Andrea Rosebrock 
Until Chris McGahey and Forrest, Denver has never failed to kill any dog they deemed a pitbull. Mission Save Forrest ramped things up and shown the hot spotlight on Denver again for their BSL. Forrest, a pitbull that didn’t even live in Denver, was on deathrow. This time advocates came out in mass numbers and the bottom line, not without many tense moments, was that Forrest was spared his life but his owner Chris McGahey had to give him up.
Shortly after Forrest was whisked away to safety, another pitbull came under fire. Kane, a dog that was given to owner Gema Martinez by her son and identified to her as an American Bulldog.
Denver police surrounded her house, ripped down a locked 6 foot black iron gate and took Kane. They left no information, no paper work, just vandalized property and a missing dog in their wake. Denver did release Kane to Gema but told her that if he was ever in Denver again, he was dead.
Unfortunately after a while, Kane’s new home fell through and Gema took him back, trying to keep him hidden and safe. But the story takes a sad, but unsurprising turn, the police are back and this time armed with guns and rifles
Gema had just let Kane out in her backyard when she noticed a white van parked in front of her house. Next, she heard a loud man’s voice coming from her side yard calling for her dog , “Kane, come here boy – Kane.” In a panic, she called Kane into the house, threw a sheet over her bed and hit the floor to hide under the bed clutching Kane. While she prayed they would not be discovered, the police pounded on the walls, rang her doorbell repeatedly and shouted for her to come out – making threats to break down her door! Scared out of her mind, she opened the door to find police with guns drawn. Kane stood by innocently as they searched her entire house, attic and garage without a search warrant! Nope, nothing here but an illegal dog. She feared they would shoot Kane and begged the police to stop waving their guns. Then with tears running down her face, she pleaded with the animal control officer not to take Kane. His response: “I know you are having vision problems right now, but I need you to sign this ticket for court.” She signed and moments later Kane was gone. Gema had just entered the Denver Twilight Zone.
To make a long story short, both dogs were removed from Colorado…. and are now basking in the Calfornia sun.
David Edelstein contacted me and asked if I’d like to do a follow-up story on both Forrest and Kane and of course I said I would. Happy endings are too few and far between when you are involved in canine advocacy….
So, here you go…. Enjoy! I know I did! 
Run, Forrest, Run… The Long Road from Exile
We Are… Team Pit-A-Full – How they’re doing today
Yes, at least for Forrest and Kane, a happy ending. Not so happy for Chris McGahey and Gema Martinez who lost their beloved dogs and just downright miserable, horrible and painful for so many other dogs who lost their lives to this BS BSL in Denver and to all the families who lost their beloved furry family members.
The fight against BSL in Denver, as in other places around the county continues… we can only hope and pray… and work, to try to get these cruel and unfair laws repealed. Shout out, no matter where you live! End BSL!! Stop the senseless killing!
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WOW!!
I COULDN’T STOP CRYING! GOD BLESS THESE PEOPLE…
That makes two of us, Marcy!
btw…
BlesstheBullys.com is hosting the HONOR-A-BULL Video Challenge on YOUTUBE in the month of October.
The objective is to portray Pit bulls in the best light using video as the medium.
Think we could win?
Please vote for us when the contest goes live.
Chef D and the Team
No god blessing required. The honor is ours to have snatched these dogs away from certain death and place them on high and let them fulfill their prophecy of being ambassadors to their breed.
VIVA Team Pit-a-Full
The printed statments in David Edelstein’s video made me cry because of the depth of the truth of it.
“You don’t know the joy You don’t know the hope Until you have witnessed the arrival of mass animal transport”
Every transport I have done, I come home with a “happy heart”, knowing these pups have all been saved; and onto a better life where they will be treated as members of a loving family. I have said it before, and I will continue to tell everyone I know that no specific breed is mean. It is how they are raised. I have transported many Pits, and every single one of them slobbered me to death. I am grateful for people like David Edelstein, who shows a love for the breed.
Pits are like any other dog, and all they want is love, affection, praise, and to be trained properly; along with having a comfy sofa or human bed to sleep on.
These videos were so very touching, the smiles and joy and tears…. it all just welled up in you.
Susie, as you are grateful to people like Dave, many are grateful for people like you too!! For me, those who are on the front lines, are true Angels!
And yes,a dog is a dog is a dog… just look beyond the breed… what you may see can be amazing!
D.
“Amazing”… the understatement of the year.
Given a healthy life style and all the tools to be happy and well balanced…
These dogs as well as every other dog of every breed can achieve greatness.
I think people could learn a thing or two about life and existence and balance and harmony from joining in with a pack.
Order, a sense of community, lacking in waste/fraud/abuse, utter honesty… Just a few things that dogs excel over humans in.
I WILL NEVER EVER VISIT DENVER OR ANY OTHER POS PLACE THAT HAS BSL THIS IS JUST PLAIN BULL****. I HOPE THESE 2 PEOPLE CAN MOVE OUT OF THEIR EVEN IF THEY DON’T GET THEIR BELOVED DOGS BACK, ASI WOULD BE SO GONE FAST. BSL NEEDS TO STOP RIGHT NOW. BY THE WAY WHO THE H*** STARTED THIS BSL CRAP IN THE FIRST PLACE? AS I SURE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW.
Thank you for that wonderful story!
I watched it with my foster Min Pin who was rescued from a high kill shelter in Colorado (and who I made dance with me to the music
).
I’ve picked up many of our rescues’ little ones from overflowing shelters and I always wish I could take every last one. It’s important to remember the happy stories so we can continue to make more happy endings!
