draggonlaady

I've never understood why someone would buy a dog (or horse, or any other animal) they've never met, and it blows my mind how many puppies I write health certificates for that were sold by emailing pictures and will be loaded on a plane and flown to someone who's never even seen them them, let alone interacted with them. Personality is far and away the most important thing I want to evaluate in deciding whether to bring home a new critter. Anyway, here's another reason to insist on meeting the dog first:

A warning for internet users: an online scam targeting pet-lovers is circulating the web, and it could cost you more than a new pet.

Eric and Amanda Potcovick fell victim to the scam earlier this month. The Angola couple had recently lost their 13-month-old boxer puppy, and in their search for a new pet, they stumbled across an online ad that caught their attention.

The ad was posted to a local online classified website by a man who claimed he was living in Florida. The seller said he had recently moved to Miami, and couldn't keep his dog due to his new living conditions. He was willing to give the Labrador Retriever puppy named Dely away for the cost of shipping, which was $220.

The Potcovick's emailed the man saying they were interested in dog. The man quickly wrote back, telling them about a pet carrier service he planned to use to ship the dog. The couple took a look at the website, and decided to seal the deal.

But before the couple had even sent out the money for shipping, they received an email stating the puppy was on its way.

"We thought that was kind of funny, said Eric Potcovick. "We didn't have any confirmation, like a phone call, saying they're sending the dog. But we thought well, if he sent the dog we don't have any other choice, the dog is coming now."

The couple sent the delivery service $220 by way of Western Union. That night, they began preparing for their new puppy to arrive. They went to the store and bought a cage, bed, and other items to help the dog feel comfortable. But on the morning the puppy was scheduled for delivery, the couple got a call from the pet carrier service.

"There was an issue. They would not release the dog to the delivery person to bring the dog down unless we had this paper."

The paper was a release stating the dog was in good health. The delivery service told the Potcovick's to send another $820 or risk losing the dog.

That's when the couple realized they'd been scammed. They told the person on the other end of the phone the deal was off. But the caller kept calling, becoming more aggressive each time.

"He kept calling me saying the dogs here," said Amanda Potcovick. "Making me feel like this poor dog is sitting somewhere unattended."

When the caller realized the couple wasn't sending the extra $820 he threatened to turn them into authorities and charge them with animal abandonment.

"We didn't know if something was really going to happen to us. We didn't know if we could get in trouble."

That's when they decided to call police. Authorities were at their home in less than an hour. They looked at the emails, the website, and tried to trace the phone calls. Officials determined the entire thing was a scam.

Officials told the Potcovicks this type of scam is getting more and more popular, however, very few people turn it in to authorities. Tonight they're urging anyone who thinks they've been scammed on the internet to contact police immediately. By doing so, officials can monitor the frequency and location of each incident.

The Potcovick's story does have a happy ending, though. The couple now has a new labrador puppy named Parker. They went to a breeder and picked him out themselves... and brought it home the very same day. They say they don't plan to make any online purchase anytime soon.

From http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=72397&provider=gnews

Caught this floating about in the web-tubes. Don't bother forgiving the horrid grammar, spelling and capitalization, I didn't do it.

Recently someone had to have their 5-year old German Shepherd dog put down due To liver failure. The dog was completely healthy until a few weeks ago, so they Had a necropsy done to see what the cause was. The liver levels were unbelievable, as if the dog had ingested poison of some kind.

The dog was kept inside, and when he's outside, someone's with him, so the idea of him getting into something unknown was hard to believe.
My neighbor started going through all the items in the house. When he got to The Swiffer Wetjet, he noticed, in very tiny print, a warning which stated "may be harmful to small children and animals.."
He called the company to Ask what the contents of the cleaning agent are and was Astounded to find out that antifreeze is one of the ingredients (actually, he Was told it's a compound which is one molecule away from antifreeze.)
Therefore , just by the dog walking on the floor cleaned with the solution, then Licking its own paws, it ingested enough of the solution to destroy its liver.

Soon after his dog's death,his housekeeper's two cats also died of Liver failure. They both used the Swiffer Wetjet for quick cleanups on their Floors. Necropsies weren't done on the cats, so they couldn't file a Lawsuit, but he asked that we spread the word to as many people as possible so They don't lose their animals..
This is equally harmful to babies and small children that play on the floor a lot and put their fingers in their mouths a lot.
PLEASE, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT HAVE BABIES, SMALL CHILDREN OR OWN A PET; PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON! YOU MAY NOT HAVE ANY CHILDREN OR PETS BUT SOME OF YOU HAVE FRIENDS OR FAMILY WITH PETS AND ALSO FAMILIES WITH GRANDCHILDREN AND GREAT GRANDCHILDREN.

My response:

It's extremely unlikely to be true.
Off the top of my head and responding only to what's here first:
1: True stories told by people who are really trying to get true things out there as a true warning include names and relations, not "someone"
2: Antifreeze doesn't cause liver failure, it causes kidney failure
3: Small amounts of antifreeze in a large dog rarely even make them ill, let alone kill them. The only time I've heard of "licking it off their feet" being enough of a dose to cause concern is in cats that walk through puddles of it--much smaller body weight to dose, and cats are more prone to kidney problems anyway.

Now, some quick looking things up. First, the Swiffer Info page:
http://www.swiffer.com/swiffer/en_US/wetjet.do
http://www.swiffer.com/swiffer/en_US/products/manual/swifferownman_booklet.pdf
Couldn't find a list of ingredients, but I cannot imagine a usefulness of ethylene glycol in a cleaner. It has several fairly standard warnings: "keep out of reach of children and pets", "avoid contact with eyes" that are not specific and are found on pretty much any cleaning product.

Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/swiffer.asp
Snopes actually got the MSDS and turns out the primary ingredient in the cleaner is water. There is propylene glycol in it, which is totally different than ethylene glycol. We use proylene glycol as a dilutent for concentrated oil-based medications because it is inert
and safe. It's how I manage to use horse-strength medications on canaries.

Snopes also quotes a couple passages from Proctor and Gamble's FAQ page, directly addressing the concern of animals drinking the cleaner; they say that even drinking large amounts would be expected to cause only mild and short acting stomach upset.

At the very end of the snopes article is this statement:
"Given this message's similarity to a different, unfounded, warning email about another Proctor & Gamble product, Febreze, we'd have to consider the possibility that someone with a grudge against Proctor & Gamble is maliciously trying to damage the company by deliberately spreading false information about their products."

So there you have it. Swiffer all you want.