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BE IN THE KNOW: Jon Stewart, Pit Bulls, and Media Hysteria by Ledy VanKavage

Jon Stewart,
Pit Bulls,
and Media Hysteria

by Ledy VanKavage

November 01, 2010 02:30 PM (PT)

Topics: Breed Specific Legislation, Dogs

The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was a huge success on Saturday. While Jon Stewart was calling out the media for stoking fear, I was safely nestled on the couch with our three adopted pit bulls, Che, Bella Abzug, and Karma. Stewart’s words could easily describe the pit bull controversy: “The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire.” The media hysteria surrounding American Pit Bull Terriers has been lighting them on fire — resulting in the mass euthanasia of these dogs simply because of their appearance. Instead, the media’s magnifying glass should focus on the real public safety issue: reckless owners of any dog.

It’s not much of a stretch to think Stewart would agree with applying his words to pit bulls. Though animal issues don’t come up often on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart is a known animal lover and has two pit bulls of his own — Shamsky and Monkey.

And in 2008, Jon Stewart commented on the status of pit bulls in the media when Sarah Palin delivered her famous “lipstick” joke. I relished Stewart’s take on the riddle, “What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?” Stewart answered: “One is unfairly maligned despite evidence showing they are no worse than any other dogs, while the other is an an artificial demographic no better or worse than any other kind of mom.”

In 2007, Stewart also attacked the media’s coverage of Michael Vick’s arrest for running a dog fighting ring; how they fixated on his gambling and time off the field rather than the fact that Vick killed dogs with his bare hands:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Vick’s Rub

DDR IN THE COMMUNITY: DDR AT BEST FRIEND’S NO MORE HOMELESS PETS CONFERENCE 2010, Las Vegas

Pictures courtesy of Josie Gavieres

Lori presented in this year’s No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas sponsored by the Best Friends Animal Society. She was part of the Rescue Essentials TRACK and the Keys to Building Lifesaving Relationships TRACK. Both sessions were full and people had to be turned away for the Sunday session. Buzz from participants after each session were positive and a lot of attendees came up to Lori to find out more information about Downtown Dog Rescue’s life-saving programs. Here was Lori’s schedule for the weekend!

Saturday, October 16

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Workshop Session I

• Only a Phone Call Away: How Community Help Lines Can Keep Animals in Their Homes – Liz Finch, Lori Weise

Sunday, October 17

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM Workshop Session I

• Pits Are Pets: What You Need to Know to Save America’s Dogs – Lori Weise, Ledy VanKavage

Congratulations Lori for another awesome set of presentations and a big thank you to Best Friends for inviting Lori to once again share information to the rescue and pit bull advocating community!

DEB’S DOG OF THE WEEK: WORKING TOGETHER

Working Together! DDR, West LA Shelter, and Fate!

This past weekend a great dog named Pink was adopted from the shelter and it all happened because Lori was open and kind enough to refer one of her adopters to the West LA Shelter!

What happened was that someone submitted an application for Edwina, one of Downtown Dog Rescue’s great dogs. An appointment was scheduled for them to meet her on Saturday and for whatever reason the stars did not align and the meeting never took place. I was at the shelter on Saturday and posted a picture on Facebook of a cute pit bull (Pink) in a Halloween costume.

Lori saw the picture and immediately thought that Pink could be good fit for Ann based on her application. She put Ann in touch with me and we arranged for her to come meet Pink on Sunday. The stars WERE aligned on Sunday and Ann adopted Pink that same day!

Pink, now named FATE, is living the good life with her new mom Ann!

I wanted to write about this great adoption because it’s a wonderful example of how we can all help save lives by working together! Lori has developed relationships with volunteers at various city shelters. Because of this relationship, she trusted my judgment on a dog and was able to send an adopter to the shelter to save the life of a dog that would otherwise be in jeopardy of being euthanized. In addition to working with the city shelter, Lori also works closely with other rescue groups, and if an application comes in that doesn’t fit any of her current available dogs she might refer that person to another rescue group. It can be a win-win situation for everyone; the potential adopter doesn’t feel like they have to “start over” just because the one dog they applied for isn’t right, the rescue group gets to strengthen their reputation, and of course, as in Fate’s case, and animal gets a second chance at a new life!

So, if you volunteer for your local shelter, try to develop relationships with rescue groups in your community…and vice versa. We all want to achieve the same goal….save more lives! The more we all work together as a team, the easier we can reach this […]

DOGGONE Good PITStop EVENTS #7: Georg Lulich Exhibition – Photography

DOWNTOWN DOG RESCUE would like to invite you to attend the following photographic exhibition!

Exhibit will run from
November 11 – December 10, 2010
Collection on display everyday from
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

On street parking or lot parking across the street

OPENING RECEPTION
November 11, 2010 6:00 pm
Historic Gas Company Lofts
810 S. Flower Street
Los Angeles, CA 90017

(click on postcard to enlarge)

DDR will receive a portion of the sales
proceeds from this event.

