"I think she knows I saved her."
It’s a common refrain of people who have adopted a dog.
Their dogs, whether they made their way to new Forever Homes, as they’re known in adoption circles, from animal shelters or rescue groups, often seem to sense that they’ve been given a second chance.
I know the feeling. I’ve adopted a few dogs – one from a city shelter in upstate New York where he was literally a day away from being killed because no one had adopted him, and another r over the Internet where a sweet set of eyes on PetFinder.com spoke to me from several states away. I’ve also bought some well-bred, expensive and much beloved puppies and, truth be told, the only difference was the adopted dogs were cheaper and, in some ways, a lot less work.
I used to wonder "Who could give him up?" about my gentle shelter dog, Cole Porter, a burly standard poodle who was the most popular dog on the neighborhood playground but faced down a would-be mugger less than a week after I’d adopted him. I knew why Blossom Dearie, another standard poodle, had gotten the heave-ho from her former owners. "She scratched an expensive door," the breed rescue person sighed. (I find that hard to believe; in the seven years I got to spend with Blossom, she never scratched a thing.) Blossom’s old owners had threatened to have her euthanized. Cole barely escaped such a fate. Did they know it? Many adoptive pet parents save dog lives in the process. Sixty percent of the millions of dogs taken into animal shelters every year are euthanized, the ASPCSA estimates.
There’s a reason they call it dog rescue.
About half the pets that enter the nation’s shelters are handed over by their owners. (The others are picked up by animal control, usually as strays.) Typically, their owners didn’t have the time, the money, or their landlord’s permission to keep them.
The top 10 reasons given for relinquishing dogs to shelters:
1. Moving
2. Landlord issues
3. Cost of pet maintenance
4. No time for pet
5. Inadequate facilities
6. Too many pets in home
7. Pet illness
8. Personal problems
9. Biting
10. No homes for littermates
Source: The National Council on Pet Population Study
Recently, the nation’s foreclosure crisis has had a huge impact on animal shelters, with people relinquishing or abandoning their dogs as they lose their homes. One Ohio shelter reported its intakes are up 20-fold because of so-called Foreclosure Dogs.
"Economic times are tight. Now, more than ever, there is a real need and a great reason for people who want a dog to get it from their local animal shelter or rescue group," said Marie Belew Wheatley, president and CEO of the American Humane Association"Shelters are literally packed with obedient, loving, trained dogs right now."
The overcrowding at animal shelters came at a time when the ASPCA, American Humane and other animal welfare organizations were busy responding to a series of storms and puppy mill raids in 2008. Puppy mill raids will free up not just puppies for adoption, but adult "breeder" dogs that may have never lived in a house, or possibly out of a crate, for their entire lives.
Adopting a dog is easy, but shelter officials say a little bit of work can help avoid the heartbreak of a failed adoption. Many shelters use assessments to screen adoptable dogs for friendliness, energy level and aggression, among other traits. Potential adopters are also screened on their lifestyle (Couch potato? Marathon runner?,) with the hope another dog finds her forever home.
Whatever your lifestyle, chances are there is a dog out there that will fit into it perfectly and the two of you will be delighted to have found each other. If you choose the adoption option, you may be saving a dog’s life. The dog you bring home will definitely be brightening your life.
