KC DOG BLOG

Boomer's Former Owner Goes to Court

Jerry Lee Southern, the man who has been charged with 70 counts of animal cruelty in connection with a group of dogs that he hoarded in Northern Oklahoma a year ago, went to court last week. Under the law, if convicted, Southern could get up to 5 years in prison for each incident of animal cruelty.

You can read more about the case here and here.

Boomer is one of the dogs from the bust. My wife and I fostered Boomer for about 6 months - -and a combination of factors  -- many including his growth -  has led Boomer to go to a new foster home for the time being. We hope to get the little guy back sometime after the first of the year. However, as you can see  from the pics of his new foster home, he is doing great, making new friends, living a life of luxury and making a good recovery as he learns how to be a dog.

You can see older pics of Boomer from when he was with us, you can check them out here, here and here.

I've seen first hand the emotional damage Southern's abuse put on at least one dog. I hope the judge judges harshly in favor of the dogs in this case.

HSUS gives $5,000 to Fay, Others should matter too

Yesterday, HSUS announced via Twitter that they were going to contribute $5,000 toward the surgeries to help Fay -- a dog whose image and story they used for fundraising yet were not planning to actually help with the money. 

Mutts-n-stuff, the organization that is actually caring for Fay, has confirmed this on their webpage.

First of all, congrats to all the voices out there that applied pressure on HSUS to do the right thing and fork over some money to help Fay (although, I'm not sure they didn't have to do it legally).  And the $5,000 is only small part of the cost that it is going to take to fix Fay's lips -- so Mutts-n-Stuff is still seeking donations to help Fay -- and some of the other dogs they have taken in from the bust.  So if you feel you really want to help Fay, or other dogs like her, you can contribute money to Mutts-n-Stuff, Humane Society of Missouri,  MABBR, Our Pack, Bad Rap, Bless the Bullies, Butte Humane Society or any other group that has taken in these dogs. 

Meanwhile, there's HSUS. While it is nice of them to give $5,000 to help Fay, that is just a drop in the bucket to the money needed to help these dogs. As the world's largest and wealthiest "humane" organization, they have a responsibility to help ALL of the dogs from this bust. There are 499 more dogs (at least 250 of which are going to be rehomed) that also need help. The $5,000 will just skim the surface on the overall need for help for these animals - and would be a drop in the bucket for an organization that brought in over $82 million in donations last year and over $150 million in cash and investment assets.  Meanwhile, HSUS continues to raise money on the backs of the smaller local rescues and yet is not helping the dogs that are coming from these fighting operations.

HSUS, it is not enough to break up dog fighting rings and then leave the rehabilitation of the dogs to other organizations. The dogs need your help long after the fighting ring is broken up. And it is CERTAINLY not acceptable for you to raise money from people by making them THINK the money is going to the help "Animal Survivors" (it is even called the "Animal Survivor's Fund") when you're not caring for the animals -- and when other organizations really need that money to help them.  It is not enough to give money to one dog from the fight bust when hundreds of others need help.

We need to expect and demand more.

Added: YesBiscuit!: HSUS Relies on Bloggers for Moral Compass

500 Dogs, 3 Magazines, and a Look at How Far We've Come

Over the weekend, I received in the mail my copy of Time Magazine. In the magazine was an article  -- entitled "Can attack dogs be rehabilitated" -- about the 500 dogs, mostly 'pit bulls', that were seized earlier this year in what has been called the largest dog fighting bust in history.

As a part of the bust that covered 8 states, 26 people were arrested, over 500 dogs were rescued from a life of dog fighting and abuse.

The article from Time magazine treated the dogs as (gasp!) the victims.  Even though I think it's fair to question whether the title, and the premise of the article, is even a question that needs to be asked because they are, after all, just dogs, the combination of this article, and the story it tells, is a great testimony for just how far we've come in our knowledge of, and sympathy for, 'pit bulls'.

How Far Time Inc has come

On July 27th, 1987, Sports Illustrated - - a magazine owned by Time Inc., ran an article on dog fighting entitled "Beware of this Dog" -- complete with a cover story with a 'pit bull' with teeth snarling at the camera. In the same month, Time Magazine ran an article entitled "Time Bomb on Legs".  This article -- from a true news magazine no less - featured dramatic and ridiculously untrue language that included the dogs breathing fire, them being the Hound of the Baskervilles, and speculative reports of 1800 lbs per square inch bite pressure (the real scientifically verified # is around 320 -- the same as all other similarly sized dogs).  Incidently, the "ticking time bomb" jibberish is still quoted by a few politicians who push for breed specific legislation in spite of all the mounting evidence that it is unnecessary and ineffective.

People Magazine, also owned by Time Inc, also got into fray, with an article entitled "An Instinct for the kill".

