Dog bucks the stereotype

http://www.startribune.com/local/east/12905131.html

great article w/video too!

Dog bucks the stereotype

Jeffrey Thompson, Star Tribune

Croixdale residents, from left, Mabel Cook, Maryetta Wolf, Ruth Neumann and Marion Soller socialized with Ruby, a pit bull that provides therapy, during a visit to the senior residence in Bayport Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007.

Ruby takes her love to senior homes and has taken a turn on the stage, all part of her owners' campaign to try to convince people that pit bulls aren't innately bad.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22923049-5001021,00.html

Dogs save drowning toddler

Article from:

December 14, 2007 12:00am

TWO family dogs are being hailed as heroes after they saved a two-year-old boy from drowning in a dam at a property yesterday.

Police said the dogs - a Rottweiler cross and a Staffordshire bull terrier - dragged the boy from the water after he had wandered on to a neighbouring property's dam near Mackay, Queensland.

The owner of the property had heard a noise about 11am and run to the dam, which was about 100m from the house.

The woman found the boy lying on the embankment of the dam covered in mud with the two dogs - usually thought of as aggressive breeds - by his side.

Police said there were drag marks from the waters edge to where the boy was lying and small scratches on his arms from the dogs' claws.

"We are certain the dogs pulled him out of the dam," a police spokesman said. "It is an amazing story."

The Queensland Ambulance Service said the mother and child were taken to Mackay Base Hospital as a precaution, and the child did not need CPR.

They were believed to recovering at home last night.

 

GOOD NEWS!!! WE'RE HAVING A PUPPY

I always like to send this out when I see it come through.  A special reminder.  Happy Holidays!

 

A New Puppy

This is appropriate for the number of people who keep putting their dogs up for adoption when they find out they are going to have kids.....
After two long years of being on a waiting list for an agility dog, we have been notified by the breeder that, at long last, our number has come up and ... WE ARE HAVING A PUPPY!!!

We must get rid of our children IMMEDIATELY because we just know how time consuming our new little puppy is going to be and it just wouldn't be fair to the children. Since our little puppy will be arriving on Monday we MUST place the children into rescue this weekend!

The kids are described as:

One male - His name is Tommy, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), light blonde hair, blue eyes. Four years old. Excellent disposition. He doesn't bite. Temperament tested. Does have problems with pee ing directly in the toilet. Has had chicken Pox and is current on all shots. Tonsils have already been removed. Tommy eats everything, is very clean, house trained & gets along well with others. Does not run with scissors and with a little training he should be able to read soon.

One female - Her name is Lexie, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), strawberry blonde hair, green eyes quite freckled. Two years old. Can be surly at times. Non-biter, thumb sucker. Has been temperament tested but needs a little attitude adjusting occasionally. She is current on all shots, tonsils out, and is very healthy & can be affectionate. Gets along well with other little girls & little boys but does not like to share her toys and therefore would do best in a one child household. She is a very quick learner and is currently working on her house training-shouldn' t take long at all.

We really do LOVE our children so much and want to do what's right for them; that is why we contact ed a rescue group. But we simply can no longer keep them. Also, we are afraid that they may hurt our new puppy.

I hope you understand that ours is a UNIQUE situation and we have a real emergency here!!! They MUST be placed into your rescue by Sunday night at the latest or we will be forced to drop them off at the orphanage or along some dark, country road. Our priority now has to be our new puppy.

'Adopt-a-Bull' Contest

Positive Press for American Pit Bull Terrier: ASPCA and Animal Farm Foundation Launch Meet Your Match™ 'Adopt-a-Bull' Contest 

Highlighting pit bull adoption success stories.

Animal Farm Foundation is pleased to sponsor the Adopt-a-Bull contest because the ASPCA's Meet Your Match program promotes matches based on individual personality, instead of color and breed

New York, NY (Vocus/PRWEB ) December 14, 2007 -- The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) will add a new dimension to the "valentine" theme this February, when it will launch an online contest for the "perfect pit bull and adopter match": the ASPCA's Adopt-A-Bull Contest, sponsored by Animal Farm Foundation.

Entries will be invited from both shelters and the public (who can nominate the shelters they adopted from), and will focus on adoptions of American Pit Bull Terriers and dogs that appear to be predominantly of that type, that have taken place through shelters using the ASPCA®'s Meet Your Match™ program. The ASPCA®'s Meet Your Match™ program is a scientific, research-based adoption tool aimed at creating better matches between prospective pet parents and animals based on accurate behavior assessments for the animals and understanding an individual adopter's lifestyle and expectations. Meet Your Match is proven to be extremely successful in increasing adoptions and reducing returns at shelters.

