KC DOG BLOG

Morgan, UT repeals ban on 'pit bulls'

Last week, Morgan, UT repealed its language banning 'pit bulls' in the community. The ordinance, which passed in 1996, prohited new 'pit bulls' from entering the city, and those that were there had to be vaccinated, spayed/neutered, confined at all times, licensed, owned by someone 21 years of age or older, have a $100,000 insurance policy and a "beware of dog" sign on the property.

However, breed identification issues surrounding one owner's dog appeared to be a driving force behind the change. 

Morgan is a small but growing community of about 4,000 people near Ogden that has doubled in size since the ordinance was originally passed.  They, like many cities that passed breed bans in the late 80s and early 90s are realizing that breed-specific laws are an inefficient and archaic method of trying to control dogs. 

Congrats to the good folks in Morgan on their change in policy.

Weekly Roundup - -Week Ending 10/30/11

Wow. Is Tuesday really the start of November? Where does the time go?

A lot of stuff to get caught up on this week, plus I missed last week's roundup so I have a few of those things to go back and pick up.  Let's dive in.

Cities/countries and laws

Lithuania appears to be looking at a law that would ban 10 different breeds of dogs.

Springfield, TN voted to defer an ordinance that would have required higher licensing fees for owners of 'pit bulls'.

Burton, MI is looking at possible changes to their dangeorus dog law -- and restricting breeds seems to be on their list of possibilities.

Wilmington, DE authorities seem to be out rounding up 'pit bulls' -- many of which are running at-large in spite of the city's decade-old law targeting these types of dogs. Bad Rap contends that there must be a better way.

Dog Bites/Attacks

Major dog attacks are rare -- but they do happen. And they are almost always a reflection of the human interactions with the dog.  Focusing on owner behavior, not on what a dog looks like, is essential to ending dog bites and attacks.

A five year old Omaha, NE boy was bitten by his grandmother's Corgi. The boy was "pestering" the dog even after having been warned not to by his grandmother. Omaha has legislation that specfically targets breeds of dogs instead of targeting the human behavior that leads to dog bites such as this one. Their ordinance creates a lot of misinformation about dog behavior. 

A three year old Austrailian girl will have to have facial surgery after being bitten in the face by a Border Collie.  The young girl approached the dog and gave the dog a hug and the dog bit the young girl. Australia has also been promoting breed-specific ordinances instead of focusing on the human behavior surrounding dog bites -- leading to a lot of misinformation that is leading people to be less safe vs more safe.

A father and his 9 year old daughter were attacked by a 170 lbs St. Bernard that the family had just adopted 6 weeks prior.

A Port Orchard, WA woman nearly lost her leg after being attacked by a neighbor's "German Shepherd mix".

A three year old New Franklin, MO boy was bitten in the face by a German Shepherd -- causing severe damage to the boy's face and detaching his lower eyelid. Apparently the dog had a bite history as well.

Miscellaneous

The Missouri Department of Ag, along with the state attorney general Chris Koster have cracked down on another unlicensed breeding operation in Missouri.  Koster has continued to make cracking down on Missouri's puppy mill problem a priority which is definitely good news.

Six new dog breeds are going to make their debut at the National Dog Show. 

The American Bar Association has passed a new resolution to urge all legislative bodies and government agencies to enact laws and implement policies ensuring the humane treatment of seized animals, including those from dog fighting operations, hoarding situations and cruelty cases.  While this should have gone without saying, it has only been recently that many of these types of animals were never even given a chance to survive or at having a new life -- and many were killed even before a trial was brought upon their owner.

A store in Edmonton has now banned a 9 year old girl's service dog on 2 different occassions.

A great interview by a Phoenix radio station with Sam Basso-- Sam does a great job of dispelling myths about certain types of dogs and notes that it is other environmental factors that often lead dogs to be aggressive.

A California man and his dog went out on a hunting trip but never returned. The man, apparently died (cuase of death unknown) while on the trip, but his faithful dog stayed by his side until rescuers found them both nearly two weeks after they left on the trip.

Here's a story that is meant to be a positive promotion for pit bulls in shelters and yet still uses the opportunity to promote the ridiculous "only one in 600 pit bulls in a shelter survives" -- they even did the math on this and noted that only 30 of 17,612 pit bulls on pet finder would find homes -- which sounds so utterly ridiculous you would have thought it would stop them from printing it...but alas, it did not.

