The Senior Dogs Project "Blessed is the person who has earned the love of an old dog."
..........."Looking Out for Older Dogs" ...........
- Sydney Jeanne Seward
| News.... October/November 2003 |
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Breaking News!! -- Recall of Petcurean Go! Natural Pet Food |
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| November 3, 2003 -- Alert issued by the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine:
"On October 22, 2003, Canadian dog-and-cat food marketer Petcurean Pet Nutrition, Inc. announced an immediate voluntary recall of all Go! Natural pet food manufactured in Texas. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to receive reports from veterinarians indicating an association between Go! Natural dog food and dogs being treated for liver disease or liver failure. FDA suggests owners who have fed their dogs this product during the months of September and October consider having their dogs checked by their veterinarian for signs of liver disease and anemia. Recalls are actions taken by a firm to remove a product from the market. The recalled product comes in four, eight, 12 and 30-pound bags, with the recall in effect for all lot codes. Pet owners are urged to return recalled Go! Natural dog food to the place that they purchased it." |
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Issues & Announcements |
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The Environmental Impact of Animal Farming
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After reading the book Dominion by Matthew Scully, we became even more broadly committed to a vegetarian lifestyle than we had been previously. Although Scully made mention of the adverse environmental impact of animal farming, we were startled to read in The New York Times that the animal farm industry ". . . has not been traditionally regulated under the Clean Air Act. . ." according to Robert Kaplan, director of special litigation at the Environmental Protection Agency. This is true, despite the fact that industrial farms " . . . generate millions of gallons of animal waste and hundreds of tons of fecal dust each year. In the case of hog farms, the waste is often gathered into open-air cesspools that release hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and methane gases, all of which are toxic in high concentrations. Thousands of Americans have attributed their respiratory problems, headaches, fatigue and even brain damage to air pollution from these large-scale farms." (NY Times, National Edition, September 25, 2003, p. A19.)
We don't understand how anyone, in good conscience, can purchase -- let alone eat -- beef or pork or chicken or turkey or any animal produced by industrial animal farms when there is such a steep toll on our moral integrity, our environment, and the health of our country. There are many good ways for humans to get the protein they need other than by consuming meat. For information on vegetarianism, you can visit the GoVeg website. |
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National Spay/Neuter Petition |
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 Every year six million homeless dogs, cats, puppies and kittens are killed in public county shelters across America. That's 16,000 precious animals' lives every day. Project Spay/Neuter proposes to help pass a bill in every state that would make it mandatory for shelters to offer FREE spay/neutering services to all county residents. This program would duplicate the successful free spay/neuter program that has already been implemented at the Miami-Dade Police Animal Services shelter in Dade County, FL. Also proposed is the creation of a marketing and advertising budget that public shelters would use to promote pet adoption and spay/neuter awareness. To learn more about the project and to sign the petition, please visit the website. |
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MilkBone -- Not a Treat to all Dogs |
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 Information from In Defense of Animals: Did you know that RJR Nabisco, the second largest cigarette manufacturer in the country, also manufactures MilkBone dog biscuits? The cruel irony is that the same happy-go-lucky Beagle you see on the MilkBone box might well be a dog whom the company uses to test tobacco products. Just how do Beagles and other animals smoke? By force, and by machines. Typical smoking experiments include cutting holes into the throats of Beagles and hooking them up to smoking machines where they are forced to inhale concentrated cigarette smoke; strapping masks onto the faces of dogs and monkeys; and inserting electrodes in to the penises of dogs to measure the effect of cigarette smoke on sexual performance. Smoking not only kills humans but our best buddies, too. Please don't smoke and please don't buy MilkBone, Butcher Bones, T.C. Biscuits, or Bacon Strips. |
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For Bea -- a Beautiful Book about a Rescued Lab Animal |
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 For Bea, just published by Tarcher at Penguin Putnam, is about Beatrice, a Beagle whom the author found on a road near her home and later discovered had escaped from a research lab. In their 15 years together, Bea and the author radically changed each other's lives. Bea slowly grew from a pathologically terrified dog into a confident diva, and the author switched careers from college English teacher to animal-welfare advocate. The message of the book is that lab animals -- just as all animals -- should be treated with the respect and kindness they deserve. Mary Tyler Moore read the book and loved Bea so much that she called and asked for help getting involved in the cause of lab animals. You can learn more about the author of this wonderful book by visiting the website. The book is available at all major bookstores and through Amazon. |
