July 2006 | Page 4

I thought you might like to read this article concerning some verified wolf predation on livestock.

One of my pet peeves concerns the breeding of exotic animals with domestics to produce new exotic breeds. About twelve years ago I wrote an article on feline hybrids and still get hate mail from breeders on this issue.

This article on Bengals, a breed of cat that evolved crossing domestic cats with the Asian leopard cat crossed my desk recently. Read my commentary of feline breeding between domestic felines with exotic species to get a non-breeder’s view on the issue. Also, take a gander at the wolf-dog article I wrote while you are at it.

While on the topic of wildlife and pets I need to post this article on urban coyotes. Most people are a bit naive about the risk to pets within the city limits. Here on the edge of the wilderness the risk varies according to prey populations and draught.

Blog Posted July 24, 2006 at 10:45 pm

Another Brief Look at Dog Bites

I’ve received an increase in calls related to pet aggression. Often other dog bites don’t make the news or are mistakenly accredited to pit bulls. This akita attack hit the news not too long ago.

I found this great article on dog bites and thought it would be useful.

Especially since it quotes this fact, “Delise found that 19 percent of the fatal (dog) attacks involved children less than a year old, with over 95 percent of those (dog attack) fatalities occurring when the infant was left unsupervised with a dog or dogs. Children under 2 accounted for 11 percent of the fatal attacks, with over 87 percent unsupervised.”

Remember my recent rant regarding irresponsible pet ownership? This is the statistic that illustrates how bad some people are in managing their pets. I’ve always stressed, and will state it again, anything with claws and teeth has the potential to cause injury. So this means that diligence on handling pets of all types is critical in every situation.

Which brings me to the issue related to dog breed bans. I believe the solution is not in banning breeds but in monitoring and licensing dog breeders and owners WITH the funding to enforce them. I believe as a whole that pet ownership minimum standards need to be established…It isn’t anything new to hear that most human abusers started with abusing pets. Anyway, I don’t want to get started but the pet overpopulation and abuse problems are huge and new approaches need to be developed.

Maybe intact animals (those able to breed) and households producing litters should generate fees via regular business channels and animal regulatory agencies. I also think that pet care classes should be a regular curriculum addition in educational establishments. There is a huge need to understand pet care and behavior so that abuse and animal bites are diminished.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has a good amount of statistics on dog bites and tips for dog bite prevention but I have always found great links at this dog law site.

Finally, If you want a real good eye opener on a monthly basis try this dog breed bite resource site.

Blog Posted July 24, 2006 at 11:35 am