Taking on Animal Cruelty

Animal Cruelty of the Worst Kind

Cher — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:17:24 +0000

The worst cases of cruelty to animals are being committed by your neighbor, possibly someone in your family or even a co-worker. Is it possible even YOU are guilty of committing the worst case of animal cruelty? Every day it is happening a thousand times over and there appears to be no way to stop it.

I know that when you think of “animal cruelty” you might think of cases like 2 monster teenagers throwing gas on a defenceless dog and lighting her up. Or possibly a person who drags a dog a mile or two up a country road until the dog is dead. Or even possibly the deranged psycho who adopted animals out of shelters by the dozens only to take them home and torture and kill them in front of her kids and then bury the dead animals in the backyard.

Those are all extremely horrible cases of animal cruelty that have garnered much attention in the media and within the animal activists community. However those are not the cases of animal cruelty that I am referring to. No, the ones I am going to talk about here are much worse than these because these acts of cruelty are the ultimate betrayal to Man’s Best Friend be that canine or feline.

In the rescue world, we call it “Owner Surrender”.

Meet Patches. Patches is a 14 year old neutered male Pomeranian mix currently waiting in the Brooklyn, NY animal shelter where he will die if not saved by the rescue community. Patches is the victim of owner surrender.

After 14 years of loyalty, friendship, companionship and devotion, this is how Patches is repaid. Dumped in a high kill shelter left there by his cruel owners. What is Patches supposed to think? That he was a bad boy and did something terribly wrong to deserve this? His whole world, everything that he’s known for 14 years tossed into the muddy river because why?

Let me count the ways:

Too old?
Can’t afford
Moving?
Allergic?
Sheds?
New baby?
Doesn’t get along with new puppy?
Too many animals?
Is sick?
Divorce/Separation?

Those are the top 10 excuses I’ve seen that cruel people surrender their animals to kill shelters. Some of the excuses I’ve seen are beyond bazaar. For instance, a male and female cat surrendered in South Carolina because the male, the son of the female, got his mother pregnant. Both of these cats were killed in the shelter they were surrendered to. (I refuse to use the term “euthanized” for healthy adoptable animals that are killed in shelters). Whatever the excuse, it is completely unacceptable and represents, in my opinion, the ultimate betrayal and cruelty that you can commit to a family pet.

These animals have feelings. I’ve seen it in their faces a thousands times while they sit in shelters knowing they are going to die and not being able to understand where their family went and why they left them in this awful, noisy place filled with the smell of death. They are frightened, sad and depressed. They are heartbroken.

Those of us who truly love our animals and think of them as family cannot fathom how anyone can just dump a family member at a kill shelter no matter what the excuse. We are the ones who would sleep in the car with our pets if necessary or go without our own food so we can feed our 4 legged companions. I would cut off my right arm before I would ever surrender Jazz or Chico to any shelter, kill or no kill.

The amount of owner surrenders has recently increased alarmingly because of excuse #2, “can’t afford”. Now I realize that times are extremely difficult right now and people are hurting economically. However that does not excuse the act of abandoning your pet to a kill shelter. More often than not, the family pet is the first sacrificial lamb of economic hard times and that is just not right. If you are so hard pressed financially that you can no longer support your pet, find a foster home that will keep him/her until you are back on your feet. There are literally thousands of rescue organizations that will help you either keep your pet or find someone responsible and capable of giving your pet a new loving and forever home. Do some research, take the time to make sure that if you can no longer care for your pet properly that there is someone who will.

Additionally there are other organizations that will help you to find a way to keep your pet. Seek them out. Make phone calls, get on the internet. Find them. Do whatever you have to make sure you have explored every possible means to keep your pet with you.

For every excuse listed above for surrendering your family pet, there are plenty of alternatives to dumping your pet at a kill shelter. Every single excuse used means you just don’t care and that means you are committing the ultimate act of cruelty towards an animal who cannot speak for himself and has no choice about his future.

When you adopt an animal it is for life and if you don’t intend to keep that animal safe and protected for his/her entire life, you have no business adopting him/her in the first place.

Animal Cruelty of the Worst Kind is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

Sabbatical Over! I am BACK!

Cher — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 05:01:56 +0000

Hello again, Faithful Readers,

I can say faithful because if you’re reading this, you’ve been waiting a full 5 months for new content. TOAC has been on sabbatical and has returned refreshed, rejuvenated and re-educated.

During this last five months, I have submersed myself into the world of animal rescue. Not physically if you don’t count the gut wrenching, hand twisting, tear jerking and heart breaking world that is animal rescue. No I don’t actually go into animal shelters and pull animals, taking them to the vet, then to foster care and meanwhile, trying to find them a good forever home at the same time. Those folks are my heroes. What I have done is join the thousands of other online networkers who spend days and nights tirelessly trying to help save the millions of homeless animals that die in shelters every year by broadcasting the call for help and coordinating the responses. I cry usually at least once a day.

It is a very difficult job to do, do not underestimate it. There are literally thousands of animals across North America who are killed every day in order for the animal control shelter to make space for new intakes. By reading their stories and passing them along, by following their rescue progress, you get to know these animals and to know them is to love them. Then, if rescue is not available, these wonderful loveable animals will be killed using various methods depending on the area of the country they found themselves in. Gas chambers and heart sticks are used all through the North American continent really but are prevalent in the south eastern United States. So are redneck attitudes and virtual illiterates who make life and death calls repeatedly throughout their workday. But that’s another blog for another day.

It’s heartbreaking work and I don’t recommend it for the weak of heart or tepid resolve.

I watched a video on YouTube that showed the killing of animals in a shelter using a gas chamber. It literally changed who I was. You cannot listen to animals screaming in agony like that for what seems like an eternity and not be changed. Puppies, kitties, mommies and family pets gone astray. Tortured and killed just the way Hitler used to do it.

I watched another video of Jeff Bass, the shelter manager at Robeson in North Carolina along with the resident vet and shelter workers use heart sticking on animals who had not been sedated in any way, simply grabbed by the scruff of the neck and jabbed with the heart stick right in the chest. The animals scream in agony before dying miserably on a cold cement shelter floor.

These family pets can now be loaded up in the dumpster headed for the nearest landfill.

4 Million Homeless Animals per year are killed every year in the US alone. This is not euthanasia. This is slaughter, pure and simple. The numbers are staggering and frightening. The killing of cats and dogs by the millions every year must be stopped!

In the meantime, fortunately, there is a huge network of animal rescuers working their asses off out there in an effort to save as many as they can. It’s a world I never knew existed prior to this year but I wonder now I could have gone so long not knowing. It’s a world I certainly never plan to leave. I have found my calling at last.

Upcoming blogs will include more about the world of homeless shelter animals and their plight. This is a crisis and it is the ultimate in animal cruelty. It is betrayal of our best friends.

Low cost spay/neuter clinics should be made available in all areas of the country. Trap/Neuter/Release (TNR) programs should be supported every where and NO KILL shelters should be the only acceptable form of animal control. Puppy mills and backyard breeders need to be shut down. Pet stores that sell from puppy mills and backyard breeders need to boycotted and publicly humiliated into taking the animals out of the store fronts.

More services need to be made available to pet owners who are struggling financially. More support needs to be given to them to encourage them to keep their family pet rather than abandon it to the local shelter.

There are a myriad of ways that North America could achieve a full 100% NO KILL goal in the animal shelters across the land. TOAC will be featuring some of these in upcoming issues taken from Nathan Winograd’s Redemption and Irreconcilable Differences. Nathan is a major player in the No Kill Movement and TOAC fully supports his message.

Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America

Thanks again for remaining on the RSS feed for updates. If you haven’t signed up for RSS, make sure you do because there’s a lot of stuff here you don’t want to miss.

Be back soon.

Sabbatical Over! I am BACK! is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

Giraffes at Mountain View Sanctuary Died from Cold, Bad Diet?

Cher — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:57:53 +0000

Full story here.

I had withheld all judgments on this investigation pending the outcome of the investigation by the BCSPCA of abuse allegations and the necromancy on the giraffes. I had written it off to disgruntled and griping employees who wished to unionize who were seeking revenge on the sanctuary’s director.

However, in light of the necromancy report released that the two young giraffes died from cold and bad diet, I am rethinking my previous conclusions. Bad diet? You have giraffes in your care and you don’t know what or how to feed them properly? Not good, not good at all.

And completely unacceptable. If this is true, then it is entirely possible that the allegations by employees of other abuses could also have merit. Giving the sanctuary the benefit of the doubt is no longer an option.

Will keep you posted on future developments.

Giraffes at Mountain View Sanctuary Died from Cold, Bad Diet? is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

No related posts.

What Kind of Low Life Rapes a Dog?

Cher — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:46:03 +0000

Yes that is the question of the day. A female 9 year old Staffordshire Terrier was raped and ultimately died of her injuries in Australia recently and her 10 year old lifelong companion was beaten severely. (The female is the lighter colored dog, the male is black)

My questions regarding what motivates and allows a man to even be able to rape a dog are too graphic for putting on this blog. In case any of the family that own these dogs should happen to read my blog, I don’t need to add to their pain by using graphic words to describe how the whole act must have happened and what was going on in the man’s head that did this so I will refrain from asking those questions out loud. But you know what they are, don’t you? Nor will I go into what must have been the state of mind of this poor dog while this was happening to her. But you know, don’t you?

I am a huge proponent for “an eye for an eye” justice for animal abusers. In this case, a roughened broomstick stuck up the ass as far as it will go will suffice along with a machete for dismembering the offending member simultaneously. Nothing less is acceptable.

I read comments on the some of the news articles about how, when this man is caught, are “we going to turn him around”? WTF? Who cares. This can’t be turned around! This is pure evil and the only cure for pure evil is death.

I actually believe that there had to be more then one person involved in this crime because visualizing what must have happened, there is no way one person could have controlled both dogs and committed the rape too. So we’re looking for 2 if not more completely despicable, deviant morons.

The more involved I become in animal cruelty issues the more I despair of ever stopping animal cruelty completely. Until our laws absolutely protect the rights of animals as they attempt to do for humans and until the penalty for committing a crime against an animal is equal to the crime itself, we are never going to see an end to this type of inhumane and horrific abuses of our animals.

Men with little penises will always need to try to overcome their inadequacy by overpowering and brutalizing defenceless animals. Insane women who only feel something when they are inflicting pain will always do so on a defenceless animal. Until we are prepared to lock these people up forever, banish them all to a deserted island in the middle of nowhere or return to public flogging and vigilante justice, we are going to continue watching our 4 legged friends, brothers and sisters all, be brutalized and killed for the thrill of the insane.

It incenses me. I am normally terrified of violence and will avoid confrontation at all costs except when it comes to an animal abuser. Then I could kill.

If you would like to show your support to the family who lost their dog in this horrifying way, check out their Facebook group page.

Stories: Dogs ‘tortured, sexually attacked’, Public support tortured pets

What Kind of Low Life Rapes a Dog? is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

Dog Dragged to his Death in Colorado

Cher — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:42:03 +0000

Suspect Arrested

What the hell is wrong with people? Why are men so damned hell bent on killing innocent animals? It’s time we started killing men who kill innocent animals. I’m am sick to death of reading about penis disabled men who take out their psychosis on innocent animals. It’s happening more and more all the time and it has to stop! A slap on the wrist, minimal jail time and probation as well as fines that are meaningless are not enough to stop this killing. If you kill you must pay the ultimate price. You must die too. A life for a life.

Here’s the story and the pictures. It’s an awful way to begin a new year:

Dog Dragged – Suspect Arrested

RIP Buddy. I’m so sorry. Your fear and stress before dying must have been absolutely horrible and I trust the universe will make sure your murderer pays and pays and pays.

Dog Dragged to his Death in Colorado is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

Holiday Greetings from Me to You!

Cher — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:34:31 +0000

It’s been quite sometime since I posted anything here. I have had a ton of projects on the go and with Christmas being hosted at my house this year, I just haven’t had to energy to sit and write. I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season and wish you all great peace and prosperity in the new year.

There has been a ton of stories, issues and alerts circulating the animal cruelty area and I will updating you on those over the next few days.

My projects for 2010 are mostly concerned with animal cruelty and welfare. I was finally able to get my license renewed on December 1st after almost 20 years of not driving. I didn’t like driving stick shift in the Lower Mainland so I let my license expire figuring I would never drive again anyway. Stupid me! Once it became clear that my husband was never going to drive again due to losing his eyesight, I was kicking my behind regularly that I had let my license slide. Now I have to go through this stupid graduated licensing that BC has…but I digress. Long story short…hubby losing his eyesight rather quickly now so I have to be the one to drive our beautiful Jetta. Poor me. I have to admit, it was extremely liberating on December 1st when I was able to finally drive by myself.

So one of my principle goals for after obtaining my license was to get involved as soon as possible in animal rescue transport. It is my intention to get deeply active in this part of the rescue effort since I cannot actually provide foster for the animals being rescued. My complex restricts the amount of animals I can have along with the size of the animal. I already have the maximum number of animals with Jazzy and Chico my beloved cats. And Jazzy honestly does eat Pit Bulls for breakfast. No dogs around here while she’s queen of the house.

So other then visiting shelters and hanging with the animals, going on walks and socializing with them, transporting at risk animals from shelters to rescue to forever homes is an exciting adventure to look forward to this upcoming year. I will be blogging on that as I progress through the steps.

Another of my principle goals for 2010 is to gather data regarding British Columbia shelters. Data such as the kill rate per shelter, the number of dogs and cats abandoned or surrendered versus the number picked up by animal control methods versus the number rescued from abusive situations. How many of these animals leave by way of the front door versus going out the back door. These figures, available quite freely in the US, do not seem to be available for Canadian shelters.

I contacted the professor of Animal Welfare at UBC to ask him to guide me along the way on this and Professor Fraser was very gracious in his response as well as his encouragement and advice on how to proceed. He also pretty much requested a copy of my paper when I was finished so now I feel like I’ve been assigned homework instead of initializing this project myself. But it’s all good. Having a paper due has always worked to motivate me into taking action.

I had a nice Christmas spending a couple of days with my sweet, “wish she was my daughter but she’s not, she’s my niece” Heather. Her 2 year old Jaiden is quite un-likable right now and I’m hoping that will pass in a year or two. He’s as cute as ever but…nasty, nasty, nasty. I cooked a ton of food and only a portion of it turned out worth eating. I baked a ton and all of it came out pretty good. I’ve never baked before so that was fun to try for the first time. All during all this, I worried about Justice.

More about Justice in my next post. You won’t want to miss all the action on that one. Stay tuned.

Holiday Greetings from Me to You! is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

Little Brown Dog Case – Updates

Cher — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:15:32 +0000

The judge in the case of the little brown dog that was dragged behind a pick-up truck and then tossed aside like garbage, sent the felony animal cruelty case up to the Grand Jury for review today.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story, Moron gets in truck and drives away claiming he didn’t know that his ex-girlfriend’s dog was tied to a trailer hitch on the back of his truck. For more then a half a mile, he drags this poor dog while bystanders yell and nearly mob him to try and get him to stop. But does he? No of course not. He’s got a head full of steam, pissed at his estranged girlfriend and his revenge? Sure, why not try and kill her dog.