"The ASPCA's Adopt-a-Bull Contest is a great opportunity not just to highlight the positive attributes and merits of the American Pit Bull Terrier, but the importance of making good, long-lasting matches between pets and people," said ASPCA President & CEO, Ed Sayres. "Every animal has the potential to thrive in the right home and the ASPCA's Meet Your Match program continuously fosters the kind of successful matches beneficial to every party involved: the adopter, the animal and the shelter."

The contest will run four times through the year, with one winner announced for each quarter. Each winner will automatically be entered into a contest for the grand prize. The grand prize winner will then be selected in 2009 via an online public vote. The prize package for quarterly winners includes a $4000 grant for the shelter, and an ASPCA Collection gift package for the winning pit bull-adopter match. The grand prize shelter winner will receive an all expense paid trip to New York City in April 2009 to participate in the ASPCA's third annual ASPCA Day celebration and a $5000 grant for their shelter. The grand prize pit bull and adopter winner will receive a photoshoot with a professional photographer and a bronze of their pet.

"Animal Farm Foundation is pleased to sponsor the Adopt-a-Bull contest because the ASPCA's Meet Your Match program promotes matches based on individual personality, instead of color and breed," said Animal Farm Foundation President, Jane Berkey. "We are confident that the contest will promote great family matches for dogs that appear to be predominantly American Pit Bull Terriers."

In recent years, pit bulls have been in the spotlight because they have been exploited by dog fighters and individuals bent on abusing the breed, and are often at the center of controversial breed-specific legislation. Despite this fact, pit bulls are known to remain loving and loyal to their human counterparts—sometimes to their own detriment—and can make excellent pets. Several well-known figures have owned pit bulls during their lifetime, including Helen Keler, Theodore Roosevelt and the "Our Gang" Little Rascals. An illustration of an American Pit Bull Terrier served as a symbol of the American spirit during the First World War. Today, pit bulls are the cherished pet for millions of Americans, including Rachael Ray, Rosie Perez, and Jon Stewart.

"Pit bull dogs are just dogs," said Ms. Berkey. "Four legs, two eyes, and one heart."

For more information on the ASPCA®'s Meet Your Match™ program, please visit www.aspca.org/meetyourmatch.

About the ASPCA®

Founded in 1866, the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) was the first humane organization established in the Americas, and today has over one million supporters. A 501 [c [3 not-for-profit corporation, the ASPCA's mission is to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States. The ASPCA provides local and national leadership in animal-assisted therapy, animal behavior, animal poison control, anti-cruelty, humane education, legislative services, and shelter outreach. The New York City headquarters houses a full-service, accredited, animal hospital, adoption center, and mobile clinic outreach program. The Humane Law Enforcement department enforces New York's animal cruelty laws and is featured on the reality television series "Animal Precinct" on Animal Planet. For more information, please visit www.aspca.org.

Media Contacts:

Melissa Treuman

Melissat @ aspca.org/(212) 876-7700 x 4521

Alison Zaccone

AlisonZ @ aspca.org/(212) 876-7700 x 4564

Simply stunning

http://wtvr.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/forms/doc20071213183505.pdf

Ventre: Vick got exactly what he deserved

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22184988/page/2/
Ventre: Vick got exactly what he deserved

Quarterback takes fall for dogfighting, lying to everyone, arrogance

OPINION

By Michael Ventre

updated 8:59 p.m. ET, Mon., Dec. 10, 2007

As surprises go, it was not much of one.

The reaction in some quarters to the Michael Vick sentence handed down on Monday was one of mild disbelief. The word "stunning" was even uttered, more than once, on a certain cable network.

But 23 months is not a shock. Upon further examination of all the variables, it was appropriate. It makes sense. It is justice.

Michael Vick got what he deserved.

Animal rights activists might argue that he deserves a lot more, and I can't really argue with them. But their stance is strident because they're passionate about the treatment of animals and irate over Vick's actions even now, months after they were fully disclosed.

Vick's fans, the ones who don his jersey, chant his name and ignore his cruelty, will exclaim that he is being persecuted. But they have no case. They have never had a case.

In the big picture, Vick's football career is essentially over and he'll be spending the next 22 months (he should have one month's credit for time already served) behind bars in a federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson did not look at Vick, see a wondrous football player with magical talents, and ease up on his gavel. He saw a young man who committed some dastardly acts and handled the aftermath of their discovery with extremely poor judgment and even arrogance.

The judge could have demanded 33 or 43 months in jail, but then he would have called the entire process into question. He would have invited charges that he was looking to buff his image as a no-nonsense judge and polish his credentials for future judicial posts. He would have inflamed those who believe this is all an issue of race, and Vick is just the latest fall guy.

Instead, the judge did what he was supposed to do. He acted wisely. He slapped Vick with a sentence that exceeded the prosecutors' recommendations of somewhere on the low end of 12 to 18 months. He nailed Vick more harshly than he did Vick's co-defendants, Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips, who received sentences recently of 18 and 21 months, respectively, because Vick was considered the ringleader and the source of the financial backing for the so-called Bad Newz Kennels and the entire dogfighting operation. 

And he did so for other reasons, too.

He'll be locked in a small cell for almost the next two years because the images still cause anguish. Vick presided over an operation that set one pit bull against another, so they could tear each other apart for the amusement of men with money to gamble.

Vick will be incarcerated because he was the kingpin in a criminal enterprise that crossed state lines.

Vick will be denied his freedom because he mistreated dogs beyond the fighting, by denying food to some so they'd be more ornery in the ring.

Vick will be kept away from family, friends and other loved ones because he and his co-defendants killed dogs that didn't perform to their standards. They did so by electrocution, hanging and drowning. Because of the grotesque nature of his actions, Vick will be placed in an ugly environment.

But that's not all.

He received 23 months because he lied, because he told anyone who would listen — including NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank — that the dogfighting charges were bogus, that he had nothing to do with any of it. He did not step forward and accept responsibility when he had the chance. He hid behind his superstar veneer and hoped it would blow over.

He will sit in jail because, even after he pled guilty and signed a deal with prosecutors, he tested positive for marijuana, a violation of his agreement.

He will mingle with tough men who are not teammates but inmates because he gave a public apology that satisfied just about every group that mattered save for the one that he needed to satisfy the most: the people who care about animals. His token mention of his rejection of dogfighting was calculated, insulting and ineffective.

The judge looked at all of that.

What he didn't look at was how much money Michael Vick is losing as the result of his transgressions. That shouldn't matter, even if some complain that the man has suffered enough by having to forfeit over $100 million in salary and endorsements.

Vick's personal losses are inconsequential in the criminal matter. If he were a mailman going to jail for two years, would anyone complain of his financial woes? The money out of Vick's pocket is a separate issue. That's his problem. If he didn't want to see over $100 million vanish before his very eyes, he shouldn't have tortured and killed dogs and bet on the outcome of dog fights.

Vick isn't going up the river because he naively fell under the sway of old neighborhood friends who led him down the path to destruction. Vick is an adult. He had ample opportunity to say, "You know what? I don't want to get involved in anything illegal." And if he were a true friend, he would have also said, "You're my friends and I care about you, and I don't want to see you get into trouble, so I don't think a dogfighting ring is a good idea."

He didn't. From the time he signed his first NFL contract in 2001, he planned to start a dogfighting operation. He carried out that plan and stuck with it. He did not make a mistake. He executed a premeditated scheme to run a criminal operation.

As a result, he received a prison sentence of 23 months, a punishment he richly deserves.

Michael Ventre writes regularly for msnbc.com and is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22184988/page/2/

---

MSN Privacy . Legal

© 2007 MSNBC.com

Vick spit on the legal system

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-vicksentencing121007&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Vick spit on the legal system

