Nothing assuages white liberal guilt like “rescuing” a medically and psychologically needy pit bull mix from a high-profile abuser like Michael Vick, turning them into a breed ambassador or stunt-pit, and then collecting money for some vague and unspecified fund to fix something-or-other. Bonus points if you get a book deal out of it. It’s second only to kidnapping a black baby from Malawi in the Hierarchy of Rescue Smugness.
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I love when comedian Bill Burr got a pit bull mix from the pound. His girlfriend liked to tout the dog as a ‘rescue’ and he’d reply, “Did we run into a burning building to get her? Did we jump into a raging river with no regards for our own safety? No, we went down the pound and got a free dog.”
That routine is hilarious, and so very true.
So very true.
Also, it now seems as if you’re some noble person for adopting a dog vs. buying a dog. It’s as if the class system has flipped upside down on it’s head; no longer are the refined features of a purebred dog from a high profile kennel the epitome of dogdom; a fuzzy ‘rescue’ dog with a widely known sob story behind it, is.
Pennypup recently posted..2013 in Review
Pennypup recently posted..2013 in Review
My comment doesn’t speak to pitties so much as “rescue.”
My kelpie came off of a farm. I guess you could technically say I adopted him.
But people don’t use that word anymore; “adopt.”
They always ask “Did you RESCUE him?”
I simply say “No. He was never in any danger.”
Usually ends the story.
It doesn’t have to be Pitties, they just improve your smugness score. It’s hard to tell who is more smug, this handler who has a stunt-pit that supposedly does SAR at every major incident of the last 10 years (ahem, fraud) or another handler who rescued a non-pit stunt-dog and took the better part of a decade to train it up to SAR standards and then make some claim about how the world is such a better place because these dogs weren’t put down.
I wonder how many finds didn’t happen while said handler was wasting 5 years rehabbing a shitty prospect for smug satisfaction and warm fuzzies instead of starting with a quality candidate.
Oh, no, it’s not enough to just go out and adopt a happy, well-adjusted pet who brings your family joy and is a pleasure to own. What kind of story would that give you to tell at cocktail parties and PTO fundraisers? Far better to “rescue” a dog that no one else will want…start with the breed that is banned by your HO insurance (pit bull), but since your co-worker already stole your thunder by “rescuing” a pit bull, you’ll need to find a pit bull with behavior problems, preferably one who has been abused.
Then again, the run-of-the-mill abuse stories attached to most shelter pit bulls aren’t dramatic enough…just general neglect. That’s why “fight bust” dogs who need “rehabilitation” are the way to go. Nothing beats the social cachet of owning a fearful, reactive, scarred up pit bull who was “rescued” from a dog fighting operation; and what better way to show the world what a skilled and compassionate dog whisperer you are when you devote massive amounts of time “rehabilitating” a severely unstable dog?
Nothing can compare to the feeling you get, as a middle class white woman, posting pictures of your rescued fight bust pit bull, now a “beloved family member”, posing tense and whale-eyed, while being hugged and “cherished” by your kids on your Facebook timeline. You can bask in the self-congratulatory glow of the many “likes” you’ll receive from fellow animal lovers, while convincing yourself that your new “baby” would make a perfect therapy dog! In fact, all the “dog experts” you know on Facebook have told you that rescued fight bust dogs are the BEST therapy dogs because they are so loving!
All it takes is your local rescue guru, a high school dropout/animal hoarder/self declared “dog behaviorist” to do a temperament test on your dog and declare him a “perfect therapy dog!”, and you will be able to bring him to the local library where kids can read to him while you sit close by luring him with treats because he is still kind of “scared” of strangers.
But think of what you have gained….a rescued abused, fight bust pit bull, who now works as a “therapy dog” to unsuspecting children at the local library! Your moral superiority remains unchallenged! And to think your neighbor thought she could upstage you by adopting that three-legged, deaf, Shit-zu!
Ding, ding ding!!!! You win! High score!
