Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Spokane Dachshund Lovers Get Their Panties in a Bunch Over Picture of Puppies in Glass Tank
Oh, Facebook - you love it, you hate it, but you keep going back. Dachshund Drama erupted on facebook over the weekend when someone took a photo of Dachshund puppies which were being housed in a glass tank at Rasmussen Reptile in Spokane, Washington, and then posted the photo to the KXLY News facebook page.
It didn't take long for a war of words to appear in what is over 220 comments about the photo as of this morning. Then Rasmussen Reptile started getting the angry phone calls and visitors. Excerpt from KXLY:
“[They] have been actually pretty rude, saying that we should be shut down, we should have our dogs taken away from us,” Jodi Rasmussen said. “I understand where they could get the idea of it especially just seeing a picture and not being in our store."
She says there's more to the story than what people are seeing in the picture. The dogs are the family pets and they were kept in the glass enclosure so she could keep an eye on them while they fed from their mom. The complete enclosure also assured dirty human hands wouldn't infect the not-yet-immunized puppies.
Jodi admitted she understands why the glass reptile tank would look odd holding puppies, but said it was all for their safety. The mother was let out often to roam in the back room, and returned to the tank when the puppies needed feeding.
They were only in the store for two days.
“They're at home with their mom right now, you know, in their bed,” Jodi said.
Spokanimal received numerous calls from angry Facebook users, and investigated on their own. The officers found nothing illegal about how the Rasmussens had housed their dogs because the mother had adequate room to get up and turn around – required by law.
“The dogs were in good health, the babies were in good health from what we could see and all we had to go from was the picture,” Spokanimal spokesperson Gail Mackie said.
Rasmussens doesn't think what she did was wrong, but said she learned her lesson that one picture and one persons opinion can open Pandora’s box. Next time, she'll keep the puppies at home or in the back room.
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4 comments:
Wow! I hope the same energy is brought to spotting cases of actual pet endangerment.
Did anyone ever play the game "gossip"...someone starts on one end of a line of players and makes a statement, then each participant passes the statement on to the next player until it reaches the end of the line...at which time the last player repeats what they've been told...and it seldom if ever bears any resemblance to the original statement.
Facebook is so immediate and people look at photos and without investigating spread the photos across the globe getting people all stirred up. A picture may be worth a thousand words...however photos are subject to interpretation just like words. We need to get the facts before passing judgments on people!
I'm standing with the lady with the dachshunds!
I 2nd u with standing with the shop keeper. She was keeping dirty hands off the puppies and keeping an i on the mom and her pups while she worked. Personally i think it was a great idea, there was ample space in tank and ample air.
I always say: Don't get your knickers in a twist!
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