01/31/2026
In June 2024, The Center For Animal Litigation received a call from a family who had taken in an abandoned dog — we’ll call him Kaiser. They had very little money but tried to help him when no one else would. A few months later, a heartbreaking incident occurred. Kaiser bit a 9-year-old family member after the child had been teasing him while he was tied to a tree.
Kaiser was seized and placed in a Connecticut municipal pound — on death row.
In August 2024, I met the family at court. The child asked to come. Through tears, he told me what had happened. It was a moment none of us will ever forget.
The family did not want Kaiser back. What they wanted — what they begged for — was for him not to be killed.
We proposed a solution: Kaiser would never return to the family or remain in Connecticut. Instead, he would permanently leave the state and enter a minimum four-week professional training program to determine whether he could safely be rehabilitated and adopted. Initially, the town rejected this offer. After further hearings and an appeal to Superior Court in October 2025, an agreement was finally reached.
For more than a year and a half, Kaiser lived in a 4 x 8 holding cell. He never left that space.
Two weeks ago, Kaiser finally left Connecticut. He is now in upstate New York with an experienced trainer in a remote, serene, woodsy setting — the kind of place where healing can begin. Within days, he impressed the trainer and is already learning, engaging, and safely interacting with other dogs.
This is what a second chance looks like.
To get Kaiser here required court filing fees, legal support from our law clerks, veterinary care, vaccinations, neutering, and a professional board-and-train program. The costs have already exceeded $5,000.
We take on these cases to save lives — but also to move the needle legally for misunderstood dogs who would otherwise have no voice. When we fight and win, it sets precedent. It gives the next dog a chance.
We cannot do this without financial support.
If you believe that one mistake — especially under difficult circumstances — should not automatically equal death, please consider making a tax-deductible donation in any amount.
Your support will not only help Kaiser. It will help the many others who will come after him — frightened, misunderstood, and out of time.
We fight for them because they deserve it.
In June 2024, The Center For Animal Litigation received a call from a family who h… Thompson Page needs your support for Saving Kaiser and Future Dogs in Need
