By now most of you have heard the story of Target, the hero dog originally from Afghanistan who was accidentally euthanized at Pinal County, Arizona's animal control last week in a case of mistaken identity. You may have also heard that the shelter worker who put Target to sleep has since been fired for making the tragic error.
My heart goes out to Target’s family for their loss, this is indeed a sad story, but I’m dismayed to see the shelter and shelter worker cast as the scapegoats or worse, as villains in this tragedy. They did indeed make a terrible, irreversible mistake but the real problem lies much deeper than this single, highly publicized incident.
I’m going to put a few things on the table that I hope will spark discussion we all can learn from so that Target’s tragic end is not in vain.
Target was picked up by animal control as a stray because as a semi-feral dog from a third-world country she was not used to being confined to a back yard.
Target escaped from her yard and was found wandering the streets by a well-meaning neighbor who caught her and put her in his backyard and called animal control. This sad story could have ended right here if Target had been wearing an identification tag. The neighbor would have realized she wasn’t a stray and would have likely called her owner rather than animal control to pick her up, or, if she’d been licensed or microchipped the shelter would have easily been able to contact her owner to pick her up from the shelter rather than classify her as a homeless stray. But Target had no documentation, no tag, no microchip, and no license and therefore became just another “Dog Doe” in a system overrun with unclaimed animals.
Dogs can’t speak for themselves and accidents do happen. A lot of loss and heartache can be avoided by simply making sure dogs are tagged, tattooed, or microchipped.
Another disturbing aspect of this story is how the animal control facility and, more specifically, a shelter worker are both being fully blamed for the incident. Some are even going so far as to suggest that the shelter worker had control issues and actually enjoyed killing dogs, just couldn’t get enough. This sort of character assassination is appalling. I know hundreds and hundreds of shelter workers and none of them relish putting animals to sleep, even on occasions it appears to be the most humane option for an individual.
Municipal animal shelters do the sad, dirty work that most people simply put out of their minds. They take in every, and any animal regardless of the state they’re in and do their best with the resources they’ve got (or, more likely lack of resources) and make heartbreaking decisions on a regular basis regarding animals that others have either damaged or simply thrown away. They do what they can to clean up our society’s mess, albeit often too little, too late, it is far from a perfect system but the responsibility for the mess lies on the shoulders of our government and humankind in general.
The fact that we have over-crowded shelters full of unwanted and sometimes damaged animals, that we have underpaid, overworked, emotionally exhausted, often villainized shelter workers is a symptom of a much larger problem, and not the problem itself.
Make no mistake that the plight of animals is a people problem. From irresponsibility, to ignorance, to cruelty, animals are merely the recipients of the treatment of humans. We, collectively, are to blame. In a world where so many people are suffering, abused, undereducated, marginalized, infighting, battling, over-consuming, and generally just trying to survive with dignity… other animals don’t really stand a chance.
Rest in peace Target and all of the millions of other animals humankind has failed.
- kelly gorman dunbar's blog
- login or register to post comments
- 4428 reads
- back to the dog blog
- more by kelly gorman dunbar
Shelter workers
As a former shelter worker (30+ years ago) this incident is very sad and reminded me of how difficult that job was. We were often maligned as people who "got off killing dogs" by the very people who were responsible for the situation.
Saranah
mistaken identity
Thanks for this. It's a tragedy all around and all too easy for those of us not in the shelter system to point fingers.
thanks for bringing compassion and balance to this tragedy
I think people have been hesitant to blame the victim. But I hope this story can demonstrate the tremendous importance in having ID for our pets.
Pamela http://www.somethingwagging.com
Dog tags
As a shelter volunteer for over 11 years this incident is very sad, but also reinforces the importance of tagging and micro chipping your dogs. At my shelter we get in so many transfer dogs (dogs transferred from kill shelters) that indicate "stray", but it's clear they were owned at one time. No tags or microchip is death sentence for millions of dogs each year and the shelters or animal controls are not to blame. So often during adoption the adopter says no to a $25 microchip or a $5 name tag. Such a simple solution to avoid death.
Eric - www.kcdogguy.com
multiple tags
The first time I ever meet with a client, I always mention that my dogs wear 2 tags:
one is just that I offer a reward and what numbers to call (they don't need to know my dog's name - why make it easy for someone to keep my dog?)
and the other is the bone shape (with "take me to <the vet's name, address and phone number>and the last line states "I can wait for mom here". Make it easy for someone to bring your dog to the one place where they not only know you, your dog but know what medications your dog is on?
I also mention some of the stories about animals reunited with their owner several years later.
multiple tags
What good ideas! I have the name Bosco on my shy dog Sunny's tag so no one tries to talk to him using his name, it scares him. The 'take to vet' info is fantastic.
So true!!
I so agree. For me tags will get your dog or cat home faster. Your pets should always have some sort of visible i d on them. This is a very sad story and lets not make it worse by putting down a person who has to do a very hard job. Thank you Kelly
Back to the dogs, Barktender
This is a heartbreaking
This is a heartbreaking story. I blame the owners for not having ID tags on the dog. I do not know how long Pinal County must keep dogs before they put them to sleep, but it sounds as if the owners did not try very hard to find this dog. Had this been my dog, I would have moved heaven and earth to find my dog.
Microchip Tags
I have "REWARD" with my phone number on my dogs and they are all microchipped. I never put the microchip tag on my dogs' collars though. Why? It's like their social security card. With that ID number anyone can call and change the info and "steal" your dog's identity. With more and more cases of dogs being stolen out of people's yards (among other reasons), I never leave my dogs out when I am not home and when I do leave the house the dogs are all wearing their collars just in case (god forbid) my house cathces fire and emergency people have to come to my home and dogs slip out in a panic, etc.
So sad about Target....a tragedy that could have been avoided.
Kendra Coatney Dempster
www.evolution-dog-training.com
https://twitter.com/EvolutionDog
I go married this summer to a fellow dog lover. Together we have seven dogs, five males and two females. People think we are crazy and ask how we do it (they also ask if they all live inside....do people really still have dogs that only live outside????). We do our best to give each dog personal attention but we do allow them to play amongst themselves as well. Some require more human attention than others. The two Saint Bernards LOVE to chase each other around the yard. The two Rat Terriers LOVE to play tug together. Miss Border Collie needs a human to throw her tennis ball. Mr. Skinny Brown Dog loves to lean and have his chest scratched but will play with Mr. Rat Terrier sometimes and Mr. Pit Bull LOVES (of course) to have his butt scratched. They have a doggie play room all their own with beds, a sofa and a recliner and we have a decent sized yard for living in the city. They all get along as well as "siblings" are expected to too (especially step-siblings). They have an occassional disagreement but nothing major. Their ages vary from 3-8 years so no puppies to manage at this point and we have no need for cable televion since we have a doggie circus to watch every day. Their training is kept up but there is little need for constant supervision or guidance.
I love meeting people that successfully and humanely keep multiple dogs. It takes some getting used to but I wouldn't change it for anything.
Here's a picture of five of them in my living room
Kendra Coatney Dempster
www.evolution-dog-training.com
https://twitter.com/EvolutionDog
http://evolution-dog-training.blogspot.com/