by Kenn Bell
December 17, 2009 in Charity, Environment, Military, News
If you like The Dog Files please join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/dogfiles
Also, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dogfiles
Read The Comet Dog Story here.
by Kenn Bell
December 17, 2009 in Charity, Military, News
If you like The Dog Files please join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/dogfiles
Also, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dogfiles
LOS ANGELES — For several years, Jude Stringfellow and her Lab-chow mix have toured the country with a simple message: Faith walks.
Born without front legs to a junkyard dog around Christmas 2002, Faith the puppy was rejected and abused by her mother. She was rescued by Rueben Stringfellow, now an Army E-4 specialist, who had been asked to bury other puppies in the litter.
“Can we fix her? Stringfellow, then 17, asked his mom. “No, but maybe we can help her,” she said.
So Rueben turned Faith over to his mother, English professor Jude Stringfellow. At first the family had to carry Faith to keep her off her chest and chin. But with peanut butter and practice, Faith learned to walk on her two hind legs.
Since that day on March 22, 2002, Faith has done the talk show circuit, gone on tour with Ozzy Osbourne and been named an honorary Army sergeant. Jude Stringfellow has become a motivational speaker, written two books about Faith and is working on a third, “Faith Walks.”
They get more than 200 letters and e-mails a day, run a Web site and make dozens of appearances every year, including stops at veterans’ hospitals across the country to cheer injured soldiers.
That mission is special for Stringfellow, whose son left Iraq in September and is stationed in Alaska. He is scheduled to get out of the Army and head home on Jan. 1.
For many, Faith brings a powerful message about overcoming adversity. “Faith has shown me that different is beautiful, that it is not the body you are in but the soul that you have,” Jill Salomon of Montreal, Canada, wrote on Faith’s Web site.
Stringfellow will never forget a woman from New York who happened to see Faith on a street corner. She was depressed and had lost both legs to diabetes.
“She was in her wheelchair and saw us. She was crying. She had seen Faith on television. She just held her and said she wished she had that kind of courage.”
Stringfellow said. “She told us: ‘I was on my way to pick up the gun.’ She handed the pawn ticket to a police officer and said she didn’t need it anymore.”
That sense of hope is especially important for Faith’s visits to Army bases. Last weekend she headed to Washington state, where she met with as many as 5,000 soldiers at McChord Air Force Base and Fort Lewis. Some of the soldiers were headed to war, some were coming back.
“She just walks around barking and laughing and excited to see them all,” Jude Stringfellow said. “There is a lot of crying, pointing and surprise. From those who have lost friends or limbs, there can be silence. Some will shake my hand and thank me, some will pat her on the head. There is a lot of quiet, heartfelt, really deep emotion.”
Faith never fails to bring a smile to a soldier’s face, said Patrick Mcghee, general manager at Fort Lewis.
“To see the children interact with Faith is simply priceless,” he said.
But Faith’s most emotional reunion — with Ruben Stringfellow, who rescued her 7 years ago this Christmas — will have to wait for January. He’s already gotten Faith a birthday present: a peanut butter cookie with her name on it.
by Kenn Bell
December 17, 2009 in Charity, Government, Inhumane Practices, News
If you like The Dog Files please join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/dogfiles
Also, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dogfiles
By Tyler Treadway For TCPALM.com
PORT ST. LUCIE — Holly’s tale is now wagging internationally.
The year-old pit bull mix that was dragged nearly 2 miles behind a pickup truck Monday morning has a Facebook group page with 325 members thanks to Ginger Sprinkle, a Charlotte, N.C., woman who read about the dog’s plight.
Sprinkle saw a copy of a newspaper story about Holly on Monday, and by 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sprinkle and two friends — identified only by their Facebook names “Willy Wonka†and “Athena Bane†— had set up Holly’s page. As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, the page had 325 members worldwide, thanks to Sprinkle’s friends overseas.
“We want to make sure the world knows about Holly and the cases like her,†Sprinkle said Wednesday afternoon.
In November, Sprinkle set up a Facebook page for a dog that had been dragged behind a truck in Knoxville, Tenn. Known as “Little Brown Dog.†Sprinkle said that pooch’s Facebook page has thousands of members and has raised about $13,500 for its treatment.
David Robertson, operations manager for the Humane Society of St. Lucie County, said Wednesday afternoon he had heard about the dog’s Facebook page, but had neither seen it nor spoken to the people who set it up.
Robertson said the Holly Holiday Fund, set up to help defray expenses for the dog’s treatment, totalled about $2,000 in donations as of late Wednesday afternoon. He couldn’t say how much of that could be linked to the Facebook page.
“With the proliferation of Facebook,†Sprinkle said, “when we start groups there for abused animals, it is with three goals in mind: bringing justice to the crime; getting the word out fast and worldwide with Facebook’s instant reach to anywhere; and, of course, to keep people updated on the healing progress of the dog involved in the atrocity at the hands of human behavior.â€
Napoleon Zarah Davis, 31, of Port St. Lucie, Holly’s owner, was arrested on a charge of felony animal cruelty.
