Boys in MN Help Duck

I read this great story in the newspaper today. I found it on Mankato Free Press online, and thought I'd share. Two boys in St. Peter, MN found a duck frozen in a pond and saved it!

Quacking the Ice: High Schoolers Help Waterfowl Duck Death by Robb Murray, Mankato Free Press, published December 17, 2006.

Eric Aspelund and Chris Hoffman, both juniors at St. Peter High School, decided Dec. 2 was a good day for ice fishing, so they went to Hallett’s Pond and began testing the ice. As you probably already have guessed, they came upon a Ruddy duck, stuck frozen in the ice, but still alive. “We thought it was a rock,” Aspelund said. “We got closer, and it was a duck.” The boys say the duck made feeble attempts to defend itself, but the boys were able to use a pocket knife to chip it out of its icy incarceration. Hoffman held the duck in his arms while they took it back to his house. “I thought it would be pretty cool just to let the animal live again,” Hoffman said. Once at Hoffman’s house, they filled a bathtub with lukewarm water and put the duck inside. They fed minnows to the duck, and in about three or four hours, it started coming around. “He started getting pretty lively, I guess you could say,” Aspelund said. When the duck seemed ready to head back outside, they took it to Mill Pond, the one just behind the police station and city offices, which is about five blocks from Hoffman’s house. Right away the duck started swimming around and flapping its wings. “I’m a hunter. I’ve seen these ducks a lot. From its movement, I thought it looked normal,” Aspelund said. They went back to that pond for a few days to make sure the duck was OK. The last time they saw it was Dec. 4. Alan Aspelund, Eric’s father, says he wasn’t surprised at what the boys did. They both have a healthy respect for, and knowledge of, animals. “In my opinion, these two kids do a lot of neat things,” dad said. “Every Halloween, they used to get pumpkins and feed them to deer ... There was a duck in distress and I’m glad they did what they did.” Article by Robb Murray.

Holiday Gifts for Your Pet

The American Pet Association cites the following statistics from the 1998-2006 American Pet Association Polls:

There are 44,892,454 dog owners in the United States, who own a total of 62,995,801 million dogs, and there are 76,954,111 million cats for a total of 139,949,912 pets.

Of the 106.4 million households in the U.S., 33.6 million have at least one cat as a pet.

The following statistics exemplify pet owners feelings towards their pets.

31,507,457 dog owners purchase Christmas gifts for their dogs.

39,754,847 cats receive Christmas gifts from their owners.

If you're reading this, chances are you fall into one of these categories. So, what do you have under the tree for your special best friend? If you still need to find a gift or perhaps a second, or third, gift for Fluffy here are some links to offer ideas:

i-pets.com

Doctors Foster and Smith

ChristmasGifts.net

petsmart.com

Happy Shopping!!

Pets as Gifts

It's tempting to buy a pet as a Christmas gift for a friend or loved one. It's so tempting when you see the little puppy faces at the pet store. Unfortunately, the choice is often driven by trying to get a great gift (cute! fluffy! cuddly!) and not what's in the pet's best interest.

The Central Dakota Humane Society in Mandan has a great article on their web site titled, Although Love is a Gift, a Pet Shouldn't Be. If you or someone you know is considering buying a pet as a gift this holiday season, please read this article first and share it with friends/family. Click HERE to read the article.

I also found an article on the Nova Scotia SPCA site from 2004 that discusses this topic:

Choosing a pet is a very individual thing”, says Judith Gass , NS SPCA President. " And the decision to bring any companion animal into a family should be that family's decision, not a surprise gift.” Most children, to whom the pet is usually given, do not have the strength, attention span, self-discipline and physical strength to care for a dog or cat by themselves. So a parent becomes the primary caretaker, doing the feeding, walks, litter scooping and all of the other chores the children once promised to do themselves. That might be okay for a little while, but unless the adult was fully committed to the animal in the first place, resentment grows, and the gift puppy is usually given up within the first year or consigned to the backyard, starved for training, socialization and affection.

For the full text of the article click HERE.

IN SUMMARY DON'T BUY A PET AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT!