Are Another Dog's Days Numbered At FAAS?

July 10, 2013, 1:00 PT – Rescue Me!! FAAS Adoptable Big Dogs, a Patch blog created to advocate and promote larger shelter dogs at the Alameda shelter, has been informed that yet another dog’s days are numbered.

This time it is Tye, an American Pit Bull Terrier, who has been at the shelter since late December of 2012. He doesn't have much time left I am told.

He is showing troubling signs of kennel stress that have in the past led to euthanasia [at FAAS] in other dogs that have mentally declined. 

His forced isolation, due to an out-dated yet still enforced FAAS policy which does not allow dogs "like Tye" to socialize with others - an essential activity that is proven to help shelter dogs cope with daily stress and learn important rules around manners and relationships with other dogs in a structured way - is taking its toll.

Signs of kennel stress like excessive barking, jumping and mouthing - which can easily be remedied and reversed if caught in time - can eventually render an adoptable dog "unadoptable" if the developed behavioral issues in the canines are not addressed by the responsible shelter.

Unfortunately records have shown that FAAS chooses to euthanize stressed out dogs instead, citing the dog’s declining behavioral issues as reason enough for killing that animal.

I witnessed this exact scenario back in December of last year when Buffy, a gentle, young and perfectly adoptable dog "out of nowhere" bit a volunteer (who had worked with her many times in the past) had just gotten done walking her with no incident. It was highly out of character for Buffy to bite since she had passed her temperament test and was well-adjusted upon admission. Instead of investigating further possible causes of her odd behavior (such as a stress-related hip injury which ultimately was her diagnosis) they chose to locked her away for nearly 2 months, first in quarantine and then onto isolation with no vet exam, no human contact and no walks or exercise for an inhumane 50+ days. 

You read that correctly. Over fifty days. Of solitary confinement.

The damage that such brutal confinement does to a dog's mental and physical health is astronomical. Buffy was as good as dead.

It was hands down one of the worst cases of animal abuse I’d ever witnessed at a shelter and as a volunteer at the time, I was powerless to save her.

FAAS management approved her euthanization by secret vote and she was finally put out of her FAAS-induced misery on February 1, 2013. 

Staff, volunteers and others who objected were simply told she was just a dog who was not fit for adoption.

The fact that FAAS can evade the scrutiny of the public’s eye and get away with such practices is sadly, completely legal. Because FAAS is a nonprofit funded solely by donations, the organization is not required to provide kill numbers so that the public can be made aware of how many animals are being euthanized at its facility. So much for transparency. 

With all of the advancements in humane animal sheltering and forward thinking around new ideas of rehabilitating, rescue and rehoming homeless animals that exist today, shouldn't FAAS openly embrace that movement and learn ways of curbing kennel stress before it sets in and worsens? 

Is it too audacious to demand that FAAS, a not-for-profit organization with a huge volunteer workforce, ample community support through donations and consistent grant-funding no longer allow itself to fail the animals in its charge but rather work towards enriching the lives of those animals during their stay?

So what will be the fate of Tye? Will FAAS step up and make Tye its top priority for adoption and/or rescue because of his heightened stress level? Or will the shelter, instead fall back on its current, municipal-style, business-as-usual practices and euthanize another adoptable dog who simply suffers from kennel stress?

To have a homeless dog enter "our" shelter perfectly adoptable only to be killed 50 days later because of the shelter’s unimaginably inept ability to alleviate common kennel stress with enrichment activities, exercise, proper vet care and good old fashioned kindness is downright unacceptable. It’s unacceptable to me and I’d hope it would be unacceptable to you. 

It's both disturbing and unsettling to me that a shelter relying so heavily on the donations of such a diverse and progressively-minded public chooses to continue euthanizing dogs who are simply stressed out.

It’s time that FAAS rethinks the way it cares for its animals or more dogs like Buffy may end up ultimately paying the price with their lives.