(October 2017) Washington: Politician going door-to-door to meet constituents is attacked by Pit Bull

WASHINGTON -- Jinyoung Lee Englund posted on Facebook October 1, 2017 ·

Had a minor hiccup doorbelling today -- got bit by a pit bull and had to go to the ER.

It was incredibly frightening and I would like to thank Bruce, someone I had just met, for giving me a ride to the ER, the team at EvergreenHealth and Scott, a member of my team, for their help in making sure I'm ok.

My sister-in-law came to pick me up since Geoff isn't here and I'm heading home to start it all over again tomorrow. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers against infection. I'll always keep working hard for you!

Illinois: Psychotic Waukegan alderman Larry TenPas used tire iron to beat sick raccoon to death, insists it was "humane"

ILLINOIS -- A Waukegan resident waiting for an animal control officer to pick up a sick raccoon says she was horrified instead to observe Ald. Larry TenPas beat the animal to death with a tire iron.

The resident, Carol Alleman, called police to report the incident last month and said she remains unhappy that officials decided against pursuing charges against the 6th Ward alderman, who had disposed of the dead raccoon before authorities arrived.

A neighbor, Charles Rush, complained to the City Council on Monday that TenPas was not cited with violating any wildlife or animal abuse law.

"I'm sorry to report that our alderman ... was not licensed to take that upon himself to act in this way," Rush said.

Waukegan Police Cmdr. Joseph Florip confirmed that TenPas does not hold the required state permit to handle wildlife.

"We take animals in this community very seriously," Florip said. "The use of force is always an unpleasant experience."

Alleman called the city's Animal Control department at about 9:20 a.m. Nov. 14 to report that a raccoon appeared disoriented on property along Douglas Court, behind her house, according to the police report. An animal control officer told her that she could not come immediately but would arrive later that morning, Alleman said.

Alleman had planned to watch the animal until the officer arrived and ran inside to change clothes. As she prepared to head back outside, she said, she observed a man from her window who she identified minutes later as TenPas "whaling" on the raccoon.

"I saw him hit it 12 times at least," said Alleman, who remained inside her home while on the phone with police. "The raccoon was suffering. It was trying to get away from him and it wasn't able to. … I was sickened."

She said that she saw TenPas attempt to put the raccoon in a box, but "it was still twitching" so he beat it a few more times.

TenPas, 81, said he took matters into his own hands after receiving a call from another resident.

TenPas, who has been an alderman for more than 40 years, said he believed the raccoon was showing signs of rabies or distemper by its erratic behavior and "I was concerned about the safety of kids in the neighborhood."

"I thought, I can take care of it. I take care of many problems in my ward," he said. "Thinking about it, I could have done it a little differently."

TenPas said the raccoon died quickly, disputing Alleman's description of events.

"One blow. One did it, dear," he initially said. Later, he stated that he hit the animal "maybe two or three times." He put the raccoon in a box and disposed of it, he said.

According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, raccoons do not generally pose a threat to humans but can be carriers of rabies, which is fatal if not treated quickly. Raccoons, usually nocturnal, also show abnormal behavior when infected with distemper, which can infect domestic cats and dogs.

The department advises on its website that "members of the general public should not handle wildlife. Wild animals can inflict serious injury, and they can be carriers of disease and parasites that are transmittable to humans and domestic animals."

Bob Bluett, wildlife biologist with the state DNR, said getting rid of nuisance wildlife requires a permit.

"We certainly recognize that wildlife can be a problem," he said. "Under these particular circumstances, a person (with a permit) could take a raccoon out of season, although a tire iron is not a recommended method of euthanasia, but could be allowable under the circumstances."

Spotting a raccoon out in the daytime is unusual, but "the last case we had of a raccoon with rabies was 20 to 30 years ago," Bluett said.

More likely, distemper could have caused the raccoon to behave abnormally, experts said. A raccoon with distemper typically is not aggressive, Bluett said.

Distemper would eventually kill the animal, Bluett said. It's not transferable to humans and most pets are inoculated against it. The virus can be transmitted through direct contact with infected animals or their body fluids or feces, according to the agency.

TenPas used a garden hose to clean the raccoon's blood off the sidewalk, Alleman told police. The animal control officer, who arrived at about 10:45 a.m. that day, stated in a police report obtained by Alleman: "I was able to observe several bloody pieces of the raccoon scattered on the sidewalk."

TenPas said he holds the authority to dispose of a sick animal.

"As an alderman, I do have police powers," TenPas said. "It's not like a citizen doing it, but when somebody calls me, I come. I take care of problems. Why do you think I've been alderman for 40 years?"

Mayor Wayne Motley said aldermen are not authorized to take care of nuisance animals.

But Motley added that TenPas told him he felt it was an emergency. Motley said he would not have a problem if a regular citizen did the same thing.

Alleman said that she is afraid of TenPas and believes that he has tried to intimidate her for filing the police report. She said that the day of the incident, he drove slowly by her home and stared at her as she sat on her porch.

