http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20071029_Dogfightings_victims.html
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Bust of dog-fighting ring revives debate over pit bulls as pets
http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/163207.html
Bust of dog-fighting ring revives debate over pit bulls as pets
By CHERYL WITTENAUER
Associated Press Writer
For many, the pit bull is the poster dog for danger, a fight-to-the-death
vicious canine that inspires fear and projects macho.
They're behind a growing trend of "dangerous dog" bans and restrictions in
U.S. communities barring certain breeds, and vehement debate about whether
fighters can go on to be pets.
Ledy Vankavage, like other passionate pit bull enthusiasts, said most pits
are "extremely human friendly," little "wiggle butts" that don't deserve the
bad rap they've been given.
Pit bull advocates say even among the dogs unlucky enough to fall into the
hands of people who stage fights between them - like the 25 seized last
weekend in southeast Missouri - some can be saved and placed into homes with
responsible owners. They also admit some cannot.
"They should be judged as individuals, and if they're temperament tested and
found to be sound, they should be re-homed," said Vankavage, a Collinsville,
Ill., lobbyist and attorney for The American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals.
"They're just dogs, not werewolves."
Vankavage said her ex-fighter, Che, one of three rescued pit bulls she
adopted, occasionally tussles with the others over chew toys. He also
submits to ear licks and being chased off the bed by her cats.
The Humane Society of Missouri's bust last weekend of a large,
well-organized, professional dog-fighting ring in Stoddard County has
revived the debate over the disposition of such animals, and whether the pit
bull, a term that encompasses the American pit bull terrier, the American
Staffordshire terrier, and the Staffordshire bull terrier, can be a pet.
The Humane Society of the United States says pit bulls are naturally social,
well-behaved animals content to be part of the pack. But some are
selectively bred for extremely high levels of aggression toward other dogs,
and exploited in illegal and very lucrative fighting rings across the U.S.
Those that demonstrate a willingness to stay in the fight, even while on the
verge of death, are "game dogs" used for fights, loaned out for $1,000 stud
fees, and bred for puppies valued as high as $10,000 each.
Those that don't survive the culling process are killed, often brutally by
electrocution and drowning, as in the Michael Vick case, said John Goodwin,
who oversees animal fighting issues for the Humane Society of the United
States.
"This desire to kill is completely artificial in what is otherwise a pack
animal," Goodwin said. "To breed for aggression is counter to canine nature
and instinct."
Those that aren't bred for aggression "are the cuddly, well-socialized
companion animals" touted by their advocates, he said.
Goodwin does not believe dogs bred for aggression are adoptable. He
recognizes some may be fine, but predicting is unreliable.
He said criminals put these dogs between a rock and a hard place, and that a
greater effort on rooting out dogfighting and breeding for aggression, would
resolve the issue.
The Humane Society of Missouri takes the position that all animals rescued
from a bad situation deserve a second chance at life.
Tim Rickey, director of rescue and investigation, said the pit bulls seized
last weekend are dog-aggressive, but it's unclear to what extent, yet they
are friendly with humans. They're being evaluated by experts.
However, Rickey said it's dealing with potentially dangerous animals that
cannot be placed with just anyone.
Rickey said his worst fear is placing the dogs where they'd be at risk of
being caught up in another fighting ring.
He said animal fighting is underground and widespread in Missouri, its
perpetrators well networked.
Pit bulls are swamping already overburdened U.S. animal shelters, and
account for a third of new arrivals. Many shelters don't adopt them out,
fearing they will pose a danger or be victimized by criminals.
Instead, many shelters work with pit bull rescue groups that screen and
temperament test the dogs and carefully decide if and with whom they are
placed. Grand champion fighters are often euthanized or sent to sanctuaries.
On the other hand, "I've known dogs that come out of the ring and want
nothing more than a hug," said Marcy Setter, education director for Pit Bull
Rescue Central, an online adoption site, founded in Missouri.
She said rescued pit bulls have been used for search and rescue, bomb
detection and other services.
In the Michael Vick case, experts have determined that some of the seized
dogs have placement potential.
Amy Nash, an animal control officer in Peculiar, south of Kansas City,
volunteers with Missouri Pit Bull Rescue. She said pit bulls are U.S.
shelters' "death row dogs" that would be destroyed if not for rescue
efforts. Currently, she's doing temperament testing with Justice, a "poor
little shell of a thing," that was "wandering around Kansas City, beat up."
Alice Moon-Fanelli, an animal behaviorist at Tufts University, said she's
seen "as many pit bulls with separation anxiety as with aggression.
"I'm not part of the doggie racism movement that generalizes on all these
breed bans," she said.
"There are plenty of good dogs, good breeders, bad dogs and bad breeders.
Pit bulls get such a bad rap because when they do damage, they're so
powerful. But how many pit bulls never do any damage?"
Karen Delise, founder of the National Canine Research Council, said the
question isn't whether dogs seized from a fight can be placed in a home.
It's whether the people who have profited and taken pleasure from their
suffering can be rehabilitated before their release to the community.
"What guarantees their behavior will be acceptable to people who live around
them and the animals who encounter them?" she asked. "That's the disturbing
part."
© 2007 Belleville News-Democrat and wire service sources.
All Rights Reserved. http://www.belleville.com
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
From near death to top dog
A Washington State Patrol drug detection dog has just received a prestigious award. Rob Piercy reports.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Records show many years of problems
More on the owners of the dogs from the Gig Harbor incident -
Records show many years of problems
M. ALEXANDER OTTO; The News Tribune
Published: October 20th, 2007 01:00 AM
Almost three years before a neighbor's pit bulls attacked and seriously injured Sue Gorman, other dogs from the same Key Peninsula house menaced a 15-month-old girl.
Jaidenn Foster was with her mother, Jenna, in the front yard of the family home Sept. 7, 2004, when she said a chocolate Labrador retriever named Mocha and a German shepherd mix named Daisy came into the yard.
"She tried to pet them," Jenna Foster said in a recent interview. "They pushed her down."
The girl ran screaming for her mother, and the dogs pursued her, Foster said. She made it a few feet, then fell and scratched her face and a knee before her mother scooped her up and ran into the house. Jaidenn's father, Howard Foster, ran out of the house with his son and chased the dogs off, he said.
Jaidenn wasn't the only one who had close calls with dogs from Shellie Wilson's house long before Gorman was attacked in her home and a neighbor boy's Jack Russell terrier killed Aug. 21.
According to Pierce County records obtained by The News Tribune, animal control officers cited Wilson twice in 1998 at her previous residence and made 16 visits to her current home since 1999 for dog complaints from at least eight neighbors.
They cited Wilson a total of 10 times for roaming or unlicensed dogs.
But the anger of neighbors and repeat visits from county animal control officers didn't solve the problem.
"I'm not surprised" someone was finally hurt, Howard Foster said recently.
Wilson – who with her son, Zach Martin, 18, pleaded not guilty Thursday to criminal charges in connection with the attack on Gorman – admitted to The News Tribune that there have been problems.
But she said her neighbors are exaggerating, the records might have some inaccuracies and that other neighbors' dogs run free sometimes, too.
"Dogs get out. I don't know what else to say," Wilson said. "It's not like we haven't attempted" to keep them confined.
Wilson also said she's been busy working two to three jobs to make ends meet, raising her son and caring for a one-time boyfriend seriously hurt in a construction accident in 2004.
"With priorities like that, I didn't really care about the neighbors or the dogs," said Wilson, 45.
Martin's name appears only once in the records as the owner of one of the pit bulls that attacked Gorman, but Wilson's name appears again and again as the person who wouldn't or couldn't keep the dogs behind a fence or on a leash.
County documents show that since 1999, Wilson has owned a series of dogs that attacked other people's pets and threatened neighbors. The records also show that the dogs were allowed to roam, and that when the animals were impounded, Wilson got others.
They also contain numerous complaints from neighbors that Wilson's dogs were neglected.
Warnings and citations did no good. The dog problems continued for almost a decade, the records show.
"I look at the many times we have been here and I wonder what it will take for this dog owner to start being more responsible," Patrice Aarhaus wrote on Oct. 2, 2004. Aarhaus, at the time an animal control officer, had impounded Mocha and Daisy, not for the near-attack on Jaidenn Foster but because the animals were roaming and disturbing neighbors.
Just two weeks earlier, Wilson had told animal control that she'd gotten rid of the dogs. She wouldn't answer the door on Oct. 1, according to records.
"All of the neighbors in the entire cul-de-sac have spoken to the owner at one time or another about the dogs, to no avail," Aarhaus wrote.
Aarhaus was one of at least six officers to visit Wilson's property over the years. On that day, she wrote Wilson four tickets totaling $412.
