Today 145 dogs were killed and lots of people noticed

Last year I wrote a post called "Could Michael Vick be the best thing that's ever happened to pit bulls?" - and it was all about the fact that the Vick dogs were NOT all immediately killed, they were given the chance to live, to be rehabilitated, to show the world that they were like every other dog, and no different than any other dog. It was a great time to be a dog advocate. You could feel the change coming - naysayers were going to see once and for all with these former "fighting dogs" that they could be our companions and that they could live with other dogs and lived to be loved just like any other dog.

And it's true - that IS what's happening with the Vick dogs.

But at the same time - today - 145 dogs from the former Wildside kennels are being killed, simply because it was the Humane Society of the United States - who were listened to, as the "experts" by the people who had the power to decide whether or not the dogs involved in the criminal case - lived or died.

It's absolutely unbelievable. Best Friends Animal Society tried to step in. Bad Rap tried to step in - but HSUS won the day - and all the dogs - and something like 60 puppies - are now dead. Because of the HSUS's expert testimony.

They killed all the dogs without any kind of evaluation - they just deemed they all to be too dangerous to live.

Back when the arrests were made I did a bit of googling and the MySpace page for Ed Faron was still active and he had video of his kennels and video of his dogs - and I watched the videos - and the dogs didn't look that bad - and the kennels didn't look that bad either - nothing like "Bad Newz Kennels" at any rate. What a tragedy.

If there's anything to be learned from this - it's that there are still some very archaic very powerful organizations out there who have too much power, and I hope that the international outrage this story is causing is going to have some effect.

PETA has lost most of it's reputation within the advocate community - I hope this story will take away the HSUS's.

There are some fabulous blog posts about the story - you can go read them at

Bad Rap - Aftermath of a Massacre

Bad Rap - Numb

Nathan Winograd - the death of hope at HSUS


Lassie Get Help - Worse than Vick - and I LOVE it when they say - "because they pay lip service to the dog/human bond, and at the same time help to arrange a massacre. Because they have a script. Because they've spent time rehearsing it. Because Sue Sternberg is their pit bull "expert"." - that is awesome.