Vet Pets Magazine

www.petsmag.co.ukJuly 2015

Lisa Garner & Lucy the Rescue Cavalier© Vadimgozhda | Dreamstime.com

We Meet Celebrity Vet Marc Abraham

TASTY RECIPES for your dog!

No Longer Silent: Pet Grief

Vet Pets Magazine

We meet Marc Abraham, or ‘Marc the Vet’ , as he is known. Marc is a practicing veterinary surgeon, author, and animal welfare campaigner based in Brighton, England.

Marc qualified from Edinburgh University and has since worked in small animal, mixed, and emergency practice, as well as volunteering oversees for animal rescue projects including vaccinating dogs against rabies in Mumbai, rescuing dancing bears in Ukraine, saving cats and dogs in post-tsunami Thailand, neutering pets in the Amazon, and operating on moonbears in Chengdu, China.

Marc began his TV career as resident vet on ‘The Paul O’Grady Show’, and has since appeared giving pet advice on BBC Breakfast, ITV’s ‘This Morning’, ‘Alan Titchmarsh Show’, ‘Good Morning Britain’ (previously Daybreak), ‘It’s Me Or the Dog’,

‘Crufts’, ‘Animal Rescue Live’, as well as a series on Sky One called ‘My Pet Shame’ alongside Gavin & Stacey’s Joanna Page. As well as TV, Marc has also written two books: Vet on Call, and Pets in Need.

Marc also campaigns for numerous animal welfare issues including microchipping, rescue pet adoption, responsible breeding, and against puppy farming. In 2009 he set up PupAid, a national puppy farming awareness campaign that involves an annual fun dog show in London as well as being responsible for the biggest pet welfare petition of all time, part of his relentless lobbying of MPs in Westminster to positively influence laws affecting our nation’s pets.

This is an extract from our full interview with Marc. A podcast of Marc’s interview is available at:

www.petsmag.co.uk in the blog section.

Starting from the beginning, did you grow up with animals? What pets did you have?I grew up with cats, tortoises and even zebra finches. My friends were caterpillars, moths and butterflies. I was obsessed with wildlife and nature.

What inspired you to become a vet?When I was young, I removed a maggot from my pet tortoise’s leg with a twig, and it got better. All I ever wanted to do was to help animals. I learned about nature by observing it, by drawing caterpillars, moths and all types of animals.

These days unfortunately I can’t practice because I’m in Westminster two to three days a week and the nature of campaigning is so unpredictable.

Pets Magazine Meets...Marc the Vet

Copyright ©Bill Waters

Vet Pets Magazine

I would like to practice again in the future. Right now however I have to be all over everything at Westminster to make the most positive impact on our animal welfare campaigns.

When did you first become actively involved in animal welfare?It all started with helping a tortoise at one level and being obsessed with nature at another level. When I started to see puppies with Parvovirus coming into my practice I started to work out the puppy farming chain.

It made me angry to see puppies with Parvo, as it is entirely preventable. I found out where they were bred and that’s where the campaigning started.

I really believe that everyone is capable of making a difference to

animal welfare even if it’s as simple as making or sharing posts on social media.

What inspired you to set up PupAid?I was trying to work out how to raise awareness and help educate the public. The triggers and drivers for buying puppy-farmed dogs are driven by celebrity trends. French Bulldogs for instance are very puppy farmed as are cross-breeds such as the Cockapoo. The celebrity influence is massive.

On the other hand, PupAid has a huge celebrity following. Our annual PupAid event is a fun dog show to be held on September 5 in Primrose Hill. It’s got a huge celebrity support. It’s being compered by Annabelle Giles with lots of other celebrity supporters.

All proceeds go to animal charities, as PupAid is a community interest company which means that it’s entirely voluntary and all profits have to be given away. We nominate four charities a year such as the Mayhew Animal Home and the Oldies Club.

Do you think puppy farming will ever be stopped? And how?I don’t think it will ever be stopped entirely but we can reduce it. PupAid campaigns to stop puppies being sold in pet shops and online without the puppies being seen with their mothers.

