DO YOU WANT TO HELP HOMELESS ANIMALS FIND LOVING, FOEVER HOMES?  YOU CAN – JUST DROP SOME BALLS! IN THE MEANTIME, SAMMY’S HOPE WILL TAKE GREAT CARE OF THEM, FROM DOZENS OF OUR LOVING VOLUNTEERS! YOU CAN ALSO JOIN OUR NINTH ANNUAL CHARITY GOLF OUTING ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, AT THE STANTON RIDGE GOLF AND ..read more

MOST ANIMAL SHELTERS IN THIS COUNTRY ARE PART OF A BROKEN SYSTEM, ONE THAT HURTS INNOCENT, HOMELESS ANIMALS MOST OF ALL. BUT IT ALSO HARMS HEROIC STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS. NEW JERSEY IS ONE OF THE WORST OFFENDERS. Last year, the genius politicians of #JerseyCity suddenly ended the contract with @LibertyHumaneSociety, and its team that many other shelters and rescues have very happily worked with for years. Still, the hiring of a new director, staff, and new procedures designed for the animals’ benefit heralded the possibility that things would actually work out. It wasn’t to be. When a dog attacke ..read more

MY BABY POPEYE On February 13, 2023, I said goodbye to my Popeye, the most loving, gentle, and sweet doggy I’ve ever known. I had to help him across the rainbow bridge that day, with the aid of Dr. Sara from Lap of Love, because he was suffering terribly from a disease I’d never even heard of until January, even though I was raised with dogs and had been volunteering around them for years. Popeye’s downward spiral began last October, when he started coughing for no apparent reason. He was diagnosed then by his regular vet with “simple” lung inflammation, and treated with antibiotics and steroi ..read more

JUNE 24, 2002: After over a year of using The Farmer’s Dog (TFD), these are my experiences, on top of what I said last June, below. Popeye seems to really like it, and typically gobbles it down…but in the past he gobbled down his kibble, too, as well as the chopped Salisbury steak I put on it at dinnertime when I was still feeding him kibble.  Currently, he gobbles down Blue Buffalo Beef Stew just as happily, which I now sometimes substitute for TFD, and sometimes I mix in, half-and-half. This is an experiment, and it seems to work well. Irrespective of inflation, TFD is, well, absurdly e ..read more

I try to assume the best about all animal welfare organizations…until I don’t. I have found over the last 10 years that most of them do some good, and many do a lot of good. And others, such as the now-defunct NJSPCA–an absurd group of mostly obese wanna-be cops who couldn’t make the grade in real life, do no good, except for themselves. But I never counted the ASPCA, the American Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in that disgraceful group.  And I still don’t. It definitely does some real good. And yet I am chagrined to see the just-released results of a CBS News investigation ..read more

PIT BULL AWARENESS DAY!! Three days ago, we celebrated these loving, loyal, kind, and compassionate dogs. There is so much misinformation about them out there, and they are so unfairly and cruelly maligned. They and their humans have their lives upended by unfairly discriminative breed-specific legislation and refusal of insurance companies to write policies for the humans, even when their breed isn’t actually known. It’s important to know that Pit Bulls are NOT a breed; they are a type of dog with certain physical characteristics: muscular, stocky builds with deep chests and large, squa ..read more

Sweet Elmer, Starved to Death in Tennessee In February of this year, a Selmer City, TN woman brought a horribly emaciated dog to a rescue group, claiming that the dog had been abandoned at her house. The rescue immediately rushed the dog, which they renamed Elmer, to an emergency veterinary clinic.  Sadly, despite all their efforts, this poor, sweet Great Dane died. The Guardians of Rescue sent Elmer’s remains to a pathology lab to determine an exact cause of death. The results of Elmer’s necropsy were shocking and heartbreaking. While Elmer suffered from intestinal parasites and heartwor ..read more

Bellissimo Carmine! Smart and sensitive, with a playful side, best describes Carmine. He loves car rides and going on adventures, and he walks nicely on leash. Carmine’s discerning taste in people is evidenced by the top-notch Sammy’s Hope volunteers he spends time with, and he has quite the fan club! He’s a volunteer favorite, but nothing would make his fans happier than to see him find his loving, forever home! He’s such a wonderful boy! To meet Carmine please complete an interest form?  www.sammyshope.org/adoptdogs An adoption counselor will contact you to schedule an appointment. We ..read more

A Puppy Mill The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a number of responsibilities and authorities, among them the oversight of dog breeders, often referred to as “puppy mills.” Certainly, there are humane and reputable breeders, who care for the animals they breed as well as their offspring, and do their best to ensure the puppies they sell are healthy for when they go off to their new owners. But in far too many cases, these puppy mills are true mills–factories–where animals are cruelly abused and neglected, getting little or no health care, underfed, sick, in pain, confined in cages too ..read more

In May 2021, I posted that SERESTO Flea and Tick Collars had been implicated in almost 2000 pet deaths and more than 75,000 incidents and illnesses, from relatively minor effects, such as animals suffering itchiness and skin irritation, to serious emergencies including seizures, convulsions, and, yes, horrible deaths.  Vets and health experts say this is no mere coincidence. A little more than a year later, I am dismayed that they’re still being widely sold, despite a significant amount of damning evidence that they’re dangerous.  So much so, in fact, that the US Congress, not known ..read more