Blaze, a young American Pit bull impounded at 10 months of age, has been held in maximum security at Multnomah County Animal Services (MCAS) since May 19, 2017. The bite incidents (2) that resulted in his incarceration were not life threatening, were preventable, and were driven by chaotic circumstances in a multi occupant household. The requirement that Blaze be killed when humane alternatives that equally protect society exist is about vengeance, a revenge for which MCAS has willingly incurred boarding costs of $22,295.
Blaze is not the equivalent of a conspiratorial terrorist, nor an Al-Qaeda prisoner of war. He is a young friendly American pit bull despite prolonged confinement, (insert kennel notes) serving the equivalent of a 20-year sentence in human years, and now facing death.
Nearly all of his life has been spent in solitary confinement, He is denied visits for longer than 15 minutes, only from outside the kennel door, without any personal contact, and only when closely supervised by an animal control officer (visitor notes linked below). The process is fraught with sadness and successful in deterring visitors. The coerced “contact free” demand is both anguishing and cruel to the imprisoned dog and visitor alike (policy linked below). The intention, to discourage visitors, almost always succeeds. It is a form of coerced cruelty.
The only contact Blaze has had is a daily visual inspection through the kennel and a monthly visual physical exam, conducted from outside his kennel because he has been labeled a “Dangerous Dog.” That excuse is false. “Dangerous Dog” has a very specific legal meaning in the Multnomah County Animal Services Code:
- “Section 13.402. A dog whether or not confined causes serious physical injury or death of any person; or is used as a weapon in the commission of a crime.”
Blaze has not caused a “serious physical injury.” He was never used as a weapon and has caused no one ‘s death.
MCAS’s use of the false “Dangerous Dog” label is intended to excuse the inhumane care provided at MCAS over the past 3 years. Blaze’s treatment is torture: social isolation and deprivation of the sort designed to make persons and animals, any sentient beings, lose their sanity.
Blaze suffered terribly for months, displaying symptoms secondary to acute confinement, social isolation and enrichment neglect. This suffering continued until he was permitted psychotropic medication for diagnosed stress from July 05. 2017 to October 27, 2018 when medication was deemed no longer medically necessary. (link to records below) But while Blaze was in a state of acute distress, Andrew Mathias, then MCAS canine specialist and now shelter manager, decided it was a good time to “temperament test” Blaze (“test” document linked below).
That “test” occurred on July 29, 2017, just 3 weeks after Blaze’s acute symptomatic emotional distress diagnosis. To conduct the test, Mathias reached into Blade’s kennel with the infamous “assess-a-hand” and then after moving the fake hand back and forth, reported observations that reflected his own fears. There was no effort to befriend Blaze first.
- “Handler got fake hand and reached into the kennel, Dog had a hard forward posture sniffing the hand, if the hand moved dog would put hand in mouth with no pressure. Handler did not feel safe removing dog from kennel, ended behavior assessment.”
What was the point of that “test”? Was it just teasing, a professional “test” truly seeking a response, or a calculated effort to spur a response excusing killing? Andrew Mathias intentionally set Blaze up to fail. No competent canine specialist does that.
The 2016 and 2018 audits of MCAS reported that the animal control agency did not meet the Association of Shelter Medicine Veterinarians’ minimum guidelines for care in animal shelters. This was especially true in the “Security” area where the dogs for which MCAS was seeking owner surrender are kept. None of these dogs were factually properly classified as “Dangerous” and MCAS met none of the care guidelines for dogs held for more than 2 weeks. When asked for its policies about efforts to combat stress deterioration, MCAS responded that no such policies existed (November 27,2017).
- “You asked the question do we have a policy or procedure to ensure enrichment and prevent stress deterioration? We do not have a specific policy for that.”
There is no doubt. MCAS runs a publicly supported shelter that condones animal neglect and abuse. Animals’ lives do not matter in Multnomah County. To convince the public that lives do matter at MCAS, its website presents pictures of often frightened or timid dogs sitting with untouched toys at their feet.
Contrary to this publicity, the reality is that homeless dogs at MCAS are regarded as fungible products, treated as insentient, deprived of minimum social and emotional support, and then killed as “unhealthy and untreatable.” It is a miracle that Blade has survived that climate.
But he did survive. His daily kennel monitor report now documents a cheerful welcoming behavior and efforts to seek out positive attention from other animals and people passing by the outside of his cell. Blaze rehabilitated himself under overwhelming circumstances.
Despite this, despite Blaze’s exemplary behavior under extraordinarily stressful circumstances, MCAS refuses to consider allowing him to be evaluated by an expert professional with a diplomate in veterinary behavior medicine and rejects the opportunity to create a behavior plan and allow Blaze to go to a 501(c)(3) placement partner or be returned to his owner, who now lives in her own home. Throughout MCAS has refused to acknowledge or respond to offers of professional consultation or any mediated solutions that save Blaze’s life and still protect public safety. Few survive prison still as well as Blaze. Few will die so unnecessarily.
The incidents for which Blaze’s owner was cited were situational with multiple stressors. They occurred closely together on May 13, 14, 19 and 24, 2017 (the latter, a barking complaint) while his owner was living in a chaotic multi occupant home with insecure fencing. All were preventable incidents driven by occupant/visitor factors and conduct.
On May 13, a neighbor came over to the house about a mis-delivered package when an occupant opened the door, failed to secure the dogs first, and was unable to control four dogs that came excitably to the front. Blaze ran to the front porch and bit the neighbor. On May 14 another person walked into the house and entered uninvited into the room where Blaze was being kept and a shallow bite/scrape ensued. On May 19, three household dogs got out of the house and while at large menaced passersby.
Although MCAS charged the owner, it presented no evidence that she was involved in the incidents. The hearings officer affirmed the charges despite that lack of evidence and ordered Blaze surrendered to MCAS. The Circuit Court affirmed. The Court of Appeals rejected the county’s contention that owners were always responsible for their dogs’ behavior but nevertheless affirmed the forced surrender to MCAS.
MCAS will immediately kill Blaze as soon as all legal deadlines have passed. They follow an aggressive code of enforcement conduct, announced by a retired management employee some time ago as “We can’t kill the owners so we kill their dogs.” The dogs are victimized, refused new homes, denied opportunities, and killed.
There are thousands of stories and case histories across the country reporting about dogs from insecure lives who, when permitted new circumstances, go on to productive happy uneventful lives. Killing is about killing for the satisfaction of MCAS’s need for revenge and a reminder to never challenge its wishes. It isn’t about “protecting society.” It is about protecting the extraordinary need to “win” at every cost.
MCAS is adamant. To secure a death penalty, MCAS has spent $22,295 of public monies until now (August 25) to kill a young dog who has lived three of his four years in prison.
Why?
Gail O’Connell-Babcock, PhD
Citizens for Humane Animal Legislation/Watchdog
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Blaze's Animal Care Records:
Blaze's Behavior Assessment:
Blaze's Daily Kennel Monitoring Log:
MCAS Failed Animal Care:
MCAS Visitation Policies:
Multnomah County Gov Contact Information:
Rescue Request & Agency Non-response: