Newsday Article Epic FAIL
Cassandra DiPietro, wife of NHL hockey player Rick DiPietro, and Beth Stern, wife of Howard Stern, hold two of the 150 dogs that arrived Wednesday at the North Shore Animal League. "OMG u guys! Let's get all our friends a puppy for Christmas".
Here’s a hint for the reporters (and editors!) over at NewsDay.Com – do you know what rescue groups like Northshore Animal League and Best Friends Animal Society don’t like? They don’t like the idea of puppies as Christmas Presents. They really, really don’t like it at all.
That’s why they probably don’t appreciate you headlining your article (which was more about showing off celebrity wives than it was about the dogs) –
“Need holiday gift ideas? 150 dogs need a home”
I can barely run a snippet from it, as the article is about as sketchy as the mental skills of the genius who came up with that headline, but here’s the first paragraph –
About 150 dogs rescued from Midwest puppy mills were taken to North Shore Animal League America in Port Washington, the shelter said in a news release Wednesday.
The dogs include those used for breeding, as well as adolescents and puppies, the agency said.
The breeds include dachshunds, westies, French bulldogs, poodles, Boston terriers, beagles, Brussels griffons and bichon frises, according to the release.
No word about where the dogs came from (big raid? Kennel foreclosure? USDA violations? Who knows), but a cheery note about how they’ll be available to take home soon. Sort of like pet store puppies, huh? Yeah, I bet Best Friends and Northshore just love this story.
Update: after being tipped off by Charlotte, I took a look at NSAL’s website. 55 dogs listed as available – 48 of them puppies. They have NO senior dogs available for adoption. None.
Anyone who has done rescue for any length of time knows that adult dogs and seniors in need of homes FAR outweigh puppies – and yet NASL is importing them in from out of state?
I think I must be missing something here – how DOES this differ from Pet Stores who ‘import’ puppies in from the mid west?
You’re giving the North Shore Rescue League way too much credit for pure thoughts. Beth Stern IS their official spokesperson. Almost all the dogs listed for adoption on their website are puppies.
You have to be kidding me. All the adults in need of homes, and they only have puppies? How very odd.
Take a look for yourself – they may have adults, but they certainly don’t advertise them –
http://adopt.animalleague.org/dogs/
Was this one of those ‘Puppy Mill rescues’ where they go into an auction and just buy up a bunch of cute ‘adoptable’ dogs? Because I’d think a actual ‘mill bust’ would’ve gotten a lot of older dogs as well, not just puppies.
Or maybe are all the older dogs not advertised for adoption yet because of health or rehab reasons. I don’t want to assume the worst without having some more information…
I’m on the fence about the whole ‘Don’t adopt during the holidays’ thing. A lot of animals’ time runs out during that period of time and they will be killed because the shelter told people basically to stay away… that just seems wrongheaded to me.
I’d rather people be encouraged (year round) to -always- plan responsibly for a pet, no matter what time of year they decide to get one. To just say ‘STAY AWAY DURING CHRISTMASTIME!’ doesn’t really educate anyone about responsible ownership — it just encourages people to heed the BYBs who advertise pups specifically ‘in time for Christmas!’.
I’m on the fence about the whole ‘Don’t adopt during the holidays’ thing. A lot of animals’ time runs out during that period of time and they will be killed because the shelter told people basically to stay away…
Oh, hey – I agree. I’m not anti adopt (or even buy) during the holidays. For some people, the block of time off gives them opportunity to be at home with the new pet, settle in, establish some routines. What I am vehemently ‘anti‘ is giving pets as gifts, which is what the headline of this idiotic article suggested.
“Surprising” someone on your gift list with a living creature is just never, ever a good idea. Of course, even then I allow for exceptions, such as the couple who bought a puppy from me as their ‘gift’ to each other, in lieu of a honeymoon (how can you not love a couple who’d rather get a dog than go to Maui?). It’s the ‘surprise’ box full of puppy under the tree for Timmy (or old Auntie Ida) that I object to. A dog or cat should only be gotten after serious consideration, not sprung on someone who might not even want one.
That’s what shocked me about this article – that you should ‘shop’ for a shelter pet to give to someone as a gift.
I think the divide between people who see animals as ‘toys’ and those who see animals as ‘family’ is getting more and more deep with every passing year. You can almost tell just by the words some people will use when speaking about pets which view they hold.
I have a feeling that the author of the article would not understand why some people find his title problematic at all. Like you said, just the phrasing gets the hackles up of anyone who sees puppies as beings instead of objects.
I’ve been griping about this for a few years. Here in Maine the shelters bring in puppies and dogs from southern states or even Puerto Rico (where apparently “small” breeds and mixes are easy to come by). Maine had virtually solved the surplus dog problem (not that there are not local dogs in the shelters; they just aren’t being PTS wholesale any more), in large part because the veterinarians were very generous about donating s/n surgeries to shelter animals to make them more adoptable. Those same vets are understandably a little vocal about not wanting to now have to take on the s/n problems of the rest of the world, AND they say that a lot of southern diseases of dogs (tick-borne, for instance), which probably would have made their way north over the long term anyway, have accelerated their migration here because of these out of state dogs moving in.
When questioned about it by a club I belonged to, one local shelter’s answer amounted to the idea that the needed to have “product” (my word by I feel strongly that it’s the right one) when people came looking. Okay, don’t get me started, LOL!
Yeah, the whole ‘stray importing’ thing is really skeevy to me. They’re coming from the Caribbean, Mexico, Puerto Rico… why aren’t they working with other shelters in the U.S?!
There was an article in a local paper recently about a woman trying to raise funds to rescue some dogs in Turkey and bring them back to Maine. We ARE taking from other US shelters here, but as I said, that too doesn’t sit quite right.
I just don’t know, Judith. I definitely understand the accusations of cherry-picking, but I really do wish more shelters up north would consider puppies from southern US shelters when they’re just importing ‘whatever puppies’ up north- wait till they’re out of time and medically quarantine them before releasing them; it wouldn’t be that hard if they truly do have the space resources.
.-= Cait´s last blog ..Slow week for updates, sorry! =-.
OT, but aigh! Dying from the felted doggy cuteness at ur blog…