The Peak and Life Below It
EDITORIAL
July 18, 2011
A familiar metaphor for nature is the pyramid of life, with large predators living at the peak because they’re few in number and eat species lower on the pyramid. Like most simple metaphors, this one has a perceptual flaw. It creates the illusion that large predators have an effect only on the prey species immediately below them. The truth, as a growing body of scientific studies shows, is that the presence, and absence, of top predators cascades all through nature in surprisingly complex ways.

Our species has done a sadly efficient job of removing top predators: wolves, bears, lions, tigers, sharks and many more. According to the authors of a new article in Science magazine, “the loss of these animals may be humankind’s most pervasive influence on nature.”

The loss of cougars in what is now Zion National Park led to an “eruption” of mule deer, which reduced riverbank vegetation and, ultimately, changed the shape of stream channels. The loss of sea otters along the Pacific Coast led to the destruction of kelp forests and the many creatures they supported. The effect includes herbivores. When disease decimated wildebeest in East Africa in the late 19th century, grassland turned to shrubs and into fuel for wildfires, changing the ecosystem.

In the rare cases where top predators have been reintroduced, the benefit is profound. The success of gray wolves in Yellowstone changed many things. Grizzlies fed on their kills. Coyote numbers dropped and the numbers of small mammals climbed. Elk spent less time in creek bottoms, where they were more vulnerable, and streamside ecology changed as a result.

It is now clear that biological diversity increases when top predators are present. The pyramid is healthiest when its peak is still present and when humans aren’t the only top predators around.

Wyoming: Deal Reached on Wolves
August 4, 2011

Wyoming and the United States Department of Interior have reached an agreement over how to end federal protections for wolves in the state, officials said Wednesday. Environmentalists criticized the deal, saying that Wyoming’s plan — unique among Western states — to classify wolves as predators that could be shot on sight in most areas fails to give the animals enough protection. Gov. Matt Mead (at right in photo with Mr. Salazar >) hailed the deal, saying wolves have taken a heavy toll on livestock and wildlife since they were reintroduced in the 1990s. Wyoming is the last state in the Northern Rockies that still has federal oversight of its wolf population. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the deal “recognizes the success of this iconic species and will ensure the long-term conservation of gray wolves.” Under the agreement, Wyoming would commit to maintaining at least 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves outside Yellowstone National Park. There are now about 340 wolves in the state.

Wolves immediately outside Yellowstone would be subject to regulated hunting

~OPINION

 

Rodin sez:
NOT TO THE UNREPRESENTED WOLF'S ADVANTAGE!
Mr. Salazar, you betray your trust and duty.

Rodin Schnauzer Coane, Esq.
Editor in Chief

"No one shoots a wolf to keep from going hungry..., they have been brought back only to be killed again."
~ VERLYN KLINKENBORG

Greatest Threat to Caribou Herd in Canada Isn’t From Wolves
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
June 28, 2011
Humans are a much bigger problem than wolves for a caribou herd in the oil sands area of Alberta, Canada, scientists reported last week in Frontiers in Ecology.

Studies of scat of moose, caribou and wolves in the area showed that caribou accounted for only 10 percent of the animals consumed by wolves. Eighty percent of the wolves’ diet was deer, with moose making up the remainder. Wolves’ preference for deer, the researchers conclude, draws them away from the areas where caribou thrive.

But the oil sands contain the second largest reserve of petroleum in the world, and so they face a heavy human presence as they are developed. And by looking at hormone levels in caribou scat, the scientists found that when humans were most active in an area, caribou nutrition was poorest and psychological stress highest. When oil crews left, the animals relaxed and nutrition improved.

The scientists reported that removing wolves, favored by government and industry, could do serious damage to the ecosystem, and fails to help preserve the caribou. (The study was paid for by Statoil Canada, an energy company with oil leases in the area.) The scientists said if development trends continue, within 30 years the caribou herd on the east side of the Athabasca River will be no more.

The Alberta Caribou Committee, a government and industry group, views removing wolves as the most effective way to protect caribou. And killing wolves has already started in the range of one herd.

The researchers used dogs to find the scat of caribou, moose and wolves in the oil sands area, then analyzed the material to determine the animals’ range and habits. The weather during the three winter collection periods in 2006, 2007 and 2009 was extremely cold, perfect for instantly freezing the scat and preserving it for laboratory analysis. And dogs are very good at finding scat. According to Samuel K. Wasser, a professor of biology at the University of Washington, the lead author, they are able to detect it in deep snow as far as a quarter mile away. The group collected more than 3,400 samples.

Caribou, the scientists found, graze on lichen, their chief winter food, in flat wetlands, partly because the open landscape makes it easy for them to see and hear predators, including humans.

Researchers found the caribou population larger than recent estimates, and moose, wolf and caribou populations were steady during the study period. They emphasize that this does not mean that these caribou are free from risk. But they say management of human activity, not wolf control, is the still best way to minimize it.

Some experts still believe that killing wolves is essential. Stan Boutin, a professor of biology at the University of Alberta, believes that three steps are required if the caribou are to survive: protection of areas where there is little or no human activity; restoration of areas humans have altered; and culling the wolf population, which has exploded in recent years with changes in vegetation and the resulting proliferation of deer. “People don’t enter into predator control lightly,” Dr. Boutin said. “It has huge implications. But without actually shooting wolves, the only other way is vegetation control. That takes a long time to work.”

Still, the authors of the study believe that adjustments in the ways oil exploration is done can allow the work to go on without harming the caribou, and that killing wolves is neither necessary nor desirable. Dr. Wasser said that the primary problem is the presence of high-use roads in flat open areas.

“It would be better to move the roads to more complex terrain,” he said, “areas that go up and down in elevation where you can’t see far. That will create a buffer so that the caribou can eat without being disturbed. Everything we’ve done suggests that wolf removal is not the best approach to this problem.”

Nature “Hunters want to kill wolves because wolves kill elk — and the human hunters want the elk. A second reason is a love of killing things. A third is an implacable, and unjustified, hostility to the wolf.” ~ WOLF SEASON BEGINS Editorial, 1 September 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUCIAN FREUD
painter
1922 ~ 2011

By Helping a Girl Testify at a Rape Trial, a Dog Ignites a Legal Debate
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.
August 9, 2011
Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped and impregnated her. Rosie sat by the teenager’s feet. At particularly bad moments, she leaned in.

