Latest / The Animal Advocate / Should Rescues Import Dogs When Local Shelters Are Full?

Transcript

Should Rescues Import Dogs When Local Shelters Are Full? · The Animal Advocate

0:01
Welcome back to the Animal Advocate. In the last
0:04
episode, I talked about being at the Pennsylvania
0:08
SPCA where they had, I think, 191 dogs waiting for
0:11
homes. One of those dogs was Gouda. Gouda was rescued
0:15
alongside several other dogs after being found tied
0:18
up on heavy chains in a West Philadelphia backyard,
0:22
didn't have food or water. Gouda is still in the
0:25
shelter waiting 15 months after that rescue. Maybe
0:29
it's because he can be a little shy when you first meet
0:33
him, but he loves going for walks, he enjoys playing
0:36
with other dogs, and yet he's still being overlooked.
0:40
While Gouda sat in his kennel for yet another day,
0:43
waiting for someone to choose him, somewhere in our
0:47
region, a transport van pulled into the parking lot of
0:51
a rescue. Inside that van were puppies brought up from
0:55
a high intake shelter in Texas or Georgia or North
0:58
Carolina. By the end of the week, most of
1:02
those puppies will have homes, and Gouda will be
1:05
sitting alone in his kennel.
1:11
Welcome to the Animal Advocate, where we arm animal
1:14
lovers with the information and inspiration you need to become
1:18
effective advocates. I'm your host, Penny Ellison, and
1:22
I've taught animal law and advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania since
1:25
2. If you've ever thought
1:29
someone should do something about that, I'm here to guide you
1:33
on your journey to being that someone. You can
1:36
find us on the web@animaladvocacyacademy.com
1:41
and that's where you'll find show notes and resources, and you can
1:44
send us your comments on episodes and ideas for topics you'd like
1:48
to hear on future shows. So on to today's
1:52
topic.
1:59
Why do shelters and rescues import dogs from other states
2:03
and sometimes other countries when they know there are dogs
2:06
waiting and sometimes dying in shelters? Locally,
2:11
we certainly don't need more dogs, but as we talked
2:15
about in the last episode, people often choose a dog based on the
2:19
breed they want rather than the dog who looks different but might be
2:23
a good fit. And it's not just breeders delivering
2:26
what they want. It's often shelters and rescues, too,
2:30
because shelters in the south and west have dogs that don't
2:34
usually sit in Northeastern shelters. So rather
2:38
than market the dogs who are waiting, they bring in
2:41
different dogs to fill the shelves. Is
2:45
that right? Well, it's complicated.
2:50
Last episode, we talked about how we choose our dogs, about the
2:54
difference between choosing based on appearance and breed and
2:57
choosing based on personality and fit. And
3:01
underneath that conversation was a bigger question. How do
3:04
animal advocates focus our attention on the dogs
3:08
who truly need our help? Today,
3:12
I want to stay with that question because it leads pretty
3:15
directly to into what's been a contentious debate in animal welfare for
3:19
quite a while. Should rescues and shelters
3:23
be importing dogs from other states or other countries
3:27
when our local shelters are full and dogs here
3:30
are being euthanized for space? It feels like there should be
3:34
an obvious answer, right? Help the dogs that are already
3:38
here first. Well, I spent the last 20 years
3:41
as a mediator, and one thing mediation teaches you
3:45
is that when an issue gets framed as a clean binary choice
3:49
and when both sides are convinced the other is either heartless or
3:53
naive, it almost always means the real interests
3:56
underneath haven't been named yet. So I want to take
4:00
a mediator's view of this debate today because I don't think the
4:04
obvious answer is quite right. And
4:07
the way out of the binary choice is not to pick a side,
4:12
but to set baseline standards that any responsible importing
4:15
organization should be meeting. A mediator's
4:19
job is to get clear on what each side really wants and
4:23
look for a resolution that addresses the underlying problem instead
4:26
of just picking a winner. So let me try to do that here
4:30
because I think this is a conversation that has been stuck in its binary
4:34
form for too long. By the end of the episode, I'm going
4:38
to give you two specific questions to ask any rescue
4:42
that imports dogs, but they only make sense after
4:46
we walk through what the simple answers on both sides
4:50
miss. Let's start with what's true on the no
4:53
imports side. It is genuinely
4:57
painful to watch a dog sit in your local shelter
5:01
for six months, in eight months, more than a year
5:04
sometimes, and then watch a transport van pull up loaded
5:08
with puppies from out of state who will be adopted within a week.
5:12
From the perspective of the dog who's been sitting in your local shelter,
5:17
those puppies that were trucked in just took the home that might
5:21
have been his. For shelters operating at the edge of their
5:24
capacity, every kennel counts. Every, every
5:28
adopter counts. And the no imports argument
5:32
is consistent with what I've argued. Advocates should be directing their
5:35
energy toward the animals who genuinely need rescue.
