National Puppy Mill Awareness Day is recognized in late September of each year. It is a date used by animal welfare advocates across the country to bring awareness to the topic of the commercial dog breeding industry and to what many people now call "puppy mills." I believe, as do many of my advocacy contacts, that once the American public is educated on the topic of mills they simply will not stand for them. I have written on the topic of mills a lot recently in advance of this annual observance and as a result of my volunteer work for nonprofit groups who focus on mill dogs and ridding our society of this insidious industry. Although there are some differences of opinion on what the phrase "puppy mill" means, it refers to two separate businesses for me. For me, a puppy mill is: 1) any dog breeding operation, large or small, where the focus is on profit and where the well-being of the dogs themselves is of little concern; or 2) any commercial dog breeding operation where large numbers of dogs are bred for profit, regardless of the conditions in which those dogs are housed. Although I am not a fan of breeding dogs, I fully recognized that there is such a thing as a responsible breeder. There are people who breed and then sell dogs while taking excellent care of the parent dogs and while doing all they can to perpetuate breed standards and have healthy puppies for people to buy as family pets or to use in some service capacity. There is a continental divide between a responsible breeder and a puppy mill, no matter the size of the mill. Most of the people I know who have companion animals are good people who mean well, regardless of how they acquire their pets. Most of them just don't think about the subject of puppy mills because they don't feel personally affected by it. Those people I know who are not "animal people" and who don't have pets at all consider themselves further separated from the topic of mills because they don't think mills have anything at all to do with them. But, you see, they do. We are all affected by puppy mills and the commercial dog breeding industry due to one factor: money. When it comes to bringing a new dog into a home, people have a lot of options. They can buy a dog at a pet store and will probably be told the dog comes from a licensed USDA kennel (which in all likelihood is still a puppy mill). They can buy a dog through the internet using a website. They can buy a dog from a local breeder who will probably let them meet the parent dogs and see the conditions in which the dogs live. They can get a dog from a friend or family member. They can get a dog from a flea market or from the parking lot of a store or strip mall. They can get a dog through a newspaper ad. Or they can get a dog from a shelter or a rescue group. Although we don't like to think of it this way, the business of marketing and selling dogs is big business. Many of us react to the marketing we see much like we do for other products and with little regard for the fact that we are actually talking about a living, breathing, sentient creature who will spent 10 to 20 years with us and have the cognitive function of a toddler. On one end of this options spectrum we have the commercial dog breeding industry. Commercial dog breeders, both large and small, produce millions of dogs every year. Some are sold at auction much like other forms of livestock, some are distributed to pet stores across the country by Choice Puppies (formerly known of as the Hunte Corporation) in industrial tractor-trailers, some are sold on-line using polished looking websites (which bear little resemblance to the conditions in which the dogs actually live), some are sold through newspaper ads and some are sold in Walmart parking lots. Regardless of how those dogs get to us - the consumer - we're talking about millions of dogs being infused into the pet industry each and every year. Those in breeding circles would argue that the dogs are bred simply to meet public demand and they are, to a degree, correct. They would tell you that there is a demand so they create the supply. The bigger story is that we have been conditioned as a society for more than a hundred years to believe that pure bred dogs are superior to mixed breed dogs. We have also been conditioned to judge dogs the way we do other mass-produced products: be equating cost with value or worth. Surely, the argument goes, the $3,300 dog from a pet store is superior to a dog from a rescue group. Surely the $2,000 dog from a breeder is superior to a dog from an animal shelter. For all of our talk and back slapping to congratulate ourselves for being such an animal friendly society, we really are in many ways just a huge society of dog snobs. We are told that pure bred dogs or certain breeds of dogs are superior (when they often have a host of health issues, many of which have been bred into them to create a certain "look"). We are told that mixed breed dogs or certain breeds of dogs are either inferior or inherently dangerous. And we just buy all of it without exercising any independent thought at all because it's easier and because it's what we've been doing as long as anyone can remember. On the opposite end of the options spectrum, we have shelter and rescue animals. At the same time that dogs are being bred by the millions, we are destroying dogs by the millions in municipally funded buildings we have the arrogance to call animal "shelters" even though most should just be called disposal facilities. Yes. Some of those animals we destroy using your and my tax dollars are truly suffering and for those animals, euthanasia is the only responsible and merciful alternative. There are also dogs entering our animal shelters who are genuinely so broken, for a host of reasons, that they are a risk to public safety and cannot be adopted out into homes in our communities. The rest of the animals we destroy in shelters in all but the most progressive communities are healthy and treatable animals whose only mistake is one of being unfortunate enough to have ended up in a building where they are treated as disposable. (It is estimated that 25 to 30 percent of shelter animals are pure bred.) In some communities, as many as 90% of shelter animals are destroyed using our tax dollars while we call it euthanasia or "putting them to sleep" or "putting them down" or some other