KC DOG BLOG

Weekly Roundup, kcdogblog.com edition

REALLY busy week this week....a lot of news.  A lot of craziness. We'll get to some of the top stories.

Good editorial following fatality in Minneapolis

"What happened is extremely tragic and frustrating,'' Haggerty said. "But you tie up a dog, even Fluffy for that matter, in a basement, tied to a chain and kept away from humans, and you will have a dangerous, aggressive dog on your hands.''

"If you bring anything into the home, a swimming pool for that matter, you have the responsibility as a parent to take extra precautions, especially with children around,'' Delise said. "If you did not take the time to train a dog you brought into your family to be social, you already failed the dog, as well as your child.''

It's amazing the good results when experts are talked to....

Then on the flip side, there's this "well-meaning" article from LA

This editorial is from someone who has clearly listened to more people tell her "facts" than actually worked with dogs or experts.  From the quoting of Merrit Cliffton's horribly flawed statistics, to thinking that Pointers point, and pit bulls fight due to genetics and not training (if you believe that these traits are just natural, take a Labrador Retriever that has been a family pet for about 6 years out on a bird hunt and see how "natural" its hunting behavior is).

This author pretty much pulled out every myth and stereotype in the animal world and wrapped it up in a little editorial full of mis-information that people will believe to be true.

Bluefield, WV about BSL

The Bluefield city council decided that the trick to making the city safer was to update and ENFORCE their current laws vs trying to make new ones.  Enforcement of current laws is amazingly effective compared to making new ones that can't be enforced.  The last paragraph is the best:

"Dog ownership is a huge commitment, and those who are not responsible pet owners should be held accountable.  However, dependable owners who do abide by the current ordinances and practice safety measures should not be punished with an overly-strict ordinance due to the irresponsible actions of a few."

Kid attacked by "dog" and has ear ripped off in Des Moines

Of course this is a "dog", not a breed of dog.  The kid was attacked just after feeding the dog treats...again, the notion that kids left unattended feeding dogs isn't usually the best scenerio.  The story of course focuses on the real issue because it wasn't a pit bull involved.  You'll have to watch the video to see the dog to get any indication of the breed.  I'll also note that this attack was only covered by one TV news station in the country...

If you want a lot of coverage, get a pit bull attack

This story ran in over 200 news sources across the country.  A woman was attacked inside her home  by two pit bulls.

Apparently the dogs had "caused problems before" -- and one was chained up in the back yard before the attack.

"They don't come out of the chute ready to bite"

One of the best quotes of the week from the director of Seattle's Animal Shelter Dan Jordan...basically denouncing all of the people who think that pit bulls biting is more nature than nurture.

Man not charged for slitting pit bull's throat in Bloomfield, CO

Apparently there is insufficient evidence to prove that the slitting of the dog's throat was "needless".  One wonders if there would have been enough evidence had it been any other breed of dog that was killed.

New book tries to improve reputation of the "Pit bull"

The book is a kid's book entitled Demo: the Story of a Junkyard dog...and it is written as a fun story for kids, but also debunks a lot of the stereotypes believed by city council types.  I'm looking forward to buying a copy...

Youngstown, OH to look at banning "pit bulls"

City Councilman Mark Memmer is sponsoring bill because of the high-stakes dog fighting in the city, and the number of drug dealers that own the dogs to protect their stuff.  "Drastic situations call for drastic measures and drastic reactions".  Because if they're disobeying the felony dog fighting law and drug dealing laws, I'm certain that the "pit bull ban" will stop them...

Atchison KS Couple Busted for suspected dog fighting

It's funny when people say that pit bull fighting is "underground".  It's done that way because it's illegal.  FWIW, drug dealing and kiddie porn are done "underground" too.

15 month old kid killed by Chow mix

Elijah Rackley died when a Chow mix attacked him.  He apparently tried to play with one of the dog's puppies.  The dog, of course, was also chained. 

