My Veiw on Pitbulls and Parolees Show

Posted on February 25, 2010 by JW

I was checking out the Villalobos Rescue Center (Pitbulls and Parolees APL Show) website today and noticed this disclamer at the bottom of their about page.

“ Visits are by APPOINTMENT ONLY!!
Due to the increasing number of people showing up that have become obsessed fans, stalkers or that think we are a public zoo, we now have to take control of the situation. We are a sanctuary for these animals and the last thing they want or need is someone coming by just to “check them out”. We DO NOT give tours or allow the public to walk around like the animal shelter. Visitations are for those adopting, boarding or training only. This is not only for liability reasons, but for the sake of the privacy of these animals that have already had a tough life.
Please respect that.
If you are interested in visiting, you MUST call and make an appointment.For those of you, who think you’re “special” and are planning on just “dropping by”, we have a surprise waiting for you at the front gate…..
(Link was removed on their site)

It just made me laugh. I can only imagine how many people just randomly show up there now since the show aired.

Basically Pitbulls and Parolees is a show on Animal Planet, documentary type show of a Pitbull Rescue Group. From what I understand that they have around 150-200 pitbulls on any given day on a 10 acre plot of land located in the high desert in California. It’s a really good show, and they do a lot of work it seems like. Not going to dig to much into it, just wanted to share this part that is on their website that I found hilarious. They seem like a group that Works Hard and likes to Play hard as well, fun group.

Animal Shelter Post on Craigslist

Posted on February 24, 2010 by JW

Found this on Craigslist today. I normally don’t post up other people’s things, but I thought this was strong enough to do so. It was posted by someone who is anonymous. It’s a strong opinion and I should be clear it is not my opinion nor did I write this. But reading it I did find it to be a strong message and thought I would post it anyways.

“I think our society needs a huge “Wake-up” call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all…a view from the inside if you will. First off, all of you people who have ever surrendered a pet to a shelter or humane society should be made to work in the “back” of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would stop flagging the ads on craigslist and help these animals find homes. That puppy you just bought will most likely end up in my shelter when it’s not a cute little puppy anymore. Just so you know there’s a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it’s dumped at? Purebred or not! About 25% of all of the dogs that are “owner surrenders” or “strays”, that come into a shelter are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses: “We are moving and we can’t take our dog (or cat).” Really? Where are you moving too that doesn’t allow pets? Or they say “The dog got bigger than we thought it would”. How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? “We don’t have time for her”. Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! “She’s tearing up our yard”. How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me “We just don’t want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she’ll get adopted, she’s a good dog”.

Odds are your pet won’t get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don’t, your pet won’t get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the “Bully” breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don’t get adopted. It doesn’t matter how ‘sweet’ or ‘well behaved’ they are.

If your dog doesn’t get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because the shelter gets paid a fee to euthanize each animal and making money is better than spending money to take this animal to the vet.

Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-down”. First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to “The Room”, every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it’s strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 shelter workers depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a shelter worker who we call a euthanasia tech (not a vet) find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink stuff”. Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk. I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don’t just “go to sleep”, sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves. You see shelters are trying to make money to pay employee pay checks and don’t forget the board of directors needs to be paid too, so we don’t spend our funds to tranquilize the animal before injecting them with the lethal drug, we just put the burning lethal drug in the vein and let them suffer until dead. If it were not a “making money issue” and we had to have a licensed vet do this procedure, the animal would be sedated or tranquilized and then euthanized, but to do this procedure correctly would cost more money so we do not follow what is right for the animal, we just follow what is the fastest way we can make a dollar. Shelters do not have to have a vet perform their euthanasia’s so even if it takes our employee 50 pokes with a needle and 3 hours to get the vein that is what we do. Making money is the issue here not loosing money.

When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? Or used for the schools to dissect and experiment on? You’ll never know and it probably won’t even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right!

I hope that those of you who still have a beating heart and have read this are bawling your eyes out and can’t get the pictures out of your head, I deal with this everyday. I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and start educating the public. Do research, do your homework, and know exactly what you are getting into before getting a pet. These shelters and humane societies exist because people just do not care about animals anymore. Animals were not intended to be disposable but somehow that is what they are these days. Animal shelters are an easy way out when you get tired of your dog (or cat).

