MAV'S RESCUE FRIENDS

Saw this article and forgot to post it so am doing so now:  http://blog.aspca.org/content/puppy-mill-bill-cracks-down-online-dog-sales

The puppy protection and safety bill would do something that we have needed as a country for a long time: will require all breeders who sell directly to the public (sight unseen) to be licensed and inspected by the USDA.

This is a big deal and a huge step in the right direction. Currently, when people go online to find a dog they will see tons of pay per click ads and many ultimately will fall in love with a pup they see on the screen and order one. The issue is that many breeders who are willing to sell dogs online without meeting the end owner are not dog lovers and reputable breeders. Imagine you have a dog and that you do not care who you sell the dog to-hard to imagine that you care very much about the dog if you would send them anywhere without meeting the family.

Many of these dogs are kept in miserable conditions and have tons of genetic problems due to the inbreeding. Well-meaning individuals who order these dogs face health and behavioral problems all the while supporting unscrupulous breeders.

Regulations such as this are clearly a step in the right direction.

I came across this video online and wanted to repost it because most dogs that are found in this state like Janie here do not get a second chance:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2319054/Road-recovery-The-heartwarming-video-puppy-wouldnt-let-near-learning-trust-humans-again.html

The back story is that Janie was hit by a car and broke her back. The Bill foundation paid for Janie’s surgery and naturally she was scared of human beings given how much pain she had been through. If you open the video on this page you will notice her snarling and in a state such that no volunteers could come near her.

When dogs are in shelters in this state, it is usually game over. They are termed vicious, dangerous, or whatever which then ultimately leads to euthanasia. There are so many dogs with no behavior problems euthanized that it is very unlikely that a snapping dog will ever be adopted.

This video of Janie and a volunteer is particularly heartwarming because most dogs can be rehabilitated to a state where they would be great family dog. Dogs are born nice but humans do a lot to them that can create their fear issues and altered temperament. Of course, there are some animals born that are wired in the wrong way but that is an extremely small fraction of a percent of dogs. As we continue to fix the dog/cat shelter/adoption system in this country such that we become a no-kill country I expect that ultimately we will make our way to spending extra time on dogs with fear issues. Many great dogs like Janie are euthanized needlessly so if you see a dog with issues that you are thinking about adopting, get the help of an experienced dog trainer and give her or him a chance.

I came across an article not too long ago about a woman in South Carolina who lost two Labs and used any means available to find the dogs including searching by helicopter and offering a $1,000 reward:  http://www.examiner.com/article/desperate-dog-owner-searches-for-lost-dogs-with-helicopter-offers-large-reward

The article got me thinking about how often I see rewards for dog returns and about the different sums involved. Sometimes I see sign locally for a $100 or $250 reward and this was probably one of the biggest rewards I have seen. I am sure there are bigger rewards offered all the time which makes sense given dogs are family members, but what I had never really sat down and thought about is whether people actually accept the rewards when returning the dogs and what the optimal reward size is. Is bigger always better?

This is not a moral question meant to judge people that accept the reward offers-I am just curious. Perhaps the answer varies by age group or how much effort/inconvenience was involved en route to the person returning the pet.

I just googled it and saw an interesting post that said not to make your reward too large if you lose your pet because it might lead people to over-value the animal and not want to return him or her thinking they are very valuable. I think this is probably right-the advice said to just state there is a reward without identifying the amount. Still haven’t found any guesses with respect to accepted rewards but I will update this if I do.

Updated thoughts as of April 2013:

I wanted to do an update for the website as we are nearing our two year anniversary. Like most things in my life, when I look back a couple of years I realize how much more I thought I knew two years ago than I actually did. With respect to dog rescue, boy was I naive on the challenges involved and the learning I had ahead of me.

The good news is that I generally move very slowly and like to try things out and test before I formulate ideas. In this case, my goals behind Mav’s Rescue Friends have changed significantly. I originally envisioned creating a foundation based upon helping families who had injured pets and were unable to afford their treatment. I found quickly that I would be unable to do this at scale for a variety of reasons including figuring out which cases to help with and what criteria to use in my evaluation. I could not imagine scaling up over time and having to choose some families and turn others down.

En route to figuring this out, I noticed something I found particularly interesting about dog rescue: the very large number of passionate animal lovers who started small rescues around the country with very limited funding. I have continued to marvel over the past couple of years at how many people are helping save animals. There is more effort and love than there is money in small towns to help animals. I thought it would be great to create a fund of funds so to speak for smaller rescues. In other words, creating an organization that would specialize in fundraising for all the local rescues who are doing the heavy lifting with their time and effort. This would serve to both help local rescues raise funds directly as well as to provide as a verification resource for the way the charities/rescues operate and use funds. That way, over time, people could donate directly to the local rescues on their own as well. I still very much like this idea and hope one day to push forward with it.

