By Frankie Chee

A puppy had to undergo surgery, castration and plasma transfusion after it suffered a heat stroke and severe damage to its liver and cells – the result of a grooming session gone wrong.

The 11-month-old Maltese had been left all alone while being blown dry by a new machine as the groomer went to buy some snacks for himself at a neighbouring shop. The puppy was later found gasping for air in its cage, with a heat stroke, and rushed to Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital in a critical condition.

Ms Jaslyn Ang, 27, the owner of the shop, Pet C Kola in Hougang Street 21, said: “It was an accident that nobody wished had happened.”

Real estate agent Valerie Lim, 25, took her pet, Jasper, to the shop on March 28 and left him in the care of Ms Ang‘s husband, groomer Tony (Ms Ang did not want to give his full name), only to be informed hours later that Jasper was in a critical condition at Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital.

It was Jasper‘s third visit to the shop.

The dog was left in a cage to be blown dry by a machine while Tony stepped out to get some food. Meanwhile, Ms Ang was attending to other customers in the shop. She heard the dog’s incessant barking and went twice to check but did not find anything amiss.

She said: “We know this dog’s character as it’s been sent to us for grooming before, and we know it always barks when it’s left alone so we did not suspect anything.”

Only when Jasper stopped barking did she and Tony check again, but by then the poor dog was almost unconscious and his body temperature had shot up to 41.7 deg C. They then took Jasper to the Animal Hospital.

The vets there found Jasper had sustained severe liver and cell damage and a potentially fatal clotting disorder. The testicular area was burnt. So the dog had to be castrated. Its hind leg was also badly swollen from severe cell damage. The poor creature was put on drip and went through a plasma transfusion.

The pet shop paid for the expenses incurred during the nine-day hospital stay, amounting to about $2,000, but Ms Lim and her family are bearing the cost of the daily follow-up treatment.

Ms Ang told The Straits Times she bought the blow- drying machine for more than $700 recently and has used it on other dogs without incident.

“The blower is quite new and the specifications given by the supplier were insufficient – he doesn’t even have the instruction manual. But he told us the machine can be used for a maximum of 20 minutes on a dog, under the hot mode,” said Ms Ang, who owns two dogs.

According to her, Jasper was left alone under the machine in the hot mode for less than 10 minutes. The machine does not have an auto-shutdown function.

Ms Lim has reported the matter to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority which is investigating the case.

There are no regulations on pet grooming services, only on pet shops; but under the Animals and Birds Act, anyone found guilty of cruelty to an animal can be fined up to $10,000 or jailed up to 12 months, or both.

Said Ms Lim: “Jasper used to be such an active dog. Now, he wants to jump but he can’t and has to hop around on three legs, and he’s become very scared of every little thing and everyone. It’s so heartbreaking to see him like that.”

The past week have been preoccupied with activities in school.

We had been training the new incoming councilors in their Oath-Taking on Monday and Wednesday but sad to say, some of them are not taking the training seriously.  Some just mumbled the Oath while some wouldn’t stop fidgeting around.

They would be taking their Oath in two weeks time during morning assembly and I hope they do not make a laughing stock of themselves in front of the whole school! 

During the training on Monday, we ordered fast food for their lunch as some of them still have not taken their breakfast yet.  Initially, we had wanted to order Mac Ding Dong hence, I call them up and ordered 42 sets of students’ meal.  However, Mac Ding Dong DO NOT accept delivery orders for students’ meal.

If they could deliver a $20 something pizza, why can’t they deliver a $189 ($4.50*42) order of burgers? Stupiak company rules and regulations.  

Next, we call up the restaurant that does chicken right however, they do not provide soft drinks for their meals except Green Tea.  As a result, we had to pay extra to order soft drinks as most of them do not like Green Tea.

I subsidised a bit for everyone using the SC fund and now, we are officially bankrupt. We are only left with 0.25 cents in the till and desperately awaiting for reimbursment from Mrs Wee.

On Thursday, we had a combined rehearsal with the Bridge Leaders for the new intakes’ Orientation when school reopens next Tuesday.  It was a little chaotic and messy but still passable.  There are bound to be hiccups and unexpected scenarios to occur during big events like this.

That night, I felt lethargic and my arms seems especially heavy.  I thought nothing of it and thought that it’s probably due to fatigue from the past few days.

