How much is that moral superiority in the window?
In reality, many shelters and rescue groups have become unregulated pet shops, and yet in many states like my own, “overpopulation” shelter numbers are going up because dogs are being brought in from out of state.
The general public doesn’t know any of this.
Related: Thousands of international strays are finding a new home in Canada
… Long story short….
Saw a cat at the municipal shelter and decided the next day to go back and adopt it. Called and they said it was still there, so I asked if they could hold it for me till I got there in 15minutes. They said “Sure”.
Got there, cat was gone. They’d packed it up with a bunch of cats and shipped it off to another shelter 45 minutes away that was “…low on cats”.
By the time I’d driven the distance, and waited almost 2 hours for the paperwork (I think the volunteer was a tweeker) it ended up costing me over $50.. plus gas and time…
I could have gotten a kitten for free and trained it my way.
Nevertheless, the pet store/rescue efforts here do have a distinct air of commerciality to them.
(I’d like to point out that the girls in the cages aren’t really suffering. Real chickens in real cages don’t wear clothes.)
“Thousands of international strays are finding a new home in Canada”
We need to close our damned borders!
Why don’t they send international rescues to North Korea? They are true dog lovers who are hungry for canines.
Every dog we import means one more of our own we can kill plus the import of diseases that will cost Canadian dog owners $ millions plus losing more of our own dogs to disease than are rescued.
We adopted a wonderful Chihuahua-Daschund X from the local SPCA, that had been brought here to Edmonton in a shipment from California. The only other dogs the SPCA here has are typically semi-feral monsters…untrained pit bulls, rottweilers, shepherds, etc. that have been seized from closed-down drug houses or abandoned by losers who acquire a big mean dog to compensate for their small penis.
The demand is so high we had to line up before they opened two days in a row, and were lucky to get one on the second day. What is the alternative for folks like us who don’t want/need a show dog or brand new $800 mall store puppy…we just want a regular family housepet?
Many of these shelters run on public funding. They solicit donations from the public under the premise of sheltering local animals, all the while painting breeders as being responsible for “pet overpopulation”.
If they’re importing dogs to supply a demand for pets, they’re stepping outside their mandate. They’re a pet store, not a shelter.
It’s called “mission creep”. A shelter that’s short of dogs should be reducing operations, not importing other peoples’ problems.
My thought exactly, Knight 99.
Halt non-white immigration to Canada. There aren’t enough good homes for all of them.
Turtle,
If you want a “regular housepet,” get a cat. They take care of themselves, can be safely left outside, do not need walking, and are less likely to maul the neighbours’ child because the owner couldn’t be arsed to train it or keep it leashed.
I say this because you don’t actually seem interested in making the effort required to care for a dog.
Possibly what you do have is a spoiled child who wants a puppy for Christmas. Tell him Santa doesn’t trade in living things and need not be asked for puppies, kittens or baby brothers.
To clear up a few misconceptions – most “show” breeders charge less for pets than the pet stores, and provide a lot more in terms of guarantees and support. And as only a minority of puppies make the grade as show and breeding prospects, most puppies go directly to pet homes.
Secondly, if you can’t afford $800 for a well bred, guaranteed, health tested puppy – you can’t afford a dog. Vet bills have literally quadrupled in the past decade, and the most basic of treatment can easily run into hundreds of dollars.
The only dogs I ever had were free. Damn good dogs, too. It’s all in how you raise ’em.
Vet bills are commensurate with the use of the dog…
“Thousands of international strays are finding a new home in Canada”
Get Jason Kenney on the file!
Huh? I ensure you that our family looks after our dog as well as anyone, and she is part of our family. And money is not an issue for us, but I know it is for many families who would be great pet owners.
Your comment that a pet cat can be safely left outside frightens me. In our neighbourhood those cats last about a week before the coyotes get them. Not responsible house pet ownership either way.
As for impluse buying of a dog to assuage begging children or whatever, I can tell you that the SPCA experience is like baring your soul; they interview you at length and all family members have to come down and be present before they will even consider letting you adopt.
Basically your response comes across as ignorant and mean. At any rate, I still haven’t heard a constructive answer to what I think is a legitimate question: a regular family wants a normal, house-sized pet dog. Where to go?
Canada needs more authentic Chinese and Korean restaurants.
I’ve been involved with “breed specific” rescue for 15 years and have helped place 30 dogs, having fostered 15 and adopted six. Happily, there is generally a long drought when no dogs are available but I keep a list of good, vetted homes for whenever a dog in need turns up. I have no respect for our local SPCA which seems to be dominated by cat people who consider dogs an inconvenience. Importing dogs (mutts) from Mexico seems to be the latest “feel good” activity and I wish that would stop!
If we kept every cat/dog that seems to get dumped on our road, we’d be overrun by them now. Instead we have to take them to the local pound as what other choice do we have other than watch them suffer? So we have 1 dog and 3 cats.
There are the local barn cats but you can always tell the difference. The lost ones are usually injured, half starved, scruffy and venture out in the daylight like going across an open field. Normally a cat doesn’t do that.
If a local barn cat is hanging around, I send the dog out and he chases them off. Never catches them, but they get the message.
I have one strict rule for the cats though, no outside during the day as they only want to hunt the birds. I set the alarm for just before sunrise and get them in.
Took some conditioning but now they get in before dawn when I make a certain noise (a glass jar/tin lid with some small nails that I’d shake every time they got their most fav treat) Had about year to do that, getting up just before dawn and feeding them a good meal as well as the treat/sound (they were not allowed out until they were fixed and vaccinated.)
Our male tried to ignore me a few of times initially. Trying to get the birds around the bird feeder, so out I’d go, with help from our dog, run him down – right into the woods once but I’d get him every time, now he doesn’t even try.
Twice though – while waiting for him, saw him leap out of the tall grass and go after a wild turkey – that was something to see, didn’t think they could fly up that quick, but they can! Courageous or crazy as these turkeys have to be at least 5 times his size and they have sharper claws than he does.
You can’t really train a cat but you can condition them to respond to food/treats and a routine so that’s what I use.
If we kept every cat/dog that seems to get dumped on our road, we’d be overrun by them now.
Bullets solve the problem of nuisance animals.
The government not satisfied with replacing the population of Canadian Humans with foreign born cultists, are allowing Bogus animal rights groups to replace our pets as well.
There’s no shortage of stray dogs to be adopted off the local reserves near Calgary. I know, having fostered several and adopted one.
I do agree, but that’s really hard to do, can with racoons though, but just don’t have the heart to do it to a domestic animal that’s been dumped.
Dogs with no home is sad enough. Wait until it’s a surplus of unwanted senior citizens with nowhere to go, ur, wait…Obamacare should proactively take care of that problem. Never mind.