Fine Forecast Ahead for Homeless Pets

The Weather Channel's 'Wake Up With Al' features pet gifts 

that give back to shelter animals

12.21.2010– NEW YORK, NY – (TSX:PTZ) Pethealth Inc. — Warm, sunny, and a good chance of finding a forever home.  That’s the forecast for homeless pets that benefit from people who shop at The Petango Store, where a portion of each sale on all product purchases helps to support adoptable pets in animal shelters.  The online pet meds and supply store was featured on The Weather Network’s ‘Wake Up With Al’ show this morning, as part of their “Gifts That Give Back” segment.   

With its Shelter Donation Program, The Petango Store will make a donation to the animal welfare organization of the customer’s choice every time they shop.  Shoppers can feel good knowing that they’re helping animal shelters, as their support goes a long way to helping homeless pets like Lilly, a pit bull-terrier mix.

One-year-old Lilly was left behind when her family decided to move on without her.  Now she spends her days at Lollypop Farm, Humane Society of Greater Rochesterin Fairport, New York, patiently waiting for the right family to give her a forever home.  Sweet and curious, Lilly loves chasing a ball, romping with other dogs, and walks well on a leash.  She is one of thousands of pets available on Petango.com, the popular online destination for people looking to adopt a pet.

“Giving a gift that gives back to homeless pets is a great way to shop for your pet or a pet lover in your family,” says Alice Calabrese, President and CEO of Lollypop Farm, Humane Society of Greater Rochester.  “The Petango Store’s Shelter Donation Program makes a real difference to animal welfare organizations like Lollypop Farm.  The funds we have received through this partnership are already changing the lives of homeless pets deserving of a second chance, like Lilly.

The Petango Pet Lover’s Gift Bundle for dogs was the specific gift featured on The Weather Channel’s ‘Wake Up With Al’ this morning.   The bundles are available for dogs of all sizes, as well as cats, and offer all the toys, treats, and chews a pet could want.  They are just some of many “Gifts that Give Back” available at The Petango Store.

“The Petango Store was launched to support our shelter partners, generating donations to help more cats and dogs find forever homes,” says Susan Arts, Vice President of Marketing at Pethealth Inc. “We are thrilled that ‘Wake Up With Al’ highlighted The Petango Store and our Shelter Donation Program.  Not only will shoppers save by purchasing pet meds and supplies at discounted prices, they’ll also be helping shelters and homeless pets in need.  That’s a fine forecast for shoppers, shelters, and pets in need!”  

To purchase a gift that gives back to homeless pets, please visitwww.thepetangostore.com

For more information on adopting Lilly, please click here or visit www.petango.comto search for adoptable pets in your area.

About ThePetangoStore.com and Petango.com

ThePetangoStore.com  is the place to shop for pets and help save homeless pets with a percentage of every purchase donated back to the animal shelter of the shopper's choice.  The Petango Store offers a full range of discounted pet medications and pet supplies, including brand names such as Frontline,  Advantage,  Heartgard and K9 Advantix.  Petango.com is the only adoptable search site that exclusively uses live animal data feeds from over 1,550 animal welfare organizationsnd offers a wide range of content-rich options for potential adopters, shelters and anyone who wants to learn more about pet adoption. It is the one-stop destination for anyone looking to adopt a pet from an animal welfare organization and participate in an interactive, social networking pet lovers' community in North America.

@PepiSmartDog 's Happy Holidays from OTRB!

Spooky - A New Friend!

This week at #Nipclub I made a new furriend.  His name is @Spookyshorty - Spooky for short.  I also met his human. I enjoyed talking with them so very much! We had quite a bit in common. I was told about Spookys lymphoma and that he's going to need chemotherapy.  well you know me, I want to help everyone, so I set up a chipin for him.  I can't wait to see how much we can raise to help him out.  He'll need #healingpaw and #pawcircle too, and when he goes for his chemo we'll have a #SpookyPorch.  Here's someone who needs anipal furriends, take the time to look him up and follow him.  He and his human are amazing beings...you'll be happy to know them!

-Angel (Hemmingwayscat)

Here is his story, and his chipin will follow AND be on the right sidebar of my bloggie.  Pull a dollar out and throw it in to show that you care for the health and happiness of anipals and their humans.  You'll feel wonderful when you hear that Spooky is all better!  You will have helped!

