SPCA - Page 1

I work as a vet tech in Alabama, and we routinely spay and neuter dogs from the Alabama SPCA. However, today they brought in the sweetest Pitt Bull ever, who was obviously pregnant. She was to the point she was producing milk. They still insisted on getting her spayed. We pulled out 7 babies, who were maybe a week from full term. None of the babies made it. I am just confused here. I thought the SPCA was not into aborting puppies at such a late term? Any comments?

The SPCA is not known for helping animals.  Sorry to break it to you.  They are a business like any other.  Why do you think the leader of this "not for profit" organization takes home 350 K a year....  (please note that is the Canadian Director, no idea about the US) Your time and money are better of used at an actual rescue.  We no longer support the SPCA in our area.  They have turned into a fanatical animal rights organization and are no longer about animal welfare.  Each organization is different so your area may have a different mandate.  Here in BC they have dropped the ball totally. Peta in wolves clothing.......

Thanks. I have been ill-informed. And it broke my heart to have such a great dog being spayed so late in the term (the pups had some hair, but not full). We've also had some brought in that were weeks old to be spayed.

sorry for your heartbreak, that would have been tough to see.

That is so sad :(

PeTA, HSUS, SPCA and others are all in the same boat as far as I'm concerned.   The only rescues that I consider donating to are local ones that are completely unaffiliated with the national "rescues" mentioned above OR those rescues who follow the Nathan Winograd policies.  

Personally I believe that more rescues need to work with more petstores (and vice-versa) to place their rescued puppies and kittens at stores where they can be adopted (instead of puppymill pups being sold)  

IMO most shelters are their own worst enemies when it comes to getting their animals adopted and reducing "over-population" in shelters.  

I also believe that shelters should be tube-tying their young puppies instead of doing full spays/neuters to prevent the problems that come with early spay/neuter.   A shelter's only real purpose to fix puppies before adopting them out is to prevent their procreation.  If the owners decide they want their pet's organs fully removed later then they can do so when the animal has reached a more appropriate age.  

pita and aspca are in the same bucket, they are horrible.

dont tell anyone, but 80+% of the animals that end up in each place are killed.

"pita and aspca are in the same bucket, they are horrible.

dont tell anyone, but 80+% of the animals that end up in each place are killed."

Source of this 'data', please?  A rather sweeping statement as far as the ASPCA--which, BTW, is NOT the same as "the SPCA".  The latter is a catch-all name used by state and municipal animal shelters, but the majority have no affiliation with the ASPCA.

While PETA has absolutely no animal shelter facilities, and funds none, the ASPCA DOES have their own facilities in NY City, along with a well-respected animal hospital (Bergh Memorial), and they have established partnerships with shelters in several cities in the US.  The ASPCA also DOES share its revenue with other shelters, unlike HSUS (which, like PETA, also does not operate or support any animal shelters).

As for the OP's experience with their local SPCA, some context is needed: is the local shelter at or near capacity (as is usually the case with most facilities these days)? How easily are pitbull and pit-cross dogs placed into new homes when they show up in the local shelter?  Pit and pit-cross puppies are just as cute as any other puppy, so they do usually get adopted just as easily as any other puppy, but far too many of them end up being picked back up as a stray, or surrendered by the very person who adopted them when they were baby puppies, when the pup matures...and then these adult pit-types languish in the shelter for months or even years in many cases as they wait to be adopted again. That's the way things go up here in NE Michigan, for the most part, so while it wouldn't make me happy to see puppies like the ones you refer to aborted during a spay, I'd rather that fate than for them to be abandoned once they were adults.  Remember, in some communities, anything that even remotely resembles a pitbull or pit-cross is automatically euthanized if it's surrendered by it's owner or picked up as a stray and not claimed...it's a point in their favor that your Alabama SPCA doesn't subscribe to that policy. 

http://www.houstontx.gov/health/Animal%20Protection%20TF%20%20REPORT.pdf

one must read between the lines....... they are only talking about "adoptable pets", a very large percent are deemed un-adoptable, too old, heartworm positive, agressive, etc.... these dogs are taken straight back to the killing rooms.

SitasMom, no 'reading between the lines' necessary: NOWHERE in the document you provided a link for is the ASPCA even mentioned, let alone cited as euthanizing 80% of the animals it takes in.

As for the facilities that were mentioned as having high rates of destruction, what would you have them do with the animals that are not suitable for adoption?  Warehouse them?  Who's going to pay for that--the taxpayers?  Perhaps a tax on, oh, I don't know...*breeders* of companion animals, registered, purebred or not, should be enacted to finance caring for these animals, to pay for their medical needs such as treating the heartworm positive ones, and for rehabilitive training for the aggressive ones to make them adoptable?  As a breeder yourself, I'm sure you'd agree that would be a very onerous action on the part of your locality or state...after all, it's not YOUR dogs that are taking up space in those shelters, is it?  Maybe, maybe not, but it IS your dogs that are filling a space in a home that might otherwise have been available for those shelter animals...

I hate the very thought of euthanasia for anything other than health issues which are unresolvlable, or those animals whose psyche is so very damaged that there is no bringing them back from the hell that has infiltrated their minds and made it impossible for them to safely live among humans.  I die a little every time I see a desperate post or ad or email that says, "On death row", with a plea for someone to come to the rescue of yet another animal whose persons failed him or her.

But we cannot save them all. Of all the reasons I decided I wasn't going to become involved in breeding anything that couldn't be eaten, it is this single point that mattered the most to me--every day, perfectly nice dogs of all sorts, GSDs included, die simply because they lost their home, and a new one couldn't be found before the space they were occupying was needed for another homeless dog. The very thought that an animal I had caused to be brought into the world would end up in a shelter, and end up being euthanized because I misjudged someone's character, or they misjudged the character of the person they put in charge of caring for their pets in their absence, is enough to make me tear up.

There are poorly-run shelters, of that there is no question.  But before anyone condemns a shelter solely because they have to make Sophie's Choices every week,  let me remind you that the personnel in those facilities are doing the job WE make them do, because we won't pay to warehouse every healthy animal that's surrendered or adandoned, we won't adopt all of them ourselves, and we won't stop producing more young animals to fuel to unending fire, because here in the US, it's our RIGHT to breed dogs and cats if we want to, and never mind the excess animals.

And yes, of the two dogs I have, only one was a shelter dog, and the other was purchased as a 9 month old; and of the two dogs I lost in the past two years, one was purchased directly from the breeder at 9 weeks of age, though the other was a shelter dog. I've made my peace with the fact that I will probably always have at least one dog that isn't a rescue or shelter dog, simply because I want to always have at least one dog whose behaviors were shaped primarily by my own actions, and whose background isn't in question as far as earlier experiences, etc.  I find having that one dog that I KNOW to be stable and undamaged makes it much easier to reshape the behaviors of rescues I adopt and foster dogs I might have in house.  I don't see this as contradictory or hypocritical, because I've accepted from the start that it is not possible for me to save every homeless pet, no matter how much I would like to do so.