^where are you seeing they are unable to afford care for the animals?
every show she complains that they don’t get enough donations, that they can’t afford the dogs that are coming in. Don’t you watch the show? plus it just makes sense that close to 400 dogs is too many.
I love Tia and fully support the work she does. However, I did question why in the world she would fund and essentially take over running another shelter (Assumption Parrish Shelter). You can’t save them all and as sad as it was, sometimes you have to say no. If you are already begging for dog food on facebook (I have seen several times where they state they are completely out of dog food), why would you start taking over funding another struggling shelter?
I also don’t agree with rescues (all of them, not just hers) spending thousands on vet bills to try and save one dog with questionable prognosis. Sometimes you just have to look at costs- spend $10k on helping 5-7 dogs vs trying to save one. Euthanasia is not an unkind fate.
I do watch the show, however I’ve never seen an episode where she said they were OUT of food, donation $, supplies, etc. I’ve heard her say that donations are low, or adoption rates are slow at that time of year, but never that they were on empty. Maybe I just missed it.
[QUOTE=Nezzy;7889695]
Please don’t turn this into a pitbull love or hate page. it is not about the dogs.
if any of you watch Pitbulls and Paroles, have you noticed they don’t seem very good with managing? Just that when they do a home check, instead of utilizing the network of home checkers with rescue all over the country, they instead choose to drive states away to do a home check. that has got to cost a lot of Money. Gas, Hotels… i mean they do a ton of good work, and i am not saying they don’t, but most dog rescues will work with other rescues to approve home checks, etc… this could all be done BEFORE a potential adopter comes to look at dogs, and then dogs could be approved when the adopter people are already there. They could take the dog home. This rescue is SO overloaded with dogs and it just seems they need a few ideas to get them in a better position.[/QUOTE]
If you look at their website, out of state adopters must come to the rescue first and then they pay the travel expenses to bring the dog out. The out of state adoptions that they televise never fail the home check, so my guess is that a lot of this is worked out in advance. You have to send a video of your yard etc.
Now, why someone would choose to adopt under those circumstances, I cannot say, but people have their reasons.
My sense is that Villalobos is doing pretty good work. I share the concerns about vet expenses or holding dogs forever that have difficult temperaments - sometimes ‘no-kill’ can become a little too religious to be practical - but they’re the people on the ground figuring out what they can do. New Orleans sounds like a tough place to run a dog rescue.
I’m sure they don’t pay full freight at the vet and the cases they highlight may not always indicate that money is coming out of general funds at the rescue to pay for that treatment.
TV people have a way of creating extra drama that may not exist otherwise. I hope it solves more problems for them than it creates.
The way to bring donations in is not by saying you’re doing well on donations. Just a thought.
[QUOTE=Perfect10;7925677]
The way to bring donations in is not by saying you’re doing well on donations. Just a thought.[/QUOTE]
Every dog rescue i know is in need of funding. it is expensive, no question. and for approx 400 dogs, i cannot even imagine. I just think it is not helping if she can’t tell people “NO”, Or have a cut-off point.
Doesn’t Animal planet pay them for this show? They do great work and I like the show, seems however since they end up keeping so many dogs long term, like 8-10 years, they would be better off organizing a separate farm/sanctuary for the lifers to live in…they keep all the dogs in shelter like conditions in pens on hard dirt year after year, trying to adopt out each dog when some have very slim chances of finding a home, land is cheap around where they are located so I don’t get it.
[QUOTE=Nezzy;7926112]
Every dog rescue i know is in need of funding. it is expensive, no question. and for approx 400 dogs, i cannot even imagine. I just think it is not helping if she can’t tell people “NO”, Or have a cut-off point.[/QUOTE]
It sounds like what is happening is that when they have told people NO, the dogs still end up dumped on their doorstep (or in their dumpster(!)) and they end up having to deal with it anyway.
I hope that the show helps more people to find dogs to adopt locally and also that Villalobos can get to a more comfortable steady state.
[QUOTE=Countrywood;7926134]
Doesn’t Animal planet pay them for this show? They do great work and I like the show, seems however since they end up keeping so many dogs long term, like 8-10 years, they would be better off organizing a separate farm/sanctuary for the lifers to live in…they keep all the dogs in shelter like conditions in pens on hard dirt year after year, trying to adopt out each dog when some have very slim chances of finding a home, land is cheap around where they are located so I don’t get it.[/QUOTE]
They did have a pace in New Mexico or Arizona that was a sanctuary for lifers… Mondo ran it. I don’t know if they still have it though, because I believe Mondo is back? I have not watched the show lately, though I do enjoy it. It just makes me so sad sometimes, because it never fails I come into a super sad episode. Then I have to cry and snuggle my dog for hours.
I’m sure she loves it.
Whatever criticisms any of us have of her decisions, she is the one out there doing it, and doing a lot of good for a lot of dogs and the parolees as well ( as well as ambassador for the Pit Bull Bredd)
If we can put a man on the moon, why in the world the USA can’t make a few sensible national rules limiting animal breeding and making mandatory /spaying/neutering to all but a number of approved breeders is beyond me.
I really enjoyed the episode with Mariah working to put together the free spay/neuter clinic, with the logistics on both ends of setting it up and getting people to come, the conversations with people about why they did or didn’t bring their dogs, the nailbiting when they worried no animals would come.
If I recall correctly, when they left California for New Orleans, there was supposed to be another facility in another state for the unadoptable dogs. I don’t know if that ever happened or not.
Whatever the place in NM was it doesn’t seem to have worked out. They were doing a house where the twins lived for the old unadoptables aka Cheech and Chong. But that house got flooded in one of the hurricanes.
I think they would like to say no to the dogs that get dropped off but LA is very high kill at the shelter. I know they have said they have never had so many puppies.
