The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

The Top 5 Things to Eat, Drink or Celebrate This Weekend: Revival Market, Anvil, Sonoma Brunch, Hotel Derek's Early Easter & Ninfa's Crawfish

In case your weekend doesn't revolve around the parking lot full of food trucks at Haute Wheels or all-you-can-eat brisket at the Houston Barbecue Festival, here are five other great things to eat, drink or do this weekend. Revival Market's two-year anniversary party Saturday, 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. 550 ... More >>

Ever Wonder if Your Kid's Teacher Runs a Puppy Mill in Her Spare Time?

A former grade school teacher has been charged with animal cruelty after sheriff's deputies and SPCA workers seized 106 abused and neglected dog from her East Texas home Monday. The dogs were allegedly "forced to live in their own filth inside a feces-filled, urine-soaked home on the property" near ... More >>

Comment of the Day: The HSPCA Is All About the Cash, Not the Dogs

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit ... More >>

Lloyd Wayne Byrd: East Texan Arrested After Mooning SPCA During Raid

Lloyd Wayne Byrd had 27 dogs on his ramshackle property in rural Rains County. He says he kept the dogs for the express purpose of annoying his neighbors. "That ain't fair to the dogs," neighbor Sam Ridenhour tells KLTV. "You know, to have something just to aggravate somebody else...That ain't what ... More >>

Elegantly Sinister Cat Demands You Adopt Him

HSPCAVe haff vays of makink you adopt.​The Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals describes Prince, the cat pictured above, as "a gentle, kind kitty." Really? This dude looks like a sinister evil genius plotting world domination. Seriously, would you ever want to get this l ... More >>

Comment of the Day: More Suggested Andy Fastow Jobs

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Houston SPCA Suddenly Has 200 Small Dogs To Care For, Give Away

HSPCAA Wallr County officer with a rescued dog​The Houston SPCA is going to be needing help very soon getting about 200 small dogs adopted after a massive haul from a Waller County facility that was filthy and disorganized. The owners of the facility were an elderly couple "who became overwhe ... More >>

Chihuahua Airlift: The Last, Forlorn, Rejected Doggie Left

We told you last week about the chihuahua airlift, a dangerous importation of cuteness into Houston from LA. Chihuahuas go fast here, so the Houston SPCA brought in 29 of them, and other little dogs, from the West Coast to be rescued. All have found a home except this guy, who apparently is too ugl ... More >>

Chihuahua Invasion: Brace Yourself For Cuteness, Houston

I, Chihuahua​The Houston SPCA is about to get hit with an airlift of 30 homeless Chihuahuas from Los Angeles. Officials are unsure if the city can handle the sudden influx of cuteness, but apparently have determined it is worth the risk. Chihuahuas are as common in LA as independent movie pro ... More >>

2010 Houston SPCA Mutt Strut & Runway Race

Show off your schnauzer and raise money for a good cause at the same time

The Mystery of the 14 Dead Dogs Dumped in North Houston

​The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is offering to help Houston investigators in the search for whoever dumped 14 dead dogs under a sheet in northeast Houston. KTRK reported Wednesday that the bodies of the dogs, mostly adult shepherd mixes, were found that day near ... More >>

Pit Bull Puppies, A Toddler & Injuries: The Debate Continues

​A newspaper report out of East Texas probably isn't going to do wonders for changing the vicious image normally associated with pit bulls. From the Tyler Morning Telegraph:Police and animal control officers continue an investigation Tuesday into an attack involving the child, who suffered major i ... More >>

Hotel ZaZa Unleashed Poolside Pet Soiree

It's canines and canapés for the see-and-be-seen crowd

A Guilty Plea And 15 Months For That Big Dogfighting Bust

Photo by Paul KnightThe announcement of the big bust.That much-ballyhooed dogfight bust last year has yielded some jail time: A 35-year-old Houston man has pled guilty and will receive a 15-month state-jail sentence for both causing and attending a dogfight, the DAs office has announced."Belinda Smi ... More >>

The SPCA: Kinky Friedman

Web exclusive!

UH Gets the Brush-Off from Nike

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

BARC Sucks

The city's animal shelter just can't get its act together

Last Chance for Some Hot Dogs, Hep Cats and Veggie Burgers

Scout's Honor Rescue, the group that took in the pit bulls from the SPCA after Hurricane Ike, is launching a new adoption location in the Heights and wants everyone to come out to see Dexter -- one of the few pits the SPCA has ever allowed to live -- and all the other breeds up for fostering or adop ... More >>

Don't Say It....Don't Say It....Damn, I Said It

You could almost hear the wheels spinning in the mind of the guy substituting for JP Pritchard on KTRH this morning.Authorities had busted a large cockfighting ring, the lede of his item said.Cockfighting ring. Cockfighting ring, you could imagine him practicing. Make sure to say cockfighting ring.A ... More >>

Drug Education

HISD has the world's busiest sniffer dog

Fighting Over Dogfighting Dogs Continues

We wrote Friday about how the Houston SPCA is killing all those dogs who were "rescued" when a major dogfighting ring was broken up recently.The local SPCA is clear that it does not adopt out pit bulls or fighting dogs because it thinks they are harmful. They made an exception of sorts after Hurrica ... More >>

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 ... More >>

Birds Endagered By Man (And Ike) Going Back To The Wild

Ike's Fuzzy Animals

All kinds of cuties are showing up

Ike's Pit Bulls Live Another Day

Pit Bull Laundering By The Houston SPCA

Your Animals Are Probably Bitching About Ike, Too

Some Success On The Pet-Adoption Front

Care and Feeding

Whole Foods wants lobsters to live large before dying

The Fido Solution

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

A Dog's Life

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

Best Pet Store

Houston SPCA

(East) Indian Summer

A local community celebrates its heritage

Caribbean Vacation

Storyteller Edwin Negrón tells stories from other lands

Kitty Litter

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

Best Pet Store

Petco

Best Dog Trainer

Patricia E. Mercer

Cinema Dog Daze

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

A New Leash on Life

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

Spare a Dime, Dah-ling?

Fashion shows in area clubs go philanthropic

Going to the Dogs

Advocates are working to unleash a plan for a public park where pooches can play

Pet Net

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

All Good Dogs Go to Heaven

The connection between pets and their owners doesn't necessarily end with death

Letters

Poop Happens

An apartment complex loses the battle against guano

Blood Sport

In the dogfight business, pit bulls get killed all the time. Sometimes, so do people.

Beastly Behavior

Wildlife rehabilitator Vivian Steele got along fine with animals. It's people who gave her trouble.

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Press Picks

Letters