Kansas City Area Educational Event on Prison Dog Programs

On Thursday, February 11th, Kansas City Dog Advocates is hosting an educational event about a new prison dog program in the state of Missouri.

Over the past decade, progressive correctional facilities in the US have been working with area rescue groups and humane societies where they use dogs from these rescues and inmates train the dogs to become service dogs, bomb sniffing dogs, or just better trained so they are more adoptable.

These programs become a win/win. The dogs are often given a second chance they may not have gotten in a shelter, and the inmates often learn responsibility, compassion and love from the dogs -- as well as marketable dog-training skills after they leave prison.

Over the past few years, the state of Missouri has been running a pilot program in the Vandalia, MO correctional facility -- and after a lot of success, is planning to expand the program to eight new facilities in 2010. Mike Kemna, from Jefferson City, is coming to Kansas City to discuss the expanding of the prison dog program and how rescues can help out.

The meeting is on Thursday, February 11th at 6pm at the Waldo Branch of the KCMO Public Library.

201 E. 75th Street, KCMO, 64114 -- 816-701-3486. You can RSVP by emailing [email protected]

Please join us, and crosspost to people in your Kansas City area organization. The program is free, with no obilgation to do anything on your part. Just come and listen, learn and ask questions.

For more information on prison dog programs:

An interview on NPR about a similar program

An article from Corrections.com

More on the CHAMP program in Vandalia, MO

And the following video -- about 3 minutes long -- is from the National Geographic Channel program Lockdown that shows a similar program in action -- it's a great segment.

Posted at 02:45 PM in Events, Prison Dog Programs | Permalink