Stories of animal cruelty sicken me, so it's good to know that there are people out there who feel the same way. And when they see examples of inhumane treatment of pets, they're ready to leap into action.
Not just in the U.S., either. In Lithuania, a 22-year-old man posted a video of himself throwing a dog off a bridge, then posted it online. Outraged Internet uses who saw the video helped police identify the man, who was arrested and faces a year in jail on animal cruelty charges.
The dog, named Pipiras (Lithuanian for "pepper"), is expected to survive the 20-foot fall, despite suffering several fractures and internal injuries. His owner, Petras Dunskaitis, told a newspaper, "He's lived with me for four or five years. He didn't deserve such a fate."
According to local reports, the man believed the dog was responsible for killing several of his mother's chickens. In the video, he's shown holding the dog over a bridge railing and laughing as a friend records the scene with his cell phone.
The man then makes a joke about dogs flying and drops him. Pipiras crashes to the ground and is shown yelping and twitching. The video was originally posted on a site, but it spread globally and even made it to Facebook, where a group calling itself the "Lithuanian Dog Support Group" helped police locate the man.
Unbelievable, right? Animal cruelty knows no bounds, and as pet lovers we should always be aware that there are people who think nothing of harming animals.
We should always be aware of this and be on the lookout.
I like to call this kind of story a silver lining in the Michael Vick dogfighting case: In Los Angeles County, the district attorney's office and the Humane Society of the United State are teaming up to start a 24-hour tip line for county residents to report cases of dogfighting. As an incentive, they're also offering a substantial reward for an arrest and conviction.
The program was announced today at a media conference at the office of Steve Cooley, the L.A. County district attorney.
It's similar to a cash-for-tips program started last month in Pennsylvania, which offers up to $5,000 for information about dogfights and cockfights. The Humane Society worked with officials in Pennsylvania to start that program.
The L.A. County tip line will be staffed by English and Spanish speakers and offers a $5,000 reward if someone is caught and convicted of dogfighting, a felony under state law that carries a maximum prison sentence of three years. Residents who call in can remain anonymous.
"We expect that these tips will be a starting point for major criminal investigations," Cooley said. The Humane Society estimates that some 250,000 dogs are forced to engage in dogfighting in the U.S. every year.
This sounds like a program that should spread quickly if states want to eliminate this horrifying and inhumane blood sport.
No one will ever know what Sabi the Australian Labrador Retriever went through the past 14 months, but her will to live is clearly amazing. If she could only talk.
Sabi, a bomb-sniffing four-year-old black Lab, was caught in a gun battle in Afghanistan while stationed with Australia's Special Forces units last year. But she was declared missing in action and was presumed dead.
Nine Australian soldiers - including Sabi's handler - were wounded in the battle, which earned one of the Aussie troopers the highest bravery award.
Sabi's fate was not known for certain, but it was assumed she probably died in the skirmish. Not so.
After eluding the Taliban and somehow living on her own for more than a year, Sabi was recently found by U.S. troops in the Uruzgan mountains in the south.
"Sabi is back home in one piece and is a genuinely nice pooch as well," said Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, who made sure the dog received a hero's welcome.
After being airlifted to Australian headquarters in Tarin Kowt, Sabi was returned to the Army's working dogs unit. She was said to be in good health, so it's likely someone may have been feeding her.
That's one incredible pooch.
Source: Associated Press, Nov 12, 2009
A mother of seven is accused of running a house of horrors for pets at her suburban Long Island home, forcing her children to help torture them and burying at least 20 dogs in her backyard — animals neighbors now fear were beloved pets that mysteriously disappeared over the years.
Sharon McDonough pleaded not guilty last week to six counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty on suspicion of abusing five dogs and a cat found crammed into cages, covered in feces and urine, their coats matted with filth. A judge has taken away custody of the 43-year-old woman’s six young daughters.
McDonough’s neighbors began fearing their missing pets met a worse fate than the abused animals after her son led officials to a backyard filled with the shallow graves of 20 dogs.
Douglas McDonough, 21, who turned his mother in to authorities on Nov. 5, called the home “a concentration camp for the animals” in comments to reporters after the arrest.
“She would have the oldest kids hold down the dog while we duct-taped his mouth and she would hit him,” he said, adding that he and his sisters were all forced to take part in the abuse.
On Tuesday, a judge removed the six girls — ages 18 months to 13 years — from the custody of McDonough, who is widowed. Her court-appointed attorney, James D’Angelo, called the animal cruelty counts a “low-level offense.”
“She’s not charged with killing animals and is entitled to a presumption of innocence,” he said. No one answered the door at McDonough’s home this week.
Dozens of people have called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals since the case broke, fearing their missing pets had been victimized, Suffolk County SPCA Chief Roy Gross said.
“My daughter is still crying every day over her lost Chihuahua,” said neighbor Sharyn Padula of the family’s dog Bally, who disappeared just over a year ago. Two cats, Annabelle and Sylvester, also went missing.
After the dog disappeared, the family “posted pictures everywhere, Craigslist, and went doorbell to doorbell asking people if they’d seen him,” said Padula, who lives a few houses from McDonough. “I really hope they don’t find my pets there.”
McDonough’s two-story red brick house sits on a middle-class block of closely placed, well-kept homes buffered by manicured lawns and festooned with holiday decorations — except for McDonough’s, an unkempt structure with peeling paint, surrounded by fallen, matted leaves.
Since the dog carcasses were found, vandals have spray-painted “killer” on the garage and “guilty” on McDonough’s mailbox. Rotten eggs were splattered on the house and on an SUV parked outside. A New York tabloid has dubbed her the “Cruella De Vil of Long Island.”
Gross was summoned to the home after Douglas McDonough contacted Rescue Ink, a group of bikers who stage animal rescues in the New York metropolitan area for a television program of the same name on the National Geographic Channel. Efforts to reach the group, created several years ago by a former NYPD detective and ex-security guards and bouncers, were unsuccessful. Its messaging system was full and an e-mail seeking comment went unanswered.
Authorities found the animals — a shepherd mix, a beagle mix, an Italian greyhound, a cocker spaniel mix, a pug and a tabby cat — in wretched cages in the house. A “sickening” smell in the back yard nearly overcame animal control officers and firefighters, Gross said.
“This is one case I’m sure I will never forget out of the thousands and thousands I have seen,” said Gross, a 25-year veteran of abuse investigations. “It’s probably one of the most horrific cases of animal cruelty.”
After Douglas McDonough told investigators about the animals buried in his family’s backyard, SPCA authorities returned to the house with a search warrant and began digging. In all, 20 dogs were found in varying states of decomposition, suggesting they had died over a period of years.
Gross said necropsies were being conducted and veterinarians would search the bodies for implanted microchips that might help identify them. That could be the only way to determine whether any of the dead dogs had been stolen.
Upgraded larceny or grand larceny charges might be filed by the police if it can be proved any of the animals were stolen, Gross said.
It wasn’t clear why McDonough’s son waited until last week to alert authorities, and contact information for him could not be found.
A note from the Suffolk Division of Public Health was taped to McDonough’s front door Monday, saying the agency wanted to know about “bags of human feces in the backyard and garage.” A health department spokeswoman did not return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Two of McDonough’s daughters have been placed with their older brother, two with neighbors and two in foster care. Suffolk County social services officials would not comment on the status of the child welfare case and whether charges were possible.
McDonough, whose husband, Darren, was killed in a car accident last year, faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for each count of misdemeanor animal cruelty if convicted. If authorities upgrade the abuse charges to a felony, she could be sentenced to up to two years in prison on each count if convicted.
Padula said she hopes the necropsies do not turn up her Chihuahua or other pets.
“I’d rather think that they’re wandering around still,” she said. “I don’t even want to imagine.”
The body of the Pacific Northwest’s most famous dog trainer still hasn’t been found, but authorities have charged his ex-wife’s boyfriend with his murder.
T. Mark Stover was the Seattle area’s dog-trainer-to-the-stars, with clients that ranged from members of Pearl Jam and Nirvana to Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz to Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who entrusted Stover with his Shiba Inu.
Last month, employees at the kennel, Island Dog Adventures, 55 miles north of Seattle, found Stover’s dog, Dingo, shot in the face, but authorities could find no signs of Stover, other than smears of his blood in a downstairs bedroom and hallway.
Prosecutors have charged his ex-wife’s boyfriend, Michiel Oakes, with murder, according to an Associated Press report.
Stover, 57, and ex-wife Linda Opdycke, 45, opened Island Dog Adventures in the early 1990s on an island owned by her wealthy family. Her father was one of the founders of Washington’s biggest winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle.
The kennel offered training, massages, pedicures, a raw-meat diet and weight-loss programs. Clients included Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder; former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic; Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell; moviemaker Cameron Crowe and his wife, singer Nancy Wilson of the ‘1970s group Heart; and Costco Corp. CEO Jim Sinegal.
When Opdycke and Stover divorced, he agreed to dividing their assets, and to pay $175,000 for her share of the business. She would get the SUV and the horse trailer; he would get the Porsche and BMW, AP reported. Stover also agreed to move the business off the island, which the state is buying for a park.
Tension between the couple apparently continued after that. In early 2008, Opdycke, who has since become a private investigator, took out a restraining order against Stover, claiming he showed up at her home uninvited and that a neighbor had caught him going through her garbage.
On Oct. 28, police responded to a report of trespassers at a grange hall a half-mile from Stover’s house. Two cars were parked out back — one was Stover’s, and the other belonged to Opdycke’s boyfriend, Michiel Oakes, authorities said. The neighbor reported that a man by the cars was seen with a large piece of plastic.
The next morning, Stover’s fiancee reported him missing, and at Stover’s house employees found Dingo, a Belgian malinois, bleeding from gunshot wounds. The dog is now recovering.
A sheriff’s deputy found Oakes and Opdycke at her home. According to authorities, Oakes excused himself and was seen throwing a plastic bag over an embankment. When deputies recovered it, they found a .22-caliber pistol inside.
(Photo: from Islanddogadventures.com)
