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Top health benefits of incorporating fresh pet food in your dog’s diet

by www.chron.com Leave a Comment

(BPT) – If you’re worried whether you’re giving your dog the best food for their health, you’re not alone. The newest generation of pet parents consider their pet’s food choices to be just as important as their own. Compared to previous generations, the next generation of pet parents are five times more likely to add a topper to their dog’s kibble to elevate the dog’s mealtime experience, according to a fresh pet food study conducted by Wellness Pet Company with The Valen Group. That adds up to nearly 4 out of 10 next gen pet parents (38%) who are topping their dog’s food each day. The study also shows that millennial and Gen Z pet parents are willing to pay up to 15% more for a premium nutritional choice, driven by their desire to seek higher quality ingredients and nutrition for the health and wellness of their pet — so they can enjoy a lifetime of wellbeing together. This growing interest in providing four-legged family members with better fresh nutrition options led Wellness Pet Food to expand their Wellness ® Bowl Boosters ® line with the launch of Wellness ® Bowl Boosters Freshly™ in June 2022. These fresh toppers are supercharging dogs’ existing kibble with complete and balanced nutrition that dogs and pet parents love.

Dr. Danielle Bernal, global veterinarian with Wellness Pet Company, knows how high-quality fresh foods make a difference in dogs’ overall health and elevate mealtime excitement to a whole new level.

“Fresh, whole-food ingredients help give our dogs what they need, such as all-day energy, strong bones and immunity as we navigate life’s adventures together,” said Bernal. “With premium protein, rice and a variety of vegetables, our newest recipes are energizing the pet and pet parent relationship at mealtime, supporting all that they love to do together.”

If you’re unsure how to tell if your dog’s food provides sufficient nutrition to optimize their health, Dr. Bernal offers some important things to consider.

1. How do you know your dog’s food is supporting their physical well-being? Look for signs like:

  • Healthy skin and shiny coat
  • All-day energy that keeps them running and playing
  • Healthy digestion so you know your pet is absorbing essential nutrients
  • Strong teeth and bones that help them eat well and stay active
  • Healthy immune system that keeps dogs feeling their best

2. What ingredients in fresh products like Wellness ® Bowl Boosters Freshly™ benefit your dog’s health and how?

  • Guaranteed antioxidants like Vitamins A and E for immune system support
  • Omega-3 fatty acids from flaxseed or salmon oil for a lustrous skin and coat
  • Calcium and phosphorus for strong teeth and bones
  • Wholesome veggies and grains like carrots and rice for natural dietary fibers to support digestive health and provide the energy your pet needs
  • Increased nutrient absorption from highly digestible proteins, fats and carbohydrates to help fuel total wellbeing
  • Fresh food toppers like Wellness ® Bowl Boosters Freshly ™ provide increased total hydration to support daily activity and put less strain on major organs, and help aid overall kidney and urinary health
  • With a homecooked texture and high-quality fresh ingredients, a fresh topper is the ultimate way to make mealtimes exciting and more bowl-licking delicious for your pup
  • “Veterinarians and food scientists at Wellness Pet Company ensure that each recipe delivers more than just the finest quality ingredients,” Bernal noted. “Our recipes provide a complete and balanced meal that meets the nutrient, vitamin and mineral needs of a dog at any life stage to promote a lifetime of shared wellbeing.”

3. Suggestions for how pet parents can use fresh foods in their daily mealtime routine

Pet parents have options on how to feed their dog fresh food, whether they are choosing to top their existing kibble with fresh food or serving as a complete meal. Remember:

  • Once thawed, fresh food needs to be refrigerated and enjoyed within five days.
  • Choose flavors your dog will love — Wellness ® Bowl Boosters Freshly™ recipes, for example, offer a variety of ingredients: 1) Chicken and Butternut Squash, 2) Beef and Carrots, 3) Turkey and Sweet Potatoes — and 4) a recipe made specifically for puppies, with Puppy Turkey and Rice.

“With high-quality meats, healthy grains and wholesome veggies, this fresh food delivers a tasty boost that elevates every dog’s mealtime unlike any other, for a delicious meal that even the fussiest dog will love,” added Bernal.

