Posts tagged "SanFrancisco"

Here at Paw Nation, we know that every pet has a story, and it's usually a story their owners just love to tell. So we decided to hit the streets to ask pets (and their owners) about everything from how they were adopted to what was the naughtiest thing they've ever done. It's our weekly series, "Pet on the Street."

Cat declawing gets a bad rap from anti-cruelty groups: "Declawing is a surgery that involves the amputation of the end of a cat's toes and causes significant pain during recovery," states the website of the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

Declawing cats can lead to chronic paw pain and other problems down the road, Louise Murray, the director of medicine at the ASPCA Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital told Paw Nation. "Many veterinarians feel that cats who have been declawed become more aggressive. This may be due to a feeling of being defenseless, or may be due to chronic pain," Murray says. "These cats tend to bite when afraid or stressed."

So you'd think that animal rights groups would all be jumping for joy that, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports, San Fran is considering a ban on onychectomy (declawing) and tendonectomy (removal of the flexor tendon). Not quite.

The law under consideration would would ban the surgery unless it was deemed medically necessary, the Chronicle reports. But the issue is more complicated than it sounds, says the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The SF/SPCA has released a statement explaining why they're opposed to the declawing ban.

Source

When birds attack...it's kind of funny.

A blackbird perched high atop an awning in the financial district of San Francisco suddenly began dive-bombing unsuspecting pedestrians, striking people on their heads and causing them to run for cover. Amused onlookers gathered at the corner of California and Front Streets, reports the San Francisco Business Journal, snickering or clapping high-fives each time the bird made contact.

Turns out, the bird wasn't trying to be malicious, but was merely protecting a nearby nest.

The bird has become such a big landmark that a website has been launched to follow the bird, referred to as Swoops by the site's creators.

Source