1:03 PM, September 30, 2008
The Associated Press reports:
A 5-year-old girl attacked by a pit bull in a family friend's backyard in Simi Valley has died, authorities said Monday.
Katya Todesco died Friday at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, three days after the dog bit her on her face and neck, said Los Angeles County coroner's investigator Ed Winter.
Katya's mother, Katia Todesco, said she and her daughter were visiting a friend who was taking care of the pit bull Tuesday.
The little girl and the friend's 13-year-old daughter were playing in the backyard when the 5-year-old bumped into the dog, then was mauled.
Her mother heard screams and came outside to find the dog latched on to her daughter. “It was a horrible attack,” Todesco said Monday. “With my own hands I was pulling the dog's jaw.”
Despite losing huge amounts of blood, the girl was revived at Simi Valley Hospital, then was moved to Children's Hospital, where she survived until Friday afternoon.
“She was an extraordinary girl,” Todesco said. “We are devastated.”
Simi Valley Police said they did not announce the attack or subsequent death until getting questions from reporters Monday because they were not pursuing criminal charges and wanted to respect the family's privacy.
The 35-pound male pit bull was being held in quarantine and was almost certain to be euthanized, Ventura County Animal Regulation Director Kathy Jenks said.
1:26 PM, August 20, 2008
Here's a story for all the defenders of the pit bull:
A 2-year-old female boxer/pit bull mix named Angel, which had been turned over to the Nevada Humane Society’s shelter in Reno, is credited with rescuing six abandoned kittens Monday, according to Diane Blankenburg, a shelter spokeswoman.
While Angel was on a walk with a pair of volunteers, Frank Gomez and 9-year-old stepson Joel Fontes (pictured below with Angel), the dog became obsessed with something in the bushes.
With temperatures in the 90s on Monday, the two volunteers tried to initially coax the dog away from the bush.
But when Angel refused to move on, Gomez investigated and discovered a box full of 3-week-old orange tabby kittens that were frightened and hungry.
One of the abandoned kittens escaped before shelter staff was summoned to the scene, but Angel tracked it down and Gomez handed it over to safety.
Angel is up for adoption but the kittens won't be available for about four to five weeks, Blankenburg said.
Pit bulls are chronically challenging to adopt out because of their reputation as aggressive, violent dogs, so Blankenburg said she hoped Angel's story might help remove the stigma often associated with the breed.
"Angel is a sweet, playful dog who can now add hero to her repertoire," Blankenburg said. "Angel, herself a rescued dog, has paid back six-fold by rescuing these six little abandoned kittens."
--Francisco Vara-Orta
Photos: Nevada Humane Society in Reno
12:45 PM, August 15, 2008
An Oakland couple that has rescued hundreds of pit bulls to help reverse the dogs' criminal image has set its sights on the most villified outcasts of all: fighting pit bulls taken from disgraced football star Michael Vick, The Times' John Glionna writes.
Tim Racer, above, and Donna Reynolds, who head a rescue group called Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls (or BAD RAP), have taken in 13 of Vick's dogs, finding homes for 10 so far.
In most dog-fighting busts, the animals are euthanized. But this time, a federal judge ordered Vick to pay for the dogs to be assessed individually by experts who would look past the breed's stereotype.
"The Vick case is a milestone," said Reynolds, 46. "For once, these dogs were not destroyed, dismissed as ticking time bombs. They were seen for what they are -- as victims."
Photo: Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times
2:26 PM, August 10, 2008
Just days ago we were amazed to bring you the story of the woman who was cuddling five puppies cloned from her adored pit bull. But the story gets better and better and better. The Associated Press has an update on Bernann McKinney and her pups... and yes, you'll see the term "sex slave" in the very first paragraph. A woman who made news around the world when she had five pups cloned from her beloved pit bull Booger looked very familiar to some who saw her picture: She may be the same woman who 31 years earlier was accused of abducting a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave.
A paper trail of court documents and jail booking information uncovered by The Associated Press suggests 57-year-old dog-lover Bernann McKinney is Joyce McKinney, who in 1977 faced charges of unlawful imprisonment in the missionary case. She jumped bail and was never brought to justice.
British tabloids first recognized the blonde woman's smiling face when she appeared in news photographs this past week with the five pit bull pups she paid South Korean scientists $53,000 to clone from her pet dog Booger who died two years ago.
There is indeed a striking resemblance between Bernann McKinney and Joyce McKinney. Arrest records and court documents for the two names over the years show other similarities: the same birth date and Social Security numbers, the same hometown of Newland, N.C., and Joyce McKinney's middle name is Bernann.
"It fits," said Utah filmmaker Trent Harris, who made a documentary about Joyce McKinney's case. He said photographs of McKinney and the dogs left him with no question about her identity.
"I said 'Oh my God, that's Joyce,"' he said.
Bernann McKinney has flatly denied any connections to Joyce McKinney and says she planned to take legal action against those who suggested otherwise.
"I'm filing a $10 million libel action and I don't think you want AP to be part of that," McKinney said before boarding a plane to return to the U.S.
To read more of this bemusing tale of cloned pups and alleged sex slaves, click here.
12:57 PM, August 7, 2008
An American woman received five puppies Tuesday that were cloned from her beloved late pit bull, becoming the inaugural customer of a South Korean company that says it is the world's first successful commercial canine cloning service. The Associated Press reports: Seoul-based RNL Bio said the clones of Bernann McKinney's dog Booger were born last week after being cloned in cooperation with a team of Seoul National University scientists who created the world's first cloned dog in 2005.
"It's a miracle!" McKinney repeatedly shouted Tuesday when she saw the cloned Boogers at a Seoul National University laboratory.
"Yes, I know you! You know me too!" McKinney said joyfully, hugging the puppies, which were sleeping with one of their two surrogate mothers, both Korean mixed-breed dogs.
The team of scientists working for RNL Bio is headed by Lee Byeong-chun, a former colleague of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who scandalized the international scientific community when his purported breakthroughs in cloned stem cells were revealed as fake in 2005.
Independent tests confirmed the 2005 dog cloning was genuine, and Lee's team has since cloned more than 20 canines.
But RNL Bio said that its cloning was the first successful commercial cloning of a canine.
Photo: Associated Press
12:43 PM, July 30, 2008
 Apparently, the world of cooking for people is not enough for Rachael Ray. Now she's targeting animals as well. J.M. Hirsch, the Associated Press food editor, reports:
In the latest expansion of her culinary empire, celebrity chef Rachael Ray has launched a charity-driven line of dog foods based on recipes she has created for her pit bull, Isaboo.
Ray, who came to fame with her “30 Minute Meals” Food Network show, said all of her proceeds from sales of Rachael Ray Nutrish pet foods will go to Rachael's Rescue, which she founded to help at-risk animals. The outspoken dog lover regularly features recipes for pet food in her magazine, Every Day With Rachael Ray.
“It seemed like not a lot of extra time to donate to something that could potentially raise millions of dollars for championing these little creatures that can’t speak for themselves,” Ray said. A line for cats also is planned.
Ray’s pet charity group recently selected its first beneficiary, a terrier mix named Spirit that made national news earlier this month after a man was caught on videotape savagely beating it at the U.S.-Mexico border. The dog suffered multiple fractures. Rachael’s Rescue has offered to cover all medical costs for the dog’s recovery.
Photo: PR Newswire
1:03 PM, July 28, 2008
 Few creatures in the animal kingdom seem to generate as much heated comment as pit bulls, but L.A. Unleashed would like to remind readers (and the staff of L.A. Unleashed) that the so-called bully breed has many, many, many defenders. Two cases in point:
Last week, the Orange County Register reported that an owner advocacy group was furious about a Verizon Wireless TV commercial "in which two American pit bull terriers –- commonly known as pit –- bulls are portrayed as vicious guard dogs." The group calls itself ROVERlution. The 30-second commercial has a young man climbing over a chain-link fence into a junkyard, attempting to obtain the Verizon LG Dare phone. He awakens two pit bulls, which are tied down with metal choke collars.
The dogs bark ferociously and lunge at the intruder. The dogs get within inches of the man before being yanked to a halt because the chains don't extend far enough.
A Verizon statement says the commercial with the dogs "is no longer on the schedule."
In the meantime, the newest issue of "Bark," which bills itself as "the modern dog culture magazine," takes a thoughtful look at an organization called BAD RAP, Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls. Last year, the magazine reports, founders Donna Reynolds and Tim Racer were "among the nine experts asked by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help evaluate 49 of the dogs seized from Michael Vick's Bad Newz kennels and held in Virginia-area shelters."
Yes, we know that if you sign up for a "Google alert" on "animal attacks," many of the headlines involve pit bulls, but it's tough to read the article in Bark and dismiss the notion of redemption. "The personal stories of dogs -- dogs redeemed from dreadful captivity, with no interest in fighting, joyously learning to be with people -- have touched many hearts."
-- Alice Short
Photo: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
1:55 PM, July 24, 2008
An 11-year-old boy is in the limelight in Brazil after biting a pit bull that attacked him while he was playing, Reuters reports: Gabriel Almeida, who lives on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais, broke a canine tooth when he bit into the dog's neck to fend off an attack. Since then, he has been pampered in the studios of several TV stations, where he has been recounting his ordeal.
