Dog’s death cues algae-toxin tests

A Cleveland-area lab told Metro Parks officials yesterday that it detected toxins produced by algae in a Three Creeks Metro Park pond where a dog drank water and later died…

..Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, are common in Ohio lakes and streams but grow thick in water after feeding on phosphorus from manure, fertilizer and sewage that wash into waterways. The algae can excrete liver and nerve toxins that can sicken people and kill pets, fish and wildlife.

A preliminary Ohio Department of Agriculture report concluded that the dog died of severe anemia attributed to internal blood loss consistent with a bleeding disorder. The report said algae blooms can produce toxins causing liver damage that affects blood clotting, but rat poison can also affect it…

…Metro Parks also will test water samples from lakes at Prairie Oaks and Battelle Darby Creek metro parks, Deputy Director Larry Peck said. Dogs swim in those lakes.

Peck said he didn’t know the concentrations of toxins found in the Heron Pond water but that they were at potentially lethal levels.

The fatality was the first reported pet death in Ohio this year that might be associated with a toxic-algae bloom…more

Gov. John Kasich picks Sen. Tim Grendell for judicial vacancy in Geauga County, ending contentious appointment process

Sen. Tim Grendell, courtesy Plain Dealer photographer John Kuntz

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Sen. Tim Grendell will leave his post in the Senate to fill a judicial vacancy in Geauga County.

Gov. John Kasich picked Grendell for the job…

… One applicant for the job said he heard rumors that Kasich was under pressure to appoint Grendell because other Republicans in the Senate were tired of dealing with him.

"I heard that not from the governor's office, of course. Certainly that was the rumor mill that went on throughout the state of Ohio," said Ed Ryder, who applied for the judgeship and is the Geauga County GOP chairman. "That doesn't seem like much of way to make an appointment from my standpoint."…

Grendell and Ryder also clashed when Grendell turned down the House seat he won last November. Ryder criticized Grendell for manipulating the election system by running for another office, winning it and then changing his mind, remaining in the Senate…

… Senate Republicans will now have to find a replacement for Grendell, a state lawmaker for the last 11 years…more

Buck Shot

… Solon employed professional sharpshooters for four years to thin its herds. It was costly at $345 to $570 per deer…

…An initiative headed for the town's ballot this November, organized by a vocal national activist group*, calls for a total repeal of Solon's culling ordinance…

…The Metroparks spent nearly half a million dollars over five years experimenting with a contraceptive vaccine but concluded it was not effective enough and it was difficult to deliver to free-ranging herds in large numbers.

Nonsense, says Lane Ferrante, Ohio state director of the League of Humane Voters. Her organization is largely responsible for this November's "Solon Deer Preservation Act" — the ballot initiative against lethal deer culling in Solon — and an initiative that repealed Broadview Heights' culling ordinance last year. She thinks Ohio should pursue deer birth-control methods and calls Cleveland Metroparks' concern about over-browsed vegetation threatening other wildlife habitats "a bunch of propaganda."

Ferrante doesn't believe there's an overpopulation problem. At the same time, she insists that deer culling results in a "rebound effect" that actually increases herd sizes…

…"Urban hunting is about backroom deals between hunters and the Department of Wildlife aided by legislators," says Ferrante…

…Ferrante's group was Broadview Heights Mayor Samuel Alai's worst nightmare…

…"They ran a great campaign; I'll hand it to them," Alai says…more

* Note: The League of Humane Voters of Ohio is a chapter of a national registered nonprofit 527 political action committee, not an “activist group.”  Membership is open to animal lovers and currently free for Ohio residents.  Click here to join!

Cleveland women accused of abandoning dogs located; Bay Village draws protest over animal services: Animals in the News

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A tip from a Cleveland.com metro blog reader helped the Cleveland Animal Protective League locate two women accused of leaving a puppy locked in a bathroom and a dog chained to a tree after they were evicted from their rented Cleveland home…

…cost of veterinary care so far is $6,000. Donations can be made at dogsunlimitedrescue.org, where the group posts updates on the dogs' progress…more

2 women accused of abandoning dogs in Cleveland: Animals in the News

Will

found chained to tree behind a vacant house,

is being treated for heartworms

(photo courtesy Dogs Unlimited Rescue)

Both women are charged with cruelty to animals and abandoning animals, first-degree misdemeanors…more