US banker Sonia Dias hides her clandestine cargo, Zena the pit-bull terrier, in the back of her SUV in a desperate quest to save the dog from city officials and a possible death sentence.
The professional from Denver, in the western state of Colorado, is part of an "underground railroad" intent on secretly ferrying the dogs -- blamed for a string of savage and sometimes deadly attacks on people -- to safety before local officials can impound and euthanize them.
Denver was one of the first of a growing number of US municipalities to ban the beasts from its city limits, a move that has infuriated pit-bull lovers, raised cries of canine racism and spawned a string of canine "safehouses."
"I don't have any two-legged children, but I have two four-legged children," Dias said of her dogs, including Zena the brindle-colored pit bull.
"It's the equivalent, to me, of saying, `You have to give up your children,'" she said.
Since Denver's city council renewed its 1989 ban on the dogs on May 9, at least 260 pit bulls have been put to sleep in the Rocky Mountain metropolis, spurring a network of pit-bull lovers into illegal action.
Volunteers of the pit bull "railroad" take illegally harbored pit bulls and drive them to shelters like Mariah's Promise Animal Sanctuary in the southern mountain town of Divide, about 160km away.
The railroad urges those who run such shelters to hole up inside with the flurry of fearsome dogs, not open the door to animal control officers and force authorities to obtain a search warrant.
Following a flurry of US pit bull attacks, Denver's tough ban has reignited the debate over whether the dogs or their human handlers are to blame for vicious behavior, and who should pay for their misdeeds.
"The problem is when you have a specific breed used for dog fighting and to protect drug premises and they're trained to be rough," Councilwoman Carol Boigon said of the dogs.
Denver moved to ban the dogs after 20 reported pit-bull attacks on humans between 1984 and 1989.
They included the 1986 death of a three-year-old boy and the 1989 mauling that left 59-year-old Reverend Wilbur Billingsley with over 70 bites and two broken legs.
But the ordinance ran up against state law last year, when Colorado Governor Bill Owens signed a bill prohibiting local governments from regulating a specific breed.
The city suspended its enforcement of the ban but reinstated it three months ago, after it successfully challenged the state with a lawsuit arguing that the city had a right to regulate its own borders.
While it is difficult to estimate how many pit bulls live in Denver, the number of impounded pit bulls has been steadily rising over the past few years, from 103 in 1999 to 652 in 2003.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS