First off, I'm going to note that I'm going to make some significant changes to the roundup. I just feel like the post is getting too long and people aren't reading. I also feel like a lot of things are losing their timeliness by waiting until the end of the week. So, here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm still going to do the roundup - but I'm going to stick with just the most interesting stuff (as determined by me) and stuff that I think you're most likely to have missed. I'm also going to start posting more stuff during the week on facebook (kc dog blog on facebook) and @kcdoblog on twitter.
Cities/States and Laws
Tupelo, MS no longer is considering a breed-specific law.
A dog in Ontario spent a year and a half in in the shelter while her owner tried to save her from the provencial breed ban by proving the dog wasn't a 'pit bull'. It just seems ridiculous that the debate wasn't whether the dog was aggressive or not (everyone actually agreed she wasn't), but about what she looked like as to whether or not she would be put down.
A case where a retired police officer's dog was seized from him because of a city's breed ban is still alive. Courts ruled that the man should be able to keep his service dog under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the city of Aurelia, IA is now appealing the decision -- spending more taxpayer money trying to keep a man from keeping a non-aggressive dog.
The small community of Washington, LA (Population 900) made national news after they passed a breed specific law and then went around seizing people's pets. People both locally and nationally were outraged by the incident.
Dog bites/attacks
An Omaha woman was injured breaking up a fight between her two dogs. Omaha passed heavy restrictions on 9 breeds of dogs in 2008, but the number of bites has actually increased, not decreased, since the law was passed.
A 20 day old infant was badly mauled by the family's Jack Russell Terrier -- further highlighting why educating parents to not leave their toddler unsupervised with the dog is a much smarter approach that breed hysteria at helping stop these types of injuries.
Kansas City Area Local News
Chihuahuas on parade for Cinco de Mayo as a gret fundraiser for one of our local organizations.
According to new reports, the number of licensed commercial breeders in the state of Missouri is just over 1000 -- down from 1802 in 2008. Increased awareness of some of the bad conditions at these commercial breeding operations, along with increased enforcement of cruelty laws is helping bring that number down.
No Kill
The Springfield, MO animal shelter celebrated 6 months of not euthanizing any "adoptable" dogs. This has been a tremendous feat by the area rescues (the Springfield shelter doesn't adopt out any animals), but the city is still mis-representing they're success by hiding behind the word adoptable.
Miscellaneous
The Humane Society of Missouri is under scrutiny as their executive director earned an average of $400,000 a year over the past 2 years while the organization operatated at a deficit.
An article from South Florida tries to instill fear about 'pit bulls' by showing what percentage of dangerous dogs they made up in Broward County. However, according the chart, only 17 dogs were put down in a 3 year period due to aggression toward humans -- this is an amazingly low number for such a long time period in a county of more than 1.7 million people. Most were put down due to aggression toward cats...
Bringing together dog and new baby -- a great educational segment that new parents with dogs can learn from. I wish more news stations ran this type of segment instead of the sensationalism that often exists in local tv media.
Tired dogs may be riskier than not tired ones as tired dogs may be too tired to have the same self control.
Blogs
Is catastrophizing effective - Seth Godin with good food for thought on something I know many animal welfare groups do
Does your local pound kill animals because they want to? -- Great thoughts (per usual) from YesBiscuit!
Bad owners make bad dogs -- it's a matter of fact - a great blog from WTOP in Baltimore.
Lawn chemicals may lead to cancer in dogs -- it makes sense that dogs that run in yards with chemicals and then lick their paws would ingest enough of the chemicals to cause long-term harm.
Vick Dogs: Five years post-seizure. Has the cruelty ended? -- Bad Rap looks at progress for animal cruelty victims post the Vick bust.
Guilt: it's not just for Jews and Catholics anymore (Purebred dog owners can play) -- from Dogknobit
Should we save Helo? -- Good commentary on a dog involved in a fatal bite incident from Jim Crosby
The forgotten dogs of Milwuakee -- From Wisconsin Watchdog
Confession: I don't like pit bulls - - Central Ohio Dog blog Notes that she doesn't like pit bulls - -and why she still defends them and you should too
Oh nooooooooo - I hate change! OK, got that out of my system.
I look forward to seeing more posts on FB and Twitter. Carry on.
Posted by: YesBiscuit! | May 06, 2012 at 03:31 PM
I hope you don't stop posting the misc. stuff from the weekly round up, always look forward to the stuff you post in it.
Posted by: Dan | May 06, 2012 at 05:33 PM
Dan - -the Misc. stuff is usually my favorite stuff too....so it's going to stay.
Posted by: Brent | May 06, 2012 at 07:42 PM
Sadly, I will miss anything you put on FB and twitter. I make time to read your blog every few days and look forward to Sundays. I'm bummed when you don't post them. I realize you have time constraints, but what's the time savings between posting on FB versus here?
Posted by: KateH | May 07, 2012 at 09:29 AM
Kate -- thanks for reading. The roundup won't go away, but it is going to scale back a little. It's more about spacing out the time commitment...it's a lot to handle all on one day which is why I am not always able to get them posted. Hopefully the scaled back version will allow me to do this more regularly.
Seems like there may be an opportunity to post the stuff from Facebook/Twitter into the roundup also...let me ponder that.
Posted by: Brent | May 07, 2012 at 09:34 AM
Re: the number of commercial kennels being on the decline in Missouri - there are a variety of reasons. Part of it has to do with the economy. Part of it is the result of modifications to the state's ACFA law due to the whole Prop B fiasco, even though most of the changes to ACFA don't become law until 2016 and a lot of kennels are already in compliance with some, if not all of the changes. Much of it has to do with an aging populiation - like the Pom breeder in the article a lot of older breeders are retiring. Unless you have children that want to take over the business it's easier just to have a "going out of business sale".
This is bad news for a lot of rescues and humane societies. They are going to lose their source of small and Toy breeds.
I can't imagine "increased enforcement" is a reason, but I guess it's possible. We already had very good enforcement, despite what the media and Humane Society of Missouri preached.
Posted by: kmk | May 07, 2012 at 10:42 PM
the article about Kathy Warnick's salary as President of the Humane Society of Missouri made my day. :-)
Posted by: kmk | May 07, 2012 at 10:45 PM