"I cited them on whatever I could just to hammer them," Aarhaus said recently. "More than one person came up to me and said they were sick of this."
However, the tickets and two others issued a little over a year ago for $206 were never paid, according to Pierce County District Court workers, and have been turned over to the county's collection service.
Howard Foster and other neighbors said animal control should have done more.
"They are people who shouldn't be allowed to have dogs because they don't know how to take care of them," he said.
Under current rules, Aarhaus said, animal control officers can't prevent someone from getting a dog unless there's a record of animal cruelty, which was never alleged against Wilson.
The only other options are citations and impoundments, even when they don't work.
"There needs to be some kind of (law) that (irresponsible owners) are not allowed to have dogs for a certain number of years," Aarhaus said.
The Tacoma City Council is considering changing the city's animal control ordinance along those lines. Under the proposed change, pet owners who commit three or more animal control violations in a 24-month period could be declared "problem pet owners" and be made to give up their animals.
DANGEROUS SITUATIONS
Howard Foster's call about the near-attack on his daughter in 2004 wasn't his first complaint to animal control. Twice in 2001, he reported that dogs from Wilson's home had come onto his yard and tried to attack his dog, according to records. They chased his wife, growling when she tried to shoo them off, he said.
Foster said he never received the forms he requested from animal control to start "dangerous dog" proceedings against Wilson.
He moved his family out of the neighborhood in 2005, in part, he said, to get away from the dog problems.
"I just got sick and tired of it," he said.
He was always angry, Jenna Foster said, "because our kids (could not) go outside. Our son wanted to skateboard," but the dogs would chase him.
Another neighbor, Ken Wick, agreed that Wilson and her son shouldn't own dogs.
"It's obvious they don't know how to contain a dog, or have a lack of interest," he said.
Wick has had his own run-in with Wilson's dogs.
On Aug. 31, 2006, he pulled up into his driveway and two pit bulls from her house cornered him in his garage, he said. He shot at them with a BB gun and yelled for his wife to get his shotgun, but she couldn't find the shells.
They ran off when Wick's wife, Louise, came out of the house and yelled at them, she said.
The dogs charged Wick after having blocked Brad King and William Wold in their house across the street for an hour and half, according to records and King.
"Brad opened the side door to the garage and there were two pit bull dogs, one male, one female," Wold wrote in a statement to animal control.
King said that the dogs might have been after the food he kept in his garage for his papillon, Toby, whose jaw was crippled in an attack by one of Wilson's dogs and another neighborhood dog in 2004.
The pit bulls "started to bark and lunge at us," Wold wrote. "We shut the door. The dogs went around the back and barked at us through the patio door."
By the time animal control officer Tim Anderson arrived, they were gone.
"I contacted (Wilson), who admitted the dogs frequently get loose and run at large," Anderson stated in his report on the incident. "She was unsure of the exact current location of both dogs."
He wrote her a ticket for "animals at large" and another for "license required," totaling $206. They haven't been paid.
Other neighbors have had problems, too.
Ricky Russell, whose dog, Romeo, was killed by dogs from the Wilson house during the attack on Gorman, was almost attacked by one of the pit bulls from her house Feb. 22 as he rode a scooter in front of his house, records show.
"The pit bull charged up (to the boy) and almost attacked him," the records state. "When the baby sitter yelled at the dog to go home, it started getting closer and started barking."
The sitter was eventually able to drive the dog off.
DOGS BEING DOGS
Wilson's neighbors don't blame her dogs. They say the animals were just doing what dogs do when left on their own: form a pack, get territorial and scavenge for food. Sometimes it's worse, said Aarhaus, the animal control officer.
When neglected and left to wander, "you set dogs up for being chased at, kicked and hit with rocks," she said. So with every stranger, they start to think, "I'm going to attack before they get me."
Records show that at least seven dogs have stayed at Wilson's house since 1999 – Buck, Lucy and Mocha, Labrador retrievers; Daisy, the German shepherd mix; Bertha, a springer spaniel; and Betty and Tank, the pit bulls that attacked Gorman and the Jack Russell terrier.
Neighbors say there have been puppies, too, and dogs brought by people who lived with Wilson and her son temporarily.
"They always had new dogs there," Jenna Foster said. "You felt sorry for the dogs. They were hungry."
Sue Nelson, an animal lover with dogs of her own, lives next door to Wilson and made neglect reports about her to animal control five times since 2000.
She called once in 2000 to report dogs in her garbage looking for food, twice in 2001 to report dogs left for days without food or water, once in 2002 about dogs from Wilson's running lose, and once in 2006 to report that Wilson had left a dog in heat tied up outside, drawing male dogs like flies.
"Shellie says dogs can take care of themselves, but they can't," Nelson said in a recent interview.
The weekend before the attack on Gorman, Tank and Betty had been left in Wilson's back yard, Nelson said.
Tank, who was destroyed by the Humane Society on Sept. 25, "was out in that yard, tied up to the deck, with no cover," she said. "It poured rain two of those days."
Betty, who remains at the Humane Society as evidence in the Gorman attack, was loose in the yard, Nelson said.
"They were back there crying and crying," she said. "I wanted to take them out of there and over here."
Neighbor Wick and his wife, Louise, called animal control three times about Wilson's dogs running loose and tearing up garbage.
"You'd see them barking at the fence, yapping, lonely, looking for somebody," Ken Wick said.
There was a wire fence around Wilson's backyard held down with stakes, but neighbors said it wasn't secure. After one animal control visit, Nelson said, Martin, Wilson's son, rolled big logs in front of a gap, but dogs continued to get out.
Nelson and Jenna Foster remember dogs getting their heads stuck while trying to get out under Wilson's fence.
Sometimes, they'd come over to Nelson's house for food, and sleep on her front yard, the couple said. Other times, the dogs would roam.
NO MORE DOGS
Wilson told The News Tribune she had dogs because "we love them" and "need watchdogs." But she said she doesn't plan to have any more after the attack on Gorman.
"I don't think it's fair to the neighbors and (it's) not good for the dogs," she said.
Meanwhile, Gorman has hired an attorney and is planning to sue Wilson, and perhaps others, said her friend Leana Beasley.
M. Alexander Otto: 253-597-8616
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Fwd: **BSL ALERT** Forsyth County, North Carolina
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Please send your polite and respectful opposition to breed specific
legislation to the Forsyth County officials listed below. Please also
send them viable alternatives to a breed specific ordinances. Jodi
Forsyth County, North Carolina
Board of Commissioners
201 N. Chestnut St.
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
(336) 703-2020
(336) 727-8446 FAX
Contact Form: http://www.co.forsyth.nc.us/commissioners/contactus.aspx
Forsyth County
Government Center
201 North Chestnut Street
Winston Salem NC, 27101
County Manager
201 N. Chestnut St.
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
(336) 703-2020
(336) 727-8446 FAX
Forsyth to study problem of aggressive dogs
Aggressive breeds draw residents' complaints
By Blair Goldstein
JOURNAL REPORTER
Give your opinion on this story
Becky Hutchinson said last night that three dead cats were enough to
send her neighbors into a panic.
Hutchinson, an eight-year veteran of the neighborhood watch at Gordon
Manor off Country Club Road, said that the pets were killed this
summer by two pit bulls who have been wandering the streets around her
house.
After hearing from Hutchinson, Forsyth County commissioners asked the
county fs Animal Control Advisory Board to research the extent of
aggressive dogs in the county and to come up with potential solutions.
The animal-control board started that discussion at a public meeting.
The commissioners will consider any of its recommendations.
Every time the dogs appeared, dead cats were left behind, h Hutchinson
said. We are so concerned for seniors and children. I have hundreds of
people that are afraid to walk right now. h
Tim Jennings, the director of the county fs animal-control department,
said that the board will debate many different solutions, from banning
certain aggressive dog breeds to imposing higher licensing fees for
certain dogs.
Jennings said that there are 11 breeds of dogs that insurance
companies commonly label as aggressive, including pit bulls, Doberman
pinschers and Rottweilers.
He said that these aggressive dogs can cause public-safety issues and
consume public resources.
For example, the county fs animal shelter took in about 780 pit bulls
last year. Of those dogs, 82 percent were euthanized.
To a certain extent, yes, this is a problem, h Jennings said.
People have the right to use public sidewalks without having to worry,
eIs this dog dangerous?
Hutchinson and several of her neighbors told the animal-control board
about their problems with aggressive dogs.
Some told stories about how their cats were killed in their backyards
by pit bulls. Another woman said she was knocked down by a Rottweiler
that was attacking her Yorkie.
I certainly don't think they are the only ones that are having this
problem, said Jennifer Tierney, a member of the animal-control board.
