The Uganda National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) has introduced Animal Welfare Education in the national curriculum for schools.  The subjects will be taught in primary, secondary schools and tertiary institutions.  Aimed at giving children more knowledge about the protection of all animals and the environment, the new program will guide people on how to live in harmony with both domestic and wild animals in the same environment.  Connie Kateeba, the director of NCDC, says that people who go through the education system will be equipped with more knowledge and skills to love and take care of animals in a healthier environment. For complete story click HERE.

A small Arizona restaurant found itself at the center of a nationwide backlash after it announced plans to offer lion burgers this week as part of a World Cup promotion. Czimer’s Game & Sea Foods, the Illinois based mom-and-pop butcher that processed and distributed the alleged lion meat, said the meat is the byproduct of a skinning operation owned by another man.  Czimer said: “This man buys and sells animals for the skin, and when I need something and he has ability to get it, I will bargain for the meat. It’s a byproduct.”  Is it legal to eat lions? Yes, according to the FDA, the African lion isn’t currently a federally protected endangered species and it qualifies as a game meat. For complete story click HERE.

Staggering through downtown Palm Beach traffic last week was an emaciated 30 pound male pit bull dragging a 20-pound chain, which was wrapped around his neck.  The dog was barely able to lift his head or walk, but witnesses said the female pit bull was leading the chained male, stopping to urge him along. Two men stopped and picked up the dogs, bringing them to Animal Care and Control.  Clearly the dogs care for each other but clearly their human owner didn’t care much about them.  Hopefully this bonded pair gets adopted or rescued from the shelter so that they don’t become another euthanasia statistic. For complete story click HERE.

Christopher Bishop was checking under his Ford F-150 for oil leaks Sunday evening. He had put the running truck into neutral and left the driver’s door open.  While he was under the truck, Bishop’s bulldog jumped into the truck and knocked the vehicle into gear. After being run over by his own truck, with his dog in the driver’s seat, Bishop was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening! For complete story click HERE.

In the five months that Kern County CA Animal Control’s two-person Public Education and Enforcement Team has been walking door-to-door issuing notices for dog owners to license their pets, it has brought in more than $104,000 in revenue.  The cost of the program — including salaries, benefits, fuel and the purchase of a used animal control truck — was just more than $66,000.  Profit: roughly $38,000.  The purpose of the program was not only to increase the licensing rate but help the county reunite more stray animals with their owners and further decreasing euthanasia rates.  “If we continue to make the revenue we’re making, I’m really, really confident that we can pay for the cost (of the program) and generate more money for low-cost spay and neuter” programs, said Animal Control Director Guy Shaw.  For complete story click HERE.

Luke Robinson’s journey began in Austin, Texas in March of 2008. After losing his beloved dog Malcolm to cancer, he sold his truck, put his belongings in storage and set out on the road for a very long dog walk. He was joined by his two Great Pyrenees dogs, Murphy and Hudson.  More than two years after Luke Robinson and his dogs set out on an incredible cross country walk to raise awareness for canine and human cancer, he finally reached his goal.  For complete story click HERE.

After a rash of deadly pit bull attacks throughout the Inland Empire, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved a measure Tuesday requiring all pit bull owners to spay or neuter their animals or face fines. Under the ordinance, owners of pit bulls or pit bull mixes would be required to spay or neuter dogs over the age of four months. Owners who fail to do so would face a $100 for the first offense and more severe fines for subsequent offenses.  For owners suffering financial hardship, the county will provide vouchers to subsidize the cost.  A final vote on the ordinance is scheduled for July. For complete story click HERE.

Steve Wilson works for DoodyCalls Pet Waste Removal. On a recent call, he noticed money sticking out from doggie doo. Wilson wasn’t sure what to do, but eventually pulled out the bills, sanitized them, placed them in a plastic zip-lock bag and returned them to the customer. It turned out to be $58.  The Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists says Wilson is the first person in his profession to find and report money in dog poop.  (Who knew there was an “Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists!”). For complete story click HERE.

A Newfoundland community is shaken after an eight-year-old boy confessed to beating a dog to death with a barbecue fork.  Norma and Emma Hodder woke one morning to find their Pomeranian dead in the front yard, covered in blood, a bloody fork nearby.  A neighbor reported seeing the boy who lives next door jumping up and down in the Hodders’ yard and beating something with a fork.  The boy’s father didn’t seem very concerned about the incident and stated “Yeah, it’s not a very good thing for him to do. But the dog is dead, you can’t bring him back.”  The boy lives with his mother and has two of his own dogs!  Because the boy is under the age of 12, he can’t be charged with a crime.  For complete story click HERE.

The nation’s first criminal dog-fighting DNA database has been established!  The database is designed to help the criminal justice system investigate and prosecute dog fighting cases and address the growing problem of dog fighting using 21st century technology. The Canine CODIS contains individual DNA profiles from dogs that have been seized during dog-fighting investigations and from unidentified samples collected at suspected dog-fighting venues. The database is similar to the FBI’s human CODIS.  DNA analysis and matching through the database will help law enforcement agencies to identify relationships between dogs, enabling investigators to establish connections between breeders, trainers, and dog-fight operators. Blood collected from dog fighting sites will also be searched against the Canine CODIS database to identify the source. For complete story click HERE.