One at a Time Pet Rescue

blackie1

Approx. 3 years old

Victim of owner irresponsibility

Music By Evanescence, Missing

On Monday morning, April 7, 2008 I awoke to an unfamiliar dog barking and whining outside. I looked around and realized that the noise was coming from my neighbor’s run down and junk filled garage. I investigated and found Blackie. She was in a rusty metal crate that was too small for her to comfortably stand up and turn around in. She acted fairly cage aggressive when I approached so I kept watch for my neighbor to come home from work so I could get the full story as to why this poor dog was in a dilapidated crate in his garage.

That evening the owner of the dog came over to feed her. He had her out of the crate on a rope and I went over to meet her. I fell in love with her immediately. She was so incredibly cute and sweet. It was obvious that she needed some training and socialization. She wanted to jump up and be a little unruly. I decided to walk her and discovered that she was completely unfamiliar with a leash or a walk. The owner told me that Blackie had been living in his basement for more than a year. She had lived in the rest of the house with 2 beagles, but then she attacked one of the beagles and he put her in the basement after that. He went to the house once a day to feed the dogs, but he wasn't’t staying there. He knew for months that he had to evacuate his home, but he never made the effort to find placement for his dogs.

Over the next couple of days I spent time with Blackie and worked on teaching her how to walk on a leash and how to not jump up. She was already excellent with sit and lay down. I also wanted to evaluate her temperament to determine how I could help her. She was stuck in that crate most of the day. She was lucky if her owner came once a day to care for her. One morning he came over and gave her food and water but never took her out of the crate to potty. I was watching him from my window. I confronted him and his response was “Well, there’s only so much time in the day”. I was furious. Luckily I was bringing her over to my yard to run around several times a day and I was washing the filthy blankets in the crate and keeping her food and water fresh.

I determined that Blackie was aggressive towards other animals. Although she acted aggressive towards my dogs through my back door, she was very responsive to my corrections. When my dogs settled down, she settled down and turned her back towards them. When they got excited, she became aggressive towards them again. At one time she bit at the siding of my house out of frustration because my dogs were being hyper on the other side of the door. I was standing right next to her and gave her a correction. She never tried to bite me even though my leg was right next to her mouth. Every time she acted aggressive I would give her a sharp, quick jab into her neck and she would turn around and sit in front of me and look up at me as if she was waiting for my next instruction. She also responded well to being ignored when she was too hyper. After a few minutes of blocking her and turning my back towards her she would settle down and sit and wait to be petted. She was also learning to enjoy taking walks on a leash. I also tested her for food aggression. I put my hand in her bowl while she was eating and grabbed some food out. She backed away and I offered my handful of food and she ate from my hand. I sat down next to her while she ate from my hand and she began to lick my cheek and nose and covered my face with half chewed dog food. It was gross and sweet at the same time. It was as if she had been waiting her whole life for someone to tell her what was expected of her and be consistent.

Things were going well between me and Blackie. She listened to my every correction and hung on every word. She desperately wanted affection, love, and attention. She was very affectionate towards me and I lavished her in kisses and hugs. I determined that she could be placed in a home as an only pet with a responsible and very active person with a secured yard. I made several phone calls to local rescues and no kill shelters trying to try to find placement for her. The Washington Area Humane Society agreed to take her after I explained her situation. I spoke with Blackie’s owner and he felt it was too far to drive (he was full of excuses), but it was a no kill option and I felt it was her only option that was working out at that time and I offered to drive. On Wednesday, April 9^th, Blackie’s owner took her to Animal Friends and they were turned away at the door. Then he took her to the Beaver County Humane Society and while entering the facility she tried to attack another dog. She was turned away from there as well. Her owner brought her back and put her in the crate in the garage.

