It's the typical busy week with a lot going on -- plus, I'm a couple week's behind so I'm going to go back and pick up a few older stories. As always, feel free to add any that you feel were important that I may have missed. Because of the number of stories out there, I'm going to very much abreviate the dog bites section this week.
Cities/States and Laws
Taylorsville, UT has decided to strengthen their dangerous dog law -- and the law will not be breed-specific. "Enforcing a breed-specific ordinance becomes problematic," said council chair Jerry Rechtenbach.
Edmonton is once again looking at removing their decades-long breed-specific law. "Breed-specific legislation might not be justfied," said David Aitken, the city manager in charge of bylaw enforcement. "There's a train of thought that suggests it's not the animal, it's the owner that has the issue. Therefore, you can't hold specific breeds responsible for actions." Of the 450 dogs that are restricted in Edmonton, only 34 are resctricted due to past bites. The other 416 are resctricted because of their genetics.
A Montreal man is upset after he was fined after his dog was mistakenly identified as a pit bull and in violation of the law requiring them to be muzzled. The dog is brindle, but that's pretty much where his pit bull similarities end.
A Florida Senator has proposed the "Animal Rescue Act" in Florida -- similar to No Kill's CAPA law.
Dog Bites/Attacks
Two very mixed breed type dogs ended up sending 2 people to the hospital after they found their way into a fenced in back yard and attacked a family in Wichita Falls, TX. Images of the dogs are there, but no breed was given.
A Mason, OH high school student was taken to the hospital after being attacked by an Akita. The girl was volunteering with her church to rake the leaves in a blind woman's yard, when the homeowner's dog escaped and attacked the girl.
A 2 year old Columbus, GA toddler suffered significant injuries after she wandered away from her grandmother as her grandmother was unloadng the car after a shopping trip. The girl wandered up to a neighbor's fence to see the dog, petted the dog through the fence, and then opened the fence gate and let the dog out.
A three year old European child was viciously attacked by a Golden Retreiver. The dog was tied up outside a store and the child ran up to the dog and the dog lashed out at the boy.
An 11 month old Olathe, KS toddler was taken to the hospital in serious condition after the toddler crawled over and spilled the cat's food and the Labrador/Boxer mix attacked the young girl.
Shelter News
The state department of agriculture has shut down animal shelter in St. Louis after repeatedly having a long list of violations including rusty kennels, chipping paint on floors and walls, too-small of cages and hosing feces out of cages while the dogs were still in them. St. Louis officials approved funding for a new animal shelter the same week.
At the Taylor County Animal Shelter in Campbellsville, KY, a former employee is alleging that the shelter routinely botched euthanasia efforts and details one account where an animal was thrown into the incinerator while it was still alive. The shelter director denies the allegations and a followup investigation is planned.
No Kill News
The Humane Society of Richmond County (NC) celebrated 1 month of kill-free status. Last year, the shelter killed 74% of the animals it impounded -- but developing a foster program and relationships with other rescues has helped them make progress.
Arlington, TX, which has a live-release rate of about 47%, is looking at Austin's success and trying to also become a No Kill community.
The Porter County animal shelter (IN) has killed less than 10% of the 404 dogs and cats that have entered the shelter since August when they got a new shelter director. As recently as 2007, the shelter had a very high kill rate. The shelter is now discussing how to define the term "no kill" because it is trying to determine how much money to spend on treating very sick animals -- which are the majority of the ones being euthanized now.
Kansas City News
Dozens of the 153 cats seized from a horrible hoarding situation in Kansas City 2 months ago are up for adoption TODAY at Spay/Neuter Kansas City.
Miscellaneous News
A newly adopted St. Bernard kept a family's home from being burgled just 7 hours after they brought the dog home in southwest Ohio.
The AVMA has noted that average starting salaries for Vet school grads less than $47,000 -- down 3.5% from 2010, and the percentage of graduates who have gotten jobs is down 4 percentage points to 74%.
More than half of pet owners will buy their pet a holiday gift this holiday season -- with the average spend about $46 on toys and treats.
Forbes magazine gave some great publicity to the booklet "The problem of dog related incidents and encounters" -- a great booklet for police officers in how to deal with dogs. I'm thrilled to see this getting so much publicity -- you can read my synopsis of the booklet here.
Pet Airways -- a new luxury airline specifically for pet passengers, or "Pawsengers" -- no humans allowed.
Interesting commentary on the common economic cycle of exotic animals -- from Marginal Revolution
Do dogs bite more often during full moons?
