The POS pictured on the right is David Santuomo, 43, a Columbus, OH, firefighter who last December wanted to go on a cruise with his girlfriend but did want to pay for boarding for his two adopted dogs, Sloopy and Skeeter.  So to save himself some money, he took his dogs into the basement, tie them to a pipe suspending their bodies and shot them both numerous times.  He then dumped their bodies on the plastic he had already laid out, wrapped them up and dumped them in a trash bin behind the fire station where he worked.  What makes this even sadder is that at least two neighbors had offered to watch the dogs while he was away.

This week, as part of a plea deal, Santuomo pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty and one count of possessing a criminal tool a homemade silencer, all three misdemeanors. Franklin County Municipal Judge Harland H. Hale sentenced him to 90 days, to be served over 2 years, $4,500 in restitution, $150 fine, 200 hours of community service and he cannot possess any pets or firearms for 5 years. He also has to write a letter of apology to a firefighters magazine and to readers of The Dispatch newspaper. He has yet to face an internal disciplinary hearing with Fire Chief Ned Pettus Jr.

Felony charges were not pursued because there is no felony animal cruelty law in Ohio!!

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Looks like the El Paso, TX, soldier, Frank Zimmerman, who brutally stomped on and killed one adopted dog, Tinkerbelle, and beat another, a little puppy, Wrigley, and shattered his leg, is going to get what amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist from the military.

There will be no justice for Tinkerbelle or Wrigley nor will there be any answers about the two dogs he adopted shortly before them who died in Zimmerman and his wife’s care.  There will be no just for the another two dogs that were adopted, after the 2 puppies wound up dead, and returned to the rescue.  They were actually the lucky ones.  When they were returned after two days it was obvious they had been traumatized and abuse but at least they are alive and physically uninjured.

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Major Steven Hutchison, a Viet Nam vet, wanted to sign back up for duty after the 911 attacks but his wife persuaded him not to. After her death from breast cancer, Hutchison returned to active duty as part of a group of older seasoned soldiers that helped to train.

‘He’d been a soldier all his life, and that’s what he wanted to do,’ said his brother, Richard.

‘He hadn’t been drafted and he didn’t have to go, and he chose that he felt he could serve and make a difference,’ said US Army spokesman Lt Colonel Nathan Banks.

After a year tour of Afghanistan, Hutchinson’s life was taken on Mother’s Day when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra. At 60, he is the oldest casualty of the Iraq war. But like many US soldiers, this veteran and hero wasn’t alone. About 6 week previously he informally adopted a puppy and like many other soldiers, he did everything he could to keep his puppy, Laia, name after Princess Laia from Star Wars, safe and with him, including defying the military order of no pets.

Hutchison’s unit found Laia at just 1 month old in Basra. The local vet said he would have to euthanize the dog unless they adopted her as a mascot. As policy, soldiers are not supposed to adopt strays, and Hutchison defied orders to get rid of the dog, even moving her from base to base, his friend, Sgt. Andrew Hunt, told the SPCA. “He ignored this request several times up until it began to move toward punishment,” Sgt. Hunt said. “See, you couldn’t ever tell the Major he couldn’t do something, he [was] a stubborn old goat set in his ways. It was an endearing quality we loved about him.”

“Whenever Laia was around, his demeanor and personality changed 1000 percent,” Hunt told the SPCA. “He was never without a smile, he was so much happier in life, it was amazing.” (MSNBC)

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A new Guinness World Record has been set at Petropolis Pet Store Carnival where 184 dogs got married breaking the old record of 179 canine couples.  And too boot, the best part of this was that over 100 dog also found new forever homes as part of the adoption even that was also being held.  What fun!

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Nia McFadden of Omaha, NE was just out walking her 4-month-old Shih Tzu puppy, Cookie, when Cookie took a misstep and wound up in a storm drain.  Toys and treats didn’t work to lure to frightened puppy out so rescuers had to go in and bring her out.

I love these stories, rescues and reunions.  Just gives ya something to smile about with all the horror stories out there!

