Stories of Pit Bulls saving their pet parents from attacks really aren’t that unusual, although you’d never know it from the news media, which generally prefers to report only negative stories about these misunderstood dogs.
Last week, a 7-year-old stray Pit Bull in Baldwin, Ga., saved a life — not of a family member, but of a total stranger when he got between a man and the woman he was attacking. The man stopped attacking the woman, but he stabbed the Pit Bull five times.
When police officers Timothy Clay and Daniel Seely arrived at the scene, the dog was lying in a pool of blood. They rushed him to the nearest animal hospital and gave him the appropriate name “Hero.”
“I don’t think we could have let that dog suffer and die,” Sgt. Clay told WATE. “We felt like we needed to get that dog some help after what it had been through.”
Hero almost didn’t make it through surgery, but he managed to pull through.
“He has had a really rough life,” Carla Welch, founder and director of the Fighting for the Bullys rescue organization in Knoxville, Tenn., told WATE. Welch started an online fundraising page that raised the money for Hero’s veterinary care.
Despite Hero’s ordeal, Welch said he is very mellow and social. “He has had a bum back leg and a bum front leg, but he gets around fine and he’s looking for a good friend,” she told WATE.
“He’s very laid back, very sweet,” Welch told WBIR. “He likes to talk to you. He’s going to make somebody a great companion.”
Hero Needs a Forever Home
If you’ve been holding out for a Hero, this sweet dog is almost ready for a loving forever home. You can find more information about adopting this special guy on Petfinder.com.
“Hero will get his second chance,” Welch told WBIR. “He will get a fantastic family, and he will finally get his happily ever after.”
A big thank you not only to Hero, Clay, Seely and Welch, but also to WATE and WBIR for reporting this positive Pit Bull story. Here’s hoping more news outlets follow your awesome lead.
Nicole Elliot did what many people wouldn’t. In late June, after falling in love with his photo on the Animal Ark Rescue website, she adopted Chester, a scruffy, 14-year-old Miniature Schnauzer mix who was dying of a rapidly spreading cancer.
And that’s not all Elliot did. To make Chester’s last days on Earth as pleasant as possible, Elliot created a bucket list for him. She shared their adventures on social media, quickly gaining more than 80,000 fans.
Chester was treated to oatmeal milk baths, trips to a dog park and extra treats.
“I only hope someone would do the same for me if I was terminally ill,” Elliot, of Columbia, Ga., told CNN Tuesday. “I think he deserves it. He seems to have been neglected in his past life. He is such a sweet boy.”
Chester was only able to enjoy about 11 days of being spoiled by Elliot. He crossed the Rainbow Bridge yesterday.
“I held him until his last breath and then some,” Elliott wrote on the Chester’s final journey Facebook page. “I told him it was okay to let go, and how loved he was. I know without a doubt Chester died knowing that he mattered.”
As of Saturday morning, more than 11,000 Facebook fans have left their condolences.
“He is now pain free and running around with all of your babies that have gone before him,” Elliot wrote. “Chester’s journey with us was too short lived, but his presence with us will never be forgotten.”
More than 60 dogs were euthanized Monday at the Clayton County Animal Control (CCAC) shelter in Jonesboro, Ga., only because they may have been infected with the H3N2 virus. Most dogs recover from this respiratory flu within 10 to 30 days.
“Treat all dogs like we treat our children. We don’t put our children to sleep when they get the sniffles,” Tandra Matthews, one of hundreds of people outraged by the killings, told 11Alive.
Dave Edwards is a rescue volunteer who monitors Atlanta Pit Bull Networking on social media. (The majority of the dogs killed Monday by CCAC were Pit Bulls, one of the breeds that the shelter only allows to be released to rescue groups.) Edwards told CBS46 Wednesday that rabies is the only disease he could think of that would automatically require such a “mass extermination” of shelter dogs.
Clayton County Police Deputy Chief Michael J. Register told CBS46 Friday the shelter was trying to protect the healthy dogs, and offered no further explanation.
“If we don’t euthanize the number of animals that are exhibiting symptoms, you run the risk of jeopardizing the whole facility,” Register said. He said the infected dogs were quarantined last weekend, and then killed Monday.
