Dogged Blog

A new life for Suzie

Yesterday, Suzie the dog was supposed to be euthanized at the shelter where she had not responded to antibiotics for what seemed to be a bladder infection.

Thanks to Jan, a volunteer at the shelter who decided the little white dog deserved better, she instead had surgery to remove a very large bladder stone that was the actual cause of her symptoms.

And thanks also to a whole lot of you, who in around five hours that day donated all the money Suzie needed to get her surgery.

Jan brought Suzie home from the vet today, and took many photos of her so that everyone who donated can see her progress. I've created a photo album here and will update it as Jan sends more photos.

I spoke to Jan on the phone, and she said, "Yesterday was supposed to be the last day of her life, and instead it's a whole new beginning."

Happy New Year, everyone!

Pet owners are the solution, not the problem

I recently helped raise money for a little shelter dog, pictured at right, who needed an operation. Without it she'd have been euthanized as she was suffering. With it, she should be fine.



Seemed kind of like a no-brainer to me, and to the caring shelter volunteer who spent weeks advocating for her at the shelter and then, finally, got her out as a foster and got her to a vet when it was clear no one in the shelter system was going to do anything except delay, delay, and finally, kill her.



We needed just under a thousand dollars and we raised it in around five hours, using suggestions we got from the imom.org website and a site called fundable.com. In fact, we raised $210 more than we needed before I realized we were over our goal, and when I tried to refund the extra money, no one would take it back.



So we have dozens of caring people who gave money -- mostly tens and twenties, but several fifties and even a hundred or two. We have the email list owner, Lew Olson of K9Nutrition, who let us use her huge list to spread the word. We have all the small dog and breed lists that crossposted the plea, and whose members gave money. We have the wonderful, caring foster mom, who pushed and pushed to make sure this little dog didn't keep suffering.



And then I got a couple of emails from people ranting about the horrible irresponsible pet owner whose fault it is the dog was in the shelter in the first place. And it just blew my post-"Redemption" mind.



Dozens of people gave hundreds of dollars to help this dog. In five hours. Person after person demonstrated that the world is full, absolutely full, of caring animal lovers who will go the extra mile -- like the foster mom, who is caring for a matted little dog who is dribbling urine and blood -- and all they can see is that mythic beast, the irresponsible pet owner.



We have no idea how the little dog ended up in the shelter. Maybe she was the dog of someone who died, as so many small dogs are. Maybe she's the victim of foreclosure, or domestic violence. Maybe the person who surrendered her couldn't afford her medical care, and hoped the shelter would treat her and find her a new home. Or maybe, indeed, they were irresponsible and sucked six ways from Sunday; I don't know.



All I know is the sheer numbers of caring animal lovers far, far outweighed this one possible bad apple, and if you're looking for villians in this story, you'll find a few at that shelter.



There will always be irresponsible people. They will write bad checks, fail to pay child support, and gamble away their life savings. And they'll have pets and we'll need to mop up after them. That's life, and we can't change it.



But there will also always be the kind folks who stepped up and helped this little dog out of her tough spot, no questions asked. Lots of them.



So the next time someone goes on a rant about irresponsible pet owners being the root of all evil, remember this story, and that far more pet owners will be the solution to the problem than will be the cause.

Can you help me help Suzie?

This sweet little 10-pound dog has been in a shelter in Ontario, Canada for a few weeks now. They thought she had a bladder infection and gave her antibiotics, but her symptoms never got better. She strains, dribbles blood, cries, and wets herself constantly. She is matted and soiled, and in tremendous pain, but wasn't groomed or given pain medication.

A volunteer tried to get her better care for more than two weeks, but without luck, so on Christmas Eve she signed her out to foster her. She posted the story to an email list we're both on, asking for advice on supplements or diet to help treat the bladder infection.

As we usually do, the list owner, Lew Olson, and I jumped in with "Canine UTIs 101," probably somewhat overwhelming the poor volunteer. But we also jumped in with practical help, and paid for her to see the vet up in Ontario. I spoke to the vet this morning, who after examining and x-raying Suzie discovered she has a huge stone in her bladder that needs to be removed surgically. Also, her matting is so bad that they were unable to groom her without anesthetizing her.

We have an estimate of around $983 US to have the vet do a full blood panel, remove the stone, spay her if she's unspayed, and groom her. (It will be less if she's already spayed.) We have a forever home for her, and even a backup home.

