ScapeGoat Sanctuary

 http://www.humanesociety.org

The Humane Society of the United States and the Cannon County Sheriff's Department joined forces to rescue 84 horses from a property in Tennessee.

The horses were seized by the Sheriff's Department due to signs of neglect and poor health, and have now been surrendered by their owner. The horses, who were rescued from squalid conditions on a 100-acre Bradyville farm, are now under the ownership of The HSUS.

Rescuers also removed seven dogs, two goats and two chickens from the property. The animals were all in poor condition.

A Struggle to Survive

"This rescue came not a moment too soon for the animals, including 84 horses struggling to survive," said Scotlund Haisley, senior director of Emergency Services at The HSUS.

"There's no excuse for starving or neglecting an animal. It is the responsibility of every horse owner to provide humane, responsible care for their horses at all stages of their life."

When rescuers arrived on the property, they found many Tennessee Walking Horses and Spotted Saddle Horses, as well as quarter horses.

Tennessee Walking Horses and Spotted Saddle Horses are two breeds that commonly suffer from soring, an abusive practice that involves the intentional infliction of pain to a horse's legs or hooves in order to force an artificial, exaggerated gait.

Many of the horses were extremely emaciated and suffering from a variety of medical ailments including overgrown, infected hooves and parasite infestation. Rescuers also found several dead horses on the scene.

Joining Forces to Help

Local law enforcement was alerted to this critical situation by citizens concerned for the health of the horses.

The sheriff's department called in The HSUS to act as the lead animal welfare organization in the case. The HSUS then called in United Animal Nations to provide sheltering support and Volunteer Equine Advocates to assist in animal handling and transport.

Invaluable assistance was also provided by officials from the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, who provided a stable to be used as an emergency shelter.

“Today marks a new beginning for these animals, who can now begin their journey to healthy, happy lives”

“This rescue would not have been possible without the outpouring of support we received from local horse lovers willing to come to the aid of these neglected animals,” said Leighann McCollum, Tennessee state director for The HSUS.

Rescuers are removing all of the horses from the property and transporting them to a temporary shelter. Once the horses reach the shelter they will be checked by a team of veterinarians and given any necessary immediate medical care.

Once they are strong enough to be transported again, these horses will be placed with local rescues and adopted out to responsible homes.

Humane Options Available

Horse owners who can no longer care for their horses have many humane options available to them:

Sell the horse to a properly vetted, private owner

Lease the horse to another horse enthusiast

Donate the horse to a therapeutic riding center, park police unit or similar program

Relinquish the horse to a horse rescue or sanctuary

Consider humane euthanasia.

Donate

Help us save horses and other animals

The picture at the end of this post is graphic.....but I am posting it to show

people what a "grown-up" chimp can do to a person.

Please don't keep wild animals as pets....this could be your mother, sister, or friend.

Charla Nash is now blind, and scarred for life.  Her courage is unbelievable.  Thank God for her loving family that help her and the people at the hospital where she lives now.

She says she has no pain.  I can't even imagine the emotional scars.

May God Bless & keep her in his arms.  Please see below where you can help her.  Every cent helps.

Make Your Impact

Feeling Inspired? Take Action Now

Make a donation to Charla Nash

Become a supporter of Charla Nash

http://www.nashtrust.com/

Looking for more ways to get involved?

