CEJ 3

Greta Bishop

02-06-13

Homeless dogs embark from Kauai to Oakland

Jones, Carolyn
SFGate
02-04-13
State
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Homeless-dogs-embark-from-Kauai-to-Oakland-4249851.php

The Kauai Humane society has a surplus of dogs and have started a new programs to get these dogs a home. When people visit Hawaii they can now bring back a dog. The Kauai Humane Society is awash with a Airedales and other hunting dogs. They are trying to get Bay Area residents to bring back a dog or two on their next vacation. Through a deal with the Alaska Airlines tourist can accompany a dog straight back to the SPCA for adoption. So far 12 dogs have been taken to the Bay Area and 9 of them have been adopted. The SPCA says that the main reason for their success is that they’re not chihuahuas or pit bulls."We have a bazillion brown Chihuahuas. This gives us a little variety," said Allison Lindquist, East Bay SPCA director. "They're something different. They're a hoot." The dogs are mostly Airedale, whippet, and hound mixes, slightly rare mixes for this side of the Pacific. The program started when Brandy Varvel, operations manager at the Kauai shelter moved from Santa Cruz to Kauai to find about 90 dogs in the shelter on an island with only 60,000. This is saying a lot because in Oakland with 400,000 people there is only about 60 dogs in the city shelter. Alaska Airlines which travels year round from Kauai to Oakland, agreed to let the dogs travel for $100 as long as they are accompanied. The Shelter pays the $100 and provides a dog crate, plus the necessary medical paper. Volunteers at both ends handle the rest and after a day or two getting used to the mainland they are ready to adopt. "It seemed like such an innovative solution, and they do all the prep work," said James Pumphrey, SPCA operations manager. "How could we say no?"

I think that there is a little bit of bias in this article. I think that the author of the article is trying to get people to bring back dogs or adopt dogs.Not that this is a bad thing because if possible people should try to adopt a dog. I agree with this article, I think that the idea of bring dogs here is a really good idea. In fact if I could I would bring back a dog myself. Also I think that Brandy Varvel is pretty amazing for setting this up. I was really surprised to hear that there were that many dogs in the shelter. It is a good change to read good news, all the news articles that I’ve read are gruesome or have something to with death. So this is a nice, happy story that restores my faith in humanity. I wonder if other islands have started to offer this transportation of dogs? Can dogs go other places rather than Oakland? I think this could be a good idea for fundraiser. You could raise money to pay for the airplane trip to Oakland or another city. I really liked ready this story and I learned a lot.