The recent news that the City has taken the animal control contract from PACCA and awarded it to the PSPCA has created a bit of an uproar here in Philadelphia. I have mixed feelings about the situation. The PSPCA has more funding at its disposal, but PACCA/PAWS has made huge progress in the past few years, and has an intensely dedicated core of employees and volunteers who will stop at nothing to help the animals in their care, even given the many limitations they face.
Neither organization is perfect; none is. I'm not going to claim otherwise. However, I have been so disheartened by the folks who have taken the contract news as an opportunity to crawl out of the woodwork and express their disgust with PACCA and its employees. These jerks use the anonymity of sites Craigslist to blast PACCA's shelter for being filled with "ugly pit bulls." They blast the employees for sending dogs to rescue. They claim that PACCA adopts out dogs with known behavioral issues, just because the behavior evaluator has a soft spot for big dogs. The amount of misinformation and hatred is just plain depressing. Oh, and if you have something to say, how about you stand up and own your words.
So, PACCA people, this is for you:
Johnny, thank you for giving my dog a chance, even though he is an "ugly pit bull" with deeply cropped ears, and terrifies people who can't see past his color and his breed. Thank you for evaluating him and seeing what he really is, and deciding that he was worth saving.
Natalie, thank you for working so hard at getting him (and countless others like him) out to foster, so that he did not have to spend even one more day than necessary in a cage in the shelter.
Sylvia, thank you for taking him into your home and taking such good care of him. Thank you for putting up with my indecisiveness, when it looked like he and Tuni weren't hitting it off the way I'd hoped. Thank you for trusting me to love him and care for him the way he deserves.
To all the volunteers, thank you for your love and dedication to the care of the animals of this town.
Knee-jerking pit bull haters, this part is for you:
Screw you. You don't deserve a dog as sweet, patient, and wonderful as my "vicious," "ugly" pit bull, anyway.
That is all.
2 comments:
That brought tears to my eyes! Thank you for being such a dedicated volunteer, and thank you for loving your "ugly pit bull"....who I happen to think is beautiful!
I am so glad that Finley is safe with you. Bad ear crop or no, he's a beautiful dog, and he deserves as good a home as any non-evil-breed dog out there.
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