KC DOG BLOG

County Leaders to Tom Skeldon, the Status Quo is Unacceptable

A week after acommittee provided recommendations for how Lucas County Dog Warden tom Skeldon should perform his duties, County leaders in Lucas County have made it very clear that the status quo was no longer acceptable.

Skeldon has vowed to "redouble" his efforts to adopt out more animals -- curbing the shelter's abysmal 80% euthanasia rate - but provided no specifics on how he would do it.  Upon learning about Skeldon's response to the committee's recommendations, Lucas County Commission Presdident Pete Gerken said he would call a face to face meeting "to make sure he knows what he needs to do. If he needs some creative thinking, I'll be happy to give some."

Ouch.

Last November, under the same pressure, promised to get the shelter's adoption rate, which was then at 13%, up to 24% by the end of 2009, and up to 34% at the end of 2010.  However, as of August 22, the shelter adoption rate was still at an abysmal 16.1%.

As of October 23, 62% of the dogs in the shelter had been euthanized this year -- to which, Skeldon responded "We are a success story. We are to be emulated."   Meanwhile, Skeldon spent most of the article blaming everyone except himself for the problems in the shelter.

With a reaction like that, I sincerely doubt Skeldon has any desire or ability to make the changes possible to meet the demands of the public.

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I've written about this before, but society's views on the roles of animal control are changing. No longer is animal control seen as just a department that is designed to protect people from dogs -- a notion that came out of the fear of rabies decades ago. But it is also now seen as an important for animal control to protect animals from people - -including our very own shelters.

Skeldon, and many others who are of the "old school" mindset fail to recognize this and continue to kill animals in an effort to improve "public safety" -- with no regard whatsoever for animal welfare.

It is no longer an acceptable form of animal control (if it ever, indeed was).

What may be worse is that in 2008, Toledo saw a 23% increase in dog bites -- so they're not really working on the public safety angle either. It is a failure all around.

I'll talk more about this next week, but the ideas surrounding no-kill and public safety are NOT mutually exclusive. It is possible -- and being done - that cities are both promoting public safety AND improving the welfare of animals. They can, and do, work hand in hand.

And the sooner we put good managment in charge of our animal control divisions -- that see that there are two sides of animal control -- protection of people from animals, and protection of animals from people - the sooner we will make true progress toward becoming a no-kill nation -- one that is truly animal-friendly.

The world is changing - -and our views on animals are changing. And the sooner those who are in charge recognize that, the better.

Another tragic fatal attack

A 2 year old Prescott, AR toddler died yesterday morning after being attacked by a dog. The toddler and his three-year-old brother were staying at their babysitter's house -- and the two boys got out of the house and wandered four blocks away. Apparently the younger child followed a little puppy into the back yard and climbed into a dog house to get the puppy. However, also in the dog house happened to be a chained adult dog that attacked and killed the boy.

The dog is being described as a "pit bull" -- and unfortunately that's where a lot of the emphasis has been. But there is so much blame to be had here -- with two toddlers being able to wander 4 blocks from home, chained dogs in the back yard, and a toddler climbing into a dog house.

But a child is tragically dead.

Prescott is in a remote part of Southwestern Arkansas and has a population of about 4,300 people -- 1/3 of whom (32.5%) live below the poverty line -- which is double the state average.  The link between income/education level and how people care for dogs continues to be overlooked when it comes to these stories -- and how many of these attacks could be prevented through educating people on better was to contain their dogs (and watch their children).

This is the second attack in less than a week that involved a babysitter who let the child alone and ended up dead by a dog attack.

As more details emerge, I will update any relevant information.

National Pit Bull Awareness Day, 2009

Once again, the fine folks in Kansas City got together to celebrate National Pit Bull Awareness Day -- and our Roverlution Event.  It is a great opportunity for us to get together with others just to share the great story about how great of dogs "pit bulls' are -- once you remove all of the media hysteria from the equation.

This is an event that is held in over 90 cities across the country.

The event drummed up quite a bit of national and local positive press for the bullies -- which is yet another great reason to host the events. And they're fun.  Below are some photos from our event as well as some coverage of events from across the country:

St. Louis, MO

Sacramento, CA

Miami-Dade County/Broward County, FL

Baltimore, MD

Memphis, TN

A note from Bless the Bullys -- who is the starter of the Pit Bull Awareness Day event -- I'm sure Jodi will be posting more pictures as the week progresses, so check back with them.

And here is a video from our Kansas City Event. The following pics are from our event also.

Quite a few dogs were in Costume. Including this "boxer".

  Some of you may recognize this dashing-looking pirate -- this is Boomer.  Boomer was rescued from a hoarding situation in Northern Oklahoma last December.

Ok, first off hats off to some of the great folks who were live blogging and live tweeting from the conference. It was kind of like being there -- without being there. Thanks all -- particularly  Christie from the Pet Connection and jsibley on Twitter. Thanks all.

Christie had an awesome set of live blog posts. I'm going to link to all of them individually with a few comments about each of them. I have seen most of the speakers before so I feel comfortable about knowing what the basics of the presentations.  So please, go read Christie's posts - And some from the No More Homeless Pets Conference blog -- which are the links provided. And enjoy.  My thoughts included below.

Opening Panel Discussion

It is great to hear how much Best Friends has really embraced the No Kill movement. But what I think may be the most interesting part of this is just how many organizations (all the panelists except one) that are turning against Mandatory Spay/Neuter Ordinances. As recently as 4 years ago, it seemed like most everyone favored MSN ordinances -- but after seeing the devastating effects of these ordinances, most animal welfare orgs now do not favor them. The bottom line is that most people now currently alter their pets on their own. The most common reason people don't alter their pets is because they cannot afford to. Laws don't change that. And laws on their own only cause many animals to be confiscated for non-compliance with the law. Low cost spay/neuter programs -- programs that remove the #1 barrier for non-compliance - do work. While laws can seem to work when the low cost options are in place, they are unneccessary because the low cost options work without them. At best, the laws are unnecessary, at worst, catastrophic for animals.