I'll also note that this story ran in ONE media outlet (as best I could find - -and I wouldn't have found this one at all had mothers against dog chaining hadn't caught it). 

That's two fatalities this week...guess what two things they had in common?  Unsupervised kids, and chained dogs.

  Pit bull attacks four year old boy in Columbia Heights, MN

This is what then happens when the media reports "pit bull", "pit bull" "pit bull" instead of focusing on the actual causes of attacks.  This boy saw the dog, an "85 lb pit bull mix" and "ran in circles screaming until the dog knocked him to the ground, biting and holding on, thrashing."

That's NOT the way to react around a dog...but let's not focus on that.  Let's focus on the "viciousness " of the attack.

"It was just trying to grab me ... trying to kill me."

Dog kept biting boy's leg

Roddy confirmed the account given by the mother and son: The dog bit the boy in the left leg, pulling him to the ground, then kept biting him in the right lower leg.

Bucky said he tried to hide from the dog, but he kept chasing the boy.

"He just ran out and bit my leg," the boy said. "He wouldn't let go."

Look at the picture.  Looks like a run of the mill dog bite to me...

Paul Tellings files appeal in Ohio Supreme Court Decision

Thanks to Caveat for posting the article. The appeal is WELL worth the read. It states that an exhibit was removed by the prosecuting attorney and never returned.  Just so happens that the book refuted one of the four primary reasons why Tom Skeldon said BSL was consitutional and justified.  Also turns out, that the Skeldon provided no support for his other 3 reasons why he thought the law was justified.

It's also interesting that Justice O'Connor, who disagreed with the ruling, was the judge that served on Ohio's Dog Fighting Task force and had the most knowledge on the subject. 

Reading the report, it does make one ask the question, what in the world was going on in that Supreme Court Decision?

A Dozen pit bulls removed from DMX's Home

I'm sure we'll hear a LOT more about this story...but it looks like DMX is in a dog fight with local authorities about his dogs....again.

Have a good start to the week...

Sorry

Sorry about the mix-up on the site.  I'm trying to figure this out with the folks at typepad, but for now, the site is a bit more jumbled than ususal...hopefully we'll have it figured out soon...

KC Dog Blog Turns 1 Today

365 Days.  372 Posts. 623 Comments. 20,000+ unique visits.  45,000+ page views.

It's been an interesting year.  Thanks for reading what started as a little experiment.

As a 1 year birthday gift for myself, I ponied up the $15 to actually own my domain name.  So now you can get here using kcdogblog.com -- instead of having to google search me.

The weekly roundup will come later today...or tonight.  It's finally not sweltering hot today, so I may be slow getting to blogging.

Enjoy my birthday.

And yet more KC Dog Abuse Stories

There was another story last night on Fox 4 news about yet another case of animal cruelty in Kansas City.  As I pointed out earlier this week, cruelty comes in a lot of different forms.  While people get outraged over Mike Vick and his involvement in dog fighting, every day there are dogs that are being mistreated and neglected in Kansas City.  The SNKC Summer/Winter Assistance program continues to do the job that animal control should be doing in finding these cases.

This story highlights a couple of dogs that had been chained to a tree.  The dogs didn't have collars on, and the chains had become imbedded in their skin.  The owner said that they hadn't noticed the wounds.  Watch the video, and check out the wounds.  I feel pretty comfortable in saying that a) these wounds didn't just appear over night and b) if the owner really hadn't noticed the wounds, the dogs weren't getting a lot of TLC.

While I'm not a fan of cities making dog ordinances and interfering with how people want to raise their dogs (as we're so over-regulated as a country anyway), I think that ordinances need to be written in a way that allow for animal control to investigate cruelty situations when it comes to consistent tethering and having dogs have chains wrapped around their necks vs having actual collars.

