A TRIBUTE TO SERVICE DOGS

Photos ~ Prison Dog Program

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Miami Prison Dog Program operated by New Horizons Service Dogs

TO VIEW A VIDEO OF THE PROGRAM ~ CLICK HERE

Prison Dog Programs
Rebecca L. Rhoades

Sentence for Salvation

Behind the walls of correctional institutions, inmates find a renewed sense of purpose through working with injured and rescued animals.

In our nation’s correctional system, more than one million men, women and young adults are living their lives in confinement. They’re there for a variety of reasons—anger, drug abuse, robbery, murder—but in time, most will get a chance at a better future. Meanwhile, 15 million prisoners of a different sort are facing a possible death sentence. They’re animals with whom we share our world—dogs, cats, horses and even wildlife. They’ve committed no crime, but they will be punished unless someone steps forward and gives them a second chance at life.

Both groups face isolation and rejection, but when their paths merge, they often give each other hope, as one prisoner becomes the salvation of the other.

Death Row Dogs

At the Ashland County (OH) Humane Society, Taffy is just days away from euthanasia. The young blue heeler/beagle mix needs obedience training and socialization, and his luck is running out.

A few days later, Taffy is relaxing in the cell of Eric Roberson, an inmate at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in Ohio. Taffy and Roberson are one of almost 30 inmate/shelter dog pairs participating in the Tender Loving Dog Care program at Mansfield. The program provides the inmates with the opportunity to train and socialize otherwise doomed dogs, who are then adopted into good homes.

Roberson, who is serving 24 years for a 1992 murder conviction, has been in the program since Jesse Williams, deputy warden, special services, introduced it in 1998. He’s given a new life to 22 dogs; an additional 200 have also been saved.

“These dogs didn’t fit into society or they failed to meet the standards of somebody out there,” says Roberson. “They’re just like us. By working with the dogs, we’re giving them a chance to get back to a life that some of us might never see.”

Once matched with a dog, the inmates are fully responsible for the dog’s care: feeding, grooming, housebreaking, obedience training. After a few months of round-the-clock care, the dogs are ready for adoption. And according to Williams, there’s a waiting list “a mile long” of families waiting to adopt one of these special dogs.

Soon Taffy, like the other Mansfield dogs once sentenced to die, will find a new home. That time often comes too soon for the men who train and bond with them. “It’s like saying goodbye to your best friend,” says Roberson.

Where the Wild Things Are

In Marysville, OH, Sharon Young is serving time for aggravated murder. Once an angry woman, she had little compassion for other beings. “Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have wanted me near your pets,” she says. Now she is responsible for almost 400 animals each year.
On any given day at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, the basement of the housing unit is filled with injured or orphaned wild birds, squirrels, opossums, ducks and rabbits. Citizens rescue the animals and give them to the Ohio Wildlife Center (OWC), a private rescue organization that, in turn, sends them to the ORW to recover.

In 1994, Sue Anderson, a longtime volunteer at the OWC, was overwhelmed by the work of caring for the 4,000 sick, injured and orphaned animals who came through the center each year. When a friend who worked in the Ohio prison system suggested a partnership, Anderson jumped at the opportunity.

Inmates in the program are trained by Anderson to care for the various animals, and with the help of detailed guidebooks, they provide 24-hour nursing care. The women have to learn about the proper diet for each animal, which can include hand-feeding mealworms to birds, and such difficult techniques as tube-feeding baby opossums. As program aide, Young oversees all of the program’s activities, from documenting the intake and release of each animal to monitoring feeding schedules and keeping health records.

Once recovered, the animals are returned to the wild. “Our goal is to get as many animals healthy and back into their natural habitats as we can,” says Young. “It’s difficult to see them go, but it makes you feel proud to know that you’ve done something good and really miraculous.”

Recently, OWC expanded its program into the Marion (OH) Correctional Institution, a men’s facility.

On the Right Track

It’s tempting to wonder if the lives of the men and women who participate in animal welfare programs behind bars would have been different if they’d had such opportunities during their youth. Monique Koehler, founder of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF), believes the answer is yes.

In 1994, Koehler helped launch a program at the Charles H. Hickey School in Baltimore, MD, a residential institution for young men ages 12 to 20 that pairs troubled students with retired thoroughbreds. The Hickey program is modeled on one that TRF started at Wallkill (NY) State Correctional Institution in 1983. “We need to seize the opportunity to let the animals help these kids find something good in the world,” says Koehler.

