NAIA Official Blog

Even before the pandemic, complaints from potential adopters about overly stringent, intrusive, and seemingly arbitrary – even nonsensical – adoption requirements from rescues and shelters weren’t uncommon. Now, screening in and of itself is an important tool when applied sensibly. It helps protect animals, adopters, shelters, and the public. But putting up unnecessary barriers between pets and permanent, loving homes runs counter to the spirit of rescue.

And since the pandemic, for a multitude of reasons, these barriers have become all but impenetrable in some shelters. Today, we are seeing a growing number of accusations that shelters are “warehousing” adoptable pets for months, or even years on end, as well as stonewalling potential adopters and eager volunteers.

For the Humane Society of New York, a no-kill shelter, an animal rights activist raised charges of warehousing, which led to interviews and a news investigation that showed the humane society is only adopting out about one animal per week in 2023. The organization placed much of the issue on renovating their facility, but they also brought up the need for adopters presenting a “good application,” reviewing adopters before they can even meet the animals, and the importance of a “exactly the right forever home.” As a city council member pointed out with apparent frustration, the renovations are taking an unusually long time, and this is a slow pace for such a well-funded organization. Again, screening and standards are invaluable, but if we only allow “exactly the right” pet owners to have – or even come near! – adoptable animals, all that means is fewer pets in homes. If you are housing 30 dogs and cats, and 75 people have applied to adopt them, maybe that’s a good thing! And assuming these applications are generally acceptable and you are still only willing to adopt out a trickle of these animals, it certainly raises a lot of questions about the organization.

Animal rights activist raises concerns about Humane Society of New York’s pet adoption process

Resources
★ Why animal shelters are facing a new crisis
★ Animal shelter accused of neglecting 150 pets

On Wednesday, after a string of failed health inspections, overcrowding, and substandard animal care, the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) ordered Unleashed Pet Rescue, a Kansas pet shelter, to surrender its rescue license. Many of the shelter’s failures appear tied to simple math: too many dogs = too little care. So, it’s no wonder that the city broke its partnership with Unleashed Pet Rescue last week, or that KDA ordered the shelter to stop taking in animals on Monday.

The shelter’s issues have been percolating for some time – long enough to cause a local TV station to launch an investigation last January. This is the same shelter that imported 26 dogs from Egypt in 2019 – a shipment that included a rabies-positive dog, and another dog that escaped, which led to quarantines and 44 people taking rabies postexposure prophylaxis.

And despite its revenue of $2.3 million in 2020, it appears that Unleashed Pet Rescue did not provide basic animal care. In any case, it sounds like the KDA made the right call here.

Resources
★ State agency investigates Kansas City-area animal shelter after complaints
★ CDC Extends Suspension of Dog Imports from Countries with High Rabies Prevalence

A recent photo story in the Wall Street Journal shared some gorgeous dog pictures and some very predictable news on Greyhounds the other day. In the United States, Greyhound racing has faded in popularity over the last half century, a decline capitalized on and greatly accelerated by the actions of animal rights activists, legislators, and other interest groups.

Correlating with the drop in popularity and availability of the sport was a rise in “racetrack rescue” Greyhound adoptions, but we’ve reached a point where – surprise! – there are now more people who want to adopt Greyhounds than there are available Greyhounds. Further, there are also fewer reputable breeders maintaining these dogs… and to get one of their puppies, you’ll need to hop on a waitlist and fork over a lot of money! Meanwhile, there are concerns that “cash crop” breeders will fill in the void, capitalizing on the popularity of this beloved breed (they aren’t numerous like Labradors or Frenchies, but the people who love Greyhounds really adore them – and will find a way to get one), while rescues have modified their business model by switching to importing retired racing dogs from countries where the Greyhound racing is popular. If this all seems so very familiar, it’s because, well… it is.

Resources
★     Once One of America’s Favorite Pastimes, Greyhound Racing Eats Dust
★     ‘Ethical conundrum’: sending retired Australian greyhounds to US rescues some – but at what cost?

We have become all too familiar with sad tales of people relinquishing their dogs due to economic and housing pressure over the last year. Dogs want to stay with their people, owners are often filled with sorrow or even shame at the choices they must make, and amid the fallout numerous shelters across the country report being filled to capacity or beyond. But what about the cats? Cats, despite being the second most popular companion animal in the United States, are an animal we have heard precious little about in recent months.

Indeed, in Vermont, humane societies and shelters aren’t reporting the same difficulties with cat relinquishments and adoptions as with dogs. And this makes sense: cats are less expensive and lower-maintenance than dogs. Cat-owning renters also face fewer hurdles when moving. It comes in handy that landlords often view cats as cleaner, quieter, more out of the way, and less of a liability than dogs. So maybe cats simply aren’t facing the same economic and housing pressures?

