So I write about animal cruelty, donate money, time and talk about animal abuse topics but it finally has hit home on a personal level! One of my best friend’s brothers chains his dog! OMG, what am I going to do! 24 hours a day 7 days a week that poor German shepard is outside in the cold all day. From my understanding that is how this little guy has lived his entire life since he was a puppy.

I have been thinking about it the last few days and it very well could be the beginning of the end of a good friendship however the safety of the dog comes first!  I spoke to my girlfriend about it and she knows I am going to attempt to get the dog from her brother without getting anyone else involved. I have been researching the internet to see what other legal tactics I can use to help this dog. I have heard of organizations that will assist in talking to the owners to educate them on the cruelty of chaining dogs. My thoughts on that is, if you are so heartless that you can chain a dog and his sad little eyes cannot change your mind then there is little possibility of human changing it.

If anyone has any suggestions please, please let me know!

Best Friends is a rescue organization dedicated to helping animals that are from mills, unwanted, abused, etc.  About a month or so ago Whispering Oaks Kennels in West Virginia surrendered close to 1000 dogs, mostly dachshunds and Best Friends came to the rescue.  Please read this post to learn about why we should never buy from animals from pet stores, online, and most breeders.  Please do not support mills (which means pet stores, most people do not know that) and adopt!

Parker is one in a thousand—literally. Our little brown Dachshund was one of nearly that many dogs and puppies surrendered by Whispering Oaks Kennel in Parkersburg, West Virginia last week. Until he was rescued, Parker lived in a rabbit hutch with three other dogs; it’s likely he never left that cage. Ever.

Until last week Parker’s sole purpose in life, his reason for being worthy of food every day in his owner’s eyes, was to make puppies. Whispering Oaks sold thousands of puppies online over the years, getting from $300 to over $700 per puppy. Customers had no idea that all the dogs lived in barns and rabbit hutches, because they were never allowed to see where the adult breeding dogs lived. And they couldn’t have known that their puppies may have had a dad like Parker.

I first met Parker last Sunday, when I was on a team of three whose job it was to go cage by cage and put an ID band on each and every dog. My volunteer partner Travis called the ID bands “the ticket out of here.” He and I went along methodically along with Deputy Shanna Modesitt to make sure we had tagged every dog in every cage, and then teams came along behind us and loaded the dogs in crates so they could be taken to the staging area where an army of rescue workers and volunteers waited. Parker was in a free-standing rabbit hutch-type cage outside. All the cages looked like they’d been slapped together with whatever scrap material the breeder could find. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to live in that cage every single day, with nowhere to get out of the sweltering heat, and nothing but a plywood box with no bedding to curl up in during the freezing winter.

Heavy welding gloves protected my hands, just in case we encountered a biting dog. I remember that Parker’s cage was especially tricky because the only way to access it was to lower a large wooden door, leaving a good two-foot hole for dogs to pop out of if they wanted to escape. Travis had the ID bands ready, and Deputy Modesitt was on the other side of the cage, shooing the dogs our way so we could reach them. All the dogs in the cages around us barked furiously at us—I don’t know that they’d ever seen so much action in their lives! I was able to hold one, then the next miniature Dachshund in the cage for Travis to put ID bands on them. And then from the other side of the cage Deputy Modesitt shouted over the barking, “DO NOT let this one bite you; he’s got horrible teeth!” I shouted back “okay!” and opened the wooden door one more time as a scruffy brown Dachshund with huge, snaggly brown and white teeth came zipping to our side of the cage, urged by Deputy Modesitt. He allowed me to pick him up without a fuss, Travis secured his ID collar around his neck, and we let him go back in the only cage he’d ever known.

Later, we found him at the staging area where he had been kept with his cage-mates. He’d likely need extensive dental care, and what better “poster dog” for the all-too common dental neglect found in puppy mill dogs? So he was one of the first dogs we directed Michelle to as she went around to select dogs to come back to Best Friends.

Before we loaded him into a travel crate on our van to come home to Utah, the only experience I’d had with Parker was taking him out of his cage at the puppy mill. But his personality soon presented itself—and what a personality he has! We stopped every few hours to get the dogs out of their cages, since we’d had to really pack them in to fit everyone in the van. My biggest fear was that we’d lose a dog, considering that they’d never ever been walked on a leash before, and probably hadn’t ever walked on the ground before. But little Parker handled it like a pro. He got so excited when we came to his travel crate, he’d SMILE with that crazy mug! Many dogs smile when they’re excited, wrinkling their noses and showing their teeth in a big grin. On Parker, that smile was quite a sight to behold. But what a great little guy.

Soon he was walking on the leash pretty well, sniffing the grass, and going potty outside like a good boy.

After nearly forty hours on the road, we finally arrived at the sanctuary where everyone got to meet Parker for the first time. I can’t wait to watch him blossom here with the care and love that he has deserved, but has been denied until now.

For more information about Best Friends Animal Society please visit their website, http://www.bestfriends.org

Please educate people on the terrible attrocities that happen at puppy mills. We can stop this by not purchasing dogs but adopting instead. Please remember that for every dog that is purchased one dies in a shelter.

Here’s an interesting list of fact for you about dogs, I bet you will find out some things you didn’t know before about mans best friend, I know I did.

