This story is from the UK but it really caught my eye. I wouldn't be surprised if we had the same trends here in the U.S. It offers some good advice to all pet owners.

From Easier.com.

One million people believe their pet dogs or cats have been stolen
9 April 2008

Over 1 million UK residents believe that they have had a pet cat or dog stolen over the past five years, according to Sainsbury’s Finance.

Unfortunately, the research also indicates that if you lose your animal, the chances of you being reunited are slim as some 61% of people who have suffered from a pet cat or dog going missing since November 2002 never saw them again.

Steve Johnson, Head of Pet Insurance, Sainsbury's Finance said: “It’s difficult to know the full scale of dog and cat theft because it's impossible to know for sure if the cat or dog has been stolen, lost or suffered an accident. The scale of the problem is also underestimated because it’s not always reported to the police - only 12% of people who have lost their pet over the past five years actually notified them."

The Bank's research and findings from the Missing Pets Bureau, which report that 38% of dogs reported to them as missing are actually stolen, suggests pet theft is a very real crime that should be taken seriously.

Johnson continues: "Many victims of lost or stolen cats and dogs may find that their pet insurance policy will offer little or no support towards the recovery of their pets. Around a quarter of all pet insurance policies offer no reward for the return of lost or stolen cats and dogs and will not provide financial assistance to owners who want to try and find their missing pet by placing advertisements. We think this should be covered as standard"

Sainsbury’s Finance believes that there are three main reasons why pets are being stolen:

Resale price: Some pets are stolen because of their value. Bengal cats for example, are becoming increasingly popular with cat owners but they are very expensive to buy. Costs can vary from between £500 to thousands of pounds. Thieves stand to make a lot of money by stealing pedigree animals and selling them on.

Breeding: Pedigree animals can be stolen for breeding purposes. Puppies and kittens from certain breeds are sold for hundreds or thousands of pounds each.

Ransom: Some pets are stolen and then offered back to their owners for a ransom. In these cases criminals demand often thousands of pounds for the safe return of a pet.

Breeds most likely to be stolen:

Dogs: English Springer Spaniel, Border Terrier, Boxer, Yorkshire Terrier and Labrador Retriever

Cats: Burmese, Persian, Siamese, Maine Coon and British Short Hair

Sainsbury’s Pet Insurance provides up to £1,000 towards the advertising costs for a lost dog or cat and up to £750 compensation if the pet is lost or stolen and not returned. Through a partnership with Missing Pets Bureau the bank also offers pet owners FREE pet ID tags that link to microchips and DNA identification.

In an attempt to secure the safe return of their pet, 71% of people who had their cat or dog go missing over the past five years, turned to their neighbours for help, 44% put up posters in their neighbourhood and 13% placed an advertisement in the local paper. Two in five (40%) informed the RSPCA or equivalent local dog or cat home of their lost pet, whilst only 12% contacted the police.

Sainsbury’s Finance offers the following tips on how to reduce the chances of your pet going missing or worse, being stolen:

Ensure that your pet wears a collar and pet identification tag
Have your pet micro-chipped. This takes seconds and is virtually painless. Consult your local vet for details
Keep garden boundaries as secure as possible to prevent your dog from escaping and also to deter thieves from entering
Always supervise your dog, whether it is in your own garden or in a public area
Try to avoid tying your dog up outside a shop or leaving it unattended
If you use a dog walker, make sure that they are reputable
Vary your routes when walking your dog

Pet ID tags provided by Missing Pets Bureau and Sainsbury’s link to microchips and DNA identification. They give 24-hour 'Petback Protect' support, 365-days-a-year, to get lost and stolen pets back to their owners fast. The tags are secure because they display a freephone number for people to call if they find a pet missing, and a serial number that links to the owner's personal details on Missing Pets Bureau’s database. This is important as without the owner's personal details, their identity is protected and a criminal cannot hold their pet to ransom.

Good quality pet insurance does not need to be expensive, good cover at a competitive price can be found by shopping around. Sainsbury’s Pet Insurance is designed to offer some of the widest range of benefits available at a competitive price. For further information, visit sainsburys.co.uk.

From the Anchorage Daily News.

Mackey's dog Zorro healing nicely
The Associated Press
Published: April 6th, 2008 03:22 AM
Last Modified: April 6th, 2008 03:22 AM

TACOMA, Wash. - The lead dog for Iditarod winner Lance Mackey is heading back home to Alaska after receiving treatment for severe injuries that initially left him with a 50-50 chance of walking again.

