While charging for unwanted mixed-breed puppies as a way of ensuring they are neutered is a noble idea, there are too many other free mixed-breeds out there to make this a realistic option.
When the pups only 2 options are to be 1)Euthanized or 2) given away to someone that may or may not care for it propery - Why not give the pups their only chance at survival and give them away?
I’ve never understood the humane society idea that it’s better for a dog to be dead than kept in a less than ideal environment.
And if it doesn’t get neutered and sires a litter of eight more puppies, then you’ve saved one and condemned eight to death. It’s a bloody math, but one we face every day.
Perhaps these pictures of a local and awful animal “shelter” will help you understand. Or google animal hoarders and understand, or google dogfighters and understand. I suspect you don’t understand because you’ve not seen, first-hand, the results of some of these “less than ideal” environments.
vetbridge, that explanation makes perfect sense; thanks!
Watch “Animal Precinct” or one of the various “Animal Cops” shows on Animal Planet sometime. They find some really horrific examples of animal abuse and neglect. Euthanasia is at least painless for the animal.
The danger isn’t just to the dogs, either. Some people shouldn’t have dogs, especially large dogs. They might train the dog to be vicious, either intentionally or through ignorance, and then it could attack people. I have a scar on my arm from where I was attacked by a dog that was owned by some people who probably shouldn’t have had a dog (they teased it and pretended they were going to take its food away, which made it food aggressive). Some people have much worse injuries- there was one on an episode of Animal Cops last week who lost the use of one of his arms because he was attacked by a dog, and of course some people are killed by dog attacks. I applaud the shelters for screening people who want to adopt dogs.
In which case, since the owners don’t care, have the mamma spayed, ASAP. If the owner are known unload the puppies on them, as they are their responsibility.
The OP’s financial situation is reportedly rather desperate. Getting a cat spayed is around $70, I’m sure a large dog is similar or more. That’s a lot of money to shell out on an animal that isn’t technically yours, when you can barely afford Doggie Chow anyway.
Well, a lot of shelters (including ours) offer spay/neuter assistance programs. As long as we have money in our grant, any resident of our County can afford to have their animals spayed or neutered. Normally we cover half of the cost, but in dire circumstances we’ll cover the whole cost.
I don’t know if there’s a similar program in her area, but it’s worth calling around and finding out.
This site has listings throughout the US for low cost spay/neuter programs. It’s a cat site, but at least some of the listed organizations will spay or neuter dogs, too. Someone at most of those organizations would probably at least know where to go for low cost spay/neuter for dogs.
I can’t really afford any of them but if the shelter can adopt out a few and I can adopt out a few it really makes ‘the leftovers’ more manageable.
I can see where that could be a problem. People suck.
They told me if I surrender them I have to sign a paper stating that I will not inquire about or attempt to make contact with the puppies again.
Not at all, at least not because this thread . You are sharing your experiences and opinions with nothing but respect and understanding. Thank you for your insight
Our shelter told me to draw up a proposal including my plans, i.e. what is the time/money limit I am willing to spend on getting these puppies homes, and how much this is going to cost total,
puppies need shots at 6, 9, 12 and 15 weeks costing $17 each time for each puppy = $612
bottle 120cc worming = $20
spay and neuter $60 for 3 males $90 for 6 females = $720
total = $1,352
and what I plan on doing after I have reached my time/money limit. They told me that they will not donate any money unless the animals are altered (fixed) before they leave my custody. IOW I can’t leave it up to the new owners.
Ah! Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense: there are a lot of people who will surrender an animal to a shelter and then call back and find out it was euthanized and either start screaming at the shelter worker or break down sobbing. It gets pretty stressful on the staff. Our own policy is not to divulge such information over the phone, for precisely this reason. My guess, however, is that if you did go to the shelter to try to adopt them, and they’d been placed in adoptions, they’d let you. But of course I can’t know for sure.
Good! I was worried. (And FTR, I’m certainly not mad at you for anything else, either!)
Okay, maybe I’m going to get myself in trouble here, but “need” is an awfully strong word. They need to get their rabies shot by the time they’re six months old. Everything else is good for them to get, but they’re unlikely to drop over dead if they don’t get them. That’s $612 right there that you can avoid by postponing the shots until you find them homes.
Maybe vetbridge can step in and give a minimal shot protocol for puppies. We offer occasional low-cost clinics where we give a 5-in-1 puppy shot–I think it’s called DHCHP or something–for $10. Maybe somewhere local offers a similar shot clinic.
That’s a pretty high cost for low-cost s/n services; are you sure there’s nobody that offers them more cheaply, or with assistance?
I’m thinking, as an alternate plan, something like this:
-Hold off on shots for the puppies for now. Try to keep them indoors and away from other dogs. If you can get them to a low-cost shot clinic, get them a generic shot for $10 each or thereabouts.
-Find someone who will help you with the cost of getting them spayed.
-Place ads offering puppies to good homes; let folks know they’ve been altered and have their first shots (if applicable), and charge at least $20 and as much as you need to charge to recoup your expenses.
-If things get desperate, take them to the best shelter you can, and let them know the puppies are altered, whatever shots they have, etc.
-Again, strongly consider getting the mother altered so you don’t have to go through this again in a few months.
The minimal protocal depends in part on what viral diseases are most common in your area. Parvo virus is pretty much endemic throughout the US as is distemper in many areas. If the puppies remain healthy until, say 10 weeks of age then a distemper/parvo vaccine then and again at 13 or 14 weeks should be good.