Wellness ® Bowl Boosters Freshly™ not only supercharges your dog’s bowl but all that you do together: more backyard frolicking, longer walks, more road trips, cozier cuddles, more energetic play dates and of course more meaningful mealtimes.

Wellness ® Bowl Boosters Freshly™ recipes are now available in freezers at PetSmart and Petco, with delivery options via DoorDash, and for purchase online at Chewy.com. Learn more about Wellness Pet Food at WellnessPetFood.com .

This sponsored article is presented by Brandpoint.

Thousands of Florida’s ‘nuisance alligators’ are killed each year

by www.foxnews.com Leave a Comment

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The 6-foot alligator in a northern Hillsborough County backyard pond hadn’t bothered anyone. It wasn’t injured. But it was killed.

Phil Walters, a nuisance alligator trapper contracted with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program , had been called after a mother whose child had been playing close to the pond in their backyard and reported the alligator was “lurking.”

A crowd of around 30 gathered when Walters tried to trap the alligator, he said. Some asked why he was there, saying that the alligator had been living in the pond for some time and had never been an issue.

“Are you trying to catch the gator?” Walters said someone in the crowd asked him.

“Well, yes, I am,” Walters said.

SEAWORLD ORLANDO REHABILITATES, RELEASES 3 MANATEES INTO FLORIDA KEYS

“Why are you trying to catch it?” Walters remembers the person asking. “I like that gator.”

But the wildlife commission had issued a permit to trap the alligator when the mother called the Nuisance Alligator Hotline. The bar isn’t high to get a permit, alligator trappers say. . Wildlife commission data shows that nearly 80% of alligator complaints result in permits being issued.

A nuisance alligator is defined as one that is at least 4 feet in length and believed to pose a threat to people, pets or property. Once an alligator is trapped, it becomes the property of the trapper, wildlife commission spokesperson Tammy Sapp said. If a trapper catches an alligator smaller than 4 feet, they can release it. But if it is larger than 4 feet, the trapper can either kill the gator or sell it to an alligator farm, animal exhibit or zoo, Sapp said.

According to wildlife commission data, 184,047 nuisance alligators have been killed from 1997-2021. That is about 57% of all permits.

And as the state has seen a recent population boom since 2020 , some Floridians worry that alligator newbies are calling the nuisance hotline unnecessarily. Some call the number just for seeing an alligator at a lake, according to Elise Bennett, Florida director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

“We all want to live on the water, and roughly any body of water in the state of Florida is likely to have an alligator in it,” Tim Geist, an alligator trapper in Hillsborough County, said.

Thousands of "nuisance alligators" are killed each year in Florida. Pictured: An alligator sunning on the bank of the 13th hole during the first round of the Ginn sur Mer Classic at the Conservatory Golf Club October 30, 2008 in Palm Coast, Florida.

Thousands of “nuisance alligators” are killed each year in Florida. Pictured: An alligator sunning on the bank of the 13th hole during the first round of the Ginn sur Mer Classic at the Conservatory Golf Club October 30, 2008 in Palm Coast, Florida.

Often, people on social media ask why an alligator was killed when, in many cases, it doesn’t seem to pose a significant danger. But Bennett suggested the duty of limiting the number of alligators killed falls on Floridians not calling for a trapper when they don’t need to. Alligators are part of life as Floridians .

“It feels like part of my duty to coexist,” Bennett said.

Being in a position where the American alligator population can easily sustain potentially unnecessary killings is because of successful conservation efforts decades ago, Bennett said.

In the late 1980s, alligators were taken off Florida’s list of legally protected species . After decades of unregulated hunting, protections allowed the alligator population to return to safe levels, Steven Johnson, a wildlife and ecology professor at the University of Florida, said.

Now, around 40 years later, Johnson said the alligator population remains at a safe level where “nuisance” killings don’t have any impact on the overall population in Florida. Sapp said there are an estimated 1.3 million alligators in Florida, and they are found in all 67 counties.

In early October, an alligator was spotted by beachgoers on Anna Maria Island. It walked out of the saltwater — where gators are not normally found — and onto the beach. The 7-foot-9-inch animal, which later was found to have a leg injury, was trapped and killed.

People on social media questioned why the gator was killed and not treated or moved to a new location. It’s a question trappers often receive: Why kill and not relocate?

