Victory and tragedy at the Derby [UPDATED]

Saturday, May 03, 2008

The favorite to win the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby, Big Brown, made it first to the finish line.

Behind him in second place was the filly Eight Belles, who went down with two broken ankles and was euthanized on the scene.

I've been waiting for a link to a news story before posting, but all I've seen so far are blog posts like this one, reporting the sad news without much commentary or background information. I'll update when there's more.

Rest in peace, Eight Belles. She was the first filly to start in the Kentucky Derby since 1999, and had she won, would have been only the fifth filly to do so.

Update 1: The AP just moved an addition to their earlier story:


But the cheers of the crowd were cut short when the filly Eight Belles, who finished second, was euthanized on the track minutes after the race with a fatal injury.



Update 2: From AOL Sports:


Eight Belles, the only filly in this year's Kentucky Derby, collapsed to the ground after finishing second in the race, having suffered compound fractures in both front ankles. She was put down immediately, NBC reported on the live broadcast.

Eight Belles finished four and three-quarters lengths behind favorite Big Brown, who won the Derby. She appeared to be fine and showed no signs of distress as she ran down the stretch.

All of the horses had finished and were galloping around the turn when Eight Belles collapsed, causing jockey Gabriel Saez to jump off. An equine ambulance arrived immediately, and Eight Belles was dead within minutes of placing at the Derby.

"There was no possible way to save her," veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage said. "She broke both front ankles. That's a bad injury."


Update 3: From Gina Spadafori at Pet Connection:


I think that would have been better, in a sick way, if there’d been no horse to blanket with roses. There’d have been no ignoring the on-track tragedy by NBC, which did its very best to keep from showing what was happening on the track after the race. If there’d been no happy celebration to show, the network couldn’t have kept trying to distract viewers from the truth. (A truth that could be read on the face of Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, an NBC commentator who tried his best to play the party line, refusing to speculate on what he as someone who’d ridden in thousands of races knew had happened and would happen to Eight Belles.)
History and links to press coverage of this year's Derby on HorseHobbyist.com.

A soldier's dogs

Friday, Apr 18, 2008

Limit laws are always contentious. They can be used like a hammer to threaten and control critics of local animal control and shelter practices, because most of the stakeholders -- whether rescuers or hobby breeders -- frequently exceed what are often extremely restrictive local limits on how many pets you can have.

In communities attempting to end the use of killing as a tool of animal population control, the easing of limit laws is often one of the changes given consideration, because it opens up more homes for pets.

For those going but, but, but... what about noise, smell, dog poop, barking? All those things are usually already regulated by nuisance laws, leash laws, and health codes. Putting an arbitrary limit on the number of pets that can be owned, especially when that limit is very low, both infringes on the personal freedom of people who want to own more than, say, two pets, and does little or nothing to address neghborhood concerns. A single barking dog is plenty annoying, and a limit law does nothing to quiet him.

I once lived in a community where, even if you had a hundred acres, you could only have a combination of two dogs and two cats -- you couldn't even have three cats and one dog. This was a rural, agricultural area, too, so the stupidity of the limit was even more pronounced. I had, at the time, two dogs and two cats, and a friend of mine who was terminally ill asked if he could leave me his cat. I realized at that moment that, the day she came to live with me, I would technically have had to apply for a kennel license -- something I'm pretty sure my neighbors would have objected to. And I suspect my dogs and cats, who lived in my house and slept on my bed, would probably have objected to the required construction of concrete and chain link kennel runs. Too bad, because without them, and a business license, too, as well as my neighbors' approval and a county permit, I wouldn't have been able to add that one more cat.

And by the way? I owned three acres of land at the time. My neighbor across the street had three acres, too, and kept six Arabian horses on it. My next-door-neighbor had chickens, ducks, geese, and peacocks. I'm just saying: Really. Stupid. Law.

Fortunately it was overturned and the limit in my area upped to ten dogs and/or cats in any combination. But a story that hit the news in the last couple of days reminded me of that whole idiotic time, and how often pet limit laws are imposed on people in ways that help no one and harm many -- including soldiers serving their country in the Iraq war.

