Friday, March 28, 2008

Friday mentions

What's Life like for investigation dogs in your shelter? It's a good thing to know because in most, custody dogs fall to bottom-drawer priority and suffer long months of maddening isolation and kennel stress before their fates are determined by the courts. In many cases, the dogs are pit bulls and their jail time is a direct result of bad decisions on some human's part...Victims of idiocy. There's a lot of that going around, unfortunately.




The staff at the busy Tampa-area shelter that I keep blabbing about (Hillsborough County Animal Services) have been losing sleep over their custody dogs for awhile. They traveled to the bay area last year to attend Pit Ed Camp and to learn new ways to keep kenneled dogs happy. The trip included a visit to see Corinne Dowling's Give A Dog A Bone project for fresh inspiration. Less than a year later, they pulled together enough funds and community interest to create a big happy playground just for the dogs waiting out long-term jail sentences.

This may seem pretty basic, but it's actually revolutionary - especially when you consider how dogs like Spyder might've grown up right in the head had her shelter had similar resources. Photos courtesy of Hillsborough County Animal Services

This 30lb sweetie was awarded to the HCAS by the courts and will be going up for adoption. They look for the same qualities that we look for in our BR dogs, so if you're shopping for a new pit bull in the Tampa area, high tail it over to see this munchkin, a female named 'Pheebee.'



Ding Dong the Bill is Dead! Florida's HB101 - the bill that would've permitted BSL in the State of Florida - is dead! Congrats to everyone who worked so hard to bring it down.



High fives to BR volunteer Roxanne Alden and her pit bull Jackson, who were recognized by a local paper (Sonoma Index-Tribune ) for earning their AKC Canine Good Citizen certificate. Roxanne's winning quote in the article, "Jackson is not an exception to the breed norm, he's an example of it." ...Word!



In South Carolina three of eight dogs taken from a fight bust were moved into foster care and have been receiving training in preparation for adoption We just love when shelters buck the system in favor of helping the animals. In Pima AZ, the authorities finally charged the six pit bull owners with dog fighting. Their dogs will be available for qualified rescue groups soon, although with over 100 dogs-in-need, it's certain that only a small number will find help.

17 comments:

No BSL said...

It`s so nice to visit this blog and read some good news.
What a great idea to have a playground for custody dogs.
Spyder and Frodo can have a home at my place anytime.
There are some who think I`m not right in the head either because of my blog but I don`t care.
Frodo and Spyder are my kind of dogs.
Way to go Jackson and owner!

Now for some Ontario craziness.
I believe you`re all aware of Rabmo.
The 10 month old puppy fighting for his life in Mississauga Ontario.
Well it turns out that Mississauga Animal Services is determining the fate of Strays by voting.
Even the Cleaner gets a vote.
Majority rules.
"Pit Bull" gets you slaughtered but
Non "Pit Bull" bumps you to adoption if you pass all their other tests.

I`m going to ask once again,please don`t visit or spend any money in Ontario.
You can find the link to the Cleaner gets a vote story here
"Think again"
http://jmac53.bravejournal.com/entry/27297

No offense to Cleaners.
Where would we be without them but c`mon.
This craziness is why I`m on BadRap in the wee hours.
I`m sleepless in Ontario.

No BSL said...

I could at least get his name right.
It`s RAMBO and his owner is a young lady named Gabriela who just wanted to give an existing puppy a home.
She didn`t give birth to him and she doesn`t know his birth parents.

Anonymous said...

Great quote from Roxanne (who graces the coming month on the Bad Rap Exposed calendar!), I'm stealin' it!

The Foster Lady said...

So sorry to hear of the continuing insanity in Ontario. I promise I won't visit or buy any products made there! Tampa seems to be heading in the right direction...wish it were so at every other shelter in the US.

Kirsten said...

Yay!! That's all wonderful news.

heh, Ontario-phobia is well and truly in force here. I skipped an opportunity to view the Canadian side of Niagara Falls last week. ("Isn't that Ontario?!")

In much smaller news, dragging my mother to Pit Ed class recently does seem to have had an effect... She's mentioned it to quite a few people, and apparently had to fend off the 'pit bulls are vicious' stance in her Berkeley ballet class w/ "That's not what my daughter says." It's a start. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Love this entry. Good news all around! Uber cool.

Anonymous said...