euphemism to make ourselves feel better about the process. The vast majority of them either were, or could have been, someone's beloved pet. The consequence of this culture of killing savable animals is dire. Because we destroy them using our collective funds, we are conditioned to believe that something must be wrong with them or that they are somehow not worthy of sharing our homes and our lives with us. Nothing could be further from the truth, but this form of negative bias is incredibly difficult to overcome. When we add to the negative stereotype about shelter animals the fact that they are poorly marketed for the most part and it's no wonder that many people would never even consider adoption a dog from an animal shelter. Back to the connection and why you should care about and learn about National Puppy Mill Awareness Day. Even if you are sure you have never financially supported a puppy mill or you are sure that your dog came from a reputable breeder, the subject of puppy mills and the commercial dog breeding industry affects all of us. We produce dogs by the millions when we already have millions of great dogs already needing homes. As long as we allow dogs to be produced in this volume and we ignore our broken animal sheltering system, people will continue to get dogs from sources other than animal shelters and rescue groups. And we will continue to destroy animals by the millions using our tax dollars for no good reason at all. It is our public shame. But it is also something we can all learn about so we can make better individual choices which affect us all. I encourage you to find a Puppy Mill Awareness Day event near you and attend. Many are family friendly so you can bring your children and help educate them while you are educating yourself. Perhaps if you learn a little more about where our dogs come from, you will consider making better choices in the future which are more consistent with your individual values and with our values as a society. If you are not able to attend an event, I encourage you to learn more about this industry. You may not think you are supporting puppy mills, but in the end, we are all paying for them. ASPCA Puppy Mill Information Dog by Dog Harley, The Little Dog with the Big Dream National Mill Dog Rescue National Puppy Mill Project The Puppy Mill Project The Dog Merchants
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I was on my way to work and stopped at a light when I detected movement to my right. I looked at the vehicle next to me and that's when I saw it. A small white dog, sitting on the lap of a woman driving a mid-sized sedan. She was talking to the dog, stroking his ears and just before the light turned green, she kissed his head. At a glance, the image was sweet. She clearly loves her dog. But inside I was seething and mentally trying to find a way to communicate with her before the light changed. I am the first to admit that I have strong opinions on a lot of issues and that I sometimes use my blog to rant. Well, - Rant Alert. Traveling in your vehicle with pets, dogs or cats, is the same as traveling in your vehicle with small children. You would not hold a baby in your lap and you would not put a toddler in the bed of your pick-up truck. When you take your pets with you in your vehicle, it is your responsibility to ensure they travel safely from point A to point B. You may be the best driver on the planet. But the drivers around you are not. We have seen time and again how the increased used of phones and electronic devices while driving can lead to disaster in the blink of an eye. You can engage in defensive driving and situational awareness all day long, but you cannot control the driver next to you who is sending a text or who is so caught up in a phone conversation that only 20% of their focus is actually on driving. There was a time when I really didn't give a lot of thought to how pets travel in vehicles. I am old enough to have grown up at a time when there were no seat belts and no such thing as a car seat for children. I often wonder how we all survived, but we did. I completely changed my mind on the topic of pet travel safety about 15 years ago and as a result of the tragic loss of a co-worker. I will spare you the specific details. I will say that when you are in an accident with your pet in your vehicle and your pet is not restrained, her or she becomes a living projectile. You can do your best to react quickly enough to try to keep your dog or cat from flying forward, backward or to the side, but is it unlikely that you will succeed. If your pet is anywhere near an airbag, he or she will probably be killed. If your pet is unrestrained in a back seat, as was the case with my co-worker's dog, he or she is likely to be thrown toward either a window or windshield, causing catastrophic injuries. If you really love your dog or cat, as the woman I saw this morning surely does, do not travel with them in your lap, standing up with their head out of a window, in a seat near and airbag or unrestrained in any way. A split second can mean the difference between life and death for both you and your pets and since you surely will be wearing a seat belt, your pet should be safely restrained also. Because of the size of our dogs, I am partial to the Sleepypod Clickit Sport Harness. It comes in sizes to suit most dogs and is the only harness approved by the Center for Pet Safety. If your dog is smaller or you are traveling with a cat, you can use a travel carrier that is designed for inside of a vehicle. It took Aspy a couple of trips to get used to his harness, but once he figured out that he could stand, move around and put his head out the window, he stepped into it easily. I dare say that he enjoyed wearing it because he knew he was safer and he could lean just a little further out the window and smell the life going on all around us. I know that I always felt safer knowing he was restrained. He might have broken a bone in an accident, but I knew I had done all I can to keep him safe and with no regrets. I hope the woman I saw this morning made it safely to her destination with her dog unscathed. As long as she continues to carry her dog in her lap, she is risking the life of her dog with every mile traveled. Should something happen to that dog, it will surely change her life forever and that's just incredibly sad to me.
