This vidoe was posted on Roger Davis’ Facebook page in the last day.
By way of background, Roger and I were running companies from the same office base in Colchester, Essex, England back in the 1980s and it was Roger who introduced me to gliding, or sail-planing in American speak.. Here’s a short extract from a previous LfD post in 2014.
My first exposure to private flying was on the 7th June, 1981 when, at Rattlesden Gliding Club in Suffolk, I was taken up for two air-experience circuits in a two-seater glider known as a ‘K7’. I was immediately hooked! Those experience flights leading to a 4-minute flight (flight number 46) on the 6th September, 1981 that has the remark in my pilot’s log book: Solo! Now fast forward to October, 1984 and my log book shows me attending a gliding instructor’s course at Lasham, resulting in me being issued with a British Gliding Association (BGA) Assistant Instructor Rating on the 14th October. (105/84).
A K-7 two-seat glider.
Anyway, here’s the item that just had to be shared:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.
That very well-known quotation from Wm. Shakespeare was the obvious sub-title to today’s post.
You will be aware that I have written several times previously about Pit Bull dogs. But I would like to draw your attention to a post that was published here back in 2013. It was called In praise of Pit Bull dogs and featured a guest post from Noella Schink, in Portland, Maine, where she then lived and played with her 3-year-old pit bull mix, Addie, 8-year old shih-tzu, Brutus, and 2-year old hound, Lula. Apart from all of them being a little older I trust nothing else has changed.
That post in 2013 also included a picture of our gorgeous Casey, as follows.
Casey doing what dogs do so well – picking up scents around his home.
Over on the Care2 petition site there was a compelling case being made for Pit Bulls to be given a different name. Read it and see if you are convinced of the need.
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How We Could Save More Dogs From Death Row by Changing One Thing
Whether we like it or not, labels matter — even for dogs. New research from Arizona State University published in PLOS ONE, suggests labels could even lead to a potential death sentence, if you’re a pit bull.
Pit Bulls Wait 3 Times as Long to be Adopted
The pit bull went from America’s darling dog to one of the most feared (and misunderstood) dogs today. Their fall from grace is evident in stories like Olive’s. Olive the Pit Bull was brought in as a stray and stayed in the shelter for approximately 11 years. Olive was lucky enough to find her forever home, but so many dogs like her aren’t — and our arbitrary labels aren’t helping their cause.
According to Science Daily, researchers from Arizona State University wanted to know if breed identification influences adoption. The researchers found that dogs labeled as “pit bulls” could wait three times as long to be adopted from shelters into their forever homes compared to their lookalikes without the label or labelled as another breed.
Compared to other breeds, like Labradors, pits were perceived as less friendly and more aggressive. They also were considered less “attractive” than their lookalikes. Weird, right?
Even the researchers were surprised by how much the pit bull label influences perception and, ultimately, adoption. As researcher Lisa Gunter from Arizona State University explains, “We were surprised how very similar looking dogs sometimes get labelled ‘pit bull’ and other times as something completely different. These dogs may look and act the same, but the pit bull label damns them to a much longer wait to adoption,” reports Science Daily.
Ultimately, the researchers recommend losing the pit bull label to stop inadvertently penalizing these dogs in the shelter setting.
Heartbreaking Pit Bull Statistics
If you thought that Olive’s story was sad, she’s actually one of the lucky ones — not only for getting adopted, but for staying in the shelter system for the 11 years that she did.
According to Pit Bull Rescue Central (PBCR) 200 pit bulls are euthanized in Los Angeles County animal shelters every single day.
PBCR emphasizes that “for homeless pit bulls the death sentence is almost always automatic.”
Villalobos Rescue Center (made popular by the TV show Pit Bulls and Parolees) had this to say about the pit bull plight in Los Angeles: “The pit bull population has now risen to 40% of all the dogs in 12 shelters in Los Angeles. That means that almost half of the entire Los Angeles dog population is pits or pit mixes! Most are strays, tossed out like dirty laundry. It’s heartbreaking.”
