It is considered as a "best practice" to relocate animals already in a brick/ mortar shelter, that are already available for adoption. This frees up space for incoming " disaster" animals. This is vital particularly for large dogs or behavioral animals who are difficult to manage in a temporary shelter ( small wire crates and staffed by volunteers). Animals from the disaster should NEVER be sent out of the area, making it impossible for owners to be reunited. Usually the state Attorney General or state veterinarian will set an extended hold period for affected animals before they are legally available.
It is SUCH a shame that so many families who lost their homes and their belongings have also permanently "lost" their beloved cats, dogs, and other companion animals all, due to organizations (small rescues and large animal welfare orgs) that seek publicity, money, and hero status.
Back in 1999, I worked for one of the national animal welfare organizations. I wanted to see the development of community-based lost pet recovery services (this was before Facebook L&F pages and before anyone cared about lost pet recovery). However, I was later told that the issue of missing pets was "too massive" of a problem for their organization to take on. At one of that org's staff meetings that I attended, the discussion revolved around which photograph of an extremely emaciated dog would generate the most sympathy and attention (i.e. donations!) for the org in an upcoming campaign.
It made me SICK that they didn't want to pursue a lost pet recovery program that could've increased RTO/RTH rates and reduced the # of stray dogs and cats entering shelters. Instead, they focused on tactics to generate more donations by showing emaciated dogs in their marketing. It's no different from the TV ads from another well known national org that uses actors, sad music, and sad looking / neglected/ abused dogs and cats to beg for donations to "help save these animals." Unsuspecting and uneducated dog and cat lovers likely believe they are helping dogs and cats in their local SPCA.
This L.A. fire wasn't a disaster like Katrina, where so many people died and many animals needed a NEW home. Rather than seeing co-location and adoptions to new homes many states away as the answer for these animal disaster victims, why don't these big orgs respond to these disasters and set up temporary shelters? They could set these up a safe distance away in unaffected areas, transport the animals there, house and care for them, even find temporary foster homes, and aggressively work to find the families that lost them. They could then publicize those wonderful reunification stories and ask for donations.
One lesson for me as an 85 y.o. with now only one canine companion; no separation. Where I am, he will be. Where I sleep, he sleeps. And conversely. I refuse to lose anymore.
Translocating shelter animals outside of the greater Los Angeles area after the recent fires, an area with more animal rescue organizations and more sheltering capacity than anywhere else in the world, was mostly just grandstanding to boost outside organizations' fundraising, as you pointed out, but it also served as a pretext for public shelters full to bursting with unadoptable pit bulls to export dozens of them to other areas, including here in the greater Seattle area, where the shelters (as everywhere these days) are also full to bursting with pit bulls, and along the way lose their bite history. In California, by law, bite history must be disclosed, but only one other state (Virginia) has such a requirement. In this context, the Los Angeles shelter evacuation resembles the Mariel boatlift of 1980, in which Fidel Castro was able to empty the Cuban prisons & mental hospitals into Florida. My wife Beth, then a Miami Beach cop, was on the front line in coping with the mayhem that occasioned. Similar will happen as the translocated Los Angeles pit bulls are rehomed into unawares communities all over the U.S.
These big transports are truly designed to “disappear” the animals and no one ever knows what becomes of them. Whenever I see footage of these animals being put on planes, I feel two things. Sadness for the volunteers who sincerely believe the animals are going to safety. I feel anger towards the non profits who are making money off the video footage. These shelter volunteers who are clapping and so happy as the animals are loaded on a plane, it’s heartbreaking because they really don’t know they are being used as props for making money.
All the “big guys & gals” do this, glad you are shedding light on a recent example. Also hope they will stop capitalizing on the fundraising opportunity with puppy mills. With more public awareness of this, eventually they will run out of options and have to fundraise for spay and neuter or new groups with funders who want to solve the problem will appear. Thanks again, Ed for chipping away at this!
Wings of Rescue took dogs from CA to Saving Hope Rescue in TX. TEXAS! A state with such high EU rates and they can't get their own dogs adopted. Here's the thing...Best Friends got involved, and they offered $250 to any shelter or rescue who would take a cat or small dog from one of the over-crowded Southern California shelters. They offered $500 to any shelter or rescue for each medium or large-size dog. This was posted on the Best Friends Facebook page. These animals had already been vetted and were being transported at no cost to the receiving rescue. So Humane Society of North Texas and Saving Hope raised a hand and when I questioned Wings of Rescue they blocked me on Facebook. Follow the $$. It's a SCAM like Asher House.
You covered Humane Society of Southern Arizona's (HSSA) Cochise County Coordinator at Douglas Shelter involved in dumping hundreds of cats in the desert to die.
At the time Jose Ocano Best Friends alumni was interim HSSA's Executive program officer and met with Douglas Shelter ACO's and HSSA coordinator there, before the sheriff reported the cat dumping.
Whether Jose was officially on BF payroll or hired by BF as consultant to install BF HSSA management is a technicality. Jose was acting on behalf of BF and reporting to BF on status Cochise County as HSSA had intended to manage all of Cochise County shelters (benefitting from USDA and county funding).
I mention this in relation to the article about transports because BF put their stamp on Douglas Shelter with an embed program with a new director but it dosn't appear they are paying for the position. Now for the first time, per article below, the shelter with around 50 kennels, announced a 93% live outcome by TRANSFERRING 30 dogs.
I've inquired but there is no information where the dogs were transferred to and Cochise County is a mostly vast rural county with high kill or shelters with few kennels. Also, the Tammi Gould shelter director has her own rescue so could have transferred some dogs there to make publicity.
Douglas Shelter 93% is now on BF dashboard, a farce because of high number of transports (30) to unknown destinations for "No Kill" designation in relation to small shelter capacity.
Between Phoenix and HSSA and Tucson's PACC, 70 dogs were transported to Arizona from LA. PACC is already critical overcapacity and Phoenix has extremely high kill county shelters. Most of the dogs sent from LA were unaltered pits and huskies. Phoenix already euthanizes pits and huskies by the dozens and otherwise shelters are over loaded with those breeds.
With great fanfare, HSSA recently announced BF had funded 100K for a new position "lifesaving coordinator manager" tasked with "fast tracking"...transporting hard to adopt and big dogs to shelters in rural southern Arizona and elsewhere. It's beyond absurd because there are no known rescues or shelters that aren't already overcapacity.
It can only be concluded dogs are sent to high kill shelters or otherwise disappeared because there is no transparency for outcomes of individual ID'd animals. Another example of optics for donations as dogs are being transported here and there like a shell game without outcome transparency.
It is considered as a "best practice" to relocate animals already in a brick/ mortar shelter, that are already available for adoption. This frees up space for incoming " disaster" animals. This is vital particularly for large dogs or behavioral animals who are difficult to manage in a temporary shelter ( small wire crates and staffed by volunteers). Animals from the disaster should NEVER be sent out of the area, making it impossible for owners to be reunited. Usually the state Attorney General or state veterinarian will set an extended hold period for affected animals before they are legally available.
It is SUCH a shame that so many families who lost their homes and their belongings have also permanently "lost" their beloved cats, dogs, and other companion animals all, due to organizations (small rescues and large animal welfare orgs) that seek publicity, money, and hero status.
Back in 1999, I worked for one of the national animal welfare organizations. I wanted to see the development of community-based lost pet recovery services (this was before Facebook L&F pages and before anyone cared about lost pet recovery). However, I was later told that the issue of missing pets was "too massive" of a problem for their organization to take on. At one of that org's staff meetings that I attended, the discussion revolved around which photograph of an extremely emaciated dog would generate the most sympathy and attention (i.e. donations!) for the org in an upcoming campaign.
It made me SICK that they didn't want to pursue a lost pet recovery program that could've increased RTO/RTH rates and reduced the # of stray dogs and cats entering shelters. Instead, they focused on tactics to generate more donations by showing emaciated dogs in their marketing. It's no different from the TV ads from another well known national org that uses actors, sad music, and sad looking / neglected/ abused dogs and cats to beg for donations to "help save these animals." Unsuspecting and uneducated dog and cat lovers likely believe they are helping dogs and cats in their local SPCA.
This L.A. fire wasn't a disaster like Katrina, where so many people died and many animals needed a NEW home. Rather than seeing co-location and adoptions to new homes many states away as the answer for these animal disaster victims, why don't these big orgs respond to these disasters and set up temporary shelters? They could set these up a safe distance away in unaffected areas, transport the animals there, house and care for them, even find temporary foster homes, and aggressively work to find the families that lost them. They could then publicize those wonderful reunification stories and ask for donations.
It’s like you took the words right from my mouth - thank you!
One lesson for me as an 85 y.o. with now only one canine companion; no separation. Where I am, he will be. Where I sleep, he sleeps. And conversely. I refuse to lose anymore.
