NEWSBYCLARE CASSAR

This year the famous Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in Battersea, London, England is celebrating its 150th year anniversary. The shelter takes in approximately 12,000 animals per year and still manages to remains true to its simple message: "We aim never to turn away a dog or cat in need of our help."

A new book published this year, A Home Of Their Own, celebrates the charity’s 150th anniversary; taken from the book are some interesting facts about this world-famous charity:

1. It all began over an encounter with a stray in 1860.  After nursing an emaciated wretch found wandering the streets of Islington, 59-year-old Victorian gentlewoman, Mary Tealby, was so upset by the plight of abandoned dogs that she founded the Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs, later renamed Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

Between dogs being raised as meat and skinned for their fur, you'd have to have some pretty terrible karma to come back as a dog in some parts of China. But now it seems even the lucky ones are the victim of a latest craze among some wealthy pet owners — dyeing their dogs to look like other animals. In the town of Wuhan, in central China's Hubei province, locals are taking their beloved dogs to grooming parlors where the poor creatures are not just given a shampoo and cut, but an all-over, full-body technicolor fur job.

"If you can dream it, we can make it come true", says Sun Ruowen, owner of Kung Fu Pet Spa. "We are catering to owners' dreams, if they can't own a panda they can have a panda-like dog."

Sun's dyeing services cost anywhere from $7 to dye one ear to $300 for permanent dyeing and trimming of larger breeds, with most dye jobs lasting six months before the hair grows out.

I'm sure we all know of a dog called "Buddy" — in fact it was the #1 name for a dog on Petfinder.com in 2009 — but there's one Buddy will be remembered for more than just a name.

On December 30th 2009, a German Shepherd/Heeler mix named Buddy was dragged to his death at the Colorado National Monument. Steven Clay Romero, 37, of Grand Junction, was arrested for the death of Buddy. Video surveillance at the west entrance of the monument showed a double-cab pickup entering the monument, at 2:18 a.m. Wednesday morning, with Buddy in the bed of the truck. Cameras in the outbound lane showed the same truck leaving the monument without the dog. The head of maintenance at the monument found Buddy with the rope around his neck at about 4:30 a.m. on a road in the monument, where he had been dragged for three miles. Buddy had been stolen from Joe and Sacha Leber the day before he was found dead.

"Demand Justice for Buddy," a Facebook group with now over 267,143 members, formed soon after the story broke to support the prosecution of Romero, his sister, and anyone else involved with this senseless kidnapping and brutal murder. Animal abuse has now become a common topic in Colorado; many of the Facebook members say they never gave it much thought before they heard about Buddy.

Romero pleaded guilty on April 29th to aggravated animal cruelty and faces s

A reward of £1,000 British Pounds has been offered by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for information about the death of six common seals, three of which were discovered with gunshot wounds to the head. The six seals washed up onto the coastline of the Shetland Islands, located in the North Sea off the Northeast of Scotland.

PETA said it would pay the reward after the arrest and conviction of the "person or persons responsible for this horrific crime." There are strong suspicions that all six were deliberately and illegally killed in the Bridge of Walls area on the west coast of Shetlands mainland. Two of the victims were females carrying large pups.

"Shooting a seal at any time of year is a very cruel and callous act, but June is the time when common seals are actively breeding and having their pups," said Ron Patterson, Senior Inspector for the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The SSPCA, which has legal powers to investigate crimes and report them to S

This week, America's first criminal dog fighting DNA database was created. A joint venture established by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of Missouri and the Louisiana SPCA, the database will be housed and maintained by the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory of the University of California, Davis.

Referred to as the "Canine CODIS" — Combined DNA Index System — the database is designed to aid the criminal justice system in investigating, as well as prosecuting, dog fighting cases. Using 21st century technology, it can connect investigations across the country, and even internationally, to address the growing problem of dog fighting. By helping law enforcement agencies identify relationships between dogs, the Canine CODIS enables investigators to establish connections between breeders, trainers, and dog fighting operators.

"Dog fighting is a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise that leads to the cruel treatment and deaths of thousands of dogs nationwide every year," said Tim Rickey, ASPCA's Senior Director of Field Investigation and Response. "This database is an unprecedented and vital component in the fight against animal cruelty and will allow us to strengthen cases against animal abusers and seek justice for their victims."