According to a Port St. Lucie Police Department report, Davis had tied the dog in the back of his pickup truck with a 15-foot leash. The dog jumped out of the truck near Paar Drive and Darien Street and was dragged to the 3200 block of Rosser Boulevard, about 1.9 miles, before a man caught up to Davis and got him to stop the truck, according to police.
Davis later told police he didn’t know the dog had jumped out of the truck bed.
The dog was taken to the Animal Hospital of West Port St. Lucie with severe road rash, particularly on her feet. On Tuesday, Dr. Leonard Fox, a veterinarian, had amputated the dog’s two hind inner toes.
Fox, whose staff named the dog Holly because of the holiday season, said the dog will need extended treatment for road rash burns, but he expects her to fully recover in about six weeks.
HELPING HOLLY
To contribute to the Holly Holiday Fund, call the humane society at (772) 461-0687.
Click Here to visit the Justice For Holly Facebook Fan Page.
by Kenn Bell
December 17, 2009 in Entertainment, News
If you like The Dog Files please join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/dogfiles
Also, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dogfiles
LOS ANGELES — Tom Dey is smiling at a wide computer screen in an editing studio at 20th Century Fox: A shy romantic greeting is unfolding between the hunky lead character and his soon-to-be girlfriend.
Dey has a lot to smile about. He’s the director of Marmaduke, a live-action feature movie he says will be told from the viewpoint of Marmaduke, the Great Dane made famous in the popular comic strip. The comedy opens in June.
The segment he is studying is about Marmaduke’s introduction to a savvy Australian shepherd at the dog park.
“We’ve approached the movie like a John Hughes movie with dogs,” Dey says. “The dog park is like high school for dogs. To make this kind of movie, you really have to understand that it is the dog’s world and we just live in it.”
The kinds of rich characterizations Hughes embodied in teenage stars such as Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off translate to the Marmaduke story lines, Dey says, including one theme about “the vulnerabilities” of Marmaduke.
“Marmaduke is a teenager, and he’s trying to find his way in the world,” Dey says. “It’s a boy-meets-girl story, a coming-of-age and cautionary tale. My job as director is to try to place the audience inside this world.”
Dey asked the trainers to get the dogs to do tricks few other dogs, and certainly no other Great Danes, have done before in movies. Mike Alexander is the top trainer of Marmaduke, whose family moves from the Midwest to Orange County, Calif., where a favorite pastime is surfing.
Surf’s up, dude
“I asked him if he could teach the dog to surf,” Dey says. “Mike said he didn’t know if he could even get the dog in the water. The Danes he’s worked with in the past have not wanted to go into the water.”
So a plot point is Marmaduke, who hates water, being forced to enter a surf competition to save face for his owner.
Dey is smiling again as he talks about the challenges of getting the Great Dane to surf.
“Mike started to work with him,” Dey says. “I was amazed. I actually went out with him when he was training him in the water. I saw him get on a wave and ride. That was unbelievable. I don’t think anyone’s seen a Great Dane surf before.”
Alexander has trained birds and animals for the blockbuster Harry Potter movies and the hit films Night at the Museum and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
In the case of Marmaduke, he says, it was the ability to focus, the abundance of warm weather and water for practicing — and one other thing that helped the dog learn surfing.
What’s the other thing?
Treats.
Sometimes the treat comes on the end of a stick hanging high above the movie camera so it’s not seen during shooting. Sometimes it sits on top of the movie camera so the dog looks at the camera during filming.
Training with treats
Treats reign in this line of work. In one session in which Marmaduke, played by the Great Dane George, is doing promotional shots for the film, the trainers stick small bits of peanut butter around the inside of a commode he’s supposed to drink from. No problem. It works well! He trots right over to the commode, and he doesn’t mind doing this trick several times until he gets it right.
He also is fond of chicken chunks — breast meat, please. Nothing but the best.
“When we do a movie, we offer a lot of treats,” Alexander says. “They’re a useful tool for us. He has a ravenous appetite. He never stops liking his treats, and he learned to like the water. He learned to balance on a surf board. Now he’s a big movie star.”
And now, Dey can keep on smiling.
by Kenn Bell
December 16, 2009 in Inhumane Practices, News, World
If you like The Dog Files please join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/dogfiles
Also, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dogfiles
Dog Fighting is a worldwide problem and now it is thriving in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ironically, it was outlawed by the Taliban when they were in power.
There are some graphic dog fighting images in the video, so please don’t watch if it will upset you.
– Kenn
by Kenn Bell
December 16, 2009 in Adoption News, Entertainment, News
If you like The Dog Files please join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/dogfiles
Also, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dogfiles
The young woman was very specific: She wanted a Chihuahua, “just like Tinkerbell,” the petite pet of Paris Hilton. She waited weeks, coming back often to look at the dogs in this Southern California animal shelter. So, when “Teensy” a 1-year-old Chihuahua was recently surrendered by her owners, she signed the adoption papers and popped the pooch straight into her purse.
