Another busy week this week -- I had two stories that I had completely meant to write up for the week that I never got to -- so they'll be coming this week. A lot of other animal welfare issues going on so I'm going to try to cover off on everything with some thoughts. For you folks who are deep in the throws of fighting for what's best for the animals, hang in there and keep fighting. Truth and compassion are winning, although it's amazing how hard you sometimes have to fight for these things.
Cities/States and Laws
Kirksville, MO has proposed breed-specific restrictions and will discuss this on December 6. Less than 10% of the dog bites in Kirksville over the past 4 years and even though the city police chief and almost all of the citizens that have attended meetings oppose it.
Barstow, CA is considering a new ordinance that would require all 'pit bulls' to be spayed or neutered.
Sterling Heights, MI is looking at a new law that would impose strict restrictions on 'pit bulls' -- including mandatory microchipping and requiring spay/neuter for all 'pit bulls' over 8 weeks of age.
Dearborn, MI had been looking at breed-specific regulations, but has now backed off of that decision and will now be pursuing a breed neutral dog law that focuses on behavior, not breeds.
Another man is thinking about moving from Ontario after his dog was declared to be a 'pit bull' -- and the man plans to move in order to save his dog.
An embarrassing editorial written by the Aurora Sentinel that is pleading with federal and state officials to intervene on the ADA Service Dog issue because of fear over 'pit bull' service dogs. Note to Aurora, the guidelines do say that if an individual animal is truly aggressive, it can be detained by authorities -- but that the dogs cannot be discriminated against based on arbitrary breed stereotypes.
Dog bites and attacks
Major dog bites are rare -- especially considering the 77 million owned dogs in this country. However, when they do happen, there are always a variety of different types of dogs involved -- and a set of circumstances that led up to the attack. If we ignore the circumstances, we ignore opportunities for stopping future attacks.
A 10 year old Seattle area boy climbed over a 6 foot fence and into his neighbor's yard to retrieve a ball. The boy was then attacked by three of four Bull Mastiff's that were in the yard. The boy was pretty severely injured in the attack. While dogs should be well-socialized and should not attack a stranger in their yard, it is hard to lay much blame here on the owner of the dogs as the dogs were kept securely behind a fence...however children need to be taught to be respectful of situations like this.
I'm posting this because I really wish all news stories covered attacks this well. There was a strange incident in which a man and a woman were out trying to leash train their four dogs together (note, if your dogs are leash trained, start by training them individually and not al at one time) and one of the dogs got loose. While trying to get the dog under control, another dog, a boxer, got its leash wrapped around the man's legs and the dog ended up attacking the man. The dog ended up gettting strangled to death in the process. What I think is great about this story is that a) the police chief who investigated acknowledged that the attack likely happened because the mand didn't understand his dog's behavior very well and then provided contact information for help on dog training. Oh, if only every news outlet did such a good job on news coverage.
A 50 lbs Boxer mix apparently attacked a man after apparenlty a loud cell-phone call sparked the dog to attack. I'm not saying it's ok for a dog to attack someone, but I can say after being annoyed by loud cell phone calls before I do understand.
A 10 year old UK girl needed more than 100 stitches to her face after she was attacked by an Akita. The UK has a ban on several breeds of dogs (but not Akitas) and major bites continue to rise in the country. The dog had a previous track record of aggressive behavior, but nothing was ever done to the dog or the owner.
A Canadian Mountie was attacked by 2 Cane Corsos.
Two 12 year olds were on their way to school in Omaha and were attacked by two dogs -- a pit bull mix and a "boxer pit bull mix" (both 'pit bulls' according to the headline). Apparently the dogs' owner had paid a $200 fine in 2006 for harboring dangerous dogs. This area of Omaha happens to not be the greatest neighborhood in Omaha (as possibly evidenced by a passerby just happening to have a gun on them that they fired to scare the dogs off) -- and also evidenced by the zip code having a staggering 43% of the population living in poverty (and 19% living less at less than 50% of the poverty line -- both numbers are quadruple the state average). Omaha has a law that requires tight restrictions on 'pit bulls' -- but so much of the emphasis of the law is on owners who are trying to do the right things and not on areas where people have real problems - and thus the ineffectiveness of the ordinance.
