Keep your dog away from nails. Stainless, aluminum, roofing nails, brads, galvanized, rusty, you name it — nails are not good for dogs.

It’s something we wouldn’t have thought of, except for a Florida dog named Roxie. It seems this basset hound wolfed down more than 100 nails. Luckily, not one punctured anything vital, and a vet was able to remove them all. Roxie is now recovering, and is swearing probably swearing off the hard stuff for a while. The story unfolds on the video below. Enjoy! We’ll see you again this weekend.

Petrol! It's purported to be like giving your dog a can of gas. We're not sure most dog people want this, especially Jack Russell and yellow Lab people. Go dog, go!

OK, we know dogs are hot. Humans are forever creating new inventions to make us happy. We have swanky beds and gourmet foods and organic doodads and even our own videos to entertain us. But until now, we have been lacking one thing that’s utterly ubiquitous in the world of humans: The aluminum beverage can — the great equalizer. Humans (at least American humans) great and meek guzzle about 57 gallons of soft drinks every year, according to EMedExpert. Dogs? We get water.

Enter Petrol. It advertises itself as the “First ‘Dog Drink’ in an Aluminum Can.” We kind of associate aluminum cans with the Budweiser flotsam Uncle Bubba chucks out the pickup truck window, and also with Alzheimer’s disease. But apparently, aluminum is hip. From the Petrol press release: “Discerning dog lovers looking for a healthy treat for their pooches may be surprised they can now find one in the most popular and environmentally-friendly beverage package in the world – an aluminum can.” Who knew?

Petrol gives your dog BIG nutrition, apparently!

The can is admittedly very cute, as you can see in the photo to the left. (Since it’s 12 ounces, we don’t think the scale is quite right…) But what’s inside? The Petrol website states that “Petrol is a delicious dog treat beverage with vitamins and 100% natural flavorings for optimum canine health and wellness. This savory, vet-formulated drink is not only refreshing and nutritious – dogs prefer it 4-to-1 over regular water.”

While perusing the list of ingredients, and lack thereof, we were disappointed to see “no meat or meat by-products.” Is this something the Petrol people should be bragging about? I mean, if I’m going to drink something other than water, I’d like it to have some meat in it! But then again, I’m just a dog.

One ingredient we were relieved not to find listed was gasoline. After all, petrol is simply the British word for gasoline. The product is advertised as fuel for your dog. We put 2 and 2 together and got a little concerned. But nowhere is there a single mention of any petroleum product. In fact, the main liquid is water — and not just any water, but “100% reverse osmosis water for purity and wholesomeness.” Cool! We Dog Daily News staffers often enjoy drinking from toilet bowls and old puddles (truly nectar of the dogs). We’re not sure we need reverse osmosis water. But our humans will like the idea. And since they’re the ones forking over the cash for these cans, that’s what counts.

Cheers!

A toy belonging to one of the children; father, who is not allowed to be identified (nor are other family members), is in the background (Photo: James Glossop/The Times)

In our previous post, about fat dogs being taken away from their owners in Britain, we made a facetious comment wondering if fat human children were next.

Of course, that would never happen. It was just a dark joke. Right? Wrong.

A Twitter follower, doggiestylish, sent us a link to an article that shows our faux prediction had already come true. By now, most likely all of the human children of an overweight couple have been taken away from them. Authorities even absconded with the couple’s newborn baby. A main reason: Fatness. Not the baby’s, of course, but the parents’.

Everyone is heartbroken.

“I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. I can’t tell you how powerless I feel,” the dad told The Times. “The other children are devastated too. My wife was told she could stay with our baby for another 24 hours but then she would have to go home alone. She got up out of her bed and left the hospital there and then. I had to wait behind to say my goodbyes to the baby.”

We are heartbroken, too. Dogs need their people. Kids need them even more. Fat or not. This has gone too far. What’s next? Dogs and kids being taken away if their people wear unflattering clothes? (Stay tuned. You never can tell with British courts these days…)

A textbook case of Reason No. 3

1)    It’s bad for their joints and heart

2)    It’s bad for your image

3)    They can’t fit into their winter coats

4)    They look terrible in skinny jeans

5)    It makes them more prone to doggy diabetes

6)    It makes them more prone to getting stuck in         the doggy door

An embarrassing instance of Reason #6

7)    Three words: Thit cho hap (You don’t want             to know)

8)    They’re dead ringers for engorged ticks

9)    Richard Simmons may pay you a visit

10)  Your dog may want him to stay

Reason #9

Reason No. 10

]]> http://www.dogdailynews.com/2009/11/13/top-10-reasons-dogs-should-not-get-fat/feed/ 2 http://www.dogdailynews.com/2009/11/06/just-a-little-too-much-talk-about-eating-dogs-lately/ http://www.dogdailynews.com/2009/11/06/just-a-little-too-much-talk-about-eating-dogs-lately/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:29:38 +0000 Dog Daily News http://www.dogdailynews.com/?p=712

This is just the sort of thing we're talking about...

