DogTown

by Stefan Bechtel

  All this so far is prologue. The important part of this story is that one winter day a man and his ten-year-old son came to the shelter to adopt a dog. This shelter always had lots of nice, easy dogs from whom to choose. So, of course, they went right to Atticus’s gate and fell in love at first sight. The staff explained his history and foibles to the gentleman as diplomatically as they could. Atticus was not considered the best choice for a family with children under 16, since adult volunteers found him overwhelming. But, as the saying goes, “the heart wants what the heart wants,” and the man and his son were not easily deterred. In keeping with the time-honored technique of dealing with an impasse by handing it off to someone else, the staff politely introduced the man and boy to me. They explained that I had been working with Atticus, that I knew him better than anyone else at this time, and that I would be happy to bring him out so that they could meet him. I sensed impending disaster. As mentioned before, Atticus did not expect to use his new behaviors with “normal” people, so his high-energy antics could be on full display. I suspected that the dog weighed as much as the boy. Did I mention that it was winter? I thought so. The play yard we used for introductions was covered in snow.

  The young boy wanted to walk Atticus first. I wanted Dad to try, but I was outvoted two to one. As Dad and I watched, the boy proudly took the leash. Almost immediately Atticus took off at a full run, dragging the boy behind him. I glanced at Dad to catch his reaction. To my surprise, he was smiling! I turned back around, and instead of seeing the poor lad facedown in the snow I saw the youngster with both legs locked stiff, remaining upright, skiing behind Atticus as the pair zigzagged back and forth across the lawn! He was having the time of his life. Dad looked at me and said, “He’s perfect. Can we have him?”

  Therein lies the beautiful truth about dogs. One man’s problem dog is another man’s joy. With the best intentions, we at Best Friends try to help dogs become more adoptable. We encourage behavior that would seem to open more doors to potential homes. But, in the end, the more pertinent goal is to find the right match between home and dog. I still believe there is value in helping dogs change some of their behaviors, but I realize that the value inherent in their individuality should not be underestimated. In this case, the “magic” happened not because of my efforts to shape Atticus into some generic adoptable dog, but precisely because of the unique qualities that made him Atticus.

  A cute pug is the face of Best Friends’ Puppies Aren’t Products campaign.

  05

  Parker and Mei Mei: The Problems with the Puppies in the Window

  It’s hard to imagine anything cuter than puppies in a pet store. Those precious faces! Those adorable eyes! Those bumpety-bumping tails!

  But all too often, love-struck buyers don’t ask or even wonder where the puppies actually came from. They may envision a peaceful countryside filled with gamboling, happy pups. But unfortunately, the truth about the puppies in the window is often almost incomprehensibly grim.

  Many dogs sold in pet stores come from puppy mills, large-scale commercial operations that breed dogs for profit. (Another term for puppy mill is commercial breeder.) The Humane Society of the United States defines a puppy mill as a mass-breeding operation where dogs often live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. The dogs are bred for years solely to provide puppies for the pet trade. “A puppy mill is like factory farming for dogs—treating them almost like livestock,” said Best Friends Dog Care Manager Michelle Besmehn. “These breeders are breeding dogs over and over again, often without considering the animals’ health at all.”

  In many operations, the adult breeding dogs are the most mistreated animals of all, since the public never sees them. They can be subjected to terrible conditions, spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a cage, often with little social interaction with humans. They eat, sleep, and eliminate all in the same wire cage. Female dogs are often bred every time they come into heat, so they spend most of their lives either pregnant or nursing. A single female may bear 60 pups; when she’s too old to bear any more, she’s simply killed.

  When Parker came to Dogtown, his teeth and gums were in such bad shape that just chewing his food caused great pain.

  “A responsible breeder wouldn’t continually breed their dogs over and over again, basically breeding them until they wear out,” said Michelle. “They wouldn’t force a dog to have litter after litter without any regard for the dog’s health. But that’s what they do in a puppy mill.”

  Large-scale breeders like this are legal in all 50 states, but they’re poorly regulated. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that there are approximately 10,000 puppy mills nationwide and only 100 federal inspectors to monitor them. Regulations about the number of dogs and quality of conditions tend to be fairly vague. These facilities got their start after World War II when the U.S. Department of Agriculture encouraged struggling farmers to breed puppies to make some extra money. Best Friends estimates that today there are three to four million puppies raised in puppy mills each year. Besides supplying pet shops, these kinds of operations often supply Internet merchants, feeding the demand for a cute face and a wagging tail, no matter what the origin.

  At the pet store, a puppy may sell for a few hundred dollars up to over a thousand—a premium price for what the new owner hopes is a heartwarming bundle of joy that is a good example of the breed and also reasonably healthy and well adjusted. “But what often happens is that people get the puppies home and either they have medical issues or behavior issues that they didn’t expect,” Michelle said. “Or the puppies grow up and have some issue that someone doesn’t know how to deal with, and they end up in shelters. So it ends up adding to the overpopulation problem.”

  It is from two large-scale operations that Best Friends rescued two true survivors, a dachshund named Parker and a Chihuahua called Mei Mei. The two dogs came from different locations, but the medical and social issues they faced are all too common in dogs who come from similar situations. Luckily for them, they found their way to Best Friends, where the dogs’ strong spirits and giant hearts would be nurtured by the caring staff at Dogtown.

  PARKER: THE DOG FROM WHISPERING OAKS

  The website was cheerful and innocuous, featuring a photo of a dachshund wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. “Specializing in miniature Dachshunds!” read the text, which advertised the services of Whispering Oaks Kennels in Parkersburg, West Virginia. “Happy, healthy puppies are our priority,” it went on. The site mentioned, in passing, that although visitors were welcome, they were not allowed into the kennel area where adult breeding dogs were kept. It ended with a cheery adieu: “Thanks for Visiting Our Site and God Bless!”

  It was easy to imagine dachshund puppies frolicking on a golden hill, with mighty oaks whispering overhead, but the circumstances at the kennels were far different. Nearly a thousand dogs were confined in an assortment of small cages. In some cases, four or five dogs lived in one two-by-three-square-foot cage. When the animals were first let out of their cages, many of them stumbled as their feet touched grass, tile, or carpet—perhaps due to muscle weakness or to the unfamiliarity of the surface beneath their feet.

  The local sheriff’s office began investigating Whispering Oaks in summer 2008 after a former employee complained about waste disposal practices there. The owner was not charged with animal cruelty or neglect; she agreed to downsize the operation and voluntarily surrendered more than 900 dogs, who she insisted had received regular veterinary visits, had been well cared for, and had never been mistreated.

  A DACHSHUND WITH TERRIBLE TEETH

  In the days that followed the dogs’ surrender, a large number of rescue organizations, including Best Friends, the Humane Society of the United Sates, the Humane Society of Parkersburg, and other rescue groups, worked together to find new homes for them. Most of the surrendered dogs from Whispering Oaks were adults—breeding animals who would simply have been put down when their fertility began to wane. The 928 dogs—mostly
Chihuahuas, dachshunds, and poodles—were relocated to a local warehouse, from which volunteers would determine where they would go. It was a noisy, hectic scene, with volunteers bustling around, cleaning cages, doing medical exams, filling out paperwork, and generally getting the dogs ready to go out to rescue groups and new, better lives.

  As part of her job as Dog Care Manager at Best Friends, it was Michelle’s unenviable task to choose which dogs to take back to Dogtown. “It’s pretty overwhelming—how do you choose?” she said. Michelle was particularly interested in the animals who might have the most trouble finding homes: the ones in need of medical care and older dogs. Best Friends’ excellent medical clinics and staff are something few other shelters can afford.

  “I told the volunteers what kind of dogs we were looking for and asked them, ‘Are there other dogs you’d like me to look at?’” she recalled. “That’s when they showed me the dachshund with the terrible teeth.”

