Severe Weather Preparedness

It is May in the Midwest and severe weather preparedness is on our mind. The Department of Homeland Security - National Disaster Relief is focusing on dog emergency kits and our rescue has been selected as a recipient! While we excitedly await our kits, and contemplate how we can create our own, we want to help you take steps to keep your pet safe.

1. Order a free Pet Safety Kit from the ASPCA. This kit includes a rescue alert sticker to let emergency first responders know how many pets live at your residence.
2. Locate a safe haven. Call around to identify hotels and boarding facilities that accept pit bulls, because not all disaster shelters accept pets.
3. Collect emergency supplies and create travel kits. The ASPCA has created this  comprehensive list.
4. Decide who will be a designated caregiver or "foster parent".
5. Practice evacuation.
6. Think about your location and the different climates you may experience. Also remember that not all communities are welcoming of pit bulls make sure to research breed specific legislation (BSL) around your community. Here is a BSL legislative update for Indiana.

Disaster can strike at any moment so it helps to be prepared. Pick up a Pet First Aid kit to keep around the house and look into Pet CPR classes. It always helps to be prepared!

Shelter and Rescue Lobby Day

Casa del Toro Pit Bull Rescue will be at the Indianapolis Statehouse tomorrow to lobby for humane legislation. We will have a table in the atrium and will speak with legislators and members of the public that come through about upcoming spay/neuter and felony spectator for animal fighting legislation.

If you live in Indiana and love pit bulls – call your Representative and
SPEAK OUT in support of humane legislation!

2014 Legislative Session ends March 14, 2014

Don’t know your Representative? Find out here.

H.B. 1400 The Indiana Companion Animal Sterilization Fund bill – is in its 4th year of being introduced to the Indiana General Assembly. The bill would provide free spay/neuter services to Medicaid recipients through a program operated by Spay Neuter Services of Indianapolis. HB 1400 has been assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Tim Brown. Please contact your Representative to urge him/her to call or email Rep. Brown and ask that HB 1400 receive a hearing. If the bill doesn’t receive a hearing this Thursday (January 23) or next Monday (January 27), it will be dead for another year — unless it becomes an attachment on another bill. Call to your House of Representative delegate today or tomorrow!

S.B. 6 The Animal Fighting Contests bill - for approximately the 7th year in a row, a bill has been introduced in the Indiana Senate that would make attending an animal fighting contest a felony. Authored by Senator Jim Arnold, from LaPorte, has been assigned to the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee, which is chaired by Indianapolis Senator, R. Michael Young.  The bill would make attendance at an animal fighting contest a Class VI felony.  As of today this bill has not been scheduled for a hearing. In order to have a chance at making it through the 2014 legislative session, please contact Senator R. Michael Young and politely ask him to give this important bill a hearing.

Hard Work

It was a lot of hard work for our volunteers and foster families to step up and rescue 18 dogs in November to send out on the December Canine Express. Only Bronson, the blue and white 2 month old puppy, was unable to make the trip because he was getting over a nasty virus. So his foster mom will have him through the holidays. I would also like to recognize our donors who helped us fund this initiative.

Grateful

Onyx is thankful for being chosen for the Canine Express and I am thankful for the time that I spent with her this morning. Through our enrichment program Casa del Toro volunteers help improve the quality of life for Indianapolis shelter dogs like Onyx. We identify pit bulls like Onyx and then promote them to East Coast rescues through the Canine Express. If selected, we try to pull the dog into our rescue through our foster program. This frees up a kennel at Indianapolis Animal Care and Control and helps the shelter move more animals to the adoption floor.

We are always looking for supporters like you. This month we were able to pull 17 puppies into the rescue for Canine Express, but had to leave Onyx at the shelter because we did not have an ideal foster home for an adult female. Therefore, our volunteers always stop by Onyx and provide some extra kennel enrichment when at the shelter.

If you have ever thought about fostering or think you might be interested in getting a second buddy for your dog please complete a Foster Application today. We may not have the perfect fit for your home today, but we are able to pull more dogs if we have a database of types of dogs that will already fit into our foster homes.

Help Save Puppies

Our volunteers are not only help us run Casa del Toro Pit Bull Education & Rescue, but they also volunteer at Indianapolis Animal Care and Control (IACC). Last month our volunteers stepped up and fostered 17 puppies that were under an investigation hold at the shelter. This means our volunteers opened their homes up to these puppies in order to help them stay healthy and social while a pending court case played out.

Luckily for the pups as of this week they officially were released and C.D.T. could adopt them. We have worked diligently with shelters on the East Coast to line up foster homes and opportunities through the Canine Express. 10 of our puppies are bound for a pit bull and parolees program in Maine and the other 7 are bound for Vermont. We were also fortunate Vermont selected a little bit older pup, Onyx, who is two years old.

Now we are asking our donors and supporters like you for help. IACC will vaccinate the puppies and CDT will spay/neuter them, however, we are looking for donors to help us afford the expense to fecal test the puppies. Since the Canine Express will be transporting the puppies across many states we must ensure the pups are not carrying diseases. It is going to cost us approximately $75 per puppies and we ask you to take a moment and show you support. No gift is too small.

The puppies are scheduled to leave on December 5th. Please help us reach our goal of $1350 and stay tuned for puppy updates! With your support we will be able to continue to offer this service to puppies at the shelter, if you would like to foster puppies for us please complete a foster home application.

Thank you for your continued support.