tracked in the womb are remarkably similar for the first month or so in the womb — both to each other and any other vertebrate, including us. Even then, though, they practice behaviors they will need once born, like running and panting.

After that, they begin to take on distinctive shapes. By day 39, the ears are formed. Floppy ears are a sign of the submission humans have bred into dogs, but erect wolf-like ears persist in a few species, including the Chihuahua. Snouts, too, develop relatively late. After 55 days of development, the wolf, mastiff, golden retriever and Chihuahua all exhibit traits particular to their breeds.

Sixty-three days after the eggs were fertilized, the puppies make their debut, leaving the solace of the womb for the real world. 

For more information, on the series, click here

(Image courtesy of National Geographic Channel)

We started the New Year off not with a bang, but with a gun.

My girlfriend, Tamara, went out back to feed the feral cats on New Year’s morning, and there, next to our urban compost heap, buried beneath some rocks, was what appeared to be a gun, or at least piece of one.

Having seen more than our share of television police dramas, we didn’t touch it, but I did — after calling the Baltimore police — take these pictures.

An officer arrived at our home, a rowhouse in South Baltimore, within minutes. He walked through our back yard, through a gate and into the small area where, if we try really hard, we can park our cars. We pointed out the firearm, which was apparently hidden there on New Year’s Eve, and he reached under the rocks and picked it up — without rubber gloves, without using a pencil. (I was sure he was going to use a pencil.)

It was an older looking firearm, made of wood — somewhere between pistol and rifle — with a small grip and a long barrel, not a sawed off shotgun, but resembling that. The officer, saying it looked capable of firing, took it into custody, then walked through the alley with it, rather than back through our house. He didn’t want it to discharge in our house, he said. But maybe he just wanted to avoid Ace, who had jumped up on him a couple of times when he arrived.

Within a few minutes of his departure, the feral cats were back, enjoying a meal.