NEWSBYLEDY VANKAVAGE

Amanda Kearney didn’t set out to be an activist. But when, like many other people, she unknowingly moved to a city — Wentzville, Missouri — where her dogs, Harley and Belle, faced harsh restrictions simply because of their appearance, she learned that you can take on city hall.

“I called aldermen, reporters and news stations out of panic," Kearney said. "I don't look at my dogs just as pets; they are members of our family. It broke my heart to see them in muzzles and always on a leash in our fenced in backyard, I had to do something. It wasn't fair for them."

Luckily the majority of her neighborhood was extremely supportive. They wrote letters and made phone calls, too, giving character references for Kearney and her dogs. When Tyanna Flynn heard about Kearney's plight, she started a petition on Change.org. The petition was shared by community members on Facebook and gained more than 2,500 signatures.

Last year, Ohio resident Eric Schumacher was ticketed when he was out walking his dog. He had to pay $550 for insurance, plus spend another $1,500 to build a fence. His dog, Brutus, had never been a threat to other people — his only crime was being a pit bull.

Eric and Brutus don't have to worry about facing this kind discrimination anymore. This week, Governor John Kasich signed HB 14 and repealed Ohio's statewide breed discriminatory law.

Abolishing canine profiling in the Buckeye state was an historic accomplishment made possible by Change.org members, with Best Friends Animal Society and the Ohio Coalition of Dog Advocates leading the charge. The antiquated pit bull law not only resulted in the killing of thousands of puppies and dogs, it wasted millions of taxpayer dollars. Indeed, eradicating breed discrimination is not only an animal welfare issue, it is a property rights issue, and a matter of economic justice when people like Eric are forced to pay unfair fines just to keep their pets.

In the spirit of the season, U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett played Santa Claus and granted a preliminary injunction ordering the return of Snickers, a service dog to his owner, Jim Sak. Sak, a retired Chicago Police Officer,  suffered a stroke three years ago.  Snickers, a sturdy pit bull mix was trained  to assist him.  All was well until Sak and Peggy Leifer moved to Aurelia, Iowa so Leifer could care for her elderly mother. From there, the townspeople circulated a petition requesting the city enforce its breed discriminatory ordinance targeting "pit bulls" and banish Snickers.

Sak and Liefer tried to sway the city council arguing that Snickers is a certified service dog with no history of aggressive behavior. The council didn't agree and voted 3-2 to enforce their breed discriminatory ordinance. Kristine Elizabeth, a change.org member, was also outraged and started a petition targeting city officials. Over 1,250 member have signed the petition to date.

In photos, the Kearneys' dogs look like Great Danes, big and gangly, but  they haven't had DNA testing done to prove their heritage, so who knows what breeds they really are? But Amanda Kearney made a mistake on Facebook that has cost her pets their freedom. She referred to her dogs as "pit bull mixes" and a nosy neighbor reported them to the Wentzville police. So much for being neighborly. Now the pets can't be outside a kennel unless they are leashed and muzzled. The Kearneys can't even open their windows if the dogs are inside the house. Unbelievable.

Paul Emmerich and his fiance, Tyanna Flynn, heard about what happened to the Kearneys and decided to start a petition on Change.org to end the Wentzville witch hunt against dogs.

Paul says he has seen how the town's breed discriminatory law can be manipulated and used against good owners and good dogs. He and Tyanna believe that breed specific legislation, like the Wentzville ordinance that restricts dogs who look like pit bulls, is a form of discrimination against dogs and their owners.

It's a pet owner's worst nightmare: their senior, arthritic dog gets out of the yard, but instead of finding his way home or to the safety of a friendly neighbor, he's shot and killed by police. That's what happened to Boomer, the 12-year-old golden retriever of Lauren and Roy Glass of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Boomer was less than a block from his home when he died. According to Roy Glass, not only did the police fail to call him, they never even called Animal Services as they should have done per Pinellas County Ordinance. Instead, Boomer became the seventh dog shot by St. Petersburg Police this year.

When Nancy Smith heard Boomer's story, she started a petition on Change.org, with the help of the internet-based volunteer group Hand4Paws, asking St. Petersburg officials to establish new training protocols and policies for police dealing with dogs. Even though she doesn’t live in St. Petersburg, Ms. Smith felt compelled to act because she too owns a senior golden retriever who now growls when you try to lift him on the bed or into the SUV. But that shouldn’t be a death sentence.

The sad reality is that, although there is roughly one dog for every four people in the United States, most police officers receive little or no training in canine behavior.

Fran Coughlin, a real estate broker turned activist, believes all good dogs deserve a home, regardless of their appearance. She and her twin sister, Liz Sullivan, have always had dogs in their lives and they're furious that a pit bull ban was ever passed in Ontario. Now, they're organizing the drive to get the breed discriminatory law repealed.

"Our government needs to know we are not going away, giving up, letting up or shutting up until all Ontarians are equal again under law as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter," said Coughlin. "Warrant-less entry into private homes and removal and destruction of non-offending family pets, based on when they were born or what they look like is both unjust and draconian."

The knee-jerk measure was passed by the provincial government in 2005. Since that time, according to Coughlin, "Canine profiling in Ontario has crossed over races, cultures, ages, sexes and professions."

To achieve their goal, the sisters have started a website and petition drive. They are also taking to the streets with a rally on October 1, from 4 to 7 p.m. in downtown Toronto, in support of Hershey's Bill, a proposal introduced to repeal the ban.

You've got to hand it to tenacious, articulate advocates like Jean Keating, who is committed to volunteering her time to help our best friends. Keating and her nascent group, the Ohio Coalition of Dog Advocates, have been relentless — and quite successful — in repealing antiquated city canine profiling laws in Ohio that rip friendly pets from their homes. They now have their eyes on the prize: targeting the state-level breed discriminatory law.

According to Keating, "There will never be a better time than now to join together, across the State, and put an end to discrimination once and for all. From farm to suburb to city, pit bulls live in every neighborhood, with people of every race, age, religion, and occupation. As Ohioans, we share a passion for dogs. As Ohioans, we can no longer stand by and watch families torn apart by breed discrimination."

HB 14, a comprehensive dangerous dog/reckless owner bill that does not target dogs based on their appearance, has passed the State House of Representatives and, now that the legislature is back in session, has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Criminal Justice Committee. Keating's petition on Change.org is asking the committee, and eventually the full Senate, to pass the bill.

Is U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service poised to start taking out cats by the thousands? Such a project would be inhumane, not to mention a waste of precious taxpayer dollars in a time of deficit reduction. But believe it or not, this covert war on cats is already being waged and USFWS will be recruiting with a presentation scheduled for a Hawaii conference this fall.

In early November, USFWS personnel are going on a junket to beautiful Hawaii to teach conventioneers how to stop Trap Neuter Return programs in their towns. The program for the Wildlife Society's annual conference states that USFWS folks will give a presentation that includes "role-playing" that can be used to defeat TNR programs across the nation. (How come I never get sent to Hawaii for role-playing?)

And what is the USFWS method of choice to control community cats? Killing. That’s pretty unconscionable in this humane age, especially considering that catch-and-kill doesn’t work. If it did, we wouldn't have any community cats left by now.

Animal advocates and Change.org members scored a huge victory when they successfully lobbied  to increase the funding levels at New York City's Animal Care and Control. Let's face it, in this economy, that was not easy feat. Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn agreed to raise funding levels to a 77 percent increase over the current budget by July 2014. That's a huge win for the cats and the dogs, especially in a city that has boasted one of the lowest per capita rates in the nation for funding animal control.

To capitalize on that success, Council Member Jessica Lappin filed Intro. No 655, a humane bill that would help provide a safety net for New York City's animals. This legislation would codify trap, neuter, and return programs for feral cats, in addition to requiring all free-roaming owned cats to be sterilized to help reduce the homeless cat population.

Cats aren't the only species that would benefit from this legislation. It would also require facilities that receive lost, stray or homeless dogs and cats from the public to be maintained 7 days a week, 12 hours a day in boroughs of the city in which there is not a full-service shelter. Additionally, at least one of the full-service shelters would have to be open to the public for the purpose of receiving animals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It looks like a crime scene: a closed  building  with yellow police tape around it. To Bay Village, Ohio, animal advocates, laying off of their only animal control officer and  closing their small "no kill" animal shelter is indeed a crime perpetrated on pets by the Mayor and City Council.

Local advocates are outraged by  the council' s disregard for public safety and their  decision to ship Bay Village's dogs and cats off to animal control agencies with much higher euthanasia rates. They are working hard to get the council to reconsider their decision. They created a petition on Change.org to convince the city to reinstate its lone animal control officer. Saturday morning, they will exercise their right to free speech by  taking to the streets to peacefully protest the council's actions.

The closure is allegedly because of money. Mayor Deborah Sutherland explained the change in an email: "The rationale was based on budgetary constraints and planning for future massive budget cuts in state funding that we will experience through 2013. The state of Ohio balanced its budget on the backs of local governments — a move that will reduce my General Fund Revenue by 10 percent or approximately $1.0 million."

The Mayor's explanation sounds plausible, until you speak to one of the many activists organizing the campaign to reinstate animal control. When asked about the monetary concerns, Nancy Brown is skeptical. "To save $40,000 a year, the city abandons animal control, shipping pets to a high kill shelter, yet the Mayor has a brand new car on the taxpayers' dime? They are even talking about installing a sprinkler system in a soccer park, but they eliminate animal control? Public safety and our pets should be a concern.  This council has their priorities all wrong."