Is Dog Rescue Broken???

A good friend of mine who recently got a birdseye view of the darker side of the animal welfare/dog rescue community commented to me that they felt that rescue was ‘broken’.  My reply was that I didn’t think that rescue itself was broken but that there are just simply some emotionally unstable people who get into rescue in a subconscious effort to fix themselves because in one way or another they are broken.  I can't stop thinking about this issue now because if we humans can’t get our collective shit together in this community then how are we going to stop animal abuse, help people who want their dogs keep their dogs, abandonment, pet overpopulation and successfully address all of the other things that contribute to dogs needing our help?

There are so many people involved in dog rescue that are calm, rational, logical and emotionally stable and who would do anything for or with anyone to help a dog.  We rarely hear about them being involved in a controversy and will very rarely see them blasting someone for something on Facebook or other social networking sites.  These people, likely hundreds of thousands of them, operate their rescues and advocacy's in an organized effective way and over time help countless numbers of dogs and dog owners.  They work as a team and welcome anyone into their circle that is like minded and who is willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work helping dogs.  These people are responsible with funds donated to help the dogs and help other rescues as much as they are able to by sharing the wealth; what little there is of it.  This, I would like to think, describes the vast majority of people and organizations who are in the animal welfare community.  These people and their organizations are anything but broken and are the backbone of the machine that runs 24/7 to save and help dogs and the humans who love them.

That’s one side of the animal welfare community coin.  The side that we all hope represents MOST of the people who are in this community.  However there is another side to the coin; the dysfunctional broken side.  That is the side that my friend was recently exposed to in a very real and literally in a very threatening way.  In an effort to open the lines of discussion between members of the animal welfare community who are in conflict my friend brought together several people who had complained to him about the ‘trolls’, the ‘haters’ and the other people in the animal welfare community who had victimized them, who had stalked them and who had taken serious steps in an effort to hamper their ability to rescue dogs.  There were many extremely wordy emotionally charged reports about court cases, stalking, hate mail, slander, theft and just about every hateful negative thing you could imagine that was done to them by others in this community.  Both sides, in this meeting, had nothing but hateful and accusatory things to say about the other and in the end my personal take on it was that the victims were as much perpetrators as they were victims. Because BOTH sides view themselves as "THE VICTIM" it's obvious that there were actually no victims but only dysfunctional perpetrators in a struggle for fame, recognition, funding and pity.  This is where things are broken in rescue.  A lot of shit was slung, a lot of accusations and a whole lot of dysfunctional behavior was exhibited on BOTH sides.  Once the reports of personal slander that destroyed reputations, cost people their jobs and sent them to the poorhouse were shared then it came out; the real, honest source of the hatred, the judgment and the anger…MONEY!!! 

Surprise! Surprise!!!  In the end it was all over money.  Who gets pledged donations to pull a dog out of a shelter…that money is what they were all fighting over when it all came down to the brass tacks.  Accusations were tossed around about people who claim to be a legitimate rescue who takes the pledges that kind hearted people donate to get a dog out of a shelter, pull the dog out of the shelter and then just get rid of the dog and keep the money.  These accusations were being shot around about rescues that have been around for a while and were considered legitimate, responsible dog rescues.  These accusations were slung with such venomous fervor that it was hard to believe that any of the people involved gave a damn about anything but hating on someone else.  It was/is ugly and the worst thing is that during this time my friend was trying to get everyone to talk to work out their differences, so they could all continue on with their dog rescue efforts in virtual safety from being harassed by others, HE was attacked.  His e-mail inbox and Facebook suddenly was overrun with hateful messages hating on him.  WHAT THE HELL???  What the hell is wrong with some people and especially what the hell is wrong with human beings who claim to be compassionate, caring, selfless people that feel justified in hating on, stalking, blaming, judging and trying to harm other people???  Other people who claim to want all of the same things that they claim to want.  Other people who could be a partner in their goals rather than 'the enemy'.

Here’s the thing from this writer's perspective; the animal welfare community is over-worked and over-taxed mostly because the general public doesn’t know much about what’s going on with animals around the world and quite frankly it appears, as it is very often stated by many of the emotional among us, as if the general public doesn’t care.  Has anyone ever considered that perhaps most people in the general public care a great deal about animal welfare issues but that when they see some of the utter bullshit, dysfunctional, hateful, judgmental and downright crazy crap that comes out of our community through Facebook and other social networking sites that they simply aren’t willing to deal with us ‘animal welfare crazies’ in order to join our causes and help us help animals?