Be safe. Be responsible. Please. My normal "MO" on my website is to talk about animal welfare advocacy issues. I'm taking a break from that today to talk about a lighter topic, but one which may benefit some people. It's my Top Six list of must-have products for dog lovers. Some of the products are of more help with older dogs and some products are also great for cat lovers (I mean no offense to my "cat people" out there.) I'm sharing these items in no particular order. Champion K-9 Seat Belt System. We have all seen it. People driving with dogs in their laps, in the beds of pick-up trucks or laying on the rear deck of a car behind the passenger seats. When you travel with your dog, even for short distances, you owe it to your dog to have him or her restrained. You would not travel in your vehicle without having your human child restrained. For me, dogs are no different in terms of safety concerns. You can be the best driver on the planet and that does not protect your dog if some other driver hits you, making your dog a projectile. There are a variety of vehicle safety restraint systems for dogs available on the market. I prefer the Champion System because it is comfortable for the dog and because it is incredibly sturdy. It looks like something made for NASCAR but I take comfort in that. This system is intended for medium and large sized dogs. If your dog is smaller, you will still be able to find something appropriate for his or her size in a different design. Do not let your failure to properly restrain your dog result in tragedy which will not only change your life forever, but will have been preventable. Foster and Smith Quilted Super Deluxe Dog Bed. We've had a lot of dog beds over the years and there are multiple beds in our house at any given time. Probably the best money we ever spent on a bed was on an orthopedic bed we got for Snake years ago after our vet told us Snake's days were numbered due to degenerative issues with her spine. After looking around at a variety of orthopedic beds, I chose one made by Foster and Smith. Rich joked that it was large enough for a small child and he was right. But it lasted not only through Snakey's lifetime but also through Aspy's lifetime. We have had this particular dog bed for about 13 years and it is still going strong. Because the covers are washed in the dryer, they do tend to fade over time. The bed itself is still in wonderful shape and in spite of faded covers, the zippers never failed and we would be able to use the bed with another dog today. While this bed has retained its quality, some other beds we bought along the way did not. It is really worth the money for a dog of any age and most definitely for a senior dog who may have issues with arthritis. Woodrow Wear Dog Socks. When we moved to a new house a few years back, I was worried about the hardwood floors. Aspy was getting older and I knew he would have traction issues. He did. We ended up with a host of skid-resistant rugs in different rooms to help him navigate more easily. It was just this year that I did research on skid-resistant socks to help him with mobility. We tried a number of brands. Some did not fit. Some did not allow his feet to "breathe." It was only when we got some test pairs of Power Paws Socks from Woodrow Wear that we found a really good product. The socks come in a variety of sizes and designs and they have a non-skid pawprint pattern on the bottom of each sock. Socks come in sets of four. We ended up only putting socks on our dog's rear feet since those were his pushing feet. It took him a few minutes to get used to the idea but he adapted quickly. He did fairly well on his own during the day due to rug placement, but we put his socks on each night as part of our bedtime rituals. The socks fit much like a human tube sock - they are designed to be snug so they don't rotate or fall off - and you toss them in the wash with the rest of your laundry. Joint Max Triple Strength Soft Chews. All dogs develop issues with mobility in their later years. When we saw that our dog was slowing down a bit, we talked to our vet about using supplements to help him feel better and without having to rely on a prescription. She recommended a supplement with both glucosaimine and chondrotin. After comparing labels on a number of brands and reading reviews, we tried a soft chew made by Joint Max and never regretted it. Our dog got two chews a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. He loved those things. They look and smell like a treat but with a wonderful list of ingredients to help his joints and connective tissue. You can get this brand through a variety of retailers. We tended to use Entirely Pets because of good service, low shipping costs and coupons. Shelter Pups (and cats). I first learned about Shelter Pets thanks to my ties to the families of Harley Taylor (the 2015 American Humane Association Hero Dog) and his faithful sidekick, Teddy Burchfield. Shelter Pups sells handmade dog and cat stuffed animals, both ready-made (so you can choose the animal to "rescue") or made for you using images of your beloved pet. I admit that I first looked into this company to have stuffed animals made from images of our own dogs, thinking it was just a specialty company. When I learned that the mission of this company is to raise awareness and help real shelter animals, well, I was hooked. I invite you to visit the Shelter Pups website to learn how this all started with a little girl named Theodora who wanted a stuffed toy which looked like the shelter dogs she loved and while working to help dogs at her local animal shelter. The images here of our dogs simply do not do justice to these creations. They look so much like our dogs that seeing them for the first time took my breath away. And it's nice to have them at home to see every day. Perpetua DNA Life Jewels. I am not a big jewelry person. I wear one of a host of necklaces I own which have sentimental value to me. One carries a locket which holds images on my parents and our dogs. Another carries charms engraved with the names of our dogs. A few months ago, I heard about a special product you can have made using DNA, either human or animal and I was intrigued. I thought it might just be a rip-off or a scam. I mean, really, how can a company take DNA and use it to make jewelry or other items? I did some homework and you can now call me a believer. Perpetua Life Jewels was the inspired idea of a veterinarian who wanted to memorialize her lost dog using DNA. There are a host of products available on the website and there is a video which shows how the process works. Rich gifted me a Duet Life Jewel necklace which includes the DNA of both of our dogs. Aspy was still alive when he had it made. Now that he is gone, the necklace is all the more precious to me. I cannot touch our dogs or see them, but I can feel closer to them every time I wear my DNA necklace, as I am today. I have written before about the concept of pets as property and how that can be a good thing in our current social climate as it relates to legal rights. Yes, our animals are precious to us and they are not property in the traditional sense because we consider them priceless. Because my dog is my property, I have legal rights related to him being taken from me by law enforcement authorities, related to him being stolen from me and related to him being destroyed unnecessarily by an animal shelter. Until we change our laws so that I have rights similar to rights related to children, I am fine with him being called my property as long as I can protect him from harm. The issue of dogs as a commodity, as inventory and as livestock is, however, a completely separate issue for me and it is one which is infuriating. Puppy mills exist today because we created them. The first commercial dog breeding operations came about thanks to a USDA program implemented decades ago to help struggling farmers. Dogs were promoted as a fool proof cash crop. They are easy to produce and the return on the dollar is high compared to other products. Americans love dogs, so what could possibly go wrong? Everything. Dogs began being produced in huge numbers while being housed in conditions we would normally find inadequate for any animal of any species. The commercial dog breeding industry became big business and it still is today, leading to the creation of a number of organizations which focus solely on saving mill dogs and on educating the public about mills. When we talk about puppy mills, that description encompasses a wide range of businesses and places. Some are large breeding operations with hundreds of dogs who produce thousands of dogs each year. Some are more rural operations managed by those in the Amish culture and yet others are simply backyard operations which go on unseen, unheard and out of the public eye. There is also the distribution system, the most notable of which is a distribution facility managed by the Hunte Corporation which takes puppies from breeders and ships them across the country in unmarked trucks to a pet store near you. A large number of the dogs produced commercially are sold to brokers who then sell them to pet stores. Many dogs are simply marketed through the internet using polished looking websites which present the illusion of proper care and cleanliness. Still others are sold through newspaper ads, on street corners and in the parking lots of large chain stores. Although I am not a fan of breeding dogs, I fully recognized that there is such a thing as a responsible breeder. There are people who breed and then sell dogs while taking excellent care of the parent dogs and while doing all they can to perpetuate breed standards and have healthy puppies for people to buy as family pets or to use in some service capacity. There is a continental divide between a responsible breeder and a puppy mill, no matter the size of the mill. In a mill, the “breeder stock” is housed in unthinkable conditions, often in small wire cages with no flooring. They receive no veterinary care (or very little veterinary care) leading them to develop a host of conditions and diseases. Many have missing eyes from having been sprayed by power washers or tumors from lack of care or nails which have grown so long as to become ingrown. If you were to stop and try to think of a house of horrors for dogs, that would be a puppy mill. The sad truth as it relates to the mill industry is that all puppies are cute and that we are blinded by the cuteness that we see. Even if we know it’s possible that the cute puppy in the pet store may have come from horrific conditions, we really don’t think about that much because the dog is there and he or she needs a home. I have known of some people who are well aware of the conditions in mills and yet they have rationalized buying a dog from a pet store in order to "save" it or "rescue" it. I have often though that if the puppies came with accurate labels, or were accompanied by a realistic image of the conditions in which their parents live, we would be so appalled we would know better than to buy one, cute or not. Here’s the thing. Puppy mills thrive because of us. We make them profitable. We create the demand. And they will continue to dot our landscape across our country, keeping canine prisoners in horrific conditions, until we say “enough” and we stop buying what they are selling. We created mills. We can stop the mills by speaking out against them, by telling everyone we know about them and by simply refusing to purchase dogs which millers see as nothing more than inventory. It is up to us to say, “no. That is not what our culture is about.” We like to think of our country as being animal friendly. The time has long since passed for us to stop patting ourselves on the back for being dog lovers while allowing such an insidious industry to exist in our country and doing nothing to stop it. Adopt-A-Pet, Inc. is hosting a Puppy Mill Awareness Day event on September 18, 2016, at Buchanan Park in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, often called Puppy Mill Capital of the country. It is a day-long event which will have activities geared specifically toward educating children. The guest speaker is Victoria Stilwell who has written a host of books regarding dogs and who is a dog trainer and television host for a number of series about dogs. I encourage anyone who is interested in learning about puppy mills and how to stop them to consider attending this wonderful event. I prepared a couple of projects for Carol Araneo-Mayer for her event and am sharing them here. I hope she has a huge turnout and that people come away both educated and empowered. Perhaps if we adults are too complacent to end the mill industry, our children can. Even children know that puppy mills are bad.
Most of us who love and share our lives with companion animals think of them as like our children. They are not human children and if we are doing a good job, we don’t humanize them. They have different needs than children, different instincts and different language skills. We know deep down that they are animals, but they are very much like children on a host of levels. They rely upon us for food, water, housing, medical care, guidance, training, language development and a host of other things which become woven into the tasks of our daily existence. I have read that dogs have similar cognitive function to that of a young child. Feline cognition seems to be a less studied topic, but that may very well be due to the fact that cats have better ways to spend their time than helping us figure them out.
Because our animals are childlike in their dependence on us and their needs, I feel pretty strongly about our responsibilities toward them. I think that anyone who brings an animal into their life must take that decision seriously and be prepared to care for that animal for the duration of his or her life. I am pretty much zero tolerance when it comes to people who tell me that their dog or cat is precious to them, but they have to give them up because of ___________ (fill in the blank). The excuses range from I don’t have time or the dog won’t listen or the cat refuses to use the litter box or we’re having a baby or some other reason. I was in a pet supply store once and saw a flyer for a gorgeous dog which read “New home needed immediately! Moving to Minnesota!” I grunted and asked the woman at the counter, “what? Do they not allow dogs in Minnesota?” I just think that having pets equates to making a promise. You don’t give away your relatives, you don’t give away your children and you don’t give away your pets or, worse yet, surrender them to an animal shelter where they may be summarily destroyed. If they mean so little to you, please. Just don't get a pet or become a foster for a homeless pet instead. In spite of my zero tolerance for people who treat pets like an old lamp or a used sofa, I am well aware that there are times when people simply cannot keep their pets even though they do love them deeply. People get sick. People die. People lose jobs. Houses burn down. In those instances, my personal hope is that some family member or friend will step up to take that beloved pet (or pets) so that the person giving them away doesn’t lose all contact with them. It could be that they get well or get a new job or get a new place to live, after which their animal can be given back to them. In cases there that cannot happen or does not happen, my secondary hope is that the community in which that desperate person lives is a no kill community so that a local animal shelter or rescue group can help re-home the animal and the person can be assured that their pet’s life is not at risk. People who are going through hard times have enough to think about without worrying about whether their dog or cat will live or die. I also recognize that animals often are incompatible with other animals in a household and need to be re-homed for their own well-being. I have no issue with this at all. I would much prefer that a pet be placed into a new and more compatible home for the benefit of everyone, human and animal. All this leads up to the title of my blog about preparing for the worst. If you are a pet caregiver, I really want you to consider doing two things now and I hope you will take them seriously. The first thing I want you to do is to have a plan about what would happen to your animals if the unthinkable happened and you died or got so sick you could not take care of them. Much like people in some religions name Godparents for their children, I want you to really make plans for a Petparent. This can’t just be some wishy-washy assumption that someone you are related to or someone you know will step in and help. It has to be a direct conversation with someone in your life to get them to commit to taking your animals and keeping your promise to those animals in the event you no longer can. I’m not suggesting you have anyone sign a contract. I am suggesting that you have a face-to-face chat or serious telephone conversation in which you get a commitment from at least one person that they will care for your pets if you die or become so ill you cannot keep them. Although my parents did not die suddenly and we lost them both to cancer in a short window of time, this was part of our planning. My beloved aunt in Texas agreed to take mom and dad’s cats and that is exactly what she did. Tommy and Batty now live in Round Rock and I know that my “Auntie M” loves them dearly. Just making those plans took a huge burden off of my mom while she was battling cancer because she knew the cats would be safe after she could no longer stay. Before Asp left us, we had a similar plan with my aunt. Aspy had been to her house and pretty much ignored the cats (thankfully). She had lost her dog, Phinny, years back and agreed to be Aspy’s Petparent should something happen to us. The second thing I want you to do is to have both a Plan A and a Plan B to receive veterinary care for your animals either after normal business hours or on holidays. Most veterinary offices work pretty much from 9-5 and only certain days each week. Do you know where you would take your pet or who you would call if you had an emergency? Do you know if you would be able to afford it? If your Plan A for after-hours/holiday care could not help you, do you have a Plan B? Short of having a family member or child who is seriously ill or injured, I can think of nothing more traumatic than to have a pet who is injured or experiencing some life threatening condition outside of normal veterinary hours. Most cities have hospitals where people can go. Many cities do not have emergency veterinary hospitals and only a very limited number of veterinarians are in a position to help their regular clients outside of typical business hours. We learned this second lesson the hard way just this last weekend. We had our Plan A: our veterinarian. We have known her for two decades and we continued to have her treat our dog even after we moved to a new city. She knew Aspy’s history and she also knew about most of the challenges he faced in the last year of his life. Based on that relationship, I allowed myself to think that she would be available if we needed her after hours or on a holiday. When we let Snake go in 2006, she came to our house to euthanize her when the time came and so it would be more calm and less clinical. I guess I just had it in my head that when we made the decision to let Aspy go, whenever that may be, she would be available to us. She was not. Aspy had a short seizure in the evening of July 3d. He had been sleeping and it came out of nowhere, at least from what we could see. It was terrifying. Our vet could not see him so we took him to a local animal hospital about half an hour from our house. It was a terrible experience and we were all left tired, drained, upset and confused. We were told Aspy had a mass in his liver, one in his spleen and that the cancer had likely moved to his brain. We were also told the first 24-hours were critical and to monitor him. We did. He did not survive the monitoring period. Aspy had another seizure in the early afternoon hours of the 4th of July holiday. It went on and on and on and I feared his heart would just give out. We could not reach our veterinarian so we took him back to the same animal hospital where we had been earlier that same day and we had him euthanized. I think Rich would agree that our Independence Day was one of the worst days of our lives and one of the worst experiences of our lives. Making the decision to euthanize a beloved pet is incredibly difficult. Ours was made more difficult because of the distance we had to transport our dog and the manner in which the process was handled once we arrived. I’ll spare you the details. Let’s just say it was light years away from what I had envisioned in terms of us setting the time and place and having it be an essentially peaceful passing like we arranged for Snake. It was heart wrenching and infuriating and I admit that I am having a really hard time not thinking about it. The veterinary hospital is about a mile from my office and that proximity to the place where I spend most of my waking hours is just too close for me. We will never go back there. I have written a letter to the veterinarians we interacted with to implore them to make some changes to how they handle ordinary customer service issues and specifically how they handle end-of-life situations. If you truly love your pets, you do not give them away absent some extraordinary circumstances and you behave responsibly so their care is provided for in the event something tragic happens. Make plans for your Petparent. Make plans for after-hours or end-of-life care. Make sure you can afford unexpected veterinary costs. You will sleep better for having done so. And I hope you can avoid some of the trauma we have endured this week. Aspy could not stay. But we would have liked to say farewell in a more controlled way and in the presence of more compassion. Make plans. And then enjoy your time with your companion animals. Life is fleeting and precious.
