For Kip...

This posting is for Kip and the numerous dogs out there that are alive and like Kip and for those now gone forever yet still like Kip. Kip was a precious 4 month old puppy in the Arlington, Texas pound. I do not think the facility is worthy of being called a shelter. For several weeks people shared him and pledged for his rescue. He was not available for adoption to the public due to two non-life threatening conditions: demodex mange and entropion. Demodex mange is a non-contagious skin condition that is caused by mites when a dog’s immune system cannot keep the mites at bay. Entropion is an eyelid condition that typically requires surgery that over time can scratch the eye and cause blindness. Both were easy conditions (mange costs about $30 to treat giving daily medication for about a month) that most adopters could take care of themselves cost-wise; however because of these conditions, this dog was deemed unadoptable by the pound vet. He became what is called “rescue only”. This is usually a death sentence even for the sweetest of dogs. Rescues are already overflowing due to so many pounds, calling themselves shelters, killing sometimes as many as 9 out of 10 dogs. However, Kip had a rescue begging for him. He had people pledging money for his rescue. The rescue was located in Virginia, and was not a 501c3 (non-profit registered with the government/can take years to achieve). On behalf of the rescue, Sheila R. tried desperately to rescue this precious baby. She and myself emailed back and forth with them only to basically be given a runaround. Transport and medical care would have been taken care of 100%. But, instead of this pound working with Sheila and the rescue in Virginia, she was told the only rescues allowed to pull this dog were ones that were local, “approved” by the pound AND had to be 501c3—but the real kicker was that the pound refused to give names of rescues, too! The pound would also not allow an approved rescue to pull for the Virginia rescue to take over. Sheila and many others tried in vain to get a local rescue to pull this puppy, making calls and emailing, so that her rescue in turn could get him up to Virginia to get the medical care he needed. After trying for 20 days, Kip was murdered. He did not have to be murdered. He had people who wanted to take care of him and love him. The Arlington, Texas pound made it basically impossible to save this dog; they seemingly got the result they so desired which was for him to be killed. This kind of nonsense needs to stop. Pounds need to stop making it virtually impossible to get animals out and on top of that giving them a short time frame. They need to stop refusing rescues. The Harvey Act in California needs to be nation-wide. It is not that hard to do a reference check on a rescue to see if they are legitimate. Most people want to give animals a good home. For those who do not, who choose to fight animals and abuse animals, we need national and/or state databases just as we do for sex offenders. That would make things so much easier and save lives. We need EVERY life saved. Here is my start, by sharing Kip's story.

PS If anyone would like to view copies of the emails please let me know and I will post them.