NMHP Conference gets real for the people and the dogs
by Denise LeBeau, Best Friends Animal Society“A safe community is a humane community, for both its people and animals,” started Cynthia Bathurst during her session on keeping your community as safe and sound as possible. Cynthia is the Best Friends Animal Society’s national director of
Project Safe Humane – a unique grassroots campaign and alliance to stop violence for children and companion animals in Chicago.
The Violence Connection“People who fight dogs or abuse animals are the most violent offenders in our society. Whether they’re motivated by money, gaming or the ‘rush’ the result is the same, these are violent criminals. Where there is dog fighting there are drugs, gangs and guns,” she continued.
She went on to mention that the
Frank Ascione study correlating animal abuse to domestic violence, which exemplifies just how dangerous dog fighting and animal abuse truly is the community as a whole. It’s not a dog problem, it’s a people problem.
Helping Those At-RiskIn Chicago, low income neighborhoods tend to have:
- more animals at large
- high rates of violent crime
- inadequate resources to change the situation on their own
This is the area that Safe Humane Chicago targets: with their grassroots approach and broad based alliances, their programs work hard at giving the most at-risk communities accessible resources and have measurable goals.
By reaching out to nontraditional partners, like
Rev. Walter B. Johnson, director of faith based outreach for Safe Humane – they are able to change the way people think about animals whether they care about them or not. The program is about being safe and quality of life.
Partnerships for Sustainable ChangeHistorically, the idea of saving animals and helping people has come down to animal organizations trying to do it all. Cynthia gave us the insight into what their alliance looks like in order to make a difference.
These are the groups and organizations that they’re reaching out to:
- Anti-violence organizations
- Government agencies
- Community advocates
- Faith based organizations
- Family and child welfare agencies
- Schools
- Animal welfare community
Their multipronged approach is full of programs that target the entire community.
From criminal justice: training, court advocacy, and access to affordable or free services to support their efforts. They work together with the police with a one on one relationship, the police know the connections between dog fighting, backyard breeders & violence and the police benefit from their support.
They also train
Court Advocates who are a presence in the courtroom, who know who the offenders are, who support the prosecutors, who become the experts and the best resource to get a conviction. They also show the judges that people care and judges are elected officials. And thanks to Safe Humane, anyone can be a
court advocate! With over 700 court advocates in their program, it is proving to be an indispensable asset to nailing criminals and showing elected officials that animal issues matter.
Georgia, one of the Vicktory Dogs at Best Friends puts her past behind her!There Ought to be a LawSafe Humane Chicago also helps people to understand that animals and people share needs. They educate the public on how important
anti-chaining and anti-tethering laws are to keep your area safe. People that chain or fight dogs, what are they thinking? Well, they’re not!
Community policing is up to every concerned citizen. You should identify someone in your police department to help you enforce safe practices in your community and help follow up on neighborhood complaints. Get statistics and keep a record to document reckless owners – the power of a neighborhood is effective!
Reaching OutSafe Humane Chicago also targets venues such as churches, where education and resources are made available to identify and help remedy animal related problems and help spread the word of <a href="
http://www.bestfriends.org/resources/news/updated_shc_info_paper.pdf " target="_blank">‘Kids, Animal & Kindness – It’s All Connected!</a>’
They’re also helping the community with programs focused on children to teach them how to be safe around dogs. They’re reaching out to teens to cultivate Youth Leaders for Safe Humane Chicago. They’re reaching out to at-risk youth to instill Lifetime Bonds for kids that have been involved in dog fighting.
The kids are taking the ball and rolling with it! When referring to their dogs, they don’t call them pits or pit bulls or bulldogs, no, they call them ‘Chicago Dogs!’ Yet again proving that they’re not just changing the way the public thinks about these dogs, but the way the feel about them, and most importantly the way the treat them. Kids, Animals & Kindness is certainly all connected!
Support This Program!By donating to Best Friends Animal Society you are supporting the organizations that are making a difference around the country.
Click here and help give to the people and animals that need it most!
To join the Stop BSL Community on the Best Friends Network,
click hereThis community is focused on keeping your community safe by adopting the best practices that are not Breed Specific Legislation. It has news from around the country and actionable items you can take to help make a difference for the dogs we love!Click here to check out the highlights from the 2008 No More Homeless Pets Conference! image of Cynthia Bathurst, NMHP Conference by Clay Myers, Best Friends Animal Societyimage of Georgia, Best Friends media department