Today brought two trend pieces on at-home trainers. (With two stories on the same day, it must be a trend!) A wire story from AMNY takes us to Anchorage, Alaska (shudder), where Robin Scheff turned a weekend whim into a career. Scheff has worked some tough cases, including that of a pit bull whose caretakers eventually had him euthanized out of fear he would one day kill their Jack Russell terrier. Back in the relatively genteel boros, the Times relates how Broadway trainer Bill Berloni and others help city dogs and cats - and their people - conquer nervousness and aggression issues without having to leave familiar environs.
Asides: According to the Times piece, adoptions from AC&C more than doubled between 2001 and 2006. Also, a lot of couples apparently have sex in front of their dogs.
While some New Yorkers are shelling out big bucks to make their companion animals comfortable and safe, at the other end of the evolutionary chain we have the likes of Matthew Woods and Latoya Katon. This allegedly sorry Brooklyn pair has been charged with letting one pit bull dehydrate and starve to death while leaving eight more to suffer the same fate in their backyard. When brought in for questioning by the ASPCA, Woods "punched and kicked cops and broke a plate-glass window." Of course people like Woods have nothing to do with giving pit bulls a bad name. It's the breed.
In other news:
- Busy schedule at LOHV. [LOHV]
- Flushed kitty poo endangers sea otters. [AMNY]
- The politics of co-sleeping. [callalillie]
Photo: Viciously adorable pit bull pup, c/o BARC and lisacat
