OT: Dog related
Feb 18 2010
Just a quickie but this needs to be seen by as many people as possible. This is an expose video about a “rescue” called Cold Noses, Warm Beds that is apparently getting California rescuers to pull shelter dogs and ship them up there …
Where CNWB “adopts” them out for outrageous prices, without checking references, or even having an application completed!
It’s all on video. Sheesh, lady, YOU ARE NOT A RESCUE. Listen to her lie! Boy, is she a good liar.
I know many of you are involved in the dog world as well, so please pass this around! And, oh, kudos as always to the smart person who got this video done. Actually, this is a great example of how to be Mary Sunshine when you are trying to get info. This is how you get info.
I am always asked to do a FHOTD for dogs and dog rescue. #1 I don’t have time and #2, dogs really are not my area of expertise. I think it would be great if someone did do a blog like this, though. Clearly the dog world has just as many faux rescues as the horse world (probably many more) and both other rescuers and consumers need to be warned.
67 comments to “OT: Dog related”
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Thanks for featuring this. Many dog rescues are good, but there are also rescuers making a LOT of money “rescuing” dogs and rehoming them. I have complained about this particular rescue and another one (that is being used by a breeder to rehome that breeder’s own discards as “rescues”) to the site Petfinder where they are listed and despite providing them with 100% irrefutable proof, Petfinder will not take down the listings for these bogus rescues. So beware, Petfinder is NOT the reliable source for rescues that people think it is. I urge everyone to complain to Petfinder about this very lucrative “rescue”. I also think that Canada has plenty enough of its own dogs and doesn’t need to import “rescues” from the United States.
Didn’t have time to watch the video yet this morning, but yeah, this one sends up red flags to Doubting Thomas here just looking at the site…there’s no address to drop off goodies on their wish list to, or even go look at any prospective dogs. You have to email to get instructions on how to donate. If I were going to adopt a dog, I’d like to know where to go…why the need for the double blind treatment if it’s legit? Anyone else able to find an address on there? All the rescues around gere that I know of have addresses…actual street addresses.
Oh yeah, and you can “sponsor” a dog for $350-$450! If you’re a senior, they’ll graciously give you a break! That puts me in mind of the shady so-called “therapeutic riding” program that was not far from here a while back, where she was doing “sponsors” and not even worming the horses, had nasty round bales out for a lot of them…knee deep in manure, very therapeutic. No certifications of any kind of course. Someone could “sponsor” a horse for $500/month and they would get a little paper tag on the stall with their name on it. People could graciously volunteer for work days or to clean stalls, no hired help for cleaning stalls. Yuck. Well, this “program” skipped town when people started asking questions.
My opinion is, you should be able to sponsor a shelter dog for any donation.
I ran into a rescue in Prosser, WA who does this “turn and burn”. Not interested in dogs that need rescuing, only in those they can turn for a profit ASAP. I suppose they’re only different from CNWB in 1 aspect, the woman won’t take any dog she perceives as aggressive because she “can’t adopt it out”. She took on 1 charity case over a year ago and has been patting herself on the back ever since. I found out later from someone else involved in rescue in this area that she is well known as a faux rescuer to those involved.
I’ve always hoped someone would have the balls to start a dog version of this blog and keep it going (I know a few have started, but they always petered out). If you’re out there with the inclination, go for it! The dog world is certainly prevalent with horrible bybs and bad rescuers.
This is so upsetting. I am heavily involved in a very small “rescue” , now mostly focused on educating students on proper cat care at Bishop’s University, Quebec Canada. As we are so small we do not have an adoption fee and any cats we find we only adopt out to people we know personally. Because I am one of the few members that has a farm with 2 horses and lots of space–everyone thinks I should just collect cats here–WRONG–not happening.We formed the organization because people, particularly students, were abandoning their kittens in spring without neutering them— a kitten factory had developed on campus with students feeding female cats cheap cat food to the point of obesity but not spaying them or doing anything about it when they left the town! that is pure sentimental bullshit and cruelty–boy is that difficult message to get through to people. Our message is feeding is not enough–you must follow through with vet care and proper homes especially in our harsh winter climate–if you are unable to do that then the cat must go to the local SPA which usually euthanizes them–2 out of 10 cats taken there get re-homed. That is the brutal reality. We are now at the point of not being able to find suitable homes so we concentrate on education. Also if someone finds a stray cat and asks for our help we pay for neutering , vaccinations and FIV test, but we do not take the cat in or check the home where it is coming from. That IS scary, but we want to help stop the breeding and many many people don’t think neutering and vaccinations are important. The problem is so overwhelming it is very difficult to stay focused on the message and not get pulled into “rescuing” every cat. Thank God we have, with much support, cleaned up our beautiful campus and we are trying to help out our little town now. Our website:
http://www.bishops.ca/buca/
People who make money on “rescue” are disgusting human beings…an adoption fee put back to the care of others is one thing…..to make any profit is just not right the problem is so overwhelming.
Wow, that was some great undercover work. She covered all the details. Are they actually able to charge the dog broker/faux rescue with anything or do anything to stop her?
I don’t know if she did anything illegal but she absolutely broke every ethical code of rescue. Unfortunately, there’s no license to be a rescuer, but I’m so glad that this got out and rescuers in L.A. will be forewarned now.