I've paid her bill so far, and am willing to contribute a bit more, as is Lew. The volunteer is going to contribute some, and so is her mother. But we need to try to raise the rest from the dog lovers we know, and so we're coming to you.

I checked with IMOM.org, a great organization that helps with emergency medical funding for pets. I knew they wouldn't be able to help this particular dog as she falls outside their guidelines, but I thought they could give me some tips on how to raise this  money on my own. They recommended setting up a fundraising page at fundable.com, which allows people to use their credit cards or PayPal accounts to pledge a certain amount of money. If we fail to raise it, then everyone's pledge will be cancelled. Payments are handled by PayPal and are completely safe, and you do not need a PayPal account to pledge.

I know the Web is full of scams, but I have spoken personally to the vet as well as the volunteer, and, well... you all know me. My life is an open book, and this is for real. If you can help, even with ten or twenty dollars, please go to Suzie's fundable.com page and make a pledge. We want to do the surgery no later than Tuesday, as she's in considerable pain (although this kind vet put her on pain meds, unlike the folks at the shelter).

Can you help? Please donate to Suzie's Surgery!

Update: We did it! In fact, we more than did it, and went a couple of hundred dollars over! I'll contact everyone who donated after we hit our goal to see if they want a refund, or for us to use the money for Suzie's other expenses. Thank you so much, everyone... what a wonderful way to start the New Year for this little dog. You're amazing... we raised this money in FOUR HOURS!

Nominate great animal books of 2008

So we've gotten how we feel about "Marley and Me" off our chests. And we shared our favorite (and not-so-favorite) great and classic kids' books about animals. Now Gina and I want to know: what good, great, entertaining, educational, and otherwise worthwhile animal books came out in 2008?



Two on our lists were Marion Nestle's "Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine," about the 2007 pet food recall, and Irene Pepperberg's "Alex and Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process."



We'll be writing about those books, and some others, and we'd like to know which books were "great animal books of the year" for you! As long as they have a 2008 copyright, they're eligible, so please... share!

Sports Illustrated on the Vick dogs: Has the tide finally turned for pit bulls?

"Did you see the Sports Illustrated article on Michael Vick's dogs?" a friend asked me this morning.



"Not yet," I told her. "Is it good?"



"No," she said. "It's perfect."



In a year full of bad news, what's happened to the dogs of the Bad Newz Kennels is turning out to be the best news of all for pit bulls. I don't just mean for the 51 Vick dogs themselves, although certainly the 47 surviving dogs' lives are better than they were.



No, it's every pit bull in America who will benefit from this massive PR overhaul. It will be more and more difficult for "shelters," animal control agencies, and courts to condemn these dogs to death simply because they're pit bulls or ex-fighters. Too many of us have heard about the Vick dogs now -- the therapy dogs, the loving family pets, even the dogs living out their lives in a sanctuary on Michael Vick's dime.



And while many of us in the pet media have been singing this song for a long time, there may be no better audience for this message than the readers of Sports Illustrated -- a magazine that had previously made the problem worse with a sensationalistic 1987 cover featuring a snarling pit and the headline "Beware of this dog."



But I just forgave Sports Illustrated for that, because this story is beautiful. I read it with tears pouring down my face, not because the dogs were abused, but because they were saved, and how, and why.



I expected a basic rehash of articles we've seen before: the successful adoptions, the former fighting dogs who now do pet assisted therapy, the ones still in sanctuaries, some of whom will never leave. And that would have been wonderful, it would have been a cause to celebrate. It would have made my day.



That's not what S.I. Senior Editor Jim Gorant wrote. Not at all.

The dog approaches the outstretched hand. Her name is Sweet Jasmine, and she is 35 pounds of twitchy curiosity with a coat the color of fried chicken, a pink nose and brown eyes. She had spent a full 20 seconds studying this five-fingered offering before advancing. Now, as she moves forward, her tail points straight down, her butt is hunched toward the ground, her head is bowed, her ears pinned back. She stands at maybe three quarters of her height.



She gets within a foot of the hand and stops. She licks her snout, a sign of nervousness, and looks up at the stranger, seeking assurance. She looks back to the hand, licks her snout again and begins to extend her neck. Her nose is six inches away from the hand, one inch, half an inch. She sniffs once. She sniffs again. At this point almost any other dog in the world would offer up a gentle lick, a sweet hello, an invitation to be scratched or petted. She's come so far. She's so close.



