Shelter Daze

14/07/2024

Meet Rocky, a resilient and loving dog currently a guest at the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter. When Rocky first arrived, he was scared and uncert...

12/07/2024

This is an interesting article about how some shelters with “humane” in their name do not live up to the name. Compare the shelters in the article to WCRAS. It may make you even more proud to be here.

A trial gets underway today in a Southern California courtroom over the San Diego Humane Society’s refusal to take in many stray cats. SDHS, which runs animal control for San Diego and close to a dozen other cities in the county, turns them away at the door and tells finders to release them on the...

12/07/2024

This article is long but points out why the battle for No-Kill shelters is not over and what arguments people with “humane” in their name will use to justify being “inhumane.”

A trial gets underway today in a Southern California courtroom over the San Diego Humane Society’s refusal to take in many stray cats. SDHS, which runs animal control for San Diego and close to a dozen other cities in the county, turns them away at the door and tells finders to release them on the...

24/06/2024

“Why is adopting a dog from a shelter called “rescuing the dog”?
Isn’t it really a case of bringing the dog home so they can rescue you?”
- VisionDog 2024

19/06/2024

This company just donated 500 beds for small dogs to the Williamson County Regional Animals Shelter. The dogs have heard the news and are very excited.

Take a look at their website - beautiful healthy height (adjustable) desks.

Create an office space that's definitively yours. We're here to help you customize and optimize it. Contact us via phone, live chat, or email. We're here for you.

08/12/2023

https://www.fooddive.com/news/consumers-embrace-tech-preventing-male-chick-culling-but-will-the-egg-indu/690811/

In a survey shared with Food Dive, 73% of respondents said the industry should find a solution and they are willing to pay more for eggs if one is adopted.

14/08/2023

14/08/2023

Dogs of Santa Fe (July 2023)

29/04/2023

Good news for dogs in England! It is time for the US to follow.

Why a ban on shock collars is good for dogs’ welfare.

03/09/2022

One way cats can fail the shelter’s test is by hiding in the corner of their kennel, the shelter director said. Many are euthanized the same day. Experts say such behavior shows the cats were afraid and stressed, not necessarily dangerous.

03/09/2022

No-Kill Shelters - not there yet.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/08/31/utah-animal-shelter-cats-face/

One way cats can fail the shelter’s test is by hiding in the corner of their kennel, the shelter director said. Many are euthanized the same day. Experts say such behavior shows the cats were afraid and stressed, not necessarily dangerous.

05/08/2022

A shelter employee asked me: “How do you see your privilege as it relates to animal welfare?”

When I asked for clarification, she said, “You are a white male who has had access to a higher education.”

She took particular offense at my article criticizing Kristen Hassen of Austin Pets Alive for telling people that shelters faced only one of two choices: killing animals or abandoning them on the street. I argued that such a view was defeatist, contradicted by the evidence, and deadly to animals. Instead, I asked people to embrace a third choice: No Kill.

She also did not like my tone, which is not uncommon among staff at shelters that kill animals. When they encounter people who refuse to couch violence against animals in softer terms, refuse to engage in their carefully crafted double-speak, or counter their excuse-making with viable solutions and alternatives, they often mistakenly conflate honesty and optimism with rudeness and arrogance.

Frequently, they then accuse those calling for lifesaving alternatives of being bullies, when their own actions toward sheltered animals are the very definition of the term: “a person who habitually seeks to harm… those whom they perceive as vulnerable.” This is why my response to the question of how I see my “privilege as it relates to animal welfare” is that I don’t. And I don’t because animals care about staying alive. They do not care about the skin color or s*x of those trying to stop people from killing them. But I also don’t because her question has it backward: she and her colleagues are the ones who possess it — and do so to the extreme.

If they choose to, they can poison or gas animals, place them in an incinerator, and turn their bodies into ash without any repercussions. Responding to criticism of this deadly power imbalance with the question she poses shows just how deep this sense of privilege is: to those who possess it, it is so invisible as to be construed as the natural order. To even question it is heretical. Hence, the deflection.

My new Substack article, “The Power and ‘Privilege’ to Kill,” is here: https://bit.ly/3bxQ8wd.

If you are not a subscriber, sign up while there to receive an email whenever a new article or podcast is published.

08/05/2022

The link below discusses recent research regarding supposed dog characteristics based on breed. It would be simple if all _______________ dogs are _______________, _________, and ___________. According to this article, it appears this is not generally correct even if all of the surveyed _________________ dogs are pure bred versions. (Does this mean dogs who look like a _____________ dog, but are actually a mix of several breeds - like many who show up in a shelter - do not exhibit the “breed” characteristics (____________ and __________) which breed focused folks expect they will exhibit?) Dogs - like people - are complex, each very often different, and more than occasionally wonderful. (Ok, that last statement is a personal opinion, not part of the published study.)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dogs-personalities-arent-determined-by-their-breed/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0eFcDzRBlDcW879OXJ7Qad_rYBjLWB4FKVVj4F57O_XnhBky8e2G26Ebw =1651643579

A new genetic study shows generalizing breeds as affectionate or aggressive doesn’t hold up

05/03/2022

Interesting…

In a move endorsed by Maddie's Fund and featured in a nationwide zoom webcast by Austin Pets Alive, HSUS and other groups want “shelters” to start breeding puppies.

Specifically, they are arguing that “shelters in high-demand areas” should “start[ ] their own breeding programs”; a proposal Time magazine calls, “a shocking idea, like a cocktail hour at rehab.” But it is more than “shocking.”

