Dog-Hunters Are Targeting A Stray Dog From Russia’s Far East

Dog-hunters are targeting a stray dog from Russia’s Far East whose moving story of love and loyalty made headlines all over the world.
“Yakutian Hachiko” captured the attention of the public after local residents found him beside his dead mate. The grief-stricken dog was guarding the body in biting cold for as long as two weeks – just like his Japanese prototype, popularized in the West by a recent Hollywood drama.
Some people, however, have turned out to be less big-hearted than the four-legged hero. Soon after the hound’s story spread around the globe, a sickening Internet hate campaign was launched against the brave animal.
“Angry youngsters have posted numerous messages all over the Internet, calling on Hachiko to be poisoned,” Alla Komarenko, head of a local animal charity, told Interfax. “Some even proposed to catch him and make a shish kebab out of his meat. They say stray dogs are dangerous and need to be exterminated.”
Worrying about the dog, local residents started calling animal rights organizations, begging them to protect Hachiko. The hound was soon taken to a kennel provided by the charity. In the next few days, he will be vaccinated and issued a pet passport. After that, kennel staff hope to find Hachiko a new home.
“An old bus driver was intending to take him,” Komarenko said. “The man lives in a private house, and he already has a dog. Unfortunately, he said later that his family members were against the idea.”
Earlier, a woman from Cologne in Germany offered to adopt the dog. The vets, however, say that Hachiko may not survive such a long flight, especially if he were to be sedated in accordance with international rules.

Where There Are Demolitions, There Are Stray Dogs

Where there are demolitions, there are stray dogs. Starting from Qing Hai Ying 3 years ago, stray dogs left in the reconstruction areas become common scenes in Beijing. While their owners move on to new lives in new homes, sadly these once beloved dogs are left behind, facing the rubbles of the old home as well as their unforeseeable future.

Last year, Rui Jia (瑞家), a rescue team for stray animals made a clip called “The watch keep in ruins”(废墟中的守望), telling the sad stories of those pets abandoned in Qing He Ying, a reconstruction area in Chaoyang District, Beijing. “The dogs are abandoned because of demolition, they may be cooked once get caught.”said a villager in the clip.
This year, Beijing will have over 50 suburban villages demolished, which means even more pets will be abandoned. It is a fact, and heavy. Most volunteers feel that their abilities fall short of their wishes to help：to save, but they don’t have enough people and resources to support the ongoing rescue; not to save, but those creatures are also lives.
Its name is Cang Cang. Sitting in this roofless high land like a statue, Cang Cang looks and looks and looks at its old home’s ruin opposite. It would not step away from the spot, sometimes its tired eyes will gaze at the passers-by. When evening falls or rain drops, it crunches into the pieces of asbestos tiles behind.
After the demolition of home, Xiao Xiong went out for food at day time and come back to "keep the home” at night. A neighbor sympathized it and kept it home for a few months until later she had to move away too. Then another family took Xiao Xiong in, but it managed to go back to its original home. No one saw it again. Volunteers was told that it was bitten to death by a big dog. May be this is its fate, to live and die along with its home. May be in its heart, it believes there is only one home, and one owner.
Owner moved during Xiao Hua’s pregnancy. She gave birth to her doggies in the very place in the world that she felt safe – home, which is later bulldozed together with the doggies. Xiao Hua kept lingering around the ruins since then. She would go and watch door at night for those who give her meals. Temporarily she was taken in by a kind family.

Care For The Stray Dogs

Sometimes I get really frustrated by LCSH. For instance, today I have a work about a stray dog. The subject heading for stray dogs reads Feral dogs. The dog in question is NOT wild or feral, but merely STRAY. Using Feral dogs would be misleading, so I had to settle for just DOGS. This is not the only instance where something like this has come up in the course of cataloging on a daily basis. Are there any subject headings that you think are particularly misleading? I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for the rant.
For decades the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai used to kill up to 50,000 stray dogs annually. The method used was electrocution. Recentlyh, in response to demands, dog-killing was replaced by mass sterilisation and immunisation of stray dogs.
Under this programme, stray dogs are surgically neutered and then replaced in their own area. They are also vaccinated against rabies.Since territories are not left vacant, new dogs cannot enter.Mating and breeding also cease. With no mating or crossing of territories, dog fights reduce dramatically.Since fighting reduces, bites to humans also become rare.The dogs are immunised, so they do not spread rabies. Over time, as the dogs die natural deaths, their numbers dwindle.
The dog population becomes stable, non-breeding, non-aggressive and rabies-free, and it gradually decreases over a period of time.It costs $15 to feed, sterilise and immunise ONE dog.
When we travel to India we will be making buying food for stray dogs and making a donation of whatever funds we receive so we can help end some of this animal cruelty and become part of the solution! I will be taking photos throughout the journey so you can be sure your money is going straight to the cause.

