Illinois Archives - i Still Love Dogs

Three Poodles Survive Illinois House Explosion

The very same day two Dachshunds miraculously survived a house fire in Pennsylvania, three Standard Poodles in Illinois miraculously survived when the house they lived in blew up due to a natural gas leak.

As with the Dachshunds, the Poodles were initially thought to have been killed Saturday. The three dogs were in kennels in the basement of the house in Caseyville, and had no way of escaping. The homeowner and his son and daughter-in-law, who are Poodle breeders, were not home at the time of the explosion.

“If anyone had been inside, they would not have survived,” Hollywood Heights Fire Dept. Chief Buddy Moore told KTVI Saturday.

Sunday afternoon, next-door neighbor Larry Arnold — who happens to work for the fire department — was in his front yard, talking to other neighbors, when he heard something.

“I said, ‘Shut up, you guys, I hear those dogs crying,’” Arnold told the Belleville News-Democrat. “They said I was crazy. We walked over there and those dogs got real quiet because they must have been scared. But then they started barking.”

Arnold called Moore, and six firefighters soon arrived with a backhoe to dig out the Poodles. About two feet of water covered the basement floor.

St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency Director Herb Simmons told the News-Democrat one of the kennels had been partially crushed. Firefighters cut it open to rescue the Poodle inside it.

“I couldn’t believe they were still alive because of the explosion, the heat of the fire and then they almost drowned,” Arnold told the News-Democrat. “But it was probably the water that saved them from the heat.”

A fourth dog, thought to be an Australian Shepherd, ran out of the house after the explosion, neighbor Darlene Jonas told the News-Democrat. That dog has not been found.

Photos via Twitter; Facebook

Dog with Injured Leg Shot to Death by Police Officers

JULY 23, 2015 UPDATE: Disturbing details about the shooting of Buster, a 14-year-old Pit Bull, have surfaced.

The city of Alton, Ill., let its one animal control officer go last week. Starting yesterday, its police department took over those duties, even though the officers had no training in how to deal with animals.

That same day, two of those police officers shot and killed a Pit Bull mix only because he had an injured leg.

According to several comments on the KMOV.com Facebook page, the dog had been hit by a car and was limping outside a Family Dollar store. Two women called animal control. The police officers who arrived coaxed the dog into their squad car, telling the women and a few other onlookers they were taking him to a veterinarian.

The officers initially said the veterinarian euthanized the dog, according to various Facebook commenters. But when asked for the name of the vet, the officers admitted they shot the dog themselves.

“They felt there was no other alternative, so they took the dog in and euthanized the dog with their weapons,” Jackie Spiker, co-founder of the nonprofit Hope Animal Rescues, told KMOV.com.

“It was the first full day [animal control] was dropped in the lap of the Alton Police Department and it was chaos.”

Public Information Officer Emily Hejna insists Alton’s police officers really do love animals.

“I think it is a very unfortunate situation,” she told KMOV.com. “Our officers are not trained animal control officers and they make decisions with the information they have been given.”

According to Illinois’ Animal Control Act (and common sense and decency, it would seem), an injured dog should not be shot multiple times. The dog should be taken to a veterinarian, who can check for a microchip and notify the dog’s owner before taking any further action.

The dog killed by the Alton police officers was microchipped.

“Let’s come up with a solution so that we can keep a functioning animal control and not put Alton police officers who are not properly trained — and that’s not their fault, they are police officers, they are not animal control officers — so that what happened to this dog never happens again,” Spiker told KMOV.com.

She and others met with Alton Police Chief Jason A. Simmons after the shooting yesterday to discuss more humane ways for officers to deal with animals. Simmons told her he was willing to work on better solutions.

Spiker will meet with Alton Mayor Brant Walker on Friday. A city council meeting tomorrow night is expected to be packed.

Across the country, far too many dogs have been shot and killed by police officers who have had no training in how to deal with them. According to Ozymandias Media, which is producing the documentary “Puppycide” on the topic, a dog is shot by law enforcement every 98 minutes.

In 2013, Colorado became the first state to pass a “Dog Protection Act,” which requires all law enforcement officers to undergo training in dealing with dogs. In May, Texas enacted a law that requires a statewide comprehensive training program in dog encounters to be created by Jan. 1, 2016.

This is a start, but as these sad statistics make clear, teaching law enforcement officers how to humanely deal with dogs should be required in every state. Officers who choose to treat dogs inhumanely should be charged with animal cruelty.