(Also, am I crazy? Are there no homeless dogs in B.C.? Why even go to these lengths?)
I don;t know about BC but Ontario is taking dogs from Quebec(worst place in Canada for overpopulation) becuase they have a shortage of adoptable shelter dogs!! isn’t that amazing! the spa/y neuter and education is working for dogs–not for cats though –yet.
Yes, the dog shelter population is down in Ontario….
Sadly, though, that’s due to the Ontario government’s infamous Bill 132.
Which means that any pit bull dog born after August/05, must be either destroyed, adopted out of province, or sent to an experimantal facility (where it is ultimately destroyed when no longer useful).
This “law”, ie Bill 132, has resulted in the death of thousands of pit bull (and similar, unfortunately) dogs since it was passed. “Breed Specific Legislation” in its most brutal form……
It looked to me like there were a lot of purebred dogs on that site. That also worries me. I wonder if they were held to it how many actual “transport” records they could provide? I wonder if people know there are rescues dedicated to certain breeds only that they can get purebred dogs from?
I’m in Ontario and my dog came from Michigan. There is a rescuer local to me that works with people south of the border to pull dogs from kill/sell to research shelters – they spay/neuter them there (MUCH cheaper) and ship them up here for new homes. She’s def legit – I only paid $250 standard adoption fee and was given her vet records that totalled almost that amount (she ended up with an infection at the spay incision and needed care in Ontario too) She’s also a fantastic dog and is wonderful with my 13month old daughter.
There is also a group that I found out about on a local horse rescue board that lines up drivers to move dogs all over North America…so yah legit rescuers are moving dogs across the border.
As a scammer, it really doesn’t matter to her if there are homeless dogs in BC, of course. She is relying on the desperation of the overcrowded shelters in CA who are thrilled to be able to ship over animals to another “organization” who claims to have homes waiting.
Here in Massachusetts, we actually have a very low amount of unwanted dogs. (Cats are another story, though.) Adoptable dogs usually find new homes pretty quickly. When we were looking to adopt a dog, we’d look on the websites of the shelters, drive there the very next weekend, only to find that the dogs we were interested in were already gone. My husband used to work for a shelter and sometimes there were no dogs at all.
“Twenty years ago, nearly 6,000 puppies flooded the five MSPCA animal shelters throughout the state of Massachusetts. In 2004, only 400 puppies came in to those same shelters. Clearly, New Englanders have received the all-important message about not allowing their companion dogs to roam or breed.” – from dpvhs.org
Therefore the shelters sometimes receive shipments of dogs from overcrowded shelters in the southern states. They call it the “Dixie Dog” program.
I imagine that B.C. might be in a similar position to receive “overflow” from areas like Los Angeles.
I think the thing that mystifies me the most about the whole video, is that there is a market for SELLING a rescued dog. If people would just go to the shelters to get a dog, then the shelters would have space to take in more dogs , to find homes for to open up more cages to fill with dogs to find homes for…….. Paying the shelter processing fees, shots ,neutering, etc would be a lot more honest , and make a lot morse sense then 700. dollars CASH to some dimwhit with questionable dogs. Get the same dang dog, at the pound with 1/8 of the pricetag. Pet Co should be somewhat responsible for this type of activity going on in their store . I wouldnt purchase a dog from a “rescue” I would offer to take a dog off their hands and gladly pay any fees that occured during and after the rescue, but any animal “rescued” shouldnt have a price tag on it other than medical bills. To me a “rescue” means a Saint of a person went out of their way , spent a lot of time and some money TO TAKE AN ANIMAL OUT OF A CURRENT BAD SITUATION IN HOPES TO FIND A BETTER SITUATION FOR THE ANIMAL” Taking an animal away from a situation in hopes to make money off a potential buyer of said animal is by no means a rescue. There is no money in rescuing !!! Firemen dont make money off of rescuing , police men dont make money off of rescuing , nor does the SPCA RSPCA..
FYI it was Petsmart and I agree – they should be held responsible. They’re giving her the respectable-looking platform.
A few years ago I was a dog trainer at PetSmart.
If she lied to the shelters in LA and lied to the adopter chances are she lied to PetSmart as well. PetSmart does not check the background of the animals brought in by their adoption partners, that’s the responsibility of the rescue groups. They do check the rescues finacial paperwork, but I have to say this woman is very good, she probably knew all the right things to say and had all the paperwork correctly filled out. I don’t think they do an on-site check (I think they should). The store managers, BTW, have no control over which rescue is allowed to use the store, that’s further up the line at PetSmart Charities. The people who filmed this should definitely go to PetSmart Charities and file a complaint.
(note, if she’s an adoption partner there’s a good chance that she’s getting money from PetSmart Charities, meaning she’s ripping them off too)
info@petsmartcharities.org
$400 is high, although I have seen other rescues charge that amount :/ The rescue I saw, All Terrier Rescue, based in Portland Oregon, charged that amount, and I always felt they were ripping people off. They were doing background checks and home inspections, however I didn’t really like the way they always treated adopters. One of my clients adopted a dog from them and they did not disclose the fact that that dog had behavioral problems (aggression toward other dogs). Now sometimes things like that don’t show up at the shelter so I don’t totally blame them, HOWEVER when she asked them for help they refused. When she asked to return the dog they refused to take it back initially, and it wasn’t until she made it clear that she was leaving it on their doorstep, like it or not, did they take it back. It is my opinion that if an animal does not work out a rescue (or breeder) should take that animal back, period. Also, from what I saw their volunteers do not behave professionally, one time one of the volunteers walked into the store and announced loudly that all breeders deserved to die. This was at PetSmart of course, there are a lot of different types of pet owners who shop there, including breeders! One of the managers heard and had a talk with them, and not long after they stopped showing dogs at our store. Supposedly because they did not adopt out enough dogs there, but funny enough the Oregon Humane Society and the greyhound group as well as the Cat Adoption Team didn’t seem to have any problems adopting out animals.
One program I like, Project Pooch, http://www.pooch.org/about.htm charges $195 for a fully vetted and trained dog. I have seen dogs from this program, they are all very well behaved. In many cases they were problem dogs that would have been considered unadoptable by most shelters, but through Project POOCH they became good canine citizens. The same could said for the boys in the program as well.
Used to work at Petsmart too.
IMO, Petmsart Charities needs to do a LOT better job screening their rescues. I have no doubt that the rescue that was at my store was legitimate, but they were one of the ones who had plenty of good intentions and not enough experience/professionalisim to do much good. They frequently offered dogs for adoption who were openly dog aggressive and had other behavioral issues. I worked as a groomer, and the salon was up in the front of the store, so all the rescue dogs came past the salon. On several occasions we had to placate furious salon customers who narrowly missed their dog being attacked by one of the rescue dogs. the majority of people they adopted to were novice dog owners too. BAD mix.
When I lived in north-central California, there was a gal and her mother who lived outside the largest city in San Joaquin County. The daughter had worked for the local humane society (I believe) and had quit (or was fired) for reasons I cannot remember now. I DO remember HER, however, because I adopted two kittens from the rescue and would stop by on occasion to donate food, old towels, money, etc. She was always very pleasant.
A couple of years after she left the HS, there was a raid on her home and almost 100 dogs and cats were rescued. It was the typical hoarder thing, dogs in crates, feces and puddles of urine all over the home (newspapers on the floor only absorb so much) and of course, reports of the incredible stench.
I remember the newspaper picture of her standing amidst all the … “clutter” … holding a dog and looking very distracted. She wasn’t angry or violent, but she looked as if she were trying very hard to justify what the AC officers were looking at. It was incredibly sad. Heart in the right place, brain on vacation. Common sense completely out the door.
Not long ago I was sent on a writing assignment to do a story about a woman here locally who had all the credentials (according to the NARHA Web site) for a therapeutic riding school. She had sent flyers to everyone about the kick-off to her program, an open house at an area equestrian center complete with music, food, drawings and a demonstration of the program she was starting in conjunction with a teaching hospital in Southern California. Their particular area of interest was therapeutic riding for adults recovering from strokes.
The school officials were there, I was there, some parents of children with special needs were there (with their children — one woman had three children with issues), but the woman herself wasn’t there. No music, no drawings, no horses for demonstrations, no posters, banners … nothing.
When the people from the teaching hospital (two professors and four students) left after waiting for about two hours, all of a sudden this woman shows up. She began telling us about her dream of helping special children learn to speak again, recounting a story she read about a little boy who had never spoken until he had finished his first ride at a Therapeutic Riding center. As she told the story, she began to cry.
She said that if you DREAM something, it will come true. Red flag. I asked what she had in place for the program. She had several donated horses, one of which was an older mare with a heart condition. The vet had NOT cleared the mare to be used for the program. The other was a colt, two years old, uncut and unhandled. The other horses were miniatures, given to her by someone who didn’t want them anymore (and were obviously not suitable for use in the program).
She went on with more bad news. She had cashed in all her retirement funds to make her dream happen and was broke. She had taken out several credit cards and maxed them out right away. She owed more on those cards (making minimum payments) than she made as a special education teacher for the local district. Her sister had taken over her finances, she had lost her house, and she was living with her elderly mother.
The woman and her entire “dream” were a trainwreck that, thankfully, did not damage anyone but the people who thought her idea had merit and were eventually disappointed because nothing was ever going to happen AND the woman herself who had probably the lowest credit rating on record. I met her again several years later. She had (been) retired from teaching and had nothing.
She reminded me of the picture of that gal holding the dog. Distracted, determined, and dare I say it, demented. She still believed that a good heart is all one needs to make something wonderful happen. Homes for animals, caring for those who cannot care for themselves — all noble dreams. But to pursue that dream is like chasing butterflies. You have to be certain your feet remain on solid ground.
“She still believed that a good heart is all one needs to make something wonderful happen.”
Ever get the impression a lot of these bad rescuers and backyard breeders (same mentality, in many cases, even if on different sides) stopped maturing mentally around age seven?
Yes, I do, and I wonder just how much help she would be as a teacher for special needs children because SHE had “special needs” of her own. She was in her early 50s and needed the mother and sister to help her manage her affairs. Left on her own, she was a middle-aged disaster. Poor thing.
