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Pet Guardian Angel has moved to 14911 McCracken Road, El Paso , Tx 79938.  If you have been to the former kennel it is 3 miles further out Montana and turn left on O’Shea Road past Red Sands Elementary School about 1 mile to McCracken Road which is right turn.  The roads are well maintained paved roads,  we are 2nd from corner on left  with plenty of parking.  between Montana and McCracken there is another agency called Pet Paradise which isn’t us, it is a boarding kennel. We  have natural  gas and  city water also.  We have done a lot of fixing up on the  place with clean up, adding fencing and kennels  and we are back in business and ready to adopt if you have dogs to give up bring the dogs there.  We will do our best to accept them but call first. The neighborhood shows no indication  of gang signs and has been safe according to neighbors.  We will keep some  of the staff.  We have adopted over 12,000 animals in El Paso area since we started up in 1985.  We also do a few other services including microchipping.  We will have the same phone number 598-0411.

One of my first memories of my adoptive father was his decision whether or not to put down his beloved pit bull, a dog he’d raised since a puppy.  Kazin, a brindle Pit, had been his constant companion for years.  He now suffered from dropsy.  In a few months leading up to this decision Kazin had become more crippled up, found breathing harder and was going down hill. Now he was no longer interested in food as he hacked looking pitifully at my father to help him. My father stroked his head, the tail came into action as a weak thump was heard from the other side of the ottoman where Kazin lay.  “I think the time has come.”  My father faked a sneeze to cover a sob.  The next morning the two went alone to the veterinarian’s office and my father carried back a bundle wrapped in a blanket which he burried in a secret place.  He reported that Kazin could not walk the entire distance from the parking lot to the clinic of the veterinarian.  After six weeks or so my father selected another pit bull and we kids got to name him and he entered our household.  Kazin had lived 12  years which in the early 30s was a long time.  The next dog would be named Tuffy and live an equally long life.  When I ask a standard question of people wanting to adopt from us “Have you ever had any dogs before?  What happened to those dogs?”  If they are around thirty and tell me they’ve had dozens of dogs there is something wrong.  Normal life today for most dogs is from 12 to 18 years so if a person 30 has had oodles of dogs they’ve either had several at a time or discarded them along the way just as this dog they want to adopt will be discarded perhaps when it does not play very much any more.  There is no end to reasons people want to euthanise but “we are moving”, “she doesn’t like my husband”. “we got another dog and they fight”, “my son went off to college and no one is interested in the dog any more”, “she is getting old and sometimes makes mistakes on the floor”, “she sheds too much”, ”She eats feces”, “it costs too much to have a dog (or cat)” are a few.  The list is sad and endless but we also see these people seek to give up their pets.  There is a growing population which has no loyalty connected with their obligation of having a pet.  The pet is a living thing that becomes a burden or inconvenience so it has to go.  People who tell me they are moving know full well they can pay a deposit in 85 % of rentals in El Paso accept pets for a deposit.  Many people go out and adopt or buy a pet without even asking the landlord about the rules. Sometimes the pet is put down by Animal Services as there is no way out for him. People who give up their dogs to friends, free, may think they’ve done a good thing and it might be better than Animal Services but 80% of those pets end up dead  from running loose, in homes of collectors or in dangerous health conditions within a year.  Things given free are without value to most.  When you buy or adopt a pet you should have a plan for that pet. While agencies sometimes take back pets it is wise to have a plan if you move or change jobs or must part with your pet, start early.  If you are to get your pet into a guaranteed placement shelter like ours you may need an agreement of when we will take it and when they, the owners, have to get rid of  it. One cannot expect to call an agency in most cases and discard a pet within hours and get it into a safe rescue group that will find it a home, rescue groups often need time to arrange a cage or kennel for the pet. Then if you decide not to leave it there a pet has died that could have taken that space. We assure people of adoptions through furnishing a photo of the adoption. We once had a kennel with  300 spaces but we don’t have that capacity now so in some cases we can’t take back a larger dog without a few days notice. Otherwise we take all our dogs and cats back.  When is it necessary to euthanise a pet?  When you appreciate life the thought of death is distasteful.  Little puppies are born with tiny toe nails and little tongues and pink noses at the moment of birth. We like to save pregnant mothers like the Virgin Mary, who sought shelter in a stable among animals to deliver Jesus.  These animals are at the end of their rope, pregnant, in need of sympathy and help, they are thrown out of cars, discarded on mountain roads for wild animals to tear apart or to be killed by a car or simply starve.  Last fall a disgruntled employee stood on K Fox claiming I put down puppies without any reason and named imaginary names that we never owned. Her own children were often stashed in the kennel as her drunken mother locked the family out and she had no place to take them. The older boy had problems with the law, the little girl, dirty, her pretty hair tousled and clinging to her face.  Her mother hid out from Sheriff’s deputies and while I could have turned her in, to child protective services, I didn’t.  I thought she was doing the best she could under the circumstances.  I really believe this woman loved her children but had a hard time keeping things together.   This employee only knew me for a little over a year.  As a personality she was a hit with customers but  failed to follow instructions at all.   When we get very old dogs here that we feel are difficult adoptions, we offer to give them to employees.  I had given her a little terrier she adored.  There was another dog she had been asking for and I’d say she could have it but in the meantime she was dismissed.  She had to come back to pick up a pay check and I allowed her to take the dog free. It was a Chihuahua which had had a complete work up, was fixed and shots etc but she was the only one who could handle him.  Rather than put him down I allowed her to take him. This conflicts with her story on K Fox.    Twelve years before that some Catholic nuns, meaning well, had brought a female dog with 12 puppies to my friend’s house.  They were literally dripping in ticks. They were all in poor health condition.  The mother could barely feed them.  About seven volunteers and I started tick picking and we continued to pick for 12 hours. Finally my friend had had too much she couldn’t handle it so I took them to my house and we dipped them then they went to live with a very devoted woman who worked on the fringe of pet rescue with intense devotion.  She and I and some  others worked with the  dogs for days getting the ticks off and in the process we found most of the dogs which were puppies, were blind and deaf, deaf or blind.  Her name was Patricia Morman and her name should be bronzed somewhere for the work she did on pets.  In the end we placed all the dogs she kept mom and the deaf and blind one and I had all fixed and shots etc done. This meant I paid for it myself. My son, who at that time, was more active with retarded children, placed several of the dogs all of which had issues, with group homes out of town, this meant we drove them there. All dogs got a home and all lived out their lives not being euthanised.   Yet here is a woman who to get even with me accused me of putting down puppies for no reason. If ever puppies and mom should have been considered for euthanasia it was these but we did everything to save them.  In life to criticize and vilify another who cannot defend themselves is the way of the times we live in.  If you work with hundreds of dogs and cats the time will come you need to make radical decisions about how much you can afford to keep a pet that has issues of behavior, health problems  or  the ability to be restrained.  If the word Karma is familiar to you be careful whom you are critical of because it will come back to bite you as it has me.  I always felt there was a way to keep every pet going.  I now know there are many issues entering into this scenario.   If you are running a sanctuary it means the animal stays there until it dies and someone must take care of all its needs both physically or health wise or in general meaning housing, cleaning up after it and feeding it, buying food and medication for it. In theory it sounds like a great idea but in reality even Dog Town will their huge budget puts some dogs down. The quality of life of any pet enters into their decision although they likely return some pets to donars if they cannot help them.  The donations going to a place like Dog Town are enormous. It strips the local communities out of funds that should be going there.  An association such as this is not a fledgling and will prosper from now on it is the local groups picking up the broken bodies on the street, saving animals one at a time from local pounds and taking unwanted animals from donars who have various excuses about why they can’t keep them that need the money. The public thinks of a’ no kill’  agency calls Pedigree or Hills, Purina or other food companies and asks for food they will get coupons, free food or help this is a misconception. 

When I called a year ago bragging we were a no kill shelter they practically hung up on me we were told they did not support ‘no kill’ shelters, to qualify you had to turn your pets rapidly and if accomplishing this meant putting down, well get with it because they did not intend to feed pets that ate and did not move out quickly into homes which is where they’d recover their expense of donated food to pet groups.   In our case we came to a blank wall when after working  for five years to build an agency, the owner decided to let a former employee run it and told me I’d done a good job it was time to move on but she did not know I owned the pets. She planned to step in and have someone who’d never writting a contract before, never bothered to walk the kennels at night to check on things , had  zero people skills and an unsavory past run the operation. Unable to get help from Peta, I found that  I could place with reliable  ‘no kill ‘ shelters through out Tx the dogs and cats that were healthy and ready to be adopted. I had built a kennel in San Angelo which my son ran and his companions there refused to take any dogs from us at all. If he had taken any his chief donor,  would have with-drawn her support or been extremely angry and he chose to appease her. The end result was I had somewhere between 15 and 18 dogs I had no place to move to and no solution the only solution was euthanasia.  I had always believed somewhere there was a better solution to this but could never find it. We were begging, borrowing and building but we came down to selecting 18 dogs out of an original 350 to be put down.  No one stepped forward to take these unfortunate dogs.  I made arrangements with a man who lived in the desert to take them temporarily but he lived in NM and they are very picky about having too many animals and in the end would not help us.   We finally went over our list again selecting dogs that had epilepsy, bone disease, were blind, had extreme emotional problems to where people could not come up behind them or bit without reason. While we might have saved these animals had we had time the clock ran out.  Karma of my saying about others ‘there was a better way they should have found’ caught up with me.  One dog was a dog that could not be contained in a regular kennel. Where we left there was a 14ft fence but where we relocated  it was 6 feet.  I recalled how the benefactor who threw us out after all our hard work had owned a dalmation that was the same way.  It jumped every fence it was put behind endangering vehicles which, if striking the dog, could cause a big accident.  She ultimately put it down .  To do this caused her mental anguish and many tears but it was the responsible thing to do.   Whether sincere and hard thinking rescue groups put any animal down you should remember it is not without soul searching.  Every dog I’ve authorized to be put down I remember, every decision that falls on me takes a toll.  So as I say there are so many people who think euthanasia is a simple solution and gets rid of their problem it isn’t that way with a ‘ no kill ‘   ‘rescue shelter but the word  ‘no kill ‘ does not imply ‘never kill’ as situations are abundant that no one can deal with specific dogs and no one can save every pet although this saddens us.In cases where we have taken in dogs which we cannot handle or treat we always call the donar if there is a donor to call, we ask if they want to take the dog back.  In about half the cases they do.  We understand there are rescue groups that ask for a donation then put the  pet down before the donor slams the door on the car.  One large group here  put down 5 beautiful dogs signed  over by an angry boy friend who works at UTEP as a professor.  The dogs belonged to his mistress.  She was in jail. Before she could get out of jail the nonprofit org. euthanised the entire group. Their excuse?  At 5 too old to adopt.  Every dog was microchipped in her name and in excellent health she sobbed for days.   In my life I have had many dogs and 3 have finally had to be put down.  It is a quick and painless solution but traumatic.  It  it never easy to say ‘good bye’   but the responsibility of love means it is  the most compassionate choice.  Everyone reading this who is interested in the subject should read REDEMPTION. We can do better than kill the numbers that are being killed today  meantime the healthy pets should not have to die for people’s whims and everyone  out there can do one or two things to stop this  and finally tearing me down on TV and lying when this woman has her own person issues is hurting the cause of adopting more pets and saving more lives at the expense of a story full of lies to make K Fox appealing to the gullible public. From experience I have found K Fox isn’t nearly as interested in the truth as they are the sensation of the story.  This is called tabloid journalism.  One never sees such mean spirited journalists as Elizabeth O’Hare of K Fox take on anyone who can do reciprocal damage to the station or her.  She and the management pick on people who have no way to present their side of the story and their intention is to control everything  and everybody.  They function on a hero level.I think they should have checked out the accuser’s credentials first and her history of warrants.  Once before K Fox accused us of not taking back a boxer we’d adopted.  In those days we not only took our own dogs back but other group’s as well if we had any space.  There isn’t a group that didn’t know this.  Because I could not meet with K Fox that day they put on a very disrespectful story that I had cursed out a woman and refused to take back our dog which had been picked up running loose.  They never furnished me with our microchip number so the owner could be located prior to thinking about bringing it back to us.   We do not pick up any dogs, ours or others. Elizabeth O’Hare did everything to besmirch our reputation.  I refused to appear on TV that day as I had missing teeth and did not want to appear on TV I would have done an interview on the phone.  My feeling is other than the tag on the dog’s collar there was no proof that it was adopted by us.  It is a given fact all other groups turn away  their adopted animals if they don’t have room for them  to  take back or the pet has acquired bad habits.  When you buy a car you can’t just take it back.  It seems common place that finders and owners expect an agency to pick up or at least accept back an adopted pet.  While it is a humane gesture people expect services free.  We have done many free but a charity runs on the wheels of donations not on well meaning actions.  Doing good deeds does not assure any charity they will receive any more donations   A collar can be removed from one dog and put on another easily and the dog could have belonged to anyone but whatever it is not a legal responsibility we take an animal back but we feel it is a moral issue and had a sterling reputation for doing this.  When you are watching K Fox and they are slandering some other person, perhaps an elderly person with limited resources like me remember with a twist of fate  and you or your elderly parents could be next.  Perhaps some store owner or vendor.   Before you fall into lock step behind K Fox ask yourself “am I hearing both sides of this story?  Is it possible they are lacking a good lead story that evening and don’t care whose life they ruin to get one.”  Are you ready for one more K Fox coverage?  Last year, in 2009, Tony Flores, brother-in-law to our former benefactor appeared on K Fox.  I was never interviewed to refute anything he said.  His exact words were “Martha got the job because she was so good with animals.”  Lets stop there, a job implies you get paid and I was never paid a cent I totally donated my time, money and effort to save pets. I am also the director of a small nonprofit which deserves the title of position vs job.  To continue he said “she was given free room and board the entire time she was out there.”   Huh?  I never lived there I never stayed the night there, I never was given so much as a hot dog so unless Mr Flores is limited in his knowledge of meaings he is lying about what they did for us. We were given a sum of money monthly to run the organization. Every cent went to that cause which ran well until the benefactor hired an employee out from under us, a very unethical move on her part showing no consideration or respect.   I never had the opportunity in any K Fox coverage to present my side, unable to do it when they demanded  it was omitted entirely.  Is this the type of news you let influence your mind?  If anyone has a question about our organization call me.  We are one of the few who answers their phone live 99% of the time.  We give information for the good of the public helping them place unwanted pets we can’t take as well as  taking in as many as we can handle.  We refer to free websites to advertise. This helps keep the euthanasia count down. We tell people how to get their pet fixed free.  Most organizations do not offer this service.  Since we started in business 25 years ago under a different name we  have adopted 12,000 pets. What has K Fox done to further the adoptions from Animal Services ?  They have their favorite rescue groups and their goals are to destroy whatever they don’t like or approve of even though they do nothing to research facts.  I ran a retail business for 47 years.  If I were a retail merchant I would not advertise with K Fox.  It would only be a matter of time before they would become a victim plus K Fox seeks to destroy the less fortunate, less monied, elderly, the struggling business person.  Look at what they did to the unfortunate owner of the oriental restaurant whose customer claimed she found a mouse in her food.  Later security cameras proved otherwise but the follow up was puny.   How is it with over 4500 people dead from drug wars they are not out there demanding interviews with known drug dealers etc?  Is their courage steming from their power of the media but stops where their involvement could cost them their security?  Other stations here such as KDBC, KTSM, KVIA may have open discussions or cover issues but they also have standards and ethics.  If you are for justice watch the news on those stations.  K Fox is not the same station that appears nationally on Ch 34.

