Arkansas nightmare: pits kill owner

News coverage of deadly attack

In what has become an almost routine event of late, another pit bull owner was brutally mauled to death by her pit bulls. 45-year-old Deborah Renee Wilson, of Jefferson County, Arkansas, was found by her husband when he returned from a visit with a neighbor to find "a gruesome scene" - the pit bulls tearing his wife apart as she lay bleeding profusely. Calling 911, he immediately attempted to help her, but the pit bulls turned on him and he was unable to render aid.

When animal control officers arrived, they managed to capture one of the pit bulls, while the other, dangerously out of control, was killed. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

A curious fact came to light during the ensuing investigation - the woman had been attacked in the past by those same pit bulls, requiring a trip to the emergency room for treatment.

Read the full story at the link below - 

Pets turn deadly on owner - KATV News:

via Blog this

The conspiracy to kill Timmy

Timmy is a very happy, well-behaved spider who loves walks, belly rubs, and feeding times. He deserves every chance at a normal life in a loving home. But Timmy's life is threatened. His crime? Simply that he looks like a brown recluse spider. 

Please help me. They want to kill me because of my appearance.

"This is racism of the lowest kind", said Carol Deluise, director of the National Arachnid Research Council. "These docile creatures have gotten a bad rap because of bad owners, and a media that seeks sensational headlines. Brown recluse spiders are no different from any other spider." She continues "In reality, nobody can identify a brown recluse spider; technically, there is no such thing. And anyway, all the statistics point to garden spiders as the biggest biters." 

June Berkeley, director of the Arachnid Family Foundation,  says "These spiders were bred to be really great with children. They were originally called nanny spiders and were often used to look after children in Victorian England."  She adds, "that was their primary role until recent times, when bad owners started abusing them, and forcing them to attack. The only reason they ever attack is because they are so loyal to their owners. Arachnid temperament tests show that brown recluse spiders score higher than garden spiders!"

Dolly Kane, a Ft Myers-based activist who focuses on human rights issues for Brown Recluse spiders, spoke with us, saying "Even if one of these babies was provoked so badly that he did accidentally bite someone, the fact is everyone deserves a second chance. Before you go condemning and hating these innocent creatures just because of their appearance, take a good look in the mirror." She concludes "If you really want to make a difference in the world, stop hating and educate yourself! Find out about the good side of brown recluse spiders. For instance, they don't have locking jaws as everyone assumes. Go volunteer your time with rescue. Your views will change."

Sally Zeller, herself bitten by a brown recluse spider last year, says that she doesn't blame the spider for the attack. "All I can figure is that It must have been spooked by the new aquarium. But hey, stuff happens. I forgive him for biting me, and I've moved on with my life. Why can't everybody else do the same?"

Megan Dumpolz spoke out passionately "I am so sick and tired of my baby being judged because of his appearance. It's time to stop the violence, and it's time to stop the haters!' She explains "It's never the spider, it's always bad owners. You take a spider, you lock it up, abuse it and make it fearful, guess what, it's going to bite, Sherlock! I am so sick of all the whining 'waaa, the spider bit me and I lost my hand' Well boo freaking hoo! Things happen, get over it. If you can't handle a real spider, then shut up and sit down"

Finally, a blogger/spider activist known as "Tyrant Bob" threw down the gauntlet: "Any of you ignorant racists who claim brown recluse spiders don't make good pets, well, let me tell you, if we ever catch you, we're gonna give you what's coming to you andl lock you up in a dungeon full of brown recluse spiders, what do you think about that?"

RIP Quincy - Guide dog killed by pit bulls

RIP Sweet girl

On March 19, 2012, Bruce Cole, and his guide dog, Quincy, were victimized by two loose pit bulls owned by Jameison and Whitney Harney. Mr Cole was very sensitive to Quincy, having worked with her for years, and immediately knew that she was in trouble, but being blind, could not help her. I can only imagine the horror of the situation where a blind person knows that his guide dog, who means the world to him, is being attacked by pit bulls, and he is helpless to do anything about it.