One of her fundraising ideas was to sell chances on a “racing blanket” that had belonged to Seabiscuit. This “racing blanket” had been given to her by a rummy who had been a backstretch worker and who swore to her that the blanket was indeed something “the Biscuit” had worn. Her fundraiser? Buy chances on the blanket and if you won, the “racing blanket” would be put in a special museum so everyone could see it on display.
She sent raffle announcement to me and I asked how any of that made sense? What was the provenance on the racing blanket, and why would anyone want to buy a ticket on something they would never own because it was going to be put on display in “a special museum,” etc. She wrote back, “Never mind.”
Very sad–but at least she had someone that could/would take care of her.
I would LOVE to start one for dogs!!! Im am so sick and tired of BYBs breeding anything to anything and making up a stupid “designer” names! And PuppyMills, cant even go there!! I put ads in Kijiji in my area, got many many good replies, only a couple of nasty ones. After the second week tho Kijiji pulled my ads. Ive sent emails asking for explaination why but of course nothing.
So, if you can offer advice quickly on how to get started Ill gladly be the Fugly Dog Woman!!!
LOL – just go to http://www.blogger.com and start an account. It’s incredibly easy!
Okie Dokie!! Can I use Fugly in the title?? Didnt know the etiquette on that?
Sure, I don’t own the term – it vastly pre-dates my blog!
By the way, heres my facebook group I started after Kijiji blocked my “Designer Dogs are Mutts” ads.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=295719416697
This one is especially brutual considering it’s so close to me. It’s not quite the same as reading all the issues with rescues down in the States but to have this woman living almost next door. It’s a little surprising.
The video says “Sweater dog will be dead in 3 days.” What happened to him? Does anyone know? The video doesn’t allow comments, so I can’t ask there. :’(
I don’t know. I’m going to guess Parvo. From his paperwork, he came out of Carson, so that wouldn’t shock me in the least.
There is another video about that, its called Goodbye Anne I think, there are a few on there that pertain to this same transaction. They come up as suggestions at the end of the video.
I’m a pet groomer and small scale rescuer currently living in So Cal and I have to say that I could easily rant once a day- at least. About crappy byb’s, so called responsible breeders, individual pet owners (who are chronic pet abusers), vets, vet techs, groomers, and bathers. Oh yeah, not to mention the crappy rescuers. I’ve seriously thought about writing an anonymous blog but not sure how to do that -basically to protect myself from lawsuits because some of the people I could rant about have considerable disposable income and I don’t.
A big reason why so many of these bogus “rescues” in dogs are springing up….the public buys into the “rescue” thing, “save” a dog, so even if there are few dogs to be “saved”, by God, they’ll get you one (even if they have to ship it in from another country) and you’ll feel all warm and fuzzy while they are laughing all the way to the bank. Not all or even the majority of “rescues” in dogs are rescues in the true sense of the word.
Many true rescues and some shelter dogs (not all!) are not suitable for the good samaritan first time dog owner anyways.
Cats are quite another story, there is a much bigger problem there with many more feral and unneutered than found in dogs, in most places.
There is another rescue in California, Gentle Giants, that has been running for years despite significant effort to shut it down. You can read all about the horror stories at gentlegiantnews.com. The Norco County AC won’t even go out to investigate them, despite complaints about the condition of the dogs there.
I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a dog based version of the fugly blog, perhaps its time
Background checks can be good or bad. I have known dogs adopted out to “approved” homes who were in fact horders, likewise I have seen had good people turned down for outragious reasons. Rescue have to be reasonable with their restrictions. Rescues also will charge a fee. The amount seems high but the money they make off of one dog as a “profit” will be used to rehab a sick dog or pay to fix a broken leg etc for another rescue dog. These dogs would without a doubt been put to sleep at the shelter. Los Angeles shelters are overrun with Chihuahua and Chihuahua mix breeds (and pit bulls and pit mixes) If a rescue is able to move dogs to a location where there is a high demand for small dogs they will get placed. This video was made by one rescue bashing another, it was cut and edited to show one viewpoint. The dog in the sweater did not die, I would like to see some kind of proof of that. Animal services lost several rescues because of this video. Rescues did not want to be dragged in the mud by selective editing. When rescues fight amoung themselfs the only victims are the dogs. Before I believe the person in the video is a horrible rescue I would have to see more evidence of wrongdoing other then being a “broker”. Show me video of dogs malnurished, starving, etc then maybe I will side with them, but until then I will side with the “broker”.
So, you don’t think that not following up AT ALL with who is taking the dogs makes them a horrible rescue? I think by saying that they are a “rescue”, they should have something to show that they are in fact “rescuing” the dogs. Looks like she’s just selling dogs to me…hell, I’ve had to fill out more paperwork from sellers when I have flat out purchased animals!
I think the thing about the sweater dog being dead means that the dog just up and died after it was taken home…no one signed any contracts, so I’ll bet Lorriane doesn’t get any replacement rights for her “adoption” fee.
Yep – if you’re not checking them out and following up, you’re NOT a rescuer. That’s an integral part of rescue and there is no avoiding it.
First of all your assuming because of this video that there was no follow up. Like I said it was edited to show the worst. Since the comments on you tube have been disabled you can not hear from the other side. Lets just assume that the worst is true and there was no check of the home. She placed the dog in a home where the woman talked the talk, seemed like she had some intellegence, shopped at petco so had some income, and payed the adoption fee. If the paperwork did not get filled out or if she ignored the fact that the animals were going to be a “gift” , I still do not think that makes her horrible. It makes her careless, naive, sloppy, ect. but not horrible. I save the term horrible for the people who are abusive, wicked or cruel to animals.
I do find it distressing that a dog was shiped to Canada with Demodex mange and was allowed to be brought into Petco for an adoption. Further that the adopter said the dog was abused with a chemical burn. Hyped up sob stories used to drum up adoptions make me cringe. Is it not bad enough that a sick dog was dumped at the pound, do we need the false chemical burn story? If she did not recognise the dog had mange she truly is naive and should start to educate herself before she continues to do adoptions.
Amen to that! I had an adoption application for a guinea pig turned down because I had rats (pets, not pests
). I then went to the local shelter, and they told me that there was no way my male guinea pig could possibly get along with any other male guinea pig and that if I put 2 males together, they would fight to the death. Needless to say, I didn’t get a guinea pig from them either, although they were still willing to let me adopt one. I went to Petsmart and bought a male guinea pig for less than half of what both the rescue and the shelter wanted and they lived together next door to 2 females (later acquired) with no problems whatsoever.
The last male guinea pig lived with my females for the last couple of months that he was alive so he wouldn’t have to be by himself. Would you believe I had a gay guinea pig?
Here it comes!!! http://fuglydog.wordpress.com/
Great to see you start the dog page- I’ve tried following dog blogs but they always seem to end. One complaint- can you possibly change the white on black display? I find this difficult to read. I would like to scream from the rooftops that web pages with large passages of text in anyting other then black on white are a real eye strain for significant portions of the population.
Watched the video, and Lorraine brought up one of the first question that jumped into my mind when I saw the purebred dogs on the site…how DOES Lorraine know that the dogs aren’t stolen? I was on another forum where people talked about neighbors stealing people’s dogs…sure would explain a reason that they are going across the border into Canada! Like, Canadians can’t get dogs?!
I can’t say how many times I had badgered you to feature my blog, DogGoneFugly (doggonefugly.blogspot.com) on your sidebar. There are already dog blogs out there, besides mine I
Well now is your chance to tell everybody about it – here you go!
You update so sporadically, I stopped following your blog. Last entry Oct 2009! Oh boy do I have something to say about you posting about choke chains being acceptable though.
Oh do tell. This tends to be the sentiment held by people who think that it’s perfectly OK to jerk a dog’s face around by a head collar…oh sorry, I meant “gentle leader”. ROFL.
God I love those. The dog never ever learns to walk with a loose leash. Clip the leash of a dog using a gentle leader to the soft collar and they go back instantly to pulling. Easy walkers are slightly better in that you’re jerking around their chest instead of their head. Gentle leaders and easy walkers are for people who are too lazy to train their dog.
Whats the problem with choke chains? In some sports they are mandatory for competition (on the dead ring). Choke chains not on a dead ring are absolutely useless. All your doing is damaging your dogs trachea, and damaging your dog mentally. While the pinch collar looks like a midevil torture device, it happens to be my training tool of choice. Your leash should always be loose, and if you need to correct you should give the dog a quick firm pop and the leash should be loose again. A choke chain is rather ineffective for this purpose since all it does is tighten and just aggravates the dog instead of correcting it. A choke chain also pulls out their hair when tightened. I’ve seen people reef on those things all day and you will eventually get a result, but its a slower result and your dog has a sore neck by the end of it. A pinch collar gives the neck a quick pinch, which stimulates another dog’s correction bite (i.e the dam or a pack leader). I’m not saying everyone should go out and buy one, since they can rather easily be used abusively if you don’t know how to use one. I’m saying people should go out and hire a REAL trainer (I know a lot of good ones in a lot of places from being in sporting (schutzhund, agility, ring sport, rally and CKC obedience just to name a few), just ask if you want a phone number. I know people in the states too) who can teach them how to use the collar properly. You should also never be angry when you correct. It should be a firm, but CALM “pop”. Anger is a sign of mental instability to dogs. You are trying to be the pack leader, but dogs WILL NOT follow mentally unstable leadership. Humans are the only species that do that
. Abusing a dog only makes them fear you, not follow you.
Choke chains, used **properly**, are acceptable – IMHO anyway. I have to admit to being more hesitant of the pinch collars, but I think that is because I am not as experienced with them. Also, like with choke chains, I’ve seen too many people who don’t know how to get the right size, much less use them properly, try to use them on their dogs. In my experience, many people who feel choke chains are bad just don’t understand how to use them, and the people they see are using them incorrectly, which is cruel and traumatizing for the dog.
What is unacceptable to me are all the people who think their dog doesn’t need training. I am a strong supporter of at least going thru puppy obedience with your dog – especially for new owners! It will teach you and your dog how to communicate, and it will teach you how to use the equipment properly. At least the training classes I went to did, granted though, that was a while back. And please don’t give me the same old excuses – oh, he’s just a (insert small breed here), I’m not going to show him, my parents’ dogs didn’t get trained and they’re fine! (I’ve met several dogs whose owners fit that last one, and almost all have had poor social and basic obedience manners).
