It’s spring-break week in the Roaring Fork Valley, which means local kennels are filled with pets of vacationing residents. Unfortunately, that almost spelled doom for one local dog, and highlighted the issues facing animals and animal lovers in what’s known as a very dog-friendly area.
Boo, a 5-year-old pit bull mix, was turned into the Alpine Animal Hospital recently by its owner, who said the dog was not getting along with other dogs and wanted Boo put down.
The animal hospital’s staff, who fell in love with Boo, have been working on finding Boo a home — temporary or permanent. But one person who was interested was at least temporarily unavailable to care for Boo for personal reasons, and all of the valley’s shelters are full this week and unable to take him.
To make matters worse, the pit bull mix has aggressive tendencies, at least towards other dogs (so far, he’s been fine with people at the animal hospital), which makes him a lot more difficult to adopt out.
The Aspen Animal Shelter, which contracts with Aspen and Pitkin County to house strays picked up here, only accepts animals from Pitkin County.
Even if they did accept dogs from outside Pitkin County, said kennel manager Zach Edwards, “We’ve been inundated with pits as of late. And with the aggressiveness of that dog, we wouldn’t take it. We have a building full of dogs, so it wouldn’t work.”
Alpine Animal Hospital often works with Colorado Animal Rescue, in Glenwood, but that 20-kennel shelter is also full.
CARE has a waiting list that already has 10-15 dogs on it, said programs manager Maggie Niehoff, and she had offered to put Boo on the list, not knowing he was facing the possibility of imminent euthanization.
At first it seemed that Boo’s fate was sealed — the hospital’s staff could only keep him for so long — but after some effort, Dr. Chad Roeber, a veterinarian at Alpine, and Peggy Corcillo, who runs the local nonprofit Animal Rescue Foundation, were able to work out a solution. The hospital’s vet techs will take care of Boo until Corcillo comes back from an East Coast trip, when she will work on finding him a home.
ARF pays for eight kennel spaces at Alpine Meadows in Holland Hills, and has a number of foster volunteers who board dogs. But there’s no room at the proverbial inn this week, and Corcillo said she received five messages yesterday alone about “urgent” situations with dogs who are “totally adoptable.”
“It’s constant,” said Corcillo, who runs the rescue group with the help of a group of volunteers. “We’ll do everything we can, but it’s not just this one dog. There’s just not enough space.”
Dr. Roeber emphasized that Boo cannot go home with just anybody, and officials will evaluate the dog further — so far he’s been fine with people, but he hasn’t been put through any stressful situations.
Roeber said he’s “jumping through a lot more hoops (with Boo) than with your average dog out there,” partly at the insistence of his staff and partly because Boo “just doesn’t seem that bad.”
It’s a risk to keep the dog at the animal shelter for very long due to liability issues, however.
“There’s no doubt pit bulls are difficult to adopt because of people’s opinion that pit bulls are bad, although not so much in this valley,” he said. “And nobody likes to euthanize dogs, but we have safety issues, liability issues.”
According to the Humane Society of the United States, 6-8 million dogs and cats enter shelters every year and 3-4 million are euthanized. Local animal officials said they think the rate of euthanization in the Roaring Fork Valley is relatively low, because there are enough no-kill shelters and a generally caring population with enough people who care to get things done.
Niehoff said CARE is a no-kill shelter, and it does take in aggressive pit bulls and other dogs, sometimes sheltering them for years before finding them homes.
“We’re kind of a small shelter and can only treat them like anybody else,” she said. “It’s unusual that we get a deadline on a situation. And it’s hard because we want to help, but we can’t overwhelm our shelter and we have to think about what’s best in the shelter. Setting up a crate in the bathroom is not the best when it’s totally full.”
Niehoff added that an approved but unbuilt shelter in Garfield County would help significantly.
Corcillo said the bigger issue is that most people have no idea of the number of animals that end up in shelters because their owners can’t or won’t care for them anymore, and wouldn’t normally know about a sad situation like Boo’s, which had many local pet professionals scrambling before saving him at the eleventh hour.
“It’s about people taking the responsibility to train the dog in the first place, to honoring their commitment to the animal they brought home,” she said. “We wind up mopping up other people’s problems, but there’s only so much we can do, because we’re limited.”
In Boo’s case, Corcillo said she doesn’t have a definite plan for him — she will have to evaluate his behavior and then look for a suitable home for him — but “he’s going to be OK.”
lutz@aspendailynews.com
