American Red Cross First Aid Course -- Friday Nov. 3, 2006
Hello POOCH Member:
The POOCH sponsored American Red Cross Pet First Aid Course is scheduled on Friday, November 3, 2006 and, to date, we have received registrations from just 6 people. We will need to have more people registered by Sunday, October 29, 2006, or this course will be cancelled. If you want to register for this course, please contact Mari Donovan at either the Email address or telephone number included in the reprinted article below.
The Sacramento Sierra Chapter of the American Red Cross offers a course in Pet First Aid.
According to the ARC "this course is designed to provide the information you will need to keep your pet safe and act with confidence during an emergency (until you can take your pet to a veterinarian). The emphasis is on dogs and cats and will include proper emergency procedures, emergencies (such as choking and bleeding) and will include distribution of a Pet First Aid Book (for your home)." Certification will be issued upon completion of the course.
The length of the course is 4 hours and Chairman Mari Donovan has scheduled the evening of Friday, November 3, 2006 at Raley's at 8870 Madison Avenue in Fair Oaks (the intersection of Madison and Hazel). The cost is $35 with a maximum number of participants of 15. Due to the limit of 15 participants, POOCH members are invited to register by October 1 for planning purposes. After that time, others are welcome to register and a second course may be planned in January, 2007. If there are not enough registrants for the second course, the registration fee will be returned in total.
Please print out and complete the registration form and mail to POOCH with your check. If you have questions, please call Mari at (916) 410-6661 or
her after August 15.
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Great News: Sacramento County Ends Sales of Animals to Research Labs
Thank you to all of the Sacramento Residents who recently spoke out to
end the sale of animals impounded at the county shelter to research
facilities. On Tuesday August 8 the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
voted to end the sale to research facilities of animals impounded at the
county shelter! Sacramento County was the only county in the state to
continue this controversial practice, which local animal advocates have
been fighting since the 1980s.
Full story
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California Senate Passes Anti-Chaining Measure
Bill Would Help Prevent Dog Bites and Protect Dogs from Long-Term
Suffering
The California Senate on Thursday approved SB 1578, a bill that would
prohibit dogs from being chained to a stationary object, such as a tree or
fence, as the primary means of confinement. SB 1578, authored by Senator
Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, moved off the Senate floor with a vote of
21-13 and now heads to the Assembly for consideration.
Senator Lowenthal introduced SB 1578 as a public safety measure to reduce
the number of dog bites and dog attacks in California. Research has shown
that chained dogs are 2.8 times more likely to bite than unchained dogs
because they feel the strong need to protect their territory and have no
way to flee from perceived threats. Between February 2000 and January 2006
in the United States, chained dogs attacked or killed at least 107 people,
two-thirds of them children.
Aggressive dog issues are a serious concern throughout California, and I
applaud my colleagues for taking this proactive step to reduce the number
of dog bites and attacks in our communities, said Senator Lowenthal. This
bill gives animal control officers a much-needed tool to protect citizens
public safety and dogs from long-term suffering and neglect.
SB 1578 is an important animal protection measure since long-term chaining
of dogs can result in significant physical and psychological harm to the
animal. Dogs who are continuously chained suffer from immense boredom and
neglect and can become extremely anxious and neurotic. Dogs also often get
injured or die when chains become entangled with other objects or collars
end up embedded in their necks.
The California Animal Association (CAA), the sponsor of SB 1578, surveyed
animal control agencies throughout the state on the issue of dog chaining.
CAA found that citizens make hundreds of complaints about chained dogs
every month and some agencies receive dozens of calls each week about dogs
left chained for long periods of time.
Most animal control agencies in California currently lack enforcement
powers to remove chained dogs, unless they find other obvious signs of
neglect, like lack of food, water or shelter. As a result, many
preventable injuries or attacks occur, and many dogs suffer or die
needlessly.
Virtually every California community has dogs who are suffering at the end
of a chain, but many do not have the resources to enact a local ordinance
to manage the problem, said Pam Runquist, a representative of CAA. SB 1578
sets a statewide standard to deal with this important public safety and
animal protection concern.
The California Animal Association is a coalition of 15 animal protection
organizations representing the interests of animals at the State Capitol.
The above message came from:
Pam Runquist
Director of Companion Animal Issues
Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights
PO Box 208
Davis, CA 95617-0208
Tel: (530) 759-8106
pam@avar.org
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"Do it NOW! Sign up to be an Organ
Donor"
Please join us in saving and
enhancing the lives of thousands of people in need of your help. It took
me only a few minutes to sign up -- minutes that could mean years of life
for someone else.
