Business as usual: Houston pit bulls confirmed dead
By Gina Spadafori
December 1, 2008
I guess we really did not learn much of anything from the Michael Vick pit bulls after all. At least not in Houston, where authorities apparently missed the point that pit bulls seized in fighting busts should be evaluated as individuals, and many can be placed in homes as loving companions. As has been done with the Vick pits.
Oh well, I guess if you’re not abused by a celebrity, you deserve to die. Sorry about that, dogs. Please choose your abusers more wisely in the future.
Instead of trying to save some of these dogs, the authorities had them all swept into the rendering bins. All 187 dogs from the bust authorities were patting themselves on the back for, so reports the Houston Chronicle, in an article that places this little bit of information confirming the deaths down so low in an article that it seems they completely missed the point, too.
Or maybe they accepted the spin: Pit bulls are monsters. They need to die. Too bad, but what can we do?
BADRAP nails it:
They went for the all-too-common easy out: The most convenient, economical way to deal with an unwanted excess of abuse victims. Instead of assessing the animals or asking for help, they decided to blame the dogs and make them go away. “Euthanized because of aggression.” …. Surely, America will believe that every single one of those 187 was dangerous, because, pit bulls are just freaky scary, right? Who can blame them? Evil, evil pit bulls.
Now that the dogs are ‘officially’ dead, Houston authorities are planning a campaign to curb the fighting they say is on the increase in their counties. “But the crime is more commonly found here among kids or young adults who spontaneously engage in the activity — referred to as “bumping” — on street corners, in parks or near school grounds.” – Assistant DA Smith.
Before they start, Houston might want to look at what’s been helping to make it so acceptable among the kids who do it.
Here’s the rest. All 187? Not one could be placed? C’mon.
I feel so sick about this. Those poor scared dogs. What can we do now that we aren’t already trying? One of those dogs (or more than that) could have been a Hector or a Jonny Justice just waiting for the right people to love him.
Comment by Lori — December 1, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
sorry Gina, but having lived in Texas, and worked in a shelter which took in confiscated pit bulls, I wouldn’t want them back on the streets. No, not all pit bulls were nasty, but in the 2 yrs I volunteered at the shelter, not a single one of them didn’t lunge at the humans that walked by.
And right now, with the economy the way it is, tho I hate to say it, they’re probalby thinking of the more adoptables than the ‘going to take a lot of workables’.
I don’t agree with it, but I wouldn’t put them down. .shelter work is hard work to begin with.
Comment by renee — December 1, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
Well, Renee, shelter work sure isn’t “hard”.. if your solution is just to kill dogs.
Frankly I don’t believe your story about the pit bulls lunging… unless of course you can’t tell the difference between a dog eagerly crowding the front of the cage desperate for human contact and one trying to attack.
Which of course is just one of the problems pit bulls face.. along with the cruel, blind prejudice that slaughters them.
Comment by EmilyS — December 1, 2008 @ 4:55 pm
It also speaks to the mission of these organizations. Is a non-profit animal charity that has animal housing and asks for donations to run it supposed to be … oh, you know … a SHELTER?
Or is it supposed to be convenient animal disposal center?
This is the central issue of the no-kill movement, and of Winograd’s book, “Redemption,” by the way.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 1, 2008 @ 5:16 pm
Yo, I don’t want them “back on the streets” either Renee. Eek - you weren’t in charge of adoptions, I hope?
How about giving them individual evaluations by a qualified canine professional and then matching them with appropriate families who will keep them humanely and safely confined when not directly supervised? Cos that’s my hope for EVERY SHELTER DOG - not just confiscated Pitbulls.
Comment by slt — December 1, 2008 @ 5:29 pm
I decided to write an email to the journalist who wrote the article:
“All 187 dogs seized in the large bust that led to the mass indictments last month, Smith said, were euthanized because of their aggression — an all-too-common end to a life of suffering.”
So where had Harris County been this last year? Off on Mars? No one paying attention to the news? Does the name Michael Vick not mean anything - How about Bad Newz Kennels?
Too bad no one famous was in charge of these dogs. Too bad it didn’t go to Federal court. Too bad a special lawyer was not put in charge of having the dogs evaluated and perhaps handed over to Bad Rap or Best Friends where they might have been rehabilitated or at least allowed to live out their lives with some doggy dignity.
Are you going to tell me honestly that each one of those 187 dogs was evaluated and there was no hope! Not for even one dog?
http://news.bestfriends.org/in.....66E8A09F82
http://www.badrap.org/rescue/
How has America’s favorite pet (it was at one time - really) become this monster in our eyes? I wonder how we appear to them? Perhaps we are the Nazis and they are the Jews of the doggy world. Think about it.
—
Tioraidh an-drasda
Cheryl
When even one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril.
Harry S. Truman
Comment by cheryl — December 1, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
Renee, as a volunteer who walks the shelters in DFW pretty frequently, I can assure, you, we’ve got LOTS of pit bulls in Texas who don’t lunge at the front of cages, including many bust and bite quarantine dogs.
Admittely, I’d say 3/4 of them DO bounce up on the gates to say hi, but that’s a far cry from lunging.
Comment by Cait — December 1, 2008 @ 7:41 pm
Have these people not done any research? Watched TV? Read this blog?
Am staffs, Pitbulls or whatever you call them were also known as Nanny Dogs in England because they helped care for the children.
Now who would do that with a dangerous dog?
