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The website has been updated with our speakers for the Canine Legislation Conference September 15-16. Be sure to reserve your spot early and get your hotel room booked early, as hotel space is limited (there are other options, but the Westin is your best bet). You can reserve space at the CLC online with Paypal.
Also, tomorrow night, come out to Draws for Paws II. Good Pizza, good beer, great fun, and some fun raffle prizes.
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Alright, I promise not to make this blog all about sports, Mike Vick, or dog fighting. However, I think this Micheal Vick case is going to have major implications down the road for anyone involved in animal welfare. Some folks are using this as a case for breed specific legislation. Many are using it as a crusade to end dog fighting. Either way, it is seldom that the entire population of sports fans -- particularly NFL fans -- gives one once of thought to animal abuse cases. This is high profile, and I'm following it pretty closely. So some notes from around the web:
Search of Vick's property stopped
Apparently, the county prosectuter Gerald Poindexter doesn't like the "language" used in the search request where national authorities want to go in a dig for remains for dogs that may have been burried on the property. I'm still saying that either Poindexter is a complete genius, or he's in on this somehow, either involved in the fights himself, or being paid a decent sum of money to be sure this investigation is a failure. He's pretty much tried to shut out all outsiders on this, which may be great, but I'm suspicious that he's somehow on the take.
The NFL Players Association Looks at reduced suspension for Pacman Jones
For those of you who don't know, Jones has become the poster child for the NFL, and commissioner Roger Goodell's, attempt to clean up the league's image with its new conduct policy. Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 season without pay for starting a brawl (that involved gun play by one of his cohorts) by throwing $100 bills in the air in a strip club in Vegas and then getting angry when the strippers started picking up his "confetti". While Jones is a poster child for what is wrong with the gangsta mentality that many of these guys with too much money on their hands have fallen into, what he did isn't even a shaddow of what Vick is accused of...and the Player's Association now wants to lighten his suspension so that Vick doesn't miss 2 or 3 years with what will end up being a harsher penalty -- especially if found guilty.
Meanwhile, there is rumor in KC that the Atlanta Falcons have contacted the Chiefs
The Falcons traded away their 2nd string QB last year in the anticipation of making Vick the MAN in Atlanta. After Vick had his incident with airport security over his water bottle with a secret compartment that he used for his marajuana in December, and now this, the Falcons are looking at what they may be doing in the post-Vick era. They have supposedly contacted the Chiefs about picking up QB Trent Green...who isn't a part of the Chief's future youth movement plans. Whether Atlanta thinks Vick will be in jail, suspended long term, or just wants to get on with their lives after Vick has continually embarrassed the franchise is uncertain, but it does look like they're making plans for him to miss some playing time this year.
Meanwhile, pretty much every sports columnist and blogger in the country has a take on this, and here are a few of the top POVs:
NFL doesn't owe Vick any Compassion -- from Fox Sports
Interesting look at why buildings and fences are sometimes painted black -- I'd never thought about this -- I'd be a horrible criminal.
Why is Vick's agent so quiet? -- Clinton Portis' agent came to his aid to defend his client after he blabbered last week. But Vick's agent has been completely quiet, and it may be that his quietness is speaking in volumes.
NFL Promises "Prompt and Significant Action" under new conduct policy -- Goodell runs the most popular sport in the United States...the last thing he wants is for a few players to take it to the level of the NBA.
Humanity has a dog in this fight -- pretty much lays out the delimma of Goodell taking "significant" action on one of the game's certified stars...and admitting that Goodell really has no choice.
We'll go back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow...
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I'm going to do some follow up here on a story that has taken on national prominence, because it involves a high-profile athlete.
Evidence is mounting now against Michael Vick in his involvement in a dog fighting ring that was discovered on one of his properties.
WVEC-TV has found a couple of sources that have said they've seen Vick at these dog fights at the home.
