It is with a very heavy and conflicted heart that I write about Oreo, the pit bull that was thrown from the roof of a six-story building in Brooklyn last June, not far from where I live.
When Oreo’s story and subsequent injuries - two broken arms and a broken rib – made national headlines, I remember that I couldn’t be more pleased. One, because the cause I am so passionate about was getting publicity, and two, it hit close to home. My own dog, Ella, was a rescue that had two broken legs once, too.
When the ASPCA “rescued” Oreo and prosecuted the owner of the dog, I was relieved. I knew she would be safe. I knew there would be donations. I knew that eventually, she would have a thick stack of adoption applications. But I was wrong.
I was out with colleagues in downtown Manhattan Thursday night when the emails started flooding my email inbox and blowing up my Facebook account. The subject line read: “Remember Oreo? She has only hours left to live…”
I couldn’t believe it. It made no sense. Why would an organization spend that much money to fix and physically rehabilitate a dog only to put her down? If it was a matter of the dog needing rescue, then surely, rescue groups, myself included, would pull her. I came home late, slipped into bed, and proceeded to devise a way to tell my husband that I was rescuing another dog with broken legs.
I woke in the morning to turn on my laptop and there it was -- an article in the NY Times explaining how the ASPCA made the painful decision to euthanize Oreo because of extreme aggressiveness.
I knew at that point that I couldn’t pull her. And as it turns out, according to the ASPCA, nor could anyone else. Despite various pleas from animal rights supporters and rescue organizations around the country that were willing to take Oreo, one as close as Middletown, NY, the ASPCA was on schedule to put her down at 3:00 on Friday.
The ASPCA issued a statement earlier today regarding the euthanasia of Oreo, while addressing the naysayers. “We will receive angry phone calls… profanity-laced e-mails... and we will likely be vilified by tweeters and bloggers across the country. And the rallying cry of these missives will all be the same: the ASPCA failed this animal.”
Whether or not the APSCA fails Oreo remains to be seen. However, a delay or reprieve in Oero’s fate is owed to Camile Hankins, the director of Win Animal Rights. Hankins stayed up late Thursday night working to spread the word about the decision to “execute” Oreo.
W.A.R.’s efforts might just be working. Andy Izquierdo, an APSCA spokesman, told the NY Times today that due to a small protest outside the organization’s Upper East Side headquarters, as well as the influx of hundreds of phone calls and emails, the ASPCA plans to respond to Pets Alive, the Middletown-based animal sanctuary that's willing to rescue Oreo.
I will grieve for Oreo if she is in fact killed today. But either way, I remain conflicted that while we work so hard to save her, thousands of other dogs that are healthy and not aggressive, are being killed in animal shelters across the country today, tomorrow and every other day afterwards.
Comments
Thanks for writing this. It means a lot to those of us fighting for Oreo out on the streets and on the blogs - We will be devastated should Oreo be put down.
Oreo was euthanized shortly after 3PM EST, according to the NY Times. Sad, but I reserve my anger for the jerks who made Oreo into the unadoptable dog he sadly was. At least he went peacefully, and not painfully inside a dog fighting ring.
all anger should be directed at the animals who caused this dog so much pain and finally death..
Idiotic people trying to create meaning for their empty lives by protesting the death of a dangerous animal, made dangerous by equally dangerous animals. People should be protesting that the dog's human abuser was allowed to live, not that this dog was released from its psychotic existance. Now go and print THAT.
Pets Alive, a rescue group, offered to save Oreo as they have the expertise to work with the dog and successfully rehabilitated dogs who had more severe behavior problems. The ASPCA killed the dog right away in response. They failed Oreo and they violated their mission.
Camille Hankins killed animals. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. "I have heard the conditions of Camille's home ..... When I saw the mother cat with her dead kitten in her pen, it was heartbreaking." She was convicted of animal cruelty. Shame on her.
Please quit referring to the human who did this to Oreo as an animal. You are insulting the animal kingdom by doing so. Animals do not beat the crap out of each other daily and then throw each other off apartment buildings. When animals kill, they kill for food or self defense. Period. Humans on the other hand, torture and kill for the pure pleasure of doing so. We are so beneath the animal kingdom as to be not even on the same plane.
Lassie: You have got no clue as to what you are talking about so please put the keyboard down and crawl back into your cave k? Thank you.
Hikes leg. Takes whiz on Cher. Sniffs Cher's ass. Scrunches up nose. Makes icky doggie face. Bows up and takes dump right on Cher's ever-open mouth. Crowd erupts in applause and cheers. Cher asks for more. Lassie obliges.
I am supportive of ASPCA's hard work and the hard decisions they are forced to make such as euthanizing Oreo. What I find appalling is Camille Hankins, director of Win Animal Rights, attacking the ASPCA. People who live in glass houses should not throw Stones. Camille Hankins was convicted of animal cruelty on 1994 in Charlotte, NC. One of the rescuers of the animals in Camille's home saw the mother cat with her dead kitten in her pen. Hankins should stick with her protests at HLS executives' homes and leave the rescue work to ASPCA.
Lassie, that's just about the funniest thing I have ever read. Rude, but very creative.
The ASPCA statement is at www.aspca.org/pressroom/press-releases/111309.html
Sadly, there are times when dogs cannot be saved. Often they are the damaged result of human abuse, coupled with their own physical behavior.
But - our society continues to allow and almost encourage "diversity" rules that protect the real bad guys - the people
who abuse others. Someone who has abused an animal will most certainly also abuse another person. A responsible pet owner or neighbor would never stand for hearing abuse without stopping it.
I am simply appauled. We've all heard much, I bet, about animal creulty. In school, any chance I get on reports I'm report to teachers and classmates what animal cruelty is. Truely, we are all animals. So I say this, Whenever someone has a bad additude are you just gonna 'humanly kill it'? And yes I wrote 'humanly kill it.' In some cases the animal may be in so much pain that its a good method. But I loved the ASPCA. Key word 'loved.' And each and every person within the organization failed. After all, we owe most dogs with our lives. Police, Rescue, Guide Dogs! And if Oreo's owner get a second chance, why can't Oreo?
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