When the trial ended in June with the father’s conviction, the teenager “was most grateful to Rosie above all,” said David A. Crenshaw (at right with Rosie and handler Sherri Cookinham), a psychologist who works with the teenager. “She just kept hugging Rosie,” he continued. Now an appeal planned by the defense lawyers is placing Rosie at the heart of a legal debate that will test whether there will be more Rosies in courtrooms in New York and, possibly, other states.

Rosie is a golden retriever therapy dog who specializes in comforting people when they are under stress. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers have described her as adorable, though she has been known to slobber.

Prosecutors here noted that she is also in the vanguard of a growing trial trend: in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana and some other states in the last few years, courts have allowed such trained dogs to offer children and other vulnerable witnesses nuzzling solace in front of juries.

The new role for dogs as testimony enablers can, however, raise thorny legal questions. Defense lawyers argue that the dogs may unfairly sway jurors with their cuteness and the natural empathy they attract, whether a witness is telling the truth or not, and some prosecutors insist that the courtroom dogs can be a crucial comfort to those enduring the ordeal of testifying, especially children.

The new witness-stand role for dogs in several states began in 2003, when the prosecution won permission for a dog named Jeeter with a beige button nose to help in a sexual assault case in Seattle. “Sometimes the dog means the difference between a conviction and an acquittal,” said Ellen O’Neill-Stephens (Left with Jeeter), a prosecutor there who has become a campaigner for the dog-in-court cause [founder of Court Dogs].

Service dogs have long been permitted in courts. But in a ruling in June that allowed Rosie to accompany the teenage rape victim to the trial here, a Dutchess County Court judge, Stephen L. Greller, said the teenager was traumatized and the defendant, Victor Tohom (right), appeared threatening. Although he said there was no precedent in the state, Judge Greller ruled that Rosie was similar to the teddy bear that a New York appeals court said in 1994 could accompany a child witness. At least once when the teenager hesitated in Judge Greller’s courtroom, the dog rose and seemed to push the girl gently with her nose. Mr. Tohom was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life.

His lawyers, David S. Martin and Steven W. Levine of the public defender’s office, have raised a series of objections that they say seems likely to land the case in New York’s highest court. They argue that as a therapy dog, Rosie responds to people under stress by comforting them, whether the stress comes from confronting a guilty defendant or lying under oath. But they say jurors are likely to conclude that the dog is helping victims expose the truth. “Every time she stroked the dog,” Mr. Martin said in an interview, “it sent an unconscious message to the jury that she was under stress because she was telling the truth.”

“There was no way for me to cross-examine the dog,” Mr. Martin added.

In written arguments, the defense lawyers claimed it was “prosecutorial misconduct” for the Dutchess County assistant district attorney handling the rape case, Kristine Hawlk, to arrange for Rosie to be taken into the courtroom. Cute as the dog was, the defense said, Rosie’s presence “infected the trial with such unfairness” that it constituted a violation of their client’s constitutional rights.

Ms. Hawlk declined to discuss Rosie. In written arguments, she said that all Rosie did was help a victim suffering from serious emotional distress, and she called the defense claims “frivolous accusations.”

The defense lawyers acknowledged the risk of appearing antidog. Rosie, they wrote, “is a lovely creature and by all standards a ‘good dog,’ ” and, they added, the defendant “wishes her only the best.”

As the lawyers prepare their appeal, Rosie has been busy. She spent much of her time in recent weeks with two girls, ages 5 and 11, who were getting ready to testify against the man accused of murder in the stabbing of their mother. The Dutchess prosecutor in that case, Matthew A. Weishaupt, argued that Rosie and dogs like her did not affect the substance of the testimony about horrifying crimes. “These dogs ease the stress and ease the trauma so a child can take the stand,” Mr. Weishaupt said in an interview.

In the end, Rosie was not needed in the second case: the defendant, Gabriel Lopez-Perez, who had a history of domestic violence, interrupted his trial last week to plead guilty to killing the girls’ mother, his girlfriend, in the Wappingers Falls rooming house where they lived. But Rosie’s promised appearance next to the children might well have played a role. “It became obvious,” said Mr. Lopez-Perez’s lawyer, Andres Aranda, “that the children were going to be testifying, and he decided to avoid that.”

The defense’s appeal of Rosie’s first courtroom outing, in the rape case, is likely to establish legal principles on the issues of dogs in the witness box. “It is an important case, and appeals courts will consider it an important case,” James A. Cohen, a professor of criminal law at Fordham University School of Law, said.

When New York appeals courts study the question, they are likely to look at the experience of courtroom dogs around the country, including in Washington. In Seattle, a developmentally disabled 57-year-old man, Douglas K. Lare, recently recalled how a Labrador retriever named Ellie, who has made more than 50 court appearances, helped him testify against a man charged with a scheme to steal from him.

Ellie gave him courage when he was afraid, Mr. Lare said in an interview: “It was like I had no other friends in the courthouse except Ellie,” he said.

For 11-year-old Rosie, said her owners, Dale and Lu Picard (below, the courtroom work is a career change after years working with emotionally troubled children at a residential center in Brewster. The Picards’ organization, Educated Canines Assisting With Disabilities, or ECAD, places service dogs after training them to perform tasks like turning lights on and off and opening doors.

Rosie, named for the civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, was originally taught to follow 80 commands, including taking off a person’s socks without biting any toes. But she has a special talent with traumatized children, said Dr. Crenshaw, the psychologist who has worked with all three of Rosie’s witnesses and many other troubled children. “When they start talking about difficult things,” Dr. Crenshaw said, “Rosie picks up on that and goes over and nudges them. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

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A Neighborhood for Man and Dog
By JOYCE COHEN
July 30, 2011
Nearly three years ago, when Richard Rethemeyer moved to New York from San Francisco, he paid $1.16 million for 1,400 lovely square feet in the ClockTower, at 1 Main Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The plan was for his girlfriend to join him there.

She was going to bring out her two dogs and we were going to live happily ever after in Dumbo,” Mr. Rethemeyer said.
Instead, she told him that it was over. “The one person I wanted to be here with wasn’t going to be part of it,” he said. “I found myself on a much different New York adventure than I had booked.”

Within months, he put the ClockTower place on the market. It took nearly a year before it sold, for $1.125 million, slightly below his purchase price.

Mr. Rethemeyer, a photographer (professionalphoto.com), rented an even larger place — 2,200 square feet — nearby on Washington Street. He paid the owner $3,900 a month.