Sadly, the plight of pit bulls is not limited to Los Angeles County. A 2013 Nat Geo Wild infographic reveals that:
60 percent of the total dogs euthanized in U.S. shelters are pit bulls
30 percent of the total dogs admitted to shelters are labeled pit bulls
86.7 percent of pit bulls admitted to open admission shelters are euthanized
Do you know what the worst part of this sad situation is? There’s no such thing as a pit bull.
As Bark Post explains, the pit bull label is just “an umbrella term that most people use to refer to different types of dogs – the American Pit Bull Terrier, the American Staffordshire Terrier, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, any mixes thereof, and any dog that vaguely resembles these dogs.”
The breed isn’t real, but the stigma has real consequences. And time and again pit bulls prove that they can be great dogs with the correct guidance and training when they get a second chance. Remember how Jericho the Pit Bull went from death row to being an amazing service dog?
Take Action!
Sign and share this petition urging animal rescuers to lose the stigmatizing pit bull label that unnecessarily penalizes innocent dogs. It’s a matter of life and death.
Only idiots believe that pit bulls are bad! When are some morons going to finally wake up and realize bad owners are responsible for bad dogs! BSL should be banned everywhere. We must never stop fighting to end the senseless killing of this breed.
I have so much admiration for the rescuers, like Jean was in Mexico. They have the biggest hearts, and see the absolute worst of things.
Then a few moments later, a further reply from John:
And to rescue the abused ones. To find them, then live in that lag time before they are freed. I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I don’t have the disposition for it. I’d be physically ill.
Thus the minimum that I can do is to promote the incredible work done by the Rogue Valley Humane Society; just one among many.
For example, by republishing what they present on their About page.
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About The Rogue Valley Humane Society
Our Vision
The Rogue Valley Humane Society envisions a community where every healthy adoptable companion animal has a lifetime, loving home and all homeless animals receive the care and compassion they deserve until they are adopted by their forever family.
Our Story
Fifty years ago homeless animals in the Rogue Valley faced a death sentence if no one adopted them within a few days. In 1965 a small group of animal lovers decided to try to change that, and they started a rescue to give homeless, abused, and abandoned pets in Josephine County a safe haven without a time limit. The Rogue Valley Humane Society grew out of this grassroots effort. RVHS was incorporated in 1965 as a non-profit public benefit corporation dedicated to providing love, food, shelter, and medical attention to these animals until they can find new lifetime homes.
Thirty-five years later the current facility opened with the capacity to house 14 dogs and 80 cats plus litters of puppies and kittens. Our main building houses all of the cats plus the office, laundry and medical room. The separate kennel building has indoor/outdoor runs. The Robert E. and Jennifer Murphy Canine Care Building was built in 2013 to house newborn puppies and any dog needing a quiet place to heal.
Throughout the years we’ve had one singular goal: to improve the lives of animals. We are proud to show RVHS to visitors so they can see first-hand the standard of care we give to every homeless companion animal, from an elderly, blind dog to a day old kitten.
The Rogue Valley Humane Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. We provide shelter, food, medical care and personal attention for hundreds of homeless dogs and cats every year. We are here for the young and cuddly, the old, sick and neglected, and everything in between.
We receive no county, state or federal funds and rely solely on individual and foundation grants to carry out our mission.
Our Mission
The Rogue Valley Humane Society provides compassionate care for stray, unwanted, displaced, and abandoned animals and works toward ending pet overpopulation so that there will be no more homeless pets. We are committed to placing every healthy, adoptable animal in a loving lifetime home, teaching responsible pet guardianship, and maintaining community spay-neuter programs.
Our Core Values
We believe that every animal’s life has value and is worthy of respect and protection.
We believe that euthanizing healthy, adoptable animals is not acceptable.
We believe that animals contribute to the health, happiness and quality of human life.
We believe that we must manage our resources to assure the long-term future of our organization.
We believe in providing quality medical and shelter care by following evidence-based animal welfare practices.
We believe that through humane education we can help foster compassion, protection and guardianship for companion animals.
