Lost Dog

We received a request from a reader to post a flyer for a lost dog. Maggie, a tan-and-brown female Chihuahua, was last seen a week ago on Cambridge Ave. near Bonita in Claremont. If you've seen her, please let the owners know.

The Ravelers Doggin' It

The local band The Ravelers is back at it today. They write to say that they'll be playing in Upland's Memorial Park between 9am and 3pm at Upland's 2009 Pet Adoption Faire.

You can see flying disc dogs and a flyball racing team perform. There's also pet mircochipping - free to Uplanders, $20 to non-residents. They'll have low-cost pet vaccinations, too.

While you're there, you can grab a burger or a hot dog served up by Upland's firefighters.

Memorial Park is located on Foothill Blvd. at Hospital Parkway. It's the home of the new Upland Animal Shelter.

Saturday, May 16- Upland Pet Adoption Fair!!!
Upland Memorial Park
Foothill Blvd between Campus and Grove
Upland, CA
(800)811-4285

For info, click here.

The Ravelers play throughout the day 9:00am - 3:00pm

Drop by, say hello, and enjoy a great community event...

Hai, Pat, Martie, Rob
The Ravelers

CPD News Item

More on that pitbull shooting we heard about last week.

Tony Krickl had an article in yesterday's Courier about the incident. Krickl explains that the dog was one of two pitbulls that belonged to a Claremont Village resident. Both dogs apparently got loose, chased a jogger, and then threatened a man walking his Lhasa Apso.

Tony Krickl's article tells what happened next:

Anne Seltzer, who lives on 8th Street just south of Memorial Park, said she heard some commotion in the front of her home and came out to inspect what was going on.

Ms. Seltzer saw the dogs attacking the smaller white dog. She decided to use her garden hose to spray the dogs, hoping to diffuse the attack.

One of the dogs was scared off by the water and ran away, Ms. Seltzer said. The 81-year-old man was able to retrieve his dog and take it away to safety.

The other dog, Harley, did not run away and remain in a "threatening position." "I was afraid the dog was going to charge," Ms. Seltzer said.

When Claremont Police Officer Andrew Mitchell arrived at the scene, he called out to the dog in order to get its attention away from Ms. Seltzer. According to Cpt. Jenkins, who reviewed video of the incident from Officer Mitchell’s dashboard camera, Harley charged at the officer.

When Harley was 4 to 6 feet away, Officer Mitchell shot her 4 times, Cpt. Jenkins said.

Krickl also wrote about the incident on his blog, Courier City Beat. On CCB Krickl seems to be a little more free in his observations and has the luxury of linking to various references such as a 2006 New Yorker article about pitbulls.

* * *

We think the responsibility for this entire affair lies with the owner, named in the Courier article as Deanne Anderson, 26, of Claremont. We don't care about the so-called "broken" fence. In our view it is the owner's absolute responsibility to to control her animals. Call us harsh, but when a pack of dogs--and the two dogs were instinctively acting out pack behavior--go after a jogger, knock an 81-year old into the bushes, and attack another smaller animal, it's on the owner.

And what kind of brainpower does it take in this day and age to understand this: when you own two pitbulls, given the very bad press associated with pitbulls, you bear even heightened responsibility.

We wish the police officer had found a better way to control the hapless Harley, but we by no means second-guess him on this one. We grieve for the dog. Who could not have sympathy looking at the picture in the Courier? The dog was doing what dogs do, and why the Death Penalty for that?

Nope; this one falls squarely on the owner, and she'll be lucky if she doesn't face an expensive, complicated, and ultimately unhappy series of administrative and legal actions ending with her other dog being taken away and put down.

And the police thought this item was "not newsworthy"?

photo special to the Courier

Claremont Tidbits

The City of Claremont is holding a hazardous materials drop-off tomorrow from 9am to 3pm at the Claremont Corporate Yard, located at 1616 N. Monte Vista Ave.

The drop-off is open to all Los Angeles County residents.

* * *

The City is also warning of possible power outages between 9pm Sunday, February 8th and 7am Monday, February 9th due to work by Edison crews:

Power Outage Notification

A planned outage by SCE will affect service in the southwest area of the Village between 9:00 p.m. Sunday, February 8 and 7:00 a.m. Monday, February 9, 2009.

SCE will be performing maintenance to change out 2 ram switches, and will impact the following:

• City parking structure on First Street.
• Traffic signals at Arrow Hwy. and Indian Hill Blvd.
• Local businesses in southwest section of the Village.
• Even numbered addresses (100-400 blocks) on south side of W. First Street.
• 100 and 200 blocks S. Indian Hill Blvd.
• Peppertree Square on the southeast corner of W. Arrow Hwy. and Indian Hill Blvd.

Power may be off for the whole period or may be turned off more than once. This planned outage may not begin exactly at the stated start time. Some conditions may cause this planned outage to be postponed.

For outage status, please visit www.sce.com/outage or call 1-888-759-6056 and reference the planned outage number 331677 and/or 361666.

The Inland Valley Humane Society will be holding a series of pet vaccination clinics and low-cost spay/neuter clinics throughout the year, the City's website says:

Humane Society Hosts Low-Cost Vaccination and Spay/Neuter Clinics

The Inland Valley Humane Society is hosting a series of low cost clinics on a first come, first serve basis. The clinics are very well attended and the lines can be very long.

For information about the vaccination clinic call the Humane Society at (909) 623-9777 or for the spay/neuter clinics, call the Humane Society's Spay/Neuter Hotline at (909) 623-9777 x 696.

You can view of schedule of the clinics here.

* * *

Poetry fans will be interested to learn that the Claremont Graduate University has named this year's winners of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Awards. The Los Angeles Times carried a small blurb about this:

Matthea Harvey, a Brooklyn, N.Y., resident who teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, has won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award from Claremont Graduate University.

The prize, established in 1992 to honor work by a mid-career poet, was given for her book "Modern Life."

Matthew Dickman, a Portland, Ore., writer, was selected by the Claremont judges to receive the $10,000 Kate Tufts Discovery Award for his book "All-American Poem."

* * *

Also, Pomona College's Tournées Festival begins tonight at 6:30pm. We got this information from Claremont City Manager Jeff Parker's weekly newsletter last Friday:

POMONA COLLEGE FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL 2009

Pomona College will host a film series with the Tournées Festival, a French language
film festival every Friday evening at 6:30 p.m., beginning February 6 in the Pomona College Rose Hills Theatre, in the Smith Campus Center, 170 E. Sixth St. (College Avenue & Sixth Street). The films are free to the public. The schedule includes:

February 6 - Heading South (35 mm format)
February 13 - Flight of the Red Balloon (35 mm format)
February 20 - Before I Forget (DVD)
February 27 - Her Name Is Sabine (DVD)
March 6 - Persepolis (35 mm format)

Upland Pet Fair Saturday

The City of Upland is sponsoring a Pet Adoption Fair this Saturday, May 17th, from 9am to 3pm in Upland's Memorial Park. The Ravelers will be there all day providing musical entertainment. So if you don't want to head west to La Verne for an art event, go east.

There will also be a low-cost pet vaccination clinic, microchipping, disc dogs, and a flyball race team. The Upland Fire Department will be cooking up hamburgers and hot dogs, too.

Saturday, May 17 - Upland Pet Adoption Fair
Upland Memorial Park
Foothill Blvd between Campus and Grove
Upland, CA
(909)982-6402
For info, click here: http://www.helpingoutpetseveryday.com/petfaire.htm