Mountaintop Natural Pets

Source: AFP.com, August 30,2010

TARQUINIA, Italy — This summer, Italy’s special squad of rescue workers were again chalking up success: some 300 dogs ready to help save lives on dozens of Italian beaches.

In early August in Tarquinia, a town about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Rome, the dogs and their human partners saved on the same day two girls, who had fallen off their boat and two others, who had fallen off an inflatable raft.

The labradors, golden retrievers and Newfoundlands trained by the Italian School for Rescue Dogs (http://www.waterrescuedogs.com/) are credited with saving more than 100 lives, including a dozen this year alone.

“Compared to the rest of the world, the school is the only one that systematically monitors beaches every summer with human-canine units,” Roberto Gasbarri, the school’s coordinator for central-southern Italy, told AFP.

The teams work in most of Italy’s 20 regions, even landlocked ones such as northern Trentino Alto-Adige, where rescuers monitor lakes.

Their school, financed by local governments like regions and municipalities, is recognised by Italy’s civil protection and coordinated by local coast guards around the country.

“It’s been five years now that we’ve been relying on the school,” said Lamberto Alessandro, the head of the coastguard in Tarquinia.

“Their help is very valuable to us and they are absolutely trustworthy,” he said, as dogs in lifejackets leapt off boats for practice runs.

“The five tests to get the license are pretty difficult. You need to swim almost as fast as your dog, which is not as easy as it sounds,” said Paola de Santis, 36, who began training this year with her five-year-old lab Teo.

The rescuer certificate for dogs and owners requires one year of training both on the ground and on water, and the teams must train and pass tests each year before the summer season.

The next training round is set to start in mid-September.

Techniques include beach starts with lifesaver in hand or sea rescues from a raft or a helicopter.

“We developed a special system that can allow us to save three people at a time,” Gasbarri said. “The (human) rescuer ties two people to the dog and is then free to take care of the third person,” Gasbarri said.

“That way we avoid tiring back-and-forths,” he added.

For lifeguards, the most dangerous moment in the rescue is bringing back the victim.

In this phase, “the dog is a real engine that helps bring the person back even if he or she resists or is agitated,” Gasbarri said.

Gasbarri said the dogs are never scared of the water and tides as for them, rescues and training are much like a game.

“There are some very dangerous areas, … and when there are large waves and a strong current, only a dog can intervene since, unlike humans, they don’t feel fear in dangerous situations,” said Mauro Mazzola, the mayor of Tarquinia.

The golden retrievers, labradors and Newfoundlands that the school recruits are docile and calm animals and their physical characteristics make them better rescuers.
“They are better swimmers than others because their coat lets out water quickly and they have webbed paws, which allows them to push water behind them and swim faster than other dogs,” de Santis said as her dog Teo shook the water off his coat in apparent approval.
After rescues, especially for children, a dog is a calming presence.

“The patting, kisses and play really help lessen the child’s shock after the danger,” Gasbarri said.

Source: ketv.com, June 8, 2010

Kody Connick said he was never much of a student, let alone a writer. He hated English and got into trouble at school.

“It was just seeing friends and trying to get by through the day,” he said.

But the 14-year-old teen from Lincoln recently put fingers to the keyboard and is now selling his story.  Connick got sick last winter and something sparked an unrealized passion. He sat down and began writing about dogfighting.  His narrator is a pit bull.

Through the dog’s eyes, the reader is witness to the horror, Connick said.”Fighting and chomping on Shadow’s neck, I tasted blood. I tasted madness, then I tasted sorrow,” the teen read from the book, which has sold 60 copies and is in its second printing.  “My owner Jake shouted, ‘Go get him, be the king you’re meant to be tonight. Tear his heart out,’” Connick read.

He was compelled to write about the cruel way people treat pit bulls and the notorious reputation the dogs possess.”It’s how you train a dog and it’s how you treat it.  So there’s no bad dog, ever,” Connick said.  He said he drew upon his own experience with friends who own pit bulls, researched the issue and then began to write.