We believe that we should treat everyone with dignity and respect. Community members, staff, and volunteers are partners in improving the welfare of animals and helping us fulfill our Mission.
We believe that we can end pet overpopulation by adhering to our commitment to spay/neuter all of our animals before adoption and by providing community-assistance spay-neuter programs.
We believe that we best serve our community by placing healthy companion animals in responsible, loving homes.
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By promoting their Facebook page (look them up).
By enjoying some of the pictures on their website of dogs looking for homes:
My name is Rudy. I WAS extremely shy and nervous in the beginning. After a little love and patience, as you can see in the video I have come out of my shell. I love to hang out with both my human and furry friends and to be kept busy. I cherish my daily walks and because I’m a thinking I have a great fondness for brain toys.
Border Collie
Spayed/Neutered
Up-to-date with routine shots
Spayed/Neutered
And …
Labrador Retriever, American Staffordshire Terrier
My name is Margo. I am sweet girl looking for a new lease on life. I promise to give you lots of love and attention, if you promise me the same thing. I’m sure we can come to an agreement and live happily ever after! Sounds good to me!
“All that evil needs to succeed is for good people to do nothing.”
You will recall that on the 8th March I published a post called Anger Alert. It was about raising awareness for “Stella has spent the last two years locked in a 3-by-9 foot cage in a kennel in Devon, England. She has never been let out to exercise or play.”
I included a link to a Care2 Petition that as of now has been signed by nearly 38,000 persons including many who read this blog. Thank you. Keep Stella in your thoughts.
Regretably, Stella’s imprisonment has not yet come to an end but here is a good news story that underlines why we must always keep fighting for the things we believe need to be changed.
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Over 61,000 Care2 Activists Want To Save These Dogs From Euthanasia
When Kirstyn Smith heard that 31 pit bulls had been rescued from a dog-fighting ring in her native Ontario, Canada, she was thrilled, but then she learned there was a catch: Officials had plans to euthanize the dogs, rather than free them. That’s when she jumped into action and decided to create a Care2 petition.
That petition now has over 61,000 signatures, as people around the world react to the horrifying and deeply unfair death sentence.
Here’s what Smith wrote in her petition:
“My name is Kirstyn Smith and I have been following a very heart-breaking story since October 2015. The town of Chatham-Kent, ON fell victim to a horrible and cruel act where 31 pitbull-type dogs were seized from an alleged dog fighting-ring.
These animals need our help.
Please sign and share this petition to demand that these dogs are treated humanely, medically taken care of and rehabilitated in order to live out their lives away from torture and neglect.”
Close To Victory
On March 10, she issued this update to her petition:
“We are so close! The accused have agreed to hand over ownership to Dog Tales Sanctuary in King City, ON. This is incredible news, but we still need the Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services to give proper designation which will allow the dogs to legally reside in Ontario. Thank you to each and every one of you for your support on this long journey!!”
Smith is referring to the fact that pit bulls are banned in the province of Ontario, and only a pound can take in pit bull-type dogs. However, Dog Tales is not a pound, so the sanctuary must make a special application in an effort to get the designation that will allow them to take in the pit bulls.
This of course is not unique to Ontario. Pit bulls are banned or restricted in most Canadian provinces; in the U.S., over 700 cities have enacted breed-specific legislationwhich is any ordinance, or dog law, that relates to specific dog breeds but does not affect any others.
The next court date will be March 18, and there will likely be another one after that, but things are moving forward in a positive way, thanks largely to Smith’s persistence and the awesome support of those 61,000 Care2 activists.
An Awesome Sanctuary
If justice prevails, these dogs will move to their new home, which CTV News London describes as an “opulent sanctuary in King City, Ontario, which is owned by one of Canada’s richest families.”
“The issues present are nothing that we haven’t seen before, and nothing that we feel cannot be changed with time, patience, and the proper technique,” says Clare Forndran, a spokesperson at Dog Tales Rescue and Sanctuary.
“At Dog Tales we are fortunate enough to have the facilities and the resources to provide for our dogs in ways that many other shelters cannot,” owner Danielle Eden said in an email.