So many pets are being discarded we really need pet food. Any kind will do.  Large rescue groups alwys get food donated by local pet suppliers as well as pet food manufacturers.  WE were told by Pedigree and Purina if we ran a ‘no kill’ shelter they were not interested in donating food to us because the same dogs stay until they are adopted and they make money, not off the adopted dog or cat, but what that pet will have spent on it by the adopter. Their theory is dogs that languish in the kennel waiting for  a forever adopter simply eat and take up space they are interested in rapid turn over never mind lives of beautiful but unwanted , older or unpopular breeds of pets.    We need other things too;  Cat litter, dog and cat toys, dog and cat treats, cages, crates, carriers, domed or plastic dog houses and cat products, office supplies such as cartridges for our Brother LC61Scanner, letter size copy paper any color, standard office supplies, newspapers, used but working TV sets we can integrate into our security system, working or nonworking VCRS for the same purpose, towels, paper goods such as paper towels, dish and laundry soap, bleach (we use a lot of bleach at the kennel), pet shampoo, dog and cat vitamins, room dividers (we use when surgery is done here to separate clients from animals that are sleeping after the surgery (this avoids curious inspection tendency as we do not have enough space to have separate room but have cinder blocks to add on and we will when we can afford it.) carpeting and blankets and many other items you no longer plan to use.  If something is given to us that we can’t use it is passed on to a legitimate nonprofit charity such as Church on the Street where we pass on clothing items and some blankets which are too porous or heavily fringed as to be safe from claws of dogs.  All  items are tax deductible for our nonprofit charity.   

Two major events happened which cost us volunteers, one was KFox put a disgruntled former employee on their news to bad mouth us saying we killed animals.  We, as with all nokill shelters, sometimes find it necessary to euthanise very old, sick, unmanagable, mean animals and that the word ‘no kill’ did not mean ‘never kill’.  We adopt a lot of animals and the more an agency takes in the larger the chance a pet might not be savable but we regularly save 3 legged dogs, deaf dogs, dogs that snap and shiver in the back of the cage in total fear, pregnant dogs and we allw them to have their babies not believing in abortion even in pets. God causes mother nature to form tiny little features, little toe nails, noses etc each a perfect replica of parents. Early this year we put down a dog we had held for   8 years.   Finally sick, unable to stand, vomiting and thin, we released her to a better life.  During this time we calculate we tried adopting her 6 times to no avail and spend over $3000 on medications plus care and so on.  The next thing that happened is a local group got national coverage and the lure of this took our last adult volunteer.  We had also lost our two finest to moves out of El Paso. You get paid a lot, the dogs and cats kiss you and love you. Anyone can buy a dog but only love can make its tail wag. It is a little drive to our place in the country but quiet, beautiful and serene.  We have landscaped with roses, black berries, blue berries and other plants.  We have many pine tees.  While this place is not as large as where we moved from, the septic systems work, the shower does not flood the next room, the air conditioner and heater work, it is ours. Here there i s no morning barrage of swearing and throwing things by the owner’s manager.

Many people do not realize there has been a separation between city and county control over animals.  Apparently county picks up animals in their area and  takes them to El Paso Animal Control in El Paso.  They are paying a specific fee for this while they use money supplied them by the city of El Paso, around $114000.   If you have a dog that is a problem and live in the county you have to call the sheriff not animal services. This number is 915-546-2280 if it is an emergency which would constitute a bite to a human or mauling etc., 915-538-2210.  In El Paso city limits it is 842-1000 to pick up pets that are unwanted and or stray. If the dog or cat has bitten someone it is absolutely imperative you report this as a bite that draws blood can cause rabies if the pet is not vaccinated.  There is little chance of this as we haven’t had a case of domestic animal rabies in years and years.  In the 80s the county vet decided a calf had rabies and people were lining up to take the shots when Austin said the calf was clean. Who ever heard of a calf biting someone and causing rabies!  As a child I can recall seeing dogs running with rabies, they were rural and probably exposed to skunks, maybe squirrels or other wild animals. If you find a wild animal that does not run from you it is probably very sick.  You should leave it alone and call someone who knows how to handle this.  A wild life agency would be good, one here is Chihuahua Wildlife and phones available at 842-1000 and other agencies.  When you pass Loop 375 going east on Montana you enter the county.  If you live near county lines you should acquaint yourself about bounderies.  At this time in March 10 there is likely no true emergency care in the county but the city does have vet on duty most of the time but the injured pet must have been found in city limits.There is a real need to have numbers published for dead animal pick up, you can’t just toss a deceased pet in the trash.  Depending on where the pet is dead, you would call Tex Dot, or whomever handles that street for other matters, those who know whom to call are El Paso Sanitation Dept and Tex Dot, Animal Control at 842-1000.  If the dog is wearing a collar it is courteous to remove the collar and turn it in at Animal Control so they can notify a worried owner not to look any longer. Before we moved to McCracken address we used to pick up dead animals on Montana as a volunteer service so that children would not see and recall the horror.  Nowadays the pet lays there, a gory mess, for days no matter whom you call.  We no longer have funds to run the truck. 

