KC DOG BLOG

Two year old toddler dies from dog attack (2 weeks ago)

This story is a couple of weeks old, but I do want to get it recorded.

In the incident, 23 month old Jace Paul Valdez and his mother had recently moved into his mother's parent's home in rural Montgomery County, TX. While his parents were away, the boy was left alone with his grandmother and her dog. Apparently, the grandmother left the child alone to sleep and the dog, described as a 'pit bull',  entered the room where the toddler was and killed him. There were no witnesses to the attack so no circumstances behnd the attack (outside of the toddler and dog being left alone together without supervision - -especially when the child was relatively unfamiliar to the dog).

It is a tragic story that could have been avoided by being sure all interactions between the toddler and the dog were supervised.

While this story has been picked up by nearly 100 news outlets, some have been fairly educational about pointing to the responsibility of monitoring canine interactions and rightfully not turning this into a breed issue.

My heart goes out to the family in this incident.

New Research Paper - Dog Bite Prevention: An Assessment of Child Knowledge

I spend a fair amount of time on this blog writing about dog bites, and how breed-specific legislation is not the solution to lowering them. And unfortunately there still some who don't want to dive any deeper than "breed" when it comes to bites.

Fortunately, there are other researchers who are doing deep dives to get us more information about bites and how to prevent them. And this study, entitled "Dog Bite Prevention: An Assessment of Child Knowledge" is a good first step.

The report uses a mix of older and newer data (I have some issues with a few of the numbers, but the overall point is still right)-- but essentially notes a lot of information that points to children, ages 5-9, being at far more risk than of being bitten by a dog that most other Americans.

These bites, which often occur to the head, face and neck sometimes have long-lasting injuries -- some of which are phyisical, and many emotional.  According to information they got from the Amerian Society of Plastic Surgeons, there were more than 30,000 reconstructive procedures performed for dog bite injuries in 2009 - -and roughly 16% of all bite cases end up infected. On study (from the United National Children's Fund Alliance for Safe Children) says that dog bites are the #2 cause for children to have to seek medical attention.

In spite of this, the authors note that dog bite prevention education is often ignored -- and hus, they wanted to get a read on how big the gap is in dog bite prevention education.  And it's pretty big.

The study measured statements made by both parents and children (in separate interviews). It was a convenience sample, so it may or may not be truly representative. Of the sample of children ages 5-15, 11% of the children were at the hospital for a current dog bite. 23% were reported to have ever been bitten by a dog. Previous or urrent dog ownership was reported by 72% of the parents/guardians.

A test on some basic dog safety information (which could be subjective, but I think most trainers would agree with most of the study questions/answers), only 57% of the children passed the very basic test.

Significant indicators of passing the test were:

-- Child age, with older children performing better -- children gained .25 in score for every year older they were

-- Parental age -- with older parent having their children perform better

-- Children with non-white parents tended to perform more poorly (children with white parents performed just under a 1 point higher on the test than children with non-white parents.

Among the parents, only 27% said their child had ever recieved proior dog bite prevention education and 88% agreed that they and their children would benefit from this type of education.  But here is the rub, only 26% said they knew where to go to receive dog bite prevention education -- and most thought the right place to receive this was at the pediatrician's office and the Emergency Department.

No significant relationship in passing came from other sociodemographic information or child's gender, level of parental education, household income, dog ownership or previous dog bites in the family.

I don't think most of the results are terribly surprising -- and it seems logical that better understanding of dog bite prevention techniques would cause children to act more safely in their interactions with dogs. While current dog owners would seem to be a recipe for better education, these children are also a bit more at risk because a significant percentage of dog bites happen in the home. 

I think maybe the biggest aha here is that there is a huge need for dog bite education in children -- and such information would likely decrease dog bites to children in these age groups. It is also interesting the huge lack of awareness of even where to find good dog bite prevention information -- which provides a huge opportunity for the animal welfare, veterinary and medical communities to get together to create good information packets available at pediatricians offices (something recommended a decade ago by the AVMA). It is also exciting to see that so many parents are interested in getting dog bite education for their children -- and pretty telling how important this is for younger children.

While dogs remain safe additions to our families, many people simply lack some basic knowledge that would help them minimize risks. Education can be a key component to helping bridge this gap....but takes diving a little deeper into the information about canine behavior and human interactions with dogs. 

Dog Attack Fatalities 2011 Final Report

I've stated this before, but I think it bears repeating. This is probably my least favorite thing I write about on this blog. I've often thought about discontinuing writing about dog attack fatalities because frankly there is so much POSITIVE stuff about dogs that I'd rather write about and there are some really cool things going on in the animal welfare world that are worth spending the time on.

On the flip side, there are really only a couple of sources that cover dog bite fatalities. One, the National Canine Research Council, does VERY thorough and detailed work, but it isn't very timely as they usually take a full year of follow up to get their report. The other, dogsbite.org, has no clue about canine breeds, or behaviors, and would rather sensationalize and falsify information to create hysteria as opposed to relaying accurate, actionable information.

So, in the spirit of timely and mostly accurate information (as accurate as my reliance on media accounts can be), I continue to write this report.

Before I get into tallying the information, I think there are several key things that are worth mentioning:

1) Fatal dog bite-related incidents are extremely rare. We live in a society where there are about 75 million dogs living in homes. Dogs share our beds, our couches and our hearts. However, each year, about 30 of these 75 million dogs are involved in fatal incidents. This number is microscopic and each incident is astatistical anomaly. Each year, about 124,000 people die from accidental deaths.  The vast majority of them (42,000) are from motor vehicles, 23,000 are from accidental falls and some 30,000 are due to poisoning. So .02% of all fatal accidents are from dogs and .00004% of dogs are involved in fatal incidents. It happens, but it's exceedingly rare. Meanwhile, humans kill millions of dogs in this country every year due to our own failures.

