Tails in the News
By Renee Krejci
Stray Rescue is a finalist
for million-dollar makeover
Hundreds of pet lovers came out to support Stray Rescue of St. Louis on May 1 in its quest for a million-dollar shelter makeover. When online voting ended, the group ranked second out of the 974 shelters across the country registered for the contest, sponsored by Zootoo.com. Richard Thompson, founder of Zootoo.com, traveled the country visiting the 20 shelters that gained the most points in the online contest. Supporters gathered in St. Louis to welcome Thompson and to prove they have what it takes to win.
“It was awesome. I started crying,” Stray Rescue’s founder, Randy Grim, says. “I didn’t know we had such support.” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, retired CEO of A.G. Edwards Bob Bagby, and several city officials all came out to welcome Zootoo.
“Many times I say I like animals better than people, but for three hours I liked them both equally,” Grim says with a laugh.
The group plans to build a state-of-the-art shelter in a 16,500-square-foot building on Pine Street donated by A.G. Edwards. Stray Rescue currently has two shelters, which are 5,000 square feet combined. The million-dollar prize would make the new shelter possible, though Grim says they plan to go ahead with it no matter what. He hopes the new building will be able to house other animal-welfare groups as well.
“It’ll be a way to get them all a home,” he says. “We can really do some awesome work if we’re under one roof.”
On May 15, representatives from all 20 finalist organizations will travel to Florida, where the top three winners will be announced. The top three will then travel to New York on May 21, where the overall winner will be announced on live television. The runner-up will receive $10,000, and the 18 remaining finalists will get $5,000 each.
Grim is anxious and excited but has not lost sight of the cause. “The animals win no matter what. That is what counts,” he says. “Even if we don’t win, the sense of community I felt was worth more than $1 million.”
Wine club benefits local humane group
Do you love Fido and vino? Wine Necessities of Ballwin offers a Dog & Cat Lover’s Wine Club. For $30 a month, club members will receive two bottles of wine—red, white, or one of each—hand picked by the shop’s experts. Pet lovers can choose from cat or dog labels or even put their own pet’s picture on the label for an additional $3. Wine Necessities will donate 25 percent of all wine club sales to the Animal Protective Association of Missouri (APA).
To join the club, visit WineNecessities.com.
Olympic clean-up effort involves extermination of cats
The world is well aware of the massive clean-up effort under way in Beijing prior to the 2008 Olympic Summer Games—but people may not know that ridding the city of stray cats through grossly inhumane means is part of this endeavour. The Chinese government is reportedly engaged in the extermination of hundreds of thousands of stray cats throughout Beijing. Officials, according to the UK newspaper the Daily Mail, are systematically taking cats from off the streets to “death camps,” where the cats perish from starvation and disease.
The government is exacerbating the presence of cats roaming city streets through a propaganda campaign claiming that cats carry several diseases contagious to humans, including the SARS virus. The campaign has created mild hysteria in the population. Animal activists say the fear of contracting diseases from their cats is prompting many guardians to abandon them.
The government claims that citizens can adopt stray cats from 12 animal control centers throughout the city, but animal activists say that accessibility to these facilities is severely limited. A group that had adopted 30 cats from one compound reported that half of the cats subsequently died from disease. The government has since barred the group from entrance to the pounds.
An estimated 500,000 cats have been culled by the Chinese government thus far. —Melissa Wiley
Pet detective finds pets, saves lives
Armed with walkie-talkies and her search dog, Murphy, Bonnie Hale has traveled from St. Louis to Knoxville to search for an Azawakh Hound and driven 11 hours to Minneapolis in search of an Italian Greyhound—all just a day in the life of a
lost-pet specialist.
In the year since she and Murphy were trained, the duo has taken on around 25 lost pet cases in the St. Louis area and beyond. Murphy frequently perfects his scent work using volunteers’ cats and dogs hidden in crates. Around the house, Hale hides tea bags and other items with distinctive scents for Murphy to find.
Hale is one of fewer than 30 pet detectives listed on MissingPetPartnership.org, a site that offers tips and referrals for those who have lost pets. In an age in which pets are considered more like family, pet parents are going to greater lengths to find their loved ones when they go missing.
“People will look for years,” Hale says. “Pets are like family members. You don’t just ‘get another cat;’ you want to find that cat.”
When Martha Freeman’s 3-year-old cat, Tucker, recently escaped from the deck of her Kirkwood home, she vowed to do anything to find him. She and her husband had already lost three of their cats when their house caught on fire in September.
“We’ve been through so much; the thought of losing another one was too much,” she recalls.
Tucker disappeared at night on Friday, March 21. On Saturday morning, Freeman and her husband, Tom Butzen, went online in search of tips for finding lost pets. They found Hale on MissingPetPartnership.org, and Freeman immediately gave her a call. Hale was out camping with her husband and immediately dropped everything to come to Freeman and Butzen’s aid.
“She called me within 12 hours, which is great. Most people wait for days or a week,” Hale says. When Hale and Murphy arrived, Freeman provided Murphy with one of Tucker’s toys so he could get the cat’s scent. Hale then told him, “Find the kitty!” They searched around the neighborhood until they came upon an old shed about 150 yards from Freeman and Butzen’s house. The outside of the building was full of holes, and the inside was cluttered with old furniture and other items. The building piqued Murphy’s interest, but it was too cluttered for him to move around. Freeman had also checked the building earlier, with no sign of Tucker. After searching around the area, they returned to the old shed. This time Murphy was very adamant that something was alive in the shed. Freeman started rummaging inside. Sure enough, in the back corner she found two very scared kitty eyes. Murphy and Hale ran outside and guarded possible exits, while Freeman ran home to grab Tucker’s carrier because he was too scared to come out.
“Indoor-only cats are shocked into survival mode and become silent,” Hale explains. This is why Tucker did not come out previously when Freeman went into the shed and called his name. “We would have never found Tucker without [Hale and Murphy],” Freeman says. “I have no doubt in my mind they saved Tucker’s life.”
Tucker is now safe at home, but there are still many lost pets trying to find their way back home. Hale recommends that pet parents make big neon posters instead of 8-by-11-inch flyers when their pet is lost. There are also many steps people can take before their pet goes missing to ensure her safe return.
“People need to get in the routine of checking their pet’s ID tag to make sure it’s still attached and legible,” Hale says. “I looked down the other day, and Murphy’s tag was missing. I always have extra tags on hand.” Microchipping is also a great option, but she notes it’s only as good as the last update. If a pet was rescued from a shelter or group, make sure his contact information is updated and his microchip number is on file. Keep easily accessible, up-to-date photos of your pet that could be used on a poster on hand. As an extra precaution, give the photos to a friend or family member in case you are out of town or there’s a natural disaster when your pet is lost.
“People who really want to go above and beyond should make a scent sample of each of their pets in case they have to hire a trailing dog,” Hale says. All you have to do is take a clean paper towel that no one has touched and rub it over your pet for three minutes, making sure to get her mouth, feet, and base of tail, then put it in a Ziploc bag. Label it with the pet’s name and date, and put it in the freezer. You should change it yearly. Hale especially encourages this for households with multiple pets because it’s hard to get just one pet’s scent off a toy or other item in the house.
For more information, visit LostPetSpecialist.com.
