Weekly Roundup - Week Ending 12/19/10

A lot of interesting news, notes and blogs this week, and because I'm already a day late on this, I'm going to dive right in.

Cities and Laws

Sheboygan, WI is looking a new dangerous dog ordinance that will focus on aggressive dogs based on their behavior, not on what they look like.

Macon, GA is also looking at an updated dangerous dog law that will focus on a dog's behavior, not it's breed.

The city council in Austin, TX passed an ordinance that puts significant requirements on retail pet sales.  For a variety of reasons I'm not a fan of these types of ordinances....and in Austin's case, there actually wasn't a retail pet store in the city to ban.  Many feel the ordinance was aimed at Pet Land -- a pet store that amid public pressure closed down earlier this year.

The Denver Daily News - Is the city bullying the disabled?  The answer is yes.

Dog Bites and Attacks

Dogs are amazingly safe. However, sometimes due to poor ownership, or poor decisions by victims (or guardians of victims), attacks do occur. When they do, a wide variety of different types of dogs are involved - -which is why focusing on the reasons for the attack, and not breeds, makes for better animal welfare policy.

A Port St. Lucie jogger and his son were attacked by a free-roaming Lab/Chow mix.  The man ended up having to kill the dog in order to keep it from continuing with the attack.

A six month old infant was rushed to the hospital wit broken ribs and a lacerated liver after a neighbor's Great Dane snatched the infant out of the mother's arms and ran 100 yards away with the infant in its mouth.

A woman in Bangor, ME is still afraid after she was attacked by the neighbor's German Shepherd mix that attacked her and her dog while out on a walk.

An 18 month old Port St. Lucie girl was bitten in the face by the family's Bull Terrier.

A Rhodesian Ridgeback in the UK has been ordered to be killed after it brutally attacked a 3 year old girl in a local pub (there are a lot of unanswered questions that should be asked after that last sentence). The UK has a breed ban on four breeds of dogs....

Speaking of the UK, a four year old girl finally returned to school this week after missing nearly a month of school after being attacked by her mother's former step father's Husky-type dog.

Also in the UK, a judge's dog apparently attacked a 20 year old student that was out sunbathing in the garden adjoining the two properties between her parent's home and the judge's.  The dog was described as a German Shepherd.

A six year old Quebec girl was brutally attacked by four Husky type dogs that jumped on the little girl as she was walking home from school.

A Seattle area woman was severely attacked by a German Shepherd that attacked her and her Welsh terrier.

A California woman suffered several pretty bad bites on her legs, face and arms after two off-leash Labradors attacked her and her Jack Russell Terrier. She says the attack could have been much worse had someone not come to her aid to help. The person who helped was also bitten.

A Florida man was severely attacked by a stray dog he took in only two days before. The dog, described as a 'pit bull', appeared to have been startled by the man and attacked him. Most of the time, attacks like this don't happen, but if you do take in stray dogs, be sure to take extra percautions in the getting-to-know you phase.

Positive Press

Part 3 of an excellent series done by a writer from the Akron Beacon. It is amazing what can be learned when reporters are actually willing to dig beyond the hype and the catchy headline and look for accurate information. Part 3 focuse on th failures of BSL and the successes of breed breed neutral legislation elsewhere.

I don't usually post opinion columns, but this one is extremely good and very detailed: Bad Pet ownership to blame for Pit Bull Ban

A happy tale of two pit bulls in Buffalo found homes together

Miscellaneous

Rescuers in Harris County, OH are calling for major shelter reforms. More here.

Tompkins County, NY - a shelter that has been No Kill for nearly a decade -- just received its largest ever donation, all during a major economic recession in this country.

More than 1,200 dogs were killed at a northwest Kansas breeding facility after an outbreak of distemper was linked to the operation. There is no word on whether any of the killed dogs actually HAD distemper, only that the link caused the operator to kill all of the animals.

The Regina Humane Society has become a safe haven for dogs that have to flea Ontario under the state's ban on 'pit bull' type dogs.

No Kill News

An article from Louisville Magazine on Shelby County, KY and it's success at becoming No Kill -- having killed only 6% of the animals they've impounded this year.

