Dog debate packs city hall

A dog debate drew an over-capacity crowd to city hall in London, Ont., over issues such as no kill at the pound, private contracts for animal control, money for spaying and neutering, pet sales and a no-kill policy.
Here's The London Free Press story, in which reporter Chip Martin calls the crowd animal evangelicals.
The answers to the main points are straight forward:

• No kill policy? Nice ideal, but there are too many unwanted dogs and cats in a city to enact this policy at a reasonable cost that all taxpayers would embrace.
• Lift the limit of three dogs, three cats per household? Only if it's a temporary fostering situation. Otherwise, you have de facto kennels and "cat ladies" in neighbourhoods throughout the city.
• Expand spaying/neutering: Yes, despite the fact dog-owner purists like to keep their males complete. Providing this service at cost could be something for local vets to consider.
• Increase licensing fees? Dog ownership is already costly enough; raising fees will mean people will just not buy a licence.
• Feed, trap feral cats and relocate them: Do you really think farmers want cat colonies relocated to their properties? Don't you think there are already enough cat dropoffs in the countryside? Do you really imagine these cats live a charmed, relaxed life? Or are they owl food?
• Create a fourth off-leash park? Yes! Making it convenient to socialize dogs and their owners and get the dogs out of cramped city houses and yards is necessary. Dog parks rock and are fun to observe even for non-dog owners.

Here's the tab for dog ownership

It costs $14,000 over a 15-year lifespan to own a dog, with obviously vet fees being the biggest expense. One of the biggest cost saving tips: keep your dog's teeth clean. Here's a link to the CTV report.

Raw Video: Chihuahua Chases Off Robbers

Chihuahua chronicles, or why robbers dislike yappy lap dogs.

Do dogs belong at festivals?

There's a debate in London, Ont., about whether or not dogs belong at summer festivals held in city parks.
The festivals are free and the parks are public. Dogs and their owners have every right to walk through and linger.
But the events are usually packed with people and concert goers like to sit on the grass to listen to the live music. They don't want to meet a dog, no matter how friendly, face-to-face, put their hand where a dog has just peed or pooped - no matter how well meaning the cleanup, one never gets it all. There have also been dog-to-dog conflicts which likely sound, to a non-owner, like something serious. Or not - sometimes bites are exchanged.
There have been a couple of opinion columns in the daily London Free Press and at least one letter to the editor asking people to keep their dogs at home.
Here's the link to the latest column, with a too-bold headline, published July 16, 2011.
This weekend is the second consecutive one with a major festival at Victoria Park - the excellent Sunfest was last weekend and this weekend it's the Home County Festival. We were at Sunset - without Nellie our wheaten terrier.

Dogs who ate owners adopted

A sad story from Saskatchewan, but the outcome is what the dog owners would have wanted. Good that the dogs were expertly assessed before being adopted. Here's the link to the Toronto Star story.

Pet buyers need to sober up first

Pet buyers need to be completely sober, shop says.
Only in New York.

Allergic to dogs? Pass on labradoodles

Hmm, about the notion some dogs are better than others for allergy sufferers ... the Globe & Mail has some input.

Dog gone seven years

Now this is an incredible tale - almost a lifetime for a dog. Here's the story of a pooch missing for seven years and finally reunited with the original family.

What a road trip

This is one travelling pooch, found in B.C. after going missing from Quebec. Here's the story published in Metro.

Basset hound running

I once knew a reporter in Newmarket, Ont., who almost got fired for misspelling the name of the owner, Doug Bassett, as Doug Basset, as in hounds. It was incompetence, not malice, and I'm sure all parties can laugh about it now.
Just like we can share a laugh over this cute photo of a basset hound running shared by a Twitter connection. Enjoy!

World's ugliest dog home from tour

Yoda, a Chinese chihuahua (?) isn't that ugly, right? Here's Yoda's hometown story.

Dancing Chihuahua

Many thanks to "Harshlesson" for posting this on Youtube. My boyhood dog was a chihuahua, but I don't recall Tippy dancing. Thanks also to a Twitter friend for pointing me to the video.