2) Given the rarity of fatal dog bites, it is obvious that most dogs, regardless of breed, are not aggressive. Even if every single incident involved the same breed of dog, and that breed was a very rare breed, the majority of the dogs of that breed would still prove themselves to be sound dogs. Thus, it is imporant to look very closely at the actual circumstances that surrounded each individual dog attack -- including the importance of what role the people involved in the equation had in leading up to the attack. Circumstances are critical to understanding and preventing these incidents. 

3) Media reporting on this subject varies wildly, with some incidents getting little to no media attendion and others getting carried by hundreds of media outlets. Often, breed is a component of the 'newsworthiness" of these attacks.

4) The vast majority of my data, including the breed ID, comes from media sources, so with them comes the inherent ID issues that come from visual breed mis-identification and media mis-reporting.  I've done my best to cut through the hysteria to get accurate info, but there will be some inaccuracies based on mis-reporting.

5) In several instances I've included some information on poverty levels where the attacks occurred. I don't include this to imply that low-income people are not good pet owners. Many, in fact most, are. However, low income areas are generally that way due to poor education levels -- and often, poor formal education also leads to lower education on things like proper ways to keep and harbor dogs and more educational resources may be necessary in many of these areas.

So with that, the following is the list of US fatal attacks in 2011 and some key elements behind the attack. If you click on the victim's name, you can get a more detailed report of the incident written by me earlier in the year.

1) Linda Leal, 51, Calusa, CA, "mixed breed pit bull".  Leal suffered from a variety of medical problems, including having liver cancer. Leal was apparently attacked by one of her two dogs. While one of her dogs was known to be aggressive, it was in a pen in the back yard. The other dog, that was loose and did not have a known history of aggression, is the one that is believed to have attacked her.

2) Makayla Woodard, 5, Waxhaw, NC, 2 'pit bulls'. The dogs belonged to a neighbor, Michael Gordon (who was just recently released from jail after serving a 10 month sentence for a felony break in). Just the month prior, police had been to Gordon's home to discuss issues with him letting the two dogs roam at large and they were apparently roaming at large in this instance as well. Another neighbor had called authorities about the dogs noting that the dogs appeared to be underfed and malnourished. It is also worth noting here that according to reports, the Department of Social Services had ben called "3 or 4 times" on Makayla's family regarding supervision and health issues with the girl.  More than 100 media outlets covered the story.

3) Kristen Dutton, 9, McCormick, SC, Akita. The dog was purchased by the family 3 weeks earlier and had spent a fair amount of time with the victim. Apparently the girl was in the back yard with the dog while the dog was attached to a cable. The victim's grandfather went outside to check on the girl and found her with a fatal injury to her neck.  The community where this happened is a small community with a poverty rate of more than double the national average.  30 news outlets reported on this. 

4) Ronnie Waldo, 51, Pontotoc County, MS, 3 pit bulls. Waldo was fixing a hot water heater at some rental property he rented from Casey Swanson. During the repair, Waldo went up to Swenson's home to get a relay switch and was attacked by 3 'pit bulls' -- two of which were chained at the time. Swenson says he doesn't know why Waldo was on his property because there were "beware of dog" signs all over the property.  There was also a young litter of puppies on the property.

5) Sirlinda Hayes, 66, Dillon, SC, 2 Rottweilers. The victim was in her front yard tending to her garden when she was attacked by two Rottweilers that were roaming at large. Neighbors report that the dogs often got loose. Dillon, SC, is a small community with a poverty level more than double the national average -- and this was, strangely, the 2nd fatal dog attack in the community in 6 months which is just amazing for a small community of 6500 people. The incident was reported by 250+ news outlets.

6) Howard James Paul, 76, El Paso, TX, unknown. The victim was a homeless man that was tragically killed after being attacked by a pack of wild, mongrel dogs.

7) Darius Tillman, 10 days old, Kalamazoo, MI, 'pit bull'. The child's mother laid the infant down for a nap and then went into a separate room to take a nap of her own. While everyone was asleep, the dog pushed the door open to the room and bit the infant and mortally wounded him.

8) Vanessa Elizabeth Husmann, 3, Hopkins, IA. 2 Rottweilers. The girl was in the back yard of her grandparent's home and was attacked by two Rottweilers. She was being 'supervised' by her 18 year old half brother who did not notice her going outside where the dogs were. The family often used the Rottweilers as breeding dogs. The story was picked up by 30 media outlets.

9) Annabelle Mitchell, 7 months, Frankfort, ME, Rottweiler. The young infant was asleep while the child's mother was passed out in another room (she reportedly had a blood-alcohol content of .3 -- 4x the legal limit) and tested positive for THC, the active ingredient in maijuana. While the child was asleep, and mom passed out, the dog bit and killed the young child.

10) Virgil Cantrell, 50, Ardmore, OK. Unknown. The man apparently approached the home and was attacked by a dog that was chained to the front porch. The dog was described as a 'pit bull', but video footage showing dogs on the property showed other dogs on the property that were mixed-breed mongrels living in pretty horrible living conditions. There had been previous bite reports at that addresss. Ardmore has a crime rate more than double the national average, and it seems likely that the dog was serving as a guard dog for the property.

11) Margaret Salcedo, 48, Truth or Consequences, NM. 4 'mixed breed pit bulls".  Four dogs, described by the media as "mixed breed pit bulls' but never identified by anyone in any authority, were left roaming at large for a weekend while the owner was out of town. The dogs apparently attacked Ms. Salcedo and killed her. Truth or Consequences has a poverty rate nearly double the national average.

12) Jayelin Graham, 4, New York, NY. Cane Corso. A mother went outside to her car to get the keys she left in the stroller she left behind and left her four children, aged 10 months, 2, 4 and 5 alone with the family's two dogs, a Cane Corse and what was described as either a German Shepherd mix or a Husky mix depending on the source. While the mother as away, the Cane Corso jumped on top of the 4 year old and fatally injured the boy. The mother's boyfriend, Damien Jones, owned the dogs and apparently had a rap sheet that included busts for weapons possession, kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment. Neighbors reported that Jones actively trained the dogs to be aggressive. The story was picked up by more than 300 news outlets -- most of them calling the attacking dog a 'pit bull' before authorities reclassified it.

13) David Haigler, 38, Spotsylvania, VA, 'pit bull' -- the victim was found dead in his home by his 18 year old son. The man had a rap sheet, including being sentenced to 7 years in prison in 2003 for an incident in which he was involved in a high speed chase and ended up repeatedly ramming a Spotsylvania deputy's cruiser and pulling a gun on an officer. He had also been convict of possession of cocaine.  There was also a second dog in the house that was chained up inside the house and not involved in the attack. This story was picked up by more than 175 media outlets. Police ran a toxicology report on the victim but no results were ever announced.

14) Roy McSweeney, 74, Putnam County, FL, 2 mixed breed dogs. McSweeney was out gardening when two dogs attacked him. The media reported the dogs to be "pit bulls", but then posted photos of the dogs and they appear to just be mixed breed dogs of unknown breeds based on the posted images. The two dogs had been in an incident 18 months ago as well, but local authorities did nothing about the dogs at the time of that attack.

15) Salvador Miguel Cotto, 6 months, Chesterfield, VA. American Bulldog mix. The infant was left alone with the family's deaf dog and the dog bit and killed the child. The dog was described by the media as both a Dogo Argentino and an American Bulldog mix, but the rescue organization that adopted out the dog says it was most likely an American Bulldog mix. The story was picked up by only 17 news outlets.

 16) Michael Naglee, 1, Tillamook, OR, American Bulldog. The toddler was at a fourth of July gathering with his family. The boy was in his grandmother's lap when he began to squirm and so the grandmother put him down on the floor near where the dog was relaxing. The dog lunged and bit the infant -- and the wound proved to be fatal.

17) Darla Napora, 32, Pacifica, CA, Pit bull. Napora was home alone with her two family 'pit bulls' and was apparently attacked by one of the two dogs. There is little to no information about what led to the attack which was covered by more than 20 media outlets across the country.

18) James Dowling, 4, Hot Springs, AR. Rottweiler. The young bow was staying at his grandfather's house in Ozark, AR. The dog jumped a 4 foot tall chain link fence that it was sectioned off in part of the yard and attacked and killed the boy who was in the other area of the yard playing alone. Ozark, AR has a very high poverty level that is nearly double the national average.  The story was picked up by 2 media outlets.

19) Addyson Camerino, 9 days old, Clarkton, NC, mulitple dogs of mulitple breeds. The child was killed by any one or combination of 5 different dogs that lived in the home (all are defined as very different breeds of dogs but no conclusive breeds were ever given). Clarkton has VERY high poverty rates, more than double the state averages.

20) Carmen Ramos, 50, Philadelphia, PA, at least one of 5 different 'pit bulls'. Ramos' husband found his wife dead after being attacked by one or more of the 5 dogs living in the home. The victim had previously been charged with arson, recklessly endangering another person and criminal mischief, and on a separate occassion for indencent exposure and isorderly conduct and for 2 different counts of contempt of court. The incident took place in a part of Philadelphia where 43% of the people live below the poverty line -- which is more than 3x the national average. The story was covered by more than 170 media outlets.

21) Michael Cook, 61, Tucson, AZ, 1 'pit bull' -- The man was alone at the time, but his dog Butch attacked him and he later died of injuries. The dog had been neutered earlier that day and was apparently coming out of anestesia at the time of the attack. Such a situation can often lead to dogs being groggy, in pain, etc (especially depending on the drugs used) that can cause a dog to act eradically.

22) Brayden McCollen, 2 weeks old, Cypress, TX, Lab mix-- the newborn infant was left alone in the living room while the mother was outside "watching" the child through a window. While left alone, the family dog began sniffing the child and bit him fatally. Early media reports called the dog a 'pit bull' -- which was picked up by more than 170 media reports. However, the Sheriff's office later declared the dog a "Lab mix" although this was only covered by a couple of media sources a couple of days after the tragedy.

23) Donna Conrad, 71, Valley View, TX, Doberman Pincher. The woman was alone at the time so no information ever was made available about what led up to the attack. Only one media outlet covered the attack.

24) Neveah Bryant, 21 months, Fairfield, CT, 'pit bull'. The child's mother was later charged with child endangerment after she left the toddler alone to be supervised by her young, teenage son (who was outside playing basketball with a friend). The toddler was left alone in the house with a 'pit bull' that was involved in the attack. The mother, Erica Hobdy, was in the process of being sued by a postal carrier for injuries he received in a separate dog attack on the property. So we ended up with an unsupervised child left alone with a dog with a bite history while the mom ran to the store to get a soda. Over 100 media outlets picked up the story.

25) Mya Maeda, 11 days old, Amarillo, TX, 'pit bull/mastiff mix" -- The mother was asleep on the couch near the baby's bassinet. At some point the dog attempted to move the baby from the bassinet and fatally injured the child although it doesn't sound like it in any way was an act of intended aggression by the dog.

