KC DOG BLOG

Weekly Roundup - Memorial Day Weekend 2010

I'm probably going to skim through a lot of this this week -- as it's a beautiful holiday weekend here in KC. But some important stuff that I don't want to get missed.

Cities/states and laws

In the wake of the USDA report that noted that they were doing a pathetic job of inspecting and enforcing legislation geared toward cleaning up commerical breeding operations, the federal government is now looking at new legislation that will close at least one loop hole in the Animal Welfare Act that exempted commercial breeding operations that sold dogs via the internet from being inspected. Closing the loop hole is a great first start -- now if only the USDA would figure out a way to enforce our current set of laws.

Lucas County, OH's Dog Warden Advisory Group continues to make changes to the new recommended law in the county. The group continues to want to remain breed neutral and is looking at higher fines for biting dogs.

Saginaw, MI appears to be looking at new dangerous dog legislation -- it appears as if all parties are interested in making the policy breed neutral.  "I hate to draw a comparison to problem kids and problem dogs," said one Councilman. "But the similariy is that we have irresponsible adults."

The city council in Lodi, NJ has wisely decided against an ordinance that would have been breed-specific.

The city of Garland, TX has passed a new law that will require 'pit bulls' and all mixes to be kept behind fences that meet certain fencing requirements. The law is clearly in violation of the Texas state law that forbids legislation that targets particular breeds of dogs. On the positive side of this, the city shelter will now begin adopting out 'pit bulls' where before they did not allow them to be adopted out.

Dog bites and attacks

Labrador Retrievers top the list of biting dogs in Larimer County, CO.

In Kokomo, IN, a 9 year old girl received major injuries when she was attacked by a 'pit bull' owned by the family. There aren't a lot of details available about the events that led up to the attack, but our thoughts go out to this girl and her family.

A Scottland boy was attacked by an Akita in an incident that left doctors wondering if they would be able to save his arm. The dog broke the boy's wrist and damaged nerve endings in his right arm. Scottland operates under the UK's Dangerous Dogs Act which bans four types of dogs but continues to be a failure at protecting the public because dangerous dogs are about bad owners, not breeds of dogs.

In Cleveland, a six year old boy hospitalized after being attacked by a Labrador/Shepherd mix. The dog was chained at the time of the attack.

In Gambrills,MD, a Border Collie was euthanized after biting a woman that came onto the dog's property. The dog's owner signed the dog over to the authorities thinking the dog just had to be quarantined, but in fine print it notes that signing the dog over would result in euthanasia.

In Linwood, NC, a woman was bitten by two Boxers that came out of a wooded area and bit her as she was out walking her dog.

In Calgary, a woman was hosptialized after being attacked by a Bull Mastiff. In a separate incident in Calgary, a seven year old boy had his shoulder broken after being attacked by an English Mastiff.

In Seminole, FL, a man was attacked by his own German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix in what may have been a fight over a late night snack.

Miscellaneous

A great editorial in the Toledo Free Press: Dogs are not the problem, reckless owners are - -in response to the publication's article on Tom Skeldon last week.

Nine of 16 dogs rescued from a alleged dog fighting operation and drug ring in Oregon will be put down after evaluations showed them to be unadoptable due to poor temperament or poor health. Without knowing the specifics of any of the dogs or how they handled evaluations, I applaud that they at least gave each dog an evaluation and didn't systematically kill all of the dogs. Every dog deserves a fair evaluation.

Bernadette Peters has a new children's book out entitled "Stella is a Star" -- the book is about a 'pit bull' who believes no one likes her. The story was inspired by her own 'pit bull' type dog, Stella.

In Newport News (VA) officers shot and killed a 'pit bull' that they said was "trying to attack" a 12 year old boy. The boy was not bitten but officers said the dog was "trying to knock the boy down and bite him" -- huh? Sounds like the dog may have been trying to play with the boy but because it looked like a 'pit bull' ended up dead for it.

Michael Bryant, the former Ontario Attorney General that was one primary drivers of the province's breed ban, had all charges dropped against him this week. Bryant was involved in an incident in which he was in a car and got involved in an argument with a bicyclist who grabbed onto his car and Bryant sped off and ended up killing the man with his car.

Ahh, anything to put 'pit bull' in the headline. In this article, a 70 year old woman says she was being chased by a "large brown pit bull' and in trying to escape ran into the street where she was struck by the mirror of a car driving by on the road. The woman will be fine (and incidentally was not bitten by any dogs or anything even after she was stopped by the car). The homewner says that she owns two brown boxers, but they were inside at the time of the incident.  The dogs may or may not have been chasing the woman (no doubt they could have caught a 70 year old woman quickly) and may or may not have been 'pit bulls' -- but the headline reads "Car hits woman being chased by pit bulls'.  It's interesting that this woman was not injured by dogs - -but by the hysteria about pit bulls created by headlines just like this one. 

