Dr. Katherine Houpt sentences innocent dogs to death -- By: Lindsay Orler (posted with permission of the author)

[jamiedolan]

Dr. Katherine Houpt sentences innocent dogs to death

I haven't been very active lately due to lots going on in real life, but I met up with k8nkane yesterday for lunch and we got to talking about a recent event in Michigan involving 4 pit bulls pulled out of a "dog fighting ring" in the Metro-Detroit area. Cate said that it might have been discussed here, but I went back and looked for entries and couldn't find them.

I am going to try to write with this with as much information as I can, but it might be a little vague. I'm also completely and utterly upset/livid/depressed at the outcome, so please excuse me if my post comes off as overly emotional.

These 4 dogs (2 males, 2 females) were given to The Buster Foundation for care, though their lives still hung in the balance until Monroe County went to court about them. I'm sketchy on all the specifics about the case, since I became involved right in the middle of it and by completely unrelated circumstance. The trainer I was working with for scent detection has a boarding kennel and was housing/caring for these dogs. I spent weeks with these 4 pit bulls, and the two females often played with my dogs and often on a daily basis. They were supposed to be temperament tested on a Monday, and the week prior to this test, my trainer came under fire from the city for zoning regulations of his kennel (nothing to do with the care, but it was complete mistake on the city's part). The Friday before the test was done, the dogs were ordered by the courts to be moved to the county shelter.

Fail number one.

Despite being moved from a quiet kennel in which they had become accustomed to the routine and moved to a NOISY shelter with no routine and complete uprooted, these dogs passed their evaluations with flying colors. Or so any rational evaluator and anyone who knows anything about dogs would have assessed. Dr. Katherine Houpt, on the other hand, deemed these dogs as "vicious" and "lacking useful purpose." All of the videos are similar, with all of the dogs acting in much the same ways. Yet, 3 of the 4 dogs were deemed vicious and sentenced to death.

If anyone has watched Dog Town, you've seen this test. I HATE it with a passion and think many of the tests fail to properly evaluate the dog in question. However, this woman fails at performing this tests and fails at properly evaluating the dog's personality, their reactions, and obviously fails at separating breed prejudice from the dog's reaction.

(These videos are of the pitty girl I wanted to smuggle out of my trainer's kennel when I heard they were going to be moved. He probably would have let me if I pushed to do it. Now I'm wishing I had.)

First, Dr. Houpt stands in front of the dog's kennel and stares them down. Supposedly, the dog is suppose to "cower" at her dominant staring...



What I see: "Dusty" is excited to have a person come greet her! After awhile, she gets confused at why this person is just standing there staring at her, and waits.

In the next part of the evaluation, Dusty is taken into a small room and a series of tests are performed. Ms. Houpt says that Dusty snarled at the toy doll, avoided a "witch" that came into the room (strange stranger? I have no idea), and bit at the fake hand.

I see none of that happening in the video...



Finally, they round off this test with a sparring off of dogs to determine dog-on-dog aggression...(*RAGE*)



Ms. Houpt concludes this based on her testing of the dog:

"The results of the testing indicates that the following animals: the two males Monroe 207 Reilly 212 that both demonstrated aggression to other dogs and one female Dusty 206 who snarled at the doll should be humanely euthanized because of their lack of any useful purpose and the public safety threat they pose." MCL 750.49(18) aggressive whereas Dog 210 Razzle --- may be safe"

Keep in mind, nearly every single dog reacted in much the same manner that Dusty did. There was very little differences between their tests.

I saw dogs with poor manners who needed some training. I did not see aggressive dogs, nor did I ever meet aggressive dogs. In fact, here's a video of Razzle and Dusty playing with Jax, Magnum (the Golden Retriever), and Cronkite (the old, fat Lab)...



I'm not sure how well online petitions work - I've never relied on them and fail to see their usefulness - but Change.org has a petition on their site regarding this case. I don't know how many "unuseful" dogs Ms. Houpt has killed, but this has hit VERY close to home for me, and I am furious. This woman is a fraud and failed to keep breed prejudice out of her evaluations, as well as failing to properly evaluate these dogs.

I want so much more than for her just to recant her testimony. I hope that this can create enough public uproar and start to spread some awareness.


This article was published with the permission of the Author; Lindsay Orler. Lindsay's site can be found here.

We as well as the author encourage you not to contact Dr. Houpt, as there is discussion that she is interpreting letters she received as threats and is attempting legal action against the people who sent the letters. You would likely be safe with a polite, non-confrontational letter, something that many of us would find difficult to compose in this situation.

[Louise Balmforth]

An complete and utter outrage, someone do the human race a favour and put that bloody awful woman to death instead of that sweet dog, this makes me sooo ANGRY.

[Ange End BSL]

I find the language she uses in her testimny odd! She states the dogs "serve no useful purpose & should be euthanized". Correct me if Im wrong but isnt that PETA speak when referring to Pibbles? Isnt that their view & how they think. It sounds like the line they used when they said about eradicating the breed & Ingrid Newkirk supporting Bsl?

[Unregistered]

I read this womans assesment all I can say is "WHAT!!!!" I see a dog on the first video that is excited at the prospect of human contact avoiding the dominance stare by looking away and turning her body to the side thus showing submission.

On the second video I hear no snarl, I see a dog that is freindly, curious and submissive when approach, practicing avoidence without agrressive signs of any kind. The dog react very well to the fake hand, does not pause of stiffen.

The dog shows no food aggresion, even when repeatedly tormented, Infact the dog actually surrenders the food walking away. Her reaction 2 the wierd stranger is friendly & submissive.

No sign of dog aggression, she greets appropriatly as much as she is allowed to

Other than needin some training in no jumping, and calm approach this dog would be a perfect pet.

This so called doctor needs some serious retraining infact should should not be allowed to continue