On Lost dog reunited with Wis. family after 3 years

Posted on January 1 at 8:08 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

I have mine chipped and would certainly hope that I have them back long before 3 years time.

On Council protests stray animal increases

Posted on October 15 at 11:55 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

The new Wisconsin Puppy Mill bill is affecting shelters and rescue groups as well as the main target of puppy mills. There's a huge difference. Mills are in it for the money involved and breeding puppies. Shelters and Rescue groups are not breeding but trying to save the lives of so many no longer wanted animals who are already here. These are primarily wonderful animals who ended but with crappy owners the first time around... so they deserve to die because of that? Rescue groups end up with a lot of puppies purchased on impluse as well. Animals are not a throw away item!!

On Do you pick up your dog do?

Posted on September 9 at 8:55 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Picked up daily even in the winter in our fenced backyard. Good cleanup anytime the snow completely melts throughout the winter as sometimes snow fall manages to cover some before daily cleanup time. Rarely off our property but poop bags used anytime we are off our property.

On Closed lunch coming sooner at Parker High

Posted on September 9 at 8:32 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

We've put a lot of money into remodelling both High Schools and lunches should be eaten at the schools. Bunches of kids piling into cars and then racing to the different restaurants for lunch makes it dangerous for anyone out driving anywhere near the High Schools during the scheduled lunch periods. When people living here did have jobs, it made it very difficult for all working anywhere near the High Schools to go out and get anything for their lunches and they didn't have cafeterias and hot meals available through their employers.

$6.50 for lunch at school? What does is cost for meals eaten away from school every day and how is that afforded. There is another option.. called brown bagging it.

On People demonstrate against Petland, but store says it uses reputable breeders

Posted on August 10 at 10:45 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

Shelters do not have only old or problem dogs. Most dogs over 7 or 8 years old aren't considered as adoptable by many shelters. Depending on the breed of dog as smaller breeds due tend to have longer life expectancy than larger breeds that 7 or 8 years is half the dog's life expectancy. If you've never owned a dog that age or older... you've really missed out. They are awesome and very loving as well as devoted and loyal companions.. And they are well past the puppy chewing everything in sight phase.

Because people pay outrageous amounts for an animal in no way guarantees that animal is going to a good home. People are willing to pay for the animal with plastic or with payments and very frequently they quickly discover that a puppy requires more work and time than they want to give.. it's not housetrained and it does chew... soooooooooo before the animal is even paid it.. it's passed to relatives or friends and frequently ends up being passed to another and another.. OR ends up in a shelter or rescue. Shelters do end up with dogs with Special needs but they did not breed or produce those animals.. often they are dumped there or picked up as strays... dumped off in the country, etc.

A rescue group (there are breed specific resuces for every type of breed as well as rescues that take all breeds) is like a shelter. They take dogs that are no longer wanted or deemed disposable. But Rescue groups differ in that they are run by volunteers so there is no one receiving a pay check for running a rescue. They frequently will take older dogs and are many are very successful with placing older dogs... special needs dogs, etc into loving families where that animal will live out their lives as much loved family members. Rescue groups are limited to the number of animals they can have due to the fact that the animals in their programs live in foster homes where they are loved and part of a family while they are being treated for medical issues and problems.. house training if needed is started along with basic obedience commands and frequently undesireable issues the dogs comes with are worked on and corrected so that they can be adopted. The more foster homes they can recruit, the more animals they can help. There is no timeframe involved with an animal finding their forever home or them having to be put down merely because of overcrowding. Rescues also require that all animals be neutered or spayed so they aren't producing any more babies. They have minimal fees that frequently do not begin to cover the expenses involved to restore that animal to the best health it is possible of having. So the animal is current on vaccinations, is spayed or neuters and frequently also microchipped and many recieve above the usually vetting for things like having cherry eye repaired. They are also treated for fleas, heart worm tested, wormed, ear infections, etc.

On People demonstrate against Petland, but store says it uses reputable breeders

Posted on August 10 at 10:25 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

hankhill -- The differences between a Puppy Mill and a shelter is that Puppy Mills BREED dogs with the sole purpose of selling the puppies produced to make money. Shelters are places that deal with animals who already exsit but are no longer wanted or that are abandoned by their owners. Puppy Mills determine their best breeders based on how many puppies are produced in one litter... more puppies produced means more in pocket money. Dogs living in Mills are bred regardless of any known health or genetic problems they have because it's all about the money that dog can generate for them. If the dog doesn't produce bigger enough litters or whatever it's considered disposable. These dogs may be put up on auction or taken out and shot. Dogs living in Puppy Mills do not receive proper vet care -- think about it.. could you afford vet bills for a hundred or more dogs? Dogs in Mills can live in cages inside or outside a building and frequently a number of dogs crammed into a cage regardless if they get along with each other or not.. they drink from the same container and eat from the same container and it does become survival of the fittest. Dogs do fight over what food is provided and the poor quality of food given does result with rotten teeth and mouth and gum issues. A shelter takes animals from that situation as well as others and yes the animals coming into the shelter do need and then receive proper vet care. Many require much more than routine vet care to restore their health to the best it can be. The dogs may have to live in kennels at a shelter but do you see numerous dogs crammed into a kennel that is designed for one dog? Shelters require that animals be neutered or spayed so they aren't producing more babies who will not be wanted either at the time they are born or later in their lives. Shelters do evaluations on the dogs to test temperament so that hopefully they will end up in a loving forever family. Volunteers for a shelter frequently do work with animals there to socialize them, so that the animals knows what it's like to walk on grass, gets some exercise, learns about things like treats and toys, even some basic obedience commands. These are all things that a dog living in a mill knows nothing about because they spend their lives in a cage. They are expendable when they can no longer produce puppies (due to not receiving proper vet care and developing things like infections after being bred and giving to birth to a litter of puppies EVERY time they come in heat) or the size of the litters they produce is deemed not big enough by the miller.