26) Misty Wyno, 40, Lowndes County, GA, 'pit bull'. Wyno was walking from her house to a neighbor's house when the dog broke free from its chain and attacked her. Animal control had apparently been to the home numerous times over the past 3 years over concerns about the dog being aggressive. The area of Voldosta where this happened has a poverty rate more than double the national average. The story was picked up by 15 news sources.

27) Tonia Parks, 39, Rockford, IL, 2 American Bulldogs. Parks was trying to break up a fight between her two dogs when she suffered a seizure and one of the dogs bit her and punctured her jugular vein and she died.  This area of Rockford has a povert rate 50% higher than the national average. The story was picked up by 15 news sources.

28) Joseph Hines, 58, Burnettsville, IN, 'pit bull".  The man lived alone and was found dead a couple of days after the attack.  The man suffered a bite to his neck. The story was picked up by 10 media outlets.

29) Edna Dyson, 71, Houston, TX, 2 'pit bulls'.  The woman had gone to rental property she owned and the neighbor's dogs (described as 'pit bulls') went through a hole in the fence and attacked Dyson. Dyson died from her injuries.  Dyson had previously expressed concerns about these dogs being aggressive.

30) Emako Mendoza, 76, San Diego, CA 2 'pit bulls'. Mendoza went outside to get the newspaper when the two dogs went through a gap in the fence and attacked her. Mendoza died later from injuries sustained in the attack. The owners of the two dogs were charged with felony counts of having a michievous animal that causes bodily harm.

*****

There were 30 dog bite fatalities in 2011. 

--  9 different breeds of dogs, or mixes thereof involved ("unknown mixed breed" is counted as one singular breed)

-- 4 cases involved chained dogs

-- At least 12 cases were in areas with high poverty rates

-- 5 cases involved newborns

-- 17 cases involved adult victims, nine of these involved multiple dogs

-- 9 cases involved dogs with a noted history of aggression or had been reportedly neglected or abused, at least 5 involved situations in which there was criminal behavior either taking place or where there was a history of criminal activiy.

The attacks fall into roughly 4 categories:

1) Children under 1 year of age - 7 incidents, 5 different breeds of dogs involved.  American Bulldog and "pit bulls' each had two occurances (one "pit bull" was mixed with 'mastiff"). In five of the cases the child was left alone and the dog had access to the child without adult supervision, in one case the child was with the parent, but the parent was asleep at the time of the incident, in the 6th, the family was present and supervising the child at the time of the attack.

2) Children Aged 1-5 - This has traditionally been one of the highest number of incidents, but only 5 incidents this year -- with three different breeds of dogs involved. In all cases the youngster was left unsupervised. Three of these incidents involved dogs with a known history of aggression.

3) Children over the age of 5 - one incident -- invoving a chained Akita that was relatively new to the family.

4 Adults - 17 cases - This is more adult victims than usual -- noting that 9 of these cases involved multiple dogs.  Eight different dog breeds involved in these attacks. Two incidents involved chained dogs with a history of aggression, one involved someone trying to break up a fight between their two dogs, four involved at large dogs (including one pack of wild dogs, two owners with criminal histories were killed by their own dogs, and 4 others were killed by their own dogs.

 ******

When more than 100 million Ameicans make the decision to share their lives with dogs with teeth, unfortunately a small number of tragic incidents are an outcome because everything in our lives comes with some risk.

That said, there are clearly some things that we as a society can do to help minimize the number of these tragedies if we focus on the circumstances of these attacks and not breeds.

1) Work with new parents to understand the importance of early and propoer socialization (with supervision) for dogs with newborn infants. I'm thrilled that more and more trainers are focusing on this area of education...and Dogs & Storks remains one of my favorites. These tragedies are rare, but a little education can go a long way in preventing them.

2) Managing packs of free-roaming dogs. Packs of dogs behave different than individual dogs and can be a threat.

3) Focus on dogs that have a history of aggression. If your dog shows signs of aggression PLEASE go meet with a respected dog trainer that can help you revert your dog's aggressive behavior. Also, if people see aggressive dogs in their community, having animal control ordinances that can help Animal Control deal with aggressive dogs (based on their behavior) and reckless owners (who prove time and time again that they are unable to manage aggressive dogs), they can better head off these attacks. Aggressive dog attacks are never a dog's first sign of aggression, but always their last.

4) Better edcuation on canine behavior for low-income pet owners. Again, this is not to imply that low-income people are not good pet owners, only that there appears to be a higher incidence of poorly educated pet owners in low-income neighborhoods.

Just remember, dogs are a part of our lives and most of the time, a welcome, friendly part of it. But sometimes it can go wrong. And in those cases, we need to judge the situation based on the circumstances that led up to the dog's actions. Dogs have become an integral part of our lives, and thus, it is impossible to judge the actions of dogs without judging the actions of the people involved as well.

Additional resources:

My 2010 report.

The NCRC 2010 Detailed Report (The NCRC report is far more researched than my own and you'll find some very interesting information in their report. I will always yield to them in their detailed accuracy).

The National Canine Research Council's Preliminary 2011 Report.

Weekly Roundup -- Week Ending 1/22/12

Is it really nearly February already? It's been another busy week and a lot of stories I didn't get to with my daily posts.  So let's sit back, relax, and get caught up on the more interesting news and opinion items for the week. If you have others I've missed, feel free to post them in the comments section.

Cities/States and Laws

This won't likely result in any type of law, but a resident in Wendell, ID is pushing the city to try to ban 'pit bulls' in the community. The reason is because there is a pit bull in the community that is chained up, without adequate shelter and very aggressive. While they are trying to issue citations to the owner, the owner will never answer their door. Instead of actually dealing with this situation (where the dog owner is clearly negligent), a resident proposed a breed ban instead. Fortunately the city council appears smarter than this and a ban doesn't seem likely.

