For Pet Owners, Too, Toys a Reason for Concern

When Lane Nemeth, who founded Discovery Toys in 1978 and sold the company to Avon two decades later, decided to start a pet products company a few years ago, one of the first things she did was to look for regulations about how to manufacture pet toys safely.

She could not find any.

“It was totally shocking,” said Ms. Nemeth, whose company, Petlane, sells items like doggie tiaras and squirrel-shaped chew toys. “I was stunned because I had come from such a highly regulated industry to one that has no regulations.”

After the pet food contamination this year, which is believed to have caused the deaths of at least 300 dogs and cats, and a spate of children’s toy recalls, which highlighted the problem of lead in products from China, pet owners have been stepping forward to ask: How safe are pet toys?

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Is Your Puggle Dog Dehydrated?

Author: Richard Cussons

Summer is the best time not just for you and your family but also to your Puggle dog to enjoy more outdoor activities. But you must remember that along with the fun and excitement these activities bring is the risk for your dog of becoming dehydrated. Dehydration is an excess loss of bodily fluids that usually involves loss of both water and electrolytes.

Yes dogs get dehydrated too! And dehydration in dogs can be a serious matter. There are lots of reasons why dehydration among dogs occur. It could be caused by illness, exposure to extreme heat or lack of fluid intake. Prolonged vomiting and diarrhea can also cause dehydration.

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Pet boutiques lapping up profits

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Rocko Doppler Westerfield, a 9-week-old Boston terrier puppy, stayed calm but looked a little uncertain as owner Jessica Westerfield and sales associate Kim Norse slipped a set of Christmas antlers on his head to see how they fit.

Rocko left without his headgear, but Norse's employer, Vicki Wagner, co-owner of Silly Willie's pet boutique, said customers have been snapping up items like the antlers, edible dog treats called "chicken people," stuffed animals, squeaky toys and holiday outfits for their pets. Wagner and her sister, Joann Bennett, bought the store at 218 Flagler Ave. Nov. 1.

"We have a policy in the store that all pets are welcome, as long as they keep their owners on a leash," Wagner joked. Owners often bring in their dogs to try on pet outfits, she said, or to find out if their dog is the right size for a stroller or carrier before buying it.

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Is Your Pet Bad For The Environment?

Companies Offer Green Pet Products

Shiloh Woolman, Staff writer

UPDATED: 11:43 am EST December 5, 2007

If you drive a Prius, haven't brought home a plastic shopping bag this millennium and gave copies of "An Inconvenient Truth" to everyone you know last Christmas, isn't it time to get your four-legged friend on the eco-friendly bandwagon, too?

Candace Smith said she started sniffing around for more natural pet products for her dogs, Cain and Able, when she wondered which was worse for them: a flea bite or the chemicals used in many products to repel fleas.

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Woman Charged With Animal Cruelty Can Keep Two Dead Pets

A court has ruled that a Massachusetts woman convicted of animal cruelty can keep a dead dog and cat, as long as she complies with health codes.

Heidi Erickson was charged in May 2005 with animal cruelty to five cats and a dog. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail for the cruelty to cats and 90 days for cruelty to the dog.

During her pending case, a judge ordered that her six pets be returned to her. During that time, four cats were living, while one cat and the dog were dead.

The city of Boston challenged the judge’s order, and after Erickson was convicted, the city forgo its challenge the order to return her living animals to Erickson, but continued to challenge the order of returning the dead animals to her.

In 2005, a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Erickson could keep her dead animals if she arranged for the “prompt and proper disposal” of them “in compliance with health codes.”

She appealed the ruling saying that she should not be forced to dispose of her pets.

On Thursday, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the ruling in 2005 meant that she does not have to discard or destroy the animals, but “that whatever she does with them, including keeping them, she must comply with all applicable health codes.”

Erickson said that she is innocent of the animal cruelty charges and she has filed an appeal of her case.

Source: Boston Globe