Anyone in NC? This is so sad....

[ammitnme]

Poor thing...sounds like the shelter is giving up without even giving her a chance...grrrrrr!


Dog's liberty ends at 3 months
A pit bull-mix that had been hanging around a Chapel Hill elementary school is captured


The dog now lives at the Orange County Animal Shelter. It was on its own for so long that its adoptability is in doubt.
Staff Photo by Shawn Rocco



By PATRICK WINN, Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL -- She may be a tramp, but she's no lady.
After evading animal control officers for three months, a stray female pit bull-mix that's been prowling Frank Porter Graham Elementary School was captured Friday.

Since late August, the dog has trailed kids, snarled at staff, gnawed on playground equipment and pulled off several narrow escapes.

"It started off as a puppy," said Principal Steve Greene of Frank Porter Graham Elementary. "Now it's a lot bigger. Parents were worried kids would try to befriend the thing, and God knows what would happen."

The dog was finally outwitted by a woman working at an adjacent research center. She simply lured it behind a chain-link fence and shut the gate.

The dog's timing was fortunate, said Michael Hess, the Orange County animal control officer assigned to catch it. He and a crew were ready for a last-resort tactic: shooting the dog with a tranquilizer dart Sunday.

"That's something we don't like to do," he said. "I always hit my mark, but you have to have people that can run after the animal so it doesn't endanger itself."

School staff first heard of the pit bull-mix when a resident of nearby Kingswood Apartments on N.C. 54, who was preparing to move out, dropped by the school and asked whether anyone had seen a loose dog. Greene suspects the dog was left behind.

At some point, both he and Hess are convinced, the dog found an accomplice. It looked fed and managed an uncanny escape from a food-rigged cage.

"It looked like someone let him out and did a poor job of re-setting the trap," Hess said.

After another pit bull sighting Nov. 17, Hess and Chapel Hill Police officers were called out, only to find the dog "sunning on a wooden walkway," according to a police report. Again, it fled.

"There were even chew toys out there," Hess said. "I tried to set my trap on the walkway. It wouldn't have anything to do with it."

Now the dog belongs to the Orange County Animal Shelter on Airport Road.

"I'm thrilled. ... Phones were ringing off the hook about this dog," Hess said. "I know people's hearts will go out to it, but it's not very adoptable."

Staff writer Patrick Winn can be reached at 932-8742 or pwinn@nando.com.

[nan]

Crap...let me see what I can find out about this. People can be so stupid about pit bulls here...

[nan]

Okay...I sent the shelter an email asking for more information and offering to help. They've got at least two other pit bull-type dogs listed on petfinder, one who's in foster care, so they're clearly not completely anti-pit bull. On the other hand, it's incredibly hard to find decent homes for pit bulls here, as I know from working in the SPCA a few towns over.

Well, we'll see what kind of a response I get.

[ammitnme]

Nan...you are great! Thanks for caring!

[nan]

I still haven't heard back from the shelter on this. I may try to give them a call this afternoon. I sent them a very nice, polite email on Sunday just asking for info and mentioning that I might be able to help get her a space in rescue if her temperament was solid. It seems odd that they wouldn't respond at all. Maybe they've just been really, really busy...

[Spurby]

Definately call them, who knows how often they check their e-mails, a phone call shows them that you are serious as well, good luck!