Careful what you feed your pets over Christmas

Just 50g of chocolate can be toxic and kill a dog. This was the pre-Christmas dinner warning from the RSPCA Qld’s Senior Veterinarian Dr Anne Chester.

“Onions can also be toxic”, she warned. “Even the small amounts contained on pizza slices. People often give their family pet the barbeque left overs and more often than not there are onions mixed in with the meat. For some dogs this can be a fatal oversight.”

The festive season for many of us involves eating to excess and it’s natural to want to share some of the leftover foods with out pets. However if there is a sudden jump in the amount of fatty foods consumed by your pet, this could lead to future health problems such as pancreatitis.

Also ensure you feed your pets raw bones only as cooked bones are “brittle and sharp pieces and either lodge in the throat or pierce the stomach lining” Dr Chester warns.

So remember, avoid chocolate, onion and cooked bones for your pets and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Posted in Pet Health and Wellbeing | No Comments »

Bid to save poodles from the doghouse in Canberra

Article: Canberra Times – Bid to save poodles from the doghouse
15th December 2008

This article talks about the struggle an elderly couple is facing in order to keep their three poodles in an inner-city apartment building in Canberra as the complex’s owners’ corporation is taking them to court this week.

As usual on the topic of living/renting with pets, there has been some heated comments on the article but let’s move past these and get to the facts.

Despite what some people may think about having pets in apartments in Australia, one commenter Marg (an owner at the apartments) nailed it when she talked about the importance of building a community and the often vicious viewpoints of the minority which threatened to create tension and ill will in complex. The worst part about this whole thing is there is not a major incident which started it, no lists of complaints from owners or neighbours. Just the complex owner’s corporation fear about what ‘might’ happen should the dogs be allowed to stay.

The facts about this case

Is there a ‘No Pets’ policy for the apartments? No, an application process exists. Therefore, it is at the Executive committee’s discretion to allow the pets.

Is there a flood of complaints from neighbours, owners? Doesn’t appear so, or at least in wasn’t reported in the article and Marg, one of the owners mentioned that none of the owners have been consulted about this.

Is there overwhelming evidence that the owners are wonderful responsible tenants and have taken every possible step to ensure their pets do not impact others? Yes! The dogs are not a noise nuisance, are toilet trained (artificial turf on the balcony), are walked regularly and a local RSPCA officer even confirmed that the pets environment was great and that the animals were well cared for!

Therefore, I cannot see what the problem is! What issues is this actually causing, apart from “future potential issues” in the minds of the Executive committee?

As we all know, Europe and the US seem to more than cope with pets regularly living in apartments so perhaps in Australia, the problem lies not with the pets themselves, but with owners who are not willing to consider the viability of a more pet friendly living environment in Australia.

It’s time we moved past the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) regarding living with pets and let’s start focussing on the benefits and how to solve any real issues that do exist.

Posted in Animal Welfare/Rescue, Media | No Comments »

It’s raining kittens – Adopt a kitten now for Christmas

Christmas is a time of joy and celebrations for many, but for some of the hundreds of kittens in the care of the RSPCA QLD looking for a home, this Christmas might be the first and last one they ever see.

This time of year is particularly challenging for RSPCA shelters because it’s cat breeding season and the State Government could certainly be doing more.

Michael Beatty from RSPCA QLD had this to say:

“We’ve been lobbying the State Government to make cat de-sexing compulsory but they keep putting it in the “too hard” basket,” continued Mr Beatty. “Every year we get thousands of kittens throughout the State who are literally “born to die. Last year we were forced to euthanase over twelve thousand cats and kittens because of peoples’ basic irresponsibility.”

Let’s hope one of the State Governments New Year’s Resolutions is to give this issue more attention and taking a look at banning pets for sale at pet stores and markets would also be a good idea.

So if you are looking to adopt a kitten, please first ensure you realise the full ramifications and challenges that owning a cat may present and if you’re still keen, then go to RSPCA’s Adopt a Pet website and begin the search as soon as possible.

Posted in Animal Welfare/Rescue | No Comments »

Landlords urged to drop ‘no pets’ policy

ABC News: Landlords urged to drop ‘no pets’ policy
December 4th, 2008

This article on the ABC News website appeared on the 4th of December, generating a huge debate over the renting with pets issue. It’s great to see articles such as this getting mainstream media attention as animal surrendering rates still on the increase with a lack of pet friendly rental accommodation cited as the number one reason.

As comments were closed by the time I found out about the article, I thought I’d throw my 2c in here.

The bottom line – This must be about responsible tenanting!