By this morning, I’m still feeling cold and lethargic.  I’m very grouchy and everything the BL got us to do irritated the hell out of me. 

When I got home, my body felt hot but my forehead was very cold.  I was breaking out in cold sweat and the temperature reading was at 37.3 degrees. 

By eight o’clock,

Thus, I won’t be attending the Dialogue Session with the Minister and some entrepreneurs at Simei Campus tomorrow. 

It’s Pammy!
See how fast she is wagging her tail?

For those who remembered, I did my Business Communication Project on the responsibilities of pet ownership and one of the cases I have presented was about Pammy, the 5 year old female Shih Tzu that was abandoned one day after Christmas, on 26 December, 2005 at Portsdown Road.

At that time, over 60% of her body was covered with fungal and yeast infection. Fortunately, she was picked up by a fosterer from ASD and brought to the vet for immediate treatment. Under the loving care of the fosterer, Pammy started to show signs of improvement and fur started growing at the infected areas.

Pammy then…
What a sorry sight!

Well, as they say, the rest is history. Pammy has found a new home to start a new life and she was well-loved by her new adoptive parents. In fact, I feel sad for Pammy‘s original owners because they had thrown away a precious gem!

ASD (Action for Singapore Dogs) is a non-profit local organisation that rescues and rehome dogs. You can help by:

Fostering
Fund Raising
Website Maintenance
Logistics
Rehoming
Publicity
Sterilization

Likewise, you can help support their cause by buying their merchandise:

ASD T-Shirt/Tank Top/Polo T
ASD Keychain/Fast Tags/Bookmarks

These make great gifts for your friends and you get to help the needy dogs!

Open your hearts and adopt a needy dog today!

An earlier posting by the (un)professional home breeder has been discovered! Obviously, she didn’t cover her tracks very well.

If you looked at the first paragraph, she has aknowledged herself as a “PROFESSIONAL HOME BREEDER” on 4 April. In the last sentence, it seems that she doesn’t agree with petshops for caging up puppies, why then, did she still sell her pups to the petshops to be caged up? Contradicting heself again, as usual. (btw, its cropping of ears and docking of tails)

So, in response to the above, I quoted the following:

Then on 22 April, this is what she claims.

It’s really amazing what kind of lame excuses that this person can come up with to defend herself. Well, I’m not against home breeding but doing it for the right reasons and ethically is my main concern. We don’t breed dogs just for the sake of breeding it, do we?

Breeding is not child’s play and we certainly do not breed out of fun or curiosity. We risks losing the puppies and/or the bitch’s life!

We must have an aim in mind and ask ourselves what are we hoping to achieve at the end of this? If our aim is to show the children the miracle of life or because Fido is a purebreed, then I’m afraid we are going in the wrong direction. Money making should also never be the cause of breeding our dogs!

Breeding doesn’t mean putting any available dogs of the opposite gender together and wait for puppies to appear. It requires a great deal of knowledge on your part and must be planned carefully with the breeding stock selected stringently. The breeding stock must be certified free from any possible genetic faults (eg, hip displasia, cataracts, deafness) which can be passed down to their offsprings.

The breeding stock should also be structurally sound, preferably representing the best specimen of that particular breed. By this, I meant the dogs chosen for the breeding program must be the best specimen of their breed and conforms as near to the breed standard as possible. The breed standard is there for a reason!

We wouldn’t want to breed a Teacup Chihuahua into kettle sized, a Dalmatian without spots nor a Spaniel with prick ears!

Carbon copy

See? Caught in the act!


Strangely, they don’t like carrots…


but preferred leafy greens.


It’s nice to see them all stretched out and relaxing themselves.
(I tried combining two pix into one…)

Hee!

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) is the regulatory authority that safeguards animal welfare in Singapore. In this respect, one area under AVA’s purview is the display and sale of pets.

We would like to advise that the individuals who post advertisements to sell animals on forum page may be committing an offence under Section 48 of the Animals and Birds Act 2002 which states that no person shall keep in captivity for sale, export or exhibition any animal or bird in any place that has not been licensed.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) would like to inform the public that the commercial breeding of animals can only be carried out on farms licensed by AVA. Pet owners who regularly breed and advertise to sell pets can be considered as commercial breeders. An individual convicted of breeding and selling animals from his premises without a licence from AVA can be fined up to $5,000 upon conviction.

