Thursday, August 7, 2008

Pets in the Media

Being a pet-person, I’m always watching for stories in the media relating to animals. Apparently, I’m not alone, since the papers and TV seem full of interesting stories nearly all the time--which I assume wouldn’t happen if the media people got feedback that no one was watching or listening.

A couple stories over the last few days really caught my attention. One was about the way the current housing crisis has harmed pets. That’s becoming old news, unfortunately. A lot of people whose homes are foreclosed on can no longer keep their beloved dogs and cats, and shelters are becoming full of these poor abandoned dears. That hurts enough. But in this particular story, the people who came to take charge of the foreclosed-upon home found that the family dog was still there--starving. Eating the walls, since there was nothing else. How horrible! I don’t understand how anyone could do that to their best friend.

Also, there’ve been stories about a woman who had her beloved pit bull cloned by an outfit in South Korea that’s affiliated with a cloning company in the U.S. She now has 5 pit bull puppies. She doesn’t have her home any longer, since she sold it to pay for the cloning; the process is very expensive, but presumably she’s gotten what she wanted. Maybe she’ll be able to sell her story for enough that she’ll have someplace to raise the pups.

My latest Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery DOUBLE DOG DARE has a cloning theme, so I found that story of particular interest.

Have you seen or read any pet-related stories lately that especially caught your attention?


--Linda

5 comments:

Monica Ferris said...

I took note of that odd one about the huge cat -- over forty pounds! -- found wandering as a stray. His owner was foreclosed and just put him out on the street. I found it odd that someone, first of all, would tease and encourage a pet to eat himself into that dangerous a state of obesity and that, second, would then abandon him. There are some strange people loose in the world. But anyone who would lock an abandoned animal in a house to starve is beyond strange and needs someone to smack him on the nose at the very least.

Linda O. Johnston said...

That is an odd story, Monica. Poor kitty! And I agree that there should be some repercussions to the people who truly abandoned their dog in their house.
--Linda

Kathryn Lilley said...

The one about the woman whose face was half-ripped off by a bear. Evidently her two dogs saved her. I would love to hear more about that.

Linda O. Johnston said...

Brave dogs, Kathryn. But poor lady!
--Linda

Betty Hechtman said...

It is terrible that someone would leave their dog to starve.

We're pretty sure the two cats we adopted were left at the SPCA due to the housing mess. We know the owners had to move and the cats are seven and ten, so they obviously had them a long time.

At least it is one story with a happy ending. They are enjoing a whole new chapter in their lives at our house.