Expert cites links between animal cruelty, child abuse January 6, 2009

Source: Arkansas News Bureau, By Rob Moritz, Jan 5, 2009

LITTLE ROCK – A state child welfare worker investigating suspected child abuse or neglect also should look for signs of animal cruelty because the offenses are interwoven, a psychologist told a legislative task force.

“Understanding animal abuse can strengthen anti-violence policies and programs,” Mary Lou Randour, a psychologist with the Human Society of the United States told the Task Force on Abused and Neglected Children.

Randour cited national studies showing animal abuse occurred in 88 percent of families under state investigation for suspected child abuse and that abused children often come from homes where pets were either abused or killed.

Sometimes pets are threatened to keep children from talking to others about their abuse, she said, adding that up to 71 percent of women admitted to shelters for battered women report their partners either injured or killed their pets.

“Understanding animal abuse can strengthen anti-violence policies and programs,” she said.

The task force, comprised of lawmakers, state employees who work with victims of domestic abuse and child abuse, and representatives from nonprofits that provide services to the victims, has been meeting for more than a year to develop policies and procedures to prevent domestic violence and child abuse.

Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, co-chairman of the task force, said Randour’s presentation shed light on an area that she had not considered.

“It really nails down the links between animal abuse and child abuse,” Madison said. “I think we can incorporate that in some of our child abuse investigations.”

Madison said the state Department of Human Services, which has members on the task force, would be provided Randour’s report, and that the lawmakers may be asked to approve legislation addressing the link between child abuse, domestic violence and animal cruelty.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has said his package for the regular session that convenes next week will include a measure to allow prosecutors the ability to seek an enhanced penalty for torturing or killing a dog, cat or horse in the presence of a child.

The legislation would make torturing a dog, cat or horse a felony on first offense. The measure also would make cockfighting and dog fighting a felony in the state.

Arkansas is one of five states that do not have a felony animal cruelty charge.

Party kids flee as man shoots dog, South Africa October 3, 2008

By Arthi Sanpath, October 03 2008 at 12:07PM

A birthday party for a Malvern family took a gruesome turn when the family dog was shot dead with a shotgun by a neighbour – in front of children.

The neighbour is expected to appear in the Pinetown magistrate’s court on Friday on a charge of malicious injury to property for shooting the dog, Inspector Prevash Moodley of the Malvern police station said.

The Mackrory family’s one-and-a-half-year-old bull terrier Shrek was shot twice, and according to witnesses, it’s body was “split in two”.

On Thursday, an emotional Shandra Mackrory said the incident on Tuesday night had left her family and friends traumatised.

“We were celebrating my daughter Monique’s 18th birthday with close friends in our yard, when our dog Shrek and the neighbour’s dog got into a fight,” she said.

Mackrory said there were many children, from the age of six to 18, in the yard at the time.

She said one of her friends, Heinrich Trytsman, tried to intervene to separate the fighting dogs.

This, she said, was in vain as her friend’s attempts to calm the dogs was short-lived.

“By then our neighbour had come out of his house with a shotgun and started firing at the dogs. He did not even fire any warning shots or tell anyone he was going to shoot,” she said. Mackrory said Trytsman ran out of the line of fire as he was closest to the dogs.

“We all had to run back into the house as the children started screaming hysterically,” she said.

“It was terrible and inhumane and the kids were crying. The next morning they also woke up crying,” she said.

The family lodged a complaint with the SPCA, but senior Inspector Steve Wight said that because the dog had died instantly, there was no case of cruelty.

800 Animals, Including Monkeys, Swans, Found During Kennel Raid, Freezer Contained 65 Animal Corpses, PA October 2, 2008

EMMAUS, Pa. — At least 56 dogs and cats were removed for immediate medical care from a large Pennsylvania kennel where officials said hundreds of animals were crowded together in unsanitary and foul-smelling conditions.

Authorities are negotiating for the removal of 100 more animals from the Almost Heaven Kennels in Upper Milford Township, said Elaine Skypala, program director for the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

About 20 agents raided the kennel Wednesday. Officials said they discovered as many as 800 animals including monkeys, miniature horses, turkeys, geese, guinea hens and swans packed into the facilities, many living in excrement amid the stench of feces and decay. A freezer contained 65 animal corpses.

“It’s horrible,” Skypala said.

Kennel owner Derbe Eckhart disputed the SPCA allegations, noting that an August inspection by the state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement turned up no violations of kennel regulations.

