4. The Heart of the Season: A Dog’s Purpose and Justice for Karley and All Who Deserve It

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Anyone who loves a dog will relate to this story at some time. My uncle, who was probably the original “dog whisperer,” sent it to me.  I don’t know who wrote it or where it came from, and it is a bit maudlin…but, it sums out how many of us dog lovers feel.  Unfortunately, not all people are dog lovers, or lovers of ANY animal, including people who are supposed to be role models.  More on that later…First, see if this little piece doesn’t touch your heart…

***

A Dog’s Purpose (from a 6-year old).

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolf hound named
Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to
Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything
for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to
observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so
calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few
minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat
together for a while after Belker’s death,wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal
lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ‘I know
why.’

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more
comforting explanation.

He said, ‘People are born so that they can learn how to live a good Life — like loving everybody all
the time and being nice, right?’ The six-year-old continued, ‘Well, dogs already know how to
do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.’

Live simply.

Love generously.

Care deeply.

Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would
learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always
run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to
go for a joyride.

The last line about the joyride makes me smile, because like many dogs, my own sweet boy, Slick, is madly in love with riding in the car.

Slick was a lucky boy because I finally managed to take him in after he spent 8 months as stray.  But so many don’t have that sort of luck. So many dogs (and cats and other animals) are cruelly mistreated. And what sort of message is sent when someone in a public office or someone with celebrity status commits heartless and inhumane acts towards animals?

Consider the case of Karley, a 6-month old shepherd mix who was so brutally beaten that she had to be put down.

KARLEY

The perpetrator? A  Los Angeles County Assistant Fire Chief named Glynn Thomas Johnson. And this is not the first time that Johnson had attacked a dog owned by the Toole family who live near Riverside, California.  A site called PetAbuse.com has compiled the case:

Shelley Toole called deputies in August 2000, saying Johnson shot her dog Kahlua above the eye with a pellet gun. The deputy, she said, told her that it would be her word against his and advised her not to pursue the case.

Bryan Monell, a senior investigator with Last Chance for Animals, a Los Angeles group specializing in animal cruelty cases, has interviewed residents in Johnson’s neighborhood who say their dogs have gone missing or have been shot with pellet or BB guns.

Chris DeRose, founder of Last Chance For Animals, said that in his 30 years of investigating animal cruelty cases, this was one of the worst beatings he’d seen.

“When you see something like this you got to take a stand,” he said. “To me, it’s not just an animal issue, it’s a people issue.”(my bolding)

The incident happened Nov. 3 in an unincorporated area near Riverside.

Travis Staggs, a friend of the Toole family, said he was returning with Karley from a walk when Johnson approached and asked if he could take the dog the rest of the way home.

“He walked maybe 100 feet with the dog and that’s when it happened,” said Shelley Toole, who had discussed the incident with Staggs but had not seen it herself.

“Travis saw Karley on her back and Glynn punching her with his closed fist at least 10 times to her head. He then literally pulled her jaws apart until they broke.”

Staggs told police that Johnson then hit Karley more than 10 times in the head with a rock.

Staggs called 911. Not long after, Johnson’s wife called 911 reporting that her husband had been attacked by a dog.

Karley’s nasal cavity was crushed, her skull cracked in three places, her ear canal collapsed and one of her eyes lost, according to the veterinarian’s report.

“The vet told me, ‘We can try to save her, but if she survives she will have permanent brain damage and may not be able to function,’ ” said Shelley Toole, who chose to have the dog euthanized.

“She was never an aggressive dog. All she wanted to do was play. We took her to the river and she rode in the boat with her head over the railing. She loved the water.”

A public outcry, demonstrations and demands for tougher penalities in animal abuse cases have been ongoing since the November 3 incident.  Extensive media coverage and the involvement of  Warren Eckstein, who hosts “The Pet Show” (whom I listened to years ago when he broadcast from New York) helped spur the public’s involvement. Eckstein’s site has extensive coverage of the case, particularly the protest actions.

