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What happens in Vegas is usually superficial, of little lasting importance and brings but a fleeting moment of pleasure.

So we are all in when it comes to the decision by newlyweds Clare and Ceri Morgan of south Wales to can their honeymoon and pay for cancer treatment for their dog Teeto instead.

After their wedding, the Morgans, of Swansea, were due to fly to Las Vegas when they discovered their five-year-old American bulldog Teeto had cancer and need his leg amputated, as well as chemotherapy treatments.

That’s where the honeymoon money went.

“Teeto had to come first,” Ceri Morgan, 36, is quoted as saying in this BBC report. “We had no hesitation, we had to use the money for his vets bills,” he said.

“We told the vet that it didn’t matter about the money, just do whatever it takes to make him better,” said Clare Morgan, 26. “We can go on honeymoon again when we’ve saved up, but a dog is for life and we want Teeto around for a lot longer.”

Teeto had his rightfront leg amputated and underwent a course of chemotherapy to fight the cancer in his right shoulder. They report he is doing well.

(Photo: BBC)

Every boxer — and we’re speaking here of the human kind who puts on gloves and climbs into a ring — needs a trainer.

Manny Pacquiao needs a  terrier.

“He’s part of my team,”  the World Boxing Organization welterweight champion told the Wall Street Journal. “He’s a special dog.”

Pacquiao’s Jack Russell terrier, who goes by Pacman (the boxer’s nickname), is helping him train for Saturday’s welterweight bout against Timothy Bradley. The dog normally runs off leash, setting a speedy pace for Pacquiao on streets and trails around Los Angeles.

Pacquiao hasn’t lost a fight since Pacman came into his life.

The dog lives most of the time in Los Angeles, where Pacquiao trains, and he often travels to the Philippines when his owner works out there.  He’ll also join the boxer for fights in Las Vegas, where he stays at the pet-friendly Mandalay Bay.

Pacquiao, whose childhood dog was reportedly cooked and eaten by his estranged father, slept with Pacman at first, until he realized he was allergic to dog hair.

Pacman has nearly passed out from climbing the hills in Baguio City and scurried after coyotes while sprinting ahead of Pacquiao in their frequent jogs up to the Hollywood sign, the article reports.

Pacquiao, since his last fight in November, has been working to sharpen his focus and eliminate distractions like gambling and drinking. Pacman, while he may or may not help with that, does serve to encourage the boxer — both by setting the pace and through the enthusiasm that, being a Jack Russell terrier, he brings to the job.

“I kind of feel like he’s now the Woody in ‘Toy Story,’” said Brian Livingston, a marathoner who paces Pacquiao. “He’s become part of the menagerie.”

Other fighters have relied on dogs over the years, according the Journal story. Floyd Patterson went on 4 a.m. runs with two German shepherds named Charlie Brown and Whitey. George Foreman brought his  German Shepherd to Africa to help train for the Rumble in the Jungle with Muhammad Ali.

While Pacquiao trains in California, Noel Lautengco serves as Pacman’s dog-sitter. He stays with the dog at a Hollywood motel, where Pacman sleeps on a  bed with a pink spread. As a puppy, Lautengco says, Pacman scratched and clawed through three hotel couches that Pacquiao replaced.

Pacman is more than just a mascot, Pacquiao’s people say. He drove the fighter to train harder than ever by running ahead of the pack. “Nobody could keep up with that dog,” said Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer.

In recent months though, the dog has put on some weight.

“He’s getting old. He’s become fat,” Pacquiao said.

(Photos: Top photo from Manny Pacquiao’s official website; photo of Pacman the dog by Dan Krauss, for the Wall Street Journal)

A 57-year-old Las Vegas grandmother was struck and killed by a car when she stopped to help an injured dog.

Valerie Roberts was struck Wednesday night while in the middle of Boulder Highway, where she was helping another motorist who had gone to the dog’s assistance.

Her family and friends told News 3 in Las Vegas they’re not surprised her final act was trying to save a life.

Roberts, who worked taking care of the elderly and disabled, was also known to take people in to her home, rent free, to help them get back on their feet.

Roberts had two daughters and three grandchildren.