It’s getting a little creepy, to say the least. A couple of weeks ago there was a big hubbub about the book, “Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living.” And on the heels of that came “Eating Animals,”  a book about factory farming that includes a section on how eating dogs might actually be good for the earth. Maybe it was tongue in cheek, but it sure left a bad taste in our mouths.

Today, a piece in The New York Times keeps the story alive. It talks about all the rancor “Time to Eat the Dog?” has stirred up. The premise of the idea, for any of you dogs who understandably have buried your head in the sand, is that the ecological footprint for a dog is enormous – twice that of an SUV. Eating dogs, however, would create a much smaller Fido footprint, and take advantage of an abundant food source. Or something like that. To be frank (and lord knows I am Frank!) we couldn’t stomach reading all the details of their gory plan.

Apparently there are still many good people whose stomachs turn over at the thought of dogs being the next chicken. They’re writing blistering comments all over the web, and they’re penning notes to the New Zealand authors of this book. The book’s authors are scratching their heads, much as their future dream meals do sometimes, but for different reasons (fleas).

“The reason we called the book ‘Time to Eat the Dog’ with a question mark is, we were not actually suggesting that you should actually eat your dog,” co-author Robert Vale said in an interview. “And we didn’t provide any recipes in the book.”

Watching "To Serve Man" will give humans an appreciation of what we dogs are going through now

Well bravo, Bobby! You used a question mark, and you didn’t include any recipes in the book! We feel much better now. Not! It’s really no comfort, but I suppose it’s not quite as bad as the Twilight Zone episode, “To Serve Man.” (We won’t give away the punch line, but if you haven’t seen the episode, it’s worth a look – especially if you’re a human who wants to know how the dog-on-a-plate idea gives dogs the willies.)

Meanwhile the mere fact that two books have recently hit the shelves and garnered tremendous publicity because they espouse dog eating – even if purely for purposes of getting publicity – makes us uneasy. Zulu is positively trembling. Oh wait, he always does that.

According to Jonathan Safran Foer, author of “Eating Animals,” eating dogs is perfectly legal in 44 states. Yes, United States states.  And if you’ve ever wanted to know about dog meat (The very term makes us shudder!!!), a Wikipedia entry tells all. It even provides a chart revealing our nutritional value.

Maybe Vale can pat himself on the back because he didn’t include a recipe, but Foer cannot. He provides a recipe for Stewed Dog, Wedding Style, which hails from the Philippines. (We won’t reprint it or add a link, lest someone decide to try this at home.) If this were made from beef, for instance, we’d be licking our chops. But since it’s made from our fine furry friends, it makes us retch.

Oh great. A cookbook whose main ingredient is healthy dogs. I think I'll start smoking.

There are already plenty of popular pooch dishes around the world. Here are some examples of dog dishes that are beloved in Vietnam. (It’s safe to assume that “cho” is Vietnamese for dog.):

Thit cho hap – steamed dog meat

Doi cho – dog sausage

Canh Xao Mang Cho – Bamboo shoots and dog bone marrow

Cho Xao Sa Ot – Fried dog in lemon grass and chili

We think it’s time we dogs launch an advertising campaign, sort of like the anti-smoking campaigns that have been so successful at preventing kids from picking up the ciggy habit Maybe the premise can be, “Eat Dogs: Get Rabies.” It can happen. Dog flesh can indeed transmit rabies. Ironic, isn’t it, that you can get rabies from biting a dog, when it’s usually the other way around?

Whether dog bites man, or man bites dog, it’s never a good thing. Let’s end this madness now. Let’s put down our forks, stop baring our teeth, and discuss this rationally. Perhaps over a meal.

We only ask that when you send us the invitation, it doesn’t say, “Dear dog. We would like to have you for dinner.”