The concerning thing about the story (especially if you watch the video) is that it looks to me like the local prosecuter is going to butcher this case. Apparently Vick has already sold the home (for about 1/2 of the appraised value), which doesn't seem right given that it's a felony crime scene and should be evidence in the case. Also, it appears as if the prosecuter Gerald Poindexter seems like he's not looking at all the evidence gathered by officials, and has turned down offers of help from people around the country that have had success prosecuting dog-fighting.
I'm pretty certain that Vick is going to be able to get the best lawyer money can buy...so I have concerns that Poindexter is either a) out of his league or b) somehow involved and doesn't want to prosecute this too badly.
Meanwhile, ESPN has found a source inside the dog-fighting community that links Vick to "bringing good dogs and lots of money" to dog fights. Read the article, but I can't recommend watching the video. HSUS has supplied ESPN with its dog-fighting footage and ESPN was more than happy to apparently to show the graphic videos -- -that are honestly unwatchable. It's really disappointing of ESPN to show that much footage, and if there wasn't so much else to do, they'd probably get a letter too.
ESPN also did a nice job on the video coverage of the story in getting another player, Kassim Osgood, who looks like a wonderful pit bull owner, to step up and speak out against this. Hopefully Osgood, and others like him will pressure the league to do the right thing and severely punish Vick (who looks more and more guilty every second).
KCDA has sent official statements to the NFL, and to Nike (who pays Vick handsomely as a spokesperson)...we don't have that much clout on a national level, but it can't hurt.
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Two three year olds have been attacked by dogs in two separate incidences in the KC Area -- and the media is having a field day with it, making those of us in KC have flashbacks to last summer when the KC Star ran 250 articles about pit bulls in a 6 month time period. Yeah, I didn't make that number up, I counted.
I briefly mentioned the first attack in the Weekly roundup, but want to come back to it now that more information is available. This three year old in Independence went outside (unattended) to play with the family's new German Shepherd (they'd had the dog less than 2 months). The mom told police "she did not trust the dog to be inside with her minor children," which is why the dog was on a "restraining device" (chain?) in the back yard.
No one really knows why the dog snapped at the child, because no one was present. Nice. Turns out the dog tried to bite animal control as they hauled it into the shelter for observation. The kicker is the last line of the article that after observation, if the dog doesn't have rabies "At that time, the family can decide to take the dog home or it will be destroyed."
So a dog, that is known to be aggressive, and has attacked a 3 year old, can go home if the family wants it, but I can't move to Independence wiht my pit bulls that have never shown any signs of aggression? Folks, any attempt by the Independence city council that makes you think they passed a pit bull ban for your public safety and not for political reasons should be thrown out the window -- as this is certainly a case where public safety is probably in jeopardy. Let's deal with aggressive animals and irresponsible owners...and not pretend we are passing pit bull bans for "public safety".
The second attack was of a 3-year old in Kansas City, MO. Turns out that this "mixed breed pit bull" (which turns out to be a chow/pit bull mix --- which what does that mean? Does it have short hair? Long hair? Straight tail? Curley tail? Pink tongue? Blue tongue? Means this dog could be anything). If you watch the KSHB Video (thanks Tony for pointnig me to this), you'll see that the dog was kept on a rusty chain, that had worn quite a chunk of concrete away from the pillar on the man's front porch. You'll also note that the man knew his dog was aggressive toward children, and still let his 3-year old granddaughter go out to try to feed a biscuit to the dog unattended (right next to the dog's food bowl). And based on the address, my guess is that the guy WANTED the dog to be aggressive as it was likely used as a guard dog in that neighborhood.
Of course, KSHB did nothing but hype up the story with phrases like "he was covered in his granddaughter's blood" when he had a few blood stains on him. Fox did a much better job of covering the story with quotes from dog trainer Robin Lilly that actually recommends (rightfully so) that 3 year olds never give treats to a dog and explains why. Fox 4 continues to be the only newscast in this city worth watching -- and this is an example of why.