It’s certainly tempting (and comforting) to think so. However, smaller cat rescues in the state tell a much different tale: while it was hard for many rescues to keep cats “in stock” during 2020-21, adoptions in 2022 are way down and relinquishments are up. And at least one rescue owner is asking why some of the state’s humane societies still import cats from the southern United States while rescues and fosters are at capacity, and locals face growing wait times to surrender their own pets or strays. This isn’t an idle concern. You can argue the ethics of rescue importation until blue in the face without changing anyone’s mind, but you can’t change the math. If there isn’t enough room to house and adopt out local cats because you’re hauling in dozens of cats from out of state each month, you simply aren’t serving your community.

Resources
★     People are giving up pets. Blame inflation.
★     Higher intake, slower adoptions: Michigan animal shelters need your help

On Tuesday, a twin-engine plane packed with 53 rescue dogs enroute from Louisiana to a humane society in Wisconsin crash-landed just short of its destination at a golf club in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. It was a skillful emergency landing, and thankfully, there were only minor injuries inside the plane. Outside, snow kept people off the golf course, so the only casualty was a small tree taken out by the landing.

The story has garnered local and national notoriety and the destination shelter, Humane Animal Welfare Society (HAWS), reported hundreds of inquiries about the dogs, which means they’ll all be adopted. So – from certain disaster to hunky-dory-happily-ever-after, yes? Maybe not. The primary question remains: are loosely regulated rescue pet transports appropriate, humane, or even safe ways to deal with surplus pets? The fact is, of all the sources of dogs available to the public, these are among the most challenging because they have a demonstrable record of significant health and behavioral problems.

Concern over disease and parasites in rescue imports is often dismissed or even belittled by rescue activists, though it’s maddening to the scientists and agencies that are forced to deal with the fallout (HAWS was quarantined a few years ago when South Korean rescue imports brought canine brucellosis with them – a disease that can utterly destroy breeding programs). Canine rabies infection is fatal without post-exposure treatment, but even if exposure doesn’t result in infection, it often causes a follow-up investigation and cleanup that costs a fortune. But rabies and brucellosis are just two of many diseases found in unvetted pet transports – and many of these are not endemic to their destination sites. Importing dogs from foreign countries can put US agriculture at risk with diseases such as African swine fever, which has killed millions of hogs worldwide.

If you are adopting a pet, we urge you to seek out locally sourced dogs and cats in need of permanent, loving homes. Rescue transport may get some great headlines (just follow how this story is being covered elsewhere!), but the resources that go into it would be much better spent solving surplus and homeless pet issues at their source, via outreach, education, improving animal services, and providing low-cost vaccination and spay & neuter services.

Resources
★     NAIA Leads Appeal for Healthy Dog Import Resources for USDA
★     Wisconsin animal shelter flooded by ‘hundreds’ of offers to adopt dogs who survived plane crash
★     What Imported Dogs have to do with African Swine Fever
★     Notice of Temporary Suspension of Dogs Entering the United States from Countries Classified as High Risk for Dog Rabies

A few years ago, it seemed like we were standing at the precipice of a major scandal after the Washington Post revealed that rescues were buying and reselling dogs from their avowed mortal enemies: commercial breeders. Yikes, can you imagine that? But this practice had been going on for some time, and by 2018, the shadow market it created had become so large, some breeders claimed to be breeding more dogs specifically for the “rescue market!” For rescue, whose goal is (or at least was) to do such a great job of emptying the shelters that they put themselves out of business, buying puppies from commercial breeders is a curiously sustainable business model.

But here we are in 2022, and as you can see by this news story, not only did the above scandal cause little more than a ripple of public outrage, this practice has actually been normalized by large humane organizations, and is even celebrated as “lifesaving.”

Of course, no matter how noble and humane a veneer you place on it, rescues buying and reselling “overstock” (or even deliberately bred) dogs from breeders or importing unvetted street dogs from overseas are not engaged in the business of solving problems. Taking and rehoming individual pets brings good feelings and is great marketing, but relying on this model means that substandard breeding operations remain in operation (or even grow), and dogs and cats in foreign countries continue to reproduce unchecked. You can look at this from a compartmentalized perspective and celebrate the individual animal rehomed, as well as taking action for action’s sake (and many people do), but again, this simply allows the underlying issues to persist. Practices like these are short-sighted at best, and cynical at worst.

To quote our own peer-reviewed dog study on the outdated perceptions that shape today’s dog marketplace:  “As Rhode Island state veterinarian Dr. Scott Marshall put it, ‘…There’s some evidence that the rescue groups are a new model for the pet shop industry.'”

