More Greyhound Dogs Need Homes

Associated Press

KENOSHA, Wis. — Seven dog tracks halted racing across the country last year, forcing hundreds of greyhounds into an uncertain future. With fewer tracks available for them to race, the sleek long-limbed dogs are now flooding the adoption market at a difficult time.

Economic hardships are preventing many dog lovers from adopting, or worse, forcing them to give back animals they can no longer afford to keep. Misconceptions about the breed — that greyhounds are hyperactive and crave constant stimulation and exercise — also scare away some potential owners, advocates say.

And most have spent their lives inside racetracks and kennels, with little exposure to families, kids or even the most basic household activities, say greyhound lovers like Rhonda Mack, who took in two more dogs from the Dairyland Greyhound Park in southern Wisconsin, which closed last week.

“You bring a dog home ... They’ve never been outside the racetrack,” said the 50-year-old from Lake Zurich, Ill., who now has three greyhounds, including new additions Lexi and Jack. “They go into your house — they don’t know what a window is, they don’t know what stairs are. They walk right into windows like they aren’t even there.”

The track in Wisconsin ran its last dog race on New Year’s Eve; another in Phoenix and one in Massachusetts also ended dog racing last month, bringing the total to seven tracks that pulled the mechanical rabbit in 2009.

Though there are no precise figures, advocates estimate more than 1,000 greyhounds need new homes.

That’s in addition to the best racers, who will be sent to tracks that remain open elsewhere or to breeders.

Since greyhound racing began decades ago, there’s always been an issue of what to do with retired race dogs.

Previously, they largely found homes through a fragmented network of breed adoption and other placement groups, but the recent deluge of dogs in need of dwellings has magnified the issue.

“It is a domino effect,” said Michael McCann, president of The Greyhound Project Inc., a Boston-based nonprofit that provides support and information about greyhound adoptions. “Everything that happens in one state affects ... the dog adoption effort in other states.”

It doesn’t help that the economic downturn has made some people hesitant to become dog owners and pushed others to give up their pets because of the costs of caring for them.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates that as many as 2 million pets have been abandoned since the recession began in December 2007.

The Shelter Pet Project

The Shelter Pet Project (SPP), is a public service announcement (PSA) campaign aimed at increasing the rate of shelter pet adoption in the US by dispelling myths about these lovable animals. They're looking to give shelter pets an image makeover, letting the 17 million people who plan on getting a companion animal this year know that shelters should be the first and best place to find them. This new campaign, sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States, Maddie's Fund, and the Ad Council, is funny and lighthearted. Check out the talking dog PSA here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SKerU-PkbA

Help for the SPCA

Hi, all you animal lovers!
This is pretty simple... Please ask ten friends to each ask a further ten today!
The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing.
Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site! Please pass it along to people you know.

The Animal Rescue site

A Fundraising Site for Shelters

I was recently contacted about a new site who's goal it is to support not only the pet community, but animal shelters as well. Here is some information from the press release:

Roseland, N.J., June 22, 2009 – Shop ‘til you drop in support of animal shelters, then get together with friends to share stories, advice and even pictures – all online. That’s the goal of the newly launched www.bringpetshome.org. The fundraising Web site also offers exclusive content for cat and dog owners which includes information on pet care and safety, information on animal shelters, as well blogs, groups and open forums.


The site’s primary purpose is to raise money to help shelters care for homeless pets. It serves as an online portal where visitors can access more than 150 major online retailers, like Amazon, Sephora, Wal-Mart, iTunes, and many more. To raise money, online shoppers register at www.bringpetshome.org to select a shelter to support, then click-through to the merchant of choice. Each retailer specifies a percent commission on the Web site and donates that percentage of the purchase to Bring Pets Home. There is no additional cost to the consumer.

Every year, six to eight million animals enter U. S. shelters. According to the ASPCA, as many as one million additional dogs and cats are in danger of losing their homes in 2009, at a time when fewer donations are coming in. All need food, shelter, and medical care, so that they have the chance to be reunited with their original owners or adopted into caring, permanent homes.

“Bring Pets Home is a great way for pet lovers to raise money to help homeless animals without ever leaving home—and at no cost to them,” says Linda Block of Bring Pets Home. “More pets are entering shelters, but donors’ purse strings have tightened. Anyone can help by simply remembering to visit http://www.bringpetshome.org to click-through to a favorite online merchant whenever shopping online.“



About Bring Pets Home

BRING PETS HOME is a not-for-profit animal charity that raises money to help animals in shelters across the country. 100% of the money raised will go directly to animal shelters to provide food, shelter and medical treatment to pets in need. All operating costs of BRING PETS HOME are covered by Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health. There is no additional cost to the consumer. To learn more, visit www.bringpetshome.org.

Saving Lifes of Animals Victims of Economy

dopt-a-Pet.com, North America's largest non-profit pet adoption website, announced the expansion of its pet adoption database to include rabbits, horses, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, farm-type animals and other small pets. This is in addition to the already extensive Adopt-a-Pet.com database of cats and dogs available for adoption across the nation.

“We expanded our database because there are many other pets aside from cats and dogs that need loving homes,” said David Meyer, founder and president of Adopt-a-Pet.com. “It’s a very timely expansion because the state of the economy and home foreclosures are causing many people across the nation to relinquish their pets to shelters. Our new search database will allow people from anywhere to access photos and descriptions of pets available for adoption from rabbits to birds.”

Every year in the U.S., over seven million adoptable cats and dogs are killed mainly due to pet overpopulation. That number doesn’t take into account the many other types of pets that are also homeless and often put to sleep.

“Over 100,000 adoptable dogs and cats are currently on our site, where they can be seen by millions of potential adopters, and thanks to a grant from Petsmart Charities, we are thrilled to be able to extend a hand to animals of other species as well," said Abbie Moore, executive director of Adopt-a-Pet.com. “We can't wait to help animal shelters and rescue groups find homes for all the types of pets in their care.”

The new search database is currently up and running at Adopt-a-Pet.com.

About Adopt-a-Pet.com:

Adopt-a-Pet.com (formerly 1-800-Save-A-Pet.com) is North America’s largest non-profit pet adoption website, helping over 7,000 animal shelters, humane societies, SPCAs, pet rescue groups, and pet adoption agencies advertise their homeless pets to adopters for free. Adopt-a-Pet.com displays photos and descriptions of adoptable pets to over 1.5 million people seeking to adopt a dog or adopt a cat each month, and is funded by the passionate pet lovers at Purina and North Shore Animal League America.

Durham, CT Pet Fair

For anyone who isn't too far away, you may want to check this out.

The 1st Annual Durham Pet Fair will be held at The Durham Veterinary Hospital, located at 178 Parmalee Hill Road on Sunday, May 17th from 11:00am to 4:00pm (Rain Date May 24th). It is jointly organized by the Durham Veterinary Hospital and Help Willy's Friends.



This Durham Pet Fair will feature local merchants and adoptable pets from local shelters/ rescue organizations. There will be Live Music, a Wine Tasting and a Silent Auction. There will be food, beverages, and Free Kettle Korn. Children's activities will include a DJ, Face Painting, Touch-a-Truck, Fun House, a State Police K-9 Demonstration, and much more. For those attendees that bring their pets, The Durham Veterinary Hospital will provide microchipping at a nominal fee of $35.00. There will also be Free Nail Clipping, Free Pet Photos, Pet Reiki and a Pet Psychic!


10'x10' booth space is still available. A booth is $25 for shelters/rescue organizations and $50 for vendors. Visit www.durhampetfair.com for downloadable booth application forms or contact Mark at 203-988-1718 or willy@helpwillysfriends.org.

Help Willy's Friends is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to collecting food and supplies to distribute among local animal shelters/rescue organizations. This in turn assists shelter workers with providing proper, required, and additional care to animals in need. Ultimately, this results in additional time with hope of finding a new home for loving dogs and cats. For more information about Help Willy's Friends, visit www.helpwillysfriends.org.

Tour For Life

North Shore Animal League America ’s National Life-Saving Tour

A nationwide initiative to save the lives of innocent shelter pets, Tour For Life® 2009, sponsored by North Shore Animal League America, is coming to the Connecticut Area Rescue Event on Saturday, April 18, 2009 from 11 am to 4 pm at IKEA, 450 Sergant Drive, New Haven. The pet adoption event will also feature kids’ games, games for pets and giveaways. An Animal League Mobile Adoption Unit, which is on a cross-country life saving mission, working with over 100 animal rescue groups, shelters and humane organizations across the nation, will be on site. Television and film actress, Kathryn Erbe, star of TV’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent, serves as the national spokesperson for this program that aims to adopt homeless animals into loving homes.
Tour For Life’s presenting sponsor is the One Hope Network. The One Hope Network is dedicated to transforming the lives of pets and people by supporting the efforts of animal welfare organizations across the country. The North Shore Animal League America is an advisory shelter for the One Hope Network.

