Vet Says Owners Should Exercise With Their Dogs Based On Specific Needs To Prevent Obesity

Vet Says Owners Should Exercise With Their Dogs Based On Specific Needs To Prevent Obesity

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Bad To The Bone: Professor Advises Against Raw Meat Diet For Pets

Bad To The Bone: Professor Advises Against Raw Meat Diet For Pets

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Robert Backus, assistant professor and director of the Nestle Purina Endowed Small Animal Nutrition Program, added his voice to the raw diet debate. Well you can see where he's coming from. Be unscientific response is where is the data that this diet helps dogs health? Is there less cancer, fewer obese dogs, longer lived dogs?

Los Angeles new Animal Service Chief

Two days ago, I heard Ed Boks interviewed by Larry Mantle on KPCC's "Air Talk."
Ed, a former minister came off very well; intelligent and passionate. I think during his tenure the department will improve a lot.

One striking point was his proposed change regarding the treatment of feral cats. He explained the that the policy of "take and kill" causes the feral cat population to increase! Ed Blok wants to change the policy to 'TNR' - take, neuter and return. Counter-intuitively, this policy will cause the population to decrease in about 4 years. From my ethology studies I understand why. When animal populations increase to the point that resources to sustain them become scarce, then there are fewer matings and each mating produces fewer progeny. By returning the neutered cats to their neighborhoods, the population will put higher demands on the resources for survival and the unneutered cats will breed less often and have fewer kittens. He wants to enlist those who are feeding feral cats as his 'herds-keepers' to get the cats in to be neutered.

He also predicts that the moral of the department will improve by accepting more input from those "in the trenches." One exciting idea from a staff-member is "Seniors for Seniors" where senior people will be matched with senior animals and allowed to adopt them for free. This makes great sense because often older dogs and cats are not very active and are more suited for the slower pace of the retired and elderly.

Under his stewardship, Boks said, the euthanasia rate at New York City's animal agency dropped by 30% and the adoption rate shot up by 127%. The statistics on the New York City Animal Care & Control website roughly bear that out. An inspiring interview.
Best of Luck to Ed and the department. Ed called for volunteers. Any help will be welcome.

Thought of the day

I had a thought ...