  DENTAL DISASTER

  From the rear, the little long-haired dachshund didn’t look special: a reddish brown hot dog body, four legs, and a tail. But from the front, all you could see were teeth, so long and so misshapen they resembled the plastic fangs kids wear on Halloween. Even when his mouth was closed, the teeth poked out and distorted his face into a crooked grin.

  The dog’s misshapen teeth might have been the first thing people noticed, but the second was definitely his breath. It was appalling—and it was an indication of possible infection. Michelle also noticed that he ate very gingerly, as if his mouth hurt.

  Bad teeth are a problem typical of many breeding dogs in puppy mills. Dental work is generally considered an unnecessary frill and a potential threat to the bottom line. Problems of neglect, like bad teeth, matted fur, overgrown nails, and eye and ear infections, are allowed to fester, causing pain and greater suffering for the dogs.

  The midwestern United States has the highest concentration of puppy mills. It is thought that Missouri has the most, followed by Oklahoma, Iowa, and Arkansas.

  This toothy dachshund had become a favorite of the people working with the Whispering Oaks dogs. When people came up to his cage, he would timidly approach them with this strange, crooked grin on his face. The dog’s quirky expressions charmed everyone who saw him, and their positive reactions encouraged his advances.

  But even though the little dog welcomed the attention, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. When visitors reached into the cage to touch him, his wiry body shied away from contact, showing how uncomfortable he was about being petted. Michelle’s guess was that he was not afraid of people, but he had never been picked up and cuddled very much. The paperwork on his cage explained that he had been found living in a tiny rabbit hutch with three other dogs, a space he had probably rarely left since puppyhood. For shelter, he and the other dogs shared a small, bare plywood box with no bedding material at all. His tiny, limited life most likely never included a warm bed.

  When Michelle first came across the wee dog with that odd, endearing snaggletoothed face, she was charmed by his smile too. This small, middle-aged dog with medical issues was a perfect fit for Dogtown, and Michelle decided to bring him back home. She named him Parker.

  NEW DIGS AT DOGTOWN

  After Parker’s carrying crate had been loaded into a van for the 40-hour drive from West Virginia all the way to his new home in Utah, Michelle peeked into his crate and noticed that Parker had that odd, weirdly endearing jack-o’-lantern grin on his face. Maybe he knew that this extended confinement in a tiny cage—the sort of place he had spent much of his life—would soon be his last.

  Michelle knew that Parker’s mouth would need to be examined very quickly once he arrived. It wasn’t just that he had crooked teeth and bad breath, but also that he was clearly physically uncomfortable. Chewing seemed to be so painful that volunteers began soaking his food to soften it—but even then, it still hurt. He seemed to bite things gingerly, and if they were too hard or too large, he would simply nudge them aside in his bowl. Signs of infection were also worrisome. Just by peeling back Parker’s lips, you could see what Michelle described as “green goo” on his teeth and gums. What it was, she shuddered to think.

  When Dr. Mike Dix, Dogtown’s head veterinarian, looked into Parker’s mouth, he was taken aback. “I’ve seen some pretty bad teeth in my day, but Parker certainly ranks up at the top,” he said. The more he looked, the worse it got. Dr. Mike determined that several of Parker’s teeth were going to have to be pulled; some were so loose that he probably could have pulled them out with his bare hands.

  Parker’s mangled teeth could have been the result of bad breeding—a genetic defect that was allowed to continue down through the generations. Dr. Mike felt disgusted that the puppy mill was probably using Parker as a “stud dog” for breeding, even though his poor teeth made him an obviously bad candidate. “But it doesn’t surprise me, because that’s what a puppy mill does—they breed anything they can breed.”

  Parker’s shaggy red coat became soft, shiny, and lush after a good grooming at Dogtown.

  The infection in Parker’s mouth also concerned Dr. Mike; it was so virulent that it could become life threatening if it spread to his bloodstream and then to his heart and other organs. Left untreated, Dr. Mike said, it could kill him within a year or two.

