Was Your Dog Abused? Probably Not.

People who get dogs from shelters or rescues are usually nice, kind-hearted people who want to help an animal in need. They want to feel like they are saving that dog from a terrible fate. They want to feel good about themselves, they want to feel like a hero to their new pet. That’s fine; it's no secret that many of our dogs view us with awe and adoration!

However, most dogs in shelters and rescues have never been abused.

As an example, I tell people about the little dog I used to own, a very small Chihuahua mix I named Cricket. She had a lot of health problems, among them a bone density issue. As a rambunctious and delicate little puppy, she had many bone fractures and breaks. She had broken both front legs before her first birthday, though thankfully not at the same time, through what would in any other puppy be normal play activity.

One of her broken legs healed very well, with only some minimal long-term nerve damage.

The other broken leg (which happened on a holiday weekend) was set by an emergency on-call vet who later admitted they didn’t know how to handle a dog with legs so very tiny. Her leg muscles contracted within the cast, and her leg healed very, very badly. The radius and ulna overlapped and fused in a twisted mockery of a leg. Her paw ended up on sideways, and the leg was a whole inch shorter than the "good" limb. That's significant for a dog who only stood six inches at the shoulder.

Add to this the fact that my dog was friendly with family members but also very reserved with strangers. She grew up underfoot in the salon I used to work at, meeting dozens of new people and dogs daily, so she found most people boring. So unless a stranger had food or a toy to offer her, she was just not interested in meeting new people.

I cannot count the number of times I was told by total strangers that all of that was evidence she'd been abused.

It always made me laugh because my little Chihuahua mutt never endured a single moment of abuse her entire life. Her whole litter was dumped in a rescue the day after she was born. She grew up with love lavished on her, in the home of the lady who oversaw the rescue. She then was entrusted to my care, and I loved her, flaws and all, for her whole eight years of life.

No person ever hit or abused her. No person ever neglected her needs. No human being did anything unkind to her in her whole life.

And people wouldn't just ask, "was she abused?" No, they'd often tell me, with a sense of authority, that she must have been beaten and tortured. These complete strangers would act as if I knew nothing about my own dog, or her history.

Because of her twisted little legs all cocked out at strange angles, her funny awkward limp, and the fact that she never fawned all over strangers as if they are a long lost friend, almost everyone who met her immediately assumed she had a history of abuse.

Not all reserved or shy dogs were beaten. Not all disabled or differently-abled dogs were abused.

Some people tout certain "tests" to determine if a dog was abused, such as if you raise a hand threateningly as if you are going to strike them. The assumption is that only dogs who've been beaten will flinch. I've followed this theory, and (with advanced permission of owners) every dog I've gestured threateningly at have flinched. And I can tell you for a fact that the dogs I've tried this "test" on had never been hit. The fact is dogs are masters of reading our body language and even though a dog may not have been beaten, they surely understand aggressive body language!

To recap, every dog I've ever gestured threateningly at has flinched, even though they've never been hit before. Clearly this "test" that many people use isn't effective, accurate, or helpful in determining a dog's past.

I think part of the reason that people so often assume any rescue dog is an abuse case is because less-than-ethical rescues seem to peddle these sob stories to get dogs adopted. Especially if a dog has a behavior issue they can blame as evidence of abuse.

Another "test" I've seen is to give a dog food and if they eat rapidly, the assumption is they have been starved or neglected. The flaw with this logic is that many dogs love food and many dogs, if given a chance, will wolf down their food at great speed. I grew up with pointing breed hunting dogs, and believe me when I say every bird dog we've owned has been absolutely obsessed with food. In fact we just purchased a slow-down feeder for our Brittany because he is prone to eating so fast he bloats. He's a very well-bred field-style Brittany who has spent his whole life being treated like the valuable, cherished pet and hunter that he is. He's never been starved or denied nutrition a day in his life, yet the way he eats you'd wonder if he's ever been fed before!

It is almost a trend now, to claim any rescue dog must have been neglected or starved or beaten, often all three. Shy dog? Must have been beaten. Flinches when you make threatening gestures at it? Beaten for sure. Gobbles down dinner at speed and begs for all edible things? Beaten AND starved.

The truth doesn't seem to matter, either, once people have it in their mind that a dog was abused or neglected.

Are some dogs in shelters legitimate abuse/neglect cases? Yes. My tiny Chihuahua mutt was never abused, but her sire and dam (who were also dumped in the rescue with my dog's whole litter) were mistreated so badly they were behaviorally unstable, and as such the rescue decided they will be “lifers,” at the shelter for the rest of their whole lives, as they are a liability and cannot be safely adopted. I met them both, and I must say, they were spooky and neurotic, but fundamentally nice dogs. They were simply so desperate to avoid abuse they’d snap if they felt threatened, and a snapping/biting dog isn’t one the rescue can safely send to a home.

But to claim every dog in a shelter or rescue is the victim of human cruelty is shortsighted and false.

Furthermore, this assumption of abuse can actually do more harm than good. I have seen some awful behavior problems from shelter or rescue pets, and instead of addressing the issue to improve or resolve it, the owners simply dismissed it. For example, "he bites when you touch his feet because he was abused," is something I have heard far too many times! Instead of trying to improve their dog's behavior, they just shrug it off as a symptom of cruelty.

Another issue with the claim of neglect is pets grossly overfed. I've seen dogs so obese they struggle to even walk, yet their owners keep pouring food into their dog because the dog acts hungry. They claim the dog was starved at some point in their life and they never want the dog to go hungry again. The pain and misery that genuine obesity causes our pets cannot be understated!

The fact of the matter is that the majority of dogs who end up in shelters have never been intentionally abused a day in their lives. Many who land in shelters were lost pets, abandoned, or simply dumped by irresponsible owners who couldn't cope with their dog's behavior problems.

Unless a dog was witnessed being beaten, or was seized by law officials for neglect, the chances are actually very slim that a shelter dog was abused at all.

This blog entry was originally posted on Jan 27, 2014. It has been re-written, reformatted, and re-posted here for posterity.