The rise has sent pet owners clamoring to lower-cost clinics to treat their pets, updating up their pet insurance policies and turning to discount retailers, like 1-800-PET-MEDS, which typically sells medicine at below most pharmacies’ pricetags.

Some veterinarians have been willing to work with pet owners by setting up payment plans to cover costs for some surgeries and emergency visits over a longer perio

Doctors and other experts say while owners are shelling out more cash to treat their dogs, cats and other pets, they’re also getting their money’s worth. Medicine and treatment techniques have vastly improved in the past decade. And that means more costs to customers.

The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates 72 million dogs and nearly 82 million cats were kept as pets in the United States in 2007. That same year, there were about 850,000 active pet insurance policies, according to the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues.

Monthly premiums for pet insurance can run from $11 to $50, adding up to roughly from $2,000 to $6,000 or more over a pet’s lifetime. And some medical procedures for pets can cost anywhere from $500 to $2,500, depending on the severity of the case.

While some experts argue the pros and cons of pet insurance — the premiums generally are cheaper than most other insurance, but the deductibles seldom, if ever, cover costs of more serious ailments or injuries — having it makes sense in an emergency, she says.

In many cases, pets can safely use insurance-covered medicine that is prescribed to humans, even generics

Eight in 10 pet owners took their animal companion to a veterinarian in the past 12 months. And cost was an obstacle for a third of those who did not visit the vet.

The bulk of pet owners faced costs below the average. Sixty percent of those who did take a pet to the vet spent $300 or less on their animal’s care, the average expenditure was boosted higher by the one in eight (13 percent) who spent $1,000 or more.

About one in six pet owners say their pet faced a serious illness during the year, and those pet owners spent an average of $1,092 on vet care. One percent say they took their pets to the vet and spent no money.

According to the poll, most pet owners have faith in the treatment vets recommend. Overall, 52 percent say vets do not often recommend excessive treatment, 26 percent say that happens moderately often, 17 percent extremely or very often.

Among those who did not take their pets to the vet last year, 52 percent say they only take their pets to the vet “when they’re really sick.”

Once this all became public knowledge, Michael Vick was convicted and sent to jail. His dogs were released and sent to homes and institutions where they were looked after.

Now a couple of months ago, Michael Vick expressed his desire to own a dog totally under his control and avoid the sentencing judge’s ruling. President Obama has weighed in on the controversy by explaining that even prisoners get a second chance.

Michael Vick was and is a savage animal. He has thrown his own pet dog into a ring of killer dogs only to see it being attacked viciously. How can anyone agree to allow him even near a dog?

This event is the first of its kind in Canada. It starts at noon at Ambleside park and is expected to run for at least 2 hours. The idea of the “tweetup” is to have everyone working the ’net by uploading photos and tweets live using the title tag #BarkingMad. The organizers have denied that it is a protest. They want the event to be “positive and upbeat”.

There is also a rally planned for February 12 at the Whistler Village Square. There will be volunteers taking donations that will go to Whistler Animals Galore (WAG), the local rescue shelter.

The dog cull came to light last week after an employee of a Whistler dogsled company complained to WorkSafe B.C. he was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after he claimed he was ordered to carry out the slaughter.

A joint investigation by RCMP and the B.C. SPCA has been launched. There is a lot of anger and frustration in the country at this totally unwarranted slaughter. The principals and staff of the company responsible for the slaughter have received death threats.

According to the company that was responsible for the deaths, business was considerably down after the very successful Winter Olympics, and there were a hundred spare dogs that could not be cared for. So management decided to cull them.

What has brought world-wide attention to this story which happened nine months ago, is the way in which the dogs were brutally massacred. The lucky ones were shot with a single bullet to the head. The unlucky ones had their throats slit, others had to endure a long and painful death.

All the dogs were piled up into a mass grave and buried. many of the dogs were dtill alive when they were thrown into the mass grave. World public opinion leans towards the fact that the dogs should have been euthanized by a vet, instead of suffering such a horrible death.

The local SPCA officer, Marcie Moriarty commented on the brutal ways in which the dogs suffered: “I won’t use the term euthanized, [which] implies a humane death, and I can say that based on his description, at least a number of dogs did not have a humane death. His descriptions of using a shotgun, blowing off half of the dog’s head while it ran off, a dog crawling out of a mass grave, it just made me shudder,” Moriarty said.

Meanwhile the local police and SPCA are continuing their investigations into this most heinous crime.

The chief complaints are from those citizens who have been attacked by off leash dogs. There are incidences where smaller dogs being walked on leash are brutally attacked by larger off leash dogs. Joggers have complained about being bitten or chased by similar dogs.

