From "The Airlift Operation That Has Transformed Pet Adoption/Euthanasia in an under-equipped shelter used to be the fate of many dogs in Texas. Then chartered planes started bringing them North" (The New Yorker).
"Long-distance transport is expensive and stressful for animals. (Flights, typically covered by animal-rescue nonprofits, can cost as much as twenty-five hundred dollars an hour.)... The past few years have seen significant growth of transportation networks that move animals via commercial flights, private jets, chartered planes, R.V.s, passenger vans, and personal vehicles. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ transport program began in 2014 with seven thousand transfers and by 2024 had relocated nearly three hundred thousand animals; Facebook groups such as the UnderBoneRailroad match animals in need with volunteers willing to drive them across the country...."
No discussion of the carbon pawprint.
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47 comments:
No mention of separation of puppies. Where are the pet parents?
Are we sure they are ALL abandoned animals?
(I wonder how much effort goes into finding their owners, or a good home for them in Texas...)
Too many dangerous dogs are adopted by inexperienced dog-owners who can't handle them, let them roam off-leash, and then see consequences of dog-bites and dog-fights. Our little Wisconsin city presently has far too many dog bite and dog fight episodes, involving off-leash dogs, involving poorly-trained aggressive dogs adopted out of our local no-kill shelter. Some dogs are repeatedly adopted, returned, adopted, returned, adopted, and yet returned again, for next gullible inexperienced "my dog is my child" irresponsible pet-owner.
Well stated, NIR.
An eighty pound pit bull is a big pit bull.
For my eleventh birthday I (and my brothers) got a purebred Dachshund pup (with pedigree papers--ve must haf papers!) from Texas, a gift from our Aunt Louise. He (I don't know about his family) was shipped by air and picked up at the airport.
Don't ask me why a suitable hound couldn't have been found closer to home, but anyway we think he was traumatized by the loud airplane ride.
He became a very good if neurotic dog, capable of climbing chickenwire fencing to escape his pen and patrol the neighborhood, as dogs used to be expected to do.
Heinie was his name.
I don’t understand. Does the north have a shortage of stray or abandoned dogs? Why do we need to fly homeless animals around the country? I’m guessing there must be some federal or NGO money involved.
New England has drivers with vans. They pick up the garden & gun digs who won’t hunt from the kill shelters in the south and drive them north. They all get adopted. One of the staff people adopted a beautiful bluetick hound. It became famous when we circulated the picture of the dog standing atop the dining room table. On Zoom calls he is always braying in the back…
I helped with the adoption of hundreds of dogs, including fostering over 80 at my home, and the back story always helped enormously. Most lost dogs have one that's sad if not tragic, because that's how they end up needing a home. It's a main selling point. Everybody wants to be a savior to an innocent soul. Black dogs are notoriously hard to get adopted.
If I could start over, I'd be a wealthy vet, and treat dogs pro bono. It's so rewarding seeing an injured or sick dog saved by a vet and watch them get better and flourish.
Maybe dogooders can switch from trying to save the planet to saving dogs and get their hero fix that way.
Should liability follow the dog or the owner? (like insurance follows the car, not the driver...)
Hypothetical: you are a not-so-good dog owner. You had one that bit the nose of somebody once, who had to sue you to gain compensation. You have a history of abandoning animals: ie/the family pet when the children grew up and out, and you tired of caring for the older dog... Chickens and cats, when you decided to (partially) move on, and "find yourself" in a new living situation...
Let's say you then "rescue" another dog. If that dog one day bites another resident, or a grandchild, or a stranger, who is at fault? The dog or the "owner/master/mistress"?
Some folks have little common sense. All is good, until a rowdy "untrained" little one gets in the dog's face giving hugs around the neck and love and gets all up in the animal's face, and perhaps startles the animal? It's really not the animal's fault. Sometimes, they too can only tolerate so much.
Pit breeds aren't really trustworthy around children.
Everybody wants to be a savior to an innocent soul.
--------
Speak for yourself.
