During an otherwise routine fishing trip a few weeks ago, James White felt an especially strong tug on the line.
He was on the shore of Bodega Bay in Northern California — which should be very familiar to fans of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, “The Birds,” (affiliate link) which was filmed there. Whatever he had caught was super strong. It took him about 10 minutes to reel it in.
Perhaps as scary as those fictional flocks of bloodthirsty birds was what was on the other end of White’s fishing line. It was a six-foot-long, 100-pound sevengill shark.
When he tried to remove the hook, the shark bit White’s ankle and wouldn’t let go. “Immediately there was blood everywhere. The first bite punctured an artery,” White told NBC Bay Area. “The pressure was intense.”
White yelled to some nearby fishermen for help. Before they could reach him, his year-old Pit Bull, Darby, sprang into action. White had left Darby in his car (which is almost always not a good idea) because the location was near traffic. Darby somehow managed to push open a door and ran to his dog dad.
When Darby bit the shark’s gill, it sunk its teeth even deeper into White’s ankle. So Darby grabbed the shark’s tail in his mouth. “He literally ran up the hill with it and pulled it off my leg,” White told NBC Bay Area.
If Darby hadn’t come to his rescue, White may have lost his foot, or worse.
“He’s been a part of the family from day one,” White told NBC Bay Area. “Just now a little more.”
Despite this amazing case, you really should never, ever leave your dog in your car, especially during the summer. The interior temperature can quickly rise to well over 100 degrees. Too many dogs have died because of this. Fortunately, Darby survived and was able to save his owner’s life as well.
And yes, I do hope the sevengill shark, who was just minding its own business when it was caught, wasn’t seriously injured. White released the shark back into the ocean, where hopefully it will enjoy the rest of its life unperturbed.
In response to a growing number of passengers bringing aboard questionable emotional support animals, last year several major U.S. airlines changed their policies regarding these and service animals allowed on flights.
American Airlines, for example, prohibited hedgehogs, chickens, ferrets, snakes and some other rather unusual critters. JetBlue only allows dogs, cats and miniature horses aboard as emotional support animals. Southwest Airlines allows emotional support dogs and cats on leashes.
Unlike any other major airline, in June 2018 Delta Airlines banned all “Pit Bull-type” service and emotional support dogs from flights.
This controversial ban was “the direct result of growing safety concerns following recent incidents in which several employees were bitten,” according to a statement at the time from Delta. In one of those incidents, two flight attendants were bitten by a dog identified as a Pit Bull.
What’s interesting is that a Delta passenger was mauled in 2017 by an emotional support dog identified as a Labrador/Pointer mix — yet the airline banned neither of those breeds.
So instead of doing the sensible thing and taking action against the owner of the dog in the most recent biting incident, Delta decided to punish hundreds of dogs and their responsible owners. Breed bans and breed-specific legislation (BSL) unfairly single out dogs, usually Pit Bulls, based on their looks instead of their behavior. It’s sometimes referred to as “breedism.”
Because BSL is so unfair and has proven to be ineffective in increasing public safety, it’s opposed by almost every major animal welfare organization. The heads of both the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) quickly released statements condemning Delta Airlines’ new policy.
Prohibiting Pit Bulls only serves to spread “false and life-threatening stereotypes,” said Matt Bershadker, CEO of the ASPCA. “Every dog is unique, even dogs within the same breed, and their behavior is influenced by many factors.”
Kitty Block, president and CEO of the HSUS, agreed, pointing out that Delta’s ban also discriminates against passengers who need these dogs.
“People across the country and the world rely on their pets for their physical and emotional well-being,” she stated, “and this discriminatory policy hurts them without providing any associated safety benefits. … Federal laws in place to protect emotional support and service animals do not discriminate based on breed, but instead base exclusions solely on the behavior of the individual animal in question.”
Delta Airlines’ ban did, in fact, break those federal laws.
Banning Pit Bulls as service dogs violates both the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). Under the ACAA, airlines may exclude service animals that are too large or heavy, pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others, cause a disruption of cabin service or are not allowed in a foreign country. Nothing in these regulations “permits the airline to deny ‘Pit Bull’ dogs (or whatever label someone subjectively wants to assign to them) as service dogs,” notes the Animal Farm Foundation (AFF), which provides service animals, including pit bull type dogs, to people with disabilities.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), which oversees the ACAA, confirmed this in June 2018, stating that “a limitation based exclusively on breed of the service animal is not allowed,” according to the Washington Post.