Two dogs that got into a scuffle -- a German Shepherd/Husky mix and a Rhedesian Ridgback mix - ended up biting a woman in the leg. Because authorities have been unable to determine which dog bit the woman, they have been held at the shelter for a whopping 850 days -- wracking up over $16,000 in fees at the shelter.

North Braddock, PA is going to pay a woman $25,000 to settle a lawsuit she filed after her 6 year old pit bull was shot by local police.  

No Kill News

A new group called No Kill Columbia is pushing for reform at the Central Missouri Humane Society. CMHS has seen an increase in killing at its shelter and their kill rate is very high for such an upscale community. Good luck to this group of folks in Columbia as they work to make improvements in Missouri's 5th largest city.

The animal shelter in Aberdeen, MS is offering animals free to good homes for adopters in order to ease crowding in their shelter.

Local reform agents are pushing for changes at a New York City Animal shelter as they are pushing for all animals to be listed on the website for adoption. The changes are recommended because they found out many animals with minor problems like minor resource guarding issues or kennel cough are not made available for adoption at the shelter and no one even knows the dogs are there.

Dallas, TX has finally formed a No Kill task force.

Several weeks ago, Manatee, FL began moving forward with a No Kill community, other area communities began looking at how to move forward with No Kill in their communities also.

Cruelty Cases

Daniel Wright of Harvey, LA admitted to burning, torturing and mutilating animals -- essentially for the fun of it. The story is a little tough to read as it goes into some of the graphic details of some of the things Wright admitted to doing -- but it sounds like local authorities are taking this with the seriousness it deserves.

A dog in Berkeley, CA was left at the animal shelter after having its ears mutilated and having been shot 38 times with a pellet gun. The dog appears to be in pretty good health after the shelter helped him with his injuries.

Positive Press

A 'pit bull' in Atlanta was givne the "Neighbor of the Year" award after saving a woman's life. The woman had a brain aneurysm and fell and cracked her skull. The dog alerted the owner about the woman's peril and he was able to get help quickly.

Blogs

Why do dogs roll in poop and other smelly stuff? Some interesing theories here, but the answer is still unknown.

 The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling. Or is it? - Wisconsin Watchdog takes on the notion that with the bad economy shelters can't help but kill animals and shows why that is untrue.

"Giving vaccinations immediately upon intake is absolutely necessary to create and maintain a no kill shelter," -- wisdom from Dr. Ellen Jefferson at Austin Pets Alive

Pit Bull Awareness: Words Do Matter -- Love and a six foot leash looks at how words DO matter when people talk about 'pit bulls' -- and sometimes the words used by advocates are not only incorrect, but actually harmful to what you're trying to do.

The Weekly Dose of Cute --  Social Times has their cute animal videos, this week's includes a kitten trying to play with himself on a computer, two bear cubs climbing into a hammock, and a Jack Russell Terrier playing fetch with himself.

Weekly Dose of Attacking Animals -- Also from Social Times - this grouping includes a reporter who decides to follow up on reports of a Turkey that was attacking runners on a trail, and well, the reports seem to be legit -- and a Buck that wiped out a Mountain Biker.  Not animal related, but the Troy Polamalu video is pretty funny too.

Another chance for Dusty, Reilly and Monroe

A couple of months ago, a large number of animal welfare advocates from around the country became aware, and upset, that three dogs named Dusty, Reilly and Monroe, were sentenced to death.

The dogs were among several that were rescued from an alleged dog fighting ring in Michigan, was said to have failed his behavioral evaluation and was slated to be killed.

However, the video footage of Dusty's evaluation was made public -- and, upon watching the video, it was pretty much everyone's opinion that Dusty performed admirably.

Last week, the Monroe County Judge overturned the decision toe euthanize the dogs and that the dogs do not pose a threat to public safety.

This is a huge win for the dogs, and win over failed behavior evaluations. Congrats to the folks in Michigan who fought so hard for the dogs and I"m hopeful that the Buster Foundation can get custody of the dogs soon.

UK Breed Ban One Step Closer to being repealed

In 1991, the United Kingdom passed a ban on 4 breeds of dogs: American Pit Bull Terriers, Fila Brasilerio, Dogo Argentino and Japanese Tosas under its Dangerous Dogs Act.