Pet shops are the final part of the supply chain; puppies are being transported hundreds of miles from where they’re bred.

Copyright ©Bill Waters

Marc Abraham with a canine friend

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We need increasingly to have a direct influence on government.

There are terrible guidelines for selling puppies online. It’s about changing attitudes and empowering the public. If you’re looking for a puppy, go to a rescue centre or at least see the puppy with its mum.

When life settles down a bit, would you like pets of your own? What pet(s) would you get? My dream is to have a rescue Borzoi, a Russian Wolfhound.

Every year at Crufts, whenever there’s a hound day, I can always be found hanging out with the Borzois. My love of the breed maybe comes from the fact that they’re tall and weird looking, a bit like me really!

Can you tell us a little of your future plans for your professional life?Life is so busy, lobbying, speaking to MPs in Parliament, meeting organisations like the RSPCA, trying to keep the conversation going.

Just a few years ago, puppy farming was rarely talked about, now it’s right at the top of the animal welfare agenda. If you make enough noise about something, it becomes impossible to ignore.

Everyone can do something whether it’s following PupAid @PupAid or sharing on social media, going to a rescue centre or making a donation.

For more information, please visit Marc’s website at: www.marcthevet.com or the PupAid website at: www.pupaid.org.

Marc’s favourite dog breed is the Borzoi, a Russian Wolfhound.

Marc is an animal welfare campaigner and founded PupAid

Vet Pets Magazine

Why Pet Grief Is No Longer Silent

On Sunday July 5, Pets Magazine in conjunction with 3D pet sculpture specialists Arty Lobster, held the UK’s first-ever National Pet Remembrance Day. Hundreds of people shared their memories and photos of pets that had passed on. #PetRemembranceDay will be an annual event for people to remember their pets. When it comes to grieving for our pets, times are most certainly changing, as MARIE CARTER, Editor of Pets Magazine, explains.

Vet Pets Magazine

On Sunday July 5, Pets Magazine in conjunction with 3D pet sculpture specialists Arty Lobster, held the UK’s first-ever National PetRemembrance Day. Hundreds of people shared their memories and photos of pets that had passed on. #PetRemembranceDay will be an annual event for people to remember their pets. When it comes to grieving for our pets, times are most certainly changing, as MARIE CARTER, Editor of Pets Magazine, explains.

There is little doubt about it: pets are now intrinsic members of our family. At a commercial level, the UK retailing giant Pets at Home has posted record figures that show the market for pet food, treats, toys and, even pet clothing,

is booming. At a personal and family level, as I discussed in 'What's so wrong with pet parenting?' in The Huffington Post pets have become kin; they have become our nearest and dearest. So, what do we do, how do we feel and act when they inevitably travel to the 'rainbow bridge'? Inspired by the Norse legend of Bifrost, the rainbow bridge represents the notion that owners will meet their pets again after death in a joyous reunion.

I can't help feeling that a heaven without pets, as accepted, indeed advocated, in many religions, would be a pretty dull place. The rainbow bridge sounds like much more fun. On the sad side, pets are bound to live much shorter lives than us, which means that by loving them like family, we are allowing ourselves to be subjected

to regular heartache when they inevitably slip this mortal coil.

History is full of close bonds between people and pets. The most celebrated, and poignant, include stories of the unwavering devotion shown by animals when their masters depart this world. The Greyfriars Bobby, a tale of a terrier who, it is claimed, spent 14 years at his master's grave side, is the most well-known example, but there are many more.

Mortality has been at the forefront of my mind of late, as my darling Cavalier Sophie, aged seven, has been diagnosed with a grade three heart murmur. The vet says she probably only has a few years left. Upon hearing the news, I cried and cried; and am indeed writing this as tears well in my eyes.

