9.16.2006

'They literally threw her away in a trash Dumpster'

Dog found in Red Lion shopping center 'looks pitiful' but is going to survive
Updated Wednesday, September 13, 2006

The tattered dog stood still as her cage door opened today at Delaware SPCA’s animal shelter in Stanton, three days after she was rescued.

“She’s doing better,” said Executive Director John E. Caldwell. “She looks pitiful, but she’s going to survive.”

Nearly bald, few tufts are left of her thick, creamy fur. She is mature, maybe 3 or 4 years old, but petite for a grown chow, boney thin at 30 pounds, with the breed’s typical lion-like face. Scratches, lesions and scab cover her. Her right ear, a scarred stump, is two-thirds gone. Both ears are impacted by infection. Around wide dark eyes -- cloudy, partly blind -- hair was trimmed away as they began to treat her eyes, sealed shut by an infection.

She wobbles a few, slow steps. Despite severe pain, she responds to petting with a friendly lick of her chow-black tongue and a wag of her last long ivory hair, a tuft at the end of her tail.

She faces no death sentence. “There is no intention of that happening,” Caldwell said.

The SPCA appealed today for information from anyone who recognizes the dog. She had no ID, rabies tag, collar or microchip identification.

“I don’t see an owner coming forward,” Caldwell said, adding that stepping up to take responsibility for abandoning a dog in that condition would be unlikely from an abusively neglectful owner or owners. “They literally threw her away in a trash Dumpster,” he said.

Frank’s Pizza workers dumping trash found her about 12:20 p.m. Monday at the Shoppes of Red Lion, a small shopping center off Red Lion Road (Del. 71). They called 911 and Delaware State Police contacted the SPCA, which investigates animal cruelty cases.

Caldwell said the dog could not have gotten into the bin on her own. “Cats find their own way into Dumpsters and raccoons find their own way into Dumpsters,” he said, but there was nothing around the trash bin for the dog to have climbed and the bin was too tall for a jump by such a weakened and critically ill dog.

Caldwell called the dog a victim and symbol of “the throw-away society,” dumped like an inanimate object when the convenient usefulness expired.

He theorizes the owner let simple medical problems grow worse over an extended time -- then dumped her for a slow and painful death instead of taking her to a veterinarian for care. It is the plight, he said, of too many pets whose owners are ignorant of their needs and the responsibilities of ownership -- legal or moral.

Since the dog’s rescue, her care has included treatment for severe flea infestation, antibiotics for eye and ear infections, treatment for severe tape worms and medicated bathing to ease her skin. Experts could not determine if she went blind from the infection that had sealed her eyes. Skin scrapings are being sent for testing in culture for mange, a rare and severe disease of mammals that is caused by parasites.

The dog’s plight prompted more than 90 people to call the shelter, checking on the dog’s condition, offering help or asking about the idea of adoption.

The SPCA welcomes contributions toward her care, said Caldwell, who refers to her by her shelter ID as “123 Blue.”

And adoption is the SPCA’s goal, Caldwell said, but the priority now is her continuing care and recovery. When fully recovered, she could be placed with a loving family or, perhaps, she could get an earlier shot at joining an adoptive family that is able and willing to keep nursing her back to health, he said.

But what Caldwell, in charge of the SPCA’s animal abuse investigation, wants most is a lead on her owner -- whom he plans to charge with cruel neglect and failure to provide veterinary care, punishable by fines, possible prison time and restrictions on animal ownership.

Contact robin brown at 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com.

Authorities ask anyone who recognizes this dog to call the Delaware SPCA at 998-2281.
HOW TO HELP Tax-deductible donations to help the rescued dog -- marked “For 123 Blue” -- may be sent to the Delaware SPCA, Stanton Box 6067, Wilmington, DE 19804.





9.14.2006

Gotta love a 2 year old spam scam

From: richmond_opinga@zipmail.com.br Mailed-By: zipmail.com.br
To: undisclosed-recipients
Date: Sep 13, 2006 10:53 AM
Subject: HELP SUPPLY THIS ANIMAL MEDICINE
(what animal? I read the entire email and was so upset that I didn't see any mention of the animal in need of medicine....poor animal, I hope it is ok).


Mr.Richmond opinga
Abidjan - Cote D'Ivoire,
West Africa.

Dear Friend,

I am writing to ask for your kind assistance to enable me execute a very lucrative and high profiting supply business with you.It is with great pleasure to share this business opportunity with you. It's Risk free, No Obligation (of course).

I am very confident with trust and understanding,we will execute this business to our mutual benefit and believe that you will not let down the trust and confidence I am willing to repose in you.

I work for an Agricultural Firm as the Corporate Affairs Manager.Between the 17th-19th of May, 2004 a seminar was held in Bouake,Cote d'ivoire of which I attended. While in the Seminar, I was opportuned to meet the President of Oriental Farms,Alhaji Usman Umarh.

