All Things Dog - July 28

Hill's Pet Nutrition is sponsoring a Second Chance For Love Tour in an effort to place 1 million unwanted pets in suitable homes by the end of the year. Last weekend they offered to pay adoption fees for the first 25 applicants at Pasco County Animal Shelter.

According to St. Pete Times, Jack Q. Brown of Oldsmar is in the Pinellas County jail on animal cruelty charges. He held a bichon, yorkshire mix dog out his car window, letting it hit the ground, then dropped it while going 45 mph. A good samaritan saw the incident and caught the dog, then called deputies. The owner, whose information was on the dog's tags came to pick it up. Here's a case where I wish we had protective services and intermediate foster homes set up for animals like we do for children. I don't know how that man came to have the dog, but I'd sure want to know what the owner's connection is to this man and how the dog ended up in his hands, before I handed the dog over to them.

On NPR's Blog of The Nation last week, Barrie Hardymon talked about our "obsession" with our pet's medical needs. The post includes links to recent features related to this issue including the use of narcotics to deal with animal's psychological issues. It's interesting commentary.

In the Trib, I read that Marlon Scott, son of City Councilman Tom Scott, is likely to receive $50,000 from the city for unfair treatment by police officers when they arrested him in 2006 for animals cruelty charges, battery on an officer and resisting arrest with violence. His dogs had been taken away the day before by Hillsborough County Animal Services for being tied in the sun on short chains with no shelter. Let's assume he was treated unfairly by police officers. Does this negate the fact that animal services officers saw a need to remove his animals due to neglect and cruelty? What kind of message is Tampa sending, to be rewarding this type of behavior, no matter how connected the perpetrator is to city government?

In Seffner this week, The Trib reported that Hillsborough County Animal Services took 55 goats, 35 dogs and 7 cats from a home described as decrepit. The animals were in poor condition. The goats were standing in ankle deep manure and some of them may have to be euthanized. The dogs were in stacked rusty kennels with no food or water. The owners, Larry and Rae Lynn Smart advertised locally as breeders. Their house and yard were strewn with litter and feces, old appliances and broken down cars. The roof was caved in and only one working light could be found inside the home. This is just plain sad. These people can't take care of themselves, much less all these animals. To read more about this story see tbo.com.