Those who love animals find it hard to imagine why anyone would ever inflict pain on our furry friends. A judge named Michael (Mike) Cicconetti from Ohio is the proud owner of a beautiful Bernese mountain dog and an overall animal enthusiast. He is committed to helping end animal abuse and neglect in his community and has set about to combat the problem in an unexpected way. He uses his sentencing power as a judge to choose sentences that he hopes will help the abusers understand why their behavior is so harmful. His ultimate goal is to get these people to stop treating their pets in such heartless ways. For example, one local woman got in trouble with the law for allowing her dog to live in a filthy environment. She ended up in Judge Mike's courtroom. So when it came time for him to hand down her sentence, he decided to allow her to have a brief glimpse into what the poor pooch's life had been like under her abuse and neglect. He sentenced the woman to have to spend eight straight hours sitting in a stench-filled dump. To read more on this story, click here:This Clever Judge Turns The Tables On Animal Abusers With A Dose Of Their Own Medicine
Twelve cats from Anderson, Indiana’s Animal Protection League have now found their forever homes in an unlikely place, a correctional facility. The stray cats now have a place to stay and people to seek affection from in the Pendleton Correctional Facility. An unfinished office at the correctional facility is now designed for cats. Litter boxes have been set up; scratch posts and walkways placed for all the dozen cats to enjoy. Instead of being confined to cages, these cats now found a perfect sanctuary with inmates to care for them. Animal Protection League director Maleah Stringer said that placing the cats from her no-kill cat shelter into this new program will increase the chances of them getting adopted. “I’ve had offenders tell me when they got an animal, it was the first time they can remember they were allowing themselves to care about something, to love something. That’s a pretty powerful statement,” said Stinger in a WISH Channel 8 report. The prisoners delegated with sanctuary tasks spend most of their day grooming, feeding and cleaning up after the felines. Human and feline relationship has worked out pretty well so far, according to prison spokeswoman Michelle Rains. The prison already hosts a dog training program and putting up a cat sanctuary only proved to be a good idea. The new program helps cats interact with humans and other cats as they are allowed to roam free inside the office. The program has taught inmates to learn more about responsibility as well. “This program means a lot. … It gives me something to look forward to each and every day. It gives me a reason to strive to do better than I did yesterday and to stay out of trouble,” said inmate Barry Matlock. Matlock also shared his heart-warming message about the cats. "I deserve to be in prison; I committed a crime, but these animals, they live like we live in the cell houses in the cages and they don't deserve that." The cat sanctuary program at the facility has garnered a lot of interest from inmates and those who wish to apply are carefully screened before being allowed to participate. This heartening story was also covered in the Herald Bulletin.
Dogs are truly loyal to their owners. It doesn’t matter if the pet owner is a law-abiding citizen or not, the pet will stand by his or her owner no matter what. In Florianópolis, Brazil, police officers raided a home and apprehended a group of drug traffickers. When the arrest was made, a pet was found in the residence and when the four-legged friend saw his owners lying on the floor, he too surrendered himself and lay next to his owners. One of the officers found the action of the canine endearing and snapped a photograph of the dog next to his owners. The officer posted the image on Twitter and the image went viral. The dog’s name and breed are unknown, an even though we don’t know what happened to the dog after his owners were taken away, one thing is for sure, the pet was not arrested and thrown to jail.
