Last Week Around the -ISTs
Schieffer's Out of Gov Race
Who could abandon a face like this?
A whole bunch of us apparently could, and do.
Austin's Town Lake Animal Center alone takes in about 40 dogs per day, some 14,000 per year. And those lucky dogs who are deemed acceptable adoption candidates - around 50% - often face re-abandonment by their new owners. If they're adopted at all.
Nationwide statistics are even more startling: about 4 million dogs enter shelters every year, and about 2 million of those are euthanized.
Studies show that the biggest factor leading to dog abandonment is behavior - on both the part of the dogs (aggression and biting) and their owners (unrealistic expectations and fickleness).
To fight these dismaying statistics, Diane Mollaghan is conducting an experimental study in a joint project between Town Lake and the University of Texas’s Animal Personality Institute. Using costume, props and different "moods", Diane attempts to mimic scenarios that might cause stress or aggressive reactions in the dogs, and gauges their responses. Dogs who snap or cower are often recommended for euthanization, while calmer, friendlier dogs might become candidates for adoption. Mollaghan doesn't have the last word on the fate of the dogs, but her test results are often considered by the committee that does.
Certainly, it's a flawed system - like any of us, a dog could just be having a bad day and might be condemned based one one show of bad manners. Still, it's more of a chance than many in other shelters get.
Mollaghan also uses questionnaires for potential dog owners to help match them to dogs that are best suited to their personalities. Adopters aren't required to follow Mollaghan's recommendations; many of them still choose a dog for the cute factor rather than accepting a homelier one based on the center's matchmaking services. But Mollaghan is hopeful that the system can work.
Other shelters around the nation are attempting to reduce the number of canine casualties with different methods, such as using volunteer trainers to help socialize the dogs. This training, in a particular shelter in Long Island, helped reduce the euthanization rate by an astonishing 50% in just 6 months. The curiously named Dumb Friends League in Denver used owner education to decrease its rate of rejected dogs by over 30% over four years.
It's an uphill battle, to be sure. We're a nation of dog owners - nearly 79 million dogs currently live in US households. But our needs have changed - we don't as often need our dogs for hunting or herding, preferring them rather as companions and confidantes (and in the case of some, accessories.) Their natural hunting and pack mentalities are less welcome, and in our unwillingness to learn what our dogs really need, we're throwing them away at the rate of 2 million a year. It's not surprising, but it is shocking and sad, and we should be grateful for people like Mollaghan who, in the face of such a discouraging flood, diligently keeps her thumb in the dam.
Full story from the New York Times, here.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)