Rare leatherback sea turtle rescued off South Carolina coastal beach

A rare leatherback sea turtle, nicknamed Yawkey and weighing an estimated 500 lbs, was being treated at the South Carolina Aquarium on Monday after being rescued on a remote coastal beach – the first leatherback known to have been stranded alive in South Carolina.
The turtle was spotted on Saturday on a beach on the Yawkey-South Island Reserve in Georgetown County and brought to the aquarium.
Leatherbacks, an endangered species, are the largest sea turtles and one of the world’s largest reptiles. Adults generally can weigh 800 to 1,000 lbs although some have been reported as large as 2,000 lbs .
They get their name because, instead of a shell, their backs are covered with leathery, oily tissue.
It’s the first leatherback to be treated at the aquarium, said Kelly Thorvalson, program manager for the aquarium sea turtle rescue program. During the past 15 years the aquarium has treated and released more than 150 sea turtles.
Thorvalson said Yawkey’s weight is just an estimate because the aquarium scale was not large enough to weigh it.
The turtle has low blood sugar and is being treated with fluids and antibiotics.
Thorvalson said it’s possible Yawkey may have eaten marine debris such as plastic which can appear to a turtle to be jellyfish, their favorite food. Eating plastic could cause a buildup of gas in the digestive tract, making the turtle buoyant and washing it to shore.
The aquarium hopes to release the turtle as soon as possible because leatherbacks don’t do well in captivity. Since they live in the deep ocean they don’t sense boundaries so they tend to swim into the sides of tanks and bruise.
Leatherbacks migrate offshore of South Carolina
“We have seen them stranded and dead,” Thorvalson said. “It’s not that they never wash up. It’s just that we have never had one wash up alive.”
She expects Yawkey to be able to get back to the ocean quickly.
“Sea turtles are tough. They are really tough animals,” she said. “This turtle is in good enough condition that we can give it a good head start and release it. I do feel good about its prognosis.”

Crufts mystery: dog world asks whodunnit over death of Irish Setter

In its 123-year history, Crufts has attracted a few controversies, from arguments over eugenics to rumours of dog-nobbling by slipping laxatives into food or chewing gum into the fur of a prettily primped rival.
Things may have taken a more sinister turn this year, however, after police were called in over the death of an Irish Setter who competed at the show, after claims it was poisoned.
Three-year-old Thendara Satisfaction, known as Jagger, collapsed at his home in Belgium on Friday, the day after showing at the NEC in Birmingham. According to his owners, a postmortem examination revealed that beef cubes in Jagger’s stomach were the source of the poison.
Dee Milligan-Bott, a dog breeder for 30 years, told the Guardian that she and Jagger’s co-owner, Alexandra Lauwers, were devastated, and the suspicion was that the poison could have been administered while the dog was left alone on the bench at Crufts while their other dogs were being judged.
As the Kennel Club pledged to co-operate with any Belgian police investigation, breeders and owners were horrified as news of the death swept through the halls and arena at the NEC on the final day of the world-famous show.
Although the highly competitive world of dog-showing is no stranger to claims of skullduggery, a whodunnit of such magnitude was off the scale.
Underhand tactics, such as deliberately placing a bitch on heat near a male to distract him, or the subversive snipping at a competitor’s coiffure, are said to be employed as breeders battle for the prestigious Crufts’ rosettes.