The one other idea I have been toying around with is the creation of a large shelter in the outskirts of New York City. I have read a great deal about the techniques different no-kill shelters are using and have some opinions about innovations that are working and I think having a shelter that would serve as a testing ground for animal advocates around the country and their ideas outside of Manhattan would be great exposure for animal rescue as well as perhaps a magnet for donations. There are tons of animal lovers in this area and if there were a large shelter that brought exposure to the animal rescue cause, perhaps it could serve a dual purpose of rescue shelter and fund of funds. I think a shelter that was privately funded, had a store, had great hours and customer service, offered shuttles to Manhattan, used storefronts in the city and suburbs, offered training and other services to help generate revenues, put videos and lots of pics of the pets, had long stories about the pets and their behaviors, and just generally implemented good ideas that rescue groups are trying everywhere it might be able to save a lot of lives and help raise a lot of money from donors.

Companies use flagship stores in Manhattan to attract people so why not the same for a shelter? I can dream. I would love to be in the position some day to do this on my own, but I hope someone does it before I do. This website has been therapeutic for me in that it helps me think and write down ideas, and by making myself post every so often it makes me focus. I am writing a great deal more than I am having a positive impact at this point, but I sincerely hope this will not always be the case.

As always, if you are one of my one or two readers and you have any thoughts or ideas please send them along to me. If anything on this website is helpful to anyone, I will consider this to have been a positive effort. If not, for now it will continue to be a learning process for me. Thanks for reading.

I came across this post: http://www.thebark.com/content/innovative-sheltering which represents real progress in the animal rescue world. I have not had a chance to drive out to the mall to see this store in action but the article discusses a pet store in the Freehold Raceway Mall that was set up by Monmouth County SPCA. I am not familiar with this organization or the store but the idea is very progressive.

They took a spot in the mall and have built out a store full of food, treats, dog clothing, and dog accessories to provide revenue for the shelter in addition to showcasing rescue dogs. Remarkably, the article states that in the first 8 months, the site has placed over 200 puppies and 350 kittens. The store operates like a normal shelter and there are reference checks and questionnaires. Apparently, many people in the community thought the store idea would be a miserable failure and would have a higher return rate of animals from impulse adoptions at the mall.

I have written about this idea a few times over the last couple of years and I am a huge fan of it, but I would have guessed there would be higher return rates as well. However, so far this has not been the case. The reason the idea makes so much sense to me is that the store brings awareness to rescue animals, increases the ease of adoption, and can be self-funding because of the sales of other supplies in the store. The hours of operation are much longer and as the store is a retail venture of sorts the staff has to provide customer service. The awareness issue is not a small factor in my opinion. Many people would love to save a life but are unaware of the staggering number of pets euthanized each year.

I do not know how many stores across the country have popped up of this sort so far and a google check did not have any great info, but I think this is a trend we can expect to see continue. I think the stores should experience more retail sales than the average store as well because people should be willing to pay higher prices to a non-profit and give extra business they might not otherwise give. Finally, as stores test out different ideas, the whole of them will progress and make the model even more compelling to shelters. Maybe mall owners will even offer subsidized rent in an effort to drive traffic to the mall.

Jen found a small terrier mix lost in the middle of the street. She went up to the dog to try to grab him before he got hit by a car and the dog was extremely friendly and went right up to her and let her pick him up.

The dog was thankfully microchipped and had an id tag on him. Jen called the number and the service was unable to reach the owner at the time, so she thought she was going to end up taking him home with us for the night. She by some fluke did not take a picture of said cute dog because she thought we were going to have to hold onto him for a while so I am not sure whether this is a bit of a tall tale but I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Back to the story…the service gave her a street name but not address so Jen walked the dog up the street and randomly ran into his owner who was out looking for him. It turns out his name is Teddy and he and his owner were extremely excited to be reunited. The $75 purchase of the microchip for Teddy saved his owner a great deal of heartache, so the moral of the story is that the microchip is a must have for you and your dog. This story had a happy ending because the owner cared enough about her dog to have him microchipped so if you haven’t chipped yours please take him or her to the vet today and do so.

I came across this interesting article about Jonah Berger a marketing whiz that teaches at Wharton: http://www.fastcompany.com/3005679/why-ideas-and-products-become-contagious-jonah-berger-formula

Berger wrote a well received book called Contagious that discusses how ideas catch on and go viral and the science behind them. I love social psychology and read lots of book on the subject. I haven’t read Contagious yet but plan to. The article asks the question of why cat videos are more viral than dog videos. Why is this interesting you ask? Well, I found it interesting because I had never thought of it before but upon reading I instantly thought to myself “yeah, I always see cat videos online or America’s funniest home videos and see them much more often than dog videos.” This is of course interesting because dogs are more prevalent with respect to money spent on them and time spent with families. There are tens of millions of cats and dogs in the country so it is less of a population question driving this phenomenon.