I learned from my mother how to use a choke chain right, and trained my own dog using one. I’ll admit, I used it much earlier than I wanted (4 months instead of 6) but she was a malamute mix and had gotten into the bad habit of trying to hang herself from her normal collar whenever we walked. She *knew* what the verbal commands meant, she just chose not to follow them. Due to a medical condition, I could not walk her with her pulling on the leash with both front feet off the ground, so I got the chain early. First walk with it, I did a verbal correction (ignored), a sharper verbal correction with a gentle tug (ignored), then a sharp verbal correction with a sharp tug/release on the chain. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at me with this ” I have to *listen* to you now??!” expression. After that one tug, no more trouble. That dog was one smart cookie. I still miss her a lot.
Oops, besides mine I know one other, Dogs Deserve Freedom (dogsdeservefreedom.blogspot.com). Sorry, just kind of irks me.
OMG, this is awful, AWFUL!!!! A few years ago, we adopted a pit bull from the Chicagoland Bully Breed Rescue to be a companion for our pit bull dog Otis (unfortunately despite our experience and repeated attempts, she did not care for Otis and had to go back to the rescue). Their policies were so strict that it was like adopting a child!! We had to have home inspection visits from two different people, letters from our veterinarian, had to visit the dog several times BEFORE taking it, etc. They were so thorough that I was just sure that the pittie girl we adopted would be Otis’ best friend, as he is such a laid back boy and just loves to play, play, play. Alas, that was not to be, and they took the doggie back immediately after we explained the situation. Although in hindsight, it was probably a good thing, as Otis has developed some very severe skin allergies, and between his medication (Atopica) and the board/vet/farrier bills for my mare, my entire paycheck is taken up by animal care!
I worked for Petsmart for a while as a teenager and in my early college days. Like all commercial companies, the quality and service you get there is different from store to store. I’ve met a few Petsmart dog trainers I liked, but the vast majority of them are stupid little girls who have owned a dog at some point in their lives and attend a 3 week “training” session to become a “certified dog trainer”. To someone like me who has been training and showing dogs in obedience, agility, conformation, and search and rescue for 20+years, it is downright insulting. As far as managers of Petsmart, I have yet to meet ONE who has any care or consideration for the pets and animals that come through the store, the rescues included. Most of them are just totally clueless, but a lot of them are business-men and women who just plain don’t care as long as the store is turning a profit.
I actually started a blog about bad dog rescuing a breeding several months ago, but just got too busy and haven’t kept it up. I’d love to do one, but finding the time is hard and I’m afraid I’d end up dropping it after a while.
There are so many topics to discuss, though… fake rescues, puppy mills, the completely ridiculous breeding of designer dogs (which are basically the equivalent of the fugly color people in the horse world), the irresponsible breeding and buying of backyard bred dogs with no credentials… the list goes on. I could do an entire blog on the phenomena of just pit bulls and it would never end.
Please do not paint all Petsmarts with the same brush. I’m sorry your store was so lacking, but the store where I am a manager is nothing like you describe. Our dog trainer has raised and trained dogs for 30+ years and is an absolutely invaluable resource. We have veterinarians reccommending her training to clients and even have other dog trainers coming to her for classes. On the management team we have individuals who have worked with various breed rescues, one who does pet therapy at nursing homes, and I personally just spent several hundred dollars in vet bills on a kitten from the shelter who would have otherwise been put to sleep due to overcrowding (he is now healthy and in a wonderful adopted home). We do our best to work with our adoption partner and are very particular about the care of the animals they bring to our store. We absolutely will not tolerate an animal having to endure any kind of abuse, illness or injury in our care. Despite your assertion that we are just clueless business people I can assure you we are in THIS business because we love animals.
It is very unfortunate that the woman in the video is choosing to ply her trade at Petsmart. While Petsmart’s donation of space to adoption partners has proven to be a tremendous asset to many rescues (4 million animals adopted through Petsmart since the program began!) there is certainly opportunity for it to be exploited. With careful work these loopholes can be closed.
I realize I’m coming off as a corporate shill, but really, I am proud of my store, and the work Petsmart does for animals.
This is precisely why I stated that “Like all commercial companies, the quality and service you get there is different from store to store.” I also said I’d met a few Petsmart dog trainers I actually really liked, but 90% of them I don’t. If you’re a store manager who really cares then I’m really glad to see that. I worked in three different stores and never once saw a sick animal “vet checked” or anything, unless the animal was worth over $100 to the store and got sick. Little hamsters were left in the “sick room” to dye. I don’t consider Petsmart evil or even to be a bad corporation, but admittedly I hated working for them simply because the people I worked under didn’t give a rat’s a$$ about animals at all. Kudos to you if you run your store differently.
That whole contract session at her house was so FAST. I’ve been bum-rushed a couple of times in my life, but that was the fastest I’ve ever seen a human being flip through paperwork. There were holes in the video – it was visually not obvious that the dogs mentioned were in that shipment, so the statement that the dogs went straight from airport to the pet store was unsupported, and other statements were weakly supported, like that the adopter’s last name was unknown till the last minute – but it was convincing despite this.
backinthesaddle: Before I believe the person in the video is a horrible rescue I would have to see more evidence of wrongdoing other then being a “brokerâ€. Show me video of dogs malnurished, starving, etc then maybe I will side with them, but until then I will side with the “brokerâ€.
Being a broker doesn’t mean she’s a ‘horrible’ rescue, it means she’s NOT a rescue. Being an atheist means you’re NOT a priest, being illiterate means you’re NOT a reader, being pregnant means you’re NOT a virgin. It’s not a minor quibble about whether or not your actions are right or justified or within the boundaries – it’s a refutation of the essential concept! Brokers treat dogs, animals which almost alone in the animal kingdom depend on a relationship with us to be happy, as objects which can be used to make money. And because we don’t eat dogs and thus there’s little health risk involved, there’s traditionally been little government oversight of brokers who deal in pets. This sweet deal is sweetened further when some bright monster like the one in the video realizes that if she cloaks herself in the mantle of a charitable rescue, she can avoid some otherwise inevitable questions and lower her costs while jacking up her profits.
“I think the thing that mystifies me the most about the whole video, is that there is a market for SELLING a rescued dog. If people would just go to the shelters to get a dog, then the shelters would have space to take in more dogs , to find homes for to open up more cages to fill with dogs to find homes for…….”
krissy, I get the confusion because when I started hearing about shelters here in NJ shipping in dogs from poor rural areas down south, I was perplexed and sort of ‘hey, why not help the dogs here?’ about it too. But it makes sense. It’s not just about what dogs need help, it’s also about what adopters can handle. A lot of urban areas have gotten the message about spay/neuter, and as a result there are fewer normal, easy-going family pets who have an ‘oops’ litter that ends up at the shelter. Great, right? Yeah, but that also means that most litters that now end up at the shelter are the result of either extremely irresponsible people who are actively, belligerently resistant to spay/neuter or of people who are actively breeding the dogs for a financial reason – fighting being the main problem there. In short, the people producing the most dogs are also people who tend to favor breeds/types which do NOT make good pets for the average adopter. A tragedy, but one which does not get fixed but compounded if you attempt to guilt/manipulate adopters into taking home a dog they’re not able to deal with. Meanwhile, in more rural areas, there are still plenty of accidental litters from breeds which do tend to make good pets for most people – collies, spaniels, setters, pointers, hounds. So there’s a trade-off. And that lowlife piece of trash broker shown in the video did what all lowlife trash do when they sense an opportunity to make money off misery and kindness – she bustled right onto the scene.
“Being a broker doesn’t mean she’s a ‘horrible’ rescue, it means she’s NOT a rescue. Being an atheist means you’re NOT a priest, being illiterate means you’re NOT a reader, being pregnant means you’re NOT a virgin.”
Correct! I’ve said that here, too…it’s not that you’re evil if you sell horses, but don’t sell horses and say you’re a rescue!
another one of the non-rescue rescues:
http://www.gingerspetrescue.org/
You got that right! Ginger is another one that needs to be shut down like YESTERDAY.
Thank you Fugs, this woman has done so much damage it’s just so sad……
AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!
When I did dog rescue, the dogs were all vet checked, spay/neutered, vaccinated and went with heartworm preventative for the remainder of the year. If they weighed more than 40 pounds, they were x-rayed for hip dysplasia when they were spay/neutered.
They did not leave my care until they knew: sit, down, stay, recall, drop on recall, retrieve, walk on a loose leash and a couple cute tricks.
I screened carefully and my adoption contract, stripped of all the legalese, came down to: if at any time in this dog’s life you cannot keep it, I will refund your adoption fee and take the dog back, no questions asked.
Out of over 80 dogs I re-homed, I got two back due to death of owner and two back due to divorce/breakup of owners.
I stayed in touch with the adoptors for the life of the dog. I sent them a New Year’s card, a 4th of July card and an adoption day card, to help maintain that connection. I know exactly what happened to every single dog I was responsible for.
There’s just one left out there, all the others have died, mostly due to cancer or old age.
For all that, my adoption fee was $45. I realise prices have gone up over the years but not by *that* much!
This is definitely a topic we agree on! I stay in touch with all my old cat adopters via e-mail. In fact, I am facebook friends with many of my old cats, ROTFL. If anyone needs to return a cat, they KNOW how to find me and the door is always open. Same for horses, of course!
Something that many rescues don’t seem to understand is that it is not enough to have an iron-clad contract. An adoption contract is just words on paper, just as a restraining order is just words on paper: only as good as the willingness of the people affected make it. And in the case of adoption contracts, only as good as the family or executor of the adoptor’s estate may be!
I found it was easiest to give explicit instructions to the people who adopted from me as to having them write down the instructions for their dog’s daily care and include a message saying “if I am incapacitated, please contact Grainne Dhu at XXX-XXXX to assume care of my dog.” And then go through with them the list of people who should receive these instructions, like neighbours, friends, family members, etc. No one wants to think about possible incapacity or death but it does happen and if an animal owner is not prepared, their animals may be the ones to suffer for it.
I did rescue before Facebook but I can totally see how it could be used to maintain that friendly contact.
Plus, I found being in regular touch with people who adopted from me meant that they tended to call me for advice early on, before a minor annoyance became a major problem. My “partner in crime” who did the cats found the same thing. For example, people would call her the first time the cat peed outside the litterbox, so she could tell them to take it to the vet and get it checked for a UTI before the cat developed a serious litterbox aversion. And since that was a major reason why cats were relinquished in that area, it definitely helped keep cats in their homes.
I have no objection to rescues charging a reasonable adoption fee. When my dad adopted a puppy from a no cage, no kill shelter in the late 80s, he was charged fifty pounds. which went towards feeding an deworming the *next* dog to come in. I believe it would have been more if she had been spayed…we had to pay for that ourselves because ALL of the vets in the area, even the good ones, refused to do pediatric spaying…she ‘had to have one heat cycle first’. I didn’t know that was nonsense at the time. And yes, we had the dog on a spay/neuter contract…again, the only reason the shelter didn’t do it and then pass on the costs to the adopter was the vets refusing to. So, for fifty quid plus the cost of spaying we got a lovely little mutt who lived to be 14.
I’d expect to pay more. But $700 is a bit much. If I was going to adopt a dog or cat I’d do some quick research on things like average spay/neuter costs in the area and the like, and work out how much *I* would charge if I was the rescue.
When adopting a dog costs more than buying a pure bred puppy, there’s a problem.
Our Petsmart had a charity come and do an adoption fair outside last summer. Gorgeous dogs, but the person in charge was one of those ‘All breeders are evil’ and when I mentioned that people should support reputable breeders I got the ‘too many dogs’ speech.
If you don’t support reputable breeders, of all animals, who are trying to genuinely improve their lines and produce quality animals, they will go out of business and then what’s left? The back yard idiots who produce things like a Basset/Great Dane cross. (Actually, that was the one I would have taken home if I could…it was so ugly it was cute!)
As I recall, the people who were showing off ex racing greyhounds in a bookstore (no kidding) had rather more reasonable adoption fees.
(Although not to my taste, if you want a nice, quiet couch ornament of that sort of size…you can’t really go too wrong with an off the track greyhound. Once they’re detoxed, they tend to be total couch potatos!)
Wow. I haven’t had the time to read all 51 comments, but $400 for 430 dogs is potentially $172,000.
I don’t think they MAKE a better scam than this, do they?
Wow.
I’m glad someone brought up how difficult screening can be!! I was adopted a spayed& vaccinated stray cat out (NO fee of course) to a woman who answered al my questions perfectly! Long story short she was a disaster and the cat was lost. I was devastated I do blame myself but I’m not sure what else I could have done…
Keep in mind petsmart doesn’t sell the dogs/cats
They give the space free to the groups they approve.
However I saw SEVERAL things the group agrees to violated in that video and as a legit rescue that actually uses their services, I’m tempted to show this to a few corporate people I know and see how they react…
omg? Petsmart let her set up there without screening? IMAGINE THAT! Petsmart is such a fucking joke, as most pet stores are. Many of the people at my Schutzhund club are pro trainers (the type with a REAL education) most of their business is people who have gone to Petsmart training classes which have actually made the dog worse or made no difference at all.
I could go on all day about shitty dog breeders too. Wanna know how to find a shitty dog breeder? look in your local classifieds. If they advertise their puppies, stay the fuck away from them. Good breeders have waiting lists, usually 6 months or longer.
There’s my vent for the day
As a groomer, I could post plenty of stories of dogs I see that qualify as abuse cases. Petcos bring in adoption partners to adopt out animals. My local human society charges $125 for an altered dog and $75 for an altered cat and do house checks every month for the first 3 months and every 6 months after.
Thank you so much for bringing the video about Beady Singer and Cold Noses Warm Beds to the attention of the people who visit your website. This woman must be stopped from ever having another dog to sell. She is a broker. You can’t possibly sell 430 dogs in less than a year and call yourself a rescue. She has absolutely NO idea where many of the dogs have ended up. Dogs are sold with no adoption forms filled out…no names, no contact number, no address. So many people are stepping forward with tales of sick dogs and agressive dogs being sold. The SPCA is involved, people are working tirelessly to shut this whole operation down. Dogs were kept in a dirty barn, lying in crates on dirty hay and in their own waste and being hosed down while in crates, if they became unruly. In my opinion, she should not only be shut down, but charged with animal cruelty. And yet, you’d think butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth…she tells such convincing lies left, right and center. Crates were not returned, no home checks done, no promised forms sent to adopting families and no truth to the stories she made up about the dogs.
PLEASE view all of the youtube videos posted by Cold Dogs No Beds and InMemoryOfDelilah. There is the complete unedited video (in 2 parts) of the one you have here on the website. The courageous people who have put these videos online have done so on behalf of the many, many dogs who have been mistreated by Beady Singer and the folks she’s duped to make yet another $400 per dog.
Thanks for sharing this! I am so glad my local animal shelter isn’t like this! My shelter offers animals for adoption for no more than $85. I have gone in and volunteered a few times, and I would be heartbroken if they treated their adoptable animals like this!