January 2019 Letters ~ Toy Dog Teeth, DogPress Nonsense! CDC Warning, Vampire Ticks, Symbiotic Relations, Darwin's Offer, Told Off re Grapes

Grapes Revenge: I believe this article was written because you guys needed some petty revenge after you were tapped on the fingers. There was a claim that no study was found on grapes and raisin poisoning in dogs. Yet when I googled "dogs and grapes study" a bunch of studies popped up, which I read. In the course of my career and academics I have had a lot to do with studies and research methods and the studies mentioned are legit. Maybe next time do some better research before making claims. Adjust your theory to suit facts, don't manipulate facts to support your theory. Your website has lost all of its credibility. Maria Bester Reference: NetPlaces Network coverage on Grapes & Raisins

Darwin’s Pays Adoption Fees for Rescues: The leading provider of raw pet food available by subscription, will pay the adoption fees for rescued pets nationwide with free pet food. Adopters receive free pet food in the amount of the adoption fees.

     “Our mission at Darwin’s is to help dogs and cats live longer healthier lives, and we want to partner with pet owners to help improve the lives of the many dogs and cats that are currently in shelters,” said Gary Tashjian, Darwin’s Natural Pet Products president. “With shelters overcrowded, we need to make it easier for people to adopt dogs and cats. By paying our customers’ adoption fees, we hope to ease adoptions, work with them to help reduce the strain on shelters, and help pets start new lives in loving homes.”

     The offer is in response to shelter overcrowding, which has been made worse by recent natural disasters. Shelters take in 6.5 million companion animals per year, according to the ASPCA. Overcrowding is so severe that more than 250 U.S. cities require that pet stores only sell rescue pets. A similar law went into effect across the entire state of California last week. Darwin’s free adoption offer applies to any rescue or shelter dog or cat adopted in the U.S. Adopters can receive free raw pet food in the amount of the adoption fees, up to $150, by submitting images of their adoption certificate and adoption fee receipt.

     New customers will need to enroll as Darwin’s subscribers. For more information, please go to www.darwinspet.com. (notice received from Forrest Carman)

Offer ends February 28, 2019 and is available to both new and existing customers.

Symbiotic Relationships: Another twist to your interesting article would be how you interpret “domestication”; in my opinion it is the way two or more species benefit each other by becoming symbiotic with one another … better working together rather than independently. Just a few examples of this would be; Dolphins & pilot fish, normally a Dolphin would eat a pilot fish, but because the Pilot fish eats the flesh eating organisms & barnacles off of the Dolphin = they become symbiotic partners, that benefit one another in life’s dance of survival and the advancement of both their evolutions together. So they end up migrating and traveling together.

     Crows/coyotes/man/dog. Just about every animal on the planet has it’s symbiotic partner or partners. Man has just become very good at controlling this process (very quickly) to our advantage … in some cases to the point of destroying the species involved (good example is what we have done to dogs in recent times … just because we can, (for no practical reason other than MONEY), which in some cases can be a positive thing! Dog is still our best symbiotic partner and we should be taking great care in preserving them and that amazing partnership, not take advantage of it. Kim La Flamme - Founder/Trustee/Breeder for over 50 Years of The American Indian Dog Reference: The Wolf In Your Dog

Asian Tick or Vampire Tick:  Coming into our country from imported rescue dogs, these ticks can reproduce a-sexually, what's to stop them?  I have mailed your article about the China Dog Flu and a 3 page letter to my local county health department showing them the connection. I will keep you abreast of their (hopeful) response to me. I have not hid anything about who I am so it was not an anonymous letter to them. I am sure they are limited in what they can do, but hopefully they can pass on the information. Not sure how this is all going to turn out for "good dog people". We are the ones in the end who only have more piled up on us. Please understand I personally have nothing against rescue dogs. My heart breaks to see any dog suffer and I can't help them all. But here in the U.S. we have tried to be responsible for what we produce and put out there. I don't think we ever gave it a thought that foreign dogs would be hitting our shores in such droves. There has to be $$$ involved for these groups or they wouldn't be able to support it. I enjoy TheDogPress and have thru the years. Keep up the good work. Anna Jones, Paterjay Irish Setters & Irish Red & White Setters. Reference:  New Flu From Shelter Imports and Fleas, Ticks and Worms Section

Staff Notes re: The CDC announced the number of  people  affected by tick and mosquito diseases has more than tripled in recent years. Note 6 new insect-carried diseases since 2004. In 2016 tick and mosquito carried diseases increased from 27,000 cases to 96,000 cases! 2018 was record-breaking WET WEATHER across the central and eastern states and 2019 began wet and warm instead of snowy!

     The CDC urges everyone to use bug repellant if you are going to be outdoors during the spring and summer. And don't forget to protect your pets!!  Reference: Mosquito Control  ~  West Nile Mosquitoes Kill Again  ~  Prevent Heartworm Mosquitoes

Press Nonsense: To say I am very disappointed to see this blatant religious nonsense in TheDogPress is a vast understatement. Aside from the fact that he is 100% mistaken on the founding of this country being Christian, his typical Christian rhetoric about humans being something other than animals themselves is a core cause of the abuse of the Earth that we see today.

     Paganism is simply beliefs that are not Christian and there is nothing sinister about that. To believe that we must make sacrifices to protect the only planet we have is common sense-unless you believe that you are being "raptured" one day soon. This belief that the Earth is but a temporary home is very destructive.

     I am NOT an animal "rights" person in any sense of the word. I am totally opposed to such garbage. The Civil Rights that humans enjoy are given to us by HUMAN LAW and nothing else. Other animals have only the rights we, as humane humans, afford them. The Constitution was expressly written to exclude the tyranny of religious beliefs in government. The belief that other animals (besides ourselves) must be treated with compassion and concern is not a religious belief-it is common sense! It is ingrained in humans to be kind and cooperative-that is how we evolved to be such social creatures.

     The Abrahamic gods, nor any others, gave us any "rights". Too true, it seems that some believers think their gods gave them "rights" to destroy the world and look down even on their fellow humans, much less other animals. I suppose you can determine how disgusted I am with that article. Can we please escape from proselytizing religion in TheDogPress? Don't we have enough of it crammed in our faces every day? Bonnie Harris Reference: Human, Animal, Constitutional Rights

Editor's response. I agree with Bonnie's observation regarding treatment of animals should be common sense but regrettably refer readers to Mankind Devolving in last week's edition.

Toy Dog Teeth: There was an article on Toy Dog Teeth. How to pull baby teeth to keep a good bite, etc. I have saved that article on my computer multiple times but cannot find it. I do want to be able to send it out to my puppy buyers. I wish I had had that info when I got my first Havanese, it’s a great article. Is there anyway I could find that article. I think it is very important if you breed toy dogs. Thank you, Laura Patton Here you go... Referenced Article: Toy Breed Teeth & Dental Care

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