Bad owners breed bad animals - a good article from the Calgary Sun focusing on why dog bites are an irresponsible ownership issue -- not a breed issue. Incidentally, the top biting breeds in Calgary (which has an amazingly low bite number of about 145 bites per year for a population of 1.1 million) are Labrador Retrievers followed by varioius Shepherd breeds -- with 'pit bull types' being a distant 3rd.

Kansas City Area News

This one is probably worth of a post on its own, but some good news/bad news for the Pet Connection in Mission, KS. The organization is going to be allowed to keep its pet adoption facility open, but will be at least temporarily closing its low-cost veterinary services. The Pet Connection unfortunately became the target of some personal vendettas and may have unintentionally violated some of the state's rules when it came to their vet facility. It's a shame when people who say they love animals let personal vendettas and agendas get in the way of helping animals -- which is what is happening when The Pet Connection was threatened to be closed down entirely. They are a great organization, and the animals in this metro are MUCH better off with them up and fully functioning than without them. So the good news is at least the adoption side will be allowed to remain open for now.

The article headline says it well, "KC Parks department pisses on advocates then wonders where the advocates went."  After three years of a group of advocates raising money to help build, and fighting for the park space to have a dog park in south-central KCMO, the parks board told them "no", passed some ridiculous recommendations (that were counter to the recommendations made by a 14 member task force assigned by the parks board) and then wonders why no one is stepping up to build dog parks in the locations that no one wanted to the parks to be in.

Blogs worth reading

Brindle Stick has a good story noting that Rui Branco, the owner of Brittany, a dog that was seized by Brampton (Ontario) Animal Control and held for 3 months for being a 'pit bull' and was later returned home has joined the campaign of Bruce Haines - -who is running against the current city mayor in the next campaign. It is Branco's hope that some changes in the city leaders will lead to less injustice in the city.

Yes Virginia, PETA Does Support "Pit Bull" Bans -- by No Pit bull Bans

Proabably the best post of the week -- Pit Bulls Only Breed To Maul -- by For the Pit Bulls. The article breaks down several stories of dogs inflicting serious injuries to people and debunks the myth that the only types of dogs that do harm are pit bulls. Most dogs do not do harm -- and when they do it is circumstances that lead to the attack, not breeds.

How the New Zealanders zoomed past us in the race to No Kill - from Saving Pets in Australia

Two year old San Bernardino toddler killed in dog attack

A two year old San Bernardino toddler was attacked and killed by a 'pit bull' at his home last night.

According to news reports, the young boy, identified as Nathan Aguirre, was out playing in the yard with his father for awhile and then the father went inside -- leaving the young boy alone with the family's two dogs in the enclosed back yard of the family home.

While both parents were inside, the boy was badly bitten in the head and neck and later died at Loma Linda University Hospital.

I'll post more details when/if they become available. We've seen this type of attack pretty regularly. Toddlers should not be left alone with dogs for any length of time - they just seem to have a way of falling on dogs, stepping on tails, hugging and otherwise hurting dogs which leads to significant bites.  It's really unfortunate that the Associated Press report (which is already spreading around the media world) failed to mention that the child was left alone with the dogs unsupervised.

The zip code where the attack occurred, 92407, has a poverty level 50% higher than the state average with 18.6% of the population living below the poverty level, and 7.2% living below 50% of the poverty level.

Ohio House passes bill to eliminate state-wide Breed Specific Legislation

In 1987, Ohio passed what is still the only state-wide breed-specifc legislation in the country. It was a knee-jerk reaction to a dog bite incident involving a surgeon who was attacked by a 'pit bull' while leaving a prostitute's home. There was a dangerous dog bill on the table in the state legislature at the time that almost instantly got the state's current breed-specific law added to it the existing bill -- and with that, the state of Ohio became the only state in the US where 'pit bulls' are declared automatically vicious under state law.

Yesterday,the Ohio House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to overturn that law.

The bill, now HB 55, is a bill designed to increase penalties for animal cruelty in the state. However, an amendment was added to the bill by Rep. Matt Szollosi that would eliminate the breed specific language in the state law.

"I'm offering tihs amendment to ensure that we are not capturing, impounding, and terminating an animal simply based on its breed, he said. " It is unjust to punish owners by taking their pet even if they have a well-behaved, family-friendly dog."

No one on the floor spoke out against the amendment. No one.

The bill passed the house by a vote of 93-3.

The bill will now move on to the state Senate for approval. Unfortunately there is only one week left this year in the Senate's session, so they may not get the bill passed through before the end of this session. It will also be interesting whether this becomes a partisan issue -- the Ohio House of Representatives has a Deomcratic majority, the Senate majority is the Republicans (although the original sponsor of the repeal of BSL as it's own law, Rep. Barbara Sears, is a Republican).

