Tails in the News

By Cyndi Lieske

Rabbit Rescue a contender for ZooToo shelter makeover

Midwest Rabbit Rescue & Re-home (MRRR) in Plymouth, is in sixth place in ZooToo.com’s  $1-million shelter makeover contest. “We are the only exclusively rabbit rescue in the top 20 and the only shelter from Michigan,” says group vice president, Debbie Toundaian.

Judges are set to visit Midwest Rabbit Rescue & Re-home in late April and the winner of the contest will be announced at the end of May. Voting for the top shelters ended on March 31. “The Friday before the contest ended, we were number 10 for quite a few weeks,” she says. “Then we dropped to 21. We made sure everyone voted, and we worked to gather support. We rose up to number seven when it closed. After they recalculated, we are now number six.”

The first-place winner will receive a $1-million makeover. The second-place winner will receive $10,000, and the remaining 18 will be awarded $5,000 each. While it would be wonderful to win a top prize, group members feel like winners simply for being in the top 10, Toundaian says.
“I can’t tell you how much it means, with the higher exposure we’ve had from this,” she says. “We have had higher [rates of] adoptions, and we have had more people coming in to the shelter.”

The no-kill shelter for domestic rabbits was founded in 2005. Currently the organization houses about 160 rabbits in a warehouse.

For more information, visit RabbitRR.org.

Ann Arbor City Council discusses chickens as pets

A proposed amendment to Ann Arbor’s pet ordinance to allow property owners to care for up to four hens has gone before the City Council. Roosters are prohibited under the proposal. If approved, property owners would have to apply for a permit to keep chickens, agree to house them in a fenced, covered enclosure, and abide by noise laws that prohibit any sounds that disturb neighbors between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

A city official says the matter is scheduled for discussion at the council’s meeting in April and set for a second review in May. Council member Stephen Kunselman brought the proposal to the council in March.

Last Chance Rescue volunteers help needy, abandoned pets

Two volunteers from Last Chance Rescue are helping animals in their community in very different but meaningful ways. Edith Campbell helps dogs in poor neighborhoods in Flint; Jill Crouse hand feeds orphaned kittens and puppies at her home in Hartland. Both women have been praised by organizers at Last Chance Rescue.

Campbell, 68, volunteers daily on the north side of Flint in an area that is home to many dogs who need food and shelter. “I have many regulars now,” Campbell says, estimating that she has about a dozen dogs she visits weekly. “I will check on them. I can’t take everybody’s dog; sometimes I just walk away and cry when I get home.”

For 25 years, Campbell has driven through neighborhoods on the lookout for dogs in need. She carries with her dog food, straw, and sometimes, dog houses. “They know me as the ‘dog lady,’” she says. “I will get various kinds of calls. It usually starts off with free food.”

Whenever she can, Campbell arranges for low-cost spaying and neutering for the dogs. Often caretakers do not want to alter the dogs because they cannot afford to or because they want to breed them, she explains. Recently Campbell spent two months stalking a large female Rottweiler mix who was abandoned when her guardians died. The pooch had recently given birth, and Campbell was able to tranquilize her and catch her 13 puppies. The mom and puppies are doing well, but need permanent homes or someone to care for them until one can be found.

“I depend on our foster homes, but they are scarce,” Campbell says. “We have lost foster homes. It is really a complex problem.” The dogs Campbell rescues are shown each week at Petsmart in Flint and Grand Blanc.
In Hartland, Jill Crouse helps Last Chance Rescue-Howell by bottle feeding orphaned puppies and kittens. One of Crouse’s recent wards was a Pit Bull mix who not only was rejected by his mother, but also had a cleft lip and palate.

“It’s not real common,” Crouse says. “In a situation like this, sometimes they have to be euthanized. Fortunately, that didn’t happen to him.” The 3-week-old pup, named Gus, was half the size of his littermates, Crouse says. Dr. Erica Hawker, a veterinarian at Union Lake Veterinary Clinic and a friend of Crouse’s, agreed to repair the pup’s lip and palate. After two surgeries, Gus has recovered and is now living with his new caretakers in Milford. “He’s bigger than some of his sisters now,” Crouse notes.
Crouse has volunteered for about eight years and mostly fosters abandoned kittens. She is able to keep the kittens close by for round-the-clock feedings while she meets with clients at her hairstyling business. “I keep the kittens with me all the time,” she says. “People like that when they come here they get to see the pets.”

TV host provides private obedience lessons for Baghdad rescue dogs

Joel Silverman, host of Animal Planet’s Good Dog U, recently traveled to Michigan to work with Mama and Boris, two mixed-breed dogs rescued from the front lines of Baghdad.

The pooches were rescued after Army Sgt. Peter Neesley, the soldier who cared for them, died. They now live with the his  family in Grosse Pointe Farms. Mama, an 18-month-old dog, and Boris, her 5-month-old pup, were treated to lessons with Silverman at Sgt. Neesley’s mother’s home.
“Joel Silverman came and worked with them for a week,” says Carey Neesley, sister of Sgt. Neesley. “We basically worked on ‘stay’ that whole time. He is hoping to come back at the end of April to work with them again. He wanted to come here and get to know the dogs and their personalities. He worked with them to see how they would react to different situations.”

The mother and pup were not allowed to live on the base in Baghdad, so Sgt. Neesley and some friends built a dog house for the pair and regularly fed them. After Sgt. Neesley’s unexpected death on Christmas Day 2007, his family worked with a number of organizations to bring the strays to safety. In February, after a 7,000-mile journey, Mama and Boris met Christine and Carey Neesley, mother and sister of Sgt. Neesley. Their home includes a pair of Golden Retrievers, 8-year-old littermates Gussie and Noah.“They are adjusting really well,” Carey Neesley says. “They are much healthier. Both dogs had mange pretty bad. Boris was a real mess. He has all his hair back on his legs and his chest and his tummy. He looks much better.” Both Mama and Boris were around 10 pounds underweight when they first arrived, and they have been rapidly catching up. “They love playing, and the two of them chase each other around the backyard,” Neesley enthuses about the high-energy pooches.

The dogs’ plight was broadcast around the world after Detroit news stations first covered the story, Neesley says.  After the initial story aired, she was contacted by John Wagner of Gryphon Airlines, who offered to fly to Iraq to pick up the dogs, and Best Friends Animal Society, who offered to help transport them to Michigan. A private security team assisted with finding the dogs in Iraq, and a veterinarian with the Iraqi Animal Welfare Society drove to north Baghdad to obtain vaccines for the dogs. Sen. Carl Levin’s office assisted with paperwork, Neesley says.

Her family is astounded by the outpouring of support from the community.“I think we lose faith in humanity sometimes, and we forget the kind of compassion that people have,” she says. “When something happens like this, it brings out the best in people, and that is certainly what we saw. It was an incredible international effort.”

May marks Pet Cancer Awareness Month

Cancer is now the leading cause of death among cats and dogs, and many experts are urging pet guardians to educate themselves on this disease. In order to raise awareness of cancer in pets, Connecticut-based pet-food company Blue Buffalo has sponsored Pet Cancer Awareness Month in May since 2003.

In addition to creating awareness, the company has a mission to provide information to pet guardians and to raise money for the Blue Buffalo Foundation for Cancer Research, which was established in 2003 and provides funding to universities and clinics for cancer research in pets. So far, the company has raised more than $100,000 to support research efforts at Ohio State University, the University of Tennessee, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Colorado State University, and North Carolina State University.

Many veterinarians believe that the recent increase in cancer among pets is due to the increase in environmental toxins. Other potential causes of cancer include chemicalized foods (foods that contain additives and preservatives), over-vaccination (which can weaken pets’ immune systems), and genetics (certain breeds are more prone to cancer due to improper breeding practices).
The Veterinary Cancer Society (VCS) recommends that guardians routinely look for the following early warning signs of cancer in their pets:

• abnormal, persistent swelling
• sores that do not heal
• loss of weight
• loss of appetite
• bleeding or discharge from any body opening
• offensive odor
• difficulty eating or swallowing
• hesitation to exercise or loss of stamina
• persistent lameness or stiffness
• difficulty breathing, urinating, or defecating.

The VCS urges guardians who detect any of these symptoms in their pets to visit a veterinarian for further evaluation. For more information on Pet Cancer Awareness Month, visit PetCancerAwareness.org, where you can make a donation or purchase a “Protect Our Pets” wristband. In-store specialists from Blue Buffalo will be in pet stores nationwide all month distributing flyers and selling wristbands. Additionally, one dollar from every bag of Blue Buffalo pet food sold in May will support the Blue Buffalo Foundation for Cancer Research.  —Jaime A. Hubbell