PetPAC held a strategy meeting today with Bill Hemby Campaign Coordinator, Campaign Director, Barry Wyatt, ERW Group, LLC, Barry@erwgroup.com, our Communications Director Dana Spurrier,dana@spurriercommunications,com, Director of Political Affairs, Kelley Moran,
kelleymoran@comcast.net, Publications Advisor, Joan Gueldon and others.

This meeting has established our campaign to defeat AB 1634, and future assaults against the dog and cat
community in California. This campaign will be run like a statewide initiate.

PetPAC realizes if we are to be successful, we must organize everyone into moving in one direction. If
you agree with what we are doing, if you want to win this war being waged against us, we need your
cooperation, support and financial assistance.

1) It is critical that we all put our trust into this campaign. United We Stand, Divided We Fall.
2) It is critical we funnel our efforts to the three companies that have been hired to run this campaign.
3) If you don't agree, or if you want to go your own way, God Bless You, but I will guarantee the AR's will
win.

First, Lets be perfectly clear. Lloyd Levine and the core group behind AB 1634, will not rest until they
eliminate cats and dogs. I think he believes this is his ticket to the Governor's Office. While they may have a number of well intentioned people who truly want to eliminate shelter populations and euthanasia rates, the real reason is to eliminate dogs and cats. Make no mistake about that. If anyone. Anyone thinks they will negotiate away the mandatory spay and neuter provision, or cut out show, working, police, service, dogs for the blind, herding or otherwise, you are sadly mistaken. it has been made abundantly clear in the hearings at the Capitol. Levine will latch onto any straw he can to create doubt within his fellow Democrats, just as long as they continue to go along with him. He has been very successful with that strategy so far.

If any individual, club or business donates money to a group interesting in appeasement, you might as well
write that check directly to Lloyd Levine. Please look at history with Mr. Nevelle Chamberlain.

PetPAC will concentrate on turning the media to our side, getting out a message that resonates to millions
of pet owners, and defeat AB 1634.

From now on here is the plan:

If you have any suggestions as to events, issues to research, and policy please contact : Barry Wyatt,
ERW Group, LLC, Barry@erwgroup.com

Anything dealing with media. speaking engagements. If you can set up a talk show, or newspaper or tv
interview, or have a contact that may set those up, contact: Dana Spurrier,dana@spurriercommunications,com

Political information or financial contacts, ie. friends, people you have provided puppies to,
corporation executives, dog food companies, pet shops, or anyone you think who would or might consider making a large donation to PetPAC, contact: Kelley Moran, kelleymoran@comcast.net.

Kelley assures me the new PetPAC national interactive website will be up and running next friday.
I am going to ask everyone to funnel their telephone calls to Barry Wyatt: 916-485-5595, FAX 916-485-5594 if you have email lists, send those to Wyatt If you have collected petitions, fax those to Wyatt
If you can get an AKC and UKC membership list, fax or email that to Wyatt.
If your club would be willing to send its membership list. Please do that. Any information of that type
will be used only for PetPAC. It will never be sold, or disseminated to retailers.

If you or anyone you know can volunteer to help, ie man a telephone, write letters, put on a bake sale,
pass out flyers, man a table at your local supermarket. put together your own private fund raising campaign through the new PetPAC website, or have any skills you think are valuable, please, please
contact Wyatt. Any data you think would be helpful that can go into the PetPAC database, send that to Wyatt. If you have contacts within your local police or fire or union groups Contact Wyatt. Send in information about Grocery outlets, pet food companies, pet supplies, groomers, veterinarians, especially
veterinarians you know. Just sit down and put together a list of these kinds of people you know and don't discount anyone because you think they probably wouldn't be interested.

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Most of us are familiar with herpes viruses because of human herpes. Most of us know mucous membrane or fresh body secretion contact (Herpes I causes facial sores and is spread by kissing or sharing food utensils and Herpes II causes genital sores and is spread by sexual contact). In small animals, feline herpes probably gets the most press as it is responsible for at least 50% of feline upper respiratory infections. It is extremely contagious among cats and is readily spread through the respiratory secretions that are sneezed and sprayed by the infected cat. While canine and feline herpes viruses are closely related, infection cannot be transmitted across species lines. All herpes viruses have the ability to infect the host for life (retreating to the nerve ganglia of the nervous system), though symptoms only periodically emerge.

