Socializing your dog is probably the most important thing you can do as a pet owner. Taking him on walks to meet people and other dogs prevents the kind of situation that a Pomeranian named Gizmo is now facing in Aspen, Colo.
A judge has threatened to order Gizmo to be euthanized if the 13-year-old dog bites anyone else. The dog was kept in an animal shelter for 10 days after biting a woman in August - clearly not the first time he's bitten someone.
"As a judge, the hardest decision I ever have to make is to take someone's pet away or euthanize it," Judge Brooke Peterson told Gizmo's owner, Melinda Goldrich, last week. "But you and I have been dealing with your dog since 2006 ... and your excuses have worn out my patience."
Peterson told Goldrich that it's curtains for Gizmo (not the dog pictured above) if he's seen in Aspen again. A friend in a nearby town has offered to care for the dog.
I blame the owner, first for not socializing her pet as a puppy, second for not making sure it could not bite anyone else after it became obvious the dog was vicious. It's every pet owner's responsibility.
Yes, even small dogs can be vicious.
If you live in California, you know all about the state's massive budget problems. State workers' salaries are being cut, social services are being pared back and various programs are feeling the pinch of a $24.3-billion deficit.
But now it looks like animal shelters - and the animals who are kept there in hopes of finding new owners - will also feel the brunt of California's fiscal woes.
Among the cuts proposed last week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is one that would end a state mandate to hold animal shelter strays for six days. Kiska Icard, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco SPCA, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the change - which is expected to save the state $24.6 million - would result in euthanizing more animals.
"Obviously, monies need to come from somewhere," she said, "but to do it on the backs of these animals is just really sad."
I've heard that shelters may euthanize animals after just three days. If that happens, it would be a major tragedy for thousands of dogs, cats and other lost or abandoned pets.
If you live in California and are thinking about adopting an animal from a shelter, now is the time. You could literally save the life of a cat or dog.
All too often, there are stories in the news about cops shooting dogs - not because the dogs have clearly and viciously attacked an officer in the line of duty but because the officer, usually without justification, has felt threatened.
Are there repercussions? No. Apologies? No. Acknowledgements of wrongful actions? No.
This storyline came up again last month when Egypt, an American Staffordshire Terrier, was shot by San Diego undercover officers. It was not an isolated incident, and it's worth discussing here because police, far too frequently, shoot peoples' pets without cause.
By all accounts, Egypt was a happy, friendly dog. "She was the delightful nuisance of the neighborhood," Chris Victor told San Diego City Beat. "She'd see you and she'd wag from head to toe."
On Dec. 2, her owner, Demarkus Peeples, remembers hearing a knock at the door of the bungalow he shares with his mother. A group of men dressed in jeans and T-shirts - they were later identified as narcotics officers answering a call about a "chemical smell" -- was standing on the porch.
Unsure who they were or what they wanted, Peeples did not answer. Instead, he stood in the doorway of a bedroom and watched. Rather than identify themselves, two of the men opened a gate to the backyard and walked to the rear door.
"It looked like they were trying to case my house," Peeples recalled. After a few moments, the men returned to the front of the house without closing the gate. Peeples opened the back door and looked around. Egypt ran out the door, then continued past the gate when she saw that it had been left open.
What happened next changed everything. The dog ran toward the officers, who responded with shots. Egypt was hit three times (none of the shots was fatal) and was later euthanized by San Diego County Animal Control officers, who say Peeples gave them permission to put her to sleep. Peeples disputes that claim, insisting he told them, "Do not kill my dog; do everything you can to save my dog."
Amazingly, Peeples was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon - his dog. He remembers one officer saying, "Charge him with everything you can charge him with."
San Diego Police later acknowledged that Egypt did not attack the officers but said they were within their rights to shoot her. "The animal was charging the officers," a spokeswoman said. "They weren't going to wait to see if (she) was actually going to bite them."
There are similar stories. Blogger Radley Balko writes of a recent incident in Waldorf, Md., in which police shot a family dog in front of two small children while attempting to serve papers on a man who no longer lived at the address. And a Milwaukee resident who is suing the city after police shot her Labrador-Springer Spaniel mix in 2004.
It's puzzling why police should react so quickly when there is little indication they're in danger or are being attacked. A barking dog, or one that is simply protecting its property, is not always preparing to pounce on an officer. Perhaps, as Balko suggests, a little police training on how to deal with dogs might prevent more senseless killings of pets.
I don't know if you saw the story about the woman who recently adopted 27 dogs from a shelter to prevent them from being euthanized. When I first read it, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
I'm sure Colleen Spalioni's heart was in the right place. She lost her own dog in November when it was struck and killed by a car, and she wanted to find another that looked just like him. Her Internet search led her to Dogsindanger.com, a site that posts photos of dogs in shelters with the number of days they have left until they are euthanized.
Spalioni, who lives near Reno, hired a teenage neighbor to drive with her almost 800 miles to a shelter near Bakersfield, Calif., where she found a dog that resembled her own. But after seeing so many dogs in need of homes, she just couldn't help herself.
She adopted the dog she wanted - and 26 others, including one Chihuahua, 10 Chihuahua mixes, two German Shepherd mixes, two Miniature Pinschers, a Jack Russell Terrier and a Poodle. She loaded them into her truck and drove home.
Everything would have been fine, except that her new dogs did what dogs normally do. They barked -- so much, in fact, that the neighbors began complaining. And then she was told that a local ordinance allows no more than three dogs per household.
Since then, Spalioni has been looking for new homes for the dogs. So far, she's found places for almost all of them.
And, she said, "I learned my lesson. I promise I won't do this again."
Her concern for the dogs is admirable. I commend her. I'm sure others would love to do the same if they had the space and time to love and care for dogs in need.
But as someone who owns four dogs, I could have told her: It's a lot of work.
There was a frightening story a couple of weeks ago about the mass killing of more than 200 stray dogs in Baghdad - an attempt by authorities to cull dangerous dog packs that had killed 13 people. It wasn't so much that the dogs were eliminated that shocked responsible dog owners; it was that they were eliminated so cruelly.
Some were shot. Others were poisoned.
It's a callous, cold-hearted way to reduce the number of dangerous dogs, something that would be unthinkable in the United States. That's why Humane Society International appealed to Baghdad officials, through letters to the prime minister and other officials, to look for more humane methods in the future.
They got no response. But it's worth noting that there have been no further reports of similar killings.
"When we send these kinds of letters, it takes time to get a response," said Kelly O'Meara, director of international programs for HSI. "When there's media attention, as there was on this, they usually shut it down immediately. They don't want to be looked at in a bad light in the eyes of the international community."
HSI suggested a more "holistic approach" to Baghdad's dog problem, including education, legislation and spaying and neutering. Rather than shooting and poisoning dangerous dogs, the group recommended euthanasia by qualified persons.
The problem, O'Meara said, is not limited to Baghdad. It occurs in Latin America, Asia and the Caribbean, which is why HSI tries to be proactive.
"We deal with this in almost every developing country," she said. "Poisoning is by far the cheapest (method) in their eyes. They put it on bait and throw it in the streets, and they do it at night. By the morning, they pick up the animals' bodies so there's not much evidence of what they're doing."
It's sad to imagine this happening to dogs, even dangerous ones. There's a better way.