Loyal to the end: The Greyfriars Bobby

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I had always wistfully thought, and wished, that Sophie would live to become the oldest dog in the world. As an aside, Mitral Valve Disease (MVD) is the biggest killer of Cavaliers with over 80% suffering from it to some extent by age eight. A brilliant petition has started to call upon the Kennel Club to institute the compulsory registration of Cavaliers to weed out their health issues. Please sign the petition if you can.

A previous family pet, Rosie, a Border Terrier, had to be put to sleep at 16. She was senile and had lost use of rear legs, which had sadly led to incontinence. My parents, for she was one of those wonderful dogs one always remembers from the endless summers of childhood, did not tell me when they took her that final time to the vets. I, overwhelmed with emotion, and not thinking rationally, would have tried to stop them. This would not have been the best course of action for poor Rosie, who by that time had enough of life. I eventually accepted her passing, and we even had a very simple ceremony to say our goodbyes. In life, she was a water baby and a scattering of her ashes in a river where she had loved to swim seemed fitting.

Just a few years before Rosie's passing in 2001, we would not have thought about cremation, and it would not have been a viable option. It was a time when pet cremation services were springing up and we were, as a nation, turning away from digging up the garden to bury Rover alongside the pet goldfish. Now,

there are so many ways of remembering our precious pets. One of the most innovative I have come across recently is the 3D pet sculpture, which many bereaved pet owners have chosen - all they need to do is submit a series of photographs of the deceased pet. In life too, it's a quirky and memorable gift. London-based Arty Lobster has seen a growing number of people approach them for memento mori. Where once we might have kept a favourite pet's collar, we can now immortalize them in 3D.

There is little doubt that losing a

beloved pet can leave a massive hole in a family's life. Unlike the death of a human family member, which understandably attracts a huge outflow of sympathy, love and care in both actions and words, the death of a pet can be bewildering for other reasons. Many people may still belittle or not understand the overwhelming sense of loss. This issue came up recently in the British dark comedy Inside No 9, which was set in the call centre of a counseling service. An old lady, mourning the loss of her beloved cat, committed suicide after a 'counselor',

overwrought by a previous call, told her to pull 'herself to together', as it was 'just a cat.' This

reaction, satirized in the extreme, is still too pervasive, which is why brilliant services such as the Pet Bereavement Service have emerged. Many people worry about asking for time off from work after the death of a beloved companion animal, and the PBSS can advise

on ways to have this important discussion with employers, for instance.

As a nation of animal lovers, where pets are increasingly members of our families, there is little doubt that we are changing. Grief upon the death of a pet is ever so gradually no longer being seen as unusual or somehow embarrassing. It is becoming more natural, and arguably more human to visibly grieve upon the loss of a beloved pet.

Not forgotten: Rosie the Border Terrier

‘As a nation, we’re turning away from digging up the

garden to bury Rover alongside the pet goldfish...’

Vet Pets Magazine

Saved By...

Lucy the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel has become something of a star, with 19,000 followers on Facebook, her own calendar and a children’s book no less. Life today couldn’t be more different for Lucy. She was saved from the horrors of puppy farmed life by animal welfare campaigner LISA GARNER, from Warwickshire. Lisa tells Pets Magazine about Lucy’s heroic journey and why campaigning against the scourge of puppy farming has never been more important.

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BY LISA GARNER

I adopted Lucy in March 2013 after seeing her on a rescue centre website. At the time I wasn’t looking to adopt a dog but something about Lucy stuck with me.

Reading her background it was heartbreaking knowing she had spent many years never experiencing something as simple as love, or being part of a family. Lucy was kept simply to produce litter after litter of puppies for the unscrupulous puppy farming industry.

I had never adopted a rescue dog before, let alone one that had

suffered like Lucy had and for so many years. Simple things like playing with a toy were alien to Lucy, eating out of a bowl, walking

on a lead, household noises, the list was endless.

When I first met Lucy at her foster home, although I was prepared I was still shocked by her physical appearance. She was missing all the beautiful furnishings of a Cavalier, she was extremely thin weighing in at just over 3.5kg. Her feet and legs were stained from the urine and faeces she would have been kept in. Her back was so curved, her back feet nearly touch her front ones. When I picked her up for a cuddle, she really wasn’t interested, preferring to be snuggled in a bed with the other dogs.

After the adoption, I completely understood why ex-breeding dogs are best re-homed with other dogs, for canine company is all they have ever known. I think Lucy gained great confidence from my other dogs and looked to them when she was unsure of new noises or environments.

Learning to walk on a lead took time and patience. Lucy was so thin and was lacking in muscle, so

needed to have short, regular walks to build her up. At first, she would only take a few steps at a time on a lead, it was very stop start until her confidence grew. Now she walks on a harness and lead, wagging her tail as she goes, she’s a joy to watch.

I believe some memories will always stay with Lucy. She is extremely obsessed by food; I’m guessing on a puppy farm, where the main priority is money as

“Now Lucy walks on a harness and lead,

wagging her tail as she goes, she’s a joy to

watch.”

Devoted: Lisa with Lucy

Vet Pets Magazine

opposed to health, dogs are fed if they are lucky. Lucy now eats every meal or treat like it is her last.

Lucy is my first rescue dog, she has single-handedly made me realise how amazing and resilient dogs are; I will only ever have rescue dogs now. They certainly need extra patience and understanding but the love they give you in return, is worth it a million times over.

Lucy and I now raise awareness of the horrific puppy farm trade and just how wonderful rescue dogs are. Together we attend events, so we can talk to people about Lucy’s experience and just how a rescue dog can become such an important part of the family. We have also done fundraising, raising thousands for various rescue centres and organisations that help ex breeding dogs.

One of Lucy’s fundraising ventures was a 2015 calendar which raised funds for PupAid and Many Tears. The calendar was a quirky take on what you would expect from a normal dog themed one, which was done with the intension of making it stand out and raising awareness further. The calendar got various press coverage but more importantly it got people talking about rescue dogs.

We have also done an illustrated children’s book to educate children about puppy farms and how amazing rescue dogs are. The illustrations were very kindly done by Mel at melon-design.co.uk.

The profits from the sales of the book are going to C.A.R.I.A.D, Friends Of The Animals and an ex-breeding Cavalier called Ben, who at only 2 years old is going blind and needs an operation to save his sight.

If anyone is looking at getting a dog, please consider a rescue. There are so many deserving dogs that just need that chance in a loving, forever home.

For more information about Lucy and to offer your support, please visit: www.facebook.com/lucytherescuecavalier

Beautiful Lucy the Rescue Cavalier

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When the first birthday of my Chocolate Labrador Buddy came around, it felt totally appropriate to spoil him: presents, cuddles and a birthday cake accompanied by a hearty rendition of “Happy birthday to you” were the order of the day. Unsurprisingly, being a Labrador, he wolfed his cake down and to my delight, his doggy friends with whom he had shared his cake, also demolished it! Their owners even remarked on what a novel idea a doggy birthday cake was.

Being my adored third baby behind his two human siblings, I not only wanted to spoil Buddy, but also wanted to ensure I was taking optimal care of him. I

began by researching recipes for basic training treats that I could bake myself. I wanted to avoid buying the mass-produced treats that relied heavily on additives and preservatives and contained empty filler ingredients. Once I had firmly got the wooden spoon between my teeth, I was unstoppable! Buddy and his stick chasing chums rubbed their paws together with delight as they were presented with my experimental, health enhancing bounty. And that’s when it happened…

Alongside the gentle hum of the oven, the scuffling of a dog bowl being chased over a tiled floor to capture that elusive last lick and the drip drop of the tap into a

peanut butter splattered mixing bowl, I had my Eureka moment. My business brain was ignited and with that Buddy Boo Bakery was born.

Buddy Boo Bakery is a small, family run business that is established in South Yorkshire. We provide special occasion cakes, biscuits and stunning handmade dog safe chocolates for your furry friends. All our products are cooked with love, using premium grade ingredients that are beneficial to your barking baby’s health. We also insist that our scrumptious treats have absolutely no added sugar, salt, preservatives or additives.