"I grabbed him by the neck and bit," he told O Globo newspaper. "It's no big deal. It's better to lose a tooth than to lose your life."
He was freed when bystanders pulled the dog off him and needed four stitches in his arm.
A Sao Paolo newspaper said the dog "was taken to a pound and may be sacrificed."
--Tony Barboza
11:57 AM, July 11, 2008
 Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted last year by a federal grand jury in relation to the dogfighting investigation that took place at his Virginia residence.
When Vick's home was first raided in the spring of 2007, dozens of malnourished animals were discovered; later raids turned up buried remains of several pit bulls. It was suggested that dogs that wouldn't fight -- or lost their fights -- were shot, drowned, electrocuted, strangled or hanged.
So what happened to the dogs that didn't die? A federal judge involved in the case ordered each dog (that's one of them pictured) to be evaluated individually. And he "ordered Vick to pony up close to $1 million to pay for the lifelong care of those that could be saved." The Washington Post reports: Of the 49 pit bulls animal behavior experts evaluated in the fall, only one was deemed too vicious to warrant saving and was euthanized. (Another was euthanized because it was sick and in pain.)
...Of the 47 surviving dogs, 25 were placed directly in foster homes, and a handful have been or are being adopted. Twenty-two were deemed potentially aggressive toward other dogs and were sent to an animal sanctuary in Utah. Some, after intensive retraining, are expected to move on to foster care and eventual adoption.
Pit bulls seem to end up in a great many headlines that involve animal attacks, so how can it be that some experts believe some of these animals can eventually be placed with people, possibly people with families? Post writer Brigid Schulte has some of the answers.
-- Alice Short
Photo: Douglas C. Pizac / Associated Press
4:13 PM, June 6, 2008
*UPDATE: 4 p.m., 6/6/08: The Los Angeles Department of Animal Services said today that the pit bull was in fact a shepherd mix. Lt. Susan Botta of the East Valley shelter said LAPD initially reported the dog as a pit bull. LAPD referred all inquiries to the city's animal services department. The dog is under quarantine, Botta said.
A 2-year-old boy was in stable condition today at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles the day after his face was bitten by a pit bull in Pacoima, police said today.
The Times' Tami Abdollah reports: The toddler was in the backyard of his home in the 13000 block of Louvre Street, playing under his grandmother's supervision, when the family pit bull "for unknown reasons turned around and tackled the child" Wednesday morning, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Rich Suviate.
"The dog bit him from the bridge of his nose right underneath his eye socket, down the bridge of his nose, through his mouth and the entire cheek area. It was a very, very nasty injury," Suviate said. At the same time, he said the doctor at Childrens Hospital said "there was no nasal cavity or sinus cavity injuries, which I guess is huge."
The attack took place shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday. The boy's grandmother immediately jumped on the dog to pull it off the boy, Suviate said. She sustained "some serious bite injuries" including to the back of her right leg and thigh, and punctures to her hand and forearm, he said.
Police had initially reported that the child was 1 year old.
-- Francisco Vara-Orta
12:13 PM, June 4, 2008
A 1-year-old boy was bitten by a pit bull today in Pacoima and airlifted to the trauma center at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, officials said.
Officials responded at 11:06 a.m. to the incident on Louvre Street. Officials used Paxton Park as a landing site for the helicopter, said d'Lisa Davies, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
"Because he's so young, they're trying to get him to the hospital as quickly as possible," Davies said.
Davies said she did not immediately know the extent of his injuries.
-- Tami Abdollah
11:36 AM, May 23, 2008
Felony charges have been filed against a Lakewood owner of a pit bull that attacked and seriously hurt a Southeast Area Animal Control Authority officer, the Associated Press reports: Antoynette Michelle Jenkins is charged with one count of owning mischievous dogs causing bodily injuries for a May 7 pit bull attack on officer Vince Hernandez, who underwent surgery for injuries to his right hand and arm.
Los Angeles County prosecutors also charged the Lakewood woman with two counts of animal cruelty because of the unhealthy condition of her dogs.
Hernandez went to the Jenkins home after she had agreed to give up three of her five dogs to comply with a city ordinance permitting only two dogs per household. A pit bull named Rocky attacked the officer and the other dogs joined in.
6:09 PM, May 19, 2008
Rapper DMX has been arraigned on four felony drug charges and seven misdemeanor animal-cruelty charges. He is scheduled to be back in court July 2, according to the Arizona Republic: Dressed in a white baggy T-shirt and dingy jeans, Simmons walked into Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Lisa VandenBerg's courtroom at 9:30 a.m., an hour late. VandenBerg entered a not-guilty plea on all 11 charges for the internationally known rapper...