Finally he pulls over in parking lot, unhitches the dog, tosses her into the back of his truck and later, his estranged girlfriend brought the dog into a vet for treatment. “It was only a half a mile before I stopped” he says. “The dog was fine when I put her in my truck” he says. Moron.

Obviously the dog was not fine but thankfully, after a long period of treatment, she will be fine and there are tons of people lined up willing to adopt the 17 lb media star so she will find a loving and joyful home, there’s no doubt about that.

Meanwhile, el jerko’s lawyer claims it was just a terrible accident and that the media and animal advocates have blown it all out of proportion by making a lot of assumptions.

Assumptions? I wonder if the lawyer has actually seen the dog.

Story and video here.

Stay tuned. I’ll be following this one and will keep you updated.

….Until next time…

Peace

Cher

Little Brown Dog Case – Updates is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

Animal Cruelty: Disappointing Case Updates

Where You Been, What You Been Doing?

Cher — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:53:17 +0000

I know it has been a fair while since I wrote anything here but that’s not to say I haven’t had my thumb on the pulse of the animal welfare world. Quite the opposite actually. I’ve been out there getting my hands dirty trying to educate myself further in the world of animal advocacy. I’ve learned a lot, made contact with lots of good resources and like minded people and have some fairly concrete goals in mind for myself and how I will fit into the fight against animal cruelty.

Everyday I would encounter something or other that I thought I should probably write about here but then one thing came up and then another and before long I had too much to write about and no time to write it. Trying to keep tabs on my resources for articles was another issue because as each day goes by, the story grows colder and the trail to the resources does as well.

There are some stories that won’t grow cold for awhile. For instance, today I heard that the sentencing date for Fabian Henderson, the turd that threw Oreo off the 6 storey building and was ultimately responsible for her death will be December 15th. As far as I know, he will be sentenced in absentia since I haven’t heard that he has been arrested since he failed to appear at his court date December 1. With any luck they will arrest him soon and his day in court will be his very last day of freedom for a long, long time.

Then there is the story out of Toronto about the President and some of the Board of the Toronto Humane Society being arrested for animal cruelty and obstruction of justice. I’ll cover that story under it’s own heading. It’s pretty friggin’ scary though when those we trust to protect our 4 legged friends are those who abuse them instead.

I spend a lot of time on Facebook these days watching the hundreds of alerts for the rescue of dogs who are in imminent danger of being put down due mostly to overcrowding in our shelters. The frustration over not being able to save them all is almost show stopping. Sometimes I just have an urge to throw up my hands in surrender and crawl under my bed with my eyes and ears covered so I can no longer hear or see those poor dogs and cats being killed because nobody cared enough to prevent the litter, nobody cared enough to make sure that a life time commitment to an animal didn’t actually mean a temporary convenience, nobody cared enough to research the shelter they handed their family member over to in order to ensure that hours later, the family member they abandoned because of having to move or whatever stupid and completely unacceptable excuse they gave, is dead from gas, heartstick or just a plain old shot in the leg. Dead..just like that…within hours of being turned into the shelter. Not given even a chance at finding someone more worthwhile to share their lives with. The whole animal shelter system in North America sucks and it does everything BUT shelter, protect and provide for our companion animals. My faith in organizations like the HSUS, PETA and ASPCA is completely shot to hell. They only do what they do to keep donations high so that spas, ocean front condos and rented limousines can be added to the expense tab. I will no longer support any national or government sponsored shelter until major reform is carried out throughout the entire system.

Did you know that PETA kills over 90% of the animals they take in every year?

I have watched a video of how animals are gassed. I swear to you, as God is my witness, that to my own dying day, I will never forget the sound of those poor dying dogs. And the more heartbreaking sound of there suddenly being no sound. I cried for hours after watching that video, couldn’t sleep. It is simply awful and I am now determined to find a way to put an end to, first of all, gas chambers for use in killing animals in shelters, and secondly, put an end once and for all to kill shelters. I plan on starting locally at first and then taking it national once I get a good number of supporters.

