Category: Heroes

GRRR: 2 Hero Dogs Who Apprehended NYC Mugger Euthanized by Shelter

When a teenager snatched a woman’s purse in Queens, N.Y., earlier this month, two stray dogs — a German Shepherd and a Pit Bull — took off after the thief. They pinned him down in nearby Springfield Park and bit him.

Even then, the four-legged crimestoppers were treated very poorly by officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit. The two dogs were pepper-sprayed, beaten with batons and shot with tranquilizer darts before being transported to Animal Care & Control of NYC (AC&C).

“The dogs were still lingering, looking to get him,” a police source told the New York Post. “They were set up to continue their mauling.”

The 15-year-old boy was treated for bite wounds at a local hospital. He was charged with petit larceny and will live on to hopefully not steal more purses.

But if he does, those two hero dogs won’t be around to stop him. Even though George Petruncio of Sewell, N.J., let AC&C know he wanted to adopt the German Shepherd and Pit Bull, the two dogs were euthanized yesterday because they were allegedly too aggressive.

“They never gave the dogs a chance,” Petruncio told the Post. “They did a good thing and this is how you repay them? It’s garbage.”

Polices officers in Queens’ 105th precinct also did their best to spare the lives of the two dogs. They offered to help AC&C place them with a rescue group.

“The dogs deserved a second chance because of how they helped out,” a police source told the Post. “It just doesn’t seem like justice was served for these dogs.”

AC&C has a troubling reputation with animals, and not only dogs. Earlier this week a bull that escaped from a slaughterhouse — and was promised to be released to a sanctuary — died after being shot with multiple tranquilizer darts. In December, a beloved deer that lived in a Harlem park died from stress after it was captured by AC&C.

However, it wasn’t the AC&C, but the NYC Department of Health that issued death sentences for the hero dogs.

“After a comprehensive assessment by an animal behavioral specialist, the two dogs that mauled a teenager were determined too aggressive to be placed at rescue organization or put up for adoption,” spokesman Julien A. Martinez said yesterday. “They were humanely euthanized today.”

The heartbreaking tale of these two hero dogs makes me all the more thankful for groups like BAD RAP and Best Friends Animal Society, who took in and rehabilitated some other famous dogs that were also deemed too aggressive to ever be adopted: the survivors of Michael Vick’s dog-fighting operation. Many of those dogs went on to become therapy and service dogs — and even earned the title of ASPCA Dog of the Year.

Good thing the AC&C’s animal behavioral specialist and the NYC Department of Health didn’t get to Vick’s dogs first.

Photo credit: FastPhive

Firefighter Adopts Abandoned Pit Bull Puppy He Rescued

On their way to a call on a cold and rainy October morning, firefighter Mike Thawley and the Sacramento Fire Department Engine No. 14 crew spotted a sickly, 3-month-old Pit Bull puppy who’d been tied to a fence and abandoned on a Sacramento street.

The shivering puppy’s legs were swollen and covered with scabs. She’d lost most of her hair due to mange.

The crew drove on and responded to the call, but returned afterward to rescue the puppy. They brought her to the fire station, where they gave her a bath and plenty of TLC. Then they took her to the Front Street Animal Shelter so she could be treated for her mange.

Thawley, however, had no intention of leaving her there. He, his wife and their three daughters decided to foster the puppy, who they named Chunk.

“We all just kind of fell in love with her,” he told the Sacramento Bee.

Almost four months later, Chunk has completed her treatment for mange — and she has a loving new forever home. Thawley and his family have adopted the dog he rescued. He told the Sacramento Bee that from the moment Chunk joined his family, he knew she’d become a permanent member.

“I think what’s great about this whole story is that not only did this dog find its forever home, but had the opportunity to go to a foster home, which we’re always looking for at our shelter, to get happy and healthy,” says the Front Street Animal Shelter spokesman Bobby Mann in a video posted on the Sacramento Fire Department’s Facebook page yesterday.

The best kind of failures? Foster failures! I wish Chunk and the Thawleys many, many happy years together.

Photo via YouTube

Carrie Fisher Led a Protest This Year Against the Yulin Dog Meat Festival

Really, 2016? Just two days after the sad and shocking news that George Michael had died, Carrie Fisher has also left us. Just like Michael, the multi-talented Fisher used her fame to help others, including animals.

In June, Fisher and her constant companion, a devoted French Bulldog named Gary, led a protest outside the China embassy in London, calling for an end to the annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival, a 10-day event in June during which thousands of dogs — including stolen pets — are brutally killed and then eaten.

“My dog Gary is my best friend and it makes me shudder to think there are dogs just like him being kidnapped, beaten and eaten,” Fisher told the Sun at the time. “I told Gary about the festival this morning and he was disgusted. He hasn’t spoken a word since.”

An estimated 10 to 20 million dogs are killed for their meat in China every year. The Yulin Dog Meat Festival was launched six years ago to help boost sales of dog meat.

Thanks to protesters like Fisher, the scale of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival has been reduced by 80 percent in the past few years. The government of China is currently working with local partners to enact new animal protection laws that will end the festival and the dog meat trade.

On Dec. 23, the same day Fisher suffered a heart attack, 110 dogs that were to be killed arrived safely in Toronto after being rescued by the Humane Society International (HSI).

Still, Fisher asked the Sun’s readers to “help keep up the pressure” to end the festival she called barbaric. “Just because it’s happening far away doesn’t mean we should sit back and do nothing,” she said.

In her memory, let’s all keep up the pressure.

How You Can Help End the Yulin Dog Meat Festival

Official Cause of Carrie Fisher’s Death

Carrie Fisher died after she drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra. May she rest in peace.

Photos via Twitter; Twitter

George Michael Was a Great Voice for Animals, Too

George Michael, yet another talented artist who we lost this year, will always be remembered for his amazing voice. But his legacy should also include the amazing voice he had for the welfare of animals, particularly sick puppies being sold by unlicensed breeders via the internet.

Michael had very recently been working with the UK animal welfare organization Blue Cross to call attention to this issue. In late November, he and a group of veterinarians and celebrities including Morrissey, Graham Norton, Joanna Lumley and Miranda Richardson sent a letter to the government, asking for tougher regulations for pet breeders and sellers.

Thousands of puppies are illegally trafficked from Ireland and Eastern Europe every year and sold online, The Times reports. Some breeders make as much as £35,000 a week — almost $43,000 in U.S. dollars.

According to a Blue Cross report on the internet sale of puppies, using nine different email addresses, one puppy seller placed 138 ads in 24 months on the classified advertising website Gumtree. Since the puppies were offered for sale in seven different areas, it was challenging for local authorities to enforce laws, which differ from area to area. For example, some areas only require a license for breeders of more than five litters each year.

Michael, along with Blue Cross, wanted laws that required a license for anyone who breeds one litter or more each year. He also wanted pet stores to be banned from selling breeders’ puppies.

‘Puppies with No Access to Daylight’

“Findings include pets shops not inspected for two years, maggots in drinking water, puppies with no access to daylight and many licensing officers unable to identify welfare issues with exotic pets,” Michael and the others wrote in their letter to the government. “Blue Cross vets are frequently faced with puppies and kittens that fall desperately ill just days after they are sold.”

The group called for legislation “that makes a real difference to pets bred and sold in the UK by empowering local authorities with sufficient resources and training, targeting the growing online pet market and making breeders and sellers fully accountable for the welfare of pets in their care — only then can Britain can truly start to live up to its reputation as a nation of pet lovers once more.”

Here’s hoping tougher puppy-breeding regulations are passed by the government — and in his honor, the new law is named after Michael.

To make a donation to Blue Cross in memory of George Michael, click here.

Photo via YouTube

Phoenix Teen Jumps off School Bus to Save His Dog from House Fire

As 14-year-old Mike Assi of Phoenix rode the bus to his middle school yesterday morning, he noticed smoke pouring from a house.

It was his house, and his Pit Bull mix, Zach, was inside it. Assi ran to the front of the bus and yelled for the driver to stop.

“The bus driver was yelling at me, telling me not go in but I just had to open the door,” Assi, a student at Deer Valley Middle School, told KPHO. “I had to at least yell for my dog to see if I could give him a chance to come out. I was just worried about him. I wasn’t scared. I was worried about him because he’s family.”

Assi jumped off the bus and ran to his house. When he opened the front door, smoke poured out. He called Zach’s name but got no response. So he ran around to the back door. When he opened it, Zach ran out.

Assi said Zach has been part of the family for 8 and a half years — over half his life.

Neither Assi or Zach were injured. No one else was home at the time. Firefighters put out the fire, which caused extensive damage to the house.

Capt. Aaron Ernsberger with the Phoenix Fire Department told KPHO that if you should happen to see a house fire, call 911 immediately.

The Assi family is thankful Zach is alive, and they’re calling Mike a hero for saving his life.

Family Lost Everything Except Their Dog

According to a GoFundMe page, the Assi family lost just about everything except Zach in the fire.

“The home was deemed a total loss and very little was salvageable,” wrote a family member. “My sister who is a competitive cheerleader lost all of her uniforms, we lost Christmas presents that had been bought, along with the irreplaceable family photos and memorabilia.”

More than $2,200 has been raised for hero Mike and his family as of Saturday. If you’d like to help them, click here.

Photo via YouTube

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