While this story has come a long way and is very close to a happy ending, it’s not quite there yet.
You can help rescue these dogs from a death sentence by signing Smith’s petition, asking the authorities to treat these animals humanely, and take care of them so that they can live out their lives away from torture and neglect.
And if you have a cause that you care deeply about, and want to make a difference in the world, you can create your own petition, just as Kirstyn Smith did. You’ll soon find the Care2 community of activists ready to join you in your cause. And if you’d like to read more about petitions, you can check out this handy guide.
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So, please, if you are not one of those 61,000 who have already signed this petition then, without delay, go here and add your support to this wonderful cause.
What is deeply fascinating, at a number of levels, is how time only goes one way. At every single level of our experience, from the scale of the universe down to the tiniest particle known to science, it all flows forward. The arrow of time!
I was reminded of this interesting question of time in a book that has been published by a local Oregon author, John Taylor Our Curious UNIVERSE (the book is not available online otherwise I would have linked to it.)
It got me thinking of age. How we are all aging. How there is nothing that we can do to stop it. How the only thing we can do is to change our relationship with age. That then reminded me of an item that was published on The Conversation site a week ago that I wanted to share with you – share within the terms provided by The Conversation. The article was called It’s time to measure 21st century aging with 21st century tools.
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It’s time to measure 21st century aging with 21st century tools
These stories are dire, in part because the most widely used measure of aging – the old-age dependency ratio, which measures the number of older dependents relative to working-age people – was developed a century ago and implies the consequences of aging will be much worse than they are likely to be. On top of that, this ratio is used in political and economic discussions of topics such as health care costs and the pension burden – things it was not designed to address.
Turning 65 in 2016 doesn’t mean the same thing as hitting 65 in 1916. So instead of relying on the old-age dependency ratio to figure out the impact of aging, we propose using a series of new measures that take changes in life expectancy, labor participation and health spending into account. When you take these new realities into account, the picture looks a lot brighter.
How facts from the census questionnaire were tabulated into statistics in 1950. The U.S. National Archives/Flickr
Our tools to measure aging have aged
The most commonly used measure of population aging is the “old-age dependency ratio,” which is the ratio of the number of people 65 years or older to those 20 to 64.
But, since the old-age dependency ratio was introduced in the early 1900s, most countries have experienced a century of rising life expectancy, and further increases are anticipated.
For instance, in 1914, life expectancy at birth in Sweden was 58.2 years (average for both sexes). By 2014, it had risen to 82.2 years. In 1935, when the U.S Social Security Act was signed into law, 65-year-olds were expected to live 12.7 more years, on average. In 2013, 65 year-olds may expect to live 19.5 years more.
But these changes aren’t reflected in the conventional statistics on aging. Nor is the fact that many people don’t just stop working when they turn 65, and that people are staying healthier for longer.
To get a better sense of what population aging really means today, we decided to develop a new set of measures that take these new realities into account to replace the old-age dependency ratio. And instead of one ratio, we created several ratios to evaluate health care costs, labor force participation and pensions.
Who retires at 65 anymore?
One of these new realities is that the number of people working into their late 60’s and beyond is going up. In 1994, 26.8 percent of American men aged 65-69 participated in the labor force. That figure climbed to 36.1 percent in 2014 and is forecast to reach 40 percent by 2024. And the trend is similar for even older men, with 17 percent of those aged 75-79 expected to still be working in a decade, up from just 10 percent in 1994.
Clearly, these older people did not get the message that they were supposed to become old-age dependents when they turned 65.
Depot Supervisor Eric Headley, 74, takes a call on his mobile phone while at work for Pimlico Plumbers in London July 29, 2010. Britain announced plans to scrap the fixed retirement age next year, saying it wanted to give people the chance to work beyond 65, but business leaders warned the move would create serious problems. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett.
This isn’t unique to the U.S. Rates like these in many countries have been rising. In the U.K., for instance, the labor force participation rate of 65- to 69-year-old men was 24.2 percent in 2014, and in Israel it was 50.2 percent, up from 14.8 percent and 27.4 percent, respectively, in 2000. In part this is because older people now often have better cognitive functioning than their counterparts who were born a decade earlier.
