when animal rescue groups go too far

can you believe this!

Steve Blow:
Dog-rescue group could use a leash for it's actions

10:26 PM CST on Sunday, January 8, 2006


Let me start with this: I love animals. I abhor cruelty. I deeply respect those who care for animals.



RON BASELICE/DMN
Sonja Whitemon had to get a lawyer to write a letter to get her beloved cocker spaniel, Bennie, back from a rescue group. But here we go again – more nuttiness from the animal-rescue world.

We've talked about it before. And still it goes on – good intentions taken to ridiculous extremes.

Sonja Whitemon's precious, beloved cocker spaniel, Bennie, escaped from home in South Arlington last month. The good news was that a nearby resident, Benny Salcido, spotted Bennie and realized he was a pampered pet on the lam.

"He was really nice and well groomed," Mr. Salcido said. The dog wore a tag from DFW Cocker Spaniel Rescue, so he called the number and, within an hour, a volunteer retrieved Bennie.

Happy ending – so you would think.

Sonja knew about none of this. She didn't even know Bennie was missing until she got home that evening.

Sonja was beside herself. She is single and describes Bennie as "my child."

After a frantic search of the neighborhood, she contacted the cocker rescue group, from which she had adopted him, hoping someone had called.

The rescue group expressed its sorrow to Sonja for her loss – never revealing that it had Bennie.

In the days that followed, Sonja was distraught. She walked her neighborhood. She put up signs. She called shelters.

She contacted the rescue group again. This time, she got a curious story. She was told an anonymous caller had left a message saying he had found Bennie and intended to keep him.

This was a lie, of course. The rescue group had simply decided Bennie should not be returned – that his escape proved Sonja was unfit as an owner.

Now, Sonja was even more upset by this purported abduction. She filed a police report. She put up more signs in the neighborhood, hoping to stir a lead.

After about a week, Mr. Salcido was puzzled that new signs were going up about a dog he had already found and turned in. So he called the number on the signs.

Well, you can imagine Sonja's mixture of relief and outrage to discover that Bennie had been found – and given to the same people now telling her he was abducted.

"I couldn't believe it!" Sonja said. "They had been misleading me all along."

When confronted with the truth, rescue group officials conceded that they had Bennie and refused Sonja's pleas to return him.

Mr. Salcido called the rescue group himself, urging that it return Bennie. "I said: 'I saw the dog. He was really well taken care of.' "

Sonja's veterinarian, Dr. Amanda Neece, also called to appeal for Bennie's return. "She's an excellent pet owner, and Bennie is her kid," Dr. Neece told me – and the rescue group.

But all of this was to no avail. The rescue group said the adoption contract gave it full rights to reclaim Bennie.

Sonja began calling attorneys. She was directed to Arlington lawyer Don Feare, a specialist in animal law. He heard Sonja's story and readily agreed to represent her for free.

"It's just unconscionable," he said. For the record, Mr. Feare has seven dogs and considers himself an animal-welfare activist.

He wrote a letter to the rescue group demanding Bennie's return. "That little dog is my client's life," he wrote, "and the emotional suffering she went through searching for the dog was wholly unnecessary, but took place because you were deceptive."

On Thursday, at long last, Susan Edwards of the cocker rescue group met Sonja at the lawyer's office and returned Bennie. I was there. He really is a doll of a dog.

Ms. Edwards said her group should not have lied to Sonja.

"That was badly handled," she said. "I'll admit that. And it won't happen again." But she said the group still considers Sonja an irresponsible owner.

So why return Bennie? "Basically, we were bullied," she said, referring to the lawyer's letter.

She couldn't offer any firm basis for judging Sonja unfit other than the fact that the dog had escaped, leading the group to believe that Bennie was outside unsupervised – a violation of the adoption contract. Sonja says flatly that Bennie is an inside dog.

The great news is that Bennie is back home. But Sonja plans to file a complaint with the Texas attorney general. She hopes to spur some change.

There is a distressing pattern here. Animal-rescue groups do wonderful work. But some veer to extremes that hurt their cause.

Mr. Feare, the attorney, sees the pattern. "Their goal is good, but they just go too far," he said.

Dr. Neece, the veterinarian, sees it, too. "There are some really good rescue organizations out there. But sometimes their intentions are a little bit clouded by a lack of common sense," she said.

When the rescue group returned Bennie, it also gave Sonja a sack with some special anti-allergy dog food it recommends. Later, Sonja found this note taped to the package of dog food:

"DOG is the word GOD spelled backwards. DOG is GOD on earth. How you treat your DOG is a direct reflection on how you treat GOD.

"GOD is always watching you."

Oh, my. Dog help us all.

E-mail sblow@dallasnews.com

 

Oh for pete's sake! I know we have the same sort of re-possession rules in our group, but I have never seen them used without good cause. Did they even bother to ask her how he got out, and whether he was left outside alone? No! They just assumed. It just makes it harder for the people doing good work for the animals.

 

Hmmm...yeah. My dogs get out probably once a month. If anyone tried to tell me I was an irresponsible pet owner because of that and tried to take them away...I don't know what I'd do. Rescue groups really should ask more questions in cases like that. Like, does the lady have a doggie door? Hence the dog has access to the outdoors, but wasn't left alone out there, like they have determined to be the case.

 

Why do your dogs get out so much, tuttifrutti? Aren't you worried they will get hit by a car or something? I would FREAK OUT if my dogs got loose.

 

Haha, yes, I freak out! We have an electric gate in our back yard, and Ranger won't run out of it, if he's by himself, but Snickers will, and he'll follow. We try to call when we're coming home to get them kenneled before we open the gate so that htey can't run out, and we always kennel them before we leave, but sometimes people will not kennel them as soon as they get the call, so at least one of the dogs is unkenneled when the gate is opened. And last night I pulled in and had the dogs in teh car. I thought I had shut teh gate, but apparently it didn't shut, so when I opened the car door, Snickers bolted. Ranger, thankfully, stayed in the car. They have gotten a lot better about coming back when called, teh thing is, they are often out of earshot before you can even really react, by the time you can get out of the car and everything. I really hate that they get out so much, but we simply cant get snickers to understand that running out of teh gate is bad!

 

Do you mean one of those underground fence things? I had someone call who wants Missy (the really, really shy foster) and they have an underground fence. I told them no way!!

 

Thats horrible! Yes rescue groups have a great thing going and a good thing that their doing. But I personally disassociated myself from a group because of something similar.

Precious is an escape artist. So much so that her kennel is reinforced on the inside with cattle panel, then on the outside has an electric fence going around the paremeiter.

Sometimes though, this doesn't stop her. If she feels that I'm being hurt, or feels that something on my property is threatened, she will get out. How I have no idea, but she will.

But then again, I know my dog. She will not leave the yard. And to reassure this, she has a paremeter guard.

Some dogs will do anything to get out if there's a reason. I do everything in my power to protect my dogs. I have now started moving them down here with me, since my mother in laws negleigeance.

 

No. We have our driveway fenced in as a part of our yard, so we have one of those electric gate things on a chain behind our driveway, so that all we have to do is push a button to get in and out, kind've like a garage door i guess, but a gate, and it goes sideways, not up, lol.

 

thats pathetic. although im one of those people who feel very strongly about not letting dogs roam the streets etc i do understand that there might be a point in time where a dog will escape from the house without fault from the owner. its happened to kuma a couple of times and if anyone took her away from me for that they can expect a whole city of lawyers on their doorstep! :lol: