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How Many Is Too Many Dogs? Part 2: When Rescuers Need Rescuing

How Many Is Too Many Dogs? Part 2: When Rescuers Need Rescuing

This subject has been my most popular blog subject ever. Google searches on this phrase find the original blog more frequently than the website itself. The question itself crosses the mind of all who have more dogs than is considered the norm by the general public. The general public’s opinion, however, is not who anyone should base their perfect canine number on. Not by a long shot.

The renewed interest in this subject was prompted by a recent story locally of a breed rescuer who is being forced by local law enforcement, to reduce her numbers from more than eighty dogs, to twenty five dogs. Neighbors complained and ordinances are now being enforced. She has very little time to perform such a feat, meaning if seized, more than fifty dogs are facing a death sentence. This disturbs me greatly, for a number of reasons. Hopefully, by the time you read this, these dogs will no longer be in danger. Follow up to be noted when available, never fear.

Photo from a recent hoarding case.

Photo from a recent hoarding case.

But back to the reasons this disturbs me: there are so many, let me count the ways. Having been a rescuer (currently resting emotionally from that task), I can say with passion that it is really hard to say no to dogs in need. But I can also say with passion that I learned the hard way that if you don’t take care of yourself and your own dogs, first, everyone suffers and no one is truly helped. It is important to know your limit: emotionally, physically, financially, etc. regardless of whether you are a rescuer or just a plain dog owner who wants more dogs in your life. Know your limits!

If you are sentencing dogs to hours upon endless hours in crates or kennels, with little to no exercise and human interaction; that is not rescuing. That is hell on earth. Don’t pull dogs from shelters if you are not bettering their situation. Don’t call yourself a rescuer or even just a normal multiple dog household when you are clearly in over your head. No one human can take proper care of eighty-something dogs. It’s just not possible. Even with a couple of volunteer hands, it’s not enough.

There is another new hoarding situation almost every day in the media. This person was found to have fifty cats. That person was found to have a hundred dogs. This is a sickness. It’s not well intentioned rescuing or a loving multiple dog household. It may have started that way but it did not end up that way. At heart, it’s about selfishness, not selflessness. Rescuers make themselves feel good about rescuing. There is nothing wrong with that if you are not also using that as the ends to justify the means. Rescuing a dog is more than simply keeping them alive. Being alive is not the same thing as living well.

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Dogs are sentient beings. They have thoughts and feelings and emotional needs, in addition to the physical needs of food, water, physical care and warm housing. No one would think it appropriate to expect people to live in a small space with no interaction or exercise day after endless day. It is equally unreasonable to expect the same of a dog, if the expectation is that the dog in question should remain mentally stable, that is! Placing unstable dogs is not appropriate without behavior modification and then we come back to lack of resources again.

The moral of this story is that as a multiple dog owner and/or rescuer, you dear reader, need to be fully aware of your limitations; physically, emotionally, financially, etc. Take into account your own basic needs, the needs of the dogs you currently have and calculate it all together in a PRACTICAL way. Then make a decision on whether to add another dog, foster or permadog, to your life. There are plenty of people on this earth who can care for a dog just as well as you can, I promise you this. If your urge to help a particular dog is strong but your limitations are stronger, sponsor the dog, promote the dog, do things other than adding the dog to your household to get him or her a good home. Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. And above all, be there for your current crew as a responsible multiple dog owner and/or rescuer.

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5 Comments

  1. Sue Alexander December 31, 2012

    Very well put! Thank you!

  2. Sylvia Koczerzuk December 31, 2012

    Nice blog Debbie. I could not agree more. I have some experience with fostering for rescues and doing work with a couple of different shelters. You hit it spot on. I know myself what I can emotionally handle as far as how many pets I have living with me. Some rescues do a great job, some get in over their head for sure. We need to think with our brains first and then let our hearts weigh in.

  3. Mary Kennedy Withrow January 3, 2013

    Debby, this blog couldn’t be more true. As I travel around the countryside working on many different situations involving animal cruelty, I can safely say that hoarding, or rescuing more than you can handle is in fact–animal cruelty. I have seen first hand cases where people do SEEM to start out with good intentions and then for a variety of reasons have more dogs than they can handle in any way, financial, emotional, physical, and on and on. What I can say of these cases is that the animals in these cases are in worse shape than many other types of cruelty cases I work on. They have fight wounds, they are pregnant or obviously have had several litters, they are totally under-socialized, have a plethora of medical issues. I spend most of my time working on enrichment of current shelter dogs at my nearby shelter in an attempt to keep their mental health where it needs to be in order to find a good home. There are SO many shelter dogs who need help, and it doesn’t cost you anything but your time. In my opinion, if you “rescue” animals, but do not have the resources to take care of medical needs that will arise, spay/neuter surgery for the animals, a proper foster for the animal, then you are irresponsible and more than likely my group will be coming to “re-rescue” these animals and I guarantee you they will have more issues than before YOU “rescued” them. Great article, I hope everyone out there who works in the world of animal welfare reads it! Nicely done!

  4. Concerned January 7, 2013

    So, if i ever run across a situation where a rescuer needs rescuing, appears to be hoarding, and the condition the dogs live in are concerning (um, just saw it yesterday, which is how i ended up on this site)- What do you recommend? i thought about calling animal control, but any other suggestions? i told her that while i did not see a dog i wanted to adopt, i offered to take her two puppies in until the were adopted in order to get them socialized in a “calmer” environment, where they would have one on one attention, which she cannot currently give them, but she declined. She has 3 more dogs coming in, and i can see she has no control and is living in utter chaos. the situation did feel cruel, and the majority of the dogs were clearly underwieght. she claims it is because they are rescues, but when i inquired how long she had this one, or that one etc.. it was clear some had been there for months. poor dogs! I know she has the best intentions, but clearly does not know her limits, and that just because she saved them, doesn’t mean they are “Living” a good life. She did also tell me they are crated for hours and hours. one of them is only let out to go to the bathroom because he is “aggressive” (he bit her once- um, i wonder why- because your house is like mad chaos?). :(

  5. Kat January 18, 2019

    When you adopt a dog from most Humane Societies they will already have the spay/neuter surgeries done. You can adopt some for as little as $120, you could get one from a backyard breeder for 100 plus surgeries. Or a responsible breeder for $500+. I would rather get the adopted dog.

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