Cole shouted for help repeatedly. Eventually someone driving by got out of the car and managed to stop the attack, but then drove off without offering any further aid.Cole then called 911, and Harney, the owner of the pit bulls, came from his house, heard Bruce saying that his guide dog had been attacked, and called him “a (expletive) liar,” which can be heard on the 911 tape.

Jameison and Whitney Harney w/ one of the pit bulls that attacked Quincy

As Cole made his way home with a traumatized Quincy, Jameison Harney began shouting angrily at Bruce. At no time have Jameison or Whitney Harney apologized, offered to help or expressed any concern at all for Cole or Quincy. Jameison Harney was and is on probation for felony drug charges. 

Quincy did not exhibit any symptoms for several days, but seemed shaken. The veterinarian thought it best to monitor Quincy’s condition and no office visit was scheduled.

Quincy became increasingly unsteady, losing the use of her hind legs. Cole took her to Beneva Animal Hospital on April 9, where tests revealed that Quincy had two fractured vertebrae and a bacterial infection.

Quincy died on May 4th.

Visit the Quincy Cole Facebook page
See quincycole.com for further updates on the case

Pit bull atrocities - the gentle victims

An Texas family in East Montgomery County awoke to a horrific scene early Thursday morning, and discovered 15 of their sheep were dead or dying, having been brutally mauled by a pair of pit bulls that were allowed to roam the neighborhood.

Can any who call themselves animal lovers not be saddened and enraged to learn of such gentle creatures forced to suffer so, at the hands of purpose bred killers?

A wolf, a coyote or a mountain lion might kill a sheep out of hunger. But well-fed pit bulls seem to torture their victims for the pure joy of it, tails wagging, leisurely tearing apart their gentle, long-suffering victims.

It's saddening that these sheep were so brutally and cruelly torn apart in the one place they ought to have been completely safe. Even worse, although the family that kept the sheep had been victimized by the same pit bulls on previous occasions, there has been no legal relief for them. The marauding pit bulls are still running loose, and the owner of the pit bulls is not facing any charges.

Read the article at Craven Desires (warning, graphic images of pit bull victims):

Susu's last day

 On the night of June 21, 2012 Susu, a elderly chihuahua mix, breathed her last. After having been given the cocktail which would put her to sleep, she passed away in the arms of a kindly stranger who had taken pity on her. In that sense Susu was more fortunate than many elderly dogs, whose owners abandon them at the shelter as if they were worn out toys, rather than the sensitive, feeling creatures they are.

Susu had been dumped by her owners, perhaps simply because she was old; perhaps because she had advanced arthritis. In any case, Rancho De Chihuahua was her final stop, and RDC co-founder Joy Nicholson was the kindly stranger who held Susu in her last moments.

Joy's observations of the little dog's last days:
"The amazing thing about Susu is how doggedly she looked for her family. Our property is about 3 acres, and is not level, but on wobbly, painful knees, with little sight and very, very little hearing, she searched endlessly for them, walking through every inch. She would sense my presence, ( I think through smell) get very excited, 'run' towards me, then realize I was not who she was looking for, and then turn away and continue her search. When she got too physically tired, she would lay down, and I would go pick her up ( she hated to be picked up, and would buck, bite, and salivate) then she would lay, very depressed, until she slept. The other dogs scared her, so we always kept her alone, which she preferred, but didn't 'like'. When she woke, she would want to search again. Immediately. Any time of day or night. She would turn endless circles, and cry, trying to find a way to get out and search. Her happiest moments were the first 1/2 hour of each search--she would navigate to the fence, then carefully, with an upraised tail, walk the fence line, back and forth. Her tail would sink lower and lower as she got tired, and she was unable to find her people. Still, she wanted to walk. She seemed to believe that if she kept walking, she would eventually find her people, and everything would be okay."

I have to wonder where her family was during this time, and what they were doing. Did they love her? Did they stop loving her when she got old? Were they thinking about her at all? Susu could seemingly think about nothing else except finding them again. 

