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We tend to get so wrapped up in competition and breeding for the show ring
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Reasons why it's great to be a dog. If it itches, you can reach it.
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LET’S TALK ABOUT RESCUE, ADOPTION, POPULATION
by Tam Cordingley
I have more than a sneaky hunch that the numbers are
somewhat skewed. There has been for the last several years, a terrific
push to adopt, adopt, adopt. There are adoptathons at pet stores, malls,
shelters, and about any other place that will allow one. There are also
rescue railroads, transporting dogs all over the country. I’d like to
open a discussion about the real effect of all these adoptions.
Certainly, adopting a dog destined to be destroyed is a good thing. None
of us want to see dogs destroyed for lack of good homes. However
adopting just to be adopting is not a good thing. We decry the puppy in
a window syndrome, yet in the next breath we put cute dogs all over the
TV screens, on every available street corner, in every pet shop, and beg
people to adopt. We dislike selling puppies at flea markets and in pet
shops but what makes it all right to sell dogs at adoptathons? In none
of these cases are prospective homes evaluated. One of the differences
between responsible breeders and puppy millers is that we, as
responsible breeders, screen homes. Few of the adoption organizations
that work the mass market do that. Even fewer really check out the homes
with onsite checks and continuing support for the new owners.
What I see are the dogs that are adopted by Dad and the kids at the mall
adopt-a-thons, going home to Mom saying “get rid of that dog”. They are
too embarrassed to return it to the nice ladies who were so happy to
have the dog adopted, so it goes to the shelter in the next town, if it
is lucky. Or it is put out on the road, or given to the family next
door. None of these people who may end up with this hapless dog have any
emotional or financial investment in the dog. It is now counted again as
a part of the pet overpopulation stats.
This poor dog is more confused and either in another shelter or out on
the street to be picked up again. He has not been trained, just dumped
again. Then the process starts over again, maybe this new owner keeps
the dog long enough to be spayed or neutered, maybe not. This owner, who
took the dog on a whim and has no investment in the dog, gets a new job
out of town. Can’t take the dog. So back to the shelter it goes. To be
counted yet again. Now we have one dog counted as three.
No one argues that adoptions are not a good thing, but if a dog is to be
adopted out it should be permanently identified. Either tattooed and
that tattoo registered or micro-chipped and that microchip registered.
All of this ferrying of dogs multiple states away removes control from
the rescue organizations locally. When Susie , rescue coordinator in
Alabama, finds a good home in New Hampshire many people along the way
are involved. These rescue railroads and transports sound like a heroic
effort. I disagree. I feel these are kindness gone awry.
A homeless dog is looking for a new master, or guardian if you prefer.
When a kind person takes the dog and takes it for a ride, gives it water
and shelter and possibly food, the dog gives a great sigh of relief and
begins getting to know it’s rescuer. Then a few hours later it loses
that home and gets shuttled off to another stranger to begin the process
all over again. By the time this happens 3 or 4 times the poor dog
doesn’t know which end is up and he has compounded the original loss of
home many times. This dog is more damaged and more anxious with every
transfer. A dog that is already anxious, possibly had numerous changes
of food and water, and is stressed by a long car ride is certainly not
ready to settle in to a new home with no digestive upsets. He is likely
to have loose stools, doesn’t know any of the rules, and is given to a
person who didn’t want the dog badly enough either to pay for its
transport or to go get it. This is a recipe for failure.
How many of these dogs end up again in the local pound? No one knows.
The homes are not checked out, at most someone asks a few questions,
often not that. If the dog messes all over the floors, snarls at the
kids, jumps of the Grandma, or kills the hamster, off it goes. The new
owners were willing, maybe even anxious, to take the dog if someone
delivered it but weren’t eager enough to have the dog that they were
willing to provide safe and secure transportation.
I’m not speaking from a position of little knowledge. I am the former
manager of a large Humane Society shelter in California. We did screen
homes, and do onsite home checks, and had a trainer on staff to help
with problems, and still had dogs that recycled every few months. We
were local so we knew the dogs, and knew why they had failed in their
last home. If we were sending dogs all over the country not one person
would ever know their history. They would just continue bouncing from
home to home, continuing the same behavior that cost them the first
home, and being counted again and again, until finally they become so
damaged that someone was kind enough NOT to adopt them out again.
Someone had the intestinal fortitude to put this poor animal to sleep.
Misguided kindness, without considering the long term consequences, can
do much more harm than good. If we are going to adopt out permanent ID
is as important as spaying, much more important than neutering. If we
are going to adopt out let’s make it mandatory that the new home have a
secure fence. No fence No dog. Period. If we can’t put a dog is a great
home it is a misguided kindness to put it in just any home that will
take it. There are much worse things than a quick and painless death and
one of them is a long slow death of the spirit. For a dog the scarring
that comes from repeated separation from their people is a terrible
thing, if it can’t be a permanent home maybe no home is better.
thc/2006
For more Articles:
RESCUE, SHELTERS, REGULATIONS, AND PRIORITIES
