KCMO Animal Control Trying to Shut Down Animal Rescue

Chain of Hope has been given two weeks to remove all the animals from their property by Animal Control. They have the support of most of their neighborhood in their mission, and their land lord. Why does Animal Control want to shut them down?

PLEASE READ. If you’re in the area, or just care about animals, please contact the phone numbers and email addresses at the bottom of this post. I don’t normally post things like this, but I foster for Chain of Hope, the group Animal Control is trying to shut down. These are wonderful and good people doing a difficult and sometimes thankless job.

We have a huge problem here with people leaving animals out on chains year-round, and often in deplorable conditions. Sometimes people just need help or assistance, which Chain of Hope can provide, sometimes CoH needs to intervene. They go out into the community and educate owners, provide material resources and help with medical care/spay/neuter, and rescue dogs (and other animals) when needed. They drive up the alleys of KC and look for the dogs that have been abused and forgotten and try to help.

And Animal Control is trying to shut them down on a bunch of stupid “violations” that aren’t even real. Meanwhile, CoH has called Animal Control about NUMEROUS animals over the years, and Animal Control either doesn’t go out, or says there are no violations. See the pictures in the linked blog post for just one example of “no violations.” If Animal Control enforced its own laws, and actually looked for violators, Chain of Hope would have a heck of a lot less work to do.

A lot of the animals CoH rescues are broken and wounded by humans. CoH saves them, physically and emotionally, and finds them better homes. Chain of Hope has helped my family too. When our golden retriever, Fleming, died, we were devastated. I still can’t think about him without crying. We decided to foster because of my job situation (a whole nuther post about my job ending this coming Feb), a friend’s sister works with CoH, so my friend recommended them. We made contact and in a short time (after appropriate background checks) we had Wednesday in our care. Wednesday was a life saver. She was such a mess, we had to focus all our attention on her, and not dwell on the loss of Fleming.

Wednesday had been left chained up in a back yard with her brother (named by CoH Pugsly) when the owners moved out. Yes, they just left the dogs there, with no food, water or shelter. We had a ton of work to do with her to make her adoptable, and to give her the assurance she needed to feel safe and loved. The first week in our house was tough—she’d never been inside before! She paced the whole night, waiting to go outside to sleep. Every indoor sound scared her. The sink, the toilet…aluminum foil and the wrinkling of those plastic windows on envelopes could send her skittering for safety quicker than anything at all.

Over the two months we had her, she blossomed. She became affectionate, and we desensitized her to a lot of things that bothered her, including crowds and household sounds. We even got her to potty in the back yard (otherwise, at first, she wouldn’t go while on a lead, and we had to take her to the dog park multiple times a day). She made friends at the dog park, and when she met a couple that wanted to adopt her, and were looking specifically for a cuddley dog that would bark at strangers coming up to the house, we knew she’d found her Forever-Home.

She went home with her new family on a Sunday. By Thursday, we had Jack (or Jackson, or Action Jackson, or Bubba Jackson of the Wu-Tang Jacksons, etc). Jack had serious fear aggression issues. He’d been abandoned in a dog run. Someone tossed a bag of dog food in a couple times a week, but he had little contact with humans, and the contact he had was negative. He was terrified of men, and terrified of people doing anything at all to him. We have had him since mid-October, and now he’s a happy boy who sits so hard when you take the leash out to go outside that sometimes he slides on the hardwood floor, and his tail flies back and forth so hard he sometimes knocks over cats. He likes to cuddle on the couch, and sleep down near legs so you can’t move at night.

Here he is, chilling between my husband’s legs. Not bad for a pup who was terrified of men, and bit my husband three times in the first week we had him. He loves the dog park and playing with other dogs, but if trouble starts, he comes right to us. He is another dog who went from horrific conditions to a productive member of doggie society with just a little love, but we’d have never had the chance to teach him to trust again if Chain of Hope would not have rescued this poor boy, and kept him long-term, instead of putting him down when he became aggressive.These people SAVE LIVES.

I snapped this pic right after the pic I took of Jackson lying between Jim’s legs. This is Sapphire. We were picking up Jackson from Chain of Hope (he spent Thanksgiving there—the hotel we were going to allowed dogs, but we had had so much progress with him, we didn’t want to freak him out by pushing too hard too fast, and CoH was happy to see him, and see all the progress he had made) when we quite  literally almost hit this girl on the road. She was wearing a choke collar that was too tight, and she had cuts and wounds all over her, some new, some healed. There’s a permanent slice in her ear that someone obviously never got looked at, and it was obvious she’d just weaned a litter. She’s only a little over a year old, too, to have lived such a hard life.

With just a bit of food, we were able to get her into the car. She was adorable and trusting, and Jackson didn’t think anything at all about having her in the car with us. I drove back to CoH, but they were full up… because they were COMPLYING WITH THE LAW. They couldn’t take her, and I couldn’t turn her out, so that’s how we ended up with a second foster. CoH paid for her vet visits, and her spay.

She’s adorable and a love bug. Before the spay she would get fussy and growly when any other animals got near her butt (cos she was in heat), but now even that has gone away. She’s even gotten affectionate with the cats. She licks Jackson (who puts up with it—barely), and occasionally falls asleep with her nose in our foster cat’s side-chub. But she’s a pit bull/Shar Pei mix. Double bully mix. A lot of towns around here would put her down as soon as she came into animal control, and she’s not allowed to be adopted in some areas. This poor girl was probably used as breeding stock, and possibly even as a bait dog (dog fighting is a HUGE problem here). She either escaped, or was abandoned, which was where we came in to her story.

Chain of Hope has helped so many dogs, and helped so many people find a friend and companion. What Animal Control is doing to them now is NOT about dogs. It is about power and control and Animal Control throwing its weight around which is galling, considering they don’t do their job. Granted KC needs better laws…but these guys aren’t even enforcing the laws they DO have.

Please take the time to read through their backlog of posts. You can see all the people and animals they’ve helped—people who didn’t have the money for a major surgery, or didn’t have a proper house for their dogs. You can see their documentation of the animals they tried to help, and called animal control for. You can see the ones they’ve saved, and poured hundreds of dollars into fixing in body, and all the love they’ve put into fixing their spirits.

And Chain of Hope helped us too. Not just in getting through the death of Fleming, but my husband had to do so much research on techniques for working with a fear aggressive dog, and had to do so much training with Jackson, that he feels like he’s finally found his calling in life, and now he’s working toward becoming a dog trainer so he can help other dogs and people.

It is NEVER the dog. It’s ALWAYS the people. And now Animal Control is punishing these animals…why? I don’t know. But if you have a few moments, please contact the mayor, the head of animal control, and the other people listed in Chain of Hope’s post.

Chain of Hope’s website: http://chainofhopekc.org/

Chain of Hope’s blog: http://chainofhope.wordpress.com/

Contact Information for Important People:

Mayor Sly James
816-513-3500
mayor@kcmo.org

Troy Schulte
City Manager
Phone: 816-513-1408
Fax: 816-513-1363
Email: manager@kcmo.org

Neighborhood and Community Services
David Park, department director
Phone: 816-513-3200
Fax: 816-513-3201
E-mail: ncs@kcmo.org

Animal Control Director Patrick Egberuare
patrick_egberuare@kcmo.org
816-513-9803

1st District Councilman Scott Wagner
Phone: 816-513-6503 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Kimberly Randolph • kimberly.randolph@kcmo.org

1st District Councilman Dick Davis
Phone: 816-513-6505 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Jackie Burton • jackie.burton@kcmo.org

2nd District Councilman Ed Ford
Phone: 816-513-6507 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Lisa Minardi • lisa.minardi@kcmo.org

2nd District Councilman Russ Johnson
Phone: 816-513-6509 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Meg Conger • meg.conger@kcmo.org

3rd District Councilwoman Melba Curls
Phone: 816-513-6511 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Reva Simmons • reva.simmons@kcmo.org • melba.curls@kcmo.org

3rd District Councilman Jermaine Reed
Phone: 816-513-6513 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Council Aide: Petrina Gooden • petrina.gooden@kcmo.org

4th District Councilman Jim Glover
Phone: 816-513-6515 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Erica Torres • erica.torres@kcmo.org

4th District Councilwoman Jan Marcason
Phone: 816-513-6517 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Councilwoman: Jan Marcason • jan.marcason@kcmo.org
Assistant: Susan Borge • susan.borge@kcmo.org

5th District Councilwoman Cindy Circo
Phone: 816-513-6519 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Gina Boucher • gina.boucher@kcmo.org

5th District Councilman Michael Brooks
Phone: 816-513-6521 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Tonia Titus • Tonia.Titus@kcmo.org • michael.brooks@kcmo.org

6th District Councilman Scott Taylor
Phone: 816-513-6523 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Lisa Sturgeon • lisa.sturgeon@kcmo.org

6th District Councilman John A. Sharp
Phone: 816-513-6525 • Fax: 816-513-1612
Assistant: Araceli Gallegos • araceli.gallegos@kcmo.org

If you do contact these people, please be sure to be calm, kind and articulate. They don’t need a million calls/emails from the “crazy animal people.” And remember, this isn’t just about these animals, it’s about people too. The people whose lives are touched by these animals, and the people who do not have to encounter an angry, frightened or aggressive dog who is starving and abandoned, and possibly get hurt, or rabies or worse.