A pet is certainly a great friend. After a difficult day, pet owners quite literally feel the love. In fact, for nearly 25 years, research has shown that living with pets provides certain health benefits. Pets help lower blood pressure and lessen anxiety. They boost our immunity. They can even help you get dates.
Allergy Fighters
“The old thinking was that if your family had a pet, the children were more likely to become allergic to the pet. And if you came from an allergy-prone family, pets should be… Continue Reading

Workers at a Ukrainian aquarium didn’t believe it when a visitor said a crocodile swallowed her phone. Then the reptile started ringing.
The accident in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk sounds a bit like “Peter Pan,” in which a crocodile happily went “tick-tock” after gulping down an alarm clock.
But Gena, the 14-year-old croc who swallowed the phone, has hardly been living a fairy tale: He hasn’t eaten or had a bowel movement in four weeks and appears depressed and in pain. Gena noshed on the Nokia phone after Rimma… Continue Reading

BOSTON — Massachusetts on Wednesday will become the first state to ban the surgery that devocalizes dogs and cats, which many animal rightsadvocates see as a cruel and unnecessary procedure.
Under the new law, anyone in the state who cuts or removes an animal’s vocal chords for nonmedical reasons may be punished by fines and up to five years in prison.
The law, signed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in April, is dubbed Logan’s Law after a dog that underwent the controversial surgery but was later abandoned.
“To… Continue Reading

Pet turtles are pretty unique. They come in a wide variety of species and they require different pet care conditions depending on their specificity. These nice and quiet animals need a certain environment to feel happy, and you have to arrange everything so that they don’t miss their wild habitat (although that is not easy at all). There are also health issues you should be aware of, as well as feeding rules you must be familiar with. Anybody who’d like to get pet turtles should read a lot about these… Continue Reading

Don Klingborg, DVM, is associate dean for extension and public programs and director of the Center for Continuing Professional Education at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. He states that only about 5% of U.S. pet owners have pet insurance. But in other countries, he says, pet medical insurance has caught on among a much higher percentage of the population.
One reason for the difference is the trend is newer here. Pet insurance appeared only about 15 years ago, but it is slowly… Continue Reading

TOP TEN DOG POISONS
Last year, there were more than 100,000 cases of pet poisoning in the U.S. Many of these were caused by substances you probably have in your home, substances that may seem perfectly harmless to you. But just because something is safe for people doesn’t mean it won’t hurt beloved pets. Some of the most dangerous dog poisons are foods and medications we take on a daily basis.
Depending on how a particular substance affects your dog’s body… Continue Reading