Visit :    CreateTheGood.org

Motola, a female elephant who stepped on a land mine 10 years ago and endured painful operations, was fitted Saturday in Thailand for a permanent artificial leg. The 48-year-old pachyderm became a symbol of the plight of today's elephants, and her injury sparked international sympathy and donations. Experts were making a cast of her injured left front leg for a plastic prosthetic limb which will be attached later Saturday. "I do hope she will accept the new leg. It would be wonderful to see Motola and Baby Mosha walking together side-by-side," said Soraida Salwala, secretary general of the Friends of the Asian Elephant, a non-governmental group. Mosha, also a land mine victim, became the world's first elephant with an artificial leg, attached in 2007. Soraida said Mosha, now a 3-year-old, is faring well and has outgrown three of her prosthetic devices. Both elephants have been cared for at the Elephant Hospital, set up by Soraida's group in 1993. The world's first such facility, the hospital has treated thousands of elephants for ailments ranging from eye infection to gunshot wounds. Motola was injured in 1999 while working at a logging camp along the Myanmar-Thailand border, a region peppered with land mines after half a century of insurgency. Her mangled foot was amputated, and she hobbled on three feet until fitted with a temporary, canvas shoe-like device two years later. Motola's initial operation used enough anesthetic to floor 70 people - a record noted in the 2000 Guinness Book of World Records. "It has been 10 years now, but in all these long years Motola enjoyed a happy life, walking out of her shelter for a sun bath," Soraida said. Soraida said Motola has otherwise been in fine health, with her once bony frame now weighing more than 3 tons. The artificial leg has been constructed by the Prostheses Foundation, which also makes cheap but effective artificial limbs for human amputees. A number of elephants have had land mine injuries. But that is only one of many problems facing the domesticated giant, whose numbers have dropped from 13,400 in 1950 to today's estimated 2,500. The number of wild elephants has also dropped dramatically. Traditionally the truck, taxi and logging worker of Thailand, the elephant has lost most of its jobs to modernization. One saving grace has been the tourism industry, which employs large numbers for elephant trekking and other activities.

Please see our new page that is listing all the Pitt Bull Rescues avaible throughtout the USA.

This ain't the Ritz! If if you don't like it ............ Don't come back !

You gotta love this guy...the kind of organizer we need in Washington... You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb.

Well...SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN! Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay. The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows. The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. 

 The animals are neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip. Cost - $78. The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals. I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand. He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6-$8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison. Yup, he was re-elected last year with 83% of the vote. Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO, HE IS THE MARICOPA, ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER!. THESE ARE THE REASONS WHY: He created the 'Tent City Jail'. He has jail meals down to .40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them. He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights and cut off all but 'G' movies. He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination. He took away cable TV until he found out there was a Federal Court order that required cable TV for jails, so he hooked up the cable TV again only letting in the Disney and Weather Channel. When asked why the weather channel? He replied, "So they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on the Chain Gang". He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them, "this isn't the Ritz Carlton...if you don't like it, don't come back." He bought Newt Gingrich's lecture series on videotape; that he pipes into the jails for the inmates to enjoy! Not! When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied "a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates are in his jail in the first place." With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 Degrees), the Associated Press reports: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatting in the tents; which reached 138 degrees inside the week before...many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their PINK SOCKS. 'It feels like we are in a furnace,' said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the TENTS for 1 year. 'It's inhumane.' he stated. Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear. But they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!" Way To Go, Sheriff! Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can come back to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things some taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

Meet Abby Toll. The University of Colorado student, 20, is facing a felony animal abuse rap after she allegedly taped her boyfriend's puppy to the side of a refrigerator in a bid to teach the rambunctious animal a "lesson." According to police, Toll used clear packing tape early this morning to adhere the eight-month-old dog (a Shiba Inu named Rex) to the appliance in the kitchen of her boyfriend's apartment. Toll allegedly was angry at Bryan Beck, 21, for failing to get rid of the puppy, which, Toll told cops, bit her a few days ago. According to the below Boulder Police Department reports, when cops responded at 5 AM to a "report of a male and female yelling" at Beck's apartment, they discovered that "Rex's body was completely encased in packing tape." When Officer Kara Jurczenia asked what was on the side of the fridge, Toll replied, "The dog." Toll added, "I know this looks really bad, but the dog bites. He is aggressive." Jurczenia asked how long the puppy had been taped upside down to the side of the refrigerator. "Not long," Toll replied. "Like 20-30 minutes. It was just until he calmed down." The reports note that when Beck saw his dog stuck to the refrigerator, he told Toll, "Take him down," adding, "You are so sick!" Toll replied, "No, you are sick for not caring enough about me to get rid of the dog." The animal, whose paws had been bound with elastic hair ties, was clearly in pain and "yelped and screamed loudly" as cops worked to free him. "Rex just lay motionless, but breathing, on his kennel after he was removed from the tape." The puppy was handed over to the Boulder Valley Humane Society. Toll, seen in the above mug shot, was turned over to county jailers. Beck, who was arrested in connection with his scuffle with Toll, was not charged with animal abuse. Though he did reportedly tell police, "We were going to get rid of him anyway. We usually don't do this."      

credit-Smoking Gun

The moment a woman was mauled by a polar bear after she jumped into its enclosure at Berlin Zoo was caught on camera. The intruder was attacked just yards away from Knut, the abandoned bear who became famous around the world. Zookeepers managed to push the bear away and carry the woman from the cage. The mauling took place inside an enclosure occupied by four polar bears not far from Knut's home. Heiner Kloes, a Berlin Zoospokesman, said the enclosure is surrounded by a fence, a line of hedges and a wall. The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police did not say why she jumped in with the bears. "The woman has proved herself to be careless by jumping into the enclosure," a police spokesperson said. "Logic tells us that polar bears will do this type of thing in this situation." Last December, a man who later described himself as "lonely" jumped into the cage of the zoo's most famous polar bear. But he emerged unscathed after zookeepers managed to distract Knut with beef.

Maxine, a 2-year-old pit bull awaiting a home at New Jersey's Camden County Animal shelter walked in on three and a half legs, and quickly won over the shelter staff with her gentle, affectionate nature. In fact, Maxine is used as the "helper" dog to temperament-test all other incoming strays to see how well they play with others.

Sadly, potential adopters routinely overlook Maxine, but that could change if she were to become bionic . Betting that Maxine's chances of adoption would increase dramatically with an artificial leg, the shelter is launching a drive to raise $6,000, the cost of Cassidy's operation. To make a donation toward Maxine's new leg, e-mail info@ccasnj.org.

To learn more about the trailblazing procedures performed by NCSU vets, visit cvm.ncsu.edu.

js@pet-reporter.com

Two teenagers could spend 25 years in prison for allegedly torturing and killing a cat they set on fire when they broke into an apartment in New York City. Angelo Monderoy, 18, and Matthew Cooper, 17, allegedly broke into a vacant apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y., on or around Oct. 7, 2008. Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said the pair held the cat down as they poured charcoal lighter fluid on it. Hynes said they then set the animal on fire, causing deep wounds and fourth-degree burns. The blaze also damaged the building, which has other units that are occupied. The cat was found outside, unable to move and crying but still alive, the district attorney said. It was euthanized at a local animal hospital. The ASPCA launched an extensive investigation leading to the capture of Monderoy and Cooper, who were indicted this week in Brooklyn, according to the district attorney. They face charges of second-degree arson, second-degree burglary and aggravated animal cruelty and could spend up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Cooper also was recently charged with burglary and assault in an unrelated incident in the same building in which he and another defendant are charged with breaking into an apartment and beating the sleeping tenant with a cane while they demanded money.  These type of people graduate into serial killers when left to their own devices. 

credit....Fox News

Travis gives Charla Nash a "hug" in this undated photo. It was Nash, a neighbor of Travis' owner, Sandra Herold, who was attacked by Travis on Feb. 16 outside Herold's Stamford home. Nash is now being treated for severe facial injuries at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, known for performing the first near-total facial transplant in the United States. Travis was killed by police after the attack.

 Travis

Now and then newspapers and the broadcast media treat us to an occurrence so gross and so horrific it is difficult to put it out of our minds. The recent chimpanzee attack on 55-year-old Charla Nash in Connecticut is one such story.

Last week, Nash went to the home of a friend, Sandra Herold, whose pet chimpanzee, Travis, had escaped from the house. For reasons yet unknown, the 200-pound chimpanzee attacked Ms. Nash, inflicting wounds that left veteran medical workers weak in the knees. One member of the medical team described the mutilation as “face and scalp injuries so severe that we could not tell whether the victim was male or female. Her hands looked as though they had been wrecked by a machine.” When the chimpanzee attacked police responding to the incident, they shot and killed the animal. The officers said it appeared that Nash’s face was ripped away during the 12-minute attack.

After initial emergency treatment, Ms. Nash was transferred four days later to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio - the facility that performed the world’s first face transplant. Ms. Nash underwent seven hours of surgery before she could be flown by medivac plane to Cleveland. Surgeons would not say whether a face transplant was planned, and that even if it were, several preparatory surgeries would be necessary before the transplant could take place, possibly two years from now.

Also unclear are the specific injuries suffered by Ms. Nash during the attack. The New York Daily News and The Stamford Tristate each said the victim lost her eyes, nose, and jaw. Other reports said her eyes were damaged during the brutal mauling, but not destroyed. Surgical teams of plastic surgeons, orthopedics, hand specialists, ophthalmology and trauma worked more than seven hours on Nash before she could be airlifted to the Cleveland Clinic.

While ownership of a chimpanzee is apparently legal in Connecticut, questions quickly arose as to whether it should be legal, and the extent of legal responsibility involved. The chimp’s owner said she fed him lobster, cheesecake and other gourmet food, gave him champagne in long-stemmed glasses, took baths with the animal, slept in the same bed with him, and trained him to brush her hair each night.

Experts on primates say this aberrant relationship may have formed a bond between Sandra Herold and the animal that manifested itself in a rage of jealousy. It was not the first time that Travis attacked a human. In 1996 Travis bit the hand of Leslie Mostel Paul hard enough to draw blood, forcing her to get a series of rabies shots. Ms. Paul said that Travis’ owner was slow in producing his medical records and as a consequence Paul had to get a series of rabies shots. “My impression was she was more like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a pain the neck,’” Paul said.

Ms. Herold said she had recently given Travis doses of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, even though it had not been prescribed for him. So far no criminal charges have been brought against Herold, either by authorities or members of Paul’s family. But there are laws on the books that can hold a pet owner responsible if the animal was known to be a danger to others. During a Scientific American chat on the internet, it was stated that chimpanzee attacks on humans are not that uncommon. In captivity, chimpanzees soon learn they are much stronger than humans - five times stronger - so that even a professional wrestler would not be able to hold a chimpanzee down.

Meanwhile, the Humane Society of the United States has renewed its call to pass the Captive Primate Safety Act. The law would prohibit interstate commerce in primates for the pet trade. In essence, it would make it illegal to buy or transport a pet primate across state lines. Currently, a young chimpanzee has a going rate of $50,000 and even more if being sold illegally. The Society and those sponsoring the legislation believe that primates and other wild animals are a threat to public safety and are a danger to the owner and inhumane to the animal. The Society’s executive vice president, Michael Markarian, says primates are wild animals who can attack and spread disease and who “don’t belong in our bedrooms and basements.”

 credit -    The Killer Chimp Next Door - (Blogger News Network)

Heidi Holland owns the "Kennel/Puppy Mill" . Her address is: 374 Lost Creek Rd, Sparta, Tn 38583 phone # is in the phone book.

Officers with White County Sheriff Department, working in conjunction with District Attorney Randy York, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Humane Society on an investigation that began almost two years ago, took custody, on Wednesday, of an estimated 275 dogs from a residence on Lost Creek Road.