My name is Spooky I am 13 years old and I have lymphoma. I am trying to raise enough money to keep my chemotherapy treatments going, I have 19 more weeks of chemotherapy treatments. The estimated costs are $5000.00. I had a mass in my colon, my colon perforated when they attempted a bioposy. I, Spooky, was rushed into surgery, after 5 hours I was put in ICU. They had to drop my pelvis to get to the mass. The operation was a success, the entire mass was removed and the colon that was re-attached was FREE of cancer. I have been getting chemotherapy, I am doing exceptionally well. I amaze my doctors. Any amount will be gladly accepted, no matter how small. visit this story and see photos at  http://handipets.com/blog/?p=1288 www.spookyspiro.blogspot.com http://wishuponahero.com/wishes/?id=719623 www.cancerpets.org you make make donations to tazzy92796@aol.com pay pal account, check/money order to" NYC Veterinary specialists 410 west 55th Street NY NY 10019 please put Spooky [Shorty] #21045 on the bottom. Or by credit card to 212-767-0099 ask for Vivian of Frankies friends Thank you for your generosity.

Subjective Compassion: Why Do We Cheer for "Brave" Animals & Exploit the Rest?

From the "HUMANE CONNECTION" blog:

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Subjective Compassion: Why Do We Cheer for "Brave" Animals & Exploit the Rest?

I came across a great blog post recently by JoAnne McArthur on subjective compassion. She's the creator of the We Animals project, which "documents animals in the human environment" in order to break down the barriers humans have raised against nonhuman animals, allowing us to treat them as objects, rather than as beings deserving respect and equal consideration.

In the post, McArthur uses a fairly recent incident of the escape of one lone bull to illustrate the strange compassion disconnect many of us humans have with animals. Jay the bull escaped a horrific fate when the truck he and 34 other cows were in (on their way to the slaughterhouse) crashed and caught fire. Jay was horribly burned (many of the other cows were burned alive; the "survivors" were captured and sent on to the slaughterhouse), but he managed to elude authorities until he was caught and taken to an animal shelter. He was lucky. And he was saved in part because many people spoke out on his behalf (presumably impressed with his courage and tenacity). But what about the billions of other animals we in the U.S. eat for food each year? Or those whose skins we wear? Or those we use for experiments or entertainment or deem pests? Why was Jay, and others like him, so lucky?

Part of it has to do with our inability to empathize with large numbers of others. As I've written about before, we connect with the one, not the many. But McArthur poses other potential motivations for our skewed justifications of whom we value and whom we don't:

"We should question our compassion for these animals. Or rather, we should question why our empathy begins and ends with those who have executed a dramatic escape. Aren't the more meek and fearful as equally deserving of their own lives? Why aren't those who have no opportunity for escape equally deserving of our pardon? What is it that we prize in these animals, really? Do we show these animals compassion because it gives us an outlet for the deep grieving we harbour for the harm we cause others but are afraid to admit? Does it makes us feel kinder than our consumer choices show us to be? Is it that we simply love a good story of courage, adventure and escape in which we can play a part by speaking up for the individual involved? Or is it that we understand that animals are sentient beings who can feel fear ( something with which we empathize ) and when they show us this emotion, our compassionate selves can't help but cry out in response to their needs? It seems we are compassionate towards other non-human beings who exhibit characteristics such as bravery simply because it is a characteristic we value in ourselves. It's a narrow, and typically human way of looking at things; valuing something or someone because it resembles us for a moment."

Read the complete post.

~ Marsha

Blog from THE WE ANIMALS PROJECT

December 10th, 2010
Subjective Compassion

click to enlarge

192 - There's been a rash of accidents involving slaughterhouse-bound trucks this year. In my own city of Toronto, a speeding truck overturned, killing 81 pigs and later, 7 more were euthanized. The "survivors" were detained until they could be assessed to see if they were still fit for slaughter.

A few months ago on an Indiana interstate a truck carrying 34 cows crashed and was set ablaze. Of the 34, 18 cows were burned alive. Others escaped the wreckage but wandered the area in various states of injury, some of them still on fire. Despite serious injury, a 2-year old Holstein bull, later christened Jay, made a run for it. He was the only bull to survive. Those who were injured but not dead were corralled onto another truck and sent to slaughter.

Jay was on the run for 12 hours before he was caught and brought to an animal shelter. As is often the case in these situations of escape, people were deeply impressed by his courage and from that came an outcry for his death row pardon. He was not slaughtered but instead brought to Farm Sanctuary ( www.farmsanctuary.org )

Before he arrived at his new sanctuary home, though, he spent a month at the Cornell University animal hospital where he was kept on antibiotics and pain medication. As days turned into weeks, his burnt skin sloughed off to reveal deeper burns, some through the muscle. Three months after his arrival at the Farm, Jay continues to recover. As you can see in the photo ( taken Nov2010 ), his injuries still weep blood and his skin and fur continue the slow growth back to normal.

