Justice And A Safe Haven For Chicago's Court Case Dogs - Forbes
"As a new year opens and another closes, we look back on a period of new beginnings for more than a hundred Chicago dogs who landed squarely in the middle of the criminal court system.
Those 142 canines are lucky; they’ve benefited from the first-ever Court Case Dog Program, which was formed because of an abuse case.
The innovative enterprise was founded not long after a dog named Chula and 36 others arrived at Chicago Animal Care and Control, where volunteers with Project Safe Humane happened to be that day. As a result, most were soon placed in rescue.
The rescued canines — ranging in age from puppies to adults — became the inspiration for the Court Case Dog Program and the impetus for the current partnership between Chicago Animal Care and Control and Best Friends’ Project Safe Humane, which is run by national director Cynthia Bathurst.
The landmark case was the largest dog-fighting seizure in the history of the State of Illinois.
Chula, her face scarred and teeth filed down to stubs so she wouldn’t bite other dogs while she was used as a breeder and a bait dog, was saved from that life. Through the group P.A.W.S. of Tinley Park, Chula went to Pawsitively Heaven Pet Resort in Chicago Ridge, where she lives today.
As for Kevin Taylor, the abuser of the 37 dogs, a Cook County judge last November threw the book at him, finding him guilty of 62 felony counts relating to dog fighting and animal cruelty.
On December 14, more than four years after the raid, Taylor stood before Judge Brian Flaherty for his sentencing of the maximum three years for crimes against the dogs, plus a year of supervision after his release.
Taylor is serving out his sentence inside the walls of the maximum-security Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois, where inmates are given industry jobs making soap and furniture."
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