The no-kill movement is not yet old enough to be suffering from advanced dementia This will be a different essay than I normally write, not carefully constructed and edited, but a stream of thoughts shared with fellow activists. Why? Issues that should elicit a sense of urgency in the movement, from the rising bloodshed by […]
Unmasking Miranda’s Rescue: what happened that we know about
Humboldt Spay/Neuter Clinic & Humboldt Critters Without Litters founder Jennifer Raymond dug up the evidence ANIMALS 24-7 on May 22, 2026 mentioned that, “The Humboldt Lost & Found Pets page on Facebook, serving Humboldt County,” in northern California, “has been flooded for days with desperate messages from individuals, rescues, and even established animal shelters, hoping […]
How denial about pit bulls killed LaKesha Newsom & Celeste Jackson
The low-income semi-rural South has always had dogs at large. Those dogs were not always pit bulls. HOLLY SPRINGS, Mississippi; LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas––LaKesha Newsom, 35, and Celeste Jackson, 2, lived and died in low-income semi-rural Southern communities many miles and cultural light years from the ivory towers of academia, mauled by pit bulls roving at […]
How a pit bull lobby rewrote risk, research, & rescue, by Ed Boks
Architects of the Crisis: an evolving series on dog attack data, institutional denial, & how no‑kill lost its way How a pit bull lobby rewrote risk, research, & rescue follows up on How pit bulls became the currency of a hijacked no-kill agenda and When Dog Attack Data Are Ignored: Understanding Severe Injuries and Institutional […]
Pit bull pusher Steffen Baldwin gets 15.5 years on 32 felony counts
Charged in 2020, former Best Friends Animal Society & Maddies Fund star Steffen Baldwin delayed trial until January 2025 MARYSVILLE, Ohio––Steffen Baldwin, 44, alias Steffen Finkelstein, former executive director of Top of Ohio Pet Shelter in Logan County and the Union County Humane Society, also in Ohio, and co-founder of the Underdog Alliance in California, […]
Liability for dog attacks: Ed Boks for shelters, Kenneth Phillips for victims
Shelter liability is best reduced by not keeping or rehoming dangerous dogs LOS ANGELES––“Animal shelters across the nation are grappling with the dual pressures of rising insurance costs and overcrowding, creating a crisis that demands immediate attention,” opened Animal Politics blogger Ed Boks in his June 9, 2024 column. Having pointed out the same […]
Pit bulls: Truth or Consequences? by Beth Clifton
Pit bull pushing is not a game show Humans appear to have discovered the rewards of canine companionship to enhance and enrich our daily lives so far back in the Ice Ages that cave bears were a constant threat and a “Three-Dog Night” was not a band but an early form of home heating, perhaps […]
Jury orders L.A. Animal Services to pay $6.8 million to mauled volunteer
Finding of gross negligence comes with comparable cases against “no-kill” city shelter pending LOS ANGELES, California––Finding Los Angeles Animal Services guilty of gross negligence, a Los Angeles jury on May 31, 2023 awarded $6.8 million to German shepherd mix attack victim and former shelter volunteer Kelly Kaneko, 36. The Kaneko award came less than […]
“America’s rifle,” “America’s dog,” & some of America’s other most enduring fictions
Promotions & defenses of the AR-15 and pit bulls are among “America’s big lies” WASHINGTON D.C.; KANAB, Utah––An AR-15, as the world knows now, dubbed “America’s rifle,” was on May 24, 2022 used yet again to massacre Americans, this time 19 fourth graders and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (See […]
Weary (and wary) rescuers decry dangerous dogs, yet never say “pit bull”
Statements otherwise echo decades of warnings from ANIMALS 24-7 DETROIT, Michigan––Kristina Millman-Rinaldi, who in 2011 founded Detroit Dog Rescue, billed as “Detroit’s first no-kill shelter,” rattled the overlapping “no kill” and “rescue” worlds on March 12, 2022 by posting to Facebook a critique of the prevailing “no kill” and “rescue” philosophy strikingly similar in […]