Now, some wondered, whether the dog world truly could have plummeted to such depths.
“It does make you think. Jealousy comes into it. The stakes are very high. If you have got a winning dog, people would become jealous,” said Daniel Marsden, co-owner of Ozmilion, a Yorkshire Terrier, who won a reserve CC (challenge certificate) for best dog.
On the bench next to him, lovingly brushing the fringe of her Yorkshire Terrier, Andelalie, who won the yearling class, Angela Wiegand, from Airdrie, agreed. “It’s terrible to think anyone could got to lengths like that. It’s got to a stage where you’re frightened to go away and leave your dog for more than a few seconds.”
A postmortem examination has been done, indicating poisoning, but a full toxicology report is awaited. Jagger was one of several dogs taken to Crufts by the two women and took one CC and was second in limit. Milligan-Bott, from Leicestershire, said: “[The Lauwers] got home on Friday night and the dog was ill … By the time the vet got there he was dead.
“The vet did an immediate autopsy because the death was very suspicious. It was found the dog had beef cubes in his stomach that had been poisoned. The only day the dog had been left alone all week was … on the bench at Crufts while the judging of our other dogs was taking place.”
Earlier Milligan-Bott had told Dog World that the dogs were benched together, but changed places after one became agitated by being near a bitch in season. Noodle, Jagger’s half-brother, won best in breed and there was speculation he might have been the intended target. She told Dog World she felt she would be unable to continue showing. “It is turning into such a nasty sport,” she said.
But, she stressed to the Guardian, she did could only imagine “some awful random person” had done it and did not want to believe it to be the work of another dog owner.
Caroline Kisko, secretary of the Kennel Club, said it would co-operate with any investigation by Belgian police, and CCTV from the NEC would be provided if requested. She had spoken to both owners to express the club’s sympathies. “We are extremely upset to hear that the dog died,” she said.
But, she added: “I will just point out that it was 26 hours after leaving Crufts, from what we understand from talking to the owner.”
The Kennel Club was keen for their vet to talk to the vet in Belgium, but had been told this was not possible until the results of the toxicology report were released. She added that it was “largely speculative until we have got that report”.
A spokesman for the Kennel Club said they could think of no previous allegations of poisoning at Crufts.
Meanwhile, amid the pampering, brushing and blowdrying on the dog benches, paranoid owners were taking no chances.
“If it turns out to be true, then things have gone too far,” said Sue Smith, from Chatsworth, Derbyshire, whose nine-month-old Pomeranian won first in class. Smith, who has entered dogs in Crufts for 30 years, said: “I take no chances. I am just wary. I don’t trust anybody.”
Avril Cawthera-Purdy, from Gloucestershire, last year’s top Pomeranian breeder, said: “I’ve been showing for 40 years and its hugely competitive. But I would not believe that somebody involved in this would be that malicious. We are all considered to be dog lovers and at the end of the day you take home your pets and love them, whether they won or lost.
“I never let my dogs out of my sight.”
Had she ever experienced any problems? “Once, I had one dog that was given a hallucinatory drug 20 years ago. It wasn’t at Crufts, and it took her out of that show.
“We don’t know how. We can’t prove anything, We can’t say. But, that was just one incident, in 40 years,” she said.

Lovable and Fun Monkey

Due to Belize's slow development major habitat loss is not much of an issue. Actually one issue to the destruction of habitat is from nature itself as hurricanes are known to damage the rainforest canopy and put the monkeys in danger, though major hurricanes are fairly infrequent. Howler Monkeys do not make good pets. It has been said that Howler Monkeys are the only Central American monkey to have never been kept in captivity by Native Americans.

She had a huge bite wound at her throat and it was very unpleasant looking and smelling. I wiped it clean and the fur came away leaving a hole in her skin about the size of a quarter. I did surrogate EFT on her for several days to aid the healing and the hole closed up with no problems and no vet visits.

There are little bees, and frogs and lobsters and of course doggies and kitties. It continues to amaze me just how many wonderful adorable Baby Halloween costumes are available at such affordable prices. One includes a soft plush brown body with a yellow stuffed belly that looks precious on a baby. The little monkey tail is enough to melt your heart. It has a furry trim, a matching brown hood topped with the cutest little round monkey ears.

This is one of the infant baby bunting costumes for sizes 0 to 6 months. You and your family will have a barrel of fun seeing baby in this cherry red bunting with barrel style bottom and a detachable character hood. This is an officially licensed Barrel of Monkeys product. Well there is a Sock Monkey infant costume which includes a bodysuit with a snap closure pant and attached boot covers. The tail is also detachable. A matching hood completes this costume.

Blue’s Lee Ryan says ‘I had a dream’ – and sparks a million feline nightmares

Lost in Showbiz doesn’t mind admitting that it has recently felt bereft, oddly incomplete, nagged day and night by the suggestion that something was missing from its life. It feels free to confess this to you because it suspects that you have felt the same way too, and that we all know full well what the problem is. We’ve been pining for Lee Ryan, absent from public life since his appearance last year on Celebrity Big Brother. Even that offered a relatively subdued performance from pop’s leading seer and savant, overshadowed by the admittedly diverting sight of seeing Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones being handcuffed to Dappy from N-Dubz. While resident in the CBB house, Ryan offered no news as to what had happened to the “revelation of spirit” he previously predicted being visited upon the human race around the time of Blue’s appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest: “People and their minds are going to change. I don’t think the end of the world is the end of the world. I think there’s a spiritual evolution coming. You can feel it.”