“What they tried to do yesterday was paint a picture that wasn’t there,” Eckhart told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Skypala said authorities would continue working at the kennel. She said a tentative deal called for Eckhart to begin an immediate cleanup and for PSPCA to have unlimited access to the facilities for six months. Eckhart also will face cruelty charges.

During the raid, the site was besieged by vans and a helicopter carrying news crews, including one from the Animal Planet cable television network. Eckhart did not emerge, but called state police to order the media off the grass.

Eckhart was charged two years earlier with having too many monkeys and operating a menagerie without a permit because monkey cages were visible to the public. He paid fines and court costs.

A neighbor, Jackie Arney, said she wasn’t surprised by Wednesday’s raid.

“You hear (the dogs) screaming and crying all night,” Arney said.

But Millie Altomare, 68, of Allentown, whose dog Fern is groomed at the kennel, defended Eckhart.

“This man is never given any credit for the good things he does,” she said. “They are constantly picking on this man.”

150 dogs saved as animal welfare workers bust Quebec puppy mill October 2, 2008

MONTREAL – For the second time in less than a week, animal welfare workers have busted a puppy mill north of Montreal.

Officials have not revealed the exact location of the mill but say they’ve seized about 150 dogs of varying sizes.

The animals were living in squalid conditions and had suffered serious neglect, says Rebecca Aldworth, director of animal programs for Humane Society International Canada.

It took nearly five hours to transport all the dogs to the Montreal shelter of the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

No charges have been laid.

Alanna Devine, acting executive director at the SPCA’s Montreal chapter, says she hopes that two busts in less than one week will ratchet up public support to shut down the mills.

Last Friday, 118 animals were rescued from a puppy mill in Rawdon, Que. where other dogs were found dead.

Quebec is often described as the puppy mill capital of North America.

Owners of malnourished dog charged by CCPD, TX October 2, 2008

Couple charged with cruelty to animals; dog was found with collar growing into skin

Source: Caller Times By Stuart Duncan, Originally published 09:00 a.m., October 2, 2008
Updated 09:00 a.m., October 2, 2008

CORPUS CHRISTI — Police arrested the owners of a neglected German Shepherd that died recently.

The owners of the malnourished dog, named Shepp, were arrested Wednesday and taken to the Criminal Detention Center, police said.

Animal Care officers picked up the German Shepherd from a home in the 4700 block of Cheryl Street on Sept. 16 after they discovered that it had been severely malnourished, according to police. The dog, tied up behind the home and apparently abandoned, also had a large wound around the neck where the collar had grown into its skin, police said. Despite attempts to save it, the dog later died.

Norma Luna, 45 and Daniel Luna, 44, of Corpus Christi were charged with cruelty to animals with a $500 bond, captain Tim Wilson said. That misdemeanor charge can lead to up to one year in jail, Wilson said.

Starving dog case ‘appalling’ October 2, 2008

Source: By DEAN CALCOTT – The Press | Friday, 03 October 2008

The actions of a dog owner who left a female doberman dying from malnutrition in a snowdrift were “truly shocking and appalling”, a judge said yesterday.

Judge Jocelyn Munro fined Rodney John Burt $3800 and disqualified him from owning a dog for three years.

The Christchurch District Court was told that the dog, Sheba, was within a week or two of death when it was found by a member of the public.

Burt, 50, admitted charges of deserting a dog while making no provision to meet its needs, and failing to meet the needs of an animal he owned.

The judge ordered the fine be paid to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

SPCA prosecutor Richard Raymond told the court that on June 8, an emaciated dog was found lying in snow on the side of a road between Burnham and Springston.

At 15.9kg, its weight was at least 50 per cent below optimum. It had no discernible body fat, a loss of muscle mass, and widespread pressure sores.

The dog was traced to Burt’s ownership, and after initial denials, he ultimately admitted abandoning it.

“It is right at the extreme end of appalling animal treatment,” Raymond said.

Burt told inspectors that the dog had been left with a relative to look after, but he knew her condition was not good, that inspectors had already visited, and he was embarrassed about being found out. He then decided to make a late-night trip to dump the animal in the country.

2 threats to dog racing: Mass. vote, low interest October 1, 2008

Source: Associated Press, By STEVE LeBLANC – 14 hours ago

BOSTON (AP) — Voters in Massachusetts will soon decide whether greyhound racing should continue there, though the real question might be whether the once-popular sport dies a quick death or a slow one.