This is a great first step for the residents and dogs of Ohio. A lot more work to do, but this is certainly an excellent step forward of beginning to listen to the knowledge and experts on canine behavior that note that BSL is neither warranted, nor effective, as legislation.

Cities ban sale of pets at pet stores? While many praise the move, are we just hiding from our own failings as rescues?

This morning, MSNBC has an interesting article about the movement around the country to outlaw the sale of companion pets at pet stores. The article was sparked by the decision of West Hollywood, CA's city council's unanimous decision to pass the ban on pet retails stores.

The response among many animal welfare folks on facebook and twitter today has been largely one of excitement about the idea/opportunity to ban pet stores in their community. Many (somewhat rightfully) pet stores as the funding mechanism/distribution center  for 'puppy mill' dogs that are often poorly bred and mistreated. And after failed attempts to close down 'puppy mills' through other legislation, they see this as another opportunity close off the supply of commercially bred dogs and send more people to adoption agencies.

And I can't help but think this line of thinking completely ignores where the rescue community has largely failed -- and without fixing these failings, we will continue to not make a dent in the demand for commercially bred dogs.

******

First off, let me say that I understand where people are coming from with their disgust of 'puppy mills'. It seems that a week doesn't go by without some new word of another bust of a commercial breeder where animals were kept in horrible conditions. The images of the dirty, mangy dogs that are kept in tiny, feces-filled kennels fill our minds.

News of the recent USDA report admitting that they have failed in doing their jobs of investigating, fining and shutting down poorly run operartions only adds to the feeling that stopping the demand for the dogs from these large-scale breeders will be impossible without such a bold move.

Trust me.  I get that.

But aside from my political concern about government shutting down businesses that are selling legal 'products' (which falls under my political notion of be careful what you wish for) there is a reason people are turning to pet stores over adopting from shelters -- and in most cases it has very little to do with the cute puppy in the window. And unless the animal welfare/shelter community fixes this, many will continue to buy the same 'puppy mill' puppies, but do so via the internet. And you can't close down the internet.

*****

So why is it that people would choose to buy a $600 puppy vs adopting one from the shelter?  

For the most part, I think it comes very much down to the retail concept I talked about last week.

Many shelters are in distant, out-of-the way locations. They have short hours (open 11-5 Mon-Sat) when most people are at work. The conditions in the shelter aren't terribly inviting, and people adopt with the guilt of knowing that the puppy they didn't choose may end up getting killed at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, pet stores are fun!  The animals seem well-cared for. They're in high-traffic areas where someone who is just shopping for something else may say "let's go look at the kittens" and just go take a quick look, fall in love, and buy one even if they weren't really in the market for one. They get to pay their money, no questions asked, and get the animal. No contracts. No home checks. No feeling that they aren't good enough to take home that pet.

And at the end of the day, the act of getting a new pet was a great experience. They take the pet home, fall in love, and most have few problems with their pets and no regrets.

The pet stores have picked the better retail location, provided the better customer experience, and thus, have been able to 'outsell" the shelters even though they have more expensive 'products'.

And in places where this dynamic has changed, shelters are winning.

*******

Last month, the Fort Worth Animal Care and Control division began a partnership with the PetSmart store in their area where they began adopting out pets from the PetSmart store location. In the first 12 days of being open, the off-site, retailer-based adoption facility adopted out over 100 dogs and cats -- a volume that would have taken at least a month in their traditional shelter facility. The shelter went from being a high-kill facility to having its first two no-kill weeks overnight - and in fact, started pulling animals from other shelters because they weren't able to keep up with the demand.

Last December, Merriam, KS based Animal Haven opened up a storefront in Oak Park Mall (probably the premier mall in the Kansas City metro) and adopted out 159 pets from this storefront in just over a month during December of last year.

Across the country, even shelters that aren't opening up off-site retail locations are finding success by making their current locations more inviting to potential adopters by offering more convenient hours, play rooms where people can take pets to spend time playing with them outside of the kennel environment. They're keeping their facilities cleaner, making them brighter and more consumer-friendly, and even selling pet supplies there like they are a pet store. They are making the requirements for adopting less like an interrogation, and more as an opportunity to teach pet owners how to be good pet owners. 

And they are seeing success. They are seeing that if they make the "retail experience" pleasant, they can win over the traditional pet store locations, and increase their adoptions.

And if the shelter/rescue community can not make the adoption experience fun and pleasant, they will continue to lose adoption opportunities to those who do...whether they be pet stores, or online purchases.

*****

I think the MSNBC article had a really interesting case study. In 2006, Albuquerque, NM banned the sale of pets in pet stores. Since the ban has taken affect, animal adoptions in the city have increased 23% and shelter killing has decreased by 35%.

