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| Headlines You can Use For Dogs! An archive of local news stories and articles that I have been interviewed for |
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| This picture was in the Halifax Chronicle Herald on December 28, 1999. I think you will recognize a few people in it. The caption below read: "Walk and Wag: Dog owners walk their pets at Point Pleasant Park on Monday. The park has been described as dog heaven." |
| Here's some articles and links to pdf files of articles that have appeared in local newspapers about dogs. Most of these items appeared originally on the main page of my website and as time moved on I've moved them here so that I can keep track of them and not waste people's viewing pleasure on the main page. There was a seriously cute picture of Buttercup in the Chronicle Herald entitled "The Eternal Battle" in May 2004 taken at Seaview Park - she is SO photogenic! In late April 2004 they opened Point Pleasant Park for a day for viewing and I was interviewed by a journalism student at King's college about it - it's a video clip and I can't bear to watch myself so I haven't seen it - but here it is if you can stand it! On March 23, 2004 Rick Conrad did an article entitled "Raining Cats and Dogs" where he talked about the local rescue community. in the "Kibbles and Bits" section he mentioned my website! Here's the article. There's been back-pedalling in a big way, see the Herald news story of December 16, 2003 at http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2003/12/17/f247.raw.html (Note: Link doesn't work anymore & I can't find a cached copy anymore - I've since started making pdf files of these articles) for an absolutely disheartening story. Feel free to write a letter to the editor - or even better - write a letter to your city council member AND to the idiot Counsellor Harry McInroy (Eastern Passage-Cole Harbour South) who suggested that dogs be muzzled at all times while off leash! The honourable McInroy's bio and information - including his email address is at http://www.region.halifax.ns.ca/districts/dist05/Dist05.html if you'd care to enlighten him on other ways to make a city dog-friendly - other than muzzling dogs, or shooting them all in the head - which to me would be the next logical step! I wrote to Sue Uteck and Harry McInroy and copied it here if you'd like to read it! David Hendsbee was also very dog-un-friendly at the same council meeting according to the Daily News article that was published the same Day as the Herald Story, but for some reason his email address is not published on the HRM's web page - I wonder why? All the city council members email addresses and web pages are accessable at http://www.region.halifax.ns.ca/districts/councillors.html If you want to read the minutes from that infamous meeting - they are available - here - for your enjoyment! They make for really interesting reading! And on that note the Sunday Herald has published an article entitled "Unleash a park, dog owners howl" in it's December 7, 2003 edition in which I had a couple quotes. They didn't mention this website though... oh well - this site will stay our little secret! I made a pdf file (Adobe Acrobat) that you can view of the article - here - I was intereviewed for Nova News Net about dog walking since Hurricane Juan - here's the link to the article - http://novanewsnet.ukings.ns.ca/stories/03-04/031121/parksdogs.htm - although I just want to clarify that I did NOT say I don't like Seaview Park. I DO like Seaview Park and it's the place I'm going to the most often now, and I love all the people and the dogs there. But it is a completely different experience for the dogs than Point Pleasant Park was. I think the interviewer didn't understand that. I obviously didn't explain it properly to her. But I will say it here again - I love Point Pleasant Park and I also LOVE Seaview Park! And so do the dogs! |
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| Oh the irony! I wrote a letter to the editor of the Coast Magazine in response to their Best of Halifax Issue in November 2003 when they listed Point Pleasant Park as their best place to walk dogs and they said that it wasn't an off-leash park but nobody seemed to care - I corrected them on it and they published it. |
