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Before there was such a thing as a “bad breed” there was Luke, a pit bull terrier who appeared in many films with his master, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (1887-1933), from 1914 to 1920, along with Buster Keaton and Al St. John.
Born in 1913, he became one of the first canine film stars, earned $150 a week for his master and was very popular with audiences. A high energy companion to the slapstick antics of his human costars, he was a natural for early comedy shorts. Very people oriented, friendly and agreeable to the oddities that came with working in comedy pictures at the time, in the course of his career he fearlessly performing such stunts as jumping from great heights, climbing two story ladders, running across rooftops, and leaping from one moving car to another. In addition he never failed to chase off the bad guy or save the lady in distress.
Clips are from:
Butcher Boy (1917)
Coney Island (1917)
The Cook (1918)
Fatty’s Faithful Fido (1915)
Fatty’s New Role (1915)
Fatty’s Plucky Pup (1915)
The Garage (1919)
The Hayseed (1919)
The Knockout (1914)
Forest Service worker whose animals burned in fire gets a return visit from wounded dog
By Sue Manning For The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – Bobby Wright thought he had buried Smoky.
The U.S. Forest Service worker had watched helplessly as a frenzied, massive forest fire turned toward the trailer where he lived with Smoky, a 6-month-old mutt, 20 other dogs and a rabbit named Bernie.
It was early October, and Wright and his Forest Service boss Jack Kennedy were evacuating residents and campers from the canyons around Lytle Creek. They were headed to the street where Wright and the animals he had rescued lived — and so was the fire.
The winds shifted and the fire exploded ahead of them, torching Wright’s trailer and killing most of the animals in their kennels. The men could do nothing but watch.
Two dogs, Lady and Bubba, escaped with burns, bruises and scratches. The next day, Wright and Kennedy buried the dead animals.
Wright was left with his U.S. Forest Service uniform and the Jeep he’d driven to work that day.
More than two weeks passed before Smoky showed up at what had been Wright’s trailer and waited until he came for her. She was emaciated and the pads on her infected paws were nearly raw. She probably survived off burned animals and lizards, Kennedy said.
“Praise the Lord,” Wright said, using his favorite expression.
The Sheep Fire, as it was called, was controlled on Oct. 10 after it burned more than 11 square miles of brush and timber and destroyed four structures besides Wright’s. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation.
The community of about 1,000 in Lytle Creek, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles, is rallying around Wright, trying to get him a home, furniture, clothes and kennels. A bank account has been set up and there is a furniture drive on Saturday.
In the meantime, Kennedy has taken in Wright, his 23-year-old daughter and the dogs.
Wright, 64, guesses he has rescued close to 600 dogs, cats and other creatures in the canyons in the last 10 years.
The area is a popular dumping ground for pets, because it is so close to heavy population areas. People figure it is a beautiful area and there are streams for water so they will drive by, open the door and kick the dog out, said Steve Boyd, president of the Lytle Creek Volunteer Association.
The dog will usually sit and wait — sometimes for days — for the car to come back, Wright said, or chase cars that remind them of the one they came in. Eventually they will start foraging for food, leaving them in danger as they become a danger to the wild, he explained.
Wright has found homes for the majority of animals he’s rescued, but animal control has had to take some, he said.
And it isn’t the first time Wright has lost his home in Lytle Creek. His cabin burned down in 2003 in another fire, but his animals were spared that time. Still, he wouldn’t live anywhere else now, adding that even when it’s covered in ash, there is a beauty to it.
Wright said he had a promising lead on some rental land near his old home. The place even has a few kennels, he said, adding “Praise the Lord.”
“My whole life, I have done animal rescue. I enjoy doing it. It’s a labor of love. I won’t or can’t give it up now,” Wright said.
As for Smoky, Lady and Bubba, all three should recover from their burns, Wright said. Several of Smoky’s toes are blistered and infected to the nub, Lady has no nails left and probably won’t climb any more fences, and the burn scar on Bubba’s back is there to stay.