Media Hysteria

In Gallup, NM -- a mostly rural area on tribal lands  -- there was a story about a man who was allegedly mauled by a pack of dogs in the area. Sheriff's deputies found a pack of skinny, hungry dogs gnawing on the man's dead body.  Deputies believe the man could have been hit by a car based on the tire marks and vehicle debris found at the scene...however, the "dogs maul man" is the headline from the majority of the area media outlets.

Mike Vick Follow Up

I Can't believe I'm including this as a header, but there has been a LOT of feedback on Vick's announcement that he wants to own another dog again, and HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle's announcement that he thinks Vick would be a good dog owner.  Anyway, a lot of feedback out there, so I'm going to post a few:

A Political Cartoon from the Atlanta Journal Constitution

Another political Cartoon - -sorry, I can't remember the source

Humane Watch has a collection of blogs and points of view

My questions for Michael Vick - -from Michael Mountain

A Poll from USA Today (as I'm typing this, 72% of people don't think he should ever own a dog again).

Blogs worth reading

Stop calling it "euthanasia" -  The Pet Connection tells a story about real euthanasia and why it is offensive to call killing for space 'euthanasia'

The Truth Will Out - Winograd takes a look at the changes since his Redemption Book Tour in 2007 -- and how the truth about the success of the no kill movement is winning out over the archaic views of pet overpopulation.

Shelters doing good, Part 4 - -from For teh Pit Bulls.  Mall storefronts for the holidays, set your price adoptions and increasing volunteers - -all great things

Lincoln County Shelter Above the Law? -- a good expose' on the failings of the shelter in Lincoln, Co NC. 

Five reasons pet limit laws are a bad idea - -a very good post from Julie Castle at Best Friends.  She's right on all fronts.  The only disappointing part of the article is that just last month, Castle wrote another blog posting in favor of Missouri's Prop B -- which set an arbitrary limit on the number of animals someone can breed in this state. It was a bad idea for all of the reasons Castle notes a month later.

Winograd names this year's Henry Bergh Leadership Award Winners for commitment to ending systematic killing of animals in shelters.

Cat laws are unenforceable -- Saving Pets has a great overview on why so many cat laws are not enforceable

Healthy, normal puppy flunks shelter "behavior evaluation" -- by the Pet Connection. Yet another example of why behavior evaluations should be more geared toward figuring out what issues the dog needs help with vs using them to determine life or death.

Comments

[EmilyS]

"The argument isn’t whether the city is in violation of federal law, it’s whether the city can be in violation of federal law"

um, WHAT? how can there be any doubt? the city IS in violation (or will be). Cities are cited for violations all the time.

btw, here's another Vick cartoon, but I haven't seen the source and can't make out the artist: http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s252/pitbullEmily/65473_183372665008426_132006960144997_675204_5469976_n.jpg

[Karen Fishler]

Another recent dog case in Seattle -- common sense prevailed, the dogs will be returned home, the child is recovering, and reader comments were solidly on the side of the dog owner:

http://o.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013722800_dogs21m.html

[MichelleD]

The argument isn’t whether the city of Denver is grasping at straws, the argument is regarding how futile those straws are...

[EmilyS]

@Michelle: and which straw will be the one to break the camel's back...

[CristyF]

Karen, thanks for posting that update! Most of the comments were on the side of the owner, but there were a few on the other side that took the cake. There was one that said "If I were that kid's parents, the dogs would be poisoned and the owners would be sued." Its comments like that that make me paranoid. 0_o I think when I can get a house, I'll go live in the country with an eight foot privacy fence that has barbed wire on the top, and perhaps hotwire too. Oh and "Dog on Premises" signs all over, because I've heard that "Beware of Dog" can be used against you as they'll say you "knew" your dog was aggressive or something, if something were to happen.

[Karen Fishler]

Cristy, sadly, two of the dogs (one has been given away by the owner) escaped on Monday evening -- or were let out -- and "attacked" a neighborhood woman and her dog, both of whom were uninjured. The headline was alarmist and the comments this time are really awful. I had to comment and complain about the wackos insisting the dogs should be killed this instant:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013742956_dogs23m.html

So unfortunately, I think your paranoia is well founded. The only ray of sunshine is that, when Seattle's Animal Shelter trains volunteers, they have them watch the DVD of Turid Rugaas's "On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals." The dogs' fate will be determined in the next 7-10 days.