But the results may not have been entirely due to the closing of pet stores.

At the same time, Animal Humane New Mexico - a private shelter in Albuquerque -- stepped in to fill the demand for pets. The organization opend a boutique-style adoption center so people could "shop" for shelter dogs in a retail-like environment. While their goal was to adopt out 45 animals in the first month, they instead, places 118 animals in new homes.  The retail-style outlet has been so successful that they are considering opening up a second location later this year.

Says executive director Peggy Weigle:

"Many people will say, 'Oh, I just can't go to the shelter, it's just too sad,'" Weigle said. "But if you make a guilt-free shopping experience available, and they don't have to be confronted with 100 homeless pets staring them in the face, the shopping experience is very parallel to a pet store. If you give the public a choice to shop in that kind of an environment, they will"

And that's exactly the point. If you make the adoption experience a good one, people will be happy to adopt.  In fact, more than half of the people in the US already say they will get their next pet from a shelter. If we make sure they have a good experience, if we make sure that they aren't unnecessarily denied the opportunity to adopt, and we make sure it is a guilt-free 'shopping' experience, the sheltering community will win.

If we don't, we'll lose regardless of whether we shut down pet stores or not.

USDA Reports that they're not doing their jobs (& why better enforcement is more important than more laws)

Yesterday, the USDA launched a 69 page report that gave an pretty damning overview of the failures of the department to uphold the national Animal Welfare Act.  I highly recommend reading the entire report -- although, warning, it does contain several graphic and disturbing visuals.

The report focused on several major downfall of the department's enforcement:

1) The USDA enforcement of the law was inefficient at dealing with problematic dealers

According to the report, out of 8,289 inspections, 5,261 (63%) of the operations showed at least one violation of the AWA. Of those, 2,416 (47%) were repeat offender -- with 863 (36%) of them violating the same subsections of the law.

In their reports, inspectors were given the option of recommending no action be taken -- and in a limited check up, 71% of the time, "no action" was what the inspector chose -- even if there were major violations. 

There are several major examples of lack of enforcement and here is one of the worst:

Example 4: At the facility in Oklahoma with 219 dogs, Animal Care cited the breeder for 29 violations (including 9 repeats) during 3 inspections from February 2006 to January 2007. AC requested an IES investigation in May 2007.  However, before the investigation resulted in any enforcement action, the inspector conducted another inspection in November 2007 and found 5 dead dogs and other starving dogs that had resorted to cannibalism. Despite these conditions, AC did not immediately confiscate the surviving dogs and, as a result, 22 additional dogs died before the breeder's license was revoked.

2) Inpsectors did not cite or document violations properly to support enforcement actions

There seemed to be a lot of inconsistency in how AC handled documenting violations. In some cases, if there were 5 dead dogs found on the property it would only be written up as one violation (instead of 5) -- creating lower fines and less follow-up. They also didn't document many things (even though all inspectors are given digital cameras) that made prosecution more difficult.

3)  The new penalty worksheet makes it too easy for inspectors to give minimum penalties.

While Congress has repeatedly raised the maximum fines for violations over the years, the actual amount assessed in fines has gone been going down. The new worksheets allow for many reductions in fines -- allowing up to 145 percent of the maximum penalties. While they don't advocate that enforcement officers assess maximum penalties, the new worksheet has caused numberous reductions to make the actual penalties come out to a negative balance, causing just the minimum fines to be levied.

A report in 1995 noted that most breeding facilities just saw the low fines as a cost of doing business and not high enough to encourage change. This was reconfirmed in 2005, and the average fines were actually lower in 2008 -- meaning that in 13 years, this problem remains completely unaddressed.

4) Misusing Guidelines ot Lower Penalties for violators 

This is tied to #3, but the inspectors seemed to misuse the reductions to get fines lower for kennel operators by incosistently counting violations, applying the 'good faith' reductions without merit, allowed a "no history of violations" reduction when the violators had a prior history and arbitrarily changing the gravity of some of the violations.

In 32 of the 94 cases that were reviewed the guidelines were misused to lower penalties. In 22 of 94 cases, people were given reductions in penalties for having "no previous violations" -- even though they did have previous violations. Also, inspectors are given the ability to give "good faith" reductions on follow-up visits if it appears that breeders are making positive improvements on making changes -- however, the report noted that often these reductions were given unjustly. In 13 of the 94 cases it was found that the enforcement agency applied the good faith penalty reduction without merit.

5) A loophole allowing for internet sellers to not need a license.

Because the AWA was written in 1971, it allowed companies that "sold directly to the public" to be excluded from licensing with the intent to prevent inspectors from having to inspect pet stores. Obviously in 1971, the Internet wasn't on anyone's radar -- so now, many breeders are selling directly over the internet to allow themselves to not need to be licensed. The survey reports that 81% of the breeders they checked (they did include some really small breeders with as few as 3 breeding dogs) were not licensed.

