MAV'S RESCUE FRIENDS

We came across this article the other day: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/17/pitbulls-landlord-discounts-rent_n_1790737.html and thought it was an awesome idea. Sandy, a landlord, decided to offer discounted rent on one of her units if the renter would adopt a rescue dog. Assuming of course the family who took the apartment was screened so that they were a good home for the dog, this seems like a fantastic idea.

Many apartments charge extra fees, larger deposits, and ban certain breeds so the idea of reversing it and giving a discount to people who adopt dogs seems like a wonderful idea. This may actually even be a good economic decision. Depending on the size of the discount, you might find that the average tenant you recruit by offering  a rescue discount is a better tenant because they like having an apartment that caters to dogs so churn might go down. Sandy was clearly not financially motivated in doing this but it may be a case where her huge heart has natural positive ramifications.

I think as the rescue trend continues to grow through social media and otherwise we will continue to see great and innovative ideas like this. What a wonderful idea to say the least-would love her to be my landlord!

Came across this story online of a man and his best friend, Schoep: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/08/man-dog-lake-superior-photo-_n_1755609.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

The article is a touching story of a man who when breaking up with his fiancé began to have suicidal thoughts and who ultimately snapped out of it because of his adopted dog Schoep. The dog is now 19 and extremely arthritic so the man takes his dog every night into the lake where the dog is able to feel comfort from his arthritis and fall asleep. The picture is one of the best we’ve come across in capturing the bond a human can feel with a dog and shows how important Schoep is to this man’s life.

You can’t help but feel sad for the man who is about to lose his dog, but the picture puts a smile on your face at the same time knowing these two have spent such a special life together. Dogs have been shown to significantly help people with depression and other psychological issues and this is a perfect example of their therapeutic impact.

We came across this article a little while ago and wanted to share it as we thought it was so incredible: http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2012/05/homeless-with-dog-man-refuses-shelter/.  The article contains a great story about a man who went for a bike ride and ended up chatting with a homeless person with a german shepherd while on his ride. The homeless man cheerily talked to the author discussing how he had a job until a back problem that led to painful spasms made it so he had to be hospitalized. He could not find another job that did not require use of his back, but he loves his dog Hope so much that he is willing to be homeless for the rest of Hope’s life (he estimates 6 years). He could sleep in shelters, but, as shelters don’t take dogs and he has not been able to find a job that will allow him to make enough money to rent a home or that allows him to bring his dog with him, he has determined he would rather be homeless than give up Hope. We hope someone in the area read this article and reached out to him with a job opportunity-that kind of loyalty is not easy to find these days. Life is tough and having a bond like he has with Hope is one of the amazing gifts this world has to offer.

We saw a posting a couple of weeks ago about a day that a bunch of shelters around the country committed to being no kill shelters for one day. Here is a link to the Facebook page discussing this:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=10319376&l=0a5c8a589f&id=190922761490 and here is the main web page: http://www.justoneday.ws/. The date was June 11th, and we hope there are many more to come.

It goes without saying that this is an amazing idea and a huge step in the right direction to getting rid of kill shelters. A lot of the shelters waived adoption fees andthe Facebook page had almost 9k likes. We read that over 700 shelters signed on for the pledge-that is amazing! As awareness continues to get out there about the no kill movement, events like this will continue to gain steam. Maybe next year it will be a no-kill week and then a month, etc. There were tons of blog posts about the event and a lot of coverage. This is all good.

As more shelters and communities rally around this cause, we will ultimately approach a day when people will look back and not be able to comprehend that we used to euthanize animals. I am going to research who came up with this idea as I think it is so great. It is amazing to sign up 700 shelters, and the event will only get larger every year.

I saw a posting about a Cincinnati pet food pantry http://www.cincinnatipetfoodpantry.com/ and though I am unaware of how many such organizations like this are out there think it is a fabulous idea. Buying the food and necessities they need for their pets is a big issue for many owners(especially in this economy), so many animals end up at the shelter because owners can’t afford them. Beyond being a horrible alternative for the family and pets, this is a horrible solution for society.

Shelters cost a lot of money to run, and they have to pay for food for the animals that are dropped of there anyway for at least some period of time; this seems like a cheaper alternative for society if executed right. It saves lives, helps owners, and may not even cost a lot more. We were thinking about it and don’t exactly know how this could be replicated on a large scale. Dog food banks are a great idea and they should be everywhere, although it seems hard to think about who would qualify and for how long. The alternative is stark. I am going to search around to see how many pet food pantries there are out there, see the different models, and see if we have any good ideas on it. Doubtful I realize, but it seems like a low-cost and efficient way to save more animals. At first glance, a pantry wouldn’t need to be open but once a week so there would be low overhead. It does not seem to me that you would even need a fulltime location-shelters could even offer this service. I read articles about shelters helping out certain owners or homeless people with pets and I am sure there are reasons others than money this isn’t done at shelters, but I will have to read more about this before I understand why. It just seems that with the goal being to save animals’ lives, keeping animals out of shelters should be the first goal. This seems like a great organization and I am sure there are more like it.

Last week, an amazing young boy named Caide put a lemonade stand outside of his school to raise funds for a dog that was horribly neglected and emaciated named Hercules:  http://www.examiner.com/dogs-in-national/12-year-old-boy-raises-thousands-to-aid-starved-dog-s-recovery?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Caide is a very special young lad who is bound for greatness. He raised over $3,700 of funds for charity with his stand. Amazingly, a director at an ASPCA contacted Caide and is making plans to make sure Hercules gets to meet Caide.

Acts of selflessness like Caide’s is what the world needs more of and he is surely an inspiration for all of us. He has done more at twelve years old than a lot of us do in our lifetime for others. His act will help Hercules a great deal and we will watch for Caide in the future saving the world. Crossing my fingers that I someday have a child like him (I have a chance if our children get Jen’s genes anyway :-)).

Here is an interesting article on the cover of Time Magazine about animal friendships and that scientists don’t believe dogs form real friendships:  http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2012/02/09/animal-friendships-my-cover-story-for-time-magazine/. It elicited a lot of blog postings from animal lovers around the world claiming it is ridiculous.

The points on both sides are interesting though largely they agree. One side says they have not witnessed true friendships and see more of a guardian relationship; however, they admit there have not been enough studies to conclude anything. The other side says they love dogs and spend their lives with them, so it is lunacy to say there aren’t real friendships. They think more studies should be done before conclusions are made.

It seems likely that given the growing importance of dogs in society that we will be increasingly allocating more studies and time to analyzing our relationships with dogs so this article seems to point out that we are heading in that direction.

We do not have any conclusions, but we think it is highly surprising that such a conclusion would be made without the data. The key variable also appears to be how scientists define friendships and what variables they are including. We look forward to seeing the studies done on this, but if the bond between dogs and others don’t count as friendships we need another word to describe it. Either way, consider us wanting more of dog/human type relationships in our lives, whatever the word they come up with for it.

This is a nice story about a saint named Shirley who has fostered hundreds of dogs over the years and made a big impact in the rescue community: http://thebark.com/content/discovering-great-forlorn-dane.

Tyra, the Great Dane Shirley rescued was in bad condition from the start. She was a stray and did not want to be captured, even trying to bite while being approached. Once she was at the shelter, she was not a fan favorite and was not likely to make it out of there without Shirley.

After taking Tyra home, Tyra initially wanted nothing to do with the family or the other dogs but slowly started to warm up to them over time. Ultimately, Tyra became true to her great dane form and started being very pouncy, silly, sweet and loving. In fact, she became such a part of the family that Shirley adopted her and takes her to work with her every day. Tyra right now even helps Shirley with other dogs as she keeps them balanced.

The reason we are posting this story is that this is characteristic of many dogs at shelters that rationally do not respond well to being confined and abandoned. They are nervous, have no outlet for their energy, and are depressed. This is especially a problem with some of the more active breeds. There really are no bad dogs at birth just bad owners who, so if you see a dog circling in their cage and depressed do not rule him or her out immediately. Most dogs will eventually come out of their shells. There are some dogs that bite and shelters will not adopt them out, so if the shelters clear the dog think about giving them a second chance.

We came across this article about a man who was trying to decide what he wanted to get his wife for her birthday and donated $2mm for a shelter in her name:  http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2012/03/birthday-surprise-husband-builds-animal-shelter-in-wifes-name/

The shelter for Arizona and Animal Welfare League got a call from this philanthropic gentleman after he saw a news program about the shelter. It is the oldest no kill shelter in the state and had been saving roughly 3100 animals a year-a figure which is now poised to double. In an incredible act of generosity, John donated the $2mm and fundraisers raised another $1mm for the $3mm project. John managed to keep this two year project a surprise and brought his wife to the shelter on her 60th birthday.

While this is clearly an extraordinary act of philanthropy from this former investor, the example he is setting for others is equally important. I am curious to see if this will be an interesting trend where people start endowing large no-kill shelters the same way they do other big projects.

I saw an article on USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-27/euthanize-animal-shelters/53406232/1 that  discusses the no-kill movement and the tradeoffs municipalities make when taking the no-kill approach. Namely, funding no kill shelters are very expensive and even communities who would like to become no-kill are having a difficult time given the stress on local budgets because of the economy.

We thought the article did a good job discussing some examples of communities who have tried this. The key variable that municipalities don’t factor in properly in my opinion is that with the proper exposure lots of donors are willing to help. The article points how how much private funding has been raised on a local level in different parts of the country, and we think if people understood how many animals were euthanized in their communities they would be willing to rally behind this cause.

The trend toward no-kill shelters might follow an S-Curve where we ultimately reach a tipping point that leads communities that still euthanize to look barbaric. We have been pleasantly surprised how much attention the issue is getting, and the population pushing for a no-kill nation is growing rapidly.