We seek your assistance to stop the illegal sale of animals over the Internet. You can assist us by deleting postings by net users who regularly advertise ornamental fishes, birds and rodents for sale in forums and providing us with their details.

Anyone with information about illegal home breeders can report to AVA at 62221211.

Recently, I joined this new doggie forum and it was a nice, refreshing change compared to the one which I had participated for the past 5 or 6 years.

One particular thread that caught my attention was a 17 year old girl (I’ll call her Ruth from now on) looking to adopt a puppy to mate with her 6 years old bitch, which is a Shih Tzu X Maltese.

Well, I replied by putting up some graphic pictures of the birthing process (the same pictures on my Thursday, March 23 entry) for Ruth to see, hoping to deter her decision to breed. She was then chided by some other members for putting her old dame at risk.

Then came along a breeder who shared with Ruth about how wrong it is for her to breed her dog because she is still ‘immatured’ and hence, financially unstable to do a good job in breeding her dogs. Well, I’m not saying that the breeder is wrong but the way she puts it, I can’t help but be reminded of the Everitt Road saga.

Anyway, two other members obviously offended by the immatured-kiddos-can’t-breed-dogs–properly theory stepped in to rebut the breeder. I shall not bore you with the details but the following reply from the breeder caught my interest:

Breeder: “even u know the procedure, they r accident, thing that nobody can foresee, even a professional breeder cant handle. as a mature person, i have experience child birth n human is like dog, human even cant foresee whether they can give birth smoothly n doctors cant even give guarantee either. sometime human have to go thru operation to delivered their babies.”

I then asked the breeder this question:

Me: “Then why breed in the first place if you already know that you can’t predict the outcome of the delivery? What if the bitch don’t make it? Why put her through the danger?”

She replied:

Breeder: “u think i want it?? i have a male MS too n when i get my dotter to take care of my MS, she went out n when i got back home i saw my boy humpping on my gal. my gal give no sign or blood that she is on heat. all i know was that her vulva was swollen n not a single blood at all. since my boy already hump her…what more can i do but let it be. u think i wish to see my gal going thru that??
apparently, friends told me, let it be n since my gal n boy got super duper good temperment n friends wan their pup for their pet. can u tell me whether vet got do abortion like human?? wld u advise me to send my gal for abortion??”

From the above reply, it seems like that the pregnancy was due to an unfortunate ‘accident’ but I can tell you, it is not. Even if it was an ‘accident’, ignorance is not a excuse for this. She jolly well knew that she got two dogs of the opposite sex and yet did not take the effort to make ‘preventive measures.’

Perhaps I can share with you some background information about this breeder.  I knew this breeder was a member of another forum which I frequent and I knew that she bred her MS for sale.  Hence, when I saw her reply above, I was taken by surprise.  Why make the mating sound like an ‘accident’ when it was actually a planned one?

Me: “How could you not help it? You obviously know that you have a male and female dog at home and the obvious thing to do is to sterilize either one of them. Yes, vets DO provide abortion services. Is this the first time that your dog is being bred?”

I knew from the other forum that she had bred her MS more than once so I deliberately asked her the question above.  If her answer is more than once, at least she is being honest and I have nothing more to say but if she say once, then it’s clear she is hiding something.

Breeder: “sorry to say, i don’t like to see my furbies going thru the process of neutering…is very painful. i wld prefer them natural. god have make them that way n i except what god had created.
yes, it’s my female MS first time n it’s my 2nd time experience in this 20 yrs… apparently, i doublt i will send my gal for abortion, there are 4 to 6 life that i’m going to kill. no way, i’m going to kill so many lives n not for me to decide whether her pups should be live or be dead. the decision will lies on god the mighty not me.”

My hunch was right. Why does she have to lie that it’s her MS first pregnancy?  I decided to ‘trap’ her into saying the truth.

Me: “Isn’t the dewclaw given by God? So, aren’t you making them unnatural by declawing?
Man, aren’t you contradictory?”

The reason why I mentioned about the dewclawing part was because the breeder was debating about the removal of dewclaws on another thread.  To quote her in her own words, “i wld prefer them natural. god have make them that way n i except what god had created.”  I’m confused.  Since both dewclaws and the uterus/testes are given by God, then why is it ‘natural’ to declaw her dogs but ‘unnatural’ to sterilize them?