How beautiful, a beautiful wedding outside, to finalize matters a group of white doves is released into the air winging rappidly into the sky, sun glimmering on their wings.  End of a perfect addition to the wedding or funeral, a social event but not for the doves.  Bred strictly for beauty and color, they are not homing pigeons and as the bride and groom turn away already they tire from lack of flying ability.  They flutter to the ground, hearts pumping, fearful, trembling.  These birds have no Lone Star Card and cannot feed themselves.  They will not return home or find safety in the trees and bushes. They are domestic animals bred for sacrifice. Some will fall prey to animals such as domestic cats and dogs, others will starve or be so disoriented they die of fright. Hawks and birds of prey kill the defensless birds.  What is supposed to be a symbolic gesture turns into a carnage for the birds.   Recently a friend plucked one from the jaws of a dog and spent months patching it up and saved its life.  Next time you go to some churchy affair think about the animals, think about the birds and their ultimate end of life destined by people who think ‘pretty’.Along the same line of thought the balloons that are filled with helium and festoon cars on sales lots and empty apartments all go someplace and come back to earth and clutter up the environment. We have found quail tangled and dead in the strings and certainly turtles eat them thinking they are food all so we can have pretty ascentions for a brief moment in time.

The public believes all shelters furnish medical care, loving attention and  only puts pets down for resons they can understand but that isn’t the case. Many thriving shelters put down animals that are black because they have too many black pets, too many large pets, too many of a specific breed as if they were sorting beans and peas in the canned goods dept.  To be considered a no kill shelter does not mean you never put down a pet,  A few months ago K Fox chastised me without a chance to defend myself against a disgruntled employee for putting down 18 of over 300 dogs that we had worked with for over 2 years in each case.  We had lost the use of the kennel where the benefactor withdrew financial support and the use of the kennel without notice after five and a half years.  We took a caravan of pets around Tx giving away market ready pets all spayed and neutered finding homes for about 150 in the process. We had money and veterinary expenes invested in the pets and it cost us money to make the runs.

They wanted us out in 45 days but a reasonable judge got us about 4 months  in the interim our computer records were destroyed and  a man who had been a L. A. gang banger had full control of the kennel and office and staff. It was very difficult. We had to find a suitable place and drove for hundreds of miles to look at possible kennel locations finally buying a foreclosure and remodeling it.  If you were to ask me to describe the owner of the kennel and ask why she did this I think it was planned to study how I did it, put someone in charge as we adopted hundreds of dogs and to her it looked easy.  She was not informed and believed she owned the dogs and my organization and all along had avoided talking to me unless necessary.

My best description of her would be very mean spirited.  She left me to pay $20,000 a month in salaries her manager had hired mostly to do nothing withdrawing any financial support to us without any notice at all. I was trying to find people who might help us so I turned to PETA. What I found was while PETA wants to save the lives of chickens and pigs, sheep and goats, seals and whales they are not interested in cats and dogs and routinely tell people trying to save lives in a no kill shelter to put them down.  I was really stunned but got an education in a hurry.  Everyone wanting to save pets should read REDEMPTION  by Nathan J. Winograd and it will tell you stories of how PETA sought out veterinarians asking to take spay neutered pets to rehome and then taking them out to the car and  putting them to sleep dumping their lifeless bodies in the dumpster.  These pets were not feral they were simply pets left at the vets and not picked up or given to the vets by people who could not  keep them.

When I asked them to suggest agencies to help by taking some of the pets they told me to put them down.  If people paid attention to how PETA spends their money and what their attitude is they’d think twice about donations.  In fact there is so much need in your own city and state it is a sin to send your money to far away places where it goes into salaries and no pet in  your neighborhood benefits.  It isn’t uncommon for us to be unable to take a pet as we are full, the person on the phone is furious and when I ask where they donate it is often PETA who does nothing to help rehome local pets.  People are blown away by big time television shows and names.  What does it mean to be no kill?  No kill does not mean  never kill, agencies that have limited means sometimes try very hard to rehibilate difficult pets but eventually must put them down as they have no ‘little boiling pot’ churning out money.  Places like Dog Town have an endless supply of funds and rehibilates many pets but at a cost per pet (which may never be normal or adopted) which is great. The main reason pets cannot be rehomed are aggression and sickness and it is not responsible to put a dog or cat into a home where it could easily kill a child or another dog or elderly person.