********

If you read the report, it will be a natural reaction to become angry. Sometimes the natural reaction is to see a report like this and want to push for harsher laws against 'puppy mills'. However, I think it's extremelly important to note that everything here is ALREADY AGAINST THE LAW. The law, by the USDA's own admittence, just isn't being enforced, and fines are so minor that there is little incentive for facilities to improve their conditions.

This report very much echos the findings in the state of Missouri -- where the MVMA has noted that the problem is not the need for better laws -- but the need for better enforcement and similar findings in the 2008 state audit of the Missouri state department of agriculture.

I think too often we find ourselves torn between the need for more laws and the need to enforce the ones we have. I think this is true for dealing with irresponsible commercial breeders, in most cases for aggressive dogs, and for animal cruelty. More laws aren't going to solve anything if we don't have capable enforcement of the ones we have -- and likely will make the poor enforcement worse, not better.

If we want to solve a lot of these problems we must put pressure on these organizations to DO THEIR JOBS -- and do them well. Our tax dollars deserve better than this.

For more:

YesBiscuit! - USDA Inspections - Not.

Raised by Wolves - Falling Through when the whole damned thing is cracks

Who is easily manipulated?

Another post based on a Seth Godin post -- if only because once again an idea he posted about is incredibly relevant to the animal welfare movement, BSL and our efforts to become no kill.

His post is entitled "Who is easily manipulated?" From Godin:

"The easiest people to manipulate are those that don't demand a lot of information, are open to messages from auth0rity figures and are willint to make decisions on a hunch, particularly if there's a promise to short-term gains."

That sounds fair enough. Interestingly, the media plays to this group perfectly by providing sound-bites of information and as a media outlet, serves as an authority figure. So this helps explain why fear-mongering sound-bites from the media can be highly persuasive to a large number of highly-manipulated people.

Then Godin provides 14 categories of behaviors that manipulators seek out. For brevity, here are a couple I think are most relevant:

* Believing something because you heard someone say it on a news show or cable tv.

* Repeating a mantra heard from a figurehead or leader of a tribe without considering whether it's true.

* Ingoring the scientific method and embracing unexamined traditional methods instead.

* Inability to tolerate fear and uncertainty.

* Reliance on repetition and frequency to decide what's true.

* Desire to stick with previously made decisions because cognitive dissonence is strong.

Do you believe that pit bulls are inherantly vicious because of seeing media accounts that say so - even though all of the nationally respected groups of experts say this isn't true?

Do you still believe that shelters are killing animals because of 'pet overpopulation' or because of the 'irresponsible public" even though the numbers indicate that this isn't so?

Do you still believe that no kill isn't possible even though numerous case studies show that it is?

Do you still believe that mandatory spay/neuter will work to end shelter killing, even though countless case studies show it doesn't -- and in fact, has a negative affect?

Don't be easily manipulated. Question everything. Seek out more information. We can have a no kill nation, and one in which bully-type dogs are not descriminated against. The old way of thinking has been proven wrong, and it is time to move forward based on the evidence that is out there. 

 

Weekly Roundup, Week Ending 5/23/10

It was National Dog Bite Prevention week this week, so there were a lot of good articles out there with good tips on dog-bite prevention which I'll include in the roundup.  A little late getting this out -- but finally some sunny weather in Kansas City so I was out enjoying the weather yesterday.

Cities/States and Laws

Andover, MD is looking at some new dangerous dog legislation -- and breed specific legislation has been mentioned as a possibility. Many in the animal welfare community and veterinary community are noted as saying that breed specific legislation is not the answer.

Auburn, CA is now looking at a potential law mandating the spay/neuter of all 'pit bulls'. The law would be arbitrary, unenforcable and lead to the mass killing of dogs that have blocky-heads.

Kirksville, MO appears to be looking at breed-specific legislation for their community. One proposal would allow for a grandfather clause so current 'pit bulls' could remain in the community. Another would ban all pit bulls period. Since 2006, there have been 63 total dog bites in Kirksville -- of which 46 broke the skin (roughly 10 per year). Of the 46, only 3 have been attributed to 'pit bulls'. So the city is now looking at a law that would impact only 6% of the dog bites over the past 4.5 years?

Mount Vernon, MO is looking at changes to their dangerous dog law after one person and one dog have been attacked in the past two years. The ordinance is expected to be behavior-based and not breed based.

Las Vegas' mandatory spay/neuter law went into effect last week...a law that has caused an increase in euthanasia wherever it has ben implemented. Want to guess what 2010 numbers look like?  I'll be following up.

Dog Bites and Attacks 

Dogs are amazingly safe -- but with 78 million dogs in this country, incidents are bound to happen. However, when you read through the causes of such attacks it becomes very clear that human actions usually lead to the attacks, and that such attacks occur among a large variety of breeds and breed types.