Fourteen months after enstating its Pit Bull ban, Delta Airlines will have to end it — but not because it wants to.
“The Department’s Enforcement Office views a limitation based exclusively on breed of the service animal to not be allowed under its service animal regulation,” the Final Statement says. “The Enforcement Office intends to use available resources to ensure that dogs as a species are accepted for transport. Airlines are permitted to find that any specific animal, regardless of breed, poses a direct threat.”
The DOT’s Final Statement also includes new rules that allow airline employees to ask passengers “reasonable” questions about a service animal’s vaccinations, training and behavior. Airlines can still require advance notice if passengers are bringing emotional support animals on flights. Any animal perceived by an airline to pose a threat to the health or safety of other airlines can be prohibited from a flight.
The new rules will go into effect after the Final Statement is published next week in the Federal Register. Airlines will have one month to start following them.
Many thanks to the DOT for this decision that will help save the lives of Pit Bulls and the people they support. As for Delta Airlines, I strongly recommend that all dog lovers take their business to an airline that doesn’t unfairly and illegally discriminate against certain dog breeds.
Portions of this story were originally published on Care2.com in July 2018.
As David Fredman drove to work Monday morning along busy Interstate 70 in Independence, Mo., he was shocked by what he saw beside an overpass.
A dog had been tied with an electrical cord to a power box. His feet barely reached the ground as he struggled to free himself from the cord digging into his neck.
Fredman immediately pulled over, called 911 and used a knife to cut the dog free. “The way I found him, I just couldn’t believe somebody would do that to an animal at all,” he told WDAF.
“As soon as I cut him down, he couldn’t breathe. He was trying to breathe,” Fredman said. “I tried get him to walk. He couldn’t walk.”
Fredman rushed the dog to KC Pet Project, a nonprofit animal shelter in Kansas City, Mo.
It turned out that the dog was microchipped. His name is Max and he’s 16 years old. He had escaped from his yard earlier that morning and his owner, Dee Vaughn, had been looking for him for hours.
There was no way Max, who has difficulty walking, could have made it all the way to the I-70 a mile away on his own, Vaughn said. It’s unclear yet whether someone intentionally tried to hang Max or just made a very bad decision to tie him to the power box. Surveillance cameras may be able to reveal what happened.
Vaughn, like Fredman, was shocked when he saw a photo of Max hanging from the power box. “Literally you could see the imprint around his neck where they hung him,” he told WDAF.
Max is now safely back at home and, after this ordeal, will probably never want to wander off again. Vaughn is grateful that Fredman went above and beyond to rescue him.
“Thank you, David, so much,” Vaughn told him, according to WDAF. “You stopped what you were doing to turn around and save my dog’s life.”
Sadie was on a walk in Connecticut’s Sleeping Giant State Park last Saturday afternoon when the deaf, 17-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever slipped out of her collar and took off.
To the horror of her dog dad, Chris Roush, Sadie went over the side of a hill…and then disappeared. When Roush couldn’t find her, he enlisted the help of friends, family and social media to help search for Sadie. He posted fliers all around the 1,500-acre state park.
Sadie is still out there somewhere. We’ve been using CT Dog Gone, infrared cameras, trackers, drones and publicity hoping someone finds her. If you’re in the Hamden area near Sleeping Giant, please be on the lookout for my precious 17-year-old girl. She’s primarily deaf. pic.twitter.com/86iofgEAKi
Although Roush, who’s the new dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University, had just moved to the town the week before, strangers were more than happy to help him and his family find their beloved dog.
They “just started volunteering,” Roush told the Hartford Courant. “People I never knew and had never met came out to help. The community response was just unbelievable.”
Even Judy Olian, the president of Quinnipiac University, allowed the school’s drone to be used to try to locate Sadie.
Good Samaritans to the Rescue
But what wasn’t at all helpful was a storm that blew into town four days after Sadie went missing. Fortunately, Steve Tobey was searching for Sadie in the rain when he heard a dog whimpering near a trail not far from where she’d disappeared at Sleeping Giant. Soon after he posted it on social media, Toby Drums and Russell Lewis — who don’t know Roush — also started hiking around the area where the dog was heard.
Lewis, who often hikes with his own dogs in the state park, had been figuring that the worst had happened to the 17-year-old, deaf dog. “But then this (new) post, I was just really excited and that’s what got me out there despite the storms,” he told the Hartford Courant.
Drums and his wife also have four dogs who they’ve walked in the park for years. Wearing headlamps, the couple had searched for Sadie every night after work. “We’re dog people and they’re getting older and to hear about a 17-year-old dog, deaf, lost in the woods is heartbreaking,” Drums told the New Haven Register.
As Drums and Lewis walked along a trail in the rain Wednesday, Drums heard Sadie barking. In the meantime, Roush had seen the hiker’s post and rushed to the park, joining Lewis, Drums and the others.
Sadie had fallen between boulders. To locate her, the group lowered Lewis by his ankles headfirst into a crevice.
“It was ridiculous, but I heard her crying so I started crawling a little bit deeper,” Lewis told the Hartford Courant. “She’s really, really deep in there and she’s wedged in between these two rocks; you could just see her back.”
It took a village, but the group was finally able to cautiously free Sadie from her predicament. The Hamden Fire Department soon arrived to help the rescuers.
A Tale of ‘Survival, Perseverance and More Than a Little Luck’
“This is a story of survival, perseverance and more than a little luck!” the Hamden Fire Department wrote on its Facebook page the day after Sadie was rescued.
Despite her ordeal, Sadie is expected to make a full recovery. She received treatment for cuts, scratches and dehydration at VCA Cheshire Animal Hospital. “From what the vet told me, it looked like she had been trying to dig out,” Roush told the New Haven Register.
As for the Roushes, they’re eternally grateful not only to have Sadie back but for all the compassionate volunteers who helped them find her.
“How lousy is it to move to a new place and lose your dog in the first week?” Lewis told the Hartford Courant. “But so many people stepped up to help and that’s the coolest part of the story to me.”
Thank you, @HamdenFireDept! And to the hundreds of people who helped by looking or helped by sending prayers and wishes over hundreds of miles—you can never understand the depth of our gratitude. We saw the heart and soul of this community. Thank you!❤️?
When the sheriff of Lake County, Ind., adopted Bruno from an animal shelter four years ago, the two-year-old American Bulldog was in really bad shape. He had been beaten. He was skinny, malnourished and in serious need of medical care.
Bruno was nursed back to health by members of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department. Among them was Joe Hamer, a deputy who became Bruno’s handler, mainly because the dog liked to follow him around most of all. But Bruno needed to have a job to do.
Hamer, chairman of Indiana’s Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Critical Incident Memorial Team, had an idea. Bruno was calm and caring. He had the perfect personality to become a comfort dog for law enforcement officers, first responders, and their families.
“That was the whole concept. We didn’t know of any dogs specifically for law enforcement,” Hamer told the Chicago Tribune. “And that’s when he became Sheriff Bruno.” The former shelter dog was likely the first law enforcement comfort dog in the state of Indiana.
As a comfort dog, Bruno’s duties include providing support for police officers having bad days on the job, and for the families of officers killed in the line of duty. Bruno attends the funerals of fallen two- and four-legged police officers.
“He will actually gravitate toward people when they are sad. When they cry he goes to them,” Hamer told WSBT. “That is not something that we taught him. That is just him. He does all that on his own. He reacts that way.”
After working in Lake County for a couple of years, Hamer and Bruno moved to Missouri in 2017 when Hamer became the program director for Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), a nonprofit that helps the families and co-workers of fallen police officers rebuild their lives.
Earlier this year, Hamer and Bruno joined the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department in Missouri. Sheriff Bill Redman knew Hamer as a fellow member of the FOP Critical Incident Memorial Team. He was also aware of Bruno’s amazing qualities and wanted the dog to join his department.
“Seeing Bruno do his work, bringing joy to the family members, especially the children, I knew he would be beneficial to our community,” Redman told the Chicago Tribune.
Hamer said Bruno is the best dog he’s ever had in his lifetime. I believe it — Bruno reminds me a lot of my late, great Leroy Brown, who was also a Bulldog mix and one of my best dogs ever. Good ol’ Leroy reacted the very same way whenever someone was crying or otherwise stressed out and in need of some furry consolation.
Bruno, Hamer told the Chicago Tribune, “has the most amazing attitude for a dog that was abused, beaten and neglected. The way he has changed his life has been amazing.”
Bruno was born on May 15, which happens to be National Law Enforcement Memorial Day. For the first time ever this year, a dog had the honor of placing a flower at the Peace Officers’ Memorial Service in Washington, D.C., in memory of K9 officers killed in the line of duty. That dog was Bruno.
“I don’t know how to explain the reaction people have to him,” Hamer told the Chicago Tribune. “He has this spirit about him that everyone sees.”
You can see Bruno’s spirit (and send him a friend request!) on his Facebook page.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish.Got it!RejectPrivacy Policy
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
