Update on Michael Vick’s Pit Bull Jonny Justice
Jonny Justice is a Pitbull rescued from Michael Vick’s dog fighting kennels. Within 12 months he had been certified as a service dog and was working in a reading program that encouraged kids to come to the library and read aloud.
But, sadly, human prejudice got in the way. The program was called Paws for Tales and was run by the Humane Society of the Peninsula in Northern California and provided dogs for a program at Burlingame Public Library amongst other places.
But in the newly released paperback edition of The Lost Dogs, author Jim Gorant followed up on the story he had told in the first edition of the book. And he discovered that the Burlingame librarian had banned Pit Bulls from the program because she said parents had raised concerns.
Advocates for Jonny and other Pit Bulls mounted a challenge and found that under California law breeds cannot be singled out for anything other than mandatory spay and neuter programs. Town leaders realized that they were in violation of the law and ended the ban but in response the library ended the entire Paws for Tales program.
If you think the Burlingame Public Library should bring back their Paws for Tales program for children, click here to sign my petition.
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