I hate to call Jay "one of the lucky few", considering his short life in a factory farm, his stressful transport to slaughter and then the crash and being severly burned. Though he was to be among the billions of animals killed for food every year, his fate was deviated that day and he felt the touch of human compassion. Because of this compassion, he has a life among other bovine friends with whom he spends time every day. He has soft straw to sleep on every night. He doesn't live under the threat of death so that we can eat him and wear him. He is given space. His life is recognized as valuable beyond human need.

We often read of or hear these stories of escape. Animals who flee the truck, the slaughterhouse, the factory farm or the live markets if given the chance. Humans love these stories; the animals are seen as courageous and deserving of the freedom they so bravely risked their life for. We are outraged at the idea that this individual would still be killed or put back into the food system for our use. We rejoice to hear that the animal will be given amnesty and sent to a sanctuary instead of their original destination: our plates.

We should question our compassion for these animals. Or rather, we should question why our empathy begins and ends with those who have executed a dramatic escape. Aren't the more meek and fearful as equally deserving of their own lives? Why aren't those who have no opportunity for escape equally deserving of our pardon? What is it that we prize in these animals, really? Do we show these animals compassion because it gives us an outlet for the deep grieving we harbour for the harm we cause others but are afraid to admit? Does it makes us feel kinder than our consumer choices show us to be? Is it that we simply love a good story of courage, adventure and escape in which we can play a part by speaking up for the individual involved? Or is it that we understand that animals are sentient beings who can feel fear ( something with which we empathize ) and when they show us this emotion, our compassionate selves can't help but cry out in response to their needs? It seems we are compassionate towards other non-human beings who exhibit characteristics such as bravery simply because it is a characteristic we value in ourselves. It's a narrow, and typically human way of looking at things; valuing something or someone because it resembles us for a moment.

Those who know Jay have learned that he is playful, kind, gentle, forgiving and loves to run and buck and kiss the other cows. What of the others, though, who don't have the opportunity to be known as an individual but who might share the same characteristics that other animals and humans value in a living being? Though their personalities are unknown to us, do they not also deserve a chance to live their lives?

No Kill Dubuque

Apparently Dubuque, IA is NOT a no-kill city. I want to change this and do good before I leave and move back to Chicago. My first step is going to be trying to do a 2011 Spay Day here. Not sure about the next step but I'm finishing the book, "Redemption" by Nathan Winograd. If you'd like to help, I've set up a chipin page for minor pamphlet, etc. expenses. Not going to ask for much, but I sure as heck want to get these veterinarians thinking of donating their time for spaying/neutering animals to help us keep down the overpopulation and help the people with money problems get their animals spayed/neutered. Next will be TNR for feral cats. Am I crazy to take on so much work? Let me just say...anyone who has experience setting up a Spay Day can contact me in the comment section. I NEED the help! Thanks all for listening to my rant. And last, but not least, Dubuque's Humane Society was actually mentioned in "Redemption" as not being good for a No-Kill Nation!

This is the story of animal sheltering in the United States, a movement that was born of compassion and then lost its way. It is the story of the No Kill movement, which says we can and must stop the killing. It is about heroes and villains, betrayal and redemption. And it is about a social movement as noble and just as those that have come before. But most of all, it is a story about believing in the community and trusting in the power of compassion.

It's Monday, What are you reading?

In the late 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston toured Jamaica and Haiti on a Guggenheim Fellowship collecting folklore and voodoo materials for this book, published in 1938. The book is in three sections, covering her views of and experiences in Jamaica, people and politics of Haiti, and finally her initiation and participation in the world of Haitian voodoo. Zora maintains her usual stance of the involved, inquisitive participant, and her initiation into the ways of voodoo was, and is, both remarkable and engaging. From sexism in Jamaica to threats about her voodoo investigations, from commentary on her role as ethnographer to criticism of previous white studies of voodoo, the book is wild, and collects a huge range of important black cultural practices. Zora left the field hurriedly in 1938, desperately ill, convinced she might die, and sure that she had been 'hexed' for delving too deep into the world of 'bad' (petro) voodoo...have a read of one of the most important pieces of black folklore research of the 1930s. Parlay cheval ou! Ah bo bo!

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…