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Report Animal abuse.......Get involved!!!!..

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While in Seattle, Amie and I where crossing the street and noticed a dog balled up, trying to sleep taking any opportunity to do so. The kid that had her was standing at a coffee stand asking for change. As the street kid tried to walk away, the dog stopped walking as the kid tried pulling her her neck became exposed and we saw the scars and open wounds on her neck. As Amie and i gasped, quickly noticing the dog was exhausted and did not want to walk.

The woman in the coffee shop noticed us and our reaction and quickly came out of the coffee shop to help. The dog crawled immediately up into her lap and fell asleep. AT this point there was no way any of us were going to let this guy take this dog.

convincing this street kid to give her the dog. He finally agreed it was best.

We put her in the back of her car and waited to get the dog to safety.

That night this girl examined the dog and found that the pinch collar had been embedded into the skin at some point. Her paw also had an abscess in between the paw, which is probably the reason she couldn't walk. She spent the entire night just sleeping. Which is why she had not had any energy.

If it was not for the help of this woman in a coffee stand, that put her job and her own self on the line for the safty of an animal. This dog would still be on the streets of Seattle.

WALT’S STORY: LOVE RESCUE ME

“I've conquered my past
The future is here at last
I stand at the entrance
To a new world I can see
The ruins to the right of me
Will soon have lost sight of me
Love rescue me”

                        -Bono, U2

We are desperately looking for rescue for our shelter’s longest resident dog, Walt. Walt is a four year old American Pit Bull/Sharpei mix. He was rescued from severe neglect by our Humane Officers back in April 2007. Walt’s former owner was sentenced to 10 days in jail and a $2,000 fine for the horrific lack of care she provided Walt.  Walt has been the focus of many departments at the Oregon Humane Society in the past year, starting with investigations, and the medical care team, on to foster care, behavior and kennels, and even marketing as his sad story became a published success story. Through these combined efforts we’ve learned a lot about Walt—he is a devoted canine companion to his people, is fun-loving but head strong and would require a special and experienced home with a person or persons who will be understanding and sensitive to his needs. Walt will also require ongoing treatment for his allergies and dry eyes which right now averages about $140.00 a month. Equally as important as Walt’s physical needs being taken care of, is his mental well being. He is sensitive and loving dog and it is our fondest hope to place Walt in the care of rescue or home that will be dedicated to Walt’s overall welfare, mind, body and spirit.

Walt’s story is tail of triumph over tragedy. Despite the miserable shape Walt was in when he arrived at OHS, it never dampened his indomitable spirit, enthusiasm or his love of people. He put up with daily baths and medications without complaint and always had a joyous greeting and kiss for anyone who stopped to say “hello”. However, as much Walt loved the staff at OHS and we loved him, it was not enough. What he needed was a miracle. The miracle came in the form of a loving and doting foster mom named Miriam Moore. Under her tender love and guidance Walt blossomed. For ten months, Walt had been in her loving care and embrace. She was not only his caretaker, but his best friend, defender and advocate. She loved him unconditionally and had seen him through months of rehabilitation as he  slowly recovered from severe mange, ulcerated eyes and entropion (a condition that caused his eyelids to roll inward and aggravating his eyes causing the ulcers and eye infections), horrible skin allergies and would had to have been unimaginable pain and discomfort.

Walt when he was first taken into custody by OHS Investigators.

Miriam describes Walt as a sweet heart and real love bug. He wants nothing more than to love and be loved. He thrives on attention, snuggling, giving kisses and being the beneficiary of compliments and kind words. He also loves a warm soft bed and toys, including his favorites, tennis balls and Kongs.  Miriam feels Walt is still a puppy at heart. She theorizes he probably never had puppy playtime when he was young so he still has bundles of fun energy stored up inside him (“keep away” is his favorite game). While in foster care with Miriam, Walt took great joy in going for walks, car rides and strolling through the neighborhood making new friends. Walt always tried his best to be well behaved and put his best paw forward. In his quest to always please and do the right thing he quickly learned new commands and was always very agreeable and gentle when he took food from your hand or when you gave him pills or took a prized toy away from him. He was also very proud of himself for being housebroken. However, only on a few occasions he had accidents in the house, which were due in part to the medications he was taking at the time. Miriam tells us Walt felt awful when the occasional accident happened, and he cowered and begged for forgiveness.  Walt got along well with Miriam’s resident cats. He liked to try and play with them. He was not taught how to play gently with his feline friends, so he needed the gentle reminder “no cats” when he gets a little too enthusiastic.  Walt is not dog aggressive, he does however, startle easy around other dogs due to his limited vision. Walt can be around other dogs supervised, such as walking and being kenneled. With the proper introduction and supervision we believe Walt can eventually co-habitat peacefully with other dogs.