Back in November 2009, the Central Zoo Authority, under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, made a promise to India's captive elephants to set them free, rehoming them to safari parks and sanctuaries where these normally free-roaming animals could graze openly. The move, which followed a long-running campaign by animal rights activists, would liberate 140 elephants from 26 zoos and 16 circuses.

Much press was given to this announcement, especially since, in recent years, India’s zoos had become a source of national shame. When PETA investigated 14 of the largest zoos around India in 2005, it reported “appalling neglect at every single facility.” The Times newspaper (India) reported that each zoo would decide where to send the elephants after consulting with wildlife experts in each state, and one of India's two African elephants, called Shankar, would be moved from the Delhi Zoo to the Jim Corbett National Park in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

Tragically, The Times UK reported this week that, seven months later, not a single elephant has been transferred.

What's worse is that there have been several fatal incidents involving India

Following a media advertising campaign by Animals Australia and Brightside Farm Sanctuary, and despite heavy lobbying from Australia's intensive pork industry, Tasmania's Primary Industries Minister, Bryan Green, announced in parliament last week that Tasmania will lead the nation by moving to ban the use of dry sow stalls in piggeries in the state by 2017.

Australia's Primary Industry Ministerial Council created a revised code a few years ago that sets out time restrictions pregnant sows are allowed to be kept in stalls to a maximum of six weeks, from sixteen, or until pregnancy is confirmed. The state of Tasmania (where approximately 3,000 pregnant sows per year are imprisoned for the term of their pregnancy) has vowed to implement the revised code by 2014 — three full years before the 2017 planned introduction of the new national animal welfare regulations.  Mr. Green said, “This clearly puts Tasmania ahead of other States in improving the welfare of pigs.”

It was recently announced that John Bartlett — named U.S. Designer of the Year by the American Apparel and Footwear Association — has gone vegan. Bartlett, who stopped using "fur as fabric" back in 2000, has now not only changed his personal style, but will also discontinue the use of leather in his future collections.

Partly swayed by recently reading Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet, John began to come to terms with the impact of meat eating on himself, the animals who are being “factory farmed,” and on the environment. On his own blog, Bartlett remarks "True success comes with maturity and appreciation for what one has in their lives. It comes with a sense of how our values shape our lives and how one lives each and every day." So, when a designer goes vegan, you can rest assured that it influences how he thinks about his profession.

Personally, I have never been a huge fan of PETA and their shock tactics, which tend to tar all animal welfare supporters with the same "crazy animal activists" brush. But surprisingly, I've actually had reason to applaud them in recent years for their more conservative approach to their agenda — working from the inside out. PETA is buying up shares in decidedly carnivorous companies.

This tactic, known as shareholder activism (pdf), is no new thing for PETA, who has been actively buying stock in companies for the past seven years. But it has been healing their reputation among other animal welfare groups and has been given much press as a more responsible stance for the organization. 

PETA first began engaging in this tactic in 2003, when they purchased 240 shares in Tyson Foods, enough to allow the organization to speak at shareholder meetings. The meat industry has been watching with a cautious eye ever since, as PETA's portfolio has grown to include at least 80 companies, including Domino’s Pizza, McDonald's, Kraft Foods and Austin-based Hormel Foods Corp.

On Tuesday, Hendersonville, Tennessee lawmakers unanimously voted to make it illegal for individuals to sell or give away domesticated animals, such as puppies and kittens, at the curb or in parking lots within city limits. Alderman Hamilton Frost, who sponsored the ordinance, said the legislation is intended to mirror one passed in February in Metro Nashville.

Frost was prompted to sponsor the legislation after watching someone set up a tent off Main Street, Hendersonville, in which he witnessed puppies in cages out in the sun for five to six hours. Frost believed it necessary for Hendersonville to pass the same legislation as Nashville to prevent people coming into town from that area to set up these curbside sales on Hendersonville’s roadways.

Although selling and giving away animals on the street may seem harmless to some, law enforcement, animal control and humane organizations regularly receive complaints dealing with misrepresentation or outright fraud on the part of the sellers, or expressing concern over the safety and health of the animals in question.