Exotic pets: Big cats and pigeons and snakeheads. Oh, my.

Thanks for covering this important issue. There are thousands of reasons why wild animals shouldn't be caged and not one justifiable reason for trying to make a pet of a wild animal. Up until 2003 the number of big cats we had to turn away from Big Cat Rescue was doubling every year due to the virtually unregulated pet trade. By 2003 we had to turn away 312 big cats (mostly tigers) in a single year. We had been working hard with others who care about animals to pass a bill that made it illegal to sell a big cat across state lines as a pet. That bill passed in December 2003. The following year, the number of big cats we had to turn away dropped, for the first time ever, to 110. As we pass better state laws, that number is continuing to drop but another thing happened in 2003 as well. The number of cougar sightings, in places where they had not lived in the wild in over 100 years, skyrocketed.

Americans use insurance to medicate pets

With aging, it's become a routine faithfully endured by the Guffords. Each day starts with a blood sugar check and a shot of insulin. Then a couple of pills, maybe mashed into a bowl of tuna and canned carrots. Mixed with dry chow.
All for their 12-year-old dog.
Brownie takes more drugs than his human companions put together. He has been medicated in recent months for diabetes, infections, high blood pressure, and his finicky gut that rebels at red meat. Since 2005, he has taken drugs for everything from anemia to a spider bite.
"He's our baby, he's a family member, I would want somebody to do that for me," explains Ann Gufford.
She estimates spending $5,000 over the last two years on medicine for her baby, a mixed beagle-cocker spaniel.

Dog killer spared petless life

A convicted puppy killer who agreed as part of his punishment never to own pets again didn't wind up with a lifetime ban after all.
A judge Thursday sentenced Kimanie Markeys Carter, 20, to a year in the workhouse and a two-year pet ban for killing 10 puppies last summer in St. Paul.
Ramsey County District Judge William Leary III did not order the lifetime ban because it would be impossible to enforce, prosecutors said.
In addition to the workhouse time and the pet ban, Leary also ordered two years of probation, a stayed 18-month prison sentence, a psychological evaluation and behavioral counseling.
"We would strongly prefer that the defendant in this case never own or possess a pet, but we understand the judge's decision," Ramsey County Attorney Chief of Staff Jack Rhodes said.

Going door-to-door to ensure pets' welfare

A change in the law will toughen up rules about how we care for animals. The News joined the RSPCA as owners were offered advice and practical help with their pets.
RSPCA inspectors know only too well how cruel some pet owners can be.
But as the law stands, they can only intervene and prosecute when they can prove cruelty, which often comes too late for the animals involved.
In April, the new Animal Welfare Act will force pet owners to meet their animals' basic needs, with a proper diet, suitable living space and live with or without animal companions, as appropriate.
It will also compel owners to care for pets in a way which allows them to express normal behaviour and take reasonable steps to protect them from pain, suffering, injury or disease.

Pets may be federally protected tenants

SOLDOTNA, Alaska - Dante is not your typical home health aide, and his presence is causing a scrap with the landlord.
The wrinkly, hairless gray cat helps Miranda Monet feel at home and comforts her when she cries, she says. A nurse practitioner prescribed the cat to help with Monet's treatment for manic depression and a traumatic brain injury that saps short-term memory.
"He calms me down," Monet said, stroking the cat on her sofa in a small living room ringed by posters of wolves. "If I start to get upset, he knows it before I do. He senses it."
Dante is somewhat cold toward visitors, though, casting an icy stare that leads Monet to offer, "He's a one-person cat."
Companion animals like Monet's are an increasingly popular treatment, and advocates for the disabled say too often landlords and store owners don't recognize they have a legal basis.