Twenty years later, these same three magazines are starting to rebuild the image of a type of dog that they helped demolish.

Last December, Sports Illustrated ran an article entitled "Vick's Dogs, The Good News Out of Bad Newz Kennels."  The cover is to the left. Not only did the article talk about the dogs that were being rehabilitated from Mike Vick's former operation, the article even included a photo gallery of many of the completely rehabilitated dogs that are now living in homes across the country. The dogs were portrayed as victims -- and rehabilitated ones at that.

People Magazine has even gotten into the act, with photos of Jared Padalecki (Gilmore Girls) and Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy) doing pet rescue and working with 'pit bulls'. (Heigl's image is to the left).

And now, finishing the trio of publications, is Time. The recent article, itself, is not great. It does focus on the hard work that is required with rehabilitation of dogs from these situations - with way too much emphasis on "fighting dogs" -- when in reality, they're just dogs, that happened to be used by people for the act of fighting.  But at least this time, Time has the blame placed correctly. When the article questions whether the time and resources used to rehabilitate the dogs is a good use of funds, it has this to say:

Hard questions. But the answers, as we grope for them, should not be clouded by misplaced blame. A number of towns across the country have passed ordinances banning pit bulls, but what are we really seeing in the bared teeth of a snarling dog? These often terrifying animals demand pity because they have had the misfortune of meeting up with the most dangerous breed of all: the human. "Pit bulls have gotten this bad reputation because of the type of people who own them," says Humane Society investigator Tim Rickey, who led the July rescue. If these muscular terriers have a flaw, their defenders maintain, it is an excess of devotion. "Their love for humans is why this breed is in trouble," says McBee.

The photo gallery is full of pictures of cute, friendly dogs that are, indeed, the victims of the abuse of man.

My, what a difference 20 years makes.

The Dogs

Thirty months ago, 49 dogs were confiscated from Mike Vick's Bad Newz Kennels.  At the time the dogs were "rescued", supposed humane organization HSUS declared that as "fighting dogs", all of the dogs should be killed because they would be "too dangerous" to go out into society. 

In spite of HSUS's pleas to kill, the ASPCA and Bad Rap were able to convince judges to allow experts from the organizations to evaluate the dogs to see if any would be suitable for rehabilitation. Of the 49, all of the dogs except one were allowed a second chance -- either with rescue groups across the country, or with Best Friend's Animal Sanctuary in Utah.  Over the time that followed, the dogs proved to be even more adaptable than most would have expected -- as the dogs responded well to the training efforts of the kind individuals and organizations that took in the dogs. During and after rehabilitation, the dogs from Bad Newz Kennels ended up on TV -- including with Racheal Ray, moving into adoptive homes, and as therapy dogs that are helping cancer patients. 

In spite of the successes, when a dog fighting ring was broken up in Wilksboro, NC a few months later, HSUS again stepped up and encouraged authorities to kill the dogs.  Which authorities did.

However, with the overwhelming success of the rehabilitation of the Mike Vick dogs, and the increasing public pressure on HSUS,  HSUS changed their policy on dogs that are seized from fight busts to allow dogs to be temperament tested for possible rehabilitation.

So when these 500 dogs were rescued from the fighting ring, it became almost a forgone conclusion that they would be tested for possible rehabilitation.

And they have been. And more than 250 of them have been found suitable to go to rescue groups.

News reports from around the country are talking about the dogs from the bust that are going to be rehabbed:  Chico, CA -- with pictures at the Butte Humane Society there.

Our Pack has some great photos (one to the left) and videos of a couple of the dogs that have worked their way out to California.  Our Pack rehabilitated Leo from Bad Newz Kennels who is now a therapy dog.

I know of others that have ended up in Kansas City and Tennessee as well.  In total, more than 250 dogs from this bust are in foster homes or are awaiting placement. And many of them are now photographed in Time magazine. Let the rehabilitation begin.

If you or your organization would like to foster one of the dogs from Missouri Humane Society, I think they are still looking for homes. And to think that just three years ago, all of the dogs would have been killed with no thought of evaluating them.

My how far we've come

We've come a long way. Dogs that were once seen as the Hounds of Baskervilles by the media -- are now (rightfully) being seen as the victims of human abuse.  Dogs that were, just 2 years ago, seen by major "humane" organizations as "too dangerous to save", are now seen (rightfully) as dogs that can be reshaped by human love and training, and can be rehabilitated into loving pets.

We still have a ways to go -- but we are definitely headed in the right direction.

A little good news coming from Kansas City, KS's shelter

There is aninteresting article from the Kansas City Star this week with some great news for animals in Kansas City, KS.

For years, KCK has been a black hole for animals. The facility routinely killed the majority of the animals that entered the shelter and were mostly unwilling to work with local rescue groups to save them.  Last year, the shelter killed about 4,300 animals.