Wentzville, MO continues to consider getting rid of its breed-specific law.

The city Rules Committee in Jackson, MS unanimously opposed a proposal to make certain breeds of dogs automatically "dangerous".

Chicago briefly discussed breed specific provisions after a major attack in the community earlier this month -- but wisely has chosen to focus on responsible pet ownership instead of breeds of dogs.

Earlier this year, Amsterdam, OH passed a law mandating that requires an expensive insurance policy for "vicious" dogs -- although their "vicious designation is very arbitrary. The insurance has proven to be almost impossible to get which whereas most home owners' insurance automatically covers your dog, the new law makes it almost more likely that the dog will not be insured than it would have been previously.

Dog bites/attacks

Major dog bites are rare, but do happen. And when they do there are almost always a series of events that led up to the attacks. If we are to minimized dog bites and attacks, we must focus on these circumstances, not the types of dogs themselves.

In Aurora, CO, a woman was out walking her small dog when two larger, off-leash dogs ran up to her and began attacking her dog. The woman was injured when she tried to protect her dog. Aurora has a ban on several breeds of dogs but the law didn't address the real issue of irresponsible ownership and stray and free-roaming dogs.

UK Dangerous Dogs Act

Dog attacks leading to hospitalization have risen 120 percent in London -- representing a 5th consecutive year that hospitalizations have increased.  The UK has a ban on four different breeds of dogs but has proven, repeatedly, to not be successful in increasing public safety -- and in fact, has proven to be the exact opposite.

No Kill

While a shelter in Baton Rouge, LA is not yet No Kill, htey are making progress as total euthanasia from the shelter dropped from more than 8700 animals in 2008 to 3,287 in 2011. They still have a long way to go but are making progress...

The shelter in Lewiston, ME has been doing a lot of promotion - -and now is seeing lines of people waiting to adopt animals at their shelter.

Miscellaneous

Dog escapes euthanasia twice -- by doing tricks -- Ok, this is a story by People Pets that will almost drive you insane. The dog, later named "Tricks" was slated for euthanasia by Georgia's Clayton County Animal Control. However, the dog was so well-behaved that he was just sitting patiently waiting his turn. The staff couldn't bear to euthanize him. So he was spared. Tricks again ended up on death row, and again, acts of obedience and cuteness caused the staff to spare him. And THIS time they posted on Facebook about the dog and people lined up to rescue him.  Which leads to the question, why not promote the dog first instead of euthanasia being the first option (twice).

Seven dogs, including six 'pit bulls', have been found dead after being randomly killed by someone in Houston.

Blogs

Breed Bans, BSL and Psychology -- an interesting post on why people can't admit when they're wrong from Pet Health Care Gazette.

Learning leadership from Congress -- love this post by Seth Godin this week.

This video was making the rounds on Facebook earlier this week - -but I'm going to give YesBiscuit! credit for posting it. But this Boxer is handling being surrounded by curious cows expertly.

The Rise and fall of Cesar Millan -- Pets Advisor takes a look at the good and bad of the Dog Whisperer.

Economy and bad luck hit KC woman and her huskies -- this is a really touching story of bad luck and love of pets in Kansas City -- from one of our local Examiner writers.

The smallest volunteer -- this is a really sweet story of a volunteer that helped out at our shelter earlier this year.

The state of California is now apparently looking to revoke "Hayden's Law" which would be a step back for state animal welfare in California -- Winograd has the details.

Memphis animal services decided to CLOSE THE SHELTER for public adoptions on a Saturday in order to perform Mandatory Euthanasia Training. Maybe they should focus a little more time on being open, and getting animals adopted, vs focusing all their efforts on euthanasia. -- YesBiscuit has been all over this story.   Meanwhile, the city got no bidders for the shelter contract because they wanted whatever contractor to follow the city's failed policies.

Dogs playing fetch -- three very different styles -- love these videos at The Poodle and Dog Blog

Just for Fun

How a dog's brain works -- by I Love Charts

Keeping animals out of shelters, and increasing Return To Owners

Eliminating unnecessary shelter killing is pretty easy math:  lower the number of animals that come into the shelter, increase the ones that get out safely, and then get the number coming in to be equal to those going out.

Much has been made about the importance of low-cost spay/neuter and its role of in lowering the animal population. and it is, indeed, an important part of the equation.

However, there are other ways to decrease the number of animals that are coming into shelters and I'm happy to report that Kansas City, MO made a step in that direction this week.

In Thursday's city council meeting, the city codified some changes to their city licensing program that should help lower the number of pets that make their way to the Kansas City, MO shelter, and help those that find their way into the shelter to find their way home.

The new ordinance is designed to increase pet licensing. In the city, only about 10% of all pets are licensed and they hope to increase that number. In order to do that, the ordinance does the following:

- Lowers pet licensing fees to $10 -- previously all altered pets were $10 and all unaltered pets were $35.

- Licensing includes a "free ride home" -- so pets with a city license on them that are picked up by animal control will be notified by animal control and taken back home free of charge up to 1x per year without a ticket and without coming to the shelter.

-- Lower shelter fees for licensed pets whos owners cannot be located quickly but are later reclaimed at the shelter

--- All fees generated from the pet licenses go to the KCMO Animal shelter for improved care of shelter animals.

The changes came after area animal welfare groups met with the city to provide recommendations on how to increase pet licensing. In the coming weeks, these groups will combine to launch a pet licensing campaign: "Lost pets can't call home."