Alhaji Usman Umarh is an accomplished and widely known millionaire farmer in this part of the region. He has farms in different countries of West Africa. But above all, he is one of the greatest supplier of cattles,beef and other diary products in this part of the West Coast. On knowing my profession, He took me into confidence by informing me about the purchase of a particular but very rare medicine for his cattles

He informed me that he buys this product at $5,000.00 USD per carton, and that he mostly buys to the excess of 850 cartons. He also informed me that he was only asking me to find out if my organisation could source for him a cheaper supplier considering the recent trend of falls in the general price of beef in the world market which is affecting his business (Oh no)!

Back in my office, I discussed this proposal with my boss and he decided to handle the supply by himself (next thing ya know you'll have the corner office). We carried out a market research and discovered that we could purchase these medicine somewhere cheaper in Europe for $2,000.00 USD per carton.

We moved proposal to Oriental Farms to make the supply to them at $4,800.00 USD per carton of which he accepted.Owing to my role in the transaction, I had an agreement with my Boss to be receiving 15% of whatever gain is made on each supply of which he agreed.But on the completion of the supply and the receipt of the payment, my boss renegade on our agreement and refused to give me my share of the profit (bastard).

Since then our relationship has been at its low ebb. I have since accepted it as one of life experiences.However as God may have it, I intercepted a recent letter of request from Alhaji Usman Umarh asking my boss to supply him with 1250 cartons of the same product as soon as possible (this enhances my trust and confidence in you, and our future mutually beneficial business venture).

I seized the letter and personally contacted him and informed them that I can introduce them to the producer who is ready to supply them the product at $4,400.00 USD if he will pay in advance as he usually does. He was very pleased and is right now waiting to be contacted by my partner.

We will buy the medicine at $2,000.00 USD from Europe and sell at$4,400.00 USD to Oriental Farms with him first paying 50% of our quoted price as mobilisation.I will be entitled to 30% of whatever profit we make after the deduction of all expenses.

If you are interested and capable of handling this supply with me, kindly get back to me urgently so that I can furnish you with more details and the contacts of the manufacturing company in Europe and that of Oriental Farms.

Kindly be notified that at no point in time should you let Oriental Farms to know that you are not the producer of the medicine and we should never allow them to know the contact of our real source in Europe so that they would'nt boycott us to deal directly with them (lips are sealed).

Thanks for your co-operation.Yours sincerely,
Mr.Richmond opinga
richmond_opinga@hotmail.com

Third PA dog gets reunited with owner

(click above to view video)
Ragnar was one of many dogs that ended up at Mollys Country Kennels in Landsdale, PA. Because of the excellent job done by UAN/EARS (at their staging area in Monroe, LA) who posted all the dogs on Petfinder with good clear photos as well as all the ID that came on the dogs, volunteer Nancy Gaffney from NJ was able to match Earle's lost Petfinder record with the Found Petfinder record posted by UAN. Only problem was that by the time Nancy found Ragnar, at the end of December, the record had already been Inactivated by Mollys.

So she contacted Earle and instructed him to contact Mollys immediately to let them know that they had his dog and he wanted him back.


Mollys reply was the same rude, dismissive and completely uncaring reply they have given to others who contacted them about their dogs. He was told that his dog had been adopted and he missed the deadline. Actually he didn't miss the deadline, but contacted them the day before their stated deadline. None of that would have mattered, since they gave away ("adopted") his dog to someone in October!!
Too bad, sorry, get over it was the basic message.

It was also the basic message Nancy and I got talking to Bob Payne and others at Mollys and the ABKA headquarters (the organization that sponsored the flight from Monroe to PA) in January.

Ain't it convenient that Bob Payne who owns Mollys also happens to be the President of the ABKA?? Or at least was the President last fall when all this was going on.

So then Earle sent a letter to Mollys and asked them to please forward the letter to the people who had adopted his dog. Again, according to Mollys own statement on Ragnar's Petfinder record, all adoptions would be final on January 1, 2006 and Earle made contact on December 31.

In August, weeks after the lawsuit was filed in Montgomery County (PA) Court, and in spite of Bob Payne's refusal to return Ragnar to Earle, Ragnar's adopted PA family found out about all this, and were shocked and upset to learn that the dog's real owner had been searching for him and wanted him back.

Bob Payne never did give the letter to them. Yea, that's a shock.

So Ragnar's new family called Earle and talked. They compared stories. They emailed Earle photos of Ragnar taken with their other dog and in the snow last winter.


Soon thereafter I talked to the adopters, and as Earle had said, they are wonderful people. They said that they are very attached to Ragnar and love him but would of course give him back to Earle because
it was the right thing to do. And because there is mutual respect and trust all between between the people who love Ragnar, they will continue to foster him until Earle is out of his FEMA trailer and back in his house.

So of course Earle couldn't wait to see was Ragnar and it was decided that he would fly up for Labor Day weekend.

Kitty and I picked him up from the airport on Saturday afternoon and after getting something to eat, had a very emotional reunion with Ragnar and his "PA family". At one point we were all crying (all except Ragnar). He is a sweet sweet dog, and quite beautiful too. Earle was invited to spend the night at their house (actually they insisted) and on Sunday we all met up in a park which is where the media was invited.

That turned out to be a really good plan since Ragnar was a bit overwhelmed during the "real" reunion" with not only both of his families there, but also Kitty and me...everyone fussing over him.


