The new law, which was proposed back in February, is designed to require shelters in the state to compile monthly and annual reports of all dogs and cats that enter the shelter, how they got there, and the number of animals outcomed to shelter or rescue groups, returned to owenrs, adopted, euthanized or died at the shelter. The revised version of the bill has a lot more categories including "born at shelter" and "released in the field/TNR"
One of the essential elements in increasing responsible life-saving is the open access of information and transparency to the public. The public WANTS animals to live, and if they are able to be made aware of high kill rates at their area shelters, will demand more. And if they demand more, eventually change will happen.
But the first step is always being able to identify when there is a problem.
And within the law, the following was labeled as the intent of the law:
"The Legislature finds that additional efforts must be made to find hoems for homeless and unwanted animals in an effor tto reduce or eliminate the euthanasia of adoptable dogs and cats. To that end, teh Legislature finds that defining the problem and assessing programs both require statistical measurement."
The bill goes into effect July 1 of this year.
I'm a huge fan of this bill and requiring records to be kept and reported. Having toiled for years just trying to get access to this information under Freedom of Information Act requests, I'm amazed at the amount of information that is simply "not available". This will certainly help in that regard - by mandating reporting that shelters should be doing anyway.
On Monday, four year old Jordyn Arndt was tragically attacked by a dog in Prairie City, IA. The girl was transferred to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines where she later died from her injuries.
According to the reports, Arndt was staying with her 'baby sitter" Jenna Marie Wright, 24. It was Wright's dog, reportedly an "80 lbs" American Staffordshire Terrier (which would be larger than most Am Staffs), that was responsible for the attack. The exact circumstances that led up to the attack remain unknown at this point as it appears as if the victim and Wright's daughter were playing in the yard with the dog unsupervised. Wright was arrested on Tuesday afternoon for child endangerment and with neglect or abandonment of a dependent person.
This isn't Wright's first run-in with the local authorities.
In April 2011, Wright, along with two other people (her husband and father in-law) were arrested on felony drug charges that included growing marijuana and the presence of methamphetimene. At the time, Wright's 2 year old daughter was removed from the home by authorities. A year ago, Wright entered into a guilty plea for manufacturing marijuana, three counts of failure to affix a drug tax stamp, and neglect and abandoment of a dependent person (her 2 year old daughter).
It's also worth noting that within the past couple of years, Wright's dog had also been cited for being a "public nuissance". During the same year, animal control served four complaints regarding the dog.
This is (obviously) a tremendous tragedy and my heart goes out to the Arndt family. However, the wisdom of leaving your children with a babysitter who had plead guilty to felony drug charges and neglect and abandoment of her own child a year ago has to be questioned. Now, Wright is looking at a 2nd case of neglect and abandonment in just 2 years time. Meanwhile, it shouldn't be a surprise that the dog appears to have had some behavioral issues prior to this as well.
Canine behavior is very complex -- and the role that nurture plays in its development MUST be considered -- and it's why all attempts to explain dog attacks like this, which are quite rare, without considering the nurture and circumstances surrounding the attacks fail.
Last week, KC Pet Project had the pleasure of hosting Aimee Sadler for the entire week (and thanks to Animal Farm Foundation for making this a reality for us).
For anyone not familiar with Aimee's work, essentially, she is, in my opinion (and the opinion of many others) one of the foremost experts in the country at creating playgroups for shelter dogs as a way to burn off extra energy, increase socialization, and reduce the stress of kennel life for shelter dogs.
Shelter playgroups are different than your standard dog park experience. Dogs at the shelter come from a variety of different backgrounds: some good, some pretty bad. And it's often tough to predict how dogs that come out of the shelter environment will behave around each other in a playgroup format. So understanding how to read and match dogs is essential for success. But when done well, the outcome is great.
Before I get into the playgroups experience a bit more, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a bit about the shelter experience for the dogs.
Shelter life can be tough for dogs -- and depending on the shelter construct, it can be a very tough environment for them, even under the best circumstances. Our shelter is like many urban shelters. It's 40 years old. It has one main housing area where all the dogs are kept. In many of the rows, kennels are stacked -- with smaller dogs on the top, larger dogs on the bottom. And every time a dog gets let out by a staff person, or volunteer, the dog and handler go down the row and the dogs on both levels bark: most because dogs are social creatures and they want to meet the other dog and are frustrated because they can't. Over time, this frustration builds until dog=frustration. The more the dogs get out, the better it is, but even under the best circumstances the dogs are in their kennel for 23 hours a day. While some handle this environment fine, it is very stressful for others, even under the best of circumstances.
Over the past 6 months, thanks to some volunteers and supporters, we've been able to build multiple playyards for our dogs (pictured).
Some other volunteers have instituted weekend playgroups for some of the dogs, which has been great. But with Aimee's visit, playgroups are becoming a regular occurrance, and the benefits are telling.
Because of the shelter environment, over time, many dogs develop "barrier reactivity" -- which would be a negative reaction toward other dogs when separated by a barrier (whether that barrier be a fence, a kennel, or a leash). In many shelters, it's easy for dogs that show barrier aggression to be kept separate from other dogs and be labeled as "not good with other dogs". This not only enhances the problem for the dogs, it also makes it harder for them to be adopted -- which at best makes their kennel stay longer, at worst, a candidate for euthanasia.
One such dog for us was a dog named Lucy. She is a Dogue de Boudeaux at our shelter. She was surrendered for having issues with other dogs, and after some time at the shelter, had developed a fair amount of barrier reactivity. She seemed uncertain meeting a dog through the fence, so Aimee muzzled her so she could interact with the dog, but everything would be safe. After analyzing the body language of both dogs, she opted to take off her muzzle. And Lucy....played.
Here's a video of Lucy on her second day of playgroups:
This is the power of playgroups for an open intake shelter like ours -- that dogs can get the socialization they need -- and that they WANT -- as well as much needed exercise. Aimee says that she believes 30 minutes in playgroups is about the equivelent of a 2 hour walk -- and I believe it. It also provides proper mental stimulation and socialization. And the tired dogs also create a quieter/less stressful environment inside the shelter. We also learn a LOT about the dogs, which helps our staff make better recommendations for adopters. And all of this leads to helping make the dogs more adoptable -- which decreases their time at the shelter, and overall, reduces stress. It's a huge win.
There is a lot about Aimee's playgroup model -- in handling play-types, when to interrupt play, how to handle corrections, etc. I think some of this is easily misunderstood if you don't get to hear the 3 hour presentation she gives before going into playgroups that helps define the why's. She is also very big on letting dogs communicate and work out their differences -- some of which she explains in this clip:
Overall, we're working on modifying some things to fit our particular staff and situation, but as a whole, I think playgroups will continue to make life better for the dogs at KC Pet Project. I think our staff and volunteers had a great time with it and are really enjoying seeing the dogs be, well, dogs. And it's also fun to watch stereo-types be bunked as we watch pit bulls playing with Labs, unneutered male dogs interacting well with other male dogs, etc. As would be expected when you start semi-randomly throwing 120 dogs with unknown backgrounds together, but most ended quickly, with a lot of ruckus but not much more than that. Break it up. Play on.
I'm excited about this being added to the curriculum at KC Pet Project. Over the past 9 months we've been able to maintain a 90+% live release rate by instituting programs that have proven themselves to be successful in other shelters across the country. This, is one of those programs.
I'm running a little behind getting these posted --we've had a LOT going on (more to come!) and I just haven't gotten a chance to do a lot of research on these until now. But last week there were two fatal dog attack incidents and I do want to highlight them, as I do all the others. Major dog attack incidents are rare in this country, with the risk of them being miniscule compared to the 75+ million dogs in this country. But when they happen, it is important to look at the entirety of the circumstances surrounding the event in order to build awareness of the circumstances of these attacks so we can prevent them in the future.
Tyler Jett
Three weeks ago, in Callaway, FL, 7 year old Tyler Jett was riding his bike home from school when two dogs raced toward him and attacked him while he was on his bicycle.
One of the bites to young Tyler punctured is carotid artery and ultimately to the boy's death.
The dogs were owned by Edward Daniels, Jr -- who will be facing charges that range from culpable negligence to manslaughter. Daniels was arrested for drug charges after authorities investigating the scene found marijuana and other drug paraphernalia at his home, tampering with evidence for allegedly washing blood from the dogs' faces, and later on charges of manslaughter.