Resources
★     (2018) Dog Fight: Dog rescuers, flush with donations, buy animals from the breeders they scorn
★     (2018) USDA says individuals and groups may need license if buying dogs for rescue at auction
★     (2019) NAIA: How outdated perceptions have reshaped the dog marketplace

Ill will between various rescue and shelter groups isn’t uncommon or unique. Given enough time and participation, virtually any group that works with animals will sprout factions that argue over best practices, philosophy, budgeting, events, and anything else you might imagine. But no matter how nasty the cliques get, no matter how heated the disagreements may be, it’s hard to imagine things getting this extreme and terrifying:

Officials: Animal rescue president threatened to shoot shelter staff

For a little background:

Out of the Box rescues animals, mostly dogs, from shelters that have deemed them dangerous. The Citrus County Animal Shelter stopped providing dogs to [Robert] Schweickert earlier this year after one of the rescue’s adopted “dangerous” dogs escaped from its owner’s enclosure.

In response, the rescue president allegedly made a threatening phone call to the shelter, saying if he had a gun, he would shoot the director and shelter staff. According to the community service director, he also sat in his car in the shelter parking lot, just “waiting to talk” to the shelter or service director. Unsurprisingly, he is currently being trespassed from shelter property.

Rescue and adoption issues can certainly be heated, but this is some seriously scary stuff!

A public animal shelter has to protect the public health and safety first and foremost. Whatever one’s feelings are on what constitutes a truly “dangerous” dog,* and whether it is appropriate to adopt a “dangerous” dog out, if the shelter felt that providing dogs to a particular rescue presented too great of a risk, trusting their judgment in this matter is a good baseline position. Given the behavior of the rescue after being told no more dogs would be provided, it would appear that position has been validated.**

*Citrus county allows citizens to keep dogs deemed dangerous, but they must be secured, properties must post a “dangerous dog” warning, the dog must be on leash and muzzled while on walks (and only walked by an adult), and there is a hefty $500 annual licensing fee.

** The issue of adopting out aggressive dogs is a problem NAIA is vocal about while also offering reasonable solutions (see: Virginia).

April is National Heartworm Awareness month — are your pets up on their preventative treatments?

The Companion Animal Parasite Council’s (CAPC) March report is out with a rather ominous top-10 list: the cities with the highest percentage increase in positive heartworm tests last month.

Portland, Oregon made the top 10. This is important to note, as Portland had no native cases of heartworm prior to the introduction of irresponsible dog rescue operations that relocated dogs from distant states and countries to the Northwest. The idea that living in a “heartworm free” region of the country is all one needs to keep their pets free from this parasite, is alas, no longer a safe bet.

Unfortunately, the current most common standard preventatives for heartworm are controlled poisons with known side-effects (especially ivermectin) and potential ecotoxicity issues, as well, but making sure your pet is protected is far better than the alternative. Are your pets up on theirs?

As if on cue, a few minutes after we put out yesterday’s blog on imported Korean rescue dogs introducing a new strain of canine distemper into North America, our inbox was awash with this APB:

Officers looking for rescue dog in Leawood that escaped, possibly exposed to rabies

The escaped dog was in a group of 26 dogs imported from Egypt, in which one got sick and tested positive for rabies. The dog that escaped has not shown any signs of the disease itself.

Yes, by all means let’s displace our domestic dog population with pets from a part of the world where the CDC recommends rabies vaccines for anybody who might interact with the local animal population. What could possibly go wrong?

One final note: the rescue group says they followed proper protocol in importing the dogs, which if true, is a very strong argument in favor of modernizing our current importation laws, which have not been significantly updated since the 1950s. Situations like this, which threaten our animals and ourselves, shed still more light on why NAIA and the NAIA Trust are working on a federal bill to rein in irresponsible international rescue.

Last seen wearing purple sweater. May have been exposed to rabies.

Here’s another example of why NAIA has been working nonstop on the issue of irresponsible dog importation for nearly 20 years:

New Imported Distemper Strain in Dogs

This is not a long read, but to summarize: 12 week-old puppy (yes, 12 weeks!) was imported into North America from Korea by a rescue. The puppy showed signs of illness 12 days after arriving, grew sicker, and had to be euthanized. Tests indicate the imported pup had a new strain of distemper.

The excerpt below captures the dangers of irresponsible rescue importation (trafficking, if you don’t want to mince words), and its wanton disregard for the domestic dog population:

While we have been most concerned with the importation of canine influenza virus from Asia to North America by improper procedures by various “rescue” groups, the importation of CDV may be more significant in that CDV once it enters an ecosystem cannot be eradicated even with effective vaccines. Once again the North American dog population is being put at risk by those who have no regard for the importation of foreign animal diseases.

The threats to public, animal, and economic health that are posed by importing unscreened livestock into the country are generally understood. The fact that we have a reasonably strict screening process for importing livestock is evidence of this. Yet for the last two decades, rescues shipping in dogs from parts of the world that have not even gotten rabies under control has rarely elicited anything stronger than “but at least their hearts were in the right place” in response. Sadly, it seems to take incidents such as the canine flu, rabid puppies, and new (or reintroduced) diseases for the public to take notice, but awareness is spreading.