Wednesday, July 14, 2010

breed specific problems in our shelters


John Aleshire, Sharon Harmon, Mike Oswald

multnomah county, oregon "The average residency for a dog at OHS is nine days. For pit bulls, it's nine months." Sharon Harmon, executive director of the oregon humane society. the OHS policy is to limit kennel space for pit bulls to 4 dogs in order to help the greatest number of dogs with their limited resources. hmmm. let's see, 9 months x 30 days x 4 pits = 1080 days of wasted space and services. 1080/9 = 120 normal dogs! this bleeding heart pit nutter could save 120 NORMAL dogs in the time that they save FOUR MUTANT PIT BULLS! is this really the BEST use of their resources?
multnomah county animal services (MCAS) has no breed restrictions, so it is not surprising that the shelter is described as a 'pitbull showroom'. "People aren't lining up to adopt these animals." Mike Oswald, MCAS director, referring to their pit bull population

willmar, minnesota meanwhile, the hawk creek animal shelter is trying to stop the revolving door on their pit adoptions. seems that they have a high return rate when it comes to pits. so their solution is to dump more time and resources into pit bulls!! because pit bulls are such 'magnificent' animals, they have tightened up their rules for adopting a SPECIFIC dog. Glenda Anderson, a board member of the Humane Society of Kandiyohi County sums up their goals nicely, "No. 1, we want it to be a forever home, No. 2, we don’t want anybody getting hurt, and No. 3, we don’t want to euthanize.” did you happen to notice that their NUMBER TWO CONCERN IS FOR SAFETY? putting pit bulls before people!

indy ALESHIRE hung a closed sign on the humane society of indy last week. the no kill shelter is at capacity and no longer able to accept new incoming animals. shelter capacity is 300 cats and dogs, they are currently housing over 500 animals. "We're simply over the amount of animals that we can properly care for. We invest at least $600 per animal … because all of our animals go through physical exams, they are cared for, surgery is done if needed." John Aleshire
$600 is the MINIMUM investment per animal. i wonder how much that $$ investment is for pit bulls who require the MAXIMUM investment per animal due to their tendency to occupy more kennel space for much longer periods of time? lets not forget the amount of training the staff go through to better able present the pit bull to the public and screen out questionable adopters.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

And in the case of Aleshire's shelter, don't forget the cost of the lawsuit they're going to face after that last pit attack involving one of their "fully behaviourally evaluated" wigglebutts.

Friends Administrator said...

And when a shelter starts closing their doors, you can guarantee that the animals aren't being well cared for. Typical of no kill, stack 'em, crate 'em, or throw other dogs in with pits and let the pits do the shelter job, doesn't count as euthanasia.

Anonymous said...

Just perusing that Indy HS site. Did you know they have a youth volunteer "club" which allows kids 10 and older to spend "quality time" with their adoptable dogs? So I took a look at their "adoptable dogs" and over 80% look to be predominantly pit bull (though most are being labelled the ever-popular "Lab mix" and the new-found "Hound mix"). Bastards have 10 year-olds in petting pit bulls?

Anonymous said...

NO KILL SHUTS DOORS TO INCOMING ANIMALS! I love it; their solution is to shut the doors. MAKE THESE ANIMALS SOMEONE ELSE'S PROBLEM. But whose problem exactly? The city and county shelter who by law MUST intake all animals (open admission) and subsequently forced to euthanize by the hordes! The disgusting truth about Winograd's No Kill is that it simply means another entity will be forced to "kill."

Anonymous said...

This is the MENTAL ILLNESS that is No Kill.

They are letting other dogs and cats DIE while they warehouse pit bulls.

They are giving out aggressive pit bulls that of course get returned and then get given out again, often after biting somebody or killing the poor neighbor's pet.

I never thought I would see the day that the animal shelter world would rival the puppy mills!

But that's what is going on. Many of these shelters are WORSE than puppy mills.

No Kill is the worst torture that could be inflicted on animals.

We let the insane, the mentally disturbed dictate procedure, and they turned around and used No Kill to torture animals. AND THEY DON'T CARE! That's how deep seated their mental illness is!

They kill animals in bad ways while they obsess like lunatics about euthanasia. The crazies are running the asylum!

Meanwhile they are not doing a thing about reducing the birth rate for pit bulls through things like spay neuter laws, because the breeders and dog fighters don't like those laws, and No Kill is now in bed with the breeders.

Aleshire and the rest should get arrested for animal cruelty.

Anonymous said...

"MAKE THESE ANIMALS SOMEONE ELSE'S PROBLEM"

Those are the lucky animals.

A large percentage just get thrown on the streets or in the woods or in a dumpster to die painful deaths, or get shot, or worse.

They sometimes even dump them right in the parking lots of the shelters and the animals run off into the woods or streets, and the shelters don't even know it, and don't even try to get the animals.

(Best Friends turns them away, the refused animals get dumped, they die in the desert)

Remember the crazy vet who played dental expert with Bella the attacking pit bull? That lunatic refused to take a guy's German Shepherds (she's too busy saving pit bulls that attack) but the worst part of that story is that the two other shelters in the area were No Kill and full, and wouldn't take the dogs.

So he shot them. Only they didn't die right away.

The reason this society started opening animal shelters to begin with was so that things like this wouldn't happen! Now we've gone back to the Dark Ages, with the dumping and shooting.

Those No Kill shelters as good as tortured and killed those dogs. When they refuse to take animals, the result is suffering.

No Kill IS killing, in cruel ways instead of humane euthanasia.

And they aren't doing a damn thing about fixing the problem before it starts, like getting spay neuter rates up, and getting better laws. They are spending all their money and time warehousing animals and running out of room and money.

Bagheera Kiplingi said...

The very uniquely talented Sharon Harmon, Mike Oswald and Glenda Anderson. Three people who KNOW how to identify pit bulls! Along with all of those people in Multnomah county who know what kind of dog they DON'T want to adopt.

HonestyHelps said...

I have to agree with the comments about "No Kill". It is a horrible movement and particularly to the pits who languish in their jail cells because no one wants to euthanize them in fear of reprisal from the "No Kill'ers". And the other dogs that have to die so the pits can live. I hate it. I have a pit nutter on my blog right now whose dog bit a woman and has been in the shelter for five years while he is fighting it. Five years of taking up space while other good dogs die. www.workingtohelpanimalstodaytomorrow.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

It strikes me that were every shelter to simply euthanize pit bulls there very likely wouldn't be a shelter overpopulation crisis at all.