Despite the various arguments for allowing pets or not allowing pets in a rental property, when we really start getting to the bottom of it, this debate MUST be about responsible tenanting, not about pets. This allows us to move past strong emotional based viewpoints (for and against) and to focus on something that landlords, property managers and all responsible tenants and pet owners can agree on.

Pets don’t wreck homes, irresponsible tenants do!

Yes, of course pets can cause significant damage to homes, but so can kids, and so can irresponsible adults, particularly when alcohol is involved. The fact of the matter is that a responsible pet owner who treats the home as if it were their own is likely to cause no more damage than the next person. Or in any case, any damage that is caused by the pet will be rectified.

Yes, I would agree that having pets in a rental would potentially increase the chance of damage to a property, but the only way to totally prevent your property from being damaged at all is to not rent it in the first place. Renting will always bring about circumstances that put a property in harms way, that’s just the way it is.

What are we doing about it?

We’re currently working on educational resources that aim to ensure pet owners are being the best possible tenants, as well as promoting the key benefits to landlords and property managers about making a property pet friendly. Our resources will help highlight the pet owners that are doing everything right while providing avenues for other pet owners to start putting their best foot forward.

It’s also my view that the majority of pet owners are great and responsible tenants, but it’s the minority of cases (and bad experiences) that have left landlords and property managers with bad taste in their mouth.

So what’s the way forward?

We’re not on anyone’s side as the only way this situation can truly improve whereby is pet owners and landlords/property managers both make efforts to help one another.

We just hope that we can play an important part in making it easier to find rentals that allow pets, as well as helping to make more of them available in the future through education and awareness.

Posted in Announcements | 7 Comments »

Pet Resume Service coming in Feb 2009

With the assistance of the wonderful people (Tim, Tamara and Susie) at the Petcare Information and Advisory Service (PIAS), I’ll be developing a Pet Resume system that will help you create the best possible application when applying for rentals.

Applying for rentals can be stressful and time consuming and we want to give pet owners an easy and effective process for creating most of the necessary documentation required in the application process.

It covers not only information about your pets, but also includes hints and tips for how to stand out from the crowd and what agents are looking for when choosing tenants. This is something so many you have asked me to develop and I’m glad that it’s finally underway, thanks to the team at the PIAS.

Got any ideas about what a pet resume should contain? Just leave a comment below.

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Pet Friendly Rentals featured in Your Pet Magazine

The Spring/Summer edition of Your Pet Magazine is now available and features an article about the struggles renting pet owners are facing and how Pet Friendly Rentals is working hard to make a difference.

As we do not have a marketing or advertising budget, we rely heavily on word of mouth in order for people to hear about the service and this article will hopefully find it’s way into the the hands of those that desperately need assistance.

A big thank you to Janice Holland, Editor of Your Pet Magazine and Tricia Wiles from Purrfect Pawtraits Photography.

Posted in Announcements | 1 Comment »

Pet Friendly Rentals on Channel 9′s Extra program

Pet Friendly Rentals appeared on Channel 9′s Extra program on the 6th of October and I finally received a copy of the footage so anyone who missed it can see the segment below.

A big thank you to the Channel 9 Extra team who did such a fantastic job putting the story together and to Fiona Fisher (and Mischa) for being available at such short notice.

Posted in Announcements | No Comments »

It’s time for pets to come first!

Hi everyone,

This blog post is likely to be one of the most important I have ever written. It’s about making a stand against something that no pet owner should ever have to experience: surrendering their animal because they can’t find a pet friendly rental property in which to live.

As many of you who have been with me from the start will know, I have battled for a long time with how I could make my ideas for Pet Friendly Rentals come to life. In June this year I developed and released a small but significant piece of software which was the first step towards achieving this goal.

Because of this, pet owners Australia-wide can search for pet friendly rentals across several suburbs in minutes instead of hours, greatly increasing their chances of finding a suitable property. And while I’m happy with this progress, there is still so much more to be done.

With this in mind, I remembered something that a friend once asked me: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid and if you knew you would succeed?” The answer, of course, is that I would take my vision for all that Pet Friendly Rentals could be and give it everything I have (and more).

And that’s exactly what I’m now going to do – once and for all – and my plan is that by January 2009, Pet Friendly Rentals will essentially become my full time job!

What does this mean for Pet Friendly Rentals?

In order for me to be able to give Pet Friendly Rentals the time and effort it deserves, I will need to introduce a one-off charge of $9.95 for people to download the extension. This will help pay for the time it takes me to keep the tool working and to continue to develop it over time.