I'm very excited for the changes -- particularly offering 'free' services to those who license pets  in order to make licensing more appealing for pet owners. I'm also happy that licensing is being seen as something that can help pet owners vs a punitive law. The free ride home will help get animals home quickly without coming into the city's old, small shelter.  The licenses will also help animals that do make it to the shelter be easier to return to owners.

Again, it's a small step, but a step that will help keep many pets out of the shelter, and help many to get home quickly if they do. And that's a good thing, and a good start to minimizing impounds.

 

How to Build a Dog - Report from National Geographic

I didn't used to subscribe to National Geographic. But they cancelled another magazine I used to read and just started sending Nat Geo in its place -- and I'm kind of glad they did. There has been some interesting stuff lately in Nat Geo.

In the February issue, there is an interesting story about DNA differences in breeds of dogs. It's a pretty short article, so I recommend that you read it in its entirety.

The nuts and bolts of the article is essentially how cut and dried dog DNA is.

There are some 400 dog breeds in the world.  When scientists began studying canine DNA, they expected all of the huge size/coat/shape differences to be caused by a crazy mix and match of different gene mutations (as was often the case in other species).

However, dogs didn't evolve naturally. They were purposefully bred for specifc traits and thus, essentially sped up the pace of evolution. And what has resulted is that the variety of dogs shapes, colors and sizes is largely determined by only about 50 different genes.  Because of the artificial selection, breeders chose to highlight genes that had a significant impact in physical traits.

For example, the difference between a Dachshund and it's small, body and short legs, and the massive size of the Rottweiler is determined by the sequence of a single gene.  The difference between the dachshund and a greyhound rests solely on the sequence of a different gene.

To put this into comparison, something a simple as human height is determined by the interactions of more than 200 gene regions.

All of this gives us a pretty good feel for how certain things like DNA testing for dogs may end up being much more reliable than previously thought.

Also of note, is that researchers have been using dogs to help study diseases in humans. There are some types of dogs that are much more prone to certain types of diseases and cancers -- and because the difference in dogs rests on a couple of gene strains, it gives researches a much smaller window of places to look when they then look for the same gene strains in humans.

That's pretty cool.

It's an interesting piece -- and worth the time to read to get a chance to know our dogs a little better.

Picture credit: National Geographic

Ohio HB 14 heard by the Senate tomorrow -- and possible vote.

Tomorrow, January 18th, Ohio HB 14 is going to be heard by the full Ohio Senate and is scheduled for a vote.

HB 14 would remove statewide breed-designation of 'pit bulls' being "vicious" dogs.

The Senate hearing begins at 1:30 EST tomorrow.

Send good Karma to Ohio folks....it could be a very good day.

Weekly Roundup -- Week ending 1/15/12

Busy week this week -- and not a lot of posting from me. Am just now coming up for air after a busy first part of the year. Some interesting stuff to report -- so let's dive in:

Cities/States and Laws

In the best news of the week, an Ohio Senate committee passed HB 14 that would remove statewide BSL in the state of Ohio (the only state with breed restrictions). The bill now awaits being heard by the full Senate.  This would be a huge step as BSL comes out of favor in the U.S. Some good thoughts on this change from the folks at Bad Rap.

BSL has been proposedin Okolona, MS.

Buffalo, MO is looking at a potential ban on certain breeds of dogs or restrictions on those breeds.

Dawson, GA passed strict ownership guidelines for owners of pit bulls -- mandating they keep dogs in pens with concrete or wired bottoms and requiring them to be muzzled when out of the cage.  All dogs must also be registered, insured and microchipped. Such laws have typically been very successful at causing responsible owners -- who never would have been a problem anyway -- to have to jump through a lot of hoops but have done a poor job of focusing on people who were the problems in the first place.

St. Louis is still discussing Mandatory Spay/Neuter for all dogs and cats. One alderman who supports this says that she hopes it contributes to solving the stray problem in the city -- even though strays, which are by definition ownerless, will not be able to comply with the law. Such laws have almost never proven to be effective at lowering euthanasia rates or increasing public safety.

A Xenia, OH woman is upset as she is now set to move out of town after the city passed it's new pit bull ordinance. She says she doesn't have the money for the fines or the insurance requirements -- but has no desire to give her dog up. So moving is the only option.  This will of course be great for everyone involved as Xenia has nearly 8% of its homes that are currently vacant.

Dog Bites/Attacks

An Australian woman was attacked by a dog in a supermarket parking lot this week.  The dog is being described as a "bullmastiff" and comes after the Australian government has spent 6 months talking about banning certain breeds of dogs instead of dealing with aggressive dogs regardless of breed.

Several people in Northwest Indiana have been bitten as a woman who was "thought she was doing the right thing" ended up with 55 dogs at her house and authorities had to come out and get the dogs from the hoarding situation. Many of the dogs in this incident were poorly socialized, and thus aggressive when handled. There are pictures online of many of the dogs and they appear to be a variety of different types of mixed breed dogs.

Authorities in Sacramento shot a 'pit bull' type dog when a 9 year old child was injured after the child accessed the backyard where the dog was.

Miscellaneous

The Rose Brooks Center for domestic violence victims in Kansas City became the first area shelter for domestic violence victims to allow dogs into their shelter.  The first dog was a a Great Dane -- and the owner credits the dog for saving her life.

Some Kansas City area dogs are helping to teach children about bullying.

I found this story kind of interesting -- but the York County (PA) Coroner's office issued a final report of the 490 deaths in the county during the year. 75% of them involved falls. A man dying of sepsis from a dog bite was responsible for one of the 490 deaths -- putting into perspective the real risk of dogs in communities.

Kansas City Chiefs player Glenn Dorsey is dong a public service campaign for PETA. While I don't usually support much that PETA does, I do like that they are using a big football star to help reach people about bringing their pets in from the cold.