Zorro was riding in Mackey's sled as a result of a sore shoulder last week during the All Alaska Sweepstakes race. A snowmobile going about 60 mph crashed into the sled.

The snowmobile ski hit Zorro in the ribs. Dr. Kobi Johnson of Tacoma's The Animal Emergency Clinic says Zorro suffered four broken ribs and bruising up to the spinal column and into the spinal cord.

Although doctors say Zorro will never pull a sled again, the dog is walking again and wagging his tail, too.

This is such a nice story. What a creative teacher! Good job.

From the Durango Herald.

For the dogs
Fifth-graders build homes for wolf hybrids
April 6, 2008
By Karen Boush | Herald Staff Writer

Fifth-graders at Riverview Elementary School learned last week that seeing a big construction project through to successful completion feels doggone good - particularly when it involves doghouses.

Riverview Elementary School teacher Anthony Bonanno, demonstrates the art of caulking Wednesday to student Avra Saslow, 10, as Katie Sullivan, 11, hammers a nail on a doghouse at the school. The doghouse will be donated to WolfWood Refuge near Ignacio. JERRY McBRIDE/Herald photos

Nailing shingles to roofs, sealing cracks and painting walls, the students reflected on their accomplishments as they worked outside the school Wednesday.

Jacob Kaplan, 11, said the project involved more sweat than he anticipated.

"I thought we were just going to get some wood and nail some doghouses together, but it's taken a lot of hard work that I didn't know it was going to take," he said.

Lauren Milliet, on the other hand, knew from the start she'd roll her sleeves up high.

"I really hoped to have it just perfect for them," said Milliet, 11, referring to the intended recipients.

Once completed, the doghouses will be used as shelters for wolf hybrids at WolfWood Refuge, near Ignacio.

Gene Taylor, a Fort Lewis College professor who helped spearhead the project, smiled knowingly as he watched the students work.

"I learned a long time ago that the way to the head is through the heart and the hands ," he said. "The goal is to teach children to use their hands to learn all kinds of good things and to do all kinds of good things."

A packful of lessons

The construction of wolf-sized doghouses at Riverview has been the centerpiece activity of a multidisciplinary unit about dogs put together by teacher Anthony Bonanno.

Over the course of the semester, his students have researched the history of various dog breeds; read Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls' classic novel about a boy and his champion coonhounds; organized a school-wide fundraiser resulting in the donation of 800 pounds of dog food to WolfWood; and visited with local search-and-rescue and guide dogs.

A student research grant from the FLC Office of Academic Affairs and donations from parents and local businesses funded the project.

Taylor, who collaborated on the curriculum with Bonanno, said they selected dogs as the unit topic because of their universal appeal and the topic's ability to support learning across disciplines.

"(Dogs) keep generating questions, they keep generating ideas and they're something you can probably study the rest of your life," he said.

Bonanno said the students have embraced the work.

"I was really impressed with the commitment the students showed and involvement they took in their learning," he said. "The depth and quality of their research, as well as the emotion I saw as they paged through their novel, unable to put it down, was really great to see."

Power tools and patience

Building doghouses came with a spectrum of challenges for the fifth-graders.

For Jenna Glasgow, 10, learning how to use a power screwdriver was the first.

"It hits the screw, then it goes crazy," she explained.

As the project progressed, the students learned that things don't always go as planned, Bonanno said. They were surprised when pieces they cut did not fit together or errors turned up in the blueprints.

"Minor inaccuracies or lack of attention to detail on one piece caused problems in the entire shape of the house and how it fit together," he said. Sometimes the students had to make modifications on the fly.

Still, the fifth-graders stuck with the work and discovered they could often rely on their own ingenuity.

"They have learned a lot about teamwork, patience, planning and problem-solving within a real-life, hands-on context. I have seen a lot of my students discover talents and leadership they did not know themselves they had within," said Bonanno.

FLC students join in

Taylor not only brought his expertise and enthusiasm to the project but so did a group of 12 FLC students working toward their teaching licenses.

The FLC students have been attending Bonanno's class twice a week to assist with construction and teach lessons in their areas of specialty. Hours spent at Riverview go toward fulfilling field-study requirements for graduation.

FLC senior Greg Walton, who plans to teach elementary school children, beamed along with the fifth-graders last week as he coached them in applying finishing touches.