When Henry Carroll's son Adam was deployed to Iraq, he asked his dad to take care of his two dogs for him while he was overseas. His father, who lives in Fayetville, NC and is a veteran himself, had three dogs of his own, agreed. And then the county came calling, and told him two of the dogs had to go:


The father of a deployed soldier who is taking care of his son's dogs has been ordered by Cumberland County authorities to give away two of the animals.

The Fayetteville Observer reported Monday that Henry Carroll planned to appeal the order during the county Board of Adjustment's meeting Thursday.

Carroll's son has two dogs and Carroll has three. The county said the five dogs at Carroll's house qualify as a kennel, which he doesn't have a license to run. Carroll's son, Adam, asked his father to take care of his small, mixed-breed dogs when his 101st Airborne Division unit deployed to Iraq. He is scheduled to return in December.


The story was reported in the local media and got picked up nationally that night. As a result, Cumberland County got flooded with emails and phone calls protesting the action.

At a hearing yesterday, the county sidestepped the issue, deciding it needed more "time" to consider the matter. From the local NBC affiliate:


Henry Carroll went face-to-face with Cumberland County and the county blinked.

Before he ever got a chance to utter a word at a public hearing Thursday night, county officials said they'd need more time to research the situation.

As a result, the county said no dogs will be removed from his premises for the time being.

County officials decided to defer action after the county attorney said he'd need more time to clarify issues between several county agencies.

“I didn't expect that,” said a stunned Carroll.

The ordinance limiting dog ownership to three animals has been on Cumberland County's books since 1972, but a shelter operator who was one of a number of people who came to support Carroll said that law's no good.

“It's a badly written law and similar laws have been held unconstitutional in many other states,” said Linden Spear, director of "The Haven" animal shelter. “We hope the county realizes it's a badly written nuisance law and repeals it immediately.”


Most limit laws are just that inflexible and useless. No one thinks someone should be able to have a house full of noisy, loose-roaming animals that create a public health problem and make neighbors' lives hell, but the truth is, all those things are already against the law.

Limit laws should only be in place where they're really needed, and not used as a substitute for basic, enforceable, useful nuisance laws. And they definitely shouldn't be wielded against a soldier's father trying to keep a promise to his son.

So that time you need, Cumberland County? Be sure to take at least until December.

The dogs of Ontario need your help

Sunday, Apr 13, 2008

From the Dog Legislation Council of Canada, a plea for help:


Ontario.

Twice the size of Texas.

Three times the size of Germany.

Five times the size of the United Kingdom.

Home to a breed-specific legislative ban covering the largest geo-political area in the world.

A ban that discriminates not by action or deed, but by physical appearance.

A ban that targets not only "pit bulls", American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and Staffordshire Bull Terriers", but haunts ANY pure-or-crossbred canine bearing a substantial physical resemblance to one of the aforementioned.

[....]

With the help of the American Staffordshire Terrier Club of Canada, the Golden Horseshoe American Pit Bull Terrier Club, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club of Canada and Advocates for the Underdog, a coalition was formed including the Dog Legislation Council of Canada and aptly named "Banned-Aid".

This group was to play a prominent role in the ensuing months, bringing the plight of Ontario's dogs to those who otherwise might never have considered the gravity of the situation. Their determination paid off; the spring of 2006 saw a trial date set, and on May 15th, 16th and 18th, Justice T. Herman heard final arguments from both sides in Ontario's Superior Court.

The battle, however, is not quite over. Government-initiated delays have resulted in the near-doubling of our legal fees, which have long passed initial "guesstimates" and are closing in on the 1/2 million mark. In this we are running out of time. Generous time allowances by Clayton Ruby's offices have merely slowed the inevitable, that being we MUST come up with $ 100,000 in two weeks' time for this case to continue.

The importance of being present to rebut this new motion cannot be overestimated. Lacking an opposing legal presence gives government lawyers carte blanche while countering from our side greatly increases the chances of any further introductions being struck down as frivolous. Ruby strongly believes this attempt to be a last-gasp 'smoke screen' effort by our opposition, carefully orchestrated to bring us to our financial knees.


Don't let it happen. Get more information and find out how you can help here.

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