Letters to the Editor
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last one: who are the real bullies?
A bully is by definition someone who picks on a weaker victim. Who is weaker, some animal shelter in LA nobody ever heard of or Ellen DeGeneres with a nationwide TV audience? Ellen is the one doing the bullying here. The animal shelter is merely doing their job. They cannot by definition "bully" Ellen because even the actions they took, with legitimate legal authority, have come at a cost precisely because of Ellen's greater power. The easiest thing in the world for them would be to let Ellen get away with her contractual violation. Instead, they took the uphill course of treating her like any other person who adopts a dog.
Seriously, when you go into a bank, you don't say "Hey, I'm a nice guy, let me have some money; I'll bring you more back tomorrow." You meet with a "bully" called a loan officer, sign numerous papers, reveal all kinds of private information. You definitely don't transfer the loan to your hairdresser without another contract. And this is all just about mere money, right? Why on earth do you expect people to bend the rules when it comes to living creatures that can feel pain and have a long history of being abused.
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I'm on the side of the rescue organization
Just want to chime in on the side of the shelters and rescue organizations that do their best to find the RIGHT home for their dogs. Don't you think that the organization had a REASON for developing a policy of not adopting dogs out to households with young kids? That perhaps they knew from experience that such households were more apt to return the dog and/or give it away and/or abuse it? Of course, we don't know that Ellen's hairdresser's family would have been such a family. Maybe the 11 and 12-yr-old girls were fantastic with the dog. That doesn't change the fact that the rescue organization created their policies for a reason.
I got my dog from a rescue organization and yes, I had to jump through a lot of hoops. But I understood that behind all the required references, the home visit, etc. was simply a desire on the part of the organization to place this dog in a home that would be right for the dog and where the dog could live out her life. THEY were the ones in charge of this dog and its well-being. Some of the posters here seem to think that getting a dog is your god-given right. Well, if you want a dog with no questions asked, there are places for you to do that. If you want a dog from an organization that has taken the time to develop guidelines and has volunteers who put their heart and soul into this...you should be prepared to answer whatever questions they have and abide by their guidelines.
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I think when you pick up a pet
You should have to open your home to the same scrutiny as a mere hu-man adoption. That will fix everything.
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@PaulBC
Apparently the rescue organization threatened to 'go public' and trash Ellen as a...I dunno, bad dog adopter because she violated the contract. So I'm not sure bullying applies so much in this case. (Which was what I was going to say with my first subject line, fail.)
...I'm embarrassed I know so much about this case.
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"Ellen is the one doing the bullying here."
No, the woman who lied her way into someone's home and stole the dog from the arms of a little girl is the bully.
And if you don't see that, frankly, I hope you have neither a dog nor a little girl under your care.
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This article is so, so true
That is an excellent, excellent article. And so true.
The problem is that people get emotional and attached. I particularly liked this comment from the comments section: "I also understand Heather's argument that with so many dogs being euthanized we can't afford to split hairs over issues such as proper food and training, but that's similar to saying that with so many children who need adoptive homes, we shouldn't be upset if some adoptive parents want to practice corporal punishment. Children, and pets, deserve not only homes, but loving homes."
This is one of the best pet/human comparisons I've seen. And you know what? I think we should adopt out both children and animals to anyone who can feed, water, exersize, train, and love the living being. I don't think kids should be raised homophobic but if the options are shelter or otherwise loving parents the parents win. Same with corporal punishment, denying chocolate, or size of bedroom. If the choice is death or a home that trains differently than what I would like than the home should win. It's a simple as that. The fact that they could go to the house to remove the dog but not to do a home visit and paperwork tells me conclusively that they were being what we on the internet call "pet-nazi's."
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Why I don't have a dog anymore
For years I had several small dogs, a couple obtained from a breeder, and one obtained from a breed rescue organization. When my last dog died from old age, I decided to wait awhile to get another, and after four years, my entire perspective about pets has completely changed. While I owned my dogs, I hung out at dog parks, had friends who were dogsitters, had multiple dogs, thought their dogs were equivalent to children, the whole nine yards. I was guilt-tripped by vets into spending nearly $10,000 in vet bills for three dogs who, at the end of their lives, had treatable but INCURABLE illnesses and who lived a total of perhaps an extra few months among them because of the lengths I went to to try to keep them going, out of the naive view that I was being a responsible pet owner. I look back now, as a non-dog owner, and wonder why in the world people become so rigidly opinionated about pets. Pets are wonderful, and my life was blessed by my three dogs, but now needy people are more important to me than spoiled dogs and the self-righteous people who are involved with them. I won't ever have another one, and it's not because I don't love dogs. It's because I hate dog culture.