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The abandoned dog in the photographs is NOT the same as the lucky dog in the newspaper story and was unfortunately not as lucky as the dog in the story.

A Living Miracle

Latzke, J. 2003. A Living Miracle: Dog who survived gas chamber to be center of campain. The Monitor, McAllen, Tx (August 15): 4A.
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Photographs (not from the newspaper article) of dog abandoned on the road near the home of the instructor. It was transported to the Valley Humane Society. All photographs © 2004, Jan A. Nilsson

The article is used for educational purposes by Dr. Jan A. Nilsson, Biology Department, South Texas Community College, Texas, USA.

Friday, August 15, 2003.

A Living Miracle: Dog who survived gas chamber to be center of campain

By Latzke Jeff

The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- A dog that survived a trip to the gas chamber was tapped to star in a campaign to raise awareness about the millions of strays that are euthanized each year. "His bad days are behind him for good," said Randy Grim, founder of Stray Rescue of St. Louis.

Grim became Quentin's guardian earlier this month, after the 30-pound dog basenji mix went into a city gas chamber to be euthanized with other unwanted or unclaimed dogs -- then emerging very much alive, with tail wagging.

The survival tale brought headlines, television cameras and more than 700 offers of adoption. "I didn't know how to pick one person out of 700," said Grim.

Now, Quentin -- who is named for California's San Quentin State Prison -- will be the front dog for the awareness campaign by the Mill Valley, Calif.-based in Defence of Animals.

Group founder Elliot Katz said it will; donate $5,000 to begin a fund to eliminate the gas chamber as St. Louis' primary way of euthanizing stray dogs, and a benefit is planned Friday night at his shelter to kick off the fund-raising effort.

Among other projects, Katz and his group advocated people calling themselves pet guardians instead of owners. The group has succeeded in replacing the word "owner" with "guardian" on licenses or other official documents in several locations, including San Francisco and Rhoded Island.

"Guardians don't buy and sell animals, they adopt and rescue," Katz said.

Katz said there are three ways to decrease the number of dogs without homes:

-- changing the mind-set of people who adopt pets

-- spaying and neutering

-- identifying commercial puppy mills

About 5 million dogs are euthanized each year because homes cannot be found, katz said. The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to animals estimates between 5 million and 9 million companion animals are euthanized each year.


"The dogs last ride..."


On the Net:

Stray Rescue of St. Louis: http://www.strayrescue.org

In Defense of Animals: http://www.idausa.org

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: http://www.aspca.org








Address and Telephone Information to the Valley Humane Society:

Valley Humane Society

Trenton Road, 1/4 Mi. East of McColl
P.O. Box 3386
McAllen, Texas 78502
(956) 686-1141

Upper Valley Humane Society

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