This Israeli Calendar Pairing Pinups with Pit Bulls Is Hot Stuff

The “Chicks for Pits” project is raising money for Dino's House, a rescue that takes in Pits and dogs like them in Israel.

Dino’s House, a rescue shelter in Israel that focuses on Pit Bulls and similar dogs, has created a calendar featuring Pit Bulls and models -- tattooed models, according to a story in the Blaze. We've seen this idea before. We're behind this idea.  

Adi Tzioni started the “Chicks for Pits” project hoping to change people's opinion of the dogs. She has an AmStaff and a Doberman, and she told Haaretz, "When they see me on the street with my dogs people get scared and move to the other side.”

“Everything depends on how they are raised, because even a Poodle or a Pinscher can be be aggressive if educated to be. It all depends on what kind of people they land with,” Tzioni told Ynet. "They return love." 

Dudu Martziano founded Dino’s House in 2012, and it currently houses 25 dogs. After rescuing dogs from fighting operations or abusive conditions, the group rehabilitates the dogs and then adopts them out. It can be a difficult process.

“Rehabilitation has many layers. A dog can arrive that is frightened and aggressive primarily toward animals and in seldom cases toward humans. If we place him as he is into a home, he could simply rip it apart due to his great frustration and fear, so we need to expose him from anew in a positive way to the environment,” he said, according to the Blaze. “That means we need to introduce him to a place where he will feel secure, where he has a normal routine including walking, food, and contact with people and animals.”

Martziano works "two-and-a-half jobs" to fund the rescue, and choses to help breeds like Pit Bulls because “nobody else wanted to do it.”

Here's some more photos from the calendar, which will be available soon through the Chicks for Pits' Facebook page. 

Via the Blaze; images via Chicks for Pits' Facebook page

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Kate Gosselin Is Not on the Side of Pit Bulls

Jon's girlfriend, Liz Jannetta, simply posted a pic of a Gosselin boy nuzzling with a caring Pit Bull on Twitter. Then came Kate's comebacks.

Did you know that if you post a picture of Jon and Kate Gosselin's kids frolicking with dogs on Twitter, your followers will FREAK OUT?

Caveat: Your followers have to be lunatics. 

Last week, Liz Jannetta, who is the girlfriend of Jon Gosselin -- what, you didn't know? -- tweeted a photo of one of the Gosselin tribe kissing a hugging a dog. The dog was not attacking the child. The dog was kissing and nuzzling the boy. The dog is a Pit Bull, too. Here's the shot:

I know. Aww. But some of Liz's followers were not happy. Actually, mostly they were not happy about Liz tweeting a photo of Jon Gosselin's child, because she is not Kate Gosselin ... or something. Custody hearings via Twitter conversations are hard to follow. 

Eventually the photo made its way through the Internet to Kate. And Kate was not happy. Kate made her way to her computer, uprooting trees and spitting poison, and the Internet cowered, awaiting the blow. It came passive-aggressively, in which Kate retweeted some tweets about a web site dedicated to child victims of Pit Bull attacks.  

@JenWheeler @Kateplusmy8 Children who were victims of pit bulls Take a look & see why people care.http://walkforvictimsofpitbulls.blogspot.com

@Kateplusmy8 @OneMomsOpinion Pictures & stories of pit bull victims http://walkforvictimsofpitbulls.blogspot.com

You see, Kate was making a passive-agressive stab at Jon, like the time she saw his toothbrush on the floor behind the toilet and left it there all day, equating that nice photo of the boy and a dog with a site about dog attacks, the message being: Pit Bulls are dangerous dogs.

Which is a bad and irresponsible thing to do, like that time you put your family on a dumb show and everything blew up in you and your husband's fame-grubbing faces. 

If you don't know who Kate Gosselin is and have never used Twitter, I'm sorry for all this. 

Via Radar 

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NYPD Rescues 47 Pit Bulls from Dogfighting Ring

They would have spent their lives being savagely injured by others of their own species. And those lives would have been brutally short -- ended early either by injuries sustained in those bouts with their would-be companions or by the human beings who trained them to kill or be killed. 

Nearly 50 Pit Bulls were rescued last week from a Bronx basement where they were allegedly being bred, trained, and sold for use in dog-fighting rings, according to the New York Post. 

NYPD officer with rescued Pit Bull pup. Photograph by Howard Simmons for the New York Daily News.

One man was arrested, and "police also seized a loaded .25-caliber handgun, 22 wooden cages, dog treadmills, harnesses, muzzles, syringes, and a shopping cart full of raw chicken parts," according to WABC in New York City.

The 47 rescued Pit Bulls range in age between one and five years "and had various injuries indicative of dog fighting," according to a police spokesperson. The basement in which the dogs were found was windowless, so no one outside could hear the dogs bark, howl, or cry. Located under a six-story apartment building, the basement was partly outfitted as an arena with room for 100 spectators.

As cops brought the dogs out one by one, "many were shaking and timid. Some were bone-thin. Others squinted once outside, never before having seen the light of day. All had sad expressions," reports the New York Daily News.

“It’s pretty horrific inside -- horrible conditions. I couldn’t even describe it,” said NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Favale, as quoted in the Daily News. “The dogs appear to be in various stages of abuse and injury.”

One of the rescued dogs. Photograph by Thomas E. Gaston for the New York Post.

Police arrested 57-year-old Raul Sanchez -- the building's superintendent -- last Thursday on six criminal counts involving animal fighting and cruelty.

A second suspect is being sought for allegedly breeding dogs for fighting purposes after "an extensive investigation" that began last October, when NYPD detectives began tracking the duo.

"Despite a few scars and visible wounds, all the dogs were responsive and in good condition before the ASPCA moved them to a local animal shelter," WABC reports. 

That's a relief. Let's hope these little survivors find loving homes. It's not a cinch, given all the prejudice against their breed. But maybe this case, which reveals the depths to which our species can sink, will at least raise awareness about the horrors of dogfighting.

Thanks as always, NYPD!

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"Miracle Dog" Patrick the Pit Bull's Alleged Abuser Is Back in Court

The Newark, NJ woman whose alleged abuse of a Pit Bull named Patrick made this resilient dog into a national celebrity is in the news again.

Kisha Curtis, who pleaded not guilty last year to four charges of animal cruelty after her dog was discovered nearly dead of starvation at the foot of a 22-story trash chute, appeared in court last Wednesday after being threatened with arrest for having missed a court appearance the previous day. 

Kisha Curtis, smiling in court. Photograph courtesy of the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

Curtis is now applying for a pretrial intervention program. Its completion "would eventually wipe the criminal charge from her record. She has previously rejected the state's plea offer that calls for up to 18 months in prison, a $5,000 fine and 30 days' community service," reports the New Jersey Star-Ledger. 

This is sparking outrage, as has nearly every other aspect of a drama that began on March 16, 2011, when Patrick was found at the foot of the chute in shocking condition. Weighing only 19 pounds, the year-old dog could not walk or lift his head and had seemingly not eaten in months. 

The news went viral. As Patrick began his remarkable road to recovery, thousands of letters and gifts -- treats, toys, clothes, cash -- poured in from all over the world. As the new face for anti-animal-abuse activism, the plucky pittie inspired "The Patrick Movement," whose branches in many states hold rallies and other events.

Arrested just over a week after Patrick was found, Curtis was charged with with "torture and torment of a living creature," according to Fox News, which added that the 550-unit Garden Spires apartment building where Curtis lived is "notorious for drug trade and other crimes."

Curtis denied having thrown the dog down the chute, but admitted having abandoned and starved Patrick, leaving him tied to a railing at the Garden Spires. She pleaded not guilty to the charges in May 2011.

Patrick in November, looking healthy and happy.

As support for Patrick has soared, so has loathing for Curtis.

"Hopefully she's found in a dumpster, wrapped in a plastic bag, at the bottom of a trash chute where she belongs. This disgusting mutant needs to be put to sleep," reads a typical comment on a Star-Ledger article about the alleged abuser, who on a now-deleted Facebook page claims to be a Duke University student and former employee of a porn company. 

Protests have accompanied all of her court dates, as many feel the state legal system is being too easy on Curtis and is moving too slowly -- in hopes, some say, that the public will lose interest in this case. 

That hardly seems likely. Patrick's transformation from sad starveling to healthy hero has spawned not only good wishes, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages but also money-seeking scams and a bitter custody battle. 

When Curtis appeared in court on January 20 to reject the plea offer, she was visibly pregnant. It's impossible not to ask: If Patrick is an example of how Curtis treats animals, how will she treat her own child?

Sources: New Jersey Star-Ledger, Fox News

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