Las Vegas police say the Roberts had stopped her car and gotten out to help another person who was assisting the dog.

Authorities say the driver of an approaching car swerved to avoid hitting the stopped car and hit Roberts. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

We couldn’t find any news reports indicating whether the dog survived.

Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS) is one of five shelters that will take part in a pilot program aimed at reducing euthanasia of pit bulls, encouraging responsible ownership and improving the perception of the breed.

A $240,000 grant from PetSmart Charities will fund the programs, coordinated by Best Friends Animal Society.

The grant was announced last week in Las Vegas at Best Friends’ annual  No More Homeless Pets Conference.

The “Shelter Partners for Pit Bulls Project” will create partnerships between Best Friends and shelters in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Baltimore, Md., Washington, D.C., Carlsbad, Calif. and Tampa, Fla.

All will be based on the partnership between Best Friends and Salt Lake County Animal Services that began in July 2009. It resulted in a 10 percent drop in euthanasia of pit bull-type dogs in its first year, and led to twice as many being adopted as the previous year.

The Salt Lake program, which will serve as a model for the new pilot projects, offers community education and free or low-cost training and spaying and neutering — all aimed at keeping pets in the family and reduce the numbers being abandoned.

The program uses volunteers, called the “Pit Crew,” to showcases dogs for adoption through outreach events, photos and descriptions online and also fosters dogs whose time is up in the shelter. There also is emphasis on creating frequent media opportunities to portray pit bull-type dogs in a positive light–to counter the image of the breed often presented in the news.

Funds provided by PetSmart Charities and additional funds from Best Friends will be used to pay for a shelter coordinator in each city, support marketing and public relations in those markets, and pay for a Best Friends program manager to oversee implementation and reporting in the five shelters.

“As with any dog that is spayed or neutered, properly trained, socialized and treated with love and kindness, pit bull-type dogs can be well adjusted, happily balanced, and affectionate members of the family,” says Jamie Healy, Shelter Partners for Pit Bulls manager. “It’s the person on the other end of the leash who decides how their dog interacts with others and who sometimes put these dogs at the wrong side of the law.”

Best Friends Animal Society works to help pit bulls through its national campaign, Pit Bulls: Saving America’s Dog, which helps dogs who are battling everything from a sensationalized reputation to legislation designed to bring about their extinction.

 
Fifteen years ago, more than 400 people attended the national convention of the American Greyhound Track Owners Association.

This year’s convention, in Las Vegas, is expected to draw 120, the Las Vegas Sun reports — yet another sign that greyhound racing’s days are numbered.

More than half of the nation’s greyhound tracks have closed for lack of business in the past three decades, four in just the past year. 

The recession, competition from casinos, state legislatures increasing gambling taxes and public opposition to the sport have combined to threaten the future of dog racing, but the industry’s downfall can be traced to the 1980s and 1990s when state lotteries were introduced and casinos began to spread beyond Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Wagering on greyhound races in the United States declined from $3.5 billion in 1991 to $1.1 billion in 2007, according to the Association of Racing Commissioners.

The continued decline in dog racing has become even more painful for casino owners who are required to subsidize the tracks as a condition of operating casinos with slot machines.

As Roy Berger, executive vice president of the Dairyland Greyhound Park in Wisconsin, which closed last year, put it: “The product became an antique. We were an 8-track cassette store in a world of CDs.”

(Photo: American Greyhound Track Owners Association)

Las Vegas residents eagerly waiting to get their pups cleaned by Heidi Fleiss are going to have to wait a little more.

The 43-year-old former Hollywood madam’s attempt to open a dog grooming business — called the “Dirty Dog” — was blocked Wednesday by a District Court judge, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The judge ruled in favor of Jeffery Marvian, who alleged his estranged wife, Nickol, conspired to sell Fleiss their dog grooming business — named Little Buddy Bath and located in a Kmart shopping center — in violation of the couple’s ongoing divorce action.

Under the ruling, the shop will remain closed pending completion of the divorce proceedings.

Nickol Marvian said Fleiss had threatened and bullied her in text messages. “She basically threatened me (that) she would go to Family Court and try to get my daughter taken away from me and she also wanted all of her money back.”