Canine herpes is more of a reproductive problem than a respiratory one; in fact, most infected dogs do not appear to get sick at all.  Instead the infections manifests in the pregnancy as reabsorption of the litter of puppies, abortion, still birth, or death of puppies within a few weeks of life.  Transmission occurs direct contact (sexual contact will do it but the usual route is simply normal nosing, licking, and sniffing) between the infected and uninfected dog.  For this reason, it is recommended that a pregnant female dog be isolated from other dogs for the last three weeks of pregnancy and the first three weeks after birth. Let's say that again:

Any pregnant female dog should be isolated from other dogs for the last three weeks of pregnancy and the first three weeks after birth. Puppies can be exposed before, during, or after birth. Just because one member of the litter is infected, this does not mean they all are. The incubation period is 3-7 days following infection. Once symptoms begin (shallow breathing, loss of appetite, vomiting) death follows within 48 hours. Infected puppies uniformly have low platelet counts and may show red spots called apetechiae which actually represent small bruises.

WHAT TO DO WHEN ONE OF THE PUPPIES DIES SHORTLY AFTER BIRTH:
The necropsy (autopsy) is the only realistic means to finding out what happened. If you want to find out if the other litter members are at risk or if the mother dog can safely be bred again, the dead puppy should be examined.

  * Place the remains in a zip-loc plastic bag and refrigerate until you can notify your veterinarian.  If the placenta is available, it should be included.
    * Expect the mother dog and remaining litter mates to be examined and the dead puppy to be necropsied.

There are many causes for the loss of a near term or newly born litter of puppies: corona virus, parvovirus, toxoplasmosis, brucellosis, umbilical trauma, genetic disease, etc. Knowing what to do heavily depends on knowing what happened. Puppies that die from canine herpes have characteristic inclusion bodies? in many tissues under the microscope. Inclusion bodies are essentially areas of heavy virus reproduction that are actually visible and unique in appearance. The presence of herpes inclusion bodies confirms the diagnosis.

BLOOD TESTING THE ADULT DOG

The ability of an infected dog to maintain antibodies against canine herpes is variable. Some infected dogs show no antibodies after a couple of months and others have antibody levels persisting for years.  If the history is suggestive or herpes then any herpes antibodies found in the bloodstream would be considered significant. Without the history of puppy loss, the presence of antibodies simply indicates past exposure to the virus. To get a better sense of how acute an exposure might be and whether or not the antibody level indicates active infection, a second antibody level can be drawn 10-14 days later. An active infection will show a fourfold rise in antibody level. In a breeding kennel situation, it maybe useful to know which dogs have been exposed and which ones haven't so that the risks can be assessed. It is only the unexposed females that are at risk for infection during pregnancy and losing the litter. Checking pre-breeding titers is not a bad idea for both the male and female dog.

If the infection is less than 3 weeks old, it may be possible to actually culture the virus from swab from the nose or vagina. In general, confirming herpes infection in a dead puppy is much easier and faster than trying to confirm the infection in the adult dog.

SAVING THE REST OF THE LITTER?

Canine herpes is very bad news for puppies under age 3 weeks of age. Often there is nothing that can be done to stop the sweep of this lethal virus. This does not keep us from fighting, however. Serum from a recovered female dog can be separated and injected into the puppies as a source of anti-herpes antibodies. Warming the puppies may help as the virus cannot survive at body temperature. Antiviral medications such as Acyclovir may help.

PREVENTION

Fortunately, herpes viruses do not live in the environment (it dies at 68º F and is readily killed by common disinfectants); direct contact with an infected host or fresh secretions is needed. Still, once a dog is infected, it will be infected for life. Shedding virus is increased by stress. One more time: all mother dogs should be isolated from the final 3 weeks of pregnancy through the first 3 weeks after birth.  In Europe, a vaccine is available for use during canine pregnancy (one dose at the time of breeding and a second 6-7 weeks later, to be repeated with each pregnancy).

Herpes is only a danger to the puppies when the mother is infected during pregnancy. Once the mother has been infected, subsequent pregnancies should be unaffected as she will have made enough antibodies to keep the virus in check.

Cross-posted with permission
Sherri Chatterton
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An ordinance prohibiting
docking/cropping/dewclaw removal has been passed in Norfolk, Va.
http://wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=6427984

Sec. 6.1-78.1. Cosmetic alterations to companion animals prohibited.

It shall be unlawful for any person to cosmetically alter any companion animal. The only exception to this shall be for procedures performed under proper anesthesia, by a veterinarian licensed in the commonwealth, and certified to be medically necessary to preserve the animal's health and safety by said veterinarian. For purposes of this section, "tail docking", "ear cropping", "debarking" and "declawing" shall be considered cosmetic alterations. "Microchipping", "tattooing", and "ear tipping" shall not be considered cosmetic alterations.