York County Animal Control officers now can enforce the new pet ordinance.

 

York County and the city of Rock Hill recently took a big step in upgrading pet regulations. Now county animal control officers will have the authority needed to enforce the new rules.

In February, county leaders approved a sweeping set of regulations to protect pets in the county, and Rock Hill followed suit in July. The new rules specify which chains can be used to restrain dogs and require that animals be kept in sanitary surroundings and have access to food, water and shelter from sun and rain. Female dogs or cats in heat must be confined inside buildings or secure enclosures so as not to attract male suitors.

The new rules were a response to complaints that too many residents were mistreating their animals, leaving them chained in yards with no access to food, water or shelter. While some animal rescue activists criticized the new ordinance for not going far enough, the compromise ordinance was a significant improvement over existing regulations.

                                        

But one key element to the effort - enforcement - hit a snag. The county's six-person animal control staff could not be authorized to fully enforce the new policy until they had taken training required by the state.

Until they had received that training, they were required to continue calling police to cite owners or take possession of a mistreated or dangerous animal. Unfortunately, the state Criminal Justice Academy did not have enough slots to train the county animal control officers, and the waiting list was long.

To make matters worse, the academy was accepting only law enforcement officers, which pushed back training for animal control officers indefinitely. But the county found another option: It sent county staffers to Midlands Technical College in Columbia for their training instead of the academy.

That, we think, is a sensible solution. County Manager Jim Baker said he found the training to be sufficient.

Besides, it is unlikely that an animal control officer will confront the variety of crimes or criminals a police officer would. And if the animal control officers run into something they feel they can't handle, they can call the police or sheriff's department for help.

The priority should be to get animal control personnel on the streets where they can enforce the new rules. The ordinance is a step forward, but it needs teeth to work.

Now that pet owners know they can be cited by animal control, they might think twice about disobeying the rules.

For more information on homes that are available in York County, SC, please call or email me.  I would love to help you with any of your real estate needs.  Now is a great time to buy a home.

Do you have someone on your Christmas list that is hard to buy for? Here is the perfect gift and this company gives a portion of the proceeds to the Animal Adoption League.  So please place your orders and save some pets at the same time!  Place your order now, the deadline is October 31!

The order form link is:  www.MyNextPet.com/wreaths

This email was sent to through our Animal Adoption League email group.

I learned today that microchips installed by Banfield are set at a frequency (134 kHz) that is not read by most scanners used by shelters and other vets. Those readers can only detect and read chips at lower frequencies (125 kHz).   Unfortunately that means a pet with a Banfield microchip could languish in a shelter and even be PTS because the shelter couldn't detect and read the chip. Sadly, the latter has happened in several known cases, probably many more times than is known.  

If a foster pet has a Banfield microchip, it's advisable to have a second chip installed that can be read at the lower frequency. Those include Avid, Home Again, ResQ, et al.   If anyone has any first hand knowledge about this, or knows anything that refutes this claim, please let me know.

A charity worth helping!!! It is also tax deductible! 

In York County, SC where my husband Jeff and I volunteer with the Animal Adoption League and the Committee For Responsible Pet Ownership, animal control kills around 500 animals a MONTH...A MONTH, think about that for a minute.  Anyone that mistreats an animal, calls animals control to pick up their pet because they decided they do not want that pet any more or dumps their pet out or off should have to watch that poor animal be euthanized.  If the pet is an owner surrender that animal has NO chance at adoption, it is euthanized...period, unless a rescue group gets out there fast enough to pull that pet.  Which leads me to Ted with Cloud 9 Rescue Flights.

Ted is a 25 year old pilot that flies as many of these animals out of our state as he possible can.  Please tell me how many people at the age of 25 could think past the next party...I know I could not at that age.  But he spends a lot of his free time in an airplane with animals that need him desperately.  He also helps people that are financially unable to get to their much needed medical treatment.  This is not just a person, he is an exceptional human being and I am honored to have met him and will make it part of my mission to help him with his mission. 

