Pit Bulls are the topic and Elgin’s town council votes tonight.  Tomorrow it could be your pit bull, german shepherd, doberman, or any dog those in power decide could be dangerous.  Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) is a pox that is running through the fabric of cities and suburbs across the nation (and in other forms internationally).  It has not served its purpose anywhere, not even in Denver which has had this medieval law on the books for decades to no effect – except to kill innocent dogs, dragging them from their homes leaving families broken-hearted.  And no, these were not dogs that attacked anyone or had any bite record. 

This article from the Daily Herald was brought to my attention by twitter pal @doggysmama, a resident of Elgin, who suggested a much bigger problem: Elgin can’t seem to deal with the “gangs of illegals” that have moved in to that city and are targeting the dogs is an attempt to quiet angry residents. Conjecture? Maybe. Maybe not. 

The inequity is as clear as the onerous requirements laid at the feet of any person who owns a pit bull “type” dog. Whatever that is supposed to mean.  No insurance company will insure a “dangerous dog” once it has been labeled as such, unless of course it’s an impossibly high premium to meet with a long list of restrictions on where and how the dog must be handled outside your four walls.

The other point I have to mention is the fact that, according to Steve Dale’s article linked at the beginning of this post, there’s someone visiting from Denver advising the town council on his experience in handling objections to this BSL travesty.  There was a lawyer in that Denver panel who was actively soliciting cities and towns proclaiming that he could show them how to jam this through and get the law established.  For a price, no doubt. And above the objections of the citizens.  Isn’t that quite the recommendation?  If anyone knows the Denver advisor’s name, please give me a shout?

Dale has a series of posts on Elgin and their BSL efforts against pit bulls–all great, factual and with other expert’s input if you’d like to gather some facts for your files…just in case your town is next.

How about you? Do you have any stories to relate on this issue?

Exciting is the word I would use. Others might say there are explosive possibilities in it. Our Chicago pet expert, syndicated Tribune columnist and radio host Steve Dale suggested,  in his capacity as a board member of American Humane, that a dog training symposium be held between Cesar Millan and American Humane, representing opposing training methods.  First of it’s kind. Wouldn’t I love to report on that! You can read about it on Steve Dale’s blog, at ChicagoNow, but do check out the heat in the comments. Are we not supposed to talk to those with differing views? Is that what we’ve come to? I think we should be less worried about conferring legitimacy and more worried about the state of animals and the public perception of what good training means. Just saying…

There’s a couple of  blogger’s working to help dogs in need, asking their readers and networks to assist if they can. Eric Goebelbecker of Dog Spelled Forward wrote a blog about Annie, an 8 year old Shepherd mix whose owner was killed in a crash.  Annie, confused, then ran away from home. She lived on the streets for a year before being caught, emaciated and not in good shape. Read the rest at the link above, well worth your time.

The second plea comes from Jim McBean over at Doggybytes who relays the problem of Shugie, a two year old in need of a TPLO, the more expensive of the ACL type surgeries.  The woman who has been calling every qualified vet  has had all kinds of slams hurtled at her from some, telling the woman that if she couldn’t afford the $5000 it cost for the surgery she shouldn’t have a dog.  Pretty rough, and imagine–just because you might have money lying around at one point in your life, doesn’t mean it’s going to be there down the road. I should think everyone would know that by now. I’d hate to see the kill rates at shelters if this were a qualifier for adoption. Woof.

Here’s a fun discovery!  There’s a business in New York that provides a dogs only getaway package to New Hampshire. Get the full story of this escape from New York of the canine kind at Rod and Amy Burkett’s Go Pet Friendly blog.

And thanks to a tweet from twitter pal (@aboutvetmed) Janet Tobiassen, DVM from About.com, this primer on proteins in dog food from Roxanne Hawn of  K9 Cuisine’s blog  with the lowdown on “by products” often the main source of protein in commercial dog food.

Have a great Sunday!

When she stepped off the plane,  it looked like a war zone.  Tracy Reis of American Humane emergency services, and part of the ARCH Mission started by IFAW and WSPA  in Haiti, gave her exclusive interview to Steve Dale on his WLS “Steve Dale’s Pet World”radio program.

Reis gave an update on what’s happening on the ground.  The assessment process continues, while field medicine and antibiotics are being administered to sick and injured animals. Dogs, goats, pigs, chickens and a handful of cattle are everywhere.  Dale asked Reis about zoonotic disease worries, rabies in particular, and about distemper that could prove to be devastating to the population of wild, domestic, and community dogs. (Community dogs are owned by no one but fed and cared for by the neighborhood.  Food is left for them but often they are left to find their own water according to Janice Girardi of Bali BAWA  in my interview with her.) You won’t believe what happened with the rabies vaccination program that was being administered before the quake hit.

Dale asked about the state of the food problem for people, aftershocks, and where people are sleeping, touching on security issues.  (He also wondered how Anderson Cooper looks so clean and coiffed, but I think that’s just Anderson Cooper:)

Check out his excellent interview with Tracy Reis and his blog at Chicago Now.

Steve Dale is a leader in the animal welfare community in Chicago, a Certified Pet Dog and Cat Behavior consultant, writes a syndicated pet column for the Chicago Tribune, is an author, recipient of the AVMA Humane Award, and that’s just for starters. 

Steve Dale is back! WLS AM radio has picked up “Steve Dale’s Pet World” along with his national audience, and it starts today. From the Press Release:

“Steve Dale brings his expertise and passion to The Big 89 both on-air and on-line, hosting his weekly show on WLS-AM (890 AM) Saturdays from 2-3 pm, plus an additional hourly on-line show which will be available on-demand at wlsam. Dale is also the host of two nationally syndicated programs, and has been hosting local radio in Chicago for the past twelve years.”

Today’s show will feature “Will Highland Park have a breed ban? Steve speaks with Highland Park Mayor Mike Belsky; the real story about Evanger’s Food ‘recall’ from the company’s VP Joel Sher and an announcement about a promotion to microchip cats.”

And if you did not hear about the Evanger run-in with the FDA, it is not a recall and sounds more like a paperwork filing issue regarding their process on canned foods, and has nothing to do with quality issues:

“Our company has been working closely with the FDA  and we have already addressed many of their questions,” says Joel Sher, Vice President of Evanger’s. “No Evanger’s product has been recalled, nor is there any indication that Evanger’s products are unsafe or contaminated in any way. Only our canned products have been affected by this action and, again, the FDA has not issued a recall as some blogs have incorrectly stated.”

The FDA action appears to be based on a misunderstanding regarding paperwork updating the company’s processing protocols that was submitted last year. Joel comments, “Our FDA consultants are in the process of re-submitting these files. The safety and quality of all Evanger’s products is our number one concern and we are working closely with FDA to ensure that all record keeping and processes have met, and will continue to meet their strict guidelines.”

“As our customers, retailers and distributors know, Evanger’s takes the quality and safety of its pet foods very seriously,” says Holly Sher, President of Evanger’s. “Evanger’s has a long history of using the finest human grade ingredients prepared under strict manufacturing procedures. We have been producing safe, wholesome and natural products for over 75 years and continue to feed them daily to our own pets.”

Consumers and distributors may contact Evanger’s customer service department at (800) 288-6796 . In addition, all new or updated information will be posted to  evangersdogfood as soon as it becomes available.