Why Is The ASPCA Partnering With Breedist Miami-Dade Animal Control

Miami-Dade, Florida banned Pit Bulls in 1989 after one attack.

Supporters of Pit Bull bans generally believe implementing such laws will reduce dog bites. For some, banning certain breeds will simply eliminate bites from those breeds and, in their view, reduce significant dog bites.

The decade prior to Miami-Dade's Pit Bull ban, the region saw a significant decrease in dog bites from 6,000 to 2,600. A normal person would view this as positive, as the population of humans AND dogs increased. From 1989 to 2007, dog bites continued to decline from 2,600 to 992. These are the years of the Pit Bull ban, and they saw the slowest decline in dog bites.

The ban has not reduced significant dog bites, either. Miami-Dade citizens are more likely to end up in the hospital from a dog bite than many other cities in Florida. It has reduced Pit Bull bites, but they still happen. One would imagine in a county with a 20+ ban on Pit Bulls, there wouldn't be any Pit Bull bites or any Pit bull confiscations. Breed bans, though, are not rational and do not follow a logical path of ban and subsequent elimination of banned dogs.

A hearing officer in 2009 deemed the identification portion of the law unenforceable, which has not stopped animal control from enforcing the law. If you are caught or snitched on for having a dog who resembles a Pit Bull, you face a $500 fine with a 20 day appeal. Your dog must be removed from the county or face execution. Your dog need only have 3 of 15 "characteristics" to be deemed a Pit Bull.

In 2008, the county confiscated 802 Pit Bulls and executed 650 of them. In 2009, the county confiscated 700 and executed more than 550. With a canine kill rate of 60% Pit Bulls have a 78-81% chance of being killed.

So while Miami-Dade continues to enforce an unenforceable and arguably cruel law, while they continue to kill 80% of the Pit Bulls they take in, they were granted another $139,000 by the ASPCA since becoming Partners with the ASPCA in October of 2010.

The ASPCA's vision: "The vision of the ASPCA is that the United States is a humane community in which all some animals are treated with respect and kindness."

Maybe animal control does not like the law. Maybe they have publicly condemned the law and tried their best to legally refuse to enforce it. Anyone? *crickets*

Animal control officials have largely been silent on the ethics of enforcing a law that criminalizes otherwise law-abiding citizens and unnecessarily kills healthy, family companion dogs. While I appreciate the tough position animal control officers are in having to fulfill the requirements set forth by the legislature or commission, even if they disagree with it, I am left unimpressed when no one at animal control speaks up on behalf of the dogs or their guardians.

The ASPCA made a conscious decision to work with Miami-Dade animal control, even though they are opponents of breed specific legislation. Yes, only a small percentage of the dogs killed are Pit Bulls. Yes, any shelter with a 66% kill rate and an interest in changing should be encouraged to do so. But I am not certain that the ASPCA is doing the right thing by endorsing a shelter with an archaic policy that is discriminatory and that results in the needless death of thousands of dogs.

You?

Things You Should Know About Sherman

He has left the house, headed off to his brand-spanking new home!

Things You Should Know About Fostering

• It's hard work! This may seem obvious but it's still hard in reality.
• Even after only 20 days of fostering a dog, you can in fact fall in love with them.
• Managing a multi-dog household in which one resident dog hates all other dogs but her sister can be and is stressful. Adorbs puppies make this okay. So do dog-tolerant Mina-dogs.
• It's fun showing off your foster dog and having everyone love him or her.
• It's a selfishly selfless act that makes you feel good and helps save a life.

Things You Should Know About AFTER Fostering

• You can sleep an entire night without letting the dog out, if he is a puppy.
• You don't have to crate and rotate if you had to before.
• You can go back to devoting all your time and energy to the resident dogs.
• You feel happy and sad and then happy again, because really, it's a freaking win-win.
• You will need a break before the next foster dog, because there WILL be a next foster dog.

It's Super Funny When the Dog's a Beagle!!

Har-har, let's take this one to the bank, folks - a Beagle has attacked!!!

This news is so outlandish, so belly-chuckle funny that local news media consider the description of the attack as the best sentence they've seen, like ever. They don't tell us which sentence is the best, but I assume it is this one:

"As police arrested Dinah, Ronnie let go of a beagle he was holding on a leash and shouted, "Sic 'em, Ginger!"

Oh man, LOL. L.O.L. I'm laughing so hysterically right now, I'm relying on my mad typing skills to not screw up some words here. Tears are streaming down my face, I can barely see through the water works.

Nothing's funnier than a suspect releasing his dog to bite police officers. I mean, nothing's funnier than a suspect releasing Ginger the Beagle to bite police officers.

Like the Scene says, "they (suspects) could have vicious dogs like pit bulls ready to attack and defend". Yeah, PIT BULLS! Man, I would have been laughing even harder if it was a Pit Bull. It's so cliche too!

Anyways, back in the day, the Sac County shelter kept adopting out an ancient, ornery Beagle. And she kept being returned because she kept biting people. BUT SHE WAS A BEAGLE, YO! So they adopted her again, of course, and she ate the eye of a 3-yr-old girl. HA THAT WAS TOO FUNNY!! Good times, people, good times.

Nothing funnier than a dog biting someone. I mean, sometimes there IS nothing funnier, like when Sherman thought my shoelaces were edible and I practically had to perform the Heimlich to get them out of his throat. He could have engulfed my entire foot and THAT, dear readers, would have been hilarious.

On a serious note, dog bites are uncool, no matter who is doing the biting. Don't sic your dogs on anyone, even if your dog's name is Ginger. Or is a Beagle.

Casa Grande Animal Control You Have a Problem

In late January, 10-yr-old Jason Hamilton was walking home from the school bus stop when he was attacked by three dogs (erroneously reported as two Pit Bulls and one Rottweiler in this article). The dogs, one Pit Bull mix and two Rottweiler (mixes) severely mauled the child, leaving him with extensive facial, torso and leg damage. It took baseball bats to get all three dogs off the child.

The child is recovering but still suffers emotional trauma from the horrifying attack.

All three dogs have been killed, relinquished by their owner even though several community members offered to take on one or more of the dogs. The owner claims the dogs have never been vicious.

But how would she know?

The owner, and I use the term appropriately as this woman was no true guardian to these dogs, apparently rarely interacted with the dogs, except perhaps to breed them.

You can see that this Rottweiler bitch has had puppies before. Her wounds, which appear to include head injuries, are untreated as of the taking of this photo.

 This dog is underweight, although not egregiously malnourished. His/her wounds have apparently been left untreated as of the taking of this photo.

 This is the third dog, also underweight and clearly frightened, possibly wounded.

So who is this dog owner gladly relinquishing all three dogs for lethal injection?

Casa Grande's own animal control employee Leticia Flores. While sure, I don't expect all employees of animal shelters to be star citizens, I do expect them to provide legally appropriate levels of care.

She faces 12 charges. The dogs lived outside. They were not licensed (like, really? How hard is that, just go to work and get the license). Their entire yard was filled with fecal matter (remember, this woman has kids too). The dogs had no shelter. They had no water. And they had not been fed properly in awhile.

I don't know if Flores is still employed with Casa Grande - my call to them went unanswered, but if you have any better luck contacting them, let me know: (520)426-9300 is their number.

I think the step-father of the victim is being generous when he says that if only Flores had fed her dogs, this wouldn't have happened.

If only.

Really, if only Flores did not have dogs to begin with. Or, if only Flores socialized her dogs. Or, if only Flores fed, watered and provided shelter. Or if only Flores treated these dogs like family companions and not resident dogs. From day one, these dogs were set up to fail. Flores' failure cost these dogs their lives. It cost Hamilton a lot of unnecessary pain and trauma and suffering.

If only.

Mina is Bad-Ass

There are few dogs as bad-ass as Mina. Even when she isn't trying, she is too awesome for words.

Why Do People Walk Away After Their Dog Attacks?

Many years ago, a Basenji punctured the throat of my much beloved Spaniel/Eskie mix named Juju. I approached the guardian of the Basenji and explained the situation. Not only did she not believe me ("my dog would NEVER do that" were her words), she up and left the dog park. I was left with a dog bleeding from several puncture wounds in her neck and the utter disbelief someone would just leave after their dog bit another.

At another dog park, I and other visitors watched in horror as a Labrador Retriever killed a Yorkshire Terrier. The small dog did not stand a chance against the 80lb dog - his neck was broken almost instantly. The guardian of the Lab gave false information and left the scene immediately, even though no one was attempting to harm either the Retriever or his owner.

Mina was once attacked by a Great Dane mix. The dog tore a quarter-sized chunk out of her head - you can still feel the scar and the hair never grew back properly, it has always been tinted a cream, sometimes pale yellow color. With adrenaline pumping, I managed to drag the dog off of a screaming Mina (it's one of two times I've ever heard Mina scream), even though she weighed more than me. The owners offered their apologies and then walked off. I was stupefied, standing there with a bleeding, trembling dog cradled in my arms...and later, a $500+ vet bill.

Around the Intarwebz

Colonoscopies, a thing of the past? I'm hoping by the time I need one, they will be! A recent study shows one dog trained to sniff out colon cancer had a 95% accuracy rating, just as good as a colonoscopy.

How a pair of dedicated dog guardians helped Lucky, the Chihuahua, get the life-saving surgery he needed.

When Mondo, an explosives detection dog used in Iraq, suffered a back injury, his fate was unknown. The 7 year old dog had bonded strongly with his human partner who wanted to make sure the dog was safe. If the dog wasn't adopted, he would be killed. The soldier's mother went the extra mile to help bring Mondo to his new home - with his human partner, of course.

I Love This Dog

LOVE, people.

Epic Media and Legal Bias

In Miami-Dade, if you have a dog resembling a Pit Bull, you may be charged $500 among other court fines. Your neighbors are encouraged to snitch on you. Your dog can be forcibly removed and either relocated out of county or killed. It does not matter the temperament of the dog or whether the dog IS a Pit Bull - you are a criminal for daring to welcome a domestic dog into your home who has certain physical characteristics the county has apparently deemed indicative of aggression, one of the silliest notions on the books.

But in Miami-Dade, if you have a Labrador Retriever mix and Golden Retriever mix who habitually get loose, despite your $6,000 in "kennel improvement" and purchase of random shock collars, you are gold. And if your dogs, illegally running loose, kill at least 11 legally loose cats, you are gold. Mind you, many of these cats were killed in their yards requiring the dogs to jump or dig under fences to access the animals. (Generally, I don't think any domestic animal should be running loose.)

In Miami-Dade County, you see, in order for a dog attack on a human or animal to be investigated, there must be a sworn affidavit presented. Unless you are just reporting a Pit Bull, then who cares, no affidavit needed!

The dogs - breeds mentioned once and on the second page - won't face an automatic death sentence, either, for killing 11 cats. If the dogs resembled Pit Bulls, that would be different. They would not even need to have bitten a cat in order to face death. Inconsistent, much?

The owner won't face any charges, either, except perhaps have two legally labeled dangerous dogs and all the court requirements that accompany that.


So while there are nonviolent dogs who look a certain way being killed and their guardians criminalized, these two dogs who have killed other animals and who may become involved in a human attack* and their owner is essentially getting a "pass go" card.

I'm sorry, are there still people who honestly believe there isn't a bias (breeds mentioned once on second page, nonviolent dogs killed versus violent ones)? Like, really? Planet earth, it is calling you back.


*Specifically, a redirected bite onto a cat or small dog owner who interferes.

Muzzles

Yesterday I saw a Labrador Retriever with a nylon muzzle secured over his face. Before I got a chance to advise the guardian that those muzzles can be deadly to dogs, prohibiting them from even panting properly, he had driven off.

But it struck me, this muzzled dog. Not literally.

The dog was in a car on a day that was comfortable for a dog to be in a car. Yet instead of making sure the windows were rolled up such the dog could not access anyone or thing, he was wearing a muzzle. Perhaps he was a legally labeled dangerous dog and supposed to be wearing a muzzle in which case, good on the guardian for following the law (which folks so rarely do in the case of dogs). I prefer this thought.

I have nothing against basket muzzles used on human aggressive or severely dog aggressive dogs with a history of teeth on skin. A muzzle can save a lives, human and canine.

But they still strike me as sad, as a prohibition against being. They stop a dog from using a most useful part of his body. While his nose gets to continue working, the dog can no longer explore his world through his mouth. With nylon muzzles, a dog can die - I would never advise using one, not even in a veterinary setting. Always a basket. Always.

There are people who believe all dogs should be muzzled. Which begs the question, why bother accepting dogs into our world? It speaks to the fear we have with dogs. It's primal. Dogs may be domestic animals, but they still channel instincts many of us find unpalatable. These instincts generally involve teeth and blood. Deep down, most of us know that dogs are predators. They just happen to sleep in our homes and sometimes walk politely on a lead.


Again, I am not anti-muzzle. I'd love a world in which all of us dog guardians could take our dogs on boats and airplanes and trains and buses and taxi cabs and just have to muzzle them for that temporary transition from point a to point b. I think that would be an acceptable use of a muzzle and it would expand the horizons for dog-human interactions and adventures. And I see no reason to avoid a muzzle if the use of one accompanied with training and management saves a dog's life.

But they still make me sad.

Muzzles - yea or nay?