I'm also amazed at how anyone could use Los Angeles as a model of "success" for this type of law.  Just because they have it, doesn't mean it's been successful.

Planning and Business Skills Save Lives

It is amazing to me how slow the animal welfare/rescue industry has been to adapt to change. While virually every other organization type is actively learning from other industries that will move them to the next level of success, it seems that many in animal welfare are horrible about goal-setting, and many even believe that success is not possible. It is time to abandon old ways of thinking about animal welfare and adopt new models that have proven succcessful.

What's New In Feral Cats?

I'm still fascinated by the number of cities that have laws that actively work against Feral Cats and feral cat caretakers.  Programs that actively seek to alter animals so the colony populations begin to stabalize and then dwindle are great. Barn cat programs are excellent. The idea that squirrels have more protrection under the law than cats is just odd to me.  And I know many people get upset about "outside" cats - but as Winograd pointed out at the conference, being outside is not the leading killer of cats in this country -- our animal shelters are.  It's time to re-think feral cats and give them a chance to live out their lives naturally vs prematurely killing them in our shelter systems.

Get Social, Save Lives

Sometimes it's important to think about "friend" raising, not just "fund" raising.  Social media outlets are excellent ways to make friends, and maintain connections, cheaply and efficiently. The more we can do to use these to our benefit the better we'll be able to reach out to others when we need homes for animals (which is always).

Building a No Kill Community -- Bonnie Brown of Nevada Humane Society

In three years, Bonnie Brown has taken the community of Reno, NV from essentially a city like most others than kills about 50% of the animals in their shelter, to a community that is essentially no-kill. It hasn't been just her thought -- it's taken an entire community of people (including animal control - yah Mitch!) to get them there.

Much of the success in Reno has been by avoiding the type of thinking that leaves animals in shelters and taking a proactive approach to marketing. While many shelters get upset about the idea of "impulse" adoptions, Bonnie points out that most of us in rescue have certainly "saved" an animal on impulse. Why would adoptions be different?  Just because a decision is made on "impulse" doesn't mean it isn't a lasting decision.

She also believes in using ideas from retail to save lives.  Auto dealers really work to get people to take cars for test drives because they know once someone drives a car, they are more likely to fall in love and buy it. Why don't we do more "trial adoptions" for people who are not 100% sure if they want a pet or not and let them take an animal home and fall in love. It's about creating an experience with the animal, not trying to get them to fall in love through a metal cage wall.

Nevada Humane also has some of the most innovative adoption promotions -- seniors for seniors,  Valentines Day Speed Dating, St. Patricks DAy, Mardi Gras, and even Arbor Day (some funny stuff here).  She also recommends taking the Wal-Mart approach to adopting out animals. While high end retailers may charge more, they move fewer items. In a shelter environment, we must move a large number of animals. Think Wal-mart, not Saks 5th Avenue. If you move a lot of animals, and do things the right way, you'll more than make up for the fees with more adoptions and more donations from people who see you're doing right by the animals.

A Tail of Two Cities - Calgary and New York

I've talked a lot about Calgary here in the past -- and there are a lot of great things going on in New York as well.  Some things though that I think are particularly relevant that are making Calgary a success where others are failing:

1) In Calgary, their main idea is that most people WANT to do the right thing, but often don't know what that is or don't have the resources to do it. There, they are all about educating people on the right things to do, and removing the barriers to doing them with things like low cost/no cost spay/neuter.

2) Their focus is also on education, not enforcement. Bill Bruce there firmly believes that laws and ticketing are not the way to gain compliance -- that education is. "Enforcement is always the last resort, not the first".  This is probably where most US cities go astray as we put way too much emphasis in this country on punishing people vs getting the right desired behavior.

3) Calgary has very high licensing rates -- which allows them to have very high Return-to-owner numbers. 30% of the animals they "intake" never even make it to the shelter -- but are driven directly home. Their focus is on getting the animal home, and not 'punishing" the owner for having the loose dog in the first place. If someone becomes a "habitual" offender, THEN they get fined. But free rides home are always available for first time offenses. This allows their animal control to be seen as a service, not as a punishing organization -- which increases licensing compliance. It also saves them a small fortune in sheltering costs by never having the animals come into the shelter.

Thanks to all who attended this weekend that made getting the information out there possible.

     It's been kind of a crazy week. A lot of stuff going on -- includingDenver's continued problems with their ban and more problems for breed ban enthusiast Tom Skeldon in Toledo. Also, Best Friends is hosting their annual No More Homeless Pets Conference out in Las Vegas this weekend -- but thanks to new technology a lot of folks are providing instant feedback from the conferences and it sounds  like the conference is going great.  You can follow along on Best Friends' blog for yourself -- and Christie has been live blogging from there as well. I'll collect a few of the posts after the conference is over because I have a few comments I want to make.  Yesterday was also National Pit Bull Awareness Day -- I'll be posting some stories from that this week.  On to the rest of the week's stories:

Cities and Laws

Madison County, GA is discussing animal control options after a five year old boy was attacked by an Akita earlier this month.

Auburn, CA is supposedly discussing the idea of a breed ban in the city.  State law in California does not allow for individual cities to impose bans on certain breeds.

The Seattle Humane Society has come out against the proposed breed ban in Bothell, WA.

Jackson, MS is eyeing new dangerous dog legislation -- including potentially Breed Specific Legislation.

Lincoln, NE continues to explore options for their dangerous dog law that are not breed specific -- although they aren't completely ruling out BSL, it is definitely not their first option.

Las Vegas is now looking at a potential law that would mandate that all pets be spayed or neutered. While targeted low-cost programs have proven effective at reducing pet populations, mandatory programs have not proven effective.

