pet connection

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.