Basset Hound Rescue Organizations

According to Penny Tilton from the Examiner, an anonymous source revealed to them that Kisha Curtis (who is allegedly accused of starving Patrick the pit bull puppy who was thrown 19 floors down the garbage chute) wants to be placed in the Pretrial Intervention Program (PTI).

An anonymous source has revealed to the Examiner today Kisha Curtis the woman accused of starving the now famous Pit Bull named Patrick has asked to be placed in the Pretrial Intervention Program (PTI).

By entering the program, Ms. Curtis would be able to walk away with a clean record. (I, personally, find that inconsequential as Ms. Curtis already has a criminal record for other crimes, such as forgery and theft.)

There are other benefits, like, supposedly she may be rehabilitated and her behavioral problem corrected. Moreover, many of the costs associated with the formal court processes are eliminated once she is accepted into PTI. PTI reduces the burden on the court and allows resources to be devoted to more serious criminals.

I wonder why Ms. Curtis chose to plead not guilty on May 6, 2011. She had the opportunity to enter the PTI program. More than likely, as she is now reportedly pregnant, staying in jail is not what she is looking forward to. Personally, I think she should be sentenced to 18 months of community service. Her service should be cleaning the kennels of animal shelters, feeding the animals, etc. Maybe then she would start respecting the value of life.

Thursday, April 19, 2012, the numerous fans of Patrick, the pit bull puppy who survived being thrown into a garbage chute from the 19th floor of a 22-floor building. On that day, supposedly, his alleged abuser, Ms. Kisha Curtis (she is charged for having starved him to death) was tohave her day in court.  Unfortunately, the Associate Humane Societies and Popcorn Park Zoo (AHS), the initial place that Patrick was sent once he was found in the garbage chute, is continuously claiming that Patrick is their property.

In the United States, animals are viewed as property. However, enlightened people know that animals are sentient beings. They are capable of love, and they feel pain and other emotions as well. The laws need to be changed. But that will take time. Read the rest of this entry »

Basset hounds are love hounds. They love to eat, laze around, and hog the bed. They are not known for intellectual acuity. But they are wonderful hunters. And in a household where they are surrounded by the comforts that they share with their human family, they are wonderful hunters of leftover food, etc. When adult bassets are bored, they sleep and sleep. However, a young basset hound, having more energy than he or she can handle, they find mischief. Such was the case of George, from West Yorkshire, England.

George was wrestling with the telephone cord and, to his sorrow, the cord was winning. George found himself so entangled in the spiral cord that it started choking him. In his struggle, George managed to dial 999 (which is the British version of the U.S. 911). This was an amazing feat, because the phone was a rotary phone, no less.
Lucky for George, the 999 dispatcher heard heavy, struggled breathing and recognized that there was a living being struggling to take a breath. She thought that there was a person being attacked on the other line and dispatched paramedics to the site.

When the paramedics reached the location, they found it empty. A neighbor who saw the emergency troop there walked over, opened the door to the house and found the struggling basset. The paramedics reported that they saved a terrified pooch. George should be called lucky George.

Source and photo from Pawnation.com

Source:

Grab a box of tissues. This heartwarming story (the end is very uplifting) will definitely make you cry.

The rescuers involved hope that many people will watch this video and then share it, that way, you too, will be able to join this nonstop effort. As rescues like this one cost a lot of money, Eldad Hagar, the head of the Hope for Paws rescue group would be grateful if you could make a small donation. Just visit his website by clicking on this link.

One year ago, a young pit bull puppy was about to make history and perhaps change the animal advocacy world. He was not aware of the impact he was about to make. More than likely, he was not aware of anything. He was a few hours away from dying. A good portion of his young life was spent starving. No one knows his story from birth to his near-death experience. Because of almost dying, this puppy became a famous dog.

Around March 9, 2011 or so, the person he was living with left the state they were living in. So, naturally, she took the starved young pup and tied him to the rails of the staircase of the 19th floor. Later on, when the police questioned her, she said that she thought someone would have fed him. Really? Anyway, the pup, emaciated as he was, more than likely, fainted. Someone found him on the floor, tied to the rail, put him in the garbage bag because the pup looked dead and threw him into the garbage chute, 19 floors down.

Patrick, first moments in emergency care.

