Watch Day Seven Tour, South Carolina

 

Diary of Dawn: Day 7-South Carolina—
Fireworks and more fireworks

Senior Citizens and Pit Bulls; the Atlanta hotel was full of them. Not together, the seniors were with the “Senior Tour Bus” and not related to the fact that the Pit Bulls were in the building. However, I did find out that there was a Pit Bull “Show” just a couple blocks away. They were called Pit Bull’s by the breeders who referred to the other chained dogs we call Pit Bulls as “Bulldogs”.

It was ironic that every Pit Bull in the Country seemed to be in the hotel that night. I spoke with the caretaker of Star, a beautiful blue Pit Bull and what a sweet dog she was. Her caretaker and his friends invited me to the Atlanta Pit Bull Convention so I could see Pit Bulls in one building and NOT fighting. The gentleman did say and I hear this often that this bloodline of Pit Bull was too expensive to mistreat. He said the dogs did not live indoors, but in kennels with heaters and air conditioners and drains in the floor. I asked him how Star did in the hotel room over night and he said she did well and I told him maybe this was good training for her to start living indoors.

As soon as we hit the South Carolina border billboards were everywhere announcing “Fireworks”! I had no idea that South Carolina was the “Fireworks State” until Tammy told me. We stopped at a “Crazy Steve’s Fireworks Store” and talked to a woman about how scared dogs are of fireworks.

I have two stories of dogs and fireworks. The first one is when my husband and daughters were setting off firecrackers and a couple houses down there lived this 90 year old woman and her dog Benji. Benji was her sidekick and never went anywhere with out Lois. Lois came over to enlist our help finding Benji because the firecrackers scared him and he ran off. I spent an hour frantically searching for Benji feeling 100% to blame and finally came across him just as the dogcatcher was tossing him in the back of his truck. I did some quick talking and left with Benji in my arms before the dogcatcher knew what hit him. I was so relieved to drive him back home to Lois.

The second fire work story involved a friend’s grandma, another woman in her 90’s, who marched over to the neighbor’s and took their little chained dog because the kid’s were sticking fire crackers in the dog house and the poor little pup had no where to go to escape the torture. She just went and took their dog waiting for the confrontation and the family saw her everyday but didn’t say a word and never got another dog.

We pulled off into a town and met with some chained dog caretakers. Glock was a huge and gorgeous Mastiff and another Mastiff mix was in a pen. Glock lunged at Tammy and me so we couldn’t get near him. Glock’s caretaker and friend were able to get close to him and he was very submissive with them, but I’m convinced that any stranger walking up to the dog would not have gotten away with their life. We asked them if they were worried about him biting or killing a child. They said no.

Tammy and I did a u-turn to get to a large house with dogs in the yard, empty cages on the porch. The house reeked of cat urine and we saw more dogs inside. I offered our fencing information and the woman immediately became irate and told me her dogs were none of my business. I told her it was exactly my business because that’s what we do, help people and their chained dogs. It ended with her telling us to get off her property or she was calling the police. We left deciding the call to the police should be from us instead of her because something was terribly wrong at that residence, and we suspected more of a hoarding situation. We believe she's been reported to authorities many times before, because neighbors on both sides had well-taken care of homes and no dogs in the yard.

We met with Alicia Schwarz and her amazing family. Alicia is a go-getter who is slaving away trying to get a State law passed in South Carolina against 24/7 tethering and she is getting the job done. She took us to residences around the area and we had a few more confrontations, it was definitely the day for fireworks! My observation is that dog chainers seem to be drunk by the time 6pm rolls around on a Saturday evening and chainers are not nice drunks. We were threatened with them putting lead in our derrières. Anyway, when we were pulling away from chained Popeye, who I love by the way, his owners were yelling, $50 dollars and the dog is yours! So Alicia is going to gather the $50 and make good on their offer. Now we just need a place to put him!

After all the sparks of the day we needed a break from the short fuses and ended the evening with a visit to Zeke, a handsome Great Dane mix and one of Alicia’s happy success stories. We spent probably an hour playing fetch with Zeke. He’s a great dog and is looking for a forever home. I can’t imagine how miserable it was for such a fun spirited dog to be stuck with nowhere to run. If you’re interested in a beautiful boy to jog and play with look no further than Zeke! You’ll be offering him a chance at a life of happiness after his life on the end of a chain. Contact Alicia at dogfriend@comporium.net

105 chained and penned dogs in South Carolina without even trying hard. They definitely need a tethering limit in this state, no question about it! 451 chained/penned dogs in horrendous conditions by day...North Carolina promises us even more. Stay tuned!

Dawn Ashby, DDB Public Liaison Director

12 Days, 12 States, 120 Chained Dog

Day 1: April 6th, Missouri
Day 2: April 7th, Arkansas
Day 3: April 8th, Lousiana
Day 4: April 9th, Mississippi
Day 5: April 10, Alabama
Day 6: April 11, Georgia
Day 7: April 12, South Carolina
Day 8: April 13, North Carolina
Day 9: April 14, Tennessee
Day 10: April 15, Kentucky
Day 11: April 16, Virginia
Day 12: April 17, West Virginia

We are offering new collars and leashes for as many dogs as we can afford, plus giving out treats and dog food in addition to educational materials and discussions. If you can help fund the campaign and the supplies we'd like to deliver, it would be very much appreciated.

We Can Now Take Donations Over the Phone at 1.877.636.1408

We can now accept donations over the phone
using a major credit card at 1.877.636.1408.

If you'd like to donate via regular USPS mail, you may print out this
form in .pdf format, and send to P.O. Box 23, Tipton, PA 1668