Freddie Mock, 53, of rural Manito is charged with aggravated cruelty, a felony, in Mason County. Mock was arrested for beating a cocker spaniel with a hammer after he was allegedly hired to kill the dog for $25.

This story is enough to turn anyone’s stomach, among other things.

A woman had seen Mock in a wooded area and asked him what he was doing, Oldham said. He told her he was going to the bathroom, then he left in his vehicle. As soon as he pulled away, she could hear the dog wailing, Oldham said. The woman called police.

When they got there, the cocker spaniel was in a lot of pain and was bleeding, with injuries to its head, back, jaw and mouth, Oldham said.

A veterinarian did emergency surgery, but the dog’s injuries were so severe it had to be euthanized the next morning. Oldham said she thinks it was around 4 years old.

A Pets Without Parents volunteer recognized the cocker spaniel because a woman in Manito had approached her about it recently, asking if the group would take it since it had bitten someone.

She was told that because the dog had bitten someone it probably was not adoptable. She was advised to go to a veterinarian and have it euthanized for $30 or $35, Oldham said.

When she confronted the woman who owned the cocker spaniel, she said she had gotten rid of it, Oldham said, but she could not produce a veterinarian’s bill for euthanasia.

“She said, ‘There is no vet. I paid a guy $25 to kill my dog,’” Oldham said.

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It’s great news for the dogs and puppies at Limestone Kennels, the Chester County, PA, puppy mill that was raided last week!! The endless cycle of use, abuse, neglect, breed and overbreed is finally over for them. They will now have a chance at life, the way life is supposed to be; life out of a cage, good food and water, proper medical care and most of all, a loving and caring family.

John Blank, owner of Limestone Kennels, has had his kennel license revoked permanently and has pleaded guilty eight counts of animal cruelty and two violations of the Dog Law. The remaining dogs at the kennel, approximately 75 or so, have all been surrendered to the Pennsylvania SPCA.

Blank will be allowed to own no more than 5 personal dogs while he is on probation for 2 years. As usual I find the sentence far too lenient for the prison sentence that more than 100 dogs in his kennel were subjected to, not to mention the abominable conditions they lived under. I guess we can take consolation in the fact that he will will not be running a kennel again.

“As a result of today’s actions, the dogs from this commercial breeding kennel will be cared for and put up for adoption to homes. This is the best possible outcome for the dogs,” said Wolff. “While the results are positive for these dogs, the case shows the need for better laws to protect all dogs in commercial breeding kennels.”

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Hard times are not only impacting the ability of people to feed their families but also the ability of people to feed their pets. The strain on many food banks is not just food for people but for dogs and cats, as many food banks have taken to offering pet foods. Often these supplies run out long before the line ends and many are left empty handed.

In Fort Worth, TX, one food bank, the Tarrant Area Food Bank, got an unexpected delivery from a business celebrating its opening by making a 9k donation worth of dog food.

Christy Howard owns Three Dog Bakery in Southlake and to celebrate her opening, she and her five English mastiffs, Dutchess, Danica, Daisy, Diesel and Dozer, piled into her SUV, loaded with 3000 packets of dog food and made the donation to Tarrent Area Food Bank.

Christy’s Southlake store and Three Dog Bakery company in Kansas City are splitting the cost of the donation. A Laguna Beach, CA native, Christy has been a dog love since she was a child and has also volunteered at an animal shelter.

Christy and Three Dog Bakery, if they could, I’m sure all the dogs that will be recipients of your good will and kind donation would thank you!!

Kodi, 8 month old Golden Retriever puppy, stolen and forced to fight by neighbors, dead

It’s always heart wrenching when a beloved pet is lost or stolen. You wonder where they are, how they are doing, if they are safe and being care for. For on Paris, TN family, the answers to these questions came four days after their beloved 8 month old Golden Retriever puppy, Kodi, went missing, and the answers were a nightmare!

This is the pitbull that was forced to fight and kill Jennifer Davis' stolen puppy, Kodi. His fate is still undecided.

Jennifer Davis’ puppy, Kodi, went missing on Friday and four days later his body was found behind a neighbor’s home. That’s when Jennifer found out, all too sadly, what happened to her sweet, playful puppy.

