Reply to Re-homing rescue dog

Forum Index » Pets

Reply to "Re-homing rescue dog "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Op, here.  Thank you for all the responses, some have been quite helpful.  I didn’t want to get into the reasons we need to re-home the dog because WHY is irrelevant to my question, and just invites nastiness.  I love this dog, but we’re just not the right family for it.  Ideally, I would help the rescue place it in a new home because I know all the dog’s issues and know what sort of environment would be best.  I don’t want it to go to a shelter, I want it to go from my home to its new forever home.  I’m going to try some other ways to contact our rescue (foster mom is a great idea!) but if that doesn’t go anywhere, I’ll try some other rescue groups.  Thank you again!

I will say, the dog has not bitten anyone (yet) and I will absolutely be upfront with all the issues to hopefully ensure that it’s next home will be forever, with people who are equipped to handle all that comes with it.[/quote]

Hi OP, would you mind explaining what you mean by the dog hasn't bitten anyone [b]yet[/b]? Its so ominous - I really hope if you genuinely believe this dog to want to bite you consult a behaviorist before rehoming. It may be that this dog should not be rehomed.

As I understand it if you do rehome and know the dog to want to bite, the liability remains on you if it eventually does. With that in mind, I would urge you to please make sure to evaluate the dog objectively - if there is only a miniscule chance the dog will be able to live in society (if the [b]owner is single, child-less, dog-less, and lives on several acres[/b]) please consider humane euthanasia.

[/quote]

Op here. The bolded would be the ideal situation.  I really, really don’t want to euthanize (I feel nauseous just thinking about it). The dog is really very sweet to it’s family, but is a large power breed and reacts negatively to other dogs and people. It needs an experienced dog owner that does not interact with children on a regular basis.  Has not bitten anyone yet, but based on what I’ve seen and experienced, has the potential to.  I want to give the rescue a chance before taking drastic measures-and according to our adoption contract, they could take legal measures against us if we don’t return it to them.[/quote]

Thank you for explaining, OP. I am so sorry you are in this situation. I truly fault rescues for pushing power breeds on inexperienced dog owners, and owners with young children or other small animals. It often becomes a situation where such dogs bounce around home to shelter, with some unfortunate incidents in between. Responsible owners who try to make it work no matter what end up with a dog that has to be crated for many hours, muzzled, walked on off hours etc. Sadly, there are more irresponsible owners than responsible ones and several of us in the community suffer when the tragic event happens (my own dog was attacked in UNW by a power breed that escaped its enclosure). I truly wish that the rescues would vet the person, their lifestyle and the community before sending a "lab mix" out of their doors to an unsuspecting owner. As said in another thread, a powerful aggressive dog going to an adult only home as the only dog doesn't mean that said person won't have a relative or friend with a child or small animal that lives next door or nearby that may walk by, come to the door, or otherwise be close to the ticking time bomb. With such animals an owner truly must be "on" all the time and travel or working a full day become nearly impossible if the dog must be attended to only by its person. It is a sad situation all around. I hope you find a solution that works for you and the community in which you live.

[/quote]

You feel nauseous because it's awful, but that's no reason to just pass the burden onto someone else. The fantasy owner who is single, never goes out, and wants to monitor an aggressive dog doesn't exist. You'll only be subjecting other people to danger and this dog to a worse fate. You took on this responsibility, and you need to see it through. That means euthanizing the dog. I am an animal lover, and I love my pets. If my horse broke a leg, I could pretend that someone out there had a perfect therapy pool and a stall with a sling and magic whispering abilities to keep the horse calm while she healed, and I could even find some "rescue" to take the horse probably. That doesn't mean the fantasy home exists and I would only be sentencing the horse to more suffering. The dog is the same thing. An aggressive pit mix is not going to find a happy home. It will probably bounce from shelter to home unhappily for a while before it bites someone and is put down anyway. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics