Tag: good cops

Daytona Beach Police Officers Rescue and Adopt Freezing Pit Bull Puppy

It’s not often that you see the word “freezing” in regard to Daytona Beach, Fla., but the temperature plummeted to only 28 degrees there overnight on Jan. 19. That morning, the Daytona Beach Police Department got a call about a Pit Bull puppy who some heartless loser had abandoned by the side of a road.

The DBPD’s animal control officers James Lee and John Pearson found the shivering puppy under a bridge by the Halifax River. They brought the poor little pup into their patrol car and wrapped her up in a blanket. Officer Pearson held the puppy to his chest to help warm her.

The officers drove the puppy to the Halifax Humane Society (HHS), where she was treated by a veterinarian. According to the HHS Facebook page, the puppy’s condition was touch-and-go for a while. Officers Lee and Pearson made regular visits to the shelter to check on the puppy whose life they saved.

“This beautiful, spunky puppy was nursed back to health at Halifax Humane Society,” the DBPD wrote on its Facebook page Feb. 5.

The puppy, who rescuers named River, wasn’t microchipped. Unsurprisingly, no one ever showed up to claim her.

The good news is that River is now in a loving forever home and will never have to worry about being abandoned again. Just over two weeks after her life was saved by Officers Lee and Pearson, River has been adopted by another member of the Daytona Beach Police Department: Officer Kera Cantrell.

It was “love at first sight,” according to the DBPD. Sweet!

Photo credit: Daytona Beach Police Department/Facebook

Watch Hero Officers Rescue a Bloodhound Trapped under a Car on Busy Freeway

During rush hour Wednesday morning, Placer County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Stan Semenuk was driving westbound on the busy I-80 in Northern California when he spotted a young Bloodhound darting across the interstate. The Bloodhound, named Ruger, somehow made it safely across all three eastbound lanes and then leaped over the center divider.

“Everybody came to a screeching halt trying to avoid hitting the dog,” Semenuk said in a video posted on the Placer County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. “So I immediately pull over — as a K9 handler, I have a little bit of a thing for dogs — and I tried to call him over to me. I just tried to get him out of the road so he didn’t get hit.”

Semenuk could tell Ruger was terrified by the Bloodhound’s body language. “He looks at me, kind of looks all around, probably trying to find his owner or something that looks familiar to him — and then he jets out back into westbound lanes of traffic,” he said.

Unfortunately, Ruger was struck by a car. He survived, but one of his paws was pinned under a rear tire, trapping the dog.

Semenuk repositioned his patrol car and turned on the flashing lights to keep other cars away the accident scene. An off-duty California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer who saw what happened also pulled over, and the two men immediately went to work to free Ruger. As the CHP officer raised the tire using a jack from his truck. Semenuk prepared to use a leash as a makeshift collar to pull the frightened dog out from under the car.

The deputy put on heavy gloves just in case Ruger bit him, but they were unnecessary. “He was actually very, very calm,” Semenuk said. “Once I got there, I started talking to him, trying to calm the dog down. He was in a lot of pain. He was crying, he was whimpering.”

Ruger let Semenuk lift him up and carry him to the side of the freeway. “He was a super good boy,” the deputy said.

The CHP officer went on his way and Semenuk comforted Ruger until officers from Placer County Animal Services arrived — along with Ruger’s owners, according to the Sacramento Bee. It’s not known how Ruger ended up running loose on an interstate.

Ruger was transported to a local veterinary clinic for emergency treatment. What’s really amazing is that despite what he went through, the Bloodhound had no broken bones — only lacerations and road rash. He’s expected to make a full recovery.

His rescue was captured on Semenuk’s patrol car dashboard camera. As the sheriff’s office warns, it’s disturbing to watch, but worth it, since it has a happy ending.

Thank you, Deputy Semenuk and the CHP officer for saving Ruger’s life.

Photo: Placer County Sheriff’s Office

San Bernardino Detectives Rescue Stolen Puppy and Drive Him Home

When a dog breeder and buyer met in the parking lot of a San Bernardino, Calif., supermarket earlier this month, the sale of a puppy didn’t go at all as the breeder had planned.

“The alleged buyer took the puppy, pushed the breeder and ran,” San Bernardino police Lt. Mike Madden told the Sun.

After the breeder contacted the police, two detectives were able to track down the puppynapper in the High Desert. According to a Facebook post, the thief was in the process of reselling the puppy when the detectives intervened.

The detectives rescued the stolen puppy, who appears to be a Pit Bull, and, as you can see in these photos, drove him back to the breeder.

The Sun reports that the puppynapper has not yet been charged with any crime, which seems odd. The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is currently reviewing the robbery case.