Where do senior dogs fit on the pyramid? Below disabled? My current foster is a 7 year old Maltese/Bichon with EPI, so all her food must be incubated with digestive enzymes. She was a service dog for an autistic child in a military family who was given up when they had to move. She was adopted then returned, and now has spent the last two months playing nonstop fetch with me. I don’t expect her to leave anytime soon, but think of all the “rescue cred” her adopters would get!
In some circles, greyhound rescue trumps pit bull rescue. Pitties are just too common.
We had (and maybe still do, not sure) Greyhound racing here and there’s a large enough Grey rescue that they even have a custom state license plate. Even met a few at the dog park, and not once did I get a lecture that I was killing shelter dogs because I bred Border Collies, etc. Maybe because most of their vitriol is aimed at the racing industry instead of every other dog owner the way pit nutters often aim their hate.
They still might be smug though, but I think it’s worth pointing out that Grey rescue is giving those dogs their FIRST chance at being pets. Pit nutters and shelter elitists think that dogs deserve endless chances at the expense at everyone else. Most pits are repeat offenders. Most Greys aren’t even first timers, they’ve never had a family period.
I SO agree with this comment. I had an ex-racing greyhound. Track dogs never had families to being with – regardless of what you feel about dog racing, the good thing is that the tracks and rescues work together to place adoptable dogs in the right homes. Some of the young ones never even made it out of maiden races. Most of the greyhound rescue groups I have dealt with were not smug – my friend fostered a total of 70 plus dogs over 10 years for various greyhound rescues and never once was I turned down or away from helping a dog because I had intact purebred dogs. And once I am ready for another grey I can have choice from a lot of groups.
The elitist “furmommy” rescue gig is wrecking dogs – not just Pit Bulls either. I have cardigans and all the time I get “did you RESCUE them?!?!?!” I am like “no I bought them.” Luckily the amount of cardigans in rescues are few and far between.
I would also like to remark that out of all the dog rescues and shelters I’ve come into contact with over the years, the Greyhound people were probably the easiest to get along with (barring the ones who are anti-racing — they can be a bit tiresome). They were the least furmommy-ish and also seemed to be the ones who genuinely seemed to care about their dogs (a lot of rescuers you get the impression that this is mostly to project their hang-ups and difficulties with people than it is to actually help dogs (some don’t even really seem to care about them at all).
I suppose Greyhound people are more mellow because they have staying power. Their organizations are some of the oldest – they’ve had time to work out the kinks, and many of the rescue people I’ve met are “old timers”, in it for decades, not months.
The breed as a whole isn’t really “furmommy” material. Long, sleek, elegant, bred for a purpose. And you don’t have the human racism parallels like with pit bulls, so it removes another layer of sanctimonious angst.
I’ll echo this….I have met many rescued greyhounds, including two that did therapy work at a LTC facility I visited often. The greyhound owners I meet seem extremely responsible and well-educated about the breed. They invariably are older/more educated than the average dog owner, in my area, anyway…maybe a self-selected group, or the rescues do a good job screening out young, transient college students? I don’t think greyhounds appeal to the same demographics as some other breeds (they don’t offer up any macho street cred) They also seem limited to Greyhound rescues, I have never seen one in an open admission shelter or all breed rescue.
One thing I admire about the greyhound owners I meet….they all seem to know what they have. A sight hound with a potential prey drive that cannot be off leash. In my entire life, I have never heard of a problem with a greyhound getting off leash and killing the neighbors cat, or causing any problems. The owners seem to all be well aware of the unique needs of the breed.
My friend tells an amusing story of witnessing the owner of a toy dog approach a greyhound owner wanting to let his dog “say hi”, and the greyhound owner deftly and eloquently explaining why, because of the greyhounds background and breeding, he would not allow it. The small dog owner was visibly miffed, but the greyhound owner was firm but polite.
The other thing about Greyhound rescue is that you don’t get the endless harping on breeders, mostly because it’s pretty obvious that the dogs are being created for the track not for pets.
I’ll give the rescues (the good ones, which the Greyhound group is blessed with) credit for this.
The adoption paperwork my daughter had to fill out for hers was more like a booklet — but it contained a lot of valuable information about how to adjust your ex-racer to “civilian” life and tips on working with sighthounds/ex-racers, and it was very thorough in asking questions to do with just what sort of dog you felt like you could handle (they picked out the dog for you…and their dog picker was a remarkably excellent person; ordinarily I would say this isn’t a good idea, but she was an extremely good matchmaker).
So her dog came home with a coat, a martingale collar, a squeaky toy that he had gotten used to, and his muzzle (with the exhortation to put that thing on him in public, at least for the adjustment period). They gave very good, very sound, very sane advice, and an actual, useful “goodie” bag (far better than the ones handed out by most shelters, which are essentially promos for dog food and treat brands and nothing else).
That sort of rescue support is to be commended, and I believe is a good reason for why they have a better record than some others.
And honestly, the original startup would take some work (somebody would have to make the templates for the new adoption papers, but that’s a one off thing) and it would require actually evaluating the dogs well (which they should be doing anyway), plus making the “goodie bags” a bit more personal, but other rescues could do this just as easily — but it would take some commitment, as you and a lot of other people have already mentioned.
Greyhound rescue has its fanatics too. I’d recommend evesdropping on Australian chat . . . by greyhound owners for the most part . . . about greyhound rescue at
http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/253462-inquiry-to-examine-greyhound-racing/page__st__15
Here’s a clip . . . one of many on similar vein:
“Well said Trisven. There are so many save ’em all greyhound rescues popping up all over the place it’s scary quite frankly. When you are dealing with greyhounds there are no second chances, I think it was Rebanne that once said “NOTHING will outrun a determined greyhound” and not a truer word spoken. The responsible rescues are given absolute hell by the anti racing nutters if they euth greys that are not at minimum dog safe. It will be the undoing of greyhound rescue IMO, you simply cannot rehome greys straight out of kennels with no foster care or assessment, it’s dangerous and stupid.”
I agree with Tristven that when I get another grey it will come from GAP but in particular GAPVIC or Greyhound Haven Tasmania, Maddy puts her heart and soul into her rescue greys even though they both get flogged by the “save them all brigade” .
True enough. My daughter has an ex-racer — it was the best way for her to finally acquire a Greyhound, which she had always wanted. He’s an incredibly nice dog too — adjusted to non-racing life with no real problems at all, quite the gentleman.
However, I have seen people stop and do the “bless you for saving him!!!!” — which is embarassing as all get out. I mean, she’s happy to have him, and he really is a nice dog so it was win-win for all concerned, but really. She got him because she wanted a Greyhound, and the easiest way to get a Greyhound is off the track.
Conversely my other daughter got a pit/pit mix, and people did the same thing — which was a bit of a falsehood (and thus doubly embarassing): she got her because she found her tied to a fence post on the side of a country road, in the middle of nowhere, and felt bad (if you’re going to dispose of a dog, have the decency to not do that to it). As it wound up, she was friendly and just sort of stayed because my daughter didn’t have the heart at that point to take her to the pound. She was a nice pet — no bogus super dog status (let’s just say she didn’t have many skills other than being sweet, warming your feet on a cold day, and eating dead things) — and it was really annoying for people to do the “oh bless you for seeing a way into your heart!!!”. No, it was just somebody who didn’t think tying a dog up and abandoning it was the proper way to dispatch a dog (we would have had her put down if there had been a problem, and no broken heartstrings over doing it).
I have no problem with somebody getting a dog from the pound — there are some nice dogs to be gotten there (though you have to look about as much as you do with breeders, truth be told); I also don’t have a problem with people working with their pound gotten dogs (they should at least train them up enough to be pleasant pets, and if the dog shows an aptitude for something and the owner is willing: well, why not? go for it and good hunting!) — but this getting a dog for smug factor only is gross; it’s like having a baby to be one of the cool kids, which is kinda sick when you think about it. And then of course special, ego-baby must obviously be special super duper in other ways as well (plus wear the cutest outfits)…really deranged.
when I did rescue for a Toy breed the “in” breed in rescue circles were greyhounds. We where looked down upon for rescuing a ” cute fluffy easily home able” breed .
never mind that we were experienced with said toy breed and had a waiting list of homes for them & if we had taken on every greyhound or staffie that came along we would have ended up hoarders .
