For the dogs

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Dogs have always been a passion for Kim Bonturi, but she had never pursued being an advocate for them until moving to Beaufort, when, on two separate occasions, she saw neglected chained dogs.

“It really bothered me,” she recalled, “and I thought I should do something about it instead of just feeling bad. I had no intention of trying to change the law or having a nonprofit (organization).”

She simply wrote a letter to the editor, hoping to raise others’ awareness.

And it worked. She began to be contacted by other concerned people who went with her to the Beaufort County Council to argue for an anti-chain ordinance. Though the county has not yet passed one, the city of Beaufort did in 2008, and now Bonturi and her group, Chain Free Beaufort, are fighting chaining and tethering at the state level and have received a promise of support for a bill from Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, Bonturi said.

Bonturi grew up in a Chicago suburb and moved after high school to Washington state, then to Florida, then to Texas.

“I had no reason to stay in one spot,” she said, “so I thought I would see what I liked best.”

She lived in Houston for a decade, taking her vacations for most of that time to Beaufort, where she’d visit her sister during Water Festival.

“I told her, ‘One of these days I’ll move here,’” Bonturi said, and when a friend suggested moving to Beaufort instead of buying a house in Houston, “I decided to try one more time.”

WORKING IT OUT

She was hired as the lead designer for Lowcountry Engineering Consultants, which wanted her to start three weeks later. So she “made the decision and moved. And everything has fallen into place since then,” including buying a house, meeting and marrying her husband, Joe, on June 1, and discovering a calling in what she calls “my dog work.”

“I’ve had my views, but I’ve never been involved,” Bonturi said, “and now I have my own nonprofit. I love it.”

She finds the greatest rewards of her work are some of the group’s rescues. Her Chihuahua Peanut was found chained to a tree, his only shelter a beer box with a towel in it. He was injured, anemic and malnourished. However with her care, she said, Peanut now has “this great personality, and he dances down the hall every day. I look at him all the time and think of what (his previous owners) are missing by not knowing him.”

Bonutri doesn’t judge owners who don’t properly care for their dogs. She thinks most intend to care for their pets but “get them without understanding the responsibility and commitment that comes with them. They’re hard to resist, especially when they’re puppies, and some people don’t know how much time and patience it takes to work with them. Dogs have to be taught … and some owners don’t know how to handle it,” so they might chain a dog outside rather than house break it.

Bonturi said other individuals chain dogs because “it gives them a sense of security. To a point that’s true, but eventually, a chained dog gives up and stops barking. Then, they no longer help the owner. And it’s only protecting its little piece of dirt, anyway. Even if it wanted to help protect you, it’s chained to a tree.” She added that today, alarm systems “are so much cheaper than the care for a dog.”

She said educating owners “seems like a simple task, but it’s not. I’ve been told by intelligent individuals that, ‘That’s how we grew up, with dogs chained up and never coming inside.’ My response is that there are a lot of things that our grandparents and parents did differently than we do now.

“As we learn more, and there are more studies out there, we should grow. You have to listen to the facts and statistics and do the right thing. We didn’t used to have Novocaine at the dentist, but you wouldn’t refuse it now because they didn’t have it back then.”

SPREADING THE WORD

Without a law behind the group’s efforts, Bonturi admitted, they “can’t do much besides educate the owners. We send a nice, non-judgmental letter, and we’ve had great success with that,” even forming friendships with the owners they’ve helped. “I’m always available or someone on my board or a volunteer will help. We’ll do everything we can to make it work. … We never give up on the animal.”

The group has also developed a low-income fence program for families with chained dogs and is trying to move forward an effort by the County Council’s Public Safety Committee to researchturning the Beaufort County Animal Control Shelter from a high-rate kill to a no-kill shelter.

Bonturi said she’s living proof that something as simple as a letter to the editor can really make a difference with commitment and follow-through.

“Actions really do speak louder than words,” she said, “and there are many ways to volunteer your time (to help animals). We had a petition two years ago with 5,000 signatures on it. … Everybody thinks (tethering and high-kill shelters) are bad, but it’s going to have to be a community affair.”

As focused as she is as an advocate, Bonturi knows how to have fun, too, and she and Joe, who has lived in Beaufort for 29 years, love to spend time on the water and never miss any of Beaufort’s festivals.

“I love going downtown and knowing everybody. We love socializing, and it’s a nice atmosphere here.” She said her “new favorite thing is ‘Movies in the Park.’ … You couldn’t ask for a more perfect evening.”

The greatest aspect of moving to Beaufort was meeting Joe (“the love of my life”), and Bonturi said he’s been unfailingly supportive of her work with Chain Free Beaufort. She joked that when they were first dating, “He was a ‘dog person,’ but he didn’t know quite how much I was. He would say, ‘You let them in the living room? You let them on the couch?’ And I would say, ‘Sure. They’re part of the family.’ And now he can’t live without them.”

That family currently has four canine members, all rescues, and Bonturi added happily that everyone in her pack “plans on being (in Beaufort) forever.”