Enough is enough of this senseless killing of companion animals. There are more then enough available adoptive homes to ensure a safe and loving environment for all homeless animals. The only reason they are killed on a daily basis is because bureaucrats and administrators don’t care enough to research and implement policy that works to end shelter kills and homeless animals. It can and has been done before and it can and will be done here. Or I will die trying.

I took my very first step in this direction by signing on to volunteer at a local rescue shelter here in Surrey to help with transporting their residents to the doctor’s office and to PetSmart where they are featured in adoption events. I feel sure this is the best way to get to know the rescue situation here in the Lower Mainland as well as establish some solid contacts for pushing through new policy on animal welfare locally.

I always told myself that my activities online on behalf of the animals was valuable and important but lately it has become less so. I need to get my hands dirty and dig into this cause in order to change the status quo.

Stay tuned…More later…

In peace

Cher

Where You Been, What You Been Doing? is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

Hey Fabian! You Can Run but You Can’t Hide!

Cher — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:45:43 +0000

Fabian Henderson, the moron who threw Oreo off the 6 storey building last June and who is ultimately responsible for her death last month when the ASPCA decided she was too aggressive to warrant saving, failed to show up in court today for sentencing after having pled guilty to animal cruelty.

It’s not the least bit surprising that this cowardly little man who could harm a beautiful creature like Oreo would be too scared to show up in court and take his licks like a real man. And it’s not necessarily bad news that he didn’t show up for sentencing. Failure to appear is a very serious offense and I daresay, taken much more seriously by the courts then the original offense in this case. A warrant has been issued for his arrest and when they find him, and they will find him because he’s too stupid to hide himself well enough, he will definitely be thrown in jail for what could be 4 years or more.

It’s not enough, in my opinion, as I believe this “boy” is a sociopath with definite anger issues and small penis paranoia. He will hurt or murder again as soon as he encounters somebody he believes is weaker then himself and cannot fight back. So 4 years in jail PLUS a lifetime ban from being around animals or children PLUS a long time in therapy under the supervision of the courts is the only way to prevent this loser from hurting again.

Wanted: Dead or Alive – Fabian Henderson 19 years old. Probably in the Brooklyn area hiding out where the rats hang out. Wanted for murder in the case of 1 year old Oreo (pictured below).

Full report here.

Hey Fabian! You Can Run but You Can’t Hide! is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty

Oreo: Call to Action

Cher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:23:31 +0000

On December 1, 2009, Fabian Henderson, the creep (nicest name I could come up with barring the use of profanity) who threw Oreo off the 6 storey building last summer appears in court for sentencing. He has pled guilty to an E Felony Aggravated Cruelty to Animals.

I read the other day that the best guess for sentencing would probably be 5 years probation and a 5 year ban on owning animals. Is this enough for what he did? I think not!

Advocates, I implore you to type your letters and/or make the telephone calls to the contacts I’ve listed below to encourage both the judge and the district attorney in this case to pursue the most severe sentencing provided for under this charge. (I will work on getting fax numbers/emails and update this post if I can find them. If anybody comes up with them before I do, please be kind and add them to the comments section?)

We all know that Oreo was beaten more then once in her life and that in all probability, she probably didn’t go a day without being smacked or kicked or abused in some way. This asshole (sorry I just can’t help myself) needs to pay for what he did to this beautiful creature who never hurt a soul and whose life on this planet was so short and so ugly.

Please band together with me and let’s make sure justice is swift and harsh for this criminal. Nothing less then significant jail time and a lifetime ban on owning or being responsible for animals is the least that we expect.

Here then is the list of contact information:

Case# – 06995-2009,

Judge:
Honorable Cassandra M. Mullen
Kings County Supreme Court
320 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(347) 296-1436

District Attorney:
Donald J. Berk
350 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201-2900
(718) 250-2000

Until next time…

Oreo: Call to Action is a post from: Taking on Animal Cruelty