Before Your Surrender Your Dog Online: Free to a Good Home Could put your Dog in a dog-fighting practice ring
Free to a Good Home, Before You Surrender Your Dog
Professional dog fighters are lurking websites like Freecycle and Craig’s list every day just waiting to comb through “Free to a Good Home” ads. After all, you don’t think they are going to pay good money for a dog that they are going to use as practice bait, do you?
The next time you see one of those ads, send them this webpage, the link to the Shader video, and a personal note to beware. I have nightmares every night about those free dogs, and I wonder where they went.
Did you Know?
If you re-home your dog, knowing that it has bitten someone, and your dog bites their new owners, that you are liable?
What’s happened to you when you took in a “free dog” from an online or newspaper ad?
People also become victims when they adopt a dog from a stranger versus a reputable shelter, pound or rescuer. Bringing home what you believe to be a loving dog is what you expect. You don’t expect your new dog to be dog-aggressive, attack your other pets, or attack your family members. Very few people are honest when they are giving away their dogs because they just want to get rid of them. They think that if they don’t tell the pound or shelter that the dog has bitten someone, someone else will adopt their dog, and they can walk away without a guilty conscience. What they don’t realize is that a reputable shelter, pound or rescue will perform temperament tests on their dogs, and the first sign of aggression, a shelter or pound will deem the dog unadoptable, and put the dog down.
Many times people drop off their dogs to the pound once they find out their dog has a serious illness like heartworm. They can’t afford or can’t bare to put their dog down. However, forcing a stranger to euthanize your dog is the act of a coward. I helped a woman last year, who could not put her 18 year old dog down, instead she found him a home, so someone else would do it for her. Where’s the love in that? At the age of 18, loaded with medical issues, this dog was re-homed. It did end up being a success story, but at the expense of the dog having to be bounced around from home to home until it could get settled in. Believe it or not, a breeder took the dog in, and she lived for 3 months before she died. At least she died surrounded by strangers who loved her.
Did you Know?
If your dog IS up-to-date on shots, and IS spayed or neutered, there’s a greater chance that a reputable rescuer will take in your dog. Also, if you are expecting a rescuer to take in your dog, be prepared to offer a donation for their services.
National list of No-Kill Shelters