Dogs! In the News!
Halloween Dog Parade Cancelled
The popular Halloween costume parade for dogs in Tompkins Square park has been cancelled this year.
New York Magazine reports:
“It’s with a very heavy heart that I have to announce that the annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade will be CANCELLED this year,” [an organizer] wrote in a Facebook post. “Although the parade has grown over the past 28 years, it has always been the creation of a small group of volunteers from the dog park. The Parks Dept is asking for a large insurance & liability policy in order to hold the event this year — and we simply don’t have the funds or sponsor willing to provide it.”
Four years ago, the parade was the very first event I covered for Urban Dog! Click here to see more of the pics I took. I am very sad there won’t be one this year.
Read more from New York Magazine here.
Brain Cancer Treatment for Dogs Could Help Humans
A little more than two weeks ago, American hero and Senator John McCain died after a long battle with a deadly form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. It’s the same type of cancer that Senator Ted Kennedy died of in 2009. It is actually pretty rare, there are only about 20,000 cases in the United States annually.
It’s a very difficult cancer to treat and very deadly. However there is one regimen being tested on dogs with a canine version of the disease that looks promising.
CBS News reports:
Researchers at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech are enrolling dogs with glioblastoma into a clinical trial to test the experimental drug. Laura Kamienski’s dog Emily is one of the participants. Kamienski was devastated when Emily, a 10-year-old Portuguese water dog, was she was diagnosed earlier this year… The drug is injected directly into the tumor, specifically attacking the cancer while leaving the healthy brain tissue undamaged… The researchers say the results are so promising that the National Institutes of Health is now helping fund the trial, hoping it could eventually lead to a breakthrough in humans… It’s been six weeks since Emily’s first treatment and Kamienski said she hasn’t had a seizure.
It also appears that Emily’s tumor is shrinking. Read more from CBS News here.
Which States Love Dogs the Most?
The organizers of National Dog Day released the results of a survey they conducted and it appears that California is the most dog-loving state in the union. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said they loved dogs. New York comes in second with 86% of respondents giving canines their thumbs up. Rounding out the top ten: Washington, Tennessee, Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, Missouri, Ohio, and Arizona.
At the bottom of the list?
Nebraska.
Some other insights from the survey:
- Seventy percent of dog owners would prefer to spend time with their dogs than with people.
- Thirty nine percent of women would prefer spending time with their dogs to dating.
- Twenty three percent of men would prefer to spend time with their dogs than go on a date.
For more survey results, click here.
Get Out the Vote
Channel 3000 News reports that voting advocates in Wisconsin are using therapy dogs to encourage people to register to vote.
NextGen Wisconsin held the “Pups to the Polls” event. Therapy dogs were brought onto University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to draw attention and inspire students and young adults to vote. Volunteers were on hand to collect voting pledges as audiences enjoyed the canines. According to organizers, puppies are a great way to draw the attention of young adults, and with midterm elections approaching, innovative strategies to encouraging attendance at the polls are essential.
For more from Channel 3000 News click here.
Election Day is just more than two months away on Nov. 6.
