The change would subject dog owners who breed more than four females and sell the puppies electronically, by mail, or over the phone to the same oversight faced by wholesale dealers as part of the Animal Welfare Act.

That law, written in 1966, set standards of care for animals bred for commercial sale and research. Retail sales were exempt from inspections under the assumption that anyone who visited the store could see whether the animals appeared healthy and cared for.

The Internet opened a new venue for puppy sales, and thousands of large-scale breeders who advertise there have not been subject to oversight or inspection.

The proposed change seeks to close that loophole by ensuring that anyone who sells pets over the Internet, by phone or mail order can no longer do so sight-unseen. Sellers either must open their doors to the public so buyers can see the animals before they purchase them, or obtain a license and be subject to inspections by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“We feel this is certainly a much-needed change to an outdated system,” said Rebecca Blue, deputy undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.

The change does not affect backyard breeders who sell puppies from their homes or other physical locations. Blue said it’s designed to ensure that dogs sold and shipped to buyers are healthy, treated well and genetically sound.

“This is a very significant proposed federal action, since thousands of large-scale breeders take advantage of a loophole that allows them to escape any federal inspections,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. “Dogs in puppy mills often live in small, overcrowded cages, living in filth and denied veterinary care. We need more eyes on these operations, and this rule will help.”

Opposition to the change is hard to find.

“You need to open your home if you breed more than four dogs. That sounds appropriate to me,” said Patti Strand, director of the National Animal Interest Alliance.

The proposed rule change came as Congress considers legislation backed by Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., a longtime animal welfare supporter, and Reps. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa., Bill Young, R-Fla., and Lois Capps, D-Calif., as well as Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and David Vitter, R-La. — that sought to make similar changes to the regulations.

Farr welcomed the USDA’s decision.

“The change will finally allow the USDA to properly enforce violations, shut down puppy mills, and prevent future abuses of dogs and unsuspecting customers,” Farr said.

The USDA will accept comments on the proposed rule change for 60 days.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press

Stanley rolls around on the floor and chews on a squeaky toy while zombie-like law students wander in, a giant grin breaking out on their weary faces when they see the cuddly boy. Puppy therapy – just in time for finals week.

From Kent State University in Ohio to Macalester College in Minnesota, more and more pooches are around campus during exams to help students relax and maybe even crack a smile or two.

“We had a student who came in and a staff person commented they had never seen that student smile,” said Richelle Reid, a law librarian who started Emory’s pet therapy program this year after hearing about one at the University of California, San Francisco. “It has had positive effects, helping them to just have a moment to clear their minds and not have to think about studies, not have to think about books.”

Pups are in counseling centers for students to visit regularly or faculty and staff bring their pets to lift spirits.

Pet-friendly dorms also are popping up where students can bring their dogs or cats from home.

Want to check out a pet? It’s possible at Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, which both have resident therapy dogs in their libraries that can be borrowed through the card catalog just like a book.

Some dogs, like Harvard Medical School’s resident shih tzu Cooper, hold regular office hours. Researcher Loise Francisco-Anderson owns Cooper and said she got permission to bring him to campus after her husband read that Yale Law School had a therapy dog on campus named Monty.

Cooper, who sports a crimson scarf with paw prints on it, is so popular that undergraduate students have been petitioning for him to spend time on their side of campus. Many of them take the shuttle across the river to the medical school just to visit the pup on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“You can release some of the emotions to a pet that you can’t to a human. A pet keeps it confidential. You don’t have to worry about someone else saying, `Oh, I think she’s having a nervous breakdown over the science exam,’” said Francisco-Anderson.

Most schools, like Emory, partner with organizations that train companion dogs so that the canines get their social training while students get stress relief. Others, like at Harvard, have faculty members bring their dogs – which are certified to be therapy pups – to campus certain hours during the week.

The service is almost always free for students.

Research shows that interaction with pets decreases the level of cortisol – or stress hormone – in people and increases endorphins, known as the happiness hormone. Scant research exists on the how pet programs on college campuses help students cope with stress.

