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"Mass hysteria! Dogs and cats, living together..." [OK, OK: Just click the link.]

SALEM, Ore. - Tough economic times in recent years have led to heartbreaking decisions for many pet owners. But now, there may be more help on the way. Marissa Jenkins' 6-year-old Dachshund, Olivia, is more than a dog. "She's been part of our family, she's definitely not a dog," Jenkins said. "She's a kid to us." Recently, the Salem, Ore., family welcomed a new addition - and a new challenge. "My husband lost his job in February and we just had a baby in December, and so all the costs of having a baby and a dog and a family...

Pet-loving citizens take note: Don't be late when renewing a dog license or forget to register that new puppy with the county. Not licensing your dog in Michigan means the local sheriff is required by law to have it killed. As Michigan Capitol Confidential first reported two years ago, the antiquated “Dog Law” (Act 339 of 1919) has not been followed in decades, but still is on the books. A recent bill is attempting to repeal it. The statute states that if a county treasurer locates an unlicensed dog, the animal is to be considered a “public nuisance” and killed....

FRENCH CAMP, Calif. (KCRA) —San Joaquin County sheriff's deputies are still on the hunt for a pack of wild dogs believed to be responsible for nearly 200 livestock deaths

Pet-loving citizens take note: Don't be late when renewing a dog license or forget to register that new puppy with the county. Not licensing your dog in Michigan means the local sheriff is required by law to have it killed. As Michigan Capitol Confidential first reported two years ago, the antiquated “Dog Law” (Act 339 of 1919) has not been followed in decades, but still is on the books. A recent bill is attempting to repeal it. The statute states that if a county treasurer locates an unlicensed dog, the animal is to be considered a “public nuisance” and killed....

Bear hunters will tell you that a good way to attract a bear is to put out bait. And in 10 states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, that's perfectly legal. Hunting dogs are another useful technique in the bear-hunter's toolkit, and 17 states say that's just fine. But who else likes bear bait? Gray wolves, that's who. And wolves that are feeling territorial about a bear bait stash can -- and sometimes do -- kill hunting dogs released at the bait site. Like most interactions between wildlife and human beings, wolf attacks on hunting dogs illustrate a tangled trade-off: attracting bears...

A 76-year-old Australian man was trapped under his car for four days before help arrived. Throughout the ordeal, his loyal dog Boydy never left his side.

God Created Dogs. A little warm laugh for these crazy days. (A parody of the Paul Harvey "God Created Farmers" commentary that was re-newed during the super bowl.)

RENO, Nev. -- Shots rang out in a Stead neighborhood early Sunday afternoon after two pit bulls attacked a jogger and his dog. It happened on Rising Sun Drive. Police say the man lives in the area and was jogging in a residential area when the pit bulls attacked. "Two loose, unrestrained pit bulls attacked his dog and when he tried to separate the pit bulls and his dog, the pit bulls attacked him," said Sgt. Joe Lever of the Reno Police Department. "He was jogging with a concealed firearm which he has a permit for. He discharged the firearm...

Study proves what we've always suspected Dogs are better than cats Take that, stupid cats IT'S a claim that's sure to put the cat among the pigeons. A STUDY into character, intelligence and usefulness shows dogs are better pets than cats - but only by a whisker. In the "great pet showdown" experts compared 11 traits from brain size to environmental impact by looking at research published in scientific journals. Dogs came out on top in six categories to cats' five, the Daily Mail reports. Staff at New Scientist magazine first listed the areas where cats fared best. These included...

"To: The US Federal Government Make law enforcement accountable for killing family pets across the USA It seems just about every day now we hear another story of a police officer shooting a family pet. It also seems that there are never any repercussions for the officer. The latest story to appear on my screens, albeit an old one, was an officer in 'fear for her life' from a Chihuahua of all things...."

A seven-year-old boy has died four days after being savaged by two pit bull mix dogs belonging to his neighbour. Tyler Jett was dragged from his bike as he cycled home from school. He was just yards from his home in Calaway, Florida, when the two dogs, an Alapha blood bulldog and brindle bulldog, escaped and pounced on him. Family members hearing his screams ran from their home and managed to pull the dogs off him.

