Veterinarians

As the city of Los Angeles spends millions revamping its animal shelters, 10 of 12 veterinary positions in the Department of Animal Services, including that of chief veterinarian, go vacant. The lack of veterinarians has raised questions about the department's ability to care for the thousands of animals under its charge. It is especially notable given the stated priorities of the department's general manager, Ed Boks, whose promises upon taking the job a year ago included more humane treatment.

A U.S. Navy C-130 plane flew a two-ton elephant Monday from Thailand to Sri Lanka, ending a four-year-old jumbo transportation problem. Thailand gave the male elephant, weighing 3,977 pounds, to Sri Lanka as a gift four years ago, but veterinarians refused to authorize shipment by sea. No cargo plane big enough to carry the elephant was found until the U.S.

The Orange County Health Care Agency has appointed Dr. Kristi Fisher manager of veterinary services at the county's animal shelter. Fisher is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Assn., the Southern California Veterinary Medical Assn. and the American Assn. of Feline Practitioners. She previously worked for the Cat Care Clinic in Orange. Fisher, a Rancho Santa Margarita resident, has a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from UC Davis.

Jet, the black Labrador retriever that crossed the country while trapped in a boxcar, flew home from Oregon Thursday courtesy of Delta Air Lines and thumped his tail at the sight of his young mistress. "Hey, Jet," said Amanda Stroup, 8, of Waco, N.C., as the dog pawed the door of his pet carrier, pushed out and wagged his tail and licked her face and hands. "He looks just like he used to--a little skinny, though," she said. Jet staggered from a boxcar in Portland on Jan.

Natalia Bendik was told that there was no anesthetic available to perform surgery on her 17-year-old dog, but the clinic had a muscle relaxant that would at least immobilize him while his painful tumor was removed. As the drug was administered, Bendik said, the animal went into convulsions, then began to struggle for breath. "He was shivering all over, and his eyes were wide open. He couldn't breathe. The dog died, and the death was horrible," she said this week, angrily brushing back tears.

--The famed Paris Opera House is a beehive of activity in more ways than one. While mezzo-sopranos and tenors sing inside, more than 10,000 worker bees create gallons of honey on the roof. Jean Pocton, the Opera's beekeeper and manager of its employee cafeteria, has raised bees above the heads of opera lovers for six years. The urban bees, which have to contend with polluted air and hungry Parisian pigeons, seem to do as well or better than the bees Pocton keeps in the country.

There are many reasons to get a dog (because your kid keeps bugging you for one?) but becoming more healthy doesn't usually top the list. Maybe it should. A new study finds that dog owners not only get more exercise by walking their dogs but they tend to be more active overall.  The study examined 5,902 responses from the 2005 Michigan Behavioral Risk Factor Survey. Of the 41 percent who were dog owners, 61 percent of respondents said they walked their dogs at least 10 minutes at a time and 27 percent said they walked their dogs at least 150 minutes a week.

Don't tell anyone, but we have fleas. Indicative of the trouble in Los Angeles this year is the complaint of Montebello veterinarian O.W. Estafanous. "We never had a worse problem," he said. "We used to spray the dog once a week and he'd be OK. Now we are spraying the dog more often and we have a worse problem." But veterinarians and researchers have a message for pet owners: Not to worry, they say. Most of the commercial remedies--the dips, powders, bombs and shampoos--will make a flea flee.

A crackdown on pet parenthood is boosting business at some local veterinary clinics, more than two months before a tough new ordinance takes effect. Starting Nov. 15, the city of Los Angeles will drastically hike licensing fees and other charges for unsterilized dogs and cats. At Valley Animal Hospital in Van Nuys, Dr. James Haubert said spaying and neutering is up 10% to 20% since the City Council approved the fee hikes in March.