However, the law has been failing -- costing them millions of dollars to enforce and seen the number of major dog bites rise throughout the UK.

About 18 months ago, Scotland passed a bill to repeal its Breed Ban.  Now, it looks like the rest of the UK is ready to follow suit. 

Yesterday, a new law that would repeal the ban on these four breeds of dogs passed the final stage through the House of Lords.

This sounds positive, but what's next?

The bill now goes to the House of Commons -- where it will also have 3 readings -- and if it passes the House of Commons, it will, essentially repeal the law.  This handy little chart will help explain this.

Now, here is the important distinction. Most bills in the UK start in the House of Commons and then progress to the House of Lords (where bills are more likely to be killed). The House of Commons' (the parliament) members are voted in, where as the Lords are not. So unless there was strong constituency to oppose the bill, it would seem unlikely that the Commons would override the desire of the Lords (although it could happen). So this DEFINITELY speaks well of the progress of the bill.

This is a great  step, and a good sign of another failed law that is moving toward repeal. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Editor's Note:  Thanks to Ryan O'Meara of K9 Magazine for the help on my now limited understanding of British Law, since there was no convenient School House Rock Video to help me out, like the US version. Ryan has been a very vocal supporter of the BSL repeal. 

When a lesson in dog bites becomes a lesson in discrimination

Earlier this week, an Easter Oregon School Superintendent gave his students an unintentional lesson in discrimination.

The school had often had a local animal shelter and animal control officers come to the school to teach the students about dog bite prevention. This sounds like a great program -- as young children are often the victims of dog attacks and many times it is the child's behavior around the dog (whether it be teasing the dog, not recognizing canine body language, or the instinct to run from an aggressive dog - often while screaming - that sparks prey drive) that helps incite the attack. So teaching children about dog behavior can be very important.

In fact, this very same program had been credited with helping a local 3rd grader from having serious injuries.  Just a month ago, the young boy was attacked by a "German Shepherd mix" and the boy, remembering what he had been taught, dropped to the ground, curled up into a ball and kept his head down. He was bitten by the dog, but not seriously hurt. 

However, when the animal control officers and representatives from the Blue Mountain Humane Association showed up for the class, the Superintendent Larry Glaze decided to ban the dog they brought with them. The reason?  The dog they brought with them was a 'pit bull'.

It didn't matter that the dog was a well-behaved dog. Or that the dog was great with children and had actually been in area schools on many occassions without incident several times before. Nope, the dog was a 'pit bull', so it was not allowed.

So instead of a lesson in dog bite education - which can be enhanced with a gentle dog with a fierce reputation - -the students got a lesson in discrimination instead. They got a lesson in what it's like to be banned because of perceptions and stereotypes instead of on reality -- and how wrong that type of thinking is.  Hopefully some smart teacher will take the opportunity to explain the lesson to these children so they understand at an early age that this type of discrimination -- based on ignorance and bias - is wrong. It could be just as important a lesson for these children as the dog bite prevention....

KC Star Letter to the Editor

Over the weekend, Linda McGee wrote a letter to the editor of the Kansas City Star.

Linda tried to adopt a small dog from a shelter which she intended to keep as an indoor dog.  After waiting on hold listening to a recording for 5 minutes, she hung up, and tried somone else.

The next place she called needed her to pay $100 for the adoption fee, a four month supply of heartworm treatment for the recovering dog, AND fence in her back yard.  To Ms. McGee, there is no wonder that all of the city's shelters are full.

So McGee is now so frustrated she may not adopt a dog, and felt obligated to share her frustrations publicly.

What may be an even worse commentary on rescue and sheltering are a couple of the comments that were left under the article. While, admittedly I think comments sections of media articles bring out the worst of the worst in respondents, I think they're somewhat telling.

While most businesses would be climbing all over themselves to try to make the situation right with Ms. McGee, a couple of commenters think she is completely out of line in her expectations.

Solomon thinks that the type of person who would get frustrated by a 5 minute recording is the type of person who shouldn't own a dog.

Abby thinks that if the Ms. McGee is upset about having to pay upwards of $500, then she shouldn't have a pet.

