Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Obviously, the boys like their doggie ice cream!
– Kenn
Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Max destroy another “chew-proof” toy.
– Kenn
Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Adoption Sunday
By Kenn Bell, Creator Of The Dog Files
For over a year and a half the Dog Files has been chronicling the world of dogs. Through video, articles, news and an audio podcast. And I have to say, it’s been an incredible ride so far!
But sitting on the sidelines is officially over for the Dog Files. This past week, with the help of Dog Files contributor, Melody Chen, we posted an article about six dogs in a high kill shelter in Martinez County, California. The dogs had only a few days to live.
As I usually do with our stories, I posted it to the Dog Files Facebook Page and to Twitter. And with a little help from celebrity twitter addict, Alyssa Milano, thousands of you answered the call to help. Some of you retweeted our post. Some of you sent the article to other rescue shelters. Some of you donated money to help with foster care. And some of you adopted the pups.
The Dog Files is so excited to announce that because of the hard work of the Dog Files community on our site and on Facebook and Twitter, all six pups are now safely sleeping in either their forever homes or in foster care!
When Melody and I discussed doing Adoption Sunday at the Dog Files a few week ago, I truly felt we would be doing it for months before we’d be able to save even one dog. In my farthest imagination I never thought we could possibly save all six in the first week. Heck, I still can’t believe it as I write this!
One thing I noticed was that our battle to save the six dogs really hit home with the Dog Files Community. Pardon the pun, but it seemed to humanize the dogs struggle, letting us understand their plight a little better then we had before.
Now I know that many friends of Dog Files rescue and save dogs all the time. But a larger percentage of us don’t. We love dogs and have adopted dogs but we haven’t taken that first step to actually save a dog that isn’t our own. And hey, I confess, I was one of them. Sure, I did the right thing and adopted my two hounds from shelters, but that was where it ended. I guess I believed that the awareness I help build with the Dog Files website was enough.
This past week, I learned it wasn’t enough.
So where do we go from here? Like everything I do at the Dog Files, we want to start out slow but steady. So every other Sunday on the Dog Files will now be known as Adoption Sunday. And like last week, we’ll spotlight some dogs from a high kill shelter that only have days to live.
I realize that not everyone of you can help out every single time we do this and I don’t expect you too. Finding homes for pups is a lot of hard work and even I’m trying to figure out how to handle the extra burden. But that’s what’s so great about our Social Media community! Here’s what you can do to help:
Follow @dogfiles on Twiiter and retweet our posts (like this one, hint hint).
Join the Dog Files community at www.facebook.com/dogfiles and be sure to say hello to us when you do!
Tell your friends that are looking for a dog why they should adopt and not buy a dog from a pet store. Maybe even adopt from us.
Donate a little extra cash to help us get a dog out of a high kill shelter and into a foster home.
Be that foster home till we can find the dog its forever home.
Adopt one the dogs yourself and feel the joy of unconditional love that you only receive from man and woman’s best friend.
Or simply say hi and wish us good luck. We appreciate every little and big thing you can do to help.
Rescuing dogs is like sticking your thumb in one tiny leak in a giant dam to hold back the floodwaters. You feel as though you’ve saved the day until you notice many more cracks appearing all over the dam. At the same Martinez, California Shelter, on the same day that our six wonderful dogs won the lottery of life, ten other poor pups were put down.
A sobering thought indeed.
Join us to help save our greatest friend in the animal kingdom. We bred them to help us in our day to day lives. Now too many of them can only wish for a day to day life.
Give your pups a hug from us!
Kenn Bell
Dog Files Creator
June & Sophie Leave The High Kill Shelter!
Jordan & Lori from Good Newz! Pittie Pup Rescue Save June & Sophia!
June & Sophia Get Ready To Go To Their New Home!
Abe, the Chihuahua Mix & Foster Mom, Jillian
Abe Loves Kisses!
Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Welcome To Ohio!
What can I say about this past weekend but, “WOW!” BlogPaws 2010 is now a memory, but what a memory it is.
When Max, my trusty hound and I arrived Friday afternoon we were greeted with a dog bowl of water and biscuits before we even walked through the doors of the Columbus, Ohio Westin Hotel.
The Westin Hotel In Columbus, Ohio
And when we entered we were greeted with this sign.
BlogPaws Welcome Sign
So what exactly is a “BlogPaws” convention? Well, it’s a gathering of pet bloggers. Over 250 if I recall right, that get together (for the first time), get to know each other and get to help each other out. And it’s not about being competitors, but about “knowledge abundance.” About helping each other so that we ALL do a better job.
Max Approves Of Our Hotel Room
When we couldn’t have our dogs with us, BlogPaws had a room, complete with great pet sitters (thanks, guys) for the dogs to play in.
Max Ignoring Other Dogs At Pet Park & Watching Me Go To Breakfast. What Can I Say? That Hound Loves Me!
I met lots of great people, including Nigel Buggers of Life With Dog fame. Check out his website here. It rocks and so does he. We will definitely be working together in the very near future!
Hanging With Rex, The Great Dane!
As some of you might already know, I’m proud to be part of Bissell’s Pack Of Pet Lovers! They make great products to help keep your house clean and they LOVE dogs and cats! In the future, they are going to give me some really cool products that I’ll be giving away to you guys in contests.
Here is the Bissell team hanging with Max!
Bissell Ladies Hanging With Max!
A real honor for me was meeting Andrea Arden. She’s an incredible dog trainer/rescuer and she’s also one of the hosts of Animal Planet’s Underdog To Wonderdog. She’s devoted her entire life to animals and it was so much fun hanging out at the closing party with her!
And I think Max really took to her!
Andrea Arden Poses With Max
Max Show Andrea A Little Love
Dog Files would like to thank the entire BlogPaws Staff for putting together and pulling off such a huge undertaking! Everything was thought out, planned for and executed flawlessly. Max and I can’t wait for next year!
Max, exhausted by the day's activities.
Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Ten top names for dogs according to VPI’s 480,000 insured pets.
1. Bella
2. Max
3. Bailey
4. Lucy
5. Molly
6. Buddy
7. Maggie
8. Daisy
9. Chloe
10. Sophie
Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Hope the whole Dog Files Community is having as peaceful a day as Max & Remy!
– Kenn
Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Remy likes to be close to his big buddy, Max when he sleeps. Max is not so sure he likes that. Are your dogs like this at all?
– Kenn
Click to join our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter!
Well, here it is guys! The first, of hopefully many, editorials written by me, Kenn Bell, the guy that came up with this whole Dog Files thing.
What will I write about? Well, whatever I want, as long as it pertains to dogs. Hopefully, by reading Dog Files Opinion you’ll get a clearer idea of what I’m trying to do and why I’m trying to do it. What it took and takes to keep the Dog Files going and the inside, behind the scenes scoop on everything I learn, as I learn it, about building an online community of dog lovers.
But most importantly, I’ll talk about how we can help man (and woman’s) best friend.
The Dog Files exist because of the love one black & white hound has shown me. Max, and now Remy, are what made this all possible. Together, I hope we can all talk, discuss and debate what all of us can do to make the world a better place for our canine brothers and sisters.
Cause that’s why we’re really all here, right?
– Kenn
A Vote For Sanity
By Kenn Bell, Creator Of The Dog Files
Human beings are more important than dogs.
There… I said it. On a dog site no less.
And guess what? That doesn’t mean that I don’t love dogs. That doesn’t mean that Max, my oldest hound, didn’t change my life for the better. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t do everything possible to care for Max and Remy. And it certainly doesn’t mean that my heart doesn’t break and my blood pressure doesn’t boil when I see a dog being abused.
The Dog Files will never be an extremist, militant animal rights activist site. That’s what PeTA is for. The Dog Files likes to celebrate all that dogs are and do, so kindly, for us. Our mission is to let the world know that dogʼs deserve our love, our care and our respect.
What it does mean is that we will never look the other way when we see abuse or mistakes being made. We realize that every area of the dog world has the potential for the mistreatment of animals and we aren’t afraid to call them out on it. When we see it.
But we will always be careful to not condemn an entire organization or hobby because of one act, policy or belief.
An example you ask? Okay, how about the euthanization of Oreo the Pit Bull by the ASPCA. The Dog Files thinks they were wrong. We think Oreo could have lived out her life at one of the animal sanctuary’s that offered to take her.
Did we condemn their entire organization? No. Did we vow to never donate to them again? No, they are not evil. In fact, the ASPCA has done amazing amounts of good for animals. We just think they made a mistake this time and called them on it.
Many times on The Dog Files someone will message me with a link that they swear proves that so and so “organization” or “person” is evil and is doing no good.
The latest one was that there couldn’t possibly be any stray dogs in Haiti and that Animal Rights Organizations were just using it to make money.
A good friend of mind is a filmmaker that travels the world with the United Nations. He went to Haiti after the earthquake to document the damage and the recovery. When he came home a week later, I asked him if he saw any street dogs. His answer? “Hundreds… every day.”
I have spent an incredible amount of time on the internet and if there is one thing I’ve come to learn, it’s that there is a site, post or comment that backs up every single point of view a human could possibly ever have.
