Pet Articles




Fighting can be a way of life in parts of Pakistan, but on the farms, it is more likely to be dogs who are in training for their own violent and bloody battles.

Officially banned by the government and condemned as cruel by animal rights groups, thousands of wealthy Pakistani farmers, landowners and businessmen use the quiet winter months to indulge in a passion for bloody bulldog fights, states a story in the Express Tribune.
 

 
 "I love Moti just like my kids. He's a source of pride," crowed a jubilant Tassaduq Hussain after his dog won a fight in Tangdhe Sayedan, a village in Punjab.

To the din of drum beats and flutes, men hoisted Moti onto their shoulders, danced through the crowds and showered the animal with banknotes after thousands watched him bite and tear his way to victory on a secluded plateau.

In villages such as these, fights between bulldogs, known as ‘booly’ in Punjabi, provide one of the few forms of entertainment while crops grow.

The rules are brutally simple, the dogs fight until one bleeds to death, runs off, or until the owner takes pity and withdraw the animal from battle, handing the opponent victory.

Winning owners can get small prizes such as trophies, cell phones, or televisions while some organizers give prize money ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 100,000, depending on what the organizers can afford. "We organize these festivals because we love dog fights. Every organizer chooses his own or associates' land in the village to stage these fights. It's a hobby of the powerful," said Abdul Ghaffar, a local organizer.

A champion like Moti, whose name means “Pearl”, costs hundreds of dollars a month in food and requires extensive training before the annual fighting season, which runs from late September to late March. Hussain explains Moti's complicated and expensive diet.

"We give him two liters of milk, one kilogram of meat, butter and a supplement of an apple every day. It costs us Rs 50,000 every month," said the 59-year-old farmer. "Half my family is settled in Britain and my brother, who is a lawyer over there, gives me money to feed the dog and keep our family's honor." Moti is two years old but spent year training for his first fight, running behind a motorcycle for more than 20 kilometers a day, Hussain said.

Those who win, bring honor and pride to the owners. But it's a different story for those who lose.

"Please don't ask me anything. I am disturbed. My dog lost," said one young man in his early 20s. "I have no courage to speak, it is shame," he added, rubbing salt into his dog's wounds to stop them from becoming infected.
Traders set up tea and snack stalls around the field. There are organized parking contracts and every fight is filmed. Videos of major fights go on sale.

There is an unwritten calendar of meets, and every fan, dog owner and stallholder knows when and where to ship up within 200 kilometers.

"I go to every fight and set up my stall everywhere. I earn around Rs 3,000 a day which is much more than what I get from my shop," Ishtiaq Ahmed, 45, told AFP.

 




Police say they do raid fights and arrest culprits but Punjab Police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar concedes that most get bail.

The maximum penalty - six months in jail and a fine equivalent to $11 - is hardly prohibitive and activists want the government to do more to outlaw dog fights, which they say are "wrong" and "cruel"."Many dogs die due to wounds after the fights. Fighting dogs develop skin diseases and many of their wounds do not heal," said Nasim Ahmad, secretary for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals.

Zulfiqar Otho, a vet who volunteers for the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society, told AFP that owners of losing dogs sometimes shoot them after fights and that on average, one dog dies per festival. "They are rich businessmen, feudal lords, members of parliament and other bigwigs of society. They influence police through their stature and money... Police can't move against the will of these people," he told AFP.

                                                  
   But the fans are unperturbed

  "God created dogs to fight and bite," said farmer Chaudhry   Javed. "Even if we don't arrange this, they'll fight each other," he added.  



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"Does Dogs have GPS: 

How Do Lost Dogs Find Their Way Back to Home"


You must have heard the stories of dogs, which lost their way and reached to some unknown places and yet amazingly they find their way back to homes, walking for miles, crossing number of unknown streets, landscapes and mountains. From fictional stories like Old Yeller and The Incredible Journey to the real life incidence of people, who would be telling about how they lost their dog some months ago and surprisingly one day they find their dogs on the footsteps of their homes. In some incidence dogs were missing from more than a year and suddenly after a year or more, they come back to their owners. Nobody knows where they had been during these missing months, what they had eaten, how they found their way back.

