Friday’s Fiver No 9

This week’s fiver goes to The Lexus Project

I came across this group through two blogs I read Life with dogs and Two Cavaliers who both reported the case of a woman in America surrendering her son’s dog to a high kill pound, to punish him for not doing his homework.  Luckily The Lexus Project stepped in and Jewel the dog is now on her way to a foster home.

The picture says it all!

From The Lexus Project website

Robin Mittasch & Rich Rosenthal live in Oceanside, NY with their 5 retired racers and 3 cats.
Soon after adopting  their first Greyhound Beau from a local rescue group, Robin discovered Greytalk and the nationwide community. Having found her passion for these noble dogs, Robin began playing on an ever bigger level. When alerted about Lexus’ plight in the Rhode Island kill shelter, she was able to enlist the help of her attorney husband Rich to help free her. Over the course of the next 8 months they were approached a number of times by different groups to intervene on behalf of Greyhounds at risk. Finally, acknowledging the need for an organized group to deal with these unfortunate situations, the Lexus Project was formed.

the origin of the lexus project

In October 2009 a high prey greyhound named Lexus, having been declared a vicious dog, sat on death row in a Rhode Island kill shelter waiting to be put down. Her crime? Left unleashed in a dog park she followed her instincts and killed a Pomeranian puppy. (Small, long-haired dogs are perceived by many greyhounds as prey; this is the instinctive response of a sighthound.) The greyhound was seized and her owner attended a hearing without counsel and the judgment paved the way for her execution.
Luckily for Lexus, Robin Mittasch read her story on the internet forum Greytalk and was moved, together with her husband, Rich (who is an attorney) to fight for her release. Thanks to a quirk in the Rhode Island statute he was able (with the assistance of an attorney in Rhode Island who also volunteered his time to file the Court papers) to negotiate the release of Lexus from her cell and her removal from the state. As she jumped into his van, snuggled up and ate cookies, the idea of the Lexus project was born.
Although we do all our legal defense pro bono, there are always court fees, marshall fees and if we have to get a dog released from the pound, depending on how long the dog is in, there are release fees. Our last case they wanted $3300.00 plus vetting bills. We were able to settle for less, but this is all out of pocket, in addition to our travel fees.
All proceeds go to The Lexus Project, legal defense for greyhounds and all breeds of dogs.  We are currently in the middle of filing our 501c3 so your donation will shortly be tax deductible.