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If you have ever seen the back of a no-kill shelter you might re-think that. If you have ever seen a dog that has sent 9 or 10 years in a cage because he is food aggressive you may change your mind. Sometimes the need to be put down, and not because they have been there for a while, but because they have issues, illness, extreme fear, food aggression, extreme dog aggression or people aggression. These are dogs that are too high risk to be adopted, sometimes euthenasia is the only answer. Not to mention that no-kill shelters often only take in those dogs that they feel are totally adoptable, leaving the rest to go to the kill shelters just so they can keep their no-kill status. I am not saying that no-kill shelters are bad, but dont discount kill shelters. I agree that people should adopt whenever they can, me as long as I have a child living in my home I will not adopt an adult dog, I just dont feel comfortable not knowing the past of the dog when it comes to the well being of my son. As it stands we go to the SPCA here are walk the dogs, or we will again when it warms back up.
Oh and I do buy my dogs, I buy my dogs from reputable breeders, breeders that show, trial and health test their dogs.
Just a good little rant on craigslist:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/247044188.htmlI’m not one of those people who flips out at shelters putting down pets. I do think sometimes it needs to be done.
BUT, I really hate shelters that just do it casually. The ones where any pet that’s not adopted right away is labeled hopeless and put down.
As far as I’m aware the local humane society shelter is actually pretty well run. My boyfriend used to volunteer there, so he got to see all the back areas, and there aren’t any horror stories.
That is how ours here is the dogs in the back are the ones in quarentine or lost pets waiting to be picked up. And very few shelters now will put dogs down in order to leave empty cages, they only put down whne they have too, and for some that mean even those that are great dogs, because they need the cage space for dogs coming in, that is why many work closely with rescue groups to help free up cage space with out putting dogs down. The ones that get me are the ones that put dogs down because they might be part pit-bull. WTF is that about?
The shelter in San Francisco (where our family dog came from) has state of the art facilities nowadays — courtesy of a $7 million donation from the CEO of Peoplesoft. Its amazing how much more adoptable a nice environment makes the animals.
Though I recall that there were objections from various people when that adoption center was built, along the lines that money like that was being spent on animals instead of homeless people… 🙂
Somebody has to care for the animals. There are lots of people who help the homeless, and at least some of the homeless can do things to help themselves too, but domesticated animals can’t do anything for themselves, really, so somebody needs to do it for them. Humanity took them out of their natural homes, made pets of them, spread them across the world… we have a responsability to take care of them, I feel.
There is a certain something about some of the purebred animals, but I’d have to really know the breeder, and be really sure they were reputable before I’d buy one. And odds are if I had space for another pet, I’d end up with yet another stray or shelter animal. I just can’t quite pass up the chance to give one a home, even though I do LOVE some of the purebred sorts, especially some of the cats. I’ve always wanted a purebred siamese or Birman. Ah well. My Tari is a siamese-something cross, and looks kinda like a Birman without the white paws. Guess that’ll have to do!
Our cat was also a stray, hubby says that is the only way he will ever get a cat, me if I could find a munchkin/sphinx cross it would come home, there is just somehting about a cat that has no hair and short legs that appeals to me, they dont shed and they cant jump on the counters.
For dogs I am very picky, I do show, and I want to do obediance as well so being in Canada I need a purebred, unaltered dog. In the US, with the AKC you can get a special number that allows you to compete in some dog sports. I am currently looking at getting either a Bouvier des Flanders or an American Staffordshire Terrier in the future.
ruffian wrote:The ones that get me are the ones that put dogs down because they might be part pit-bull. WTF is that about?
I can answer this. Now, this is not to say that I agree with it, only that I know why. Pit bulls are VERY hard to place because of the bad rep they have gotten. People have NO idea what the dog was put through or used for prior to being put there, but the streroetype is that they were used for fighting or taught to be mean. This is not what you want when adopting a dog, esp when you are getting it for your kids, which is the situation with lots of pets. Thats why the pounds are filled with them and they are considered unadoptable. Its sad, really, cuz there are lots of good ones out there.
But this includes puppies, just because they may have some pit in them, they do not even allow rescues to take them or evaluate them, they are all pt down. Pits are a very misunderstood breed I know that but really puppies. There are pits that have been taken from fighting rings and turned into theropy dogs, saw one on Animal Cops the other night in fact.
One thing that is often not understood with pit fighting, dogs that re people aggresive are destroyed. The reason for this is that at some point someone has to go into the ring and break up the fight, if a dog attacks that person, handler or not, it is destroyed, people aggresion is not bred into fighting dogs.
The sad thing is that the dogs that people are getting in areas where pits are no longer allowed are 3-4 times the size of an average pit, and have been bred for generations to be people aggresive, as long as BSL is around it will only get worse. If people thought a 40 lb pit on the loose was bad, just wait until the 130-200 lb cane, tosa or dogo gets out.
ruffian wrote:But this includes puppies, just because they may have some pit in them, they do not even allow rescues to take them or evaluate them, they are all pt down. Pits are a very misunderstood breed.
Its the same thing. People are under the impression that they are a bad breed. They are therefor unadoptable. It is quite sad.
ruffian wrote:One thing that is often not understood with pit fighting, dogs that re people aggresive are destroyed. The reason for this is that at some point someone has to go into the ring and break up the fight, if a dog attacks that person, handler or not, it is destroyed, people aggresion is not bred into fighting dogs.
This may be the case in some places, but for the most part, people will get a pitbull, make it mean, and fight it. Rare are the actual “Profesional” fighting pits and these dogs that you are referring to rarely end up in a kennel.
No that is the simple truth, the dogs that are actually getting loose and doing the damage are most often not American Pit Bull Terriers, the term pit bull is used as a catch all, people see a solid colored dog with short hair it is a pitbull. Take this test can you find the true American Pit Bull? http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html
But the info I gave about pit fighters is true, I am in no way condoning pit fighting, it is sick as is boar hunting and canned hunts.
The dogs that are attacking are usually those that are owned by people that have no business owning a dog, let alone a strong willed breed. They take the dog home, put it in the yard, usually chained feed it occasionally, and under-socialize it this can destroy many breeds, but with pits estimated to make up over 40% of the dogs in the US it happens most often to them. These are not in fact fighting dogs, these are dogs that people got with no clue what to do with them. In the 70’s it was dobermans, then st. bernards, german shepherds and chows in the 80’s, rotties in the 90’s. There will always be a breed of dog that people will fear, myself I am terrified of labs, I have been bit by 3 of them. But that does not mean that all labs should be killed, it does mean that none of those people should ahve owned a dog though. The one was left to fend for itself for the most part, one was ited to an 8 foot chain to its doghouse becaus ethey weren’t supposed to have a dog where they lived, and the other was let loose everyday to defend its yard.
Just wanted to add this link, this is the American Temperment Testing Society page, according to their stats I am in more danger from my Shiba Inu than from my neighbours Staffordshire Bull Terrier.http://www.atts.org/statistics.html
I understand completely. I dont like Chows but its just because of my expieriences with them.
We used to live in a neighborhood where all the thugs would talk about was how big the chain was that held their dog. The bigger, the better. There would be puppies dragging around tow chains so the owners could make them stronger for the fights when they got older. I really wish there was a way to kill people quietly… I also hope society outgrows this fear. If not, this poor breed will never be considered adoptable 🙁 My BF loves them, though. I think if we stay together, that may be the kind of dog we end up with. And thanks for the website! It was cute, though the pit was not too hard to spot. I can def see people picking number 7, though!
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