Snoopy, waiting for his rescue people to come retrieve him at the shelter

This afternoon, I’m spending my time advocating for a dog named Snoopy. Snoopy landed on death row in a California shelter. I tracked his status with the shelter, which was a maddening back-and-forth with others on his status. I landed on the moment when a fellow rescue advocate sent word that a rescue has stepped up to pull him from the shelter this week. I breathed a sigh of relief that the good people at this California rescue would indeed follow through and save Snoopy.

No sooner did I get word on Snoopy being cleared, than another dog – Dexter – came through. Another red code on the euthanasia list – which means, he could be killed at any time. He was at another California shelter, which just so happened to be one I’d spoken with last week, about the euthanasia policies, behavioral assessments rendering a dog aggressive, and the timeframe allowed by the powers-that-be for an animal to live.

The woman at the shelter said,

Oh, I don’t know how they’re going to handle that dog – I’ve seen the intake video – he was code red from the beginning.

Dexter was rescued by bff_pet_rescue this week

Of course he was. As my fellow rescue advocate said, They can smell the euthanasia room right next door.

Tonya, with Ok What’s Left Rescue in CA, on a recent rescue

In other shelters – in Utah, for example – literal gas chambers are used to take the life of a homeless animal. It can take up to thirty minutes to die while the animals are tossed inside in a dark chamber, clawing and pleading, as their lives slowly terminate. For any animal lover, it is a horrific nightmare throwing us into sleepless nights for weeks on end.

The dogs and cats in these shelters are terrified – they know they are unsafe, not in the hands of people with their best interests in mind. The behaviorist on staff at the shelter is looking for signs of problems or aggression, which quickly becomes an excuse to put them on a euthanasia list.

How would you react?

I think we can all agree — we’d be nervous, stressed, wary, defensive, disoriented, fearful, and fighting for every breath within us. Especially if I realized that death was literally just down the hall. Any animal pulled from a shelter by a rescue – or an adopter – needs decompression time, adjustment period and lots of tender, loving, patient care.

In response to these dire, desperate, dramatic circumstances, rescues all over the country are frantically running pell-mell, hither and thither, at mock speed and in high-adrenaline, always in emergency mode, to save the next dog before the shelter determines their red code status and puts a needle in their tender paw. They share the status of any particular animal on social media – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter – connecting up with the urgency of a wildfire about to burn through a valley.

In many instances, it is only a matter of a few days before an animal is euthanized.

A 2-year old Labrador mutt on death’s door at a Lindon, Utah facility via gas chamber

Does it have to be this way? I believe we should be doing better by our animals, better by each other, and better in the higher interests of a more conscious, compassionate society. We may not be there yet, and sociopolitical challenges notwithstanding, we are going in a positive direction.

And yet, the policies in these shelters have to change. The mentality creating them must be the starting point. The mentality viewing dogs and cats as expendable, if they fail to meet human standards for behavior, is as eschew as the way we treat ethnicities different than the Caucasian one. The ethos allowing the powers-that-be to cast judgment on the life of an animal in its custody through no will of its own, holding it captive in the unlikely event of its reclamation by its guardian, is immoral, inhumane, cruel and unethical. These animals are sentient beings, and while shelters have a place in society – to be a temporary holding facility until an animal may find its forever home or be returned to the one they had – they have now become killing institutions.

According to California-based Bella Vita Rescue:

Gavin, a fortunate spirit rescued by BellaVitaRescue in CA (looking for his furever home!)

Of the approximately 800,000 dogs and cats killed in shelters each year, half of them are in just five states…

Texas, 125,000

California, 110,000

Florida, 66,000

North Carolina, 62,000

Georgia, 43,000

Is it politics? Funding? Abuse of power? I don’t profess to have all the answers. I know there are hundreds of rescue organizations actively involved in trying to save all the dogs in these high-kill shelters in many of these states. I know there are rescue coordinators in shelters that they work with, people in charge that they contact to pull a particular dog. I know there is an hourly drama, each and every day, around the life and death struggle of each dog. And I know that hundreds slip through the cracks, because the rescues are busy tending to the ones newly saved. They simply aren’t resourced sufficiently to save them all.

Where does the problem lie? It’s complicated – and yet – not.

Backyard breeders, for one thing, are creating an overpopulation of animals for which there will be no home. Certain patriarchal cultures prohibiting spaying and neutering, those allowing animals to reproduce without intervention (spaying and neutering) – a dog may have five or six puppies from the time she reaches maturity (between six to twelve months). With a gestation period of only sixty-days – you get the picture — many of these animals will never find a home, some of them may wind up at these high-kill shelters. Or more simpler yet, the guy obtaining a puppy from his friend, who has refused to spay or neuter his own dog, who says,

I just can’t imagine them taking his cajones – while grabbing his own crotch – thus, refusing to spay and neuter his own puppy, when of age.

All of these actions and a few more are creating desperate situations. Shelters are reacting with lethal force, citing anything from lack of homes (and yet, the foster-based rescues do indeed find homes for these animals), lack of space, medical situations or aggressive behavior. The dogs are suffering, ultimately paying the price, when they wind up homeless and in the hands of these shelters. Policies in place allowing them to discard these as animals is a tool they’ve created in response to an extremely complicated situation that fails to ever place the animals’ well-being on any kind of level playing field.

So, what’s needed? Obviously, more laws requiring spaying and neutering – and enforcement. Denver, for example, has laws prohibiting breeding without a license. Is it enforced? That’s a good question. At least, having it in place is a start – without such laws, there can be no remedy or restriction. Denver laws also require that a dog be spayed or neutered – again, a good step to prohibiting the consequences of an accidental close encounter.

Making spaying and neutering more affordable, especially in areas socioeconomically challenged – yes, poor, rural areas. Denver has Spay Today, Neuter Now, for instance. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary just raised over $2 Million in funding for low cost spay and neuter programs – an amazing effort to address the problem at its birthplace.

What’s also needed is training for these animals. Many come from places where they were never properly taught how to be good canine citizens, and wind up in high-kill shelters for fighting with another dog in the household, or showing reactivity mistakenly termed as aggression to perceived threats. Training is crucial to showing these animals not just that they are safe, but for how to control their instincts – chasing prey, protecting their people, reacting to intruders. Some favorites:

And finally, a change in these policies must be made. Shelters must not use the remedy of euthanasia as the easy, go-to solution for sending a stressed, disoriented, terrified dog to its death. Gas chambers as an answer to euthanasia are everyone’s nightmare – and must be abolished. Euthanasia has become a remedy being abused at the dogs’ ultimate peril, and will never cease to be utilized so long as people are permitted to use it with such liberty and abundance that it becomes the norm. It must change – and we must support the foster-based rescues, trainers, and others on the frontlines, until then. Advocating for the lives of animals is an uphill, long-term commitment – requiring communities and people to work together in service of the common goal of bettering the lives of the animals.

Namaste, and thank you for reading.

Smudges, our 3-year old shepherd mix, rescued by Homecomings Dog Rescue, from Breckenridge, TX

I love my dog so much my heart aches. I’ll bet you feel the same way about yours, too. Ever since we took her into our home from the streets of Breckenridge, Texas as a rescued stray, our little shepherd mutt has bonded in all the ways every dog lover can hope for.

Charlie, our now 2-year old Lab mutt, rescued by SPAR in Shawnee, OK

The same can be said of her  brother, Charlie. An equally intelligent, loving and deserving Labrador mutt just one year into life, he was rescued from the streets of Shawnee, Oklahoma, by the good people at http://www.sparpets.org/adoptable-pets/.

But I can’t stop there, because there are so many more dogs not as fortunate as Smudges & Charlie still in need of furever homes. And I believe that it takes a tribe of dog-loving hearts connected together, to save these dogs from death by ignorance and abuse, euthanasia by shelter policy, or harm at the hands of the ill-informed, the overwhelmed and the apathetic.

We are still in need of more spay and neuter laws and having veterinarians willing to do so at low-cost (a Colorado favorite: Spay Today). We’ve made progress, and yet, we’re not quite there. Not when two thousand animals are put to death daily, according to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.

Adding to the homeless population in ever-increasing numbers, are breeders more concerned with the balance in their bank accounts than caring about the lives already here. They op

Buster is [at the Hempstead Shelter], an extremely handsome 6 year old boy who came to [them] as an owner surrender in April 2018. Buster has been waiting so long for his chance at a forever home...

I’m not against purebreds per se — there are plenty of rescues trying to re-home those that haven’t worked out — and that’s a different story. I am simply of the belief that until we have homes for all of the beautiful animals already here, we should not be adding any more to the population. Ordering up a purebred is akin to putting a needle to the paw of a rescue mutt, saying,

No room for you, I guess you have to die today.

On the rescue dog end of the spectrum, we advocates are fervently working to help as many as we can before shelters decide they are at capacity and put the needle to the paw of the next one in line.

Here in Colorado, we are indeed fortunate to have a plethora of foster-based rescues pulling death-row inmates from the high-kill shelters in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. And yet, there are far more in need. During these pandemic times, even more remain in shelters out east, where the overwhelm is focused on solving more urgent demands of humans in trouble due to Covid-19.

In the mayhem, I’ve learned of a few long-term residents in the shelter in the Town of Hempstead, New York that have been abandoned by their people, rejected or unclaimed by those they once loved and trusted. I share them because I hold their stories close in my dog-loving heart. I know that there are some good people out there willing to give them a second (okay, maybe third) chance. Should you know any such dog-loving spirits out east near Hempstead, NY, please consider sharing these stories:

Adopt LexiMama, who has been in and out of the shelter since 2014

Adopt Diego, who has been in the shelter since January of 2019

Adopt Juniper, who has been in and out of the shelter since 2018

or,

Wherever you sit on the spectrum of rescuing and advocacy, if you could consider sharing stories on behalf of those still in need it will increase their public exposure and thus their chances for a loving, stable life outside the shelter. We’re lucky here in Colorado — but LexiMama, Juniper, Diego and several of their other friends are not so fortunate. They need help from us dog-lovers here, who can keep spreading the word.

Anyone who’s ever rescued any creature stray and homeless already knows the depth of a rescue dog’s gratitude, that the love they give is reflective of the depth of suffering and deprivation they’ve experienced. We also understand that rescue dogs in particular have an affinity and devotion to their people, because they’ve been at the bottom of life — sometimes in a shelter for years and counting. They know just how fragile life can be. They also know that when someone comes along with a gentle hand and reaches down to pull them out of the misery of an asphalt bed and perpetually rumbling empty stomach, they are forever bonded to and grateful for a second chance to enjoy a life outside those shelter walls.

For rescuers like us, nothing can feel more gratifying than being able to help alleviate the suffering of a vulnerable, beautiful, sentient being who has been overlooked, abused, neglected, or suffered the horrors of cruelty by society in the daily deluge of our chaotically transforming culture. In a world overwhelming any one soul in its speed, density and mass, it’s a small measure that takes on vast meaning for one individual.

If we dog lovers can better connect to help the hard luck stories live a little better life in a furever existence by sharing to increase their exposure, we can feel we’re doing our part, which is all any one of us can do.

Namaste, and thank you for listening…Please pass this on.