It’s being called one of the saddest accident scenes Minnesota emergency personnel have ever seen.
When emergency crews arrived to take Bud Kelsey’s body out of his truck after he suffered an apparent heart attack and died behind the wheel last Wednesday, Kelsey’s ten-year old white Shepard Zoey would not let emergency personnel get Kelsey out of the driver’s seat until the victim’s friends stepped in to help.
And even after Kelsey’s body had been taken away, Zoey kept a vigil by the pickup, sitting in the snow.
Kelsey’s daughter, Wendy Holsapple, said her father, who lived in Nevis, Minnesota and turned 78 in December, adopted Zoey when she was around four years old. Holsapple said the two have been constant companions ever since. She also said a friend of Kelsey’s would take the dog home with him.
Is this woman walking her dog in Tehran a future criminal?
The Iranian government considers it a particularly depraved and un-Islamic vice: the keeping of pet dogs.
And if lawmakers in Tehran have their way, dog ownership may soon be considered a criminal act.
The proposed legislation for the first time outlines specific punishments for “the walking and keeping” of “impure and dangerous animals,” a definition that could feasibly include cats but for the time being seems targeted at dogs. The law would see the offending animal confiscated, the leveling of a $100-to-$500 fine on the owner, but leaves the fate of confiscated dogs uncertain. “Considering the several thousand dogs [that are kept] in Tehran alone, the problem arises as to what is going to happen to these animals,” Hooman Malekpour, a veterinarian in Tehran.
In past years, animal-rights activists in Iran have persuasively argued that sporadic campaigns against dog ownership are politically motivated and unlawful, since the prohibition against dogs surfaces in neither the country’s civil laws nor its Islamic criminal codes. Islam, by custom however, does consider dogs najes, or unclean, and for the past century cultural mores kept dog ownership down to minuscule numbers.
That has changed however, in the past 15 years with the rise of an urban middle class eager to mimic the Western culture they see on their satellite TVs where happy children frolic with dogs in parks and affluent families treat them like adorable children. These days, lap dogs rival designer sunglasses as the upper-middle-class Iranian’s accessory of choice.
Yet along with all of Iran’s other serious problems such as joblessness and the perilous state of the country’s economy, dog owners will soon have to ask themselves if keeping their Shih Tzu or Poodle is worth the added worry. Sadly if this proposed bill is passed, it seems their beloved dogs may face the same fate as the hundreds of street dogs that the government regularly sweeps from the streets of Tehran.
“Many in Tehran and other big cities find the killing of street dogs offensive and cruel,” says Omid Memarian, a prominent Iranian journalist specializing in human rights. “It’s like the Iranian people and officials live in two different worlds.”
Man commits crime. Police dog chases and bites man. Man bites back then sues cops for excessive force.
This is the absurd scenario that occurred when 33-year-old Erin Sullivan from Phoenix, Arizona was caught committing a crime last year.
After Zeke, a K-9 police dog chased him down, Sullivan punched the pooch and bit him on his muzzle. The captured thief is now suing the cops, claiming they used excessive force to catch him.??
“When the dog went for Erin’s neck area, Erin felt his life was in danger and hit and bit the dog on its nose,” the lawsuit, filed last month, alleges. The complaint also says Sullivan needed 40 staples to heal the dog bites to his arm and shoulders.
?The cops, however, allege it was Sullivan that injured Zeke.??
“Sullivan punched Zeke in the face then bit Zeke on his muzzle. Zeke then repositioned his bite to Sullivan’s upper left arm. Sullivan pulled Zeke’s face toward his and bit Zeke over his right eye,” according to the report.
??Sullivan, who is currently serving 8 years in prison in connection with the burglary last year, is seeking a total of $450,000 in damages from the cities of Glendale and Phoenix Arizona.??
The convict, who is diabetic, also claims the police in Glendale refused to give him insulin and that he had a seizure while he was held in his cell.
This story makes me feel a little more proud of the human race.
– Kenn Bell
For China, it was a risky act of historical proportions. And it successfully saved hundreds of dogs’ lives.
In a rare show of public activism in China, over 200 internet savvy animal rights activists waylaid a truck and rescued 520 dogs en route to a slaughter house.
Alerted on their microblog networks by a fellow activist who forced the truck to stop, the activists rushed to the Tongzhou section of Beijing-Harbin expressway and blocked the vehicle from moving for over 15 hours.
After seeing the blog, hundreds of animal activists began arriving at the scene with mineral water and food. Some celebrities and foreigners were also rumored to have participated.
Their presence jammed the highway temporarily and forced police to shut down a nearby exit. The “seize” ended after police brought about a compromise where an environmental conservation foundation agreed to buy the dogs for approximately 115,000 yuan (USD 17,606).
The animal activists were almost not successful in their deed however, as police found the truck did have all the necessary paperwork, including animal quarantines and immunizations for the dogs. Plus the fact that the sale of dog meat is legal in China.
After all the commotion died down though, the angry truck driver stated, “I transported dogs as (I would) pigs, cows and sheep. China does not ban the consumption of dog meat.“ He also said the dogs were purchased from breeders and not stolen.
Qin Xiaona, director of the Capital Animal Welfare Association (CAWA), who rushed to the scene, called the move “a brave act,” adding that “society should encourage such moves, despite their risks.”
Zhu Feng, a volunteer and a veterinarian who works in an animal hospital and saw the dogs, said that most of the dogs were in serious condition.
And despite the continuing demand for dog meat, it seems more and more Chinese are increasingly turning to pet care with dogs emerging as favorites.
His road to recovery has just gotten even smoother.
Patrick, the dog from Newark, New Jersey who was rescued after being starved nearly to death and thrown down a trash chute, recently had a mass of hair, that was petrified like a rock, removed from his stomach via an endoscopic procedure.
The lucky pooch, named after St. Patrick, was also neutered and received a full dental cleaning.
Patrick has also gained some much needed weight, now weighing in at 36 pounds compared to being a mere 20 pounds when discovered.
