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November 9, 2008 at 01:34:08
PREVENT CANCER FROM KILLING YOUR DOG by Stephen Fox Page 1 of 3 page(s) |
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I write this now to fight a path out of the abject disconsolation and grief washing over me, because of the passing of my dog of 7 years. Her name was Honey, a dog which a friend had turned into the "shelter" saying that she had bit another dog in her house, not aware that this was a death knell for a pit bull in Santa Fe; she was crying to me on the phone, so I demanded that she go immediately to pick her up, as only she could rescue her from being gassed that night. So at five minutes before they closed, a mere five minutes to hold off the Grim Reaper on a dog who was about 3 then, the prior owner rushed in to the Animal Shelter to make the arrangements to get back her own dog, which she then gave to me. I believe in getting dogs off of death row that no one else wants; thus you are truly saving the animal's life; the animal knows it, or comes to know it, and always appreciates it. I have the profoundest appreciation and respect for Best Friends in Utah; they joined into the Michael Vick Prosecution/Resolution, adopting 22 of the dogs that were supposed to be the most violent and incorrigible of his 76 dogs. Best Friends puts out a great magazine, and a few months ago put one of Vick's pit bulls on the cover, a female covered with scars who, because she had been bred so often, had had all of her teeth removed, so as not to bite the inseminating male. These 22 dogs had never once in their lives been hugged, and the magazine for two great issues was full of photos of these dogs lounging around on their care givers, clearly gentle and loving their new owners, as they had never been loved or cared for when they were part of Michael Vick's fighting dogs. 
Honey was a difficult dog at first but immediately learned how to ride along side of a bicycle, my mode of transport then. I have seen too many dogs in Santa Fe die of cancers which often begin from actinic causes, or solar exposure, then drive their way into the lymph system, the spleen, or the liver.
The prognosis for cancer in dogs is no better than it is in humans, although humans have access to more sophisticated technology and treatments. I was always happy to spent the extra money to buy the best non-carcinogenic dog food brands: Wysong, Millennium and Paul Newman's brand.
Honey liked being in my gallery, and particularly loved to greet people to quickly determine if they were "dog people" or not, and for those, she had a way of wagging her tail so that the whole back half of her signaled a greeting.
Within six months, I rescued another pit bull dog from Death Row in Albuquerque, and Honey welcomed and nurtured him as he was badly wounded. I often wonder if dogs and cats can sense the danger of being dumped or rounded up into the so-called "Shelter," or whether they sense doom much like the European Jews must have sensed doom in being put in concentration camps.
Face it; for thousands of dogs in Santa Fe, the "Shelter" becomes a Death Chamber. They must sense it, and are vastly relieved when they are freed from these concentration camps/death chambers. The culture in Santa Fe is difficult for a pit bull, even a gentle one, as both of mine always were. Never got into a fight in 7 years, either of them, but we were frequently followed by Santa Fe Animal Control Officers, who grew up believing that pit bulls were "mean," and that those who owned them must be some kind of criminals deserving of their civic scrutiny.
This is a kind of canine racial profiling that has never been adequately addressed in our courts, and so it goes on and on, ending up in whole litters of pit bull puppies being gassed and killed in that so-called "Shelter." Santa Fe Animal Control never makes it easy to own a pit bull, or American Staffordshire Bull Terrier, their proper kennel club name.
Several times, I had to react when they showed up or drove by like a Warsaw grandfather in the Ghetto in 1944 when the National Socialists officers drove by, looking for Jews to kill. It pains me to remember that incident, especially the Officer's tattoos. That incident would have turned out really badly, except for the advice and some key language luckily given to me by my friend on the New Mexico Court of Appeals.
One time crossing Paseo de Peralta a guy in a van pulled out of St. Francis school, didn't see us, struck me with a direct blow in the temple with his rear view mirror, drove over the bicycle, and dragged Honey under his van for about fifteen feet. She got up, all scratched up, especially a big wound in the face, and ran away as fast as she could, and I had to race to catch up with her. That was in 2003.
Move forward five and a half years, to mid-September, 2008. I noticed a blood blister on her underbelly. I thought about what I knew about blood blisters, or hematomas, in humans. They are usually not too serious, unless they start changing or start leaking or start growing; such blood blisters often come with aging to humans. I didn't know that in a dog they are much more serious, and all I would have had to do back then was google, at which point within seconds I would have been reading numerous articles about a quick and deadly kind of cancer called Hemangiosarcoma.
