Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer

UPDATE: Bucks County SPCA reports that Brooke has gained three pounds and is enjoying walks with volunteers and curling up with her warm blanket.
Police are looking for the person responsible for tying an aged black Lab to a rock in a Bucks County creek, leaving her to die in rising waters.
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
A South Jersey pet store, which buys its dogs from some of Pennsylvania's worst puppy mills, has been shut down for 30 days for health code violations.
The Gloucester County Department of Health closed the Puppy Stop in Washington Township following an investigation last year that revealed poor sanitary conditions, failure to keep proper medical records and the use of expired medications, according to the South Jersey Times.
The action came after the Washington Township council passed a resolution to suspend The Puppy Stop’s license for 30 days, beginning on April 1, and charge a $500 fine.
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer

Three decades ago the horrific scenes at a Lancaster County stockyard inspired Gary Baur to found Farm Sanctuary, now the nation's oldest and largest farm animal welfare organization with sanctuaries dedicated to animals rescued from slaughter in New York and California.
Baur, the author of the national bestseller, "Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food, brings his story and observations on current challenges facing the farm animal welfare movement to suburban Philadelphia on Thursday when he speaks and signs books at Ursinus College in Collegeville.
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer

Having spent two blissful years as a resident of the Great White North, we still like to think Canada is the land of peaceful and humane living.
But consider the nation's terrible record on animals: the mass slaughter of baby seals for their fur, the horse slaughter plants where untold thousands of U.S. equines get shot and butchered for their meat every day, the mass puppy mills in Ontario and Quebec (a recent raid near Montreal found 500 dogs living in squalor) and the so-called PMU mares - inseminated for their urine which is used in hormone replacement drugs before they, and their foals, are cast off.
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
Pope Francis gave his first Easter blessing to the world today.
We feel the occasion is a fitting time to consider more fully one of his first acts as leader of the Catholic church, Only a day into his new post, Pope Francis made an extraordinary gesture at his first press conference: he singled out the service dog of a visually-impaired journalist and blessed him.
We first heard about this remarkable act only hours after writing a post wondering whether Pope Francis might be a voice for animals, as his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi was more than 800 years ago.
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
Leigh Siegfried is an Associate member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and is a Member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. She conducts private behavior counseling sessions, group training classes in basic and advanced manners and agility, and a variety of workshops. Opportunity Barks classes are held in Philadelphia and Quakertown, PA. Visit www.opbarks.com for more info.
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Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
Yo Bo, check out all the cool pastel-colored Easter eggs strategically placed on the White House lawn.
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
The region's raptor cams are in full swing again this spring recording all the nesting action of the peregrine falcons and red-tailed hawks.
In Harrisburg, the state Department of Environmental Protection has installed a new HD camera that is now livestreaming activity on the ledge near the top of the Rachel Carson building where a pair of peregrine falcons has been raising chicks for 15 years. Falcon watchers report the femalehas laid four eggs - while the resident male and an interloper engaged in aerial combat over the nest. High drama over the Capitol!
It surely must have been the ghost of the great environmentalist and Pennsylvania native Rachel Carson that led the first falcon to that ledge so that future generations could witness their beauty and contemplate the fact that the falcons were almost wiped out by DDT poisoning a half century ago. It was Carson who first exposed to the world the dangers of the now-banned pesticide.
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
With the closure of more than 250 large scale commercial breeding kennels in the past three years, some may say Pennsylvania has shed its reputation as the "puppy mill Capital of the East."
Is the state now taking on the mantle of "bad rescue" Capital?
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer

Three days after being shot in the neck and undergoing emergency surgery, a Harrisburg police officer headed home with his handler.
The officer, a 2 1/2-year-old Beligian Malinois named Zeke, was shot by a suspect who fired at police during a pursuit and was airlifted to an emergency veterinary clinic.
- A Humane Nation
- Animal Law Coalition
- Animal Legal Defense Fund
- Animals & Politics
- Best Friends Animal Society
- Catster
- Dogster
- ohmidog!
- Paw Print Post
- Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
- Pet Watch New Jersey
- Pet-Abuse.com
- PetMD
- Terrierman
- The Bark
- Vetstreet
- WebMed/Pets
- zootoo