Berger discusses that studies show more people prefer dogs that cats but that there are a couple of answers to why cats may be more popular on the web. One theory is that cat people may spend more time online or that they care more about “social currency.” By social currency, he means that showing people cat videos is akin to showing them photos of your children in that they both elicit emotional responses. In other words, people see the pics and think “hey, person x is great because their kids or cat is great.” Social currency is important, so this makes sense. I am not sure Berger nailed the reason of why this phenomenon makes more sense with cats than dogs, though.

Wanting for an answer still, I googled around to see what I could find and unfortunately I have no definitive answer. Some theories are that cats look like children with big eyes and child-like features, cats do their own thing, a certain subset of people who own cats are obsessed with them (I am pretty obsessed with dogs so don’t consider this a knock ), etc. The response I have found most satisfying is that dogs tend to do things for attention while cats are a more selfish species so when they do things it is more fascinating. Cats aren’t jumping on a sink or getting into trouble to get attention, they are doing it because they want to. We never know what cats will do as they are not trying to please us. This inherent unpredictability may make them more interesting to watch.

Yes, as you by no doubt now realize, there is no perfect answer yet. If I read one that I am very swayed by, I will be sure to post it. I suspect it is a variety of factors as I haven’t come across a silver bullet yet.

We read great stories about dogs all the time including tales of companionship and utility as military dogs, therapy dogs, or other. Suffice it to say, the saying “man’s best friend” exists for a good reason. We do not post most of the stories we come across as they mostly resemble each other in that all dogs are great and help us out in many different ways. This story put a smile on our face as a dying homeless man was saved by his dog in a rather unique way: http://dogspired.com/dog-behavior-2/homeless-man-thanks-dog-for-saving-his-life/

A woman in Washington state bumped into a dog who was wearing a note that said “Help” on it. The note said his owner’s medicine wasn’t working, he couldn’t walk, needed a doctor, and that it was not a joke. The woman found a police officer who then found the homeless man, who told the story of his dog Buddy. The duo lives in the woods in a remote area and the man has a leg infection that got worse. He has no cellphone so he knew when his legs gave out that he was in big trouble.

He eventually came up with the idea to put the note on Buddy with a bright red string and told Buddy to go find help. He says Buddy understood and went down the trail until he eventually found someone who came back with help. The man says Buddy never leaves his side so it is clear Buddy understood the command and within an hour paramedics were on their way with help and took him to a hospital.

The owner is now recovering thanks to Buddy and his heroism. We read a lot of stories about homeless people and their dogs, which is not surprising given the companionship and love they provide. We have read about various charities and local rescue organizations who provide help to dogs of homeless people so if you run across a dog with a homeless person please see if they could use help with the dog. You can offer to give a Petsmart gift card, a bag of food, or take them in to your local veterinarian. In this case, there was a special Buddy Fund set up for veterinary help should you want to help with Buddy.

I came across this story the other day and thought it was very remarkable: http://www.examiner.com/article/mark-buehrle-leaves-family-behind-for-the-love-of-the-family-dog.

Mark Buehrle, a professional baseball player, decided to move to Toronto with his pit bull while his family lives in Ontario, because Ontario will not allow pitbulls in the city. Mark describes his dog Slater as the perfect family dog who is well behaved and great with kids. He talks about how all the neighborhood kids come running over and looking for Slater and that over his four dogs Slater is the best behaved of the bunch.

Mark is fortunate to be able to own a few homes and given his flexible schedule and the different homes the family will be together most of the time. The story is remarkable because we often read story after story of family giving up dogs because they want to live in a specific apartment or wherever that won’t allow dogs and are willing to give up their pets unimaginably quickly.

There are plenty of people who go to these great lengths to save their dogs and in this case the family did not want the dog to have to suffer and stay in a run while they plead their case. Pit bull mixes are banned in Ontario and by a Blue Jays professional pitcher taking a public stand against breed specific legislation, a great deal of attention is already being brought to the issue with more to come.

As more and more high profile situations like this happen, the social pressure for change picks up which will inevitably lead to law changes. If you weren’t already a Mark Buehrle fan, this is a great reason to consider becoming one!

I read this fascinating article in Time about the amazing ability of animals to navigate hundreds of miles to find their homes:  http://science.time.com/2013/02/11/the-mystery-of-the-geolocating-cat/.

The opening of the article is about a cat who made it home after being lost hundreds of miles away from home. I have seen various stories like this written over time and have always wondered how these animals were able to find their way home; this article starts to delve a little bit into the topic.

It looks at pigeons, cats, tortoises, and other animals and interestingly some animals use stars to migrate while others are able to use the magnetism of the earth. It seems pretty amazing if true and the article gives a couple of good studies that evidence these phenomena. It is something I am actually pretty interested in learning about now that this article has got me thinking. We all see birds migrate or sea animals travel large distances and I have heard stories of friends’ dogs who traveled 10 miles to find them at work. Clearly, some animals have an innate ability to navigate.

The article is a quick read and at a minimum will make you think about how incredible that ability of animals to find their way around is. I’ll update this after I search around a bit. I am hesitant to conclude too much until I see more data!