Potential Puppy Buyer Murders Rat Terrier Breeder

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Lisa Montgomery sentenced to death for murder of dog breeder Bobbi Jo Stinnett, and kidnapping of Stinnett's unborn child.

Lisa Montgomery sentenced to death for murder of dog breeder Bobbi Jo Stinnett, and kidnapping of Stinnett's unborn child.

Thanks to Jen and Yes Biscuit for reminding me of the worst ‘potential puppy buyer’ scenario of all time – the murder of Bobbi Jo Stinnett, a Missouri Rat Terrier breeder, and the theft of her unborn child.

The crime took place on Decemeber 16, 2004.  According to CNN,

“Montgomery met Stinnett through an online chat room and — using a fictitious name — expressed interest in a rat-terrier dog, a type she bred and sold. Montgomery allegedly obtained directions to Stinnett’s home and visited her there Thursday. Hours later, officials have said, Stinnett’s mother found her body.

The baby, who has since been named Victoria Jo, was located in Montgomery’s custody the following day, police said. She was taken to Stormont-Vail Regional Health Care Center in Topeka, Kansas, and was released Monday night after being united with her father, Zeb Stinnett.”

Lisa Montgomery had a long history of feigned pregnancies, and was a ‘hanger on’ in several rat terrier chat rooms. Bobbi Jo Stinnet had apparently even once defended Montgomery when she was “accused of misrepresenting the pedigrees of her dogs” – source: http://karisable.com/stinnett.htm

Montgomery used the same rat terrier chatroom where she had met Stinnett to arrange the meeting that would lead to Stinnett’s death.

Karisable.Com –

On Wednesday, December 16, 2004, Lisa, posing as “Darlene Fisher” contacted Bobbie Jo in an Internet chat room under the pretext of wanting to buy a rat terrier. Bobbie Jo gave her directions to her house and they agreed to meet the next day.

Like most of us have done in the past – or continue to do now – Stinnett didn’t check ‘Darlene Fisher’s’ credentials or other information before giving her directions to her home. The next day, Stinnett’s mother discovered her daughter’s body dead in pool of blood, with fistfulls of blond hair and the fetus removed from her body.

MSNBC.Com reports that –

“Prosecutors said Montgomery used a rope to choke Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant. But Stinnett was conscious and trying to defend herself as Montgomery used a kitchen knife to cut the baby girl from the womb, prosecutors said.

Montgomery was arrested the day after the killing after spending the morning showing off the infant as her own in her hometown of Melvern, Kan.”

The Grand Jury indictment against Lisa Montgomery read:

On or about December 16, 2004, at Skidmore, in Nodaway County, in the Western District of Missouri and elsewhere, LISA M. MONTGOMERY, the defendant, a/k/a Darlene Fischer, a/k/a Fischer4kids, willfully and unlawfully kidnapped, abducted, carried away, and held Victoria Jo Stinnett, and willfully transported Victoria Jo Stinnett in interstate commerce from Skidmore, Missouri, across the state line to Melvern, Kansas, the actions of the defendant resulting in the death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett.

On Oct. 22, 2007, a jury found Lisa Montgomery guilty, and on Friday, April 4, 2008, U.S. District Judge Gary Fenner gave Lisa Montgomery the death sentence, making her the third woman on federal death row.

Montgomery remains on death row to this day, and has appealed her conviction.

Stolen Dogs and Scared Breeders

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Another Ontario breeder has had dogs stolen by vistors who pretended to be potential puppy buyers. This isn’t the first time this has happened – years back, a Bulldog breeder in California lost almost every dog in their house to people who had come to ‘meet the dogs’ a few days before, and the infamous home invading Yorkie thieves gained access to the house by posing as potential purchasers. An American Eskimo breeder in Northern Ontario had a litter of puppies stolen from right out of her kitchen, and we ourselves had a puppy stolen from inside of our house – while I was at home alone with my children.

This rise in dogs stolen from right inside our homes has left a lot of breeders feeling paranoid – and a lot of puppy buyers feeling confused.

For years, we’ve told potential buyers that visiting the home of the breeder they are considering purchasing a puppy from is a great way to choose a quality breeder – and it is.  Unfortunately,  it’s also less and less common to find breeders willing to let possible buyers drop over for just a ‘meet the dogs’ visit.

Can you blame us? After all, we don’t know you – and we don’t know if your intent is to sincerely meet us and our dogs, or if you have something more nefarious in mind. Are you ‘casing’ us, trying to find out where the dogs live and what access points there might be? Are you checking to see if our doors are secure, and if there’s a gun safe sitting in our family room? As breeders, we just don’t know – and we’re all of us more and more paranoid about the possibility that your innocuous visit can turn into a house emptied of its pets.

As puppy buyers, however, it’s not unusual to want to meet the possible parents of your future puppy, in advance of picking that puppy up. As breeders, it’s also common for us to want to meet you, as well. An initial impression can go a long way to convincing us that you are the right family for one of our precious kids.

What kind of compromise can we all make, to create an atmosphere where both sets of parties get what they need?

Read more →

Long Live the Queen

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Tessa, Matriarch French Bulldog of Bullmarket

As hard as it is for me to believe, Tessa will be fifteen years old next month. Those years have flown by, in so many ways.