  “He’s a high-priority dental—let’s move him to the top of the list,” he said to Michelle, explaining that at least several of Parker’s teeth would need to be extracted.

  A few days later, after his initial exam, Parker seemed to be making a quick and successful adjustment to his new spacious digs at Dogtown. His shaggy red coat needed a good grooming, a process that Parker really seemed to enjoy. After a shampoo, a blow-dry, and brushing, his reddish brown coat gleamed. With a shiny coat and bright eyes, he prepared for his surgery with Dr. Mike.

  Before his operation, Parker was prepped for surgery and then sedated. Pulling teeth is traumatic for an animal, Dr. Mike explained, so he wanted to limit the number that were extracted. The canines were of special concern; they were such large teeth that the gum would have to be sutured to avoid creating a fistula, or abnormal opening, between Parker’s oral and nasal cavities.

  Dr. Mike called in Steve Lund, a vet tech who specialized in dental examinations, to help with the surgery. When Steve took a look into Parker’s mouth, he gasped a little. “It’s pretty bad…wow,” he said. “And his breath…whew!”

  Then he pulled out one tooth with his fingers. This was a disquieting discovery. It appeared that the infection had spread to Parker’s jawbone. X-rays revealed that nearly all of the little dog’s teeth were rotten. Steve and Dr. Mike decided to remove all of Parker’s teeth. Only time would tell if this drastic surgery and a regimen of antibiotics would prevent the infection from spreading.

  A change in eating behavior can indicate mouth pain in a dog. Eating slowly, dropping food, or tilting the head while chewing can all be signs of discomfort.

  PARKER’S RECOVERY

  After the surgery, Michelle could tell that Parker’s mouth was extremely sore. If before he had taken bites gingerly, now he barely took any bites at all. He seemed sluggish and dispirited, almost as if eating were too much effort to bear. He did not seem to be recovering as quickly as the staff had hoped.

  Michelle decided to see if she could get him to eat a little bit. He looked up at her with his sorrowful, slightly hurt brown eyes, and despite his discomfort, gave her a no-longer-crooked grin. She noticed that there was some canned chicken and some kibble in his cage already, but that it was uneaten. When she tried to feed him, it became apparent that he was having a difficult time simply getting the food into his mouth. So she piled his food up into a little mound, to make it easier for him to grab with his toothless jaws. He began wolfing down his lunch hungrily, so Michelle made another chicken-kibble mound in a different spot in his cage. Parker loved it. He scurried back and forth between the two piles of food, ecstatic to have two meals to fill his hungry belly.<
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  Dr. Mike kept checking on Parker regularly in the days after the surgery, to make sure his mouth was healing properly. Three weeks later, Parker was making a remarkable recovery, with the oral infection under control. He was also learning how to eat without teeth, and his flagging spirits seemed to have revived. He eagerly greeted visitors, padding up to the edge of his cage and looking up beseechingly, holding up his wet brown nose as if offering it to be petted. Parker was on the mend.

  It was no surprise to Michelle. “Dogs are amazingly resilient when it comes to things like losing all their teeth,” she said. “I’ve always admired that in dogs…. My guess is he’s going to move on, figure out how to eat with no teeth, and he’ll be fine.

  “People tend to hold onto things more, psychologically. If you lose all of your teeth, you’re going to think, Well, what’s my mouth going to look like? How will this change my self-image? and it can be quite traumatic. Dogs seem to be able to move forward more quickly than people.”

  PARKER’S NEW HOME

  Now that Parker was on the road to recovery, placing him in a loving home became Dogtown’s next goal. He needed to find a place with a family who would cherish his endearing oddities, including his total lack of teeth. His first move was into a foster home with Juliette Watt, a Volunteer Coordinator at Best Friends. Juliette knew that a dog like Parker could make huge strides in his recovery just by living in a home environment. The first night there, it was as if Parker could not believe his luck. He ran from room to room, exploring the vastness of Juliette’s house.