Category: Companion Animals

Ontario introduces pit bull ban bill

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

TORONTO–Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant on October
26, 2004 introduced an amendment to the Dog Owners’ Liability Act
which would ban breeding, selling, and importing pit bull terriers
into the province.
The amendment also doubles to $10,000 the top fine and
provides a possible sentence of up to six months in jail for
possession of “any dangerous dog who bites, attacks, or otherwise
poses a menace to public safety.”
Explained Bryant, “Those who currently own pit bulls will be
able to keep their dogs. However, these dogs will have to be
muzzled and on leashes while in public, and spayed or neutered.
Municipalities can also add further restrictions.”
Kitchener banned pit bulls in 1997. “Since our ban,
Kitchener has sen a dramatic decline in the number of pit bull
attacks from 18 to about one per year,” mayor Carl Zehr told
Canadian Press.

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Amish puppy mills lose two rounds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

LANCASTER, Pa.– Communities in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the puppy mill
hub of the eastern U.S., have twice in three
weeks said “No” to kennel permit applications
from would-be dog breeders and established
breeders seeking to expand.
Penn Township farmer James Hess on
October 20, 2004 withdrew his application to
convert a pig barn into a 225-dog kennel near
Silverwood Estates, an upscale residential
development.
The Providence Township Zoning Hearing
Board on Nov-ember 9 refused to issue a kennel
permit to boxer breeder John King.
“Monica Goepfert, who attends township
kennel application hearings, reported that the
zoning board members were unanimous. The zoning
officer also ordered King to stop dumping dead
farm animals on his property,” e-mailed New
Jersey Consumers Against Pet Shop Abuse.

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Ohio Supreme Court partially dumps dog law

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

COLUMBUS–The Ohio Supreme Court on September 22 ruled 4-3
that the part of the Ohio law requiring restraint of “dangerous and
vicious” dogs is unconstitutional because it does not allow the
owners to contest the “dangerous and vicious” designation before they
are criminally charged.
“We find it inherently unfair that a dog owner must defy the
statutory regulations and become a criminal defendant, thereby
risking going to jail and losing her property, in order to challenge
a dog warden’s unilateral decision to classify her property,” wrote
Justice Francis Sweeney for the majority.
Janice Cowan, 50, of Mogadore, argued that her German
shepherd and two of the dog’s mixed-breed offspring were unjustly
killed after the two mixed-breed dogs mauled neighbor Margaret
Maurer, on Maurer’s property. The dogs were chained, but the
chains apparently allowed them to range beyond Cowan’s property.
Cowan was subsequently convicted of four misdemeanors for failing to
properly confine the dogs. A three-judge panel from the Ohio 11th
District Court of Appeals rejected two of Cowan’s three claims of
unjust treatment, but agreed 2-1 that Portage County violated her
right of due process.

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Three years for using dog to “discipline” kids

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2004:

PORTLAND, Oregon–Washington County Presiding Judge Marco
Hernandez on September 23, 2004 sentenced David E. Hoskins, 46,
of Hillsboro, to serve three years in prison for disciplining his
7-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son for at least two years by
allowing a dog named Nigel to attack them.
After completing his prison term, Hoskins is to have contact
with the children during the next two years only with the written
consent of child welfare workers.
The sentence was widely seen as far too light, especially in
comparison to the 10-year sentence given earlier in September to
dogfighter Carey D. McMillian, 23, of Dallas, Texas, who was
charged with a single incident. (Page 14.)
Hernandez indicated that he would issue an even lighter
sentence on October 14 to the children’s mother, Joyce Hoskins, 47,
“based on the woman’s limited mental abilities,” wrote Holly Danks
of the Portland Oregonian.
Neighbor Voight Barnhardt called police on March 19 in
response to screams from the girl.
“Officers found Joyce Hoskins more worried about the animal
than her daughter, who was bleeding on a bed” from at least 12 bite
wounds that will cause permanent scarring, summarized Danks of
testimony by deputy district attorney Andrew Erwin.

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BOOKS: Pep: The Story Of A Brave Dog

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2004:

Humane Education Classic

Pep: The Story Of A Brave Dog
by Clarence Hawkes
Illustrated by William Van Dresser
Milton Bradley Co. (Springfield, Mass.), 1922.

“Pep is a purposeful book–the story of a faithful,
intelligent dog, which should help to do for the dog what Anna
Sewell’s Black Beauty did for the horse,” opined William H.
Micheals, superintendent of schools in Media, Pennsylvania, in
prefacing the 1928 edition of a volume which had already become a
classroom hit.
Pep did not achieve the enduring popularity of Black Beauty,
and frankly is not at that level of literary skill. It has not been
reprinted for many decades now, though it was once a staple of
humane education.
It is still a page-turner. Several generations of my family
have enjoyed Pep, and I found on rereading it for the first time in
42 years that it still held my interest, not least because author
Clarence Hawkes is convincing when he narrates from the dog’s point
of view.

