An elderly woman probably thought she was doing the right thing by leaving her two small dogs inside her car, with the air conditioning and engine running, while she made a quick shopping trip to the Walmart in Wayne, W.Va., yesterday afternoon.
But somehow the dogs managed to put the car in gear and crashed into the exterior of the store. (Maybe they were hoping to pick up a few toys in the pet department.)
An employee on a break told WSAZ that when she saw the car rolling toward her and the store, she thought the driver might be pranking her — until she saw a dog behind the wheel.
After the crash, one of the dogs was able to roll a window down, perhaps to bark for help.
Thankfully both dogs are fine (and were not cited for driving without a license). There was only minor damage to the car and store.
The dog mom, who is in her late 70s, was able to drive her dogs home after the accident — and I’m guessing that’s probably where she’ll leave them the next time she makes a Walmart run.
They all deserve it, right? You can vote now through Aug. 24 for your favorite pup to win the grand prize in the 2016 American Humane Association (AHA) Hero Dog Awards, presented by the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation.
The awards “celebrate the important role dogs play in our lives,” said Dr. Robin Ganzert, AHA president and CEO. “The American public and our special judging panel now have an extraordinarily tough task ahead of them in determining who our top dog will be because all are worthy winners.”
That’s for sure. Over the past five years, millions of votes have been cast for nearly a thousand dogs competing for the award. The program reaches more than 1 billion people each year.
You can vote online once every day for your favorite finalist until noon Pacific Time on Aug. 24, as long as you’re a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years old.
The Hero Dog Awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on Sept. 10. The 2016 grand prize winner will be announced during the ceremony, which will be dedicated to Harley, the winner of the 2015 Hero Dog Award. Harley, a 15-year-old Chihuahua who spent the first 10 years of his life in a puppy-mill cage before becoming a “spokesdog” against these cruel facilities, died in March.
To help hero dogs everywhere, AHA will donate $2,500 to each finalist’s charity partner, and an additional $5,000 to the grand prize winner’s charity partner.
Founded in 1877, AHA was the first national humane organization in the U.S. and is the only one dedicated to protecting both children and animals.
It’s still a bit early to mark your calendar, but the 2016 Hero Dog Awards will be televised on the Hallmark Channel in late October.
2016 AHA Hero Dog Awards Finalists
Arson Dogs: Judge
As an arson K-9 with the Allentown Fire Department in Pennsylvania, 7-year-old Judge, a Labrador Retriever, has worked 275 fire scenes over the past five years. The evidence Judge discovered has led to many arrests and civil penalties for insurance fraud cases, and the number of arson fires in the city has dropped nearly 53 percent. Judge is currently participating in a pilot program to provide autistic children with lifesaving information.
This category honors ordinary dogs who do extraordinary things. Hooch, a French Mastiff, has badly cropped ears, a broken tail — and no tongue. It was probably removed so he could be a bait dog. Zach Skow, of Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue in Tehachapi, Calif., adopted Hooch from a shelter where the skittish dog had refused to eat or drink. Skow nursed Hooch back to health by hand-feeding him. Hooch is now a therapy dog with Marley’s Mutts’ Miracle Mutts, helping autistic, abused and special-needs kids realize they can overcome any obstacle.
Ten-year-old, 12-pound Hook is a hearing dog for his handler. As the two walked across train tracks in Sacramento, Calif., the woman couldn’t hear an oncoming train. Hook began jumping on her, alerting her to the train and saving her life. He is always by the side of his handler, who’s a family therapist. Whenever her patients are upset, Hook will jump into their laps to comfort them. Hook also chased off an intruder who broke into the office.
K9 Roo is a ballistics/bomb dog with the Boston Police Department. After the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Roo searched for secondary devices and was the only police dog there for the capture of Dzokhar Tsarnaev. During his career — Roo is retiring this year — he recovered 12 firearms (three had been used in homicides) and more than 300 shell casings involved in shootings. Roo answered at least 200 calls to investigate suspicious packages. When he’s not working, Roo visits children in hospitals and performs demonstrations at community events.
Click here to vote for Roo.