"It's been a really neat experience," he said. "We love the kids."

One of the tasks assigned to Walton and the other FLC students was to make sure that by the time the doghouses were done, the fifth-graders would have completed several lessons supporting Colorado educational standards for math.

"They will be able to measure, estimate, convert, build," Taylor said. "They'll be able to do all these things, the hard stuff, the standards stuff."

Thinking civically

The fifth-graders have also learned about something less tangible than hard math - the need to help others. With the project drawing to a close, the students are eagerly awaiting the chance to give the doghouses away.

From 4 to 6 p.m. April 16, the students will present the first two doghouses to WolfWood representatives in the Memorial Student Lounge, in the College Union Building on the Fort Lewis campus. The public is welcome.

Bonanno hinted that some of the canines might be there as well to check out their new homes.

Kaplan, who visited WolfWood last January with his classmates, feels good about the prospect.

"They're pretty nice dogs, I would have to say, and I think they deserve it," he said.

Herald Staff Writer Karen Boush is a student in Gene Taylor's class.

From the Herald Sun in Australia.

Push for more dog meat on menus
Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Korea
April 02, 2008 09:45pm

A South Korean chef prepares dogmeat in Seoul
© AFP/File Kim Jae-Hwan

THE Seoul city government is seeking to classify man's best friend as livestock in order to set food safety standards for South Korean lovers of dogmeat.

Somewhere between two and four million dogs are estimated to be consumed in South Korea every year, but the slaughtering and processing is carried out in dirty environments and poses a risks to diners' health.

Since dogs are not currently classed as livestock there are no hygiene regulations on their slaughter, officials said.

"Dogs are consumed in their millions in this country every year. That's a fact. We have to take care of this situation," said Lee Hae-Woo, head of the city government's department of food safety.

"We plan to recommend to the central government that dogs are classified as livestock," he said.

"This is like a hot potato, but we don't pretend the issue does not exist."

South Korea's capital has always been ambivalent about dogmeat. To avoid adverse publicity before the 1988 Olympics, the city banned dogmeat and snakemeat as "abhorrent food".

The order is now largely ignored and an estimated 500 dogmeat restaurants operate in Seoul alone.

The reclassification proposal sparked angry reactions from animal activists, who staged street protests and launched online signature campaigns.

"No other country in the world but South Korea gives a legal green light to dogmeat consumption," the Korea Association for Animal Protection said in a statement.

"South Korea's motto is globalisation but it seeks to go back to the Stone Age as far as dogmeat consumption is concerned."

Lee Won-Bok, association president, said if the proposal became reality, dogmeat consumption would increase drastically.

"It's horrible to imagine dogmeat on display next to beef and ham at supermarkets. It would also be nauseating to see roasted dogmeat on the menu of your restaurant," he said.

From the Orlando Sentinel.

Maker of contaminated pet food settles with pet owners

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) — A pet food maker whose contaminated product may have led to the deaths of thousands of dogs and cats in North America has agreed to settle lawsuits with pet owners in the United States and Canada. Streetsville, Ontario-based Menu Foods Income Fund announced the tentative settlements Tuesday.

"It’s a comprehensive settlement," said Amy W. Schulman, a lawyer for Menu. "It would resolve all the claims." Schulman said she could not disclose how much the settlements would be worth, but the company did say that it expects its total costs associated with the massive recall of its products last year to be about $53.8 million.

The company’s pet foods are produced in bulk and sold as store brands. In March 2007, Menu recalled tens of millions of containers of pet food when the New York State Food Laboratory discovered that some contained aminopterin, a chemical that has been used to induce abortions, treat cancer and kill rats.

The U.S. food and Drug Administration later rejected that finding but found melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, in samples of Menu Foods’ products. The melamine was traced to contaminated wheat gluten imported from China.

The discoveries solved the mystery of why so many seemingly healthy pets had been dying in the previous months. But it was only the start of the legal odyssey.

In the United States, dozens of cases against Menu and many of the companies that own the private labels were consolidated in a federal court in Camden, N.J.

Sherrie R. Savett, a lead lawyer for the pet owners, said they "we’re pleased we’ve been able to come to an agreement in principle on the major terms of the settlement. We’ve committed to the court we will have a fully drawn settlement agreement by May 1," which is the deadline the company has to file the terms of the settlement in Camden.

U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman set a May 14 hearing to consider the agreement.

The company said it expects the court approval process in Canada to come at roughly the same time.