Nutritional Content Of Commercial Dog Foods}

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Submitted by: Brigitte Smith

Did you know that most food that is fed to dogs today has extremely low nutritional content? If you feed your dog commercial dog food, you may be slowly killing your dog. Perhaps you think this is a little dramatic? Think again. If humans are fed a diet of unhealthy foods, they probably won’t show any adverse signs for quite some time. But fed over many years, people will become sluggish, sick, and eventually die from degenerative diseases much earlier than they would otherwise pass from this life.

The same goes for dogs.

All commercial dog food which is extruded (cooked) at very high temperatures cannot be anything but bad for our dogs, whose natural diet in the wild is mainly fresh, raw meat. Even after dogs became domesticated, and then kept as pets, for decades they were fed home cooked food and table scraps, before anyone thought of commercialising dog food and selling cans of mush, or pieces of highly questionable biscuit-looking food called “kibble”.

Dogs used to live longer than they do now.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnZSTkycovg[/youtube]

Examine baked and kibbled foods for the presence of burned spots on the biscuits. The presence of large numbers of burned biscuits indicates that the food has been cooked at such high temperatures that the nutritients are likely to be almost non-existent.

On the other hand, if dry products are damp, soft or stale, it means that they have been improperly processed, become damp in transit, become damp during storage, or that they are old.

Dry products that become damp quickly deteriorate from the action of mold and eventually bacteria. Sometimes the only indication that mold is beginning to attack a dry food is the musty odor smelled when a bag is opened. At other times it may be seen as a white, hairy beard or a bluish-green or black velvety coating over the food. Any food found to be moldy should be destroyed immediately and never fed to dogs.

Does any of this sound like food you would eat yourself???

If not, then even though it’s labelled as “dog food” and could possibly have some form of nutritional content (if you’re lucky), why feed such substandard rubbish to your dog? It really can be harmful over the long term. Why else do you think so many dogs suffer from degenerative diseases like heart disease, cancer, kidney failure, and more? These diseases were previously unknown in companion animals. Now they’re commonplace. And the increase in incidence of these degenerative diseases in dogs and other animals has occurred in direct proportion to the practise of giving pets raw food or table scraps, to giving them commercial pet food.

The answer?

Feed your dog a raw, or primarily raw, fresh food diet. The large part of the food should, of course, be meat. If you’re not a fan of raw food, then by all means give your dog home cooked food, made from premium ingredients which you would use for your own food. Of course, you can give your dog all the fat and offcuts from the meat that you don’t want. Dogs need some fat (unlike us!)

And if you really need the convenience of a pre-prepared dog food, then go for a top quality dog food – NOT one of the commercial brands found on your supermarket, or even pet store shelves. Even many vets have no idea about correct animal nutrition, believe it or not, and promote commercial dog foods that are peddled to them as “premium” food, when they’re nothing of the kind.

How do you know what a superior quality dog food is? Check for both the ingredients and the method of cooking. The ingredients should be primarily meat – not meat byproducts, a small proportion only of grains of all types, and preferably some fresh vegetables, fruit or herbs. As for the cooking method – the lower the heat, the better. Don’t go for anything that has been extruded (which is most kibble), or canned at high temperatures. If the method of cooking is not stated, then make further enquiries of the manufacturer, or go for one that does state the cooking method – freeze dried or baked are acceptable.

About the Author: Brigitte Smith is a dog lover.

Commercial dog food

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Firefighters rescue nearly a dozen animals in Buffalo, New York house fire

Friday, June 22, 2007

Buffalo, New York — A three alarm fire at a house owned by John and Evelyn Bencinich, two of the initiators of a lawsuit filed against the Elmwood Village Hotel proposal in Buffalo, required firefighters to rescue eight cats and two dogs in Buffalo, New York today.

At about 8:30 (eastern time) firefighters were called to the home on 48 Granger Place to put out a fire that had started in the basement. It quickly spread to the first floor where the main bathroom was destroyed. The fire did not spread to the second floor or attic.

Initial calls said that many animals were inside the house and firefighters quickly worked to rescue all the cats and dogs. At least one cat and one dog had to receive CPR and oxygen, but both are reported to be in stable condition. At least 3 cats are unaccounted for, but after a search of the house, the cats were not believed to have been inside at the time the fire started.

One elderly woman, Anna Bencinich, the mother of Evelyn, was rescued by neighbors who helped her from the burning house.

“There was smoke all over the house. The fire started in the basement and spread to a small portion of the first floor. Two firefighters were injured while fighting the fire and were transported to Erie County Medical Center,” said Division Fire Chief Thomas Ashe who also said that sections of the kitchen wall at the back of the house had to be torn out to stop the fire from spreading through the walls.

One firefighter is being treated for bite injuries to his face that he received while attempting to rescue a dog. The other firefighter was treated for injuries he received to his hand, which was believed to have been caused by glass or a cat scratching him. The names of the injured firefighters are not known. The injuries are said to not be life threatening.

According to witness reports, the home owners had a new water heater installed just last week, but it is not known if the fire was caused by the heater.

“We believe the fire was caused by an electrical (malfunction). An investigation is being conducted,” said Battalion Chief Joe Fahey who also added that they did not believe arson was the cause.

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“Woofstock” dog festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

North America’s largest outdoor dog festival came back to Toronto last weekend for its fifth year. It ran from the 9th of June to the 10th of June at Toronto’s historical St. Lawrence Market. A Wikinews reporter was there on Sunday to report on some of the events that happened on the last day.

The “Woofstock” dog festival attracted as many as 140,000 people with their dogs. The festival had tons of accessories, sold under tents, to buy for dogs; food, toys, designer clothes, and more. About 400 vendors and exhibitors were there to promote their products, which also gave private dog companies or groups a chance to show their new products. The local SPCA and some animal rescues were under tents answering questions from visitors. While walking, all visitors could see the CN Tower and other very tall buildings.

One of the local TV stations, Citytv, was there. They hosted a live event at the show which was broadcast on TV. People came up on the stage and asked questions regarding their dogs and the host and co-host answered them.

A man, who called himself the “Chalk Master”, drew two pictures on pavement with chalk. He did it for free but donations were welcome. One was a picture of a girl’s head beside a dog’s head, and another with a wolf.

“Hello Humans. I’ve been invited here to provide your eyeball(s), with some pretty colours. I don’t get paid as I work this weekend strictly for tips… so, if you like what you see please make a DONATION. If you don’t like it simply reach into the pocket of the person next to you and give me their money. CHALK MASTER.”

A contest called “Canada’s top dog” had its own tent with a professional photographer taking pictures of dogs behind a white screen; the winning photo is to be published on the cover of “Puppy and dog basics” magazine.

Large “Gourmet” dog bones were also served from a cart and table.

Next year’s festival is expected to be bigger and better with even more attractions.

Major snowstorm hits midwestern United States

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

A major winter storm is dropping snow, ice, and freezing rain across the Midwestern United States.

Over 12 inches (30cm) of snow is expected in parts of Ohio and Indiana. Along the Ohio River, freezing rain and sleet is expected to make driving hazardous. The precipitation is forecast to continue through the evening Tuesday and into early Wednesday morning, before moving out towards the East Coast.

Blizzard warnings have been issued for much of Northwest Ohio and Northern Indiana, with very cold temperatures, considerable snowfall, and blowing and drifting snow.

Many flights have been canceled or delayed at Port Columbus International Airport, especially those destined for other cities in the midwest.

Schools have been canceled, and some businesses are sending employees home early. The Ohio State University, University of Cincinnati and many other colleges decided to cancel classes, sending home all non-essential staff.

Haze in South East Asia worsens

Friday, October 6, 2006

The acrid haze situation in Southeast Asia is worsening. Visibility has been severely reduced in neighboring countries and some schools have been closed due to the health hazard posed. The annual smoke season is caused by illegal slash and burn clearance of land in Indonesia, particularly the island of Borneo.

The haze has spread over 2,250 miles (3,600 kilometers) into neighboring countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and even drifting to Guam in the western Pacific.

Aviation has been severely impaired in Indonesia, where in certain areas, visibility is only a mere 200 to 300 meters. Helicopter service in Malaysia’s Sarawak state, a key mode of transportation there, has been halted due to the poor visibility. A Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200 carrying a 110 people had overshot the runway at Tarakan airport in Kalimantan province in Indonesia. The aircraft came partly to rest in a nearby swamp. Visibility at the time was around 400 meters, 600 meters short of Indonesian landing safety regulations.

Schools in Thailand, and Indonesia have also been forced to closed, and look likely to stay closed well into next week.

Air pollution indices around the region have also registered a spike in poor air quality. Sarawak state’s index came in at 106-188 with 100-200 being unhealthy. In Malay peninsula, the air pollution index in five states came in at 101-116. In Singapore, the Pollution Standards Index registered between 80-130 with 81-100 in the moderate range and 101-200 in the unhealthy range.

This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.
This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.

Wikinews journalist Timlee90 reports:

The air quality here in Singapore is so bad that I could feel the dust in my mouth as I was walking on the streets today. The air constantly smells of burning wood and visibility is never more than a kilometer. Singaporeans I know are concerned about the deteriorating situation.

Timothy Low, a Singaporean who’s just finished his national service says that he is concerned about the situation, “I can’t run to exercise. People with lung related problems have difficulty breathing; It causes tearing also.” The government here has advised citizens to reduce vigorous activity, especially those with existing heart or lung conditions.

The Indonesian government has been criticized by environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace, which claims that the allowed conversion of forests into cropland is the cause of the problem. The also call on the Indonesian government to “investigate and hold liable plantation companies responsible for slash and burn clearing”.

The Indonesian government has responded to the criticism that it is doing all that it can do. “We don’t know when we can put out the fires but we are working tirelessly and have spent billions of rupiah (hundreds of thousands of dollars) in our efforts,” Forestry Minister Malem Sambat Kaban said. “As for complaints from neighbouring countries, there’s nothing else we can do. We don’t cause the fires deliberately.”

In 1997-98, the haze cost the Southeast Asian region an estimated US$9.0 billion by disrupting air travel and other business activities

Ten Tips On Choosing Your Irish Driving Instructor}

Submitted by: Robin Piggott

First of all lets examine why you would need a Driving Instructor in order to learn how to drive. Sure everyone needs a teacher, advisor or instructor, dont they, when facing up to a new challenge? Or do they? Which comes first, the Chicken or the Egg?

Would you go out and Order an expensive Steinway Piano, never having played a note? Would you go to your local swimming pool and jump in the deep end if you had never been in the water before?

Would you ring up your local light Aircraft Company and order a Cessna for next day delivery and ask them to have it tanked up and ready to go?

How about booking a two week scuba Diving holiday in the Aegean when all your experience to date is a deck chair on the beach at Torremolinos?

All of the above scenarios are about as inconceivable as you can possibly imagine; yet thousands of Irish learner Drivers are doing the equivalent every day of the week. Why so? Well it is a combination of the previously lax laws and now that we do actually have some legislation heading us in roughly the right direction, the inability of the Garda to enforce them .Yes we have had a good deal of changes to our system of Driving Tests and Licensing recently but Mandatory tuition has yet to be enacted. When it is introduced, hopefully we will be on the slow uphill climb to some degree of motoring competence instead of the current Motoring mayhem which we currently enjoy.

Lets now have a look at the type of Instructor you should be looking for.

1. Look through the Golden Pages and try to make a short list of those Driving Schools with a Web Site. You could of course, do a quick search on Google using various search terms. A School with a web site is one who takes their profession seriously and who will provide quite a lot of free, but invaluable information .Do not regard a web site as purely a smart way of attracting more pupils. Look at it as a way of getting some valuable info, together with an inside peek at who the Instructor might be, and how he or she does business.

2. Look for a school with qualified Instructors. Now in Ireland at present, but not for long, anyone can call themselves a qualified Instructor, never having so much as looked at an advanced Driving Course or taken any Examinations. We have The Driving Instructor Register here which has been examining Driving Tutors on a voluntary basis since 1996 .A good number of Driving Instructors have passed these exams and will be able to impart an advanced level of tuition.

3. Dont just ring up a Driving School and with your first sentence ask what prices are your lessons. You are perfectly entitled to query prices, which will be very much the same from all established Schools. Schools that have not been established for long or who are desperate for business will be sometimes somewhat cheaper. Any one that is substantially less than the bunch should be avoided since this is not a profession that is cheap to run and today you get what you pay for .Cheap lessons are exactly that!

4. Ask the age of the Instructor and how long they have been driving. European Driving School standards require that an Instructor must have been driving on a full licence for at least three if not four years. Frankly, anyone with less than ten years driving experience will not have the necessary skills to be a worthwhile choice in my view .We are talking here about teaching pupils skills for life and not a half-hearted few lessons prior to the Driving Test, which sadly seems to be a favourite choice of a good many Irish learner Drivers.

5. Ask what make and model the Driving School car is. There are many models in use by Driving Schools and of course all Instructors tend to have their own particular favourites. Diesel models are extremely economical for the Instructor who lives in the country and who does a lot of mileage. Diesel models are on the increase due to their improved performance over past years and their economy. They also hold their value well and while a little more expensive to maintain they go on for ever if looked after.

6. Ask the Instructor whether or not country road and high speed carriageway Driving are include in the Teaching Syllabus. These form a large part of your every day driving in Ireland and are very important skills to have right from the start. Ask yourself the question…are you going to be spending the bulk of your driving career, driving around your local area or into town and back; or are you going to be visiting the Coast, going on Holiday to the far reaches of the country or even Dublin. Of course you are; after all isnt this why you are buying a car in the first place? If you are only concerned with transporting yourself within your local area its much cheaper, believe me, to hire a Taxi!

7. Ask your proposed Instructor does she or he give Motorway Tuition. While we dont have the same level of Motorways here in Ireland, as in the U.K or Europe, we do have stretches between major cities and particularly in the Dublin area and of course over the coming years there will be many more miles of Motorway I am sure. These marvels of Engineering require a higher degree of skill and lots of practise in your car before one can safely negotiate Dublin or abroad. This is why Learner Drivers are not permitted on Motorways. We are lucky here in Limerick, in that we have a new ring road carriageway, spanning about 20 miles which is identical in layout and signage to a Motorway apart from the speed limit and the colour of said signs. Perfect for legal high speed Motorway style practise within five minutes or so drive from most parts of the City.

8. Most Driving Schools will usually book lessons at least a week ahead, so dont expect to ring up and get a lesson that day or even the next. Occasionally if you are lucky, and the School has a vacant slot they will take you but its the exception rather than the rule. If the School cant take you for a week be patient it will be well worth the wait.

9. A good Driving Instructor will ask you for a fair bit of information on the phone in order to gauge your level of skill. He or she will ask questions that may not seem relevant, when all you, as a pupil want to do is to get behind the wheel .Believe me they will be; they will all be designed to build up your driver profile and should not be construed as being nosy!

10. A Professional Instructor will take with a pinch of salt your efforts at explaining just how well you can drive and how you only need a bit of practise here and there at reversing or hill starts. Dont be defensive, you are about to learn one of the most important life building and life saving skills. A good Instructor will not venture out in your own car, if you already have one, until he or she has seen your capabilities or you have described in great detail your experience. eg. one years driving and getting ready to sit the Driving Test.

This is the first in a series of Ten Tips to better and safer Driving.

About the Author: Robin Piggott has spent a lifetime behind the wheel and is passionate about his Profession (and many other pursuits as well).The next generation of Drivers needs to develop a passion for excellence if they are to stay safe and arrive alive! Visit the Astral Driving School web site.

astralmotoring.ie

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“PGR4” pre-launch in Taiwan: TOP Drivers’ Derby

Saturday, September 29, 2007

After the launch of “Halo 3” on Tuesday (September 25), Microsoft promoted a brand new Xbox360 racing game “Project Gotham Racing 4” (PGR4) with a friendship match as a “TOP on TOP” competition between Taiwanese World Cyber Games (WCG) PGR3 Delegate You-cheng Liu and “Drift Master of Taiwan” Po-hsiung Chou at YAMAHA MotorTown in Taipei City, Taiwan.

Before the friendship match, Cary Chen (Senior Product Marketing Manager of Entertainment and Device Division, Microsoft Taiwan) show the new features on PGR4 to the press, VIPs, and guests and praised the “PGR” game series with the “Kudos” skill points. He remarked that in the “PGR4”, not only joined new car type and racing motorcycles, but also add Dynamic Weather System feature for the performance of new different type experiences on weathers, driving, and racing lane.

Chen also remarked that PGR series is surely respected because of the racing game competition factor on WCG from 2006. This “PGR” series can realize lots of dreams of players on making some special skills which can’t be done on reality. With the Xbox Live linking, PGR series has successfully made a great achievement.

After the presentation and demos, Microsoft Taiwan held a friendship match. Before the match, Y. C. Liu welcomed P. H. Chou with Chou drove a BMW car to the main entrance. After the entrance, the match started. With the witnesses of VIPs, press, and players, Liu won the friendship match by the turning fault of Chou. Even though Chou wanted to invite Live as a racer in reality after the match, but Liu temporarily declined with his consideration.

Microsoft Taiwan announced that the Chinese Version of “PGR4” will be available on October 5, and welcomed players competing with “I want ‘PGR4’ Helmet!” photo competition. And also, “Yamaha PGR4 Cup – Taiwan Driving Master Championship” will be held and set qualification section in October and final section in December of Information Month in Taipei.

Wikinews interviews Kristian Hanson, producer-director of indie horror film ‘Sledge’

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Just days away from Halloween, Wikinews interviewed Kristian Hanson, producer-director of independent slasher film Sledge. The film has been a recent source of discussion in horror fan circles, primarily due to its production budget of only US$800. Sledge is Hanson’s fourth film to direct, according to Internet Movie Database.

New Zealand policeman charged with drunk driving

Thursday, August 3, 2006

Taranaki, New Zealand policeman, Constable Jonathan Erwood, has been charged with drunk driving after responding to a double fatality emergency call on July 9, his day off. He had been giving the driver first aid and then after 20 minutes at the scene another police officer turned up and breathalysed him.

He was then taken to the police station and undertook an elected blood test, which he failed. The limit is 80-milligrams per 100-millilitres and Erwood had 106-milligrams of alcohol per 100-millilitres.

The crash was between Taranaki and Waikato, which is on State Highway 3. He appeared in court today and entered no plea to the charges laid against him.

Supporters of Erwood said he had no choice but to go to the scene of the crash.

Greg O’Conner, Police Association President, said that he does not condone drink driving, but these are exceptional circumstances, adding “The association will be actively advocating that the officer should keep his job.”