Mavis's person Alyssa Sean wrote: "Mavis's best trait is putting up with me." I'm sure she sees right thru to your heart Alyssa.
Inspired in Philly - Hat tips to Ken Foster for pointing out this very impressive 'Save A Bull' effort created by Philadelphia group PAWS to help the pit bulls in their city. In their words:
Our Mission is to reshape misperceptions regarding pit bulls in the City of Philadelphia, educate the public about what wonderful pets, family members, and companions pit bulls can be, serve as a source of information and referrals for pit bull owners, and ultimately reduce the number of pit bulls that are killed in shelters by promoting foster care, adoption, and responsible ownership.
Well done, PAWS. We look forward to seeing this website grow. And we love that you're recommending trainer Carol Siegrist among others for help with pit bulls. Carol spent a week with us at Pit Ed Camp and we give her two high paws up for her clear vision and big heart for the dogs.
What kind words... thanks so much for the shout out.
ReplyDeleteWill Bad Rap be taking any dogs from the dog fighting bust in MO and placing them up for adoption? Will the barn be up on time to house some of them?
ReplyDeleteHi anon - We've already taken in several dogs from the bust (another one is on a flight right now headed to CA!) and expect more to be following her. Our best hope is that the barn will be completed in time for more of the MO bust dogs to find help in CA, but if for some reason it's not, there is yet another (unrelated) federal bust that is asking for help. This has been quite a summer!
ReplyDeleteDonna,
ReplyDeleteIts great to hear about the changing tide with the fight bust dogs. We may soon be able to take in a boy to our family (we have two girls) so I am going to keep my eyes peeled to see if anyone grabs my heart!
I know that there is a gag order in place, but I hope you'll be able to share stories of your experiences with and impressions of the Missouri bust dogs. I went down there to volunteer myself and it was really quite an experience... I wish everyone could see for themselves the AMAZING work that HSMO and so many volunteers from other organizations are doing. And what 500 dogs in one place looks (and sounds) like! LOL!
ReplyDeleteHey Suzi
ReplyDeleteThe disaster relief work after Katrina compares closely to what you're looking for in stories. 300 dogs per barn, five barns in total in just one of the many locations. Yes - barking that only stops long enough to get a few minutes of impossible sleep. I'm sure many readers here were there -- What a time. Dreaming about the dogs after going home or, as Brent Toellner puts it so well in his essay, waking up after you're home with the feeling that you should* be walking dogs seems to be a common theme. To re-cap:
http://www.mprgroup.net/katrina.html
I hope you've been able to read some of the stories of the bust dogs from this case that've already made it out (Beauty, Jett, Zena, Annie, Minnow)
They represent so many faces that will not survive this horrible tragedy. That's where I have trouble sleeping. The barking of dead dogs walking.
Yep - working on that barn as fast as we possibly can.
Donna: I just read the Katrina story.
ReplyDeleteWondering if you know if Dixon had a happy ending.
He did! He's well loved and living with one of the MPR people who came down to help the dogs. Thanks for asking.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful that you were able to help out with some of the dogs from the bust. Were they all from Oklahoma? I was under the impression that the bulk of the dogs had not yet been released. As far as I know none of the dogs from St.Louis have been released, at least that is what I read on the HSMO site.
ReplyDeleteWill Bad Rap be taking any of those dogs? There are so many, I hope they will find rescues to take them.
Hi Stella - Our role so far has been to work with authorities to evaluate dogs that were not lucky enough to find shelter in HSMO, and orchestrate rescue efforts for as many as possible. We'll keep doing that for as long as our resources hold out. The dogs from this big bust have been and will be getting released in waves, starting with the first group that came to us from HSMO back in July, then the Oklahoma dogs, now a group of dogs that are in certain danger because - through no fault of their own - they were sent to a location that practices BSL (we hope to name that location soon).
ReplyDeleteThe good news out of the HSMO bunker is that most of the 'adoptable' dogs have been earmarked for rescue by people on the scene who've been taking care of them, so you can expect to see many happy reports from that lucky bunch.
We are all very concerned about the dogs from this case that have (workable) behavioral challenges -- Time will tell how many of those dogs will find help.