This is completely the type of thing that causes dogs to become aggressive...being left with a big chain wrapped around (and imbedded in) its neck, tethered to a tree with so little human interaction that its own owner doesn't even realize that they have deep, infected wounds on them.

Until we address real issues, and real problems with cruelty, neglect and abuse, and hide behind stereotypical ideas of breed restrictions, we're going to continue to have problems with dogs attacking humans. 

Another case of dog abuse in KC

This guy was accused by his girlfriend of killing the family dog and then hiding it in the ceiling tiles in their basement.  I'm not so sure why people don't realize that eventually, that dog is going to start stinking and people are going to be on to you.

Anyway, I know a lot of people (not most of the people who spend time here) think that it's no big deal that Fluffy ended up dead...but I think that if this kid really killed the dog, the Czerniki family should be greatful that it was just their dog, and not their daughter -- there have been quite a few case studies that link animal abuse to future abuse of people.   You can start reading about case studies here.

One habit I won't have to break

With a sigh of relief, I read an article that Napa County has updated their dangerous dog ordinance.  As a new rule where I try to not give business to a city with a really bad dog law, Napa was a huge scare for me.  I've already given up on ever going to Denver again (which hurts a bit) and every shopping in Overland Park again(which doesn't hurt).

By the initial glance at the ordinance, it looks like a solid ordinance...focusing on owner behavior and making owners FIX the behavior prior to getting their dogs returned.

My favorite quote in the article is from Councilman Mark Van Gorder "We did our homework" - -noting that in the end, everyone on the task force agreed on the solution.

If only everyone would do their homework, we'd have a lot fewer bad ordinances, and a lot more ones that would actually be solving problems, vs doing nothing but creating hardships for the people who never caused any problems in the first place.

It shouldn't be too much to ask that people do their homework before making laws. At least for now, my wine supply is safe.

CLC Speaker Tio Hardiman on NPR Yesterday

CLC Speaker Tio Hardiman was was on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday talking about what his group is doing with working with inner-city youths to limit dog fighting in Chicago.

He talks about there being different levels of dog fighting (from more less organized street-level type stuff to more organized type stuff like what Mike Vick was involved in).  The small scale stuff is definitely what we see more of in the Kansas City Area.

One really interesting point that he makes is that in many of these areas, the guys just don't value the animal's lives -- they figure that if they don't fight the dogs, someone else would anyway, so why not. In a subculture that doesn't place a huge amount of value even on human life due to the violence they see every day, it's nearly impossible to get them to see the value in the lives of animals.

This is why, even though dog fighting may be really high profile right now, it's important that we need our animal control officers focus on cruelty of all types...to realize there is value to these beings. 

You can listen to the whole four-minute interview here.

Another dog found with leg cut off in KCMO

In an email release I just received (I've yet to find available online, I"ll link to it when it appears), a second dog was found in horrible condition with its leg chopped off. This dog was a Rottweiler mix, and had the same leg, in nearly the same spot, chopped off as Misty, a dog that was found a week or so ago.  It seems (to everyone), that this isn't a coincidence.

Abuse comes in many forms, and I'm hoping that this sicko gets brought to justice.

Here's a link to the coverage from Fox 4.

Abuse comes in "smaller" forms

Once again the proof is out there that the readers of this blog are much smarter than the actual writer of it.

Michelle made a comment on yesterday's post about how she is irritated that people will get in such an uproar over dog fighting and donate large sums of money to groups like HSUS, but continue to remain oblivious to the thousands of cases of abuse that are happening in our own back yard here in KC, and ignoring the groups that are doing something to actually help the problem...not to mention the 40,000-ish animals that are killed in our Kansas City Shelters each year.

She is right of course. While dog fighting is a terrible crime, and worthy of our time, there are even more dogs every year that suffer from abuse and neglect.  Some of it is intentional by their owners, some of it unintentional.

The dog pictured above is Misty.  She is a 6 month old puppy that had her leg chopped off by her owner.  She was lucky enough to get help.  Not all of these cases do find help.  Most don't.