While I do admit that shelters could be a lot better about selling the value of having a fully vetted pet, things like fencing requirements are just ridiculous.  As a metropolitan area, we're still killing roughly 8,00o pets a year -- in part, because we're making it WAY TOO HARD for people to adopt pets. We're in the business of finding homes for pets....and when we fail to get pets adopted by having bad customer service, or put unnecessary barriers to adoption, we are failing.

My hope is that someone reaches out to Ms. McGee and offers to adopt a pet to her.

Weekly Roundup -- Week Ending 10/16/11

It's been 4 weeks since I've done a roundup - -so there are a lot of links to share. I'm going to skip quite a few -- just because no one would read this if I shared all of them -- and just give you what I feel are the most important items. I'm still catching up with a few of the blogs and will, eventually, I hope, get caught up on those in a week or so.  Enjoy.

Cities and Laws

After several months of debate, Wyoming, MI has decided not to pursue breed specific legislation and instead focus on owner accountability of pets.

Three Rivers, TX appears to be considering a ban on 'pit bulls' - a law that violates state law in Texas.

Lake City, AR has expended its ban on 'pit bulls" to now include Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers an American Bulldogs and their mixes. Instead of acknowledging that a breed ban was not an effective solution, the city has decided to just add more breeds to the ban.

Overland, MO passed a ban on 'pit bulls'.  The law wasn't a result of any incident, but said to be a 'proactive' step in preventing a problem that doesn't exist.

Egleston Township, MI rejected an ordinance that would have put restrictions on pit bulls.

Ridgely, MD appears to be looking at a law that would deem "certain breeds" inherently dangerous.

Franklin, KY has passed a law that declares all  'pit bulls', Rottweilers and Wolf Hybrids vicious regardless of their actual temperament.

Charles County, MD has decided against the idea of targeting specific breeds with their ordinance.

Dog bites/Attacks

I'm going to keep this section pretty short this week, but there were a few incidents I wanted to highlight from the past few weeks. Attacks are extremely rare in the context of the 78 million owned dogs in this country, but do happen. When they do, there is usually a logical set of circumstances that led up to the bite, and it is focusing on these circumstances that will lead to solving some of the problem.

A man and his dogs were attacked by a couple of Rottweilers in Salina, KS.  Salina has a ban on 'pit bulls' which has not increased public safety in the community.

A postman in the UK was severely attacked by a German Shepherd while he was delivering the mail. The UK has had a ban on four breeds of dogs for decades and attack incidents continue to increase because the focus has been on dog breeds and not irresponsible pet owners. In a separate incident, a 10 year old boy was attacked by a Bull Mastiff. The law is not effective, and in fact, is making things worse in the UK.

A four-year old Leavenworth, KS boy received "serious injuries" after he was followed and then attacked by a Yellow Labrador Retriever that was roaming at-large. The boy received injuries on his head, chest and upper back.  

A two year old South Texas girl was attacked by a "collie mix" that may end up being returned to its owner.

A six year old El Paso, TX girl had to have stitches to her face after being being bitten by a neighbor's yellow Labrador Retriever.

A German Shepherd mix in Sheboygan, WI with a bite history was eating cake out of a box and a 7 year old girl stepped on the box while the dog was eating. The dog lunged at the young girl and bit her in the face.  The incident was highly avoidable, with a girl interupting a dog while it was eating - -but especially one with a bite history. 

A two year old Watertown, NY boy was severely attacked by an American Bulldog at the local farmer's market. The boy need 105 stitches to repair the damage.

No Kill News

Thinking Lost and Not Stray -- I love this photo comparison of a dog that arrived at the shelter in Wisconsin. After only 24 hours of being lost, the dog was filthy dirty and matted. Often dogs like this come into the shelter and people assume they are stray or abandoned because they look like a mess -- but it can not take long for them to look this way and often have an owner that is desperately looking for them.

Manatee (FL) Animal services is moving forward with their plans to become No kill.

The No Kill movement continues to gain momentum -- this time in Bay County, MI.

Kansas City News

A couple of months ago, animal control officers in Kansas City, MO rescued more than 100 cats from a hoarder.  Now, after a couple of months of treatment and some great work by area animal welfare organizations and volunteers, the cats are nearly ready for adoption.

Great video of a local Dock Diving event with MOKAN Dock Dogs.

