Therapy dog bullied from attending children’s literacy event

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- In partnership with Children’s Books on Wheels, Quin the therapy dog was asked to join the Teddy Bear Tea Party at Planet Lincoln in Spring, Texas. The day before the event, the director of a local anti-Pit Bull group contacted Planet Lincoln and threatened to have their group show up and be wrapped in bandages as well as covered in blood in protest of Quins participation of the breed. Quin is a Pit Bull who was rescued from a Humane Society of the United States raid on Spindletop Rescue in 2011. Her journey since then has been one of advocacy and healing. She is now a registered Therapy Dog with Montgomery Pet Partners; in fact, she is often used as their example dog during testing because of her amazing temperament in all situations.

Children’s Books on Wheels organized this event to be about serving the children of our community and advocating for children’s literacyand this group has chosen to put their own ignorance and hatred in front of this worthy cause. Once we learned of these threats we pulled Quin’s participation from the event which many of the children were sad about. Still wanting to support the amazing cause our rescue has made arrangements to have Quin at Barker Street Dog Bakery in Spring from 12-3 today so that children that want to read to Quin are still able to do so. Also, in less than 12 hours has raised hundreds of dollars and a large quantity of children’s books that our team members will go and deliver to Planet Lincoln during the Tea Party reading event today at 1 p.m. Quin has paw-tographed each book with a message of encouragment for the children that receive them.

We believe this is a story that is out of control and needs to be told as this kind of bullying should not be accepted in our community. Moreover what we have done to come up with a secondary plan to support the cause because of these threats defines the determination and good spirit of the Pit Bull breed. Quin, a registered therapy dog, has been bullied out of helping young children in her community based on a few individuals’ ignorance and hatred.