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A maintenance man who was clearing the garbage shoot saw some movement within the bag and had the good sense to look inside. He was shocked at the sight of this emaciated dog, hanging on to life by a thread. The local SPCA (NJSPCA) (on FB)was called. They called AHS. The pup was taken to the AHS veterinary services. There he was stabilized. It was decided that if he’s to make it through the night, he will be transferred to a better equipped hospital. And, lo and behold, the puppy made it through. Since it was St. Patrick’s day, he was named Patrick and he was transported to the Garden State Veterinary Specialist (GSVS) in Tinton Falls (on FB). Soon enough, Patrick gained fame. People were appalled at how this pup was treated and were rooting for his well-being.
Read the rest of this entry »

Patrick was once a starved and abused pit bull. When his weakened and starved body gave out, he was put in a garbage bag and thrown down 19 flights to the garbage dump. Lucky for Patrick, the building maintenance person who found him perceived a slight movement inside the garbage bag. He went to investigate and was horrified to see a starved dog that seemed to be lifeless, but for his eyes. It was in this moribund dog’s eyes that the maintenance person saw that there was a bit of life pleading for mercy. So, he called the proper authorities to save him. Patrick was sent to Garden State Veterinary Services (GSVS), a 24-hour veterinary hospital and teaching school equipped in providing the proper care needed to bring this beautiful young pit bull puppy to back to a healthy life. Throughout his hospital stay, Patrick’s expressive eyes captivated the world. The world fell in love with him, and everybody wanted to adopt him.

Under GSVS’s care, Patrick flourished and fell in love. He fell in love with his caretakers and they fell in love with him. The public witnessed the love blossoming. There was no doubt that Patrick and Dr. and Mrs. Scavelli (the owners of GSVS) had found each other. When Patrick was ready to be discharged from the hospital, he went to live with the Scavellis. With the Scavellis, besides gaining his proper weight, Patrick learned to love and trust, not only human beings but another canine companion. At this point, to take Patrick away from the loving home he found is to once again abuse him. It would be abusing his heart, his trust, and his well-being. So, I ask my readers or anyone stumbling at this blog to please sign the petition to let Patrick stay at the home he is loved. Just click on the widget to your right, and you will be directed there.

Patrick and his many fans thank you.

Don’t buy, adopt a pet! You will save a life. And here’a a video that absolutely needs to go viral:

Wake County SPCA – Take a Chance on Me from Crawford Winstead on Vimeo.

A few days ago, I posted these words on my Facebook wall:

It takes a village.

This sentence, once a title of a book written by Hilary R. Clinton, has been used in so many ways by so many people. The sentence can fit anything that takes a group effort. In my case, as I’m heavily involved with animal rescue and animal activism, the words reflect the work that many of my virtual and personal friends have worked so hard to do: to alleviate the suffering of animals.

Raven, a cute little puppy that I never met, was the crux of that sentence. Raven was 1-1/2 years old and was one signature away on the adoption contract from going to her new forever home. Sadly, she started losing feeling in her back legs, prompting Dawn Joslin, her kind-hearted rescuer, to decide to take her to the Penn Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) to be diagnosed and cured. Unfortunately, the cure was never found. Raven was sent to the Rainbow Bridge, which is a euphemism that we, animal lovers, use for death. It took two weeks for poor Raven to go from hopeful recovery to hopeless condition.

During the hopeful moments, I blogged here, and I also posted on my Facebook wall, about Raven’s need for financial backing. There was hope for recovery. All she needed, so we thought, was lots of therapy, tender loving care (TLC), and financial help.

Dawn (would post,

They have (hospital staff) Raven playing on the therapy balls. She’s having a grand time. Her neurologist has 4 students that work with her, and they are in love with Raven. They even put her in the wagon and take her around when they do their rounds.

But as the days progressed, Raven was deteriorating. However, her condition, at the time, was not enough to declare it hopeless. At first, she reacted positively to the therapy. Her back legs seemed to get better. But, soon enough, the legs wouldn’t react anymore. It was speculated that she may have had a stroke on the spinal column. She would need to use a K9-cart the rest of her life.

Dogs do fine in K9-carts. Many, especially those dogs that start using the cart at a young age, are able to run and play like normal dogs. A cart was even in the wings for Raven’s use. However, she was soon enough, not only losing the sensation in her back legs, she was losing sensation in one of her front legs. She would need to be carted around because, in order to use a K9-cart, you need full use of the front legs. It was decided that Raven would need to go to a home that would be able to deal with her disabilities. I had that perfect person in mind.

To keep that person’s privacy intact, I’ll call her A. I spoke with A, and though she was full, she agreed to take Raven into her home. Another friend, I’ll call her B, agreed to transport Raven to A’s house, which is 6 hours away. Happily, I updated my status to say, “It takes a village.” I didn’t want to jinx or even say more until the deed was totally sealed. Unfortunately, Raven deteriorated even further.

Raven went from having one spot on her spine to, within her two weeks stay at the hospital, having loads of spots on her spine. The veterinary staff was beginning to think that Raven had cancer, a rapidly aggressive form of cancer. This Friday (Jan 13), she started to have facial twitches, and the staff was concerned that she may end up having seizures. Raven was no longer able to control her bile and bladder. Her urine had to be expressed. There was no hope. The best gift that could be given for this once vivacious puppy was euthanasia. On Saturday night, she was quietly sent to the Rainbow Bridge.

During Raven’s short lifetime under Dawn’s rescue care, she was loved and spoiled. Dawn made sure of that. Here’s part of the note that Dawn sent me:

[Raven] has no chance of recovering. They are giving her a very poor prognosis now. So, it is a very hard decision we are having to make right now. But we have everyone spoiling her and giving her pretty much anything she wants right now.

Unfortunately, Raven left this world with a $9,000.00 hospital debt. We are asking for donations, in Raven’s memory, however small, to help defray the costs. Dawn is a wonderful rescuer who speaks with her heart. She needs your help now! Let’s help Dawn in her time of need!

And let’s, once again, prove that it takes a village!

It’s sad to see a life slip by, especially when that life is young and vibrant. Raven is just one-year old. She is full of life. Tomorrow, because no one saw into their hearts to possibility of helping her, she will not understand why she is so tired, and we will have to mourn her short life, because she will never wake up.

Raven lost the capability of using her hind legs. She could have been a good candidate for a K-9 cart. But for that she needs a good home that will deal with her handicap. On top of that, she is losing feelings of one of her front legs. That makes her ability to use a cart a bit more difficult. She needs more therapy (which is costly) and she needs a tender loving home. So this blog is now requesting for the final time for someone who could provide a loving home for as long as she needs to be rehabilitated and to have a life. Are you that person? If yes, please contact Dawn Joslin at 609-277-4684.

Click on the photos to see the larger version.

When I started this website, I was living in a small world, the world of basset hounds. We love the breed because the nature of bassets fit so well with our semisedentary lifestyle. Like us, bassets were perfectly willing to be couch potatoes and participate with the few basset hound events (RAMBLE, club meetings, etc.) that we were willing to take them to. Slowly, our world expanded. We found a stray, and she fit in with our lifestyle and she became part us. When our first basset died, we became involved with basset rescue. A new world opened up. We learned that not all bassets were taken from puppyhood to loving homes. Some were given up for some reason and another and others even wound up in shelters. I learned about that not all dogs are loved and many are abused.

When Patrick, a young pit bull from NJ, after being starved to death was thrown down into the garbage pit minutes away from death, made news, my innocence was taken away from me and my website morphed from just concentrating on the plight of basset hounds to the plight of abused dogs.

Today, this website is once again shedding some more of its innocence. Years ago, I believed that the ASPCA was the protector of all animals. But alas, that belief was shattered when I found out that the ASPCA saved a poor cat from being euthanized at the high-kill shelter in NYC known as the Animal Care and Control of NYC (ACC). His name was Benny. Benny was lucky. The ASPCA grabbed him from the abomination that cares to call themselves a shelter committed to caring. Don’t kid yourself, they are not committed to caring (more about that later). Here’s Benny’s kill list (obtained from In Dog We Trust blog, which is a real worthwhile read):

A few days later, after a few test were given to Benny, tests that the incompetents at the ACC failed to give, the ASPCA sent Benny back. Benny was tested Feline Aids Positive. The ASPCA, rather than dealing with the condition (which can be dealt with very successfully) chose to return the animal to be euthanized. Yes, that’s the great ASPCA. If you want to know where your donations go to, they don’t go to saving animals. They go to generous salaries for their CEOS, as well as to tear-producing commercials for TV, commercials that bring in revenue for salaries for CEOS.

Don’t fall for the videos, let’s face reality. Here’s what happened to Benny a few days later:

NYACC, as I said earlier is a high-kill shelter, but that’s not all. It’s a horrible place. Animals are killed by the dozen. Animals can smell death all around them. But that’s not all. The animals at the ACC are abused. In fact, I don’t understand why the ASPCA keeps a blind eye to the abuse happening not far from their headquarters in NYC. At the ACC, animals are killed for no other reason than a treatable cold; some are left with their fecal matter around them (as no one cleans their cages); many are not walked for days; many are left without food and water. Why isn’t the ASPCA outraged about this? Why isn’t PETA reporting ACC? Why? Because these so-called caring societies became money-grabbing corporations. Before you write another check for any of these organizations, stop and think about sending donations to the small rescue groups that work hard by pulling as many animals from the hell hole they are in. Rescue organizations like Empty Cages Collective. They step up and saved Benny. Rescue organizations like Angels on Paws Animal Rescue that saved Raven, the paraplegic 1-year-old puppy.