Tuesday, September 22, 2009

In all fairness...

I've finally set myself up here in Washington and am on the road to starting my life, college, driving, work, and all the other things that come with growing up.

To offset the boredom I've been experiencing sitting here in the suburbs, I decided to take a volunteer job at the new Everett Animal Shelter. This weekend is my formal training for Kennel Hand. I'm pretty excited, but after listening to the whole intro, I found something that set me off quite a bit: The Dangerous Dogs act that is imposed in Everett. Apparently, and "Pit Bull" or dog falling into the "Pit Bull" category are not allowed to be placed in a home if they are older than six months - instead, they are euthanized. What I found a sight more shocking was the fact that they had a dog detained in the back who had actually ripped a woman's breast off and then mauled her arm, losing a tooth and leaving it embedded in her skin, and yet the dog was still in holding. Maybe a quarantine period, but still, I will crap my pants if the owners are able to get their dog back. They also had your assortment of cattle chasers and livestock killers, all alive and well and looking to be adopted. Another thing that bothers me is that they have some sort of dog training guru (can't recall the name) that they swear by at the shelter, and when we're trained, we MUST follow his teachings exactly. I've had amazing luck just using verbal and hand cues, and I haven't been bitten since I was a small child. I prefer to implement NILIF, with positive reinforcement and praise. No listen = no reward, but it never equals harm to the animal.

Maybe this post is a tad pointless, but it's something that really irked me. I will be more active now that I have my own laptop (thanks Mom!) and through my work I will have more of the posts you guys crave... To asshattery!