That’s why Kathleen Adamle, a nursing professor at Kent State, hopes to garner a grant so she can conduct research as part of her “Dogs on Campus” program. Adamle launched the program in 2006 with just her dog and has since added 11 other therapy canines to the team that visits dorms regularly throughout the year.

The dogs belong to Adamle or other community members and are certified therapy dogs.

She has plenty of anecdotal evidence that her program works. As soon as there’s a tragedy on campus – a student dies in a car wreck, for example – dorms scramble to book the dog team to help comfort upset students, she says.

“I don’t care if it’s 10 at night, we go to that dorm and sit on the floor. The kids are crying, and they grab the dog and put their face in the fur and just let it go,” said Adamle.

Since 2006, Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., has asked faculty and alumni to bring their dogs to campus during finals as part of the “Dog Day Afternoon” program. At Kenyon College in Ohio, the counseling center and dorms offer puppy play dates with Sunny the yellow lab and Sam the poodle-Chihuahua mix.

Last month, Indiana University students romped around with dogs in the first ever “Rent-a-Puppy” day. For $5, students could book time with one of 20 puppies from the local animal shelter – and could adopt them if they couldn’t bear to say goodbye.

First-year Emory law student Anna Idelevich took a break from studying for exams at the library on a recent afternoon to visit Stanley and Hooch, two golden retrievers training to be companion dogs for disabled owners. The private university brought in the dogs as part of a new program to help students cope with the stress of exams.

“I’ve literally been here every day. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” said Idelevich, 22. “They couldn’t have thought of a better way to relieve stress. If they don’t do it next year, I’ll be upset.”

~Courtesy of nwsource.com

The train’s engineer, who didn’t want to give his name, said he spotted the woman and her dog on the tracks just after midnight on May 3, according to the Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. He said he tried to stop the train in time, but feared he’d hit them both. When he got out, he found that Spain was unharmed, but the train’s wheels had sliced through Lilly’s front right leg, which was bleeding heavily.

An animal control officer rushed Lilly to an emergency animal hospital in nearby Acton, where Spain’s son, Boston Police Officer David Lanteigne, met them in the parking lot. Lanteigne said he had a feeling of dread as he got out of his car, but Lilly let him know she was OK.

“The first thing I see is just those big, beautiful eyes just looking at me, and next to her, I saw her right front paw was severely damaged,” he told ABC News. “I saw her tail wagging the first time right there.”

Lanteigne said he rescued Lilly three years ago, thinking she’d make a good therapy dog for Spain, who had battled alcoholism, depression and anxiety for many years. He said Spain doted on the dog, and often defrosted packets of green beans to cut them up and put them in Lilly’s food. Eventually, he said, Spain’s drinking decreased.

“We saved Lilly, and Lilly saved my mom’s life,” he said. “My hope is that this story is going to get out and show what pit bulls are truly about. I hope by Lilly going through this, it’s going to get other dogs homes.”

Lilly underwent two surgeries last weekend at the Angell Animal Medical Center. Steel plates were implanted to repair her fractured pelvis and support her left leg. She now has a long scar where her right front leg was amputated. Angell spokesman Rob Halpin said Lilly’s doctors expect she’ll be able to walk again, but adjusting to three legs will be hard for the senior dog.

Spain, who Lanteigne said relapsed before her collapse last week upon hearing some bad news, was arrested on the scene and arraigned the following day in Ayer District Court on charges of obstruction and danger on a railroad track, walking on a railroad track and animal cruelty, Shirely Police Executive Secretary Ann Whiting told ABC News. Spain was not arrested on any alcohol-related charges, but she was placed in protective custody because of intoxication, said Whiting.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

His ears clipped and tail severed from his days as a fighting dog, the surprisingly docile ginger and white mutt is one of hundreds being adopted in increasing numbers by foreign soldiers, who pay vast sums to take their new pets home.