With the job market sluggish, Mr. Rethemeyer, 52, then considered returning to San Francisco, but “giving it another year became kind of a mantra,” he said.

He was, however, eager to move to a place that was less expensive and better suited to his needs. The room where he slept, for instance, was dark, and Mr. Rethemeyer had “discovered I don’t like sleeping in a cave.” Some kind of view was necessary “for my own sanity.”

His new neighborhood, as well as the building, would have to be dog-friendly, for 14-year-old Topeka, an Australian shepherd mix. “I didn’t realize how big a consideration Topeka is in my life, but she really is,” Mr. Rethemeyer said. Topeka moves slowly in inclement weather. She prefers to be walked on grass, and it would be best if it was nearby. “When I have to get to work and she’s poking along,” getting her in and out “becomes a bit of an issue,” Mr. Rethemeyer.

He began his hunt on his Dumbo street. A move to No. 25 Washington, the newly opened Gair2 building, where one-bedrooms start around $2,400, would be a cinch. But when Mr. Rethemeyer was told that dogs weren’t allowed, he replied, “This is ridiculous, because the whole point of being in Dumbo is either to have kids or have dogs.” Ongoing construction on the street was another argument against the building. (Gair2 had a change in policy and now allows dogs.)

Friends suggested he could rent in Manhattan for around the same price. Online, he found a new high-rise tower in Chelsea advertised by Baris Tuncer, who was then at the Level Group and is now at Keller Williams. That building didn’t allow pets, but Mr. Tuncer showed him several similar buildings that did.

Glass-and-steel Mercedes House on 53rd Street near 11th Avenue was sleek and lovely. But the amenities wouldn’t be completed for a year. There wasn’t much of a neighborhood, either. Though DeWitt Clinton Park was nearby and had a dog run, it had little green space. (All of the building’s studios are now rented; remaining one-bedrooms start around $4,000 a month.)

Mr. Rethemeyer moved on to the soaring tower called New York by Gehry, at 8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan. He had watched the building rise from his place across the river at the ClockTower. Starting prices for studios and one-bedrooms are $2,630 and $3,580, respectively. But the neighborhood had too much traffic for Topeka. “I began to compare and contrast things,” taking into account price, size and neighborhood, he said.

MiMA, on West 42nd Street, included Dog City, a dog spa with a full array of services. But traffic was also a problem there. “Topeka takes her sweet time crossing the street,” Mr. Rethemeyer said, “and I thought, she doesn’t have it in her.” He crossed Midtown off his list.

Charmed by the notion of moving from Main Street to Wall Street, he then checked out some places in the financial district, purposely visiting on a Sunday. “If it’s going to feel desolate,” he said, “I want to know that now.”

The neighborhood felt more vacant than he liked, and he wondered where he would shop for food. Though traffic was not going to be a problem for Topeka, the neighborhood included too many concrete sidewalks and not enough grass.

A friend suggested that he consider some of the new buildings in Williamsburg. “I had a thing in my head where it is a lot of 20-somethings and I didn’t think I would fit in there,” Mr. Rethemeyer said. But he changed his mind once he visited. “There were some older people, and artists,” he said. “I felt: I can come here and be happy and there’s life going on.”

By this point, he had just days to move. If no suitable place presented itself, he had more than half a mind to put his stuff in storage, rent a car and go on a long road trip with Topeka. Then he saw the Edge, a twin-towered building on the waterfront, and was instantly taken, both with the apartments and with the amenities — plenty of fitness equipment, spa facilities, game rooms, movie rooms, even a swimming pool.

The Edge is a condominium, but an owner with nine units had just put them up for rent, said the agent, Rachel Altschuler of Prudential Douglas Elliman. All went quickly, including the 490-square-foot studio with a sweeping view of Manhattan that Mr. Rethemeyer took for $2,200 a month, plus $50 a month for the dog.

He arrived last month. His floor is largely vacant. “It is like the beginning of the semester and nobody had shown up yet,” he said. (The Edge is now 65 percent sold, a spokeswoman said.)

There are a few new-building glitches — he had trouble, for instance, obtaining the stickers necessary for storing his two bicycles in the bike room. But Topeka, with plenty of grass nearby, is contented there and so is he. Only now does he realize how loud Dumbo was, with its ambient traffic noise. “Being away from that,” he said, “it is nice not to hear that all the time.”

Granted, his new apartment has far less space than its predecessors. “But,” he said, “it has much more of what I enjoy.”

What a bunch of highfalutin nonsense! "the whole point of being in Dumbo is either to have kids or have dogs." "Charmed by the notion of moving from Main Street to Wall Street" "He crossed Midtown off his list." ? FORGET THE BURROWS! coming soon THE DOGHOUSE ~ THE STORY a love story How we escaped CO-OP HELL 15 EAST 10th STREET - MANHATTAN ...bought a house for our three Dogs on a wooded hill in the "upper elevations" of the Hudson Valley -- 60 miles from NYC and a thousand miles from nowhere, with mindful, respecful, caring neighbours -- and regained our sanity and our lives. The DOGHOUSE is THEIR house, where we serve at their wagging, barking pleasure.

15 EAST 10TH STREET NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10003 Click √ for preview

“I cannot even hint what it was like, for it was a compound of all that is unclean, uncanny, unwelcome, abnormal and detestable. It was the ghoulish shade of decay, antiquity and desolation; the putrid, dripping eidolon of unwholesome revelation; the awful baring of that which the merciful earth should always hide.” ~ H. P. LOVECRAFT

The DOGHOUSE Click √ for The DOGHOUSE

MADDY TARNOFSKY
New York Tenant Attorney • Pet Evictions
360 Central Park West
Suite 5E
New York, New York 10025
Phone: 212 • 972 • 1355
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Weird but true
Post Wire Services
August 3, 2011
Man's new best friend doesn't bark -- but it bytes.

British researchers have found that only 6 percent of those surveyed believe that "most people rely more on their dog than they do on their PC," while 67 percent think the opposite is true.

• • •

Dog owners Down Under are taking their best friends to the bakery.
A new canine-only shop in Melbourne, Australia, sells treats such as "pupperoni" pizza and doggie doughnuts. The shop creates about 10 customized birthday cakes a week.

Owner Alicia Needham said she has catered one $660 birthday party for 15 pooches. It included a cake and special doggie delicacies, not to mention swag bags for the guests.