Residents in Mashpee, MA voted overwhelmingly against breed specific legislation in their community.

Southgate, MI is still considering a new dangerous dog ordinance.

Dog bites

A Crystal River, FL man was attacked when four dogs that lived at his neighbor's house got under the fence and began to attack him and his dog. The attacking dogs are believed to be Mastiffs.

A 19 month old Tennessee child was severely bitten by a Greate Dane. The dog was apparently new to the family and the owner set the food bowl down near the dog and the child in order to answer the door and that's when the dog bit the young child.

A 10 year old Miami-Dade County boy was hospitalized after he was bitten by a Husky mix. 

An Everett, WA man nearly died after he was bitten in the hand by one of his dogs. His two dogs, one a Labrador/Blue Heeler mix, got in a fight in the yeard and he got bitten trying to break up the fight. A few days later the man was suffering from a serious infection from the bite and nearly died.

A UK Rottweiler was given a Muzzle order after it attacked a 10 year old girl.  The UK banned 4 different breeds of dogs in 1991 and have continued to see an increase in dog bites in their community.

A Piercetown, IN woman was severely attacked by a 'pit bull' that was chained out in front of her son's home. The woman came to visit her son, but the chained dog was able to reach the sidewalk and attacked the woman.

A New York woman apparently lied to police -- the woman had reported to police that her toddler was bitten by a "pit bull" -- however, upon further investigation, it turns out the woman's own American Husky was involved in the bite.

Abuse Cases

A UK dog breeder who abandoned 99 St. Bernards while she went on vacation has been jailed for 18 weeks for animal cruelty.

Police in Hagerstown, PA shot a Labrador Retriever this week who they said was acting aggressively. Note the sympathetic tone for the owners that this article is written with vs when dogs of other breeds are attacked.

Twelve 'pit bulls' that were seized from a dog fighting ring earlier this month in Buffalo were euthanized because they were aggressive. 13 others have the possibility of being rehabilitated.

Media Reports

There was a story outside of Denver where a man was shot, and another woman injured, after an apparent argument. The argument stemmed from some concerns that one family had that another family -- who apparently lived on the same property -- were letting their dog, alegedly a 'pit bull', run free on the property and it was harrassing their livestock on the property. A 16 year old boy ended up shooting the dog owner and killing him.  While the story is tragic in its own right, it was amazing to me the number of headlines that included the words "pit bull" in them -- as if the pit bull had caused the man's death.

Animal Shelters

The largest no kill shelter in the Kansas City Metro, Animal Haven, is at capacity and had a large adopt-a-thon this weekend to try to get more animals adopted.

Manatee, FL animal shelters are killing just more than 50% of the animals that that enter the shelter. Seems a shelter that is ripe for no-kill programs.

Miscellanious

Residents in Memphis are upset after multiple dogs have been shot in the area in recent weeks.

Pit Bulls' unfair reputation thwarts adoptions.

A great video story about one of Mike Vick's former dogs who is thriving in its new home in the San Francisco area.

A great photo of a friend of mine's dog during a dog show in Springfield, MO. Mandy is a beautiful Am. Staff that is actually banned in Springfield (where this shwo took place) in spite of having multiple training titles.

The owner, not the dog, is the issue.

A sad story about a 'pit bull' that saved its owner from being attacked by a cobra...but ended up paying the ultimate price for saving his owner.

Prairie Village, KS is cracking down on barking dogs.

Update: 10/28/09 - It turns out that the dog did not actually belong to the babysitter -- and that it actually belonged to the sitter's inlaws and she was watching the dog for them while they were in the process of moving.  As more information comes out about the attack, it becomes even more clear what a tragedy of errors that occurred to create this fatal attack. A large breed dog that was in a strange envirnoment, with a different handler who was not terribly familiar with the dog's behavior. A child, left unattended in the back yard with the dog. And a sitter who was not watching the child closely enough.

These events are tragic and very preventable. But until we focus on the events that led up to the attack and focus on preventing those -- and not the breed of dog involved (which is still being widely mis-reported), we will make no progress in preventing these tragedies.

This story has now been picked up in over 400 media outlets.

UPDATE:  According to a report by KMPH news in Californina, the babysitter left the child alone "for a few moments" and then ran outside when she heard the commotion.  I can't stress enough that young kids have a way of poking, pushing, tugging, grabbing, etc dogs and usually don't recognize dog's subtle signals to "get away". Because of this, I don't recommend leaving toddlers alone with any dog, regardless of breed, for any amount of time.

The victim of the attack was named Colton Smith.

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A 17 month old toddler was killed yesterday in Merced County, CA -- a victim of a fatal dog attack.

The child was with the babysitter when the 65 lbs 'pit bull'/Akita mix attacked the child in the throat. The babysitter could not get the dog to let go of the child until she stabbed it with a fork.

The circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear -- whether the dog knew the child well, whether the child and dog were closely supervised, etc. Hopefully some of that information will come out in the coming days.

The child was taken to the Hospital where he died a short time later.

When the media report came out, the dog was originally just called a 'pit bull' (Not a mix like the local media reported)-- which is what the Associated Press called the dog. The article has run in over 260 newspapers around the country (already) with most of the reports not recognizing the dog as a mixed breed.  (Update: the number of media outlets that covered this is now over 300).

I'll post more details as they become available -- but my heart goes out to the family and the babysitter as they deal with the tragedy.  And it is my hope that the coming days bring conversations about the actual causes of the attack (not focusing on the breed) so people can become more educated about how and why attacks like this happen so future tragedies can be avoided.

Earlier this week, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein (one of 16 German States) repealed its ban on "Pit Bulls". According to the article (which is in German - this is the translation of the first two lines of the third paragraph that was sent to me from someone who lives there):

'CDU and FDP want to protect citizens against irresponsible dog holders. The race list (i.e breed ban) has turned out as not suitable for this and, hence, is abolished in the dangerous dogs law.'