4-YEARS-OLD FLORIDA PANTHER STRUCK BY VEHICLE DIES

“A male alligator will have a territory, and if you go moving another male in there that can cause a problem,” Johnson said. “If an alligator has been habituated to people, just because people are always around it, or worse, it’s been fed — which is illegal — that alligator then is still going to be habituated to people where you move it to so your just potentially moving a problem from one place to another.”

Geist said it’s possible that relocating an alligator may lead to it being killed by the native alligators in the new location .

Johnson said the wildlife commission believes killing alligators is the best solution. The nuisance alligator website states relocated alligators are likely to return to their capture site — and they’re harder to catch a second time.

Johnson believes the tactic of killing alligators has been successful .

Relocating alligators can come at a cost to trappers. They are paid $30 by the wildlife commission’s program for each capture they successfully make. And Walters said it’s typical for trappers to catch only about a third of the alligators they receive complaints about. Florida’s alligator nuisance program does not pay the trappers for traveling to a site or for traveling to relocate an alligator.

Generally, alligator trapping is a side venture. Walters works in sales. Geist is a licensed insurance agent. The only way to make significant money as a trapper is by killing the alligator.

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Alligators are valuable for their skin and their meat. Geist said some alligator trappers also skin and butcher the alligators they kill. The skin is sold to artists who use the leather to make watch bands and bags, among other items.

At times, being an alligator trapper also means being a teacher to the public in Florida. Gators are part of life here , and, Walters said, sometimes that means trappers serve as “psychologists” to Floridians learning to live with the state’s most famous reptile.

But he said it can be difficult to strike a balance between wanting to educate people about alligators in Florida and a desire to make money.

How Wildlife Rescue Can Heal the Human Heart

by www.nytimes.com Leave a Comment

NASHVILLE — As a young college student, I worked as a volunteer for the Alabama Wildlife Center , caring mainly for baby songbirds, squirrels and opossums. The infants entrusted to my care were all healthy enough that a teenager willing to begin the day with feedings at dawn, and to continue feeding every hour until dark, would be mostly successful.

Only once was I assigned an injured animal. It was spring, baby season, and maybe there weren’t enough veteran volunteers to take on yet another young cottontail, a species that is particularly stressed by human handling. This tiny bunny was so young that its eyes were still closed. All its littermates had been killed when a lawn mower ran over their nest. The one in my care had lost half of its nose to the blades. It did not survive the night.

That tiny rabbit, I know now, never had a chance. Maybe I knew it then, too, but knowing it would not have stopped me from weeping over its cold little body at dawn.

You may be wondering why a wildlife rescue organization would bother to take in an animal so severely injured. Maybe you’re wondering why they try to save these kinds of creatures at all. “But there are so many rabbits!” I often heard people say in my volunteer days. “We already have so many opossums and squirrels.”

Strictly speaking, they are right. The eastern cottontail rabbit is, so far, not endangered. Neither is the eastern gray squirrel or the Virginia opossum or the northern mockingbird or the American robin. Every wild baby I hand-raised as a college student belonged to a species that was not endangered in 1980 and is not endangered now.

Tell that to the traumatized teenager cutting the grass who discovers he has slaughtered a litter of cottontails. Tell that to the traumatized commuter who has killed an opossum with young clinging to her back, or to the person whose pet has killed a mama squirrel, leaving her babies to starve.

On a species level, it’s easy for people to say, “What’s one less squirrel?” But there is something in even the bitterest human heart that can’t help responding to the suffering of another living thing. Faced with a hungry squirrel kit desperately rooting between their fingers, people almost always feel compelled to feed it.

Nowadays, it’s illegal in most states to take in a wild animal without special training and a state license. That’s where wildlife rehabilitation experts and rescue organizations come in. These trained and licensed rehabbers are most often volunteers; many do this demanding work from their own homes.

But even for rehabbers in the best-equipped centers — those with ultrasound machines, lead testers and gas sedation equipment — to work in wildlife rescue is to have their hearts broken again and again. There is just so much suffering, and a huge amount of it could be avoided if human beings took just a little more care to share the land with other creatures. Why do wildlife rehabbers keep doing this heart-wrenching, physically demanding, time-consuming and often very expensive work?