As much as Miriam loved Walt, she made the extremely difficult decision four months ago to return Walt to the shelter to better his chances for adoption. The bond between woman and dog had grown incredibly strong and she felt it would be best that Walt not grow more dependent or bonded to her than he already was. The transition for Walt from a stable and loving home environment to the shelter was obviously difficult for him. But again, his indomitable spirit and enthusiasm took over and he quickly adjusted to the routine of kennel life as best he could.

However, over the past several weeks Walt has begun to experience extreme stress in the kennels and his behavior has become more unpredictable and has necessitated that we come to the hard decision that continuing to house him here at OHS long term would be to his detriment.  Although we feel he is place able due to his success in foster with a very committed and caring foster parent, we have not been able to find a home, rescue or sanctuary for him despite exhaustive efforts by everyone involved. For these reasons the difficult decision was made to place a deadline of May 15^th on our efforts to find placement for Walt.

Walt needs your help now!  Please, please can you be the saving grace for our Walt? If you were to welcome Walt to your home or facility our staff of veterinarians would be more than happy to discuss at length Walt’s complete medical history and needs with you. His demodex mange is now completely resolved.  To control his ongoing skin allergies and thyroid condition he is currently on several oral medications daily, eye ointment, a bi-weekly medicated bath and a special allergy diet. It may sound like a lot of work, but Walt will more than repay you in devotion and companionship.

Walt has been through so much and it is our biggest hope that Walt can find placement in a rescue or home where he can live out the remainder of his days in love, peace and comfort. OHS is a large shelter with many resources, but we have exhausted those resources in Walt’s case and are reaching out to you for help. If you can help Walt in anyway we urge you to please contact us as soon as possible, as time for Walt is running out.

Thank you so much we and Walt look forward to hearing from you!

Love and kisses from Walt!

Denise and Kelly

Foster Care Coordinators

foster@oregonhumane.org

503.416.2980 or 503.416.5025

Get involved even it means just standing by making sure the people involved are safe. When it comes to animal abuse take a witness, or you see someone trying to help an animal STOP and stay by them. Support them in silence if you have to.

When it comes to police profiling. If you see someone get pulled over or see something is not right, Pull over too. Don't say anything Just STAND! Stand for them and yourself. Be there witness. DO NOT LEAVE and wish you could have done something.

Racial Profiling unfortunately, it is still happening.

The first time. After being pulled over for a supposedly broken brake light  (my brake lights were fine), I was pulled from my car, told to assume the position, and within minutes being accused of possessing cocaine (which I have never done). The “suspicious object” that I actually DID possess—the impetus behind the cops accusing me of possessing cocaine—was my cell phone. And even after the authenticity of the cell phone was ascertained, my car was still roughly searched. When I inquired as to why my car was being searched at that point, all I got in response was the standard-issue “We are just trying to do our job. You can understand that.”

But no, I could not—and still can't—understand that. The only papers littering my car were school papers, my brake lights were in working order, and no ticket, after 45 minutes of police detention and intimidation, was issued me—because the only thing I was guilty of was Driving While Black.

The second time.. A police officer follows me into the parking lot of Elmer's. I get out of my car, begin walking into the restaurant, and the officer calls out, “Hey, you need to roll up your window!”  I turn and just stare at him for a minute, wondering whether I was the target of some prank. “You need to roll up your window, or I’ll have your car towed. It’s illegal to have your window down in a parked car. “

So, shaking my head the whole way, I go and roll up my car window, re-lock my car, and begin, again, to walk into the restaurant. This time I hear, “If you go into that restaurant, I'm going to tow your car!”  What? I ask the officer what the problem is now. Ignoring me, he again tells me that if I go into the restaurant, he’ll have my car towed. Then he tells me to get into my car and leave. I ask him once more what exactly the problem is. He proceeds to demand my license and, inexplicably, arrest me. He searches my car and finds nothing. Somehow he still manages to detain me, and I am not released until 11:30 that night., with a ticket for having made an “improper turn”.