You might also be able to negogiate with a veterinarian. I have bartered my services in return for yardwork/etc. Of course all parties involved in a deal like that are still obligated to pay the appropriate taxes.
Looks like nature might take care of it. All three of my 3 month old puppies (another rescue that I intended on keeping) have come down with some mysterious illness. The blood work came back pointing to Parvo but the actual test came back negative on all three pups. One was shaking her head like distemper but stopped when they put her on IV fluids.
If these nine 6 week old pups come down with the same thing… I only thought money was tight.
None of the stray puppies contracted Cronus? (I only heard the vet say it once, I’ve never seen it written) and I have been able to find 4 out of nine homes. So I contact the only organization that has even tried to help and proceed to tell them that it has come to the point where either we eat or the puppies eat AND they all still need worming, shots AND now mange treatment. I don’t think any of them will find homes while they have mange. The only thing left to do is take them to the pound. She then suggests that I just take one puppy in to see what kind of mange it is since one kind is easy and cheep to treat. Does she think I’m exaggerating?! We have no money to even feed them anymore but she thinks… anyway, for the hell of it I call the vet.
$35 for the visit
$15 for the skin test
$13 for the cheep treatment
Now I know $63 isn’t much for most of you. Especially since vet care in most areas cost much more. But when your trying to live off of the income of a graduate student $63 can put you in the red quick.
I digress. The rescue lady tells me that she has been in my shoes (I doubt it but who knows) but she chose to stick it out and never give up on the dogs she was trying to save. ::::this isn’t the pit this isn’t the pit:::: I tell her even if the treatment is free I don’t have the money to continue feeding them! She offers to bring me a couple weeks worth of food if I will get these puppies treated, wormed, etc…
I am such a forking wussy for not being able to just put these puppies to sleep and get on with my life. There are much bigger things to which I could be devoting what little money and time I have. But I can’t. I’m sorry sick or abused children. I’m sorry battered women. I’m sorry third world countries. But I can’t.
So now I am trying to find sponsors for a few of the little 5 remaining puppies. Anyone still interested?
I can paypal you some $$, if that will help you hold out a bit. You’ve been stuck with a really tough situation.
Does the shelter or the local Humane Society offer a spay/neuter assistance program? That’s what I used here, and that’s the ONLY way I could afford to s/n all of my animals. It looks like you’ve made a lot of calls, but maybe checking with the local vets would be the next step.
Hmmm. One more shot in the dark: You might check out the various mailing groups on yahoogroups.com. See if there is some sort of animal adoption / pets alive type group in your area. I’ve even seen pets on freecycle.org. Might be worth a shot.
My email is in my profile…drop me a line and I’ll zap you some dogchow money.
Would your vet see all five pups at once and still only charge $35 for the visit? Because if so, what I would do is take them all in and let him see them; if he thinks they all have the same thing, ask if he would be willing to take just one scraping, but give you the appropriate meds for all five when the results come back. That would save quite a bit of cash for the mange treatment, anyway.
If you can use paypal, then you can contact me too (email’s in profile) and I’ll see what I can send. Definitely take the shelter lady up on the offer of dog food - every little bit helps.
And, as bodypoet said, some Freecycle lists will allow you to list pets … it gives me a bit of the willies, since you don’t know anything about the people you are offering the animals to, but you’re in a tough situation so you gotta do what you gotta do. I’m sorry there hasn’t been more help for you out there. Thank you for working so hard to keep those pups going. I hope you’ll be able to find decent homes for them all very soon.
It’s probably coronavirus. There’s a vax for it, but it tends only to be recommended for dogs that spend a lot of time around other dogs - like dogs that live in kennels, show dogs, etc. It’s very contagious, but fortunately not usually deadly.
Yikes, Mme–that’s a very rough situation only got rougher! I wish I had some help to offer you, but whatever ou decide, you certainly did your best by these puppies, and don’t let any organization tell you otherwise.
You’re not a wuss for not wanting to put these pups down. You’ve invested time and effort and no doubt emotion into trying to save them, and it would be ridiculous to just expect you to waltz into the nearest shelter and dump 'em off in a big box without a second thought. If you were that kind of person, you’d never have posted here in the first place.
But you must also remember that you may reach a point where you just can’t do any more, and if/when you reach that point, you must try to take the best course of action without feeling guilty. You’ve done more than many people would do, and that may have to be enough at some point.
If I were in your shoes, I’d be doing exactly what you’re doing. You aren’t doing anything wrong right now, and you won’t be doing anything wrong if you have to give up the good fight and turn them in to the shelter. You’ve already made their lives better than they would’ve been otherwise.
I agree! That would have been the easy route! I admire you for taking on this problem and dealing with it even though you didn’t have to. There needs to be more folks like that in the world.
Remember, email’s in my profile. I’m ready to help.
Thank you all. (Well, almost all. I guess some folks like to kick people when they’re down.) I am trying to figure out my paypal acct. I set it up a long time ago for ebay and used it once. My sister has been trying to send me a little money through paypal to help but it hasn’t gone through for some reason. Believe me, I will let you know as soon as it’s working!
On a good note. A local vet donated a big sack of dog food and offered to treat the puppies at cost because someone called them right before the second time I called them. I don’t know who.
Mdm. President, that’s great that the vet offered to treat them at cost. If you have trouble with your Paypal, arrangements can be made to pay the vet directly if you are willing to give me the info needed.
. You are sharing your experiences and opinions with nothing but respect and understanding. Thank you for your insight