CINDY ADAMS
July 27, 2011
BRUCE Littlefield wrote "The Bedtime Book for Dogs." Barbara Corcoran told him: "Reading the book to my hound, Max, it was me who fell asleep."

July 28, 2011
ROCK Positano is NYC's four-star highly recommended A-1 foot doctor. Patients from Joe DiMaggio to to day's Yankees to Henry Kissinger, whose Black Lab developed a bad foot. Dr. Rock explained: "I treat humans, not hounds. Take her to the vet." Hardly one to take orders, our former Sec'y of State marched Amelia right into Positano's waiting room then into his surgery. While an office full of two-legged cases waited, Dr. Rock took care of Dr. Kissinger's adored Lab.

Only in New York, kids, only in New York!

For Dogs, Entrees From Same Butchers Who Feed Their Masters
By NOAH ROSENBERG
July 26, 2011
From the moment Mookie tasted his new dog food, he was a forever-changed Jack Russell terrier. He devoured that first meal, his tongue lapping even the underside of the bowl, desperately searching for more. And then Mookie, who is 9, started barking — at the refrigerator.

“It was like an affirmation,” said Mookie’s owner, Liz Wiseman, whose other Jack Russell, Melanie, had a similar reaction to the new food. “They liked it and it was good for them; I knew we were on the right track.”

Mookie and Melanie are beneficiaries of one of the latest trends for New Yorkers with pockets deep enough to ensure their dogs get only the best. To pet owners like Ms. Wiseman, who lives in the East Village, premium dog food is not good enough. Instead, they are opting for freshly made cuisine from high-end local butchers who already supply the choicest cuts for upscale restaurants.

These purveyors insist that their products, from grass-fed and locally raised animals, are not a gimmicky appeal to doting dog owners, but rather another way to promote sustainability of small-scale local farming.

“Our mission here is to get as much out of the animal as possible,” said Jake Dickson, the owner of Dickson’s Farmstand in the Chelsea Market, where Ms. Wiseman shops for her dogs. “Both in terms of profitability, but also philosophically — doing honor and justice to that animal.”

Every Wednesday, 6,000 pounds of meat arrives at Dickson’s from farms in the Hudson Valley and in Schoharie, near Albany — four steers, and up to nine pigs and seven goats or lambs, are all broken down by hand. Fresh meat lands in the display case and is also turned into charcuterie, while trimmings are churned into ground meat and sausage.

“The dog food is kind of taking it to the next step,” said Mr. Dickson, 31, who demonstrated the “nose to tail” sustainability aspect of Farm to Bowl, his new dog food operation, by spreading out an array of animal parts on brown butcher’s paper. The paper quickly turned pink as it soaked up blood from hearts, tongues and livers. But the meat mélange also included a generous slab of New York strip, which, if it had not been faintly oxidized, Mr. Dickson said, would have sold for up to $34 a pound.

Like other butchers tapping into this niche dog food market, Mr. Dickson said that while offal and other cuts were perfectly safe for humans, he used to throw them away, largely out of cosmetic concerns or because of a surplus. Nowadays, he grinds them up, roasts them and combines them with seasonal produce.

The product is sold fresh in one-and-a-half-pound, $10 packages as dog food. He sells about 100 a week, and according to the company’s Web site, the packages last seven days refrigerated and longer frozen. At one meal per pouch for a medium-size dog, Farm to Bowl is expensive — after all, a 34-pound package of Purina Puppy Chow can be had for $23. But that has not stopped Ms. Wiseman, who described Mookie and Melanie as “your typical spoiled Manhattan dogs.”

“They’re first — I don’t care,” Ms. Wiseman said, noting that she initially looked into noncommercial dog food after Melanie developed thyroid cancer. Now, Ms. Wiseman visits Dickson’s every other Sunday to stock up. Her dogs’ energy levels are up, she said, and the pets are healthy — and satiated. Indeed, Mr. Dickson and his business partner, Stacy Alldredge, a canine nutritionist, say their products are a vital investment in a dog’s health.

“If you think about logic, you have a real, live dog here,” said Ms. Alldredge, who also runs Who’s Walking Who, a dog nutrition and obedience-training service. “Of course, real food is going to be better for them. It’s like saying, ‘I’m an athlete, but I’m going to live on Power Bars.’ ”

Jessica Applestone, an owner of Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats in Kingston, N.Y., which has also gotten into the dog food business, has a similar opinion of processed dog food.

“If you’re not feeding your dog human-quality food it’s a terrifying thing,” said Ms. Applestone, 44, who began producing dog food at Fleisher’s shortly after the company opened seven years ago. “It’s very true that there’s much more of a movement, and we’re very happy to see it. People see that pushing a better diet for their dogs results in less vet visits.”

The company produces $4 packages with four ready-to-eat two-ounce patties made of organic chicken and beef hearts, liver and tongue, and sprinkled with beef fat. Fleisher’s sells about 100 pounds of patties a week.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, T. J. Burnham, the head butcher at Marlow & Daughters, has for four months sold $6 pints of his house dog-food blend: raw lean beef and beef liver, combined with cooked chicken, carrots, celery and barley, splashed with cider vinegar to aid in digestion. The shop stocks 20 to 50 pounds at a time.

Still, whether it is raw, pan seared, flambéed or otherwise elaborately prepared, not all dog owners are believers in foodie-grade puppy chow. On a recent weekday afternoon, Linda Mascia and Janet Gritzka, both 64 and from Huntington in Suffolk County, admired the meats in the display case at Dickson’s Farmstand in the Chelsea Market. The women inquired about the beef labeled picanha (a premium Brazilian-style cut) and laughed when asked if they would consider Farm to Bowl dog food for their dogs.

“No,” Ms. Mascia insisted, breaking into a grin. “I just stick with what the vet tells me — Iams!”

For her part, Ms. Gritzka seemed to go into sticker shock when told the price. She stole one last glance at Dickson’s ruby red marbled meats and said, “That’s one very spoiled puppy.”

 

 

Manhattan clinic covered up bulldog's death by suffocation
Vet in 'bad heart' X-ray coverup: suit
By DAREH GREGORIAN and HELEN FREUND
July 23, 2011
An upper Manhattan animal clinic let a woman's dog bark itself to death -- and then tried to cover up the bizarre tragedy, court papers charge.