In the end it's a fact that people are watching us.  That’s not paranoia talking but is simply what I have observed.  The general public is watching and what they are seeing is those who speak loudest and say the most controversial things…this is what paints their picture of our community; not our good deeds or dedication to helping one another and the animals. So I suppose the question is whether or not there's anything we can do to mitigate the effects of these people who are doing what they do for sometimes nefarious and more often than not for purely emotional reasons?  Can those of us who choose to work together in harmony influence those who choose dysfunction over partnering and drama over effectiveness?  Is our community broken as a whole or do we simply have some dysfunctional groups/areas that we need to focus on cleaning up?

PLEASE HELP ME - I'M NOT A HUMAN

I just watched a video someone made about pit bulls that was obviously designed to break the human heart and to solicit interest in what happens to dogs obtained for fighting purposes.  The video told the story of a puppy adopted by a dog fighter and the abuses it endured told from the perspective of the dog.  The dog ‘wondered’ a lot of things, the dog ‘wished’ for a different life (like the one his mother had) and the dog ‘understood’ that the life it was leading was a bad one.  While I most certainly understand the point of the video, hopefully to motivate more people to combat dog fighting, the premise that a dog would be thinking and more so feeling all of this just like a human would I don’t think is helpful at all to dogs anywhere; not even as a vehicle for social change to benefit dogs.

There are already far, far, far too many dog owners, people who advocate for dogs and people who rescue dogs that truly believe that, and behave like, dogs are just like humans in every way except that they live in a different kind of body and have no voice to speak with.  Dogs do have a voice but it’s not the same as we humans have and if they did it most certainly would not be used to express all of the human shortcomings, fears, anxieties, thoughts and feelings that we all experience from time to time.  I can promise that a dog’s voice would not be used to tell sad tales of the past, it’s hopes or express fears about the future but would be used to express what is happening right now without judgment about it but simply to say, ‘I am happy, I am excited, I am playing, I am tired, I am anxious about what’s happening right now, I am afraid of the sound I’m hearing right now, I am hungry, I’m thirsty, I am bored, I want out, I’m so happy you are home, where are you going? I want to go too, etc.”

The belief that dogs have human-like feelings that are the result of human-like thinking is a detriment to dogs and is not a benefit to them.   The expression of our human love for dogs has often been more at their expense than for their benefit.  We show them affection 100% of the time; even when they’ve just exhibited a behavior that we don’t want them to.  We try to comfort them like we might a child when they are afraid.  Even though by doing so we are literally telling them that we want them to be afraid because we are giving affection while they are in a state of fear and that tells them we ‘like’ it when they feel that way.  So since their goal is to please us, every time they are in that situation again they will feel fearful or anxious.  We expect them to rationalize in order to understand our words, our meaning, our intentions and our desires when they don’t have the ability and never will have.  When we relate to them as we would a human and they don’t react or understand as we expect or want them to then we blame their past, what someone else did to them and even their breeding; often getting rid of them because of their behavioral issues when we caused the behavioral issues by treating them like a specie that they are not, will never be, can never be and who I personally would not like them to be.

Treating dogs like a dog is NOT inhumane and is not the sign of a heartless, cruel, cold, unfeeling human being.  In fact treating dogs like a dog based on how they treat one another is a gift that every dog deserves to have from the human who chooses to make that dog a part of their life.  I can’t imagine just how emotionally screwed up a human being might become or how they might misbehave if they were captured by another specie and then expected and forced to think like that specie in order to understand what that specie wants and is then forced to live a life as a member of that specie rather than as a member of our own specie.  How many of us would like and/or understand being forced to live and think like another specie even if it was in the lap of luxury with everything we could ever want?  How many of us would ‘sell our human soul’ and stop thinking/being human just so another specie could 'feel' good about having us in their lives and/or so we could live in the lap of luxury?  I know I wouldn’t.  I am human, deserve to be treated like one and absolutely deserve to live like one.