A dog stressed out at a shelter or A/C, with other dogs barking, smell of blood, feces and death, crappy food, disease, and strangers, sleeping in many cases on a cold cement floor is not the time nor place to judge a dogs character!
Yes, many dogs aren’t stressed, but give them a break! Some are!
Comment by Danielle — December 1, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
Renee, you wouldn’t want them “back on the streets” but you wouldn’t put them down? What would you do with them?
In my neck of the woods, we don’t consider adopting them out as putting them back on the streets. We consider it putting them in good homes.
Emily, I’m with you on the lunging. Also, I’ve never seen it as a breed specific behavior. Here in NY it’s an equal opportunity behavior, lol!~
Cait, is that a bounce or a BOING!, lol!~ One of my favorite things to do was to get about 20-30 kenneled dogs to all sit nicely at the front of their runs and not bark or bounce when somebody walked in. I think the dogs thought I was nuts ;)
It’s heartbreaking that they just mass euthed. Every dog deserves to be given a fair evaluation.
Comment by straybaby — December 1, 2008 @ 10:34 pm
Lunging, oy.
I recently fostered a fabulous EB who was failed in his temperament test at a county shelter because he jumped o the gate of his run when the tester approached.
Several other shelter workers were horrified, called in a tester from Marin Humane who passed him which let him make into rescue where he proved rock solid and was quickly adopted. Shelter workers have confided in rescue since that the tester has set in stone breed biases and routinely fails dogs of breeds she dislikes which are then killed without the management ever raising an eyebrow.
People see what they want to see. By approaching any dog’s run or crate in the right manner I could make them jump or lunge if I wanted to/ And exercise starved, confused, frightened or poorly socialized dogs will often leap or lunge when confined but relax the moment you say “hi” and open the door.
By the sort of criteria used in many “shelters” every dog who barks at their owner’s front door when a stranger knocks should be blue solutioned.
Comment by JenniferJ — December 2, 2008 @ 9:55 am
We had a different problem with shelters when I was running NorCal Sheltie rescue. Shelties are often shy and reserved in unusual situations, and it’s not uncommon to have to peel them off the back wall of a shelter run.
Get them in a normal home setting, and they’re fine. They warm up and relax.
But at that time, the shelter wouldn’t let us take out the Shelties who “showed fear.” They were killed. What a waste.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 2, 2008 @ 11:32 am
I wonder if people would like to be taken from their homes, plopped in a homeless shelter and then filmed for a spot on a dating service website? Hullo, they might not be at their sparkly best just then!
Comment by slt — December 2, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
“But at that time, the shelter wouldn’t let us take out the Shelties who “showed fear.” They were killed. What a waste.”
Bingo! That’s just it. There is always a way to fail any dog. If the powers that be deem all pits, bull terrier or mastiff type dogs un-adoptable, it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. If they want an excuse to kill more dogs to open up runs or save on cleaning, “fearful” or “shy” works just fine too. Barks at a neighbor? “dog aggressive”, kill him. Growls after being poked repeatedly in the head with a rubber hand? Even if she shows no concern or aggression towards actual human beings of any size in any capacity or situation? Kill her. Shows concern or “excessive interest” in the examiner playing with or pinching his foot? Red flag, your dead. Makes steady eye contact with examiner? He’s challenging the examiner, never mind his politely cocked head, low wagging tail and the submissive play-bow roll over he just did etc… kill him.
Until dogs are judged with common sense, as individuals, it will be very hard to reach no-kill goals. But very easy to find a quota of dogs to kill to make it cheaper and easier for those who don’t want to deal with any potentially “difficult” dogs.
Comment by JenniferJ — December 2, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
While relevant to other situations, the criticism of dumbass “temperament testing” by shelters doesn’t touch this story.
Does anyone think that a single one of these “saved” dogs got any kind of evaluation beyond “Pit bull — kill it?”
Over on Blue Dog state, we have reports of two “big” cases in which “dog-fighters” were “busted,” all their dogs confiscated and quickly killed, including baby puppies, and the “dog-fighters” prosecuted vigorously — only to be found not guilty.
I don’t care whether they were not guilty because they weren’t fighting dogs, because they had Johnny Cochran’s smarter nephew for a lawyer, or because HSUS and law enforcement are the Keystone Kops — they have been found innocent under the law, but have been punished prior to trial by having their animals kidnapped and killed.
So I can see a more nefarious motivation here: “We’re going to screw up this prosecution (and/or) We know these guys weren’t really dogfighters, we just don’t like them — so we are going to ensure that they are punished regardless of due process of law — we’re going to kill all their dogs and represent our killing of these owned dogs as evidence of their debased cruelty.”
Am I sounding cynical today? Seems when I indulge the dark suspicions, I end up being right most of the time. Hate that.
Comment by H. Houlahan — December 5, 2008 @ 6:12 am
I honestly don’t see anything cynical in that at all.
Comment by Dutch — December 5, 2008 @ 8:09 am
“we’re going to kill all their dogs and represent our killing of these owned dogs as evidence of their debased cruelty. Am I sounding cynical today?”
YOU’RE not cynical, but your completely accurate representation expresses THEIR cynicism (and hypocricy) brilliantly
Comment by EmilyS — December 5, 2008 @ 9:36 am
I’ve decided to to call this behavior Seize, Show, Slaughter, Scold. Get the dogs, get on TV to say here are the victims yada yada, kill the “victims” without a second thought, blame everyone but yourselves.
Comment by JenniferJ — December 5, 2008 @ 9:58 am