May 22, 2009 : From trainer Ann Allums' journal:
Denzel arrived at Best Friends very sick. I still remember his pale gums and lethargic behavior. After months of testing and treating, Denzel was diagnosed with babesia. All of the caregivers, trainers, and veterinarians have since learned a lot about the disease, what kind of vets have they hired? but at the time, we had never heard of it. Because Denzel was sick for so long, he spent a lot of time inside with the caregivers and trainers getting loved on (which he enjoyed), and getting poked and prodded by the vet techs and vets (which he endured like a trooper but did not enjoy). he was fantasizing about what he was going to do his neighbors once he was feeling better.
When Denzel was feeling better, his training regimen began. That’s when we discovered how intelligent he was! smart enough to frame another dog for murder apparently He was the only Vicktory dog who arrived already knowing how to sit on cue and walk on leash. He quickly picked up other basic behaviors, like down, wait, stay, and come.
He was so fun to work with that next I taught him how to target objects (i.e. touch them with his nose or paw). I started by having him target one of his toys. Then I introduced other objects, taught him a name for each object, and challenged Denzel to target a particular object among a group of objects. Denzel loved the training process, loved being able to exercise his brain!
Denzel is the first dog that I taught how to wave. Since he is not allowed to interact with volunteers, why not? I figured he could at least charm them by giving them a paw wave! We caught his wave on video and used it as an ending of a short movie that we showed at the 2008 No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas!
Denzel is always willing to try something new, like riding on a skateboard (our next goal!). or chewing through kennels. Several other caregivers interact with and work with Denzel on training. I hear he recently learned how to turn off a light switch, so his abilities never cease to wow us!
He is close to earning his Canine Good Citizen certification, (oh yay, another kid tested, mother approved, vetted fighting dog) if we can just get him to learn that he can’t say hi to every person he sees! While Denzel cannot live with other dogs, he has learned to exercise basic manners around other dogs. Yet he still loves to run the fence with other dogs. That is why he spends several hours a day sleeping on the doggy bed in the kitchen area, just so he can rest. This is an exciting place for many dogs.
We found out that Denzel practically inhales his food, so to slow down his feeding time, we scatter his food all over the floor so that he has to eat one kibble at a time! Or we feed him in a Kong or Buster Cube! Denzel loves working for his food!
I think Denzel will do great in a single-dog home where he can sleep on the couch for a few hours, go on long walks, and snuggle with his people! how about a single dog neighborhood?
For those who have supposed that incidents with Best Friends adopted dogs have been hidden, looks like you are right. The No Kill method of "jam them anywhere and then tell the donors they are in great homes" trick is in full use at Best Friends, as well as releasing dogs they know are dangerous to attack other people's pets. (And of course putting the adopted dog in an abusive situation)
ReplyDeleteBF seems to be in the business of shipping out pit bulls to repeat what Ledy VanKavage's pit bull did- kill other pets.
They are giving pit bulls to people who can't possibly handle them. Of course what may also have happened is the adoptive family was lied to about this vicious dog, and bullied into keeping him because Best Friends had made a media event about the adoption, falsely claiming it was a success.
"Here is something that I don’t think many people know about:
A couple of months ago, a pitbull named BoBo, a Best Friends dog, was adopted out to a local Kanab family. There was a BIG network story about how wonderful the family was, and how happy BoBo was, etc. etc. (Many pictures on the network story showing kids cuddling BoBo.) Well..turns out this family wasn’t as wonderful as BF made it out to be. BoBo was chained up most of the time in the backyard. Occasionally, he was left off his chain. Those times he ran away from home, and attacked some neighborhood dogs. One of the owners of these dogs called animal control and Bobo was taken back to BF. This poor dog Bobo, who used to be a very popular sleepover dog at BF, is now NOT allowed to go on any sleepovers or outings in Kane County, by order of Kane County Sheriff. Here is the really weird part: BEST FRIENDS NEVER DID A HOME CHECK ON THIS DOG. He did not have a fenced yard. He was chained up most of the time. Neighbors called BF and complained, but BF did nothing…until BoBo escaped one time too many and attacked one dog too many. By the way, one of the owners of the attacked dogs wrote a letter to the editor in the local newspaper. She said she called John Garcia (Dogtown Manager) and asked him if BoBo had a home check, and John said no, and that he didn’t understand why a home check was not done. Huh?
