India's first blood bank for dogs in Chennai

It is the first of its kind in the country! From now on dogs needing blood transfusion will have quicker and better assistance! Thanks to the inauguration of the first blood bank for dogs in Tamil Nadu by the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), dog lovers and owners can now heave a big sigh of relief. The inauguration was a part of the week long celebrations to mark the World Veterinary Day.

Just like their human counterparts dogs too have different types of blood and even universal donor type which means it can be donated to dogs of any blood type. The blood bank for dogs in Chennai will have facilities to collect blood, do blood-typing, and store them for possible use. In fact, Hot Dog, a black Labrador became the first dog in the country to donate blood to the blood bank on Monday, April 26. Any healthy dog can donate blood so that it could be used for those dogs that might need them.

Dogs might need blood transfusion when they are injured due to road accidents or when they suffer from hypoproteinemia, or severe anemia, or spleen injury or due to deficiencies of iron. Some complicated surgeries might also warrant transfusion of blood in dogs.

TANUVAS has announced many attractive schemes for dog owners. You may have more information about this blood bank by visiting this link: http://www.tanuvas.tn.nic.in/nea/docs/Blood_bank.pdf

The phone numbers to contact the Emergency and Critical Care Unit of the Veterinary College are: 044-25381509, 044-25385701
Email: tanuvasanimalbloodbank@gnlaiLconl

The TANUVAS website is http://www.tanuvas.tn.nic.in/

Please visit this link and read it

Hello, It's been a while I contributed something worthy here. I request you to visit this link and read the story here. It's an eye opener for people like me who have always believed that packaged foods for pet dogs is the best option available today. Visit this link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/diet/Junk-food-may-kill-your-pet/articleshow/5781248.cms

Some basic tips for your cats’ health

Cats are instinctively big self-groomers! After a meal you can notice cats comfortably sitting down to lick their paws, and gently clean their faces, and their entire body. Cats often devote more time to clean themselves by licking and because of this they inadvertently swallow the hair caught in their paws. These fur balls when swallowed could upset their tummy and they could end up vomiting. To avoid this you could gently brush your cat’s coat I mean the fur a few times every day. Initially your cat might not like it but as time goes by your cat will get used to it! Brushing your cat can also help him/her stay hydrated and subsequently avoid bladder infections.

Avoid giving some human foods to cats. It might be toxic for them and moreover it could turn fatal if they develop more liking for human food than theirs which could ultimately make them lose the essential nutrients found in cat foods. For example, onions, chocolates and garlic can kill red blood cells in cats and cause anemia. Similarly, grapes, green tomatoes, raisins should be avoided.

(to be continued…)

Save our Tigers. Join the initiative, save our national pride

I am back after sometime and this time with a request to save our tigers. Please join http://www.saveourtigers.com/index.php and show your support for our tigers.

The figures are alarming. We have only 1,411 tigers left. Only our real love and true concern towards tigers and their conservation can help sustain this need and our efforts to save the tigers. Tigers are at risk not out of poaching alone; habitat loss is another reason. So be a responsible tourist when you go out to the wild do not pollute it with plastics. Stop using products made out of timber and paper as they help conserve the tiger habitats. When you save the tigers you save the balance in the ecosystem; you save forests, the water catchment areas.

Remember, if there are no tigers, there is no forests. No forests is no water catchment areas. And NO water for you and me.

More than everything else, it is important to love tigers not because they are beautiful but because we need them and they need us.

Join the roar. Visit http://www.saveourtigers.com/index.php

Tiger conservation in India

I just read on the newspapers today that India has rejected World Bank aid for tiger conservation. The report said that while the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests was interested in accepting the aid the wildlife conservationists were opposed to it! Basically the aid "was to be given for improving the livelihood security in some States," says the report and the conservationists say that it is unacceptable to accept the conditions that come with the aid like all the contracts would be given to American consultants. Further some conservationists allege that the World Bank tiger conservation initiative was not inspiring enough.

Fine! What is more worrying is the fact that India's own initiatives in tiger conservation has not been much successful over the years! Ultimately it is the 'master hunter' that is left to suffer! Consider this: According to the figures of The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) many tigers were lost either due to poaching or natural deaths! But the stick point was postmortems or proper investigations were not conducted in these cases! Further the figures of dead tigers provided by the NGOs and the States does not match. In 2009-10 NGOs claim 84 tiger deaths while the States put the figure at 59 (till November 2009). However, this might change with the National Tiger Conservation Authority launching a new website http://tigernet.nic.in/ that intends to have online a consolidated database on tiger population, wildlife crime on animals within the tiger reserve.

I am not condemning the Government for rejecting the World Bank aid for tiger conservation; the conservations might be right as they are the ones who work on ground zero but the fact remains that the work of the Government and the NGOs does not stop with mere 'no' for 'outside tiger conservation funds' but work together in a systematic and effective way for tiger conservation! Finally, it the tigers that would be directly impacted by these efforts!

The next lunar year will be the Chinese year of the Tiger and conservationists in India are worried that this could increase the poaching of tigers for its skins and body parts in India. There is a flourishing illegal trade for tiger skins and its body parts in China as it is largely used as decorative items in furniture and and its body parts used in Chinese medicines. And there is increasing poaching activities in India to meet this burgeoning market!

Unless there is some concerted effort on the part of the Government and NGOs in conserving India's pride the tiger population, the survival of this majestic work of nature will be a serious cause for concern! Please, preserve the tiger, for tigers' sake!!

Sources:
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/07/stories/2010010757622000.htm
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Tiger-reserves-to-upload-data-on-deaths--seizures/564022

How you can help your planet!

Whatever decision the countries at the World Climate Meet in Copenhagen decides to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and arrest global warming it would finally depend on how individuals across societies implement it. Remember, if you and I could do something towards reducing global warming, it could go a long way in saving our planet for our future generations and for our animal friends! Animals are an integral part of the ecosystem and it is practically not affordable for us survive without them! So here's a checklist of what you can do to help save this planet. There are many zones where you could implement these practices but let's start with what you could do at your office to reduce global warming. After all, office is where we spend most of the time in a day!!

1. Being online 24x7 is fun but it is more important to stay alive! Turn off your computer, broadband modem, scanner, printer, computer monitor and speakers when you are not using them. Make sure your computer is turned off at night.

2. Screensavers do not save energy; Save power by enabling the power management function on your computer.

3. You can use a large power strip for your computer, broadband modem, scanner, printer, monitor and speakers. This way you can cut 200kwh per year.

4. Insist on using green energy.

5. Laptops are better than desktops for environment as laptops consumes five time less electricity. If you don't want to do away with your desktop try to get get an LCD screen instead of the CRT screen.

6. Do not throw away your old computer. You can recycle office equipment by donating old computers to organizations and institutions such as schools.

7. Cut on unnecessary travel. It is good for your pocket and to the environment. Make most use of phone, e-mail or video conferencing.

8. Organize awareness programs on climate control. The key should be on individual contribution to reduce global warming.

Learn more about saving your planet at: http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/greenliving/at_the_office/

World Climate Meet: Animals that might face extinction

So the World Climate Meet is on at Copenhagen from today. It is the rich countries vs the developing countries. Who should cut more green house gas emissions? Well, the meet is exactly to find that out but there are too many issues to be sorted out! If a deal happens it is good for the world but if the deadlock continues then both we the humans and our animal friends will continue to be forced to become extinct! I am not exaggerating anything here, this is the plain truth!

Already many animal species have faced extinction due to man-made climatic changes! Today you cannot see the famous golden toad and the harlequin frog in Costa Rica. They are extinct, courtesy global warming which obviously didn't happen on its own, we, the humans brought in on!! Global warming due to green house gas emissions continue to negatively impact the ecosystems around the world and the most directly affected by this is the coral reefs!

The cute polar bears in the Hudson Bay in Canada is losing weight, says the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) because of the ice is breaking faster there, two weeks ahead and this means polar bears will not have anything to hunt during these two weeks and they starve! Fish stocks in many zones across the world's oceans are fast moving up north because of global warming!

Rapid changes in seasonal temperatures will not only mean more trouble for us like impact on farm growing season, but for animals too! Shorter winters would mean the birds' feeding system is affected!

Please visit this link to find out what and how you can do to help arrest global warming! http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/greenliving/