For the record, I had no priors and no convictions.

The third time. Three weeks after incident two, I'm driving to my grandmother’s house to get my birth certificate for school, and I notice an officer is following me. He continues to follow me for about 10 min, and finally, frustrated and exhausted with this sort of treatment, I pull off onto a side street, and just park the car. The officer comes up to me and asks those famous words, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" Yes I do, I think to myself, because I’m black. I answer, however, with a simple “No”. “Because you didn't use your blinker to park just now.” 

The officer asked for my license then, and spent the next hour doing I don’t even know what before finally coming back to tell me that my driver’s license was suspended (which was news to me!), and that he’d have to tow my car. Which he proceeded to do.

The next morning, the first thing I do is get a ride to the DMV to check on my mysteriously suspended license. My turn at the DMV counter comes, and I ask why my license has been suspended, and what I need to do to reinstate it. What happens next is almost unbelievable.

“You have no suspension on your record.” The DMV agent tells me. Incredulous, I ask the agent to double check, only to have the validity of my license reiterated to me. I ask to have proof of my license’s good standing printed out for me. Then on to the police dept;  a $225.00 fee just to get the directions to my car, and $134.00 to get it from the tow company. And all for not using my blinker to park.

Up date: 5-10-07, OK so our court date was today at 8:30 and 1:30. Both tickets were for disorderly conduct. When we got to the window to check in, disorderly was one of the tickets however on her raster the other ticket was apparently for not having a license. Now call me stupid but how could he turn in that i didn't have a license, and i show up with two tickets for something else, THEN clearly written on the ticket I have, is my license number???? So how could I have a charge of no license and still he managed to put my license number on the top of the ticket.  

8-17-2007, the irony! scheduled for court! the dates surrounding this date, Ramone happened to get into a car accident. The luck! His car was in the shop and was ready around the 17th, well we had to figure out how to get the car pay the deductible blah blah, well we miss our final date. Sooooo guess what Yes a warrant is now out for is arrest. So we go to the court house the next day after we find out about it. (which,by the way we only find out cause we call our attorney asking for another date, they so as a matter of fact state! you have a warrant) So Ramone decides to go to school and take his exam first then after to go down and turn himself in. Wow, turn himself in. We arrive at 3pm and he is not out till 12pm. Next morning we are in court asking for a new date. Again for this profiling case HE goes to jail! remember the cop only has to show for one court date, we have had to go to 10 so far "the preliminary" Just to show we are serious. OH MY GOD!!!

So we go to the next preliminary and guess what the cop pushes is out again and now we have 4 more court times to go to before court. Looks to me he is really trying to make us drop this. PS  he doesn't even have to go to any of these, Ramone does. If he misses one, then it starts all over.

A couple additional steps i have taken since. When i got to the court house; so simple, I asked for an attorney. I entered a no guilty plea and that was the extent of the trial. Court is set over till next month so i have time to speak to my attorney about this case.

www.heyhandsomeguy.com

to join the forum

Here is how to fight back. First, always get the officer’s badge number (without which it will be hard to identify the officer in question, especially if he or she doesn't give you a ticket.) Once you have the information, do the following:

1.)  Call your local Internal Affairs Department, ask for the police division. This is an organization that investigates the improper behavior of individual police officers.

Portland Oregon Number is: 503-823-0146

2.) Get a defense attorney if you choose to fight the ticket.

3.) Contact your local division of the ACLU.(American Civil Liberty Union). File a complaint with them. Become a member!

 4.) Contact your local mayor. Portland's mayor is Tom Potter,

Contact Jared Spencer @ 503-823-4120.

5.) Get a camera installed in your car (www.heyhandsomeguy.com under the security section, have it hooked up by wireless to your computer. And this way you are never alone. You always have a witness.

Good luck. The police need to stop being the problem and become a part of the solution and it starts with you standing up!!!!

Donate to the "stop racial Profiling"

If you have a story we would love to hear it, also If it is clear enough and you feel racially profiled against become one of the many fighting to stop this.

Locally:Contacted the Mercury spoke to Matt. He does an article in the mercury about racial profiling so if you have a case contact him. 503-294-0840

Third i contacted the NW constitutional rights institution. 503-295-6400