Jimmy Correa, 24, and Jenny Torres, 31, of New Bedford, MA, who it turns out are cousins, are now claiming that they never tossed Princess, a little chihuahua, from their vehicle and that it was all a big misunderstanding. And, they want the dog back!

Earlier this week witnesses reported seeing a vehicle driving through a West End neighborhood and saw Correa toss Princess out of the window of the still moving vehicle.  They then returned about an house later and remarked that the “stupid dog” was still where they threw it.

Witnesses got the tag number when they returned and Correa and Torres were arrested and charged two felony counts of cruelty to animals. Correa at the time claimed that the dog belonged to Torres and he was just doing what she told him to do, to toss the dog.

Now the entire story is changed and they are saying it was all a big misunderstanding and they want Princess back.
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I caught this a few days ago and it has really been bothering me.  I have such a great respect for those who rescue and save and rehome dogs that would otherwise be facing a death sentence. Most rescues are reputable and upstanding, the people who run them putting their lives, hearts and passions into them but not all rescues have that same dedication.  Take Southside Bulldoggin, for example.

Casey Phelps says that in three years her Nashville, TN rescue, which specializes in pitbulls,  has given new homes to thousands of dogs but a little digging at Metro Animal Control shows that at least 261 were turned over there and killed.  MCA doesn’t adopt pitbulls out.

Phelps advertises that she will take unwanted dogs for a $50 donation and promises to rehome them.”She rescues them, finds them a home, adopts them out,” said Casey’s brother Curly Phelps. “She’ll put an ad in – people will come by to view the dogs, bring their children.”

But for that $50 donation, it bought death for at least 261 dog that were turned over to her to find loving new homes.

“The bad thing about a pit bull is once you release them to us it’s a death penalty it’s our policy not to adopt pit bulls,” said Billy Biggs with Metro Animal Control.

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Update 6/21/09 – Military Punishment for Dog Killer, Abuser a Joke! No Justice! VIDEO

As El Paso, TX Fort Bliss soldier Spc. Frank Zimmerman awaits his court martial in the brutal beating death of his adopted dog, Tinkerbelle, we now find out the Tinkerbelle and Wrigley were not the first pair of dogs adopted by him nor, most likely, were they his first victims.

In a period of seven week Zimmerman and his wife attempted to adopt at least 8 dogs, 6 of which they did adopt.  The first pair, two lab-mix puppies adopted from New Hope Alliance at the end of January, are dead, allegedly from parvo. A vet that was interviewed said they tested negative for the disease but due to the incubation period, parvo could have been the culprit in their deaths. There is no way to know now.

After the puppies’ deaths, the Zimmermans went back to New Hope Alliance in February and adopted to more dogs. These were returned within 48 hours traumatized and injured.

“When the animals came back into our custody, the animals did appear to have some type of trauma,” Rebecca Rojas, a volunteer coordinator with New Hope Alliance, which works out of the El Paso County Animal Control said.

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Shannon Anderson, owner of Pet’s Delight in Covina, CA, got an eye opening experience when Last Chance for Animals told her where her puppies were coming from. She thought she was making sure that she wasn’t selling puppy mill puppies and when she found out she most likely was, she decided to make a major change, no more puppy mill puppies!

Anderson’s store is now one of several shops that will now only offer puppies from shelters and rescues and she’s very happy about her decision.

“Shannon has jumped into this head-first,” said Rene Ruston of LCA. “Her eyes are open to the horrors of puppy mills and she has embraced change with her full being.”

Now if only more pet shops would see the light, or care, there could be major changes nation wide and the death rate of shelter animals would drop dramatically! An added benefit would be that slowly but surely, as demand for puppy mill puppies dropped, more and more puppy mills would close down! Education is the key. So many people still do not have a clue but this is definitely a start and a good one at that.

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A trio of pooches decided to take a nice stroll along the Schuylkill River Wednesday. The only problem was that they chose to do it on the highway. Traffic was snarled during rush hour while police tried to coax the pups off the road. Some stranded drivers even fed the strays while they awaited animal control. After about an hour, the dogs were taken away and the road reopened.

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