Joy continues:
"Susu was on Rimidyl, which seemed to help with her pain. And her ability to walk further did increase with less pain, but the emotional pain got worse, not better, when she couldn't find her people."

As sad as Susu's death was, the fact is that dogs put down at the shelter generally come to an even less pleasant end. It varies from place to place, but 50 to 80 percent of Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes in shelters will ultimately die for lack of someone to adopt them. An older dog has virtually no chance at all but the least crowded shelters. An older dog with considerable health issues, like Susu, will suffer greatly for the few days spent at a shelter before the euthanization takes place.

Joy recalls Susu's last hours:

"I gave her a tranquilzer ( Acepromazine) in her breakfast treat, and when it set in, I brought her to our vet. She slept the whole way, looking at me, but not in any apparent distress or fear, and seemed very relaxed--the most relaxed she had been. At the vet, we gave her a little more tranquilzer, waited until the injection fully 'took' and she was completely under. She did not open her eyes, wake, struggle or seem to have any signs of distress when she was euthanized. I was touching her the whole time, and lightly petting her face. Susu did not like to be touched, so I kept it very light in case she was feeling it--just enough to let her know she wasn't alone--but not enough to irritate her.) She went to sleep and did not wake up.

She should have been euthanized with her people holding her. We couldn't give Susu much in life, but I do think her death was a peaceful one."

Many of us have been guilty in the past of letting the vet or someone else handle the details when one of our pets is put down. Let's resolve to do this, at least: If and when the time comes that our pet must be put down, let's not dump the poor bewildered baby off somewhere and wash our hands of the whole affair. Let's be with our pets in their final moments, and hold them as they leave this world. Let them feel love and compassion, rather than fear and loneliness. I believe It really makes a difference. 

"One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals." -- Mahatma Gandhi 

Pit bulls and shelter bankruptcy

Author Alexandra Semyonova recently made some insightful observations about the problems currently facing dog shelters in the Netherlands. I was fascinated by her observations and feel strongly that we in the USA are heading down the same path. I asked if I could publish her comments, and she graciously agreed.

Background

When I worked at ___ shelter during the Netherlands pit-bull ban, the only pit bulls we took in were collateral catch from drug raids or those confiscated because they'd hurt someone. About three or four a year at most, and yes, all slated to be put down. The dog wing was always one-third to one-half empty except in the summer, when people dumped dogs to go on vacation.

Four years after the pit bull ban was repealed here, various Dutch shelters have announced they'll be going bankrupt soon if the government doesn't put (altogether) millions of extra money on the table for them. I took a look at Dutch shelter sites on June 17, 2012. The average at Dutch shelters is now 78% pit-bull type dogs.

 When the 'humanes' were fighting for repeal of the pit bull ban, there were - in the entire country - about 180 pit bulls waiting on death row as owners appealed destruction verdicts. All of them had hurt someone. You see, the ban wasn’t a witch hunt. As long as they stayed under the radar by not hurting anyone (or anyone’s animal) or making some kind of trouble (such as attacking police during a warranted search), no pit bull was confiscated. 

So in 2008, 180 were awaiting PTS in the whole country, all of which had hurt someone. Now that the ban has been lifted, there are thousands of pit bulls in shelters, almost all of which will be put down in the end because no one wants them. Meanwhile, the humane societies can't help the shelters avoid bankruptcy. They say they don't have that much money, and anyway it's the government's responsibility to pay. This even as the humanes are still encouraging people to get a pit bull. I know we know all this and it's all been said before. It's just that it's crazy-making to watch it happen all over again right under my nose. 

A system which had worked well is now broken

The following refers to my time at ____ shelter, capacity: 85 dogs. We had a system that used to work (before the return of the pit bull). Most dogs that came in were re-homed within three or four months. Some stayed longer. We had a resident behaviorist. A lot of the dogs were taken out (off-leash, in groups) by volunteers about three times a week for a free-run hike in the surrounding woods. Dogs not capable of that had time on a fenced field two or three times a week, if possible with one or more other dogs.

