Posting on social media, very late at night, can be dangerous.
I was up last night, being my own nightwatchman again. About 2 a.m. I finished an e-book on Book Funnel, deleted it, and clicked over to X to note that I now preferred to read e-books on Book Funnel rather than Kindle because on Book Funnel, when I've read a book and thought that one reading was enough, I just click on "delete" right there on my "library" page, whereas Amazon now requires us to open a new tab and click around on the Amazon page to delete books from Kindle.
Wait a minute. What was on the "Trending" list? At 2 a.m., what people were tweeting about was a dog execution day in California.
California likes to claim it's a no-kill state, but actually it has two county shelters, in Modesto and in a little town called Apple Valley, where pets get three or four weeks, max, and then they're killed.
Today is the last-chance adoption day for several pets.
This is Myrtle from Apple Valley. Myrtle is not scheduled for execution today but she has plenty to yowl about.
Apple Valley's "browse pets" page is long. Cats and dogs of every description and a tame turtle and a pet pig. Apparently, according to the video a shelter volunteer posted, they're still kept in a traditional shelter arrangement. While the volunteer was trying to show how friendly one puppy was, all the other dogs were barking and howling, "Me! Pick me! No me!" in the background.
All overpriced, until the 15th of the month. Then many are available free of charge. Then the ones who weren't picked go to the gas chamber.
"Harvey" caught my eye. "Harvey" is a handsome dog with a black and tan coat, a mix of Doberman and German Shepherd.
Beautiful breeds.
Handsome dogs. Strong. Healthy. Clever. Good instinctive hunters. In the wild they'd go feral and devolve back into coyotes, but they'd probably survive on their own.
They are of course good-sized dogs. They eat a lot. They can trot beside you for a few miles, and nobody's going to bother you during that walk, but you need to be fairly strong and fast to train these dogs to walk at heel. In the event of problems, including needle phobia, you also need to be strong to get them into a carrying cage ("crated") and deliver them to the vet.
Harvey was apparently spared at the last minute in August, but not actually adopted, so he's on death row again this month.
Nobody has said he's been anything but a good dog. Dobermans have a reputation for biting, and they can bite, if they want to, but when they're well kept they don't want to.
So why has his picture been pulled off the "adoptable" page and, instead of being shared with other organizations in other States, is this reportedly well-behaved dog going to die tomorrow? I don't know. The shelter is in a small, even rural, sort of town and reportedly has room to hold a few dogs over for another month. But they just clear space by killing a lot of animals.
If you are in California, you may still have time to drive out and save a life. Before slaughtering these shelter animals they do offer free foster arrangements and, for some animals, free adoption, to people they consider "local."
I saw "free foster" and posted that I'd foster a dog if they didn't find someone closer.
California is a big State. There must be someone closer than I am who can at least feed these dogs for a month or two while advertising them to other people.
I don't seriously imagine that any volunteer is going to drive or fly out to Gate City, to meet me (in the parking lot in front of Food Lion), check that I'm not on a list of animal abusers while I walk the dog around the parking lot, and deliver the dog to my front gate. But I'll do that, if they will, rather than let these dogs be killed.
Meanwhile, will everyone who can't foster a dog please share pictures everywhere. Tag everyone you know on every social site you use. Possibly, in addition to rescuing dogs, people will feel moved to set up better options for abandoned dogs in Apple Valley and Modesto.
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