Europa – Animal Health & Welfare
Live animals, pets and non-commercial
And we all know that the ruthless traffickers won’t take a blind bit of notice!
Category: Advice
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THE INVISIBLE KILLER IN PET FOOD: MYCOTOXINS
Posted on the Living with Leishmania page on facebook. Regular readers will have read Ann O’Connor’s article on her experience with her podenca Livia. Here’s what she says about the above subject.
‘Here is an interesting article on the dangers of molds that grow on plant proteins used in animal food, like kibble…”These molds are potent carcinogens which have been directly correlated to adverse health effects, resulting in both acute toxicity and chronic health problems in pets; problems such as liver cancer, in many animal species.” I think this could compromise a leish positive dog’s immunity seriously. This article focusses on the US pet food industry but it would be interesting to see if there are similarities in other countries.
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Best way to help podencos? Join an existing rescue association
It’s depressing how many hundreds of podencos are abandoned and dumped in perreras every week – as with the galgos, there is now no let up during the summer months after hunting ends..,Podenco facebook pages are full of gorgeous podencos needing forever homes…I simply can’t post them all here!
One new development in the past 18 months which does concern me is that, with photos circulating on Facebook of podencos in perreras, some people who live outside of Spain are trying to organise rescuing them and putting them in kennels, sometimes with negative results. Unfortunately this can give podencos a bad name and it’s not good for the dogs themselves.
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Leech Therapy – old fashioned remedies could be best
Plenty of food for thought in this report by Tunde Patko, on the use of leeches for healing. I will be interested to hear from anyone else who has experience of using leeches.
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Princess Beatriz – from the streets of Valencia to idyllic Devon
Always a pleasure to publish a happy rehoming story to illustrate what fabulous pets podencos make. Re-introducing Beatriz, Ellie updates her story.
18 months to two years have passed since I wrote an article about Beatriz the podenco.
Beryl kindly asked me for an update.Rescued off the street in Valencia on a business trip, I wrote about the perils…and joys of adopting a pod’ (which breed wise I knew next to nothing about at the time).
Having been through the experience, (and gently encouraged by my bank manager to do so), J suggest people do not adopt dogs off the streets in Spain, or directly from a pound, but go to one of the many, and wonderful refuges and rescues, both in Spain and here in the UK. They have podencos and galgos and bodegueros and Spanish Water dogs and everything crossed and in between! They know the dogs, can match you up – lifestyle wise – and offer all the invaluable and essential help you will need when adopting from abroad, or in the UK.
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Keyboard bullies – ban them!
During my working life, I wore 2 hats. One was with BBC Radio, the other was in the legal profession. But both overlapped in so far as I was trained to carry out full research on a subject, check the wording of whatever I wrote and include references where possible to substantiate my claims. This work has stood me in good stead, especially publicising some dishonest working practices by a firm of solicitors which I, with the help of the BBC, exposed on television. There was nothing the solicitors could do about it because the report was full of fact and backed up, and also passed by the BBC legal department.
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Diagnosing Leishmaniasis in Dogs
Anne O’Connor adopted Livia, a podenco with leishmania. She has written in great detail about their journey together to find the best and optimum treatment to enable Livia to live a normal long life. I am pleased to say Anne agreed to the article being included as a chapter in my definitive guide to the Podenco, From Pyramid to Perrera, on sale above.
Now Anne has taken the time out to write another very informative article on understanding the symptoms of leishmania, to be able to asses your own dog. Thank you Anne, for sharing this with everyone.
Diagnosing Leishmaniasis in Dogs
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Podencos in Apartments – Podencoworld Sweden comments
For many of us Brits, keeping a dog in an apartment (flat is our word) is not something we accept as much as the Europeans. Having said that, the apartment blocks I have been in in France and Spain are very different from a block of UK flats – they tend to be more spacious. One of my French friends lives in Paris with 5 dogs in her apartment, they get regular walks in the gardens around the block. Helen Portnoff of Podencoworld Sweden also lives in an apartment with 4 dogs. Here she explains.
‘4 of my children on a walk in the forest earlier today.
You might have asked yourself if it is possible to live in an apartment with a Podenco? Answer: yes. We do, we live in a 3 room apartment but we walk them every four hours and they get to run “free” and play in the dog parc every day.
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Pet Official Status in France
The official status of animals in France has been upgraded. The Civil Code from the reign of Napoleon (most things date from then!) states that pets were classified as personal property, which is the same status as furniture.
Now pets have officially been amended to sentient status (creatures with feelings).
Pity they can’t do that for the hunting dogs in Spain.