Pitbull/mix Information Taskforce (PIT)

This blog started after PIT founders tried to adopt a pit/mix from The Whidbey Animals' Improvement Foundation (WAIF) on Whidbey Island, in the state of Washington. This may be happening where you live.

The dog's name was Smiley.

Smiley continues to wait. Some of you have asked, "Why don't you just give up? You're going to spend a fortune and still be turned down."

There are two reasons. One is Smiley. Like other dogs at WAIF, he deserves to be adopted into a caring, attentive home. He touched our hearts.

TWO is our concern that WAIF has no responsible, consistent public outreach strategy. The focus of WAIF has always been on housing, while equal focus of any shelter should be on placement. If WAIF routinely spent money on getting the animals known to the public, many more would be adopted and the pressures on housing would be reduced. Phase 1= intake. Phase 2 = temporary housing. Phase 3 = active placement. Phase 3 for WAIF is haphazard. So the animals wait. And wait. And more animals arrive. And euthanasia becomes more and more a viable option, especially for special needs placements.

Anna Sadler wrote in Cat Fanciers' Almanac:
"When task forces do begin to analyze the causes of animals dying in shelters, many reasons begin to surface that have nothing to do with how many are being born. Begin with the most obvious: most shelters readily admit that they classify more than half the animals they handle as 'unadoptable' because of age, health or temperament...These animals are euthanized immediately with no attempt at rehabilitation in the vast majority of shelters. Budget and personnel restrictions are cited by humane agencies as well as city 'pounds.'

"Closer scrutiny of any local private or public shelter will reveal other shortcomings that have nothing to do with how many animals are born. Are shelter hours not 'user friendly'? How difficult is it for an owner to track down his lost pet among the local shelters -- is there a Lost Pet Hotline in place? Are fines and reclaim fees beyond the means of the average citizen? For that matter, are adoption fees at either city or humane agency shelter prohibitive or at least discouraging, thus sending the potential adopter to the "free kitten" ads? Is the shelter clean, inviting, and in a good neighborhood?"
Anna Sadler - Cat Fanciers' Almanac (September, 1994)
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/legislative/pet-overpopulation.html

Our Taskforce attempted to submit a list of talking points for WAIF to ponder in terms of its operation related to assisting adopters, increasing outreach, and increasing adoption of pitbull/mixes to responsible owners like us. The shelter manager refused to look at it.

We still have the talking points.

One of those points involves doing more to help owners keep their pets in their own homes. For some reason, Smiley was claimed twice by his owners. Could a simple home visit have helped them fix a fence, work on a jumping problem, install a gate latch? We have used a humane no-jump halter on dogs we have rescued with jumping issues. Sometimes all the owners really want is help. If someone comes to claim their pet more than once, it may be a cry for help. Is this noted by WAIF?

At a recent Texas Federation of Humane Society's conference, Mike Arms, Director of Operations for North Shore Animal Rescue League, said, "If your shelter is euthanizing only adult dogs and cats (as opposed to healthy puppies and kittens), you don't have an overpopulation problem. You have a people problem. Pet overpopulation means not enough homes and these adult animals had homes, but for some reason no longer do." He said those reasons must be addressed.

An American Veterinary Medicine Association study found that many animal surrenders are because of behavior problems that owners did not know how to address.

Does WAIF offer to provide a home visit to help owners keep their pets? Does it associate with professional trainers or organizations that could help? Has it made efforts to build effective island-wide support networks? Does it run ads in the classified sections urging people to visit the shelter immediately if their pets are lost? Just putting these measures in place might reduce the number of animals in the shelter.

Our Taskforce would like to help pet owners keep their pets responsibly rather than surrender them. We have spoken with other training and potential support groups on the island willing to work with pitbull/mixes (and other dogs) to ready them for adoption. They, too, report being rebuffed by WAIF.

It is a much different story with PAWS in Mukilteo, which offers numerous types of support systems for adopters, potential adopters, and the animals.

(Properly contracted with service providers, classes for potential owners and trainings for new owners could actually generate income for WAIF!) There are so many ways the island community could be involved in reducing numbers at the shelter. But WAIF is not committed to engaging the community in solutions.

Concludes Anna Sadler (who sounds like she's pretty angry, so get ready), "'Pet overpopulation' is more than the grossest of oversimplifications. It is the publicly acceptable excuse for animal rights extremists to begin their pyramid of legislation that will end breeding. It is the goose that laid the golden egg for donation-dependent organizations, as well as an effective smokescreen to hide inefficient or shoddy shelter policies and procedures. It is an excuse to kill even more animals that might be rehabilitated...It turns all elements of the animal loving community against one another, a schism the animals cannot afford."

If WAIF slams the door on its own community, if it makes dictatorial decisions and disenfranchises those who truly care about animals -- even pitmixes -- then it has only itself to blame for every animal it euthanizes.

We don't want Smiley to be the next one.