This post is a rant – so if you’re looking for “niceness,” read no further.
I recently read an article about a local rescue place that has me in awe. I love what is happening here. Essentially, they take dogs deemed “unadoptable and aggressive” and give them a place to live. A story recently appeared in a local paper about Snaps – a dog who was used by his previous owner to attack people that she attacked (yes – that’s what I said – SHE attacked people). After an event where some folks were hurt, Snaps was put in the local shelter system and left alone for over two months. The link to the story of this dog is http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20090921/news/309219996
I happen to be familiar with this particular shelter and used to do volunteer dog walking there. They are hopelessly understaffed and severely under-funded. In addition, the county wants to walk away from its responsibilities and turn the entire system over to nonprofit rescue groups because, after 40 years, they have yet to understand that animals live in the county, too. I will contain my strong urge to jump on a soapbox here….
The thing I want to focus on in this article is what can happen to a dog in our shelter systems and rules around dog adoption. While granting that treatment varies dramatically from public shelter to public shelter, one truth is that many of these groups have so little funding and staff that they cannot adequately address the needs of each animal. The story of Snaps is a great case in point.
This is a dog that was taught (and abused into) behaviors that are not acceptable in an urban environment. He was then violently taken away from the world he knew and thrown into a metal cage with no contact with anyone (with 2 or 4 legs) for months. After more than 2 months of isolation, he was behaviorally tested and deemed to be a dangerous dog.
Duh! Of course he’s going to be scared and get aggressive! This is yet another case of a dog being punished for bad human behavior.
Personally, I’m frustrated by our society’s refusal to accept responsibility for the behavior of our pets. In many parts of the country, there are “dangerous dog” codes. If you happen to be born a pit bull, you’re doomed to life isolated or in a muzzle because people are not held responsible for the training of their pets.
One of the gifts of walking dogs at the local shelter was being able to get to know pit bulls. They are wonderful dogs! And yes, they do require a specific kind of owner to make sure they stay wonderful.
For me, it raises the question – why can’t we seem to figure out that owners need to prove they are responsible before they have the right to adopt a dog? Are we really that lazy as a species that it’s easier to blame our pets than recognize our own responsibilities in owning a pet?
As just one case in point, there is a woman I’ve met who recently adopted a 3-month old lab. She doesn’t walk much; she doesn’t like to be outdoors; she gets upset that the dog chews up everything in sight – and she’s thinking about giving him away.
Why in the world was this woman allowed to adopt a dog that has intense physical activity needs???? But she can, and she did. This is a dog that will most likely end up in our shelter system because the owner is clueless. The dog will be the one to suffer because we do not enforce the concept of responsibility in pet ownership.
How can we get this insanity and, frankly, passive form of animal cruelty, to stop?