Ora the Pit Bull

My wife and I had been fostering with a local all breed rescue a few years ago to help the many dogs in need and provide socialization for our own Rottie Magnum. They had few fosters familiar who had Rottie experience or were comfortable with large breeds and many bought into many of the stereotypes associated with the breed so they did have some difficulty finding fosters for them. Having a Rottie of our own and specifically wanting to help this breed the relationship worked very well.

After about a year of fostering with them we looked to help out a more breed specific rescue and that’s when my wife found A Rotta Love Plus which is a local Rottie and Pit Bull rescue. We had gone through the initial application process but had not taken in any fosters when we got a message from ARLP urgently requesting foster.

The urgent foster request was directly due to the following news story as reported in one of our local papers. ARLP was able to save 7 of the dogs from the seizure, 1 went to another rescue and the rest were all euthanized. The 7 dogs that ARLP saved became affectionately known as The Sibley Seven and the news story below outlines the rocky start to their lives and the point where Ora’s path crossed our own…..

Authorities raid foster home owned by local animal rescue

Submitted by Shawn Hogendorf on October 19, 2006 – 1:25pm.

By Shawn Hogendorf

Staff Writer

Sanctuary Plus Rescue, a Prior Lake-based volunteer pet rescue, downsized its rescue efforts due to a too-many-pets and possible-neglect raid on Sept. 7.

The pet foster home in Sibley County was raided by the Humane Society for Companion Animals (HSCA). Forty-four dogs were captured and transported with the assistance of the Animal Humane Society (AHS) and Sibley County Sheriff’s Office.

“Sanctuary Plus Rescue was squashed like a bug as a side-effect of the Sept. 7 raid,” Sylvia Wilhelmi, founder and president of the rescue, stated in an e-mailed response to the newspaper’s inquiry. “The raid was a huge emotional hit; our volunteers spent a lot of time evaluating, training and loving a majority of the confiscated dogs.

“The raid was a huge motivational hit; it broke the group’s momentum. The raid was a huge economic hit; a large amount of money had been spent on spays and neuters, vaccinations and vet-recommended medications for a majority of the confiscated dogs.”

No charges have been filed against the foster home or Sanctuary Plus Rescue. The case remains under investigation by the Sibley County Sheriff’s Office and the Sibley County attorney.

Keith Streff, an investigator for the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, said the Sibley County home was owned by Wilhelmi.

Wilhelmi’s name did not appear in an HSCA news brief, and Wilhelmi never identified the house as her own in her e-mail statement.

The news brief said the Sibley County woman who owned the home runs a pet rescue in her home and faces a number of state and county violations including lacking a kennel permit, operating a business without a permit, and lack of ventilation and sanitation.

The HSCA, led by investigator Wade Hanson, reportedly responded to a complaint by a concerned citizen and found 44 adult dogs including mastiffs, terriers, pit bulls and pit bull mixes living in travel carriers and small kennels stacked three high, the news brief stated.

Hanson reported that the house had unacceptable ammonia content from urine, and the animals appeared to be in poor condition, living in tight quarters.

“The high concentration of urine and feces made it extremely difficult to breathe in the single-family home,” Hanson stated.

The 44 dogs were taken from the home and transported to the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley for quarantine and evaluation. The Animal Humane Society has the largest shelter in the upper Midwest, with the staff and resources capable of handling cases this size, AHS President Martha McPhee stated in the brief.

It was believed that some of the dogs would be placed in new homes at a later date, according to the HSCA news brief, but many of the dogs were euthanized due to behavioral issues.

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“Some of the confiscated dogs were transferred to other organizations approximately a week after the raid,” Wilhelmi stated. “Unfortunately it appears that a majority were euthanized quickly, about two hours after the raid.”

Wilhelmi stated that “11 skinny dogs were euthanized, rather than fattened up.

“It appears that the foster’s elderly 11-year-old dog was euthanized, instead of treating her cancer,” Wilhelmi continued. “It appears that any dog identified by the foster home as having an issue was euthanized, rather than working with a behavioralist.”

At press time, Hanson, the Animal Humane Society investigator, had not returned phone calls to discuss the raid.

Janelle Dixon, the HSCA executive director stated in the news brief that “The Humane Society for Companion Animals and AHS are working together to responsibly handle an atrocious situation that has left animals in filthy conditions. We are hopeful that some of these dogs will be able to find new permanent homes after they receive proper care. However, some of the dogs are likely to be unadoptable due to serious aggression issues.”

Wilhelmi wrote that authorities “chose to rush ahead with the raid rather than work cooperatively with the foster home on the changes.” A week before the raid, she said, the foster home was notified by authorities that changes were needed, but she stated that she was also told there would not “be a problem” as long as progress was being made every seven to 10 days.

The foster was willing to downsize and make any changes, Wilhelmi stated.

“Positive changes were in progress within one week,” she wrote in the e-mail. “Three adoptions were made Labor Day weekend, another three were in progress, one foster-home transfer was in progress and other changes were being investigated.”

Dixon stated that aggression issues mean that dogs cannot be trusted with children and families. The aggressive dogs “cannot be responsibly placed into our communities,” she stated.

“Maybe more time would have been spent [by the Humane Society] with the dogs if they were poodles, rather than pit bulls and staffs,” Wilhelmi stated.

“Unfortunately, the term ‘rescue’ doesn’t always mean the animals have the care they need. Sometimes individuals’ passions get in the way of their better judgment and they find themselves overwhelmed,” McPhee stated.

“Tragically, many pit bulls and pit bull crosses, because of their genetics and previous handling, are often not adoptable by the standards of many humane groups. Rescue groups try to fill the gap, but often they become overwhelmed and under-funded.”

“Foster work is hard. We worked hard,” Wilhelmi stated. “Reputable rescue requires hard choices; which ones to save, which ones to adopt out and which ones to give up on. Within 2006, we matched over 90 local dogs and Katrina dogs with new homes. We tried to rescue the best of the dogs offered to us. We said ‘no’ often. We probably should have said ‘no’ even more often. We tried. We tried too hard. We lost many wonderful dogs in the raid.”

Dixon acknowledged the difficult issues facing many rescue organizations, but she also stated in the news brief that “People want to help animals, but often they can become overwhelmed, causing their efforts to get off-track and then their work can be misguided. Sadly, this results in greater harm and suffering to the animals. This is why HSCA felt it was so important to address this situation.”