Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team … A mystery Scandinavian billionaire had offered a reward of £8,000 for the return of a stolen dog. “To steal a poor defenceless dog, that’s really low,” he told a local newspaper. “With this money the robbers can buy lots of dogs.” The dog, called Bamse, is a seven-years-old cross and was stolen from its owners Maina and Lars Ullstrand in Norrkoeping, eastern Sweden. The couple have searched for their beloved pet night and day and are desperate to have him returned. “We are in total despair, he was like a child to us,” Mr Ullstrand told the newspaper when he first reported the dognapping. The couple were overjoyed to hear of the anonymous reward. “It is nice to know that someone out there cares about us, it makes me want to cry,” said his wife.
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team… Street dogs in India are being rounded up to serve in a crack unit of the country’s military. The move is aimed at saving the cost of trained sniffer dogs which can reach as high as £1,600, while the mongrels cost just a few pence and can be trained to a high level. The elite Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College (CTJWC) last year picked up four mongrels with the hope of training them into a crack unit of explosive-detecting sniffer dogs. They all passed a nine-month training course with flying colours. According to the head of the college: “They may have been a little temperamental at times, but they seldom need a vet. The never fall asleep on duty and their endurance over jungle terrain is formidable. They are, after all, locals and will not let you down.”
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team… The headline in The Times said it all – “Cool cats bid farewell to a landmark that has gone to the dogs.” It referred to the closure after 75 years of the dog track Walthamstow Stadium in northeast London as excitement and sadness went neck and neck in the packed stands on the final night. After the last race several hundred fans ran on to the track taking snapshots and souvenirs. Long before the gates opened on that last night hundreds of punters had queued outside the Art Deco frontage, known as the Stow, to fill the track to its maximum 7,000 capacity. The local greyhound owners’ association is trying hard to rehouse the retired dogs. The Stow was built in 1933 by William Chandler, a street corner bookmaker, and was in the family’s hands until being sold to property developers and a housing association for an undisclosed sum. The closure leaves 29 registered tracks in the country and just one in London. All sorts of fans attended the last night, from dog men to cool cats – with loudspeakers complaining of illegally parked Lamborghinis and Mercedes.
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team …The farming industry and vets should cut down on its use of drug prescriptions as the over use of antibiotics is helping potentially lethal human infections become more resistant to drugs. New strains of MRSA and E-coli are already seen in animals and could transfer to humans, according to Richard Young, policy adviser to the Soil Association writing in the Food Magazine. Mr Young, who is an organic farmer, said new guidelines should be issued to farmers similar to those sent to GPs, who have been told to reduce how many drugs they prescribe.
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team… A young orphan deer abandoned by his mother has formed a surprising relationship with a pack of fox hounds who have adopted him. According to the Daily Telegraph people watched in disbelief when the 10-week old called Bam Bam trots along with huntsman Adrian Thompson and his pack of 60 hounds on their daily walk. He said: “Now Bam Bam thinks he is a foxhound because they all treat him like one of their own.” The pack, from the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray hunt in West Sussex, accepted the deer when it was found shivering by the Thompson’s’ gate an hour after being born. Karen Thompson said: “He is about the same size so he fits in perfectly and walks along with the pack.”
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team… The woman who had her pet dog cloned by South Korean scientists has denied that she jumped bail after being accused of kidnapping a Mormon missionary more than 30 years ago in Surrey, according to the Times. Rumours had been circulating about the true identity of Bernann McKinney who has just appeared in Seoul with her five cloned pit bull puppies. She and her dogs have featured in publications around the world since the ground-breaking procedure was announced. Miss McKinney who said she lived in Hollywood, California, denied to the newspaper that she was Joyce McKinney who was charged at Epsom magistrates with false imprisonment. The story of Joyce McKinney is larger than life. She was accused of kidnapping and assaulting the 17-stone Kirk Anderson, a Mormon missionary who had become the object of her passionate affections. This story is likely to remain headline news in the UK and the USA for some time.
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team … Former Blue Peter presenter Peter Purves had two stitches put in his hand after being bitten at a dog show. Purves, who is 69, was examining Buster, a West Highland/Jack Russell cross when it bit his hand during the “most handsome dog” class of the Scruffs show for cross-breeds at the Notcutts garden centre in Norwich. Purves returned to the show after treatment – Buster was disqualified.
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team… The number of pet owners convicted for abusing animals increased by a quarter last year, according to figures produced by the RSPCA. A total of 1,149 people were punished for cruelty or neglect in England and Wales. Dogs dominated the figures, with the RSPCA indicating a trend for “macho” varieties in inner city areas plagued by gangs. Among the cases highlighted was that of a London couple who cut off parts of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier’s ears to make it look more fierce. The puppy has since been re-homed. Overall the RSPCA brought successful prosecutions on just over 2,000 charges – 1,200 of them involving dogs. Some 54 people were sent to prison, including one man who stabbed and tortured a 10-month-old collie cross.
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team… Nottingham has joined six other cities in the UK to boast an ambulance service for pets. A number of animal lovers are serving as a new breed of ambulance technicians for the county’s 24-hour service, which is a private project and based in Nottingham city. It has been set up by out-of-hours emergency service, Vets Now, and has been averaging at least one call-out a night since starting last month. The service has already administered first aid to a dog trapped in a house fire and sorted out a problem of toothache for another pooch. Pet medic Danielle O’Neill, 26, commented: “The ambulance is a real asset. It has everything in it so we can give first aid. We have also been fully trained to be able to carry out resuscitation if needed.” One of seven Vets Now ambulances in the UK, it is equipped to deal with animals of all shapes and sizes. – and is kitted out with the latest emergency gear.
Latest from the Buddies Pet Insurance news team … According to Reuters in Beijing a Chinese city has donated two seeing eye dogs to the nation’s Paralympic team, the Xinhua news agency reported, giving some publicity to such dogs that are rarely seen in China. Only six people in mainland China currently own seeing eye dogs, Xinhua said, quoting Wang Jingyu, founder of the first training base for the guide dogs, established in 2004 in the coastal city of Dalian. Two Golden Retrievers donated by the Dalian city government will work with the Paralympics team at the opening and award ceremonies, Xinhua said. China has temporarily lifted rules that effectively prevent the use of seeing eye dogs during the Olympic Games in August and Paralympics in September. Normally bans on big dogs in cities, coupled with restrictions on walking them except at certain hours and prohibitions against taking them on public transport, make it impossible for a blind person in China to effectively use a guide dog.