A grandmother in Robbinsonville, NC is being charged with felony child abuse after grandson was attacked by six 'pit bulls' for her negligence in watching the child and the dogs.
A Missouri Senator has officially proposed a law that repeals Missouri Citizen initiative Prop B.
Abuse Cases
Two Detroit area men plead guilty this week to animal torture after video footage of the two men laughing as a pit bull howled in pain when it was set on fire by the two men.
A West Fargo man was jailed for two days for punching a pit bull puppy that he held in a headlock and hit in the face twice with a closed fist.
No Kill
A great editorial - -The No Kill Choice -- recognizing that shelters being able to go to no kill is a matter of choosing to do the right things.
While the many people in Carroll County, GA want the city to adopt no kill ideals and decrease (or eliminate) the shelter killing, the shelter continues to ignore the data and says it's doing all it can, including closing down at 5 on all weekdays and including killing 904 cats in 3 months (when the shelter only impounded 902). At some point you have to just quit defending horrible numbers and WORK TO IMPROVE THEM -- and that time is today.
No Kill Policy is working in Nova Scotia. For decades the Nova Scotia SPCA killed thousands of animals, but last year started implementing No Kill policies -- and now, only sick and aggressive animals are killed. Folks, No Kill policies work, it is just making the decisions to implement them.
The Peninsula SPCA admires the No Kill shelters in Richmond and Charlottesville -- following successful role models seems like the obvious choice -- instead of continuing to implement policies that have failed for decades.
Miscellaneous
Some tough choices are ahead for the Nodaway County (M) Humane Society. The shelter is really struggling financially in this economy -- especially after losing a deal with Science Diet that allowed for them to have food donated from the pet food company.
Positive Press
Our Pack has the news about a 'pit bull' mix that is now making headlines as the winner of the national dock-diving championship. That would now make dock diving, disc catching and search and rescue that 'pit bulls' are national champions in in the past 2 years. It's amazing that even with the successes of these dogs that show how completely trainable these dogs are and that they are a product of their environment, many still don't get that in the end, they're just dogs.
A puppy that was badly burned but rescued has finally found a home in North Carolina.
Blogs
How did we get here? -- I love this blog post from YesBiscuit! with a story that shows how we got to the point we have gotten with our shelter system....and how people have come to accept it.
Shelters doing good part 2 -- For the Pit Bulls takes a look at shelters with good programs going on for the holiday season -- here's Part 1.
Who are you talking to? -- Saving pets has a great article about knowing who your audience is and thus, how to talk to them.
Some innocent pups face death simply by looking like pit bulls -- from pets Ohio
Close the Wasthington Monument - -Marginal Revolution -- this isn't dog related -- but I love this article for what it says how we (over) react to things that make us fearful.
A Tale of Two Cities: Canine Profiling in Michigan - Change.org compares two cities in Michigan and their very different approaches to dangerous dog legislation.
No Kill and the belief in abundance -- what does it mean when we choose to (falsely) believe that there are too many dogs and cats in our shelters to save
Concern for animals kills them in San Bernardino, CA -- For the Pit Bulls looks at the story of a man who was told to get rid of some of his cats because rescuers were concerned that he was unable to care for 114 cats. In the process, the man gave up all 114 of the cats -- all of which ended up being killed at the shelter. So in their desire to "save" the animal from this man, all of the cats ended up dead.
