Monthly Archives: March 2013

Life and Death Decisions… Daily

Posted on by JackiSkole

Imagine: You are the director of an animal shelter. During the last week of February, your shelter took in 48 dogs. Now the spring birthing season — when intake numbers traditionally spike — is  upon you. You’ve been working hard to increase the shelter’s adoption rates, but you can’t call the shelter No Kill – not yet, not by a long shot; healthy dogs are still put down daily to make room for those that will inevitably come through the door. Unfortunately, your situation is echoed throughout the United States, primarily in the South, where studies show spay and neuter rates are lower than in any other region. This leads to more dogs having more litters, and that, of course, leads to more crowded shelters.

Now in comes a pregnant stray. Shelter volunteers name her Maple – she’s a friendly retriever mix with red-gold fur and a sweet disposition.

You get that all-too-familiar sick feeling deep in your stomach.

The law prohibits you from adopting out dogs that have not been spayed or neutered.  That means you can’t release Maple unless she is spayed, and spaying will kill her puppies.  If you hold Maple until she births her pups, you will have to kill other dogs to open up space for her litter.

You ask yourself:  Does it make more sense to euthanize puppies yet to be born or to euthanize those that are already living?  The decision is yours; you must make it.

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In too many shelters across the country, shelter directors make life and death decisions daily.  There is just not enough room in overcrowded shelters to house all the dogs that are picked up as strays or surrendered by their owners.  These are healthy dogs, adoptable dogs, dogs that would make great pets.

Finding homes for the country’s homeless dogs must be a priority, or shelters will continue to use euthanasia to control their populations, and euthanasia due to homelessness will remain the leading cause of canine death in the United States. But as the spring mating season is upon us, there is something dog owners can do to stem the flow of new litters: Spay and neuter your pets, and encourage others to spay and neuter theirs. Veterinarians say you and your pet will reap the benefits:

  • Altered pets live longer, healthier lives. (Females will not get ovarian or uterine cancer; males will not get testicular cancer and are less likely to suffer from prostate disease.)
  • Altered pets are easier to train.
  • Altered pets have less desire to roam, making them less likely to become lost or hit by a car.
  • Altered pets have fewer behavior and temperament problems.
  • Altered pets tend to be less aggressive, yet they remain protective of their families.

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There is an abundance of information online regarding the reasons to, and the benefits of, spaying and neutering your pet.  Here’s a link to get you started, should you want to learn more:  American Humane Association.

Chip Chip Hooray!

Posted on by JackiSkole

Galen is a homebody. She joined our family at eight weeks old, and in the two years she’s been with us she’s never run away or shown any desire to be anywhere that we are not. Even when we unleash her during hikes at a local mountain preserve, she will forge ahead, but look back every few steps to confirm that our path hasn’t diverged from hers. My husband and I joke that we couldn’t lose her if we wanted to.

Loki is a wanderlust. He was pulled from the same North Carolina shelter as Galen, by the same rescue group. We offered to foster him while the rescue sought someone to adopt him, but we took too much of a liking to the little guy to give him to strangers. So we gave him to my mom, with the understanding that each winter he would spend six weeks with us, while she and my stepfather jet-set between New Jersey and Florida.

Loki was named by one of the rescue volunteers, and the name fits him quite well. The original Loki, according to Scandinavian mythology, was the Norse god of mischief, and the dog Loki is a mischief-maker. Mostly he makes his mischief by disappearing.

Several years ago, my mother installed a fence around her property to keep out the deer. It also served to keep Galen and my sister’s dog, Bear, from leaving. But Loki’s lust for adventure proved to be stronger than the fence’s ability for restraint. He would find rare spots where the fence and earth separated and squirm through. My mother would find him happily roaming the neighborhood; she’d bring him home, and a day or so later, he’d be gone again. She ultimately installed an electric fence to end his journeying.

Lokia journeyman

Loki
a journeyman

We, too, have an electric fence, so when Loki’s here, he wears Galen’s collar. But during his last visit, Loki got skunked. He stunk, and so did the collar – even after I soaked it in tomato juice, then vinegar, then dish detergent. I couldn’t bear to put it back on him, so I sent him outside in an old dog collar hoping he wouldn’t know the difference between it and the electric fence collar. For two days I outsmarted him. On the third day, I couldn’t find him – anywhere.

That night animal control called; Loki was safe and waiting for me at our local shelter. A microchip that had been implanted between his shoulder blades gave animal control all the information needed to identify him and me – the person listed “in case of emergency.”

That microchip proved invaluable that night, and it may one day save Loki’s life, as he proves time and again that he has a journeyman’s spirit. Galen is microchipped, too. We had the procedure done after we adopted her, before we realized our homegirl isn’t going anywhere.

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You can learn more about microchipping your pet on the web. Here’s just one site: http://pets.webmd.com/features/microchipping-your-dog-or-cat