Itchmo: News For Dogs & Cats

This year, Bring Your Dog to Work Day is on Friday, June 22. Can you imagine how great your work day would be if you could bring Spot to work everyday? Unfortunately, most companies do not allow employees to bring their pets with them to work. Thanks to dogfriendly.com and nwsource.com, we were able to find some Seattle-area companies that welcome our furry friends with open arms. So if bringing your pet to work is the most important priority for you in a job, then pass your resume along to one of these companies. Shh… Don’t tell your boss that it’s our fault.

A list of dog friendly companies after the jump.

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Here is a calendar of Seattle dog meetup events for this weekend:

- The Seattle Chihuahua group will be meeting up on Saturday at 3:15pm at Great Dog. 77 people have RSVP’d (that is a lot of chihuahuas!).

-Seattle corgis are meeting up for a walk and a swim at Magnuson Park on Saturday at 1pm. 15 people have RSVP’d.

-Calling all doodles! The Seattle Labradoodle and Goldendoodle group is meeting up on Saturday at 12pm at Magnuson Park. 8 people have RSVP’d.
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If you live in the Seattle area and would like to be a volunteer at the Seattle Animal Shelter, there is a volunteer orientation this Saturday (April 14) at 1pm at Seattle Central Community College Gym. No registration is necessary and there is a $10 donation suggested. The volunteer program is for people 18 years or older and for those who can commit to volunteering at least 8 hours a month. Join this rewarding opportunity and be able to help with anything from fostering to special events.

Updated throughout the day:

- Toxin confirmed in non-recalled cat food by independent lab. Update: Nutro’s site promises a new press release today. (Nutro Products)

- Itchmo Forums now open. Give help and find help from other pet parents.

- Menu Foods CFO sold almost half of his Menu Foods shares 3 weeks before recall.

- Mounting vet bills? One of these charities can help.

- Banfield’s numbers put total deaths or illnesses at up to 39,000.

- (Seattle) Q13 Fox will have a segment on what needs to be done to safeguard the pet food supply tonight at 10.

Our cats and dogs are not only our companions and best friends, but sometimes they are our heroes and they save our lives. Here are some pets that alerted their owners of danger. A heroic incident occurred in New Jersey, when a robber entered the store and pointed a gun at the owner’s wife and then the store owner’s dog began barking at the robber. The robber fled the store, but before leaving, he did take a shot at the dog. The dog, a 5-year-old German shepard named Moti (pictured here), had emergency surgery and is doing well and wanted to go back to work the next day. He definitely is a work horse! Good job Moti!

More pet heroes after the jump.
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Here’s the latest in recall news.

Be in on the ground floor. It’s brand new, and probably overdue, but we have added a discussion board for you to talk about the recall, pet nutrition, safety and more. (If you see a security warning, ignore it.)

Senate Pet Food Safety Hearing is scheduled to be shown live here (under Webcasts) on Thursday 2pm Eastern, Thursday, April 12. They are also checking into a C-SPAN broadcast.

Senate hearing witnesses released. Lack of industry “outsiders” is disappointing. Of the 2 witnesses who are not working for the industry, both worked for Hills, but one is now an advocate for cat health — Dr. Hodgkins. The other, well, you can Google for yourself: Dr. Claudia Kirk. We just called Sen. Durbin’s office, and it looks like this is the final list. They will focus on the FDA’s actions, not so much on the pet food industry itself. (Thanks Howl911) Post edited.

Vet network confirms deaths in thousands: Pet Connection has a story on the Veterinary Information Network’s estimates on the number of potential deaths and a financial toll up to $20 million.

Itchmo Exclusive: FDA’s vets were focused on salmonella risk before recall — a very low risk for pets.

New Jersey is blazing the trail on making pet food makers pay for their mistakes.

Another pet site investigates dry food death reports — this time Purina’s Beneful.

USA Today Op-Ed: A national centralized system is needed and treating pets as property won’t change the industry.

More and more people and groups question pet food ingredients.

Pet food is in short supply in some shelters. (Seattle) Please donate any non-recalled food you can spare.

Forbes takes a look at the bumbling of customer relations by the major recalled food manufacturers.

(Thanks to many readers for your tips.)

This past Saturday, Itchmo went to Homeward Pet Adoption Center’s Easter B’Egg Hunt at Camp Charlie. The dogs had a great time bouncing around and looking for eggs (actually, the people were more so hunting for eggs than the dogs — although the dogs loved the treats inside except for Itchmo’s official dog — he enjoyed playing with the plastic egg more) and making new friends.

