Shame! Shaaaaaame!

 Both of my dogs came to me secondhand. Hope was rehomed to my family. I have a lot of philosophical differences with her prior guardian and indeed we are not on speaking terms. What I do not judge and doubt her for though, is putting in the legwork to find an appropriate home for her with people familiar with schipperkes--notorious little shithead breed that only complete masochists should ever want.

Bandit I found at a shelter. All I know of his former home is they reportedly experienced a health emergency that rendered them unable to continue to care for him. A third schip mix my parents have was found as a stray in an area of town that has a higher rate of structural inequality.

And I am glad to have them. I am glad they were safe and had food and shelter and care before coming into my home. That I am blessed with their company and--thank God--have the resources, skill, and funds to care for them even as Hope's vet bills rise and during the midst of a pandemic that has many struggling to care for themselves. Caring for pets is a luxury and is structurally, a privilege.

In my capacity as a dog trainer and concurrently as a therapy dog handler, I have sat with countless people in their misery as they rehome dogs. Confessing to me that they do not have the skills or physical ability or something else to care for an animal. I have talked with mourning people with neurological degeneration as they cry over pets loved ones have taken from them which they are no longer able to safely care for. People whose family pet shows aggression or bit a child. People who confess to me they are so ashamed that they have to rehome a dog and are faced with disproportionate vitriol from complete strangers.

And those are only the individual reasons. Resources to keep animals in a family are patchwork at best and an afterthought when people are faced with housing instability, food insecurity for themselves, mounting medical bills, a lack of skills or knowledge regarding behavior, poverty, whatever. Meanwhile, the animal industry itself is incredibly buyer beware and plagued by a lack of oversight, independent credentialing, and dated/harmful misinformation.

It should not matter to us, an individual's reasons to rehome, as though we can sit here and arbitrate what's Good Enough from such lofty heights. And then what? You force someone to keep a dog? That's already happening--people trapped with aggressive animals they have no business keeping, who lie to shelters about a reason to rehome because it has to be Good Enough, or who dump animals because we all jump down their throats when they do what's right. What should matter is enabling people to make safe, responsible choices and a positive--or failing that, humane--outcome for the dog.

Just, aghhhh. Seriously.