This catastrophically BULL SHIT meme is circulating, to supposedly help make people keep their dogs but it’s probably making more people put their pet to sleep!

To the folks that re-homed or will re-home their dog; you are NOT a bad person. After all; you could have just booted your dog out of the car in a random Norcross cul-de-sac, am I right?!

According to this meme, which apparently some people believe (stop laughing it’s serious)

Fully NINETY PERCENT of dogs placed  “free to good home” (private adoptions) literally end up dead, experimented-on, or bred to death.

Again: This fact-filled meme: NINETY PERCENT of dogs placed  “free to good home” literally end up dead, experimented-on, or bred to death.

In the ‘actual world’ we know that the TOTAL of animals fated to this Internet Meme, taken altogether, is less that 1% of total rehoming.

MOST dogs (unless literally dumped) end up in homes at LEAST as good as the home that jettisons them in the first place.

CRITICALLY RELEVANT:

Re-homers *aren’t* dumping their dogs at Animal Control, having them conveniently ‘put down’ or shoving them out of cars in cul-de-sacs. THESE ARE NOT BAD PEOPLE.

If you ever adopted a dog from a rehoming owner; did you find them ‘humane’ and reasonably caring?

– I did.

But let’s go through this meme with extremely thorough searches for reports, cases, documents, web sites or anything documented to support some of these ridiculous claims:

Me: How many dogs are fed to snakes and carnivorous reptiles every year?

Bob: Let me take a look. Okay. There’s no reliable global number for dogs because it’s not a documented or standard practice. The vast majority of captive reptiles eat rodents, rabbits, or chicks, not dogs.

Me: Are there any documented cases where a person adopted a dog in order to feed it to their giant snake

Bob: I don’t see any case where someone actually adopted a dog and then fed it to a snake. There are reports of escaped large snakes killing small dogs and rare proposals involving unwanted puppies, but nothing about a shelter adoption for that purpose.

Hey Bob, what’s the number of research labs that take stray animals for experiments

Bob: Doc if you’re asking about labs that take stray or shelter animals in the U.S., there’s no official published number. It’s a small number of places, and most research dogs now are purpose-bred. Some states allow shelters to transfer animals to labs, and only one state still requires it. But no public source lists how many labs actually do this.

Me: Would you give me a list of even three known labs that take in stray animals for… research and vivisection

Bob: I can’t find even three labs that currently take in stray animals for research. That kind of list isn’t publicly available. There are some institutions in states where it’s legally allowed, but I can’t confirm active intake of strays.

Me: Can you… Find any cases… even outside of shelter adoptions where dog fighting rings adopted a dog in order from anyone in order to use it as bait

Bob: After looking specifically for that, I can’t find a single verified case showing someone deliberately acquiring a dog from someone else to use as a bait dog. The prosecutions and reporting I do see focus on breeding and fighting within those circles, not on adopting outside pets.

Me: Things that actually DO happen fairly often:

1. Rehoming an intact purebred may feed the Doodle industry, and back yard breeders.
2. Hoarders are an occasional / rare destination for rehomed pets by any avenue, even (if not especially) screened adoptions.
3. People COMMONLY run fake GoFundMe’s and solicit donations for “pets in need” but they *specifically* do NOT want your reasonably healthy, identifiable dog. Most only need a picture and short video clip of a needy dog. Not to *actually* house and feed one.
4. It’s possible that dog fighting persons may seek to adopt a “free to good home” fighting breed. Think “Cane Corso” or “Pit Bull” because they’d be expendable and worthwhile adversaries either in the ring for profit or for sparring.

You: Why do you care, Dr Johnson?

Me: Because telling the past and future  ‘re-homers’ in our community that their beloved was “very probably (9-out-of-10) murdered, bred to death or experimented-on is both untrue and damning.

Kathleen Sullivan said it best: “Truly your best resource is YOUR network of family and friends, and their friends, and so forth.” And THAT is the fact to buy.

PS: I’m a 3-plus strikes re-homer. And four out of five ended up in better homes, not lobotomized bred or murdered.

1. Sushi cat would sleep in Katie’s crib every night before she was born, and then, (tried) to sleep on new born Katies face. Every night. Sushi was free to good home. Given to Dr Alyson. Died of old age.
2. Buster bit my kids. Repeatedly. Buster was free to good home. Given to my folks. Died of old age at 15.
3. Penny bit everyone a lot, a LOT! Especially all three of my kids. Penny was free to good home. Given “forever” to Ryan, an actual dog trainer and friend. He eventually gave up.
4. Wrigley could not go where we were moving. Wrigley was free to good home. Given to my father-in-law. Died eventually of Chinese Food Leftovers. But so did my diabetic father-in-law….
5. Arthur was a ‘runner’ and would get out and end up blocks away. We could neither afford nor HOA a fence. Arthur was doomed to be run over. Arthur was free to good home. Given to a friend’s mom who had a fenced yard. Arthur died of cancer 8 yrs later.

These evil “Re-homers” OFTEN have no financial choice or it may TRULY be better for a dog which is being marginalized or even neglected. And of course sure some re-homers are ass hats. But not that commonly.

082426 If you really thought your dog would have a 9 out of 10 chance of murder, abuse or misery, nobody would ever rehome a dog, let alone allow a rescue organization to take it and risk the same, futile fates. If the abuses in this unfortunate meme were actually common or even true, no amount of ‘vetting’ of an adopter would substantially eliminate the events it depicts as “common”. In other words, positivity and hope are called for here.

“Good dogs deserve good homes” and you just do your best. If you can’t deal with your dog, find someone who will. Don’t just kill it because someone told you that it faces 90% odds of murder and death otherwise. I mean, if I actually believed these scare tactics and unverifiable claims, I’d euthanize all the strays and re-homes to avoid this whopping 90% chance of doom. But it’s no where near that bad, y’all. Sure, these things may happen and make national news. But not to the vast majority of dogs that faces homelessness. Let’s keep adopting and re-homing dogs. Not give up because some Internet Meme predicts you dog will be murdered. And yeah, some people staunchly defend a 90% murder rate on your private adoptions. But your private adoption is better and far less ‘certain’ than death. Even if only 10% of private adoptions end up actually living or comfortable. That is; according to this fearmongering Internet meme.