Rough Week for the ASPCA
I never covered this story, and probably won't -- there are plenty of places you can get the inside scoop. But in a nutshell, last week, the ASPCA "accidentally" made available a couple of documents that talked about people who promoted No Kill as "extremists". They quickly took the document down, but then a speaker at the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators (SAWA) conference this week, another ASPCA staffer referred to people pushing for No Kill as "terrorists". It's a messed up story about a large organization working very hard to protect the status quo and not working as hard to actually save animal lives. More at these links:
Killing apologists just want their lives back - Yesbiscuit!
ASPCA got 99 problems, but a glitch ain't one - Yesbiscuit!
The ASPCA: Too big to care? -- Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World
Little Ol' Me...The Extremist -- The Pet Studio
The ASPCA and the case of the extremely elusive documents -- Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World
I want my puppet regime! -- Yesbiscuit!
Meanwhile, in other news, the ASPCA apparently also 'saved' 41 dogs from a shelter in South Carolina, only to ship them off to kill shelters in other parts of the country. Bringing back the question: When has "rescue" become accomplished?
Blogs
Pet Abuse and Killing Trickles Down in Memphis -- a great post yesterday from Yesbiscuit!
Seeking justice for 4000 shelter pets in Kentucky -- YesBiscuit! takes a look at the McCracken Co Humane Society and their routine law violation of heartsticking pets to kill them.
How to spot a cat person's home -- all in good fun from I love Charts
Wake County (NC) Pet of the Day: UR doin it wrong - YesBiscuit! notes one animal shelter that had their "Pet of the Day" on TV at noon, where the dog seemed completely healthy, but then killed the dog later in the afternoon (in spite of several people calling to adopt her) because she was coughing and it was against shelter policy to treat coughing, or to adopt out coughing dogs.
Prevent dog bites by teaching sharing -- The Star pets reporter discusses teaching dogs from resource guarding as a great approach to minimizing dog bites.
Dangerous legislation that takes a bite out of being Canadian -- a great article from KC Dog Blog friend Selma Mulvey that appeared in this month's issue of Cottage Dog Magazine (it can be found on page 32 of the magazine).
"Evaluations" and the tragedy of Lennox -- Canine Aggression Issues with Jim Crosby has a great commentary about Lennox -- a dog held in Belfast under the national breed ban.
More on Lennox and breeds in general -- Jim Crosby again takes a look at breeds, but this time noting how breed-specific laws actually take the idea of breeds, in general, and go in reverse of how they are typically done in the show ring as they were designed to do.
"If I go to a dog show with Parker, the first thing I must have is proof that he actually is a Curly Coated Retriever. This identification is typically based on registration, with documentation of his parentage back many generations. This gets us in the door. Then, he is examined by a judge and that judge compares him to the written breed standard to see if, as a Curly Coated Retriever, he compares favorably (or not) to that breed standard. He is also compared to the other Curly Coated Retrievers in the ring, who have also been compared to the written standard, to see if he is the best representation of the breed at that show on that day....But with Lennox, and so many others, we are going the wrong way. We look at the physical form of the dog, apart from behavior and personality, and try and guess which breed the dog most resembles. Then we make personality and behavior assumptions based on that guess."
Can they meet? -- Dogs & Storks takes a look at dog introductions and when to do them and when not to
Why imported dogs could hurt your health -- Vetstreet takes a look at importing purebred dogs
Pendulum Swing - -Wisconsin Watchdog questions whether the pendulm of seekig PERFECT homes for our adoptable pets has swung too far in that direction (hint, it has)
The 'irresponsible public' strikes again -- Saving Pets looks at a public protest by 'the public' -- outraged over some video footage released of pets being killed by their local animal welfare society.
Can we save them all? - Saving pets interviews Susanne Kogut of the Charlottesville, VA SPCA
The Humane Handling of Fearful Dog in High Stress Environment -- a great video posted by Yesbiscuit!
With a face like that, what's not to love - great story about a 'pit bull' festival in Austin
Dogs die because of social norm -- by Penny Elms, Dog News Examiner
Fear should not define limits of learning for dogs -- by Paw Prints the Magazine
Holiday dog bite prevention tips -- from doggone safe
The dead walk the earth - Winograd takes on major animal rights organizations
This article is amazingly helpful. What a great resource! Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
Posted by: Phil Sharp | November 22, 2011 at 10:30 PM
Great roundup! Thanks for the link to my article in Cottage Dog
Selma
Posted by: Caveat | November 29, 2011 at 11:08 AM