Here's what needs to happen:
We all need to educate people esp., kids in the schools, about proper pet ownership, responsibility, compassion, bite prevention and breed education. We need to educate them as to where to get a dog or cat when the time is right. A shelter, a legitimate rescue, a responsible breeder. We need to educate people to think with their heads, to research it all out. We need to shock the hell out of 4th graders through middle school age kids, which is when their compassion level seems to sink and their need to fit into a group and be "cool" rises. That's where dog fighters find their recruits and it goes all across all demographics.
We need to find ways, funds, donations to provide more low cost or no cost spay/neuters and med clinics etc.This is what (IMO) is what is needed. Look to organizations like C.H.A.I.N.E.D. in Detroit and "Break The Chain" in New York who help individuals with proper fencing, housing, educating and low cost or no cost "speutering." Northeast Ohio, as of this writing, has no organization doing their kind of work. Everyone seems to sit in their nice, middle-class homes and bitch about all those ghetto or redneck types with their dogs on 20 pound 6 foot long chains. They post pictures and post their outrage on Facebook. It IS outrageous and disheartening! People on social media are honestly sick to death of seeing it. They are sick of seeing dead dogs. Come up with a solution that's not a knee-jerk one. "Get rid of all the breeders!" Yeah, that one won't work.
Put on your brave face, your big girl/boy pants and see how you can help, person to person. Half of you won't even go into inner city schools and do educational programs and answer questions. Any kind of crazy question and I've gotten a lot of them.
There is a desperate need for fosters. So why are people turned down all the time? Good people. Why aren't there local seminars sponsored by many rescue groups with a vet and a good trainer about how to foster successfully! Especially helping potential fosters figure out the logistics of adding another dog into their own home. Crates? Temporary fencing? Introduction training? Why isn't that in place and offered often?
And since we're on a bit of a rant....I'm really sick and tired of all the damn pit bull rescues fighting and spatting with each other like a bunch of wet cats in a barrel. As if the poor "breed" (if you can call it that since it's a mix of bully types) doesn't have about a thousand strikes against it, you all are beating your swords against your shields "Our way or NO Way!". Get off the damn bitch-mobile and start working together. Get the best of your best out into the public eye and show a uniform front.
There are WAY too many women involved in rescue in NE Ohio ---- there is too much bitchy estrogen running around. We need to find a way to get more men involved. Grill some steaks and hire a stripper...I don't care. Whatever it takes. Hit up athletes, business types, men, men, men...we need men! We need more male spokesmen. Men love animals too and their way of helping may surprise you! Having a guy tell another guy why he needs to be man and get Buster's nuts removed seems to work better!
I'm sick to death of rescue people bashing folks in purebred dogs, flinging all that "You're BAD, evil, You are the sole contributing factor to the over-population problem!!" with their one litter a year. First of all most the hash-flingers don't even know anyone seriously involved with purebred dogs. I've asked. Many rescue folks have never taken their dog to any kind of class, hired a trainer or tried to compete in any venue with your mixed breed! The snobbery of He's Just My Pet. Not that this isn't the most noble gift dogs give us but they are capable of much more.
You WANT people in purebred dogs on your "side." Are you crazy not to get to know them? Even court them a bit? No, they will not support your total breeding moratorium and for wiser reasons than the average rescuer could possibly comprehend and it has NOTHING to do with The Almighty Dollar. Here's a new flash, kids. The serious "hobby" breeder is not what is causing your pet over-population problem. He or she is the least offensive and will be the first to be punished by your breeding moratorium. They plan a breeding better than you probably planned who were you going to marry and have kids with!
They have connections most rescues only dream about it. Don't think for one nano-second they don't know about the pet over-population problem and aren't distressed and sickened by it. Throughout the country, most of the time, someone who shows purebred dogs is one the first on site of any given puppy mill or hoarder bust. No one, and I mean, NO ONE is more incensed about Puppy Mills or Hoarding than the folks in Purebred Dogs. I've noticed in the rescue community a ton of sun-burnt nostrils on self-righteous up-turned noses when the subject of someone who "shows dogs" comes up. Since so many of you know very little about that world of showing, obedience, agility, or other dog sports or haven't been immersed in it as a trainer, handler, assistant, judge, groomer you are bashing a group of animal lovers en masse without a great deal of personal knowledge.
One must only look at the Puppy Mill Case of over a hundred Rottweilers in Texas to understand what Rottie fans, owners, breeders did to pitch in and really help these dogs in need. Click here for an article about it.
Seriously, if the bottom line is that dream of a no-kill shelter or the banishment of Puppy Mills do not count out people in the Fancy of Showing Dogs. Your little rescue is not on national TV being watched by millions of people worldwide but Westminister Kennel Club is! You honestly think that the WKC winner couldn't use his time on "Good Morning America" to tell folks to spay and neuter to get a dog from a shelter, or a breed rescue.
People who show dogs are not the enemy! They would never condone a puppy mill or a hoarder. So get off your high horse and stop slamming them. They love dogs too!
So well said.I'm a mans man and willing to help any way I can.
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