It's been interesting trying to read about the "rasseliste" in Germany, and about how many of the same problems that exist with it in the US are the same in Germany - -including the cost of the impounding and keeping the animals, and problems with accurate breed identification to determine which dogs are included in the breed ban, and which ones are not.

(Sorry for the rough translations -- I used Google Translate for the artiles and they come by very rough -- the original links are here and here if you are fluent in German or know of a better translator).

While our friends in Western Europe followed us into the world of breed bans, it appears they are being quicker than us to jump off the bandwagon in search of more effective solutions to their dog bite problems. Schleswig-Holstein now joins other areas of Western Europe like Italy and The Netherlands to have repealed their breed bans just in the past 2 years.

BSL is not just a failure in the US -- it is truly an internationally failed policy.  Time to learn from our mistakes, and move on.

Lucas County (OH) Dog Warden Tom Skeldon continues to be under fire. Last year, a group of concerned Toledo-area residents put together a petition with 3,000+ signatures requesting the removal of Mr. Skeldo from his position as the Lucas County Dog Warden -- a position he has held since 1987.

This event, along with the shooting of a 10 lbs dog with a tranquilizer dart while it was on its front porch -- killing the dog -- led the Lucas County commissioners to appoint a committee to provide feedback on Skeldon's performance.

Yesterday, the comittee came back with their findings -- and it's not pretty.

The committee reported that Lucas County Animal Control lacks standard procedures for its daily operations -- including protocols for euthanasia and the use of tranquilizer darts to subdue dogs. The committee also very harshly criticized Skeldon's callous attitude toward animal welfare-- citing the shelter's 80% euthanasia rate, 7% adoption rate and and 18% reclaimed.  The committee also pointed out that Skeldon is not working with local all-breed rescue groups, not vaccinating animals when they come into the shelters which is causing the spred of disease and that he is promoting discrimination against pit bulls.

The newspaper of record, the Toledo Blade, has also jumped on Skeldon, with this morning's editorial entitled "Skeldon's got to go". Here's part:

"Some animals have to be put down because of illness or because past abuse has left irreparable psychological scars, but Mr. Skeldon's operation illustrates a more fundamental problem. The picture that emerged from the committee's recommendations was of a dog pound that is a killing machine, run by an official who has ruled his little fiefdom so long he has become both dictatorial and callous.

The people of Lucas County want a dog warden who is sensitive to life, one who remembers that the animals in his care often are the innocent victims of abusive or neglectful owners. Mr. Skeldon, who got his job mainly because of old family ties, loves the law better than animals, and has a prejudice against pit bull breeds so entrenched he even kills puppies far too young to be considered vicious."

Indeed. Most residents in most cities want animals to be treated with compassion. While part of the dog warden's job is to protect the people from aggressive animals, the other part of their job is to protect animals from people -- by enforcing cruelty and neglect laws. And then, when the dogs make it to the shelter, knowing that that is their last hope for a good life -- not an almost certain end to that life.

The pot that Lucas County Dog Warden Tom Skeldon is sitting in is beginning to boil...and it's not a moment to soon for the animals in Lucas County.

Last fall, Sioux City hurried through a process, and ignored their local experts, and passed a new law regarding dogs in their community.  Among the laws was a ban on "pit bulls", and a changed policy on how the city dealt with "dangerous" dogs -- that all dogs accused of biting would be euthanized -- with no options for transfering the dogs from the city.

The city has had it's share of problems with the laws, including getting people to sign paperwork that signed over their guilt (which is unconstitutional), the local vet community deciding not to help them with breed identification for enforcing their 'pit bull' ban, animal control targeting those who spoke out against the ordinance (another violation of the constitution), and having one of the first dogs that was declared dangerous by the city for biting someone after the ordinance was passed being alabrador belonging to a city council member who was responsible for passing the law in the first place -- a dog that was later stolen from the city shelter.

So why would I not be surprised that the city is facing even MORE problems with their ordinance.

Currently, there are six people who have filed civil suits against the city for what they say were arbitrary decisions about the dogs beign "dangerous".   So while these suits tie up the court system, the dogs remain in the shelter for sim months to up to two years at a time on doggie death row waiting for the hearings to take place.

"I think the city does have to be concerned about it because animal control's having to provide shelter for these dogs and it's just something that's going to continue until there's some kind of resolution to it," said Martha McMinn, the attorney for the owners of the dogs. "Everyone agrees you shouldn't have vicious dogs out there biting people but this is so arbitrary."

Dogs affected by the new ordinance, including those confiscated due to the ban on 'pit bulls' now take up about 1/3 of the 52 kennel spaces in the Sioux City Animal Control Shelter and the shelter is struggling with overcrowding. "We're running out of room" said Cindy Rarrat, owner of the Sioux City Shelter.

Also interesting is that of the 6 dogs waiting on doggie death row, only one is actually a 'pit bull' -- with the others being a German Shepherd Mix, a Shar Pei, a Siberian Husky and a Great Dane. So why were 'pit bulls' singled out again?  They make up only a small percentage of the dogs that are accused of biting. 

Meanwhile, the amount of money the taxpayers are now paying for court rulings, holding the dogs, etc is mounting up tremendously.

"It's just a bad law and people are waking up to a lot of that," said Dennis Cloud, the owner of one of the dogs on death row.

I couldn't agree more.

 

Hat Tip to Fred over at One Bark at a Time who has a great post on this topic.  Malcolm Gladwell, a renouned writer of books like The Tipping Point and Blink, has a great new article in the New Yorker entitled Offensive Play: How different are dogfighting and football?

