Blue Dog State: Hey, Pacelle! Suck it up and fire John Goodwin!

Talk's cheap, Wayne. Why don't you ditch the criminals working for HSUS?


Then maybe. . .just maybe. . .you'll have a basis for conversation with true "pit bull stakeholders."


Too much talk, not enough action.


HSUS's long-promised meeting of "national pit bull stakeholders" in Vegas was held on Wednesday. Everybody went home days ago.


It seems that Best Friends managed to forgive the Humane Society of the United States and wag its tail over HSUS's change of heart: no more automatic killing of innocent dogs. Maybe.

Is the "breakthrough" all its cracked up to be?


Future protocols and updated manuals: pesky details not available.

Forgive me if I refrain from doing cartwheels across the lawn, Wayne.
Not while "animal protection" for pit bulls remains exponentially missing in action and HSUS's Dogfight Czars remain on the job.
HSUS's new position on dogs seized during dogfight busts is like swiss cheese. . .plenty of places for the lives of vulnerable dogs to get lost.
Little feet are tap-tap-tapping, Wayne.

Here are some real deal stakeholder recommendations for the Humane Society of the United States:
1. Fire John Goodwin, HSUS's ranking "fighting dog expert" -- and Animal Liberation Front terrorist. HSUS foisted Goodwin and that "HSUS says pit bulls must die, die, die" policy on the public for years. Goodwin has no place in a reformed Humane Society of the United States, and no credibility with the sheltering community.
2. Fire Amanda Arrington and Chris Schindler -- the two HSUS employees who testified that nursing pit bull puppies are a threat to public safety. They are liars.
3. Fire Patrick Kwan, HSUS's New York director, too. Kwan is busy telling people that New York law treats dogfighting spectators like people who don't put enough spare change in parking meters, and claims that, accordingly, hordes of dogfighters from Jersey travel to New York. The myth Kwan is struggling to create is almost as ridiculous as the "baby pit bull puppies are too dangerous to live" thing. See point two above.
Put some effort into it, Pacelle.
Stop employing liars and criminals.

Because the sworn testimony of Humane Society of the United States state Director, Amanda Arrington, during the February 16, 2009 hearing in Wilkes County (NC) Superior Court makes one thing very clear: the "animal protection" racket knows no shame.

Fifteen minutes of HSUS "expertise" killed 146 pit bulls

Two months ago, Ms. Arrington -- backed up by HSUS's Chris Schindler -- appears to have based her assertion that it was Best Friends Animal Society that set the $190,000 per dog cost for rehabilitating "fighting dogs" on an amicus brief signed by 11 amici in November, 2007, during the wild scramble of the Michael Vick prosecution.

The amicus brief originally estimated a rehabilitation cost of $2,500 per dog. The figure mysteriously staggered on up to the astronomical $190,000 that Arrington used in court.

The later version of the amicus was amended to read--

Rehabilitation of fighting dogs is a time consuming, labor intensive effort which requires 4 to 6 hours each day per dog. Qualified trainers earn between $50.00-$75.00 per hour. At 5 hours a day, 30 days a month, this is $9,750 dollars per month of training. To this, add food and veterinary care, and the price to rehabilitate a fighting dog is a little more than $10,000 per month. If training and rehabilitating a dog takes 18 months, the cost rises to $180,000 plus the run cost of $10,000 or $190,000 per dog.

With "amici" like that. . .

Was the insane overstatement of likely costs a case of lawyerly maneuvering? Did the amici put that astronomical number out there in order to soak the target (Vick) for the max? Did avarice get in the way of common sense?

On their own website Best Friends gave a base estimate at $40,000 per dog for a lifetime of care in an institutional setting, (with the warning that the cost could be higher in the case of the Vick dogs).
Heartless in Wilkesboro: the Humane Society of the United States

Arrington simply asserted that, "in their own words," Best Friends said it would take about $190,000 to rehabilitate each of Ed Faron's dogs. Even the nursing puppies.

HSUS's "experts" didn't protest the outrageous guesstimate of $190,000 for each dog.

HSUS didn't offer to rehab the dogs for less.

In fact, HSUS didn't offer a dime from their own extensive resources -- not surprising since in 2007, the Humane Society of the United States contributed less that 4% of its $91.5 million budget to the sheltering of pet animals.

HSUS was out to kill those dogs.

Two months later, you're asking us to believe that four days in Las Vegas changed all that ?
Nathan Winograd's got the skinny on how things went in Vegas, and he's not too optimistic on how the "bust summit accords" will shake out.
[W]e hold back comprehensive progress because Wayne Pacelle won’t allow for more, and we accept it for no rational, financial, or practical reasons other than Pacelle refuses. It doesn’t have to be this way. It is only this way because we let it be. The power he has is the power we give him.
Let me add a big fat raspberry from Blue Dog State. Like Winograd, I'll believe it when I see it.



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