Pedigree Foundation Helps Dakin Dogs

On my first day back from a long holiday weekend, I was pleased to find an award from the Pedigree Foundation as part of their "Dogs Rule" grant program. Pedigree donated $653.87 to the Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society to help us get dogs adopted. You know what we're going to do with the money? We're going to use it to spay and neuter some of our adoption center dogs.

"But you already have your own spay/neuter clinic!" you say. Indeed, we do. Dakin's Community Spay/Neuter Clinic--which just completed its 10,000th surgery in a little more than a year--provides high quality, low-cost sterilization surgery for animals living in our community as well as animals in our adoption centers. But sterilizing adoption center animals costs money, and while we charge an adoption fee for our animals, it doesn't begin to cover the true costs of saving lives. There are the vaccines, the de-wormers, the flea and tick treatments, the antibiotics, x-rays, wound care, disinfectants, equipment, staff, electricity, heat, ....I could go on. Suffice it to say that every gift goes a long way around here!

So we'll gratefully take this generous grant from the good folks at the Pedigree Foundation and use it to help some great dogs find new homes. In the meantime, you might consider making one of these dogs your new best friend.

Super Spay/Neuter!

It seems like a superhuman feat, doesn't it, neutering 10,000 cats and dogs in just over a year? Well, the team of professionals at Dakin's Community Spay/Neuter Clinic made it happen! Wearing colorful scrubs instead of blue tights and a cape, the clinic folks today celebrated their 10,000th surgery.

Cat 10,000 is Victoria, a demure brown tabby who, at only 2 years of age, has already had several litters of kittens. Although she has lived the hard life of a free-roaming cat, a kind person has taken her in and, after spaying her, will find Victoria a new home. Most importantly, Victoria will never again bring kittens into a world where there are already far too many.

Here are some quick facts about Dakin's Community Spay/Neuter Clinic:

*75% of the animals we serve are cats; 25% are dogs.

*Of the dogs we serve, 1 in 4 is a pit bull or pit bull mix. Pit bulls also comprise 30-50% of the dogs entering animal shelters or animal control agencies in our region so even though they are only 3%of the overall dog population, pit bulls are the dogs most at risk of becoming homeless in our community. The Community Spay/Neuter Clinic will neuter any pit bull or pit mix for only $50.

*Of the cats we serve, more than 70% have never received veterinary care. Of those few cats who have received veterinary care, most of them received that care at a low-cost vaccine clinic.

*Many of the female cats we see have already had more than one litter of kittens....which is why we will spay any cat who is at least 8 weeks old and weighs at least 2 pounds. Cats can come into heat and become pregnant as early as 4-5 months of age. Waiting until 6 months or a year to spay a female cat may lead to unwanted kittens.

*Although our prices are already very low, we have additional assistance programs for people who may not be able to afford surgery. If you or someone you know receives state or federal aid, we will spay or neuter your cat for only $25. Feed feral cats in Holyoke? We'll neuter your Holyoke ferals for only 10 bucks. Call us at 413-781-4019 or email spay@dpvhs.org for more information.

How can we afford to do this? Some of the fees we charge for services help to off-set some of our expenses. But the truth is that we do it with some small grants and through the generosity of individual donors like you. Please consider giving generously to Dakin's Community Spay/Neuter Clinic.

Dogs Deserve Better

When I was growing up in Ohio, it was commonplace to chain our dogs to doghouses. Most of them had no more than three or four feet of chain. Buck, my dad’s Brittany spaniel, lived his entire life at the end of that chain, within four feet of his doghouse.

It was my job to feed and water Buck every day after school. I dreaded this chore. Because Buck was so desperate for any type of warmth or contact, he lunged against his chain and jumped on me. His paws were inevitably muddied with the feces and filth that surrounded his little wooden doghouse. After shoving him off me, sometimes pulling him off by his thick leather collar, I righted his bowls and filled them. Then I walked away. The whole process couldn’t have given Buck more than thirty seconds of human contact. Once a day. For sixteen years.

While my childhood was longer ago than I care to admit, and dog care practices have come a long way since then, many dogs in our community continue to live their lives on the end of chains.

Such an existence is bleak beyond compare. Like Buck, most chained dogs have little room to move. Their once grassy area turns quickly to beaten dirt or mud. Their chain frequently becomes tangled or tips over food and water bowls. Their doghouses are often inadequate against the elements. And perhaps worst of all, they are socially isolated.

Like humans, dogs are social creatures. Even in their domesticated state, dogs crave the companionship of other pack members. When dogs don’t have other dogs to hang out with, they create pack members wherever they can find them—more often than not with us humans. Keeping a dog alone on the end of a chain frustrates this intense need for companionship.