“Dogs have been proven to help post-traumatic stress and the soldiers who adopt them are addressing this,” said Pen Farthing, founder of British charity Nowzad, an animal shelter on the outskirts of Kabul.

A former Royal Marine, Farthing adopted his dog Nowzad, named after a Helmand district, during his tour there in 2006. He then set up the charity, where dogs and some cats are neutered and vaccinated against rabies before their journeys abroad.

Nowzad has given homes to over 330 dogs since it was founded, mostly to soldiers from the U.S. and Britain, but also from South Africa, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.

It costs around $3,000 to get a dog from Afghanistan to its new home, and Nowzad relies solely on much-needed donations. It is now trying to raise $250,000 for a new plot of land.

The dogs’ birthplaces in some way reflect the thrust of the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents, which has experienced some of its toughest fighting in the militants’ southern bastions.

“We’re seeing more soldier rescues than ever before. When you’re being shot at by the Taliban every day, dogs give you that little bit of normality,” Farthing said by a row of outdoor pens holding black and yellow puppies.

Nearby stood Dshka, an affectionate grey hound rescued by a U.S. Marine sergeant in Kajaki in Helmand, where British forces handed security to the U.S. in 2010 as part of the American troop surge. His neighbor, Poppy, a small black dog from Kandahar, will soon go to a British soldier’s home.

Afghans bring the dogs to the capital by car, often through large swathes of Taliban country over days.

Workers at Nowzad are now hoping that Afghans will begin to adopt dogs, banking on a changing attitude to owning pets.

Poverty prevents many Afghans from having dogs and cats at home, and some Muslims believe dogs are unclean and therefore unfit for keeping. Kabul is home to thousands of stray dogs, and many are shot and killed.

Dogfighting, which the austere rule of the Taliban outlawed, enjoys enormous popular support across the country, as does birdfighting, and welfare groups say there is little respect for animals.

“City workers say dogs are a threat to people’s lives but this is cruel,” said Afghan veterinarian Abdul Hadi, one of two working full-time at Nowzad. “Dogs have the right to live and it is time for Afghans to enjoy them.”

Afghan families are beginning to adopt dogs from Nowzad, they said, giving promise to the charity’s goal to become Afghan-led in the future.

~Courtesy of http://www.reuters.com

At the fourth annual Bark for Life event in North Carolina, dogs and owners took part in a march down Main Street, played games, and socialized. The all-paws event was held to help raise money to fight cancer.

There were demonstrations and contests, and potted perennials decorated one corner to honor or remember loved ones touched by cancer.

The event is a canine companion to Relay For Life, which gives people in communities worldwide a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease.

Ninety-one participants at Bark for Life registered before the event and had already raised $10,000  even before the day started, said Amy Renigar, senior community manager at the American Cancer Society. All funds benefit the organization.

“Really, we came just because we’ve known a lot of people who have had cancer,” said Amy Hume, who attended with her dog, Lacey. “And the dogs get to have a good time.”

Hume added that she lost her last dog, Daisy, to cancer.

“This is my first time here, and it’s just for the experience for her,” said Sandy Nicholson as she pointed to her dog, Sadie. Nicholson said she’s part of the Paws for Love Therapy Dog team with Relay for Life. “It’s just a great cause.”

Laureen Hair and her husband, Randy, came with their chocolate Labrador, Reese. “I had a dear friend that passed away from cancer, so I support the American Cancer Society.”

Meet Cactus Jack, the scared little puppy who got mercilessly pricked after becoming trapped in a cactus in Arizona. Fortunately for Jack, one Good Samaritan was in his backyard last Friday when he heard the 9-week-old puppy’s frantic cries for help and called the Arizona Humane Society.

The Humane Society soon showed up with emergency rescue personnel but the anonymous hero had already freed Cactus Jack from his prickly prison. Not content with merely a rescue, he had also removed nearly an entire bucket’s-worth of cactus spines from the distressed dog.