When asked if the shelter had considered providing medicine to the infected dogs, Register said it had not.
The symptoms of the dogs killed were “coughing, running nose and sneezing,” according to a statement released Friday by the Clayton County Police Department. The department did not say whether the dogs were even confirmed to actually have H3N2.
After an assessment was completed by veterinarian medical personnel, those alleged experts recommended that the sick animals be euthanized, the police department stated.
Coughing, a running nose and sneezing are also symptoms of kennel cough, a contagious respiratory illness that is common in animal shelters. In fact, earlier this year, a shelter in Gwinnett County, Ga., experienced a kennel cough outbreak. Did its veterinarian medical personnel advise the shelter to kill the sick dogs? No way. Those dogs were quarantined while the shelter was disinfected.
In response to public complaints at a meeting Tuesday night, Clayton County Commission Chairman Jeffrey Turner told CBS46 he agrees that something needs to be changed at the shelter. Back in 2009, Clayton County voters approved construction of a new shelter, but six years later, nothing has been done.
Turner said he predicted a new shelter could be completed in 18 months.
As of June, the H3N2 virus has spread to 13 U.S. states. Most at risk for becoming infected with this flu are puppies, older dogs and dogs with weakened immune systems. Many dogs that have it show no symptoms at all. Click here for tips for preventing your dog from becoming infected.
The epidemic canine flu virus that has sickened more than 1,000 dogs in the Chicago area, as well as dogs in Wisconsin and Indiana, has now reportedly spread to Texas and Georgia.
The flu has also claimed its sixth victim. Johnny Suede, a 3-year-old Chihuahua, died earlier this month at the P.A.W.S. animal shelter in Tinley Park, Ill., about 30 miles from Chicago.
“We gave him IV fluids, antibiotics, nebulizer treatments, you name it,” Cindy Staros, a shelter volunteer, told WLS. “He just couldn’t pull through.”
Most of the dogs at P.A.W.S. have been infected with the virus. Since they can be contagious for up to 21 days, the shelter is temporarily closed.
This dog flu was originally thought to be H3N8, a strain that first appeared in the U.S. in 2004 at a Greyhound racing track in Florida, sickening dozens of the dogs, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Since then, H3N8 has been reported in 30 states.
But in April, scientists confirmed the current epidemic is actually the strain H3N2. There have been outbreaks of H3N2 in China and South Korea since 2006, but it had never before been identified in the U.S. It is believed to have been brought here by a dog from Asia.
Most at risk for becoming infected are puppies, older dogs and dogs with weakened immune systems. After sickening an estimated 1,300 dogs in the Midwest, the flu outbreak is now moving south.
The first case of H3N2 in Texas was reported May 13. The affected dog and his family had recently moved to the Houston area from Chicago, according to NBC DFW.
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine alerted veterinarians Friday that a dog in Athens, Ga., has been confirmed to have the flu, although it has not yet been determined whether it’s H3N2 or H3N8. The dog had recently been in contact with others at a boarding facility in Atlanta, FOX 5 reports.
Click here for tips on preventing your dog from getting the H3N2 virus.
Although he stabbed a Pit Bull named Clara multiple times with a pocket knife — even as his young son begged him to stop — a Georgia grand jury decided this week that Craig Emory Hayes will face no animal cruelty charges.
Clara had been brought to a PetSmart adoption event in August by volunteers from the Newnan-Coweta Humane Society (NCHS), who were hoping to find her a forever home.
Instead, due to her injuries, the volunteers had to make the heartbreaking decision to have Clara euthanized in the store’s pet hospital.
Clara had broken free from her collar and bitten the ear of Hayes’ Yorkshire Terrier after the little dog growled at her.
Screaming “F–king Pit Bulls” over and over, eyewitnesses said Hayes pulled out the knife and began plunging it into Clara’s neck, even after she released his Yorkie’s ear.
Horrified PetSmart customers told the Newnan Times-Herald what they had seen. Erin Burr said Hayes had earlier told Clara’s handler, “If you bring that f–king Pit Bull near me, I’m going to stab it.”
Teresa Reeves and her fiance, Mike Wohler, had come to the PetSmart event hoping to adopt a Pit Bull.