Gladwell has writen about "pit bulls' before -- in his 2006 article Troublemakers: What Pit Bulls cna teach us about profiling.  And again, he has shown an uncanny abilty to be knowledgable on the topic and use his words wisely to paint very vivid pictures of the stories he tells.

In Offensive Play, much of the story is about trauma-related brain injuries sustained by football players based on the constant collisions they face. If you are a fan of the game of football, you will find that part of the story fascinating, sad and frightening in its own right. But it is Gladwell's relating of this trauma to dog fighting that will likely be what many of the readers of this blog will find interesting. Gladwell writes:

"Part of what makes dogfighting so repulsive is the understnading that violence and injury cannot be removed from the sport. It's a feature of the sport that dogs almost always get hurt. Something like stock-car racing, by contrast, is dangerous, but not unavoidably so.

Outside of Gladwell's decision to use the term 'sport' when referring to dogfighting, I think you can see where he's going with the article.

Gladwell comes back to the dogs that are being rehabilitated at Best Friend's Sanctuary in Utah. He writes:

What happens at Best Friends represents, by any measure, an extravagant gesture. These are dogs that will never live a normal life. But the kind of crime embodied by dogfighting is so morally repellent that it demands an extravagant gesture in response. In a fighting dog, the quality that is prized above all others is the willingness to persevere, even in the face of injury and pain. A dog that will not do that is labelled a “cur,” and abandoned. A dog that keeps charging at its opponent is said to possess “gameness,” and game dogs are revered.

In one way or another, plenty of organizations select for gameness. The Marine Corps does so, and so does medicine, when it puts young doctors through the exhausting rigors of residency. But those who select for gameness have a responsibility not to abuse that trust: if you have men in your charge who would jump off a cliff for you, you cannot march them to the edge of the cliff—and dogfighting fails this test. Gameness, Carl Semencic argues, in “The World of Fighting Dogs” (1984), is no more than a dog’s “desire to please an owner at any expense to itself....This is why Michael Vick's dogs weren't euthanized . The betrayal of loyalty requires an act of social reparation."

And yet, sadly, it is the human race's betrayal of what may be the American Pit Bull Terrier's best trait, it's loyalty, that has led many not to seek reparations -- but to seek to exterminate the breed. Doesn't make much sense does it?

Read the article -- it's well worth the time.

Blog Postings from the No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas

Ok, first off hats off to some of the great folks who were live blogging and live tweeting from the conference. It was kind of like being there -- without being there. Thanks all -- particularly  Christie from the Pet Connection and jsibley on Twitter. Thanks all.

Christie had an awesome set of live blog posts. I'm going to link to all of them individually with a few comments about each of them. I have seen most of the speakers before so I feel comfortable about knowing what the basics of the presentations.  So please, go read Christie's posts - And some from the No More Homeless Pets Conference blog -- which are the links provided. And enjoy.  My thoughts included below.

Opening Panel Discussion

It is great to hear how much Best Friends has really embraced the No Kill movement. But what I think may be the most interesting part of this is just how many organizations (all the panelists except one) that are turning against Mandatory Spay/Neuter Ordinances. As recently as 4 years ago, it seemed like most everyone favored MSN ordinances -- but after seeing the devastating effects of these ordinances, most animal welfare orgs now do not favor them. The bottom line is that most people now currently alter their pets on their own. The most common reason people don't alter their pets is because they cannot afford to. Laws don't change that. And laws on their own only cause many animals to be confiscated for non-compliance with the law. Low cost spay/neuter programs -- programs that remove the #1 barrier for non-compliance - do work. While laws can seem to work when the low cost options are in place, they are unneccessary because the low cost options work without them. At best, the laws are unnecessary, at worst, catastrophic for animals.

I'm also amazed at how anyone could use Los Angeles as a model of "success" for this type of law.  Just because they have it, doesn't mean it's been successful.

Planning and Business Skills Save Lives

It is amazing to me how slow the animal welfare/rescue industry has been to adapt to change. While virually every other organization type is actively learning from other industries that will move them to the next level of success, it seems that many in animal welfare are horrible about goal-setting, and many even believe that success is not possible. It is time to abandon old ways of thinking about animal welfare and adopt new models that have proven succcessful.

What's New In Feral Cats?

I'm still fascinated by the number of cities that have laws that actively work against Feral Cats and feral cat caretakers.  Programs that actively seek to alter animals so the colony populations begin to stabalize and then dwindle are great. Barn cat programs are excellent. The idea that squirrels have more protrection under the law than cats is just odd to me.  And I know many people get upset about "outside" cats - but as Winograd pointed out at the conference, being outside is not the leading killer of cats in this country -- our animal shelters are.  It's time to re-think feral cats and give them a chance to live out their lives naturally vs prematurely killing them in our shelter systems.

Get Social, Save Lives

Sometimes it's important to think about "friend" raising, not just "fund" raising.  Social media outlets are excellent ways to make friends, and maintain connections, cheaply and efficiently. The more we can do to use these to our benefit the better we'll be able to reach out to others when we need homes for animals (which is always).

Building a No Kill Community -- Bonnie Brown of Nevada Humane Society

In three years, Bonnie Brown has taken the community of Reno, NV from essentially a city like most others than kills about 50% of the animals in their shelter, to a community that is essentially no-kill. It hasn't been just her thought -- it's taken an entire community of people (including animal control - yah Mitch!) to get them there.

Much of the success in Reno has been by avoiding the type of thinking that leaves animals in shelters and taking a proactive approach to marketing. While many shelters get upset about the idea of "impulse" adoptions, Bonnie points out that most of us in rescue have certainly "saved" an animal on impulse. Why would adoptions be different?  Just because a decision is made on "impulse" doesn't mean it isn't a lasting decision.

She also believes in using ideas from retail to save lives.  Auto dealers really work to get people to take cars for test drives because they know once someone drives a car, they are more likely to fall in love and buy it. Why don't we do more "trial adoptions" for people who are not 100% sure if they want a pet or not and let them take an animal home and fall in love. It's about creating an experience with the animal, not trying to get them to fall in love through a metal cage wall.

