Paw Prints the Magazine

What We Think

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This section is our personal blog, The Paw Prints “Opinion Pages” if you will. Every newspaper has an op-ed section and this is ours. I mean really, if Arianna Huffington, Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, Dennis Miller, and countless others can rant and rave we thought what the heck, so can we. Heck, the last four digits of Dennis Miller’s studio call-in line is R-A-N-T.

Since this is an opinion section we feel we must say up front that the following pages are OUR OPINION! If you don’t like it, don’t read it. If you want to comment, good or bad, go ahead. All we ask is that you please be civilized… If we’re not polite, we get to be that way, it’s our website.

I honestly can’t believe I have to preface an opinion section like that but if I didn’t, there are many who would vilify us and say we’re biased, attacking something or someone, using “sick” journalism or a myriad of other things. Guess what folks, that may be the case, it’s our opinion.

So to read our ramblings, rants, praises, and things that make us think “WHAT THE #%@& WERE YOU THINKING?” click on any of the links below.

* WARNING – the following pages may not be suitable for children, so parental discretion is advised. They also may not be suited for anyone that thinks everything and everyone having to do with pets is all nicey-nice and peaches and cream.

05.16.2012 – My ads don’t work and it’s your fault.

Getting an ad to work whether it is in print, radio, online, TV or even a billboard takes talent, timing and money. There is so much involved in coming up with an ad campaign and designing an ad that is good. That is why 90% (that is just my humble percentage) of the ads you see or hear aren’t worth spitting on. There is bad ad after bad ad that runs on television. Radio ads are even worse. The bad print ads stick out like a sore thumb.

Much of the problem for small/micro businesses is that they have no clue what they are doing and for the most part local publishers and sales people have even less of a clue. There are droves of local publications circulating in every city. The publisher… Read More

04.28.2012 K.U. student, Carrie Elaine Scanlon, honors me and Bark For Life in a class journalism project.

Dogs, owners go the extra mile in the fight against cancer

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Carrie Elaine Scanlon

Keegan, a ten-year-old Border collie and Shetland sheepdog mix, stands calmly as if glued to his owner’s side, paying close attention to his every move. Keegan’s bond with Dale Smith, his owner, brings a new meaning to the old saying that a dog is a man’s best friend. When Smith, publisher of Paw Prints Magazine, was diagnosed with stage-four squamous cell carcinoma… Read more

02.29.2012 – An idea introduced to a population almost always fades away.

Paw Prints generates 100% of its revenue from the sale of advertising to businesses that would like to promote their products and services. Because of that we are always on the look out for new ideas and information. You really can’t be an expert in your field unless you are always educating yourself. There is so much information out there it can be difficult to keep up with. If you can keep up with it, it can be taxing on one’s brain to digest all of it. We subscribe to various blogs and email newsletters from all over and every once in a while we see something that really catches our attention… Read more

02.21.2012 – No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

A local pet store donates to a shelter and both the  business and the shelter are bashed for it.

A Facebook post celebrating a donation to a shelter turned into quite the thread yesterday. A Kansas City area pet store (yes, this store sells both pet supplies and pets), ran a long fundraising campaign inside their business asking their customers to donate to a local animal shelter.

01.06.2012 – How does advertising really work?

For anyone out there that owns a business and thinks advertising doesn’t work (which in the small and micro business community is 99% of you), I am going tell you a quick story on how advertising actually works in the real world. This event happened today, 01.06.2012.

We have had a co-host on the air with us once a month for about six months; Dr. John Rowe, the owner of Aid Animal Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri…

06.09.2011 – Do Metro Pet Magazine’s Policies Hurt Pet Charities?
There have been many darts thrown at me the last couple of years. All of them directed my way for speaking my mind when it comes to animal charities, shelters and rescues, even though Paw Prints has supported ALL local animal charities since our inception in 2004. Paw Prints, whether in print, online or on the radio has whole heartedly embraced our unique position as a media outlet for the pet community. We never intended intended for Paw Prints to be a platform for anyone’s particular agenda; our only agenda was to inform, educate and entertain the pet owner. Over the years we…

03.21.2011 – What Not To Do!
This will be lesson for any business owners out there on what NOT to do.

I just came back from a sales/introduce myself call on a brand new business. My experience there was less than inviting. I’ll set this up for you from the beginning.

We received a message from a friend of ours who happens to own a PR firm. I am leaving the business name out because I don’t feel it is my place to spread bad PR about this company.

10.29.2010 – Pet Friendly My Butt!
I just saw that Livability.com just came out with their Top Ten list of the MOST pet friendly cities in the US and once again, and not surprisingly, Kansas City MO (our hometown) is no where to be found.Here are the rankings from one to ten…
… I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with the rankings but what I find disgusting about the article and the rankings are the…

10.11.2010 – A sad State Of Affairs
The way people react anymore is a sad state of affairs. It started with the hate mail we received after questioning how events are put on and promoted; now it goes beyond that.

We sent out a press release last week announcing a new partnership we have with adoptapet.com. We received a comment that really surprised us.

10.09.2010 – Kansas City Wizards kick the canine on this one.
Community America Field, the Kansas City Wizards vs. the Seattle Sounders, televised game, sold out stadium of over 10,000 people. All of that sounds like the makings of a great atmosphere for a pet event to raise money for some animal shelters. You would think so.

In 2006 the Kansas City Wizards and Paw Prints The Magazine sat down and came up with what we all thought was a really great idea, bring your dog with you to a Wizards soccer match.

10.05.2010 – You sound like a broken record
We received an interesting, and flattering phone call yesterday. A very nice lady called us to inquire about pet sitters that serviced Olathe. After pausing from shock from the question, we get these calls quite often and it always amazes us, we began with our usual response, “Do you have internet access?

09.30.2010 – Ignorance Runs Amuck
Once again I was amazed at the ignorance that seemingly runs amuck in today’s world.

For six years we have offered our photography services and media coverage to any non-profit organization in the animal welfare community. If an organization has a fundraiser we gladly give them a free listing on the Calendar of Events page on our website as soon as they contact us with the details. We talk about the upcoming event and the organization on the radio. Continue reading

09.29.2010 – Don’t poop on my parade.
A Facebook friend, Lance from North Carolina, brought this topic up today and since Paw Prints loves to talk about poop, and I have had some personal experience with the subject, I am going to give you my thoughts.

The subject is people who let their dogs defecate in their neighbor’s yard. First of all, who are these people? They take the dog for a walk, thinking they are being a good pet owner, and on their journey the dog, with out fail, has to poop.  The owner then leads the dog into your yard, lets the dog poop, and then keeps walking. Are you kidding me? Continue reading.

09.28.10 – My cup runneth over
The last couple of weeks were a bit rough on me mentally. I wrote a piece on a comparison of a couple of pool closing events that started a backlash of hatred toward me personally. Now I am a big boy and must say, I can handle pretty much anything thrown at me. I feel now though I must speak my piece, my cup hath runneth over so to speak.

I was sent a seething email by a person involved with a local pet business. This person pissed and moaned about how I attacked an event, I hurt people’s feelings, I twisted facts, this person hoped I had harm come to me because of it, called me “money grubbing”, I was only interested in “lining my pockets”. Informed me how journalism really works, (this from someone who isn’t in the profession of journalism), said I made someone cry… It went on and on and this person wanted to make sure that everyone he or she spoke to would be aware of my “hateful tactics”. Continue reading