When Love for Animals Defies Reason
July 2nd, 2010
Dogs left in unfamiliar places are often scared and confused. Is this love?
A few weeks ago, I was really distressed to hear follow up stories on a couple of dogs I’ve profiled here on Rescue Me.
Camille, a blind rescued Pit Bull, had an “accidental” encounter with the male dog in the house. Both were obviously not altered and it resulted in a litter of puppies (mea culpa, readers, I had no idea Camille had not been spayed when I wrote the profile, much less that the male dog in the home had also not been neutered).
I worry that these puppies, no matter how hard the owners try to find loving homes, will either be used as bait dogs for fighters; breeders if they’re given away unaltered, or at some point, end up in a shelter and spend their last days unwanted before being gassed to death.
When I expressed my concern to Camille’s mom, she expressed valid health reasons Camille’s spaying had been delayed. But she also argued that her boyfriend – who consciously refused to have his male dog neutered – wasn’t irresponsible; she insists he loves his dog and he felt it was the right thing not to do.
Of course, this defies conventional wisdom. Every animal welfare organization agrees that altering a pet is best (unless you’re one of the very few reputable breeders in the world). Pets that are a result of “accidental” breeding are a part of the 8-10 million that end up dying in shelters. Spaying/neutering a pet isn’t just a responsibility to society, but it is also beneficial for a pet’s overall health (unaltered males can be more aggressive, unaltered pets of both sexes also run a higher risk of certain cancers and studies show that 80 percent of dogs hit by cars are unaltered males).
The other story was about a woman who convincingly told me during our interview that her little dog rescued her at a time in her life when they both needed each other the most. She said she loved her dog beyond measure.
I was told that the woman recently gave away her little dog she dubbed “Hope.”
As I wrote last week, my dog Emma literally saved my life. I couldn’t imagine giving her up and I know most animal parents feel the same. I’ve also seen the confusion in the eyes of a dog left at an unfamiliar place, so how could someone give up an animal they truly love?
Hoarders represent yet another group of once well-intentioned animal lovers who will swear to authorities they are “saving” animals. Many will tell authorities they would “never harm an animal,” even as the animals lay sick and dying in their own feces. The Humane Society of the United States estimates 250,000 pets are victims of hoarders each year. While there are different mindsets of hoarders, a majority of them do believe they’re acting out of love.
So, what skews a person’s views to make them believe not altering their pet, giving it up, or having more than a person can care for, is actually good when conventional wisdom tells them otherwise? Why do some pet rescues go so wrong?
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Tags: abandoning pets, altering pets, camille, giving up pets, Grendel, Hope, Humane Society of the United States, pet hoarders, When a Love for Animals Goes Wrong
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11 Responses to “When Love for Animals Defies Reason”
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Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell has had dogs all of her life. Her first rescue was Hershey, a miniature black and brown Dacshund. She ruled the Campbell household until 2005 when she passed away at age 16. The case of Scruffy, a Yorkshire terrier whose torture death was videotaped in 1997, horrified the nation when the tape appeared on national news shows. Kerri began covering the trial for the local daily newspaper in Kansas City, Kansas where the crime occurred. Her investigation into animal cruelty cases led to her awareness of the puppy mill problem in that state.
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My husband did not want to fix the males because he had some man thought about the testicles being removed, and thinking how wrong that would be. Why would a man think of himself as the dog just because you get the testicles removed, I don’t get that, needless to say the dog was fixed. Husband still has his.
Oh, Judy, You made me LOL this morning! I know that some men have that “extension” thing going on with their dogs. This ideology, of course, is ridiculous, especially to women. However, a very real threat to some men. Very strange.
Kerri – I’ve wondered the same thing, and looking through the pets section on Craigslist in the past few weeks (because I found a lost dog and was trying to return him home, so I checked daily to see if anyone had posted about a lost dog in my neighborhood) has given me a few insights.
You wouldn’t believe (well, you probably would, actually) the number of people who are getting rid of a pet because “I can’t give him the time and attention he deserves.” In most cases, I think this is a way of rationalizing abandoning a pet so that it seems selfless, almost noble. I really do think some of these people have convinced themselves they’re doing a good thing.
One of the people abandoning her dog via Craigslist mentioned she had adopted the dog from Wayside Waifs, a very reputable organization in Kansas City. It just goes to show that no matter how hard you screen or how many questions you ask, you are never going to be able to read someone’s mind or predict what they might do in the future.