A doctor at Riverside Animal Clinic, located at 801 W 187th St., had told Marie Moore that X-rays showed her beloved bulldog, Cowboy, had died from congestive heart failure, but an autopsy found that his heart was fine and that he'd actually suffocated as a result of over-barking, Moore said in papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

"Defendants ignored obvious signs of Cowboy's distress, allowing Cowboy to continue barking for days without proper care or intervention, until his severely swollen throat suffocated him and caused his death," Moore said in her suit, which charges the clinic and kennel with veterinary malpractice.

"Moreover, the X-rays Dr. [Javier] Ramos (left) claims to have relied upon to substantiate his claim that Cowboy died from heart failure actually show that Cowboy's heart was normal."

Ramos and the clinic declined comment.

The suit says Moore's nightmare began on March 9, when she took Cowboy, an English bulldog "who was in good health," for boarding at Riverside. She told staffers the pooch had never been in a kennel for an extended period of time and "was assured that Cowboy would be well treated."

Moore called to check on Cowboy on the 13th and "was told that everything was fine," the suit says. "One day later, Cowboy was dead."

The clinic didn't even have the decency to call Moore, the suit charges, claiming staffers sent an e-mail to Moore's mom, who was boarding her own dog there at the time, and asked her to give them a call. The mom, Megan Strong, called Riverside and was told Cowboy had died, the suit says. Moore then called the clinic and was told by Ramos that Cowboy developed breathing problems that morning and an X-ray of his chest "showed an enlarged heart."
Based on the X-ray, Ramos "concluded Cowboy was having congestive heart failure and he could do nothing to save Cowboy."

An autopsy showed Cowboy's heart was fine, but his throat was swollen and his stomach was full of air, a sign of respiratory distress, the suit says.

A "correct diagnosis of severe laryngeal edema and airway obstruction, followed by proper emergency procedures, would have saved Cowboy's life," the suit says.

Moore's father-in-law, Carlos Moore, called the death "very shocking, just awful." As for Cowboy, "Everybody loved him," Moore said. "He was a wonderful dog."

Can a dog bark itself to death?

Mostly no, but English bulldogs like Cowboy can, said Dr. Ann Hohenhaus of the Animal Medical Center. They have three issues that can lead to suffocation if their throats get swollen:

• Respiratory problems from their squashed faces

• Small windpipes

• Laryngeal saccules that, unlike other dogs, stick out into their airways

ASPCA Launches Campaign Hoping To Discourage Puppy Mill Purchases
NEW YORK
July 22, 2011
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals announced a new campaign aimed to stop people from purchasing pets from so-called puppy mills.

The ASPCA, in a news release, charges that operators of puppy mills run their facilities in often unsanitary, overcrowded and cruel conditions, “where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs.”

Cori Menkin of the ASPCA spoke with 1010 WINS on Friday and said that the organization is hoping to “impact the industry” by asking consumers to not shop at any pet stores that sell puppies.

This campaign isn’t just about where to get a puppy. It’s about all of the pet-owning public and what they can do to help.

So it’s about not buying any of your pet supplies at pet stores that sell puppies,” Menkin (left) said.

The advocacy organization also commissioned a poll that found 80 percent of people would not purchase a puppy if they knew it came from a puppy mill.

“Our poll results indicated that nobody’s making the connection between pet stores and puppy mills. And if that continues the demand for those puppies is going to continue,” Menkin said.

“The more we can hit at the demand and decrease the demand for their ‘product,’ the more impact we can have on the market. If people stop buying the puppies, the puppy mills will stop churning them out,” said Menkin.

 

Paw Pal program unites city middle-schoolers with needy pets at upstate shelter
BY AMY SACKS
Saturday, July 16th 2011
Sending personal letters and toys to shelter dogs was an awesome experience for some socially conscious local tweens, but getting to meet their four-legged pen pals for real was magical.

"These dogs had been through a lot," said Lucy (left), a 12-year-old animal welfare advocate, who was recently treated to hugs and licks at her first face-to-snout meeting with her paw pal, named Spike, at Glen Wild Animal Rescue, a sanctuary in upstate New York.

"I felt blessed that I could physically meet him, give him lots of treats, play with him and let him know that another person besides the staff at Glen Wild cared about him and wanted him to be happy," Lucy said.

The 9-year-old Golden mutt landed at the sanctuary after being pulled from the NYC Animal Care & Control shelter.

Spike's owner had died, and the orphaned dog was slated to be euthanized.

Lucy is among a group of New York City middle-schoolers who participate in the Paw Pal program through the nonprofit group Unleashed. The after-school leadership program for girls empowers them to become social change agents, using animal rescue as their leadership laboratory, said Stacey Radin, Unleashed's founder. "They are encouraged to look at social problems in the world and think about a solution," said Radin, a psychologist and leadership consultant.

Each girl, who attends either Manhattan's Nightingdale-Bamford School or the NYC LAB School, selected a dog from a photo and a one sentence bio. Then, they wrote empathetic letters to their respective paw pals, and sent treats and toys that were infused with their scent. The letters were read to the dogs by the rescue group's staff.

Glen Wild founder Liz Keller said the Paw Pal program clearly helps the dogs heal from their misfortune. "To have the young girls come up and bring toys and care packages really helps create a more positive energy," she said.

At any given time, about 40 dogs and 15 cats reside at the 20-acre sanctuary, whose operation relies strictly on donations and a small army of volunteers. Two goats also call the oasis home. Most of the residents are pit-bull mixes and "bully breeds" that Keller pulls from the euthanasia list at the AC&C shelters, where she formerly worked as the Manhattan shelter manager. Keller assesses the dogs and provides behavioral training so they can become adoptable as pets.

Donations can be sent to Glen Wild Rescue, P.O. Box 75, South Kortright, N.Y. 13842, or through the group's Web site, www.glenwildanimalrescue.org.

Unleashed also relies on donation. For info, go to www.unleashed.org.

A fund-raiser to benefit three local animal rescue groups will be held Tuesday, July 19) at Copia in Manhattan from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The event, organized by Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP as part of the "Weil Pays it Forward" effort, will raise funds for Bully Breed Rescue, Four Paws Sake NYC and Rescuzilla.

Organizers also will collect toys, blankets and towels for NYC Animal Care and Control. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door, and cover two drinks and food. Copia is located at 307 E. 53rd St. For more information, call (212) 310-8962 or check the "Paws for a Cause Happy Hour" on Facebook.