But they’re not up for adoption anymore, Wright said: “They are family now.”
by Gary Chittim For KING 5 News
SEATTLE – Dog owners are reacting with giggles to a new report that dogs create a larger ecological footprint than an SUV.
The study by Robert and Brenda Vale, two sustainable-living researchers from New Zealand, bases its claim mostly on what dogs eat.
The study says the land it takes to produce the 360 pounds of meat and 210 pounds of grain a medium-sized dog consumes each year, is twice as much land that would be required to produce the energy to power an SUV for a year.
Some local researchers are snickering at the premise and its narrow scope.
Most dog owners we spoke to at a Seattle dog park laughed it off as goofy science.
By Lisa Fernandez For MercuryNews.com
On the heels of a deadly freak accident, San Jose is exploring a law to make the city the first in California — and possibly the country — to address the issue of bicyclists riding with leashed dogs.
Councilwoman Nancy Pyle is convening a meeting Wednesday night to gauge public opinion on whether the city should clamp down in some way to prevent what happened to Beverly Head on Sept. 16. The retired 62-year-old San Jose phlebotomist died after she hit her head when she got tangled up in a dog leash while walking along a popular South San Jose trail. The dog in question was one of two pets being pulled alongside a bicyclist.
Her death has raised a passionate debate among trail users. And, urged by Head’s grief-stricken husband, Pyle’s office is studying whether the current laws regarding the safety of the city’s trails are enough. Current code mandates that owners must keep their dogs “under control” at all times, and kept on leashes of up to 20 feet in city parks.
“I’d like them to prohibit bicycles on pathways that pull dogs,” Bob Head said on Monday, moments before he took off on a bike ride himself. “For the safety of walkers, and for the safety of small dogs that get pulled along and can’t keep up.”
Pyle’s office has been getting calls and e-mails with “lots of interesting ideas,” said Kathy Sullivan, Pyle’s chief of staff. “And this is such an emotional issue, we just want to hear from people.”
Jon Cicirelli, deputy director of the city’s Animal Care and Services, researched all over the state, from San Francisco to Venice Beach in Los Angeles, to see if there is anything on the books that speaks to banning bicyclists from riding alongside leashed pets.
“There’s nothing,” he said. “Nobody’s ever heard of this happening before. Whatever we do, we’ll be breaking ground on this issue.”
Cicirelli said his first thought is not to ban bicyclists from riding with their pets, per se.
Rather, he says it might be better to beef up the current leash laws mandating that owners must not only keep their dog under control, but extend that responsibility to the leash, too.
He quickly added, though, that because there is no law that he can find on the topic, he’s open to all ideas.
And there are plenty of ideas percolating out there — especially from the Los Alamitos Creek trail where a white memorial cross now marks the spot where Head hit her head. She was bleeding but conscious after the fall, and even spoke with the bicyclist who stayed until paramedics came. But she died at the hospital the next day, and the bicyclist, whose name is unknown, isn’t considered a suspect because police have ruled the death an accident.
“No little doggies should be tied up to bicycles,” said Marilyn Holmes, 60, who walks the trails and plans to attend the meeting. “I want designated lanes for bicycles only. No doggies. Anyone who is caught should be fined.”
But while fines and enforcement may sound good, would they really be effective?
Cliff Reyda, 65, who was out walking on the trail recently, isn’t so sure.
“People who walk their dogs on leashes can have this happen, too,” he said. “There’s no real solution. If you enact a law, then all of a sudden, it becomes an anti-dog position.”
Al Nolan, 59, isn’t anti-anything, but he does want stricter separation on the path between slower walkers like himself and speedy bicyclists.
“They need a dedicated bike run, like a carpool lane,” he said, just as a mountain biker whizzed by him and his dog, Indi.
Then there’s trail users like Terri Gong, who is out often enough with her mutt, Coco, that she could recognize both Beverly Head and the cyclist in question.
