Petside closes its Kennel Doors
February 3, 2012
Dear loyal Petside fan -
It's with great sadness we announce the closing of Petside.co.uk. We appreciate your support over the years, and are so happy we got to share the love we have for our pets with you.
Our sister site - Petside.com - is thriving and if you are interested in continuing the journey to become better pet parents, we encourage you to sign up there. Thank you for 3 wonderful years and if you have any questions, by all means contact us at feedback@petside.com
Sincerely,
The Petside.co.uk team
Cat received knee replacement surgery
February 1, 2012
Brave Cyrano, a ten year old tabby who lives with his owners in Carolina, has become the first cat in America to receive knee-replacement surgery, to fuse a prosthetic limb to the remains of a cancer stricken leg at the knee.
Denis Marcellin-Little who performed the operation at North Carolina State University using materials commonly used in human knee operations, said that it had been the most complex implant the university had ever made and was likely the most complex implant ever performed on a pet. The parts were formed from plastic and cobalt chromium.
Surgeon Denis practiced the procedure four times on plastic models before the six and a half hour long surgery, because while similar procedures are relatively more common with dogs, cat bones are much the smaller.
Owners Sandra Lerner and Len Bosack exemplify how much a pet can mean to a family, having paid out twenty thousand dollars to make up the shortfall for the procedure, which was mostly paid for with donated materials and time. Sandra said "He's my child. And if it were your child, would you begrudge the money? I have a personal philosophy that people are, at best, equal with the other inhabitants of the planet. And I'm very, very grateful that I have the money and able to do it."
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Cat grounds flight
January 26, 2012
It transpires it's not just people who complain about leg room on flights!
Yesterday morning Ripples the cat escaped from his carrier and grounding an Air Canada flight destined for Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, causing delays of several hours. While the other passengers were boarding the plane in Haliax in the early hours, Ripples shimmied through the cabin and into the cockpit!
Ripples owner Debbie Harris says that other passengers tried to catch him in first class, but "then he took off into the cockpit and nestled down."
While the crew searched the plane for the missing mog, Debbie called out to him. Eventually it was determined that Ripples had "weaseled its way down into the wiring of the cockpit," said Peter Spurway, spokesman for the Halifax International Airport. "The maintenance folks had to take panels of inside the cockpit in order to get at the cat," he continued!
Of course, the passengers had to get off the plane and wait until Ripples could be removed. Unfortunately after that they then had to wait for the cockpit to be reassembled and then for the wiring and hardware to be checked! In the end the flight people started to board at 5am left at almost 10am.
Thankfully there was no real damage done and aside from a couple of passengers rescheduling, most of them took it in good humour and enjoyed the exciting twist of events.
Debbie Harris confirmed that this was Ripples' first "And his last" flight!
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Dog owner arrested after Bull terrier rips ear off child
January 23, 2012
A six year old girl who having been seized by a Bull terrier while walking with her family remained in hospital last night having lost part of her ear after the dog's random frenzied attack.
The fifty six year old owner of the dog is due to appear in Thames Magistrates Court, charged under the Dangerous Dogs Act, after the attack in Chingford on Saturday. He walked into a local police station yesterday and was arrested on suspicion of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place.
Witnesses say the father repeatedly punched the animal in the head as it attacked his daughter, biting her in the neck, face and shoulder. A witness to the attack says said: "This woman came running down with her husband and another little kid... and screaming, 'keep your dogs away from my daughter'."
The girl was rushed to hospital for immediate treatment and required plastic surgery. Doctors have said she is stable but could face scaring for life. Her father who was also walking with the girl, her mother and another child was said to have returned to look for the ear, part of which was later found by walkers yesterday.
Following the attack there have been more calls for reform to the Dangerous Dogs Act and for a more structured registry of dog ownership, either in form of licenses or microchipping. We at Petside would like to extend our hopes that the girl and her family make a full recovery.
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Renewed call for compulsory microchipping after guide dog mauled
January 17, 2012
A call has been made for the compulsory microchipping of all British dogs following a horrific attack on a guide dog outside the home it lives with it's owner.
The attack on totally blind Kirsten Barrett and her Labrador Norman were attacked outside their home in Corntown, Bridgend was witnessed by her seven year old daughter as they left home to walk to her school bus stop. All three have been left traumatised, Norman however has lost part of his ear and following the attack suffered injuries to his sides and legs that left him requiring emergency surgery.
The two dogs who attacked them, a rottweiler and a Staffordshire bull terrier cross, are believed to have been dumped by their owners. Kirsten said "Apparently the dogs had been hanging around our street since about ten o'clock the previous night. The rottweiler just jumped on Norman, and started biting and shaking him. I told my daughter to carry on walking away, so she didn't get hurt, while I tried to get in between them. But it was too strong, and I got bitten on the hand and leg as well. Eventually I managed to get Norman into a neighbour's house, but even then this dog was flying at the glass trying to get at him." Kirsten goes on to detail how her neighbours helped save them "One chased the dogs away with a stick, and another rushed Norman and me to the vet. It could have been much worse, but even so I'm angry and frightened about the sort of person who'd dump dogs like this on the street."
Believe it or not attacks on guide dogs in the UK average seven a month and each year four guide dogs are so badly injured they have to either be put down or retired. With compulsory microchipping, an improved culture of responsible ownership and the stamping out of back street breeding it's believed that attacks like this could one day be a thing of the past. It's shocking and say to say, but of the 147 attacks between June 2010 and this past December, James White of the GDBA says that he's unaware of a single police prosecution.
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Petside closes its Kennel Doors
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