So, instead of assuming that people work only from ages 20 to 64 and become old-age dependents when they hit 65, we have computed “economic dependency ratios” that take into account observations and forecasts of labor force participation rates. This tells us how many adults not in the labor force there are for every adult in the labor force, giving us a more accurate picture than using 65 as a cutoff point. We used forecasts produced by the International Labour Organization to figure this out.
The old-age dependency ratio in the U.S. is forecast to increase by 61 percent from 2013 to 2030. But using our economic dependency ratio, the ratio of adults in the labor force to adults not in the labor force increases by just 3 percent over that period.
Clearly, doom and gloom stories about U.S. workers having to support so many more nonworkers in the future may need to be reconsidered.
Is the health care burden going to be so high?
Another reality is that while health care costs will go up with an older population, they won’t rise as much as traditional forecasts estimate.
Instead of assuming that health care costs rise dramatically on people’s 65th birthdays, as the old-age dependency ratio implicitly does, we have produced an indicator that takes into account the fact that most of the health care costs of the elderly are incurred in their last few years of life. Increasing life expectancy means those final few years happen at ever later ages.
In Japan, for example, when the burden of the health care costs of people aged 65 and up on those 20-64 years old is assessed using only the conventional old-age dependency ratio, that burden is forecast to increase 32 percent from 2013 to 2030. When we compute health care costs based on whether people are in the last few years of their lives, the burden increases only 14 percent.
Pension ages are going up
The last reality we considered concerns pensions.
In most OECD countries, the age at which someone can begin collecting a full public pension is rising. In a number of countries, such as Sweden, Norway and Italy, pension payouts are now explicitly linked to life expectancy.
In Germany, the full pension age will rise from 65 to 67 in 2029. In the U.S., it used to be 65, is now 66 and will soon rise to 67.
Instead of assuming that everyone receives a full public pension at age 65, which is what the old-age dependency ratio implicitly does, we have computed a more realistic ratio, called the pension cost dependency ratio, that incorporates a general relationship between increases in life expectancy and the pension age. The pension cost dependency ratio shows how fast the burden of paying public pensions is likely to grow.
For instance, in Germany, the old-age dependency ratio is forecast to rise by 49 percent from 2013 to 2030, but 65-year-old Germans will not be eligible for a full pension in 2030. Our pension cost dependency ratio increases by 26 percent over the same period. Instead of indicating that younger Germans will have to pay 49 percent more to support pensioners in 2030 compared to what they paid in 2013, taking planned increases in the full pension age into account, we see that the increase is 26 percent.
Pranom Chartyothin, a 72-year-old bus conductor, sells and collects bus tickets in downtown Bangkok, Thailand, February 3, 2016. Such scenes will only become more common in Thailand as its population rapidly ages, unlike its neighbours with more youthful populations. The World Bank estimates the working-age population will shrink by 11 percent by 2040, the fastest contraction among Southeast Asia’s developing countries. Thailand’s stage of economic development, the rising cost of living and education, and a population waiting longer to get married are among the reasons it is ageing more quickly than its neighbours. An effective contraception programme in the 1970s also played a part, said Sutayut Osornprasop, a human development specialist at the World Bank in Thailand. Picture taken February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Jorge Silva.
Sixty-five just isn’t that old anymore
In addition to this suite of measures focused on particular aspects of population aging, it is also useful to have a general measure of population aging. We call our general measure of population aging the prospective old-age dependency ratio.
People do not suddenly become old-age dependents on their 65th birthdays. From a population perspective, it makes more sense to classify people as being old when they are getting near the end of their lives. Failing to adjust who is categorized as old based on the changing characteristics of people and their longevity can make aging seem faster than it will be.
In our prospective old-age dependency ratio, we define people as old when they are in age groups where the remaining life expectancy is 15 years or less. As life expectancy increases, this threshold of old age increases.
In the U.K., for instance, the conventional old-age dependency ratio is forecast to increase by 33 percent by 2030. But when we allow the old-age threshold to change with increasing life expectancy, the resulting ratio increases by just 13 percent.
Populations are aging in many countries, but the conventional old-age dependency ratio makes the impact seem worse than it will be. Fortunately, better measures that do not exaggerate the effects of aging are now just a click away.
I’m not going to rant on about there never being a dangerous dog just as me saying that there never is a dangerous person is clearly factually incorrect. But they are rare!
In yesterday’s post, I shared the terrible news about Stella, a female Pit Bull mix, that because of her breed, and nothing else, has been locked up by The Devon and Cornwall Police for over two years. Sharon Stone’s petition over on the Care@ website has, at the time of writing this yesterday, received nearly 16,000 signings!
To support the proposition that for the vast majority of dogs, of all breeds, it is how they are loved and cared for by us humans that makes the difference, let me republish a post from a couple of years ago. For we have a Pit Bull mix here at home and he is the most wonderful, caring dog one could ever wish for. Here’s that post.
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Meet the dogs – Casey
On to dog number five.
If you are new to this series then Ruby’s story of last week will link you to all the dogs written about so far. Today, here is Jean’s account of how Casey became part of the family.
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Casey
Casey, at home; picture taken a month ago.
Every Friday, the Payson Roundup newspaper would devote a full page to the Humane Society, displaying some of the cats and dogs they had for adoption. I would read about each animal and quietly wish I could bring them all home.
I was particularly taken with one dog that had appeared several times in this Friday page. His name was Casey and he was a six-year-old Pit Bull mix. Unfortunately, at home (we were then living in Payson, AZ) we were ‘maxed out’ with a total of 14 dogs in three different sections of our house. We just couldn’t take Casey.
I had volunteered to be a dog-walker at the Humane Society dog shelter. But after two sessions walking dogs, I just couldn’t look at these sad little faces without breaking down in tears. I switched my efforts to working at the Society’s Thrift Store. That was great fun and, at least, it felt as though I was still helping the animals. Nonetheless, I was very impressed with the animal shelter. They did their utmost to re-home the animals in their care.
Ruby’s ‘pack’ here at home included Phoebe and Tess, rescue dogs from Mexico. Recently, Phoebe had died with leukaemia and Tess with bone cancer leaving Ruby on her own. Ruby was a dog that didn’t mix at all well with the other dogs, as was explained in last week’s post.
The next Friday, the Payson Roundup showed the Society’s ‘lonely hearts club’, highlighting animals that had been in care for a long time. The first dog shown was Casey. I telephone Chandra, the lady responsible for adoptions, and asked if Paul and I could bring Ruby to the shelter to find a companion for her. When we were at the shelter, Chandra asked us if we had anything against Pit Bulls. Of course we didn’t. Ruby was introduced to Casey and, as they say, the rest was history. Casey and Ruby right from the start were just wonderful together.
Ruby behind Casey.
Subsequently, I learned from Chandra that Casey had been in care for over a year and, had we not taken him home, his days were numbered at the shelter. There were many cheers and tears when I signed the adoption paper for Casey.
Casey now lives in the kitchen group here in Oregon: Paloma, Ruby, Lilly and Casey. As with all our dogs, Casey is so happy to have our 14 acres to play in. He is also the sweetest natured of dogs and will try to climb on to your lap at the first opportunity. I have always been a great advocate of Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes and have never come across a mean one.
Thus, if you are in the position to adopt a dog, please consider Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes for the Pit Bull is a much-maligned breed.
Casey demonstrating a dog’s focussing skills!
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If there is any news about Stella’s fate I will share that with all you dear readers without delay.
Before leaving England in 2008 to be with my Jeannie, I lived in South Devon. Lived in the small village of Harberton, just a few miles west of Totnes. But never had cause to form an opinion, good or bad, of my local police force: The Devon and Cornwall Police. Until now!
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Why Did Police Keep a Dog Locked in a Cage for 2 Years?
Stella has spent the last two years locked in a 3-by-9 foot cage in a kennel in Devon, England. She has never been let out to exercise or play.
In 2014, Stella was taken away by police from her owner, Antony Hastie, because she was “potentially dangerous.” Did she bite or attack someone? No. Under the UK’s Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, Stella is illegal and considered a threat to public safety – but only because of her breed. Stella is a pit bull mix.
Stella was taken to a private kennel owned by Devon and Cornwall Police. She was put in a cage that she has only been allowed to leave twice in the past two years, and only for behavior assessments.
“We were always told not to exercise or go into a kennel with any dogs, regardless of character, that had been brought in under the Dangerous Dogs Act,” Laura Khanlarian, who worked at the kennel, told BBC News.
“We were under no circumstances allowed to touch any of those dogs — which was hard,” Khanlarian said. “Animal welfare comes before anything, and that was my job. I don’t believe I would be doing it properly if I would sit back and think that’s okay. It wasn’t okay — it’s not okay.”
The dogs that were “so kind and needed us the most for reassurance – we were never able to give that to them,” she told SWNS TV.
Khanlarian lost her job when she breached her employment contract by interacting with the seized dogs.
Contrary to Khanlarian’s eyewitness account, Devon and Cornwall Police issued a statement claiming that of the hundred or so dogs they’ve seized over the past two years, Stella was the only one deemed too dangerous to be exercised by kennel staff.
All dogs “must have daily access to outdoor safe and secure areas, away from the kennel area and this should be at least 30 minutes per day,” the guide states (yes, “must” is emphasized in bold).
The Dangerous Dogs Act is breed-specific legislation (BSL), laws that apply only to certain breeds (usually pit bulls). BSL is opposed in the United States by virtually every major animal welfare organization because it punishes well-behaved dogs and responsible owners. Besides, it’s expensive to enforce and has not proven to increase public safety anywhere that it’s been enacted.
“It’s terrible. It’s unjustified. It’s wasting huge amounts of money and it’s not doing a single thing to prevent dog bites,” Kendal Shepherd, a veterinarian and animal behavior expert with 30 years of experience working with dogs, told BBC News. “It’s cruel. But it’s what our system forces us to do.”
Stella’s owner has gone to court 11 times over the past two years, trying in vain to get his beloved dog back. She had never showed any signs of aggression before she was seized, he said.
But Cornwall and Devon Police said — in the same statement in which they claimed Stella was the only dog in their kennel not let out of her cage – that Stella had “threatened and shown aggressive behavior toward two Police Community Support Officers,” had shown “aggressive behavior prior to being seized” and “attempted to bite a court appointed independent expert during the dog’s assessment.”
Last month, Torquay Magistrates’ Court ordered Stella to be destroyed.
Stella’s heartbreaking situation is similar to that of Lennox, a therapy dog from Northern Ireland that was seized because he was perceived to be a pit bull mix. Despite an international outcry and pleas for his life from dog experts like Victoria Stilwell, Lennox was euthanized in 2012.
Several rescue organizations in the United States had offered to take in Lennox, to no avail.
Perhaps Animals R Family will have better luck with Stella. The nonprofit rescue has offered to fly her to its headquarters in Connecticut, where BSL is banned.
“Breed specific legislation is wrong and ineffective. In the US, pit bulls are one of the most popular dogs for family pets,” the rescue wrote on its Facebook page.
Inevitably, this was signed by Jean and me seconds after it was read. Please do everything in your power to support this petition and stand behind Sharon, the originator of the Care2 Petition.
Thank you from all of my being. This is wrong on just so many levels it makes me ashamed to be a human or English. You can not torture and destroy animals because of outdated laws. Henry VIII killed people for not being Christian, where would we be if that was still lawful????? Animals only EVER ask for love. I have been around more animals than I have had hot dinners in my life and I’m 50 now. Someone please help me make this a happy ending.
The behaviour of dogs is always a product of the humans who are around them, it is never a function of the dog alone! (And please see my post tomorrow about our own Pit Bull mix.)
Learning from Dogs 