However, Daniels did not fix the problem, and the dogs were loose again and attacked a young boy; causing his death.
The dogs in the incident have been described as either "pit bulls" or in many cases as an Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog and a Bulldog mix. In pictures of the dogs, they appear to be just mixed breed mongrels.
Callaway is a small community of about 14,000 people -- about 18% of whom live below the poverty level (slightly above the national average). The case seems to be a pretty clear-cut case of owner negligence: including lack of containment, known history of getting loose and aggressive activity, and the presence of illegal drugs at the scene. The dogs also likely had a heightened arrousal due to high prey drive of chasing the boy on his bicycle.
It is a true tragedy, and a completely avoidable one had the owner headed warnings to contain the dogs after the previous report.
Claudia Gallardo
This story has been very odd from the beginning, and as new information comes out, it just seems weird.
In Stockton, CA, 38 year old Claudia Gallardo was attacked and killed by a dog. According to the reports, the woman hopped a fence that contained the dog and was attacked by the dog.
The dog's owner, Brian Hrenko, knew the victim. Hrenko said the victim cleaned houses for a living and likely jumped the fence looking for work. However, the incident appeared to have happened after 8:00 at night -- which would have been after dark in Stockton this time of year -- an odd time to be showing up for house work.
Neighbors have allegedly complained about the dog in the past having gotten loose and acted aggressively. Hrenko also noted that the dog got in fights with the neighbor's dogs all the time and that he had previously attacked people who entered the yard including chasing them into their trees or into their swimming pool.
The dog in the case is being described as both a blue "pit bull", and as a "pit bull/mastiff mix" . Based on the images presented it's difficult to tell which would be more accurate.
The 95215 area code where the attack occurred has a poverty level of over 26% -- nearly double the national average. Nearly 18% of the zip code lives on income below 50% of the poverty line -- which is more than double the national average.
While some of the information is still a bit unknown, it's a tragic situation and one marked with poverty, a dog with a history of aggression, and an individual jumping a fence to get into an area with a contained dog at night while the dog's owner wasn't home.
It was nice that one news station went to a local dog show and asked some of the experts there about 'pit bulls" and what they thought.
My thoughts go out to the families in both of these tragedies.
According to the report from Stop BSL, the head of the Laws and Ordinances Comittee, Mrs. Knapic, noted that since news of the potential repeal had become public via the media they had received zero calls from people who didn't want them to change the law and a lot of support for changing it.
So the community made the unanimous decision to repeal its breed-specific law, as so many others have done in recent years.
Congrats to the fine folks in Wooster on their decision to repeal their 13 year old law.
Last week, as the final deadline for the legislative approached, the bill to overturn a Maryland Court Decision failed to pass.
The bill in discussion was created to overturn the Solesky court case in which the Maryland Court of Appeals issued a ruling that stated that pit bulls, and their mixes, were presumed dangerous based on their breed.
The court decision caused a lot of problems for owners to get insurance, to get rental property and for landlords (who had liability passed along to them as part of the ruling).
Both the House and the Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed versions of a bill that would over-ride the court ruling. However, the bills were somewhat different, with the Senate version putting the owner of a dog that bites on the hook for proving they had no reason to think the dog was aggressive, and the House version stating that the person who was bitten would have to prove the owner had reason to believe the dog was aggressive.
Unfortunately a compromise between the two bills could not be reached -- and in spite of ever, single, representative and senator having a desire to overturn the court ruling, they failed to do so.
While I'm truly sad that the ruling did not get overturned, I'm optimistic that it will. It is so rare that such a ruling would create such UNANIMOUS opposition to support it being overturned. But in this case, the mass chaos, dogs' lives, and renters moving out of rentals has wreaked havoc on the state of Maryland and people have recognized, on a grand scale, the damage that singling out breeds does.
But make no mistake, this was not a win for the supporters of breed-specific legislation. In spite of their testimony, they influenced NO ONE that their side was correct and that the court ruling should stand.
When people and legislators really look at the facts, and look at what real experts say about canine behavior, they soon realize that breed-specific policies are not appropriate responses to the problem of bites by canines. And that message continuest to be heard, loud and clear.
It's actually been a pretty brutal week on the news front. Maryland completely screwed up their opportunity to overturn the Solesky court case, and there were two fatal dog bite incidents. I'll cover all three of these stories under separate covers in the next day or so.
Meanwhile, a lot of other interesting stuff out there and here's a look at some of the top stories from the week that was.
Cities/States and Laws
Chippewa Falls, WI has decided against breed-specific legislation and instead want to focus on owner accountability in how they handle aggressive dogs. We agree.
Wooster, OH is looking at eliminating its breed specific law noting that the current breed-specific law actually makes it challenging to deal with aggressive dogs that are not of the restricted breed.
Bluefield, WV is proposing an ordinance that would ban new pit bulls from entering the community of about $10,000 people.
Parkersburg, WV appears to also be discussing breed-specific regulations. Several council members are concerned about the ability to enforce such a law, others are concerned about the legality of it, but the success (or failure) of the law in Bluefield may have a role in determining what Parkersburg does.
Bloomington, IL is staying away from breed-specific legislation. One city council member noted that discussing breed specific laws would "move us away from the issue at hand" -- which is oh, so true.
Miscellaneous
Law Enforcement Today has an interesting article warning police officers of potential legal suits that could come from shooting dogs owned by the public. Hat Tip to the Greenville Dog Examiner.
In maybe the most bizarre story this week, the Idaho Humane Society received 63 'pit bulls' that were found at the site of a triple homicide. Three people were found dead at the scene, including a mother who was still clutching her still-alive infant. There were 63 dogs at the scene and the dogs were saved from the situation. There was also about $100,000 worth of marijuana found at the scene.
Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware suffered a horrific combound fracture in his leg in the NCAA Basketball tournament. To help him deal with the tragic injury, he adopted a new pit bull puppy he named "Scar." Dogs bring so much to our lives, including comfort when we're down.
Last week, the New Supreme Court handed down a decision that ruled that there was no legal basis for discrimination against breeds of dogs.
The ruling came in case New York vs Shanks. In the case, Diana Shanks was walking her 'pit bull' named Ghost on a leash, and on a harness. As she walked by the home of Ana-Marie Blasetti, Blasetti's German Shepherd rushed out and attacked Ghost. Ghost responded by protecting himself, and his owner, and fought back and unfortunately killed the larger German Shepherd.
Blasetti filed a complaint against Ghost, and the Town Court of the Town of Oneonta determined that Ghost was a dangerous dog -- even though the defnition of a dangerous dog was one that attacked "without justification". The courts however ruled that Ghost was dangerous in part because he was a 'pit bull'.
The Supreme Court overturned the local ruling. The Supreme Court noted that Ghost was indeed restrained throughout the entire attack and that having been attacked by the larger German Shepherd, his reaction was very well justified. Further the Supreme Court noted:
"The condemnation of an individual dog in the context of a dangers dog proceeding solely by virtue of its breed is without any legal basis. We have repeatedly held that 'there is no persuasive authority for the proposition that a court should take judicial notice of the ferocity of any particular type of breed of domestic animal."
The precent for the lack of targeting specific breeds of dogs remains firmly in tact in New York and the poor woman who was simply out walking her dog which was attacked by another dog was wisely found to be not-guilty.
On the topic of the problems associated with canine care following the tragic death of Monica Laminack last week, Angie Koban, an assistant professor of psychology at Armstrong Atlantic State University (who also has a Master's and Doctorate of Psychology, Animal Cognition from Tufts University), noted:
"Likewise, keeping nine dogs in a house with a toddler who is unattended should not be common practice. But it happens.
"Subcultures exist in our society that view animals solely as tools. They are used to hunt, fight for entertainment purposes and produce puppies for online sale. Some are used as guard dogs to “alarm” owners of approaching “visitors.”
"Many are starved. They lack human attention, enrichment and routine. They may rarely get a full meal. Some are tied to short chains, confined to small spaces, abused and neglected. Their behavior is unpredictable.
"Yours would be, too.
"And remember, abuse isn’t just beating a dog. Abuse is under-enriching a dog, leaving it in a yard and tethered to a chain, without human contact. Or confined to a cage where its sole purpose is to reproduce.
"Such conditions lead to boredom and frustration. This lack of socialization and training can lead to aggression. These practices are ignorant, irresponsible, dangerous, and unfortunately, rampant."
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