Reeves said Clara wasn’t viciously attacking the Yorkie, but nipping some loose skin on its neck. “Clara wasn’t clamped down on the dog,” she told the Times-Herald. Neither dog was moving.
“It could have easily been broken up,” Reeves said. Instead, Hayes started pushing and kicking Clara, “making things worse. The guy was just screaming, ‘F–king Pit Bull, why are you even allowed to have these dogs?’’’
When he began to stab Clara, Reeves tried to protect the dog by wrapping her arms around her.
“He wasn’t stabbing like he was trying to save his dog. He was stabbing trying to kill this dog,” Reeves said.
With blood flowing from her wounds, Clara lay on the floor of PetSmart, wagging her tail as shocked customers petted her. She and the Yorkie were taken to the pet hospital inside the store.
Sandy Hiser, president of the NCHS, told the Times-Herald that Clara’s wounds were so severe “that if she did pull through, it would have impacted her quality of life.”
The Yorkie whose ear she bit was transferred to an emergency animal hospital, treated for a blood clot and released the next morning.
According to Hiser, a police officer who interviewed Hayes said he had the right to defend his dog. But was it necessary to stab Clara multiple times?
“He straight murdered this dog in front of 30, 40 people,” Wohler told the Times-Herald. “He didn’t like Pit Bulls. This just gave him the excuse he needed.”
“Facts” vs. Emotions Sway Grand Jury
Earlier this week, the Coweta County grand jury returned a “no bill” on a charge against Hayes of aggravated cruelty to an animal. This means the case is closed and no files will be charged.
According to Georgia state law, aggravated cruelty to animals occurs when someone “knowingly and maliciously causes death or physical harm to an animal by rendering a part of such animal’s body useless or by seriously disfiguring such animal.”
The law does not prohibit someone from “defending his or her person or property, or the person or property of another, from injury or damage being caused by an animal.”
So, does it apply to someone who continued to violently stab a dog in the neck, even after that dog has released his dog?
Apparently not.
Pete Skandalakis, the district attorney of Coweta County, said in a press release that the grand jury had information that had not previously been disclosed to the public, the Newnan Times-Herald reported today.
This information included testimony from Newnan Police Sgt. Brent Blankenship, the case’s lead investigator. (I can’t help but wonder if he was the same police officer who had told the NCHS’ Hiser that Hayes had a right to defend his dog.)
The grand jury questioned Blankenship “regarding some inaccurate information which has been circulating in public forums,” Skandalakis said. Blankenship testified that there was no witness corroboration that Hayes had made derogatory statements about Pit Bulls before attacking Clara, and had only made them after the stabbing.
What happened to all of those eyewitnesses interviewed by the Newman Times-Herald last August — did the grand jury get to hear their testimonies as well?
The decision to not even give Hayes a slap on the wrist was also influenced by a report from the PetSmart pet hospital, which stated that Clara wasn’t only euthanized because of the extensiveness of her stab wounds — but also due to her “lack of adoptability” and “history of dog-related aggression.”
(I think it should be noted, as I wrote about back in February 2012, that PetSmart has a corporate policy of not allowing Pit Bulls and other bully breeds in its Doggie Day Camps because the company views them as “unpredictable.”)
“This was a tragic event but the grand jury got it right and declined to file charges,” Skandalakis said. “Emotions always run high in cases involving animals, and as a pet owner I understand how people feel about these types of cases, but you can’t make a decision to charge a person with a crime based upon emotions when the facts and the law say otherwise.”
“Facts?”
Something really, really stinks in this case, and it’s not just Hayes’ attitude toward Pit Bulls and lack of anger management.
Rest in peace, Clara. The NCHS volunteer who “loved and cared for her most” wrote this beautiful tribute on the humane society’s website:
“Clara was a joyful, loving girl who people instantly fell in love with and I want her remembered that way.
I spent almost every day for the past 29 months with her and a part of me is gone forever … She was my friend, therapist and baby who I will love forever. She taught me how to enjoy the moment, appreciate a cool, shady spot on a hot summer day and gave unconditional love. She was the world’s happiest homeless dog and she will always live in my heart.
I don’t want her to have died in vain…I love you, Clara.”
Photos via Facebook
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