Three neighbors stole her dog, tied it to a tree and forced it to fight a pitbull for their own sick fun and thrills. Jennifer was told what happened by the youngest of the three who stole her dog for their brutal sport.

“The subjects actually tied a golden they tied the retriever and pit-bull together. They were kicking and pushing the dog’s heads’ together, in different forms of torture to entice the dogs to fight,” said Sheriff Belew.

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Last week I wrote about the horrific abuse a number of Tulsa, Oklahoma dogs have been suffering at the hands of an unknown piece of human trash and now the reward is up to $5000.

There have been five dogs found with severe burns along their back. Someone set the dogs on fire after pouring a caustic material on them.

Three of the five dogs did not survive the abuse. Two others, a boxer, which has been named Winston, and a pitbull, named Pepe, have both pulled through their terrible injuries and are recovering, Winston is with Tulsa Boxer Rescue and Pepe is is with the Humane Society of Tulsa. Both dogs will be able to be adopted once they are recovered enough.

Police are taking these crimes very seriously!

“We consider this very serious,” Tulsa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Willie Lewis said. “You have heard of a ‘gateway drug.’ We consider this a gateway crime, where people start out abusing animals — which is very serious — but then it goes on to the abuse of human beings, also.”

Investigators think the dogs were abused by the same people. The dogs were found between Pine Street and 66th Street north and Cincinnati to Yale Avenues.

A witness came forward and told investigators that the person responsible for the abuse may have been driving a red 1980s model Ford pickup truck.

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What great news for Cassidy, the German Shepherd, who was born with a deformed leg. But not only is it great news for the dog, this groundbreaking surgery has possible future benefits for people too!

A pioneering North Carolina State University collaboration between a veterinary surgeon and an engineer will give a deserving dog the ability to walk on four legs again.

Cassidy, a male German shepherd mix, was born with a defect in his right hind leg. His owner was referred to NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005 in order to have the defective limb removed. Three years later, Cassidy is back, this time for surgery that will replace the lost leg with an osseointegrated prosthetic limb.

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By now I’m sure many of you have seen the tasteless, to put it mildly, Verizon Wireless commercial depicting vicious chained pitbulls as ‘junk yard’ dogs. Public outcry had been loud and too the point, pull the ad!! Verizon doesn’t seem to be listening.

The commercial shows a young man trying to obtain the phone by climbing a junkyard fence, when he is instantly greeted by two pit bulls. The dogs, with cropped ears and metal choke collars, bark ferociously and lunge at the intruder. They are just a hair’s breadth away from the phone because their heavy metal chains do not quite extend far enough.

The spot has infuriated groups from the Humane Society of the U.S. — which has asked Verizon to pull the ad — to PETA, the ASPCA and dozens of pet-related websites, which have posted petitions and message boards on the web protesting the ad with slogans like “Can They Hear Us Now?” (Adage)

They hear but they’re still not listening! Personally I think they are reveling in the controversy!

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Archaic, barbaric, cruel, inhumane; these are just a few words that can be used to describe this outdated method of euthanization and thankfully, only a few states still use it. Euthanasia, which means ‘good death’ is certainly not accomplished in a gas chamber as extreme animal suffering is well documented.

Less than 1% of shelters actually still use this method, in many states it is even banned. In North Carolina where is occurred, 67 counties have already moved to the more humane method of lethal injection but in at least 30 counties and cities, gas chamber euthanization is still used.

Witnesses have seen animals struggling and wailing for up to ten minutes before death in gas chambers, some biting themselves and each other in panic, beating their heads against the chamber walls, choking and vomiting. Groups of up to 25 animals are gassed together. Inhalant gases are not approved for euthanasia of baby animals, for very old, sick or pregnant animals, since they may not inhale enough gas to die. Yet in North Carolina, they are often gassed together. Some will not die the first time.

And now, an explosion at one North Carolina shelter. This happened on Tuesday at Iredell County Animal Services shelter. There were ten dogs inside at the time and although the AMVA say that the gas chamber should be under supervision at all times, no one in the shelter office even heard the explosion. Guess it was a good thing no one was following the rules at that time.