“When I came here, I had an anger problem,” says Samuel H., age 16. “Working with the horses has really helped me out. It’s given me a good perspective on animals, on how to treat them properly.” For Allen R., also 16, the program offers something to look forward to each day. “You really want to get out there and work. I’d never been around an adult horse before. I like working with them.”

As part of the Hickey School’s only “living” classroom, the students are responsible for all aspects of care for the farm’s 29 horses. They feed them, groom them, exercise them, tend to their injuries and study their physiology. “A lot of the horses come from the racetracks,” says farm manager Andre Wheeler. “Some are in great shape, some are in poor condition, some are maybe a week or two away from dying when we get them. It’s the care of these young men that helps turn these horses around.”

Similar programs are in place at the Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington, KY, and at Marion County Correctional Institution in Ocala, FL.

Big-House Hounds

Each year, more than 24,000 greyhounds are retired from the racing circuit, according to the National Greyhound Association. Some are adopted as pets through rescue groups, but many more are euthanized. In Kansas, a lucky few go to prison.
About one year ago, Rich Booher, a corrections counselor at Ellsworth Correctional Facility, saw a local news report about racing greyhounds who were going to be euthanized. Since the inmates at Ellsworth were already training assistance dogs for Canine Assistance Rehabilitation Education and Services, Booher suggested fostering greyhounds and training them for adoption.

“There was a need,” says Booher. “We’re always looking for ways for our inmates to give back to society, and thousands of greyhounds are put down every year.” So Booher contacted Deborah Sanford of TLC Greyhound Adoption, and soon greyhounds were frolicking with inmates in the recreation yard and sleeping in cells. Each hound has a primary and a secondary handler, who teach the dog house manners and basic obedience. Most hounds leave the program after six to eight weeks knowing how to walk nicely on a lead and respond to commands such as sit, stay, down and come.

Almost immediately, other facilities within the Kansas Department of Corrections were inquiring about fostering greyhounds, and the program quickly spread to the Hutchinson and El Dorado facilities. Currently, some 30 greyhounds are being cared for in the Kansas system.

“We’re able to accomplish a great deal with the dogs because we’re with them 24 hours a day,” says Booher. “If you have that much time to devote to an animal, there’s a lot of reinforcement, and they learn very rapidly.”

Recently the Hutchinson facility expanded its animal welfare programs to include gentling and socializing wild horses in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) National Wild Horse and Burro Program. “BLM has quite an effort going on to adopt out these horses,” says Sam Cline, deputy warden. “But they’re usually difficult to adopt because they haven’t had much training. We’re working with the horses to make it easier and safer to place them with somebody in the public.”

Since summer 2000, participating inmates have worked diligently at building barns and stables, fencing in paddocks, laying rock to create roadways and hauling supplies and equipment. In March 2001, Hutchinson received its first shipment of 100 horses.
“We’re saving horses and changing men,” says Cline. “That capsulizes what we’re trying to do.”

New Leash on Life

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) in Phoenix, AZ, offers a variety of often-controversial programs designed to rehabilitate its inmates—tent communities, chain gangs, pink underwear—but in May 2000, Sheriff Joe Arpaio decided to open one of his jails to help rehabilitate some of the silent victims.

With space at local shelters at a premium, the sheriff’s office needed to find additional housing for the animals seized by its Animal Cruelty Investigation Unit. The 30-year-old First Avenue Jail, no longer used to house inmates due to plumbing problems, provided a solution.

Known as the MCSO Animal Safe Hospice (MASH), the facility houses dogs, cats, ducks and other animals until their cases have been adjudicated and they’re able to be adopted out to the public. Each dog has a private cell, while the cats live communally in one of the day rooms. So far, about 90 animals have been through the MASH program.

Caring for the animals are women who are serving their time in the tent cities. For 12-hour shifts, the inmates work with the animals, tending wounds and illnesses, cleaning cages, teaching basic obedience commands and helping them overcome fear and aggression.

“It gives the women a sense of accomplishment when they can help an animal overcome his problems,” says section commander Sgt. Dave Williams. “At the same time, the animal is helping them overcome their problems.” One inmate was asked how she felt about living in a tent while the animals live in air-conditioned quarters. “They didn’t do anything wrong,” she replied. “I did.”

After the case is adjudicated and the animals have recovered from their injuries, they are spayed or neutered and put up for adoption. MASH is a no-kill shelter, and all of the animals remain in the care of the inmates until they can be placed in suitable homes.