With so many stories of cops shooting dogs for no reason, it’s reassuring to know there are compassionate people in law enforcement who do the right thing and truly care about animals.

However…are Pit Bull breeders doing the right thing by raising and selling these dogs? With so many Pit Bulls in animal shelters, in my opinion, the answer is no.

If you’re thinking about getting a Pit Bull or any other breed of dog, please consider adopting one from a shelter or rescue instead of buying one from a breeder. In my own experience with dogs from breeders and shelters, it really doesn’t matter which they came from. And by adopting a shelter or rescue pet, remember that you’re potentially saving two lives: that of your new family member as well as the dog who will now be able to take his place in the shelter — and hopefully be just as lucky.

Photo via Facebook/San Bernardino Police Department

Good Cops! Florida Deputies Comfort Pit Bulls Abandoned in Street

It’s sad but true that in many cases, if police officers were to see two stray Pit Bulls in the street, they’d likely shoot them dead.

But that, very fortunately, is not what happened in Orlando, Fla., early Thursday morning. When two Orange County sheriff’s deputies saw two female Pit Bulls who’d apparently been dumped in the middle of a street, they got out of their patrol car and comforted the frightened but sweet-natured dogs. One of the dogs had a serious leg injury.

A passerby named Adam took photos of the kind deputies, who stayed with the dogs until animal services arrived.

“They even applied gauze to the injured dog’s leg to stop the heavy bleeding,” Adam wrote in a note to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. “These pictures I took depict a loving nature from our deputies and will tug at any animal lover’s heart strings. Thank you.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office posted Adam’s photos on its Facebook page. “Well done, Deputy Reed and Deputy Boggs,” says the caption. “#MakingADifference.”

The two Pit Bulls are doing well and are currently being cared for by Orange County Animal Services. They’ve been named Liberty and Justice.

Hopefully they will find a loving forever family soon — and hopefully Deputy Boggs and Deputy Reed will be honored for their compassion, and set a nationwide example for the humane way police officers can deal with dogs.

“One of those Deputies (Boggs) is my son! I’m very proud of him!” wrote Lisa Cichy on the Orange County Animal Services Facebook page. “He’s always been very intuitive with animals! I’m so happy for those two pups to saved by these wonderful men!”

Photo via Facebook

Cop Drives Pit Bull to Home Nearly 800 Miles from Crash Site

While returning from spring break in Florida to the University of Arkansas, where she was a student, 19-year-old McKenzie Catron crashed her car into a utility pole in Dothan, Ala., last weekend. Catron, who was from Bentonville, Ark., was killed. Her 19-year-old passenger and her Pit Bull, Kai, survived.

But, spooked by the crash, Kai ran off.

Sgt. Jonathon Whaley and another sergeant were the first to arrive at the scene of the accident. “We felt we needed to find the dog,” Whaley told FOX 5. “We were going to do whatever we needed to do to reunite this dog with this family.”

Whaley and other officers, along with firefighters and dozens of other community members, volunteered their time to search for Kai. A local law firm offered a $1,000 reward for Kai’s safe return. A “Help Find Kai” Facebook community was created.

Two days after the crash, Benjamin Irwin — the attorney who had offered the reward — and another volunteer found Kai, but the dog ran off. Irwin’s wife and other volunteers pursued him “for over a mile and up and down too many city streets,” Irwin wrote on Facebook, “and made multiple attempts to catch Kai, until we finally created a loving wall when she went inside a person’s shelter in their backyard. … We apologize to all the cars and other people we cut off or just plain ignored while we focused solely on recovering Kai.”

A veterinarian who examined Kai said that except for being dehydrated and fatigued, the dog was in good shape.

The next step — and it was a big one — was to reunite Kai with her family in Arkansas, 770 miles away.

Whaley quickly volunteered to make the trip with his family. “I felt God impressing on me that we needed to make this trip,” he told FOX 5.

Kai returned home Tuesday night. “For us, [Kai] was just a part of her. And we found it. And now we can kind of start healing,” Catron’s mother, Kendra Mulherin, told KHBS.

The name of the “Help Find Kai” Facebook page has been changed to “We Found Kai.” Irwin said he’s donating the reward money to the Rogers Animal Shelter, from which Kai was adopted.

“Dotham, Alabama, you guys are God’s gift to Earth,” Catron’s family wrote on Facebook. “You will always have a special place in our hearts.”

According to her obituary, Catron worked as a lifeguard and did volunteer work to help make the world a better place. While her death is tragic, it’s heartening to know her spirit of giving continues to live on.

Photos via Facebook

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