NAIA Official Blog

The hygiene hypothesis, even if you don’t know it by name, is probably a familiar concept. The idea is that the rise in allergies observed in wealthy countries is tied to a decline in rural living, and lack of childhood exposure to various animals, infections, and allergens. This doesn’t mean children should be outside all day playing with cow pies, of course. Hygiene is important and protects us from numerous maladies. However, the idea that there is a downside to being exposed to a less diverse collection of microbes as we develop is appealing, and many researchers feel there is merit to it.

And now, more than 30 years after the hypothesis’ popularization, research from the Fukushima Medical University is providing data to back up this concept… well, kind of.

Researchers took data from 100,000 pregnancies between 2011-2014, and compared the food allergy rates of kids born into households with pets compared to those that were not. As you might expect, kids in houses that had dogs and/or cats showed less sensitivity to foods like eggs, milk, nuts, soybeans, and wheat. But don’t get smug, pet owners! As is so often the case, it’s not so simple as “keep a pet and reduce your child’s odds of suffering from a food allergy.” Dogs and cats aren’t the only animals kept as pets in Japan. Terrapins are also a common household pet, but children with terrapins showed no different rate of allergies than kids raised without pets. Further, keeping hamsters seemed to increase the rate of nut allergies for kids. Given how terrifying nut allergies can be, such findings could give expectant parents pause when it comes to raising their kids alongside hamsters!

Fortunately for the hamster’s reputation, these findings are still in the early stages, unclear in many cases, and easily confounded. But nevertheless, as an organization that supports pet ownership as well as rigorous science, it is exciting to see the hygiene hypothesis pursued with real data (even if the final outcome isn’t as pro-pet as we’d hoped)!

Resources
★     Associations between fetal or infancy pet exposure and food allergies: The Japan Environment and Children’s Study
★     (2013) Want to Fight Allergies? Get a Dirty Dog

Even before the pandemic, complaints from potential adopters about overly stringent, intrusive, and seemingly arbitrary – even nonsensical – adoption requirements from rescues and shelters weren’t uncommon. Now, screening in and of itself is an important tool when applied sensibly. It helps protect animals, adopters, shelters, and the public. But putting up unnecessary barriers between pets and permanent, loving homes runs counter to the spirit of rescue.

And since the pandemic, for a multitude of reasons, these barriers have become all but impenetrable in some shelters. Today, we are seeing a growing number of accusations that shelters are “warehousing” adoptable pets for months, or even years on end, as well as stonewalling potential adopters and eager volunteers.

For the Humane Society of New York, a no-kill shelter, an animal rights activist raised charges of warehousing, which led to interviews and a news investigation that showed the humane society is only adopting out about one animal per week in 2023. The organization placed much of the issue on renovating their facility, but they also brought up the need for adopters presenting a “good application,” reviewing adopters before they can even meet the animals, and the importance of a “exactly the right forever home.” As a city council member pointed out with apparent frustration, the renovations are taking an unusually long time, and this is a slow pace for such a well-funded organization. Again, screening and standards are invaluable, but if we only allow “exactly the right” pet owners to have – or even come near! – adoptable animals, all that means is fewer pets in homes. If you are housing 30 dogs and cats, and 75 people have applied to adopt them, maybe that’s a good thing! And assuming these applications are generally acceptable and you are still only willing to adopt out a trickle of these animals, it certainly raises a lot of questions about the organization.

Animal rights activist raises concerns about Humane Society of New York’s pet adoption process

Resources
★ Why animal shelters are facing a new crisis
★ Animal shelter accused of neglecting 150 pets

On Wednesday, after a string of failed health inspections, overcrowding, and substandard animal care, the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) ordered Unleashed Pet Rescue, a Kansas pet shelter, to surrender its rescue license. Many of the shelter’s failures appear tied to simple math: too many dogs = too little care. So, it’s no wonder that the city broke its partnership with Unleashed Pet Rescue last week, or that KDA ordered the shelter to stop taking in animals on Monday.

The shelter’s issues have been percolating for some time – long enough to cause a local TV station to launch an investigation last January. This is the same shelter that imported 26 dogs from Egypt in 2019 – a shipment that included a rabies-positive dog, and another dog that escaped, which led to quarantines and 44 people taking rabies postexposure prophylaxis.

And despite its revenue of $2.3 million in 2020, it appears that Unleashed Pet Rescue did not provide basic animal care. In any case, it sounds like the KDA made the right call here.

Resources
★ State agency investigates Kansas City-area animal shelter after complaints
★ CDC Extends Suspension of Dog Imports from Countries with High Rabies Prevalence

A supremely nasty anti-dog breeder bill, SB 1492, was recently introduced in Florida. There is nothing particularly new in this bill. It assumes that breeders are cruel, unethical, money-grubbers. It also labels dogs “breeding female” on the assumption that the only reason someone wouldn’t choose to spay their dog is because they intend to breed them. Further, it has no problem saying we need to spay dogs at six months old, despite the well-known health and behavioral consequences associated with spaying and neutering dogs while they are still puppies.

Then there are the registration fees and warrantless home inspections that, as the Canine Chronicle points out, even convicted felons, rapists, and murderers are not required to submit to. Oh, and let’s not forget the somewhat opaque conditions under which a dog can be seized, that “breeding facilities” have to post their addresses online (opening them up to criminal activity and harassment), and, of course, that anyone who has a litter is now a “breeding facility.”

That’s not everything, but you get the idea. It’s like the goal here was to make a greatest-hits compilation of every bad breeder bill ever proposed or passed. Feels like the early 2010s all over again – what a heinous mess! Ugh.

Anyhow, as you have likely surmised, we strongly oppose Florida SB 1492, and NAIA Trust will be fighting against it.

Resources
★     Florida SB 1492
★     The growing debate over spaying and neutering dogs

A recent photo story in the Wall Street Journal shared some gorgeous dog pictures and some very predictable news on Greyhounds the other day. In the United States, Greyhound racing has faded in popularity over the last half century, a decline capitalized on and greatly accelerated by the actions of animal rights activists, legislators, and other interest groups.

Correlating with the drop in popularity and availability of the sport was a rise in “racetrack rescue” Greyhound adoptions, but we’ve reached a point where – surprise! – there are now more people who want to adopt Greyhounds than there are available Greyhounds. Further, there are also fewer reputable breeders maintaining these dogs… and to get one of their puppies, you’ll need to hop on a waitlist and fork over a lot of money! Meanwhile, there are concerns that “cash crop” breeders will fill in the void, capitalizing on the popularity of this beloved breed (they aren’t numerous like Labradors or Frenchies, but the people who love Greyhounds really adore them – and will find a way to get one), while rescues have modified their business model by switching to importing retired racing dogs from countries where the Greyhound racing is popular. If this all seems so very familiar, it’s because, well… it is.

Resources
★     Once One of America’s Favorite Pastimes, Greyhound Racing Eats Dust
★     ‘Ethical conundrum’: sending retired Australian greyhounds to US rescues some – but at what cost?