Across the country, the legions of blue-collar fans the industry relied on have been lured away by casinos, lotteries, online gambling and other forms of betting.

Track owners fighting the proposed ban fiercely oppose claims that the dogs are mistreated. But animal-welfare issues aside, others involved in greyhound racing glumly concede a cultural shift away from the sport.

“It’s certainly changing,” said Gary Guccione, executive director of the National Greyhound Association. “It has downsized in recent years. We’ve seen a decrease in the number of tracks and dogs being bred.”

In the 1980s there were more than 50,000 greyhounds bred each year to race at about 60 tracks nationwide, Guccione said. This year, the number of dogs will drop to under 20,000 and the number of tracks has been cut almost in half.

Since the end of 2004 alone, 13 U.S. tracks have closed or ended live dog racing, according to the Committee to Protect Dogs, which is leading the campaign for the Massachusetts ban. It has raised nearly $400,000 since January 2007, nearly 10 times as much as opponents of the ban have raised.

Racing fans still come to sit at tables in front of television monitors at Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere, one of the state’s two dog tracks. Live racing won’t resume until the spring, but they can still wager on races elsewhere via simulcast.

It’s a far cry from the 22,607 fans who filled Wonderland on May 16, 1945, when the track set its single performance attendance record — or the day in June 1939 when 1,500 people packed a dinner at Boston’s Copley Plaza to honor Rural Rube, who had just won 19 races in a single season.

If the ban passes, Massachusetts will join seven states that already ban live greyhound racing: Idaho, Maine, North Carolina, Nevada, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Gary Temple, general manager Raynham Greyhound Park in Raynham, is leading the opposition to the ballot question. He calls backers “zealots” who are misleading the public about track conditions and the treatment of dogs.

Temple said handlers and owners have invested time and money in the dogs and the tracks are some of the most highly regulated industries in the state.

“I am animal lover myself and I would never allow an animal to be mistreated here,” he said. “There’s a lot of passion and love that these trainers give their dogs. They are family members.”

Of all the claims made by the tracks, the most contentious is the statement — repeated by Temple — that they have achieved a 100 percent adoption rate for their dogs once their racing days are over.

Backers of the question say it’s untrue. They point to statistics reported by the tracks to the state racing commission that show just 31 percent of dogs were adopted in 2007, while 55 percent went on to race at other tracks. The remaining dogs went back to their owners, to breeding farms and a handful — less than 1 percent — were euthanized.

Activists say there’s no way to monitor what happens to the dogs sent to tracks in other states — and even Temple concedes that “after they go to another track it’s up to that track.”

Christine Dorchak, one of the organizers of the question, said dog racing is particularly cruel for greyhounds.

“These dogs are very gentle and very fragile,” she said. “When eight of them are put in a pack and trained to run after the same object they can be injured very easily. It’s basically putting these dogs on a collision course.”

Dorchak’s group has documented what they said are hundreds of cases of dogs being injured at Massachusetts tracks since 2002, when the state first required tracks to report injuries. The injuries range from scrapes and cuts to broken bones.

Dorchak said the new statistics have strengthened the case for closing the tracks since 2000, when a similar ballot question lost narrowly.

Closing the tracks could mean the loss of about 1,000 jobs associated with dog racing, according to Temple. Dorchak called any loss regrettable, but added, “Our economy should not be built on cruelty to dogs.”
On the Net:

* Raynham Greyhound Park : http://www.raynhamparkfun.com/
* The Committee to Protect Dogs: http://www.protectdogs.org/

Dog dies after being set on fire October 1, 2008

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, by Georgina Robinson
October 1, 2008 – 8:15AM

A dog has died after being badly burned in Sydney’s west yesterday, police said.

The male terrier cross was found by a man walking his own dog along Orchardleigh Street at Old Guildford about 5.30pm, police said.

Police said the man took the dog to the RSPCA at Yagoona but its injuries were so severe it was put down.

Inspector Slade Macklin from the RSPCA said it appeared the dog had been set on fire deliberately.

“Unless the dog was in a house fire or if someone turned around and said ‘the dog jumped in an open fire’, it’s sort of unlikely that a dog would [do] something like that,” Inspector Macklin said.

But a police spokeswoman said Bankstown investigators were following a number of lines of inquiry and had not ruled out the possibility the dog’s injuries were accidental.

It is believed police last night made contact with the dog’s owner, who lives in the Yagoona/Old Guildford area.