So..once again, we have BF doing a major network story in the hopes of raising funds (which they did) and the result is…well, I leave you to realize the results."
Photo of imbecile with ponytail coming out of top of head playing tug with Tug is very telling
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the last things you do with a pit bull, as it reinforces the kill behavior, and also hypes up the dog into blood-spattering, kill everything overdrive
This Canine Good Citizen thing is a complete sham.
ReplyDeleteFraud after fraud perpetuated to try to give some kind of credibility to vicious dogs.
You know me. I’ve been hunting for an opportunity to exploit a humorous angle somewhere in this Best Friends/Dogtown story. It’s how I cope with nonsensical crap that would otherwise make me grind my teeth.
ReplyDeleteI’ve got nothing.
I’m too sickened – not just by the event, but by the disgraceful, self serving, cult like lunacy and lies that facilitate and perpetuate murder by pit. Every time the truth beats them over the head, they reinterpret the facts to fit the fantasy. As fun as it was, forget the Gilligan’s Island analogy. This is Helter Skelter stuff. This is Manson and followers. This is a murdering cult.
Yuck. Too creepy!
Don’t take thoughts of murder and beheading by pits in Dog-slaughter-town to bed with you. Have a laugh before you leave the screen – clear your head as best you can.
I found a parody that should lighten your load, particularly if you’re a dog person. For obvious reasons, I liked this line best: “Ricky, a 10-year-old from the BULLY GROUP, reportedly bit a judge while having his teeth inspected” http://www.theonion.com/articles/8yearold-asian-mix-wins-westminster-boy-show,18235/?utm_souce=popbox
I created a poll asking people if they think Tug should be euthanize for his fighting. Glad to see people are agreeing on the Yes option!
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me, it seems as though I have to go through extremes to make a point clear when it comes to pitbulls and their nature:
http://pitbullmuckracker.blogspot.com/2010/10/crock-man.html
Hopefully this anecdotal tale of a man and his croc will open some pepole's eyes to the "absolutist" applications of Petey the Pup and Stubby.
"As fun as it was, forget the Gilligan’s Island analogy. This is Helter Skelter stuff"
ReplyDeleteI am so with you on this dude.
And these are EDUCATED PEOPLE doing this. Ledy VanKavage supposedly went to college. What the hell happened?
And the LIES these people tell are endless. To protect FIGHTING DOGS that kill innocent pets? To help PIT BULL BREEDERS breed more pit bulls?
They are basically telling us that Best Friends wants to see all our pets slaughtered by pit bulls, No, they are doing it! They are sending pit bulls out to kill our pets, directly.
And isn't that John Garcia, manager of Dogtown who is sending out vicious pit bulls to attack multiple people's pets and DOESN'T CARE, the one with the game dog id on the Best Friends website, scratch something?
I would love to hear what Michael Mountain, the founder who was the CEO or president or whatever until they threw him out, has to say about the current management at Best Friends?
ReplyDeleteHe has some sort of charity of his own now.
I wonder if he'd agree to an interview craven?
One problem. I think he is getting cash out of Best Friends still, personally. So these Vick dogs are paying for his retirement.
This is the problem. These vicious dogs are providing cash for a lot of people and paying a lot of personal bills. The management and founders all have a personal financial incentive to lie.
But I can't understand why even any pit nutter would give them any donation? They aren't even taking care of the pit bulls! Are these pit nutters that stupid, to send Best Friends money so these nuts can cash the checks and get their homes, cars and everything else paid for? Best Friends employees even do maintenance on managers and founders free homes. That's donation money paying for that. It isn't going to the pit bulls.
Yes, I guess the pit nutters ARE stupid enough to send Best Friends money.