I think there is just a real issue about aggressive animals in this
community, and animals running at large.
Forsyth County fs ordinances are based on a complaint system, Jennings
said. Dogs are assumed harmless unless evidence can prove otherwise.
Though some animals, such as lions or venomous snakes, are banned, no
breed of dog is singled out for special rules.
Board members were given copies of other states' laws to learn how
other communities have dealt with problems with aggressive dogs.
Jennings said that many proponents of these breed-specific laws argue
that they help improve public safety. Opponents, he said, argue that
they penalize dogs and responsible dog owners rather than penalizing
irresponsible dog owners.
The animal-control board will continue debating the issue until it has
a recommendation to pass on to commissioners.
Gloria Whisenhunt, the chairwoman of the board of commissioners, said
she is looking forward to receiving the group's suggestions.
To me, it fs just a public-safety issue, Whisenhunt said. I just
believe people should feel safe in their neighborhoods.
Blair Goldstein can be reached at 727-7284 or at bgoldstein@wsjournal.com.
--
Amy
"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.
If we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
~ Anne Bradstreet ~
Sunday, October 07, 2007
San Antonio
Victor Landa: Blaming the dog for master's misdeeds
Web Posted: 10/06/2007 05:00 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
Let me start by saying that in the deeply divisive and highly partisan matter of cat persons versus dog persons, I am squarely on the side of dogs. I am a dog person, always have been.
Let me also say that in the matter of pit bull terriers, I am emphatically in favor of harsh and decisive penalties when they are raised to be aggressive.
There is a well-worn adage that it's not news if a dog bites man. But on Sept. 28, when a pit bull attacked two 9-year-old girls playing on their front lawn, the incident was noticed by all the local news outlets.
Maybe the media attention was stirred by the fact that two little girls were the victims of the attack. Along with babies, the elderly and the handicapped, little girls are perceived to be among the most defenseless among us. So when two 9-year-olds are attacked, in their own neighborhood, we become collectively incensed.
A word now about pit bulls. I will always defend the noble nature of dogs, regardless of breed. Our family includes a Jack Russell terrier that has the run of the house. So I know that dogs, when properly and responsibly cared for, will give undying loyalty and companionship.
Pit bulls are no exception. But I also know that specific dog breeds were developed for specific purposes. And in the case of pit bulls, they were bred to be aggressive.
It's believed that pit bulls are descendants of mastiffs, which caught the attention of Roman emperors who favored them as war dogs. These mastiffs cross-bred throughout Europe and eventually became favored by butchers who used them to keep cattle under control. That bulldog lineage was crossed with the terrier, known for its persistence and focus. It is said that one dog could keep a bull in check by relentlessly biting at it and pestering it.
That trait, as human beings would have it, became spectacle, and the dogs were pitted against all manner of animals for the entertainment of the spectators. That practice is said to have included rats that were dropped into a pit, and the dogs were made to compete for time and quantity of rats killed.
Sometimes the dogs were pitted against each other, and it was considered great sport. Hence the name pit bull. This is hardly the heritage of a hunting dog or a herder whose instincts are honed and honored to benefit its master.
The easy thing is to blame the dog for its aggressiveness. As if the animal had a choice. And it's hard to deny the fighting nature of this breed which, to this day, is victimized in cruel sport. We have the recent and highly publicized case of NFL quarterback Michael Vick, whose career has been seriously affected by his penchant for dogfighting.
Vick bred the dogs and organized the fights on his expansive property. He is now having to reckon with the law and has lost all his commercial endorsements.
So we can't solely blame an animal for its nature, especially when we know that dogs also have a naturally tender side. The law is clear on this: Domesticated animals are the responsibility of their owner. This is why we have leash laws. But even then, as happened last month, dogs can breech their leashes.
I must add that in the case of pit bulls, the dogs are twice maligned. First, they are made to be aggressive; some owners ignore their more noble nature and raise them in conditions that foster their fighting spirit.
Second, they've become media villains. Pit bulls are not the most frequent aggressors against humans. I believe that distinction belongs to Rottweilers. But pit bulls have been characterized in the media as a symbol of a scrappy nature. It doesn't help that some owners favor these dogs precisely because of their tendency to be aggressive.
What doesn't make sense to me is why some people will breed and nurture pit bulls to be aggressive with no other purpose than aggressiveness itself. If just for the sake of the two 9-year-old girls, this kind of irresponsibility should be forcibly deterred.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