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New York City: Natural Pet Fair 2003 -- October 4th & 5th |
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| In Defense of Animals (IDA) and the Bodhi Tree Conference Center present the Natural Pet Fair 2003 on Sat. Oct. 4th from 10 am to 6 pm and Sun. Oct. 5th from 10 am to 4 pm at the SLC Conference Center, 352 7th Ave., 16th floor, between 29th and 30th Streets in Manhattan. Attendees can gather free samples, shop for natural pet products and attend free holistic inspired lectures and book signings. IDA's Journalist and Animal Activist Lawrence Carter-Long will present the Welcoming Address, and Gary Null, creator of Gary Null's Pet Nutritionals, will be the Keynote Speaker. Due to landlord restrictions, attendees are not allowed to bring pets. Adults $ 7. per day/Children 12 & under Free. For more information contact: Natural Pet Fair c/o Bodhi Tree Conference Center, 163 Amsterdam Ave., Suite 227, New York, NY 10023. E-mail: info@naturalpetfair.com | |
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Fremont, CA -- Furry Friends Rescue's Tail Waggin' 3K Dog Walk -- October 18, 2003 |
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| Furry Friends Rescue will hold a fund-raising TAIL WAGGIN' 3K DOG WALK on October 18, 2003, at Fremont Central Park, Lake Elizabeth, Area A, Fremont, CA. Collect pledges and enjoy a beautiful hike with your best furry friend! This super-fun fundraiser is very much needed to help Furry Friends continue their successful work of rescuing abandoned dogs and cats. Visit the website for more details. Or E-mail: dogwalk2003@furryfriendsrescue.org |
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Philadelphia, PA -- Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Conference -- October 24-26, 2003 |
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| How can your community bring an end to the kiling of healthy homeless pets? Best Friends' conferences, held in various locations throughout the US several times a year, are designed to give both professional animal welfare workers and individuals who simply care about animals and want to do more, the tools to achieve this goal. The conference includes panel discussions, workshops and optional intensive seminars that explore successful model programs and provide how-to information on community outreach strategies, fundraising methods, increasing adoptions and spay/neuter, feral cat programs, volunteer recruitment, media relations, and coping with burn-out. The panelists and presenters include some of the nation’s leading experts in the areas of adoption, spay/neuter, fundraising, communication, and shelter management. For more information, visit the website. |  |
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Rancho Santa Fe, CA -- Helen Woodward Animal Center Walk & Run For Animals 2003 -- Saturday, October 25, 2003
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| Helen Woodward Animal Center's13th Annual Walk & Run For Animals will be held this year on Saturday, October 25, 2003. Animal loving adults and children along with their four-legged friends will all gather together at the Center, 6461 El Apajo Road, Rancho Santa Fe, CA, to raise money for orphaned animals and people in need. There will be entertainment, food, prizes, demonstrations, contest and fun -- more than ever before! To join the planning committee, for sponsorship or donations and to sign-up to Walk or Run, call Maria Televantos at (858) 756 4117 ext. 312 or E- mail mariat@animalcenter.org |  |
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| The ASPCA is the sponsor of Ani-Med, an organization that offers a free pet care information service via its website. It is a resource for health information on dogs and cats, including seniors. | |
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Rimadyl |
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We are keeping in our thoughts a dog named "Baxter," who is fighting to recover from adverse side effects of Rimadyl. Here is Baxter's story as reported to us by Damian Adams of South Australia:
"Baxter, our six year old Newfie, was always the picture of health and the most gentle soul we had ever met. He developed a sore/inflammed disk in his neck which made it painful for him to feed from his bowl or to lie down. Our vet prescribed Rimadyl at a dose lower than the maximum allowable. After four days Baxter was much better and we removed him from the drug on the Tuesday morning, giving him his last dose with his breakfast. Within an hour he was vomiting, couldn't pass any faeces, was depressed and had a swollen, painful belly. His behaviour became erratic -- at times he was unwilling to move and at others he had enough energy to dig up the entire garden, something he has never done. He even refused all food and treats, which is very un-Newfoundland like. Baxter was rushed to another vet closer to our home who could find no reason for his illness -- no elevated temperature and no bowel/stomach blockage. He was given an injection to stop the vomiting and was sent home. I mentioned that he was on Rimadyl, but the vet did not bat an eyelid. The next morning he vomited blood and was rushed back to the first vet who took blood and put him on a drip. The blood tests showed stomach inflamation and mild pancreatitis, none of which pointed to how sick he actually was. Knowing that it was too coincidental, I did a web search and found your very informative site as well as others, including Pfizer who now admit that it can cause such problems as pancreatitis and present the symptoms we were seeing. I have since mentioned the possibility of Rimadyl being a cause to the vet who did concur that he had thought about the possibility but that he had also not had any problems with the drug in all of the years he has administered it. Now I sit and wait to see how Baxter does on the drip, being completely distressed about the fact that something I have given him could kill him. Baxter weighed 80kgs (176 lbs) and started on a dose of 200mg per day (1x 100mg tablet in the morning and one at night) for the first three days; then we reduced it down to 100mg per day for the next three days (including the day he became extremely ill). This dosage is well below the maximum allowable, according to Pfizer the initial dose is only 57% of what we could give him. In the first 30 hours of sickness, Baxter lost 3kgs of body weight." Yours faithfully, Damian Adams. South Australia. September 17, 2003. |
