Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sanctuaries aren't so bad after all

Some dog people think that life in a sanctuary is worse than death for dogs. And the Vick dogs are proving things wrong once again to the animal advocate world. There's a video on the Best Friend's You Tube channel that's amazing - I've pasted it below - and it shows the Vick dogs who are at the Sanctuary in Utah - and a lot of them are destined to spend the rest of their lives there - actually having dog on dog fun - and out of cage, running around - just ballistically humungous loving FUN.

I wouldn't call what's in this video worse than death, would you?

Diane Jessup - for some reason is one of the USA's most respected pit bull advocates and trainers and who I dislike on many levels - she thinks it's okay to chain out dogs - which I won't get into here - has said on another blog -

"I would MUCH rather see that little pup euthanized then placed at the well funded “collector” (Best Friends/Dogtown) where it would rot, probably forever, in a pointless, ownerless, souless life like the poor Vick dogs. That might be fine for some generic dogs, but an American pit bull needs hard exercise, an owner and a life. Not life long boarding. And not by people so ignorant they think a dog who plays hard with a boomer ball has “PTSD” for gawd’s sake!"

That is just gross as far as I'm concerned.

Here's the video -



Here are all my posts about Best Friends Sanctuary

Here are all my posts about the Vick Dogs

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:52 PM

    It`s unfortunate that Diane Jessup feels that way.
    I know she shut down LawDogs for personal reasons but I suspect a lot of Pit Bull folks and others didn`t throw their support behind LawDogs because they don`t support a lot of what she thinks and says.
    I think LawDog graduates are doing a lot of good to restore the reputation of these dogs and more could have been done.

    I do agree with you that these dogs at Best Friends have a great life.Perhaps not as great as they could have with an individual owner but then again it would depend on the individual owner.

    They are certainly far better off there than dead.
    It`s not like they`re living in cages 24/7 and just being fed with no other human contact.

    If they were capable of choosing for themselves,I think it would be paws up for Best Friends and paws down for death.

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  2. Thanks for posting that video, Joan. I enjoyed it on many levels. The body language and play behaviors are fantastic and yes, I'd say that the dogs shown are happy. Having said that, I am also a natural skeptic and always wonder what's real and what's promotional. But clearly, the dogs shown are better off at the sanctuary than dead - I have no doubts about that.

    As far as killing pups, there is an interesting study I read in Frans deWaal's book "The Inner Ape", that clearly shows that aggression is a socially acquired behavior, not a genetic one. Something I have always believed and preached.

    And what the.... is a generic dog! There is no such thing and any time a "dog advocate" makes such value judgments, he/she loses credibility in my books right away. I also have breed preferences, but to me, any mutt is as precious and worthy as the most carefully bred pedigree pooch.

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  3. I have been wanting to write a post about Dianne Jessup for awhile. She's said some pretty spectacular things on her website about shelters and rescue dogs. I just haven't had the time. It takes a lot of different people to make up a world, but there are some types of people who just confuse the hell out of me.

    Joan

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  4. Oh how I love that video :)

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