Let me get this straight. The same individuals who evaluated Denzel and declared him "highly adoptable", (to the extent that only $5000 was alloted for HIS care, instead of almost 19K like the other sanctuary dogs) despite the fact that he was so highly dog aggressive he chewed his way out of a chain link kennel to kill another dog....these are the same folks who have declared Johnny Justice safe to have around little kids at the library program?
ReplyDeleteSo they allowed a dog aggressive pit bull to play aggressive tug of war biting games, and become overstimulated by fence fighting with other dogs? And these are supposedly the dog "experts"?
ReplyDeleteThese dogs are chewing their way out of chain link fencing...their is NO residential neighborhood on earth where they can be considered safe pets. This is just nuts. I am a life long animal lover, I can't imagine what I would do if someone moved next door with one of these dogs, since normal fencing doesn't contain them.
If he was highly adoptable, what's he STILL doing at the sanctuary??? That dog will NEVER be adopted, and they knew it, they just also know they can say crazy things and nutters everywhere will not only believe it but throw money their way for saying so.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know who did the evaluations for the Vick dogs before they were shunted off to the various profit-hungry scammers who took them?
ReplyDeleteAnother individual that created this mess and danger, as well as this abuse and mistreatment of the Vick dogs themselves- Rebecca Huss of Valparaiso University, alleged "animal law lawyer," who started the ball of lies rolling on these vicious dogs to get them out to kill and hurt, and to get hurt and killed themselves, and to dupe the court into extorting money from Vick so places like Best Friends and "experts" such as herself could profit.
HUSS CASHED IN PERSONALLY ON VICK MONEY! and finagled this into a pretended pose as "expert" on getting vicious fighting dogs released to endanger and kill so she could try to personally profit some more. She still is using the Vick dogs to promote herself and cash in, and try and extort money from fighters' estates.
She tried to get money out of the BadNewz kennels thing too. I don't know if she was successful or not.
SHE IS FACULTY AT VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY. Can you imagine having someone connected to helping fighting dogs kill on your staff? Who is connected even to getting these fighting dogs abused themselves so that some people can make money off them?
She is another parasite making money off the pit bull breeding and fighting racket. The breeders and fighters have her seeing dollar signs for when they get busted. She'll try to take everything they have for herself and her cronies! That's how stupid these breeders are for hooking up with someone like this. They get hurt, the public gets hurt, other animals get hurt, the pit bulls get hurt- Huss and friends like Best Friends cash their checks.
Anything for money. Of course her big problem is that most of these fighting dog busts have no money in them because the fighters and breeders hide the money, or the states are wise enough to keep the con artists away, so Rebecca isn't getting what she hoped she would.
http://news.richmond.edu/features/article/law/178/getting-dirty-creative-to-save-vicks-dogs.html
She was one of the ones directly involved in the Vick money shakedown so she and her friends could profit.
She got paid for all her "work."
Has anyone reported to the judge that Huss and associates have not followed the court's order, that they all are using these dogs to fundraise and promote themselves, that the Vick dogs are abused and some have been killed, that there is killing and injury, and the dogs aren't being kept properly or safely?
"Huss found herself in Virginia, working with animal behavior experts."
ReplyDeleteSo Rebecca Huss is one of the ones who said that Tug was "adoptable."
Beans, one of your killers is a lawyer and university faculty. Who loves the smell of money. Ka ching!
Will Huss be held accountable, as an officer of the court, for lying and claiming that Tug was safe?
from what i can find, pamela reid one was one of the behaviorists that evaluated the vick dogs.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.certifiedanimalbehaviorist.com/bios/preid.html
in this video, huss talks about relying on pit bull EXPERT tim racer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z_CKhNbZKE
Huss should be bounced off her license and off the faculty for this whole shakedown. This Best Friends incident proved that she simply lied. These are dangerous fighting dogs.
ReplyDeleteThis whole thing was nothing more than a scam, and calling a failed ex-artist a "pit bull expert" is a lie by a lawyer who stood to profit by the lie, and colluded with others who stood to profit. And the many other lies.