“In the first two days, I had 20 pages done,” he said.  Four months later, Wild Hearts was finished. It’s a story about a juvenile delinquent and a pit bull whose lives become intertwined.

Kevin Connick couldn’t believe what his son had written.”Very detailed, very good story — I was shocked,” the boy’s father said.

Kody said people see him as wanting to be a gangster, a bad kid. The book has changed the way people look at him and the way he looks at school, he said.”It actually opened my eyes that I could do something if I worked hard enough and focused,” Connick said.

He plans on writing another book in the future. He said he’s also paying more attention in school and wants to go to college.

Source: Fox59.com, May 18, 2010

A coroner says an Ohio woman suffered a heart attack before collapsing in her driveway while bringing in the pet Rottweiler that was destroyed after being blamed for mauling her to death.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller said Tuesday that there were few dog bites on 63-year-old Carolyn Baker of Cleveland Heights, who died in February. He says there were signs of pawing, showing that “the dog was trying to help her.”

Baker had gone outside in a nightgown to bring in the 140-pound dog named Zeus. Miller says hypothermia also contributed to the death of Baker, who was outdoors for several hours before a neighbor heard the animal barking.

Baker’s family had believed the 9-year-old dog was trying to rescue her.

The Cleveland Municipal Court ordered the dog destroyed in April.

Source: VisaliaTimes, May 8, 2010

Lino Camacho of Farmersville has a habit of saving lives and protecting the defenseless.

The 17-year-old did it again Thursday, witnesses and police reported, in what could easily have been a tragic loss of life.

“This young man chose to save a precious young life, endangering his own in the process,” said Lt. Mike Marquez of the Farmersville Police Department.

Camacho snatched life from the jaws of death, as 18-month old Nevaeh Baxter was attacked by a family pet — a mixed-breed dog, part German shepherd and part boxer — around 9:20 a.m. Thursday.

“Seniors didn’t have to go in early Thursday because of STAR testing [at Farmersville High School],” Camacho said. “That turned out to be a very lucky thing.”

Camacho and his brother Luis, 19, who will be attending College of the Sequoias this fall, heard what Lino thought were “two dogs fighting.”

However, one of those sounds was the screaming of the girl as she was attacked. That was what Lino saw as he ran across the street and scaled two fences to reach the scene in the 500 block of North Ventura Street in Farmersville.

Lino’s athleticism — he played soccer for Farmersville’s championship boys soccer squad — proved valuable.

“I couldn’t have gotten there in time,” Luis said. “By the time I got to the backyard by going on the roof, I saw Lino grabbing the dog with a chokehold.”

Lino said he would have killed the dog if he had to — but managed to just hang on until help arrived. The dog is now being sheltered at the Valley Oak SPCA until a decision is made under Farmersville’s vicious-dog ordinance on whether to euthanize the animal.

Little Nevaeh underwent surgery Friday at Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center for several injuries, including puncture wounds and a cut to the face which affected at least one eye. She is listed in “critical but stable” condition, Marquez said.

“It looks like the eye will be saved,” said Cynthia Anaya, Lino’s mother and a friend of Nevaeh’s family.

More rescues

Four years ago, as a freshman at Tulare Union High School, Lino saved a classmate from drowning in the school’s pool, Luis said.

“This one guy was diving in and never came back up,” Luis said.

Lino said he instinctively jumped in and managed to keep the struggling, panicky boy’s head above water.

“He was kicking me all over the place, but I kept grabbing at him until I could get him to the [pool's] edge,” Lino said.

In another more recent incident, Lino saved his cousin Veronica Anaya from what she said was a “dangerous snake.”

“This snake was hissing and trying to strike at me,” Anaya said.

Lino took care of the problem by simply killing the snake, she said.

“That was the only thing he could do,” Anaya said.

Some people were born to save others, said Lino’s uncle, Joe Anaya III.

“That’s what Lino wants to do when he gets older,” Joe said. “He wants to save lives. He certainly did the right thing this time around.”

Source: bakersfield.com, May 6, 2010

Two felony animal cruelty charges, punishable by up to three years in prison, were filed Thursday against a man stemming from the hogtying of a pit bull found April 22 abandoned and hungry in a field of mud southwest of Lamont.