Some Pet Owners Judge Jeter Name Best in Show
By JORGE CASTILLO
July 6, 2011
In his 17 seasons in the Bronx, Derek Jeter cemented his legacy as one of the great Yankees. He is the team’s captain. He has five World Series rings. He entered Tuesday’s game six hits from becoming the first Yankee to join baseball’s 3,000-hit club.

Off the field, he has had a pretty good career, too, becoming the fae of one of the most popular franchises in American sports, and dating many beautiful women.

His success has allowed him to take his place among names like Ruth, Mantle and DiMaggio. It has also, it turns out, earned him a prominent place among another set of names — like Princess and Rocky, Lucky and Buddy and Coco.

New York City, you see, is home to 33 dogs actively registered under the name Jeter. Across the Hudson, at the Valley Animal Hospital in Clifton, N.J., there are seven clients who go by the name Jeter, and on a single mail route in nearby Montclair, there are at least two Jeters — both reported to be friendly. In Jersey City, a Labrador is named Jeter; in Stamford, Conn., the city’s lone Jeter is a beagle.

Jack Beibel (left), 16, of Montclair said he named his dog Jeter because the shortstop was his favorite player. His cockapoo has taken to it. “If we yell, ‘Yankees,’ he starts barking,’ ” Beibel said. “And if we yell, ‘Red Sox,’ he kneels down.”

Jeter, by this canine measure, is more popular than his teammates, according to statistics provided by the New York City Department of Health. There is, for instance, one licensed dog named A-Rod. There are eight licensed dogs named Tex in the city, although it is far from clear whether they are all named in honor of Mark Teixeira.

The phenomenon, though, has crossed into enemy territory, and has been realized in Jeter’s hometown. There are, for instance, three dogs registered as Jeter in Worcester, Mass., and another in Cambridge, a mere bone’s throw from Fenway Park.

In Kalamazoo, Mich., where Jeter grew up, there are four dogs named for the hometown hero. Oh, and two cats, too.

But there has been, along with the harmless good fun, at least one truly solemn story involving a dog named Jeter (right). In Dayton, Ohio, a Great Pyrenees named after the shortstop died in a fire in June 2009 after alerting his owner about a fire in the basement of their home.

The owner, Glenda Moss, credited Jeter with saving her and her son’s lives. “We named him Jeter because we always loved Derek Jeter and we respect him,” said Moss, who has no ties to the New York area and is not a Yankees fan. “We believe that he has morals and that he really cares about the games. That’s what we look for in baseball players. Do they respect the game or is it just a business for them?”

Moss rescued Jeter through the National Great Pyrenees Rescue and had him for three years before he died. The organization donated another dog to the family four months after the fire. Moss named her Maddux after the former major league pitcher Greg Maddux.

“He had the greatest social life,” Moss said of Jeter, her dog. “Everybody loved him, and he loved everyone.”

Jon Levine and his family, also of Montclair, have a Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Jeter with a couple connections to the almost certain Hall of Famer.

The Levines’ Jeter was born on June 25, 2009 — one day before Derek Jeter’s birthday — and was taken home to his new family on Sept. 11, 2009, the night Jeter passed Lou Gehrig on the Yankees’ career hits list.

“The easy answer is I’m a die-hard Yankees fan,” Levine said when asked about why he named his dog Jeter. “I was a big fan of Thurman Munson, and in my adult life, Jeter has played that role. He’s the epitome of class and character.”

The Jeter dog count is, by definition, fluid and perhaps imperfect (one cannot, for instance, say with certainty they are all named after the shortstop). The various agencies that keep track of such things list only dogs that are currently registered; there could be a few unlicensed, unregistered Jeters. There could be still other Jeters who have died since the Jeter who was the 1996 American League Rookie of the Year broke into the majors at age 21.

In New York, Jeter does not come close to cracking the city’s 10 most popular dog names. That list consists of traditional dog names like Max, which 942 dogs answer to in the five boroughs. The only top name that could possibly be associated with an athlete is Rocky, which is the third-most popular name in the city, with 644 dogs licensed.

Photos top left and bottom left:
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

 

Tracing Unscooped Dog Waste Back to the Culprit
By KATIE ZEZIMA
July 2, 2011
Sherlock Holmes had the case of the dog that didn’t bark, but it has taken two dozen apartment complexes and a testing company in Tennessee to bring the art of canine detection into the “CSI” age. And the evidence is right underfoot.

Canine DNA is now being used to identify the culprits who fail to clean up after their pets, an offense that Deborah Violette (left), for one, is committed to eradicating at the apartment complex she manages. Everyone who owns a dog in her complex, Timberwood Commons in Lebanon, N.H., must submit a sample of its DNA, taken by rubbing a cotton swab around inside the animal’s mouth.

The swab is sent to BioPet Vet Lab, a Knoxville, Tenn., company that enters it into a worldwide database. If Ms. Violette finds an unscooped pile, she can take a sample, mail it to Knoxville and use a DNA match to identify the offending owner.

Called PooPrints, the system costs $29.99 for the swabbing kit, $10 for a vial to hold the samples and $50 to analyze them, which usually takes a week or two. The company says that about two dozen apartment complexes around the country have signed up for the service. In 2008, the Israeli city of Petah Tikva created a dog DNA database for the same purpose.

“It’s kind of like the F.B.I., but on a much smaller scale,” said Eric Mayer, director of franchise development for BioPet Vet Lab, which makes the kits.

Ms. Violette said that at her complex, which opened in December and has a designated building for pet owners, unwanted surprises have sometimes been found on lawns. “We had a little bit of a problem,” Ms. Violette said. “Enough that I wanted to try to nip it in the bud.”

Dog owners were notified about the testing last week, and most are now taking their pets in to provide DNA samples. But not everyone. “I’ve had some people say it’s completely over the top and ridiculous,” Ms. Violette said. “I’m sure I’ll have a few people who won’t come in, and I’m sure those are the people we’ll have to chase and those are the people who are doing it.”

Tom Boyd, the founder and chief executive of BioPet Vet Lab, said the company made the kits in response to the large of numbers of the dogs in the United States and to health concerns connected to dog feces. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, there are about 75 million dogs in the United States.

“If you took 75 million Americans and said they no longer have a commode, can you imagine what would happen in a week?” Mr. Boyd asked.

Not everyone is on board with the idea, though.

Karen Harvey of Forest Property Management in McCall, Idaho, said her company was not prepared to collect canine samples along with the rent checks. “If you allow pets, that sort of comes with it,” Ms. Harvey said. “I guess I would never take the issue of dog poop that far.”

What a mutt! Ugliest dog a champ
She’s a mutt even a mother couldn’t love
By HEATHER HADDON
June 25, 2011
A 1.8-pound California dog won the dubious title of "World’s Ugliest Dog" today during the 23rd annual hideous hound competition at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, Calif.

The dowdy dog, named Yoda, was crowned the queen of the queer-looking over 28 other misshapen mutts. Yoda’s owner, Terry Devine Schumacher, of Hanford, Calif., originally wanted to walk right by the dog when her daughter found her in a field.

"I told her to put it down because I thought it was a rat," Schumacher said.

The family has owned the awful-looking animal for 14 years.

Schumacher took home $1,000 and a trophy 15 times the size of Yoda, along with a stay at a luxury hotel. Contestants are voted on by text messages, and attendees yelped for Yoda’s irregular features and scruffy fur.

17-year-old girl faces rap in vicious beatdown of Bronx bus driver
BY PETE DONOHUE AND JOE KEMP
Wednesday, June 22nd 2011
A 17-year-old girl pummeled a female city bus driver on a Bronx street Tuesday because she wasn't allowed to board with her dog, authorities said.

Steangeli Medina was stopped from boarding the Bx9 on Fordham Road at Cambreleng Ave. in Belmont just before 6p.m., cops said. The driver, Marlene Bien-Aime (left), 48, spotted a pooch tucked in the teen's jacket and told her she couldn't ride unless the dog was in a crate, authorities said. That's when Medina went berserk.

"She punched the driver in theface," a source said. "She thendrags her off the bus by her hair ... where she punched and kicked her repeatedly about the body."

Bien-Aime was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital with a black eye and facial cuts.

"The bus driver was doing her job, enforcing the rules, and was assaulted while performing her duties, for no apparent reason," said Frank Austin, a vice chairman of Transport Workers Union Local 100.

Medina was charged with assault, menacing and harassment.

PHOTO GALLERY

Companions in Battle: Animals of the Civil War

Civil War Dog Tent

Courtesy of: 49TH VIRGINIA INFANTRY REGIMENT

The 104th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was known as the barking dog regiment for its canine mascots. Harvey, a bull terrier, was a special favorite. When Harvey’s owner was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in 1862, he inscribed Harvey’s collar with, “I am Lieutenant D.M. Stearns dog; whose dog are you?” Harvey was wounded during the war, but survived.

Tim Brooks Collection at the U.S. Army Military History Institute

After winning the presidency, Lincoln reluctantly decided to leave his skittish dog Fido with friends in Springfield, Ill., rather than take him on the long journey to Washington. Lincoln made the family promise to feed Fido from the dinner table and not to scold him if he came inside with muddy paws. After the president’s assassination, Fido’s new family brought him to the Lincolns’ Springfield home to greet mourners.

Courtesy of Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

George A. Custer and His Dog
This picture was made in Virginia during the Civil War. Custer is pictured with a Dog. He apparently was a dog lover, as dogs are often nearby in pictures of Custer.

A brindle bull terrier named Sallie — memorialized at the foot of her regiment’s monument at Gettysburg — became the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s mascot when she was just four weeks old. At the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, Sallie became separated from her regiment and was eventually found standing guard over the dead and wounded. She died in battle in February 1865 during the siege of Petersburg, Va. Despite heavy gunfire, her regiment buried her on the battlefield.

Cate Lineberry

Irish Wolfhound memorialized in the Irish Brigade monument at Gettysburg

Sallie, Jack, Tip, Mike, Calamity..... These are just a few of the dogs who faithfully followed their masters through the Civil War, some right to the front line. There were spy dogs and hospital dogs.... messenger dogs and prison dogs. Some were wounded and returned to the front. Others were not so lucky. There were also the dog-lovers, such as Generals Pickett, Asboth, Barksdal and Custer, and also Presidents Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln. These are but a few of the stories in this delightful book. Also included is a Civil War photo gallery of the men and their pets. Click √ on cover to order from Amazon.com

 

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CELEBRITY POOCHES
for the celebrity obsessed from the canine obsessed

ADOLF HITLER with BLONDI

... with BELLA

Blondi (1941 — 29 April 1945) was Adolf Hitler's favourite German Shepherd dog, given to him as a gift in 1941 by Martin Bormann.

During the course of April 29, 1945, Hitler learned of the death of his ally Benito Mussolini who had been executed by Italian partisans. This along with the fact the Soviet Army was closing in on his location, led Hitler to strengthen his resolve not to allow himself or his wife to be captured. That afternoon, Hitler expressed doubts about the cyanide capsules he had received through Heinrich Himmler's SS.[25] To verify the capsules' potency, Hitler ordered Dr. Werner Haase to test them on his dog Blondi, and the dog died as a result. Hitler became completely inconsolable.

According to a report commissioned by Joseph Stalin and based on eye witness accounts, Hitler's dog-handler, Feldwebel Fritz Tornow, took Blondi's pups and shot them in the garden of the bunker complex on April 30, after Hitler and Eva Bruan committed suicide. He also killed Eva Braun's two dogs, Frau Gerda Christian's dogs and his own dachshund. Tornow was later captured by the Allies.[28] Hitler's nurse, Erna Flegel, said in 2005 that Blondi's death had affected the people in the bunker more than Eva Braun's suicide.

After the battle in Berlin ended, the remains of Hitler, Braun, and two dogs (thought to be Blondi and her offspring Wolf) were discovered in a shell crater by a unit of SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence agency. The dog (thought to be Blondi) was exhumed and photographed by the Soviets

“Dogs are blameless, devoid of calculation, neither blessed nor cursed with human motives. They can’t really be held responsible for what they do.
But we can.”

~ JON KATZ
Author
From "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm"

Click√on images above to access The New York Post's "CELEBRITIES AND THEIR DOGS"
Looking for someone in particular?
Search: 'celebrity name', celebrities and their Dogs in the Post's search engine.

	Hard Cover Cover: George Underwood LEON	Paperback Cover: Edwin Landseer EOS

The dog's place within the arts is particularly fascinating. There is, above all, an extraordinary polarity of symbolism in its depiction, from being symbolic of faithfulness and love to all that is deplorable and lascivious.

