Top 10 Posts of 2017

Every December I like to share the most popular posts of the past year. The date is especially significant because December 31st is my eighth blogiversary!

Bunny's Blog began as an extension of my activities on Twitter in 2009. A group of animal-loving tweeps joined together each month to raise funds for animal charities all over the world. In late 2009, a new group called BlogPaws was forming, and I joined to learn more about how blogging could help.

I attended the first BlogPaws conference in 2010, and I jumped into blogging with both feet. My professional experience in fundraising and my love of animals made focusing my blog on animal-related causes a natural fit.

Study indicates therapy dogs provide benefits to families of children undergoing cancer treatment

Dogs have long been called mankind's best friend, but a major new scientific study now indicates that a dog may also be a family's best friend in times of their greatest need.

Following seven years of pioneering research, American Humane, the country's first national humane organization, revealed the results of its long-awaited "Canines and Childhood Cancer Study," the first and largest randomized, controlled clinical trial to rigorously measure the effects of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) in the field of pediatric oncology.

The results, published in the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, furnish evidence that regular visits from a therapy dog can provide significant psychosocial benefits to families of children undergoing treatment for cancer.

Senate unanimously passes animal cruelty bill

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, S. 654, earning praise from the Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Legislative Fund.

As the first-ever general federal animal cruelty bill, the PACT Act builds on the federal animal crush video law enacted in 2010, which banned the creation, sale and distribution of obscene videos that show animals being crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or subjected to other forms of heinous cruelty.

The PACT Act, led by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will prohibit those same extreme acts of animal cruelty when they occur in interstate or foreign commerce, regardless of whether a video is produced, and those convicted of such abuse will face federal felony charges, fines and up to seven years in prison. The measure also makes bestiality a federal criminal enterprise.

American Humane delivers a ton of love to the Humane Society/SPCA of Sumter County

American Humane, the country's first national humane organization, and Chicken Soup for the Soul worked together this week to literally deliver a ton of love in the form of 2,000 pounds of nutritious free food to the animals at the Humane Society/SPCA of Sumter County in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida.

The donation is part of an ambitious national campaign called "Fill-a-Bowl … Feed-a-Soul" to help care for shelter pets waiting for their forever homes.

Together, American Humane and Chicken Soup for the Soul are distributing hundreds of thousands of meals of premium, all-natural Chicken Soup for the Soul Pet Food to U.S. shelters, which house and care for millions of animals each year, and the organizations are striving to reach a goal of one million meals.