Monday, September 27, 2010
We Can Have Better Dogs with Better Lives
I believe we can have better dogs with better lives.
I believe we need something different.
The old way is clearly in collapse.
Here in the United States, AKC registrations have plunged 60 percent since 1995.
In Canada, the Kennel Club continues to teeter on the edge of insolvency.
I do not know how we will get to this new place with better dogs with better lives.
But I know why we will get there, and we must get there, and to do that we must put dogs first.
Not profit.
Not fundraising.
Not registry.
Not philosophy.
Not ribbons.
Not owners.
Not ego.
Dogs.
Of course, it's all crazy talk until someone starts something new and others follow.
But do I think the time is NOW?
Yes I do.
The time is now to put dogs first, because the dogs deserve better than what we have done so far.
There is a void. It is only a matter of time before it is filled.
.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I got my dog through a rescue. My initial request bounced from one end of the country to the other. I was rejected as an improper rescue home because there was a possibility that, since I live on a ranch in the country, my dog could be bit by a rattlesnake,killed by a coyote, eaten by a lion, bitten by a rabid skunk, stung by a scorpion, fall down a mine shaft, and so on. I dug a little deeper and was able to get a referral to some dog owners who understand that a JRT just might like to live in a home where the buffalo roam and manage quite well. So they hooked me up wtih a family who had to move and couldn't take their little dog with them (who up till then lived safely in their backyard with a pool, in a city with gun toting gangbangers on each corner, dead dogs and cats lying in the gutters, hit by cars.
My dog and I have both improved our circumstances. We go hunting every morning, he drives around with me during the day. It makes him feel special and he geets to meet new people from all socio-economic backgrounds who love him.
Then he goes back home and has his own cats to chase and he kills gophers all the live long day.
The original official JRT rescuers said it would never work. But if he died tomorrow he would have lived more in the 8 months with me and got to be more of himself and true to his DNA than he would have in a whole lifetime with the suburban family he dominated for the first two years of his life.
So, my point is that we are glad I didn't take 'no' for an answer and directed my inqiries to the right persons. I have a lifelong family member who may otherwise have gone to the pound. Two lives were changed in ways that only God or the Gods can pull off
Wow, I need to make some additional "Ted Time". Great stuff, thanks.
And the void will be filled...sooner than we fear?
Seahorse :)
Post a Comment