To sign up or for more information, please visit
http://www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org.
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Lend A Heart Animal-Assisted
Therapy
"I'e been coming to the park
for a few months now and knew I needed to join to support you, which I did
today for our household. I also volunteer with an organization called
Lend A Heart Animal-Assisted Therapy here in Sacramento, and we're ALWAYS
looking for more volunteers that have appropriately obedient and
socialized pets to visit the elder, special needs children, United Way
Cerebral Palsy, Easter Seals, etc. with our programs and bring some cheer
and physical therapy into their lives and have fun doing it with our
pets. See
www.lendaheart.org and you can poke around and see what we're about."
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Free Kittuns
An Essay by
Jim Willis, Copyright 2002
The sign on the mailbox post was
hand-lettered on cardboard and read "FREE KITTUNS." It appeared there two or
three times a year, sometimes spelled this way, sometimes that, but the
message was always the same.
In a corner
of the farmhouse back porch was a cardboard box with a dirty towel inside,
on which huddled a bouquet of kittens of different colors, mewing and
blinking and waiting for their mama to return from hunting in the fields.
The mother cat managed to show them enough interest for the first several
weeks, but after having two or three litters per year, she was worn out and
her milk barely lasted long enough for her babies to survive.
One by one,
people showed up over the next several days and each took a kitten. Before
they left the woman who lived there always said the same thing, "You make
sure you give that one a good home - I've become very attached to that one."
One by one
the kittens and their new people drove down the long driveway and past the
sign on the mailbox post, "FREE KITTUNS."
The ginger
girl kitten was the first to be picked. Her four-year-old owner loved her
very much, but the little girl accidentally injured the kitten's shoulder by
picking her up the wrong way. She couldn't be blamed really - no adult had
shown her the proper way to handle a kitten. She had named the kitten
"Ginger" and was very sad a few weeks later when her older brother and his
friends were playing in the living room and someone sat on the kitten.
The solid
white boy kitten with blue eyes was the next to leave with a couple who
announced even before they went down the porch steps that his name would be
"Snowy." Unfortunately, he never learned his name and everyone had paid so
little attention to him that nobody realized he was deaf. On his first
excursion outside he was run over in the driveway by a mail truck.
The pretty
gray and white girl kitten went to live on a nearby farm as a "mouser." Her
people called her "the cat," and like her mother and grandmother before her
she had many, many "free kittuns," but they sapped her energy. She became
ill and died before her current litter of kittens was weaned.
Another
brother was a beautiful red tabby. His owner loved him so much that she took
him around to meet everyone in the family and her friends, and their cats,
and everyone agreed that "Erik" was a handsome boy. Except his owner didn't
bother to have him vaccinated. It took all the money in her bank account to
pay a veterinarian to treat him when he became sick, but the doctor just
shook his head one day and said "I'm sorry."
The solid
black boy kitten grew up to be a fine example of a tomcat. The man who
adopted him moved shortly thereafter and left "Tommy" where he was, roaming
the neighborhood, defending his territory, and fathering many kittens until
a bully of a dog cornered him.
The black
and white girl kitten got a wonderful home. She was named "Pyewacket." She
got the best of food, the best of care until she was nearly five years old.
Then her owner met a man who didn't like cats, but she married him anyway.
Pyewacket was taken to an animal shelter where there were already a hundred
cats. Then one day, there were none.
A pretty
woman driving a van took the last two kittens, a gray boy and a brown
tiger-striped girl. She promised they would always stay together. She sold
them for fifteen dollars each to a laboratory. To this day, they are still
together...in a jar of alcohol.
For whatever
reason - because Heaven is in a different time zone, or because not even cat
souls can be trusted to travel in a straight line without meandering - all
the young-again kittens arrived at Heaven's gate simultaneously. They batted
and licked each other in glee, romped for awhile, and then solemnly marched
through the gate, right past a sign lettered in gold: "YOU ARE FINALLY FREE,
KITTENS."
Jim Willis is the author of the book, "Pieces of my Heart - Writings
Inspired by Animals and Nature," now available through
Amazon.com in the U.S. and the U.K. Jim's writings have been featured
often both in About Cats and About Veterinary Medicine. If you were touched
by "Free Kittuns," you'll love the book!
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If you support more off-leash areas in Sacramento
County, your help is always needed for fundraising, events, promotion,
publicity, and grant writing. If you have questions, comments,
concerns, or need more information about our organization,
Contact Us
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