http://jacquelincangro.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/tough-decisions/Oreo with broken legs
Tough Decisions
November 15, 2009 by jacquelincangro
As a volunteer at the ASPCA, I was shocked to learn that the end was near for Oreo, a pit bull. She wasn’t sick. In fact medically speaking she had already overcome great odds. She had been thrown off the roof of a six story building by her former owner. She was taken in by the ASPCA who put casts on her two broken front legs. Although she had a permanent limp, she was in good health. Her behavior, however, was another story.
Behaviorists and trainers worked with her, but she couldn’t seem to move past her aggressive tendancies toward people. Not hard to imagine after the abuse by her owner and then months of being poked and prodded for medical treatments by well-meaning staff members. The ASPCA determined that Oreo was unpredictably aggressive, often lashing out at people who came too close.
This becomes a troublesome decision for a shelter. What do you do with a dog like Oreo? The ASPCA is an urban shelter on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, meaning space is limited. For the sake of all the animals who need help, it’s important that they be adopted to good homes quickly. They just don’t have the capacity to keep an animal they’ve determined is unadoptable.
The animal rescue community is rather small.
Everyone knows everyone. As soon as the word got out about Oreo, other shelters offered their services. The ASPCA was concerned about the liability. What if they turned Oreo over to another group and she bit someone? But the other groups persisted. They called and emailed and showed up on the ASPCA’s doorstep. Some rescue workers were forced out by security guards. Those who called were hung up on and messages went unreturned.On the ASPCA’s part this is arrogance combined with foolish pride, a lethal combination. By refusing to send Oreo to another shelter, in essence the ASPCA is saying “if we can’t help her no one can.” Maybe what Oreo needed was different trainers in a different setting. Not that the ASPCA doesn’t have dedicated, knowledgable staff, but Oreo may have been better served in a foster setting where she could get one-on-one care and training in a place she didn’t associate with being hurt. (Imagine being in a hospital for a long recuperation. You might get cranky. Maybe you’d get cabin fever and hate the guy in the next bed. Maybe you’d even yell at a nurse. You might not have such good memories of the place.) It’s possible Oreo could never be adopted into a home. If that was true, there are many shelters around the country in suburban or rural settings where she could have lived out the rest of her life in peace. But we’ll never know because the ASPCA put Oreo down on Friday.
The ASPCA doesn’t claim to be a no-kill shelter, but I thought their euthanasia list was limited to providing a humane end only to terminally ill animals. Perhaps I should have read the fine print. I never realized they put dogs and cats down for behavioral reasons. I had worked with Oreo once in a behavior modification class. She hadn’t shown any signs of agression in that one session, though that is not to dispute the ASPCA’s claims.I prattled off a mostly incoherent message to the volunteer coordinators who work very hard, care very much for the animals and had nothing to do with the decision about Oreo. I said that I had adopted a red listed dog. I know how much work is involved, but even though he may never be a happy go-lucky guy, he’s made amazing strides. It can be done. I don’t believe in giving up, especially on a dog like Oreo who had shown such a will to live. One of the coordinators wrote me back a truly nice message. She reminded me of all of the great work the ASPCA does. (There is absolutely no doubt about that.) She countered my assertion that these kinds of dogs can be rehabilitated with the right guidance, saying that perhaps it could be done, but there are no guarantees. She said that there is a point as rescue workers when we have to realize that we have done all we can for a dog, but I believe we also have to be big enough to admit that someone else may be able to do more in a different combination of circumstances. I feel if there was even a chance, we owed it to Oreo.
There are a lot of stories we tell ourselves in order to turn a blind eye so we don’t have to accept the truth or so we can do what we want. I loved volunteering at the ASPCA. It was my second favorite place to be, after my couch.
But once you know something you can’t un-know it, you know? I can’t look the other way. Doing so would be an insult to everything I’ve achieved with my dog who is snoring softly at my feet while I type this. Doing so would be supporting something I cannot abide by which is, in my book, the ultimate hypocrisy. I told the volunteer coordinator I was very sad to say it, but I wouldn’t be able to come back.