By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports December 10, 2007 RICHMOND, Va. – He chomped on chewing gum and wore his Nike Air Force 1 Mids – bright white to match the stripes on his prison garb – as he walked into federal court Monday to answer for his mistakes. Only some of the mistakes that may haunt Michael Vick most, the ones that hurt his chances of ever again racing his Nikes around the NFL and should eat him up on the long, lonely nights behind bars are the one's he committed since pleading guilty in connection to a dog-fighting ring. Vick should have faced a sentence of 12-18 months after accepting a plea deal to conspiracy charges in August and promising full cooperation, honesty and to "make better decisions." Instead he made more bad ones, U.S. Attorneys claiming he failed to fully admit or take responsibility for his actions, practiced multiple counts of deception and tested positive for marijuana just weeks after promising the judge he'd avoid drugs. Those mind-numbing mistakes not only sent his sentencing guidelines to 18-24 months, but played a part in Judge Henry Hudson's decision to lean on the high side and send him away for 23 months. Even with good behavior and time served he won't be released until around June 2009. Moreover, Vick still faces state charges and remains on indefinite suspension from the NFL, where he was once the league's highest paid player. Neither situation was helped by Monday's revelations. Vick looked crushed at the sentencing, offering a distraught look to his family, some of whom wept at its reading. But even the staunchest Vick supporter – the ones who believe the prison term is not only too lengthy but an unnecessary rehabilitation tool for someone with no prior convictions, little likelihood of repeat behavior and is a minimal threat to society – can only stand in puzzlement at Vick's conduct. No matter what you think of the crime, the prosecution or the punishment, everyone knows that when given the chance to work the legal system for leniency you don't just turn and spit in its eye. The failed drug test alone was inexplicable. Just 17 days after promising to avoid drugs and alcohol, Vick smoked marijuana. The next day he took a drug test, which he failed, and then lied to an investigator about taking drugs. His attorney, Billy Martin, was stuck trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat, starting one explanation with the unenviable legal phrase "moving to the smoking marijuana." Martin's defense: That Vick was depressed and "self-medicating." Hudson kept a straight face but was clearly unmoved. Then there were Vick's "deception" with federal authorities, at least six such acts according to U.S. Attorney Michael Gill, even after the suspended Atlanta Falcon had agreed to fully cooperate. Vick, for instance, initially refused to admit he took part in the hanging of a dog. He claimed instead that he carried the underperforming dog over to co-conspirator Quanis Phillips, who then hung him. But Phillips had stated that Vick had carried the dog over and after Phillips slipped a noose around its neck, Vick let the dog drop. "He denied having hands on involvement in killing the dogs," Gill said. "He made a false statement; it was a calculated effort to hide the truth." Gill said Vick eventually admitted to killing two dogs, "one by drowning, one by hanging." There was also a failed lie detector test which, while not admissible as evidence, obviously angered Gill who argued (successfully) against any leniency. Vick's repeated performances were apparently so twisted, confusing and inconsistent that everyone wound up believing his codefendants over him, despite the fact they have lengthy criminal records. "These statements are inconsistent with statements by his codefendants," Hudson ruled. "(Vick) hasn't demonstrated the necessary level of candor." If Vick had fully cooperated, told the truth and kept clear of drugs, he could have received as little as 12 months, which with good behavior could have seen him free by next September. Instead he got longer sentences than either of his two former partners (18 and 21 months) despite their prior records and direct responsibilities with Bad Newz Kennels. The sentencing was completely one-sided for the U.S. Attorneys. Vick's lawyers could barely muster a defense, left to argue psychological theories and the appeal of mercy. Vick mustered a short speech, apologizing to some people and admitting "I've used poor judgment," but at that point it didn't appear anyone in power believed him. It was such a whitewash that a proceeding that was predicted to last as long as four hours took a little over 45 minutes. The sentence came down so soon that the expected crowd had just begun to gather outside the courthouse. A group of about 50 people – divided by Vick supporters and animal rights activists – traded signs, songs and arguments but the entire scene was subdued. Vick, it turns out, did almost as much damage to himself with his plea deal as the crime itself. Worse, his performance with the feds can't be reassuring to the NFL. He's done little to show he is a changed man who deserves to be immediately reinstated upon completion of his prison term. Conceivably, Vick could be in a training camp as soon as July 2009, trying to work off the prison rust on what would then be his 29-year-old body. But the league is likely to make him sit an additional year or, who knows, even more. After Monday, his credibility appears to be at zero. "I'm willing to say that should Michael Vick get another chance either in society or the NFL, he will take full advantage of it," Martin said. Perhaps he will. But his last chance didn't go so well. Given every opportunity to make up for his dog-fighting crimes, to live up to his word, to prove to everyone that this was just a lapse in judgment of a good man, he did just about everything wrong. Back in his cell Monday night, that's the part that ought to haunt him the most. Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist. Send Dan a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Judge approves plan for Vick's dogs

Judge approves plan for Vick's dogs

By VERONICA GORLEY CHUFO |247-4741

December 7, 2007

RICHMOND - U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson granted a motion to divvy up Michael Vick's former fighting dogs between eight animal-rescue organizations, including the local Animal Rescue of Tidewater.

In paperwork filed Thursday, Hudson agreed to the recommendations made by the court-appointed guardian for the dogs, Rebecca J. Huss, a law professor at Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana. The recommendations included paying the organizations a total of $610,000. Each of the 22 pit bulls deemed likely for adoption by the public after time in a foster home to assess behavior and provide training come with a $5,000 stipend.

Each of the other 25 dogs would come with $20,000. These dogs are "likely to spend a significant amount of time, if not the dog's remaining lifetime, in an environment that would control the dog's interaction with people or other animals while it receives necessary socialization and training," the court papers said. "The need to control a dog's interaction with people is to make certain that a dog that is shy or withdrawn has only positive interactions with people."

After meeting standards of behavior and some time in foster care, most of those dogs could also be adopted by the public, the papers said.

The dogs were seized in April from property Vick, a Newport News native and NFL quarterback, owned in Surry County. Vick is to be sentenced Monday on a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge. Two of his co-defendants were already sentenced, and the last co-defendant will be sentenced Dec. 14.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/southofjames/dp-news_vickdogs_1207dec07,0,7002342.story