Dog Pound Kills dog before opening on Adoption Day

[Brattina88]

From the Chronicle Telegram - 5/11/2007
(this is my local dog pound )

Canine quandries dog officials
Brad Dicken | The Chronicle-Telegram
Should the pound keep dogs longer?

XXXXXXX — A Chihuahua, euthanized at the county dog pound Tuesday just hours before it would have been available for adoption, has local dog rescuers and county Commissioner Lori Kokoski barking mad.
Kokoski now wants the county to extend the amount of time dogs are kept alive to give them a better chance of being adopted.
“We’re trying to promote adoption, and we’re euthanizing them on their adoption day? It doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
Deborah Parker, who runs Saint Francis Animal Sanctuary Inc. in Vermilion, said she went to the pound Tuesday to adopt the Chihuahua, but the dog already was dead when she arrived shortly after it opened at 10 a.m.
“He’s not even giving the dogs a chance for us to adopt them,” she said of county Dog Warden Jack Szlempa Sr.
Szlempa said he often keeps dogs longer than he’s legally required so they have a better chance to be adopted. But on Tuesday, the pound was at more than 80 percent capacity and he needed the room.
He also said the Chihuahua was aggressive.
“If I look back on it, I wish I wouldn’t have done it, but I was within my rights,” he said. “My question to them is what about all the dogs I’ve saved?”
Under Ohio law, dog wardens are required to keep any dog they catch for three days to give an owner time to rescue their dog. After that time, the dog warden can put the dog up for adoption or euthanize it.
Kokoski’s proposal, which she expects the commissioners to vote on next week, will prohibit dogs from being destroyed on the fourth day after their capture. If the first day a dog is eligible for adoption falls on Tuesday or Friday — when the pound euthanizes dogs — Szlempa would be required to delay the killing until the next euthanasia day.
Parker said this isn’t the first time a dog has been euthanized on the day it would have become eligible for adoption. In January, for instance, she said an elderly man had come down to adopt a Scottish terrier and was told the dog had been euthanized just hours before.
Szlempa doesn’t seem interested in saving dogs, she said.
“That dog never had a chance,” Parker said.
Parker also disagreed with Szlempa characterizing the Chihuahua as aggressive.
“We’re talking about a teacup Chihuahua that weighs five pounds. How vicious could it be?” she said.
Szlempa said he’ll do whatever the commissioners want, but he doesn’t put a dog in the county’s gas chamber lightly.
“A lot of thought goes into this,” Szlempa said.

 

[Doberluv]

That is just so sad to think someone wanted that little dog. What a waste!

 

[SisMorphine]

“We’re talking about a teacup Chihuahua that weighs five pounds. How vicious could it be?” she said.
Ummm . . . very!

Perhaps this dog did have aggressive tendencies. Just because it's small doesn't mean it should be given special treatment. A dog who bites is a dog who bites, period.

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

^ I had just highlighted that exact quote. It really bugged me. Those are the kind of people who raise ankle biters.

Very sad nonetheless.

~Tucker

 

[Brattina88]

I agree, BUT not one person at the dog pound is qualified to determine a dog's temperment, if its "aggressive" or not.

And, this was a rescue who wanted to 'adopt', foster, and home... Not just some random person

 

[bubbatd]

Lets face it ....3 days is not enough time to determine a dog's personality under the situation , nor time for an owner to recover if they have been away !! 80% capacity is no excuse ! When I lived in Muncie it was a week to 10 days . Luckily I was called when a Golden was brought in and I fostered it .

 

[jammer]

That's just scary. I think I need to get Zoe microchipped and I will definitely update her tags tomorrow. It would take us three days to check all the shelters in the area, by then she'd be dead.

 

[joce]

this was the chi that was growling with all its teeth showing in its pound pic we are talking about right? It didn't look very small and instead of complaining the lady should have taken another dog home.

I don't think it was really the right thing but the pound is very crowded right now. I can definately see his reasoning-When someone gets a dog that nippy from the pound the just bring it back and bad mouth the pound. I hear things like it all the time. the dog should have been allowed to go into a rescue though even they didn't want to place it in a regular home. Although this lady sounded kinda off.

