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I kick off my Steve Dale’s Pet World WGN radio show with John O’Hurley, one half of today’s broadcast team of the Beverly Hills Dog Show presented by Purina, seen today – Easter Sunday – on NBC, 1 PM ET, Noon CT, 10 AM PT. Listen HERE as O’Hurley tells me why he’s talking to…

Cats have not always had it so great In Mexico, considered by some historically to be vermin or just an annoyance. “Indeed, many people in Mexico and have historically treated cats like the very vermin they help to control,” says Janice Chatterton, founder of the SPCA Puerto Vallarta. Cats in Mexico weren’t spay/neutered, much less taken…

When we think comparative medicine, how animals can be used to study medical issues that impact people, we typically think about dogs. Indeed, increasingly, dogs are being used to study cancers.  In general, dogs are far better models than lab rats.   In the 1980’s the fear about HIV-AIDS was so extreme that cats with FIV…

Cari Meyers of the Puppy Mill Project offers a quick update on the efforts of Illinois’ Will and DuPage counties to move to prohibit the sales of dogs and cats at pet stores HERE on WGN Radio. She also explains why that’s important. And, the ultimate goal is to go state-wide with this type of…

The Lincoln Center has rooms to screen films, often documentaries or art films. I suspect with the hundreds or more films presented over the years, this is the first one ever about a kitten with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). These young and clearly outrageously talented New York City-based actors, Paul Castro Jr. and Aly Miller,…

The dog flu outbreak in Ohio continues, but the influenza virus doesn’t pay attention to state lines. As recently as 10 days ago, the bug began to creep into Michigan. Now, it’s settled into the Saginaw County Animal Control facility to such an extent that they’re being forced to temporarily shut their doors. In various…

Older dogs have older brains, and as our dogs are generally living longer, there’s an increased risk of canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome, which is nearly identical to Alzheimer’s in people. In fact, as veterinary behaviorist Dr. Valarie Tynes points out, cognitive decline in dogs is so similar to cognitive decline in people, researchers are using…

I love being on the radio with Bill Leff and Wendy Snyder on WGN radio. I always have much to talk about, often commenting on my own blog posts. And that is just what I did here. Listen HERE as I kick off with World Gorilla Day, which was September 24. I recall my experiences…

With help from my eager and poised assistant Anna, we demonstrate how to teach a dog the “sit” command. The pupil is Hazel (of course, she already knows how to sit but was happy to play along to get cookies).

I began talking about environmental enrichment at veterinary and animal welfare conferences about 15 years ago, and now those two words are on trend. Environmental enrichment is providing suitable outlets to meet a specific species’ environmental needs. Those needs vary, depending on the species. A meerkat will have different needs than a lowland gorilla, which will…