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Twelve-year-old Ruby and her dog Iggy
(Photo/TMZ)
This is one of those aggravating "rules are rules" stories.
Even though the mission of the non-profit organization Mutts and Moms is to "rescue dogs from Los Angeles City and County shelters," the group took a dog out of a loving home.
(Note: The site is down. Look at the cached page here.)
Why? The group's adoption rules were broken.
LOS ANGELES -- Ellen DeGeneres is in the doghouse with a pet rescue agency after giving a pooch away to her hairdresser because it didn't get along with her cats.
The talk show hostess and her partner Portia de Rossi adopted Iggy, a Brussels Griffon mix, on Sept. 20. But when things didn't work out, DeGeneres gave the dog to her hairdresser.
In doing so, DeGeneres violated an agreement with the Mutts and Moms agency by not informing them of the handoff.
When the agency called DeGeneres to ask about Iggy, she said she found another home for the dog. The agency sent a representative to the hairdresser's home Sunday and took the dog away.
...She admitted she didn't read all the paperwork involving the adoption.
DeGeneres said she spent $3,000 having the dog neutered and trained to be with her cats. But the dog had too much energy and was too rambunctious, she told her television audience.
"I guess I signed a piece of paper that says if I can't keep Iggy, it goes back to the rescue organization, which is not someone's home, which is not a family," she said in a show transcript provided to The Associated Press.
"I thought I did a good thing. I tried to find a loving home for the dog because I couldn't keep it."
DeGeneres said her hairdresser's daughters, ages 11 and 12, had bonded with Iggy and were heartbroken when the dog was taken away.
"Because I did it wrong, those people went and took that dog out of their home, and took it away from those kids," a sobbing DeGeneres said on her show.
"I feel totally responsible for it and I'm so sorry. I'm begging them to give that dog back to that family. I just want the family to have their dog. It's not their fault. It's my fault. I shouldn't have given the dog away. Just please give the dog back to those little girls."
I understand the need to abide by rules. Mutts and Moms has procedures in place to protect the animals. That's good.
However, why would Mutts and Moms take Iggy out of a loving home, just in the name of following their rules?
Ellen DeGeneres is not Michael Vick.
What is the organization's mission?
Is it to place homeless dogs in good homes or to uphold rules?
DeGeneres admits that she made a mistake.
Wouldn't it make more sense for Mutts and Moms to give DeGeneres a little tap with a rolled up newspaper for breaking the rules but allow Iggy to stay with his new family?
There was absolutely no reason for the group to make Iggy and the children suffer just to punish DeGeneres.
Finding a good home for the dog is what matters.
Mutts and Moms should have established that Iggy was in a safe place with loving people. There should have been no need to take him away.
What was the point?
An apology from DeGeneres should have been enough for Mutts and Moms.
Is the organization a "forgiveness-free" zone?
Mutts and Moms seems to be battling animal cruelty while engaging in human cruelty. Not good.
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Contact information for Mutts and Moms
E-mail:
pawboutique@yahoo.com
Mailing Address:
PO Box 50393
Pasadena, CA 91115
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Now HERE is an example of an unfit home.
More than two hundred fifty dogs and cats at a home in rural Lee County, outside Rochelle, are getting their first real taste of affection, as well as consistent food and water in a long time. Their owner, 65-year old Barbara Munroe, is in Lee County jail facing animal cruelty charges. Since Friday, animal rescuers have been moving the pets out of Munroe's home and into a temporary shelter.
"The animals are going to be cared for as best they can, taken care of medically, fed," says Lee County State's Attorney Paul Whitcombe.
But rescuers were too late for as many as two hundred of the animals they found dead all around the house, some just skeletons. Rescuers believe Munroe did not want to hurt her pets and did her best to care for them, but couldn't do it alone.
"She was way out of her league with this. So it's very possible they died of upper respiratory infections or old age or starvation is certainly a possibility," says Beth Drake, Executive Director of Tails Humane Society in Dekalb.
Dozens of pens wrap around the outside of the house. Rescuers say the outdoor animals may actually have had it best. They say it was inside where there were piles of feces, no light and no fresh air that animals suffered the most.
"It's beyond filthy. I'm not sure what the word would be to describe it. The smell in there is very overpowering. Your eyes burn almost immediately. But our focus was on these animals have been breathing like this for quite some time so clearly we can deal with it for the time that we're in there," says Drake.
Mutts and Moms should offer to take some of these poor animals; rescue them rather than take Iggy away.
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