Dogs and Doubles

I came across this video online at the Keankennel’s Blog. This blog is for Traigmhor Pointers and Jon and Janette Kean. This is the 2008 Kennel Club Champion Stake for Pointers and Setters, held at Byrecleugh Estate, by Lauder, Berwickshire by kind permission of the Duke of Roxburghe.

These dogs are some of the top field trial pointers in the UK.

Tip: click on the arrow icon in the lower right to see a full-screen version of the video.

As I reported last week, over a dozen Ryman Setters turned up in the Bucks Country SPCA over the past few month. These dogs came from Decoverly Kennels.

Apparently, Decoverly ran into problems with Pennsylvania’s regulations for commercial dog kennels. This  forced them to cut down on the number of dogs in their kennel.

Stripe, a 1 year old male Ryman English Setter

Originally, I reported that the Bucks County SPCA was a kill shelter. This is not entirely correct. Last Friday I talked to Sarah Hart from the shelter and she clarified things for me.

While Bucks County SPCA does euthanize, it only does so when animals have serious health or temperament issues. Healthy dogs that interact well with adults and children are kept at the shelter until they’re adopted. They’re in no danger of being put down, regardless of how long it takes to find them a new owner.

According to Hart, Decoverly’s setters came to the Bucks County SPCA as part of Pennsylvania’s Safe Harbor program. This program allows commercial kennels to forfeit unwanted animals to a network of shelters throughout the state. These shelters find homes for these animals. They will only put down animals with health or temperament problems.

Hart also informed me that sixteen Decoverly setters were dropped off at the shelter. Two of those dogs — older females with severe medical issues — were euthanized after being evaluated by veterinarians. The remaining dogs were put up for adoption. As of today, two are still waiting for new homes.

Well, the plot thickens about the Ryman English Setters in the Bucks County SPCA. The short story is regulations, deadlines, and quick decisions that may not have been the best. Before we get into it, please review this list of dogs still available. We need to find them homes right away.

My Jasmine, Ryman English Setter from Decoverly Kennels. Now at Bucks County Shelter

Now, in response to the uproar they’ve caused, Decoverly Kennels posted their version of things here. They state that the dogs are from their kennel. They also say that the dogs ended up in the shelter because Decoverly Kennels did not comply sections of  PA Act 119 (pdf), a set of regulations governing Pennsylvania dog kennels. In 2008, PA Act 119 was passed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement.

According to Decoverly’s:

“The two biggest areas of the law that impact us are in relation to temperature and space requirements.”

OK. But the real problem they ran into was:

“We filed for an extension of time to deal with this space issue and were denied.  Therefore to comply with the new state laws we were forced in a short time frame to reduce our overall population.”

I emailed the kennel for some clarification. Their responses to my questions were:

From the time your extension was denied, how long did you have to cut down on the number of dogs in your kennel?

We had roughly 2 months. However, all of the dogs were available for placement from the kennel for a minimum of several months on the younger dogs to just over 5 year with some of the older dogs. Being that our timeline had run out we were faced with a very difficult choice. To either have the dogs go to a no kill shelter or to have them euthanized. We choice the best option for our dogs to get into homes.

I don’t understand why your kennel choose the shelter route. Did you decide that this was the best option for the dogs?

I answered this in the first question. We have always put our dogs first and have tired to give them the best chances for getting into homes. When we were approached by the state utilize this no kill option it was brought to us by the Director of the Region.

So what is Decoverly planning to do now?

FROM THEIR WEBSITE:

“This summer we will undertake a $250,000 construction project to completely enclose our back runs so that we can meet the new temperature requirements.  The bigger issue is that the current configuration of our kennel runs do not provide enough space for the number of dogs we currently have…”

So it sounds like they’re dealing with the issue.  Hopefully, everything will work out — for the dogs and the kennel.

Its looks like a large commercial kennel in northeastern Pennsylvania dumped some Ryman English Setters in a kill shelter in Lahaska. There are a total of six setters in the shelter – a young male, a young female, and four older females.

Stripe, a 1 year old male Ryman English Setter

Fortunately, none of these dogs are on death row — yet. The shelter is the Bucks County SPCA in northeastern Pennsylvania.

You can read more about this situation here and here.

Here’s a link to the dogs. Scroll down. They are towards the bottom of the page.

People are speculating that these dogs came from Decoverly Kennels. However, I have NOT confirmed that rumor. I’m trying to find out more information.