Padding the $100 million money roll - YesBiscuit! discusses HSUS's winning of $250,000 from the Pepsi Refresh project while having a $100 million annually in donations -- because they can never take too much money from other worth organizations
Incentives vs disincentives -- Saving Pets looks at why rewarding people is better than punishing them
What the traditional shelter model means for dogs -- from For the Pit Bulls
Mississippi Shelters look to kill the Victims of Animal Cruelty - Change.org looks at shelters still clamouring to kill all dogs from dog fighting operations without even attempts to re-evaluate them
This is fricken awesome! - Saving Pets highlights a great adoption idea from out of San Francisco that includes making adoptable cats part of retail holiday windows displays.
Videos
I don't usually post a lot of videos on the blog -- but this week there are two that are worth sharing:
Cats Playing Patty-cake - be sure to have the volume up on this one, it's comedy gold.
The dog did it! No, he really did -- great song choice for this one too and love the dog's reaction
In regards to the Nodaway HS that has lost the contract with Science Diet; I don't know that they've lost that much. My understanding is that Science Diet's contract with shelters calls for a "delivery charge" of .30 per pound on their "donated food". Further, in addition to other requirements, the contract prohibits shelters from using any other food at all. So under this contract if local stores or members of the community donate food, the shelter cannot use that community-donated food. And the formula for the Science Diet Shelter food may, in fact, not be the same as Science diet bought off the shelf.
If my math is correct, the "delivery fee" for Science Diet's shelter food is $15 for a 50 lb bag. In these parts we are able to buy 50 lbs of food for about $18 through a national chain - and that is not the cheapest food available.
So if this shelter buys food from local retailers and utilizes donated food from the community, their cost for food may not go up at all.
Posted by: Mary | December 05, 2010 at 06:17 PM
Bret, as always thanks for compiling everything into one location.
Posted by: Joel | December 05, 2010 at 06:36 PM
Good roundup, Brent. But I have to take exception with this comment regarding the dog attack in Omaha:
"This area of Omaha happens to not be the greatest neighborhood in Omaha (as possibly evidenced by a passerby just happening to have a gun on them that they fired to scare the dogs off) -- "
Nebraska allows concealed carry, so there's a chance the passerby with the gun was a law-abiding citizen that was carrying legally after having met Nebraska's rather strict permit requirements. Or, maybe they just carry a gun around in case the Nebraska Humane Society shows up on their doorstep! ;-)
The RCM being attacked by the Cane Corsos was also interesting, considering the Mounties carry 9 mm weapons. I guess they aren't as trigger-happy as their American counterparts.
And finally, the cats playing patty-cake was priceless!
Posted by: kmk | December 07, 2010 at 10:32 AM
Ha, I knew when I typed that that you would be offended :) But the reality is, in most middle class neighborhoods there isn't usually someone who just happens to be carrying a gun around in most instances (not saying it doesn't happen, just saying it isn't necessarily the norm). That's what prompted me to look up the actual neighborhood data which is pretty bad -- I've run that for a lot of areas over the last couple of years, and 43% of the population living below the poverty line is HIGH. A few years ago, the Star ran a series entitled "Murder Factory" on one KCMO zip code that had among the highest murder rates per capita in the country -- and that zip code was 'only' at 29%.
On a happier note, the cats video was pretty priceless -- I laughed so hard I cried.
Posted by: Brent | December 07, 2010 at 11:50 AM
Folks, be sure and watch the cat video with the sound on.
We were in Arkansas over Halloween and two guys came into the pizza joint dressed up as cops with REAL handguns in their holsters. Not sure if it was legal or not but definitely not something you see everyday!
Posted by: MichelleD | December 07, 2010 at 12:58 PM
It's probably legal to carry an unconcealed weapon as long as you aren't a convicted felon in Arkansas.
Are you sure the guns were real? there are some really good looking fakes out there, which is why Overland Park, KS has a "toy gun" ban. I'm not kidding. A man bought a toy gun for his son (an AR-15 semi-auto, or something similar) and walked into a local motel carrying the gun - he was a guest there. I'm not even sure if the motel was in OP or one of the other motels in White Bread Country. It may have been the old HoJo's in Lenexa. But, it scared the desk clerk, who called the police, hilarity ensued, and the OP city council sprang into action and passed a ban on toy guns. True story!