Jeffery Marvian’s attorney, Shelley Lubritz, said Fleiss entered into the deal with Nickol Marvian knowing it was wrong.

“Ms. Fleiss’ hands are as dirty as the name she wants to put on the business,” Lubritz said after the hearing.

Porn star Kendra Jade Rossi was also involved in the deal, but the judge dropped her from the complaint because she was not with Fleiss and Nickol Marvian when the agreement was reached.

As if all the recent stories of teenagers abusing, torturing and killing dogs weren’t dismal enough, now comes news out of Las Vegas of a 7-year-old mercilessly beating a Shih Tzu.

The dog was reportedly knocked nearly unconscious, spent two nights at an animal hospital, suffered burst blood vessels in his eyes, a partially broken jaw and lost several teeth, according to KTNV.

The owner of the dog, named Wiggles, says the boy snuck into her yard in North Las Vegas and began beating him.

“I really want justice to be done and somebody to be punished,” said owner Cynthia Carrillo. “Somebody needs to be talked to, to find out what is going through this little kid’s mind to want to do something like that.”

North Las Vegas police say that because the age of intent in Nevada is eight, the child can’t be charged. They are looking into the possibility of charging his parents though.

Wiggles is unable to eat solid food and may have to undergo surgery to fix his jaw.

Animals seized from dogfighting operations and other cruelty investigations deserve a right to be independently reviewed, instead of being automatically euthanized, a coalition of animal welfare groups has agreed.

After a meeting in Las Vegas last week, The Humane Society of the United States has revised its policies and now recommends that all dogs seized from fighting operations be professionally evaluated, according to agreed upon standards, to determine whether they are suitable candidates for adoption.

Under the new policy, dogs deemed suitable for placement should be offered to adopters or to approved rescue organizations. The HSUS will update its law enforcement training manual and other materials to reflect this change in policy.

In addition, groups participating in the meeting have vowed to  work together to help the canine victims of organized violence.

The meeting was prompted by the recent mass euthanasia of 145 dogs — including newly born puppies — that were seized from North Carolina Ed Faron, who bred fighting dogs at his Wildside Kennels.

The dogs were killed at the conclusion of his court case in Wilkes County, where authorities said their laws mandated the action. Unlike the dogs seized in the higher profile Michael Vick case, no efforts were made by the government, lawyers or major rescue organizations to save the Faron dogs, at least not until it was too late.

Lat week’s meeting was convened to address the matter of dogs seized as a result of cruelty investigations, particularly due to the increase in HSUS-led enforcement actions against dogfighters.

Participants at the meeting included Best Friends Animal Society, The Humane Society of the United States, BAD RAP, ASPCA, National Animal Control Association, Maddie’s Fund, Nevada Humane Society, and Spartanburg Humane Society.

The groups agreed that all dogs should be treated as individuals. They also agreed to support law enforcement and animal control agencies when decisions must be made regarding the dogs deemed unsuitable for adoption, and in cases when rescue organizations and adopters are unable, within a reasonable timeframe, to accept dogs from such raids that have been offered for adoption.

The organizations will form a working group to develop future protocols for cooperation in addressing the needs of dogs seized in raids, such as how to assist with the housing of fighting dogs, how to conduct professional evaluations, and how to screen potential adopters.

In honor of today’s Great Pit Ball in Las Vegas — an all-day charity event to benefit the Villalobos Animal Rescue Center — we bring you two videos portraying pit bulls in the kind of positive light that seldom shines on them.

The Great Pit Ball, an all-day charity event to benefit the Villalobos Animal Rescue Center, the largest rehabilitation and placement facility for abandoned pit bulls in the world, is scheduled to take place March 14 in Las Vegas.

All proceeds from the night will go to the rescue center.

“Like many non-profits today, Villalobos has been under financial duress for some time due to the economic climate so we knew we had to do something to help,” said Brandon Bond, a tattoo artist from Atlanta  who co-organized the event.

“People have many misconceptions about pit bulls, when in reality, they are the most loyal, loving and amazing animals,” said co-organizer Ralph Perazzo, award-winning pastry chef and owner of Rare Concepts Group.

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