In Calgary, a Rottweiler/Bull Mastiff mix will be euthanized after jumping a fence and attacking a Chihuahua that was being walked by two women. One of the women sustained some injuries trying to prevent the attack. This is the second incident the dog has been involved in in about a week's time. Interestingly, the dog is described as biting the dog and shaking it -- which is what most dogs do in such an instance, even though several, including Tom Skeldon in his interview 2 days ago, have tried to make that into a breed-specific trait.

A four year old Jackson, MI girl was taken to the hospital after being bitten in the face by a a German Shepherd.

A 10 year old Lexington, KY girl received 21 stitches after being bitten by a neighbor's mixed-breed dog.

A census worker was bitten by a 'pit bull' in Coalinga, CA. The census worker rang the doorbell and the dog got through the open door when the owner opened it. The woman's injureis do not apear to be severe.

An 11 year old Maplesville, OH boy was severly injured after being attacked by a boxer/Bull Mastiff mix.  The boy was apparently playing with a ball in his yard and the ball went into the dog's kennel. The boy went into the kennel and got the ball, but left the gate open and then the dog came out of the kennel and the fenced-in yard. The dog was reportedly playing well with the children for awhile, but then became aggressive when the dog's owner arrived at home.

A 12 year old Ohio girl had more than 100 stitches after being attacked by a Labrador Retriever. The dog was chained up in the back yard and the young girl, who had been told to not go near the dog without the owner around did, indeed, go up to the chained dog when she was bitten. The dog's owner says that the dog was sometimes teased by neighborhood kids who threw rocks at the dog. A whole host of errors here on all sides of the equation....and while Labrador's are often thought of as great family pets (and they are), they too are a product of their upbringings, just like all other breeds.

A 5 year old Ocala, FL girl was bitten by a 'pit bull mix". Apparently the dog was hiding from the girl and some other children under a shed with a stick in its mouth and the girl tried to take the stick away from the dog. Possession aggression is one of the most common types of aggression in all dogs, and this looks like a typical case.  While owners need to work with their dogs on overcoming possession aggression, children also need to be taught boundaries with dog to prevent possible incidents like this.

I don't usually cover dog on dog attacks in this blog, but thought this story was interesting. In this article, it notes two dogs that were attacked by other dogs in recent days - -one was attacked by two greyhounds at an off-leash dog park, and another dog, a poodle, was killed by an attacking labrador. Dog/Dog aggression is fairly common for undersocialized dogs -- and again, something that is dog-specific, not breed-specific.

A two year old boy needed more than 200 stitches after being attacked by his family's German Shepherd/Husky mix -- it is speculated that the boy may have stepped on the dog's tail, injuring the dog and causing the dog to lash out.

An Australian Cattle Dog attacked and nearly killed a young boy in Christine, TX. The two year old boy apparently tripped over one of the dogs and fell on it, and the dog lashed out at the boy. The boy needed more than 300 stitches, wires to help with his fractured jaw and won't be able to eat solid foods for the next 6-8 weeks. The boy needed 6 hours of surgey to save his life.

Headlines

Some really, interesting headlines this week that I thought I'd break out separately.

UPS driver survives pit bull attack - - The Fargo, ND driver sustained what are described as minor injuries to his calf after being bitten by two dogs on a delivery. The man fended the dogs off using a clipboard. In a media attempt to create hysteria, the man's minor injuries become "survival".

In Lake Forest, CA, a 6 year old girl was attacked by a Boxer. The dog was eventually shot by the girl's mother (after someone else tried to spray the dog with Windex to stop it - -not sure if they were trying to stop the dog, or clean it). The reason this makes this list is because in an intial report, the dog was called a 'pit bull' -- and says so in the headline (even though the article notes in the fourth paragraph that it may not have been). Later stories that report the dog as a Boxer don't put the breed of dog in the headlines.

This is a letter to the editor -- something I again, usually don't cover. However, this one is from someone sho claims all 'pit bulls' as dangerous after some neighborhood children accidentally let out the family chihuahua that then snuck into the fenced in back yard of a neighborhood home where the two dogs in the back yard killed the chihuahua. While I do think people need to work to overcome dog/dog aggression in their dogs -- the owners of the chihuahua are clearly to blame in this case for the incident for having their dog not only running at large, but running into the neighbor's fenced in yard. "Pit bulls are dangerous animals" is the headline.

Abuse cases

A St. Petersburg, FL man was arrested this week for strangling his daughter's pit bull with a zip tie and then dumping the dog in the trash. The man supposedly did so because the dog was "living better than him".

National Dog Bite Prevention Week

The National Canine Research Council has a Nantional Dog Bite Prevention press realease noting the significant decrease in dog bites over the past 3 decades (in spite of huge growth in the US population of both people and dogs) and noting that less than 1% of emergency room visits are due to dog bite injuries.

Understanding dog bite behavior or don't blame the dog when it bites - from Riley's place. This is one of the better overviews on dog bites from a behavior standpoint that I saw this week and well worth the read.

More great advice, tips and statistics on dog bites from Eric at Dog Star Daily.

Miscellaneous

The shelter in Berkeley, CA burned down this week. About a dozen cats died in the blaze, with about 15 cats and 15 dogs being unharmed. The shelter is actively seeking foster homes for the now-homeless animals and for donations to help them rebuild.

Editorial by the Toledo Blade with good thoughts for the Lucas County Dog Warden Advisory Committee that is currently working on drafting a new ordinance in Toledo.

Russellville, KY had major budget cuts last week -- and among the hits was the Logan County Humane Society that is losing the entire $7200 the city had been providing as it was considered a "non-essential" expense.

A criminal investigation of the Grapevine, TX Animal Shelter and Adoption Centerfound thousands of dollars missing that were stolen from the shelter by at least one staffer over a 2 year period of time.

Gracie, the pit bull, helps her paralyzed owner escape from a fire.

A pit bull in a wheelchair inspires and comforts kids with disabilities.

Blog Postings you should read

If only the truth had such good PR - No Pit bull bans breaks down the situation in Toledo following the Toledo Free Press's interview with Tom Skeldon -- including info about the attempts by the state to overtun the state wide BSL.

Mixed emotions flow with pregnancy glow - Dogs & Storks notes the changing relationship pregnant dog owners go through with their pets and how important it is for parents to realize their shifted priorities and adjust to them.

AR-HR has some scoop on the new VP of Philanthropy Deborah Peeples - -who apparently has an $87,164 federal tax lien on her.

The Rot at the Heart of the Movement - Winograd commenting on the failures of the groups that are supposed to be leading the animal rights movement in the US.

A new campaign to end BSL in Denver.

Breed Specific or Looks Specific?  From Saving Pets (Australia) -- Struggles with breed identification continue everywhere.

Are dogs ever proven innocent of dog bites?  From Pet Docs On Call.

Best Medicine - Bad Rap has an awesome review of one of their former dogs that is now a therapy dog working at hospitals helping people with mental illnesses.

Three year old Alaskan girl killed by dog

Three year old Krystal Brink died Thursday night as a result of a fatal dog attack.

The young toddler wandered away from the home she was visiting unattended and up to a team of 'sled dogs' that were chained in their back yard.  One of the dogs attacked her.

One of Brink's family members was so upset of the attack, that he ran outside and shot all seven of the dogs that were tied out in the yard. 

The incident happened in the rural village of Napakiak -- a community of 430 people about 400 miles west of Anchorage. Sled dog teams would be a pretty common form of transportation in such a remote area.

I feel sadness not only for the little girl's family, but also the owner of the dogs, who lost his entire sled dog team because someone wasn't watching their toddler and shot his dogs. The dog's owner has said he will not press charges.

These types of attacks are incredibly preventable. Parents should watch their toddlers, and dog owners should provide some protection or fencing around their dogs if they are chained up in this situation to protect them from intruding animals or people.

The story has run in over 300 media outlets.

Dog kept unjustly by Brampton Ontario Shelter Returns Home with broken Ribs

For more than three months, Rambo, and American Bulldog mix, was held in the Brampton, ON shelter and kept from his 73 year old owner. Finally, after more than three months of fighting, an independent veterinarian in Brampton determined that Rambo was not a 'pit bull' (which is illegal in Ontario) and Rambo was allowed to return home.

Turns out, according to the Brampton Guardian, Rambo didn't come back to his home in the same condidtion he went to the shelter. A couple of days after Rambo's return home, his owners had him X-rayed and determined that he had two broken ribs -- that had been broken for about 2-4 weeks.

So now, not only has the shelter been found to have confiscated the dog unjustly, and held him for 14 weeks, but now, may have abused the dog to the point of breaking his ribs while he was there.

All for absolutely no reason.

The Ontario breed ban is failing. And the cities who are trying to enforce the law, and the people who are unfairly targeted are the ones paying the price.

It's time to change the law.  Support Cheri DiNovo in removing all aspects of BSL in Ontario.

The Toledo Free Press Interviews Tom Skeldon

The Toledo Free Press  (Toledo's alternative weekly newspaper) has a feature article today on former Lucas County Dog Warden Tom Skeldon. For decades, Skeldon has been the voice for the kill all pit bull advocates, and I found the article interesting for a variety of reasons I'll get into in a bit.

For those of you who aren't up to speed, Skeldon was the long-time dog warden in Lucas County, OH. Last fall, he resigned under severe public pressure.