| In February 2002 I was intereivewed for the Halifax Commoner about "Salty Sidewalks" and they did a whole page article with a huge picture of Charlie and Leonard. They looked absolutely beautiful! I have a whole page devoted to Peter Duffy his views about dogs bother me so much. You can find my rants about him at http://www.geocities.com/joansdogkisses/duffy.html There was a story in the Chronicle Herald in July, 2004 about a puppy bought at Snookums in PEI that died. Within a couple days of that story there was another story about an animal abuser who was sentenced in Nova Scotia and the SPCA wanted part of his sentencing to include him paying for the costs incurred by the SPCA in their investigation of the case. They were denied that by the judge - I wrote a letter to the editor about both stories and it was published. You can read the letter - here - you need Adobe Acrobat to read it. I also had a rant on the main page of my website about puppy mills and puppy mill brokers. It said: Pet Stores ARE Puppy Mill Brokers and you are contributing to the suffering when you buy your pets or your supplies at stores that sell live animals... There's been stories in the news lately about a pet store in PEI. Snookums in PEI is just like any other pet store that sells live animals. They are a broker for puppy mills. Puppy mills treat dogs like livestock - like cows or pigs or chickens. It's not comfortable for us to think about because we eat cows, pigs and chickens but we don't eat dogs - we live with and love dogs as members of our family. But they are just like chickens and cows to the people who own and operate stores like Snookums. They are a commodity to be bought and sold and they don't particularly care if they're selling you a healthy, genetically sound product. And they also don't care from where they're getting their product or how the parents of the product they're getting is treated or what the conditions that they're living in are like. I had a foster dog named Eddy who is the most soulful, spectacular specimen of a perfect bouvier that you'll ever meet. I've attached some pictures below of her. We think she was a breeding bitch in a puppy mill who was dumped when she became too sick to be productive or take care of her puppies. Her full story with her happy - luckily - ending - at http://www.geocities.com/joan_sinden/ebony.html The first picture below was taken the first night I brought her home to my house. The 2nd picture shows a little bit of the baldness that she suffered from when I got her. The 3rd picture is one I took with her new Mom when she was adopted. Puppy mills DO exist here in Nova Scotia, they DO exist here in Halifax County - the puppies that are at the local pet store DO come from puppy mills - their parents ARE suffering horrible lives. The only way we can stop the suffering is to stop shopping at those stores. The only way we can stop it is with our dollars. Government regulations isn't going to stop puppy mills. LACK OF SALES WILL. Within a very short time we can put an end to puppy mills and the horrible suffering if we just stop being lazy in our puppy buying habits and stop shopping at pet stores that sell live animals. It's as easy as that. If you take away the market then you take away the need then the puppy mills will shut down. End of story. So what's the answer? Only buy your supplies at pet stores that don't sell live animals - stores like Global pets, Best Friends Pet Supplies, B&R Pet Supplies, Walmart, your groomer, or the grocery store. It will be a lot more expensive to get a dog because it'll cost a lot more to produce dogs - but just think of how much suffering will be saved. Only accidental breedings and responsible breeders producing dogs! What a world that would be! Wow! You can read more of my rant about this on my blog if you'd like - at http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/ - I wrote a letter to the editor of the Chronicle Herald about an article that was in their newspaper about a puppy that died that was bought at Snookums - so you can look for my letter and the original article that was in the Herald - they are both in the blog. - as well I talk some more about it at http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/2004/08/thoughts-on-puppy-mills-and-factory.html One other note about this - pet stores are NOT puppy MILLS. They are brokers for puppy mills. They don't actually produce the livestock - they aren't in the busines of husbandry - that's how they can say they're not a puppy mill. They only sell the end product. They don't own or abuse/torture the parents of the cute little puppies you see behind the glass that have been taken away far too young from their families. Terminology is very important. But pet stores give a clean face to the industry - sort of like the cellophane packaging on the meat you buy in the grocery store that keeps the red meat from turning green. It's when that cellophane packaging gets a tear in it that we hear the sad stories in the news and feel like we have to do something about the suffering of pets in pet stores - but the real suffering is happening elsewhere. The good news is that the solution I mentioned above - not buying ANYTHING at pet stores that sell those animals - will solve the problem right down the line. There's a Buddhist idea that says "every being has been your mother" - that's because of reincarnation and the countless lives we've all lived - but it's more about having compassion and love for all beings - you should treat all living things as if they're your mother - that includes the puppies in the pet store - and their unseen relatives suffering where you can't ever find them. |
