Bella and Tara

When you wonder if two different kinds of people can really ever get along you don't have to look further than the natural world. My wife sent me this tip in an email on a CBS news broadcast and I thought it was the greatest video ever. It got me to thinking, if these two can find a way to get along and become best friends for life, then what the hell is wrong with Democrats and Republicans unable to agree on or come to some middle ground? Afterall is said and done, we are all still Americans...

Video Link



This video blew me away! If a full grown elephant and a dog can become best of friends then we need to look a little closer politically at how we treat one another. I expect the right to call me a jerk as much as those of us on the left look forward to calling them jerks as well. In the end, we need to work together to get out of this mess and that means finding common ground to agree on. Bella and Tara don't have that problem. Unless of course you look at the fact that the dog could never scratch the elephants belly in reciprocation.

Papamoka

Dogtown on National Geographic TV

I’ve often wondered what ever happened to all the dogs that were taken away from Michael Vick by the authorities. If you need a reminder, Michael Vick was the Atlanta Falcons NFL player that was found guilty of running an underground dog fighting sport ring. A business that was built up by raising Pitt bulls to be as aggressive as possible and then they would be put into a ring to fight to the death. Like most people I have been guilty of thinking that the animals were all euthanized aka put to sleep. Not so!

As I was cruising the cable channels I came across a program called Dogtown. Through the help of other organizations like Best Friends Animal Society, twenty-two of the Pitt Bulls from Vick’s Bad News Kennels are being retrained in hopes of eventually being adopted out. This amazing task is being shown on National Geographic Channel and I applaud the hard work that the trainer’s Ann Allums, John Garcia and Michelle Besmehn have put into the lives of these dogs. Along with retraining these dogs, many of them faced critical care and long term care from the Veterinarian staff Doctors Pattie Iampietro and Mike Dix.

My heart went out to many of the dog’s simply because of the negligence and out right torture that some of them faced. One of them named Georgia had her teeth removed in order to protect the dogs that she was forced to breed with. Another of the dogs named Cherry was a bait dog, meaning that they would use him to build up the confidence of more aggressive dogs. One dog, Meryl, by court order can never be adopted out and must remain at Dogtown for the rest of her life. Meryl is making progress in her training and the staff at Dogtown look forward to having her in their lives for as long as she lives.

Watching the show was inspirational to me as a dog lover and I was just amazed to see how quickly these abused animals learn to not only trust people but seem to just want to please their trainers. When you see what some of these animals were put through in their lives before Dog Town it just astounds you to think how well they have recovered and changed. This is not an overnight process and I’m sure it will take many months of love and care from the staff at Dogtown to make these animals safe and friendly in any environment.

I’m looking forward to the next episode and I applaud all of the people that pitched in to give these dogs a second chance at life.

Papamoka

Related post…
Vick Walks and Dogs are Still Dead

*****Chicago Sun Times has picked up this post. Thank You!

Vick Walks and Dogs are Still Dead

Picture courtesy of the link below...
http://www.realpitbull.com/abuse.html


Michael Vick has covered his ass in a sweet deal with lenient prosecutors that will possibly end up with his life interrupted for just one year of jail time. That is not good enough and it is a slap in the face to all proud dog owners across our nation. This man should serve twenty years or more and have to face the Kennel Club to get parole even then.

This just goes to show that if you have the high powered lawyer and millions of dollars in your pocket you can get away with murder. I don’t consider the fights that Michael Vick put these dogs into as a sport. What he did was put two animals trained with the worst possible instincts to kill one another for the sake of a few dollars being bet. Is that what a dogs life is worth in the mind of this court? Obviously, his lawyer is better than the courts and Michael Vick is going to walk more or less with just a brush stroke of justice.

Good behavior, he walks in what six or seven months? Over at the New York Times they have this to say about Michael Vick’s plea deal…

N.F.L.’s Vick Accepts Plea Deal in Dog-Fight Case

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: August 20, 2007

RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 20 — Michael Vick, the star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, has accepted a plea offer from federal prosecutors in a criminal case stemming from a dog-fighting ring that was run from a property Mr. Vick owned.

Mr. Vick will probably face a sentence of at least a year in prison under the deal. His future in the National Football League appears bleak.

Mr. Vick is expected to formally enter his plea on Aug. 27. The United States District Judge overseeing the case, Henry E. Hudson, announced the agreement at a status hearing in the case this afternoon.

