Kelly Ferguson, Comox Valley Echo, April 10, 2009

Over the next few days, too many local adults will be tempted to buy an Easter rabbit for a beloved child, godchild, grandchild, niece, or nephew. And a few months from now, our local animal shelters will be, as they are every year, inundated by a flood of cast-off Easter Bunnies. The Comox Valley SPCA asks that everyone who is considering buying a rabbit this year stop and think before you act . Two important facts you must consider:

Teh Jen Lee, New Paper, 2 April 2009

AVA nets 48 exotic animals in island-wide raid. -TNP

THE list reads like one from the Little Shop of Horrors. A total of 48 wild or endangered animals, including snakes, giant spiders, exotic lizards and other reptiles were seized during raids by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) last Wednesday.

Ms Lye Fong Keng, head of AVA's wildlife regulatory department, told The New Paper yesterday: 'The animals were 31 reptiles, such as snakes, lizards and tortoises, and 17arachnids, such as spiders.

Matt Walker, New Scientist, 8th April 2009

Pets are normally sheltered from the harsh realities of wild living. But across Europe, increasing temperatures will expose pets to new infectious diseases spread by ticks, fleas and mosquitoes, according to new research.

Tick populations already appear to be increasing with the change in seasons. As winters become milder, ticks are becoming active all year round.

AFP, 2 Sept 2008

Want to get rid of your goldfish? Swiss owners who have been flushing them down the toilet - still alive - must now find other methods since strict new animal protection laws took effect today.

Instead, a fish must be first knocked out and then killed before its body can be disposed of, the law stipulates.

The new legislation spells out in exhaustive detail how all domestic animals are to be treated, whether they be pets, farm animals or destined for scientific experiments.

Canadian Press, 7th April 2009

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — There's little doubt among the soldiers keeping watch over the Arghandab valley that Koma is man's best friend.

Koma, a German shepherd trained to sniff out explosives, recently alerted a security team about an improvised explosive device, or IED, buried right where they intended to deploy to scan the area for Taliban insurgents.

Anne Barrowclough, UK Times, 6 April 2009

A pet dog believed to have drowned after falling overboard in rough seas off Australia has been reunited with her owners after surviving on a remote island for four months.

Sophie Tucker was thrown into the sea as Jan Griffith and her family sailed through choppy waters off northeast Queensland in November. Unable to rescue her, the devastated family were convinced that she had drowned.

Michael P. Mayko, Connpost.com, 4th April 2009

A week ago he was just a bunny with two noses. But today the tri-color 8-week-old dwarf bunny is a celebrity -- he'll guest on Fox & Friends this morning.

He's booked for an appearance on Cablevision 12's Pet Talk with Lauren Collier. And his face and noses have appeared in newspapers around the world as well as on popular Web sites as YouTube and Zoo Tube.

David Johnston, Montreal Gazette, 5th April 2009

When a luxury hotel for dogs and cats opened up last fall in Quebec, some people in the neighbourhood rolled their eyes at what they saw as entrepreneurial folly.

The thought of people paying up to $99 a night to have their dogs sleep in a room with a bed and a wall-mounted plasma TV seemed preposterous — especially with an economic recession on the horizon.

But Hotel Balto in Vaudreuil-Dorion, a suburb west of Montreal, came through the recent spring-break week boasting an impressive 80 per cent occupancy rate for its 36 rooms.

BBC News, 3rd April 2009

It is possible to match a dog with its owner by looking at photographs, researchers have claimed. The findings of the Bath Spa University study are due to be presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Brighton later.

Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times, 22 Dec 2008

THEY may look cute but smaller dogs such as Jack Russell terriers, malteses, shih tzus and others can pack a wallop in their bites.
Since the start of last year, they have been responsible for just under half the 119 reported incidents of dog bites here.

Bigger dogs such as German shepherds, rottweilers, bull dogs and Siberian huskies accounted for less than 20 per cent of the cases.

The proportion has been on the rise in the last few years.  Small dogs have been responsible for 35 per cent of the 236 incidents of people being bitten by dogs from 2005 till now, according to statistics from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).