Treating our dogs like dogs does NOT mean that we don’t love them, that we don’t give them the best life possible, that we don’t make their lives as comfortable and as pleasant as possible.  Treating dogs like dogs, which they ARE, simply means that we go out of our way to observe and understand how dogs relate to one another, how they interact and how they communicate with one another so that we can provide (FOR them) the easiest ways to communicate with them so that they understand what it is we want from them and what is expected of them as a part of our family. 

In closing I just want to say that so many people say that they ‘love’ dogs when often enough the ‘love’ they feel is NOT for the specie itself but is for what that specie gives us which is unconditional love no matter who we are, what we do to them or how we treat them.  For this ‘unconditional love’ don’t you think we should give them the opportunity to be a dog rather than just our cute, four-legged source for unconditional love???  For all that dogs give to us don’t you think it’s time we gave back in a way that will not only serve them but will also serve the relationship we have with them because we are communicating with them on their level rather than expecting them to communicate with us on a human level? IF someone truly LOVES DOGS then one surely loves dogs not because they are a source of undying loyalty and of unconditional love but BECAUSE they are dogs and because dogs are an amazing specie that has a lot more to teach us about how to live in harmony and in a joyful state of mind than we could ever teach them…

http://www.gogophotocontest.com/rrescue/entries/14742/

http://www.gogophotocontest.com/rrescue/entries/14742/

http://www.gogophotocontest.com/rrescue/entries/14742/

http://www.gogophotocontest.com/rrescue/entries/14742/

PIT BULLS - TRUTH AND BULL

I am privileged to offer a 'guest' blog today by Ms. Holly Jeffrey who is a student working on her Bachelor's Degree.  Her writing course requires her to publish a blog and I am happy to help her make that goal by allowing her to post her blog here.  Holly has chosen the subject of Pit Bulls - Truth and Bull.  So without further adieu please see her blog below:

Holly Jeffrey

WR122

Culminating Project

Pit Bulls – Truth and Bull

INTRODUCTION

There are a disproportionately high number of pit bulls and pit bull mixed breeds which spend a lot of time in animal shelters, passed over repeatedly by potential adoptive families.  Pit bull dogs are euthanized within animal shelters at a higher rate than any other breed of dog.  The research question I have selected is “Is the pit bulls average stay in an animal shelter longer than other breeds of dogs and what factors impact this discrepancy?”

Pit bulls have a bad reputation but it was not always this way.  The pit bull breed originated when English bull-baiting dogs were bred with smaller terriers to yield the "pit bull terrier" also known as the pit bull.  According to the American Society for Prevention and Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) webpage, these dogs were bred for dog fighting in the 1800's when large animal baiting was no longer permitted.  Pit bulls have enjoyed a long relationship with humans and are known by some as loyal and affectionate family pets.  In fact, Petey from the Lil' Rascal's gang was none other than a pit bull and the breed was once known as “the all-American dog”.   So what changed?

Back in the 80's when I was just a kid, I remember driving through downtown Sacremento with my parents one summer evening and I noticed a bunch of thugs walking down the street.  One of them had a big, muscular dog he was leading around on the end of a chain.  Yes, a chain.  I remember the dog had on a thick, spiked collar and was very big with well-defined muscles and a big block head.  Everything about that group of thugs and the dog looked tough and seemed to scream "get out of my way and don't mess with me."  I can't say for certain what type of dog it was because we all sped past quickly and didn't take the time to look very closely but my belief is that the dog was a pit bull.  My point is, at some point in the recent past, thugs and gang-bangers who wanted to look tough decided that the blocky, muscular pit bull terrier was the perfect breed to bolster their "tough guy" image.  As demand for the breed increased, backyard breeders were only too happy to comply.  Neglect and outright abuse of any breed of dog will lead to bad behaviors and the pit bull is certainly no exception so when ignorant owners provoked their "tough dogs" into aggression, incidence of dog-inflicted injuries on humans increased and the media was only too happy to report and sensationalize and label the pit bull as a demon. 

The negative media portrayal of pit bulls has contributed to widespread bad stigma that surrounds these dogs.  About half of the dogs in the shelter where I volunteer are pit bulls and the ones that aren't recent admissions have been there a while.  I have personally overheard potential adoptive families say "pit bulls are bad dogs, we won't consider adopting a pit bull".  These fears are fueled by a media that delights in one-sided, sensationalized reports of aggressive dog attacks and the blame is often placed on the pit bulls.  Rebecca Pickens summarized it best in her journal article "Michael Vick's Pit Bulls & Dogfighting: Ramifications of Media Coverage" when she stated "a conclusion can be drawn that pit bull-type dogs and the many issues surrounding them, are often only deemed newsworthy if they bite or suffer at the hands of someone famous.  This has contributed to a tragically negative, one-dimensional portrayal of a major demographic of dogs in the United States" (34).  The simple fact is that if people would put aside their media-fueled preconceived notions of shelter pit bulls and simply spend a few minutes with the dog they would discover not a blood-thirsty biting monster but a loyal, loving and slobber-infused licking fanatic who really just wants to be accepted and welcomed into a forever home with a loving family...just like every other dog at the animal shelter.

RESEARCH COLLECTION

Source #1

Tullis, Paul. “The Softer Side of Pit Bulls. A Reviled Breed gets a Makeover.” Time (2013):54. Web. 5 August 2014.

This article describes a brief history of the pit bull and discusses the aggressive reputation of pit bulls and their association with dogfighting.  Pit bulls are the least adopted shelter animal and have the highest euthanasia rate in the United States (Tullis, 55).  The bad reputation of the breed has caused some cities to ban them.  Advocacy groups for pit bulls are trying to change this and improve the overall image and reputation of the pit bull breed.  The pit bull breed has developed a bad reputation which is largely unfounded and because of their bad reputation, pit bulls are often passed over in the animal shelter setting and are euthanized at a higher rate than other breeds of dogs.  It is thought that the negative stigma attached to pit bulls began in the late 70’s when the breed was best known as a vicious dog fighting machine (Tullis, 56).  However, pit bulls were originally bred to be working dogs and had an earlier reputation of being a great family dog.  One-sided and negative media portrayal have contributed to a societal “black listing” of pit bulls that is largely undeserved.

The tide seems to be turning for pit bull dogs and this is thanks to an increasing number of vocal pit bull advocates.  Adoptions at one animal shelter in Chicago are up 600% and a shelter in Los Angeles maintains a waiting list for families that specifically want a pit bull breed  (Tullis, 56). 

Source #2

Enos, Sara K. “The Problem with People, Not Pit Bulls.” Time (2014). Web. 5 August 2014.

Sara Enos is the founder of the American Pit Bull Foundation and is a long time pit bull enthusiast and owner.  She writes this article for Time magazine as a response to an article which ran 6/20/14 titled “The Problem with Pit Bulls”.  Sara states that the pit bull breed is no different than any other dog breed and that problems with dogs can usually be traced back to problems with the humans who raised them.  Sara believes in responsible breed ownership and education and states that “canine aggression is triggered by human behavior.”  She also points out that pit bulls are frequently misidentified and may actually be blamed for bites that are caused by other similar breeds of dogs and this contributes to the disproportionately high number of dog bites that are blamed on pit bulls. 

I was surprised to read that the American Temperament Test Society (ATTS) actually rates pit bulls as very friendly.  I didn’t know what the ATTS was so I looked it up and found their webpage.  The test measures a dogs’ ability to interact with humans, human situations, and the environment.  Frankly, I was shocked and pleased to discover that the pit bull ranked 91.1% which is very good.  To compare, I looked up the Labrador retriever and discovered it was ranked at 92%.  Sara Enos essentially summarized what I, and most other pit bull advocates, already knew: a good dog in the hands of bad people will do bad things and this is true of pit bull dogs and any other breed.

Source #3

Pickens, Rebecca C. “Michael Vick’s Pit Bulls & Dogfighting: Ramifications of Media Coverage.” Journal of Student Research (2013): 29-35. Web. 5 August 2014

Rebecca Pickens article addresses the profound impact the Michael Vick dogfighting case had on the image and reputation of the pit bull breed.  Media can play an important role in enforcing or debunking stereotypes and influencing public opinion on a subject.  Negative media portrayal of pit bulls has played a large part in fueling fear and stereotypes related to this breed of dog.  This sensationalism has a direct impact on the lives and well-being of shelter animals, particularly pit bull breeds, because they are often passed over and left in the shelter for longer periods and are euthanized at a higher rate than other shelter dogs.

The widespread media coverage of the Michael Vick case and pit bull horror had a profound effect on pit bull advocates.  Pickens is quoted as stating “for the first time in decades America rallied for the pit bull. Animal rights advocates saw an opportunity to increase public demand for tougher sentencing on dogfighting and decrease public fear of these misunderstood dogs” (29).  Pickens also reiterates the fact that the term “pit bull” is not an official dog breed and can in fact reflect many very unique and genetically diverse dog breeds such as the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier and American Pit Bull Terrier (30).  Furthermore, the media is credited with utilizing the term “pit bull” to describe any number of dogs that happen to have certain physical characteristics (Pickens, 30).   Over time it could be accurately stated that the pit bull terrier has been the unfortunate victim of dog profiling and has had a disproportionately high number of incidents pinned on it simply because of the way it happens to look.  All of this negative media publicity and blame has certainly tainted the reputation of a breed that was once known as “the all-American” dog (Pickens, 29).

We Are "Breeder X"

UNITED WE STAND AND CONQUER, DIVIDED WE FAIL

I lost a friend last night.  Well not a ‘real’ friend really but a Facebook friend.  She 'unfriended' me on Facebook because when she posted some pretty hateful stuff toward people who we really need to influence I pointed out to her that judging and hating never influenced anyone to change.  I shared that personally I’m not here to judge or hate anyone but to help dogs and educate people.  I also expressed my personal wish that the people who believe that by judging and hating on people you can influence them to do better or do something different would leave the animal welfare community because it’s not productive, the judging and hating, and it only drags the rest of us down.  So she unfriended me which I am not taking personally in the least and to be perfectly honest isn’t a big deal to me.  I don’t view it as a personal loss but view it as an unfortunate move because one never knows when networking and joining forces will benefit a cause; so the community loses but not me personally.

I understand the need to vent.  I most certainly understand that being exposed to the injustices and abuses day after day after day can become painful and is as frustrating as hell.  I get frustrated.  I get so frustrated I think about giving up sometimes because it seems as if the harder we work the less we accomplish because on some fronts, like cops shooting people’s dogs or people fighting dogs or people abusing dogs or dogs needlessly dying in shelters because there’s no room or they have behavioral issues, it seems like we are losing a whole hell of a lot more ground than we are gaining.  I get pissed.  I get truly aggravated.  I want to slap people, kick asses and cuss people out.  But I don’t.  Why don’t I you ask?  Because although it may vent my anger, my frustration and my feelings of inadequacy, helplessness and hopelessness it doesn’t do anyone but me a damn bit of good.  It doesn’t influence any of those people who carry out the acts that are the source of my aggravation and despair to change.  It doesn’t manifest one bit of change and it sure as hell doesn’t help or save one single dog.  If you think that venting your anger, frustration, judgment and hatred over the things you see that are wrong on social media saves dogs then you are clearly not thinking logically or are under some sort of misguided idea that you have a whole lot more influence by being angry and being judgmental than you could ever have by reaching out to those people who you are hating on. 

In fact all it really does when I vent my anger among my fellow animal welfare friends is to motivate them to join in and vent their own anger.  So the next thing you know, usually on a thread started by a post to help a dog, the thread is filled with judgment, hatred and anger and not many of the comments are constructive in that not many of them are doing anything to help the dog.  So a thread started by a post to help a dog that is in dire need or maybe is in imminent danger of losing its life in a shelter fills up with people fuming about the piece of shit people who caused the dog to be in the shelter in the first place.  If you could I’d like someone out there to explain to me, in laymen’s terms if you will because apparently I’m just too stupid to understand this approach to saving dogs, exactly how hating on the people who caused the dog to be in danger of losing its life or in need of a home is helping the dog get out of the shelter and into a new home.  Yes all of you out there reading this please if you have an explanation of how this helps the dogs please share it with me because I’m just too damned daft to see it apparently.

