As some of you know, I was working behind the scenes on attempting to pry some dogs out of an abuse case in the North West for the last two months. Some of the dogs were slated to be put down, and I was hoping to prevent that. It was a lot of work, but the Humane Society was apparently not interested in having the animals re-homed. I believe (I’m not directly involved) that at this time that they have won the legal right to control the animals, and they will be variously put down, or neutered and evaluated for placement abilities. From what I know some of the dogs slated for destruction are serious protection dogs, but not worthy of a death sentence. I think I know the reasons they worked so hard to gain control, and I guess I can sort of understand it: They just wanted to be sure that the animals avoided any further abuse, and the only way to do that for sure is to put them down, I guess. In the future, I’d suggest that they go after the alleged abusers, thus having an air tight way of controlling the safety of the animals, instead of going at it from the animals’ side, but I have to assume they knew what they are doing.
In full disclosure, my motives were not 100% rescue related: One of the dogs was a direct son of Corma Buks (a foundation dog that passed away in 1997, but who still rarely has available offspring such as this dog thanks to AI) and a dog geek like myself really wanted to get a hold of him for “my breeding program” (currently consisting of zero litters as the rescue stuff makes me feel too guilty to actually put more dogs out there. 
)
Anyway, I just hope that everyone is sure they did — and that they will continue to — consider what is best for the animals.
Ron
UPDATE 20100623 – I have heard that some pressure has apparently softened their hearts a bit, and now they are going to approach breed rescues again as opposed to culling the tougher dogs. Good news!
