Pregnant and Unwanted

This is a story about a sweet dog named Maxine, and about the controversy over how to handle pregnant animals in shelters.

I was walking through the kennel at the county pound last week and spotted a sweet-faced dog leaning up against the chain link of her kennel run. Some dogs at the pound avoid eye contact, and some will do anything to catch the attention of the people passing by their kennels, barking and jumping. This dog was one of the quiet ones who drew me in with her stillness, her presence, and a tired but kind-eyed and hopeful glance. There are some dogs you just can't pass by. The second thing I noticed, after her sad yet serene energy, was her enormous belly. Pregnant.

I greeted her softly, and she pressed against the chain-link to lick my hand, wagging her tail and looking up at me with soft eyes. I scanned her kennel card -- she was a stray, newly arrived, release date in five days -- and then scanned her kennel. It was bare concrete, no plastic riser or bed box. I flagged down a kennel tech and said, "This one needs a bed box and bedding. She's very pregnant, I think she's about to pop." The tech looked at the kennel card and commented, "You think she'll pop before the 7th?" I told her yes, I thought she would.

I came to check on her 3 days later: still pregnant. I told Jose, a kennel tech who is often assigned to assist with rescues, that I wanted to rescue her if she was not redeemed by an owner, since she would not be fit for adoption. He told me that one of the enforcement officers had offered to foster her, but Dr. L, the county vet, refused to let him. She planned to spay her, abort the pups, and I assume put her up for adoption.

In past years, my rescue group has encountered this conflict of philosophies regarding pregnant animals at the shelter. I personally heard the vet state, "I will not let a pregnant animal leave this shelter." Her supervisor has assured us that this is not the official policy of the facility, and has released several pregnant animals to us.

It is my rescue's position that cats and dogs in the final days of gestation should not be aborted. It can be very confusing for them; their hormones are telling them they should have offspring to care for. The puppies or kittens, which are viable by that time, are usually simply left to suffocate in their sacs. People want to adopt puppies and kittens. If they get them from their neighbors and co-workers, or buy them from the pet store, how many of those puppies and kittens will never be altered, and will go on to make more puppies and kittens? How many irresponsible back-yard breeders and puppy millers will profit from the transaction? Puppies and kittens adopted from our rescue are altered first. They will never reproduce and contribute to shelter populations. I can understand that when shelters are overflowing with unwanted animals, there is some logic to making sure that no additional unwanted animals are produced there. But when the kittens or puppies are wanted, even if it's just a foster home or a rescue group who wants them at the moment, I think they should live.

I called the new rescue coordinator and asked if he could get the dog released to rescue. The next day, he told me the dog was ours in 24 more hours. She had one more day on her stray hold. The chances that anyone was coming for her were slim. When I arrived at her kennel the next afternoon to pick her up, she was sound asleep in her bed box with 7 tiny puppies snuggled up to the milk bar. When I opened her kennel door, she lifted her head and wagged her tail in greeting. When I put her puppies in a pet carrier, she followed them intently down the hallway, and when I loaded her and the carrier in the back of my truck, she cried and bit at the carrier door because she couldn't touch her puppies. I opened the carrier door, hoping the puppies wouldn't tumble out onto the bed of my truck, but figured it wouldn't hurt them if they did, and the mama dog was more likely to hurt herself biting at the carrier. She tried to stuff herself into the carrier with them, but could only fit her head and shoulders inside. Finally, she was satisfied that she could get to them if she needed to, and settled down near them.

Her name is Maxine, and she and her puppies are no longer unwanted.