Tour For Life will be stopping in 25 US cities meeting up for a grand finale with spokesperson, Kathryn Erbe on Saturday, April 25 at FAO Schwarz in New York City . To learn more about North Shore Animal League America ’s life-saving Tour For Life visit www.animalleague.org or call 1-800-214-4308.

Pedigree Adoption Super Bowl Commercial

Super Bowl XLIII is going to the dogs. Well, sort of. While the top two NFL teams will battle it out on the gridiron, PEDIGREE® Food for Dogs will join the ranks of advertising elite with the airing of a new spot called “Crazy Pets.” The ad will air during the broadcast of the game on February 1, 2009 and marks the brand’s first foray into the Big Game.

The creative concept takes typical family scenarios that involve dogs and replaces them with other, unusual animals ranging from a water buffalo to a boar, to an ostrich. At its core, the ad celebrates the brand’s love of dogs and emphasizes how much better life is with a dog in it.

The airing of the spot ties into The PEDIGREE® Adoption Drive, an annual fundraising and awareness campaign the brand created five years ago as a means to shine a spotlight on the cause of dog adoption.

Crazy Pets” will air nationally following its debut during Super Bowl XLIII, and starting on January 26, 2009, can also be viewed at pedigree.com, along with behind-the-scenes vignettes featuring the “crazy pet owners” from the commercial.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE COMMERCIAL? Leave your comment!

Puppy Bowl V Offers Alternatives for Non-Football Fans

If watching the Superbowl isn't your thing, there's an alternative: Animal Planet's 5th Annual Puppy Bowl. The unique show will air at 3 p.m. EST, Sunday, Feb. 1, on Animal Planet. While the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers go helmet-to-helmet at Superbowl XLIII, "Pepper the Parrot" will kick-off the Puppy Bowl with a unique rendition of the national anthem. Then twenty puppies listed on Petfinder.com will fumble and tumble on their own gridiron. Halftime will feature the cat capers of the Kitty Entertainers.
The focus of Puppy Bowl is pet adoption, and viewers can logon to Petfinder.com, the first and largest online, searchable database of adoptable pets, to learn about adopting or fostering a pet in their community.
The Web site lists about 200,000 pets on any given day at over 12,500 animal placement organizations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It has facilitated over 13 million adoptions since it launched.

Shelters Fighting "Black Dog" Syndrome

In many shelters across the country, dogs with thick, dark black coats usually take longer to get adopted. The phenomenon is commonplace enough to have earned its own name: "black dog syndrome."

The worst part, is that because they are the hardest to adopt out, they’re in shelters the longest and are the most likely to be euthanized if nothing happens.

There is no exact reason as to why this occurs, but there are several theories. Could it be a subconscious thing, like the fear of black cats? Could it be that in some black dogs - the black pug comes to mind - that it's harder to see the dog's true features? Is it because they just look scarier?
Some people have actually turned in their black dog to a shelter because they've gotten new furniture and don't like the dark fur their pet sheds.

The sheer difficulty in marketing of a black dog is also one theory of why they stay in shelters the longest. Their black coats can make them invisible in poorly lit kennels. The same problem occurs with amateur photos on shelters' websites, which is how many people find the dog they intend to adopt.

And then, because a lot of these dogs may be at a shelter, a person thinks maybe they aren’t being adopted for a good reason – maybe there is something wrong with them.

Add that to the fact that in bigger breeds, such as Rottweilers, Dobermans, and pit bull mixes, the dogs just down right look big and scary.

But think twice when looking at black dogs. My family members did. The photo above is of their pit-bull mix they adopted. Ebony, as she has been adequately named, was just begging to be adopted. She was playful and friendly and had been found roaming the streets, all alone. Skinny to the point where you could see her ribs, the description read as follows: One-year-old terrier-mix is a very pretty girl. She has a very lean body that is accentuated by her beautiful black coat. She was found as a stray by a person that was not allowed to have pets in his home. He cared for her for three weeks while looking for her owner. She is a very polite young lady looking for her forever home.


The description was right-on. Although she may look big and mean, she is one of the nicest dogs I’ve ever been around. Loyal and loving, all she needed was someone to treat her right. After her adoption, she gained over 20 pounds, and is now a strong, playful, dog. I would use the old cliché that she is all bark with no bite…but she doesn’t even bark all that much. Not much of a guard dog, when someone walks in the house, all she wants to do is play. When she’s let out in the yard, she runs around to get her exercise, and then quickly returns home. Ebony has no desire to be lost again without a family.