The final straw was a so called friend adopting a severely neglected dog from me , keeping him long enough for the attention to wear off ( He got better and didn’t look like crap anymore , how boring) then swapping him for a greyhound so she would fit in better with her new rescue friends.
She pretended she still had him for 3 months ,sending me photo’s etc. I never found out where he went.
All the other rescue people where fine with this . Imagine if it had been the other way round
That goes back to what Jen was saying about some greyhound rescue folks being fanatics (they are out there, and they are just as headache inducing as their peers in other dog rescues) — usually they are also the ones who wish to abolish racing completely, are kinda on the animal rights schtick, and are completely incompetent when it comes to actually, you know, getting dogs into appropriate homes.
In the process of getting her Grey, my daughter had a few encounters with greyhound rescues staffed with folks like this. She even had a home visit that ended badly with one lady — wall to wall nonstop criticism of my daughter’s home, my daughter, etc. And the kicker: when asked herself about what sort of dogs they had: well, we have a lot…we have many wonderful colors to choose from; that’s one of the great things about Greyhounds unlike other breeds, we don’t have color preference.
Uh, neither did my girl…but she did have some behavior/health/temperment preferences…and since this lady drilled her on everything from the number of steps to the type of doors she had (and I swear I think my daughter was probably asked what her sex life was like) then it seemed only fair that something beyond “what colors ya got?” could be answered.
She went with a different rescue obviously.
As with purebred dog breeders, it pays to shop around and try to find someone sensible (which kinda takes away the cachet of the all knowing, all loving rescue worker, but I digress).
And here I thought it was just me, secretly feeling this way.
It’s gotten to the point that when people say to me about their over-reactive dogs, “I’m sure my dog was badly abused before I got him/her from the shelter” but have no history on the animal to back that up, I generally say, “Actually, your dog could well have been in the shelter exactly because s/he behaves this way.”
My inner bitch, revealed.
Doranna recently posted..Worst Word in the World
The excuses for continued bad behavior is really irresponsible and so widespread. “He was abused” is not an excuse for failing to liberate your rescued dog from their destructive behavior. And no, I don’t care what his back story is, I won’t abide your dog attacking my dog because you think that the dog park is a magic place where your rescued dog is going to learn manners by osmosis.
Agreed especially on the dog park comment. While that’s not the main point of your post, I had to comment on the side that most people I know at dog parks leave the dogs to work everything out for themselves. You can’t tell these people that that’s not always such a hot idea, even though these same people get surprised when a fight or near-fight breaks out. They’ll just continue to be shocked and confused.
THIS. So Much THIS.
“He was Abuuuuuuusssseeeeddddd” is no excuse for not training your dog.
In fairness to the adopters of these dogs: they are usually looking for a pet — which means they are the average dog owner who isn’t well versed in dog training; the sort of person who really needs an easy dog to begin with; and, they aren’t usually dog savvy.
A lot of shelters make excuses for bad behavior in their dogs by repeating the line “he/she was probably abused”…and they leave it at that. They don’t educate the people coming in; they don’t evaluate the dogs worth a damn.
Then Joe Public gets a dog, that hasn’t been evaluated properly, much less worked with at all, with the admonition “pay no mind to its behavior; it was abused; all it needs is some love”. Well, they do what the rescues tell them, and things still don’t work out — and they give out the one piece of information the rescues gave them “the dog was abused”.