Such stories often people leave wondering, if their brains are equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System), or it’s because of their strong sniffing ability. Some people are describing it as a emotional attachment or emotional GPS, which helps lost dogs find their home back against all odds, travels long distances to find his way home. On the other hand some people will describe this, dog’s intelligence. But it takes much more than intelligence to wander through unknown streets and prairies in search of a familiar face. It takes great deal of attention and synergy of five senses to make it possible.

If talking about the senses, some researchers are also arguing about the sixth sense present in the pets or animals. Due to their sixth sense they can judge in advance about the abnormal things. Researchers are giving examples of Tsunami in which miraculously very few animals died on the other hand so called intelligent creatures i.e humans died in millions of numbers.

There is no doubt on the dog’s amazing ability of sniffing and identifying the similar scent from the number of different smells. That’s the reason why every nation has sniffing dog brigade in their security forces. Such dogs are capable of detecting scents for great distances and with great accuracy. Not to mention bomb detecting dogs that can detect fragments of explosives among hundreds of other smells.

However, it takes more than a great sense of smell to sniff the way back home. Some studies suggest that dogs have an electromagnetic sense that makes time quite sensitive to minimal vibrations. This sixth sense is something that allows dogs to predict earthquakes and find their way home across several miles.


These amazing abilities may blend in the dogs because of their ancestors like wolves and wild dogs. These wolves and wild dog’s used to travel miles in search of food and water and than finding their way back to their territories.

It becomes possible for dogs because of special navigational maps dogs are capable of creating and the combination of skills and their hereditary gifts. By synchronizing the great sniffing abilities, their ability of good observation of surrounding things, exceptional hearing abilities and possibly, an uncanny ability to perceive magnetic fields and the position of the sun, which some researchers are describing as sixth sense. Combination of these abilities make a great GPS system in dogs brains which help them in finding their way back to home, after travelling miles and spending months away from home.

But again the question arises, if dogs have such exceptional GPS system or combination of senses, then why they lost their way. Why everyday newspapers columns are full of lost dog and missing dogs. This still remain a mystery and there are some things which are above the science. Still more research need to be done on this.



Possibly the best answer would be that some dogs are equipped with some super natural powers or extra sensorial abilities which are above the understanding of humans.  


"TITANIC, DOGS & MYSTERY"


When the Titanic struck an iceberg on the north Atlantic exactly 100 years ago today, and sank two and a half hours later, she claimed the lives of almost 1500 of the 2,224 people on board. Usually left untold is the fact that the disaster also claimed the lives of 75 percent of the dogs sailing aboard the ship. Twelve are known to have sailed, and only three survived.

To be on the maiden voyage of “the largest moving object in the world” carried huge status so many very rich and famous people were on board.

But there has also been a lot of interest down the years about the animals who were on board for this fateful journey. There were certainly a number of dogs who were the companions of wealthy first class passengers. In fact it is claimed that on the Monday there had been due to be a dog show on board.

Like many stories surrounding the Titanic there are a number of myths, conflicting accounts and perhaps some exaggeration regarding the pets on the Titanic, but as far as can be certain it is believed that there were a number of pet dogs on board, a ship’s cat and possibly a canary.

It cost about half a normal fare to take a dog on board – as it would have done for a child, so it was chiefly only the First Class passengers who could afford to take their pets with them on the Titanic.

Most of the big dogs were housed in the ship’s kennels, while some of the small dogs were kept surreptitiously by first-class passengers in their staterooms. The survivors were among the latter and it is fairly certain that just three dogs survived the disaster:

• a Pekingese named Sun-Yat Sen owned by Henry Sleeper Harper who escaped in boat three;
• a 
Pomeranian called “Lady” owned by Miss Margaret Hays who escaped in boat seven
• a 
Pomeranian owned by Elizabeth Barrett Rothschild. They escaped together in boat six.
These three dogs survived because they were taken on deck by their owners at the first hint of trouble and because they were all small enough lapdogs to be easily carried by their owners. Others were not so fortunate.
As the ship was going down, someone thought (legends says the person was Colonel John Jacob Astor) to open the kennels to give the dogs a fighting chance. Most were last seen running on the rapidly tilting deck. The bodies of some were later recovered from the sea.
Colonel John Jacob Astor and his young wife Madeleine had an Airedale dog on board called Kitty. Colonel Astor and the dog died, but his heavily-pregnant wife and a maid travelling with them survived.
According to "1912 Facts About Titanic" by Lee W. Merideth: "As the boat was rowed away, the passengers could all see John Jacob Astor, the two Thayers, the two Widener men and Arthur Ryerson standing together in a group, waving at the boat, and all deep in their own thoughts. At some point, Colonel Astor went down to F deck aft to where the dog kennels were and let the dogs out. Madeleine Astor would later say that as the ship started to go under, she could see Colonel Astor's Airedale dog "Kitty" running around on the Boat deck."
 There are a number of stories about the dogs who were in kennels being released as the ship went down so they could take a chance at swimming to safety – whether it was Colonel Astor who freed them, before he was killed by a falling funnel on the sinking ship, we can’t be sure.



