Results tagged “pets”

    

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's favorite adopted animal charity.

Pet owners living in the Jinshan District, watch out. Jinshan officials have begun a massive search and seizure of unlicensed dogs in the area. This sudden dog culling has come after a stray dog allegedly bit 19 people on Monday. It attacked the first victim at 8am and then was cornered roughly two hours later and clubbed to death. As we've warned multiple times before, the result of these search and seizures are usually extermination - don't expect your dog to be safely lying in a jail cell while you look for relevant documents to prove its innocence. And remember, get your dog licensed and carry your license with you every time you take it for a walk - no matter how unreasonable 2000RMB and the need for multiple doggy photographs looks, it's got to be worth it if it saves Rover from death by beating. Source: Shanghai Daily

This new finding on the domestication of canines, published in the New York Times, explains so much. Stockholm researchers have found that wolves may have first been tamed for their meat. And the place that first decided our four-legged friends were probably tasty? Southern China. How did scientists come across this factoid? Usually the region with the greatest amount of genetic diversity is the point of origin, since a species loses diversity as it spreads. That place is Southern China. Also, dog bones with cut marks have been found at archaeological sites in the area. Like with any scientific theory, there are a lot of caveats - "genomic archaeology" is an incredibly new field, many think diversity is just as high in African village dogs and there's the possibility that dogs were domesticated at a different site and then spread to everywhere but China. But isn't it kind of funny to think that, even 10,000 years ago, China was chomping on stir-fried Fido?

Dog owners watch out! According to Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghai authorities are planning a dog cull from July 27 to September 15. Between 4 to 9pm each of those days, officers will send teams out onto streets and compounds to hunt for unlicensed dogs. They aren't very forgiving - at least not when its an ayi walking your prized pups - so please get your dog licensed immediately or, if you have one, carry your license everywhere. We nearly had a German Shepherd put down in front of his owner during our Independence Day party (he didn't have a license) and we don't want to experience that scare again.

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's favorite adopted animal charity.

Yesterday night, after enjoying a drink at one of our favorite pubs, we were strolling home along Fuxing Lu in the Luwan district. At one o' clock the streets were empty except for the odd beggar or 串-seller. It was then we noticed a middle aged man in a white shirt who seemed to be fiddling with something like a cage. As we came closer we saw that it was indeed a cage, about 30cm high and around 50cm long. Inside the cage, two small, live sparrows (or some similar kind of bird) were hung upside down from the wire ceiling.

Get ready to say goodbye to Fido... if he's the second dog you have.

The Shanghai Daily reports that in Luwan, people who want to raise dogs will only be allowed to do so pending the agreement of their neighbors. Here's what they say:

The pilot program has been launched in the district in a bid to avoid neighborhood disputes caused by dogs, the district's public security bureau director said yesterday.

Continue reading "Dog license hearing for pet owners in Luwan district"

This weekend, support both your local amateur artists and Shanghai's favorite pet charity with a fun lunch at Café DuMonde 咖啡杜梦in Pudong. Second Chance Animal Aid (SCAA) will be holding the awards ceremony for their art contest there on Saturday, April 25.

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's favorite adopted animal charity.

While we will never fully understand why anyone would buy a living creature from a guy with a cage standing on a street corner, apparently it happens... And worse, it apparently happens enough for there to be a term for the pets that you get - "one week-ers": about how long your brand new puppy will last before it croaks out its final bark.

Of all the things to take issue with about the streets of Shanghai, it seems like the worst nuisance to Shanghai families are “pets piddling in public,” according to Shanghai Daily. Yep, pets letting loose their bowels ranked higher than illegal street vendors, spitting, graffiti and noise. As one university student put it, “Letting pets urinate or defecate in public deprives the animals of self-respect. A true animal lover wouldn't allow that to happen.” We don't know about that - our pets never seemed to mind. And besides, don't people let their kids do that here?

Second Chance Animal Aid, that awesome organization that helps stray or abandoned pets find loving homes in Shanghai needs you... to get creative! They're calling all artists - of any age - to submit work for the 2009 SCAA Art Contest.

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's favorite adopted animal charity.

We've all seen the numerous documentaries about baby pandas at the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuary, and it was only a matter of time before some of us decided we absolutely must have one. Of course, it's not like you can just go out and buy an endangered species, so we suppose we're going to have to go the shanzhai route like this entrepreneurial pet owner. We're gonna call it "Pandog."

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Pups in the PRC may have a rough time of it this summer, at least those in Beijing who are used to a diet of Royal Canin dog food. The International Center for Veterinary Services announced today that because of restrictions on non-Beijing registered vehicles entering the city as of July 1, the specialty dog food brand would not make it into the city until after the Olympics. Whether humans have the same mark-ups, hassle and unavailability to face for their own products remains to be seen as traffic restrictions and security measures get beefed up in coming weeks.

"Doggie cops snatched a bunch of unlicensed dogs from owners in my courtyard in a sting op this AM. Self-important JERKS. " [Source]

Amelia of ChinaTravel.net draws our attention to this Beijing Olympic keychain souvenir with a live fish in it:

I found this picture up at the Beijing Olympics Fan blog and was shocked out of my wits!!! Who would ever buy this??? In 4 hours the fish would be dead, how do you explain that to your 6 year old daughter? I saw some guys selling these on the subway recently, they were claiming that the water was treated with food and chemicals that would allow the fish to live for months. BULLCRAP!

“The fish would have little oxygen available and it would be impossible to feed the fish.

Continue reading "Beijing Olympic key chain souvenir cruel to fish?"

Here is a warning to all. Don't buy those cute, little baby bunnies off the street or at the flower markets around the city.

Shanghaiist reader Jeff sent us this email sharing with us the horrendous experience he and his wife were put through recently when they tried to give their beloved rabbit a proper cremation:

Just wanted to share an experience: My wife's rabbit died a few days ago. Even if he used to pee and poop everywhere and the odor can be quite strong, she still loved him deeply. Unfortunately, he got an eye disease and never recovered.

Continue reading "The pet cremation experience of one Shanghaiist reader"

Have you ever walked down Nanjing Dong Lu and wondered, "What idiots buy those plastic wind-up tops that shoot out laser lights and play annoying music?" Well, now you have your answer: Us. We have our reasons: We're suckers for toys.We wanted to see what our dogs thought of it.They are cheap (10-15 RMB).The song it plays is "Axel F."Yes, Axel F! Anyway, the embedded video shows you what the top looks and sounds like...

The Pet Paradise Asia 2007 expo opened in pavilion W5 of the New International Expo Center to commercial representatives early on Thursday, and to the public on Saturday for a second two-day run.

Even as the majority of the domestic and international press crowned Inner Mongolia native and Shanghai resident Duo Zirong for her courage to stop the truck and "save" 800 cats from the food trade on July 7, dissenting voices have been raised with regards to the character of this women. And some have gone so far as to call her — as we have heard recently from those involved in various animal rescue organizations — more of a psychopath hoarder than a cat saviour.

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Elsewhere - Indian-born billionaire Lakshmi Mittal - the fifth richest man in the world - has emerged as a contender to buy Birmingham, while Arsenal faces a takeover bid from an Arab tycoon Mohammed Al Hashimi who was a partner in a £450million bid to buy Liverpool. In the meanwhile, ousted billionaire Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, is reportedly poised to buy English football's Manchester City, although the Bank of Thailand said it has not received a money transfer request from Thaksin. Are Asians going to take over the English Premier League someday?

The term 'food poisoning' is taken to the next level in China, with reports that not only have ingredients from China been killing pets, but have now killed up to 365 humans too. The New York Times reports that a safe additive used in cough syrup was substituted with diethylene glycol (an industrial solvent and a prime ingredient in anti-freeze) by Chinese companies. When exported from China, the syrup was labelled as 99.5 percent pure glycerin (a safe ingredient). It passed over three continents without being quality tested, and arrived in Panama to be used in cough medicine. Most of the victims have been children, unwittingly poisoned by their parents.

Shanghaiist lost count long ago of the number times we've thrown very unladylike expletive-laced fits in the middle of sidewalks when the umpteenth cab driver we've tried to hail has taken one look at our adorable, amazingly well-behaved-in-cabs pups and sped off. Seeing this China Daily headline ("Taxi wants to serve your pets") got us all excited before we realized it was not a service available in Shanghai. The pet-centered cab service is run by a very sympathetic (and savvy) entrepreneur in neighboring city Nanjing: