Dogs Just Aren’t Moving

Dogs just aren’t moving. Like everyone else’s, my foster dogs linger as adoptions have slowed down all over the country. And no matter how many efforts are made to ‘clear the shelters’ or ‘sponsor’ dogs, dogs just aren’t moving.

The same is true at our nation’s shelters, and that’s what’s causing the number of dogs ‘euthanized for space’ to continue to climb.

There are lots of theories about why this is happening, but at the crux of it is money (isn’t that true of everything?). or, more correctly, scarcity and profit opportunities.

Everyone knows we have a housing shortage and a veterinarian shortage. Any good capitalist knows a shortage means there’s an opportunity for profit.

Big corporations and new investors buy up rental properties, knowing they can raise rents and make more because consumers have fewer options. These new owners bring their policies to their properties and uniformly apply them. Often, this means strict no-pet (or small-pet only) rules and rents that are simply out of reach for too many.

The same thing is happening as veterinary clinics are bought up and new policies are established that increase prices and put vets under pressure to produce higher profit margins. That translates to rushed veterinary appointments, rising ‘low-cost’ spay/neuter prices, and less availability for shelter/rescue appointments.

Potential adopters have less money and/or housing security to afford the increased expenses of pet ownership.

After reviewing the veterinary expenses for a dog we are housing as her owner tries to find work and affordable housing, my husband Nick asked if having a dog (particularly a large dog) was becoming something only wealthy or, at least, home-owning people can afford.

It does feel that way.

And so the dogs linger.

Berry, our current foster dog, is an absolute sweetheart, completely adoptable, and adorable. He has been in rescue care for over six months. He entered rescue as a puppy but is now becoming an adolescent, and there have been no adoption applications.

Gracie Lou has been in rescue care for two years (possibly longer, but we’ve been involved with her fostering for that long). She is a funny, heart-breakingly grateful dog who just wants a person (and their couch) all to herself. When she came into care, she was an adult dog, but as she ages, you could now call her a senior, her arthritis has worsened, and I wonder—will she ever find a home? In the current situation in this country, who will (or even can) give this dog the home she deserves?

I just returned from a week visiting shelters in Kentucky. There was much reason to hope, especially in three of the shelters we visited, which had recently had leadership changes and staff newly committed to saving the dogs. Only one of the shelters we visited admitted to euthanizing for space, but it’s only a matter of time. Nancy, the cofounder of Who Will Let the Dogs Out, and I talked at length about the question of the dogs who linger.

Lingering in a foster home is one thing. It’s hard on the foster family and heartbreaking that every day a foster lingers is another day a dog in a shelter lingers or is euthanized for space. But lingering in a shelter is so very hard on many dogs.

We met a dog in one shelter who had been there for eleven months. He was just over a year old, so he basically grew up there. He scurried to the back as we walked past his kennel. When staff tried to bring him our to the play yard, they had to drag him out because he was terrified to leave his kennel (and does it so infrequently). That kennel is his only home.

I wooed him with treats but was never able to place a hand on him. He’d carefully creep up to my hand as long as I looked away and not at him. Then he’d lift the treat from my fingers and scurry back out of my range. He’s a beautiful dog, and we watched him interact lovingly with the staff.

This shelter does not allow volunteers, handles a pretty large number of dogs (60 at the shelter), and opens to the public weekdays from 10-2. There’s not much chance that this sweet guy will get any more socialization than he’s already getting, and even less chance that someone will choose to adopt him.

He lives a life of fear, spending his days in his small kennel. And I wonder, which is better? This life or a humane euthanasia?

It’s a question every shelter in this country will have to wrestle with if they aren’t already. ‘Euthanizing for space’ seems unthinkable and horribly wrong. But as the crisis in our nation’s shelters continues, what are we to do?

I believe that this crisis is fixable. If communities work together—not just individuals and shelters, but all the rescues, advocates, and organizations whose goal is to save lives—we can find solutions. As long as everyone continues to struggle alone, frustrated, defeated, angry, and overwhelmed, we will stay mired in the problem.

We need to use that energy to create and implement new solutions. Not everything will work, but as I tell my writing students regarding submitting manuscripts, if you throw enough spaghetti at the wall, something will stick.

We can’t continue doing what we’ve been doing for the last thirty years in sheltering and rescue. It no longer works. We can’t blame the public, the veterinarians, the shelters, the government, or whatever. Blaming will not move us forward; it will keep us entrenched.

I’m heading back to Kentucky in two more weeks. I’m going back at the behest of a city council woman in Radcliff who is putting together an event on Saturday, October 19, called ‘Stronger Together—We’re Unstoppable’.

She has labeled it a retreat for anyone and everyone involved in sheltering and rescue with the purpose of lifting each other up, sharing resources and ideas, building a network, having fun, and moving forward together.

It’s one day to connect, but I hope it’s the beginning of a movement. One in which everyone who values the lives of the animals in their community commits to working together to fix our broken sheltering system and tackle the challenge of unhomed dogs.

As Toshie said to me, “We’ve all got the same stories, but we need a new one.” As a storyteller, she invited me to join them in Kentucky to share my story. I have no idea what will happen, but the one thing I know is that if we don’t start working together, it is the animals who will suffer and pay the price.

If you are a shelter or rescue organization, an advocate, or just someone who wants to get involved, join us. Click here to see the event on Facebook. Or reach out to Toshie through the event page or info@foreverhomesforpaws.org).

Hey, friends, one last plea – we have an online auction going on RIGHT NOW. This auction funds our shelter tours and makes it possible for us to hand-deliver donations, resources, and, most importantly, hope to shelters all over the South.

Please consider bidding and sharing this link far and wide: https://givebutter.com/c/wwldofall2024auction

Until each one has a home,

Cara

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To see our Emmy-nominated, award-winning short documentary, Amber’s Halfway Home, click here. If you’d like to see it on the big screen (along with other short dog films), check out the tour schedule of The Dog Film Festival, currently in art movie houses all over the country.

Learn more about what is happening in our southern shelters and rescues in the book, One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues (Pegasus Books, 2020). It’s the story of a challenging foster dog who inspired me to travel south to find out where all the dogs were coming from. It tells the story of how Who Will Let the Dogs Out began. Find it anywhere books are sold.

For more information on any of our projects, to talk about rescue in your neck of the woods, or partner with us, please email cara@WWLDO.org.

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