A Revolutionary All-natural Spray is Now Available for Dogs with Rough Paw Pads January 8, 2009

SCOTTSDALE, AZ, January 07, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ — Natural Paws, LLC (www.naturalpaws.net) introduces the first all-natural paw pad spray, Sweet Pea’s TenderPaws.

Sweet Pea’s TenderPaws has been carefully developed to give dog paw pads the natural elements needed for instant recovery from hot summer pavement, icy winter sidewalks, and chemicals in the soil. The paw pads connecting dogs with their world are transformed from dry and tagged, to soothed and refreshed.

“Living in the extreme heat of Arizona,” recalls Elyse Horvath of Natural Paws, “we noticed early on that (our dog) Sweet Pea’s paw pads were really getting worn. Determined to find a solution, we started looking for a product that was non-toxic, clean to use, and all-natural…there was literally nothing to fill this need. It seemed that the only way to get the qualities we were looking for, was to make it ourselves.”
Most people have had to accept that their dogs’ paws are a lost cause. Now there is a company emerging with a human-grade quality, nutritive remedy for paw pads in need.

Sweet Pea’s TenderPaws is an aromatic blend of high quality, all natural essential oils, antioxidants, vitamins, and omega-3s. It is made in small batches in the USA from the finest botanicals available. All ingredients are organic or wild-harvested. These essentials from nature’s garden make it possible to soothe & restore paw pads, strengthen them for what’s to come, and easily maintain them once they’ve recovered. It is absorbed almost instantly, providing active moisturizing and active restoration, for active paws.

Natural Paws, LLC is a company that is pioneering the canine paw care industry. It is dedicated to helping dogs in different ways; from directly improving their comfort and well-being, to aid through established charity organizations and rescue shelters. Natural Paws’ mission is to provide pet owners with all natural solutions to endure everyday challenges. More information can be found at www.naturalpaws.net.

About Natural Paws

Natural Paws’ mission is to provide dog owners with all natural paw care solutions. For further information, please contact us at (480) 205-9959.

This race has run its course, MA October 12, 2008

Source: Boston Herald By Carter Luke, Saturday, October 11, 2008

It is difficult to understand why the Herald supports an industry that is not only cruel and inhumane, but dying. Even track owners

admit that dog racing cannot continue without handouts.

Question 3, the Greyhound Protection Act, would phase out greyhound racing in Massachusetts by 2010 and save thousands of dogs from needless suffering for the purposes of entertainment.

For decades, the state’s two greyhound tracks, Raynham and Wonderland, were able to hide the facts about the cruelty of greyhound racing. That changed in 2001, when the Legislature passed a sunshine law requiring tracks to begin reporting on the number and types of injuries suffered by racing dogs. Those reports, signed under the pains and penalties of perjury, reveal that since 2002 more than 800 greyhounds have been injured while racing in Massachusetts.

Some 80 percent of reported injuries are broken legs that sideline many of the dogs for months, if not ending their racing careers, and not minor scrapes as the tracks would have you believe. Additional injuries include paralysis, seizures, death by cardiac arrest and head trauma. In fact, a racing greyhound is injured every three to four days in Massachusetts. Claims from the tracks that this number is not significant ignore the likelihood of individual greyhounds being injured during their “careers.” The tracks emphasize “starts” to try to minimize the injury rate – showing again that the dogs are more racing units than individuals to them.

Track owners say that the dogs are treated well. Yet according to photos taken at the Wonderland Kennel Compound, racing greyhounds are warehoused in small, stacked cages, barely large enough for them to stand up or turn around. The standard size of a greyhound cage, set by the Massachusetts State Racing Commission, is 34 inches high by 32 inches wide. A large greyhound, standing 30 inches at the shoulder, cannot fully raise its head while standing in its cage. These cage sizes were not approved by the MSPCA, as the tracks have claimed.

Additionally, the dogs are caged for up to 20 hours a day in these tiny cages. Would you treat your dog this way?

Dogs are social animals. They require interaction with other dogs and people. They require love and attention, freedom to move and the ability to explore their surroundings and play. In short, a dog needs to be a dog, not a racing machine.

The Herald has its own history of tough reporting on the racing industry. For example:

In the spring of 2005, the Herald published several stories on the failure of the local dog tracks to react promptly to a mysterious and deadly epidemic. Insisting that the illness was a mild kennel cough, 19 dogs died in their cages before a quarantine was issued.

In December 2005, the Herald reported the racing commission’s resistance to making information about dog track conditions public.