Billy Martin, one of Mr. Vick’s defense lawyers, said in a written statement: “After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick asked that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him. Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter.” - New York Times

When you think about this story you really should put your mind in the place that the dogs are the same as a four or five year old child. Would you allow a child of that age to be condemned to death with its next play date? It is people like Michael Vick that turn a beautiful animal like a Pittbull into a monster and now he too is getting away with it.

Years ago people put the same label on German Shepards because supposedly they could turn on you at any moment. Bull Pippy Poops! Any dog has the ability to turn and defend itself when abused and that is what monsters like Vick and his cohorts in crime did to these animals. Try abusing a child like they did to all of the dogs that died under his circus of bet’s and people would be screaming for the death penalty in a heartbeat for his sentence.

Another millionaire walks and the sickening event of dogs fighting to the death will still continue. Michael Vick’s NFL career is dead and I thank common sense of the upper ups of the NFL for that. What confuses me more is the fact that someone that had the golden ring with the NFL was so stupid and such an animal himself that the NFL never picked up on this little hobby of his? I have to wonder if the people working the recruiting rounds looked the other way?

Justice is blind and dogs will die. This man makes me sick and I honestly believe that a cage the size of a jail cell is to good for him for a one year sentence. Maybe the guards at the prison could forget which cage they are supposed to put the prison dogs in and accidentally put them in with Mikey! One can dream right?

If you love animals like I do, please link to this post and email it to a friend. Show your support of your animal friends and lets send a message to monsters like Vick!

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

Others talking about this issue...

Well, you said it yourself. You are guilty. You could have killed someone while driving intoxicated, get a DUI a year later and still have your career. You could have watched P-Funk and Q kill a person. You could have shot your limo driver in the face, jumped in your swimming pool to wash off the blood and then tell 20 people what story to tell. You could have done any of these things and still had your career, but you did the ultimate wrong. You harmed innocent animals.

This is America and people are forgiven, but this is not forgivable to many. - Falcon Reporter

Then there is this too...

Some of these dogs were perfectly healthy but because they couldn’t fight or make them money they disposed of them like so much trash. These actions should make any normal human being sick. -Megsmakeup.com

Boxxet - Altlanta Falcons has linked to this post...

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Pet Food that Kills, Recall issued

In pretty much every home in America there is the unspoken family member that we all love and cherrish. Our cat or our dog are family members just as much as Mom or Pop are. Some people such as myself refer to the dog as my baby boy. He’s the first one to greet me and the last one to say good night before he beds down with one of the girls. Kids and pets are sometimes like brothers and sisters, the love is always there.

Could it be possible that I could poison my baby girl with her cat food or my baby boy with his regular dog food? Apparently, that fact is a reality. The Boston Herald has this alert to its readers and I hope they don’t mind to much that I borrowed it to alert my readers as well…

Tainted food eyed in feline’s death

By Peter Reuell/ Metrowest Daily News

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

“Fluffy,” a beloved blue-eyed family cat from Milford, could be the Bay State’s first casualty in a tainted pet-food crisis sweeping the nation.

Some 60 million cans and pouches of a variety of brand name cat and dog foods - possibly containing contaminated wheat gluten - have been recalled after reports of mostly cats perishing from kidney failure.

“What makes me angry is if we had this information a week ago, it would have saved her,” said Denise Tracy of her pet cat she plucked from a free litter more than a decade ago.

“We had to put her down Thursday night,” Tracy said, adding her 16-year-old son held his pet as the fatal shot was humanely administered. “It was very heartbreaking,” said the mother of five. “I’ll never forget the veterinarian’s words: ‘Her heart has stopped.’ ”

Snip

Now Tracy is left to console her son and four other children while trying to warn every pet owner she knows. Even her dog “Rosie,” a Cairn terrier, feels the loss of a playmate.

“I never expected it to be so emotional,” she said last night. “Everybody is upset. It’s been a funeral parlor around here.”

The recall now covers dog food sold throughout North America under 51 brands and cat food sold under 40 brands, including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba. The food was sold under both store and major brand labels at Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other large retailers. – Boston Herald

Menu Foods Income Fund has a complete list of dog and cat food that has been recalled. Please check your pets food against this list and toss it out if you find it on there. There is nothing worse than losing a pet that you love just as much you would your own children. If it is preventable then I want to get the message out there to save lives.

Pet owners and lovers of dogs and cats please link to this post. The life you save is important in so many ways to you and your family.

Papamoka