I keep a clipping on my desk which says “Humane Society Pet of the Week kills child” which was not the local humane society.  The people took the dog home which had been there about 3 days, not long enough to assess any pet for disposition.  I have to read that often when I have a pet that is   between ‘good pet, possible ‘bad pet’ I feel I cannot put out a pet that can kill or badly damage a child.  Sometimes it is with tears we put these animals down.  Everyone should watch the Houston ASPCA and others on Animal Planet, even if dog is snarly when eating it is put down.  We try and work with them to stop this but that day in March of 09 our time ran out.  18 dogs were put down and K Fox interviewed a disgruntled employee who had no driver’s licence and warrants a mile long and she said “Martha puts down dogs whe doesn’t have to”. These 18 were all we had ever put down in 5 1/2 years and when I went to our benefactor begging for food her answer was the kennel was not run well when it was run by her very own choice of men she hired and paid to run it.  By then she is wanting us to leave without any discussion.  When people ask me to describe her I have to think she was very mean spirited and cruel.  She had put down troubled dogs herself.  Reasons agencies put down dogs are aggression, sickness, old age to where people are not likely to adopt or take care of the needs of an older dog, habits which are disgusting which we have been unable to break with our limited resources such as eating feces, humping, being very destructive, (my son had a dog in his  kennel which chewed its way from outside in. He destroyed all his living room furniture) , dogs that cannot be contained in any enclosure, and a few other reasons.  Each euthanasia is a failure and we do not take it lightly and as with the  18 out of 300 they had been kept 2 years and in our case we were out of space, time and money.  It took fired employees and a tv station which loved drama but not truth to put it to the public.  No puppies were put down even though though they showed fabricated photos of puppies which were not ours.   When people ask me how I feel about it I say ‘the greatest man who ever lived they nailed to a cross why should I expect better?’  Every time a business bypasses an agency or the newspaper picks and chooses someone over another dogs and cats die. Every time an event which is news worthy is deliberately over looked by a tv station while picking favorites, they hurt the pets because agencies like ours do the adoption numbers.  Many good but less aggressive agencies are in it for a hobby.

There is nothing wrong with hobby work but tv and media stations should think about saving lives not cherry picking people who do the hobby work.  If a hobbiest does 1-3 pets a month it is great but agencies like ours in bad times do over 40 to 45 on bad times so those pets are really greatful to us and we use our own money not that of a benefactor.  That should count for sincerity.  I also got a real awakening when I called Pedigree Co asking if we could get any free food.  We feed only Pedigree here and true to their ad the poop is perfect and when you have a good pooper you have a healthy dog.  The first question I was asked was “are you a no kill shelter” and I said “yes” and “how many dogs and cats do you do?” and I said we were turning over a hundred animals a month out of 300 and she practically hung up on me telling me they are not interested in no kill shelters where pets eat and hang on for long periods they want the dog into a home eating their product.  “So sorry try again in a year but if you rank your kennel as no kill then it will be the same answer, good bye”,  So I found what drives the big companies, Hills and others to donate free food to assist the nonprofits.  It is not having a no kill shelter and doing large numbers compared to the number in your kennel.  If you are humanitarian, ah..forget it, if you have 14 mothers and puppies who will take space and time, forget it.

All these fancy programs really do little to help agencies like ours.  We work 9 to 12 hours some days and do all the good stuff saving sick pets, ones hit by cars if possible the one chewed up by a roving dog but that will never qualify us for anything free.  Be sure to read the book REDEMPTION because many unwanted pets can be saved it is a case of being lazy and doing it strictly for the money.  Those are the ones that get the most publicity.  Those are the ones which get free food.  PETA has resorted to rather risque tv ads where nude  women in various situations make a point.  It is my feeling these ads do nothing to stop mistreatment of pets.  Please, before you donate money to a nonprofit, all of which is tax deductible, be sure what you believe is their cause is actually their cause, consider donating in your own home town!  And remember, local groups appreciate it more and are generally more likely to be careful in how that money is spent.  God bless those who care for the pets.  Martha Williams Director.

Without exaggeration we get 25 calls a week from frantic owners who have lost their dog or cat.  These animals are part of the family.  In cases where the pet is never found a hollow spot always remains as people suffer from guilt, anxiety and loss of hope if the pet is not found.  I find almost no one knows how to go about looking for a lost pet.  If you have done any advance work for locating a lost pet you are ahead.  a simple matter of turning a fabric collar inside out and writing your phone number complete with area code and address and city on the under side with a permanent marker. While not widely used today, tattoos in ears or under hind leg provide often unnoticed information be sure to look there if you find a pet.

We still tattoo all our cats with a halo in the ear which when seen by Animal Services assures they can be returned to us. Tags bearing your name which are made at local pet stores are helpful but should be kept up to date on addresses and phone numbers.  Rabies and city tags are useful only as far as you have supplied information to the veterinarian or service facility where you got your shots and tags.  Tracing this can take perhaps 24 hours.  It  is the law now in El Paso area to have your pet microchipped.  The very same microchip can cost from $10 with us to $65 or more with some veterinary facilities and the difference can be in registration.  For the $10 we do not register your pet anywhere except with us but we do keep a record of  that transaction.  If people move or change information it becomes useless.  We recommend when someone gets a microchip from us they register it with the city.  To do this one must have a current rabies certificate and the microchip number.  Be sure someone actually scans your pet at the time of insertion and you check it against the number as an error is as innocent as being on the wrong line to register.  This costs $10  to have your pet registered locally and is well worth it.  If you register with a national organization which is included in the packet information and varies some in cost but essentially runs about $25 a year to keep up.  Some may find this too pricy. A registering agency called 24 Hour Pet Watch I understand registers for around $14.95  category which is a bargain as they are answering their phones with up to date information 24 hours a day.  It is always good to remember where your pet was chipped as they might have a record in case of a loss. From time to time check your pet’s microchip with a scanner because microchips can shift in the body and be missed on scanning in emergency or stop working entirely.