Asking “shelters” to breed puppies for sale in one part of the shelter while juvenile and adult dogs are put to death in another is a betrayal of the highest magnitude and it threatens the health, welfare, and lives of animals. It is also based on a series of lies: that we are in the midst of a severe dog shortage, that breeding is the only way to meet demand, that purposely-bred dogs make better family pets than shelter dogs, and that shelters should be beholden to “consumer choice,” rather than shape that choice given their mission of animal protection.

My Substack article, “Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” explains why: https://bit.ly/3C6scsy.

While there, sign up to receive an email whenever a new article or podcast is published.

28/01/2022

20/01/2022

Miami-Dade Animal Services Tells the Public to Dump Found Dogs on the Streets

According to a Miami New Times article, Miami-Dade Animal Services is not accepting many stray dogs and telling the public to leave dogs where they found them if the people can't hold the animals. One finder stated:

"I was like, 'What am I supposed to do?' And they're like, 'Well, you have to go around the neighborhood and see if you can find the family. And I told them that I did that. I told them I did everything possible," Rosario says. "They were like, 'OK, well, just put it back where you found it, and hopefully it'll go back home.'"

Miami-Dade Animal Services Assistant Director confirmed the policy and said they do this "as long as it's safe." The shelter cites a study from Dallas that found 70% of strays were located within one mile of the owner's home. Specifically, the shelter's Assistant Director stated:

"By picking an animal up and holding it or bringing it to a shelter, the intentions are good but it's not the best way to help the pet," Labrada explains. "So if they're left in the area that they're familiar with, the likelihood is they'll go home."

Human Animal Support Services idealistic and dangerous ideology of keeping animals out of shelters at all costs leads to this behavior. When bad shelters see industry "leaders" stating these things, those shelters will choose the easy path if they don't have a respect for life. Clearly, the idea of managed intake for stray dogs and finders to leave dogs on the streets helps no one except the shelter.

News article: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-animal-shelters-say-leave-stray-dogs-on-the-street-13711405

20/01/2022

VICTORY! Houston City Council just unanimously passed Texas’ 10th humane pet store ordinance! Thank you City of Houston, BARC, and Council Member Sallie Alcorn for taking a strong stance against the animal cruelty in the puppy mill to pet store pipeline and protecting Houston families from unknowingly purchasing puppy mill puppies!

06/11/2021

(Photo: A community dog hanging out on a couch in an Italian Ikea store, which welcomes them.)

These are some of the stories making headlines in animal protection:

- “After vetoing a similar measure over the summer,” the Governor “signed into law a bill that makes the unlawful restraint of a dog a crime in Texas.”

- New York joined Alaska, California, Illinois, and New Hampshire in empowering divorce courts to consider the “best interest of the animal” in awarding custody of dogs, cats, and other companions.

- New York also banned insurance companies from refusing to insure someone’s home based on the alleged “breed” of their dog.

- Finally, New York’s Governor also signed into law a bill that “requires veterinarians to report suspected animal cruelty.”

- At long last, McDonald’s, the biggest name in fast food, is rolling out a veggie burger in the U.S.

- Contrary to conventional wisdom, studies find that the longer dogs and cats are in a shelter, the more “adoptable” they (should) become, but only if shelters provide for their well-being.

- A new study finds that Italy’s community dogs are doing well.

- The number of communities placing over 95% and as high as 99% of the animals is increasing.

- A bipartisan group in Congress has introduced a bill to ban “breed”-based discrimination of dogs in public housing.

To learn more about these and other stories, subscribe to my Substack page: https://nathanwinograd.substack.com/.

22/10/2021

FACT- This store, located in the Market Place in New Braunfels, sources their puppies from a puppy mill broker out of Iowa called Jaks. EVERY WEEK PUPPIES are shipped in from there.
By purchasing a puppy from Puppyland New Braunfels you are condemning the parents of these puppies to a life of living in a cage only to produce litter after litter.
Shop responsibly or adopt.
Now you know. Its what you do with that knowledge that matters. For further information go to bailingoutbenji.com or join my group Say NO to New Braunfels Puppyland
Sign our online petition to present to city council-->>https://shasweet27.wufoo.com/forms/z1k0qht90te2b9f/
We are only 4 shy of having 2,200 online signatures!

18/10/2021

They Are At It Again

As the No-Kill animal shelter movement continues to make significant progress the folks who did not believe you could achieve No-Kill, who never understood what No-Kill meant, got bitten years ago by a “pit bull” and can’t move on, or whatever are once again whining about No-Kill. They were wrong about it not working 40 years ago and are still wrong, but a good, case of hate and nonsense often dies very slowly.

Fortunately, there is now experience and data based information within No-Kill that shows the fallacy in many of the anti- arguments. Some of that information is in the following article.

https://americanpetsalive.org/uploads/resources/Reality-behind-No-Kill-and-Dog-Bites-Letter.pdf

30/09/2021

Sunday funnies

14/09/2021

10/09/2021

So true, it is very traumatic for dogs when their family leaves them and they never return. Please make sure you are ready to commit before you adopt.

28/08/2021

😀😁😂

22/08/2021

No denial

16/08/2021

Of course, it is a Dachshund,

https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/daschund-stuck-wine-rack/

The firefighters got to work quickly, using metal cutters to release Millie from her wine rack entrapment.

06/08/2021

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-names-16-brands-dog-food-linked-canine-heart-disease-n1025466

The FDA is investigating more than 500 reports that appear to link dog foods that are marketed as "grain free" to canine dilated cardiomyopathy.