Misty is one of dozens of dogs that has been helped by the Summer Assistance program sponsored by Spay/Neuter Kansas City.  Many of the dog owners just need some help providing for their dogs.  Some owners are purposefully mistreating their dogs.

As often as they can, the folks with the summer assistance program (this is the same program as the winter assistance program, just focusing on the needs the different times of year bring) head into our urban core to help these animals that are also suffering from abuse.  All too often these programs get ignored by people who are more focused on the cause of the moment, or focusing on giving $$ when a case gets a lot of exposure.  But groups like the summer assistance program are constantly in need of money, resources, and volunteers to help with these "smaller" forms of abuse.

And I've not even touched on the dozens of rescues in this city that are focusing on placing homeless animals in new homes to prevent them from suffering a "more humane" death due to euthenasia.  Yet 40,000 animals a year are killed in Kansas City area shelters.

Abuse comes in many forms, and there are many local organizations that are doing great work to help.  It's a great way to get involved in helping animals to have the type of life they all deserve.

"Experts" coming out of the woodwork

One thing I love about dog legislation, is that it seems everyone feels like they know enough about it to comment on it.  As is the case with this story from the Huntington News.  I'm going to print this out in it's entirety so I can comment (in blue) on the story.

OUR PUBLIC LIFE: It's Time to Profile Canine Americans

By Craig Hammond

While it's true that any dog is capable of biting, some dog breeds are known to bite more -- and are known to be more vicious -- than others. Pit Bulls and Rottweilers lead the list. That's not just what I say, but what the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control has documented. (First off, be it noted that NEITHER of these two organizations recommend breed specific legislation.  Also, neither of these two organizations track actual bite stats by breed.  The CDC did track FATAL bite stats over a 25 year timeframe, but hasn't tracked bites by breed in over a decade now because they felt like the stats were inaccurate,  misleading and being mis-used.)

Every year, more than 5 million dog bites are reported in the United States, of which 800,000 have injuries serious enough to require medical care. A dog bite victim is seen by a medical professional every 40 seconds in the United States, and most of the victims are children.

And once again, Pit Bulls and Rottweilers are responsible for these injuries more than any other breeds. (I'm really curious the source for this one, because the source that tracks the number of dog bites and the number that require medical attention that he referenced in the previous paragraph do not track breed information). And what's truly alarming is that Pit Bulls and Rottweilers are now the breeds of choice among America's teenagers. The Bluefield Daily Telegraph said, in a recent editorial (August 18, 2007), that it is vitally important to update city ordinances because '...there have been many social and cultural changes regarding canine ownership...' over the last few years.

With all this evidence staring us in the face, the time has come for municipalities and counties to begin profiling certain canines. (So if the change is a social and cultural change, what does a dog breed have to do with anything?  If it's a social and cultural issue, why not go after that segment of society and their culture if it's causing a problem?) They need to do what nearly every (Or some) insurance company has done. And that is recognize that some breeds of dogs must be considered vicious.

And they can start by adopting ordinances that require owners of Pit Bulls and Rottweilers to keep their animals contained, muzzled in public, and to carry liability insurance. (Again, I'll note here for Mr. Hammond, that 75% of attacks are on someone the dog knows, most likely on its own property. Muzzling would have ZERO effect on these attacks.  Meanwhile, the city's laws should already have laws that prevent dogs from running loose, so that's no change).

Profiling -- not banning -- certain breeds of dogs is a good idea. It will enhance our public life and it's something we can live with -- literally. Support your local Animal Control Officers. They're working alot longer and a lot harder theses days. (Just wait until they have to attend court hearings when they can't figure out what type of breed a dog is, you'll think they're working a lot longer hours).

Our Public Life, a weekly column by Craig Hammond, former mayor of Bluefield, WV and host of RadioActive, is dedicated to the institutions that enhance our public life.