5:39
They're sitting right here. No need to truck in
5:43
cuter, more marketable competition that guarantees
5:47
they stay right in that kennel. Now
5:50
let's look at the other side, because that's what
5:54
mediators do. The picture there is more complicated
5:57
than some people are willing to admit. In Philadelphia
6:01
and across most of the Northeast, the dogs sitting
6:05
longest in shelters are overwhelmingly classified as
6:08
some kind of pit mix. That's not an accident. That's the
6:12
downstream result of years of intentional and
6:16
accidental breeding combined with breed based
6:19
housing restrictions, insurance company breed bans
6:23
and persistent breed bias among adopters. Walk
6:26
through almost any open admission shelter in our
6:29
region and you'll see the pattern repeated kennel
6:33
after kennel. The national data backs this up, at least
6:37
just to size shelter Animals Count's 2022 annual
6:40
report released in February shows that large dogs have
6:44
the longest length of stay of any group in shelters. And
6:48
here's the part that people who have not worked in
6:51
shelters sometimes miss a lot of would be Adopters
6:55
can't take a pit mix even if they want to. Their
6:58
landlord prohibits it, their homeowner's insurance refuses to
7:02
cover it or charges a premium they can't afford. Their
7:05
condo association has a list of breeds that you can't have.
7:10
And even for the adopters who could legally take one home,
7:14
some won't because they don't feel they have the experience to handle a strong
7:17
large dog in the city. Others have absorbed
7:21
decades of bad press and won't get past the breed label no
7:25
matter what the individual dog is like. That's not a bias
7:29
I'm endorsing. It's a fact about the adoption market that
7:32
has to be taken into account. It's just harder to find a
7:36
home for an adult large dog that looks like it might have some bully
7:40
breed in them. So when a rescue says
7:43
we import some, easier to place dogs from out of state. What they
7:47
often mean, even if they don't want to say it, clearly is
7:52
the quick turnaround and higher adoption fee for that southern
7:56
puppy helps pay the bills for local dogs who
8:00
sit longer. That sentence is the economic
8:04
argument for transport in one line. If we only
8:07
took local dogs, we'd run out of money and clothes,
8:11
and that helps no one. That southern puppy helps pay for
8:15
the local pit mixes. They're likely to have to house and feed for a while
8:18
before an adopter comes along. Responsible rescues
8:22
have to figure out how to break even. I've seen rescues fail
8:26
when their business model had them only pulling hard luck cases from
8:30
the local shelter. That's great, but dogs that need
8:33
medical care, behavioral help, or are just in their
8:37
senior years are almost always net losses. For the rescue,
8:41
you need what we used to call benefactor dogs,
8:45
dogs whose adoption fees help subsidize other
8:48
dogs who will stay longer and cost more money.
8:52
Of course, all of this assumes that the rescue is helping
8:56
locally. There's a second piece too, and this is
8:59
where last week's episode comes back in the adopter who
9:03
walks in set On a smaller dog or a particular type of dog.
9:07
The kind of appearance driven choice we talked about. If
9:11
they find nothing they can take home, they don't suddenly decide
9:15
to adopt a 70 pound bully breed. Sometimes they do, but
9:18
probably not. Usually they go to a pet store, they go to a
9:22
craigslist, they go to some guy their cousin knows who breeds doodles
9:25
in his backyard. None of those outcomes are good for
9:29
animals overall, including for the local pit mixes whose
9:33
long term solution depends on more responsible owners
9:37
entering the shelter system, not fewer.
9:40
And in the places sending dogs north, the rural southern
9:44
shelters, the high intake municipal pounds in places like
9:47
Texas, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina,
9:52
those dogs we view as easier to place are actually
9:55
at risk and they're still being euthanized for space when no
9:59
northern rescue will take them because there is no
10:02
infrastructure to hold them long enough to find a local adopter.
10:06
So the choice in front of a transporting rescue is rarely
10:10
save the local dog or save the imported dog.
10:14
It is more often save the out of state dog or
10:18
no one saves that dog. I'm not saying any of this
10:22
to defend transport programs. I really, I
10:26
started out hating them and I'm just trying to take a more nuanced view at
10:29
this point. Some of them are clearly irresponsible.
10:33
They drop dogs into communities they have no relationship with,
10:37
take no responsibility for what happens after the adoption,
10:40
and quietly add to the local overpopulation problem they
10:44
claim to be solving. When an imported dog is
10:47
returned, runs away, bites someone, or develops a
10:51
medical condition the adopter can't manage, where does that
10:54
dog go? Right into the local
10:58
shelter system. That is what turns an
11:01
understandable practice into an indefensible one.
11:05
So if a rescue or shelter is going to import dogs into a market
11:09
that is already struggling with its own overpopulation,
11:13
two minimum conditions should apply, not as
11:16
suggestions, as baseline professional standards.
11:21
The first condition is that the importing organization should provide
11:25
significant demonstrable assistance to the local animals
11:29
already in shelters in their area. That can take a
11:32
lot of forms. They can pull a meaningful number of dogs from the local
11:36
open admission shelter. They can fund medical or behavioral work
11:40
for dogs they don't pull. They can subsidize, spay,
11:43
neuter for the breeds and the neighborhoods feeding the most animals into local
11:47
shelters. They can host adoption events that feature harder to place local
11:51
dogs. The specific form matters less than the principal.