Officials say that until it is determined that their gas chamber is safe again, they will use lethal injection. It would have been hoped that especially after this horrific incident that they would have decided to forgo this cruel and inhumane method!!

One of the biggest proponents for gas chamber use in NC is a veterinarian himself, Dr. Ralph Houser, DVM. Houser is also a manufacturer of the chambers from hell and a member of the state’s Board of the North Carolina Animal Rabies Control Association. Although the AMVA advocates lethal injection as the most humane method of euthanasia, it’s no surprise that Houser is against it. He doesn’t want anyone taking money out of pocket! It is believed by many that he is single handedly responsible for the reluctance of the state’s Board of Agriculture to ban use of this cruel, medieval device.

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Come see the world through the “Eyes of the Lost”,
Come feel the pain, come pay the cost.
You see them in alleyways, hiding in doors,
They shiver in winter, they’re soaked when it pours.
Some may have once known a better life.
Then abandoned alone to this world of strife.

Their food’s from the dumpsters, or off of the street,
Their throats grow parched in the summer heat.
In their fear and confusion, they quietly cry.
While still others must watch their little ones die.
Coats filled with fleas, mats and tatters.
They soon find out how little things matter.

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Ok, gotta admit it, I am not into NASCAR at all so I really have no clue who Tony Stewart is but what I do know is that this guy is tops in my book anyway! He just donated money for 30 bulletproof/stab-proof vest for police dogs and at $895 each, that’s a helluva donation!! Then he donated money for 10 more vests… WOW!

Stewart, a Columbus, Ind., native, donated the money to provide 30 vests for the Indiana State Police K-9 unit and 10 for police dogs waiting for vests in Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina and Minnesota.

Susie Jean of Socorro, N.M., requested a grant from the Tony Stewart Foundation for vests for the 14 dogs currently in the Indiana State Police unit. Stewart upped the amount to cover more vests upon learning the state police unit was expanding to 30 dogs. The vests cost $895 each, according to information provided by the foundation, meaning 40 vests would total more than $35,000.

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Wallace Havens, former owner of Puppy Haven, one of the largest puppy mills in Wisconsin

As the Wisconsin Humane Society works to remove dogs from one of the largest puppy mills in WI, Puppy Haven in Green Lake County, Wallace Havens, the man who owned Puppy Haven speaks out and defends his practices.

He thinks there’s nothing wrong with having over a thousand dogs crammed into dirty cages and runs, overbred and completely unsocialized.

Mick Trevey: “The Humane Society says this is not the way to raise dogs.”

“Well I disagree with that. I think this is the very best way to raise dogs,” Havens said.

Trevey talked to Havens about federal inspection reports of his property, showing things like frigid winter temperatures where dogs are kept and a dog tangled up on wire.

“Anytime there is a loose wire, that’s wire protruding and they’ll write it up,” Havens said.

Trevey: “But this they say a dog was tangled in it.”

“OK, once in a while, there’s a dog, I’m sure once in a while there’s a dog gets tangled in the wire. That happens,” Havens said.

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Those in animal rescue are on the front lines of advocacy work. They usually toil tirelessly, saving animals that all too often languish, unloved and uncared about. They give their everything, their love, their hearts, their time, their homes, their finances. They hope and dream about a better day when there are no more furry bodies that need to be calmed and fed and cuddled but people look at dogs and cats as less than nothing, to be used, abused and neglected, tossed away like garbage when they have no more use for them.

They don’t think twice about staying up all nite nursing a sick puppy, cuddling a shaking scared dog, driving a hundred miles to pull death row dogs from a shelter, making trips back and forth to the vet, begging and pleading for donations to buy dog food.

Whether you are a rescue, a volunteer, a loving and caring shelter working, or any or the many support people who work for little to no pay but for the love of a faceful of wet puppy kisses and grateful tail wags, this is a tribute to you. It is your love and dedication that saves thousands of lives that would otherwise have fallen to the wayside.

Though your tears fall and your heart breaks,
Your body hurts and your back aches,
Your pockets are empty and your home is full,
You continue.

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