Latest news with #Pomeranians
Time of India
16 hours ago
- General
- Time of India
Animal activist turns messiah for stray dogs
1 2 3 4 5 6 Ranchi: What began as a simple gesture of kindness during evening walks for Archie Sen has grown into a full-blown mission to save the barking but voiceless — stray dogs. A 28-year-old animal welfare lawyer from Ranchi, Archie Sen has dedicated her life to caring for, rescuing, and rehabilitating stray dogs, which have suffered in silence on the city streets. Archie started her journey in 2020 with night-time feeding of the strays along with her father. "During lockdown, the dogs were starving. Everything was shut and people abandoned them. I couldn't look away," Archie, a 2012 alumna of JVM Shyamali and postgraduate in animal welfare law from NLU, said. By 2022, her compassion transformed into action. From just feeding, she began rescuing injured, abused and sick animals. Since then, she has saved over 2,000 dogs across Ranchi. Each of these dogs has a story — a painful reminder of the cruelty they endure. Working closely with animal rights organisations like PETA India and People for Animals, Archie often conducted critical rescue cases in Ranchi and nearby regions. One such case in 2022 brought her to the Jharkhand High Court after she intervened in a rescue operation at a circus in Hatia where six Pomeranians were being kept in inhumane conditions. "It was heartbreaking. These were show dogs, forced to perform and live in cages. When PETA reached out, I stepped in. That case is still being fought in the HC," she said. She said an emotional moment turned her life around. "I saw a neighbour throw boiling water on a dog and her newborn pup. The puppy died hours later. That night, I couldn't sleep. From that moment on, I decided that I wouldn't be a silent spectator," she said . Today, Archie and her father not only feed nearly 500 dogs daily but try to make their life easier. Her home has now become a makeshift shelter for many of these strays. To fund this massive effort, she runs a home bakery, baking specially formulated treats for dogs. "It started small, just to cover costs. Now, it's one of my main sources to run the shelter," she said. "The hardest part isn't just rescuing them, but it's fighting for them. People hit them, throw stones and injure them badly. By the time we get to them, they're often too far gone. The cruelty breaks me, but it also fuels me," she said. Recently, Archie launched her own non-profit PAWC Foundation under which she ran the shelter home for strays in distress. She also juggled between dog-sitting, social media collaborations and online fundraising to keep her mission alive. In 2022, her work caught national attention when she was featured on a show hosted by Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao. "That platform gave my cause a voice. Rajkummar spoke about dog feeding with such empathy that it inspired many people to step up," she added. Looking ahead, Archie dreams of opening a pet hostel, an inclusive space for rescued strays that not only provides shelter but also promotes adoption and long-term welfare. "I want to create a place where no animal is seen as a burden. They deserve safety, warmth and a chance to be loved," Archie added. Ranchi: What began as a simple gesture of kindness during evening walks for Archie Sen has grown into a full-blown mission to save the barking but voiceless — stray dogs. A 28-year-old animal welfare lawyer from Ranchi, Archie Sen has dedicated her life to caring for, rescuing, and rehabilitating stray dogs, which have suffered in silence on the city streets. Archie started her journey in 2020 with night-time feeding of the strays along with her father. "During lockdown, the dogs were starving. Everything was shut and people abandoned them. I couldn't look away," Archie, a 2012 alumna of JVM Shyamali and postgraduate in animal welfare law from NLU, said. By 2022, her compassion transformed into action. From just feeding, she began rescuing injured, abused and sick animals. Since then, she has saved over 2,000 dogs across Ranchi. Each of these dogs has a story — a painful reminder of the cruelty they endure. Working closely with animal rights organisations like PETA India and People for Animals, Archie often conducted critical rescue cases in Ranchi and nearby regions. One such case in 2022 brought her to the Jharkhand High Court after she intervened in a rescue operation at a circus in Hatia where six Pomeranians were being kept in inhumane conditions. "It was heartbreaking. These were show dogs, forced to perform and live in cages. When PETA reached out, I stepped in. That case is still being fought in the HC," she said. She said an emotional moment turned her life around. "I saw a neighbour throw boiling water on a dog and her newborn pup. The puppy died hours later. That night, I couldn't sleep. From that moment on, I decided that I wouldn't be a silent spectator," she said . Today, Archie and her father not only feed nearly 500 dogs daily but try to make their life easier. Her home has now become a makeshift shelter for many of these strays. To fund this massive effort, she runs a home bakery, baking specially formulated treats for dogs. "It started small, just to cover costs. Now, it's one of my main sources to run the shelter," she said. "The hardest part isn't just rescuing them, but it's fighting for them. People hit them, throw stones and injure them badly. By the time we get to them, they're often too far gone. The cruelty breaks me, but it also fuels me," she said. Recently, Archie launched her own non-profit PAWC Foundation under which she ran the shelter home for strays in distress. She also juggled between dog-sitting, social media collaborations and online fundraising to keep her mission alive. In 2022, her work caught national attention when she was featured on a show hosted by Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao. "That platform gave my cause a voice. Rajkummar spoke about dog feeding with such empathy that it inspired many people to step up," she added. Looking ahead, Archie dreams of opening a pet hostel, an inclusive space for rescued strays that not only provides shelter but also promotes adoption and long-term welfare. "I want to create a place where no animal is seen as a burden. They deserve safety, warmth and a chance to be loved," Archie added.