Now, some of the rescue dogs have been abused (and thus need some special handling and extra careful evaluation), but there are others who are just semi-feral (and are probably worse than the abused dogs in that regard), others are simply spoiled dogs who haven’t been civilized, and then there are others who are simply rotten dogs who have no business being adopted out to anyone…but the rescues have learned that the best way to make the easy sell is to play upon the heartstrings of adopters (who are in a sense already in that position when they walk in the door)…and then devil take the hindmost. They might, might(!) advise people to take them to the local dog club for training/socialization — but most of the time (almost 100% from my experience, they don’t).
If they actually educated the potential adopters into what to look for in a suitable dog, then they feel they might lose some business…hence the refrain “well, he/she acts this way because he/she was probably abused”.
And society is backing up the rescues with this message…that’s important to consider too — society is backing up this notion which is causing so much headache.
It could be argued that it is up to the buyer to educate themselves, but on the flip side it’s also the responsibility of so-called dog people to consider a newbie’s lack of knowledge and educate (and maybe even have the generosity of spirit to tell them “no” — and not only is that not being done, but in a sense the reverse is engendered. (and then on top of that they willingly peddle un- or under- evaluated dogs to the very people who really need more of a guiding hand in picking out something appropriate).
So while it is incredibly annoying to hear “but he was abused!” coming from the owner of a rowdy, obnoxious dog; it also has to be taken into consideration that to a certain extent they’ve been fed a line of bull and are just repeating it.
Based on what I see of dog rescue in my area, no one should feel proud or smug getting a dog from what are often well meaning idiots peddling sick dogs with serious behavior problems. My most recent visit to a local shelter drove this point home for me.
I was helping a family member who wanted to adopt an adult dog, and we went to what is widely considered one of the best shelters in New England; it is consistently lauded as a national model for dog rescue, with a multimillion dollar income and a state of the art facility. The facility was beautiful, immaculate, with large spacious kennels, soft beds and blankets for the dogs, plenty of toys, and an army of volunteers to walk them several times a day, PLUS a large fenced in outdoor play area. Out of about 25 dogs and puppies we looked at, only one was what I would describe as very friendly and social, a hound mix puppy that immediately came to us wiggling and happy and wanting attention. Only three total would even approach us if we stopped at the kennel, even after trying to coax them over by calling softly to them. The one dog out of those three we asked to take out, had bitten a volunteer the day before. One puppy had an obvious facial deformity (maybe some cognitive problems to go with it?), some looked lethargic and sick. A few may have been half feral.
None of the adult dogs showed any degree of sociability, offered no social gestures, tail wags, or soft eyes…instead we got hard, flat stares, and disinterest. When I asked the adoption counselor if they did any temperament testing, for things like resource guarding, she quickly said “No, we don’t”. This shelter often has puppies listed on their website that look much younger than 8 weeks old. These dogs are shipped up from the south and PR, with no real screening process in place to make sure that the dogs being brought in will make good pets. I have since met a family who adopted a puppy from this shelter who was very sick, loaded with parasites, kennel cough, etc.
This shelter has a slick website and uses corporate marketing techniques to “sell” these dogs to consumers, even when the dogs are not social and will probably never make good pets for the average family. But they are “no kill”, so they cannot euthanize unadoptable dogs, (another reason not to temperament test because if the dog fails, what do you do?)
The unfortunate, non-dog savvy people who will end up with these dogs will no doubt blame all their dogs problems on the fact that they “were probably abused”, and will use the fact that they “rescued” the dog as an excuse for the dogs lousy temperament and behavior for the rest of the dogs life. Many of these shelters are selling dogs that are as bad, if not worse, than the puppy mill dogs at the pet shop in terms of health and temperament.
So you can see why I am unimpressed with folks who gush about “rescuing” a dog from a shelter like this.
This kinda goes back to the notion of some rescuers don’t seem to be in it because they love dogs (or cats).
I used to work at a shelter — considered a nice county one — a lack of volunteers isn’t so much the problem as a lack of good help, a lack of training said volunteers, and what can only be described as pretty poor leadership and husbandry skills by the management.
And a big issue is lack of competent salesmanship — they really do seem to go with the philosophy of 50 Million Burgers Sold! rather than actual satisfied customers (sitting down and talking to clients and potential clients would go a long way towards alleviating this…but as I stated above: a lot of these folks seem to have some serious problems with relating to people and don’t want to fix it).
The animals of course are the ones who bear the brunt of this outlook
I agree, Jen. The shelters/rescues seem to measure success in how many dogs they can push out the door. But since there is no regulation, no one is really tracking how many of those dogs remain in that home, how many are returned to that or a different shelter, or dumped on CL (or even on the street). If the people running a major rescue with a three million dollar budget won’t even screen the dogs behaviorally, what are the chances for making a good and permanent match?
That one lovely, highly social, friendly hound mix puppy we saw, will make a perfect pet for the right family. But it was obvious that this puppy NEEDED to be around people…he cried and howled when we walked away from his kennel, and cried and howled if he even heard our voices when we walked past the room he was in! He will have separation anxiety for sure if placed in a home where people are gone a lot. I don’t think any of the “adoption counselors” knew enough about dogs to get that. But you can be sure there was the obligatory, glassy eyed, older “fur mommy” trying to tell us about her “personal favorite”, which was a dog that was aggressive with other dogs and children!
I see a lot of moral ambiguity in what rescues are doing…..it’s bad for puppy mills to sell consumers sick dogs with behavior problems because they are “creating” them, and keeping the parents in cruel conditions; but it’s OK for shelters to sell sick dogs with behavior problems, and even sell adult dogs that are dangerous, because they are “saving” them. So the rights and safety of the consumer, even public health and safety, don’t factor into dog rescue. It’s just the personal high the rescuers get from taking credit for saving all these dogs. No one really cares if any of these dogs go on to kill a child, or another dog, or end up being miserable pets.
My sister just adopted a dog from a rescue group…he came from Puerto Rico. So far, she has spent over three grand treating him for an infectious disease he had contracted there. Personally, she has the means, and I think this particular dog is worth it due to his amazing temperament; but I think it’s highly unethical to be importing seriously sick dogs and selling them to an unsuspecting public, then turn around and pat yourself on the back for “saving” dogs.
The children and small dogs walking in public bear the brunt of the pit bull rescue flippers in Baltimore. The less experience the potential adopter has with dogs, the more likely she is to be sold the lie that pit bulls are no more dangerous than any other dog. Of course, because the dogs are used teenage/adult dogs, the next lie becomes “It is how they are treated,” rather than “It is how they are raised.” Sadly, the well-intentioned adopters cause great damage (and often flee the scene) when their innocent little victims of unfair bias get out of control and kill a small dog or attack someone.
It is scary here we have do gooders with little real dog experience getting them out of shelters & placing them in inappropriate fosters. There has been several dead dog incidents lets just hope someones child dose not end up mauled scarred for live or much worse dead.
I am so over it is all in how they are brought up, as I am with the nanny dog BS. There where NEVER EVER originally breed to act as family pets the poor buggers where breed to maim & destroy & thats what they are doing.
“It’s all in how they were raised” really needs to be left on the shelf and “It’s in the genes” or “It’s inherent” needs to be more of a thought again in the average mind. But it seems to take decades for theories to trickle down if there’s no ego boosting involved.
“Dominate your dog?” Yeah, that sticks. I don’t think it’s just that the mantra was spoken for so long that keeps it alive. I think it’s to some extent, it just appeals to a lot of egos. Tell people that dominance is not about constantly shoving your weight around or just using force, and it takes FOREVER for people to figure that one out.
Same will go for “it’s how you raise them.” Raising and training gives credit to the PERSON, and that’s the sort of attention people cannot resist. Must do something for the insecurities many suffer from.
You forgot a level to your pyramid, the “rescued yourself” attribute adds to smugness even more than “disabled”. Bonus points if the dog was “dumped” (which it always is if its a stray of course).