No Kill

An AP-Petside.com study shows that 71% of pet owners feel that shelters should only be allowed to euthanize animals when they are sick to be treated or too aggressive to be adopted.  Only 25% say euthanasia as a means of population control is ok.

Austin, TX celebrated its first year as a no kill community in 2011.  Congrats! BTW, here's a great article about Austin Pets Alive Executive Director Dr. Ellen Jefferson from Best Friends Magazine.

A sad reality -- Some Colorado humane societies discuss their attempts to stop euthanizing animals. The real reality is that the featured shelter is very close to becoming no kill and would likely benefit from focusing on solutions instead of all the reasons they're not yet no kill.

Advocates in Minnesota are upset after a woman's cat was euthanized after the woman passed away instead of given opportunities to be rehomed.

Blogs

A lot of dog training info this week from the blogs....

Five Handy Commands for Dogs Living with babies and toddlers -- from Central Ohio Dog Blog

Clicker training: Capturing a behavior and putting it on cue - Dog Spelled Forward

A great PETA infographic -- h/t to Poodle and Dog Blog

What are dogs' lives worth? - Dancing Dog Blog discusses the recent court of appeals ruling in Texas that provides setimental value to pets that are wrongfully killed.

Has HSUS reached a new low? - Humanewatch looks at a new social game sponsored by HSUS.  I like the game concept (a lot actually) but am not thrilled with the message that is being conveyed.

The Lost Dogs Home:  3,525 pets adopted, 11,872 pets killed, income $12.4 million -- Saving Pets (Australia) wonders if for a budget that size if expectations for life-saving should be higher.

Reiterating Responsible Pet Ownership -- By Paw Prints the Magazine

It takes two to tension: The foundation for good leash manners -- Raised by Wolves

My dog growled at my child -- now what?  -- Doggone Safe has some awesome advice for a common (and scary) problem for new parents

Are you guilty of PASSIVE supervision? -- Dogs & Storks looks at the different levels of child/dog supervision

 ASPCA says 41 dogs alive, but not how many were killed -- YesBiscuit! asks the question about how many are not alive

Dumping "Dump" - YesBiscuit discusses adding "dump" to the bannished word list for rescue people in 2012.

Southern Animal Shelter Killed Beloved Lost DOg Shortly after Intake -- YesBiscuit (again) on the story

Canine Agression Issues with Jim Crosby discusses a new Florida Bill that would guarantee rescues open access to shelter animals and more transparency for shelters.

There is also a bill in Florida that would force Miami Dade to repeal its 25 year old breed ban. Save Shelter Pets has the details on how you can help.

That village I mentioned?  Yeah, it's awesome -- Our Waldo Bungie discusses the village of supporters who helped rescue a dog from the KCMO animal shelter this week.

Kansas City numbers improving, still a ways to go

On January 1, our group, the KC Pet Project, took over control of the Kansas City, MO Animal Shelter.  I'll talk more about that in a minute, but first, I wanted to discuss the evolution and improvements at the shelter over the years.

Here are the numbers over the past 6 years at the KCMO shelter:

                                2006       2007         2008        2009       2010       2011

Intake:                 10,441     10,949      8,273       7,202      7,251    6,128

Adopted/trans:  2,144        2,269       2,182       3,069      3,464    3,335

RTO:                     1,040        1,397         939           879          931        695

Euthanized:        6,958        6,769        4,912       3,101      2,722     1,975

Live Release Rate: 34%          38%            40%          57%          63%        68%

Here are some notes that will help some of the numbers make sense:

1) I've combined Adopted/Transferred because over the past 6 years there have been 3 different managers - and some have called transfers to rescues "transfers" and some have included them as "adoptions" -- so I just grouped them for easier comparison.

2) In 2006 and 2007 intake was VERY high in large part due to the city's passing Mandatory Spay/Neuter for Pit bulls (which increased their impounds and euthanasia) and because they had a large number of animal control officers on the streets.

3) In 2008, the city cut the number of animal control officers significantly and intake decreased.

4) In 2009, the city hired a private contractor to run the city shelter -- which they did for most of 2009, all of 2010, and the first quarter of 2011.  Under the private management, adoptioins and transfers increased dramatically.

5) Throughout the entire time, aggressive low cost spay/neuter programs and owner retention programs.

When KC Pet Project took over, we also got a firm commmitment from the city to include other things that would lower intake. Pit bulls can no longer be confiscated for not being spayed or neutered and animals are not to be confiscated for being over the pet limit.  There will also no longer be Animal Control Quotas for minimum number of impounds that existed for many parts of the past 5 years.

These are all great things to help keep animals out of the shelter in the first place. However, this is still a city with 500,000 residents, so some animals will continue to make their way to our 40 year old, outdated shelter. As the new management of the shelter, we're committed to finding ways to get new homes for all of these animals.

We started off with a lot of fanfare last week. On January 1, we had a small ribbon cutting ceremony and many adoptions. But more adoptions were needed. We opened that first day with 277 animal at the shelter -- 207 dogs (with a "real" shelter capacity for dogs of about 120).  Even with a solid first day, we needed animals out. So we extended our $20.12 adoption special all week long.

The public responded. In our first 8 days, we were able to find 181 animals new homes.

Success is short lived though as we take in enough animals every 10 days to fill up the entire shelter. This will be an adventure as we try to take a shelter that has a reputation as being a high kill shelter (which, until recently it was), to one that people consider coming to adopt their pets. The shelter is in a horrible location, so we will be continuing to find new places for people to see our adoptable pets. It may be a painful road at times, but success is eminent.

Weekly Roundup - Week Ending 1/8/12

Not a complete wrap-up this week (especially on the blog front), but there have been several interesting stories the past couple of weeks that I want to discuss a bit. Several probably deserve their own post, but for now, I want to get them out there.