TenPas said he had not been aware that anyone saw him kill the raccoon and felt bad about it later, after hearing from police.

"I wanted to go up to the door and apologize," he said. "Then I thought, I might scare her again. I don't intimidate people."

(Chicago Tribune - ‎Dec 10, 2015‎)

Connecticut: One day Shea Cavacini's Pit Bull decided to eat her arm. She refuses to think it had something to do with the breed and insists its previous owner must have "trained him" to suddenly attack people, including its owner.

CONNECTICUT -- Mending at home a week after being badly bitten by a pit bull she was fostering in her home, the town's assistant animal control officer remains distraught over signing the order to put the animal to death.

“I loved that dog,” Shea Cavacini said. “I’m going to blame myself forever. I ordered the euthanasia myself.”

The attack the night of June 11 came without warning.

“He made a negative move toward my younger son,” Cavacini said.

The next thing she remembers was Otto jumping up and clamping his powerful jaw on her forearm.

Cavacini's husband, Harry Illingsworth, said Otto would not stop. 

Cavacini asked her husband to get some peanut butter, a favorite of Otto's, but it didn't lure him into releasing his grip. 

Illingsworth finally reached into Otto's mouth and down his throat to cut off his air.

"It was very chaotic," Illingsworth said, who suffered bites to his finger and thigh.

Cavacini was flown by Life Star emergency medical helicopter to Hartford Hospital that night and had successful surgery there Tuesday.

Her husband was attacked and bitten on his thigh by Otto.

On Friday at home, both of Cavacini’s forearms were wrapped with bandages. She was unable to move her left one.

“She will eventually have her arms functional,” Illingsworth said. “She eventually will fully recover. The surgeon we had up in Hartford was unbelievable.”

Cavacini praised the people who responded to her home that night, including her colleagues at Northeastern Connecticut Council of Governments animal control center, one of whom was at the movies at Lisbon Landing when she responded to a call from Cavacini’s son.

In addition to her post in Griswold, Cavacini works at NECCOG part-time as an animal control officer.

She also praised two state troopers who arrived and applied tourniquets to stop the bleeding from her mangled arms.

“If they hadn’t applied the tourniquets, I might not have my arm,” she said.

APOLOGIST

Cavacini said something triggered Otto to attack that night, but neither she nor her husband know what it was. She doesn’t blame his breed, which has a well-earned reputation for being dangerous.

Pit bulls account for a majority of fatal and serious dog bites nationwide, according to a study by dogsbite.org.

“This is not a breed-specific thing,” Cavacini said. Rather, she said, it was the way his previous owner raised and trained him.

Cavacini, hired last year, came across Otto in January. She guessed him to be younger than a year old while roaming the streets, weak and emaciated.

She knows NOTHING of what its owner did or not do to this dog. They found the dog running around loose on the streets when it was just six months old. If it had been "trained" to be vicious, as this woman claims, it would have been trying to attack everyone from Day One.

The decision was made to put Otto in a foster home rather than in Griswold’s kennel for his health and safety.

“I said I would foster him here,” she said. “Otto was not my personal dog.”

Cavacini and her family, who have five dogs of their own, formed a bond with Otto, Illingsworth said.

“We took this dog in our house. We loved this dog,” he said. “No one was abusing him in this house.”

Otto was thriving, Cavacini said. In fact, she was making plans to put him out for adoption.

Cavacini said she is still recovering mentally as well as physically after the attack.

“Am I a little fearful? Yes, but it’s my job,” she said, admitting she won't foster other dogs now. “Never. Too heartbreaking.”

'Awesome family dog'

Norwich resident Chris McEwan owns a 13-year-old female pit bull named Brittany. An affectionate and gentle dog, McEwan said Brittany has been trained to help him cope with his sleep apnea.

“She wakes me up when I stop breathing,” he said. McEwan also has a heart condition and bilateral lymphedema, requiring him to avoid sitting too long.

“She knows when I’ve been too stagnant for too long,” said McEwan, who has owned several pit bulls. “They’re an awesome family dog. They just want love."

Like other pit bull advocates, McEwan believes pit bulls behave depending on how they were raised.

“If put in the wrong hands, anything can be deadly,” he said.

RAY CONNORS, APOLOGIST 

Ray Connors, who supervises the Animal Control Division of the state Department of Agriculture, agrees with McEwan's assessment. His division oversees and licenses all kennels, pet stores and other animal facilities in the state, investigates large animal cruelty cases and assists local animal control officers.

“You have potential bites and injuries from all sorts of dogs,” Connors said. “It’s not the breed, per se. It’s how the animal was trained and raised."

STATE REP. DIANE URBAN, APOLOGIST

State Rep. Diane Urban, D-North Stonington, was the sponsor of a bill that bans towns from discriminating against specific dog breeds, by passing rules such as Providence’s requiring pit bull owners to buy at least $25,000 in liability insurance. The bill became a law in 2013 with almost no votes in opposition.

This legislative session, Urban sponsored a measure that would stop insurance companies from charging homeowners higher rates based on the breed of dog they own. The bill passed the House but failed to come to a vote in the Senate before the session ended. Urban plans to bring the bill back at the next session.

