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Dienstag, August 25, 2009

Husky abandoned 4 times... (and counting?)

How many times can a dog stand to be abandoned?
I do not write often about our dog-saving activity at stray-dogs.org, but here is another story

In Taiwan, there is a male Husky which has been abandoned 4 times already, and all only during eight months.
When volunteers enter a dog shelter, most dogs will start to shake their tails and bark to try to get their attention.



Duke.

But he never did that. He lowers his gaze and turns his back to the volunteer. It is because he already knows he will not have any chance to leave the shelter or even to be adopted, because he has learned he will always be returned to the shelter very soon.
The shelter vet told us mostly young men adopted him but just kept him for 2 months or less. They returned him because he “was no more fun” or parents were against keeping dog.
When he finally was adopted for the 4th time, we were traveling to Germany in June. We did not hear any news until August when a volunteer told us he had been returned again.
We were hesitant to take him because we already have so many dogs in our care. But then someone told my wife the newspapers were picking the story up and there would be a report about the dog in the papers soon.


That was when we finally decided to bring him to our place first. While having his story on the newspaper seems to be good thing, because it will attract a large crowd of potential adopters, most of these people will be fast deciders. Seeing the story and thinking “oh my, that dog is so poor” and then rushing to adopt it. However, fast decisions are not always well thought-out and so the Husky might very likely end up being returned to the shelter for a fifth time – because people suddenly discover a dog requires time and some funding for food and vet.

But what about the feelings of the dog? How many times can he continue to live with being cast out on a regular basis? We have seen many dogs simply “giving up” and refusing their food until they were starved, because they did not want to go on anymore. A wolf is a pack animal and so is a dog, and a family becomes his pack. As wolfs or dogs are sticking together and even give their life for their pack members, no dog can understand why it suddenly gets thrown out without doing anything wrong.
Okay, this treatment is going to end now; we took him into our care to avoid seeing him getting cast out for a fifth time.

His name is Duke, my wife chose that name.
When we brought Duke to the shelter, he was so happy, his smile was like sunshine and he licked and “hugged” us a lot.
Duke is in treatment now and we will try to find one good home for him.

Our website: http://stray-dogs.org

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