© 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
Recently there has been a move to make the
Paris Hilton fueled the boutique dog craze in which women want cute, fashion-accessory dogs peeking out of their purses. These dogs have to be pure-breed, hoity-toity dogs. They cannot be mutts of unknown origins. Then, when having that fashion dog goes out of style, or, when the person’s cavalier attitude toward the dog makes a monster out of it, to the shelter it goes.
Likewise, when a Dalmatian was featured in a movie, many people rushed to have a Dalmatian. About a year later the shelters were full of unwanted Dalmatians.
Also filling up the animal shelter are people who have dogs causally, much like they have children from casual relationships, with no forethought or obligation. When they become problematic they are left at the side of the road – the dogs, not the children; those are just left. Their dogs breed and fill animal shelters with unwanted dogs.
A word about mutts: they are a deal for people wanting love and companionships. But the big dog shows market “pure” breeds. These “pure” breeds can be fine pets, but often come with real liabilities, not the least being that if the dog costs lots of money, people will steal it.
Puppy mills market cute puppies born in waves just for the purpose of making money and if not sold, abandoned. These are advertised as “pure” breeds without papers. The concept of “pure breed” is as much the cause of our overabundance of dogs in the shelter as anything else.
At the animal shelter, what you see is what you get. Many dogs are mature with a face only a lovely person can love. Those wanting to copy the
Three things the local government and the animal shelter must do: First, they must make ownership of a rescued pet a badge of honor. Next, they must make the transition to having a pet as easy as possible. Finally, the city and county governments must ban puppy mills and really work to neuter all pets so those populations do not increase.
Pouring thousands of puppies into our area – animals who end up at the shelter – is wrong. There could be a provision for dogs that are to be show animals. And, while this would push the activities underground, it would limit them considerably.
One of my rescued animals, Shovel, had a bad habit, which I suspect landed her in the pound. Luckily I had the insight and patience to change Shovel’s name to Shadow when she decided that digging was not cool and what Michael wanted was a companion like his shadow.
To make the no-kill center work, experts must be available to train new dog owners in how to extinguish undesirable behaviors and how to work with the dog. Likewise, adopted pets, not just dogs, should have a place where the vet fees for the rest of their lives are inexpensive. Each rescued-pet owner should get lots of recognition, and every effort must be made to market these pets to potential owners.
A no-kill tradition will be hard to achieve, but it is possible if we all work toward it. The first step is to talk to your neighbors who have not neutered their animals and to continuously talk about the value of mutts over the snooty dogs.
My current dog, Conrad, who is known informally as the Doggie Lama because he brings friendship and love to all who see him, wishes you well and asks that you help make this a no-kill animal shelter and city.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.