Friday, July 2, 2010

Imagine The Horror . . .

A most disturbing story made the rounds yesterday, showing up on both Facebook and the Dal list, and I am sure on many other dog related lists as well. We often think that animal abuse happens only in puppy mills, dog fighting establishments, and in junk strewn backyard full of rusted car bodies and garbage. Unfortunately, just as with child abuse it can happen anywhere. The following links concern a horrific situation involving a (previously) well-respected dog show person who sentenced her elderly Afghan Hounds to die of starvation. She just shut them away and ignored them. Apparently she was tired of the hounds, but took care of her Cavaliers. These were retired show dogs, not breeding stock in a puppymill. This woman lived in a nice neighborhood and her neighbors had no idea of the horrors that were taking place "behind closed doors". Fortunately, two dog handlers realized something was amiss and got involved - they rescued the dogs, who might not have survived more than a few more days.

If you are interested, read this article -
http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100701/News01/100709956/1129/News

If you want to see what the dogs looked like, check out these pictures -
http://s764.photobucket.com/albums/xx290/LisaBettis/Afghan%20Rescue/?action=view¤t=IMG_3476.jpg

If you want to get involved, please sign the petition -
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/criminal-charges-agsinst-cindy-chandler

When people are convicted of animal cruelty charges, the American Kennel Club automatically takes away their privileges to show or register dogs, for a very long time. The people who initiated the petition want to insure that this happens.

I was the 852nd person to sign the petition which just went up yesterday. They are hoping for 5000 signatures, which seems like a very reasonable goal. It seems to me that mental illness must be involved here. Hard to believe that a sane person could do something so incredibly horrible.

On a more cheerful note, I got 5 new species of wild livebearers yesterday, several of which I have wanted for a long time. I won the B. roseni on Aquabid and asked if the seller had anything else available. Turns out that Steve and I have similar taste in fish and he had a number of other interesting species. I had just redone a few tanks, so I had room for them, and Steve threw in a few little bonus babies with the interesting name of Flexipenis vitatta. I also read that the scientific name had been changed to Gambusia vitatta - not nearly as interesting!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you read the article that contains the email the owner supposedly sent to friends about why the dogs were in such a horrid condition? The link is http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100702/News01/100709825/1129/News

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately what usually happens is not justice. I personally turned in a dog abuser to Animal Control in Georgia, as well as documenting EVERYTHING to AKC. This jerk was neglecting several Afghan Hounds that he had for handling and breeding. I called all the owners and helped get the dogs back home. Then he jumped state and now owns three boarding kennels and a pet grooming school in Florida. He also has co-bred/co-owned with an AKC JUDGE since then. I documented EVERYTHING to AKC when he was in Georgia, and yet he still breeds, shows, and cares for other peoples animals who have no clue what he has done. There should be a registry like for sex offenders. If you have ever been convicted of neglect, cruelty or abuse of ANY animal, you should NEVER be able to have ANY TYPE of pet business. And it should be accessible from state to state as this is how most abusers hide from their past, they move. They hide like the cockroaches that they are!
LAWS NEED TO CHANGE TO PROTECT OUR COMPANIONS.