Category Archives: Pet News

Police Shoot Innocent Pet Dog – Just Not Right!

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When a stranger comes to my door, our dog barks an alert.  She stands by my side and I feel safe.  But what would happen if police officers have the wrong house, and barge into our home, thinking they are coming in to find a bad guy, and have entered to serve and protect me.  Our pet dog would see these strangers as a threat and would try to protect us.  Sad to say her life would then be in danger.

A few days ago a local police officer shot and killed a dog, a beloved family member who had recently given birth to puppies. True, the dog was outside her apartment, but was running back to where she lived. The dog was shot in the back of the head. Read the story and judge for yourself. This sounds like an innocent dog to me.
Boise police officer shoots, kills dog

I have heard of too many cases of pet dogs being shot to death by police officers.  We need to do some educating, people.  Here is your chance.  I recently received this press release:

Puppycide Doc Seeks to End National Tragedy

Hollywood, CA—Every 98 minutes a dog is shot by law enforcement. A new documentary from Ozymandias Media seeks to end this tragedy by bringing national attention to the issue.

PUPPYCIDE is a feature length documentary that takes a journey with victims of puppycide, the dogs and their owners. From the moment they meet and seal their emotional bonds to the excruciating trauma of loss, we follow the dog owners’ battles for justice with police culture and the legal system, both of which treat puppycides as acceptable collateral damage.

“We all love our dogs. To us, they are family. But law enforcement is treating them as a threat and shooting them with startling, and increasing frequency,” said Michael Ozias, director of PUPPYCIDE. “If more people know about this they will demand solutions. That is the power of a documentary and the reason we feel this film is so important.”

The directors are turning to Kickstarter to fund the documentary and grow a grassroots movement to end puppycide. Kickstarter is the world’s largest crowdfunding website.

“We believe in the power of film to reveal emotional truths, to take an audience on a journey that delivers them to a new place where they see the world differently,” said Patrick Reasonover, producer. “By putting our production experience into PUPPYCIDE, we believe that we can make a difference for millions of people and animals.”

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Director Michael Ozias and Producer Patrick Reasonover are available for interviews. To schedule, please email patrick@ozymandiasmedia.com or call (404) 805-4793.

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Over the past three years, more than 5,000,000 people have viewed videos and web series produced by Ozymandias Media. These 80 works, be they documentary, animation, or narrative short, all have one thing in common: a mix of story and message.

Dog Adoption Story – Zolo

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Guest Blogger: Charles Redell

Adopted dog Zolo with Charlie and Alexis

The happy family today.

It’s hard to imagine now, as we plan a four-month road trip across Canada to write a travelogue/guidebook starring our dog Zolo, but when we first got him he wanted nothing to do with me and I wasn’t even sure I wanted him.

My wife Alexis was wanting a dog for a while. But my cat Jake was getting old and I wasn’t keen to upset his life. I’d carried him home cradled inside my jacket when he was just a handful of weeks old. After 14 years together, Jake was too big a part of my life to disrupt his routines that much.

Alexis was willing to wait but that didn’t keep her from searching Petfinder.com for dogs described as “shy” and “quiet” so that if I changed my mind, Jake wouldn’t feel threatened. It was a smart tack to take. Weeks of looking at those pictures worked magic on me. Pretty soon I was dreaming of having two sweet animals cuddled on the couch with me.

Zolo on his first night living with us.

Zolo on his first night living with us.

When Alexis first saw the picture of Zolo on Petfinder he was pretty hard to resist. Big, round dark eyes and tall pointy ears coupled with black and white coloring just like Jake’s drew us both in. That he was rescued on the streets of Taiwan and was a world traveler like Alexis and me, piqued my curiosity further. I was convinced to take a trip across Puget Sound to meet him because he required a quiet household.

When we got to The Big Dog Project, we walked into a house filled with animals of varying sizes and types. Happily for me, these included a few cats. After the uproar that greeted our arrival died down, Zolo was ushered out of his crate and we sat on the couch chatting and giving him a chance to check us both out.

It was immediately obvious that my dreams of cuddling up with him and Jake would not be realized any time soon. Although he completely ignored the cats winding around under his nose, he wouldn’t let my hand get close to him if a woman wasn’t petting him first. As a rescue from Taiwan, we were told he was likely used to being chased by the men there who apparently like to torment the country’s street dogs.

A panel from our webcomic about ZoloThe importance of this fact was not clear to his first family in the States. Brought home by them because they were not able to get pregnant, he was surrendered after only a month because he was meant to be the husband’s companion; a plan Zolo would never agree to.

We spent about an hour sitting with Zolo and taking him for a walk while being interviewed by the woman running the rescue. It was probably pretty obvious to her that, if she approved of us, there was no way we could leave without the little guy. Alexis’ heart had melted and I was obviously ready to try.

Thankfully she approved.

Those first few days couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Jake was none too pleased, though he was tolerant once it was clear he could still rule the roost with an iron paw. Meanwhile Zolo who’d come to us already crate trained, was oblivious to both Jake and me. He spent most of his time in his crate or running to be near Alexis.

After about 6 weeks with us, he started to let me in a bit. I remember the first time that happened. It was on our before-bedtime walk the night of my birthday party that year. He was so obviously happy to be away from the crowd and with just me. I knew we’d finally formed a bond.

I still had to have a lot of patience over the next couple of years to really build his trust. But since Jake passed last year, it’s not crazy to imagine us spending almost six months driving across a continent together. And I still have one sweet black and white pet who will cuddle with me on the couch.

Charles Redell is a writer in Seattle. Along with his wife and dog he’s planning to create a multimedia e-book about their trip across Canada this summer (http://zoloneurotico.com). They’re raising funds on Kickstarter (http://kck.st/10tu9tP) to help pay for the research. They hope you’ll support them with a donation in exchange for one of their great rewards.

Saving abandoned animals, one ride at a time

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See the video, reach the article by NBC News.

See the video, reach the article by NBC News.

Saving abandoned animals, one ride at a time.  – VIDEO

A story about truck drivers and dogs that need a lift.  Mark Potter, NBC News reports about a group of volunteer truck drivers and an organization named Operation Roger . . . Truckers Pet Transport, where pet loving truck drivers, men and women, help needy pets.  As you can see from the video and the article written by Erika Angulo, Producer, NBC News, it is so good to hear about a successful effort to find permanent loving homes for dogs in need of people.

In beautiful Tok Alaska an anxious family awaits an important delivery.  A puppy was hand delivered by a truck driver.  It took 9 days and traveled more than 4,500 miles thanks to a kind-hearted trucker, David Binz and Operation Roger. “It’s a good way that truck drivers in America can give back to society because we’re not home a lot,” Binz said. “We can’t do a lot of volunteer projects, but this is something that we can do.”

WAY TO GO TRUCKERS!  Blue Belle and the dogblog think you guys are pawsitively the best. This sounds like a great cause.  By the way, it appears that this volunteer organization can use more volunteers:

  • Truck Drivers
  • Layover Homes – temporary fosters
  • Shuttle Drivers – 4 wheelers in major cities and surrounding areas

St Bernard is Afraid of Stairs

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What would you do if your St. Bernard found himself up the stairs and was too afraid to take the stairs to go back down?
These loving polish speaking doggie parents show us how they did it.

According to a comment on YouTube, this is the translation:

What he says: – My lovely doggie, come, come, here we go, come, come sonny, we’re going down. Your Mrs is smart, and allowed you up-stairs, and now we have to toil over it to get you down. And You’re also so damn smart, now come, come, here look. (from downstairs some talking about sausage) Yes, give him some sausage, he really needs sausage now, hey sonny, look, there’s ninja. Ninja, call Maniek. That much, but he’s… – Here sonny. – Look, here’s sausage, please. – Why did you give it to him.
But I didn’t give it. Come, he’s not gonna come, look he won’t take even a step. – Oh, We won’t play around. I’m gonna push him. – You’ll have to clean the floor now. (some gibberish). Don’t worry, look your Mrs is coming, you know what’s gonna happen. Look what’s happening when he’s dribbling. Are you gonna make something like that again? He’s gonna hurt himself. – We’re coming Maniek – We’re coming Maniek.    Come my precious. 😀 I told you he can’t come up here. Come.