What do you say when you feel like you have just been punched in your stomach and your heart and mind are racing with panic and despair. That emotion poured over us recently when we discovered one of our beloved pups on Craigslist – posted initially for a “re-homing” fee of $75 and then as FREE. We could not believe our eyes! How could someone who promised us, signed a contract guaranteeing us, and swore to us that our pup would always be a loved family member, just hand her off to somebody posing as her next best friend? Well, that’s just what happened.
All of these free classifieds web sites have become a haven for conveniently disposing of pets. Although illegal to sell animals on some, the sellers can get away with pretense – you certainly can “re-home” or “adopt”. Easy enough to comply with for backyard breeders or those with one of the ad infinitum excuses for dumping an animal — finances, moving, aggression, babies, allergies, apartment won’t accept, etc., etc. Poster BEWARE…there are a lot of individuals lining up to take these dogs and their intentions are not always in the dog’s best interest. Based on this recent experience, even with a screening process, there are obviously no guarantees. Dogs, like ours that was placed in jeopardy, are affectionate people pleasers – hand cared for. Our pup was birthed by us, nurtured by us, medically cared for and loved by us – how could someone dare put this pup at risk. The thought of all of these pups (especially little bully breed dogs) being handed off into a black abyss makes me sick to my stomach. In this environment when you hear and see the horror stories – pups being used as bait dogs, chained in backyards or forced to fight because they look the part — the imagination runs wild.
We make ourselves available to support our families; in fact, we have brought several dogs needing re-homing back into our foster program. We would NEVER turn our back on one of our dogs, so how could they have been so thoughtless and so cruel. Why would they not just call or email us and ask for help? It’s that simple. How can they sleep at night not knowing this pup’s fate?
The rescue community becomes a very tight family when it comes to protecting the dogs that we save. Each life is very precious to us and we consider every pup we take into the rescue our personal dog. The families we select for each of our rescues is given our complete trust and faith that they have been honest and will honor our agreement to love and care for the dog – forever. It broke our hearts to see this beautiful little girl posted for any taker.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
The good news on our pup is she was spotted by another rescue, she was brought to our attention and she is safe! Hopefully, this will be the one and ONLY time this happens, but the unknown looms and keeps us wary.
