Fires and Pets

I read a couple of interesting things today about animals.

One was about the unimaginable horrors of dogs in Greece, Spain and Cyprus. In particular, one puppy in Cyprus was slung in the local pound after being found with both its back legs hacked off halfway up.
They won't spend money on feeding these dogs, so they only get fed twice a week, and are killed in 15 days, usually by hanging or starving and dehydration. The authorities will not spend money on anaesthetics.

Strangers around the world have helped this young dog get to England, where she is receiving treatment and love for the first time in her life. Almost unbelievably, she is still a fun loving, happy girl!


The other story is about a lovely couple in England, who discovered that our Fire brigade have NO pet oxygen equipment to use for when they rescue our animals from house fires. There was no such thing in the UK. Firefiighters have to use a mask that was designed for humans, so it does't fit cat or dog muzzles properly, and oxygen escapes.

These married couple discovered 46% of households have a pet, and there were 48,000 house fires last year, with many pets that needed saving as well as their owners. They said that another problem was, people ran out out their houses to safety if they could, but dogs/cats tended to run behind or under furniture to hide instead, so they inhale a lot of smoke.

The couple bought a set of oxygen masks - £90 for a set of 3 different sizes - and gave them to their nearest fire station.
Now they have decided that the more fire stations they can provide with pet oxygen masks, the more potential pets can be saved. A proper pet oxygen mask is an animals best chance of survival after smoke inhalation.

If you think this is a good idea, and want to help, have a look at this, and you can nominate your own fire station too:

www.smokeypaws.co.uk

It could be our dog/cat one day.

Re: Fires and Pets

What a lovely idea.

We have always had an escape route planned. We used to talk through it with the children and it always included the dogs.

We also got a sticker from the vets, its a warning to emergency services that there are pets in the house..

As for the way animals are treated in our near European countries it just makes my stomach churn. I have to wonder if there are actually two species of human , those who are humane and those who are still more savage than human.

( have shared the info and link to FB)