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about taking their dog to a shelter, a humane society, or buying a dog. For those of you that care. “

PETA? (A.K.A. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

Posted on February 19, 2010 by JW

Found this article today. Never been a fan of any activist groups anyways, but this is ridiculous.

Click here to See the Article

“I am basically just going to go through the noteworthy parts of the article. Click on the link above to read the whole article.

From what I know of PETA, they perceive themselves as Animal Ethical Rights group that do whatever they can to help animals in need right?

Now if that’s true, how would you feel about an organization that says it’s for the humane treatment of all animals and found out that they actually killed over 21,000 (21,339 to be exact) animals in 10 years while only adopting out 3,083? Probably would think differently of them right?

In the article it claims that PETA claimed a $9,370 write-off for a huge walk in freezer. Animal rights people don’t eat meat right or Dairy products? A PETA manager testified under oath that the freezer was used to store the bodies of the animals they put down.

Why? It’s a business plain and simple. It costs money to feed and treat these animals as they are awaiting for a suitable home. PETA apparently takes in approx. $30 Million a year. Most of the money they receive is taken in from donations that are sold as helping animals. Yeah, apparently helping PETA Steal animals and put them down when they don’t have anywhere to put them. Just dumb.

They even enlist the help of Celebrities to help there “cause”. I am pretty sure they are bidding for Michael Vick to be there spokes person. Amazing to me that PETA Actually has killed more dogs than Vick than has. Probably not in as a cruel way as Vick did, but the same result.

Now, with all that said, lets look at the other side of it.

PETA claims it only euthanized animals that have no other choice. Animals that are so abused, tortured that when they recieve them that they have no choice but to Euthanize the animal. I’ll buy that for the most part, I know that some of the animals they probalby get are so far gone that the humane thing might be to put them down. Although, it’s hard to believe that in over 21,000 animals in ten years, that out of all those animals, at least half were just not in a position to be saved? That’s hard to believe.

(The group is better known for its public condemnations of everyone from fashion designer Donna Karan for her use of fur to the National Cancer Institute for its animal research.) In defense of its policy PETA has insisted that euthanasia is a necessary evil in a world full of unwanted pets. But while the group has some well-known allies, including the Humane Society of the United States, a growing number of animal rights activists claim to have found a better, more humane way.) Quote from Newsweek in 2008“

I think I will stick with Rescue organizations. Even the the Humane Society still puts animals down. Make your own opinion based on evidence, but activists people always will come off nut cases to me. I think if you are going to advertise your self as a organization that helps others in need, whether it be people or animals, then be true to what your write. Instead I see PETA as a bully, someone who gets in your face an tells you how to act and be, but does the very thing themselves they tell you not to be. And you know what, there will always be people who are blind to facts, and only believe the words that roll off of a real good salesman’s tongue. I think euthanizing a dog or cat because they ran out of room is just ridiculous, they are alternatives, but usually take the easier way.

Anyways, enough ranting from me, Hope everyone is having a good day. Thanks for reading.

Caleb needs a home to call his own :)

Posted on January 29, 2010 by JW

Caleb was born without a home to call his own. He was born on February 8th 2009, and he is a Pitbull mix, not sure what he is mixed with, but is a great dog with a great personality to boot.

His mom was found pregnant abandoned in one of the foster home’s neighborhood. The foster home took her in and asked the rescue to help her and the pups. She gave birth to Caleb and his siblings and was raised with his mom in the foster home until they were around 7 to 8 weeks old. The pups then went to foster homes until they were all adopted.

Caleb was the spunky one of the litter and very smart. He loved to play in the back yard with the kids. He even did a photo shoot for Purina dog food. He did very good job, listened very well, and did what he was told.

He was previously adopted to a family that had him for around 5 months. They then called the rescue to say they wanted to return him because he was to hyper for their children. The rescue explained to them he would need a lot of exercise and to be stimulated due to him being so smart. I personally don’t believe he is too hyper; he does need exercise as do most dogs, and he is a very loving dog. So Caleb is back in the rescue and in my home until he finds the right family for him.

Caleb is a very spirited dog, and loves being around people and other dogs a lot. He is great with kids. From my experience with him, he has been a great dog with my son and my other dog Rocky. He does need a family who is active, and possibly a family with another dog already that is as playful as he is. He is great with cats as well.