Puppies Chucked In Dumpster Raised by Inmates Find New Homes

[joeybee12]

Back in January, these six little puppies had been tossed in a trashcan and left for dead. Flash forward to now, and they are all headed to new forever homes.

Thanks to a program involving the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society and some inmates at the South Dakota State Penitentiary, there has been someone making sure their transition into new homes will be as smooth as possible.

“It started terrible as we all know,” said South Dakota State Penitentiary Inmate Lance Przybylski. “When we first saw them, they were a week old and had just been discovered after being thrown away in the cold.”

“It’s so sad, it’s really sad, especially when there’s a shelter so close,” said Sioux Falls Area Humane Society Humane Officer Andy Oestreich.

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2015/03/puppies-chucked-in-dumpster-raised-by-inmates-find-new-homes/

There's a video at the link, but I can't figure out how to embed it here.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. kick

[Warpy]

2. A lot of inmates seem to relate better to animals than people

A prime example would be the "Birdman" of Alcatraz, by all accounts a complete sociopath who couldn't be anywhere near the general population because he would kill again. He not only successfully raised and kept birds, he also managed to write one of the first solid texts on avian medicine.

Rehabilitation programs have used horses, cats, dogs, and other animals to reach unreachable inmates. Sometimes it carried through to the outside, sometimes not, but it always managed to remind the guards of the essential humanity of even the most hardened predatory criminal.

I'm not a bit surprised by this story. Those puppies will likely be loving and trusting and completely ready for their new homes.

[BrotherIvan]

4. At one of the gang programs used by the school where I once taught

They paired people with either shelter animals or special needs teens and what a success it was. I saw bangers who had been incarcerated for violent crimes turn into teddy bears. They cared for their friends with as much tenderness and love as you could ever imagine. More than one person told me he had never understood kindness or respect until he got a chance to relate on the basic level of just taking care of someone or a pet. It changed their whole outlook because they found the kindness in themselves. Those programs are a win for everyone and that is what we should be encouraging, not profit for prisons.

[brer cat]

6. I agree, BrotherIvan.

This program sounds like a great idea. Giving the prisoners a chance to be responsible and nurturing could help them in the future, and the pups are watched over until they are old enough for adoption.

[BrotherIvan]

7. Yes, it is so great

I wish we, as a country, could seek out more solutions to problems this way. And in my book, everyone needs the love that a pet can give.

[joeybee12]

5. They sure will...

Those puppies got care 24x7...and socialization 24x7...I wish I could give my fosters that kind of attention.

[ND-Dem]

9. Amazing story; I'd seen the movie, but it doesn't do him justice.

Ran away from home at 13 & lived on his own after that; at 19 he killed the man who was beating the woman he pimped, then turned himself in to the police.

Prison at McNeil Island, then Leavenworth. While at McNeil Island he got in fights with prisoners, stabbing two (apparently r/t morphine smuggling plot). He got extra time, was transferred to Leavenworth, and wound up killing a guard, which he got life for.

He spent 20 years with his birds, wrote 2 books, invented a cure for avian hemorrhagic septicemia, and ran a long-lived bird business.

Then he was transferred to Alcatraz and that ended his birding. At Alcatraz he wrote 2 books, his autobiography and a history of the US prison system. He wasn't allowed to publish either.

He studied law and became a jailhouse lawyer, on his own behalf, at least. He spent the last years of his life studying French at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield MO. Supposedly he also spoke German (apparently learned from his German-origin parents as a child).

He died at 73, living long enough to know a movie was being made about him, but not to see it. He spent 42 of his 53 years in prison in solitary confinement. He had a third-grade education.

The last two books will likely be published. Part 1 of the autobiography is already in ebook format. And the film rights have been sold.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2014/01/30/birdman-of-alcatraz-robert-stroud/5054535/

[AtomicKitten]

3. What a great foster program.

I cannot comprehend how anyone could toss 1-week-old pups in the garbage considering a shelter was nearby (per the reporting). Chances are good the mother has not and will not be spayed, and this sad and tragic cycle will continue.

[blue neen]

8. Very good story.

It's nice to see positive approaches with positive outcomes.