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Above: Puppies capture the hearts of humans everywhere–which is why puppy mills still exist.

Oprah featured a show on the horrors of puppy mills and called huge attention to puppy mills but the livestock business is nothing new–just most people don’t think about them.

Puppy mills have been around since the 1960s when small retailers were beginning to sell out to larger chains.

You may remember the song with the phrase, “How much is that doggie in the window?” It reflects the marketing prevalent at the time–put cute puppies in the window and get people to come in the door.

Once the establishment sold the puppy they were certain to also sell all the needed supplies with it. Items such as bowls, collars, leashes, crates, toys, beds, food, supplements really increased the bottom line and hopefully kept the customer coming back for the lifetime of the pup.

I constantly hear about people who naively think that they “rescue” puppies when they buy them from pet stores in malls or from unscrupulous breeders in parking lots of shopping centers or by the side of the road.

It makes me cringe because what they are actually perpetuating is poor breeding and substandard pet care practices.

Not too long ago a new pet store opened nearby and when I asked about the source of her livestock (pups, kittens, rabbits, birds) she said from her breeder friends…which turned out to be puppy mill suppliers.

One of my colleagues saw the truck pull up to one of her other stores and hand puppies out the back of the truck to the staff.

By the way, the trucks are great places to pick up disease and parasites which is why many pups are sick when purchased. Close quarters at the breeding facility and during shipping expose the youngsters to such things as parvo, kennel cough, pneumonia, distemper and to parasites ranging from fleas and worms to coccidia and giardia.

Yuck.

Responsible and high quality breeders never sell their pups from the back of a truck, through pet stores or at the side of the road.

In fact, good breeders screen potential puppy owners with a variety of questions that rival child adoption.

In my experience the best breeders usually have waiting lists…which is good to avoid the impulse buy.

Also, they usually are members of breed clubs who often urge their member breeders to avoid selling their puppies through brokers or to pet retailers.

Purebred dogs are always in high demand. (Look in any shelter and about 25% are purebreds.) People mistakenly think that “papers” indicate quality–this is wrong.

“Papers” just indicate that the animals are registered with a club–they do not automatically guarantee quality.

The American Society for the Prevent of Cruelty to Animals cited that it was the USDA that suggested Midwest farmers capitalize on the demand by raising pups on a large scale to supplement their incomes. They estimate that there are more than 5,000 commercial breeders in America.

The conditions at puppy mills are appalling. Breeding females are forced to bear litter after litter. They are kept in wire cages that are stacked one on top of the other. Some never see daylight. They also get no socialization or other vital care–often lacking veterinary care and ample nutrition.

Another big problem is that many of the bloodlines produce animals with genetic disorders.

I’ve seen a bunch in my days. Many get off lucky but I remember two puppy mill dogs on an aggression case I evaluated. The duo had light blue eyes (abnormal for the breed), were about three times the normal size for the breed, and they had lived in a pet store cage for most of their puppy hood so they had no socialization–and they had bitten everyone in the home–including tearing the ear off of a toddler.

The genetic problems go beyond behavioral into hip dysplasia, deafness, hernias, joint problems, nasal and eye issues, and more.

Now the internet has become more and more popular for shopping and people are buying their pets online. If you haven’t got the picture yet, it is a BAD idea to purchase an animal online.

Many puppy mill breeders unload unwanted animals online. It is best to see the parents of the animal you are getting and to scope out the environment in person.

Fortunately there are groups that are out there investigating such facilities and turning them over to authorities. However, that isn’t always enough since sometimes the fines are minor.

Today regulation and legislation are two other ways some groups are working to try and combat the puppy mill problem.

How can you help?

There was a successful movement where enraged people boycotted a chain that supported puppy mills and put them out of business.

What you can do is discourage your friends and family from buying their pets in a retail outlet, by the side of the road, or on the internet.

I’d like to see people spend more time researching what type of pet would fit into their lives, budget for the addition, and seek out animals that are from quality environments instead of backyard breeders and puppy mills.

Do you have an opinion on this matter? If so, leave your comment below.

Today I thought I conclude this animal attack series with a few more accounts on cougar and bear incidents.

Of course, this week would not be complete without also including a few shark attack stories and other meanderings.

Urban Wildlife: Cougars

Here in California, urban wildlife (coyotes, bobcats, cougars) often prey on pets. At least this is the case in some of the areas I’ve lived.

Last week a dog (Buddy) was taken by a cougar from the yard in La Canada/Flintridge, California and the other, missing for six weeks, is feared to have met the same death. The owners recount the story in the news article. Heartbreaking.

Cougars are predators and so it isn’t a surprise to find them preying on pets. However, like coyotes who have been known to ignore pet owners and grab a pet for a meal, urban mountain lions seem to be getting more daring.

As I mentioned previously, humans unwittingly tend to provide snacks and water to attract animals which attracts the predators that prey on them.

Urban Wildlife: Bears

In the case of bears, garbage attracts them and they get territorial over the area providing the source of food–making them a danger.

It also creates a humans=food association which is never a good thing.

Dogs were also the victims of a black bear near Santa Barbara, California. Dry weather and the recent fires have driven wildlife into smaller areas and removed vast areas of natural resources and territories.

Then there is the disturbing trend of predatory attacks by black bears. Up in Canada, another aggressive black bear was shot and killed in the same neighborhood of Coquitlam, B.C. where a woman was attacked outside her home earlier this week.

Herrero, bear attack expert and author of Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance (revised) estimated that on average, bears kill three people and seriously injure between five and 15 annually in North America. He was quoted as stating, “Overall the injury rates are very low considering the millions of interactions that occur each year,”

In the revised edition of Bear Attacks (first published in the mid-1980s) the causes and avoidance of attacks by brown (the grizzly is a brown bear) and black bears are examined based on scientific analysis of 414 detailed records of encounters between bears and people. Details and analysis of certain attacks and non-injurious interactions are included in this work.

In 2000, Herrero was interviewed by the Calgary Herald who reported that the number of bear attacks that year was among the highest since biologists began keeping records 28 years ago even though specific numbers were unavailable.

The rule of thumb has always been to play dead in grizzly bear incidents and to fight back in black bear incidents but there are always exceptions to the rule. I’ve blogged about prevention before and carrying and using bear deterrent may help you if faced with a cougar or bear encounter.

Cougars are stealthy but any tool is a good one.

BTW: Yellowstone’s bear man has some interesting notes and so does Herrero’s Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project. I also liked the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Wildlife Black Bear Problems & Control page.

Shark Attacks & Other Musings

The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week just recently concluded. I love the series because it takes a look into all types of shark behavior, research, biology, and human encounters.

In my career span I’ve worked with a variety of animals and only two make me nervous in the wild.

Great White Sharks is one species on this list just because when I was a surfer I enjoyed night rides and was active at dawn and dust in areas where white sharks were known to frequent–it is a always a risk.

Scientists have come up with a bite measurement for the great white shark–1.8 tons of bone crunching force.

Yikes!

The measurement came from Sydney, Australia and you can read more about the finite element analysis here.

Not too long ago in Makaha, Hawaii a snorkeler was attacked by a shark. The Early Show also has a video up of their interviews with shark attack survivors.

If you are interesting in shark attacks you can get useful information from the International Shark Attack Files from the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Shark repellents, barriers (chain mail, cages) are some of the products you may have heard about but a new shark attack risk reduction product is on the market.

Shark Shield was developed in Australia, where they have a lot of problems with sharks.

The device can be mounted on the back of a surfboard or a kayak, or a lightweight neoprene model can be strapped to the calf of a diver. Cost range? $680 to $800.

The Shark Shield includes a rechargeable battery in a waterproof pack, transmitter, and rubber-coated antenna.

However, using these common sense tips to reduce your risk of shark attack is something you can do while you save money to buy the new device.

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s focus on animal attacks. Let me know your thoughts about it below.

Above: Cranky Cougar–as mountain lion attacks hit the news this week.

Some of you know that I follow a variety of news topics as related to animals. A few years ago I was looking at occupation trends and the risk of animal attacks in that capacity. One guy I knew used to proudly spout off about how dangerous elephant training was when we worked together training elephants at a prominent zoo.

It is an occupational hazard…

Today, I track attacks in general. Last year I tracked pit bull and dog attacks but there were so many I finally stopped doing it.

Just this last week I dumped a list of attacks attributed to dogs that came through on a “pets” search. If you search on Google News under “pit bull attacks” you might be surprised.

My last search gave me over 150 result such as these:

In Michigan a young boy lost his arm in an attack (10 years old), a toddler was injured in Massachusetts, (Uh, why would a parent leave a young child alone with an animal unsupervised anyway?), and then there was the pit bull that ran over to the neighbors in Cincinnati to cause mayhem.

The Cincinnati owner said this, “He ain’t a vicious dog at all,” said Jeffrey Todd, owns Lefty. “He isn’t a mean dog. He’s very friendly. You can ask a lot of people around the neighborhood.”

So, does that mean the incident was everyone’s imagination? Sheesh, these types of “accidents” happen almost every week.

In 2001 the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) published a special report on dog bites (PDF)

From the report: Children—
Children are the most common victims
of serious dog bites. Seventy percent of fatal dog
attacks and more than half of bite wounds requiring
medical attention involve children. In addition,
almost half of all children are bitten before 18 years of
age. The most vulnerable youngsters are 5- to 9-
year-old boys, but smaller children can also be seriously
injured. Dog bite injuries rank third only to
bicycle and baseball/softball injuries as a leading cause
of emergency admission of children to hospitals.
Children’s natural behaviors, including running,
yelling, grabbing, hitting, quick and darting movements,
and maintaining eye contact, put them at risk
for dog bite injuries. Proximity of a child’s face to the
dog also increases the likelihood that facial injuries
will occur.

In my experience, dog bites can be attributed to poor socialization, lack of training, irresponsible pet ownership, failure to alter pets, and non-supervision. I have suspected poor genetics in some cases.

As for wild animals attacks, most of the attacking animals are predators but even deer attacks are something people naively dismiss. The Discovery Channel just aired a show that contained stories of some deer attacks from 2005 and 2006.

Today I found this story about the cougar that entered a home in Colorado and grabbed a sleeping pet. Wild animals are getting too habituated to humans–plus we are encroaching into their limited habitats. Just a few weeks ago two other cougars were causing problems in Durango–including one cat that attempted to attack a boy driving a mower–the cat missed.

I’ve heard an interview where one of the lion dog guys (guys that track mountain lions with dogs) mentioned that many of the incidents with mountain lions involve younger animals. I need to find that source…they are probably going out on their own and then getting run out of established territories but humans also provide a lot of resources–like cougar snacks (dog, cats).

Back in bear country, it also seems that there are incidents every week. In Alaska this isn’t anything new. An eighteen-year-old was attacked by a grizzly on his way home late at night in a region known for bears who are currently feeding from a nearby stream.

In another situation a Utah woman went out for an evening stroll while in Alaska and was attacked by a brown bear.

Finally, in Oregon a camper was mauled by a grizzly in a campground.

Brown bear attacks (just for clarity a grizzly IS a brown bear) are pretty well known but what has surprised some people is that black bear attacks have been on the rise since about the mid-1990s. I mentioned this earlier this week so if you have not yet checked it out read this article about the increase in black bear attacks from 2005. (PDF)

Now these are not the only cases that have crossed my desk but I just want to point out that animal attacks are not that uncommon. Only the sensational ones get a lot of attention.

Is there anything you can do to avoid animal attacks?

First, if you are out in the wilderness, adjacent to it, or hear about a predator in the area follow the suggestions put out by authorities–and find out if there is risk in the area you are visiting.

It amazes me how many people are surprised to find a bear or other animals in their yard when they feed wildlife, keep pet food and water sources just outside their doors, or place trash outside a day before pickup.

Also, be aware that most animals are highly active at dawn or dusk and at night.  So a bit of common sense to avoid meandering into their territories at those times might help.

Now there is always the bad luck factor–being in the wrong place at the wrong time but using common sense and taking precautions helps mitigate that.

Take this poor example of the idiot hiker who lacked common sense and took liberties by petting a cougar cub and then got attackedscratched by a mad mother lion. I hope that human’s stupidity won’t cost the female cougar her life–but I bet it will.

Then there was the woman who used her common sense and a machete to thwart off a lion attack.

I’ve already posted some of the tiger attack and bear attack links to my comments earlier this week but you can find my past comments on how to avoid cougar attacks here. 

Also, you might enjoy the SkinnyMoose.com comments on wildlife encounters–I sure did.

Funny, I didn’t really intend to focus on animal attacks all week but now that I am at it–stay tuned for more.