Huge Changes in Toledo!

Some more good news has come out of Toledo in the past month. After a 22 year reign of terror and incompetency, Tom Skeldon "retired" back in November. Since that time, Lucas County (of which Toledo is a big part) has been making a number of significant changes to improve the lives of dogs and dog owners, while also working to increase safety in their community.

One huge change is a new dog warden - Julie Lyle' who clearly feels MUCH differently about how to do things than her predecessor, Tom Skeldon. Our friends at KC Dog Blog have a great post with many more details about the new warden.

A second huge change is the Toledo Humane Society's reversal on their long-standing position to prohibit adoption of "pit bulls". As the Toledo Blade explains, the Humane Society plans to adopt out "some" members of the pit bull population that previously were killed pretty much immediately. Now this brings up a whole set of other issues such as: 1) what exactly is a pit bull? Breed identification is risky business; 2) many dogs fail the temperament testing by Humane Societies, regardless of breed. But some dogs are given the benefit of the doubt on testing while "pit bulls" often are not. Nevertheless, this is a positive step in the right direction.

We are hopeful things will continue to move forward in a positive direction. And special thanks to our friends at Ohio Coalition of Dog Advocates for their hard work in Lucas County.