After weeks of protests, Johnson was arrested on last Tuesday (12/16) and will be arraigned on January 13, 2009 on charges of “one count of felony animal cruelty and the use of a dangerous weapon in the commission of a felony. He was released on $10,000 bail and faces up to four years in jail if convicted in the beating of 6-month-old Karley.”

The family has set up a site, Justice4Karley.com,  and a group of retired LA County firefighters have set up a fund to help pay for legal costs as the family pursues a civil suit against Johnson, which they will pursue no matter what happens in the criminal case.

But there is more at the site than a plea for donations. There is a picture taken of Karley (the “least graphic”) as she was being treated by the vets after the attack. It is testimony to the viciousness of Johnson’s actions.

But locally, a high-profile animal cruelty case has been dismissed. Why? With the help of  delaying tactics by the defense, too much time has gone by to prosecute the case!

Judge dismisses animal-cruelty case

By Lauren E. Toney Sun-News reporter

LAS CRUCES — A visiting state district judge ruled Tuesday that too much time had elapsed in the case of a Las Cruces teacher charged with multiple counts of extreme animal cruelty, and dismissed the charges.

Jack Catlan, 57, a speech pathologist at Picacho Middle School, was indicted in February on two felony counts of extreme cruelty to animals and 20 misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals.

“The judge felt that there was a speedy-trial violation,” explained Susan Riedel, chief deputy district attorney, citing a defendant’s constitutional right to a speedy trial. “Nobody wants to see a case lost on a technicality.”

She explained visiting Sixth Judicial District Judge V. Lee Vesely, of the Silver City area, traveled to Las Cruces to assist with the caseload and ruled that too much time had passed since Catlan was indicted.

Riedel noted that trials were previously set for June and then November, but despite efforts to push the case through a fast-track program, it was delayed by defense motions, and a heavy caseload at the state district court.

“It’s largely based on clogged dockets at the courts,” she said.

On June 28, 2007, the sheriff’s department spent 10 hours removing 125 animals from Catlan’s property at the 500 block of Fairacres Drive.

Earlier that month, Catlan’s neighbors contacted officials about the number of animals on the property. A search warrant was served on Catlan, but he refused to allow deputies on his property, holding them at bay for more than three hours.

A rooster, two goats, five ducks, 25 chickens, 33 dogs, and 59 cats were eventually seized.

Officials reported some animals suffered from neglect, including dogs with visible sores and matted and tightly twisted fur. One female dog had a perforated uterus from over breeding, authorities explained.

A teacher, a role model, let off the hook because the courts are too busy and the defense files delaying motions.   So much for justice here in Southern New Mexico when it comes to animal abuse cases (and there are many!)…and how many cases related to things like child abuse or domestic violence?

Of course, this case is small potatoes compared to the Michael Vick case.  Vick was back in court in late November on felony charges.

Report: Vick, co-defendants found humor in killing of helpless dogs

Updated: Saturday November 22, 2008 12:35AM

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Michael Vick put family pets in rings with pit bulls and thought it was funny watching the trained killers injure or kill the helpless dogs, a witness told federal investigators during the dogfighting investigation that brought Vick down.

In a 17-page report filed Aug. 28, 2008, by case agent James Knorr of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and released Friday under the Freedom of Information Act, a person identified as confidential witness No. 1 said Vick placed pets in the ring against pit bulls owned by “Bad Newz Kennels” at least twice and watched as the pit bulls “caused major injuries.”

The witness said Vick and co-defendants Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips “thought it was funny to watch the pit bull dogs belonging to Bad Newz Kennels injure or kill the other dogs.”

Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison in Dec. 2007, and is due to be released from the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan., on July 20, 2009. He returned to Virginia on Thursday and is being held in Hopewell pending his appearance in Surry County Circuit Court on Tuesday, where he is expected to plead guilty to two felony charges but receive a suspended sentence.

