Here is an unusual twist on an abandoned puppies story

A man brought in five puppies to a shelter in Duluth, MN. He claimed he was driving along and almost hit a box on the road. When he got out to investigate, he found five puppies.

The plight of these cute German Shepherd-Husky mix puppies was featured on the local newspaper website with pictures in the early afternoon. By the end of the day the shelter had been flooded with calls from people interested in adopting them. In all about 100 people showed an interest in the puppies.

A dozen people showed up on the day the shelter announced that the puppies were ready for adoption and they quickly found new homes, including one puppy with a deformed leg which will need surgery.

A great success story. But wait. There’s more.

It seems the Good Samaritan who brought them in did not find the litter on the road as he claimed, but at his daughter’s house. Since she lived outside the city limits, he was afraid the shelter would not take them.

After the story broke of the abandoned puppies, a man called 911 saying he knew who had dumped the puppies on the road because he had gotten a puppy from that litter. That night deputies paid the woman a visit. She admitted they were her puppies and she had asked her father to turn them in. The father confessed that he made up the story.

So. No law had been broken. The man who brought them in just wanted the best for the puppies. The shelter does take litters from outside the area, and, of course, no one wanted to return their puppy when the truth came out.

But I have to wonder at the fate of the puppies if there had been a non story of a man bringing in a litter of puppies that his daughter couldn’t find homes for.

Since there are obviously many people who want a dog if they know one needs a home, maybe shelters and local media could work together to find creative ways to market dogs when they don’t come in with an exciting story.

Nathan Winograd does the math here.
• 90% of the 6-8 million animals brought to shelters are savable. The numbers are approximate, but eight million is a high end estimate.
• Of the 7 million adoptable ones, 4 million find homes; 3 million are killed.
• 17 million people are looking to bring a new dog or cat into their home and can be influenced to adopt from a shelter.
• 17 million people to 3 million pets

Many shelters have achieved the 90% adoption rate.

They did it virtually overnight when new leadership committed to the No Kill philosophy and passionate about saving lives replaced long standing bureaucrats mired in defeatism and excuse making.

 Winograd believes we should stop blaming the public and demand that shelters do their jobs. More from Nathan Winograd on the myth of pet overpopulation.

Comments

[Steve Bartlett]

Unfortunately our local SPCA and Animal Control are run by a political flunkie who is an absolute a**. His only claim to fame was splitting the original SPCA into the two organizations so all the killing is done by Animal Control. That allows the SPCA to pretend to be a "no kill" shelter even though it's really part of the same bureaucracy. And our local media has no interest in publicizing this, so the SPCA can pose as a goodie-two-shoes organization when it comes to fundraising. And they do rake in big bucks, most of which seems to mysteriously "disappear".

[Jan]

Sadly there is a lot of money to be made by exploiting animals and people who love them. I wish local newspapers and TV would do more to expose these people, but if wishes were fishes.

...which accounts for growing numbers of people getting their information from the internet and seeing both sides of issues.

[Big_Dave_T]

I believe the local shelter has a no-kill policy.

Speaking of dogs, I noticed something interesting happening in our neighborhood recently. We have a film crew shooting a picture next to our subdivision. First time for this area. Of course, this attracts the curious. But instead of just walking and gawking, the neighbors just take their dogs for a stroll by the set. That way it looks like they just happened by while exercising their mutts.

[Tom and Icy]

Really don't know what to believe or who is doing fuzzy math and fuzzy logic. It seems like there's always someone who can prove any side of any issue.

[jackie]

if 1/2 of the money garnered by spca and peta actually went to the saving of animals lives instead of them being killed, we wouldn' have this problem

[Lynne]

We've adopted two pound puppies in the past. I'm in talks with my poodle. She's awfully bossy. She hasn't promised not to intimidate and generally torture any new puppy brought into the house. So, we'll keep working on it. It might be another 10 years before I can bring another pound puppy home.

[Khyra]

Spay and Neuter the hoomans....

We'll take khare of things ourselves....

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

[Jimmy]

I'm just thankful that story had a happy ending for the pups even it turned out to be a lot of white lies.
I don't know about truth in statistics either?

[Dixie The Poodle]

I'm happy orl the puppys fownd nyoo howmes to go to where they wil get luvd & playd wiv. I fink hyoomans shood be spayd & nootered too becorz there ar too meny ov them arownd. I see them evrywhere wen I go for walkys

[Col]

I think, as in all stories, there are two sides. Well it is wonderful and a very happy ending that all were adopted, I do think that adopting a pup is a life long commitment and wonder if some get caught up in the emotion of the "found story" and adopt with their hearts rather than their heads. After getting the pup home do some realize that the reality of dog ownership is not what they thought and therefore start the re-homing cycle. Just another twist to add to the tale. Sometimes there are no easy answers. I think educating the public on neutering, puppy mills and the value of rescued dogs is one of the surest ways to go.

[Marion]

It's so common, when puppies or kittens are 'found' and turned in, for so many people to come out of the woodwork and decide they want one. All those kittens and puppies are there in shelters anyway, no matter how they got there. It doesn't require a story for people to adopt a dog or cat, just a caring nature.

I'm glad those puppies found homes, though.

[cube]

I'm glad it worked out for the pups however they got to the pound.

[ibor]

Very usefull, i enjoy to read your posting. Thanks for all.

Best regard,
Ibor