Why doesn't Diane explain why she's OK with insurance companies charging higher rates based on the type of car I drive? I'm going to pay a lot more auto insurance for a Cadillac Escalade than a Ford Festiva. That's discrimination!!! We should all have the same insurance rate, per Diane's reasoning, and ONLY the 'bad drivers' should pay more. She's a moron.

Urban said the bill provides safeguards letting insurance companies still charge higher rates when specific pets have been shown to be dangerous.

Urban does not believe all pit bulls are dangerous.

“It’s how they were raised and what they were exposed to,” she said.

(Norwich Bulletin - June 20, 2015)

United Kingdom: Former Horncastle mayor Pamela Crisp-Beard and her daughter Maria Crisp-Beard deny their 50+ animals were being hoarded in horrific conditions

UNITED KINGDOM -- A former Mayor of Horncastle and her daughter kept animals in such unhygienic and squalid conditions that a vet judged they would likely suffer if they continued to stay there, a court heard.

Pamela Crisp-Beard and her daughter Maria Crisp-Beard appeared at Skegness Magistrates Court as a trial continued into six offences all relating to animal welfare. They deny all the allegations.

  

Pamela Crisp-Beard was Mayor of Horncastle between May 1997 and May 1998 and was a town councillor until 2011.

The charges relate to over 50 animals including 15 rabbits, a golden pheasant, two guinea pigs, five mice, two rats, a cat, two dogs, four ducks, a goose and 22 chickens.

The court heard that conditions at the Linden Road two-story house were so bad there was a strong smell of feces and urine.

It was said the house was dark, cold and cluttered with cages and hutches stacked on top of each other. Animal feces was even found on cutlery, the magistrates were told.

It was said many of the animals did not have reasonable access to food, they were living on dirty straw and that where water was provided it was dirty.

RSPCA inspectors first visited the property on January 16 this year where the animals were seen and five animal warning notices were issued.

RSPCA inspector Rebecca Lowe told the court: “It was completely cluttered. There was not much general walking space, there were things about everywhere. The premises was not clean. There was a smell from the front door of ammonia and feces.”

Ms Lowe said cockerels had been placed in cat baskets stacked on top of each other.

She said: “We asked to remove them immediately and take them outside. I saw three cockerels come out of one of the baskets. Cat baskets are not suitable for one cockerel let alone three.”

The RSPCA returned to the property on January 29 but were told to return the next day.

They returned on January 30 accompanied by two police officers.

Ms Lowe said the conditions did not look any different apart from some cat baskets had been removed from the kitchen, some animals had clean straw but piled on dirty straw and the pheasant had been moved from the utility room to a shed.

Annaliese Leslie, who at the time was working for Marshlands Vets in Boston, was called to assess the animals.

Based on her report that the animals would suffer if they continued to stay there, the animals were seized by police.

Prosecuting for the RSPCA, Beris Brickles, asked Miss Leslie on the suitability of conditions for the animals.

Annaliese Leslie, who at the time was working for Marshlands Vets in Boston, was called to assess the animals.

Based on her report that the animals would suffer if they continued to stay there, the animals were seized by police.

Prosecuting for the RSPCA, Beris Brickles, asked Miss Leslie on the suitability of conditions for the animals.

She told the court one shed containing five roaming rabbits was knee-deep in compacted faeces.

She said: “It was very, very deep compacted feces - It was knee deep. The rabbits had created a network of tunnels through this. You had to take a step up to get into the shed. It was about 18 inches deep I would say.”

Speaking about the pheasant she said the bird was extremely dirty which was not natural. She said: “It would need a bath over some time to help get himself clean.”

The court heard the RSPCA inspectors had struggled to identify the bird.

The vet added: “The house was very dark, dirty and there was extreme level of clutter. Surfaces were dirty and there was cutlery with animal faeces.”

The court heard a number of the rabbits were underweight and two had signs of urine scald (urine burn) where their fur was coming out.

Miss Leslie told the court this could have been prevented from being in a clean environment.

The rabbits had since put on weight after being rescued.

She said a cat was found to be greasy and dirty and was stained from urine.

She said: “For him to be exposed to so much dirt and feces to be dyed by it, than that is a long time issue.”

The court also heard a rat was living in a cage smaller than its body length.

Ms Leslie said there was plenty of advice available from vets, the RSPCA and the Defra code of conduct for people to get advice on the best conditions for their pets.

 

In cross examination, Ruth Harrop questioned the access to clean water issue stating that some animals choose to drink outside.

The court heard none of the animals were found to be dehydrated and apart from two rabbits there was no clinical concern found in the other animals.

A parrot was the only animal not seized. Two ferrets had been rehomed by the Crisp-Beards by the time of the RSPCA’s final visit.

The case was adjourned until Tuesday when the defence case will be heard.

Pamela Crisp-Beard also faces two charges of being in charge of a dog which was dangerously out of control in a public place.

(Lincolnshire Echo - Dec 13, 2014)