Cactus Jack was then transported to Arizona Humane Society’s Second Chance Animal Hospital, where the rest of the spines were removed. According to Britta Nelson,  the society’s public relations manager, the dog’s “good disposition never wavered,” and, “his tail never stopped wagging.”

Despite the spines all over his face, Cactus Jack’s eyes were not damaged and after a course of antibiotics he was returned to the Humane Society with a clean bill of health.

The brave, if unfortunate Yorkie/terrier mix was adopted today at Arizona Humane Society Sunnyslope, where he repaid his rescuers in spades. The amount of attention brought to the case led numerous potential adopters to come forward and, although not all of them could take home Cactus Jack, many took home other furry friends, instead. The society estimates that at least eight other adoptions have taken place all because of a little puppy who got stuck in a cactus patch.

Those interested in adopting a pet or donating to the Arizona Humane Society, you can call 602-997-7586 or visit its website.

The blind, epileptic golden retriever wound up at the Woodland West Animal Hospital in Tulsa, Okla., after living with two previous owners. Only 2 years old, he suffered from horrifying seizures almost every night and euthanization seemed like the most humane fate for the pooch.

But everything changed when Tanner met Blair, a fearful 1-year-old street dog that ended up at that same clinic after being shot.

“The connection was immediate,” Dr. Mike Jones, the hospital’s director, told People Magazine. “It probably did take us a few weeks to kind of go, ‘You know what? Tanner’s not seizing anymore and Blair is getting [less skittish].’”

Blair acts as a guide dog for Tanner, leading the way by holding his friend’s leash in his mouth. And Tanner seems to be a calming influence on Blair, who suffered from anxiety after being shot. Over the past few months, everyone at the clinic has watched their unique friendship blossom.

“They just live like two dogs would,” says Jones. “Tanner does stay pretty close to Blair. Tanner will actually follow Blair’s lead.”

After the local ABC news affiliate KTUL first reported the story, the adoption requests have flooded in, but it will take some time before the perfect owner can be selected for this inseparable pair who now share a pen.

“This is a relationship that’s going to be ten plus years, hopefully,” says Jones. “We’re looking for that needle-in-a-haystack type owner that will be able to handle the situation.”

Contact the Woodland West Animal Hospital for more information on how to adopt Tanner and Blair.

~Courtesy of peoplepets

But now, some of the K-9′s that are specially trained to help fight terrorism are being drafted for other work – to sniff out Burmese pythons in Florida’s Everglades, according to Reuters.

The dogs are members of “EcoDogs,” a three-year-old collaboration at Alabama’s Auburn University between the science departments and the school’s Canine Detection Research Institute, which trains dogs to detect explosives, the news service reports.

“The dogs are really, really good,” said Christina Romagosa, a biologist at Auburn.

She said in a test of python detection in south Florida, the dogs could cover a search area 2.5 times faster than a person.

“People can only see that the snake is there if they can see the snake. The dogs can smell the snake even if it’s not visually apparent to us,” she said.

Steury estimated training a new dog to detect a scent takes six to 10 weeks. Training for each additional scent takes “about 10 minutes. You can do it by accident if you’re not careful,” he said, by inadvertently rewarding the dog for something you weren’t looking for, which then becomes part of the dog’s repertoire.

Why is sniffing out snakes such important work?

According to Reuters, environmentalists fear the pythons are upsetting the native ecological balance of South Florida. The invasion is generally attributed to both irresponsible pet owners dumping their snakes and 1992′s, Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed an adjacent exotic snake warehouse.

Linda Friar, spokeswoman for the Everglades National Park, said the snakes are so thoroughly adapted to the Everglades, and the park is so wild and inaccessible that there is no expectation of eradicating them, even with the dogs’ help. The best hope is to prevent the pythons from spreading and be prepared for future invasions of new exotic species, she said.

Todd Steury, an Auburn conservation biologist and co-founder of the project, said many of the EcoDogs were found temperamentally unsuitable for indoor explosives work but thrive outdoors searching for ecological targets.

Flushing out snakes. Sort of the K-9 equivalent of senior workers going into consulting, after their best bomb-sniffing days are over.

Courtesy of CBS News

In Mill Valley, California there was plenty of yip-yapping, tail-wagging fun going on in a park this month. Sadie, Shelby and Dilly Two-Step didn’t much care that they romped on three fast legs instead of four.

All manner of purebred and mutt — sleek, fuzzy, tall and small — converged on Mill Valley Dog Park for the monthly meeting of the Northern California contingent of Tripawds, an online community for canine amputees and their owners.

Cindy Sipple, of Dublin, Calif., whose chocolate Labrador Ruby had her right front leg amputated in December, said, “They don’t think, ‘Boy, I wish I had that other leg that I used to have.’ They’re so much in the moment.”

Ralph Kanz, of Oakland, Calif., who cares for three, three-legged German shepherds, said Northern California members of Tripawds, including many from the East Bay, began getting together in Mill Valley about three years ago.

One couple traveled from Southern California for Saturday’s event. Carla Ocfemia of San Francisco prepared a cake for the dogs made from peanut butter, bananas and bacon. A few of the dogs — referred to as tripods by many owners — lost a limb due to a traumatic accident; but many more had a leg removed because of a cancerous tumor.

Jim Nelson and Rene Agredano created Tripawds.com after their German shepherd, Jerry, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2006 and had to have his left front leg amputated. Their blog chronicles their experience dealing with Jerry’s cancer. When readers of the blog began asking them medical questions they couldn’t answer, they added a discussion forum in 2007.

“All of a sudden people from all over the world started finding our site.” Our tagline is

Nelson and Agredano sold their business and house in Eureka, Calif., and traveled the country in a recreational vehicle with Jerry until he died in 2008. Their story was included in a documentary titled “Why We Love Cats and Dogs,” which was aired on PBS’s “Nature” program (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/why-we-love-cats-and-dogs/video-full-episode/4673/ ).

John Hollenbeck, a sergeant with the Orange County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department, said when his dog Max had his leg amputated because of cancer, “It felt like we were the only people in the world who had this problem. Then my wife happened to find the forum online, and it was a lifesaver for us.”

Max died 15 months after losing his leg. Hollenbeck no longer owns a tripod, but he continues to stay in touch with the people he has met through Tripawds.

“These people are our friends,” Hollenbeck said. “We talk to them online. We know these people a lot better than we know a lot of people we live near — because you go through such an experience trying to get your dog through cancer.”

Karen Riley, of Livermore, Calif., whose three-legged pug, Maggie, died of cancer two years ago, said one of the things that Tripawds does best is help people decide whether to amputate or euthanize.

Agredano said, “For a lot of people, it’s a shock to see a tripod. What we do is we try to change their reaction from pity to amazement and get them to see these dogs don’t care. When you see these dogs getting along on three legs and not caring about anything except having a good time, it’s a great reminder that we should all live our lives like that.”

Riley said, “On the website, we say: Be more dog. Appreciate every day that you have.”

The company is piloting a program in 10 parks in Mexico City that works like this: When dog owners throw away their excrement in a special box, the device calculates the weight and then gives everyone in the park free Wi-Fi for a period (usually a few minutes.) Of course, there’s a way to rig the program by tossing garbage in the box instead of poo, but the ad agency behind the effort, DDB Mexico, told Creativity Online that it’s fine if people are cleaning trash from the park to access the service. However, during the day, hostesses stand by the boxes handing out poop bags to ensure that the device is being used as promised.

Terra and DDB Mexico aren’t the first to experiment with Wi-Fi as a social engineering mechanism. During South By Southwest, ad agency BBH encouraged attendees to give money to the homeless via “Homeless Hotspots” that rewarded donations with free wireless Internet service.

What do you think of Poo Wi-Fi? Could it catch on elsewhere? Sound off in the comments