I’m of two minds on the “self-rescue.” There are people who don’t need someone else to do all the hard work for them, they see a need and have the opportunity and just adopt a dog themselves and it’s all good. They deserve credit for the low-key solution. They actually put in the work instead of just buying used. Difference between restoring a classic car yourself and just buying one and then taking all the credit because you changed the air filter once. There are a lot of these low-key people who take in a neighbor’s dog, or if they work in dogs they bond with one they come across at work. No big to-do about buying rescue cred. And generally, I haven’t seen much smugness here.
The crazy self-rescue types are the ones who actually like STEAL dogs out of yards and stuff. That is a level of smugness that goes off the chart into psychosis. These are rescue ranger vigilantes. A step below these are the ones who actually work with animal control and do things legally, but are still entirely self absorbed with the power trip of being an official rescuer and getting to decide who is good enough to own what quickly becomes “their” dogs. They give their operations gushy names and they go right for that “high profile” category by endlessly whoring out their own wondrous accomplishments and making everything as bureaucratic and melodramatic as possible. Smug city.
Interesting point. It’s happened to us quite a bit (the countryside can be quite the place for stray dogs).
The best thing to do is to contact local animal control and the police department (which takes lost or nuisance dog calls), see if somebody is missing their dog, give your contact info and see if somebody turns up (surprisingly there are a fair number of owners that do — dogs do get loose and do get lost, and they are usually quite happy to have their dogs back).
Sometimes nobody turns up, and then you are left with a bit of a conundrum: keep the dog, try to find a home for the dog yourself, or take it in to animal control. Of course option one and two have limitations, so sometimes you wind up taking the dog to the pound — which is a hard thing to do, but a person has to be realistic about things, can’t keep them all.
Had this happen recently with a litter of little puppies (9 weeks tops by the vet’s estimation, maybe younger) that were playing out in the road by the stables. Unfortunately nobody claimed them (even after knocking door to door); fortunately they were cute, friendly, basically healthy puppies thus easy to find homes for.
Well, what are you going to do? Nobody likes the idea of dogs turned into road pizza, especially a bunch of cute, friendly little puppies.
I think realistic people realize that dogs, even rescued ones, involve time and money investments — and thus they are not gung ho to bring every one of them into their care. In fact, it’s better if an owner shows up — as it can quickly become a pita to take care of this “rescued” dog. So one does not go looking for dogs to “rescue” — at least not if they are in any way sensible — one doesn’t really need to, to be honest.
And that’s exactly what my daughter did with her tied to a fence pitbull/cur something: debated even cutting her loose from the fence post (she saw the dog in the morning, and picked her up that evening — so it’s safe to say that she was probably dumped), called animal control to see if anyone was looking for the dog, decided to keep her simply because 1) the dog was very sweet and appeared healthy; 2) she got cold feet when it came to taking the dog to the shelter (who really likes to take dogs to the pound? I don’t). As she stated at the time she cut the dog loose: “***it, I need to bring this **** dog home like I need a hole in the head, although it might let some of the rocks out”. She was not on a rescue-911 mission, far from it actually — but who wants to see a dog left tied to a post in the middle of nowhere?
You can take it a step further yet. Emory professor Donna Troka taught a credit course at Emory titled American Studies/Interdisciplinary Studies,The Dividing Lines: Pit bulls, Identity, and Community. If you go into poor neighborhoods and teach specifically non-white children that discriminating against pit bulls is just like discriminating against them, and that they should all get pit bulls asap, then you get the Olympics gold medal smugness prize.
This kind of ties in with your earlier post about the Piled Higher and Deepers.
http://news.emory.edu/stories/2013/12/er_prof_troka_class_on_pit_bulls/campus.html
https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/dividinglines/2013/11/25/486/
http://www.womenscenter.emory.edu/online_magazine/SPRING10_Womens_News_and_Narratives/nontraditional_relationships.html
Here’s the course syllabus:
http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/dividinglines/files/2013/09/Dividing-Lines-syllabus-FINAL-revised.pdf
Funny, sad, and true. We were looking for a young adult/older puppy small breed after my mom’s old chihuahua died of old age.