Our sincere thanks to the artist, Mr. Georg Lulich & Event Coordinator, Elizabeth Molo for making us part of this wonderful event!

IN THE KNOW: Oklahoma man jailed for breaking dog out of pound

Oklahoma man jailed for breaking dog out of pound

Associated Press

Posted: 10/25/2010 08:38:57 AM PDT

HYDRO, Okla. — An elderly Oklahoma man landed himself in jail after using bolt cutters to break his prized pooch from the pound.

Instead of paying a $100 fine for not having his poodle on a leash, 73-year-old Edwin Fry of Hydro decided to bust Buddy Tough out. Authorities say Fry drove his lawnmower to the city pound Oct. 13 and broke into the cage with bolt cutters. The pair were intercepted by police.

Officer Chris Chancellor told The Oklahoman newspaper that police had received numerous complaints about Buddy Tough, who had been in the pound before. He says Fry had been told he could retrieve the dog and sort out the fine in court.

Fry spent several days in jail and faces a municipal charge of allowing an animal to run at-large. Buddy Tough was euthanized while Fry was in jail.

——

Information from:

The Oklahoman

LORI’S CORNER: WORKING WITH PRECIOUS

Working with a dog like Precious, reminds me that every new dog needs time to adjust, get healthy and settle into our rescue before I make a judgment call about what each dog will be or not be. It’s been almost a year, coming up next month, that I rescued Precious from her chain in a back yard in South Central Los Angeles. We had received a call from her owner, asking for help getting his dog spayed. I went over to pick her up and what I found was poor Precious, with a huge pad lock chain around her neck, about 3 feet of heavy duty chain, attached to a tree trunk, no shelter, no water and apparently no food. She weighed about twenty pounds the day we walked into Dr. Shipps Animal Hospital run by the Amanda Foundation. Covered in fleas and ticks, she cowered in the corner of the vet’s office as we waited for Dr. Stein to come in and give her an exam. He was really mad, telling me that if I planned on taking the dog back he would definitely report the owner. I was supposed to take her back but of course, we did not.

Precious went to live with Dog Man for about a month. He treated all of her open sores, fed her well and won her trust until she was strong enough to come and live at our kennel. She had no connection to me or any of the dogs. Billy and I were extremely cautious about introducing her to dogs because she had a lot of scars, was missing one of her toes and had tears on her ears that sure looked like the result of a lot of fighting. We took things really slow with her and I estimated that she might be the type of dog that would do best in a home with no other dogs. She never showed any aggressions but also didn’t show any interest in playing. This went on until one day we put her in the yard with Clancy. It was love at first sight! If there ever were two dogs that loved each other in our rescue, this was the pair. Several months later, she is out with most all of our dogs every morning and every evening. There are some dogs that we do not put her out with, Freeway is the number one “bad match” but I get that. In fact, those two ladies hate each other so we just keep them separate.

Precious goes to work and home with me every day and loves to ride in the car. […]

JO’S BARK: The Boxer’s Life Chapter 5 The Big Move

by Boxer, Himself

LAST WEEK: CHAPTER FOUR

Well – I’M BACK !
It took a while to get use to being lighter in the rear end, but Mz. De Kota didn’t seem to mind – that is after I took stock of the matter and worked it out. Mz. De Kota was there every step of the way using her “Ultimate Command” which she understood to be a standing order.

Then one day in late October, what little things were left in The Dames’ home was moved out. Mz. De Kota was getting concerned and being scared. She had been through this once before and had to live outside – something she was not use too. Me on the other hand I really didn’t care too much for this indoor life. . .no crackheads, heroin addicts, drunks or rats to chase, bark at, and just be an all around dog about the matter. Although, it does have its advantages. . . .well anyway, I digress. With my fluffy sexy momma being scared that put me on edge so I became more vocal. Mz. De Kota didn’t want to live outside again – she was an 11 year old cougar in my book – wuuuufff. She also told me that she knew The Dame was upset – they were trying to push us out before the agreed to time for the move into the motel – Like WHAT is a motel. Mz. De Kota said it was like here but bigger and a private bathroom . . . These dudes that came to help the Village People move were like sooooo worse than me – and I am a bad-ass ! Then somebody grab the door knob and we heard The Dame yelling – then everything got real quiet but we could still hear The Dame – woooooh! and I thought I had negotiation skills ( kill’em and ask questions later) – The Dame was even better. . .a couple of more hours passed and we were on the move shoved into the van and on the road. . .I could feel Mz. De Kota becoming weak and scared.
She was not feeling well by the time we got the motel – she had not Command power about her . . . .o my fluffy rolly-polly-cougar hang in there.
The Dame says we are going to move again out of the motel and into our own house, whatever that is. Talk to […]

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