When a dog or cat goes missing the faster you move the better the opportunity to find the lost one.  Go house to house being sure to talk to children who notice small things going on in the neighborhood.  Ask homeowners and UPS men, post people and anyone you see. Dogs can travel miles especially when first free as they find the opportunity overwhelmingly enticing to run and sniff and play until their source of food is not replenished and thirst is over bearing the dog pants and slows down finally sitting in a flower bed or on a street corner totally bewildered and terrified, his owner has become lost.  It is nothing he has done.  A cat may seek refuge in a garage and be trapped for a few days.

Always file a police report if there is any hint your pet was stolen.  If you walk and call and look it is a good thing but does not necessarily mean you will find your pet.  People who recognize a pet can die by being struck by a car or fall into unfriendly hands or be attacked  by a mean dog or simply be stoned by mean spirited kids who think it is funny to hurt a helpless pet.  When it becomes evident you aren’t going to find the pet quickly get posters up as quickly as possible and a photo is a really good idea.  To sweeten the deal a reward is helpful and while putting down children miss the dog it does little to assure their return.  It is better to list any hint towards older age, spayed or neutered making the dog less valuable to a finder.  Immediately go to Animal Services across from Ft. Bliss National Cemetery.  Remember to ask to check the sick room for a pet that may have been injured.  They might not offer this service otherwise.  Pick up a list of agencies which normally take in lost pets.

Some agencies do not accept them and as with ours, we are miles in the county and people drive here to assure a pet has a safe place to stay if we can take them in, these are lucky pets.  Other lucky pets are taken in by caring people who search for the owner.  In many cases they search in vain and never find an owner who actually threw the dog away hoping for a kind person to find it.  However the dog or cat you find or is found is property and Texas law says you have to make a sincere effort to find the ower.  Truthfully if a dog comes to us and is abused  hair that is tattered and likely has never been clipped, dog is thin and  neglected, perhaps covered in ticks and fleas  we are not going to look hard for the owner who would be charged with abuse but a dog that is simply dirty, good body weight, healthy looking other than the surface we hold well past the 9 day requirement by law trying to find the owner.  The first thing we do with all dogs is to scan to check for a microchip that can be traced and we always check for newspaper ads for lost pets.  Unfortunately most newspaper ads list the breed of the dog and anyone finding a dog especially in an area where there are dual languages might not have any idea what the breed mentioned is or have an image of a different look so if you spend money on an ad put the description of the dog, you would be astounded if you saw how many ads do not mention male or female, color, long or short hair, with or without collar when lost, because a collar is often removed so a finder can read information then the dog runs off again. Do not bypass Spanish language papers.   Where the dog was lost although good to  keep in mind  remember  a dog can be transported in a vehicle.

We lost a dog once and the finder took it to Ruidoso for the week end then called when he got back while we frantically looked for the missing pet.  The dog or cat you find may be the only thing keeping some elderly person going, it is their only friend and companion.  If you do everything to find an owner and can prove this eventually the pet can  legally become yours.  Until then it is a stolen pet.  You must make a good faith effort.  Be sure to visit Animal Services which should not be confused with the  Humane Society as often as possible and do not rely on calling them to check for your pet.  This is your job.  You can go as late as six I think.  842-1000 and you have to fill out a form which does not assure you they will notice your dog or cat.One woman I know went twice a week pacing the euthanasia dates with her visits for a year.

One day she was so tired she almost did not go but decided to give it a try. When she entered the sick room she noticed a thin almost dead dog who looked up at her and whined.  She said “is that you, Donny? Is that you?” and it was.  For over a year this dog had evidently been feral, alone on the street and had finally ended up at Animal Control.  Dogs which go feral sometimes no longer recognize their name but never forget the scent of home, security  and love.  We heard of one case where a woman had lost her dog and it had been months and people started telling her of a feral dog about 20 miles away in a small town.  She took all her dirty laundry and spaced it around town one evening then early in the morning, returned, there on a bed spread lay her faithful dog, drawn only by the scent of her past pack  leader.

People are often careless and when they have expensive dogs like Yorkies that are cute and in demand they let them out in their back yard with only a latched gate between them and a thief.  Lock your gate with a pad lock if you value your kids and dogs.  When you have workers in  your house it is better to board your dog a couple of days than find when they left for the last time they left your gate open and your dog is gone.  Whether this was an error or a planned exit you’ll never know.  It isn’t smart to do other things as well.  If you have acquired a new boy or girl friend it is common for them to dislike the pet but say nothing or little but sometimes become bitter enough to take the pet to have it put down while the frantic owner searches through anguish and tears or they take the pet across town and discard it to where it will never find its way  home.

When you take someone into your life if you love your pet you should test the person for tolerance and make a decision on whether something you love deserves the fate of your new found friend’s actions.  Also it should be noted annoyed neighbors can kill cats or dogs  from flustration of noise, annoyance or anger. Never under estimate the fate of your pet in the hands of someone who has been inconvenienced.  Every day at Animal Services at least 28 people stand in line for cat traps.  They are fed up with cats pooping in their yard, chasing birds or just walking across the patio.  They have a legal right to trap and turn these animals in plus the wandering cat is subject to sickiness.  Some years back we had a neighbor who has a beautiful Russian Blue cat and I had a brand new car.  Within a week their cat drew other cats into the area and fought on the hood of my car leaving permanent scratch marks on a car less than a month old.  I didn’t do anything or say anything but not eveyone is so tolerant. You are responsible for the noise your pet makes and the clutter it causes.  I have had people call here complaining about parrots left on the patio all day which can be heard for blocks.  I hope these suggestions help bring your pet back to you.

