Ugh, No! Bones of More Than 200 Dogs Found on Awful Dude's Property

After neighbors complained about a "foul stench" coming from a Goose Creek, SC, home, police investigated. They found more than 40 malnourished dogs, a mix of Hounds and Beagles. 

That was shocking, but it was nothing compared to what they found themselves walking through in the yard -- "thousands of dog bones," according to KSLA.com, which were strewn about the woods behind the home. 

"That's when they began to uncover the gravity of the situation," said Berkeley County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dan Moon.

All in all, authorities estimate that the bones of more than 200 dogs are on the property. 

"It's a terrible sight," said Moon. "When you look at the carcasses of the animals and the bones everywhere, it's horrific."

Crews have made a few sweeps of the land and concede there is no way they've found all the bones. Yet they have more than enough evidence. 

"They've got search teams, and they're going back through there again and marking the bones as they find them -- marking the carcases and marking the bones, because some of them have been back there a very long time," said Moon.

How did the dogs die? Preliminary investigation points to neglect as well as murder. 

"Some of them we already found do have bullet holes in their heads," said Moon. 

As for the owner of the property, 64-year-old Loney L. Garrett, he's been charged with 43 felony counts of ill treatment of animals.

A neighbor said that animal control had visited the man four years ago,and had left without acting, which outraged the neighbor.

"There were skeletons in the ditch of dogs that had just died," she said. "It looked like they had just been tossed to the side."

Unbelievably, Garrett has one defender: his daughter-in-law.

"He's not a bad person," Diane Luckie told ABC News 4. "He's not done anything wrong but love those animals. ... This is his hobby, to hunt deer and rabbits. He enjoys everything that he does with those dogs. He has no intentions to hurt those animals."

As for the 45 alive dogs found on the property, which Moon calls "so emaciated, just skin and bones"? 

"Those are hunting dogs. They run. They carry their weight off," Luckie said. "You don't want no fat dog."

Fortunately, we're confident that no judge in his or her right mind will see it that way. 

Via KSLA.com and ABC News 4

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Lost Bernese Found After Two Weeks on Steep Mountain

The dog, Ohly, got away in thick snow on a steep Vancouver slope.

After the story of Missy, we know the lengths people go to when a dog is lost on a mountain. In that instance, strangers banded together to scale 14,000-foot Mount Bierstadt, near Denver, and save the dog, garnering much media attention. 

Recently, another dog became lost on a hazardous, steep, snow-covered mountain, and the public, spurred on by social media, sprang into action. The good news: After two weeks on the mountain, the dog was safely rescued by North Shore Search and Rescue officials. The concerning news: the well-meaning public got a little crazy in trying to help. 

On Nov. 25, Ohly, a Bernese Mountain Dog, was out for a walk with a family friend on Mount Seymour in North Vancouver, when he bolted from the parking lot of a ski area and became lost. Later, he was seen on a mountain ski run and in the community of Deep Cove. 

As the days passed, social media kicked in after owner Steve Goad set up a Find Ohly Facebook page. The concerned public, many of them strangers to the dog and Goad, wasted no time in getting to work. 

Harookz Noguchi got out his barbecue, carried it up the mountain, and fried up some bacon and smokies, hoping to entice the dog out. 

"If we were to lose our dog, it's like losing a child to us, so I understand how hard it must be for [Goad] and his family," he said to CBS News. 

Another volunteer, Nat Hunter, hiked in with a friend ... and two fried chickens.

"They're so incredibly loyal and you sort of feel that if it was reversed, they would do the same," Hunter said.

All the ad hoc volunteer efforts made Tim Jones of North Shore Search and Rescue a little nervous. On Saturday, the group brought in a helicopter. The area where the dog was lost was called Suicide Gully, after all. 

"You get safety breaches, you get all sorts of things and that's why we want to get this dog out. It's a public safety issue," he said. 

Fortunately, it didn't take long to spot the dog, who was stranded, helpless, on steep terrain. It took crews a few hours to recover the dog. 

"We rescued the dog from a very very steep cliff area where it would've remained," said Jones. "And we are very proud of what we did, doing this in the interest of public safety because this dog was going nowhere."

"This has been a very difficult day for our team ... but we persevered and got the job done with the dog."

Well done. As for Ohly, he's fine -- a vet said he's in good condition, if a little dehydrated. He is a Bernese Mountain Dog, after all.  

Via CBS News; photos via the Find Ohly Facebook page 

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French Bulldog Found Tied in a Bag in Petco Bathroom

The abandoned dog was severely ill, but the rescue community has gathered around him.

It was a horrible way to abandon a dog: On Sunday, a French Bulldog was found tied up in bag in a store bathroom in Pittsford, New York. The dog was malnourished and dehydrated, and he had decayed teeth and missing fur. He couldn't keep his tongue in his mouth, and he couldn't eat solid food, according to DemocratandChronicle.com. 

The only saving grace: The person who abandoned him did so in the bathroom of a Petco. The store was having an adoption event, so lots of people were milling around with carriers. Presumably, the person slid into the bathroom with a carrier undetected. Or, more likely, the person just had the sick, listless dog in a bag, and was able to bring him into the store and dump him in the restroom without anyone noticing. 

In any event, help came quickly. Store employees found the dog and called a vet. Then an organization that saves dogs brought in by Greece Animal Control in New York, Greece Residents Assisting Stray Pets, stepped in. GRASP, as it's known, has found homes for 273 animals this year alone, and it regularly works with the Petco Foundation. Karla Barkley, the cat adoption coordinator, was determined to help the abandoned French Bulldog.