On Friday, April 11^th, my neighbor’s kids came over for the weekend. I was in the garage with Blackie on her leash and her owner. My neighbor and his kids approached Blackie and she could not get away. The garage was clutter filled and her owner and I were blocking the only area to back up. She tried to get behind me, but was unable to. She snapped at my neighbor. I was shocked since she had never shown me any type of aggression or fear. She did not actually bite anyone, it was a warning. Sadly I realized that Blackie was fear aggressive and I had to reconsider where she could be placed. My neighbor told the owner that Blackie could not stay there and that if she bit his kids he would shoot her. I asked both of them to give me more time. I put Blackie in my yard for some exercise and asked my husband to come out and see how she would respond to him. Blackie was fearful of him and ran into my yard and barked a few times. He offered her a treat and she cautiously came to him and took it and then retreated back into the yard. She never snapped at him, but she had the space to get away from him. The strange thing is that Blackie was never fearful of me which was why I was so taken aback when she began to display her fearful reactions towards other people.

On Saturday, April 12^th I had to take my car to the garage for repair work. When I came home I called the Washington Area Humane Society to explain what I had discovered and to see if they would still be willing to take her. I left a message and went next door to take Blackie for a walk. She was gone.

I waited and watched for what seemed like forever to see anyone come home next door. Finally her owner showed up and I asked him where she was. He told me that he took her to the Western PA Humane Society and that she snapped at the staff members and they were going to put her to sleep. I grabbed my keys, my husband, and we took off to the shelter to see if they would relinquish Blackie to me.

We arrived at the Humane Society and we were put into a room and 3 staff members were sent in to speak with us. We were told that Blackie was very aggressive and that she could not be sent back out into the public. They told me that she snapped at them and even bit at the door and she tried to attack a dog that was being walked by her. I knew that Blackie was terrified and her defense was to snap. I was also very aware that she was dog aggressive. She did NOT actually bite anyone. They told me that she was being aggressive in the kennel and they had to put a top onto the kennel because Blackie was trying to jump out. I asked to see her and they refused. They told me that she would be evaluated by a behaviorist but she would probably be “humanely euthanized” because she was so aggressive. I argued my case quite clearly, but they were not going to let me take her home. I was told that I needed to speak with Dara Krom, the Director of Customer Services, if I still wanted to fight for Blackie.

Personal Note: I don’t see anything humane about killing a young, healthy dog that is terrified out of their minds and acting out accordingly. If the staff is afraid to handle the dog they will more than likely use a catch pole to secure the dog. The dog would freak out and bite and scream at the person dragging it to a room where dogs can sense the death. More people would be waiting to restrain the dog, freaking the dog out even more. This causes a tremendous amount of stress to that animal. Then the dog is held down with force while they are killed. Tell me what is humane about that process? Humane euthanasia should be used for animals that are terminally ill and suffering to the point where their quality of life is diminished. I will also note here that I am no opposed to killing a dog that is so aggressive that it viciously attacks people, is unpredictable, and simply cannot be safely put back into society. That kind of rehabilitation can take years and even then, sometimes fails. I do understand that open door shelters cannot offer a dog that they deem aggressive the kind of rehabilitation they need. Perfectly adoptable dogs are killed in shelters every day for space because no one comes to their aid.

Blackie was not one of those cases.

I left the shelter that day feeling like the world was crashing down around me. I knew Blackie had so much potential. I saw how she opened up when she was with me. I saw how happy and affectionate she could be. I knew she could be rehabilitated and did not need to die. At first I felt defeated, but then I came home and knew I couldn’t give up yet.

I started making phone calls to trainers to see if anyone would be willing to help me. I found a trainer that volunteered as a trainer at the Western PA Humane Society! SCORE! She was willing to give me a behavioral evaluation and work with Blackie for a discounted fee. She also gave me the names of some kennels that might be willing to house Blackie during her rehabilitation. I found one on my first call. He was willing to house Blackie in a row where he could put kennel space between Blackie and other dogs. DOUBLE SCORE!