Someone should do a study and figure out why dogs are a safety problem today. When I was growing up, everybody had dogs, and they were much more likely to roam free including my own. There were occasional bites, but rare and never serious, and dogs rarely fought each other. We've been doing something wrong since then.
The entire “rescue” community is one vast madhouse dedicated to Münchausen syndrome by proxy cases inhabited by strictly by women, 99% single and 99% menopausal. Their children are either independent or in the custody of their fathers, and consequently out of reach as proxies, hence the animals.
I want Marley, the dog whose story was so compelling it danged near pushed Jennifer Aniston out of the movie.
I am terminally single, and menopause would explain a lot.
I'd also like to see a study of how TikTokkers are able to make it look like dogs and cats are best friends in their videos. In my day, we thought they hated each other.
Not to sound cruel, but I’ll try to answer Bagoh20’s question. Growing up in the country a lot of dangerous dogs were shot before the did any damage to people. My dad had to kill 3 dogs when we were small. I know a few neighbors shot many a dog that got into their chickens.
Now living in suburbia, we never see a stray dog in the neighborhood.
Supporting what Not Illinois Resident wrote, I remember reading about a rescued, maltreated pit bull which had been adopted by a couple that lacked the knowledge and skill to train the animal properly.
One day the wife was out walking the pit bull and a young mother was coming the other way with her baby in a stroller, and a puppy on a leash. I don’t recall whether he pit bull was off its leash or simply lunged forward fast enough and strongly enough to yank the leash out of the woman’s hands, but it got loose. It killed the puppy in front of a screaming baby and screaming young mother, then it attacked the baby. The pit bull was subdued before it could kill the baby, but I understand that the medical bills were high and the infant was scarred for life.
The pit bull was, of course, ordered to be put down by the city authorities as a dangerous animal.
So, option #1, the pit bull is adopted by the couple. This results in a dead puppy, a child growing up with lifelong physical and emotional scars, and a dead pit bull.
Option #2, the couple does not adopt the pit bull and it is eventually put down. The child grows to adulthood with his beloved dog, unscarred and loving animals
One of these outcomes is better than the other.
Heard of a lady got popped at a stop on the interstate in Delaware maybe, driving a truck loaded with dogs. Headed north, she was. Some sort of illegal activity, not sure what. Something hinky is going on.
People love the idea of having a rescue dog. Its sob story doesn’t have to be all that sobby so long as the owners can use the “r” word at the dog park.
Anyone else find those “My dog rescued ME” bumper stickers odd?
Or am I just being an old curmudgeon?
A handmade tale? Sounds ominous.
So much to say on this topic. I volunteer at an animal rescue center in the Sarasota area. We're not a kill shelter. We take in dogs AND cats from other shelters- county and city shelters, around Florida, but also from neighboring states. We give them a great temporary home, medical care, regular feedings, walks, hugs, love. A massive volunteer staff to support a small paid team that includes vets and vet techs. We adopt out all of the animals (last year almost 1300 of them). And these people take the time to try to properly match up the dogs with the right owners.
So many people just come in and say, "I want that guy. That big one over there", or something to that effect. But potential adopters are filtered and matched up as best as we can. They have to fill out forms first, answer key questions about their home, other animals or kids in the home, previous animals, etc. They are interviewed. And our people watch them interact with a potential dog.
Some dogs come back. They don't work out. But most of the dogs and cats get a 2nd chance (or 3rd) at life. And the families get a great companion. I'm going to plug them here because it's a great outfit and you never know where Althouse's readers are located. Nate's Honor. Nate's Honor.
90% of the time, the problem with bad dogs is bad people, or lazy or ignorant people who aren't willing to put in the time to properly learn how to handle a dog, to train both the dog and themselves.
Also- I used to work with a guy in the hospitality industry who left that industry to start a pilot/dog rescue company, much like the article describes. Pilots to the Rescue. Check them out: Pilots to the Rescue.
I've adopted several dogs from rescue groups. I never thought there was anything special about it, just a way to find homes for dogs.
