Kim Jong-un has declared that pet dogs are a symbol of capitalist 'decadence' and ordered that dogs in Pyongyang be rounded up - and owners are fearful that their beloved pets are being used to solve the nation's food shortages.
Dictator Kim announced in July that owning a pet is now against the law, denouncing having a dog at home as 'a tainted trend of bourgeois ideology'.
'Authorities have identified households with pet dogs and are forcing them to give them up or forcefully confiscating them and putting them down', a source told South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
A recent UN report stated that as many as 60 percent of North Korea's 25.5 million people are facing 'widespread food shortages' that have been worsened by international sanctions imposed on the regime for its nuclear missile programmes.
Dog meat has long been considered a delicacy on the Korean Peninsula, although the tradition of eating dogs is gradually fading out in South Korea.
Still, an estimated 1 million dogs are reared on farms to be consumed every year in the South.
Man's best friend is still a staple on the menu in the North, however, with a number of dedicated dog restaurants in Pyongyang.
Read the rest here.
BRUNETE, Spain — In the worldwide battle to get dog owners to clean up after their pets, enter Brunete, a middle-class suburb of Madrid fed up with dirty parks and sidewalks.Read the rest here.
Some cities hand out steep fines. But in these tough economic times, the mayor here, Borja Gutiérrez, didn’t much like that idea. Instead, this town engaged a small army of volunteers to bag it, box it and send it back to its owners.
“It’s your dog, it’s your dog poop,” Mr. Gutiérrez said. “We are just returning it to you.”
Until now, Brunete’s claim to fame, if it had one, was that it sustained heavy damage in the Spanish Civil War. But these days, this leafy hamlet has made headlines all over Spain. Residents say that strangers take note when they say they live in Brunete.
At a recent political event, Mr. Gutiérrez said, the mayor of Madrid sought him out.
“She said, ‘Well, it is not many mayors who think sending dog poop to voters is a good idea,'” Mr. Gutiérrez said. “'How did you dare?'”
President George W. Bush’s dog Barney has died of lymphoma at the age of 12, the former president said in a statement Friday.“Barney was by my side during our eight years in the White House,” Bush wrote. “He never discussed politics and was always a faithful friend. Laura and I will miss our pal.”Read the rest here.
A man wrote a letter to a small hotel in a Midwest town he planned to visit on his vacation.From here.
He wrote: "I would very much like to bring my dog with me. He is well-groomed and very well behaved. Would you be willing to permit me to keep him in my room with me at night?"
An immediate reply came from the hotel owner, who wrote: SIR: "I’ve been operating this hotel for many years. In all that time, I’ve never had a dog steal towels, bedclothes, silverware, or pictures off the walls.
I’ve never had to evict a dog in the middle of the night for being drunk and disorderly. And I’ve never had a dog run out on a hotel bill. Yes, indeed, your dog is welcome at my hotel. And, if your dog will vouch for you, you’re welcome to stay here, too."
A man from southern Israel divorced his wife this week because she had brought 550 cats into their home.Source
The husband, apparently not a cat lover, told the Rabbinical Court in Beersheba that he was unable to sleep in his bedroom because the surface of the marital bed was constantly covered with cats who refused to lie on the floor.
The man, in his divorce request, complained that the cats also blocked his access to the bathroom and did not allow him to prepare meals in the kitchen, the Hebrew daily Maariv reported Wednesday. When he sat to eat, cats jumped onto the table and stole his food.
The couple attempted reconciliation at the behest of the rabbinical court. The wife, however, was unable to part from her cats… and preferred to part from her husband.
A new ruling makes it easier for anyone attacked by a pit bull or pit bull mix in Maryland to take legal action against the dog's owner.Read the rest here.
The Maryland Court of Appeals ruling declares pit bulls as a breed are "inherently dangerous," and the owner of a pit bull or a cross-bred pit that attacks is strictly liable for damages, as is any landlord who rents to a pit bull owner.
It’s been four months, and yet if somebody asks me about that day, my voice will crack. By “that day,” I mean the day I came home from work to find my Doberman, Red, splayed out on my bedroom floor, his head to one side, his body lifeless but still warm. It’s an image I can’t seem to shake, as much as I try.Read the rest here.
I’m no stranger to death. I was a mess of anger and confusion when my father, suffering the aftermath of a stroke, took his last gasps one day in 1995, his children gathered around his hospital bed. And three years later, the death of my sweet, beloved sister Bonny after a withering battle with brain cancer was nothing short of heartbreaking. Yet somehow, and much to my distress, the death of my dog seems even harder. I haven’t felt grief quite like this since, well, the death of my previous dog five years ago.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (WSVN) -- The family of a dog shot by police is glad their pet survived, but the father is concerned after officers opened fire so close to his son.Read the rest here.
The Jones' family dog "Baxter" is recovering but can barely move after being shot several times.
Friday night, Pembroke Pines Police were called out to the Jones' house along Southwest 171st Terrace after reports that Baxter was on the loose.
Thirteen-year-old Cameron Jones witnessed everything as police arrived. "When I got outside they said, 'Get your dog or we are going to shoot him,'" said Cameron. "They gave me two seconds and shot him six times."
The family immediately rushed Baxter to an animal hospital. "It just felt like a movie, I was so traumatized. It didn't feel right that they shot him six times," said Cameron.
SAN JOSE -- Police are looking for several men who stomped to death a 4-pound mini-Yorkshire terrier that was trying to protect its owner from an attack in San Jose over the weekend, authorities said.Read the rest here.
The dog's owner said he was walking the 6-year-old dog, Shadow, at Winchester Boulevard and Colonial Way about 2 p.m. Saturday when three men approached and asked if he was a gang member.
The owner, a 32-year-old floor installer who asked that his name be withheld for safety reasons, said he had denied gang involvement, but the men attacked him anyway.
The owner said he had tried to run with his dog but tripped, and the men began kicking and hitting him. He heard the small dog barking and trying to protect him.
The men beat him for about a minute. Once they ran off, the man said, he looked at his dog and "just saw a big puddle of blood."
The dog died on the way to a veterinary hospital, he said.
"He wasn't making too many noises, but I could see his eyes and that's when I broke down," he said. "They were still blinking a little bit, but so much blood was leaking out of him. I knew the moment he died in my arms. I heard him take his last breath and just kept thinking, 'There's no way this is happening.' "
Capt. Jay Terrado of the San Jose Animal Care and Services agency said necropsy reports showed that Shadow died of head trauma and suffered injuries "consistent with being stomped and kicked."
As nearly anyone who has adopted a dog or cat from a shelter can attest, there’s something special about a rescued pet; it’s as if the animal senses he’s been given a second chance at life. That’s certainly the case with Juno, a Belgian Malinois who was rescued from a shelter just days before she was to be euthanized. But since coming to live with her family in Alcoa, Tenn., Juno has taken on the role of rescuer to four-year-old Lucas Hembree.Read the rest here.
Lucas suffers from Sanfilippo syndrome, an inherited, metabolic disease caused by the absence or malfunctioning of an enzyme needed to break down long sugar molecules. As the disease progresses, children lose the ability to speak, walk and eat. The disease also causes severe neurological damage that leads to aggressive behavior, hyperactivity and seizures.
“The most catastrophic thing parents hear when they learn their child has this disease is that there’s no cure or treatment available,” says Lucas’ father, Chester.
Why Men Have Dogs:
1. The later you are, the more excited your dogs are to see you.
2. Dogs don’t notice if you call them by another dog’s name.
3. Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor.
4. A dog’s parents never visit.
5. Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across.
6. You never have to wait for a dog; they’re ready to go 24 hours a day.
7. Dogs like to go hunting and fishing.
8. A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, "If I died, would you get another dog?"
9. If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and give them away.
10. A dog will let you put a studded collar on it without calling you a pervert.
11. If a dog smells another dog on you, they don’t get mad. They just think it’s interesting.
13.. Dogs like to ride in the back of a pickup truck.
And last, but not least:
14.. If a dog leaves, it won’t take half of your stuff.
A north Florida man who whose arm was torn off in a dog attack has died.Source.
Officials say 74-year-old Roy McSweeney died Wednesday afternoon in a Gainesville Hospital.
Jennifer Biewend, his family's attorney, says McSweeney suffered brain damage from severe blood loss when the dogs tore off one arm and partially removed the other. The dogs -- either pit bulls or pit mixes -- also attacked the man's face. The attack occurred June 10 as the man was doing yard work.
Investigators found that the dogs broke loose from the yard of McSweeney's next-door neighbor, Deanna Blitch. The dogs were taken by officials and euthanized. No charges have been filed, but an investigation continues.