As animal welfare programs continue to grow within the U.S. system of corrections, there are those who believe that such programs place the animals in danger and shouldn’t exist. But the benefits far outweigh any potential, and to date unfounded, negative effects. “Correctional institutions provide an ideal environment to change [animal] behavior,” says Stephanie LaFarge, Ph.D., director of ASPCA counseling services. “The animal doesn’t feel like he’s in jail…just the opposite. What we think of as a negative environment, the animal thinks is wonderful.

“Animal advocates need to support these programs,” LaFarge continues. “They’re helping animals who are otherwise relatively undesirable, and giving them a good chance at a new and better life.”

As testament to the rehabilitative properties of such programs, more and more correctional institutions are realizing what Jesse Williams of Mansfield has known all along—that these programs not only provide training and socialization for the animals, but also for the prisoners.

“Anything that’s good is hard to keep to yourself,” says Williams. “But these programs do a lot of good things, not only for the animals and for the inmates, but for the communities as a whole.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Tender Loving Dog Care Adoptions~ Mansfield Correctional Institution P.O. Box 788, Mansfield, OH 44901(419) 525-4455, ext. 2010

Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation

PMB 351450 Shrewsbury PlazaShrewsbury, NJ 07702-4332www.trfinc.org

TLC Greyhound Adoption 323 2400 Avenue, Solomon, KS 67480(785) 655-2208www.tlcgreyhoundadoption.com

Maricopa County Sheriff's OfficeAnimal Safe Hospice(602) 256-1923www.mcso.org

Ohio Wildlife Center 2661 Billingsley Rd.Columbus, OH 43235www.ohiowildlifecenter.org

VIDEO ~ CNN COURTHOUSE DOGS

PRISON DOG PROGRAM TOUCHES MANY LIVES

The Prison Dog Project transforms the lives of many people



February 14, 10:09 PM ·
The Prison Dog Project touches many lives

The Prison Dog Project is a program that brings dogs with unsocial characteristics that render them inadaptable into correctional facilities to be trained by inmates. Started in 1981 by Dominican nun Sister Pauline Quinn, the program has been adopted throughout and outside the U.S.

One of the reasons the program has been successful is it transforms the lives of many people and animals at once.

It touches the lives of prison inmates and guards, people with disabilities, society as a whole and the dogs. Animals form a natural bridge between people that has affected the relationships between prison guards and inmates, inmates and the public and people with disabilities and society. Animals, especially dogs, break the ice and foster communication and connection.

In the project, prisoners are responsible for the care and training of dogs to be good citizens or for service for training schools, people with disabilities or law enforcement. Prisoners learn skills such as dog training and grooming and earn money providing services to private dog owners. This income is used to train service dogs that go to people with disabilities free of charge. Some inmates become so expert that potential employers want to hire them upon release.

The presence of dogs in prison has had therapeutic effects relieving tensions and reducing violence. The relationship between prison guards and prisoners is improved. The unconditional love from dogs has helped prisoners access long buried feelings and armored hearts. Prisoners speak of the reward of knowing they’re preparing the dog so it can pass its restorative effect on to a future owner. Prisoners get in touch with a sense of meaning and purpose doing something that regenerates them while also helping others.

The Prison Dog Project decreases the waiting list for assistance dogs and helps people with disabilities get dogs faster, opening up accessibility and social contact. The dogs also help society connect with the disability community.

The project helps society by redeeming and rehabilitating prisoners enabling them to become happier, healthier members of society. The prisoners learn or reclaim responsibility, tolerance, patience and other qualities beneficial to society.

The project saves the lives of dogs that would otherwise be euthanized. They are given a second chance by being trained to be good citizens or for service and returned to society.

The Prison Dog Project relies primarily on donations and supplies from the public in order to continue and expand.

TWO MILLION PEOPLE IN PRISON

OVER TWO MILLION PEOPLE IN THE US PRISONS IN 2005 WITH THE NUMBERS GOING UP. HOW CAN WE STOP THIS? WILL YOUR CHILD END UP IN PRISON? IF YOU DON'T TRY AND DO SOMETHING, THEY COULD. TEACH BY EXAMPLE. THE WELL-BEING OF A CHILD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ALL THE THINGS IN THE WORLD YOU COULD HAVE. CLICK HERE

On December 31, 2005 --
-- 2,193,798 prisoners were held in Federal or State prisons or in local jails -- an increase of 2.7% from yearend 2004, less than the average annual growth of 3.3% since yearend 1995.
-- there were an estimated 491 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents -- up from 411 at yearend 1995.
-- the number of women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal prison authorities increased 2.6% from yearend 2004, reaching 107,518 and the number of men rose 1.9%, totaling 1,418,406.

