Candlelight vigil anniversary

This Friday, February 22nd, there will be a candlelight vigil to remember the thousands of animals that lost their lives at the Lied shelter last year. Please feel free to come down to the shelter and meet the different rescue groups or take a tour of the shelter. Adoptions will be ongoing, so if you are looking for a pet, the shelter is giving tours and adoption counselors will be on hand. The shelter and rescue groups are also looking for volunteer foster homes as well.

The event will be from 6pm to 9pm at 655 N Mojave Road.

Microchip and toenail trimming event

This Saturday, the Lied animal shelter is having a low cost microchip and toenail trimming event. I'm a strong believer in microchipping, because without them, I never would have gotten my Pekingese, Toy back in 2005. You can read the original post here. The people at Lied were aware of Toy's story and asked permission to use her as the spokesperson for the event. Naturally, she acquiesed and had a small list of demands (private trailer, constant supply of Chicken Jerky and Pig ears, the usual).

But seriously, if your cat or dog hasn't been chipped yet, go down to Lied this Saturday and get it done. Aside from vacinating, its the best thing you can do for the welfare of your pet. google map

Another look at Lied

This morning I received a call from Marie Montera, a reporter for Channel 3 news. They were doing a follow up story about the mass euthanasia at Lied this past February. The Humane Society released a 200 page report detailing the procedures at Lied and what was going on behind the scenes. Some of the details were pretty graphic, others were just plain lack of training.

They also interviewed my vet, Doctor David Henderson of the Sunrise Vet clinic. Doc Henderson has had past experience running a shelter and is a volunteer for Heaven Can Wait Sanctuary, in addition to running his own practice (if you are looking for a vet, I HIGHLY recommend his office).

The interview aired at 5 pm today and will was replayed again at six o'clock. You'll see me as the "animal advocate". One of the best things to come about from this story is raising awareness of the problems local shelters face in Las Vegas. If you are wondering what you can do to help stop overcrowding at the shelter, make sure your pet is spayed or neutered and microchipped. In Clark County, your animal must be altered, unless its of breeding quality and you have the proper licensing.

Lied still taking a beating

I was browsing through the Channel 3 website, when I found a video of an interview of Natalee Nounna. She had a adopted a pit mix from Lied. At the time, she was told that it had been spayed and had all of her shots. She named the dog Miya and a few months after adopting her, Miya gave birth to puppies. This isn't the first time that a resident in Las Vegas has adopted an altered dog from the shelter to only find out later that it had not been spayed. Several years ago, it happened to me. I had adopted a female Akita from the now defunct Dewey shelter.

The reason things like this happen are simple. People who turn in dogs don't necessarily tell the truth. With a male dog, its pretty obvious if he's been neutered. With a female dog, its a lot harder because to be absolutely sure, surgery is involved. The vet would have to open her up and look inside. Most techs rely on a surgical scar to determine if a dog has been spayed. If the dog has had another surgery, its possible that the scar from that may be mistaken for a spay scar. Things like this are very rare to say the least, and should not happen again. Last year Clark county instituted a mandatory spay/neuter law for all personal pets. Owners with unaltered animals will need to be licensed by animal control and only pedigree animals will be allowed to remain unaltered. Owners that fail to comply will be heavily fined and their animals confiscated.

Hopefully this will help curb the overcrowding at Lied and prevent the euthanization of so many animals in the future.

New rules at Lied

There has been significant personnel changes at the Lied shelter as well as new regulations. All of the animals are now going to be color coded for their status. Adoption fees range from a donation to $300.00, depending on the breed of the animal, how long its been at the shelter and its age.

Candle light Vigil at Lied

Today at 5:30 pm, there is going to be a candle light vigil for all of the animals that died at the Lied Shelter. It will be held at Freedom Park, located at Bonanza and Mojave (directly across the street from Lied). Participants are asked to use the Mojave entrance, bring candles, signs, etc to express your feelings about protecting our animals and making sure something like this doesn't happen again.

Please leave your pets at home. Distemper is an airborne disease and very contagious.

Accountability at Lied

Someone needs to be held accountable at Lied. We say that we are the greatest nation on Earth, yet look at how we treat our animals. Dogs are said to be man's best friend, seems the dog is getting the short end of the stick. Proper measures to stop the spread of disease at Lied were not taken, as evidenced by the massive outbreak of parvo and distemper. The same thing happened at the Chicago shelter, however they were able to curtain the outbreak and only had to euthanize 87 dogs----in a much larger shelter than Lied. The city needs to step up, provide Lied with an empty building to hold new arrivals until the existing shelter can be sterilized and new equipment installed to prevent this from happening again. I don't want to hear about budget shortfalls or lack of money. Tourism here has not gone down---ever. The money is going someplace else and that also needs to stop. Whatever else, this is tarnishing the reputation of our city. Lets show the rest of the country that despite being nicknamed "sin city", we still care about the important things.

Disease outbreak at Lied

The Lied animal shelter, the only functioning shelter in Las Vegas, is suspending operations temporarily due to a disease outbreak among the dogs and cats. If you have recently adopted a cat or dog from there, its probable that they are showing signs of kennel cough. Your vet should prescribe anti-biotics that should help. In the past Lied animals suffered from a nasty strain of kennel cough that was sometimes fatal to the animal. Animals suffering from Kennel cough will generally have poor appetites, sneeze often, have running noses with greenish discharge. The effects usually last a couple of weeks. If you suspect your animal has kennel cough, take them to your vet not back to the shelter!

The animal foundation (lied) is asking for donations of clean blankets and towels. You may drop them off at the Lied shelter at 655 N Mojave.

Animal Foundation

Today I went to visit the Lied animal shelter and was horrified by what I saw. Apparently due to the recent rainey weather, people have been turning in their dogs in drooves. There are four and five dogs to a cage. Purebreds and mutts alike, small and large without rhyme or reason. If anyone reading this is looking to get another dog (or two), please visit your local shelter. Too many great, wonderful dogs are killed for not fault of their own!