Please, if you have a few dollars to spare go to his website and donate whatever you can. Ted is helping us get pets on death row to safety and to a chance at a life with people who will love them as much as they deserve to be loved!!! 

Ted, you are a hero to many including me!!!

http://cloudninerescueflights.org/

For great pictures of the animals that have earned their wings with Ted go to the BLOG link to the left of the website page.

We are a foster home...for the time being until we adopt 4 shepards that will lose their dad to terminal illness.  We also have a group of people that we now call close friends that we go in to low income neighborhoods where dogs are kept on short chains with padlocks around their necks and some situations that are even worse. We go in and offer to spay/neuter their pets and if they agree to do this we will build fenced areas that attach to the homes where their pets will live instead of spending their lives on the end of chains. 

But this weekend we did something a little different that I will continue to do.  We helped with two transports!  Saturday our friends John and Linda (that we do fences with) joined us with transporting a total of 9 dogs/puppies in 3 of our autos to leg 4 of transport.  There were a total of 12 legs of this transport for these fur babies starting in Bamburg, SC and getting off in VA, PA, DE, MD and NJ, this is a long car ride for scared pets!

             Jeff, my husband with one baby.

On Sunday, we left home at 5:15am!!!  That is getting up at 4am to get all of our fur kids fed and feeling good about life before we could leave!

We made a couple of stops to pick up our precious cargo.  We had 5 puppies that were about 10lbs each, 1, 30ish pound 6 month old boy who was found at a local regional airport, his name is Dytter.  We also had pretty girl named Mama Mia who had been in a foster home since January 2009.  She had a litter of pups when she got to her foster home, all pups were adopted out.  But no one seemed interested in Mama in our area, so now she will find an awesome home somewhere up north where someone to love her to pieces!!!  We also had a 6 week old shepard baby that rode about 25 minutes with us before she transferred rides, she was going to Tennessee in a car.

Once we were on the way to Spartanburg the 7 precious kids in back of my Tahoe I wish I could say fell asleep and had a easy ride....but, it's me so I can't.  Out of the 5 babies I think 3 were throwing up...so we had to stop and change paper out so they would not get all messy.  Mama Mia was stressed, she does not ride well.  She drooled uncontrollably for the entire trip and I felt horrible for her,  I just wanted to hold her...but, she was drooling none stop and then finally threw up therefore I thought better of putting her in my lap, not to mention she weighed about 45lbs. 

Everyone was very happy when we got to our destination, the Spartanburg City Airport!  Yes,  these guys were flying to their new homes!  I cannot tell you how impressed I am with Ted, a 25 year old pilot that runs these death row babies out of here for us! The group's name is Cloud 9 Rescue Flights.  I am attaching the link to their site, when you get to the site look on the left side and click on BLOG and you can see what Ted has to say about the special work he is doing and he also has some killer pictures.  There is also a DONATION link on the site.  If you can spare any thing at all this would be a great place to send a few bucks or thousands if you have it!!!  This awesome 25 year old guy spends his own hard earned money if there are not enough donations to fly these dogs and cats.  A flight from my understanding runs between $2000 and $2500 a trip...that's a huge amount of money but he feels it is that important to keep these pets from being killed in shelters!  Thank you Ted, I was in tears watching you carefully load the plane and again when you took off yesterday, you have touched my heart!!!  With a heart as big as his he will do great things in his life and be rewarded beyond belief, that is what I am praying for, for him!!!  http://cloudninerescueflights.org 

Ted, Dytter & Jeff    the Fabulous Five         Mama Mia...not looking happy!    Ted's sticker that reads "Dog is my co-pilot"

Ted & 10 backseat drivers in the air!

Because animal rescue is what I do and the way this usually happens, this sweet little girl was probably dumped out and left to survive on her own.  The family that has taken her in for the time being says she loves kids and is gentle and intelligent. She seems to get along with other dogs and just wants to please everyone.  If you know of someone that is looking for a very loyal companion she is also looking for a loyal companion so maybe we can hook them up!  Please forward or re-post.