But Jasmine pulls away.



PETA wanted Jasmine dead. Not just Jasmine, and not just PETA. The Humane Society of the U.S., agreeing with PETA, took the position that Michael Vick's pit bulls, like all dogs saved from fight rings, were beyond rehabilitation and that trying to save them was a misappropriation of time and money. "The cruelty they've suffered is such that they can't lead what anyone who loves dogs would consider a normal life," says PETA spokesman Dan Shannon. "We feel it's better that they have their suffering ended once and for all."

That's how his piece opens, and that's when I knew he got it, really got it. I don't know how, but this guy, who mostly writes about golf, found the heart of this story and never once let go of it.



He told the individual stories of Jasmine and the other dogs. He made you see them and care about them. He made you want to chain Michael Vick to a tire axle in the woods for the rest of his life. But he went beyond that, and questioned every lie and myth about these dogs, made his readers feel and see and believe what writer Vicki Hearne so famously said, "It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm."



And then he went after PETA and HSUS for wanting to see these dogs die, for even now refusing to believe their salvation was a good thing for them, and for all pit bulls. And for us.



He also went after the people responsible for what happened to the dogs after they were "rescued" from Bad Newz Kennels:

After being taken from the Moonlight Road property, Vick's dogs were dispersed to six animal-control facilities in Virginia. Conditions differed slightly from place to place, but for the most part each dog was kept alone in a cage for months at a time. They were often forced to relieve themselves where they stood, and they weren't let out even while their cages were being cleaned; attendants simply hosed down the floors with the dogs inside. They were given so little attention because workers assumed they were dangerous and would be put down after Vick's trial. The common belief is that any money and time spent caring for dogs saved from fight rings would be better devoted to the millions of dogs already sitting in shelters, about half of which are destroyed each year.

But those dogs had something on their side, Gorant says: Michael Vick. Not the man, but the name. The notoriety. Because suddenly a whole lot of people didn't want to see these dogs pay the final price for what had been done to them. Wondered, can't any of these dogs be saved?

Letters and e-mails poured in to the offices of Judge Henry E. Hudson and of Mike Gill, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Gill had worked on several animal-related cases and still had ties to the rescue community. He reached out to, among others, [certified applied animal behaviorist and ASPCA executive vice president Stephen] Zawistowski. Could the ASPCA put together a team to evaluate the animals and determine if any of them could be saved?



Around the same time Donna Reynolds, the executive director and cofounder, along with her husband, Tim Racer, of BAD RAP, sent Gill a seven-page proposal suggesting a dog-by-dog evaluation to see if any could be spared. The couple, who have placed more than 400 pit bulls in new homes during the last 10 years, knew it was a long shot. It's faster and easier to judge the entire barrel as rotten. Zawistowski put together a team composed of himself, two other ASPCA staffers, three outside certified animal behaviorists and three members of BAD RAP, including Reynolds and Racer.



On Aug. 23, 2007, Vick appeared in U.S. District Court in Richmond, and Judge Hudson accepted a plea agreement in which the former quarterback admitted that he had been involved in dogfighting and had personally participated in killing animals. The agreement required him to pay $928,000 for the care and treatment of the dogs, including any humane destruction deemed necessary. "That was the landmark moment -- when he not only gave the dogs the money but referred to it as restitution," says Zawistowski. "That's when these dogs went from weapons to victims."

Assessing the dogs wasn't easy. No one really expected much; even the "care" they'd had in "shelters" after being taken from Bad Newz could have turned a lot of dogs into unstable basket cases, to say nothing of the rest of their lives before that. Bad Rap's Reynolds told Gorant, "If we can save three or four, it will be fantastic."



What they found was heartbreaking:

Many of the dogs had all but shut down. They cowered in the corners of their kennels or stood hunched with their heads lowered, their tails between their legs and their feet shifting nervously. Some didn't want to come out. As far as they knew bad things happened when people came. Bad things happened when they were led out of their cages.



One dog was so scared that even the confines of her kennel offered her no comfort. Shelter workers used a blanket to construct a little tent inside her cage that she could duck under. Remembering that dog, McMillan says, "Jasmine broke my heart."

In the end, all but four of the 51 dogs were saved. Two died in shelters, one was euthanized for medical reasons, and one for aggression.



One.