These tumors start in the spleen where a rich flow of nutrients allows the tumor to spread out quickly and firmly entrench itself, perhaps an inevitable site because the spleen function is to filter out toxicities from the blood, and maybe the toxicities themselves cause the DNA breakdown in the spleen that results in a rapid cell division and growth of malformed cells building malformed and flawed blood vessels. These unneeded blood vessels eventually break and pools of blood accumulate, causing first mild then fierce internal bleeding. Vets call it the "silent killer," as usually people never notice it until it is too late, with at least 80% mortality and even higher if it has spread to other organs.
A few weeks later at the beginning of October, Honey suddenly had vomiting and one blackened bloody stool. Then about October 15, she collapsed like I had never seen before, but was up and about in about an hour, moving a little slower but not much. That night, and it was over a weekend, I notice the blood blister was bleeding.
Then and only then--not a month earlier had I been a more astute dog owner--I stayed up late and read 40 articles on the internet, all easily accessible, just googling as I should have done a month earlier.
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| 15 comments |
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Dog Chapel
If you're ever in Vermont, plan to stop by the Dog Chapel in St. Johnsbury. It's a tribute to all dogs who have crossed the rainbow bridge, and is well worth the visit for any "dog person", who you obviously are. Here is the link to the site: by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 434 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 4:29:06 PM  (0+)
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Reply: Thanks Bill. You have no idea how much this means to me...
Not likely to be in Vermont, but it is the thought that counts. Maybe we should have a Dog Chapel in New Mexico near Santa Fe. A lot of kindred spirits and similarities between New Mexico and Vermont. Thanks again, and I appreciate your compassion for a grieving man and one other remaining dog, another Staffordshire Bull Terrier and another Death Row Rescue Dog. by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 4:55:05 PM (0+)
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Very moving story....
I won't be able to look at the mountains above Santa Fe without thinking about this, for a very long time. It is good that you are concerned about preventing this kind of death in other dogs by educating their owners about hemangiosarcomas and spleen cancer in dogs. by Eliot Gould (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 200 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 5:28:04 PM (0+)
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Thanks.
I appreciate your kindness. by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 5:45:07 PM (0+)
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Government and Health Standards Compliance.
Stephen. Thank you for sharing this. I understand your pain. I took me years before I was able to even talk about it. I'm glad you have the courage to write an article. Please know my mother died due to bad medication side effects which could have been prevented (I say could have been and this is what really hurts). I think lots of diseases could be prevented if we have control over foods, medications and our overall health systems. We know the problem but we don't do anything just to protect "some interests". Isn't life less valuable than money? Who knows any billionaire able to buy life? Also, in order to understand the core issue, we should ask why more cancers in a industrialized, consumption society than poor one? Still we choose accumulation, greed over making the change we need for a quality and healthy life. Like most western countries (i.e. Europe just to name a few), Health should be priority in the United States, it's the right to all Beings (both Human and animals). As in children case, the most vulnerable among human beings, I think dogs should have right to preventive care as well. Indeed, as President elect Barack Obama once stated, we seem to have a "disease care system” instead of "healthcare system which should be a RIGHT. In short, with a good control, we would have prevention and with prevention we shouldn't have diseases or at least we should be able to minimize them. Today we're facing great health challenges with import, online pharmacy and FDA failure to standards compliance. Let's use the chance we've been given to maybe start by jotting down ideas at www.change.gov . Although I know the priority for the new administration is the economy, we should still push the agenda towards health. There is nothing more important than health. What can we do with our money or material things if we don't have health to enjoy it? Again please know you're not alone. We all wish our loved ones were here to celebrate this historic moment. My mother would have been 68. She was 51, she died on her birthday (Nov. 11, next Tuesday, will be just one week of Obama Historic Victory. I'm sure she's smiled down on me, on the world change!) by Lydia Kopere Patterson (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 154 comments) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 6:55:17 PM (0+)
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Reply: I am so sorry to hear of this about your mother....
