Bad News: Charlie the AmStaff Could Be Euthanized as Early as New Year's Day

San Francisco refuses a rehab proposal for the dog who bit a police horse. David Gizzarelli, Charlie's owner, is fighting to save his beloved pet's life.

It's the end of the year -- but apparently not the end of stereotypes against certain breeds of dogs. The San Francisco City Attorney's Office is refusing the save the life of Charlie, the American Staffordshire Terrier who was sentenced to death after attacking a U.S. Park Service police horse in August. That means Charlie, who had no previous incidents of aggression, could be euthanized any time after New Year's Day.

AmStaffs, as they're known, resemble Pit Bulls, and we'd really hoped that the year after the death of Lennox -- a dog put to death in Northern Ireland only because he looked like a Pit Bull -- would bring a change in government's inability to look beyond breeds and to the individual dogs in question.

On Dec. 27, Deputy City Attorney Margaret Baumgartner rejected an offer from Charlie's owner, David Gizzarelli, to remove Charlie to his Los Gatos home and rehabilitate, train, and practice extreme caution with him. Baumgartner offered no specifics.

"The city will not return Charlie to Mr. Gizzarelli as it does not believe that there are any restrictions that would adequately protect the public safety," she wrote.

Baumgartner and all other city officials have refused for weeks to respond to media questions about the case. The rejection means that Charlie's life can be taken as early as Jan. 1. Gizzarelli and his attorney, John Mounier, will appeal the ruling at a hearing tentatively set for today. 

The case against Charlie is riddled with problems. San Francisco euthanizes only about 10 dogs a year, most of whom have a long history of aggression or have killed another dog or seriously injured a human. None of those standards applies to Charlie, who was 18 months old at the time of the attack, had no history of aggression, and had never seen a horse before. 

In addition, evidence suggests that U.S. Park Police Officer Eric Evans, who was riding Stoney the horse, misrepresented and exaggerated numerous facts during a hearing on the incident. And despite the weak and insufficient evidence submitted against Charlie, San Francisco Police Officer John Denny ordered Charlie's euthanasia without considering any options for restrictions such as "red tagging" the dog, a common requirement in San Francisco that would have required Gizzarelli to place a visible tag on Charlie and post warnings on his home. In addition, Charlie would be required to be leashed and muzzled in public for three years. 

According to Mounier, it is also problematic that Denny investigated the case, presided over the hearing, and ordered Charlie’s death.

“He’s wearing two hats in this case,” Mounier told the San Francisco Examiner. “In every other aspect of society, that’s wrong.” 

Unofficially, the city and county of San Francisco has offered to spare Charlie’s life if Gizzarelli agrees to give up ownership of his dog and pay for his rehabilitation. Charlie now requires behavioral rehab because he has been confined to a small kennel since Aug. 23, surrounded by kennels containing truly vicious dogs. But the city has offered no specific reasons for confiscating Charlie.

Gizzarelli has no history of mishandling or mistreating his pet. He has acknowledged his responsibility for the Aug. 6 attack and agreed to pay the $1,200 veterinary bill.  

The city has not only refused to explain its unprecedented harsh stance against Gizzarelli, but it has also launched a whispering campaign to besmirch his reputation. The city attorney’s office released documents to  reporters outlining an argument Gizzarelli had with his stepfather in July that resulted in mutual threats of violence. Gizzarelli was arrested, but no charges were filed. 

In addition, there are questions about an Animal Care and Control report that claims Charlie showed aggression toward an employee in July, the month before the attack. The report is extremely irregular in that it states in capital letters that Gizzarelli was not to be told of the incident.

If the city failed to warn Gizzarelli about the alleged aggressive behavior, they denied him the opportunity to exercise caution with Charlie -- and then the city might be responsible, to some degree, for the attack on Stoney. 

Gizzarelli said the city’s proceedings against Charlie have been unfairly biased.

“ACC and the city of San Francisco stack the deck against Charlie and any other dog or guardian they take a disliking to,” he wrote in a letter to Mayor Ed Lee and ACC Director Rebecca Katz. “The system is rigged and does not offer a fair and impartial chance to a dog or to a guardian.”

More than 109,000 people have  signed a petition calling for Charlie's life to be spared. Follow the Help Save Charlie Facebook page for up-to-date information; we hope to report back with good news for Charlie and Gizzarelli.

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Euthanized Pup Rises From the “Dead”

Wall-E is alive and well, despite being "euthanized" (Photo: KWTV)

A couple of weeks ago a scrawny 10-week-old puppy was euthanized (one injection to the arm, one to the heart) along with his five siblings, declared dead by a vet, and discarded in a rusty old dumpster outside a Sulphur, Okla. dog shelter.

Then the winds of fate changed course, and everything turned upside-down. For some strange reason, the garbage truck didn’t come by that night. The next day, Animal Control Officer Scott Prall heard a whimpering coming from the direction of the dumpster. He found a little black and white puppy, “just as healthy as could be,” in the dumpster.