| They changed the wording around to make me sound mean - but I consider the writers at the Coast to mostly be a bunch of pimply Goth kids who are too old to be Goth kids but they just can't let go, so it didn't faze me. Lately there's been Coast newspaper boxes popping up everywhere and I got an email from one of Charlie's littermates owners Jeanne - Solie's mom - he is featured on my Halifax Common's page (he's the King of the Commons), and she said that it's his picture that's on the side of the Coast Magazine display boxes! She's a photographer and she took the pictuer! If they only knew that it's "Charlie loves Halifax's" brother who's adorning their beloved display boxes! My letter is on their website at: http://www.thecoast.ns.ca/archives/131103/letters.html |
| In keeping with the SPCA theme I also had a blurb about an advertising campaign put on by them and a couple local advertising agencies that was super and also controversial. This is what I had said: Pets Are For Life! The Nova Scotia SPCA, along with Cenex and porkpie hat advertising have released a series of commercials that have sparked a bunch of controversy. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has refused to air the commercials because it says that they are too disturbing - it has children saying the words that dogs might say in situations that we routinely put dogs in - like, "if I make a mess inside - will you rub my nose in it?" I think the ads are super and it's about time that someone finally acknowledged publicly that our companion animals are sentient beings and deserve the same care and attention as any other thinking, feeling, living creature. Our culture doesn't eat dogs and cats for supper, but we also don't treat them like or put them on the same level as children. We don't dare do that - yet. I don't know why. Why are we so much better than dogs? We are the caretakers of the animals - we're all going straight to hell in a handbasket - and we're all going there together. We should try to do it as painlessly as possible I think. I don't think that we're better than animals - I think that they are as good as us. And I think those ads are trying to show that. And I think that's super. Most people will miss the point unfortunately - however a lot of people WILL see the point, and I think that this ad campaign is going to change a lot of people's minds. I think that Cenex and Porkpie Hat Advertising and whoever thought up the idea are brilliant. And I hope they win a ton of awards. And I am super proud that the Nova Scotia SPCA is attached to the project. You can view the commercials in their entirety from a link provided online at the NS SPCA's website at http://www.spcans.ca/ |
| This website was mentioned in the summer 2004 edition of "Lifestyle Nova Scotia" Magazine! There's an article on "travelling with pets in Nova Scotia" and it's mentioned as a resource! I was flipping through the magazine when I was buying my groceries this week and I saw the mention. I like the magazine anyway and usually buy it because I love all the local content - although I wish they'd put more animal friendly stuff and more vegetarian type recipes - but it really is a super magazine - and now I like it EVEN MORE! haha! |
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| The picture to the left is me and Buttercup in the Chronicle Herald on August 25, 2004 - it was an article about this website! |
| On August 24, 2004 an interview aired on CBC radio's Information Morning that I did in early June as part of a series called "The dogs of summer". It was about this website and why I made it, and about Charlie. An editor from the Chronicle Herald heard the interview and thought it'd make a good article for the paper so they called me and the next day the article appeared! I made a pdf (Adobe Acrobat) file of the article since they only stay online for a couple days if you'd like to read it. Click here to go to the file. I've gotten lots of great emails and feedback since then - and several great emails from businesses that are dog-friendly! One especially is a couple who've recently opened a bed and breakfast in Peggy's Cove that caters to dog owners - they'll even pet sit for you if you want to go in to the city for supper or things like that! They've set up a little website with pictures at http://hometown.aol.ca/stayaloft/index.html if you want to check it out or want further information. It sounds like heaven to me! One funny email I got was from a student who's studying tv journalism who wanted to do a story and I said that I'm not as articulate in person as I am in print and pointed her to a tv interview I did for a King's College student (posted on my "News You can Use" page) and said that if she didn't mind how awful I talked to email me back and I'd love to do an interview. 4 days later I haven't heard a word - so that interview must've been as bad as I thought it was! So I've got lots of new updates to add to several pages of the website based on emails I've gotten this week - so check back soon to see what dog-heaven secrets people have told me! |