I’ve also decided to allow other businesses to advertise on the site. The details are still being determined but feel free to contact me if you’re interested as I will only have a limited amount of places available and at this stage, advertising will start on the 1st of November.

I’m also investigating the possibility of selling a limited range of pet products, toys and Pet Friendly merchandise on the site – partly to promote the Pet friendly Rentals brand and mission, but also to help raise the funds I need to devote enough time to this cause.

What are the benefits?

I have such a great vision for what Pet friendly Rentals can become and I know how desperately this service is needed. If the funds generated from all these avenues are enough for me to devote myself to this full time, I will be able to develop the existing extension so it will work with other real estate web sites (not just realestate.com.au) in a fraction of the time it would take if I was only able to work on it in my ‘spare’ time. I could also fulfill my plan of integrating the Pet Friendly Rentals site with features such as ‘Developing your Pet Friendly Resume’, ‘ Viewing my recent listings’ and many other features I have been wanting to introduce.

The software extension aside, there are also many other activities I need to undertake in order to make Pet Friendly Rentals all it can be. This includes liaising with real estate agencies to improve the number of pet friendly listings they make available, educating home owners on the tangible benefits of renting to pet owners, building a national database of pet friendly private homes and carer facilities. And that’s just the beginning.

Many wonderful people and organisations are doing a lot of this already and by using my web development and technical skills, I want to add strength and a new dimension to this important campaign.

How can you help?

I know this move will surprise many people and you can’t underestimate how much I wish I could just do this for free in my spare time, but that choice would come at too great a cost to all those pets out there that need a pet friendly home now… not next week, not next year, but right now. It’s time for pets to come first!

If you want to help me achieve my goal of dedicating more of my time to this vital cause, spread the word about Pet friendly Rentals to renting pet owners everywhere. Together I hope we can help prevent the unthinkable happening to them.

Cheers,
Ryan

Posted in Announcements | 5 Comments »

Firefox 2 users, please upgrade to Firefox 3

The Pet Friendly Rentals extension was released on June 2nd 2008 and at this time, Firefox 2 was the latest version of the browser available.

Since then, Firefox version 3 has been released which contains many important performance and security enhancements so I strongly recommend you upgrade as soon as possible.

How to tell if you need to upgrade?

In Firefox, from the top menu, go to Help, then select “About Mozilla Firefox”. If the window that pops up indicates that you have any form of version, e.g. 2.0.0.16, then you will need to upgrade.

How to upgrade

Go to http://www.getfirefox.com and click on the large green button to download Firefox 3. Once downloaded, install it, following the instructions you’re given. Firefox 3 will automatically take care of importing your old bookmarks and compatible extensions, including Pet Friendly Rentals. This means that when you next open Firefox, the Pet Friendly Rentals extension will already be there.

If you experience any problems, post a comment below.

Cheers,
Ryan

Posted in Announcements | No Comments »

New version of extension available!

Well it’s been a while between drinks as they say but the Pet Friendly Rentals Firefox extension gets it’s first batch of improvements today as I upgraded some of the software components it relies upon, as well as fixing a few bugs that stopped the watermark image displaying on the listings in Firefox 3.

Essentially, this is a maintenance release with no new functionality but I have some great new features planned that I hope to start work on mid September.

How to upgrade

Firefox will automatically check for updates every so often so you should get the upgrade soon but if you want to upgrade immediately:

1. From the top menu, go to Tools.
2. Click on Add-ons. A window will popup.
3. Then click on the Find Updates button at the bottom left of the window.

A quick update

Although the site hasn’t changed much since the launch on the 2nd of June, a fair bit has been happening behind the scenes with the Animal Welfare League on the Gold Coast, RSPCA QLD and Your Pet Magazine helping out with some promotional efforts that should see the light of day soon.

With most of my time taken up with the development of the website and the Firefox extension, marketing and promoting of the site often get forced to the back of the line so if you know of someone who could benefit from this website, make sure you let them know!

Before I go…

I recently went into a pet store near where I live at Wynnum to get some treaties for Tonka, when out of the blue one of the assistants blurted out “I found a rental through your website!”. I remembered telling the staff of the store about my idea just after I had launched it and it was so wonderful and rewarding to hear how someone found and acquired a rental as a result of Pet Friendly Rentals.

So if you have a similar story you’d like to share, please either email me at ryan.blunden@petfriendlyrentals.comau or leave a comment for this post. It’s stories like these that really make my day, as saving pet’s lives is why I started this project in the first place.

Cheers,
Ryan Blunden

Posted in Announcements | 2 Comments »