I’ll share a story that fascinates me, One of the biggest mystery. A Great DaneSaint Bernard or possibly a Newfoundland possibly travelling with a middle aged spinster called Ann Isham. One knowledgeable Titanic pet expert called Marty Crisp (who has written a number of books on the subject) believes that this lady refused to get in the lifeboat without her dog and their bodies may have been sighted a couple of days after the disaster floating together by passengers from a German liner the Bremen. More than one passenger and crew member from other ships passing through this haunted trail of tears, reported seeing a woman, frozen solid, her arms wrapped around a huge black dog.  Remarkable.  To this day when passing through the area where the ship sank, ocean travelers hear the baying and strong, deep throated barking of what seems to be a large dog.  Explorers that brave the deep Atlantic to study Titanic have sometimes reported what seems to be the black figure of a large dog gamboling on the deck as the submergible approaches the rotting hulk of Titanic’s bow.  Of course that would be impossible, but not for a spirit dog. Others say there is no evidence that Miss Isham had a dog with her.Many other historians also dispute that it was Isham with the dog, although history does record passengers of the German liner Breman telling reporters once they arrived in New York several days after the Titanic sank they had seen a “fully clothed body of a woman clinging tightly to that of a shaggy dog.”  


One story that is often recounted, but sadly is purely a myth, is that a Newfoundland dog called Rigel – allegedly the pet of First Officer William Murdoch – survived in the water and alerted rescuers to a lifeboat of survivors.
It is claimed that his barks alerted the crew of rescue ship the Carpathia to a boat of exhausted survivors too weak to shout who were perilously close to being sunk by the Carpathia.

The story goes that Rigel was pulled to safety too and adopted by a crewman on the Carpathia.
Sadly, records show that no such dog existed on the Titanic, either as a pet of First Officer Murdoch or anyone else.
Rest In Peace furry friends . . . and of course to all of Titanic’s human victims too.





This week, the world will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage and sinking in the North Atlantic.  As with many moments in history, dogs were part of this event.
Legend has it that not all of the acts of heroism that night were carried out by humans. There were a few dogs on board, and the Titanic’s luxurious accommodation extended to “marvellous kennel facilities”.

Although James Cameron's blockbuster hit Titanic did not feature any courageous canines, some historians argue that it could've been a dog who saved Rose's life on the doomed ship. According to the Belfast Telegraph, some of the most heroic acts that occurred on the night of the luxury ship's crash were carried out by the its canine passengers. 
A photo (unattributed) reported to be staff of the Titanic taking
 dogs for a walk on deck.

 Dogs were among the passengers of the Titanic and the ship had dedicated kennel facilities.  A dog show had been planned on board the ship for Monday 15th April. When the ship was sinking, it was reported that a passenger went to the kennels and released the dogs to save them from drowning in their cages.








A story written in the New York Herald on April 21, 1912 credited Rigel, a black Newfoundland dog, with finding a lifeboat of survivors and alerting the
rescue ship, the Carpathia, of its whereabouts.
Rigel had been swimming through the icy waters looking for his master when he came across the lifeboat. He began barking and caught the attention of the seaman aboard the Carpathia. The journalist also indicated that Rigel made it to safety, but died in the arms of Jonas Briggs, who was on the rescue ship.

The Astors with their dog
According to (mixed) records, between 10 and 12 dogs were on board the ship.  The Astors  (perhaps the richest passengers on board) were traveling with their Airedale named Kitty.   Each day a member of Titanic’s crew would exercise the dogs on deck.
Three dogs survived the sinking. There was a Pomeranian owned by Miss Margaret Hays of New York; the pair escaped in lifeboat Number 7.  Elizabeth Rothschild escaped in lifeboat Number 6 with her Pomeranian.   The other dog was Pekingese named Sun Yat Sen owned by Henry Sleeper; owner and dog escaped in lifeboat Number 3.




The Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri has established the world’s first tribute to dogs of the Titanic.  Mascots Molly and Carter greet guests each day from Wednesday to Sunday  and show them the kennel facilities of the ship, along with stories of dogs aboard.  This creative commercial for the exhibit is found on YouTube:
Not to be confused with actual history, a book by Marty Crisp for young adults tells the story of White Star:  A Dog on The Titanic.  In this fictional story, a 12-year old named Sam Harris is traveling from England to America.  Sam volunteers to help out in the Titanic’s kennels and meets Star, an Irish Setter. The boy and dog live through the sinking.
Ms Crisp compiled the following canine passenger manifest when she researching for her book about White Star:


Owners
Breed
Boarded
Home
Lifeboat
Survived?
Robert Williams Daniel, 27
(a banker traveling alone)
1) French bulldog “Gamin de Pycombe”
Southampton
Philadelphia
Went down with the ship and was pulled aboard by a lifeboat
Daniel- yes; Bulldog- no, although it was seen in the water by R.N. Williams
Henry Sleeper Harper, 48 (a publishing scion traveling with his wife, Myra, 49, a manservant, and an Egyptian dragoman)
2) Pekinese“Sun Yat Sen”
Cherbourg
New York City
Lifeboat 3 wife, servant and companion all escaped in LB3
Harper-yes; Pekinese-yes
Helen Bishop, 19,(newlywed,   honeymooning with Dickinson H. Bishop)
3) small, unknown breed “Frou Frou”
Cherbourg
Dowagiac, Michigan
Lifeboat 7
Bishop and her husband- yes; Frou Frou- no, left locked in cabin
Harry Anderson, 47 (stockbroker,   traveling alone)
4) Chow
Southampton
New York City
Lifeboat 3
Anderson- yes; Chow- no
William Ernest Carter, 36, (traveling with his wife, Lucile, 36, daughter, also Lucile, 14, and son, William the II, 11. Also traveling with a maid and manservant)
5) & 6) Two small dogs. One was a King Charles Spaniel and the other  breed is unknown.
Southampton
Bryn Mawr, PA.
Collapsible C; wife and children left   the ship in Lifeboat 4; servants were both lost
All members of family- yes; dogs- no
Margaret Hays, 24, (traveling alone)
7) Pomeranian
Cherbourg
New York City
Lifeboat 7
Hays-yes; Pomeranian-yes
Col. John Jacob 
Astor,47 (real estate tycoon traveling with his pregnant wife, Madeleine, 19, and a maid and a manservant)
8) & 9)
Airedale, “Kitty,”  and a   second dog, probably also an Airedale, as per  report from survivor Edwiga Goldenberg
Cherbourg
New York City
Astor went down with the ship and was crushed by a falling funnel Manservant was lost. Wife and maid survived on Lifeboat 4.
Astor- no; Airedales- no; wife- yes
William Crothers
Dulles, 39 (attorney, traveling alone)
10) Unknown breed, listed in channel crossing records simply as “dog.” Possibly a Pomeranian or   a fox terrier
Cherbourg
Philadelphia
Went down with the ship
Dulles- no; dog- no
Ann Isham, 50, (spinster expatriate who had been living in Paris with her sister for the previous nine   years) (Isham is a possible, not a verified, dog owner.)
11) Great Dane (could also have been a Saint Bernard or a Newfoundland)
Cherbourg
Paris and New York City
Refused to get in a lifeboat without her dog.
Isham- no; dog-no.  A woman was spotted by passengers on the German liner “Bremen” two days after the sinking, floating in her lifejacket with her arms wrapped around a large dog.
Elizabeth Barrett Rothschild, 54 (wife of leather magnate Martin Rothschild, traveling with her husband)
12) Pomeranian
Cherbourg
New York City
Lifeboat 6
Rothschild- yes; Pomeranian-yes Mrs. Rothschild and her dog were on the same boat as the famously unsinkable Molly Brown. Martin Rothschild went down with the ship.
FICTIONL Sam Harris, 12 (returning to the U.S. after three years of boarding school in England)
Irish setter, “White Star,” owned by J. Bruce Ismay, president of the White Star Line and also a passenger on the Titanic.
Southampton for Sam; Queenstown, Ireland for the dog
Lancaster, PA.
Lifeboat 4
Sam- yes; Star- yes.  Boy and dog were rescued from the water right after Lifeboat 4 was lowered.