Veterinarian Amanda Kloski took him in and has been caring for the resurrected dog since. She was hoping to find one loving home for him when he got over his hookworms. Homes are hard to come by in these parts, it seems. But once again, something fluky happened. A Pennsylvania woman heard about the pup, who had acquired the name Wall-e after the Pixar film about a survivor robot. The woman started a Facebook page for Wall-e, and now hundreds of people from all around North America are lining up to adopt him.

“In Sulphur we have NEVER had the problem (or BLESSING) of more than one family wishing to adopt a dog so we are new to this concept,” Dr. Kloski wrote on Wall-e’s Petfinder page. “Most of our dogs do not get this chance or opportunity even ONCE. It is amazing!”

Miracle pup Wall-e

While this miracle pup will surely have a very happy future, the same can’t be said for all the other animals in this area, which is badly in need of a shelter. If the county had an adequate shelter, Wall-e and his brothers and sisters might not have been euthanized the very day someone abandoned them there in an old cage, say shelter volunteers.

Davis Animal Shalter volunteers are holding a spaghetti dinner on March 18 to continue raising funds, should you happen to be around town and hankering to trade some dough for some pasta. If you can’t make it that day but want to help out, you can contact Audrey, with Davis Oklahoma Animal Volunteers, at 580/369-7862. And if you’re in the area, Kloski says the most wonderful donation of all would be for people in the area to volunteer as foster homes so dogs and cats can be moved out of shelters to avoid euthanasia, or to take in a forever dog. You can reach her or a shelter volunteer at 817/266-1901.

Check out this Petfinder page to see some of the dogs at the Sulfur Animal Shelter who need homes before it’s too late.

Why is Wall-e still alive? He should be long gone, like all the others in the dumpster. But this is a dog whose motto must be “never say die.” Maybe from his miracle can grow a shelter that help save lives. (And in the meantime, whatever vet put him to sleep should check his or her protocol and supplies so this never happens again. It worked out for Wall-e, but if he’d woken up in the bottom of a garbage truck, his fate would not have been so good.)

Just a few months ago I wrote  a story about a dog whose owner had her euthanized because of her failing health. Fortunately he brought her home to bury her. When he walked into the garage, she was standing by her food bowl waiting for a meal. It makes you wonder how often this kind of Lazarus thing happens, and what can be done to prevent it?

(A big thank you to Dogster amigo Santiagofdz for letting me know about this story as soon as he heard about it!)

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War Dog Who Was Erroneously Euthanized Gets Hero Award

Target, with Sgt. Terry Young and family, after she was reunited with him in the US

Target, the heroic dog who saved dozens of soldiers in Afghanistan by attacking a suicide bomber only to be killed in a foulup at an Arizona animal shelter, has just received a posthumous award: Paw Print Post’s (USA Today’s pet blog) Most Heroic Dog of 2010.

You may remember her from the stories we wrote in November about the terrible shelter mistake that cost her her life. It took a huge effort to get her to the US to be together with one of the soldiers whose life she saved. She was living with her loving new family for five months when she somehow got out their back door, and ended up in a shelter. U.S. National Guard Sergeant Sgt. Terry Young located her, but before he could get her out of the shelter, a worker had put her down. (The worker has been fired.)

Some good has come from this tragedy. Young and his wife, Melissa, are planning a no-kill shelter near their Phoenix-area home. Its name: Target’s Bunker, a Safe Haven for All Animals. So Target will keep saving lives. The project got a $1,090 infusion when the owners of two of the five Heroic Dog finalists threw their support to Target, because they thought she was truly the deserving dog. They also pointed people to a site where they could donate to the cause, which is still in its infancy (no nonprofit status yet, but it should come).

(If you feel a hankering to grab a hanky, check out a heartwrenching memorial video of her on the Target’s Bunker site.)

I’d like to shake the paws of two top contenders for the hero award who asked their many fans to vote instead for Target. The human halves of  Surf Dog Ricochet and Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog had a meeting of the minds when they become hero finalists.

As Ricochet “wrote” on her site, “I was excited, and honored (by the nomination).  I started asking my supporters to vote for me, but quickly started feeling awkward about it…like it just wasn’t right. A sense of sadness fell over me. That’s because one of the other nominees was Target.  And, Target deserves this title… she IS this title.” With Ricochet’s and Sparkles’ supporters backing Target in addition to her original supporters, she was a shoo-in.

What a heartwarming, positive story to come from such a sad, dark event. (A big thank-you to my Dogster friend Santiagofdz for giving me the heads up about the hero award.)

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Vigil for Target, the Accidentally Euthanized War Hero Dog

You remember Target.

She will not be forgotten. It’s clear from the above video of the vigil for this heroic dog from Afghanistan..

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