There Are No Stray Dogs In Vermont

When I was a child, I relied on stray dogs. They comprised the available pet pool. Around home, dogs were just dogs. Unless, of course, they were hunting dogs. Even a poor man would pay $300-$400 for a good hunting dog. Paying good money for a pet was unheard of … at least in my circle. Fortunately for me, I lived just outside the town limits. Every year, when the dog tags were due, miraculously, dogs would appear in our neighborhood. Great dogs, of mysterious ancestry. They would ramble into our yard with delineated rib cages, begging for scraps. Yes, they did turn over the trash barrel on occasion. I loved them all. My dad, however, did not share my universal acceptance of them. His instructions were not to feed them (which we did) and rock them to chase them away (which we did not).
They did not stay for long … a few days … but for that brief time, they were mine. Understand, in my world a stray dog was an endangered specie. Stray dogs that turned over the trash barrel in their search for food got 120 volts on their second trip (Dad and the neighbor were both electricians). There was a particular mutt once that I really got attached to and begged Dad to let me keep it. Dad was walking out of the woods with his rifle at the time. He just smiled and told me that if it came back to the house again, I could keep it. It didn’t and I did not figure it out until I was much older.

Here’s my revelation. There are no stray dogs in Vermont because of the animal rights people and the animal-lovers. No such thing as the wild and care free life on the road for a dog here. You will never see a dog hopping a freight and there no hobo dog encampments under the bridges. Were a dog to strike out here, minutes later, he would be pounced upon by hoards of animal rescuers. Before he could learn to spit tobacco, the dog would be warm, fed and lounging in front of someone’s fireplace. He might even be wearing a new jacket. It is the demise of the Huckleberry Finn’s of the dog world. Greyhounds probably have it worse. People can’t wait to snatch them from the clutches of the dog tracks. Ironically, I have never seen a rescued greyhound running. It must be a no-no in the rescued world. Locally, the people raised about $250,000 to build a new facility for the ASPCA. Even in winter, people sleep under the bridge in Brattleboro and the homeless shelters overflow. Whoever said that every dog has his day must have lived in Brattleboro at some point.

Let Us Helping Stray Dogs

On our first day in Greece, the inside/out team visited the Katafigio Adespoton Zoon (KAZ) shelter for stray animals in Athens. KAZ is one of the few animal shelters in Greece where these facilities are virtually non-existent due to a lack of funds to support the building and operational costs.
KAZ was originally designed as a transition facility – a temporary stop to treat sick and injured animals. The shelter includes a small surgical facility, recovery area and kennels. KAZ has been forced to expand their kennels in order to accommodate the increasing number of dogs who are routinely abandoned or dropped off at the shelter. This has made it difficult for KAZ to continue to operate with the limited funding they receive (none of which is from the Greek government). To help ease the burden, the inside/out team brought donations of veterinary supplies, which included medications, syringes, needles, surgical supplies and other items.
On the second day of our Greece trip, we headed to Ionnina for the rest of our animal welfare work. We had brought some veterinary supplies for the local animal welfare groups there as well. The inside/out team helped build feeding stations that will be used to help feed the local stray dog population. We had originally planned to build one feeding station each for the two feeding locations, but our group was so ambitious and enthusiastic that we built another two!
We also visited the university in Ionnina to distribute educational materials. These young students are a good target population because they are educated and more open to changing their perceptions of animal welfare. It was easy to see why the university’s administrators might perceive stray dogs as a problem/menace. There are large packs of dogs who the locals feed, and many of these dogs bark and chase cars leaving the parking lot. While students don't seem to mind them, the university systematically poisons these dogs to reduce the population. Part of the mission of the inside/out team was to educate the university officials about the cruelty of poisoning and to empower students to stand up against cruelty and to change the minds and behaviors of the local people. This is similar to the stray animal work carried out by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) in countries all over the globe where WSPA educates local authorities on the importance of animal birth control programs and offers free spay/neuter clinics.

Stray Dogs Plaguing The Country

Government officials have expressed concerning in a report about stray dogs plaguing the country.Member for the Fourth District Dr. Vincent Scatliffe brought up the issue during a Standing Finance Committee (SFC) meeting, asking if anything could be done about stray dogs in Road Town.Chief Agricultural Officer, Agriculture Department, Bevin Brathwaite said the department has launched a ‘Loose Dog’ campaign and the department “recently received a tranquilizer gun that would aid in the capture of loose livestock”.
Part of the activities is to visit the dump sites and euthanize the animals, Brathwaite said.According to the report, Brathwaite said “as recent as last week they captured and euthanized three dogs in the Road Town area. They realise there is a problem in that area”.Premier Ralph O’Neal stated that “the question of dogs has been plaguing the British Virgin Islands for years”.In speaking with one of the farmers on Virgin Gorda, the premier was told that the farmer lost 20 of his animals, which is a heavy lost for a person who depends on farming for a living.
Premier O’Neal asked if the initiative could be launched in Virgin Gorda. Brathwaite responded by saying he recently learned of the situation when he spoke to farmers on Virgin Gorda, and he is aware that it is also a problem on Tortola.The premier stated that “we cannot allow farmers animals to be destroyed and if owners do not keep their dogs tied, then they will pay the price”.

Sterilize More Than 10,000 Stray Dogs Ahead Of The Games In Measures

Athens, host of the 2004 Olympics, launched a plan last week to sterilize more than 10,000 stray dogs ahead of the Games in measures condemned by animal rights groups as ill thought-out and insufficient. The city said the 1.8 million euro ($2.11 million) project, to be officially unveiled on the weekend, will halt the growth of a huge population of stray dogs roaming the streets of the capital before the start of the Olympics. "The sight of thousands of stray animals living without care in the city streets constitutes an insult to us as civilized people," Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyanni, who plans to give 20 strays up for adoption on the weekend, said in a statement.
The project, co-funded by the city and the government, aims to collect, sterilize and tag the dogs, before releasing them again. Two mobile vet units will monitor their health. But animal rights groups say the plan does not cover the needs of strays. "This cannot be just a one-day event with some promises and cute puppies as gifts," Marianna Polichroniadou, head of a newly-founded animal rights group said this week. "It has to be followed up with actions that safeguard the dog's survival long-term and this plan doesn't cut it." Dog lovers say city authorities are also responsible for killing more than 3,000 dogs in the past months, to rid the capital of the animals ahead of next year's Games. "Why have all the dogs suddenly disappeared from the city center and why are they launching this plan now?" Polichroniadou asked.
I guess you could call this the 15 year plan for ridding the city of stray dogs. Fifteen years because that is the average life of a dog. The idea is that if you neuter all the dogs and then set them free again, they won't be able to have puppies and in 15 years they should all be gone, provided no other un-neutered strays join them. The plan that I have heard is to have all pets implanted with a chip so they can be tracked if irresponsible owners let them go. When they are picked up both the pet and the owners will be neutered.
One final note: When I was in Athens in November of 2003 we went out to dinner in Psiri at a famous taverna which specializes in paidakia (grilled lambchops). As usual we ordered too many and after we finished we got a 'doggy bag' to take with us to give to the street dogs. There is an old woman who wanders around Psiri with a half dozen dogs. We found her and asked if she would like the leftovers for her dogs. She looked at the leftovers and asked if it was OK if she ate them too. Of course we said it was. I bring this up only to remind people to remember to take pity on the human strays who may be in need of a helping hand too.

Stray Dogs Are A Problem In Athens

Stray dogs are a problem in Athens. Not because they will attack you or chase you through the city streets. It is mostly an image problem. You have this big modern city and wandering around, lounging in the shade, solo and in packs, are dogs. Some are pets, some are former pets and some have never been pets at all.
The downtown dogs are pretty well behaved. Many are streetwise, literally. My mother was curious as to how they could cross some of the big Athens avenues so she watched them. She discovered that the dogs would go to the pedestrian crossings and stand there. No they did not know that the little green man meant it was OK for them to cross. They would wait until some humans came and then cross with them. Plaka and downtown dogs are very good natured. They are around people all the time and have few needs, all of which are available in the neighborhood: food, water and shade.
Some of the dogs have hob-knobbed with the rich and famous. Bill Neil, author of Southern Cooking, told me of a night on the Acropolis when he and REM's Michael Stipe snuck in and befriended the strays that live on and around the ancient rock. I have seen stray Plaka dogs grooving to the Chieftans at the dirty corner in front of the monument to Lysacratus. Those of you who have seen the movie FOR THE LOVE OF BENJI may recall that when Benji gets lost in downtown Athens he is befriended by one of the Plaka dogs who took his siestas in the ancient agora. In fact it was the Plaka dog that protected Benji when the mean Dobermans that belonged to the bad guys came searching for him to find the micro-chip implanted in his fur, or collar (I forget which).
A few years ago Kiki Zikou at Dolphin Hellas told me I needed to write an article about the dogs in the old airport. The next time I left Greece, sure enough there were dogs wandering around the terminal. With the new airport so far out of town it is unlikely that you will see any dogs and I am off the hook for the article I never got around to writing. Even so you have to wonder about a country that had dogs wandering around the airport. Maybe they were undercover police dogs. Maybe they belonged to an airport employee who could not leave them home in the apartment because they barked and bothered the neighbors so they just came to work with him. Most likely they were like any other stray dogs in Athens. They are such a part of the landscape that you don't even notice them.
I remember coming home early one morning from the Plaka to my neighborhood in Agia Paraskevis in 1972. As I was walking up the hill I saw a pack of about twenty dogs coming towards me. This made me a little nervous. Who knew whether these were pets, or strays looking for a lone human to rip to shreds and devour without a trace. How many people, whose disappearance off the face of the earth had fueled stories of alien abductions, were merely eaten by packs of wild urban and suburban dogs? As these thoughts went through my head I realized that leading the gang of dogs was Reinhart, our family dog who lived in a suitcase on our back porch! He came up and greeted me with a sniff and a wag of his tail and then continued on to do whatever it is that packs of dogs do at four in the morning. (I was actually proud that our dog was the leader of the pack).