But a new animal control director, Rodney Smith, has helped change that. A new coalition that calls themselves "Ray of Hope" is now moving the majority of the animals out of the KCK shelter and safely into rescues.  There are several rescue groups -- particularly the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City, the Pet Connection, and others that are working with KCK in order to safely find homes for animals.

This year, thus far, the shelter has killed on about 4% of the "adoptable" animals in the shelter -- and the group has saved about 800 dogs since January.

Several factors have been declared keys to their success.

1) Availability of low-cost spay/neuter clinics.

2) A network of area farmers that are willing to take in feral cats to roam their barns.

3) Off site adoptions at major shopping centers on the weekends.

4) Help of volunteers.

5) And I'd add: Animal Control management that was willing to work with the rescue groups in the first place.

KCK still has some issues. They are still taking too many animals from good homes because of the way they look based on the city's breed ban. I would also still like to see how many animals are considered "unadoptable" and killed.  The city repealing its 20 year old breed ban would really be helpful for these rescue groups.

However, I'm thrilled that the shelter is no longer an abyss for animals with no hope of escape.

Can we all learn a lesson from Al Hicks?

I don't know Al Hicks. I would imagine that most people who read this blog don't know Al either.

But if you've worked at a shelter or a rescue, you've met someone that in many ways resembles Al.

There was article in the Lodi (CA) News about Al. Awhile back, Al went into the Lodi Animal Shelter with his eye one a 3 year old dog at the shelter that he wanted to adopt.

Al was denied by the shelter. Al, 73, had a track record. Apparently at one point Al had a "former roommate" that had left a gate open and one of Al's dogs got loose.  On a separate occassion, a dog that lived at Al's address was responsible for biting a mailman.

When Al's roomate moved 0ut, Al missed owning a dog, so decided to get a dog of his own. Because of his track record, Al was denied.  After he was denied from adopting from his local shelter, he bought an 8 week old puppy for $50 from someone based on seeing a picture of the dog on a flyer.

All I know about Al Hicks is tha the is now the owner of a really cute puppy. He may be a horrible dog owner.  The dogs may have really belonged to an irresponsible roommate. There may have been really good reasons why the Lodi shelter denied his adoption application. They may have been entirely out of line.

I'll never know.

But what I do know is that there are a lot of people like Al Hicks in the world. These are the people who come into a shelter to adopt a dog and for some reason or another, are denied adoption.

Maybe they have made an irresponsible decision with a dog in the past.

Maybe they gave someone a bad vibe.

Maybe they lived in the wrong neighborhood. Answered a few questions "wrong". Had an unaltered dog at home. Didn't have a fence. Had a sedentary lifestyle. Had too active a lifestyle. But for some reason, they were denied adopting  a dog.

And their response was to buy a puppy.

I don't know if the Lodi shelter made the right decision to deny Al Hicks from adopting a dog. It may have been the right decision.

But what I do know is that Al's reaction was what the majority of people who are  denied applications do. They buy a dog.

So I think every person who works at a shelter can learn a lot from Al Hick's story. When we fail adoptors' applications, we do not (in most cases), prevent them from getting a dog. What we do, is prevent them from ADOPTING a dog.

This was a person who came into the shelter to adopt a dog. They would give a homeless dog a home. They would adopt a dog that had been (in most cases) altered and would never produce a litter of puppies. They would adopt an animal from an organization that would get the adoption fees and would have every reason in the world to help educate him on responsible dog ownership.

But he was denied.

So now he bought a dog. Contributed to a back-yard-breeding operation and helped fund and encourage indiscriminate breeding (given that most discriminating breeders I know don't put flyers up in pet shops to sell their puppies, or sell them for $50). His dog is unaltered and may or may not ever get altered. It may or may not produce a litter, or multiple litters of puppies in the future. There will be no support structure in place to help him learn about responsible dog ownership.

Who was helped by the decision to not adopt out the 3 year old shelter dog?  The only person I can think of is the person who sold a dog for $50 by posting a flyer at the pet shop.

I think we all can learn a lot from Al Hicks. I think we can see from his story that if someone comes into our shelter, if they want a dog, they will get a dog. It may be our dog. Or it may come from somewhere else. But denying a questionable application will not likely keep this person from getting a dog.

Which is why I think we need to be looking at every application as "what do I need to do to make this home work?" vs "why should I fail this application?"  Even if the home is questionable, I'd rather have a dog be altered, from a rescue, and with a rescue helping educate the owner, than one bought for $50 unaltered outside of the local check-cashing place with no support system in place.

Sure, there are some applicants that you can't, under any circumstance, adopt to. But most denied applications could be made into good homes with some work. And that scenerio is far better than the alternative scenerio.