Re: the Pima County dogfighters finally being charged, aren't these the people whose involvement in dogfighting BADRAP tried to downplay? It sure looked like you were trying to say they were puppy millers, rather than dogfighters. That blew all respect I had for BADRAP out of the water. You obviously don't know anything about dogfighting. If you did you'd know exactly who Pat Patrick and T.L. Williams are.

Anonymous said...

Hey Donna,

Do you have any more info on the Florida Bill?

I can't find anything in the MSM (surprise, surprise)

If you can point me in the right direction, I'd like to give people more information on this good news.

Donna said...

Your politics are showing Dan. Last time we checked, this is America where dog owners (even high volume breeders of pit bulls) are innocent until proven guilty. The country is still waiting to see what the courts decide about Floyd, for example. (You do know who that is, right?) Fighter? Breeder? Both? Here's a thought: Evidence matters.

Sorry to disappoint your vision of what BR is or should be, although it pleases us greatly that you stop by so often to catch up on news from our corners.

Anonymous said...

What a great idea for the park! I hope more cities hear about this and start to think on how they can improve life for their court dogs!

Donna said...

Hey caveat, news about the bill's death came by phone via the staff at Hillsborough ACS who've been watching it closely. I don't have a link to confirm, unfortunately. (Pls let me know if I have it wrong!)

No BSL said...

Kirsten,
That`s great.
Thank you.
It`s also important that Niagara Falls Tourism be made aware of that, as well as our Gov`t.
If you need links,visit my blog and leave a message or contact via email.
They have to know it`s due to the "Pit Bull" Ban(Bill 132)
I`ll find and provide them to anyone who is willing to boycott Ontario.
It will make a difference.

This seems like such a simple concept.

[quote]this is America where dog owners (even high volume breeders of pit bulls) are innocent until proven guilty.[/quote]

They should be innocent worldwide.
That`s why we`re fighting BSL.
Let`s assume innocence and throw the book at them if they are found guilty in a court of law.
Note:The dogs are ALWAYS innocent.

Donna said...

Indeed, MG.

Dogs = Innocent = Yes.

Vick's dogs, Patrick's dog and Floyd's dogs (which were all destroyed within 3 days of being confiscated). And certainly Ontario's dogs and Denver's dogs and on and on. It doesn't take much to connect the dots between justifying the deaths of FB's dogs and justifying the slaughter in Ontario.

"Born bad" (Not)

Kirsten said...

MG,
Thanks for the info (and the prompt). I will write to Ontario/Niagara Falls Tourism and let them know why I skipped the visit.

Gov'ts/elected officials generally do keep a tally of letters, petitions, opinions, etc., so you're right to urge everyone to keep the pressure on.

Anonymous said...

OK, thanks Donna.

If somebody has been watching, that's good enough for me.

I did check the House bills page and note that the Bill came up for 1st reading March 4 and there has been no activity since.

I'm not sure if they indicate whether a Bill has been withdrawn/defeated but I'm guessing that not getting out of First reading (which is when they intro and file Bills up here in Ontario) means that nobody thought it was such a hot idea.

Let's hope this starts a trend, so that issues around dog bites/attacks/DBRFs (which are very overblown imo) can be addressed properly - by focusing on owner and victim behaviour, not on the size/shape/colour of the dog himself.

Anonymous said...

On behalf of Maya (who was my foster), as well as many other custody dogs, I would like to say "Bravo" to the Hillsborough County Animal Services for thinking outside of the box. Its such a tragedy for these highly social animals to be lock up in often dark, noisy cages, treated as "kennel trash" mostly because of underfunding & ignorance. Maya may be physically out of her hell-hole, but will forever suffer the affects that she had to endure being labeled as a "Custody Dog".

Again, kudos to the Hillsborough County Animal Services for doing for custody dogs, what should have been done all along.

~Bullymomma~

Anonymous said...

Ontario's Doggie Woes

Mississauga Councilor Carolyn Parrish put forth a motion that dogs incarcerated for long periods should be able to get visits from owners. The Mississauga City Council ALL approved the first motion and gave special permission to allow the owner to visit the dog before final passing of the motion. Acting Mayor Pat Saico said "Mississauga never wanted the Ban to begin with".

This is GREAT news and we are hoping other towns and cities will do the same.

See Not ALL Our Politicans Are STUPID. Hey Michael BRYANT, YOU reading this?