Well, pine no more. Ryan is back, announcing his reappearance in inimitable style via an interview in Heat magazine. Regretfully, there’s little in the way of his trademark philosophising: no mention of the revelation of spirit, no suggestion the government is trying to prevent him from sharing vital information about aliens with us. Yet, even without that, still offers much thought-provoking material, not least the moment when he answers a question about recent dreams. “I had a dream a cat came on to me, and I had a sexual relationship with a cat,” he offers. “That was a weird one. Not that I’m into fiddling with animals or anything,” he adds, presumably lest he receive a knock on the door from a kind of zoophile wing of Operation Yewtree – Operation Mew-Tree, if you will. “But it was really weird, because this cat was really seductive, coming on to me.” Happily, he offers further clarification of the dream-cat’s unique brand of seduction entailed: “It was purring and shit.”
There, sadly, he draws a discreet veil: no mention of what happened when he finally succumbed and yielded his all to the nonexistent feline temptress. Nevertheless, LiS feels obliged to turn to Ryan in salutation and say: thank God you’re back, all is right with the world once more. Then it turns gratefully back to the interview and reads him completing the sentence “People don’t expect me to …” with the words “… be intelligent.”

Why Japan prefers pets to parenthood

Some of Japan's pampered pet dogs. Photograph: Alamy

In a smart and expensive neighbourhood of Tokyo, Toshiko Horikoshi relaxes by playing her grand piano. She's a successful eye surgeon, with a private clinic, a stylish apartment, a Porsche and two pet pooches: Tinkerbell, a chihuahua, and Ginger, a poodle. "Japanese dog owners think a dog is like a child," says Horikoshi. "I have no children, so I really love my two dogs."
Many Japanese women like Horikoshi prefer pets to parenthood. Startlingly, in a country panicking over its plummeting birthrate, there are now many more pets than children. While the birthrate has been falling dramatically and the average age of Japan's population has been steadily climbing, Japan has become a pet superpower. Official estimates put the pet population at 22 million or more, but there are only 16.6 million children under 15.
Tinkerbell and Ginger have their own room and a wardrobe full of designer clothes. They have jumpers, dresses, coats and fancy dress outfits, neatly hung on jewelled hangers; hats, sunglasses and even tiny shoes. Horikoshi says she shops for her dogs most weekends and they get new clothes each season.
In Japan designer labels such as Chanel, Dior, Hermès and Gucci offer luxury dog products. This canine couture doesn't come cheap. A poodle pullover can cost $250 (around £160) or more. In many parts of Tokyo, it is easier to buy clothes for dogs than for children. Boutiques sell everything from frilly frocks to designer jeans, from nappies to organic nibbles, and smart "doggie bags" and buggies or pushchairs to transport them in.
Japan has arguably the world's most pampered pooches. Tiny lapdogs such as miniature dachshunds, poodles and chihuahuas are particularly popular because most people in Tokyo – one of the most densely populated cities in the world – live in small apartments. And there's a growing market in services and treats for pets.
The pet industry is estimated to be worth more than ¥1tn a year (around £8.2bn) and has expanded into gourmet dog food stores, hot spring resorts, yoga classes and restaurants where dogs sit on chairs to eat organic meals.
In his one-room flat in a Tokyo suburb, Jiro Akiba feeds treats to his dog Kotaro, a miniature dachshund, weighing only 3.4kg. His name means "first-born son". "He's like a first baby for us, so that's why we decided to call him Kotaro," says Akiba. "It's good to have a dog if you don't have a baby, because it is quite fun to take care of him like a baby."
Dog nappies on sale in Japan. Photograph: Ruth Evans Akiba, a cameraman, would have liked children, but his partner (a freelance editor) wants to keep working. "In Japanese society, it's really hard for women to have a baby and keep a job … so my girlfriend decided against having a baby, and that's why we have a dog instead." Akiba says he thinks this makes economic sense, given the cost of living in Tokyo, high taxes and static salaries following two decades of recession.
Despite the economic stagnation, people seem happy to spend any spare money on photo sessions, massages and treats for their four-legged "babies". The average fertility rate is now 1.39 children per woman – well below the number needed to keep the population stable. Japan has, in effect, a self-imposed one-child policy. Government projections show if current trends continue, today's population of 128 million will fall to 43 million over the next century.
"The most important reason for Japan's declining birthrate is less sex," says Dr Kunio Kitamara, director of Japan's Family Planning Research Centre. His annual surveys indicate that the nation's libido has been lagging in the last decade. The birthrate has declined, but fewer contraceptives are being used and there are fewer abortions and lower rate of sexually transmitted diseases. "Why?" asks Dr Kitamara: "Less sex!"
His research shows that almost half of married couples have sex less than one a month, and "young people dislike sexual intercourse". His latest data from 2010 showed that 32% of young men dislike sex because "they are afraid of failure and rejection by women." Sixty percent of women in their mid- to late 20s are single, and 70% of unmarried women don't have a boyfriend. In Japan marriage is still more or less a prerequisite for having children – only 2% of children are born outside wedlock.
One young man we spoke to had dressed his dog up in a white hoodie and jeans, shoes and sunglasses because, he said, he wanted his dog to look "cute, cool and tough". His proud owner said he hoped his dog's look might attract young women, but so far he hadn't met anyone to share his life with. "I wish I could meet someone like that," he said.
Economic stagnation has hit young men particularly hard. More than 10 million people aged between 20 and 34 still live with their parents. They can't afford to get married and start a family, but for the odd luxury or treats for their dogs, they can – and do – splash out.
Designer clothes for dogs. Photograph: Ruth Evans Smart buggies and designer doggie bags are essential for any self-respecting dog like Kotaro. "My dog really hates to go out with his feet," says Akiba. "Kotaro doesn't like walking at all."
For dogs in urgent need of exercise after a lifetime being pushed or carried around, there are spas and onsens (hot springs), which look identical to the ones for humans. For $100 (£65) a session, an attendant in a wetsuit will give Kotaro one-to-one swimming lessons, relaxing bubble baths, body massages using aromatherapy oils, deep-pore cleansing and mud packs, and even flossing or manicure services. Many dogs are "regulars" who come at least once a week – running up annual bills of $5,000 (£3,200) or more.
In Tokyo, it is easier for Horikoshi to find a canine daycare centre for Tinkerbell and Ginger than it would be to find a nursery place for a child. If Akiba and his partner decide to go on holiday, they can pay $100 a night to leave Kotaro in a dog hotel.
When the unthinkable happens, there are even temples where dead dogs are laid to rest with full Buddhist rites: a deluxe funeral and cremation ceremony can cost $8,000 (£5,000) or more. "I find these days people grieve more for their pets than for parents or grandparents," says a monk at a 1,000-year-old temple in a Tokyo suburb. "It is because pets are just like their child, so it is like losing a child."
Japan's population fell by a record number last year and in the wake of the earthquake and nuclear disasters, the National Institute of Population Research is expecting there to be a further decline in births this year, says deputy director Ryuichi Kaneko. "We realised that we are living in dangerous times," he says. "Many young people are even more hesitant to have children now."
Akiba says that although the government has tried to encourage young couples to have babies, many of the incentives, such as child benefit, are too inconsistent and subject to frequent political change. Japan's population has the longest life expectancy in the world, which – coupled with the falling birth rate – means a pensions timebomb looms. "We all – companies, the government, people young and old - need to think seriously about this problem," says Kaneko, "or Japan will have a very hard time."
One thing is certain: everything Japan has tried so far – introducing maternity leave, increasing child beneft, providing nursery places – has failed to arrest its demographic decline. Fresh thinking will be needed to persuade more Japanese people that in the long-term, man's best friend can be no substitute for man himself.

