News Bites: Comfort Dogs Helping Boston, World’s First Dog, Deadly Cats, NZ vs Cats

comfortdogs

Five K-9 Parish Comfort Dogs are in Boston helping survivors of the bombings.  Two of the dogs were brought in from Newtown, Conn., where they were helping students and parents at Sandy Hook Elementary.  The dogs also help medical staff cope with the stress of treating so many casualties.  The K-9 Parish Comfort Dogs are part of Lutheran Church Charities.  You can keep up with them on Facebook.

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Altaiskull

DNA from 33,000 year old skull found in 1975 shows the animal was more closely rated to modern dogs than to wolves as was previously thought.  This, the Altai dog, is the 2nd oldest example of primitive dogs—the oldest is the Goyet dog.

Check out this post on primitive dogs in the Americas.

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coralcatCats kill way more animals than we thought.  Instead of killing 500 birds a year in the U.S., they’re killing 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion bird and 6.9 billion to 20.7 billion mammals.  Non-pet outdoor cats do most of the killing, but pet cats are responsible for 1/3 of the deaths.  All the more reason to keep your cats inside unless they’re supervised.

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NZflag

Gareth Morgan, a New Zealand businessman & philanthropist, wants to ban cats from New Zealand because of their threat to the unique wildlife found there.  The facts are pretty stunning:

  • Cats have contributed to the extinction of 9 native bird species [3].
  • Cats impact on 33 endangered native bird species [4].
  • One feral cat killed 102 endangered native short tail bats in a week [5].
  • Cats kill native birds. In our cities domestic cats kill native birds faster than they can possibly breed [6].
  • Around 40% of New Zealand’s native land-birds are already extinct, and of the ones remaining 37% are endangered. [7]

A complete ban seems extreme, but a complete ban on any outdoor cats might be a good thing.  This would have serious implications for any trap & release programs dealing with feral cats.

Friday Fun: Murkin & His Kittens

Okay, Murkin might just be one of the biggest sweethearts ever!  His humans foster kittens before they’re adopted and he helps.  Murkin is SO gentle and careful.  Nothing phases him, even when he gets a kitten stuck to his foot in the 2nd video.  I’m melting!

 

Recall: Evo, Innova, California Natural, HealthWise

NaturaPet is recalling Evo, Innova, California Natural, & HealthWise dog, puppy, cat, kitten, & ferret foods due to Salmonella contamination detected in FDA tests.  There are a bunch of varieties affected by the recall, so definitely take a close look at the products being recalled.

If you have a product included on these lists, contact NaturaPet at  http://www.naturapet.com/about/contact-us or (800) 224-6123.

Salmonella can cause serious illness in cats and dogs and cross-contamination to humans is possible resulting in serious illness.


 

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Check the Evo recall for size, lot numbers, UPC and Best-By-Dates for the following varieties:

  1. TURKEY & CHICKEN FORMULA CAT & KITTEN FOOD
  2. HERRING & SALMON FORMULA CAT FOOD
  3. FERRET FOOD
  4. WEIGHT MANAGEMENT DOG FOOD
  5. RED MEAT FORMULA – LARGE BITES DOG FOOD
  6. SENIOR FORMULA DOG FOOD
  7. SENIOR FORMULA DOG FOOD

 

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Check the Innova recall for size, lot numbers, UPC and Best-By-Dates for the following varieties:

  1. CAT & KITTEN FOOD
  2. SENIOR CAT FOOD
  3. WEIGHT MANAGEMENT CAT FOOD
  4. ADULT DOG FOOD – LARGE BITES
  5. PUPPY FOOD
  6. SENIOR PLUS DOG FOOD
  7. LARGE BREED ADULT DOG FOOD
  8. LARGE BREED PUPPY FOOD
  9. PRIME GRAIN FREE HERRING & SALMON FORMULA ADULT DOG FOOD
  10. PRIME GRAIN FREE BEEF & LAMB MEAL FORMULA ADULT DOG FOOD
  11. SALMON & HERRING FORMULA ADULT DOG FOOD
  12. LARGE BREED ADULT DOG FOOD BILINGUAL
  13. ADULT DOG FOOD – LARGE BITES BILINGUAL

 

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Check the California Natural recall for size, lot numbers, UPC and Best-By-Dates for the following varieties:

  1. GRAIN FREE KANGAROO & RED LENTILS FORMULA ADULT DOG FOOD BILINGUAL
  2. GRAIN FREE KANGAROO & RED LENTILS FORMULA ADULT DOG FOOD

 

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Check the HealthWise recall for size, lot numbers, UPC and Best-By-Dates for the following varieties:

  1. CHICKEN MEAL & OATMEAL FORMULA WEIGHT CONTROL DOG FOOD
  2. CHICKEN MEAL & BROWN RICE FORMULA PUPPY FOOD
  3. LAMB MEAL & OATMEAL FORMULA ADULT DOG FOOD