We've all heard of chow hounds, but chow yorkies? Yuk! Too hairy! (Photo illustration: Darrell Eager, Wall Street Journal)

The book, “Eating Animals,” hits the shelves today. It has already received tremendous accolades from critics of all stripes and spots. Natalie Portman writes in the Huffington Post that she read the book — a preview copy, we assume, which we did not have the privilege of receiving at Dog Daily News — and turned from a 20-year vegetarian to a vegan. Now how’s that for an endorsement?

The book is about what it really means to eat animals these days. Factory farms are clearly in its sites. But it’s not just your standard “this is so sad, and look at what it’s doing to the environment” tome. The book, by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, is described in a Huffington Post review as “a triple marvel: the research is serious and far reaching, the writing clear, clever, accessible and in a few instances graphically ingenious, and the cause is genuinely important.”

We look forward to getting our paws on a copy. Too bad Jonny boy didn’t send us a comp copy like he sent to Natalie. Maybe we’re not cute enough. Or maybe it’s because we’re dogs? Could he have a thing against dogs? He sure loves them chickens and cows, but what about us dogs?

This baby obviously read Jonathan Safran Foer's writings

We investigated. And what we found out made our stomachs turn: This alleged vegetarian has just written an article for the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Let them eat dog: A modest proposal for tossing Fido in the oven.” It could be an excerpt from the book, but as you may recall, he didn’t send us a copy, so we wouldn’t know. Here are some excerpts. (Do not read beyond this if you are a dog. Especially if you are eating breakfast.)

• Despite the fact that it’s perfectly legal in 44 states, eating “man’s best friend” is as taboo as a man eating his best friend.

• Dog meat has been described as “gamey” “complex,” “buttery” and “floral.” And there is a proud pedigree of eating it…Hippocrates praised dog meat as a source of strength. Dakota Indians enjoyed dog liver, and not so long ago Hawaiians ate dog brains and blood. Captain Cook ate dog…And dogs are still eaten to overcome bad luck in the Philippines; as medicine in China and Korea; to enhance libido in Nigeria and in numerous places, on every continent, because they taste good.

• Of course, something having been done just about everywhere is no kind of justification for doing it now. But unlike all farmed meat, which requires the creation and maintenance of animals, dogs are practically begging to be eaten. Three to four million dogs and cats are euthanized annually. The simple disposal of these euthanized dogs is an enormous ecological and economic problem. But eating those strays, those runaways, those not-quite-cute-enough-to-take and not-quite-well-behaved-enough-to-keep dogs would be killing a flock of birds with one stone and eating it, too.

This "modest proposal" gives new meaning to the words, "dog food."

• Few people sufficiently appreciate the colossal task of feeding a world of billions of omnivores who demand meat with their potatoes. The inefficient use of dogs—conveniently already in areas of high human population (take note, local-food advocates)—should make any good ecologist blush. One could argue that various “humane” groups are the worst hypocrites, spending enormous amounts of money and energy in a futile attempt to reduce the number of unwanted dogs while at the very same time propagating the irresponsible no-dog-for-dinner taboo. If we let dogs be dogs, and breed without interference, we would create a sustainable, local meat supply with low energy inputs that would put even the most efficient grass-based farming to shame. For the ecologically-minded it’s time to admit that dog is realistic food for realistic environmentalists.

Jonny even gives a real Filipino recipe for Stewed Dog, Wedding Style.

We assume that the author (who didn’t send us a book, in case you were wondering) is writing most of this tongue-in-cheek (and not dog cheek, we pray). At least we hope so. But you never can tell with a cow and chicken hugger. And it’s true that a lot of people around the world like to eat dogs.

Click on book fan Natalie Portman and she'll show you where to vote

My canine cousins are often crammed en masse into tiny cages and live utterly abysmal lives. We Dog Daily News staffers can’t believe this still happens. It does. And if people take Jonny’s “modest proposal” seriously, dogs in these 44 states he mentions (do tell, Jonny, is California among them?) might want to think twice before taking the offer of someone who says they want to have them over for dinner…

So we ask you to cast your vote. The Wall Street Journal is conducting a poll asking people to say yes or no the question, “Would you eat dog?” So far the No votes are outnumbering the Yes votes, but only by a ratio of about 2 to 1. Come on people, we can do better than this! Do that many of you really think it’s OK to eat dogs? We’re not talking hot dogs here, we’re talking Chihuahuas and poodles and German shepherds. And even Jack Russells!

Stop the madness! Cast your vote! My life may depend on it!