All through the year, we keep our eyes peeled for some good stories to blog about. Then, the morning of Blog the Change, TW goes crazy trying to find them to put a blog together that makes sense. This time, I made her start in early January. It's long, but I tried to keep it inneresting.
Did you know that according to law, little furry family members are not considered family members at all? Believe it or not, kitties, we are considered
PROPERTY! Gasp! Meow! Pop's TV is property; TW's records and tapes are property. I'm their adopted daughter. I'm right there on their Census form as "daughter." Well, now there's a lawsuit in New York that axs "do puppies have souls?" The question of whether pets are property HAD to be axed, but I just get the feeling that this suit was brought about for all the wrong reasons. Hear me out.
In a civil suit, dog "owner" Elena Zakharova states that pets are living creatures that feel love and pain and should
NOT be considered property. She's wants compensation for vet bills, which will surpass $8,000, from an upper East Side pet store that sold her a pup with bum knees and trick hips. I have a couple of questions for Elena: haven't you ever heard of animal rescues and shelters? Why, with all the shelter animals, were you buying a pup in a pet store to begin with? Don't you know those animals sold in pet stores are from puppy mills and most of them are sickly? and finally, Don't you read newspapers or online blogs about pet store animals? If dogs aren't property, they shouldn't be "impulse buys."
Zakharova also wants compensation for the dog's pain and suffering damage, comparing her to a 7-year-old child that slipped and fell. It requests "humanity for Umka (the dog's name) and that she be considered a living soul that feels pain, and that her pain and suffering is recognized by the state and considered as damages to her."
New York State has a "Puppy Lemon Law" that lets buyers return a sick animal within 14 days because of the proliferation of shady puppy mills that churn out "purebred" dogs with heart and joint problems. I think they should go further and
BAN pet stores from selling puppy mill dogs and cats altogether.
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| Umka, a year-old Brussel Griffon was bred by a puppy mill. |
Little Umka, whom Elena bought when she was 2 months old for $1,650, didn't show signs of a problem until months later. Even after her surgery, the suit reads "Umka suffers a disorder causing her pain, her legs hurt, she cried when she is in pain, she drags herself along with her front paws, she cannot run like other puppies. She should not have been sired by dogs with genetic disorders." Duh! That poor, innocent widdle poochie! If you ax me, Umka should take
her "pain and suffering" money and run away to an owner who can get her better vet care. She deserves the money, not Zakharova.
If the judge won't recognize Umka's suffering, Zakharova's lawyer will argue the dog should be subject to the Uniform Commercial Code that gives a buyer four years to return a "defective product." Now you're really skating on thin ice, lady. This living, breathing soul is now a "defective product"? Would this human actually
return her daughter? I'll give you—and her—one guess how long it'll take the pet store to murder poor Umka.
From reading this article, it would appear that Zakharova loves her money—and fame, more than her adopted daughter. It's not Umka's fault she's not well, but she needs love just the same. Someday, with the right veterinary care, she may live a normal life.
We know she certainly didn't do her due diligence on Raising Rover, the pet store she bought Umka at or she would've seen that it's one of 11 swanky "pet boutiques" buying animals from Midwestern puppy mills with horrific records of animal cruelty. She probably just passed the pet store and fell in love with Umka; so she took out the credit card and took her home. Maybe, there should be a waiting period, like buying a gun. Then the impulsive buyer would be able to check out the store and see if they'd be better off either looking at shelter dogs or deciding they really didn't want a dog that badly.
The point in Zakharova's favor is that the ultimate goal of the lawsuit is to increase the penalties on pet stores so they stop selling animals from unhealthy breeders. I say let's BAN pet stores from selling these pets. Fines aren't going to deter them from making their profit.
BONUS STORY1
Good news! We all need good news after reading about Umka.
Bones, a 90-pound pit bull, suspected of being an accomplice to murder, is getting a second leash on life. The
Lexus Project, a Long Island-based animal legal defense group has been granted legal ownership. After he's sprung from the Animal Care & Control shelter, he'll be transferred outside NY to a well-regarded behaviorist experienced in working with troubled dogs.
After thousands of Facebook fans pleaded online for Bones' release and the Lexus Product was ready to go to court, Manhattan prosecutors decided that Bones was no longer needed as evidence to a murder allegedly committed by his owner in which bite marks were found on the victim. Rich Rosenthal and Robin Mitttasch, who run Lexus Project, obtained Bones' guardainship. Bones is just one of the dogs Lexus Project has defended since 2009.
This appears to be a project worth knowing more about. Wonder if they can work their magic and get
Lennox in Ireland freed?
BONUS STORY 2
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Sissi inside her homemade
birthing box |
With the winter now finally taking hold of this country, I thought I'd share with you Holistic Vet Stacey Joy Hershman's advice on how to build an outdoor shelter for stray or feral cats you may be feeding. When the peeps owned a house, they'd worry about those strays once the weather got colder and would place insulated cardboard or wooden boxes on the porch for them.
Dr. Hershman says "Buy inexpensive large plastic storage containers which come as big as three feet long by two feet wide and deep. Cut at least an 8-inch-square hole in lower corner of the lid as an entrance and exit. Buy 2-inch-thick foam insulation to cut into sections and attach to the outside of the container with industrial-strengh silicone glue. Place straw or old blankets inside and microwavable heating pads, which can stay warm for as long as eight hours. Also, there are safe, waterproof, electric heating pads available for animals."
She also advises "Educate your neighbors to fix their cats because overpopulation is a HUGE problem in the U.S., and millions of animals are killed 'daily' due to careless pet owners and lack of homes. Never buy cats; adopt from local shelters and cat rescues, and volunteer or donate supplies or money to support them."
Great advice!
Speaking of movies, I'd like to thank Glogirly and Katie for the pawsome video they made for my Gotcha Day. FOUR Stunning Keishas! Can you stand it? Of course you can.
