This issue keeps raising itself like a mummy from the same darn tomb in that awful movie you’ve likely seen thirty times over. I thought they killed it the last time, you mutter as you gnaw away at your microwave popcorn. How many times can this one really come back to life?

The issue is seemingly intractable. This time the City of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida is considering legislation to change...

Here’s a hot button that took up almost thirty minutes of a ninety-minute South Florida Veterinary Medical Association (SFVMA) board meeting last night: Microchipping. Whether ‘tis nobler in the hands of the veterinarian than the shelter worker’s, breeder’s, average owner’s, etc…

A consensus was not reached unanimously. Some felt it was the veterinarian’s duty, responsibility and privilege to...

Last week’s post on fat dogs and legal remedies occasioned a comment on the hypocrisy involved in prosecuting owners for negligence and cruelty when prosecuting veterinarians for similar lapses happens so infrequently.

I’d argue both scenarios are as rare as your average male calico cat. (For the record, that's about one in 3,000.)

OK so my stats may be a little fuzzy here, but given that vets...

A plague of retractable leashes is upon us! Though that statement comes perhaps ten years too late, I’m happy to offer you my take on this important subject here and now.

Call me a hater, but I HATE retractable leashes. Here’s why:

I’ve never found one that didn’t click and stick or unspool suddenly at the exact wrong time (like when a stray cat crosses your path and an oncoming car has to slam...

I guess if the Slentrol isn’t an option and the diets haven’t yet worked  there’s always an animal cruelty charge someone can levy to light a fire under you butt. That’s what the owners of Rusty-the-morbidly-obese-British-wonder-dog came to know when his owners found their dog confiscated for cruelly facilitating his 161-pound obesity.

As reported diligently by Itchmo (sadly I can’t reference...

Thursday, BFF Gina Spadafori over at PetConnection blessed me with one of her rare transcontinental phone calls to discuss the state of the pet world and our respective writing careers (hers in full bloom, mine barely budding).

At the outset Gina confided that she’d received a very legal letter from PETA demanding she retract a statement she’d made on her blog. Read the whole story here and a...

“Sunshine, they say, is the best disinfectant. Disclosure may be more like a lightbulb, but it’s better than making what can often be life and death decisions in the dark.”

Why is it that I find myself quoting Christie Keith more than any other single pet health writer out there? Hmmm…

This morning over at PetConnection she posted yet another savvy piece on veterinary issues; this time on the...

Can you believe some people still tether their dogs? If you're like me you don't have to suspend disbelief. The evidence is incontrovertible--you can see it as you pass through neighbrhoods with small yards and incomplete fencing.

Dogs there are tied to trees or staked to a makeshift doghouse. They bark non-stop at anyone who walks past, lunging against their collars, rattling their chains.

In...

A Florida State Representative from Plantation, Perry Thurston, is sponsoring a new bill to amend our existing “Damage by Dogs” statute. Currently, this Florida law limits municipal breed bans and instead holds owners of dangerous dogs liable for their pets’ damage. Representative Thurston would see this limit on breed banning lifted so that individual municipalities can more easily elect to...

Here’s a long post on the HSVMA (the new vet organization started by HSUS) written for last month’s Veterinary Practice News. It's a cautionary article for vets but it works for Dolittler readers, too:

If you graduated from vet school after 1981, you’ll have heard of the AVAR. The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights is an organization of 3,000 vets dedicated to the protection of the...