On Sunday, April 13^th, I went back to the Humane Society with the names and phone numbers of the trainer and kennel. I was hoping that they would see that I was prepared to take this on and I had made provisions so they had no reason to kill Blackie. I was willing to sign any legal agreement for liability reasons or do whatever else I needed to do. I was told that there was no one there that could speak with me and I had to leave and call back on Monday. I waited for a few minutes and low and behold, the person that I spoke with the day before and the Director of Customer Service (the person I was there to see), snuck out of the office, looked around the corner, saw me, and took off into another back area. I was furious. But no one would speak with me and I had no choice but to leave.

On Monday morning, April 14^th, I called to speak with Dara Krom. I was put through to her and I gave her the information I had and asked if they could turn Blackie over to me. I was told that she could not be relinquished to me because I was not her owner and that only her owner could pull her from the shelter. I spoke with Blackie’s owner when I saw him that day and asked him to please call the Humane Society and ask them to relinquish his dog to me or go there and pull her. He told me he would call, but he never did. He didn’t want to be bothered with going back down there to pull her either.

That day I also composed an e-mail to send to several rescues throughout the United States including every Shar Pei rescue I found online, Cesar Millan, and Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. Here is a copy of that e-mail . I also began to make several calls and only got voice mails and I left messages. I was hoping that since the Humane Society was not willing to relinquish Blackie to me, they would be willing to relinquish her to a reputable rescue. I was willing to use my entire tax refund and stimulus check to transport her anywhere within the US. I began to contact various animal transport groups to see if any would be willing to transport Blackie if we found a group to take her.

Most groups I contacted did not respond to my e-mail. A couple of groups gave me names of other contacts and one group was willing to speak with the Humane Society to try to get Blackie relinquished to me. On Tuesday, April 15^th, Best Friends Animal Society contacted me with this e-mail. I was so excited. I took that e-mail to mean that Best Friends was willing to bring Blackie into their facility and work with her there. I thought I finally found a way to save Blackie’s life. I immediately forwarded the e-mail to Dara Krom and Lee Nessler, the shelter Director. There was a lot of phone and e-mail tag between me, Best Friends, and the Western PA Humane Society through the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, April 22nd, I received this e-mail from Troy at Best Friends. She forwarded me the e-mail that she sent to Dara at the Humane Society on April 21st. I didn’t know what else to do or where else to turn. I called and e-mailed Dara and asked her if Blackie was still alive and she told me that they could not give me that information because I was not Blackie's owner. I asked Blackie’s owner to at least call to see if Blackie was still alive and he told me that he didn’t want to know about Blackie and that he should have never gotten her, but his daughter wanted a dog. I will never understand how someone could be that way about a life that was their responsibility in the first place.

I e-mailed Dara to request Blackie's body if they euthanized her so that I could properly bury her instead of her being dumped in a landfill somewhere. I received this e-mail, but they never actually told me if she was euthanized or not.

It took me 2 weeks of calling and e-mailing the Humane Society to finally get through to someone to find out the status of Blackie. I finally got through to Lee Nessler and she informed me that Blackie was killed on April 22nd. I was heartbroken and I think about Blackie every day. I will never forget her.

I MISS YOU BLACKIE!

Personal Note: I have been a huge supporter of Best Friends Animal Society for many years and I am on their mailing list and receive updates and notices of their latest big rescues. Best Friends is known for rescuing animals with severe behavioral issues and rehabilitating them. They took in several of Mike Vick's pit bulls. They have taken in dogs with severe aggression and fear aggression. I watched Dogtown and saw them take in dogs with terrible behavioral issues from a puppy mill. I can't help but wonder if they would have taken Blackie if the media was involved. I was willing to pay for her medical care and spend my last bit of money to get her there. Don't get me wrong, Best Friends does a LOT of good for animals all over the world. Why couldn't they have done more for Blackie? They were her only hope. Blackie could have been rehabilitated and placed into a loving, responsible home. I have no doubt about that. She deserved this chance. We all failed her. She didn't deserve to die.