When a dog lives his life on the end of a chain or in a small pen, he is often neglected in many other important ways. Chained dogs are less likely to receive adequate nourishment, shelter, or veterinary care. In fact, it is hard for many dog lovers to understand why people who chain their dogs have a dog at all.

If you know a dog who lives chained or penned, it is possible to help. Visit Dogs Deserve Better for ideas on how to compassionately approach people who chain their dogs. You can also learn how to work for legislation in your community that will prohibit or restrict this cruel practice.

In fact, residents of the Town of Amherst will debate a proposed bylaw at their fall town meeting this week. The bylaw would place limits on the ways outdoor dogs can be confined, including banning the use of heavy, short chains. The bylaw also prohibits any but working dogs from being confined outdoors at night. Based on similar ordinances in Greenfield and East Longmeadow, the Amherst proposal was initiated by citizens who care about dogs.

As I write this entry, my dogs are curled up next to me on the couch or snoring away on soft beds near the woodstove. Though it is a cold November evening, many dogs in our community are not so fortunate.

New Dakinmobile Hits the Road!

In late September, our friends at Five Star Building Corp. put on the third annual Dakin Five Star Charity Golf Tournament at The Orchards in South Hadley. Golfing teams showed up bright and early on a clear, cool autumn day to have fun and help animals.

Thanks to Dakin board member, Kevin Perrier, and his team at Five Star, the tournament's sponsors, and the golfers, Dakin now has a shiny new van!

A spacious Ford Econoline 350, the new van is an integral part of the second year of Dakin's Three Year Plan to Adoption Guarantee. This is the year our Community Spay/Neuter Clinic begins transporting animals from outlying areas to Springfield for surgery.

We are grateful to everyone who made this year's golf tournament a success!

Every Buddy Needs Somebody

The theme of this year's Dakin summer fund drive was "Every buddy needs somebody." Our goal? Raise $15,000 for the Buddy Fund--the emergency medical fund that provides extraordinary care to the sick or injured homeless animals who enter our adoption centers.

Named after Buddy, a young shepherd mix who needed the special attention of a veterinary cardiologist, the Buddy Fund provides care for animals like Big Raul, a Chihuahua mix whose car accident led to the amputation of one of his rear legs. Visitors to Northampton have probably seen little black and tan Raul (now named Cheese Wagstaff) happily hopping around the city streets with his new family.

The Buddy Fund is an essential element to achieving Dakin's goal of Adoption Guarantee by August 2012. As the Pioneer Valley's only non-profit humane society, we rely on the generosity of our supporters to help animals in need. In fact, Dakin's Springfield Adoption & Education Center is currently playing host to Buddy Fund recipient, Bailey.

While big, red Doberman mix Bailey may appear to have little in common with tiny Raul, they both took on traffic and lived to tell about it. Bailey's front leg was broken in an encounter with a car. Thanks to Buddy Fund donors and Dakin adoption center veterinary staff, Bailey is on the mend....and in search of his new family.

Speaking of families...we recently heard from Buddy's people. Adopted in 2007, Buddy, now named Monty, is a star of another kind. His new guardians, Hayley and Adam, are actors with Ashfield's Double Edge Theatre. Monty even had a cameo in this summer's production of The Firebird.

To date, the summer fund drive has raised more than $23,000 to help sick and injured homeless animals. It's never too late to help save a life. Please consider making your gift today.

When the Internet Bites Back

A member of our Dakin Board of Directors just forwarded me one of those standard African nation phishing scam emails (you know, they need you to wire money to the Nigerian prime minister's account to help him out of a bad spot). But this one had a new and interesting twist: the scammer, George, is talking about pets. He writes:

Hello Seller, I got your contact as i was searching for a lovely pet to buy for our interested buyer is there i saw your advertisement that you have this particular one available under your possession to sell out.

I need puppy and breeds with a lovely bull dog or cat, please let me know the one that you have available to sell out, send me your list and the prices so i can select, or let me know if you have only this one you advertise.

I am the sales representatives of my company we have store in both UK and Ghana west Africa, my financial manager is ready to apy you through Money order and once you confirm your money in your bank in your hands i will give you the shipping information, but please let me know if you will handle the shipment , or i will handle it. Send down your full information with the price of your pet , your full names with your full address and your phone number for communications.

George
DEVTRACO

My first thought was that no one would fall for someone who needs puppies to breed with bulldogs or cats (!). But what if you had an ad in the paper or online trying to find a new home for an animal and you received this message? What if you weren't terribly computer literate? Certainly no animal would come to harm, but your bank account would be cleaned out in no time.

