Courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society
Several animal welfare groups, including Best Friends Animal Society and the Humane Society of the United States, met in Las Vegas on April 8th to address the need for humane ways to deal with dogs confiscated from dog fighting operations. The summit convened in response to cruelty investigations associated with expanded HSUS led crackdowns on dog fighting rings. Following the Wilkes County, North Carolina bust last December, 127 dogs, including nursing puppies, were declared a public threat in court by the HSUS according to Nathan J. Winograd, national director of the No Kill Advocacy Center. Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the HSUS, admitted they were summarily killed without given a chance for evaluation to see if they could be rehabilitated reports Winograd, author of Redemption, acclaimed book on animal shelters and the “No Kill” movement. The dogs have been doubly victimized by being subject to violent living conditions of the dog fighting industry and killed by virtue of being confiscated from these rackets.
Over the years, numerous incidents have betrayed the HSUS’ propensity toward going back on its word and killing animals according to Winograd. Best Friends was instrumental in pushing for positive changes in HSUS policy.
New protocols that came of the summit include:
• The HSUS recommends all dogs be evaluated to measure adoptability. Dogs determined adoptable will be available to suitable adopters and rescue organizations. The HSUS law enforcement training manual will be updated to reflect these changes.
• Dogs will be regarded as individuals and the ultimate victims of organized crime. Law enforcement and animal control agencies will be supported in their decisions regarding the disposal of dogs determined unsuitable for adoption and when adopters and rescue organizations are unable to accept adoptable dogs within a reasonable period.
• Participating groups, Best Friends Animal Society, HSUS, ASPCA, BAD RAP, Maddie’s Fund, National Animal Control Association, Nevada Humane Society and Spartanburg Humane Society, formed a coalition to coordinate in assisting dogs seized in dog fighting syndicate raids and develop procedures for the provision of housing and evaluation of dogs and screening of potential adopters.
Let’s hope the coalition ensures HSUS follow through on the changes and keeps HSUS true to its word.
Best Friends Animal Society works with shelter and rescue groups across the country to promote animal welfare through legislation.
The No Kill Advocacy Center is the nation’s first organization dedicated to promoting a No Kill nation. It is made up of people who have created and worked in No Kill communities thus proving it possible and viable.
For more information: Best Friends Animal Society, the summit, No Kill Advocacy Center, origins of the No Kill movement, Redemption, Nathan J. Winograd
Comments
The disposition of pit bulls used for dogfighting is a complicated issue. Several years ago 40+ dogs were seized in a dogfighting raid in southern New Hampshire, including adults and puppies. The dogs were housed at various shelters during the trial, and some of the pups began showing signs of serious dog aggression toward their littermates. For dogs who have been bred for "gameness", potentially over many generations, it's really important that behavior evaluations identify these red flags. Pit bulls are wonderful dogs, but they're not for everyone. We need to promote breed amabassadors to change the stigma associated with pit bulls and to improve the outcome for pit bulls everywhere.
No doubt the Humane Society of the United States has earned its role as the bad guy. If you are considering withholding donations to your local Humane Society as a form of protest understand that the HSUS has absolutely NO affiliation with ANY local Humane Society. In a similar vein the ASPCA is not a parent organization to any local SPCA.
This article condemning HSUS makes no sense and was obviously written by someone who has no experience with real, gamebred pitbulls. As someone who has in fact adopted a gamebred pitbull puppy, with the misinformed notion that their aggression could be controlled, let me tell you what your life will be like if you adopt a gamebred pit bull:
First, be prepared to completely rearrange your life for the next 13 years to accomodate this dog.
Then be prepared to watch in horror as your cute, loving pitbull clamps down on the neck of the neighbor's chihuahua and kills it in one bite while you're out on a walk one day.
Then, be prepared to listen as the private dog trainer, who specializes in aggressive pitbulls, tells you that there is no hope for your dog and the only solution is euthanasia -- after you've already bonded to this dog and love him with all your heart.
Then watch as your neighbors turn on you and your landlord kicks you out of your apartment for having a dog that wants to kill everything on four legs.
Then get ready to move to the crappiest neighborhood, where people get shot on a daily basis, because no normal landlord will rent to someone with a pitbull that has to walk around wearing a wire cage over its face.
Then resign yourself to never being able to go on vacation for even one day because all of your friends are too scared to come to your neighborhood to babysit your gamebred pitbull, and boarding kennels won't accept aggressive dogs.
How about watching your gamebred pitbull clamp down on the face of your non-gamebred pitbull for 20 minutes as she screams in pain, and how even as you spray mace into your dog's face, and stab his eyeballs with a screwdriver to make him let go, nothing will make the dog even flinch or release his grip?
Yeah, that's just a small morsel of what's in store for you if you adopt a gamebred pitbull.
Yes, my dog was sweet and loving and was socialized at the dog park as a puppy and would have nnever in a million years been evaluated as being dog-aggressive as a puppy. There is no way to predict what a gamebred puppy will grow into.
With all the non-gamebred pitbulls being euthanized in shelters every day, this huge, movement to save all gamebred pitbulls makes no sense. Even the ones that may be rehabilitated will take a huge amount of resources to do so, resources that could otherwise be used to save twice as many non-gamebred pitbulls.
I love my gamebred pitbull, but I also love non-gamebred pitbulls, and I don't want to see ALL pitbulls suffer because misinformed people are going on a mission to try to integrate them into society as if they are regular ol' puppy dogs.
I am someone who had adopted lots of pitbulls and thought I knew the breed so well before this one came into my life. Now I really understand what it's like to own a gamebred pitbull and why animal shelters euthanize them.
It's horribly sad to euthanize them, but it's sadder for everyone else -- people and animals -- in the long run to not euthanize them.
The animal welfare groups that met in the summit have come to the conclusion, based on their combined, extensive experience, that each dog seized in dog fighting raids deserves to be regarded on an individual basis. It can be presumed that they believe it is worth their resources to do this rather than automatically pegging all such dogs as hopeless.
The article's "condemnation" of the HSUS is in reference to numerous incidents where animal well-being was not their priority, neglect and abuse was tolerated and killing was advocated.
L.A. county animal control also killed my dog and my friends cat too early giving the lie that the animals were too sick to let live. My dog wasnt even away from home 24 hours before he was euthanized. whats it gonna take to stop this madness? email me @ paulathebomb@yahoo
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