The animal-cruelty and drug charges stem from an early-morning May 9 search of Simmons' Cave Creek-area home by Maricopa County sheriff's deputies.
The search warrant was served seven months after the Sheriff's Office launched a high-profile investigation into reports that Simmons was neglecting 12 pit bulls. Some were dehydrated and appeared to be underfed. Three were found buried in his backyard.
DMX had no comment on the charges.
5:04 PM, May 16, 2008
Around the Los Angeles area this weekend, animal lovers can head to the local zoo to meet the Berenstain Bears (and a few real ones too), adopt cats and dogs, and help raise funds to save a range of animals, from emus to tortoises in need.
The Los Angeles Zoo is hosting a meet and greet with the cuddly Berenstain Bear characters on Saturday and Sunday. As for real bears, visitors can see the zoo's American black bears eat some special treats at 11 a.m. both days.
Also this weekend, Los Angeles City Animal Services has a handful of mobile pet adoption sites set up in South Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, the West Valley and Moorpark.
On Sunday, dog lovers can head over to the La Brea Tar Pits for the Walk for the Underdog, an hour-long, 2-mile walk that kicks off at 10 a.m. for a daylong celebration of canines with food, adoptions, and a dog/owner contest. Proceeds go toward raising money for the nonprofit efforts by 30 organizations to save dogs. You can bring your own dog, or come alone and find one to adopt there, organizers say.
Also on Sunday, Hope Ranch Animal Rescue will hold its first annual fundraiser in the Malibu countryside to help raise funds to care for 80 animals: sheep, dogs, emus, horses and tortoises, among others. Donations are $25 per person and the event will take place at the Morris Ranch from 2-6 p.m. with jazz, a petting zoo, and a silent auction.
-Francisco Vara-Orta
Photo: Stephen Osman/Los Angeles Times
3:32 PM, May 15, 2008
*3:21 p.m.: A suspected dogfighting operation has been broken up in rural Ramona, San Diego County animal services officials said today.
Ten pit bull terriers believed used in fighting were seized in a raid after officials received a tip, officials said. Some dogs were chained, others were entangled around stakes, and many had scars on their faces and legs.
 The property owner was not home when search warrants were served.
The dogs were taken to a shelter in Carlsbad and information turned over to the district attorney’s office for possible criminal charges.
Among the evidence seized were treadmills, medications, syringes, trophies and dogfighting schedules, said Lt. Dan DeSousa, supervising animal control officer for the county’s animal services department. The dogfighting schedules appeared to be in code, DeSousa added.
DeSousa said the owner appears to have been a “hobbyist” dogfighter, not a professional. While San Diego County has not been considered a center of dogfighting, officials are not discounting the possibility. “Dogfighting goes on here,” De Sousa said. “We’d be foolish to think it doesn’t.”
--Tony Perry
Photo: San Diego County Department of Animal Services
3:33 PM, May 12, 2008
 Rapper DMX was arrested Friday -- for the second time in a week -- in connection with a raid on his house last summer that allegedly turned up weapons, drugs, dog carcasses and abused pit bulls.
The Arizona Republic reports: After a 7-month investigation, Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies arrested Earl Simmons, better known as rapper DMX, at his Cave Creek home early Friday morning on suspicion of misdemeanor animal cruelty and felony drug possession.
The arrest stems from a raid by deputies on the rapper's home in August, which led to the seizure of 12 dogs that appeared malnourished and the discovery of three more dogs buried in the backyard.
The rapper tried to barricade himself in his bedroom while the search warrant was being served, but he eventually emerged, authorities said.
DMX had been arrested Tuesday on suspicion of driving up to 114 miles per hour on a highway.
It's hardly a surprise that a search of DMX's house would turn up pit bulls. After all, one of his recent albums was called "Year of the Dog...Again," and he does have song hooks that feature barking dogs.
DMX was convicted of animal cruelty in New Jersey in 1999 for housing 13 pit bulls in tight cages, and agreed to record a public service announcement against cruelty as part of his plea deal, according to the Republic.
To the surprise of sheriff's deputies, who found five pit bull puppies at his house Friday, DMX continued to keep dogs at his house even after the raid last summer. "He had to know that we were still investigating him," Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told the Republic.
The puppies were taken away and will now be in the care of jail inmates.
-- Tony Barboza
Photo: Frank Miceotta/Getty Images
5:05 PM, May 8, 2008
Times staff writer Ron Lin reports that a 60-pound pit bull named Rocky mauled an animal control officer in Lakewood, leaving the officer with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The 28-year-old officer, who was not identified, suffered flesh wounds to his arms and legs and a broken knuckle after the dog lunged at him during a routine house call, said Capt. Aaron Reyes, who heads operations for the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority in southeast Los Angeles County.
After the attack, the owner decided to allow animal control officers to take all of her dogs. They will be euthanized. Read the complete story below.
-- Alice Short
Read more Animal control officer hurt in pit bull attack »
3:42 PM, May 6, 2008
UPDATED AT 3:08 P.M.: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a reward of $5,000 to anyone who offers information leading to the conviction of whoever set a dog on fire in Lancaster on Monday night.
Anyone with information on the attack is urged to call the sheriff's Lancaster Station at (661) 948-8466.
-- Jean-Paul Renaud
10:47 A.M.: Investigators are searching for whoever set a dog on fire in Lancaster on Monday night.
Residents of the 300 block of East Lingard Street heard the pit bull mix yelping, then saw it running into the street, its fur ablaze, about 11:30 p.m., said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Ed Stewart.
One onlooker put a coat over the dog, extinguishing the flames, Stewart said. The dog was taken to a county animal shelter where it was being treated today for burns to its legs and back.
Stewart said the people responsible could face felony animal cruelty charges.
-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske
9:53 AM, May 6, 2008
 Some days it does not pay to be a pit bull. As readers of L.A. Unleashed know, the so-called "bully breed" arouses feelings of great passion on both sides of the debate: Are pits genetically predisposed to violence, or is it the owner's fault when something goes wrong? Do pits make loving pets when treated well, or should they be avoided at all costs?
PetSmart has been the target of online complaints about “breedist” requirements at its doggie day-care facilities.
Now Tulsa, Okla., is dealing with the controversy about pit bulls: According to a report in the Tulsa World, the Tulsa Animal Shelter's policy prohibiting the adoption of pit bull terriers will be reviewed to see if it complies with state law. Officials at the shelter won't allow people to adopt stray pit bulls or pit bull mixes to prevent them from being trained to fight -- a criminal activity. If owners of pits bulls do not claim the dogs within three business days, they are euthanized once the shelter runs out of space, Jean Letcher, shelter manager, said Wednesday.
The shelter's policy became an issue when Sam Thompson called the facility April 23rd to pick up two stray pit bulls that had wandered into the dent-repair shop where he works on Sheridan Road near 41st Street.
When he learned three days later that they would be euthanized, Thompson asked to adopt the dogs but was denied because of the shelter's policy.
Meanwhile, Long Island just had its first-ever conference on pit bulls. According to Newsday, the principal message of the conference was this: "The predicament facing these canines does not really lie with the dogs, but with humans and how they treat them."
-- Alice Short
Photo: Anne Cusak/Los Angeles Times
11:10 AM, May 2, 2008
Police arrested a man Thursday in Simi Valley on suspicion of killing his pitbulls with a semiautomatic handgun, the Associated Press reports.
The Ventura County Sheriff's Department website said 49-year-old Rafael Calderon Jr. remained in custody in a county jail Thursday after being arrested and booked for investigation of animal cruelty.
Calderon is eligible for release on $10,000 bail.
A Simi Valley police news release said officers investigated the deaths of the dogs in the backyard of a residence. They seized a firearm at the scene.
County Animal Control officials will perform a necropsy on the animals.
-- Francisco Vara-Orta
5:22 PM, April 5, 2008
 Minneapolis resident Amy Rice tells the Associated Press that she feared for her dog's life when a pit bull jumped over a fence into her yard and attacked her pooch. So she took matters into her own hands. Or mouth.
Rice says she bit the pit bull on the nose Friday after unsuccessfully trying to pull the dog's jaws off her Labrador retriever, Ella.
"I didn't plan it, that's what happened. I broke the skin and had pit bull blood in my mouth," said Rice, 38. "I knew what happened, and I knew that it wasn't good."
It's not clear whether Rice was exposed to rabies. The pit bull was quarantined by Minneapolis Animal Control officers.
"I was sure that my dog was dying in my arms; it was horrible," Rice said. Ella is recovering with staples and stitches to her head and a crushed ear canal, Rice said.
In 2005 the Antelope Valley experienced a rash of attacks by pit bulls; this one was taken to the Los Angeles County animal shelter in Lancaster. The attacks prompted the Board of Supervisors to allocate funds to hire four animal control officers and a shelter aid to combat the problem.
-- Francisco Vara-Orta
Photo: Stephen Osman/Los Angeles Times
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