Sick Puppies Abusing Dogs in Iowa with No End in Sight

Iowa is a state that is known to be very lax where animal rights and protections are concerned. As the Quad-City Times reported recently, "Iowa has the third-most puppy mills in the country with 10. In total, Iowa has 260 licensed dog breeding facilities" and with it, groups trying to effect change in Iowa run up against pro-agriculture legislators who are unsympathetic and worse.

Again according to the Q-C Times:

"When the Animal Rescue League of Iowa proposed amendments to the state law that seeks to protect dogs and cats, Illinois law was their guide.

The amendments approved this year by the Iowa Senate would have increased penalties for crimes that sicken most Iowans. For those convicted more than once of abuse or neglect of a dog or cat, causing serious injury or death, the penalty would increase from an aggravated misdemeanor to the more serious class D felony.

For torturing a companion animal, a felony charge automatically would result. A second offense of torture would lead to a more serious felony.

But the bill didn't make it to the Iowa House. It was hijacked by House leadership and the powerful agriculture lobby."

In yesterday's The Daily Nonpareil, it was reported that a Council Bluff's area man was arrested and change with "36 counts of animal neglect — a simple misdemeanor — and four counts of animal neglect as a serious misdemeanor" when his breeding and training business was  reported to the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office. When officers arrived on the scene, their investigation revealed that at least 4 dogs were dead, the facilities were covered in feces and urine, and many of the dogs were malnourished. A total of 25 dogs and 13 puppies were removed and sheltered.

The owner of the kennel was released on a $20,000 bond. Each simple misdemeanor carries the possible sentence of up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $625. Each serious misdemeanor charge carries the possible sentence of up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,875.

This is the latest case in Iowa, it won't be the last. It is time for Iowa legislators to improve the inspection process and levy more severe charges against poor operators such as this one.

Iowa Soldier Among Dead in Iraq

As the U.S. gears down in Iraq to shift resources to Afghanistan, on Good Friday, 20 year-old Corporal Jason Pautsch, a squadron leader from Davenport, four other US soldiers, and two iraqi Security Force members were killed by a suicide bomber in Mosul. The bomber drove a grain truck with 2,000 pounds of hidden explosives into a security wall of the national police complex there killing the soldiers and injuring at least one US soldier, 27 Iraqis and 35 others.

Cpl. Pautsch had been in Iraq since last September. He was scheduled to come home next month for a few weeks then finish his tour of duty in October. Members of his family traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to be there when his body arrived on Saturday.

The Quad-City Times reports that his father David said “Jason just called Thursday at two o’clock, and we talked an hour. Twelve hours later he’s dead.” Pautsch, who is the president and CEO of L.W. Ramsey Advertising Agency and the founder and executive director of Thy Kingdom Come Ministries, said that he never let himself think that his son could be killed in action. “Maybe I was in denial. I thought for sure he’d come back in flying colors, live a long life and die of old age.”

The Associated Press reported that U.S. troops must leave the city by June 30 under an agreement with the Iraqis. About 2,000 U.S. troops and 20,000 Iraqi army and police officers are stationed inside Mosul.

The total casualties in Iraq for American troops and Iraqi civilians are 4271 and between 91,385 – 99,774 respectively. Pautsch is the second Davenport area soldier to die, Katie Soenksen was killed in 2007.