The rest are farmed out to rescue groups like Bad Rap, foster homes, and Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, which will rehabilitate the dogs they can, and give lifelong care, attention, and affection to any they can't. Some are already in loving new homes, where a few are even working as therapy dogs and with troubled kids.



So was it worth it? All the money and effort, PETA still saying they'd be better off dead than living the lives they have now? Gorant lets Jasmine's story be the answer:

Despite a promising start, Jasmine had a long way to go. For months she sat in her little cage in Stirling's house and refused to come out. "I had to pick her up and carry her outside so she could go to the bathroom," Stirling says. "She wouldn't even stand up until I had walked away. There's a little hole in the yard, and once she was done, she would go lie in the hole." It was three or four months before Jasmine would exit the cage on her own, and then only to go out, relieve herself and lie in the hole.



[....]



Around people she almost always walks with her head and tail down. She won't let anyone approach her from behind, and she spends most of the day in her pen, sitting quietly, the open door yawning before her. Stirling works with her endlessly. "I feel like what I do for her is so little compared with what she does for me," she says, welling up.



[....]



"Vick showed the worst of us, our bloodlust, but this rescue showed the best," [Bad Rap's] Reynolds says. "I don't think any of us thought it was possible to save these dogs -- the government, the rescuers, the regular people -- but we surprised ourselves."

It's Christmas time. I suppose some people might think it's a time for forgiveness, but I can't find any of that in my heart -- not for Michael Vick, and not for the mean-spirited, propaganda-spewing, self-serving spokespeople at PETA and HSUS who care more about their own agenda than really helping these dogs and all those like them. Certainly not for the city of Houston and the Houston SPCA, who ignored all the lessons of the Vick dogs and slaughtered 187 dogs "rescued" from a fighting ring in Texas last month.



But for the people at Bad Rap, Recycled Love, Our Pack and Best Friends, who gave these dogs a chance and a home? For Judge Henry E. Hudson and U.S. assistant district attorney Mike Gill, who let this happen, and the ASPCA-led team of experts who looked every one of these dogs in the eye and saw him or her as an individual to be evaluated and, if possible, saved?



For every one of you who wrote a letter or made a call? For the foster homes and rehabbers?



For the people of Kay County, Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Animal Alliance, who saw what was possible with the Vick dogs and tried to do the same thing for 106 fighting dogs discovered in the woods outside the town of Newkirk?



And for Jim Gorant who got it all so right?



Merry Christmas. You make the world brighter for all of us.

Even pet lovers get the holiday blues...

It's been a rough year -- rougher for some than others. If the holidays are getting you down because of a pet's death or illness, remember that PetHobbyist.com, where I'm an editor, runs a great site called PetSupport.net, which keeps its Pet Loss and Support Chat going 365 nights a year -- yes, that means Christmas Eve, Christmas night, New Year's Eve, and New Year's night.



In addition, this year our cat site, CatHobbyist.com, has decided to keep general cat lover chats going on those nights as well -- including the wildly popular and ever-so-slightly insane MeowChat, held in their own special chat room. (If you don't know what MeowChat is, the long version is here, and the short version is LOLCats take over the world, one computer at a time.)



Al the chats are hosted by friendly volunteers, and you can get the full schedule for the pet loss and support chats here. No registration is required, and everyone who loves animals is welcome.The general cat chat will run every holiday night from 9 PM to 11 PM Eastern -- until Midnight ET on New Year's Eve. It's happening in Cat Care Central.



I usually spend some time at those chats on the holiday evenings, under the name PHChristy. If you feel a need to talk, that's why we're there!



And if you just need a little holiday cheer, check out the "Holiday Pet Photo of the Day" over on the PetHobbyist.com site blog -- it started on Thanksgiving and runs until New Year's Day, and features all kinds of animals including reptiles, parrots, ducks, rabbits, a raccoon, a horse, and of course, cats and dogs -- including that cutie in the photo on this post.

Greatest TV Christmas episode of all time: West Wing's "In Excelsis Deo"

I just got finished watching  the West Wing Season One Christmas episode, "In Excelsis Deo." It's the one where Toby gets a call about a homeless Korean war veteran who died on a bench in a Washington DC park in the early morning hours of December 23rd, while everyone in the West Wing waits to hear the fate of a gay high school senior tied to a fence and stoned to death -- a clear parallel to the Matthew Shepard story.

