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When Kim Kavin decided that she wanted a dog, she did what millions of people do every year: clicked on an online photo and submitted an application. She had no idea that the adorable brindle she fell in love with was actually a last-minute rescue from a high kill North Carolina shelter that still uses the gas chamber to euthanize dogs and cats.
Little Boy Blue: A Puppy’s
Rescue From Death Row by journal- ist, Kim Kavin, is about Blue, the dog she adopted. Most people who use
Petfinder.com, inquiring about dogs within their state and across the country, never ask the question Kim finally did, as she stared at her screen. “How will those dogs get from there to here?” Her curios- ity for where Blue came from uncovered a secret world that few of us could even imagine existed. Blue had arrived in the
Northeast with at least a dozen other dogs in an RV
that is just one among countless transports,
whose sponsors are dedicating their efforts to saving dogs by any means possible. Blue was happy and friendly, but he seemed to have endured some unknown ordeal. His manner prompted Kim to want to trace his history all the way back to a long row of cages where he had been tagged to be put down in just three days.
“During the first few months after my divorce, when loyalty and trust seemed like figments of an imaginary life, my foster dogs gave me both. They did what dogs do best in times of sadness
– snuggled by my side, encouraged me to get out into the fresh air for walks, and licked away any tears.” An excerpt from
Little Boy Blue: A Puppy’s Rescue From Death Row by Kim Kavin, an award-wining writer, editor and photographer. Published by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. Forward by Jim Gorant, the writer who wrote the Sport’s Illustrated cover story and subsequent book on Michael Vick’s dog-fighting operation.
America is spending more than a billion dollars a year to
operate animal shelters. Some of these facilities are functioning as sanctuaries and places of safety, while others are killing more than 80 percent of the dogs and cats entrusted to their care. Three- quarters of those dogs are healthy and adoptable as opposed to being sickly and vicious. Through her research and visits with shelters across the country, Kavin discovers one fact that hit her in the gut: If just two in four people, instead of one in four people, went to shelters instead of breeders or pet stores to get their next dog, then the entire problem of killing dogs like Blue could be statistically eliminated.
44 THE NEW BARKER Rescue groups, like Lulu’s Rescue, where Blue had been fos-
tered, are taking up the cause. On Petfinder alone, more than 13,000 rescue groups are listed. That is an average of 260 rescue groups per state. “To put that into context,” Kavin writes, “the Red Cross has about 700 local chapters in all of America. That’s an average of just 14 local Red Cross chapters per state.” Before writing the book, Kavin wondered, “How many of
the billion dollars doled out to America’s shelters each year are being spent on gas chambers? Just how widespread is the problem of gas chambers in the United States, a country where more than half the pet owners surveyed say they call themselves Mommy and Daddy?” She interviews countless
numbers of people who work within and outside of the animal welfare system. “You can’t imagine the
Author, Kim Kavin, and Blue.
feeling of being at a high kill shelter. Walking into these places is bad enough, but having to walk back out, leaving innocent dogs behind — that’s something that doesn’t leave a person,” said Michelle Armstrong of Lulu’s
Rescue. “You cannot see something like that and just go about your business. You cannot see something like that and not want to stand up and do more.” Kavin discovers other atrocities, such as shelters blocking res-
cue group volunteers. It sounds counterintuitive when so many dogs are being killed, but it is so common that several states have passed laws requiring animal control directors to work with res- cue groups. The Delaware Companion Animal Protection Act, passed in 2010 and regarded as the most progressive of its kind in the country today, legally prohibits shelters from killing an animal if a rescue group is willing to take it. Anyone who works within the animal advocacy world will
appreciate the hard-hitting facts in this book. If you are a volun- teer for a shelter or a rescue group, these stories will resonate with you. If you are on the fence about volunteering for a shelter or rescue group, sitting on a board or contemplating starting your own rescue group or low-cost spay/neuter clinic, this book is for you.
“The more I looked into things, the less rescuers seemed like
an orchestrated army and the more they appeared to be a loosely banded gang of mercenaries – which, I learned, were taking the fight to save dogs like Blue to levels all across America that I could not even imagine,” writes Kim. Finally, anyone who donates to their local shelter or rescue
group should read the book and arm themselves with questions. Find out how your money is being spent. As Kavin writes, “I reminded myself again and again and
again that getting to the truth of the hardest chapters is often the only thing that can change the bigger story for the better.”
U
www.TheNewBarker.com
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