“My name is ----. I have been a naughty girl and now they are going to kill me !! I was taken in the play yard and thought I was going home then they said I had to go back in the big, noisy scary shelter and I laid down and would not get up. They were angry with me and put on a muzzle and carried me in. Now I have heard I am going somewhere at 12.30pm today but it is not nice and I am not coming back. I am even more scared now. I love other dogs. Can't someone save me so the sun can come out tomorrow for me.”
Let’s talk about Networkers. The above text circulated social media in regards to a dog on a euthanasia list. There are a lot of issues to break down, but first let’s read the actual shelter notes on this dog.
“1 of 4 in kennel. Pet seems anxious in kennel and would not approach. Pet was able to be taken outside on leash with coaxing but once outside pet layed down and wouldn't stand back up. Pet had to be muzzled to be picked up and taken back inside. Possibly due to environment, continue monitor.”
These two sets of text paint a very different picture. One is an evaluation of the dog’s behavior and possible issues. The other is emotionally manipulating the reader into demonizing the shelter staff and pushing you into feeling angry that this dog may be euthanized.
“I have been a naughty girl and now they are going to kill me !!” – Nowhere in the shelter notes does it denote that this dog is particularly aggressive and will be euthanized due to behavior. This was fabricated and is manipulative.
“1 of 4 in kennel. Pet seems anxious in kennel and would not approach.” – One of four in kennel… four large dogs to one kennel. That is extremely stressful to have three other creatures in a small space. Remember the space an animal gets in a kennel in a shelter shrinks exponentially every animal added. The shelter staff noted that the dog appeared anxious in the kennel, a very significant concern for this animal’s emotional and mental wellbeing. Kennel neurosis can set in quickly, and it is a significant level of suffering.
“I was taken in the play yard and thought I was going home then they said I had to go back in the big, noisy scary shelter and I laid down and would not get up.” – Adding human thoughts and emotions is called anthropomorphism, and it is not appropriate in animal welfare. These are animals and they need to be respected for the level of conscious thought that they are capable of. Yes, animals feel emotions such as grief, fear, stress, happiness, but they do not have the complexity to think that going outside to a pay yard means they are going home. All they know is they are outside, and there is less stress outdoors. By anthropomorphizing animals we are not doing them a kindness, we are limiting the humane care provided or considered because we are holding them to a standard they can never meet emotionally and consciously.
“Pet was able to be taken outside on leash with coaxing but once outside pet layed down and wouldn't stand back up.” – Shelter staff notes that the dog had to be coaxed outside. She did not just happily go out and run around with glee once outdoors. This dog is so afraid, she had to be gently coaxed outside to have a moment to destress so they could see if she would improve behaviorally and emotionally when removed from the kennel she shared with three other dogs. This is building a clear and accurate representation that this dog in particular is not doing well in a high stress environment like a shelter. They further note that once she was outside, she was so fearful she lay down and was frozen. The sympathetic nervous system is what controls an animals fight or flight, and often people forget that there is a third option: Freeze. Freezing in dogs can mean a number of things when evaluated with other key considerations such as environment, activity, and other body language signs. In this case, this freeze response is due to fear.
“They were angry with me and put on a muzzle and carried me in.” – This sentence in particular from a networker creates a narrative that the shelter staff has mishandled this dog, treating her with maliciousness and that they muzzled her as a punishment for her fear response of laying down when outside. It makes shelter staff villains to be attacked and fought against rather than caretakers to be worked with.
“Pet had to be muzzled to be picked up and taken back inside.” – A fearful dog will bite. This is not a negotiation. A fearful dog will bite. That is the Fight response from the sympathetic nervous system. There are about a hundred things that could have happened prior to the staff opting to muzzle this dog to carry her back indoors. They likely tried to coax her back to her kennel, where three other dogs were waiting. A dog that is this emotionally shut down will not take treats, so bribing her with food would likely not have worked. They may have even tried to pick her up without muzzling her and she gave them warnings that she was going to bite. Rather than push her into biting them and then giving this dog a bite record and having to quarantine her, the shelter staff opted for safety for everyone and placed a muzzle on her temporarily. This not only protects the staff from being bitten, but also the dog herself from having the repercussions of a bite incident.
“Now I have heard I am going somewhere at 12.30pm today but it is not nice and I am not coming back. I am even more scared now.” – Dogs do not understand the concept of death. They don’t know they have been put on a euthanasia list and that there is a timeline or a deadline for that list to be addressed. They just know that they are in a high stress environment and some of them break down quickly, like this particular dog. She may well be more fearful now than she was prior to evaluation, but it is not because they had to put her on the euthanasia list.
“Possibly due to environment, continue monitor.” – Environment can make a huge difference for a dog, but unfortunately shelters have limited ability to change the environment they have. Some of the larger, better funded shelters have quiet rooms or separate wards for dogs that are experiencing stress responses, but many don’t have those luxuries. The staff has evaluated that this dog is emotionally and mentally suffering, and they need her to either be pulled or they need to give her peace from that torment.
Networkers need to understand the difference. If they don’t fully understand behavior and behavioral evaluations, they need to not write their own narrative and blast it all over social media. If you want to network for a shelter, please go meet them. Ask to shadow staff for a day or two so that you can understand the process and see these things firsthand. Better yet: become a regular volunteer! Meet the dogs you are networking so that you can give an accurate representation of what the potential is for that dog or a realistic picture of what is happening to that dog inside the shelter.
Social media networkers need to do better.
A dog alive is not a dog saved.
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