'The sheriff's department has been having about a two-year investigation on this particular mass breeding operation,' said Detective Chris Isom. 'Right now, we believe we have an estimated 275 dogs. And it's an ongoing investigation.' At the request and under the authority of Sheriff Oddie Shoupe, the ASPCA recovered and evaluated the dogs found at the residence. The organization also provided a special forensics team, including ASPCA's Senior Director of Veterinary Forensics Dr. Melinda Merck, Director of Field Operations Jeff Eyre, and Investigator Bob Baker. According to Merck, the dogs suffer from several different medical conditions. More than a dozen other ASPCA disaster response professionals were on scene, as well as the ASPCA's 'Mobile Animal Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Unit' for collection and processing of evidence. 'We have a 12-member disaster response team, which we can respond to natural disasters; but we are also cross-trained in anti-cruelty,' stated Allison Cardona, director of the Disaster Animal Response Team. 'We're trained not only in technical animal rescue, but also in crime scene forensics. We?re a national organization, but we're based in New York. Our response team can respond nationally.' The animals being rescued were housed in the residence and multiple buildings on the property. The dogs are small breed under 20 pounds, including Boston and Jack Russell terriers, Pomeranians, Shih Tzus, Chihuahuas, poodles, miniature Pinschers, and Schnauzers. The animals were examined immediately on the scene, with those needing emergency care transferred to White County veterinarians, who lent their services. The rest of the animals were transported to a temporary emergency shelter staffed by the American Humane Association. PetSmart Charities also assisted in the recovery by providing the majority of sheltering supplies and an emergency relief vehicle. According to Isom, the investigation will continue with the possibility of charges of aggravated cruelty to animals once the extent of the operation is uncovered. 'We are going after anybody that commits a crime - no matter what the crime,' said Sheriff Oddie Shoupe. 'We have enlisted help from the Humane Society and the ASPCA during this investigation. White County has a sheriff's office that does care about all animals. And this type of operation won't be tolerated.'  - the Expositor, Sparta, Tn

A Providence, Rhode Island man is in trouble after he abandoned nearly 300 rats on the side of the road. Toby Duffany, 22, was arrested for stuffing 280 rats into aquariums and cages on the side of a road. The rats were forced to turn to cannibalism and 75 rates died.

Yet, Duffany has only some community service and $1000 to pay for his cruel treatment of the animals.

I am not what you would call a rat person, but even I believe that Duffany deserved something more than writing a check for such a crime. He told police that the rats belonged to his mother (with whom he lives) and they simply could not keep them any longer. One has to wonder if the result would have been different if dogs or cats were stuffed into cages and abandoned in these conditions.

Could he not have let them out of their cages?  This is someone who enjoys the pain he inflicts...as all pet abusers do.

                           ..... (Jonathan Turley....att)

Meet Molly. She's a grey speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners when Hurricane Katrina hit southern Louisiana . She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled. While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected, and her vet went to LSU for help, but LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes. But after surgeon Rustin Moore met Molly, He changed his mind. He saw how the pony was careful to lie down on different sides so she didn't seem to get sores, and how she allowed people to handle her. She protected her injured leg. She constantly shifted her weight and didn't overload her good leg. She was a smart pony with a serious survival ethic. Moore agreed to remove her leg below the knee and a temporary artificial limb was built. Molly walked out of the clinic and her story really begins There. 'This was the right horse and the right owner,' Moore insists. Molly happened to be a one-in-a-million patient. She's tough as nails, but sweet, and she was willing to cope with pain. She made it obvious she understood that she was in trouble. The other important factor, according to Moore, is having a truly committed and compliant owner who is dedicated to providing the daily care required over the lifetime of the horse. Molly's story turns into a parable for life in post-Katrina Louisiana .The little pony gained weight and her mane finally felt a comb. A human prosthesis designer built her a leg. The prosthetic has given Molly a whole new life, Allison Barca DVM, Molly's regular vet, reports. And she asks for it. She will put her little limb out, and come to you and let you know that she wants you to put it on.. Sometimes she wants you to take it off too. And sometimes, Molly gets away from Barca. 'It can be pretty bad when you can't catch a three-legged horse,' she laughs. Most important of all, Molly has a job now. Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people her pluck. She inspired people, and she had a good time doing it. 'It's obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in life, Moore said. She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others.' Barca concluded, 'She's not back to normal, but she's going to be better. To me, she could be a symbol for New Orleans itself.'

While the exact reasons for intentional animal cruelty may vary, nine typologies have been identified by Kellert and Felthous (1985, 1122-1124).

In the cases within the animal cruelty database, we see these typologies over and over:

1.)  to control an animal

2.)  to retaliate against an animal

3.)  to retaliate against another person

4.)  to satisfy a prejudice against a species or breed

5.)  to express anger through an animal

6.)  to enhance one's own aggressiveness

7.)  to shock people for amusement

8.)  to displace hostility from a person to an animal

9.)  to perform non-specific sadism

Reference: Kellert, S.R. and A.R. Felthous. 1985. Childhood cruelty to animals among criminals and non-criminals. Human Relations 38:1113-29.

It is not uncommon for the animal abuser to admit to authorities that they killed an animal to get back at a person they were angry at, or to "punish" the animal for bad behavior.

Everyone needs to stop and ask themselves why they would stand by and let these things happen to an innocent animal.

"From beasts we scorn as soulless

In forest, fields and den

The cry goes up to witness

The soullesness of men."

Bijou had her surgery on Tuesday.  Bi-lateral luxating patellar.  (2 bad knees).  So far so good.  She has an elizabethan collar on for 2 weeks.  And 6 weeks on my lap or in a crate.

Footage from a traffic camera overlooking a busy freeway in Santiago, Chile captured a dog performing a heroic act ? pulling an injured friend from oncoming traffic.

The video, from Azteca America Colorado, shows an injured dog lying in the middle of a freeway after being hit by a car, while a rescue dog dodges traffic to run to its side. The rescue dog then drags the severely injured canine across lanes of traffic as cars swerve around it.

No motorists stopped to help either dog, but a highway crew arrives at the end of the video.

The translation of the announcer is as follows:

"These images seen from the surveillance cameras show a very common situation with our overpopulated highways. It is normal for us to see dogs run over. In the video, we can see this dog fighting for his life because he was run over by the vehicle.

"What is very touching is to see the very heroic actions of this other dog who is trying to pull him to the side of the highway. We are going to keep seeing things like this until we find a solution to the dogs living on the streets."

Click here to watch the video. (WARNING: May be disturbing for some)

My service dog, Bijou, has been having a lot of pain and holding up her left rear leg lately.  After two trips to two different vets here in Lebanon, Tn....we had to take her to UT Veterinary College.  She recieved several tests on Monday and more on Tuesday.  The good news is she doesn't have any spinal cord or neurological damage.  The bad news is ....two luxating patellas.  (Knees that slip out or are never in place)

Please ...if you have a puppy or older dog that you bring into your home......especially from a rescue....make sure that you keep a watchful eye on their legs and knees.

There are so many unethical breeders that refuse to stop breeding their animals, even though they have genetic disabilities.

If you looked at my puppy (1 yr old) you would not know anything was wrong until she started limping.  She runs & plays....till she limps.

The radiographs and spinal tap costs $450.00....and that is with a discount of 20% because she is a service dog.  The two knee surgeries she will have to have is $1500+ a piece.

12-Year-Old Girl Stung By Scorpion at Wal-Mart

BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - One young shopper at a Wal-Mart in West Virginia had to watch out for more than falling prices.

A 12-year-old girl picking up a seedless watermelon from a bin was stung Sunday by a tan, inch-long scorpion that had apparently stowed away in a shipment from Mexico.

Megan Templeton, of Barboursville, was taken to the hospital as a precaution but later released. Her father, William Templeton, said the pain was a little worse than a bee sting.

He initially didn't believe his daughter when she said she had been stung by a scorpion, but then he saw the critter scurry underneath a box. It was captured by Wal-Mart employees.

Most of the nearly 2,000 kinds of scorpions are not dangerous to humans.

Richard Coyle, senior director of international affairs for Wal-Mart, said store employees believe the problem was with a single shipment of watermelons.

"We are very concerned," he said. "This is a very rare incident. When I spoke with the store manager, she said in her 17 years she had never heard of something like this."

Recently, a bill was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives that could end invasive research on an estimated 1,200 chimpanzees and, if passed, would prohibit such experiments on all great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans). Known as the Great Ape Protection Act, it would also prohibit the transport and breeding of great apes for the purpose of invasive research, and transfer those who are already in federally funded laboratories to permanent retirement facilities.

The bill defines ?invasive research? as any experiment that may cause ?death, bodily injury, pain, distress, fear, injury, or trauma,? including psychological experiments of social deprivation and isolation. It currently has 18 cosponsors, but needs more support to move forward.

Click here to take action and ask your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor this important legislation that would end invasive research on great apes.  This link does all the work for you.  It even adds the name of your representative for you when you add your address.