We wanted to avoid having a dog with a ton of behavior issues like the old one, so we wanted a younger one to train ourselves. A quick visit to a local shelter showed us lots of rescue smugness. We were immediately judged for wanting to get an easily adoptable small dog for a household with a giant, leash-reactive dog. (Never mind our boy gets along amazingly with small dogs and is only reactive to dogs the same size as him. He was raised by an ornery old chihuahua of all things, so it’s not like he can’t safely handle the 20 lb. puppy we wanted. We also had continuously owned dogs for 19 years at the time.) The adoption counselor basically told us, despite all our given reasons for being perfectly qualified to at least meet the small puppy, our only option was to get a pit bull or another giant dog.
Pitties are great, but why would he want to place a pit in a home with a dog prone to reactive behavior? We have friends with two pits, and their older one is prone to reactivity. They are constantly getting into huge dogfights because the other dog won’t back down if challenged by the older, reactive dog. We wanted a small dog and needed a non-confrontational dog with a lower energy level. The average pit is none of those.
We ended up buying a deer chihuahua puppy from a “BYB” family (they had only one breeding dog and clearly knew their stuff when it came to raising healthy puppies and setting up their buyers for success) whose retired 7-year old female got into trouble with a friend’s male before they could spay her. And surprise of surprises, the puppy we thought would be the perfect match turned out to fit our family so well, it is as if he was tailor-made made for us by a Higher Power. Seriously.
I am glad I am not the only one who sees rescue people to be uneducated, judgmental, self-congratulatory used-dog flippers that they are. Recently, I made courtesy post of a craigslist ad for a small pup that looked like a good dog to a local rescue’s page that is also my dog food store. A self-appointed rescue maven who can’t keep to her own business recognized what a nice young dog it was. This bossy, fairly new, know-it-all rescuer wanted to “intervene” and adopt it out (re-sell it) thinking he was free. I did not see her step up to “intervene” for any of the middle-aged dogs that were courtesy posted on the same page. She once posted on craigslist that other people were not to Flag dogs posted on CL because she needed the ads to stay up so she could “intervene.” Apparently the business model for her non-prof pit rescue is to raise cash by rescue-flipping desirable dogs that she gets free or cheap from craigslist. (Congrats to her for finding a market niche?)
I love dogs and don’t want to see them suffer, but this white-trash rescue movement is dangerous and loud. These ignorant broads think all dog breeders are evil and that we should all own pit bulls. The USDA or some Federal commerce agency needs to regulate these insane dog rescuers! And the IRS needs to scrutinize their accounting books.
Fascinating (and probably a bit late). I am from the UK so obviously the system is different. I have come up both against rescues who spin the ‘just needs a bit of love’ and ‘it’s not his fault’ line (our first dog, who I do have a little history on and belatedly realise is profoundly unsocialised and I suspect also genetically dodgy) and also know rescues and rescuers who genuinely have the best interest of both dogs and adopters at heart, and will not adopt out a dog known to have real problems without first having extensive rehab with an experienced foster, and will put them down if they do not think they can be safely rehomed. My second dog is also a rescue, properly assessed and has a lovely friendly temperament.
There is a heirarchy of smugness over here too. There is definitely a certain cachet within some circles for adopting bull breed dogs (though identified pit bulls are banned here). But the new and I think scarier phenomemon is the suddenly cool and noble thing of rescuing street dogs from eastern Europe. They are Importing over great distances significant numbers of unsocialised dogs that have never had much contact with people, never been in a house and quite often have serious health conditions. Some are imported by people who have only seen them on the internet and have no rescue back up at all. I keep hearing about cases where these dogs escape from their rescuer within 24 hours and take months to recapture. Sometimes they end up dumped with UK rescues which are already full to overflowing and the last thing they need is a feral dog in their kennels. I just wish these people would donate money to programmes that vaccinate and neuter the street dogs but otherwise leave them to live in peace.