More pictures of the Easter B’Egg Hunt after the jump.

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National Tag Day is April 7. This day focuses on the importance of pet owners providing their pets with one or more forms of identification. Only about 15 percent of dogs and 2 percent of cats without proper identification that end up in shelters are returned to their proper owner. Many pet owners have been microchipping pets just in case if their collar or tag falls off.

More tips for pet tags after the jump.

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FDA alerts us to avoid these products due to salmonella contamination from a Washington state company:

* American Bullie Small Chew, small, 3-4 inch
* A.B. Puppy Chew, 4-6 inch
* A.B. Dog Chew Medium, 6 inch
* A.B. Dog Chew Large, 10 inch
* A.B. Dog Chew XL, 13 inch
* A.B. Dog Chew Mega, 16 inch
* A.B. Dog Chew Jumbo, 26 inch

Full release after the jump. Kudos to many readers!

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With Easter quickly approaching, we all think of cute and cuddly bunnies and how fun it would be to have one. Especially those of us with children, we know that our children will want a pet bunny. But we know that children will soon tire of caring for a bunny, so parents will end up caring for him/her instead. So in our case, we would rather give our children a stuffed bunny or a Chia bunny (don’t children love Chia pets?) to appease their desire for a new “toy”. If you decide you want to care for a bunny, you can adopt a bunny at your local shelter. Bunnies are the third most common animals in shelters nationwide behind dogs and cats. If you live in the Seattle area, there is a shelter called the Best Little Rabbit, Rodent and Ferret House or the Seattle Animal Shelter also has rabbits for adoption.

So, here is a peek into raising a bunny. It definitely is not as easy as it looks. If you are properly prepared, please do go adopt one at the shelter.

More on a day in the life of being a bunny parent after the jump.

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Here’s to another pug gathering (and group snorting)! The next Kent Pug Meetup will be on Saturday, April 7 at 10am at the RL’s Dog Days Inn. 25 pug parents and their pugs have RSVP’d. Birthdays for April pug babies will be celebrated and everyone will have a pug of a time romping around and snorting.

We’ll be on KIRO 710 Newsradio tonight at 9pm Pacific time to discuss the systemic failure of the pet food industry to protect our pets and how we can stop it from happening again. Christie Keith from Pet Connection will also be joining by phone.

To listen live to “The David Goldstein Show” on the Internet, go to: http://www.710kiro.com/els/elsLoginFrm.asp

No login? No problem:

Email Login: tips@itchmo.com

Password: furbaby

I always assume that police officers can get away with anything, but not in this case. A California police chief was reprimanded and written up by a county ranger for having his dog run off leash on a trail — a violation of county law. I guess even the law can’t get away with some things. Beware, cities like Seattle are starting to crack down on dog owners if their dog is off leash in a non off-leash area. The Man is watching.

It’s almost Easter and not only do children love hunting for Easter eggs, but our furry children do too! The Homeward Pet Adoption Center is hosting their Easter B’Egg Hunt Fundraiser on Saturday, April 7 from 11am-2:30pm at Camp Charlie. The hunt time for large breed dogs is from 11am-12:30pm and the hunt time for small breed dogs is 12:30pm-2pm. $10 donation per dog. Don’t forget bunny ears and slippers for your dog because they love that — as shown by this dog who looks so excited!

What do most people collect? Coins. Baseball cards. Beanie Babies. Dust. Birds?

Last week, the Seattle Humane Society discovered a Seattle man that had collected 110 budgies over a period of five years. The budgies were living in less than ideal conditions: they were all living in one cage that was covered in feces, debris and dirt. The Humane Society was alerted when an officer that was taking care of a cat near the man’s apartment saw the condition of the birds through a window (Thanks to a good Peeping Tom!). Charges will not be filed against the man due to his cooperation with the humane law enforcement officers. 100 of the budgies (10 are being treated at the vet office) were put up for adoption at the Seattle Animal Shelter and within 2 hours, all of the 100 budgies were adopted. 50 people were waiting at the shelter before it even opened. Who knew that adopting a bird would be like standing in line to get a Nintendo Wii. I wonder if anyone camped out.

By the way, they make look like parakeets but they are actually budgies. Confusing, huh? Thanks Gina for the clarification!