The book addresses this diversity in perception and depiction in the arts, and traces the changing role of the dog within human society. - TAMSIN PICKERAL AUTHOR

The Dog: 5,000 Years of The Dog in Art
by TAMSIN PICKERAL
Merrell
London, New York

"Absurd, superb, this richly illustrated and impeccably designed narrative stretches from Eyptian sarcophagi to 'Cave Canem' Roman mosaics to Franz Marc's harmonious zoos, and Lucien Freud's whippets, with art history triumphing over sentiment." - Jackie Wullschiager, The Financial Times

VOTED ONE OF THE TOP 50 BOOKS OF 2009

" ... this is not a selection of the sorts of pictures usually found on table mats, but an intelligently chosen and entertainingly varied pack of canines, dating from pre-history to the present day, with long, erudite captions." - Frank Whitford, The Sunday Times

By far the most readable and authoritative book on the subject -- informed and informative, splendidly written, beautifully designed, impeccably researched and immaculately presented and illustrated with marvelous reproductions. Ms Pickeral has combined the two greatest passions of my life, Dogs and Art, in a credible, straightforward, scholarly manner devoid of the pomposity and banality common to "coffee table" books.

THE DOG: 5000 Years of the Dog in Art is THE BOOK every Dog/Art lover MUST have. For design, insight, historical literacy, one "coffee table" book TO BE READ -- cover to cover. A most thorough and exhaustive study. All substance. NO FLUFF!

ROBERT COANE From-The-DOGHOUSE.com

Click √ on author photo for www.TAMSIN PICKERAL.com

Click √ on cover to order

Know your best friend. No "whispering". No bull. For once, just he Doggone facts. An education. Insightful. Touching. Fascinating! ROBERT COANE From-The-DOGHOUSE.com INSIDE OF A DOG: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know By Alexandra Horowitz Click √ for review Click √ on cover to order

Author John Bradshaw is director of the Anthrozoology Institute at the University of Bristol Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog “A lovely and clear-headed book on all things dog—emotion, mind, and breed. John Bradshaw’s authority and experience are matched by the thoughtfulness and humanity of his writing. Read this before you bring a dog into your life.” Publishers Weekly “Bradshaw…offers an alternative to conventional, dominance-based approaches to understanding dogs (Cesar Milan’s methods, for example) in an informative…guide to how canine biology and psychology determine behavior…. Bradshaw’s book is useful to those looking to further their understanding of dog behavior and clarify common misconceptions.”

Saving Gracie (Wiley Publishing, Inc.) doesn't spare us any grim details about dog 132, as this Cavalier King Charles spaniel is labeled at the puppy mill where she is a breeding machine. But don't shy away from the book for that reason. Reading about her pathetic condition made this reader admire her resilience even more. Gracie has a spark in her no one should be allowed to extinguish. The author points out in the preface hundreds of thousands of animals live out their lives in "barbaric conditions.'' - Paw Print Post / USA TODAY

An inspiring story of survival and our powerful bond with man's best friend, in the aftermath of the nation's most notorious case of animal cruelty. "Beautifully written and forthright, The Lost Dogs should make some news; not just for animal lovers but for anyone pondering the human propensity for violence and goodness." - Library Journal

Finally the debate! This book is a debate in which the ideas, philosophies, objectives, & strategies behind what is called "animal rights" represented by Gary Francione & (new) "Welfarism," represented by Robert Garner, are very clearly brought to light. - Amazon.com Customer Review

A stirring, inspiring book with the power to change the way we understand and communicate with our dogs. Few people are more qualified to speak about the abilities and potential of dogs than Jennifer Arnold, who for the past twenty years has trained service dogs for people with physical disabilities and special needs.

Sallie, Jack, Tip, Mike, Calamity..... These are just a few of the dogs who faithfully followed their masters through the Civil War, some right to the front line. There were spy dogs and hospital dogs.... messenger dogs and prison dogs. Some were wounded and returned to the front. Others were not so lucky. There were also the dog-lovers, such as Generals Pickett, Asboth, Barksdal and Custer, and also Presidents Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln. These are but a few of the stories in this delightful book. Also included is a Civil War photo gallery of the men and their pets.

A new book from popular British Dog trainer John Rogerson is about learning how to communicate with your Dog on an emotional level, which will in turn give him the ability to understand everyone in your family. By understanding "the code," you will gain more control over your Dog and then be able to offer him more freedom and less frustration than ever before, making for a more contented companion.

	by JULIA SZABO
Julia Szabo’s “Pretty Pet-Friendly” aims to help readers live well with their pets, creating a harmonious environment in which both animals and humans are happy. It will walk readers through each area of the home, from the kitchen to the backyard to the bedroom, providing practical advice and helpful how-tos for keeping things neat, pet-friendly, and still chic. A stylish two-color format with black-and-white photos will ensure that the book is easy to use and appealing to the eye.
Julia with Lazarus, her rescued pit bull	“Julia Szabo is the best-known pet journalist in the country. Her ‘Pets’ column in The New York Post is a must-read for animal lovers” —THE NEW YORK DOG MAGAZINE “I‘m a fan of yours, Julia.” —Dominick Dunne Click √ on covers to order

	Steven Bardge
The hit of the 2010 San Francisco Bookfair, this is an unassuming little zine that kicks ass. The saga of the infamous riot Dog, notorious for his joyous presence in picture after picture of the riots in Athens in December 2008. Rioter, political prisoner, a model for us all. Kanellos lives on in our hearts. New Zine Pamphlet ( 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 ) 16  pp. Click √ on Cover to order

Rescue Ink Denise Flaim Using their combined 1,700 pounds of muscle, bikers Joe, Johnny O, Batso, Big Ant, G, Angel, Eric, Des, Bruce and Robert stop at nothing within the bounds of the law to save animals, be they furred, feathered, or scaled, from life-or-death situations throughout the New York City metropolitan area. Working from tips from concerned neighbours and anonymous sources, they have rescued countless animals, including a dognapped bulldog and 180 cats from the home of a hoarder. In between rescues, they’ve protested the barbaric practices of a horse slaughterhouse, visited schools to educate children about animal kindness and that “abusers are losers,” and participated in Puppy Mill Awareness Day in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Former Newsday writer Denise Flaim chronicles their adventurous tales, detailing just what these brawny bikers can teach us all about respecting the creatures in our midst. Click √ on cover to order

MADDY TARNOFSKY New York Tenant Attorney • Pet Evictions 360 Central Park West Suite 5E New York, New York 10025 Phone: 212 • 972 • 1355 Click on √ logo below for website