It is wonderful to have Oreo back in the public arena again, and I must say, arena is the appropriate word. It feels like a battle because it has become a battle. For those of you who got here after we closed the gate, just peruse various posts til you get caught up. King County and Austin are both looking forward to participating again. These issues affect every city and county in the nation, education is the answer and one that will provide sustainable humane treatment of all animals in our sheltering systems. Opening Oreo up again was actually triggered by a series of dangerous "advice posts" on our local dog blogger. A person with a wealth of caring, but not a lot of knowledge on animal behavior.
So, we are back on our mission of educating the public on what does and doesn't work in animal shelters and more on the wise adopter vs. the spontaneous adopter who is a frequent returner. The lady in Spanish Springs Nevada who went to Delano California to bring home 27 dogs is a prime example of the thinking we are trying to change. Her daughter volunteers at the local NHS and perhaps the thinking permeated through air to the Mom who rushed off to save the " dogs on deaths door" This well meaning but under informed lady brought in 27 dogs minus rabies vaccinations, carrying several contagious conditions. She then spread this further through the community to unsuspecting pet owners who's neighbors brought home an uninoculated sick dog. Oreo said, yep, time to get on the public bandwidth again......NHS has visited here in the past and we hope they take the visit as a chance to learn and become compassionate in the care of the charges they have. Seeking quality of life for those entrusted to them.
In these very tough times, the arrogance of one shelter in the paper putting down another in order to gain funding is inexcusable. We support the HSUS and the ASPCA as strong leaders in the overall welfare of animals. There is a lot more to helping animals that needs to be addressed and storing with crowding and poor quality of life is not helping anyone. Except the little troll under the bridge collecting fees, the rest of us are appalled at the current conditions in many no kill shelters.
Pictured is Oreo's favorite view of the world, clean and covered in snow, just waiting to be mussed up.
17 comments:
I will pass the word, thank you for emailing me and I will for sure let the people up here know. I hope you took my advice and contacted the AC blog about linking up there. We need common sense to counterbalance the stupidity going on right now.. Happy New year Oreo, thanks for caring.
Happy New year ! I too read the latest blog on how to stop your dogs from fighting. The first guideline is not to adopt a same sex dog that will be in direct competion with your in home pet.
The person or place doing the adoption needs to be informed and honest. Our Riley is a boy with a little pit in him. He is a good natured dog and right now we are social to the max, but he may change as he matures. Why tempt fate by adding strong breed with same sex and probably not enought time dedicated to working with the dogs ? We are looking for a girl with some hound and no pit, we really don't need to stoke the fire. The woman with the 2 pits on here was a good heads up for me & Shel. There is a small beagle girl at the pound we have our eye on, she should be coming out of stray in a day or so. They are a barking breed so I guess both dogs will have to stay in while we work. Riley learned to use the doggie door with Lucy, but I am thinking with a barking beagle we may want restrict their outdoor time while gone. Anybody on here with a personal beagle experience ? Everything we have read says they are great dogs but barking is the number one reason for surrender.
Happy that Oreo is coming out of the shadows again.
W00t!!
Let's hope they don't drive her underground again.
yippeee! I could not believe my eyes when I checked in for an update.
to volunteer;
I have two boy pits, and they can never be together, your advice is good. we love them both, but when I read some of the stuff on the newspaper blog I thought, stupid people. I was stupid and we will get through this, but if a excellent home presented itself; one of our boys would be placed. Absolutely no doubt we made a major mistake in getting talked into 2 " brothers" yeah, right. Digger and Dozer are good dogs, no wetting or chewing, good with the kids, but would tear each other apart. It seems wrong that we got mislead, but we will not be taking them back thats for sure.
I hope 2009 is the year of sanity for shelters and they stop the lies and become honest places to get a pet again.
Oreo thinks that finishing the fight on top is more important than image. We sure don't want to take BART but it beats closing up shop. At this point in time the people who have found the situation deploring at NHS can document their feelings and go to the county commission. There is no amnesty in Oreo's world. The posting about having people with clipboards was excellent, I know if I go out it will be with a witness and a clipboard....both in clearview. Oreo has a question. In a conversation with another no kill shelter director it was mentioned they pulled animals from NHS. Why? If the reasoning is to make room for NHS to pull more from the county, that's really lame. Take the animals from County, otherwise you are transferring live stock to one place from another, that is not adoption.
I went to the newspaper blog and read the "saga" as the blogger calls it. What kind of crazy thinking was behind that trip? She must be a Mark fan.
Well, Oreo, that was a strong opinion about the Beagles. We will keep it in mind. It would not be fair to confine Riley to the house because we paired him with a chronic barker. Everything we researched after reading your comment , supported the information given.
The thing that has come through as we searched for a new companion for Riley has been, is this a good choice for him ? Will this dog help him be happy or will it be a drag on him.
Our final decision is a purebred puppy, a young dog of a gentle breed that can grow up with him and not take away from the life he has now. We are looking for a responsible breeder and we're going to get a female Lab. We wrestled with it for a long time, but the puppies we see at shelters all seem to have some pit and I don't want two pits. So I hope I don't get hate posts for my honesty, but I want dogs I can take anywhere and not have to worry about getting sued.
I let Shel break the news, but we are ways from having found the puppy. Our vet will not spay befoe 6 months, but she will be spayed as soon as she is able to be. I don't feel bad about not getting a shelter dog, Shel does. Getting a dog you have doubts about doesn't help the situation. I am not a better person by taking a pound puppy. If they have what will work for us fine, but putting Riley in danger of dog fights and disease in the name of "saving " a dog is a crock. After reading the newpaper blog I thought, these people are crazy ! The dogs living in the house have a right to protection; and to bring in a dog that makes them fight to live in their own home is rediculous !
"Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind's
capacity for empathy and for decent, honorable conduct and faithful
stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because
they have rights, power or a claim to equality, but in a sense, because
they don't. They all stand unequal and powerless before us."
Mathew Scully
What is the dangerous advice ? I read the post and I am so glad to have you back in the public eye. Not being in your area, I don't take the paper.
Education is the only hope for the companion animals. As people keep doing irresponsible behaviors with their own lives, the lives of animals will only get worse. I read in our paper about a woman who left her infant in a car all day while she went boating. Stupid thoughtless people that only consider what they want to do. They get children and pets on a whim, and put them in danger later on with indiffernt actions. If you won't care for a child a pet will fare even worse.
I just noticed where Oreo said not to rant.I'll shut up.
If one is searching for a wise adopter it's promoted by good adopting practices. Tighten up the policy for a person adopting and you will find a permanent home.
To volunteer, the paper's blog said zip about not getting same sex dogs. Oreo is where that info came from. No kill shelters have no guidance at all for the adopter, if it will open up a space even for one day, they will let the dog give it a try. It amkes the numbers look better. all they do is count what goes out the door, not what bounces back in. I cannot believe King county is considering this idiot. I am also very glad we have some of the links available on here that were on Catmom. King county needs to see the truth.
Oreo got published on Wayne's blog. Right there at the start, the Happy Camper. That would be the Oreo Girlydog.
Good for you Sheldon with the new puppy to come. I think all we can ask is that people consider, and look at a shelter. You can't dictate a shelter pet. What they are doing right now with Obama is nuts. Let the man pick out his own dog. This business of forcing people into a corner on adopting or keeping a pet is harmful to the pet.
When is Winograd going to come here to count the cats? I think we should go to the shelter and meet him, Who is inspecting AC and when ? Why doesn't the County side invite some intelligent group like UC Davis to come to Reno and talk. I hope this is not the county being politically correct at the expense of the animals. What do the county manager and her office think of this ? It has been so convoluted, the outside appearance looks like the county is trying to just keep the peace and the hell with animals.
Hi Colan, good to have you back.
We don't know who is doing the county check, certainly should not be Wino. I wanted to tell everyone to read the press release BB sent to Mark. It is on his blog and says something that sounds like Bok's disease to me, but I could be mistaken. It mentions a "report" of a dog killing three dogs. Doesn't say "owner says" It did report that dogs that did that were put down at once. If it occured on property, how did it happen ? In LA the dogs are killing other dogs in pen fights, to many dogs in a pen. Think the person surrendering the cocker because it costs to much to treat, would make a better effort to keep it if they know it would be put in a pen with bigger dogs? Just a thought from Oreo's perspective. The idea of having a dog you surrendered mauled, trapped in a kennel with other dogs is horrific. It started with some rabbits and nobody heard the screams........
You might want to know this. All the dogs have been adopted out but one min pin that caused problems in two homes and was returned. None of the dogs were on the euthanasia list although listed on Dogs in Danger, according to the police chief of Delano. And they have not been altered prior to adoption. Also they had received shots but no rabies shots although this is up to suspect. According to the chief of police, the woman represented herself as being with NHS. Unfortunately CA law allows anyone who claims to be a rescuer to take unaltered animals from the shelters, in fact it is argued that the shelters MUST give animals to these people.
This situation may develop into something much bigger according to my sources.
I read that Honesty, but I thought there was a dog that may need an eye removed and and Rott puppy still available. I was relieved to see the NHS is having to give up the total No Kill facade, and say yes we are killing. It is very sad the dogs are paying, but it is society. I do agree with the director when she talks about the unadoptable dogs; Oreo has been saying that for a long time. If you are new I recoment " Nice is not adoptable" A very good post and one that we have to look at whether we want to or not..
KCSharon, how right you and Oreo are. But ask 10 people the definition of "adoptable" and you will get 15 different answers. Not everyone is educated about dogs, not everyone is a behavorist or a trainer of dogs, not everyone cares. Note in many dog bite fatalities that the dogs are actually blamed, as if they made a decision to kill someone. This points out that many people think animals know right from wrong and don't need us to teach them. And because of that mentality, the owner becomes the victim and gets no charges filed for making these dogs killers or negligent about a breed that needs special training.
Adoptions are a consumer problem in that bringing home a new pet, either from a breeder or the shelter, is a risk. Many things can come into play, diseases, temperament, etc. Most people are not equipped to handle problems beyond housebreaking. So when an organization such as NHS adopts out a dog or a cat to people who are ill equipped to handle it, does this not fall into a different catagory of consumer protection?
And what about those adoptions of a 10 month old terrier to a 70 year old woman in an apartment? Or the frisky kitten to the senior citizen with a walker? Or the pit bull to the first time dog owner? When you are pushed to adopt your way out of overcrowding, these adoptions happen all too frequently.
We are not selling shoes here folks, we are trying to make for better homes, not any home, for the animals. I will say it again there are far worse things that can happen to an animal than euthanasia at the shelter.
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