She usually doesn’t like when government intervenes in the lives of ordinary citizens. But in this case, she said, there’s a need for it.
“I’m darn near a Libertarian,” Gong said. “But at the very least, bikers should have their dogs on the right.”
By John Stossel For Fox Business
Environmentalists constantly tell us we must do more to reduce our “carbon footprint.” If we won’t do it voluntarily, they want government to force us. Hence the ban on incandescent bulbs, car fuel economy rules, etc.
Next up on that list? It could be limits of what kinds of pets you may own. Or maybe new requirements as to what you must do with your pet when he dies. CNBC reports that two New Zealand-based professors, Robert and Brenda Vale, published a study that shows that owning a medium-sized dog has the same ecological impact as driving 6,000 miles a year in a 4.6-liter-engine SUV.
Don’t worry, though. They aren’t going to come after Lassie just yet. They say they don’t want to ban dogs or limit what types you can own. Instead, the authors recommend this:
[P]et animals may be usefully “recycled”, by being eaten by their owners or turned into pet food when they die…
“Issues about sustainability are increasingly becoming things that are going to require us to make choices which are as difficult as eating your dog. It’s not just about changing your light bulbs or taking a cloth bag to the supermarket,” [Robert Vale] said…
Save the planet. Eat your dog. Give me a Break.
The picture below is of the real Hachiko and the Statue in Japan.
– Kenn
By Marta Falconi For The Associated Press
ROME — Richard Gere said Friday that he “cried like a baby” when he read the script of his new movie — a remake based on a cherished Japanese story about a faithful dog that died at a train station waiting for its owner.
“Hachiko: A Dog’s Story” was so moving, Gere said, he would choke up when talking about it.
“I was telling people over dinner, and I could only get half way through the story and I would start crying,” the Hollywood star told a news conference after the film was screened out of competition at the Rome Film Festival.
The true story of a friendship between the dog Hachiko and his owner is a legend among Japanese, a pet-loving nation that honors self-sacrificing loyalty.
Hachiko used to wait every day at Shibuya train station for its owner, a professor at the University of Tokyo — even for a decade after the professor died. People were so moved they built a statue of Hachiko at the station — now a popular rendezvous spot.
The story of Hachiko, who himself died in 1935, was made into a 1987 Japanese movie.
The new version, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, moves the tale to a station in modern Rhode Island.
“I cried like a baby” when reading the script, Gere said. “I wasn’t sure if it was just a very sensitive reaction I had that day, so I read it again a few days later and had the same reaction.
“This is a love story,” said Gere, who plays the professor. “It has nothing to do with gender or species.”
The canines that play Hachiko in the movie belong to the Japanese breed of Akita dogs — known for being close to wild dogs and very difficult to train.
“We could not train the dogs to do things, but we had to create an environment trustful for them,” Gere said.
The movie had its U.S. premiere in June at the Seattle International Film Festival, and opened in Japan in August.
Other movies screening out of competition at the Rome festival include “Julie & Julia,” starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s film “A Serious Man.”
The fourth edition of the festival, which is becoming part of the international circuit of movie festivals, runs through Oct. 22.
Always nice to read some positive news on a Saturday Morning. Now if we can only get more states to adopt this. Good job, Pennsylvania!
– Kenn
HARRISBURG – New standards governing cage size, exercise, and veterinary care go into effect today for the roughly 300 licensed commercial dog kennels in Pennsylvania.
Under a law signed a year ago by Gov. Rendell, kennel operators who keep more than 59 dogs a year, or sell one or more dogs to a pet store, must house dogs in larger cages than before, and provide daily exercise and regular veterinary care for breeding dogs. The new law also forbids cage stacking and wire flooring in cages, and imposes kennel temperature requirements.
State dog wardens will be deployed starting today to inspect commercial kennels to ensure compliance, according to the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement. Those found in violation might receive citations or lose their licenses.
Jessie Smith, special deputy secretary of the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement, said the stricter standards – widely regarded as the toughest in the nation – will significantly improve conditions for thousands of dogs living in kennels.
Here’s a story that reminds us that moving isn’t just hard on humans. It affects our dogs too.
The last time I moved, Max was an anxiety-ridden mess. I decided to double his walks and take him with me as much as possible so he could get used to the new place slowly. In about two to three weeks he was back to his old self.
What are your experiences and how did you solve them?
– Kenn
Former French President Jacques Chirac has announced that he has given away his beloved dog after it attacked him for a third time.
Sumo, a Maltese terrier, is reported to have bitten him in the stomach in their apartment in the capital, Paris.
Mr Chirac’s wife, Bernadette, said the dog had been treated for depression after finding it difficult to come to terms with leaving the Elysee Palace.
The dog is now said to be enjoying life on a farm in the French countryside.
Since stepping down from office in May 2007, Jacques Chirac has admitted he has found retirement hard going but apparently it is his dog, Sumo, who has suffered most acutely.
Used to roaming the large gardens of the Elysee Palace, the Maltese terrier has found down-sizing to an apartment on the Quai Voltaire unbearable and, according to Mrs Chirac, severe depression has turned him from an innocent white fluff-ball into a ferocious attacker of ex-presidents.
In January this year, Mr Chirac had to be hospitalised after the dog sank his teeth into an unnamed body part.
In this latest attack, Mrs Chirac said that Sumo had been lying quietly at her feet but flew into a violent rage on the approach of her husband.
The dog leapt up and nipped the former French leader in the stomach.
“I was very scared because there was blood. It’s terrible, the small teeth like that. He was going wild. He wanted to jump up and bite again,” she said.
Mrs Chirac, who noted the dog had never turned against her, nevertheless made the regretful decision to send Sumo to a farm in Seine-et-Marne.
He is said to be “very happy” there, and so far has kept his teeth to himself.
We talked this week to Olympian Greg Louganis about his latest endeavors: dog agility. He loves the sport.
This weekend, he and his Jack Russell Dobby are entered in the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge National Finals. The event is at the Purina Farms near St. Louis, Mo. They competed in regionals this summer.
Dobby has to navigate an obstacle course consisting of jumps, weave poles, tunnels and other obstacles with Greg running by his side for guidance. Dogs are timed, with penalty times added for faults made on the course. Each dog makes two runs on the course, with the fastest time winning.
Louganis, 49, won gold medals in the springboard and platform diving events in 1984 and 1988.
QUESTION: How did you get started in dog agility?
ANSWER: I had Great Danes originally. A friend of mine said he wanted a small Jack Russell he could travel with. I said OK, I’ll train it. It was the first terrier I’d ever had. After 8 months, I turned to my friend and said ‘Here’s your dog.’ He said ‘She’s too much dog for me. I think I want a Yorkie.’ I thought about placing her, but I’d spent so much time with her I kept her. She needed a job, so we got into obedience training. She excelled quickly. I was doing some obedience work with her at this park and they had agility set up. I looked into classes and she really excelled at that.
And it was fun. She had a blast.
Q: You used to have show dogs. What is different about this kind of event?
A: Taking part in confirmation shows (show dogs) is great, too, because you see some beautiful animals parading around. But that’s rather political. It’s a bit harder to be successful. But with the performance sports, it’s you and your dog. Also, most organizations don’t care if it’s a mixed breed or purebred dog. The AKC is coming around, too., but U.S. Dog Agility Association and some other groups don’t care about a dog’s heritage. You can compete and have fun. It’s nondiscriminatory. I like that, too.
Q: How does this kind of competition compare to your diving days?
A: I was judged and scrutinized so much of my life and now the focus is on the dogs and their performance. The reflection can be on me as a trainer, but I don’t take any of that personally. I’m just out there to have fun with my dogs.
Q: How much do you get back from the dogs?
A: The sport deepens that relationship you have with your dog. They’re with me through thick or thin. Like dealing with a lot of my HIV treatments, they’re there. If I’m curled up on my bed and don’t have the energy to get up, they’re just there waiting for me.
Robert Imrie For Associated Press
WAUSAU, WIS. — Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that’s killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people.
Aquatic biologists say it’s a problem that falls somewhere between a human health concern and a nuisance, but will eventually lead to more human poisoning. State officials are telling people who live on algae-covered lakes to close their windows, stop taking walks along the picturesque shorelines and keep their dogs from drinking the rank water.
Peggy McAloon, 62, lives on Wisconsin’s Tainter Lake and calls the algae blooms the “cockroach on the water.”
“It is like living in the sewer for three weeks. You gag. You cannot go outside,” she said. “We have pictures of squirrels that are dead underneath the scum and fish that are dead. … It has gotten out of control because of the nutrient loads we as humans are adding to the waters.”
Blue-green algae are common in waters but not every lake develops serious problems until plentiful “man-induced” nutrients like phosphorous arrive, said Jim Vennie, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources expert. The toxins released by the algae can be deadly. Symptoms include rash, hives, runny nose, irritated eyes and throat irritation.
No people have died in the U.S. from the algae’s toxins, according to Wayne Carmichael, a retired aquatic biologist and toxicology professor in Oregon.
Many, however, have gotten sick: “Sooner or later, we are going to have more acute human poisoning,” Carmichael said.
The scum has killed dozens of dogs over the years — including at least four in Oregon, three in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota this summer. Wisconsin wildlife experts are warning duck hunters with dogs to be extra cautious this fall. “If the water is pea-soup green, be sure to have clean water along to wash the dog off,” Vennie said.
“Don’t let it drink the water.”
Fewer than 100 lakes in Wisconsin typically have some problems with algae bloom each summer and the ones in western Wisconsin causing so much discomfort this year are being fueled by a perfect storm, Vennie said. The last month has seen little rain, warm, sunshiny days and little wind.
The blooms just sit there, growing, then decaying and smelling.
“Some people say they have gotten nauseous and vomited from smelling it,” said Ken Schreiber, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources water quality specialist.
Officials have banned recreational activities at some lakes in Washington state because of blooms. And in Oregon, the blue-green algae is the number one water quality issue, Carmichael said.
Yet other countries have worse problems, Carmichael said, because many have waters with even more nutrients than exist in U.S. lakes.
In France, a horse died on a beach in July after falling into some decaying algae sludge. Last year, the Chinese government brought in the army to remove the slimy growths so the Olympic sailing competition could be held.
Stephanie Marquis, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said her agency had received 41 complaints related to health concerns with blue-green algae so far this season. Rashes, sore throats and eye irritation among the problems, she said.
In Minnesota, Matt Lindon is a pollution control specialist for the state and he called 2009 a typical year for complaints about algae scums. But for some reason this summer, Bagley Lake in northwest Minnesota, an “historically clean lake,” generated respiratory and odor problems, he said. “It may be related to the water level or some new runoff source,” he said.
Loren Hake, 71, has lived about two blocks from a Lake Menomin in western Wisconsin since 1963.
He feels like a prisoner in his own home, isolated by a stench “something like a pig pen” that forces he and his wife to run the air conditioner although it’s not that hot because they can’t leave the windows open, he said. For the first time, the couple hasn’t set on an outside deck because of the smell from the algae-covered bay.
“I don’t know what they can do about it,” Hake said.
There’s little anybody can do besides wait for cooler temperatures, Vennie said.
John Plaza, president of the Chetek Lakes Protection Association, which represents six lakes in northwest Wisconsin, said farm runoff, lawn fertilizers, septic systems and even ashes from leaves being burned on the shorelines are among factors contributing to the algae problems.
“I have been a user of these lakes since 1962,” he said. “I have never experienced anything like this before. It’s nasty. People are saying we can’t live with this any more.”
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