11:55
If you are using this community's adopter base, you are
11:59
participating in this community's overpopulation problem and you
12:03
owe something back to the local animals. That that problem hits the
12:07
hardest. The second condition is just a
12:10
yes or a no. And to me it's non negotiable.
12:14
Every dog brought in from outside the area should be
12:17
microchipped to the organization bringing them in. And
12:21
that organization should commit in writing to taking that dog
12:24
back at any point in its life for any reason, no
12:28
questions asked. If the adoption falls apart in three
12:32
weeks, three years or 15 years, that dog
12:36
goes back to the rescue that brought it in. Not to the city
12:39
shelter, not to an spca, not to a stranger on
12:43
Facebook. That second standard does two things at
12:47
once. It guarantees that imports don't become a hidden
12:50
cost shifted onto the local shelter system. And it
12:54
forces the importing organization to right size its operation
12:58
to the responsibility it's taking on. If you can't promise
13:02
lifetime take back for every dog you bring in, you're bringing in
13:06
too many dogs. I've seen huge adoption
13:10
events helping out southern shelters by either inviting them to participate
13:14
or taking dogs from them for the big event. And when the
13:17
adoption doesn't work out or the dog gets loose, that dog
13:21
is microchipped to a distant shelter. And no one is driving
13:25
hundreds of miles to return that dog. So it ends
13:28
up adding to the local shelter population. So now
13:32
you've taken up many of the potential homes that dogs like Gouda could have
13:36
gone to, and you've added to the local shelter
13:39
population. That's not real rescue.
13:44
Neither of these standards I'm suggesting helping local dogs and
13:47
taking all returns is radical. One is just help your
13:51
neighbor. The other means clean up after yourself. You've
13:55
probably heard rules like that since kindergarten. In fact, the
13:59
association for Animal Welfare Advancement, which is the major professional
14:02
organization for shelter and rescue leaders, already includes
14:06
both of these ideas in their companion animal transport
14:09
model practices. They list microchipping transported animals
14:13
to the destination organization as a recommended practice.
14:17
They state that the destination organization is responsible for the
14:21
outcomes of the animals it brings in. They explicitly
14:24
raise the question of whether bringing in animals from outside
14:28
diverts resources from harder to place dogs already in
14:32
the local community. Responsible shelters and
14:35
rescues should already have a policy that they'll always take back the
14:39
animals they adopt out. The same rule should apply to
14:43
anyone who brings dogs in from out of state or
14:46
organizes a mega adoption event that includes animals from out
14:50
of state shelters. These standards shouldn't be viewed as best
14:54
practices or recommendations. They should be the floor.
14:58
An organization operating below that floor is running a
15:02
transport program that pushes its costs and its problems onto local
15:05
shelters.
15:15
So how can you be the Change. Here's an example.
15:18
Your friend texts you a photo of a puppy she's about to adopt. Of
15:22
course the puppy is adorable. All puppies are adorable. The
15:26
puppy is also coming from a rescue that's bringing her in from out of state.
15:30
Your friend's really excited, and she wants you to be excited with her.
15:34
Here's the moment. Don't lecture her. Don't send her a link to this
15:38
episode. Just ask her two questions. What
15:41
is that rescue doing for the dogs in our local shelter? And have you
15:45
asked them whether they'll take this puppy back if the adoption doesn't work out?
15:49
Five or ten years from now, she probably won't know the answers.
15:53
And that's the point. Now she knows to ask. That is
15:57
what advocacy looks like in real life, not anger. In a comment
16:01
section at midnight, two questions passed from one person
16:04
who cares about animals to another. Until the
16:08
rescue's importing dogs start hearing those
16:11
questions from every adopter who's considering
16:15
bringing one of their dogs home. And I want to end on a
16:18
positive note. Remember Gouda, who was sitting in
16:22
his kennel for 15 months? His shyness hurt his
16:25
chances at getting adopted, but someone said
16:29
they'd take him for a test drive, a short visit to
16:32
their home to see how it worked out. He acted like the
16:36
gentleman we expected he would, and they invited
16:40
him to stay for good. There are lots more dogs like
16:43
Gouda spending up to 23 hours a day in their kennel
16:47
waiting for someone to give them a chance. They are
16:51
why those two questions matter. That's it for
16:54
today. The Animal Advocate podcast is brought to you by
16:58
the Animal Advocacy Academy. You can find episodes
17:02
in show notes@animaladvocacyacademy.com
17:06
along with a link to our Facebook and LinkedIn pages where we
17:09
discuss our podcasts, and we'd love to discuss your thoughts and
17:13
experiences there. If you're interested in learning more about
17:16
protecting animals, subscribe to the show so you get every
17:20
episode when it comes out. If you have any questions on
17:24
this or any other topic related to animal law, email
17:27
them to podcast@animaladvocacyacademy.com
17:31
and we'll make sure to get them answered. We'll either email you back
17:35
or feature them in a future episode, or both.
17:39
And remember, compassion is great, but
17:42
compassionate action is infinitely better. Until
17:46
next week, Live with Compassion.