Military Dogs: Layka
In 2012, as Layka’s team fired on an enemy compound in Afghanistan, rifle fire was returned from the compound. Layka was sent inside to look for combatants and explosives. She was hit with four rounds from an AK-47 in her right shoulder. Layka was rushed to a location where medics worked on her, and then flown to a base where her right front leg was amputated. After additional surgeries, Layka was medically retired from service three months later.
Kobuk, a trained and certified member of the non-profit Maine Search and Rescue Dogs team, found a 77-year-old woman suffering from diabetes and dementia who had been lost in the woods for over two days without food, water or her medications. Running almost a quarter mile into the woods, Kobuk spotted the woman and then ran back to alert his handler, and ran back with him into the woods to rescue the woman in time to save her life.
Gander, saved from a Colorado shelter and trained by a women’s prison program, is now a service dog and was the first mixed breed to win the American Kennel Club’s Award for Canine Excellence (ACE). He and his handler travel the country to raise awareness of PTSD, veteran suicide, service dogs, and people with visible and invisible disabilities. They have helped raise a million dollars for veterans’ groups, veterans, service dog charities and people in need.
As a stray, Mango was hit by a car, paralyzing her rear legs. She was going to be euthanized by a shelter when Emma’s Cleft Palate Chihuahua Rescue stepped in. Mango is now a therapy dog for her dog mom, a veteran. They participate in the Emma’s Rescue Reserve program, in which paralyzed dogs work with disabled veterans, showing them that if a small dog in a wheelchair can overcome her handicap, then so can they. Mango’s Freedom Wheels, named in her honor, has donated over 150 custom-built wheelchairs to help other animals become mobile.
Christina Grimmie, the 22-year-old former finalist on “The Voice” who was murdered by a psychotic fan last night, wasn’t only passionate about singing. She also had a passion — and compassion — for animals.
At the time of her senseless death, Grimmie was participating in a Charity Champions League fundraiser to raise money for her favorite nonprofit, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
— Christina Grimmie (@TheRealGrimmie) June 8, 2016
“My adopted dog Chloe is my best friend, and I’m competing in Charity Champions League on her behalf,” Grimmie said on her team page for the fundraiser. “It’s our responsibility to make sure that animals everywhere are protected and treated well, so let’s all come together for HSUS!”
Described as a “one-of-a-kind ‘giving competition’ designed to give everyone the chance to support some of the nation’s most effective nonprofit organizations—for free,” each nonprofit represented in the Charity Champions League fundraiser, which ends June 15, is guaranteed at least $5,000. The nonprofit represented by the team with the most points — earned from visiting the website, sharing it on social media, etc. — will receive an additional $250,000.
Thousands of fans appear to be paying tribute to Grimmie by joining her team. As of this morning, it had accrued over 1 million points — more than twice as many as the other teams.
“The entire universe at The Humane Society of the United States is grieving today with the family of the beloved Christina Grimmie,” its president, Wayne Pacelle, said in a statement today.
“She didn’t just possess a beautiful voice – she was a beautiful soul who used her talents to spread a message that we humans should not mete out violence to animals. We will carry her message forward, despite the pain we feel.”
At the Humane Society Gala in New York City last November, Grimmie performed “I Need a Hero” on behalf of homeless and mistreated animals. You can honor her legacy by joining Grimmie’s Charity Champions League Team, or by supporting the HSUS or animal charity of your choice — and, I strongly suggest, by supporting laws that make it easier for people with mental issues to get help, not guns.
Bretagne (pronounced “Brittany”), a Golden Retriever who worked at Ground Zero in September 2001, trying in vain to find survivors after the attacks on the World Trade Center, died today. She was 16 years old.
She is believed to have been the last survivor of the 100 search-and-rescue dogs deployed there.
“She had lived longer and accomplished more than anybody,” Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Capt. David Padovan told the New York Daily News.
As Bretagne made her final trip to the vet, firefighters lined up along the walkway, saluting her.
Her body was draped with a flag as it was transported to Texas A&M University, where a necroposy (an autopsy for animals) will be performed to study the effects of working at Ground Zero.
‘New Yorkers Stopped in Their Tracks to Thank Her for Her Service’
To celebrate her 16th birthday in September 2015, Bretagne was flown with her pet parents from their home in Cypress, Texas, to New York City, where she was treated to a party in her honor hosted by Barkpost.
“Everywhere Bretagne went,” BarkPost noted in a video, “New Yorkers stopped in their tracks to thank her for her service.”