According to some research posted over at Maddie's Fund, about 23.5 million people will bring a pet into their home this year. About 1.5 million are predetermined to get their dog from a breeder (most of these dogs will be show or true working dogs - some will be solely used for pets). 5 million will be adopted from shelters. The other 17 million are 'swing voters' -- people who want a dog, but may adopt or not adopt.  They are undecided.

The more of these "undecideds" we convince (or help) to adopt, the more animals we will save from our shelters. Every time we turn one of these "swing voters" to the buy category, we've hurt our cause.  And if we are going to stop the killing of animals in our shelters, we can't hurt ourselves by denying a large percentage of the people that come to us to adopt.

Temp Testing and Rehabilitation - Part 1.5

On Friday, I wrote up some thoughts from the No Kill Conference on Temp Testing.

Following that, "For the Pit Bulls" wrote up a first person account of her dog, Mina, that didn't pass her temperament test in the shelter.  She talks about the pass/fail test the shelter she volunteers for performs...and how Mina wasn't even close to passing it. The test includes, among other things, noting the recovery time of dogs when a metal food bowl is thrown across the cage and clangs around.  This is a part of the temp test I'm pretty sure I, as a human being, would fail (Why in the heck are you flinging the food bowl across the room?!?!?!? Idiot! What's wrong with you?!?!)

Anyway, it's a great, emotional, account of what is wrong with using temp tests as pass/fail tests to determine whether a dog is killed or not.  Be sure to go and read it here.

It's amazing that so many people who are in the business to care about animals will set dogs up to fail, then mark them to be killed when they do, and not see what the problem with that model is.

Some Boomer footage while I'm in DC

We're in our Nation's Capitol at the No-Kill Conference. I already have some (I think) interesting blog ideas to get to when I get back...more to come on those. It is interesting that in spite of how impressive our capitol city is, my cynicism toward government in general keeps it from being as cool as I remembered it.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I have posted anything on Boomer -- and we took some more photos and some video of him last week before we took off.  Boomer is a dog that we were fortunate enough to rescue from a hoarding situation in Oklahoma. You can read about Boomer's growth here, here,and here. He's really starting to come out of his shell a little bit and really warming up to our other dogs.  He's always liked them, but I don't think he really understood how to "play" -- so they're teaching him.  Seems like he's getting it down.

He and Grommit seem to be tag-teaming on Stella -- and she's loving every minute of it. Here are a couple of other photos of him showing off his cuteness:

Economy Getting You Down?

Talk about our struggling economy is everywhere. It's painful to even watch the news. Meanwhile, talk of the poor economy has infiltrated the animal rescue world also.

Many shelters have said they have been overwhelmed by the number of animals that are coming in due to home foreclosures. It has become an easy place to cast blame for just about everything.

Christie has had a lot of nice posts on the subject - -including this one.

But today I wanted to mention a story about someone who is using the plight to their advantage. The Humane Society of Charlotte ran an interesting "campaign" promoting the plight of homeless dogs (with the help of their ad agency, Wray Ward).  The campaign features a doghouse with a "Foreclosure" sign acrossed it -- and has brochures (in one of the standss we're familiar to seeing in front of homes for sale) of the homeless animals that are available for adoption in their shelter.

Their moving the display around the city to promote their many off-site adopton events.

It's certainly a timely message.

It says a lot.

And it's fun.

And sometimes I feel like the animal rescue community has spent so much time blaming the public for the plight of homeless animals, that we forgot to mention how much fun it is to adopt a dog.  And we forgot that a little creativity in how we market our homeless animals can help find them homes.

Hats off to these guys for some good creativity...and bringing a little fun back into adopting a dog.

Hooray for Gramby

 At long last, Gramby has found his forever home. Gramby was the longest-term resident of Animal Haven - the largest truly No Kill shelter (both no kill and open admission) in the Kansas City area.

Gramby came to Animal Haven from one of several cities they serve that has a breed ban back in October of 2006. Happily, at last, he has found his forever home.

AH does great work -- dealing with both highly adoptable dogs and the tough to adopt. Pit bulls are particularly tough for them because many communities around them don't allow them.  But their staff and volunteer group does a great job of getting the dogs plenty of exercise and walks to be sure they have the best chance of adoption.  They do great work.

So a HUGE congrats to Gramby, his new owner, and the fine folks at Animal Haven.

To see more about Gramby, you can read about his adoptoin here at Animal Haven's blog.  And even more on him here (including an additional pic).

Yay. I love good news.

MABBR Oklahoma Dogs begin training classes

Over at MABBR Blabber, they have pics from the first training class for all of the dogs they brought back from Oklahoma....including Boomer's first night struggles. Night 2 was a DEFINITE improvement...

Check it out, and see some of the rest of their pups.