At yearend 2005 there were 3,145 black male sentenced prison inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,244 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 471 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.In 2003 there were an estimated 650,400 State prisoners serving time for a violent offense. State prisons also held an estimated 262,000 property offenders and 250,900 drug offenders.

OUR THROW AWAY SOCIETY ~ START A PRISON DOG PROGRAM AND SAVE UNWANTED DOGS

WHEN WE DON'T HAVE USE FOR SOMETHING ANY MORE, WE JUST THROW IT AWAY ~
http://www.recyclenow.com/what_more_can_i_do/the_bigger_picture/throw_away_the.html
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/archives/id/14496/

http://alexandriadailyphoto.wordpress.com/2006/09/22/throw-away-society/

The sad facts are, each and every year people just throw their dogs away like last seasons fashions. We see hundreds of thousands of dogs arrive at animal rescue shelters, because their owners are no longer able or prepared to take the necessary steps to take care of them.
Statistics say that approximately 25 percent are unwanted presents, another 25 percent have behavioral problems and the rest are given up for domestic or other reasons.
Here's the top 10 reasons why pooches end up in the dog house.
1. The breed was that year's MUST HAVE accessory, a little bit of Paris Hilton syndrome or the 101 Dalmatians fad.
2. I just couldn't resist him in the shop window, so little, cute and fluffy - but he didn't stay that way for long.
3. Due to lack of training, the dog became aggressive, destructive and totally uncontrollable.
4. Dog was purchased on impulse. Buy first think later, usually being pressured by children then realising the level of COMMITMENT required.
5. The dog was left alone for long periods consequently barking and upsetting the neighbours and becoming aggressive, destructive and uncontrollable.
6. Old age and no longer being able to physically cope with the demands of dog ownership.
7. Let's face it owning a dog is not cheap nowadays - feeding, veterinary treatments, worming, boarding cost when your on holidays can really stretch the purse strings.
8. Seperations of couples and no one wants the dog.
9. When young families have a new arrival and the responsibility and expense become too much. 10. Owners move to a new apartment with a no pet rule.
In all fairness there are valid reasons that people have when having to part with their dogs but the trend that seems to be shining through is that people have to realise when purchasing a dog is a responibility thats on going. Its not like buying lip gloss, if you don't like it you can change it or throw it away.
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DOG RECOVERING AFTER BEING DOUND IN GARBAGE BAG ALONGSIDE HIGHWAY

The Associated Press

CAMPBELLSPORT — A poodle mix named Benji is recovering after being found tied in a garbage bag and dumped in a roadside ditch.

Capt. Dean Will of the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday that a bicyclist riding in the Lake Bernice area Monday night noticed the bag and saw it was moving, so he stopped, opened it up and found the little white dog.Jean North, a receptionist at Wright Veterinary Service, said Benji was malnourished when he was brought in, and he couldn’t see.“His eyes were matted shut,” she said.But he was given food and a haircut and has been doing well, except that he still has trouble walking, she said.If the dog isn’t adopted out, it could become an office dog, North said.The sheriff’s department so far has no leads on who dumped the dog, Will said Friday.“We’re just glad it’s alive,” he said. “How an individual could do that to an animal is really hard to accept.”

PRISON DOGS ~ THE ODD COUPLE

Reni, the Doberman who was donated by the Mikadobe Kennels to be a service dog, is a beautiful female whose father is an international champion in Argentina. Reni's mother is also a champion.

Nicky, the black and white Papillon was also donated to Pathways To Hope by a kennel in New York and also comes from show dogs.

Nicky spent six months at the Indiana State Prison for Woman and Reni has visited a number of prisons. Being a champion is not about how they look, or gait around the ring... but they are champions because of their friendly, fun spirit, giving something to help others.