When you first get a dog take a long leash and teach him not to go through the open front door or gate by repeatedly pulling him back and rewarding him for not rushing out.  Cats are harder to train.  One of the women who does work only with cats in El Paso told me she was checking out at a Walmart buying a lot of cat food and litter.  Two of the checkers snickered about her purchase and said “my husband says the only good cat is a dead cat”  I think they lost their job but this tells you the inhumane feelings felt right next to us in society.  Doing anything to avoid a loss in advance is advisable, little things, take photos of your pet from several angles over the period of years, get close ups. Put information on a tag or collar remembering a collar can be lost or taken off.  Microchip your pet and be sure there are people who know to whom that number belongs.

Notify the seller of the original chip which can be established by any veterinarian.  Finding who installed the chip is not absolute as we have sold chips and had chips stolen or put in by dishonest techs with no record but over all it is a good system just working out the bugs.  Notify your vet and any vet in the neighborhood, Petsmart etc but do not expect much sympathy or help along those lines they hear this daily and it isn’t unknown that vets can feel a dog is stolen but not want to get involved.  Post your information on line places like KFox classified etc which are free.  There are many networks such as Kijiji  and sometimes they link with others such as Petfinders all post lost or founds free so you have nothing to lose.  Many people fail to realize a sketchy description of a dog or cat lost can cost them to lose the dog to someone who does not comprehend what they are talking about.  Be specific about color and sex, breed is secondary as to many they do not speak the language but want to return a dog but do not know breeds by name.  I also tell people that a dog is property and to keep someone’s property is theft.  If you woke up and found a Harley in your yard would you think it was now yours?  Do not play finders keepers with someone’s emotions and feelings to better your status of ownership.  Unless you can prove ownership of the  pet it isn’t yours to keep.  Which of you has not seen the picture of Christ holding a lamb and the words ‘what good shepherd would not leave his 99 safely in the fold and go looking for the one that was lost?’  Caring people look and suffer, the pet suffers, can you justify your actions by ‘finders keepers’ ? Fortunately for many pet owners another pet owner who loves animal finds, picks them up and searches for you.  In doing this they can charge a reasonable fee for food etc although many don’t, agencies usually charge as it is their business and it costs money to feed, clean and take care of any pet. There are other animal control facilities in the area such as Ft. Bliss, check  with them.

When you or I meet someone for the first time we show manners by shaking hands.  Other countries kiss on the cheeks etc.  With animals it is a whole new world.  Animals greet every new comer into their circle by sniffing them.  It is correct protocol for the dog to want to sniff you and sometimes it is a little embarrassing or annoying but to the dog it gets all the information it needs from this act which is deemed the very best of doggie protocol.  From this moment on the brief sniff will renew the first meeting.  People think when dogs come running towards them with tails wagging they want to play but play will come second to the introduction of sniffing.  Dogs sometimes do other things that make us gag or offend us such as eating feces or rolling in disgusting things rubbing the odor onto their own bodies.  These are kick backs from the wild and no one can be absolutely sure why either takes place.
Perhaps the rolling puts the smell of a larger more fearsome animal onto their body to scare off predators or opposition we are not sure.  Eating of feces of their own is not clearly defined I believe if puppies are left with the mother dog 8 weeks she will teach them to go far from the den site or nest to do their business then leave it alone.  If Mom has had to fend for herself she might have picked up this habit to get nourishment and it is said in today’s better dog and cat foods there is so much nourishment left it tempts a dog to eat it for calorie content.
Whatever the reason it is not acceptable practice.  Most dogs can be dissuaded by additions to their food such as chopped pineapple, monosodium glutamate, sauerkraut, Worcestershire, are only a few.  There are special pills and things to add to the food.  Most dogs will eat from the litter box of cats regardless of how tidy they are otherwise so it is best to have a covered box or clean it immediately.  There is obviously something in the feces that appeals to the stimulation of desire in the dog.  Always remove poop as quickly as possible.  Feeding dry food and a bit of moist makes stools that are easier to collect and dispose of, even Pedigree advertises this and it is one reason most kennels are drawn to use Pedigree.  A kennel full of dogs with diarrhea is a terrible thing.  As for helping the nonprofit charities Pedigree does almost nothing  about donating free food or money to charities that are no kill I guess figuring dogs sitting around eating and not getting into homes quickly do not make them enough money.
When I contacted Pedigree or Hills about food and told them I had over 300 dogs plus cats in a no kill shelter they told me “we are not interested, you can call back if you change your status in a year:” which meant, start killing off dogs and cats and get out of no kill business if you want help from us.  PETA has the same attitude when I ran into trouble with a lease on my no kill 300 dog kennel, PETA told me to put them down and offered no further advice everyone should read the book Redemption about no kill vs. kill shelters.  It just takes a little more time to find a loving home in most cases but economics plays a big part in today’s society.  It is reflecting our human attitude of getting rid of the sick and elderly and dealing only with the healthy productive.