It’s because they have a tender heart for the creatures who try so hard to adapt to our ways. I think they must also have a tender heart even for the human beings who unknowingly create the hazards that lead to so much pain and destruction. When someone calls, frantic that they’ve run over a turtle with a lawn mower, the wildlife rescue experts sigh and say, “When can you bring it in?”

Rehabbers go to extraordinary lengths to save every injured animal. If they can’t save the animal, they can at least give it a merciful death. And they can take the opportunity to explain why it’s so important to walk the yard before mowing, giving wildlife of all kinds a chance to flee. Each animal in rescue represents a human being who has learned something important about living more gently in the world. Rehabilitating the human heart may be the most important work these organizations do.

Last week on Giving Tuesday, I focused my donations on the local wildlife rescue organizations I follow on social media: Walden’s Puddle , Harmony Wildlife Rehabilitation Center , Nashville Wildlife Conservation Center , Lillie Birds Wildlife Rehabilitation and Ziggy’s Tree Wildlife Rehabilitation Center . All have been instrumental in my education as a naturalist. Some have taken in the hurt or orphaned animals I’ve found in my own yard . (Check Animal Help Now or your state wildlife resources agency to find wildlife rehabbers in your own area.)

Primarily through social media, but also through school- and community-outreach programs, wildlife rehabilitation experts can reach many more people than those who bring in injured animals and orphans. They play a crucial role in educating the community about how to be a good neighbor to wild animals struggling to live among us as development encroaches on their territories. They help us understand that these common backyard creatures are all extraordinary, each as unique among their own kind as we are among ours.

That recognition is the first step toward understanding that it is our moral obligation to do whatever it takes to sustain our own ecosystem’s biodiversity. The threat of extinction is not the only measure by which the health of an animal population should be measured, and many of our once common wild neighbors — songbirds , rabbits , turtles , frogs, toads and salamanders , just for starters — are rapidly losing ground. Every creature a rescue organization returns to the wild is one that helps to stem the losses.

From the social media accounts of these nonprofits, it’s possible to learn how devastating rodent poison is , traveling up the food chain and killing or weakening predators to the point at which they starve; why the increase in rodenticides might explain the increase in mange among red foxes ; when to leave a baby bird alone ; why it’s important to let fallen leaves lie ; how to tell if a fawn is an orphan ; the importance of keeping cats indoors ; the unnecessary suffering caused by sticky traps ; the survival benefit to bunnies of keeping tidy ; why birds that hit windows need to be taken to a rehabilitation facility, even if they seem fine; what eye color reveals about the health of a box turtle ; the many reasons not to mow, or to raise your mower to its highest setting . Plus countless other fascinating facts about the creatures who live just beyond our windows.

Just as it’s nearly impossible to see an animal suffering and not want to save it, whatever effort, inconvenience and expense might be required, it’s impossible to study the work of wildlife rehabbers and not come away in awe of the complexities of the other animals, and animal communities, that they work so hard to preserve. It’s impossible not to come away with an awe for the human capacity for compassion, too.

Margaret Renkl, a contributing Opinion writer, is the author of the books “ Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South ” and “ Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss .”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Suspected Boston bomber charged with killing four people

by www.abc.net.au Leave a Comment

A grand jury in the United States has indicted Dzhohkhar Tsarnaev on 30 charges linked to the Boston Marathon bombing attacks in April.

Tsarnaev, 19, is one of two ethnic Chechen brothers accused of carrying out the April 15 attack that killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

A fourth victim, a university police officer, died in a gunfight with the pair four days later as authorities raced to capture them.

The indictment includes 30 criminal counts, including murder and using a weapon of mass destruction.

Nineteen of those charges carry the possibility of the death penalty.

“Today’s charges reflect the serious and violent nature of the event … the defendant’s alleged conduct forever changed lives,” US Attorney in Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz said.

She said she had met with several of the people who were wounded in the attack and relatives of those who were killed.

“We will do all that we can to pursue justice, not only on their behalf but on behalf of all of us,” she said.

The indictment accuses Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, of carefully planning and preparing for the attack – including practising at a shooting range and building the homemade bombs that were detonated amid a crowd of thousands of people.

