The killing of dogs for alleged “behavior” continues apace by agencies who claim to embrace a No Kill ethic, as underscored by the recent killing of Tucker by Austin Animal Center and the killing of Linda by the Larimer (CO) Humane Society, despite rescue groups ready, willing, and able to save them. They are not the only ones. The New York City pound recently killed April, an eight-month old dog (the black pup in…
Austin Animal Center (AAC) recently killed Tucker, a dog, who had three places to go: a local non-profit organization; a trainer/rescuer out of state; and Tucker’s former family who pleaded with them to release him to their care. The official justification for his killing is “behavior” or “aggression.” Tucker had a bite history. The real cause of death appears to be spite. This is the story of his short life and tragic death. Beginning It…
This was Linda. She spent five months with a Colorado rescue group, living with and playing with other dogs without incident. After adoption, the family, who had her for one year, surrendered Linda to a local pound. The family claimed she had incidents with other dogs. The rescue group which originally placed her wanted her back. The pound said no. They ultimately did return her — in a garbage bag. Since the mid-1990s, I have…
A dog considered not “the best” and killed by a pound who shares the deadly philosophy espoused in the Animal Farm Foundation podcast. Instead of being sent to a rescue group who requested the dog, her body was put in a garbage bag where she will rot in a landfill. Earlier this week, I wrote a rebuttal to a podcast by Animal Farm Foundation (AFF) whose guest wants “shelters” to kill more “behavior” dogs, wants…
A Former ASPCA “Director of Animal Behavior” Wants “Shelters” to Kill More “Behavior” Dogs, Wants Rescuers to Stop Saving Them, and Gives People Permission to Kill Theirs. “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — William Faulkner Animal Farm Foundation’s recent podcast interviewing a former ASPCA “Director of Animal Behavior” and euphemistically entitled “We Need to Talk About Behavior Euthanasia” is, without a doubt, the single worst commentary on sheltering I have encountered…
The New York City pound killed Austin, an emaciated and blind dog, who bit someone’s hand that he could not see approaching. No effort was made to rehabilitate him. Imagine what a dog pound is like for a scared dog. Imagine being caught on the street (often with a “catch-pole” or “control pole,” a hard-wired noose that is supposed to go around your upper torso, but is almost always misused to grab by the neck),…
Emma, a healthy little dog who looked like the photo here, is dead. She was killed because the woman she lived with died and declared in her Will that Emma should also be killed and buried with her. The Chesterfield, VA, shelter, where Emma was taken after her person’s death, said “finding Emma a new family wouldn’t have been a problem, but [that the executors] from the dead woman’s estate were determined to execute the…
Warning: Graphic Images. As I reported last week, a 9 year-old boy walking his dog flagged down an officer from the Detroit Police Department (DPD) because the dog slipped his leash. The boy asked the police officer to help him get his dog. “I said it was my dog, I said can you help me find my dog.” The officer shot the dog in front of the boy instead, leaving the dog with a shattered…
When it comes to his city’s most vulnerable dogs and cats, the reality doesn’t match Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s rhetoric about his rehabilitation of South Bend, IN. There’s simply no excuse for killing dogs and cats in 2019, especially after seven years at the helm as mayor. There’s an old Ghandi saw that is almost certainly apocryphal. A mother brings her young son to Ghandi and asks him to tell her kid to stop eating so…
Two dogs are dead this week because of the gross indifference and incompetence of the pound staff in Hillsborough County, Florida. Clyde died in what was described by a local veterinarian as a “very painful event.” Clyde ate a blanket, but for six days, pound staff did nothing while the blanket worked its way into the dog’s intestines. “It had tore his intestines apart.” Similarly, Lola dog bled to death because staff once again ignored…