Max Goldenson's Blog (14)

Ben, a retired veteran dog sold on the black market, one of very few who has since been reunited with his handler

(photo credit: NY Post)

An infuriating expose recently ran in the NY Post, “Troops betrayed as Army dumps hundreds of heroic war…

 

Animal Rights Leaders and Hero Dogs Arrive at the Capitol Building 

(photo credit: the Washington Free Beacon)

This summer, a long-overdue…

The bill - it would make it a stalking-related crime to threaten pets of domestic violence victims, and also create a federal grant to equip shelters to house them 



H.R. 1258, the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, is a bipartisan effort that would protect dogs by making more domestic violence shelters pet-friendly, if we show our support! Congresswomen Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Ileana Ros-Lehitnen (R-FL) recently introduced the bill to protect these vulnerable pets.…

Dogs and drones are executing some heroic feats. They are teaming up to save Florida’s avocado trees along with its guacamole, a vital part of the state’s business that millions of people enjoy every year. They are also working together to save people in natural disasters in ways that are faster and safer for everyone involved, including human first responders. And for their part, drones are returning the favor by saving stray dogs in cities such as Houston and…

What happened when 500,000 happy dog photos (and a couple pot-bellied pigs and lizards) from all over the world landed in a hospital room with a 16 year-old patient? Well, happiness ensued. …Indeed!

Anthony Lyons undergoes monthly chemotherapy visits at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital. He always looks forward to seeing the hospital’s therapy dogs. Unfortunately, the dogs can’t always be there so an enterprising family friend, Roberta Lucero-Koron, created a Facebook page for people to…

Brent Grommet, a Missouri army specialist assigned to the 101st Airborne, had been serving in Afghanistan with Matty, his loyal military working dog from the fall of 2012 through the summer of 2013. Matty was Grommet’s only dog companion during his deployment and the two trained together, served together and were ultimately injured together by IED’s on two separate occasions.

Matty and Grommet worked tirelessly to detect hidden bombs and no doubt saved the lives of numerous American…

No bad rap for these black dogs or any others. Bandit is a multi-talented therapy dog to veterans, children and his own father with help from his website and New Media presence. Orlando is a seeing eye dog who saved his owner from a subway train and then was saved himself by an online crowdfunding campaign. And Lady walked 30 miles with a bad leg to find her owner only to be turned away, and then in a true fairy tale twist was rescued by a dog-loving heiress who found her through New…

It can happen when dogs become New Media stars and use their fame to save other dogs of course! Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and even Kindle eBooks have become platforms for adopted dogs-turned-online superstars, and they are giving back to dogs-in-need in some big ways. There’s Poppy, a rescue dog from Fiji, who has raised funds through Facebook and Kindle eBooks for dogs in her homeland. In Chicago, there’s that Manny the Frenchie, an Instagram sensation with over 500,000 followers who has…

Can a one-of-a-kind dog breed with a name like the “Furrychest Jack Beagle Terrier” make the people of Costa Rica see dog adoption differently, and blow adoption rates through the roof? Or can a shelter dog named Sandy photobomb the Oscars and drive national attention to a small rescue group? Can dream-like images of hot air ballooning shelter dogs in Prague, and frolicking dogs in North Carolina inspire countless families to adopt? Can happy dogs all over the world change the face of animal…

We are in a great time of combining the power of new media with human ingenuity, spirit and heart to achieve remarkable results in saving dogs. There are pioneers creating and shaping a wonderful, promising future: a 13 year-old Romanian girl who has saved over 150 dogs and placed them in countries such as Belgium, Germany and Austria (Facebook), a Maryland woman who has enlisted over 200 people in just three days to save her dog (crowdfunding), and a team of veterans who save injured…

In the words of soldiers and civilians, they are our brothers, our sisters, our buddies, our comrades in arms, our heroes. They have and are protecting Secretaries of Defense to Presidents. They comfort children and troops alike, and manage to make them smile and laugh. They have even made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Our Military Working Dogs are many, many things but they are not our equipment.

About a year ago, President Obama signed into law the National…

Since Vietnam, dogs living and working alongside our military have saved over ten thousand lives.  Starting this instant, can they save tens of thousands more with help from New Media?

One example is the story of US Army Sergeant Logan Black and his best friend and fellow soldier, Diego, a peppy and outgoing bomb-sniffing Labrador. Logan was on mission in Iraq when Diego suddenly stopped him in his tracks indicating he found explosives. Those…

Right now and in the coming months, a series of wearable devices for dogs will hit the market. This first generation of tech collars can measure and report a dog’s heart rate, respiratory rate, rest patterns, calorie burning and more.  You’ll be able to see this info from your mobile phone or tablet, and even email it to your veterinarian. There are all kinds of ways this can come in handy.  For example, let’s say you need to travel and leave your dog in the care of a friend or relative. You…

Do you think crowdfunding can save a dog’s life… in a year? A month? 24 hours? 

First, what actually is crowdfunding?  It’s collecting donations from a large pool of people – “the crowd” – for a specific cause, usually through the Internet. It involves three groups of people 1) those raising the money for their cause 2) the crowd of people who support the cause and 3) the website that provides the infrastructure to collect and distribute the money.

It can have…