Translocating shelter animals outside of the greater Los Angeles area after the recent fires, an area with more animal rescue organizations and more sheltering capacity than anywhere else in the world, was mostly just grandstanding to boost outside organizations' fundraising, as you pointed out, but it also served as a pretext for public shelters full to bursting with unadoptable pit bulls to export dozens of them to other areas, including here in the greater Seattle area, where the shelters (as everywhere these days) are also full to bursting with pit bulls, and along the way lose their bite history. In California, by law, bite history must be disclosed, but only one other state (Virginia) has such a requirement. In this context, the Los Angeles shelter evacuation resembles the Mariel boatlift of 1980, in which Fidel Castro was able to empty the Cuban prisons & mental hospitals into Florida. My wife Beth, then a Miami Beach cop, was on the front line in coping with the mayhem that occasioned. Similar will happen as the translocated Los Angeles pit bulls are rehomed into unawares communities all over the U.S.
Some very good points made here and by those who commented.
These big transports are truly designed to “disappear” the animals and no one ever knows what becomes of them. Whenever I see footage of these animals being put on planes, I feel two things. Sadness for the volunteers who sincerely believe the animals are going to safety. I feel anger towards the non profits who are making money off the video footage. These shelter volunteers who are clapping and so happy as the animals are loaded on a plane, it’s heartbreaking because they really don’t know they are being used as props for making money.
All the “big guys & gals” do this, glad you are shedding light on a recent example. Also hope they will stop capitalizing on the fundraising opportunity with puppy mills. With more public awareness of this, eventually they will run out of options and have to fundraise for spay and neuter or new groups with funders who want to solve the problem will appear. Thanks again, Ed for chipping away at this!
Wings of Rescue took dogs from CA to Saving Hope Rescue in TX. TEXAS! A state with such high EU rates and they can't get their own dogs adopted. Here's the thing...Best Friends got involved, and they offered $250 to any shelter or rescue who would take a cat or small dog from one of the over-crowded Southern California shelters. They offered $500 to any shelter or rescue for each medium or large-size dog. This was posted on the Best Friends Facebook page. These animals had already been vetted and were being transported at no cost to the receiving rescue. So Humane Society of North Texas and Saving Hope raised a hand and when I questioned Wings of Rescue they blocked me on Facebook. Follow the $$. It's a SCAM like Asher House.
Ed,
You covered Humane Society of Southern Arizona's (HSSA) Cochise County Coordinator at Douglas Shelter involved in dumping hundreds of cats in the desert to die.
At the time Jose Ocano Best Friends alumni was interim HSSA's Executive program officer and met with Douglas Shelter ACO's and HSSA coordinator there, before the sheriff reported the cat dumping.
Whether Jose was officially on BF payroll or hired by BF as consultant to install BF HSSA management is a technicality. Jose was acting on behalf of BF and reporting to BF on status Cochise County as HSSA had intended to manage all of Cochise County shelters (benefitting from USDA and county funding).
I mention this in relation to the article about transports because BF put their stamp on Douglas Shelter with an embed program with a new director but it dosn't appear they are paying for the position. Now for the first time, per article below, the shelter with around 50 kennels, announced a 93% live outcome by TRANSFERRING 30 dogs.
I've inquired but there is no information where the dogs were transferred to and Cochise County is a mostly vast rural county with high kill or shelters with few kennels. Also, the Tammi Gould shelter director has her own rescue so could have transferred some dogs there to make publicity.
Douglas Shelter 93% is now on BF dashboard, a farce because of high number of transports (30) to unknown destinations for "No Kill" designation in relation to small shelter capacity.
Between Phoenix and HSSA and Tucson's PACC, 70 dogs were transported to Arizona from LA. PACC is already critical overcapacity and Phoenix has extremely high kill county shelters. Most of the dogs sent from LA were unaltered pits and huskies. Phoenix already euthanizes pits and huskies by the dozens and otherwise shelters are over loaded with those breeds.
With great fanfare, HSSA recently announced BF had funded 100K for a new position "lifesaving coordinator manager" tasked with "fast tracking"...transporting hard to adopt and big dogs to shelters in rural southern Arizona and elsewhere. It's beyond absurd because there are no known rescues or shelters that aren't already overcapacity.
It can only be concluded dogs are sent to high kill shelters or otherwise disappeared because there is no transparency for outcomes of individual ID'd animals. Another example of optics for donations as dogs are being transported here and there like a shell game without outcome transparency.
https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/border/douglas-animal-shelter-achieves-no-kill-rating-for-january/article_8a9679e4-e4dc-11ef-a39d-6b0f69a81cd8.html