Dogs Of War Pt 2 - Hosp For Combat Wounded Dogs

'Walter Reed' for Combat Dogs Opens Up

(Oct. 22) - A new $15 million veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment for combat-wounded dogs.

Dogs working for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration are trained at the base to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines. Some 2,500 dogs are working with military units.

Like soldiers and Marines in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues that need to be treated to ensure they can continue working.

Dogs injured in Iraq or Afghanistan get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they'll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment — much like wounded human personnel.

"We act as the Walter Reed of the veterinary world," said Army Col. Bob Vogelsang, hospital director, referring to the Washington military medical center that treats troops returning severely wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The dogs can usually return to combat areas if they recover at the Military Working Dog Center, he said.

Before the center opened, veterinarians treated and rehabilitated dogs in a cramped building that opened in 1968, when the military trained dogs for work in Vietnam.

The hospital was already overloaded by Sept. 11, 2001, but since then, demand for military working dogs has jumped dramatically. They're so short on dog breeds such as German shepherds, Labrador retrievers and Belgian Malinoises that Lackland officials have begun breeding puppies at the base.

Lackland is training 750 dogs, which is nearly double the number of dogs there before the Sept. 11 attacks, Vogelsang said.

To treat the trainees and injured working dogs, the new hospital has operating rooms, digital radiography, CT scanning equipment, an intensive care unit and rehab rooms with an underwater treadmill and exercise balls, among other features. A behavioral specialist has an office near the lobby.

"This investment made sense ... and somehow, we were able to convince others," said retired Col. Larry Carpenter, who first heard complaints about the poor facilities in 1994 and later helped to launch the project.

Training a military working dog takes about four months. With demand outstripping the number of dogs available, hospital and veterinary workers were trying to keep them healthy and working as long as possible, Vogelsang said.

Working dogs usually enter training at 1 1/2- to 3-years-old, and most can work until they're about 10, he said.

Then, the military tries to adopt them out and "station them at Fort Living Room," Vogelsang said.

It is really great to see that our four legged mates are getting the attention and care they deserve and are worthy of. Thank YOU US Military.

Animalz Rule, Always,

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Dogs Of War & Their Soldiers

Soldier's Adopted Dog Arrives in US

(Oct. 20) — A black puppy decked out in a red, white and blue bandanna jumped out of his crate and wagged his tail at the airport Monday, three flights and two days after leaving Iraq en route to his new home with a U.S. soldier.

Army Spc. Gwen Beberg of Minneapolis says she couldn't have made it through her 13-month deployment without Ratchet, who she and another soldier rescued from a burning pile of trash in May.

Ratchet, wearing a dog-bone-shaped collar with his name, will spend two nights in a kennel before flying to Minneapolis, where Beberg's parents will pick him up. Beberg is scheduled to return home next month.

"I'm very excited that Ratchet will be waiting for me when I get home from Iraq! Words can't describe it," Beberg said in an e-mail to friends and family. "I hope that Ratchet's story will inspire people to continue the efforts to bring more service members' animals home from Iraq and Afghanistan."

The dog was rescued by Baghdad Pups, run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International. The group, which has now brought 63 animals to the U.S., says the effort both saves dogs and cats and helps soldiers who benefit from the bond with the animals.

The military bars troops from caring for pets while on duty or taking them home, citing reasons such as health issues and difficulties in caring for the animals. The military didn't prevent Ratchet from leaving but said it wouldn't be responsible for transportation.

Baghdad Pups coordinator Terri Crisp, who brought the puppy back from Iraq, said animals adopted by soldiers help them get through difficult times.

"I hope Ratchet and his story will lead to some dialogue with the military," Crisp said as she stroked the puppy.

Ratchet flew on a charter flight to Kuwait, then flew commercial from Kuwait to Amsterdam and on to Washington. Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines picked up the cost of the last two legs.

Ratchet frolicked on a grassy patch outside the airport before heading off to Clocktower Animal Hospital in Herndon, Va., for a checkup and some shots.

"Your tail's wagging!" said Dr. Chris Carskaddan, the veterinarian, as he greeted the dog. "So cute."

Ratchet didn't bark at all, but let out a whimper during the shots. Afterward, Carskaddan declared the dog "extremely healthy."

This is such a great story. Another reason that animals should be treated with the utmost respect and compassion. They provide so much to the human race in more ways than one.

Animalz Rule,

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Mammal Extinctions

1 in 4 mammals face extinction

BARCELONA, Spain, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- One in four of the world's mammals are at risk of extinction, conservationists meeting in Spain direly warned Monday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a study suggests at least 1,141 of the planet's 5,487 mammals are known to be threatened with being wiped off the face of the Earth.

"Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live," the organization's director general, Julia Marton-Lefevre, said in a statement. "We must now set clear targets for the future to reverse this trend to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives."

The Iberian Lynx is one of 188 mammals listed on the group's Red List -- the highest category of critically endangered -- while 29 species are listed as possibly extinct.

The union said species can recover with concerted conservation efforts. The black-footed ferret moved from extinct in the wild to endangered after it was successfully reintroduced by U.S. wildlife officials and the wild horse moved from extinct in the wild to critically endangered after successful reintroductions in Mongolia.

If YOU would like to get into a more in depth read on this story, go to BBC NEWS Science & Environment Mammals facing extinction threat

This is something, that if at all possible, we need to try to reverse. However, in the grand scheme of the Universe and the planet, this may be something that is inevitable.

Animalz Rule,

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Shark Attacks Dog & Big Kitty On The Porch

Tranquilized Cougar

Here, Kitty: Cop Expects Cat, Gets Cougar

CASPER, Wyo. (Sept. 30) - A police officer didn't think much of a call to shoo off a bothersome "kitty cat" at a Casper home on Monday. But after the officer arrived at the home, he ran for cover after seeing a male mountain lion weighing 80 to 90 pounds.

Beverly Hood said she was inside when she first saw the mountain lion lying on her porch Monday. Hood said the lion hissed at her, but she wasn't scared.

She called 911, animal control and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and reported that she had a bothersome "big cat." A dispatcher told Officer Mike Ableman that it was a house cat.

A game warden tranquilized the mountain lion and the animal was relocated.

Man Punches Shark, Saves Dog's Life

ISLAMORADA, Fla. (Sept. 30) - A dog is recovering after a Florida Keys carpenter dove in to save his pet from a shark.

Greg LeNoir said he took his 14-pound rat terrier Jake for a daily swim at a marina Friday.

The five-foot shark suddenly surfaced and grabbed nearly the entire dog in its mouth.

LeNoir said he yelled, then balled up his fists and dove headfirst into the water. He hit the shark in the back and the creature finally let go of the dog.

Man and dog made it safely back to shore. The dog suffered bite wounds but was not critically injured.

These are two animal stories that turned out pretty good. It just goes to show how much our family pets mean to us. People that cannot relate to animalz must have really empty lives.

Animalz Rule,

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Lion Video For Life

If there was ever a video that everyone on this planet should watch, it is this video about Christian the Lion. Alot of YOU may have seen this during the years, however, alot of YOU may have been too young to have caught this. NOW is your chance. Save the link! Anytime YOU feel a little out of sorts or, "think YOU are all that", watch this and get yourself grounded.

Enjoy! Christian the Lion - AOL Video

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Tony Soprano Of The NJ Dog World

Puppy Scares 3 Bears From Backyard

WYCKOFF, N.J. (Aug. 25) - If only Goldilocks had a cockapoo.

A 15-pound cocker spaniel-poodle mix named Pawlee scared off a mother bear and her two cubs Sunday morning after they strayed into his owners' backyard.

Whether his bark was worse than his bite, Pawlee's tactic worked just fine. These three bears got the hint and took off.

"We had just let him out for the morning and he ran into the yard and started barking his head off," owner Fran Osiason said.

Osiason said her 9-year-old son, Jacob, went outside to see what the commotion was about and came running back in to report there were bears in the yard.

She was worried that the mother would come after Pawlee to protect her cubs, but the pugnacious pup, just 8 months old, had other plans.

His barking drove the two cubs up a tree, and they eventually climbed down and hopped over a fence with their mother and retreated into the woods.

Osiason said she, her son, husband Andrew and daughter Eden, 6, have had Pawlee since he was about 8 weeks old. She marveled at his fearlessness.

"He's a little fur ball," she said.

Northern New Jersey seems to breed feisty pets: In 2006, a tabby cat named Jack chased a bear up a tree in his West Milford yard.

Bears are not uncommon in Wyckoff, but Osiason said her family has lived there for about 10 years and had not seen any until Sunday.

With Pawlee on guard, they might not see another one anytime soon.

Not only do YOU not mess with the "mob" in New Jersey, YOU don't mess with the puppies either. Forget Goldilocks, this little pup Pawlee had something for the three bears.

Animalz Rule,

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Golden Retriever Saves The Day

Golden retriever adopts tiger cubs at Kansas zoo

A dog at a southeast Kansas zoo has adopted three tiger cubs abandoned by their mother. Safari Zoological Park owner Tom Harvey said the tiger cubs were born Sunday, but the mother had problems with them.

