Dog Rescue Research Articles

"It's my calling", Canadian dog rescuers' motives and experiences for engaging in international dog rescue efforts.

The importation of rescue dogs has become an increasingly common occurrence in recent years, often involving industrialized countries as the ultimate destination. However, international dog rescue activities have attracted considerable criticism from the veterinary community and the public due to the associated zoonotic disease and public health risks, as well as the potential poor behaviour of international rescue dogs. The Government of Canada has also recently placed a temporary suspension on all commercial dog imports from non-rabies free countries due to the growing concerns of the zoonotic disease risks. To understand the perspectives and experiences of stakeholders involved in dog import activities in Canada, we interviewed nine members in leadership positions of Canadian-based international dog rescue organizations. Thematic analysis of interview dialogue yielded three themes: 1) Motive, which described the reason behind participants' involvement in international dog rescue; 2) Challenge, which described the major difficulties faced in participants' dog rescue work; 3) Duty, which described participants' beliefs on responsible dog rescue practices. Members of international dog rescue organizations described being driven by strong desires to provide animal and humanitarian aid. However, local dog rescue efforts were constrained by logistical and societal barriers unique to the Canadian context. Additionally, the current study revealed both similarities and differences in occupational experiences between international dog rescue organizations and other animal care professions. Specifically, difficulties with the emotional burden associated with caregiving professions was also present within dog rescue work. However, international dog rescue members also experienced additional challenges due to the stigma surrounding international dog rescue operations. Further research on attitudes held by other stakeholders involved in dog import activities, as well as members of Canadian communities needing dog rescue aid may provide meaningful inputs on how to better support and facilitate local and international dog rescue efforts.

Shared Spaces, Practices And Mobilities: Pet–Human Life in Modern Finnish Homes

In this interdisciplinary article, we examine multispecies homes in modernizing Finnish society. We focus on two illustrative phases of pet culture: cats and dogs in bourgeois and rural homes from the late 19th century to the early 20th century as well as international dog rescue in the early 21st century. We make visible and analyze the continuities in pet–human relationality and petness by focusing on everyday practices, spaces and mobilities. The article draws from recent discussions on human–animal relationality at the intersections of the fields of animal history, animal geography and animal studies. Our analysis shows that the pets we have studied have not been passive objects or simply obeyed rules set by humans. Instead, pet–human co-living involves shared human–animal agency and situational practices that take into account the individual animal and the human and the creative ways in which they shape the shared space.

"If You Don't See the Dog, What Can You Do?" Using Procedures to Negotiate the Risk of Dog Bites in Occupational Contexts.

Dog bites are a health risk in a number of workplaces such as the delivery, veterinary and dog rescue sectors. This study aimed to explore how workers negotiate the risk of dog bites in daily interactions with dogs and the role of procedures in workplace safety. Participants who encounter dogs at work were recruited using snowball sampling. Ethnographic methods (interviews, focus group discussions, participant-observations) were used for data collection. All data were coded qualitatively into themes. Six themes describing dog bite risk management were identified: ‘Surveillance of dogs’; ‘Communicating risk; ‘Actions taken to manage perceived risk’; ‘Reporting bites and near-misses’, ‘Investigating bites and near-misses’, and; ‘Learning and teaching safety’. While the procedures described dog bite risk as objective, when interacting with dogs, participants drew on experiential knowledge and subjective judgment of risk. There was a discrepancy between risks that the procedures aimed to guard against and the risk participants were experiencing in the course of work. This often led to disregarding procedures. Paradoxically, procedures generated risks to individual wellbeing and sometimes employment, by contributing to blaming employees for bites. Dog bite prevention could be improved by clarifying definitions of bites, involving at risk staff in procedure development, and avoiding blaming the victim for the incident.

When Veterinarians Support Canine Therapy: Bidirectional Benefits for Clinics and Therapy Programs.

This paper proposes a mutually beneficial model of collaboration between veterinarians and canine therapy programs. Veterinarians and the clinics for whom they work routinely establish collaborations with multiple and varied stakeholders. This might include a laboratory for processing samples and the corresponding courier company needed to deliver samples to the lab or a partnership with a local dog rescue organization for whom discounted rates are offered. One community partnership that stands to benefit both the clinic and the community agency, is for veterinarians to work in tandem with a local canine-assisted therapy program. The benefits to such an alliance are multifold and address aspects of veterinary medicine including client recruitment, community education, and access to a network of devoted dog enthusiasts.

From property to family: American dog rescue and the discourse of compassion

From property to family: American dog rescue and the discourse of compassion

A VN's perspective on emergency shelter volunteering in Thailand

ABSTRACT:In June 2013, the author saw an advertisement from a dog rescue charity called Soi Dog, urgently requesting vet volunteers to help in a government-run dog shelter in Nakhom Phanom, Thailand. Three thousand dogs, crushed together in suffocatingly small cages and loaded onto lorries, had been intercepted and rescued whilst on their way to Vietnam for the dog meat trade there and were in desperate need of help.

“Becoming in Kind”: Race, Class, Gender, and Nation in Cultures of Dog Rescue and Dogfighting

Seen by some as innately dangerous and by others as victims of neglectful or abusive owners, pit bulls and pit bull–type dogs are central to numerous contemporary debates about both dangerous dogs and dogs in danger. This article takes up these debates in order to explore how specific relationships between humans and pit bulls reveal intersections among race, class, gender, nation, breed, and species. Beginning with the category problem of the pit bull, I turn to the recent arrest and imprisonment of NFL player Michael Vick. An African American man playing in a position traditionally occupied by white men, quarterback, Vick became the subject of a highly racialized media storm when revelations about his involvement in dogfighting were made public. The storm intensified when the dogs formerly belonging to Vick were rehabilitated by rescue groups and placed in families or sanctuaries. Drawing from work by Donna Haraway and others on “becoming with,” I examine the intersections between ontology and identity revealed by not only the various representations of Vick, the people who rehabilitated his dogs, and the dogs themselves but also a series of narratives written by white southern dogfighters. I argue that these examples demonstrate that human “becomings with” nonhuman animals are often “becomings in kind,” becomings in which each shapes the categorical kind of the other.

Epidemiology of sarcoptic mange in free-ranging raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in Yokohama, Japan

Free-ranging raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) from Nogeyama Zoological Gardens, Kanazawa Zoological Gardens, and Yokohama Zoological Gardens frequently rescued dogs having Sarcoptes scabiei infestation. However, the epidemiology of S. scabiei infestation has not yet been elucidated. In the present study, we investigated the epidemiology of S. scabiei infestation in raccoon dogs and its influence on the population of masked palm civets in Yokohama, Japan. We examined records of raccoon dog rescue between 1981 and 2010 and classified the dogs into the following 4 categories on the basis of the reason for rescue: dogs with S. scabiei infestation, scabies-infested dogs involved in car accidents, uninfested dogs involved in car accidents, and other reasons for rescue. We found that the number of dogs rescued due to car accidents and other reasons increased from 1989 onwards, and an S. scabiei outbreak was recorded since 1993. The infestation spread from the southern to the northern regions of Yokohama. The total number of raccoon dogs rescued annually peaked in 1995 and declined thereafter. The number of masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) rescued gradually increased with a decline in the number of raccoon dogs rescued. In the present study, we revealed the epidemiology of S. scabiei infestation in the raccoon dog. The outbreak might be induced by the increased population density, and the infestation spread immediately from the southern to the northern regions of Yokohama since 1993. Further, the population of masked palm civets may have increased due to the decrease in the population of the raccoon dog.

The response of dogs to attentional focus of human beings: A comparison between guide dog candidates and other dogs

Abstract Dogs that are trained without dependence on the attentional focus of human beings (experimental group: a guide dog and guide dog candidates) were compared with those trained with the usual level of attentional focus (control group: a service dog, service dog candidates, a search and rescue dog, and pet dogs) to examine whether the ability of a dog to read the attentional focus of a human being was influenced by guide dog training. An experimenter commanded the dogs to sit using several predetermined postures, which included the direction of the experimenter's head, eyes, and body. The results indicated that there were no statistical differences between the 2 groups. Dogs from both the groups gave a significantly reduced response to commands when the experimenter's head was not oriented toward them, response to commands was not affected by the direction of the experimenter's eyes or body. This study suggests that the ability of a dog to read the attentional focus of a human being is not affected by guide dog training.

"I'm Not an Activist!": Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare in the Purebred Dog Rescue Movement

AbstractPurebred dog rescuers are doing their part to reduce the problems of homeless pets and pet overpopulation. The volunteers studied are doing the daily and invisible work of saving dogs. Because of their perception of the animal rights movement, however, they do not consider themselves part of the animal welfare or animal rights movement, nor do they care to be. Dog rescue organizations agree with academics and activist organizations on the cause of the problem of homeless pets and pet overpopulation, but they differ on the theoretical, political, and ideological solutions to the problem. This paper focuses on the disagreements between rescue workers, activists, and academics and asks whether there is a place for rescue workers within the larger animal protection movement.

Women and the World of Dog Rescue: A Case Study of the State of Michigan

AbstractIn the wake of the considerable cultural changes and societal shifts that the United States and all advanced industrial democracies have experienced since the late 1960s and early 1970s, one can also observe a dramatic change in how humans in these societies have come to relate to nonhuman animals, dogs in particular. One of the new institutions created by this change in attitude and behavior toward dogs is the canine rescue organization, examples of which have arisen all over the United States beginning in the 1980s. While the growing scholarship on the changed dimension of the human-animal relationship attests to its social, political, and intellectual salience to our contemporary world, the work presented here constitutes the first academic research on the particularly important institution of dog rescue. This paper presents some key findings from a survey of canine rescue workers in the state of Michigan, with a concentration on the dynamics of gender within canine rescue work.

Dog Rescue Teams

This presentation will discuss search dogs in general, their training, and the experience the dog teams had in the Mexico City earthquake. All of the search dogs in Mexico City, those from the U.S. and other countries, are trained similarly and have a similar job to do. What I will do is explain how the dogs are trained and what they can do.It is my intention to discuss air scenting dogs, their use and training. You have to remember that the dog and the handler are a team and they train together, they live together, and they work together. The discussion will focus only on the dogs' training.