As we put an end to 2010, I think it is important to take a look at the year that was -- to celebrate the victories, and learn from the defeats. So with that in mind, here' s a look at the top stories from 2010.
January
Los Angeles released their final impound and euthanasia numbers from 2009 -- showing a 2nd straight year where impounds and euthanasia increased following the passing of their mandatory spay/neuter laws.
At the end of 2009, Lucas County Dog Warden Tom Skeldon retired under intense public pressure. For 2 decades, the Skeldon took pleasure in confiscating and killing 'pit bulls' in the Toledo area. But 2010 brought a lot of positive changes for 'pit bull type' dogs in Lucas County. In January, they began by changing the policy that allowed pit bull puppies to be made available for adoption vs being instantly put to death.
February
There is a large group of dedicated people who are fighting against Ontario's 5 year old breed ban. In February, two dogs, Britney and Rambo, became the faces of the unjustice of the law, the problems it causes good owners, the difficulty of breed identification, and the high cost in wasted resources for taxpayers.
March
Cesar Millan's very popular 'pit bull', Daddy, who was a wonderful representative of the good that 'pit bulls' are, died of old age and made headlines across the nation.
Denver was very much in the news all year long for all of the wrong reasons. In March, Denver settled a lawsuit with Desiree Arnold for unjustly killing her dog under the city's 20 year old pit bull ban. This was the start of a lot of legal issues for the city this year, that has cost the city taxpayers thousands of dollars at a time when the city, like most cities, is facing major budget issues.
April
In April, the United States Supreme Court ruled a law that outlawed the sale of animal cruelty videos was unconstitutional under the 1st Amendment. The decision was the correct one, as the law was overly broad, but then opened up the creation of a new law outlawing "crush videos" that passed Congress late this year.
Scotish Parliament passed a law that would essentially replace the UK Dangerous Dogs Act in the country. The Dangerous Dogs Act in the UK bans 4 breeds of dogs and has been a complete failure across the island. Scotland replaced the law with a law targeting aggressive dogs based on behavior, that protects people from dangerous dogs regardless of breed. While the Dangerous Dogs Act still technically impacts Scotland (they don't have the authority to overturn it all on their own), the move has shown that Scotland is moving on from the ineffective law.
While this may or may not be the right month to put this in, the year in review has to include the introduction of the website Humanewatch.org. While many will (rightlfully) be critical of the source for the website because they are a lobbying group for large corporations, the website has done a solid job of bringing to light many of the skeletons in the closet of the Humane Society of the United States. HSUS has often attacked HumaneWatch the CCF, but has seldom denied their claims. The pressure they are putting on HSUS has caused HSUS to be on the defensive for much of the year, and has started some much-needed dialogue about many of the issues impacting animal welfare in this country.
May
One year after passing a law targeting pit bull type dogs, Putnam County, WV repealed that law.
The USDA released a report that noted their own failings as a government entity in enforcing animal cruelty laws. The failures of the USDA have been one of the primary reasons that some commercial dog breeders are able to get away with having animals live in filthy, abusive conditions.
West Hollywood, CA banned the sale of pets at retail pet stores. The move sparked many other communities to pass similar laws.
Ft. Worth Animal Care and Control opened up a retail adoption center in a local PetSmart store.... that has been hugely succesful at increasing adoptions in the area, and causing killing to go down.
June
Delta, BC began the process that led to them repealing their breed ban.
July
The Department of Justice released their "final rule" on the Americans with Disabilities Act -- and specifically laid out that service dogs cannot be discriminated against in local juristictions based on their breed breed.
The 2nd annual No Kill Conference kicked off in Washington, DC -- the conference again sold out in a very short amount of time, and had another great lineup of great speakers. The No Kill movement has gained momentum in recent years and I was thrilled to be a part of the conference for the first two years.
August
Jonnie Justus graced the cover of Parade Magazine -- a Sunday newspaper supplement that is distributed to 32 million homes. The accompanying article about the survivors of Mike Vick's Bad Newz Kennels is yet another example of the changing narrative about 'pit bulls' in the media.
SB250 in California became quite the topic as the bill that would have mandated that all dogs and cats be spayed/neutered in the entire state was revived. In spite of the reality that MSN is failing in the state's largest city, the bill came close to passing....but fortunately, common sense prevailed.
A dog bite study in the Netherlands was released -- and it was this study (among other information) about the failures of the nation's breed that led to its repeal.
September
The Lost Dogs, a book by Sports Illustrated writer Jim Gorant about the survivors of Mike Vick's Bad Newz Kennels, was released. The book told the story of the bust of Bad Newz Kennels, and the fight to give the dogs a chance at a fair evaluation, and the story of the dogs' recoveries. The book ended up on the New York Times top 10 best sellers list for a couple of weeks and led to many other news outlets to cover the recovering survivors.
Topeka, KS repealed their breed-specific legislation after the city attorney determined it would save the city $30,000-$50,000 a year in enforcement costs.
October
Back in September, an Ohio man was busted in a dog breeding/hoarding situation. From the bust, 200 'pit bulls' were surrendered to HSUS. While historically, HSUS has generally killed all of the dogs that come from busts like these, this became the first ever large-scale 'pit bull' bust by HSUS where they worked with shelters and rescues to help save the lives of these 200 dogs. Two of them are coming along nicely at my place .
The JAVMA released a new study about the 'limitations' of Breed-specific Laws -- creating yet another peer-reviewed study highlighting BSL's failures.
Less than a year after the resignation of Tom Skeldon, Toledo, OH repealed it's breed-specific law.
November
Proposition B - a bill that would put limits on 'puppy mills' in Missouri, but didn't provide badly-needed funding for enforcement -- passed by a narrow margin. The state legislature is looking at possibly repealing the law that was passed via citizen's initiative.
St. Louis has success after instituting No Kill Policies.
A new UK Study sponsored by the Department of Energy, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) notes that the majority of citizen groups feel like the UK's 20 year old breed ban is ineffective at improving public safety -- this study is adding to the pressure to follow Scotland's lead and repeal the act.
December
Denver decided against making exceptions for their pit bull ban for service dogs. In spite of the city having already lost a couple of lawsuits this year, a couple of pending lawsuits for their violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the clear cut determination that exceptions for service dogs must be made under the ADA, Denver decided to maintain their ban in its current form....something that will no doubt lead to more lawsuits.
UPAWS sends a letter to Nathan Winograd detailing their no kill success.
Convicted dog fighter Mike Vick announced that he wants to own a dog again....and HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle thinks it's a great idea.
The ASPCA hired Terry Mills to be their dog-fighting expert. Mills was responsible for being involved in the largest dog fighting bust in US history, but actively engaged in dog fighting in order to do so, which the ASPCA seems to not care about.
Without a doubt, Toledo and Topeka rescinding their BSl were huge news stories. I've watched Toledo and their madness for over 20+ years and was there when Topeka passed their BSL in 1991. I had some personal involvement in those cities, so those stories were huge! Many thanks to the folks who worked VERY hard to get those laws rescinded - Jean Keating in Toledo, and Katie Barnett and Ledy VanKavage in Topeka, and that just scratches the surface.
The most ridiculous items of the year were, in my opinion, and in no particular order:
*SB250 in The People's Republik of Kalifornia (HELLO, you're BROKE, people!)
*The ASPCA hiring Terry Mills (too bad Vick is doing fairly well in his football career - they could give him a job too!)
*Anything to do with Denver (no explanation needed)
*The big brouhaha over Mike Vick. Good grief, people, he served his time. Perhaps all you folks should look in your own back yard and see what's happening at your local shelter - bet they've killed more than six lousy dogs!
*Prop B in Missouri - the idiot animal rights groups mobilize to take in dogs that had perfectly good care in the first place. Hey, how about working to get rid of stupid city laws everywhere that are killing dogs and cats?
*Finally, Brent, where's my favorite story, the one about the cat stuck in the wall in the Dallas shelter that the shelter director wouldn't let the employees remove until it died and started stinking up the place? ;-)
thanks again, Brent, for all your hard work on the blog. Here's to a better 2011 for all animals!
Posted by: kmk | January 01, 2011 at 07:21 PM
kmk wrote:
"The big brouhaha over Mike Vick. Good grief, people, he served his time. Perhaps all you folks should look in your own back yard and see what's happening at your local shelter - bet they've killed more than six lousy dogs!"
Oh please. Because I can't do both? What kind of bullshit false either/or choice is THAT?
Michael Vick never served ten seconds time for what he did to those dogs, but I'm not a court, judge or jury and this is not about the criminal justice system. It's about standing up and advocating for the dogs Vick killed, and the dogs who he didn't kill but who are living with the legacy of what he did to them, and saying no, don't make a hero out of this guy.
Don't agree? Fine. But don't invent some absurd "choice" that exists only in your imagination.
Posted by: Christie | January 02, 2011 at 03:05 AM
Dunno kmk: let me know when your local shelter director personally beats/electrocutes dogs to death (or for that matter breeds them to the point of physical depletion); I'm pretty sure we'll get outraged over that.
we're also not supposed to get outraged about Vick if we eat meat..
because morally it's all the same...
Posted by: EmilyS | January 02, 2011 at 10:25 AM
The ASPCA hiring Mills is ridiculous but the widespread support of Vick isn't - huh, what!?!
Posted by: MichelleD | January 03, 2011 at 10:56 AM
I think the days of expecting the public to hold athletes and celebrities accountable for their actions are long gone.
Posted by: kmk | January 06, 2011 at 01:19 AM
I went back and read what I wrote about Vick in the first comment and it wasn't what I intended to convey. I was venting on paper and didn't intend to direct my comments to people reading this blog, because anyone reading this blog is probably actively working to improve animal welfare, and they are therefore certainly entitled to their outrage.
But to expect the public to deny Vick "hero" status is a bit unrealistic. Holding people accountable for bad behavior went out of vogue long ago and is "So 70s". As long as Vick's playing well, he's a hero. So many professional athletes have done Very Bad Things and have never faced any type of punishment. At least Vick served prison time. I would have been happier if Virginia had prosecuted him with their state's felony dogfighting law that I'm sure some politician thought they needed. I'm not very impressed with the Feds and all of their "conspiracy/you thought about breaking the law and crossing a state line to do it" charges.
When I wrote the initial comment I was thinking about newspapers that call for "pit bull bans" and then run an editorial about how Vick needs to face maximum punishment. Seriously? Or, the two-faced people like the Independence City Councilman who came up to me at a food drive and said, "I'll be you're upset about Mike Vick". After I had one of those "did I REALLY hear that?" moments, I replied, "Not really, but I'm plenty upset with you! Vick killed 6 or 8 dogs. When you voted for BSL in Independence you killed 500 pets just in the first year alone". Then he didn't have the sense to SHUT UP and said, "Well, I think we passed a good ordinance". I said, "Vick is a common thug. You're a public servant and you didn't vote the way the constituents wanted you to. We expect better from YOU".
Right. Other than that big pile of dead dogs, the ordinance is a real winner. But other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
Posted by: kmk | January 06, 2011 at 04:41 PM