The report, which has some names and other information redacted to protect some of the parties involved, also details the killing of several dogs at property Vick owned on Moonlight Road in Surry County in mid-April 2007, just days before the first search warrant was executed on the property, turning a drug investigation into the one that sent Vick to prison.

(SNIP)

The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, once the highest paid player in the NFL, has been suspended indefinitely by the league and his football future is uncertain. He’s also in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings with $16 million in assets and $20.4 million in liabilities.

Peace, who also was convicted in the case, said there were times he suggested that dogs unwilling to fight be given away, but that Vick said “they got to go,” meaning be killed.

The dogs were killed by shooting, hanging, electrocution and drowning, and in at least one instance, according to one of the witnesses, when Vick and Phillips killed a red pit bull by “slamming it to the ground several times before it died, breaking the dog’s back or neck.”

What really angers me is the Vick, like the local teacher, won’t feel the full brunt of the law.  The local teacher’s lawyers basically delayed his case to the point of extinction. Vick is already serving a sentence of only 18 months for the dog-fighting conviction  and the punishment on new felony charges is probably going to be suspended.

When I think of how the law is being watered-down in these cases, it makes me think of what we’ve seen over the last few years, first with Bushco and now with Obama.  A lot of skating around the law, bending the law, and judges ignoring the law.

I’m hoping that the fire chief who beat Karley, if convicted, has the book thrown at him.  Somewhere, somehow, the law must be applied.  Isn’t that’s why it’s there?  To be applied? We’ve seen how a lenient judge paved the way for the horrible tragedy suffered by Bettyjean Kling’s daughter Louisa this past week.  Cruelty is cruelty, causing harm or death is wrong, whether it’s against an animal or a woman.

So let’s pray that their is Justice for Karley…and all of those who deserve to see it.

Godspeed, Karley…and all other innocents that have died or been harmed at the hands of heartless humans.

****

The Rainbow Bridge at PetLoss.com

Justice4Karley.com

Pet-Abuse.com (cases, law, databases, and local case pages which includes lists and maps of recent animal abuse cases for your local area)

Warren Eckstein

Taking Our Power, Taking Our Lives: Women Under Threat (Updated 1X)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

The news about  Bettyjean’s tragedy, the assaults on her daughters Denise and Louisa at the hands of a violent man and a useless legal system, has made me reflect on some of the threats I’ve received and about how many other women have gone through similar experiences.  Most of my life, I never really felt threatened, until the last few years.   The threats I’ve had directed at me recently have been unprovoked anger and verbal that has taken me totally by surprise, because the circumstances would not normally trigger such violent responses. They were disturbing when they occurred and even more disturbing as I recall them tonight.

I’m just about the only one around here who walks my dogs, and being from the East and used to pooper scooper laws, I always pick up.  In these parts, there is no such law and sometimes a stray or an inconsiderate dog-walker will allow their dog to leave a mess on someone’s property.

A few years ago I peeked out of my front door window to see a neighbor opening my front gate, a man whom I had seen a few times but knew little about, except that he was an ex-Marine and was now working in some sort of dispatch job for the city.  I opened the door to a barrage of verbal abuse and accusations about how my dog had left a poop on his property. Totally taken aback, I informed this guy that “I picked up.” This didn’t stop him one bit–he called me a “bitch” and told me I shouldn’t walk on “his street.”  Of course, this made me angry…very angry. I stepped outdoors and stood nose-t0-nose with this ranting man. I went into Marine-mode.

“Listen, SIR, you have no right to accuse me of anything, SIR! SIR, it’s a public street, SIR, and I can walk anywhere I damned well please! You’ve got a damned nerve, SIR, talking to me like this…You may talk to your wife that way, SIR, but you can’t talk to ME like that!”

By this time he had turned and was hurrying away. I left him with this salvo: “You just throw your dogs into the backyard, SIR. You don’t even know how to take care of them!”