New York Post
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
101 dogs rescued from alleged puppy mill in NC home
Over a hundred dogs have been saved from an alleged puppy mill in North Carolina that was so cramped and dirty that it mirrored a scene from the Disney classic, 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians.' The SPCA of Wake County and Raleigh Animal Control rescued the poor pups from a Raleigh home on June 4 after a complaint, according to the SPCA's Facebook page. 'They were housed in egregious conditions, surrounded by their own waste, packed five or six to a cage and stacked floor to ceiling, or free roaming in cramped quarters and filth,' the nonprofit explained. Pomeranians, Yorkies and Doodle mixes were among those rescued, and according to Scripps, some of the hounds were pregnant or nursing as well. Pomeranians, Yorkies and Doodle mixes were among those rescued from the Raleigh home. Facebook/SPCA of Wake County The team at the SPCA of Wake County is giving the canines some much-needed TLC. Facebook/SPCA of Wake County The SPCA shared photos of the fur babies getting much-deserved pampering two days after the rescue. 'These dogs have been getting the spa day of their lives—and their first taste of fresh air, possibly ever. Our medical team is hard at work treating each dog's individual needs (lots of skin and dental issues), and the matted dirty fur is coming off in heaps,' they explained in a Facebook post. 'We're seeing a lot of smiles from these guys—This is the biggest moment in these dogs' lives, and we are feeling so grateful to be a part of their healing.' On June 10, the organization shared the happy news that the first rescue, Jaime, was adopted after they 'removed two pounds of fur, thick with painful mats.' 'His new mom promises to spoil, love, and groom him the way he has always deserved,' they said in the post.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
101 Dogs Found Crammed into 'Unsanitary Spaces' During Rescue at 'Unassuming' N.C. Home
A pet rescue in North Carolina was called to help rescue 101 dogs found crammed in cages and other small, filthy spaces inside a residence The SPCA of Wake County worked alongside Raleigh Animal Control to transport the dogs out of the house and into recovery Officers from the Raleigh Police Department discovered the neglected dogs after responding to a complaint about the propertyAuthorities rescued 101 dogs from an "apparent puppy mill" in a Raleigh, North Carolina, home, according to a Wake County shelter. The SPCA of Wake County received a phone call on June 4, alerting them to 101 dogs living in "egregious conditions" at one residence. Within the hour, rescuers say they made their way to the property and began escorting the dogs to safety, SPCA of Wake County wrote in an Instagram post. "101 dogs were removed yesterday from an apparent puppy mill inside a Wake County home," the SPCA of Wake County wrote in the June 5 social media post. The nonprofit animal shelter partnered with Raleigh Animal Control to ensure all the animals found on the property were safely transported out of the home. The two rescue agencies found the dogs in cages crammed with 5 to 6 dogs stacked from floor to ceiling in the "unassuming" home, per the SPCA of Wake County's website. The organization also reported that rescuers found uncaged dogs roaming a maze of "tight, unsanitary spaces" inside the residence. All the dogs were found surrounded by their own waste, and some recovered canines included pregnant dogs and mothers nursing their puppies. After the rescue, the SPCA brought 19 of the dogs found in the home to their facility to begin immediately nursing them back to health. "We are working quickly to medically assess each dog and begin providing treatment," SPCA wrote on Instagram. In the photos posted from the rescue, dogs of various ages and breeds are seen with matted fur and in a filthy state. Many of the dogs rescued were a form of "doodle" mix, Samantha Ranlet, a spokesperson for the SPCA of Wake County, told CBS 17 in an interview. Pomeranians, chihuahuas, Yorkies, and many toy poodle mixes were among the breeds found in the house. A golden retriever was among a group of dogs discovered in a locked cage in the back of the house next to another cage filled with golden doodle puppies. "The dogs in our care are being medically evaluated, and some have been moved into foster homes," Ranlet told CBS 17. "They will be placed up for adoption once they have received veterinary care and recuperated. We need to make sure they are healthy and rehabilitated so they can start fresh as somebody's family members." Raleigh Animal Control visited the home after receiving a phone call about chickens living on the property in poor conditions, Raleigh police told CBS 17. When officers arrived on location to survey the property, they discovered the dogs. "During the investigation, officers discovered multiple dogs living in unsanitary conditions," the Raleigh Police Department said in a news release. "All animals have since been placed in various rescues and will face a long road to recovery." On June 6, the SPCA posted an update on the dogs it took into their care. Since their rescue, the dogs have enjoyed a spa day that included baths, haircuts, and plenty of pampering. "These dogs have been getting the spa day of their lives — and their first taste of fresh air, possibly ever," the SPCA wrote in the updated post. The organization also thanked its supporters for all the donations that made this rescue work possible. "Thank you to everyone who has donated or reached out in support of these efforts ❤️ This rescue is a big undertaking, and we can't do it without you." Read the original article on People
Sydney Morning Herald
20-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
At 2m tall, I'm at greater risk of cancer. An elephant could fix that
Kean spoke to researchers scouring the genomes of large animals for clues as to why they're so good at suppressing cancer despite having trillions more cells than we do. Some of what they've found can make human cancer cells self-destruct. 1000 times better at cancer suppression Body size and cancer rates only correlate between members of the same species, not between different animals. For example, little dogs such as Pomeranians, shih tzus and chihuahuas have a 10 per cent chance of dying from cancer while the risk for larger breeds including mastiffs and Burmese mountain dogs is up around 40-50 per cent, a 2024 study reported. If this correlation between size and cancer risk applied across different species, mice would never die from cancer and elephants would barely make adulthood. By one estimate, half of all blue whales should get colon cancer by the time they're 50 and all whales should have it by the time they're 80. But that's not the case. Mice actually have a colon cancer risk comparable to humans, even though they're tiny. About 46 per cent of wild mice raised in a lab, in fact, die from some kind of cancer. Blue whales do get colon cancer but at nowhere near the rates you'd expect for their size. They live as long as we do. So what's going on? 'Peto's Paradox suggests that large, long-lived animals such as the blue whale have evolved mechanisms capable of suppressing cancer 1000 times better than humans,' write Professor Carlo Maley and Dr Aleah Caulin in Trends in Ecology & Evolution. If we could harness the cancer-suppression mechanisms of mega-animals, they argue, 'then we could potentially eradicate cancer as a public health threat in humans'. Peto's paradox disproved? Just as I got excited about the idea of using the cancer-suppressing superpowers of the world's largest creatures to treat human cancer, I came across a new paper that slapped me down. No evidence for Peto's paradox in terrestrial vertebrates, the headline read. The authors analysed a dataset of 16,000 necropsy records for 292 species of mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles and found larger animals did get more cancer. 'We show that there is no evidence for Peto's paradox across amphibians, birds, mammals and squamate reptiles: Larger species do in fact have a higher cancer prevalence compared to smaller species,' they concluded. But other scientists quickly questioned that blunt conclusion. Although the authors did find more cancer in bigger animals, it wasn't enough to disprove Peto's paradox. Most large-bodied animals still had far lower cancer rates than you'd expect. Elephants, for example, had 56 per cent less cancer than the researchers' model predicted. 'The real question is not just whether there is a positive relationship between size and cancer prevalence, but whether this relationship is as strong as expected given the increased number of cell divisions associated with larger body size,' says Dr Antonie Dujon, who's researching cancer and evolution at Deakin University. 'In other words, there may be a positive correlation between size and cancer risk, but if this correlation is weaker than statistically expected, it suggests that natural selection has nonetheless favoured superior anti-cancer defences in large-bodied species.' So, despite the headline, Peto's paradox held up. Scientists remain convinced something powerful is going on within the world's biggest creatures that stops cells going rogue. Here's one way scientists are trying to use that to our advantage. Harnessing elephant evolution to kill cancer Large animals may have evolved to suppress cancer through lower mutation rates, cancer-resistant tweaks in the architecture of their tissue, and immune systems better at surveilling for cancerous cells. One specific example comes from elephants. Circling back to Kean's book about evolution, she writes that humans have an inbuilt defence against tumours in the form of a gene called TP53. Loading The gene codes for a protein called P53 that triggers cancerous cells to 'self-destruct' and repairs damaged DNA. Humans have two copies of the gene in each cell. But elephants, the largest land animals, have 40 copies. The elephant versions are seemingly more powerful at suppressing cancer than the human version of the gene, too. Only 5 per cent of elephants die from cancer compared to a quarter of humans. Now several teams across the globe are scrutinising these elephant genes with a long-term view of harnessing them for targeted cancer therapies. It's very, very early days for this research, but scientists have used the genes to kill the cells of a cancerous bone tumour that affects children during growth spurts.
The Age
20-05-2025
- Health
- The Age
At 2m tall, I'm at greater risk of cancer. An elephant could fix that
Kean spoke to researchers scouring the genomes of large animals for clues as to why they're so good at suppressing cancer despite having trillions more cells than we do. Some of what they've found can make human cancer cells self-destruct. 1000 times better at cancer suppression Body size and cancer rates only correlate between members of the same species, not between different animals. For example, little dogs such as Pomeranians, shih tzus and chihuahuas have a 10 per cent chance of dying from cancer while the risk for larger breeds including mastiffs and Burmese mountain dogs is up around 40-50 per cent, a 2024 study reported. If this correlation between size and cancer risk applied across different species, mice would never die from cancer and elephants would barely make adulthood. By one estimate, half of all blue whales should get colon cancer by the time they're 50 and all whales should have it by the time they're 80. But that's not the case. Mice actually have a colon cancer risk comparable to humans, even though they're tiny. About 46 per cent of wild mice raised in a lab, in fact, die from some kind of cancer. Blue whales do get colon cancer but at nowhere near the rates you'd expect for their size. They live as long as we do. So what's going on? 'Peto's Paradox suggests that large, long-lived animals such as the blue whale have evolved mechanisms capable of suppressing cancer 1000 times better than humans,' write Professor Carlo Maley and Dr Aleah Caulin in Trends in Ecology & Evolution. If we could harness the cancer-suppression mechanisms of mega-animals, they argue, 'then we could potentially eradicate cancer as a public health threat in humans'. Peto's paradox disproved? Just as I got excited about the idea of using the cancer-suppressing superpowers of the world's largest creatures to treat human cancer, I came across a new paper that slapped me down. No evidence for Peto's paradox in terrestrial vertebrates, the headline read. The authors analysed a dataset of 16,000 necropsy records for 292 species of mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles and found larger animals did get more cancer. 'We show that there is no evidence for Peto's paradox across amphibians, birds, mammals and squamate reptiles: Larger species do in fact have a higher cancer prevalence compared to smaller species,' they concluded. But other scientists quickly questioned that blunt conclusion. Although the authors did find more cancer in bigger animals, it wasn't enough to disprove Peto's paradox. Most large-bodied animals still had far lower cancer rates than you'd expect. Elephants, for example, had 56 per cent less cancer than the researchers' model predicted. 'The real question is not just whether there is a positive relationship between size and cancer prevalence, but whether this relationship is as strong as expected given the increased number of cell divisions associated with larger body size,' says Dr Antonie Dujon, who's researching cancer and evolution at Deakin University. 'In other words, there may be a positive correlation between size and cancer risk, but if this correlation is weaker than statistically expected, it suggests that natural selection has nonetheless favoured superior anti-cancer defences in large-bodied species.' So, despite the headline, Peto's paradox held up. Scientists remain convinced something powerful is going on within the world's biggest creatures that stops cells going rogue. Here's one way scientists are trying to use that to our advantage. Harnessing elephant evolution to kill cancer Large animals may have evolved to suppress cancer through lower mutation rates, cancer-resistant tweaks in the architecture of their tissue, and immune systems better at surveilling for cancerous cells. One specific example comes from elephants. Circling back to Kean's book about evolution, she writes that humans have an inbuilt defence against tumours in the form of a gene called TP53. Loading The gene codes for a protein called P53 that triggers cancerous cells to 'self-destruct' and repairs damaged DNA. Humans have two copies of the gene in each cell. But elephants, the largest land animals, have 40 copies. The elephant versions are seemingly more powerful at suppressing cancer than the human version of the gene, too. Only 5 per cent of elephants die from cancer compared to a quarter of humans. Now several teams across the globe are scrutinising these elephant genes with a long-term view of harnessing them for targeted cancer therapies. It's very, very early days for this research, but scientists have used the genes to kill the cells of a cancerous bone tumour that affects children during growth spurts.
