Robeson County (NC) shelter hires new manager

News 14 Carolina reported Wednesday the troubled Robeson County (NC) animal shelter has a new manager.

The story notes Lori Baxter admits the shelter needs a lot of work to turn things around and that her task will be difficult.

Examples of how current puppy mill regulations are failing

The News-Herald out of Northern Ohio ran a piece Monday concerning the Department of Agriculture’s failures on regulating puppy mills.

The examples cited in the story show how repeat puppy mill offenders have been allowed to continue to operate, despite serious and repeated violations. We must change the mentality in our laws, the enforcement of those laws and increase the penalties that are handed out. We must come to an understanding that acts of cruelty against animals should not be tolerated.

Scientist shows emotion as he discovers tigers living in expanded habitat

Scientist Gordon Buchanan becomes emotional in this BBC video, upon seeing evidence that endangered tigers in Bhutan are living at higher elevations than previously known. This news bodes well for the tigers’ survival as a species.

The front lines of animal welfare are within your county’s borders

Sure, there are a lot of national, regional and state-wide organizations that are working hard to change laws and make a difference for animals. But a story posted Tuesday on the Baldwin County Now website out of Alabama offers an example of what people at a local level can do.

The Daphne (Ala.) City Council President was quoted in the lead paragraph and in it suggests he is an animal lover and wants to do more. He was speaking out at a meeting where local citizens want to pressure elected officials to enact better laws to combat animal cruelty.

National Animal Control Association takes a stand against gas chambers

The National Animal Control Association (NACA) stepped forward recently with a policy statement that condemns the use of gas to euthanize dogs and cats. It is a great step and one I hope every shelter that is still using a gas chamber will follow.

The policy statement includes – “NACA considers lethal injection of sodium pentobarbital, administered by competent, trained personnel, to be the only method of choice utilized for humane euthanasia of animal shelter dogs and cats.”

And – “NACA condemns the use of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, argon, or anesthetic gases as well as physical methods such as electrocution, gunshot, and blunt force trauma for animal shelter euthanasia of dogs and cats.”

Senate legislation introduced to ban “crush videos”

In a bi-partisan effort, something too uncommon of late, legislation was introduced Monday by three US Senators that would ban “crush videos.”

The Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act would go after particular categories of videos – deemed obscene – that depict acts of cruelty to animals that are .

I realize that the ban needed to be narrowed after the recent Supreme Court ruling tossing out the previous ban as too broad, but I’d like to see the ban expanded beyond just what a court might rule as … well … sexually obscene. For example, selling promotional dog fighting videos should be illegal in my view.

Another county considers anti-tethering ordinance

The Florence County council in South Carolina is considering new rules to regulate tethering of dogs. The proposals include limiting the weight of the tethering devices and considerations for extreme weather conditions.

Thankfully, the story posted on SCNow.com indicated the proposals include a limit of one hour and no more than three hours in any 24-hour period – and at least three hours between tethering periods.

Anti-tethering ordinances are slowly spreading and here’s hoping the pace picks up to soon cover every community in every state in the country.

Climate change debate is mostly all wrong

I keep seeing the topic of global climate change debated on cable network shows or in Internet comment debates or in dueling editorials. With a few exceptions, the main point is too often missed by both sides.

The focus is often too focused on temperature and canned slogans.

The global temperature has been rising and in some areas the impact is worse than in other areas. But where the mercury level happens to be is the symptom, the symptom of the disease. And the disease is pollution.

I thought the story in the last post was bad, until …

I just received a news link over the Pack of News wire that makes the story of dead possum tossing not quite as bad.

A man in New Mexico allegedly killed the family dog with a chain saw while his two kids watched.

The story is reported on the AZCentral.com website and notes the accused stated the pit bull bit one of his kids so he decided it needed to be “put down.”

The long-term trauma of watching a dog brutalized to death would be far worse than being bitten by a dog.

And the first Warped Mentality of the Month Award goes to …

Let’s start a new award for what we find are examples of strangely warped thinking. Let’s call it the Warped Mentality Award.

The first award – for September – goes to the principal in New Zealand, a school that held a dead possum-tossing contest on September 12.

Okay, the possums were dead, but they were killed in a hunt just before the contest.