KC DOG BLOG

Georgia toddler killed by dogs

Late yesterday afternoon, 21 month old Monica Laminack was attacked and killed by 7 of 9 dogs that lived at the family's home in Ellabell, GA.

The child lived in the home with her 18 year old Mother, Summer Laminack, grandmother, great-grandmother and two uncles (aged 14 and 12). 

Apparently, after getting home from the store last night and according to police "they all went to sleep or something" shortly after 5 pm. Around 6:30, the grandmother awoke due to a disturbance in the yard and went outside to find the toddler being attacked by the dogs. Apparently why all three adults slept in the house, the toddler crawled through the doggie door and went into the backyard with at least 7 of the dogs unattended.

There were 9 dogs at the home, one described as an Irish Setter, one as a Beagle and 7 as 'pit bulls or pit mixes'. One of the dogs is older and the mother of the other 6 -- who were all born about 18 months ago. No word on whether one of the other dogs was the father or not.  As of right now, the 7 'pit bulls' are being blamed for the attack (and were euthanized at the scene), the other two are not believed to have been involved.

Emergency responders were called but the child was declared dead at the scene and had reportedly been dead for awhile.

According to the county Sheriff, Clyde Smith, he thought child neglect charges were a minimum of what could be filed in the case. The Bryan County District Attorney Tom Durden said the charges would likely be second-degree felony child cruelty.

I'm sure there will be more that comes out about this story in the coming days and I'lll continue to post updates as they become available.

Attacks like this are very rare in a nation where nearly 40% of us share homes with dogs, and where there are 75 million owned dogs. But like all things in life, there is some risk (even though it's minor). This is the 7th fatal attack of this year, and the 3rd involving a toddler that has wandered into a group of dogs without any adult supervision. There is no shortage of tragedies that can await a young toddler who wanders outside of his home unattended and unsupervised -- and the problems with doggie doors being an escape route for toddlers is well documented. I cannot stress enough how important it is for adults to supervise their youngsters at all times and to definitely supervise all interactions between young children and dogs.

As for other societal factors, clearly there are some issues here that present some red flags, including a very young mother for this victim who is really just still a child herself, and four generations of people living under the same roof.  The zip code in which Ellabell is located isn't necessarily a low-income one, however, according to census data, the zip code lost 55% of its total residents between 2000 and 2010 going from 6,444 population to 2,916. It's a very rural, unincorporated area.

This story has been widely published and picked up by more than 50 news outlets.

My heart goes out to the family in this incident and I will update as more information becomes available.

Weekly Roundup - Week Ending 3/24/13

Changing up the format of the weekly roundup a bit - with fewer links, but hopefully more important links.  Let's see how this goes:

Cities/States and Laws

The Florida Bill that would force shelters to be transparent unanimously passed out of the Senat committee last week. Supporters of the bill hope that promoting accountability will aid in the number of lives saved in these communities.

The city of Overland Park, KS, which already has a host of ridiculously bad pet laws including very restrictive pet limit laws of 2 and a breed ban, now wants to charge pet foster homes $100 per foster pet.

A city councilman in Westwego, LA is pushing for a breed-specific law after a woman was severely injured by her own dogs in her own home. 

West Memphis, AR is looking at a breed-specific law to target pit bulls. West Memphis is a community of 26,000 people where a whopping 42% of the population (3X the national average) live below the poverty line. They had 28 dog bites last year, with 3 coming from pit bulls to people outside of the dog's home. They seem to be looking to solve a problem that doesn't exist in a community that no doubt has more than its fair share of problems.

A New York Law that would prohibit insurance companies from descriminating based on breed was approved by the Assembly Insurance Committee.

Dog bites/attacks and dangerous dog laws

In Boston, a 14 year old boy apparently entered a fenced in area where two Rottweilers were being used as a guard dog. The dogs attacked the teenager (as it was specifically trained to do) and the boy was saved by a police officer who arrived quickly to the scene and shot one of the dogs. The boy was apparently familiar with the dogs and had pictures of himself playing with the dogs, so it is a bit of an odd situation. However, I think it's interesting that this incident occurred in Boston, where they have been focusing all of their efforts on trying to keep their law targeting breeds of dogs instead of focusing on situations that lead to dogs (regardless of breed) to be aggressive -- in this case, actually training dogs to be aggressive as watch dogs.

A pack of mixed breed dogs reportedly attacked an elderly woman in Portsmouth, OH. The owner of the dogs has been repeatedly cited for letting the dogs, several with a history of aggression, repeatedly roam at large. Officials continue to just write citations and not crack down further. Many cities do need stronger laws that crack down on dogs that show a history of irresponsible pet ownership and repeatedly put the public at risk through their actions.

Officials in Verona, MO suffered from "confusion" in trying to determine whether a dog owned by a family in the community was a French Mastiff, or a pit bull. Pit bulls are banned under community law. No actual discussion seems to have taken place over whether or not the dog was aggressive in any way (by all accounts, the dog never bothers anyone). But the city is trying to enforce it's law an now seems unable to tell the difference between a 150 lbs breed and a 60 lbs breed and instead of asking the right question, of "is this dog safe?" -- they're trying to determine breed. What a collossal waste.

Miscellaneous

An interesting story about a family that lost their home owners insurance because the company declared their dog to be a pit bull and dropped their insurance. The dog is a member of the family and is not aggressive, but now the family is looking for new insurance. The ridiculousness of insurance bans against certain breeds is being addressed in several state legislatures right now and I'm glad that governments are looking at this.

A new study shows that people have evolved to be able to read dogs' facial expressions.

Pit Bull Therapy helps veterans in Tennessee.

No Kill News

Monmouth County, NJ has reported a 94% live release rate for 2012 -- with an intake of about 4500 animals and a budget of about $4.2 million.

Animal shelters in Cleveland, OH continue to have success in minimizing shelter euthanasia. As recently as 2000, the two large shelters in the community took in more than 26,000 animals -- and killed nearly 17,000.  In 2012, the shelters took in less than 13,000, and killed just over 3,000. The shelter euthanasia rates are now 14% for dogs and 27% for cats. Congrats on the progress in Cleveland, and here's to more improvement and success.

The Huffington Post covers No Kill Success in Austin.

Positive changes in Racine, WI  -- including nearly doubling the number of animals adopted in the first two months of the year-- from Wisconsin Watchdog.

Blogs

Can a photo-bombing dog sell a house or rent an apartment?  - This is hilarious and awesome from The Poodle and Dog Blog

Animal cruelty, do you know it when you see it?  Department of Ag Disagrees? -- Some interesting thoughts on Animal Cruelty from Dancing Dog Blog

Reducing Shelter Admissions with Animal Help Desk -- from Nevada Humane Society's Bonney Brown via Maddies Fund

Yes - I think I want one -- Would you like to have a pet fox? -- From Poodle and Dog Blog

3 ways to boost return-to-owner rates -- from the ASPCA Pro

Everybody's doing it

Every now and again, when a significant dog attack happens, city or state officials will rush out to try to "fix the problem" (usually there is no major problem, the incident was isolated or could have been prevented, and they are just embarking on panic-policy-making) by puting the idea of targeting laws toward specific breeds of dogs on the table.

Often times, they'll try to justify the targeting of specific breeds by noting that other communities are doing it.

But really, are they?

The trend is actually going in the exact opposite direction.

Yesterday, Tennessee HB 621 was pulled from its subcommittee. The bill was initially designed to target particular breeds of dogs, but after hearing from experts in the state, the bill was pulled only 5 days after being introduce.

Earlier this year, a similar bill was introduced in Rhode Island -- however, it too was later pulled and replaced with HB 5671 which would actually PROHIBIT communities in the state from targeting breeds of dogs.

Meanwhile, the state of Oklahoma already has banned local cities from enacting breed-specific laws, and a bill there to overturn this was quickly pulled when there was so much opposition toward it.

The same thing is happening on a local level. Earlier this week, Royal Oak, MI briefly considered targeting specific breeds but after hearing from residents and local experts have wisely decided to work on breed-neutral legislation that targets dogs based on their behavior, not their looks.

Lansing, MI made a similar decision last night as well.

Meanwhile, many cities who have already made rash decisions and are seeking to overturn those decisions. Springfield, MO is one of those communities, as they are currently exploring options to overturn their breed-specific law that was passed in 2005.

As councilwoman Mary Collette notes: "Perhaps not looking at having our ordinance be breed-specific in any way but we could have it be vicious animal specific whihc is really what we're trying to get at anyway. That is really how you are going to reduce the bites and damage. We're hoping we can bring our ordinances in line with what is a little more prgoressive actually more productive in curbing animal attacks and bites."

Agreed.

And in the current landscape, this is what the majority of states and cities are doing -- focusing their limited animal control budgets and resources on the dogs (and owners) who have shown themselves to be more dangerous THROUGH THEIR BEHAVIOR, not their look. And as these politicians look at best practices throughout the country, and talk to experts in their community, they are overwhelmingly choosing behavior-based animal control laws.

This is, in reality, what "everybody" is doing.

 

 

Very good sentences...What I'm reading today...

A lot of interesting reading today as I get back in town - and here are a few articles that I've found particularly interesting today:

It's who you know: Breed Stereotypes and Handler Appearance

Respected trainer Patricia McConnell takes a look the research on dog handler appearance and the impact it makes on public perception.

"Sure enough, pairing a young child or an elderly woman beside the pit-type dogs changed people's ratings of them. Sitting beside a young child increased the perceptoins of the dog's intelligence, friendliness and adoptability, while decreasing the predictions of "training difficulties and aggressiveness."

McConnell notes that this may have a practical implication in how we view adoption photos. I can't help but wonder how media depictions of pit bulls over the past 2 decades has dramatically impacted their image....and how long it will take the changing narrative  and changing imagery to completely take course.

In defense of Mike Vick's right to tell his whole story

This is an interesting article from the Urban Scientist about Mike Vick's new book "Finally Free". The article writer, DNLee, defends Vick's right to write the book, and notes that there may be more opportunities in this:

"I saw/still see his journey as an opportunity to have some hard conversations. What is the role of punishment? How do we define crime? How are ciminal codes applied to different segments of our population? Is our criminal system fair? What is compassion/empathy? Can it be cultivated?"

I think these are all questions worth asking. In the end, I really struggle with the Vick fiasco. I do believe people who serve their time deserve to re-enter society. However, Vick's situation is different from those of many athletes who commit major crimes. Many of those crimes were part of bad judgment, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or a rash, violent decision. Vick's crime was calculated. One that was committed with a lot of calculated thought over a period of years -- and horrific acts of complete lack of compassion. And in so many ways that makes it seem worse to me than crimes many other athletes have committed. And the lack of remorse shown in the time immediately following makes the cynic in me doubt that the book is anything more than a series of statements written by his publicists.

Report: Local News is now even worse than before 

From Salon.com, Pew Research has shown that the majority of "News" really isn't news at atll. Of the major "News" networks, only CNN had more "news" than comentary. However, it's worse with local news, where 40% of local TV newscasts were dedicated to sports, traffic and weather. Local news coverage of politics and government has now fallen to 3% of the total coverage (down from 7% in 2005) and "accident/bizarre events/disasters" now make up 13% of local newscasts.

Salon.com concludes:

"If local news is unwilling to cover local politics, local politicians will operate essentially unchecked by anyone besides the most dedicated local news consumers, who are likely to be ideological activists of one sort or the other. One of the things that allows organizations like ALEC to operate for years essentially without major scrutiny, passing pre-written bills into state legislatures across the nation, is that no one hears about what state legislatures are doing until something particularly agregious is passed into law."

I'd add that this situation is almost worse at a city level.

This is what I'm reading today...what's on your mind?

Last week's fatal dog attack in Wisconsin - Updated

Updated 11-24-13

Alldogsbite.org has an update from the police report. While there is some interesting information in the police report, there is one very compelling piece of information. In the police report, Iwicki notes that she orginally got the dogs when they were three weeks old. Academic research, and information from trainers and good breeders, consistently shows that removing dogs from their litters prior to 8 weeks of age can lead to myriad undesireable behavior traits, including destructiveness, excessive barking, fearfulness, noise reactivity, toy possessiveness, food possessiveness, attention-seeking, aversion to strangers, stranger aggression, owner aggression, play biting, tail chasing and house soiling. 

Based on the police report, the dogs may have been exhibiting many of these behaviors in the minutes leading up to the attack and certainly during the attack. They also showed signs of fearfulness around strangers when authorities arrived.

Canine behavior is very complex and includes breed, breeding (within breeds), environment, how animals are cared for, how they are trained, punished, rewarded, spay/neuter status, when they were removed from their litters, etc. All of these factors are intertwined to create a full picture of the dog's behavior and looking at just one factor is always going to lead to failure. 

And in this case, there is also the fallacy of relying on newspaper reports to provide you all the information you need to determine causal factors. At best, they provide just a surface level of the situation, at worst, they just provide inaccurate info. When you dig deeper, you can usually find pretty significant causal factors, as appears to be the case here.

Updated 4-9-13

Finally a bit more information about this case. According to a report in the Janesville Gazettte last week, the babysitter, Susan Ilwicki, owned two 45 lbs "pit bull terriers". On the afternoon of the event, Iwicki went outside and were reportedly playfully nipping at Iwicki as she held the 14 month old boy. Iwicki then reportedly "yelled at them" and "batted" them away. It was upon that striking that the dogs became frenzied and started pulling at her coat and biting at her hand. Iwicki then lost hold of 14 month old Daxton and the boy fell to the ground and the dogs pounced on the boy.

There is more to the story according to the police report at the link. Essentially it sounds like the dogs were overly excited (either just by being outside, or with the presence of the young toddler). In their over-excitement Iwicki yelled and struck the dogs -- which resulted in an even more heightened level of arrousal. 

We talk a lot her about understanding warning signs and understanding canine behavior -- and understanding that if you have highly arroused dogs there are ways to calm that excitement. Yelling and hitting them isn't it.

Even more bizarre is a neighbor's claim that he heard Iwicki's screams but didn't investigate because he'd been "watching too many horror movies lately" - which may be the more bizarre statements I've ever heard.

Original Story

In a story that I'm sure most of the readers of this blog have heard about already, last week, 14 month old Daxton Borchardt died from injuries sustained in a dog attack. There has been a LOT of media coverage about the incident (50+ news reports), but not a lot of actual causal information that has come out.  I've been holding off posting until more info came out but it now seems that that will be less likely for awhile.

So this is what we know:

The young toddler (who was very mobile) was staying with his babysitter, 30 year old Susan Iwicki in the small community of Walworth, WI (population 1,676) . The two dogs involved in the attack (both described as "pit bulls") were owned by Iwicki. The incident apparently happened outdoors, and not in the apartment where Iwicki lived. The apartment is apparently in a remodeled old barn behind another home.

The boy was tragically bitten, and tranported to the hospital where he later died.

Walworth is a tiny community (population 1,676) that is situated about half way between Milwaukee and Chicago right along the Wisconsin/Illinois border.

The dogs were immediately taken to a local veterinarian and euthanized.

Little else is really known about the incident at this point, and the media coverage has been hit or miss with some trying to create unnecessary hysteria, one outlet that used no common sense in stalking the father's facebook page and publishing his despair (I refuse to provide a link)  and others noting that this is the third fatal dog attack in Wisconsin in the past 11 years (with three different breeds of dogs involved in those incidents).

I've been in communication with several folks up in Wisconsin and there seem to be a fair amount of speculation as to the cause of the attack, but nothing tangible to date to report. I'll definitely update this as more information comes out.

My heart goes out to the Borchardt family and those close to them as they deal with this tragedy and I hope that as time progresses we can find out more about the circumstances that led up to the attack so that other families can avoid similar situations. Tragedies like this are very rare, but having intelligent dialogue about the circumstances that cause them can help others -- and it's a shame that anonymous breed haters and not real animal behavior experts have flooded comment sections of media outlets spewing mis-information and hatred.

 

 

Weekly Roundup - Week Ending 3-10-13

It's been a busy week and I'm a little behind on a host of topics. I should be able to get to many of them this week. Meanwhile, here are some of the top stories you may have missed from the week that was.

Cities/States and Laws

Hornbeak, TN passed the first reading of a bill that would ban several breeds of dogs, including pit bulls, Rottweilers, Akitas, Chow Chows, Doberman Pinschers and German Shepherds. If you are in the area, please contact your city officials to tell them that breed-neutral, behavior-based legislation is the best for public safety.

After 10 months of discussion, Schuyler, NE passed a dangerous dog law that targets 11 different breeds of dog -- including the "Pit bull Terrier", Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Dogo Argentino, Presa Canario, Cane Corso, American Bulldog, Chow Chow, Doberman Pinscher, Rottweiler, and American Bandogg. Anyone who thinks that breed specific legislation is just a pit bull issue make note.

Earlier this year, a bill was introduced in Rhode Island that would create state-wide breed-specific legislation. However, after more education from experts in the community, the bill was pulled. Now, a new bill has been introduced that would prohibit breed-specifc legislation from municipalities. This shows how quickly ideas can change once experts in their local communities are consulted and people understand that breed-specific laws are not the solution to increasing public safety.

Bronwood, GA briefly considered a breed-specific dangerous dog law, but then after careful consideration opted not to go that route.

SB160 in Maryland, a bill that would over-ride a court ruling that declared 'pit bulls' as dangerous advanced out of the Senate Judicial proceedings by a unanimous vote. The bill now advances to the entire Senate floor. The companion bill advanced by a Unanimous vote in the House of Representatives as well. While the Baltimore Sun seems to imply there is some "unraveling" that is going on, at this point there is no evidence of that from the votes that have been cast.

Lansing MI is discussing the possibility of enacting breed-specific legislation -- so far the majority of the people commenting on the bill, per usual, are opposed to breed-specific provisions.

In Colorado, legislators are looking into a bill that would require police to take dog encounter training as a way of preventing so many dogs from being shot.

Dog bites/attacks

A year old infant in New Jersey suffered "serious" injureis when she was bitten in her face by a Husky in her home.

An 8 year old Saskatchewan boy suffered major injuries, after he entered a fenced kennel where a mixed breed dog was kept and the dog attacked the boy.

No Kill

The Bark magazine has a great article about the innovative sheltering idea of creating mall "boutique" adoption centers. These centers provide high-traffic exposure of adoptable pets and with the recent recession, space in these malls is often available and can be gotten for discounted rates for 501c3 rescue groups. Late last year, our organization, KC Pet Project, opened a retail adoption center that has created about a 40% increase in total adoptions since its opening - which has bee critical for lifesaving in our community. Great article from the Bark, and great idea for shelters across the country.

KC Pet Project was invited to speak at the Kansas City Mayor's stat meeting -- discussing the decrease in euthanasia at the city shelter over the past 14 months. Midtown KC Post has details, and a chart from the meeting that I'm really proud of.

The Fairfield County animal shelter (Lancaster, OH) has decreased its euthanasia rate from 34% to 17% over the past year. They're continuing to look at options to reduce this rate even further.

Austin schools other cities on No Kill - media coverage about Austin's Pet Alive Conference as others went to Austin to learn how to make their communities No Kill.

Miscellaneous

Many people in No Kill circles know Aimee Saddler's name. Aimee is a great dog trainer, who is helping shelters (including ours) institute playgroups for shelter dogs. The playgroups are designed to give the dogs good socialization, enrichment, and burn off energy -- all of which are invaluable to making them more adoptable in a shelter setting. Here's a great video she posted this week about why they don't micromanage interactions in a playgroup setting.

A feature on Canine Investigator Jim Crosby. Jim does a great job of investigating canine attack scenes and deterimining the circumstances behind these attacks.

Three pit bulls were stolen from the Lake Jackson SPCA (TX) last week -- showing once again that the idea that pit bulls are good guard dogs is a myth, and often can't even keep themselves from being stolen.

A pit bull helped his master this week -- as the master was being attacked by another man with a golf club, the pit bull intervened and attacked the attacker.

Trooper, a pit bull puppy that was dragged nearly to death, has finally healed under the care of the Humane Society of Missouri and is now available for adoption.

Blogs

A volunteer love story - Barb and Dru - A day with Homeless Dogs discusses a volunteer at our shelter in Kansas City and how the volunteer has connected with a long-timer at the shelter.

Babble has a great article and pictoral about the Pin-ups for Pit Bulls group that is increasing awareness of the softer side of pit bulls.

Counter Conditioning and Desensitization for Dogs - Part 1 -- Eric is finally back at Dog Spelled Forward with insights in to Classical Conditioning for dog, and how to change this conditioning.

My dog is aggressive to others on leash - Dog Spelled forward looks at the common problem of leash reactivity, and how to manage. Step 1, pay attention. Step 2, change the association to the emotional aggressive response.

Book review of the book Mr. and Ms. Dog -- by Raised by Wolves.

To save animals, you have to like people -- trusting the public is the most important part of saving lives -- it is the public that is going to adopt, foster, donate and tell others to do the same.

The problem with Dandelions - Lost Dogs Wisconsin has an interesting article about "dandelions" -- which they describe as dogs that are very common and look very similar -- with good advice on how to find them when they're lost.

For Fun

An image of a well-prepared cat.

Updated: Seven year old Illinois boy dies from dog attack

Update: 3/10/13 - Well, more news about the dogs involved in this attack, and as expected, the backstory gives a lot of indication of problems here well before this attack occurred as the dogs had been involved in at least 4 incidents involving law enforcement in just the past 8 months.

Based on a new story by the Galesburg Register Mail,  The dogs were owned by Ashiya Ferguson and Jereme J. Carter. In June, 2012, the dogs were found running at large from their home and police came. The dogs were eventually able to make their way back into their home, and no charges were filed. Two months later, Carter was arrested and charged with the shooting death of Terrell Allen. Later, after the murder, Ferguson was parked in front of Carter's house when subjects opened fire and struck the vehicle with 11 bullets.

Following Carter's sentencing in September, Ferguson and the two dogs moved into the mother's home on Whiting Avenenue (where the recent dog attack took place). Since that time, animal control officers have been to the residence twice, once on Dec 20 and once on Feb 8 about the dogs being left outside in the cold.

Following last week's dog attack, Ferguson insisted the Humane Society take the second pit bull (that wasn't involved in the attack. According to the Knox County Humane Society Director Erin Buckmaster, the second dog was "wasn't aggressive, but it was pretty hungry and its ribs were showing."

The follow-up evidence continues to solidify the reality that dog attack tragedies, such as this one, are not caused by the dogs, but are symptomatic of much larger societal problems which in some cases shows itself in poor parenting, and in this case shows itself in poor care of the dogs. In this case, the dogs seem to have been a part of a very violent past, and often neglected. 

It's a shame, and a tragedy, but as usual, as more evidence comes out it becomes clear that the dogs involved in these cases are most often the victims of human negligence and poor care and the circumstances leading up to the attack are far more telling than the types of dogs involved.

Thanks to the Galesburg Register Mail for following up on this story and bringing the incremental details to light.

Original Story

Over the weekend, 7 year old Ryan Maxwell was killed by a dog in Galesburg, IL.

Information surrounding the event has been slowing being released through the media, but the series of events are still a little unclear.

The boy went out roller skating with a friend Friday night, and stayed the night at the friend's house. On Saturday, the boys were in the backyard playing when Ryan was attacked by one of what sounds like multiple dogs that were kept chained in the back yard. The attacking dog is being called a "pit bull". The boy's mother says the dogs were "starving" in the back yard and that she suspects the boy was trying to feed one of the dogs when the attack occurred. The adults were at home at the time, but not supervising the kids.

Neighbors who were interviewed anonymously, said they feared the dog and had called animal control in the past about the dog but could never prove the dog was dangerous.

Galesburg city officials have been interviewing a lot of people in the community, and have noted that the "common thread" that keeps coming out is about the need for more responsible pet ownership.

It is definitely a tragedy, and a preventable one. It sounds like the dogs were very poorly cared for -- maybe underfed, definitely tethered (which can dramatically impact the behavior of a dog), that neighbors had reported being aggressive in the past -- and then were approached by an unfamiliar young boy.

It's tragic. And preventable. And focusing on responsible pet ownership, and behavior-based dangerous dog laws can help officers identify dangerous-behaving dogs prior to a tragic incident.

Galesburg is a small community of about 36,000 people -- with more than 22% of the population living below the poverty line (about 50% higher than the national average) and 70% higher than the state average.

Dog attacks like this are exceedingly rare. In the United States there are more than 70 million owned dogs, and most never bite and certainly don't attack. When these incidents occur they are always because of a series of circumstances (usually related to irresponsible ownership practices) that lead to the dog being aggressive and acting aggressively. These attacks are the exception, not the norm.

My heart goes out to Ryan's family and friends as they deal with the tragedy and I will update this post if more information becomes available.

The story has been picked up by 30+ media outlets.

The Top 5 +1 for February, 2013

The Top 5 is my monthly look at the 5 most popular posts for the month based on information from Google Analytics. The +1 gives me an opportunity to highlight a post that I really wish had made the top 5, but didn't.

The list is centered around posts that are written in the month -- not old posts that get redistributed. However, I do think it's interesting that this month the single most read post on the blog is one I wrote about dogsbite.org back in March of 2010. While this post gets read quite a lot, being the most-read post 3 years after writing it is pretty telling in that I believe most people are finally catching on to the reality that dogsbite.org is NOT an education site and NOT written by an expert in animal handling or behavior. Bravo.

Now, onto the Top 5:

1) Breed-specific law continues to fail in Omaha -- the 2012 numbers are in for Omaha -- and bites are the highest they've been in more than 7 years. Their law, and the increased cost of enforcing the law, have NOT made the community safer, and in fact, appear to have done the opposite.

2) Some positive imagery from Men's Health -- In spite of bumps in the road, I do believe the narrative about pit bulls is changing in the mainstream media -- and this story from Men's Health from back in September shows some beautiful imagery of the dogs.

3) Another research paper on the health impact of spay/neuter -- the book of research on the health impacts of spay/neuter (particularly early spay/neuter) continues to grow and I think every single person involved in animal welfare needs to read this study -- because it's going to dramatically impact how we operate in the years to come. If you go back and read just one of these posts, read this one. Please.

4) New Florida Bill Seeks to mandate shelter transparency -- Love the idea of this bill

5) Orville, OH repeals breed-specific law -- the trend of communities undoing their archaic laws targeting dogs based on their looks, and not their behavior, continues.

+1

This is a tough one for me as there were a couple of posts I thought would get more traction -- but the +1 goes to "Recreating the wheel -- very good sentences from the Book, Little Boy Blue" -- which I think highlights just how long the ideas of running shelters/rescues like businesses and increasing adoptions through customer service have existed -- and why, still 30 years later, too many shelters still aren't learning from these models.