Little changes at Indy's understaffed, sometimes squalid animal shelter

For more than a decade, Indiana's largest animal shelter has failed to provide for the most basic needs of the 17,000 animals entrusted to its care each year.
From time to time, well-meaning people come together and try to fix the problems. Task forces are assembled. Studies are conducted. Solutions are found. But the city of Indianapolis has never implemented them.
A 2003 task force called for better medical care, more staffing and clearer euthanasia procedures at Animal Care and Control. A report commissioned this year by the Department of Public Safety found that little has changed.
The lone veterinarian position has been vacant since March, and because of a shortage of staff, decisions to kill a wounded animal are routinely made without even a basic medical workup. To meet bare minimum standards, the study found, the kennel staff needs to double.
Conditions have become so dire that the report's authors suggest the shelter may even be in violation of the city's own animal cruelty ordinances.
An Indianapolis Star review found that Indianapolis Animal Care and Control is dramatically understaffed compared with similar facilities in the region. And despite broad agreement that improvements are needed, efforts to make them have repeatedly fallen apart when it comes time to pay for them.
Administration officials and some City-County Council members blame the problems on budget constraints in a city that has seen revenue plummet because of property tax caps and the national recession.
But animal welfare groups and others on the council say that explanation obscures the true culprit. A city that spends more than $350 million a year on public safety, they say, has never made animal care a priority.
"We've known this since at least 2000," said Sue Hobbs, chair of an advisory board that oversees Animal Care and Control. "There have been committees and studies and panels, and nothing ever changes. It just doesn't. It's seriously like Groundhog's Day."
'How ironic it is'
The shelter at 2600 S. Harding St. is required by law to take unwanted, abused and neglected animals, as well as strays.
At any given time, the shelter's 12 animal care technicians tend to the needs of 500-plus animals. Forget about walking the dogs — the latest study shows the shelter needs twice that number just to tend to basic needs, such as feeding them and cleaning cages, according to minimum standards established by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians.
Each cage receives a full scrub once a day — often using bleach and rags that volunteers bring from home. Later, there's a follow-up visit to scoop poop before the employees leave for the day at 6:30 p.m. Overnight, the animals are left unsupervised, and it shows the next morning.
During an 11 a.m. weekday visit by The Indianapolis Star, several dog cages remained littered with feces from overnight, and urine had pooled in one of the aisles. The shelter smelled about like what you would expect.
Animal welfare advocates describe the staff as caring and hardworking but overwhelmed.
They've been leaderless since April, when Dan Shackle became the 10th director in 12 years to resign. The only full-time veterinarian in the shelter's recent history moved out of state in March, and a replacement hasn't been found.
To make ends meet, Animal Care and Control relies heavily on volunteers, who are on pace to log 19,477 hours this year. That's roughly the workload of nine full-time employees.
Without them, Hobbs said, "laundry wouldn't get done, cat litter pans wouldn't get washed, dogs wouldn't get walked, adoption events wouldn't get staffed. It would be a debacle, basically."
Other government-run shelters in the region are better equipped, particularly on the medical side. Louisville, Ky., and the Franklin County shelter in Columbus, Ohio, employ a full-time veterinarian with a supporting medical staff of at least five employees. Indianapolis, which sheltered at least 5,000 more animals last year than either of them, doesn't budget for any veterinary technicians or assistants.
Among the regional cities surveyed, only Chicago had more animals per shelter employee in 2014 than Indianapolis. But Chicago still provides two full-time vets with a six-member veterinary staff.
But most damning in the recent report is the suggestion that conditions at the shelter may violate the city's own animal cruelty ordinances.
City code requires food "in adequate amounts to maintain good health." The city doesn't budget for food at all, instead relying on a hodgepodge of donations that veterinarians say is detrimental to the animals' well-being.
Additionally, "there's no budget for emergency care and this, the team members believe, is contrary to local laws on humane care," the report said. "With lack of budgeting for emergency medical care, IACC staff is forced to make euthanasia decisions without adequate diagnostic information, such as X-ray and bloodwork results."
The law requires animal owners to provide proper medical care and to segregate animals when they are sick to prevent the spread of disease. But the study, conducted this summer, found that poor sanitation and the lack of a quarantine area presented a high risk for disease. In October, a deadly viral outbreak killed two dozen cats before animal rescue groups took the remaining cats away to prevent its spread.
"The city is charged to investigate cruelty," said John Aleshire, CEO of the Humane Society of Indianapolis. "How ironic it is that we would bring an animal back to a shelter that is not properly staffed, that does not have proper medical care and (where) the staff has to scrounge around for food."
Funds limited
Valerie Washington, deputy director of the Department of Public Safety, which oversees Animal Care and Control, agrees that better care is needed.
