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.

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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.

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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!