James D. Worley, 52, who was arrested April 26, will be arraigned Friday in the Lamont division of Kern County Superior Court.

The first charge alleges maiming or torturing the dog and the second alleges deprivation of drink or food. The maximum punishment for the felony charges is three years in prison, Assistant District Attorney Michael Saleen said.

Worley is also charged with a misdemeanor count of dog abandonment.

As of Thursday afternoon, nearly 2,000 people had signed a petition asking that the suspect be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, according to the petition website.

The dog was wrapped around its mouth, neck and legs with boot laces. It was found in a field off Adobe Road near Sandrini Road.

The dog was named England after Animal Control Officer Kristen England, who responded to a call and took the dog to the Kern County Animal Shelter.

An animal rescue group, The Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, founded by Nancy Heigl and her daughter, actress Katherine Heigl, picked up England on Wednesday with the intention of rehabilitating the dog for possible future adoption.

Source: MatterofTrust.org

Anyone and Everyone, please share this with everyone you know!!

Salons, groomers, individuals can sign up to donate hair and fur clippins and nylons for our Oil Spill Booms.  The program sign up is free, fast and helps them coordinate the masses of donations.

Thousands of pounds of hair and nylons are coming in by UPS and FED EX from every State in the US and from Canada, Brazil, France, UK… Booms are being made all along the Gulf Coast near beaches and marshes. What a community feeling!

Visit MatterofTrust.org today!!

Source: TBO.com, April 5, 2010

A 1-year-old puppy-size bundle of fur is credited with alerting a sleeping family to fire spreading through their Clearwater home early this morning.

The incessant barking of the family’s Shih Tzu, Scooter, awoke the family and gave them time to escape a fire that started in a vehicle parked in the driveway of their home on Byram Drive.

“She woke us up. She started barking,” said Roberto Segovia, 18-year-old son of homeowners Ocsar and Celsa Segovia.

“The dog usually barks and we were just like minding our own business, but she kept on barking until we woke up just to see what’s happening,” he said as friends and neighbors helped board up the home severely damaged by the fire.

His father saw the glow of flames and got the rest of the family moving to safety.

All three people along with Scooter were outside when firefighters arrived about 5:30 a.m., Clearwater Fire and Rescue said.

The fire started in a 2001 Ford Expedition in the driveway parked about 4 feet from the house and spread to the attic, the fire department said. It took firefighters about 40 minutes to put out the flames.

The car was not running, though the family used it the day before, Roberto Segovia said. It ran fine then.

Firefighters had to pull down parts of the ceiling to get at flames roaring through the attic. The interior is a shambles with ash, ruined ceiling material and water, Roberto Segovia said.

The house in uninhabitable and the American Red Cross is helping the family find a place to live.

Roberto Segovia described the family pet firefighters hailed as a hero as a tiny furball.

“It’s just all fur,” he said. “It moves.”

Source: azcentral.com, April 6, 2010

Kay Harrison figured there was some kind of trouble when her dog, Sammy, started barking and wouldn’t stop outside her place in Tonopah.

Harrison said she stepped out to see what was going on, and the dog jumped in front of her, blocking her from taking another step. Harrison said she heard a rattle and leaned to see a rattlesnake in a flower bed by the door.

“She saved my life,” Harrison said of her 8-year-old Catahoula. “She got between me and the snake.

Warmer weather means venomous snakes and other poisonous creatures are getting more active after winter hibernation.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department says people need to be more vigilant.

“You just need to watch where you put your hands and feet,” said Thomas R. Jones, the agency’s amphibians and reptiles program manager.

The snake bit Sammy on the head. Harrison thinks it happened when she turned to yell for help. The dog immediately got lethargic and suffered acute pain. Harrison could hardly get her into a Jeep for the trip to the veterinarian.

Swelling eventually closed one of her eyes, but Sammy made it. The dog goes home today after about five days in a Buckeye veterinary clinic.

Wally Wass, a veterinarian who works part-time in the clinic, said the dog probably would not have survived without the snake-bite vaccine he got last summer.