The search for a new leader is ongoing, and she plans to convert the full-time vet position to a part-time one at the same salary in order to fill it. She hopes to add at least three vet techs to the budget, plus a $150,000 line item for food, she said. (For context, Louisville spent $579,000 on food last year.)
That is, of course, if additional funds come through. Washington, council members and animal welfare advocates are optimistic that the city will fund the recommendations incrementally beginning in 2015.
So what took so long? Opinions differ, but at least since the recession, revenue limitations surely played a role.
Marc Lotter, spokesman for Mayor Greg Ballard, said the city's total revenue is down $63 million from 2008 — and that's not adjusted for inflation.
"At the same time you have people saying you need to spend more money on Animal Care and Control, you have people saying you need to spend more money on potholes and you need to hire more police officers," Lotter said. "You have to balance all of those things."
Former shelter director Steve Talley recalled his own push to add five control officers and nine kennel staffers in 2009.
"We really fought for it, we tried to get it, and we had commitments from the director (of Public Safety), from the controller, but again, other things take place and 'you know what, we're gonna try to do it incrementally,' and we just never crossed the finish line," Talley said.
Now a city-county councilman, Talley, a Democrat, said he understands why funding never comes through. And, he insisted, it isn't that the shelter is being ignored.
If he gets $125,000 to add to the public safety budget, he said, "What am I gonna do? Which of those have a greater priority or impact on the quality of life of the citizens of Indianapolis? Naturally, the call is always made to provide for a police officer or a firefighter."
Washington, meanwhile, bristles at the idea that Public Safety hasn't made animal care a priority in her tenure. And she promises to follow through on at least some of the study's recommendations. She and Public Safety Director Troy Riggs have been there about two years, she said, and in that time, "none of our efficiency teams have had recommendations that just sit on the shelf."
The problem, she said, is that money isn't easy to find. The police and fire departments have numerous revenue streams, including a tax earmarked specifically for public safety. Animal Care and Control's money comes exclusively from the county's consolidated general fund, which last year was cut 5 percent across the board.
As such, the marching orders from on high have consistently been "be more efficient." Do more with less money.
The shelter, for all its problems, has done so.
A decade ago, the shelter killed more than half of its animals. Today, as many as 70 percent of the animals that enter the shelter leave alive, thanks to better coordination with private rescue groups. Even medical care is improved.
"When fully staffed, those animals are getting much better attention and veterinary care than they ever have before," said former shelter employee Kirsten VantWoud, the chief operating officer at the Humane Society of Indianapolis.
Cautious optimism
Despite the pervasive optimism, the city's track record leaves room for skepticism.
"There have been all these points where it has kind of come to a crisis," said Republican Councilwoman Christine Scales. "There have been various times where we've gotten a lot of publicity about the problems, and then there's a hurry-scurry by the administration to do something, and then it kind of dies down again."
She suspects animal care is simply easy to ignore.
"They (the animals) are voiceless, they don't have someone politically well-connected to advocate on their behalf," Scales said. "In a sense, it's almost like the administration knows: They've heard it before, (animal welfare groups) get upset, they make their passionate pleas, and then they go away. They go back to working for the animals."
Councilman Zach Adamson, who co-chaired the task force, says it's time for the city to make a choice: fund the shelter properly, or shift its focus to reducing the population.
In Brown County, an aggressive spay-and-neuter program by the local Humane Society reduced animal intake by 60 percent in a five-year period, said Sue Ann Werling, the board's president.
"You get your population down, you don't need the staff," she said.
And, she said, "you're not making decisions on who dies today."
Efforts by FACE, a low-cost spay-and-neuter clinic, have had a similar impact in Indy. The group's director, Ellen Robinson, said intake at Animal Care and Control was down to 17,000 last year from a peak of nearly 33,000 when FACE opened in 1999. But its efforts are limited by funding. "We lose $250,000 a year, just from community cats," she said.
The city provides a $15,000 grant to the organization but little else. Ultimately, that's to the detriment of taxpayers, advocates say.
"If the city were to back spay and neuter more effectively, statistics show that for every $1 you spend in spay and neuter, you save $3 over your animal control budget," VantWoud said. In 2013, animal complaints topped the list of calls to the mayor's action line, accounting for 16,403 calls. This year, they've been eclipsed by potholes, trash and high weeds and grass, Lotter said, but are on a similar pace with more than 15,203 calls through Nov. 9.
Washington said the city could possibly devote more resources to spay and neuter but has no concrete plans to do so.
In the meantime, Hobbs said she's confident that Animal Care and Control will get some money next year for food, supplies and a few new positions. These are small victories, perhaps, in the context of a report that calls for millions in additional funding. But for now, she said, any money at all would be cause for celebration.
"If we could just get it up to miserable," she said, "I'd be happy."
Call Star reporter Brian Eason at (317) 444-6129. Follow him on Twitter: @brianeason.