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Thousands of pit bulls live in Cleveland. City law requires pit bull owners to cage them, to muzzle them when they are being walked and to carry liability insurance. Many owners ignore the law, so city dog wardens confiscate the dogs and euthanize them.
Last year, the city killed 1,335 pit bulls. So far this year, 737 have been put down.
Plain Dealer videographer Lonnie Timmons III follows a dog warden on the job. The warden catches a stray pit bull and confiscates another from a family that hadn't complied with the pit bull law. Both dogs were put down.
The Cleveland Animal Protective League is also forced to euthanize pit bulls -- those that are surrendered by their owners and those confiscated from neglectful or cruel owners.
(NOTE: Pit bulls do not have "locking jaws." No breed of dog does. The dog warden in the video is describing a biting dog's tenacity when he refers to "locking jaws.")
View reports regarding the inaccuracies of dog bite studies and the ineffectiveness of bans from the Center for Disease Control, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the National Animal Interest Alliance and Canine Advocates of Ohio.
The Shaw High School Mighty Cardinals marching band from East Cleveland continues its tour of China before the Olympics start with a visit to China's most famous landmark, the Great Wall.
• Watch the first video of their China trip, see slideshows and photo galleries of the band back home, and read Connie Schultz's columns about the students, all at cleveland.com/shawband.
Friday is D-Day.
On this day 64 years ago, the Allies invaded France during World War II with an assault force of nearly 7,000 ships, 11,000 aircraft and some 156,000 troops.
The effort would cost some 10,000 casualties, including 6,603 U.S. troops killed and wounded that day.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, puts two leg bands on an eaglet at Tinkers Creek State Park in Portage County. The bald eagle was taken off the endangered species list this year.
The Cleveland Fire Department performed Rapid Intervention Training Thursday at an empty house on Cleveland's East Side. The drills are designed to sharpen firefighter skills and techniques in life-saving situations.
A motorist was killed about 2:25 this morning in a crash near West 44th Street and Clark Avenue in Cleveland.
The car struck a pole and crashed through the front of the Pit Stop donut shop.
The driver was not wearing a seat belt, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County coroner said. A passenger was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center.
About six hours after the crash, Jerry McCloud stood outside the donut shop and wept. He identified the dead man as his 28-year-old brother, Shaun McCloud, of West 48th Street.
The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office confirmed the identity and will perform an autopsy.
Continuing its campaign against slaughterhouse practices, the Humane Society of the United States filed suit today against the USDA.
HSUS says the recent massive recall of beef was caused by a loophole in the agency's regulations.
"USDA has in recent weeks assured the public that sick and crippled cattle are not allowed to enter the food supply, but the agency's regulations actually contradict that assertion," HSUS president Wayne Pacelle said in news release.
"Unless we want yet another dramatic food scare -- further eroding consumer confidence in beef and costing the private sector and the federal government tens of millions of dollars -- we should not hesitate to close this legal loophole and establish an unambiguous no-downer policy that will also help protect crippled animals from egregious abuse."
Pacelle is scheduled to testify Friday before a Senate subcommittee examining the issues surrounding the recall.
Because cattle too injured or ill to walk into slaughterhouses increase the risk of contaminating the meat with dangerous bacteria, the USDA issued an emergency rule in 2004 to prevent downed cattle from being slaughtered for human consumption.
In 2007, the agency quietly reversed course and relaxed its rules to permit some crippled cows to be slaughtered for human consumption, Pacelle said.
The rule allows slaughterhouse workers to violently force downed animals to their feet long enough to pass inspection. It also allows for the slaughter of animals that drop to the ground after being inspected.
An undercover HSUS member videotaped workers beating, eletrocuting and jabbinng cows to try to make them stand. They also rammed cows with forklift blades and dragged them by chains. The undercover video.
The lawsuit alleges that the downer loophole is irrational and inconsistent with the USDA's obligations to ensure humane handling and food safety under the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act. The suit also alleges that the loophole was promulgated in 2007 without adequate public notice and comment under the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
U.S. Congressman Steve LaTourette, from Ohio's 14th District, is pushing for the adoption of his Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act, in the wake of the largest recall of beef in U.S. history.
He says it would prevent ill cattle from being slaughtered for human consumption, which is what led to the massive recall of meat Sunday.
LaTourette points to Bill 661, which he introduced in January 2007 with New York Congressman Gary Ackerman. It currently has 125 co-sponsors and would ban slaughtering downed animals (those too weak or injured to walk) for human consumption and require that they be humanely euthanized. Companion Senate Bill 394 was introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled 143 million pounds of beef processed at a California slaughterhouse, after an undercover video taken by the Humane Society of the United States showed workers shocking, kicking and hoisting ailing cows toward slaughter with forklifts.
"What happened at that California meat plant is beyond despicable. Those cattle should never make it into the food supply, and the way they were so heinously abused by slaughterhouse workers was almost impossible to watch," LaTourette said.
Residents along the Chagrin River in Eastlake were asked to evacuate at 4 a.m. Wednesday when the river looked like it would overflow its banks. Most residents, having endured much higher waters, stayed in their homes. The water began to recede with the sunrise.
• Weather updates around the clock: cleveland.com/weather
• Plain Dealer coverage of the flooding updated through the day.
Heavy rains in the last 24-hours sent the Cuyahoga River over its banks in Independence. Old Rockside Road was one of the areas covered by high water, closing some businesses and stranding motorists.
• Weather updates around the clock: cleveland.com/weather
• Plain Dealer coverage of the flooding updated through the day.
Students are being sent home at noon from a Cleveland elementary school because of poor air quality following a weekend fire.
Robinson G. Jones at Nathaniel Hawthorne, a school on W. 130th St. for grades kindergarten through eight, had a fire early Sunday, but the district determined it could open on Monday. A subsequent air test led to the shutdown. Parents have been instructed to pick up their children at noon.
The fire was in the basement. Earlier this week, district officials said the cause was under investigation.
On Sunday, Nick Jackson, who is interim security chief, recommended to Dan Burns, chief operating officer, that the building be reopened on Monday. Burns said he was out of town over the weekend and relied on Jackson's account of the fire clean-up. But based on Jackson's report, he told school CEO Eugene Sanders that the school could reopen on Monday.
Since then, at the suggestion of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the district had a private test made for asbestos particles. Officials at the EPA said they advised closing the school till a thorough test for asbestos could be done. That test revealed elevated levels, prompting Burns to recommended this morning that the school be closed until final tests are completed, possibly by Monday.
Parents, who were summoned hastily to the school or learned of the closing via media reports, were angry with the district. "They should have never let them [the students] come back in the school," said Joe Bonelli, who was picking up his son, Joseph, 8, and daughter, Olivia, 5.
Rudy Malec said his 10-year-old daughter, Destiny, complained earlier in the week that she was having trouble breathing in the school building. "I gave her an inhaler and they [school officials] took it away from her because she did not have a prescription for it," Malec said.
Parents said the teachers had been wearing surgical masks, though there were none for the students. A few
Other parents said the school shutdown is going to force them to stay home from work.
For more information, call 216-574-8070.
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