Nevada Humane also has some of the most innovative adoption promotions -- seniors for seniors,  Valentines Day Speed Dating, St. Patricks DAy, Mardi Gras, and even Arbor Day (some funny stuff here).  She also recommends taking the Wal-Mart approach to adopting out animals. While high end retailers may charge more, they move fewer items. In a shelter environment, we must move a large number of animals. Think Wal-mart, not Saks 5th Avenue. If you move a lot of animals, and do things the right way, you'll more than make up for the fees with more adoptions and more donations from people who see you're doing right by the animals.

A Tail of Two Cities - Calgary and New York

I've talked a lot about Calgary here in the past -- and there are a lot of great things going on in New York as well.  Some things though that I think are particularly relevant that are making Calgary a success where others are failing:

1) In Calgary, their main idea is that most people WANT to do the right thing, but often don't know what that is or don't have the resources to do it. There, they are all about educating people on the right things to do, and removing the barriers to doing them with things like low cost/no cost spay/neuter.

2) Their focus is also on education, not enforcement. Bill Bruce there firmly believes that laws and ticketing are not the way to gain compliance -- that education is. "Enforcement is always the last resort, not the first".  This is probably where most US cities go astray as we put way too much emphasis in this country on punishing people vs getting the right desired behavior.

3) Calgary has very high licensing rates -- which allows them to have very high Return-to-owner numbers. 30% of the animals they "intake" never even make it to the shelter -- but are driven directly home. Their focus is on getting the animal home, and not 'punishing" the owner for having the loose dog in the first place. If someone becomes a "habitual" offender, THEN they get fined. But free rides home are always available for first time offenses. This allows their animal control to be seen as a service, not as a punishing organization -- which increases licensing compliance. It also saves them a small fortune in sheltering costs by never having the animals come into the shelter.

Thanks to all who attended this weekend that made getting the information out there possible.

Weekly Roundup - Week ending 10/25/09

     It's been kind of a crazy week. A lot of stuff going on -- includingDenver's continued problems with their ban and more problems for breed ban enthusiast Tom Skeldon in Toledo. Also, Best Friends is hosting their annual No More Homeless Pets Conference out in Las Vegas this weekend -- but thanks to new technology a lot of folks are providing instant feedback from the conferences and it sounds  like the conference is going great.  You can follow along on Best Friends' blog for yourself -- and Christie has been live blogging from there as well. I'll collect a few of the posts after the conference is over because I have a few comments I want to make.  Yesterday was also National Pit Bull Awareness Day -- I'll be posting some stories from that this week.  On to the rest of the week's stories:

Cities and Laws

Madison County, GA is discussing animal control options after a five year old boy was attacked by an Akita earlier this month.

Auburn, CA is supposedly discussing the idea of a breed ban in the city.  State law in California does not allow for individual cities to impose bans on certain breeds.

The Seattle Humane Society has come out against the proposed breed ban in Bothell, WA.

Jackson, MS is eyeing new dangerous dog legislation -- including potentially Breed Specific Legislation.

Lincoln, NE continues to explore options for their dangerous dog law that are not breed specific -- although they aren't completely ruling out BSL, it is definitely not their first option.

Las Vegas is now looking at a potential law that would mandate that all pets be spayed or neutered. While targeted low-cost programs have proven effective at reducing pet populations, mandatory programs have not proven effective.

Residents in Mashpee, MA voted overwhelmingly against breed specific legislation in their community.

Southgate, MI is still considering a new dangerous dog ordinance.

Dog bites

A Crystal River, FL man was attacked when four dogs that lived at his neighbor's house got under the fence and began to attack him and his dog. The attacking dogs are believed to be Mastiffs.

A 19 month old Tennessee child was severely bitten by a Greate Dane. The dog was apparently new to the family and the owner set the food bowl down near the dog and the child in order to answer the door and that's when the dog bit the young child.

A 10 year old Miami-Dade County boy was hospitalized after he was bitten by a Husky mix. 

An Everett, WA man nearly died after he was bitten in the hand by one of his dogs. His two dogs, one a Labrador/Blue Heeler mix, got in a fight in the yeard and he got bitten trying to break up the fight. A few days later the man was suffering from a serious infection from the bite and nearly died.

A UK Rottweiler was given a Muzzle order after it attacked a 10 year old girl.  The UK banned 4 different breeds of dogs in 1991 and have continued to see an increase in dog bites in their community.

A Piercetown, IN woman was severely attacked by a 'pit bull' that was chained out in front of her son's home. The woman came to visit her son, but the chained dog was able to reach the sidewalk and attacked the woman.

A New York woman apparently lied to police -- the woman had reported to police that her toddler was bitten by a "pit bull" -- however, upon further investigation, it turns out the woman's own American Husky was involved in the bite.

Abuse Cases

A UK dog breeder who abandoned 99 St. Bernards while she went on vacation has been jailed for 18 weeks for animal cruelty.

Police in Hagerstown, PA shot a Labrador Retriever this week who they said was acting aggressively. Note the sympathetic tone for the owners that this article is written with vs when dogs of other breeds are attacked.

Twelve 'pit bulls' that were seized from a dog fighting ring earlier this month in Buffalo were euthanized because they were aggressive. 13 others have the possibility of being rehabilitated.

Media Reports

There was a story outside of Denver where a man was shot, and another woman injured, after an apparent argument. The argument stemmed from some concerns that one family had that another family -- who apparently lived on the same property -- were letting their dog, alegedly a 'pit bull', run free on the property and it was harrassing their livestock on the property. A 16 year old boy ended up shooting the dog owner and killing him.  While the story is tragic in its own right, it was amazing to me the number of headlines that included the words "pit bull" in them -- as if the pit bull had caused the man's death.

Animal Shelters

The largest no kill shelter in the Kansas City Metro, Animal Haven, is at capacity and had a large adopt-a-thon this weekend to try to get more animals adopted.

Manatee, FL animal shelters are killing just more than 50% of the animals that that enter the shelter. Seems a shelter that is ripe for no-kill programs.

Miscellanious

Residents in Memphis are upset after multiple dogs have been shot in the area in recent weeks.

Pit Bulls' unfair reputation thwarts adoptions.

A great video story about one of Mike Vick's former dogs who is thriving in its new home in the San Francisco area.

A great photo of a friend of mine's dog during a dog show in Springfield, MO. Mandy is a beautiful Am. Staff that is actually banned in Springfield (where this shwo took place) in spite of having multiple training titles.

The owner, not the dog, is the issue.

A sad story about a 'pit bull' that saved its owner from being attacked by a cobra...but ended up paying the ultimate price for saving his owner.

Prairie Village, KS is cracking down on barking dogs.

California Toddler Dead After Dog Attack

Update: 10/28/09 - It turns out that the dog did not actually belong to the babysitter -- and that it actually belonged to the sitter's inlaws and she was watching the dog for them while they were in the process of moving.  As more information comes out about the attack, it becomes even more clear what a tragedy of errors that occurred to create this fatal attack. A large breed dog that was in a strange envirnoment, with a different handler who was not terribly familiar with the dog's behavior. A child, left unattended in the back yard with the dog. And a sitter who was not watching the child closely enough.

These events are tragic and very preventable. But until we focus on the events that led up to the attack and focus on preventing those -- and not the breed of dog involved (which is still being widely mis-reported), we will make no progress in preventing these tragedies.

This story has now been picked up in over 400 media outlets.

UPDATE:  According to a report by KMPH news in Californina, the babysitter left the child alone "for a few moments" and then ran outside when she heard the commotion.  I can't stress enough that young kids have a way of poking, pushing, tugging, grabbing, etc dogs and usually don't recognize dog's subtle signals to "get away". Because of this, I don't recommend leaving toddlers alone with any dog, regardless of breed, for any amount of time.

The victim of the attack was named Colton Smith.

---------------------------------------

A 17 month old toddler was killed yesterday in Merced County, CA -- a victim of a fatal dog attack.

The child was with the babysitter when the 65 lbs 'pit bull'/Akita mix attacked the child in the throat. The babysitter could not get the dog to let go of the child until she stabbed it with a fork.

The circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear -- whether the dog knew the child well, whether the child and dog were closely supervised, etc. Hopefully some of that information will come out in the coming days.

The child was taken to the Hospital where he died a short time later.

When the media report came out, the dog was originally just called a 'pit bull' (Not a mix like the local media reported)-- which is what the Associated Press called the dog. The article has run in over 260 newspapers around the country (already) with most of the reports not recognizing the dog as a mixed breed.  (Update: the number of media outlets that covered this is now over 300).

I'll post more details as they become available -- but my heart goes out to the family and the babysitter as they deal with the tragedy.  And it is my hope that the coming days bring conversations about the actual causes of the attack (not focusing on the breed) so people can become more educated about how and why attacks like this happen so future tragedies can be avoided.

BSL - An International Failure

Earlier this week, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein (one of 16 German States) repealed its ban on "Pit Bulls". According to the article (which is in German - this is the translation of the first two lines of the third paragraph that was sent to me from someone who lives there):

'CDU and FDP want to protect citizens against irresponsible dog holders. The race list (i.e breed ban) has turned out as not suitable for this and, hence, is abolished in the dangerous dogs law.'

It's been interesting trying to read about the "rasseliste" in Germany, and about how many of the same problems that exist with it in the US are the same in Germany - -including the cost of the impounding and keeping the animals, and problems with accurate breed identification to determine which dogs are included in the breed ban, and which ones are not.

(Sorry for the rough translations -- I used Google Translate for the artiles and they come by very rough -- the original links are here and here if you are fluent in German or know of a better translator).

While our friends in Western Europe followed us into the world of breed bans, it appears they are being quicker than us to jump off the bandwagon in search of more effective solutions to their dog bite problems. Schleswig-Holstein now joins other areas of Western Europe like Italy and The Netherlands to have repealed their breed bans just in the past 2 years.

BSL is not just a failure in the US -- it is truly an internationally failed policy.  Time to learn from our mistakes, and move on.

Toledo Dog Warden Tom Skeldon under fire -- again

Lucas County (OH) Dog Warden Tom Skeldon continues to be under fire. Last year, a group of concerned Toledo-area residents put together a petition with 3,000+ signatures requesting the removal of Mr. Skeldo from his position as the Lucas County Dog Warden -- a position he has held since 1987.

This event, along with the shooting of a 10 lbs dog with a tranquilizer dart while it was on its front porch -- killing the dog -- led the Lucas County commissioners to appoint a committee to provide feedback on Skeldon's performance.

Yesterday, the comittee came back with their findings -- and it's not pretty.

The committee reported that Lucas County Animal Control lacks standard procedures for its daily operations -- including protocols for euthanasia and the use of tranquilizer darts to subdue dogs. The committee also very harshly criticized Skeldon's callous attitude toward animal welfare-- citing the shelter's 80% euthanasia rate, 7% adoption rate and and 18% reclaimed.  The committee also pointed out that Skeldon is not working with local all-breed rescue groups, not vaccinating animals when they come into the shelters which is causing the spred of disease and that he is promoting discrimination against pit bulls.

The newspaper of record, the Toledo Blade, has also jumped on Skeldon, with this morning's editorial entitled "Skeldon's got to go". Here's part:

"Some animals have to be put down because of illness or because past abuse has left irreparable psychological scars, but Mr. Skeldon's operation illustrates a more fundamental problem. The picture that emerged from the committee's recommendations was of a dog pound that is a killing machine, run by an official who has ruled his little fiefdom so long he has become both dictatorial and callous.