A few weeks later the dogs were gone and I found out he had separated from his wife. They’re back together now, but Grandma is around an awful lot keeping a watchful eye on the couple’s little girl.

Another altercation occurred while I was out with Slick one Saturday morning, looking at some things at a garage sale. Suddenly, a big white pitbull mix, which I had seen looking out the screen door of a nearby house quite often, suddenly sped out of the house, jumped me, then went after Slick.  No one at the sale moved a muscle, but the guy inside the house ran out as he heard me screaming to get his dog off Slick.  After getting his dog under control, he didn’t offer one word to see if me or Slick had been hurt. Instead, he laughed at me and mocked me for being upset!  When I told him he should watch that door, he immediately got defensive and nasty. The lack of common courtesy, at the very least, got me so ticked off that I called animal control to report the attack. If the guy had treated me like a neighbor and had expressed some concern about the welfare of me and Slick, I probably wouldn’t have picked up the phone. But it was his total disregard for the attack on me and Slick that really angered me.  Animal control went to the house, then told me that no one answered the door. They guy was HIDING and wouldn’t face up to what his dog had done.

A few weeks later, I was walking quite far from his house, when the same dog came running down the hill toward me ready to jump me and Slick again!  The guy came running and this time, laughed at me and asked me why I was screaming again! Obviously, this guy had no empathy or respect for me or Slick, so I called animal control again.  A lot of older people stroll in the neighborhood and this sort of thing could wind up in someone seriously hurt. This time animal control left a notice. Since that event, the door seems to stay closed.  Apparently, the guy got fined and that got his attention, not an actual attack in action!  But once again, there was a complete lack of respect and concern from this man.

Last week, I had another confrontation as I walked by a house I usually pass on our short walks at night.   Tammy and her husband were out putting up Christmas decorations. I’ve known Tammy for quite awhile on a casual basis and have talked to her about our dogs quite a few times. (By the way, their German shepherd doesn’t get walked very much, either).  But, on this night when I walked by, her husband, in keeping with the season,  jumped up and charged at me, screaming about how my dog pooped on his front yard. No thought about a simple inquiry, no, this guy was fully ramped up. As he screamed at me, I whipped out a handful of plastic bags and told him “I pick up!” I had seen some old poop on his front grass, but it certainly wasn’t from me! He assumed it was ME, though, and told me he didn’t care about “my plastic bags.” He called me a bitch. I then found myself with my fistful of bags in front of his face, telling him that I came from the East where we had pooper scooper laws and I knew how to walk my dog. He said he didn’t care about the East, around here, it didn’t matter…and I shouldn’t walk up his block any more!  (Sound familiar??) I got so in the guy’s face that he started to back off, and warned me not to threaten him!  Well, I just told he had a damned nerve accusing me of something he had absolutely no proof I was guilty of, and that he was an idiot if he thought he could tell me I couldn’t walk on a public street!  I then asked him point blank if he was on drugs or if he was drunk.

At that point, I turned to Tammy and said, “You know me, you know I’ve always picked up!” and she turned away and said, “I’m not getting involved!” I was taken aback and really wondered why an adult woman couldn’t tell her husband that he was way out of bounds. I got the feeling that something was wrong in that relationship. Coincidentally, yesterday I found out from one of their close neighbors that the whole family was dysfunctional. Tammy’s father was an alcoholic and her sister, whom I had met several times, had nearly killed herself a few days ago by going on a drinking binge.  It seems that Tammy must have repeated the pattern and, judging from what he did to me,  she married a guy with the potential for some pretty violent behavior.

What ties all these stories together? Men with irrational anger, nasty language, demands for me to curtail my normal activities–in other words, abusive men who become hostile instead of approaching a problem with some degree of civility.  It’s more than being uncouth, it’s an attitude toward women they don’t even know that manifests in behavior that is completely off the wall. It’s as if they all thought that they had a perfect right to be abusive right from the start.  Sensitivity? Empathy? Simple politeness? Normal behavior? I think not…Not with these guys…all of whom backed down as soon as they were surprised by a woman, and an older woman at that,  who gave it right back to them.

