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5 Reasons Why Jon Stewart Is So Doggone Awesome

This post was originally published in August 2015.

During his tenure as host of “The Daily Show” from January 1999 to August 2015, Jon Stewart skewered the news media and plenty of politicians — but he’s always had a soft spot for dogs, especially Pit Bulls.

Here are just five of the many reasons why Jon Stewart is a doggone awesome guy.

Bonus Fun Fact

Even the theme song of “The Daily Show” has a canine-related title: it’s “Dog on Fire,” performed by They Might Be Giants.

The instrumental tune was written by Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü. Based on the sound effects in the original version, its rather disturbing title might refer to a bowler who’s scoring a lot of strikes.

5. ‘The Daily Show’ office is dog friendly.

“On any given day, a half dozen dogs roam the halls, scavenge for treats and bark when people start clapping at ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,'” according to The Daily Show Dogs, a Facebook page dedicated to these lucky pets.

In September 2012, Brian Williams did about this perk for NBC’s “Rock Center.” (For the record, Williams was not lying about “The Daily Show” being dog friendly.)

4. Jon Stewart is a longtime Pit Bull advocate.

When Tia Torres, founder of the Villalobos Rescue Center featured on “Pit Bulls and Parolees,” was a guest in September 2014, she told Stewart, “I knew who Jon Stewart was before I knew what ‘The Daily Show’ was, because you’re such a Pit Bull advocate.”

3. He enlightened his audience about puppy mills.

The “Big Red Dogs” segment, in which Olivia Munn interviewed a supporter of puppy mills, aired after Missouri’s Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act passed in November 2010.

“They’re expecting breeders to sit there and pay for an exorbitance amount of care that is not needed, like adequate food, adequate water, adequate space,” says Anita Andrews, director of Alliance for Truth, an organization that opposed the law.

The segment gets even funnier/scarier after that, with appearances by “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan and spcaLA President Madeline Bernstein.

2. He ripped Michael Vick a new one.

When it was discovered in 2007 that the NFL’s Michael Vick ran a dog-fighting operation and had killed several dogs himself, like most of us, Stewart was livid.

“I’d like to cover him in liver and let the dogs see if he’s as fast and elusive as they say he is,” Stewart said, fuming, as the studio audience cheered.

“My guess is no.”

1. He’s the dog dad of rescued Pit Bulls, including three-legged Little Dipper.

Stewart doesn’t just advocate on behalf of Pit Bulls — he provides them with a loving forever home. Stewart, his wife Tracey (who’s a former veterinary technician) and their family have three: Monkey, Shamsky (named after baseball legend Art Shamsky) and three-legged Little Dipper.

In a series of ridiculously sweet photos posted on Buzzfeed in May 2013, Stewart could be seen walking Little Dipper with a bright green leash along a New York City street.

In the photo below, as Stewart pats the lucky pup on the head, Little Dipper appears to be having his very own “Moment of Zen.”

Photos via Pinterest; Buzzfeed

With Her Pit Bull in a Duffel Bag, Woman Escapes California Wildfire on a Bicycle

Natasha Wallace wasn’t about to flee from a devastating wildfire in Santa Rosa, Calif., without Bentley, her beloved 4-year-old Pit Bull.

“I would never part ways with my dog, ever,” she told FOX40. “That’s my ride or die — oh my God, literally.”

Wallace, a student at Santa Rosa Junior College, had been studying across town Monday night. As she drove home around 2 a.m., she could see the flames near her home and knew she’d have to evacuate.

She managed to put Bentley in her car and tried to drive away from the fast-moving fire, but got stuck in traffic. So she ran back to her house and grabbed her bicycle and a duffel bag, which became a sidecar for Bentley.

“I told him, ‘Hey man, this is serious, you need to just sit in the bag,'” Wallace told FOX40. “And he hopped right in.”

Carrying her 70-pound dog, she was able to ride her bike a few miles away from the fire. Fortunately, a good Samaritan named Paul Johnson stopped his pickup truck and gave Wallace and Bentley a lift to a safe evacuation area.

Unfortunately, Wallace — who turned 24 yesterday — lost her home and everything she owned, but thanks to her quick actions, she and her beloved Pittie survived.

“I don’t even know how to express how grateful I am,” she told FOX40.

Here’s how to help pets left homeless by the devastating wildfires in Northern California.

German Shepherd Stays by Pit Bull Buddy’s Body on Busy Highway

A German Shepherd refused to leave the side of her Pit Bull buddy who’d probably been killed by a car on a busy New Jersey highway.

When Totowa Station troopers responded to a call during rush hour yesterday morning about two dogs on the shoulder of Interstate 280, they found the German Shepherd lying beside the Pit Bull — and she wasn’t about to budge.

The troopers “knew they had to get the Shepherd off the highway, but she did not want to leave the other dog’s side,” the New Jersey State Police said in a statement on its Facebook page. “They eventually were able to get her out of harm’s way and into the back of a troop car.”

Back at the station, the troopers gave the German Shepherd water and played a game of fetch with her. An unidentified local animal rescue shelter has taken her in.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of the other dog, but we’re elated that we were able to rescue the Shepherd,” the statement said. Thank you, troopers!

According to a comment on the New Jersey State Police Facebook page, the German Shepherd was microchipped and has been reunited with her owner.

If it’s true that this devoted dog is back at home, hopefully her owner will ensure she never ends up on a busy highway again. This is not the first and won’t be the last true tale of how amazingly loyal dogs are, in life and death, to their four-legged and two-legged companions.

Photo via New Jersey State Police Facebook page

GRRR: 2 Hero Dogs Who Apprehended NYC Mugger Euthanized by Shelter

When a teenager snatched a woman’s purse in Queens, N.Y., earlier this month, two stray dogs — a German Shepherd and a Pit Bull — took off after the thief. They pinned him down in nearby Springfield Park and bit him.

Even then, the four-legged crimestoppers were treated very poorly by officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit. The two dogs were pepper-sprayed, beaten with batons and shot with tranquilizer darts before being transported to Animal Care & Control of NYC (AC&C).

“The dogs were still lingering, looking to get him,” a police source told the New York Post. “They were set up to continue their mauling.”

The 15-year-old boy was treated for bite wounds at a local hospital. He was charged with petit larceny and will live on to hopefully not steal more purses.

But if he does, those two hero dogs won’t be around to stop him. Even though George Petruncio of Sewell, N.J., let AC&C know he wanted to adopt the German Shepherd and Pit Bull, the two dogs were euthanized yesterday because they were allegedly too aggressive.

“They never gave the dogs a chance,” Petruncio told the Post. “They did a good thing and this is how you repay them? It’s garbage.”

Polices officers in Queens’ 105th precinct also did their best to spare the lives of the two dogs. They offered to help AC&C place them with a rescue group.

“The dogs deserved a second chance because of how they helped out,” a police source told the Post. “It just doesn’t seem like justice was served for these dogs.”

AC&C has a troubling reputation with animals, and not only dogs. Earlier this week a bull that escaped from a slaughterhouse — and was promised to be released to a sanctuary — died after being shot with multiple tranquilizer darts. In December, a beloved deer that lived in a Harlem park died from stress after it was captured by AC&C.

However, it wasn’t the AC&C, but the NYC Department of Health that issued death sentences for the hero dogs.

“After a comprehensive assessment by an animal behavioral specialist, the two dogs that mauled a teenager were determined too aggressive to be placed at rescue organization or put up for adoption,” spokesman Julien A. Martinez said yesterday. “They were humanely euthanized today.”

The heartbreaking tale of these two hero dogs makes me all the more thankful for groups like BAD RAP and Best Friends Animal Society, who took in and rehabilitated some other famous dogs that were also deemed too aggressive to ever be adopted: the survivors of Michael Vick’s dog-fighting operation. Many of those dogs went on to become therapy and service dogs — and even earned the title of ASPCA Dog of the Year.

Good thing the AC&C’s animal behavioral specialist and the NYC Department of Health didn’t get to Vick’s dogs first.

Photo credit: FastPhive

Firefighter Adopts Abandoned Pit Bull Puppy He Rescued

On their way to a call on a cold and rainy October morning, firefighter Mike Thawley and the Sacramento Fire Department Engine No. 14 crew spotted a sickly, 3-month-old Pit Bull puppy who’d been tied to a fence and abandoned on a Sacramento street.

The shivering puppy’s legs were swollen and covered with scabs. She’d lost most of her hair due to mange.

The crew drove on and responded to the call, but returned afterward to rescue the puppy. They brought her to the fire station, where they gave her a bath and plenty of TLC. Then they took her to the Front Street Animal Shelter so she could be treated for her mange.

Thawley, however, had no intention of leaving her there. He, his wife and their three daughters decided to foster the puppy, who they named Chunk.

“We all just kind of fell in love with her,” he told the Sacramento Bee.

Almost four months later, Chunk has completed her treatment for mange — and she has a loving new forever home. Thawley and his family have adopted the dog he rescued. He told the Sacramento Bee that from the moment Chunk joined his family, he knew she’d become a permanent member.

“I think what’s great about this whole story is that not only did this dog find its forever home, but had the opportunity to go to a foster home, which we’re always looking for at our shelter, to get happy and healthy,” says the Front Street Animal Shelter spokesman Bobby Mann in a video posted on the Sacramento Fire Department’s Facebook page yesterday.

The best kind of failures? Foster failures! I wish Chunk and the Thawleys many, many happy years together.

Photo via YouTube