As you can see by her place on the couch, she is a full-fledged family member.

So, the next time you’re at your local shelter, take a good long look at the black dogs. They may surprise you.


This post is part of Petside's Pet Net Adoption Event. Check out other great posts about pet adoption.

PET ‘NET ADOPTION EVENT

FIRST ANNUAL PET ‘NET ADOPTION EVENT TO BE HELD ON
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16

Pet-Centric Bloggers & Site Editors To Raise Voices In Unison To Shine Spotlight on Animal Shelter Adoption


Englewood Cliffs, NJ (October 8, 2008) -- In an effort to heighten awareness about animal shelter adoption, Petside.com (http://www.petside.com), the popular online destination for pet owners and pet enthusiasts from NBC Universal Digital Media, has organized a landmark consortium of some of the Web’s favorite pet-focused sites to launch the inaugural Pet ‘Net Adoption Event on Thursday, October 16.

Each participating site and Weblog will highlight content devoted to the topic of animal shelter adoption on this date, with Petside.com hosting a comprehensive one-page hub (http://www.petside.com/petnetadoption) with links to all of the special coverage.

"Due to the current troubles in the economy, animal shelters are full to over-flowing and shelter adoption is mission critical for animal lovers across the country," said Kim Jack Riley, editor-in-chief of Petside.com. “Through the power of these diverse and robust voices being raised at once online, we hope this experiment -- The Pet ‘Net Adoption Event -- will help focus some much-needed attention on the cause.”

Sites slated to join in the event include:

• About.com Cats http://www.cats.about.com
• About.com Exotic Pets (http://exoticpets.about.com)
• About.com Veterinary Medicine (http://vetmedicine.about.com)
• The Daily Puppy (http://www.dailypuppy.com)
• The Days of Johann (http://blog.johannthedog.com)
• Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Pet Central (http://petcentral.startribune.com)
• The Pet Haven (http://the-pet-haven.blogspot.com)
• PetDoc.com (http://www.petdoc.com)
• PetLvr - The Blog (http://www.petlvr.com/blog)
• Petopia (http://www.thestarryeye.typepad.com/pets)
• PetPeoplesPlace (http://www.petpeoplesplace.com)
• Pets Channel (http://www.petschannel.com)
• PetsitUSA (http://www.petsitusa.com)
• Polka Dot Pup (http://www.polkadotpup.blogspot.com)
• Raise A Green Dog (http://blog.raiseagreendog.com)
• Rescue Me (http://blog.helpingpups.com)
• Thoughts Fur Paws (http://thoughtsfurpaws.com)
• YouPet (http://www.youpet.com)


About Petside.com
Petside.com (www.petside.com) was created by NBC Universal, in partnership with Procter & Gamble Productions, Inc., as a comprehensive source of information and services that helps pets and their owners get the most out of life. Offering customized content and a highly personalized experience, Petside.com is ranked among the top 10 pet Web sites and offers unique editorial features, expert Q&A's, tools and how-to videos.

Food Banks For Pets

As people are struggling to pay the bills, many of them are being forced to get rid of their pets. However, there are some food banks out there who are also giving out free pet food.

Some might say that you shouldn't have pets if you can't afford them, but what if you get into a bad rut? Something happens that you didn't expect causing you to fall behind on things. Would you give up your loved ones? Your kids? For many pet lovers, the pets are part of the family.

As this article describes, demand for free pet food samples has risen in this tough economy.

Black Dog Discrimination

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23472518/

This is an interesting article about how dogs with thick, dark black coats usually take longer to get adopted at shelters. Apparently, the phenomenon is commonplace enough to have earned its own name: "black dog syndrome."

According to one quote in the article, "They're the hardest to adopt out, they're in the shelters the longest and therefore, they're most likely to be euthanized if nothing happens."

But what are the reasons?? Could it be a subconscious thing (like the fear of black cats?). Could it be that in some black dogs (the black pug comes to mind) that it's harder to see the dog's true features? Is it because they just look scarier?

Other theories include:
-Some people turn in their black dogs to the shelters because they've gotten new furniture and don't like the dark fur their pet sheds.
-their black coats can make them invisible in poorly lit kennels.
-Same problem happens with amateur photos on shelters' Web sites, which is how many people find the dog they intend to adopt.
-If people see a lot of black dogs at a shelter, they might think there is something wrong with the dogs.

I'm curious to hear from people with black dogs. Even a lot of the pet stores I go to don't offer a lot of black dogs for sale, so this is quite an interesting topic of discussion.