FINDING HOPE IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

Finding hope in unexpected places
My cellmate and I are helping others


By Charles Huckelbury For the Monitor
June 17. 2007 10:00AM

Living in a prison cell is always a battle with clutter, but my cell is a bit more crowded than usual these days since Joey moved in. No, Joey isn't your typical slug who doesn't know how to do time. He's a Labrador retriever, just shy of two years old, smarter than most of the guys I hang around with, and still full of puppy mischief in ways I would love to describe if I could be sure his trainers weren't reading this.
But there's much more to Joey than cute, something I discovered when I was fortunate enough to be among the men selected to participate in Pathways to Hope, a national program conceived by Sister Pauline Quinn and implemented here at the state prison to train service dogs for people with specific disabilities.
After careful vetting by the administration, those of us who made the cut as handlers underwent an introduction to Dog Training 101, courtesy of Gail Fisher and her staff at All Dogs Gym and Inn in Manchester. Dogs had been my constant companions before I came to prison, but the type of training Gail introduced opened my eyes to possibilities I had never considered.

Our primary job was to teach the dogs basic commands (e.g. sit, stay, down, come) and socialize them in order to prepare them for the more intensive and precise training they would need to undergo prior to being assigned to particular clients. Along the way, we also taught them other things that were
fun for us and the dogs, things like retrieving specific objects from a collection, turning lights on and off, and removing items of clothing.

Joey was ahead of the curve when it came to removing clothing. Unfortunately, before he perfected his technique, removing my jacket, for example, also resulted in numerous surprises: First he removed my jacket's cuffs, then the collar. Imagine a 75-pound animal working like crazy because he knows he'll get a treat at the end of the exercise, and you'll have some idea of how that must have looked.

Gail and her staff regularly check our progress. They assign us additional tasks to teach the dogs, since it quickly became obvious that they were smart enough to accomplish their original goals in spite of our own limitations in training techniques. Their progress has been amazing, because they are incredibly smart.

A year and a half into the program the dogs are getting ready to graduate and leave for their specific training, which will naturally create a huge hole until we have three more to continue the process. But the consolation, of course, is the knowledge that they will be going to someone who needs them far more than we do. For example, for every soldier killed in Iraq, at least eight more are wounded, many critically. What greater service could these dogs provide than helping those men and women who have given so much for the rest of us?
It is impossible to convey what being a part of this program has meant for us in here. In an environment that ridicules affection, where claims of loyalty are only lip service to expediency, and where the only beauty is found in a three-hour visit with my wife twice weekly, Joey has added a dimension to my life that I never would have expected.

I came to prison when I was 27. I am now 61. By traditional standards, I would hardly be described as lucky, and yet I am. Never have I smiled or laughed more than since Joey has come to live with me. Never have I felt such satisfaction in being able to do something worthwhile. And never have I felt such a sense of accomplishment than when looking into those soulful eyes - even when I know he's hustling me for an extra treat.

Pathways to Hope is thus the most appropriate name of this program. While I probably don't share a common religious faith with the people Joey will eventually help, we do share a common hope for a brighter future. And it will be brighter in no small measure because this program makes it possible for us to give what we can to make another person's life more rewarding.

If Joey can help one wounded soldier walk again, If he can help one blind person navigate the streets and shops in Concord safely, all of us will be better for the experience.

By allowing us to be a part of something much bigger than prison, Pathways to Hope therefore defines us in terms of our potential as human beings and not as mere statistics or, worse, the last bad thing we did. I can't make yesterday better, but because of this astonishing program, with Joey's help, I can improve someone else's tomorrow.

(Charles Huckelbury is serving a murder sentence at the state prison.)

------ End of article
By CHARLES HUCKELBURY
For the Monitor

California Institution for Women ~ PRISON PUP PROGRAM

PLEASE HELP THIS PROGRAM. THEY ARE DOING A WONDERFUL JOB IN HELPING PRISONERS CHANGE THEIR LIVES AS WELL AS HELPING UNWANTED DOGS AND DOGS THAT ARE DONATED TO THE PROGRAM. PLEASE DONATE

New Hampshire Prison Dog Program

New Hampshire Prison Dog Program is where inmates are training dogs to assist the handicapped under the leadership of Gail Fisher at All Dogs Gym. I helped to start this program and it is important to me. It is a program where the inmates are learning how to become 'other' centered, giving back to society and to help the handicapped. PLEASE DONATE TO THEM DIRECTLY.. All Dogs Gym 505 Sheffield Road. Manchester, NH 03103. It will help them very much as they are doing a good job helping the inmates learn how to train dogs for the handicapped and doing other projects to help them turn their lives around.

NEWSLETTER CHICK HERE