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Pit Bull Mix Stays by Buddy Trapped in Fence for 2 Days

After a pair of male and female Pit Bull mixes apparently escaped from their Atlanta yard last week, the female’s back right paw became entangled in the wire of a chain-link fence she’d attempted to jump over. She was left dangling and standing on her front paws.

Her buddy stood by her side, barking nonstop to get attention.

It worked — but the person who saw the trapped dog didn’t bother letting anyone know until 48 hours later.

“We received a call from someone saying there was a dog hanging by her toe on a fence and that she had been there for two days,” Karen Hirsch, of LifeLine Animal Project, told Mashable.

Hirsch and others from LifeLine, a nonprofit that manages Fulton County Animal Services, freed the female, who they named Athena. When they took her inside their trailer to examine her foot, her buddy, who they named Zeus, was beside himself, barking and crying.

“We had to bring him back and put him in the cage beside her,” Hirsch told The Dodo.

Despite her ordeal, Athena only suffered a swollen toe. When Hirsch visited Athena and Zeus the next day, she said Zeus “was busy licking her toe and protecting her from everyone.”

Thanks to Lifeline, Athena received the veterinary care she needed. “It’s important to note that at most municipal shelters, she would be put to sleep or left untreated,” Hirsch told The Dodo. “But LifeLine raises money enabling us to help animals who are in trouble at the county shelters we manage.”

Lifeline Animal Project was intending to adopt the two out together, but according to Fox 5 yesterday, the two BFFs are now back at home with their pet parents.

Tillie Stayed with Her Trapped Buddy, Too

Just two months ago, an Irish Setter named Tillie also proved just how loyal dogs can be. When her best friend, a Basset Hound named Phoebe, fell into an old water basin in Vashon Island, Wash., and couldn’t climb back out, Tillie did not leave her side for days.

“For nearly a week, Tillie stayed by her side with the exception of the few minutes of each day when she went for help,” Vashon Island Pet Protectors (VIPP) wrote on its Facebook page.

A man who lived nearby notified VIPP that a “reddish dog” had approached him on his property a few times, and then would run back into the ravine.

VIPP rescued Phoebe from the cistern. Both dogs were in good condition. The two had escaped from their house during a party when a guest left the front door open.

“Tillie would never leave, even if the gate was left open, but she’s best friends with Phoebe, and so when Phoebe follows her little Basset Hound nose, Tillie always goes with her to make sure she’s okay,” their relieved dog dad, B.J. Duft, told ABC News. “They’re best pals — inseparable.”

For being such a loyal friend, Tillie was honored Oct. 15 as a “Washingtonian of the Day” by Gov. Jay Inslee, who encouraged everyone in the state “to celebrate the bravery and loyalty of this canine companion.”

News Crew Rescued Dog Dangling from Fence

Unlike the person who waited two days to let anyone know Athena was stuck in an Atlanta fence, a news crew in Corpus Christi, Texas, took immediate action in March when they came across a dog who happened to be in the exact same predicament as Athena.

Using a pliers, an unidentified 3News photographer cut the dog loose and the crew called Animal Care Services.

It was not known how long the dog had been trapped or if anyone else had seen him there. He suffered “a little bit of damage to the paw,” a spokesman for Animal Care Services told 3News.

A woman across the street told the animal control officer she knew the dog’s owner.

“When we spoke to the owner, we educated them, told them they needed to go to their primary veterinarian for medical treatment,” the spokesman told 3News. “We’re going to be following up on that in the next couple of days to make sure they did provide that treatment for the animal.”

Video of Police Officer Rescuing Dog Trapped on Fence Goes Viral

In perhaps one of the most famous rescues of a dog trapped on a fence, Plattsburg, Mo., police officer Nick Sheppard rescued a dangling dog in May 2010.

The rescue was recorded on a very shaky video by a camera inside Sheppard’s hand-held radio.

The video — featuring the dog’s unforgettable reaction to being saved — went viral. The dog was reunited with his owner soon afterward.

Photos via Twitter; Facebook; Facebook

Losers Break into San Bernardino Shelter and Set Dogs Free

Less than two months after Jason Johnson broke into the Riverside County Animal Services shelter and set dogs loose, two other losers attempted to do the same at another Southern California shelter.

A surveillance video shows a white sedan pulling up to the City of San Bernardino Animal Control shelter around 7 p.m. last night, the San Bernardino Sun reports. A man and young boy got out of the car and cut through a chain link fence to get inside the shelter.

Just as Johnson had done in Riverside, the man cut through locks on several kennels and set the dogs free. Seven minutes later, he and the boy drove off with one of the dogs, a male, brown-and-white Pit Bull mix.

Another dog, a red Mastiff mix named Lobo, escaped from the shelter. When employees arrived this morning and discovered the break-in, Lobo was in the parking lot. Unfortunately, the employees were unable to catch him and he remains missing.

“Obviously you never know what the intent is of someone coming into a facility like this to take animals,” Lt. Rich Lawhead of the San Bernardino Police Dept. told KTLA. “Are they taking it because they want their animal back, or do they have more malicious intent with the animal? That’s a very serious concern.”

The Pit Bull mix had been brought to the shelter Oct. 29, the Sun reports. Police officers contacted the dog’s previous owner, who did not have the dog. KNBC reports that investigators said they had a possible lead concerning the dog.

The five other dogs who had been set loose were accounted for and unharmed.

Anyone with information about the break-in is asked to call the San Bernardino Police Dept. at 909-384-5742.

Photo via Twitter

Outrage Grows after Florida Cop Shoots Rescued Dog 3 Times

As he drove around a Florida City neighborhood Tuesday, police officer Marcus Terry noticed that a car door had been left open in the driveway of a house.

He knocked on the front door to alert the residents. When Sage Raphael opened the door, her family’s rescued 2-year-old Pit Bull mix, Duchess, bolted out.

“She was excited. Someone’s at the door,” Gillian Palacios, Raphael’s mom, told CBS Miami. “She’s excited to see who it is, you know, normal dog behavior.”

As Raphael watched in horror, Terry quickly pulled out his gun and shot Duchess three times in the head.

“I was about to grab her. I had her and two seconds later, it’s three gunshots,” Raphael told CBS Miami.

“Your dog charged me,” Terry told her and her mom, who ran out when she heard the gunshots, Local 10 News reports. He said Animal Services would pick up Duchess, and then walked away, leaving the dog lying in a pool of blood.

A surveillance camera captured the horrible incident on video. Duchess doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of aggression in the second or two before Terry killed her.

“She was curious. She wasn’t barking (and) she wasn’t growling,” Palacios, who fosters homeless dogs, told Local 10 News. “There was no reason for him to think she was aggressive in any way. There were a million things he could have done other than shoot her three times in the head.”

Officer Ken Armenteros, a spokesman for the Florida City Police Department, told Local 10 News that facts about the shooting are currently being gathered.

“We don’t have the luxury of hindsight,” he said. “We have to use the information that is given to us in a split second. So, the officer has to make that decision with the information that he has available.”

Terry has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

“He needs to take responsibility for his actions,” Raphael told CBS Miami. “If he didn’t want to be in this position, he should have never pulled that gun and made that first move.”

An online petition asking that Terry be fired has more than 22,400 signatures as of Thursday morning.

Sadly, some police officers tend to be gun happy when dealing with pet dogs who are just doing what comes naturally — protecting their families and property.

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 produced the new documentary “Of Dogs and Men” 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 Duchess and 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.

Here’s the surveillance video showing Duchess being killed by Terry. Please be warned it is very graphic and disturbing.

My heart goes out to Palacios and Raphael. Rest in peace, Duchess.

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Photo via Facebook

Rescued Pit Bull Mix Rescues Family Just 2 Days after Adoption

Silvia Reyes and her family adopted a 1-year-old Pit Bull mix named Candi on Saturday during an event held by Miami-Dade County Animal Services.

Just two days later, Candi returned the favor by saving the lives of her new forever family.

Monday night, as Reyes, her husband and their 13-year-old son were sleeping in their Pinecrest, Fla., townhouse, Candi started barking downstairs and wouldn’t stop.

“We heard a lot of barking and howling,” Reyes told Local 10. “To my surprise, at one in the morning, I came down and our kitchen was engulfed in smoke.”

The smoke was pouring out of the refrigerator. “The compressor was making some kind of bad connection,” Reyes said.

Everyone was able to get out of the house safely, although the hero dog began vomiting and having breathing difficulties.

The Reyes family rushed her to an animal hospital, where X-rays revealed she had suffered a collapsed lung due to smoke inhalation. She spent the day there yesterday, receiving oxygen and IV fluids.

Candi is now back at home with her grateful family, and is expected to make a full recovery.

“She rescued us. She saved our lives, I promise you,” Reyes told Local 10. “I mean, we were sleeping. We wouldn’t have known otherwise.”

Photo via Twitter

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.

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