Tessa, for me,  is still the relcalcitrant, surly little hooligan I tried to haul to work with me at six weeks, with her bucking and flailing at the end of the lead, as I slipped and slid on an icy Yorkville sidewalk, cursing her stubborn little bulldog brain.

She’s also still the doting mother who never once willingly weaned a litter (she still allowed Sailor to nurse on her, for comfort if not food, when Sailor was almost six months old).

She’s the smart, sassy little dog who taught me that French Bulldogs are NOT like other dogs when it comes to training, and that what might work with a Mastiff will barely make a dent on a Frenchie’s conciousness.

Tessa is doing remarkably fine for a dog of her advanced years. Other than a few episodes of ‘idiopathic neuropathy’, breath that could melt paint, faded vision, limited hearing,  a wobbly rear, and a reappearing growth on the side of her neck, she’s still mobile and happy to be here with us.  She enjoys warm fireplaces, polar fleece dog beds, short drives in the car, and  shorter walks up the wooded path behind our house.

She also still engages in the occasional battle for dominance with her daughter, granddaughters, great grandkids and great great grandkids.  A few days ago, she launched herself at Penelope, apparently because Penelope was ‘looking at her funny’. Nell responding by rolling Tessa off the couch, and Tessa sulked her way over to her crate, where she sat grumbling about the lack of respect in today’s kids.

Tessa is a daily reminder to me that no matter how much I love our puppies, there will always be a special place in my heart for our senior dogs, and an irreplaceable spot for my Grand French Bulldog Matriarch.

Long may she reign.

Rare pneumonia kills 2 Ottawa dogs

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Scary news out of the Ottawa area, where a rare and virulent form of hemorrhagic pneumonia has killed two dogs at the Ottawa Humane Society.

From CBC News –

Humane society veterinarians said they have never seen this type of disease before. The dogs initially suffer from a cough, lethargy and fever, but the symptoms rapidly progress, with the animals coughing up blood and dying within a day.

The first humane society dog developed symptoms in mid-summer, while the second got sick in early September. Since then, staff have treated every dog with antibiotics, disinfected every pen, and briefly placed a moratorium on adoptions — which was lifted a week ago.

The disease is apparently bacterial, caused by Streptococcus equi. This disease (usually called ‘Strangles’) is more commonly seen in horses. It is apparently very uncommon for Strangles to affect anything other than equine species, as most of the websites I could find on the topic stressed –

Caused by bacteria—Streptococcus equi—that only causes disease in equine species (horses, donkeys and mules). Normally not a danger to humans or other domestic species.

In the case of the Ottawa shelter dogs, the disease was severe and swift. There is no vaccination against it, and veterinarians still don’t know where it came from, or how it was spread.

“It’s frightening for sure,” Hutchings said. “We don’t really know what the incubation period is. There’s a lot we don’t understand about transmission or which dogs it will affect.”

It is suspected that cramped shelter conditions, and the stress they cause in dogs housed in these conditions, can exacerbate the disease.

Bruce Roney, Ottawa Humane Society executive director, said the infections highlight the need for the new shelter, which is slated to open in 2011.

“We don’t have proper isolation space in this building,” he said. “It makes [diseases] so difficult to control.”

Full story here.

Vomit Alert – Vick to Get Reality TV Show

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Just in case the (now de bunked) Nike endoresement deal wasn’t enough to make you toss your cookies (or throw something) –

From DailyFinance.Com –

Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons star quarterback convicted of killing dogs for sport and profit, may not have gotten his old Nike contract back, but he is following the well-worn path of former child stars, celebrity heiresses and Z-list actors.

Yes, Michael Vick has gotten his own reality TV show, which he describes as “a story of hope” for kids who may be “dealing with adversity,” the LA Times reported Tuesday. Vick, who served 18 months in prison for running the notorious dog-fighting ring Bad Newz Kennels, is teaming up with BET for the new eight-part “docu-series,” tentatively titled “The Michael Vick Project.”


“This show can be a blueprint for so many kids,” Vick told the paper, “I want to show them that things are going to happen, that they’re not going to get through life without dealing with some kind of adversity. I want to show that if they have a fall from grace, this is how they can turn it around. We want this to be a story of hope.”

News of Vick’s reality program comes on the heels of a bizarre episodelast week in which his agent said the former star had been re-signed by Nike, only to have the shoe giant smack down that claim the following day. Vick is keeping mum about the Nike fiasco.

Nike is apparently wary of incurring the wrath of dog-lovers across America who were appalled by Vick’s role as ringleader of an illegal dog-fighting ring which featured gambling, drug abuse, and dogs mauling each other to death. Animals that lost or underperformed were often killed by members of Bad Newz Kennels.

Apparently, BET doesn’t have a problem with pissing off dog lovers – hey, just so long as they turn on the television and watch.

What is wrong with television these days? Is there anyone – anyone! – so loathsome that they won’t get offered a reality show? Why would a television network offer this sickening, unrepentant monster the chance to parade his indifference to anything but his own needs on national TV? Who will be best served by this, and why does ANYONE think that Michael Vick should be held up as a role model for children?

Hell in a handbasket, people. Hell in a handbasket.