Shelter Me visited Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society last summer and shot this videotape interview that explains very briefly why there are "dixie dog" programs - in which animal rescue groups down South send dogs up to New England to be adopted. Basically, all the dogs in Massachusetts that need to be adopted - are adopted. Is that not amazing? So New England able to import dogs that would not be so fortunate.
The following article about Dixie Dogs is reprinted from the url below which links to the DPVHS site. It explains the rationale for the program and how it works.
Source: http://www.dpvhs.org/adopt/dixie_dogs.php
What are Dixie Dogs?
Dixie Dogs are transported from overcrowded shelters in Southern states (such as Kentucky and Alabama) so they can receive a second chance at a new life—here in New England!
Why does DPVHS have Dixie Dogs?
As the birthplace of the animal welfare movement in the United States, New England is ahead of pack in resolving its dog overpopulation crisis.
Twenty years ago, nearly 6,000 puppies flooded the five MSPCA animal shelters throughout the state of Massachusetts. In 2004, only 400 puppies came in to those same shelters. Clearly, New Englanders have received the all-important message about not allowing their companion dogs to roam or breed.
This is not to say that animal shelters in New England are empty. Only that they are emptier.
Dogs continue to need rescue—caretakers fall ill or die, unforeseen emergencies separate families, behavior or health problems become too much for unprepared people—all of these circumstances continue to cause many dogs to arrive at local shelters. Animal control officers continue to pick up and care for unclaimed stray dogs.
The need for dog shelters continues to exist. But the New England overpopulation emergency for dogs has passed.
Not true in many areas of the South and Midwest. Animal shelters in many counties in these areas take in thousands of dogs and puppies every year—dogs and puppies who are healthy, friendly family pets—and euthanize nearly all of them. Transporting these dogs and pups to shelters in New England is their only chance at life.
What about cats?
Animal shelters in New England may have won one battle against pet overpopulation, but we are far from winning the war. Cat overpopulation continues to take thousands of lives each year in the Pioneer Valley region alone.
Why cats and not dogs? People tend to confine their dogs, but allow their cats to roam at will. Dogs are only in heat twice a year, but cats come into heat more often, nearly continuously, if they haven’t mated. Large populations of feral cats roam the streets and barnyards of our fair state. Their kittens are often rounded up and brought to animal shelters—or, worse, take good homes away from kittens already in shelters.
The fact is, New England, along with the rest of the United States, is still killing its unwanted cat population at an alarming rate.
DPVHS is working hard to reduce the homeless cat population. We have many different spay/neuter assistance programs available to help reduce our local cat population. Until a surplus of homeless cats and kittens are no longer entering our shelters, we will not import cats from other states.
Why is there a $125 transport fee for Dixie Dogs?
All Dixie Dogs have a $125 transport fee added to our regular dog or puppy adoption fee. This fee helps cover some of the extra costs associated with Dixie Dogs. Transporting the dogs up to Massachusetts is expensive. We reimburse our Southern shelter partners for veterinary care for the dogs they send us.
Once the Dixie Dogs arrive in Massachusetts, the state requires that they undergo a 48-hour quarantine. At the end of their quarantine, each dog must be examined by a veterinarian and given an official health certificate before he can be placed up for adoption. It costs a lot to give a needy Southern dog a chance at a new life!
What's cool about the Dixie Dog program?
- It saves dogs' lives.
- Our Dixies are specifically chosen for their soft, gentle temperaments.
- We are able to match Dixies with local families who are looking for a loving family dog and want to save a life by adopting rather than buying from a pet store. To learn more about the harm done by stores that sell puppies and the puppy mills that supply them, visit Stop Puppy Mills.
- We help our Southern partner shelters by sending them supplies they desperately need to help local dogs while providing much-needed financial support that helps them gradually improve conditions for their local dogs.
Comments
You are selling puppies and creating a demand in the south by coming down here and buying puppies. The ones you don't take we are left to take care of as the older dogs are not taken by your organization. Also, you are promoting the import of more puppies from out of the country by creating this market for mixed breed puppies. Dixie dogs is a mess and you are creating this market when we are trying to stop the breeding of all these mixed breed puppies. If your area has stopped the breeding of puppies then close your shelter , but quit making more work for us in the South by buying puppies to sell in the north.
Dixie Rescuer is absolutely correct. This program enables the problem and does nothing to solve the problem at its source.
Bless you, Dixie Rescuer, for speaking the truth. It is incredibly sad that people don't understand the supply and demand principle and are perpetuating this problem. I would love to shut down all the shelters who import dogs from other parts of the country as well as importing from outside the U.S.
This is the result of mandatory spay neuter, not enough companion animals to supply the demand. If it sweeps the country then we can say good bye to companion animals unless we get poorly bred and socialized animals from unknown sources. There is a difference between a side-of-the-road rescue and a well bred, well socialized dog from a good breeder.
This Dixie program only enables and has help to create the problem and does nothing toward solving it. Move your shelter/puppy shop down south and get out of the North, since we are taking care of our business. We have for many years, so why are these Dixie enablers undoing our work.
GO HOME where you came and keep the southern dogs south.
We have enough to deal with due to the homelessness of GOOD dog owners.
Okay, so according to your comments this organization, (who is by the way saving numerous lives with this program) should shut down because they are making it harder for the southern puppy mills and the irresponsible people who can't spay or neuter their own dogs? Get your heads out of the sand. That's the dumbest thing you could say.
And as far as it being a "side of the road rescue?" Look it up, they've been around for fifty plus years.
I really hate pople.
Unfortunately, this very brief blurb does not go into any detail about the lengths to which Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society and other responsible shelters who transport dogs north for adoption go to make sure they are not perpetuating problems either north or south. DPVHS, for instance, does not transport puppies. We transport adult dogs, older dogs, and even dogs with non-contagious, remediable health problems. We work closely with 2 southern partner shelters. We know what their community's situation is like because we talk with them about it & establish long term relationships. We aren't dealing dogs off the back of a truck in a parking lot for cash. The dogs we place into happy New England homes are that many fewer dogs our partner shelters have to deal with and that many more lives saved. There is never a simple solution to any problem as big as pet overpopulation, but COLLABORATION and CREATIVITY get everyone closer to a solution than infighting, name-calling, and xenophobia.
It's nice to see that ignorance over spay/neuter laws is not just limited to the southern states. What most rescue folks won't tell you is the reason why some of the poorer states do not have aggressive spay/neuter laws like in New England. There are two primary causes: one is education, getting animal rights advocates to write their legislators but the primary reason is the well funded lobbying interests that lobby against spay/neuter laws.
Those lobbyists are funded in a large part through the AKC, a great organization but financially their interest is in registering dogs, the more the merrier. Any law that makes it more difficult for a breeder is likely to go against their financial interests and so the lobbyists go to work funding putting money in the hands of legislators willing to vote against such obviously needed legislation.
Wanna fix the problem? Write your legislators, spay/neuter your pets, and never buy from a puppy mill.
For more information about the AKC, google: "Puppy Mills, Pet Shops, and the AKC Basic Facts" and visit the Friends of Animals website.
Sort of ridiculous you can't post a link on this site...
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