2nd Annual Verne Gala
Please join us for an evening of elegance
Saturday, January 17, 2009
At the Netherlands Hilton
35 West Fifth Street, Cincinnati
Our Silent Auction will benefit
Nileydog Rescue
An animal rescue organization
To register for this event please visit EOCincinnati.com
Once again, it's time for EO Cincinnati's black tie affair, The Verne! This year's will be held at the beautiful Netherland Hilton Plaza. Currently the schedule is as follows:
6:30 p.m. - Cocktails on the Mezzanine
7:30 p.m. - Dinner
9:00 p.m. - Dinner & Dancing in the Continental Room
Our silent auction will benefit Nileydog Rescue, a local animal rescue organization.
RSVP by January 13th
If cancelations are received after January 15th a charge of $100 will still apply.
To book your room, please call (513) 412-9100. The first 20 reservations will receive a special low rate!
More details are coming soon, but you should still sign up now for this great event!
We named the puppies today and made up this sign for their cage. I hope you like the names we chose. We had a lot of fun.
A couple of them are starting to open their eyes. They are growing so fast. I am loving every minute of watching them.
I have a lot I took today. I have to edit them so they are not so big. I will try to get it done soon. I wanted to show you how cute these boys are. Elwood and Manning. Elwood has his eyes open. So so cute! The last one is Freya and Gracie sleeping on me. I love those girls.
I will get the rest to you soon.
The little one is Penny, the puppy is Lilly (she is smaller then she looks), and the big man is Hank. He is so funny and does the Lab butt bump. He will run full speed into you and then just run away. He is a riot. 
Thanks to the hard work of PETA's staff, members, and volunteers and after nearly a year of pressuring designer Donna Karan to drop fur from her designs—by protesting outside her boutiques, crashing her runway show, and exposing her cruel use of fur online—Donna Karan has announced that all her Fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has "no plans" to use fur in the future. Well done, everyone!
Karan's turnaround came days after PETA launched our online campaign and after mega–fashion guru Tim Gunn sent Karan and designer Giorgio Armani a video that he narrated for PETA showing animals skinned alive for their fur and urged them to open their eyes to the violent and bloody fur industry.
| Reported by: Suzanne Murray Email: Suzanne.Murray@wcpo.com Last Update: 9:54 am |
 Related Links Morning Money The economy is forcing Americans to cut back and some are being forced to part with their pets. Nationwide more cats and dogs are being turned over to animal shelters as times get tough. A new survey shows that one in seven pet owners have reduced spending on their pets this year. Of those cutting back, one in four say they have seriously considered giving up their pet. The survey by the American Pet Products association says the yearly cost of owning a dog is $1,400 and a cat is $1,000. |
In St. Paul, MN an 8-year-old named Wally LaBerge has a Golden Retriever. Many children have dogs, what makes Wally’s story unusual is that his dog is connected to him with a harness to help teach him.
Wally has autism which makes it difficult to interact with other people. Last year his doctors thought a service dog may help with socialization, as well as keeping down anxiety. After Wally passed the qualifications to get a service dog, his mother Victoria contacted Wally’s school to advise them of the situation.
The St. Paul School District does not have a service dog policy, so Como Park Elementary told Victoria they’d have Newman come to school on a trial basis. For three weeks, Wally’s team gathered numeric data on his social interaction and anxiety.
“We first must determine if the dog is needed in order for the child to benefit from special education,” said Cecelia Dodge, St. Paul School District’s Director of Special Education. She declined to discuss the specifics of Wally’s case.
Victoria said the district would not provide a handler, so she volunteered to go to school with Wally and Newman each day. She said Como Park Elementary set strict rules to prevent Victoria from interfering with the learning process.
To the school, that meant Victoria wasn’t allowed to talk to Wally or any of the other children in the class. Victoria thought the trial run unfair because she believed it was too short and didn’t allow Newman and Wally to interact like they’d been trained.
“They essentially interfered with the team process of Wally and Newman,” she said.
On Wednesday Victoria was informed by Como Park Elementary that Newman would not be allowed back to school. The school district did not feel Newman was of benefit to Wally in the public school setting and therefore chose against his being there.
The decision can be appealed, but the family has decided to sue the school to see if it would help get Newman back in school sooner.
Since there was no policy in the school regarding service dogs it was ultimately up to them to decide. Do you think the decision was fair? Would Newman be more distracting to the other children than beneficial to Wally? Give me a bark, share your thoughts.
Sunday December 14th 10am – 4pm | |
Nov. 20, 2008—Today, during a news conference, The Humane Society of the United States reveals the results of an eight-month investigation into Petland Inc., the country's largest chain of puppy-selling pet stores. The results show that many Petland stores across the country are supporting cruel puppy mills, even while telling unsuspecting customers that the dogs only come from good breeders.
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There are approximately 140 Petland stores in the U.S., selling tens of thousands of puppies each year. In the largest ever puppy mill investigation, HSUS investigators visited 21 Petland stores and 35 breeders and brokers who sold puppies to Petland stores. Investigators also reviewed interstate import records of an additional 322 breeders, USDA reports and more than 17,000 individual puppies linked to Petland stores.
| Take Action for Dogs: |
This is the latest in a series of HSUS investigations exposing abuses at puppy mills, dog auctions, and pet stores around the country. The new Petland investigation revealed:
• Despite assurances by Petland staff and on their corporate website that the company knows its breeders and deals only with those who have "the highest standards of pet care," many Petland puppies come from massive commercial breeders in Missouri and other Midwestern states, where hundreds of breeding dogs are packed into cramped, barren cages—often for their entire lives, with no socialization, exercise, or human interaction.
| Hear from a former Petland employee |
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• When HSUS investigators visited 35 of the large-scale breeding operations linked to Petland stores, they witnessed puppy mills where puppies are factory-farmed in large numbers. At many, investigators saw appalling conditions: puppies living in filthy, barren cages reeking of urine, with inadequate care and socialization.
• Many of Petland's puppies are not supplied directly by breeders but are purchased from a "middle man"—large-scale "pet distributors," otherwise known as brokers—showing that the company may not even know who the breeders are or what their standards of care may be like. The investigation revealed that some of Petland's brokers are also buying from puppy mills.
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| This is just one of the many puppy mills investigators visited which supply puppies to Petland stores. ©The HSUS |
• Some of Petland's puppies are ordered online via a pet auction website called the Pet Board of Trade—demonstrating that many Petland stores are not screening breeders as the company's website claims. In fact, in some cases it may not even know the breeder's name until after purchase.
• One of the most common sales pitches made by Petland staff is that the company uses "USDA licensed" breeders. However, investigators reviewed publicly available state and USDA inspection reports for more than 100 Petland breeders and found more than 60 percent of the reports listed serious violations of basic animal care regulations. Many USDA breeders exhibit a long history of substandard care and yet remained licensed. While USDA regulations are minimal, some of the Petland breeders are not even complying with these basic animal welfare standards.
• Documented USDA violations at some of Petland's breeders and suppliers included dirty, unkempt enclosures; inadequate shelter from the cold; dogs kept in too small cages; and inadequate veterinary care. Some of the breeders were found with sick or dead dogs in their cages.
Puppy mills are a source of unbearable cruelty where breeding animals are kept in tiny cages without any socialization for the sole purpose of supplying pet stores and the Internet market with puppies. The HSUS urges all of its members and supporters to spread the word about the great suffering associated with these mills, which also contribute to tragic pet overpopulation.