The Internet has been an incredible resource for the animal welfare movement. Not only can we showcase our adoptable animals, but we can communicate inexpensively with our constituents, mobilize them quickly to action, and raise much-needed funds to help animals.

But the Internet has a darker side, too. Not only is it a place where scam artists like "George" can prey on naive users, it's a place where animal hoarders, puppy millers, and abusers can present themselves as rescuers, responsible breeders, and law-abiding animal lovers.

In 2007, Maine animal welfare officials served a search warrant on J'aime Kennels of Buxton, ME, seizing more than 250 dogs found in horrifying conditions. I witnessed this tragedy first hand when I joined a small Dakin team that helped care for the dogs on site as the case began its long path through the court system. What was as nearly as disturbing as the herding breed dogs driven to insanity by constant confinement, the lapdogs living in their own excrement, and the puppies so covered with flies they did not, at first, appear to be white dogs, was that J'aime Kennels had a wonderful website. An unsuspecting dog lover looking for a particular breed of dog could search, for example, for French bulldog breeders and discover that J'aime would ship "hand-raised puppies" anywhere in the United States (while their website is now disabled, they still appear on other websites as "reputable" breeders).

At a Dakin event not long ago, I met a woman with two adorable Shih Tzus. She told me she bought them over the Internet from a breeder in "the Midwest." She never saw their parents, she never saw where they were raised, and she trusted the website and the person on the other end of the phone completely. She now has two lovely young dogs. I can almost guarantee you that the parents of those two lovely dogs live in squalor and loneliness somewhere in the Midwest.

People who would no sooner support such puppy mills by shopping at a pet store for their new dog often think nothing of buying a puppy over the Internet...from often the very puppy mills supplying the pet store trade. The growth in Internet puppy sales from breeding mills has increased as retail store sales have declined. Why? Puppy millers can avoid middle men--and often state and federal regulations--by selling directly to consumers.

So what are you to do when you can't find the puppy of your dreams at your local animal adoption center?

First, consider talking to the adoption center staff about breed specific rescue agencies. They can also help you negotiate adoption websites like Petango.com or Petfinder.com.

If you have your heart set on a puppy, be sure to research reputable and humane breeders. In our region, the Pioneer Valley Kennel Club could be a terrific resource. A reputable breeder can be identified as someone who does the following:

*Specializes in one breed of dog. Any website or advertisement that advertises "Yorkies! Poodles! Frenchies!" will likely lead you to a puppy miller, breeding dogs with little regard for their health or well-being.

*Considers the health and well-being of their dogs by breeding infrequently and performing all necessary screening to be sure they are not passing on poor genetic characteristics.

*Requires the surgical sterilization of the pet you adopt.

*Will allow you to see where the puppies and the parents are being raised. If you cannot see the kennels, don't buy the dog. Do not accept photographs as an alternative.

Remember that AKC paperwork is not a stamp of sound health or temperament. The AKC does little to regulate unscrupulous breeders and will sell registration papers to anyone who can prove the consistency of their dog's bloodlines--for good or ill.

Of course, because this is a humane society blog, I'm going to make one more plug for adopting a rescued dog. My life is enriched immeasurably by the four dogs and two cats with whom I share my home. They are funny, clever, heartwarming, loud, messy, and lovable. Above all else, we found each other at the adoption center. You can, too.

It's Raining Cats and...Cats!

In June we celebrate Adopt a Shelter Cat Month...and none too soon! Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society currently has nearly 300 animals in its care--most of them cats and kittens.

More than 100 kittens and their mothers are frolicking in the spare bedrooms of our foster volunteers, while still others await sterilization surgery at the Dakin Community Spay/Neuter Clinic prior to going up for adoption.

And, oh the cats and kittens in our adoption areas! Longhairs, shorthairs, calicos, Siamese mixes, giant Maine coon-types, and classic tabbies. We have ginger cats and black panthers, stunning blue-eyed beauties and Holstein-spotted troublemakers. Fat cats, svelte cats, polydactyl cats and cats with no claws at all. If you can't find a cat at our Springfield or Leverett adoption centers, my friend, you aren't looking for a cat.

We have cats who have never met a stranger and cats who will spend the first week hiding under your bed (before deciding you're okay). We have cats who want to live alone and cats who love a party. We even have cats with special needs, like Annie Oakley, who is living with feline immunodeficiency virus.

In our Springfield Adoption Center, we have office cats: cats too stressed by the hustle and bustle of the busy adoption center to remain in a cage, but who have blossomed in the offices of our administrative staff. These lucky cats "help" our staff get their work done (if your own cat insists on sitting on your computer keyboard, you know what I mean), until they find their new homes.

We have so many great cats needing homes, that we are waiving the adoption fee on cats one year or older for a limited time.

What are you waiting for?