Doggylicious! We meet LAURA BARLOW, founder of Buddy Boo Bakery, who shares with Pets Magazine readers a few of her tastiest cakes and bakes for dogs.

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For our more sensitive customers, we provide a gluten free range so its paws up to that!!

Our recipes have been carefully created to incorporate health enhancing ingredients that ensure your four legged friends flourish. From reducing the risks of serious illnesses, to building strong bones and teeth, to deodorising doggy odours and reducing bad breath, our treats are not just fabulous for your dogs, they will benefit you as doggy parents also!

Below are a couple of our products that are just waiting to bring some tummy tickling love to that special paw-son in your life.

Special occasion cakeMade from bone strengthening free range eggs our cakes are packed full of antioxidants from the honey and peanut flavoured sponge. Our sponges are topped with our own homemade dog safe white icing and are beautifully finished with a selection of our peanut bones and chocolate designs.

Chocolate box of loveMade with Vitamin B1, Calcium and Iron rich Carob and our own homemade sugar free dog safe white “chocolate”, now even your

fury friends can enjoy some choco loving! These beautiful handcrafted chocolate boxes contain four chocolates of differing designs. A stunning gift for our beautiful friends to enjoy.

Fancy trying your hand at baking your own doggy-licious treats? Below are a couple of simple recipes to get you started!

No bake Peanut butter and Carob balls - Makes approximately 30 balls

Ingredients:¾ cup of Peanut butter½ cup of Honey

1 tablespoon of Vanilla extract2 tablespoons of Carob powder1 cup of desiccated coconut1 cup of Oats

Method:Melt the Peanut butter, Honey, Vanilla extract and Carob powder over a medium heat until thoroughly combined. Remove from the heat and mix in the desiccated coconut and the oats. Pinch small amounts of the mixture and roll into small balls. This is best done with wet hands since the mixture is sumptuously sticky! Place in the fridge on a plate lined with greaseproof paper

and leave for an hour to firm up. Then enjoy!

Grain free, Gluten free, Dairy free, Corn free, Soy free and Sugar free cake

Whilst this cake may be a little underwhelming in appearance, it certainly makes up for it by being so free of anything likely to upset your furry friend that everyone can tuck in!

Ingredients:1 egg3 tablespoons of Peanut butter (I use a sugar and salt free version).½ apple peeled, core and pips removed and finely chopped½ teaspoon of Baking powder

Method:Preheat the oven to 360 degrees Celsius. Combine all the ingredients and mix until smooth. Spray a large muffin tin with oil and pour the ingredients in. Bake for 20 minutes and leave to cool before turning the cake out of the muffin tin. However do be careful to leave the cooling cake out of paws reach, or else it may be snaffled in one giant gulp!

For the full range of scrumptious treats for your furry friend, please visit: www.buddyboobakery.co.uk.

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Sophie’s Choices

Barking Heads dry dog food

This yummy dried food prides itself on being very natural and good for all pooches from the most picky to the most willing to the try anything type, like me. It boasts no artificial colourings, flavourings, preservatives or GM ingredients. That all sounds great on the pack, but what’s it really like?

Well, it gets a definite paws up for palatability too. It’s crunchy and flavoursome. There are also dog treats which I’m looking forward to trying soon! For felines, it comes in a cooly named Meowing Heads label.

For more information visit www.barkingheads.co.uk.

Pedigree small dog dried dog food

Impressively, Pedigree's products are developed based on scientific research conducted at ‘The Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition’, a leading authority in the health and nutrition of pets. This was the first time we tried the food and we weren’t disappointed.

It’s a great mixer and is also excellent on its own. We would try again, and it’s competitively priced too at £3.99 for 1.4kg.

It can be purchased from pet supermarkets including Pets At Home.

Personalised Pet SculpturesIn association with...

Top product picks by our canine taste tester Sophie, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

www.artylobster.com