Tag: hero dogs

Thanks to Hero Pit Bull, Michigan Town Ends Breed Ban

As Jamie Dopke began beating his girlfriend, Jamie Kraczkowski, two months ago, her Pit Bull, Isis, sprang into action.

“When my head got hit against the wall, she just grabbed his pant leg and she was done,” Kraczkowski, of Hazel Park, Mich., told WJBK. “She was done with him abusing me — and abusing her.”

Kraczkowski’s now ex-boyfriend stopped hitting her and left. Unfortunately, because Hazel Park enforced a breed ban, Krackowski and Isis also had to leave their home, or the hero dog would have been confiscated and euthanized.

With help from a GoFundMe account Kraczkowski created, the two were able to move to another town, where they’re both “doing great,” she told the Huffington Post this week.

Because breed-specific legislation (BSL), which includes Pit Bull bans, is so unfair — not to mention costly to enforce and proven to be ineffective in increasing public safety — it is opposed by President Obama and virtually all major animal welfare organizations: the ASPCA, AVMA, HSUS, etc., etc. For these reasons, the trend has been to repeal these useless bans.

The latest town to repeal its ban? Hazel Park. Last week, city officials voted unanimously to end it, thanks to Isis.

“We are really excited,” Courtney Protz-Sanders, whose Michigan’s Political Action Committee for Animals campaigned for the repeal, told the Huffington Post. “We’re happy.”

Hazel Park is not, however, eliminating BSL altogether. It will still impose special requirements for Pit Bull owners. The dogs must be licensed, pass behavioral assessment tests and be fenced properly, and their owners must have home insurance.

“I am very happy with this decision. But I think we still have a long way to go,” Mike Toma, a Hazel Park resident who has two Pit Bulls, told the Daily Tribune. After Kraczkowski’s story made news headlines in March, Toma was also given five days to relocate his dogs.

“If it comes between where I live and my dogs, it’s gonna be my dogs 10 times out of 10,” he told the Daily Tribune at the time.

Photo via GoFundMe.com

Indianapolis Pit Bull Alerts Dog Mom to House Fire

“If it wasn’t for Raja, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Jennifer Green, the 2-year-old Pit Bull’s dog mom, told WISH. “I probably would have been trapped in the basement with smoke inhalation and I would be dead.”

Green was working in the basement of her Indianapolis home Monday afternoon when Raja walked down the stairs and began whimpering.

“I’m like, okay, something’s not right,” Green told WISH. “He’s trying to tell me something.”

Green went upstairs and saw that the back porch was on fire. She managed to get out of the house, but Raja ran back down to the basement. Fortunately, firefighters were able to rescue him, and although he suffered smoke inhalation, Raja is doing fine.

“He’s going to get a steak at some point, so we’ll get all that taken care of,” Green told WISH Tuesday. “He got a lot of treats last night, that’s for sure.”

Green’s house, unfortunately, was a total loss. The fire is believed to have started when discarded, still-smoldering ashes from a fire pit reignited in a trash can. The Indianapolis Fire Department advises people to soak ashes in water before dumping them.

Raja and his family are staying in a motel, which has the hero dog a little flustered, Green said. Their fire insurance and friends are helping them get by.

Green told WISH she wasn’t surprised by what Raja did. “He’s family and he’d do anything for us,” she said.

Photo via Facebook

Rescued Bernese Mountain Dog Rescues Couple Caught in Rip Current

Nico, a 3-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog recently adopted from a shelter, had probably never been in the ocean before. But when he heard a man and woman yelling for help Thursday afternoon in Ventura, Calif., he rushed in to save them.

The two unidentified swimmers were in a dangerous rip current that makes it almost impossible to swim to shore. The woman was caught in it first, and then the same thing happened to the man when he tried to rescue her.

Nico “went right up to the side of the Boogie Board and swung his body around where they were swimming,” Dan Clarke, his dog dad — who happens to be a former lifeguard — told KTLA.

“I just said, ‘Grab him anywhere you can.’ She put her arm around his chest, and was hanging onto the Boogie Board with one arm.”

Nicole Clarke said she teared up when her husband called her and told her about Nico’s heroic act.

“I know how treacherous it is out here,” she told KTLA, “and what a false sense of security it is to be not that far offshore and just get caught, and nobody’s around to help you.”

The couple Nico saved were extremely grateful — and exhausted — once they were safely back on shore and reunited with their two young children.

“Is that a trained lifesaving dog?” one of them asked Clarke.

“I said, ‘That’s the first time I ever saw him do anything like that,” he told KTLA. “It’s pure instinct.”

Voting Begins for 2015 Hero Dog Awards

The second round of voting has begun. You can vote online for your favorite semi-finalist in each category through June 26, 2015.

The first round of voting has begun for the fifth annual American Humane Association (AHA) Hero Dog Awards, presented by the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation.

The purpose of these awards is to “celebrate the powerful, age-old bond between dogs and people – and give recognition to courageous acts of heroism performed by our four-legged best friends,” according to the official website.

The eight Hero Dog Awards categories are Law Enforcement Dogs; Arson Dogs; Service Dogs; Therapy Dogs; Military Dogs; Search-and-Rescue Dogs; Guide and Hearing Dogs; and Emerging Hero Dogs (ordinary dogs who do extraordinary things).

Through May 15, you can vote online once every day for your favorite dog in each category. You must be a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years old to vote.

The top three semifinalists in each category will move on to the second round, which will include votes from celebrities and the public. The winner of each category will appear at the Hero Dog Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sept. 19, where the 2015 winner will be announced.

To help hero dogs everywhere, AHA will donate $2,500 to each category winner’s charity partner, and an additional $5,000 to the grand prize winner’s charity partner.

Last year’s grand prize winner was Susie, a Pit Bull/German Shepherd-mix who survived a horribly abusive puppyhood and became a therapy dog. She was the inspiration for Susie’s Law, which bumps up the crime of maliciously abusing, torturing or killing an animal in North Carolina from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Through March 13, AHA is also accepting nominations for its Hero Veterinarian and Hero Veterinary Technician Awards.

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 a bit early to mark your calendar, but the 2015 Hero Dog Awards will be televised in October.

Photo via Facebook

Dachshund Gets Medal of Valor for Saving Saint Bernard

Two weeks ago, a 180-pound Saint Bernard named Jazzy escaped from her Belen, N.M., yard and ended up stuck in a ditch filled with mud for nearly 18 hours.

Jazzy is probably alive today thanks to her buddy Razor, a Dachshund who’s barely a foot tall.

“I went to feed [Razor], and he was kind of going crazy, trying to get my attention,” Tim Chavez, dog dad of Jazzy and Razor, told KRQE Feb. 18. He said his neighbor also noticed that Razor “was kind of running amok, and just causing a scene and trying to get his attention.”

Just as Lassie once led rescuers to Timmy in the well, Razor ran to the ditch. After a call to 911, eight Belen police officers and firefighters arrived and pulled Jazzy out, using a board and straps as they would for a human. She wasn’t seriously hurt.

“It’s never happened in my career, and in this business, we see a lot of things,” Belen Fire Chief Manny Garcia told KRQE. “We’re used to rescuing humans, and when it comes to somebody’s pet, it’s just like a family member.”

Chavez said he is grateful to have Jazzy back. “You don’t really realize how attached you are to your pets until something like this happens,” he told KRQE.

During the Baleen city council meeting last night, Razor was honored with a Medal of Valor for his “unknowingly valiant effort.” He was also presented with a rawhide bone that was almost as big as he is.

Capt. Joe Saiz of the Baleen fire department told KOAT he was inspired by Razor.

“Everybody should be doing stuff like this,” Saiz said. “If everybody gives a little, it’s going to make this world a better place.”

Another of Chavez’s dogs, a brown-and-white Pit Bull named Layla, escaped from the yard with Jazzy, but hasn’t yet been found. Razor, get help!

Photos via YouTube

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