Out of the Frying Pan…

To its credit, AWLA first offered these dogs to two local rescue organizations, but both were at full capacity. While each group had recently accepted a difficult dog from AWLA, they both work primarily with rural high-kill shelters. That’s partially out of necessity, because until recently AWLA had no interest in transferring its dogs to rescue groups. If AWLA now wants to work with non-breed-specific rescue organizations, it needs to cast a wider net.

As we’ve noted before, AWLA has other options it could pursue for its long-tenured dogs. It could promote them by staging adoption events and taking them out into the community, by posting flyers in neighborhood venues, and by advertising them online. And it could circulate them through its own network of foster homes — if AWLA made the effort to develop a network of dog fosterers, the way the rescue organizations do. Both of these approaches are used by the country’s most successful open-admission shelters.

Instead, AWLA transferred five dogs to the Loudoun County shelter. According to ShelterWatch, here’s how LCAC’s kill rate for homeless dogs in 2009 compared to that of three similarly-sized open-admission shelters.

Out of 39 shelters listed on ShelterWatch, LCAC ranked 36th; only three shelters killed a higher percentage of their dogs.

Let’s hope Buddy, Buttercup, Hannah, and Sophera make it out of the Loudoun shelter alive. If they don’t, AWLA should be considered complicit in their deaths.