Cities/States and Laws

The Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a public hearing on Tuesday, January 10 at 3:15 on HB 14 -- the law that would repeal Ohio's statewide breed specific law.

More than 50 pit bulls have been allowed to live in Toledo after new Lucas County Dog Warden Julie Lyle has begun allowing pit bulls to be transferred to the local humane society vs just insisting that they be killed as would have happend under the previous dog warden. The locals are thrilled with the change.

After years of issues with running its animal shelter-- including a police raid on their own shelter, animal control officers being involved in dog fighting, abuse at the shelter, and an extremely high kill rate, the city of Memphis is finally caving and looking for a private organization to run the new animal shelter.

Xenia, OH is still considering a breed ban in their community.

Bristol, CT decides against breed specific laws.

Court Rulings

An appellate court in Texas made a ruling that dogs are "More than property".  Prior to this ruling, damages for wrongful death for dogs assigned the value of the dogs as only the dog's monetary worth (similar to furniture)-- however, the new ruling allows owners to be entitled to "sentimental or intrinsic" value.  I think this is a landmark decision that has elevated the dogs beyond just property value -- but not taken them out of the the role of property to protect them from search and seizure laws.

No Kill

The Olathe, KS Animal Shelter has an awesome "Home for Christmas" program.  Essentially the program is designed to have fosters take all of the animals home so they can spend Christmas in the home.  While that's a great idea, the results are even better. Of the 15 dogs that were sent into holiday foster homes, only 2 came back to the shelter as their foster families decided to keep them. Of the eight cats, 5 stayed permanently.  In 2010, 20 of the 22 dogs and cats stayed in their homes.  What an awesome way to begin the new year with an almost entirely empty shelter.

An anonymous California donor has given Detroit Dog Rescue $1.5 million toward building the first No Kill shelter in Detroit.

Really?

Thecity of Harrisburg, PA used to contract animal housing with the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area, Inc but because of financial concerns, they had to cancel the contract. So now, without a shelter to take animals to, the police department has issued an official memo to their officers that if they now have three options when responding to a dog complaint:  Kill it, adopt it, or dump it.  The memo also notes that officers may "destroy" animals at their discretion. Local advocates are rightfully noting that the memo basically advocates for abuse or animal abandonment and that officers who follow it should be charged.  Yowser.

In Wichita, a dog owner surrendered her healthy, young Labrador Retriever, Lucy,to the Kansas Humane Society because Lucy suffered from separation anxiety and was destructive when left alone . Before she could bring herself to drive away, she had second thoughts, and went back to get Lucy. However, the shelter had already killed the dog when she got there.  So within 10 minutes, a healthy happy young dog that exhibited dog-like behavior was killed by a "Humane Society" that should exist to protect it. The shelter of course defended its decision.  Christie then asks if Scruffy's law could have saved Lucy?

UK Dangerous Dogs Act

In 1991 the UK passed a law banning four breeds of dogs from the country -- however, in spite of the law (and perhaps, because of it), dog attacks requiring hospitalization in the UK have nearly doubled over the past decade and now, new reports of breeders wanting to create aggressive dogs have started crossbreeding various large guarding breeds to create "super breeds". Now, the sensational rhetoric in the article is out of control (and the type of thing that caused the ban in the first place), but it doesn't point to the reality that if someone wants an aggressive dog, they will find a way to create one around a breed-specific law.  The UK Dangerous Dog Law has been a failure by almost any account -- and Lord Redesdale's Dog Control Bill has passed the House of Lords and will overhaul the Dangerous Dogs Act which would dramatically improve the situatoin in the UK.  More great info on this at Stop BSL.

Miscellaneous

Another study that highlights that dogs have unique abilities to understand human behavior based on subtle body language ques.

Earlier this month, the Miami Marlins signed left handed pitcher Mark Buehrle from the Chicago White Sox. But Buehrle and his family won't be moving to Miami -- because his 18 month old family pet Slater isn't welcome in Miami because of the county's pit bull ban. So Buerhle and his $14 million a year salary took his family and his money to Broward County to buy a home. Buehrle and his wife have been strong animal welfare advocates in Chicago for years and no doubt will continue to be vocal voices in the South Florida area as well.

Last spring, Dave DeWolfe and his family found themselves homeless after a devastating tornado wiped out large parts of the city of Joplin and their home was destroyed. In a frantic effort to find a new home, they bought a home in nearby Carl Junction - -however, found out a few months later that their dogs, an American Pit Bull Terrier and a Rottweiler, were both banned in Carl Junction -- so once again they are on the move looking for a place to live. Way to be warm and receptive Carl Junction.

Blogs

I may have made some horrible decisions -- by I Love Charts

A great Pet Frenzy Info Graphic -- from Dancing Dog Blog

Essay:  What makes dogs different -- from Orvis

An update on Brittany and Rambo from Ontario -- via Stubby Dog

A 79 year old woman chooses to live in her car rather than give up her pets -- Seattle Dog Spot

A lost pit bull was found 8 years after it was lost -- The Washington Post

World Changer -- Save the pit bull, save the world comments on how deciding to adopt a pit bull 8 years ago changed her life.

So near, yet so far apart -- Cruel, Crazy Beautiful World takes a look at the differences between high kill and no kill shelters across the country.

The Great Meddlers of 2011 -- Winograd tips his hat to the leaders in the no kill movement  -- in this post, he also notes those who are doing it all wrong.

Milestones and transitions for notable "bust dogs" -- Bad Rap follows up on the performance of several bust dogs and how they're doing now and how dogs that were once given up on for being broken, are now doing great.