Germany’s first restaurant for dogs and cats opened in Berlin over the festive holidays, drawing charges the luxury eatery for furry friends is “decadent”‘.
“Does Berlin really need a gourmet restaurant for dogs?” asked the top-selling Bild daily.
Pets Deli offers its tasty treats for domestic animals in the upscale neighborhood of Grunewald, with meals priced from three to six euros (about $4-6), and treats like cupcakes for four euros. They are sold to go in plastic trays or can be consumed on-site, in metal bowls set before homey wooden logs, while their owners have a coffee.
“A store this decadent gives the impression that we do more for animals than for children,” charged Wolfgang Buescher, of the “Ark” charity, which works with disadvantaged minors.
The store manager, Katharina Warkalla, is an animal nutrition expert and serves up portions of beef, turkey or kangaroo meat with broccoli or berries, and “carbs” such as rice, pasta or potatoes. “The meat is of such quality that it could be safely consumed by humans”, she said.
Yorkshire… Wotties
The Unlikely Romance
They say that love knows no bounds, and these two dogs are certainly proof of that. West Highland terrier Joey has cross-bred with a female Rottweiler double his size to father a litter of 11 puppies, which have been given the name ‘Wotties’. The owner of both the dogs, Teresa Patterson, was surprised they had mated and was unaware it had taken place until the puppies were born.
“I was completely shocked, I didn’t think nature would let this happen but at some point it did. The puppies have a lovely temperament like their parents. They are high maintenance as they want attention all the time. But this won’t happen again-Joey will be going to the vets soon.” said Patterson.
Helsinki… A Study
Your Dog Can Recognize You From A Photo!
Dogs may possess the ability to recognize facial features from photographs-a skill previously thought to be exclusive to humans and some primates. A study by researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland used eye movement tracking to see if they look at familiar and strange faces differently. Their eye movements were measured while they watched images of familiar humans faces and dogs being displayed on the computer screen, as well images from dogs and humans that the canines had never met.
Dogs were trained to lie still during the image presentation and to perform the task independently. ‘Dogs seemed to experience the task rewarding, because they were very eager to participate,’ Professor Vainio told Science Daily.
The team found that dogs fixed their gaze more often on familiar faces and eyes rather than strange ones, indicating that dogs were able to perceive faces in the images. These results indicate that dogs might have facial recognition skills, similar to humans.
Czech Republic…
Do dogs align their bodies with the Earth’s axis?
Astudy finds dogs align their bodies to the north-south axis when defecating. This only happens when the magnetic field is what’s called ‘stable’. When ‘unstable’, such as during solar flares, dogs abandon this behavior. Previous studies have shown magnetic fields impact the behavior of birds. Yet researchers across these studies don’t know why animals act this way. You may be forgiven in thinking your dog randomly chooses where it goes but new research suggests their choices could be influenced by a far greater force.
According to a Czech study, dogs not only align their bodies with the Earth’s north-south axis when going but this position can be affected by the slightest of fluctuations in the planet’s magnetic field. The findings have been published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.
Good to know…
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the delivery of 100% oxygen under pressure to bring massive amounts of oxygen to tissues that then drastically decrease inflammation and promotes healing. HBOT has rapidly grown from being used only in the treatment of SCUBA divers with decompression illness (“the bends”) to professional athletes to a number of emergency and health applications. There are now human healing centers in the United States utilizing HBOT as adjunctive therapy for varying disorders and health insurance companies (Trupanion for one is now paying for hyperbaric oxygen therapy) are paying for these treatments. Scientific and clinical studies have documented the benefits of HBOT in humans and in animals.
At the pressures used in the hyperbaric chamber, the veterinary patient’s plasma and tissue oxygen level is 15-20 times greater than is normally present with 100 percent oxygen at sea level. When plasma is exposed to hyperbaric oxygen it can carry up to 20 times more oxygen to tissues alone without the red blood cells being involved. Oxygen delivered by HBOT can make the difference between cell death or cell recovery.
In the last five years HBOT has had an increased presence in veterinary medicine with results being observed and documented. The addition of this treatment modality enhances the ability to successfully treat many disease conditions. New uses involving stem cells and HBOT are also available for severe arthritis and chronic diseases.
Currently there are only a handful of veterinary hospitals in the U.S. that offer HBOT treatment for small animals with Peace Love Pets Veterinary Care, PLLC, Commack, NY, being one of them.
In most of these centers the chamber is primarily used for wound related issues. Veterinarians can now offer patients an option we have not available in the past. The hyperbaric oxygen facility should work together with your veterinarian on individual cases, as HBOT is often an adjunctive therapy.
