Originally posted by GoldenRetrLuver
Some people on here are making it seem like she's a bad person for keeping her dog outdoors, and that her dog should be taken away, when she's a good dog owner. Where a dog sleeps doesn't determine whether he/she gets the right amount of attention and care.
The point being, however .... if you adopt a dog from a shelter or rescue that specifically states in a legally binding contract that you signed that the dog must be kept indoors .... then the dog must be kept indoors. Period. End of story.
To do otherwise violates not only a legal contract, but also an ethical agreement with people who trusted you to tell them the truth and abide by their regulations in order to adopt a dog from them. If someone signs a contract saying they will do something, then turns around and do the opposite ... would you really expect the organization to trust them again? If you loaned $100 to someone and promised to pay you back - and you never saw the money .... would you turn around and loan them another $100? Only if you were an idiot. I find it unbelievable that this person is shocked and angry that the shelter would not give them another dog, after they admitted to violating a signed contract and lying about the first dog they adopted there!
The shelter person was absolutely right in telling them they should consider getting a dog from another source. I tell people that all the time. If you don't like my rules, then you won't get a dog from me. Period. Go down the road a couple miles ... there is a humane society and two animal control facilites, perhaps you'll like their rules a little more. My rescue, my rules.
Some people might not have a problem with a dog living outside, or a dog being chained up, or a dog being left alone for eighteen hours every day or a cat living outside. If they don't, that's their business. Lots of people, however, DO have a problem with these things, and others. If these people happen to own a shelter or rescue, they then make the adoption requirements fit their own personal beliefs about what is right and wrong. That is their choice. If someone doesn't like it, then their option is to do business with a different facility or start their own rescue or shelter. It's not like these requirements are some hidden secret - they are right there in black and white on the adoption agreement.
I know I, personally, would not sleep at night if I knew one of my former rescue dogs was living outside in someone's backyard. I would be distraught. I would get that dog back. That's how I feel about it, and it's my right - my rescue, my rules. I would be so very angry if someone lied to me about a dog I adopted to them. It's a matter of ethics.
The point it NOT in any way, shape or form whether or not a dog can happily live outside or not. That could be debated until everyone is blue in the face, and we are still going to walk away with our own differing opinions. The point IS that these people signed a contract stating they would keep their dog inside ... and then they put the dog outside in the yard. They also signed a contract stating that if they violated the terms of adoption, the dog could be reclaimed. Now they are acting shocked at the thought? They signed it!
GRL, you personally know this person, and say she loves her dog. I'm sure she does. Fine and well. But the shelter workers, and the rest of us, don't know her personally.
The shelter workers are doing their job, following the rules. The shelter owners or board of directors are doing their job, following their hearts. Bashing a shelter whose policies you don't agree with doesn't help at all. That shelter is doing good things, working hard to save animals. Just because you don't happen to agree with every detail of their operations doesn't make them "bad." Bash the BYB's and puppy mills that caused the problem in the first place, not the shelter doing it's best to clean up a little of the mess.
And no one should sign any agreement that they don't intend to keep. Period.
"We give dogs the time we can spare, the space we can spare and the love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made" - M. Facklam
"We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers - thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams."- P.S. Beagle
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king." - J.R.R. Tolkien
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I hope she gets her new dog. Just read what is signed, we don't want to have to have the dog taken away and find another new home, even though her's is a good one, for something that could have been advoided!
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