Toby tracks down the dead veteran's brother, also homeless, and then uses his position at the White House to arrange a military funeral and honor guard for the man. When the president chastises him for using his name to do that, he says, "If word gets out, don't you think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork?"

"I can only hope so," Toby says.

While a boy's choir sings "The Little Drummer Boy" at the White House, Toby and president's secretary, who had lost her twin sons in Viet Nam, go to the funeral. It's breathtaking television -- the intercutting of the two scenes, the music, the honor guard folding the flag from the coffin in time with the "rump a bum bum".... television doesn't get better than this.

But that's not what makes this the best episode ever. It's in the words of the song:

Baby Jesus
I am a poor boy, too...

In the last two months, I've felt as negative about religion as I ever have in my life. Not any specific religion -- all of them. I won't go into it here, on Christmas Eve, even though like the fictional Toby I am not a Christian myself.

But I was raised Catholic, in the 60s, in San Francisco, and somehow the combination of the sort of "Liberation Theology Lite" I got from the Irish nuns and priests, along with my union, yellow-dog-democrat upbringing, and I guess, my own natural inclination towards bleeding heart liberalism all combined to create in me a huge, almost overwhelming sense of wanting to do good things, to help people, to make the world a better place.

That impulse, whatever you want to call it, became my religion as I grew up. I never lost the sense that we should help each other, that no one should have to earn enough to eat, medical care, a roof over their head at night, and an education for their children. I don't care, honestly, if someone is a criminal, lazy, a drug addict, or a murderer: feed them, don't make them sleep on the streets, treat their illnesses and injuries, and send their kids to school.

And Christianity is supposed to be about those things, too. It's evident in every word Jesus spoke that people who follow him are supposed to love one another, care for one another, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick.

And of course many Christians are very charitable. But I keep thinking, what if one year, all these religious people, instead of fighting each other and damning those who don't believe as they do to hell, or trying to take people's rights away and nullify people's marriages and take their foster kids away and refusing to give shelter to transgendered people... what if they fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless, educated the children, and treated the sick instead?

Do you know how some Christians will call gay people "Sodomites" and talk about the sin of Sodom and how God destroyed the city because of homosexuality? That's not what their holy book says:

"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49)

Not just the Old Testament, but the New, says the same:

"But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? " (1 John 3:17)

There... actual biblical authority, if Jesus' "Love one another as I have loved you" seemed too vague -- which I guess it did, as I heard those very words used to justify hatred of gay people just yesterday. (Oppressing us is how they show their love. It's very high theology, I guess.)

I'm not going to lie and say I'd be a Christian if they weren't so mean-spirited. There are plenty of wonderful, caring, loving Christians who I'm sure Jesus Christ, if he were alive today, would be proud to call his followers. I'm not a Christian because I don't believe, and that's that.

But there is so much beauty in Christianity, in its bedrock principle: Love God, love each other, the rest is just details. Or to quote the canon:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)

Every Christmas I write something like this. Every Christmas I wish the world were a different kind of place, that religious faith wasn't something people strapped bombs to their bodies and blew things up with, or used as a bludgeon to drive "sinners" away from their doors. I wish it was something people used to love and cherish and help each other, without any kind of strings attached at all.

Maybe next year.

So, if you would rather ignore my theological ramblings, be my guest. You can tell me your favorite holiday Christmas episode instead. Happy Holidays either way!

Get that puppy into class!

Not much in life is quite as wonderful as a puppy. The sheer joy they bring to everything they do, like running in a field, fetching a ball, sniffing the morning air... right before they pee on the living room carpet, eat the sofa, and bring your shoes into the garage.



Fortunately, Dr. Marty Becker and Gina have some ideas on to have more of the former and less of the latter when it comes to puppies:

Every puppy needs to be guided on the road to good behavior, and along the way many a puppy strays off the path into trouble. The best way to avoid problems is to set up your home and your handling of the puppy so his only choice is to do what’s right and get praised for it.



But what if your puppy makes a mistake? A verbal correction, properly timed and correctly delivered, is usually all you need. Speak low and sharply, but don’t yell at your puppy. Really, all you need to do is to provide a distraction to stop and then redirect the errant behavior.

Next, Gina shares some insight about iguanas from my colleague at kingsnake.com, Melissa Kaplan:

In the wild, reports Melissa Kaplan in her marvelous book “Iguanas for Dummies” (Wiley, $20), iguanas keep themselves sort of clean by rubbing against rough bark or dousing themselves in swimming holes. In captivity, rough bark and swimming holes are rare, which is why Kaplan recommends frequent—as often as daily—bathing for these pets.