"Hearing the story about it touched my heart," she said. "So I drove up there to pick him up and bring him into our rescue group." 

"He was in terrible shape," Barkely said. "Malnourished, extremely thin, severely dehydrated, just a whole bunch of stuff." 

Fortunately, Pierre, as Barkley named the dog, is recovering quickly. After being fed by an IV for a while, he's switched to small amounts of boiled meat and rice, and his spirits are up.

"He just wants so much attention," Barkley said. "He followed me around the house all night. You cannot love this dog enough."

"He's the cutest little thing," she said. "The first thing I thought was, 'How could someone do this?' But it's very rewarding to find a dog like this and give him a second chance."

Today, Pierre is well on his way to finding his forever home -- he's just gone to live with foster mom Sue Zukoski, and GRASP is working through applications for a permanent adoption. 

"He's wonderful and loving," said Zukoski. "It's just so sad someone would have neglected him so horribly."

Via DemocratandChronicle.com 

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"Lost Puppy" Found on Camping Trip Turns Out to Be a Wolf Cub

Campers in Ketchum, Idaho, found a lonely, hungry, tiny, cute baby furry creature by the side of the road and decided to help him out by bringing him to a vet. However, upon closer inspection, the vet suspected that the little four-legged guy the rescuers thought was just a puppy might actually be a wolf cub.

The little lost wolf cub hadn't eaten in days when found.

Folks, do not try this at home! Vets conducted DNA tests to find out whether the pup is pure wolf or perhaps a wolf-hybrid. Frightened of people and in poor health, the cub was handed over to a local zoo for temporary care and housing. Workers from Fish and Game are on the hunt for the cub's family in an effort to reunite him with his pack. A wolf pack had been observed near where the cub was found, and it's suspected that while in the process of moving a litter, the wolves were startled by humans and became separated.

Defenders of Wildlife have stepped in to assist Idaho Fish and Game in locating the cub's family. Their wolf expert, Suzanne Stone, explained the urgency in reuniting the pack, since wolf cubs have only a slim chance of survival without their mamas. 

Suzanne Stone points out the wolf tracks they hope will lead the cub back home.

For now the cub is being kept away from people so he'll have a better chance of being reassimilated into the wild, which we hope will happen soon. 

Defenders or Wildlife found tracks that "indicate that the mother wolf was using the road to move her litter through Sawtooth National Forest where they were disturbed by human activity and the one pup got separated from his family."

They plan on following the tracks back to what they hope will be a den site so they can get the little cub back home.

Our paws are crossed for a happy ending to this story!

Via Dog Heirs

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Dog Found in House a Month After Fire – Could Your Dog Survive?

Lola getting care at the vet's after her harrowing ordeal

After a major fire badly damaged a home in Boston, the family dog, Lola, could not be found. Her owners assumed she had either run away or been killed in the fire.

But when one of her owners went back to the home yesterday, she made an amazing find: “…she actually heard this scratching from behind the door and she related to us that she had to break down the door, and she discovered Lola there. So Lola had been living in this locked property for about a month, ” Brian Adams, of the MSPCA, said in a report on WHDH.

She rushed the long-haired dachshund to the vet, where she’s getting hydration and other care for her woes. Amazingly, Lola may be going to her new home as early as today. There was no word from Lola’s owner, but we can only imagine she was overjoyed — and maybe kicking herself a little for not going back to the house sooner.

How did Lola survive? Would your dog be able to survive if something happened and he were left alone in your house for a week or two or a month? I guess that’s why I’ve heard people say to always leave the toilet lid up, since it’s a ready source of water. (And many a dog’s dream of the best tasting water in the house.) I wish Lola could divulge her survival secrets. Please share your contingency plans, or your ideas for how your dog could get by in a similar situation.

Here’s to a speedy recovery — both physical and mental — from Lola’s terrible ordeal!

View the original article here

Aflatoxins found in grains in Kroger-owned pet food plant

January 4, 2011

Tennessee and federal investigators have found high levels of aflatoxins, a contaminant that can cause serious illness, in grains at the plant where pet food recalled last month were manufactured. The plant is owned by Kroger Co., the grocery chain that sold the food under a variety of labels and from a number of different Kroger-owned retail outlets in 19 states. From The Tennessean:

“We took finished samples and grain samples that were stored and used to make pet food,” said Tom Womack, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, which conducted the inspection with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“We did find some elevated levels in some grains stored there,” Womack said.

A few days before Christmas, Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. announced the recall of several brands of dog and cat food made at a subsidiary, Delight Products Co., in Springfield because of the possible presence of aflatoxin, a toxic substance created by a fungus on corn and other crops. It can result in sluggishness, severe and bloody diarrhea, and death in animals that eat the tainted food.
Related

The recalled products were sold in 19 states, including Tennessee.

Delight Products remained in operation in the aftermath of the recall, Womack said.

Full story here.

We’ve had a large number of commentors, most of them first-time visitors to this blog, on our earlier post announcing the recall. It doesn’t look like Kroger has been responding to consumer complaints nor requests for assistance with veterinary expenses.

While Pet Connection has not confirmed any of the reports, a number of them concern pets who died after eating the recalled food.

We encourage pet owners to continue to contact Kroger, and to ask their pet’s veterinarians to contact their state veterinary office as well as the FDA, which has a pet food safety reporting system here.

And if anyone has heard back from the company, we’d like to hear from you, too!

View the original article here