What’s especially upsetting is that I’ve had to feel that I was FORCED to get so aggressive in return. But something told me that if I didn’t these guys would just be getting the reaction they wanted–a sense of power over me and a satisfaction that their macho behavior had intimidated me. At the time of the first incident I was really rather surprised at my own reaction…the sense of power I had when I challenged this guy who came onto MY property and verbally assaulted me.  Somewhere along the way to getting older and wiser, I had figured out it out…no more taking it from anyone anymore, least of all bullies who had something screwed up in their approach to women.

Women put up with an awful lot of this sort of thing and sometimes it really goes beyond verbal assault into the realm of a real threat to life. The so-called protections of marriage or committed relationships don’t seem to apply when things get violent.  What’s given a benign name of “domestic violence” is really just, plain VIOLENCE.  It galls me that there’s a sense of being diminished as a human being simply because a person is somehow “related” to the abuser.  How is this different than a an owner abusing an animal?

Down here in “the Borderland” we have a lot of  animal abuse and “domestic violence.”  The two seem to go hand in hand.  But after what we’ve been through this year, with the misogyny ladled out to us with the help of the media, the Democratic Party, and their pre-ordained nominee, it’s clear that “women hate” is perfectly acceptable. Latest example? The fawning story in the Washington Post about Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau.

Now, he has transformed into what one friend called a “Washington political force” — a minor celebrity with a down payment on a Dupont Circle condo, whose silly Facebook photos with a Hillary Rodham Clinton cutout created what passes for controversy in Obama’s so far drama-free transition.

Yes, it’s all so silly. All so silly.

So now Bettyjean’s daughters suffer at the hands of a man whom they once thought they could trust. But, their trust has been cruelly betrayed this man AND the depraved indifference of “the system.”

As a child, I spent a lot of time in Lodi, NJ. It was my father’s hometown. His immigrant parents settled there and ran a mercantile. My father, his three brothers, sister and half-sister all grew up there. His sisters remained there all their lives. I recall visiting every Sunday. My Aunt Lucy lived in a building next to the old Lodi Modern Bakery on  Main Street, a short block from the old plant with the smokestacks that still stood there then. My Aunt Florence lived upstairs in the same building. The smells of the bakery permeated their apartments.  Aunt Lucy, as the oldest of all the children, was the matriarch of the family. We saw our uncles and cousins there when they came back to Lodi to visit. We would sit at the kitchen table and watch the adults play canasta and eat Aunt Lucy’s marvelous food.  Her stuffed artichokes were the best I have ever tasted. Aunt Florence always ate with Aunt Lucy and never cooked as far as I know. But she was the one who would stop by the Sorrento bakery and pick up the Italian pastries before hopping the bus to visit us.  We all went to the annual “Feast” and enjoyed being part of what was basically an Italian enclave of close families.

In my childhood memories, Lodi was a wonderful place. I haven’t been back in years, but it seems like it’s just like anyplace now…just like any other place in America and or anywhere in the world where violence against women – or the lurking threat of violence —  is part of our lives…

…We must take back our power and take back our lives…

***

UPDATE

Report on the arraignment of the attacker and his comments

Man in shotgun case barred from contacting ill wife

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The man who is accused of shooting his wife’s sister in the face with a shotgun told a judge this afternoon that he wanted to see his terminally ill wife “before she dies.”

But a judge ordered George Hartwig to make no contact with his estranged wife, the shooting victim or any family members.

“That sucks. I didn’t even point a gun at her,” Hartwig said, referring to his wife, Denise Richardson, who is dying of ovarian cancer.

Hartwig was formally charged at the hearing in Superior Court in Hackensack with the attempted murder of 41-year-old Louisa Rodas of Hackensack. She remained in critical condition this afternoon.

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