Man fined $2000 for smuggling horses during EI crackdown
A 37-year-old Canberra man has been fined $2000 in Queanbeyan Local Court for illegally moving horses during the Department of Primary Industry’s Equine Influenza eradication campaign.
Minister for Primary Industries Ian Mcdonald explained that the man moved the horses on the night of September 28 so as not to be seen.
He used a horse float to move the two horses from Murrumbateman in NSW to Victoria, and has been fined for breaching an equine influenza control order under the Exotic Disease of Animals Act 1991.
"When the rest of the horse industry was working hard to stop the spread of EI this man was undermining their effort and the whole eradication campaign,” said Minister Mcdonald.
Although Victoria is currently free from horse flu, Mcdonald stresses that incidents such as these could spread EI further afield.
"This is a timely reminder that that there is no room for complacency when it comes to this contagious disease," he said.
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Australian pet grooming franchise goes international
Aussie Pet Mobile has crossed the shores and launched its large mobile pet grooming franchise in Ireland.
Paul Fagan and Marina Bleahan are behind the move, having secured the master franchising right to the brand in the country.
"I wanted to bring a market leader to our country and represent the best in the field," said Paul Fagan.
"Based on the very positive business performance and customer reaction generated from our pilot operation in Dublin, I am confident that this unique service will be greatly welcomed by pet lovers across Ireland.”
Fagan believes that with a pet spending market worth E380, Ireland’s economic environment is perfect for the Aussie Pet Mobile concept.
“Aussie Pet Mobile is a proven business model and combined with high demand for quality grooming services in a cash rich, time poor society, it is an ideal opportunity for potential business owners,” he said.
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US pet food manufacturers to change labels on jerky treats
Following numerous complaints that Chinese-made treats were making dogs sick, some pet food manufacturers and retailers have chosen to develop feeding instructions based on an animal’s weight. The decision was founded on anecdotal reports that pet owners were over-feeding the treats or using them to replace regular pet food.
ADI Pet Inc., makers of Waggin’ Train brand jerky treats, will be phasing in the size-based feeding instructions almost immediately, and president of the company, Jerry Peters, believes others in the industry will soon follow suit.
Pet retailer PetSmart, with the help of Smokehouse Pet Products and veterinarians, has developed feeding guidelines based on animal size and the type of treat. The feeding chart is now up in stores and will be printed on Smokehouse labels by early 2008.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a Cornell University team, began an investigation into the rise in cases of the rare kidney disorder Fanconi Syndrome, but so far have found nothing dangerous in the jerky treats to suggest any need for recalls. There is also no scientific evidence pointing at overfeeding as a cause.
David Syverson, pet food committee chairman of the American Association of Feed Control Officers (AAFCO), believes that the move is premature.
“Making changes without a solid basis for the changes at best would be ineffective; at worst, it could magnify a problem if a problem does exist,” he said.
Source: Petfood Industry Dec 2007
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Birds may not always have been tree dwellers
According to new research by the team at the University of Queensland, the ancestors of modern birds were more at home on the ground than previously thought.
PhD student Chris Glen and Associate Professor Mike Bennett from UQ’s School of Biomedical Sciences, have studied the claws of thousands of bird feet to reach the findings that the ancient birds were not in fact tree dwellers.
“This is a really interesting and important piece of the puzzle in terms of the evolution of birds,” Mr Glen said. “We have shown that the shape of a bird's claw can clearly indicate whether they are tree dwellers or ground foragers.”
It is possible to see whether the bird species spend more time in the trees or if they prefer to forage on the ground, depending on whether their claws are hooked or straight.
By comparing the feet of modern birds with those from
the fossil record of “fuzzy dinosaurs” and early birds,
the most famous of them being the Archaeopteryx, the
researchers were able to gain a better picture of how
these animals developed.
“For a large part of the 20th century the favoured
argument in bird evolution was that their ancestors went
into trees to carve out a niche looking for food,” Dr
Bennett said.
Mr Glen said their findings contradicted those
arguments.
“We were very surprised by our findings as we expected
to see some may have been tree dwellers, as there is
some reasonable logic to the idea that flight would have
evolved in a tree dweller, but what we saw was such a
clear signal to the contrary,” he said.
Their research has added another piece to the puzzle
that, along with other lines of evidence, helps explain
how the early feathered dinosaur evolved into the modern
bird species we see today.
Their research was recently published in the scientific
journal Current Biology.
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