A day later, the mother stopped caring for them. Harvey said the cubs were wandering around, trying to find their birth mother, who wouldn't pay attention to them. That's when the cubs were put in the care of a golden retriever, Harvey said.

Harvey said it's unusual for dogs to care for tiger cubs, but it does happen. He said he has seen reports of pigs nursing cubs in China, and he actually got the golden retriever after his wife saw television accounts of dogs caring for tiger cubs.

Puppies take about the same amount of time as tiger cubs to develop, and Harvey said the adoptive mother just recently weaned her own puppies.

"The timing couldn't have been any better," he said.

The mother doesn't know the difference, Harvey said. He said the adopted mother licks, cleans and feeds the cubs.

The Safari Zoological Park is a licensed facility open since 1989 and specializes in endangered species.

It has leopards, lions, cougars, baboons, ring-tailed lemurs, bears and other animals. It currently has seven white tigers and two orange tigers.

Because whit tigers are inbred from the first specimen found more than a half-century ago, they are not as genetically stable as orange tigers.

The zoo's previous litter of white tiger cubs was born April 23, although one of the three has since gone to a private zoo near Oklahoma City.

This is a really cool story. Once again, it shows that dogs are not only man's best friend, but they can be other animals best friend also.

Animalz Rule,

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Kamchatka Brown Bears Kill/Eat 2 Guards

Bears besiege Russian mine after killing guards

Terrified workers at a mining compound in one of Russia's most isolated regions are refusing to go to work after a pack of giant bears attacked and ate two of their colleagues.

At least 30 of the hungry animals have been seen prowling close to the mines in northern Kamchatka in search of food, where the mangled remains of the two workers, both guards, were found last week.

The co-workers at the compound in the Olyotorsky district are trapped and frightened: the gruesome discovery has left them too scared to venture out. A team of snipers, with orders to shoot the bears, is now being dispatched to confront the invasion after government officials authorised an off-season hunt.

A spokesman for the local government in the capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, said that the area was so isolated that it would take until at least Saturday to get there. Attempts to reach the scene by helicopter had to be abandoned because of thick fog.

The Kamchatka brown bear is one of the world's largest, with males growing to around three metres (10ft) and weighing up to 700kg (1,540lb). They can also reach speeds of up to 30mph (48km/h) despite their size.

The peninsula, nine timezones east of Moscow and twice the size of Britain, is home to an estimated 16,000 bears.

They are generally peaceful and feed on salmon in Kamchatka's rivers. Environmentalists argue that widespread poaching has caused a fish shortage, prompting the starving bears to become aggressive as they seek out food close to human settlements.

Their arrival has paralysed work at platinum mines owned by the Koryakgeologia company. Geologists refused to leave their compound in Mount Ledyanaya after 20 bears were seen wandering around, while at least 10 animals were spotted at nearby Penisty.

“In the interests of safety they didn't come out to work — the people are scared by the invasion of bears,” a spokesman for the Kamchatka emergencies ministry said. Villagers in nearby Khailino are also afraid to leave their homes after bears were seen rummaging through garbage.

The local administration appealed to the regional government to sanction a hunt to protect residents. Many villagers in Kamchatka hunt bears in the autumn and store their meat for food in winter.

Opinion is divided over how many bears should be killed to prevent further incidents. Viktor Leushkin, a village official, told the Itar-Tass news agency: “These predators have to be destroyed. Once they kill a human, they will do it again and again.”

Experts argue that a mass slaughter is unnecessary and that the snipers should concentrate on isolating the two or three bears whose tracks were found close to the mutilated bodies of the guards.

They believe that the other bears can be frightened away from the settlements and forced back into the forest to hunt for something to eat, although this could prove problematic as the creatures are much more willing to scavenge for food in towns than before.

Kamchatka is not alone in facing problems with hungry bears. The mutilated remains of a man were found last month after he was attacked on nearby Sakhalin island, the third person killed by a bear this year. This month a young bear was found prowling the streets of the city of Nizhny Novgorod after it escaped from the local zoo. Residents reportedly fed and played with him before zoo keepers retrieved the animal.

Last month a woman was mauled to death by a bear that had ventured into the suburbs of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka.

For a long time, I always believed that sharks were pretty much the "nasty boyz" of the planet. To an extent, they still are. However, they have serious competition which to many, relegates sharks to second place. Bears should actually have the top spot. Not only are they as nasty as sharks when they want to be, but, they are superior to humans in a face to face matchup. Unless YOU have a weapon and get the first look, YOU cannot compete. These bears can outrun, out swim, out climb humans. AND, they can out think most people. YOU do NOT want a confrontation with a smart, nasty, hungry carnivore like these bears. YOU will lose!

You know, they have a bear hunting season in this area. People hunt the bears for their meat and skins for the winter. So, as far as I'm concerned, "this is tit for tat".

Animalz Rule, Even Brown Bears,

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Wolves Protected Again From Idiot Humans

Judge Restores Protection for Wolves

BILLINGS, Mont. (July 19) - A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring the protections for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent.

The region has an estimated 2,000 gray wolves. They were removed from the endangered species list in March, following a decade-long restoration effort.

Environmentalists sued to overturn the decision, arguing wolf numbers would plummet if hunting were allowed. They sought the injunction in the hopes of stopping the hunts and allowing the wolf population to continue expanding.

"There were fall hunts scheduled that would call for perhaps as many as 500 wolves to be killed. We're delighted those wolves will be saved," said attorney Doug Honnold with Earthjustice, who had argued the case before Molloy on behalf of 12 environmental groups.

In his ruling, Molloy said the federal government had not met its standard for wolf recovery, including interbreeding of wolves between the three states to ensure healthy genetics.

"Genetic exchange has not taken place," Molloy wrote in the 40-page decision.

Molloy said hunting and state laws allowing the killing of wolves for livestock attacks would likely "eliminate any chance for genetic exchange to occur."

The federal biologist who led the wolf restoration program, Ed Bangs, defended the decision to delist wolves as "a very biologically sound package."

"The kind of hunting proposed by the states wouldn't threaten the wolf population," Bangs said Friday. "We felt the science was rock solid and that the delisting was warranted."

Bangs said government attorneys were reviewing Molloy's court order and would decide next week whether to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Federal and state officials had argued killing some wolves would not endanger the overall population - as long as numbers did not dip below 300 wolves. With increasing conflicts between wolves and livestock, they said public hunts were crucial to keeping the predators' population in check.

This is the best story I have seen in a long time! Thankfully, somebody had the where with all to step up and do the right thing with these magnificent creatures that are so highly regarded by souls who have awakened and realize their importance in the grand scheme of things.

Instead of trying to hunt and kill something, why don't YOU gun happy geeks in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana try to figure a way for all concerned to live in the same environment without killing one another off? Oh, I know, "that would be too much of a mental challenge for YOU". There are alot of things that I know that I have no idea why I know them, but, I do. I do know that all of the animal inhabitants of this world will be here long after most, if not all, humans. "They were here first, they will be here last."

Thank YOU Judge Donald Molloy,

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Bears And Snakes, Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Bear Attacks Camper Sleeping in Tent

HELENA, Mont. (July 18) -- A bear attacked a person sleeping inside a tent early Thursday, leading authorities to close two campgrounds near Yellowstone National Park.

The camper suffered bite and claw marks on his arms while protecting himself. His name and age weren't disclosed. Authorities said he was taken to West Park Hospital in Cody, Wyo., which refused to release any information.

As a precaution, the U.S. Forest Service closed the Soda Butte campground, where the camper was attacked, and the nearby Chief Joseph campground, both in the Gallatin National Forest. The sites are along U.S. 212, a few miles from the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Forest spokeswoman Marna Daley said the bear was believed to be a grizzly. She didn't know how many people were evacuated from the campgrounds.

The camper apparently had stored his food properly, Daley said. She didn't know if he was camping alone.

The Forest Service said in a statement that the campgrounds will remain closed "until the bear is located or the immediate concern subsides."

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks will decide how to deal with the bear. In previous cases, problem bears have been relocated to more remote areas.

Woman Finds 8-Foot Snake in Washer

GORHAM, Maine (July 17) - A woman got the shock of her life when she found an 8-foot snake mixed in with clothes in her washing machine. The snake, identified as a reticulated python, somehow got into the water pipes of Mara Ranger's 1800s-era farmhouse and slithered into the machine.

After Ranger took her blue jeans out of the machine Wednesday, she reached back into the load and felt something move.

"I jumped back and all of sudden its head starts coming out of the washing machine and it looked huge," Ranger told WMTW-TV.

Ranger quickly closed the lid and called police and an animal control officer, but they didn't want anything to do with the serpent.

When Richard Burton, who operates Maine Animal Damage Control in Lewiston, arrived at Ranger's house, he could barely believe his eyes. Woman Finds 8-Foot Snake in Washer - AOL News

What can I say, "camping, without 4 walls, air conditioner, bathroom and room service presents dangerous circumstances sometime". Not only with bears, but, crocodiles, snakes, gators, big cats etc. "Hey, it's their turf".

As far as snakes in the washing machine, "WHAT"!!!

Animals Rule,

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