Archive for April, 2010
Dogs are carnivores and need a lot of protein in the food they eat. They get that protein from two kinds of ingredients in dog food: meat (such as beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and fish) and plants. This post talks about meat protein in dog food.
Most of us find the labels that identify the meat protein in dog food confusing — listing ingredients such as “chicken,” “chicken meal,” or “chicken by product meal.” You might think you know what some of the terms mean. But watch out! The image of that the word “chicken” conjures in your mind can be misleading.
Little, if any, actual meat from that chicken — or cow, lamb, or pig — actually got… Continue reading
Almost from the time she’d first come to our house, our fearful dog Faith had been living on the front porch. For weeks now, we’d been trying to lure her into the house by putting her food bowl just inside the threshold of the front door. But all our attempts had failed. Going through the open doorway was just too scary for her to do.
By now it was mid-November, and the weather was turning colder and colder every day. We couldn’t let Faith spend the winter outside. So we decided to try to get her into the basement through the door in the garage. But we would have to do it through “gentle persuasion” because we couldn’t get a… Continue reading
Dog abuse — and animal abuse in general — can take many forms:
- In Tennessee, someone dumps a three-month-old puppy — my future fearful dog Faith — in the woods, where she lives for a month before showing up at our house.
- In Arkansas, pretending she runs an animal shelter, a woman convinces rescue groups in Louisiana to send her animals they rescued after Hurricane Katrina. But authorities discover that she and her husband are dog hoarders. They have 477 dogs. Some dogs died in captivity while others developed serious psychological problems.
- In Massachusetts, a five-month-old Labrador puppy, only partially housebroken, poops on her “caretaker’s” floor. To punish her, the puppy’s “guardian” has two men beat and stab her before a police officer