“Seeing this kind of took my breath away a bit,” Denise told TODAY.com at the time. “It’s so calm and peaceful now, unlike the chaos of before. After 9/11, everybody — all of us — felt such sadness. We all wanted to help. I just felt so honored that we were able to respond.”
The Corliss family had welcomed Bretagne as a puppy in 1999. When Denise found out that civilians and their dogs can join federal emergency response teams to help out after a disaster, she and Bretagne began taking training classes together. In 2000, she and Bretagne were accepted into Texas Task Force 1.
Less than a year later, their very first deployment was to Ground Zero.
Bretagne worked 12-hour shifts for nearly two weeks. Along with the other search-and-rescue dogs, she became depressed when she found only human remains. To cheer the dogs, some workers buried themselves in the rubble so the dogs could discover someone alive.
Denise said her most memorable experience occurred as she and Bretagne waited in the staging area.
“Searchers would come by to pet her and to thank her, and would tell us their stories,” she told TODAY.com. “So it became an unexpected role of therapy dog. That’s what, among the other things, sticks out to me the most.”
After Ground Zero, Bretagne worked at several other major disaster sites, including New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. She officially retired when she was 9, but continued to work as a service dog at an elementary school, helping students with learning disabilities by being their audience as they read aloud to her.
“She still has this attitude of putting her paw up and saying, ‘Put me in, coach!’” Denise told TODAY.com. “She absolutely loves it.”
As Bretagne’s health deteriorated, her pet parents created a bucket list for her. One of the items they scratched off was bringing Bretagne to the elementary school so she could say goodbye to the students she had helped.
Rest in peace, beautiful Bretagne. Thank you so much for your service.
Grab a tissue or 10 and watch this touching video by Barkpost that documented “Bretagne’s Best Day” last September.
JUNE 8, 2016 UPDATE: The first of the rescued dogs was adopted today, NJ.com reports, even as more dogs were still being removed from the house. Two adult dogs and two puppies were rescued today, bringing the total to 280 dogs. As the dogs are cleared medically, they are becoming available for new forever homes.
“We’re so happy today we’re able to get this first dog out the door,” Ross Licitra, chief of law enforcement for the Monmouth County SPCA (MCSPCA), told NJ.com. “And it’s a new beginning.”
In perhaps the worst case of dog hoarding in the state’s history, 276 dogs were rescued Friday from what authorities called “deplorable conditions” in a New Jersey house.
As investigators wearing hazmat gear walked through the house in Howell, N.J., a dog gave birth to four puppies on a countertop. There were holes in the walls, in which some of the dogs were living — and officials from the fire department had to use thermal-imaging cameras to find them.
“We at Associated Humane Societies have been involved with rescuing animals from hoarding situations many, many times in the past, but this many dogs in one home is astounding, even for us,” wrote the shelter, based in Forked River, N.J., which took in 60 of the dogs.
The unidentified middle-aged couple living at the house are facing “an enormous amount of charges,” Ross Licitra, chief of law enforcement for the Monmouth County SPCA, which also took in many of the dogs, told NJ.com.
All the dogs are in fair condition, but most of them are infested with fleas. Licitra called it a “crime of omission.” He believes the couple let the situation get out of hand.
The dogs are mostly small breeds, including Pugs, Yorkies and Chihuahuas, and they will soon need new forever homes. They are currently being cared for by St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center as well as the Associated Humane Societies and Monmouth County SPCA.
Heather Cammissa, president and CEO of St. Hubert’s, told NJ.com some of the dogs may be ready for adoption early this week.
“They’ve been around other animals, obviously, just not a lot of people,” she said.
The Associated Humane Societies wrote on its Facebook page yesterday that the “adorable and sweet little dogs have led a lifetime of isolation and have lived in filth and squalor. Once everything settles down for them, we will begin to assess their personalities and work on getting them to overcome their fears.”
In the meantime, its phones have been “ringing off the hook” since Friday, Sgt. Kevin Rooney told NJ.com.
The shelters caring for the 276 dogs can really use our help. Every dog needs “vaccinations, medical clearance, spay or neuter, food, water and shelter,” according to the Monmouth County SPCA. “The average cost for an animal at the shelter is $20 per day.”
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