I don't know if you remember the apl firing a bunch of people years ago over killing a golden. It was my aunt and uncles ancient dog and they filled out the lost animal report right before they put him down. they didn't even hold him twelve hours. It was sad because they figured it was just his time to go and they forgave the shelter but the whole town threw a fit and a couple employees ended up fired.

 

[DryCreek]

I never have understood how people seem to be so forgiving of aggression in smaller dogs. Keeping the dogs that have not shown any aggression and putting them up for adoption makes sense, not saying "well it's small so aggression isn't an issue."

So choose, you only have so many spots and too many dogs for those spots. You have a small aggressive acting dog and a small-med-large happy dog and only one cage spot left. Which would you pick?

You can't save them all......sometimes hard choices need to be made. I certainly do not envy any person who has to make these choices on a daily basis, been there, done that, was emotionally damaged by it until I was forced to toughen up or pay the consequences. It's not the fault of the people who work in these environments, it's the fault of the idiot owners who screwed up in the first place.

 

[Beanie]

I think it was a rough situation, and the guy does admit in hindsight he wished he hadn't done it... I do agree about the "LOL chihuahua aggressive??" comment being more than a touch weird.
I also agree with:

You can't save them all......sometimes hard choices need to be made.

It's sad that the dogs are only required to be given a three day shot. The new proposal sounds like a good idea.

 

[Melissa_W]

Here the dogs have 72 hours at the Wake County Animal Shelter and 5 days at the SPCA. That's why we couldn't take Zoey there. With her look, she wouldn't have a chance. We are getting Kai chipped ASAP after our experience with her.

 

[Dreyfus_Fang]

I'm sorry to offend anyone who is against the following, but stuff like this makes me sick.

Three days is certainly not enough for any dog, it took me 6 and a half days to locate my old saint bernard, and we're talking about a giant ball of brown fluff running around the town. For a chihauhau, I can only assume it would be harder!!

Not only is it that, but there are always people bickering about it back and forth in the news articles, and though that makes more people happy, it sickens me.

 

[StillandSilent]

Our animal control is legally require to hold animals for three days, although they try to give them five. I've never seen it 80% full, every time I go there every cage is packed.
Of course, in our area, its considered perfectly acceptable to let your animal run loose. Most people dont' start looking until the dog has been gone for a week, and by then it's usually too late, the dog is dead or at our shelter.

 

[OutlineACDs]

Oh, and BTW, not all shelters have access to chip readers. And a lot of the ones that do, don't scan the dogs. Microchipping is not fool proof.

 

[bubbatd]

I really can't belive that !! Any dog I've had shown up here either my vet or the HS can scan ! I don't know of any dog from any rescue or HS that doesn't have a chip .

 

[OutlineACDs]

bubbatd, I'm sorry, were you implying that all shelters chip the dogs that are adopted out from them? I know for a fact the shelter in my town doesnt. I also know that they don't always use a chip reader on the dogs who come in. They have a chip reader because it was donated to them, but that doesn't mean they use it. My dogs are all microchipped, but I wouldn't count on that saving their lives.

 

[AnimalLoverCatRescuer]

I don't think I know a single shelter around me here that scans for microchips. when i worked at the apl the scanner was sitting there, but it was never touched. I went around one day and scanned every single animal there because no one ever did. They just don't use it sometimes.

The other problems with microchips are that not all scanners read all the chips and the chips can travel in the body before the scar tissue or whatever holds it in place. So it might end up on the side of the body instead of the neck or wherever they are put. But better safe then sorry I think. If you want to do it go for it.

 

[Jaxonsmommy]

well, I got all of my dogs microchipped. When I did so, they gave me a yellow tag to add with the rest on their collars to notify people/shelters of the microchip..

It's a piece of mind, I guess.

 

[Sweet72947]

The shelters in my area keep strays for two weeks, and then put them up for adoption if they aren't claimed (and aren't aggressive). They also check for microchips. I got my dogs and cats microchipped, and for the dogs they gave me these blue plastic tags. Yeah, plastic tags don't last long.

 

[casablanca1]

That's terrible - 3 days is a terrifyingly short time for a dog to be held.

As to the 'little dogs are vicious too!' thing - I know and loathe a small vicious dog who I dearly wish had been euthanized in the shelter before being adopted out to his current owner, but I can't believe this thread became another of those threads where people with larger dogs whine about how it's so unfair that mean little dogs aren't taken seriously.