Fill the bathtub chest-deep to the iguana and let the pet enjoy the warm water—no soap, please!—to his heart’s content. Blot the animal dry with a towel and return him to his enclosure before thoroughly disinfecting the tub.

Plus: news on the Morris Animal Foundation; tips on turning your love of pets into profit; and what to do if your significant other doesn't like your pets:

Compromise. And if compromise isn’t an option, I’d really think twice about having this man move in. I think you’ll be having more problems down the line living with someone who won’t compromise on an issue as important to you as a beloved pet.



Let’s take this one complaint at a time. He doesn’t like cats, but maybe you don’t like something he does or has. I’m not a relationship counselor, but I do know that in a relationship, everyone has to tolerate what a partner cares about. He doesn’t have to like your cat, but he will have to tolerate the animal. The ball’s in his court on that one.

All this and more, in our Pet Connection newspaper feature, which you can read right here!

Rescuing pit bulls from fighters: Oklahoma shows Houston how it ' s done

When I read about what happened to 187 pit bulls "rescued" from dog fighters in Houston, I had to go check the dictionary for a definition of "rescue." Funnily enough, not one mention was made of mass slaughter, even though that's exactly what happened to every single one of those dogs.



There was a time when that was pretty much standard operating procedure, of course, although we thought and hoped that day was done since the amazing work done rehabbing and placing the Michael Vick pit bulls by groups like Bad Rap and Best Friends. Then Houston came along with its killing machine, and I started losing all hope again.



But hope is a funny thing, isn't it? Because it's back again, all bright and shiny, since I read last night how the good people of Kay County, Oklahoma, working with the Oklahoma Alliance for Animals, saved 94 pit bulls from what sounds like a terrible situation -- not just fighting, but abandonment and severe neglect -- and then... sit down, I know this will shock you... evaluated the dogs on an individual basis and tried to make a rational, compassionate decision about each one.



And then they turned over the dogs they thought could be rehabilitated to Bad Rap in California. From the Cowley County News Cow:

A pit bull rescue and advocacy program based in the San Francisco area took as many of the pit bulls found starving in a rural area of Newkirk that the agency felt could be safely placed with families, Ruth Steinberger, state outreach coordinator for the Oklahoma Alliance for Animals, said.



She would not say how many of the 94 animals were taken to California and how many had to be euthanized.



"There were a lot of feelings every direction. Some feel the dogs should be euthanized because there could be very serious aggressive issues with other animals," Steinberger said. "Some felt we should try to save all the dogs.



"Most people are not experts. We are not experts," she said."Bad Rap (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls) worked with some of the (professional football player Michael) Vick's dogs."



Vick is serving a 23 month sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth for federal dog fighting convictions.



Some involved with the care of the more than 100 pit bulls discovered in Oklahoma by hunters Dec. 2 feel the dogs were being used with good dogs to fight or practice.



One of the 96 dogs staked outside had to be euthanized right away. Ten puppies were found in a barn. Ten more were found in a house. Several of the puppies died as well. There were 94 dogs left when the Kay County court placed the animals in the care of the state alliance.



"This is the cruelest thing I ever saw," Kay County Sheriff Everette VanHoesen said. This goes way beyond abuse and neglect."

Now, did they err on the side of caution? Maybe. I'm not there and I'm certainly no authority on rehabbing fighting dogs, and one earlier news story suggested that all the adults would have to be killed due to extreme aggression not just with dogs but with people. And the Alliance won't say how many of the dogs were saved and how many killed. But the point is that they wanted to make good, individual decisions. They actually wanted to save as many of the dogs as possible, consistent with safety. And Bad Rap has reported they did just that:

For now, we can tell you that many pit bulls were saved from this horrible situation and the rest that couldn't be saved were treated with compassion and kindness before they left.

Hey, Houston... you should try it next time. Unless you just like killing dogs you've "saved."



Bad Rap's slideshow of the rescued dogs is here. Bring lots of tissue.

Soliciting a click

Could any of my readers who use Facebook please come over and click on the Dogged page there? They seem to need evidence of my existence to link to the blog, and amusingly they think that your clicks prove I'm real.

Click here.

Thanks, everyone!

PS, feel free to add my personal page on Facebook, too! That's here.