Event completed: view photos of the sale here: 2009 Pumpkins For Pooches
We had so much fun last year...
That we're doing it again this year...
Come join us for the 2nd annual
"Pumpkins for Pooches"
MOBC Pumpkin Sale to benefit the
Briard Medical Trust
at the
Warren Farmers Market
City Square Park, Warren, Michigan
Sunday, October 18, 2009
from 9am to 2pmMap to the Park
The Michigan-Ohio Briard Club will offer pumpkins for sale to raise money for the Briard Medical Trust, a 501(c)(3) health trust that distributes funding to established research institutes to support research into diseases that affect Briards. The AKC Canine Health Foundation (CHF), the largest non-profit health foundation that exclusively funds research into canine disease and its treatment, will match dollar-for-dollar any donation we make to the Briard Medical Trust.
Understand that funding research for diseases that affect Briards also helps all dogs. Most canine genetic disease is not exclusive to one breed, and advances made in the diagnosis and treatment of disease in one breed advances its diagnosis and treatment for all breeds.
Interestingly, research on canine health and disease holds out hope for the diagnosis and treatment of human disease (please see "Briards Helping Humans" below).
The pumpkins are being grown by a Michigan-Ohio Briard Club member and her husband. They have been growing pumpkins in the backyard of their (very) suburban Sterling Heights, Michigan home for several years. They were thrilled to have the opportunity to donate their pumpkins to such a worthy cause.
Briards Helping Humans
UPDATE
October 26, 2009: The gene therapy explained below has been again used on humans, this
time on children with Leber's congenital amaurosis, again with dramatic results:
One Shot Of Gene Therapy, And Children With Congenital Blindness Can Now See
Recently, research into a rare genetic eye disease that affects Briards (and has been virtually eliminated through the judicious selection of breeding stock) has helped restore sight in several young men and women afflicted with a similar genetic eye anomaly as reported in the Philadelphia Enquirer in April, 2008. Note: Unfortunately, the article is no longer available, but below is a pertinent excerpt
"In 1997, scientists at the National Eye Institute found a mutation that caused a rare subtype [of retinitis pigmentosa] that strikes children, called Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA). They began to try to induce these mutations in mice in order to figure out how to fix them.
Then, in 1998, Cornell University's Gregory Acland and Gustavo Aguirre--now at Penn--reported that the same mutation occurred naturally in a certain breed of dog, the Briard.
In 2000, Bennett and Maguire joined them in a pivotal experiment. They injected three blind dogs with a virus - one that had been modified to deliver the recipe for a missing enzyme in their eyes.
Within weeks, the dogs' vision improved more than anyone had hoped. They could see so well they could navigate a maze.
By 2006, Maguire had performed the surgery on 55 blind dogs, restoring vision in more than 90 percent of them."
In December of 2007, Dr. Maguire successfully performed the same surgery on a twin brother and sister who shared the genetic mutation that caused progressive blindness. Their sight, too, had improved more than anyone had hoped.
Briard Medical Trust
Please visit the Briard Medical Trust for more information about Briard health issues, current research into conditions that affect Briards, and how you can help. If you are an Amazon shopper, please visit the Medical Trust's "Shop 'Til You Drop" Amazon portal. Up to 8% of each purchase made by accessing Amazon through this portal will be donated back to the medical trust and used to fund research.