It seems that the local bylaw enforcement officers are not doing their work properly. The guilty dog owners have come up with a number of lame excuses like “he pulls too hard”, or “he needs to go faster than I can actually run “, etc.

This blatant disregard for leash bylaws if left unheeded, will result in a serious injury, and if that happens its very likely that some crafty lawyer will get involved and lawsuits could abound!

The Presidential First Dog’s Bowl

You have to had it to the Europeans -they have class.  This dog bowl for instance is just exquisite and made from fine porcelain of the best quality -not Chinese cheap made of lead.  No no…not so.  The Presidents First Dog bowl is fired 4 times and hard kilned made from Czech raw production materials.

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The second and third most common causes were jumping and falling, respectively, making up collectively another 40 percent of fracture claims. These claims most often involved pets jumping or falling from couches, beds or the laps of their owners.

The remaining 20 percent of fracture claims included those in which pets ran into stationary objects, fought with other pets, got caught in a tight space or were unintentionally struck with moving objects.

Breaks to the humerus, femur, radius, ulna and tibia made up most of the fracture claims in 2008. The most common treatment of these breaks, surgical implantation of an orthopedic plate, had an average submitted claim fee of $1,500.

“Broken bones are painful for pets and costly for pet owners,” said Carol McConnell, vice president and chief veterinary medical officer for VPI. “Injury prevention includes careful management of a pet’s environment by removing possible threats and eliminating situations that might put a pet at risk. To prevent pet accidents or injuries caused by moving vehicles, pets should be kept on a leash at all times while away from home. If a pet has a tendency to bolt out the door and into the street, the pet should be desensitized to open doors or restricted to a safe area by a fence or baby gate.

MyPAWSBtnFor years pet owners fretted about traveling with pets on airplanes when they get put into a cage and into the cargo compartment where the temperatures can be very cold since the cargo area is not heated. Many pets have made traumatic trips in the past but now with Pet Airlines -it is a whole new world in pet travel.

Have you ever seen a pet dog in their traveling crate go around and around in the luggage carousel waiting to be picked up by their owners who are probably waiting at the other end of the airport? The CEO and President of Pet Airways is David Wiesel and he says “ you see on Pet Airways, your pets aren’t packages, they are pawsengers.”

Pets that travel on the other commercial airlines are often traumatized for life from the experience and can have a heart attack or die but pet owners have not had any choices with how their pets are handled. If we were to track a pet on a regular commercial airline especially when they are handled like baggage-not many pet owners would want to repeat the experience.

The service starts with you dropping off your pet at the Pet Lounge and they get taken to the pet washroom before takeoff for one last washroom break. Each pet gets a pet attendant for the flight and you can track your pet’s progress on the Pet Tracker which is an online tracking system of the flight.

The first flight takes off on July 14th for the big Pet Airlines takeoff where all pets will travel in the body of the plane -not the cargo area. Currently flight schedules are:

New York to Chicago, New York to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Chicago,

The company based in Florida has scheduled flights from New York to and from Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver or Washington D.C. Now the FAA leave the pet travel to the airlines and their rules are that your pet -container and all must fit under a seat, which is not a very big space.

The other Airlines will only accept one or two pets per flight and if they are booked for the flight you want -your out of luck and your pet stays home. Not very pet friendly are they and certainly not very comfortable even for small pets and you can’t bring a large dog like a Golden or a German Sheppard.

The SPCA of San Francisco found that there were 2 million animals transported by the airlines each year that 5,000 of them are seriously injured. Most animals die of suffocation, overheated or overly cold cargo areas with poor ventilation. In some cases if the pet is near a motor as was the case with one airline-the animal got burnt.

The other problem is that veterinarians tell you to give your dog a sedative for the duration of the trip and that in itself can be harmful. With Pet Airways your pet has an attendant to take care of it and keep it occupied for the trip instead of no one looking after it.

Your pet will be offered food and drink for the trip depending on the length of the trip.

Results of an Associated Press poll show that half of all American pet owners view their pets as part of their family.

The majority of us would do anything for another family member, and more often than not this devotion will bubble over when it comes to our pets.

Too often examples of how much a pet means to a family are exhibited, the most common example of which would probably have to be the vet office.

As a whole, we spend millions on veterinary care each and every year, now if we didn’t love our pets as much as we do would we spend that kind of money?

In addition, 36% of poll respondants considered their pets part of their family, but not fully. Does this mean that a pet owner falling into this category would not pay a big vet bill to save their pet’s life?