Meanwhile, everyone is focusing on the breeds of dogs involved when none of that actually matters...because both attacks fit the profile of an attack perfectly -- both dogs had been aggressive before, both were tethered, and both attacked unsupervised 3-year-olds. Does anyone think that the breed of dog mattered? I don't.
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The week of May 20 was dog bite prevention week. If the headlines are any indication, dogs missed the news story and there is a lot more work to do in regards to keeping people safe from dogs (and vice versa). This is a day early -- unfortunately too many stories to wait another day.
Loraine, OH to re-look into a ban on Pit Bulls
This is easily the top story of the week. Loraine is looking into a pit bull ban after a 7 year old girl was attacked by a pit bull that was chained to a tree. There's a lot of juicy stuff in this story. For starters, the dog was chained (which people fail to note). Loraine is looking at a pit bull ban in spite of not having an animal control department. There are some stats from Merritt Cliffton that are quoted (some day soon I'm going to dedicate a whole day to why Cliffton's stats are flawed) and it's also noted that Cleveland has BSL and only 7 animal control officers. Cleveland and KCMO have approximately the same population, and similar demographics. KCMO last year answered 20% of its animal control calls with 12 animal control officers. So I'll go out on a limb here and guess that Cleveland is answering roughly 10% of its animal control calls...yeah, pit bulls are clearly their problem. How about fixing the animal control service first?
New Hampshire Legislators won't bite on Pit Bull Ban
Apparently they really believe in their State Motto "Live Free or Die", ranking N.H. on the list of places I want to retire to some day. This is a really good article if you have the time to read it.
Pit Bull Attack Caught on Video
Surveillance video catches a pit bull attack on a 5 year old kid in Detroit. This story appeared all over the place this week...and every story I saw said he was attacked by two pit bulls, but one of them was really just running around minding its own business. I will also note that the video should pretty much overrule any city council person who tries to say that pit bulls "bite and hold and lock their jaws on someone" as none of those things happened here. It's an unfortunate incident to say the least, but dispells several myths about pit bull attacks.
Chicago Police Officer Shoots Pit Bull/Bystander
The pit bull apparently "attacked" an officer, but no wounds were made by the dog. Meanwhile, a bullet aimed at the dog richocheted and hit a person. Meanwhile, the dog was allowed to stay with the owner, apparently not being terribly injured (and still didn't "attack") and without being deemed a dangerous dog.
Two more dogs shot by police officers
This time in Lauderhill, FL. Two "90 lbs pit bulls" charged a police officer -- the officers were there to investigate a call about animal cruelty. No wonder the dogs were mean, and another instance of these 90 lbs pit bulls that I doubt are really pit bulls. This article says that one of the 90 lbs pit bulls was only 5 months old. Sorry folks, I don't think there's any such thing as a 5 month old 90 lbs pit bull.
Man needs 75 stitches after being attacked by 3 boxers
This is in Middletown, OH, which this article confusingly points out overturned its own pit bull ban 2 months ago....I'm not sure what the repeal of the ban had to do with dogs not included in the ban, and not sure what the article's point was for making that the headline of this article...I've got nothin'.
York, PA Man Attacked by Junk Yard Dog
The headline of course says pit bull, but there is a reason why the song Leroy Brown used a Junk Yard dog as its frame of reference for what was mean...and that song was written back when Junk Yard dogs were usually dogs other than "pit bulls".
St. Petersburg, FL Police Officer wounded when partner shot at pit bull
This one hit a curb and ricocheted an hit another police officer. Apparently the dog's home had been burglarized.
Chicago busts Anthony Brown on Dog Fighting
Rented a house that no one lived in that's sole purpose was for fighting dogs in the basement. Landlords, watch your tenants.
Another suspected dog fighting ring busted in Central Ohio
Apparently this isn't animal control's first visit to her residence...
Letter's to the editor are a great way to gain an appreciation for how people have bought, hook, line and sinker, the many myths that surround pit bull type dogs. This one believes the dogs just one day snap. Dogs just snapping never happens. There are always signs, whether people choose to notice them is another thing. To get the true scoop on aggression, read this.
