Awards to Petside's Bloggers

It’s time to give credit where it’s due… our resident pet bloggers, Amy Shojai and Jo Singer, have each been bestowed the honor of writing awards this month! Amy will be honored by the Cat Writer’s Association in Atlanta, and Jo received the Marketplace Premier Writer Award from helium.com. It’s not easy writing about pets. Often, the task is to write without bias on topics about living creatures for whom for passion one might easily consider laying down to die for. Then, there is the task to discern what might make news to an animal lover vs what might be considered trivial to the general public. For example, is a tsunami more important than puppy mill violations? Does the battle over adoption versus purebreds supersede the Wall Street crash? Despite the tough decisions, both Amy and Jo have provided petside with consistent, up-to-the-minute and fair reporting. Pets and good journalism share equal space in their hearts…and on top of that they are really nice people! I thought I’d bring forward a news item that gives me the creeps. I know it’s Halloween, but I think the topic of killer bees (Africanized bees) is genuinely frightening. Perhaps it’s because I recently saw a documentary that showed how these bees operate: In a nutshell, some temporary beekeeper in Brazil, in 1957, accidentally allowed a bunch of killer bees to escape. They went on to terrorize communities and currently there is real concern with uncontrollable populations which have spread to Mexico, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida and Southern California. As someone who caries an extra can of Backyard Raid in my bag during summer, I really can’t fathom the idea of a gang of bees, who at the slightest disturbance…could be a small as a sneeze ten yards away…will compile a posse and chase you as far as 5 miles, smother your face and upper body until you …well…let’s just say, I managed to WALK 5 miles for a charity last week but run? From angry bees? What does this have to do with pets? A 70-year-old woman was injured last week, and three dogs are dead after a swarm of bees terrorized a neighborhood in South Florida. Rescue crews removed 50 pounds of honeycomb from the side of a home in Palm Beach County after the attack. The bees swarmed Nancy Hill and her two dogs. Hill was treated at a hospital, but the dogs died. The bees also attacked two other dogs in the neighborhood. One of those died and the other was injured. Lab tests should determine whether the bees were Africanized bees. Either way, if you go to seethe movie The Secret Life of Bees now in theaters, don’t be fooled into thinking beekeeping is risk-free, and please, watch out not only for yourselves, but for your pets. Post a comment if your pet has ever been stung?