As you have probably gleaned, I’m a big proponent of adopting dogs from shelters or rescues whenever possible. Every type of dog exists in a shelter somewhere, and no matter how long and specific the list of attributes you require in a dog may be, if you are patient and look long and hard enough, you can find a dog with those traits in a shelter or rescue group somewhere. Looking for an apricot-colored adult female Poodle? A young male German Wirehaired Pointer? If you are patient, you will find several candidates to choose from.
I know that there are some people who just really want a purebred puppy, I would not begrudge that experience for anyone. But if someone is looking for a young or adult dog of a certain breed, or is flexible about what breed of dog or puppy they want, I feel confident that they could find a candidate in a shelter—even if it turns out to be a shelter that’s sort of far from where they live. It’s not a problem we experience here in northern California—our shelters are packed to the roof!—but I’ve heard that there are parts of the country with relatively few dogs in the shelters.
However, there is one tactic that shelters and rescues sometimes take in an effort to place the dogs in their care that will automatically make me refuse to consider or promote that source: the high-pressure, life-or-death, “Fluffy only has 24 hours to live . . . unless you save him TODAY” sort of appeal.
It’s possible that shelters or rescues who take this tack actually place some of those dogs—but it’s also highly likely that people do desperate things in order to “save” those dogs, and some of them are not in the best interests of themselves or, often, the dogs! Overburdened rescue groups press their members to the breaking point to take “just one more,” past the point that they can truly afford or have time to care for. Dogs get shuffled from one temporary foster home to another, sometimes risking the spread of disease or parasites—and sometimes risking fights and injuries to the dogs in foster providers’ homes!
It’s not fair to anyone, especially exhausted experienced rescue volunteers and naïve newbie volunteers who have no idea of what they might be getting themselves into, when these “life or death,” “ticking clock” threats are made in order to place dogs. These tactics are more likely to make people who care the most feel the worst—and I daresay they don’t make people who care the least care even one bit more. In my experience, the bulk of the emotional punishment of these social media pleas falls on the people who are already doing something to help a rescue or shelter.
Here is a post that describes all of the bad things that can result when shelters use social media to try to place dogs with a “euthanasia list” plea. If you’re involved with a shelter or rescue group that has taken this tack, please read the post and reconsider.