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Editorial feature: The Fund, HSUS, & merging packs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

Rumors that the Fund for Animals and the
Humane Society of the U.S. are holding merger
talks reached ANIMAL PEOPLE on July 26.
Confirmation came a few days later.
In the interim, on July 30, five closely
spaced shotgun blasts followed by frantic yelping
disturbed the woods about half a mile from our
remote rural office. Someone apparently dumped
two black Labrador retriever mixes, a mother and
nearly grown son, and fired the shots to keep
the dogs from following his truck.
Ignoring rabbits who boldly ran right in
front of them, the dogs survived by scavenging
for several days before stumbling upon the
feeding station we set up for them.
For almost a month, we fed and watered
them at the same spot–waiting more than a week
for box traps to arrive, and then waiting for
the dogs to get used to the traps enough to begin
eating inside them. Finally the dogs were
caught, first the mother and then the pup.
Now comes the even more difficult process
of integrating the two new dogs into our pack of
three older dogs.

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PetCo urges “Think adoption first”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

SAN DIEGO–Customers seeking any live animal at any of the
680 PetCo Animal Supplies Inc. stores will now be advised to “Think
Adoption First,” the PetCo Foundation announced on August 20 at the
2004 Conference on Homeless Animal Management and Policy.
“PetCo does not sell dogs and cats, and for almost 40 years
has worked with shelters to find homes for adoptable animals, but
our stores offer small animals, reptiles, and birds,” spokesperson
Shawn Underwood said. “As part of ‘Think Adoption First,’
PetCo–with the help of Petfinder.com –will reach out to shelters
that offer these other animals for adoption. Although PetCo will
continue to offer companion animals in their stores, they will
encourage customers to seek adoptable animals in the community as a
first option.”
“Working with more than 7,100 animal welfare organizations,
Petfinder.com offers a searchable data base of adoptable animals,”
Underwood said.
Petfinder claims to have helped place more than 1.5 million
animals in 2003.
As a separate but parallel test, four PetCo stores in the
Minneapolis area in July 2004 began offering rabbits for adoption
from the Minnesota House Rabbit Society.

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Reducing the vehicular accident risk to dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.–“Dear Abby” advice columnist Jeanne
Phillips, a frequent defender of animals, on August 8, 2004 urged
vehicular restraint–“the kind that buckles”–for dogs as well as
children.
Phillips was responding to a letter entitled “Grieving In
Lexington, Kentucky,” from a man whose dog was killed by traffic
after falling out of the bed of a pickup truck.
Phillips, daughter of column founder Pauline Phillips,
previously urged vehicular restraint of dogs in December 1999 and
January 2000.
University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center
associate director Jane Stutts in 2001 reported that about 1% of all
traffic accidents appear to be caused by an unrestrained dog
distracting a driver.
“That’s not piddly, because cell phones accounted for only
2%,” Stutts told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
According to Stutts’ figures, based on 412 narrative
accounts of accidents that occurred in 1998, unrestrained dogs in
vehicles may be responsible for about 440 human deaths per year.

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Standardizing microchips

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

ORLANDO–Iams company spokesperson Kelly Vanasse, addressing
the 2004 Conference on Homeless Animal Management & Policy in
Orlando, Florida, announced on August 22 that Iams is prepared to
donate 30,000 microchip scanners to humane societies, animal control
agencies, and veterinarians throughout the U.S.–if the makers will
cooperate to produce a scanner that reads both the 125-kilohertz
chips that are most used in the U.S. and the 134-kilohertz chips that
are recommended by the International Standards Organization.
The 125-kv chips are made by Avid Identification Systems and
Digital Angel Inc., and are used by the Schering Plough Animal
Health “Home Again” program. The 134-kv ISO chips are distributed in
the U.S. by PetHealth Services and Crystal Tag. The latter is the
chip provider to Banfield, The Pet Hospital Inc., but Banfield has
suspended microchipping pets until it is convinced that an adequate
number of 134-kv scanners are in use in the U.S. to make the program
effective.
Avid has sued PetHealth Services and Banfield, and has been
countersued by PetHealth acting through the Coalition for Reuniting
Pets & Families, over issues including alleged patent infringement,
unfair competition, and false advertising.
Vanasse told ANIMAL PEOPLE that the Iams proposal could be
worth about $5 million in equipment costs to the humane community,
and that the scanner purchases could be allocated among the various
chip makers so that each gets a fair share of the income.

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