Officer shot by partner who was aiming at pit bull
Dog's home was burglarized, now the dog and an officer are shot. Why can we not use Tazers?
A dog's life on a chain is no life at all
At least someone gets it with this good editorial.
Homeless Couple Beaten, dogs stolen, in Cleveland, OH
This story is the type that gives me chills. A homeless couple was offered money earlier in the day for their dogs, they declined. So the man returns with a ball bat and a knife and beat the couple and steal their dogs. Pretty much everything that is wrong with society is summed up in this short story:
1) We do too little in this country to help people truly in need
2) A homeless couple can love their dogs more than money, and yet so many people with means don't love their dogs at all
3) Some piece of crap person would beat up homeless people to steal their dogs. It give me chills/tears to think about what is likely to become of these dogs.
Rottweiller attacks woman in UK
How's that breed ban working again?
Pit bull shot in Springfield, MO
Their pit bull ban is working well too.
Victim's family sues owner of Attacking Great Dane
Interesting that the city mayor is also the family's attorney.
This woman watched a story on her local TV station and now has become an expert on "pit bulls" and wants them to be listed as dangerous weapons. As a supporting proof point, she offers that a pit bull that was chained to a tree "day after day" in her affluent neighborhood became aggressive. Uh huh.
English Mastiff attacks woman and dog in Wheat Ridge, CO
Of course, no one would know if the victim had written a letter to the editor as it never appeared in the newspaper otherwise.
Boxer attacks UPS Man in Zionsville, IN
Two Boxers Declared Dangerous after attacking Shih Tzu
Does anyone still think that you can't make another dog dangerous if you ban all "pit bulls"?
Nine Year Old Girl Attacked by pit bull in Charlotte, NC
Note that the dog was tethered in the back yard.
Police shoot another officer, Pit bull in Elgin, IL
I know that this police gig is hard and all, but the stray bullet flying everywhere isn't the safest...obviously.
Indianapolis Girl Attacked by pit bull
This one sounds pretty bad...I hope for the best for the little girl.
Woman walks a pit bull, and off-leash poodle runs up to the dog and gets attacked, so this woman blames the pit bull owner. While it's not ok for the pit bull to be dog aggressive (people should train them better), it turns out that this was a foster that was being rehabilitated. I'm sorry, but I have a tough time putting so much blame on the owner who had their dog on a leash who was trying to rehabilitate a dog.
Lake Worth, FL Police Officer Shoots "Pit Bull"
This 80 lb "pit bull" scooted out the door when the owner came out to talk to police. The police officer RAN from the dog, and when he realized that he couldn't outrun the dog and shot it. Seriously, a police officer has been so poorly trained about dogs that he RAN?
Jacksonville, AR passes Pit bull ban
Now, neighboring Cabot is looking into a ban. This is what I mean when I say it spreads like a cancer -- and why people should care when neighboring cities look into a ban.
German Shepherd attacks woman and two grandkids in Dover, OH
The "Family Pet" was "secured" by a chain in the back yard when he broke through the chain.
2-year-old Toledo girl attacked by Pit Bull
Toledo has a very well-known pit bull ban...is it working?
This woman assumes every pit bull is "inbred", "abused" and owned by "wannabe thugs". Pretty much every stereo type exists in this one.
Toddler in Independence , MO Attacked by German Shepherd
I thought their pit bull ban was going to protect their citizens from this?
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There's an interesting story today from the Chicago Sun Times.
The city of Chicago has raised its licensing of unneutered dogs from $10 to $50, and has also begun working toward increasing licensing compliance.
Chicago is mostly on the right track on this, although there are some concerns. Increasing licensing can be very beneficial for cities for a number of reasons.
First off, it increases revenue. Chicago has around 500,000 dogs, but only sells about 20,000 licenses annually. Even if they got their licensing up to 50%, at the $5 a year for a neutered animal, they'd increase their revenue by $1.2 million each year. That's a lot of coin.
Licensing also would help them find the owners of dogs that get picked up by animal control. This would keep a lot of dogs from being euthenized, dogs' homes found, and quicker turnaround on finding these dogs' homes -- which would help save a lot of money in shelter costs. It would also aid in finding the owners of dogs that are involved in biting incidences so owners could be held accountable.
They're also making strides to improve the ways that owners license their dogs -- providing for online licensing is a complete no-brainer so they don't have to worry about being overhwelmed with applications (which 250,000 applications might just do to a department). I also like the 3-year licensing sign up.
Meanwhile, I don't have a problem with their differential licensing for unneutered animals vs neutered...but I do think a 1000% increase is a bit much. Unneutered dogs are more likely to cause problems for animal control...whether it be through the potential to produce litters of unwanted puppies that might end up in a shelter, or because they're slightly more likely to jump a fence in order to seek out a dog in heat.
I don't buy that neutering makes dogs less aggressive. While statistically, unneutered dogs certainly are involved in more bites than neutered dogs, I don't necessarily think that it's a causal relationship. Like I've always said, the vast majority of neutered dogs are owned by responsible owners, while an irresponsible owner is very unlikely to neuter their dog. This doesn't mean that all unneutered dogs belong to irresponsible owners, but I do think that an irresponsible owner is MOST likely to have an unneutered dog...thus screwing up the stats. It's that type of thinking that concerns me about Chicago's thinking on this that treads a slipperly slope toward mandatory spay/neuter policies which aren't the right way to go.
However, the increased licensing fees for unneutered animals is a pretty good idea, but I do fear that $50 may make it cost prohibitive and actually decrease the likelihood of people complying with licensing (which is counter to the vision they've set forth).
But I like most of the thinking....and mostly it's a step in the right direction for the city of Chicago.
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Over the past couple of weeks, HGTV has been running a special presentation entitled "You Should Live Here." The general premise of the show is that there are certain cities that are "the best" for certain types of people - the best place to find a mate, best place to eat out regularly, best place to live for golfers, etc.
Of course, one of their best places to live was "best place to live if you own a dog". HGTV's choice? Denver, CO. If you've missed it, the show is set to run again on July 19th at 12 pm EST.
Apparently Denver made the list because a lot of people own dogs - and also, a lot of restaurants allow the dogs to go in them. Unfortunately, HGTV didn't account for the fact that not all dogs are welcome in Denver, CO.
Since May 9, 2005, when Denver started enforcing its 18-year-old ban on pit bulls, the city has killed in the neighborhood of 2000 pit bulls. Most were family pets and good dogs, but were killed because of the shape of their heads. The city had had to endure 3 lawsuites (one still in the works) defending the ban, and there is still an "pitbull underground railroad" sneaking dogs out of the city. How a city that treats one group of dogs (that includes several breeds and mixes) gets labeled "best place to live if you own a dog" is unfathomable.
This is just another case where people need to be informed about BSL -- and its devastating consequences. Denver, under no circumstance, should be considered the "best place to live for dog owners". Not if all dogs aren't welcomed.
I'd recommend everyone send nice notes to HGTV to educate them on the issue -- you can do so by sending them a note here. It would even be better if we could get them to do a retraction and explain why they did it. We have a power and a voice...let's use it.
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Some days my passions cross. Today, I went on a little rant on my other blog about local politics (or advertising, or whatever I feel like ranting about) that involved more dog parks for Kansas City. Most of you know my take on the importance of socialization and building dog parks -- but this gave me an opportunity to help fix another KC problem with dog parks. KC residents may care to check it out here. I don't usually try to cross-promote these blogs because it's a different reader-group, but sometimes I can't help myself.
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KC is gushing with pit bull type dogs now. Last year's hysteria has caused a lot of people to want nothing to do with a pit bull. A few cities passed BSL, so some people who want to help out can't. Most of the people that want to help, can't because there is no room at the inn.
We've had an extra bully in our house since last July.
The faces are incredible, the stories are sad, the tails are wagging and the tongues are licking. If you can help, please. Permanent
homes and foster homes are welcome. 
The first dog picture is Chica. She is hanging out at a local kill shelter. Time is very short for her (measured in days, not weeks). She listens in both English and Spanish...
The two together are Connor and his sister. Look at those faces.
The Brindle pup is about 16 weeks old and is beautiful. He got dumped by his owners last weekend at the lake. He was covered with ticks but has been vetted and vaccinated. The person who saw him get dumped can't take him in and he's still at the vet -- but he has nowhere to go once the vet releases him tomorrow.
This is why people should spay and neuter their dogs if they don't want puppies.
The white dog, an American Bulldog is Rocky. Rocky is a BEAUT! He's about 7 months old, housebroken, and loaded with personality. His owner left him abandoned in his apartment when he moved out with an open bag of dog food and the toilet bowl seat up for water. The landlord called AC to get the dog and the AC was greated by a hug and a huge smile at the door. Rocky is hanging out at the Lee's Summit Animal Shelter and needs a home.
The smaller white dog is Blondie. She is about four months old and looks sweet as can be.
These are just a few of our deathly urgents. You can find tons more at Mid America Bully Breed's Website.
As I said before, if you can help, please help.
Our situation is getting dire...and we have some wonderful pups just dying. Literally.
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There's a part of me that wants to thank Michael Vick. The bust at a house that he owned that revealed 60+ pit bulls that were being used for dog fighting is disgusting, and for me, unimaginable.
Then, Clinton Portis backed him up...supported him by saying "I don't know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it's his property, his dog, if that's what he wants to do, do it." Meanwhile, Chris Samuels was in the background laughing during the entire interview.
Whoa. It's bad enough that someone would engage in such activity, but then to get the support of other players, openly, is even another huge step in the disgusting direction.
But in a way, this might help in the long run. For far too long society has known that dog fighting is a problem. And for far too long it's been an underground activity of drug dealers, gang members, etc that were nearly impossible to stop. The only people who really talked about it were Animal Rights Organizations that were mostly ignored.
People are listening now. It's now obvious that it's not even just an isolated case of one player doing something stupid, disgusting and wrong. It's pretty clear that there are others that see absolutely nothing wrong with what Michael Vick has been accused of doing. Now everyone is talking. I listened to a guy on ESPN Radio this weekend talking about it. There's a column on Fox Sports.com today that has a great take on the situation (thanks Social Mange for finding this). ESPN, Sports Illustrated and others are following suit.
What's more amazing than that even one of the NFL's stars, like Mike Vick would engage in dogfighting is that there is a culture of people, Clinton Portis and Chris Samuels included, that think what he's doing is just fine.
Many in the animal welfare community have been saying this forever of course.
Others say that that this is the only use for these types of dogs and that they should be banned to put a stop to this type of behavior.
The reality is that laws won't stop this type of behavior -- it's already against the law in this country -- and a felony in most places. Laws won't stop the madness.
Nor will it stop the people that, while stopping short of fighting their dog, want a pit bull as a fashion accessory to make them seem like part of this culture. They don't want a dog, they want respect. Which is sad.
When I see articles in the newspapers that involve pit bull attacks, they seem to gravitate toward these neighborhoods where this culture is encouraged and sought. We shouldn't be suprised. As a society, if we want to end the dog fighting, the criminal activity we must work to CHANGE THE CULTURE. Laws clearly don't work, and even if people aren't breaking the law, they think that what is being done is ok. You can't fight this with laws, you fight it with education.
If you can do this, the "pit bull problem" will go away.
I don't know if it's really achievable, but it must be a goal. We can't legilsate our way out of it, it's only by getting our hands dirty that we can make an impact.
In some ways, as sick as it sounds, I thank Michael Vick and Clinton Portis for bringing it to light. We must fight the source of the problem in order to fix it...and we can start by making an example out of these players...
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