Since his resignation, the Toledo Area Humane Society has reversed its long-time policy that prevented them from adopting out 'pit bulls', and the county has formed a Dog Warden Advisory Committee to look at changes to the city's dangerous dog law that will focus on the dog's behavior, not it's breed.  The county's current law was found unconstitutional by a district court because it was contradictory to the state law.

The article begins with a story about Skeldon as a young boy learning from his father (who was a director at the Toledo zoo) not to love animals -- because if you love animals, you will be heart broken all the time, and "you won't be able to do the job and make the decisions that are required."

So, if there was any doubt before, there is none now, Skeldon was taught by his father not to love animals - -which is why euthanizing 77% of the animals at the shelter was not a problem for him.

But then, Skeldon goes on, to issue a warning to the city:

"This spring, summer, fall, here in Toledo, there will be a number of people mauled, maimed, disfigured and there may be somebody killed by a pit bull,” Skeldon said. "Some little kid is going to pay the price. The word is out in the City of Toledo — the dog warden is no longer enforcing the laws and we can do what we want.”

I wrote about this very idea last week -- about the media and politicians (I'd consider Skeldon a politician in this sense) creating fear, and creating panic, in order to suit their agenda.  The fear doesn't have to be based on anything real -- it just has to be somewhat believable. And that appears to be exactly what Skeldon has done here -- is try to create a moral panic based on little-to-no information. In fact, the odds of someone dying in Toledo by a pit bull attack rank just more likely than the odds of them dying from an Astroid Impact.  Nope, the goal is to create fear - not really work off of facts.

The director of the Toledo Area Humane society noted that the county is still enforcing laws, but instead of focusing on types of dogs, is focusing on owner responsibility -- a method that has worked in numberous other places.  It should also  noted that Toledo wasn't exactly the safest community from dog bites under Skeldon's watch.

"Many people who have pit bulls view them as renewable resources, throwaway dogs, a means to an ends whether that is protecting my drug house, winning in a dog fight, just having the macho, toughest dog in town or breeding them to sell them to people who want them for those reasons,” Skeldon said.

The nice woman pictured in the story looks like none of those things.  Here's the deal, yes, some people do treat them as throwaway dogs, and to guard drug houses, or to fight them -- but the vast majority of owners aren't those people. By focusing resources on the small percentage of people that are causing problems, you would better be able to solve them, rather than having blanket rules that cover thousands of dog owners than are not causing problems - -and whose dogs aren't problems. You're not going to solve a city's drug house problem with a dog law. And its ridiculous to think that you would.

Interestly, Skeldon then tries to back up this statement with statistics that are more damning than anything. Skeldon notes that in his first year of enforcing Toledo's pit bull law, he and his staff seized 350 pit bulls. The next year, 140, then 90, and then 50 in 1993. But then he blames a rise in gang in cocaine activity for this number going up.  The number of pit bulls seized by Skeldon and his staff continued to grow for the next 15 years -- with over 1300 pit bulls being seized (and killed) by the Dog Warden's staff in 2007.   What about that makes Skeldon think what he was doing was working? For 20 years the county had been seizing and killing pit bulls -- and the only thing Skeldon had to show for it was more dead pit bulls.  

Then they interviewed Merritt Clifton for the story - -who praised Skeldon's efforts for decreasing shelter killing (even though the shelter had one of the highest kill rates in the country, and a the highest in the state of Ohio). As bad as Clifton's bite information is, his data manipulation for shelter euthanasia numbers is possibly worse.

The end of the article notes that Skeldon was asked to step down by County Commissioner Pete Gerken - -Gerken was the only politician that publically stood up for Skeldon and even Gerken asked him in private to resign.

Ben Konop, another County Commissioner who publically called for Skeldon to be fired is quoted as noting that things are moving in the right direction under the new shelter leadership.

"We are definitely heading in the right direction. I would say that Ms. Lyle has come into a very difficult, difficult situation and has done a really remarkable job in a short amount of time. Just in a month, the live release rate has gone up from about 39 percent to 54 percent.

“My concern with the dog warden is that too many adoptable dogs were getting killed and the killing of these dogs had no relation to public safety. What Julie has demonstrated in her first month is that reducing the kill rate at the pound and public safety are not mutually exclusive. You can do both.”

Indeed, you can. And Skeldon lost sight of this because he didn't care about animals -- and was so blindly focused on his catch and kill philosophy that he lost sight of the reality that animal control is responsible for not only the safety of the public, but also the safety of animals. Skeldon never did the latter.  He also lost sight of the reality that his model wasn't working.

And for that, he was ousted -- setting a precedence that the old catch & kill mentality is no longer what society wants, or needs. And with that, Skeldon has become little more than a fear-mongerer in the media -- trying to scare people based on no accurate information at all.