I will say this, at the cost that people are going to feel insulted.
OP: It’s generally a good idea not to ask emotionally loaded questions on the Dope. The majority of people value perfect knowledge over emotional well-being. Skeptics are really, really good at paranoia, and really good at making people feel bad.
The lack of empathy on the board is staggering. It’s one of it’s few flaws.
I don’t think that’s right. It seems to be oversimplifying to say people are just mean because we’re skeptical. You can’t just say, “The mean skeptics don’t care that the poor doggy’s going to be killed and the nice girl can’t have him!” The fact that the situation is extremely dodgy (stranger on Craig’s List asking for help circumventing a rule and then selling the dog a few days later–many have pointed this out as a common tactic for finding dogfighting dogs) is what is pinging people’s radars. Would you prefer that we just pretended that the situation didn’t seem odd to make the OP feel good about doing something that at best was really stupid and at worst has made a dog suffer?
thing is, it wasn’t a “small” mistake. There was an active deceit. OP knew beforehand that the contract being signed wasn’t gonna be lived up to, i.e. the dog wasn’t gonna under his care. He had the time to think it over when he was filling out the forms, (in my opinion) no one in a right state of mind would do this, and hence i would not sympathize nor do i want to empathize. His reason was that as a child he was haunted by hurt dog images and I assume this led to the lack of judgement and thought of the possible consequences and repercussions that would happen if caught in this “white lie”. The thing that baffles me to an astounding degree is that with all that time to think it over that there is a complete stranger asking for something and not possibly thinking of any sort negative outcome in said situation. How can a person trust a complete stranger? I wouldn’t trust a stranger, they may look nice, act nice but i know zero about who they are generally.
Ever since pan1 mentioned dogfighting way upthread, there’ve been other folks posting solemnly that yes, that’s indeed a likely scenario.
Me, as soon as I saw the sentence:
, I muttered "whaaa?’ incredulously, and started thinking how to phrase the question “what the Hell would a dogfighter need a Dobe or a shepherd for?” with sufficient politesse and tact as to be acceptable in this forum. I read on, hoping someone else would point out the self-evident problem with that scenario, only to find several more posters discussing the possibility as a likelihood.
So I guess* I’m*the one who’s gotta jump in and fight some ignorance this time. People of the Dope, that scenario is not at all likely to happen. The sorts of guys who get involved with organized dogfights do not, will not “need a Doberman or shepherd in time for a match”, because dogfighters do not roll Dobermans or shepherds, neither of which has ever been a fighting-dog breed. Dogfighters roll fighting breeds, like the various pit strains (who are mostly damned good dogs, btw), tosas, maybe akitas – dogs who were chosen and bred, like their ancestors before them, for traits that make them suitable for the dubious athleticism of bloodsort, in the same way that working collies are bred and raised to herd sheep, and just as coonhounds from “legacy” lineages are bred for those qualities of nose and tongue and “wind” that the men who follow and fancy blooded hounds most esteem.
Are most dog fighters really all that aware? I’m sure there are dumb ones who think that anything that looks “scary” is good.
Dog fighters do use other breeds (and species) for training and baiting purposes. So, no, they probably wouldn’t want it in time to compete in a match but there was indeed a time limit in which to adopt the dog.
I agree the whole thing sounds sketchy but it doesn’t necessarily mean she wanted the dog for fighting, but she may have wanted the dog for someone else who shouldn’t have the dog. Possible scenarios are convicted animal abusers or hoarders who can’t adopt under their own name or someone who wanted a scary looking dobe as a guard dog for their junkyard/grow house/meth lab or whatever. People who know nothing about training dogs think the way to train a guard dog is to mistreat it and make it mean. None of these possibilities is good for the dog but seem a lot more likely than the happy ending living on a farm with a couple kids that are just the right age for a big dog.
By the way, there are a lot of breed rescues that are able to make arrangements with other shelters to foster the dog and then find it a home with people looking for that particular breed. The dog might have been able to be saved by finding the closest dobie rescue group and making arrangements with them and the shelter to transfer the dog. Many shelters agree to this because they know that breed specific rescue groups go out of their way to place the dogs with people who understand the breed.
No way this is the scenario. All dogfighting dogs are pit bulls, and they are signed up for matches weeks before the actual event. Plus, it’s so easy to get a dog for free (look in your local paper for all the dogs free to a good home ads) that there’s no reason to mess with an animal shelter if you just want a big dog.
It’s certainly possible that they know that a dog that appears to be a nice-looking purebred Doberman can be sold for more than the adoption fees. It’s also possible that the girl isn’t scamming - she fell in love with the dog, then figured out that a small condo. and large dog don’t mix.
When I was much younger, I knew an adult who was heavily involved in dog-fighting (this would’ve been during the mid-90s, so it’s not exactly ancient history). I know for a fact he told he’d seen people roll Rottweilers into dog-fighting rings, along with pits. Now the Rotties got ripped apart, which I can only assume was for purposes of ‘entertainment’ or so the pits’ owners could feel badass at seeing their dog tear another ‘big tough’ dog limb from limb.
Regardless of whether the Dobie ended up being eaten alive for ‘entertainment’ purposes or not, the OP still ignorantly handed an animal over to a stranger who was more than willing to employ fraudulent means to obtain this dog. The OP has no idea what really happened to this animal other than what the stranger has told him. He acted out of an emotional response of ‘I can save this dog’ rather than sitting down and considering ‘Am I really saving this dog?’.