In the face of this reporting history, it is difficult to understand why the Herald supports an industry that is not only cruel and inhumane, but dying. Gambling declined by 65 percent at Wonderland and 37 percent at Raynham from 2002-2007. The tracks’ claims that they pay hefty tax dollars to the state are overshadowed by the foreclosure proceedings that were begun against Wonderland for failure to pay over $800,000 in taxes. Even track owners admit that dog racing cannot continue without further handouts. However while they linger, thousands of dogs will continue to lead miserable existences, caged and put at risk of serious injury.

I believe that Massachusetts is better than that. This industry is a stain on the reputation of our decent and compassionate state. Please join the MSPCA, the Humane Society of the United States, dozens of lawmakers, every major animal shelter and more than 60 local veterinarians. We are voting for the dogs on Nov. 4. We are voting Yes on Question 3.

2 threats to dog racing: Mass. vote, low interest October 1, 2008

Source: Associated Press, By STEVE LeBLANC – 14 hours ago

BOSTON (AP) — Voters in Massachusetts will soon decide whether greyhound racing should continue there, though the real question might be whether the once-popular sport dies a quick death or a slow one.

Across the country, the legions of blue-collar fans the industry relied on have been lured away by casinos, lotteries, online gambling and other forms of betting.

Track owners fighting the proposed ban fiercely oppose claims that the dogs are mistreated. But animal-welfare issues aside, others involved in greyhound racing glumly concede a cultural shift away from the sport.

“It’s certainly changing,” said Gary Guccione, executive director of the National Greyhound Association. “It has downsized in recent years. We’ve seen a decrease in the number of tracks and dogs being bred.”

In the 1980s there were more than 50,000 greyhounds bred each year to race at about 60 tracks nationwide, Guccione said. This year, the number of dogs will drop to under 20,000 and the number of tracks has been cut almost in half.

Since the end of 2004 alone, 13 U.S. tracks have closed or ended live dog racing, according to the Committee to Protect Dogs, which is leading the campaign for the Massachusetts ban. It has raised nearly $400,000 since January 2007, nearly 10 times as much as opponents of the ban have raised.

Racing fans still come to sit at tables in front of television monitors at Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere, one of the state’s two dog tracks. Live racing won’t resume until the spring, but they can still wager on races elsewhere via simulcast.

It’s a far cry from the 22,607 fans who filled Wonderland on May 16, 1945, when the track set its single performance attendance record — or the day in June 1939 when 1,500 people packed a dinner at Boston’s Copley Plaza to honor Rural Rube, who had just won 19 races in a single season.

If the ban passes, Massachusetts will join seven states that already ban live greyhound racing: Idaho, Maine, North Carolina, Nevada, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Gary Temple, general manager Raynham Greyhound Park in Raynham, is leading the opposition to the ballot question. He calls backers “zealots” who are misleading the public about track conditions and the treatment of dogs.

Temple said handlers and owners have invested time and money in the dogs and the tracks are some of the most highly regulated industries in the state.

“I am animal lover myself and I would never allow an animal to be mistreated here,” he said. “There’s a lot of passion and love that these trainers give their dogs. They are family members.”

Of all the claims made by the tracks, the most contentious is the statement — repeated by Temple — that they have achieved a 100 percent adoption rate for their dogs once their racing days are over.

Backers of the question say it’s untrue. They point to statistics reported by the tracks to the state racing commission that show just 31 percent of dogs were adopted in 2007, while 55 percent went on to race at other tracks. The remaining dogs went back to their owners, to breeding farms and a handful — less than 1 percent — were euthanized.

Activists say there’s no way to monitor what happens to the dogs sent to tracks in other states — and even Temple concedes that “after they go to another track it’s up to that track.”

Christine Dorchak, one of the organizers of the question, said dog racing is particularly cruel for greyhounds.

“These dogs are very gentle and very fragile,” she said. “When eight of them are put in a pack and trained to run after the same object they can be injured very easily. It’s basically putting these dogs on a collision course.”

Dorchak’s group has documented what they said are hundreds of cases of dogs being injured at Massachusetts tracks since 2002, when the state first required tracks to report injuries. The injuries range from scrapes and cuts to broken bones.

Dorchak said the new statistics have strengthened the case for closing the tracks since 2000, when a similar ballot question lost narrowly.

Closing the tracks could mean the loss of about 1,000 jobs associated with dog racing, according to Temple. Dorchak called any loss regrettable, but added, “Our economy should not be built on cruelty to dogs.”
On the Net:

* Raynham Greyhound Park : http://www.raynhamparkfun.com/
* The Committee to Protect Dogs: http://www.protectdogs.org/