When I first became an advocate and started doing volunteer work to help rescuers years ago, my presence was simply a Youtube channel. I stored my slideshow projects there and I still do, even though I have moved my voice to this website and to the other websites I manage related to my advocacy.
One of my early projects was a slideshow simply called "Find Me." I used a Fisher song which was unreleased at the time and which was written about the disappearance of Natalie Holloway. Although I have reworked a number of my slideshows over the years to keep them fresh, I have left Find Me as it was originally created. I put it together at a time when I was incredibly frustrated and exasperated and it is one of my darker projects. My thought now is that there is enough negativity "out there" related to issues about companion animals and I'm better off taking a more educational or positive approach. I know how I react when a commercial comes on TV for the APSCA or the HSUS. I just don't want to be seen in the same light. They can keep the doom and gloom approach and I'll try to reach people using other methods. One of the recurring frames in Find Me is the traditional see no evil, hear no evil speak no evil image which is ordinarily associated with the Three Wise Monkeys.
I was interacting with a contact of mine with No Kill Houston recently and she let me know she had been contacted by a filmmaker after reposting an old "rant" of mine about shelter volunteers who enable failed shelters through their silence or who otherwise defend the destruction of savable animals. The documentary film is called Silent Shelter and it is currently in production. What caught my attention about the film was not only the image which leads off the trailer, but also the subject of the film itself: the rights of volunteers who help in animal shelters related to their free speech.
I am the first to admit that I have very little tolerance for people who volunteer for or otherwise support shelters where healthy and treatable animals are destroyed. There are proven programs to end the killing and they have been known for about 15 years. My own advocacy has been made more difficult not only due to shelter leaders and employees mired in a dysfunctional system, but also by rescuers and volunteers who refuse to speak out about what is broken. Some of the most toxic opponents of my no kill advocacy have been rescuers and volunteers who spend their time defending the killing and enabling the process when common sense would dictate that they would work just as hard as I am to end the needless killing. I cannot count the number of times I have been told by volunteers that they essentially "go along to get along" so they won't be "cut off" from helping animals. I've never really understood that position at all. If you really want to help animals, then look further than X dog or Y cat to resolve the systemic issues which cause them to be destroyed in the first place. Your silence is, ultimately, your approval. In spite of my criticism for enablers and apologists, I know of numerous other people within the system who have spoken about about wrongs they have seen, heard and experienced only to be banned from a shelter or told they must sign some type of document saying they will not criticize the shelter. Is it this subject which is explored by the film and for that I am thankful. This subject has been covered by a lot of people a whole lot smarter than me so I won't go into detail on the issue here. The bottom line is that shelter volunteers and employees cannot be silenced because doing so violates the free speech provisions of our Constitution. I look forward to seeing the film. I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch the trailer. If you are a volunteer or employee at a shelter where bad things happen, I hope you will take some time to educate yourself on no kill philosophies and issues related to free speech. If you don't speak out for the welfare of animals in shelters, who will? Silent Shelter Trailer from Dana Keithly on Vimeo. If you've spent any amount of time around dogs, you have probably been bitten. As Karen Delise of the National Canine Research Council put so clearly years ago, "all dogs have teeth. All dogs bite. They bite other animals, they bite each other and they bite humans." This is Dog Bite Prevention Week. It is an annual event promoted by the American Veterinary Medical Association in concert with the US Post Office and the American Academy of Pediatrics. As we mark this week, it is worth taking a few minutes to consider the differences between actual dog attacks and dog bites, almost all of which are entirely preventable. Dog Attacks The reasons for actual dog attacks (as opposed to incidents of simple and avoidable injuries) are often complex, but the answer to preventing dog attacks is relatively simple: humane care and control of dogs is often all that is needed to prevent most dog attacks. The National Canine Research Council's investigations into dog bite-related fatalities reveals the majority of these tragic cases involved circumstances where owners failed to provide necessary care and human control of their dogs: 1) failure by dog owners to spay or neuter dogs not involved in a responsible breeding program; 2) maintaining dogs in semi-isolation on chains or in pens; 3) allowing dogs to run loose; 4) neglecting or abusing dogs; 5) maintaining dogs not as household pets, but as guard dogs, fighting dogs, intimidation dogs, breeding dogs or yard dogs; and 6) allowing children to interact with unfamiliar dogs. Dog Bites The AVMA reports that there is an estimated population of 70 million dogs living in U.S. households. Millions of people - most of them children - are bitten by dogs every year. As much as we love dogs, the reality in our society is that a lot of people don't know much about dog psychology and behavior and even those people who claim to be dog lovers engage in behavior which can lead to dog bites simply by treating dogs too much like people and not enough like the animals they are. Each year, more than 4.5 million people in the U.S. are bitten by dogs. Children are, by far, the most common victims of dogs bites and are far more likely to be severely injured. Senior citizens are the second most common dog bite victims. How do you avoid being bitten by a dog? The Humane Society of the United States provides the following tips: -be polite and respect the dog's personal space. Never approach an unfamiliar dog, especially one who's tied or confined behind a fence or in a car. Don't pet a dog-even your own-without letting him see and sniff you first. -don't disturb a dog while she's sleeping, eating, chewing on a toy or caring for puppies. Be cautious around strange dogs. Always assume that a dog who doesn't know you may see you as an intruder or a threat. -pay attention to the dog's body language. Put a safe amount of space between yourself and a dog if you see the following signals indicating that the dog is uncomfortable and might feel the need to bite: tensed body, stiff tail, pulled back head and/or ears, furrowed brow, eyes rolled so the whites are visible, yawning, flicking tongue, intense stare or backing away. Any of these signs mean the dog is trying to tell you something. For comprehensive coverage about dog body language, I encourage you to take a few minutes to read this information from Labrador Training HQ. It is incredibly detailed and can help you to be truly informed on this subject. Dogs enrich our lives in countless ways. It is well worth the effort to educate ourselves on how to prevent both attacks and bites so that we keep our families safe, avoid tragedies and keep good dogs from being destroyed in our animal shelters due to something we either did - or failed to do - which led to a dog bite. It was Friday when I saw him for the first time. I backed down the driveway into the road, waved goodbye to the boys and there it was. A dog pen. On our neighbor's property. In which sat a yellow lab. In the rain.
We moved to our home only after being driven away from what we thought was our retirement parcel. Our state gives more legal rights to shooting ranges than to property owners and I just couldn't tolerate being forced to listen to automatic weapons fire while inside our home. Leaving was incredibly hard. We chose our new house because it's inside city limits (meaning we do have property owner rights), because it has a few acres and because no one near us had dogs living outside 24/7/365 on a chain or in a pen. So much for that plan. I understand that I live in a region with cultural differences related to domesticated animals. I realize that some people were raised to believe that dogs don't belong inside because they are animals. But hasn't the time come to move past the 1870s? Haven't we learned enough about the intelligence of dogs and their emotional needs to do better for them than to imprison them in pens while denying their nature as pack animals? Because of my job, I know far too well what happens when we force man's best friend to live as a resident dog, separated from our homes and more focused on a 100 square feet of dirt or the world found within the length of a chain than on anything else. I know about fatality attacks by dogs who were not properly socialized to people and who paid for our failings with their lives. The dangers of resident dogs are well documented by people much smarter than me. To me, forcing a dog to live outside chained or penned is abuse and simply abhorrent. If you put your dog in a pen outside for short periods of time in order to get fresh air and because you lack a fully fenced yard, I get that. But to put your dog inside a pen where he or she can only stand up, walk a few feet and turn around makes absolutely no sense to me. To force that dog to live in those conditions perpetually, regardless of weather conditions and with no human interaction beyond providing them food makes even less sense to me. A dog kept chained (or confined to a pen) whether for hours, days, months, or years can suffer tremendous psychological damage. Under these limited conditions, dogs are forced to eat, drink, urinate and defecate all in the same small area. Because of the dog’s minimal physical space and lack of socialization, dogs kept penned or chained can become exceedingly hyper and aggressive. A penned or chained dog is not protective of the people who live in a nearby home. They are protective of and territorial toward the area in which they are confined. Left unsocialized to people on a regular basis, they can become aggressive toward anyone who comes near them, including unsupervised children. The National Canine Research Council's investigations into dog bite-related fatalities reveals the majority of these tragic cases involved circumstances where owners failed to provide necessary care and human control of their dogs: 1) failure by dog owners to spay or neuter dogs not involved in a responsible breeding program; 2) maintaining dogs in semi-isolation on chains or in pens; 3) allowing dogs to run loose; 4) neglecting or abusing dogs; 5) maintaining dogs not as household pets, but as guard dogs, fighting dogs, intimidation dogs, breeding dogs or yard dogs; and 6) allowing children to interact with unfamiliar dogs. My dog will never live outside. We keep him safe and dry. We provide him with the veterinary care he needs, the companionship he needs and he is a member of our family. He is not our child, but we are as responsible for his needs as if he were our child. If yours is a resident dog, why do you even have a dog in the first place? I don't expect an answer to that. It just makes no sense to me at all. And it never will. Your dog deserves better than to be a prisoner in your yard. They call me “the dog lady.” That’s not my name, of course, but that’s what my contacts at the Department of Transportation call me. I contact them so frequently that I really don’t even have to use my name.