Mine is gone too, but she had merely grown weary of living at 83. This medication issue is so terrible that it makes one want to turn into a crusader of sorts. No one seems to listen until it is too late....do you think this is so? Here we are, awash in a nation brimming with carcinogens, and the corporations producing them seem to have been (for at least the past 8 years) given carte blanche, as if this were somehow acceptable collateral damage or permissible genocide. I will be thinking of you on November 11, as I am sure will be others who have read your comment. Sometime, when the time is right, I would like to know more details on what happened to her. In the meantime, take the time to read about Dr. Betty Martini, Founder of Mission Possible International, dedicated to ridding the world of the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, Aspartame. For decades, she has kept patient files and taken testimony from aspartame poisoning vicitms, many of whom have now died. Betty is a great inspiration to me and my efforts in a legislative context to get aspartame off the market, and if Obama and the FDA wills it, we will succeed in doing this I believe early in the Obama administration. There are cynics and critics, of course, who disagree, but they can hang it, dry up, and blow away, for all I care. I trust Obama to get a lot done in this vital realm, and I trust Howard Dean as FDA commissioner or Health Secretary, to take charge and accomplish some great deeds. God knows, they are long overdue!!!!! by Eliot Gould (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 200 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:03:40 PM (0+)
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Pit Bulls and the Media
Commiserations on the loss of your dog. My Pit Bull, also named Honey, developed lymphoma aged 7. Luckily it was caught early and a course of chemo bought this worthy little dog nearly 3 more years before we had to say goodbye. Your comments about Pit Bull profiling prompted me to send you this url: http://www.purebrednz.com/gladwell.htm It is an excellent article by well-known and respected journalist Malcolm Gladwell about profiling and what Pit Bulls can teach us about the practice. Well worth the read. by Karen Batchelor (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 7:16:49 PM (0+)
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Reply: Thanks for commenting, your first, from New Zealand.
Karen: I appreciate this so much. Glad you could get to it in time to give Honey an extra 3 years. In a defeatist or apologist sense, all of the 7 1/2 years I gave were cheating the grim reaper, as it always is with Death Row dogs, but it doesn't make it any less painful for me, or less unfair for that dog. I published this same article in my New Mexico Sun News, 11,000 copies all over Northern and Central New Mexico. I hope it does some good, and awakens thousands to how they should really care for their pets. by Eliot Gould (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 200 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:07:22 PM (0+)
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Reply: Pit Bull Rescuers
Hi Stephen - I know this comment is from you and you somehow hijacked Eliot's persona! Your Honey was a very lucky girl to have you rescue her. For however long she survived after that was all a bonus, especially since she has obviously found herself with someone who understands the plight of the Pit Bull Terrier and what wonderful animals they are in fact. Thankfully, the ASPCA with their Adopt-a-Bull programme, and the likes of the Naples Humane Society in Florida etc are proactively re-educating the American public that they need not fear the breed at all, that there is nothing wrong with Pit Bulls that NOT falling into the wrong hands doesn't fix completely. Their hope, obviously, is to stem the flow of Pit Bulls and their look-alikes being passed over for adoption and going to the needle when they have arguably the best temperament to be found in a family dog. It was gratifying to see the Dutch government ditch their Pit Bull ban - admitting it made no appreciable difference to the incident of dog bite (predictably). A similar study, authored by four vets, studies Spain's Dangerous Dog Act for the 5 years pre-DDA and the 5 years post-DDA. Once again, no appreciable difference in the stats and they note that Pit Bulls are well down on the list of offenders (as usual). Interestingly, because of rabies, Spain's dogs must all be registered for vaccination so in this study the actual dog population was 'highly mirrored' unlike NZ for example where probably a full third of dogs are unregistered. Another coup was Susan Bell's (President of the U.K. Dog Warden's Association) open letter lambasting Kenneth Baker for his flawed Breed Specific Legislation and his bloody-minded determination to persist with it despite the mountain of evidence that it is unworkable, grossly unfair and an unjustifiable burden on the taxpayer. Just this past December in Britain the Police were doing the door-to-door routing out of 'the type'(Merry Xmas to them too). These dogs are slung in jail, their owners spend thousands of pounds fighting through the courts only to get their traumatised dog back castrated, microchipped, carrying a muzzling order and the owner has a criminal conviction for keeping a fighting dog. On just one occasion the dog was very obviously a boxer cross. So much for 'expert' opinion. Hopefully, the noose is tightening around the necks of such politicians (and their flunkies in the media) as more and more of us find them out and add our voices of angry disapproval for this ugliest of anti-dog legislation. It is no different here in NZ, where any serious dog attack incident is immediately reported as a Pit Bull attack. Even when they get caught out the damage has already been done. After all the years since the first death in this country due to dog attack and a printed retraction in the national newspaper admitting the dogs were not Pit Bulls, I spoke to someone just yesterday who mentioned that guy in Te Puke who was killed by his Pit Bulls. NOT. That is why the public perceive that there is a Pit Bull 'problem'. The ratbag media have just done that again here recently and will now have to publicly retract their assertions that the dogs were Pit Bull crosses. The national paper buried their traction in the back pages. The state broadcaster should have to air their retraction at the same peak viewing time they used to mislead the public in the first place. We'll see. Meantime, I know that there is room at Stephen Fox's house for another rescue dog who will most certainly be aware of what incredibly good luck has befallen them, and for however long will live the good life - something too many Pit Bulls never know before their usually terrible, lonely and unnecessary deaths. Thank you Stephen. by Karen Batchelor (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Monday, Nov 10, 2008 at 12:56:04 PM (0+)
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Reply: Thanks for you detailed commentary.