On People demonstrate against Petland, but store says it uses reputable breeders

Posted on August 10 at 1:17 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

Do an online search for the Dog Auctions held in Thorp, WI.

I can tell you that the rescue I'm involved with deals with a lot of former breeding dogs from various mills.. We've also had a number of dogs obtained from the Dog Auctions in Thorp. These dogs can be in rescue and living in foster homes for many months prior to them being to the point where they are ready to be adopted to a loving forever family. Some do come around faster than other do... there is no rushing things with a former mill dog. It can take months with them living in a foster home before they gain enough trust in humans to seek out any kind of attention from them. Foster parents greatly celebrate each tiny step they take towards progress.

On People demonstrate against Petland, but store says it uses reputable breeders

Posted on August 10 at 12:59 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

(continued) Check out the pedigrees that Petland have.. Check that pedigree out for any breeder you are purchasing a puppy from. If you are looking for dog to show.. you definitely need to see a whole lot of red on that pedigree BUT the puppy also needs to be specified by the breeder as show quality and a purchase contract needs to state that.

Regardless of how good the breeding behind a litter of puppies is... not all are show quality and the puppies who are not are called pet quality. A puppy sold as pet quality is usually sold with a condition that the puppy has to be spayed or neutered and comes with a much lower fee than a show quality puppy. A show dog has to be intact -- no neuter or spay. An altered dog can not be shown. What makes a puppy pet quality? It may not have the correct type of bite.... markings may not be as specified by the AKC... it may be smaller than the standard for the breed.. may not have the desired head of rear.. a wide variety of reasons. That doesn't mean that they aren't absolutely gorgeous and don't make fantastic family pets. Regardless if you want to show or not... purchasing a quality puppy is important to you due to genetic or other health issues that are much more common with puppies produced without the quality breeding behind them.

Do some homework prior to purchasing a puppy. Check out the breeder you are considering buying from online... Ask your vet about breeders you are considering buy from or about buying from Petland. Do an online search about Petland for yourselves. See what comes up.

On People demonstrate against Petland, but store says it uses reputable breeders

Posted on August 10 at 12:56 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

I want to clear a few things up.. First some background. I bred one litter of quality Champion sire puppies close to 20 years ago. My female dog had an excellent pedigree with exceptionl blood lines behind her. I just didn't get lucky.. I did a lot of research becoming familiar with blood lines and reputible breeder BEFORE purchasing her and I spent another 2 years searching for a suitable stud dog for her. Any dogs I have owned have been family pets first and live as such. It was a one time litter because that is something that I really wanted to do. My sisters also have dogs of another breed and do show as well as have a occassional litter of quality puppies -- by occassional I mean 1 litter every several years. Their dogs are all Champions and also live first as family pets. So I am knowledgable about Breeding. I'm very involved with a Breed Rescue and have been for 5 years now and am a foster parent for this rescue. I am very familiar with puppy mills and dogs who were breeders who came from them. I currently own a former breeder from a really horrible mill in Missouri. I also own a dog who was purchased from a pet shop and surrendered to rescue a few months later.. The family who purchased her allowed their kids to terrorize this little girl and by the time she was 6 months old... they didn't want her anymore. Both were adopted from the rescue I'm involved with and the puppy was my foster before I adopted her.

Pet store including Petland DO get their puppies from Mills and those are not good places for any dog to live. Some mills do have better conditions for the animals they have than others. Check out the following link and see for yourself the conditions these dogs live in.. http://www.petshoppuppies.org/ Plenty of photos there of actual mill operations. Note there is a link on that website for Petland. Just read the information on some of those links and become educated. Because some breeding operations are licensed... that doesn't mean a thing.

What's a pedigree ... it's your dog's family tree. It lists the parents, grandparents, etc for your dog. Breeders will usually give you a 4 generation pedigree for your puppy. When you look at the pedigree you are looking for the dogs listed on it to have their names in the color red OR with a CH. before their registered name. A quality puppy has 2/3 of the names on it's pedigree in red or with the CH. before their names.

On Children's museum group hopes field trip to Illinois museum exhibits similar need

Posted on August 8 at 9:22 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

sahmama -- If you want to take "your" kids to a children's museum they you wouldn't mind driving them 45 minutes in one of two directions to do so. You have that option available to you... Just how much are you going to contribute financially towards having one here? There is plenty to do right here with your kids.. so do what is here and drive them the 45 minutes to do the something else.

We can't afford yet another unnecessary thing.