Let me tell you a story. A few years back I was having trouble sleeping and my doctor prescribed a drug for me. When I went home I went online and found a few posts of people complaining about the side effects of said drug. It scared the hell out of me. When I called the doctor and told him, he said, “The internet is a great thing but it also fuels unwarranted fears. This drug really helps people who have trouble sleeping. It’s the one I always recommend and I’ve never seen that side effect, ever. Don’t be afraid because two people out of millions said they had a bad side effect.”
And I guess that is my point. They call it the World Wide Web for a reason. You can send me links all day and that does not prove you’re right anymore than it proves me wrong.
And on that note, I present my “non-evil” list. Everybody likes lists, right?
Just because your dog is an ”inside the house” lap dog (mine are) it doesn’t mean that someone who has a working dog and works them is evil.
Military Working Dogs think they are playing a game when they sniff out explosives and, in the process, save thousands of lives. And yes, some of them will die performing their job. It makes me sad, but that doesn’t make having Military Working Dogs evil.
Cesar Millan is not the anti-christ. Though Michael Vick might be.
Not everyone who goes dog sledding is evil.
Not everyone who breeds dogs is evil.
Not everyone who shows dogs is evil.
Not everyone who eats meat is evil.
Not every animal rights group is evil.
Yes, there have been past, present, and probably future transgressions from people within these communities and believe me, they should be taken to task. But let’s be careful to not throw the puppy out with the dishwater.
With all the news about dogfighting and hoarders and horrible animal abuse you’d think that things have never been worse for dogs.
You’d be wrong.
In the seventies, people kept their dogs in their backyards. Now, while it still happens, it’s certainly frowned upon.
We now have an incredibly diverse choice of what we can feed to our dogs.
We can find out through DNA tests what breeds our mixed breed dogs are so we can work to prevent future complications of common breed ailments.
We can find our lost doggies through a microchip implanted between their shoulder blades.
And because of massive Spay/Neuter Programs and Shelter Adoptions the number of dogs euthanized in the Northeast has dramatically decreased.
Yes, there is a long way to go. And everyone one of us should do our part to help. If you told me seven years ago when I adopted Max that I would one day be a sort of a doggie evangelist that spreads the value of caring, nurturing dog ownership, I’d have thought you were crazy. But here I am.
Extremist, militant-like judgements didn’t get us here and they won’t get us where we want to go in the future. They only create a wall of division, anger and resentment between you and the person you’re condemning, one ugly brick at a time.
What does work? Spreading words of encouragement to friends, family and strangers. Making them aware of how bad it is to tie their dog up in the yard. Letting them know that their unneutered dog could literally create thousands of unwanted pups that will eventually be destroyed. In fact, keep the phone number of a local, low cost spay/neutering program in your pocket, so you can always give it out. And don’t forget to check up on them in a few weeks to make sure they go through with it. A little guilt can go a long way. ; )
It’s these seemingly little steps that will change the future for this incredible creature we are blessed to call man’s best friend. Your compassion, knowledge, and passion for dogs are contagious to all who know you. In the seven years I’ve had Max, my parent’s reaction went from, “Why would you get a dog?!” to “When are you bringing our furry grandkids down to see us again?!” Heck, they’ll even sit though Dogtown and Pit Boss with me. Though my Dad draws the line at the Puppy Bowl.
Once in awhile, I’ll get an email asking when I think people will stop dogfighting or creating puppy mills or mistreating their dogs. My regrettable answer is, “Not until people stop killing other people, robbing other people and abusing other people.”
And that shows no signs of going away.
But that won’t stop me from trying to make a difference. And I know it won’t stop you.
Working together will make us successful.
Building walls won’t.
Kenn Bell
After adopting an American Foxhound/Pointer mix named Max from a local shelter, Kenn Bell decided to combine his skills as a filmmaker with his immense love of all things Canine to create the very best Dog Video Series and Website on the web.
Next, he christened it The Dog Files, made Max its mascot (thatʼs him in the logo) and began traveling around the USA documenting how involved dogs are in all our lives.
From ice cream socials to rescue groups to military working dogs, Kennʼs hope with the Dog Files is to let the world know that dogʼs deserve our love, our care and our respect.
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 boys show their true hound!
We hope you and your family have an incredible holiday and I hope you’ll continue to join us in the New Year as we strive to bring you the best dog site on the internet!
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
Kenn, Max & Remy
I just got word from the North Pole that Santa has the H1N1 virus and won’t be working this Christmas Eve.
But don’t worry, Max & Remy have volunteered to take his place. Rest assured, your presents will be delivered.
Unless, they are chicken or beef flavored.
Or squeak.
The Dog Files are TM & © 2010 GraphicPlanet Creative
