Why Smiley's time is up

I am writing in response to the article in Saturday’s paper titled “Judge spares dog’s life, for now.”

I would like to add a couple of important facts that were not mentioned in the article about Smiley.

Due to behavior concerns noted with Smiley and other animals we had some adoption restrictions put on him for potential adopters. When the request came in to adopt Smiley against these restrictions already in place, we asked the two animal control officers to do an independent documented evaluation on Smiley for adoption placement.

In this evaluation Smiley displayed a strong prey drive, extreme unprovoked aggression to cats, and aggressive behavior to a point of injury to Smiley’s mouth trying to get at the unresponsive male dogs that were walked by his kennel.

Also noted in our dog daily log book were four incidences of dominant aggressive behavior towards employees, volunteers and the public. This behavior included snapping at the face, biting legs, forearms and hands. This behavior would make any dog unadoptable under WAIF policy. We hung on to Smiley due to continued threats of a lawsuit should we euthanized him.

The behavior noted in the daily dog log book by employees and volunteers is not the same Smiley that we have known and love. His behavior is deteriorating due to a long stay at the shelter. This poor dog has had enough.

I would like to end stating that the people that do this very difficult job day in and day out at our WAIF Shelters do it with much love, respect and compassion for those in our care. Those that make these difficult decisions, do it with much heartache and tears. Such is the case with Smiley.

Shari Bibich

WAIF manager

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