Burglary suspect finds time to feed the dog EAST WENATCHEE — Residents of a house in the 600 block of Second Street Northeast were surprised to come home Saturday night and find a strange man in their kitchen. “He was standing there with the refrigerator door open and feeding their dog some pudding,” said Dan Reierson, assistant chief with the East Wenatchee Police Department. The suspect told the couple that he was looking for a man to kill, but the residents told him that person did not live there, Reierson said. The suspect sat for a brief time in a...

The Union Pacific railroad engineer brought his train to a screeching halt as the locomotive came roaring toward the 10-month old terrier mix Banjo. Authorities tracked down the 78-year-old owner who told agents his family 'didn't want the dog' and he 'didn't know what to do with him.'

Responding to a recent spate of trigger-happy cops blowing away the family pet under questionable circumstances, the Colorado Senate passed a bill on Tuesday requiring law enforcement officers be trained to recognize when they’re truly being threatened by an aggressive dog and not simply one that’s frightened or playful. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/09/colorado-cops-to-be-trained-to-be-less-trigger-happy-around-dogs/#ixzz2Q4ahJ3is

Vet Wants to Legalize Pot for Dogs Polls show the majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana, but should dogs have it too? It sounds crackpot, but Veterinarian Doug Kramer thinks that the THC in marijuana could help dogs and other pets with painful conditions that don't respond to other treatments. VICE chatted with Kramer about his pot-for-pets campaign. "A client first brought it to my attention," Kramer told VICE. "She had a pet that was not responding well to any of the pain medications or the steroids that we were giving it, and she wanted to talk about getting medical...

Gabrielle Giffords’ Husband Pulls Daughter’s Dog Off Sea Lion In Laguna Beach LAGUNA BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Gabrielle Giffords’ husband pulled his daughter’s dog off of a sea lion in Laguna Beach over the weekend. The incident, which was captured on video, happened around 1:40 p.m. Saturday at Goff Cove Beach by the Montage Laguna Beach. Retired astronaut Mark Kelly’s 18-year-old daughter, who was on vacation with her father and Giffords, was walking the American bulldog on a leash when the 65-pound dog saw the sea lion, ran off and attacked. Nathan, who declined to give his last name, happened to...

A San Francisco police officer shot and killed a homeless man's dog in Golden Gate Park on Monday afternoon, a police spokesman said. Police said the officer was being bit at the time. Here's what happened, according to police: at about 4:55 p.m., the officer was trying to wake up the man near Alvord Lake on the eastern side of the park near Stanyan Street when the transient's dog started barking. The officer backed away, but the dog, believed to be a pit bull mix, broke free, ran toward the officer and bit him. The officer shot and killed the...

Mal, In Various States of ConcernPeople can reliably read a dog’s facial expressions, suggesting humans are finely tuned to detect emotions even in other creatures. Behavioral scientists have long known that people can accurately read other humans’ emotions, but this study suggests our empathy extends to other members of the animal kingdom. While a Ph.D student at Walden University in Florida, Tina Bloom worked with Harris Friedman and a dog named Mal at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Mal, a 5-year-old Belgian shepherd and trained police dog, was subjected to a variety of stimuli, and the researchers took pictures of...

It was a productive day for Gary Strader when he pulled his vehicle up to a remote site in northeast Nevada and found nine coyotes caught in leg hold snares set by the federal government. As was routine, Strader, a former trapper with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, signaled his dogs to attack. His supervisor, who had accompanied him that day, watched and laughed as the dogs circled the coyotes and ripped into them, Strader recalled. "That was regular practice," said Strader, who in 2009 left Wildlife Services, a little-known program within the USDA. The program is tasked with humanely...

Watch to the end.

It's a faux fur fakeout — Marc Jacobs jackets being sold at Century 21 department stores actually contain dog hair. Even if the labels say otherwise, the “faux fur” garments sold by the retailer are made with the fur of cuddly Chinese raccoon dogs, a breed that’s often skinned alive for its soft coat. Tests arranged as part of an undercover probe by the Humane Society and state Assembly member Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) identified various items hawked by Century 21 as containing real canine fur, disgusted shoppers found out Thursday.

A French woman's loyal German Shepherd dog saved her from committing suicide by knocking aside a rifle she tried to fire into her heart, local police said. The 63-year-old woman had walked into her garden in the southern town of Sorgues in the Vaucluse region, fired several test shots of a 22-calibre rifle and then turned the gun on her chest. "At the moment she pulled the trigger, her dog jumped on her and diverted the shot," a local police officer told AFP, adding that the dog "probably sensed things and knocked into her to save her."

Eleven months ago, the old Battle Mountain Humane Society building north of Hot Springs on Highway 385, was consumed by fire. A faulty fluorescent light fixture was the cause of the catastrophe that killed 11 dogs and rendered Wagoner, who had an apartment in the building, homeless. Volunteers sprang into action, donations poured in from the area, state, nation and even from international donors. Celebrities such as NASCAR driver Ryan Newman stepped up through his foundation to lend a hand. Immediately next to the cement pad where the original building - a converted riding stable - stood last year, a...

Richmond K-9 poisoned while cop's home is robbed March 05, 2013 RICHMOND, Calif. (KGO) -- A police dog is recovering after he nearly died of poisoning. Richmond police say that canine was intentionally drugged at the same time his partner's guns were stolen from his home. He's the most seasoned K-9 on the Richmond police force and someone tried to kill him, but what makes this so personal is that police say it was all a set up. "We do think that this officer was intentionally targeted," said Richomnd Lt. Bisa French. Richmond police say an officer came home and...

During her Google Hangout today, First Lady Michelle Obama reminded the audience that dogs need a proper diet and exercise, just like children do. The First Lady admitted that President Obama liked to tease their own dog, “Bo” for being lazy, but that they encouraged her girls to take him on walks. “Dogs are no different,” Michelle Obama explained to a woman on the chat. “You want to make sure they are eating a balanced diet, and if they are not an active dog, make sure that their food is reflective of an inactive dog and then get them out...

Small dogs the world over can all trace their ancestry back to the Middle East, where the first diminutive canines emerged more than 12,000 years ago. A new study, which appears in BMC Biology, focused on a single gene responsible for size in dogs. Researchers found that the version of the gene IGF1 that is a major determinant of small size in dogs probably originated as a result of domestication of the Middle Eastern gray wolf, which also happens to be smaller than many other wolves. In terms of which came first, big dogs or small dogs, the answer is...

The New Scientist is resorting to science to try to find the truth about cats and dogs. Using a wealth of recent research to measure pets in 11 categories, the magazine has come to the reluctant conclusion that dogs are better pets than cats, by a whisker. The four-legged tug of war was tied going into the last category: utility. A British Journal of Health Psychology study that heralded dog walking as good exercise and a good excuse for social contact put dogs over the top. Here's a breakdown of the categories and the rationale: 1. Brains. Cats are smarter,...

Analysis unlocks genetic variation among dog breeds; evolutionary conservation with human reveals regulatory controls of key genes.An international research team led by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced today the completion of a high-quality genome sequence of the domestic dog, together with a catalog of 2.5 million specific genetic differences across several dog breeds. Published in the December 8 issue of Nature, the dog research sheds light on both the genetic similarities between dogs and humans and the genetic differences between dog breeds. Comparison of the dog and human DNA reveals key secrets about the regulation...

They are related to the domestic dog, which many of us live with side-by-side each day. But despite their friendly relations, wolves are not known for getting on quite so well with humans. Often living in the wilderness, they are fearsome predators which can bring down animals twice their size. But as these incredible images show, they clearly have a softer side. When a woman - known only as Anita - returned to the pack of wolves which she had socialised with for two years they reacted with sheer delight. As she sat in the snow, the four wolves raced...

Only 40 genes separate your pet dog from a wolf By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 22/11/2005) The difference between an obedient, friendly dog and a big bad wolf could be down to as few as 40 genes, according to a study into tameness. The research also found that to adapt to a life on the farm or in the home takes many more changes in gene activity than that required to love humans. A Swedish team compared two groups of farm-raised silver foxes in Siberia, one where for 40 generations the foxes have been selected for their friendly nature,...

When People Fled Hyenas By Lee Dye Special to ABCNEWS.com Nov. 20 — Deep inside a cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains, Christy Turner and his Russian colleagues may have found an answer to a question that has hounded him for more than three decades. As a young anthropologist, Turner spent time in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in the 1970s, working at several archaeological sites and occasionally gazing westward toward Siberia. "I thought, 'That's the place that Native Americans came from,' " he says now from his laboratory at Arizona State University in Tempe. But why, he wondered then as he still...

PORTLAND, Maine — Nearly 10,000 years ago, man's best friend provided protection and companionship — and an occasional meal. That's what researchers are saying after finding a bone fragment from what they are calling the earliest confirmed domesticated dog in the Americas. University of Maine graduate student Samuel Belknap III came across the fragment while analyzing a dried-out sample of human waste unearthed in southwest Texas in the 1970s. A carbon-dating test put the age of the bone at 9,400 years, and a DNA analysis confirmed it came from a dog — not a wolf, coyote or fox, Belknap said....

The wide range of variety in domesticated dogs — from the petite Chihuahua to the monstrous mastiff — has powered a new view of what drives evolution. Scientists have long known that the evolutionary changes that alter a species' appearance or create new species frequently occur in rapid bursts. One widely accepted theory holds that any evolutionary change results from a random switch of a single genetic unit within DNA. These single-point mutations occur in about 1 out of every 100 million DNA sites each generation. This frequency is too low to cause rapid evolutionary change, assert John W. Fondon...

Today's dogs are all descended from a pack of wolves tamed 16,000 years ago on the shores of the Yangtze river, according to new research. It was previously known that the birthplace of the dog was eastern Asia but historians were not able to be more precise than that. However, now researchers have made a number of new discoveries about the history of man's best friend - including that the dog appeared about 16,000 years ago south of the Yangtze river in China. It has also been discovered that even though the dog has a single geographical origin it descends...

Derr acknowledges that the story of the dog’s emergence (as distinct from its evolutionary forebear, the wolf) cannot be “neatly distilled.” Different estimates place the first appearance of dog-like creatures anywhere from 12,000 to 135,000 years ago. But Derr argues that the dog itself was an “evolutionary inevitability.” He suggests that dogs and humans — similar animals who “simply took to traveling with each other” tens of thousands of years ago, “and never stopped” —

Wolves were domesticated no more than 16,300 years ago in southern China, a new genetic analysis suggests—and it's possible the canines were tamed to be livestock, not pets, the study author speculates. "In this region, even today, eating dog is a big cultural thing," noted study co-author Peter Savolainen, a biologist at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. "And you can also see in the historical records as far back as you can go that eating dogs has been very common" in East Asia. "Therefore, you have to think of the possibility that this was one of the...

When people hear that I spent more than a year wandering the aisles of America’s dog shows while working on a book about the culture, the first question they inevitably ask is: Why? Why do otherwise normal humans with decent jobs and sound minds spend all of their free time and much of their disposable income on what seems like such a frivolous pursuit—primping and preparing their dogs to be judged in the show ring? It’s really quite simple: because people really, really love dogs—almost as much as they love their children. Sometimes, even more. That said, there are probably...

<p>From Yorkshire terriers the size of a teacup to Irish wolfhounds near the size of a small pony, all dogs originated from a single species, probably an East Asian wolf seeking the warmth of the human hearth and an easy meal.</p>

Scientists argue that friendly wolves sought out humans.In the story of how the dog came in from the cold and onto our sofas, we tend to give ourselves a little too much credit. The most common assumption is that some hunter-gatherer with a soft spot for cuteness found some wolf puppies and adopted them. Over time, these tamed wolves would have shown their prowess at hunting, so humans kept them around the campfire until they evolved into dogs. (See "How to Build a Dog.") But when we look back at our relationship with wolves throughout history, this doesn't really make...

Biologists chase down pooches' genetic and social past A Shaggy Dog History Two-kilogram teacup poodles; 90-kg mastiffs; slender greyhounds; squat English bulldogs: For a single species, canines come in a vast array of shapes and sizes. Even more remarkably, they all come from the same stock. Many millennia ago, humans took in a few primitive wolves and made them man's best friend. Or so the story goes. For centuries, researchers have doggedly pursued the evolutionary and social history of canines, with mixed success. Only subtle differences distinguish dogs from coyotes, jackals, and other canids, making family trees difficult to construct...