We experienced that first hand when the person who adopted, Squeek, the kitten Joe found in the road, decided to give him up after a year for one of the classic frivolous reasons: “I’m moving to an apartment that doesn’t allow pets.” Believe me, we grilled him ahead of time to try to make sure his commitment was for life, and there was no way we could have predicted he’d abandon the cat. Happy ending: as you know, we decided to keep Squeek, partly because we love him and partly because it was the only way we could 100 percent guarantee he wouldn’t be abandoned again because he didn’t match the sofa or someone decided they couldn’t possibly have a kid and a pet at the same time.
It’s beyond me how anyone could abandon an animal that they took on, knowing full well the commitment involved. I do think sometimes, especially in the case of hoarders, that a situation gets out of control before people realize what’s happening.
A couple of years ago, my mother took in a pregnant cat. She already had two, but couldn’t turn away this poor, half starved pregnant cat. When the kittens were born, my mother became intensely attached to all five! That made a total of EIGHT cats in my mom’s house- and my mother hates cleaning litter boxes!
The kittens got older and my mother only became more attached. My sister and I started getting really worried. We could see where this was going- the kittens would soon reach their peak “cuteness and adoptability” stage and after that- my mother would have a house full of half grown cats and overflowing litter boxes.
We finally convinced her to let us take the litter to Wayside Waifs, but at the last minute she said she simply could not part with two of the kittens and kept them- along with the mother cat. That brought her total number of cats to five- still too many for her to manage (not to mention she could not afford to spay the kittens or the mother cat!)
My sister and I managed to convince my mother to give up her two older cats to family members, and my sister took the mother cat (despite having a constant problem of feral cats in her own barn.) That brought Mom’s number down to just the two kittens- whew! We got those two spayed through a low cost spay/neuter program.
My mother’s intentions were good- she was worried about where the cats would end up if she turned them over to a rescue organization, but she wasn’t thinking practically about the situation. It took intervention by family to keep things from getting out of control.
Thanks, Allie and Kathleen, for your comments. I agree, Allie, that some people have to come up with “noble” reasons to give up their pet to maybe relieve their own guilt or make them look better. They know living beings shouldn’t be disposable. What a mess with your mother, Kathleen. Is Wayside a totally no kill shelter now? They didn’t used to be, but I know some changes have went on there. I do feel for your mother’s older cats though, while I’m sure you made sure they had a good home with relatives, they must have been so confused at first. You did right, though, intervention is sometimes all that stops a hoarding situation before it begins!
Kerri- Wayside will only euthanize animals they deem to be totally unadoptable (and my impression is that they make that determination extremely conservatively, always erring on the side of giving an animal a chance)due to terminal, untreatable illness or such aggressive and dangerous behavior that the animal simply can’t be handled safely by anybody.
The older cats of my mother’s both went to family members that the cats already knew, and in the case of one, a home that it had stayed in when my mother was out of town. I agree that it’s unfair to an animal to suddenly move it to a whole new, strange environment where it will certainly be stressed, even if new owners are kind. However, in this case, we were desperate to get the situation under control before it got really out of hand. Great blog topic, Kerri!
I recently met someone who in a messy relationship breakup traded a dog for a motorcycle “because she couldn’t cope with two dogs”. Her friends and family don’t understand why I’m really not fond of the person…. By the way, he reneged and she didn’t get the bike either…
I wouldn’t give up my dog for a million dollars, let alone a cold hunk of steel.
Thanks, Kathleen!
That is cold, Pat. I wouldn’t give mine up for a million dollars either.
We recently adopted 2 dogs from a “rescue group”, non-profit status and everything but they seem more like hoarders to me. Our dogs were flea infested and my vet said one had been scratching for months. That meant antibiotics and steroids for our dog at home who is highly allergic. We were told that they were 2 & 3 but after contacting the microchip companies found out they were 8 & 9. I wrote them a letter offering to call about microchipped dogs if they needed the help but never heard from them. I would never send my dogs back to a situation like that even though the event organizer said he could make that happen. Could never put them at risk again. I also heard one member of the group say that one home had 23 dogs waiting. Even recuers can go overboard in thier effort to “save” dogs. We have to spay and Yes, neuter our dogs and cats!
Sorry, my recuers are actually rescuers.
Exactly, Becky. I’ve heard of many hoarders posing as rescues. I will be doing a post this week on how to know when a rescue is really a rescue on the Internet.