It also contains an alleged confession written on the night Tsarnaev was captured, suggesting the attack was done to avenge the deaths of Muslim civilians killed by the US military.

Ms Ortiz says US Attorney-General Eric Holder will make the final decision on whether to seek the death penalty.

Legal experts say that while the large scale of the attack could motivate the government to seek the death penalty, his defence could argue that he did not fully understand his actions.

“There will be claims about his youth, about his role, the theory that it was his brother that was pulling all the strings and that this guy was a secondary mover,” said Richard Broughton, an assistant professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and a former federal prosecutor.

“We haven’t really had a case like this,” said Karen Greenberg, director of the centre on national security at Fordham Law School in New York.

“Because of the lethality of this attack, it really is different from other terrorism prosecutions we’ve seen for a long time.”

The Tsarnaev brothers were in hiding for three days after the attack until the FBI on April 18 released photos of the suspects, hoping the public could identify them.

That night they set out with five improvised explosive devices, a semi-automatic handgun, ammunition, a hunting knife and a machete.

The pair used those weapons in a battle with police in Watertown, outside Boston, and Dzhokhar ran over his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, with a car in the escape, officials said.

The younger Tsarnaev, who was badly injured in that gun battle, has been held in a prison hospital west of Boston since his capture.

ABC/Reuters

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Boston bomber’s body in burial limbo

by www.abc.net.au Leave a Comment

The conundrum over what to do with the body of alleged Boston marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev is growing, with authorities saying they do not want him buried in his home city.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gun battle with police three days after the April 15 bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 at the marathon finish line.

He was killed by bullets and blunt trauma, according to the medical report, and was apparently hit by the car driven by his brother Dzhokhar.

Since then, the body of the once promising amateur boxer has been in limbo.

It is currently at the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlour in Worcester, a suburb of the greater Boston area.

But funeral home director Peter Stefan says he cannot find a cemetery willing to accept Tsarnaev for burial.

Although he was born in the former Soviet Union, Tsarnaev had spent the last decade in Cambridge, also near Boston.

Cambridge city manager Robert Healy issued a statement on Sunday saying he did not want Tsarnaev to lie in rest there.

“The difficult and stressful efforts of the residents of the city of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests and wide spread media presence at such an interment,” Mr Healy said.

“I have determined that it is not in the interest of ‘peace within the city’ to execute a cemetery deed for a plot within the Cambridge Cemetery for the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.”

Tsarnaev’s uncle Ruslan Tsarni, who blasted the brothers as “losers” soon after the bombing, travelled with relatives from the state of Maryland on Sunday to the funeral home where Tamerlan’s body is being held and prepared it for burial in accordance with Muslim rituals.

He says Cambridge was Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s “home country”.

‘Family issue’

Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick refused to intervene.

“This isn’t a state or a federal issue. It’s the family’s issue. And the family has some options. I assume they will make a decision soon. I hope they do,” he said.

“I think everybody is feeling upset about what happened. But we showed the world in the immediate aftermath of the attacks what a civilisation looks like, and I’m proud of what we showed and I think we continue to do that by stepping back and let the family make their decisions.”

Mr Patrick sidestepped a question about whether towns had the right to refuse burial.

“I think, if you’re asking about legal rights and so forth – I don’t know the answer to that,” he said.

Protesters gathered outside the funeral home over the weekend, waving US flags and clutching signs demanding that Tsarnaev’s body be sent to Russia.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, remains in hospital receiving treatment for gunshots fired by police during his attempted escape.

He could be sentenced to life in prison or execution if convicted on charges related to the bombing.

Three of his friends face charges of obstructing justice after the attack.

One of them, 19-year-old friend Ethiopian immigrant Robel Phillipos, has been freed on $100,000 bail as he awaits trial for allegedly lying to investigators probing the attack.

He has been ordered to stay with his mother under house arrest.

He was charged last week with lying to the authorities by denying that he had joined two Kazakh student friends in Tsarnaev’s college dorm room when Tsarnaev was on the run from police.The Kazakhs – Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev – allegedly took Tsarnaev’s backpack and laptop computer.

Phillipos, who knew Tsarnaev from their studies at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, faces up to eight years in prison if convicted. His next hearing is scheduled for May 17.

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AFP

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