The people of Lucas County want a dog warden who is sensitive to life, one who remembers that the animals in his care often are the innocent victims of abusive or neglectful owners. Mr. Skeldon, who got his job mainly because of old family ties, loves the law better than animals, and has a prejudice against pit bull breeds so entrenched he even kills puppies far too young to be considered vicious."

Indeed. Most residents in most cities want animals to be treated with compassion. While part of the dog warden's job is to protect the people from aggressive animals, the other part of their job is to protect animals from people -- by enforcing cruelty and neglect laws. And then, when the dogs make it to the shelter, knowing that that is their last hope for a good life -- not an almost certain end to that life.

The pot that Lucas County Dog Warden Tom Skeldon is sitting in is beginning to boil...and it's not a moment to soon for the animals in Lucas County.

Sioux City: "It's Just a Bad Law"

Last fall, Sioux City hurried through a process, and ignored their local experts, and passed a new law regarding dogs in their community.  Among the laws was a ban on "pit bulls", and a changed policy on how the city dealt with "dangerous" dogs -- that all dogs accused of biting would be euthanized -- with no options for transfering the dogs from the city.

The city has had it's share of problems with the laws, including getting people to sign paperwork that signed over their guilt (which is unconstitutional), the local vet community deciding not to help them with breed identification for enforcing their 'pit bull' ban, animal control targeting those who spoke out against the ordinance (another violation of the constitution), and having one of the first dogs that was declared dangerous by the city for biting someone after the ordinance was passed being alabrador belonging to a city council member who was responsible for passing the law in the first place -- a dog that was later stolen from the city shelter.

So why would I not be surprised that the city is facing even MORE problems with their ordinance.

Currently, there are six people who have filed civil suits against the city for what they say were arbitrary decisions about the dogs beign "dangerous".   So while these suits tie up the court system, the dogs remain in the shelter for sim months to up to two years at a time on doggie death row waiting for the hearings to take place.

"I think the city does have to be concerned about it because animal control's having to provide shelter for these dogs and it's just something that's going to continue until there's some kind of resolution to it," said Martha McMinn, the attorney for the owners of the dogs. "Everyone agrees you shouldn't have vicious dogs out there biting people but this is so arbitrary."

Dogs affected by the new ordinance, including those confiscated due to the ban on 'pit bulls' now take up about 1/3 of the 52 kennel spaces in the Sioux City Animal Control Shelter and the shelter is struggling with overcrowding. "We're running out of room" said Cindy Rarrat, owner of the Sioux City Shelter.

Also interesting is that of the 6 dogs waiting on doggie death row, only one is actually a 'pit bull' -- with the others being a German Shepherd Mix, a Shar Pei, a Siberian Husky and a Great Dane. So why were 'pit bulls' singled out again?  They make up only a small percentage of the dogs that are accused of biting. 

Meanwhile, the amount of money the taxpayers are now paying for court rulings, holding the dogs, etc is mounting up tremendously.

"It's just a bad law and people are waking up to a lot of that," said Dennis Cloud, the owner of one of the dogs on death row.

I couldn't agree more.

 

Gladwell on Football and Dogfighting

Hat Tip to Fred over at One Bark at a Time who has a great post on this topic.  Malcolm Gladwell, a renouned writer of books like The Tipping Point and Blink, has a great new article in the New Yorker entitled Offensive Play: How different are dogfighting and football?

Gladwell has writen about "pit bulls' before -- in his 2006 article Troublemakers: What Pit Bulls cna teach us about profiling.  And again, he has shown an uncanny abilty to be knowledgable on the topic and use his words wisely to paint very vivid pictures of the stories he tells.

In Offensive Play, much of the story is about trauma-related brain injuries sustained by football players based on the constant collisions they face. If you are a fan of the game of football, you will find that part of the story fascinating, sad and frightening in its own right. But it is Gladwell's relating of this trauma to dog fighting that will likely be what many of the readers of this blog will find interesting. Gladwell writes:

"Part of what makes dogfighting so repulsive is the understnading that violence and injury cannot be removed from the sport. It's a feature of the sport that dogs almost always get hurt. Something like stock-car racing, by contrast, is dangerous, but not unavoidably so.

Outside of Gladwell's decision to use the term 'sport' when referring to dogfighting, I think you can see where he's going with the article.

Gladwell comes back to the dogs that are being rehabilitated at Best Friend's Sanctuary in Utah. He writes:

What happens at Best Friends represents, by any measure, an extravagant gesture. These are dogs that will never live a normal life. But the kind of crime embodied by dogfighting is so morally repellent that it demands an extravagant gesture in response. In a fighting dog, the quality that is prized above all others is the willingness to persevere, even in the face of injury and pain. A dog that will not do that is labelled a “cur,” and abandoned. A dog that keeps charging at its opponent is said to possess “gameness,” and game dogs are revered.

In one way or another, plenty of organizations select for gameness. The Marine Corps does so, and so does medicine, when it puts young doctors through the exhausting rigors of residency. But those who select for gameness have a responsibility not to abuse that trust: if you have men in your charge who would jump off a cliff for you, you cannot march them to the edge of the cliff—and dogfighting fails this test. Gameness, Carl Semencic argues, in “The World of Fighting Dogs” (1984), is no more than a dog’s “desire to please an owner at any expense to itself....This is why Michael Vick's dogs weren't euthanized . The betrayal of loyalty requires an act of social reparation."

And yet, sadly, it is the human race's betrayal of what may be the American Pit Bull Terrier's best trait, it's loyalty, that has led many not to seek reparations -- but to seek to exterminate the breed. Doesn't make much sense does it?

Read the article -- it's well worth the time.