Remember Neville? He PROVED Michael Bryant and the Liberals WRONG!

Ontario lost a hero when they lost Neville. Read the story in the Toronto Sun.

Fri, February 24, 2006

Incredible journey
By THANE BURNETT

Neville was an outlaw. A Canadian with a bad rep, caught on the run and sentenced to death.

This, then, is the reckoning and transformation that followed -- from top on a most-unwanted list to becoming a cop on the front lines of counterterrorism at a U.S. port.

Last summer Neville the pit bull escaped from his Stouffville owners. The tan two-year-old dog was scooped up by a canine patrol and taken to the nearby Georgina animal shelter. Faced with looming anti-pit bull legislation across the province, his owners phoned to say they wouldn't post Neville's bail. He was on his own, though they had to know that decision might have meant an execution.

"But he was a great dog -- a great disposition and extremely playful," recalls shelter supervisor Angie Closs.
He stayed at the shelter for a month, as staff scrambled to find him a place.

What followed was a 4,248- km chain of human kindness, that shuttled -- by hand, by car and by plane -- the convict canine through the U.S.-Canada border and across a country.

The shelter contacted Toronto-based Bullies in Need, a pit bull rescue squad which has organized -- since the province passed its tough legislation on the breed a year ago -- at least a dozen flights of freedom for the much damned dogs. All have come from shelters and faced being put down.

Sharon Hewitt, a co-director of the organization, says Neville's great escape has become pet legend -- proof that a province's outcast can become a nation's hero.

"And there are more like him out there," she says.

Bullies in Need organized a volunteer to drive Neville across the border into Buffalo. There, another local shelter put him up until more volunteers arranged for a flight west.

Strangers bent rules on how long they could keep a stray. They neutered him at their own cost and paid for his flight.

He stayed with a foster family before the mild-mannered mutt was passed over to Diane Jessop, a former animal control officer who runs Lawdogs, a Washington State outfit which finds police work for outcast dogs.

With her help, Neville was deputized by the Washington State Patrol. He now screens more than 300 cars a day on the Washington State Ferry system, looking for explosives.

He's this month's coverboy for a national canine magazine.

He has as many web fan sites as some TV celebrities.

On her own web site, Jessop has a special thanks for Ontario -- "or kicking out such an awesome dog."

She writes: "Neville is now protecting homeland security for America. I'd say the joke is on (Ontario)."

On the line from her home in Olympia, Wash., the 46-year-old dog lover vents: "These bans are modern-day witch hunts. Do you think the most respected law enforcement agency in the state would be working with these dogs, daily around the public, if they were a threat?

"They should be judged by their ability, not the breed."

She recently tried to train a rescued pit bull from B.C., but the pampered West Coast pooch was too laid back to care much about finding contraband or bombs.

But Neville is the perfect cop, and after thousands of dollars worth of training he now wears a silver badge over his heart.

For 17 years, David Dixon was a state trooper, stopping speeders and looking out for drunk drivers. Then about seven months ago he was given a new mandate, and a new partner -- Canada's castoff.

Neville lives with David, his wife and their two other dogs -- Spencer the Lab and Gumby the beagle -- in a splendid home near Seattle. Off-shift, the pit bull has the run of the place and, says David, "lives the life of a king."
While on patrol, sniffing cars for explosives, Neville still believes he's playing -- looking for his favourite ball.
"He's always anxious to go to work," says David, as he prepares to do just that. "He's great with the public, and has the nickname 'Wiggles,' because his tail wags so much that's what his body does."

The regulars on the ferries all know Neville's name. They stop to shake his paw, and most can tell you the story of how the Canuck became an all-American pit bull hero.

"But I do have to say 'eh,' once in awhile to get his attention," the 42-year-old trooper offers.

Told Neville can't possibly know how far he's come -- and the effort it took to take him from death row to an honour roll -- his police handler disagrees.

"I think he's aware of a great deal -- knows where he's come from and likes where he's now at," says David.
They said he was bad to the bone and could never be trusted.

But Neville -- the dog gone good -- proved Ontario wrong.

Neville can also be found on Dogster.