You have to be a moron to adopt a full grown pit bull- especially one with that history.
Temujin, great comment, thanks!
Yancy Ward, you have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe read "Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs"!
And when it comes to pit bulls, I don't trust them. If I'm at the dog park with my dogs and a pit arrives, we leave. I know- I've read dozens of comments from pit bull owners how the dogs have gotten a bad rep due to media reports and most are gentle, loving dogs. But here's the thing pit owners don't seem to grasp- I don't know their dog and am not willing to find out the hard way that their dog has issues.
I had a friend who had a pit bull, acquired as a puppy. I saw the dog many times and he always acted like a big, friendly puppy. One day, my friend was playing with him and for reasons unknown, the dog bit him in the face, requiring a number of stitches.
Now, I know pits are not the only dogs who bite but their bites often turn out to be particularly nasty. As well, pits seem to be favored by people who do want mean dogs, which increases the chance that's the sort of dog that ends up with a rescue. So- I avoid them.
"Yancy Ward, you have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe read "Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs"!
I know exactly what I am talking about. Yeah, you can put a revolver with one bullet in the chamber to your head and pull trigger and survive but you would have to be a moron to do so in the first place.
I treat my grandsons like dogs
They eventually will eat dry kibble if that's all they're offered
Then “virtue value” rescuing a dog abandoned by southern rednecks is off the charts.
Call me cynical, but I can imagine somebody spinning back-stories for dogs to make them more attractive to potential adopters. Who's going to debunk them?
Didn't American Girl dolls come with some kind of orphaned backstory too?
Probably got adopted by Portland Antifa.
The worst pitbull news article I've seen was a couple who had a few "Pitties" and the pregnant wife was killed by them. The husband still defended the dogs.
Many reports of dog attacks don't disclose the breed. When I check multiple sources and one does disclose, it's a P/pit bull or similarly troubled breed.
I have a Pitbull Chihuahua mix. 1/5, would not recommend... He's lovely with people he knows, but if he were bigger he'd have to die.
Quaestor early in the thread, just yesterday I was reading about Munchausen by proxy (specifically I was wondering how much self-awareness is necessary in order for a person's behavior to be considered that disorder), and for the first time encountered the sub-disorder of Munchausen by proxy: pet.
As to the actual post: I'm in the camp of "a tragic backstory sounds nice but think HARD before you take on that dog."
My son rescued a pitbull puppy, about 5 months old, picked up running free on the side of the road by our dog trainer because she said her area was notorious for pitbull abuse (i.e. the dogs are raised to fight). She offered him AND free obedience training to my son, and he - with serious puppy fever - took him. He's a very sweet, submissive, but large and scary-looking dog. As my son now says, about 5 years later, "I would run into traffic for him, but not a day goes by that I didn't wish he were a different kind of dog."
Oh, and - my husband is not a dog guy and doesn't understand about dogs. He seems to think that any dog can be perfect but at the same time our dog's obsession with licking his feet is not solvable - he just repeats her name, exasperated, instead of taking any action to stop and discipline her. He absolutely COULD NOT be trusted with an actually large dog. (Ours is about 45 pounds and fully in my control - I don't let my husband hold the leash in crowded places because *I* don't trust *him.*)
Care to read a tragic heart-breaking back-story? Visit the Wild Animal Sanctuary outside of Keansburg CO. The place is pure mercy - and the backstories will make your blood boil. People can be so horrible. Also - so honorable and dedicated.
I appreciate anyone who cares for the welfare of animals - In any way, big or small. You are the best.
"Someone should do a study and figure out why dogs are a safety problem today."
I blame Trump.
Speaking of back story, how many of you guys have started a harmless interaction with a pet at an adoption event to be told, “Careful, he’s really afraid of men.”
That’s you, cat lady. You’re afraid of men.
There are other animals in need of the kindness of strangers. Petri's Place outside San Antonio, TX, is a sanctuary that raises and releases orphaned opossums, who are frequently found with the mother after a vehicular/opossum interaction.
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