Action too late for one victim

SAN FRANCISCO
Since two large dogs mauled a woman to death in her apartment building in this city, officials are planning to contain loose dogs inside fenced-in areas in public parks. To date, although there are leash laws in the city, authorities have not done much to enforce the laws and many wonder if the new laws will change that mindset. The new laws have divided the city into pro-legislation and anti-legislation groups, each vocal in their cause. But authorities think that it is just a matter of getting people used to city requirements. Making the laws may be much easier than getting the city's dog owners to comply.

BRITAIN
There is a new idea for holidays with your dog in Britain this year - the Dog Days Activity Holiday. Based in Fife, the holidays feature such activities as orienteering, canoeing, line dancing (I'd like a photo of the dogs participating in that one - Ed), with special sessions such as grooming, aromatherapy and behaviour consultations. Prices are based on one person plus their dog, and start at 120 pounds for two days of activities.

CHINA
Zhang Luping began rescuing dogs only a few short years ago, but at the time she was constantly worried about her charges as the police and authorities could at any time force entrance into a house and beat dogs to death. Today she gets co-operation from authorities and police, and runs a rescue centre with two cat houses and six dog houses. There is also a classroom that instructs school classes on the care and welfare of dogs and cats. Zhang has sacrificed even her own home for the centre, but says that she has grown spiritually and through training the children to love and care for the animals the sacrifice has been worthwhile.

TAIPEI
Ping Fu, 74, has kept some 270 stray dogs on a rented property in the foothills of Yangmingshan for the past three years. His lease was due to expire last month and Ping has nowhere to move his dogs. He retired 10 years ago and has often relocated with his dogs. He moved to his current site with two other stray dog keepers but the owner is now determined to make Ping and his dogs leave his land saying the termination was final. Ping said.

"I have found a smaller vacant lot but it will cost me a lot more than I can afford." Ward chief Chang said a new extension should give Ping enough time to move out. "Especially, as Ping began keeping more and more stray dogs, causing the neighborhood some problems. We have never protested against Ping, let alone tried to chase him out of this region. If we wanted to do so, we would have three years ago," neighbours said. "Grandpa Ping is a kind old fellow, and their is nothing wrong with keeping stray dogs. As long as he can keep the environment clean, it is fine with us."

Ping spends almost his entire monthly pension, NT$16,000, on food for his dogs who consume roughly 4720 kilos of food per month, though his pension is only enough to buy 720 kilos. The Universal Animal Protection Association sponsors the other 4000 kilos.

PENNSYLVANIA
Research at the University of Pennsylvania has for the first time reversed congenital blindness in dogs. Dogs that were born blind are now able to see after scientists injected new genes directly into their eyes. Doctors say they suspect that the type of therapy could be used on both dogs and people suffering from the type of blindness that is caused by deterioration of the light-detecting retina at the back of the eye. If all goes well with the dog studies the process could be used for humans within a few years. The doctors have said it is hard not to become excited about this research, as the dogs were blind, but now can see. The work was done initially with three blind briard dogs. Thou-sands of viruses were injected directly into the eyes of the dogs. The viruses had been genetically engineered by scientists at the University of Florida to transport healthy versions of the required gene to the dogs' disfunctional retinal cells.

Where to place the gene-stuffed viruses was a problem so the dogs' left eyes were injected at a spot distant from the retina - which was found to have no effect - and the right eyes directly behind the retina, very close to the retinal pigment epithelial cells where the gene does its job.

Before long, all the dogs had vision in their right eyes, proving the placing of the genes to be vital. Researchers are thrilled with the dogs' progress - all are still seeing very well, nine months after they were treated, and no ill effects have been recorded. However, the experts say they can not rush into any human experiments too quickly. "We must keep monitoring the dogs to be sure the effect is long-term and there are no accompanying toxicity problems in the eyes or any other parts of the body." If the process proves safe, it may also work for other kinds of retinitis pigmentosa, using viruses stuffed with the appropriate genes.