VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

The Animal Rescue Site.com is having a contest. Vote for your fave shelter or rescue group that participates on Petfinder.com.

A weekly award of $1000 will be given to the shelter/rescue that accumulates the most votes for the week. December 15th they will announce who has the most votes. $25,000 to the winner, $10,000 to the runner up.

Direct Link to VOTE

Currently we are #1 in BC and 5th over all... HELP TO MAKE US #1 ACROSS THE BOARD!!!!

Fighting Dogs Given A Second Chance

It sure sounds like the Vick case is really starting to make changes in the way Animal Control and local Humane Centres treat Fighting Dogs.

This story comes from Autauga County where 20 dogs and 7 puppies - All Pit Bulls where found chained without food or water. Officers where shocked to see that even the puppies where left with large chains around their necks.

Click here for the whole story

The BEST part....

The Attorney Generals office were all involved in the investigation. A-G Troy King was on the scene right after the arrests. "I was asked the other day......what would you say to somebody who says well they're just dogs. I'd say to somebody who says they're just dogs - that's probably somebody who would say they're just kids or they're just seniors. We can not allow the defenseless among us to be abused and hurt and caged and chained as we see here."

What!!! He thinks that even Pit Bulls deserve better.... Can someone kiss this man or better yet make him Ontario's Attorney General.

And even more good news for these dogs....

The dogs will be evaluated and put up for adoption at the Montgomery Humane Society. If you're interested in adopting one call the shelter.

Hip Hip Hooray!!! for the Pit Bulls and for the Montgomery Humane Society for seeing these dogs as what they are.. Victims in need of help.

So many dogs...Too little homes

Over the last month we have received email after email from shelters across BC and even the States looking for help with their unwanted Pit Bulls. Foster Homes in HugABull's case save lives and right now we are low. If you have ever thought about being a foster parent to a homeless Pit Bull, now might be a good time to email us for more information.

This is Penelopy and she REALLY wants to get out of the Shelter. HugABull has been searching and searching for a foster home that can take in this sweet little lady. At the Shelter knowone even looks in her direction. - Hang in there Penelopy we are trying!!!

For more information on being a Foster Home click here.

Pits In The Park - Having Fun!

Thank you, to all of you who showed up for our 5th Annual Pits In The Park BBQ. It was great to see so many new faces amoung the crowd.

For those that missed the fun, here are some sample shots of the days events.

A special thank you to Allison and Katye for all your help and for your creative ideas. Way To Go Girls!!!

For more pictures sign up for our Online Forum

Don't miss it!!

Maybe some hope for these dogs

Surrey North Delta Leader
Reprieve for seized pit bullsBy Ryan Starr - Surrey North Delta LeaderPublished: August 28, 2008 12:00 PM Updated: August 28, 2008 2:41 PM

The last-minute intervention of a dog lovers’ group has ensured that a pack of embattled pit bulls won’t be destroyed – at least, not yet.
The pit bulls were seized in Vancouver earlier this month and are suspected to have been involved in a host of vicious attacks across the province over the past year.
The Surrey SPCA and City of Surrey – which had sought to destroy the animals – have agreed to allow an independent assessment to determine whether the dogs can be rehabilitated.

The matter was before Surrey Provincial Court Thursday with lawyer Kirk Tousaw representing a group of dog advocates who are seeking the assessment and offering to pay for it. He filed an application for an intervention on behalf of his client, Lauren Phillips, a concerned citizen who felt a destruction order was “wildly premature.”
“What we asked for today was an adjournment so there was some time to determine whether these dogs in fact pose a danger to the public or whether they could be rehabilitated,” Tousaw said outside the courtroom.

“Our hope is we can get an expert in and take a look at the dogs, see if they can be rehabilitated and if so place them in good homes so they don’t have to be killed.”
Four pit bulls were found in a van that Vancouver Police pulled over Aug. 11, a day after a Surrey man and his dog were attacked by a pack of five pit bulls whose owner fled with them afterward.

Vancouver Animal Control seized three adult pit bulls and one puppy from the van and subsequently transferred them to the Surrey SPCA where they were impounded. The city’s animal control officer Phil Greene subsequently requested the destruction of the dogs, alleging they were involved in eight attacks in the past year, six of which were said to have occurred in Surrey.

Greene alleges the four seized pit bulls are owned by Hal Douglas Harris, who was driving the van the VPD pulled over. According to Tousaw, one of the dogs is pregnant and may already have had puppies while in SPCA custody.
Two other dogs are puppies, he said, and the remaining pit bull – which Tousaw characterized as the “most vicious” of the bunch – has already been put down, with the consent of Harris and the City of Surrey.

Harris was in court Thursday, saying little throughout the proceedings. When he stepped out of court, he was served with legal papers by a City of Surrey lawyer that relate to three dog attacks in Surrey in April, June and August – 24 counts in all. A hearing date has been set for Sept. 25 to update the court on where the matter stands.

The trial date on the application to destroy the dogs is April 17, 2009, according to Tousaw.“My concern was the (SPCA’s) application contained conflicting facts,” Tousaw added. “There were a number of different dogs and breeds of dogs identified. It’s unclear to me whether the dogs that are sought to be executed are in fact the dogs that perpetrated the attacks.”

rstarr@surreyleader.com

By gosh I think they've got it...

Banning pit bulls would be pointless because the breed does not exist
Vancouver SunPublished: Thursday, August 21, 2008

The seizure of four pit bulls reportedly involved in a series of attacks has led to renewed calls for a ban on the breed. Yet legislation banning pit bulls would be wrongheaded for many reasons, not the least of which is that there is no such breed.

When members of the public and the media speak of pit bulls, they're generally referring to mutts -- cross-bred dogs -- rather than to a breed recognized by the Canadian or American kennel clubs. Pit bulls are therefore identified not on the basis of their genetic makeup, but rather on how they look. Now, a dog's appearance is hardly a reliable indicator of its disposition, but appearance is all we will have to go on if we decide to outlaw pit bulls. That means that any such law will include many dogs that are not dangerous and exclude many dogs that are.

Indeed, dangerous dogs exist among every breed and cross-breed: The Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) studied 278 dog attacks requiring hospital admission, and found that they involved 50 different types of purebred dogs and 33 cross breeds. German shepherds were responsible for the most attacks, followed by Rottweilers and cocker spaniels.

That cocker spaniels had the dubious distinction of tying for second place shouldn't really come as a surprise, since many small dogs can be aggressive. And while dogs that people call pit bulls can inflict more damage than small breeds, small, aggressive dogs such as dachshunds have killed people.

Suffice it say, then, that banning dogs based on how they look is hardly a rational or effective way to protect adults, children or other dogs. For these reasons, many organizations, including the Canadian Kennel Club, the American Kennel Club, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, the National Companion Animal Coalition, the Canadian Safety Council and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control all oppose breed bans.

Instead, these organizations argue that our laws and policies should focus on dangerousness. Dogs that have attacked people or other dogs should be euthanized or confined, and dogs trained to attack, such as guard dogs, should similarly be confined. Significant fines, and where appropriate, criminal charges, should also be levied against the owners of dogs who attack. Of course once a dog attacks, the damage has been done, so we should work to reduce the chances of attacks occurring. Ethical and responsible breeders -- including those who breed dogs that some people call pit bulls, such as Staffordshire Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers -- do not breed for aggressiveness, and people who do breed or train dogs to fight should be dealt with harshly.

Confinement laws, including leash, muzzle and running at large laws, can also reduce the likelihood of attack, as can spaying and neutering. Owners should also be encouraged to ensure that their pets are properly socialized, receive proper veterinary care and complete obedience training. And people who abuse their dogs should be banned from ever owning another pet. Everyone, whether they own dogs or not, should know never to tease a dog, or to approach a strange dog, particularly if it's tethered, since it may attack out of fear. Children, especially, should be taught these things, because, as the CHIRPP studied found, children often act in ways that dogs find threatening.

This type of approach represents the best way to protect people and pets, because it requires us to focus our laws, policies and behaviours on eliminating dangerousness. And it's certainly a lot better than trying to eliminate a breed that doesn't exist.

- I could kiss the author of this letter... well done!!