People need to read the kind of reasoning you bring forth, but of course the OPEDnews readers are more egalitarian and open minded than most cadres of American readers. Do you know Sue Kegdley, an MP from NZ? I like her. She has been leading the charge against Aspartame in NZ, along with actress Abby Cormack. They have made a massive dent on the Aspartame sales in NZ, so bad that Coca Cola brought over its own lying "rent-a-toxicologist" to pump out some lies and make NZers think it is safe, which of course it is not at all! I will grieve for my dog, I suppose for as long as it takes. This dog really loved life and wanted to live so much. As to Eliot's name popping up instead of mine, it was hardly a case of hijacking at all: I was using his computer for a few minutes to get caught up with my zillions of emails still coming in from the Obama campaign, and didn't realize that he was also simultaneously signed up at OEN. by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Monday, Nov 10, 2008 at 4:10:26 PM (0+)
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Reply: Sue Kedgely
Yes, Stephen, Sue Kedgely does good work here in NZ for consumers but she has an uphill battle on her hands with the greedy and self-serving nature of big business. Food labling has been another of her projects in which she has only been partially successful, and of course the genetically engineered crops that have been planted here despite widespread protest. Like the Pit Bull matter, the public have been mislead about the safety of a range of food additives and the origin of some products for human and animal consumption. You can hardly say we get full and frank disclosure, but you can say that we have one of the highest rates for cancer in the world. Fortunately, we have people like you and Sue to see that such matters see the light of day so that at least we can make an informed choice but there is much work to be done yet, especially among the young. by Karen Batchelor (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Friday, Nov 14, 2008 at 11:29:14 AM (0+)
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So sorry
It is so hard to lose a companion. My condolences. My sweet 8 year old Golden Retreiver, Angel, was hit by a car nearly 2 months ago and was killed instantly. I was devastated. About pitbulls: they are some of the sweetest animals I have known. Each of my daughters has a pit. One of them, Bambi, is still a pup and cracks me up when she comes to visit. I hope you are able to rescue another Honey. by camanokat (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 81 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 3:15:42 PM (0+)
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Reply: THANKS SO MUCH
I am looking into rescue possibilities right now. Most of them seem to be coming from Tennessee, W. Virginia, and Mississippi (all states that voted for McCain!), and I just can't afford to pay air fare for a dog, even though that would mean many would be put down. I can only get one. Are you aware of Best Friends, the folks in Utah that took in 22 of Michael Vick's worst dogs? not a single problem with any of them, once they were shown some kindness and caring. Humans are the deadliest and most danerous of species, in fact! by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 3:47:59 PM (0+)
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Reply: Note
Thanks for the Article. I had a similar experience with my first Rott. I have to point out that not everyone in Tenn, Miss, and W.V. voted for McCain. Just like not every Pit is a viscious fighting machine! by Bobcat Goldthait (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 4:27:51 PM (0+)
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Reply: THANKS BOBCAT. I DID THINK IT WAS A COINCIDENCE,
THOSE 3 STATES. I WAS JUST REFERING TO THE ELECTORAL VOTE. Cancer killing dogs is a really horrible situation. I am reading a lot about dog food being the cause! Will do an article soon on that, so please stay tuned. What happened with the Rott? You can tell all readers, which aren't at this point too many, or let me know privately at stephen@santafefineart.com. It is gratifying to me in a sad and somber way that so many Santa Feans have come by who liked this dog and given me their condolences. In a way, there is no way around it, since dogs live 12 years and people about 70. That means the average person could have 6 dogs from birth to death and that would be the length of an average human life. The cancer/dog food connection interests me greatly. What she ate most was Millennium, supposedly a non-carcinogenic dog food. Any ideas? by Stephen Fox (96 articles, 3 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 802 comments [33 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 7:15:39 PM (0+)
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