Subject: Animal Rights

• Re: Breaking News: Death to the Dogs

  August 23, 2006

• Good Place to Chase Tail

  August 18, 2006

• Beating a (Nearly) Dead Horse

  August 14, 2006

• A Buncha Bull

  August 9, 2006

• Today in Public Semi-Nudity

  July 12, 2006

• Dog Day Afternoon. Evening and Morning, Too.

  July 26, 2007

• Not Exactly a Hallmark Moment: Video of California Meat Packing Plant Ain't Pretty

  February 4, 2008

• Dog Abuse Bad. Cow Abuse Awesome.

  March 3, 2008

• Open Season on Pit Bulls’ Genitals

  August 15, 2008

• Some Success On The Pet-Adoption Front

  August 27, 2008

• Dire Situation for Houston Humane Society

  September 16, 2008

• Humane Society Helps Galveston Animals After Hurricane Ike

  September 21, 2008

• Your Animals Are Probably Bitching About Ike, Too

  September 22, 2008

• Ike's Pit Bulls Live Another Day

  October 6, 2008

• Pit Bull Laundering By The Houston SPCA

  October 6, 2008

• Ad-verse Reaction

  Is an animal rights billboard too explicit - or merely odious to the rodeo?

  January 11, 2001

• Two Houston Athletes Donate Their Brains To Science

  October 22, 2008

• Those "Rescued" Dogs Are Dead, Or Lining Up To Die

  When the feds and local law-enforcement agencies busted a big dog-fighting ring a while back, there was much talk of the more than 100 dogs that had been "rescued." If by "rescued" you meant "Sent to Doggie Death Row," then they were indeed rescued. A commenter to our item on the arrests said the dogs were being euthanised with "no temperament tests, no allowing rescues to assess them, nothing." Is that true, Houston SPCA?

  November 21, 2008

• The Houston Zoo's Got More Herpes Than A Motley Crue Groupies' Convention, PETA Says

  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protested at the Houston Zoo Saturday, demanding that the zoo stop breeding elephants after the death of two-year-old Mac from the elephant herpesvirus.Hair Balls caught up with PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt at the protest. "PETA is appalled that yet another young elephant at the Houston Zoo has died of herpesvirus 1 and is calling on the Houston Zoo to immediately stop breeding elephants," she said. She went on to say that Houston has been called an "

  November 24, 2008

• Nathan Winograd, No-Kill & BARC

  Since its inception, Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care has been defined by mismanagement. Relegated to an unsightly corner of Houston's Fifth Ward, the facility, which operates with a staggeringly high 80-percent euthanasia rate, has been a historically low priority for Houston's leaders.While other cities throughout the country have taken proactive measures to implement low-cost spay-and-neuter programs and create foster homes and successful off-site adoption centers, Houston's lea

  January 28, 2009

• Press Picks

  May 2, 1996

• Much-Loved Veterinarian Fired by BARC

  Photo by Daniel KramerGil Costas, a part-time veterinarian at Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, was fired today for lack of state-mandated certification, Houston Health and Human Services Spokeswoman Kathy Barton told Hair Balls. The news was originally broken by Nicole Sica, editor of the animal-welfare blog Poocini and a writer for the Houston Animal News Examiner. "The official reason is that his services were no longer needed," Barton told Hair Balls, "but...we also determi

  February 3, 2009

• Press Picks

  January 1, 1998

• Night & Day

  April 22, 1999

• BARC Sucks

  January 29, 2009

• Ike's Fuzzy Animals

  All kinds of cuties are showing up

  October 16, 2008

• Two Sworn, Gun-Toting Peace Officers Protect the County's Animals

  Brutality Police

  July 24, 2008

• The Great EscApe

  In two decades, Wally Swett's sanctuary has become a place of peace for primates - it's the humans that have him going bananas

  February 15, 2001

• Foreclosure Pets

  Dogs, cats and other household pets get left behind when owners are pushed out

  April 24, 2008

• Greyhound Racing

  Tracks and breeders struggle as attendance declines

  September 6, 2007

• Monkey Business

  Primates -- destined for laboratory research -- are being brought into a compound in Houston so carefully and quietly that no one knows they're here

  August 31, 2006

• Hog Wild

  Feral pigs are ugly, destructive and mean. Some people in Texas just love to trap, stab or shoot them. Or put them in rodeos. With dogs.

  August 24, 2006

• The Fido Solution

  The ultimate answer to too many strays, cash-strapped budgets, animal shelter abuses and starving people

  February 3, 2005

• The Last Ride

  December 9, 2004

• A Dog's Life

  Is Mr. K's the best we can do? Would you wish it on your best friend?

  April 8, 2004

• Best Pet Store

  Houston SPCA

  September 25, 2003

• (East) Indian Summer

  A local community celebrates its heritage

  August 14, 2003

• Kitty Litter

  Toyya Braskey lives with 100 cats. They are her life. Now the city says they have to go.

  July 3, 2003

• The Dogs of War

  Foster programs try to save departing soldiers' critters from becoming casualties

  March 20, 2003

• In the Doghouse

  An animal typically has three days before he leaves the city pound, dead or alive. What happens during that time continues to cause concern.

  November 7, 2002

• Best Dog Trainer

  Patricia E. Mercer

  September 26, 2002

• Cinema Dog Daze

  Films fuel the fads for special pets -- then comes the fallout

  August 15, 2002

• A New Leash on Life

  Stray Houston mutts make it big in Marin, thanks to Allison and the HSPCA

  July 5, 2001

• Babe's Bad Night

  Feral hogs are on the increase. And so are those who hunt them.

  August 17, 2000

• The Compassionate Consumer

  October 14, 1999

• Pet Net

  Max's uncertain plan: Matching you with that cute mutt in Maine

  October 14, 1999

• The Foie Gras Problem

  Photo by J.C. ReidI love foie gras. Is that bad? Foie gras is the fattened liver of a goose or duck. The fattening is brought about through the technique of gavage, or force-feeding the animal, in this case with corn. The resulting food product is a true delicacy which has a rich, meaty/salty flavor and the consistency of butter. Some people say the production of foie gras is unethical and immoral. PETA and the Humane Society of United States, among others, contend that the production of foie

  June 25, 2009

• Complain About BARC, Find Yourself Charged With A Crime

  Photo by bf_photos The Harris County District Attorney's Office has charged a BARC volunteer for filing a false police report regarding animal abuse he said he heard while at the city's animal control facility. Shelby Kibodeaux was charged July 1 with the class B misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of 180 days in jail and/or a fine up to $2,000. After speaking with Kibodeaux this week, and being blown off by just about everyone else, Hair Balls's articulate, cogent and measu

  July 23, 2009

• BARC Puppy Literally Washed Down The Drain

  ​A stray puppy at BARC was placed in the wrong cage and washed down the drain last Thursday night, Health and Human Services Spokeswoman Kathy Barton confirmed today. She would not give the name or position of the person who placed the puppy in the cage, but said the person has been suspended for a week without pay. The incident also prompted the transfer of 68 puppies from BARC to the Houston Humane Society the following day, to allow for reconfiguration of adequate cages for nursin

  July 27, 2009

• This Is One Way To Report A Story, We Guess

  ​All the BARC brouhaha today brought us an interesting bit of e-mail correspondence, forwarded to us from a chain that began with a Houston Chronicle reporter.Rebecca Maitland, a freelancer who writes occasionally for the Chron's Fort Bend zoned edition, was doing a story on animal shelters in that area. Here's the e-mail she sent to one official, with the name of the recipient and the relevant organization omitted. (The stuff in brackets is what was removed by the person who forwarded it to u

  August 11, 2009