Photo via Facebook

Illinois Tornado Victim’s Missing Dog Reunited with Family

After the deadly EF-4 tornado struck Fairdale, Ill., Thursday, Missy, a white German Shepherd belonging to one of the disaster’s two victims, Geraldine “Geri” Schultz, was nowhere to be found.

“This man has lost everything,” Sue Frazier, the daughter of Geri and her husband, Clem Schultz, told the Chicago Tribune Saturday morning. “He lost his home. He lost his wife. He needs to find his dog.”

As Geri’s grieving family was speaking to reporters, they received a phone call. A utility worker driving down a road had seen what he first thought was a white shadow in a field. Then he realized it was a dog. Could it be Missy?

It was. But she was still so traumatized from the storm that she took off running when the Schultz family approached her. Schultz’s grandson, Tyler Rowan, told NBC Chicago the family chased her for over 2 miles until they were finally able to catch her.

And ever since that moment, Clem hasn’t let go of her, Rowan said.

“We are all happy she is home! Bless you all and we are all forever grateful for your help!” read a status update Saturday on the Facebook page The Search for Missy, which was created Friday in hopes that someone would find her.

The Facebook pages Fairdale and Rochelle Illinois Pet Recovery and Dekalb and Surrounding Areas Tornadoes Lost and Found Pets — NDARTT have been created to help other pet parents reunite with their missing four-legged family members.

Anyone interested in fostering a found pet is asked to contact Traci Ann at the Kirkland Fire Department.

“I miss my grandma so much and I would like to thank everyone helping with finding Missy and donations for my grandpa, Clem,” wrote another of Schultz’s grandsons, Dustin Pierce, on the NDARTT Facebook page.

“His dog Missy and my grandma’s Pomeranian, Buddy, are all my grandpa has left to feel close to my grandmother.”

Photos via Facebook

Jeepers! Man Drives Vehicle off Tow Truck to Save Dog

Was it an act of bravery — or stupidity?

Victor Jaime of Hammond, Ill., brought a friend and George, his English Bulldog, along to pick up some food on the night of March 29. He parked his Jeep Wrangler in a Walgreens parking lot, and left George inside with the engine running while he and his friend walked over to the nearby Portillo’s restaurant.

Just a few minutes later, a tow truck from the Lincoln Towing company had hooked up the Jeep, with George still inside it.

When Jaime saw what was happening, he ran and jumped into the driver’s seat of his Jeep. He honked the horn and shouted at the tow truck driver to stop.

“He could definitely hear me. I was yelling at him,” Jaime told DNAinfo. “He was blatantly looking at me when he backed up.”

After traveling about a block, the tow truck finally stopped — but then the driver raised the hook, hoisting the Jeep even higher off the ground.

“I think the guy might force me out, or even have a gun,” Jaime said.

He decided to put the Jeep in drive and hit the gas. “It was a huge drop,” he said. “Once I landed, I checked George, and that’s when I took off.”

Tony Marengo, who lives in an apartment across the street, heard Jaime yelling and recorded the incident on his cell phone. His video has been viewed more than 2.1 million times.

“We are used to seeing cars get towed out of the Walgreens lot next door with lightning speed,” Marengo wrote on YouTube. “Usually NOT WITH A PERSON IN THE CAR, though. And this guy definitely didn’t want to get towed…”

Jaime told DNAinfo his car wasn’t damaged and, most importantly, George wasn’t harmed.

“I’m no hero,” he said. “I’m a dog lover.”

After speaking to a lawyer and the Illinois Commerce Commission, Jaime found out the tow truck driver broke the law, which states, “No vehicle shall be relocated where the owner of the vehicle or the owner’s agent is present or arrives on the scene before the vehicle is completely removed from the private property, produces the ignition key to the vehicle, and the owner or agent is able and does immediately remove the vehicle from the private property.”

However, Jaime was also in the wrong — not just for leaving George in a vehicle with the engine running, but for parking in the Walgreen’s lot, which has signs warning it’s for store customers only.

“It was A LEGAL TOW are you reading what I am typing HE LEFT THE CAR WHERE HE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO so we made it right AND TOWED IT,” wrote kballard27, who may or may not work for Lincoln Towing, in a comment on YouTube.

“I hope you understand there are 2 sides to every story the white knights side and the towing company side THE LEGAL side.”

There’s also a third side to the story, but unfortunately, George can’t talk. If he could, he’d likely tell Jaime to just leave him at home the next time he has to run an errand.

Photo via YouTube