Mountaintop Natural Pets

Source: DailyNews.com, July 5, 2009

A tougher city Housing Authority pet policy is causing confusion among dog owners and concern among rescuers who fear more homeless animals will linger in shelters.

“There’s been a lot of misinformation out there,” said Debora Bresch, a lawyer in the ASPCA’s government relations department.

As of May 1, tenants who live in New York City Housing Authority buildings are barred from owning pit bulls, Rottweilers and Doberman pinschers. In addition, the new policy bans any dog that weighs more than 25 pounds.

NYCHA residents who already have dogs can keep them – as long as they weigh under 40 pounds, which was the previous weight limit.

In addition, all current owners now have to register their dogs with NYCHA management.

Confused? So are the dozens of people who have called the ASPCA for advice in recent weeks, unsure about whether they can keep their beloved dogs.

“One woman who has a lovely pit bull that weighs under 40 pounds said she was having trouble registering her dog,” said Bresch. “We had to get involved and speak with the manager.”

NYCHA spokesman Howard Marder said the managers were well-informed about which dogs are allowed and which are not.

“All the managers are aware of the policy and the need to enforce the policy,” Marder said. “This policy change was requested by the tenants.”

But at the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, pet owners still weren’t sure which dogs were covered by the new policy.

Ivory Simpson was surprised to hear his 2-year-old dog Nemo, a Chihuahua/poodle mix, would not be allowed if he were getting the dog today because the pooch weighs more than 25 pounds.

The longtime resident and Nemo are grandfathered in under the new policy, but Simpson still thought the agency was barking up the wrong tree.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” said Simpson, 52. “You should be able to keep your dog if it has a license and had its shots.”

But another resident, Marthy Best, said there are some dangerous dogs that do not belong in the buildings.

“They are training them to fight,” Best, 57, said of some dog owners, as she walked Chase, her 5-year-old poodle.

Bresch countered that the NYCHA ban is too sweeping. The ASPCA believes weight and breed do not reflect a dog’s temperament, she said.

Other advocates agreed.

“This is a wrongheaded policy that doesn’t get into the root problem,” said Jane Hoffman of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, which rescues animals from shelters. “You need to go after the reckless owners who don’t treat their dogs like family members.”

NYCHA controls 8% of all rental housing in the city. About 5% of the city’s population live in those properties.

In the weeks leading up to the policy change, more than 170 dogs from New York City Animal Care and Control shelters were adopted out to NYCHA tenants. According to Bresch, who obtained the statistics, more than 100 of these dogs would no longer be allowed into those homes because of the new weight and breed restrictions.

“That’s a whole population of potential owners foreclosed to us,” said Hoffman. “Hundreds of dogs will be dying in shelters because of this policy.”

Source: Adapted from a report by Michael Edwards for The World Today, ABC News

They are called man’s best friend, but they could also be the best weapon in the fight against childhood obesity.

A new study indicates dog ownership may also be the antidote to junk food, computer games and television which many say causes childhood obesity.

Jo Salmon from Deakin University in Victoria was the lead researcher on the project which looked at obesity levels among kids with and without dogs.

“We found that young children who are aged around five to six years of age are 50 per cent less likely to be overweight or obese if they own a dog, compared to those who don’t own a dog,” Dr Salmon said.

The study also found there were health benefits for older children with dogs.

For 10 to 12-year-olds, 30 percent who did not have a dog suffered weight problems compared to 27 per cent of their peers who have a pet.

Dr Salmon says the health benefits come even if the children do not walk the dog regularly.

“We looked at whether or not the frequency of dog walking might explain this association of perhaps all children who own a dog or walking more frequently with their dog,” he said.

“But this didn’t explain it, so the way we interpret our data is we think maybe they are outside playing with the dog and just spending more energy generally and playing with the dog and in fact it’s not through dog walking, but just through playing.”

Dr Salmon says the results span the socio-economic divide.

“When we adjusted … the family’s economic status and the neighbourhood’s level of economic status, we found that this association between dog ownership and children’s weight status persisted,” he said.

And dog owners agree children and canines are a good mix.

John is the owner of Sam, a black Labrador and he also has children.

“Walking a dog is one thing, that’s very sort of perambulatory,” he said.

“But if you’re a kid and a dog, you chase balls, you play soccer with them, you rumble with them, wrestle them on the carpet even if you’re watching TV,” he said.

“So it’s activity and it’s also a mind thing as well.”

 http://www.avma.org

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