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We
get so many rather distressing messages from people who want to give
up their pet for the most frivolous of reasons. We would like
to assume that you are not one of those people. Given our experiences
in the past, we ask that you please read the following before contacting
us.
Hopefully,
most of the requests below would not apply to you. If they would,
we ask that you rethink your situation and maybe consider giving
yourself another chance at loving your dog — or else let us
help you (through our Community Dogs
page) find a new, loving home for your German Shepherd Dog or
German Shepherd Dog mix. As an owner, you are best equipped to know
the needs your dog will have for a new home. In so, we hope you
will step up to the plate and fulfill the promise you made to your
dog the first day you brought him home — to care for him forever.
The
big don'ts:
- Please
don't waste our time by acting like you haven't completely
made up your mind to give up your dog. Terms like "considering
giving up" and "might have to find a new home"
are just other ways of saying "I want to give up my dog now."
- We don't
want you to tell us how bad you feel about this. We
don't want to hear how giving up this dog is killing you. Its
not killing you, but it very well may be killing your dog.
- We don't
want to hear how special your pet is, and how he should
easily find a new home. If you think highly of yourself and
this dog wasn't good enough to stay in your home, why would he
be good enough for anyone else's home?
- Especially,
don't lie to us about any behavior
or health problems your dog may have. We'll find out. Lying
to us about serious behavior and health issues is a sure way to
find your pet in doggie-heaven, not in a new home. Do you think
we enjoy putting dogs down? We don't. We're the ones who aren't
cowardly enough to run from the responsibility of putting down
an animal with serious behavior problems. Sadly, many of these
problems were probably caused by people who didn't care enough
about their pet to train them properly to begin with.
Keep
in mind...
We get
numerous requests for taking in homeless Shepherds. Your request
will be answered in the order of its urgency. Shelters and animal
enforcement agencies take precedence over your dog. Why? Because
we rescue German Shepherds in shelters and animal controls since
these dogs have no advocates and are faced with death. You are
your dog's advocate. Also, by removing German Shepherd Dogs
from these facilities, spaces are opened up for other homeless dogs.
Animal controls
often provide initial vaccinations and heartworm testing. Some organizations
take care of the spay and neuters beforehand. These organizations
also have very experienced animal handlers that can objectively
evaluate the dog's behavior around other dogs, cats, children, and
people even before calling our rescue. This saves us time, money,
and other valuable resources, as well as allows our rescue and the
animal welfare organizations to work together and rescue those German
Shepherds that can be made ready for adoption out to families.
Don't think
that taking your dog to a humane society will ensure that a rescue
will pick him up. It is unlikely one will since we, like many other
rescues, are usually overcrowded and most times are not accepting
new dogs. This means that even if a shelter has an agreement with
a rescue to notify them when a dog comes in, there is no guarantee
that your dog won't be put down as you walk out the door. This happens
far more often than one would like to believe.
In most
cases, if you are giving up your dog, we will not take your dog
or field inquiries about adopting him. However we will allow you
to post a picture and information about your German Shepherd
or German Shepherd mix on our Community
Dogs page. You are responsible for taking all contacts directly
from potential adopters. The Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog
Rescue assumes no liability resulting from any Community Dog misrepresentations
or adoption mismatches. All dogs posted on the Community Dogs page
must be spayed or neutered. This is done to lessen the burdens of
animal welfare organizations. This means lowering overpopulation
and, therefore, lowering the euthanasia rates of dogs— which
is our ultimate goal. Please see the FAQ on "What
is the goal of the Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue?".
We reserve the right to refuse to post, and may remove, any Community
Dog from our website at any time.
Mostly, we believe that since you, as an owner, made a conscious
choice to adopt a dog, you must now take the responsibility for
finding your dog a new home. In
rare instances, does an owner not have a choice!
NOTE: The
owner (including anyone who takes on the responsibility of another
pet) is ultimately 100% responsible for what happens to that pet.
If a good samaritan takes a pet, rather that taking the pet to a
shelter or pound, they are assuming responsibility for that pet.
Remember:
a
tiny amount of people take it upon themselves to provide rescue
services out of their homes, personal budgets and often the expenses
of pet professionals who donate their time and services to save
these dumped, abused, neglected, and irresponsibly discarded sweet
animals. All of the animals in rescue need to find homes as soon
as possible to allow openings for the next needy animal. There
are never enough homes or rescues for those dogs being dumped
by their owners.
The long
term solution involves illegalization of puppy sales in both pet
stores and by individuals, as well as the spaying and neutering
of all pet dogs. If you aren't part of the solution, you are part
of the problem.
The
following are just a few of the many calls this rescue has received
from owners wanting to give-up their dogs:
-
A
family is planning on having a baby in the next couple
years, so they think they need to get rid of their German
Shepherd.
-
Two families want to give up their 1-2 year old shepherds
due to the puppies chewing up various things. Obviously
containment seems to be beyond their comprehension.
-
A
family will be providing daycare this fall and are afraid
allergies may be a problem. They don't think it is fair
to just keep their dog in the yard and garage (not in the
house) so they need to give-up their dog. This family
was offered the use of our Community
Dogs page.
-
A
woman chooses to move in town from the country. She doesn't
want to take her intact (un-neutered), admittedly behavior-challenged,
German Shepherd with her. She wants us to take her dog. We will
not. Training is important with any dog, neutering is as important,
and responsible dog ownership is the most important. Too bad
none of these rules/concepts were applied by the owner in this
case.
- Someone
contacts us twice because she wants to give up their 7 year old
German Shepherd because they just got a 10 week old puppy
and the 7 year old doesn't like the puppy. The reason they
can't give up the puppy is because the husband was given the puppy,
instead of the usual studding fee, for services rendered by his
intact male (that he apparently uses to propagate the overpopulation
of dogs). We,
at the Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue, do
not facilitate puppy mills (backyard breeding) by taking the older,
unbreedable, unwanted dogs off people's hands. We don't want people
bothering to call once, much less twice, about such a senselessly
stupid situation. If someone can't see what's wrong with this
situation, they should assume that they do not have the what it
takes to qualify as a quality breeder (see our FAQ on What
constitutes a good breeder? as well as a chart to help you
answer the question: Is
Your Dog Breeding Quality?).
Are
you offended by what you have read on this page?
A couple
people have sent us mail criticizing our "tone" on this
page. Overwhelmingly though, we have been given praise without
end from other rescues and private individuals that help dogs
in need. They agree that a majority of people do not understand
what we must deal with as a rescue.
A rescue
is not a pound or a humane society. Private rescues tend to
have a different stance on private give-ups versus shelter and
pound give-ups. Dogs at animal controls have no advocates and
often have very limited time periods before facing death. Animal
controls often provide initial vaccinations and heartworm testing.
Some organizations take care of the spay and neuters beforehand.
These organizations also have very experienced animal handlers
that can objectively evaluate the dog's behavior around other
dogs, cats, children, and people even before calling our rescue.
This saves us time, money, and other valuable resources, as well
as allows our rescue and the animal welfare organizations to work
together and rescue those German Shepherds that can be made ready
for adoption out to families.
Rescues
ignore private give-ups, for the most part, because we do not
want owner give-ups to feel good about what they are doing (and
the prospect of your animal going into a private rescue is a much
nicer thought than the shelter, since there is a much higher probability
of euthanasia at the shelter). Also, owner give-ups, at least
in our records, have a much higher probability of having major
behavior problems. Private rescues, for financial, professional,
and for reasons of evaluation, prefer to remove dogs from shelters
and pounds. These again, are also dogs that face death.
Dogs in private
homes should have more options than underrepresented, incarcerated
dogs. Its not only that we dislike having to personally deal
with owners giving up their pets and their stories, but we ARE
watching out for homeless dogs' best interests and the dogs
at the pound would argue that their interests merit care from
private shelters too.
Private rescues
for the most part will not take dogs with major behavior issues,
because we cannot place them for reasons of liability. Also, the
fact is that we have multiple dogs, and a single problematic dogs
can ruin routines and injure several other animals.
Therefore
many owner give ups will not receive return phone calls from a
rescue if:
Small rescues,
like this one, often handle 20+ messages a day. Owner give-ups
are at the bottom of the return list. We are not at a loss of
animals needing help! We are the ones having to make the toughest
decisions about who we save and who we help.
Our adopters
and current German Shepherd Dog owners and colleagues praise our
stance and send their support.
All we have
been concerned about is peoples' unrealistic expectations of private
rescues and delusions that all dogs can find "a country home"
or "a home without other dogs, kids, men, cats, etc...."
We are simply trying to instill some sense of reality. We imagine
this would offend and if people are shamed, then they probably
needed the shame.However, most of the people we deal with
have no shame, and the type of people that would avoid rescues,
shelters, pounds, due to a dose of reality, wouldn't hesitate
to leave their dog tied to a tree or dump them on a highway. Yes,
these things do happen, but we are not responsible for shaming
or driving these types of people away from rescue and endangering
their animals. Their animals were endangered the day they became
pets of those people. This is a reality, we cannot save or be
responsible for all of these animals.
Remember,
there are far too many dogs out there without advocates that can
use our help. We must allocate our resources in an effective way.
We are sorry that reading the truth has been found offensive by
some. Sometimes the truth hurts.
Please
spay and neuter your dog and, when possible, explain to others
why this is an important part of dog ownership.
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