1. It is a myth that dogs are color blind. They can actually see in color, just not as vividly as humans. It is akin to our vision at dusk.
2. Dogs DO have better low-light vision than humans because of a special light-reflecting layer behind their retinas
3. A German Shepherd guide dog led her blind companion the entire 2100 mile Applachian Trail
4. If never spayed or neutered, a female dog, her mate, and their puppies could product over 66,000 dogs in 6 years!
5. Dogs’ only sweat glands are between their paw pads
6. Like human babies, Chihuahuas are born with a soft spot in their skull which closes with age
7. The breed Lundehune has 6 toes and can close its ears
8. Teddy Roosevelt’s dog, Pete, ripped a French ambassador’s pants off at the White House
9. President Lyndon Johnson had two beagles named Him and Her
10. Franklin Roosevelt spent $15,000 for a destroyer to pick up his Scottie in the Aleutian Islands
11. In Roman times, mastiffs donned light armor and were sent after mounted knights
12. The Russians trained dogs during WWII to run suicide missions with mines strapped to their backs
13. A dog’s mouth exerts 150-200 pounds of pressure per square inch
14. … with some dogs exerting up to 450 pounds per squre inch.
15. A one year old dog is as mature, physically, as a 15 year old human
16. The U.S. has the highest dog population in the world
17. France has the 2nd highest
18. The average city dog lives 3 years longer than a country dog
19. 87% of dog owners say their dog curls up beside them or at their feet while they watch T.V.
20. Dogs can be trained to detect epileptic seizures
21. 15 people die in the U.S. every year from dog bites
22. In 2002 alone, more people in the U.S. were killed by dogs than by sharks in the past 100 years
23. Gidget is the name of the Taco Bell dog
24. Newfoundlands are great swimmers because of their webbed feet
25. Basset Hounds cannot swim
26. Greyhounds are the fastest dogs on earth, with speeds of up to 45 miles per hour
27. Bingo is the name of the dog on the side of the Cracker Jack box
28. The bible mentions dogs 14 times
29. Three dogs survived the sinking of the Titanic – a Newfoundland, a Pomeranian, and a Pekingese
30. The Labrador Retriever is the #1 favorite breed in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
31. Obesity is the #1 health problem among dogs
32. An estimated 1,000,000 dogs in the U.S. have been named as the primary beneficiaries in their owner’s will
33. An American Animal Hospital Assoc. poll found that 33% of dog owners admit to talking to their dogs on the phone and leaving answering machine messages for them while away
34. Dog’s nose prints are as unique as a human’s finger prints and can be used to accurately identify them
35. At the end of the Beatles’ song “A Day in the Life”, a high-pitched dog whistle was recorded by Paul McCartney for his sheepdog
36. 70% of people sign their pet’s name on greeting and holiday cards
37. 58% put pets in family and holiday portraits
38. There are only 350 Cisky Terriers in the world – perhaps the rarest breed
39. The phrase “raining cats and dogs” originated in 17th century England when it is believed that many cats and dogs drowned during heavy periods of rain.
40. Dogs have no sense of “time”
41. Humans have kept dogs as pets for over 12,000 years
42. The largest breed of dog is the Irish Wolfhound
43. The world’s smallest dog breed is the Chihuahua
44. The St. Bernard is the heaviest
45. Only dogs and humans have prostates
46. But dogs do not have an appendix
47. Every dog on earth likely descended from a species knows as the Tomarctus – a creature that roamed the earth over 15 million years ago
48. The oldest known breed is likely the Saluki – originally trained by Egyptians to help them track game.
49. In 1957, Laika became the first living being in space via an earth satellite
50. … while JFK’s terrir, Charlie, father 4 puppies with Laika’s daughter
51. An African wolf dog known as the basenji is the only dog in the world that cannot bark
52. There are 703 breeds of purebred dogs
53. Dachshunds were originally bred for fighting badgers
54. The world’s smartest dogs are thought to be (1) the border collie, (2) the poodle, and (3) the golden retriever
55. … while the dumbest dog is believed to be the Afghan hound
56. A dog’s smell is more than 100,000 times stronger than that of a human’s
57. … which they need because their eyesight is not as keen as a human’s.
58. Dogs judge objects first by their movement, then by their brightness, and lastly by their shape
59. Chocolate contains a substance known as theobromine (similar to caffeine) which can kill dogs or at the very least make them violently ill
60. George Washington had thirty six dogs – all foxhounds – with one named Sweetlips
61. All dogs are identical in anatomy – 321 bones and 42 permanent teeth
62. Smaller breeds mature faster than larger breeds
63. Female dogs are only ready to mate – “in heat” – twice a year for a total of roughly 20 days
64. Puppies sleep ninety percent of the day for their first few weeks
65. Rin Tin Tin was the first Hollywood dog star
66. … and he really signed his movie contracts – all 22 of them – with a pawprint
67. The Wizard of Oz’s Toto was played by a female Cairn Terrier named Terry
68. Up until the late 1800’s, Collies were known as Scottish Sheepdogs
69. Dogs have two times as many muscles to move their ears as people
70. The longer a dog’s nose, the more effective it’s internal cooling system
71. An elderly woman was saved by her 12 pound Yorkshire Terrier who fought off an 80 pound Akita and survived with only 9 stitches
72. U.S. Customs dogs “Rocky” and “Barco” were so good at patrolling the border that Mexican drug lords put a $300,000 bounty on their heads
73. Dogs are all direct descendants of wolves
74. Wolves and dogs can mate to produce fertal offspring
75. Female wolves have been known to travel great distances to regurgitate full meals for their hungry pups
76. Cerberus was the tri-headed dog that guarded the underworld in Greek mythology
77. Female dogs bear their young for 60 days before they’re born
78. Dogs’ sense of hearing is more than ten times more acute than a human’s
79. Humans can detect sounds at 20,000 times per second, while dogs can sense frequencies of 30,000 times per second.
80. The earliest dog fossil dates back to nearly 10,000 B.C.
81. Bloodhounds are prized their ability to single out and identify a number of scents simultaneously
82. Dalmatian puppies are born completely white.
83. The Ancient Chinese carried Pekingese puppies in the sleeves of their robes
84. Boxers are so named because of their manner of playing with their front paws
85. All breeds of dog have been found to attack livestock – from 3 month old puppies, all the way up to thirteen year old poodles
86. A dog’s heart beats up to 120 times per minute, or 50% faster than the average human heartbeat of 80 times per minute
87. The oldest dog on record – a Queensland “Heeler” named Bluey – was 29 years, 5 months old
88. Davy Crockett had a dog named Sport
89. Dogs were first domesticated by cavemen
90. Dogs live 15 years on average
91. Many foot disorders inn dogs are simply an issue of long toenails
92. More than 5,000,000 puppies are born in the U.S. every year
93. More than 1 in 3 American families own a dog
94. Average body temperature for a dog is 101.2 degrees
95. The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts both offer merit badges in dog care
96. Dogs are natural pack animals
97. They are naturally submissive to any creature with higher pack status – human or canine
98. Dogs instinctively require the pack leader’s approval
99. Dogs with little human contact in the first three months typically don’t make good pets
100. The Chihuahua was named after the state in Mexico where they were discovered
101. After birth, puppies’ eyes do not fully open until they’re about 12 days old
102. Their vision is not fully developed until after the 1st month

Many thanks Deanna For The Love of the Dog You have a great animal cruelty blog