"Faux Paws" - Shame on You!

January 2004: We have received numerous emails regarding animals being left out in the cold during this extremely cold winter in New England. While it might be common sense to most of us to bring the animals inside or provide them will more than minimal shelter, it isn't so to some people. Shame on those of you who fit this category -- if you wouldn't want to be out in the cold 24 hours a day 7 days a week, why do you think your animals should. Just because you provide a minimal shelter, (none of these shelters are airtight or waterproof) that isn't good enough. Do the humane thing. Bring the dog inside, bring the horses into the barn, provide the rabbits with more than a lean too, give them extra hay, water, food and a dry space to help them keep warm. Note: These kinds of cases frustrate any humane advocate, because we are powerless in taking any legal action. However, should the animal die and it can be attributed to exposure, you CAN be charged with animal cruelty. Do the humane thing!

Shame on you to those people who think they can keep exotic animals (such as lions, tigers, venomous snakes, monkeys, etc.) without thinking for one moment that they can't harm you, a member of your family, or someone else. Further Shame on you to people who believe in dogfighting or cockfighting for sport. You do this purely out of greed. There is nothing humane about what you claim is entertainment. This is against any and all animal cruelty statutes and you will be prosecuted. Do the humane thing!

Listed below are cases that will never go to court for one reason or another.

12/18/03:  Idaho Fish and Game officers put down a deer named Putch on Thanksgiving Day.  The deer had been raised as a fawn by a retired Idaho Department of Fish and Game Officer named Lee Frost.  Mr. Frost did not learn of this until the day after the deer was disposed at the dump.  Mr. Frost had been asked to adopt and raised the deer 2 years prior.  Fish and Game Director Steve Huffaker approved the decision to put down the deer.  Mr. Frost said the deer could've been anesthetized and returned to him for safekeeping, not killed.  He also resents the way he was treated by his former Fish and Game colleagues, some of whom he worked with for 15 years during his 29-years with the department.  He wasn't given a phone call to come get Putch, he was notified a day after Putch was disposed of via email.

Letters to the Editor of the Twin Falls Times-News were written and in all the consensus is that Fish and Game were wrong and used very poor judgment in killing Putch.  Some folks even suggested the hand-raised deer who was not afraid of people could have gone to Ross State Park in Pocatello or Bear Woods north of Idaho Falls or even petting zoos.  Some also felt that because the deer was killed on Thanksgiving Day that the department "was going to be late for dinner and didn't want to take the time to deal with this".  Others feel that one of the goals of Fish and Game was to protect and preserve wildlife and they didn't do that with Putch.  Putch had his antlers cut off to prevent him from harming anyone.

Mr. Frost feels betrayed and still feels they had better alternatives than to euthanize Putch.  The irony here is that they do not know for sure that it was Putch who had chased a bicyclist.  In another incident a man and his dog were out walking and they believe the deer that attacked them was not Putch but rather a doe.  Reference The Associated Press, The Times-News and The Wood River Journal.

5/31/02 A police dog died of heat exhaustion after being locked inside a patrol car for more than 4 hours. "Woodrow" a German shepherd, died when temperatures outside the car was 80 degree's (hotter inside). The 28-year veteran officer who forgot to remove the dog from the cruiser has been reassigned. Reference: The Associated Press

  5/28/01 A police dog who helped search for survivors at the World Trade Center was shot dead by two police officers who mistook it for a stray. Git Ander a 7-year-old German shepherd was shot 11 times as his handler and other officers tracked down a car that had been reported stolen. The Dog's handler, Sgr. John Gillespie, saw suspects bolt from the car in Plainfield, NJ and chased the driver while the dog subdued a 12-year-old girl by clamping its jaws on one of her legs. When 2 officers arrived they tried to pull the dog away from the girl, thinking it was a stray. When the dog bit one of them both officers shot it. The dog was trained to only respond to commands given by its handler, so it would not do what the other officers asked. Reference: Ananova

Mike Tyson (the prizefighter) for animal abuse and getting one of his staff to take the fall for it. Reference: The National Inquirer