Breeder: “removing of dewclaw is to protect them from getting hurt n unable to walk or do other activities.
dog will scratch on carpet, for some families, they do have carpet at the hall area. n MS do scratch on things..n if they r not careful, will caused injury towards the dewclaw.“

That’s strange?  Alot of the dogs I knew had dewclaws all their lives and they had no problems with walking, jumping, running and doing lots of other activities.   Why is this breeder’s MS so fragile?  Why are there are so many things that her dog cannot do just because of two teeny weeny dewclaws?

So, in reply to her very first sentence, I asked her this:

Me: “Are you a professional breeder then? If you’re not, how are you going to handle something which even a prefessional breeder can’t handle? I’m sorry, but i just find what you’re saying is very contradictory.”

Breeder: “i am not a professional breeder but i have heard professional breeder sharing their experience with me.  when i know my gal is expecting,, i go round getting their experience n knowledge what is the unforeseen will happen n get myself prepare for the worst. of course, we got to expect for the unexpected.
i have heard professional breeder told me, the same dam, on the 3rd pregnancy n after delivery 3 pups, n for the 4th pups, delivering the leg first n got struck by the pelvis n have no choice but to send the dam to mount pleasant hospital for c-section, that happen. i enjoy learning n enjoy getting their experience.”

Here, I am trying to trick her into saying the truth again.

Me: “I see… so you do have some experiences before.”

Breeder: “i have once experience back in 15 yrs back with my female poodle. since then i have not breed a single dog till now. so do u think i’m a professional breeder??”

Me: “Really? Explain this:

The following are screenshots taken from the other forum where she was selling her puppies.  Please take note of the dates  1 April 2006.  Does this date looked anything like 15 years ago?
(click to enlarge)

1. This is the PM (personal message) she sent me when I enquired about her puppies.


2. She is receiving orders for the puppies from ‘Mediacorp people’.


3. See the part circled in red? Not only is she breeding her MS, she is planning to breed her JRT as well.
She has already calculated the timeframe from the time her JRT will be on heat to the due date and up to the time when the puppies would be ready for sale. 

Breeder: “r u targeting me or attacking me. u sound like one leh n is realli off topic of everything…
PS: sorry, i find u a nusiance n i will ignoring u…..”

So, is she or is she not a professional breeder? Be the judge.

See what I meant about buying puppies from petshops?

– Adapted from The Straits Times 17 April 2006

A petshop along Upper Thomson Road has been fined $100 by the AVA as they did not vaccinate their dogs – an AVA Regulation, before selling them which led to the dog’s death.

Apparently, someone bought a two-month-old British Bull Terrier from the pet shop on March 22. However, the dog was hospitalized at the Animal Recovery Veterinary Centre (ARVC) the very next day and died of Parvovirus a week later.

Another owner, whose Toy Poodle puppy was bought from the pet shop on the Feb 18 died two days later. She was offered a replacement dog, also a Toy Poodle but was later told that it had fallen ill with the same symptoms and died before she could even take it home. She was then offered a THIRD Toy Poodle which she picked up on March 24 but that one also fell ill and died THREE DAYS LATER.

Mr Tan, owner of the pet shop refused to take blame for their deaths.
“The dogs were okay in my shop, but when the owners took them home, they died… If the dogs were unwell, why did they buy them? They insisted on taking their dogs home without their vaccinations. Maybe the virus was from their homes.”

What a load of crap! How could he conveniently push all the blames to the owners? Even if the customers had insisted on bringing the puppies?home without their vaccinations, he, as the proprietor and the expert in this field should do his part to educate them about the importance of vaccinating their puppies!

He should know! He has been in this business for so many years already and there is no reason why he should not know!

Puppies are the most vulnerable to diseases at this age because their immune systems are not fully developed yet and just like what I had mentioned at a previous entry about puppy mills, dogs housed together in such close proximity is a disease waiting to happen!

For the Toy Poodle case, no matter how many replacement puppies that the owner had been given, chances are, that puppy has also been infected because Parvovirus is a very contagious air-borned disease.

If the shop owner had displayed professional ethics and refused to sell any puppies that were not vaccinated, then perhaps all this could have been avoided.

What’s the point of fining the petshop a mere $100? 4 precious lives had been lost! Who knows how many more had died at the back of the shop? The shop could have easily earned back many times that amount just by selling off another puppy!