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| Update/Editor's Note: October 1, 2003. It is with great sadness that we add the following to our post about Baxter. Damian Adams wrote: "Baxter passed away on 19.9.03. We had to euthanise our best friend as his small intestine had completely died off and could not be resected. Biopsy tests were not entirely conclusive; however, the pathologist believed that a thickening of the mesentry was caused by a mesenteric ischaemia. This blood clot, which blocked blood flow to the small intestine, is an incident much like a stroke. However, as at any one time, an individual can have a few blood clots located around there body that are normally resorbed, it is when they become lodged somewhere important that all hell breaks loose. Rimadyl can act in a similar manner to aspirin, and we believe that it was this action which may have released the clot, causing it to lodge in the mesentery. While it has not been confirmed as the definite cause, we believe in our hearts that the coincidence is too great and our beloved Newfie would still be with us if not for Rimadyl." | |
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Glucosamine as Arthritis Therapy |
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If you are looking for a natural alternative to Rimadyl, you may want to consider glucosamine. In-depth information on glucosamine's usefulness as a therapy for pets can be found on the Arthritis and Glucosamine Information Center site. The site states, "The Pet Arthritis Center has been set up to provide you with the information you need to identify and treat arthritis in your pets, inform you of the dangers of certain prescription drugs such as Rimadyl, share tips on how to maximize your pet's nutrition, explain how arthritis progresses in pets and how to recognize the common symptoms of arthritis and osteoarthritis. In a nutshell, we will help you prevent unnecessary pain in your dog, cat or exotic animal and empower you to make a positive change in your pet's life." |
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Jogging with a Senior Dog |
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Baby Jogger, the original maker of the three-wheeled jogger for babies, now has a version for dogs called, naturally, the "Doggie Jogger." If your senior can't keep up the pace anymore, you can still take him for a "run" in his own limo. The Doggie Jogger weighs 18 lbs. and carries up to 150 lbs. of man's best friend. |
 Help in Managing Incontinent Male Dogs |
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 As male dogs grow older, they sometimes become incontinent. A new product called Rex Diapers is designed to help manage the problem. One package is $9.99 and contains 20 disposable dog diapers and straps. Fits dogs up to 28 inches around the mid-section. For more info and to order, see the website. For more information on managing incontinence, please visit the srdogs "Care" page. |
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November Is Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month
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 Petfinder.com has joined the ASPCA in declaring November 2003 the first annual Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month. Information about it as on the website, which offers a sample Public Service Announcement (PSA) and a press release. There is also a nice Senior Pet Facts calendar that can be printed out from the site.
Do you know how to contact your local radio or TV station to submit a PSA or press release? If so, please do so! |
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Can You Post a Senior Dogs Project Flyer? |
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We're not certain if it's the economy or the time of year, but adoptions via the srdogs.com site seem to have declined in the past few months. Can you help bring attention to the srdogs.com site? We would appreciate your mentioning it to friends and relatives and in any chat groups to which you might belong. We're also again asking this month if you can post a flyer, as described below.....
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Can you help us get the word out about the Senior Dogs Project, and, in particular, the benefits to be derived from adopting an older dog? So many good dogs who are over the age of five are euthanized simply because of their age and the bias most people have toward adopting puppies. If you'd like us to e-mail a copy of the flyer to you (it's in Word and PDF format, and you can print it out from your computer), just send an e-mail to: flyer @ srdogs.com (remove spaces in the address before sending) with the word "Flyer" in the subject line. We've heard from supporters that they've posted the flyer in supermarkets, shelters, churches, veterinary offices, doggie daycare centers, dog trainers' offices, parks where people walk their dogs, and community bulletin boards. So, if you have time and opportunity, we'd appreciate your printing out a copy and posting it. Thank you!