I didn't write this story--Urgent Part 2 (a woman responsible for sharing dogs from the New York City's Animal Care and Control (the City Animal Shelters) on Facebook which is a daunting and all too often heartbreaking task). I share this in its entirety rather than sharing just the link because Facebook has gone insane these days when it applies to Animal Advocates so just sharing a link might open to a dead link and this is an important story of two dogs dead and the stupidity of the people who murdered them (that would include the idiot adopter who didn't tell the Shelter that she already had a houseful of small animals and the vet who helped her by euthanizing the two dogs--one of whom did nothing wrong except being adopter by this pitiful excuse of a human being.
Little Debbie entered the ACC on
January 8th, 2013 as a stray, and was quite perfectly named. She was
dessert personified...... a tasty snack cake with a short stocky marble coated
body and a chubby little face. She instantly became a huge staff and
volunteer favorite for her extremely calm and loving demeanor . Little Debbie
was a quiet, well behaved girl with a sensitive nature and chocolate eyes that
would peer into your soul while always looking for snuggles and hugs.
This is Little Debbie:
Sadly, these two very different and remarkable dogs were
soon to be joined together in a tragic way. What kills us is that
EVERY SINGLE person that failed these dogs, took no responsibility and shifted
blame. Little Debbie was failed at every level: 1) Failed by a rescue
2) Failed by a foster 3) Failed by the ACC 4) Failed by an adopter. Dutch, was
not failed as many times as Little Debbie, but was “guilty by association"
and became collateral damage. Their story needs to be told.
On Wed,
Feb 6th, A rescue announced publicly they pulled Little Debbie. Volunteers and
staff were thrilled that this delightful pup would have rescue protection and
be placed in a loving foster home. Finally, Little Debbie would have the
life that she deserved and longed for! The rescue made no hint that
anything was amiss, and joyously posted “freedom” pics and adoption
information on their site. Behind the scenes there was trouble. Sadly, the new
fosters claimed Little Debbie did not get along with their current pet and they
DUMPED her back in to the shelter again. The fosters did not allow time
for her to decompress. They did not seek the help of a trainer and they
did NOT stop to think they may be costing her life. The rescue claimed
they never authorized the person to pick up Little Debbie at all, but that was
only AFTER she was dumped back at the shelter. The rescue was aware that Little
Debbie was once again headed for the shelter; but since they could not find
boarding for her where else could she go? Staff and volunteers were
heartbroken at her return, and there is where the blame game began.
The rescue blamed the foster for not wanting to employ training as a means of solving the problem. They blamed the foster for taking a dog that they never approved her to foster. They blamed boarding facilities for not taking dogs with kennel cough. Blame abounds..solutions... not so much. They should have stood behind this dog instead of coming up with a million flimsy reasons as to why they couldn't. In the meantime, this precious dog is in a kill shelter, taking up a kennel and thereby creating a reason to kill. She's confused, she's sick and she's in danger. Excuses matter little to Little Debbie. She needs solutions..instead she is in the middle of a blame game.
Little
Debbie was dumped on Sunday, Feb 10, 2013.
Fast forward to Monday, Feb 18th, and two young women drove
from Indiana to NYC with the intent of adopting Dutch, and were immediately won
over by his winning personality and striking good looks. These two young women
(Maddyi E. & Brittane T.) have subsequently deleted their
pages.
They also
met and fell in love with Little Debbie. The meet and greet between Dutch
and Little Debbie went very well. When they filled out the adoption paperwork,
they essentially lied about everything. Maddyi stated on the application she
has NO PETS even though she currently has FOUR dogs and TWO cats.
Apparently, some brain surgeon on the thread privately told her to LIE
about having pets so that the adoption would be approved. Big mistake.
Huge mistake. The kind of mistake that cost not one, but TWO
lives. Whoever is instructing a potential adopter to lie on their
application is an IDIOT.. and a dangerous idiot at that.
Maddyi, the adopter, was instructed by a seasoned long
term volunteer of Little Debbie’s prey drive and warned her about having Little
Debbie around small animals. Maddyi’s Facebook page had both cats and dogs
everywhere and alarm bells were raised about the validity of their application.
Still Maddyi insisted on being a rescue angel and went about rescuing not
one but two babies. The ACC was formally notified about issues with
these women, but for some reason the normal checks and balances of placing TWO
PIT BULLS in to a home 10 hours away (that had six existing pets and a
small child) were not done. Placing ONE pit bull who is possibly special
needs due to a hearing impairment and ONE pit bull who has a high prey drive
and a history of being returned for "pet conflict" requires much
thought and careful placement. Apparently, NO ONE was thinking,
warnings were ignored, and that would prove fatal.
We tried to get the dogs back after learning about the
situation, and that Little Debbie had killed a cat. We called the only
animal shelter located in their county, in Indiana. What we learned was that
the dogs were never dumped there, as initially thought. The reason Maddyi
probably did not contact the shelter was because her mother is an employee AT
the shelter, and Maddyi was a former shelter worker there!! Her mother had
no idea {that Maddyi] she left her child (in someone else's care) to go on a road trip to
NYC, to bring home two pit bulls to her already full house of 6 animals (4
dogs, 2 cats), and a small child. So, rather than reach out to the
shelter community and people she knew that could have helped these animals,
Maddyi
(NOT HER MOTHER!!) quickly KILLED them, to wash her hands of the
"mistake" she made in bringing them to her home. When we questioned
Maddyi about why she did not seek assistance, the only thing she kept
reiterating was how they were “bad dogs” and somehow deserved this
fate?!?! Poor Dutch was just collateral damage to all this mess. We would
LOVE to know what private vet agreed to kill these two precious souls.
There is a reason we want all communication open on
threads, and this is the reason why far, out of state adoptions, are bad idea.
To the people that post, “You’d rather have the ACC kill the dog than allow
someone to take them?” The end result is when a dog is this far away, and
someone can’t jump in a car and quickly assist, logistically getting a dog back
becomes incredibly difficult, and can’t be done quickly.
Remember Bougart?
His adopter Nikki was also
instructed to lie to everyone as well, and look what happened, he ended up
being dumped in a kill shelter in Texas, shortly after being saved, and no one
could just jump in a car to get him. Thank god his story ended on a good note.
To the people, and there are
many, who also instruct people to lie, hide and cover-up their true
intentions on threads because you don’t understand the rules and want to see a
dog with an adopter, ANY ADOPTER, rather than the right home – you are an IDIOT
and contributed to the death of two amazing dogs. Two dogs that were placed in
a home they never should have been in.
Rest in peace Little Debbie and
Dutch – You were failed by people on every level all the way until the very
end.
I don't remember encountering Little Debbie on Facebook but I do remember Dutch and it tears at my soul to think that he was so senselessly killed. I don't believe out of state adoptions should be stopped. After all, there are too many stories of out of state adoptions that have happy endings. I personally think I would have known this person was an idiot from a mile away. What should have been in place was at least a home check. A decent rescue wouldn't have let her have Little Debbie because of the cats she had. I can understand why she had Little Debbie killed--I don't condone it--if I'd have been there, someone would have probably had to pull me off of her (it was out of spite for the dog killing the cat), but I can't understand why she had to have Dutch killed too.
If you haven't guessed by now I have been an animal crossposter and advocate for 3 1/2 years on Facebook (you'd be amazed at the dogs and cats and other animals that have been saved as our circles of friends expands exponentially). Looking back, I realized I've been saving animals all my life when I could.
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