And to make this all extra special, Nancy Gaffney drove down from NJ on Sunday to surprise Earle. Kitty, Nancy and I finally met Earle and Ragnar, and visa-versa, and we all got to meet Ragnar's wonderful PA family.
It was all good. It was the way it should all be.

9.13.2006

Your help is needed

There are still many cats roaming in the greater New Orleans area from Katrina, as well as the kitties and grand-kitties of those cats. Efforts are being made to trap them and depending on whether they are feral or not, spay/neuter & release or put up for adoption. The volunteers who have been feeding those cats (maintaining set food & water stations) are totally burnt out and fried. There are only a few left to cover most all of Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes. They can't continue at this pace. New volunteers are desperately needed.

Here's a suggestion: if you are a Katrina evacuee who is still searching for your lost/missing cat and are back in the area, please consider volunteering some of your time.
Your cat may still be out there. Or maybe you got your cat back thanks to the efforts of other volunteers. Think of it like Pay it Forward - for all those months that you were in crisis and without internet access, volunteers left behind their jobs, families and their own pets to come to New Orleans to help rescue your pets. Then more volunteers all over the country as well as in Canada, Belgium and Australia spent tens of thousands of hours online searching for rescued pets and doing what we/they could do to facilitate reunions.

But now we need the people from and in the New Orleans area to step up to the plate and help. Feeders are needed in Lakeview, the 9th Ward , New Orleans East, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish. Whether you can volunteer occassionally or on a regular schedule, please give what you can.

Pay it forward. Pay it backward, either way,

please contact ARNO now. Thank you!

9.11.2006

Outrage in PA

(the update with photos has been posted here)

This is the letter from Tammy Grimes of Dogs Deserve Better.
She is absolutely one of the good guys. Please read this and watch the video.

From: tammy@dogsdeservebetter.org
Sent: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 8:59 PM
Subject: [dogsdeservebetterreps] Grimes Jailed for Rescuing Dying Chained Dog

OK, everyone, if you're getting this e-mail it means the police followed through on their threat to put me in jail for taking Doogie today.


Here is the background info:

We got a call from Kim in East Freedom this morning, crying because Doogie hadn't gotten up since Saturday. She had been calling the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society since Saturday to no avail. We told her we aren't law officers, and she needed to call the humane officer. Then we got another call about the same dog, from another person who passes him every day. At that point we called Kim back to see if she'd heard from the Humane Officer. She had not, so we promised her we'd go out and see what we could do. When we got there, we took photos and video of Doogie. We initially thought he was dead, as he was not moving and his back was to us. We found out that the people were not home to talk to about him, so I made the decision that he could not lay there on the cold wet ground for one moment longer, and I would accept all consequences of my decision.

The neighbor has agreed to testify on my behalf if necessary. She cried the whole time we were there, you can hear her on the video.

I think once you see the video and pictures, you'll understand why I made this decision.

The vet documented his general negligent condition, low weight, sores, missing fur, and took x-rays of his back and hips. He determined that he has very bad back spurs that are causing him a lot of pain and are most likely responsible for his inability to walk. He also saw an undetermined mass near his hip on the x-ray. He gave him a shot for pain plus some B vitamins for energy, so that perhaps he could have even one good day or a few good hours. He wrote a letter stating his condition in case we needed it.

Shortly after we got Doogie to my home, situated, bathed (had to, the stench was too bad), and fed and watered an Officer Flag called from the Freedom Township Police Department (I know, Freedom, isn't that ironic?). He wanted me to return Doogie, which I refused to do.

Here's what I need from you all. View the videos and photos, below. I think you'll agree with me that this is NOT acceptable in ANY kind of humane society, and we cannot allow this kind of animal abuse. We MUST stand up and STOP accepting this to be ok for people to do to their dogs, and STOP jailing those who are trying to help them.

I could never look myself in the eye again, much less sleep tonight, had I left Doogie there dying, shivering in the dirt. I will spend the rest of my life in jail as opposed to handing him over to be abused further by these people.

Please, contact ALL media with these photos and videos. Get justice, for Doogie and for me. Do NOT allow this treatment of those who are here to help, and who actually care. Call the Pennsylvania Humane
Society and tell them you expect them to stand with me against this kind of abuse.

Doogie laying on the ground, neighbor crying in background:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN9t1rv4pj4

Doogie after vet at Grimes house:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8wxGP1N7QQ

Officer Flag: Cell 814.201.0149
Freedom Township Police Headquarters: 814.695.8545
Pennsylvania Humane Society: 814.942.5402
Humane Officer Paul Gotshall: 814.942.3780

Altoona Mirror: 800.287.4480; pbanko@altoonamirror.com;
news@altoonamirror.com
WTAJ-TV10: 814.944.1414
WJAC-TV 6: 814.255.7600

All national media! Make sure to send them links to the video, it's very compelling. My best friend, Tracy, has the video and hi-resolution copies of the images for print. She can be reached at tracy@daftgeneration.com

Don't stop until there is Justice for Doogie and ME! I'm just not tolerating this kind of treatment, for either of us. No one should.

Tammy