That is so cruel. How can anyone be so heartless. What the hell is all this BSL going around and why can’t it be stopped before it gets out of control (as it sounds as if it already has)? I used to be a lover of Denver, Co……NO MORE!!!
I am at a loss for words…….
Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) serves absolutely nothing! It does not cut down on vicious dogs, dog bites, or any other possible negative situation with a dog. BSL is just useless institutionalized racism. BSL should be banned not the pitbull breed. What Denver is doing is morally wrong, it doesn’t matter if Colorado calls it legal.
Denver if you actually want to protect the public, first ban BSL and then institute mandatory spaying and neutering. Then mandate mandatory free dog training classes for every dog owner.
Use measures that are effective, compassionate, and actually work. Banning a breed is 100% useless!!!!!
I would love to see their new statictics on dog bites. I bet they haven’t done down any. Any pit bull I have ever met loves people and would maybe lick you to death. But bite Never.
As one of the petition’s signees, I’m so happy that Forrest’s life is spared. I’ve visited Denver, a few years ago, and thought of re-visiting since I found its people very friendly.
I still get the VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau eNewsletter. I shall now unsubscribe and shall stay away from Denver until the law is changed.
Im happy to report that Forrest, Mr. Kane, and little Daze (aka Team Pit-a-Full) continue to thrive and steel the hearts of everyone they meet here in Southern California.
They have all been winners in local dog events, complete ambassadors to their breed, and have successfully converted over 20 people who formerly hated/ feared dogs and / or pit bulls.
These three are an amazing sight to see and I could be more proud and honored to be their ring leader and dad.
Chef David
and Team Pit-a-Full
David, you have made me cry with tears of happiness for the wonderful lives you have given them! I wish you could convert everyone with the fear of pits, because I know how widespread it is.
It is an honor to know you, even tho it is on a blog, for what you do for these beautiful babies. Thank you so much!
Welcome to my world.
I awake every morning to these amazing beings… with their snoring and licking and and little fears and their strengths
I think the one single thing (if I had to choose just one) that I find jaw dropping and earth stopping is how these three muscled their way into my mom’s heart.
70 years old, completely terrified of dogs her entire life, and now she lays on the floor and spoons with three pit bulls. I have to leave the room every time as it just cuts me in half.
David, that is just beautiful, and something that you will cherish the rest of your life.
Oh yes, these pittis are so mean – they probably kiss her to death! I do admit, that even tho my breed of choice is labbies, I adore the pitti smile! It just gives me the feeling that they are just luv bugs, and their smiles crack me up. Your babies know how to win over people, just as mine do. My Aunt calls our labbies horses, and is frightened of their size, but the youngest one always manages to sit near her and pull her arm towards her, and then he snuggles in her neck and gives her kisses. Now how can you not refuse puppy kisses?
Now, to have a picture of your mom with your 3 babies on the floor is one that would win any prize!
If we really want some honesty regarding the lawmakers (read: tyrants), bureaucrats (read: gaueleiters), and law-enforcement and “humane” officers (read: pigs) whose diktats cost loving, friendly pets like Denver’s Forrest and Kane their homes and Cincinnati’s Rock their lives, we need to make them wear armbands with swastikas. Hitler and the Nazis would love to have such “people,” apparently so willing to suspend logic and fairness in favor of such unjust, fear- and ignorance-motivated laws as these “breed-specific” ones, in their ranks.
The arbitrary and often incorrect classifications of dogs as “pitbulls,” any such dog so classified mindlessly assumed to be dangerous, when many, such as Rock, clearly are not reminds one of the absurd (and factually incorrect) gyrations through which authorities in Nazi Germany, not to mention apartheid South Africa, went in their efforts to classify people based on racism.
As it is, has anyone ever contested the constitutionality of breed-specific anti-dog legislation, especially given how many of the dogs that have been taken from their guardians, banished to other jurisdictions, or even killed ultimately turned out not even to be covered by the legislation’s own definitions? The sheer arbitrariness and capriciousness in how these laws are often administered alone should be sufficient to overturn them, if only on the ground that the taking of a dog that ultimately proves not to be a “pit bull” violates the guardian’s rights against unjust taking of “property.”
Any official that promulgates or enforces such legislation must not only be summarily removed from office by any lawful means available but, if negligence and/or malice can be proven, held fully liable, both civilly and criminally. In addition to imprisonment for theft and cruelty to animals, the “responsible” officials must be forced to pay steep punitive damages out of their own pockets to the wronged pet guardians and publicly degraded and humiliated on a daily basis during their times behind bars. Only when we make the cost of such irresponsible legislation to those behind it steeper and more painful than any perceived benefit they might see from it will we see the change we need.
It is long past time that we in our supposedly “free” America, founded to end the medieval notion of the “divine right of kings,” get rid once and for all of the related legal concept of “sovereign immunity”–the idea that government, like kings of old, “can do no wrong” and should therefore be immune from lawsuits. As what we see happening under breed-specific legislation shows, our modern “kings” indeed can and do do wrong. They must be made every bit as accountable and subject to the law as any of the rest of us.
Scott…
Youre a few years too late. The constitutionality of MCS 8-55 has been tried… MANY times. The problem with pulling out the “14th Amendment” card is “Home Rule”… a local law Denver adopted in 1902 originally based on self taxation. Home Rule grants city officials absolute power over local issues and ordinances. Its why 8-55 was banned and then re-instated (2004-2005)… thanks to a stereotypical scum bag attorney by th name of Kory Nelson.
Do a goole search on “Denver, Home Rule” and “Kory Nelson”. Be prepared to vommit. The whole shootin match belongs back in 1949 McCarthy America.