Miscellaneous

Churches take steps to show their love for animals -- I've always wondered why more church groups weren't actively involved in animal welfare -- it seems to fit in perfectly with the respect for God's creation and dominion over the animals ideas in religeon, but I thought this article was worth noting.

70 malls across the United States are primed to ban the sale of pet in their malls.

A New York diner has become the first animal welfare approved eatery in the US.

A 'pit bull mix' named Cobain helped save the life of an elderly woman who had fallend down a hill and was unable to get up. The dog found the woman and then alerted his owner of the woman's plight so people were able to help her.

Blogs

Petey the Border Collie plays volleyball and basketball better than most of us -- I absolutely LOVE the volleyball video -- va Seattle Dog Spot

Bill Bruce talks Pit Bulls -- Calgary's highly successfuly bylaw services director Bill Bruce discussed the issue of 'pit bulls' with Fred at Pound Dogs.

Whose pet is safe with this kind of "animal control"? -- Animal Ark looks at a situation where a dog in Minneapolis was declared potentially dangerous even though it never hurt any person or animal. I've generally been supportive of laws like Minneapolis' that allow for dogs to be declared potentially aggressive even before they attack based on the dog's individual behavior and then allow owners to have the designation removed after doing proper training - -but such an ordinance requires knowledgable staff and common sense in order for it to work...

The real tail behind BSL - from Luck Dog Rescue Blog

Harper: Where there's life, there's hope -- Yesbiscuit! discusses the story of a pit bull puppy that was saved from a garbage bag. The person who saved the dog from the garbage set up an appointment to humanely euthanize the badly crippled dog, and then, before the appointment, the dog began making progress. She cancelled the euthanasia and the dog has become a miraculous story of recovery.

All you need is love (and hard work) -- Winograd interviews Michael Kitkowski of Rockwall, TX about their success in making Rockwall a No Kill Community.

Euthanasia: The best methods may not be what you think -- a thought-provoking blog from Paw Prints the Magazine.

Professional pictures can increase pet adoptions -- Seattle Dog Spot

Budget is not an indicating factor of No Kill Success -- FixAustin has a comparitive chart of various Texas Shelter Budgets, intake numbers and save rates.

Photos from Marlboro County (NC) Pound -- Yikes.  Yesbiscuit shows images from a pet shelter with almost zero hours of being open and horrible conditions for the animals in the shelter.

Cloning Heroism - - For the Love of the Dog has the story about Trakr -- a canine search and rescue dog that worked at Ground Zero who's DNA was used to create a series of Trakr Clones. 

BSL is illogical -- Mission Hills, KS Edition

If you've ever needed evidence that Breed Bans are illogical and ineffective, here's more.

Apparently, the city of Mission Hills, KS is now looking at adding Rottweillers to its list of banned breeds (joining 'pit bulls' on the list).  The city is considering adding Rottweilers to the list after a person was bitten by a dog in the city limits. Now, the biting dog wasn't even a Rottweiler, but that is the breed being chosen to be banned because, according to councilman Roy Farchmin, they are "generally considered the second most dangerous dog breed.".

Um, ok. But if somoene could please highlight for me how a Rottweiler ban would have stopped a different type of dog from biting it'd be much appreciated.

The law itself will of course have a few legal hurdles to overcome -- primarily because there is only one Rottweiler registered in the small city of 3500 people - -and, well, making a law targeting one person is pretty illegal. This may be of additonal concern for the city given that the likelyhood that the Rottweiler owner is either a lawyer, or lives next door to one, is pretty high.

For those not familiar with Mission Hills -- it's a pretty elite community. By pretty elite, I mean, completely elite -- as in, of their 3500 residents, the average American actually has probably heard of several of them. Residents include PGA Golfers Matt Gogel and Tom Watson, Don Hall -- who is the Billionaire chairman of Hallmark Cards, Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett and the best sports broadcaster on the planet Kevin Harlan.

The average Household Income for the city is about $200,000 -- which means the average person who lives here is in the top 4% in income in the country. I would suspect that that average is brough WAY down by the number of retired people who live there. 

So, suffice it to say, there really isn't a free-roaming dog problem, or a Rottweiler problem, or a pit bull problem in Mission Hills. A dog bit someone, and their solution is to try to ban someone else's dog from the city.

Not that we ever suspected that breed bans were based on any type of logic -- but if you want more evidence, here it is.  Here's to hoping wiser heads prevail. Maybe they'll even realize that the current breed ban is equally ridiculous. 

Moses Lake, WA Repeals Breed Specific Law

Last week, news began to circulate that Moses Lake, WA decided to repeal its breed specific law that defined pit bulls, Rottweilers and Presa Canarios as hazardous dogs.

The law was repealed, in part due to legal issues the city was facing when a resident, Nick Criscuolo, sued the city that the law violated his civil rights. The complaint (which you can read in its entirety here) focuses on a terrible story in which one of two dogs owned by Criscuolo was shot and killed by a police officer in a display of unnecessary force.

Meanwhile,Criscuolo was then forced to register his other dog as a "hazardous" dog under the city law.  As such, the complaint challenges the law based on the subjective nature of the law based purely on subjective visual assessment, and the reality that the restraints required by the law are based on "perceived, imprecise, methodologically deficient and unpublicized visual identification".  Also, allowing for animals to be seized under these impricise judgments is a violation of due process.

Among the federal claims, the suit claims that the breed specific law violates the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments (seizure, due process, vagueness, overbreadth, underbreath and equal protection).

Moses Lake enacted the law as an act of Panic Policy Making after a dog bite that occurred in 2008. You can get the full lowdown on how the law was passed from Pit Bulletin Legal News. After suffering the costs from the lawsuit, and realizing the inappropriateness of the law, the city has now backed away from the law and repealed it in its entirety.

Congrats to the city of Moses Lake for realizing their mistake -- and to Mr. Criscuolo for forcing change upon the city (although, I'm very sorry to hear about your dog being killed).

 

Two Dog Attack Fatalities last weekend

There were two tragic dog attack fatalities last weekend. Both were completely avoidable, and very sad.

On Friday night, 21 month old Neveah Bryant died from multiple injuries sustained when she was attacked by 3 dogs in Fairfield, CT.  The little girl was staying at her aunt's place, when the aunt left her in the room by herself and the dogs were 'locked" in the woman's son's room. when the aunt left to go to the store.  Somehow the dogs got into the room where the child was and attacked the child.

The neighbor discovered young Neveah after hearing the screams of "the kids" from the home. 

While it's unclear how the dogs gained access to the room where the victim was, it is pretty clear that the dogs weren't socialized with the victim.  It is also unclear as to how old "the kids" that were in charge of supervising the 21 month old were, but it seems questionable whether or not they should have been in that situation.

Also of note, according to a report from the New Haven Register, the aunt, Erica Hobdy, is currently being sued by a postal carrier for injuries sustained in a separate bite incident by a dog owned by Hobdy that was not involved in this attack.

Certainly this was an avoidable tragedy.

The story has been picked up by nearly 100 media outlets.

Hobdy was eventually charged with criminally negligent homicide in her role in the attack as she left the toddler alone while she "left to buy a drink". The woman left her teenage son (the son seems to be about 12 or 13) in charge of "overseeing" the toddler while he was outside playing basketball with a friend.  Hobdy's two dogs were under a restriaing order after attacking and killing a Jack Russel Terrier in October 2010, and two separate dogs that had been involved in previous biting incidents.

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Meanwhile, in Amarillo, TX, an 11 day old child, Mya Maeda, was killed in a tragic bite incident. In this incident, the young mother was asleep on the couch near the baby's bassinet and the dog, described as a "pit bull/mastiff mix" was laying on the floor near both of them.  However, the dog apparently got up and removed the baby from the bassinet and killed her.

This incident doesn't sound like it was really an aggressive attack as much as a dog that just wasn't familiar with the child and injured her - and due to the fragile nature of the child, she succombed to the injuries.

The story was picked up by 28 news outlets.

This is a truly sad story and another reminder of why young children and dogs should always be supervised together. While tragedies like this are very rare when compared to a dog population of 78 million dogs, they do happen. Most are very easily avoidable by just taking simple steps to keep both the children and dogs safe. 

I highly recommend for all dog owners looking of the information from a trusted dog-training resource like Dogs & Storks to provide helpful tips in introducing a newborn child into a home.  The first rule of this is to always supervise the interactions between your dog and your young child.  My hope is that incidents like this will help people to understand proper steps in keeping children and pets safe so that preventable tragedies like these can be avoided in the future.