I was driving home from work in October of 2006 when I experienced a life-changing and very unexpected event. I was cruising along, decompressing from my work day, when I saw the dead dog in the middle of my lane. I had a vehicle to my left, a vehicle riding too close on my tail and I just did not process the information fast enough to get over into the right side shoulder. I drove over the body of the dog, thinking I would clear it. I did not. I’m not really sure how I managed to get home after that. I remember screaming and crying as my heart raced and I yelled at people who could not hear me in my anguish. To say I was hysterical is probably an understatement. I cried for days about that dog. It took years before I could drive home each day and not relive the event. I know that probably sounds theatrical, but it’s true. I just could not get it out of my head and when I think about it today, I get choked up. I will never know how long the dog had been there or if he was loved or if he was missed. All I know is that he should not have been there and that it is entirely possible that his family never knew what happened to him. I do. I now have the phone numbers for five DOT offices on my phone’s speed dial settings. When I see a dead dog in the roadway, right-of-way or median, I call for help and ask that the dog be removed. The DOT folks tolerate my frequent calling because removal of the bodies is a public safety issue, but they know that I call because it is an emotional issue for me. Seeing them upsets me and seeing them deteriorate upsets me even more. I cry for dogs I have never known simply because the loss is so tragic and so preventable. I know I live in a state that has a bit of wild west in the culture. People let their dogs run loose even though it is both illegal and incredibly dangerous. When you let your dog out to roam, do not presume that he doesn’t go very far. Do not presume that each person who encounters your dog has experience in dealing with dogs. My mom was deathly afraid of most dogs due to an event in her childhood and no amount of logic or immersion with dogs ever really changed that during her lifetime. Do not presume that your dog is smart enough or fast enough to win in a battle of car v. dog or truck v. dog or 18-wheeler v. dog. He will not. If you love your dog or even if you just value your dog, please. Keep him or her safe. Do not let your dog roam like this is 1870 and your dog can just trot to town on a dirt road traveled by horses and wagons with no risk. If your dog has a tendency to get loose, take steps to keep him safe by keeping him inside your home or inside your fenced yard. I saw a little dog on my way to work today. He probably weighed all of 20 lbs. and was wearing a little light blue harness. As he stood on the side of the road, confused as to where to go. It was in a 65 mile per hour zone during peak travel times. I took the next possible U-turn and went back to look for him, but did not see him. I hope he made it home. And I hope that I won’t see him this afternoon or tomorrow or the next day. Or that I am forced to call and tell Danny that I need help with a dog near mile marker 304. They call me the dog lady. Please keep your dog safe. I am considered "the animal person" where I work. Because of my advocacy, people seek me out on a variety of subjects and when they need help. I am not the Dog or Cat Whisperer, but I do my best to help people and point them in the right direction. A co-worker emailed me yesterday to tell me she wanted to get a puppy for her five year-old daughter and wanted my help. I asked her to come see me instead. We had a long conversation (which I warned her would sound more like a lecture) about why she wanted to get a dog, what kind of dog she thought she wanted, why she wanted a puppy, etc. She said that she had grown up with a dog who was her best friend and she wanted that for her daughter. She wanted a puppy and wanted a small breed dog so her daughter would have a companion and would have someone to hug on and play with. No. No. No. And No. The conversation took a different turn from there. We talked about how much work it is to have a puppy, about how many small breed dogs do not do well with children and about how hugging a dog is just not a good idea. I told her point blank that if her daughter needed something to hug, to get her a stuffed toy. We talked about how bringing any dog into a home is a 15 to 20 year commitment not to be taken lightly. In the end, we had a good conversation. I believe my co-worker’s heart is in the right place and she does want to get a dog for all the right reasons. She has plans today to meet a medium-sized rescue dog whose life is at risk but who is described as both "sweet" and "cuddly." Have I hugged our dog? Sure. More than my husband prefers. But we’ve known each other for 16 years and I know enough about our dog’s body language to know when a soft hug will be well received as opposed to resulting in some vocalization because he isn’t feeling well. You can kiss your spouse. You can hug your child. But if you really want to show your dog how much you love him or her, learn about dog behavior and about what your dog needs from you. And if you want to spend some quality time together and bond - take your dog for a walk. Canine Body Language Successfully Adopting a Rescue Dog The Data Says "Don't Hug the Dog" Canine Body Language From Labrador Training HQ (very comprehensive and well worth the read) |
AuthorI am an animal welfare advocate. My goal is to help people understand some basic issues related to companion animals in America. Awareness leads to education leads to action leads to change. Archives
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image courtesy of Terrah Johnson
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