                      "Chennai City 1st to get Dog Blood Bank" 

Chennai is all set to become more canine-friendly with a first-of-its-kind, exclusive, blood bank for dogs. The proposed bank will have an advanced database of donor dogs in the city. Madras Veterinary College (MVC) has now put up notice boards insisting pet owners be part of the donor base.
"There is an acute demand for canine blood during surgeries and the project is the brainchild of the vice-chancellor. Work has already started," a senior professor of MVC said. There is a growing demand for transfusion therapy to treat many diseases and injuries related to dogs, particularly in orthopaedic surgeries when blood loss is high, the professor added. So far, five donors have enrolled in the donor programme. At least 20 donors are required for inaugurating the programme.
The blood bank will be a boon for dogs with anaemic complaints, viral and parasitic infections and those that get injured in accidents. The programme will not entertain monetary benefit for the donors, but the donors will be helped by the MVC when their pets are in distress. There are four types of blood groups in dogs and blood transfusion in animals is not that complicated, compared to humans, and it needs basic infrastructure which is already available in the varsity, the vice-chancellor added.



"A Night When No Dog Barked"

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It was a night that was like no other night. A night when no dog barked!
That night, a whole township of people escaped to freedom. In the dead of night they gathered their belongings, their children and livestock, and silently walked away from tyranny. Tense excitement was in the air, yet it was a night when no dog barked!
There has only been one night that was anything like that night. It was the night Jesus died. 
Were there dogs present that night? Probably! No doubt there were dogs hanging about the execution spot. Corpses of wrongdoers were sometimes thrown to the dogs.  Jesus was put to death by a form of hanging. He was hung on two pieces of wood nailed together to form a cross.
If a dog were watching Jesus being hung, would he bark and cause a commotion?
I don't think so! I think a dog would gaze into Jesus' eyes and know instinctively, "This is my Master! This is the Master above all Masters!"
Jesus was killed at the festival called Passover, held in remembrance of the Jews' escape from Egypt. The people almost died in Egypt, but as a sign of their faith, they slaughtered a lamb and painted the blood on their doors. Death "PASSED OVER" those doors that showed the sign of the lamb's shed blood.
In the same way, Jesus was the lamb that was slaughtered as a sacrifice for our sins, so that God's vengeance might pass over those who repent (turn away from sin & wrongdoing) 
I think the night that Jesus died was a night when no dog barked. It was like the Passover night when the Jews escaped from Egypt. THAT was a night when no dog barked! It says so in the Bible.  Jesus was a lamb that was killed to save those who believe in him.
This is the meaning of Easter: God loved the world so much that he gave his only son, Jesus, that whoever believes in him should not go to hell but should go to heaven forever

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 "The Origin of Pets"

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t is reported that the following edition of the Book of Genesis was discovered in the Dead Seal Scrolls. If authentic, it would shed light on the question, "Where do pets come from?


 

















And Adam said, "Lord, when I was in the garden, you walked with me everyday. Now I do not see you anymore. I am lonesome here and it is difficult for me to remember how much you love me."

And God said, "No problem! I will create a companion for you that will bewith you forever and who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will know I love you, even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish and childish and unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourself."

And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam. And it was a good animal. And God was pleased.

And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and he wagged his tail. And Adam said, "But Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and all the good names are taken and I cannot think of a name for this new animal."

And God said, "No problem! Because I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG."

And Dog lived with Adam and was a companion to him and loved him. And Adam was comforted. And God was pleased. And Dog was content and wagged his tail.

After a while, it came to pass that Adam's guardian angel came to the Lord and said, "Lord, Adam has become filled with pride. He struts and preens like a peacock and he believes he is worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught him that he is loved, but no one has taught him humility."

 


















And the Lord said, "No problem! I will create for him a companion who will be with him forever and who will see him as he is. The companion will remind him of his limitations, so he will know that he is not worthy of adoration."
And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam. And Cat would not obey Adam.

And when Adam gazed into Cat's eyes, he was reminded that he was not the supreme being. And Adam learned humility.

And God was pleased. And Adam was greatly improved. And Dog wagged his tail.
And Cat did not care one way or the other. 

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