Ben turned out to be one of those, from SC. He was going to be euthanized before he was brought North, into my local SPCA, and into my hands. I did not know that, until I talked with with the rescue team representative up here yesterday.
I can understand putting down a vicious dog. The Jekyll & Hyde rottie who liked me was just not one that most people want to take legal responsibility for.
I don’t feel any better for taking in a rescue dog, as opposed to any other dog. He was just the one we liked. It just weirds me out a little, knowing that he was going to be euthanized in SC, before he came here, to live a dog’s life.
Was he through the Dixie Dog project? That’s how we got our darling little hellhound. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to put her down, but we were told that’s the norm. (She’s from NC, as it happens.)
This is the place: http://animallifelinerescue.com/Home.html
He’s still full of puppiness, but he’s learning really fast.
I used to be completely against kill shelters because I couldn’t stand the idea of perfectly adoptable pets being put down. Then I changed my mind. One of the tipping points was living in the middle of a feral cat colony that had bad fleas and diseases constantly running through the population. I have an indoor kitty (can you call a two-day-old-abandoned-by-mommy that I had to bottle feed for months a rescue?) and I felt like I needed a hazmat suit to go outside so Indoor Kitty wouldn’t get sick. NONE of these animals could be considered adoptable without pouring resources, money and medicine into them to save the salvageable few. And the kittens. Oh god. When you see a little fluffy calico kitten you could fit in a teacup and you realize the last thing you ever want to do is touch it because the eye discharge is a really funky green color, things are bad. Calling Animal Control was an interesting moment, but if your choices are a warm cage and a full tummy or a dirty hole you’re too weak to get out of, I’d rather let the poor things be warm and fed for a little while than dirty, cold and hungry for a long time. I have since moved and kitten season STILL gives me the flying willies. And I love kittens.
So even though you didn’t know it, you did a really good thing and gave something good a happy life. Have a cookie and snuggle your baby.
I think it’s awesome that he’s a rescue. When I was first looking to get a cat I checked all the shelters first, but none really ‘clicked’ with me. Ended up getting my first from a friend of a neighbor.
Ben is a lucky dog then. Not only because he was rescued but because he was adopted into a loving home! Bless his little puppy heart!
Oh for a moment there thought he did the rescuing!
But why was he going to be put down?
I was told it was an overcrowding issue where he was, in a poverty stricken part of South Carolina, where most people tend to get their puppies from a neighbor whose dog just had a litter, rather than going to an animal shelter to see what’s available for adoption. I got him from my local SPCA, but he was brought there by the rescue group.
God bless you for taking in a rescued dog.