In the end space on threads to help dogs is being taken up by the judgers and haters while a few of us try to pick through all the comments judging and hating to find the people who, like us, are trying to actually DO something to help the dog.  It’s very frustrating for me to have to pick out the helpful comments from all the judging and hating plus it actually makes me feel a bit ashamed to be a part of the animal welfare community at the same time.   So many say it’s for the dogs but when I see those comments posted on those threads I have to question some people’s motives.  Is it really for the dogs or is it just to fill our own emotional needs to be needed and/or to feel superior to those people who aren’t nearly as perfect as you believe that you are?  I’m far from perfect and have made mistakes with dogs in my lifetime so it’s easy I suppose for me to relate to those who simply don’t know any better and therefore don’t always do the right thing for the dog.  I do know that being judged harshly in a public forum for those mistakes would never in a million years motivate me to do better and I can’t be the only one…

My dear and very wise friend Foster Corder, that I admire immensely for his drive to unite the animal welfare community and help dogs, said something in an interview I watched yesterday that really struck a chord in me.  It was something that I think applies to this whole issue and that is that before we go around judging others we must first clean up our own house.  To me that translates into something very real and critical for us at this juncture in the existence of the animal welfare community.  If we are going to influence the people who abuse dogs, who fight dogs, who are irresponsible dog owners, who abandon dogs, who purchase dogs rather than adopt them out there in the general public then FIRST and FOREMOST we’ve got to get our collective shit together.  We need to STOP, CEASE AND DESIST with the public judging and hating on people on social media who don’t do what we believe they should be doing or who are doing things we don’t believe they should be doing.  If we are going to get them to stop doing what they are doing or begin doing what we want them to do then we MUST, MUST, MUST change our approach and that includes not bashing them or people like them all over social media every time a dog ends up abused or in a shelter.  This is critical to our success in encouraging, inspiring, educating and helping people change so that fewer dogs will end up dead in shelters or at the hands of humans.  That’s just it…we really need to encourage, inspire, educate and help people do better; not believe that we can judge and hate them into doing better.

This animal welfare community has been around a long time before I joined it by becoming a pit bull advocate and it will hopefully be around a long time after I’m dead and gone but our history isn’t the best due to the way a lot of our people operate within this community.  We haven’t done the best job we could do because those who ‘get it’ and can suspend judgment in order to reach people and influence them to do better are outnumbered it seems by those who choose to allow their emotions to rule them and rather than suspend judgment they completely miss the opportunity to help someone change for the better; for the next dog they get and the next.  When we spew our negative feelings all over social media about people it only serves to alienate the very people we need to influence. 

All I know is that by continuing to operate as a community in this manner it is truly a sign of insanity, which is what most ‘outsiders’ think of people in the animal welfare community are, because to continue to do the same thing in the same way again and again and again expecting a different outcome is the very definition of insanity. 

We’ve got to do better at policing our own ranks which means we’ve got to do better at helping those who lose their cool because they are frustrated and angry understand that while we do sympathize and even empathize with them that we must overcome the urge to vent out there on social media, to judge people on social media and to spew hatred out on social media.  We need to encourage those less hardy among us to private message their friends if they feel the need to express their frustration and anger about those people who just abandoned an elderly dog at their shelter or abused a dog or fought a dog.  We’ve got to do a better job of letting our fellow animal welfare advocates get that while we understand their angst we can’t tolerate their negative comments out on social media on the threads following posts to help dogs.  We need to make it perfectly clear to them that in order for us to be as effective as possible that the space, the time, the effort must be focused SOLELY on helping the dog and not wasted on condemning the people who caused the dog to need our help.  In other words those of us who ‘get it’ and who can maintain our cool when we want to bash the hell out of someone on social media need to let others know what kind of community we want to be and what kind of united front we want to show to the general public. It’s passed the time for us to show a united front of people who are focused ONLY on helping dogs, helping owners who need assistance so they don’t have to give up their dogs, helping the general public understand that as a society we need to be more responsible dog owners and if they don’t know what to do that they need to find out what to do; that they need to ask for help because WE are here to HELP, not to judge or condemn. 

There is a Wiccan code that Wiccans and witches, good witches of course, live by that states, ‘An' ye harm none, do what ye will. What ye send forth comes back to thee…’.  It’s a code that we need to adopt and live by in the animal welfare community in order to truly accomplish those things that so many in the community work so tirelessly, selflessly and generously to accomplish.  We must change because if we don’t change then progress will never be made and in generations to come people like us will still be facing the same challenges and obstacles that we face today and will be feeling and saying the same things which only means that our community is indeed insane…