Some dogs only got out-of-cage time with the behaviorist (no other staff or volunteers), and not until s/he thought they were ready to work with him/her without bars between them (at his/her own risk). These were dogs with such serious learned-aggression problems that it was clear the board would give a PTS order, never mind behavior modification. The behaviorist's goal with these dogs was to give them some quality of life during the time they did stay in the shelter. 

 Occasionally a dog would come in that turned out impossible to re-home in an urban area (eg, super rambunctious 120lb Newfie). After eight or ten months of trying, we'd do a shelter exchange. Take a more city-appropriate dog from a rural shelter, send the non-city-appropriate dog over there.

These types of dogs were put to sleep:

• Dogs with serious learned aggression problems.
• Dogs that had been re-homed and returned four or five times. 
• Old dogs with pain problems. 
• Old dogs without pain problems, but still not re-homed after about six months. 
• Young dogs with incurable pain problems. 
• Young dogs with diseases (eg, juvenile pancreatic atrophy in a GSD) that meant about zero chance of a new home. 
•  Dogs that for any reason seriously bit a staff member or volunteer. 

So dogs got more than a couple of weeks, lots of chances, but weren't kept if it looked like being a life-sentence. Without being no-kill, we tried to be low-kill. It worked. About 1500 dogs a year went through _____ shelter, PTS averaged about 15 a year ( 1% ).

 The rare pits were kept strictly in their cages until the court order came through for PTS. They were always from far away, since shelters operated as secret holding addresses while the court decided. A confiscated pit bull was never sent to its home-town shelter. It was always kept secret that there was a pit in the house at all. This was done to prevent the violent, histrionic break-in rescues that the pit bull lobby sometimes organized.

A grim outlook

In any event, it's clear that this system can't possibly work any more, now that up to 80% of urban shelter dogs are pit-types and shelters everywhere are over-full. I hate to even think about how shelter boards are now making PTS decisions, since the boards have been packed with pit-believers. [BTW, none of them -- not the shelter board members, not the SPCA board members -- have chosen to actually own a pit bull themselves as far as I can find out. They want *other* people to please empty the shelter of pit bulls.] Dutch shelters still do non-local exchanges with each other, but no shelter will take a dog from a private person who doesn't live in the city or town the shelter services. 

I'll be curious to see what happens if various local shelters do go bankrupt and close. All the dogs there at that moment will have to be put down unless some other shelter can take them. It'll be interesting to see whether, after that, we end up with a plague of stray pit-bull type dogs, once there's no shelter for local residents to dump them at anymore. We had an intelligent system in place that effectively made the entire country low-kill to the extent possible. Now it's completely dysfunctional because the SPCAs et al were so anxious to get other people (anyone but themselves) to keep pit bulls.

The shelters are blaming their near bankruptcy on: 

1. Fewer donations
2. More dogs coming in and more of those being long-stay dogs

They blame both these changes on the world-wide financial crisis. I don't think this is true. I know that a lot of people have stopped donating because they don't much want to donate to keep mostly pit bulls alive, and because they object to shelters pit-bull pushing as far as adoptions go. No idea what proportion of all (former) donors this would be.

We can also calculate that the sudden rise in dogs coming in is directly related to the pit bull ban being lifted, which has nothing to do with the world crisis. If you removed all the pit bulls from the list of 'adoptable' dogs, only 22% would be left - i.e, the shelter isn't suddenly full of 78% more normal dogs, which would indicate the world financial crisis maybe does have something to do with it.  It's specifically pit-bull type dogs that are being massively bought then abandoned, flooding shelters and bankrupting them. It makes me angry that the SPCAs fought for the return of the pit bull, but are now saying 'not our responsibility' when it comes to paying for the results.

But of course it is wonderful that they saved those 180 pits that had hurt someone and were waiting to die when the ban was lifted - never mind that now thousands are being euthanized as unwanted every year. 

Walk for pit bull victims announced

A walk for the victims of pit bull attacks has been organized for this coming October in Tucson, Arizona. Please come out and support this worthy cause. More information can be obtained here