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Dear Friends,
In this November issue we will outline Thanksgiving Day safety for your companion animals, announce the Muddy Paws Holloween Costume Contest Winners, and place a special focus on dog food cruelty as well as uncover the dark truth behind animal testing-an issue that's especially close to my heart as you will see in the final article about Frankie's story. Thank you so much for your continued feedback and support. |
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Animal Companion Thanksgiving Day Safety |
Before sharing some of your Thanksgiving feast with your oh-so-deserving companion animals, think about having to spend the night or possibly the next day waiting in a line to see the vet on one of their busiest day's of the year. Indulging ourselves in a rich, fatty meal on occasion may not do much but give us a heavy, possibly upset stomach, but for our furry family members it is much more detrimental. The fatty contents in your meal such as cooked turkey, gravy, and potatoes can cause painful gastroenteritis with vomiting and diarrhea, or worse, a potentially fatal case of pancreatitis in your dog.
Avoid giving them any table scraps, make sure your leftovers are unreachable or contained, be sure to take our your trash right away, and discard of any strings used to tie up turkey or ham since they can twist up the digestive track if injested. As stated in last month's issue, you want to completely avoid giving them any kind of cooked bones. Even if chewed up, they are soft and will splinter off in the digestive track which can cause choking or major internal injury. In some cases, having lots of friends and family over can become a stressful situation and overwhelm our animals causing them to become anxious or even snappy. It's a good idea to provide them with a safe, quiet place they can retreat to if needed. This can also help with the temptation on our part and theirs to indulge in the human feast. The good news is there are pleanty of safe Thanksgiving related food and treat products you can offer your animal companion that will make them feel like part of the c elebration as well as satisfy their cravings. Our favorite is Merrick's Thanksgiving Day Dinner canned food for dogs and cats available here at Muddy Paws. Adding a portion of this to their regular dry food (one can is equal to one cup of dry to make sure reduce an equivalant amount of dry food), along with some pumpkin and ginger formula made by Fruitables (to ensure that they dont get an upset tummy from the tasty addition) will be sure to make them feel like they have gotten right in on the action. As for a treat you can give them a raw marrow bone, (also carried here at Muddy Paws) which are almost identical to the bones you might be cooking, but at no risk to their health. Vegetarians beware! Although you are not cooking up meat or bones, the fat content in faux meat (although less than that in animal meat) is still too high for our animal companions to safely eat. Many of those products are high in soy, wheat gluten, and by-products which are all unsafe but very tempting. Aside from un-meat products much of the produce we cook with can quicky become a death sentence for our dogs. The most dangerous include grapes, rasins, onions and, of course, chocolate. Being aware of where they are at all times an alerting your guests to the above precautions are the best tools to ensure both our two-legged and four-legged friends have a safe and happy holiday. |
Halloween Costume Contest Winners! | 
First place winner:
Dressed as a beautiful little geisha, Congratulations Delilah! Second place winner: Our superhero Zeppelin protecting Muddy Paws, and apparently painting gorgeous pictures too! Third place winner: Wild Winston looking tough with his jersey and game face on!  Fourth Place winner: We just had to add another placement slot for our beloved Bucky frog and his companion cat, Clarance! You two make a great team. Congratulations to all of our winners and a big thanks to everyone for sending in the most adorable pictures of your companion animals!
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Frankie's Story... By Julia Novak
Eight years ago this May, a litter of beagle puppies was born under the roof of a cold, filthy laboratory. Underweight, and fighting for their lives, they clung desperately to their mother who was suffering herself from the effects forced cigarette smoke inhalation throughout her pregnancy. Three weeks later, after countless injections and uncomfortable poking and prodding in conjunction with other testing (to glean the effects of cigarette smoke on fetuses), the baby beagles were simply put into a trash bag, dumped into a dumpster and left to suffocate or starve to death since they were no longer needed for the study.
An undercover rescue group was tipped off by one of the laboratory workers, and, in the darkness of night, the trash bag was whisked away and taken to safety. Unfortunatly, it was too late for all but one little baby girl who grasped so dearly to the last thread of her life.
A few long days later, Frankie found her way to my loving arms, and has been with me ever since. Other than being very tiny and having extreme seperation anxiety, she has had a happy, healthy life. Frankie, beleive it or not, is one of the lucky ones...
I can't tell you of her mother's fate, or the endless number of animals still in laboratories today. What I can tell you is that it's not the life you picture when you hear of products being tested on animals in labs. It's no beauty salon where they wash the animals with fancy shampoo. Instead they rub it in their eyes, cut or abrade their skin and rub it over the affected area, or pump their stomachs with it all in the name of a good looking commercial. Seems a little extreme doesn't it? What happened to Frankie and her family is very small sampling of what goes on in these labratories. Please check out this Link if you want to learn more. |
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We hope you enjoyed our November Newsletter and always encourage feedback of any kind.
Wishing you and your animal companions a very Sincerely,
Muddy Paws
3700 Hampton Blvd. Norfolk, VA 23508
(757) 965-9702
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Dont forget to find us on facebook and twitter to get new updates, discounts, and see pictures of your dogs at play! | |
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Interested in more on last month's article about doggie diets?
check out this link to compare your food and see how other foods rate in comparison! | |
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Dog Food Cruelty
By: Julia Novak
The subject of animal testing may be hard for some of you to read about but it is important to educate yourself as testing is heavily employed in creating many of the popular dog food brands. If you were not aware of testing in dog food, don't feel bad, corporations take great pains and spend a lot of money to hide their dirty little secrets from the public eye.
The Companies
For legal reasons I cannot name them outright, but I would urge you to do a little personal research and learn more. These companies, which many Americans have grown up with, trusted for years and purchase without pause, don't discriminate and only use testing for dog food; the plethora of products they produce also make use of inhumane methods. If you look around your house you may find that 80% or more of your household products are produced by companies that test on animals.
The Testing
As previously mentioned, this may be hard to read, but exposure to this information is the only hope to end the suffering of helpless animals.
For nearly 10 months, an investiagtor for an animal rescue oranization worked undercover at a research center hired by a very popular dog food company. and while employed at the facility uncovered a number of dark and sordid secrets beneath the wholesome image of the dog-and-cat-food manufacturer. Through the course of her investigations she discovered mortally sick cats and dogs that were neglected and left to suffer without any veterinary care, dogs that had been surgically debarked and gone crazy from being confined to barren steel cages and cement cells, and dogs that were left piled, still alive, on a filthy paint-chipped floor after chunks of muscle had been hacked from their thighs. 
If you are interested in reading more about unnatural testing and abhorrent conditions these animals suffer in, then I would urge you to look up this information yourself or contact me personally.
Why?
Companies such as these exist for one reason, and one reason only - to make a profit. They test on animals to get new chemical ingredients on to the market as cheaply as possible, allowing them to then claim their special dog food, new hair dye, skin cream or washing powder etc. is 'new',or 'improved', in hopes of increasing sales. Testing is not neccessary however, as many companies founded on cruelty-free principles produce similar consumer products without carrying out animal tests.
What you can do
The most effective way to affect change as one person against a huge capitalistic problem is to let your dollar speak for you by buying cruelty free products and encourage others to do the same. A little sacrifice on our part and a bit of dialoge can mean a world without pain and suffering for billions of animals.
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