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We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Animal Defenders of Westchester
P.O. Box 205
Yonkers, NY 10704

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Homeless dog finds new family after blaze

Published in THE JOURNAL NEWS, 3/20 WWW.THEJOURNALNEWS.COM :

By BARBARA LIVINGSTON NACKMAN

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: March 20, 2005)

GARRISON — A pit bull left homeless after a fire in New Rochelle has landed on his paws.Blaze, now called Samson, was adopted by a Garrison family, who lost one of their two dogs in a house fire two years ago.The frisky 55-pound Staffordshire terrier, with a marbled black-and-brown body and white facial markings, played happily outside yesterday with his new brother, Chauncey, a dark-colored 73-pound Swiss mountain dog.

"He is a sweetie. They are having such a good time together and really get along well," said Sharon McKenna, 62, who, with her husband, Bruce, 69, called the New Rochelle Humane Society Feb. 27, a day after reading of the dog's plight in The Journal News."These dogs often get a bad rap,"

Bruce McKenna, an engineer, said of the pit bull. "If you don't do what you have to do they will euthanize these animals." The couple had previously had a pit bull whom they had to put to sleep when he got too aggressive a few times. David Contreras' family home burned down New Year's Day and he was forced to give up his pet because most rental places don't accept dogs, and the few that do ban pit bulls. Blaze was pulled from the fire unconscious and was resuscitated by ambulance workers on the scene.

"I'm happy he has a good place to live," Contreras, who shares an apartment, said last week.Samson, 6 years old, is living on a third of an acre with a shady, fenced-in yard — more spacious than his former owner's Larchmont living arrangement.

The McKennas lost a mixed-breed dog, Julia, in a fire Jan. 20, 2003. Chauncey, 7, survived by squeezing his nose through a gate for fresh air until firefighters could rescue him. The family could not move back into their home for 16 months.

"We really felt this was meant to happen," said Sharon McKenna, who is a part-time mailroom worker at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt. The couple has two grown children, 39 and 37, and said they have always had a dog or two, and sometimes a cat.The dogs have the run of the house during the day, even when the couple is working. "When I come home it is so nice to see a wagging tail," she said.

Samson sometimes sleeps on the McKennas' bed but hasn't yet taken to crawling under the covers like Chauncey.

Both dogs like car rides, which is good because the McKennas take their dogs with them whenever possible and seek out hotels that allow pets.

There is one problem to be worked out, though: Samson seems to be accustomed to the front passenger seat. Says Sharon McKenna: "That's where I like to sit."

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Letters to the editor: [email protected], 250 wds or less, incl name, address, phone # for verification.

ALSO: Contact Pace University! This school used to be the site for annual 'Animals and the Law' conferences that were wide-reaching in scope and compassion; the conferences are not longer allowed - instead they're giving a platform to young animal abusers. INTEL, referred to in the article, has been kicked out of other schools.

DEMAND PACE NOT WELCOME HS STUDENTS WHO TEST ON VERTEBRATED ANIMALS WHICH OTHER SCHOOLS PROHIBIT:

EMAIL:

PATRICIA BARNES, OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OMBUDSMAN: [email protected]  

DR. CHARLENE HOEGLER, lecturer in biology, PACE UNIVERSITY: [email protected]  

CC: [email protected]  

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