It was about the same time OP had the big dustup over pit bulls, some big-uddered cows that were offending residents, the White Castle being white (they wanted it to be beige), the Red Roof Inn having a red roof (it ended up brown), and the huge red Price Chopper sign at 75th and Metcalf being red, since all Price Chopper signs are - red!
And then there's Senator Bill Stouffer introducing legislation to repeal Prop B in Missouri. His legislative assistant has been taking phone calls and she said it's amazing that people who profess to "love animals" can hate a senator so much! No death threats yet, though!
Posted by: kmk | December 07, 2010 at 02:01 PM
Mary, you are correct about Science Diet. I work at a shelter, and we got their food for .25 a pound, and part of the contract was that we weren't supposed to use any food besides Science Diet brand, and that we weren't supposed to recommend any food to adopters BUT Science Diet. We recently ended our contract with that company.
And Brent, in regards to your comment that dogs "shouldn't bite a stranger who enters their yard", you really think that trespassers should be able to walk on my property without getting bitten by my dog? Really?? Given, a stable dog (a stable guardian breed even), shouldn't and wouldn't savage a person (a lot of them prefer bark, growl, hold), people should not and do not get a free pass to go traipsing all over my property with no consequences! I do supervise my dogs in my yard, but say I let them out at night to use the bathroom, and there happens to be a person trying to break into my basement window, and he gets bit before I even realize he's there. Should my dogs have been "well socialized enough" not to bite him??
Posted by: CristyF | December 12, 2010 at 03:08 PM
Cristy,
For the most part, I'm philosophically opposed to the idea of "guard" dogs. Sure, there are particular instances where there is a legitimate need for these types of services, and dogs can be great for the task. But for the most part, most residences don't have a real need for a true "guard" dog. Usually simple barking is enough to keep the average residential criminal away - -and the vast majority of dogs do bark at strangers, but few are likely to attack that same stranger.
The problem with "guard" dogs is that we cannot expect them to made an accurate differentiation between a 10 year old boy climbing over to get a ball and a legitimate criminal (in reality, many humans have a tough time telling the difference between the good guys and the bad guys). The end is a lot of incidents involving innocent people getting attacked.
This is different than laying criminal blame -- which is, and should be, on the trespasser, but if we want to have a true conversation about dogs and public safety in this country, the idea of using dogs for a "guarding" function has to be a part of the conversation.
Posted by: Brent | December 12, 2010 at 04:56 PM
I think a lot of the problem with kids climbing over fences and getting bitten could be solved by
1. Parents teaching their kids to respect other people's property (my neighbor's kids know not to go running through my yard, but when their friends come over they seem to forget that. I wish we could build a fence, but the stupid HOA won't allow it.)
2. Supervising your dogs closely when they are out in the yard, and not leaving the dogs outside while the owner is away from the home.
I agree with you, most homes don't and shouldn't have dogs with a high level of guardian instinct, I would wager there many, many dogs (guardian and non-guardian alike) who would not react favorably to a person entering their space without the owner present. I really don't know how you would teach a dog to not care about somebody entering their space without the owner around. In order to teach a dog, you have to be there in order to reward or punish it for behaviors you want/don't want. How can you reward or punish when you aren't there?
One thing confuses me, a 10 year old is more than old enough to think "hmm, there are four ginormous dogs on the other side of that fence, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to climb it?" Surely he heard the dogs barking at him while he was climbing? Although, one thing that comes to mind is that he may have met the dogs before with the owner present, and they were friendly, and he might have assumed they "knew" him and wouldn't care if he climbed the fence. I could see a kid's thought process going that way.
Posted by: CristyF | December 19, 2010 at 07:09 PM