Inspector Macklin said the dog, which was “only a couple of years old”, was in shock when it was delivered to the RSPCA.

Yesterday a dead dog was found hanging from a tree in Mount Druitt.

Dog found hanging from tree October 1, 2008

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
September 30, 2008

A dead dog has been found hanging from a tree in Sydney’s west, the RSPCA says.

RSPCA NSW is appealing for witnesses to what it has labelled a shocking case of animal cruelty.

The female cattle-dog cross was discovered this morning in RAAF Memorial Park, on the corner of Belmore Avenue and Woodstock Road in Mount Druitt.

The tan-coloured dog, thought to be no more than five years old, was probably hanging there for at least a few days, the RSPCA said.

RSPCA NSW Inspector Matt Godwin said it was not clear if the animal was already dead before being strung up in the tree, but there were no other obvious injuries.

“It is without a doubt, the worst case of cruelty and the most disturbing that I have ever seen,” Inspector Godwin said.

“We’re appealing to anyone who has any information or who may have seen people acting suspiciously in the area over the weekend, to come forward.

“The dogs’ owners might still be looking for their pet.”

Anyone with information is urged to phone RSPCA NSW on (02) 9770 7555.

AAP

At St. Paul apartment, girls watched as ‘doggie went boom’ September 29, 2008

Source: Pioneer Press, By Tad Vezner
Article Last Updated: 09/26/2008 10:17:11 PM CDT

With his 6-year-old daughter and two other girls playing in the room behind him, a St. Paul man threw his ex-girlfriend’s dog from her third-story balcony, injuring it so badly it had to be put to sleep, according to police.

On Friday, police charged Donald Dornseif, 44, with felony animal cruelty.

A pair of neighbors who had been standing on the balcony below said they saw 3-year-old “Precious” plummet to the ground outside an apartment complex in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen neighborhood, where she moaned until authorities arrived about 10 p.m. Thursday.

Cynthia Hayes — whose 5-year-old daughter was in the apartment with Dornseif — was standing below him when she said she heard him say “I hate animals.”

“I told him, ‘You hate animals because you are an animal,’ ” Hayes yelled up.

“Do you want to see the dog hit the sidewalk?” Dornseif allegedly replied.

Seconds later, “the dog came out flying,” said Debbie Bailey, who had been standing beside Hayes. She didn’t see Dornseif throw Precious, a stout English bulldog. But Hayes said her daughter did; the young girl described to police how Dornseif propelled the dog with both arms.

Two-year-old Elizabeth Mabry — who was being watched by Hayes and Bailey — later described what she saw to her mother, Andrea Mabry, who also lives in the building.

“Doggie went boom,” the girl said, throwing her arms wide.

Dornseif’s ex-girlfriend, Sara Goff, said she got a call from Bailey after the three girls — her daughter, Mya Dornseif-Goff, 6; Hayes’ daughter, Cameryn Hodges, 5, and another 10-year-old girl from the building — ran frantically down to Bailey’s apartment.

“I said, ‘What did you do to my dog?’ He said, ‘I didn’t do nothing to her. She jumped,’ ” Goff said.

Goff, 25, said Dornseif had “popped by,” and she left the apartment to go to the store. She and her daughter had received the dog as a gift from a new boyfriend, and she claimed Dornseif never warmed to it because of that. She and Dornseif had split several years ago, but their daughter lived with her full time.

Dornseif told police he hadn’t talked to the neighbors, though he had been drinking, according to a criminal complaint. He said he bent to pick the dog up, but “before he could even get it up right, the dog jumped out of his arms, over the railing.”

But police said it was impossible for the short, 60- to 70-pound dog — which fell 20 to 25 feet down and a full 8 to 10 feet out from the balcony — to have jumped that far out without being thrown. The balcony has a 4-foot railing that the dog cannot squeeze through.

Precious broke her leg and neck and suffered other internal injuries. She was later euthanized.

“This morning my daughter still insisted the dog’s in the hospital,” Hayes added. “I had to tell her that the dog’s in heaven now.”

Officers searched for Dornseif after he left the complex in the 1300 block of Mississippi Street. They were called about an hour later to his current girlfriend’s home in the 1100 block of McLean Ave. The current girlfriend didn’t know about the dog but called police about a separate argument they were having, according to police spokesman Peter Panos.

As for young Mya, her mother found her that night curled up and asleep in the corner where Precious usually rests.

“I don’t think Mya actually wants to believe her dad did that,” Bailey said.