Unfortunately, she was back three weeks later. The dog had pooped in her bag, run into traffic and barked a lot. “Like so many people who got these little dogs because celebrities have them, she wasn’t prepared for the reality of taking care of her,” the shelter’s director tells PEOPLEPets.com.
California is in the midst of a Chihuahua explosion with animal shelters and rescue operations jammed with tiny little dogs like Teensy. In L.A. the situation was so dire, that Katherine Heigl helped get 25 of the pocket-sized pups airlifted to New Hampshire, where they were adopted immediately. A third of the canines in the San Francisco city shelters are Chihuahuas and in Oakland the population has reached a whopping 50 percent. Experts say those numbers are unprecedented.
The Chihuahua glut started about three years ago, according to Nancy Goodwin, director of the City of Laguna Beach Animal Shelter. “Breeds get popular and then when times get tough, we’ll see an influx of them given up. Years ago it was German shepherds,” she says. “Now it’s the little dogs.”
In the last few years a lot of younger people are coming into the shelters looking for the tiny pups. “They tell us they want to carry the dogs in their purses just like the celebrities,” says Goodwin. “And sometimes that’s not as much fun as it looks. They are a responsibility.”
Blame it on Paris. Blame it on Taco Bell. But the combination of movies (2001′s Legally Blonde, 2008’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua) and tabloid photos of celebrities toting their pint-size pets in huge purses has resulted in overpopulation, according to Steve Kragenbrink, of the Woods Humane Society in San Luis Obispo.
“Some of this is accidental breeding,” says Kragenbrink. “Some of it is people trying to make money by breeding, which makes for too many of one kind of animal.” The solution is to spay and neuter pets. “There’s no reason for a dog not to be fixed,” says Kragenbrink, who’s taken Chihuahuas from L.A. shelters to his location for adoption. “The alternative to spaying and neutering is euthanasia. That’s a cruel and unnecessary solution to overpopulation.”
If you’re interested in adding a pet to your family, consider adopting or fostering a Chihuahua. For more information click here.
by Kenn Bell
December 16, 2009 in Health & Science News, Holidays, News
If you like The Dog Files please join our Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/dogfiles
Also, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dogfiles
Feeding dogs human food at Christmas can seriously damage their health, leading canine charity the Dogs Trust has warned.
Speaking at the launch of the Doggy Christmas Menu, a veterinary-approved list of foods safe for consumption by the animals, Dogs Trust veterinary director Chris Laurence said feeding dogs with turkey bones, grapes, mince pies, Christmas puddings, cheese and alcohol could lead to poisoning or even death.
“As a vet I have seen some terrible examples of dog poisoning over the Christmas period,” he said.
“In many cases the owner was totally unaware of the hidden dangers and was simply intending to be kind.”
Aimee Best’s dog Freda, a five-year-old Labrador and Staffi cross, learned her lesson the hard way and had to have her stomach pumped after eating a chocolate bar left under the Christmas tree.
“Christmas 2008 was a nightmare for us,” Aimee explained.
“Freda devoured a whole bar of chocolate before being rushed to the vet for emergency treatment.”
The Dog’s Trust hope its new menu, which includes canine-friendly dishes like mutt nog, cranberry and turkey gobble gobble and doggy mince pies, can make such incidents a thing of the past.
The charity has enlisted the help of TV actor and dog lover Jeremy Edwards for the campaign, whose dog Molly loved the options on offer.
“Molly has certainly given her paw of approval to this risk-free Christmas treat,” he said.
“Despite being a fussy eater, she particularly adored the doggy mince pies – she devoured them in 30 seconds flat.”
Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity, with 18 rehoming centres across the UK and Ireland. It cares for more than 16,000 stray and abandoned dogs every year.
The charity is working towards the day when all dogs can enjoy a happy life, free from the threat of unnecessary destruction.
Download the Doggy Christmas Menu here!
by Kenn Bell
December 15, 2009 in Charity, Military, News
Operation Baghdad Pups helps transport dogs that our soldiers have fallen in love in Iraq, back with them to the USA. Many speak about how their dog was the one thing that helped them deal with their stressful life as a soldier in Iraq.
Let’s help them bring that unconditional love back with them. Please donate if you can. It’s a great way to celebrate the Holiday Season.
– Kenn
Petey and Penny were born in 2007 on a base outside Baghdad, Iraq, and quickly bonded with a marine nmaed Dave. Petey and Penny were always together and happy every day. They grew protective of the marines and barked at anyone they didn’t know. The months rolled into years as Petey and Penny protected and played with marines as teams rotated in and out.
Until October 16, 2009 when Petey and Penny slipped off the compound and were shot – no one knows why. Even though Penny was hit with a bullet in the lower portion of her face and was losing blood quickly, she found a way to crawl a mile back to base where medics were able to save her. Petey died from 3 gunshot wounds and Penny still searches for him today.
Dave asked Operation Baghdad Pups to rescue Penny and bring her to his family home in Tucson. He says, “Penny is one tough cookie. It’s a miracle she is alive. She’s done her job very well for years and doesn’t deserve to be left behind.”
Your tax-deductible donation will help us ensure Penny’s rescue in 2010.
