The Stray and Owner Turn Ins

Life in shelter may not beat streets

Would-be adopters fear dog will die

December 27, 2005

BY KIM NORTH SHINE

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER



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Little Girl was taken to a shelter after dodging death on the streets. Before it will allow her to be adopted, it says Little Girl, who fears people, must pass a behavior screen. If not, she would likely be euthanized. (DENISE ONDAYKO/Special to the Free Press)

<!--THEME LINKS--><!--RELATED ARTICLE LINKS--><!--RELATED EXTERNAL LINKS--><!--PHOTO GALLERY LINKS--><!--MAIN FACTS BOX-->What happens to stray animals

• The top two reasons animals end up in shelters, according to animal welfare workers, are failure to sterilize pets and failure to train them and prevent behavioral problems. Overall, animals wind up in shelters because their owners didn't take seriously the commitment that comes with having a pet.
  
  
  In 2003, the most recent year that animal shelter statistics were compiled in Michigan, 243,488 dogs and cats came into animal shelters. Less than a third were adopted or returned to their owners.
  
  
  Here's what happened to the rest:
  
  
  • Euthanized: 133,294
  
  
  • Sold for research: 6,879
  
  
  • Died, escaped or stolen: 16,521
  
  
  • Transferred to service (law enforcement agencies, etc.): 11,779
  
  
  For information about owning a pet, check out www.hsus.org or www.michiganhumane.org.
  
  
  Source: Michigan Department of Agriculture
  

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<!-- BODY TEXT --><!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->With the help of a few animal lovers, Little Girl, a shy, floppy-eared stray dog, has survived all her life on the streets of Detroit.

She made a home in the base of an abandoned silo, raising puppies and escaping death more than once after run-ins with cars and brushes with bullets.

So it might seem odd that the wily yellow Labrador-retriever mix may meet her end only after winding up at a Macomb County animal shelter that supports a no-kill policy. Before shelter workers will release her, they have to determine whether the dog's fear of humans will translate into biting -- or worse.

"We have a responsibility to make sure this dog doesn't hurt someone," said Janet Lupek, assistant manager of the Macomb County Humane Society in Utica. "She's very, very shy. She backs up whenever you try to approach her. What we fear is that she will become a fear biter."

Little Girl's story could end the same way as that of many stray animals around metro Detroit and the nation. Statistically, the majority of dogs that wind up in shelters don't leave.

The difference for Little Girl, however, is that she has someone willing to give her a home -- if only the shelter will let her leave.

Now known as Receipt No. 4944, Little Girl became a resident of the shelter about a month ago, several days after delivering 10 puppies. One puppy died the day of the move; another died at the shelter.

She was brought there by one of three people who had fed her over the last two years and watched her heal from accidents and escape the target practice of teens whose gunshots claimed other strays in her neighborhood near the Fisher Building.

"We thought she would be safe, that she could go when her pups were weaned," said Denise Ondayko, who befriended the dog and fed her from bags of food and jugs of water.

Pets that go up for adoption are usually screened for behavioral problems, and aggressive dogs don't usually make the cut, making space on the adoption block for more peaceful dogs.

Being labeled a fear biter almost always guarantees a death sentence for an animal, even at a shelter like the one in Macomb County, which supports a no-kill policy and typically keeps animals longer than some other shelters. It can't keep a dog deemed non-adoptable forever: The space is needed for other animals.

"We have not made a decision yet," Lupek said. "We are working with her every day, but we just have to wait and see."

Lupek said the dog's true personality, and the extent of her threat, will become more clear once her puppies are gone and her instinct to protect them is past. That could be in about two weeks.

For now, Little Girl is being kept in isolation. Shelter officials would not even allow the Free Press to take her photo.

Ondayko is trying to convince the shelter's managers to let Little Girl live with her or her friend in Taylor, even if she is deemed a biter. She has the support of officers from the Detroit Police Department's recently disbanded mounted unit, which wrote a letter to the shelter, pleading to save Little Girl, who hung out near the Bethune Stables.

"Many of us grew to know and care about her. We have been talking about getting her off the streets and into a home for ages. The home in Taylor is a perfect setup for her with plenty of space and all the time in the world to adjust. ... If our stable was not closed down, we would have taken her with the puppies," the letter read.

If the shelter agrees to release the dog to Ondayko, Little Girl's adopters would sign a waiver that relieves the shelter of responsibility should Little Girl bite someone, she said.

"She won't hurt us. She is a wonderful dog," she said.

But the words of praise aren't what matters -- the dog's behavior does, Lupek said.

"We have to make sure we're doing the right thing," Lupek said. "It will take a little time."

Contact KIM NORTH SHINE at 313-223-4557

 

FYI: this was a human interest story that had ZERO follow-up. Its a fake concern. In fact, Lupek at Macomb Shelter was so angry over the calls she got after this article, that she told me: we are not going to adopt this dog out but she will live in a small concrete space for the rest of her life and you (me, Denise Ondayko) are never allowed here again. This is the most corrupt shelter in Michigan (my horror story was one of dozens I found..). But newspapers totally suck. They lose interest in stories the second its in print. Little Girl was lost to me forever, and to herself. All these years later, I am still hurting.
HATE this black website look - so frigging difficult to use and YOU CAN'T COPY ANYTING BECAUSE THE PRINT IS WHITE ON WHITE WHEN YOU COPY!

 

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