They have lived in our homes, been members of the family, slept on our laps for over 10,000 years. Yet it is only recently that science has begun to answer how it is that cats and dogs came to be our most prized companion animals - discovering, along the way, how the domestication of cats and dogs actively helped change the course of human history. "Domestication," says scientist Carlos Driscoll, "is evolution that we can see." Driscoll is a researcher at Oxford University and the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, where much of the world's leading work on cats has...

World's dogs are descended from Asian wolves Scientists have found that almost all dogs share a common gene pool after analysing the DNA of hundreds of dogs from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. They have concluded domesticated dogs originated from wolves in East Asia nearly 15,000 years ago. The animals travelled with humans through Europe and Asia and across the Bering Strait with the first settlers in America. Swedish and Chinese scientists studied the genes of 654 dogs and found a higher genetic diversity among East Asian dogs suggested that people there were the first to domesticate dogs from...

A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found. But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough. The findings come from a Russian-led international team of archaeologists. The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves. The study is published in the open access journal Plos One. Although the snout is similar in size to early, fully domesticated Greenland dogs from...

Dogs are no better than wolves at picking up on human cues... When tasked with choosing between two paint cans based on a trainer's hand signal, tamed wolves actually proved more adept at picking the right can. This casts doubt on the idea that domestication some 15,000 years ago imbued dogs with a window into the human mind, says Clive Wynne, an animal psychologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Rather, dogs -- and tamed wolves -- probably learn to associate human arm movements with treats, play and affection. Researchers who argue for a dog "theory of mind" are...

Dogs make us human By Heidi De Wald Monday, 25 Mar, 2002 About 48% of Australian households own dogs. But can you imagine a world without dogs. And would we be the same if they were not here? Would human beings have developed in very different ways had our best friends not been by our sides? A recent study suggests that the domestication of dogs mutually led to profound changes in the biological and behavioural evolution of both species. It has long been known that the first species domesticated by humans was the wolf. In essence, we made wolves into...

A man’s anger at his pit bull dogs in a public park escalated to the point he physically abused them and forced them to consume alcohol, according to police reports. When confronted, Herbert Barron, 52, told police “if my dogs don’t listen to me then I’m going to put them in the ground,” according to a police arrest affidavit. He was arrested Wednesday afternoon on a charge of animal cruelty. And when he was being booked into the county jail, jail officials found marijuana, leading to his arrest on charges of smuggling contraband into the jail and possession of marijuana....

Imagine that a police officer, after taking it upon himself to search someone's car, is asked to explain why he thought he would find contraband there. "A little birdie told me," he replies. Most judges would react with appropriate skepticism to such a claim. But substitute "a big dog" for "a little birdie," and you've got probable cause. Or so says the U.S. Supreme Court, which last week unanimously ruled that "a court can presume" a search is valid if police say it was based on an alert by a dog trained to detect drugs. The court thereby encouraged judges...

A new study finds that domestic dogs are also killers and disease-spreaders that can pose conservation problems when they're allowed to roam free outdoors. Though they seem so natural in our homes, cats and dogs are natural predators, too. Most will attack birds, lizards and smaller mammals when given the chance, and scientists have demonstrated how their explosive populations can upset ecosystems. The scourge of domestic cats has been thrown into the spotlight recently. A campaign in New Zealand is pushing to get rid of cats, or at least keep them confined indoors, where they can't prey on kiwis and...

Are cats really the Honey Boo Boo of the animal world? No, Honey Boo Boo is the Honey Boo Boo of the animal world, while cats are more like the Lindsay Lohan of the animal world — difficult, unpredictable, hard to like, and probably high on catnip. Oh, cats look cute when they’re in the bobblehead kitten stage or swatting away at yarn, but as you get to know the little beasts, you start to realize that they’re merely trying to lull you into complacency so they can steal your breath after you fall asleep. An old wives’ tale?...